Chapter 12.1- Gamer of the Desert

I asked no questions when I was called down by one of the Kusa Chunin. The task must have been over. The day had given way to night hours ago, and even the most aggressive of genin had made their way to the tower. Even Kurotsuchi had returned a few hours ago. The Iwa team had continued their reign of terror until they matched up against a Kumo team. The same Kumo team I'd robbed of a member in my first clash with Noel Yatsuki. They had no interest in dicking around, and the Iwa team didn't get that memo until one of them had been beheaded by a pissed-off Kunoichi.

The fight that followed had been nothing if not interesting, and I got to see so many ninjutsu I'd love to try my hand at recreating. Another revelation I'd gotten from the fight was that none of those shinobi were genin level. They couldn't be. They were only a bit weaker than the root anbu from a few months ago. Was Konoha the only village that actually bothered sending genin to this thing? Speaking of Konoha, they'd clearly been a target in these exams. The only team to make it to the tower was the one with Hana Inuzuka, and they seemed to have even lost a member. I got to see the Yamanaka's charred body when I took a look around the fields. My best guess was that Noel Yatsuki had gotten to him at some point. I was impressed that even two of them had managed to escape from him with their lives.

I stood up from my lotus position and took a walk down the stairs before ending up in a hall with the rest of the finalists. Eight participants in the finals left us with me, the two Konoha nins, Noel's team of three, and Kurotsuchi's team of two. It was almost like it was fate that had it so only those I'd shown interest in ended up making it to the finals.

We were all quiet and facing the proctor, with the exception of the Konoha team as they glared daggers into Noel. I guess that's evidence that he was the one who took their teammate from them.

"The next round will be the public tournament. To decide the matchups, we will be using our random selector, so please turn your eyes to the screen," the proctor said in a voice barely above a whisper that still echoed in the silent room. The only reply he received was a scoff from Kurotsuchi, and I was forced to agree with her. Only a fool would actually believe that the matchups would be random. Kusa was playing a game with these exams. A game I could not see, but a game nonetheless. When the first names to flash on the screen were those of Noel Yatsuki and Hana Inuzuka, I resisted the urge to actually chuckle. The game was becoming too obvious. Sure, matching up the most volatile of the Konoha duo with the guy who killed her teammate was a good idea. The next matchup was between two nameless pieces of fodder. Noel's Kumo teammates were destined to face each other, it seemed. Both of the Kumo nin seemed to care little for the matchup, only recognizing it with a grunt from the male and a wry smile from the Kunoichi. What was her name again?

The third match was between Kurotsuchi and the other Konoha nin, Isagi Aburame. That one was sure to be interesting. The Aburame clan was famed for being deadly fighters, and the lava release user was guaranteed to put up a good show.

That meant the last fight was going to be me against the large teenager who was Kurotsuchi's teammate, Akatsuchi. From what I'd seen of his combat skills, he was nothing special, so the real fights would have to wait until the later rounds.

"The third round will begin in a month, to give the visiting dignitaries and Kage the time to arrive. Now, you may leave," the proctor said and disappeared in a shunshin after those parting words.

The rest of the competitors turned to each other for some not-so-friendly banter, but as tired as I was, I just turned away and marched to the hotel. It would be me and Noel Yatsuki in the finals. I had to figure out a way to beat him before them.

XXXXXX

"Better taijutsu than you, you say," Baki repeated after me while stroking his chin. Normally, the last thing I'd do would be to approach the bastard for help, but even he had a vested interest in seeing me succeed. If I wanted to be Kage, I needed to win, and if he wanted a better Suna, he needed me to win.

"And ninjutsu?" he asked.

"Difficult to say. My sand should be a good counter to the storm release, but elemental affinities have a strange way of interacting, and I have no interest in finding out I was wrong in the line of fire."

He nodded. "Your wind release will be your strongest asset. You are barely competent as it stands now. The next month will be spent finding out if you can go beyond that."

XXXX - 14 days later

He was not joking. I looked at my status page with pride as I flipped through the same handseals for what felt like the thousandth time today but did not feed any chakra into the jutsu. The Bastard had spent the last two weeks pounding quite a few wind release jutsu into my head. My affinity had climbed seven levels with the benefit of constant practice, and with that boost, every jutsu became easier to learn. It was an interesting virtuous cycle. Learning more jutsu helped my affinity to grow, and growing my affinity helped me learn jutsu even faster. Today's goal was not to learn any more jutsu but to get even quicker at using the jutsu I'd already learned.

My other goal for the day was to convince the Jounin that I needed to spend half of the next couple of weeks working on fire style jutsu. As my control over wind grew, I saw so many opportunities for combinations with the fire release. Besides, what young man didn't want to shoot out firestorms on command?

XXXXXX - 14 days after that

Rasa arrived today. He'd shown up with seven Anbu guards with no prior warning and seemed to have caused the Kusa Head Jounin no small amount of fright. He'd been hosted with dignitaries, and the other Kage were expected to arrive tomorrow.

I'd barely gotten to spend more than a few minutes with the man, but the words he did end up having for me proved to be of very little use. Rasa was not my father, and he never tried to be. That might have actually made me like him a lot better. He was an asshole and never pretended to be anything else. That's why I had little qualms with letting him die in five years when Orochimaru would come for him. The only way he'd be surviving that encounter would be if it somehow became more useful for me to have him alive than it would have been to see him dead.

Two days until the tournament, and I was beginning to feel ready. As things stood now, I'd probably have an easy time taking out the Gaara that had shown up to the tournament. Explosive growth was the hallmark of the gamer ability, and it was really beginning to show. Another benefit of these exams was that I'd finally be getting out from under the Bastard's wing. His suspicious looks were beginning to grate on me. Earlier in our affiliation, he'd been quick to explain away my growth as a consequence of my unique affliction, but even that was stopping to explain everything. I guess learning close to a dozen jutsu in as many days was a little bit ridiculous. And the fire affinity had been a bitch to explain away. A simple and vague "I trained it up on my own" wasn't as effective as part of me had expected it to be.

Two days were all I had left with him, so I had to admit a bit of excitement for the future and a spring in my step as I went about my day. What would I do after winning the tournament? I had no idea. I was spoiled for choice. Go fully into the medical corps? Live as an independent chunin taking missions that suited me? Join the Anbu? Semi-retire from missions and spend my days training? Like I said, there were a lot of options in front of me. Picking one and sticking with it was probably going to be quite difficult in the long run.

Maybe I'd just end up pursuing promotion to Jounin the moment I acquired the goal. Speaking of which, I'd finally received a quest to win the tournament. I was shocked when one didn't show up ever since, but today, after I spoke with Rasa and he reminded me of his promised bribe, the quest had shown up.

Quest Alert

Chunin Madness

Objective 1: Win the Chunin Exam tournament

Objective 2: Become a Chunin

Bonus Objectives: Hidden

Rewards: Hidden

For some reason, the rewards were hidden, but I'd accepted the quest either way. It wasn't like I had much of a choice. I'd be gunning to win the entire thing either way, quest or no quest.

A/N; New chapter in progress! Let’s go!!!!!