( 18 May- year 13 AK )
The vast arena of Konohagakure no Sato was impressive, a little patch of forest here, a river barely a meter wide running on one edge, grass that had battled against an unwelcoming rock in the center.
It was truly a wonderful example of an impartial setting, and the cloudy sky, while it was promising rain, shielded the crowd from the heavy touch of Hi no Kuni' sun.
Choji was sitting with his clan, enjoying the portable grill that had been set up in the area reserved to them.
His father Chōza leaned forward him, handing over a skewer he had just lifted from the grill.
He shot his son a knowing glance: "Are you upset because your sensei stopped you at the preliminaries and let your teammates go on instead?"
Choji shook his head, his eyes taking in the dozens of shinobis and kunoichis from Konoha' Clans amassed in their area of the bleachers. At least the ones that had managed to not be on duty on the day of the Third Stage.
The numerous civilians rich enough to be able to afford a ticket and the various delegations from the Elemental nations were otherwise spread around, almost casually, but the Daimyō's delegations had been reserved the first rows on the stone bleachers on the other side of the arena. The genin scoffed. Nobles.
"Sensei told me I didn't need to spread my wings already, but that skills-wise, I am close to a chunin." the genin Akimichi answered. "He explained that in a straight fight between me and Gaara I would end up dead. It was a bad match up."
Chōza placed his hand on his son's shoulder, trying to reconcile the serious but largely unbothered tone with what he had just been told.
"It's okay dad, it only means that I need to get stronger." Choji grinned, slurping up the delicious meat "It's only a pity than uncles Shikaku and Inoichi are on duty, Shika and Ino are going to pull all the stops."
"Oh? You three have come up with new skills along with the families' techniques?" Cjoza asked, happily noticing that Daiki-sensei had kept training Choji even if he had to focus on his other two students.
"I'm not gonna tell, you'll have to wait and see." He smugly suggested.
Like Daiki-sensei had thaught them, Choji selectively listened to the Hokage introductory speech and the referee warnings, only picking up the key information. No need to keep track of the bullshit around a simple sentence. Focus on facts, and how they hare expressed. The first will give you the context you'll need to work in, the second will tell you what is the position if the one reporting said facts concerning their context.
Even while he was barely listening, however, his eyes lingered on the Kage's booth, where the diminutive form if the Tsuchikage was perched into his seat, and the Kazekage was there too, hiding his face beneath a white veil. He spotted Shino, Naruto, and Sakura near Daiki-sensei kōhai, Ten Ten, sitting near each other with both Guy-sensei and Kurenai-sensei.
It was unfortunate that the Aburame Clan disliked crowds and rowdy places, forcing Shino to come to watch the third stage alone, but again, Choji would have loved to seat close to Daiki-sensei if only he could spot him.
That man managed to turn everything into a lesson, and while Choji didn't necessarily enjoy the nightmare-inducing stories, he started to understand his reasons, and nobody could deny how much he had grown under his tutelage.
He shook himself out of his reverie to watch into the arena, where Neji Hyuga, another of sensei' kōhais, was staring down Shikamaru. Or trying to, since his teammate was hardly bothered by the harsh glare those pale eyes were inflicting.
Choji actually chuckled, before explaining to the quizzical expression of his father: "After surviving Daiki-sensei shell-shock treatment, intimidation isn't really the way to go about psychological warfare."
Chōza's eyes returned to the arena, his eyebrows suddenly rising on his forehead: "Is that..?" he guffawed "A Nara with a sword! Now that's quite a surprise! Shikaku will have a fit! Since when..."
"A wakizashi, to be exact. And since the beginning of the month." Choji answered before his father could complete his question, secretly enjoying the dismay of the Akimichi Clan's head.
Nobody, it didn't matter how gifted, could learn how to properly use a blade in less than a month, at least not beyond distinguishing the handle from the steel.
The proctor signaled the start of the match, and the once lazy Nara hastily retreated, flicking several smoke pellets in front of himself. Both contestants soon enveloped in a thick purple-gray cloud.
"But that's..!" Choza frowned, before noticing Choji's smirk and replicating it.
Neji retreated, an arm in front of his mouth to try and not breathe any more poison than necessary. Sadly, the first lungful, enough to inform the Hyuga prodigy of the nature of the smoke, was also enough to heavily impact his ability to stay awake.
"Nobody ever said that Shikamaru actually used the wakizashi." Choji smiled.
Neji stood in the middle of the arena, slightly wobbling on his feet, but exercising every silver of his will to stay awake. Shikamaru emerged from the smoke with a scarf tightly woven around the lower half of his face, the fuinjutsu on it working overtime to seal away the poison and letting the air pass through.
It was a selective-storage seal, kept in function by the Nara, who kept feeding chakra to it, effectively filtering the air. Fuinjutsu was awesome.
Neji wobbled on his feet some more, and fell to the ground, the poisonous gas overcoming the natural resistance of a body with an active chakra network with relative ease.
Chōza looked at the Nara heir, a belly laugh bubbling out of him. It was a rare thing seeing genin who never experienced war use misdirection in such a way. Shikamaru, bringing a sword in the arena, had declared that he was ready for a melee, successfully tricking the proud Hyuga.
"Even a Kage can die of carelessness." Choji quoted, clapping loudly while the proctor declared Shikamaru the victor of the underwhelming fight.
The following match was soon called, Kiba landing in a crouch after having jumped down from the genin booth, while Sabaku no Gaara made his entrance with a dignified and slow walk, his killing intent washing over the Inuzuka like a wave, with his face a blank mask.
When the referee gave the start, Akamaru dashed in a wide arc around the redhead, Kiba mirroring him on the other side, raining kunai with paper bombs attached to the hilt one the Suna genin.
Gaara did not move, he didn't even blink, his eyes following the shinobi, clearly classified as the bigger threat. The sand rose from the uncorked groud in a thick wall wich swallowed Kiba's probing of his defenses.
Then Gaara smiled. His chakra skyrocketed, the sand swirling around himself and digging into the ground,
Kiba bounced back, running along the walls of the arena until he had regrouped with Akamaru. Once he had secured the dog, he ran another lap on the wall, his rhythm irregular, dodging and avoiding the crushing waves of sand, often by less than an armlength.
It surprised everyone when he shouted: "I surrender!"
The referee immediately yanked the Inuzuka out of the arena, somehow the man seemed to know that Gaara wasn't going to stop.
Somehow, the killing intent let out by the Suna genin managed to grow even more.
"Why is he clutching his own head?" Choji wondered. The redhead looked almost in pain, but he managed to drag himself back into the genin booth, the sand he had so terrifyingly wielded fell on the ground like a puppet with its strings cut, while some of it returned into Gaara's gourd, corking itself inside.
Choji looked at his father, who had a dark frown on his face. He knew that frown, he was the same he had assumed after he had recounted the genjutsu Daiki-sensei had thrown his team in on their very first day. The young Akimichi kept his observations for himself however, knowing that if and when his father wanted to share his thoughts on the matter, he would.
Soon it was Lee's turn, facing the strange Iwa kunoichi that apparently had spared Shino's team during the second stage.
The girl looked around 15, maybe 17years old, was dressed with her country colors and had a dangerous looking katana strapped at her side.
"LEE!" Choji snapped his head in the direction of the sound so quickly that he almost gave himself a whiplash.
Guy-sensei, who had been Daiki-sensei's senseis ( and Choji was glad that his own teacher hadn't picked up anything beyond skill from him ) was standing, his hands resting on his hips and chest bulging outwards: "TAKE THEM OFF, LEE! IT'S TIME TO SHOW THE POWER OF YOUTH!"
Choji shuddered a bit. Looking horrified, the image of his own sensei doing the same briefly flashing in his mind before being shut down and hidden somewhere deep in his subconscious where it would never come back from.
Willing himself to focus on the match, erasing his surroundings from his senses, trusting his father to keep an eye out for possible dangers.
He watched with curious eyes as Lee shot back in the genin's booth and returning, his orange leg warmers suspiciously absent, revealing white wrapping around his calves.
Choji looked at the genin booth in time to see Ino shouting: "You're much manlier without the orange, Lee-kun!" he didn't need to see Shikamaru to know that he had pinched his nose, having taken up the mannerism from their sensei.
Choji looked again in the arena, seeing that Lee was... preening? under Ino attention. The young Akimichi guffawed.
Lee took his stance: an arm bent behind the small of his back, his weight on a bent leg, while the other was straight, ready to be used as a strange single meteor-hammer.
...
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