(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Thirtieth Chapter the second match of the 3rd Stage of the Exams begins. Will Sakura be able to defeat the Rain Kunoichi? Or will Ino show her true skills now that she brought another weapon? The Chunin Exams continue! What will be the outcome? I love feedback and constructive criticism, so please leave a review so I can improve my writing and storytelling skills. Enjoy!)
"Look, Sakura is coming onto the battlefield," exclaims Rame Tsu as she points out over the railing.
"I wish that was me out there," sighs Naoko, "But hopefully she will fare better against that Rain Kunoichi than I did."
"Is that who she is up against?" inquires their Sensei, Tousen Nohana, who is sitting in a seat near them, "This match just got a little more interesting."
"You had better not be thinking any perverted things about Sakura," warns Rame Tsu.
"Wait, that is not what I meant at all," argues Tousen, "Don't get the wrong idea."
"You had better not be lying," threatens Naoko.
"No, really, I just meant that we might be seeing a different type of battle considering the participants," he explains.
"Hey, Sensei, can I ask you something serious?" inquires Naoko as she sits back down in her seat next to him.
He leans back with his arms behind his head and says, "If this is about the maturation of the female body then..."
"She said she wanted to talk about something serious, why in the world would she ask a pervert like you about that?" yells Rame Tsu.
"I happened to have trained as a medical ninja for a while!" responds Tousen, "But anyways what did you want to say, Naoko?"
The usually outspoken female says, "Well...I just...wanted to..."
"Just spit it out already," urges Rame Tsu.
"Fine! I wanted to know if you told Shun to withdraw from his match because of what happened during training," says Naoko.
"I had nothing to do with it," reveals Tousen, "Shun made the decision all on his own. I had a suspicion that he would. Otherwise I would have talked to him and given him a reality check. And if I thought he was truly too far gone I would have spoken with the Hokage when she arrived."
"Well, that is a relief," admits Naoko, "I was getting worried about him."
"You caring about a boy? I didn't think it was possible," he jokes.
"Shut up, you perv!" she retorts, as her face glows bright red, "That is not what it is! I was just showing concern for a teammate!"
When Sakura arrives in the center of the field Tatsuki says, "All right both of you are here, so let's get this started."
Ino yawns, "Look at you, what a horrible Kunoichi you are. You've got no style at all. That outfit is horrible, and your entrance, what kind of girl just walks down to the battlefield?"
Sakura shoots back, "Ha, showing off with that fancy umbrella of yours is just a sign that your ninja abilities are lacking."
Ino is offended and starts to attack.
"Hey, I didn't say you could start yet!" yells Tatsuki.
Ino pauses in frustration and waits, her anger growing.
"Okay, you can start now," says Tatsuki with a smirk.
Ino quickly forms some hand signs and uses her Fog Clone Jutsu. A fog spreads out from her body and a squad of clones appears and hides the original within them.
Sakura remarks, "I have seen that Jutsu so many times before I can hardly count them all. I know you're going to hide underground while I waste my energy attacking your clones. You'll have to do better than that if you want to beat me!"
Sakura creates a Shadow Clone and tosses it an end of a string filled with kunai. Her clone runs about 20 feet away and then they run parallel to each other, and cut straight through the Fog Clones with the improvised weapon. When Ino pops up from the earth to attack she gets hit. Ino's upper arm is sliced by one of the kunai and she is forced to release the Jutsu. The clones sink down into the fog and then the fog clears away.
"Damn, she got me. I guess she is better than I thought. Okay, then I'll have to use this," Ino thinks to herself. She removes both of the umbrellas from her back, taking one in each hand.
Then she throws both of her umbrellas into the air shouting, "Have a taste of this: Rain of Needles!" The umbrellas float and spin in the air and a hundred poison-tipped needles shoot out of both of them, aimed right at Sakura.
The pink-haired kunoichi drops her string and rolls out of the way. Sakura is surprised at the speed of the attack and almost gets hit by a barrage of the tiny projectiles. Ino keeps firing streams of needles while Sakura and her clone narrowly dodge them. She tries to use a Jutsu, but there is not enough time for her to complete it and dodge Ino's attacks. "Crap, I don't have any time to do a Jutsu while I'm dodging these needles," thinks Sakura, "I need a diversion."
Sakura decides to use her clone as a shield, and it steps in front of her blocking all the needles while she uses her Summoning Jutsu to call Parnassius. The giant colorful flying insect pops out of a cloud of white smoke. The main body is white and the wings are white and black with four red spots.
"You called, Sakura?" says the butterfly.
"Yeah, I decided that there is no point in saving for later seeing that all the others already know about you," explains Sakura as she jumps on top of her summon.
"Woah, that thing is huge!" exclaims an onlooker.
"Since when can a Genin summon something that big?" questions an older looking spectator.
"So that is what you were telling me about," comments Naoko Fei as she watches Sakura fly high into the air on the back of her summon, "I was a little doubtful when you told me, but your description of the size is spot on."
"I had no reason to lie," replies Rame Tsu, watching next to her.
"It looks like Sakura has gotten a lot better since the academy days," says Naoko.
"You should be less impressed with the Jutsu and more impressed with what she actually summoned," states Tousen as he carefully studies the creature.
"What do you mean, Sensei?" inquires Rame Tsu.
"There are a lot of different ninja animals that sign summoning contracts with humans. In most cases specific animals tend to be aligned with certain clans and villages and the contracts are passed down through the ages," he explains, "But in all my years as a ninja I have never heard of anyone summoning a butterfly."
"I guess you finally have something to talk about with Kayo-sensei," jokes Rame Tsu.
"Don't give the pervert any ideas, Rame Tsu," says Naoko.
"That thing," thinks Ino, "I better get rid of it before it hits me with that wind attack. Otherwise this match will be over." Ino redirects her attack at Parnassius, but for some reason the butterfly doesn't even try to dodge the needles, and lets them hit her.
"Your poison won't affect her, she is immune. And all those needles aren't enough to cause any serious damage," explains Sakura. And indeed the butterfly looks unaffected by the tiny weapons. "Now, Parnassius, get rid of her," orders Sakura.
"Right," confirms Parnassius, "Wind Scythe Jutsu!"
Parnassius moves her body into a vertical position in the air and flaps her massive wings. Very powerful gusts of air are sent at Ino. Ino attempts to lessen the effect of the attack by moving her umbrellas in the way and spinning them to create a semi-shielding effect that redirects the wind away from her. However the wind attack rips right through the umbrellas. It sends the Rain Ninja's umbrellas flying back at her and Ino ends up accidentally shooting off needles at herself. As she picks the needles out of her body Ino thinks, "It's a good thing I built up an immunity to the poison I use, or else this match would be over."
Parnassius aims a second Wind Scythe at Ino and lands a direct hit before she is able to react. The kunoichi flies back and tumbles across the earth about 40 feet. Ino attempts to stand up, "No, I can't lose. Not to her," but she is unable to lift her body into an upright position.
"She's done, this one is over," thinks Tatsuki as she watches the girl struggle.
"Okay, I'm calling the match," declares the proctor. Sakura halts her attack and the crowd waits for the decision of the judge. "The winner of this fight is Sakura Nagana," declares Tatsuki before she speaks into an earpiece, "We need some Medical Ninja up here, one of the candidates has lost a lot of blood, she needs to be cared for immediately." The Medical corp rushes out onto the field and takes Ino away on a stretcher.
Back up in the candidate waiting area Rino is frustrated that his sister lost. Not noticing he is speaking out loud he says, "Sister, you fool. How could you lose to someone from one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations? What a disgrace. You are utterly useless. No matter, I'm still here, and I won't lose. I'll avenge your loss and defeat everyone else."
All the other prospects seem to take Rino as a serious threat. "That guy was pretty serious, I'll have to watch out for him later," thinks Hara.
"That guy didn't even have to fight in the preliminaries, so I don't know what he is capable of. He could be a very dangerous opponent," thinks Hoshi as she watches him from the corner of her eye.
Ichimaru yawns, "Man, is that guy serious? So what if she was from one of the Five Great Shinobi Nations. I mean, plenty of strong ninja have come from various ninja villages, and not only the five big ones. But still you should watch out for him, Kuroda."
"He won't be a problem," says Kuroda to his long-time friend.
"Damn it, Yamashita, look what you did," complains Chiaza Inuzu as they enter into the seating area of the arena, "We were already late for Hoshi's match and now it looks like we missed the 2nd match as well."
"Why does it matter?" argues Yamashita, "That Jonin we talked to said Hoshi had an easy victory."
"Just like you predicted, I know," she replies as they make their way to the front seats, "But it was important for us to see the second match so we could come up with a firm strategy for Hoshi to use for the next round. And look, that Leaf Ninja has her butterfly out and might have used a different technique than last time to win."
Yamashita takes his seat and watches as Sakura leaps to the ground and then waves to her summon before it disappears. He comments, "Hoshi is not incompetent, I'm sure she was paying close attention and thinking up a strategy while she watched. Plus there are hundreds of other Rock Ninja here that we can talk to if we want the details."
"Why is it that someone who always has a plan drops everything he is doing when he sees a certain cute girl with green hair?" she inquires.
"No comment," he replies, "Now stop dwelling on me and focus on the 3rd match. Hoshi is smart, but she is not as good a strategist as the next two."
She responds, "Which one of us is the Sensei again?"
"Well, now that was very interesting," comments the Hokage as she leans back in her chair.
"To be honest it was a little boring," admits the Tsuchikage, "They both basically used the same tactics as they did in the preliminaries."
"Yes, well, I was not present at that time, and this is my first time seeing Sakura use that particular summoning,' she replies.
"Is that so?" replies Masato raising an eyebrow.
"It is always intriguing to see a young one use a new skill, and at such an unexpected time," says Michiyo.
"An unexpected time?" he inquires.
"In the Hidden Leaf we keep very detailed records of the progress of our ninja throughout their lives," explains the Hokage, "This gives us the ability to predict what skill level they will be at in the future. Based on Sakura's file I didn't think she would be at this level for a while."
"An interesting system," comments the Tsuchikage, "We have something similar here. Maybe we can trade information to further develop each of our methods."
"I will assign someone to meet with a representative of yours later this evening," she replies.
"I look forward to it," he says before returning his gaze to the center of arena.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Sakura has attained victory and shown how much she has improved since she first became a Genin. Ichimaru's match is next, what will he have to do in order to defeat the Grass Ninja Hara? Who will attain victory in the third stage of the exams and be elevated to Chunin rank? As usual, if you want more information on my characters you can see their bios on my profile page. Be warned, there may be some spoilers. Also I'm in the process of getting pictures drawn for the characters, but I have no idea how long that will take. If you're interested in drawing and have a DA account then send me a Message. Enjoy the next chapter, and please review.)