The crowd was dead silent at the announcement. Everyone was staring at the floor with disbelief and befuddlement marring their expressions. There were small mutters and whispers amongst some who had been spectating. When Genma called the match, Naruto released the seal, deactivating the paralysis seal on Neji. The medic team rushed to the floor to get Neji who still found it hard to move. Genma just stared at the blonde genin blankly as he gave one of his signature grins. He began to whoop and cheer as he took a victory lap around the arena. The audience still had a hard time grasping what just happened.
In the jonin stands, Anko was whooping and cheering as well, much to the annoyance of her colleagues. She visited every gambling ring she participated in with a large grin on her face and her eyes filled with ryo and yen.
"Woo hoo! Brat, you just made me one rich bitch!" she cheered as she collected her money. "Run me my money, bitches!" she said with a cackle.
"He really won." someone said, completely struck by the results.
In the genin booths, the rookies were fairing no better. Ino, Sakura, and Ten-Ten's jaw literally hit the ground at what happened. Even Choji had stopped munching on his bag of chips in shock. Hinata's expression was a mixture between surprise and awe. She found it amazing. The way he went neck-to-neck with her cousin was incredible. She had never seen neither Naruto or Neji fight like that before. A sense of insecurity washed over her as she thought about their skill. Although she had been practicing with her father more, she still felt insufficient compared to Neji. It was the feeling of ineptitude that fanned the flames of determination in her eyes. 'I will be worthy to stand by your side, Naruto-kun.' she thought to herself with clenched fists.
Once Kiba snapped out of his shock, he turned to Hinata who was staring down at the blond who was currently celebrating his win. Her fists were clenched and her eyes burned with a fire that he had never seen from her before. It was like she was in a trance. 'Wonder what's going on with her...?' he inwardly commented as he turned back toward the arena to see Naruto leaving the area. 'He was really taking it easy on me, wasn't he?' Kiba said in deep thought as he stroked Akamaru's head.
In the Kage's booth, Hiruzen narrowed his eyes as Naruto left the arena battleground. He had recognized some of those maneuvers and made a note to check something after everything was over. He glanced at the Kazekage who looked at the blond genin with interest. Hiruzen frowned at the look in his eyes. He had known Rasa for a very long-time and new that he was a man of few words. He had also been one who loved his village and placed its well-being before anything else. Even though they were allies, he was still cautious of him. The Leaf's relationship with the Sand had been rocky. It also didn't help that the treaty with them had been nearing its expiration date. Sunagakure was always an undecipherable nation. No one never knew where they particularly stood in the international arena so suspicions surrounding them were well-founded.
"That's Kyuubi jinchuriki, correct?" Rasa finally asked, much to Hiruzen's shock.
The Kazekage glanced at Hiruzen's shocked face and chuckled. "You shouldn't be too surprised, Lord Hokage. Your people are quite the chatty bunch." he replied.
Hiruzen grimaced at that comment, but didn't say anything. The booth was silent for a minute before Hiruzen finally had the voice to speak.
"That would be Naruto Uzumaki, genin of Team 7." Hiruzen said.
"You know, to be able to battle that Hyuga prodigy of yours on equal footing is an impressive feat." Kazekage said. "That was an entertaining battle and the boy proves to be full of surprises."
Hiruzen just stared at the battleground exit. "You have no idea." he said to no one in particular.
Soon, Genma had returned to arena floor with a slip of paper in his hand. He raised a hand to silence the crowd and grab their attention. Once the stadium was completely silent, Genma charge chakra into his throat and began to speak.
"Because of an unexpected delay, we will now have a 10-minute break before the next match." Genma announced, earning a few mumbles of complaint and boos from the audience. "Please take this time to get refreshments, handle any business you may have, and visit some of our local vendors. We will resume shortly." he said before disappearing the arena floor.
"Well this sucks." Kiba said as he stood and stretched. "Me and Akamaru are going to get some jerky, you want anything Hinata?"
Hinata was pulled out of her musings and slowly turned to her teammate. She offered him a small smile, earning a light blush from the Inuzuka. "I'm fine, Kiba-kun. Thank you for asking though." she replied.
He grinned a her. "Sure thing, Hinata." he said as he left his seat and walked up the stairs. Choji followed, telling Ino that he was going to get some more snacks, not that the girl cared.
"Sasuke's up next, right?" Ino said as she saw Sakura's eyes brighten up.
"Y-Yeah. I think so." Sakura said.
"I wonder how he'll do." Ino said. "That Gaara kid looks scary."
"What do you mean?" Sakura said with frown. "Of course Sasuke will win. The Suna boy has nothing on him."
'Yeah, our Sasuke has this in the bag! CHA!' Inner Sakura yelled.
Ino smirked. "I guess you're right." she replied.
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Naruto whistled as he walked down the empty corridor. He stopped at the door that had the sign for men's restroom before walking in. He walked pass the vacant stalls and toward the section of urinals. Stopping at the second to last, the boy began to undo his trousers and handle his business. A rather annoyed look came about his face as he felt a familiar chakra signature approaching the restroom. As he finished and flushed the urinal, he redid his pants and turned around only to be glomped by a pair of breasts. Now Naruto had no problem having his face buried in a nice pair of tits, but at the moment, he was doing something very private and this woman was invading his privacy.
"Have you know shame? Walking into a men's restroom. You ought to be glad I don't charge you for child molestation." Naruto said, but came out smothered.
Anko rolled her eyes as she release. "Aw, shut it gaki. You know you liked it, you little perv." she said with grin. "It's not like you have anything I haven't seen already."
"Hn." Naruto responded. "What do you want, woman?"
Anko's grin seemed to widen even more. Naruto was suddenly pulled up by his collar and he felt her lips on his whiskered cheek that was dangerously close to his lips. Anko continued to grin as she put him down and pulled out wads of cash from her pockets.
"Lady Luck has been kind to me today. You just won me a shitload of money, brat!" she said with stars in eyes.
"I don't suppose you'll give me my fair cut since you were kind enough to bet on my win." Naruto said with a raised eyebrow.
Anko scoffed as she turned around to walk away. "No fucking way. I have too much dango to buy and a couple of barrels of sake. Be glad a came to thank your little ass." she said, earning a sweat-drop from Naruto. "Besides, I know that you're filthy fucking rich. You should be ashamed of yourself. Trying to take money from the poor. Greed doesn't suit you, Naruto-kun." she said with a disappointed head-shake.
Naruto just chuckled in amusement as he walked to the restroom sink. "Bye, Anko." he said as she walked out of the restroom.
"Later, brat!" she responded before the door closed.
Naruto sighed as he grabbed some paper towel before turning the water off. He unsealed his scroll from the his arm before unrolling it. Pulsing chakra into the seal, a black bag appeared in puff of smoke. Naruto quickly began to change into his gear. Once he was dressed, he resealed everything and created a special type of clone he had been working on. The clone was wearing the same orange outfit that Naruto was wearing not long ago and looked at its creator expectantly.
"You know what to do." Naruto said. "And handle Gaara if need be."
"Hai, boss." the clone responded as Naruto transformed into the infamous ANBU Commander Kitsune. He saluted him before disappearing in a shunshin, leaving the clone alone. He had somewhere important he needed to be and he had no time to waste.
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Kitsune reappeared next to the Hokage in the Kage booth, scaring half of the occupants. Naruto saw the subtle tense of the Kazekage's shoulders as he turned to greet him. He forced himself to look the Commander in the eye, not wanting to give anything away.
"Greetings, Kazekage-sama." Kitsune greeted with a polite bow.
"Your greeting was well received." the Kazekage said with a nod before quickly turning to look at the arena floor.
Kitsune then turned to the Hokage with an humble bow as he usually did. "Hokage-sama." he greeted.
"Kitsune." Hiruzen replied with a small smile. "You may rise."
Kitsune stood straight and reached into his pocket. "This is a message for you." he replied.
Hiruzen nodded as he took the slip of paper. "Thank you, Kitsune. You are dismissed." he said.
Kitsune nodded. "Hokage-sama." he bowed before seeming to phase out of existence.
"It must be nice to have such loyal shinobi." the Kazekage said as he tried to sneak a glimpse of the note. He frowned when all he saw was a blank piece of paper.
"Indeed it is." Hiruzen said happily as he burned the note with a simple fire jutsu. "Shall we continue the match?" he replied.
The Kazekage just nodded as Genma appeared in the booth. The Hokage handed him a note before sending him back to the battleground. The Uchiha was still not here so he was going to have postpone and stall until he arrived. Hiruzen was inwardly cursing Kakashi for his late tendencies. If he wasn't careful, he was going to get his student disqualified from the Finals, something he knew would start an uproar. The old man sighed tiredly. He was really getting too old for this shit.
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Kitsune appeared in his office in a swirl of leaves. He took out sheet of paper he had on him and opened it. It was a map of the village marked and highlighted with important notes. He circled the Northern and Western gates, knowing that that was most traffic was. He didn't have the worry about the eastern gate because it was currently shut down for repair and he had applied exploding seals all over the area if their signature was unrecognizable. One poor soul learned the hard way and lost his leg last week. No one dared to try to go over there again.
Once he added his finishing touches, he pulsed chakra into his ANBU tattoo, calling all of his subordinates to the ANBU headquarters. He was going to give them five minutes. Anyone who wasn't there was going to lose their ranking and end their shinobi career. His eyebrow furrowed as he thought about the tracker and scouting team he had sent out. He hadn't heard from them since yesterday. He narrowed his eyes at that thought. Something was right. He had an itch in the back of his head that bothered him since he arrived at the stadium. It was that same gut feeling he felt when he lost his team.
He shook his head as he felt a conglomerate of chakra signatures standing on the main training ground. He folded the mapped and released a sigh of tiredness. From what he understood, chunin had already been given their orders and jonin were on stand-by. Important spots like the Academy, the Hospital, and Hokage Tower had already been secured. The evacuation shelters were prepared for civilians. Now all he needed was to prepare his unit and the operation would be ready to go. Kitsune disappeared from a shunshin and reappeared in the training ground.
"Commander Kitsune!" a wolf masked ANBU called out as he bowed.
Hearing his call, the others turned to the front of the grounds to see their commander standing tall in front of them. They all bowed to their commander in respect and honor. While much wasn't known about the commander, there was something everyone did know. They knew that the commander loved this village and he ensured that everyone was strong. Like the previous commander, he didn't allow his subordinates to become slack or cocky. He kept a progress report on everyone and made sure the Black Ops unit was success in every endeavor. Despite of their previous skepticism involving Kitsune, the operative proved himself to be loyal and was the strongest operative that the Black Ops has seen in a while. The only one that they could compare him to was the Chief himself and that was saying a lot it itself.
Kitsune started at his bowed subordinates with stern eyes. Seeing that everyone was here, with the exception of the Hokage's personal guard, Kitsune cleared his throat and began to speak.
"I know that you all have been wondering why I have been putting you under intense training over this pass month." Kitsune said. "I'm sure that you've probably seen unusual movements within the ranks of the regular corps."
Everyone reminded silent at the commanders statements, but inwardly they were agreeing. Many had been wondering why the chunin security had increased in certain parts of the village and why many jonin seemed on edge about something. It didn't take long for them to notice that something was going on and know, they were going to be informed.
"The reason why that is because today, we will be under invasion." Kitsune said, shocking a lot of the operatives. "For those of you that are wondering why our tracker teams are not here, they had been sent out on their assignment yesterday."
"So what will be our assignment, Kitsune-sama." one operative asked with a panda mask and not daring to look the commander in the eye.
"You guys will be split up into teams. While most of you guys will serve as support and logistics, the barrier teams will be position in certain areas of the village to cast protective barriers around them. Also, a few of you will be infiltrating enemy ranks while some of you are to assist the jonin." Kitsune said. "I expect all of you to perform to the best of your abilities and remember that your mission is to protect and support. The ANBU Headquarters will also be sealed away so don't bother coming back here. I will beckon for you all when its time."
"Are there any questions?" He asked.
A bear masked operative raised his hand, earning a nod from Kitsune. "Why wasn't we informed about this earlier?" he asked.
"No one was told about the predetermined invasion because we didn't want to alert the enemy that we were on to their plans." Kitsune replied. "I also wanted to test your analytical and information gathering skills. Although you weren't supposed to know, it should not have stopped you from trying to know. In my opinion, there were a few tattle-tell signs that was overlooked. In that aspect, I am disappointed. However, nothing a little practice wouldn't solve." he said with a sadistic grin under his mask.
The operatives sweated nervously under their mask while some lightly gulped. "Are there anymore questions?" he asked.
When no one said anything, Kitsune nodded. "If that is all, everyone form up into your respective teams. Once I give you your assignment, you are to dispatch immediately and stay hidden, understood?!"
"Hai, Kitsune-sama!" everyone yelled as they immediately began to disperse into their teams and stand at attention.
"Alright! Let's show our enemies why no one messes with Konoha!" Kitsune exclaimed, igniting the fire in his subordinates.
In his cage, Kurama smirked as he curled into his tails. Yep, this brat was by far the most entertaining host he's had. Mito and Kushina wouldn't even compare to the things he's seen with this kit. He yawn before closing his eyes to go to sleep, knowing he wasn't needed. That was a discussion yet to be talked about.