Chapter 44

"Have I ever told you that you are a monster, kiddo?" Anko asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Besides everyday?" I shot back with a grin. A flash of the Grinning Man's face appeared in my mind though. 'She's not talking about that,' I told myself.

"But that was close, be more aware, brat," She chided, but I had thought about something to do if she mentioned that.

"What even was that?" I asked, since Eiji clearly didn't know Gaara was a Jinchuuriki. "Did he have another Bloodline Limit besides the sand thing?"

"No," She shook her head.

"Anko," Kakashi said with a neutral tone, but I heard it for what it was. A warning to shut up.

"Can't tell you more, kiddo," My sensei said, faking a dismayed gesture and voice with the back of her hand against her forehead. "At least, not in front of the rest of the brats," Said brats frowned at her before looking at me. I simply shrugged helplessly but shot a look at Shikamaru. The boy gave me a slow blink before turning and nudging Ino who was glaring at us.

"Does it really matter?" The Nara said uncaringly. "Sounds more troublesome than anything else. Besides… we won't have to deal with that one anymore," His blond teammate rolled her eyes at his words before turning with a huff. She probably realized that if the senseis didn't want to tell them something, they wouldn't.

"So," My teacher continued tilting her head to the side. "Did you 'prove your strength'?" She asked, with a wicked grin and a teasing tone. I simply smiled at her.

"I think so," I nodded, not bothered by her joking at all. "At least… I've proved to myself that my dream isn't just a dream. I've proved to myself that I can reach those heights."

"Dream?" She blinked and I blinked back. "Why is this the first time I'm hearing of these?"

"I… hadn't told you?" It was my turn to tilt my head.

"No, you didn't, brat," She replied with annoyance clear in her voice.

"Well, then, you should know, Anko Mitarashi," I spoke with a grin forming on my face. "You'll be known as the Tokubetsu Jounin sensei of the God of Shinobi."

"Woah, you don't go for low goals, huh?" She shot back almost instantly, even if there was honest awe in her face. "But did you have to add the Tokubetsu part? It would have worked just as well and sounded much more awesome if you hadn't," She grimaced.

"But that's what you are, isn't it?" I asked innocently.

"Definitely your student," Asuma commented from the side with a grin.

"And definitely Naruto's brother," Kakashi added, leaning against the wall and with his infamous book in hand.

"Speaking of..." I turned my attention from the Jounin group towards the arena, where Naruto was already face to face with Haku. "Thoughts?"

"You don't have an opinion now?" Shika asked.

"Well, obviously my friends have been holding out on me," I replied, glaring at them, especially at a certain Uchiha who looked everywhere but at me. "So I really don't know."

"Well, we don't know anything about her so there's that," Ino shrugged with a grin that said she clearly wasn't worried about my annoyance. I knew what Haku could do, although, being fair, my knowledge could be at least a bit wrong since I didn't know how he could have progressed in the time since the wave mission where he didn't even appear.

"He's a boy," I said instead. All the Genin sputtered at that, even Sasuke. "And I wouldn't look so happy, Ino. I'll have you know that Naruto is my brother and that we know where you live," The girl quickly paled at those words.

"Wait- Wait- What do you mean that's a bo-" Chouji's words were interrupted by the proctor announcement.

"Begin!"

Our eyes turned instantly to the fight and everyone went quiet.

In a second, the two participants acted simultaneously. Haku, for his part, instantly ran through a few hand seals. From there, a cold wind flowed through the massive room and the ice mirrors rose from the ground as if emerging through the ground. In a moment, Naruto was already trapped inside the 'dome' of mirrors.

"Another Bloodline Limit, huh?" Shika mused, sounding unconcerned. Which was fair, since Naruto hadn't been idle either.

"Oh no, I'm surrounded!" Naruto exclaimed in an overly dramatic way that had our whole group rolling our eyes. "Seal Arts: Unmovable Pyramid," He announced then, grinning from ear to ear. He moved fast enough that even I had some trouble following, probably due to how much practice he had put into this particular move since he wasn't normally that fast. Three seal tags were placed against the ground, one in front of him and two behind him on each side. Then he snapped one up and an orange barrier formed connecting each tag, tall enough to let him stand up, although it wasn't as wide.

'That looks like the barrier the Sound Four used during the Crush,' I noticed with raised eyebrows and wide eyes. 'Was that Fuinjutsu? I thought that was just regular Jutsu… or is this just a coincidence? Might be,' I considered with a slight frown, my eyes taking in everything that was going on.

"That idiot," Sasuke scoffed. I decided not to comment on how the corners of his mouth quirked up.

"So, what's your plan now, Naruto?" I asked myself in a whisper. I also wondered if the others knew what his tricks were now, since everyone appeared to have decided to hide their progress from me for some reason.

"Now, I have all the time in the world to finish my ultimate move!" Naruto announced as he unsealed a scroll as big as his arm and unrolled it at his feet. "Just you wait."

And then the blonde proceeded to write on the paper with a wide grin plastered on his face. Not for the first time, I doubted my decision of not pursuing the Seal Arts on top of what I already did. I still stood by it though, since I knew that I couldn't have progressed so much in everything else if I had added such a difficult branch to the mix. Didn't mean I couldn't do it later, if I ever found myself with some free time. Naruto would always be happy to have something he could teach me, I was sure.

I still tried to decipher the mad-child's plan, even if I knew it was probably beyond me. 'The question actually is what couldn't he do with such a large scroll,' I mused wryly. Then, my eyes moved to Haku, who was standing inside the mirror. How that worked, I wasn't quite sure, but I wasn't one to question the logic of an anime world of all things. I knew better by that point.

I didn't turn to him for that though. No, I wanted to see what he would do now. Would he think Naruto was bluffing? It was a possibility that I acknowledged. Would he try to break the barrier? That was probably what I would go for. Even if it was a bluff, it would still buy the blonde time. And I was sure that those mirrors must have been eating through Haku's chakra. No way that was easy to maintain, even if he had bigger than normal chakra reserves.

Evidently, the Kiri nin realized that too because after a moment where Naruto continued scribbling away in his scroll, a volley of senbon shot at him from one mirror. Then, in a flash of movement that was almost too fast for me, Haku moved to another and did the same, and then again. In a second, needles were raining down on Naruto. All of them were useless though, bouncing harmlessly against the barrier. That part wasn't a bluff, apparently.

Knowing Naruto though, there were like, at least ten different ways he could have tricked Haku and the audience with just that barrier alone. Kid would have made a hell of a magician in my world, that's for sure. If he wanted to prank you, there was no way in hell you would see it coming. It added a sense of expectation to the fight, at least for me. To see what he would do.

Haku didn't just sit there after his first plan failed though. The next attempt came in the shape of ice spikes. They looked to be as long as my arm and just as wide on the thickest part. Dangerous, no doubt, especially with how fast they flew. That's not the kind of speed one expected from such an attack, or at least not me. With a bit of thought though, it made perfect sense. In a world of ninja, no matter how strong the attack was, the best attribute of any technique was speed. It was better to hit someone with a weak attack than to not hit them with a strong one, obviously.

It was for naught though, the icicles broke into pieces and the barrier remained strong.

'What will you do now, huh?' I wondered with a slight smile as I watched Haku's 'reflection' in a mirror. I had several plans to deal with such a barrier, since it was basically the same thing used against the Hokage. I had prepared a plan or two in case that happened again. If the Crush happened anyway, it certainly wouldn't go down the same way. With such plans in my head, I waited to see if Haku would reach the most obvious and probably the easiest solution.

Sure enough, almost a minute later, Haku performed my first plan for the barrier exactly as I had thought it. With his impressive speed, he dashed around the barrier and placed several tags surrounding it. From the balcony, we heard the Ice user say something, although we couldn't quite catch what it was. I had a very good idea though.

A second later, when the blonde didn't even acknowledge whatever the Mist nin had said, the whole area around Naruto blew up. Team Ten tensed up beside me, just like I did. Sasuke, I noticed, didn't even twitch, still holding a slight smirk on his face. 'What did you learn when I wasn't looking, Naruto?' I thought worriedly as the smoke cleared.

Once we could see again, we were treated with the sight of the barrier… still standing. It seemed to be just as it had been before. The only difference was that it was lower than it had been before, resting now on a small crater made by the explosion. Naruto, for his part, continued writing as if nothing had happened. Even the floor where he had been kneeling looked to be perfectly fine.

'That's one plan busted,' I thought with a grimace. 'No putting explosives underneath the Sound Four, it seems,' I noted mentally.

"Should be about done," Sasuke commented from my side and all of Team Ten turned together with me.

"So, you do know what's going on, huh?" I whispered as I locked my eyes on the arena. I didn't want to miss anything. How would my little brother handle this?

"Aaaand," Naruto exclaimed, his grin growing even wider, something that I didn't even think was possible at that point. "Done!" He finished with a dramatic swish of his hand. "You have lost!" I blinked at those words. Naruto was pointing forward… but Haku wasn't there, the Mist nin was on a mirror to the side and higher, since they were out of the crater.

"That idiot," I heard Sasuke grumble to himself next to me and I narrowed my eyes. I really didn't want to miss whatever the blonde was trying to do.

I missed it anyway, apparently.

The whole circle of mirrors blew up, suddenly and unexpectedly. Shards of ice flew away, hitting the walls of the arena. Then we heard the sound of cloth being dragged through the floor. 'That must be Haku,' I guessed with narrowed eyes, trying to distinguish something from inside the cloud.

"Seal Arts: Unmovable Pyramid!" We heard then and silence followed as everyone waited to actually see something.

Eventually, the arena cleared of all the flying dust and smoke, leaving only two people in it and two sets of orange barriers. One set, the first one to appear in the battle, was now empty besides the piece of floor that it had kept intact after Haku's explosions. The second held the Mist nin himself, a little banged up but otherwise okay. In front of him stood my brother, in all his over the top glory making a victory pose with his right hand doing the peace sign.

"And that's a win for the future Hokage!" The blonde announced and a grin grew on my face as I took in the whole picture.

Haku, himself, ignored his opponent in favor of giving the barrier a few tentative strikes with his fist and with kunai. It was useless, he and everyone else realised. Looking down, the seals were, this time, placed on the outside. He had no way of breaking out if he couldn't overpower it. And overpowering it probably meant using a shit ton of chakra or something of the sort.

It was, indeed, a win for Naruto, I realized, pleasantly surprised. After all, there was no way that Haku had bigger chakra reserves than the blonde. Not that many knew that besides the Konoha people, for sure, but I knew.

"He really won just like that," I commented with a grin.

"Stupid unbreakable barriers," Sasuke grumbled and my grin widened a little bit as I realized that the Uchiha had probably been the test subject of both, the barriers and the trap. No doubt he had been very annoyed if Naruto had gotten him inside one of those formations and left him there to prove that he was just as strong as him or something of the sort. He could have also used that for a prank too, it was a distinct possibility.

"Erm, you should surrender now," Naruto said, and even though he wasn't screaming, his voice was loud enough to be heard everywhere. That little fact made me smile a bit. He may be very different from how my notes said and even from what I had seen at the very beginning, but he was just the same in many aspects too.

"You can't attack me from the outside just as I can't attack from the inside," Haku replied and his voice was much more difficult to pick up. It was lucky that the guy had ended up somewhat closer to our side or we wouldn't have been able to listen at all.

"Ha," Naruto chuckled before shaking his head. "Then I'll set up explosives tags all around and a different seal to deactivate the barrier just before it goes boom. So… that surrender?" He explained while crouching down to look at his opponent who went quiet.

"I… surrender," Haku finally acknowledged with a stiff nod.

"Winner, Naruto Uzumaki," Gekko announced and I felt the smallest bit annoyed that the guy spoke with such a dead tone. The more I heard it the worse it felt. This was important for my friends, couldn't he put a little more emotion into it? And if his illness affected him so much they should have put someone else in that position, for god's sake.

After taking out both barriers, Naruto all but skipped his way towards the balcony's stairs. Meanwhile, someone appeared from the side and started repairing the arena with a few jutsu here and there. It would have made for some interesting fights if those craters had remained there, but, apparently, that wasn't the case. Next to me, Shikamaru clicked his tongue. He had probably already been planning to use those for his shadows, maybe. Just like he had done in cannon, in his fight against Temari.

"Did you see, guys?! Did you?!" Naruto exclaimed as he approached us from the side and I stood straight as I grinned at him.

"We saw that, yeah. It was awesome," I praised with a chuckle. "I'm feeling very left out though. There I was, telling you guys what I learned and you were all keeping things a secret. I feel like getting revenge, you know."

Naruto's expression did a transition throughout my little speech. It began excited, with a wide smile. And then it slowly broke as his features started twitching. Then, at the very end, he paled and his now forced smile died a quick death.

"Well, let's not be hasty, ok, bro?" Naruto tried, I would give him that.

"I'm thinking about a month without any ramen," The blonde looked like I had told him we wouldn't eat at all during that time. "Or meat," I heard a choked sound from behind me. "Yeah, full salads and soups for a whole month sounds about right. I had some recipes that I wanted to try too. You guys will love them."

Even the more stoic Sasuke and Shikamaru were sweating bullets.

"With that said, congratulations on your win, Naruto. That was great," I pulled the still white as a sheet blonde in a one-armed hug and dragged him towards the railing. "I really liked whatever that illusion thing was. I'm guessing it was another seal?"

"Y-yeah. Ne, Eiji, about those secrets, I swear-"

"But most of all the barrier, that was just awesome. I wonder how much damage those can take?" I continued, grinning from ear to ear. "And it's always good to see that you can use your head when you want to. Might want to use it to avoid messing with the wrong people and all that, you know?"

"Yeah…" He nodded stiffly, his blue eyes looking at our friends for some support. Support that he didn't get.

"Definitely your student, Anko."

"Right?!" My teacher exclaimed, clearly proud.

"In all honesty though, good job, Naruto," I told the blond, squeezing his shoulder and giving him a grin as he relaxed. "I'm very proud of you," Those words had a very interesting effect on him. His grin turned into a small bashful smile that I had never seen on him and his cheeks turned slightly red. It hit me then that I didn't remember telling him those exact words, and if I hadn't chances were that nobody had. I suddenly felt bad for not doing so before.

"Thanks, Eiji," He replied sheepishly.

"And it's ok if you guys want to keep your secrets too," I reassured everyone. "It's not like I tell you everything I learn either," Which was true. I usually told them a summary version of my training. Like how I was working on original jutsu and a bit of what they did but not every little detail of the Jutsu themselves. "Would have been nice to have at least some idea though," I added with a shrug.

"We wanted to make it a surprise," Naruto said, scratching the back of his head.

"You wanted to," Sasuke threw the blonde under the bus mercilessly.

"You agreed!" Naruto accused him then while I tried to suppress my laughter.

"So, can I look forward to more surprises from you guys?" I asked looking towards Team Ten. Then, curiously, I gazed towards Haku and the rest of the Mist Team. The boy was bowing towards Zabuza, which brought to my mind the 'tool' issue and made me wonder how that had gone without their encounter with Team Seven. With some luck, the changes had affected that too… hopefully for the better.

Then, I spared a glance towards the names being announced for the next match.

Nojiko vs Lee.

'If this win doesn't go to Lee I'll be very surprised,' I decided easily. After all, if the guy had faced anyone other than Gaara in the preliminaries, I was sure he would have passed. He just drew the short straw with that battle, the poor bastard.

"Well, about that, hehe..." Ino replied nervously and I rolled my eyes.

"I really am not angry about this, Ino. Relax. I was just kidding," I reassured.

"Well, excuse me for being afraid," She grumbled while Chouji nodded next to her.

"Eiji is scary," The Akimichi mumbled.

"Oh? I'll have to inform your parents of that. I'm sure they'll be very glad to know," The two, and even Shikamaru paled at that.

"I should have known you would become troublesome eventually," The Nara complained with a groan. "And yes, we have a few tricks too," He answered my first question with a shrug. "You might get to see them in our fights."

"Looking forward to it," I nodded, before focusing on the fight.

"Thoughts?" Naruto asked, also looking curiously at the fight.

"Lee," I replied confidently. "I've trained with the guy, he is as physically fit as me, if not more so. And he is probably better at Taijutsu than I am. He doesn't use Ninjutsu though."

"Because he can't," Anko contributed and I nodded. I already knew that, but, again, acting and all that.

"Still, what you said is enough to get an idea," Shikamaru shrugged. "I can't think of many that can keep up with you without your weights."

"Speaking of, I need to up them again," I reminded him as I tugged absently at my bandages. I had reactivated the seals after my fight and while they were very noticeable after so much time increasing the weight, I could tell when they were getting too light to really make me progress.

"Can't go a week without adding more, can you?" Anko asked, rolling her eyes, although I could see that she was holding back a smile.

"I mean, I have to work hard if I want to kick your ass for all the times you've messed with me."

"Who me?!" She asked exaggeratedly while placing a hand over her heart. "Why, Eiji, you wound me."

I just deadpanned at her before turning to the arena when the fight started.

Expectedly, Nojiko wasn't bad per se, but Lee was just on another level. If the poor girl had been against someone else, she would have stood a chance. Her Earth Jutsu looked good enough and she didn't use many hand seals for them. The problem was that she couldn't hit Lee with them.

Then she tried a different approach, using a Jutsu to get herself under the ground when it looked like her opponent would rush her and just end the fight. Then she tried to use the move that Kakashi had used with Sasuke in the canon Bell Test where she would pull Lee under the ground.

Unfortunately for her, that didn't work out quite like that.

Instead, when she pulled her hands out of the ground and grabbed his ankles, he pulled her up. Once she was out, she was basically done for, being close quarters with Rock Lee of all people.

The next fight was Yoroi against Choujurou.

Being perfectly honest?... I had forgotten Yoroi was with us until he moved from where he had been leaning against the wall behind us in the balcony. Although, to be fair, he seemed to be a side character in real life too, funnily enough. The mask and black shades didn't help him gain much presence, really. 'It might be the shades that give a passive boost to stealth or something, what with this guy and Shino having so little presence,' I thought with a snort.

That fight wasn't much of a show either. Yoroi's style of fighting basically required him to get up close and personal with his opponent. And while Choujurou didn't have a Legendary Sword yet, he did have a very imponent normal sword. One that was suspiciously similar in shape to Hiramekarei. 'They aren't being very discreet about training the guy to be a wielder, are they? That might be on purpose,' I mused.

Back to the point, that sword meant that everytime Yoroi tried to get close, he would be met with a cold, hard edge. And maybe my 'teammate' would have stood a chance even with that disadvantage. But then the fact that he was fighting with one of the seemingly prospective wielders for a Legendary Sword struck and his chances plummeted. Choujurou didn't leave any openings to be taken and soon enough the battle ended with Yoroi giving up as his body was slowly being covered in more and more cuts.

"Shame that, huh?" Naruto asked me and I shrugged.

"Bad match up," I replied simply. "Seems to be kind of a theme in these preliminaries. If I didn't know better I would have thought it was on purpose," I mused. "Besides, I'm not really surprised. That sword looked a lot like one of the Legendary Swords of the Mist," I informed them and Naruto turned wide eyed to look at Choujurou.

"Hm, I thought so too," Shikamaru nodded. And then the next battle was announced.

Kankuro vs Chouji.