V.1-C.49│Chunin Exams III│

This time, it seemed like things have been changed around a bit, as Obito, Rin and Kurenai were now standing off against another team that they knew of.

Team Seven, currently composed of Asuma, Raido and another random genin had been placed into this team.

Currently, these two teams were facing off against each other as the second round, second stage or second test would now begin, and it was different from the memories that Obito has about what the chunin exams usually do.

In fact, the last stage of the chunin exams aren't even something that could be used to test someone's leadership skills. All it really tested is someone's field experience or capabilities in the field.

This would not be the last chance for some, but it would certainly not be good to think with this mindset, given that this was probably the best time for most to try and show their skills in the field, with others.

"Begin!" The current proctor called out, as the three man teams would now go against each other.

On Team Kushina's side, Obito questioned. "So, who's going to take point here?"

"Shouldn't you?" Kurenai asked back, a little bit confused.

"The chunin exams does more than just test you actual physical ability to be a shinobi." Obito replied with a shake of his head. "It tests whether or not you have some level of skill when it comes to being able to lead others. So, one of you two should lead in this." He revealed to both Rin and Kurenai.

Looking at each other, Rin and Kurenai seemed to come to a decision. "We can take turns then." Rin said, before turning her head back towards the other team.

"Right." Kurenai answered, before adding. "I'll go first then."

"Ok, let's do this and get the both of you to become chunin as well!" Obito responded as they all looked to face their opponents.

[]

Asuma Sarutobi is wearing a white short-sleeved shirt with a blue and black collar over chain-mail armor, along with a simple white vest, a pair of black pants, and a white belt. He is relatively tall for his age, and has brown eyes, olive skin, short black spiky hair.

His current teammates consisted of Raido Namiashi and another genin boy called Jurota.

Jurota is someone that was meet when they went towards that area with their team leader, Minato Namikaze, and he was someone that showed a sufficient amount of skill to join them in this exam.

One that was not taken by Kakashi due to him already being a chunin. Jurota had the average, standard attire of a Konoha shinobi, with spiky brown hair, reaching down towards his back, long and untamed, with brown eyes. His facial features looked like that of a girl.

He was very feminine looking.

Then there is Raido. He has brown spiky hair, dark eyes and wears the standard attire of the Konoha shinobi complete with a forehead protector and the standard flak jacket. He also tends to wear small appendages on his hand ranging from black bandages to metal rings on his fingers.

He is also wearing a red colored bandage over the bridge of his nose and a red shirt with white trimmings.

'Yes... These are my teammates.' Asuma thought as he looked at the two of them, before he looked over towards the other team, Team Kushina.

Specifically he glanced towards Kurenai Yuhi first, seeing her appearance the the way she has grown in the few years since, he had grown all the more inflamed. Although, he doesn't quite have the same drive as one would think in his pursuit of her.

Spending time with one another is one of the biggest factors when it comes to relationships developing, and for Asuma having not spent any time with her for a long time now, he looks at her differently.

However, he also still harbors a small amount of feelings in relation to her, which would've died if not for some choice words from his jonin instructor, Minato Namikaze.

Minato had encouraged Asuma to fight for his say, his 'love' so to speak, encouraging him to become stronger. Strong enough to not only beat Obito, but if he ever wanted to, steal away Kurenai from him.

Asuma couldn't say he wasn't influenced as such, and through this encouragement, which is not exactly what his father may have wanted for him, he started to put in the work to become stronger than he is.

As such, with the encouragement from Minato, he was now ready to try new things to try and garner her attention. Of course, what Asuma didn't know is that Minato may want to use Asuma to help him in his own goals.

Some subtle manipulation was used on Asuma, and as he looked towards Kurenai and saw the way she seemed to be close with Obito, he grew a bit angered. He was promised.

Promised and thought that Kurenai kind of belonged to him, and because of Minato's little bit of manipulation, Asuma started to think a bit differently. Even Minato would not think his remarks would go so far as to change Asuma into this vengeful beast willing to do anything.

It also probably didn't help that he is also currently going through puberty as well, affecting his thinking as well. Skewing his thoughts, especially when he saw girls of his age that he thought of as attractive.

Moving his eyes over towards Obito instead, he clenched his fists as he saw him being happy, as for some reason his happiness seemed to irritate him. Now, Asuma is not that bad of a guy, chill even most of the time, but when it comes to this topic in particular, he seemed to have a one track mind that was focused on doing or saying some rather aggressive things.

'I will defeat you, and make things right. Make things go back to the way they are supposed to be.' Asuma thought to himself.

"Asuma?" Raido said, tapping on his shoulder.

"Raido?" Asuma looked back towards his teammate. "What is it?"

"What is our plan?" Jurota asked as he, while looking quite feminine due to his appearance, gestured towards Obito in particular.

"Hmm... We do what Master Minato said." Asuma replied, as a plan had been devised in particular if they were to ever face off against the team they are about to face off against.

"Are you sure? I think it might be a bit... much." Raido spoke as he seemed hesitant to do whatever Minato had said for them to do.

"This is the only thing we can do, given that Obito is a strong opponent." Asuma replied as he narrowed his eyes, thinking of how Minato had described Obito's current capabilities, enough to at least stand off against a jonin.

"Yes, but what about the other two?" Jurota asked, given that is where they really lacked information and only had a general idea of their capabilities.

"Kurenai will be someone that uses genjutsu, while Rin will act as a support for the other two." Asuma already assumed that Kurenai and Rin would follow along with their predetermined roles, not considering that they may switch it up from the usual.

"Ok, if you say so." Raido said before sighing, knowing that this battle would probably be super annoying, given that the capabilities of the other team was strong.

But, teamwork should be able to overcome the impossible, right? It was something that Minato had said, in that while he had tested them and they had succeeded, it was only because Kakashi was able to do something, otherwise they would've lost.

Their teamwork should be able to allow them to overcome an even stronger opponent, as long as they work together to do so.

"Begin!" The proctor called as the two teams faced off against each other.

[]

Moving forward, Raido went in for the first strike as he wanted to take care of the other two that would be in his way. Be in their way of trying to take down their main opponent.

When it comes to battles like this, one should take care of their weakest opponent first before moving onto the others, and this is exactly what Raido went for, believing that Rin is the weakest.

Technically she is, but right now she was being supported by Obito who has taken on the supportive role himself to allow his teammates to shine during these battles in this forest.

Raido is skilled in kenjutsu, and has especially trained and honed his skills to be in line with assassin work. He even has his current blade coated in some poison, but as he tried to strike Rin down, she was easily able to dodge him, which was surprising.

It seemed like the physical exercise that Kushina had encouraged her team to do was starting to pay off at least now, given that Rin was able to react in time and not be cut.

Instead, Rin punched forward managing to counter Raido's attack and launched him backwards at least a few steps.

Then there was Kurenai facing off with the other boy known as Jurota, and she considered how she would take care of him. She would start with some illusions to test his resistance to such abilities, and unsurprisingly he came prepared to fight her.

Jurota was someone that had skills in the genjutsu department himself, meaning that Kurenai and Jurota would probably be locked in a battle of wills. That is if Kurenai was only someone that relied on genjutsu to fight, as her own physical capabilities are stronger than Jurota whom has a very weak body in general.

As Kurenai and Rin were facing off against their opponents and have the upper hand, Obito watched as Asuma went directly towards him with his strange knives drawn.

Asuma extreme talent when it comes to close-ranged melee combat.

His battle style revolved mainly around taijutsu, combined with his special trench knives to create a melee-type fighting style.

These knives are made of a special metal that is capable of easily being infused with chakra. With his Flying Swallow, he could extend the blades with his chakra to injure an enemy several feet out of the blade's physical range, as well as increase the cutting power of the blades to the point of easily slicing through trees, rocks, and even metal.

Using said knives he attacked Obito, but just as before he was able to see his movements and due to Obito's Sharingan, Asuma's method of trying to take his opponents by surprise would not work.

Asuma also possessed an affinity to Wind Release, which would not really help him right now, but it was useful as Minato is also someone that has an affinity to Wind Release as well. Meaning that a few techniques that Minato has could work for him.

Asuma had been honing his Wind Release to try and take care of his power difference with Obito, so that he may overcome this opponent of his.

Fighting with said opponent, Asuma was getting annoyed at the fact that Obito would dodge and not strike back, keeping his distance.

Super annoying because his plan needed Obito to come close, so as he fought with Obito he also would every now and then glance towards his teammates. Seeing them, and giving a signal that couldn't be seen by anyone else, Asuma leaped forward as he had managed to corner Obito.

Or at least this is what he believed, having his teammates join him as the three went forward, especially with Asuma. It was in this moment that Asuma was for sure that he was going to strike Obito with his specially crafted knife.

He also remembered his current master, Minato's words. 'Asuma, when you have him cornered, I need you to disable him. You must try and strike him somewhere that would take him out of the upcoming fights and further in the chunin exams. Disable him that he can't even leave his home.'

It seemed that from Minato's words alone that Asuma would try and cripple Obito temporary, as he specifically was going towards something taught to him. A tenketsu point as his blade extended towards said point, in an attempt to make sure Obito would be unable to do anything.

His teammates had him trapped on all sides as well, meaning that he couldn't escape from this situation.

'But, what if...' Asuma was thinking as time had slowed down in this moment. 'What if I...' Asuma pointed his blade towards Obito's heart instead, which was immediately not to be something he should do.

Obito stared at Asuma, and as Asuma looked into his opponents Sharingan eyes, he grew more determined that maybe this is the right decision. He wouldn't be punished, because the rules allowed them to fight to the death if they wished.

Even more so because Asuma is the son of the current Hokage.

What was strange is that Kurenai nor Rin seemed to be all that worried as they hadn't reacted as of this moment, not that Asuma could tell of what they were currently doing. Probably being surprised that their opponents would give up on attacking them and instead focus all in on Obito, whom had been taking a back seat.

Which was strange, but due to their overconfidence they would fail. Obito, like a flash of lightning managed to not only get out of there, but also seemed to move so fast away that he dissipated. 'Wait... did he just poof?' Asuma thought as time resumed, and they failed.

Turning around, the three man squad would see Kurenai standing in front of them, and Kurenai in particular seemed to be looking at Asuma. 'Is she... is she going to confess!? I-' Asuma though before being interrupted as Kurenai punched his face, snapping him back to reality.

He had in fact been placed within a genjutsu, as Rin and Obito had taken care of his two teammates as Kurenai had taken care of him. "W-What...?" Asuma questioned as he stared at Kurenai with a bleeding nose.

"You... you just tried to kill Obito, even though it was an illusion..." Kurenai was not only disappointed in Asuma, but furious. So furious in fact she was that it didn't seem like she was, as her face was totally blank.

"I-I..." Asuma wouldn't really try to explain himself as he looked down, strangely feeling ashamed in this moment.

"I thought... I thought maybe we could still be friends, that maybe you were beyond petty childish behavior, but clearly you are not." Kurenai then let go of hatred, instead looking at him with eyes that seemed to indicate that she was totally done with him.

He didn't like that. "Goodbye, Asuma Sarutobi. May I never se you again, and may you never see me." Kurenai said before she walked away towards Obito, and Asuma could only watch her go.

This was most definitely not a good moment for Asuma, as he would internalize this moment. 'How could she... she is supposed to be mine... why is he with him...' Asuma was now too far gone at this point.

"Asuma, hey. No big deal, we can always become chunin-" Jurota said as he extended his hand down towards him, but he slapped Jurota's hand away.

"Shut up! I'm going." Asuma would leave immensely disappointed, and now he didn't just dislike Obito, he started to form a level of hatred against him, and an obsession with Kurenai.

"What's his problem?" Raido said as he came back bruised and battered from his opponent, Rin.

"I don't know...?" Jurota said with a saddened look.