Zetsu paid close attention to the match between the two girls. He never expected the Senju brat to be able to use Mokuton Jutsu. At first he just saw the name in the documents and decided that it would be fun to put Hanako against her, although he never planned for this. Everything was going actually better than what he had expected. Hyori's Mokuton was still too basic, but he had to take into account that she was still young. She was around Hanako's age, maybe a little bit younger.
Zetsu let out a low chuckle, Madara couldn't possibly know about this, or else he would have asked for the Senju brat as well. Hanako seemed to have taken a liking into her or else the kid would have been pulverized by now —the Uchiha trained with Madara mainly on her offensive to beat Isao, which meant her defensive was a little off. Her speed and her fire jutsu improved greatly but the rest...she didn't even think about it.
Zetsu decided not to mention anything about the Senju for both hers and Hanako's sake. He could alter the fight when he was about to show it to Madara anyway, instead of wood he would make it look as if she attacked with earth jutsus.
"Not bad..." Hanako smirked at the Senju. The smoke was finally clearing out, so Zetsu focused once again in the fight. "I thought you said you were going serious," Hanako commented. "It's that really all you've got?" Hyori tightened her hands into fists until her knuckles turned white.
"I'm just saving the best for last." The Uchiha frowned at that. "You just wait for it." With that said, Hyori launched herself against her opponent aiming a punch at her face. Hanako saw this and received the hit with her palm. Hanako's eyes widened at its force of impact and wrapped her hand around the Senju's fist. Hyori clicked her tongue and aimed for a kick at Hanako's side but the Uchiha grabbed her ankle with her free hand.
Hyori smirked. This was best for her since now the Uchiha didn't have any more hands to stop her hits. She formed her free hand into a fist and directed it to Hanako's head. Hanako tilted her head sideways, letting the fist past. Hanako's eyes focused on the Senju's hand and that's when she noticed the fine layer of chakra surrounding it.
"I see... That's how it works..." Hanako muttered under her breath, letting go of the Senju and flipping backwards. Hyori frowned and concentrated her chakra on the soles of her feet and pushed her way towards the Uchiha, trying her best at landing a hit on her. She aimed everywhere she could. Up. Down. Left. Right. But Hanako evaded all of them by moving her body away from her fist just in time. Hanako observed cautiously each of her movements, noticing the small wave of chakra that came from the Senju's fist every time she hit the air around her. Hyori moved fast, Hanako could only evade her hits thanks to her Sharingan and her speed.
"Dammit!" The Senju girl cursed. She couldn't hit her. Hanako at that moment jumped away, and landed a great distance away from her. Hyori only started at her with an angry look.
"You're good," Hanako commented, raising her hand, opening and closing it slowly as if trying to alleviate some kind of pain. "I had forgotten you use chakra to increase damage and speed of your Taijutsu. If I hadn't put chakra into my hand in the first hit, you could have easily broken it." The Uchiha looked up at the other girl with an amused smile. Hyori didn't say anything and again, launched herself at full speed at Hanako. "Come on, I'm getting tired of this game." Hanako commented as she saw through the Senju's intentions. She was aiming for a kick at her ribs but yet again she grabbed her ankle and smirked. The Uchiha pulled her and spun around throwing her away. Hyori gasped as she went flying across the arena. When she hit the ground, she rolled for a couple meters, leaving a trail behind as she slid backwards. "When are you getting serious?" Hanako looked at her while crossing her arms in front of her chest. Hyori smirked and chuckled lowly.
"You didn't see it, huh? Good." Hanako narrowed her eyes at what she said. What hadn't she seen? She was sure she had paid attention to every single one of her movements. "How about now?!" Hanako's eyes suddenly widened when she felt a chakra source coming from beneath her. Hyori made her way out from the ground and landed a powerful punch on her stomach, drawing all the air from her lungs. Hanako went flying backwards until she crashed against the wall of the arena, crating it and making it tremble slightly. The Hyori that was previously lying on the ground turned into a wooden doll.
Everyone at the arena suddenly stood up and ran towards the railing, trying to see what happened to the Uchiha, but all they could see was the dust that rose from the impact. The arena went silent for some minutes until the dust cleared up and they stared at the Uchiha, leaning against the destroyed wall with blood trickling from her mouth and the back of her head.
"Is she unconscious?"
"Whoa! That punch sure was powerful!"
"Is she even alive?!"
Everyone in the arena started muttering their own guesses. Itachi tightened his hold on the railing. Hayate approached the Uchiha girl cautiously. He could feel her chakra surrounding her, he didn't know for a fact if the girl was out but he was sure she wasn't dead. Up close she didn't seem to have received that much damage, the only sign of it was the blood staining her clothes. Hayate sighed but he was alert once he felt the girl move.
"That...hurt..." she muttered silently, but loud enough for him to hear her. Scratch her being unconscious. She was awake and alive.
"That was quite a blow. You should rest, I'll finish—" Hayate started raising his hand but Hanako stopped him by wrapping her hand tightly around his wrist. Hayate looked down at her, clearly surprised.
"Don't you dare stop the match," she hissed, cleaning the blood from her mouth with her free hand. "I'm just getting started." She finished with a smirk as she stood up and looked at Hyori with her Sharingan activated.
Cheers suddenly erupted from the balconies as Hanako walked until she stood a few meters away from the Senju. Shisui smiled softly as his eyes focused on the brunette. He knew Hanako wouldn't be that easy to defeat. Itachi also knew this and sighed relieved when she stood up. He hadn't expected the Senju to be this strong either. Zetsu, on the other hand, seemed quite entertained with the fight.
Hyori looked seriously at the Uchiha with her eyes narrowed. That blow should have left her unconscious, why was she awake? No, she wasn't going to lose. Without giving a second thought she made a hand seal.
"Mokuton: Daijurin no Jutsu!" Hyori extended her hand and her fingers stretched out turning into wood. Hanako jumped away just in time to see the wood crash against the wall, destroying it even more. The Uchiha landed on the ground and skidded a few meters back.
"Tsuyoi..." Hanako muttered while focusing her eyes on the Senju. She had improved quite a lot since their last fight. She smirked while pondering a plan, it was better to find a way to finish the battle quickly or else it would extend for too long. She pulled out bunch of kunai with explosive tags attached to them and nailed them close to the Senju. Hyori looked at them cautiously, none of them were close enough to cause her any type of damage, and so what was the trick?
The tags exploded, creating a smoke curtain that surrounded Hyori. Hanako walked into it, deactivating her Sharingan since it was rather useless now that she couldn't see anything. She focused on her sensor abilities to locate the Senju and ran towards her, hitting her from all her blind spots, which the Uchiha deduced from her previous attacks.
"This is for that last punch," she muttered finally as she landed a hit on her left cheek which made Hyori land roughly on the ground panting. They stood like that until the smoke cleared.
"The tables turned pretty quickly," the Tsuchikage commented. "Those girls are pretty entertaining." The Third Hokage looked for a moment at Oonoki to find him staring intently at the Uchiha girl with his eyes narrowed.
"Possibly," Hiruzen commented as he turned back to the arena and observed the Senju girl trying to stand up after the beating she just received inside the cloud of smoke.
"That's enough, Hyori," Hanako said as she stared at the Senju who had trouble even standing properly. "Let's leave it like that."
"No." Hyori straightened up and looked at her determinedly. "I haven't lost yet." She made yet another seal with her hands. "Mokuton no Jutsu!" Wooden pillars emerged from all the ground that even the proctor had to dodge.
"Why do you continue?!" Hanako inquired, standing over one of the pillars. Hyori stood in the pillar in front of her.
"I don't want to lose to you." The Senju was so determined, it made Hanako tighten her hands into fists. "People always talk about the Uchiha Clan being one of the strongest clans in Konoha...but what happened to the Senju? Did everyone forget about the Uchiha's longtime rivals?" Hyori shook her head. "I want to fight for my clan, and I want to defeat you, Hanako Uchiha." At that moment, she made some hand seals and attacked the Uchiha with wooden stakes. Hanako pulled out a kunai and surrounded it with wind style chakra, using it to cut through the wood and jump down to the ground. "Why aren't you using your Sharingan?! Are you underestimating me as well?!" The Uchiha sighed at that and shook her head.
"No. I constantly use up chakra when I have it activated since my body molds a lot to be able to keep up with my opponent. Although I haven't used too much chakra, I have no way of assuring how much time this fight could take, so it's better not to waste it," Hanako said with a shrug. 'Besides,' she thought while looking sideways at Isao, 'I need to save my chakra. According to Obito, Iwagakure plans to attack after the Chuunin Exam is over and everyone lets their guard down.'
'This kid...' Hayate narrowed his eyes while looking at the Uchiha. 'It's more than obvious that she has experience in a real fight, something that no Genin should have yet. Plus, a normal Genin shouldn't be able to handle an attack like that as if nothing. Just who is this girl?'
"Unlike you, Hyori," Hanako continued. "I don't use my chakra in useless techniques trying to hit my opponent. You should stop and think if it'll work before wasting your energy imprudently." She frowned. "In a mission, not only your life will be at stake but your comrades' as well. The probabilities of a jutsu working depend on a good strategy. And for that there are various factors that you must analyze." Hanako's eyes softened for a moment. "Hyori, I don't need to have my Sharingan activated to see that you're already out of chakra. You're at your limit, the battle is over."
"You're wrong...This is barely the beginning!" Hyori launched herself at Hanako again but suddenly felt dizzy in midair and felt as if all her energy was being sucked out of her. Hanako noticed this and caught her before she could get hurt.
"I told you, stop it." Hanako sighed tiredly. "If you don't want to, then I'll have to—" she started saying as she slowly lifted her hand but the Senju stopped her, gaining her attention.
"Don't." She did her best to stand up and face the girl with the little strength she had left. "We will finish this battle until one of us loses consciousness."
Hanako stared at her and smiled softly, closing her eyes. "Fine."
Hayate suddenly stood in the middle of the two girls and extended his arms towards them, pushing them away from each other. "I think it is enough."
"We don't." The Uchiha responded firmly. "We want to finish this," she said, staring intently at Hyori.
"If you don't let us fight inside the arena, then we'll just have to continue outside of it." The Senju agreed with a playful smirk.
"Just give me one minute and I'll finish this," Hanako said with a shrug earning a glare from her opponent.
"Excuse me?!" Hyori snapped with a vein popping from her forehead.
"You just can't leave it like that, can you?" Hayate asked with a sigh.
"NO!" The two girls replied in unison.
"I'll show you who the winner is, Uchiha!" Hyori pointed her finger at Hanako which only made her chuckle.
"Sure you will." She crossed her arms over her chest. Suddenly wood-like ropes appeared from the ground and wrapped around the girl, tightly. Hanako gasped and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving a log in her place.
"What?!" Hyori widened her eyes. She thought she had caught her off guard.
"2...1..." Hanako muttered in her ear when suddenly she felt a stinging pain in her neck and everything around her turned black as she fell to the ground unconscious.
Hayate raised an eyebrow at her. This ending was just...unexpected. Hanako looked at him as if she hadn't done anything. "What? I told you it'd be over in a minute." Hayate looked over at the Senju and shook his head. "She couldn't fight anyway. I wasn't kidding when I said she had run out of chakra, or else I'm certain she would have avoided that." Hanako added. Hayate sighed.
"The winner of the second match: Hanako Uchiha." After that, people started cheering from the balconies. Hanako turned her head to look at Kazuki and smiled upon seeing him, happily jumping and shouting. After that, her eyes drifted to Shisui, who only stared at her with a serious expression. Hanako frowned. 'He couldn't still be mad at me, could he? I won after all.'
Shisui seemed to notice that the Uchiha girl was looking at him and took the chance to mumble something with his lips. 'We need to talk. NOW.' After saying this, he suddenly vanished into thin air. Hanako narrowed her eyes, what could he possibly want now.
The medics had already taken Hyori out of the arena, and Itachi and Isao were already heading towards where she was standing. Hanako sighed when Itachi suddenly stood at her side. "You had an interesting match," he said in his usual calm voice. "Congrats." Hanako looked at Itachi sideways and nodded.
"Thanks," she replied curtly before heading back to the waiting section, where Hiroki expected her. When she passed in front of the entrance to the arena, she noticed Shisui was lying against the wall and motioning for her to come at him with his fingers. Hanako rolled her eyes and changed her direction to walk towards him.
Itachi stood in the middle of the arena, facing Isao as he waited for their match to begin. Every once in a while, he would turn his head towards the waiting section, somehow expecting the brunette to be there watching his match as she cheered at him. But again, Itachi was disappointed to find only Hiroki supporting him. Hanako wasn't there. Was she really that mad at him to leave right after her match was over, not even bothering to wish him good luck?
He sighed. Maybe there was a reason to it he couldn't understand at the moment. But he was definitely not going to let her be mad at him for long. After this match was over, he needed to speak to her.
Itachi turned back his head to his opponent, only to find him staring at him amusedly. "Don't worry too much, after this you'll have plenty of time to get her back," he commented in a chuckle. "I just hope she's really into bluffers like you, or else, you'd be wasting your time." Itachi frowned. "Although, on the bright side, if she isn't here, she won't be a distraction for you, which means we can go full on each other." Isao added with a playful smirk.
"Good...start!" After the proctor said this, Itachi immediately activated his Sharingan at the moment Isao made the seals to become invisible.
"You should know that jutsu doesn't work on me," Itachi said as he pulled out a kunai from his pouch and launched it towards Isao, nailing it on his arm. The Iwa ninja chuckled as he reached for the knife in his limb and pulled it out revealing his new earned wound.
"You have some fine eyes." Isao said in a mocking tone. "I think this means I'll have to go serious against you." The smirk vanished from his lips as he played with the kunai in his hands. He made his body completely visible once again and got into a fighting stance.
"Are you still mad at me?" Hanako asked as she leaned tiredly against the bark of a tree. She had followed Shisui towards one of the training grounds far from the arena after he had motioned for her to meet him. Shisui had remained extremely silent around her, which only convinced her of her assumptions.
"Well, I think you know why," he replied, staring seriously at her. He wasn't glaring, although she pretty much felt it that way. "Hanako, it isn't possible for you to have trained alone in one week and improved that much. You were way faster than in our trainings" Shisui narrowed his eyes. "And I'm sure I never taught you a fire jutsu that powerful. That jutsu is A-rank, a Genin shouldn't be able to perform something like that. I don't even know it myself." He was now looking incredulously at her. "Where the hell were you?"
Hanako shrugged. "I found it in an old scroll of jutsus of the clan. It's no big deal, I can teach it to you if you'd like." Hanako lied as she thought of Madara. She couldn't say anything about him, or else things could get pretty nasty between her and the village. Shisui sighed, he knew she was lying but shook his head.
"Nevermind. You did pretty well." He finally smiled softly at her. "You never cease to amaze me. I'm pretty sure you're already a Chuunin, so I'll just congratulate you in advance." Hanako smirked, feeding with pride at his words. "But yet, why was your match changed?" Her smirk was slapped away from her face as she remembered the reason for her anger towards Itachi.
"You might want to ask Itachi. He spoke to the Hokage about it." Shisui chuckled at that.
"It doesn't surprise me. Although, now that you mention it, there was another reason I brought you here to talk." The Uchiha commented as he got serious all of a sudden. Hanako looked at him strangely. "The attack Iwagakure is planning against the village."
Isao was panting, kneeling on the ground. He held his head as if he was in pain.
"I think I should call for the end of this match." Hayate commented as he raised his hand. "The winner of the last match: Itachi Uchiha." Everyone cheered from the balconies at the winner, but he was too focused on the waiting area to care. Hiroki was shouting at him, praising him for his victory. But this didn't feel good to Itachi, this didn't fulfill him. Suddenly his eyes widened when beside his teammate, the brunette suddenly appeared and stared down at the arena with a surprised frame.
Itachi smiled softly. She had come. He jumped towards the railing of the waiting section and stood in front of her. Hanako, upon noticing him, took a few steps backwards, getting suddenly uncomfortable at the closeness.
"I understand if you're mad at me, but there's something I need to tell you." Itachi suddenly said, before any of them could say anything. Hanako looked up at him, as a frown formed on her face. "I did ask the Third to consider the battle arrangements, but he never agreed to change them." Hanako's eyes widened upon hearing this.
"You mean that..." Itachi nodded.
"The Hokage didn't change the matches."
"But only he can..." The Uchiha girl was confused. If the old man didn't change the opponents, then who did?
"He didn't." Itachi's eyes softened as he drifted his gaze away from her eyes. "I'm sorry, I should've told you. I just...didn't expect you would get this mad." Hanako pressed her lips before sighing.
"Fine. But I'm still angry at you though, this doesn't change the fact that you doubted me." Hanako replied while crossing her arms in front of her chest. Itachi smirked slightly as he stepped down from the railing and into the ground of the waiting area, and took short but quick steps towards the brunette. Hanako eyed him cautiously.
"I'm also sorry about that. You proved me wrong." Itachi said and stood right in front of her. "I'll never doubt you again." Hanako's lips twitched upwards a little bit but she made her effort not to smile. She knew she couldn't stay mad at Itachi too long for reasons she couldn't seem to understand, but she couldn't let him win that easily over her.
"That doesn't change anything," she said in rough voice. Having the boy so close to her, made her want to giggle nervously and she was having a hard time trying to contain her laughter. Itachi seemed to notice this as a smile formed on his lips. He knew that she had already forgiven him, she was just playing tough. Although for him was amusing to play along with it.
"If it makes you feel better, Hyori was way stronger than Isao from what I saw. Itachi beat him in less than ten minutes." Hiroki commented, gaining the attention of both Uchihas. They had forgotten for a moment that he was still there with them and right know he was watching them with a playful grin and mischievous eyes. Hanako felt the color rise to her cheeks and looked away from the boys.
"Don't brag about a fight I didn't watch. I will fight Isao anyway, so I don't hold any grudges towards you, Itachi," Hanako said in a serious tone as she regained composure. "I just came to tell you that tonight, Iwagakure will be attacking the Hokage mansion."
* * *
"I'm quite disappointed in you, Isao." His sensei spoke to him in a low voice. "You were defeated so miserably by that Uchiha." Isao only shrugged.
"I didn't want to extend the match for too long. The Tsuchikage was already growing impatient." He replied while tightening his hands into fists. He lost against the Uchiha, he couldn't deny that. But he could have done so much better if he didn't let himself get caught in his Genjutsu.
"Are you aware of the kind of performance you gave the Kages back there? You should be ashamed." Isao frowned.
"I'll make up for it, tonight. Don't worry about it," he said in a menacing tone. He couldn't stand when his sensei spoke so casually to him, he couldn't understand what he went through to be criticizing him like that.
All the Iwagakure ninja that had come to apply for the Chuunin Exam regrouped in the hotel the village had readied for them. Now that the Exam was over, they were to leave the village the next morning.
"We have to leave soon." Rui reminded them.
"Yes." One of the senseis nodded. "We'll leave tonight. But before that, we're going to attack the Hokage's mansion. We are going to set the building on fire, and head towards the village before they figure it was our doing. The Tsuchikage is already on his way, we'll meet him at the border." Everyone nodded their head and started packing their bags with all their belongings. Isao stood at one corner of the room, observing everyone with intent eyes. The time for his revenge had finally come.
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