Opening - Chase the World by May'n

Hinata, Tenten and Genma stood in the center of the Chuunin Exam arena. Chouji, Kiba and Temari had all returned to their places in the crowd above. Genma glanced back and forth between the two kunoichi, nibbling on the senbon between his teeth.

Just before he was about to begin the match, Hinata spoke up. "Tenten, you like exotic weapons, right? Watch this." she unsealed the staff Naruto had made, and used a small burst of chakra to release the blades in the ends.

Tenten's eyes widened, and she grinned. "That... is awesome!" she stepped forward to examine the weapon, hesitantly reaching for it. "Oh man, I finally have competition in town! Who is it!?" she turned her grin back to Hinata. "Who made it, you've gotta tell me!"

"Naruto-kun..." Hinata held out the stave, handing it to Tenten. From what I heard, I knew she'd be interested, but this... "Actually, he wanted to talk to you about working together, but I offered to mention it..."

"These materials..." Tenten stepped back, still holding the staff. "It's like they were grown. The way this gold inlay swirls around the whole thing... there isn't a single break in it! It's a single, solid piece, fitted perfectly into the wood. If that's the case, it should have been physically impossible to fit the two materials together... unless..." she tested the mechanism for the blades, retracting them. "Naruto has the Wood Release?"

"No, he used his Rinnegan," she replied.

"How..." Tenten shrugged. "Never mind. These blades here... They don't look like they were forged normally, but if Naruto made these, he was probably trying to emulate traditional katana forging methods... see these faint ripples in the metal here." she tapped the flat of one of the blades, and Hinata noted the thin, slightly darker ribbons in the steel. "He folded the metal multiple times to achieve this pattern, but somehow he managed to do it without heat. These ripples in the metal are really just for show, as far as I can tell. The carbon concentration across the whole blade is completely uniform."

"Meaning?" Hinata asked quietly.

"Uh, there's as much carbon here," she pointed with her fingernail to a light ribbon in the metal, "As there is here." she pointed to a dark ribbon. "There's supposed to be more carbon in the darker lines, and that makes the blade more durable. If the process were done properly and finished, it'd hold an edge better and be flexible at the same time, so it won't break in combat. Then again, this is still a quality weapon. I don't think it'll just randomly break on you."

"So," she resumed grinning. "Naruto wants to work with me. He can use his Rinnegan, somehow, to make weapons whose components should be physically impossible to assemble, and he seems to like exotic weapons like I do... I'm up for it! I'll team up with him, but first, let's put his work to the test."

"Begin."

Tenten opened a scroll and unsealed her favorite jian from within. After her match with Kankurou, Naruto had been called down to free the sword and Crow, as well as cancel his Swamp of the Underworld so no one else would copy Tenten's idea to use it. There was still a bit of an earthy crust where the blade and hilt met the guard, but for the most part it had been adequately cleaned.

She swung the weapon at Hinata, who intercepted the longsword with her staff, deflecting it away from her body with minimal effort. It was somewhat reminiscent of the Gentle Fist, the way she brushed Tenten's sword just enough to the side that she was unharmed.

Tenten, however, immediately drew her sword back and swung again, catching Hinata off-guard and forcing her to dodge away. "You're adapting your taijutsu for use with a weapon," she noted. "Not a bad idea, but you still need some work. I noticed you could use taijutsu to block Naruto's sword..." she trailed off meaningfully.

Hinata nodded. "I understand." she returned her staff to its seal, and fell into a comfortably familiar Gentle Fist stance. "For now, I'll use taijutsu, then." She darted forward, aiming several open-handed jabs at Tenten's chest. The slightly older girl dodged most of them, but Hinata kept attacking until she aimed an attack Tenten would have no chance of dodging.

She activated her barrier armor at the last second, and shut her eyes as the transparent barrier gave off a flare of light, radiating outward from the point of impact, her sternum. The light winked out as suddenly as it had appeared, and Tenten retreated a few more steps away from Hinata. So that's what happens when my armor gets hit with a Gentle Fist strike... That flash of light must have been my chakra reacting with Hinata's. Huh...

Tenten raised her jian into a defensive position, reminiscent of Naruto's one-handed kenjutsu. Hinata noticed the familiarity of her foe's stance, and leapt forward. As she expected, Tenten blocked her Gentle Fist attacks with the same moves as Naruto, confirming that she was currently using the same kenjutsu style as he did.

Hinata was surprised to find, however, that Tenten was slightly slower than Naruto, perhaps because she was using a longer and heavier weapon. She took advantage of a miniscule opening, stabbing forward at Tenten's chest.

Although she took a small nick on her arm in return, Hinata's hand jabbed Tenten's right breast. The older girl cried out in surprise that her armor had failed, and also in pain. It was a sensitive area, and Hinata hit surprisingly hard, even before factoring in the chakra behind the Gentle Fist strike. Tenten stepped back again, breathing somewhat more heavily but not panting yet. She tested her armor, flowing chakra into the fuinjutsu-covered mesh, and confirmed her suspicions.

A large circle radiating outward from Tenten's sternum was left exposed where the barrier refused to form. Her chakra... my armor didn't just deflect her first hit. It got 'deflected' right into the seal! Damn it... her train of thought was cut off as she bent forward, coughing violently. "How much chakra did you put into that attack?" she asked as soon as she could.

"Not enough to kill you," Hinata replied. "Your sword," she held up her lightly cut arm, "pushed my arm just enough that I missed the tenketsu I was aiming for. The chakra from my attack hit the network over your right lung instead, and it's giving you difficulty breathing... I'm sorry. That looks more painful than what I'd intended to do."

Tenten chuckled. "It's not that bad," she panted, "And you pointed out a nasty weakness in my armor. I'll have to correct that when I make the next prototype..." she shrugged, and put away her sword, replacing it with a fresh scroll. "Oh, well. Time to fall back on my old specialty: spamming ninja tools and explosives. Pain is inevitable, suffering is optional," she whispered, and the wax seal on her scroll crumbled away. She opened it, letting the long stream of paper catch the wind and ride it, tugging gently at her grasp on the other end. "Manipulated Tools: Pain Without Suffering."

Hinata actually giggled quietly when she saw Tenten unseal a kunai from within, recognizing the pun. In kanji, 'kunai' is written as 'no hard feelings' or 'no suffering.' So 'Pain Without Suffering' could also be read as 'Pain With No Suffering' or 'Pain With Kunai.'

She stopped giggling as soon as Tenten threw the first kunai, so she could duck to the side of the black dagger. Her Byakugan, however, showed her the quivering explosive tag inside the hollow handle, and she knew she wasn't out of harm's way yet. She turned her dodging motion into a spinning one, and shouted, "Revolving Heaven!"

Her dome of chakra caught the kunai and whipped it away even faster than it had already been flying, fast enough that she was out of its range when it exploded, surprising the crowd. She canceled her jutsu and stopped spinning to face Tenten, already forming hand seals. "Water Release: Hollow Water Dragon Bullet!"

Tenten unsealed seven more kunai and threw them at the approaching water construct that flew from Hinata's mouth. Without enough force to pass through the chakra-hardened water, they bounced off of the dragon. Tenten set off the explosives within, bombarding the dragon with seven different explosions at seven different points.

Unable to hold it together, Hinata let the dragon fall apart, splashing and soaking the ground between herself and Tenten. She formed a full dome of chakra blades around herself, then applied the Water Release to her Guardian Sixty-Four Palms. Tenten threw a fresh handful of explosive-laden kunai at the dome, setting them off just before they touched it.

Hinata tensed inside the dome, but sighed in relief as the sheet of water merely shook and warped under the explosions, then bounced back into a smoothly curved wall. Naruto-kun showed me how possible it is to break through this barrier. I need to be ready for it to break at any time. She took a deep breath, and formed the Ram hand seal. That is, at least until I complete it. "Water Release: Hollow Water Dragon Horde!"

The thin layer of water forming her Guardian Sixty-Four Palms was twisted and pulled apart, forming into five Hollow Water Dragons and leaving her exposed. Hinata frowned in concentration, and focused her chakra, freezing all five dragons into ice constructs with considerable effort.

Tenten paled, rememberng what a single ice dragon did to Naruto. "You can make more than one of those things!?"

"Apparently," Hinata replied, panting slightly. "I only half expected that to..." three of the five ice dragons shattered, leaving only two behind. "...work..." So, I can only maintain two ice constructs at this point. That could be a problem later, plus I wasted a good chunk of my reserves, freezing all five.

Tenten rolled up the scroll for Pain Without Suffering and stowed it in her pouch, pulling out a thick white scroll in its place. The roll of paper fell open without a wax seal on it, and she unsealed a round bundle of paper from within, the first of many. "Manipulated Tools: Wrath of Heaven!"

Gaara watched her throw the first ball of explosive tags, striking the snout of an approaching ice dragon as she leapt to the side of the other's attack. Her weapon exploded violently into a ten-foot-wide ball of fire, shrapnel, and concussive force. "You improved them..." he murmured, although he knew she couldn't hear him. When the smoke and dust cleared, Hinata's ice dragon was headless and crumbling. "Significantly..."

Hinata's eyes widened, and she let the decapitated ice dragon collapse entirely, focusing solely on the remaining one that was closing in on Tenten. "It took three Earth Walls from Naruto-kun to do that before," she mused aloud.

"Ha! Never underestimate the potential of ninja tools!" Tenten dodged to let the dragon's heade pass her, pulled several more explosive spheres from the scroll, and flung them at the remaining ice dragon's flank, which twisted out of the way. Grinning, she slapped her hands together in the Tiger seal around the scroll she still held, and called, "Boom!"

The explosives triggered with the ice dragon between them and Tenten. The dragon roared in shock and pain as it was struck several times, and pieces of its body shattered away. Tenten followed her initial attack up with more explosives to the side of the dragon that faced her, setting them off and destroying it completely. She shifted the scrollto her left hand, drew a kunai from her pouch the old-fashioned way and sprinted at Hinata.

The Hyuuga heiress readied herself for close-quarters combat, and slapped aside Tenten's dagger with one hand while reaching for her torso with the other.

Tenten, however, made no effort to dodge, instead she spun around, exposing her back to Hinata. She triggered her barrier armor and squeezed her eyes tightly shut. Hinata's chakra-laden open palm slammed into her back, and her armor lit up with brilliant white light, blinding Hinata for a moment. She leaned forward and kicked backward to finish her strategy, and her foot knocked the wind out of Hinata as it struck the younger girl's belly.

Hinata, disoriented and momentarily blinded, stumbled away from Tenten. This is just like when Naruto-kun used his lightning to blind me! I know what to do here! She rapidly turned her back to Tenten, sighing in relief as her Byakugan clearly showed Tenten's approach and the kunai in her hand. She crouched forward, letting the slash of Tenten's kunai cut only the air above her. "Let's see how you like it," she murmured, and kicked backward, feeling her foot connect with the hole in Tenten's barrier ninjutsu.

Tenten mirrored Hinata's earlier movement, stumbling backward away from her attacker. She dropped her kunai and clutched her belly where Hinata's foot had connected. She took that kick like it was nothing, and used the exact same move on me! That's... her eyes widened, and she fearfully dodged a Gentle Fist backhand from Hinata, who still couldn't turn to face Tenten since she was blind to everything in front of her.

"You're fast," Hinata acknowledged respectfully, and continued to blink rapidly with her back still turned to Tenten. She rubbed her own torso, groaning slightly. "Strong too, that kick hurt more than I let on."

Tenten hesitantly tried to attack Hinata's back again, but once again the white-eyed kunoichi twisted just out of her reach and countered with a mule kick. This time however, Tenten dodged away and reached for the scroll still in her left hand. "I could say the same to you. Plus, now there's two gaping holes in my armor," she grumbled, still stepping further away from Hinata. She unsealed a fresh handful of explosive spheres, and threw them.

Hinata countered with a Revolving Heaven, since she could form it more quickly than the Water Release: Guardian Sixty-Four Palms. It also took more chakra to maintain, but it served its purpose, shielding Hinata from the spheres that exploded and shredding the others into harmless scraps of paper.

She came to a stop facing Tenten, and threw a handful of shuriken at her foe. Tenten dodged, then realized what Hinata was doing when she vanished, replaced by a shuriken and a cloud of smoke. Damn it-

"Hollow Water Dragon!"

She cried out when the dragon's snout slammed into her back, hard. Its jaws closed around her torso and it took off, flying straight up into the sky. She's not gonna... she's not... is she? Tenten glanced downward, noting that she was roughly five stories in the air when the dragon abruptly swerved downward, aiming its head, and Tenten within it, at the ground. She is!

Tenten began panicking as the ground rapidly approached, and came up with only one plan. She poured an excessive amount of her chakra into her fuinjutsu armor, praying it would force Hinata's chakra out of the way. As she did, she pulled a kunai from her pouch and noted the hole in the barrier over her chest quickly closing. Come on! She stabbed the kunai into the head of the dragon. Come ON! The hole in her armor finished closing, and she cried out in triumph, releasing the hilt of the kunai to reveal the explosive tag stuck to it.

"NOW!" she flared her chakra into the armor to protect herself, and detonated the tag, destroying the head of the dragon and freeing herself. She twisted to the side of the now-headless dragon, and watched the ground approach helplessly. She hit it hard, but since the water dragon hadn't landed on top of her, she managed to stay conscious.

The water dragon exploded into water and mist that crashed down in every direction. Tenten groaned as she and the ground around her were soaked, but she stood and glanced around to spot Hinata. At her opponent's feet, the Wrath of Heaven scroll still lay unharmed on the ground. She reached out and shot chakra strings from her fingertips to grab the scroll.

Hinata, however, snatched the scroll from the air and pulled it back. The unexpected resistance severed Tenten's strings, and Hinata calmly began to roll the paper back into a small bundle. "I'll give this back to you, after our match."

Tenten nodded. "You had a chance to keep me from blowing you up, and you took it." She pulled two more scrolls from her pouch, and added, "Don't worry, I'm not done yet. I still have spares." She snapped open the wax seals, and touched the ends of the scrolls to the ground.

Hinata frowned. That stance... She used this move on Dosu. As Tenten vanished in a cloud of smoke, Hinata formed her Guardian Sixty-Four Palms. "Twin Rising Dragons!" the older kunoichi called, and reappeared in the air between the two open scrolls she'd thrown upward. But why use this jutsu on me? My Guardian Sixty-Four Palms is the perfect counter to it...

A hail of assorted weapons came down on Hinata's dome of chakra and water, but they were all deflected and scattered. Hinata glanced around, confused, as Tenten landed. "...What was the point of that?" she asked.

Tenten sighed, and readied another scroll. "I just thought I'd give it a try. I wanted to see if I could overpower your Guardian Sixty-Four Palms with just ordinary ninja tools."

Hinata let the dome fall apart. At her command, the water evaporated into chakra before it hit the ground. "I..." Wait. If her explosives couldn't get through, what made her think these swords and kunai... She froze. "You-"

Tenten grinned, and off the explosive tags hidden inside the dozens of Pain Without Suffering kunai she'd thrown along with all of the weapons from her Twin Rising Dragons. She faltered, however, when she heard Hinata scream over the sound of the explosions. The Hyuuga heiress was completely engulfed by fireballs and debris.

Naruto jumped from his seat next to the Hokage. "Hinata!"

Tenten cried out, and sprinted into the aftermath of her own attack, searching for Hinata. The smoke cleared, revealing a bleeding and unconscious Genin. Tenten ran to her side, and spotted Naruto approaching her as well. "She's breathing," she immediately noted. "Somebody get a medic-nin!" she called, and reached out to pick her fallen opponent up.

Her hands and arms passed cleanly through Hinata's genjutsu clone.

"Wha-"

"Eight Trigrams."

Naruto watched with an expression of shock, but also relief, as a clump of earth behind Tenten turned back into an unharmed Hinata. "Two Palms, Four Palms," she began striking the tenketsu in Tenten's back. "Eight Palms," her faltering chakra network failed to trigger her barrier ninjutsu. "Sixteen Palms... I'm sorry, Tenten." her hands blurred even faster, and she finished, "Thirty-Two Palms."

Tenten fell forward, and Naruto caught her, lowering her gently to the ground.

Genma watched the exchange with interest. Hm... Now, what do I do here? Naruto jumped down into the arena, sure, but he didn't actually get involved in the match. So, I could go either way with this. I could disqualify Hinata because Naruto stepped in, but... Genma groaned quietly. Either way, my decision here is going to be questioned and possibly punished if I survive the invasion. So I might as well call it as I see it.

"Winner by knockout, Hinata Hyuuga. But..." he pointed to Naruto lazily, "The next time someone jumps into this arena during a match will get their friend disqualified, whether they interfere or not."

"Understood," Naruto quickly replied, then closed the distance between himself and Hinata in the blink of an eye. He wrapped his arms around her and hugged her tightly. "Hina-chan..."

"I'm okay, Naruto-kun. I'm fine, don't worry."

He reluctantly let her go. "That was amazing! But uh, how'd you do it?"

"I used the Revolving Heaven to save myself at the last second. Once I realized Tenten couldn't see me or my jutsu through the explosions, I used the Clone Jutsu inside the Revolving Heaven, and it transformed into an injured, bleeding version of me. When the explosions stopped I transformed myself to blend in with the dirt."

The Third Hokage grinned, and pointed at Hinata from afar. "Keep in mind, Orochimaru, these are our Genin. The youngest, weakest, and least experienced of Konoha's forces. I look forward to showing you the power of our Jounin and ANBU."

"Oto has superior shinobi, with superior jutsu, tactics and weapons. Obviously they'll still take some casualties, but as long as they implement the plan before they die, it's none of my concern."

"Orochimaru... what happened to you? What happened to the boy I raised and trained?"

"Sarutobi-sensei..." Orochimaru tsked. "I was always like this. I have my goals in sight, and nothing will hold me back from them. Certainly not petty morality, I'm a ninja after all. I remember the days when your thoughts were much the same as mine. You've sent men to their deaths for the good of the village, don't bother denying it."

"You're sending an entire army to their deaths with a smile. There's a difference. Worse, you're doing this for petty revenge."

"Let's not fuss over the details," the false Kazekage replied dismissively. Naruto blurred into existence next to Gaara, leaning over the railing. "You look a bit shaky, boy. Are you worried about your beloved dying today?"

Naruto turned to Orochimaru with fire in his Rinnegan eyes, but Gaara caught him by the shoulder without looking away from the arena. "He seems to enjoy threatening our loved ones. He wants you to react like this, so calm down." He released Naruto's shoulder, and added, "Hinata and Tenten are as safe as we are, if not more so. We'll be fighting one of the Legendary Sannin today, and they won't be."

"...Right." Naruto deactivated his Rinnegan. "Thanks, Gaara. I needed that." he turned to Orochimaru, and continued, "I'm fighting for the village, Hina-chan, and all of my friends. If it comes down to it, I'll kill you myself, teme."

"I dare you to try." Orochimaru sneered under his mask. "If it weren't for those eyes, you'd be entirely beneath my notice, Jinchuuriki or not. As it is, you're not my opponent, you're just the next experiment I get to dissect."

Naruto activated his Rinnegan eyes once more, and glared at Orochimaru with them. "Orochimaru, you are never gonna take these eyes, in fact I'm gonna kill you with them, today."

"As I said." The snake leaned forward, and repeated slowly, "I, dare you, to try."

Naruto's face split into a vicious grin. "Okay. Whenever you're ready, teme."

Orochimaru's own smile faded. Clever... he knows I'm not attacking because I'm not ready to. He even hinted it to his allies. Sarutobi-sensei has surely already figured it out, and Gaara won't benefit from that knowledge, but still, the brat's clever... "Don't worry, it won't be long now."

Naruto ignored him, instead focusing on the second-to-last match of the tournament. Kiba, Temari and Chouji had already gathered for their match, and the audience was watching eagerly. It was to be the first and last three-way match of the day.

Kiba had won his match, and defeated the Uchiha prodigy without much difficulty. As such, he wasn't particularly worried about this match.

Temari, on the other hand, had clearly lost to Shikamaru. If the genius hadn't forfeited, claiming he was 'almost out of chakra,' then he would have been standing here instead of her. Yeah right. Out of chakra, my ass! Still, I guess I should thank him. I've got another chance to show my power, and that of the Hidden Sand. I won't waste this one.

Meanwhile, Chouji couldn't stop thinking about what he'd done in the preliminaries, and what Shikamaru had said to him about it. Over the past month, those few words had never left the back of his mind, and over time, he'd begun to agree with them.

You made a spur-of-the-moment decision... For that brief moment, you were motivated... You wanted to win... You're in for a lot of work if you keep making choices like that... You're gonna choose to get the job done, every time. You're a hard worker deep down.

If that's who I really am, deep down, then that's what I should be on the outside too. I'll win this match, and keep getting stronger. I'll work hard. He smiled, and crumpled up his finished bag of chips. It hasn't been that bad so far. Sure, I have to put away my snacks every once in a while, but not for too long... But it's not that bad, really.

"Begin."

"Expansion Jutsu!" Chouji immediately called, and his torso exploded outward into a giant ball-shape.

Temari stopped reaching for her fan, and burst out laughing for the second time. "Wait, that's his power? He can make himself even fatter!?"

"...Okay, even I know it's a bad idea to call him fa... that." Kiba backed away from Chouji slightly.

Chouji, however, hadn't heard her. He'd already pulled his head, arms and legs into his body, taking the form of the Human Bullet Tank or Human Boulder. Her words were muffled by his jutsu. So, it was only a coincidence that he went after Temari immediately and viciously.

"Holy crap!" Temari shrieked as she leapt away from the younger boy, watching him pulverize the ground as he approached her. "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" She whipped her fan off her back in midair, and swung it as it opened, sending a barrage of wind blades at Chouji. The Akimichi was pushed backward by the wind, and suffered a variety of shallow cuts.

She briefly sighed in relief as she landed, but then spotted Kiba approaching her in Baskerville Mode, on all fours. She drew her fan back for another swing, and called, "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Kiba transformed into Cerberus Mode just before the attack hit, and growled in pain at the wind blades slicing him. After a few seconds, the storm passed, and Kiba resumed his approach.

With no warning, Chouji came out of nowhere and slammed into Kiba, still in his Human Boulder form. His rotation caught Kiba and spun him into the ground. The three-headed Hellhound roared in pain and disbelief, although the living tank running him over couldn't hear him at all.

Once he finished grinding Kiba into the dirt, Chouji swerved toward Temari without slowing down. Temari gaped at both the approaching Akimichi and his brutalized victim, then did the only thing she could. She leapt straight up into the air and crouched on top of her fan to start flying. The crowd was impressed, since shinobi capable of flight were somewhat rare, but Temari was simply relieved to see that Chouji couldn't follow her into the sky.

Instead, he ended his jutsu and drew a fistful of shuriken to throw at her. She laughed nervously, and deflected them easily with wind. Chouji's attention was briefly drawn by Kiba switching to Baskerville Mode and crawling out of the crater made by his own body, but the big-boned Genin simply blurred through a few hand seals. "Partial Expansion Jutsu." his arms grew exponentially in size, and he swung one at each of his opponents.

Kiba bared his teeth angrily, but dodged away from Chouji's left fist. His right instead went after Temari, who soared upward to dodge as well. Chouji's giant hand whipped up a gust of wind as it passed, and Temari's fan caught the wind, pushing her shakily higher into the sky. Chouji, meanwhile, quickly returned his limbs to their normal size.

Kiba snarled. And here I thought Temari was the real threat here. Enough of this crap! He sprinted toward Chouji on all fours while the larger boy was focused on Temari, and roared, "Eat this!" Chouji turned, wide-eyed, and took a burning fist to the face for his efforts. The Akimichi tumbled backward across the arena, and Kiba shifted into Cerberus Mode.

Temari stared worriedly down at the clearly angry Hellhound. Damn it, these Konoha kids are beasts. She pulled a thin scroll from her pouch, slightly longer than a kunai. If I want to even stand a chance here, I'm gonna have to use everything I have. She unfurled the scroll, and laid a hand over the sealing matrix on it.

Kiba's six eyes narrowed. What's that? She never used any kind of fuinjutsu in the preliminaries... he growled, and crouched close to the ground. Whatever it is, she's not gonna get a chance to use it! He jumped straight up into the air as Temari released the storage seal. In a plume of smoke, her new weapon appeared courtesy of Tenten.

It was a huge gunbai, a non-folding war fan. This one was a six-foot-long white oval on the end of an additional four-foot shaft of golden wood. The blade of the fan bore the stylized hourglass symbol of Suna, surrounded by six red tomoe with longer than normal tails. Temari left her crouching position to stand upright atop her fan, and grasped the handle of the gunbai with both hands. She swung the gunbai, whipping up a blast of wind that caught the Hellhound and threw him back down to earth.

For the second time that day, Kiba was shoved into the ground hard enough to create a hole in it in the shape of a three-headed dog. Temari returned to the ground, stabbed the handle of her gunbai into the ground, then folded and put away her old fan to wield the gunbai that was twice as tall as she was.

"That... is starting to hurt..." Kiba groaned, reverting to Baskerville Mode to erase his injuries. He stood to face Temari, and his red aura flared angrily. Temari hefted her new weapon with both hands, then brought it down again, whipping up a blast of swirling wind like a horizontal tornado.

Kiba detached his flame aura from his body, shaping it into a wall between himself and the wind. The two attacks struck each other, and Temari's wind vanished into Kiba's flames as they grew and flared upward. Fire chakra overpowers wind chakra. The air just feeds the flames. He galloped forward on all fours, charging headfirst into his own flames.

Temari frowned, and immediately noticed how much more intense Kiba's flames were. They radiated off of his body for two feet in all directions. She blanched. What... is that? He was radiating vicious killing intent, and the image of an ethereal red wolf with bared teeth was forming behind him. Is that genjutsu? She shivered under the force of his killing intent, but she'd experienced such intent before, and she could shake it off. She focused her wind chakra into her gunbai, then lifted it to throw another jutsu.

Chouji, in the form of a Human Bullet Tank, slammed into her right side with no warning at all, sending her flying. She screamed, lost her grip on her gunbai, and hit the ground where she was immediately knocked unconscious.

Kiba's mouth fell open and his killing intent faded. "Wh-What the hell, Chouji? Stop suckerpunching us!"

"Stop turning your back on me," the chubby boy replied, still in his tank form, and swerved toward Kiba. "One down, one to go."

"...Didn't see that coming," Genma muttered, and gestured for a medic-nin team to take Temari from the arena. "Temari is unable to continue the match," he announced formally, "Which leaves Kiba and Chouji."

Damn it, Kiba shifted into Cerberus Mode as Chouji approached. He's right, we underestimated him. Temari and I were only thinking of each other as opponents, and we just assumed Chouji would stay out of the way if we hit him once or twice. Stupid! We should've known better than this! He stalked forward, then forcefully swatted Chouji's spinning form when the two reached each other. The Akimichi was knocked off-course and shot past Kiba, who withdrew his paw and growled in pain. I can't attack him physically when he's spinning like this... that's fine, I have ninjutsu.

Chouji's spinning slowed, and he turned his tank form around to face Kiba, who in turn faced him. "You've got my attention now, big guy," Kiba declared, and all three of his heads breathed out dense plumes of smoke. "What now?"

The larger boy remained silent, and charged toward Kiba again. The Hellhound breathed out a tiny ember from each of his mouths, setting off the three streams of Ash Pile Burning that floated between himself and Chouji, just as the Akimichi shot into the smoke.

Chouji cried out, but his scream was drowned by the roar of the flames for the brief few moments that Kiba sustained them. Then the flames went out, revealing Chouji covered in black soot and ash. The Akimichi would surely have died if Kiba hadn't shaped the flames safely away from him.

Chouji ended his jutsu, returning his body to normal, and stood. Most of the skin across his whole body was stinging from slight burns, and it hurt worse to move. And yet, he did. He stepped toward Kiba while reaching into his coat pocket.

I'm a hard worker. He flipped open the clear plastic box in his pocket, and withdrew a large green pill. If I want to get something done, I'll do it. Right now, what I want is to be a Chuunin! He popped the pill into his mouth, and crunched it loudly between his teeth. Besides, I've kinda always wondered what one of these tastes like...

Kiba watched his foe chew the pill, interested. I think I've heard of that pill thing... something to do with the Akimichi Clan's calorie control ability... what does it do though? He snorted. Whatever. I know I can still beat him.

"Expansion Jutsu!" Chouji suddenly roared, just before Kiba was about to make a move again. Rather than swelling only his torso, however, this time his entire body grew three times larger. Now standing at the same height as Kiba's Cerberus form, Chouji lunged.

The two fifteen-foot-tall monsters charged at each other. Kiba was faster, and his central pair of jaws opened wide to bite Chouji, who raised his left arm to catch the attack. He screamed in pain as Kiba drew blood, but drew back his remaining fist to punch Kiba's central head. The Hellhound refused to let go, even after two more punches, meanwhile his other two heads snapped at Chouji's free arm.

Chouji cried out again as Kiba's fangs tore his arm further, but then he growled, and wrapped his right hand around the throat of the head biting him. "Kiba, give up."

"Why me? I'm winning!"

Chouji pulled him in closer, and growled, "Forfeit the match, or I'm gonna hurt you. You've got three seconds."

Kiba's six eyes blinked. "...What are you gonna do?"

"I'm going to use my Expansion Jutsu to increase my height as much as possible. Since my arm is gonna grow too, I'll probably blow your middle head apart too, but Sasuke showed us you can survive that. Then I'll throw you at the ground, really hard."

"You're serious."

Chouji nodded.

Kiba and Akamaru split apart in Chouji's grasp. Both landed on their feet below the giant Akimichi, and Akamaru ran to safety behind Chouji. Kiba blurred through a few rapid hand seals, then called, "Fire Release-"

Chouji punted the smaller Genin at his feet, sending Kiba to tumble along the ground for several yards. The Akimichi then returned himself to his normal size and panted heavily, clutching his bloody left arm.

"Winner, Chouji Akimichi. Get us a couple of medic teams!" Genma shouted.

Chouji grinned, then promptly blacked out from blood loss.

"...Chouji..."

Shikamaru?

"Is... gonna be..."

"He'll be... healing him..."

"How long?"

"Not long," one of the medics replied. "Maybe a minute or two, we have blood restoration pills for this. He can probably hear us at this point."

Shikamaru sighed in relief, then turned his attention back to his best friend. "Chouji, man... what the hell got into you?" He blinked. "Wait a minute. He took one of the Coloured Pills!"

Another medic nodded. "Back in the third war, there were plenty of times when an Akimichi would end up taking one or two pills, but not three, so we know how to deal with this. By itself, the green pill is..."

"Unstable and quickly wears off, yeah, I know," Shikamaru cut him off. "Four minutes, right? The reason I'm asking is 'cause Chouji's only twelve. How badly is it gonna affect him?"

"...Right, you're a Nara. Your clan's been working on a medical encyclopedia for decades now, it slipped my mind." the medic shrugged. "The pill is going to burn calories into chakra for the next four minutes, maybe a little longer. Since he's here with a medic team and not alone on the battlefield, we can dull his pain. At this rate, he should be able to continue into the finals."

Shikamaru nodded, then glanced at Chouji's smirking unconscious face. "If you can hear me, buddy, you did great." he gently patted his friend's shoulder. "But uh... I'll hold on to these for you." he reached across Chouji's chest and pulled the remaining two pills and their container from Chouji's pocket.

Chouji groaned, and opened his eyes. "Gimme back the yellow one, Shika. I might need it."

The genius blinked. "Fine." he took the red pill from the case and handed the case containing the yellow one back to Chouji. "Seriously though, what happened to you?"

"It's like you said; I'm a hard worker. I decided I want to be a Chuunin, so I'm gonna work for it."

"...Troublesome."

"I thought you'd say that."

Shikamaru sighed. "Aw man. If you're not lazy anymore, who am I gonna watch clouds with? It's such a drag."

"Well... that girl from Suna, Temari..."

"What about her?"

"She likes you. You know that, right? Watch clouds with her."

Shikamaru remained silent for several seconds. "...You're... kidding."

"Nope."

"Troublesome." the genius rubbed the back of his head. Now he's even figuring stuff out before I do... But that's not the real problem. I always thought my dream girl was a cute brunette civilian who was nice to me. And definitely not a kunoichi. But that girl... Blonde hair, kunoichi, way more than cute, a total tsundere... and yet... ugh, what a drag.

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