It was that time again, the Chuunin Exams. All had retaken the test as only Shikamaru advanced last time. This year it was in the country of rain, which was quite different. Sakura with neither Sasuke nor Naruto teamed with Ino and Chouji who had lost Shikamaru. Once again there had been some very talented ninja coming from all around to advance. Once again, Konoha ninja exceeded in their talents, as well as the sand ninja. The hidden village of sound had also entered in a talented team of ninja and the rain ninja were surprisingly good. This Chuunin exam was a little different from the one they were used to. The first test was not a written exam, it was a scavenger hunt with many things to accomplish and find before the end of the test. The second test was like the forest of death but in the underground bunker caves the hidden village of rain used many times to escape to continuous monsoons. The last test was about to commence, it wasn't a tournament, but one fight with whomever they were paired against. One fight was all they had to show to examiners they were ready to be promoted to Chuunin ninja.
First to step up to the plate, was Aburame Shino. He was matched against a ninja from the hidden valley of the mist in the water country. They hadn't had the opportunity of seeing each other in the preliminary fights this year as the Rain examiners believed all should have a right to battle it out.
Shino stepped forward after getting words of good luck from his team and even a nod from Kankuro. The battleground was soft and muddy with the continuous rain which was coming down lighter than normal for this village. The conditions and weather would make things interesting and very much in favour of the water ninja and rain ninja who had made it through to this round. The field referee officially began the match and both fighting ninjas prepared themselves.
The Water ninja threw a kunai at Shino to get things started; Shino stayed where he was and deflected it with his own kunai. The ninja came at him quite quick and threw a punch, now Shino moved and got out of the way. Another kunai was thrown at Shino and he was easily able to dodge it. As Shino dodged and off balance unable to stop, he had some sort of ice crystals coming at him. He couldn't stop them all and couldn't dodge as he was already in a wrong body position, so he jumped. There was a tree on the battlefield and the first branch was there for Shino to grab and pull himself onto.
Shino believed the enemy used ice attacks, which would be quite troublesome for his bugs. He didn't have too long to think it over though as a chunk of ice came hurtling towards him, his kunai broke it up before he could reach him, but he had been tricked. When the ice cracked from his kunai, gas spiled from the chunk and moved towards him. The enemy had counted on him to break the ice for this poison attack.
Shino held his breath; it was all he could do, until he found somewhere else to go. He jumped down off the branch and the ninja was there next to him waiting. Shino grabbed him with both arms to restrict any movement, but left himself vulnerable to a knee in the stomach. He was sent flying backwards clutching his winded stomach, but he was able to leave a few bugs when he grabbed the opponent.
The crowd applauded the bout, which Shino had just lost, but he was ready. He stood up, didn't say a word and ordered the bugs to begin leaching chakra. Both stood off with each other for a while waiting for the other to move. Shino noticed the face change of the competitor, "What's this?" He glanced to his back and noticed the bugs, "they are eating my chakra aren't they?" He turned his head and bent his arms back to brush them off and Shino used this opportunity to strike. He moved in quite quickly to punch the ninja in the face with a clean shot. The ninja didn't fall, but broke up into a puddle of water. It was a water clone. Then a ninja came up from hiding and once again kicked Shino in the same spot, Shino didn't fall though but broke up into thousands of bugs. The bug clone technique gave Shino and opening to move in and properly send the enemy ninja flying backwards after a clean shot. The crowd applauded louder this time from the show, Shino managed to get one back and needed to stay a few steps ahead as he wasn't confident on beating this ninja on speed and power.
The ninja got off the ground and smiled, "Konoha ninja are quite good, I am glad to face one of the genin from the great shinobi nations." Shino didn't answer, he didn't care for talking, he just wanted to win and then see how much he could talk. The ninja did some seals, "Aufeis Ice technique". Shino looked at his feet where the puddles of water from the rain were quickly turning into ice. He was only just able to get out of the way before sharp ice crystals sprang up from the ground, which could have ended things there. The enemy ninja used this opportunity to come in for his taijutsu again. Shino was ready and waited, as he came in and threw a punch Shino noticed something with his face. It reminded him of Sasuke when he would do his fire breathing technique. It alarmed him and he got out of the way before the ninja started spitting out ice knives aimed at his neck. "How did you know about my Pagophagia technique?" Shino didn't answer but his chance to strike again. Shino saw, the ninja noticed something again, the ninja had noticed again Shino had dropped bugs on him. "Too bad bug boy." He did some seals and ice formed briefly on his skin, killing the bugs and being able to watch Shino. This displeased Shino greatly; he would now be aware of this and most likely do this technique every so often to avoid having his chakra sucked out.
Shino couldn't openly use bugs on his opponent as it would be a waste. He had dropped a number of bugs on his competitor but they were finding it difficult in the cold conditions that surrounded the enemy with the array of ice attacks. He would have to use taijutsu, which was not his strength but he did have a plan. The bugs on his opponent wouldn't prove useful and just as putting them onto the ground as the ice formed there would also kill off his bugs. He had a solution, he was quite confident it would work. First he had to check the area around him, his opponent noticed this. "What are you looking for? Wherever you and your bugs go I will find and beat you." Shino as usual said nothing, he would win and he knew it.
He ran over to his right before being interrupted by the ninja with a kunai. He slashed at Shino who was able to dodge and counter attack. Another water clone, Shino turned to see the real one behind him but he was able to jump out of the way and dodge the attack leaving the opponent where he was just standing. They stood there looking at each other for sometime, before the ninja made some seals. "Ice Fortress technique." This seemed to be the enemy's main attack. Shino ordered his bugs come out for his bug wall technique;
Shino knew his bugs could hold off the ice attacks for some time for him to think of something. It held up well, but his bugs were tiring, he noticed the ground was starting to freeze over. The enemy was doing some sort of technique, definitely the main attack. He had made a mistake of doing this, but Shino needed a way out first. He could have put a bug clone in and got to safety but decided to stay where he was. It was a little more time and then ice sprang up from his feet and covered his ankles trapping him to the ground. The ice shackles were quite hardy; he wasn't able to move out of this one. He ordered the bugs to fly a little longer, and then return to him as the ice fortress technique was quite terrible. The ice had made its way up to Shino's knees and stopped there, Shino ordered the bugs to return to him and wait for the enemy to act. When the bugs stopped, Shino was able to see what was going on around him while he wasn't able to see through the bugs. It really was an ice fortress around him; he was trapped within it, with the enemy ninja, frozen to the ground. "You're trapped bug boy with nowhere to go. It is time to finish off my attack, unless you want to give up and save your life." Shino smiled, he actually smiled, "I believe you should be the one giving up so I can spare your life. The ninja laughed in his face, he began to set up a final attack to finish Shino off.
Kiba was watching this through the rain; it was light rain so he could see it well. Shino didn't look too worried he believed he had a plan of some sort. He just hoped he would hurry up as this ninja was planning to kill him now.
A huge ice crystal formed around the ninjas hand in the shape of a very sharp object. It would easily pierce straight through Shino's body but he waited. It was taking unusually long; he seemed to not be able to mould his chakra to produce a solid enough ice as he needed. His face began to change, he grew weaker. He noticed there was some bugs on him again which had been left by Shino. But his ice defences were not getting them off. He started to panic as the bugs were still sucking out chakra, he believed because Shino was trapped he could afford to brush them off. He got them off and dropped to his knees, he was still getting weaker. "How? Your bugs can't survive."
"In cold winters, bugs can create what we call galls which are protective cloaks to protect them from cold conditions. These bugs I dropped on you created these galls and was able to suck chakra enough to distract and slow you down while I stalled time with my bug wall technique and getting captured by your ice fortress technique. You see these bugs were not the ones you were damaged by." The ninja looked confused and then looked down to his legs and with a lot of effort reached over and pulled his pant leg up to find many bugs covering his leg. "You see, before I was looking for ground not too flooded from rain and not frozen over from your techniques, this patch was quite good for my bugs to burrow into the ground, another survival technique for cold weather. They crawled up your legs and began sucking your chakra out. So when you stopped me from moving before and jumped into the spot where I was, you were then in my trap rather than me being in yours." The ninja had been beaten, he could no longer move and if they kept going had a possibility of dying, "I give up." He managed to say and the referee officially awarded Aburame Shino as the winner.
The crowd were quite impressed with the effort and smarts Shino displayed. As usual being steps ahead of the enemy proved useful against the ice ninja from the water country.
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Story notes: Unreal story to do, loved every chapter
Chapter notes: Shino is actually cool to write fighting scenes for.