Restoration of Faith

Karrafear

Summary: SEQUAL to Faith in Humanity; Naruto OOC; PG-13. After Sandaime's death, Naruto made a promise to himself to defy his own destiny and pursue a future that will lead to freedom and happiness. Chapter Twenty-Eight: 2nd Exam Day one Fight I

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"Demon's talk", /Thoughts/, "Speech", 'Speech emphasis', (FLASHBACK), Titles, (Author's interruptions)

Warning: Like the last chapter, this one will have an explanation of what they must do at the top followed by how the individual genins perform during the exam. Alright people, you got what you want now! Battles galore are all I can say. Enjoy!

I’d like to take this opportunity to personally thank the following people for supplying the Original Characters that will be showing up from here on out (yes, you know who you are): Hitomi no Ryu, Sam, Reeki Shadowstar, and Bryan Terran! Thank you all very much for the creations of the OCs, and now, they’re finally mine to butcher and maim as I see fit. Hee hee! This will be fun!

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Chapter 28

“I’m so glad it’s over and done with. I have to say, the first exam here made Konoha’s look like child’s play.” Neji muttered under his breath. Even after two days of rest, he was still feeling mental fatigue, something he had not felt since the initial death of his father, and then again when Naruto defeated him during the Konoha Chuunin exams. Overall, he was finding this entire experience none too pleasant.

“Tell me about it.” Tenten slumped tiredly against her teammate, watching as he silently dozed off. “Hey.” She nudged him slightly to awaken him once more. “When did you get out? You weren’t there when I was freed.” She asked, curious about when and how the supposed Hyuuga prodigy had fared against the intense mental warfare each of the Genins faced during their time within Kaga’s special kage no kekai (Shadow barrier) technique.

“I freed myself half way through the third day or so they say. Supposedly, that’s the average time for people to make their way out of that hell hole, that is, if they ever make their way out in the first place.” Pausing, Neji grimaced as he remembered his time within the shadowed realm. “What about you? I was too tired to care about much else so I didn’t check up on you. When did you get out?” He asked, now curious about how his teammate fared within the same environment.

Tenten tilted her head lowly in shame and self-loathing. “I didn’t manage to escape.” She muttered softly. “I reached the end of my limit, on the fifth day when Kaga and the other Gate Guardians freed the rest of us still trapped within the Shadow realm...” She stopped her explaining, feeling fearful of her team mate’s scorn.

“That’s not surprising. It was a hard test.” Neji finally answered, trying to life Tenten’s spirit up.

Frowning at Neji’s attempt at consoling her, Tenten snorted. “Even Lee managed to get out on the forth day when he finally understood the message the nightmares were trying to tell him. While I... while I wasn’t able to do anything...” She grumbled angrily.

Neji narrowed his eyes in confusion. “What was the ‘message’ that Lee understood?”

Tenten sighed. “He finally realised that he’s too dependant on Gai-sensei; and that for him to earn a bright future he must walk his own path. Basically, he was shown the error of his ways if ever Gai-sensei were to betray his trust. That’s not to say it would ever happen of course. God knows that Gai-sensei love Lee more than anything else in the world, but we all don’t really want Lee to turn into a complete Gai-clone after all. So this small but significant change in his personality is a good thing for me. Don’t you think?” Tenten smirked.

Neji could not help but nod in return. “What about you? What did you see that made you unable to break through?” He asked, curious about his female team mate’s experiences.

Tenten’s expression fell into a depressed look. “I’m nothing without my weapons. I rely on them too much. My speed is okay, but when I run out of weapons, then what... I’m useless without them.” She explained the reasons being her visions, something that she was only able to realise AFTER the whole experience. “And you?”

Neji grimaced again. “I would have become a monster had I been in Hinata-sama’s position from the very beginning. Even as a branch member, I was a jerk. If I had been born a Main family member, I would have been a complete jackass.” Eyes turning shameful in remembrance, Neji continued his story. “Pride was my downfall. I would have cheated and betrayed anyone to stay on top, even...” Neji almost choked on his words. “Even my own father... the one who would sacrifice everything for me...” Turning away from Tenten, Neji tried his hardest to ignore the stinging sensation behind his eyes as he remembered the completely shocked and anguished gaze upon his father’s face, the same face he had longed to see once more, just once. These new memories did nothing except tarnish his real memories of his father. Everything he held dear, he was re-evaluating, wondering whether he had taken them for granted, wondering when he would misuse them and then lose them in the process. It was a frightening awakening, but one Neji was grateful for, if only to shatter his reality and force him to mature a bit more.

Beside him, Tenten bit her lip in nervousness. She knew that the details Neji just explained was only the tip of the iceberg, but she also knew that when Neji didn’t want to talk about it, there was nothing that could be done about it. Instead, she focused on making him take his mind off whatever path it was currently travelling with some random information. “Well, I asked around Sakura and Shikamaru to get all the gossip around and here is what I found out. Only Gaara-san, a girl from Sound and that guy from the Snow... Samure, I think his name was; were able to make it out during the first day. Kaga-san said that it was quite a feat for the three of them to make it out on the first day. During the second day, the people who made it out included that Hikon girl, Shino, Kankuro, Temari, another person from Sound, and one from Cloud. On the third day - this was the day that most people made it were the following: Hinata, Kiba, Chouji, yourself, all the Stone nins, two from Cloud country, two from Grass country and one from Mist. On the forth and last day, there were only two people who managed to claw their way out – yourself and this other person from Mist.”

Sighing heavily again, Tenten’s shoulders slumped in disappointment. “Of all of us from the Leaf, Ino, Sasuke and myself were the only ones that didn’t make it. Now what the hell does that say about our personalities?” She whined childishly.

Now being his turn to try and take Tenten’s attention away from her poor performance, Neji decided to change the subject entirely. “Shikamaru says that the next stage of the exam will start tomorrow. Or at least, the explanation of it – those were his words, not mine!” Neji exclaimed as Tenten looked at him with an eyebrow raised in confusion. “Anyway.” Neji coughed. “You will get your chance then to impress the proctors and show them what you can do.”

Unfortunately, Tenten’s expression suddenly turned pale - in completely opposition to what Neji was trying to do in the first place. “Oh god! What if I screw up again! Neji! I’ll never become a Chuunin at this rate and I’ll definitely not be invited for an apprenticeship like Tsunade-sama! What will I do, Neji? What do I do?” In an uncharacteristic fit of nervousness and self-doubt, Tenten pulled on Neji’s sleeve insistently to look for comfort.

Neji could only stiffen in tenseness, completely shocked at his team mate’s current behaviour and unsure of what to do in order to help her. She was the picture of confidence during their first Chuunin exam in Konoha. But after her defeat by Temari, and then her less than stellar performance against the Sound Ninja Kidoumaru (once again, her words, not his); Tenten had trained her butt off in order to become stronger but she seemed to have reached a stagnant level of performance at the moment. And without seeing any progress, she had started to undertake self-doubt, which is very uncharacteristic of her usually tom-boyish attitude. Then again, Tenten was a girl and she may be in that time-of-the-month thing, but Neji wouldn’t know, would he? (1)

Just then, the two were interrupted by the loud announcement of their other team-mate’s arrival. “Yo! You two! What are you two doing on such a fine day as this? You both should spend your youthful days out in the sun and training, like me!” Both Tenten and Neji’s eyebrows twitched in annoyance at Lee’s loud voice.

Though supposedly the boy has changed, he still didn’t change ‘much’. He still loved to wear his ugly green spandex, the even uglier orange leg warmers and still loved to do his ‘good-guy’ pose whenever possible. However, even an idiot would notice that though he was ‘loud’, he wasn’t ‘as laud’ as he normally would be; which was a consolation to all their ear’s long suffering. /Thank God for small mercies./ This thought went through both Neji and Tenten’s mind synonymously.

However, one good thing about Lee’s presence was that it blasted away all of Tenten’s previous self-doubt, and brought back her confidence. A few minutes of arguing between the two later found all three members of team Gai outside their given rooms, training lightly outside in the sun. With the sun shining on their faces once more, breathing in deeply the slightly cold and light air, the members of team Gai pushed away their uncertainties of their future, they pushed away practically all thoughts and concentrated solely on training their mind and body to be the best they could be for tomorrow. After all, they wanted to do their best in order to impress all their proctors as well as any potential masters willing to take them on as apprentices. No matter what, tomorrow would be the day of reckoning, the day that defines the start of their future.

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The next day found all the Chuunin potentials standing in a straight lines of three (2) within the Council Chamber. For most of them, this was also the first time they had the privilege to meet members of the renowned Uzumaki family as well as the infamous Seven High Councillors. The Konoha and Suna genins were also surprised by Naruto sudden appearance before them, standing confidently beside the Lady Oracle as an obvious member of her entourage. Having not seen him for close to two weeks straight, it was hard for the genins to associate this new version of Naruto with the Naruto they all knew, suffice to say, he looked and acted quite different from what they were use to. Wearing a pristine, long sleeved, high collared shirt and accompanying pants, Naruto really looked as regal and imperial as his position dictates, the Uzumaki heir, the next Uzumaki leader of the whole Kuunoki Gakure no Sato; the heir to this great and ancient village.

Once again, as if they had rehearsed the entire procedure before, during Naruto, Shikamaru and Sakura’s first visit to the Council Chamber, the entire fiasco of introduction, naming and acknowledgement must be undertaken.

Sitting stiffly, Ruri nodded to all the genins in silent approval before launching into the pre-arranged speech once more. Though looking calm and serene, if anyone cared to look, Ruri definitely had a glint of boredom in her eyes. Even she could only take so much of all this stupid bureaucracy and tedium before becoming a little bored and frustrated.

“Name.” Her stone cold voice was strong and demanding.

However, before any of the Genins were able to think about how to respond, their designated proctors stood before them and announced their presence to the Seven High Councillors. Jubei was the first to step up. “Team 9 from Konoha, consisting of: Hyuuga Neji, Rock Lee and Tenten.”

After him was followed by Akiko: “Team 1 from Suna, consisting of: Sabaku no Gaara, Sabaku no Temari and Sabaku no Kankuro.”

(3) This time, Hikari stepped forward: “Team 1 from Yuki (Snow), consisting of: Goujo Hikon, Yuse Samure and Naja Daiku.”

Koushiro followed after his sister: “Team 5 from Kumo (Cloud), consisting of Sakeyama Asahi, Sakeyama Saporo and Waisa Bado.”

Mishizu then stood forward in a militaristic fashion. “Team 15 from Kiri (Mist), consisting of Harate Eiji, Harate Echiko and Kapasu Juro.”

Yami quietly stepped forward after Koushiro and in a clear voice he spoke: “Team 1 from Oto (Sound), consisting of Sasayaki Kageru, Yakushi Suzumi and Gengakku Mogoto.”

Maya took a deep breath before shuffling forward towards her cousin. “Team 8 from Konoha, consisting of: Hyuuga Hinata, Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke.” Releasing a sigh of relief at having accomplished her task, Maya shuffled away.

Katana stomped forward, needing some sort of ego-boost as practically everyone was taller than he was (excluding Seiko) while standing in a line. “Team 6 from Kusa (Grass): Asagiri Kaori, Midou Kei and Kawasaki Reiko.”

Following in his friend’s performance, Tori pranced forward in a sort-of twisted dance. “Team 2 from Iwa (Stone) comprise of Iwama Uzura, Jikizuka Tsubame and Rensa Ahiru.”

Seiko then stepped forward, being the last of the Gate Guardians to present the team she was suppose to proctor over. Behind her, both Chouji and Ino of team Asuma gulped in apprehension, realising that the sadistic little girl was to become their proctor now that Hikari could focus completely on Samure’s team. “Team 10 from Konoha, Akimichi Chouji, Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino.”

A moment of silence passed as everyone digested all the names that had been called out. The people from Cloud (the newly introduced Waisa especially) were commenting rather loudly regarding the presence of the two Hyuuga members. Two of the female stone ninjas were looking suspiciously as Sasuke, muttering under their breaths about him being the rumoured last of the Uchiha clan. As for the Konoha and Suna crew, they were especially weary of the Oto Ninjas, and who could blame them considering one of the Oto Ninja members had an incredible amount of resemblance to the traitorous snake Sannin - Orochimaru; and another member of the Oto team bear the name ‘Yakushi’, as in the same last name as ‘Yakushi Kabuto’ - another traitor of Konoha. Suffice to say, all talks and mutterings were bought to an abrupt end when Ruri’s demanding voice suddenly rang through out the chamber.

“Silence!” Immediately silence followed. A moment later, Ruri spoke once more in a slightly calmer voice. “Acknowledged, you may all sit down now.” Following in their proctor’s (that is, the Gate Guardians) example, all the genins simply sat where they stood, directly on the clean floor beneath them. “Welcome to the Kuunoki Gakure no Sato and congratulations for making it this far. I wish you all the very best of luck for the upcoming stage of this special Chuunin Exam.”

Pausing slightly, Ruri continued on with the rest of her speech. “After this next stage, for those of you who were lucky enough to be granted an apprenticeship, you will be invited to live with your new master and learn from them for the next month exclusively. For those of you who were not granted apprenticeship, you will still be able to train but the skills taught will be voluntary and you may have to find a willing teacher to teach you. By the end of the next month, we will be holding the final tournament of the Chuunin Exam in the neutral city of Bai Ling, on the borders of Hidden Leaf and Hidden Rain. This is because the Kuunoki does not have a large enough stadium to cater for all the daimyos and the crowds that would traditionally be coming to watch the final Chuunin Exams. Not only that, the entrance to this village must also remain as secretive as we can possibly make it, hence the use of another place’s stadium during this very public event. You will not need to travel to Bai Ling on your own; the Kuunoki will be responsible for your stay during the next month as well as your transportation to Bai Ling. However, the moment you reach Bai Ling, the Kuunoki is no longer responsible for your well being, and we will only be concerned with the smooth running of the Chuunin exam itself. Remember all I have said and please keep in mind that you are all representatives of your country. Do your country proud by performing impressively and acting maturely.” With her final words, Ruri fell into silence again.

The next speaker, surprisingly, turned out to be none other than Naruto. His voice was calm and clear, with a dominating undertone inspiring respect and attention. “The second exam will begin tomorrow 9 am sharp at the community stadium and will probably last for the next 3 days. I hope you all know where that is located.” A few of the genins nodded their head, and Naruto decided to continue. “Basically, it’s a one on one battle in order for each of you to showcase your ninja skills to the entire population of the Kuunoki. If you’ve managed to impress and interest anyone of the Kuunoki audience, you may be granted an immediate apprenticeship on the spot. However, for those who are not granted apprenticeships immediately, you may still have a chance to impress someone by doing a second or even a third battle.”

Pausing in order to let the excitement die down slightly, Naruto continued with his explanations. “However, unlike all other organised battles you have participated in before, this time, you get to choose your own opponents. You have until this evening to challenge any one of the other exam participants to be your opponent for tomorrow’s first match. You can even challenge your own team mates if that’s what you fancy. Once you have challenged someone, they cannot refuse the challenge, and the two of you are required to register your names and your opponent’s names with one of the proctors before you.” He silently indicated the 10 smiling Gate Guardians sitting in a line. “Like I said before, whether you win or lose your first battle is not the important thing, the most important thing is for you to show us exactly what you’re made of, exactly what you can do. If you feel that your first performance is not good enough, or you wish to try again for whatever reason, feel free to challenge a second opponent or even a third opponent to a fight.”

Once again, Naruto paused in order to let the genins settle down a bit at this new situation. “Here are the rules to the exam: 1. you cannot challenge the same person twice. 2. no one can refuse a challenge. 3. you can only fight one battle per day. That’s all. There are no other rules outside of those rules. For any questions, please hold on to them until tomorrow morning and your exam proctors will answer them then.” With that said, Naruto stepped back down to stand beside his aunt.

This time, it was Kaga who stepped forward in order to progress to the next stage of the introduction. “Just a little bit of house keeping for you all. In order for your continual stay in the village, you must abide by these rules. Remember, breaking of any rules will result in either death or torture. Rule Number 1, No killing without authorisation of the 7 high councillors; number 2, No stealing; number 3, do not disrespect any local member of the kuunoki; number 4...” And so on and so forth, Kaga’s rather bored voice echoed through out the chamber for the next hour and a half, resulting in many of the chuunin potentials falling asleep where ever they sat. Finally, Kaga concluded with: “And the final rule -, number 1477, never practice chakra control on the mountain sides of Mount Tenju, and I mean ‘any’ chakra control exercise. That is all. You may stand and leave the chamber as you wish.”

Finally, after what felt like eternity, the Chuunin-hopefuls all dragged themselves up onto their numbed feet before hobbling their way out of the Council chamber to meet the bright and cheery light of the sun.

Sighing in relief, Daiku took this chance to look around himself, gazing at the faces of all the potential opponent for himself. “Well, let’s get to it, shall we?” His tone was a lot more serious than what the Konoha Ninjas were use to. Now they were finally given the chance to see another side of the usually cheerful Daiku, the serious side.

As if his words broke a delicate spell over the genins, they started grouping themselves into their three man teams and facing off the opponents on other teams, wondering whom they were going to challenge and whom were going to challenge them.

Gaara stepped forward first, ignoring all the eyes that suddenly focussed right on him as he continued to walk calmly towards his intended opponent. “You.” He stood directly in front of Samure, who had originally been sitting nonchalantly on a small stool next to his team mates. “I challenge you to the first fight.” His words were met by utter silence, before Kankuro frowned in curiosity.

“Yo, Gaara. There’s still plenty of fish out there in the sea, you don’t need to be so hasty.” He called, slightly curious as to why Gaara had chosen Samure as his opponent. Everyone who had ever known Gaara knows that he would only choose the strongest of competitors to face off against. And unfortunately, Samure did not look like a strong opponent with his tall lanky form and slim arms. 

Without turning around, Gaara answered his brother’s question. “Yuse Samure - the second person after myself who had the ability to break out of Kaga-san’s Kage no Kekai technique within a time period of 8 hours and 40 minutes, just two hours after myself. You are strong, though you hide your strength. What say you to my challenge?”

Samure shrugged in nonchalance. “Sure. I accept your challenge, Gaara of the Sand.” He answered calmly without rebutting Gaara’s analysis of his strength level; after all, they would all get to find out eventually when they fight, so it doesn’t matter what he hides now or show off later.

Having had that settled, Gaara went off to find one of the proctors in order to register his name and his opponents name, leaving behind two very dismayed members and one Yuse Samure of the Snow team. Once Gaara was out of sight, Daiku turned questioningly to his best friend. “You sure this is alright? He looks incredibly strong.” Daiku asked rather nervously, though the glint of seriousness still resided in his eyes.

Samure shrugged again but smiled confidently. “I kinda like the idea of fighting such a strong opponent such as Gaara on my first fight. As you well know, I’ve never had to go all out before and this would be a good opportunity to find out where I stand with everyone else.” He answered with an undertone of anticipation. “To tell you the truth... I’m excited.”

Hikon nodded at Samure’s sudden inspiration to fight. “You can choose a weak opponent and win your fight, but that’s really not the point of this second exam. The point of all these fights is to be able to showcase your skills, namely, choose a strong opponent, go all out and do an impressive job of showcasing your abilities. Whether you win or lose is not important, just make sure you show all that you can do.” Hikon explained, understanding the words that the Uzumaki heir had tried to hint to him during his speech.

Off to the side of the Snow team, all three teams from Konoha were huddled together in a rather defensive circle. “So, what do we do now?” Kiba asked in slight confusion and nervousness.

Ino snorted at him. “We follow in Gaara-san’s example. Pick an opponent and challenge them!” She answered succinctly as if it was the most basic thing in the world.

Kiba growled back at her. “I know that! I’m just wondering who we should go for! I...” Kiba’s words were suddenly cut off when a Cloud ninja confidently approached him with a air of superiority and laden arrogance.

“So, looks like the little tree huggers are scared of their big bad opponents, does hugging each other make you feel better?” The older teenage Cloud Nin sneered at them.

“Why you!?” Kiba was about to launch himself at the older Ninja when he was held back by Shino, his old team mate.

Shino’s uncharacteristic cold voice broke Kiba’s attention on the enemy ninja. “What do you want?”

The older boy, with spiky reddish brown hair on each side of his head, cool dark brown eyes and a superior smirk on his face gazed down upon Shino’s nose from his extra height. “The name’s Waisa Bado, and I challenge one of the Hyuuga cowards in your little group.”

Neji narrowed his eyes in anger at the older teen’s mocking tone. He was just about to accept the challenge when Hinata stood confidently before the challenger. “My name is Hyuuga Hinata, and I accept your challenge.”

Neji widened his eyes at Hinata’s sudden actions. Bado’s confident smirk turned cruel with ambition. “Good, I’ll see you tomorrow then, little girl.” He turned swiftly and walked away, completely ignoring the heated gazes and glares going his way from the rest of the Konoha teams.

Pulling Hinata aside, Neji questioned her with an intense voice. “Why did you do that, Hinata-sama? Have you forgotten that the Hidden Cloud Village had always had something against us Hyuugas? Why did you accept his challenge? As your older cousin and protector, I should have been the one to accept the challenge!” Before he could say anymore, Neji was abruptly cut off by Hinata.

No longer stuttering due to the continual support of her younger sister and Naruto, as well as the presence of Maya, Hinata retorted Neji’s complaints heatedly. “Neji-nisan. I do not need your protection, nor do I want it. The whole point of participating in a Chuunin exam is to do MY personal best and showcase MY skills, not the skill of my supposed bodyguard, of which you are no longer one. Have you forgotten that I am no longer the Hyuuga heiress! You ARE! I am not going to let you or anyone else stand in my way of performing to the best of my ability right here, in this ancient but still proud state of a Ninja village. Don’t you dare try to take that away from me, Neji. Don’t you DARE!” Her uncharacteristic angry words broke Neji’s concentration of words and actually made him think about his behaviour. After a moment’s silence, Neji finally conceded that Hinata had won that argument. This amazed the other Konoha Ninjas as they have never seen Hinata exert herself in such a way before, nor had they seen Neji concede a point. Overall, it had been one hell of a day and it’s only the beginning.

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Time passed for all the Genins and by the end of the day, everyone had an opponent of whom they had either challenged themselves or had been challenged and they had accepted. Some were eagerly awaiting the next day to come sooner, others were sitting like a strung out wire full of tension and nervous energy, others could feel nothing but dread in the pit of their stomachs at the upcoming day’s events. No matter what their situations, no matter what their thinking and no matter what they feel, the next day waits for no one. And it will come when it damn well pleases.

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xxx XXX xxx (Gaara Vs Samure)

As explained on the previous day, all the genins made their way to the Kuunoki

Stadium. Though impressive in structure and looking more like a roman coliseum built to lean on the mountain side, the stadium was still just half the size of Konoha’s own stadium. However, it was still big enough to fit all the Kuunoki population on the stands of the stadium, with the VIPs (namely, the Uzumaki members and the 7 high councillors) sitting on an opened platform directly carved out of the mountain itself and still leaving enough room for the all the outside genins to sit while waiting for their match.

 “Okay. Listen up everyone. The list of matches are organised on a first-come first serve basis. Basically the sooner you get both your name and your opponent’s name registered by a Proctor, the sooner you get to fight. As such, by default, today’s first match will be between Sabaku no Gaara and Yuse Samure. Everyone understand?” Kaga asked as he stood before the 3 lines of Genins grouped in their team formations.

Hearing nothing but silence, Kaga continued. “I will be the sole referee to these matches, while the Gate Guardians continue to act as your proctors. They will be the one to evaluate your scores by the end of your matches and calculate your overall ranking, while I have the authority to announce whose the winner and whose the looser, as well as ending the match whenever I feel the match is finished. At anytime, if any of you wish to quit due to the fact that you know you will lose anyway – just depending on the amount of injury you will be sustaining, you can concede your defeat and no extra points will be deducted. Now, are there any questions?”

“Can we kill our opponents?” The tall, thin and pale girl from the Sound spoke out in a dead voice.

“Yes, you are allowed to kill. However, I would like it very much if everyone remains alive by the end of the matches. After all, it’s no fun if the person dies before they get the chance to fight a second or even a third challenge. If I feel that the match has progressed to such an extent that there is a clear winner, I will end the match prematurely without incident. During the fights, you are allowed to use anything you wish to help your in your fight. Remember that I will be creating a Kage Kekai around the two combatants for the following reasons: 1. so that any jutsus used within the arena will not harm the audience watching the match (4), and 2. so that once the match is finished and I dispel the jutsu, the arena will revert back to its original clean state. This will give no advantage to any of the later fighters (5). Now, here’s the list of match ups for the first day:”

“Match one, as stated is Sabaku no Gaara versus Yuse Samure”

“Match two, Waisa Bado versus Hyuuga Hinata.”

“Match three, Uchiha Sasuke versus Sasayaki Kageru.”

“Match four, Hyuuga Neji versus Sakeyama Asahi.”

“Match Five, Kawasaki Reiko versus Gengakku Mogoto.”

“Match six, Sabaku no Temari versus Harate Echiko.”

“Match seven, Gojou Hikon versus Sakeyama Saporo.”

“Match eight, Inuzuka Kiba (and pet Akamaru) versus Asagiri Kaori.”

“Match nine, Midou Kei versus Iwama Uzura.”

“Match ten, Tenten versus Kapasu Juro.”

“Match eleven, Jikizuka Tsubame versus Yamanaka Ino.”

“Match twelve, Sabaku no Kankuro versus Aburame Shino.”

“Match thirteen, Rock Lee versus Naja Daiku.”

“Match fourteen, Rensa Ahiru versus Akimichi Chouji.”

“And finally, match fifteen, Harate Eiji versus Yakushi Suzumi. (6) Once a match has been finalised, I will call out for interested parties in the audience to see if anyone is willing to take any of two fighters for an apprentice. If one of you is granted an invitation to apprenticeship, it is your choice whether you accept the apprenticeship or not. If you did accept the invitation to become an apprentice, you are automatically withdrawn from fighting further battles and will be required to immediately pack your things in order to follow your new master to their home residence. For those of you who have not been given a chance at apprenticeship, I’m sorry but that that just means you will have to try and impress someone else by performing another match or two. And in most cases, you still won’t get invited. After the three day matches are over, and you’ve still not been granted any invitations, you are all free to pursue any potential teachers to train you whatever voluntary skills they wish to teach.” Having finally finished with his main explanations, Kaga quickly launched into the start of the battles.

“Now, will Sabaku no Gaara and Yuse Samure please remain in the arena? The rest of you genins should follow Nara Shikamaru and Haruno Sakura...”  Kaga paused slightly and indicated the two Nins standing behind him. “to the special stands set up for you.” Waiting for a few minutes so that all the audience have finally settled down, Kaga began the much anticipated match up.

“First match, Sabaku no Gaara versus Yuse Samure, Hajime!” Kaga called out and Gaara immediately started the match off with a wave of sand erupting out of his trusty gourd and plunging towards Samure at a rapid speed. Samure jumped backwards to avoid the onslaught of sand before launching his own set of kunai with explosives tags attached. In the midst of the kunai was one smoke bomb.

When the kunai made contact with Gaara’s sand, they instantly exploded, sending the mass of sand scattering into the wind. Following soon after, the smoke bomb erupted as well, creating a thick layer of smoky haze covering the entire arena, disrupting the audience’s view as well as Gaara’s own view.

Narrowing his eyes, Gaara decided against letting Samure have his way. Performing a short set of hand seals, Gaara took a deep breath before: “Fuuton: Mugen Sajin Daitopa! (Wind Element: Eternal Sandstorm Blast) (7) The wind force and sand from Gaara’s technique blasted away Samure’s smoke screen, revealing the snow ninja in the process of drawing an intricate seal on the ground.

“Shxt.” Samure muttered underneath his breath even as he abandoned his unfinished seal while dodging Gaara’s sand. Quickly counteracting with a technique of his own, Samure breathed out his next attack. “Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu! (Flame Element: Grand Fireball Technique!)”

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Up in the stands, Sasuke’s eyes twitched as his beloved fire technique was performed by a Snow Ninja, something he wouldn’t have expected at all.

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Gaara blocked the fireball with a sudden rising wall made of hard earth and sand directly before him. The sand and earth on the outer wall of his raised shield smelted and turned into glass, because even though Samure’s attack was much smaller in scale than Sasuke’s, he had upped the temperature by 5 times in order to instantly crystallise the sand. Unfortunately for Samure, Gaara had used external sand and earth for his raised wall, not his favoured sand from the gourd still strapped on his back.

Using the crystallised sand structure as a distraction, Gaara launched another wave of sand towards Samure, intended to capture the snow Nin in a Sabaku Kyuu (Desert Coffin). Samure barely managed to dodge the sand and ran some distance away, this time launching several Hyou Bakudan (Ice Bomb) at the converging sand, creating several large ice spikes all over the place and blocking Gaara’s view of the Snow Ninja once more. Using this time carefully, Samure performed another set of seals, activating another of his own invented techniques. “Shunshin no Jutus (Flash Step) (8)!” Instantly disappearing from his current location and therefore missing a wave of sand slamming into him. Samure reappeared back to where his incomplete seal was and quickly finished up the diagram while Gaara was looking for him.

This strange cat and mouse chase continued on for a while with Samure using Shunshin to avoid Gaara’s sand as much as possible (even though he did get caught once and had to perform a mud Kawarimi to escape) while trying desperately to finish off his sealing technique. Finally, all seven points of the sealing jutsu is completely, and Samure jumped into the somersaulting over Gaara’s form throwing a nondescript blue coloured scroll into the air, and landed gracefully between two of his seven point seals. Biting his thumb and drawing a bit of blood, Samure slammed his opened palms directly into the centre of the two seals beside him. “Kuchiyose Misu! Hyoten: Koraseru no Jutsu! (Summoning water! Ice Element: Freeze technique!)” The once nondescript blue scroll that was still slowly dropping down from the air suddenly exploded into a mass of water, pouring down onto the still form of Gaara. Gaara used his sand to cover his body from the rain; he was unsure of whether the rain is something he should be worried about. However, even his compressed sand couldn’t keep all the water from seeping through and dripping onto his body, after all, sand becomes wet and heavy with rain. However, he didn’t have much time to contemplate how dangerous the rain was when Samure’s second technique activated. The seven point seal that he had drawn onto the ground shimmered with light before it exploded with a burst of chakra. The temperature within the seven point sealing circle immediately dropped down to sub zero degrees, freezing all the water and sand instantly into crystallised ice. Even Gaara watched on in shock as his entire body froze within seconds, encasing him into a large block of ice in the centre of the seal.

After it technique was finished, Samure slumped forward. “Damn. That took up way too much chakra than anticipated!” Analysing his own body, Samure came to the conclusion that he had only about a quarter of his original body’s chakra capacity left. Unfortunately for Samure, just before he started celebrating the victory of his match, sand suddenly gathered around him from behind. He didn’t even have time to think before he was fully encased in sand compressed together to tighten its hold on him.

“Sabaku Kyuu, success.” Gaara muttered as he slowly rose from the sand that suddenly bubbled up from the surface of the arena.

“Im... Impossible...” Samure managed to stutter out even while he shook uncomfortably within the sand encasement. He winced at the pain but ignored it in favour of looking at his ice statue. What he saw both shocked and amazed him. The ‘Gaara’ inside his ice statue started cracking. Bits and pieces of ‘skin’ crumbled into sand and dropped into itself, revealing its hollow insides. /I see, a sand bunshin. Damn! I’ve been caught!/ Samure thought to himself even while he activated his trump card technique, the one thing that could possibly get him out of this situation.

Ignoring the trapped boy for the moment, Gaara opted to release his favoured sand (and dissipated gourd) from the ice encasement. Performing a few hand seals, Gaara slammed his palms onto the ground. “Sabaku Taisho! (Desert Requiem)” The ground shook with heavy resistance to Gaara’s chakra, instantly breaking the seven point seal that Samure had used so much energy and time creating, and resulting in the release of Shukaku’s sand. The newly released sand, though still slightly wet from its once frozen state floated towards Gaara as a child would rush towards its mother. Happy that he had his sand back with him; Gaara noticed too late that Samure had somehow disrupted the chakra flow within the sand coffin that had entrapped him.

Samure wiggled distractedly, physically loosening the sands hold on him even while actively absorbing the chakra used to hold the particles together. Finally, after a few seconds, he was free and the sand simply fell onto the ground. “How did you get free?” Gaara asked suddenly, standing before the Snow ninja with a curious look on his face.

Samure took this time to gather even more chakra and rest for a bit. “I have a bloodline limit ability (9) that enables me to absorb the chakra from my surroundings, be they from non-living or living objects. Because this is a slow and consistent process, theoretically, I can never run out of chakra as I make my enemy’s chakra (namely yours) my own.”

“Really?” Gaara would of arched an eyebrow in inquisitiveness, that is, if he had an eyebrow in the first place. “Can you absorb this chakra?” He asked in a monotone voice as he suddenly released a barrage of demonic chakra. Samure watched in silent shock as the demonic chakra continued to flow into the atmosphere. He knew that if he absorbed it, he could very well die.

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“Shxt! I don’t believe he just did that.” Shikamaru cursed as he watched the ensuing battle.

“What the hell is that chakra?” Daiku muttered nervously from behind Shikamaru, thoroughly worried for his best friend.

“It’s demonic Chakra. Gaara is one of those rare people known as Jinchuriki, people who house one of the bijuu demons inside of them.” Shikamaru answered distractedly.

“What will the demonic chakra do?” This time, it was Hikon who asked, fists clenched tightly as she sat stiffly on the edge of her seat.

“Demonic chakra is inherently chaos energy (10); it does not complement normal human chakra at all. In fact, when they come into contact, there is a violent reaction and often, the demonic chakra will burn the normal human chakra or life energy because of it’s inherent chaotic and unstable nature. Samure has to avoid that chakra at all cost, or else it’ll burn him to within an inch of his life.” Shikamaru answered as his eyes narrowed in focus onto the two combatants currently fighting within the arena.

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Using Shunshin to avoid the wave after wave of demonic chakra infused sand (literary forming claws with strange patterns on them), Samure couldn’t help but wince in pain as one of the sand claws got in a lucky scratch against his vulnerable ribs. Even through his clothing (though slightly torn) Samure could feel the unnatural energy of Gaara’s chakra burn upon his skin’s surface like an acid. Even without looking, he knew that the marks upon his sides would be violently black or purple in colour, even while he felt the incredible pain of his burning flesh at the same time (11). Coming to a decision, Samure jumped back again to avoid another entourage of sand claws and wave before waving towards the examiner – in this case, Kaga. “Examiner, I surrender. I am unable to battle anymore, due to the influx of poisonous chakra into my system.” He answered calmly even while his hands turned towards his bruised and pained ribs.

Gaara immediately stopped his assault as he watched in silence when Samure raised his hand in forfeit. Kaga waited a moment longer before announcing: “Winner, Gaara of the Sand!” He then released his Kage no Kekai Jutsu (Shadow Barrier) while he waited patiently for the claps, cheers, whistles and encouragements from the audience (mostly from the participating genins) to die down before he continued with the rest of his pronouncements. “By order of the Kuunoki, is there anyone interested in taking either Gaara of the Sand, or Yuse Samure as an apprentice?”

One minute passed in silence.

“Going once.” Kaga announced calmly, looking between Gaara’s calm expression and Samure’s anticipative yet nervous expression.

“Going twice.” Kaga called out again. This time, Samure shut his eyes tightly and did a mental prayer to the gods.

“Going...” Kaga’s voice was cut off by the sound of another.

“Dokudes Hana, I’m willing to take Yuse Samure as an apprentice.” A deep voice called out from the audience. A tall man in dark blue robes stood on a central tier within the audience stands. His long, dark blue hair was tied in a top not at the top of his head. His presence alone demanded respect and reverence (12).

“As you wish.” Kaga answered before turning his full attention to a shocked and amazed Samure. “Yuse Samure.” Bringing the boy’s focus back to him, Kaga instructed: “Go to your new master. From this point forth, you are exempt to fight in any further battles. Congratulations.”

Nodding distractedly, Samure silently hobbled towards where his new master stood. Turning away from the slowly moving Samure, Kaga called out to the attentions of the audience once more. “Is there anyone interested in taking Gaara of the Sand as an apprentice? Anyone? This is the last call!” Pausing for a moment, Kaga confirmed. “So be it. This concludes match one. Will Hyuuga Hinata and Waisa Bado of match two please come forward?”

Understanding Kaga’s dismissal, Gaara turned around nonchalantly and started walking towards the audience stands where his siblings were currently seated. It didn’t really matter to him whether he was granted an apprenticeship or not. In fact, he was counting on the fact that he doesn’t get one, so that he could spend more time hanging out with the Lady Oracle and perhaps the Uzumaki heir. This suited him just fine.

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“I don’t believe this! Even though that Samure guy lost, he still got an invitation for apprenticeship! I mean hell! Gaara practically dominated the entire match and he got nothing in return! Geese, this is screwed up!” Kiba ranted on at the unfairness of it all, hiding his own personal fear and shock at the whole event.

“Get use to it, Kiba. This is how the Kuunoki is.” Sakura snapped back, angry at the distraction. “Personally, I think Yuse-san is damn lucky to attain an apprenticeship with Dokudes Hana-sama. The guy’s intimidating but he’s also a seal master and second only to the head of the Dokudes clan, his own wife.” She commented almost to herself, or to anyone really interested in listening.

“That just goes to prove that the Kuunoki population are only interested in teaching those who have an affinity with their own techniques. After all, Yuse-san also seems to be quite good in regard to seals, by his display of prowess.” Shino nodded to himself, mentally calculating what chance there was of him gaining an apprenticeship invitation as well; his conclusion - not very likely.

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xxx XXX xxx (Bado Vs Hinata)

As the noise slowly settled down to what they had been during the first match, Hinata and her opponent, Bado made their way to the centre of the arena.

“Second Match, Hyuuga Hinata versus Waiso Bado, begin!” Kaga announced right after he had stabilised a second Kage no Kekai (Shadow Barrier) surrounding the entire arena. With those words, Hinata immediately activated her Byakugan while Bado rushed right at her with fists ready.

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“Is that guy an idiot? Rushing in with hand to hand combat against a HYUUGA!! Most morons would know never to fight a Hyuuga with Taijutus!” Kiba scowled at the stupidity of the Cloud Nin. Then, he smiled as he imagined how easy Hinata would be able to defeat him. His fantasy came to an abrupt end the second the two combatants came into contact.

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Hinata thrust forward with an opened palm directly into Bado’s chest. The older and taller boy blocked it with a forearm before punching forward with his other fist. Hinata ducked, sidestepped and tapped against the boy’s upper thigh, aiming to close one of the tenketsu she could see there. That’s when things started turning bad for her. With her Byakugan activated, she could see clearly that her invading chakra simply disintegrated the moment it reached his skin, or more precisely, it was absorbed into his skin. /What the hell?!/ Hinata didn’t have time to finish the thought as she had to jump, performing a cart wheel and wheeled away from the older boy. /Jyuuken has no affect on him?!/ She panicked slightly as the boy rushed towards her again, seemingly unaffected by her assault.

/Try it again, maybe I just didn’t see it properly the first time./ She encouraged herself as she blocked an incoming elbow, twisted around her opponent and successfully slammed an opened palm directly against the boy’s chest. Once again, with her Byakugan focused on her opponent (this time with a close up view in the literal sense of the word), Hinata could see distinctly that her attack was having absolutely no affect on her opponent. His tenketsu were just fine since all her chakra dissipated the second it made contact with his body. /Impossible!/ Hinata had been so distracted by her frantic thoughts that she was too slow to react to her opponent’s incoming knee right into her face. The impact of Bado’s merciless knee smashed into Hinata’s vulnerable face, crushing her nose and jaw. Her brain rocked with the force of the impact, eyes watered drastically with the pain, her entire world whirled with moment as her disorientated body staggered backwards several metres before tumbling down onto the ground.

“HINATA!!!” She vaguely heard her name being called out from some distance away, but she could not focus on anything else except the pain, and her entire body ached, most of all her head.

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“HINATA!!! You bxstard! Let me go! I’m gonna kill that Fxcking Bxstard!! Let me GO!!!!” Kiba screamed at the top of his lungs, lunging forward towards the arena. If it wasn’t for Shino and Sasuke grabbing onto the dog boy on both sides, he would have already rushed off towards the currently smug-looking Bado standing nonchalantly in the middle of the battle field.

“CALM DOWN, KIBA!” Sasuke growled at his new team mate. He too, felt an immense rage at watching how Hinata was badly injured by the merciless Cloud Nin, but he managed to suppress his anger and hate with an incredible strength of will. Now was not the time to attack the boy, especially when they’re still in the middle of the match.

“Sit down now, Kiba. You’re making yourself out to be an idiot!” Shino’s harsh words sliced into Kiba’s mind.

The dog boy whirled around and glared at Shino heatedly. “How dare you stay there and not feel anything! That’s HINATA out there, getting the shxt beat out of her! How can you not feel angry! What kind of asshxle are you, you...!” Kiba scolded with all his pent up anger.

Shino frowned dangerously. “I do feel angry. But there’s nothing we can do! Are you saying you should rush down there, disqualify and embarrass both yourself and Hinata just so you can play the unwanted hero! Look around you, Kiba! This is the Chuunin Exams! Stop acting so stupid and think for once!” Shino’s uncharacteristic outburst calmed Kiba more than any amount of yelling would do. Shino had always been the calmest of the three original members from Team Kurenai, and if Shino was showing any emotion on his face, then everyone knew the end of the world was near.

“Damn it!” Kiba slammed his clenched fist onto the chair beside him, eyes still angrily glaring at the form of Bado. His fury had not been dissipated in the least, but at least he was thinking with a clear head at the moment. At least, he would bid his time until he could punch that bxstard’s face in himself.

Sitting behind Kiba, Shino and Sasuke, both Lee and Tenten were also having a rather difficult time trying to restrain Neji, whose uncharacteristic show of anger and violence was making everyone feel edgy. “Neji, sit down! Have some faith in Hinata’s power of youth!” Lee urged the long haired boy to sit his bottom back down before he makes a nuisance of himself.

Neji literary growled in response to Lee’s request before stating in a low voice: “Did you see what he did? That guy enhanced his knee cap with a large amount of chakra. Hinata-sama basically got hit with the impact of a ten tonne speeding train!” His fist clenched in fury, eyes narrowed and with his Byakugan activated, Neji looked like a barely restrained humanoid demon wanting to go on a rampage. Luckily for everyone, both Lee and Tenten had a tight hold of his shoulder and arms and somehow managed to force him down in order to watch the rest of the fight. After all, there was nothing they could do but cheer Hinata on.

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Back on the battlefield, Hinata had slowly but surely gotten her head straightened once more. Raising both her hands to her bloodied face, Hinata silently concentrated her healing chakra to do its job of healer her bruised face. Because her back was turned towards Bado at the time, she feigned being in pain while in actuality was using this opportunity to heal as much of the damage on her face as possible without wasting too much chakra.

“Well, looks like the big bad Hyuuga aren’t so great after all!” Bado taunted from some distance away. Expressing a cruel smirk, he casually walked towards Hinata like a hunter towards his prey. He was definitely going to enjoy beating up a Hyuuga. After all, it was one of his late uncles that had tried to capture the Hyuuga Heir some years ago and was executed. In retribution, the hidden Cloud had demanded the death of the Hyuuga head but what they got in return was just a look-a-like Branch member. Since then, he had been taught from a young age that the Hyuugas were the scum of the universe and if they wanted to become a famous clan in their own right, they would have to defeat other famous clans in the world. And whose clans are more famous than Konoha’s Hyuugas? Simply put, Bado was so looking forward to show off how much superior he was against members of the famed Hyuuga clan. 

Unfortunately for him, Hinata chose that very moment to destroy his childish fantasy. Twisting around in a sudden movement, Hinata slashed upward with piercing fingers held together in a flat palm. Using his own perfect chakra control, Bado enhanced his body’s reaction time, just enough for him to dodge the piercing hands of Hinata. Jumping back and away from the heavily breathing girl, Bado glared heatedly, annoyed that somehow she had managed to survive his original onslaught. That’s when he felt some wet slid down his cheek. Distractedly smearing the liquid away from his face, Bado was shocked when his hand returned with blood upon his skin. He suddenly realised that Hinata had not attacked him using a normal Jyuuken thrust. Jyuuken wouldn’t have broken his skin and made him bleed; instead, they attack his inner coil system and organs. Raising his eyes back at the determined face of Hinata, Bado finally recognised what the girl had done in the first place.

“What they hell did you do?” He growled lowly.

“Chakra no Mesu (Chakra scalpel)...” Hinata answered confidently. “...Except in this case, my version cuts both the internal blood vessel as well as the skin.”

“A medic Nin.” Bado finally concluded. Hinata didn’t answer, she just ran forward in an attempt to slice the boy’s torso diagonally. Bado gracefully side stepped the move, blocked and grab at Hinata’s outstretched hand, jumped and did a twisting kick towards Hinata’s still bruised head all at the same time. Hinata’s head rolled backwards just in time to let Bado’s feet fly pass without touching her. Locking her trapped hand in place, she suddenly jabbed forward with her other palm, this time intended to skewer the boy through his ribs. Bado, after landing from his rotated jump, blocked her attempt with another chakra enhanced knee before turning slightly and punching her with an elbow.

Released from Bado’s grasp by the force of the elbow hit, Hinata gasped as she fell onto her knees, hands already working on healing her 2 broken ribs. “Che, even with Medical knowledge, you still suck as a ninja.” Bado verbally assaulted her confidence.

Breathing heavily, Hinata had to forcefully calm herself before gathering chakra into her palms. Thrusting forward an opened palm, Hinata called out as she released the condensed chakra in one single blast. “Hakke Kuushou! (Eight Trigrams: Vaccum Palm)”.

Reacting instinctively, Bado held his arms across his chest in an ‘X’ symbol, concentrating a large amount of chakra in that part of his body, creating an invisible shield. Hinata’s blast of air and chakra impacted against the chakra shield and for a moment, the two were pushing against each other like two trains ramming head on. But in the end, one force finally gave way. Hinata’s chakra blast rebounded from the shield and dissipated even while it slammed back into her prone body, forcing Hinata to tumble backwards once more.

“Hehe. And here I thought Hyuuga’s had an absolute defence, looks like your so called absolute defence is nothing against my diamond chakra shield.” Bado sneered while he walked arrogantly towards the prone Hinata, still trying to heal the extra bruises and scrapes she had attained during her latest attempt. Struggling to her feet, Hinata distanced herself from her dangerous opponent as much as possible.

/I can’t do this for much longer. I’ve already wasted more than half my chakra just trying to keep myself from getting more injured. This man... He’s incredibly dangerous. He has all the advantage against a Hyuuga. Even if my Byakugan is as developed as fathers, or I had advanced moves like Neji-nisan, I still don’t think I can beat him. I need... I need to finish this fast and precise. I can’t keep this up much longer./ Hinata thought to herself, spending some time to heal her scraped knee. Finally, deciding to put all her effort into one last attack, Hinata stood in an up-right position, hands ready to perform her one and only personalised attack.

With the Byakugan still activated, before Hinata appears the green divination symbol of the Hyuuga Jyuuken style. Lifting one hand towards her lips, Hinata paused slightly before continuing to raise her hand. Once her right hand was in a vertical position, she quickly swiped it downward in a vertical cut. Raising her left hand up from her sides, she quickly swiped towards her right in a cross like fashion. Pulling both her hands down and performing the manoeuvre again, Hinata quickly builds up momentum as well as increasing her focus on her chakra. “Shugo Hakke! Rokujuu Yonshou! (Guardian of the 8 Divination seals: 64 Strikes)” With those words, she began to spin directly on the spot, shooting out thin lines of chakra from each palm. As her speed increased and her hand’s motion continued, Hinata quickly created a large sphere of thing, laser like chakra lines protecting her within a 15 metre radius.

Bado tilted his head to the side in confusion. “Is that the famous Kaiten I keep hearing about?” Frowning curiously, Bado shook his head. “Doesn’t look like it even if it’s roundish in shape.” Shrugging with nonchalance, Bado refocused his attention back on trying to beat the shxt out of his opponent. “Oh well, guess I’ll just have to break every bone in her body just to prove how weak the Hyuugas really are against us Cloud Nins.” Pulling his hands together, Bado cracked his knuckles in a threatening manner, before widening his stance. Performing a short number of seals, he slammed his hands together into a prayer motion. Soon, small sparks of electricity started appearing around his closed palms. The small sparks slowly grew into large electrical charges wiping all around his arms, to his chest, all the way down to his legs. The massive charges of electricity soon turned a brilliant white in colour, surrounding Bado’s entire body like a lightning shield. Finally, Bado moved.

He pushed his closed palms forward together so that both his index fingers now pointed directly forward instead of upwards like in a prayer. Taking a deep breath, Bado yelled at the top of his voice as he ran directly towards Hinata’s twirling form. Within seconds, his lightning coated body crashed into Hinata’s circular shield and a giant explosion of chakra and debris covered the entire arena, leaving the audience gasping for what happened (13).

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“Shxt! I hope Hinata’s okay!” Ino jumped to her feet, trying to see through all the smoke and haze to find out what had happened to the fellow Leaf Nin. All the people around her held their breaths in nervousness, hoping that the young Hyuuga had found some way to beat the odds and come out triumphant. But it was not to be.

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Once the smoke clouds cleared, all could see that Bado had somehow managed to break Hinata’s ultimate defence. In fact, he broke all the way through her technique and somehow managed to thrust his closed hands right into her lower ribs, obviously breaking a few with all his force. Hinata stilted slightly and vomited a large amount of blood, before curling in on herself some more. Bado slowly slid away from her wilting body, hands still closed together, palm against palm. The lightning and electricity that had once surrounded his body was no where to be found. And it wasn’t until a second later that the audience finally understood where it had all gone. Hinata’s silent suddenly started to shake violently. It was shaking so violently that it fell onto the ground like a rag doll still shaking viciously. Somehow, Bado had transferred all the electricity he had used for his chakra shield directly into Hinata’s nervous system. And her poor abused body just could not take the stress anymore, erupting in violent shakes and quickly rendering her unconscious to all the pain.

“Ah! I win!” Bado thrust his fist in the air as a sign of victory.

“Hyuuga Hinata is no longer able to battle. Winner of the second match, Waisa Bado!” Kaga announced as he released the Shadow barrier holding the combatants inside. There were some cheers and encouragements from the audience, but all the members of the Leaf team were glaring daggers at the Cloud victor. Kiba and Neji had to be restrained once more from rushing down into the arena and killing the boy straight off. Mean while, Dokudes Seiko and Raitei Hikari came forward to collect the trembling yet unconscious Hinata. They carried her gently away to one of the healing rooms where Seiko was bound to heal her to the best of her ability. But that did nothing to lessen the hatred held by the Leaf Ninjas in the audience, all wanting to rip Bado piece by piece.

Once again, Kaga ignored the tension in the air before requesting for anyone interested in taking either Hyuuga Hinata or Waisa Bado for an apprentice. Five minutes pass in silence as Kaga called once, twice and a third time for interested parties. In the end, he had to settle that no one was interested in taking either Genins as apprentices and left it at that. Bado huffed in a childish manner as he made his way from the stadium, chin tilted upward with arrogance. Kaga ignored the boy’s behaviour and called forth for the third match competitors. “Will Uchiha Sasuke and Sasayaki Kageru please make their way down to the arena floor?”

To be continued.

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(1) Heh. I wanted to add some light humour there. I’ve just come to realise that Tenten is a very marginalised character. Other than her love for weapons and her tomboyish style, we don’t really know much about her at all. So I just thought I’d take this opportunity to develop her character a bit more than I have in the past. Hope you Tenten-fans out there enjoy!

(2) Think how Naruto and the others stood just before the start of the Chuunin Preliminary exam in Konoha. Like that basically, so you’ve basically got ten teams standing in lines of three.

(3) All of the mentioned Original Characters have their own character profiles, images and other bits too done about them. You can find them all at my website. Just go to my profile’s page and follow the links there.

(4) Basically, in using Kaga’s jutsu, no one will be able to do what Kabuto did during the Cannon Chuunin Exams where he affected the audience with his Genjutsu, and how Temari’s wind was also able to cause some harm to the audience. This protection is solely for the watching audience’s sake.

(5) I’m referring to how Shikamaru (in the original Cannon series) used the hole dug up by Naruto’s previous match in order to win his. If all the matches are played on an the same exact grounds without any changes happening to them, then theoretically, no one should have an advantage over another due to the resultant battles of previous match ups. Hope that make sense.

(6) I hope the match ups aren’t disappointing. It took me forever to get the matched up and I kept on changing my mind. I tried to keep it so that the Leaf Nins don’t fight among themselves. With the exception being the Kankuro Vs Shino fight, pretty much all the others will be completely original fights that I have to think up. For the original creators of the OCs, I’d just like to warn you all that from now on, the OCs belongs to me. I will do to them as I see fit, so please don’t complain after the chapters are done that you didn’t like how I portrayed them or have them act in certain ways. Once again, thanks for all your help in creating them, but now that they are in my hands, I have to find a way for them to fit in with the story, and certain match ups just won’t work. Be patient and hopefully, I’ll do you all justice by the OCs.

(7) This is the wind sand blast technique used by deformed Gaara in the Naruto Cannon series. But in this case, Gaara’s in full control of the technique using his own chakra, therefore, the technique isn’t as strong as the cannon version. Overall, this Gaara created more wind than sand within the blast. Hope this makes sense.

(8) I’m using the definition from Bleach here. Flash step just seems so much more exciting. This version of Shunshin is different from the Yondaime’s as well as the deceased Uchiha Shisui’s. This is Samure’s own version of Shunshin, and it’s weaker than most Shunshin but still effective.

(9) Similar to the bloodline displayed by Akado Yoroi, but different in practice. Samure is able to absorb anything within a 50 to 100 metre radius around his body automatically, so he doesn’t need to actually touch someone in order to absorb their chakra. It is a much slower process than Yoroi but it is also much more stable, meaning that Samure will not go into chakra overload or anything like that. However, Samure can’t hold this bloodline ability for too long, because eventually, he’ll become bloated with too much chakra and it’ll waste away his body.

(10) Completely my own theory. There are two types of chakra in this (Naruto) world. The normal chakra displayed by humans, other living and non-living entities; and the demonic chakra which are held by demons or sentient beings born of chaos. I will also refer to them as chaos chakra or chaos energy (for demonic chakra), and order chakra or life energy (for normal chakra because it brings order and normal life). Chaos energy is inherently chaotic as it is unstable, but it is also powerful and primal (wild). Demons are born from an accumulation of chaos energy once they have formed a consciousness to recognise itself as a sentient being. Life energy, however, follows the rules of nature in that living creatures are born under special circumstances (e.g. mating and reproduction) and then when then run out of their inherent life energy, they die. Obviously, chaos energy lasts longer than life energy, but there is also a majority of life energy compared to chaos energy in the world. It’s a strange balance. There is less chaos energy but it’s more powerful and uncontrollable. There is more life energy in the world but they don’t last as long, however, these energy can be cultivated into chakra. Hope that makes sense.

(11) Think how Sakura reacted when Kyuubified Naruto turned on her in the Manga Cannon series – book 30.

(12) Dokudes Hana is the husband of Dokudes Ryoka (Sakura’s new teacher) and the father of Dokudes Seiko (one of the Gate Guardians). But he is not an important character so you can pretty much forget about him from this point forth.

(13) Similar to what happened between Neji and Naruto in the Cannon manga and Anime, where Naruto charged Neji’s kaiten with his Kyuubified chakra punch.

Please don’t kill me in regard to the torture I put Hinata through. I had to do it! It was important to the plotline of this story! It’s the only way to showcase Bado’s nature in battle as well as how far Hinata still has to go in order to become a Chuunin.

On a completely different note, for those lovely people (named at the beginning of this chapter) who helped supply me the wonderful OCs, they are now mine in interpret and portray. PLEASE DO NOT email me just to tell me I’ve portrayed them wrongly from your own original conceptions. These are my interpretations and portrays, and I will do them as I see fit since I’m the one that has to find a way to incorporate them into the story.

Anyway, stay tune for the next chapter, which may come some weeks (or maybe a month) later. This is because I’m taking a small holiday (away from work, away from home and away from writing) to enjoy myself and relax. Hope you enjoy the chapter so far. Please read and review. More importantly, please answer the questions below!!!

Question! Question! I need some advice!

1. Would you guys like me to write out the entire fight scenes for all the Konoha and Suna crew (like above with Gaara and Hinata)? Or would small highlights here and there be sufficient?

2. Would you guys want me to concentrate on JUST the Konoha and Suna crew, or would you be interested in the fights between the OCs as well? Because (as you have seen from my website), each OC has a background and unique abilities. But I don’t want to overwhelm you all, so please tell me how you want me to write the next few chapters.

Please answer via the nice little review button on the bottom of the page or you can PM me from my profile’s page. Thanks! I hope you all enjoy this chapter just as much as I liked writing it.

Just a reminder, there is also a link to a picture I drew of the 7 point sealing system used by Samure on my profile’s page.