Chunin Exams Part 5

Kankuro and Sai faced each other and waited for the signal to start.

As a fierce battle got underway, Sai pulled out a scroll that had dozens of weapons drawn on it.

There were ink swords, spears, shuriken, kunai, and short scythes with chains attached to them. As they sunk into the ground, the array of weapons covered the battlefield in black rain.

None of them managed to hit Kankuro as he easily avoided them with pure speed.

"Where were you aiming?" Kankuro shouted with a smug expression.

However, as he did so Sai jumped forward grabbing the ink half scythe out of the ground.

Sai charged at Kankuro who pulled out a Kunai charged back at Sai himself. The two clashed back and forth a few times when suddenly, one of the ink-swords moved on its own.

Kankuro was surprised at Sai's ability as he thought, "He turned the battle into a melee to make me think that the weapons were just for him to pick up. When I was sure that was all he was capable of, he strikes. This kid is scary better not hold back."

Letting the ink katana pierce through his chest, Kankuro smiled as he grabbed hold of the ink weapon.

"Why didn't you dodge?" Sai spoke with his eyes widened. But no sooner than the words left his mouth, the Leaf Genin had figured it out.

Sai quickly moved his arm forward while cutting the puppet's head off and dodging the real Kankuro's attack which took form in a spike shooting out of the puppet's body.

"Good instincts!" Kankuro revealed himself as the wrapped up bandages fell from his body, many people gasped and looked on in awe before Kibo explained that he was a puppeteer.

"He uses small treads of Chakra to control a puppet made from many dangerous materials and components."

Kakashi was surprised by Kibo's intelligence once again, not many people knew of Sunagakure's puppet art.

However, Kibo reminded him he's always in search of good forging materials, and that he went through many of Konoha's records to find out what different kinds they have encountered over the years. The wood used in their puppetry interested him many times.

Kankuro made a hand sign as the puppet that looked like him changed shape. It resembles a three-eyed, four-armed, humanoid structure, and wore a large brown poncho that hid most of its frame.

The puppet had jagged teeth and a spiky brown hairstyle that protruded from the top of its head and covered the sides of its face.

The construct quickly began unleashing a barrage of poison-tipped Kunai out from underneath the cloth in great number.

Sai dodge around using his Chakra to manipulate the ink weapons as if they were on autopilot, blocking every projectile launched at him.

Kankuro then changed his hand signs as the Puppet known as Crow began spewing poison mist over the battlefield.

Seeing this, Sai pulled out a scroll and quickly painted a giant fan, and with a single flip of his finger, the ink fan blew the poison gas towards Kankuro.

Kankuro changed his hand signs again as Crow began sucking up the smoke. It then floated next to him as the Suna Nin said, "You pretty good, but if you don't want to die, you should give up now."

Sai lifted a brow and smiled before insulting Kankuro with a straight face, "I'm sorry but, someone as weak as you, isn't capable of taking my life."

Sai then quickly pulled out two large scrolls of an Ice and Fire Giant. The two large monstrosities looked like different colored Yetis with partial fur around their chest, neck, forearms, and shins.

The two ink constructs leapt out of the page and charged towards Kankuro.

Kankuro frowned before pulled out a scroll of his own and shouted, "Come on out Black Ant."

A second later, a puppet appeared out of the smoke from a summoning circle. It has a much longer head than Crow. With a bucket-shaped face sporting two sharp red horns and six arms, its facial features also include three eyes similar to Crow.

It had a dark and disheveled hairstyle, and the puppet's overall body-frame somewhat resembled a large barrel that was entirely covered up by the large black cloak.

Black Ant flew forward towards the ice giant and opened up its barrel-like torso and proceeded to swallow the ink construct with ease.

Hundreds of bladed weapons stabbed in through the slots of the wooden prison turning it into an Iron Maiden.

In response to the deadly puppet's attack, the construct howled before as it reverted back to its ink form.

Crow broke off into section while massive saw-like blades appeared from out of its body. They flew forward began hacking away at the fire giant.

With five good slices, the Fire Giant Painting lost its form turning back into plain ink as well.

However, while Konkuro destroyed his Gaint Constructs, Sai had used a substitution Jutsu with one of the ink weapons he placed on the roof.

He stabbed the ink sword into the roof during his initial creation of the weapons. Luckily, Konkuro hadn't noticed it.

Once Sai was on the roof, he dashed over behind Kankuro before Crow could chop through the Fire Gaint.

While Konkuro was busy manipulating both his puppets, he left himself open to an attack. An opening Sai took full advantage of.

Appearing behind Kankuro with the flicker technique, Sai placed a very real sword up to his foe's throat.

Although he only had the back of the blade resting on Kankuro's skin, Sai knew that he won.

Kankuro knew it as well.

"Curtains falling puppeteer!" Sai said as he made an exaggerated pull of the blade.

Kankuro then did the only thing he could, he laughed, threw his hands up, and said, "I lose!"

Kankuro returned to the side of his Team and received a cold glare from Gaara.

"You're a pathetic disgrace. Your part in the missions over. Baki will escort you out of the village before we begin the operation." Gaara looked to Baki and nodded.

Kankuro sighed before lowering his head in shame.

Luckily, Kibo had spotted this. Using his Tengan, Kibo observed Gaara's reaction and read his lips. He then quickly made a shadow clone before instantly dispersing it.

"What was that about?" Karin asked as she tilted her head slightly.

It was clear that the rest of team 7 felt just as confused.

"An update," Kibo responded simply.

Kakashi scratched his head and asked, "The real you is here right?"

Kibo laughed at the remark before saying, "Yes. I'm still the main body."

Ino cheered loudly as Sai made his way back up the steps.

Just about everyone including team 7 thought he was a worthy challenge, that, and he would be a terrible opponent to fight against.

Sai walked by Sasuke and gave him a confidant smirk,

Sasuke, who was confused about Sai's attitude, was quickly filled in by Sakura.

"But I don't like Ino like that," Sasuke responded to the information given to him.

"Yeah but Ino does. . ." Before Sakura could finish speaking, she heard the next challengers being called out.

"Sakura Haruno versus Ino Yamanaka!" Hayate called them to the center floor.

The two looked at each other in surprise before remembering their childhood.

Ino pointed her finger towards her opponent before saying, "You should just give up, Sakura. You've never been on my level."

Sakura shook her head in disappointment as she got into a fighting stance. She then looked into Ino's eyes before saying, "Your wrong if your thinking I'm still that shy little girl you first met, I'm a full-fledged Shinobi now."

Sakura used the Flicker Jutsu and appeared beside Ino.

In response to losing sight of her opponent, Ino freaked out and tried to punch at Sakura.

However, this turned out to be her downfall.

Sakura grabbed her arm and while locking up her joints by pushing on a pressure point.

Then before Ino could say anything else, Sakura placed her hand on her head and used the mystic palm technique to induce sleep.

Ino fainted before she could say anything.

Sakura's rapid victory shocked the crowd, even the Hokage nodded his head in approval before saying. "I haven't seen such good control over the Mystic Palm Technique since Tsunade's protégée, Shizune. Perhaps I should send her a letter, and inform a talented seeding has appeared."

"Tenten versus Temari!" The two girls faced each other unfortunately things happened in a similar fashion as it did in the original timeline.

Tenten was a bit stronger when it came to the power of her physique, but with Temari's large supply of Chakra and her fierce Wind Jutsus, she managed to overcome Tenten's weapons and physical strength.

Neji and Lee shook their heads as they comforted their ally's loss.

"Shikamaru Nara versus Kin Tsuchi!"

Like before it followed the original timeline.

Shikamaru could be heard saying his usual 'what a drag' line because of annoyance over having to fight against the Sound Nin.

They had a brief encounter with them in the forest of death. The Sound Genin attempted to hunt them down and kill them for the scroll, but after being played, and led around by Shikamaru's tactics for hours, the danger of running into powerful Chakra Beasts, falling into traps, and running into other teams, caused Dosu to tell his team to back off.

Now that they were facing each other one on one instead of as a team, Kin figured that Shikamaru's strategies no longer have any advantages.

The match played out as usual. Kin used bells tied with strings to distract Shikamaru. The bells produce a Gen-Jutsu, disorienting Shikamaru and giving her an opening to attack him with a senbon needle.

Shikamaru snapped out of the Gen-Jutsu at the last second and counter attacked.

Shikamaru then altered the shape of his shadow possession Jutsu into a thin line while directing it toward his opponent.

Hiding the technique in the shadow of the strings she was holding on to, the Jutsu landed and the Sound Nin found herself unable to move.

After ensnaring her without anyone noticing, Shikamaru then threw a shuriken at Kin, and while releasing her from his shadow at the last moment so that they both may dodge.

The only difference was Shikamaru wasn't in front of a thick concrete wall. With a loud bang, Kin knocked her head against the wall behind her, rendering her unconscious.

Ino woke up and realized that not only had she lost to Sakura she missed Shikamaru's match, "Man what a drag, now I got continue fighting. Maybe I should just give up."

As he was thinking this Asuma slapped his back while shouting "Good job, kid!"

Then Kurenai smiled and said, "Yes you did good, I'm always surprised by your intellect. If you ask me Shikamaru has the best chances of becoming a Chunin this year."

The rest of team 8 congratulated him as well before the next names were called, "Naruto Uzumaki versus Kiba Inuzuka!"

Naruto jumped down while shouting "Alright! It's about time!"

Kiba seemed to be happy because he figured it would be an easy win.

Although Naruto showed he wasn't dumb, he didn't show off his power when they went to school. In fact, because of Kibo constantly forcing him to increase the gravity on his suit, he showed a lack-luster performance when sparing.

Kiba thought that Naruto scoring max marks on his exit exams had to be some kind of mistake. So he went into the match with a lot of confidence.

"We're gonna kick his butt Akamaru!" Kiba shouted as he faced Naruto,

Naruto on the other hand frowned and replied by saying, "Don't be so cocky Kiba, or you miss the beating I'm about to give you."

Sarutobi was particularly interested in how powerful Naruto has become. After years of hiding his true power, the Hokage would get to see his progress.

Naruto flickered, disappearing from Kiba's sight while thoroughly freaking him out.

Kiba tried to rely on his scent only to discover that Naruto was behind him.

Akamaru flipped around and started jumping out after Naruto. After the dog bit into Naruto, a puff of smoke revealed he was just a clone.

The real Naruto, on the other hand, placed his hand on the ground and kicked Kiba into the air.

After making a series of Naruto-Clones, they all began beating down Kiba in mid-air, while the real Naruto held onto Akamaru.

Kiba fell to the ground completely unaware of how badly his face looked. His cheeks had swollen to almost twice his size giving him a pig face.

Naruto then looked him in the eye and said, "I win!"

Kiba knew Naruto held back and lowered his head in shame as he returned to the top of the balcony.

Naruto jumped back when Guy shouted, "Kakashi did you teach Naruto Tai-Jutsu?"

Kakashi shook his head and replied, "No. But I know his teacher, and so do you!"

Guy turned pale, "You don't mean him? Do you?"

Kakashi then nodded his head up and down while saying. "Yep! None other than Chen Roshi himself."

Guy looked to Naruto like he was a monster, then back to Lee, "Lee don't underestimate Naruto. Just consider that other than the inner gate techniques, every Tai-Jutsu skill you know, he knows as well."

Lee looked over to Naruto, with a fire burning in his eyes he responded with a "Yes! Guy Sensei!"

"Hinata Hyuga versus Neji Hyuga!" The two names were called out.

When they met on the field, Hinata was nothing like her previous self. Her time with team 7 truly made her bloom as a Shinobi and as a person.

Thanks to Neji's father being alive and the fact that they were constantly trying to convince the elders to give the branch family their freedom, the two cousins get along a lot better in this timeline.

"Neji Nii Chan!" Hinata bowed to him before he bowed back and said, "Lady Hinata!"

Hinata puffed her cheeks up and said, "I hate it when you call me that."

Neji laughed as he took the stance of the gentle fist style.

Hinata did the same.

The two then faced each other down with a smile on their face before Hayate called out for them to begin.

Neji moved forward to make the first attack. The two began exchanging fierce open-palmed strikes accompanied by powerful shock waves of Chakra.

Hinata and Neji seemed equal in their mastery of the Hyuga Clan's Gentle Fist style as they exchanged and deflected dozens of each other's blows.

The crowd found themselves amazed by the teens' expertise in their Clan's Tai-Jutsu. They looked on in anticipation while the battle picked up the pace.