Chapter 12

The second round. And the preliminaries. A bit shorter, but I didn't want to write anything for the time between the prelims and the third round lest I give it away. ~LeViAcKeRmAnN

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They defeated three more teams over two days before Lee ran off to who knew where. Tenten assumed he'd heard something and started moving after him, albeit much slower. He could take care of himself, and if he'd seen something he'd handle it just fine without them. And they'd be there to stop him if needed after the mess was over.

Turned out, it was Team 7 being attacked by some weird sound guys. They were handily taken out by the Uchiha as they arrived, although something was off, so Tenten hung back, not wishing to get involved before it was safe to grab Lee and head for the tower.

Within a few minutes, there was an opening, so she and Neji hopped down to lug Lee onto their shoulders and leave with him.

"Good luck," she offered Team 7 courteously.

They made it to the tower without incident luckily, the fourth day of the exam. After opening two scrolls to summon a chuunin, they were allowed to rest.

"So do you think Team 7'll make it?" Tenten wondered, laying on the bed in the room they'd been provided, flipping a kunai above her.

"Hard to say," Neji huffed. "They seem untrained and weak, so I'd be surprised."

"Hm, maybe," Tenten hummed. "What about the thing with the Uchiha, did you catch any of it with your Byakugan? Do you know what the markings were?"

"They looked like seals," Neji admitted after a moment. "They were messing with his chakra system, it looked beyond wrong."

Tenten shuddered, catching the kunai and storing it. "I don't know any seals that mess with chakra the way I think you're implying. I know how to stop it from moving, that's a basic suppression seal, and how to nearly negate its signature, but not mess it up."

"It definitely wasn't either of those," Neji agreed, narrowing his eyes. "I'd need a better look to be sure."

"Let's hope their teacher either takes him to the Hokage, or gets someone to seal it up. If he doesn't, I will."

"You do that," Neji grunted, closing his eyes and leaning back against the wall.

There were preliminaries, and Tenten tried to pay attention to those who won. Sasuke won pretty much without chakra, then was taken out by his teacher, hopefully to get it sealed up, followed by the Aburame heir, Shino, winning against a sound guy who seemed to have pipes in his arms.

Honestly that wasn't making a very nice picture for Tenten, but she ignored it for now.

One of the sand kids, Kankuro, looked like he was a puppeteer, against a random Konoha genin she was pretty sure she'd never met. Then Sakura, a civilian on the Uchiha's team, and Ino, the Yamanaka heir, had a frankly disappointing fight that looked like it had more history then Tenten wanted to deal with. Either way, neither won, and thus neither would move on.

Tenten paled slightly at Temari's name next to hers. The girl's fan was a near-perfect counter to her weapons, the ultimate defensive, and offensive weapon.

Luckily, Tenten had her ultimate trump card. Hiraishin. She could safely get five feet away from the marker almost every time. And for now, that would have to do. She'd have to rely on shock alone to make sure a special kunai was exactly five feet away from Temari and disarm then pin the girl.

Tenten spun a kunai in her hand as the proctor announced the match. She just had to get the girl to let her guard down slightly and think Tenten was an easy opponent. Then she would strike.

Tenten began throwing weapons at Temari, trying to catch her off guard. While it wouldn't hurt to get a hit in at this stage, it wasn't necessary. But she was going to try anyway.

With a clever redirection of a kunai, she managed to clip the girl's shoulder, although it didn't seem to bother her, the cut barely produced any blood. That was fine, it was an injury nonetheless.

"Is that all you have?" Temari taunted, looking far too triumphant for the stunt Tenten got to pull later.

Tenten pulled out dual scrolls. "Not even close!" Twin Rising Dragons. Otherwise known as her favorite attack because it involved dragons and looked really cool. "Twin Rising Dragons!"

She leaped into the air, the two scrolls spiraling around her, and she threw weapon after weapon at Temari, fully expecting exactly none of them to land a hit.

As expected, none of them landed. She quickly cast out a sensory net to check where the seals were and found the right one she needed as she landed on the ground, the scrolls falling around her. She sped up her breathing slightly and panted as she stayed crouched for a long moment, faking exhaustion.

"I'll end this quickly," Temari scoffed, opening her massive fan fully and getting ready to swing. Tenten reached for the right seal, ready to teleport the second Temari was off-balance from swinging.

Temari swung, and Tenten teleported just as the wind reached her position, knocking the fan out of Temari's hands with a well-placed kick, then grabbing her arm and twisting her around and forcing her to the ground.

Tenten knelt on Temari's back, pinning her in a fashion she knew was very uncomfortable, having used it on both Lee and Neji at various points.

She held the other girl there until Hayate signaled for her to get off because she'd won the match.

She'd beaten Temari. A genin older than her by a few years with more experience under her belt. If she hadn't successfully managed hiraishin, there was no way she would have beaten her, Temari's fan and wind were perfect counters to her weapons. But she'd used Hiraishin to her advantage, taking out Temari just barely. But now she was moving on to the finals. And fighting Neji of all people, who she had yet to win against in any of their spars.

She supposed that meant she'd just have to try harder than before, and hopefully actually master Hiraishin, not just be able to use it. She had to be better, stronger, but most importantly, faster.