Chapter 64: Wait, I'm Fighting Sakura?
No surprises: Akatsuchi won.
A future Tsuchikage bodyguard versus a girl whose entire kit was bell-based auditory genjutsu — it was never going to be close. The stone golem Akatsuchi summoned hit the ground hard enough that the shockwave alone broke Kin's concentration, and with her genjutsu disrupted, she had nothing left. Senbon needles against that? The damage output wasn't there. One clean haymaker later, Kin was out cold — Akatsuchi apparently having no interest in pulling his punch on account of her being a girl.
"Nice work, Akatsuchi!"
Kurotsuchi's cheer rang down from the second-floor corridor the moment Hayate called it.
Kakashi gave Akatsuchi a sidelong look. Handpicked team, clearly.
"Second match."
The board shuffled.
SASUKE UCHIHA vs. DOSU KINUTA
Sasuke stepped off the corridor railing and dropped to the floor without waiting to be called.
Every eye in the room followed him down.
The Uchiha name still carried weight in the shinobi world. The last Uchiha carried it more.
"Hm." Kurotsuchi's mouth curved slightly as she watched him land. "He's kind of cute."
Kitsuchi, standing beside her, gave the boy a very measured look.
Nobody was watching Dosu. There was nothing to watch.
Sakura watched the match anyway, mostly out of habit, already knowing how it ended. In canon, Dosu couldn't touch a chakra-depleted Sasuke. Right now Sasuke's at full capacity with both nature and shape transformation in Lightning Release dialed in. This is a cleanup job.
The body modification techniques Dosu had were tailor-made for someone to get wrecked by a lightning-natured opponent. The match was over before it had the courtesy to begin.
Time moved.
Temari vs. Tenten — Temari wins.
Zaku vs. Shino — Shino wins. (Nobody had told Zaku that blowing out his own arm canals and then trying to use them again was a bad idea. Shino's bugs had a wonderful time.)
Chōji vs. Kiba — Draw.
Sakura watched the smoke clear on that one with the corner of her mouth twitching. Inside that smokescreen, the Human Boulder and Fang Over Fang had somehow managed to knock each other out with near-perfect simultaneous timing.
These two are terrible actors.
Naruto, Shikamaru, Chōji, Kiba — those four had been thick as thieves since they were little. Whatever deal Chōji and Kiba had just cooked up in that cloud of smoke, they'd clearly gone over the details in advance.
Kakashi stared at Chōji being carried out on a stretcher, idly scratching his backside, and sighed quietly.
NARUTO UZUMAKI vs. DOSU
"Oh yeah!"
Naruto vaulted the railing before the words were fully off Hayate's lips.
Across the arena, the bandaged boy had gone slightly green.
He'd already fought this kid in the Forest of Death. He knew what a wall of shadow clones felt like, and he knew what a Rasengan to his sound equipment felt like. He had no equipment left to destroy and no desire to find out what came next.
"I forfeit."
Hayate looked at him. Looked at the board. Looked back.
"Dosu forfeits. Winner — Naruto Uzumaki."
"Wha — already?!"
Naruto was back upstairs in under two and a half minutes, visibly cheated out of a fight.
The board reshuffled.
GAARA vs. SHIKAMARU NARA
Shikamaru stared at his name on the screen. His cheek twitched.
...Gaara. Of all people.
In the Forest of Death, the Ino-Shika-Chō squad had crossed paths with the Sand team briefly enough to clock Gaara's methods. The memory had not faded.
"Shikamaru, go get 'em!" Ino called out, doing her best teammate impression.
"Dead on arrival," Shikamaru said flatly.
He turned to Hayate.
"I forfeit."
"What?! Shikamaru, seriously—"
"I forfeit," he said again, with great finality, ignoring Naruto completely.
Gaara opened his eyes briefly, glanced at the pineapple-haired kid, and closed them again.
"Next match — Kurotsuchi vs. Kankurō."
The Tsuchikage's granddaughter and the Kazekage's son dropped into the arena without ceremony.
Kurotsuchi, Light/Heavy Rock, born in the air. Kankurō, puppet jutsu, built for the ground.
"Ugh. Annoying," Kankurō muttered, staring up at her.
He knew her background. She knew his. The problem was she'd gone vertical immediately, and from up there she could see every wire, every hidden mechanism, every attempted sleight of hand. His puppets had ranged projectiles, but at altitude she had the angle on all of it.
He went in anyway.
It wasn't close. Stone spikes rained down in a steady rhythm — low chakra cost, easy seals — and every time Kankurō tried to maneuver, Kurotsuchi drifted down just long enough to kick him, then went back up. She talked the entire time: idiot, moron, you call that a puppet, a running commentary of gleeful contempt that combined with the physical beating to comprehensively destroy his concentration.
By the end, Kankurō had forfeited less because of the physical damage and more because she had made him too angry to think straight. She'd played him like an instrument.
"Next match—"
Hayate looked at the board.
"SAKURA HARUNO vs. INO YAMANAKA."
The Konoha section went quiet in a way that wasn't quite quiet — more like a collective drawing of breath.
Everyone knew about those two.
"Wait—" Ino squinted at the screen and rubbed her eyes. "I'm fighting Sakura? Is this real?"
"Yep," Shikamaru said, smile taking on a specific quality. "Consider it your guaranteed ticket to send her to the next round."
Ino turned to look at him with profound displeasure.
"...Just because it's Sakura doesn't mean I can't—" She straightened. "I can win!"
The conviction faded slightly as she said it, but she went down anyway.
"Lady Sakura, go for it!"
"Sakura, come on! Flatten her!"
Rock Lee and Naruto from the second floor, nearly in unison.
"Both of you, shut up!"
Ino glared at them. Bowl cut and blonde, both insufferable.
"Ino."
Sakura stood with one hand raised in front of her chest, fingers formed in the sign.
The Konoha seal of opposition — the traditional gesture that said: we are sparring. Whatever happens here, we still trust each other with our backs when it's over.
Kakashi's visible eye curved into a crescent.
This is probably the most civilized match we're going to see today. He thought about Chōji and Kiba and their mutual theatrical unconsciousness. The bar is low, but still.
Ino looked at the sign. Pressed her mouth flat — unsuccessfully. The corner of her smile broke through before she caught it, reassembled her serious expression, and raised her own hand in the same seal.
Sneaking off in the middle of the exam to spend the night with some red-haired stranger she'd just met. Ino had not forgiven that. She intended to make her feelings on the subject physical.
"Don't think I'll go easy on you just because we're friends, Sakura."
She settled into her stance.
"I'm coming for you."
(End of Chapter 64)