I leap, grab his head in midair, and slam it back against the wall.
He crumples to the ground, dead to the world, and I whoop.
"Who's the rookie now, bitch?!"
...
The Kiri proctor appears beside me in a Body Flicker, crouching down and checking Hiro's pulse. Satisfied with his unconsciousness, he picks him up and slings him over his shoulder. I turn, watching the Suna and Kumo proctors do the same with the other two Kiri nin, When they've all disappeared, the Konoha proctor clears his throat, and I suddenly realize the stadium above is awash with murmurs, boos, and-
"YOSH! I KNEW YOU COULD DO IT, NARUTO!"
And that.
When some semblance of order returns, the proctor raises an arm and points at me. "Winner of the eleventh and final match, between Team 7 of Konoha and Team 6 of Kiri- Team 7." The jeering picks up again, even louder now, but I find myself unable to care. I'm grinning too hard.
"Stay down here, you three," The Konoha proctor says, and the Iwa proctor raises a hand for attention.
"Will all of the passing teams please report down to the arena at this time for the drawing for the first round of the finals tournament."
Excited chattering springs up all over the stadium as teams start funneling down the various staircases, and I slide up between Sakura and Sasuke. "Looks like we're going to the finals."
Sasuke snorts. "As if there was any doubt."
I roll my eyes. "Of course not, Neji." Sakura giggles at that, and I wave a hand at the look Sasuke gives me. "Oh, calm down, I'm just screwing with you. You're not that bad. Yet."
"Form a line, now," The Iwa proctor calls over the buzz of activity, and eventually a line is formed. Then, when the other jonin proctors have returned, the samurai walks down the steps, holding a different box in his hands. He walks down the line, offering the box to each genin and allowing them to take a slip of paper out of it. When it comes my turn I pull my slip out and look at the single, bold number emblazoned on it. One.
"Before anything else, we'd like to congratulate you all on making it to the final portion of the Chunin Exams," The Konoha proctor says. "It's something that few accomplish, and you should all be proud of making it this far."
"The finals tournament will work slightly different from the tasks you've already participated in," The Iwa proctor says. "It will not be held until a month from now, and it will be a public event."
The Kiri proctor, Osamu, nods. "This is the real deal, kids. The stands are going to be packed, and everyone is going to be looking at you, searching for future job prospects. The five Kage and the Daimyo themselves will be there to make sure you don't screw it up, too, so you better bring your A game."
"As I said, it will be held exactly four weeks from now. The samurai will escort you to its location as they did for the first task, though I'd suggest you show up a day early at the latest. If you're late for your match in the finals, you're disqualified." The Iwa proctor informs us.
"Now before we let you go," The Kumo proctor rumbles. "We need to establish the order of the first round, starting with the first match. Will the two genin with the numbers one and two please step forward?"
I step forward and immediately crane my head around, searching for my first opponent. I don't see anyone else stepping out, though, not Gaara, not Taro, not anybody.
I look to my left and lock eyes with Sasuke, standing right beside to me.
...
The rest of the matches seem to flow through one ear and out the other. The only thing I can remember from them is that Sakura is fighting a kunoichi from Iwa and Samui is fighting some guy from Suna. Everything else is lost in the face of my first opponent. When the order has been set and the genin released for the month break, the three of us shuffle up the stairs to our sensei, joined by Neji and Lee a few seconds later.
"Great job, you three!" Hatake says to us when we make it up, smiling. "I knew you had it in you."
"Thanks sensei," I say, mustering a smile of my own.
It's not that I don't want to fight Sasuke or anything like that. We fight all the time, after all, and it's awesome. I don't think I've gone more than a month since we met back in the Academy without fighting him. It's one of our favorite pastimes.
But we never fight to kill. It's always just sparring. But this… Can we afford not to give it everything we've got with all the world watching? With the old man watching?
"I can't wait to get home," Lee says excitedly. "My opponent is a fearsome fighter. I will have to train even harder this next month if I wish to defeat them!"
"That's the spirit, Lee!" Gai cries. "I will do the same! Double the squats, double the pushups, double it all! You'll join us, won't you, Neji?"
"Hey, uh, I'll be right back," I say, a flash of platinum blonde catching my eye. I slip away from the group and sneak up to Samui, who's lagging behind the small group of remaining Kumo nin, and tap her on the shoulder. She stiffens, jerking her shoulder away, but when she turns and sees me she relaxes a little.
"Naruto."
"Hey." I say, waving. "Great job with that fight. You did awesome."
She cracks a small smile. "You too."
"Heh, thanks." I glance over her shoulder at the group of Kumo nin, but don't seem to have noticed her absence yet. "Hey, so, I was thinking. Since we've got a month between tasks, you can pick up a new tanto during the break, right?"
The smile drops from her face. "You want the tanto back?"
I scratch the back of my neck. "If you think you can swing a new one before the tournament, yeah. My sensei was teaching me a few things about it before the exam started, and I was hoping to put them to use in the finals."
She hesitates, looking over her shoulder at the group, and shakes her head. "I don't think that's a good idea."
I blink. "Why not?"
"My teammates would notice that my tanto was missing on the trip home," she says. "The other Kumo nin are already suspicious of my Genjutsu excuse- if they found out that I gave you back your sword it'd be the last straw."
"Ah, yeah. That makes sense." I sigh. "Guess there's no helping it. Just get it to me after the finals are done, yeah?" She hesitates again. "… Samui?"
"I have to go," she mutters, turning away.
"Wha- Samui!" I reach out to grab her shoulder but she shrugs me off. "Samui, that sword is mine."
I move to step in front of her, to block her path and try to figure out what the hell happened between the first task and now to cause her sudden shift in attitude, but then a huge, dark hand clamps down on my shoulder and I find myself whisked away into a Body Flicker.
My captor and I reappear in one of the hallways, just inside the entrance to the stadium, and I shove away from him, stumbling back deeper into the hallway. "What the hell was that?" I glare at the shinobi crouched in front of me. "Who are you?"
The shinobi in question is huge, as tall as I am while in his crouched position. He's wearing a white Kumo headband and the white Kumo vest without any undershirt, showing off the dark skin that seems to be a trait amongst most Kumo nin. A white scarf is wrapped around his neck, and it hangs down all the way to the edges of his baggy, navy blue pants. His hair and beard are bleach white, and a pair of sunglasses cover his eyes. And on his back, poking over his shoulder, are seven red sword hilts.
"Name's Killer B," he says in a low voice with an odd lilt to it. Almost as if he's singing without actually singing. "And who are you, little dweeb?"
I scowl. "Naruto."
"I know your name, fool. Who are you to be actin' a tool?"
"… What?"
"That's my student Samui you were steppin' on back there," he explains. "What, did you think that her sensei don't care?"
"I wasn't stepping on anyone," I say, frustrated. "I let her borrow my sword until the end of the exam and all of a sudden she's not giving it back anymore!"
Killer B sighs theatrically and leans forward on his bent knees. "Look, little ninja, I know the deal. You were her partner and tried keeping it real. Thing is, homie, it's not all what you feel. Foreign relations are more complex than seals."
"What are you talking about?" I ask, bewildered.
"I'll give it to you straight," he offers. "That Genjutsu story she's spreading ain't great. Her teammates might buy it, but the other young homies are suspicious, and I know for a fact that that shit ain't delicious."
"That doesn't even make sense-"
"It's just politics, dog, don't let it get to ya. She's gotta act tough- if the others find out she took down her own blood for ya, she'll be in so deep I can't even tell ya."
"You just rhymed ya with itself twice-"
"Point is you need to back off," he says, voice firm. "Shinobi life ain't free. So just scurry on back to Konoha and climb up your tree. You got me?" I don't say a word, just basking in the unbelievable stupidity of this conversation. "You got something to say, dog?"
"Yeah," I finally manage. "Why is it that whenever assholes want at me, they bring up the fact that my village has got trees?"
A grin breaks out on Killer B's face, exposing pearly white teeth. "Yo, not bad!" He holds out a clenched fist. "Gimme some bump, leaf dog."
I bare my teeth at him and walk right past his outstretched fist, back into the stadium.
"Naruto! There you are!" Hatake calls from a few hallways down, waving. I jog over to them, looking over my shoulder every couple seconds to make sure that crazy prick isn't following me. "Where'd you go?"
As if you don't know. "Had to talk to Samui," I say instead.
"Oh?" he asks. "About what?"
"Not much." Just the end of our friendship. Was it a friendship? I'm not even sure anymore. It had felt like it, up until two minutes ago. "Just had to double check that she's giving me my sword back."
"Is she?" Sasuke asks, eyes dubious.
I nod. "Yeah, she is."
One way or another.
...
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