Naruto made hand seals.
Rat- Snake- Tiger- Yang Water- Bird.
Water from the air condensed into a serpentine coil, swirling and spinning.
Hinata dodged its snapping bite and jumped back from it.
The veins around her eyes bulged, and she tore apart the water dragon.
She thrust her palm forward, and Naruto flew backwards.
What was that?!
Vacuum palm. A highly compressed chakra blast, Tobirama supplied.
Hinata dashed in, and Naruto easily repelled a strike.
Naruto stabbed his blade into the ground, and the landscape shifted under Hinata's feet, cracking and shaking.
Her balance gone, Hinata jumped back to stable land.
Naruto took the time to prepare another jutsu.
Bird.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!
Naruto breathed out a gale comparable to a hurricane, and Hinata was swaying, barely able to keep her hold on the ground.
The gale stopped, and Hinata rushed back in, chakra charging and building around her fists.
Naruto made a hand seal.
Clone.
A hundred clones appeared from nothing, and they all charged at Hinata, swords in hand.
Chakra swirled to life in Hinata's hands forming the shape of a lion.
She punched away ten of the clones before Naruto noticed something.
Then, all of the clones stabbed themselves, and Naruto got the chakra from them back.
"What is that?!"
"A special jutsu. Am I correct in postulating that you didn't get any of the chakra or memories from the clones I dispelled?"
Naruto's mouth settled into a thin line.
There was probably some sort of bluff at play, but the one thing that he knew for sure was that his zero-cost jutsu was no longer zero-cost.
Naruto sighed.
Just like usual, can't get hit by those hands.
Naruto summoned a knife and threw it at Hinata. It sailed harmlessly past her head, and then detonated.
Hinata was knocked off her feet and hit her back.
Naruto flickered in and pointed his sword at the base of her neck.
"I am not giving you a chance to paralyse me while you're on the ground. The Gentle Fist is busted."
"I surrender," Hinata said. "Good job."
He offered a hand and helped her up.
"Keep growing and learning. You're making progress."
She smiled. "Of course I will."
The two flickered up to the Fighter's booth.
"Great showing," Shino said.
The Uchiha twins glanced at each other, shrugged, and blurred away.
"Ready?" Sayuri asked, blade drawn, bouncing on the balls of her toes.
"I've been ready for years. The question is: are you?" Both of their sharingan burned with chakra.
"Of course."
The proctor lowered his hand. "Start!"
—
Sayuri knew, in her heart, that her twin was the stronger of the two. If it wasn't true when he had the sharingan and she didn't, then it was definitely true now.
If Sasuke decided that he wasn't messing around anymore and pulled out Amaterasu or his Susano'o, she was screwed.
If Sasuke started charging the chidori up close, she was screwed.
If she let Sasuke stay too far away for too long, she was screwed.
She had determined all of this before the fight even started.
But, she was smarter and calmer.
So, how did she leverage that to win?
Sasuke fired a hail of arrows, all of which Sayuri either deflected or dodged.
She blasted towards Sasuke at full speed. Sasuke had already begun to lean back from the sword swing she hadn't even started.
Sasuke made a hand seal.
Tiger.
Oh screw that-
Sasuke blew out a fireball right in front of her. Sayuri blew off most of the soot off her clothes with a rush of wind release.
You're a maniac! She shouted. You hit yourself with your own jutsu on purpose!
Yeah, and it worked!
Sasuke threw three kunai at her, all with explosive tags trailing behind them.
Sayuri caught them and threw them back.
The tags detonated.
A massive, conveniently opaque dust cloud hung in the air.
You're going to do something incredibly dramatic like stepping out of the smoke, aren't you.
You're right, I would. Sasuke stepped out of the cloud. In my defence though, I wouldn't have been injured by those explosions.
Sayuri dashed forward and slashed.
Sasuke batted the swipe away with his bow.
What I wouldn't give for a faster, stronger quickdraw...
No matter. She sheathed her sword and punched Sasuke.
He dove right, and formed another jutsu.
Horse.
Oh no.
Sasuke's voice came out very clearly through the link.
Fire Style! Great Fire Annihilation!
Sasuke exhaled a sea of fire over ten metres high, and thrice as wide.
She made a hand seal.
Clone.
Shadow Clone Jutsu, huh? Picking up all sorts of tricks off Naruto. Sasuke grinned.
Then, with her clone, two others.
I really, really wish that I could weave multiple sets of hand seals at the same time, she mentally grumbled.
Don't we all, Sasuke replied.
Bird.
Wind Style: Great Breakthrough!
Horse- Tiger.
Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!
A gale and a torrent of flame burst out of their mouths then mixed together.
The two waves of fire crashed against each other, then dissipated.
The clone popped, and she felt the reassuring rush of power as the chakra the clone had returned. How the hell does Naruto deal with this?
While Sasuke's movements were obscured to her, she began to notice a fizzling sound, and lightning chakra gathering in his hand.
This jutsu is still unfinished, but...
...screw it.
Bird- Monkey- Ram- Hare- Horse- Tiger- Dog- Rat- Ram- Monkey- Ram- Bird.
Wind Style! Lingchi!
Hundreds of tiny wind blades whirred to life in Sayuri's palm.
Both Uchiha charged, slamming their jutsu into each other.
Both were blown back, but Sasuke was able to get up.
Sayuri staggered to her feet and held her arm high.
"I surrender."
"Sasuke Uchiha will progress to the finals! There will be a twenty minute intermission while we repair the arena!"
Huh. Nice attack, but I won, Sasuke thought at her.
That you did, she agreed. I wasn't exactly fighting the most advantageous battle against you.
You two did great! Naruto assured them. And now I have to fight Sasuke.
That you do. Try to last longer than thirty seconds, alright?
Sayuri was hauled off on a stretcher, and medical personnel collected Sasuke as well.
"I can move," she said.
"We know. We're going to give you both a scan for any potential injuries, let you go watch the last match if your injuries are minor, operate on you if they aren't."
"I'm fine," she restated.
"We'll see about that. You were hit with a lot of high-power attacks. You know, the stuff that we actually have to examine."
She grumbled some more before accepting it and lying down.
She closed her eyes.
Gods, she hadn't rested in a while.
Just a few minutes, she told herself.
—
When she came to, she was on a table.
"Yeah, so her vitals are working fine, some minor first degree burns scattered on her forearms and face, her right hand is damaged across the palm, tell her she probably shouldn't be gripping anything- oh good, you're awake."
"How long has it been?" She asked.
"Nineteen minutes. Final match starts in a minute," one medic said, pointing at a clock.
"Great."
"Yeah, so you probably shouldn't grab anything with your right hand for a couple of weeks while your hand heals, oh, also that jutsu you used did damage your hand, not too much, but definitely noticeable damage."
"I thought Sasuke's chidori did that," she groaned.
"Partially," he agreed. He began to bandage her hand. "It certainly compounded the damage, if nothing else. Well, that's that. You can go spectate now."
"How's Sasuke?"
"Your brother's fine, somehow. His hand isn't nearly as damaged, although that could be because your jutsu didn't land in full."
She hopped off the table and flickered away.
"The intermission is now over! Final Match! Sasuke Uchiha Versus Naruto Uzumaki!"
The two boys flickered on the field.
"I didn't expect the crowd," Naruto said.
"Me neither. I mean, we've just torn through the opposition like tissue paper. This'll probably be the only match involving either of us that lasts longer than thirty seconds."
"You ready?"
"As ready as I'll ever be."
"Let's make this a good one," both said.
Sasuke made a hand seal.
Horse.
Fire Style! Great Fire Annihilation!
Fire rushed out of Sasuke's mouth.
The wave of fire racing towards him, Naruto formed seals.
Rat- Snake- Tiger- Yang Water- Bird.
Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet!
A watery wyvern wrapped around itself from the ambient water in the air and slammed into the inferno.
Steam reached all the way to the edges of the spectator seats. Even with her sharingan, she couldn't see anything the two were doing.
The steam cleared from their movement, shockwaves wracking the stadium.
Naruto summoned dozens of knives and threw all of them at Sasuke.
They transformed into clones and deflected the kunai that Sasuke had thrown at them.
They charged.
Sasuke destroyed a few of them with taijutsu before jumping up -while redirecting all the fire thrown around by the explosions- made a hand seal-
Tiger.
-and destroyed all of them with a wave of fire.
The torrent of flames did not stop at the clones, though.
Naruto made a single seal.
Monkey.
A wave of water rose up in challenge and crashed into the flames.
A gust of wind expelled by Naruto blew away the steam.
Sasuke crashed into Naruto with a kick. He blocked, grabbed Sasuke's leg, and threw him into the wall.
Sasuke landed on the wall.
He started making hand seals.
Ox- Rabbit- Monkey- Dragon- Rat-
He jumped off the wall.
Chakra surged in Naruto's right hand, forming a sphere.
Bird- Ox- Snake- Dog- Tiger- Monkey.
Lightning screamed in Sasuke's palm as he continued to fall down.
Naruto jumped up to reach him, and their jutsu clashed in a spectacular show of light.
And then the rasengan exploded, sending the both of them flying away from each other.
Fuck, that hurts, Sasuke groaned.
Ugh, crap. That'll take me a few minutes to heal fully. Naruto winced.
Sasuke stumbled to his feet.
Naruto did, as well.
Naruto made hand seals.
The chakra that formed the Susano'o faded in the dust.
That was pretty good. Of course, once I stopped fucking around, my bullshit dojutsu won, so... yeah.
Naruto groaned. I wish I had an attack that could rip through your Susano'o. Preferably a ranged one.
The proctor flickered back into the arena. "The winner of the sixtieth Chunin Selection Examination Tournament is Sasuke Uchiha!"
The crowd roared.
A ninja appeared next to her, and she had to try very hard not to stab the ninja as soon as she felt her chakra so close to her.
"We're interviewing the top three in the bracket. Please come with me to the interview room."
She shrugged, and followed her up.
The ninja stopped at the door, and motioned for her to enter.
She sat on the plush couch opposite the (presumable) civilian. A cameraman stood in the back of the studio.
"So, you're Sayuri Uchiha! My name is Hanashi Tanoshi, but you can call me Hana. I guess we both have flower names, huh? I mean, they're all calling you "The Graceful Lily in the Forest." But, tell me. How did you feel about getting that far into the tournament? I mean, your last match was quite the spectacle!"
Sayuri smiled. "It was... interesting. I don't really know how to feel yet. It feels like it's all still processing in my head. Honestly, I think the stage fright got to me."
Hanashi nodded. "Well, I can tell you that you really looked like you were in your element out there. You were a complete natural! But, you were here for something. What was it?"
"I need to be strong for two people in particular," she replied. "We swore to get strong together, so I took the exams with them."
"Your teammates, right? Quite dashing young men, both of them. If you don't mind, could you tell me what you think of them?"
"They're both smart, but dumb. Sometimes they can be insufferable, but I love them."
Hanashi laughed. Sayuri smiled wider. "It's great to know those two boys have an anchor like you by their side."
"No, that's not really true. Naruto's more of the anchor between the three of us than I ever could be. He basically built us back up after..." she trailed off.
"Ah. Right. I was trying to avoid the topic, but I do feel for you. The last daughter of a clan destroyed by one of its own! I can't totally sympathise with you, but I do know what it feels like to lose close family. But so young..."
Sayuri's voice took on a sad lilt. "Yes..." Hanashi rose from her chair and hugged her.
Embarrassingly, a tear trickled out of Sayuri's left eye.
"You poor thing, I wish I could help you more," she murmured. Sayuri pulled her in tighter.
When was the last time she'd gotten a hug from somebody who wasn't Naruto or Sasuke...?
Too long, she decided. She leaned in. "This is more than enough," she said, wiping a few tears that crept on the edge of her vision.
"I suppose that'll have to end it," Hanashi said. She made a motion to the cameraman, who stopped recording.
Sayuri separated herself from her and bowed. "Thank you."
Hanashi gave a wry smile before returning the gesture. "It was my pleasure."
"At any rate, I need to get back to my team. Our invitations are going to expire very soon."
"Bye! I hope you enjoyed your time in Kumogakure!"
She smiled, and flickered away.
-----
The chunin exams are done! Sasuke fucks with his eyes just a little bit more, Sayuri and Hinata reveal new jutsu in their respective repertoires.
The ripples of an aware and alive Hiruzen shall begin to spread.
Orochimaru remains unaware of this development as none of his subjects are anywhere near Kumo. You simply don't want to fuck with a hornet's nest with the capabilities to bomb you out of existence. Immortal or not, Sannin or not, Orochi just isn't coming out of Kumo alive if he goes there to square up with Sasuke.
And that's not even taking into account that he'd probably get two-shot by him. Genjutsu+ Amaterasu= GG.
So, I'm currently building a backlog of chapters, and when I get a decent amount (like, twenty chapters ahead), I'll go back to weekly uploading.
Anyway, that's that, see ya!
(Oh, also I accidentally sent this early, so you might get this notification twice)