[FFML] [Naruto][Fanfic] Genin, Chapter 13

Disclaimer: Naruto does not belong to me. Nor do Sakura, Sasuke, or any of the other characters mentioned or described herein. I haven't even bothered to get permission from their great and august creator. Feel free to sue me if you wish, but you won't get anywhere. Not only do I have no money, but as a college student, I have LESS than no money. That's right. A negative net worth. Have fun, Mr(s). Lawyer! Also, I will be using adult language in this fic. If you're not supposed to read such language, GO BACK TO SCHOOL!

Genin

By: Flashfyre5

Chapter Thirteen: Loyalty

Sasuke's right hand twitched. It had been twitching for days. Sasuke knew why it twitched; it ached to be drenched in the blood of his enemies. He had been suppressing its desire for three days, but he was smiling. Now, finally, it would come to an end. Now, he would kill Itachi, and would again bathe in the blood of the wretched. His release was so close that he could taste it.

"You've come to me," Sasuke called, his Sharingan eyes spinning excitedly. Early morning's light bathed the psychotic teen in golden hues as he crouched atop a fruit stand in Konoha's central marketplace. Here, the streets were wide, and walled with tall buildings. He had chosen this site with care; there was hardly a better arena in all of Konoha.

Across the marketplace, the cloaked form of his older brother stood silently. He was not a tall man, no taller than Sasuke, now that the young Uchiha had passed through puberty. Itachi wore his cloak open, making no effort to disguise himself. Even across the marketplace, Sasuke could see his brother's Sharingan eyes whirling slowly, with interest.

"I've come to kill you," Itachi returned, his tone measured and even. He began to walk towards Sasuke. Behind him, three figures of varying height followed him, each shrouded in a cloak identical to his own. Unlike the Uchiha prodigy, they took great care not to allow their cloaks to open or their faces to show from underneath the conical, wooden sakkat that each of them wore. Those few bystanders that were in the marketplace at this early hour scrambled away from the four. The naked killing intent that they exuded was palpable even to common folk.

"Semantics," Sasuke purred, licking his lips. He grabbed one of the fruit stand's supporting poles and slid down, landing lightly on the marketplace's cobbles. The young Uchiha had eyes only for his brother, and walked towards the older man with avarice in his eyes and a barely restrained spring to his step. Still, he walked no faster than Itachi; Sasuke wanted to savor this.

The two, by a mutual, unspoken agreement, stopped ten meters from one another. The three behind Itachi stopped a little further back, but easily close enough to jump in, should they so desire. Sasuke's right foot worked itself against the cobbles of the marketplace, trying idly to get better footing. Quickly and easily Itachi shrugged off his cloak and slid into an easy fighting stance. The heavy black fabric pooled around his feet as his brother fell into an aggressive stance across from him.

"Hey, hey, hey! What the hell do you think you're doing?" someone suddenly shouted. Sasuke cursed beneath his breath and glanced behind him. Itachi glanced too, more out of courtesy to his brother than real interest. He wouldn't begin this fight, of all fights, without his opponent on equal footing.

"Four against one aint exactly fair, is it?" Naruto continued, his arms crossed. Behind him, Neji and Lee regarded the three behind Itachi. Neji had already activated his Byakugan, and was wearing a confident smile with the ease of one who is used to victory. Lee was simply grinning with anticipation.

"I got the big one," Lee declared softly, his voice audible only to his companions.

"Ugh. I'll take the one in the middle," Neji noted, his voice laced with disgust. "It looks like he hasn't shaved in a week."

"What the hell are you doing here?" Sasuke demanded, his eyes wild, as Naruto walked up to him. The blond-haired boy patted him easily on the shoulder and regarded hid old teammate with a smirk before responding.

"We're here to help, even if you don't want it. You can kill me later if you want, but," Naruto said, his grin falling a bit. "You're our comrade. We'll stand by you, no matter what. Besides, those three look like they want to jump in on your brother's fight." Sasuke snarled at Naruto for a long minute before finally shaking his head.

"I don't give a damn what you do, as long as Itachi is mine," the raven-haired boy demanded, returning his attention to Itachi. "I've waited my entire life for this moment. I'll slaughter anyone that gets in the way."

"Fair enough," Naruto nodded, cracking his knuckles. The blond-haired boy had been searching for Sasuke for two hours now, and had found the raven-haired boy just in time. His adrenalin was up, and Naruto couldn't help but grin in excitement. He'd be fighting against an Akatsuki member, one of quite possibly the finest fighters in the world. Lee shared the blond-haired boy's excitement, and for the same reason.

"Let's go!" Lee shouted, bounding suddenly towards the tallest of the three figures behind Itachi. The anticipation of the fight had become too much for the wide-eyed youth to resist, it seemed. Neji had reacted quickly, and charged toward the figure in the middle of the triad. Naruto, having a meter's head start on the two, was able to keep pace with Lee, despite the dark-haired boy's head start.

"Scatter!" Naruto's target shouted in an authoritarian, yet undeniably female voice. The three leapt off in different directions. The tall one, with Lee in hot pursuit, ran back the way they had come. Neji's target broke right and bounded over the buildings surrounding the marketplace. The white-eyed boy followed at a measured pace, allowing his target to choose the battlefield. Naruto's target charged left, and down a side alley; Naruto followed her as fast as he could. A few hundred meters behind the pack, Sakura sighed, then chased off after Naruto, still trying to keep up.

"And then there was one," Sasuke taunted, his voice lilting faintly with the undertones of laughter. The marketplace seemed to be echoingly devoid of inhabitants now.

"Your friends are going to die," Itachi stated grimly as he regarded Sasuke dispassionately.

"So? You'll die today, and then I'll bathe this city in blood. Your friends will even kill my biggest problems for me," Sasuke replied, his wild grin growing. "My only regret is that I won't be able to torture that blond-haired brat myself."

"Shall we begin, then?" Itachi asked, his face expressionless. Sasuke wondered if he had heard a note of anticipation in his brother's voice.

"Absolutely," Sasuke grinned, then charged forward. A kunai appeared in his right hand, and he slung a brace of shuriken to his brother's right with his left hand. Itachi slid to his left, as Sasuke had desired. However, Itachi seemed to fade around Sasuke's strikes like smoke when the younger Uchiha closed to melee range. Unable to land a strike, Sasuke fell back, a grin of pure euphoria on his face. Itachi locked eyes with his brother, both sets of Sharingan eyes whirling quickly.

"Mange Sharingan!" Itachi declared suddenly, activating his most powerful genjutsu. Sasuke's eyes widened in the instant before the Mange Sharingan took him. "Relive the slaughter of our family for the next seventy-two hours," Itachi commanded, directing the immensely powerful genjutsu. Sasuke slumped forward, but caught himself before he fell. Slowly, he straightened.

"Ahhhh," Sasuke sighed, his eyes more wild than ever. "I wonder why I never noticed the beauty of the melody that our parents made with their screams before? A work of art, brother." Itachi's eyes widened in honest surprise. Then slowly, for the first time in nearly twenty years, Itachi smiled. It was a horrid thing, twisted with years of madness and enslavement.

"Let's finish this," Itachi grinned, wearing almost the exact same expression as his brother.

* * * * * *

Neji stalked his target as might a predator tracking some special, yet dangerous prey. There was caution in his step, but a certain eagerness as well. Neji respected the man's skill already; his Byakugan revealed well over a hundred of weapons secreted around his target's body. Neji would have thought it impossible to move as easily as he did, considering the spacing and placement of so many sharp edges.

The two were leaving the city proper. Ahead of them, Neji noted a small bridge, capped with a series of red-painted ceremonial gates. It was the area that the jounin exam had begun in two days ago, and he was intimately familiar with it. Nearby was one of his favorite training spots, a small clearing with plenty of cover for a training partner to hide in. The unshaven man slowed to a stop, then turned to face Neji. He stood at the far end of the bridge, and reached around his back for a weapon. With his Byakugan eyes, Neji saw him grab one of two fuuma shuriken that he had strapped across his back. By the time Neji landed on the opposite end of the bridge, the unshaven man had extended the weapon and fastened it to a specially made knob one his right glove. He looked up and, noticing Neji's presence, pulled off his sakkat.

"You are trespassing on Konoha soil. Leave or die," Neji demanded in an even tone. The man smirked, and reached for his second fuuma shuriken.

"You're an impolite little prick, aren't you?" the man smirked, snapping his fuuma shuriken to its full stature. "Didn't even ask me my name. I feel insulted," he mocked, putting a hand to his chest and sticking out his lower lip.

"Fine, then. Who are you?" Neji sighed, rolling his eyes. This man disgusted him; his mockery of etiquette and lack of cleanliness made Neji's skin crawl.

"Kenkino Dontou, eighth of nine in Akatsuki," the uncouth man grinned, snapping the second fuuma shuriken to his left clove. Neji saw chakra surge into his arms, and the blades began to spin rapidly, quickly blurring past the speed at which even his eyes could detect individual blades.

"Kenkino?" Neji asked with a chuckle. "You made that up, didn't you?"

"Shut the hell up, you little brat!" Dontou shouted, pointing at Neji, who simply smirked in reply. In a rage-inspired flash, Dontou attacked, covering the distance between himself and Neji in the blink of an eye. Only his Byakugan saved him from the potentially disemboweling swing that Dontou made with the fuuma shuriken spinning on his right arm. Neji ducked the attack, then leapt away as quickly as he could. Dontou smirked for a minute before straightening.

"Fuuma Sastsujinsha," he gloated as Neji backed away. He could see that the blades of the shuriken had slashed cleanly through one of the red-painted gates when Dontou had attacked.

/He's faster than I am,/ Neji grimaced internally as he carefully assessed the situation. /Not by too much, but enough to put a longer match clearly in his favor. He's also got much greater reach than I do with those shuriken. I need to end this./ Working quickly, Neji backed away from Dontou, a plan forming in his mind.

"Running away?" Dontou taunted, and Neji had to check his own emotions. Dontou was better than he was; Neji needed every advantage he could get. "It's not going to get you anywhere." Again, Neji saw chakra surge down his arms, but there was a great deal more this time. "Perfect range for my best move, though," Dontou grinned, crossing his arms. How he kept the still-spinning shuriken from striking each other or his own flesh was a mystery to Neji.

"Kazeton: Fuuma Gufuu!" Dontou shouted, casting his arms toward Neji. The fuuma shuriken shot towards the long-haired boy, who dodged wildly to avoid them. As he did, Neji noticed chakra strings leading back to Dontou. Then, the shuriken were past, and arcing away from him. Still coming down from his earlier dodge, Neji barely had time to react as the air around him was filled with all manner of swords, kunai, and small shuriken. Dontou had filled the air with every weapon his had been carrying, each attached to him by a thin chakra string. Frantically, Neji poured chakra out of his entire body, and spun.

"Kaiten!" he shouted as he spun, deflecting almost all of the weapons. Still, a kunai managed to slip through his defenses to slash his left leg just as the Kaiten ended. Neji clutched the wound and cursed, recognizing that the kunai had cut deeply before he'd managed to knock it away. Around him, weapons flew up and returned to Dontou, who had already reattached his fuuma shuriken to his gloves.

"Nice," Dontou complimented even as he managed to sound insulting. "But I can keep doing this all day. How long can you deflect all of them?"

"Just fight," Neji demanded, lacing his voice with a false hint of desperation. /There's an opening there, right after he's thrown his weapons,/ he thought, watching Dontou intently. /Not enough for Rokujuuyonshou, but more than enough for 'it.'/

"Sounds like a plan!" Dontou crowed, crossing his arms again. With a primal roar and a cry of, "Fuuma Gufuu," he threw his arms forward once more, the gigantic fuuma shuriken detaching smoothly from his gloves and curving straight towards Neji. Instead of maneuvering to dodge them, however, Neji charged forward. At the last possible second, he threw himself down, the lethal shuriken whirling past mere centimeters above his head.

"Jyuuken!" Neji shouted, pushing himself into the air with a handspring. As he flew, he twisted his body, spinning into an aerial Kaiten. His spin axis was wrong, however; Neji's body was parallel to the ground, which left a miniscule area between his feet where a weapon could penetrate. Neji braced himself in preparation as he spun, knowing that the Kaiten would only minimize the damage that Dontou's attack would inflict. As he expected, a kunai flew upwards, between his legs, and embedded itself in his left armpit. It barely missed the arm's main muscle group; had it struck, Neji's left arm would be useless. Several shuriken made their way through the defense as well, tearing long gashes along Neji's body.

"Hakke!" Neji continued, landing. Dontou's storm of weapons was passed, and nothing remained between the Hyuuga prodigy and an unarmed and suddenly panicked Akatsuki member. Ignoring the pain that he felt all over his body, Neji dashed forward, in between Dontou's arms. The Akatsuki member was caught flat-footed, having never seen any attack of the like before.

"Shishou!" Neji cried triumphantly. "One strike!" he continued, slapping Dontou directly over his heart. "One strike!" This was accompanied by a slap to Dontou's belly, just above his navel. "Two strikes," he shouted, half turning. Neji carefully tagged the man's right shoulder, then struck his head forcefully with an open-handed strike. "Four strikes!" Neji finished, again striking each of the tenketsu he'd struck before. Dountou stumbled back a half step, and his weapons, still returning to him, fell to the ground in a great cacophony of metal striking hard-packed earth. Neji breathed out once, slowly.

"This is the Hyuuga clan's ultimate technique," Neji explained after a moment, carefully controlling his breathing. "It is why we are known as the most powerful in the Leaf."

"What. What did you.?" Dontou choked out, falling to his knees.

"I have struck your four primary tenketsu twice. Your death is now a certainty," Neji stated simply as Dontou lost the ability to support himself, even while sitting. The Akatsuki member writhed weakly on the bridge's planks. "The pain you feel now is caused by the destruction of the four tenketsu that direct chakra around your body. The heart tenketsu, above your heart, directs chakra in the left side of your chest. The body tenketsu, on the inside of your right shoulder, does the same for the right half of your body. Your soul tenketsu, near your navel, controls chakra flow in your legs, and the mind tenketsu on your forehead directs chakra around your brain. My first strike closed those points. My second destroyed them."

"Without them," Neji continued, taking a shaky step closer to Dontou's barely twitching form, "Your chakra control system is overloading. This is causing the cells around them to die from chakra poisoning. From this point, the chakra will continue to destroy your body's cells in a cascade effect until you are completely out of chakra, or all the cells in your body have exploded."

/The drawback, of course,/ Neji thought to himself, /is how much chakra it takes to perform the Shishou. Using a chakra overload to destroy tenketsu that were designed to handle a great amount of chakra is nearly impossible, even for me. I'm completely exhausted./

"But. I was." Dontou trailed off, his breath catching in his throat. Neji could see the chain reaction of the chakra overload was beginning its critical phase; Dontou had almost no time left.

"Stronger? You were," Neji nodded sagely, trying to keep the exhaustion and pain that he so acutely felt from his face.

"How?" Dontou croaked, obviously the last word that he would be able to form.

"You underestimated me. Never underestimate a Hyuuga," Neji stated simply, emphasizing 'never.' By then, Dontou had stopped breathing. Seconds later, he was dead, the chakra cascade having reached the craven man's heart.

Reeling from pain and exhaustion and pain, and not having any chakra to suppress the effects of either, Neji fell to the bridge next to Dontou's corpse and into the blissful embrace of unconsciousness.

* * * * * *

"Damn, she's fast," Naruto cursed under his breath. His target had divested herself of her cloak and sakkat immediately after he'd begun to chase after her. She was blue-haired, clad in street clothes, and very, very fast. It was all that Naruto could do simply to keep her from getting away from him. Behind him, Sakura was slowly and steadily falling behind, despite the fact that she was putting every scrap of energy she still had into keeping up with the two.

Finally, the woman leapt down from the rooftops that she'd been leaping across. Almost immediately, she had left the city proper, and entered the wide plains that separated the settled area of Konoha from most of Konoha's training areas, such as the Forest of Death. The plains were littered with giant boulders, thrown from Mount Konoha when it was still an active volcano. The ancient granite still held sharp edges from the ancient eruption. The plains were referred to as the 'shattered lands' by most of Konoha's inhabitants for this feature, even though the moniker was far from official.

Once she'd gotten a good distance into the open plains, the woman hopped on top of a particularly large boulder, then turned to face Naruto. He stopped a few meters away, trying to disguise the fact that his breathing was somewhat labored from the furiously fast chase that he'd just completed.

"Bad luck, kiddo," she grinned, her staff held in place between her hand and the crook of her shoulder. To be honest, it was a rather clich� pose, a fact which she seemed to be oblivious to. "You chose the wrong woman to pick a fight with," she said simply, not moving from her position on the rock.

"Who the hell are you, and why are you trying to kill Sasuke?" Naruto demanded, fingering a kunai. The woman's eyes narrowed as she regarded Naruto for a moment.

"I am Toru Masako, and your friend will die because he's become an inconvenience to me," she replied icily. "Now you too have become an inconvenience. Enjoy the afterlife, demon spawn," Masako declared, rushing towards Naruto.

"Demon spawn?" Sakura wondered aloud from about a hundred meters away, having heard only Masako's final line.

* * * * * *

"You really shouldn't run away from others," Lee taunted, skidding to a halt in front of Kisame. "It's impolite." Kisame stopped, then took a step back. He'd barely gotten out of the marketplace before Lee had caught up with him, and the boy's sheer speed already had him mildly unnerved. A second glance at the boy made him crease his forehead in concentration.

"Thick eyebrows, bowl haircut, dopey look," he mused aloud, fingering the hilt of the gigantic sword he wore strapped across his back. "Haven't I fought you before?"

"I do not look dopey!" Lee exclaimed, pointing a finger at the towering man. Kisame's sakkat had been knocked back by an errant gust of wind, exposing his pale, shark-like complexion. "Besides, you're a fine one to talk, Mr. pale face," Lee countered smugly.

/Was that supposed to be an insult?/ Kisame wondered, then shrugged. Instead, he said, "I don't really care. You've pissed me off, which means that you're shark bait." With a soft grunt of effort, Kisame levered his sword over his shoulder, interposing it between himself and Lee.

"Shark bait? That reminds me of something." Lee thought aloud, not paying any attention whatsoever to Kisame's preparations. With a growl of annoyance, Kisame stepped forward and swung his fabric-wrapped zanbatou in a vicious overhead cleave. It crashed into the ground, but somehow managed to miss Lee, who was standing just to the left of the blade. The black-haired boy reached into his back pocket and pulled out a little booklet, then began to leaf through it.

"Pay attention!" Kisame roared, yanking his zanbatou up and swinging it crosswise. Lee was clearly in range of the weapon this time. However, when Kisame recovered from the slash, the teenager had managed to move himself just out of range. /Damn,/ Kisame thought with a grimace. /This brat is fast. He hasn't even raised any chakra yet, so my samehada isn't doing anything./

"Ah, here it is! Gai-sensei fought a big man named Kisame four years ago. It says here that he looked like a shark," Lee read, still not looking up at his opponent. Kisame took a few steps back and glanced around while Lee continued to study his little booklet. "You're Kisame, aren't you?" Lee asked, putting it away.

"Yeah. Who the hell are you, brat?" he replied, locating what he was looking for. /Thank God they run their water pipes on the outsides of their buildings here,/ he thought with an internal grin. /In fact,/ he realized, /This place is a pretty favorable battleground for me./

"I'm Rock Lee, the beautiful green beast of Konoha!" Lee declared, striking a dramatic pose. Kisame blinked once in surprise, then shook his head.

"What the hell do you think you're doing, brat? This isn't a manga or something. You look like an idiot," Kisame chuckled, grasping his sword with both hands. The speed boost that he'd gain from doing so was negligible, but he was determined to teach this kid a fatal lesson, if simply to satisfy his sense of aesthetics.

"Shut up!" Lee shouted, then charged forward, moving even faster than he had been before. Kisame's eyes widened, and he swung his sword crosswise, hoping to catch Lee unawares. The boy, it seemed, was displaying a measure of intelligence. Instead of attacking directly, Lee was circling Kisame at speeds almost faster than he could see. Deciding to take the offensive, Kisame stepped forward and slashed crosswise again. As he did so, the samehada covering his sword was shredded as hundreds razor-sharp scales threw themselves into forty-five degree angles with the main blade. Kisame was slashing opposite to the direction he knew Lee to be running in.

Instead, as he was almost halfway through his swing, he felt a vicious kick impact his gut. Kisame was thrown into the air, and couldn't quite hold on to his zanbatou. It clattered to the ground, while Lee continued a vicious kicking combo centered on his midsection. Once he was suspended a good twenty feet in the air, Kisame felt the kicking suddenly stop. The characteristic clinking sound of heavy chains were his only warning as Lee moved to complete his combo. Kisame soon found his arms and legs bound in heavy chains, and cursed aloud as Lee threw them into a headfirst spin towards the ground.

"Daaaaaaaaaaaaamn!" Kisame shouted as he plummeted earthwards.

"Omote Renge!" Lee declared shortly thereafter, as Kisame's tightly bound body crashed into the cobblestone street. Lee was flung away, the ends of his chains training after him. Slowly, the smoke plume thrown up by the technique's completion blew away, revealing Kisame, half-buried in the middle of the street. His arms twitched, then twitched again as Lee watched from a crouch a few meters away. Then they firmly planted themselves on either side of the hole in which Kisame's upper body had been buried. With a firm shove, Kisame pulled himself from the impact crater. Water shot in a great spout out from the hole, likely the result of a broken water main. His head was at an unnatural angle in relation to his neck, and his collarbone was clearly broken, from how badly his shoulders were sagging.

"You're still alive?" Lee exclaimed in surprise. Kisame snorted once, then snapped the right half of his collarbone into its proper alignment. The left half followed quickly. Then, the shark-like man placed both of his hands on his head and, with an awful sound of snapping and scraping bone, forcibly returned his head to its proper place and alignment.

"A little fact about sharks, kid: we're made up more of cartilage than bone," Kisame grinned, grabbing the hilt of his sword.

"What do you mean?" Lee asked, trying to buy time. His body ached from using omote renge, and the dark-haired boy knew that, if Kisame were as uninjured as he seemed, things had just gotten considerably worse for him.

"Cartilage. It's the same stuff your nose is made of," Kisame explained, hefting his sword and resting it on a shoulder. He winced a bit when he did so, but the shoulder held the rather considerable weight of the blade without collapsing. "It's tough, like bone, but a whole lot more flexible. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm somewhat unique, genetically speaking. Most of my skeletal structure is cartilage, instead of bone. It's also a lot more flexible than normal cartilage is."

"No way!" Lee exclaimed, amazed. /This is bad,/ he thought. /It seems like renge hurt me more than it hurt him./

"Hell yeah," Kisame chuckled, flashing a toothy grin at Lee. "Anyway, it makes it almost impossible to actually break any of the important parts of my skeletal structure, which makes pretty tricks like that lotus thing much less effective. In fact, if I'm reading you right, it hurt you a hell of a lot more than it hurt me." Lee gritted his teeth and pushed himself to assume a standing, albeit defensive posture. His entire body felt like it was on fire, as it did every time he used renge.

"So," Kisame began, pulling off his cloak. Underneath it, he wore a skin-tight blue body suit. Beneath it, huge muscles rippled, even as he made the slightest move. "Can we get back to the fight now?" he asked, grinning excitedly. Without waiting for a reply, Kisame charged forward, slashing crosswise with his sword. Lee managed to dodge it, but his muscles protested every move he made, slowing him greatly. He cursed himself silently that he'd left his dai-kunai at the hospital, in the interests of speed.

Lee rolled to the left, dodging a vertical strike from Kisame's blade. He tossed a few shuriken at the big man, and continued to roll, evading Kisame's follow-up kick. When he came up, Lee drew a kunai, then was forced to dodge Kisame's blade again. Nothing Lee had could block the gigantic weapon without allowing it to cause him rather significant injury. Lee ducked and rolled again, but this time, the blade wasn't there. He glanced around, trying to locate Kisame.

"I've had it with this crap, kid. It's time for you to die," Kisame grinned, forming quick, efficient hand seals. He was standing ankle-deep in a growing pool, formed by the broken water main. "Suiton: Suikoudan no Jutsu!" he shouted, and the water beneath him gathered itself upwards. Kisame thrust his arms forward, and it shot towards Lee, taking on the shape of a shark's mouth as it went. Panicked, Lee broke left as quickly as he could, and threw himself into a roll. The water missile missed him by centimeters, and went on to decimate a nearby building. Lee rose to his feet as quickly as he could, only to see that Kisame was forming hand seals again, and that the pool he was standing in was now considerably deeper.

"Good game, kid," Kisame said simply. Next to his feet, the scales on his sword suddenly retracted, returning the vicious blade to a far more mundane, and less dangerous state. Kisame mad a final seal, then threw his arms wide, palms pointed away from one another.

"Suiton: Suijou Hakyoku no Jutsu!" the shark-like man shouted, his eyes fixed on Lee. Suddenly, the sound of ripping, tearing metal filled the air. One by one, the water pipes that ran along every building around them ruptured, spraying water forcefully into the street. About thirty meters away, the pipes inside a large, ornamental fountain ruptured, and water gushed into the street around it. After a few seconds, the sounds of rending metal became even more intense, and centered, mostly, right beneath Kisame.

"What's happening?" Lee wondered aloud, casting about. The pool of water that Kisame stood in was now up to his thighs, and was running away, down the streets.

"I'm putting this fight in my terms," Kisame explained, then brought his hands together forcefully. His fingers formed a little ball, and all around him, water began to drift upwards into the air. The sound of tearing metal finally climaxed, and a second water main burst underneath Kisame. Then, water blasted over Lee from all directions, and he found himself underwater. To his amazement, Lee realized that Kisame had used all the water he'd released from the city's waterworks to create a massive underwater arena. The twin water mains still spouted water, making the arena ever deeper. A glance downward confirmed Kisame's location; he had attached little flaps of fabric from the torso of his bodysuit to snaps on his elbows, and had fitted his sword to a set of little clamps on the inside of either leg. It now stuck out behind him like a giant fin.

With a look of anticipation in the nearly silent arena, Kisame whipped his legs and shot towards Lee, moving faster than he had on dry land. The gills around his eyes were bright red, filtering precious oxygen from the water. Lee tried to swim away, by the could not move nearly as well as Kisame could in the water. The shark-like man punched him hard in the stomach, and Lee lost his lungful of precious air into the cold, unforgiving depths. As Kisame circled around, Lee's lungs burned. Desperately, he kicked for the edge of the arena. Adrenalin lent him strength, and Lee managed to gasp a breath of air before Kisame grabbed his ankle and yanked him underwater again.

Lee used Kisame's arm as a pivot point, and spun around with his other leg to kick the huge man. He connected, but the water sapped any real strength the kick might have had. Kisame released him, however, and dove down. Lee took the opportunity to draw a pair of kunai. They would be useless for throwing, he knew. The water would quickly steal whatever momentum he might be able to impart in them. Beneath him, Kisame pivoted, and shot upwards, drawing a kunai of his own.

/He's using those fabric flaps like fins, to stabilize himself,/ Lee realized, seeing how Kisame was using them to steer himself. The pale man shot upwards, and a plan crystallized in Lee's mind. Kisame shot upwards, using his speed to add force to what would clearly be a telling blow. At the last moment, however, Lee twisted and planted one kunai in each of the fabric flaps beneath Kisame's armpits. Even as Kisame rammed his own kunai into Lee's side, he maintained his grip, causing the fin-like strips of fabric to rip cleanly down the middle. Kisame released his kunai and swam away as best he could, no longer able to navigate very well. Lee's lungs burned from the exertion and the pain that he had just endured, so he turned and fled for the wall of the arena. Kisame did not pursue him.

/I might be able to get out of here after all,/ Lee thought excitedly after a few seconds of pursuit-free fleeing. Just then, he felt a surge of chakra behind him, and glanced back just in time to see Kisame point a palm covered in arcane text at him. The shark-like man mouthed the words, "Kuchiyose no Jutsu," and a massive tiger shark burst from his palm. The gigantic predator, at least twenty feet long from snout to tip of tail, smelled Lee's blood immediately, and shot towards the injured shinobi.

/Damn!/ Lee thought frantically. Frantically, he thought of ways that he might escape from the clearly hungry predator; the dark-haired boy's panicked mind could only come up with one solution. /I might not be able to mold chakra,/ he thought, concentrating, /but I can push it. Third gate, open!/ Lee had no time for a soldier pill to dull the effects of the incredibly powerful technique. Chakra flowed through his body, and he directed all of it down and through his feet. With a sudden burst of propulsion, Lee shot through the water like a torpedo, the water around his feet nearly vaporizing from contact with the superheated chakra. Lee didn't dare to glance back; he knew that the shark was almost upon him.

With a triumphant gasp, Lee flew out of the watery prison and into the blessedly sweet air of Konoha's early morning marketplace. Behind him, the shark didn't realize unto too late that the water ended, and shot out of the arena after Lee.

/I'll be completely out of it after this. I've got to finish the fight now,/ Lee determined, and his eyes narrowed a bit. He landed on the shark's back and pushed off, soaring skywards. The shark fell to the ground hard, and exploded in a puff of ninja smoke. Lee managed to land on a rooftop that hadn't been submerged yet.

A pair of quick snaps attached a kunai to the end of each of the chains that he still wore, wrapped in big reels on each of his forearm. Without the water to slow his initial throwing power, Lee chucked the two kunai into the arena. They disappeared under the surface like bullets, and shot straight towards Kisame. He twisted hard, and managed to dodge the first chain, but the second snagged between the hilt of his sword and his leg.

Before Kisame could react, Lee hauled on the chain, while allowing the first to reel itself back in. Kisame kicked desperately, but Lee had leverage and, now, strength. Like a prize catch, Kisame was hauled from the water, and hung in the air for a second before Lee kicked him in the back, sending the shark-like man even higher into the air.

The first chain snapped out and wrapped itself around Kisame's arms, binding them behind his back. Kisame's legs, still bound to his sword, were already immobilized. Beneath the two, the aquatic arena fell apart, gushing down the streets of Konoha. With a furious yank, Lee began spinning Kisame along the end of his chain length.

"Fourth gate, open!" Lee shouted, opening the wound gate. Renewed power flooded his muscles, even as they burned in protest. /I've got to do this right,/ Lee thought grimly. /If I don't, then he'll kill me once he's recovered./

"This doesn't work, remember?" Kisame taunted him, a note of relief in the shark-like man's voice.

"Wanna bet? Fifth gate, open!" Lee returned, stretching himself to his utter limits. His spin intensified, and soon both he and Kisame were just a blur. The air whipped and whizzed with the sheer speed at which Lee spun Kisame, letting out, bit by bit, more chain.

"Ura Renge revised," Lee finally shouted. "Hasaiki Jiten!" Kisame crashed into the surface of the ankle-deep water that covered the street completely. Water shot up in a plume that would be visible for miles, and the cobblestone path beneath shuddered and fell downwards as the sewers two meters down collapsed. The two buildings nearest to the impact crater shuddered, creaked, and began to collapse in on themselves. Lee shot sideways and tumbled to a stop a few meters away, his chains trailing behind him.

Slowly, agonizingly, Lee pushed himself to a crouch. The muscles in his arms and legs were in tatters. Kisame hadn't moved since the impact. Lee squinted, and heaved a heartfelt sigh of relief when he counted the tips of eight ribs protruding from Kisame's back. Carefully, Lee let himself fall, and rolled so that his face was upward, above the water.

"Once you're going a certain speed," Lee recited from a childhood classroom lecture, "Water's surface tension makes hitting it no safer than hitting concrete." A few seconds later, Lee lapsed into an exhausted and fitful sleep.

*** Author's Notes ***

Wow. I've been wanting to write this chapter for about a month now, and BOY does it feel good to finish it. Of course, I want to write the NEXT chapter even more, but. We'll not discuss that. Anyway, I have to say that this is my favorite chapter yet. I'm the world's biggest Lee fan and, despite the fact that I won't admit it to ANYONE, I really like Neji too. Even if he IS a bitch to write. Feh.

It is official; 'Genin' will terminate at fifteen chapters. Whatever comes next will come next and so on and so forth. This reminds me: if you wish to vote on the story ideas presented below, it MUST be done in a PRIVATE E-MAIL! Reviews on Fanfiction.net will NOT be accepted, nor will any other method of communication. You can IM me and tell me what you want, but I won't count it unless you e-mail it to me. I need to do this so that I can keep an archive of those who've voted, as well as pick out those who try to vote twice. I wasn't so picky a few years back when I ran another voting competition, and I am still unsatisfied with the results. The choices will be at the very end of the chapter.

::Pats himself down.:: All right. Now that that mess is done for, I need to thank everybody for their patience and their reviews. As always, they mean a great deal to me. Also, if anyone wants to do fanart for 'Genin,' I'd be tickled pink. Well, I'd really appreciate the art, but the real reason that I'm soliciting the art is that the author of 'Betrothal' and I have a long-standing friendly argument over whose fic is better. Whenever I have him cornered, he points at the ONE piece of fanart that someone's made for his fic, and I have to spend another half hour getting back to the point I was at before. Oh, well. >_<

Also, if anyone cares, I'd like to highly recommend 'A Golden Gray Morning,' a fic in the Naruto section. It's a very good murder mystery, and I've enjoyed reading it quite thoroughly.

As Always,

~Flash (Flashfyre5@msn.com)

The Number One Song on Naruto's Playlist:

"Metal Gear May Cry," by Jared Hudson. This is an incredible remix of some Metal Gear Solid 2 song (I never played the game). In any case, it's dramatic, well-scored, and truly a piece of auditory wonder. I wrote the entire Kisame battle to it, so if you wanna go back and reread the scene while listening to this, I'd recommend it. Pick it up at (vgmix.com).

Character Themes:

Dontou: "Eres Des Pointes," by DJChrono. This is a fun rap-style remix of the overworld theme from Final Fantasy 6. Except that the rapping is in French. And was quietly lifted from an actual French rap CD, and thus has no0 real bearing on the song itself, other than as an auditory aid. I like it, though. Nab it at (remix.overclocked.org).

Kisame: "rAAw Battery," by Jivemaster. This is a great industrial style techno remix of Flying Battery Zone, from Sonic 3. I've been listening to it for ages, and am frankly shocked that I haven't recommended it before now. Anyway, here it is, in all it's glory. Find it at (remix.overclocked.org).

New Moves:

Yes, we've got several new techniques here, all for your consideration. As a side note for anybody that wants to use any jutsu I make up, please ask my permission. If I say no, I'll tell ay why, and I mean it. Anyway, onward and upward.

Fuuma Satsujinsha no Jutsu: Evil Wind Slayer Skill- This technique is unique to Dontou, as he is the only person to ever fight with fuuma shuriken in the way that he does. Fuuma Satsujinsha allows its user to accelerate a fuuma shuriken with their chakra, turning it into a powerful close-range weapon.

Fuuma Gufuu no Jutsu: Evil Wind Typhoon Skill- This is a combination of high-level taijutsu and mid-level ninjutsu. Utilizing a great deal of speed, the user of this technique throws a great number of projectile weapons at his or her opponent, effectively creating a flying wall of sharpened steel. After the weapons serve their purpose, the user of this technique draws them back to themselves with chakra strings, like Kankuro uses to control his puppets.

Suijou Hakyoku no Jutsu: Aquatic Cataclysm Skill- This jutsu summons all water within a certain radius and forms it into a standing aquatic arena. The greater aim of this technique is to drown your opponent by striking them with glancing blows to keep them away from the boundaries of the aforementioned arena. Alternately, as Kisame uses it, it can be used to turn the tables on a speedy land-based opponent, if the user is prepared to take advantage of such a situation. If the user is removed from the arena, it dissipates automatically.

Translations:

Kenki: Devilish Swordsman. This is a little play on words, one that Dontou presumably came up with. The 'no' at the end of Dontou's name is possessive, making his full assumed name 'Devilish Swordsman's Dull Blade.'

Fuuma: Evil wind. This shuriken is used a in the actual storyline, and against Zabuza specifically.

SEQUEL OPTIONS:

All right, people. Here's the drill. I'm going to present a story idea after a number. When you vote, report which NUMBER you vote on. Please do not attempt to describe what you're voting for. I'll ignore it. For those of you too lazy to scroll up a bit, my e-mail is (Flashfyre5@msn.com).

IDEA #1: Chuunin, the sequel to Genin. I'm not gonna give a summary of what this story'd be about, because I think it would have an unfair advantage if I did, simply because it's the sequel to the fic you're reading now. In other words, vote Chuunin if you want to see more in the Genin world. And if you like the jutsus.

IDEA #2: Alternate Universe. This fic explores what might have happened if Jiraiya's training at the waterfall cliff where Naruto first summoned Gamabunta had gone. differently. It would be an intensely dark and serious fic, focusing primarily on Naruto, as well as Gaara.

IDEA #3: Continuation. Told in the style of a History Channel documentary (Barbarians, in case anyone cares,) this fic would explore what happened to Sasuke once he arrived at the Sound. Most of the present cast would be absent, except in peripheral roles. There would be a lot of focus on politics and that sort of thing.

IDEA #4: Humor/Parody. Having read the descriptions for approximately a GAJILLION Naruto yaoi fics, as well as having waded through several, I feel that a parody of such fics is not only warranted, but overdue. Watch the antics of the male half of Konoha as they are swept by. the Gay Gai Virus! Silliness. >_<

IDEA #5: Mystery. Inspired by 'A Golden Gray Morning," Team Seven rushes to uncover the identity of a murderer in Konoha. Considering how good I am at covering my tracks and surprising you guys, imagine what I could do with something like this.