Author's note – Kishimoto Masashi owns Naruto while Guyver is written by Yoshiki Takaya.
I make no claim to either, I am merely playing in their sandboxes.
.
Chapter Forty-Three
The Preliminaries Conclude
.
Naruto looked at the now-cleared arena floor, then turned almost unnecessarily to look at the final two names on the screens.
"Kaguya Kimmimaru of Kiri versus Temari of the Desert."
Temaru unfolded her fan with a single move, then jumped on it to glide down. Kimimaro simply descended the stairs and took position, one hand raised to his shoulder.
"Final match." Hayate noted. "You ready?"
"Yeah." Temari growled as she re-folded her battle fan.
"I am ready, Proctor-san." Kimimaru said with a slight bow and Hayate nodded.
"Then… begin!"
Temari instantly swung her fan to send a blast of cutting wind at Kimimaru, who rolled out of the way, letting the attack strike the wall where it left almost a dozen gouges. Rising to his feet, Kimimaru pointed his fingers at her.
"Teshi Sendan!"
The tips of his fingers seemed to open as he fired ten small bones at reflexively deflected them with a wind-attack, then glanced down at the one that had rolled to a stop by her feet before staring at it and turning slightly green.
"Eeuurgh!" She choked. "That… you… how… what?"
"It is my kekkei genkai, Shikotsumyaku." He explained as he reached up to his shoulder even as the holes in his fingertips closed, leaving no sign that they had been there. "My bones are mine to command in battle."
As he finished, Kimimaru pulled at a small bone that had poked itself through his shoulder, pulling it out and revealing it to be a bone katana. Once again, the hole it had emerged through closed up almost instantly.
Temari staggered backwards, he face expressing her disgust with how Kimimaro had pulled a weapon out through his own skin. "Keep that away from me!"
"As ninja, we should not be sqeamish." Kimimaro stated, then he lunged forwards, kicking Temari's fan out of her hands and bringing the sword round.
"I forfeit!" Temari shouted and Kimimaro stepped back.
"Winner, Kimimaro." Hayate said as from the balcony, Baki gave Temari a disappointed glare.
"If the other winners could please come down?" Hayate asked as Naruto found a box being pressed into his hands by Anko. Glancing down at it, he saw it contained several folded pieces of paper and realization dawned.
"If you could each take a number as Naruto holds the box for you…" Hayate prompted and Naruto moved to one end of the forming line, moving to the next in line as they took a piece of paper.
"I have number seven." Kimimaru said.
"Number one." Chojuro added.
""I am number four." Gaara droned.
"Number five." Taromaru announced.
"Number eight." Haku stated.
"Yosh! I am number nine!" Lee exulted and Naruto smirked at the unintentional irony of the statement.
"Number six." Neji sighed.
"I have number three." Hinata offered and Sasuke took the final piece of paper.
"Number two."
Hayate finished writing on his clipboard and turned it around so that everyone could see it.
"In one month, the finals will be as follows with eight matches. The first match will be Chojuro versus Sasuke, the second Hinata and Gaara…"
Gaara's expression briefly turned into a psychotic, bloodthirsty grin before he regained control. Hayate continued as if he hadn't seen Gaara's expression.
"The third match is Taromaru versus Neji. The forth is Kimimaru verses Haku while the fifth is Lee versus the winner of match one. The sixth is between the winners of matches three and four while the seventh is between the winners of five and six. The last match will be between the winners of six and that victory doesn't mean that you will be promoted while losing doesn't mean that you will not reach chunin. You need to demonstrate that you understand the requirements of being a Chunin and for that, you have one month to prepare. Copies of the matchups will be delivered to your senseis tomorrow so that you can begin planning. That is all, you are dimissed."
Most of the genin turned and walked over to their senseis, but Hinata whispered something into Sasuke's ear before walking over to Naruto.
"Are you finished now?"
Naruto glanced at Anko, who nodded confirmation. Hinata caught the nod and grabbed Naruto's arm.
"Come on, you can fly me back and we can see how badly Ino's damaged your bank balance."
Naruto choked down a chuckle, especially since Hinata had sent that comment to Ino, who was choking with indignation.
.
Fu gave Ino a confused look as Ino growled for no reason that she could detect, then she gave a mental shrug and turned her attention to arranging her newly-purchased weapons on the weapons rack. Ino continued to grumble for a few more moments, then sighed and returned to placing Fu's currently-limited clothing on the shelves of the wardrobe.
.
Naruto laughed as Hinata dragged him onto one of the external balconies of the tower.
"Shall I carry you, milady?"
"Not much point." Hinata shrugged. "Sensei told me that my possession of the Armour was publicly confirmed, so…"
Hinta vaulted off the edge of the platform and dropped, re-appearing a moment later in full armour.
"Well, Naruto-kun, a quick patrol and then home?"
"Of course, Hinata-hime."
The two of them rose into the air and from the shadows of the doorway behind them, a pair of green eyes watched them depart, hatred and insanity flickering in their depths.
.
.
"We leave tomorrow at dawn."Suiren growled as he dropped the black-bordered scroll into his travel-bag. "Once we get back, the elders will extract the biju from the corpse in order to create a new weapon."
"And what about Fu? Does she get a funeral?" Hoki asked and Suiren scoffed.
"Why? The weapon broke. When a weapon breaks, you throw it away. That thing in the scroll failed us and doesn't even deserve to be remembered. A simple katon jutsu will suffice."
Hoki stared at Suiren for a long moment, then he shook his head.
"What?" Suiren demanded.
"I once looked up to you." Hoki sighed, then he turned and walked away,leaving Suiren staring after him in confusion.
"What?"
"I have no idea." Yoromaru shrugged from where he was re-packing his own travel pack."He had sympathy for the Jinchuuriki for some reason."
"Interesting…" Suiren murmured. "He's still just about young enough and if he's as weak as you say… since he's an orphan, there'll be no-one to protest if he becomes the next weapon for Takigakure."
Yoromaru froze as the words registered.
If not for the fact that his father was a Jonin, could he have been chosen to be the next weapon for Taki?
What did that say about his actions until now?
Yoromaru swallowed and made a silent vow to at least try to treat Hoki with respect if Suiren followed through and forced him to become the next Jinchuuriki of the Nanabi.
.
.
"Hey, brats." Jiraiya said from the front door, then he inhaled. "Mmmm, something smells good."
"Jiraiya of the Sannin, be known to my sister, Uzumaki Fu. Fu, this old pervert is Jiraiya."
"I'm not a pervert!" Jiraiya protested. "I'm a…"
"Super pervert!" Everyone but Fu chorused. Jiraiya pouted and Naruto made a hand-seal which caused a brief puff of chakra smoke to form.
"I've just instructed my clones to make more food than planned." Naruto sighed. "So, pervy-sage, why are you here?"
"How's the rasengen coming?" Jiraiya asked, then his eyes widened as Naruto, Ino and Hinata all produced a sphere of chakra in their hand. "Wow… not bad, kid, and you taught these two as well! I assume your new sister will be learning that as well?"
Naruto nodded and Jiraiya shrugged.
"The toads want to teach you a few things at the mountain." He said. "Since your girls have the technique down, they can teach Fu while you come with me."
"When?" Naruto sighed and Jiraiya smiled.
"They'll summon us tomorrow at about ten in the morning, so you have plenty of time for long, sweet, farewell kisses…"
Naruto gave Jiraiya a flat glare and the old ninja shrugged unrepentantly. "So, when do we eat?"
"Another hour." Naruto said.
"Plenty of time." Jiraiya smirked. "I saw the show you put on, well done on freaking out the genin and throwing them off their game with that joke… brilliant!"
"…thanks." Naruto managed and Jiraiya sobered.
"Look, things are looking iffy and getting you trained better is becoming very important. You did good with the rasengan, but the Hiraishin is way more complex. Until the exams are over, you don't have enough time to learn it. However, the toads think you have a chance to learn some of their stuff and they have things to tell you. They won't teach you the deeper things until you turn fifteen, but the Great Sage wants to examine that armour of yours, he says that it's changed the path of the future."
"What?" Naruto asked in shock.
.
.
"I am fighting the fiancee of my target in the finals." Gaara stated. "I will kill her in front of all of Konoha."
"That… could be a problem." Baki stated and Gaara glared at him. "I was talking to the other Jonin and one of them let it slip that one of Naruto's fiancee's also has the armour. I haven't found out which one it is yet, though."
"How did she get it?" Kankuro asked and Baki shrugged.
"I don't know." He admitted. "I just don't know. The odd thing is that according to the story, it happened in Wave. I'll try to find out which one was there."
"It was Hinata." Gaara droned. "I saw her use the Armour."
"That makes it easier… and harder." Baki said. "We'll need to find a way to stop her using the armour, otherwise she'll use that attack on you."
.
.
"Four of ours, two from Uzu, two from Kiri and one from Suna." Fugaku gloated.
"It does seem slightly biased towards the Alliance." Hiashi agreed and Hiruzen nodded.
"Danzo and I have been exchanging messages via that remarkable tube of his." Hiruzen said. "He's asked for permission to visit for the finals, bringing one guard with him."
"Just one?" Hiashi asked curiously and Hiruzen nodded.
"He's offered to pay for a B-rank mission to have, and I quote, 'Uzumaki-san and whichever of his fiancee's also possesses the Uzumaki Armour' fly him here. That's one reason why he's limited himself to a single guard, he thinks that we only have two Armour-users here."
"An understandable mistake." Fugaku smirked. "Our forces are now even stronger than before, especially with a second Jinchuuriki aiding us."
Hiashi nodded. "I believe that I received a similar report from one of my clansmen. Uzumaki Fu, adopted sister of Uzumaki Naruto."
"Can she use her burden's chakra?" Fugaku asked and Hiruzen smirked.
"Yes… to create an Armour of her own. It is different to the Uzumaki Armour, but has its own notable abilities."
Fugaku stared at Hiruzen, then his lips quirked in what might have been a smile. Hiashi raised an inquisitive brow at him.
"I was just thinking that the Konoha Uzumakis seem to have summonable armour as their unique ability." Fugaku admitted. "I find myself very glad that Naruto-san's loyalty to Konoha is so strong. The amount of damage that a rogue Armour user could do…"
Fugaku broke off with a slight wince and both other men nodded in agreement.
.
Honoka inserted her newest report into the message tube and applied chakra to it, sending the message to the tube's counterpart. With that part of her duty done, she turned her attention to the suit of fuuinjutsu-imbued armour on its stand.
Instead of trying to duplicate the living armour, Honoka had radically changed the direction of her project. Now, the armour (which was based on an older version of Samurai's armour) stood on its own stand. Instead of being made of several large, curved steel plates, the majority of the new armour consisted of smaller, square bits of metal bound together with steel wire alloyed with chakra metal. This allowed for individual plates to be quickly swapped out, allowing for the armour to be adjusted according to the users preferences with ease.
The actual chest- and back-plates were solid, allowing them to incorporate special seals that stored chakra that was slowly leached from the user, as well as absorbed from external chakra-based attacks. The stored chakra was then transferred to the smaller plates which could be activated either by pre-determined hand-seals or specific situations (such as suiton-based attacks).
The suit stood, the metal glinting in the sunlight and Honoka smiled proudly.
Her work had made great strides since coming to Konoha and by the time the Uzukage arrived, she would have several full suits ready with a number of alternate tags available.
The Uzukage's bodyguards would wear the Uzu Armour and although it was nowhere near as powerful as the Uzumaki Armour, it would be more powerful than almost anything else that she had heard of.
Even the mythical Snow Armour would struggle against Uzu Armour…
With a smile, Honoka activated the sealing scroll underneath and the armour vanished. Rolling up the scroll, Honoka hid it in her kimono.
She still had more arrangements to make for her leader's arrival.
At least she still had a month to go…
Maybe she'd be able to get round to talking to her cousin again…
.
.
.
.
.
Author's afternote – No, the Uzu Armour is not a new chekov's gun, it was mentioned in an earlier chapter, but the basic design can be found in the Guyver Naruto gallery.
As for Temari's reaction, having someone use their own bones against you is very disconcerting and probably gave her flashbacks to her youngest brother using his Sand Funeral to make gore fountains…