Now this was an unfortunate match.
And not only for Ino.
'This won't be fun at all.' Daiki groaned inwardly.
And not only that. But how was he supposed to show off, with an opponent he could beat in what amounted to a blink of the eye.
And it royally sucked for Ino.
He was literally her worst match up possible.
'Oh well, nothing for it.' he mused with a shrug, before hopping down. Nobody wished him luck.
Not even Hinata.
Because nobody thought he'd need it he was sure.
While it was a bit disappointing for him. For Ino, as she made her way down, trudging her way down more like, it seemed more as if she was headed towards the gallows.
Poor girl.
There was a massive grimace on her pretty face as she took her position in front of him and her shoulders were slumped.
"…This seriously isn't fair." the blonde pouted.
"At least you have the courage to actually face me," Daiki replied, there wasn't really much he could do here to console her, they both knew how this would end, "It's impressive on of itself you have the guts to stand against the strongest guy here after all."
"…I am pretty great," she agreed, her frown twitching into a brief smile, before she sighed, "No way I can beat somebody stronger than Sasuke-kun though."
"Don't feel too bad about it," Daiki shrugged, and spread his arms wide and let his voice become louder, making sure everyone heard him, "After all, there isn't a single genin here that can beat me, hell every other genin here could come at me at the same time and I'd still clap every single one of them."
"Yeah, why don't you say that to my face!?" he heard Naruto shout from behind him.
"Yeah, don't talk shit Daiki you prick!" Kiba agreed with him.
"I would be most interested in testing that Daiki-kun, such a youthful boast!" Lee added.
"I hate this kid." Kankuro's grumble was quite audible as well.
"That doesn't actually make me feel all that much better since I actually do have to fight you and not any of them." Ino pouted, "I don't suppose you'd be willing to throw the fight?"
"Usually, I'd be all for it if you made it worth my while," Daiki mused, voice lowering so it wasn't heard quite as easily, "Sadly, can't do that. It's my mission to go all Tobirama on this exam and make Konoha great again."
"…The second Hokage?" Ino raised an eyebrow at him, "Wait, mission?"
"I mean, you already heard back in the first exam along with everyone else, I'm the big bad ringer," he grinned, "I'm here to kick ass, take names and show off. Basically, since this is a dick measuring contest for all possible clients to see, the old man wanted me, the guy with the biggest dick of all to swing it around and clap cheeks."
Ino took a moment to process his words before nodding, "…That does kinda make sense with what Hokage-sama just told us," she nodded slowly, before snorting, "You should be careful with boasts like that though, what'll you do if somebody actually calls you out and asks you to prove how 'big' a deal you are?" she grinned.
"Depends on who's asking," Daiki shrugged, not missing a beat, "I mean, if you want me to prove it, I have no problem at all whipping it out gorgeous."
Ino blinked and was stunned into silence, face turning a crimson red.
Hayate sighed, "…Can we get a move on please?"
"Sure," Daiki shrugged, "And I'll be generous Ino, give you a chance to show off. I'll give you twenty seconds, I won't attack back at all, so feel free to come at me with everything you have."
"…Wait, seriously?" she blinked again and gaped at him.
"Seriously serious," He nodded, "I mean, you earned your spot here, it wouldn't be kosher if you didn't get the chance to prove your mettle and show if you're chunin material just because you're up against a guy that can slap around Jonin like little brats."
Ino bit her lip, "…Usually, I'd be insulted at this, but I saw how easily you dismantled that rain guy, this fight would be over in instant if you didn't." she grudgingly accepted.
She had her pride as well after all.
"Alright, enough of this." Hayate groaned and promptly declared the beginning of the match.
Daiki crossed his arms and smirked.
Ino took that as his approval for her to go right ahead. She visibly channelled chakra through her feet and propelled herself towards him with a burst of speed.
It wasn't the shunshin, but more of a rudimentary prelude to it. Not a bad idea either.
She rushed through a couple of hand seals, and a cloud of smoke erupted around her, and just like in the previous match, multiple blondes erupted from the smoke.
Each were holding handfuls of shuriken and quickly spread apart, spreading out from around his front.
Each let loose, slinging ten shuriken each towards him.
A hail of fifty shuriken shot towards him.
Only ten of them were actually real though.
The barrage of ten coming from his far left, Ino had switched her positions with one of her illusionary clones to try and throw him off.
A decent use of the academy clone jutsu.
Too bad he could see straight through them.
He side stepped them easily, allowing them to fly straight passed his body, and didn't even blink as the rest of the shuriken passed straight through his body as if they were never there.
All five Ino's grimaced noticeably.
"Damnit." the real blonde cursed, and the other clones disappeared a moment later.
She kept rushing him though, lunging into a thrusting knee strike, all her weight and strength behind it.
He juked slightly to the side letting her sail right past him. She landed a moment later and immediately whirled into a round house kick aimed at the back of his head.
He stepped forward and let it pass through empty air.
He'd give Ino one thing, while she wasn't all that fast, she was quick mentally and immediately kept the attack up, aiming for a punch aimed at his kidneys.
Her technique was basic, but well polished and aiming for vital points constantly.
'Four.' he mentally counted as he spun slightly out of the way of her punch, even as she dug her feet into the ground and shot right back around to him, exploding into a flurry of punches and kicks that he weaved around or deflected.
"Your taijutsu isn't bad at all," he praised, "Though your conditioning could do with a little work, and you need more jutsu for sure, cuz you have no options beyond this with me, has your sensei not been teaching you anything?"
Honestly, what the hell was up with Kakashi, Kurenai and Asuma, they didn't seem to teach their students jack shit.
'Seven…..eight.' he mentally counted as the match went on.
"Asuma-sensei is just as big a lazy bum as Shikamaru and Choji!" Ino grunted, not letting up at all, "He's only drilled us physically and taught us to attack as a team."
…That sounded familiar.
"Heh, you know, the more I hear about how the jonin are teaching you guys," Daiki mused idly as he deflected a punch over his shoulder by poking Ino's wrist with one finger, "The more I'm glad I never ended up with one, sounds like a total waste of time."
"Lucky…you!" Ino grunted, whipping her hand back to try and grasp his neck at the same time she jumped into a rising knee aimed for his chin.
He was fast enough that a simple diagonal step backwards allowed him to evade both and Ino grunted again in frustration.
Mid-air for only a moment, she grabbed a trio of kunai from her pouch, lobbing one with a flick of her finger aimed at his face.
He tilted his head to the side and caught it by the handle.
With his teeth.
"…That's just absurd." Ino growled, even as she switched one of the two kunai remaining in her hand to her off hand and landed, pushing off with a burst of chakra and dual wield slashing at him.
He clasped his hands behind his back at the same time, he block and deflected her blows using only the kunai held between his teeth.
And to think, Isobu thought he shouldn't have Roronoa as his middle name!
Time ran down quickly, and Ino was no closer to hitting him.
'Eighteen….nineteen.' he idly counted off.
Ino visibly ground her teeth together as he parried one of her slashes down with the kunai in his mouth, the force behind it actually forcing her to kneel on one leg.
She showed a surprising amount of skill though when she flicked her fingers up, letting the kunai in the hand he'd just parried shoot up towards his chin, at the same time she pushed back with her back leg and tossed the one in her other hand.
One coming up for his chin, the other straight for his heart. A pincer technique, cutting off any escape avenue beyond one side.
At the same time her hands came together in an unfamiliar seal as she shot back and landed, a square like space gap between her fingers.
"Twenty." Daiki declared aloud.
And then he moved.
He disappeared in a blur of speed and Ino's eyes widened. She never got the chance to fire off her special clan jutsu, because Daiki was suddenly behind her.
One hand wrapping around her waist and pinning her arms to her sides, while the other wrapped around her throat and pinned her bodily to his chest.
"And that's match," Daiki grinned down at the blonde, "Not bad at all Ino, you're a lot more skilled than I thought you were."
"…Easy for you to say when you danced around me like a child," Ino sighed, "Well, whatever, I already knew it would end like this."
"With you pinned against me?" Daiki asked, grin widening.
Ino tensed in his grip, suddenly realising their position before relaxing and tilting her head up slightly to grin at him, "Well it's not a bad position to be in," she shrugged, though only because he allowed it, "Did you want to show me you weren't lying about your boasts that much earlier?" she flirted, surprising him a bit and wiggled her backside against his hips.
….This could be bad.
While usually he wouldn't mind at all.
Currently, there was one girl specifically whom he was flirting with and preparing to possibly pursue a relationship with.
One girl whom was watching right now from above. It was one thing to flirt with other girls when he still wasn't in a relationship with Tenten.
It was another to do it in front of her.
'Wait, why do I feel four different killing intents?' Daiki blinked, confused.
Did somebody have a crush on Ino that he didn't know about?
"I mean, if you want to see it, just look me up after this exam where we can have some privacy and I don't mind giving you an up close and personal look." Daiki replied, and released her, stepping back.
"You tease," Ino pouted at him, even as she turned around and idly rubbed her throat, "Well, I'll keep that in mind."
With that said, the blonde turned to Hayate who was watching them drily, his gaze completely un-impressed, "So yeah, um, proctor guy, I give up, surrender and all that." she declared.
"Uh-hu…" Hayate deadpanned, before slowly lifting his hand into the air, "Yamanaka Ino has surrendered, the winner is Yurei Daiki…please quickly vacate the arena so we can choose the next match participants." he said, voice completely monotone.
He looked completely done with life.
As the match end, Ino visible shuddered, "Man, is it cold in here or what, I just had this shiver go up my spine." the blonde rubbed her hands together.
Daiki shrugged at the blonde girls words and took his leave, making his way back up to the railing above.
As he did though and made to walk back to his spot, he passed by Gai and his team, and a certain bun haired girl wasn't very content to let him just go by.
Tenten grabbed his arm and pulled him in beside her, as she did, he thought he saw Hinata narrow her eyes in his direction.
"Really?" Tenten questioned him, gaze dry, "The hell was with the flirting?"
"Animal magnetism?" Daiki replied with a shrug and grin. It was more Ino flirting with him after all.
"Then I might just need to muzzle you." she deadpanned.
Ouch.
Daiki winced, but before he could reply, a hand clapped him over the shoulder, "That was a most youthful match Daiki-kun!" he looked over his shoulder to see Lee grinning at him brightly, "Though I am quite keen to test that boast of yours from earlier."
"Fine with me," he grinned back at the older boy, "Just make sure you pass these prelims, I'll happily fight you in the real third exam and show you why I'm the strongest guy there is."
"Yosh!" Lee pumped his fist, "I will strive to do so! If I cannot defeat my opponent and make it to the third exam, I will run five thousand laps around Konoha and on my hands!"
"That's the spirit Lee!" Gai cheered him on.
Neji, leaning over the railing snorted, "Such childish boasting," the Hyuuga said, "Mere words with nothing to back it up."
"Somebody's a little salty he isn't the strongest Konoha genin anymore," Daiki shrugged, "It's alright Neji, I don't think any less of you, it's only natural to be jealous of someone as awesome as me."
The Hyuuga merely snorted derisively and didn't reply again.
Somebody would really need to do something about that guy. Assuming Naruto didn't do it, Daiki supposed he wouldn't mind kicking his fate loving ass around.
Neji was a good ally to have after all, once he got that stick pulled out of his ass about fate.
And well, Daiki was pretty sure he could get rid of the Cage Bird Seal, plus he was in line to be Hokage so he could force the issue of abolishing it.
He wouldn't stand for any of his citizens being slaves. If the Hyuga wanted slaves, they should just go hunt some rock humpers.
"You really need to learn to stop running your mouth," Tenten sighed, "It's not like you're not strong, crazy strong and skilled for a rookie, but Neji's a genius you know?"
"I'm a super a genius four, which is forty thousand times better than a regular genius." Daiki replied without missing a beat
Tenten gave a slow blink, before shrugging, "Okay."
She apparently knew a losing battle when she saw one.
He wasn't quite sure he liked that though.
She clearly didn't believe him.
"I'm stronger, faster, more durable, know more jutsu," he shrugged and pointed out, "On top of that the Gentle Fist doesn't work on me."
"Don't go assuming just because you play with Hinata-sama and Hanabi-sama, that you've seen the true power of the Gentle Fist," Neji snorted derisively once again, not even turning around to look at him, "The difference between my taijutsu and theirs is as vast as the distance between heaven and earth."
Ooh, how testy.
"Being more skilled at it doesn't change what it does and what it does has no effect on me buddy," Daiki shrugged, "But I'll happily prove to you how much stronger I am once we fight in the third exam, assuming you don't get your ass kicked."
"Your words mean nothing, fate has already decreed that I shall be the victor." Neji replied simply and said nothing more.
What a boring guy.
He didn't get the chance at say anything else though, because Hayate apparently decided it was time to get a move on.
And the huge screen began to rapidly cycle through names.
Before landing on two surprising names
Daiki blinked.
Huh.
Temari Vs Tenten.
Maybe fate really did exist?
"Huh, guess I'm up." Tenten grinned eagerly, punching a fist into her palm.
She had no idea.
That besides himself and Gaara, Temari was the worst possible match up for her here.
"Gonna wish me luck?" she asked him, grin widening.
"Good luck," he replied, giving her a half smile, "If you win, I'll give you a present."
"Is it a lap dance?" Tenten asked impishly, raising an eyebrow at him challengingly.
"If you want, but I don't quite have hips like yours." he involuntarily grinned.
"Well, I'll hold you to that then." she laughed, walking passed him on her way down to the arena below, but as she did, she whipped her hand out and smacked him on the ass.
He blinked owlishly.
"Tenten!?" both Lee and Gai goggled at her actions in shock.
Her grin turning massive, Tenten continued on her way down, even as killing intent spiked in the room to almost massive degrees.
Moments later, the bun haired girl was down in the arena, standing opposite of the blonde suna kunoichi.
Who had quite the venomous look in her usually lovely teal green eyes.
Her venomous gaze flickered up to meet his eyes for a moment, before looking back at Tenten, lips pulling back nearly into a snarl.
Tenten said utterly nothing at the gaze directed her way.
'What's up with her?' Daiki wondered, she was much more derisive and mocking originally, but now she was blatantly angry about something.
Was it because of him taking the piss out of her the other day, mocking not only her, but her brother, her father and even her homeland?
'Maybe I should have given Tenten some advice?' he mused as Hayate stepped up to begin the match.
It might not change the results, but if Tenten knew in advance she would be fighting a wind user and that long distance weapon techniques would be useless, her chance of winning by getting in close would be much better.
He knew personally after all, that Tenten was both faster and stronger than Temari physically and much more skilled in close combat.
If she got close before Temari brought out her fan and pressured her, she could possibly win.
'Oh well, too late now.' he mused as Hayate called for the beginning of the match.
And immediately grimaced as Tenten leaped back, gaining distance, her hands flashing into her equipment pouches and unleashing a bevy of shuriken in the blink of an eye.
Each spiralled through the air rapidly, and it wasn't just some random throw, each had their own specific trajectory, spread out and aimed towards Temari's vitals.
If she was say, a fire user, she'd have no choice but to dodge and give Tenten the advantage to press her.
Sadly, she was a wind user though.
Temari's hand went to the fan on her back and she pulled it forward, running wind chakra down its length.
She didn't even open the fan itself, just whipped the huge metal base of it and sent a short but powerful gust of wind to meet the shuriken, blowing them away.
'That wind chakra metal is really something.' he mused. It allowed the sandy blonde to perform high level wind jutsu, without hand seals and more or less instantly.
"Is that all you Konoha girls can do?" Temari scoffed loudly, "Throw around hunks of metal like some little academy brat?"
Tenten's lips fell into a frown, but she didn't reply with words. Instead, she reached for her pouch, drawing five kunai and with a whip of her hand, sent all five soaring through the air like bullets towards the blonde, one aimed for her head, one for her neck, one her heart, and two at her kidneys.
It was quite an impressive throw actually.
"This again?" Temari scoffed, unveiling her fan ever so slightly and swinging it.
Once again, a burst of wind chakra sent the barrage of kunai flying away.
But Tenten wasn't idle, already having leaped into the air, the bun haired girl drew a single scroll, unrolling it and giving it a whipping motion as if it were a whip itself.
Daiki saw her chakra spreading through the scroll itself, going through each and every single storage seal inscribed on the scroll.
There was a burst of smoke, and a split moment later, dozens of different weapons rained down from above down towards the blonde.
Swords, spears, sickles, scythes, axes, kunai, shuriken and more.
And with their trajectory, they didn't just go for Temari's front, but as they fell,, spread out so they were coming towards her from each angle.
"Hmph!" Temari open her fan a bit more and spun, unleashing another, though much larger burst of wind chakra that spiralled around her form and blew away all of Tenten's weapons once again.
It was almost comically unfair how badly Tenten's skillset matched up against Temari.
But such was the life of a ninja.
Unfairness galore, if one couldn't overcome a bad match up, they were destined to fail and die during their missions at some point, usually quite early in life.
"Tch." Tenten clicked her tongue as she landed.
"Done already?" Temari taunted, slamming the butt of her fan into the ground and leaning on it casually, tauntingly.
"Not quite." Tenten replied.
"No, you are." Temari denied, the blonde heaving her fan up before whipping it around, the two moons on it displayed proudly, "Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!"
From the fan, a compressed torrent of slicing winds were released, roaring through the air towards Tenten.
Just before they hit her though, the bun haired girl launched herself into the air, a pair of scrolls pulled from her equipment pouches. The wind tore through her previous position, leaving great gouges in the ground.
As soon as she unrolled them and channelled chakra through them, a pair of smoky dragons erupted from the scrolls and rushed down towards Temari.
Or so it seemed.
Rather, they slammed into the ground on each side of her and burst into a great cloud of smoke, obscuring both of the girls from view.
Though Daiki could see them both easily with his eyes.
Temari wasted no time in whipping her fan out, blowing the great cloud of smoke away.
But it was enough, Tenten was already in motion.
She spun like spinning top mid-air, rapidly rotating, and a moment later, a massive barrage of weapons launched down towards Temari. It was just like her previous attack.
Only, the scale was vastly different.
Where before it was multiple dozens, this time, it was multiple hundreds of different weapons that rained down like a metal shower of death towards the blonde.
For a split moment, Temari's eyes widened in panic, before she regained control and unwound her fan properly.
'It's over.' Daiki clicked his tongue.
"Wind Style: Raging Gale Wall!" Temari swung her fan, all three moons on it blazing proudly with chakra.
A massive churning gale erupted from the blondes fan, and despite the massive scale of amount of weapons aimed at her, they were blown away completely.
"I'm still not done yet!" Tenten roared as she fell towards the ground, she pulled her hands back and Daiki blinked as he saw chakra shining with his eyes.
Chakra strings, not ninja wire?
She whipped both hands out, all of the weapons lifting into the air and rushing towards Temari.
It wasn't some full on charge of weapons though, not something so straight forward.
They spread out, coming at the blonde from all directions, from three hundred and sixty degrees, aiming at every part of her body from her feet and ankles to her legs, stomach, chest, heart, neck and head.
…And the speed of the weapons shooting through the air was much greater than before.
'This is new.' Daiki blinked, surprised.
Everything had been going more or less the same as the other timeline, until now.
And here we are back again, this time with the big three to the two, thirty sexy sexy six. And we've broken 200k words on here with this chapter, yay I guess?
There really was little chance of Ino managing to beat Daiki at all, like less than one percent. He's just that far above her, but he gave her a chance to show off, being a 'great' guy and all. And we've moved on to Tenten versus Temari. I was actually surprised this came up with the randomizer, and there's another one just like it that I was even more surprised to see. Tenten as you can see, has stepped a bit more into her Shippuden repertoire here thanks to a large jump in chakra control thanks to Daiki. We've finished up to chapter 41 on the Pa-atreon and will be moving on to chapter 42 soon, and I also I just finished off chapter 8 of my Danmachi fic on it as well.
Anyway, should have been a bit further ahead and had this uploaded days ago, but honestly I've had a hell of a past week. From my grandfather falling twice in his care home and injuring his back, to being sick, to my aunt going on holiday and thus needing me to look after my nephew, to somebody setting my sisters door on fire and trying to murder her...to my little brother dying just there on Saturday. It's been pretty rough, so yeah, sorry for the delay.
Anyway, shameless Pa-atreon plug. I've got one, go by the same username on there, easy to find and all that jazz. Support me if you want, it'd be swell, but don't feel pressured lads and ladies, I'll be uploading my stuff outside it regardless and not keeping it all behind a paywall or anything like that.