Disclaimer – Kishimoto owns Naruto and the characters therein.
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Memories Of Others
Chapter 40
The Finals Commence
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Hiruzen stepped forwards to the edge of the box and looked out at the expectant crowd.
"Let the finals… begin!"
"Dramatic much?" Asuma whispered, modulating his voice low enough that only Hiruzen could hear it. Naruto choked down a chuckle and Asuma gave him a curious look.
"Kiba taught me how to enhance my hearing." Naruto whispered. "He traded it for extra meat."
"Ah."
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"Listen up, my name is Shiranui Genma and I am the proctor for the final stage." The man standing in front of the genin stated. "This means that you will obey my orders. If I tell you to fight, you will fight. If I tell you to stop, you will. Should you disobey, I am permitted to use anything up to and including lethal force to stop you. I don't want to do that, because of the paperwork it causes, so don't force me to."
His glare traveled long the line of genin, then he held up a piece of paper.
"The first match will be between Higarushi Tenten and Uchiha Sasuke. The rest of you, return to the waiting area."
Sakura paused long enough to wish Sasuke "Good luck," as she followed the others to the staircase leading up to where they would wait for their own matches. Sasuke nodded at her, then turned his attention to Tenten while running through a couple of stretches, using his movements to covertly run through a set of five seals. A slight upwards twitch at the corner of Genma's mouth showed that he had caught the preparation and approved.
"Take your positions."
Sasuke stepped backwards, opening the range and Tenten smirked as her hands suddenly filled with kunai. Genma glanced at the shining blades and sidled backwards.
"Begin!"
Tenten's hands blurred and the kunai slammed into Sasuke's thighs and shoulders, throwing him backwards in a spray of blood. The Uchiha hit the ground…
…and a brief cloud of chakra smoke covered him before dissipating to reveal the kunai jammed into a log.
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"Fast!" The Kazekage whispered, leaning forwards. "No hand-seals?"
"He did them during the warm-up." Hiruzen chuckled. "It would seem he learned about preparation from that young girl from Oto and what she did in the preliminaries."
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Tenten spun to face the small copse of trees on one side of the arena and growled.
"You can't hide forever!"
A glint was her only warning but it was enough to let her launch a dozen shuriken which collided with the ones arcing towards her, knocking them down so that they clattered harmlessly on the ground. A fireball was next, launched by a figure that apeared briefly on the left of the trees and Tenten simply dashed to her right, letting the ball of fire race harmlessly past her even as she fired a salvo of kunai back.
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"Interesting." Gai mused. "Although trying to take Tenten on in a shurikenjutsu duel is usually a losing proposition, Sasuke is using the trees as a shield, reducing his need to defend himself and thus letting him concentrate on offense."
"But Tenten-chan retains mobility." Lee added. "Truly, this is a fascinating battle!"
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Tenten blinked as a score of Kunai suddenly arced up out of the trees and descended towards her, kunai that suddenly multiplied almost a hundred-fold, casting a shadow as they descended.
"Your Kunai may block out the sun," She shouted as she unsealed a seven-foot wide Fuma Shuriken which she whirled rapidly above her head, "But I can still fight in the shade!"
The falling Kunai met the whirling Shuriken and were sent flying away from the Kunoichi, many of them dispelling as they arced away or hit the ground. Slowing the spin of the shuriken, Tenten paused while holding it to one side, eyes measuring the distance and bearing to the launch point of the Kunai barrage, then she spun it with both hands before launching it at the trees. Even as the flying blade howled towards its target, a second wave of Kunai was launched, once again multiplying in the air.
"Shit!" Tenten cursed as she sprinted sideways to get out of the area targeted by the Kunai.
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"Shit!" Sasuke cursed as he hurled himself into a small depression in the ground, allowing the giant shuriken to pass harmlessly a mere hand-span above him, then he rolled sideways to avoid the toppling tree that threatened to crush him. Leaping to his feet, his eyes widened and he dived behind a fallen tree just in time to avoid the veritable horizontal hail of kunai that Tenten had launched back at him.
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"There you are!" Tenten growled as she unsealed another dozen kunai, this time with tags on them. Pausing just long enough to activate the tags, she spun and hurled them into a trajectory that would cause them to hit around the area where she had spotted Sasuke sheltering.
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"Explosive tags!" Sasuke yelped, his red eyes letting him see every detail of the smoking papers attached to the Kunai. "I hope that this works!"
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The wave of explosions sent branches and splinters flying as Tenten prepared a second salvo. As the debris crashed to the ground, Tenten squinted to see through the smoke. A glint caught her eye and she frowned as she realized that she was looking at a log deeply impaled with Kunai…
"Gotcha!"
Tenten froze as a sharp blade came to rest on her jugular. Fighting the urge to swallow, she opened her hands and let the kunais drop to the ground to mark her surrender.
"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Genma announced as the audience broke out in cheers and applause.
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"Interesting tactic." The Kazekage mused. "Using the log that he had switched with at the start to get behind her in order to claim victory."
Naruto smirked in recognition of the technique Sasuke had used.
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"Dammit." Tenten sighed as Sasuke removed the Kunai from her throat. "That was sneaky. And how did you launch all those Kunai at me?"
Sasuke nodded to the fallen trees and the severely damaged Kunai Launcher poking up from a tangle of branches. "I had another three which I unsealed but didn't have a chance to actually set up. I had intended to use them on timers to make you think I was still there while I did the switch and crept up behind you, but that huge blade of yours forced me to change my plan."
Tenten nodded, then paused. "Weren't you wearing wristbands when we started?"
"My weights are in there somewhere." Sasuke sighed, pointing at the tangle of scorched branches. "I may have to hire Naruto and his clones to help me get them back. They have… sentimental value."
Tenten looked round at the cheering crowds and sighed. "Dammit. I thought I had you, you know."
"For a moment, I thought you did as well." Sasuke admitted ruefully as he started towards the stairway.
"Who came up with that technique, anyway?" Tenten asked.
"Naruto." Sasuke shrugged. "He pulled it on Shikamaru's team once and Shika's been trying to create a counter ever since."
The pair moved aside to let Kiba and Akamaru run past, then Sasuke reached out to stop Sakura.
"You can beat him." He said quietly. "If you can't trust yourself on that, trust me."
"Thanks, Sasuke." Sakura smiled as he released her shoulder to allow her to continue towards the arena floor. Sasuke watched her vanish round the corner, then turned back to find Tenten giving him a considering look.
"What?"
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Buoyed by the words of encouragement from Sasuke, Sakura almost floated across the arena floor, coming to a stop in front of the Proctor.
"Inuzuka Kiba, Akamaru, are you ready?" Genma asked and both boy and dog nodded eagerly.
"Haruno Sakura, are you ready?"
Sakura inhaled deeply, then made a show of pulling her combat gloves out of her belt, pulling them on and settling them into position before answering.
"I'm ready, Proctor-san." She said, carefully channeling chakra into her muscles and bones, a trick she had only realized that she could do during the preliminaries and which she had concentrated on fiercely after Jiraiya explained how Tsunade had attained her super-strength.
"Then… begin!"
Sakura leapt sideways, hurling a kunai between Kiba and Akamaru in order to try and get them to separate. To her shock, the kunai speared the food-pill that Kiba had flung at Akamaru, carrying it over a dozen meters away from the astonished genin.
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"The hell?" Tenten gasped. "I thought I was the only one who could make shots like that!"
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Sakura skidded to a stop by the fallen trees and grabbed one, channeling the chakra through herself to give her half a second of enhanced strength as she twisted almost explosively.
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"Okay, that's two people I'm never peeping on." Jiraiya whimpered.
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Kiba's eyes widened as he dived out of the way of the descending tree-trunk, dodging it by mere inches. Rolling to his feet, he let out a high-pitched scream at the sight of three more arcing through the air towards him, then he spun round and sprinted away, leaving small gouges in the ground through the sheer force of his acceleration.
A panicked yelping announced that Akamaru had joined him and Kiba fumbled in his pocket for another food pill, only to spill them as another shattered tree slammed down just beside him. His panicked fingers managed to find the last pill in the pouch and he tossed it to Akamaru, who snapped it out of the air.
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Sakura paused and took several deep breaths as she fought to bring her chakra back under control. Although she had been able to deliver a couple of punches or throw a boulder or two without any real problem, keeping up a sustained barrage was on an entirely new level of difficulty.
"Shikyaku no Jutsu! Jujin Bunshin!"
"Oh, crap." Sakura muttered as she heard the names of two techniques that she had seen Kiba use during the preliminaries, then from behind one of the trees that she had thrown, two Kibas sprinted out in opposite directions on all fours, arcing round to flank her.
"Dammit." She growled as she took in their courses. "Only one throw before they get in my range… Yaaah!"
Sending a large tree spiraling through the air at the Kiba on the left, Sakura spun round to face the other and punched the ground as hard as she could. The chakra-infused punch shattered the ground, flinging large fragments into the air and knocking her attacker off-course so that he sailed past a dozen feet above her head.
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"Yep. Definitely no peeking."
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Sakura hopped across the shattered area, putting it between herself and her adversaries, then pulled out a soldier pill and snapped it in half. Swallowing half of it to replenish the chakra she had expended on her strength technique, she put the other half back in her medical pouch even as she looked round to try and locate Kiba and Akamaru.
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"That didn't work." Kiba grumbled as he braced himself, then slammed his shoulder against the fallen tree to pop it back into its socket. "Grrrrraaarrrggggh! Damn, that hurt! Okay, it'll have to hold for now, but we need to end this quick. No choice, to break through her defense, we need to go fang over fang and if that fails, we pull out the big technique. You ready?"
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Sakura raised an eyebrow as both Kibas emerged and sprinted towards her.
"Idiots." She laughed in relief as she threw another fallen tree at them, only to see something that shattered both the tree and her expectation of victory.
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"Gatsuga!" Kiba howled as he gathered chakra around himself even as he started spinning, using the chakra and his claws to turn himself into a flying drill while Akamaru did the same. Around them, the world seemed to vanish in a spinning blur that was punctuated by a rain of splinters and Kiba closed his eyes, concentrating on homing in on the shampoo that Sakura used.
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"Shit! Shitshitshit!" Sakura screamed as she frantically dodged the first flying drill that had destroyed the thrown tree, then she managed to do a back-flip that she knew she'd never be able to duplicate again as she avoided the second attack, only to see the first one curving sharply around to try and strike her again. Rather than try to run away, Sakura sprinted towards the incoming drill, diving into a roll at the last instant so that it passed over her, then continuing the roll to get back on her feet and run like hell.
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"Nice one." Inuzuka Hana said approvingly. "But how are you homing in on her, little bro? You didn't have Akamaru use dynamic marking…"
"He has her scent, or she has a strong scent already on her." Tsume deduced from beside her. "But his rotation is irregular. He's hurt, left arm… he needs to end this fast or stop and use what I taught him."
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Sakura skidded to a stop by one of the lighter trees that she had thrown and her eyes widened at the sight of the hollow trunk. For an instant, she considered simply hiding in it, but the memory of the tree exploding as Kiba slashed through it convinced her that it would be futile.
However, since they were coming in almost on opposing vectors…
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Kiba could smell the shampoo getting stronger when suddenly the air around him was replaced by wood, causing him to bark his knuckles and feet, then a massive impact slammed through his technique and he knew no more.
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Sakura put down the log and peered into it. It had been a technique of desperation, using it to guide Kiba and Akamaru into a head-on collision, but the two still-breathing bodies inside the hollow trunk told her that it had worked.
"Winner, Haruno Sakura." Genma said as he looked into the trunk from the other end and Sakura dropped to her hands and knees, then rolled onto her back as her adrenaline boost gave out.