Chapter no.96

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"I forfeit." Chojuro said, a bit disappointed with how the match turned out. He had severely underestimated the girl standing over him.

Hana withdrew the kunai from his neck as the medical crews rushed over to retrieve her opponent and her ninken. She didn't have the necessary skills to heal them with medical jutsu just yet. She followed the medics to the medical bay just as Genma stepped into the center of the arena to make the official announcement.

"Winner, Inuzuka Hana!" He stopped speaking for a moment as the crowd cheered for the girl. She would have a tough time fighting in her next match if her ninken weren't recovered by then. "Now will Hozuki Suigetsu and Sabaku no Gaara please make your way down to the arena for the final match of the first round!"

Hozuki Suigetsu vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Both combatants stood across from each other in the center of the arena. This would most certainly be an interesting match. Gaara usually resorted to just crushing people with his sand, but those sort of tactics wouldn't work on this opponent. Suigetsu usually relied on Kenjutsu and his logia abilities but Gaara had made it painfully obvious that the only way to bypass his perfect defense was with superior speed, which Suigetsu did not have. This would most likely end up being a long match.

"The fifth and final match of the first round, Hozuki Suigetsu vs. Sabaku no Gaara, may now begin" Genma announced before jumping back a safe distance. He had seen what these two were capable of in the preliminaries and he did not want to get caught up in it.

Suigetsu jumped back as a wave of sand erupted from the gourd on Gaara's back and rushed towards the Hozuki. Suigetsu unsheathed the large sword from his back and took a Kenjutsu stance. Suigetsu's blade was an enormous broadsword, it was approximately six feet in length and one foot wide with a single edge. It was similar in height and width to Zabuza's sword. This particular blade was not one of Kiri's legendary one's, but Suigetsu hoped to become one of the seven swordsmen eventually.

"Stop running away! Mother wants your blood!" Gaara screamed maniacally. "I will satisfy mother's thirst."

Gaara sent wave after wave of sand trying to catch Suigetsu in its grip, but Suigetsu proved to be too quick for him to catch with the amount of sand that he was using. Realizing this, Gaara drew upon more sand from his gourd and even crushed the earth around him, turning it into sand.

Suigetsu cursed to himself as he saw the amount of sand that Gaara was gathering, he was obviously planning something big. Seeing that he needed to move quickly, Suigetsu brought up his index finger and thumb in a gun-like fashion. Through the hydrification technique, he compressed a drop of water in his index finger. "Mizudeppō no Jutsu (Water Gun Jutsu)!" Suigetsu fired the drop of water with tremendous force, comparable to that of a real gunshot.

Gaara gathered a large amount of sand and formed it into a thick half-dome to shield himself from the water bullet. However, he didn't expect the jutsu to have so much force behind it as he felt the drop of water almost pierce through his sand shell completely.

Suigets saw the effect that his jutsu had and continued to fire more water bullets. He re-sheathed his sword and brought up his other hand to do the same. "Mizudeppō: Nichō (Water Gun: Two Guns)!" Suigetsu continued to fire water bullets at Gaara's sand shell, as the latter was forced to continue rebuilding it.

Gaara knew that his opponent could go on doing this forever, seeing as he was made of water, so he decided to take the offensive. Using the large body of earth and sand under him, Gaara rose himself into the air by erecting a pillar of sand, thus moving himself out of the line of fire as the sand dome was finally pierced.

Suigetsu stopped firing his water bullets after seeing Gaara rise into the air and out of his line of sight. H prepared himself for Gaara's next move.

Gaara released his sand pillar after Suigetsu stopped his jutsu and dropped back down to the ground along with his sand. "Sabaku Taisō (Sand Waterfall Imperial Funeral)." Gaara sent a large tsumani of sand that spanned the width of the arena towards Suigetsu and buried him in the sheer amount of it. He then slammed both of his hands down onto the large amounts of sand that he had created, creating a powerful shockwave that compressed the sand and completely crushed anyone buried in it.

Genma was about to call the match due to death, but then he heard the bubbling of water.

A small section of the sand became wet and slowly turned into mud. Suigetsu managed to work his way back to the surface in his liquified state, looking quite exhausted. Gaara was getting ready to send another wave of sand at the white-haired boy, but Suigetsu spoke up. "Proctor I forfeit, I'm out of water after liquifying just now and I can't use any of my other techniques without consuming any water."

Genma nodded his head and decided to call the match, "Winner by forfeit, Sabaku no Gaara!" Genma announced to the audience. "This marks the end of the first round of the finals! There will be a half an hour intermission before we move onto the second round! For those who will be fighting, please use this time to recover from your previous matches, study your opponents fighting style, or prepare for your next match in general."

With those words said, Genma walked off the battlefield along with Suigetsu and Gaara.

Naruto looked over to see Natsuki and Satsuki glaring at each other heatedly, then his thoughts drifted to Hana and wondered if her ninken would recover in time, finally he looked over to Haku who was currently meditating in preparation for her first match, since she had a bye this round. One thing was for sure, these matches were going to get a whole lot more interesting.