Chapter 27

One week later, on the day of the third phase of the Chunin Exams, everyone was on time. Lots were drawn and the matches were decided to be:

Karma versus Temari

Gaara versus Shino

Sasuke versus Ailane

Sakura versus Shikamaru

Naruto versus Ibaraki

Neji versus Hinata

"Well, then," Yoruichi who was acting as the proctor said, "Let's get this started! Those that aren't fighting retreat to the waiting area, please." With her word everyone but Temari and Karma went back to spectate the match. "All right, now you two, stand a good distance apart. It's fine as long as it's enough that you're not right in front of each other." Following her words, they distanced themselves.

"So, you're not just eye candy! Mind telling me your skills?" Temari asked jokingly from across Karma.

"Match-" Yoruichi started.

"Sure." Karma replied to Temari.

"-Start!" Yoruichi finished.

Immediately afterwards, Temari took her fan from her back and jumping backwards, waved it towards Karma, unleashing a powerful gust of wind. Karma allowed himself to be knocked back by it. "I'm fast, and I'm good at ninjutsu. Also, I have a dojutsu."

Temari thought about what he said while paying close attention to Karma, on the look out for any signs of attack. He showed none, and the two weapons on his back looked heavy. Temari guessed she had enough range to react to anything he did currently and drew a line in the sand with her fan. 'I know he can use strong genjutsu through his eyes, so I should avoid looking at his face.' She thought. 'Maybe as long as I keep a good range, he'll be easy.'

Temari smirked and said "I know you're waiting for me to get closer! That's not gonna-" halfway through her statement Karma suddenly appeared directly in front of her in Sage Mode, almost touching noses. Temari stood paralyzed in fear. She knew her opponent was beyond her capabilities.

"I wasn't. I told you, I'm fast. I was just thinking of how to ask you on a date after this is over..." Karma said. "Please admit defeat, I don't want to hurt my future woman."

"Is that Sasuke's rival?" In the stands Mikoto Uchiha asked her son, Itachi.

"Yes, he is one of Sasuke's rivals. However, Sasuke says he's too lazy to rival him for long." Itachi answered.

"So who's the other one, Itachi?" Izumi Uchiha, Itachi's girlfriend asked. She was an odd one, who Karma's charm didn't work on. Karma had met her before and simply assumed it was because she liked Itachi and considered him something like a younger sibling.

"Naruto Uzumaki. There's also Gaara, the next match for Karma." Itachi answered.

"Well, I don't know about Naruto, but Karma is just like Yoruichi said, strong, young and handsome." Mikoto said.

"Mother...?!" Itachi asked in shock.

"What? Now that I'm not just treated as breeding stock, I can have my own romance. So what if he's young? I'm not much older than his aunt, who already told me she plans to be part of his apparent harem." Mikoto scoffed.

"Just let your mother do as she wants, Itachi." Izumi giggled. "She let you date me when your father would have killed me off or something before."

"I only have a little interest in him anyway." Mikoto said.

"Sasuke's going to awaken his Mangekyo when he hears about this." Itachi sighed resignedly.

In the arena, Temari laughed softly and admitted defeat, retreating to the waiting area where Gaara called her useless before jumping into the arena where the his match would begin. Shino shook his head and admitted defeat before the match was over. He didn't think he could have beaten Rock Lee, so he had no illusions of beating the one who did beat Lee. He did get called lame by Yoruichi, but it didn't matter to him.

The next match was Sasuke versus Ailane.

"Hey, Karma, who do you think wins?" Asked Sakura standing next to him.

"Ailane wins, easily." Karma replied.

"You think so?" Sakura frowned.

"I don't believe Sasuke could close the gap between them easily in a month, even if he does have some mastery over that Curse Mark." Karma explained.

"I think you'll be surprised." Kakashi said approaching them.

"Maybe. We'll see." Karma said dismissively. He refused to believe that Sasuke's strength jump was so large. If he did beat Ailane, that meant he wasn't too far behind Karma.

Back in the arena, Sasuke fired a Great Fireball Jutsu at Ailane and began to move backwards to prepare his chidori. He knew he couldn't match Ailane when it came to physical strength, so he would have to rely on strategy and ninjutsu.

"Sound Release: Resonance Shield!" Ailane yelled, plucking her guitar strings and creating a large shield around herself. The shield persisted as long as she kept plucking, and she could use other techniques that didn't require her hands with it. "Wind Release: Compressed Air Bomb!" She spat a ball of compressed wind chakra shortly after she fireball from Sasuke hit the sound wave shield she had active. Unfortunately, she missed him even with her sense enhance by Sage Mode, but only slightly missed. She ended up creating another barrier of smoke covering Sasuke.

"Chichichi!" the sound of chirping birds resounded throughout the arena, and Sasuke was revealed dashing towards Ailane with a Chidori in hand, shocking many. Ailane responded, by jumping back slightly, activating her Ketsuryugan, and firing off several sound waves to hit Sasuke, missing several, but eventually landing one. Sasuke, before he was hit threw a Kunai off to the side of Ailane.

When he was hit, Sasuke vanished in a puff of smoke and the Kunai he had thrown transformed into himself Curse Mark active and covering half his body, once again dashing at Ailane. This time, since he was too close and she had to give up on her shield earlier to block the clone, Ailane blocked with her guitar. Due to the power behind Chidori, the guitar was flung out of Ailanes hand as she nullified the attack, and she decided to cast a genjutsu on Sasuke. When all was said and done, she didn't believe she could win in terms of technical skill against Sasuke. She was only physical stronger in terms of taijutsu. From there, the two opponents stood still. Sasuke's Sharingan evolved to three tomoe before Ailane coughed blood and fell onto her knees.

Sasuke too, coughed a little blood, but remained standing. Sasuke won.

"I told you, he'd surprise you." Kakashi remarked at the waiting area.

'How?' Karma thought. Karma didn't think a month was enough for Sasuke to improve so much. He was also overconfident in the Ketsuryugan. Similarly, Orochimaru disguised as the fourth Kazekage, was panicking internally because he should have had some control over Sasuke's Curse Mark. He now knew he didn't have that control.

When Sasuke got back to the waiting area, he looked at the dazed Karma and smirked. "You're next." He said.

"No, Sasuke, I will teach Ka-chan the value of hard work." Ibaraki replied before jumping down to pick up her younger sister. It was clear Karma couldn't as he was still processing Sasuke's rapid power growth.

"I'll beat both of you!" Naruto yelled from the side, knocking Karma out of his daze.

"Oh? I can't wait, Naruto." Karma said with false arrogance. 'With Sasuke's strength improvement, Naruto will probably be even stronger. Especially since I gave him extra motivation by calling him a rival before.' Karma thought. 'Well, I guess if he really does grow in power to counter me, then I'll have to learn to work hard.'

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Authors Note: I just reached a milestone for myself in writing! Along with draft and published chapters, I have a total of 50 written!! That's a lot! To celebrate, I'll do a Q&A, but be warned, if asked I will spoil some future plans in it! Of course, I will place a spoiler warning in my answers to questions where I will give a spoiler, but just a word of caution. I will be periodically answering questions on that from today, Monday the 22nd of June 2020 until tomorrow, the 23rd. Can't promise I'll answer everything, but I will answer several questions if asked! Aside from that, I'll probably release another chapter or two later today.