Chapter 23
The final three days prior to heading out to the finals were just a touch up period for most, a time to make sure all of the tricks they had taken the month to learn were all set and ready for tournament time. It wasn't necessarily wise to go full-blast so close to the event and risk injury or coming in exhausted. Most adhered to this way of thinking with the exception of a few (one: Rock Lee for example).
Still, some competitors found it necessary to do so in order to master their more advanced techniques… right down to the last day before leaving.
XxX
(Uchiha Clan Compound)
Breathing heavily, Sasuke pulled his left arm out of a wooden target, not caring much for the singe marks and the splinters in his hand. Around the yard he had been training in, there were multiple targets of all sorts, human-shaped dummies, rocks, more wooded targets… all of them with similar holes punched in them presumably by Sasuke's left arm.
Sasuke held his left arm, keeping himself from wincing at the feeling of pins and needles stabbing every portion of the limb mercilessly, "So two shots a day is my limit… That's going to have to do during the exams…" Sasuke said to himself as he stood up to walk on home, 'Kakashi told me not to even use it unless Sakura or Chouji were in serious danger… to stick to the other moves I've learned. I've also got another advantage too.' Sasuke thought as his eyes flashed the Sharingan for a moment, 'There are three matches before our first round matchup. If anyone uses hand-seals I've got a chance to maybe pick up a new move to surprise the competition with.'
With the feeling that his extra training would most certainly come in handy, Sasuke decided to head home for the night. All of the Konoha competitors were supposed to leave early the next morning in order to make it in time to get the genin one more day of sufficient rest prior to the fights.
He did not see the figure that had been watching him, hiding his presence and taking notice of Sasuke's new skill. In the low light of the setting sun a small reflection came off of the person's glasses as he tilted them up on his face, "I know one very particular person that's going to be very interested in your development. I'm sure you'll impress."
XxX
(Elsewhere in Konoha)
Naruto had a look of satisfaction on his face as he sat against the trunk of a tree and sank his machete blade-first into the ground. He had been using the trees as test dummies for his combat techniques, a last run-through of his own personal skills before tomorrow came. He felt he had a good little list of tricks for his opponents to get a piece of, especially the delightful little jutsu that Asuma taught him for his machete. It sure wasn't Hien (Flying Swallow), but it was damnably versatile and it covered up a gap in Naruto's repertoire so to speak.
He had to chuckle to himself in a pleased manner as he picked his weapon of choice back up off of the ground and looked at it, a grin forming widely on his face, "Heh, thanks for the help Asuma-sensei." He then dropped his grin and a small smile took its place, "…And you too Ero-sensei, I guess…" Like it or not, perhaps using the Kyuubi's chakra wasn't a bad thing. He was still in control and he was still himself.
If it was a situation where he had to use it or die then it was better that he had access to it than not. Getting pushed to that extent shouldn't occur that often he thought. How many times would he face off with someone tough enough to push him like Jiraiya did or someone able to upset him like Haku did in making him think she had killed his team?
Never again if he had anything to say about it.
Shikamaru and Ino were ready for certain in Naruto's opinion. They had worked hard, all of them, and his teammates had picked up their share of nasty surprises just in case. There wasn't really much more to do at this point. He was getting rather excited at the thought of it and he still had a few days of travelling ahead of him before he could even think about fight time.
He had too much pent-up energy to just sit still and do nothing, he just had to get up and run, even if it was just on the way home. There wasn't anything to do but train though. Shikamaru and Ino were at a party with Chouji, thrown by their clans to celebrate the fact that they were in the finals… something that apparently was going on with all of the clans in Konoha that had representatives in the finals. It was a strictly Ino-Shika-Cho affair, but that was alright with Naruto. Their families were proud, and he wasn't really family so how would he be invited? Even if he had been it would have been because they probably pitied him, and he certainly didn't want that.
It really made him feel the squeeze of the fact that his clan didn't particularly exist anymore. The reality was certainly something that sucked, he could only imagine how Sasuke felt about his own clan because he actually knew them before their deaths.
He'd have to wait for the commencement festival that was apparently going to happen the night before and after the tournament if he wanted to spend some time with his team. For now he'd just chill out by himself at home and get ready for the road in the morning. Asuma was probably with Kurenai again, and the young blonde knew enough to recognize that it was certainly not his place to step in there… damn, even two months of hanging out with Jiraiya managed to stick something other than ways to fight in his brain.
And as he arrived at his apartment he found the man that he had just been thinking about standing outside of his apartment, "What, you didn't feel like breaking in and waiting for me this time?" Naruto asked dryly.
"You're telling me that you didn't booby trap the doors and windows after the last time?" Jiraiya replied much in the same manner with a small smile on his face.
Naruto just stared at him before moving past and unlocking his door, "You could take it. The only one that's trapped with explosives is the front door." Opening said front door, Naruto walked inside and gestured inwards to Jiraiya who still stood patiently outside, "Are you coming in or not?"
"Just waiting for the invitation gaki." Jiraiya said as he walked inside, "I think I've taken enough liberties with you recently. It'd be kind of messed up to break into your house after what I had to do the last time we spoke." He then let out a hard exhale and a cough as Naruto buried a fist in his stomach, "Ok… good hit." Jiraiya wheezed out as Naruto pulled his fist away.
"There… I feel better about it now." Naruto said, flexing his fist out after punching Jiraiya. Damn that old pervert was sturdy, that was like punching a life-sized brick of semi-hardened clay, "Maybe if I get pissed later I can hit you again?"
"It's a one day offer…" Jiraiya said with a deadpan stare before Naruto hit him again in the stomach, "…Brat." Another punch, "Gah! And the offer is off of the table! Kami, it's like getting hit with a sledgehammer!"
A smug grin came over Naruto's face at that comparison, "I got banned from trying to use the taijutsu posts at the Academy for practice because I finally broke one of them." Then Iruka yelled at him and chased him around the school for two hours… luckily he didn't have to pay for it.
After rubbing his stomach a few more times, Jiraiya gave a laugh, "Don't get cocky brat, you're not the strongest person that's ever hit me. Not even close. You're just good for your age. You could beat me like that all day and I'd be fine." He abruptly held up his hands defensively when he saw Naruto lift his fist again, "Damn it, don't do it! I come in peace!"
Seeing Jiraiya again made Naruto remember that while he might have had a pretty miserable experience with the man he did seem legitimately remorseful for whatever action he did to coax the Kyuubi's chakra out of him. And he did have a great time working with Jiraiya until then. He had definitely been picking things up from the man and the entire ride had admittedly been a blast right up until the final day.
'Damn, I'm a total pushover…' Naruto thought to himself with a sigh. He didn't want to hate Jiraiya. He had gotten tired of hate a long time ago. When he was younger he wanted to hate the villagers that treated him like he didn't matter, he wanted to hate his position in life before becoming a genin, he wanted to hate how much he sucked at proving he could get himself out of the Academy with his three failures, he used to want to hate everything… but he just got sick of it.
"I know you come in peace Ero-sensei…" Naruto said as he plopped down bonelessly in the first chair his body could reach. Jiraiya raised an eyebrow at Naruto's reaction and shut the door behind him so that passersby couldn't hear Naruto gripe, "Why can't I just ever be mad at the people that do things to me? That would make things so much easier. Hell, I don't even want you to bribe me or anything to get me to forgive you."
Jiraiya crossed his arms over his chest and stared at Naruto curiously, "Are you sure? Because I was about to teach you a-."
"-Yeah, I'm sure…" Naruto said, not really leaving any room for argument. Weird. Most kids would be doing backflips at the prospect of learning a new jutsu, "…Actually, keep that one on hold for a bit. If I live through the exams we'll see." There, that was more like it, "It better be badass."
Jiraiya scoffed and turned his head away from Naruto, "Everything I do is badass." He then turned serious and leaned against the front door, "So do you think you're ready?"
At that line of questioning, Naruto frowned in deep thought.
(Flashback – One Day Ago – Team 10 Training Ground)
Shikamaru picked at the bark that had just been freshly stripped from a tree, though not by a traditionally manual manner as one would have normally seen, especially since the tree also had some small gashes in it, "Okay Naruto… I think you've got it."
Naruto absently spun his machete around on the chain at the end of it with a huge grin on his face, "Yeah I know, I'm awesome. Not bad huh?" He then found that he had to stop spinning the weapon around for safety as Ino threw herself over his back, wrapping her arms around his neck, "Ino, I'm swinging a machete!"
"I'm so proud of my Goldie-kun!" Ino said brightly, rubbing her cheek against Naruto's whisker-marked one, eliciting a growl from her embarrassed genin teammate, "Such a quick study."
A smirk came upon Shikamaru's face as Naruto looked over at him with pleading eyes to get Ino off of him somehow, "Well having fifty to one-hundred clones working with the jutsu and giving the results back to you kind of does that for you." It made him wish he knew how to use Kage Bunshin like Naruto did. Hell, it had 'Kage' in the name of the jutsu to boot. Oh well, Naruto had to have his own special moves too, and if Shikamaru could make clones like Naruto then they would probably be just as lazy as he was, "And the fact that you have a new trick opens up a few doors for us come fight time. It should make things easier, at least I hope so."
Ino stopped rubbing her cheek against Naruto's to give Shikamaru a deadpan stare, "Nothing we ever do is easy… and I'm starting to think it's because you keep wishing out loud that things will be easy! You're jinxing us Shikamaru! With as much as you hope nothing ever goes wrong I'm surprised we haven't been jumped by a gang of S-ranked nuke-nin by now!" Ino then went deathly silent before palming her own face and dragging it downward, "Damn it… I just did it didn't I?"
"Uzumaki-kun! Yamanaka-san! Shikamaru-kun!"
Everyone's attention turned towards the edge of the field where Shiho was running towards them before coming to a stop in front of them with her hands on her knees, breathing heavily. All of Team 10 had the same thought seeing as how it was a weekday and Shiho had to work, 'Did she just run all the way here from the Konoha Archive Library at the top of the Hokage Monument?' It was quite obvious that she had… and that she was somewhat out of shape due to not being an active duty genin, so they gave her the time to catch her breath before asking her why she was here.
"Shiho-chan." Naruto asked, all of Team 10 fighting the urge to facepalm when Shiho sank to her knees and rolled over to her back to lay down for a minute, "Uh, what are you doing here? Don't you have to work today?"
"Yes." Shiho said, still breathing rather heavily and laying on her back, "But I have information!" She said, abruptly sitting up and adjusting the glasses on her face in an attempt to look as presentable as possible, "This Gaara person that you said can control sand, his technique seems identical to reports from files on past encounters that Konoha forces had in the past, during the Second Shinobi World War. I was taking some time to go through some of the records that I had access to."
Ino took the break as an opportunity to sit down on the ground and listen up, "Okay… so do ours. Me and Shikamaru's clan techniques are old too. He controls sand. Oooh." She finished, making feigning fear gestures at the idea of sand.
"Sand that he uses to crush things and suffocate people." Naruto said matter-of-factly, getting Ino to stop mocking sand in a hurry, "That's pretty important to remember Ino-chan."
Shikamaru knew that Naruto had apprehensive thoughts about the Suna genin Gaara and he trusted Naruto's judgment on dangerous enemies. There was always the possibility that they would somehow face off down the line, so knowledge would be power in this instance, "So if his sand control's been seen by others then there's a way to beat it, right?"
Shiho perked up once she heard Shikamaru speaking to her and blushed nervously as she responded, "Well there's something about the sand that you need to know first of all before you start looking for ways to beat it." Her nervousness dropped and she looked over to Naruto with a frown, though it was only for a split second, "Well… the man recorded in this book as having control of sand was a jinchuuriki gifted with the natural ability to do such." She finished quietly.
Naruto's jaw dropped at the thought of Gaara being a jinchuuriki, since that was clearly what Shiho had been implying. On the other hand, Shikamaru and Ino didn't have the faintest idea of what a jinchuuriki was, nor were they looking at Naruto's face otherwise they would have known flat out that it was a big deal.
"…So?" Ino finally said after waiting for a minute to let Shiho continue, "What's a jinchuuriki and why's it worth bringing up? I mean you ran all the way here and nearly killed yourself."
Shiho let out a sigh, inwardly proud of the look on Naruto's face, 'Uzumaki-kun knows what a jinchuuriki is without someone telling him. He must really be taking that learning thing to heart.' Of course she also didn't know that Naruto was aware of his own status as a jinchuuriki, but that was something else altogether, "Jinchuuriki; power of human sacrifice. Humans with the powerful biju monsters sealed inside of them. You do know what those are don't you?"
Ino just gave her a blank stare before blinking her blue eyes, "Um, refresh my memory."
Shiho returned her stare with a deadpan look, "The Kyuubi that attacked twelve years ago… that was one of them."
Ino's eyes then did a great impersonation of the way Naruto's had looked moments before at that revelation, "So you're saying that this Gaara kid has a demon stuck inside of him like the Kyuubi? How the hell would people even do that?" She turned towards Naruto, "Can you do that?"
"Fuuinjutsu is really powerful and dangerous." Naruto said, speaking up for the first time since the topic came up. If anyone out of the lot of them could even come close to calling themselves an expert on the matter it was him for more than one reason, "It can do all kinds of things… and no I can't. I don't think I want to learn how either." He replied honestly squinting his eyes and crossing his arms with conviction. He didn't want the power to make someone like him, his life was bad enough just because of what was stuck inside of him. He would be sick to his stomach if he ever had to do that to someone else.
Shiho held up one finger in a lecturing manner, "Ichibi no Shukaku. That's the best guess as to what's sealed inside of Gaara since the Shukaku is traditionally acknowledged as Sunagakure's. He's supposed to be their secret weapon; with powerful abilities and a touch of instability."
'A touch?' Naruto thought with a raised eyebrow. Clearly either the jinchuuriki in the records had enough wits about him to fake being sane in front of the man that had logged it in, or Gaara was just plain homicidal for the sake of being homicidal.
"Then how do we fight him? He's supposed to have all of that power. What's he doing in the exams?" Shikamaru asked rhetorically, not really expecting an answer. However he received one from his teammate.
"He's a human being just like anyone else." Naruto said tersely, "He's just got more power than a normal person would." Naruto himself was a jinchuuriki and he wasn't all-powerful. He had been shown by Jiraiya that having the Kyuubi in him didn't make him unbeatable, and that meant that Gaara wasn't unbeatable, "Treat it like another opponent that we can beat. At least we know his jutsu. That's more than he's got on us. All he knows about me is that I can make clones… that's not enough to find a way to beat me. It's not enough to beat us… dattebayo."
Shikamaru gave Naruto a long, hard look and saw something in his friend's eyes. At the end of the last stage of the exams Naruto seemed petrified at the prospect of fighting Gaara. What had changed over the last month to put that much swagger back in his step?
Still, it was either solve the problem or get squashed. Besides, what were the chances of both teams meeting in the final tournament battle anyway? And with odds like that it was clearly more than certain that they would in fact be meeting Gaara and his team in the finals which meant that he needed to get cracking and come up with a solution, "I told you I'd find a way to help in case we had to fight that guy Naruto. I'm not going back on my word. As troublesome as it may be…"
Shiho smiled at the lazy genin, 'Shikamaru-kun is so cool.'
(End Flashback)
Flashes of his clones and their complete decimation by Gaara flew through his head, but then Naruto thought of Ino and Shikamaru and what he knew they had been doing all month to get ready. In addition to that, Shikamaru had promised him that a solution would be found to Gaara's sand defense. He believed in his team and he believed in himself, "We're ready Ero-sensei… for sure."
Besides, he still had to get out of the first round before he could rightly begin worrying about any of that. Even though he didn't know anything about Team 10's first round opponents he didn't want to be accused of overlooking them and wind up beaten.
"Oh, then you'll definitely win for sure." Jiraiya said with a smirk on his face. Naruto thought he was being facetious at first, but the man quickly squashed that thought with his next words, "Look here gaki, you've got the heart and the soul, all you needed was the guts to go forward."
"What about the talent?"
"Meh, talent's overrated." Jiraiya said, waving him off.
Naruto almost fell out of his chair at the very blunt near backhanded statement, 'Does that mean that I don't need talent to win this or that I don't have any talent in the first place? Oh who am I kidding, both of those options suck!'
Jiraiya ignored the look on Naruto's face and continued, "Listen, you're going to bleed, you're probably going to take a beating, and by the end of this tournament you're going to wish with all of your heart that you never have to do anything like it again. But you'll gut that out and do it anyway. If you really think you deserve it, and if you believe that winning the whole thing is your mission then you'll endure all of that to do so. Take the things that you want and don't let anyone say you can't or let them stop you without doing everything you can, and then a little bit more after that, to get there."
He then opened the front door and stepped outside, finishing his point on a lighter note, "No student of mine is going to get beaten in the first round either… you're representing me here, so make them all see how good you are. That will make them all see how amazing Jiraiya-sama is for sure! The student reflects the skill of the teacher!"
As Jiraiya's loud, guffawing laughter rang out while he walked away from Naruto's apartment, Naruto himself was left with a strange peaceful feeling in his stomach. No jitters, no actual doubts, none of that. He honestly felt ready with not a thought in his mind to the contrary, "Ero-sensei if your perv books didn't make you so much money I'd say you need to start touring for inspirational speeches."
XxX
(Two Days Later – Tetsu no Kuni)
Even in the snowy environment of the samurai-dwelling country it was clear that a festival was carrying on. The streets of the host village were filled with vendors of all sorts from countries all over the world. Each nation invited to view the final rounds of the exam had some form of representation; either through stands set up for cuisine, peddling wares, or buying and selling commodities that would be far harder to obtain in their countries normally.
It was like a massive, grandiose, international swap meet for merchants with the means to travel freely to the normally locked down country. They could either sell their own in-demand goods to foreigners for higher prices than they could get at home, or get their hands on rarer things that they could sell back in their own villages for huge profit.
Fortunately the samurai of Tetsu no Kuni were out in full force in their capital to ensure nothing got started by any of the visitors. No attempts at trying to rob any of the merchants and no fighting among the shinobi there only to view the tournament that was the centerpiece of the whole thing, otherwise stiff penalties would be paid in full, monetarily or physically.
Still, any underlying tension between the major villages there to visit seemed to be set on the backburner. Anything that any of the more bitter spectator shinobi felt had to be settled up between them and the other villages was to be done vicariously through the genin in the tournament. That was the unwritten understanding of the chunin exams; it was more or less anything goes as long as it was in the structure of the competition.
"I've already gotten an audience with another team that was supposed to be fighting one of the Konoha team… so now I've come to you all." Gato said with a nasty grin on his face as he sat in a rather upscale looking restaurant, his table surrounded by a fully armed guard. He had no desire to associate with the rabble outside in the festival. He had business to attend to, "You see a pair of these bratty Konoha teams that are littering the event managed to turn a rather lucrative business arrangement of mine sour a few months back. And I figured, what better time to collect scalps than now when I can get away with it?" He chuckled darkly towards his guests, "So here's the deal. You're to fight some no-name brat named Uzumaki's team in the first round."
Yes, Naruto was a no-name as far as Gato was concerned… despite the fact that there was a newly built, mammoth bridge with his name slapped right on top of it sitting between the mainland and Nami no Kuni.
"And you want us to bury those runts, right?" Sitting across from the shipping magnate was the Iwagakure team. The shaved head de facto leader of the squad, Hisashi smirked as he asked Gato his question, "You'll pay up for each one we can kill right?"
"One million for each of you for every one of them you take down." Gato said informatively, "Just so you have the option of taking out one or two of them and make it seem like an accident, a little plausible deniability even in something like this is never a bad thing. Besides, I award ambition in case you decided to get all three of them. Just don't tell your jounin or any of your village reps, I don't think they'd be too ecstatic to hear that you're more or less freelancing."
Hisashi looked at his two teammates and got unanimous nods from both of them as the fauxhawk sporting member of the team Masaru spoke up, "We're in. How many times will a group of genin ever going to get the chance to get rich?" The third teammate Jun nodded in agreement with a rather hard look on his face.
"Besides…" Hisashi said again, cracking his knuckles at the thought, "I was already going to kill that blonde kid with the stupid look on his face. I might as well get something out of it."
'Well that's one less thing to worry about.' Gato thought to himself as he sat back in his chair, satisfied at the moment. He might not be able to get a shot at the two Konoha jounin that had ruined things for him, (Kakashi and Asuma already had significant bounties on their heads and adding more money to it at this point wouldn't inspire anyone else to go out of their way to hunt them) but the kids were still more than weak enough to pick off and these exams were the perfect opportunity for it.
He was petty enough to more or less put out a hit on them to the tune of 3 million a head. His pride was worth that pittance any day after what they had started.
'And those genin that work for my new business partner better get the job done as well against those brats with the Uchiha kid on the team.' Gato thought as the Iwa genin got up and left his presence, 'But from the work I've had done over the last few months I have to say that Otogakure shinobi certainly know how to get the jobs I need done. He certainly seemed receptive enough to take my mission though when I said I needed his genin team to put down that Uchiha's team. I wonder why?'
XxX
There were video screens of various size set up all over the place, flashing through the tournament competitors and the odds of either team winning their particular bout in the first round. Further odds would be set up in between fights after the first round ended, so the entire tournament was a major gambling event, and the bookies came from far and wide to make their own bones off of those looking to bet on the genin in person. The multiple dignitaries, elite shinobi, nobles, and high-profile visitors there for the event had more dispensable income than they would find back in their own towns and villages… well most of them should have at least.
"All right, time to make a fortune." A fair skinned blonde woman with a quite sizeable bust and long blonde hair tied into two loose ponytails going down her back walked through the streets of the host village for the exams. She had on pick lipstick, a grey sleeveless kimono-looking blouse with a dark blue obi keeping it tied closed quite low to show her cleavage, dark blue pants, black open-toed heeled sandals, a necklace with a beautiful green jewel on it, and an open green robe with the kanji for 'gamble' on the back, "The Uchiha advancing is a sure thing so I'll put a safety bid on him. I'll put a good amount up on all of the Konoha teams to make it out of round one, and for the kicker the Suna team to walk off with the whole thing." She seemed rather excited at the thought of the bets she planned on making.
Following behind her was a woman with shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes. She wore a long black kimono with a white obi and sandals similar to blonde lady and had a worried look on her face as a small pig wearing a pearl collar and a red jacket trailed along with her, "Tsunade-sama what could you possibly be gambling with? Didn't we have to run from Cha no Kuni because you got us into debt again?"
"I paid that off in the end Shizune." Tsunade said, waving off the dark-haired woman's concerns, "And we're about to make back what we lost before right here during this tournament. It's a sure thing! Who could possibly judge odds in a competition of shinobi better than someone like me?" She said in a boasting manner.
Shizune simply followed behind with a deadpan look on her face, 'Maybe someone that has enough luck to back up their 'amazing judging skills' for one?' She let out a sigh and looked down at the pig walking with her, "We're going to be on the run again for debt after this aren't we Tonton?" An oink in the affirmative was the response from the small animal, "Why does she like doing something that she's so bad at?"
She was so absorbed with fretting over her master's splurging of their already rather questionable funds she managed to bump into a smaller figure that had been walking her way, "Ow… damn it Shikamaru this still doesn't count as you being right."
"Oh, I'm so sorry." Shizune said as she looked down and saw a young blonde child sitting on the ground with a fallen massive stuffed toad and a multitude of other stuffed animals on the paved street. As she looked at him she noticed his headband and blinked at it being a Konoha leaf plate.
XxX
(Moments Earlier – With Team 10)
Shikamaru shook his head as he and Ino followed along behind Naruto. They weren't rightly sure where they were headed in the festival as they had gotten separated from Asuma earlier for what he called 'bonding with his comrades'. Said comrade that came to fetch him for said bonding was Kurenai though, so none of them were holding their breath on seeing Asuma again for at least several hours, leaving them to their own devices.
Said devices involved Naruto dragging them to every winnable game that there was, or at least it seemed that way. He would either lose and curse repeatedly before trying again until he won, or he would win and move along to the next one. Needless to say by this point he was toting around a lot of prizes; stuffed toys, candy and other treats, porcelain masks like the kind ANBU wear, straw hats, and other things.
"Do you think you won enough stuff Naruto?" Shikamaru said, amused as Naruto tried to navigate his way down the street, his vision hampered by the mountainous multitude of his 'spoils of war'. Both he and Ino were wearing their weather-blocking cloaks while Naruto was back wearing his winter clothes; his normal sleeveless orange windbreaker with a padded long-sleeved blue shirt to cover his arms as well as a pair of thick orange pants.
"You weren't saying that when you wound up getting some of the stuff that I won." Naruto said, turning his head for a moment to glare at Shikamaru, "You were too lazy to win that thing that you said you wanted so I had to do it for you. How are they by the way?"
Shikamaru didn't vocally answer Naruto's question, he simply gave a thumbs up and held up a small black package and opened his mouth to show a mouthful of small gravel-looking candies that were fizzling audibly, loud enough to clearly be heard even in the midst of the crowd.
"That's what I thought." Naruto said, satisfied with Shikamaru's lack of a response… or maybe he just felt like letting his candy answer for him? Lazy bastard…
"I'm sure you thought this was funny or cute or something." Ino said as she walked with her teammates, carrying something that Naruto had given her very quickly after winning it. He had won her a pig shaped wallet and had immediately handed it over to her with a huge grin on his face. And she had been wondering why he had been trying so hard to guess one winner right on that weird rat race game. Now she knew.
Naruto shrugged as he went back to his job of trying to navigate through the throng with only the use of his repeated chakra pulses. Who needed eyes? Not him, "Funny? No. I did think it was cute though Ino-buta-chan." He replied cheekily.
Ino just started staring a hole in the back of Naruto's head at the nickname that had been given, "Just so we're clear; I will stab you, you know that right? I have no problems with that. Especially since I know you'll heal by tomorrow." She then decided to bring something else up, "Why don't you just seal all of that stuff in a scroll or something?"
"I left all of my scrolls in the room with our stuff." Naruto explained, "It's not like I came out here expecting to win so much useless crap." He then noticed quite a few kids running around, laughing and actually taking notice of how many toys he had with him. Eh, what the hell? He had to get rid of most of that stuff anyway. And with that thought in mind he started handing out some of his winnings to the kids that he passed, "Guess I'll share my good fortune." He said jokingly as he did so.
While Ino and Shikamaru figured it to just be a good gesture from a good-natured guy it was kind of something else too. Something similar had happened for him back during a chunin exam festival that had been held in Konoha years ago. A person had been giving out prizes that he had won, probably to impress a girlfriend or something, and had actually given something to a little Naruto; his frog wallet Gama-chan. Even when the man had actually spotted Naruto he had not taken the smile off of his face, nor had he retracted his gift much like how a lot of other adults would have.
"Here you go kid. Have a good time and cheer up would you? You'd probably feel a lot better if you smiled instead of frowning so much."
The man had been a Konoha shinobi, and while Naruto didn't remember seeing him again after that he took that advice to heart and kept the wallet, even now. That man was part of the reason he wanted to be a ninja in the first place; maybe he could be some kid's random hero one day? Which was also the reason he was handing out prizes. Maybe he'd wind up giving a gift to some random down on his luck kid much like he himself had been? If he did then the child would definitely appreciate the gesture, he most certainly did.
After giving away a dozen toys to the rather energetic kids, getting more than his share of approving looks from the people around them, Team 10 continued on their way, "That was a really nice thing you did Naruto." Shikamaru said. He wished he could say he would have done the same, but that would have involved winning the toys in the first place and the effort of doing that and then fairly dispersing presents… too much work for him.
"It's not a big deal." Naruto said bashfully as he continued forward down the street, "I don't need all of this stuff anyway. What would I possibly do with all of it? I do want to keep the gigantic frog though. That's my trophy."
Ino smiled at the amicable atmosphere they were in. It was very calming especially considering that they would be fighting tooth and nail in deathmatches the next day, "I think that's a toad Goldie-kun."
Really? Well maybe he'd been hit in the head one too many times to notice the difference when he had been fighting with Jiraiya's summons, "There's a difference?" Naruto said questioningly as he looked back at Ino. While doing so he bumped into someone in front of him and fell backwards onto the ground, spilling his festival prizes all over the street.
"I told you that was too much stuff." Shikamaru commented before emptying more of his pack of candy into his mouth.
There was nothing wrong with overachieving and the sooner Shikamaru realized that, the better, "Ow… damn it Shikamaru this still doesn't count as you being right." Naruto said from his place on the ground.
"Oh, I'm so sorry."
Naruto looked up at a pretty dark-haired lady that had an apologetic look on her face… and a pet pig nearby. Okay, he could roll with that. It wasn't the weirdest thing he had seen by a long shot, "It's alright." Naruto said, not really bothered at all from his place on the ground as he adjusted his goggles on his forehead, "Hey, do you want a stuffed animal or something? Take your pick." He then added something as an afterthought with a stern look, "Not the giant frog though, that one's mine."
"Giant toad Goldie-kun."
"Fine, 'toad' Ino-buta-chan." Naruto said as a correction before a snowball hit him in the back of the head, "You know I'm going to get you for that, right?" He did not see Ino stick her tongue out at him and pull down her eyelid as a rebuttal.
As Naruto picked himself up off of the ground and shook the remnants of the snowball out of his hair, the lady he had bumped into was busy collecting up his fallen stuff, "I'm sorry again, I was just preoccupied with something else. My name is Shizune and this is Tonton." She said, referencing the small pig that oinked happily at being introduced.
"Nice to meet you lady." Naruto said as he picked up the rest of his things and took what Shizune had collected from the ground back into his possession, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto, and these are my teammates Shikamaru and Ino." Both teammates waved at Shizune, "And we're going to win the whole damn tournament tomorrow and get promoted!"
"You can do it!" A mustached street vendor on the side of the road yelled encouragingly with a strange accent.
"Thanks random guy!" Naruto shouted back with a grin on his face. It looked like he had an underground fan base in Tetsu no Kuni. He wondered if anyone would make a sign and hold it up during the competition to get his attention. That would be cool.
"So you're the long-shot team."
Team 10 and Shizune's attention found its way directed towards a rather well endowed blonde woman walking towards them with her hands on her hips, "I was talking to myself for about three minutes before I realized you weren't behind me Shizune. And here I find you here held up by one of the fighting Konoha teams. The long-shots to boot."
Shizune had the humility to look sheepish at being left behind by her master, "Tsunade-sama… oh, well I bumped into this young man and knocked him and his things down, I just stopped for a second to help him."
'Tsunade huh?' Naruto thought to himself, finding her name really familiar, 'Why do I think I'm supposed to know that name? I don't think she's dangerous… or at least I don't think she's dangerous to me.'
Ino decided to attempt to placate the rather confident and powerful looking woman. She looked like a kunoichi, "She was just helping us out for a bit… but what did you mean when you called us the long-shot team?"
Tsunade raised an eyebrow at Ino and decided to answer her, "Well even though you were apparently highly touted after your graduation from the Academy and you're a Yamanaka your teammate wasn't so highly looked upon. But he's a Nara and that's just the way they are even when they're outstanding… every one of them I've met anyway." Her eyes then drifted to Naruto, "But then there's the talk about your third teammate."
Naruto perked up as he anticipated Tsunade to begin talking about him. She knew about him? What did she know?
Apparently it was what everyone else knew that shaped their thoughts about him at first.
There was some great news…
"They say he failed his graduation exam three times before passing in some cop-out fashion later." Tsunade started in a very blunt manner before continuing, "With six months under his belt it has to be luck that he managed to get this far even with that nasty business in Nami no Kuni that people talked about, but there's no luck here and unfortunately for you and your Nara teammate sweetie I don't really see you making it further than advancing out of the first round. You two would be so beaten up by the end of it that even if you won there'd be no way you could win in the next round." She sounded rather confident in that pick.
Naruto of course took offense to this, "You say that like I'm not even going to fight in the first round."
Tsunade turned her brown eyes to Naruto and gave him a once over glance, "I'm not saying you won't fight, I'm just saying that it probably won't matter too much in the end."
Having worked with Naruto for around six months and gotten an opportunity to get to know him quite personally, Ino was the first to verbally jump to Naruto's defense, "How could you say that if you haven't even seen him fight before? That information is all old. No one that knows anything could possibly tell you what Naruto can really do. Who do you think you are to say something like that lady?"
Hearing that Ino had a little fire in her put a smirk on Tsunade's face. So the cute little rookie genin girl had a backbone. A rather sturdy one too, "I think I'm pretty much one of the most qualified people in the world to say so. You really haven't heard of my name before? I guess people don't talk about me and my team anymore after what my bastard teammate did."
Putting Tsunade's name together with some of the things she learned in the Academy, mostly the fact that Tsunade was the measuring stick by which every kunoichi in the world was compared to, got Ino's blue eyes to widen once she realized who they were talking to, "Y-You're-."
Shikamaru shook his head and inadvertently cut Ino off, "I don't really care one way or the other about who you are, but you aren't going to just talk down to our friend like that and expect us to just sit here and smile about it."
"It's okay guys." Naruto said, putting on a brave face by grinning as he set his things down on the ground once more, "She's just the kind of person that wants me to give up. I've dealt with things like this before my whole life remember? Even you guys said stuff like that to me before all the time."
While it was true, Ino didn't particularly want to be reminded about that. It was funny back when everyone thought he was talentless, but he had long since dispelled that way of thinking. Now if everyone else would just realize it too, "That still shouldn't matter. She doesn't even know you."
"She'll know me after we win this tournament and get promoted. And then she'll know me when I make it all the way to Hokage!" Naruto said brightly and full of confidence.
Tsunade was taken aback momentarily by Naruto's spirited declaration and his appearance, 'Nawaki? No, he's not… he's just some stupid kid.' "So you want to be Hokage. That explains everything then. Wake up and face reality brat; all that would create for you would be a life full of sacrifice that would kill you in the end." She turned away from Team 10 and began walking away, "Only a fool with his head in the clouds would want to be Hokage."
'There's no reason to go so far Tsunade-sama…' Shizune thought rather bitterly as she could see Naruto physically shaking to hold himself back from doing anything rash. Even Ino moved to him and put a hand on his shoulder, 'He's just a kid. There's no reason for him to not have a dream.'
"Well I personally don't really see anything wrong with a person having their head in the clouds." Shikamaru said calmly, getting Tsunade to stop walking away once she heard how easygoing he sounded even after how she had intentionally tried to chop Naruto down, "I mean, clouds are cool. Have you ever stopped and looked at one? They just calm you down and mellow you out. They make you feel, I don't know, good." He tried to explain, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly as he didn't think he was wording it right, "I guess I suck at this whole speech thing, but my point is kind of simple. Having your head in the clouds makes sure that you have something to look forward to even when everything sucks… otherwise life would just make you all bitter and crabby." He smirked to himself, "…Kind of like you I'd imagine."
Tsunade narrowed her eyes at Shikamaru, "Why you little-…"
"-Besides… someone on this team has to have some kind of ambition." Shikamaru said, gesturing his head towards Naruto, "We've got a system worked out between us. I'm the pessimistic realist that lets us know when we're in over our heads, keeps our feet grounded, and thinks of a way out no matter how troublesome it is. Ino's the bossy one that can make us do anything and keeps our heads on straight, she's the happy medium here. Naruto's the mettle of the team, the one that thinks we can always come out on top and never lets us quit or say we can't. He's the dreamer, our grit. Without him we wouldn't have any edge behind us at all. So he might be a bit of a fool? Who cares? That's Uzumaki Naruto; a hardheaded-."
"Stubborn as an ox-." Ino said, following up without even being prompted to without a beat.
"Brash-."
"Loudmouthed-."
"Bright eyed-."
"Grinning, cherub-faced-."
"Optimistic-."
"-Tenacious son of a bitch."
"And that's why he's more or less the soul of the team." Shikamaru finished with a careless shrug.
"-But fortunately not the brain." Ino said with a firm nod, proud of her reasoning on Naruto's character, "If he was then he'd run us off of a cliff like a pack of lemmings… as a matter of fact he actually has before. That's our Goldie-kun though."
Naruto had been hit with so many heartfelt, yet backhanded complements over the last several seconds he didn't know whether to feel flattered or to be pissed off so he just settled for a combination of both, "Wow you guys that was great. I just want to hug you both… and stab you at the same time. I really appreciate it. Oh… also, for the record, I hate you both so much right now." He turned his attention to Tsunade though, "But we'll see who's really a fool once we win the whole tournament. If you don't think we can then sit back and watch."
A sharp tongue-lashing didn't break the kid down or make him lose his cool, probably because his teammates had his back. And now he seemed more determined than ever to go out and prove something. That damned grin of his made her think of Nawaki though… she couldn't even bear looking at it any longer, "I'll see you tomorrow when your opponent wipes the floor with your face." Tsunade said as she turned and started walking away.
Naruto gathered up his things and let out a scoff before walking off on his own way with Ino and Shikamaru, "Whatever… I'll be sure to look for you in the crowd after I kick some major ass you old hag."
"What was that?" Tsunade snapped angrily as she turned around abruptly, ready to teach the little runt some manners, samurai be damned today. Once she did so however, a small slug plushie immediately bounced off of her forehead and landed in her hands as she deftly caught it. She noticed that Shizune also had a little stuffed mallard duck in her grasp as well, probably from Naruto's stash of prizes.
Naruto didn't turn back around as he held on to all of his stuff and kept walking, "It suits you for some reason…" He said as an excuse for giving it to her, "Uzumaki Naruto; future Hokage, and Team 10 of Konohagakure no Sato; all future chunin exam champions and soon to be promoted chunin. Don't forget that, alright?"
Eventually Team 10 disappeared within the crowd of people still enjoying the festival despite the perennial overcast sitting over the skies of mountaintop host village in Tetsu no Kuni. Tsunade looked in the direction they disappeared even when it went long past the point of seeing them anymore before looking at the slug plushie in her hand and tossing it up and down a few times, "What a noisy little punk." She said absently, though she didn't instantly dispose of the little trinket. She kept a hold of it as she headed back on her way to where she was planning to go before the little run-in, "Come on Shizune, we've still got places to go and things to do today."
"Right away Tsunade-sama." Shizune said, taking a few steps before sparing one more glance behind her, "What a strange boy…" She commented, moving to catch up to Tsunade as Tonton let out an agreeing oink.
XxX
(The Next Day – Chunin Exams Final Round Location)
The next day the jounin sensei of all of the competing genin led their teams to the predetermined locale for the tournament. It was a rather mammoth building with enough seating to hold 20,000 people max and a very high ceiling. Others unfortunate enough to not find a way to procure a spot, either due to not being a sensei, or not being important enough to garner a ticket on demand found themselves out of luck once the place filled up, as there was no wiggle room for stragglers begging for a standing-room only spot.
Needless to say, scalpers that had been able to get tickets made a killing off of the negligent average citizens that wished to see the show in person.
Those unable to get inside the arena were not out of luck though. For a nominal fee they were allowed to watch the event on a series of large screen in the middle of the village, likewise a signal was sent out from the highest point of the village to Sunagakure, Konohagakure, Iwagakure, Kumogakure, and Kirigakure so that the citizens of those villages could view the tournament in one place as well. For example, in Konoha a large screen was set up in the coliseum that would have hosted the final round had Konoha hosted the exams that year. It was similar to that in the other villages as well, tickets were sold due to it being a live event and a copy of the event was meant to be made for posterity to be kept in the Konoha Archive Library.
The battle arena itself was set up in a rather diverse manner. It was massive. A pit-like setup surrounded by high walls on all sides to keep the spectators from getting too close to the action. In the circular center of the arena there was a rather tranquil Zen-garden looking setup; series of aesthetic high rocks set up looking like meditation surfaces, well spread out sand on the ground, and a stream running all through the center of the arena with a slight bend to it, thirty feet in width across, a tough stone bridge sitting over it.
From there on one dominant side of the stream there were rows of evergreen trees and shrubbery, a forest-looking portion. Though it wasn't too tough to see through all of the plant-life there were quite a number of uses for that portion of the field. On the other side of the field it was rockier, very uneven, and much rougher than any other part of the field, almost like the beginning part of a mountain range.
In both opposite portions of the field there was one small pond each. If one were to view the field from directly above it would akin to a yin-yang; one side barren and lifeless, the other with nature life. The only thing keeping it from being a completely traditional looking yin-yang was the circular center that made up the garden, meant to be the neutral starting zone for fights to begin.
This was where the teams were all gathered to wait for the event to begin.
"Yesterday during the festival it was so romantic." Sakura more or less gushed to Ino, "Sasuke-kun and I got to see so much of everything they had to offer. All of the food, the shops, everything!"
Ino rolled her eyes, "It doesn't count as a date." She said as if it were obvious, "You're talking like Chouji wasn't there too."
Sakura stopped her wonderful thoughts of yesterday with Sasuke once she realized that Chouji had in fact been there as well. As a matter of fact every place they went had been a place that Chouji had wanted to go to. Sasuke just followed him… and not that Sakura knew it the onyx-haired Uchiha had a twitch in his eye most of the day that wished that Sakura would stop talking to him.
"That… shouldn't matter, right?" She said rather desperately.
Ino let out a chuckle as she shook her head, "That's like saying that I went on a date with Goldie-kun yesterday, only Shikamaru was there tagging along. It doesn't count Forehead. Too bad, but apparently Sasuke-kun knows what he wants and it doesn't seem to be you."
"Take that back!" Sakura said pumping her fists with punches rather angrily, "It's not that… I just need to show Sasuke-kun that I'm more than just a pretty face and brains." She ignored the '…And Forehead' remark from Ino to keep speaking, albeit with a tick mark on her head, "That's why this is perfect! If I can help us get promoted then that'll prove it, especially if I can walk all over you in the process…"
"You'd better hope you get to show off enough before we fight." Ino said with a confident air, "Because then we'll see who walks all over who. If you haven't secured a promotion by then you won't be getting it over me."
Sakura merely smirked at her not-so-subtle challenge before thinking of something else, "Say… 'Goldie-kun' is Naruto, right?" She ventured a guess, getting a nod from Ino as they both looked over at Naruto who was looking pretty awed at the look of the arena and at all of the people filing in, "You know a second ago when you were talking about him and what makes a date you sounded like you could deal with dating him."
Ino's eyes widened momentarily before narrowing perceptively, "Don't go there Sakura."
Sakura on the other hand found a separate chink in Ino's armor to pick at instead of bashing her head against the brick wall that was declaring that Sasuke would be hers to Ino's face, "What? I didn't say anything. And to be honest once you get past the goofy part he's got good points. Not Sasuke-kun's good points though."
"Naruto and Sasuke are two totally different people." Ino insisted, trying to end the trail of the conversation, "What makes Naruto cool aren't the same things that makes Sasuke-kun cool. It's totally not fair to compare them."
Sakura stared at Ino for a second before sighing and running a hand through her pink locks, "I guess you're right. But if you're saying that Naruto is cool, then sorry I just don't see it."
"You will." Ino said as if it were already assured, "I'm pretty sure of that."
Meanwhile, elsewhere Naruto was trying to get his nerves back down. He was fine until he saw all of the people that started entering the stands, that put a little shellshock into his heart if only for a moment.
"So… that rematch that you were crying about six months ago." He turned around to see Tenten standing there with a smile on her face as she spun a kunai lazily on her finger, "I think you'll only have to wait one more round for it. Oh, and your team will have to win your first fight too."
Hearing about his possible rematch made Naruto's ears burn, "I'm not the same guy I was back then. You'd better make sure you drag Lee and that angry jerk Neji through the first round kicking and screaming. You'll see."
"Looking forward to it Naruto-chan." Tenten said, walking away towards her team and waving over her shoulder, "I hope you last longer than 5 minutes this time!"
Naruto growled at her successful attempt to chide him and his failure to think of a response suitable for the situation when the voice of his teammate Shikamaru snapped him out of it, "I really hope you aren't dumb enough to pick a fight with a woman Naruto." Said young Nara genin stood behind Naruto with his hands sunken into his pockets, "That's just nothing but trouble, I'm warning you."
"Don't worry about me." Naruto said turning towards Shikamaru as his eyes caught another team over in the distance, "Let's worry about them right now." He said, gesturing towards the Iwa team that seemed to be ignoring them to the extent where it was clear to be a blatant mind game attempt, "We've got this one right?"
"Meh… depends."
"On what?"
"On whether it's a team battle or a series of random one-on-ones." Shikamaru said, "If we win the toss we're going for the team battle. I don't really see a matchup in our bracket where one-on-ones would really work out for us… at least not yet. Give me some time to think if I'm still conscious or alive after round one." Naruto nodded, figuring there wasn't much strategizing he could do on people that they didn't know anything about.
At that moment, a trio of shinobi walked out onto the field from the entrance tunnel at the edge. One was a bald, dark-skinned Kumo ninja wearing a white-clothed headband, sunglasses, and the normal Kumo ninja uniform. Another was a male Konoha shinobi with brown hair that reached his neck and a senbon in his mouth like a toothpick, wearing the headband in a bandanna style on the top of his head and the normal Konoha shinobi outfit. The last one out was a man wearing a turban with the Suna symbol on it. Over a brown body outfit he had a white, sterile-looking cloth set over his shoulders.
"Alright." The Konoha ninja said as he walked up to the mass of genin, "Fall into line, it's time to begin." And on command each of the genin got together with their teams and stood in a straight line in front of the three older shinobi, "I am Shiranui Genma, the Kumo ninja is Jei, the Suna ninja is Sekka. Jei and myself will be your proctors and referees for matches. Sekka is a proctor and a fight doctor. There will be no fighting outside of scheduled matches, understood?"
Jei spoke up next, "I will now give you the rules of the tournament that you should have already received and taken to heart. This is a tournament-style combat exam meant to be carried out over the course of today and tomorrow. Before each round the competing teams will toss a coin, the winner of the toss will get the chance to pick whether the matches will be contested under team elimination rules or one-on-one matches. For the team elimination battles all members of both competing teams will be on the battlefield at once and will fight until all three members of one team are unable to fight any longer. If a member of a team is deemed unable to continue then they will be immediately evacuated from the field, no attacking an opponent already deemed eliminated and any attempts by a team member to get back into the battle will be strictly forbidden."
Genma spoke again, "One-on-one matches will be between two representatives from their respective teams, not to be known who will fight who until both move towards the center of the field. No assistance from teammates allowed or else the fight will end in a disqualification of both the fighting competitor that the interference came from and the competitor that interfered on their behalf. Again these series will continue until all three members of one team are defeated. After one person wins a fight then and only then can they choose to switch out with a partner or remain in to continue fighting. You have two minutes to select which during a conference session between teams. There are no sanctioned pauses or any substitutions whatsoever allowed mid-match."
Sekka cleared his throat and addressed the genin, "You will obey our commands. If a proctor moves to call a competitor out of the bout then that's that. Our word is final. We retain the right to stop any fight that we find it necessary to do so to keep the safety of the competitors intact." He looked around at all of the teams and nodded, having said what he needed to say, "Good luck to all of you and make your villages proud with your performances."
"This is your show." Genma said as his voice seemingly projected all over the arena, "Look at these people. Everything that's happened here is centered around you. You're the ones that everyone came to see today. So make these people proud, show them that you were given this platform for a reason." As he said that, the filled stands broke into applause and cheering.
Jei smiled at some of the more bashful genin not knowing how to receive the attention before his face turned business-like once more, "Now we will show you the tournament setup in case you've forgotten."
XxX
Day One
Bracket 1
Match 1: Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, Tenten vs. Samui, Karui, Omoi
Match 2: Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Yamanaka Ino vs. Hisashi, Misaru, Jun
Match 7: Winner of Match 1 vs. Winner of Match 2 (Winner heads to semifinals)
Bracket 2
Match 3: Fuu, Houki, Dorobou vs. Aburame Shino, Inuzuka Kiba, Hyuuga Hinata
Match 4: Uchiha Sasuke, Akimichi Chouji, Haruno Sakura vs. Kinuta Dosu, Abumi Zaku, Tsuchi Kin
Match 8: Winner of Match 3 vs. Winner of Match 4 (Winner heads to semifinals)
Bracket 3
Match 5: Sabaku no Gaara, Temari, Kankuro vs. Oboro, Mubi, Kagari
Match 6: Yakushi Kabuto, Tsurugi Misumi, Akadou Yoroi vs. Hojo Arata, Obata Momoko, Gekido Jin
Match 9: Winner of Match 5 vs. Winner of Match 6 (Winner advances directly to final round)
Day Two
Semifinals
Match 10: Winner of Match 7 vs. Winner of Match 8 (Winner of Bracket 1 vs. Winner of Bracket 2. Winner heads to final round)
*The Winner of Match 9 will advance to the final round (Winner of Bracket 3 will receive a bye out of the semifinals directly to the final round)*
Finals
Match 11: Winner of Match 10 vs. Winner of Match 9
XxX
"Damn it." Shikamaru said to himself under his breath, "We've really got the 'block from hell' in this stupid thing. Even if we get to the finals whoever we have to fight then is going to be way fresher than we are. We'll already have to fight once that day and they'll have all of the rest of today and tomorrow until the last fight to rest up."
"Life ain't fair kid." Jei said as he managed to hear Shikamaru's low griping, "It's how you deal with it that matters today. Now will everyone other than the teams scheduled for the first fight exit the tunnel to the observation balcony. We need Rock Lee, Hyuuga Neji, and Tenten of Konoha to come forward to face Samui, Karui, and Omoi of Kumo."
An almost unnoticeable twitch came to Neji's eye and a slight tightening of his fists as he and his team did as instructed along with Team Samui.
Genma held up a coin to show both teams that it was fair and that he would be flipping it, "Team Samui choose; heads or tails."
"Heads." Omoi said as he popped a sucker into his mouth, "But what if we lose this coin toss? Then we'll lose the tournament… stuff like this carries over you know."
"Shut up Omoi…" Karui said, holding her hand over her face in exasperation, "Now really isn't the time for your overanalyzing bullshit okay? Just be ready to fight."
Genma shrugged and flipped the coin high into the air as everyone on the field watched it. After a moment it landed flat on the sandy ground in the Zen-garden and he moved in to observe it, "Tails." He ignored Omoi's cry of 'damn it' and looked to Team Gai, "Okay you guys, which one do you want?"
Lee, Neji, and Tenten looked at each other before Neji spoke up, "Proctor we'll take the series of one-on-one matches for the first round."
Jei nodded and turned to Team Samui, "You heard him, both teams move away and pick your first rep. The rest of you are to stay up in the balcony until the fight is over at which time you will then be allowed to speak with your teammate on the field if he or she wins their battle."
Understanding the rules, Samui nodded as she and her team went off to select who would be fighting first against one of Team Gai, "Cool." She said simply and evenly.
"Not for long I would imagine." Neji replied, intentionally loud enough for her and everyone to hear. Though none of Team Samui turned back around or even said anything to show they cared. Karui did start grinding her teeth at the pretty-boy Hyuuga kid with the chip on his shoulder at that point though.
They didn't know that he was more or less doing the same at the moment.
Hey You're Not a Genius. Who Cares? Read This and You Won't Suck at Fuunjutsu (by Jiraiya)
Save yourself, I'll hold them back (This isn't a movie though so…)
Now let's take a break from filling your head with arrays, and making you repeatedly practice making that pesky seal that makes your fingers cramp up. I don't want to be responsible for ending your career because of carpal tunnel after all.
The stronger you get you will either develop one of two personality traits. You will either become a bitter manipulator that will have legions of pawns at your disposal and will repeatedly avoid trouble by moving them and using them purely for your own gain and nothing more, or you will become a respected and revered figure that will place the lives of the many above your own… we like to call this a hero complex.
There are advantages and disadvantages to both. If you become the first then you'll have a veritable wall of human meat shields at the ready to cover your ass after you piss off the wrong guy. They will also either believe in you to a fanatical level or they'll fear you enough to walk into certain death since what you'll do once they fail will be way worse than just dying. However you won't exactly be attracting those with admirable personality traits if you go down this route, and surrounding yourself with people like this will mean that your back will always be turned to at least one of them which is a bad move… because the one you don't have an eye on may think that the world will be better without you and will sink a knife into your spine.
For the hero complex you'll have people that will be loyal to you due to your actions in the past that probably helped them or kept them safe… if you live that long. Those with the vaunted hero complex tend to die young because they would rather solve their own perilous problems and the problems of others instead of letting things slide. They tend to put themselves in danger's way to keep others safe even though they know that they wouldn't be better off than the other person would have been. The bad thing though, is that this breeds the dreaded 'reliable' tag that makes people think you can handle anything, eventually everyone will expect you to be the first to stick your balls in the salad shooter whenever anything especially nasty goes down, and if you don't step up and solve the problem then people tend to turn on you.
Because of this, eventually you'll bite off more than you can chew and that will be that. Now by proxy most village leaders have a touch of the hero complex. Why? Because people trusted them enough with their lives to make them the damn village leader in the first place. It's the only way to really get control of a village without staging a hostile takeover (If you do that then you're probably a manipulator like a previous paragraph states). It is also the reason why most kage-level ninja die in battle. Don't believe me? Okay, Go through the entire list of kage from every village and tell me that over 65% of the list didn't die in battle instead of peaceful retirement somewhere.
And I don't want to hear your bullshit that there's no such thing as retirement for a ninja. I'll be damned if I'm still doing this shit when I'm 75. I've got a career as an author to fall back on… right after I launch my new book idea. It's sure to be gold.
But anyway, that's that. You don't really have a third option, those are the only two ways I've ever seen it work for a powerful shinobi. No one just flies under the radar if you're famous for being good at your damn job (Except maybe Hatake Kakashi. I don't know. The kid is still too young at the time of me writing this to give a better opinion).
Look to strike a happy medium like myself. I'm a generally good guy, but then again I can be something of a douche, and I generally don't care particularly what my enemies think of me since I'm either about to beat them up or kill them.
But if you tend to lean more towards the dark side, then make sure a lot of your underlings are women, because I've noticed that bad guy kunoichi tend to show more skin than their good guy counterparts. At the very least you'll always have something good to look at while you're scheming and conniving, and I bet it'll attract a lot more male dumb muscle to be human meat shields to die aimlessly for you and your diabolical cause, and isn't that the most important thing about having a legion of evil?
Ongoing Stats (Out of 5) Revamped
Team Gai
Hyuuga Neji
Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 2.5
Speed: 3
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 3
Total Score: 21
Rock Lee
Ninjutsu: 0.5
Taijutsu: 3.5
Genjutsu: 0.5
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 3
Speed: 4
Stamina: 3
Hand-Seals: 1
Total Score: 17
Tenten
Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 2.5
Strength: 1
Speed: 3
Stamina: 1.5
Hand-Seals: 2
Total Score: 16.5
Team Samui
Samui
Ninjutsu: 2.5
Taijutsu: 2.5
Genjutsu: 2
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 1.5
Speed: 2
Stamina: 1.5
Hand-Seals: 3
Total Score: 18
Karui
Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 1
Intelligence: 1.5
Strength: 2
Speed: 3
Stamina: 2.5
Hand-Seals: 2
Total Score: 16.5
Omoi
Ninjutsu: 1.5
Taijutsu: 3
Genjutsu: 1.5
Intelligence: 3
Strength: 2
Speed: 2
Stamina: 2
Hand-Seals: 2
Total Score: 17