The Chunin Exam Finals

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, the Village Hidden in the Leaves.

June 29, x788.

As the seats in the Chunin Exam arena filled up, two men wearing similar robes stepped into the VIP area that was meant for the highest-profile viewers.

The first man was an elderly man with a goatee and liver spots on his face wearing a red and white robe and a wide brimmed red hat with the kanji for fire on its front. This was the current Hokage of the village Hidden in the Leaves, Hiruzen Sarutobi.

Walking beside Hiruzen was a man wearing a robe in the same style as Hiruzen's. Though, his was blue. On top of that, he wore a mask that covered the bottom half of his face. This man was Raza, the fourth Kazekage of the Village Hidden in the Sand.

Or, it should have been Raza. However, the real Raza was killed near the end of last year, the last act of Junko Enoshima and her cohort. Though, no one was aware until now. Instead, the one dawning the guise of the Kazekage as Orochimaru, a traitor of the Village Hidden in the Leaves, as well as Hiruzen's most talented disciple.

"Lord Kazekage, I'm really looking forward to seeing just how much these young shinobi will show us." Hiruzen said as he walked alongside the disguised Orochimaru. Then, as they both took their seats at the center of the viewing platform, he continued. "Our villages' futures will be in the hands of these youngsters, after all."

"Indeed." Orochimaru replied in Raza's voice. "Talents like these should be treasured."

'This old fool is talking about the future, yet he doesn't know that his village will cease to exist after today.' Orochimaru said while sneering internally. A moment later, he frowned under his mask as his thoughts continued. 'I haven't heard from Kabuto lately, though. I suppose he ran into some trouble before today. No matter. With his skill, there should be nothing to worry about.'

'I have to stay vigilant.' Hiruzen thought to himself as he scanned the crowd. 'Kabuto was captured only two days ago. And he almost killed Hayate. Luckily Wendy was there to save him. Otherwise, we would not have been able to find out that Orochimaru was planning to attack the village during the finals. Unfortunately, Hayate was discovered before he could hear all the concrete plans. We don't even know where Orochimaru is right now. And Kabuto's mental defenses were too strong for us to get any results before the finals began.'

If Hiruzen had known that the man he was most wary against was sitting less than five feet away from him, he would be mortified.

"It's starting." Hiruzen said quietly as he looked at the center of the ring.

Naturally, when Orochimaru heard that, he also turned his attention to the center of the arena.

At that moment, Hayate Gekko appeared in the middle of the arena. Then, he raised his right hand in front of his face and coughed a few times. A moment later, he circulated his magic power and projected his voice throughout the arena.

"*Cough* Ladies and Gentlemen, the Chunin Exam Finals *Cough* are about to begin." Hayate announced. "Now, I ask that all the participants *Cough* come to the ring."

Shortly after Hayate's words fell, seven young shinobi appeared in the ring, standing in a line in front of Hayate. However, it did not take long for the crowd to start murmuring amongst themselves when they noticed that one of the participants was missing.

Alfonzo's group was no exception to those talking about the missing contestant.

"*Sigh* Sasuke was training with Kakashi this month, right?" Alfonzo asked as he turned to look at Sakura.

"Yes." Sakura replied with a nod. "Naruto wasn't happy about that. But I heard he got a pretty good teacher, too. So, he stopped complaining after a day, or so."

"Thought so." Alfonzo said, replying to Sakura's answer to his question. "I hope he's not gonna end up always being late like Kakashi after spending all that time alone with him."

"Sasuke would never do that." Sakura said in Sasuke's defense. Though, if one judged by her tone, she was not completely confident in that statement.

Meanwhile, Hayate swept his gaze over the seven Genin standing in front of him.

"It would seem that Sasuke Uchiha isn't *Cough* here yet." Hayate said. "Well, as long as he is here in time for his match, he won't be disqualified."

After saying that, Hayate raised his head and swept the crowd with his gaze.

"Now, I'll *cough* announce the match order. *Cough*" Hayate continued. "The first match will be between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga. The second match: Sasuke *Cough* Uchiha Vs. Gaara of the Sand. Match three: Temari Vs. Shikamaru Nara. And the fourth match will be *Cough* between Shino Aburame and Kankuro. Now all those other than the two fighting *Cough* in the first match may leave the ring."

Immediately, Shikamaru, Shino, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro left the arena. At the same time, Naruto and Neji took their distance from each other. Then, Hayate backed up, raised his right hand above his head, then swung it down.

"Begin!" Hayate ordered.

The match between Naruto and Neji was a one-sided affair, which everyone expected. However, the fan favorite, Neji, was on the losing end of the match from beginning to end. Unlike in the canon material, Naruto already had a relationship with Kurama. And because of that, he was able to use his magic power to cloak himself. As a result, the Hyuga Clan's [Gentle Fist Art] was completely ineffective. On top of that, Naruto's increased speed made it impossible for Neji to keep up, despite using the Byakugan, as well.

On a side note, the Hyuga Clan's fighting style, the [Gentle Fist Art], takes advantage of the Byakugan's X-ray ability. In doing so, with their palms and fingers as a medium, they inject their magic power into their opponents, completely disrupting their magic power flow.

In the second match… Nothing happened. Or rather, it had to be postponed… Because Sasuke was late. However, because Orochimaru was acting as the Kazekage, and wanted to see his future vessel in action, he was the one who made the request to have the match postponed. So, Sasuke got lucky in this regard because of the Pedo-Snake's interest in him.

The third match was between Shikamaru and Temari. And this was perhaps the most impressive match between Shinobi thus far. Although it was not particularly showy or flashy, both fighters put their wit and strategic thinking on full display. However, Shikamaru came out victorious in the end. And unlike in the source material, he did not forfeit after cornering Tamari.

But the fact that he was almost crying when he was announced the victor was quite funny to the crowd. It was clear to anyone watching that he would have rather given up after showing his capabilities so he could be lazy for the rest of the day. But now, he would have to fight in another round.

The reason for Shikamaru not giving up on his own was simple, just as he raised his hand to do so, he felt a dense killing intent fall on him from the crowd. And that killing intent was so controlled that no one else in the arena could even detect it.

When Shikamaru eventually found the source of the killing intent, he saw Alfonzo, Laki, Ikaruga, and Rika, the four people responsible for training him outside of his family and the academy, glaring at him with promises of the most intense training sessions he had ever taken part in if he gave up.

Seeing those glares, Shikamaru weighed his options, muttered "What a drag…", and accepted his victory forlornly.

After that, nothing happened in the third match, either. Because Kankuro forfeited before even entering the ring.

And that brought things back to the second match, which had been postponed. Gaara had entered the ring once again. However, Sasuke was still nowhere in sight. And just as Hayate was about to disqualify Sasuke, he appeared in the ring with Kakashi.

"We're not late, are we?" Kakashi asked quietly in a sheepish tone.

"Yes, you are." Hayate replied bluntly. "and quite so."

"Oh… Oops." Kakashi replied before bursting into a cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, Kakashi was no longer in the ring. Instead, he had appeared in an empty seat next to Laki. With that, the first round of the tournament could finally start its last match.

"Kakashi, welcome." Laki said happily once Kakashi was sitting next to her. Though, her smile gave off quite a bit of pressure. "So, why were you so late?"

"*Sigh* I pushed Sasuke a little two hard in training this month." Kakashi replied. "And because he was only able to learn the [Chidori] to an acceptable degree last night, when he ended up passing out, I couldn't wake him up on time."

Instead of replying, Laki only continued to smile at Kakashi, putting him under immense pressure. It was clear she could see through Kakashi's half-truth. But she was giving him the chance to tell her the whole truth on his own.

"*Sigh* Fine…" Kakashi said in a dejected tone. "Because I couldn't wake him up this morning, I decided I would go visit the Memorial Stone. But I lost track of time. On top of that, Sasuke had no idea how to get back to the village from where I took him to train. So, he couldn't even come on his own to the beginning of the finals."

The Memorial Stone is a monument in the Leaf Village's cemetery that pays homage to all the shinobi who lost their lives in battle in service to the village. Naturally, every experienced shinobi was close to a few of the names on that monument, and Kakashi was no exception.

In unison, all those who knew him, excluding Laki, who continued to smile, sighed at Kakashi's carelessness.

Meanwhile, the battle in the ring was in full swing. Using the [Soaring Heaven's Sword-Style], Sasuke zipped around the ring at high speed. However, he was unable to get past Gaara's automatic sand defense. Though, Gaara was unable to harm Sasuke with any of his [Sand Jutsu] either.

Eventually, Sasuke took his distance after Gaara got fed up and wrapped himself in a [Sand Cocoon] and watched him with his [Sand Eye Ninjutsu]. All the while, his magic power began to increase to an absurd level while taking on a sinister quality.

Finding this a good opportunity to use his new [Ninjutsu], Sasuke scaled a wall of the arena before going through several hand signs.

A moment later, Sasuke's katana was lit up with arcs of blue lightning. At the same time, a high-pitched squealing sound that sounded like birds chirping echoed over the whole arena.

"That noise is why Kakashi named his signature technique, [Chidori]." Guy said excitedly. "Because [Chidori] in our ancient language means, One Thousand Birds."

After saying that, Guy turned to Kakashi.

"So, that's why he took so long to learn it, huh?" Guy asked. "You taught him how to use it with his weapon. That's probably why he only learned it to an acceptable degree last night, too, isn't it?"

In response, Kakashi shook his head.

"Although it's true that he only perfected the use of [Chidori] with his sword last night…" Kakashi explained. "I didn't teach him that. He devised that all on his own. He actually learned the [Chidori] with his hands as the medium quite quickly. And thanks to his training with Saeko, he was able to handle the speed boost it provided. But he was not satisfied with just that. So, he worked quite hard to incorporate it into his swordplay, as well."

Hearing that, everyone was impressed. And Sakura's eyes were shining with love and admiration while she carefully watched Sasuke's every move.

Then, the moment Sasuke was ready, he dashed down the wall and quickly closed the distance with Gaara. Along the way, he avoided the [Sand Blades] and [Sand Whips] Gaara launched at him. Then, once he was in range, Sasuke swung his sword as he dashed past Gaara.

A moment later, Gaara's [Sand Cocoon] collapsed, revealing Gaara with a gash that stretched from his left shoulder to his right waist. Though, the cut was not particularly deep, it was gushing blood.

Gaara then slowly turned around to glare at Sasuke with a crazed expression on his face.

"Kill! I'll kill you!" Gaara shouted at the top of his lungs. "I'll let mother drink your blood!"

At that moment, what appeared to be white dove feathers started falling from the sky. And when they fell on the civilians and weaker shinobi, they all fell into a [Genjutsu] induced sleep. At the same time, many of the shinobi from the sand village stood up with murderous intent shining in their eyes.

Orochimaru's plan had finally begun.