(The epic Chunin Exam Arc is underway! In the Thirty Fifth Chapter of the arc, strange things are happening and as a result the semi-finals of the 3rd Stage of the Exams will only have one match. Who will prove stronger, the golden boy of the Grass or the dark horse of the Leaf? 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!)
A gust of wind blows a few leaves off their branches and some loose blades of grass flutter in between the fighters. Hara and Kuroda both get into their fighting stances. Tatsuki eyes both of them, raising her arm and thinks, "Well, here it goes."
"And…Begin!" she yells as her arm slices her down through the air.
Kuroda decides to attack first and runs at Hara, attacking with a flurry of punches and kicks. Hara seems reasonably able to defend himself, but quickly realizes that Kuroda is not attacking with full power. Kuroda does a spinning jump kick, but the grass ninja slips under the kick with minimal effort. Kuroda follows up with a quick strike aimed at Hara's temple.
Hara dodges by turning his head to the right. At the same time he slips a kunai out of his sleeve, into his left hand and attempts to slice the Leaf Ninja's arm. Kuroda neatly bends his elbow while lifting his arm and the blade only slices the air. He retracts his arm, but slyly aims a kick at Hara's head. Hara immediately reverses his kunai to counterattack. In response, Kuroda redirects his kick so that instead he winds up doing a standing split. Hara changes his upward slice into a forward thrust aimed to Kuroda's inner thigh. The Leaf Ninja spins on his toe and then hops off to the side and into a somersault.
He instantly turns around and gets into a stance with his hands flat, one arm low, and one arm high. Hara turns and sways a bit to the left as he charges. He bends down low and attacks first with a vertical slice angled to the right. Once again Kuroda is able to dodge the kunai. The Grass Ninja continues to attack, but Kuroda easily avoids all of Hara's efforts to hit him. Then Kuroda begins to notice something. "He seems to be getting closer to landing a blow with every attack. Wait, something is different," he thinks, "I see, he changed all of his movements and attack patterns since his match with Ichimaru; very clever, but it is not going to matter."
Kuroda takes out his own kunai while dodging a strike and then begins to increase the speed of his attacks. Their kunai clash and then they break off from the engagement and start running parallel to each other. After a number of meters Hara lowers his stance and leaps towards Kuroda while spinning his body. This makes him look like a green blur due to the rate of his rotation. Kuroda immediately drops to the floor and completely flattens his body against it. Once Hara passes over, Kuroda pushes up with his hands and spins low to the ground to kick the Grass Ninja's ankles as he lands.
However, Hara is quick enough to only land on one foot for a second and then push off it before the kick connects. Hara does a few back handsprings to gain some distance. Kuroda springs to his feet and darts after his opponent. As Hara lands he sees Kuroda charging and only three meters away. He bounces off his toes and clashes blades with Kuroda again. While trying to overpower the grass ninja Kuroda switches the kunai to his left hand; then maneuvers his position and, surprisingly, goes for a kick with his right leg. Hara gets his left arm up into an L-shape and blocks the kick.
He pushes back and throws Kuroda a little off balance. Hara raises his right knee and kicks forward with the base of his foot in a stomping type attack. Kuroda retracts both his arms into an X-shape defense position in front of his chest. The kick connects with his arms and pushes him back a few feet, but he is left relatively unharmed. Hara runs in a circle around Kuroda increasing his speed tremendously. The Leaf Ninja shifts into a defensive form, but doesn't even try to track his enemy's motion. Hara starts to become a blur and when he comes around Kuroda's backside he vaults high into the air. He looks like a swirling mass and it is impossible to see what is his head or his foot. He shoots down straight on top of Kuroda with a lethal slash. In perfect synchronization, Kuroda steps to the side to fully dodge the attack and then he lands a devastating kick to Hara's stomach that sends him flying.
"Woah, this match is intense!" exclaims Kuro Bandou as he watches from the stands.
"Yeah, but I just know that Hara is going to win," says Mari Matsumoto.
"I don't know, after that exchange I am getting a little worried," admits Kuro.
"Why? He is doing fine," replies Mari.
"That is the whole problem. No one in our class has ever been able to keep up with Hara in Taijutsu. Not even me," explains Kuro, "But this kid looks like he is having no problem doing it."
"I guess I see your point, but it doesn't make a difference," says Mari, "Hara has more than just Taijutsu."
Kuroda zips forward and lands multiple blows on his opponent. Hara is able to counter a few kicks and then decides to back off and put some distance between them. Hara says, "Stop taking me so lightly, we both know that you are a lot stronger than this."
"Just testing the waters," explains the Leaf Ninja, "Unlike you, Grass Ninja, I like to gather my intel first-hand."
"You had better start using your full force," warns Hara.
Kuroda replies, "You should start using your more powerful Jutsu if you want me to take you seriously."
"If that is the case then fine, have some of these," yells Hara as he crosses his arms and takes out some shuriken. Then he lifts the weapons up in both hands and throws them in an X-shaped move towards Kuroda.
Kuroda ducks under and deflects most of the shuriken. One does cut into the fabric on his elbow, yet it does not hit his flesh. "Almost a hit that time, he is starting to read me a little better," he thinks as he examines the tear, "But that was still too easy; he just wanted to distract me." He looks around and notices that Hara is heading for the tree line and thinks, "He is going to use that leaf Jutsu again. Then I will just have spoil his plan."
In response Kuroda heads towards the small pond. Hara jumps up into a tree and starts the hand signs for his Jutsu just as Kuroda arrives at the water. Hara finishes his Leaf Shuriken Jutsu and spins around to start flinging his weapons at Kuroda. Just before the first one lands Kuroda completes his Ice Weapons Jutsu and forms a staff.
Hara throws barrage after barrage of leaf shuriken at Kuroda, but all of them are deflected as Kuroda twirls his ice staff in front of his body. "It's not possible! He can't be spinning that fast enough to deflect them all," thinks Hara.
Kuroda starts advancing towards Hara's position; all of the shuriken are still bouncing off his staff as he twirls it around, forming a moving shield. "Damn, I am running out of leaves. I will just have to try something else," thinks Hara. Along with his final few special shuriken Hara also slips in some kunai with small pouches attached to them. When they arrive near the target the pouches explode all around Kuroda and he is exposed to Hara's Golden Thunder Powder. "This powder, I should have anticipated he would use it. Oh well, it won't make any difference," thinks Kuroda as he spins his pole around his body to try and clear the air.
Hara takes his chance dropping down from the tree and bounding towards his enemy for some direct attacks. When he gets in range he lunges forward with a heavy punch from his left fist, aimed at the head. Kuroda pivots out of the way and swings to whack Hara in the back with his ice pole. But Hara has risen into the sky above and is falling back down with a massive axe kick. Kuroda steps back a fraction and raises his pole with both hands to brace against the impact. The Grass Ninja's leg drops down straight through the pole. The ice shatters and returns to water. Hara lands and throws a lazy left hook, but follows it with a lightning fast back spin kick.
Kuroda slaps the punch out of the way and then drops into a full split on the ground to avoid the kick. Then he lashes out at Hara's base leg with a solid strike. Yet the grass ninja is prepared and jumps off into a high rotating speed flip. As the front of his body comes back around he sticks out his foot for a pendulum kick aimed at Kuroda's chin. The Leaf Ninja falls flat on his back and then does a backwards somersault and pushes hard with his hands so he springs to his feet. Hara is right on top of him, throwing a punch with his right hand. Kuroda ducks down intending to counter with his own punch to the gut, but Hara has anticipated this and brings his right knee up to smash into Kuroda's head. Kuroda lowers his body even more and twists away while sticking out his leg for a trip. Hara handsprings away; to think of a new plan.
"No, what is going on? All those attacks should have landed. It is like my powder had no effect at all," thinks Hara as he stares down his enemy. Kuroda is suddenly in front of him and grabs his arm then proceeds to launch him across the field into another tree. Hara grabs a tree branch, flips around it, and lands safely.
"Yoshikuni-sensei, what is going on?" inquires Kenta, "Shouldn't that powder be slowing him down like it did to Ichimaru? Or did Kuroda use some sort of defense I didn't see?"
"He didn't do any Jutsu, I can confirm that. It is possible that he came up with some sort of counter herb, but the chances of that are low as he doesn't know the ingredients to the powder," explains Yoshikuni.
"Plus he has not had any training in that area," adds Kayo.
"I am pretty sure it is not any of those," pipes up Tousen.
"So then how is Kuroda still moving like that?" asks Naoko.
Tousen replies, "If I had to guess I would say he was…"
Kuroda makes his way back towards the water. On the way he explains, "If you are wondering why that powder of yours didn't work you should stop."
"Why?" asks Hara.
"Because it did work," reveals Kuroda, "It merely seems like it did not because my original reflex speed is so much faster than yours that even with the powder I am still far superior."
"Can he really be that much quicker than I am? But I am even quicker than some of the Chunin in my village. Well, it doesn't matter, because the secondary effect of the powder is about to kick in," thinks Hara. He climbs higher up in the tree and prepares another Jutsu.
"What is he going to do now?" wonders Kuroda, "Wait, I almost forgot. His powder has that secondary effect. It was foolish for him to explain it earlier; otherwise I might have assumed it was a separate Jutsu. Well, then I will just have to protect myself until it passes."
Kuroda quickly makes a few hand signs and creates three Shadow Clones who in turn use the Ice Weapons Jutsu to make large, round, full body shields. The three clones all jump in front of him and protect him as the violent shaking starts. Hara unleashes another wave of Leaf Shuriken, but they cannot penetrate the shields that protect Kuroda from harm. Hara is exhausted and breathing heavily by the time there are no more leaves left in the tree. When the shaking stops and Kuroda regains control of his body he disperses the clones and makes his way over to Hara.
"No, I failed. My shuriken were completely useless, and I wasted a lot of my chakra with that second attack," thinks Hara as he drops down from the tree.
As he walks closer Kuroda tells his opponent, "I am disappointed; I thought you might have had some stronger Jutsu, but I must have been mistaken."
"If you wanted to see my best Jutsu then fine; you just stepped in range so here it comes: Angry Tree Jutsu!" yells Hara. The tree he is standing in front of grows a dark wicked face and then pulls its own roots from the ground and starts attacking Kuroda.
"I hope this works, because it is the last of my chakra," thinks Hara as he jumps out of the way of the charging deciduous.
"So you still had some chakra left. Impressive, I thought you used it all up in that last attack. This is interesting though, I have never heard of a Jutsu that can bring trees to life," says Kuroda as he throws two kunai into the base of the tree while backing away.
"I wonder just what you can make them do," thinks Kuroda as he tries to keep an eye on both Hara and the tree. He runs around the tree dodging when it attacks with its root or thrashes its branches. All the while he attempts various Taijutsu attacks, trying to discover a weak spot. In the middle of this the other trees on the battlefield start to wake up and attack. "What? He can control more than one at a time? There is no way he had enough chakra left for this," he thinks as he starts to retreat. Kuroda tries to counter with shuriken and paper bombs, but none of his attacks have any effect. The trees don't seem to take any damage and just keep moving forward. He even resorts to trying to punch holes in the trees, but their bark seems to have become thicker than a normal tree.
Kuroda backs up, trying to think of a plan, "I vaguely remember reading about members of a clan that can use the wood element Jutsu to manipulate nature. But I have never heard a reference to them being able to make the trees come alive. Wait, something is wrong. This feeling, what is it? Ha ha ha, now I know. This isn't Ninjutsu, it is Genjutsu." He concentrates and focuses his mind looking for a key point. Once he finds it he then releases a hefty amount of chakra to dispel the Genjutsu. The trees stop moving and appear as they were before back in their original positions. Hara charges at him out of nowhere and thrusts a kunai at his heart. Kuroda is barely able to avoid the attack and then leaps far away.
"Why am I so slow? He didn't throw his powder again did he? No, I feel it. This is another Genjutsu. Hara must have activated it along with the first, very clever," thinks Kuroda. He focuses his mind and releases another large amount of chakra to dispel it. Yet once again the trees pull their roots from the ground and start to attack.
"Impressive, he was able to triple layer the Genjutsu. He really is a prodigy. If I wasn't in this competition I suspect he would have easily won. Too bad I am here. I'm betting he also put another Genjutsu layer on top of this, so I'll put some more chakra into this just in case," thinks Kuroda as he releases some more chakra and then some more quickly after he senses the fourth layer. Finally, everything returns to normal and Kuroda sees an exhausted Hara breathing heavily, but preparing to attack.
"Sensei, what just happened?" inquires Rame Tsu, "Kuroda was acting really strange and jumping all over the place and then Hara suddenly looked like he was greatly fatigued."
"Care to explain, Kayo?" suggests Tousen.
"Sensei, was that Genjutsu?" guesses Sakura.
"Very good, Sakura, yes, it was Genjutsu," confirms Kayo, "And it was a very high level one at that. I suspect Hara started preparing it right when the battle started."
"Yet Kuroda was able to break free from it," comments Yoshikuni, "Very impressive."
"Kuroda is really strong!" exclaims Kenta.
"Yeah, go Kuroda. You can do it!" cheers Yui.
"What in the world is going on?" says Mazuma in disbelief.
"What is wrong, Mazuma, getting scared that your student will lose?" questions Chiaki.
"It doesn't matter if Hara loses, that is not the problem," states Mazuma.
"Then what is it?" asks Kenji.
"That Genjutsu is not an ordinary Jutsu. It is a multi-layered Jutsu secretly developed by the Hidden Grass Village. I wasn't even aware that Hara knew about it or could use it," explains Mazuma.
"So then you are angry with your pupil?" inquires Kenji.
"No, the problem is that Jutsu is a Jonin level technique. No Genin should have enough chakra to break through it, even if Hara didn't use it at full power."
"You are forgetting that his Sensei is Kayo Yuhi, a Genjutsu master. I am sure she must have given him training in that area," says Chiaki.
"That kid is this talented in Ninjutsu, Taijutsu, and Genjutsu," comments Kenji, "Where has the Leaf Village been hiding him all of this time?"
"I have no idea, but I intend to find out," promises Mazuma.
Kuroda comments, "I commend you on the strength of your Genjutsu and the strategy you used. The first layer needed a lot of chakra to overcome; it was designed to make me waste the majority of mine. Then the second was so subtle that I barely realized it was another Genjutsu. The third layer was designed in case anyone got past the second stage. The fourth was merely a safety net. Most ninja wouldn't have enough chakra left to dispel it. So someone could either waste large amounts of chakra, or repeatedly injure themselves to get out of the technique."
"Very good analysis. I don't know how you got through it all, but you must be out of chakra, so now it is time for you to die," yells Hara as he runs in with a kunai for a final attack. Kuroda easily grabs Hara's arm and flips him over his shoulder onto the ground.
Kuroda explains, "It was very impressive and would have worked on most ordinary ninja, but since I happen to have an extremely large amount of chakra it did not affect me as much you had hoped it would." Hara struggles to his feet, too exhausted to give a response.
Kuroda charges at Hara and lands a punch in the gut sending him flying across the field. Then he speeds around before Hara hits the ground and lands a kick in the back, sending him belly first into the air. Kuroda jumps up, repeatedly kicking Hara in the back and forcing him higher and higher into the air. He does a triple flip over the top and lands a final axe kick to the stomach sending Hara crashing to the ground. After the assault Kuroda lands a short distance away. Hara is lying on the earth and coughing up large amounts of blood, but still tries to stand.
Kuroda takes out a kunai and then charges at Hara preparing to finish him off. Right as Kuroda's final attack is about to land, Tatsuki steps in and grabs Kuroda's arm stopping him from connecting. Kuroda looks at her with an eerie smile and says, "I was wondering if you were going to stop me."
Tatsuki starts to get a bad feeling in her stomach and quickly throws his arm away. "I am putting a stop to this match. The winner is Kuroda Taishi," she announces.
(That is the end of the chapter, what did you think? Kuroda has attained victory, but what other surprises does he have in store? Who will be the ultimate victor 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.)