Chapter 41

Around the Corner, With Sasuke and Alvarcus Moments After Meeting Kakuzu and Hidan

"Green they said Sasori. Wasn't that the one-"

"I know." I cut Sasuke off.

"They have the same cloaks as-"

"I know." I cut him off again.

"Who are they?"

"I will know." I promise him. I already do know, but he has no way of knowing that. I'll need to have Shirokumo send someone to trail the Akatsuki duo to find out where their base of operations is. I'm 90% sure it's somewhere in Ame since Pain is the pseudo leader.

What the fuck is going on? I shouldn't have to deal with Akatsuki members for a long time! Years at the minimum but I've already met half of them!

"That's it. I hate today. I hate it so much." I angrily growl out, more to myself than Sasuke.

"It's not like it can get any worse." He idly quips as he glances back the way we came. He wants to ask them about Itachi.

"You jinxed us." I pin him with a glare. "You put a damn jinx on us! Now it has to get worse."

"You sure about that? Because the only way I can think of for today to get worse is if one of us dies." He distractedly responds. Well, I suppose he's not wrong.

Thankfully the gods must agree with Sasuke because we make it to our hotel without anything going wrong.

The Hotel Room

"Would you look at that, they left the hammocks up." Sasuke says as we walk into our temporary room.

I walk into the center of the small room and slam my hand on the floor. "Summoning Jutsu!"

My favorite spider appears in a plume of smoke. "About time you got here. We need to talk." He spares Sasuke a quick glance. "Do you want him here for this?"

"Shirokumo I want 24 hour surveillance on Danzo. I want him under watch constantly, I want to know his habits, I want to know his mannerisms, I want to know who he works with, and I want to know how many times he shakes it after taking a piss. I want to know everything about that man."

He tilts his whole body in confusion. "What changed? You've never taken such an extreme interest in one person before." Except maybe Orochimaru, we both know that. He just can't say it before Sasuke.

"That fuckface ordered a hit on us. It happened on the way here."

He quickly looks both Sasuke and I up and down. "Besides the excess blood on you, which I'm pretty sure isn't yours since you only bleed if you want to, you both look fine to me."

"Tayuya's dead. In the first moments of the assassination attempt."

"Oh." He rigidly goes still. "Oh. That makes this so much worse."

I devote my full attention to the white spider. "Makes what so much worse?"

He nervously plays with his front two legs, rubbing them together like a human would their hands on a cold day. "Al, you'll want to sit down for this."

"... Fine." I stomp over to one of the two chairs and face Shirokumo. "Now what's going on?"

"Al..." He takes a shaky breath. "Tayuya was faking it."

"Say again?" There's no way I heard that right.

"It was all an act." He starts worriedly pacing before me. Sasuke is in as big of a shock as I am. "We had a spider in Orochimaru's office. It overheard him and the rest of the Sound Four talking about your budding relationship with her and Orochimaru was glad it was progressing so quickly. Al he ordered her to seduce you so you would have stronger ties to Sound."

It was all an act? All of it was just another scheme that I'm smack in the middle of? All of those interactions were forced, just to keep me closer to Sound? No, closer to Orochimaru. He's trying to manipulate me again, twisting aspects of my life to suit his wants and needs.

First the Jiongu. Then my family and Sakura. Now this?

"I'm going to rip him to shreds. I'm going to watch as he screams in agony as I peel his skin off. I'm going to take perverse pleasure in watching as the light fades from his eyes as a crush his heart in my hands."

"But not yet." Sasuke cuts in. "He's trying to use us, it's only fair that we use him in return. He's devoted to training us, making us as deadly as possible. We have two and a half years, we're going to be star pupils until then. Then we can kill him as violently as you wish."

"You're right. We'll use him as he is attempting to use us. I'll learn everything I possibly can from him, then use what he taught me to end him for good."

Shirokumo looks from me to Sasuke then back to me. "That went much better than I expected."

"How so?" I ask in curiosity. Pretty sure promising to brutally skin someone alive isn't a good reaction.

"The last couple of times you've gotten foul news you've run off to the Nest and remodeled it a bit." He sheepishly scratches the back of his head. "Honestly I thought for sure we'd be going back there, I had a spot in mind and everything."

He's not wrong. I really should stop doing that.

"On that lovely note, I'm going to take a walk and clear my head a bit." I rise up and shuffle towards the door. "And I'm still kind of processing... that."

I leave and shut the door behind me.

Sasuke and Shirokumo share a concerned look.

"We're totally going to keep an eye on him, right?" Shirokumo says as he scuttles towards the window.

"Of course." Sasuke is quick to follow. "He might want to be alone for a bit, but he shouldn't be."

I casually stroll down the block with no real destination in mind, it's like my body is on autopilot. Simply putting one foot in front of the other, just going through the motions.

What will I do next?

I know that Orochimaru had a hand in so many negative aspects of my life, yet I'll have to return to him soon. Within a few days, three at the most.

I know what I need to do next. I need to bury the fury I feel for him, the utter hatred and contempt, and use him. He's the only S-rank shinobi that is willing to devote a majority of his time to train me, to make me good enough to share the title of S-rank. I need to swallow down my emotions and put up a mask of how I was when I first went to him. That's the me he's known, that's the me he's expecting.

I don't know if I can do it.

When I first went to Otogakure it was with pure and noble (okay mostly pure and noble) intentions. Sure there was definitely a subtle undertone of me wanting to protect Sasuke and be there for him but I am making a difference. Konoha is better prepared to combat this enemy and the more Orochimaru trust me the more I'll be able to learn and pass on to Tsunade.

Okay, that last bit was total bullshit. I went for Sasuke alone and the spying gig was the added on bonus. Hell I'm pretty sure Tsunade knows that too, but she doesn't care enough to call me out on it.

I've always held a great deal of anger and hatred towards Orochimaru, even before I learned about my family and Sakura. When Shirokumo unintentionally figured out that their deaths were his doing, it sealed his fate in my eyes. I decided that he's going to die by my hand.

Finding out about Tayuya is just the icing on the cake. I let an attachment form to her, whether it was as an overly touchy and affectionate friend or something more I don't really know. I'll never get a chance to find out now, so does it really matter? Besides it was all an act. She didn't feel anything for me. She was just following orders.

How am I supposed to return to and live with the man who messes with my life so carelessly?

He has to know that if I ever found out one of those things he'd lose me forever. He has to know that these actions would only push me further away from him. Did he honestly expect me to never look deeper into my family's demise? Or for Tayuya to keep an act up indefinitely?

Maybe that's not it. He knows that I'm here for Sasuke, I straight up told him I will chose Sasuke over anyone, even the Snake Sannin. He knows that as long as Sasuke is there I'll be there. So maybe he's using Sasuke as an anchor while trying to make more. I'm uncertain if he's aware that I know about his body switching technique and could be trying to give me another Sasuke so to speak. He has plans for Sasuke, yet he has plans for me too. But if there's no Sasuke, then there's no me.

"Alvarcus Mar." A deep gravely voice calls out from off to my right side.

Just keep walking. There's no way anyone here knows that that is me. Don't react and I'll be fine. I've got this.

"Currently listed in Konoha's most recent bingo book as a B-rank target. Former shinobi of Konohagakure, rumored to now align with Otogakure. Known abilities: Jiongu, elemental jutsu both low and high level, minor genjutsu aptitude, above average taijutsu skills. Rumored abilities: Magnet release, flight, storm release. Special Note: Is usually seen in the company of Sasuke Uchiha, see his page before engaging Alvarcus Mar. Where one is, the other is close by. Titles: Heart Thief -and this one is my favorite- Muffins."

I whirl around at the sound of that infernal nickname to see something that takes me a moment to fully process.

Kakuzu is idly sitting on a bench going through a small red leather bound book.

Why is there a bench here? Oh, we're in a park. I wandered into a park while lost in thought.

With a sharp snap he shuts his book, which looks suspiciously like a ledger, and tenderly pockets it. Does that mean he memorized my bingo book page? "Come now, I only wish to talk. Your bounty isn't high enough to attract my attention. Sasori did say that you seemed reasonable enough. Also that you were very aware of how outmatched you were."

I narrow my eyes at the subtle threat. The effect is lost since I'm wearing my mask. "And why should I? The other two times I've meet people from your group they've threatened to kill me."

"It's not every day that someone like me makes time for someone like you. So when it happens, you better take the moment." He effortlessly raises up his right arm and out of his sleeve extend black threads. "Especially if that someone has decades more experience than you."

I can't believe I'm about to say this. "Alright, you've caught my interest Kakuzu. What do you want to discuss?"

He eagerly leans closer, even sitting down he towers over me. "Tell me, how did you acquire the Jiongu? No one but I have wielded it for well over half a century."

~That was a good day. After months, years, of Orochimaru trying to bond me to a host I finally found a suitable one.~

The Jiongu and I remember that day very differently. That was by far the most painful thing I've ever experienced.

I coolly flick my Sound forehead protector. "Take a wild guess. You know what village this symbol belongs to."

"Orochimaru. So he did find a way to give it to another, I was always curious about that myself. Only I know the correct bonding process, there's techniques to assure the symbiotic relationship. How did he manage that?"

I shrug. "No idea. I didn't even know there was a bonding process. Besides, mine's tweaked. Orochimaru changed it. I don't even know if it's the same as yours anymore."

"You said he changed it?" Kakuzu appears eager. I can't really blame him, we're the only two people on the planet with the Jiongu. He wasn't wrong when he said that these kinds of conversations rarely happen.

I let out my Jiongu from my fingertips and let it sway in the breeze. "Mine's parasitic, not symbiotic. It's also sentient, it talks to me. A lot. Honestly it gets annoying sometimes."

~Aw, don't be like that host. You know you like me.~

Kakuzu let's out a deep reverberating chuckle. "I always wondered how he'd change it. Should have charged him more if I new he would do something as crazy as that."

"How much did he pay anyways? Always wondered that." I genuinely want to know that. Sure it's not important at all but I'm curious.

Kakuzu simply leans back in satisfaction. "More money than you'll ever see in your life."

We fall into a strangely companionable silence. I never thought that Kakuzu would be this... civilized.

Then out of the blue Kakuzu rises to his feet.

"Thank you for humoring me, it was interesting to finally meet you." He starts walking away. With one final look over his shoulder he says, "Until we meet again Muffins."

And like that all the respect he just earned from me vanished. Fucking Muffins!

As Kakuzu disappears from my sight a familiar weight falls onto my head. "Green, I don't know how you do it but you always get in the strangest situations."

I snort. "There's no need to tell me that." Now for business, this is an excellent opportunity. How often will I meet Akatsuki members and have a chance to send one of my spiders after them? "I want him tailed. I want to know where he goes. I want to know who he reports to and what his tasks are."

"Already done. Once I recognized the cloak I took action. The spiders around here know to follow him and his companion."

"That was interesting to watch." Sasuke says as he walks out from his hidden place in the shadows. "And that was..."

"Kakuzu, arguably the most infamous missing nin from Taki. He's old, super old. Old enough to have battled the first Hokage. Taki isn't even sure he's still alive, he's like their boogeyman. No one has ever proved that he's dead, but a lot of logic says he should be. He's also where Orochimaru got the Jiongu from."

"So he can do what you can." Sasuke looks in the direction that Kakuzu left in. "I can't help but notice you didn't ask about Itachi."

I offer up a halfhearted shrug. "Hey, he's a S-rank shinobi that's more than capable of killing me. Not only that, he knows all of the ways to work around the Jiongu since he has it too, so forgive me for letting him direct the conversation. Plus I do have spiders following him, eventually they'll find out where Itachi is. Their group has to meet up sometime."

"Fair enough. Now you've wandered around aimlessly long enough. Let's get back to the hotel and rest. We have a big day tomorrow."

The Next Morning, At the Hotel

"Do I even need half of this stuff?" I mutter to myself as I stare down at an arsenal that Sasuke has prepared for me. "When have I ever used wire before?"

"It might be useful. What if you need to tie someone up?" Sasuke says as he starts arming himself with his own arsenal of various weapons and other deadly tools.

"Hello, Spider Summoner here. I'll just use their webs. It's probably stronger than the wire too." I toss said wire off to the side. "And kunai? Why would I need this much? There has to be fifty here!"

"You can't bring them back to you with your chakra strings. Those you need." He straps a tanto from one of the Root shinobi onto his leg. "Hell I'm bringing this and I doubt I'll need it."

"And why should I bring one?" I ask as I hold my own tanto at arms length in disgust. "I'm not a sword kind of guy."

Sasuke straps his personal sword to his waist, drawing it to make sure it doesn't snag on anything. "Okay, I'll give you that one. Misdirection perhaps?"

"It is one of the best tools a shinobi can use." I go about strapping the blade to my leg. "Who expects someone with an obviously displayed weapon to ignore it and try to punch you in the face? Gotta admit I might enjoy the look of shock on their face."

"Whatever. You ready now?" Sasuke sheathes his sword.

"Yeah. Let's get this over with." We both leave our hotel.

At the Stands, Minutes Later

"You're Green and Red?" The Kusa shinobi we've asked for directions calmly assess us. "You're alone? No jonin?"

"She's dead, killed on the way here." Sasuke irritably barks out. "Are you going to tell us where to go or not?"

"Whatever, not my problem." The shinobi says without a care in the world. "Go to the east side of the stands, there's a gazebo there that all of the contestants will wait at."

"Thanks, you were a really big help." Sasuke says with a great amount of sarcasm.

We both leave the shinobi and go to the gazebo. It's large, more than enough to house all of the contestants with plenty of spare room. There's a bunch of chairs and tables for us to use and there's even water for us. It's actually quite nice all things considered.

We're not the first ones there, the Konoha gang beat us. Shino, Kiba, Hinata, Lee, Neji and Tenten are all chatting among themselves. How nice of Tsunade to let Lee's team come and watch him.

All six of them tentatively watch Sasuke and I as we approach and sit down at a table far away from them. Or I think they're watching Sasuke and I, but I have a feeling that they're all watching me.

It's probably nothing, just my paranoia rearing its head.

Sasuke and I sit in silence as the Konoha gennin start whispering to themselves. Unfortunately for them, I can still hear them.

"So this is the infamous Green and Red." Neji idly whispers. "They don't look much different from a month ago."

"That doesn't mean they haven't improved." Hinata jumps in. "Look at Green Neji. Truly look at him."

"Now that's interesting." Neji says.

"What? What is it? Sorry but not all of us have fancy eyes." Tenten angrily whispers. "Come on and tell us already!"

"His chakra supply grew enormously." Neji gives in and shares what he saw. "His dwarfs every other gennin here. The gap is considerable."

"It shines like a beacon, the only other person I've seen with anywhere near this amount of chakra is Naruto." Hinata adds. "I wonder how he managed to increase it so drastically?"

"Does it matter?" Kiba cuts in. "So what he has a bunch of chakra, that's not something that's going to stop Akamaru and I!"

"He does bring up a good point." Shino speaks for the first time. "It is irrelevant how much he has at his disposal, what truly matters is how well he can use it. From what we were told by Ino, he uses his summons and earth jutsu to do battle. Beware of them, even simple jutsu can be overpowered into something deadly."

"How youthful! His progress is inspiring! To advance so much in such little time! It's decided, I'll have to ask Gai-sensei to train me even more!" Lee whisper shouts. That kid is always looking to push himself further.

Someone pulls out the chair next to me and lazily plops down into it. I take stock of the idiot who decided that was a good idea.

He has an Iwa forehead protector and appears to be in his mid teens, I'd guess around 15-16. He has a plain mop of brown hair and pale green eyes. He's wearing generic dark brown shinobi gear from Iwa and has a few scrolls strapped to his belt.

"And you are?" I gruffly ask.

"Noboru of Iwa. And you two?" He asks with way too much nonchalance and familiarity.

"Green."

"Red."

"Strange names." Noboru says as he examines one of the nails on his left hand.

"Why are you here?" I ask.

"I'm in the tournament, duh." He flicks away a piece of dirt he picked out from under his nail. "You think you would know that since we're where the contestants are supposed to be."

"No, why are you sitting with us?" I rephrase my question. I don't like this guy. He's to relaxed.

He offers up a shrug. "It was either sit with you two, sit with the Konoha group, or sit by myself. I didn't want to sit alone or with the tree lovers so here I am."

"Just don't irritate us and we will have no issue." Sasuke blandly says.

"Cool." Noboru turns to me. "So what's up with the bandages man? That's got to be ridiculously hot. Isn't the hooded coat enough? I mean I can understand wrapping sleeves or pant legs so they don't flap around or get snagged on anything, but it looks like you've covered everything. Hell it's even on your neck!"

I turn my covered face towards him. "Would you believe I'm self-conscious about my looks?"

"Nope!" He merrily says. "Come on, you can tell me. I can keep a secret I promise!"

"I have extremely sensitive skin and sunburn easily?"

"Hahaha! Good one!" Noboru laughs at the admittedly ridiculous excuse.

"It's because I'm horribly scarred all over my body."

"Oh." Noboru loses the carefree attitude. In fact some of the Konoha gennin shot me glances too, they must have been listening in. We aren't exactly trying to be discrete. "Sorry. I wouldn't have pried if I knew. I thought it was a stylistic choice."

"I won't blame you for ignorance. Just drop it."

"You got it." He goes back to studying his nails, this time on the other hand.

"Green heads up." Sasuke says and points towards a trio of approaching people.

It's the Sand Siblings, Gaara, Temari and Kankuro.

Gaara and Kankuro blatantly ignore us while Temari is glaring daggers at me. Oh boy, she's still mad that I knocked her out of the running while making it look like a game.

I cheekily wave at her. She instinctively reaches for the giant fan strapped to her back but manages to stop herself from drawing it.

"Leader-sama!" Oh fuck me is that Hiro? "Leader-sama how nice it is to see you! How have you been? Are you prepared for the tournament? Do you need anything?"

Sasuke looks at me and I just know he's quirking an eyebrow as if to ask 'who the hell is this guy?'

"Hello Hiro. I'm good. Yes I am ready. No I don't need anything." I forgot how annoying this one is.

"You're always so collected. I bet you have plans to beat everyone here!" He happily sits down across the table from me.

"Not really." I bluff. "I'm going to wing it and see what happens. Besides I don't know what half of the other contestants are capable of."

I can feel Sasuke roll his eyes next to me. He's seen the ridiculous wall that I had covered in dossiers. If anything I've over prepared.

"I'm sure you'll be alright." He gives me a warm friendly smile. "That doesn't mean I'm going to hold back on you!"

I sigh. This kid is annoying. "I expect no less."

"Oh what so he can talk to you but I can't?" Noboru chimes in. "Talk about a double standard."

"How about all three of you shut up." Sasuke demands. "The last three are approaching."

We all turn to where Sasuke is looking and sure enough there's the Kusa shinobi, the Kusa kunoichi and the Kiri shinobi all idly talking to one another. That's interesting, are Kiri and Kusa on good relations? I have no idea.

The three shinobi take a table all to themselves. Pity, seems I won't get to learn their names until later.

Then Eito, the same proctor from a month ago strolls into the gazebo.

"Hello everyone." We all quiet down and give him our full attention. "I'm here to explain how the bracket is going to work for this. Basically we're going to have a single elimination tournament with three rounds. The first round will be six 1v1 matches. The second round will be three 1v1 matches consisting of the winners of the first round. The third and final round will be a 1v1v1 match with the three winners of the second round. Last one standing wins. Any questions?"

No one speaks up.

"Good." He continues. "We will be drawing names for who will be fighting who, everything is left up to chance. Now everyone get up and follow me. We're starting." He turns on his heel and walks out to the field the stands are facing.

Everyone rises and follows after him.

"Kusagakure, I give you the twelve finalists!" Eito shouts to the filled stands. It looks like most of the village came out to see this. "We will now determine our first match of the day!" With a grand flourish he unseals a small decorative purple box. Without further ado, he reaches in and pulls out a name.

"Lee Rock of Konohagakure!" He calls to the crowd as Lee steps forwards. There's clapping and a few cheers, he must have made an impression in the previous part of the exams if the people here remember him.

"His opponent will be..." He reaches in again and pulls out another name. "Green of Otogakure!"

I'm facing Lee? Well this is going to hurt a lot.

I step forwards to general applause. They're just clapping to be polite, not because they want to or are genuinely cheering for me.

Then something happens that terrifies me to my core. "Remember Green, I expect a show."

He's here. Orochimaru is here. My head snaps towards the sound of his voice, on the opposite side of the stadium is another gazebo. This one is much nicer and there's attendants running around in the background. This must be where they have the visiting Kage at for the tournament.

Sitting beneath in the shade are three individuals, one is most certainly the Kusakage. The other is a grinning Orochimaru and the final attending Kage is a furious Tsunade.

Why the fuck are they both here? Better yet how are they both here without attempting to kill each other? Did Orochimaru know Tsunade was going and wanted to mess with her or something equally as ridiculous?

I don't respond to his words. Now I have to be a bit... brutal with Lee. This is not good.

"Now if everyone but the first fighters please go back to the tent?" Eito shoos them off of the field. "Alright you two, I'm the proctor for this fight. If I say it's over, it's over. Don't test me. This fight is to knock out or surrender, whichever comes first. Questions?"

"No, Eito-san." Lee respectfully answers.

"Nope." I casually answer. We're pretty different in how we deal with people.

"Fighters ready?" Eito takes two steps back.

Lee and I fall into our respective taijutsu stances. His is reminiscent of his sensei, one arm strongly held with a fist before him and the other tucked behind the back. I take a wide stable stance with my arms raised protectively in front of me. I can pretty much guarantee that Lee is going to be faster than me, if he isn't right now then all he has to do is open a few Gates.

Dammit. I really didn't want to fight Lee. He's not going to go down easy, hell he'll get back up from just about anything. I really wish I knew some genjutsu right now, I'll have to add that to the things Orochimaru will teach me before I kill him.

Well, let's try and do this without ninjutsu. That way once I face Gaara I can use water release techniques. Let's be honest, Gaara is going to breeze through the competition too. Hell I won't be surprised if he wins it all, even with Sasuke and I here. We're limited and he's not. Plus he's Gaara.

"Begin!" Eito shunshins a fair distance away from us.

The exact same instant Eito said begin, Lee rockets forward with the intent of punching me in the temple. I hurriedly raise put my left arm in defense but that didn't slow down his attack at all. Instead of his fist hitting my face, both his fist and my arm hit me.

"How youthful!" Lee happily says as he expertly dances away from me. "Everyone that I spar with back home would have dodged! No one but Gai-sensei blocks my hits anymore."

"Yeah, that's because you hit like a boulder rolling down a mountain." I wanted to say freight train, but those don't exist here. I rub my face, I'm very glad my mask stayed on through that hit. Whatever it's made out of is some quality material.

He lunges in again, this time going for a swift punch in the gut. I bar both my arms in an X to intercept his hit. A loud dull thud fills the stadium and a few people wince in sympathy for me.

The idiots don't know anything.

I didn't budge. Once his hit connected, which it most certainly did, I brought out more of my Jiongu enhanced strength.

"Aw don't be like that! You don't have to hold back!" Lee says as he unleashes a flurry of quick and precise blows on me.

"Sorry kid," I'm blocking and deflecting each one, we're blurs to untrained eyes. I can hear the people in the stands starting to cheer both of us on as Lee and I fly across the field in a deadly dance of punches and kicks. "I'm not used to fighting people weaker than me. I held back for your safety."

A heavy kick slams into my chest and I'm thrown across the ground and skid to a stop near our starting point. I haul myself back up to my feet and casually dust myself off. "Right, definitely hit a pressure point there."

"I am not weak!" Lee shouts at me. "I may not be able to use ninjutsu or genjutsu, but I shall become a strong shinobi using taijutsu alone! It's my nindo, my shinobi way, to always improve myself! To push myself to reach a new level and then surpass that one too! Surely another taijutsu specialist can respect that."

"That's nice buddy, but if that's all the harder you can hit I'm going to be fine." This time I lunge at the green clad gennin, I've had enough of letting him beat me to a pulp.

We're exact opposites of earlier, I'm aiming a punch straight to his solar plexus and he is holding his arms in an X to block me. Except this time I'll be taking his advice. I won't hold back, I'm going to bring out the full force of the Jiongu.

Once my fist connects to his arms, they buckle and cave back into his chest. I don't stop my blow there, I keep pushing forward, putting as much force behind the punch as possible. It's so strong that Lee is pushed backwards five meters and leaves deep grooves in the ground from where his feet dug into it.

"So," I cockily say as I straighten up, "any chance of a surrender?"

Two insanely loud crashes drowned out all other noise. Shit.

A kick slams into the back of my head and I'm forced to eat dirt.

"Proctor, I would call the fight. He could need medical attention after that, I may have been a bit too... excited." Lee shakily tells Eito. Huh, he must not have expected me to biff it.

"Nah I'm good." I push myself up and see a suspiciously head shaped dent in the ground. That's not embarrassing at all. "Just because you got a little speed boost doesn't mean you can hit me hard enough to end the fight. Sure you hit harder now, but it still isn't enough."

"You sure kid?" Eito asks from a chair he must have unsealed while Lee and I were fighting. Lazy bastard.

"Yeah I can keep going." I hope from one foot to the other.

"Continue." Eito blandly says as he leans back deeper into the chair.

Lee blurs, but this time I'm ready for him. I can still track him now that I know how fast he's moving and what to look for. He aims three quick punches at my torso and I deflect all but one. The one that made it through didn't cause any damage, it just glanced off of my side.

Lee breaks away from me and skids to a stop. "You're right, like this I won't be able to win."

"Then surrender?" I offer. "It's not that hard to say."

"Gate of Opening: Release!"

"Well that's not good." I mutter to myself. "How many can you op-"

A foot plows into my gut, launching me up into the air. Instantly a determined Lee is right behind me with his bandages flowing behind him. In the next moment I'm bound by his bandages and he grips me in a bear hug of steel. Then he spins us both, everything around us blurs as he spins faster and faster. He rockets us both at the ground at absurd speeds and we both crater into it.

"Is he okay?" One of the spectators say.

Lee struggles to rise and pulls himself out of the new hole in the ground.

"Where's the other one?"

"That was crazy! How do you even learn how to do that?"

"Did... did he kill him?"

"Ow." My voice cuts through all of the hushed whispers coming from the stands. "Okay green boy -wow that was ironic- you can hit hard."

"Are you alright down there?" Lee says as he peers down the small indention he made in the ground. "Should I call for a medic?"

"Nah I'm good." I cheerfully call up to him.

"Kami damn it Green, why are you so nonchalant about this?" I hear Sasuke say to himself from the gazebo. "He literally put you in the ground."

Lee looks down at me with a great deal of concern. "Then why haven't you gotten up?"

"There's a pretty bird flying above us. I got distracted by it. I mean it's like a little flying rainbow! Look at it!"

"That idiot!" Sasuke rages.

"Really?" Lee looks skyward in search of the mysterious bird that I'm so fascinated by. "I don't see a bird."

I explode upwards and land a vicious uppercut to Lee's exposed gut and it throws him skyward. I leap up in the air after him and it's my turn to grab him and start spinning.

"Holy crap he's doing Lee's move against him!" Kiba shouts from the gazebo.

"You shouldn't be able to do the front lotus!" Lee exclaims as our velocity increases further. "You have to open the first gate to use it!"

"That's where you're wrong, to be capable of the front lotus you simple need to have enough strength. Did you really think that only the Eight Inner Gates granted the user inhuman strength? Besides, this isn't the front lotus."

"What?"

I'm not spinning us how Lee did, I'm spinning us parallel to the ground. Lee's spin was like a tornado, while mine is like the rotation of a windmill. "Do you think that I want to slam into the ground again? No thank you."

I release Lee and he rockets downward and slams into the ground, leaving another crater next to the first.

"Hey, those could be eyes for a smiley face from way up here. Now I just need to form a mouth and the picture is perfect! Crap how am I going to land?"

"Gate of Healing: Release!" Lee flies out of the crater and stands below me.

"That's not good at all." I'm heading right for him, we're going to run into each other.

Lee's leg muscles coil as he squats low, then he does something unexpected. He jumps straight up at me with way too much momentum.

"This is going to hurt."

He plows into me with both his fists raised like he's a flying superhero and I rocket high into the sky.

"Totally right. That hurt." I say to myself as I'm staring up at the sky. Then my body slowly spins around as gravity takes hold and pulls me back down. "Holy crap I'm-"

I'm high up in the air. I'm ridiculously high in the air, way higher than I ever want to be ever again.

Fuck fuck fuck why am I in the air?

I freeze, all of my thought processes are halted as one all encompassing thought resounds through my head.

This is how I died before. This is how I'm going to die again, right here, right now. It's all over.

~Host calm down, you're fine.~

Dead. Dead dead dead. Splat. Again. Nothing more than a red smear on the ground.

~Host, even if you did go splat there wouldn't be any red. I only make blood so you can summon the spiders.~

CRASH

I smash into the unforgiving earth making the biggest crater yet.

"Don't freak out." I mumble to myself. "Don't freak out. If you freak out then everyone here will know I'm terrified of heights. Don't freak out. Just... stay in the crater for a bit and calm down. Yeah. I'm going to do that."

"Green-san?" Lee pokes his head over the lip of the crater. "Are you alright?"

"No I'm not bloody alright!" I rage at the imbecile who thought launching me high in the sky is a good idea.

"Yeah he's totally fine." I can hear Sasuke tell Hiro from deep in my hole. Stupid Jiongu enhanced hearing, sometimes it sucks.

"Do you want to surrender?" Eito's lazy drawl echos in the bowl of earth I'm in.

I clench my left hand into a fist and slam it into the ground. A pillar of earth surges out of the ground off to Lee's left and is headed straight for him.

With a resounding thud, Lee whirls and punches the pillar and with his brute strength alone turned it to dust.

"I'll take that as a no." Eito monotonously says. I bet that asshole is still in the damn chair.

I climb out of the crater and turn to face Lee. There's a tinge of envy in his eyes.

"You're a taijutsu specialist that ties in ninjutsu to your combat style?" He asks as he's hopping from one foot to the other. He's eager to trade blows again, but he wants to ask me that more.

I'm alright with that, my plan to win this isn't knocking him out or tying him up. Hell I never really expect him to surrender despite my earlier words. I'm planning on outlasting him. Even opening the first Gate is harsh on the body, he can only use them for so long and with each additional Gate he opens he shortens his combat stamina. So him wanting to talk is perfectly fine by me.

"See, that's where you're wrong." I dust myself off, again, then smoothly slide into my defensive combat stance. It has the added bonus of bringing my hands close together, which I'm going to capitalize on. "I never said I was a taijutsu specialist, you just assumed that."

Lee quirks an eyebrow at me. "Then what are you?"

"I'm a ninjutsu specialist that ties in taijutsu to my combat style." I bring my hands together as Lee's eyes widen in surprise. "Earth Release: Ten Thousand Fists!"

True to it's namesake, seemingly thousands of pillars with a fist on the end explode out of the earth and all aim at where Lee is.

"Gate of Life: Release! Gate of Pain: Release! Gate of Limit: Release!" A green glow shines brightly around Lee, his skin has turned to a deep red and his eyes have lost all their color, they're completely white.

He bends over and takes a sprinters stance. That idiot is going to try to plow through all of the earth pillars to get to me. He erupts like a raging volcano and does exactly that, plows straight through every last obstacle in his path.

"Fuck me this is going to hurt." That's what I meant to say, all that came out was a short "Fu-" because Lee's foot is firmly lodged in my gut.

The solid hit pushes me off my feet and I rag doll across the ground before smacking into one of the few trees in the field.

"Ow." Damn that kid can hit. Only Tsunade has ever hit me that hard before. "Can I call a timeout?"

Lee materializes above my prone body and rears back for another punch.

"Guess not." I slam the ground with a fist and a pillar shoots out of it. Except this pillar isn't aimed at Lee, it's aimed at me. It slams into my side and pushes me out of the path of Lee's punch. His fist goes straight through the pillar and into the earth itself. "Damn kid, that's one hell of a hit you've got there."

Lee must be done talking because he's lunging at me again with speeds I can no longer hope to match. I raise my arms into a protective X and brace myself.

Two sharp cracks echo throughout the air. There's gasps from the audience and Eito flies up off his ass and is near both of us in an instant. Damn that man can move when he's motivated.

"Green-san I am so sorry!" Lee shouts an apology at me. "I didn't mean to! I swear!"

I look down at my awkwardly dangling arms. Great, he snapped them. The Jiongu mimics what my body should be, that includes my skeletal structure. There's bone-like things in me made of the Jiongu, just like how there's lung-like things, and eye-like things, and so on. And Lee's absurd strength was enough to break it. I'm actually impressed, the only other time this has happened was when I stupidly punched Tsunade in her gut. That was totally worth it by the way.

"The match is over." Eito turns to the crowd. "Green can no longer contin-"

"Like hell!" I roar, inadvertently drawing everyone's attention to me. Whoops. "They're just broken arms. Give me a moment."

Jiongu, if you would be so kind.

~Of course. We can't disappoint the crowd, now can we?~

Two gut-wrenchingly loud snaps cut through all other noise as my arms seemingly straighten themselves out.

"Holy shit." Whispers from the crowd start up as I experimentally move around my 'healed' arms.

"People can do that?"

"I've never seen a medical technique work so quickly, and to do it to ones self is even more difficult."

"What the hell is Otogakure teaching their gennin? Talk about impressive! If you ignore how gross that was."

"You sure you're good to continue?" Eito hesitantly asks. "Because you just had both arms broken. You could surren-"

"Proctor, my gennin know their limits. He has not reached his yet, continue the fight." Orochimaru calls out. I spare him a quick glance, his face is lit in pure elation. Nothing could make the grin on his face more vibrant.

I turn to my current Kage and give him a deep, sweeping bow. "Thank you for your confidence in me, Orochimaru-sama. I will not let you down."

I was wrong, if he was elated before now he's died and gone to heaven. He's beyond ecstatic, beyond joyful. I think I just made his whole month with that one moment.

"Well, if it's alright with him then I suppose... Continue?" It comes out more as a question than an order. I don't really blame Eito for it, it looks like I'm getting the beating of a lifetime.

Lee is idly hopping from foot to foot, still energized from opening the Fifth Gate. "Green-san, tell me. What is your nindo? Your shinobi way? What drives you to get up from my blows? To keep going even when your arms break?"

"My nindo? Never really thought about it before." I lunge at Lee, intent on giving him a good punch of my own. He simply speeds his way out of my reach. "I guess it would be... to survive. My nindo is to survive."

That's what I do, I survive. My first thoughts on coming into this world were 'how am I going to survive?' I've survived fights I had no right to partake it, I've survived facing multiple S-rank shinobi, cruel and opportunistic wannabe dictators, and most importantly of all I've survived Orochimaru and his experiments.

"How... unyouthful." Okay, that's new. I've never heard Lee say that with such sadness before. "You should strive for more than just survival! Rise up and face your challenges with vigor and a fist as hard as steel!"

"Sorry kid, but my fists aren't made of steel." They're made of something better. "Now are we going to fight or do you want to keep talking? How much longer can you keep the Gates open anyways?"

"Not much longer." He says from behind me. Shit he's fast. He chops me where the neck meets the shoulders and the power of the blow forces me to kneel.

In the next instant he's before me with a leg raised at my head level. "You've pushed me far, Green-san. I respect that, and it's out of that respect that you face me at my best! Here I come! I'm holding nothing back!"

His leg blurs.

"LEE NO! YOU'LL KILL HIM!" Gai's booming voice commands his gennin to stop, but it's too late.

Lee's foot soundly connects with my jaw and my vision spins. A sickening crunch quiets the crowd, there's not even whispers or screams or whimpers like the last time. My head keeps moving independent of my body, spinning much farther than should be capable or healthy. My mask goes flying off of my face, ripped off it by the kick.

The gods must be with me right now, because my body is facing the stands but my face is facing the empty field after doing a 540 degree turn.

I fall backwards onto my face with a dull thud.

"Did... did I... did I kill him?" Lee shakily asks himself.

Fuck fuck fuck my mask is off. My mask is off! I have to hide my face! I can't let anyone see me!

Wait, why am I freaking out about that? Hello, shinobi here. They taught me a jutsu in the Academy that's made for disguising yourself, it's one of the basic three. The Henge.

Now the real question is, who should I henge into? Well, might as well keep it simple. Plus... well... I've been told I have the body type for it.

"Green-san?" Lee timidly asks as Eito stands behind him with a ballistically pissed off Gai right next to him. Even Tsunade and Orochimaru are close by, I can sense them.

"Does he need medical attention?" Tsunade asks in concern. "I offer my services."

"I... don't actually know." Orochimaru replies.

"That fucking hurt!" I shout into the dirt with a surprisingly... feminine tone to my voice. "Ow ow ow what the fuck man?"

"Green-san!" Lee exclaims in happiness. "You're okay!"

I awkwardly push myself up. "No I'm not okay you asshole! Do you have any idea how weird it is to try and move like this?!" I whirl around so my face is towards everyone and the rest of my body is facing the empty field.

"YOU!" I angrily point at Lee, or attempt to. "Damn it I can't even reprimand you right! Come here you jerk! I swear when I get my hands on you -" A horrendous amount of insults rolls right off my tongue.

"Well... I've never seen this before." Sasuke idly comments to himself from the sidelines as I awkwardly try to smack Lee.

"Hold up a second." Kiba speaks up. "You mean this entire time Green was... a girl?"

That's right, I used the henge to give myself a younger version of my kaa-san's face with elements of tou-san bleeding through. They're two of the faces I'm most familiar with and I can't help but think this is what I would have looked like if I was their daughter instead of their son. Or just actually theirs really, Orochimaru kinda screwed that one up for everyone.

"Yes." Sasuke blandly says, but I can hear amusement hidden deep in the one word. I'm never going to live this down.

"Well damn." Temari mutters out. "Suddenly I'm a lot less mad that she beat me. Girl power!"

"Sis, that's really petty." Kankuro reprimands her.

"- with a Kami damned rake!" My tirade of insults aimed at Lee peters out. He took all of it without flinching once, he just stared at me with big wide eyes.

"That's not what you're supposed to use a rake for?" Lee shakily replies.

"Oh why the fuck am I even bothering! Hold on." I reach up and grab my head.

"Wait don't do that!" Tsunade calls out.

CRUNCH

"Owowow! That really fucking hurts!" Now my head is on straight, but it still needs to rotate around once more.

"What is wrong with you!" Tsunade reprimands me. "Here let me-"

CRUNCH

"FUCKING HELL!" Now I'm on backwards again. Lee I hate you. It would have been better if you just kicked it right off, but no! This is so much worse.

"Stop that! Let me help you!" Tsunade urges.

"She'll be fine. She's had worse." Orochimaru idly strolls back to the Kage gazebo.

CRUNCH

"FUCK FUCK FUCK FUCK!" Alright. There. Head is on straight. "Okay. Okay. I'm back."

Literally everyone is staring at me in horror. It isn't every day you see a young teen girl twist her own head around while yelling obscenities as the world's best medic nin tells her to stop.

"Where the hell is my damn mask at?" I mutter to myself. "YOU! Head spinner! Where did it go?"

Lee nervously points off to his left where, sure enough, my mask is sitting.

"Good boy." I boldly walk right past him and scoop up the mask and refasten it to my face. Crisis averted.

I smoothly twirl around and slide into my combat stance. "Now where were we? I believe I owe you a beating."

"What!" Tsunade rages. "Absolutely not! You need medical attention right now! Get over here!"

"Uh, no." I blandly dismiss Tsunade. She fumes. "You're not my Kage, you don't get to order me around." Her eyebrow twitches in suppressed anger, we both know that she really is my Kage. "Now Eito-san, if you would remove the good Hokage and let Lee and I resume our fight?"

"There is no need for that." Lee says. "I surrender."

My jaw drops. No one sees it. "What?"

"I overused the Gates. I can't open them again so soon, I have to rest and recover." Lee calmly explains.

Bullshit. I sense total bullshit. If he overused the Gates he'd be on the ground right now in agony. "What? Don't want to hit a girl?"

He blushes crimson.

"Oh what the fuck really? See! This shit right here is why I let everyone think I was a guy!" This is utterly ridiculous. Absolutely, mindbogglingly insane. "You mean if I just took my mask off earlier you would have surrendered?"

"NO!" He blushes even more.

Fucking fine. "Guess that beat-down was for nothing then!"

"Winner by forfeit: Green of Otogakure!" Eito calls out to the still stunned crowd.

I angrily stomp over to the contestant gazebo and with a huff I sit down in my chair next to Sasuke.

"Green..." He trails off.

"Not a damn word." I know what he wants to say. "I know where you sleep. I will make your life hell."

"Leader-sama is a lady?" Hiro is looking at me in awe. "Wonderful! Say, want to go get food sometime?"

Sasuke dissolves into a hysterical mess, and that's saying something.