Evil

by Lazydaily

SI in S at UM. Uploaded for TTS in the app

15. Chapter 15

"Start!"

Naruto explodes forward, fist cocked for a wild haymaker.

Dosu matched the movement, unveiling his right arm with a flourish of sleeve and straw, aiming for a quick win with his ghettoblaster-gauntlet. But Naruto wasn't going to back off or slow down just at the sight of questionable accessories and fashion choices—having long since blinded by every mirror—instead throwing a cross seal as he shouted.

"Shadow Clone jutsu!"

I could see the surprise registering in Dosu's eye the same instant as Naruto's dashing step faltered, the effects of the sudden sound waves assailing him, and the next second the Sound genin almost keeled over under the assault of fists despite the real Naruto crumbling.

"Huh!"

"What the—?!"

Two clones, those nearest Naruto had been dispelled immediately as well, but the other six remained standing upright and unaffected, only now noticing that something had gone awry.

"Two—Tazuna!" One clone immediately shouted, pointing at Naruto.

"Right!" Two clones responded, exploding into motion to grab the real one and to get him back.

Dosu growled, regaining his posture as he jumped back, using the metal of his gauntlet like a shield to defend against the Shadow Clones peppering him with punches and kicks.

The real Naruto was just getting his feet under him, shaking his head after having vomited all over the floor and on his orange jumpsuit. He looked more annoyed and angry than anything else, only a pinprick of wariness shining through as he glared at the Sound genin.

And now you've gotten him worked up without really even injuring him, Dosu.

Naruto—with clones—was probably one of the few genins here who could take the full brunt of Dosu's loudspeaker and survive long enough to recuperate during a match. Of course, if the clones ran out before the blond got his feet under him again, then...

Three clones had been dispelled, once again by the repetitive use of the loudspeaker glove, as without any real understanding of how the thing worked Naruto still had no method for defending against it. The returning memories of the clones also probably weren't helping with his own nausea, either.

This was why I had wanted to make tags to store away things at a distance - void or vacuum tags, as it were.

So many of the opponents here relied on air as a medium for propagating their attacks, so if I could instantly seal away a large volume of air, I could probably negate them. Sound can't travel through a vacuum, wind can't hit you if it vanishes, air pressure doesn't matter if it's all zero.

Of course, sealing wasn't quite so easy that I could figure that out in a few days.

If I could just designate a thing to seal away so easily, and at a distance, everyone would be running around and throwing sealing tags against large ninjutsu attacks to negate them. 'That's a nice-looking fire dragon. Mind if I yoink it?'

Naruto was shifting strategies now, his remaining clones surrounding and peppering Dosu with projectiles as the real Naruto recovered, keeping a calculating eye on the fight. And if I hadn't been watching, I would have missed the moment where Naruto switched with one of his clones, taking the place of one of the ranged attackers.

The Neji stratagem—setting up a fake and vulnerable 'real Naruto' to control the way an opponent fought and direct their attention. Naruto was an idiot, but he had a real understanding for fucking with people. A legacy of pranking and trying to get attention any way he could, no doubt. Though, can I call it the Neji stratagem if he hasn't fought Neji yet? What if he doesn't use it against him? Hmm...

It was a subtle thing—suddenly the pressure keeping Dosu from rushing the furthest Naruto let up, just enough for the bandaged genin to force his way through a pair of clones.

"Oh no—!"

"Stop him!"

The clones' acting was impeccable as well, not knowing that the sickly-looking Naruto still leaning against the wall was actually just a decoy.

"This is the end!" Dosu shouted, his heavy right fist slamming into Naruto so hard that the stone wall behind him cracked under the impact.

I could hear gasps from those watching at the brutality of it.

And then Naruto poofed out of existence, replacing the worry and apprehension with surprise.

"Gotcha!" the real Naruto shouted out as he came slamming in with a dropkick onto the surprised Sound genin, reversing the earlier impact and spreading further cracks in the wall. The blond jumped off and flipped in the air, setting himself against the wall with the tree-walking skill as the rest of his clones all in sequence dropkicked Dosu, too.

It was pretty brutal to watch, the systematic dismantling by way of orange missiles slamming in at full force. Exactly why I wanted them to learn Flickering. The Orange Menace Cometh.

By the end, the loudspeaker gauntlet had all but fallen apart, hanging uselessly from a broken arm.

Dosu took a step back from the wall, giving real Naruto up the wall the opening he had been waiting for to jump down and bomb the rest of Dosu's consciousness into the ground with an axe kick to the head. What little remained of the Sound genin's presence of mind was gone with that, leaving him to crumple over like a sack of potatoes.

Absolutely taken apart.

If I had managed to drill one thing into Naruto, then it was the value of momentum. His fundamentals practice saw no value in talking and if individually his technical ability to exert pressure was lacking, then the spread-out consciousness of clones all thinking 'my turn!' in succession more than made up for it.

Most anime fights tended to be almost turn-based in nature, with how many pauses there were and how often they would just stop to stand around gawking. But the value of just pushing could not be overstated. Sure, you didn't want to overextend and make a mistake, but knowing when you had someone on the ropes and not letting up until they were completely finished was of incredible value.

And I did get it. Anime had budgets they had to be mindful of. Couldn't produce animation sakuga all the time. But the amount of missed opportunities to just finish it in the average anime fight sometimes had made it painful to watch.

He's really coming along nicely, I grinned, ignoring some of the looks I was getting.

"...Winner, Uzumaki Na—" the proctor finally declared as he stood over Dosu, cutting off with a wet cough.

"Man, it almost feels like you just sent in a bunch of purposefully half-baked genin to get slaughtered," I opine with one eye on Orochimaru.

"It does seem as if I over-estimated them some, doesn't it?" came the sibilant reply over a knowing, much-too pleased smile. I don't anyone else noticed just how much h—she—was dropping the act. "But they have served their purpose. I shall be returning now. It was the utmost pleasure to make your acquaintance, Uchiha Sasuke."

I nod, saying nothing more.

The Snake Sannin slithers away. Well, no she actually walked. And if there was a little bit more sway to those hips than before, then I really didn't want to think about it just yet, focusing more on my returning teammate.

While jumping down at the start of the fight Naruto had been exuberant and happy, coming back up he seemed sullen and annoyed despite his overwhelming victory. We exchanged looks and seeing my silent approval seemed to cheer him up some.

I guess he had been like me against Shikamaru, hoping to really test himself out. Or then he was just annoyed with his jackass of an opponent.

"See you in the finals, broth brain."

He grinned at that, a toothy thing that belied just how much the words meant to him. "Yeah, I'll kick your ass for sure, you evil-eyed bastard."

I turned to Sakura, raising a brow, wanting to see what she had to say.

She noticed my look immediately but completely misunderstood. "You're going to win for sure, Sasuke-kun!"

"...Right." I turn to Kakashi, now that the wicked one has left. "Mind me lending me an ear for just a moment?"

"Maa, I suppose it won't hurt."

We walk a few steps away from everyone else and I nudge the exit's way with my head, speaking quietly.

"Pretty sure that Sound jounin was Orochimaru."

He doesn't react. Not even a stiffening or blink. No, wait. A slight twitch with his eye towards the Hokage.

"Fine - so long as the big boss knows, I guess I won't make too big of a fuss."

My jounin sensei nods, his eye-smile the tiniest bit strained.

Guess nobody wanted to spring on old Oro while the Chuunin Exams are still ongoing, since we do have a bunch of the Kazekage's kids in the splash zone. Besides, if I was Orochimaru, would I have come in person, or just sent some kind of clone?

Properly paranoid, now.

"That said, you saw the girly-boy with glasses who quit? He was trying very hard not to look at the Sound jounin, but there was something there. Only, reason I noticed."

Complete bs; but fuck you Kabuto.

Kakashi blinks, this time with a more furious calculation behind his lone eye. Then he nods, his placid look returning.

"Maa, for now, let's return to the matches."

I turned around, looking back down for the announcement for the final match of the preliminaries as I returned to my teammates' side, ignoring their inquisitive glances.

Chouji and Lee. Lee and Chouji.

They were facing up now, down below.

A fairly straightforward match-up - physical specialist versus physical specialist. Nominally the Akimichi dominated in match-ups like these, but here I had little doubt that Gai's insane training regimen would have eroded any such advantage, if not completely reversing it.

Vermillion view revolved, and I analyzed both fighters' stances.

"Yosh! Let us have a most youthful match, Chouji-san!"

The Akimichi nodded, only somewhat hesitantly, his chakra pumping in preparation for inflation.

I was kind of curious about how the clan jutsu worked, since it didn't seem like a chakra construct like with the Transformation jutsu or like the bubble of the Flicker—either the normal or the Inuzuka variants—but rather a change in the body itself. I suppose it's similar to the stretchy deformations Orochimaru used, in some regard.

"Begin!"

Lee exploded forward and I could hear the surprise all around us at his speed.

"Konoha Whirlwind!"

The explosive spinning kick was perfectly recorded in my eyes and I grinned—It was an application of the tree walk.

Chouji brought up his hands to block and despite his much greater mass, was blown back. He tumbled backward, managing a breakfall ukemi back onto his feet as he fell over, and stared at Lee with naked surprise.

"You are very strong, Chouji-san! Your solid body has gone through most rigorous training, I could tell from that one block alone. This will be a fine match, yes!"

The tubby boy blinked.

I huffed. This was actually a really good match-up for Chouji in terms of long-term growth. Meeting a friendly, but clearly superior taijutsu specialist ought to give him a better grasp of his abilities, and the necessities of a physical fighter without eroding at his kinder nature or poking at his insecurities too much.

Lee was a good guy like that - the honest and hard-working anime protagonist we all deserved in these edgy and emo times.

Chouji got up to his feet, taking out some kind of soldier pill and popping it, his face set into a mien of determination as he called out: "Partial Multi-Size jutsu!"

His arms grew grotesquely massive and the sheer expenditure of chakra made him burn like a bonfire before my Sharingan, rivaling Naruto for a moment there. He must have judged Lee too fast for that katamari rolling to work.

That, and, whoa what the fuck is this jutsu?

I didn't think I wanted it, but the working principles were just completely different from everything else I had gotten used to seeing. It wasn't a construct of any kind, nor an application of the emphatic properties of chakra as a medium, nor was it elemental fuckery. It was... interesting?

That wasn't a normal soldier pill either - it had been bright green, and... Oh, right. The Akimichi had some sort of last resort pills for quick bursts of power at the cost of putting extreme strain on them.

I doubted we would get to see Chouji sprouting his wings just yet, though.

Lee's eyes went comically wide as he jumped back five meters to avoid a massive slap from his opponent. Then, with furrowed bushy brows, he rushed forward with another explosion of chakra from his feet, almost vanishing from my view for a second, performing another spinning kick to open up the tubby boy's guard.

Sheesh, even with the fully-matured Sharingan, he's no joke. Though he probably won't be taking off his weights in this fight, I can already read the gist of his speed technique.

It really was just the tree-walking exercise overdone—or the basic Body Flicker jutsu, as Kakashi called it, even though there was no bubble—but simply honed and trained to a pinpoint-perfect degree. The timing, angle, intensity, extension of his feet, and the coordination of it all were all perfectly optimized.

Actually, does it matter if he takes off the weights? His basic technique shouldn't change that much... Already with this little, I had a fairly comprehensive list of things I knew I could work on with my own Flickers. Though it's surprising that his weight distribution isn't off, despite the leg weights. Maybe there's some sealing shenanigans at work.

Which made sense, since Lee's kicks would suffer a dramatic power drop if he was used to the weights and then removed them.

Chouji's face went through several shades of surprise as Lee matched him blow for blow, all while utterly dwarfing him in speed, raining blows past his guard. But the famed Akimichi girth wasn't just for show; his ability to take a beating was absolutely first-class.

"He's so fast..." Naruto muttered beside me.

I nodded. "He can still go faster. I think he could outrun Kakashi if he stopped holding back." And that's not even considering the inner gates...

Naruto gaped and I heard Kakashi shifting—not quite uncomfortable with my analysis, but acknowledging it nonetheless. Was he taking it as a reprimand for letting himself get out of shape? Whatever, not my problem. Not for long anyhow.

Chouji was hanging in there, determined and strong against the seemingly unending onslaught of kicks and punches, bruising and being battered around more and more as the match drew on. But everyone could see which way the wind was blowing...

Lee had barely worked up a sweat yet.

Fully knowing this, but still not without hope in the face of his much stronger opponent, Chouji dispelled the partial Multi-Size jutsu suddenly, leaving one of Lee's kicks to go wide and forcing the green beast to hastily correct his rotation-relative-to-ground in the air with another kick.

"Multi-Size jutsu!" Chouji called out, growing in size until his hair tickled the stone ceiling.

Is he banking on his greater physique to weather the blows?

The now-gargantuan genin kicked out, pushing his opponent back with ease whenever their limbs connected.

But a transformation of that size wasn't something the younger genin could maintain for long, given how much chakra it burned, I could see. A stamina match wasn't going to work in his favor at all. So, he was hoping that Lee would try something different.

"Amazing, Chouji-san!" Lee gushed, dancing between Chouji's stomping feet and swinging hands. "I can see that my kicks have no effect on you like this!"

In another blinding burst of speed, the green beast took distance, appearing on the opposite side of the arena. Looks like your hunch was the right one, Chouji.

Lee wasn't the type to play to his strengths if it meant backing down from a challenge, being too honest by half. I guess being on Shikamaru's team would instill anyone with at least a rudimentary sense for stratagems. But, it was too bad that your opponent was Rock Lee.

Because knowing what I did, I would never challenge him to hit me as hard as he could.

Lee squared his shoulders and set his feet, adopting a horse stance, his fists clenched at his sides.

Here we go.

"Very well, Chouji-san! I shall match your challenge: First Gate—Open!"

If Lee's first move had accrued shock, this resulted in nothing less than awe among the onlookers as he exploded into a corona of chakra and left shattered stonework behind in his dash, performing a spinning back-kick into the giant's torso with such force that the air itself reverberated all the way to the stands with the impact.

Or maybe it was the fact that Chouji had suddenly been slammed back against the far wall behind him that made the impression on everyone, since I doubted many could even follow Lee's movements just now.

Chouji fell to his knees limply, the jutsu canceling as the light in his eyes had gone out. A clean KO through a kick to the gut. Yeah, he's going to need medical attention after this. His internal organs can't be fine after all that.

But before the younger genin's head could hit the floor, Lee was there, catching the now-visibly thinner boy in his arms. Huh, the Akimichi had that going for them didn't they? Burning fat to gain chakra.

That probably said something about the nature of chakra and physical energy, but my half-remembered basics in biology were failing me, even as it explained some of the strangeness I have observed before. Did this mean 'stamina', in the context of physical energy for chakra, was something like the amount of ATP in your body? The same energy that we used to power our brains and muscles? If that is the case, maybe I should start eating more fish and meat for creatine.

It was a simple enough theory to test; eat more meat and see if my chakra recovery improved.

"Proctor, I believe my opponent is unconscious. Please call the match immediately, so that he may receive medical attention!"

"...Right, winner: Rock Lee." The coughing man didn't look impressed, but I could tell he was just holding up a poker face.

And this isn't even Lee going all out, I thought with some amusement as my eyes whirled back to black. He really was a genuine monster in his specialization.

"Wow..." Naruto muttered beside me, adding to the general hubbub among the spectators.

Chouji was taken away by the medical staff and as Lee made it up to meet his over-exuberant look-alike teacher—matching mood much too energetically as they hugged and cried and shouted—I turned to Naruto and Sakura.

This would mean some interesting things for the matchups to come in the finals.

Assuming I was still facing Gaara and Naruto Neji, that would still leave a fairly varied and challenging pool of contenders for Sakura to face. Should I bother trying to help her...?

It bothered me. It really bothered me.

Kakashi wasn't going to do anything about her. Hadn't in canon and hadn't now. Hell, if I was reading him right, he would try to shuffle her off on me, playing on any of my concerns as reasons for me to work with her. But that was exactly the problem.

What she needed was...

"Ah..."

My eyes caught sight of someone as the Hokage and his entourage made their way to stand down below in the arena. All the spectators followed suit, moving to match the formation we had held before the preliminaries had been announced.

Once we were all lined up, the weathered and worn God of Shinobi cleared his throat and spoke.

"Well done for coming this far, everyone. Now, the pairs for the finals shall be announced. The event will take place a month from now, so you will all have plenty of time to recover and train till then."

I tuned out the rest until the match-ups finally began to get announced.

"Uzumaki Naruto shall be facing Rock Lee in the first match of the finals."

Uh-oh. Guess my predictions are all being blown out of the water, then.

Showdown of the dead lasts, was it? Well if the thought was to weed out the weakest first, they would be in for a rude awakening come a month from now. Or well, for a show of a lifetime, rather perhaps?

Though what was going to happen to Naruto's promise to beat the shit out of Neji now?

"The second match will be Haruno Sakura facing Kankuro."

Sakura tensed up but did not look overly alarmed.

Well, that should be interesting.

It wasn't actually all things considered a bad match-up for her. He wasn't that strong. But assuming the invasion was still on, it was likely that he would concede the match to save his strength and keep his tricks hidden and unsprung.

So training Sakura's won't be that important...

That went pretty well with my plans for the month to come.

"Next, Hyuuga Neji and Uchiha Sasuke."

Ah.

Start off with the weaklings and then have the two "geniuses" raise the bar back up if the first match turned out too boring for the audience. That made sense. But as for my beating up Neji... That's not gonna do a damn thing to his nihilism or his issues with Hinata, now is it?

I could see from the corner of my eye Naruto giving Neji the stink eye and then nodding at me. I shrugged back at him.

Guess I'll just have to do my best.

"The fourth match shall be between Aburame Shino and Gaara of the Desert."

Oh wow, that's... different.

Both were mid-range control specialists in their own ways. And it did leave Shino with a pretty good intel to begin his training with, as that other chakra drainer hadn't managed to do a damn thing against Gaara, something someone as keen as Shino wouldn't have missed.

So it should be an interesting fight to watch, assuming the invasion hadn't started before then. And it left me feeling pretty relaxed, since Shino was smart enough to escape with his life if it hadn't and things went wrong.

If Orochimaru kills the Kazekage again, I assume he at least wants to watch me fight, since he's essentially had zero chances to measure my potential yet. That tussle with Shikamaru simply didn't count. But after that, all bets are off.

Which just left...

"And the last match of the first round of the finals will be Tenten against Inuzuka Kiba."

Akamaru yipped in response and I could see Kiba grinning at that final announcement. But if he thought Tenten was a push-over, well... The finals probably wouldn't even get that far, so no use thinking about it too much.

With that, we were dismissed.

Or well, the staff chose to leave and we were allowed to do whatever we wanted. My eye immediately spied my target, but before I could make my move, a wall of green overwhelmed me.

"Well, well, Kakashi!" Gai said animatedly and I could see the slightest slump of resignation in my team leader's shoulders. "It would appear, that both of our genin teams have made it to the finals. In full! How exciting!"

"Hmm, I guess you're right..." Kakashi mellowly acceded.

"It's a shame young Tenten will not be facing your last student, as their teammates are, for I am sure that the blooming of those two beautiful flowers on the field of battle would be most impressive as well!"

Did that count as sexual harassment?

Ah, this place probably didn't have the concept of sexual harassment. Right, anyhow, never think about sexual harassment in tandem with Gai again.

"Hmmph." Neji scoffed, crossing his arms. "I doubt the Hokage would allow for all three of the rookies to face such humiliating defeats in their first rounds."

Naruto grit his teeth, glaring at the Hyuuga.

"Do you think it would be possible to switch matches?" I asked aloud, not looking at anyone now since my target had already left with the rest of the proctors and staff. I would have to track her down later for that chat I was hoping to have. "I mean I'd love to switch with Naruto. Lee would be worth my time more than this effeminate prick."

Neji glared at me, but said nothing, merely sniffing once as he turned up his nose. Meanwhile, Lee looked ecstatic at the prospect of being acknowledged by me.

"Maa, I'm afraid that's just not possible..." Kakashi said, looking just slightly amused by the banter.

I sighed theatrically, crossing my arms.

"Well, I guess I'll just have to get it over with quick and hope my opponent in the second round is better."

"I see the Uchiha hubris has not waned even while the clan itself has," Neji finally responded, his cool exterior belying the heat behind his words.

If he was expecting a rise out of me by poking at a sore spot—and isn't that a perfect analogy for his clan's style, or what?—then he was sorely mistaken. Because first of all, I barely knew them. Second of all, this guy's got no room to be talking about hubris, especially in relation to clans. And third...

I grinned, raising a single finger.

"One punch."

Everyone looked at me. I turned the finger to point at Neji.

"That's all I need to beat you."

Neji looked incredulous for a second before his expression turned into a sneer. "So, fate has decreed it for the Byakugan to dispel the illusions of the Sharingan, I see."

With that, he turned on his heel and stomped out. Or well, daintily glid on light feet, since stomping was probably unseemly for the Hyuuga. I snorted. I wasn't been bluffing about the one hit, either. Well, it'd be a challenge, but I was reasonably confident in my chances.

Nominally the Hyuuga were some of my hardest counters at the moment, given how I preferred the indirect approach and abusing blindspots. Their eyes could see through most of the tricks I liked to employ and allowed them to close into taijutsu range, where most of my options would become unusable. This was of course why I had planned out a method for beating them during the five days we had been locked in the tower, the same way I had devised my counter for Shikamaru.

But now that I had seen the preliminaries, I could do away with that boring tactic and do something much more rewarding.

I turned to Naruto.

"How about you? Feel like making any boasts or grand proclamations?"

The blond blinked, before turning to look at Lee. The bowl-cut-headed genin look almost giddy at the prospect—no doubt likening it to his challenges—or then this was just the leftover excitement from my earlier acknowledgment still in his system.

But unlike with Neji, and perhaps sensing some kinship with the green beast, Naruto grimaced and shook his head. Or then he was simply wary of exciting Lee further.

Not an entirely unfounded worry, I thought.

Turning furrowed brows at him, Naruto asked: "Were you really holding back against Chouji?"

The older genin blinked.

"I do not mean to brag, nor to speak ill of Chouji-san..." Lee said seriously. "But I did not use even half of my full power in that match."

"Even though you can't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu...?"

"Oh! You knew about it?" Lee looked slightly abashed, as if ashamed that he hadn't had the chance to tell us himself.

What a good, honest kid he was. Knew I always liked him for a reason.

"But you can still, like use chakra stuff without handseals, right? Like the tree walking thing? That's what you do with your kicks, right?"

"You knew about Gai-sensei's Strong Fist style of taijutsu as well? As expected of the Copy Nin's students! Yosh, I must work even harder from now on!" Lee enthused.

"No, it was just something Sasuke said a while back..." Naruto glanced at me.

There was a glimmer of something there that hadn't existed in canon. Like a recognition, or acceptance of something unspoken.

I guess compared to canon where Sasuke had been eating the humble pie constantly and without relent during the exams, the shadow I cast over Naruto had to seem a lot more imposing now. Mostly it was because I was just constantly playing to my strengths and knew waaay too much about everything.

But I got it.

Lee turned to look at me again, with naked calculation in his eyes now.

It was frankly a bit disconcerting, with how furrowed his brows could become.

"The Uchiha, too, are a clan of geniuses, it seems..."

I couldn't help it—I snorted.

Both of the dead lasts blinked.

"I'm not going to pretend that I can speak for the other Uchiha... But I'm not a genius." I had neither the IQ nor the hours of practice to claim that quite yet. Though at the rate I was going, once I hit twenty or thirty, I was definitely going to start living up to that moniker. At least, that was the plan. "I just cheat. All the time. With everything. Relentlessly. And then I lie about it to make sure no one figures out how I did it and uses it against me."

This time it was Kakashi who snorted, having been listening to our conversation all along even as he pretended to ignore his boisterous rival.

Lee didn't seem to know how to reply to that, while Naruto was just shaking his head.

I looked around to see what Tenten and Sakura were doing, but neither appeared to have taken any effort beyond a simple greeting to each other. Shame. Doing so, I caught Tenten's eye—or rather, she had been staring at me for a while now.

"So, you weren't kidding back at the shop."

Sakura blinked, the gleam in her eye telling of just how she was suddenly reassessing the bun-headed brunette, now that it became apparent anew that I had interacted with her before.

I shrugged, smirking. "Was this outcome ever really in any doubt? How long did it take you to get to the tower, anyway?"

Tenten matched my smirk.

"While you guys were making a mess of the forest, running around with an orange army of all things..." She threw a meaningful look at Naruto, though the minutest glance at Lee revealed the true target of the remark: she was trying to get Lee serious about his match. "We managed to get our scroll within just a few hours."

Oh? In canon they stuck around long enough to see the aftermath of Orochimaru's fight. I suppose the chaos we kicked up made it easier for them to ambush another team, then.

Still...

My smirk only widened at her words.

"That long? We were here in like half an hour, tops. We even had an extra scroll." The two older genin's eyes boggled. "Those clones you saw? We just left them behind to run interference. Naruto wasn't even winded after making them all before we entered the tower."

I might as well wind up Lee, too. Get the both of them to train seriously for their match, as that was bound to be a show worth watching.

Tenten meanwhile was gaping.

"Oh yeah, and the needles you made me? Top-notch work. Love 'em." I winked at her, which got her to regain her composure.

"...Well, obviously. We only make the highest quality goods, you know?" She harrumphed, crossing her arms, though looking slightly pleased by my remark regardless.

I took stock of the others. Naruto and Lee were happy to just to continue with their burgeoning easy-not-quite friendship. Kakashi and Gai seemed lost in their own world though, I had no little doubt anything was flying past their notice, and Sakura...

She still wasn't getting it.

If I didn't know her any better—and despite my wishes, I did—she might have looked completely placid and calm. But her eyes didn't lie. She was glaring daggers at Tenten from the side; a potent mix of envy and disdain.

Reminding me anew that I had to get out of here and find that woman and soon.

I withheld my sigh, turning to Kakashi.

"Sensei. Should we start getting ready for training?"

"Maa, there's no hurry, Sasuke."

"...Meaning you had no plans ready in case we all managed to get to the finals." I nodded.

Never should have expected a thing from my dead beat of a sensei. Not that I really did.

Should I inform Naruto about Jiraiya?

No, there was no way I could slip that tidbit past the two jounin without seeming forced. Or necessarily later, out of earshot. Besides, I had no actual proof that the Toad Sage was even in town yet. Who knew, maybe the events at Wave had drawn him off?

No, no. News of Orochimaru should have drawn him back to Konoha...

Well, I would just have to leave it to chance then. Naruto's luck was pretty good, anyway.

"Whatever. Do you have any plans for us, or are we free to go?"

"Mm, well..." Kakashi looked up thoughtfully, then said nothing.

I sighed. "Right. Well, I have places I need to be."

Naruto started.

"Wait, what about a victory meal at Ichiraku?"

"Umm, Sasuke-kun, shouldn't we all train together...?"

I shook my head. "After five days stuck in a room, I want to spread my wings and just be left alone for a while." Kakashi stiffened slightly at that. Oh, right. The threat of Orochimaru. I guess Kakashi will be tailing me for the rest of the month, then... "And furthermore, we're going to be facing each other in the finals. I'm sure as hell not going to let you two know what I'm cooking up for you—and if you're not doing the same, then frankly I'd be disappointed."

Naruto blinked, accepting the rejection with a grin.

"Heh, just you wait. I'll blow you away, bastard."

Sakura said nothing, shoulders slumping with disappointment.

I smirked back at him, before deciding to at least say something. "Anyway, if whoever Kakashi arranged for you sucks, don't hesitate to ditch them, Konoha's full of talented people just looking to share their skills." They both blinked at the advice, "Alright. See you guys later."

I waved them goodbye and left the arena, raising my awareness as I walked.

As soon as I was out of sight, I made a Shadow Clone and took to hiding in the shadows, leaving it to draw attention away from me as it walked out of the tower. Didn't exactly want to get complacent and have Orochi-fucking-maru drop on me while I was feeling cocky, now did I?

Even with our little bit of chemistry back there, I wasn't quite ready for a woman of that caliber in my life.

Besides, I had a minder to wait for.

"Maa, mind coming down from there, Sasuke?"

Yup. Guessed right. I flashed Sharingan to confirm that it was the man I expected and dropped down from hiding. Judging by the talking I could hear from the arena, he too, must have made a Shadow Clone.

"Heya, Kakashi. Or sensei, for the month, I guess?"

He eye-smiled. "Whatever do you mean? I have always been your sensei, haven't I?"

I scoffed. Well, whatever.

Freedom!

Soaring through the air, I banked left and right, pulling aileron and barrel rolls, soaring high and diving low. The feeling of the wind tugging at my feathers, the air howling in my ears, and the scenery far below passing at a blur before my crimson copy wheel eyes was a balm for my soul, soothing all the pent-up annoyance and aggression from being cooped up for so long.

It was one of those contrarian contradictions of my personality.

If left alone, I enjoyed nothing more than being cooped up and avoiding other people. But force it upon me and I would start going spare by the end of the first hour.

There.

I hadn't liked my chances of tracking her down by following her route, given just how many people had been leaving the tower, so instead I had opted to take to the air and just keep my eyes open to see when she left the Forest of Death.

Pulling into a dive, wings tight and narrow, I picked up more and more speed until I was a mere dozen meters from the ground. Spreading wide, I grit my teeth—beak?—against the sensation of my wings being nearly pulled out of their sockets at the sudden stop.

Anko whirled around immediately, kunai slipping into her hand from her sleeve as she jumped back just in time to witness my Transformation into my human form.

"You?"

Unlike the real me, as a Shadow Clone, I didn't exactly have a real body or a baseline self. But unlike normal Transformation jutsu, I didn't have to imagine the form I wanted to assume when I 'reverted'. Rather it was like there was still some kind of reference within me, telling my chakra exactly what to become.

It was something quite similar to how the Inuzuka did their own specialized transformations. It was quite interesting just how much information could be encoded into chakra. Encoded... No, rather, impressed into it. Not the time for this now, though.

"Mitarashi-san," I said, more polite than I would be usually. I was here to ask for a favor, after all. But seeing her narrowed eyes, I realized that such acts only served to make her even warier. Better to just act like she expects me to, for now. Flippant and abrasive it was. "I came to collect on that bet of ours."

I half-grinned.

She blinked and scoffed, pocketing—or, sleeving?—again her kunai.

"Piss off, kid."

I loped up to her, raising my hands in a gesture to make her wait as she started walking away.

"Come on, now. At least listen to what I have to say, yeah?"

She didn't pay me any attention, taking long strides onward, as if hoping that I wouldn't be able to keep up with a mere brisk pace. It seemed like she had no fondness for the Uchiha, or perhaps me. Yeah, thinking back to all the shit Orochimaru put her through because of me, it was definitely just personal.

I could work with that.

"It's not really about me—I'm doing this as a favor for someone else."

She glanced at me, thoughts imperceptible behind a blank mask of calculated indifference.

"It's about Sakura," I continued blithely. "You remember her: pink hair, big green eyes, fresh out of the Academy and with no idea what's going on?"

Maybe it was something in the tone of my voice that caught her interest, but Anko stopped and turned to face me. I, too, stopped walking and looked at her, observing her now vaguely hostile stance. There was the slightest crease between her brows, matching the thinning line of her lips.

Something I said just pissed her off. Ah, she's feeling protective of Sakura, is that it?

Since when did Anko give a rats ass about Haruno Sakura?

The answer was, she didn't. Not really.

But in the innocent genin, perhaps she saw some part of herself. Back when she was just a little girl, perhaps just as infatuated with Orochimaru as Sakura was with me.

"I had all but written her off as useless already. A career chuunin if I ever saw one; all brains and no bloodthirst. But then she went and surprised me against that older Suna girl and I realized, that maybe, just maybe, she might not be such a waste after all."

The hairs on the back of my neck were standing on end now, the looming darkness of Anko's voluminous sleeves suddenly chilling me. What could she unleash with but a flick of her wrist at me? Kunai? Summoned snakes? Something even worse?

But this was good. Pissed at me was protective of Sakura.

"I never planned to be put on the same team with her. In fact, as far as I remember... I have never once initiated a single conversation with her. We both know I'm already a shoo-in for chuunin, but who knows about Sakura. Maybe she will manage, maybe she won't. Whatever the case, I have no intention of hanging around with her any longer than I have to...

"But... It's such a shame. Seeing such potential go to waste because no one is willing to polish it up just a little. You saw her, too, didn't you? How many jounin do you know who could extend a Flicker bubble to an inert kunai—through a chakra string, no less?"

Presently, Anko sneered.

"So that's what you want? For me to take time out of my busy schedule to go playing sensei for some little girl?" 'Just so you can come along afterward and see if she's become worth your time?' went unsaid.

I had her now.

She was projecting, and she was projecting hard. I had become nothing less than the Orochimaru of her past now—she would probably never, ever take a single word I would say ever again at face value.

But that was fine. I would just adjust course a little.

"Hmm? Not quite. Rather, I'd like it if you knocked some sense into her."

Anko blinked, her darkness faltering.

"See... The thing which is crippling her more than anything else... Is her infatuation with me." I rolled my eyes to emphasize my exasperation. "Did you know, that she has no female friends? None at all? That she became 'rivals' with her only friend over a shared crush on me? That she's constantly pretending to be polite because she thinks that'll endear her to me, but in actuality, she wants to act more like Naruto—no, more like you?"

I wasn't actually sure to what extent Sakura's inner/outer self thing went, but it couldn't be normal. Even for this place. Regardless, Sakura at her most unrestrained and natural was not alike—in any way, shape, or form—with how she behaved in my presence.

Anko's eyes were wide.

Extending my hand, smiling the smile of the devil with an offer, I asked her: "So... Anko-san, won't you help poor Sakura see the error of her ways?"

The special jounin had taken a step back from me, without either of us noticing; the act of retreat so natural, it must have been ingrained from something else.

"I... As a proctor..."

"Your part of the exams is over, and we both know Kakashi won't be bothering to train Sakura at all. The finals are just a tournament, no? It hardly matters. But if you don't feel comfortable, I'm sure I can petition the Hokage to allow it."

I'd use Naruto for that, actually. Phrase it as being for Sakura's good wouldn't be too difficult, since Naruto had already taken a shine to the special jounin, following the debacle in the Forest of Death. Hell, the Hokage would probably do it just because he thought it would be good for Anko, too, the way he had hoisted that dead-beat Kakashi onto me.

The woman before me had regained her bearings and now looked slightly chagrined at having been pressured by mere words. "...Why ask me?"

I think you're one of the coolest kunoichi around, even if you want nothing to do with me. And I think Sakura deserves better, I thought.

And then blinked.

I actually had no convenient excuse lined up. Nothing that wouldn't ring either hollow or false. So, forced to shrug, I said nothing.

"Fine... I'll think about it. Now buzz off, kid. I've had enough of your shit for a week."

I raised my hands and smiled disarmingly. "Of course, that's all I can ask for - that you'll think about it."

As if wanting to avoid the strike of my silvered tongue, she turned around and shook her head, marching off again, this time without my following her.

Well, that went better than expected.

Ah, I want to go flying...

But with Kakashi meandering behind me, I guess that just wasn't going to happen. So instead, I thought about my upcoming training for the month.

Neji, huh...

I could work with that.

Or rather, this was a piece of cake, wasn't it? I could just ignore the broody bastard—Neji, not Kakashi, since Kakashi was more of an airheaded dead-beat—and work on my skills in general in preparation for the invasion. And with my sensei apparently willing to work with me, I even had a decent sparring partner—clones only went so far—to help me.

Still, the fight with Shikamaru was still nagging at me.

I had won, sure...

But it had once again gotten carried away. I had been projecting my hopes and expectations for the fight onto him and he hadn't reciprocated. The lazy ass.

Another learning experience after a fight; I wanted to force things to work my way and when I couldn't do that, I would get caught flat-footed. I won, but I way overplayed my hand there. Even if it was only by showing mostly useless tricks. Still, sealing is sealing.

Speaking of.

"Kakashi, are there any seals for specific jutsu?"

"Maa... Sure," he replied lazily.

"...Can you show it to me?"

"No."

I looked at him. "No, as in you won't or no, you don't know how to do it."

He nodded with an eye-smile. I rolled my eyes. Incompetent lazy jackass...

"Fine, whatever. I'll figure it out on my own, like usual."

I only really had one jutsu I wanted to be able to seal right now. I knew that Jiraiya had managed to seal an Amaterasu into a scroll, so I figured it was just a matter of finding the right characters and applying what I already know.

"It's not quite so simple, to store away jutsu, and even less to use them on a later occasion," Kakashi opined, probably only half-guessing at what I wanted to accomplish.

"Whatever," I repeated for emphasis.

We were here. At the Uchiha compound. I figured I could do like in canon and find a mysterious, deserted spot to train outside the village, with nice big cliffs and decor that a namekian could appreciate... But I really didn't see the point. I was just going to be working on refining what I had, not developing new things.

Back before I had been the type to zealously train every technique, every movement, and motion until it was ingrained into my muscle memory that I could do it without thinking. But with the Sharingan, I had become like that one kendo friend I had back before, who claimed he could just do it by thinking and understanding the technique in his mind first.

Sure, there had been scientific testing that showed that mentally imagining yourself throwing a basketball could be as productive as actually physically throwing the basketball...

But it still smelt of a lazy excuse.

Well, not for me and my magic eyes. If I had seen it and could think it, I could just do it. No questions asked. So long as my body was physically capable of it.

Hence refining what I already had.

And since Kakashi wasn't divulging any further great insights, I figured I could safely just ignore him. Maybe he would actually scare the crows away or something. Not that I had crow problems, but it was the thought—that maybe for once, he would be somehow useful—that counted.

I took a stance, copying the Strong Fist style as I exhaled.

Seeing Lee in action had really opened my eyes to the potential of chakra repulsion. I had thought in terms of the left leg and the right leg, but that was so incredibly naive that it now made me laugh.

"Hah!" I kicked.

Kakashi looked up, eyeing me in response to the outburst, but said nothing.

I looked around as if expecting an audience for some reason I couldn't quite place. I shook my head, notice returning to the matter at hand.

Take the roundhouse kick.

One leg kicks off the ground and then lashes out with the shin or the... table of the foot? Not the instep—the part that's above the ball of the foot, on the top-side? Did that part even have a common word in English? There was probably some latin word for the bones there... Anyhow, kick with the top of the foot, with the grounded foot just turning on the ground with the rotation of the hip, so that you could really drive in and dig through all the force of the kick on impact.

My idea had been for the kicking foot to explode off the ground and the grounded foot to kind of stick to the ground, acting like a pivot point that stuck to the ground.

But Lee didn't do that.

Lee's grounded foot had a damn chakra rotation, just like in the Rasengan. The ball of the foot acted as a pivot point, just as I had thought, but the heel and bridge both pushed away and continued the rotation.

And that wasn't all: all along the body in small parts, like a kinematic chain feeding itself and accelerating further and further, like a full rotation Karate punch that sought to put the rotation of every single joint into the one extension.

It was a fucking work of biomechanical and kinesthetic art.

Had it been Gai or someone else who had devised that? Going through every little muscle and joint and tenketsu to devise such a perfect means of powering a single kick?

And it wasn't just the one kick - it was practically every move he did, from a simple jump to a side-step. Chouji hadn't really pushed Lee that far, but even this little that he had managed to draw out was pure gold. With Naruto, I was hoping for it to go even beyond.

I was so fucking stealing all of it and making it my own. All of it.

But there was just one more thing I needed to check.

"Hey, Kakashi."

"Mm?"

"Does my hair swirl left or right?"

The jounin blinked, utterly nonplussed. That made a thrill of satisfaction run through me, which he must have seen since he quickly gathered himself.

"For my chakra rotation."

"Oh." He blinked again. "Left."

I nodded. "Thanks."

Well shit.

Lee's was to the right. I guess that's why Sasuke's copy of Lee's taijutsu didn't look that much like Lee when he fought Gaara. I can't copy one-to-one the high-powered spin kicks, though most of the basic footwork and punches are still fine. Hmm, I guess the straight kick is still good, too.

"How surprising that you even know about that—the peculiar and individual differences between chakra coils. Then again, I understand," he said and tapped the brow of his covered eye.

I nodded, not wanting to get too wrapped up in a theoretical discussion while trying to figure out my training plan. But he was right, the Sharingan did make these details, which would be utterly trivial and inane for most ninja, very important to understand.

While people were for the most part more similar to each other than not—two legs, two arms, two eyes, hooked up to a single brain with a flipped left-right relationship—that didn't mean people were identical. Nominally these differences; height, weight, muscular development et cetera, were easy enough to understand, but that was only the skin-deep understanding most ninjas possessed and hardly the whole of the matter.

Take Kakashi, for example.

His right hand's ulna and tibia were proportional to his humerus about two percent longer than mine were. That is to say, it wasn't merely that his arm was longer than mine; the proportions of bone differed. Add to that the fact this the ligaments of his bicep appeared to be attached a bit higher up, and not only did the range of motion of his arm differ from mine, but the force transfer from the muscles varied considerably, too. Partly due to a bunch of old injuries and deep scar tissue, partly to just our innate genetics.

The lever that was his arm had a different power output ratio from its muscles than mine had, even if our muscles were exactly as big and strong.

This meant that even if I perfectly stole his finely honed skills, that didn't mean that I could match him purely with that replicated skill. The amount of differences that matter was pretty much endless, too, only increasing the more you looked for them. Bone density, composition and distribution of fat, how the muscles had been trained, and the center of mass derived from these three details... How much of the fat stores were brown or white? What was the distribution of fast- and slow-twitch development in the muscles?

And that was just the physical body without even touching chakra or the variance in tenketsu and balance of energies, and...

There was just so much. Pure imitation simply wouldn't cut it against someone who had perfectly honed their technique to its limits. But I had figured the gist of this from the start, which had been why I had set out to become a Jack of All Trades and A Master of One.

"Well, whatever." I shrugged at my own thoughts.

Lee's full style didn't fit mine either that well, so I'd just take the pieces I found useful and integrate it into my own like Sasuke had in canon. So, I should focus instead on...

"Kakashi, how do I increase my chakra capacity?"

"Maa, just keep at it."

"I mean, what's the best way to improve it quickly. I get that stamina comes with time and training, but it's the biggest bottleneck for me right now."

Or would that be the smallest bottleneck...?

He sighed and shook his head. "What brought this on, Sasuke? I thought you wanted to lay your foundation solid and avoid exactly these kinds of schemes?"

I guess he wasn't nearly as unobservant as I liked the chastise him as, huh?

"Orochimaru. I can't reasonably even buy time against him if I can't throw a few jutsu in his league," I answered with a shrug.

Itachi would wait—the Snake Sage wouldn't.

And I didn't even have a rape whistle.

"Well... There isn't much you can do. There are many dangerous, experimental, and borderline insane ways shinobi have tried to solve the problem of chakra, but it all comes back down to power unearned." The jounin shook his head. "All I can tell you is that your body will adapt and grow faster if you continually allow your reserves to deplete and recover."

I grimaced.

"To the point of chakra exhaustion?"

He eye-smiled. "Maa, that can be avoided. Perhaps just to the brink, but it depends."

I nodded. "Fine. Fine. Training the old-fashioned way it is."

Or rather, I guess I'll have to look into that one idea I had... If having low chakra and allowing it to recover to max was the best way to stimulate growth, then that trick just might just prove doubly useful. Which means I can't waste too much chakra training with Kakashi when I should be figuring it out. Every hour counts.

Kakashi practically radiated satisfaction.

Maybe he really had started to like having me around, despite our rocky start. He did seem like the kind of guy who would desperately latch onto people after spending so long trying to keep everyone at an arm's length. The sensitive bird with a broken wing, just waiting to be healed.

I guess I can kinda see why he's so popular, even if he's a massive pain in the ass to actually deal with.

"Maa, I think I have just the thing for that, too, Sasuke. If you're interested?"

I turned to look at him again.

He was probably talking about that. The Raikiri. Or Chidori, I suppose. But did I really want it? I already knew the process for learning the Rasengan, which was all things considered just plain cooler, and besides didn't need any handseals to use.

"Don't tell me, Sasuke, you would happily steal my father's prized Piercing Fang technique, but won't accept your beloved sensei's prized technique?" he asked, appearing more amused by my apparent dissatisfaction than anything else.

"Your father's...? Oh, right the kunai technique," I realized. Was probably meant for use with a tanto, originally.

How he knew that I knew about his sole original technique when he had never used it before me, I didn't know or really care. I guess he just assumed I had my sources, as with a lot of other things.

Still...

The Chidori was loud, needed the Sharingan because of how suicidal it was, was short-range, and used way too much chakra. Did I even have the right elemental affinity for it—no wait, I must have. I must have forgotten that Sasuke could use Lightning chakra too, since I hadn't bothered with the Fire-natured jutsu that much either.

Electricity, huh...?

That would actually open up a lot of interesting avenues in the long run, even if the technique itself was kind of dumb. And it was probably about time I started branching out into elemental jutsu soon, since I was practically in the big leagues already.

"Alright, alright. Show it to me..."

Kakashi eye-smiled.

Also, why was my neck itchy? Felt like someone was staring at me...