(IC) The Life of a Shinobi (Chapters 3-4: The Chunin Exams Tournament)

Seeing Kazuma's take a new stances made Mugen wonder what he was up too. Mugen took a breathe closing his eyes and forced his senses, once he open them he was able to see the battle in a special sight. (Eagle Vision)

As the scorpion approached, Gorick noticed the circle. "What is that?" he thought. The scorpion stopped in front of Kazuma and lifted it's claw, preparing to crush him.

"And now you know why I'm called 'X-Blade,'" Kazuma said, who suddenly was behind Gorick and the giant scorpion. The Kazuma in front faded away, and instantly a giant gash appeared across Gorick's chest and across the scorpion, blood gushing out. "Yagu Shinkage Ryu: First Blade-Residual Moon." A technique that creates an after-image, from moving at an impossible speed and executing a fatal strike, Kazuma thought. I told him he should've surrendered. My only regret is that I had to shed blood.

After Kazuma's attack, Mugen saw step by step how the Residual Moon worked with his Eagle Vision and quickly understood the level of skill it will take to master it. "Well, looks like I really can't hold back any more can I," he said to himself with a smile. his hands clinched his weapons as he fought the need to test his skills against Kazuma's.

The scorpion screeched in pain from the slice, but its hard exterior kept the blade from cutting too deep. Gorick, however, was not so lucky. "GAAAAAGHHH!!!" Gorick fell off the scorpion and the scorpion soon vanished. Gorick laid on the ground bleeding badly. The audience was amazed at the unexpected move. Rento Aya jumped into the arena, flanked by two medical ninja. "The battle is finished," he said, "Kazuma Ryuuga is the winner!" The crowed cheered for the victor as the medical ninja rushed Gorick to the hospital.

Kazuma took a deep breath, and sheathed his sword while he walked back to the waiting area. As he passed Mugen and the others, he looked their way. And his eyes went from a dark crimson back to its normal fiery red color.

"Alright everyone," said Rento, "Our next match will be Ayano of the Sand vs Nao Vakima of the Cloud." As soon as the two fighters heard this, they walked out into the arena. Once in the arena, they glared at each other without saying a word. Rento looked at the two, "If the combatants are ready...you may begin!"

As the next battle started, Hiro a runaway ninja and mercenary stood in a corner of the stands that a good view of the kage and the combatants. "Well well," he said calmly, "so that's the one-tailed Shukaku: Ayano, huh." He then looks up at the other combatants, "And he must be the Mugen guy that Zantu fought. Well, he doesn't look like much."

Nao immediately went on the offensive and threw two explosive kunai, each of which, Ayano caught with her sand and threw right back.  Nao, not expecting such a fast reaction, narrowly dodged the kunai's explosion.  "Alright then, well let's see you throw this back.  Ranton: Reizā Sākasu (Gale Style: Laser Circus!)



Assuming an attack like this would come, Ayano had started gathering hard minerals from the ground as soon as she walked into the arena.  Using the gathered minerals, dirt, and sand, she put her hands together, "Saikō Zettai Bōgyo: Shukaku no Tate (Ultimately Hard Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku!)"  Ayano's hard defence absorbed the impact of the electrical blasts; not a single one reached Ayano.  Nao was surprised at this.  Most opponents had tried to dodge this attack and failed, or they had attempted to defend against it and they failed.  But Ayano was the first opponent to successfully defend against the attack.  Because she was positive that the cloud shinobi were up to something, Ayano had no intention of holding back.  "It's been fun," said Ayano, "but I think it's about time I wrap things up."



"Hiro," whispered Anon, "Now that we've found the one tails, please go on a search for the nine tails.  Once you locate him, return here and let us know.  Our time to act is fast approaching."

I seriously need to learn how to do that, Kazuma thought to himself. "Hey, that was AWESOME!!" He heard Renji shout from behind. He and Hizana were walking towards him. "Kazuma, where did you learn that jutsu?? The Crescent Moon Dance is a high-level style that's impossible for any Genin." "Why the hell should it matter?" Kazuma retorted, "I won; he lost. What more do you-" Suddenly, he collapsed to the floor on his knees. "KAZUMA!!" Hizana rushed to help him, but he shrugged it off. "I'm fine...Just..used up too much chakra..Need rest.."

As the battle raged on Kitsune was being up dated by his teams. "Roger that team 2," he said before sighing, it has been a long time since he lead a top secret mission and the stress was eating away at him. "You should relax," said Yumi who stood behind Kitsune, "you're not going to anyone any good passed out."

"Thanks for your concern but I'm fin," he replies.

Yumi walks away heading towards the lady's room, during her walk thought about Kitsune, she know about the time he was betrayed and was worry about him leading this mission. "Man what a slave driver," said Hiro as he started walk around the stadium. "Okay, if I were the nine-tails where would I be," he thought as he searched through he crowd.

While he was searching Yumi walked passed him. When she passes by Hiro who noticed her strange chakra. "What the heck," he thought as he quickly looked back at her, "for a second I thought I saw the one-tail's chakra in her but how can that be right. Well what ever as long as I find the nine-tails it doesn't matter."

Ayano began throwing big chunks of sand towards Nao, but surprisingly they all missed and Nao didn't need to dodge a single one.  "Ha, you missed!" she yelled.  Suddenly, the clumps of sand came together, forming a large clump, and jumped onto Nao from behind.  "What the heck?!" she exclaimed.  "I didn't miss," said Ayano, "I just wanted to get the sand close enough to you for me to attack.  I figured if my aim was off then you would remain where you were standing and not try to dodge."  Nao tried to move away, but the sand engulfed her body and lifted her into the air.  Familiar with the technique, Nao began to scream and struggle, but to no avail.  Seeing the possibility of Nao surrendering and getting Rento to stop the match, Ayano wasted no time.  "Sabaku Kyū: Sabaku Sōsō (Sand Coffin: Sand Burial!)



Blood splattered all over, and once Ayano released Nao, her lifeless body fell to the ground; eyes still opened from the shock. Rento entered the arena and looked at Nao. He had seen dead shinobi before, heck, he's killed other shinobi before, but this was the first time a student had died during a chunin exam that he was facilitating. Medical ninja quickly rushed onto the field and confirmed that Nao was, in fact, dead. "Well that's it," said Rento with an obvious fear and nervousness in his voice, "Ayano is the winner!" The crowed clapped but there was no cheering. The audience was quite surprised to see such a brutal death take place right in front of them.

Team Sanmaru, watching the whole thing, was in shock. They didn't expect something like this. "S-She...j-j-just..." Hizana stammered collapsing to her knees, eyes wide with terror. Renji stood there, slightly shaking. "I know we've seen death before, but... I wasn't..." Even Kazuma, who usually didn't care or tried to stay calm, was shooken up from the incident. "She didn't... she didn't have to..." Even with what I did earlier, I didn't KILL him, he thought. BUt we bOtH knOw, deeP DOwN, You ENJOY suCh a tHIng... Kazuma's head and left arm throbbed. There it was again; that voice..

Mugen eyed Ayano as Nao's body was taken away, gritting his teeth he clinched his sword, "what the hell is wrong with her? That was plain over kill," he thought. In the stands, Akira watched brutal display with equal horror, "I know this is the chunnin exams and I know that something was really off about the cloud genin, but did she have to kill her like that," she said.

"Alright everyone," said Rento, "our next two combatants are Hizana Uzumaki and Doske Getsuga!"

Meanwhile, outside the leaf village, an unexpected visitor was approaching. However, this visitor was disguised a leaf shinobi. A shinobi by the name of Kagan Rote went on a mission to investigate a suspicious duo in nearby Tanzaku Town. "Welcome back Kagan," said one of the two shinobi gaurds at the front gate, "there is still plenty of battles left in the Chunin Exams Tournament." Kagan did not respond, but merely kept walking towards the guard that spoke to him. Suddenly, Kagan pulled out a kunai and stabbed the guard, killing him. "What the heck are you doing?!" exclaimed the other guard as he pulled out his kunai. Suddenly, another intruder came out of the ground behind the second guard and, with super human strength, smashed him into the ground. With both guards dead, the intruder canceled his Kagan transformation and returned to his original form. "Hahaha, the one-tailed Shukaku and the nine-tailed Kurama in the same day," said the intruder, "Our collection will soon be complete."

Hiro, who was still looking for the nine-tails, stop to take another look at Ayano. "Man what a monster," he said, "I knew I shouldn't have took this job." Hiro and the Raikage has never saw eye to eye but that never already stopped Hiro from occasionally working for him. To Hiro, as long as the money was good he would work for anyone even the Raikage but something about this job smelled funny to Hiro.

Back in the combatants' stand Mugen walked over to Hizana and said, "watch your back with that one. You and I both know that something ain't right about him so don't risk yourself if you don't have to , kay." Mugen knew that Hizana was strong but was afraid that she could get kill like the cloud ninja did.

Hizana was too frozen in fear to respond. The previous fight scared her. Noticing this, Renji and Kazuma tried to console her. "Hey, relax, you're gonna be okay," Renji told her. Kazuma looked at her and simply said, "If things get outta hand, we'll step in any way we can." Hearing that made her feel a little better. "T-thanks, Kazuma," Hizana said with a small smile. Taking a deep breath, she walked out to the arena.

"Ha this weakling is my opponent," laughed Doske, "I demand a more worthy challenger!"

Not really knowing what to say, Rento just continued on. "Well...if the combatants are ready, you may begin!"

Doske immediately rushed Hizana, closing the gap between them almost instantly. He lunged forward with his leg extended and kneed her in the stomach.

"HIZANA!" shouted Mugen saw he watched the fight, Kaito who was also watching the battle stood up and shouted, "COME ON, DON'T JUST STAND THERE, FIGHT BACK!"

Hizana felt the wind get knocked out of her. Nevertheless, she quickly recovered from the attack and stood her ground. Making one handsign she says out loud, "Byakugan!!", unlocking the Chakra Pathway System to her perspective as she went into her Jūken (Gentle Fist) stance.

"You might as well just surrender now," said Doske, "I don't have time to play games! Raiton no Yoroi (Lightning Style Armour!)"

Hiro stopped again to look at the match, "Hmm...looks like Doske isn't playing around today, I almost feel bad for that Hyuuga girl," He said before continuing his search.

Not good, Hizana thought, I might have to go on the defensive. Weaving one handsign she says, "Kage no Justu (Multi-shadow Clone Justu) and summoned an army of clones. Pulling out a water sac and concentrating her chakra, she created water vortexes around her. "Mizu Hari!!" (Water Needle!!) She and the clones began to shoot needle-like water blasts at rapid speed.

Doske didn't expect an attack like this to come from Hizana.  However, his speed allowed him to maneuver in such a way as to avoid most of them.  Three of them managed to scrape him on his leg, shoulder, and abdomen.  Unfortunately, he couldn't remember which Hizana was the original one.  He jumped up into the air to avoid the storm of needles and lifted two electrically charged kunai into the air, "Ikazuchi no Kiba (Ninja Art: Lightning Fangs!)"  Electricity quickly shot up into the sky from the kunai and storm clouds suddenly appeared.  Upon landing from his jump, Doske lifted his hands and lightning bolts began to come from the sky, striking into the crowed of Hizana clones.

"Oh crap," said Kaito as he watched the display of lighting strikes on his sister, "come on Hizana, he stronger then you think you have to try harder."