Naruto silently observed the three figures who stood in the center of the arena. Neji, with his arms crossed, was an emotionless wall. Rock Lee on the other hand, had an interesting mix of determination and anxiety etched across his face.
Looking over the third genin – a jittery looking Suna – with a practiced eye, Naruto mentally dismissed him from the battle. This would come down to be a fight between the two male Konoha rookies.
...
"Begin!" said Satetsu, who leaped out of the arena. The Suna genin immediately jumped away from the Konoha nin, pulling the bandaged humanoid puppet off his back.
"Lee," said Neji, ignoring the Suna genin completely. He stood stock still. "Forfeit now. You've never beaten me, and you never will."
Rock Lee lowered himself into a taijutsu stance. "Neji...I respect you as a genius. But as I am sure you know by now, I never give up!"
Neji shook his head, and lowering himself into a stance, the veins around his eyes bulged outwards as the boy activated his infamous heritage.
The fight was over in less than five minutes. At first, Lee seemed to be moving too quickly for Neji to follow, making sure to stay out of his reach. When the Suna genin distracted Neji with his puppet, Lee finally jumped in for his attack – but unfortunately for him, nothing got past the Byakugan's all-seeing power.
As soon as Lee was in Neji's reach, it was all over him. With what seemed like a series of gentle jabs to Lee's torso and legs, the boy crumpled to the ground. The Suna genin soon followed after, being easily incapacitated with a few jabs to the hands controlling the puppet.
"The winner of preliminary round 4 is Neji Hyūga!"
Without a look back at his teammate who still lay on the ground, Neji left the arena.
"It's unfortunate, but Rock Lee wouldn't have stood a chance against any competent ninja, let alone a genius like Hyūga," said Kabuto, adjusting his glasses.
"What do you mean?" asked Mayu curiously.
"He can't use any ninjutsu or genjutsu. It's amazing that he's come this far with just taijutsu, but...this is where the road ends for him," came the answer.
They fell silent, and soon after, Kabuto excused himself, returning to his teammates.
It took a second for Naruto to realize that Mayu had also wordlessly begun walking towards the arena. Naruto's gaze lowered to her trembling hands, and he let out an internal sigh. With that kind of mentality going in, he doubted she'd come out victorious. He looked towards her opponents: Fū and another Ame genin were already waiting inside the arena. As his gaze fell on the Taki genin, the girl seemed to notice; turning around, she locked gazes with him for a second. Then, baring her teeth at him, Fū gave him a sarcastic little wave before returning her attention to the others in the arena.
Bemused, Naruto cocked his head, his thoughts returning once more to Rai's words and Kakashi's strange reaction towards them. "Fū..." he said her name out loud quietly.
Rai had called her a 'jinchūriki,' but what did that even mean? Maybe Rai had been messing around like usual, and it hadn't meant anything. But Kakashi's reaction had been strange, so perhaps there was something else to it that he was missing? Naruto's forehead furrowed, and he reached up to massage his temple with his hand. His head was starting to throb again.
Wincing, Naruto glanced sideways at Kakashi. He opened his mouth – and then hesitated. Should he ask the jōnin? Normally, he wouldn't have hesitated – if there was anyone he trusted, it was his sensei. But Kakashi's previously bizarre reaction gave him pause.
He squeezed his temples; it was getting harder to think straight with his head aching like this. Was this another relapse of that weird desert sickness? How come he was sick, anyways, while no one else was?
"Naruto, are you alright?"
Naruto almost jumped in surprise, before returning to his senses. How odd – he'd nearly forgotten that the jōnin was there. With a mental shrug, he decided that it couldn't hurt to ask...what had he been going to ask again?
In some distant part of his mind, alarm bells were ringing, but for some reason, Naruto was finding it hard to focus on them. Dazedly, he looked back at the arena. The round had started; Mayu was racing away, while the genin from Takigakure was spewing a shiny powder that hurt his eyes. What had been the girl's name again?
"Naruto?"
His eyes widened as he actually jumped this time. He'd forgotten Kakashi-sensei was there again! What was going on? What was wrong with his mind? He felt like he was drowning in a increasingly thicker fog.
Focus, Naruto, he told himself, massaging his temples. Closing his eyes, he mentally retreated to his sanctuary. Here, he had studied all of his difficult taijutsu stances and committed his jutsu to memory. But to his immense shock, whereas he had previously imagined it as a great expanse of nothing, there was something else there now – a giant, bulky gelatin-like block that was rapidly expanding in all directions even now. But – there! It hadn't taken over completely just yet. Naruto dove to grasp the fleeting thought before it was crushed for good under the block.
"Sensei, do you know...what Rai meant by...a jinchūriki?" he managed to choke out.
"What?" Kakashi sounded taken aback. "So...you don't know what he meant?"
"No...but – " Naruto stopped with a hiss as he was forcibly ejected from his own sanctuary. He let out a groan, as the wave of pain collapsed over him. Everything around him was beginning to spin dizzily, just like it had several days ago.
"What's wrong?" Kakashi's voice was muted and distant, as if he were talking to him through a thick wall. Naruto staggered, his hands falling limply to his sides. The air was thick and hazy, and his mouth felt like a leaden lump of clay. He mumbled something through a thick tongue, before everything turned black.
...
As she slowly walked into the arena, there were so many thoughts and voices in her head that Mayu was starting to feel rather sick. It was a tumultuous cacophony, a restless tornado that raged through her mind. There was no time to breathe or think. Only react.
"I thought we had agreed that you were going to keep your distance from it."
"She skipped the Academy today again!"
"You don't mean you're making a cake for that thing, are you?"
"Get away from him! He'll kill you!"
"He's a monster!"
"Where are you going?"
Mayu flinched in surprise, and then stumbled. Regaining her bearings, she looked around in a daze; her surroundings had suddenly changed. She was already at the center of the sandy arena, where an Ame genin and Fū waited for her. Mayu blinked. Fū had been the one to call out to her.
"Are you ready?" the Suna jōnin growled, glaring around at them. Mayu's eyes darted away, not wanting to meet his eyes. "Then – begin!"
The Ame genin immediately jumped into the air, lifting his umbrella and spinning it to release a torrent of deadly poison-tipped needles. Fū hopped away, while Mayu – almost tripping again – just barely managed to get out of range.
"Hiden: Rinpungakure no Jutsu (Secret: Hiding in Scale Powder Technique)!" Fū used the same jutsu she had used on them earlier in the tunnels, exhaling a blindingly bright powder from her mouth.
Reacting instinctively, Mayu screwed her eyes shut, running as fast as she could. Judging by the outraged howl of surprise from the Ame genin, he hadn't fared as well. When Mayu felt it safe enough to open her eyes again a few seconds later, sure enough, he was already slumped on the ground. She watched as Fū straightened over his body. Casually, the green-haired girl stretched her arms back behind her body, reminding her for some odd reason of an insect extending its scaly wings.
Then, just as casually, Fū looked directly over at where Mayu stood.
"Here I come!" she said brightly, pointing her finger in her direction.
Mayu froze, her eyes widening. Unable to move, she watched as Fū took a deliberate slow step towards her.
It was just her and the monster again.
The monster took another step towards her. And then another. And another.
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