Chapter 42

Chapter 42

The double knockout of Tenten and Misumi was unexpected, even a bit disappointing, but the preliminaries had to continue. After they were taken to the infirmary, another pair of names appeared on the black screen. A certain blonde jumped excitedly, seeing the names—Kankuro of the Sand vs. Naruto Uzumaki.

"Heck yeah!" Naruto jumped into the arena. "It is time I beat your ass, makeup freak."

"Makeup freak?" Kankuro asked, bewildered. "I'll show you who the real freak is, runt."

Kaen smiled as Naruto answered, showing his tongue. Kaen didn't know if Naruto thought about it, but it was the right decision to agitate his opponent. But seeing Naruto jumping in excitement, Kaen guessed that Naruto wasn't thinking much apart from kicking some ass. Still, Kaen wanted to watch the fight with his eyes and see how much Naruto has improved.

As Gekko started the match, Naruto quickly created four shadow clones and rushed at Kankuro without hesitation. Again if Naruto were thinking, then it would be a good plan to attack before his opponent could. It would restrict his movements. It would make him dance to Naruto's tempo. Yet, that alone wasn't enough, as Kankuro calmly defended himself, breaking Naruto's shadow clones.

"Is that all you got, runt?" Kankuro asked as he fought off the last of Naruto's clones and turned to Naruto, who stood away from him. "You are the last one."

Kankuro rushed at him, not wanting to give Naruto more time to create more shadow clones. Catching Naruto's neck, he slammed him onto the ground. Yet Kankuro's triumphant smile disappeared when Naruto in his hands disappeared in smoke. Naruto kicked him from the back before he could register what had happened.

"How?" Kiba asked. "Where did Naruto come from? Was it genjutsu?"

"No, Naruto pretended to be one of his shadow clones, and when he was hit, he released white smoke like the rest of his clones," Kaen explained. "Naruto hid in the smoke, and Kankuro thought it was a clone and rushed at the only one remaining."

"Hmm, I didn't think Naruto had it in himself to strategize," Shikamaru commented.

"You know nothing of him," Sasuke replied to the comment. "Naruto may usually act like a fool, but he takes his opponents seriously. He isn't above cheap tricks."

"In a fight, there is no such thing as a cheap trick," Kaen said. "For victory, you must use everything you have."

After kicking Kankuro to the ground, Naruto took out his kunai and put it on Kankuro's neck. Naruto smiled as he held victory in his hands, yet Gekko didn't announce the end of the match. Quickly realizing what Gekko's silence meant, Naruto jumped away from Kankuro just in time for a blade to pass through where he was a mere moment ago.

Naruto, with most of Genin, looked in horror as Kankuro's head spun around like an owl, and a blade emerged from his head, with something dripping from the tip. Not taking chances, Naruto created more shadow clones. The blonde surrounded himself with them and looked at Kankuro as he stood up, and two more sets of arms sprung from him and tore his outfit.

"He was a puppet all along?" Kiba asked, shocked.

"He has always been," Sasuke answered. "From the beginning, he used his puppet to pretend to be Kankuro."

"All of it for a surprise attack?" Sakura asked.

"Don't say it like that," Kaen said. "Maybe Kankuro wanted to be a real boy."

Nobody understood Kaen's joke, and they looked at him weirdly as he started to laugh by himself. Kaen didn't care about them, as he found his joke funny, but he stopped laughing when Kankuro's puppet attacked Naruto. From within its hands, blades were revealed. The tips of the blades were covered in poison too.

The arms of the puppet extended and, like spears, shot toward Naruto. Naruto did his best to dodge the attacks, but they were too fast, and he had to use his clones to block them. Naruto was quick to think of the plan, and he used the smoke from his disappearing shadow clones to hide and try to sneak up on Kankuro, who revealed himself.

"Stand still, you runt!" Kankuro yelled out as he tried to catch Naruto but only managed to hit his shadow clones.

"I am right there, doll boy," Naruto jumped from the smoke and revealed himself.

"Heh, you fool, I got you," Kankuro smirked, anticipating Naruto's actions.

Kankuro expanded his pupped arms but didn't hit Naruto. The puppet wrapped its hands around Naruto. The arms tightened around Naruto. Gekko was about to call off the match with Kankuro winning but stopped when Naruto disappeared into a cloud of smoke. Cursing Naruto's use of clones, Kankuro looked around the smoke-filled arena. The smoke soon disappeared and revealed dozens of shadow clones within it.

"What?" Temari wasn't the only one surprised at the number of Naruto clones.

"How much chakra does Naruto have?" Shikamaru asked.

Kaen smiled even more at the question when he realized Naruto's actual plan. The clones smiled at Kankuro and rushed at him. Seeing no choice, Kankuro made his puppet spin in place with blades extended from its hands. Kankuro pushed the puppet forward to the mass of clones. Yet, when the blades connected with the clones, they dissolved but did not explode into a cloud of smoke, revealing them as simple illusionary clones rather than shadow clones.

"Up here, doll boy," Naruto appeared above Kankuro and delivered a powerful kick to his head, crushing him.

"Ha," Shikamaru sighed in relief. "So even Naruto couldn't create that many shadow clones."

"He came far since the academy," Kiba commented. "Back then, he couldn't even create one functioning clone, now look at him, kicking ass."

"That fool," Temari sighed at the poor performance of her brother.

"Naruto Uzumaki has won the match," Gekko announced.

How devious of you, Naruto. Kaen didn't expect Naruto to trick everyone else into thinking he couldn't create that many shadow clones. Even when fighting someone else, he thought of future battles. And deceive was a powerful weapon he could use against the other genin like he deceived Kankuro multiple times by forcing him to focus on his shadow clones while he sneaked to his blind spot.

"Naruto, are you all right?" Hinata was the first to come to Naruto after returning from the arena.

"Of course," Naruto smiled. "I wasn't even hit once."

"Ugh," Kaen heard a groan from Kankuro as a medic checked on him, but he seemed fine.

Kaen watched as Sasuke and Sakura came to Naruto, and Hinata backed off shyly. Part of him was envious of having a team and climbing positions together. But only a part of him. He had a team now, and he could always trust Yugao, Anko, and Hana to have his back if needed. And he had Jiraiya as his master.

Kaen wanted to tell Hinata to worry about herself, as her match would come at any moment. But before he could, the black screen showed another set of names—Shikamaru Nara vs. Sakura Haruno. Kaen heard a tired sigh from Shikamaru and looked at Sakura, who had a determined look in her eyes.

"How well have you trained her, Kakashi?" Kaen asked.

"She learned what she could," Kakashi said cryptically.

"As a son of Jonin Commander, I don't think Shikamaru would have any problem winning," Kaen said. "What do you think, Asuma?"

"Shikamaru is lacking in many ways," Asuma stated. "But he is one of the most intelligent genin I have seen. No matter what Sakura learned, it won't be enough."

"Hey, Smoke Signal, don't talk bad about Sakura. She will beat the Lazy Eye bastard!" Naruto didn't like Asuma's words.

"Smoke Signal?" Asuma asked and then looked down at the smoke coming from his cigarette. "Don't call other names, and why aren't you angry at Kaen? He talks bad about Sakura-chan too?"

"You simply do not question Kaen," Sasuke answered.

"What is that supposed to mean?" Asuma got flustered.

"You wouldn't want to know," Sasuke replied, not looking away from the arena.

"Cheeky brats."

"How youthful!"

Kaen had to clean his ears after Gai's shout. Sometimes they acted more like children than brats. Ignoring the children, Kaen looked at the arena as the fight began. Shikamaru stayed back while Sakura approached with caution but was determined to win. Seeing the standstill, Sakura moved first, trying to overpower Shikamaru.

Her skills in taijutsu were all right, but her chakra control was a surprise. Kaen activated his sharingan and observed how Sakura concentrated her chakra on her feet and hands. Yet, to Shikamaru, it isn't enough. He doesn't counterattack but observes Sakura's movement. Kaen could see gears turning in Shikamaru's head as he formulated a plan.

For a couple of minutes, it seemed that it was a chase. Sakura tried to catch Shikamaru while he kept his distance. Recognizing the challenge of engaging Sakura in direct combat, Shikamaru decided to employ his strategic techniques. Seeing that Sakura had tired herself a bit, Shikamaru used his shadow-possessing jutsu.

Seeing the shadow extending from Shikamaru, Sakura quickly moved to avoid it. She probably has studied the shadow-possessing jutsu and knows what it can do. Shikamaru didn't seem to be bothered by it and continued to try to possess Sakura's shadow. At first, Kaen looked disappointed at the foolish act of Shikamaru. But it looked like Kaen had no right to judge Shikamru so quickly.

"Go, Sakura!" Naruto cheered for his teammate.

"Hmph, the forehead doesn't have a chance of winning," Ino responded to Naruto with an arrogant smirk.

"Shut it, Ino-pig!" Naruto threw an insult back to Ino.

"Naruto," Kaen called the blonde's name out. "That's not how you treat a lady."

Naruto got frustrated at Kaen's words and looked at the ground in embarrassment. Kakashi giggled, standing not far away, but Kaen ignored him. At the same time, Ino looked a bit flustered, with pink on her cheeks. Kaen missed it and looked back to the arena, where the fight continued. But by now, the battle was almost over.

Sakura tried to throw kunai at Shikamaru, but he could dodge it and continued with his jutsu. Soon Sakura was cornered as she had a wall of the arena behind her. Not giving up, she tried to jump to the side, but it was too late. Her long hair created a shadow that Shikamaru was able to use. Kaen knew from the beginning that Shikamaru was leading Sakura to this position.

"This is the end, Sakura," Shikamaru said. "Give up."

"I refuse!" Sakura yelled out, trying to struggle out of Shikamaru's control.

"Come on, Sakaru, you can do it," Naruto still tried to cheer for Sakura.

"Even if you took control of me, you can't do anything," Sakura said. "It only works in combination with your other teammates."

"Hmm, you know a lot," Shikamaru replied. "Indeed, my movements would be the same as yours. So, it comes to the battle of endurance."

Shikamaru took shuriken from his pouch, and so did Sakura. Nobody said a thing as they watched what would happen next. Shikamaru threw his shuriken, and Sakura did the same. As the shuriken got closer, both started to bend back and dodge it. Fear flashed through Sakura's eyes as she desperately dodged the shuriken.

Just as the blood was spilled, Shikamaru bent fully to dodge the shuriken, and Sakura did the same without resisting. But while Shikamaru had no trouble doing so, Sakura hit her head on the wall behind her and knocked herself out. The winner was Shikamaru, to no one's surprise but to Naruto's disappointment.

"As a shinobi, one should watch their surroundings," Shikamaru stated before leaving the arena.

Kakashi sighed and jumped to take care of Sakura. It seemed she was fine, to Naruto's relief, as she quickly got back to her feet. It was a lackluster match, but Kaen was still satisfied with Shikamaru's performance. It looked that Konoha's future was in good hands. Just as Kaen thought about it, another set of names showed on the black screen—Kiba Inuzuka vs. Gaara of the Sand.