Chapter 74: The Last Preliminary
Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 74: The Last Preliminary
Gai and TenTen left with the medical team that took Rock Lee away.
Gaara didn't even wait for the examiner's permission before he also took the stairs and left.
"Right… there's still one more match," Hayate glanced at the viewing area.
"I guess it's my turn," Naruto said.
"Good luck, Naruto, show everyone what you can do." Kakashi said with a smile.
Sasuke just made a grunt that Naruto could only interpret as, 'You better not lose,' or something of the sort.
He jumped down into the arena and immediately realized how badly damaged it was.
There was barely any room left to stand.
His opponent walked into the arena, looking calm and composed.
It was Dosu Kinuta, the last remaining member of the Sound Village team.
His teammates had been defeated by Ino and Shikamaru, leaving him alone and without a clear mission to continue.
But Dosu didn't care about any of this. He would keep going until his master told him to stop.
His eyes met with Naruto's.
"Sorry, it looks like the fighting grounds are very damaged… perhaps… cough… we can move the location," Hayate said before looking in the direction of the Hokage.
"I would need to a—"
"There's no need… there's enough space to fight over there," Dosu pointed towards the north side of the arena. There was a small rectangular area that had somehow escaped all the destruction, but it was tiny for the purposes of a fight.
"Are you sure?… That doesn't seem…" Hayate was a bit hesitant.
"It's okay. That will be more than enough space for us." Naruto walked to the rectangular space that Dosu pointed out.
"Let's get this over with." He added.
Dosu found his attitude amusing and mistook it for Naruto being too nervous.
"Eager to go home?… Don't worry boy, I won't take long to destroy you."
Naruto stood on one side while Dosu took the other.
There was less than twenty feet (6 meters) between them, and not much room to move on the sides before landing on the broken ground or hitting a wall.
Hayate glanced toward the Hokage, who gave him a nod of approval.
"Very well… let us carry… cough… carry out the last preliminary match… Uzumaki Naruto vs. Dosu Kinuta… start!"
Neither Naruto nor Dosu made an immediate move.
Dosu chuckled.
"Scared, boy? You don't have your Uchiha teammate to save you now." He was still bitter about how they were defeated back in the forest by the Uchiha and those medlers who came to help them. Naruto had been unconscious inside a cave so they didn't even see him at all and concluded he had been hiding.
"Yes, I'm terrified… can we finish this?" Naruto had a very bored expression on his face. This opponent held no interest in him.
'I wonder who I'll have to fight in the next part… Will they make us fight today, or will we have some time to rest?…'
He was very close to a breakthrough. If he had a few more weeks…
Dosu frowned when he realized that Naruto wasn't listening to him at all.
He decided not to waste more words in an attempt to taunt this newbie. It wasn't worth it.
Dosu assumed his fighting stance and went for it.
Since they were already so close, he reached Naruto in one long dash. This small fighting area gave him a complete advantage.
There was nowhere for Naruto to run, no escape from his deadly sound waves.
Just like during his attack on Kabuto, Dosu performed a long swing that passed right in front of Naruto's face.
Dosu couldn't help but notice that Naruto didn't even try to dodge him. This showed the difference in speed between them.
The Sound Ninja looked at Naruto with a cruel smile, knowing what was about to happen next.
The attachments on his arms were weapons that used the speed of his punches to create high-frequency noises that would affect a person's brain.
Even if his opponent avoided the punch itself, there was no way to escape from the sound.
This was Dosu's masterful technique. Now, all he had to do was watch as Naruto lost his balance and fell, then he could go for the finishing blow.
"Now you go down!" Dosu shouted right after he finished his motion.
A second went by…
Two seconds…
Three seconds…
Naruto remained standing.
"Huh?…" Dosu's eyes moved to Naruto's face. Something he should have done earlier, but he had been a bit too overconfident in his technique.
Had he looked before, he would have realized that Naruto had been using his fingers to cover his ears, thus negating the effect of his sound-based jutsu.
Dosu only had one second to realize how badly he had messed this up.
After failing his swing, he was now in a very awkward pose, with his sides completely exposed to his opponent.
"Idiot."
That was the second-to-last thing Dosu heard before he felt a strong pressure on his neck… and everything went dark.
Naruto's kick snapped Dosu's neck with a very loud crunching noise that made everyone flinch.
The Sound Village ninja collapsed on the ground like a puppet whose strings had been cut.
"He… he's dead…" Hayate had been standing close by and could clearly see it.
He didn't need to be a doctor to know this.
Dosu's neck was bent at a ninety-degree angle, and his eyes were completely white. There was no recovery from this.
The members of the audience were staring in disbelief at the scene.
All except Kakashi and Sasuke, who had already seen how brutal Naruto could be.
The rest of them… either didn't know anything about Naruto or remembered him as the cheerful and goofy prankster of Konoha.
That image was now gone.
The entire match had lasted less than five seconds. It had been more of an execution than an actual fight.
"Hayate…" The Hokage had appeared in the area and stood beside the referee.
"The winner…" he reminded him.
"Right…" Hayate snapped out of his stupor.
"Winner… Uzumaki Naruto!"
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