Haruto is Him, and Jin’s Manly Spirit

The pale Hozuki turned the Yamanaka girl's bruised face in his hand, examining the girl that almost cost him the battle. Around her lay the tied up and moaning forms of the six Konoha genin that jumped him, soundly defeated, but Haruto felt a deep shame for how hard it had been to fight off the mind invading jutsu of this underfed undertrained kunoichi despite the vast difference in the quality of their chakra capabilities. Had her team jumped in before he took down the Hyuga boy, then he would have lost despite his incredible advantages in birthright and training. 

Haruto cast an eye to her teammate, a Nara boy, and thanked him. Some people think Nara's are the greatest sleeper world beater ninjas around. Those people are ignorant. Nara's tend to be shit ninja. For all the praise they receive for their staggering intellects, they ultimately boil down to a clan of people really good at remembering fine details and complex plans, and they have decent hiden techniques, two things almost always overshadowed by their slothfulness and cowardice. Haruto felt fairly sure that the choice to hang back and analyze his fighting prowess came from the Nara boy, and all six genin paid the price for his reluctance to rush in and fight it out. 

The Hyuga boy was the only one of the six capable of actually doing any damage to him - albeit with far more difficulty than on a normal human body the tenketsu still existing in his water form just less rigid in location making them harder to hit - and as such Haruto started with him. Full speed rush with a wind covered blade, but the boy didn't go down in one move, he revealed the Hyuga's signature defensive technique, the Revolving Heaven or Rotation, a rotating expulsion of chakra that forms a sphere of dense deflective energy which caused Haruto's sword to bounce off of it. The muscled out Hozuki spun with the deflect and turned into a flowing spinning slash that staved off the angry Rock Lee. The girl of the team, the resident shuriken chucker, launched a torrent of stars and kunai at him that sunk into his body and he redirected to push back the eager Rock Lee. 

The Hyuga boy came out of the Revolving Heaven dome of chakra with an excellent high speed charge, but his team failed to keep the sword busy preventing him from closing the needed distance to engage in his family's famous fisticuffs. Those pale 'all seeing' eyes of his proved incapable of seeing a way around the hyper-sharp wind covered sword, making his contribution to the battle as little as his teammates'. He dodged many cuts, seeing the distortion of air by Haruto's chakra as clearly as if the extension came from steel, but quite often he employed that frustration inducing rotating chakra defense of his. 

Haruto Hozuki wasn't the fastest genin from Kirigakure - Keiko Terumi's big round ass wasn't a showpiece - and he wasn't the strongest - he'd seen Jin Hoshigaki punch out earth jutsu - but Haruto Hozuki came close enough, but also moved with an aethereal grace on the battlefield, flowing like water as he attacked and defended in such a way that made the powerful team he fought seem lacking, all the while completely frustrating their every hope of beating him by simply accepting their attacks into himself, his body literally flowing through Rock Lee's mighty taijutsu and shifting the flow of Ten Ten's thrown weapons back at her teammates. The three of them had about as much a chance of beating him as he had against Orochimaru. 

Once again flowing through Rock Lee's increasingly dispirited attacks Haruto pushed beyond the boy using him as a shield for just a moment as he let go of his sword, sticking it to his wrist with chakra and pulled out the Geyser Thermos, releasing a raging torrent of water that the genin desperately dodged, but Haruto used hydrification to expand his muscles to the limit and kept the stream steady on the Hyuga boy, forcing him to using his draining Revolving Heaven defense constantly to prevent the water from blasting and scouring him. 

With his sword hand he utilized half signs to spawn cheap water clones, and what they lacked in power they made up for in their ability to spam water justu from such a high pressure source. The water bullets they directed from the stream slammed into the shuriken chucker and hemmed in the speedy Rock Lee, and soon both were captured in water prisons, and when he finally needed to cancel the stream the Hyuga boy emerged greatly exhausted, barely managing to pop a half dozen water clones before one finally captured him as well. 

Haruto felt his body suddenly seize up, an ambush right after he feels his victory in hand by a second 'hidden' team. They didn't know Haruto's ability as a potent chakra sensor, nor the fact that he only needed a brief moment to flex himself free of the restraining jutsu ensnaring him. As Haruto muscled through he felt another flare of chakra heading at him, but failed to dodge it. Suddenly his body was not his own to command, invaded by another, the infamous Mind Transfer Jutsu. 

If not for his supreme chakra control, Haruto would have failed to prevent the Yamanaka mind invader from canceling his water clones, and ending the three water prisons they kept. Instead, Haruto turned the remaining clones on the last genin team while he struggled in his mind against this most intimate of intrusions. The pale Hozuki felt the Yamanka girl panic when she failed to fully take control of him, even making out a mentally screamed, 'Not again!' that accompanied a bleed over memory. Haruto experienced first hand this team trying to fight off an attack by Jin Hoshigaki who allowed himself to be hit by this very combination of jutsu in his typical straightforward 'I'll punch the whole world to death' fighting ethos. He felt a dagger of hot shame at how Jin didn't even notice the girl's attempt to seize his body, her spirit bouncing right off his thick mental walls of raw stupid and rampant delusion. How he longed to just spend one day capable of weaponizing willful ignorance like Jin. 

Eventually, Haruto cast the Yamanaka girl out of his mind and blasted the final obstacle in the form of a giant human bouncy ball with water bullets until the expansion jutsu collapsed to reveal a battered and bruised fat kid, then bound the lot of them up in wire. All in all, effective, but far from efficient and barely proficient. His time spent contemplating his performance while looking at the blonde girl's face ended when an explosion of malevolent chakra emanated from the resting place of Sakura's teammates, and the unconscious forms of his teammates landed nearby, thrown by the risen Uchiha boy half his body covered in black juinjutsu markings designed like rolling flames. 

"You've squandered all the good grace I shed upon you." Haruto declared, aggravated by the further damaging of his teammates. 

"Shut up and fight." the boy smirked at him, obviously reveling in the power granted to him by Orochimaru, the seal applied to his neck flooding the boy with the man's chakra, carrying something else with it that muddled things. 

"I'm going to cut you now." Haruto sighed and dodged backwards away from a leaping axe kick that kicked up soil like a bomb went off. 

Haruto never left the range of his wind covered sword, slashing the Uchiha across the chest from shoulder to hip, just deep enough to ruin the boy's year without access to healing jutsu. He almost ignored the damage, but the exaggerated spray of blood kicked up by his wind chakra flow caught the Uchiha boy's red eyed attention, inscribing the possibly fatal attack on his mind with enough clarity and urgency to counteract the feeling of invincibility brought about by his curse mark. 

"Sasuke!" Sakura screamed as the devastatingly wounded boy staggered back on shaking legs. 

"Did I cut too deep?" Haruto frowned as the boy fell on his back trembling as he tried to apply pressure across his entire torso. 

Feeling embarrassed, Haruto directed his clones to tie up Sakura and the orange clad jinchuuriki - not wanting a repeat with the other boy - while he rendered assistance to the asshole that knocked out his teammates and threw them away like garbage. 'Kirigakure has truly transformed' thought the young Hozuki, 'and situations like this make me miss the old ethos'. Caring for the wellbeing of foreigners is such a stark departure from a traditional society that doesn't even care for the wellbeing of its own members, but it's something Haruto and the Hozuki Clan fought for under the leadership of Mei Terumi. The now Lady Momochi presented a vision of the future that united the pariah factions against the Fourth Mizukage's wicked regime, and it aligned well with Lord Fifth's, the pair of them launching a cultural shift together that should have taken years to take its first fumbling steps, but now is possibly decades ahead of any reasonable expectations. 

A kinder Kirigakure both within and without existed today, the green glow around his hands stabilizing the bleeding Uchiha boy testified to it. Haruto had no chance of actually repairing that cut himself, his medical jutsu only capable of superficial healing, but a water clone provided excellent suture work for Haruto to heal over, and with an application of medical ointment and tight bandages, the Konoha genin would survive, though not be in safe condition to move on his own until a someone with at least chunin level training in iryojutsu went over his genin level work. 

No longer willing to wait things out for his teammates to recover, Haruto's clones assembled three stretchers, then he roused the various unconscious Konoha genin to prisoner march them through the forest. He felt bad for soloing the exam, leaving his teammates out of the team based activity, but after a violent encounter with a legendary ninja moonlighting as a genin applicant and three hostile and ungrateful Leaf teams, Haruto just wanted this stage over with. 

"Move!" He ordered the slow to comply Konoha genin, affixing an especially withering stare at the loud mouthed jinchuuriki, "Or I'll chop off your limbs and hope someone at the tower is skilled enough to reattach them." the speed at the jinchuuriki's compliance caused Haruto to pull some of his blade out of its sheathe to get him moving, although he still had the nerve to complain, "Keep up with the whinging, and I'll sow your mouth shut." 

Haruto let the prisoner convoy march ahead of him, taking a moment to himself to rest his face in his palm. He declared, "I've had enough of this forest." 

-Two Days Later-

"It's about damn time you showed up! You're late!" Jin Hoshigaki yelled, seemingly with the full power of his barrel chest. 

"Do not yell at me right now, you retarded shark." Haruto grimaced as his hands trembled, "I have been attacked by every person you should have captured on your way in. Every time it happened someone would launch a mass escape attempt and I'd have to catch them all over again. All your playtime has made my life hell." 

"Are you trying to blame me for your poor performance?" Jin puffed up, his dead fish eyes gaining a mischievous shine, "Are you claiming that I, Jin Hoshigaki, failed in my assigned duties making your job more difficult?"

Jin's eyes roved over the platoon of captured genin from various villages. 

"YES!" Haruto screamed at his tormentor.

"That's fair." Jin grinned a wide sharkman smile that caused a cold chill to settle over the captured genin, "Not only did I dump you and Keiko with all the work, I had a lot of fun doing it. It felt good. And what are you even complaining about anyways? Fighting the guys I already fought means we got two fights for the price of one, plus every escape is a rematch-lite. I only got one of those since I got here. Why did you get all the daring people? I call foul." 

Jin glared at the cowardly prisoners in the wooden cages, his round eyes asking them, 'Why ain't alls yalls got that dog in yew?' 

"I'm so glad you had a fun time, Jin, but if every shinobi from Kirigakure did things your way, what cost would we pay?" Haruto demanded a redress of his grievances, all of them.

"Cost?" Jin frowned, "Sounds like a bargain no matter which way you slice it." 

"You-!" Haruto cut himself off before he truly lost his composure.

"Oh it's you." Jin marched into the prisoner line and looked down into the eyes of Rock Lee, "Ran into Haruto, eh? Happens to the best of us. Don't let it get you down… he's a cheating cheater who cheats. Can't land a good punch on him no matter how hard you try, and yeah, your sword cuts right through him, but he's always fine. He has to be the most frustrating person to fight in the whole world." 

-Meanwhile in Kamui-

"You suck! You're shit at fighting! Your predictions are wrong! Your reactions are slow! Your coordination is off! Your chakra control is atrocious!" the clone of Zabuza Momochi shouted as he put his everything into dodging attacks, occasionally sending out slices that passed right through his opponent. 

"Why won't you die already!" screamed Obito as he relentlessly assaulted the Zabuza clone, feeling himself digging deeper and deeper into levels of hatred previously unexplored by mankind every time he chose to re-engage with the elusive bully. 

In a dark world of white cuboids, the two most annoying men in the world continued their epic struggle.

-Back in the Forest of Death-

"So annoying." Jin glared at Haruto, who felt a great desire rising up within him to do gross bodily harm to the young shark man.

"Fight me!" declared Rock Lee, causing both genin to turn their heads to him. 

"No." Haruto declared emphatically. 

"Yes!" Jin agreed without care for anyone else's opinions.

"No!" Keiko shouted her opinion from afar which Jin also ignored by cutting free his rival in love. 

"Okay, Lee, my rival. How shall we do this? Swords, knives, jutsu? This is a man's duel of honor, but if you want to battle all out, that's cool too." Jin asked as he walked away to create an appropriate starting distance while the other Kirigakure genin descended on the prisoners to throw them in cages. 

"We shall battle with Taijutsu!" Lee declared.

"Excellent, excellent! Our bodies will determine who Sakura loves! If only she could be here now to see this!" Jin exclaimed while he stripped himself down to just his pants and sandals revealing a long and muscular frame bristling with power. 

"I'm over here." Sakura muttered, but Jin heard it loud and clear. 

Suddenly, birds flew away from every perch in the forest of death. Animals sought shelter as bugs retreated into the trees and earth. Jin's eyes twitched as his pupils shook at the sight of the fair Sakura, filthy and greasy with her head hung low. 

"Of for fucks sake." Haruto sighed for the millionth time since beginning his training alongside the freak Hoshigaki. 

"What is the meaning of this?" Jin demanded ready for his violence to take a new direction. 

"Her team turned hostile after I rescued them from danger." Haruto explained and the massive wave of killing intent vanished as fast as it arrived.

"How wretched." Jin returned his focus to Rock Lee, "But convenient. When I present Sakura with your broken body, her heart will be mine!" 

"That is not how romance works, but if you need a reason to fight, I won't stop you from finding yours!" Rock Lee declared, "But if I win, then you Kirigakure ninja must release your prisoners and return the scrolls, restoring this exam to its intended purpose!" 

"Denied!" Keiko arrived at such a speed she appeared to teleport to most of the other genin, "Besides, the Chunin Exams are a war proxy, it's not our fault your village doesn't trust you all with information like that." 

"Aspersions aside, thank you for explaining that to me!" Rock Lee nodded to the girl, "But I still feel like upping the stakes of this duel anyways!" 

"So do I!" Jin agreed, "If you defeat me, you have my word that the others will release your friends and let you finish this exam!" 

"His word means nothing to us." Keiko once again crushed the bargain. 

"What! A sudden betrayal! From you, Keiko? From you?" Jin gaped like a fish from the turn about. 

"Maybe if you'd been a team player the team would respect your wishes, but you've practically gone rogue this exam." Keiko buffed her fingernails on her haori, unphased by the accusation. 

"Just because you're correct, doesn't make you right!" Jin scoffed, "You and Haruto, you just don't get it cause you aren't men." 

"Hey!" Haruto barked at the personal attack, "Uncalled for." 

"You have a feminine spirit." Jin declared, "And that practically makes you a woman!" 

"You're the dumbest man I know." Keiko sassed back.

"In this world, a man must do all he can to protect his masculine spirit." Jin argued with his fists clenched and his side burns hot blooded, "The world wants to grind you down, make you fit in, make you obey. That's why a man must be hard! Hard enough to endure all that, and loud enough to let the world know that he's still standing and ready to take more punishment! Mean enough to deal some punishment right back! I've never found the societal hole that I fit into, but I'm hard and strong, and I'll keep going, keep pushing! I won't stop! It doesn't matter how other people feel, or what they say! If I won't fit, then I'll make me fit! That's why this duel has to happen and the stakes have to mean something!" 

"He doesn't even realize what he's saying." Keiko sighed while face palming.

Meanwhile, a river of tears flowed under each of Rock Lee's round eyes. 

"I see you, Jin Hoshigaki. I see you!" he cried. 

"Fuck, whatever." Keiko relented, "Just stop it with the bone head philosophy monologues, they just end up sounding like dick jokes, and you aren't even smart enough to enjoy them."

"How dare you, Keiko!" Jin declared his offense, "I find dick jokes hilarious. I'd know if I made one! I'd be laughing!" 

"Stop talking and start fighting, Jin." Keiko dismissed his offense, "Stick to what you're good at, you're cuter like that." 

"Forget you." Jin turned back to Rock Lee getting his hands into the high guard, "Let's fight, Lee, with it all on the line!" 

"I'm ready!" Rock Lee roared and entered his ready stance. 

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