A/N: I decided to publish at least one chapter before the year is over. Thank you if you've been waiting, I'm sorry I took so long. I just really have been busy, and I wish I could make up for the lost time. But I can't. This chapter will be nearly twice as long as my normal chapters, so if you plan to read it all in one go, get into a comfy chair and grab a cup of coffee or something. A treat for reading my story. Chapter 24!
Hurting
"Temari, look! Keishi is first!" Kankurou nudged his older sibling's shoulder, something she found incredibly irritating, but did not yell at because she understood his excitement. When Kankurou saw Keishi's name on the nominal roll for the participants in the Jounin Examinations, the Sand siblings went to track him down and found out he had wanted to enter and pass the exam as a surprise for Kankurou, for helping him in his training. Temari grinned at that. She never imagined Kankurou would be such a good teacher, let alone a favorite one.
"I wonder if Gaara is watching?"
"What else would he do?" Temari said sarcastically, and chuckled as Kankurou fumed in her face, but could do nothing, not with her iron fan sitting right beside her. The blond kunoichi automatically looked to her right, where Naruto, Gaara and Zehi, the Raikage, sat at the high pedestal, chatting away. She smiled at the sight, thankful that the new Raikage was not corrupt as his predecessors.
"Oh, look. His opponent is someone from the Grass Country."
"Ladies and gentlemen! The first match between Keishi Kakaru and Jurei Yuurin, start!" The emcee leaped away as the gun sounded, and Temari turned to look at the participants fight, just as the Kages stopped their conversation to view the battle below.
Kankurou watched Keishi's eyes harden, although the rest of his features remained still. No one, except those who knew him, could see past his bored exterior. Even now, he was willing to bet that more than half the audience was wondering why he wasn't moving from his position in front of the door he came out from. He smirked.
This is the strength of Sunagakure.
.
A long string of green shot towards the motionless boy, its speed so fast majority of the audience that were made up of common folk could not see anything until after it pierced Keishi's body. The echo of shock was short lived however, as there was no blood or scream. Instead, Keishi's body seemed to fade into the air. The crowd fell silent, already on the edge of their seats.
Jurei slowly retracted his ivy, glancing to his sides and leaping onto one of the hills. Observing his surroundings, he was slightly impressed at the huge change of terrain. Just yesterday, all he had seen was a plain field of grass and sand. Today, the whole area was filled with narrow pillars of rock, such as the one he stood on now. He touched the sleeve of his dark green jacket lightly, preparing to attack at the slightest movement. His matching green hair shuddered in the breeze, and flew back as Jurei swung to on side and shot out his ivy again.
Several metres away, Keishi paused on a similar rocky pillar, watching the ivy miss him by just a hair, mentally noting how dangerous it was for him as the ivy was dotted with thorns as thick as his foot.
"Interesting. I've never seen someone as fast as you."
Keishi looked up at Jurei, a bored expression painted on his face. But Jurei was sharp, and he could see that, despite his body language, both hands in pockets, hunched back and yawning, that practically yelled laziness, Keishi's brown eyes were hard and concentrated. Jurei smirked.
"You can see as far as I can," Keishi stated. Indeed, both parties were about 10 rock pillars away, yet both boys were aware of every single movement the other made. Jurei shook his head slightly, his face amused, but not in a bad way.
"Actually I can't. I feel for you."
"Feel?" Keishi raised an eyebrow and moved to squat down when he felt something hard on his right foot. Looking down, his eyes widened in horror at the sudden appearance of a creeper crawling up his legs at an extreme growth rate.
"My Juusatsu Tsuta not only pierces, it flings its seeds around the area I battle, and I can sense everything those seeds touch."
Keishi struggled against the ivy's grip, his face finally contorting into a frustrated emotion.
"What are you?!" He yelled, his hands now immobilized by the ivy. Keishi sat on his pillar, smiling innocently at his opponent.
"I'm a human, with a bloodline limit that connects my sense with that of my ivy," Jurei raised his hand, and the same ivy rose out of his sleeve, thorns slowly potruding the stem. He aimed it straight at Keishi, whose entire upper body was now covered in leafy creepers.
"Its sad, I thought you would be more of a challenge," Jurei mused, and sent his ivy straight towards Keishi's trapped figure, just as the creepers covered the top of his head. Thorns pierced the cocoon, and a yell erupted, followed by a huge explosion that threw Jurei's ivy into the air, creating a rain of leaves and wood splinters.
Jurei blinked and quickly stood up. Wood splinters?
"Sorry, I guess I'm more of an obstacle."
.
Kankurou cheered as he saw Jurei turn around and meet Keishi standing on another stone pillar, this time his hands were out of his pockets and holding the scroll that was originally in his back pocket.
Temari tapped her brother, "What's going on?"
Kankurou smiled smugly at her, blurting out, "Keishi's a puppet prodigy!"
"Eh?" Temari's look was a look of disbelief, for she did not even believe there was such a thing. Fortunately, Kankurou read it as ignorant, and went on to explain to her.
"Keishi was a distant relative of old Chiyo. He had her genes of puppet mastery and is skilled at creating his own puppets as well as controlling them. He made his first one when he was four!"
"I still don't get what happened."
"Man, you're slow Temari. Keishi's seventeen now, he's been making puppets for thirteen years! He has so many for so many uses, its no wonder he's such a lazy prat. He reminds me of that Shik- that smart aleck, except Keishi's much more useful in a battle."
"Kankurou, I'm fine with you saying his name," the blond assured her brother, who still looked at her carefully before continuing.
"Alright. Anyway, just now, Keishi wasn't part of that explosion. I don't know where he is now, but he's extremely good at making his puppets look just like him, and keeps them all in that scroll of his," Kankurou pointed at the scroll that Keishi was now rolling up in his hands. Kankurou patted his laps in excitement, "Even I don't know if its really him standing there, I just know that Keishi may look bored, but he's analysing every move his opponent does, because once he goes into hiding, he can't really see what's going on."
"I thought he could see far."
"That's his far-sighted puppet, he places mirrors inside the face so that he can even see something behind him. Isn't he a genius? I just love that kid!"
"Indeed," Temari whistled. Kankurou turned back to cheer Keishi on, and she grinned again.
Kankurou, I've just seen another side of you, she thought proudly. It pleased her to see that other than responsibility, Kankurou had learned how to think for others. She knew with that much attention that was given to Keishi, the same amount of care and concern was there too. She turned her head and took a glance at Gaara, staring expressionless at the fight.
Gaara, your brother has felt love. When are you going to?
.
Temari stared at the pale face of the previous vessel for the Shukaku for a few more seconds, before diverting her attention back to the fight below.
Jurei cursed under his breath as he felt a drop of sweat roll down his cheek. He made a jump to a pillar more than a few metres away, which was impossible for most shinobis, but not for Jurei. With the help of the ivy, he caught onto his target pillar and pulled himself over, swinging the other arm towards Keishi.
Or some sort of Keishi puppet. Jurei knew not to look down on puppet welders, as he was in the field with a risk of getting hurt while this Keishi person was hiding somewhere, controlling his puppets to do his dirty work. To Jurei, it seemed cowardly, yet intelligent. But the Grass shinobi needed to bring him out, in order to even the footing. Every time he destroyed a puppet, the next would appear closer than the last. Sooner or later, he was going to be cornered.
"Are you boy or a girl? Can't you come out and fight instead of letting your toys do it for you?" Jurei yelled, swinging his ivy at another 'Keishi' and watching it break into a million pieces of wood and tools. He crouched down, his eyes wandering round for the next appearance of his opponent.
"What makes you think I don't come out?" Jurei nearly jumped had shinobi training not taught him to expect the unexpected. Keishi's voice seemed too close, and ivy welder leaped a few pillars away before he calmed down to look at his opponent.
Keishi was standing, looking very relaxed, on a couple of pillars away from Jurei's original pillar, hands in his pockets again. After a few seconds of stunned silence, Keishi stuck out his foot, as if to step onto air, when he disappeared and reappeared on another pillar closer to Jurei. The latter's green eyes widened as he finally the real reason he could not catch Keishi.
"I just move too fast for you to see, green one. You think I like biting my thumb to call out my puppets? So far, you've only destroyed two, and those two are chained to my chakra, allowing me to connect them back any time I want. So actually, you've destroyed none."
Keishi looked back at Jurei through lidded eyes, but inside his heart was thumping with nervousness. He knew exposing his tactic would be dangerous, but he wasn't done yet, and personally, he was really getting bored of the routine running and disappearing method. He wanted to see what this Jurei, green person could do. He knew bloodline limits were powerful, but unless Jurei did something spectacular, he was not going to like participating in this fight at all.
I still want to call out my back up, Keishi thought to himself, all the while watching Jurei's still body crouching down. He could almost see the gears work in his brain and nearly let himself smile when shinobi from Kusagakure stood up.
Now, the real fight begins.
"Alright, puppet boy. Looks like I've underestimated you. You deserve something better than my pathetic little ivy. You deserve a garden," his voice trembling with immense thrill, Jurei felt happy at getting such a worthy opponent. Fast speed with expert puppet welding techniques. He was in for a ride.
"Keishi, I hope you've got your puppet scroll ready, because what I'm going to do next might just require every one of your puppets."
The Suna shinobi finally smirked.
"Bring it on, flower boy."
.
Seki felt the room shake again. She placed her hand on the walls for support, eyebrows knitting together in worry.
According to the clock on the wall opposite her, 15 minutes had passed by. It didn't seem like an easy task, and Keishi had not called for his back up – whoever it was.
"Oh, look," just as that thought appeared in Seki's head, the red bulb lit up. The girl in pink, who was the one who spoke, stood up, brushing off the dust on her outfit, before she pushed open the door and disappeared behind it. A booming voice outside announced, "Hana Taikou has entered the arena!"
Through the holes in the door, Seki peered out and was greeted with shades of green and a distinct smell of grass and ivy. Her nose twitched at the strong scent and she back away from the door, suddenly restless and wanting to get out in the field herself.
Outside, Hana wasn't as excited as she saw a large number of vines, creepers and ivy sprouting from beneath various pillars. Before she could even take in the terrain, she was pulled to the side by Keishi, who was hiding behind the pillar closest to the door.
"What's your skill?"
"Opposite of his," Hana stated. Keishi waved his hands, pressing her for more information that she seemed reluctant to divulge. Hana sighed.
"I used flowers instead of leaves."
"Okay, I use puppets. What can we do?"
"Can they contain my flowers?" Keishi nodded and used his chakra to pull one back. When he opened the stomach of a 'Keishi' puppet, Hana placed three grains of pollen inside, and closed the stomach. When Keishi was about to ask why there were only three, Hana pushed her index finger against his lips, silencing him.
"Get these pollens within a 50 metre radius of Jurei and explode your puppet."
"Explode them?"
"Yes, and then I'll take it from there," Hana finished and disappeared into the ground, leaving Keishi to gape at the hole she left behind.
Great, I get a flower to fight a leaf.
.
"Wow, that's some bloodline limit," Naruto breathed at the area the colour green was covering. Jurei stood at one end, trying to find his opponents while his plants waved in the air. Zehi chuckled and nodded, "Yes, it is amazing," the Raikage had heard for a long time, the unknown yet poweful skills of the shinobi from the Grass Country, but it was a different thing watching one in action. Jurei no longer appeared like the teenaged boy he was, instead he looked almost part of the vines itself, his skin was slightly green and his entire body seeming to be the trunk where the mass of vines were borne.
"I wonder if he feels weird feeling things that he can't see?"
"What are you talking about?" Naruto turned to his red head friend.
"He said his seeds feel around for him, how does he differentiate the different senses?"
"Well, that only shows how confident he is in using such a complex skill," Zehi concluded, although inside he was impressed at Gaara's thought process. Although he had heard of his intelligence and skills as a Kazekage, the Raikage was meeting him for the first time, and he still could not digest the fact he, as well as Naruto, was only 17.
"Huh? What complex skill? Gaara, what are you talking about?"
"Never mind."
"Hey, I was asking a question!"
"A stupid one, apparently."
"What? I don't know what you guys were talking about, is that wrong?!"
"Its not wrong, its slow."
Zehi laughed at the sight before him. Being a man close to 30, he missed the carefree times he had as a teenager, which were far and few, since during then, Kumogakure was still under the previous Raikage's rule. Although he had been here for more than a week, he was still surprised at these young teenagers, barely on the brink of adulthood, yet their capabilities were nothing to be underestimated. Gaara, even after being relieved of his Jinchuuriki status, was still capable of controlling enough sand to cover an entire army from his travel-size gourd hanging on his hip, and Naruto, of course, was the infamous Nine-tails Jinchuuriki, whose passion won over the heart of one of history's famous rogue ninja, Uchiha Sasuke. They never boasted about their powers, though, and treated the people around them with respect and kindness.
"I wonder what Tsunade was doing when she named you Hokage."
"She was being wise and smart about it!"
"Yeah, right."
Zehi's smile faded despite himself. He could still remember the first time he met Tsunade, he did not know her well, but he was inspired by the caring spirit she showed for Konohagakure. Everything she talked about, even though she was rough and rude, underlining her words were always concern for the village she was once in charge of. It was through her help, Zehi managed to be sitting here today as Raikage.
"Idiot."
"Cold!"
"Dense."
"Heartless!"
"Tortise."
"SHU- Eh?"
"Slow."
.
Jurei eyed Keishi leaping over and under the creepers, dodging the vines' attacks and the thorns. He was unsure what he would do with Hana's help, but told himself to be prepared for anything plant related. After all, Hana was once his training partner.
"Hey, Jurei!" Jurei's eyes widened as he realized Keishi had managed to get right beside him within two seconds. He tried to retract his vine but was stopped when Keishi grabbed his arm and and vine in a steel hard grip. Jurei winced, because any injury to his plants was an injury to himself. Keishi smiled at that and his stomach opened before him. Jurei quickly dug into his pockets with his other arm and pressed the button on his remote.
The next thing Keishi heard from his hiding place, was a loud bang.
.
"Niji Kujaku has entered the arena!"
Niji stepped out and paused, shock registering into his system as he observed the scene before him. Green vines, creepers and leaves covered the rocky he had heard being formed nearly half an hour ago, and dust was floating over one of the rocky pillars to his left. He headed towards it, watching as a huge dark green cocoon appeared in his view. Surrounding it were three identical girls dressed in pink, suspended in the air like floating clouds.
Niji arrived at the base of the pillar and looked up, realizing the pink girls, whom he assumed were apparitions of Hana Taikou, were balancing themselves on pink flower petals. He sniffed the air and cringed as he smelled the burning leaves. A scent of dried blood reached his sensitive nose as well, and thinking fast, he closed his eyes and prepared his jutsu.
.
Hana squinted at the bundle of leaves, recognizing the hard barrier Jurei often used when he had too little chakra. She knew her explosive pollen had damaged him, so it was only a matter of time before he came out. He might recover enough chakra to fight back, but the injuries inflicted by her pollen was permanent and only she had the medication to heal it.
Keishi directed a puppet towards Hana, who raised her eyebrow as it tried to speak to one of her flower clones.
"Hey, puppet boy, over here."
The Keishi puppet looked at Hana and leaped over, showing no embarrassment at talking to the fake Hana. He had just opened his mouth when Hana saw the cocoon disappear before her. Her mouth dropped. Jurei had never done this before! She swung her head wildly, wondering where he could've transported his cocoon so quickly.
"Hey! What's going on?"
"Idiot, the cocoon's disappeared! Can you see where it has gone?"
"What are you talking about? It's still there!"
"What?" Hana looked at the vacant pillar and back at the puppet which was projecting Keishi's voice.
"How can you see when you're not really here?"
"I'm only a couple of pillars away and I see the cocoon just fine. I wanted to ask you what you wanted to do next."
Hana frowned and moved forward to touch the empty space. Her hand connected with nothing but air and she bit her tongue to repress her automatic retorts. She knew Jurei called in his back up last minute, but she didn't see him or her enter. She was too busy concentrating on exploding the pollen.
"Why are you just waving your arm around?"
"I'm trying to touch the cocoon, if its still there as you say," Hana tried to reply with as little irritation in her voice as possible. Keishi clicked his tongue at the tone and leaped upwards on to a pillar for a closer look. Hana stared back at him, silently demanding an explanation as her arm continued to grasp for something she couldn't see. Keishi wanted to slap her, but he knew the answer was more obvious to him than to her.
"You idiot! You're caught in a genjutsu!"
.
Seki felt the room walls, concentrating on the grainy texture instead of her desire to move. She was sitting down now, crossed legged as she heard the sound of frustrated voices and felt the tremors from before fade away. She closed her eyes, trying to relax, but was interrupted by a soft snort.
"What?" Seki snapped at the boy from Kumogakure, knowing it was irrational to be so annoyed by him, but letting her mouth do it anyway. The silver haired boy only smirked at her, and moved to stand on his own feet instead of leaning on the wall.
"Nothing. Just wondering how you got here."
"Same way you did."
"Not really. Everyone's individual assessment was different. And looking at you, I wonder if you got off easy."
Seki looked at herself, frowning. Appearance wise, the bored Konoha boy and Keishi would have been assumed to have 'gotten off easy', not her. She wondered if the teen before her was just trying to pick a fight. Maybe he was as restless as she was, but Seki was still in no mood to make friends, so she raised a skeptical eyebrow, and looked away.
"I'm Raku. Raku Shinkan."
"Nice to meet you," Seki replied, frostiness coating every word. Raku sighed in resignation, something that seemed weird coming from such an arrogant bastard like him that Seki had to look back.
In that fraction of a second Seki turned her head, Raku had moved to the front of her face, causing Seki to react instinctively, a hand shooting from her weapons holster. Kunai against kunai, Seki grunted in irritation while Raku grinned back, seeming to enjoy her reaction. Seki looked at his eyes, grey and glittering in the dim light.
She was right, he was restless.
Composing her features, she decided not to give him the satisfaction that she could not get. Putting just a minute bit more power into her push, she threw Raku to the other wall. She repressed a laugh at his surprised look, glad that at least this tiny bit of action had taken her mind off the battle outside. All this time, the Konoha boy sat on the ground, staring into space.
.
Jurei blinked at the sudden muteness of his environment. He opened his cocoon and saw Hana saying something to Keishi, who was only a little bit further away. However, no sound came from her voice. He retracted his cocoon fully and looked around until he saw the reason.
"Niji Kujaku. I'm a genjutsu user. I can see you have an affinity with leaves."
Jurei smirked and took a glance at his opponents before pulling back all his vines and creepers. His so-called back up was dressed exactly as his namesake: a striped shirt with every colour of the rainbow and a pair of matching pants. His hair however, was a dull brown and his eyes shimmered in the sun with the same colour. He had no weapons holster or scrolls to indicate he was a skilled shinobi, but Jurei was in no position to argue with that fact.
"What's going on?"
"I casted a genjutsu to make your cocoon seemingly disappear to that girl, Hana, over there. This genjutsu also protects us both from being seen, heard or touched, so we're safe for a while."
"A while?"
"Unfortunately, I don't have much of a range, so I only managed to trap Hana, not Keishi. It seems she's finding out that fact too, the way their conversation seems to be going. Why are there two of him, by the way? And three of her?"
"He uses puppets that looks like him, and she uses flower petals to make clones of herself. In terms of numbers we're pretty screwed."
"But we're quite compatible. Your skills seem to be able to cover the whole arena."
"I guess we could work something out. What else can you do."
"Oh, much, much, more," Niji mused, chuckling to himself until a muffled boom made him wince. Jurei looked up and realized Keishi had made his puppets shoot explosive tags onto the genjutsu barrier that was protecting them both.
"What's the name of your genjutsu called?" Jurei asked as he moved closer to Niji. A plan was already formulating in his mind and Niji smiled as he watched his partner's eyes. Jurei had an idea, and Niji was ready to win with him.
"Meimei Fuhai."
.
"Look out!" Keishi yelled as he and Hana leaped away from the sudden protruding vines.
Hana mentally cursed herself again, for not thinking that she was trapped in a genjutsu. She had trained with Jurei long enough to know he had no skills that could render him invisible or transport his heavy cocoon so fast she couldn't see it with her naked eye. Commanding her clones using chakra alone, she made them fly forward and attack Jurei, who was now visible with the genjutsu over him.
"He's still injured because of my pollen! We can beat him!" Hana called over to Keishi, who was summoning two more puppets from his scroll.
"He called out his back up, where is he?"
"No clue, let's just concentrate on Jurei and draw the other one out!"
"Alright! Listen, let's do this..." Hana listened to the plan as her eyes trained on the whipping vines and creepers. The thorns slashed her clones pretty badly, but she managed to cover their wounds with more petals laced with her chakra. Once Keishi finished explaining his plan, Hana had to change her opinion of the seemingly lazy puppeteer. It was an interesting plan one would not expect from someone with his looks.
"Alright, puppet boy. On your signal then."
"Right. Let's get this over and done with," Keishi responded and flew forwards with his puppets behind him in an arrow formation. Carefully making sure he didn't land on any thorns, Keishi used the vines as a boost to jump into the air above Jurei, his puppets imitating him until they formed a 5-man circle on top of Jurei. Swinging his body, Keishi forced himself and his puppets to spin until they formed a blur halo. Jurei watched it apprehensively, and quickly retracted his vines to attack the puppets.
Hana was one step ahead. She made sure Jurei was distracted by the halo before she flung her petals to all his vines. Keishi told her to use her experience training with him to good use, so she knew exactly how many vines Jurei could produce. Using her chakra to solidify her petals so that they were hard and long, Hana pinned down the large vines and sliced the creepers before sprinting towards Jurei.
Keishi pulled away from the halo at the same time, transforming his puppets into a steel rope that he could whip and tie around Jurei. The latter glared at him fiercely when he realized what Hana and Keishi had done.
"Distract and destroy," Keishi muttered, pulling his arm back while Hana pulled out more of her pollen. Jurei looked from Hana to Keishi, and back to Hana before turning his glare into a smirk.
"Hook, line and sinker," Jurei said, loud enough for both of them to hear. The two had no time to react as a rainbow dressed boy casted his genjutsu from behind Jurei.
"Shikisai no Yume."
.
The audience was stunned into silence as they watched Keishi and Hana freeze mid air of their attacks and began twisting and turning in the air. Jurei, with obvious difficulty and pain, pulled out his vines from Hana's flower petals and transformed back into a normal looking boy while Niji held his jutsu for Jurei to recover. A brief exchange later, Niji released Hana from her genjutsu, who fell into Jurei's chokehold, a kunai at her throat. The girl frowned, but gave in. When the emcee jounin came back into the center of the arena, Jurei was applying a cream on his injuries from the pollen explosion.
"Winners of the match: Jurei Yuurin and Niji Kujaku!"
Kankurou's face froze in a look of anguish, staring as his favorite pupil was led to a different entrance from the one he entered with his back up. He was mature enough to know that trying to blame external factors, his back up's lack of brains or even the fact Jurei had a bloodline limit, was useless. Still, Temari could see he was disappointed at the result and patted his back comfortingly.
"I'm sure he did well in his individual assessment. That's why he's here, right? Anyway, don't they always judge the way he handled his opponents, not the results?" Temari reminded her brother, making him recall a certain brown haired Konoha Jounin who was the first one in his age group to be promoted to Chuunin. Kankurou tried to smile, but the bleak grin he gave wasn't comforting.
It didn't matter though, because the next moment, both Kankurou and Temari's smiles froze.
"Second match between Houseki Raion and Kiiro Tonbo, start!"
A/N: Like I said, this is very much longer than my normal chapters, just to thank my readers since last year for sticking with me, and giving me positive comments. I am motivated by them, just my time management has not improved and I struggle to juggle my work all the time. I will have less time to update now, so I hope you guys can be temporarily satisfied with this.
Any comments please review because I do need constructive criticism. Don't flame, just advise. I'm too tired to extinguish them. Thank you. I hope this was a good chapter, the last one of 2008. Have a happy new year everyone!
Juusatsu Tsuta – Death by Shooting Ivy
Meimei Fuhai – Invisible Invincibility
Shikisai no Yume – Dream of Colours
Jurei Yuurin – Long Life; Deep Forest
Hana Taikou – Flower; Light Pink
Niji Kujaku – Rainbow; Peacock
Raku Shinkan – Comfort; Silence
Kiiro Tonbo – Yellow; Dragonfly
-JE