Chapter 40: Unorthodox?

Once the 4 ninjas entered and settled down, the match referee finally announced the start of the long-awaited duel between 4 of the top 16 ninjas of these Chunin Exams.

Instantly everyone took a big jump backwards and settled into either attack or defend... well, everyone except the Kaguya clan ninja who stayed where he was.

"Finally! Are you ready for some fun?!" exclaimed Kaguya Dokuro with a crazy grin on his face as his body started to creak creating a grotesque sound, his skin started to move and suddenly several bones came out from different parts of his body.

"Hey, I know, unorthodox, isn't it...?, but my kekkei genkai can also be very convenient..." Dokuro Kaguya said laughing slightly like a maniac while parting his fingertips, creating holes that expose hardened finger bones.

"Digital Shrapnel" suddenly shouted Dokuro Kaguya swinging his hand and throwing, in volleys (five per hand), bone bullets at Tsunade, the Uchiha, and Rasa.

However, none of the three wasted their time, the Uchiha quickly opened his Sharingan with two tomes to skillfully dodge the bone bullets, Tsunade was more practical and put in her punch a large amount of chakra with which she then hit the ground causing a large earth block to rise in front of her defending her and Rasa just took out a scroll and released a lot of golden dust that he used to defend himself without problems, he also took advantage of this moment to create some golden dust eyes without being seen by his three opponents.

Meanwhile, Dokuro Kaguya did not stop and kept throwing bone bullets one after another at the three of them without stopping until the point where Tsunade had to start dodging the bullets because they had already managed to pass through the earth block she had made quite easily.

Rasa could tell that she was not happy with the current development of the fight and he could understand her, she was a close combat ninja so a ninja-like Dokuro was problematic for her.

On the other hand, Rasa had no problem defending himself and he decided to stay in his calm place while his golden dust shield received the bone bullets as if it was nothing, he didn't want to rush to do anything while he could, he preferred to save chakra and plan his moves according to how the fight would develop.

Besides Rasa had already noticed that the Uchiha despite still easily dodging the bone bullets already seemed quite annoyed and it was very likely that he was planning to attack Dokuro at any moment, apparently the Uchiha didn't like to be stuck on the defensive for too long.

But Rasa was wrong...

Uchiha wasn't the first to counterattack Dokuro Kaguya, instead, Tsunade took the initiative.

"Landslide" shouted Tsunade hitting the ground hard and creating a large crack in the earth that extended to where Dokuro was.

Dokuro was quick to react, he stopped firing his bone bullets and dodged Tsunade's attack, but as soon as he did this the Uchiha took the opportunity to attack him.

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique," said the Uchiha launching a huge fireball.

It was then that Rasa decided to interfere and attack the Uchiha who was concentrating on Dokuro.

"Gold Dust Burial," Rasa said in a low voice and quickly mobilized his gold dust around the Uchiha until he trapped and crushed him.

But when his attack was over what he found was not blood but the pieces of wood from the "Substitution Jutsu".

'Yeah... I guessed it wouldn't be that easy' thought Rasa seeing through the golden dust eyes he had in the sky that the Uchiha was now at the other end of the field staring at him with his Sharingan.

He then looked over to where the fireball had hit Dokuro and noticed that the Kaguya clan ninja was completely unhurt.

Kaguya Dokuro smiled in a sadistic way now and quickly ran towards Tsunade who was in front of him, and as he ran, his fingers were also pointing at Princess Senju, apparently, he wanted to use his bullet bones to suppress the Senju in a confrontation and then give her a good punch.

The bullet bones flew towards Tsunade quickly.

Seeing that Dokuro had moved, Tsunade punched the ground again and a massive and thick wall of earth instantly rose from the ground, blocking the bullet bones and preventing her and the Kaguya from seeing each other.

But Tsunade didn't stop there, and as her opponent quickly jumped over the earth wall, she manually sealed and the instant after Dokura jumped the earth wall she finished sealing.

"Earth Style: Earth Flow Big River" shouted Tsunade jumping backwards as she activated this technique where Dokura had landed after jumping over the earth wall.

Instantly the ground around the Kaguya's feet instantly turned into a muddy ocean and he quickly gathered himself and ran towards it.

Dokura Kaguya laughed out loud and with incredible speed, he jumped without much trouble to a far away place avoiding the sea of mud.

At the same time, the Uchiha had completed another technique.

"Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique" the Uchiha spat a burst of several small fireballs into the air and then controlled/moved the many small flames around the area, he guided each flame individually with his chakra, some towards Dokura and some towards Rasa and Tsunade.

Rasa, already expecting an attack in advance, had already mobilized his golden dust to defend against the flames while the other two could only dodge as the Uchiha continued to direct the flames at them.

"Water Style: Water Shield" Tsuande sealed and extinguished the flames coming towards her with her shield.

"Water Style: Great Waterfall" Dokura also surprised everyone as he created a rushing torrent of water, and instantly hit all the flames.

'Looks like those two don't just know how to hit or use their bones' Rasa thought as he saw the use of Water Style by both of them, he envied this a bit, it was really a pity that in Suna there weren't many water jutsu like in Kiri and Konoha.

"Boom" Tsunade wasted no time and tried to hit the Uchiha, but he quickly dodged and moved away from her.

Oh, and good thing the Uchiha dodged because the crater Tsunade left on the ground was not small.

"He He He, this is exciting!" said the Kaguya as he pulled a bone from his body to use it as a sword while attacking the Uchiha, no doubt he was a savage and impulsive person who chose to attack head-on without even thinking much about it.

'This guy..., Does he attack everything that targets him?' wondered Rasa as he watched him change opponents according to whoever attacked him.

The Uchiha didn't back down and pulled out from a scroll a sword with which he faced Dokura.

The sword in the Uchiha's hand and the bone blade in the Kaguya's hand clashed, and the sword suddenly made a crisp sound.

The two immediately jumped up and ran towards each other, wanting to use the impact of speed to defeat each other.

Meanwhile, Tsunade who saw the confrontation between those two, used this as an opportunity to test the young Rasa's strength, she rushed towards him and began to strike with her fists, but Rasa's golden dust was in charge of stopping her, of course despite this the impact of Tsunade's blows sent almost all the golden dust flying so he could not remain on the defensive so he began to mobilize his golden dust to attack her from different directions.

The fight continued for a few moments like this, Tsunade with Rasa and the Uchiha with the Kaguya.

Occasionally Tsunade's heavy blows could be heard on the ground or on Rasa's golden dust and there are also a series of crisp sounds of swords and bones clashing.

...

...

-Pov Third Kazekage

As I watched the fight I couldn't help but think that things turned out reasonably well.

Not perfect, but fine.

I had originally planned to kill the 3rd Hokage's three genius apprentices using the two elite Suna groups I had been training, nurturing, and forming for these Chunin Exams... but when I noticed that the council would not approve no matter how much I insisted or tried, I decided to look for another way to get some of what I wanted...

And those ways were only two:

The first was to make the Hokage's apprentices look ridiculous somehow during the exams, but without killing them...

This was not easy at all and there were more losses than profits in this considering all that it would require, plus the council might get angry if they found out that I was responsible, which would only take more political power away from me...

Yes, the truth is that I hate that the council has so much influence, it's a big nuisance for all my plans, but for now, there was nothing I could do but to go gaining more political power in Suna, which would give me more freedom in the things I pretend to do.

Now the second way to get at least some of what I wanted was to make the elite ninja who were part of the top clans in Suna fail the second exam...

This would make a fool of the clans of Suna and as long as Rasa my disciple passed the second exam, I as his master would gain a lot of respect and political power for having a disciple who passed the last exam along with two other civilian ninjas, while the ninjas of the big clans of Suna did not make it.

It would be the perfect way to gain more political and social power in Suna, while at the same time taking power away from the annoying Patriarchs and the council.

But this was not only a difficult thing to do, it was also disadvantageous for Sunagakure to lose 6 young promises.

But if Suna only lost one of the elite groups and not both..., well, if this happened it wouldn't be as beneficial to me but it would still be a win-win, Rasa and his group would stand out on par with the elite group that passed.

Yes, that would give a big hit to those Patriarchs and their clans, along with the loss of 3 elite ninjas who couldn't pass the test, that would only make it better.

And now that everything went as I had planned from the beginning, it put me in a very good mood, I was really pleased, even my apprentice had managed to succeed in the mission I had secretly tasked him with.

Rasa really was the perfect and most ideal person to help me get everything I had always wanted... power and revenge.

And now to see him prove at only 9 years old (almost 10) that he can stand up against the most notable ninjas of the most renowned clans in the ninja world only makes me prouder.

It was certainly a wise decision to take him under my care as soon as I had the opportunity, the boy did not disappoint me.