Satoru stretched his muscles, his eyes were closed as he enjoyed the sound of people cheering him on. He opened his eyes and saw people carrying boards and posters with various genins names on it.
He walked forward into the stadium and looked at the boards which had his name in particular...he smiled, watching them cheering him.
He then looked at the other genin who walked in, it was Tanaka. Hinoka's teammate, the fruity one.
"Let's have a good battle. I can't wait to show you what I learnt this past month!" Tanaka said, bringing out two fingers as it's customary.
'Does he think I'm his friend because of the things we went through? He isn't a good shinobi, not that I'm in any position to judge. Why the hell did I let that guy catch me off guard?! UUUGGGHH!!!' Satoru thought, he reached with his fingers and completed the seal, he smiled to match Tanaka.
"MATCH BEGIN!"
Satoru jumped back immediately, dodging a volley of shuriken, thrown where he previously was. Tanaka launched more shuriken at Satoru who dodged them all with ease.
'Is he planning to get me tired from dodging? Is he lowering my expectations of him so he can jump me by surprise? What is it...what are you planning, Tanaka?'
Satoru stopped dodging while taking out two kunai and began deflecting the shuriken.
Tanaka opened a scrolled and it blew up into a puff of smoke and suddenly a monstrous amount of ninja tools came out. He pulled on a ninja string and poured chakra into it, shooting those tools towards Satoru.
Shuriken, kunai, katana, scythe, axes, weapons of all kind flew at Satoru at immense speed. 'Did you want me to get used to your throwing speed so you can catch me lacking?'
Satoru smirked, in a fraction of a second, he threw one of his kunai, augmented with chakra. It flew into the storm of tools, the kunai reached Tanaka faster than the barrage of tools reached Satoru.
A chakra string was attached to the kunai, which now barely grazed past Tanaka, attaching to him. Satoru instantly pulled as he rushed straight into the storm of weapons.
Before Tanaka even knew it, he found himself in front of the storm of weapons, all extremely close to him. Satoru on the other hand was shot out of the way and landed where Tanaka initially was.
Tanaka didn't have time to dodge as he was bombarded relentlessly, a massive cloud of debris and dust rose up. Satoru could briefly hear screams from the inside before it was drowned out of clashing of metal.
Satoru continued to stay in his stance, determined to not let down his guard like last time. He stared intently at the aftermath of storm.
The dust settled and there was a pile...almost a mountain of metal, and beneath it was a buried hand, a bloody hand. Satoru's eyes widened, 'did-did I kill him? I'll get disqualified... I CANNOT LET THAT HAPPEN!'
Satoru ran towards the pile under which Tanaka was buried. Satoru the pierced the pile with his sword and began shoveling the tools away with his sword.
His actions made the proctor hesitant, almost willing to take action. "That guy looks worried for his opponent. Does he think that guy died? Should we go and check? What if that guy is in critical state?" Said one of proctors.
"Don't worry, that is not our problem. Those guys will handle it. If they don't interfere...the we don't." Said the other proctor pointing at a specific group of shinobi, before yawning.
Satoru removed most of the pile and saw a bloody and damaged Tanaka unconscious. He was motionless as several weapons stabbed into him, creating a puddle of blood everywhere.
Satoru kneeled and placed his hand near his neck, trying to check if he has a pulse. He was relieved to feel that he did, but then he realized something else.
Tanaka's legs were far more damaged, way more than they should have been. Satoru stepped back and observed the weapons and found that the largest weapons were near Tanaka's head and they had a lot of Collison marks from the smaller weapons hitting them.
'Did he sacrifice his legs and shield himself using large surface area weapons?' Satoru felt his sweat drop from his brow as he looked at a large metal fan placed on Tanaka's back.
'Such quick thinking! If I was in dealing with this...I would have died.'
Satoru looked at the proctors waiting for them to end the match and then saw it.
Their smirk.
'NOT AGAIN!!!' Satoru turned around instantly, only to find Tanaka replaced with a new storm of weapons. His eyes only registered black. The black color of the weapons was all in his vision.
'Will I survive? I have that strategy...but will it work?' Satoru looked at his right arm in the fraction of a second he had.
'I have no choice!' Satoru resolutely unsheathed his Arashi-ken and swung with all his strength. Wind and lightning converged from his sword and emitted out as the sword clashed the storm of weapons.
BOOM!!!
The audience watched with bated breaths, another dust cloud formed, this time it was Satoru at the centre. The dust cloud suddenly settled down it began drizzling.
The drizzling soon turned into rain, clearing out the cloud revealing Satoru. He stood like a statue, he sword at the end of its swing, he had a serious expression which looked locked in time with how still he stood.
Satoru had several injuries on his body, some were small and ignorable, while some where like the one on his shoulder.
'That spear impaled me! Fucking right at the joint, too! If I move even a bit I'll lose my arm. My leg isn't doing that well either.'
Satoru looked at Tanaka who who was first shocked by seeing Satoru's condition but then began weaving handsigns to perform the finishing hit.
Satoru looked at the impaled shoulder, or least tried to without moving himself. He gulped hard, the handsigns of Tanaka were slow and long, probably signifying a powerful but a complex jutsu.
Satoru accumulated spit in his mouth and coated it with his chakra. He spat it on the handle of spear, which was yet to go through him. The spit ball attached the chakra string allowing Satoru a chance to free himself.
Tanaka was overly concentrated on the handsigns...almost as if he might forget or mistake it. His speed slowed the more handsigns he did.
Satoru used his tongue to remove the cyanide pill from his teeth, accumulating wind in his mouth before shattering the pill. He launched the shattered shards of the pills laced with poison towards Tanaka.
The wind made the poison spread out over a large area and the shards were sharp enough to poison someone by entering the blood. Satoru did all of this while making sure Tanaka watched him.
Tanaka realized that he'll get poisoned and had to abandon his jutsu and dodge giving Satoru enough time to do what he wanted to do.
Satoru took a deep breath and began pulling the spear through him using a chakra string. The audience gasped at seeing the brutal methods used by him.
Satoru gritted his teeth as the spear continued to go through his shoulder making him feel unimaginable pain. Since he couldn't use his arm with the spear still in and the path was already made for the spear, Satoru chose to make it completely go through and free himself.
Tanaka almost completed with his 44 handsigns of the jutsu he was using. He saw Satoru almost get rid of the spear and sped up.
"Fire style: Fire style dragon bullet jutsu" Tanaka exhaled out a massive fire dragon out of his mouth which instantly made its way towards Satoru.
He didn't have enough time, he had to get the spear out without disturbing the wound or he couldn't move. Satoru instantly flicked his wrist and slammed the sword into spear making the spear leave his body and drench the floor with his blood.
Satoru had a massive hole in his shoulder and blood sprayed now that nothing was there to block it. Tanaka felt hope rise through him as he felt the match would end the moment the dragon hits.
'I-I will win! I am one step closer to becoming a chunin.' Tanaka thought, his grin widening.
Splash
Tanaka suddenly felt a sharp pain in his abdomen and heard a splash of liquid. He looked down to see the spear which was bring immense pain to Satoru had now pierced through him.
He looked behind him and saw the head of the spear sticking out from him. Dread rose within him and he looked at Satoru who, clapped slowly while walking towards him.
The audience roared from the sight of this flip of the flow of the match, some people could be seen getting angry while tearing up a piece of paper while some jumped in joy while holding theirs.
Tanaka fell to the ground, his eyes didn't break contact with Satoru's, who looked on in amusement.
Satoru wobbled towards the medic while Tanaka was taken to the operation room. As he walked, he left behind a trail of blood behind and soon fell just like Tanaka, but now, Satoru was already declared the winner.
Just before passing out he made a shadow clone who completely abandoned the original and left, much to the shock of the people watching. Satoru was also taken to be healed.
The shadow clone went to gambling house who were now giving out money to those who bet on Satoru. As he walked through, several people were angry that they lost money betting against him and others approached him to thank him for making them rich.
Satoru watched the organizer, a bald burly man who reeked of cigarettes, collecting a massive stack of cash. The man looked at Satoru and stood up immediately.
"Oh! Satoru, came for your share, didn't you? I honestly didn't think you would win so I bet against you and lost a bit of money. Now that I think about it, you were one of the highest betters who staked their money on you. How much money did you bet again?" The man said, a twinkle now appeared in his eyes, showing his love for gambling.
"Seven million ryo. Properties included. I bet everything I had. How much did I earn? From what I know, people who bet on me got thrice their money and those who bet on Tanaka would have won seven times their bet, if he had won." Satoru said, showing his golden token and a piece of paper showing the list of the things he had bet.
"And that is correct! People who bet on you got a returns of almost thrice their money, and that's what you will get. Though we have a problem." The man said, he scratched his bald head with a laugh.
"What? You ran out of money?"
"Yeah actually. Most of our cash supply has already been distributed. The rich people bet using properties or valuable objects. Since we don't have 21 million cash with us, are you okay with valuable objects or properties others have bet?" The man took out a book which contained photos of all the objects which were presented.
"Sure, let me see what you got." Satoru took the book and read through it. While reading he asked, "Why did the rich ones use properties? I'm sure they have gold or cash to spare." Satoru ticked a few houses then looked at the man.
"If cash or gold of that much quantity suddenly appears out of nowhere then it will raise questions. Whereas people who lost properties declared it as donations and people who won declared it as gifts. It helps in keeping the cover of our gambling house safe."
The man observed the properties he chose and handed him the papers of ownerships with signatures, confessing that the property was donated.
"If you sign there you will become their beneficiary of this donation. Here use this pen."
"No."
"What? Why?"
"Bet it all on me! All twenty one million. I'll win again and come back." Satoru said confidently, before taking a small bundle of cash while mumbling, "My girlfriend still makes me pay rent." Before leaving.