Pitifull

*Fair warning, small parts of this chapter are a bit graphic*

Mizuki went back up to the balcony before sitting next to Anko, who gave him a playful punch on the side.

Anko: "Congrats on making the semifinals, although with your opponents, it must have been a bit of a cakewalk."

Mizuki gave a slightly sad look at the thought, as it was true that he by far had the easiest route to the semifinals compared to all of those who he predicted would eventually arrive at that stage.

Mizuki: "Well, break a leg Anko, can't have you losing before you lose to me now can I?"

Anko: "Please, if anything, I would be the one winning in that fight"

Mizuki: "I suppose we will find out next round."

Anko had a determined look on her face, as she turned and was about to jump down the railing to engage Idate, when she felt herself being stopped by Mizuki.

Mizuki: "One more thing, Anko, be cautious.

Mizuki: "In just over a half a year, he went from an average genin to a near master of his variant of Futon Jutsu and we have no idea what other surprises he might be packing courtesy of the old snake."

Mizuki: "Anyways, I just have a bit of a bad feeling, but it's probably nothing. Just do me a favour and be careful."

Anko: "You've got a point, I will Mizuki, wish me luck!"

As she said that, she turned around and waved to him one last time before starting the match.

Mizuki: "Good Luck Anko."

A light blush adorned her face, wish she quickly tried to get rid of as she approached her position on the stage, looking across her to see her opponent.

The month that had passed had changed his appearance once more, with Bandages covering his entire Neck and up to his nose, in a manner similar to Zack Foster from "Satsuriku no Tenshi",

(A/N: Manga Version: https://satsuriku-no-tenshi.fandom.com/wiki/Isaac_%22Zack%22_Foster)

This is, with the except for his attire, which consisted of a black trench coat and pants, accompanied by the standard shinobi holster and sandals.

Doto: "Are both participants ready?"

Anko: "Yup"

Idate: "Yes"

Doto: "Very well then, I now declare the second match of the second round of the exam, as begun."

Idate opened the fight, his fighting style clearly very aggressive, as he opened by firing off a series of wind slashes, forcing Anko on the defensive.

Idate: {Futon: Vacuum Serial Waves}

Seeing the Blades of Wind coming towards her, Anko simply remained still as she spit out a geyser of water which began to encircle her in a sort of wall which blocked the previously mentioned blades of wind.

Anko: {Suiton: Water Formation Wall}

However, As just as Anko finished defending herself with her Water Wall, Idate had already chained together his second attack, an incredibly large amount of chakra was focused into a sudden blast of wind, which caused the water wall to shake and eventually collapse.

Idate: {Futon: Great Breakthrough}

Seeing the opening created by his attack, Anko was just about to move back when she suddenly felt a sharp pain in her chest, which began to grow cold.

Looking down, she saw a blade of wind sticking out of her chest, courtesy of Idate, who was now standing behind her.

Using the reduced visibility he created by Anko's wall of water, he created a shadow clone to execute his first attack, whilst hiding himself on the roof by applying his chakra to his feet.

Anko: "Fuck you asshole."

As she said that, she disappeared into an arc of lightning which hit Idate and caused him to let loose a slight scream as he was electrocuted.

Anko had left the safety of the water wall long ago in order to try to take out Idate and end the fight early.

Anko let loose a silent tsk as she realized that Mizuki's predictions were starting to become reality.

Anko: "God Damnit Mizuki, had to You just had to jinx me didn't you."

However, on the inside, Anko was starting to grow slightly fearful.

After all, he showed no hesitation before trying to pierce her chest, even if the blow wouldn't have killed her, it would have seriously crippled her, most likely collapsing one of her lungs.

Anko's gaze narrowed as she tried to settle the battle quickly.

Anko: {Striking Shadow Snakes!}

A series of snakes sprouted out of her sleeves, all aiming to bite Idate.

The boy infused wind into his kunai via softly exhaling wind chakra onto it, forming a scimitar shape before using his newfound sword in order to slash the different snakes.

Idate: Vacuum Blade.

He then began to close the distance between him and his opponent, trying to get close enough to win in close combat, where Anko is weaker.

. . . . .

Seeing this jutsu, Mizuki's eyes nearly bulged out of his head as he looked towards Idate, a newfound look of horror evident on his face.

He had finally figured out what was bothering him all this time.

That jutsu Idate used just then, was the one was used by Danzo in his final clash with Sasuke at the FIve Kage Summit years later before he commited his suicide jutsu.

Thinking back to the anime, Mizuki also remembered that Orochimaru was an Anbu working with Danzo around this time, a detail which Mizuki had previously overlooked, believing that the partnership would only begin during the war and not before it.

Mizuki looked towards his sensei, who was alongside the other jonin who were standing off to the sides as they were assessing the genin.

Mizuki: {I see, this is all a sort of test for him, with Idate being the subject, hmm, what could he be testing though?...Most likely the curse mark or one of it's variants...}

Having sorted out his thoughts in his head, Mizuki could only wish Anko good luck in his heart as he observed the match, a certain glare evident in his eye.

However, if Anko was going to be excessively hurt in this fight...well then, he would be more than happy to provide Orochimaru a durability test of his new toy as he broke it.

Even with the new stress on her shoulders however, Anko did not falter, as she was able to effectively maintain the distance between her and Idate, all the whilst producing counter attacks through snakes which would come out of her sleeves and scratch Idate.

Clearly, over the course of the past month, she had trained her snake jutsu to an incredible degree, in addition to her elemental ninjutsu.

Anko's attacks, whilst initially showing little to no effect, quickly ended up showing their might, as Idate's movements slowed and chakra weakened

Anko immediately took advantage of this, via throwing a series of electrifies senbon, all of which hit their mark and caused Idate to convulse in shock and fall over.

The smirk was evident on Anko's face, as she was able to overcome a hard battle, although she was not required to go all out, it was still significantly harder than she initially thought.

Doto: "Winner: Anko Mitarash-"

Just as Doto was about to finish his announcement, Idate suddenly got up and rushed towards Anko, his speed surpassing anything else he had ever used before.

However, there was a staunch difference between himself before compared to him now.

His skin was decorated by ink like markings, forming a sort of sporadic scale like pattern, the first stage of his curse mark was active.

Catching her by surprise, she was just barely able to cross her arms in a block as he made impact with her.

A sickening crunch could be heard as her arms broke from the impact, her body flew back, eventually hitting the wall, which caused her to be winded as she gasped for air, the impact also being strong enough to force her to cough up blood.

Mizuki: "Proctor?"

Mizuki's voice sounded like ice, clear killing intent behind it.

Doto: "He was able to attack before I finished my announcement, and weather we like it or not, we need strong chunin for the upcoming war."

Hearing the proctor's response, Mizuki could only sigh slightly, as it was unrealistic to think that Konoha would give up on good chunin when they were about to enter a war pretty much solo against the other four great nations.

However, Anko slowly got up, despite being bloodied and battered, determination still evident in her eyes.

Anko: "I will win this fight...only so that I can kick his dense ass in the semifinals"

As she said that, her fighting spirit was reinvigorated.

Anko clapped her hands together before turning and spewing out a poisonous gas cloud towards Idate, which quickly filled up the entire arena.

Anko: {Snake Art: Breath of the Serpent.}

Anko let loose a sigh of relief seeing that the jutsu was completed successfully.

The technique she just used was one she had learned from her partner summon, Mamushi. The jutsu itself was powerful enough to be classified in A Rank, and it would allow the user to breath different kinds of poisons through a sort of smoke screen, with the poison itself being incredibly fast acting.

The variant she just used was one which had the ability to induce a nightmare like illusion as soon as it entered the target's respiratory system.

However, Anko's eyes turned from relief to horror as Idate emerged from the fog and rushed towards her, kneeing her in the stomach and causing another cracking sound, clearly indicating that he had broken a couple of her ribs.

By this point, the railings of the platform were beginning to creak slightly, as Mizuki's gaze was focused on Idate, clearly showing his rage at what was occuring before him.

However, this did nothing to dissuade the boy, as he turned and whispered in Anko's ear.

You know, if I was replaced with nearly anybody else here, you would most definitely be the winner.

I only won this encounter thanks to some drugs which enhance my overall poison resistance thanks to Orochimaru-Sama.

Anko: "Orochimaru-Sama? What, don't tell me he whisked you away to his bedroom and-"

*CRACK*

Anko never got to finish her sentence, as Idate's eyes diluted in rage as he kneed her in the gut again, causing her to cough out more blood as another rib was broken.

Anko: "At least I'm not a snake's little bitch. Nor do I need to fucking drug myself to win before I even reach the goddamn semifinals."

Hearing Anko's words, Idate snapped as this time he infused chakra into his knee, preparing to shatter several of her ribs.

However, just before he was able to do so, the proctor called the match.

Doto: "Idate, you have won the match. Now step away from Mitarashi and allow her to receive proper medical attention."

Idate simply pretended as if he had never heard these words, as his knee continued towards Anko's chest, intent on delivering a final blow.

However, Idate would never complete this knee, as he turned around only to see Minato Namikaze, the legendary Yellow Flash himself standing before him.

Idate: "Very well than, I shall accept my victory-"

*SLAP*

A crisp sound could be heard reverberating throughout the arena, bouncing and echoing across all of the walls, as the scene of Minato simply slapping the genin repeated over and over again.

Orochimaru: "Just what do you think you are doing to my student Minato?"

Minato: "Exactly what it looks like. I don't care who you are, you DO NOT treat your comrades like that.

Minato: "Part of being a leader and being a chunin is looking out for your comrades and leading them."

Minato: "How are you supposed to do that when you beat your so called comrades within an inch of their life."

As soon as the exchange was over, medics rushed onto the scene, Anko's injuries requiring immediate treatment.

Whilst they were in the process of arriving, Mizuki leapt onto the stage and performed some basic emergency procedures, making sure that no fragments were at risk of embedding themselves in places where they should not, cleaning up the most severe external and internal bleeding, and so forth.

When the medical team arrived, Mizuki looked up to the Hokage, who gave him a grim nod.

It was clear that the Hokage knew that he would need as many capable shinobi as possible in the war if Konoha was going to survive, even if some of them were morally deplorable.

Although, this fact was very clearly tearing him apart, as he honestly looked disgusted with himself about how he was going to let someone who was willing to do that with their comrades just go with a slap on the wrist.

As Mizuki got up and walked away to accompany Anko to the medical bay, he walked by Idate.

As he did so, in the single second that they crossed paths, Mizuki simply whispered a warning, no, a promise, into Idate's ear.

Mizuki: "Come the semifinals I will beat you so badly that even with that fucking curse mark of yours, you will be in bed for months."

Idate's eyes grew wide at the mention of the curse mark, as he thought that he was the only one who knew about it, as the first carrier of the prototype of the curse mark that Sasuke would be given thirty years later.

And, with that, Mizuki continued to walk towards the medical bay, determined to keep her company for as long as possible, it was the least he could do for her after all.