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 Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 9:05 am
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Posted: Thu Feb 22, 2007 6:25 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:47 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 1:51 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 4:45 pm
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Posted: Tue Feb 27, 2007 7:15 pm
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Posted: Wed Feb 28, 2007 1:32 pm
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 8:43 am
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Posted: Thu Mar 01, 2007 9:24 pm
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Yeah...sorry about that. (pokes at last post) I thought that was the second half of the story, since as of right now (since I am going to be posting the second half, for real), Seeing the Truth on Gaia Online has caught up to the story posted on Fanfiction.net. (throws confetti) HURRAY! xD.
Of course, that means that updates will come much more slowly, since I have hit a major writer's block. I tried the "typing ahead" thing and have typed up the rest of the next chapter...except the second half of the preliminaries. sweatdrop . NEJI, WHY MUST YOU BE SO DIFFICULT?!
baka = foolish (or stupid/idiot, if you twist the meaning a lot), gaki = brat (BUAHAHAHA), and teme = b*****d. Don't hesitate to ask for any other translations as well, (smiles).
Right now however I must now jump around in glee as a small celebration. This is the first chapter I have ever typed up that has surpassed the 10,000 word count! Well, the chapter as a whole, not the separate halves, but you get the picture.
I just realized right now that I missed the Gaia Anniversary Event. Is anyone willing to part with their event items? There's a blue, green, and red, right? sweatdrop . Preferably red...thanks!
"Talking"
Thinking
"Telepathy through mind seal"
("Beast speech" / "Telepathy with a beast")
"Demonic language" / 'Demon talking telepathically to their jinchuuriki'
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
::;Seeing the Truth;::
Chapter 12: Confrontations in the Tower - Second Half
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
Team Seven was in their room, each doing their own thing when someone knocked on the door. Naruto looked up from checking over his equipment, recognizing the chakra signature of the person standing outside. He stood and walked over, opening it to reveal the Sandaime Hokage.
“Old man?”
The ‘old man’ chuckled at the nickname. “Hello to you, too, Naruto-kun.”
From inside the team’s room, Sasuke and Akina nodded respectively, murmuring an “Ohayo, Hokage-sama.”
Sarutobi nodded back before looking seriously at the small genin in front of him. “Naruto-kun, I need to talk to you in the office upstairs.”
Naruto blinked before waving a little at his team, following the aged shinobi outside into the hallway and closing the door behind him.
“He knows…” said Sasuke, still looking at the door. Kouseki nodded.
(“It’s just like the Hokage to know every little thing that happens in his village. Besides…it was kind of hard not to miss the gigantic tornado of fire tearing up a chunk of Area 44.”)
Outside, they saw one of Naruto’s Kage Bunshin having some fun setting up traps for whoever made it to the tower. Kouseki cast a weary eye towards it before sighing and shaking her head.
The reason why Naruto had not carried the scroll in the first place was because his ninja pouch was already filled with summoning scrolls that held all the tools he needed for his traps. Being a former prankster, he had a lot of experience in the trapping area, and took it upon himself to become the trapping master for the team.
(“I do not want to be whoever didn’t get into the tower already…”) mumbled Kouseki when she heard one of the Kage Bunshin cackle like a mad scientist that had made one of his creations live.
“BUAHAHAHAH!”
Upstairs in the room where all the security cameras were, Naruto sat down in front of the Hokage on a couch, with two Anbu guarding the door to the room.
“So…what do you want ojii-san?”
Sarutobi chewed on his pipe for a while before answering. “Yesterday, your team faced a dangerous shinobi, correct?”
Naruto nodded, frowning. “Yeah, the hebi-teme. He said his name was Orochimaru. I wanted to talk to you about that, old man. He put a weird seal on me and it’s messing up my chakra control.”
Sarutobi smiled when he heard that Naruto already knew what had happened to him. “Take off your shirt and jacket, and channel some chakra so that I can see your seal.”
He did as commanded, putting his hands into the ram seal and concentrating on his chakra. The seal that contained the Kyuubi no Kitsune appeared, and a few seconds later, an odd-numbered seal appeared around it. Sarutobi nodded to himself when he recognized the work of his old student. He looked up at Naruto. “This might hurt a bit.”
The demon contained just nodded, not afraid of pain. The Sandaime Hokage held out his open hand towards the boy, and blue flames with kanji appeared on his fingers. In one swift move, he thrust his palm onto the seal that Orochimaru had placed on Naruto.
“Gogyo Kaiin! (Five Elements Unseal)!”
Naruto flew back onto the couch from the force of the hit, grunting slightly as the air was knocked out of his lungs once again. The extra seal on his stomach disappeared, and Naruto felt his chakra steadily regenerating itself again. He smiled at the familiar feeling.
“Thanks ojii-san!”
Sarutobi nodded, smiling back. Naruto got up and went to the door. “Ah, before you go Naruto-kun. Tell your teammates not to tell anyone about Orochimaru. We don’t want to trouble them unnecessarily, right?”
Naruto stopped with his hand on the doorknob, turning his head back and grinning back at him. “Don’t worry, I won’t!”
The grin was still on his face as he walked back towards his team’s room, after a minute, another pair of footsteps joined his, and he stopped as none other than Sabaku no Gaara rounded the corner. Both boys stood still and stared at each other.
Akina-chan says that he seems lonely… Naruto’s blue eyes studied Gaara’s teal eyes, trying to see if he was really as evil as the others say he is. Gaara stared back, instinctively trying to find out if Naruto was a threat or not by seeing if there was any malice or hatred in his eyes.
What Naruto found surprised him. Those eyes…they’re just like mine… Deep inside those eyes were loneliness, pain, hatred, bitterness, and once you got past all those barriers and slight insanity…a longing for acceptance. Demonic chakra…is he…like me?
Gaara hated what he saw in Naruto’s cerulean eyes. Behind the layers upon layers of guarded happiness was sadness, anger, pain, and…understanding. Gaara’s eyes narrowed. No one could possibly understand what I’m going through…no one… Once again the Ichibi no Shukaku started acting up again, whispering words into his mind.
‘KILL THE FOX…YES…SILLY LITTLE KITSUNE…HE GOT SEALED AWAY INTO A FLESH BAG! BUAHAHAHA! THE GREAT FOX, REDUCED TO HAVING A HUMAN BODY…!’ Gaara gripped his head in pain, and Naruto’s hand went to his stomach on reflex when he felt the spirit in the seal react slightly. Those eyes…insomnia…his demon isn’t letting him sleep…and from the way his brother and sister act around him…they’re scared that due to the demon’s influence, Gaara would attack them at any moment…
Shaking slightly, sand started to pour out of the gourd on Gaara’s back as he raised his hand towards Naruto. “Yes Mother…I will kill…the fox for you…”
Naruto took a step back, looking apprehensively at the sand. He decided to try something out, now that he was sure that the boy in front of him had some connection to a demon. He made sure that no one would be able to hear them first. Looking into Gaara’s eyes, Naruto spoke quietly, mentally keeping track of the moving sand. He might…be able to understand me…
“What do you want with the demon inside me…?”
All movement stopped for a moment as Gaara’s eyes momentarily widened in surprise. The words “demon inside of me” repeated in his head as his gaze went to the hand the boy put on his stomach, the same place where his own seal was located.
Naruto was starting to hope that Gaara would understand that they were the same when the other boy started glaring at him.
“Don’t lie to me…” he growled lowly.
The orange-clad boy shook his head, making sure that any security cameras weren’t around before revealing his stomach, channeling chakra. The seal appeared, and Naruto let Gaara get a good look at it before he put his shirt back down.
Both heard foot steps coming from down the hall, and cursed inwardly at the interruption. Naruto wanted to talk some more, and Gaara wanted to interrogate the other boy.
They stared sternly at each other while the sand went back into Gaara’s gourd, silently promising to talk to each other later before continuing to the destination they were going to before, walking past each other.
Naruto turned the corner, seeing that the people they heard walking around was Team Ten. Ino spotted Naruto, and beckoned him to come to over to her, and he obeyed, wondering what she wanted.
Ino smirked at him as she talked. “Tell Akina that I’ll put my hitai-ate on my head, as long as she pushes up her hitai-ate so that we can see her eyes!”
The boy cringed slightly at the request. Asking Akina to reveal her eyes was like asking Kakashi to take off his mask. Even he hadn’t seen her eyes, and he’s known the girl ever since she started living in Konoha six years ago. The other boys seemed to know this as well, since Chouji was eating a faster rate, and Shikamaru was sighing repeatedly.
“Uhh…Ino?” Gotta handle this situation carefully… “I don’t think it should take Akina showing her eyes for you to just put your headband on your head…”
Ino scowled. “If putting my hitai-ate on my head is such a little request, then so is pushing her headband up a bit!”
Naruto sweated slightly. “Er, that’s not what I meant…you don’t reveal anything by putting your hitai-ate on your head, but Akina would have to show everyone a secret she’s kept for years!”
The other blond was being stubborn. “What does she have to hide? It’s just her eyes! Unless she has a scar or something like a mutation…”
A sweat drop appeared on the back of Naruto’s head as he suddenly imagined Akina taking off her headband, only to reveal that one eye was drooping, or had a huge scar on it. In the awkwardness of the situation, he had accidentally let the image slip into the mind seal, but had managed to cover it up so that only Sasuke saw it.
“…What the hell?”
“Ah, sorry, sorry! Ino was saying that if she wanted her headband to be on her head than Akina had to show had to show to show her eyes but I know that Akina would never show her eyes since I’ve known her since we were little and she’s never even shown me her eyes so why should she show it to her rival? Everyone in the Rookie Nine knows this, plus Lee for some reason!”
Sasuke had not understood half of what his teammate had been babbling because of how fast-paced he had been thinking.
“Ino…Akina…eyes?”
Naruto seemed to sense the Uchiha’s confusion. “Ah, just don’t tell Akina-chan, okay?”
“Hn.”
The boy took it as a yes and sighed in relief, when he realized that Team Ten was staring at him. He scratched the back of his head in embarrassment. “Ah, sorry. Bad image…”
Ino nodded slowly, still not fully believing the shinobi. “…Right…Anyways, pass that onto Akina, okay? Okay, see ya!”
With that, she grabbed her teammates’ arms and dragged them away, escaping before Naruto could get a word in. He scowled.
“Damn.”
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
Naruto had just explained Ino’s request to Akina, and was now waiting nervously for her answer. It wasn’t that he was afraid that she was going to hurt someone or something like that; it was just that Akina seemed to be kind of touchy about her eyes.
Sasuke on the other hand was pondering on what she was hiding beneath the headband, and trying to get the weird images of what could be under it out of his mind. Both boys already saw what her face looked like, when they gave each other mind seals—just not her eyes.
It was a little too quiet for his comfort, so Naruto repeated the last thing he had said. “So, will you do it?”
Akina had made no reaction so far, sitting on a cushion at the low table. “Hai; it is important for Ino to take the life of a shinobi seriously…”
Naruto, Sasuke, and Kouseki blinked, shocked at her answer. She was actually going to reveal what was hidden underneath the hitai-ate? The orange-clad ninja suddenly grinned.
“When? When?!”
Akina took a sip from her water bottle. “If we do battle.”
The grin grew wider, and he jumped into the air, excited that he would finally find out her secret.
“YATTA!”
O-O-O-O-O-O-O-O
Three days later, the teams that had made it through the Forest of Death had gathered in the Main Arena, which Team Seven recognized as the first training room that they had seen. Everyone lined up according to their teams, and in front of them all stood their jounin-senseis and some Chuunin Exam officials.
Sarutobi stepped forward and coughed slightly to get their attention. All talking immediately stopped, showing everyone that even in his old age, the man still had an air of wisdom that one just had to respect.
“First off, congratulations on passing the Second Exam.”
At this point, Anko was a little awed at how many had passed. I said that I would cut the number of people in half, but what I really expected was for about 10 people to pass…not 21.
Gai looked out at all the genin. “Your team is pretty good. Perhaps they were lucky. But as long as my team is here, they can’t go on any further. Since, in the next stage, personal abilities will be critical. Youth is sweet and sour, and sometimes, strict, Kakashi.”
He looked sideways at Kakashi, expecting some sort of reaction. Kakashi turned his head. “Did you say something?”
Gai slapped his hands to his head, inwardly screaming to the gods. Oh, my god! He lowered his hands and clenched his fist. That was pretty good, rival Kakashi. That attitude is somewhat hip, and pisses me off.
From the arena floor, Tenten looked at the scene, smiling slightly. So that’s Gai-sensei’s eternal rival. Gai-sensei completely loses to him in looks…
There was some slight killer intent coming from the Sound Team, and Kouseki sweat-dropped when she remembered why.
(“Oh yeah, the Oto-nin are probably still mad about being knocked out so fast with two of their ninja almost all the way under the ground. Hehehe…”)
Kiba raised an eyebrow, idly calming Akamaru down with his petting hand. Kouseki just shrugged.
(“Nothing, nothing…”)
The Sound jounin smirked at Kabuto, and the silver-haired genin responded by standing a little bit straighter. Akina noticed, but didn’t say anything. Both she and Kouseki recognized his scent, despite not smelling it for four days. Demonic senses came in handy.
So this many remained…and most of them are new, thought Sarutobi, looking back at the jounin senseis of Konoha. No wonder why they recommended them.
“We will now have an explanation of the Third Exam from Hokage-sama. Everyone listen well,” said Anko.
“The Third Exam will begin. But before the explanation, there’s one thing I want to make clear to all of you. It’s about the true purpose of this exam. Why do we do a joint exam with the allied nations. “To maintain good relations with the allied nations” and “heighten the level of the ninja”… Do not let those reasons deceive you. This “exam”, so to speak, is…
…the epitome of a war between the allied nations. If we go back through history, the allied nations right now were…neighboring countries that have fought each other over and over again. To avoid wasting military power, those countries decided to choose a place to fights…That is the beginning of the Chuunin Selection Exam. Yes, this Exam’s purpose is to select who to promote to the chuunin level.
But, on the other hand, it’s also a place where ninja fight and carry their country’s dignity. In this Third Exam, feudal lords and famous people from various countries who may be potential clients are invited here as guests. And feudal lords from countries with hidden villages and ninja leaders will see your battles.
If there’s a significant difference in power, the strong country will be flooded with jobs. If a country is seen as weak, their jobs will decrease. And at the same time, countries are able to show how their village has grown and possess excellent military power to the adjacent countries.
In other words, they can put foreign pressures on them. A country’s power is the village’s power. And a village’s power is the ninja’s power. And a ninja’s true power is only born in life-or-death battle. This Exam is also a place to show off the ninja’s power of one’s country.
Since this is an exam where you fight with your life on the line, it has a meaning…
And your predecessors have fought and dreamed of being in the Chuunin Exam because of it. To show good relations in the world of ninja…is the custom of showing one’s life and fighting to maintain balance.
This is a life-or-death battle for your dream and village’s dignity.”
(“The old man sure likes to beat around the bush, huh?”) mumbled Kouseki.
“I will now begin the explanation of the Third Exam, but…”
A jounin dropped in, bowing in front of the Hokage. “Excuse me, Hokage-sama…I, Gekkou Hayate, the judge, will explain.”
“Please do.”
He stood up and turned around. “Everyone, it’s nice to meet you. Before the Third Exam…(cough cough) There’s something I want to do…(cough cough) I need you to fight in some preliminary matches to see who gets to advance to the Third Exam’s main battle.”
There were some complaints in the crowd.
“We need preliminary matches because the First and Second Exams were too easy, I don’t know…but there are too many examinees left. According to Exam regulations, we must decrease the number of participants for the Third Exam because the important people attending don’t have time to watch you all fight.
We are on limited time here as well, so those who aren’t feeling well…(hacking cough)…”
“He seems like the one who’s not feeling well…” commented Naruto.
“Excuse me. If anyone wants to quit after hearing the explanation…Please let me know. The preliminary matches will begin immediately. (cough cough) I forgot to mention this, but you will have one-on-one matches from here on out. So please withdraw if you wish.”
Here, Kabuto raised his hand, gaining the attention of the Konoha adults in the room. “I’ll quit.”
Hayate nodded and looked onto his clip board. “(cough cough) You are Konoha’s Yakushi Kabuto-kun? You may leave, then.”
“Hai.”
He walked towards the exit, stopping to chat a bit with his teammates before leaving. Akina listened in on the conversation, remembering it so that she can tell her superiors later. Anko, Ibiki, and Sarutobi watched, now sure that he was a spy, since he had taken the Exam many times, and always quit a this point.
“(cough) May I assume there are no more people who wish to retire?” Silence. “Then let’s begin the preliminary matches. It will be a one-on-one match. In other words, it will be like real combat. Since we have exactly 20 people, we will have 10 matches. And the winners will be able to advance to the Third Exam. There are no rules. You will fight until the other person dies, is knocked out…or admits defeat. If you do not want to die, please give up immediately. However, if I judge that the match is over…(couch cough) I may stop you to prevent any unnecessary deaths. The thing that holds your destiny…”
He nodded back to Anko, who did the same. She spoke into a small device. “Open it.”
A panel on the upper left side of the two arms in a hand seal slid open, revealing a black screen. “…will be this. This screen will randomly display the names of two fighters for each match. Without further ado, I will now display the names for the first match.”
The screen flashed through all the names of the examinees, and Naruto watched anxiously, half wanting to see his own name, and half wanting to see Ino and Akina’s name.
Speaking of Akina, she couldn’t sense what was on the screen because it was flat, and when different images or names were shown, the change in the heat of that area of the screen would be so minuscule that she would have to put all her concentration onto it and use her manipulation abilities. It would just be easier to have Kouseki or one of her teammates read it to her.
‘Akadou Yoroi VS. Uchiha Sasuke’
A smirk slowly made its way onto Sasuke’s face. “Right off the bat, eh?”
Kouseki grunted. (“It’s Akadou Yoroi VS. the gaki.”) said Kouseki, for Akina’s benefit.
“Those whose names were displayed, step up.” Sasuke and Yoroi walked forward, stopping to face each other in front of Hayate. “These are the fighters for the first match. Are there any objections?”
“No.”
“We will now begin the first match. (cough cough) Everyone other than the two fighters, please move up.”
The crowd separated, with the foreigners going on one side, and the Leaf-nin going on the other. The Hokage walked to the area in the middle. Team Seven met around Sasuke for a bit.
Naruto clapped a hand on Sasuke’s shoulder. “You better not lose, teme!” Sasuke brushed his hand off.
“I won’t. You better not lose either…I want to fight you, too.”
Naruto grinned at him before being the first of them to go up the stairs. Akina nodded at him, and both Kakashi and Kouseki wished him good luck before following Naruto up the stairs.
Akina sat down against the wall next to her sensei’s feet, and Naruto and Kouseki were up by the railing, looking down excitedly at the arena.
When they were all off the arena floor, Hayate looked between both fighters, seeing the ready. “Hajime.”
Akina let half of her attention rest on her teammate’s battle, leaving the rest to watch over the Tower.
Since the beginning of the battle when Yoroi made his hand glow blue, Sasuke had been weary of it, and saw that he kept on making grabs for him to hold onto. He had dodged them all while landing a few punches and kicks in between, being careful to stay away from the hand. Eventually Yoroi was lured into a trap by trying to attack a Kage Bunshin while Sasuke appeared behind him and knocked him out with a hit to the neck.
Team Seven had traded techniques, and Naruto was proud to teach them Kage Bunshin. Sasuke taught them Katon: Housenka no jutsu (Fire Release: Phoenix Flower). Akina taught them how to release chakra in their attacks to make them more harmful.
Hayate coughed again when he saw that Yoroi was unconscious. “The winner: Uchiha Sasuke.”
Sasuke smirked again before walking up to his team. Naruto grinned at him, and Akina inclined her head slightly to show her approval. Kouseki barked a bit, and Kakashi just eye-smiled at him.
The judge coughed, and the panel started to randomly select names again, and stopped at:
‘Aburame Shino VS. Abumi Zaku’
This one was rather short, where Shino outsmarted the Oto-nin by having his kikai bugs appear on the other side of him, trapping the boy between the two opponents. When he tried using both his arms to use his Zankuuha, the insides of his arm blew up because the bugs had clogged the holes.
Several genin on the Leaf side scrunched up their faces at how his arms turned up. There were holes in his arms. Kurenai commented on how coldly Shino had defeated him. When Shino passed by Team Seven, Akina congratulated him with a quiet “Smart thinking, Shino-san.”
He stopped for a bit to nod at her in thanks before walking over to his team.
Hayate coughed again, leading Kouseki to come up with quite a few theories about him. The screen flashed again.
‘Tsurugu Misumi VS. Sabaku no Kankurou’
Her teammates didn’t say anything, so she assumed that it wasn’t anyone they knew personally.
In the beginning of the battle, the last member of Kabuto’s team had stretched much like Orochimaru’s neck had in the forest, wrapping around the Suna-nin and squeezing his neck until it cracked. The skin cracked off, revealing that it was really the puppet. The bandages of the object that had dropped unraveled themselves to reveal the true Kankurou, who manipulated his puppet to knock out the Leaf-nin.
“The winner is Sabaku no Kankurou,” Hayate coughed out, as the screen selected another pair of names.
Naruto blinked when he read the names aloud. “Yamanaka Ino VS. Takamaru Akina…Akina-chan, it’s just like you said!”
Akina stood up and hopped onto the railing, jumping off and easily landing on the ground near Gekkou Hayate without a sound with Kouseki beside her. Ino smirked and did the same, landing on the side opposite to her.
“Hajime!”
Both girls didn’t move. “So, it really is the two of us, huh?”
Akina nodded.
“Did Naruto tell you my end of the deal?”
“Hai. I agree, but you must follow through with your end first.”
Almost everyone in the arena was left confused at the conversation. It seems the only ones that knew what they were talking about were the genin of Teams Seven and Ten.
Kakashi raised an eyebrow. “Deal?”
Naruto shushed him, leaning anxiously over the railing. “You’ll see, Kakashi-sensei. You’d better watch closely, too.”
Ino nodded, untying the Leaf hitai-ate around her waist, and relocating it onto her forehead, where it was supposed to go.
Asuma blinked. What got her to be serious about being a kunoichi?
The Sandaime Hokage was interested as well, not remembering Ino to be a person that would do such a thing.
Ino pointed to Akina. “Now it’s your turn.”
She nodded, raising a hand to her headband, and slowly started to push it up. As one, all the Rookie genin from Leaf leaned forward, waiting in anticipation. Kakashi’s eye brows raised more. Oh? The other jounin sensei’s watched in amusement.
Akina pushed her headband all the way up, keeping her eyes closed and revealing that there was in fact nothing wrong with her face. Every Leaf genin but Naruto and Sasuke carefully studied her face, wanting to remember what it looked like because they knew that this would probably be the only time that Akina would show them her face willingly.
They waited for a few more seconds before Ino got impatient, tapping her foot slightly. “Well? What about your eyes?”
Akina tilted her head slightly in question, still keeping her eyes shut. Ino frowned. “Your eyes! Are you going to show us your eyes?”
“I don’t recall any part of the deal that told me to do that.”
The higher-ranked shinobi caught onto what she was doing and chuckled inwardly. Kakashi grinned underneath his mask. She twisted around the words and found a loop-hole, smart…
A scowl made its way onto Ino’s face. “Yes it did!”
But Akina just shook her head slightly. “Your exact words were: Tell Akina that I’ll put my hitai-ate on my head, as long as she pushes up her hitai-ate so that we can see her eyes. In no way did you say that I had to actually open my eyes.”
Beside the small girl, Kouseki grinned, seeing the disappointed faces up on the Leaf genin.
Ino huffed and put her hands to her headband. “Fine! Then I’m putting this back on my waist, where I want it to be!”
Akina frowned at this. “Hold it. The only reason I asked you to put that hitai-ate on your forehead was to tell you to take your role as a ninja more seriously.”
Her hands stopped, and she glared at the shorter girl. “I am taking my job seriously!”
The frown grew deeper. “You’re not. You spend your time trying to win Sasuke’s heart and making yourself look as beautiful as you can when you could be using that time better to train. You don’t seem to realize that later on you might even lose your life because you didn’t train yourself enough, or even worse, it’ll cost your teammates’ lives. Do you want that?”
Ino frowned. “Of course not!”
“Then stop being so foolish.”
The Yamanaka flinched, lowering her hands. Up on the catwalks, Sasuke was hoping that Ino would listen to Akina. That would mean one less fan girl to worry about. Shikamaru and Chouji shifted uncomfortably. That was the most that Akina has ever said around them at one time. It meant that she was dead serious about this.
Her words were a little harsher than it should have been, but she said what was needed to be said. Besides, it was necessary with such a stubborn girl.
Akina shifted her body into her starting stance, wiping any signs of the subtle emotions she had earlier off of her face. Beside her, Kouseki raised her hackles in preparation for battle.
Ino saw this and did the same, clenching her hands into fists. “You’re just saying this because you want Sasuke-kun for yourself!”
Kouseki stifled a groan. (“She’s denying everything.”)
“If you really think that way…then you should re-think about the reason you became a shinobi.”
Ino was about to retort, but was interrupted by a volley of shuriken. She brought out a kunai to block them, but right when the first one made contact with her blade, they exploded into a large cloud of black ninja smoke.
“Eek!”
Akina jumped into the smoke, and the arena grew silent. Kouseki looked into the shroud of smoke and sat down, knowing that she won’t be needed anymore. When she was sure that the silent scuffle inside the smoke was over, she howled loudly at it, blowing away the smoke while also making a couple genin jump because of the sudden noise and the fact that it sounded creepy.
The ninja smoke was blown away, revealing a knocked out Ino being supported by Akina, who didn’t look like she had a problem holding the taller girl up. Her hitai-ate was also back over her eyes.
Hayate nodded at her. “The winner is Takamaru Akina.”
Akina shifted the blonde’s body so that she was carrying her bridal style, and walked up the stairs, with Kouseki following behind her.
As she walked by Neji’s team, Tenten stopped her by putting a hand on her shoulder. “Ah, wait up a bit…”
The younger girl stopped (it was obvious who was older, since Akina was more than a head shorter than the weapons master) and bowed her head a little respectively. “Yes senpai?”
Tenten looked a little surprised at being referred to in such a way. Then she remembered something Lee had said about the girl while in the Forest. He said that she was always polite whenever she spoke, even if it was rare.
She waved her hands a little, feeling awkward. “Ah, you don’t have to call me senpai--just Tenten. Anyways…I agree with you. Kunoichi should take their job more seriously just like shinobi. We don’t want to be shown up by the guys, right?”
Akina sensed that Tenten felt really strongly about his and simply nodded. Tenten smiled and let go of the girl’s shoulder, letting her walk by. Neji watched her, having used his Byakugan to see through the smoke. She had easily knocked out the other girl. It seems that she doesn’t want others to find out how strong she really is…
Lee grinned and flashed his teeth, clenching his fists and somehow creating a genjutsu of fire behind him. “YOSH! AKINA-CHAN IS SPREADING HER FLAMES OF YOUTH TO INO-SAN!”
Tenten sweat dropped, embarrassed that she was on their team. Neji closed his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose as Gai joined into Lee’s shouting.
Hayate coughed, and the screen started to randomly pick the names for the next match. Kouseki pointed to him with her large paw. (“I knew it! THAT SCREEN IS COUGH-ACTIVATED!”)
Naruto’s head slammed into the railing as he fell anime-style, but missed the floor and ended up hitting the metal bars. Kiba started laughing loudly, and Akamaru (who was inside Kiba’s jacket) chuckled a little.
“Ahahaah…cough-activated screen…ahaha…”
The other genin smiled, now that Kiba had translated what the wolf had said, and finding the statement funny as well.
Akina felt Ino shift slightly and hurried over to where Team Ten was standing, placing her down against the wall next to Asuma. She nodded to him in respect before walking back to her team, where Naruto was rubbing his head and laughing at the same time.
A beep from the screen called them to attention.
‘Ama Tenten VS. Sabaku no Temari’
((AN: Due to the fact that Kishimoto-senpai has not told us her surname, I will be assuming that this is her last name since in some foreign subtitles, they have been referring to her as this, even though they do not mean that Ama is her last name.))
Akina once again sat down against the wall, since she couldn’t see, she might as well not lean over the railings as Naruto had been doing.
From the place where Team Eight was standing, Hinata faced Akina, whispering a small “Congratulations Akina-chan.” The girl heard through all the racket (Kiba and Naruto were still laughing a little) and nodded briefly in her direction.
The sickly looking jounin looked at both of the kunoichi, and saw them ready.
“All right, hajime!”
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Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 12:04 pm
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Posted: Fri Mar 02, 2007 2:05 pm
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 11:48 am
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Posted: Sat Mar 03, 2007 1:25 pm
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Posted: Sun Mar 04, 2007 2:54 pm
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Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 7:18 am
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