If you are far from the enemy, make him believe you are near. ~ Sun Tzu
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"Ready?" I asked Shikamaru as we headed towards the stadium.
"If I say 'no' can we reschedule?" he joked.
"Probably not," I said. However odd it might have seemed to everyone else, I was more nervous than Shikamaru was. Oh, not about his fight but… given the way everything else had matched up I was pretty damn sure that there would be an invasion today.
I was wearing my standard mission gear, complete with kunai pouch and sealing scroll tucked into my jacket. I was as prepared as I was going to be. That didn't make it any less terrifying. Maybe I should have worked harder on finding a way to warn people.
The walk to the stadium was slow and quiet. The matches officially started at ten, which gave people most of the morning to arrive and get seated. And so, the streets were already buzzing with people and vendors.
I noticed that there were a lot of ninja out and about. More than I'd ever seen before. It wasn't obvious, but there was also a curious dearth of civilians. At first I thought they were just increased security for the Tournament, but then I realised - they were all combat ready. It was hard to tell just by looking at them, there isn't really any difference between a ninja on duty and off, but there was a tension in the air.
Then it dawned on me.
They knew the invasion was coming. They were planning to let it hit and break on the defences of the village. A statement of how useless trying to attack was. It was a trap. Most of the civilians had already been moved to the evacuation shelters. It was doubtful that the visiting shinobi would notice, since Konoha had the highest number of civilians in our hidden village. Mist had almost none.
The candidates for the Final Exam were supposed to meet up in the middle of the arena and I had tickets for the general Konoha populace section of the stands. We hung around the entrance for a while, not too eager to go in just yet. I perched on one of the stone fences, observing the people pouring into the entrance. There were a few ninja, but mostly civilians, merchants and nobles and allsorts dressed in fancy clothes.
Ino and Chouji arrived shortly after us.
"Oh, man," Ino said, staring at the stadium. "I'm so nervous."
"You'll do fine," Chouji said, sounding like he'd been repeating the statement all morning.
"Of course I will. How could I not?" she tossed her hair. "But… Temari is pretty scary."
"Just do your best," I said quietly. "Other than that… don't get killed."
"You better believe it! I'm far too pretty to die," Ino said, tossing her hair. "Imagine how much of a crime that would be."
Shikamaru snorted and rolled his eyes, leaning back to stare at the sky. Ino whirled on him.
The three of them, Ino-Shika-Chou, they meshed. Even now, with the barest of words between them, I could see that Shika was far more settled, less nervous, than before. And Ino, for all her ranting, was much calmer.
They were a good team.
I caught sight of some familiar people and waved. Kiba and Hinata made their way over to us, shouldering their way through the crowd. Akamaru barked a greeting.
"Shino not here yet?" Kiba asked, eyes scanning around.
"He could be inside already," I offered. "We haven't been here that long."
"Oh," Hinata said quietly. "I wanted to wish him good luck."
I smiled at her. "How are you feeling, Hinata?" She'd only been out of the hospital for a week and even then they'd been a little doubtful about it.
"I'm okay," she said. "Really."
Kiba gave me a look that said he wasn't quite so certain about that. He looked very protective, hovering over her shoulder. I suppose if you were injured there are much worse people to rely on to look out for you than an Inuzuka team mate.
"Well, do you guys want to head upstairs? Hopefully we can find some seats together," I offered. It'd be nice to have someone to sit with, and then I could keep an eye on them.
"Sounds good to me," Kiba said, shrugging. "Whaddaya say, Hinata?"
"O-of course."
I stretched before jumping down to the ground. "Chouji?"
"Coming," he said, eating the last of his chips and tucking the empty packet away.
"I guess that's our cue to head inside," Ino said glancing nervously at the door.
"Good luck!" We chorused.
Unlike what I was used to when I thought of stadiums, the seating didn't go right around the arena. There were five or six pagoda sitting atop the wall on one side and that was where all the spectators were. One of the boxes was obviously reserved for the watching Kage, while the others were divided into status rankings. The very rich and important, the moderately rich and important, and the common folk and ninja that were scouting for upcoming talent. I suspected that several department heads would be about, even though fresh Chunin rarely got headhunted. This was, after all, one of the very few chances to actually observe ninja in action.
The four of us settled into seats that were, amusingly, beside two ninja that I recognised as proctors for the First and Second Exams - Izumo and Kotetsu. They were dressed in standard combat uniforms, not the grey Intelligence Division ones this time, but still.
"They look so small down there," Chouji commented. "And… where are Naruto and Sasuke?"
I bit my lip. "They'll get here soon." I was pretty sure, anyway. I couldn't see anything short of Orochimaru's return keeping Naruto away. Sasuke… well, he was with Sensei.
Sure enough, Naruto appeared shortly before the proctor called them to attention. Sasuke… didn't.
"Still not here," Kiba muttered, frowning.
"Sensei is always late," I said. "but I'm pretty sure he wouldn't make Sasuke miss his fight."
"Welcome all!" The Hokage's voice echoed around the stands. "And our deepest thanks for coming here to the Village Hidden in the Leaves for our Chunin Selection Exams."
There was definitely some kind of technique involved here, since I couldn't see any speakers and there wasn't that mechanical tinny quality to it. And there was no way that his voice was carrying this distance naturally.
He gave a bit of a welcome speech, but it wasn't that bad considering how long he'd dragged on for in the prelims. I guess he knew that everyone had come to see the fighting.
"Alright," Hayate coughed. "The terrain is different but the rules are the same. Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuuga have the first match. Those two stay and the rest of you can go to the waiting area."
It was clear that he was talking to the candidates, but his voice carried up to us in the stands as well. Either the stadium had excellent acoustics, or there was some kind of amplification jutsu down there. It made sense, after all, this was being used to judge them - their skills and their characters.
"You got anything to say to me?" Neji asked, down below.
"Only what I told you the last time," Naruto growled out. "I'm going to win this."
"So much the better for me," Neji retorted, smirking. "I can't wait to see the look of despair on your face when you learn that your foolish vow is impossible to keep."
"Are we just going to stand here talking all day?" Wind whirled around Naruto, stirred up by the agitation of his chakra. It even reached us in the stands.
"Let the first match, begin!"
Beside us, the two Chunin were looking on in interest. "Who would have thought that that little squirt could have survived this long?" Kotetsu mused.
"Yeah," Izumo agreed, leaning forward on his elbows. "He's been one lucky kid so far. But his lucks about to run out. He'll never survive this one."
"Yeah, it's going to be painful. Going up against one of the Hyuuga Clan? He doesn't stand a chance."
Hinata made a distressed sound at their observations. Admittedly, yeah, from an outsiders point of view, Naruto vs. Neji was a match up that would only end one way.
"Don't fuss, Hinata," I murmured. "Naruto is too stubborn to give up. He'll be fine."
"You got that right," Kiba agreed. "I underestimated him and look what happened to me." Akamaru flattened his ears and whined.
"You think he'll win?" Chouji asked curiously.
I nodded slowly. "Yeah. It's important to him to win, because of Neji's actions. He'll keep going long past where any reasonable person might have given up. And besides… it's not like he hasn't done any planning for this."
For one, I'd made sure he'd memorised my info sheet. For another, I'd walked him through several imaginary encounters with Neji, supplying the enemy action if he couldn't. Naruto had been mostly bored, but a little fascinated by it. But damn, I wasn't going to let him in there without a plan.
We watched in anticipation.
He launched a wave of kunai towards Neji, who deflected them easily, sending them scattering across the ground, one burying itself in a tree. To my chakra sense, they burned bright with chakra - clones - but did nothing. Setting a trap early, or showing Neji that your 'special' kunai are harmless?
Then he charged forward, laying on a brutal taijutsu assault.
What?
Naruto's taijutsu was better, but not in league with Neji's. And he knew that he couldn't afford to get hit with the Gentle Fist.
"You idiot!" Kiba shouted, aggrieved. "A frontal attack will never work!"
"Close combat like that is lethal. Unless…" My eyes widened. "Those kunai…"
He was only supposed to use clones to attack like that because risking his chakra system was stupid. So what if… that was a clone. If the 'real' Naruto was one of the kunai… It would have taken a supremely fast Transformation, Replacement and Shadow Clone Jutsu to pull off…
"That's so crazy it's brilliant," I breathed. It must have killed him to take a safe spot and stay out of the fight itself. But oh, if he pulled it off…
"What?" Kiba demanded. "What's he done?"
I giggled with glee. "Just watch. You probably wont see it for a while, but watch."
Neji wasn't even really using Jyuuken down there, otherwise the bout would have been over much faster. He was underestimating Naruto.
Naruto dived backwards out of the way of the strike that would have ended his ability to fight, and rolled back to his feet.
"Do you understand now?" Neji demanded. "You have no way of beating me."
"Get real!" Naruto scoffed, hands forming that familiar seal. "I was just testing you, that's all. Okay, now that we're warmed up, lets get started." The air around him shimmered, and suddenly there was even more orange down there.
"Well, isn't he something," Kotetsu said in mild surprise.
"That Shadow Clone Jutsu is a Jounin level technique," Izumo added. "Where'd that kid pick up a technique like that?"
"This match could be more interesting than we thought." I could have sworn he glanced over at us out the corner of his eye but it was too quick to catch it.
"Those are the clones he used against me, right?" Kiba said. "Is that really a Jounin level technique?"
"Mmhmm," I hummed. "It takes a lot of chakra. Sensei pretty much forbid him from teaching it to us because of that."
"Huh. Our little dead last has come a long way," Kiba said, grinning wildly, cheering as the clones mobbed around Neji, who was starting to look a little pressed. One Naruto he could handle, but ten coordinated attacks was getting a little much. The Byakugan meant he could see them, but reacting in time was still an issue.
"Eight Trigrams: Heavenly Rotation!"
Wow. The Kaiten was impressive.
"But that was…" Hinata said, shocked. "Only Main Branch…"
"A move like that," I commented, offhand. "Has got to be pretty chakra intensive."
Hinata blinked. "I- yes. It is."
"So how many times do you reckon Neji can pull it off? Five? Six?" I wouldn't think he could use it that many times, particularly not if he wanted to have chakra left over to fight.
"And how many times can Naruto force him to use it?" Kiba asked, catching on.
I smirked. "Oh, I'd say quite a few."
"Did you really think you'd won?" Neji asked coldly, as he stopped spinning. The defence/attack had shredded a fair few of the clones. "Your persistence is ridiculous."
"You don't know what you're talking about," Naruto retorted.
"It is you who doesn't see your own limitations. People are set, fixed, unchangeable. Only a fool wastes time trying to become something he can never be. You thought you could be Hokage? It's absurd."
"A fool?" Naruto scoffed in disgust. "Here we go again. Who are you to judge what a person can or cannot be?"
"You think anyone can become Hokage? That all it takes is a little hard work? Of all the shinobi in all the world, think of how few ever become Hokage. They were born destined to be Hokage. It's not something you become merely by trying to become. They were chosen by destiny. Each person is given his own path to follow. And he must follow it. Obediently." He spat the word out, spitefully. "There is only one destiny we all share equally. Death."
"Yeah, so what? You can think that way if you want. People always tell me I just don't know when to give up." He smirked and pulled out a kunai.
Four of the Naruto's jumped, one from each direction, throwing their kunai towards Neji. The downward angle meant that if they missed, the knives would just hit the dirt, not other clones. I suspected I knew what was coming next.
Neji sneered and pulled his kunai to deflect them.
"Now!" Naruto shouted, just as Neji reached out to swipe the first away.
Four kunai blossomed into a rain of metal.
Of course the clones could do it too, I thought. They're already clones, and so are their kunai.
It has to be said that Neji has very good reactions. He spun into another Kaiten, almost immediately, but when the smoke cleared it was easy to see it hadn't been quite fast enough. He hadn't been prepared for the mass replication. There was blood leaking from a cut on his cheek, slices in his clothing and red blooming on the bandages around one arm.
He looked very wary.
"Hot damn," Kiba breathed.
"If only you knew," I muttered, eyeing the metal scattered across the ground. Not all of them had been dispersed by the Kaiten.
The Naruto's smirked and prepared another barrage. Neji spun another Kaiten to deflect the metal, but he knew he was in a bad spot. Naruto's clones were surrounding him, and when the Kaiten died down he didn't hold his position. He raced for the clone that had been speaking, to attack, and to get out of the circle of death.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto cried, creating even more clones. Neji fought some and ducked, dodged, weaved and jumped past the others. He was intent on striking the leader and ending the fight.
"You're the one hanging back for fear of my striking your chakra points," Neji deduced. "The more the others attack, the more you stand out for holding back. You're the real one, aren't you? This is the end for you. You're in my range, and you can't escape. Eight Trigrams: Sixty Four Palms."
"The match is over," Kotetsu said from beside us.
"Not yet," I murmured, eyes fixed on the match.
"I have now struck all Sixty Four of your chakra points," Neji said, breathing hard. "You're lucky to still be breathing. Well, it must be frustrating. To realise how utterly hopeless it all was. This little dream of yours. You thought you could succeed through hard work alone. That's only an illusion."
"You're the one who sees an illusion." Naruto coughed, then exploded into smoke.
Hinata started coughing.
"Hey, Hinata, what's wrong? Are you okay?" Kiba asked concerned.
I turned to look at her. "You're coughing blood!" I said, alarmed, hands darting through the seals for my diagnostic jutsu. I crouched in front of her, squeezing into the narrow space between the rows of seats.
The others around us made noises of alarm and worry.
Her heart beat was fast and it was stressing the weakened tissue. When Neji had hit her heart tenketsu, it had damaged the muscle, which in turn had caused problems with her pulse and blood pressure. The high pressure had damaged the delicate capillaries in the alveolar tissue of her lungs, which was causing the blood in her lungs.
"This is beyond my skills," I said. "We need to get you back to the hospital."
Hinata shook her head weakly, but couldn't speak over her coughing. I could guess that she wanted to stay and watch the fight.
"Here let me have a look at her," a friendly sounding voice said. I glanced up, only to come face to face with an ANBU mask. "Don't worry, you can trust me."
Metallic, like the gleam of light off a knife, like the sharp taste of blood, honed and sharp and lethal.
I swallowed.
Kabuto.
"I'm a medic," he said.
He was a medic. A damned good one. Kiba and Chouji were already moving so we could get Hinata out of the seats. He didn't have any reason to help Hinata, though, and I didn't exactly trust him.
But what could I say? Sorry no?
Shit. There was no one around I could trust to believe me if I told them this was Kabuto. If Sensei was here…
He carried Hinata up to the back of the stands, lying her flat on the floor and summoning his chakra. The green glow was extremely steady and fine tuned, a flat, monochrome green.
With half an ear, I could hear Naruto and Neji talking. About Hinata, about the Hyuuga Clan… I filed it away, but didn't pay much attention.
"Hinata's looking more lively now," Kiba said in relief. "These ANBU guys are good."
"She's okay now. She just needs to rest," Kabuto said.
I slid my chakra into her system. "Oh. Wow. You … healed her completely. That's amazing." It was. Lung tissue… heart tissue… it was extremely delicate. There was a reason that the Hospital hadn't been able to fully heal her. There wasn't any doubt that Kabuto was an excellent medic - he was just a depraved one.
I only hoped he hadn't done anything else.
Kabuto's motivations were impossible to determine. And that made him even more dangerous.
"You should go back to watching the match. It's quite interesting, isn't it?" Kabuto said.
"Interesting practically defines Naruto," I muttered. "Along with unpredictable."
"Thanks for helping, ANBU-san," Chouji said politely as Kiba scooped Hinata up into his arms. We couldn't leave her back here, someone might stand on her.
"People are born carrying an unchangeable fate. To carry a seal that can never be removed, a guy like you could never understand," Neji was saying.
I shared a glance with Chouji, the only other one who knew here.
"No, I understand," Naruto said lowly, then glared fiercely at Neji. "So what about it?"
That was… such a Naruto reaction. Life sucks, so what?
"You're not the only special person here," Naruto continued. "Hinata was suffering, just like you. She was from the Main Family, but she tried her best to change herself because no one would acknowledge her. That's the determination she had and she fought you even after she was injured. The Branch Family is supposed to protect the Main Family, yet you did that to Hinata and it was only an Exam. You were trying hard to fight against Fate, weren't you?" The insight came out of left field, which was usually where Naruto's insight hid. He was good at understanding people.
"Why do you fight against your fate so hard?" Neji asked, sounding almost despairing.
"Because… you called me a failure," Naruto said.
We slipped back into our seats. There was a single Naruto standing, talking to Neji who looked tired. But the kunai were still scattered over the arena, so Naruto wasn't done yet.
"After I become Hokage," Naruto said, forming a cross seal. "I'll change the Hyuuga for you."
Neji settled back into a Jyuuken stance. "Then show me if what you say is true."
Neji was slower now, in both dodging the clones and attacking. He was trying not to have to rely on Kaiten, I could see, aware that he didn't have much chakra left.
You turned it into a battle of attrition, huh?
"Lightning Release: Striking Bolt!" Four Naruto's cried.
Lightning lanced. Blue chakra bloomed into a Kaiten.
Neji sunk to one knee, panting heavily, before staggering back to his feet. "Still not enough," he said and darted forward, out of the crater made by his Kaiten.
His hand struck fast, slamming into Naruto's chest.
"Again…" Naruto spoke, blood dripping from his mouth. "You assume… I'm the real one."
Neji's eyes widened. Naruto exploded into a puff of smoke.
And then, the dozens of kunai scattered about his feet turned back into clones. The nearest ones grabbed onto his legs. Some grabbed his arms. Around his waist. Pinning him, holding him immobile.
And, then, one cold cocked him in the jaw. Messy and brutal and unavoidable.
Neji slumped, unconscious.
There was a long pause.
"Winner," Hayate coughed. "Naruto Uzumaki."
We exploded into cheers, Akamaru howling along.
"Alright!" Kiba cheered. "Way to go Naruto!"
"Never saw that coming," Kotetsu said, shaking his head. "Unbelievable."
Medics came onto the field and carted Neji off on a stretcher, and then the Naruto clones dispersed. All of them.
"Wait, what?" Chouji said.
Then there was a puff of smoke, and Naruto appeared standing beside one of the trees encircling the arena.
"You mean…" Izumo said, leaning forward. "Right from the start…"
"Neji never even spoke to the real Naruto," I said smugly. "Let alone hit him. They were all clones."
[A/N: Oh and if anyone is wondering about Hayate... it went something like this in canon: Dosu challenged Gaara on top of Kikyo castle, Gaara transformed/went nuts and killed him. Baki and Kabuto were watching and discussing their plans. Hayate overheard them then died. That leads me to assume they were all drawn there by Gaara.Thus, no Dosu, no fight. Nothing to draw Hayate to that location. There's also comparatively increased security, particuarly on lookout for Kabuto and Orochimaru due to extra suspicions and things. ]