Chapter 11
"First of all I congratulate you on finishing the second exam" All 5 days had gone by and only 22 candidates including myself got here in the end. I glanced around at the remaining people. All the rookies were here as well as Neji's team, some sound ninja and Gaara's team of sand ninja. Standing before us was the hokage, Ibiki, Anko and many other jonin including the rookies sensei's.
"Now pay attention. Lord Hokage is going to explain to you the third exam.. Lord Hokage, they're all yours" The hokage stepped forward and cleared his throat "Before I tell you about what the third exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself. I am going to tell you the true purpose of these exams" At this point I really couldn't be bothered to listen. Shiro would just explain everything to me later on.
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"Lord Hokage, before you do. Please allow me, Hayate Gekko appointed as proctor for the third exam to speak first" A man with a bandana on was kneeling in front of us candidates. This was what I heard when I tuned back in. Whateve this Hayate guy has to say would probably be important. "So be it" Hokage stated with a rusty voice. "It's nice to meet you all.." Hayate had a small coughing session "Urr.. we have to have a preliminary exam before we move onto.. the real one"
"Just what do you mean by that?" Shikamaru exclaimed. "Sorry sensei, But I really don't see the point. Why can't we just move on to the real exam?" This time it was Sakura. I sighed 'They'll never change huh?' Shiro chuckled and shook her head - no.
"Urr.. well the fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the ruled of the exams, a preliminary round may be held at any stage, in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining. It's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit" Most of the candidates had annoyed and frustrated expression whilst I smirked. "If any of you feel as though you are not in top, physical condition, now the chance to.." I sweat-dropped as our proctor had another coughing fit.
"Sorry about that. As I was saying, any of you who don't feel up to this, now's the time for you to back out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately"
"Cmon! You mean right now!?" Kiba yelled angrily.
"We just finished barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break?" Ino spoke up, her shoulders dropping.
"The winners will be determined by one on one combat, sudden death. So, if there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it, now's the time to raise your hand" No one raised their hands.
"Ok. We will now begin the preliminary round. This round will consist of one on one individual combat, full battle intensity. This is not an exercises. There are 22 of you remaining, so that means there will be 11 matches. The surviving candidates from these 11 matches will advance to the third exam. There are no rules. I might occasionally intervene if the match seems hopeless, to save as many lives as possible. Now it's time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you" Hayake glanced up to a screen on the wall. "The names of each pair of opponents are chosen at random. Before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. Lets begin!"
All of the candidates names flashed through the screen in orange. We awaited anxiouse as to who would be fighting first. It stopped. "Those whose names have been drawn, come forward" Hayate called out.
I smirked and took a step to the front. At the same time, kabuto had as well. "You have been chosen for the first match. Kabuto Yakushi and Suki..." He trialled of not knowing my surname. "Any objections?" I shook my head - no. "None at all" Kabuto stated, the edge of his lips pulling up into a smirk. "Alright, lets begin the first match. Everyone else make your way to the upper level"
"Good luck Suki-chan!" Naruto called as he, Kakashi and every other person cleared the area. However, I noticed Sakura and Sasuke stayed behind. I walked up to them and tilted my head in confusion. "What's wrong?" "We want you to drop out Suki" I narrowed my eyes "And why would I do that?" Sasuke stepped up, grabbed my arm and pulled up the sleeve "This is why! This mark, I have a bad feeling about it" I sighed and then smirked "This? This is nothing. It isn't dangerous.. nope.. not at all. Anyway, just go up and watch my match!" Sakura sighed and pulled me into a hug "Fine.. but be careful" I nodded and she walked away. "Go on Sasuke. It's not like you to worry" I winked and he grunted before walking off.
I noticed Kabuto glaring at me. "I'm sure you'll need all the luck you can get. Don't think I don't know about your powers" He smirked darkly while I grinned "I know.. but! You only know about 'that' power and I'm not exactly planning on using it in our fight.. so, I guess you've hit a dead end Kabuto" I smiled innocently. He scoffed and didn't retort in any way.
"Ready.." Hayate started "And.. Begin!" As soon as he gave us the signal to start I grabbed a kunai out of my pouch and ran at my opponent. Kabuto got into a defensive stance and pulled out his own kunai before running at me as well. The sound of metal clashing echoed off every corner in the room. I jumped back and threw the kunai. Kabuto knocked it away and his hand started glowing. He ran at me and hit me in the stomach, I winced at the contact "Is this all you can do?" He taunted, still wearing a smirk. I glared at him and grinned "Not at all!"
I knew the technique Kabuto was using. By concentrating chakra to the hand, the user is able to sever the oponent's muscle fibres at the point of contact. Only ninja's skilled with medical ninjutsu can use it properly.
After secretly healing my torn muscle I performed the necessary hand signs and whispered 'clone: great explosion'. Next to me appeared 2 clones. Kabuto had a 'really?' look in his eyes, which meant he couldn't tell the difference between them and normal clones, I grinned. Sending my clones forward I did the next hand signs. 'Ninja Art: hidden mist jutst' (One of the Jutsu's Zabusa taught me). I barely seethrough, thick mist appeared all around. "W-what's going on!?" Naruto shouted, the confusion clearly in his voice. The only thing you could hear through the room was my clones fighting of Kabuto. 'Now that my plan is in motion, let us begin' I grinned darkly.
"Release!" My clones exploded at my command. This explosion set of my paper bombs which were currently placed all around Kabuto. Just before the fire got to me, I jumped back. As soon as the smoke and fire had gone I sent a burst of wind forward, shoving away the mist, making the area seable again. Kabuto was nowhere to be seen, all there was, was a large crator in the ground and some rublle which fell of the nearby walls.
Feeling a presence form behind I twisted my body and blocked a punch. Kabuto smirked and kicked me backward. I rolled across the ground, however jumped to my feet before hitting a wall. I sprinted towards him and sent punches and kicks, which he happened to black everytime. Kabuto and I ended up in an all-out taijutsu battle, blowing things up here and there.
Kabuto sent a kick to my left upper body, I countered by blocking his kick with my own and finally saw an opening. His left side was unguarded. I smirked and did rapid handsigns "Earth release: Earth Dragon" I shouted. The ground to my right lifted up. A large dragon shot up and ran straight for Kabuto, he was too late to doge and was kncked away. His back slammed into the wall. Pulling out some senbon I threw, with chakra to add speed. They hit Kabuto in some vital organs, causing him to spit out some blood. I let the dragon break apart.
I smirked but Kabuto, all of a sudden, disappeared into a poof of smoke. "Shit! It was a clone!" I muttered to myself. "That's right" A voice whispered into my ear from behind. His hot breath tickled against my neck in a creepy way. Being in such a position I was kicked in the back. I rolled across the ground and ended up cracking my right shoulder as I hit it against the wall with force. I let out a small scream of pain and winced as I tried to move it.
All of a sudden I was gripped by the neck and lifted into the air. Kabuto smashed me back against the wall and I felt myself being strangled. "You know.. I've always wanted to see what 'that' actually looked like" I heard the smirk in his voice. "N-no..!" No one can see it, most of the genin won't know what it is.. but, the jonin and hokage.. i'm sure they'll figure something is suspicious. "COME ON SUKI-CHAN! FIGHT BACK!" Naruto shouted down at me. I tried to speak but.. couldn't anymore. His grip on my throat just kept on tightening.
I watched with worry as Kabuto pulled down my shirt, I stuggled against his grip. Suddenly an idea came to mind. I closed my eyes, dug my nails deep into his skin and focused on his chakra. As soon as I opened my eyes, I sucked away every single bit of chakra he had left and took it as my own. My hands shook as this happened and my body glowed white. Kabuto's grip on me was lost and I fell to the ground "Y-you.. t-took it all..!" he stated in between breaths.
A roar then filled the room and an almighty push mixed with sparks of electricity knocked Kabuto towards the end of the room. He tried to stand back up again however, when he did so, he collapsed to his knees. I smirked and walked up to him. Pulling out a kunai I was about to kill him, when my curse marks acted up. I dropped the kunai and It landed with a 'thud'. My hand instantly shot up to my elbow and I also fell to my knees. "AHH!!" I couldn't resist the urge to scream. "Suki!" Sakura shouted. I glanced to them and noticed Sasuke gripping the rails, leaning forward, his face full of worry. I smirked and got back to my feet, struggling a bit.
For some reason a weird silence spread throughout the room. I looked up towards the upper level. Everyones eyes shone with shock or confusion. I glanced down at myself and gasped. 'This is why they were looking at me' More than half of my dragon tattoo was showing. The blue jewel was glowing and the tail of the dragon stretched further than when I saw it last time. It covered the bottom of my neck and all the way towards my belly-button. Quickly covering it up again I glared at the proctor "Are you just going to stand there? or are you going to call the match?" Hayate flinched before clearing his throat "The winner of this match is Suki!"
I sighed in relied and walked up towards the upper level. I noticed medical ninja's placing Kabuto on a stretcher and taking him somewhere to heal him. Rolling my eyes I walked over to my three friends. Smiling I said "Hey guys!" Naruto suddenly glomped me "Suki-chan! You were great!" "Haha.. thanks Naruto" He let me go and walked me to the wall besides Kakashi, who was keeping his eyes on me.
All of a sudden someone with really large eyebrows stood before me. recognising who it was "Lee!" I exclaimed wrapping my arms around his neck in a hug. "I'm happy to see your doing better" He laughed and gave me a thumbs up "Of course i'm alright. It's all thanks to the power of youth. You fight was great you know!" I grinned and thanked him.
"Suki! What was that weird dragon marking?" Someone asked. I glanced to my right and saw shikamaru's team. Behind them was Neji and TenTen. Kakshi and the others, I noticed was also listening in. "I have no idea as to why your on about!" I stated as I turned to look the other way.
I knew they were about to question my answer to 'their' question, but cut them off by saying "Hey look! The screen is showing us who'll fight next" They turned to glance at the display screen and I smirked seeing the name.
Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado...