A moment later the dust cloud is dispersed, and none of the people in the stand can keep themselves from rising to their feet.
Orochimaru's mouth falls open.
Never in all his life, even when Minato was alive had he ever even heard of a wind Rasengan.
-0-
-0-
"What...is this?" Were the words drifting through Haku's mind
The wind battered them both, looking to drag them into the swirling vortex held above the gennin's head.
It was his expression though, that caught her attention the most.
Until ten seconds ago, she could never imagine little Naruto's face twisted into something of such...hatred
Kimimaro grunted, one hand held up to his eyes. "This...shouldn't be possible for a gennin!" With barely another moments hesitation the bone wielder picked her up. "We're leaving." He said, carrying her away and through the crowds, some of which could recognize that this was quite possibly a greater danger than the thin line of Jounin at the edge of the ring could handle should it get out of control.
She couldn't really protest at the manhandling like she did with Kisame-sensei.
-0-
"You tried this before...are you running out of tricks?"
"Shut up!" His voice is strained, the memory that has overtaken his mind doesn't register what he is now. A child. One without the chakra or physical development to endure a technique that could cut a man down at the cellular level.
He throws it, screaming as the bones and muscles in his arm snap and tear, the skin parting into bleeding smiles. The Rasen-shuriken tears across the open field straight towards this apparition of his hated nightmares and passes straight through him.
He doesn't see nearly every Jounin converge infront of the path of destruction to form their earth walls, doesn't see Kitsuchi leap away, or when Orochimaru leaps down to pull Ryoko out of its path. He doesn't even see the explosion that knocks the civilians down with the shockwave and nearly topples the towers with the concussive force.
All he sees is that mask.
That goddamn mask.
"You can't beat me Uzumaki."
And Naruto promised the opposite even as he cradled a broken, bleeding arm, the haze of memory clearing.
I'll kill you...
I'll fucking kill you.
-0-
"That's time."
Kisame's laugh bring's Onoki out of his shock.
Blinking, heart pounding against his chest as the words sink in.
"What?" He rounds on him.
The shark man is smiling, he points. "Time."
And the clock is still running, red numbers changing, literally, with every passing second.
3:09
3:10
3:11
"Congratulations"A is the one that remarks. "You just signed away your son's life."
The words are like a slap to the face. "No." He denies. "No! He lost! We all saw it! It was-"
"The match was never called." A drawls. "Next time tell your proctor to be faster when your son has a gennin under his boot."
He feels a pit forming in his stomach and the bile rises to the back of his throat his face is pale and he suddenly feels violently ill as his heart pounds against his chest.
"I granted you a kindness once before Onoki."
Koutou's voice is serious, and when he looks to the man the expression on his face is like that of an adult disappointed in a petulant child.
The man stands, red and black robes ruffling. "When I did so then I asked for nothing. Now I'll grant you another. But this one holds a price."
He swallows thickly. "Might we...discuss this in private."
"No." Koutou says flatly. "We'll discuss it now. Here before witnesses. Or I retract the offer now and your son is summarilly executed by your own Anbu."
The Daimyo's voice was like steel and though any one man standing here could kill him with barely a passing thought, the thunderous nature of his expression could make anyone believe he was Hashirama or Madara come again.
A nods. Mei gives no outward sign.
The Tsuchikage's face was severe, glaring at the floor as this whole thing backfired spectacularly in his face.
"Name your offer.."
Though the words are whispered, all hear it.
Koutou sighs through his nostrils.
-0-
On the field, Orochimaru holds the bleeding Ryoko close, red warm blood staining his clothes as the pale ninja hears the screams and confused calls all around him, the upturned dust blanketing the whole field in a reddish fog.
He marches closer to where he last saw his student finding the blond child kneeling on the field, hissing in pain as he cradles a shattered limb.
He glances behind him where even now Jounin are struggling to keep the crowd calm, to take stalk of wounded.
He looks down towards the crater left behind and the wounded elite jounin who is now struggling to regain his bearings and the jagged, trench that was just carved into the earth by the mere brush of the attack passing overhead ending in a crater that would have made Tsunade proud.
He looks back at his bleeding, near unconscious student.
What the hell are you?
-0-
The waters gleam with the mid day sun, the red rock of the mountain that frames the western side of the village gives it an orange hue even as the light sparkles across its calm surface like diamonds.
It was such a tranquil sight really, the bustling sounds of the village behind her doing little to breach the placid atmosphere.
Her thoughts were another matter entirely though.
Itachi had never been one for angst or depression. She seemed the sombre person but she was infact content with both herself and her lot in life on most days.
.
.
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