Naruto: Tales of Ashihara
Kakumei – Arc 3: The New Era Ninjas
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Chapter 78 – The boy with the red scarf
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It's been a month since all the remaining participants of the international Chunin selection exam have started their training for the third and last step of this event, which means that the time has come for the first matches to take place.
In Konoha, in the same place where Naruto Uzumaki and his friends took on the preliminaries over 20 years ago, most of the 32 remaining candidates are here to attend the first of the four days of this phase. The place has been rebuilt and enlarged since and has way more space for spectators than in the past.
Along with the participants, Kankuro, sensei of team Shinki of which one of the members is about to fight, sits with his students. Naruto, the 7th Hokage, is present as both sensei of Izuna Uchiha and leader of his village. He stands next to Gaara, the Kazekage, on a balcony over the ram hand sign statue. In the audience, Misora, Megane and Shiba are with Lee and Boruto. Also, Sakura Uchiha took a break from her duty at the hospital and came to see her son's match. She sits next to her daughter Sarada.
"Why couldn't Dad be here?" asks the 6 years old girl.
"You know why." simply says Sakura. "And you're surely not the one to complain about his absence!" she adds, aware of Sasuke's night visits to his daughter.
"I was thinking about Izuna, not me…" answers Sarada. "He didn't see him in 5 years."
"Izuna understands the reason pretty well…" she starts to say before doubting her words, but silences her thoughts.
She stops speaking as the two candidates, Shakiro Araya and Izuna Uchiha, walk in with the referee, Kiba Inuzuka, and stand in pose ready to start the fight. Before Kiba gives the signal, Izuna looks around and gazes through the audience. He notices Shinki, sitting with his arms crossed, making an inexpressive face, simply showing his unpleasant attitude to Izuna's eye.
The Uchiha looks back at Shakiro and thinks. If he defeats him, he'll still have to defeat 2 more people after that, including Boruto, to face Shinki. He looks to the crowd again, notices his teammates with Misora's team, and sighs.
He then stares at the Kazekage's son again and gets confused. Until this moment, he totally forgot about what he told Misora. During his last month of training, he didn't prepare for Shinki at all, and he now doubts his motivation to fulfill his improvised promise.
"My opinion of the Kazekage's son must change my perception of him." he says to his opponent. "Your friend can't really be that arrogant and annoying, does he?"
"It is only a premature diplomatic behavior he inherited from his father." explains Shakiro. "He may seem annoying at first, but it's just appearances."
"… Staying focused on him seems childish anyway…" Izuna tells aloud to himself. "Whatever, I'll just go with events. I'm just not the kind to obsess over one adversary like Boruto."
If Misora asks about it later, he'll just tell the truth, like he always does. This focus isn't worth it, and he can't control the matches. If he ends up against Shinki at some point, he'll obviously do his best to beat him, but it's pointless to fix this as a goal.
Hearing him speak from the audience, Inoue smiles. She's glad that the one she loves is up to her expectations, and not as stubborn as Boruto. Kiba steps forward and raises his hand ready to start the battle.
"I don't know why you'd be focused on fighting Shinki, but it doesn't matter." Shakiro says. "You won't go that far. You won't even pass this round."
"Hajime!" Kiba shouts before leaping back to let the two fighters begin.
Izuna calmly breathes out. Unlike when he fought Mikitaka in the maze, he is perfectly calm. He easily controls his chakra and limits his use while continuously charging up to 70% of it to his forehead. Using the Sharingan will be consuming, but not as much as it was last time.
He sees his opponent step back, pull out a scroll, and summon two identical puppets from them. They're both humanoid figures, dressed with the same clothes as the user additionally to a mask covering their face. The two puppets let blades slide down from under their sleeves and are sent forward to Izuna.
Izuna calmly dodges the blades while keeping his distance. He observes their movements with his naked eye and looks back at the puppet master after a few seconds. He now sees him wearing the same mask as his weapons, which makes him look identical to them. While he looks away, the two puppets expel a cloud of dust to cover his sight.
Unable to see, Izuna leaps away and out of the dust. He then jumps back in to surprise the Suna-nin's puppets, but gets an unpleasant surprise. While he couldn't see, Shakiro stepped in, pulled out a pair of swords from his sleeves and got mixed up with his puppets. Surrounded, Izuna now has to dodge hits from 3 directions.
The puppets seem to have become faster and more violent. It becomes hard to avoid being hit. When a slash of wind cuts through his clothes, Izuna makes his decision. Using his eyes this once to read the movements of these things and identify the master would be reasonable.
Sharingan
Just as soon as he activates his Dojutsu, he quickly catches up to the trio's speed and manages to dodge all their blades. As he dances in the middle of them, he gets face to face with Shakiro who notices his active red eyes.
"He's using the Sharingan… This explains his sudden change in comfort." the Suna-nin thinks. "Only 2 puppets isn't enough against him. I should have prepared more of them… Wait!" he interrupts himself when he notices a change in Izuna's behavior as he follows his gaze. "Are his eyes able to see the chakra strings?"
Just as he guessed, Izuna covers his hands in chakra and catches on the strings that he is now able to see. By pulling them together, he forces the two puppets to crash against each other right under Shakiro's nose. The violent collision shutters the two weapons and causes a shock wave that pushes the Suna-nin's mask off his face. Now standing alone in front of Izuna, he raises his two blades and stays ready.
"Well done. You identified the puppets by following the strings." he compliments his opponent. "Sharingan sure seems out of my league."
"Hiding among your puppets sure is a good strategy." Izuna answers. "However, your human behavior still makes you distinguishable. Trading your body for a puppetized one would perfect it…This would also prevent you from feeling this pain."
Shakiro is confused. The idea of changing his body to an actual puppet is crazy but interesting. But what did Izuna mean by "this pain". What pain is he talking about?
Just as he spells the question out in his mind, he flutters away and crashes against the wall under the audience. Izuna, who had actually identified the real Shakiro by just the difference in movements between his human body and the puppets, activated a Genjutsu by eye contact the moment Shakiro noticed his Sharingan. Just now, he used this illusion to hide his movements and deliver a fatal punch to his opponent, instantly disqualifying him.
Kiba proudly nods, impressed by the performance of Naruto's student, and checks on Shakiro's state.
"Izuna Uchiha wins the fight!" he shouts as the candidate turns off his Dojutsu.
In the audience, Sakura jumps off her seat and exclaims in joy simultaneously with Inoue and Misora. Sakura looks at the girls with a smile, and then at Sarada who just makes an awkward face, embarrassed by her mom's behavior. She sits back and scratches the back of her head. Also in the audience, Shinki and Mira look at Kankuro. The three then gaze at Gaara on his balcony and sigh. The Kazekage isn't mad. He is congratulating the Hokage for his well taught student.
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After the first match, the 3 others of the day went on similarly, in terms of length and tension. The Kage on the balcony were joined by Darui, the Raikage, who came to see his pupil, Yukai, fight against Metal Lee. Rock Lee, his wife, Wakasa, and his 7 years old daughter, Popi, came to sit in the audience and unfortunately see their son lose his fight.
Yukai and Metal both are fast and skilled with Taijutsu. They also both have a blatant weakness that obstruct their fighting style, being his inability at anticipation for Yukai, and his insecurity for Metal. However, Yukai has one up on his opponent, which is that he doesn't depend on hand-to-hand combat.
Even with Hachimon, the 8 Gates of Wonder, Metal Lee couldn't counter Yukai's natural and raw durability and strength. This battle greatly surprised the Kazekage and his son, who had really high expectations regarding the Hachimon user. The young Kumo-nin, in this fight, has shown himself as an unexpectedly promising face of this generation along with Shinki, Aoki, Takeshi and Boruto. He, who stayed hidden in Kumo since he was found on the place of the shipwreck that Momoshiki had caused to get Kawaki by his side, shows his power to the rest of the nations for the first time through this fight.
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After this came Iwabe Yogu, teammate of Kawaki, against Narui, last remaining of her Kumo squad. Iwabe was specifically tasked not to show his Kinjutsu during this fight and so he instead fought legitimately, until the surprise of Narui's ability had its effect. Feeling overwhelmed by her special cloning jutsu and Raiton, he begged for his sovereign's help through the tattoo that connects his mind to his.
Oshio secretly offered his help and used his Sharingan's unique ability for the first time. Futsunushi allows him to read the body of a target and instantly become aware of all the jutsus and tricks they are capable of. Using this, he predicted every move of Narui and warned Iwabe, eventually leading him to victory.
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Last but not least, Boruto, son of the Hokage, fought against Mikitaka, the mercenary hired to assist Kawaki in this exam. Before the battle began, Boruto gazed at Kawaki in the audience, and at Iwabe, who he just now notices has a lightning shaped scar across the face. Iwabe sees Boruto noticing his wound, and clenches his teeth in anger. He sure hopes to get his revenge, and do worse to him.
The fight was won by Boruto, who had to display a great part of his jutsus, but just barely struggled. Mikitaka, afterwards, reassures his allies that he was only holding back for the sake of the mission, but in reality was more concerned about his performance. Holding back was his intention, but as he thinks of the battle again, he has trouble finding what he could have done more to actually win. This feeling disturbs him. Did he get legitimately beaten by a 15 year old? He rather not think of it, but now, he feels an intense need to acquire more power.
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This first day went on safely and as planned. One thing however truly bothered the 3 Kage who showed up as mandatory. Naruto attended the match of two of his ninjas and students. Gaara came to see Shakiro's fight. Darui was here for Yukai and Narui. But the mysterious leader of Hikari failed to show up for Mikitaka and Iwabe's battles.
The Raikage is clear on his thoughts. This does not bode well. Missing a mandatory event for a village leader will be difficult to explain. It could be understood as a refusal of peace. Even the Kazekage, who until now was hopeful for the nation, begins to doubt. The Hokage, however, remains confident. He'll wait to see if Oshio comes and apologizes tomorrow. If he doesn't, they'll have to ask him for an explanation, but he'll still have the next rounds to show up, so this won't be his last chance.
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The young prophetic leader of the lands of Heart does indeed fail to attend the third and last fight in which one of his ninjas takes part, for he misses the second day too. On this day, four more battles take place. On the Kage's balcony, Naruto is joined by Gaara and Darui like the first day, but also by Chojuro and, more significantly, Buto Isshin. The former leader of a rebel group from Amegakure, and current ruler of the land of Rain.
In the audience, Inoue's parents came to attend their daughter's match. They brought Inojin, their 5 year old son, and dragged the families of the other Ino-Shika-Cho clan leaders with them. The mothers of Aoki and Shinki, Kira Yotsuki and Matsuri, also came to see their children fight while their fathers look over them from the Kage's spot. Today, only the participants who feel obliged to attend are present, which represents roughly half of the 32.
Before the first match opposing Inoue Yamanaka to Mariona Shirogane starts, the Hokage happily introduces the young leader of Ame to the other Kage.
"Guys, here's the guy who saved Amegakure and took the lead. Buto Isshin." he exclaims. "Told ya he'll be there, didn't I?"
Gaara, Darui and Chojuro look at him, who has his body hidden under a long rain coat and wears a high collar covering his mouth and chin. They can only see his eyes. A brown left eye, and a scarred glass eye on the right. His face and aura make it easily understandable what kind of difficult life he had to live as a young ninja. He grew up in Ame during the age of Akatsuki and was among the first to protest the change in power after Nagato Uzumaki's death.
"This is quite unprofessional vocabulary, Hokage." says Gaara, to tease Naruto.
"Well… It's true that maintaining serious behavior should be a priority." adds Chojuro, who kindly gazes at Buto, then back at Naruto. "You're the one who invited this young man. It would make sense for him to look up to you as some sort of mentor among this council."
"…" Buto Isshin thinks of his words, while keeping an expressionless face. "I am glad to be here with you. But to make things clear, I'm in no way getting ready to join the Shinobi Union."
"This is one reason I was eager to meet you." says Darui, stepping forward to salute Ame's ruler. "Sorry to interrupt you, but could you explain what the Hokage reported as your reason not to join us."
"You're inviting me, which is kind of you, I admit it, but I have no need to accept." he explains. "This invitation alone proves your wish for peace. I therefore know that I shouldn't feel threatened by the Union. I also know that I do not intend to be your enemy. So, we are already on great terms. Joining the Shinobi Union would, at this point, only get me signed up for a potential war you would drag me into."
"… What about the trading advantages you could get from the Union?" Chojuro mentions, unsatisfied but comprehensive of Buto's point of view.
"This I decided to ignore for now." the young man says. "If any of you want commercial exchanges with me, know that the land of Rain can provide interesting stock for the alcohol market. I'll kindly accept to trade such goods with you, but regardless of political relations. It will simply be commercial."
"… Then about that, I may like to have a word with you on it later." Gaara says, willing to take part in any exchange that could be a step forward. "None of us intends to be hostile to you in any way. Trusting you with the supply of such goods is the least we can do to prove it. After all, you did accept the invitation for this exam and are attending as expected, unlike the leader of Hikari."
"He may still come for his ninja's fight. Who knows?" Naruto says, trying to stay positive.
The discussion didn't go further as the fighters of the first battle of the day entered the ground. Inoue wore a ninja dress in her father's colors and her ninja headband strapped around her left leg. Against her is Mariona Shirogane, a young woman with brown skin, brown hair, brown clothing and brown reddish markings on her face. Being already 18, her mature posture and shape felt kind of intimidating to Inoue. However she didn't let this go in her way.
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After a battle longer than all those of the previous day, Mariona was the last woman standing,… but Inoue won the fight.
The Suna kunoichi also revealed herself to be a puppet master but different from Shakiro. She used a unique Juinjutsu that allows her to turn a target into her puppet by taking over its mind through a seal. Inoue, making the most clever use of her Yamanaka heritage as possible, tried to turn this jutsu against her opponent, which resulted in the two of them completely switching bodies. Having overtaken Mariona, she used her puppeteering against her and took her own body to the ground.
Therefore the last standing, winner of the match, was Inoue in Mariona's body. This situation got everyone confused, but became clear when Inoue reversed her jutsu seconds after explaining the situation to the referee. With her passing, it makes Naruto's team 1 the first and only team with all 3 members getting to the next round.
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This battle was followed by Aoki Yotsuki's fight against Jinbei, the Kiri-nin completing Kaori and Yukiko's squad. Jinbei did the best he could with the little he knew of Aoki thanks to Kaori and Yukiko's advice. He displayed a very impressive use of Suiton in the shape of animals such as dolphins or even killer whales, but could simply not rival Aoki's Kekkei Genkai and Taijutsu. The Raikage's daughter stood as winner of this battle, by ending it with a swift traditional Lariat of her village.
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Right afterwards, another child of Kage confronted a Kiri-nin. Shinki took on Mariko Uchida, teammate of Teru, who fought very similarly to Jinbei, but with water blades and birds instead. Just like her colleague from the previous match, she could not rival the power of her adversary who fully unleashed his iron sand cloak on her. None of her attacks could pass through its armor and none could stop its offensive.
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Now, only one match remains for the day, which opposes Kawaki, who didn't attend any other fight until now, to Chinoka, a light brown haired boy of Ame that Kawaki seems to know from somewhere. Kiba, intrigued by this boy who arrived first on the ground, oddly stares at him. He has the same eyes as the Inuzuka clan members, but doesn't have the same smell as them. He is also not from Konoha, and isn't accompanied by a dog.
On the Kage's balcony, Buto looks around and shrugs his shoulders, not seeing the leader of Hikari coming from anywhere. Next to him, Chojuro sighs.
"Well… Hokage, it seems like Shin no Kuni's ruler didn't decide to come today either." he says.
Naruto doesn't answer. He stays focused on the ground as he sees the fighter of Hikari. Kawaki walks in, wearing a dark gray sleeveless vest and a brown large neck warmer. At this sight, the Hokage widely opens his eyes in a shocked manner. Inside of him, Kurama squints and questions the situation.
"This guy…" asks the demon. "We've seen him before, haven't we? He's from Hikari?"
"… We did." Naruto answers, with a confused voice. "This… makes things much more complicated." he adds.
On the field, Kawaki stares at Chinoka hatefully. After taking a good look at him, he confirms his thoughts.
"I knew it would be you." he says in a hateful voice. "You weren't there on the boat convoy. So I guess this is what becomes of those who do not escape."
Chinoka gets in a fight pose and prepares to engage, staying as transparent as possible. Kawaki turns around and stares at the leader of Ame, staring back with a disturbed and interrogative look in his eyes.
"Still… Why Amegakure?" Kawaki asks Chinoka as he focuses back on him. "Is there any tie between the orphanage and this village?… Or maybe, I figured it out. You're working as a spy and infiltrated this village."
"Sir, I have no idea what you're talking about." Chinoka interrupts his rant.
"Oh, so you're playing dumb, I see." Kawaki answers before pulling a long black rod from his back. "You certainly remember my abilities. Unfortunately I don't intend to use any of them against you."
"Man, seriously, I have no clue who you are." the Ame-nin exclaims. "You're mistaking me for someone else. Can we just get done with this fight?"
Kawaki, angered by Chinoka's play, clenches his teeth. To him, there's no doubt. Chinoka is a kid from the same orphanage as him. He reminds himself of a past life that was taken away the day Momoshiki abducted him. He remembers those who used to be his friends, with him on the boat that day.
In a moment of absence, he looks at the spectators and notices Yukai from Kumo, sitting with his team. He's also from the same orphanage, and was on the convoy. Unlike Chinoka, this one was actually his friend. In the gaze of the young boy's black eyes, Kawaki doesn't manage to find an answer as to whether or not he remembers him. From his point of view, Yukai must have been sent to Kumo as an infiltrator.
Interrupting this train of thought, Kiba steps forward and lets the match begin. Chinoka unleashes a very common fighting style based on Doton and finger claws. He moves at remarkable speed and throws powerful hits, but nothing that could impress Kawaki. Carried away by the emotion, the member of Kakumei skillfully avoids and blocks all of Chinoka's attacks, and strikes him strongly with the staff in his hands.
In just a minute, the battle is over and Chinoka lies unconscious, taken down by the violence of Kawaki's offensive. The commander of Hikari, pissed off, leaves the ground as soon as his victory is declared, not paying attention to the shock he caused in the audience.
Boruto sees his pretended rival leave and thinks. This seemed very personal, but before he can wonder more about it, he notices his father leaving the balcony early. Shikamaru, sitting in the crowd, also notices it. The Hokage's advisor nods on Ino's shoulder to get her attention and ask for her help.
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In the corridor before the exit to the building, Kawaki walks fast and breathes to calm down. Through the tattoo on his shoulder, Oshio speaks to him.
"Get a hold of yourself, Kawaki." he says. "What was that about?"
Kawaki doesn't answer. He instead hurries to the exit quietly, and abruptly stops after raising his head and seeing a powerful figure stand in the light before him. Just here, blocking his path, stands the 7th Hokage with his arms crossed under his Hokage cape.
Kawaki, doing his best not to shake, holds himself from gulping down and taking a step back. He hides every sign of fear or panic, but such a thing is pointless in front of a being such as Naruto.
"Don't be afraid." the Hokage with a warming voice as he calmly walks closer, sensing the young man's emotions. "Why would you even be? I'm not gonna do anything, believe it… Your name's Kawaki, isn't it?"
Kawaki calms down, lowers his shoulders and gets at ease. He finds something oddly appeasing in this person's voice that frees him from any pressure or bad feeling. Naruto gently smiles and gets closer before stopping, just a few steps away from him, to lean on the wall with his shoulder.
"I'm not gonna ask about what just happened in the arena." Naruto says. "You certainly don't want to talk about it, which I'd understand."
"I…" Kawaki begins to say, feeling oddly comfortable. "I don't want to talk about it, you're right, Lord Hokage… Then what is it about?"
In Kawaki's mind, Oshio's voice resonates. "Get away from here. Don't speak with him." he yells.
"I just wanted to tell you about the rules." Naruto says. "Do you know what is keeping the leader of your village busy? Do you know where he is, this lord Oshio?"
"He…" Kawaki starts to say before being interrupted by his sovereign's voice again.
"Don't say anything!" Oshio yells, afraid of what Naruto Uzumaki might learn.
"Is he speaking to you right now?" Naruto asks, having an odd feeling that it might be the case, through what he senses from Kawaki's chakra and emotions.
Oshio completely stops speaking and exits his connection with Kawaki, frightened by the Hokage's attention. Kawaki looks up with his eyes wide open, breathes in and speaks.
"He couldn't be present here today, and I apologize in his name for it." he says. "Understand that he is a young man who found himself carried by events he didn't control and ended up in control of the biggest territory in the world. Ruling over a continent is a difficult task, and establishing relations with other nations is even more."
"I understand all about that." Naruto calmly says. "I also was a lost young boy living under pressure. And I can tell that you were too… However, other members of the Kage council aren't as patient as me. We'll pardon his absence, but he has to come and meet us in the 2nd round. I'll gladly take his defense in front of the council if he needs to. If he has anything to discuss with the Union, I'll listen."
Kawaki stays quiet for a moment, and waits to see if Oshio says something. After several seconds of silence, he decides to speak in his name again.
"Understood. I'll report these words to him. He'll be present at both my and Iwabe Yogu's next fights."
Naruto doesn't say anything more, He just comes closer to Kawaki and raises his fist to hold it against the young man's chest. Kawaki looks down to see the Hokage's hand touching him and looks up to see his orange cross-eyes and hopeful face.
"Keep it up! Don't ever hold back on your choices, as long as you think it's the right thing to do." Naruto tells him. "I'm looking forward to meeting you again, Kawaki."
The young man doesn't say a word, he just stands agape and recalls these words repeatedly in his mind. Naruto steps aside and lets him leave. After a few seconds, he goes about his way and leaves the building. The Hokage just looks at him going silently until Shikamaru's voice comes to his mind.
"Naruto, what happened? Who is this boy?" asks the Nara chief through Ino Yamanaka's Shindenshin jutsu.
"It's him, Shikamaru." says Naruto. "The boy with the brown scarf from Sojobo's vision."
Shikamaru doesn't answer. He just exits the connection made between him and Naruto in shock and tries to focus and think of what this implies. This boy with the brown scarf, Kawaki, is indeed the one that Naruto saw when Sojobo brought him through the future with his illusion, Kunino Tokotachi. This boy is one of the people who, according to what he saw, could take Naruto's life.
"There's no way Hikarigakure is peaceful, knowing this." the Kyubi comments. "Why are you still offering to defend them?"
"Kurama… Look at this boy." Naruto explains compassionately. "The fight he just had was personal. He must have a heavy past. According to Shino, one of Sojobo's servants is also a representative of this village. And it is certainly the case for whoever Oshio is. They're all very young, and were brought here against their will. No matter why they could be hostile to us, to me, they're essentially broken kids, just like Sasuke and I were. That's why I know that they are just good people who need to be helped finding their path."
The Hokage, however, doesn't worry. He knows very well what this might mean for Konoha's future relation with Hikari, but stays hopeful. He is, to this day, still unaware of the true identity of the sovereign of the lands of Heart.
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End of Chapter 78 – Next Chapter: A hold on life