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If we hit 200 PW I post a extra chapter.
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Night on the fourth day had fallen over the Demon Desert with a blanket of freezing darkness and sepulchral silence. With only hours remaining before the second phase of the Chūnin Exams reached its conclusion, opportunities for teams without keys were evaporating with every passing second.
Hidden deep within the cavity of a sandstone cliff, Konoha's Team 7 was finishing their preparations to move out. They had spent nearly two full days lying low, recovering their strength and healing from the brutal clash they suffered at the hands of Sunagakure's Team A.
The memory of that defeat still burned in the pride of all three genin—especially Sasuke Uchiha, who had been severely drained and cornered by Daiku's Scorch Release, leaving his body on the brink of death had his teammates not acted swiftly.
Naruto Uzumaki finished tightening the bandages around his wrists, his face somber and his gaze fixed on the cave floor.
Beside him, Sasuke remained leaning against the stone wall, adjusting his kunai holster. His eyes reflected a cold, calculating glint; the weakness shown days ago would not be repeated.
"My chakra has finally stabilized," Sasuke said, breaking the silence in a low voice. "But we have no time to waste. The second phase of the exam ends tomorrow, and we still don't have a single key."
"I know," Naruto replied, clenching his fist tightly. "I'm not going back to Konoha empty-handed. If we have to rip the keys away from the most dangerous team left in this desert, we will."
Sakura Haruno, sitting a few paces away as she packed up her medical gear, lowered her head. She understood her situation all too well. Although her medical chakra skills had been vital in keeping her teammate alive after Daiku's assault, her physical combat capabilities were nowhere near the level of the monsters roaming the desert at this hour, and physically, she wasn't ready to become a chūnin.
Suddenly, a soft whistle in the wind above made Sasuke activate his Sharingan instantly. Three red tomoe spun in his pupils before stabilizing and completing themselves. Three black blades aligned with absolute precision in each eye. The prior defeat and training pushed to the extreme had forced the full evolution of his Dojutsu.
"Above us," Sasuke whispered, peering up toward the upper crack in the cave's ceiling. "A massive shadow is circling. It's a summoning... a giant hawk."
"It has to be a team from Sunagakure," Sakura chimed in, standing up with a resolute look. "They're the only ones who know this desert well enough to scout this cave from the air."
Naruto peeked carefully through the narrow gap at the entrance. "They're tracking us from the sky. They either know we're here or they're hunting down anyone still breathing."
Sasuke analyzed the shadow's trajectory through his Sharingan. "If they spot us head-on and deploy long-range techniques from the air, we're dead. The only way to win this and secure their keys is with a surprise counterattack. Holding back nothing from the very first millisecond. Zero percent mercy, one hundred percent lethality."
"I'll be the decoy," Sakura declared without hesitation.
Both Naruto and Sasuke looked at her in surprise.
"Sakura, you don't—" Naruto started, but she cut him off with a raised hand.
"Listen to me, Naruto," Sakura said in a firm voice, even though her fingers trembled slightly. "I know full well that in a head-on fight against those three, I'll be a liability in my current state and ninja career. If they see the three of us together, they'll know it's a defensive formation and attack with everything from afar. But if they see just me, standing guard at the entrance while you two appear unconscious or sleeping inside, they'll swoop down to finish the job up close. It's the only chance you have to ambush them."
Naruto gritted his teeth, reluctant to put his teammate in harm's way, but Sasuke nodded, recognizing the ruthless logic of the strategy.
"It's settled then," Sasuke said. "Make it look real, Sakura. The moment they step foot on the ground, the fight will be over before they even realize what hit them."
Naruto looked at Sasuke and then at Sakura, finally nodding with a heavy heart. "Alright. But we won't let them touch a single hair on your head. I'll leave two Shadow Clones inside to pose as us sleeping—they'll back you up instantly if anything goes wrong."
High above in the desert night, Sōritsu's summoned hawk glided in absolute stillness, cutting through currents of freezing air. Upon its back, the three members of Suna's Team D observed the rocky terrain like nocturnal predators.
Kanra Chinoike, her red pupils glowing faintly beneath the moonlight, kept her fingers hovering over the blood vials on her belt. Beside her, Shima Museifu adjusted his hand position, channeling chakra to prepare his Whisper Release. And at the front, Sōritsu guided the winged beast with brief hand signals.
"Down there," Kanra indicated in a serious voice. "In that cliff cavity. I see a faint chakra signature. It's the pink-haired girl from Konoha. She's standing guard on a rock. Inside the cave, the remaining two members are resting. It's Team 7."
"Perfect," Shima muttered with a cruel smirk. "They've been hiding like rats, probably because we happened to stumbled upon them. It's time to clear the map and take their keys if they're carrying any."
Sōritsu didn't utter a word; he simply signaled with his hand. The giant hawk tucked its wings and went into a silent dive. A few dozen meters above the ground, the summoning vanished in a puff of white smoke, letting the three Sand ninjas drop onto the sand without making the slightest sound, landing like shadows on the high rocks surrounding the cave.
Kanra activated her Ketsuryūgan for a brief second, scanning the perimeter for genjutsu or chakra threads connected to explosive tags.
"Clear," Kanra confirmed in a whisper. "No active traps. The girl is completely alone and exhausted—she hasn't even noticed our landing."
Shima stepped forward, raising his hands toward the refuge entrance. Channeling chakra, he prepared to do the exact same thing they had done to every other team they eliminated: use his Whisper Release and end it quickly.
"I'll take out the girl first and disintegrate the cave with the rest inside," Shima whispered, priming the invisible gust.
However, just as Shima was about to unleash the technique, an ear-splitting, chirping screech shattered the silence of the canyon. A thousand birds seemed to sing at once from the pitch-black darkness behind them.
"What?!" Kanra gasped, spinning around violently.
But it was too late. The speed of the ambush was inhuman.
Sasuke Uchiha emerged from the upper shadow of an adjacent stone pillar. The crimson glow of his three-tomoe Sharingan spun at a terrifying speed, reading every micro-movement of the three Suna ninjas. In his right hand, a concentrated mass of Lightning chakra roared with a blinding blue-white glare that illuminated the entire canyon.
Sōritsu, situated at the rear of the group, attempted to react and draw his weapon, but Sasuke was already upon him. The acceleration of the Uchiha combat style, boosted by the Lightning stimulus in his legs, surpassed any reaction speed.
THUMP!
Sasuke's arm, coated in the electrical surge of the Chidori, pierced through Sōritsu's tactical vest and chest with surgical precision.
Time seemed to freeze. Sōritsu's eyes widened in horror, feeling the searing heat of electricity destroying his internal organs. Blood began to pour violently from his mouth, dripping over Sasuke's lightning-charged arm.
"Did you really think... we were the prey?" Sasuke cold-ness whispered into Sōritsu's ear, before ripping his arm back with force and letting the Suna ninja's lifeless body crash onto the rocks.
"SŌRITSU!" Shima screamed, losing his composure over the loss of his teammate.
Instinctively, Shima and Kanra spun around to slaughter the Uchiha, raising their hands to unleash their most lethal techniques. But before they could launch a single attack, the air above them filled with war cries.
"RASENGAN!"
Five of Naruto Uzumaki's Shadow Clones plunged down from the upper ledge, each holding a swirling sphere of pure blue chakra in their hands. The massive impact forced Shima and Kanra into desperate backward acrobatics, leaping off the stone platform to avoid being pulverized by the spiraling energy.
BOOM!
All five Rasengan slammed into the rock where the two had been standing a second prior, obliterating the sandstone structure and kicking up a dense curtain of smoke and debris.
Out of the smoke, the original Naruto descended gracefully, landing shoulder to shoulder with Sasuke. A few meters away, Sakura dashed out of the cave with a kunai in hand, dropping into a guard stance to cover their flanks.
On the ground lay Sōritsu's lifeless body, stripping the enemy of their flight and aerial tracking capability in the very first second of battle.
Naruto glanced at Sōritsu's corpse for a brief moment and gritted his teeth. He hated the idea of having to kill to survive, but his parents' words before the exam echoed in his mind: The shinobi world is no children's game. When it comes to protecting your comrades and your home, hesitating for even a second means death.
"Game over, Suna," Naruto said, staring down the two survivors with iron determination. "Hand over the keys, or this ends the same way for you."
Across the rocky clearing, Shima and Kanra regained their footing. Fury had completely replaced their initial arrogance.
"You Konoha bastards..." Kanra hissed. The veins around her eyes bulged as her Ketsuryūgan activated at full power, and the blood from Sōritsu's body began to vibrate on the ground under her control. "You'll pay for this with every drop of your blood!"
"Don't give them room to breathe, Kanra!" Shima ordered, holding his hands in a hand seal while the air around his arms began to distort invisibly. "We'll shred them right here!"
Kanra didn't wait another second. Utilizing her Ketsujutsu (Blood Technique), she manipulated the blood from her pouch and Sōritsu's corpse to forge massive whips and high-density red spikes that launched straight at Sasuke.
Sasuke moved with feline agility. His three-tomoe Sharingan allowed him to read the trajectory of the chakra-infused blood milliseconds before it traveled. He dodged the first spike by tilting his torso left and sliced the second with his kunai imbued with Lightning chakra, evaporating the red mass on contact.
"It's useless!" Kanra screamed, biting her fingers to empower the attack with her own blood. "Blood Transformation Jutsu: Blood Dragon!"
An imposing dragon of crimson fluid rose from the ground, roaring fiercely as it lunged at the Uchiha. The creature's jaws sought to trap Sasuke and detonate his body's iron from within.
However, the hum of electricity let Kanra know Sasuke had his defenses ready.
Meanwhile, on the other end of the battlefield, Shima charged at Naruto.
"Let's see if you can dodge what you can't see or hear!" Shima shouted, thrusting multiple open-palm strikes into the air.
Massive blasts of his Whisper Release erupted from his arms. Unlike ordinary Wind Release, there were no whistles or visible gusts in the sand. Naruto felt only a mortal, instinctive danger and tried to leap backward.
SLASH!
Despite leaping away, an invisible air blade grazed his cheek and sliced his coat's shoulder, leaving two clean cuts that immediately bled.
"Damn it!" Naruto gasped, touching his bleeding cheek. "You can't see a single thing!"
"I told you it's useless!" Shima mocked, appearing instantly above him and prepping a horizontal slash aimed at Naruto's neck. "Die!"
Shima unleashed a full fan of invisible blades at point-blank range—an attack designed to shred Naruto's body into a dozen pieces.
However, Naruto was not the same ninja from the fight against Team A. Feeling his life in genuine peril and realizing the enemy's speed exceeded his ordinary senses, he tapped into the power deep within his soul.
"DON'T SUBESTIMATE ME!"
Dense, crimson Nine-Tails chakra suddenly erupted from Naruto's body in a blast of absolute pressure. Naruto's blue eyes turned red with slit pupils, and his fangs and nails lengthened.
The physical mass of demonic chakra surrounding Naruto acted as a shield of overwhelming density. When Shima's invisible Whisper Release blades slammed into the Red Bijuu chakra, the compressed air detonated upon contact against the energy barrier, flashing visible for a split second before dissipating.
"What on earth is this chakra?!" Shima panicked, feeling the malignant pressure making it difficult to even draw breath.
Without giving him time to react, Naruto moved at a speed that left a red streak in the air. He appeared directly in front of Shima, bypassing his wind defenses through sheer brute force.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" Naruto roared.
Two clones spawned at his sides instantly, helping him mold a much larger, denser Rasengan, infused with sparks of the fox's chakra.
"Take this! OODAMA RASENGAN!"
Shima attempted to raise a maximum-power wall of invisible wind to block the strike, but Naruto's giant sphere of chakra crushed the air barrier like paper. The Oodama Rasengan slammed directly into Shima's body.
The roar was deafening. The mass of swirling chakra ground through Shima's tactical armor and sent him flying over fifty meters, bouncing violently off multiple stone pillars before skidding unconscious onto the sand, his body completely battered.
As Shima collapsed in defeat, the battle between Sasuke and Kanra reached its climax.
Three new Blood Dragons forged by Kanra swooped down at Sasuke from the air. Kanra grinned crazily, believing she had the Uchiha trapped against the stone wall.
"It's over, Uchiha! Your blood belongs to the Chinoike Clan!"
Yet, Sasuke showed not the slightest hint of panic. With his three-tomoe Sharingan calculating the precise accumulation of chakra inside the blood mass, Sasuke executed a series of hand seals at blinding speed.
"Katon: Gōen no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Flame Technique!)
Sasuke unleashed an infernal storm of enveloping fire that swept forward like a searing 180-degree tide. The giant wall of Uchiha flames collided head-on with all three blood dragons simultaneously. The extreme heat and density of the great flame evaporated the water and blood in Kanra's attack within seconds, reducing all three creatures to a dense, suffocating cloud of scalding steam.
Through the curtain of steam, Sasuke closed the distance in a flash using the Shunshin no Jutsu.
Kanra's eyes widened in shock as Sasuke emerged from the smoke without a single scratch, his three tomoe spinning fixedly into her eyes.
"Genjutsu: Sharingan!" Sasuke whispered.
Direct eye contact with the Uchiha's fully evolved Dojutsu trapped Kanra in an instant illusion. The world around the Suna ninja turned blood-red, and heavy black iron chains burst from the earth, paralyzing her mind and body.
Frozen in the real world from the mental shock of the Genjutsu, Kanra couldn't move a single muscle.
Sasuke didn't hesitate. Knowing the enemy would regain control if given even a second, he channeled a final burst of Chidori into his left hand and drove it straight into Kanra's solar plexus with a swift strike.
The electrical shock surged through Kanra's nervous system, knocking the breath out of her as she fell to her knees before collapsing unconscious onto the freezing sand of the canyon.
Silence returned to claim the canyon once more.
The fight, though intense and blood-soaked, was over. Laying defeated on the ground were the three members of Sunagakure's Team D: Sōritsu dead, Shima incapacitated by the sheer force of the giant Rasengan, and Kanra neutralized by the flawless combination of Genjutsu and Chidori, her nervous system paralyzed.
Naruto deactivated the Bijuu chakra, breathing heavily as his eyes returned to their normal blue color. Sasuke deactivated his Sharingan and dropped to one knee for a second, feeling the exhaustion of draining his chakra reserves, yet maintaining his composure.
Sakura ran over to them quickly, pulling out two jars of ointment and bandages.
"Guys! Are you okay?" Sakura asked with concern, checking Naruto's sliced shoulder and Sasuke's arms.
"We're fine, Sakura," Sasuke said, slowly standing back up. "Your plan worked perfectly. If you hadn't served as the decoy, their aerial attacks would've been unpredictable."
Naruto walked over to Kanra's body and Shima's tactical pouch, searching through their gear. After a few seconds, he pulled out two metallic keys that gleamed under the moonlight: the gold key and the silver key.
"We got 'em," Naruto said, holding both keys up with a resolute smile. "Both keys, complete."
"Let's not waste any more time," Sasuke said, looking toward the horizon where the first glimmers of dawn began to illuminate the desert sky. "The gate opens in less than an hour. Team 7 will qualify if we move now."
Sakura smiled with relief and excitement, helping Naruto and Sasuke get moving.
The three Konoha genin sprinted at full speed across the dunes, leaving behind the bloody night of the Demon Desert and heading toward the central tower to claim their spot in the final phase of the Chūnin Exams.
End of Chapter