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 79
Gaara made no move under the protection of his sand as it formed a cylinder-like structure above him to defend against the areal attack in the form of a blast of pressurized water. His attention and face were stolen by the blonde standing over his brother's hyperventilating form looking up to the Kage podium.
The jinchuriki never noticed the menacing glare being formed in his visage as he began to leak bloodlust and instantly attacked, forgetting his previous opponent. He was not the fastest around but being able to perform a natural high-speed technique with his sand he was moving at above Genin level. Gaara's body turned semi sand making him lighter but still tangibly solid.
His eyes widened when Naruto all but appeared in front of his face even faster than he could perceive before his right cheek met a brick wall in the form of Naruto's right hook. He was sent flying back with great force crying in pain at never experiencing such a punch before. Gaara's sand armor broke on contact, losing a canine in the process and spilling blood from his mouth.
He landed on the rocky terrain with his momentum still carrying him backwards twisting and turning before he flew off the edge of the mountain. Gaara tilted his head down to stare at Naruto Uzumaki with bared teeth revealing his missing left canine. Suddenly there were two blondes, it was like an illusion and Gaara didn't know how to thank his sand for stopping the spinning heel kick Naruto Uzumaki tried to deliver to his stomach and send him crashing down below.
The sand immediately tried to grab onto the blonde but he blasted himself off with a burst of chakra from the sole of his foot and performed a backflip.
Naruto did the cross seal and Gaara saw a puff but also felt a Kick on his back that had him flying upwards and past the mountain. With another puff of smoke, there came another kick that raised him even higher. Why was his sand not protecting him, why was he struggling to think and what was this sensation that made him feel fear?
'The water!' Gaara realized why his sand might be slow to react. He broke apart his gourd to use the sand it was made up of in his defense. Another puff of smoke and now an explosion rocked the Auburn boy's world from behind. Gaara was sent careening even higher in the sky and there in the air waiting for him with a veiny glare was the Hyūga Heiress ready to palm strike him as she descended with great speed already having built momentum as she fell.
"Eight Trigrams: celestial palm!" Gaara received a downward palm strike that had him spinning diagonally as he was sent careening toward the mountain tops. The left palm landed directly on his forehead above his Seal, the sand Genin did not know why the Tanuki was crying in pain along with him as he soared back down and met the ground the attack started on.
At least his sand cushioned his fall.
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Soaring back down with not a worry of getting hurt. Hinata wondered if there was something different about her compared to the normal Hyūga. The things she can do were just not normal, she got caught in a princess carry by a pair of strong muscular arms but still felt the wind as they descended having deactivated her eyes.
They continued to descend and she tried to ignore her lover slapping her with his love.
She felt emotions, is blind Hyūga, can see sealed-tailed beasts, and even attack and hurt them somehow from within their jailers.
They landed a few feet away from Gaara's bleeding form located next to Kankurō's sleeping form thanks to Temari being able to perform the healing palm technique. The sand-blonde Genin stood in front of them both protectively with her fan opened and ready to get swung.
Sasuke landed next to them when Naruto placed her down, his emotions were in simple terms everywhere Hinata did not know where to place his mentality at that moment. There were heavy cheers as Team 7 of Konohagaru stood in front of Team Sunagakure's downed form. They were a fan favorite after all, their deeds already reaching far and wide thanks to a certain blonde's bragging.
"Stand down!" Naruto told Temari when she prepared to act, giving her the option to forfeit, but her emotions told Hinata her answer before she would make a sound from her mouth.
"No." The answer came out unsure because the words did not know if they could be backed up but the girl decided to stick by them.
Naruto's chakra signature was suddenly surrounding Temari after he made the cross seal. Surrounding her and her brothers in 4 different places. The clone in front of Temari split himself into another clone and Hinata felt that clone jump before its chakra began to condense and suddenly combust before she heard an explosion and felt heat as well as a gust of wind.
"They can all do that." He stated seriously and authoritatively before repeating. "Stand down." Temari bared her teeth and glared looking defiant but Hinata felt her resolve weighing down. She also felt Sasuke's shock when Naruto surrounded Temari in an instant.
"Just get it over with already!" Sasuke barked out and Hinata honestly jumped a little in fear at the emotions that accompanied it. She also felt Naruto's emotions get angry at Sasuke.
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"All that time you were simply playing with me." Sasuke continued in a softer voice.
"Watch it Sasuke." Naruto turned his head to face Sasuke to his right, two steps behind him, and voiced his warning his blue eyes narrowing in the process. Sasuke scared Hinata there for a second, he did not miss that cute little eep to come out of her mouth.
"Or What!?" Sasuke barked and stepped forward to get in Naruto's face finding that although he was an inch taller than the blonde. Naruto had a more muscular and broader mass, his Sharingan memory could tell the difference between the Naruto in front of him and the one he saw on that Saturday afternoon to the smallest detail.
"Don't make me fight you Sasuke." Naruto again warned and Hinata felt him resolve himself to do something if Sasuke kept pushing. Hinata slowly took his hand with both of hers and squeezed it to gain his attention. She shook her head when their eyes met to say don't do it and he sighed in acceptance.
"You think you are better than me!" Sasuke voiced with another bark and Naruto moved his iris to the left to look at Hinata's reaction. She did not react outwardly and he looked back to Sasuke.
"No, nothing like that." Naruto defused the situation with his hands up as a sign of no harm and stepped away from Sasuke Uchiha who still looked angered. In the distance Temari wondered what she could do, she couldn't fight three people at once and protect her younger siblings. Everything was going to hell.
"Do what u want Sasuke." Naruto said and Temari swerved her head to the Uchiha Genin and grimaced when she met his angered black eyes. He took a step forward and Temari remembered the preliminary rounds.
'I need to do something, I need a divergence, a distraction to escape and regroup.' Temari was sweating bullets as she wondered about her plan of action. Sasuke kept approaching in a walk with the Uzumaki blonde simply watching his back, the Hyūga looked to her right looking to be concentrating on something.
'I have no choice.' She decided before tensing her arm muscles, Sasuke at the slightest act of defiance dashed her way and she swung her giant fan. "Wind Release: Air Current Wild Dance!!" Temari created a controlled air current from the gust her fan created. The technique can easily whip up loose dust in the area. It is also performed to create a controllable dust storm.
Sasuke threw himself left, dodging the dust storm and rolling before dashing in again his expression still furious. Temari swung her fan again wanting to deter the Uchiha who jumped high and drew shurikens that he threw in great succession aimed at her.
She swung again to blow all the projectiles off target and when she looked to Sasuke he was too close for her to do a thing. Those piercing black eyes that occasionally flashed red were the scariest sight she had ever seen, and her brother was Gaara. Temari placed her fan in front of her and prepared to tank whatever was handed to her.
Waiting was not something Temari liked doing or standing still so when she heard buzzing everywhere she realized there was something else happening. She peaked her head from the corner of her fan she was surprised to find the Aburama Genin in front of her before she noticed they were in a dome made up of bugs.
"Troublesome." Temari turned around and found the Nara Genin standing behind her between her two brother's downed forms. Gaara seemed to be going through a mid-life crisis as he simply stared up at his raised hand and the blood staining it.
"What do you want tree huggers." She demanded taking a defensive stance.
"To watch clouds, now what about you?" The Nara replied and Temari blinked in confusion. "Too late, troublesome woman." Shikamaru made a seal and took control of his shadow before sending it forward but not at her.
The Aburama parted his dome to let the shadow out and Temari saw the Uchiha already forming a ball of flames from his mouth looking to want to burn them all. When he saw the shadow he made the right decision of abandoning his attack as he skipped backwards a few times to escape the shadow tentacles reach.
"What are you doing?" Temari demanded still confused and getting more so. She couldn't understand why leaf nin would attack other leaf nin but here she was.
"Too many troublesome questions, if you want to live follow us." Shikamaru instructed without any of the urgency of the situation in his voice. Temari felt like she was being played.
"His coming again, we're leaving." Temari looked to her far left in the distance and saw Sasuke back on the path to war. She made up her mind and Shikamaru seemed to read it in her body language as he gave his signal.
"Now!"
"Leaf Gale!" Temari looked up and saw green as the spandex-wearing Genin landed a devastating heel kick in Sasuke's path that had the Uchiha leaping away and it created a giant plum of dust and debris.
"Run!" Shikamaru ordered as he picked up Kankurō and ran to the edge of the mountain before jumping off. Shino followed suit and Temari grits her teeth, faced her fears, and ran to Gaara. She placed him on her shoulder and leaped off the mountain heading to the forest below.
Sasuke coughed a few times to clear the dust in his throat and looked to Rock Lee who bounced on his feet. Sasuke took a step forward and Lee gave him a nice guy smile before turning around and running to the edge of the bridge then he jumped off following his teammates.
Sasuke Ran to the mountain edge to find his enemies gone and his emotions felt betrayed.
"Aghhhhhhhh!!!!" Sasuke's anger soared and he screamed to the heavens.
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"Quite the able Genin he is." The Mizukage observed as he spoke of Naruto Uzumaki but his focus was on Sasuke Uchiha. The boy was losing himself to hatred quickly he was already making a fine Uchiha.
"He is his son." A, voiced, seeing Naruto's speed and strength on display made him class the boy on Jōnin level in those two categories. But what he did with the shadow clones was ingenious, if he wasn't mistaken the boy was creating clones moving at high speed making them appear like they were teleporting to their targets.
"You are a sly man Hiruzen Sarutobi." Onoki revealed looking at the third Hokage who kept a neutral expression as he watched the happenings on the forest floor through a feed on the wall above their viewing station.
'The child of prophecy, he who will bring peace to the nations or destroy it.' The third rather thought. Naruto would be a force of Nature in a few years, he didn't get a chance to speak to Jiraiya when they returned on how the training trip went but it seemed the training went well.
'He failed to convince him of his importance.' Hiruzen deduced from Naruto's earlier stunt. The third did not want to imagine Naruto being on the opposing side of Konoha if war were to break loose.
"I would like to talk diplomatics." Hiruzen began as he looked away from the Tv and toward his fellow Kages. "I know we have our differences in culture, ruling, and approaches but we should not let them cause conflicts between us. I propose an alliance between all our villages and an Allied Shinobi Force." When he finished Onoki laughed alone but loud enough for all of them.
"I think your age has finally gotten to you monkey." The third Tsuchikage said after his laugh died down.
"Why align ourselves with you tree huggers?" A also voiced his disagreement and Hiruzen nodded at the fourth Riagakes inquiry.
"This peace we have had has been enjoyable, is it really bad that an old man such as myself wishes to keep the status quo?" The aged Hokage asked rhetorically which had Onoki snorting.
"Don't take us for fools Hiruzen, I wouldn't align myself with this village even if I were at war with the world." The Tsuchikage said with another snort. "This village breeds hypocrisy like a virus, I will never expose my ninjas and citizens to its disease." The words came out like a fact and A nodded in acceptance of that assessment.
"I would love that." Everybody looked to the Mizukage who spoke and the masked man gave a deep chuckle. "Peace sounds like a good thing." He said as though deep in thought.
"Then you are a fool." Onoki announced with a theatrical arm swing. "Suna is suffering what more assurance do we need to know that this is all just a way to drain us of our resources." He questioned.
"Suna is struggling financially, economically, and militarily. I don't know why it is still considered a big five but its downfall came before its alliance with the leaf." A said looking to the Kazekage's empty seat wondering what the man was doing inside the other room.
"Suna is a desert, I don't know what more you would expect from such a place but an alliance with the rest of us could bring it prosperity once more." The Mizukage spoke and Hiruzen wondered if the man was playing a game or was genuinely interested in the idea of a United front.
The door to the room the Kazekage and his guard entered opened up and the two men stepped out before taking seats in their previous locations looking none the worse. Everybody watched him for a second before looking back to the arena floor or video feeds above them.
"Kazekage-Dono, we were just talking about your home." Hiruzen refrained from sighing as the Mizukage decided to bring up the peace talks. Rasa was a proud man he would not take his village being belittled soundly.
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"(Sigh) There he goes again."Naruto mumbled when he saw Sasuke leap off the edge of the mountain to chase after his enemies. "I know, I know.." Naruto mumbled when he saw the look Hinata was giving him and they dashed off after their wayward teammate.
Sasuke did not like the scenario he found himself in. How was the dobe so fast? What was that thing he did with the clones? In a few moves, he took down the puppeteer and gourd-carrying Genin. Something he couldn't do after fighting them for more than 10 minutes.
'Is he stronger than me?' Sasuke wondered but then shook his head, Naruto could not be stronger than him, the last time they spared the dobe was as slow as a snail, and since then Sasuke has been close to him. One month cannot do that for a person.
A few weeks of training could not change a person so much, Sasuke himself trained tremendously and found results but not to such a magnitude. The Uchiha felt his hands trembling at the thought of fighting Naruto in front of the world, he quickly realized he was scared of losing to the blonde.
Sasuke balled his fists and resolved himself to defeat Gaara and Lee he was just about to jump onto a tree branch when…..
"You are going the wrong way Sasuke." The Uchiha's eyes widened to the size of saucers and he swerved his head to the side to spot the blonde in question running alongside him. "I am a clone, the boss sent me ahead to retrieve you." At that Sasuke's eyes narrowed, did Naruto think himself the boss of him?
"Scram dobe." Sasuke dismissed and the clone chuckled
"I think we might be too old for name-calling. I won't force you but they are waiting by the lakeside, Hinata says they might be trying to recruit Gaara's team." The clone revealed and went off in a puff of smoke. Sasuke stopped in his tracks and bared his teeth before he took a deep breath to calm himself.
"He has to go." The Uchiha decided and turned around heading towards the lakesides, even if he does not win these exams, even if Hinata and his family could not forgive him. The Raven-haired boy chose to eliminate Naruto Uzumaki now before it became impossible later.
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"Set him down!!" Temari ordered with a shout and Shikamaru groaned before dropping Kankurō unceremoniously to the ground the boy was in a medically induced sleep so a groan was all that came out.
"Why did you help us!" She demanded again.
"Leader-San thought it best to ally with your team seeing as team 7 is the team to beat. They are Konohagaru's Genin strike force, with two dojutsu users and a chakra powerhouse who can make clones of himself and bombard you in an instant." Shino's explanation was long but it had the added benefit of boring Temari's hostility out of her.
"And?" She asked waiting for the punchline.
"And a team like that is not a team we can beat without a numbers advantage. Put simply our biggest hitter is Lee." Temari knew that and when she looked at the spandex-wearing boy she got a nice guy smile in return. "He is strong but any member of team 7 can give him a youthful encounter, that would leave Shino and me with two members to fight who have advantages against us." Shikamaru left it there and let Temari figure out the rest.
She looked at her youngest brother and found that he had his eyes closed looking like he was sleeping. Temari found that weird since her brother did not sleep ever, was it the blondes doing? She looked to Kankurō's resting form and again wondered about the blonde Genin.
"Naruto Uzumaki, who is he?" She asked Shikamaru looking him straight in the eyes wanting an answer. No normal Genin could have done that to her brothers.
"An enigma." The Shadow user answered simply before asking his question. "Are you in?" Shikamaru asked and Temari nodded trusting that the stories about Konoha's sentimental nature were true because she knew the Uchiha would kill them if he got to them.
"What is the plan." She asked and Shikamaru nodded sending his teammates to scout the area around them. Lee went to squat on a branch and Shino sent his insects around the forest and found himself a place to stand still and communicate with them.
Shikamaru would not lie, when Shino told him Naruto and Hinata were heading directly towards their location with Sasuke nowhere to be found he panicked.
He thought they were being targeted, Shikamaru was a pragmatic thinker so when he thought about their chances only a miracle would give them a win.
"You should know the Hyūga can see us from anywhere in the arena with her dojutsu. We have no element of surprise going forward from here." The Nara began explaining, making Temari's eyes widen at the news of being observed. Shikamaru did not blame her, Team 7's greatest asset was their Hyūga scouter.
"In a match of attrition, we again will lose because of their troublesome Uzumaki teammate being a stamina freak." Temari was only hearing disadvantages and not any planning what if Team 7 was already on their trail?
"And with the fire release, the Uchiha is a bad match for you, and with his genjutsu a bad match for all of us." Shikamaru continued, he wanted to say bad for Lee but that would be giving away a major weakness of a fellow leaf nin. Temari frowned in the understanding of what the Nara was trying to accomplish by saying all that he said.
The truth the Nara conveyed was that they were all at a disadvantage. Team 7 was a different breed from the norms, they were known as the 'prodigy's prodigies' a team of prodigious ninjas being trained by a prodigious ninja.
"We are the underdogs here." Temari spoke looking at her younger brother who still slept on the ground peacefully.
"As for the plan." The two began at the same time as they came to the same conclusion of what to do. Shikamaru found it not troublesome to talk to this woman, he nodded for her to speak first and he would add something whenever he had to.
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Toneri sat quietly next to Hanabi Hyūga who sat next to Hiashi Hyūga, the Hyūga's head showed no emotion but Toneri could feel the proud aura surrounding him. The man wanted his daughter to marry Naruto Uzumaki and not him, an Ōtsutsuki.
He could not have people getting in the way of his destiny. He had no choice but to move things forward earlier than anticipated but 5 years did not seem like quite a lot.
Toneri nodded his head and gave Neji the signal to get his job done. The Ōtsutsuki was privy to the fact Neji hated him but he did not care for the feelings of vermines only whether they brought results, and after this task, he would exterminate the vermin for the act of hating him.
Neji stood up discreetly and made his way out of the audience viewing section and into the hallways of the arena.
"Hanabi-Chan did you not forget the Byakugan princess's towel." Toneri asked in faux realization and Hanabi's eyes widened at the reminder. She quickly looked into her bag and found the towel not there.
"Bu- but I remember placing it inside." Hanabi said in a panic as she threw everything out of her bag still not finding what she was looking for.
"Maybe you forgot it back at the compound." Toneri suggested and smiled sweetly at Hanabi when he realized he had gained Hiashi's attention.
"May-maybe your right…" Hanabi relented softly not liking Toneri one bit but her sister need her so Hanabi stood up and looked at her father.
"I will be right back Outo-Sama." Hanabi bowed a little and began running.
"Hanabi." She stopped at the call of her father and turned to face him.
"Hurry, you do not want to miss your elder sister do you?" The man asked and Hanabi smiled widely and nodded liking this attitude her father had ever since their grandfather passed away and her sister came back to live with them.
"Hai father!" She exclaimed and dashed out.
An
Team effort.