Author Note
Hi there and welcome to another chapter of Nidaime no Sairin.
Nidaime no Sairin
Chapter 16 – Chunin Exams Part III
Beta: Scheffinator
By the end of the month between the second and third phases of the Chunin Exams, the Hidden Village in the Leaves became filled with all sorts of people: visitors, nobles, vendors, customers, merchants and even shinobi who would be participating in the final stage of the exams. As such, the Chunin, Jounin and even ANBU personnel worked day and night to ensure that everything went smoothly or as smoothly as possible. That's why it came as disturbing to the higher-ups when a mangled corpse was later found by the ANBU scout one day before the exams. One of the ANBU members, a long purple haired woman wearing a cat mask, found herself having out of body experience as she looked down to see the dead body of her beloved.
'Hayate!'
Being an ANBU meant walking side by side with death almost every day. As such, witnessing the death of her teammates ended up being a part of the job description. Hence why none of her peers appeared overly shocked about seeing Hayate dead on the ground. However, witnessing the love of her life like this made Yuugao freeze. Her analytical mind fought bravely to overcome the huge pain in her heart, but eventually lost. Suddenly, her shoulders trembled with the mask covering the tears flowing from her eyes. Despite being the team's second in command, right now protocol just wasn't in her mind as she shunshined away, leaving her team behind to deal with the situation.
===The Hokage's Office===
Right after the event with Hayate's death, the Hokage had gathered all the Jounin to tell them the news.
"I had gathered everyone to relay the terrible news. This morning, a team from ANBU had found Gekkou Hayate dead."
Immediately after the Hokage relayed the terrible news, murmurs started to spread amongst the Jounin. The rumors had quickly started, of course. The fact that every available Jounin stood inside the village walls was of course troubling. If what happened to Hayate happened in a mission outside village walls was one thing, but with him here, no doubt this was the work of one of the shinobi teams from the other villages. But that sprang a thousand questions in itself. While Gekkou Hayate was a Tokubetsu Jounin, his fame wasn't that high in the bounty station. No one would have risked breaching the village, risking arrest or worse, to hunt Hayate. And the ANBU personnel knew each and every shinobi from the other villages that came for the Chunin exams. None of them even bothered looking at the Chunin exams proctor, much less target him specifically.
Anko and Kurenai came together to the meeting and both flinched at the news. Most of all, both were of the same mind, to find Yuugao as soon as possible to be there for their friend.
"Is there any leads as to who could have done this, Hokage-sama?" The Hokage turned to the aloof Kakashi.
"The details are scarce, I'm afraid. Traces of wind chakra were found in a first analysis, but we simply can't come to any conclusions at this point." As soon as this precise piece of evidence became known, everyone immediately made the connection with a shinobi from Sunagakure. And of course, the Hokage knew what everyone was thinking as soon as he opened his mouth. "And I know that most of you would point fingers at one of the shinobi from Suna. Right now, I have the ANBU teams scouting the Suna shinobi from the shadows, but so far nothing out of the norm." It was clear to the elder Hokage, though, that his Jounin personnel didn't enjoy hearing that their leader was seemingly dismissing Suna's involvement in this matter.
"What are your orders, Hokage-sama?" The Hokage then turned to Ibiki, in deep ponder as he puffed the pipe.
"Even though I can't immediately accuse Suna for Hayate's murder, whatever happened or whoever did this have relation to the Chunin exams." Stating the obvious, in everyone's mind. "As such, placing everyone of you in the stands is paramount right now. Ibiki…gather with Shikaku and the ANBU personnel to increase security outside the stadium. Right now, we must at the ready for any possible threats looming, both inside and outside the stadium. Dismissed." No sooner had the Hokage said so, all available Jounin left the room in a shunshin, leaving the Hokage alone. Even his personal advisors had left, leaving Hiruzen Sarutobi alone. The walls close to Hiruzen's position suddenly shifted, before Jiraiya revealed himself, hidden in the room the entire time.
"What have you found thus far?"
"As you said, none of the shinobi from Suna are behaving any differently. And no sign of Orochimaru as well, sensei." Hiruzen frowned at that. His prodigious student was slippery like that. Sneaking in and out of anywhere was one of the trades that made the snake sannin so dangerous. "The Kazekage is due to arrive tomorrow, isn't he?" Hiruzen nodded briefly, already knowing what his student was thinking.
"I have already placed a team of ANBU to escort him and his entourage since they crossed Fire Country. While the move in itself would cause suspicion, it is not outside the norm." Jiraiya scratched his chin, before turning to his sensei once more.
"Do you want me to stand by your side in the arena, tomorrow?" Despite it being a show of strength, it's not like Konoha to show its hand beforehand.
"No, that would be ill advised. If Orochimaru is truly behind all of this, then he will show himself when we least expect him to. It's best that you remain hidden until the threat is revealed." Jiraiya knew his sensei's line of thought and he didn't like it one bit.
"He will come for you, no doubt about that." Hiruzen nodded, concurring with his student.
"Indeed, but I can handle him if it comes to a direct standoff. It's the village that I'm worried about, Jiraiya." The Gama Sannin had his doubts leaving the Hokage alone against the snake. However, it would be naïve to assume that Orochimaru won't place the village in jeopardy while he faced the Hokage. If it happens, this fight will be on the snake's terms. After all, a snake never attacks unless it's sure that the target won't be able to retaliate. However, Hiruzen was also quite lenient with the snake sannin in the past. So, the perverted wondered if history would repeat itself if they faced each other. Hiruzen, for his part, took the sannin's sudden quietness as humor. It could be said that Jiraiya was worried about his chances against the sannin, or worried about the village, but Hiruzen couldn't really tell.
"What, you don't believe I can handle him, Jiraiya? I may be old, but I'm still more than able to teach my student a lesson or two." The Gama Sannin smirked at the old man's teasing, but it was an empty smile, quite unlike the sannin's usual mood.
"Oh it's not that, I know how strong you can be, when pissed." The last time they sparred, Hiruzen mopped the floor with Jiraiya. "What I doubt is whether or not you'll finally fight him seriously this time."
As soon as Jiraiya finished the accusation, he saw the Hokage narrowing his eyebrows at him, even flaring his chakra and increasing his killing intent. Though, the pervert sannin stared at the Hokage, just as serious. It was no secret between the elite of the village how Orochimaru's actions were only possible due to Hiruzen looking the other way at times. And despite sometimes leaving in denial about that, Hiruzen certainly couldn't fault Jiraiya for what he said. The hidden ANBU detail became uncomfortable in the room as the two powerhouses stared at each other. It was rare for most to see such tremendous energy nowadays, so one of the junior ANBU had fallen on the ground, with lack of air, due to the sudden attrition. After this, the pervert sannin simply smirked, easing the situation.
"Well, see you tomorrow then, sensei." The Hokage smirked with a nod as the sannin left the room while the other ANBU assisted the unconscious junior ANBU.
===Chunin Exams Stadium===
The day of the Exam Finals, almost all of the Konoha citizens and the village's many visitors slowly marched towards the Stadium.
Many of the shinobi were already inside the stadium. The Jounin were placed in different sections of the audience, while seemingly chatting and having a good time with one another. The Chunin proctors were in one place, together with the Genin who participated in the exams. The most influential clans of the village had also a place for themselves, such as the Hyuga Clan filling most of the seats. Many sets of White eyes and long robes filled the seats. However, one set of white eyes had chosen not to sit together with her family. Hinata had invited her best friend Yakumo to come together and cheer for Naruto and Shikamaru, though mainly for Naruto. The other Genin were seated together as well, with Ino and Choji sitting together with their respective clan members.
Uchiha Sasuke was seated together with Kiba and Akamaru, though by the look on Sasuke's eyes, it was clear that he much preferred seating somewhere else.
The Jounin-sensei were all seated together: Kurenai, Kakashi, Asuma and Gai. Anko had decided to tag along with her best friend as they looked down at the arena. Yesterday, right after leaving the Hokage's Office, both women had tried to search for the distraught Yuugao in pretty much all possible locations. Her house, which happened to be in a building filled with ANBU operatives; Yuugao's favorite sushi restaurant and even the ANBU HQ where they would be sure that Yuugao would be, but she was nowhere to be found. Kurenai had even gone to Naruto's training place to see if he had seen her, but Naruto had told her that it's been three days since Yuugao-sensei had last helped him train. Naruto was able to sense the distress in their chakra and became worried for his kenjutsu sensei.
Neko-sensei couldn't spare him much of her time, because of the village's security, but they made do with the little time she had available and Naruto had found himself enjoying their spars immensely. Neko's tips had helped him immensely, in the end.
Upon asking what happened with his temporary sensei, though Kurenai evaded the question, instead telling him to focus on his training for the exams.
They had lastly tried in many of the village's bars and managed to find the distraught woman emptying her sorrows with a sake bottle. After that, they took Yuugao back to Kurenai's house and took care of her the entire night. The poor woman had passed out in one of the rooms and hadn't woken up since.
"Do you think she will be alright?" Kurenai exhaled hard at the question, pondering that herself. Despite needing to be here both for Shino's sake as well as the Hokage's orders, Kurenai's heart went to her friend.
"Yuugao-chan is strong-willed for sure, but she was head over heels for him. I can't imagine the pain she is in right now." The snake wielder then lifted her sleeves, before a brown snake came out.
"I've let one my snake summons to at least check on her from time to time, though I'd imagine that she can escape your house anytime and go back to the bar once more."
They had talked extensively last night about whether or not they could keep the ANBU kunoichi inside her house. Or if they ever should do that. No matter how much assistance they provide, unfortunately, this is something that Yuugao needs to cope with. As both women's eyes flipped to Kakashi sitting next to Asuma, they knew that the scarecrow Jounin had gone through similar pains. Plus, Kakashi happened to be Yuugao's role model while in ANBU. The man in question could very well play a role in aiding Yuugao in this situation, but they doubted that Kakashi would effectively do anything about it.
"We should check on her the minute the exams are over, then." Anko nodded, concurring, before all eyes turned to the Hokage's seat just as the Kazekage arrived followed by two bodyguards.
No sooner had the Hokage greeted the Kazekage and exchanged a few pleasantries, the Hokage had quickly announced the beginning of the Chunin exams's final round, before the Genin competitors entered the arena forming a line. Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, Sakura, Dosu, Temari, Kankuro, Shino and Gaara. They calmly entered the arena amongst the cheers of the crowd, before they gathered in the middle as a Konoha Jounin was there already waiting for them, wearing a blue bandanna just like Hayate, though this man happened to be chewing a toothpick by the looks of things. Naruto was expecting that it would be the same proctor from the preliminaries. When the audience quieted down, the Jounin proctor named Shiranui Genma addressed the lined up Genins with the rules.
"Okay everyone, listen up. As you can see, the terrain is quite different than the other parts and this is a one-on-one fight until the last Genin remains standing. The fights shall proceed until one is either dead or admits defeat, but I can step in at any time."
Genma then allowed some time for everyone to acknowledge the rules or lack thereof, before continuing.
"Okay, so the first round is between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Neji. The rest shall clear the arena right now." Shikamaru and Sakura had briefly wished good luck to Naruto, before the six Genin left the arena. Genma then stood on the side as Naruto and Neji eyed each other for a while. The two Genin had eyed each other for a while, both measuring each other up. However, before Genma could authorize the match, Naruto and Neji were quite surprised by the sudden noise from the crowd. It was not a noise of cheer, however, but of boos and curses and the blond Genin didn't need to focus his hearing to see exactly what the crowd was saying. He looked around quietly as he observed the seemingly unison voice of the crowd patently obviously against him. His face betrayed nothing, already knowing how the village felt about him…still felt about him.
This only helped him remember the last conversation he had with the fox and, strangely so, Naruto could sympathize with the fox's prejudgment on humans. After all, they were prejudging him right now, right?
Amongst the crowd, the Genin looked around and were appalled at the sudden treatment. Hinata, in particular, looked saddened as her Byakugan could see Naruto's eyes as if he was standing right in front of her. She remembered the times when Naruto would be mistreated by the other teachers in the academy. How he would always take the blame, even though he was never to blame in the first place. Those scenes diminished in time and Hinata was surprised to see it coming to the surface once more. Yakumo looked saddened as well for her friend and remembered what Kurenai-sensei said about Naruto housing the very demon who was responsible for wrecking the village thirteen years ago. It was thanks to this example and her friend's bravery, that she learned to face and defeat her own demon.
Like herself, Naruto's status as the fox's jinchuuriki was considered a top level secret.
The Jounin-sensei wasn't much better either as Asuma and Kakashi had frowned at the crowd because of their behavior towards Naruto. And while Anko felt for the kid, as she knew quite well being on the receiving end of this same crowd, it was Kurenai's reaction that was the most surprising. She felt anger, rage and her fists trembled, wanting nothing but to shout to everyone to shut up immediately in defense of him.
"Imbeciles, the lot of them! How dare they?" Anko saw her best friend lost in her ever composure, mumbling curses at the crowd and grinning.
And while she knew that Kurenai wouldn't stand out, no matter how much she wanted to, Anko had no qualms about doing it for her friends' sake. And so, she just stood out and screamed to the top of her lungs with her fist high up in the air.
"Hey, you assholes, would you shut it already!" Anko's shout had the desired effect as Kurenai looked up in surprise at her best friend with a silent thank you. Everyone looked at the Tokubetsu Jounin in surprise, even Naruto down at the arena who was looking at both Anko and Kurenai and waved at them in appreciation. Asuma, Gai and Kakashi looked at the now sitting Anko who was crossing her arms and showing a full-out smile. Kurenai was smiling as well and looked at her best friend from the corner of her eye. Anko's outburst helped control some of the crowd, but the other sections still kept on their cheer for Naruto's opponent. And Neji felt this, figuring he could use it to his benefit.
"It seems they don't care about you very much." Naruto then turned from looking at Kurenai to his opponent, who was smirking at him. "After all, Fate has already declared I will be the winner of this match and the crowd seems to agree with me."
"Yeah, saying they don't care about me is an understatement and, quite frankly, I don't care about whatever it is that they have to say about me. None of them knows me to really say anything." After all, Naruto really had no interest in whatever those nameless faces thought of him. The Jounin-sensei all smirked at his tenacity for openly sending a major middle finger to everyone. Kurenai and Anko looked at each other with a smile and they saw his centered visage. Hinata and Yakumo were smiling as well just like the other Genin and even some of the Chunin, mainly those who saw the kid kicking ass in the preliminaries. Naruto's words, though, were like a ton of bricks to the Hokage as he listened intently to Naruto's words. "It's enough for me that I have people I care about and that they care about me as well. Now, I'm quite interested in what you had said about Fate…didn't know you were Fate's spokesperson, Neji." The Hyuga wasn't deterred, however as he fell into position.
"Let us exchange fists and you'll see what I'm talking about." As soon as Neji fell into the taijutsu stance and activated his Byakugan, the crowd cheered once more, in preparation for the fight.
However, Naruto had the distinguished feeling that the people were cheering for the prized Hyuga. Well, not like he could do anything about that. The Nidaime's apprentice had a clean plan to execute, so that was all that mattered. As soon as Genma authorized the match, Neji had barely moved his feet, when Naruto all but vanished from his sight in a blur of motion. The move alone left the crowd speechless as most of them weren't shinobi. Neji's eyes had followed the movement of chakra and was surprised when his opponent appeared ten meters behind the usual position. As soon as Naruto created a safe enough distance, he unleashed a great horde of shuriken from the sealing patch inside his holster and unleashed the projectiles straight at Neji's position.
The Hyuga had quickly grabbed a kunai to defend himself from the projectiles, when he saw the opponent manifest hand seals. Up from the stands, Asuma smirked at his student for starting by the book against a Hyuga and using wind technique to boot.
Fuuton Reppushou (Wind Release: Gale Palm Technique)
The projectiles were propelled straight at Neji's position. His eyes managed to follow the speed of the projectiles, but when he tried to block with a kunai, the Hyuga genius was surprised to see his weapon almost breaking upon impact. Neji snarled at Naruto's plan. Despite him practicing with Tenten with projectiles, he had never seen weapons augmented by wind ninjutsu before. Naruto wasn't deterred, however, as he once more used shunshin to appear in random locations, while repeating the same strategy. Neji was then kept on his toes, trying in vain to evade the fast and dangerous projectiles from hurting him, while at least attempting to redirect the shuriken, since blocking it would break his kunai in half. Each time the Hyuga attempted to use his agility to shorten the distance, Naruto would use this strategy from a different spot, rendering his movement useless.
The cheers from the stands all quieted down as they could easily see the Kyuubi brat controlling the tides of the battle. Sasuke was seething close to Kiba as he activated his Sharingan. Despite the dojutsu following where Naruto is and even where he will be, those shuriken missiles were no joke. It was one thing to know where it will come from, but it was another thing entirely to evade and attack. Kurenai, Anko and Kakashi were looking intently at the strategy as Naruto appeared to have an endless supply of shuriken. Even Tenten who was sitting close to Lee gaped at the shuriken technique displayed by this Naruto.
Neji was snarling in frustration as a couple of the weapons had managed to cause a couple of injuries on him. He cursed even more as Hinata's teammate was forcing him to show a move that he didn't want to show this early in the match.
However, if he didn't do this, then Naruto's projectiles will eventually hit somewhere fatal. As such, no sooner had he evaded the last projectiles, Neji had fallen into a Hyuga stance that made Hiashi gape from the stands and Hinata's little sister Hanabi look at her father in curiosity.
Hakkeshou Kaiten (Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation)
Naruto observed in surprise as Neji began to expel chakra through all of his tenketsu once, before spinning fast, forming a dome of blue chakra that blocked all of his projectiles. It was surprising because he had never seen Hinata do this before. His surprise was short lived as he saw Neji stop spinning and use chakra on his feet to increase his speed and shorten the distance. The audience gasped as Neji soon stepped inside Naruto's defense and Neji himself used the jyuuken in triumph as he targeted his opponent's tenketsu. Naruto, though, waited at the precise last second to use a fast shunshin as he knew his genjutsu wouldn't be the best alternative. Neji's fingers met with air, before he looked to his right as Naruto went through a single hand seal sequence more, before his chest inflated.
Suiton Suidan no Jutsu (Water Release: Water Bullet Technique)
Neji didn't have time to be surprised at the second element being shown, before he was hit full in the chest and sent flying towards the arena wall like a missile. His back had hit the wall hard and he spit blood at the pain, before falling on the ground. From the stands, Kurenai admitted to being quite apprehensive when everyone saw Neji about to use jyuuken on Naruto. However, she hid her apprehension well from most, but not from her best friend, who observed every bit of her mannerism when Naruto was concerned. It was indeed amusing. However, both women then turned to Kakashi as he was talking with the surprised Asuma.
"Asuma, did you know that Naruto's affinity for water is stronger than his wind's?" the smoking Jounin just grunted at his student once more for keeping things from him.
"At this point, Kakashi, I simply don't know anymore." Kurenai and Anko appeared lost during the discussion, so Kakashi explained.
"When we first saw him use elemental ninjutsu at Wave Country, all he had ever shown were wind techniques. To our knowledge, he had merely begun training in water techniques for a short while. Though, for the wind technique, he used a series of five hand seals. Do you know how many hand seals he used for this water technique just now?" Kurenai then responded as she remembered only seeing him use the ram sign.
"Only one…" Kakashi hummed at Kurenai.
"Precisely, so his proficiency with water is surprisingly higher than with wind. And the speed in which he finished the technique show an affinity for water that is quite rare." Anko couldn't care less about that, however, as she was having too much fun.
"Yeah, the gaki is really kicking ass right there. First the Uchiha prick at the preliminaries and now the Hyuga genius."
The genjutsu mistress, despite it all, couldn't be surprised as she shared Anko's enthusiasm. She was already past Asuma's chagrin of being deceived by Naruto and his so called 'hidden projects'. In reality, while a Genin can turn to the Jounin-sensei for training, it's not like learning skills on his own is forbidden and knowing Naruto like she does, or at least like she think she does, then Naruto must have many more skills available for him to use that no one knows. That only goes to show his tremendous potential in the future. And to believe that he was still due to use the toad summoning or even the kenjutsu he learned from Yuugao.
Back at the arena, Neji had already stood up and wiped the blood from his mouth. His Byakugan was blazing mad and the veins on his forehead pulsed in pain at the amount of chakra he was pouring into his eyes.
Never before had he been this outmatched in a fight. And as he focused on Naruto's chakra flow, Neji was even more pissed to see a steady flow and high capacity still passing through his tenketsu. What infuriated him even more was to see Naruto's dark blue eyes focused on him the entire time, without showing anything but his attention to the match. Naruto didn't appear smug or even looked at Neji in a condescending manner. His eyes and facial expression betrayed nothing and Neji found himself doubting his resolve at this point. The Hyugas from the stands all had different opinions right now. Hinata was actually not surprised that Naruto-kun was winning this as he had shown to be quite crafty at fighting at long, medium and short distances. Her concern was for her cousin's mental stability.
Hiashi was frowning and mumbling constantly and Hanabi couldn't tell if she should focus on the match or her father's rather funny expressions.
At the arena, Neji had once more attempted to fight at close-range and was surprised to see that Naruto had let him get closer. As such, it began a battle of taijutsu, much to everyone's surprise. However, still Neji's jyuuken strikes were being masterfully either evaded or redirected by Naruto's arms. Hinata beamed at seeing her senpai's expertise and she felt pride at herself for helping him train against the jyuuken. Naruto keenly observed Neji's strikes, not only using his hands, but his legs as well, however he couldn't help but point out.
"You know…Hinata's strikes are much more troublesome to face than yours." That comment alone further irritated the Hyuga genius as the girl in question felt her face heating up at the praise and Yakumo giggled at her friend.
"Oh yes, how so!" Neji was indeed struggling and managed to speak with a grunt.
"Your moves are faster and more aggressive, but your anger at me works against you. Hinata's moves are not directed by emotions, but rather as a means of counter-attack and redirection. Hence why her jyuuken style is more superior than the clan's standard style. That's why she managed to beat her sister and that's why she almost beat you at the preliminaries." At this point, Yakumo was on the verge of losing in her laughter as she saw Hinata mumbling for Naruto to stop praising her so much. Both of her hands were on her face and the bangs from her hair had cast a shadow over her forehead. The Hyuga patriarch had heard Naruto's explanation about the difference in style between Hinata and Neji and couldn't help but murmur in consideration, surprised to see this kid analyzing his clan's taijutsu.
Neji at this point was livid and it showed in his stance.
"I'll show you the difference of skill between us!" Hiashi this time opened his mouth in surprise as Neji had taken some distance and fell into a superior taijutsu stance for one of the Hyuga's main family techniques. "As of right now, you're within the area of my 8 trigrams." Naruto took a step back at that as she observed Neji's chakra. He could feel most of his chakra being transferred to the legs and hands. Meaning that at this close range, Neji would be faster and more dangerous. However, it wouldn't make a difference in the end as it was time to finish this.
Jukenho: Hakke Rokujuyonshou (Gentle Fist Art: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms)
Like Naruto expected, Neji had soon closed the gap between them and Naruto could see Neji's fingers glowing in blue chakra. With a move that surprised Neji, Naruto had quickly summoned a ninjato just as he was about to initiate the strikes. Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes and finally sixty-four strikes that would seal of the opponent's chakra. However, the kenjutsu dance performed by Naruto right now made the Hyuga conscious about being within striking distance of the sword. And none of Neji's strikes ever managed to come close to become threatening. Kurenai and Anko looked at one another and smiled. Despite Yuugao's current hardship with losing Hayate, they believed that the purple-haired woman would have wanted to see her student's performance just now.
"You introduced him to Yuugao, didn't you Kurenai?" The genjutsu mistress smirked and nodded at Kakashi's reasonable assumption.
"Yeah, he did ask for a kenjutsu specialist. Yuugao happens to be the best one I know." The scarecrow Jounin snorted as he then looked at the arena to see Naruto stop evading Neji's technique and use superior agility to step inside Neji's defense and stop his sword inches from the Hyuga's jugular just like Naruto did against Sasuke before their mission to Wave Country.
"Well, it's safe to say that Naruto's promotion is all but certain at this point."
Kurenai actually beamed at Kakashi's remark, remembering her conversation with Naruto in her apartment. He was well on his path to greatness, and she found herself desperately wanting to be a part of it.
Down at the arena, Neji had his Byakugan activated, and he still looked down to see the sword about to slice his neck off with a bare move of Naruto's wrist.
"Huh, winner of this match, Uzumaki Naruto." The Hyuga was surprised when the proctor approached the two with his hands inside his pockets, while chewing the toothpick. "Face it, kid. You were outmatched from the start. And allowing him to kill a fellow shinobi just isn't my cup of tea." Naruto then resealed the sword back inside the seal where it came from and Genma chuckled at the display, reminding himself of another genius blond shinobi who used fuinjutsu. The stadium was rock silent at this point as no one could have anticipated such a result. The betting pools had all indicated that Neji would mop the floor with Naruto. However, as the match progressed, those who placed their money on Neji became angry at seeing their sure bet evaporate. Still, the majority of the audience wanted to see a good match and as soon as Genma announced the winner, they all cheered enthusiastically.
Naruto had bowed to Genma and then gave his back to Neji as the medics appeared to tend to his injuries.
As soon as Naruto appeared in the Genin box of competitors, he was met with different stares. Sakura, if possible, looked even more incredulous at what she would be up against if she passes her rounds. Temari and Kankuro both focused at him with concern as well as did Dosu. Gaara was glaring bloody murder at Naruto with a maniac smile on his face. And Shikamaru…well, the Nara heir just sighed in dismay at the troublesome blond that is his teammate. Despite it all, Naruto accepted the praise from both Sakura and Shikamaru.
"You're up next, Shika."
The pineapple-haired Genin groaned and realized that his opponent was already down at the arena and the proctor was calling his name repeatedly. Shikamaru permitted himself a brief respite of thinking it would be best to simply throw in the match and be done with this troublesome endeavor. Up from the stands, Asuma was visibly concerned as he could practically hear his Genin's complaints. And Kurenai chuckled at the man's misfortune. One of his Genin hid things from him and the other lacked any form of drive whatsoever.
"Seriosuly, I'm glad that Hinata will remain a Genin, cause right now she's the only one which is normal."
Eventually, Shikamaru sighed and jumped from the Genin stand down the arena as he then observed the girl Temari using her battle fan as a pole to rest in. In the end, this second fight turned out to be quite distinct from the energetic first match. While Temari used her battle fan to create a stronger wide-ranged attack, but all it ever did was cause an uncontrolled wind typhoon that would slash the trees that Shikamaru used to hide in. Shikamaru, in return, focused on his shadow manipulation, but keeping his distance from the sand kunoichi. In the end, Shikamaru had managed to secure a plan of six moves to trap Temari in his shadow possession technique, much to the blonde woman's groan at being caught. Though, when Shikamaru had the match in his hand and much to everyone's surprise – save for those who actually knew him – he ended up forfeiting his match over the excuse of being out of chakra.
To that, his team and even those who knew him best had mixed feelings. Hinata couldn't help but smile at her lazy teammate just like Choji who was sitting next to Ino. The Yamanaka woman was screaming bloody murder at her friend for what he did.
Asuma chuckled in the end, despite wanting the kid to grow some backbone and finish the match. And Naruto…well, Naruto's eyebrow twitches uncontrollably. But nothing topped Temari's outburst right now as the woman was pissed.
"How dare you, imbecile…look down on me…how dare you quit on me?" She was livid right now. Much to everyone's humor, Temari's hands grabbed Shikamaru's fishnet shirt collar and shook him vigorously. The Nara, for his part, just sighed as his head was shaken by this troublesome woman. Well, it was a known fact that all Nara men were whipped.
"As amusing as this show is, I shall call the next match, so please vacate the arena." Temari looked at the toothpick Jounin and cursed, before leaving Shikamaru alone with Genma.
"Ah, troublesome woman…" Genma had truly heard some rumors about how the Jounin commander married with his wife…now he knew.
Next fight was Kankuro from Sand versus Shino from the Leaf, though everyone was surprised and rather suspicious when Kankuro had simply withdrawn from his match. The observative Aburame just adjusted his glasses as he focused on his opponent, while Shikamaru openly complained that he should have done the same thing, much to Naruto's irritation. Well, next up was Sakura's fight against Dosu. The hunched sound Genin, upon seeing the pink-haired girl, just smirked, before turning to taunt his opponent.
"Huh, care for a repeat of what happened in the second phase, girl?" Sakura just snarled at him, remembering at the time how useless she felt back then when he used that sound gauntlet on his arm.
Her eardrums started bleeding and Sakura felt an immeasurable headache.
"It's not going to be like that…I assure you." Dosu smiled at the comeback or lack thereof.
"Well, we shall see…proctor, start the match." Genma frowned at this Genin for daring to order him around, before looking at the pink-haired Genin who nodded back at him.
Dosu quickly ran towards Sakura with his metal gauntlet ready. Sakura stood her guard waiting for the frontal assault and immediately blocked the punch. Dosu soon smirked in triumph as he emitted a powerful sound wave from his metal gauntlet. The sound waves alone would once more pierce her eardrums and make her useless in this fight. However, much to his surprise, Sakura wasn't perturbed in the slightest. Frowning at his attack not working, Dosu then focused more chakra through his metal gauntlet and once more used taijutsu in combination with the gauntlet. Once more, Sakura blocked the attack and Dosu used his chakra to manipulate the sound waves.
Still, the same result happened, but this time, instead of just defending, Sakura had turned to taijutsu and kept Dosu on his toes. While the girl couldn't be called a threat in taijutsu, she was by no means a novice in the area.
She managed to land a couple of punches and kicks on Dosu, until one kick was blocked by the metal gauntlet and Dosu used the soundwaves once more with the same end result.
"How are you not deaf by now, little girl?" Sakura smirked at his opponent, taking this long to figure out.
"I remember your technique being quite a pain to deal with. You target the opponent's eardrums to then disorientate me. Because I know your target, I can manipulate my chakra towards that specific area to block your sound waves." Dosu narrowed his eyebrows at that. That goes against his ultimate weapon's edge, though to see an opponent use chakra to protect her eardrums was quite impressive. Sakura didn't allow her opponent to come up with something to use, so she went through hand seals and slammed both hands on the ground.
Doton Tsuchi Nami (Earth Release: Earth Wave Technique)
Dosu was caught by surprise as he felt the ground move akin to waves, forcing him to lose his footing. Sakura had added her elemental supplementary attack with a great barrage of shuriken. Dosu managed to block a few with his metal gauntlet, but most of the projectiles met flesh and Dosu cursed at the pain of his body being pierced multiple times. He later observed as Sakura made more hand seals and multiplied herself in five bunshins. Because Dosu was having trouble keeping still, he was ill equipped to handle the surprise attack. He later observed the first four replicas attack him in different places and disoriented his position. The last one was the real Sakura. Catching the sound Genin by surprise, Sakura used surprising agility augmented by her perfect chakra control and got inside Dosu's defense. Sakura then prepared her arm backwards and screamed at the top of her lungs.
"This is revenge for the forest of death! Shannaro!"
The almighty punch hit Dosu's nose with such tremendous noise that echoed throughout the entire stadium, before the sound Genin was catapulted straight to the stadium walls. He was unconscious even before hitting the wall hard.
"Sakura has improved quite a lot, Kakashi. It's nice to see that the kunoichi are not falling behind in this new generation." Kurenai was also thrilled to see another prospective ninja in this generation using genjutsu.
"She wanted to impress him…" The sensei's proud smile was visible in the scarecrow Jounin as the other Jounin looked at him in wonder. Anko and Kurenai were at a loss, but Asuma smiled knowingly. "Ever since Naruto first taught her the more advanced chakra control exercises, he had also helped a great deal with her taijutsu. It's funny how Sakura calls Naruto her 'senpai', even though they are the same age. She really looks up to him and wants to impress him." As a sensei, Kurenai couldn't be prouder to hear this. She heard bits and pieces about Naruto helping Sakura on occasion, mainly from Hinata.
Naruto, for his part, chuckled at seeing Sakura proudly celebrate her victory with her fist raised up in the air.
He always knew her chakra control were better than his own. Despite him training in chakra control exercises for longer, Sakura was a natural, finishing exercises with half the time and half the effort that Naruto needed. He had no doubt that Sakura would make a fine Chunin as well. Not to mention that she was already using elemental ninjutsu as well. Sakura then bounced back inside the Genin box and quickly approached him.
"Naruto-senpai, did you see that….I beat him." Naruto had shown her a full-out smile and even showed a thumbs up.
"Congratulations, Sakura. I was surprised to see you using doton, how long have you been hiding that from me in our training?" Sakura was still smiling and even more thrilled for the praise.
"Oh no! Kakashi-sensei tested my chakra affinity when we started training. After that, he taught me earth chakra manipulation and even taught me some techniques." Naruto really was not surprised that the girl managed that in only one month.
"Well, color me impressed. Your chakra control is indeed outstanding".
Back at the arena, Genma just stood there nonchalant like he is prone to be most of the time. The crowd was cheering loud at the fights so far and even he was getting pumped as well. The next round would start in about ten minutes, thus allowing the audience to stand up, buy something and come back. Also, it worked for the Genin to recover somewhat. Still, the Jounin proctor looked at the chart he had of the tournament matches and smiled. Next match would be Naruto versus Temari. Seeing the kid in action once more would be quite fun to see.
"Okay, the interval is now over. Will Uzumaki Naruto of the Leaf and Sabaku no Temari of the Sand please join the arena." The mention of both names made the audience pumped and Naruto couldn't help but snort at them for the sudden change of heart.
Once both blond shinobi stood face to face, the sand kunoichi smirked confidently at her odds.
"I trust you won't do the same as your idiotic teammate did just now." Naruto deflated at her first words. He was indeed taking responsibility for Shikamaru's laziness. But then again, Naruto wasn't about to accept an enemy criticizing his friend.
"Oh, I'm still embarrassed that he did that, instead of defeating his opponent. If it was me, you'd be on the way to the infirmary by now."
Temari couldn't help but take a step back by the casual way he had spoken just now. She felt the weight of his threat as well as the notion that it was not an empty threat. Despite it all, the kunoichi felt her blood pump at the match up. Kankuro, from the Genin box, thought his sister was crazy, based on what was going to happen soon. The audience suddenly grew quiet in dire anticipation as the wind picked up between the two blonds. Naruto couldn't help but smile at his opponent's attempt just now. Well, if she wanted to measure who had the stronger wind, than he would be happy to oblige her. No sooner had Genma authorized the fight, Temari opened all three moons of her battle fan and Naruto went through a sequence of hand seals, much to Asuma's chuckle up in the stands.
Fuuton Kamaitachi (Wind Release: Sickle Weasel)
Fuuton Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)
Everyone in the entire stadium stood up from their seats in awe at the sudden hurricane that gathered from the two attacks, meeting head on. Even Genma had to escape the hell away from these two, or else he would be hit by the concussive force. Temari snarled at seeing her opponent perform a powerful wind technique like that without needing a fan like she did. However, she was not about to lose a match between winds. The Nara beat her by capturing her with his shadow, but this time they were fighting using her favorite technique head on, no subterfuge…no foul play. Just plain old technique and element. So, she powered through, focusing a great majority of her chakra. However, that only served to anger her as Naruto didn't look winded at all, only completely focused on what he was doing.
Her trained eyes soon saw him make more hand seals and knew that she needed to stop the wind current. With this much gale force, an expert wind user could use it to fabricate enough wind swords to slice her up completely.
As such, she stopped her technique and soon created a good distance, before throwing a good number of shuriken at Naruto, who dodged it. With the same evasion movement and showing great multitasking, Naruto had summoned enough projectiles to hurl at Temari. The kunoichi was caught by surprise and had to use her wind jutsu to block the projectiles. Naruto, then, used agility to shorten the distance between them and Temari had once more reverted to her strategy of keeping him away. Constantly hurling wind gales with her fan, she grew frustrated as none of her attacks landed a hit. Naruto was using evasion techniques with no clear pattern and Temari once more kept going. She was soon fed up with hitting nothing but air and gathered as much of her remaining chakra as possible for one last technique.
Performing a backflip in the air, Temari then swung her fan with as much strength as she could muster.
Fuuton Okamaitachi (Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel)
From her fan, a terrific gale force surged, and Naruto had stopped moving instantly, as he had taken the huge hurricane into account. The entire audience, at this point, was having trouble hanging on the edges of their seats at this fantastic ninjutsu display. The Genin were in awe at what Naruto was displaying in these exams as most had never seen him displaying such power before, not even Shikamaru and Hinata and they were his teammates. Hinata, in particular, became afraid about Temari's technique now as it looked like Naruto would be caught head on by those ferocious and dangerous winds.
Naruto, for his part, admitted to being surprised at the strength behind Temari's attack right now. Thinking quickly, Naruto went through a quick series of hand seals and used the water bullet technique aimed towards the ground. The water torrent helped propel his position far away from the wind blasts, but the trees behind him all suffered the worst fate, being sliced into multiple pieces. Temari saw the movement and snarled. She kneeled on the ground panting for breath. Naruto took advantage of that and charged with his sword in tow.
"Temari, look out!" Kankurou shouted and the girl looked in surprise as the sword glowed with wind chakra just as Naruto jumped up in the air to deliver a vertical slash with the promise of killing her, slicing her in two.
Positioning her fan in a desperate move to stop the attack, Temari's eyes widened to impossible proportions as her fan was cleanly sliced in two before her very eyes. So surprised was she that it took her a few seconds to realize the sudden pain on her forehead from Naruto's technique. A thin line of her blood was noticeable and Temari had kneeled on the ground terrified at the realization. By the strength of her opponent's sword strike, Naruto could have easily sliced her in half if he so wanted, just like he did with her fan. Her eyes trembled as they met with Naruto's ice blue ones looking down at her.
'If it was me, you'd be on the way to the infirmary by now' His boastful words before the fight came surging as Temari was frozen on the spot. Right now, she was at his mercy and that frightened her.
To believe that another could make her feel like this…just like…just like him.
"Perhaps you should go and check that wound, Temari-san." And just like that, the threat to her life subsided and Naruto retrieved the sword. She was so shocked that she didn't even hear Genma's words declaring Naruto the winner. And as the medic-nin approached, she found that her legs were having trouble sustaining her body. The crowd then roared in cheers at the fight just now. The Sandaime Hokage saw Naruto calmly walking away from the arena with a smile. In his keen eyes, Naruto had earned the promotion in this very fight when he used a water ninjutsu to help him escape Temari's technique. Using brute force pumping chakra in a technique isn't what's required of a Chunin, but rather cunningness and technique. To this day, Hiruzen has trouble understanding Naruto's sudden exponential growth.
"A fine Chunin candidate you have there, Hokage-dono." Hiruzen looked at his fellow kage and smiled, not wanting to reveal his own surprise at Naruto's skills.
"Indeed, Naruto-kun is one of Konoha's pride, Kazekage-dono. Your daughter has also shown great skill in wind ninjutsu."
"Yes, now I can't wait to see how young Naruto-kun fairs against Gaara, should he reach the finals.." Hiruzen smiled, wanting to see that as well.
Back in the arena, now was Sakura's fight against Shino. Unfortunately, for Sakura, she had used too much chakra in her fight against Dosu and Shino managed to win his fight by using his bugs to suck the last of Sakura's chakra.
The last fight to decide who would face Gaara of the Sand in the finals was waged between Naruto and Shino. But Shino didn't have many tools to use against the powerhouse known as Uzumaki Naruto. Shino had even attempted to use his bugs, but Naruto took quick care of those using an exploding tag attached to a kunai. The damage to Shino's hive was too much for the Aburame and Shino later forfeited the match. The Uzumaki Genin had even apologized for his actions, but Shino dismissed any need, before leaving the arena.
"Okay now will Gaara of the Sand join us in the arena as we move on with the final match of the Chunin Exams." Seconds before Genma announced the final match, the crowd went mad in even more anticipation.
Naruto observed as Gaara's body turned into sand from the Genin box and then appeared in front of him. The final standoff began as both finalists stared at each other.
Author Note
Ok that's it for now. It was first my intention to finish the fights in this chapter, but then I got carried away and saw that the chapter would be too long.
Once more, I appreciate everyone for the feedback as well as adding this story to favorite or following.
Thanks a lot everyone.
Next update: Avalon Bond
