"Will both of you please just SHUT UP!" I shout out, drowning out all other conversation. "Hiro!" I whirl on him.
"I don't like you. Get it through your thick skull, it's not changing. EVER. Lee!" I whirl on him. "I don't like you either! I'm not your damn tulip or whatever the hell you call me! Now leave me the fuck alone!"
...
I turn my anger on Sasuke now, "And YOU!" I viciously jab him in the chest. "I don't care if I can't take revenge on you, I will not stand idly by as you try to mess with me!" I lower my voice to deathly quiet levels so only he can hear me. "Or did you forget what we learned about Tayuya? You sure you want to fuck with me about relationships right now? Cuz that's a really bad move."
Sasuke recoils from me. "I-I'm sorry. I didn't think. It's just, you always handle things like that well, you bounce back so quickly. I didn't think that this one would be getting to you."
"Yeah well it is." I hiss out. "You should have known better."
"Ahem."
"WHAT?" I turn and rage at the idiot interrupting my conversation.
"We need the next contestants to come to the field." Eito calmly says to me, as if he's trying to talk down a stampeding wild animal. He's a tiny bit nervous. "Your little... whatever the hell that was, distracted them and they didn't hear their names called."
I plop down with an angry huff. "Not sorry. That shit needed to be cleared up."
Eito quirks an eyebrow at me before turning to the rest of the gathered gennin. "Would Kiba Inuzuka of Konohagakure and Yuri Kazumi of Kusagakure please come with me?"
Both contestants rise up and make their way to the field.
No one dares to talk to me. Good.
...
Kiba vs Yuri
"So, you're a Kusa shinobi." Kiba says as he pets Akamaru lovingly on the head. "Hope you don't mind if I beat you in front of your village."
Yuri shrugs. "Don't worry about it." Yuri is the tallest gennin here by a considerable margin. He has a shockingly bright mop of orange hair and vivid blue eyes. But there's something off about him, and it's a glaring detail. He's wearing fancy civilian clothes, almost approaching formal wear with how nice they look, and there's not so much as a senbon on his person. Either he's extremely confident in his own abilities or he's one of the most stupid people on the planet.
"Really?" A shocked Kiba asks.
"Yeah, you won't. I'm going to put you in the ground. I can't believe I'm going against a kid. This will be a piece of cake." Yuri confidently says.
"Dude you're a kid yourself!" Kiba points accusingly at the taller nin. "You've got to be like seventeen!"
Yuri grits his teeth together. "I am twenty two."
Silence.
"...You sure?" Kiba asks in confusion as Akamaru let's out a questioning yip.
"Yes you moron!" Yuri rages.
"And you're still a gennin? You must really suck."
"Proctor!" Yuri shouts while sliding into a rugged looking taijutsu stance. "Start the match!"
"Yeah let's get this over with!" Kiba glides into his Inuzuka style taijutsu stance.
With grand sigh, Eito calls out "Begin!"
"Fang Over Fang!" Kiba instantly leaps into the air and rotates at crazy speeds. He's opening with the big guns, he must feel like he has something to prove after I beat him during the last Exams. "Here I come!"
Yuri slowly moves through hand signs, with the lack of speed that he's moving at it's a wonder he made it this far into the Exams, and then slams his hand onto the ground. "Earth Release: Wall!"
A fragile wall of earth painfully slowly rises up between Yuri and Kiba. "Ha! You can't get through my defense!"
Kiba drills right through it without losing any velocity. That wall could have been made of paper for all intents an purposes.
"URK!" Kiba nailed Yuri right in the gut, and the latter of the two goes flying across the field. He bounces off the ground a few times -ruining his tailored clothes- then smacks into the same tree that I did. Except he didn't leave behind a body sized indentation in the bark.
"Uh... Yuri?" Kiba calls out once he stops spinning. "You okay?"
A pitiful whine is the only response, Yuri is incapable of forming words.
"Yuri is no longer able to continue." Eito irritably says. I feel like he's done this before. "Winner: Kiba Inuzuka! What a disappointment."
Kiba walks back to the rest of the gennin while looking like he just ate something sour.
"Well done Kiba!" Hinata applauds her teammate. "You've made it to the next round!"
"Yeah... that didn't even feel like a fight." Kiba dejectedly says. "I mean come on! I wanted a challenge! It was literally one hit!"
"Yes, but now your next opponent knows much less about you. That's an advantage." Shino points out.
"But still!" Kiba whines. "Dude shouldn't have even been here. How did he make it this far?"
"Because I carried him. He's my older brother, it's the least I could do. Leiko Kazumi at your service." The unnamed Kusa kunoichi says from across the gazebo, she appears to be seventeen. She has midnight black hair, easily rivaling mine for how black it is. Her eyes are a muted blue and have a heavy weight on them, probably from looking out for her brother. And unlike her brother, she's armed to the teeth. Kunai, senbon, shuriken, a short sword, even scrolls strapped to her belt. Who knows what else she has hidden away.
"Isn't that usually the other way around?" Tenten asks her. "Don't the big brothers look out for their little sisters?"
"Usually yes, but mine's an idiot." Leiko nicely sums up. "This is the last freebie he's getting from me though, I plan on winning whole thing. I got him here five times. Five times. The idiot still didn't pass."
"Do you think you can win the entire tournament?" Lee asks. "Green-chan was quite the opponent and her healing abilities are nothing to dismiss!"
Leiko shrugs and spares me a quick glance. "Medic nin aren't that rare, sure she might be able to heal wounds quickly and with more severity than most but that alone won't win her the fight. It only helped with Lee because he is a taijutsu type and had no other way to end the fight. Her skills are simple, somehow using her knowledge of the body she's capable of increasing her strength. She did display clever use of earth jutsu -like how she used it to push herself out of the path of his punch- and must have more chakra than normal if that 'Ten Thousand Fists' is anything to judge by, but in the end she didn't do anything I couldn't handle. She simply outlasted him. I have a plan if I face her, but that's only if we both make it to the finals. Who knows, maybe Hiro over there could knock her out of the running."
That's a very interesting take on my skills. Should I tell her I'm not a medic nin just to mess with her? Nah, but I will say something. "Or maybe you will lose your fights."
Leiko snorts, "Yeah that ain't happening. No one here has the skills to beat me." She eyes Gaara suspiciously. "Except maybe the jinchuriki."
"You are well informed." Gaara drones out. "Perhaps we will do battle together, there are only three matches left in the first round."
"Perhaps." Leiko agrees.
"The next fight will be between Red of Otogakure!" Eito shouts outs, bringing the conversation to a halt. "And his opponent will be Sachihiro of Kirigakure!"
Sasuke rises up in indifference and walks onto the field while oozing confidence.
"Guess it's my time to shine." Sachihiro get up and I truly take in his appearance for the first time. He's on the younger side, probably around 14 or 15. He has almost neon blue hair that falls down to his shoulders and frames his face like curtains. He's ridiculously muscled, like body builder muscled. There's no way that's healthy for a young teenager. He's wearing a dark blue vest and generic black shinobi quality pants. He has on a leather belt, and strapped to it is a single innocent looking scroll.
"Kick his ass Sachihiro." Leiko encourages him from her chair.
"That is the plan, but if he's anything like Green over there this will be one hell of a fight." Sachihiro strolls onto the field.
...
Sasuke vs Sachihiro
"So," Sachihiro opens up to Sasuke while pointedly looking at his sheathed chokuto on his hip, "you fancy yourself a master swordsman?"
Sasuke grips the handle of his blade. "I am by no means a master. Yet."
Sachihiro grins, displaying a mouthful of pointed teeth. "I'll be the judge of that."
"With what sword?" Sasuke taunts. "Did you leave it at home?"
"Nah," Sachihiro grabs his scroll and unfurls it. It's a storage seal. "I've got it in here."
With a quiet poof and a lot of smoke he unseals his blade.
It's a giant meat cleaver. The blade is almost as long as Sachihiro and the handle is huge, it has to be so that the wielder can swing it around correctly. It's polished brightly, almost like mirror, and has a half meter long red ribbon tied onto the end of the handle. It's no wonder he carries it around in a seal, that thing must weigh a ton.
"Say hello to Kappukeki." Sachihiro heaves up the massive sword and rests it on his shoulder. "Still think your toothpick can stand up to it?"
"You named your sword cupcake?" Sasuke monotonously asks. "Not cleaver? Or chopper? Or chomper? Or decapitator? Or literally anything except cupcake?"
"Hey! Me and Kappukeki go way back! She's seen me through thick and thin!"
"Ahem." Eito clears his throat. "May I start the fight now, or are you two still arguing about who has the better sword?" That sounds so wrong, so very very wrong.
"Ready." Sasuke draws his own blade and holds it out before him vertically.
"Let's do this!" Sachihiro grips the hilt of Kappukeki with both hands eagerly.
"Begin!" Eito disappears in a swirl of grass to get away from the swordsmen.
Instantly Sasuke tilts his sword minutely, just enough so that the sunlight bounces off his blade and hits Sachihiro directly in the eyes.
"So you want to play that game!" Sachihiro blinks furiously as he listens intently for the sound of feet crushing grass. He's a shinobi, he doesn't have to see to do battle. Plus when you're a brute like him, all it takes is one good hit to take an opponent down.
The sound of footsteps comes from off to his left.
Sachihiro heaves his cleaver off his shoulder and swings it in a wide arc parallel to the ground. He doesn't hit Sasuke, all his blade felt was air.
"Damn." He says to himself as he finally regains his vision. "There you are you pesky runt!" Sasuke is standing straight in front of him with his chokuto at the ready. "My turn!" Sachihiro tilts Kappukeki and using the much larger and much more reflective surface area of angles the sunlight into Sasuke's eyes.
Out of pure reflex, Sasuke raises up is left arm in a failed attempt to block out the sunlight.
Sachihiro grins deviously and leaps at Sasuke, closing the distance between the two. He firmly plants both his feet and swings Kappukeki downward, intent on cleaving Sasuke in two.
SHINK
"OH FUCK!" Sachihiro shouts out. "Shit shit shit I thought he would dodge!"
Sasuke's body is still standing, there's a fatal red line straight down the center of his body. He's been chopped in half.
Then the body does something it shouldn't be able to do, it laughs.
"Well done Sachihiro! I applaud your skills!" The cleaved Sasuke says. "You've bested me. But I'm not the real one."
Sasuke bursts into hundreds black snakes that scatter into the grass.
"Sachihiro." A voice calls out from behind him. "You've left yourself open."
Sasuke is standing behind him with his chokuto ready to stab right through his heart. He lunges.
CLANG
"You'll have to be faster than that!" Sachihiro got Kappukeki in-between himself and the Oto shinobi in time to block the stab.
"I am." Sasuke's voice whispers into Sacihiro's left ear as he lightly cuts his left cheek vertically. The Sasuke that attempted to stab Sachihiro bursts into snakes.
Sachihiro whirls around but is facing an open field. "Alright punk, you're fast. I'll give you that." He touches the fresh cut on his cheek. His fingers come away red. "Ow, that stings a little."
"What good does that massive blade do you?" Sasuke's voice seems to come from everywhere. "It seems like more of a hindrance than a sword to me. Surely it must be hard to use?"
Sachihiro lunges at one of the few trees in the field, he's thinking that his opponent has to be hiding behind one of them. There's no other place to hide!
With a mighty swing, he cleaves the tree in two.
"TIMBER!" Sachihiro shouts as the tree topples. "I've always wanted to say that."
The impact of the tree on the ground shakes the field.
"Good guess." Sasuke whispers into his ear again and adds a cut on his left cheek to join the first.
Sachihiro doesn't bother to turn around this time, he throws back an elbow to attempt to at least get a hit in. All that his blow hits is air.
"You're really starting to piss me off." Sachihiro calls to the empty field. "Come out and fight me like a man!"
"Why would I do something as unintelligent as that?" Sasuke's voice echoes through the field. "We are shinobi, we don't fight fair."
"Then you won't mind if I do this!" Sachihiro swings his massive cleaver parallel with the ground again, but this time something is different. He's channeling chakra through his blade. "Wind Sword Style: Air Cutter!"
A blade of pure wind launches off Kappukeki and is heading straight for another tree. It cuts right through it, like a hot knife through butter.
"Haha!" Sachihiro is starting to get winded, even for someone with his build it isn't easy to wield a sword of this size. It takes years, decades to be able to wield one properly. "Did that one get you?"
"No." A third cut joins the other two on Sachihiro's face. "You've missed again."
Sachihiro doesn't bother with trying to identify if Sasuke is actually behind him, instead he blindly swings his cleaver around hoping that Sasuke is still in range.
All he hits is air. Again.
"Alright -huff- punk. You're pissing me off with -wheeze- all this hide seek bullshit."
"I'm not hiding." A fourth cut is carved into Sachihiro's face. "You simply can't keep up with my speed."
"You know what! Fine! I can't keep up with your speed!" Sachihiro shouts out, then he let's Kappukeki's tip rest on the ground. He's holding the blade straight out behind him with an insane gleam in his eyes. "But you can't dodge this! Wind Sword Style: Full Tilt!"
He swings Kappukeki around in a complete circle while constantly pouring his wind chakra into the blade. A ring of deadly sharp wind rips off the blade, cutting through the remaining trees in the field. Sachihiro doesn't stop with one rotation, he keeps going. Twice. Three times. Five. He stops after ten full revolutions and falls to a knee in dizziness and exhaustion.
"Got ya." He says between large gulps of air. "Bet ya -wheeze- didn't dodge that."
A fifth cut diagonally crosses over all of the others on Sachihiro's cheek, making the cuts look like a tally count. "I did."
"Oh come on!" Sachihiro pushes himself up while using Kappukeki as a crutch, even if he's muscular as hell he still has his limits and he's dangerously close to reaching them. "Will you quit it with the face already! How am I supposed to woo the ladies back home with a fucked up face?"
Sachihiro freezes, he locks up all of his muscles and won't move an inch.
"I will grant that request." Sasuke says from behind him while holding the cold unforgiving steel of his chokuto against Sachihiro's throat. "Surrender, you have been bested."
"Why should-"
Sasuke applies pressure with his blade and one brilliant drop of crimson rolls down Sachihiro's neck.
"Point made." Sachihiro gives in. "Proctor, I surrender."
"Winner by forfeit: Red of Otogakure!" Eito calls out. "That was the most underwhelming fight I've ever seen."
"What?" Sachihiro shouts out. He gave it his all!
His vision cracks like a pane of glass, everything contorts at weird angles before shattering into millions of pieces. He's not standing where he should be, he's still in the same spot he was when Eito said begin. It's like he didn't move at all. Even the battlefield is different, there's no felled trees, there's no rents and gouges from his various sword swings. It looks like their battle never happened.
"What the hell?" Sachihiro is completely baffled. His hand darts up to his face and feels smooth skin. "The cuts are gone. Even my chakra magically returned, I'm not even winded anymore!"
Sasuke turns and starts walking back to the gazebo with the rest of the contestants.
"Red!" Sachihiro shouts after him. "What the hell did you do to me!"
Sasuke doesn't reply, he keeps walking. He elegantly sits down next to me and turns his head my direction. I can feel the smirk on his face.
"I always knew you'd be scary good with genjutsu." I warily say to him. "So, what did you show him? No one but you and him knows what he saw."
I feel Sasuke's grin grow wider. "I showed him exactly what would have happened if we fought."
"You destroyed him." I blandly say back to him.
"Utterly and completely."
I'm really glad genjutsu doesn't work on me.
...
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