(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Thirty First Chapter the third match of the 3rd Stage of the Exams begins. Will Ichimaru be able to defeat the Powerful Grass Ninja? Or will Hara show why he is rumored to be the best candidate in the competition? 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!)
Sakura walks up the steps and returns to Kuroda's side. "Congratulations, Sakura, it was a well-fought battle," he says.
"Thank you, Kuroda," she says blushing.
"The next fight is scheduled to be between Hara Gaki and Ichimaru Nara. Will the two of you please make your way down here," announces Tatsuki, from down below.
Hara rejoices, "Finally. Now it's my turn to show what I can really do," he leaps over the rail and down to the arena, "Wohoo!"
Ichimaru sighs and comments, "Jeez, it figures. Why do I keep having to fight the people who are most energetic?"
Kuroda laughs and says, "Well, you can always use your strategy and forfeit. But then we wouldn't be able to have our match, and I was really looking forward to it."
Ichimaru retorts, "I wouldn't say that I am looking forward to fighting you, but I wouldn't want to disappoint my best friend."
"Hey, you! Get down here already," yells Tatsuki, impatiently.
Ichimaru sighs again, "I think I'll take the stairs."
"Good luck, Ichimaru," wishes Sakura.
He puts a hand up and waves as he walks away, "Thanks."
"Go, Ichimaru! Make Team 10 proud!" yells Yui Yamanka from the stands.
"Yeah, go Leaf Village!" cheers Kenta Akimichi as he chows down on some cobs of corn.
"Stop eating that and focus on cheering on Ichimaru!" orders Yui.
"But this corn is from the finest farms of the Rock County. I purchased them from the most famous vendor in the area. Here, try one," says Kenta pushing one at her.
She ignores him and yells again, "You can do it, Ichimaru!"
"Yui should know better than to try and tear Kenta away from high quality food," thinks Yoshikuni as he sits next to his two students.
"Come on, Sensei, cheer with me," urges Yui.
"I think you are doing enough for the both of us," he replies.
When Ichimaru arrives Tatsuki asks, "What took you so long?"
He yawns, "I came as fast as I could."
"Hmph, well, do I need to review the rules of the match again?" asks Tatsuki. They both shake their heads. "Ok, then begin," she says.
After they both get into a defensive stance they start to chat. Hara tells Ichimaru, "I was watching your last match with that girl. I have a keen eye for observation, and I noticed that during the battle you had every move planned. That makes you a strategist."
"You're smarter than you look," comments Ichimaru.
"There is only one way to beat someone like you, and that is by not giving you the time to strategize," says Hara.
Hara takes out a kunai and attacks Ichimaru straight on. Ichimaru quickly takes out his own kunai to defend himself. When he is a meter away Hara lunges forward and at a downward left angle. Ichimaru easily dodges the attack by stepping to his left and then quickly ducks to avoid the follow up spin-kick launched by his opponent. Ichimaru moves into a counter-attacking stab, but Hara spins around so fast that he is able to block with his own weapon.
Then Hara drops his body low to the ground and goes for a leg sweep. Ichimaru hops over the leg and then ducks under the secondary attack. He attempts to counter with a stabbing action again, but when Hara continues his rotation to block the kunai, Ichimaru switches his attack style. He goes for a heavy kick with his right leg, aimed at the Grass Ninja's head. Hara barely manages to duck under the kick, and afterwards he hops backwards a few paces and settles into a defensive stance.
"Looks like you either held back during your first fight, or you got a lot better during our month off," comments Hara.
Ichimaru reveals, "You're not the only one that was watching other people's battles. I studied each and every one of the other combatant's battles and fully analyzed their techniques. I may have improved, but I was able to pick apart your fighting style and come up with the perfect way to defend myself."
Hara laughs, "Well, it seems you came extremely well prepared, but so did I!"
"Wow, I didn't know that Ichimaru was that good at Taijutsu," exclaims Sakura as she watches the battle.
"It looks like he came up with a few new tricks," agrees Kuroda, "I am pretty impressed. I guess that is what you get when you have a Sensei like Yoshikuni Dosu."
"What do you mean?" inquires Sakura.
"I am surprised you don't know," replies Kuroda, "Yoshikuni is not exactly a Taijutsu specialist, but I noticed that every time I have seen him fight he only uses his Ninjutsu as a last resort."
"And in order to do that you have to be highly skilled at Taijutsu," she surmises, "So he must have been focusing on training Ichimaru in that area so he could stand his ground against Hara."
As he flips backwards Hara asks, "You may have analyzed all the techniques I used in my last fight, but what about the ones I didn't use?" When he is about ten meters away he takes out three kunai with small pouches on them and throws them at Ichimaru.
Ichimaru thinks, "Paper bombs, damn," and he tries to dodge them. However, Hara didn't aim them directly at Ichimaru. Instead they explode and scatter smoke all around him, but for some reason the explosions don't damage him at all.
Ichimaru asks, "What exactly was that supposed to do?" but in a flash Hara is on the attack again.
While charging Hara explains, "Those kunai didn't have paper bombs attached to them. It had my secret Golden Thunder Powder." Hara flings his original kunai and Ichimaru is able to easily deflect it to the side. By then Hara is already on top of the Leaf Ninja. He jumps into a flip and comes down with a powerful axe kick. Ichimaru steps back just enough to avoid the kick.
But as usual Hara has a secondary attack planned and this time his fist connects right in the chest. Ichimaru staggers back, but quickly gets his arms up to block a fist aimed for his face. Hara goes into a flurry of kicks and punches with the majority of them hitting right on the mark.
Ichimaru is perplexed and at first he thinks, "What? How did he get so fast all of a sudden? Wait no, that's not it. He isn't getting faster. I'm getting slower. That powder must be some sort of paralyzing agent designed to slow reflexes."
Hara lands some serious blows and knocks Ichimaru against a wall of the arena. "Perfect, if I can't defend myself with Taijutsu, then I'll just make sure that he can't attack me either," thinks the Leaf Ninja.
Ichimaru carefully lures Hara over towards the arena wall then gets just enough separation before shouting, "All right, Shadow Paralysis Jutsu!" Ichimaru's shadow extends and joins with the wall's and then reaches out and attaches to Hara's shadow, freezing him where he stands.
Hara attempts to move his body, but is unable to. "What? Why won't my body move?" he asks.
"It's my Shadow Paralysis Jutsu," explains Ichimaru, "You can't move a muscle, but I can make you move them." He demonstrates this by making Hara raise his hand over his head. Hara looks around to try and figure out how the Jutsu works.
"I see, it's the shadows," thinks Hara, "He was drawing me nearer to the wall so he could extend his range. When I get out of this I need to pay attention to that."
"If you're trying to find a way to escape it's impossible," says Ichimaru, "As long as you are in range, you can't move unless I want you to, or my chakra runs out. And seeing as the sun is going down, the shadows are growing even more, and my range will eventually cover more than half of the battle field."
Hara glances up at the sun and then around the area. He thinks to himself, "He is right, but in a moment or two I will have an opening, so I had best not waste it."
Ichimaru starts to concentrate, "Now that I have him, what is my next move? First, I should…..Ugh, what is this feeling?" A smirk rises up on the face of his opponent. Suddenly Ichimaru starts to get dizzy and uncontrollably shakes.
Hara laughs and explains, "My Golden Thunder Powder is special. It has more than one effect. The first is the intended effect that dulls the afflicted person's senses." Hara starts to notice he has regained some control over the movement of his body and continues to explain, "However, the second effect is unintended and is actually done by the victim's own body. The powder sinks deep into the skin. This causes the skin to get very irritated, and after a while the person's immune system fights back by trying to physically force the powder out of the body. This has the effect of making the person's body shake uncontrollably."
Ichimaru's vision is completely shot and his body convulses so much he cannot concentrate on the Jutsu. Eventually he is forced to release his Shadow Paralysis Jutsu. With his body now back in his control Hara retreats away from Ichimaru and jumps into a nearby tree. Ichimaru's body starts to calm down, and he tells Hara, "Big mistake! Not only did you not use my opening to attack, but also you jumped into an area where my shadows can reach."
Hara informs Ichimaru, "I realize that, but I'm betting that my own Jutsu will be complete before yours is."
Ichimaru realizes, "He's going to use that Leaf Jutsu he used in the last match. Only now he has a lot more projectiles. Ohh man, I better hurry up or I am finished. Come on, body, move!" Ichimaru's body is still recovering from the powder, so Hara is able to beat him to the punch.
When he completes his hand seals Hara yells out, "Now, have a taste of my Leaf Shuriken Jutsu!" He grabs the leaves around him and uses his chakra to make the leaves harden and sharpen into weapons. Hara throws a barrage of the newly formed shuriken at Ichimaru; Ichimaru is forced to dodge instead of completing his Jutsu. However there are so many shuriken that Ichimaru cannot dodge them all and is hit. The leaves slash through his clothes and tear into his skin. He falls back as blood spills out of his wounds. Ichimaru tries to get up, but his injuries are too severe.
"I thought Hara was in trouble for a moment there, but this one is in the bag!" says a cute girl with short green hair as she watches from the stands.
"I wouldn't expect anything less from Hara," comments the dark-skinned boy next to her, "Although it would have been better if he didn't need to use that powder of his."
"Good thing he used it when he did," agrees Mari, "Otherwise I don't think he would have escaped from that shadow Jutsu. It seemed to paralyze him somehow."
"Hara would have thought of something else," replies Kuro, "Look, I think the proctor is going to call it now."
Tatsuki sees this and determines, "Looks like he is not gonna get back up."
"Okay, I'm calling a stop to the match. The winner is Hara Gaki," she announces.
Kuroda gets a sad look on his face, so Sakura asks him, "Is something wrong?"
He tells her, "I am just disappointed that I won't get to fight Ichimaru, but that Grass Ninja does seem to be pretty strong. He also outwitted Ichimaru, so it should be interesting when I go up against him."
Rino overhears their conversation and confronts Kuroda, "I wouldn't be planning on facing that Grass Ninja if I were you, because you're not going to make it to the next round. And underestimating me is only going to make your loss even worse."
Kuroda retorts, "Save your speech, I don't want to hear it. Prove yourself on the battlefield."
Rino thinks, "You just wait; I'll prove my strength and then some," and then he hops over the rail and lands down on the field.
Kuroda walks to the edge and surveys the battlefield another time and then decides to take the stairs down.
Sakura calls to him, "Good luck, Kuroda."
Kuroda retorts, "You shouldn't say such foolish things, Sakura. The only way I would lose is on purpose."
On his way down Kuroda encounters Hara and says, "Watch my battle closely, Grass Ninja, you're going to need all the help you can get to prepare yourself for our match tomorrow."
Hara replies, "You have to win first."
The Leaf Ninja smirks and walks past.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Hara has attained victory and made good on all the hype surrounding him. Kuroda's match is next, what will he have to do in order to defeat the Rain Ninja Rino? 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.)