"Yeah, and I'm pretty sure you gave us a bad reputation." Sasuke sarcastically cuts in. "I mean come on, I know that Otogakure is becoming known for it's weird and unique shinobi but you turned a lot of heads with your stunt."
Did Sasuke just make a pun? Holy shit he did! Talk about out of character!
...
"I blame Lee for that." I sass back to him. "Idiot had five Gates open and he thought it was a good idea to kick me in the jaw. Besides, between you and me we have a pretty strong standing for Oto right now. Who knows, we might be the only village to have two shinobi make it to the second round."
"Depends if the Hyuuga wins or not." Sasuke points out. "The Inuzuka made it, that would make two from Konoha as well."
"Speaking of if the Hyuuga will win, it looks like Eito is about to announce the next match."
"The final match of the first round will be between Hinata Hyuuga of Konohagakure!" Eito bellows to the crowd. It's amazing how someone so lazy can be so loud.
Hinata rises up with the elegance of a clan heir, and with a mask of confidence walks out to the field. I can tell she's actually scared right now, she hates having a crowd watch her.
"And her opponent is our very own Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!" The crowd roars in approval. Leiko has already made a name for herself in her home, I'm sure that getting into the Chunin Exams five separate times would do that. Especially if you're skilled enough to bring your brother along with you each time.
Leiko rises up with the world's biggest smile on her face. This is what she lives for, the approval of the masses. She loves that they're all cheering for her, that they all want her to win. She loves that they know her name. It's almost like she wants to be a celebrity.
Interesting, maybe she did feel threatened by me earlier. I definitely wowed the crowd with my moves, given it was less of an approval wow and more of a how-is-that-possible wow.
Hopefully this is a good fight, I'm tired of seeing quick and boring matches.
...
Hinata vs Leiko
"Hello, Kazumi-san." Hinata dips her head in a respectful acknowledgment of her opponent. "I would wish you luck, but that seems counter productive."
Leiko offers up a friendly shrug. "Can't blame you for that. How about we just agree to give it our all and may the best kunoichi win?"
Hinata smiles warmly. "I can accept that."
"Fighters ready?" Eito asks. He seems oddly eager, I think he wants to watch Leiko fight.
"Yes, Eito-san." Hinata courteously replies.
"I am." Leiko adds.
They both smoothly slide into taijutsu stances, Hinata's is obviously the opening stance for the Gentle Fist. Leiko's is unique, she is leading with her left side with her left arm held out protectively in front of her with her fingers open and spread wide apart, like she's planning on catching a ball. Her right arm is eerily reminiscent of Lee's taijutsu stance, it's tucked behind her back and out of sight of Hinata.
"Begin!" Unlike all the other times, Eito only jumps backwards. He plans on staying close for this fight.
Two things happen nearly instantly, Hinata springs forward at Leiko with every intention of blocking her chakra pathways and ending the fight quickly. The second thing that happens is something I never expected, Leiko jumps back a little to avoid Hinata's attack and whips her right arm out from behind her and throws a smoke pellet onto the ground.
Except there's no smoke, nothing happened.
Leiko grins like a predator that found an easy meal, she thinks that she has the upper hand now. But why? Her smoke pellet was a dud.
"What did you do?!" Hinata shouts out in surprise and anger. "What is this? Why can't I see!"
Leiko found a way to block the Byakugan?
"This right here is something I made just for you." Leiko casually says from afar as Hinata whirls around at the sound of her voice. "The Byakugan sees chakra, whether it's in the chakra system or being used for a jutsu. This right here is a special kind of smoke pellet that I've infused with my chakra. It took the better part of three days to fill it full! But oh was it worth it! I've removed your biggest advantage, the one thing you thought could never be taken from you!"
"By using this chakra infused smoke you've removed both of our sight. You know how to navigate in this cloud, while I'm virtually blind." Hinata guesses.
"Nope!" Leiko cheerfully says. "The gas that came out of the pellet is clear. I can see just fine, only you can't see because of your fancy eyes!"
"What?" Hinata barks out.
Leiko wastes no time in sprinting towards Hinata with a kunai in hand. "I wasn't kidding when I said may the best kunoichi win! I've been ready to fight against each opponent for two weeks!"
Hinata turns towards the sound of Leiko's voice and holds her arms out protectively in front of her. She's bracing for a huge hit.
The hit never came.
Leiko ran past Hinata on her left side and lightly grazed her shoulder with a kunai. "Don't worry sweetie, this is just the first cut. I'll give you a chance to at least display some skills, though without being able to see that should be interesting. Plus if I knock you out now I don't get to show off! Can't have that, I need to make an impression."
Leiko starts rushing Hinata again, this time going past her opposite side. Again she lightly grazes Hinata's shoulder. "It's too bad that your incapable of dodging right now. Honestly I feel kind of bad about this."
For a third time, Leiko runs towards Hinata. This time she's aiming for her left leg. "Such a pity, you can't even defend yourself-"
The sound of four quick smacks interrupts Leiko.
"ARGH!" Leiko leaps away from her new plaything while clutching her limp left arm. "What did you do?! You shouldn't be able to see in the cloud! It takes twenty minutes to disperse! There's plenty of time left! How did you do that?"
"I guessed." Hinata pleasantly informs her opponent while happily looking straight at her face. "Throughout my entire life I've had the Byakugan, I've seen countless chakra networks. I've seen deformed ones, broken ones, civilian ones, jonin ones, Kage ones, and even someone who doesn't have one."
"So what!" Leiko spits out as she slowly walks in a circle around Hinata while keeping the same distance from her, like a predator waiting for their prey to bleed out. "What's that have to do with you being able to see me!?"
Hinata's eyes never left Leiko for a moment.
"Like I said already, I've seen countless chakra networks. Do you know what I've discovered after observing so many different varieties?" Hinata pauses, more to give Leiko time to stew in anger than because she expects an answer, "In every normal chakra system the tenketsu are in the same places. They vary per specific body, but all the ratios and locations are almost identical. The only thing that really changes is the amount of chakra."
"You still haven't said how you can see me!" Leiko hisses out while trying to work the feeling back into her arm.
"I observed your network before our fight, yours is completely normal. No deformities, no uniqueness at all. That means that I don't necessarily need to use my Byakugan to know where to strike your tenketsu. My accuracy is now much lower than I'd like, but that only means that you're going to feel each hit even more." Hinata grins at her opponent. "You ask how I can see you? The answer is simple, I deactivated my Byakugan. I'm fighting with normal eyes."
"WHAT?" Leiko roars out. That idea must have never crossed her mind, then again I never thought I would see the day a Hyuuga willingly fought without their Byakugan activated.
Hinata doesn't respond, instead it's her turn to sprint at her opponent. She closes the gap between the two with surprising speed. "Eight Trigrams: One Palm!"
Hinata's arm doesn't move from her side, both of them are slightly swinging from the momentum of her crazy sprint to get to her opponent. "What?" Hinata gasps.
Leiko grins deviously, and spits out a senbon that impales itself into Hinata's right thigh.
"Hahaha! HAHAHA!" Leiko lets out a boisterous laugh. "Did you think that those kunai were just normal kunai? They're the same as that senbon! They're all coated in my personal paralytic poison!"
"You poisoned me?" Hinata accuses.
"Of course I did!" Leiko confidently says, they're barely a meter away from each other. "That's my specialty, poisons. With each beat of your heart it moves throughout your bloodstream, spreading through your system. Eventually your entire body will be paralyzed, you won't be able to move!"
Hinata tries to lunge at Leiko, but her leg gives out and she falls down to the ground in a disgraceful heap. She couldn't even catch herself with her arms.
"Tell ya what sweetie, if you surrender and reopen my tenketsu I'll give you the antidote. Otherwise the poison will have to run it's course and that's not fun to go through. Being all helpless like that, not being able to defend yourself."
Hinata grits her teeth. She knows that there's no way for her to win now. "I accept. Proctor I surrender."
"Winner by forfeit, Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!" Eito elatedly shouts.
"The antidote?" Hinata prompts from her spot on the ground.
"Of course, I am a lady of my word." Leiko reaches into her pouch and pulls out three syringes filled with a vile looking green liquid. "I'm going to have to put one in near each entry wound, alright?"
"There will be no need for that." Tsunade herself is walking over to the two gennin. "Keep your antidote."
Leiko's eyes widen in fear. "Hokage-sama! But I gave my word, let me keep my honor. Please?"
"You doubt Leiko's skill to craft an antidote?" Eito coldly asks. "She's beyond skilled with her poisons, honestly if it weren't for her brother she'd already be a chunin."
Tsunade sighs, "Look, it's not that I don't trust you. Okay? It's that I'm a world renowned medic nin and I will fix her faster." It's totally because she doesn't trust Leiko, she's not fooling me. "Your antidote, while I'm sure it would cure the poison, would take hours to flush it from her system. That means she wouldn't be able to move for hours. I won't let one of my shinobi be left wide open like that."
"It's against the rules." Eito coolly asserts himself into the conversation again. "No contestant can receive medical attention outside of their own skills, unless another contestant decides to heal them."
"You're correct, but Hinata here is no longer a contestant." Tsunade calmly explains. "Or did you miss the part where she said 'I surrender?'"
"I-I-I- But I just wanted to help!" Leiko stutters out with big wide eyes.
"Doesn't matter." Tsunade ignores the sputters of Leiko and places her hand over Hinata's stomach. "Hinata dear, I'm going to reroute the poison to your stomach. The acids in it will neutralize the toxins but your going to feel queasy for a few hours. It's nothing to worry about."
"Yes, Hokage-sama. Thank you for doing this." Hinata respectfully says. Even when she's literally laying in dirt she still talks politely.
"What the hell are you two still doing here?" Tsunade irritably barks out. "Go do your damn jobs! This isn't part of the show! I don't need some two-bit jonin looking over my shoulder to make sure I don't screw up!"
Eito recoils from Tsunade like he was slapped with a fish. "Er- Right." He walks towards the stadium full of eager onlookers. "That concludes the first round of the tournament! The gennin that are moving onto the next round, in order of appearance, are Green of Otogakure!"
There's a startling amount of claps and cheers for me. Maybe I did make a lasting impression? Okay, of course I did but I didn't think it was a positive impression.
"Hiro of Takigakure!"
He gets a smattering of applause, much less than I did.
"Kiba Inuzuka of Konohagakure!"
Surprisingly the crowd roars their approval of him. They must really not like Yuri at all.
"Red of Otogakure!"
There's a depressingly little applause for Sasuke. His fight was lame from a spectators viewpoint.
"Gaara of Sunagakure!"
He receives average applause, like they're clapping out of formality than out of appreciation.
"And Leiko Kazumi of Kusagakure!"
The crowd thunders their approval of their only gennin to advance to the next round.
Tsunade takes this moment when the crowd is at their loudest to lean in and whisper to Hinata. "Stay with your team at all times. Do not go anywhere alone. Do not trust any Kusa nin."
"T-Tsunade-sama?" Hinata shakily says. "You think they're after... that wasn't an antidote."
"Correct. It was a concoction meant to dilute the poison not remove it. It would let you move around, but all of your skills would be greatly impaired. You'd be less threatening than an Academy student." Tsunade's eyes dart over towards the Kage's gazebo, more specifically her former teammate. "I'd come up with some bullshit reason to keep you by my side but Orochimaru of all people is already there. You're safer with your team than next to him."
Are you fucking kidding me? There's a plot by Kusa to try and get the Byakugan? What else can go wrong! First Root made an appearance, then Hidan tried to convert me to Jashinism, then I found out the truth about Tayuya, then Kakuzu scared the shit out of me but only wanted to talk (although learning that I'm in the Bingo Books was kinda cool), then I lost my mask to Lee and stupidly decided to masquerade as a girl, I found out that I'm not the only one with the Jiongu here and now Kusa has plans to make a grab for the Byakugan of all things? What the hell is going on!
I swear if this is Sasuke's jinx finally coming into play I'm going to be pissed.
"The six semi-finalists!" Eito speaks over the crowd. "The first fight will be tomorrow afternoon!"
"Wait what? We're not having the second round now?" I blurt out. I mean come on! That leaves plenty of time for things to go wrong. How am I supposed to help out now? Can I even help out now? Orochimaru is here and I know he's going to keep an eye on both Sasuke and me.
"They probably want to stimulate their economy more." Noboru explains. "The Chunin Exams brings in a lot of tourists and travelers, but spreading out the finals tournament over multiple days the tourists will end up spending more money while they're here. That means more money for Kusa."
"Oh. That's actually pretty smart." It isn't a bad idea.
Eito walks over to the contestant's gazebo. "You're all free to go and do whatever you want, you can rest, train, plan ahead more, whatever. Just make sure you're here by noon tomorrow. We'll have the first match an hour after that."
Each group of gennin go their separate ways.
...
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