I don't own Naruto or any of its characters, I'm just a fan I enjoyed the anime but I love the fanfics even more, they made me fall for the whole franchise.
Chapter 42
Naruto placed Hinata down and began setting up traps around the clearing they found themselves In still out of Neji's range. Hinata kept watch on the quickly approaching team 9 while Sasuke bent down and stretched his muscles already hyped for a fight against their senpai.
Naruto knew against a Byakugan user most of his traps would be revealed but it was okay, the team they would be facing only had one Byakugan user the others might fall for the traps he was setting up. He made 10 clones and had them help him set down ninja wires to trip opponents with explosive tags attached to the wires to cause an explosion to further disorientate whoever fell for it.
"How far are they?" Naruto asked rushing to complete his task. Hinata observed the team at a distance and replied.
"At the speed, they are moving they should be here in 5 minutes." Hinata relayed and looked over to Naruto's form seeing him place some sealing tags behind trees and under rocks to better hide his surprises.
"We keep them boxed in and attack as a team." Sasuke told his teammates, standing up and jumping on the spot a few times to loosen his muscles. Hinata nodded at the plan with Naruto adding his final touches to his traps before grinning.
"It is ready." Naruto told his team walking up to them and standing next to Hinata on her left with Sasuke moving to her right. This was team 7's ability to drop their issues with each other and become one. When an enemy was around every member saw it as an opportunity to vent some anger.
"We have entered Neji-Niisan's range." Hinata relayed and deactivated her eyes reading herself for the upcoming team still keeping an eye on the incoming team with her sensory ability. Naruto cracked his fists in anticipation and Sasuke smirked placing his hands in his pockets.
a few minutes later team 9 broke out of the foliage landing down on the ground a few feet away from team 7.
"I see you were waiting for us Hinata-Sama, You must be proud of yourself." Neji spoke first smirking at Hinata trying to bring her confidence down, he had a score to settle with her, to finally prove who was the best.
"Yosh, Naruto-Kun it is good to see you!" Lee greeted the Uzumaki he met during the 2 week holiday. Naruto nodded at the centipede brow boy in return taking the fight very seriously.
"It's good to see you too Lee and Tenten." Naruto said with Tenten nodding at the blonde seriously as well.
"Fate has chosen this day to set things straight, today you will see that your fate has not changed, because I will not hold back." Neji eager to fight took his Juuken stance glaring at Hinata with his dojutsu deactivated.
"Today you eat dust instead." Sasuke spoke up smirking at Neji his intentions for the Hyūga boy written all over his face.
"You are not worth my time Uchiha." Neji grounded out to Sasuke only glancing at him before looking at Naruto and then back to Hinata his target. The only other Hyūga around.
"This fight won't go the way you think it will Nissan, I don't plan on losing here." Hinata spoke up clearly with determination in her voice that made Naruto grin as he took his stance with his finger crossed ready to duplicate his being.
"This should be done quickly." Sasuke smirked taking his interceptor fist stance ready to beat the enemies to the ground. The standoff lasted only a second before Lee dashed at Sasuke at great speeds throwing a punch at the Uchiha that landed and pushed him away.
Lee then turned and tried attacking Hinata who dodged by ducking low, his kick going over her head but it was stopped before he could turn with the momentum by Naruto grabbing onto the leg and quickly turning around throwing Lee up.
Neji came in close seeing the Uzumaki open for an attack but he was quickly intercepted by Hinata who redirected his palm strike to Naruto's chest with the back to her palm knocking the handoff target, before delivering her strike that was knocked away it didn't take 3 seconds before their hands became blurs as they attacked and defended at the same time finding themselves evenly matched.
Sasuke appeared above Lee's airborne form and delivered a downward leg strike that was blocked by Lee who crossed his hands above his head. Sasuke's teeth were grounded in anger with some blood trickling down his lips at the very fast attack from Lee. Sasuke bent his knees his feet behind his back and dropped down planning on landing on top of Lee who was brought back to the ground by the force of his earlier kick.
He had to abandon that plan when a few Kunai came flying at him from the female member of team 9 acting as Support. The Uchiha drew his own Kunai and deflected the projectiles before twisting in mid-air and throwing the Kunai down with great force aimed at Rock Lee who jumped to the side to dodge the projectile.
Hinata after trading blows with Neji jumped back just as a Naruto clone came to attack the Hyūga male. Neji tried attacking only for the clone to dispel in front of him obscuring his vision he heard the sound of projectiles headed his way and swerved around them before turning and blocking a kick from Hinata that had him skidding back.
"Neji behind you." Tenten called out to her teammate who turned around immediately to narrowly avoid a strike from Naruto, the blonde grinned again and popped in a puff of smoke, obscuring Neji's vision once more.
'This guy is relentless.' Sasuke deduced leaning his head to the right to avoid a jab before twisting around with some fancy footwork to get out of reach of a high kick from Lee. He then proceeded to duck and roll forward to dodge some Shuriken thrown at him, by Tenten.
Sasuke placed his hands on the ground and sprung up legs first at Lee who bent back like a limbo specialist placing his hands on the ground and lifting his legs to kick Sasuke. The Uchiha was hit squarely on his back but in his place was a puff of smoke and when it blew away a log dropped down on top of Lee.
The martial arts specialist was quick to kick the log away because of the sound he heard and in the distance, it exploded. Sasuke came out of a bush smirking at the boy with thick eyebrows.
"You're not bad, but I haven't gotten serious yet." Sasuke informed taking his interceptor fist stance. Lee gave the Uchiha a nice guy smile before taking his own strong fist stance.
"Come at me Sasuke-San." Lee beckoned with the hand in front of him and Sasuke dashed at the boy.
Naruto dashed away from Neji leaving him to Hinata as he ducked and rolled away from the incoming projectiles at his person. Naruto saw nails, senbons Kunai, and Shuriken all mixed in.
He got to Tenten quickly who jumped back to create more distance between them while she threw more weapons at him. Naruto stepped to the left and made the cross seal creating ten clones who ran in a straight line at Tenten with Naruto right at the back.
"What is he planning?" Tenten wondered throwing her projectiles at the queue of clones. The first clone drew a Kunai and deflected some of them before throwing his Kunai at Tenten letting one of her projectiles pierce it and dispel causing a plume of smoke to obscure its brethren from the weapon specialist in training.
Naruto and his clones used the distraction to jump left, right, and up before converging on Tenten who gritted her teeth and pulled out a sealing tag before calling out the name of her jutsu.
"Unsealing Jutsu: Shuriken." Using the sealing formula contained on the sheet of paper/tag Tenten summoned multiple shurikens from it, which are launched directly at Naruto in front of her before she began turning in her axis to make it a wider-range attack.
Naruto and his squad stopped and backpedaled away from the projectiles, three clones who should have initiated the attack were dispelled by the onslaught but they were close enough to see that the seal was a storage array.
Naruto backed away and looked to his right where Sasuke fought against Lee, Sasuke was keeping up with the speed demon, having activated his dojutsu to make following Lee easier. To Naruto's right he spotted Hinata still dueling with Neji, the branch member had his teeth gritted in frustration that things were not going so smoothly.
"Let's go!" Naruto declared to his clones and teammates, Sasuke jumped over Lee's reverse roundhouse kick and dashed over to Tenten like a beast making said girl's eyes widen in shock when 4 clones ran up behind the Uchiha who smirked at her shock.
Naruto dashed at Neji taking two steps before concentrating, making the tiger seal to perform the Shuushine. It is accomplished by using chakra to temporarily vitalize the body and move at extreme speeds. The amount of chakra required depends on the overall distance and elevation between the user and the intended destination.
"Body flicker." Naruto whispered with his chakra spiking, Hinata felt the spike and instead of deflecting Neji's next attack instead took the strike to her left palm to interlock their hands together.
"What are you….." Neji didn't get to finish his sentence before he was punched by such great force he was sent flying away only to knock against a tree, knocking the breath out of him and leaving him disoriented for a second.
"Neji!" Lee called out to his partner, he was giving chase to Sasuke until he saw Neji get sent flying. Lee reached Neji's form in record time and helped him up with Hinata already going after Lee who had to release Neji to dodge her open palm.
"Hinata-Chan it is very good to see you!" Lee greeted while throwing his own hook at the blind girl who twirled around it to the left and brought her backhand at Lee's face the boy ducked low and made a wide leg sweep with such speed and force Hinata was unprepared for it.
"Leaf Gale." Rock Lee called out knocking Hinata's feet under her and dropping her on her side. Lee jumped up and came down with both legs ready to trample Hinata. The Hyūga turned around to face her airborne opponent and threw her palm forward.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm." Lee grimaced and got hit by the force of the attack, he was lucky enough that it was a quickly executed version so it wasn't as powerful as its parent jutsu but Lee was sent flying anyway turning and twisting.
"Stop getting close!" Tenten cried out in anger at the Uchiha boy who wouldn't let her catch a breath. Tenten was a weapons specialist but she trained mostly on thrown weapons close range fighting was a hobby and not a specialty, she was still young she had to prioritize some skills above others.
"Make me." Sasuke simply replied coming in with a flying Kick. Tenten could only block by pulling out a scroll and unsealing her staff knowing she was already at a disadvantage if the Uchiha was anything like Neji or Lee in taijutsu.
Sasuke threw a right-hand punch, that Tenten placed her staff In front of. Sasuke didn't show pain at the impact with the wooden staff and instead threw a left hook Tenten repeated her defense tactic placing her staff in the direction of the incoming strike, she had to hop up to dodge Sasuke's feet when they tried hooking around hers and she brought her staff down ready to bash it on Sasuke's head.
Sasuke only took a step to the left to dodge the strike but only by a margin so he was still in range to do a perfect counter. Tenten only registered pain in her abdomen when a reverse roundhouse kick landed on her midsection sending her flying away.
Naruto was bombarding Neji with clones from left to right including up and down. With his increased chakra control and his already massive chakra reserves, he was spawning clones like the final wave of an RPG game. Neji swiped, palmed, grappled, pocked and elbowed but they never ended the worse part was the fact some were coming in from his blind spot.
"Hinata-Sama seems to enjoy blabbering clan affairs to you." Neji spoke rushing a clone to his left and striking its chest with his right palm
"Palm bottom." The attack sent chakra into the clone's chest stunning it, but Neji placed more chakra into the strike, causing severe internal damage, that had the clone popping.
"That's a dangerous move you used there 'man of fate' you trying to kill me?" Naruto came out of hiding grinning in Neji's face he knew the boy hated the look. Neji always knew where Naruto was hiding getting there was the problem but now he was right there with no obstacles in Neji's way.
"If fate decides today is the day of your demise then I will be glad to accept the offer of making it true." Neji grounded out at the end before dashing at Naruto reaching him in two seconds flat, due to the distance between them. Neji aimed a palm strike at Naruto's shocked face ready to bring the boy down permanently.
"Psych!" Neji caught sight of a bird turning into a Naruto to the side with his Byakugan, it performed the tiger seal and was in front of Neji before he could reach Naruto. Neji grits his teeth willing to take the blow to strike the blond in front of him, but that begged the question, was he the blonde in front of him?
"Eight Trigrams: Palms Revolving Heaven" Neji tsk'd and instead of striking the blonde in front of him he turned on his axis and a blue chakra dome appeared surrounding him while colliding with the fast-approaching clone and the lax clone who popped along with his partner. Neji caught sight of Naruto entering his range with his Byakugan and he grits his teeth in anger.
'Hinata-Sama told him my range.' Neji realized ending his defense jutsu and taking a deep breath to calm his fast-beating heart that wanted to turn around and strike Hinata who was engaging Lee. Naruto broke out of the foliage a second later throwing shurikens at Neji who drew a Kunai and deflected them.
"You are a worthy opponent Hinata-San, your flames of youth shine like a star!" Lee proclaimed loudly before jumping up with his legs going diagonally up aimed at Hinata's chin.
"Leaf rising wing." Lee called out and Hinata backpedaled dodging the strike with Lee rising over her. Lee looked back at Hinata's form from above and twirled in mid-air bringing his left foot down to hit her behind the head.
"You are in my line of divinity." Hinata called out in a soft voice Lee barely heard but he did and he grimaced knowing what came Next. Hinata turned on her axis with her left hand striking with two fingers outstretched. Lee couldn't dodge so he did the next best thing and continued his attack willing to break Hinata's fingers on contact with the weights wrapped around his legs.
Hinata unbothered by the incoming scenario only opened her hand fully and when her hands made contact with Lee's legs she performed her actual attack.
"Eight Trigrams Vacuum Palm." Lee's legs were blasted in the opposite direction making him lose balance in midair, and Hinata saw her chance.
"Now!" She called out. Naruto who was fighting Neji performed a Shuushine to reach Lee and he placed a seal on the back of his head. The tag had the Kanji for sleep and Lee dropped like a bag of potatoes snoring loudly.
"Lee!" Tenten called out ready to jump to her teammate's aide but Sasuke in a burst of speed Tenten didn't expect had his face in front of her kicking her in the stomach and when she looked into his Sharingan eyes she was brought to slumber before she hit the floor.
Tenten never hits the floor because Neji was quickly there to catch her bridal style pushing his chakra into her breaking the hypnosis genjutsu. Tenten quickly woke up and blushed when she saw the position she was in. Neji didn't acknowledge the look and instead looked over to Lee who was now captured.
"How about a deal Doctor fate." Naruto proposed smirking at Neji, Sasuke next to him smirked as well, and to his shock, Hinata was behind them with a Kunai to Lee's neck.
"We propose a trade, your very important teammate who you need to pass the exams for your scroll that you can replace in 5 days if you are not jokes of Konoha's ninja force." Sasuke picked up where Naruto left off and frowned at Neji looking very serious.
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"Oh my, all that potential in one team, so many different talents." Orochimaru licked his lips as he sat down cross-legged on a tree branch drawing on Natural chakra. He was not a full-fledged sage but he was at least proficient enough to connect his sight with one of the snakes from Ryūchi Cave to observe team 7 out of Hinata's reach.
"Mmh, Sasuke's proficiency in taijutsu let him take on two of Guy's students and come out relatively unscathed on both ends. His Sharingan has matured too even faster than Itachi-Kun's eyes did… kukukuk, interesting." Orochimaru chuckled as he thought out loud he was glad he could see that fight instead of testing them himself overwhelming the team and getting less data, observing them was better.
"Hinata's eyes I cannot deduce its potential without somehow getting my hands on it, mhhh I guess I will just have to get my hands on it." Orochimaru smiled evilly with a dastardly plan forming in his head of the sweetness of science and finding out the unknown, it made Orochimaru so warm inside.
"Naruto Uzumaki, son of the man who stole my place as the fourth Hokage, what are you plotting my boy? If Kabuto thinks you remind him of me then that head of yours must be crawling with some devious plans. KuKUKUKUKU!!!!" Orochimaru this time laughed out loud at the prospect of having two of his kind in the world.
"One of me is already bad as it is, kukuku." Finding his own thoughts funny Orochimaru laughed again throwing his head back in glee smile so wide it was tarring the face he wore in half slowly.
"What is that." Orochimaru's head swerved to the back so fast he never bothered turning his body around, his head doing a 180-degree turn, to face the sensation he felt behind him, so close by it tickled his tenkentsu.
"What is this feeling." Orochimaru canceled his jutsu and the snake located close to the duel between teams 7 and 9 dispersed in a small cloud of smoke. Orochimaru using his sensory ability made his way towards the sensation jumping from tree branch to tree branch at his fastest speed the seriousness on his face showed you the Legendary Sanin you saw in history books.
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"Did you have to kill them Shino?" Sakura asked her teammate with shades who led them to the location of their already dead targets due to Shino's bugs who leeched all the chakra out of them.
"It is the most sufficient and least deadly way to deal with the situation on our side." Shino replied evenly at the girl unbothered and looking ready to go further into the explanation.
"Let's just go collect that stupid scroll and make our way to the tower, I'm pretty sure we are coming first place." Kiba who had been in a rush since they entered the forest was quick to rush toward where he could smell some pee and shit.
"Did one of them shit themselves?" Kiba inquired wrinkling his nose but still moving forward. Shino summoned an insect and communicated with it somehow before replying to his teammate's inquiry.
"Yes, some insects entered his body through his nose and mouth so the panic had the individual 'shit' themselves." Shino replied easily. Due to Sakura's plan to place his insects on contenders, Shino was able to gain intelligence on a team from rain who had the scroll they needed so Shino sent his insects ahead to deal with them accordingly.
"I don't want to hear that!" Sakura screeched out looking disgusted at the conversation going on between the two males of her team. She wished Kurenai was around the two boys would never say something like that when the genjutsu mistress was around.
"Whatever banshee." Kiba dissed smirking with his back to Sakura, the girl was ready to beat the Inuzuka to a pulp but her favorite teammate defended her instead.
"Ouch Akamaru you traitor." Sakura smirked instead while Kiba cried comically calling Akamaru every word under the sun.
"The Kusa genin from before is approaching us." Kiba warned getting serious while Akamaru whimpered in fear at the stench of the approaching Chakra. A second later Orochimaru in disguise dropped from a tree branch smiling savagely at team 8.
"I'm just here for science, do make this entertaining." That was the only warning team 8 got before they were blasted by paralyzing killing intent.
AN
A DIvergence from canon events what will team 9 decide to do with team 7 holding one of their own hostage.
What will happened with Orochimaru finding an interesting development in team 8 and how will the exams unfold with all these new developments find out next time on A different telling.
Finally found something for you Sakura-Chan