Chapter 37

Toying with Tools

Sakura wanders down the steps with a smile and a gentle sway, and to most, she seems almost zoned out.

Sasuke knows that look almost too well. There's something deeper there, she's deep in her own head, while moving is a secondary process. Her intelligence has always been greater than all but Shikamaru, out of their whole graduating class, but after their team started to really progress, that gap started to close.

At times, when she gets like this, she seems to twitch with partial facial expressions, or her hands tensing, but always each half of her body in different ways, like having a rapid-fire argument with herself.

Little did he or anyone else know, that's much closer to the truth than any of them could have predicted. Rather than an internal monologue, it's an internal dialogue between ego and id, forming conflicting strategies and blending them together into something fluid, functional, and harder to predict. All the while, her simultaneous mental processing lets her multitask through a battle without any loss in efficiency.

Now if only her two halves could get along a little more.

"This kabuki bastard is gonna be too easy! We already saw his opening gambit in the woods, there's no way he can fool us with that pack now! So, should we go right for blowing his back out?"

"Ugh, no, and don't say it like that. He might know we've got that figured out and not be starting with the disguised puppet. Our best move is to gauge which is which with a little genjutsu-induced panic."

"Oooh, how bad we wanna scare him? Full Narakami? I've had some ideas for some real nightmares I was planning to save for Naruto, but…"

"Again, too much, but a quick flash of something that bad could help. How about some layered whack-a-mole as an opener?"

"Yeah, that could be pretty fun! Just try not to get our bandages cut, I'm sure that puppet has a ton of hidden blades."

"Obviously. I'll have to rely on water jutsu for damage until I've catalogued enough to feel safe, or get them separated."

She finally focuses on the physical world again as she takes her place across from Kankurou on the mulch floor.

Naruto, up in the stands, hums as he looks her opponent over. "Not sure what to think of this guy… I didn't see him do much of anything during the third leg of the race."

Ino peeks up with narrowed eyes. "What? But, I saw in racing in the first leg. He used his puppet pretty blatantly during it."

"The hell?" Naruto's eyes narrow, as he looks through the rest of the Suna siblings. "… Gaara was definitely in the second leg… Temari must have disguised herself to confuse us and make people in the third leg think her brother's weak, while giving us all no clue what she does."

Sasuke nods. "Yeah, I passed Gaara in leg two. So she's playing the long con."

"Good strategy, all things considered, but not much help for her brother in this matchup."

"Well, there was only a one in three chance he'd be up against someone from his leg of the race. Just an unlucky match, in more ways than one."

Kankurou cracks his knuckles to loosen his fingers up, producing strings and projecting them over his shoulders to the bundle on his back. "Hope you're ready to suffer, pinkie. I won't be going easy on you."

"Really?" Sakura hums as she stretches. "Well… I suppose that's all the permission I need to go all-out."

Anko grins as she steps back. "Hajime."

Sakura flips through handsigns rapidly, sinking into the floor in an instant.

"Shit." Kankurou's eyes dart about. "Dochū Eigyo no Jutsu… After all the water she showed off, I didn't expect earth."

Moments after, he detects movement behind him and wheels around, only to find three Sakuras approaching him at high speed. At first, he suspects basic bunshin, but they have shadows and weight. Now suspecting physical clones of some kind, water or earth, he swings Karasu around and off his back, the bundle ripping open and producing the clacking, cackling cloaked puppet swinging blades at each as they approach.

The first clone splashes apart and rapidly sinks through the mulch. The second follows suit with a slash through the jugular. The third continues to approach, and he fully suspects a third clone to test him. Instead, he feels a sudden weight on Karasu as the third Sakura impales herself on the blades and hangs her head. For a moment, he's stunned. It feels too real to be an illusion.

She suddenly raises her head, and her face is Temari's with blank eyes, unleashing an ear-splitting scream.

Kankurou is stunned just long enough for the genjutsu to mask Sakura's bandages fully pinning Karasu's arms down and cutting the puppet off from the puppeteer as the strings are severed. The illusion fades to prove the weight was her bandages all along, and Sakura swings Karasu around to throw it across the arena and away from the puppeteer.

The moment it's out of the way, Sakura flips a kunai into her hand, backhanded and rapidly dueling with Kankurou. He blocks with his own and fires a string at her kunai, pulling it from her hand and swinging it back wards her. She backs up and flips through handsigns, then slams her hands to the floor and raises a mud wall.

Kankurou backs away from the wall, knowing a setup when he sees one-

Only to back right into another wall and almost crumple against it, as the one in front of him fades away. Sakura rushes him from behind the fake one as it disappears, but Kankurou reconnects with Karasu with his right hand and makes it fire a poisoned kunai her way.

Sakura ducks away from the first kunai and coils to leap over the second kunai following it, as well as clean over Kankurou and the wall. As she does, Kankurou grabs her sandal with his strings and pulls, bringing her down onto the wall, right on her ribs.

Sakura coughs and sputters, but quickly rolls aside, swinging a kick at his head. He ducks, but takes a solid punch to his ribs as she stands on the wall and springs at him.

Kankurou, by now, has pulled Karasu back into range. Realizing how agile his opponent is, he splits Karasu's limbs off and brings the whole collection of blades out, rapidly pulling them her way.

That Sakura falls apart into packed topsoil as it's stabbed, leaving Kankurou to freeze in his retreat as he feels a kunai at his back. He slowly peeks back with a shiver, realizing he can't possibly get Karasu around himself to attack her before he's got a kunai four inches into his liver. "That… was an earth clone the whole time?"

"Since the mud wall genjutsu, yeah. They should only be half as good as me at taijutsu, but I've been getting morning workouts with this village's biggest taijutsu specialist nutcase, so I figured my clone could be more than enough to handle a puppeteer up close and personal."

He huffs, but hangs his head in defeat. "Fine. I forfeit."

Anko nods and turns to declare. "Kankurou has forfeit! The winner is Haruno Sakura!"

"WOO!" Naruto cheers from the railing on the sidelines, with a few clones clapping and doing random backflips behind him. "That kicked SO much ass!"

She chuckles as she stashes her kunai and steps back. "Good match, Kankurou. Honestly, your control seems pretty great, but you've gotta do something about your own defenses, and get better at detecting genjutsu while multitasking."

He huffs. "Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. The multitasking, I'm always working on, but something for taijutsu defense is a new project to focus on, I suppose."

"Try talking to Tenten and Naruto while you're here, they can probably give you a few good ideas."

He shrugs. "I'll consider it. Good match, pinkie. I'll be keeping an eye out for ya." He wanders off to the stairs, his sister meeting him at the bottom to discuss the battle, while Sakura retreats to her own team.

"Ya know…" Sasuke catches her attention. "I think that might be the best strategy you've adlibbed yet."

"O-oh, um…" She giggles faintly as her eyes dart about, avoiding his for the moment. "T-Thank you, Sasuke. I-I guess I really did go all-out on this, didn't I?"

"Strategically? Yeah, I'd say so. But, I think the whole team knows you're capable of a lot more than that."

Naruto grins and rolls his eyes. Well, about time, he guesses.

"Alright maggots, listen up!" Everyone turns to Anko. "The fifth matchup is decided! Rock Lee vs Akamichi Chouji!"

The two quickly catch each other's eyes. Chouji seems apprehensive, but Lee, he just grins and leaps over the railing and into the arena. "YOSH! I've been waiting for a chance to finally challenge you, Chouji! This will be an incredible match!"

A lot of students here didn't even recognize Lee at first. His usual green jumpsuit has been entirely discarded, and replaced with a loosely-tied white karate gi top with a green sash with his headband plate sewn on. Below his waist, he wears green shorts, topped with green shinobi sandals and shin guards with a white face and a green dragon pattern. His arms remain bandaged as usual, and his hair is grown out to hang loosely at the base of his skull, the tips splayed out.

Overall, Ino can't help but hum and nod in approval. "Cleaned up nicely. He actually looks competent for once! Seems you've got glow-up competition, Naruto."

Chouji groans and slumps as he stumbles down the steps. "I-I'll give this my all, I guess."

Temari huffs. "Well, this one's pretty obvious, and lucky for that Lee kid."

Sasuke shakes his head. "No, I wouldn't say so. Actually, I think Chouji's just worried that if he does win, Lee's exactly the kind of opponent who would force him to use everything he's got. And he's also an interesting matchup for Lee, with his clan's taijutsu's specialty. It really comes down to Chouji dreading that whether he wins or not, this match is gonna be exhausting and painful for him."

She raises an eyebrow. "What's that ton 'o fun got that can keep up with that obnoxious speed demon?"

Naruto slowly grins as he focuses on the duo taking the stage. "Oh, you'll see. This should be fun."

Chouji steps up and takes a deep breath to steel himself, then smacks his own cheeks from both sides, crouches with his hands on his knees, and stomps forward with his right. "Alright then. Bring it on, Lee!"

Anko grins and coils. "Ok then… Hajime!"

She leaps back just as Lee rushes forward, throwing a lunging punch to test Chouji's reaction speed. Chouji starts reaching up to catch it, but Lee strikes too swiftly and retreats to the left, leading the Akamichi to nurse a sore shoulder. "Damnit… ok, saw that coming." He just barely ducks another punch and falls back to roll away from a sweeping kick, inflating with Baika no Jutsu to enhance his defenses and make more distance.

Once further, he turns back quickly to save on chakra, and starts running through handsigns. Ushi, I, U, Hitsuji. Suddenly, the soil below bursts up and covers him, condensing and taking on his colors, forming an exoskeleton that appears to be just a larger version of him in all brown shades. "Doton: Dorotabō!"

Lee stops on a dime as he sees this technique come together, eyeing up the resulting form. "That is… interesting."

Chouji chuckles, his voice now a bit deeper with this jutsu. "What's wrong, Lee? Ya seem scared of a little dirt."

"Chouji-kun, I respect you more than enough to know this is no mere earthen armor. But, I suppose I will have to test it regardless!" He sidesteps, then takes off around Chouji to flank him at insane speeds. He aims for Chouji's ribs, and gets past his defenses once more-

Only for his fist to sink into the armor and get stuck to a tar-like mud, allowing Chouji to grip Lee by the trapped arm and swing a palm strike at his chest.

He attempts to catch Chouji's hand, but only gets his own pushed between the offending limb and his now battered ribs as he slides back with his wind knocked clean out by one strike.

Lee recovers fast and takes a moment to retreat as Chouji inflates and starts rolling after him. He leaps onto the nearest wall and kicks off over Chouji, letting the living tank chase him across the arena.

It's only when he looks back that he realizes his gravest mistake.

Kankurou and Sakura had kept their close-knit battle to a restricted area well away from all the slime Shikamaru scattered in his match with Kiba. Chouji on the other hand is picking it all up and adding both the slime and more soil to his expanded form, adding layers to his defensive jutsu and making it impossible to get a solid hit on him.

Knowing he's currently outgunned, Lee rushes up the wall and onto the roof over the balcony the Hokage watches from. "Sensei! Do I have permission to use my newest tools?"

Gai gives him the patented Nice Gai pose. "You have my permission to go wild and show us all the fruits of your labor!

Chouji unfurls and deflates, remaining as a mass of gathered mud in humanoid form at four times his normal size. Chouji's somewhere in it's torso for sure, but there's too much between that and Lee for taijutsu to be effective.

And then Lee bites his thumb and rubs it across a seal tattooed onto the back of his hand. Suddenly, a full array up his arm beneath the bandages and up to his shoulder lights up, revealing the hidden ink.

As it does, Naruto's jaw drops, and slowly forms into a feral grin. "Oh, Lee's gonna be unstoppable with this."

Suddenly, his entire right arm is shrouded in lightning, arcing to any nearby surface it can reach. With a confident grin and a burst of speed, Lee thrusts himself clean across the room in one leap and swings a vicious, electrified chop into Chouji's mud construct. It cuts in cleanly and catches Chouji in the gut, shocking him significantly.

Chouji powers through the pain and grabs Lee's entire chest in one hand, throwing him across the arena and sticking him to the wall with some of the mud and slime.

Lee hits the wall rather hard, but grabs the mud with his sparking hand and rips it away. By the time he reaches the ground, Chouji's halfway back to him, but leaps and suddenly inflates with Baika no Jutsu! The rapid expansion bursts the Dorotabō off and splatters the sticky mud all over the arena once more, hitting Lee and sticking him to the ground.

Chouji's on top of him quickly, and thrusting down a double palm strike. Lee returns the gesture from below, and the clash is a tie at first, only for Lee's electrified hand to stun Chouji's right side and result in one side being overpowered and driven up, throwing him off entirely. Lee then swipes at the remaining mud pinning him down and kicks himself to his feet.

"You've grown excellently, Chouji-kun! Your strength is superb, and your defense certainly makes up for your lack of speed. But this won't be enough to defeat me today!"

Chouji huffs and pants, down on one knee and shaking his left arm to regain feeling. "Maybe…" His speech is slurred, and his cheeks are inflated, something having been packed into them. "But this might be!" He rears his head back and flips through several handsigns that leave Sasuke reeling with familiarity. "SAKE BASAN NO JUTSU!" Chouji unleashes a wide burst of blue and yellow flame, causing a deep whistle that almost sounds like a crowing rooster.

The flames are too bright for most of those viewing to keep an eye on the fight for a moment, but then they turn back to it, it's been decided.

Lee stands behind Chouji with his electrified hand a mere inch from his back. "I must say, that was a splendid jutsu, Chouji-kun. Your Flames of Youth burn most bright, and I have no doubt you are worthy of graduation to Chuunin. Alas, this victory is mine. Your jutsu was powerful, but far too slow to be effective against me. I'm sure it would have beaten many others in this room, and in many ways, you've overpowered me. But I have spent many years training to be fast enough to make up for my lack of ninjutsu by making my opponent's jutsu irrelevant when confronting my sheer speed."

Chouji sighs and hangs his head. "Yeah... yeah, that makes sense. But it was a good match! You got me pretty fired up." He turns and extends a hand to Lee. "I surrender. Great work, Lee."

Lee's smile brightens almost more blindingly than Chouji's jutsu, then he quickly wipes more blood on his lightning seal and shuts it off, before taking Chouji's hand for a shake. "I look forward to challenging you again someday! You make for quite the interesting opponent, Chouji-kun. I wish you luck on the next exam, though I am certain you do not need it."

Anko hums and nods with a grin. "Akamichi Chouji forfeits! The winner is Rock Lee!"

Tenten and Gai are immediately cheering, while Neji remains… stunned. He's laser-focused on Lee, mind reeling at the range of skills he's just shown, techniques and tools he'd been left entirely in the dark about. "No… no, these cheap tricks won't be anywhere near enough for that fool to get anywhere in life. This victory was just a fluke brought on by facing an even greater failure…"

Chouji slowly wanders his way back up to his team in the stands, and Ino pats his back. "Hey, ya did great out there! Lee's just a complete freak of his own, it was a bad matchup. Just about anyone else in this room, you woulda beaten easy."

He can't help but smile. "Wow, you really think that?"

"Even just in our team, you're the best of us in a straight fight. You'd turn Shika's new jutsu against him, and we all know his Kagemane no jutsu can't stop your momentum fast enough."

"W-Well, yeah, but I still think you're overestimating me."

"I dunno, Chouji." He turns to face Naruto. "I think you'd give me a lot of trouble. Traps aren't too good for dealing with brute force targets. Learned that the hard way against Zabuza."

"And ya still can't catch me, runt!"

"I'm workin' on it, give me a month!"

Chouji chuckles and scratches the back of his head. "W-Well, if you say so. Guess I'm doin' something right, then."

"The sixth match has been decided!" All eyes turn to Anko and the screen once more. "Yamanaka Ino vs Subaku no Temari!"

The two blondes turn to each other and smirk, both expecting an easy fight one way or another.

As they descend the stairs and step into place, Sakura's running calculations in her head at a mile a minute. "Temari's the only one in her team that hasn't shown her skills. A huge problem for sure, but it obviously has something to do with that thing on her back. As long as Ino keeps a close eye on it, she should have a shot at this, but without knowing any of her jutsu…"

Naruto chuckles. "Ino's got something interesting up her sleeve, so I'd give her a leg up."

"Ok, what did you help her with?"

He slowly develops a feral grin. "Oh you'll see."

Ino stops across from Temari and looks her over carefully, eyeing the weapon on her back as Temari reaches for it. "Well… may the best blonde win."

"But my fight hasn't been called yet!"

"Naruto, shut the FUCK up and watch."

"That's the spirit!" Anko hunches and bares her teeth in a feral grin. "HAJIME!"

Just as she leaps back, Ino pulls several senbon and tosses them in rapid succession to guard her approach. Temari blocks with a swig of her closed fan and opens it on the backswing, unleashing a powerful gust that forces Ino to fall back.

Seeing the wind jutsu in action instantly has Ino running through nights of strategizing with Shikamaru.

Ino rapidly strafes left and around Temari clockwise, through the bamboo. Temari growls and swings again, calling out her Kamataichi no Jutsu. A large swath of bamboo is cut down, but Ino is standing upside-down on the balcony beneath her team, above the area struck by her jutsu and braced against the wall. She also happens to be right beside one of the waterfalls. "Suiton: Shigure!" (Water Style: Drizzle) several small bullets of water rush at her, splashing all around Temari as she jumps aside from the first two and swings her fan to block the others. Swinging it mid-air sends her backwards, but the additional distance is to her benefit.

Temari uses it to create another larger blast unhindered. Everyone on the stands above Ino splits up to avoid it, but she falls off and lands behind the massive pile of fallen bamboo atop the cut stalks. Much of it is blown away, but it hides her from view entirely, allowing her to set up.

This is the most common mistake made by Suna shinobi. They're so used to combat in the open desert, where there is little to nowhere to hide but beneath the sand itself. But allowing a shinobi to hide within their element is never a good move. Iwa hides among the rocks, Mizu beneath the water.

But a Konoha shinobi hidden amongst the greenery they've known all their life is comfortable and confident, and that makes them so much more dangerous.

Temari's eyes dart about, knowing her foe could escape to either side easily, and Underground Fish Projection, though sure to be difficult for her as a water user, isn't out of the question.

But living in the desert also makes you easily blind to the combat benefits of a good stream, and wearing darker colors.

Ino bursts from the winding stream to her right, and a new salvo of Shigure bullets fire away. Temari blocks the direct hits with her closed fan as she backs away, the rest splashing around her. Before Ino can touch ground, Temari swings the closed slab of iron into Ino and knocks her across the stream and into another bamboo thicket.

Seeing this as an opening as Ino gets caught in them, she rears back for another Kamataichi no Jutsu-

Only to freeze as her eyes go blank. Her scowl then slowly becomes a playful smile as Temari tosses her weapon aside.

Ino smirks as she climbs down from the bamboo she was stuck in. "Ishiki Bunshin Shinjun no Jutsu, complete." (Consciousness Clone Infiltration)

Sakura's jaw drops. "Wait…" She turns to Naruto in horror. "You taught her how Kage Bunshin makes copies of the user's mind?!"

Naruto starts to cackle. "And then she tied them to basic bunshin that're barely visible! Apparently, there's a few pretty big flaws still, but not my place to say." He sighs and leans back against the wall, contented. "Still, chalk that up to another awesome jutsu I've made."

"Orioke no Jutsu doesn't count as awesome."

"You just haven't seen what it does to Kage level shinobi yet."

Temari raises her hand and waves. "I forfeit, Anko-sensei!~"

Anko grins eagerly. "Good work, kid! Do ya have a follow-up, though? I know the clone is expendable, but…"

The real Ino waves to all the water scattered around. "You know what else I've been training in."

"Yep, that'd do it. The winner is Yamanaka Ino!"

Cheering breaks out across the room, and Ino dismisses her clone, then huffs and slumps just as Temari regains control. She looks to the girl across from her with her jaw slacked, struggling to process how easily she'd been outsmarted. "That… was one hell of a strategy. How did you manage that?"

Ino huff as she pushes herself up to return to the stands. "Well, Shikamaru may be lazy, but he's a great strategist. Being around him so much makes it start rubbing off on ya."

Temari hums as she recalls his match against Kiba. "I suppose it would. I may have to tease his brain a bit before we return home, then."

"You can try but it's hard to get him motivated." She waves for Temari to follow as they return to the stands. "So, no hard feelings about the loss?"

"Well…" She grumbles. "Some, but I won't hold it against you. It was a good fight, I just need to find a teacher with a wider variety of wind jutsu to work with. Or just start coming up with some of my own."

"Ever consider trying for your second element?"

"… That… might go a bit better, yeah."

"Ok, ok, enough yapping, everyone!" All eyes return to Anko and the screen, and the whole room tenses up upon seeing the next two combatants. A pair of shades is adjusted as the eyes behind them gaze upon a baggy pair of black-ringed emerald orbs across the arena.

"The next match is Aburame Shino vs Subaku no Gaara!"

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A.N.: Sorry for the long wait again! Life just keeps getting in the way, one way or another. The wedding last week was great, though! And thankfully, I have a lot of ideas for the remaining fights, and should be able to bring them to you in quick succession. As for my other works, the Mesopas Pokemon region is gonna have a huge update soon on my youtube channel, TotK is done there, Pizza Tower's done soon, Kakarot is done, and I may be picking up both Sea of Stars AND Baldur's Gate 3 soon! So expect a lot of interesting stuff if ya follow me there. For now, I'll see you on the next chapter~ Although the next one will be Henshin Hero Academia… or will it be a sequel I promised?