Chapter 9.2- One Thousand Hands

“I forfeit”, Shiba Aburame suddenly said, lifting his hand. Only the close attention I’d been placing on Uraume helped me notice how she did not feel the slightest bit surprised at her teammate’s seemingly sudden decision to resign. This was planned. I could see how it must have been concocted. Team raining would have told them who was the strongest between them and so the other would put on a good show to avoid dishonouring their clan and village, and then resign to preserve their team’s best candidate’s chances of going on to win the whole thing. If this was the kind of Chunin exam that I’d seen in the manga, then this alone might have been enough to cinch his promotion. I looked at both my teammates sitting next to me and chuckled. No way was either of them going to take a deal like that.

The crowd applauded at the Aburame boy, even if most of them were confused as to what had happened. To them, it must have been especially jarring. One second, the Hyuga girl was on the ropes, being eaten to death, and then the next she was perfectly fine and her opponent was surrendering to her.

“A beautiful performance in the end. Just to clarify what we saw over there, Hyuga Hinori did use an illusion technique to make it look like she’d been caught in the trap but actually escaped and replaced herself with a mud clone” Jiraiya’s voice rang out, and the civilians began whispering to themselves, even more in awe from the display of Ninja magic.

“Now, for our next match:” He trailed off as the screen began to flash through a list of names. It took a shorter time to make its choice with less options to run through, and came to a stop with two names on the screen; “Kitsuchi of Iwa and Sarutobi Omoikane, please make your way to the field” Jiraiya announced. I smiled at the matchup and leaned forwards.

It was a good chance to see what the Tsuchikage’s son was capable of in his teen years. He was also well into his teens, at least 13 years of age. That meant he had a good two years on most of the participants here. The only people here who were close to his age were his own teammates. The Bicoloured hair boy from Kumo was even younger than I was, and his teammate was only a year older than me from appearances alone. Their third had been at last 16, but he was apparently gone from the contest already.

Both of the participants were on the field facing each other in no time. I hoped Omoikane would win this and claim victory for Konoha, but Uzume had fought him, and if the look she was giving to the battle was any indication, then Omoikane would stand little chance.

The second Orochimaru began the battle, Omoikane was off. His fingers flew through seals at rapid pace and a giant fire ball blasted through the space between them. Kitsuchi had wasted no time in weaving his own seals. He bent on his knees and dropped his palms on the floor. A wall rose in time to meet the fireball. The explosive power of the powerful fire jutsu was enough to destroy sections of the wall, but Kitsuchi was well and truly covered from the attack. After the fireball came a ton of smoke, however. Smoke that Omoikane disappeared into almost immediately.

A stirring in the smoke was Kitsuchi’s only sign that something was coming for him, but he reacted admirable. He turned in time to fire off a stone bullet that tore through Omoikane’s jacket and the the kunai it was tied to. Omoikane swept in from the other side and slammed Kitsuchi’s head against his own wall with a powerful kick that was sure to send anyone reeling. He took advantage of the opportunity and reared up to stab down with his kunai.

From the screen, I could see Kitsuchi’s hands touch the ground and go deeper. Into the ground. By the time Omoikane’s kunai was about to hit, he must have felt shocked to feel his body fold around Kitsuchi’s fist. The boy was fast. Especially with that size. Omoikane spat out a wad of blood before Kitsuchi pushed further with his fist and sent the boy flying. He rose from his knees, still unsteady, but his opponent was not in any place to take advantage of that.

Kitsuchi scowled at Omoikane. A savage bloody smile that showed that he’d had a few teeth knocked loose by that kick into the wall. He weaved seals and then spat out a single mud bullet. It crashed into Omoikane’s form and sent him flying back further, but no other reaction. The boy was clearly unconscious already. “Winner: Kitsuchi of Iwagakure” Orochimaru said. That message didn’t seem to get into Kitsuchi’s rock hard skull because he began weaving seals for another mud bullet.

I made to jump down but felt a hand on my own. I looked down to see Toshiro holding on to me with a warning look on his face. I heard a commotion and turned to see that Izuku had made it out of his seat but Kizuru was holding him back while Uzume blocked his path so he couldn’t jump down. In the end, our intervention was unnecessary. Orochimaru would not let his sensei’s clansman be killed in front of him. The next mud bullet was slapped aside with a flick of his hand as he appeared between Kitsuchi and his target.

“I declared you the winner already, in case you are hard of hearing.” The snake sannin hissed with menace in his voice. The threat was clear there. Kitsuchi, finally finding his wits, nodded and walked away from the field.