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.

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Chapter Forty-Nine

Kages

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"Are you alright?" Hiruzen asked quietly as he looked over the slowly-filling stands.

""I'm fine, Hokage-sama." Naruto responded almost as quietly. "I had to do some research as a favor for a friend and missed out on some sleep."

"He's had worse." Kakashi noted with a shrug. "Did whatever you did work?"

"We're… uncertain."

Kakashi shrugged,, then he looked round. "Where's Jiraiya?"

"He had some research to do." Hiruzen sighed. "He'll probably be here in time to see the fights. Ah, Mizukage-sama. Welcome."

"Thank you, Hokage-sama." Terumi Mei smiled as she entered the Kage box and paused. "So, I see you have the Copy-nin and the Second Samurai-Ninja, Hatake Kakashi and Uzumaki Naruto. I thought that Naruto was a chunin, though."

"He is, but he and Kakashi make one of the best teams in the Village." Hiruzen replied. "Only a fool would seek to use one and not the other."

"And you are no fool." Mei giggled as she sat down on Hiruzen's left. "I see two other seats…"

"Hokage, Mizukage."

"Uzukage." Hiruzen nodded to Danzo, motioning for him to take the furthest seat on Hiruzen's left, thus flanking Mei.

"Uzukage." Mei mused. "The old alliance is truly in effect once more, I take it?"

"It is." Danzo confirmed as he slowly seated himself, Honoka and Toraku taking up positions behind him.

"And what interesting armour." Mei continued, then her gaze sharpened. "Is that… fuuinjutsu?"

"The Uzu Armour is worn by the elite of Uzushiogakure." Danzo replied evasively and Mei raised an eyebrow.

"How fascinating."

"What is?"

"Ah, Kazekage, welcome." Hiruzen smiled as Rasa strode to the final throne and dropped into it. "I am certain you know, or at least recognise, the Mizukage, Terumi Mei. And next to her is the Uzukage, Shimura Danzo."

Rasa stared at Danzo for a long moment, then snorted.

"Famous village, Uzushiogaure, but Kage? Really?"

"We are larger than you may think." Danzo replied. "I am here because I have two of my genin in the finals."

Rasa briefly scowled at the reminder that he only had one genin who had made it.

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"There's father." Kankuro noted and Temari nodded.

"He doesn't seem very happy."

"He expected all of you to reach the finals." Baki noted from behind them. "Not just Gaara."

"And Gaara's up against the second Armour user." Kankuro noted and Baki paled.

"Oh Kamis!" he swore. "The armours! It all makes sense now, and we can't send any messages without being spotted!"

"Sensei?"

"Don't you see?" Baki raged quietly. "It was the Yamanaka who gained the Armour in Wave, but Gaara saw the Hyuuga using it. There aren't two Armours in Konoha… there are three!"

The siblings exchanged shocked looks.

"Oh… fuck!" Kankuro finally managed.

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"The contestants are all here." Kakashi whispered to Hiruzen, who nodded and then stood, trusting the fuuinjutsu inscribed on the lip of the Kage box to magnify his words.

"People of Konoha, honored guests from lands near and far, travellers, fellow shinobi, welcome to the final stage of the Chunin Exams. Today, you will see nine shinobi fight before you to prove their worthiness for promotion. Please honor their efforts and support them with all your heart.

"Proctor, the floor is yours."

A cloud of smoke blossomed in front of the line of genin at the center of the arena, dissipating to reveal Inuzuka Tsume and her nin-dog.

"Very clever." Mei whispered in admiration. "A clan-head as proctor… you are demonstrating how much these exams mean."

"He was always good at doing many things in a single action." Danzo agreed.

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Tsume glared at the nine in front of her.

"Alright, listen up! My name's Inuzuka Tsume and I'm the proctor for these matches. Basically, that means you follow my orders. If I say fight, you fight. If I tell you to stop, you do that, you don't obey me, I'm allowed to use whatever level of force I think is needed, meaning I can rip you apart if you try to ignore my commands. Understand? Good.

"Now, all of you except Chojuro and Uchiha Sasuke, get to the waiting platform. Move!"

Six of the nine genin almost ran for the stairs leading to the viewing platform where they were supposed to wait while the seventh simply followed them slowly. Once he vanished through the door, Tsume turned her attention to the two remaining genin.

"Chojuro of Kirigakure, are you prepared?"

"I am." The glasses-wearing genin replied as he unslung his bandage-wrapped sword and raised it defensively.

"Uchiha Sasuke of Konohagakure, are you prepared?"

"I am, Tsume-sama." Sasuke replied as he unsheathed the chokuto that he was wearing on his back. Chojuro frowned slightly.

"You did not have that sword during the preliminaries."

"I trained." Sasuke smirked, his eyes flashing red for an instant, then he frowned and his eyes turned red again. "What the hell?"

Chojuro smirked as he shifted his stance slightly, then he glanced at Tsume.

"Fight one!" Tsume barked. "Begin!"

Sasuke seemed to blur forwards, his sword twisting in a complex spiral before it was thrust forwards, only to scrape along the edge of Chojuro's sword, slicing through the bandages. Chojuro continued the turn that had interposed his sword between him and Sasuke's attack, sweeping it low, then whipping it higher in an attempt to bisect Sasuke. However, Sasuke had chosen to retreat rather than dodge by jumping, and the blade missed him by a fraction of an inch.

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"The Uchiha is skilled." Mei noted. "Zabuza, was he using a sword at the preliminaries?"

"A tanto." Zabuza said with a slight frown. "He was moderately skilled with it. To have moved to a Chokuto in a single month… his training must have been intense."

"He apparently studied with the Uchiha swordmasters." Kakashi mused as he turned the page of the book he was reading and Zabuza nodded.

"That would help. I hear they have a technique that lets them live three days in three seconds. Have him running through the drills during that and then physical conditioning in the real world… makes sense."

Hiruzen gave the Swordsman a long, thoughtful look before turning back to the arena, where Sasuke and Chojuro were continuing their deadly dance.

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"Shit!" Chojuro cursed as he barely avoided the upwards slash. Trying to open up some space, he backpedalled, only for Sasuke to charge forwards and launch another set of strikes.

Using his blade as a shield, Chojuro sidestepped the blows, the vibrations from the blocked attacks echoing down his arms, then he suddenly lunged forwards. Caught by surprise, Sasuke bounced off the flat of the blade, but recovered instantly and leapt backwards.

"Gotcha!" Chojuro whispered, then in his hands, Hiramekerai started to glow with a sheathe of chakra. Sasuke dashed forwards and Chojuro grinned, whipping his sword round.

"Ryuseisui!"

The chakra coating the blade lashed outwards to form a curved blade that sliced straight through Sasuke, cutting him in half in a spray of blood. The blade disspiated and Chojuro stared at the bloody remains of his opponant, then stiffened as a Kunai point pressed against his larynx.

"Not bad." Sasuke said as the gore in front of them faded away, revealing the splintered remains of a log. "Too bad you had to stop using your strange anti-genjutsu defence in order to charge up that sword of yours. It gave me just the chance I needed."

Chojuro sagged slightly. "Proctor, he has outmanouvered me. I cannot win."

"Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Tsuma announced as Sasuke slipped his kunai back into his pocket.

"You put up a good fight, Chojuro." He said, offering his hand. "Against most of the others, you would have won."

"I still lost, though." Chojuro sighed, shaking Sasuke's hand.

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"You learn more through losing than winning." Zabuza said. "I'll still put him through training from hell once we get back to Kiri, but he did fairly good for his first exam."

"My son is next." Rasa said with a slight smirk as below them, the two genin walked together to the exit. "It should be an interesting fight."

"Indeed." Hiruzen commented. "I am intrigued to see what techniques your Jinchuuriki has learned."

The other two Kages stared at Rasa, who simply smirked back at them.

"As I said, it should be an interesting fight."

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"Gaara of the Desert and Hyuuga Hinata, get down here for your match!" Tsume shouted and on the platform, Gaara gave Hinata a predatorial smirk.

"I will crush you like a bug."

Hinata ignored Gaara's challenge as she strode to the stairs. As she descended, she allowed her thoughts to reach out.

#Naruto-kun…#

#I know what you are about to ask, and yes.# Naruto replied through their link. #He is the holder of the Ichibi, you cannot fight him with any hope of success unless you use your Armour. Be proud, my princess, and use it well.#

#And kick my youngest brother's sandy ass!#

#Dammit, Kurama! When the heck did you learn to talk through the link?#

Hinata emerged into the arena and walked over to Tsume. A moment later, Gaara appeared in a Suna Shunshin, the sandy swirl landing at his feet.

"It is hard to fight a Jinchuuriki." Hinata said, allowing the seals around the arena to pick up and magnify her voice for the audience. "To do so, one must either be as skilled as a Jonin… or have a different advantage. Naruto has allowed me the use of the clan art known as… Guyver!"

A sphere of energy briefly surrounded Hinata, dissipating to reveal that she was in her pale-lavender armour, the metal spheres shining on her helmet and belt.

"Now, I can fight a Jinchuuriki." Hinata stated, feeling both Naruto's and ino's approval flooding through her link. "Proctor, I am ready."

"Gaara of Sunagakure, are you ready?" Tsume asked and Gaara gave a tiny nod even as the cork was ejected from his gourd and sand started to flow out, forming around his feet in an ever-shifting cloud.

"I am. I shall prove my existance."

"Then… begin!" Tsume commanded, vanishing in a shunshin even as she did so. As she vanished, the gourd seemed to explode and a veritable tsunami of sand crashed over Hinata.

"Too easy." Gaara sneered as he raised his hand, then he flinched back as Hinata seemed to explode out of the sand, rising into the air. "…how?"

"The power of the Guyver." Hinata said as she hovered in the air, then the red jewel at the base of her head-spike flashed, sending a beam of light at Gaara. The light slammed into a hastily-formed shield, turning half of it into bubbling glass and through it, Gaara stared at her in shock.

"…fast." He whispered, then his face set. "Die!"

Gaara punched forwards and a dozen sand-shuriken erupted from the shielding wall, hurtling towards Hinata, but she was already dodging even before the first one had formed. They shuriken slammed into the arena wall, leaving deep gouges as Hinata circled her opponant, then she made a throwing motion. Gaara's eyes widened and in a burst of action, he threw himself as far away from the attack as he could even as a large portion of his sand was sucked into it before it dissipated.

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"Incredible." Danzo breathed. "The more I see of that armour, the more impressed I am."

"Flying armour." Mei mused. "That could be very difficult to counter…"

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Gaara panted for breath as he stumbled away from another barrage of those damned attacks.

"No!" He shouted as Hinata floated round to in front of me again. "I won't allow this!"

A wave of sand flew up and surrounded Gaara, forming into a solid sphere and Hinata rose to above it, pulling at her breastplate. Opening the left side to reveal a glowing lens, she oriented herself as the lens started to glow, then a near-solid beam of light lanced out, clipping the edge of the sand-sphere and slamming into the ground, causing it to shatter and fragment. The shockwaves balsted the sand-sphere into the air, arcing it into the wall where it cracked and broke, depositing an unconscious body onto the ground.

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"What… the… hell?" Rasa choked as he stared wide-eyed at the unmoving body of his son.

"Does that technique have a name yet?" Hiruzen asked and Naruto shook his head.

"No, we haven't managed to come up with a decent name yet." Naruto admitted.

"I suggested the Hakai-tekina tenmetsu jutsu, but it was turned down." Kakashi supplied and Mei chuckled.

"The destructive flashing technique? I can see why."

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Tsume looked at the pair of legs sticking out of the pile of sand and shook her head with an amused smirk.

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga!" She announced as the victorious kunoichi landed and dismissed her armour. "The next match will be Suchirukuran Taromaru and Hyuuga Neji."

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Authors Afternote – You expected the attack to start during the Hinata/Gaara fight, didn't you?
Well, Suna ain't part of the actual attack, they're just preparing to loot the village once its burned.