As soon as Genma's hand dropped and he vanished, Sasuke rushed forward and surprised Dosu as he appeared in front of him in the blink of an eye, the Sound Genin quickly raising his hands into a cross-guard to block.
Sasuke, however, smirked at the attempt to block his attack as he slid past Dosu on his knees, abruptly jumping up and wrapping his arms around the waist of the Sound Genin before heaving and throwing the genin over his head.
As he rushed towards Dosu once more to continue his onslaught, his eyes widened and he came to a sliding stop as the Sound Genin flicked his gauntlet, unleashing a sonic shockwave that made the air vibrate and gave him time to reorient himself.
The Uchiha quickly back-stepped in rapid succession as Dosu landed and charged towards him, pulling a kunai from his pouch and throwing it with pinpoint accuracy at the ground in front of the Sound genin.
Dosu frowned at the random kunai and stopped in his tracks, but Sasuke simply smirked as he spun while activating the ball hidden with a genjutsu on the end of the kunai.
A moment later, Dosu exclaimed in pain at the bright flash of light that nearly blinded him, stumbling backwards right as Sasuke spun around before rushing forward at his opponent.
Pulling two shuriken from his pouch this time, Sasuke threw one in an arc through the air before throwing the second shuriken in a curve up and down into the path of the first one, both shuriken ricocheting off of each other and slicing in a wide arc towards the stumbling Dosu right as Sasuke pulled a kunai from his pouch.
However, the Sound genin smirked as he quickly ducked under both shuriken, making them bounce harmlessly of off each other before surprising Sasuke as he raced forward to meet him.
Pulling his arm back, Sasuke quickly held a kunai up to stop the gauntlet from slamming into the side of his head, but he winced as the sound of metal against metal rang into his skull and twisted his vision.
"That was a dumb move, Sasuke Uchiha." Dosu spoke in his raspy voice as he leapt back, Sasuke wanting to follow before he felt his legs buckle as he fell to the ground with a hoarse cough.
He could feel vomit wanting to come out, but forced it back as he glared in the general direction of Dosu, who looked like a blurry vision in his eyes as the Sound Genin walked forward while flicking his gauntlet to assault the Uchiha shinobi with more sound waves.
Before he could get too close, Dosu's eyes widened as Sasuke was barely able to take a smoke bomb from his pouch and throw it onto the ground, rushing towards the downed Uchiha only to curse as he found him gone from his position.
Not wanting to risk running out and getting a kunai to the neck, Dosu waited as the smoke faded away, turning around in a circle before being surprised to see the Uchiha kneeling on the far wall of the arena with his right hand grasping his left wrist as sparking electricity radiated from his left hand.
'Is…is that…?' Dosu's eyes widened as he saw the sparks of electricity from the hand of Sasuke, having heard stories of Kakashi Hatake's signature jutsu but to see a genin pull it off…
'I guess he really is the prodigy they make him out to be.' Dosu thought with a frown as he saw Sasuke glaring at him before the Uchiha vanished, the only sign of his running being the streak of destruction he left across the ground as streaks of bright blue electricity trailed after him.
Making the Ram sign with his left hand, Dosu fuelled chakra into his gauntlet right as Sasuke appeared in front of him, pulling his fist back before slamming it into the ground and unleashing a shock wave of sound directly in front of him.
"Chidori!" However, his eyes widened as he heard a cry behind him, spinning around only to gasp in pain as a lightning-covered hand pierced through his back and ripped out his chest, looking down at it before back to see a pair of two-tomoe Sharingan staring back at him.
"W-When?!"
"In the smoke bomb. It's a little genjutsu to switch your front from your back." Sasuke explained with a smirk as he grunted while pulling his hand out, unsettled by the blood coating his hand as visions of a bloody night flashed in his sight before shaking his head and steeling his nerves with a deep breath as Genma raised his hand.
"With cause of death, Dosu Kinuta is eliminated from the match! Winner is Sasuke Uchiha!" The crowd roared at his announcement as cheers echoed throughout the arena and while some were a bit unsettled and horrified at the death, most were ecstatic to see another member of Konoha taking the win.
"Uchiha, here." Sasuke turned as he heard Genma spoke, looking at the Special Jonin only to catch the cloth the man tossed at him with a look of surprise.
"Clean up the blood before your next match. Also, did Kakashi teach you that one?" He asked before humming as Sasuke simply nodded while he cleaned off the blood covering his left hand and forearm.
With a quick charge of his chakra, Genma nodded as Sasuke blew out a small flame that burned the cloth to ashes before gesturing to where the other participants were waiting.
"Go up to the balcony. We're about to announce the next match-up."
"Got it." Sasuke nodded as he took one last look at Dosu's body being covered and carted away by the medical shinobi before shaking his head as he made his way towards the pathway to the viewing balcony.
'Death is part of the shinobi life. He was just one of the many lives to be lost and nothing more.'
'I suppose I didn't know much of Dosu's skills to be animating him to a level needed to beat Sasuke.' Kabuto thought with a frown from his ANBU disguise as he sat in the top row of the middle crowd, lifting his hands from his lap where he was making subtle hand signs before crossing his arms as he watched Genma speak.
Since he failed in killing Sasuke a month ago, he thought that he could do so now by using Dosu's body with the Dead Soul Jutsu, but it appears that the month of training with Kakashi has not just made Sasuke stronger but also a lot warier and cautious of his opponent.
'Hah, perhaps I should have just blown up his room to kill him instead of wanting to do it in person.' Kabuto thought with a subtle sigh before rolling his eyes behind his mask as he could feel some of the hidden ANBU trying to surround him from all sides, quickly cutting the connection from the corpse he was controlling.
He smirked at the surprise of the ANBU when the head of one of their members flopped down lifelessly while he leapt across the rooftops of the Leaf Village, knowing that with Shukaku having been sealed away by Naruto that the plan was most definitely not happening.
Wasn't that a surprise when he saw the genin he's come to know as the stupid blond make such an elaborate plan to defeat his foe without showing too much nor exhausting himself against his first opponent?
Don't get him wrong. The amount of chakra Naruto wasted with his clones and elemental Ninjutsu would be enough to knock out the average jonin.
Combine that with the Rasengan-knockoff he used to destroy Gaara's barrier and even Kabuto, who prided himself to be on the level of Kakashi, knew that he would be crawling around from chakra exhaustion.
Fortunately, Naruto was not only an Uzumaki but also the Jinchuriki of the strongest Tailed Beast in existence, meaning that all of those Jutsu did nothing more than fatigue him for a bit but Kabuto was fairly certain the blonde idiot had already recovered from his match and was rearing to go for the next one.
'Perhaps, I could get more information if I were to be the one who rescued Gaara. Hmm, decisions, decisions.'
"Here you go." I spoke up as I tossed a food pill at Sasuke, rolling my eyes at his frown before I smiled as he nodded and took the pill before I rolled my eyes as he tried to hide the relieved look on his face.
"So, did Kakashi-sensei teach you that one?" I asked while looking at him and snorted as he simply gave me a mysterious raised eyebrow before turning back to the battlefield.
"Perhaps. Perhaps not."
"You think the whole 'being mysterious' thing makes you sound cool, but it just makes you look like an idiot that doesn't know what's going on." Sasuke turned his head slowly with a glare aimed at me, which I returned with a happy smile before turning back to the field.
Inside of my mind, though, it was racing at light speed and I might have been panicking slightly as the one thing that I wanted to happen was not taking place.
'When the hell is this invasion supposed to start? Is it even going to start with Gaara being knocked out since he was the signal?' If it was the scenario where they were going to try and rescue Gaara to let him transform, that's going to be a hard fight for them since Pervy Sage was the one guarding him.
However, if it were to be the latter where nothing would happen, then I suppose it's a good thing I tried to come up with ways to fight everyone.
"You know, you two look very relaxed for people that are going to fight in the second round." Shikamaru spoke up and the two of us turned to him before glancing at each other, Sasuke simply humming as I shrugged and turned back to the amused Nara.
"Eh, it's not like we expected it. I just hope he's not going to be a pushover after all the crap he talked to me."
"Hm! I could say the same about a dimwit like you." Sasuke fired back and I smirked at his words while rolling my eyes before we let the conversation die down as Genma began to speak.
"Due to the fact that Neji Hyuga is suffering from chakra exhaustion, we have decided to eliminate him from the tournament!"
"Huh, I guess Shino did more damage than we thought." I muttered out loud with a smirk before turning as I heard footsteps, giving Hinata a smile as she walked up the stairs looking as fresh as a daisy.
"Need a pick-me-up?" I asked as I took out a food pill before nodding as she shook her head, turning to Shikamaru as he hummed to see him raising an eyebrow at me.
"You do realize that those pills only last for a few hours before they knock you out cold, right?"
"Oh, I do, which is why I gave him one that I also coated in a mild laxative that will give him a stomach ache and nothing else." I answered while pointing at Sasuke with a sly look in my eyes, the Uchiha looking surprised at my answer as I turned to give him a grin that I knew set off prank warning bells in his head.
"It is your fault for taking a pill from a potential enemy." Hinata added in with a giggle, Shikamaru giving a nod in agreement as Sasuke simply decided to huff and glare at the air in front of him.
"Go to hell, all three of you."
"Eternal torture sounds like too much work./ I'm quite happy where I am./ No thank you. I hear it's hot in that place." Shikamaru, Hinata and I answered respectively, all three of us stifling our laughter at his eyebrow twitching at our response before we turned to the field as Genma turned to us.
"The four of you! Come down here!" The command confused us all, but we did as asked and leapt down towards him, Sasuke and I basking in the cheers while Hinata waved back shyly at the crowd and Shikamaru decided to put his hands in his pockets with a perfect bored look on his face.
"So, we would usually just let you four fight it out in one on one matches, but the Hokage had the smart idea to ask if you four would want to fight in a four-way match with the last one standing being the winner. Which one would you all like to do more?"
"One on one sounds be-!"
"Four way so we can get this over with quicker./ Four-way /A-A four-way sounds like the best option." Shikamaru, Sasuke and Hinata cut me off in unison before I could finish my sentence, to which I had a confused frown on my face as I looked at them before groaning as all three of them gave me a knowing stare.
"This is going to be a three-on-one match, isn't it?"
"Well, you are the stamina demon here." Hinata said with an apologetic smile and I just gave her a deadpan stare.
"Remind me what's the record of our sparring matches?"
"21 to 9, b-but that's because they're all just taijutsu matches. If you had your clones or your ninjutsu, it would be the other way around." She quickly added and I just huffed before grumbling as Genma looked at me.
"It's three to one, kid. Looks like you're going to have to work for your title."
"Urgh, fine. How are we going to do this?"
"Oh, easy. Each one of you go stand at a cardinal direction and when the match starts, you go at it. That's about it. So, you guys ready or do you need a moment to prepare?"
"Good./ Ready to go./ Yep." Three of us said in unison before turning to the fourth member, a bemused look appearing on my face as Shikamaru groaned while nodding.
"Fine, ready."
"What are you so tired about? I'm the one that has to fight all three of you."
"That's exactly it. Do you understand just how resilient idiots like you are are?"
"Aw~ Thanks for the insulting compliment, you lazy bastard." I spoke with a happy smile as I patted him on the back, but Shika wheezed as I gave one hard tap that made him stumble forward.
"All right, team! Let's get this match on the road!"
"Someone's in a hurry to lose." I heard Sasuke mutter and simply stuck my tongue at him as I looked up at where the sun was before taking south as my starting position, Hinata and Shikamaru taking east and west respectively as Sasuke took north.
"Okay! This is the new final match: A four-way battle between Hinata Hyuga of the Leaf, Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf, Shikamaru Nara of the Leaf and Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf! The last shinobi or kunoichi standing will be the winner! Is everyone ready?!" Instead of answering, I nodded as I held my hand to my leg pouch while crouching slightly, everyone else doing the exact same as I watched Genma nod before he dropped his hand.
"Begin!"
"Water Style: Liquid Bullet!" / "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" As soon as Genma disappeared, Sasuke didn't waste any time as he weaved through hands while taking a deep breath and blew a stream of blazing orange flames at me, which I responded in kind with a grin as I took a deep gulp of air before spitting out a torrent of rapid water.
As the two attacks clashed, a cloud of steam erupted from the connecting points that began to cover the space around us, but I was not done as I weaved through another set of seals while ending my first jutsu.
"Ninja Art: Hidden Mist Jutsu!" As soon as I activated the jutsu, my grin widened at Sasuke's curse as my chakra latched onto the steam created by our clash, cooling it considerably before the cold mist covered the entire arena floor.
'Just to be sure, Kurama, you know what to do, right?'
"We're fighting against an Uchiha. Of course I know what to do." Kurama spoke up as I felt his chakra flushing through my system for a brief second, not only restoring my chakra back to full but also disrupting it and dispelling any genjutsu that may have been placed on me.
The shift in the area was immediate as I heard two sets of footsteps rushing closer through the thick mist, the first set sounding light and quiet while the second was fast and harsh as they ran in from behind.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Quickly creating four clones in front of me, I concentrated chakra to my feet and flipped over the sliding kick of Sasuke from behind, watching as Hinata was greeted by four clones the moment the mist dispelled before my eyes widened as I caught sight of a shadow rushing towards me from one of the trees off to the side.
With another hand sign, a clone appeared besides me midair before he threw me towards the wall and away from the spot where the shadow would have caught me had I land there.
Crashing feet first into the wall and cracking it slightly with my impact, I didn't have much time to focus on that as Sasuke rushed up it towards me, readying myself as I made sure to look at his feet lest I fall into another genjutsu again.
Immediately, I had to block a spinning kick to my skull, grabbing at Sasuke's ankle before letting go as the Uchiha used the grab as leverage to try an overhead kick.
Moving back as the kick missed clipping my nose, I quickly rushed forward and threw a quick jab at his face, which he leaned back for but it was a feint as I reached out and the surprised Uchiha by the back of his neck.
Pulling him forward, he was quick to block the knee attack but not the back heel to the face, lunging forward as the weak attack made him flinch before he quickly leaned to the side as I tried to land an axe kick to his shoulder.
Using the force of the attack to lean under his spinning heel kick, I spun around only to be greeted with a stomp to the chest, but I pushed through the pain and grabbed his heel, surprising Sasuke as I pulled him off of his feet before spinning rapidly and throwing him towards Hinata right as she landed a palm strike to the last clone.
Not done yet, I took out a trio of shuriken and threw it at the two genin before grinning as I made a shadow clone and both of us weaved through a couple of hand signs.
"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"
"Ninja Art: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" The next moment, I watched as three shuriken turned into fifty before they were all given a significant boost by the current of winds that the clone made, thankful for the fact that I learned the shuriken variant of Shadow Clones during the month of training and experimentation.
"Rotation!" Hinata, however, showed why she was a finalist as she unleashed a continuous burst of chakra while spinning rapidly to form a dome of rapidly spinning chakra in front of Sasuke, the shuriken ricocheting away and stabbing into the ground around them instead.
'Kurama, how many heals left?'
"One more and after that, I'd be forced to make you activate the chakra cloak, which you know you can't control yet…which I can say has to be a travesty because when Kushina got me, she was able to control four tails instantly."
'Kurama…later.' I thought with a sigh and I rolled my eyes as I heard the fox huff before taking a deep breath as I felt for my chakra and found it to be three-quarters full.
'Prepare for a heal.'
"…Hehe~ You just love showing off, don't you?" He spoke and I smirked at the excited tone in his voice as I bit my left thumb before smearing the blood on my right palm.
Weaving through five familiar hand signs, I grinned at the shocked gasps coming from probably the shinobi in the crowd recognizing them as I leapt off and far away from the wall before spinning around in the air to face the area the trio of genin were waiting whilst my right palm down towards the ground.
"Summoning Jutsu!" I roared as I fuelled nearly all of my chakra into the jutsu along with half of what Kurama gave me, immediately feeling the exhaustion sinking before gasping as Kurama's chakra restored my chakra back up.
"So!" I roared as the cloud of the summoning faded away, standing on the head of a large light-green skinned toad that had two katanas strapped to his back with my arms crossed while looking down at my shocked foes.
"Who wants to get their ass kicked first?!"
A/N: And we're ending on a cliffhanger~! Next chapter, Gamahiro-Naruto combo!
Also, I'm making Gamahiro & Gamaken like the younger henchmen of Gamabunta that will be fully grown in about a year or two so right now, they're about half of his size right now and growing.
If they weren't…well, we would be having a squished Sasuke, Hinata and Shikamaru right now, which isn't what we want.
Also, this Naruto is the type to go over & beyond the needed force just to be sure that his opponent is defeated or killed to spare himself the unnecessary stress...that's all.
Like always, you can go to my Pat-reon-.-com-/-KingCrimsonNova to read ahead on this as well as many other stories & even some that haven't been released out to this site yet. If you want to, you are free to, but if you don't want, all's good as I will still be uploading here. This is just me trying to get some extra cash.
As always, read, enjoy, review and until next week...
Ba-Bye~!