Chapter 25

The match proceeded as it did originally, with the only difference being Yoruichi stopping Gaara before Lee was injured. In his anger, Gaara tried to attack her too. Unfortunately for him, he Yoruichi simply kicked him back to his team, temporarily paralyzing him in the process. "All right," she said when that was done, "next fight!"

The signboard revealed the next fight to be Neji Hyuga vs Sai. The fight started off pretty anti-climactic since Sai made use of his Ink Technique to creat a large bird and fly on it, then utilized his Super Beast Imitation Drawing to attack Neji from afar.

"Neji really got the worst match up." Tenten sighed.

"I wouldn't be so sure. I think it's a chance for him." Karma replied.

"What do you mean?" Rock Lee asked.

"Well, the Hyuga pretty much only have one style of fighting. If you learn it, you can counter it. Sai probably did his research on everyone here. Neji has to figure out a way to get past his direct counter, and maybe it'll lead to him creating a new taijutsu technique." Karma answered.

"Do you think he'll win?" Ino asked.

"I don't know. However, Sai clearly has a strategy he doesn't expect to be disrupted. If it is, he'll probably lose if he can't react fast enough." Karma said.

Neji did put up a struggle by trying to close the distance with Vacuum Palm, but even when he did that, Sai blocked his strikes with his sword.

Eventually, Neji did the unexpected and kicked at Sai.

"Hey, Kakashi-sensei, I thought you said they used light attacks to target chakra points..." Naruto pointed.

"They do..." Kakashi answered.

"They aren't incapable of doing other things, loser." Sasuke said.

Since the Gentle Fist Arts didn't involve kicks, Sai didn't imagine that Neji would kick him, resulting in him getting knocked off balance. As Sai regained his balance, Neji quickly utilized the Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms and defeated Sai.

The next fight was Shino Aburame versus Misumi, the last fodder character. Needless to say, the fight was almost immediately ended by Shino's chakra eating bugs. The rest of the matches were likewise, unexciting.

Choji versus Shikamaru came up next. Before Choji could use his own technique's he was made to surrender by Shikamaru using the Shadow Possession Jutsu. After that, Temari versus Tenten. It was exactly like the original. Sakura versus Ino, the match afterwards, ended different than the original, however. Since Sakura was conscious for half a second longer, it was determined to be her win.

Then, the last match was Hinata versus Rin. Rin quickly surrendered, stating that she was currently only the teams medical ninja and not very good at fighting. With that, the preliminaries came to an end. It was announced that the third exam would take place in a month.

Shortly afterwards, Sakura and Ino awoke. Ino was disappointed with her loss while Sakura was ecstatic at her win, even if she did win by the skin of her teeth.

"You both did well." Karma complimented them. "However, I have some suggestions as toward your road to strength in the future. Ino, you should focus on becoming a master of genjutsu, while increasing your physical strength so that you aren't vulnerable casting genjutsu. Your skills already affect the mind, and I think you could become a monstet in terms of genjutsu if you tried. Shikamaru and Choji are good support, but your Mind Transfer Jutsu leaves much to be desired as of now. Sakura, I think you have talent in becoming a medical ninja, more precisely one like Tsunade, one of the Three Sannin. I will try and have my aunt try and track her down to be your teacher.

Now, I'll explain to you guys a technique I came up with. You remember the Eight Hidden Gates that Lee uses? It's something like that, only you don't have to activate it for the strength increases. It's also more controllable. With your talents, you'll surely be capable users. It's called the Nine Heavenly Stairs, and while the actual boost in strength it provides is less than the Eight Hidden Gates, it's got other uses. For example, if you reach the 9th stair, you'll be capable of flight. There's no actual stairs, though it's just the way of saying you've got mastery over one of the nine layers to the technique. What he said shocked everyone severely, since the Eight Hidden Gates were basically a forbidden jutsu. How did Karma have something better. Yoruichi shrugged when Guy looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Karma, are you using this?" Ino asked.

"Nope, and I don't want to. I just thought the Eight Gates were interesting, so I copied and altered them." Karma replied.

"So your eyes can copy things like the Sharingan, only they can probably see chakra better." Kakashi observed.

"Nah, I just figured out how chakra flowed because of the gates a little with my eyes. I just think these two are perfect for it, Lee, I have something for you too. It's called Titan Shift. It allows you to turn into a giant. This giant has only one weakness, which you can find out yourself. Any other injuries it has are quickly regenerated, even missing limbs. It can also allow you to crystallize parts of the body." Karma said. He had to admit, even if it was for his women, he pitied Lee and felt a little bad about taking away what made him unique. So, he decided to give him an ability from another world as compensation. It wasn't a big deal anyway, and he needed strong people to be around anyway.

Karma wanted to make this world his actual home now, since it was the place he experienced a lot of things for the first time. He would expand the worlds size in the future as he travelled to other worlds, experiencing new adventures. He would also make his friends immortal, and have them help guard his family. Thinking so, Karma quickly left his body and created the necessary material for making Lee a Titan and making it a Kekkei Genkai.

Back in his body, he took out a pill and handed it to Lee. This pill was a combination of the powers of the Attack Titan, the Armored Titan, the Jaw Titan, the Cart Titan, and the War Hammer Titan. "I suggest getting a ring with a blade, because the trigger is getting injured with a solid or clear goal in mind at the moment of injury. One is for Guy, by the way." Karma explained as he passed two pills to Lee. Then he began to explain the Nine Heavenly Stairs to Sakura and Ino.

"Hey, Karma, why don't you teach me and Sasuke something?" Naruto asked, trying to get some benefits.

"Who trains their rivals?" Karma said.

"You're right! As your rival, I don't need your help!" Naruto nodded before leaving proudly.

"Sasuke, just ask Yoruichi about helping you with that cursed seal." Karma said.

"Got it." Sasuke nodded and went to talk to her.

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Authors Note: So, while I was on pain killers and sleeping pills, I kinda thought up a bunch of cross over future worlds lmao. I ended up giving myself like a mild writers block bc of it too, because I was thinking about the future after Naruto. Should be good now though, I think. By the way, one of those future cross overs was; Haikyuu!! X Hinamatsuri X We Never Learn X Quintessential Quintuplets X Nisekoi. Really, my imagination was wilding. I was also thinkin of throwing Grand Blue Dreaming there. But I'm not done with Naruto yet, so don't get too excited about whatever was going on when I was on 4 different kinds of pain killers!