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

"Mugen," said Lien, "I'm eager to show you how much stronger I've gotten.  My father has trained me hard over the last few years, and I'd say I'm ten times as strong as I was in the academy.  However, I humbly recognize that you have gotten stronger as well and may still be stronger than me as you were in the academy.  With all that said, may the best shinobi win."  Lien took a fighting stance and awaited Mugen's response.  "Even if I lose," she thought, "I need to show him that I'm not a weakling.  I must do my best!"

"So that's how its gonna be, huh?," says Mugen as he take his own fighting stance, "I'll show you the power of my new style." He stand firm and focused yet calm and relaxed almost as if he was in complete balance with his inner and outer ki.

"If the combatants are ready," said Rento, "you may begin!"

Lien sprinted towards Mugen, quickly closing the gap.  She ran up to him as if she was planning to attack, but as soon as she was within range, she flipped over his head, landing in the back of him and facing the opposite direction. She then quickly spun around to attack.  "Leaf Whirlwind!"

"She faster then she was back then," Mugen thought, "then again...so an I." He quickly jumped over her leg as it swept underneath him. Then in a turning motion back kicked her in the chest.



"Come on you gotta be faster then that," he said.

Seeing the kick coming, Lien crossed her arms to defend her chest.  Mugen's kick still knocked her back, but she remained uninjured and on her feet.  Pushing off the ground, she immediately dashed back towards Mugen with another attack. "Dynamic Entry!"

Back at the entrance of the leaf village, the two intruders are walking through the quiet streets.  About 96% of the village was attending the chunin exams tournament.  "I would have expected more security here," said Danji, one of the intruders, "It's like a ghost town in here."  "Should we perform the summoning jutsu now?" asked Rokku, the other intruder.  "No," replied Danji, "we must wait for the Raikage to give us the signal.  Until then, we must remain hidden."

Seeing the on coming attack, Mugen quickly flips out of the way, "huh, she gotten real good," he thought. As soon as he landed Mugen quickly struck back with a reveres spin kick aimed at her head.

"Woah... unbelievable," Renji said, quietly but amazed. Kazuma had explained his whole situation that occurred moments before. The realization of it all began to make sense. "This is bigger than I expected to be."
"Yeah, we need to keep an eye out," Kazuma told him.
"What we NEED is to tell the Hokage! This is way beyond our capabilities!"
"That's the last thing that we need; telling how there's a possible coup d'etat could break out into mass panic. We must be discreet, keep an eye out for anything strange." Renji opened his mouth to protest, but reluctantly nodded in agreement. "So.. What do you think he meant by that? a storm is coming?" With a deep breath, Kazuma said, "Bring a stain-proof umbrella... there's gonna be a downpour of blood.."

"A bloody downpour, huh," Yumi said as she stood behind them, "sounds like a real problem." Elsewhere Kitsune's teams began preparing for an attack while searching for Hiro and any other strange people in and around the stadium. "Team 1 ready...team 4 ready...team 16 ready," said Kitsune's earpiece as he was looking for Hiro. "If that Kazuma kid didn't get in the we would grabbed Hiro before he even know we were there," he thought as he searched.

Hiro, who was now hiding in the crowd, watched the searching anbu, "well, I don't think they'll make it easy for to reach the old man," he thought.

Not expectiing anyone to be behind them let alone listening, both Renji and Kazuma jumped back to face the kunoichi, kunai drawn and ready to fight. "Hey!" Renji shouted at her, "Who the heck are you??" Kazuma was beginning to open his mouth to say something, but all he could do was notice how unbelievably beautiful this woman was.

The kick hit Lien in the back of the head, knocking her towards the ground.  However, she used her hands to catch herself and got back onto her feet quickly.  "He's still very fast," she thought, "looks like I'll have to kick it up a notch."  Lien pulled down her socks, revealing training weights strapped to her legs.  She removed the weights from her legs and dropped them, causing the ground to shake slightly.  Lien pulled her socks back up and then quickly looked at Mugen, "HERE I COME!!" she said.  Almost instantly, Lien jolted towards Mugen and began to assault him from all angles.


"What's taking Hiro so long?" thought Anon, "The akatsuki are probably growing anxious." "Shall I go search for him?" asked D. "If the akatsuki contact me before he arrives then I will send you out. I'd rather not have both of my Jinchuriki wandering around here unnecessarily."

Meanwhile, Tanzu Shiboshi, the leader of squad one, approached Kitsune. "Sir, I have urgent news!" he said, "I found the two guards at the front gate dead just moments ago. I didn't see any suspicious characters roaming the streets but I fear that intruders may have taken advantage of our lack of security to infiltrate the village."

Seeing Lien's attack, Mugen block and dodged each one that came his way. "She as fast as I am," Mugen thought before he kicked Lien in the stomach then uses his foot to throw her on the side. "Now lets try that again," says Mugen before he attacks Lien with his own high speed attacks.



The news worried Kitsune, "sent another team to search the village," he ordered. That the same time Yumi was with Kazuma and Renji. "You're the one Kitsune was talking about aren't you," she asked, "I work for Lord Gaara and my job is keeping the chunnin exams safe but what I want to know is why you're getting in the way."

Kazuma snapped out being so vexed by her looks and regained his focus as he and Renji lowered their weapons. "I just had a feeling. An instinct of a hunch, if you will," Kazuma replied. "So I did what I usually do when things peak my curiosity: I follow it."
"And the fact that Kazuma caused a stir among Lord Gaara's lackeys only proves he was right," Renji added. "So you can start by telling us what exactly is going on here."

"You genin need to stay out over this," Yumi said harshly, "if you go out there trying to play hero someone will get hurt or even killed." She stops and take a bearth calming herself down, "if you really want to help: when things go bad make sure all the people in the stadium gets to the bunkers safely. Let the chunnin and Jonin handle the fighting and if we need your help 'I' will call you, understood."

"BUT-" Renji was interrupted by Kazuma raising his hand signaling him to stop. "Okay, we'll do whatever we can." Reluctantly, Renji nodded. "As soon has Hizana recovers, we should let her in on this. Shikaru and Mugen as well."

"It was bad enough when I stepped in on this mess," Kazuma said disapprovingly. "The last thing we would want is that impulsive moron to go out and play 'Bounty Hunter Vigilante' and end up paying for it. And on top of that," he paused as he looked at Mugen fighting, "he's still P.O.'d about Doske when he tried offing Hizana."

"Wow, Lien's really good just like Lee-sensei," says Akira as she watch her brother fight, "but the way Mugen's moving way is this new style?" "It's something he made up while training in the Hyuuga dojo," said Kaori, "in the dojo, Mugen would fight masters from all over the world. And would ask some of them to give him books and scroll on their styles." Akira sat back and thought about how much time Mugen would spend studying at home.

"So he mastered all of these styles," asked Akira, Kaori simply shook and said, "he didn't need to, this style: Nagare Ryū Style (Flowing Dragon Style) was made from the ground up using only four different styles: Taijutsu, Wado Ryu, Aikido, and Judo."

Mugen's kick knocked the air out of Lien, but she quickly regained her footing. As Mugen followed up with his high speed punches and kicks, Lien managed to dodge each one of them.


She jumped away from Mugen to create some space, during which she loosened her bandages.  Upon landing from her jump, she rushed in towards Mugen, avoided his counter attack, and kicked him up into the air, following up with several more kicks, sending him further into the air.  Using her loosened bandages, Lien wrapped Mugen up and then grabbed him from behind.  "Let's see how you deal with this," she thought.

Mugen smiled as he was wrapped up and said, "so you think you got, huh...that really cute." from behind Lien another Mugen was set and really with an attack, "you did a good job in the hand to hand part but not so well in the tactical part," he said before launching the ball of electrical energy from in between his hands at her, "Ninja Art: Raikyū!" (Lightning Ball)

Lien barely managed to roll out of the way of the attack, pushing off of the wrapped up Mugen clone.  However, the lightning ball hit the wrapped clone and some electricity passed through her bandages and shocked her.  Stunned from the shock, she hit the ground hard.  She sat up on the ground while rubbing her head from the pain. "Dang it, he's still managing to keep up with me even at this level," she said. She stopped rubbing her head and stood up.  "I didn't wanna have to use this on him," thought Lien, "but at this point it may be my only chance to win."  Lien began charging her energy and her skin began to turn red.  "Gate of life open!!!!!!!!!"

"Uh-oh, I was hoping it wouldn't could to this," said Mugen as he quickly took off his weighted clothes. He then focused his charka into his senses, "Eagle Vision, now let game begin..."

After Yumi left, Kazuma and Renji went back to watching the tournament. "Wow, those two are really good! Especially Lien, whatta babe!" Kazuma, despite showing interest in Mugen's "new style", remained unimpressed. "I'm actually surprised Thunder Thighs hasn't wiped the floor with that moron, considering he seems like he tries waaaay too hard to make a name for himself. Honestly, can this fight be moving any slower?"
"Hey," Renji began to say, interrupting Kazuma's train of thought, "When you mentioned how this battle seemed slow... You make it seem like you're able to keep up with the fight going on. "Well, there's that too," he replied back nonchalantly,"But moreso on the fact that they aren't moving as fast as I expected. At least, Kakusu-Ken isn't."

As the fight went on, Hiro was slowly making his way back to the Raikage stopping every so often to hide himself from the searching Anbu. "Man...this job really sucks...I'm gonna charge extra for this," he said angrily. Kitsune, who was equally pissed, searched the crowd hoping to catch Hiro as he tries to move. "This guy is good," he thought, "it seems the best I can do right now is slow him down." "Kitsune," said Yumi, "I've made sure the genin stay out of our way." "Thanks I owe you one later," says Kitsune.

"As long as its grilled pork and wine," she replied before returning to the search. Back in the fight Mugen used his now lighter body to charge at Lien with unheard of speed for a genin. "Now lets see were is your weak point," he thought as he scans her. He quickly notices a large mass of energy flow out of Lien's spine, "there you are..."

Lien rushed towards Mugen and the two of them began a high speed battle. However, although Mugen somehow managed to match Lien's speed, his strength had not increased, while Lien's had doubled. As he blocked her attacks with his arms and legs, he would feel like someone hit his limbs with a mallet. He couldn't keep this up for long.

"Man, that hurts more then I thought it would," he said as the two stopped for a moment, "but I think it about time we finished this." Reaching over with his right hand Mugen draws his sword form the back of his hips charged with the Chidori Sword. "Get ready Lien," says Mugen, "this is gonna hurt, Raiton no Yoroi  Lightning Armor!" Just like when Doske used it; Mugen's whole body was infusing with the Lightning charka greatly increase his speed, power and reaction time.

In a flash, Mugen was at Lien side, she only has enough time to look at Mugen as he struck her in the spine with the back of his sword. Using the Chidori in his sword, Mugen cancelled out the gate of life that Lien as using while not causing too much damage to her body. "That was a great fight," Mugen said before sheathing his sword.