Chapter 37: Chunin Exams (9): Two Special Jutsus.
Disclaimer: I do NOT own Naruto. Naruto is the work of Masashi Kishimoto.

Chirp— Chirp—

As birds sing and fly above the village hidden in the leaves, humans walk on the streets littered with festive decor. They chattered and laughed as they headed toward a large arena. The arena is a special one, only open once every few years, and the warriors battling each other in the arena are geniuses of the village they belong to.

"Akemi, have you seen Hiroko?" With the crowd, a boy with short, brown hair whispered to a black-haired girl. The girl jumped, unprepared for the sudden voice echoing inside her ears. "Don't whisper!"

Meanwhile, the boy looked at his teammate with a dumbfounded face. 'If I shouldn't whisper…'

Then what should I do?!

With a gloomy face, the boy deliberated asking again but realized that it was unnecessary. "I haven't seen Hiroko today. Have you seen him?" Akemi asked, showing a confused look when she saw Ken's blank face. Did she say something wrong?

Ken sighed and shook his head. Yesterday, Hiroko dropped a bomb— no, Hiroko dropped a nuke in front of their feet. "Akemi, Ken," Hiroko smiled and patted both of their shoulders. "After the Chunin Exams, I'll tell you who I really am. No more masks," Hiroko grinned and walked away with both of his hands placed at the back of his head. Akemi and Ken stood for ten whole minutes, mouth agape, and minds blank, before they came to their senses and chased after Hiroko.

Unfortunately, they were too late and Hiroko was already gone. Originally, they were looking forward to the Chunin Exams and were planning on cheering for Hiroko, but now, they were anxious to tear Hiroko apart for answers. Especially Akemi.

A month ago, Ken told her that Hiroko's true identity is something that she shouldn't know, nor should anyone. Because Ken told her that he once overheard a conversation between Hiroko and one of the chiefs in the Village Hidden in Hot Waters.

It was like being told that you couldn't eat the candy in front of you because it belongs to a rich man, but the next moment, the rich man offers you that very same candy.

'Damn it, why am I like this?'

Akemi was like a restless child waiting to open a birthday gift when her birthday was in the next day. Earlier, when she was pouring a glass of milk for herself, she nearly missed the cup and spilled milk everywhere.

Suddenly, the crowd burst into a peal of cheers, making both Ken and Akemi turn their heads toward the arena.

In the arena, nine people stood straight with solemn faces. Eight were lined up in a row, and one was standing in front of them. The man was the proctor of the exams.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Hiroko Uchiyama, please stay in the arena. The rest of you, please go to the waiting area," the man ordered, and six of the eight Genin walked away, while two remained unmoving. The proctor nodded and introduced the two to the crowd before walking away.

"Hiroko of the land of hot waters, if I remember correctly," Sasuke said as he crouched and got into a fighting stance. "You fought Shino, and from what he said, your water style… no, I believe that it's your chakra that has the ability to restrict other people's chakra," Sasuke said, confident at his guess.

"Whatever you say," Hiroko rolled his eyes and smiled. Seeing this, the proctor nodded.

"BEGIN!"

As soon as he yelled, the two Genin started weaving hand seals. After a second, both of them stopped at a hand seal and took a deep breath.

"Water Style: Water Bullet Jutsu!"
"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!"

BANG! SHHHHHH—

When the two elemental bullets collided, steaming-hot white smoke filled the arena, but neither Genin moved.

They looked at each other, their eyes glowing from the chakra inside them. Hiroko's brown eyes locked on Sasuke's red, sharingan eyes. Usually, Sasuke would be smirking the moment his enemy looks into his sharingan eyes, but today, he was frowning.

'Why isn't he affected by the genjutsu? Is he immune… no, that's impossible… it should be.'

Sasuke shook his head and began weaving hand seals the moment he saw Hiroko doing the same.

'From what Shino said, Hiroko's chakra volume is very large, larger than mine and the Hokage's. I can't let him abuse ninjutsu,' Sasuke gritted his teeth. "Fire Style: Fire Phoenix Jutsu!"

WOOSH— WOOSH— WOOSH—

Hiroko frowned after seeing the glowing red orbs rapidly approaching him. He jumped back and finally, he finished weaving hand seals. "Water Style: Water Senbon Jutsu."

Seeing this, Sasuke smiled. 'His hand seals are slow. I don't even need the sharingan to read them… too bad, they aren't fire or lightning style, but I should still memorize it.' While he was thinking, Sasuke already finished another set of hand seals. "Fire Style: Fire Vortex Jutsu!"

PSSHH! PSSHH! PSSHH!

Just as he fired his third jutsu, the water senbons struck the fire orbs, filling the arena with even more steam. Hiroko frowned, lamenting the fact that his ninjutsu capabilities are only average. 'He'll run out of chakra if he keeps doing this, but what's the fun in that?' Hiroko smirked and swiftly weaved a set of hand seals and created a water wall around him.

The water wall is thin and slightly deformed.

BANG!

But it did the job and withstood the flaming vortex charging at him. Sasuke frowned when he saw the scene through his sharingan eyes. 'Although more than half of the hand seals are incorrect, he still managed to perform the jutsu. That means...' Sasuke's frown got deeper. "You have amazing chakra control," he stated.

Hiroko smiled at his opponent. "Thank you! Your fire style is also decent," Hiroko's eyes turned into crescent moons, making Sasuke's forehead throb. "Decent?" Sasuke scoffed. "Then I'll let you have a taste of my 'decent' ninjutsu."

"Fire Style: Dragon Fire Jutsu!"

Before Hiroko can react, a massive head of a fire dragon was already in front of him, moments away from turning him into ashes.

BAM!

"WOOOOOO!"

Seeing this, the crowd went crazy, yelling and waving things around. Akemi frowned as she glances at her surroundings. 'Barbaric idiots,' she cursed and turned to see Ken's carefree look. "You're not worried?" She asked, getting a nod from her teammate.

"Why should I be worried? That guy…" Ken whispered, his voice nearly inaudible, but Akemi's eyes widened when hearing her teammate. "I almost forgot about that," she laughed.

Meanwhile, Sasuke's face looked darker than the bottom of a pot. Here he was, thinking that his jutsu finally hit Hiroko, but his sharingan was telling him a different story.

'He's unharmed…' Sasuke agonized for a moment before remembering Shino's words. 'Damn it! I forgot that he can coat himself in water nature chakra!'

"Truly," Hiroko chuckled, "a 'decent' fire-style ninjutsu."

Sasuke's blinked several times in one second, looking at Hiroko with a blank expression. He chuckled, his voice containing endless ire. "Then, I'll show you a real ninjutsu," Sasuke muttered before jumping away from Hiroko. The latter raised his eyebrow and watched as Sasuke carefully weaved a series of hand seals.

CHIRP—CHIRP—CHIRP—CHIRP—!

"Behold," Sasuke smirked, "sensei's personal ninjutsu. Lightning Style…"

As the sound of endless birds chirping at the same time echoed, the entire arena was plunged into a deathly silence. Not a single soul spoke, and all of them had goosebumps all over their bodies.

As they say, humans fear the unknown and change. Hearing dozens of birds chirping was fine, but what if they started chirping at the same time?

Although the moment seemed to last for minutes, the lightning jutsu lasted for only a moment as Sasuke wasted no more than a second and charged straight at Hiroko, who was slowly unrolling a scroll. When he reached Hiroko, the latter had already unrolled the scroll.

POOF!

"CHIDORI!"

CRACKLE—!

Sasuke's eyes widened, and he changed the direction of his arm in a panic, ducking down and aiming the jutsu at his abdomen instead of Hiroko's chest. In Hiroko's hand was an ordinary-looking straight sword, but he saw differently through his sharingan.

'What the hell is that sword?!'

Sasuke cursed inwardly, but he didn't have time to think as his hand clashed with Hiroko's sword, despite his attempts to dodge it.

BOOM!

Kakashi frowned when he heard the noise. 'What happened?' The Chidori should have sliced through the straight sword, so why did it sound like a bomb exploded? Kakashi frowned when he saw Sasuke hurriedly jumping backward. 'This is interesting,' Kakashi mused as he lifted his forehead protector, watching the battle with his sharingan active.

'How can a sword handle so much chakra?'

The reason why it sounded as if a bomb had set off is that Hiroko's sword was loaded with charka, blocking his attack and dispersing his chakra at the same time in less than a moment.

"Here I come," Hiroko warned and charged toward Sasuke, swinging his sword at the Genin whose brows were touching from being furrowed too deeply.

'So fast!' Sasuke cursed and instantly used a Substitution Jutsu.

BAM!

Sasuke turned to look back, and in his place, a thick, wood log was sliced neatly in half. Sasuke cursed when he saw that Hiroko had already moved and was about to swing his sword, intending to slice him in half. He didn't hesitate to substitute back into the log that had been cut in half… now, it was sliced into four pieces.

Hiroko turned but frowned when he sensed his opponent substituting for another log far away from him. "Why are you hiding?" Sasuke was currently inside the miniature forest near the walls of the arena. "Why shouldn't I hide?" Sasuke asked, his voice seeming to echo around. 'He can sense me,' Sasuke deduced, hence why he didn't hesitate to reply.

'My chakra is running out,' as soon as he thought so, Sasuke felt a familiar itch on his nape. A glowing seal slowly spread out to his neck, but it didn't spread too much before another sealing formula encased the first sealing formula, preventing it from spreading further.

'If only I can use this seal.' Ever since getting Orochimaru's cursed seal, Sasuke was only able to use it once before Kakashi sealed it away. 'Unfortunately, I'll be disqualified if I use this seal.'

Sasuke racked his brain for a solution. 'I can't willfully use fire style, and I can only use the Chidori one more time. I don't have much in terms of ninjutsu, but I can try that,' the figures of Tenten and Rock Lee suddenly flashed inside his mind.

Hiroko watched as Sasuke stabbed a kunai on two scrolls before throwing them above him.

TING! TING! TANG—

At the same time, Sasuke threw dozens of kunai after the first two with greater strength, and the kunai collided with each other and forced the scrolls to unroll while circling around him. 'I can't use chakra or fuinjutsu to make it fly around you, but I have plenty of kunai at hand!' Sasuke smirked and finally, the scrolls were fully unrolled.

WOOSH— WOOO— FOOOOSH!

Hiroko frowned and weaved a quick set of hand seals with a helpless sigh. "Water Style: Water Dome."

Before a single kunai from the kunai and shuriken rain hit him, a violent water shield formed around Hiroko, but Sasuke's face didn't change. He already finished weaving a set of hand seals.

"Fire Style: Fire Bullet Jutsu!"

This time, instead of sending a massive fireball or dragon fire, Sasuke concentrated his chakra into almost a needle flame and sent it toward Hiroko's water dome.

CRACK—ZIIIII—

As the fire bullet flew, the ground below cracked and began letting out hot smoke. When the fire bullet came near Hiroko's water dome, it began evaporating rapidly and a small hole was made. Sasuke smirked.

POOF! POOF!

He unsealed two kunai and threw them toward Hiroko, who is now exposed thanks to the fire bullet. The handles of the two kunai were wrapped with a red piece of paper, and Hiroko recognized it instantly.

Hiroko smirked and stopped on a hand seal. "Water Style: Water Whips." Using fuinjutsu on the water whips, Hiroko caught the two kunai and nullified the explosive tags when he saw Sasuke charging at him, and the sounds of birds chirping rang in his ears.

"If that's what you want, then I'll give it to you," he smirked, a swirling sound echoing out from his palm, and a spiral chakra orb formed on his hand.

Hiruzen, Kakashi, and the Kazekage stood up when they saw the blue chakra orb, while Jiraiya's mouth curled upward.

When he and Sasuke reached each other, they both yelled out the names of their jutsu.

"RASENGAN!"
"CHIDORI!"

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