JRPG magical items, when brought into a more 'realistic' setting, really were some concentrated bullshit.
From what Tobio could tell, the Elixir healed everything that could be considered the natural wear and tear in terms of damage, and restored your chakra to maximum capacity for good measure. Along with also scrubbing you free of any dehabilitating conditions in the process, though by what metric was still in the air. He had some strong doubts that it wasn't something that repaired existing genetic damage, or the mess with the telomeres that controlled aging in the first place. If someone had some outstanding issue, like muscular dystrophy, the condition was still likely to kill them eventually.
Of course, he didn't know if it couldn't one day be used as part of a chemical concoction to fix the aging issue. Tobio didn't know enough about medicine to understand if that was even feasible, nor did he know if he wanted to even live forever. Trying to chase that dream seemed like a slippery slope that would almost inevitably lead to Oni-Lichdom, no matter how cool that actually sounded. There were limits to how much his Eyes of Analysis could glean, even if he suspected he was getting some incredible insights into medical ninjutsu while he inspected them with it.
That was without comparing it to the standards of typical shinobi medical practices, in which case it was a miracle in a bottle. To his understanding, no one jutsu or technique in existence could fix half as much damage so quickly, and not without dehabilitating drawbacks. So while the fancy potion wasn't going to fix the concept of aging or someone's natural lifespan, he couldn't find it in himself to be too greedy for more in a situation like this. Especially when he was about to push the limits of what it should have been used for, here and now.
As a person aged, they suffered from innumerable microfractures, scar tissue build-up, and all sorts of wear and tear. When they were in a high-stress, combat-related profession, that damage built up even worse. Old shinobi were rare because of those reasons and more besides, but the thought of fighting some of those geezers without all of their age-related issues made Tobio's skin crawl. He was good, but against someone with decades of experience and the capability to get that creative in a fight for survival...
He didn't particularly like his odds. Not unless he was willing to reveal a few of his trump cards.
However, the beneficial aspects that it should theoretically provide to someone elderly was the reason why he was going through with this plan. It was the only reason why he was even considering this, a week before the exam. Revealing one of his aces like this made his teeth itch in all sorts of ways, but it was worth it. If only because of the possible benefits to the fact that he now had an excuse for why he possessed it.
Yeah, he wasn't keen to rope the Bears into a lie, but who the hell was going to be asking them anything?
"Were you going to explain why you needed the two of us for this emergency meeting, or not?" Tekuno-sensei asked a few days after the signing of the bear contract. "Contrary to what you might think, it's not easy to get meetings with the Hokage on short notice."
They were all standing outside of the man's office, the three of them, as Tobio shoved down the nervous jitters threatening to rise. It was nice to be able to maintain such supreme control of his body, if only so he could present a more unflappable exterior. Something he needed when Tekuno-sensei and Karin were both looking at him with a peculiar focus, and curiosity.
"I'm more confused as to why I'm even here," Karin admitted, crossing her arms as she stared over at Tobio, eyebrows furrowed together.
"You're the example for the classified presentation," Tobio bluntly stated, not seeing the point in hiding the truth from her. Not when she was about to find out very shortly. "It's the type of thing I got from the Bears that I cannot tell anyone about, if I'm being honest."
Once it got out that he had a magical drink that could cure any illness(and it would), people would be hounding him for very different reasons than his bloodline. People with terminally ill family members, nobles who want to be cured from their venereal diseases, and those who are otherwise so injured but could be brought back to full health from a single elixir. It was bound to be insane, which was why he was going to aim for this to be hidden behind all kinds of S-Class coverage.
"…Well, at least you've earned some goodwill to burn," Tekuno shrugged, closing his eyes as they waited for their short meeting.
"I appreciate the belief, sensei," Tobio smiled. "Trust me, it'll be worth the suspense."
By the time the secretary allowed the three of them inside, Hiruzen was sitting behind his desk, glancing over at their party with a curious glint to his eyes. "I'll admit, I didn't expect to hear from you again so soon. I take it this isn't concerning the matters that we discussed before?"
His eyes briefly flicked toward Karin, but he also didn't elaborate about the possible attack that Tobio had warned them of. Which made sense; the boy doubted that she was even still completely vetted yet. There was no guarantee she'd ever be completely okayed, not until they were sure that she had no sympathies outside of the village. Or were sure that she had too many ties to the village as a whole to really even think about treason.
Shinobi were many things, and trusting certainly wasn't one of them. As the Inquisition liked to say, innocence proves nothing.
"It's totally unrelated to those matters and…kind of tangentially related at the same time," Tobio began, raising a hand to forestall any questions at the slight creasing of the Hokage's brow. "You're aware I contracted with the Bear Clan, right?"
Karin gasped, glancing over at him with surprise. "You're a summoner?" Tekuno-sensei was too busy radiating a barely withheld smugness, though, saying nothing and looking immeasurably self-satisfied at the same time. It was kind of impressive how one man could look that insufferable.
Then again, he was responsible for a lot of where Tobio was today, due to his training. His sensei was allowed his flowers and a little bit of arrogance for training someone as badass as Tobio.
Hiruzen didn't miss a beat. "I am," he nodded in agreement, a slow dawning realization coming over his features. "Then this matter has something to do with the nature of your new summons."
"Yeah," the boy readily admitted. "So, the Bears haven't had a summoner in a good, long time, which means that information about them was relatively scarce. They actually gave me access to a unique medicine, and I realized it'd be appropriate to share it with the Hokage. Well, after I gave proof that it actually worked in the first place."
There was a brightening of his eyes at the mention of it before he glanced at Karin again. "I take it you brought her along to show off the effectiveness of this medicine?"
"Wait, that's why you brought me along?" She squinted, looking a little hurt at the action. "As an experimental guinea pig?"
He could understand why she'd feel that way, though the end result of using the Elixir was bound to change her mind. But she didn't know that, not at first, and he'd have to assure her of that fact. After all, Karin had just gotten out of being treated more like a tactical resource than a person. Tobio didn't want to continue that streak if he could help it.
"It's, uh, a bit of a doozie," Tobio admitted, glancing over to Karin with a smile. "Totally safe, too, and it restores your chakra in equal measure. The big downside is that I only get to carry around one at a time and have to get additional elixirs straight from the source."
"Sensible," Tekuno-sensei commented, nodding in agreement. "It keeps them from being stolen or amassed, and I can't imagine many would be keen to try and invade a summon clan's territory. That's a quick way to die an unfortunate, brutal death."
Man, Tobio appreciated his sensei filling in details that just flat out didn't exist in his lies. The guy was the real MVP here.
"Anyway, I wanted to offer it to you and Karin just because I felt as if it'd be beneficial."
Hiruzen paused, lips pursed in thought as he scrutinized the bottle in Tobio's hands. "If it's half as potent as you're making it out to be, I'd be a fool to refuse. However, the choice is up to young Uzumaki. She's the test case, and be sure that the medics will be picking over her response to the medicine with a fine-toothed comb if she does agree."
That was about as fair of a compromise as he could expect, and Tobio had suspected they'd spring for something like that. Not that he imagined they'd find a way to replicate the drink, though maybe they could discover some fashion through which they could emulate the effects to a significantly lesser degree. Food for thought, and certainly something that wouldn't happen until medical research was revitalized in the village after Tsunade's return.
If she returned, anyway. The timeline was all sorts of fucked with all of the major and minor bludgeoning he'd done to it.
For now his focus had to be on Karin, who looked him in the eyes with a pensive expression, searching his face carefully. "...Do you promise this won't do anything weird to me?"
That one was an easy question to answer. "Wholeheartedly, without a shadow of a doubt. It might feel a little funny when the effect begins working, but I promise you'll be happy with the results." Or well, he was hoping it'd do what he was thinking it might. There wasn't a total guarantee, yet considering the level of damage it could ameliorate…
He was willing to gamble on success for this instance.
Whatever she seemed to find in his resolute, confident words were enough for Karin, as she gently reached out to take the bottle from his hands. "If I end up frothing from the mouth, or thrashing on the floor, I'm going to be so pissed with you…"
"Fair," Tobio readily agreed. He'd be pissed in her shoes too if something went awry.
Popping the cork off of the top of the delicate-looking bottle, she looked consideringly at the container with the slightest amount of trepidation…before beginning to take the entire drink to the head. A few quick gulps, before it was done, and the Elixir was inside of her. Though that was where things began to get interesting in truth.
Especially as she gasped, and began to pull up her sleeves with trembling hands. Tobio hadn't gotten a proper look at her bite marks up to this point, but he knew they were there. Signs of the rough childhood that she'd had to endure, after her mother could no longer bear that burden in her stead. And now, each and every one of them was beginning to fade from her body with a miraculous speed and ease.
What was going on at the periphery of his sensory abilities were fairly interesting as well, at least on a technical level, with how the substance was interacting with her physique. He could also feel her chakra being buoyed, filled to bursting from the restorative effects of the drink and smoothing over little instabilities that most would never have noticed from her life force. Damage and wear, all of the little aches and pains that she might have accumulated over her short years, being removed by the raw potency of the concoction that the System provided. More than anything else, though, he cherished that wonder he saw in her eyes as the scars finally faded.
It was nigh fantastical, to see them shrink and fade, while a new vitality began to fill Karin at the same time. What was left in their wake was nothing but pristine, creamy skin, as she ran her fingers along her arms in delight. "They're gone…" She shakily breathed out, looking as if she couldn't believe it, before turning to face him with a big, beaming grin. "They're GONE!" Karin's eyes were outright beginning to water now, as she sniffled, trying to fight off the waterworks.
"Remarkable…" Hiruzen commented, his former caution replaced with his own kind of wary surprise. "As if they were never there. How do you feel, Karin-san?"
"Like a water balloon about to explode," she admitted, patting her stomach with a laugh, as she tried to wipe her tears behind her glasses. "I'm so full of chakra, and I've got so much energy now too. It feels…weird, but in a good way."
"That's part of what the Elixir does. Anything short of dismemberment, or the body part being wholly removed, it should fix. Diseases, recurring conditions, grievous wounds, it'll fix em' all, and also give you back your chakra for good measure," the boy explained, shooting Karin a smile. "Still, I'm happy for you."
With a wet sniffle, the girl crossed the distance between the two of them and caught him by surprise as her slender arms wrapped around his torso and brought him into a tight hug. "Thank you, thank you, thank you..." It also might have just been his imagination, but was she just straight up stronger now? Still, that was something for the medic-nin to investigate. For now Tobio merely returned the hug, patting her on the back with a huff.
"I had the capacity to help, so I did," he shrugged. "Nothing more, nothing less."
When she released him, Karin wiped at her wet eyes with a broad smile. "You'd be surprised how many people fail at just that much." More interestingly however, was at the periphery, as he felt the flicker of a connection begin to solidify between himself and Karin. It had been some time since this had triggered for him, but he'd never forget the tell-tale feeling of a new Brotherhood bond sliding into place. The metaphysical weight of someone tying themselves to his destiny, and vice versa, forevermore.
It turned out all he needed to do to gain her true trust and friendship was restore her health and remove the constant reminders of her traumatic past.
Tekuno hummed softly, looking over at Tobio with a smile. "Very useful for a new clan to have in their back pocket. Set up the right client list, and you'll be drowning in money from every sickly noble who wants a reprieve from death."
That was enough to make Tobio give his own toothy grin at the idea of that much money in his future. "Of course. I mean, I only get one a week, but earmarking a few every year for that purpose ought to be fine, and seeing about saving the rest for Konoha shinobi…for the right price."
There'd always be someone who needed a special, lifesaving panacea in the nick of time. And he'd be exactly the person to provide it for them, well into the future. His clan would not want for allies, not when there was a good chance they'd be responsible for saving so many ninja in the future, who in turn would have long memories of their own.
Ah, yes, this is what soft power feels like.
"Ignoring all of the political ramifications, though...you did a good thing, Tobio. I'm proud of you." There was an unmistakably warm, paternal smile turned toward Tobio's way, and the boy immediately tried to blink and glance away as his face heated.
Ah. Ah goddamnit.
"Are your eyes watering?" His troublesome, teasing passenger asked.
NO. I'm blinking away my MANLY FEELINGS.
"Ah, right, carry with your toxic masculinity."
Was it the norm to want to throttle your sword spirit? Blessedly, Hiruzen came to the rescue in order to keep things moving briskly.
"We'll need to see if there are any trace effects, but if not, I'm honored to be given a gift like this," Hiruzen readily accepted, beaming Tobio's way. "With how puissant a boon such as this might prove, perhaps I'll be able to wake up without aches in the morning."
Tobio shot the Hokage a dubious look. "I'm sure you're not half as frail as you claim."
"He's being humble, my thick-headed student. Perhaps you've heard of it?" Tekuno ribbed, glancing down at his student with a raised brow.
"Fair enough. That's pretty much the only thing I needed to discuss with you, Hokage-sama."
"And I'm glad to have it brought to my attention. For now, I'll fill out some paperwork for Karin's medical observation, yet besides that, you're free to leave. Dismissed."
The trio gave perfunctory bows, but Karin was still more than a little distracted, continually glancing down at her arms. It was clear that she was marveling at their clarity, with all of the other effects that came with it. She was walking a little taller, her face beaming with expressiveness.
Personally, Tobio had been more curious about what changes this would have. If Hiruzen had this tincture at the finals, would he manage to survive that fight with Orochimaru? Or would he end up still dying, but achieving even more in the process?
That was the problem with changing the future. You never knew what was going to come from doing so. For now, he was just going to have to wait and see what came of it. There wasn't any point in catastrophizing, not this close to the Konoha Crush.
Like always, the only way out of this clusterfuck was through it.
A month just didn't feel like enough time for what was about to happen, but he'd done his best to situate himself for the possible eventualities however he could. Tobio had invented a coordination jutsu from scratch alongside his friends; he'd honed his skills and abilities to new heights, and he'd given the village forewarning about the attack. Short of revealing the entirety of his preternatural awareness of the plotlines and deepest secrets of the setting, something that he wasn't prepared to do, it was now out of his hands. As frustrating and powerless as that might have made him feel, despite his own immense personal prowess.
Now, it was just a matter of weathering the storm the best he could. Some ANBU had even dropped by his apartment in the morning, scaring the daylights out of him, before they took the Elixir for transport to the Hokage for the possibility of betrayal later in the day. That was one loose end taken care of, though he was hoping that the man really wouldn't need it at some point that day. The most ideal sort of scenario was that the Crush just...didn't happen, but that was also a little too unlikely.
Outside of the very real enmity that Orochimaru had for his prior village and sensei, Suna was backed into an economic corner. After the last war their jobs had been drying up, something Tekuno had quietly confided to him, and no village could survive that slow decline for long. Nor would they accept the favor their daimyo showed to the Land of Fire's shinobi, as it was a personal slight beyond the professional element of it. There was a momentum to things, to history and happenstance, that couldn't always be stopped once it had started. A reckoning had been coming for a long time and this was the most likely outcome out of all of the possibilities.
He was thankful for the walk toward the arena, however, as it gave him the time to stroll through the village and clear his mind of distractions. Instead, he'd turn his focus not on the upcoming attack but the actual day's events leading up to it. One of the detriments of the original manga and anime was that it was, at its heart, a shonen action series. Many of the tiny details that presumably existed were brushed over during the original plot for the sake of brevity, and rightfully so. That didn't mean it wasn't important for him to fill in those blanks.
Konoha had hosted past Chūnin exams, and thus it wasn't that surprising that they'd already had a site situated for the event. While most Hidden Villages had their own variations on the testing cycles, they almost always ended in some sort of tournament structure. It was understandable, given the fact that shinobi were functionally weapons of war when they went all out. For the nobles that showed up to these tests in order to see the new cream of the crop for all of the villages, it was the thing that they looked forward to. Despite having samurai guards or hiring shinobi to handle all sorts of skulduggery for them, the raw spectacle of the fights had always proven enticing for them.
Or so Tekuno-sensei had told him in the lead-up to the finals. It wasn't just about winning your fight but winning in such a way that you proved flashy, overwhelming, cunning, or so brutally effective that your opponent couldn't muster up resistance. Given that these were glorified advertisements for the noble class, that made sense. Sometimes there'd be objectives that were given by the leadership of a village for a specific exam, yet blessedly Tobio had only one real order that'd come down from high.
Win.
With an order like that, how could he refuse?
It was a warm, bright summer day. The birds were singing, the sun was shining, and behind the scenes there were massed movements of concealed shinobi drifting through the periphery of his sensory range. He tried not to react to that unsettling knowledge as he came up to the massive arena complex. Situated in a large rotunda of sorts, the sky was open to the arena below. Everywhere else, like the stands for the spectators, was covered.
He showed up bright and early to the finals, alongside almost every other competitor. Personally, he'd wanted to pull a Sasuke and show up late to aura farm, but his sensei put the kibosh on that idea when he'd brought it up. In his words, it'd be "grossly unprofessional." There was definitely a naked Uchiha privilege to aura farm in the anime then, but he didn't fight the command all that much beyond some token protests.
Standing alongside everyone else, every ninja who'd passed the preliminaries and had presumably been training just as hard as him in their own ways, he felt nervous jitters. Maybe part of his nerves was the fact that he still felt like a fraud on some level. Standing here with all the other great and terrible future names of the shinobi world, in the middle of the massive arena, with the regard of the crowd on them. Nobility from across the Elemental nations, here to see the next crop of Sunagakure and Konohagakure excellence, assorted shinobi from the two villages, and his friends and sensei watching on as well.
There were no small amount of hopes riding on him, and that was before the events of the day were being taken into account. Much to his chagrin, his actual performance didn't actually matter that much, seeing as they were mostly buying time till the real battle kicked off in earnest. Tobio would have liked to be a fly on the wall during whatever planning and preparation might have come for Suna's betrayal, but he would have to trust that the people in authority at least knew what they were doing.
If only a little.
It wasn't long before Naruto came barging in as the last competitor who'd been missing, though, jogging in with a pant as he came to a stop alongside everyone else. Genma Shiranui glanced back at him before turning around, speaking to the line as a whole.
"For all of you, throw out your chests and look alive," the older man spoke, the barest hint of a smile across his lips. "In this main event, all of you are the stars. So make sure to give them a show."
At that, Tobio couldn't help but swallow a little more thickly as the roar of the crowd picked up.
Frustrating as he may have found it, the boy might have to show off more of his tricks than he'd wanted over the course of the day. His musings were interrupted, however, as the Hokage stood up, and his voice began to be projected to the crowd around them. In a moment whatever idle chatter and cheering was going on came to a slow close, as everyone's attention drifted over to Hiruzen.
"Everyone, thank you very much for coming to the Konogakure Chūnin Exam," the man spoke, sweeping a hand out toward the center of the arena. "In the face of the trials and challenges these brave Genin have performed to get here, we'll now begin the finals."
The order of the finals was about what he'd expected from Canon, if a little changed by the actual contenders who'd be fighting against one another. Naruto was still facing Neji first, Shikamaru had to contend with Temari, Tobio was brawling with Gaara, Kankuro was fighting Sasuke, and then Ino squared off with Shino. Unless something drastically occurred to the people involved in the span of a month, however, Tobio felt confident in his ability to predict who'd win their matches.
Neji was objectively a better fighter than Naruto and likely could even give Tobio a run for his money. Unlike Lee, who could wail on Tobio all day long, letting Neji get even a single hit in would be disastrous for someone…provided they weren't Naruto, who had chakra and stamina for days. Or who had the blonde's unconventional approach to combat.
Realistically, Shikamaru and Temari could go either way, especially considering how close it was in the original story. Kankuro against Sasuke would just end up in the Uchiha's immediate victory by the puppeteer's surrender, which would immediately piss off the red-eyed kid to no end. Ino and Shino would be an awful, no-good stomp on behalf of the living hive.
And Tobio against Gaara…
He'd like to believe that he had every tool to nonlethally take the kid down. It wasn't at all his fault that his seal was faulty and that the living kaiju in his stomach had been gaslighting him for years. That didn't mean he could take the redhead lightly, not when his blunt power was arguably the only force that could take him head-on after Lee.
"This is the final test," Genma spoke, addressing all of the children at the same time. It was enough to snap him out of the brief mental musings that he'd been indulging in, as his attention drifted back to their proctor. "The arena is different, but the rules are the same as in the preliminaries. You fight until one of you dies or acknowledges defeat."
Carefully, the man glanced around at the rest of them, stick perched in his lips. "But if I determine that the fight is definitively over, I'll step in and stop it. You understand?"
There were small nods from the rest of the competitors, with Tobio throwing in his own, before Genma was satisfied. "Now the first fight is Uzumaki Naruto vs. Hyuga Neji. Those two stay here, while the rest of you go to the waiting room."
Welp. They were in it now, for better or worse.
For obvious reasons, the competitors were both cloistered together and kept apart from anyone else. Cheating in Chūnin exams was practically as old as the actual form of examination. And beyond the obvious function of messing around with the testing apparatus was messing with the actual examinees. It was for that purpose they were kept apart from anyone who would otherwise tamper with the results of the matches.
Poison, intimidation, and subtle jutsu—any of these were totally viable options for shinobi to use. Especially when there were very real consequences and benefits for doing well and showing off your prowess. He couldn't begrudge them for it either, as the various competitors split off into Konoha and Suna sections, just naturally gravitating toward each other.
Standing next to Tobio as the match began in earnest, Shikamaru offered him a sidelong glance the moment Naruto began with making an army of clones. "Who do you think will end up winning between the two of them?"
"Neji, obviously," Ino commented, piping into the conversation uninvited. "Naruto might have gotten a little better since the academy, but he's worlds away from matching the Hyūga's youngest prodigy."
A little snort escaped Tobio at those words, as a smile drifted over his lips. "You'd be surprised. He's got more tricks up his sleeve than most people would expect."
"Yeah, tricks." Ino rolled her eyes, crossing her arms as she did so. "There's a difference between a few paltry pranks and techniques honed for centuries."
"I don't think anything is necessarily better just because it's older," Tobio hummed, giving the concept some thought. "Your clan's hidden jutsu is strong, to be sure, but it's also a known quantity in some respects for anyone who does even the slightest amount of research. Whereas the new, the strange, and the unexpected can be a quality all of its own when compared to refined jutsu."
Sometimes, having something that no one had ever seen before could prove tactically useful. His Balance Breaker, his Shadowflame, and a lot of the strange Oni powers he possessed were good examples of that concept.
"…Naruto can do it." Sasuke's voice came out of nowhere, like a stone thrown in a still pond. He'd been silent up to this point, watching the match with his red eyes, as things proceeded. "We're going to face each other at the end, so he won't lose to Neji."
Ino turned to face him, looking a little doubtful. "I mean, are you sure about that? It's Naruto we're talking about."
He could totally understand where she was coming from with her presumption, too. If they were purely using the Naruto of some months ago as the benchmark, his prior performance back in school did not inspire confidence. Yet technically, wasn't Tobio the same way?
Much to his surprise, however, Sasuke went even further to bat for the blonde. "Don't discount him. He's stronger than anyone knows." That was more of a rousing endorsement of his rival than Tobio could have ever predicted. It was enough to make the boy blink, and Ino's confidence to falter under the calm reserve in his voice.
"R-Right…" She trailed off.
Shikamaru thankfully had enough social awareness to change the conversation for the group, as he turned to face Tobio. "And your match with Gaara?"
That was enough to get Shino's attention from where he'd been quietly watching them converse between each other. Hell, even Ino seemed more interestedat the question, and Tobio was forced to give it some actual consideration. Or at least adopt a more pensive expression on his face, as he crossed his arms and tilted his head from side to side.
"…He's tough. Maybe even tougher than Lee was," he commented. If Lee had a great flaw, it was that he didn't have many esoteric ways of dealing damage, which was the best way to handle someone like Tobio. The same could not be said of Gaara,, however, considering that he used sand in a lot of versatile ways. Mostly as a blunt hammer for his problems, but if it worked, it worked. "Doesn't he have some kind of armor, too?"
Ino nodded. "Yeah, Choji tried to win by flattening him, but it didn't go that well."
"It's some sort of automatic defense thing, to my understanding," Shikamaru offered, lowering his voice. "And his control of sand is…impressive, to say the least. To my understanding, he inherited the Kazekage's own capabilities in that regard." A likely enough excuse if they didn't know he had a sandy bastard of a tanuki in his gut.
Closing his eyes, Tobio tilted his head from side to side, visibly pensive. "Well, I'm tough. That's probably the one thing I've got going for me above everything else. I've got some sword tricks that might be able to get through his armor. But unless I'm willing to burn myself to wick, it might be tough to pull out a victory."
"So you're going to lose?" Sasuke pointedly probed, as he watched Tobio carefully.
Opening his eyes and glancing over at Gaara, he could see the green-eyed boy staring intently at Tobio, with an eerie stillness. Certainly, the kid was going to prove to be one of the objectively harder fights he'd have. Yet even still, even with all of his foreknowledge about the boy's capabilities, and the threat he posed…
"Nah," Tobio grinned. "I'd win."
If he ended up dying out there, these would be some famous last words.
The match that concluded before them was…mostly the same to Canon, with a few slight differences. Like the fact that for the first time that he'd ever seen Naruto, the boy seemed to be fighting with some actual forethought put into it.
He still threw waves of Shadow Clones at Neji, to be sure, yet that was his signature capability. Tobio, whose fondness for starting fights by immediately exploding at people was well-known, could hardly throw stones in his glass house. It was something that no one else could do without risking straight-up death, something they shared in common.
But it was how he used those tactical applications of a forbidden jutsu, where he used his clones to bait Neji into attacking specific ones, just so he could open up avenues for an attack…
More than anything else, it felt as if the boy was fighting smarter, not harder. He'd won this fight originally by setting a trap and baiting Neji into it, and he won the same way this time around as well. It just wasn't such a one-sided beatdown for much of the match in this timeline. A Naruto learning how to fight to his strong points.
How terrifying.
If there was one thing that Tobio was happy for, though, it was to see the boy get his flowers—metaphorically speaking, anyway, as people cheered on Naruto upon his success. They would cheer on Neji, too, but he wouldn't look a gift horse in the mouth. The blonde really needed more people in his corner.
"He actually won?!" Ino blurted out.
"It was not that surprising," Shino quietly commented, as the crowd cheered. "Why? Because Neji allowed himself to be fooled by the presence of the clones."
"Admittedly, this isn't something anyone else could do," Shikamaru pointed out. "Maybe that makes it all the more impressive. Naruto won by doing the one thing that was totally unique to him."
It didn't take long before Shikamaru and Temari were called, though, as he clicked his tongue in irritation while the last two competitors were taken off the field. He glanced over, looking over at Temari, who met his gaze evenly, before the Nara heir sighed. "She's going to be troublesome, isn't she?"
"Yeah," Tobio nodded.
"…Wish me luck."
"You'll be fine, you big baby!" Ino yelled, slapping him on the back. "Now go get out there and kick her ass."
With a beleaguered sigh from the second troublesome woman in his life, he moved to enter the arena grounds as well, while the match began in earnest.
Like any real test of shinobi values, the ground just did not benefit Shikamaru at all. There were some shaded areas around the rim of the arena, where there were trees and other small shadows for his clan jutsu to benefit from. Temari, on the other hand, could throw jutsu-shiki at him with her massive fan. It was still costly in terms of chakra, to be sure, yet offset by the tool and the fact that air jutsu almost always had their element around to use. That way, they didn't have to make it from scratch.
With that said, Shikamaru had one glaring benefit over Temari. The boy was fucking smart, maybe even smarter than Tobio, likely smarter than him. Which was saying something, considering the things that Depths of the Mind had done to his brainpower. During the battle, he was doing things that were pushing the limits of what he was capable of.
However, when it came down to it, naturally, Temari won.
Wait.
Tobio blinked, unsure of what he was seeing there, as Shikamaru surrendered, having failed to catch her with his shadow through Naruto's dug hole. It was not quite how he'd expected things to go, but the boy was battered enough that he wasn't going to begrudge him for doing so. The matchup just wasn't good for him.
"God, he lost?" Ino sighed. "Not even by getting knocked out, but by surrendering."
"Sometimes there's wisdom in fighting another day," Shino commented. "Why? Because it preserves your strength."
"More likely he was just lazy, and didn't want to go the distance," she scoffed.
"He didn't have an easy match. Go easy on Shikamaru," Tobio pointed out.
A huff escaped the blonde, before Tobio's own battle was being called. And unlike Sasuke, he couldn't push it back any later. It was time to face the music.
"…Make sure you win," Sasuke commented. "I want to fight you. Properly, this time."
Tobio snorted, as he began to walk out of the holding room for the examinees. "I'll try."
One short trip through the complex, and he was walking out onto the field. For a brief moment, he focused his eyesight briefly to scan the crowd for his friends. Just like he'd expected, Tekuno-sensei, Hibachi, and Ami were present together. What he hadn't been expecting, though, were the other girls mixed into that group with them. For some reason, Ami, Karin, and Fū were sitting next to each other. They were even deep in a conversation, intermittently looking down at him and pointing.
Was there something he needed to be worried about there? Interrogating the origin of that mild concern for a few moments, the boy shrugged and just put it out of his mind. Yes, he was sure that conversation was fine. There was nothing he needed to be concerned about being discussed between them, because Tobio had done nothing wrong at all, and he was sure their common interests expanded to things outside of him.
So why was he sweating?
Instead of focusing on the collision of his three different aspects of his social life, Tobio looked over at Gaara and took the boy's measure. There was something electric in the air when he locked eyes with the redhead, the two of them standing apart from one another. For a few brief moments it felt like the world had faded away, and there was nothing but the two of them in this great, big space. Two titans of their own weight classes, coming together to battle.
His blood was fired up at the thought of the fight. No matter how dangerous it'd end up being for not only himself, but the people around them if things got crazy.
"You're strong," Gaara spoke first, arms crossed and the slightest smile on his lips. There was something about it, though, where any apparent mirth completely failed to meet his eyes. It made Tobio feel as if he was under a microscope, or like one those preserved insects people stuck to a board. Examined in a fashion that felt almost invasive.
"I've been told that, yes."
Cocking his head to the side, those jade eyes tracked Tobio's body unerringly. "So what is strength to you?"
Huh. Good question, and not exactly what he'd expected to hear from Gaara before the match began.
"I guess…" He rubbed at the back of his head, sheepishly smiling over at the redhead. "I guess it's the ability to live the kind of easy life I want to live. To know that I'm the strongest, and because of that strength, everyone around me I care about is safe, secure, and living their best lives. What about you?"
Gaara didn't even hesitate to respond. "Strength is proving my existence. The act of pleasing mother."
"…Yeah, alright, that checks out." This was a Gaara early enough in the timeline where he was still a little fucked in the head. Maybe it was dumb of him to hold the Shippuden evolution of the Jinchūriki in his head still, in the face of this person who hadn't gone through that character development and arc.
Who might not ever go through it, with the changes he'd made to the timeline.
"Are the fighters ready?" Genma asked, glancing between the two of them.
"I'm ready," Tobio confirmed.
"Yes," Gaara bluntly stated.
"Then…let the match begin!" Jumping back to get out of the way, Tobio felt that old, familiar calling. When all of the world bled away to a pinpoint moment of singular bliss.
Just him, an opponent he needed to beat, and the thrill of battle. He reached for his sword and moved.