Though the Kazekage's expression was hidden under the white paranja, Hiruzen noticed his surprised gaze several times during the Naruto vs. Neji fight and smirked at the end.
"He still didn't use the Nine-Tails' chakra. I didn't think I'd see Hayate's techniques performed by him. Still, who would've thought he'd defeat a Hyuga genius like that... Naruto, you truly deserve the Chunin rank." Hiruzen turned to his bodyguard and gave a short nod. The man smiled and nodded back.
"Now it's my village's turn to show itself..." the Kazekage said. "Where is Sasuke Uchiha? I hope he's alright?" The Hokage's bodyguard leaned to his ear and whispered something to Hiruzen.
"Agreed," the Hokage said.
"Hm?" came from the Kazekage, who turned his head toward him.
"Unfortunately, I must disqualify Sasuke Uchiha if he doesn't appear on the arena within 10 minutes."
"That's a shame..." the Kazekage replied. "Perhaps we shouldn't rush the decision?"
"Those are the rules." Hiruzen shrugged.
"I see? Then as a bearer of the Kage title, I must ask you to make an exception this time. There's a reason..."
"Even so?" Hiruzen asked questioningly, and the Kazekage nodded.
"The thing is, this is the most anticipated fight of the exam. Most guests, including myself, came here for this match. You've surely been informed about the sums bet on this fight by various bookmakers, many of whom are directly tied to heads of state. If the fight doesn't happen, those people lose their expected profits. Plus, the spectators who spent money and time to come here will be disappointed, and who knows if they'll bother coming to the next exam. Losing reputation is..."
"I understand." Hiruzen cut him off. "Your request is enough. Tell Genma to start the next fight; we'll postpone the Sasuke vs. Gaara match." The Kazekage nodded.
When Kankuro suddenly forfeited, Hiruzen turned to the Kazekage, but he maintained icy calm.
"Oh..." the Hokage said, adjusting his hat against the rising wind after Temari dramatically circled and landed on the arena. "Looks like your daughter is even more eager to shine. I hope she has something to surprise us with. Her opponent isn't simple..." With those words, the Hokage's opponent's rival was shoved off the balcony and plummeted ten meters onto his back without even trying to tuck and roll. He seemed fine, but the difference in entrances...
"Did you say something about her opponent's merits?" the Kazekage asked. Sensing the smile under the paranja, Hiruzen just clicked his tongue and turned away. Watching Shikamaru sprawled on the ground as spectators started tossing trash at him, the Hokage just frowned disapprovingly.
"Fight!" Genma announced, even though Shikamaru was still lying on his back with his legs up in the air.
"Hey, you... You gonna fight? Or forfeit too?" Temari shouted, and Shikamaru finally noticed her, still lying and looking upside down. His gaze showed utter indifference to both the spectators pelting him with whatever and the situation itself, and in that, she saw a hint of arrogance that enraged her.
"Why's he looking at me like he's already won?!" flashed through her mind.
"Hey, if you keep lying there, I'll just smash you, ready or not!" she shouted. Shikamaru sighed loudly and said nothing.
"Sigh... Guess that's my fate." He thought and reached into his pouch with one hand.
"Too late! I'm attacking!" Temari yelled, gripping her giant iron fan—tall as herself—like a two-handed club. With instant repositioning, she appeared above Shikamaru, whose face didn't twitch when he saw her, and swung with full force to strike him.
Shikamaru saw every move. The fan was heavy enough that while she could reposition instantly, it was slow and deliberate in only one direction. Like an academy student doing it.
Seeing this, he decided to show her what real instant repositioning was.
As she wound up, he pulled two kunai from the pouch on his back, and she struck, leaving a deep gouge in the ground but missing Shikamaru.
"That's..." Kurenai nearly shouted from the stands, while Asuma smirked at her reaction. "Impossible! He doesn't lag behind Neji or Naruto in speed at all. How'd you change this guy so much?!"
"Change?" Asuma asked, watching Shikamaru grin, standing on one foot atop kunai stuck in the wall, arms crossed. "None of you really know what he's truly capable of. This is just the tip. Shikamaru isn't weaker than any of the clan kids from his class."
"But how?! I saw his grades. They're among the lowest."
"You can't gauge his full abilities by grades. According to Teacher Iruka, the kid did so poorly because he openly slept during written tests and often skipped or faked sick for physicals. Extra classes didn't interest him, but he saved himself from flunking ninjutsu exams and turned in perfectly done homework. When he ended up with me, I was disappointed at first too, but after hearing that from Teacher Iruka and talking to his dad, I decided to check something."
"Check what?"
"Yeah." Asuma nodded. "An intelligence game test my old man developed."
"And the result?" Kurenai asked curiously.
"Heh-heh-heh-heh..." Asuma chuckled restrainedly, even taking the cigarette from his mouth. He gestured for her to lean in and whispered Shikamaru's result.
"No way! That high?!" she exclaimed.
"Sorry..." Shikamaru said, staring into the stunned Temari's eyes as the tip of a third kunai pointed at her face, and she leaped back a couple meters. "But I didn't want to lose to a girl."
"Is that so?!" Outraged by the attitude, she flicked her fan open with a light motion and swung it full force. "We'll see about that!" The wind howled forward, slicing the wall and shattering the embedded kunai.
Glancing around, she no longer saw Shikamaru.
"Fast rabbit!" she thought, leaping back further and swinging the fan to attack the surroundings. Several trees stood in the arena shadows against the wall.
Leaves scattered. Thin branches sheared off instantly, deep gashes on thicker branches and trunks. As the wind died, Shikamaru seized the chance and hurled shuriken from both hands. Temari reacted and swung her fan for a counter, but having already released large amounts of chakra multiple times in a row, this attack was weaker, and Shikamaru, standing in the tree shadows after a direct hit, calmly used his Shadow Possession Technique. The shuriken were just a distraction.
Of course, cold steel proved ineffective again, and Temari simply blew them away, but her shadow, charged with chakra, was already creeping along the ground.
The shadow didn't waver even as Shikamaru took a small cut on his forehead, lost part of his ponytail, had his tracksuit jacket somewhat torn, and his arms gashed. The wind blasted his face so hard he couldn't breathe, and to stay upright, he dropped to one knee. Nearby, gashes from the cutting wind scarred the ground. Temari reacted to the shadow at the last moment and leaped back with instant repositioning.
Panting, she traced a line with her fan where his shadow stopped.
"Tch..." Shikamaru clicked his tongue, releasing the seal, and the shadow retracted.
"Hm..." Temari smirked, seeing him inspect his slashed clothes, remove them, and wipe blood from his forehead and forearms.
Her attack hit home, while the opponent was left hanging. Catching her breath, she gathered chakra again, opened the fan to the third moon, and swung with all her might.
Shikamaru knew he was screwed and dove behind a tree at near-instant speed.
"Well, why hide, coward?!" Temari yelled, swinging again.
The wall shredded with gashes. The tree Shikamaru hid behind suffered deep, multiple cuts.
Temari wasn't giving her opponent a breather. She hurled a kunai with an explosive seal, accelerating it with wind flow. From the cracking sounds of wind tearing wood, Shikamaru discerned the kunai embedding in the tree and knew something was off. Having just finished tying his jacket to his kunai, he emerged just as Temari swung again and dropped flat, hands over head. It was the only way to avoid serious wind damage and the ensuing blast. Lying perpendicular, legs spread, hoping it'd pass—he got away with minor cuts on his back and leg. Earth plowed around him like he'd been shelled prone in bushes. As the wind died, he lifted his head, grinned, and started standing.
"Tch..." Now Temari clicked her tongue. Her face was sweat-covered, and she barely controlled her breathing. Before her eyes, he dropped to one knee again, his shadow extending farther this time. Temari retreated past the line, but the wall shadow had lengthened, pushing it further.
"Damn..." Temari muttered, realizing the trick, and leaped back sharply. The shadow stopped, but Shikamaru didn't release the seal. As grinning Temari reached for her fan on her back, she spotted the jacket sailing like a parachute, casting a shadow right over her just in time.
"Bastard! How... Damn..." She was forced to leap back and sideways again, while Shikamaru pursued with his shadow.
"Damn it..." Shikamaru said when even then his shadow fell short, and he broke the seal, retracting it.
Panting heavily, Temari was glad the opponent's attack missed again, but Shikamaru wasn't stopping. He burst from the shadows and attacked on the run with shuriken, forcing her to raise her fan as a shield. She lacked strength for another wind deflection. Each swing increased the backlash, and Shikamaru had calculated that. The shuriken and kunai bounced off the fan, while Temari prepared a cloning technique for a decoy—once he closed in, he'd attack with shadow. But then, an explosion from behind the fan blew the barrier away and knocked Temari flat on her back. One kunai had an explosive seal.
"Got you! Shadow Possession Technique!" Temari strained to leap up and away, but this time the shadow was faster.
As his shadow merged with hers, she felt her limbs paralyze; her body no longer obeyed.
Rising from his knees with his opponent, Shikamaru smiled. He'd caught her. Flexing his torso with her mimicking, he knew she wouldn't surrender easily. He knew his family's techniques had offensive variants, but he hadn't mastered them yet. For now, he could only pick up the kunai with the jacket tied to it from the ground, shake it out, and put it back on. Remembering he didn't need to injure her to win, he closed to point-blank and pressed the kunai blade to her throat.
"Stop!" Genma called after a couple seconds. "Temari can't counter the attack and is in a potentially lethal situation. Technical victory to Shikamaru Nara!" The crowd burst into applause. Not the roaring ovation Naruto got, but Shikamaru was glad for it, especially since his chakra was depleted and the shadow normalized.
Temari was shocked by the outcome.
She'd lost.
Lost to this slacker. He'd outsmarted her, cornered her, calculated everything perfectly, and won as suddenly as thunder from a clear sky. She'd felt superior the whole time, and he'd exploited her overconfidence.
"Whew... Right on time... A couple more seconds and the chakra would've run out."
"What?!" she blurted upon hearing it. "So you only had a couple seconds left. But you were even stretching while holding me? Why hold back then?"
"Otherwise, for show, I'd have to injure you, and that's... Let's say... I didn't want to hurt a woman."
"Y-you..." Temari boiled. "Damn you, you jerk! I'm a shinobi!"
"Don't care... Even if you were Kage. Hitting and injuring a woman—that's too disgusting for a man." He replied, looking her in the eye.
What a twist!
Seeing the start, I nearly lost interest in the fight, though Shikamaru's speed surprised me. It was obvious it'd follow canon. However, I belatedly remembered there were no holes in the ground like back then, which might just mean Shikamaru loses faster. Nowhere to sneak his shadow through for a surprise grab on Temari.
Though the fight had minor differences, I didn't expect him to use the same feint that worked for me on Neji. Did he plan it all from the start or improvise? No idea, but I decided to congratulate him on the win.
Sigh... Shame this fight wasn't announced ahead—or maybe good. I'd have bet on Temari and lost for sure. Glad Shikamaru won't have to fight Sakura, though the reasons don't thrill me. Better if the exam went as planned without what was supposed to happen here.
Leaping from the balcony, I ran to him, and we high-fived, celebrating his victory.
"What a pain..." He glanced at Sakura's surprised face. Temari, seeing me jump, hurried to the arena exit and up to the balcony. "Next fight's with another girl. Why do I get all the luck? Damn it..."
"Maybe forfeit after all? Sakura's a tough opponent. Might even lose?" I teased.
"Yeah... Twice. We'll see, but this is all so annoying."
"Fine, let's head up."
Genma announced the next fight.
We weren't rushing up, discussing his plan to corner Temari. Turns out, he hadn't really expected to beat her; when she attacked, he went all out, imagining what Asuma would say if he forfeited. For her wind, he'd devised a defense the moment she flew in. Seeing those swings, estimating the fan's weight and chakra needed for repeats, he knew they couldn't stay equally strong and she'd tire eventually—likely before him. So he endured...
He thought of ending it when closing in, as I'd guessed—not hard for him to plan, but it required going full throttle, and he looked like a squeezed lemon now, bandaging his arms and slapping a patch on his forehead mid-chat.
Heading to the participants' balcony via the dark corridor up the gray stairs, some foreign shinobi roughly shoved us aside.
"Outta the way, brats!" one barked, shoulder-checking me hard. That's when I remembered what was supposed to happen now and yanked Shikamaru by the shoulder, spinning him and pinning him to the wall at the dark corridor entrance, hand over his mouth. He was stunned, but after I pressed a finger to my lips telling him to shut up, he stopped resisting.
"Hey, you. You're a participant from Sand, right? Listen carefully!" came from the corridor.
These two were threatening Gaara with death unless he forfeited to Uchiha for their master's bet.
God bless these degenerates... Though...
"You get it? Say something!" Shikamaru and I heard. Suddenly...
"Let me... feel alive..." We recognized the voice instantly.
Then came surprised yelps, scuffle noise, sand rustling, and falling kunai clattering.
"AAAAAH!" A despairing, pained scream rang out, followed by bone-crunching and a wet squelch of compressing flesh.
Brr...
The loser in sunglasses—the one who'd shoved me—made it to the corridor's end. Then the Sand freak grabbed his leg, snapped it with a characteristic crunch, and dragged the kicking, screaming bulk—who now had tears welling—back into the dark.
Where the hell's security?!
*Crunch-crunch-crack-squelch*
Sounds from the corridor with pain-filled screams that abruptly cut off.
In reality, those noises chilled to the bone. Shikamaru, by his look, was on the verge of fainting. I held it together, but even I, an adult at heart, felt uneasy.
Then Gaara just walked past us. He mostly stared at the floor and didn't notice one guy pinning another to the wall, hand over mouth, watching him go.
When his footsteps on the stairs faded, I released Shikamaru, who slid down the wall and sat ass on stone. Words couldn't describe his shock.
"N-Naruto..." he said in a trembling voice ten seconds later. "Th-thanks... t-to you." I waved it off, turning away to watch Gaara go.
Wanted to wash up with cold water.
Gathering courage, Shikamaru stood and peeked into the corridor.
"Naruto, where are the bodies?" he asked.
I joined him—indeed, just a couple blood drops and two kunai. Maybe some scattered sand, but who cares.
Did he eat them gear and all, clothes included...?
Brrr...
Insane!
"We could've been in their place..." Shikamaru said, looking at me.
"Don't start. I wouldn't let us get eaten that easy."
"Eaten?! How..."
"No idea, but you see the result. They got eaten for real; can't explain it otherwise."
"Fuck... ing mess." Shikamaru said. Didn't know he knew such curses, but agreed. "Y'know, better if Sasuke really doesn't show..."
"He will..." I grinned. "Definitely..."
"His funeral..."
"Don't underestimate him. C'mon, Sakura's waiting on the balcony."
On the balcony, she glanced fleetingly at my pale face and Shikamaru's even paler one, then faced the arena.
"Where the hell is he?" she muttered, starting to chew her nails.
"Don't worry..." I said, glancing at Gaara emerging at the arena exit for a second.
Suddenly, a sharp wind gust lifted the pile of leaves from Temari's tree-trimming attacks.
The foliage swirled in a vortex to the arena center. Amid the dance, two figures appeared. A grown man in standard Leaf gear, book in hand, mask to the bridge of his nose, eyepatch over one eye. Beside him, a head-and-a-half shorter, leaning on his back like support. A teen... no longer a boy but not quite a man, in a new black outfit. Black long-sleeve shirt... one sleeve, the other seemingly torn off in battle. Left arm bandaged and bound with thin straps, like from multiple injuries not fully healed. Shirt tucked into black field pants cinched with a harness holding two pouches; dark blue holster with a close-range kunai on the leg.
His black hair had grown longer, blacker, fully covering his forehead. Beneath peeked the Konoha forehead protector. His face had changed. Before, always scowling or sad.
Now—a mix of confidence and ultimate nonchalance.
"Here we are..." Kakashi looked around. "Hope we haven't been DQ'd? Didn't forget my number..." He closed the book and eyed Genma, who just facepalmed.
"State your name," Genma told the teen.
"Uchiha Sasuke."
Sakura sighed in relief as Kakashi headed to the stands and Genma signaled the fighters to prepare.
The crowd joyfully cheered the combatants.
"Where the devils were they..." she muttered.
"Let's go ask the head devil in the mask." I grinned.
"Huh? Leaving me alone?"
"If you want, come with." I glanced at Shino—not like he cared to chat with Kakashi's teacher.
"Fine..." Shikamaru said.
Exiting, I glanced over my shoulder—Temari turned, stared at my back, blushed, and snapped away feigning indifference again.
Reaching the stands where Hinata, Kiba, Ino sat with Choji, and Lee stood with Gai.
Greeting all, I turned to Kakashi...
"Y'know who you are after this?"
"Don't nag, Naruto..." he replied quickly. "Let's just enjoy the fight."
"Sakura..." Ino said, eyeing her with fear and guilt. "Sorry if... Back then..."
"No biggie." Sakura smiled, having heard Kakashi's reply to me. "Whatever it was, I forgot."
Kiba eyed me from under his brow; Akamaru yipped from his hood depths.
I stepped down a bit and offered my hand.
"Truce?" He grinned, stood, turned to me.
"Were we fighting?" He gripped it firmly. "Beating Neji—that was something! You really brought him down to earth." Hearing that, Lee turned over his shoulder. On crutches, eyes full of sorrow but holding cheerful, he nodded shortly. I nodded back.
"So you beat Neji, huh?" Kakashi asked.
"Uh-huh..." I nodded.
Gai eyed me respectfully too, though no congrats. Would've been weird congratulating his student's beater.
"Hope you didn't use..."
"Nope." I cut in. "Just Kendo and clones."
"I see... Good." Kakashi pulled out his book again, opening it before his face.
"Kakashi... You've got great students, and that's reason for me to see if you're a worthy rival as a teacher. Can your second student beat the one Lee couldn't? From that, we'll see if you're better or we're still neck-and-neck!" Gai declared.
"Huh? What'd you say?" Kakashi replied.
On the arena, "fight" was called, and Sasuke started by catching the cork flying at his face from Gaara's sand vessel.
"Come on... Let me feel... I'll prove I'm alive!"
"Tch..." Sasuke clicked his tongue and, sharply leaping aside from the sand tentacle that struck the ground like a whip, began his attack by hurling several shurikens at Gaara's face.
Gaara demonstratively created a sand clone at high speed, which caught Sasuke's shurikens with its hands. The clone then threw them back, and Sasuke deflected them with a kunai even without the Sharingan.
Gaara's clone exploded into sand and tried to knock the Uchiha off his feet with a wave, but he simply jumped with all his might, soaring five meters into the air to dodge the wave. However, avoiding Gaara's attack wasn't that simple.
A pillar of sand shot vertically upward but didn't reach its target.
Sasuke was forming seals at some unimaginable speed with one hand, in Haku's style.
Suddenly, a clone appeared under his feet, which also formed several seals and used a fire shield, reflecting the sand attack upward. Sasuke pushed off the clone even higher. A kunai hovered over his palm and suddenly burst into bright flames that took the shape of a bird. The Uchiha swung his hand as if throwing an axe, and this "bird" flew straight at the opponent, who hurriedly shielded himself with a sand barrier. But the speed of this winged, flaming projectile was too great, and its piercing power so strong, that Gaara had to leap aside with a somersault, while Sasuke vanished while still in the air.
A virtuoso shadow substitution...
"I'm here!" The Uchiha's fist was as if engulfed in fire, and he struck, brushing the forearm at the very end while directing additional chakra with his other hand.
At the moment of this strike, the redhead's face seemed to...
Explode!
All the power of that Igni we had made with him was now compressed into a single short impulse and released masterfully at the moment of the fist strike at tremendous speed.
Gaara flew back ten meters and plowed several more along the ground, clutching his smoking face. No matter how strong the sand armor was, it couldn't fully protect him from this attack.
"Whoa!" I was genuinely stunned and glanced at Kakashi's eye. "What the hell was that?"
"Thought you were the only one who could create and perfect techniques?" He said, looking at me. I decided to shut up and watch further. At that moment, everyone's eyes widened completely.
"How's your sand armor holding up?" Sasuke asked with a smile. Gaara was writhing on the ground, howling in agony with his hands over his face. "Get up, I'll show you real power." Sasuke said, assuming Lee's stance, while his right glove smoked, and his fist itself was slightly burned.
After a few seconds, he finally started to rise and removed his hands from his face. His right eye was closed, and part of his face was burned—mainly the cheek, temple area, and part of the ear. Sand rushed back to his face again, forming sand armor.
"You think I'll let you?!" Sasuke suddenly accelerated and began circling him at tremendous speed. About the same as Lee after opening the first gate, and if that's the case, it seems Sasuke can open them on the fly without extra concentration. He sped up even more, leaving a fiery trail behind him. Suddenly, Gaara took another hit—this time an elbow to the back, without the fire effect, but it sent him forward. Not far from where he stood, a kunai was stuck in the ground. He was flying toward the edge of the "fiery circle" that Sasuke had traced with his run.
Oh, I don't believe this was done just like that...
A strike, this time with the left hand to the chest.
Gaara's body flew again, and parallel to the first kunai, a second one stabbed into the ground. Gaara ended up in the middle of the circle again, lying down. It didn't seem like these strikes, fast and powerful as they were, had damaged him through the sand armor.
Instant movement, and Sasuke was above him at five meters. Activating the Sharingan mid-flight, he hurled three kunai into precise points, then two more, forming an inscribed heptagon within the fiery circle. A triple somersault finished the combo, and with a fiery flourish, he aimed a kick at Gaara from above, but the latter anticipated it and shielded with a sand barrier. As a result, Sasuke's leg nearly got caught. Instant movement beyond the circle's boundary saved him.
He began forming seals. With both hands now.
Ram, Horse, Ox, Rat, Dragon, Snake, Tiger...
He slammed the kunai into the ground with full force. Meanwhile, Gaara was getting to his feet, gathering sand around him.
I started to understand where this was going...
"Fire Release: Dragon Inferno Pillar!" Sasuke visibly strained, but it was worth it. Everything within the circle erupted in flames. First, the embedded kunai ignited, and then, when the flames grew strong enough...
As if from the depths of hell itself, a pillar of flame in the form of a rising fire dragon appeared out of nowhere! The flash was so bright and intense that even we in the stands had to shield our faces.
Unfortunately, the fiery pillar burned for only about three to five seconds.
I looked into Kakashi's eye again...
Holy shit, man... Hats off.
That's what a true genius of this world looks like, not me—a pathetic con artist. He took my idea and notes and perfected it in just a month, beyond my wildest dreams. Sure, I wanted Sasuke to learn to make the pillar himself without a conductor seal with a chakra accumulator, but I figured he'd need clones for it.
No way!
Together with Kakashi, they executed my idea perfectly. Not a single wasted movement. No clones, no long rituals, no pre-selected spots or prepared ambushes. Straight in with flair, on a grand scale, and spectacular. Solo!
However... When the pillar dissipated amid Sasuke's heavy breathing—he'd spent a good chunk of chakra—in the middle of the "scorched earth" was only a fully enclosed sand sphere.
He'd managed to shield himself at the last moment.
Chunks of soot were peeling off it, and thick smoke billowed, but apparently, Gaara was unscathed.
Damn, that's frustrating...
First use of such a technique, and it all went down the drain.
Above the sphere of fine sand particles, an eye formed, floating in the air and staring at Sasuke.
"Damn, that's the technique—looks like Gaara's decided to scrap the whole plan!" flashed through Temari's mind, and she exchanged glances with Kankuro.
It was clear these two, with frightened faces, were thinking the same thing. Shino eyed them suspiciously through his sunglasses, unable to believe Kankuro had just chickened out.
Sasuke was also displeased that Gaara had fully enclosed himself, and as soon as the smoke cleared a bit, he charged forward, hurling several shurikens on the run. The weapons bounced off the sand sphere like off a solid wall, without a scratch. Suddenly, the sphere reacted, and sharp spikes grew from it toward the full-speed charging Sasuke, which could turn him into mincemeat.
Thanks to the Sharingan, he reacted in time and used instant movement to leap upward just before the hit.
A kick from above on the sphere had the same effect, but this time Sasuke pushed off directly from the sphere itself, avoiding the strike. Landing on the other side, he formed seals one-handed on the move and swung his bandaged arm holding shurikens, hurling them coated in flames exhaled from his mouth. Unfortunately, even the increased speed and fire didn't harm this defense. The shurikens were instantly extinguished, and the sphere automatically countered with spikes.
"Seems you're not coming out. Then..." Sasuke thought, circling it on the flank and accelerating toward the wall. Climbing the wall with several mid-air flips for momentum, he crouched and unfastened several straps holding his arm, beginning to concentrate chakra.
"What is he doing?" Sakura asked.
"Just watch, I think you'll like it." Kakashi replied.
Chakra gathered in Sasuke's hand, becoming visible, his face increasingly tense. After a couple seconds, the chakra in his hand blazed brightly, and protuberances sparked outward—visible electric discharges with characteristic sounds. The number of discharges from his hand increased, merging into a cacophony that vaguely resembled chirping birds.
However, very vaguely, and if you don't try to imagine and compare, I don't know who you'd have to be to hear birds in this "transformer's" operation...
Sasuke stood to full height and pulled his left arm back, the wall surface crumbling where discharges from the "ball lightning" he held grazed it. He supported it with his other hand, and apparently, that was the only way to contain such power concentrated. Taking a deep breath, he ran down the wall, gradually accelerating.
"There it is... The one technique Kakashi didn't copy from anyone!" Guy said. "Teaching the kid that..." Guy looked at him disapprovingly.
"Speak for yourself..." Kakashi replied. "Besides, I was about his age when I created it, and Sasuke with his blood and Sharingan is an even more gifted shinobi than I was."
I just watched Sasuke, wondering who was stronger now? Before, I was calm, knowing my endurance and clones could counter him if needed. Now, I wasn't sure I could win regardless. Through my efforts, Orochimaru's seal no longer limits him, and he doesn't have to fear overusing chakra like in the anime.
Slamming into the ground with a characteristic sound, he accelerated further, nearly reaching instant movement speed. Almost point-blank to the sphere, he raised his ball lightning arm, aiming at the sphere which released spikes, but Sasuke anticipated the counter and dodged, sustaining only minor scratches. At full speed, his hand pierced the sphere, slicing through hardened sand like a hot knife through butter. It seemed no shield was impenetrable to this attack.
With a crackle and pop, he breached the sphere, his arm sinking in up to the biceps.
The sand sphere began to crack faintly. Cracks spread from the impact, and sand slowly crumbled. From inside, I even heard some howl.
Judging by Sasuke's face and actions, he couldn't pull his arm back out. Part of the sphere clamped his arm, and sand slowly crept toward his shoulder.
To free himself, he gathered lightning chakra again and yanked back sharply, finally breaking free. Following his arm from the hole in the sphere burst something sand-colored, but with bulging veins and stone claws at the edges.
It was a very long, rubbery paw-like thing that could be a tail or neck. Sasuke freaked out big time and leaped far back in several bounds.
The paw didn't pursue beyond five meters from the sphere and snapped back in. Judging by Kakashi, Guy, and the others' faces, they had no idea what horror was unfolding, but I understood and swallowed hard, tensing up.
This moment was decisive. War would start any minute, and I was already scanning for ANBU to figure where the strike would come from.
Inside the sphere, Sasuke saw incomprehensible, inhuman movements. They say if you peer into the abyss, the abyss peers back. Talking about the ocean, not Shukaku, but still... An amber eye looked at Sasuke from inside and vanished, blanketing the arena in its viscous killing intent, felt like a grip on your throat.
Far from full strangulation or paralysis like Orochimaru's, but still unpleasant. Regular people who sense chakra poorly were lucky—for them, this killing intent was negligible. Maybe chills down the spine for the most sensitive, but mostly they didn't care. I glanced at the old man, now with masked Orochimaru beside him, realizing no matter how much I wanted, I couldn't save him. Hope for something non-canon was fading.
Gaara's sphere kept cracking and crumbling more until it lost solidity and collapsed into ordinary sand.
Inside, he was still on his feet, though he looked awful. His left shoulder had a torn, smoking wound from "Chidori," blood dripped from his nose, signaling his sand armor was done—now the real Gaara stood before us, in the flesh.
"As I thought... He's wounded! The transformation isn't complete!" Temari bit her lip, realizing the plan was crumbling before their eyes.
"Where's the damn signal? The plan's already going to hell!" Kankuro couldn't hold back.
"Plan?" Shino thought, still nearby.
Suddenly, everything blurred before my eyes, and trying to refocus, I lost it repeatedly as my eyelids grew heavy. Feathers began falling from the sky and everywhere. My body grew heavier...
Here it comes... Kabuto's genjutsu.
"Kakashi, this is?!" Guy shouted.
"Yes... Genjutsu." They both formed the seal and shouted: "Release!" freeing themselves. From outside, it looked like a full-blast killing intent burst and instant stop. Feathers trembled nearby.
"Release!" Sakura did the same.
The word echoed from many shinobi, and the fake ANBU squad formed up below the stands.
On the Hokage's balcony, a smoke grenade exploded—maybe several. Lots of smoke.
Feeling myself about to pass out, I hurried to release from the genjutsu. I was as good at it as Sakura.
"Release!" I shouted, forming the seal. Feathers vanished, but everyone in the stands seemed knocked out.
Baki, Temari, and Kankuro jumped to Gaara, with Genma stepping between them and Sasuke.
And here I was, living one of the worst moments...
It's starting!
***
Read the story months ahead of the public release — early chapters are available on my Patreon: patreon.com/Granulan