Trickshot

Chapter 27

-Naruto-

"Yosh!" Lee cheered excitedly at seeing his name come up, running down to the arena, his opponent Dosu following far more sedately.

"What are his odds you think?" Naruto asked Tenten, noting some medics managing to herd a shaken Neji away, likely to get a checkup after his near drowning.

"Honestly I don't know." Tenten shrugged, "I have no idea what that sound guy is capable of and while Lee is good at Taijutsu that's all he has. Plus, his best technique is something that's 'emergency only'."

"So, it could go either way." Naruto nodded, noting that Lee was at least trying to be worth his headband even if the bushy browed genin had been handed it to begin with.

"Begin!" Hayate gave the signal as Lee shot forward, Dosu already swinging his arm in front of him. In the ring, Naruto could see Lee stagger sideways while Kiba, Mo- Sensei, and the Ninken all grimaced and clutched their ears.

"You alright?" Naruto asked concerned, helping Tsume Sensei straighten back up.

"Yeah." Tsume shook her head, noting the fight where Lee's powerful and fast attacks kept missing as Lee seemed struggled to stay upright and not vomit, "Whatever the fuck that Sound kid did was high pitched. I think it was something related to the inner ear."

"I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the sound village would use sound-based attacks." Tenten grimaced at the notion, noting that Dosu was taking full advantage of the situation he'd created. Dosu would wait till Lee staggered and only then did he close the distance to land some blows on the green brawler. But Lee's staggering was getting less and less as the fight continued onward.

"Lee, it's time!" Gai gave a boisterous laugh, "You have my permission to remove them!"

"Yosh!" Lee leapt back, stumbling a hair before lifting up his leg warms and removing his leg weights that caused craters in the ground when they landed.

"That seems really inefficient." Naruto raised an eyebrow as he saw how much weight was just around Lee's ankles, "Why not get something like a gravity seal to put on Lee, spread the weight around his whole body?"

"I don't know why those two do anything that they do." Tenten sighed as Lee started zipping around the arena at a far faster speed.

"Wait…how often does Lee wear those?" Naruto suddenly had a bad feeling about how this match was going to go.

"He never takes them off." Gai said smugly as Naruto shook his head.

"Then he's going to lose." Naruto declared just as Lee rushed straight at Dosu who swung his arm once more, this time the sound was potent enough that even Naruto could hear it. Lee, so close to the epicenter, shot past like a blur and slammed into the wall hard enough to knock himself out.

"Wait, how did you know that would happen?" Kiba's sensei, Kurenai, asked in confusion even as the fight was called, and Gai rushed Lee off to the medic room.

"If Lee never takes those off then he's probably not used to moving at his full speed. Then there was the fact that Dosu wasn't 'reapplying' his Jutsu whenever he was hitting Lee. He did a weak attack initially then let it wear off to 'bait' Lee into going all out so that would happen." Naruto explained, Tsume-Sensei nodding at his explanation.

"Naruto, I'm going to go check on Lee and Neji." Tenten sighed, leaning up to peck his cheek "Idiots are not they're still my teammates."

"Alright Ten." He nodded "I'll let you know how the fights you miss go."

"Thanks." Tenten gave him a warm smile that always made his stomach flip before running off after her sensei. Up on the screen, the names of the next fighters began to spin.

-Tenten-

Entering into the medical wing, Tenten spotted her sensei sitting silently beside her two unconscious teammates, the medics having apparently put Neji under.

"How are they?" Tenten spoke up, sitting beside her sensei as he stared sadly at both boys. The two were considered by most that they worked with to be the 'stronger' members of their team and yet she was moving on to the proper third round while they weren't.

"Alive and they'll make a full physical recovery." Gai ran a tired hand down his face.

"Then they can always try again at the next exams." Tenten nodded in relief, silently glad that Dosu had taken Lee out before the green wearing Genin could have tried using the Gates and wrecked his body for a simple promotion exam.

"Yes, yes you're right." Gai nodded, trying to have his usual cheerfulness but Tenten could tell it was forced.

"How did you save Neji?" she questioned, positive that the Mist genin was part of what had her sensei so out of it.

"I…it's not an answer that I am proud of Tenten." Gai grimaced and looked away, "When I was still close to the age of Lee, Neji, and yourself I was bitter and angry. It was during one of the wars and my father had been killed by the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist. He took several of them out with him, but he still died to save myself and my teammates from being butchered. I hated Mist for that, so I started studying every known Kekai Genkai, clan style, and major fighter of Mist that I could get information on. I wanted to kill every last ninja of the Bloody Mist archipelago."

Tenten's eyes widened, "So when Neji's opponent said he was from a clan called the Hozuki…"

"Then I knew about their clan technique." Gai nodded, no sign of his usual smile anywhere to be seen "They turn their entire bodies into water which typically makes them impervious to harm from any attack beyond lightning jutsu. I deduced that coating my hands with chakra in the same way that I would coat my feet when water walking would allow me to make contact and I was correct."

"What changed?" Tenten asked, wondering how Gai could go from a self-professed avenger into the ever-eager man she knew.

"The Fourth Hokage happened." Gai snorted, "I was often around my rival Kakashi, and he saw the path I was going down. He helped me to understand that this wasn't what my father would have wanted for me. And he was right." Gai admitted, "The war eventually ended, and I tried to become the kind of Shinobi my father could have been proud of, despite my lack of talent for any field outside of Taijutsu."

"I see." Tenten thought over what she'd learned.

"But for now, I'd recommend you go return to watch the fights." Gai sighed, "You'll want to study your potential opponents. And I need to figure out how best to handle your training. We have a limited time before the final tournament, and I intend to have you show the blazing passion of your YOUTH!"

-Naruto-

Leaning on the railing, Naruto observed the two fighters squaring off and preparing for the bout. There was the Kumo kunoichi Samui Yono and the Konoha Genin Misumi Tsurugi, one of Kabuto's teammates.

"Think he'll put up more of a fight than Kabuto did?" Sasuke grunted, the raven haired Uchiha not trusting anyone from that team after what Naruto had shared with them.

"Maybe. He seems…eager." Naruto searched for the right word, noting the gleam in Misumi's eyes as he stared down at his opponent.

"Begin!" Hayate called as the two charged, Samui lashing out with a Tanto as Misumi dodged it, bending his body at an angle that shouldn't have been possible.

"What?!" Samui's eyes widened as Misumi cackled, moving his strangely contorted body around hers, coiling like a snake.

"Hah, impressed bitch?" Misumi sneered, "I can contort and stretch my body any way I want. Let's me get through even the smallest of cracks to get the information I need." Naruto felt his blood boil and hackles rise as Misumi started to grope Samui as he grappled her, "With these I can already guess the only kind of mission you'd be good for-" the prick's gloating was cut off by a scream. Samui, face twisted in a livid snarl, had her body coated with lightning chakra, Misumi's grapple just giving more contact for the lightning to hurt him as the rubbery genin thrashed and flailed, Samui able to grab the prick and hurl him down on the ground, his skin covered in burns from the lighting.

Samui didn't even bother with wise cracks, quips, or retorts. She just started laying into Misumi until Hayate called an end to the short but brutal match.

"Dumb bastard got cocky." Sasuke scoffed as the beaten and burnt Misumi was hauled off, "He thought one trick was enough to let him walk over anyone he wanted."

"That's two for two on his team losing as well." Naruto glanced over at the last member of Kabuto's team, "Think the last one will be any different?"

"Who knows." Sasuke shrugged, "I'm more focused on the next fight."

"The next one?" Naruto frowned in confusion before turning to the screen where he saw the names up there.

Kiba Inuzaka vs Kankuro Ishida.

-Kiba-

Keeping his expression stoic, Kiba studied his opponent. The prick's sister was the bitch who fought Tenten, and her wind was nothing to sneeze at, even if Tenten had a good counter for her. Their other brother positively reeked of malice and bloodlust.

This one though, he smelled of oil, wood, and paint. His mom had told him about Suna and their puppet masters, so it wasn't hard to figure out what sort of Shinobi Art this guy specialized in.

"Begin!" Hayate called out as Kiba shot forward, hiding his pleasure at the fact that his opponent hadn't noticed that Akamaru wasn't there beside him.

"What?" Kankuro, or at least the puppet pretending to be Kankuro, smirked mockingly "Why so serious little puppy? Does someone need a doggy bone?"

Kiba snorted at the weak insult, "Is everyone in your family this bad at trash talk? Must be a bloodline thing. Still, I'm not that worried. Your sister went down easy, so I can't see you being a real problem, not if you felt threatened by an academy student before."

"I'm going to muzzle you." The Kankuro puppet snarled, readying a blade that Kiba could smell poison on.

"Not wanting to hear the truth, doesn't mean it isn't true." Kiba smirked lunging at Kankuro "FANG OVER FANG!" he started pushing the puppet back, wanting it further away from Kankuro's real wrapped up body.

"Is this all you can do?" the puppet goaded as Kiba kept making them dodge, getting further and further away from the real wrapped body, "Not going to bring out that little spear of yours?"

"Nah, I want that spear's first fight to be against a real opponent. Not a little doll being pulled by strings." Kiba smirked, giving his opponent only an instant to process his words, "Akamaru, now!" His ninken partner burst from the ground fangs biting through the bandages as a frightened scream was heard from within them, the puppet dropping as the chakra strings stopped from surprise.

"Akamaru's got his teeth at the prick's throat." Kiba called over to Hayate, refraining from grimacing as the few cuts the puppet landed on him burnt unpleasantly, "One move and his jugular gets torn out."

"Kankuro Ishida is unable to continue, Kiba Inuzaka is the winner." Hayate nods as Kiba whistles, his partner coming back over while a shaken Kankuro climbed out of the bandages, not meeting his red-haired brother's gaze.

Getting back up top, Kiba barely had a moment before Hinata was forcing him to sit down, frantically fretting over his cuts and injuries, minor as he felt they were. Red faced; he glanced up to see his friends giving him thumbs up.

He just knew Naruto was going to get back at all the whipped jokes he'd made before.