Chapter 12 - The Tides Take a Turn

Lady Tsunade sighed.
“God, I hate doing this formal S***” she muttered to Shizune. Tsunade shook her head, knocking her bangs out of her eyes with a hand absently. She was pulling her pouting routine, the one that usually got Shizune to cave in and give her what she wanted.
“Oh, it’s not so bad, Lady Tsunade! Besides, don’t you want to see how our two Leaf Genin do? Ekyt is at the top of his game, reaching the tower in record time. And the time you’ve put in, helping Linda, has made her into quite the fighter!” Shizune exclaimed. She enjoyed the formal events. Despite her beauty (a beauty that belied her years) she enjoyed a good fight, and could mix it up with most anyone. She had herself armed, just in case things got out of hand.
Tsunade looked over at Shizune sharply. “Don’t tell Ekyt I worked with her. I want him at the top of his game, not worrying about what Linda can do. I want him focused on himself. As it is, I had to get Ibikki to talk to Ebisu to even OPEN the loophole that got Ekyt in the exams.”
Shizune nodded, saying she understood. “Is that the REAL reason you told him he couldn’t spar with Lee anymore? Because you and I both know that they BOTH benefited from those sparring matches. But you wanted to give Lee an out to work with his girlfriend, right?”
Tsunade nodded. “I had to do something. The girl would have died without all this help. Ekyt finally found his niche, in the Shinobi world. He was willing to do anything, and needed no one. This girl had the ability, but she didn’t have the drive. With her two students gone, she only had Lee to rely on. She needed the extra push, a little shove, to get her motivated. And, well, our village needs medic-nin, and it’s not like Ekyt doesn’t have a chance to win…”
Shizune’s eyes widened. “You…you’re placing the odds AGAINST Ekyt?”
Tsunade grinned. “Well, may-be…Not the odds, just 5000ryo on Linda to win…” Tsunade looked down at the floor, where she would be giving her speech momentarily.
Shizune shook her head. “You get him here, then you bet against him?”
Tsunade shrugged. “Hey, I always take the long shot, you know that, Shizune. Now stop trying to judge me, already, and get these punks lined up. How many matches do we have?”
Shizune shrugged. “Ibikki and Anko are still scowering the forest for stragglers, a few haven’t checked in yet.”


Ibikki grimly hoisted the Sand genin on his shoulders.
“What happened?” he barked, annoyed that he had to fish out the weak ones.
“Genjutsu…I’ve never felt anything like it…Horrible…my own death…it was like being IN hell…” The Sand genin’s voice trailed off. He and his two comrades were all speaking in short, clipped sentences, and they seemed to be in pain, although there were no external injuries evident.
Ibikki shook the kid, hoping to jar one more answer out of him. “Who did it? Who used the genjutsu?”
The Sand genin groaned, but answered right away. “That kid…by himself…dragon…”
Ibikki had his answer. I DID say he would be one to watch. The way these three are out of it, that genjutsu must have been hell to get through…


Anko propped a third Mist ninja against a tree.
“Alright, what happened?” she barked. The Mist genin were too much in pain to even be scared.
“She used…a chakra attack…cut every tendon and ligament until we couldn’t move. So fast…in seconds, she had our scroll.” The boy passed out from the pain. Anko tried to bring him about by slapping him, but he was out like a light.


Tsunade and Shizune heard the tell-tale POPS of arrival. Ibikki and Anko were kneeling respectfully.
“Found the remaining six…all out of it, no way they can compete. Three are under mental duress, and three have every muscle cut.”
Tsunade frowned. “ ‘Cut’” she questioned, eyebrows raised.
“With a chakra scalpel attack. They said it was done in seconds…” even Anko seemed impressed.
Tsunade nodded. “Guess her training took. Ibikki, you said “mental duress”?”
Ibikki nodded gravely, grinning. “Yeah. Genjutsu. I’m sure you can already guess who caused it.”
Tsunade could. “Alright. Time to announce the matches.”

But their was a hitch. There were four remaining chunin hopefuls, two from the Leaf, one from the Mist, and one from the Clouds. But the Cloud Shinobi and the Mist Shinobi refused to fight.
“No way! Not with those two!” they pointed at Ekyt and Linda. “Not gonna happen, I’d rather walk out of here under my own power! I’ll try again next time!”


Tsunade cleared her throat.
“I declare the third phase of the chunin exams open. Since only two participants remain, we will have the fight today, along with a ceremony for any who attained the rank of chunin. The rules are simple: The match is over when one of the candidates either dies, concedes defeat, or is, in the opinion of our proctor, unable to continue due to injury. Though we discourage killing, it has happened in the past, and may happen today. I ask all of you to be respectful to both combatants. That said, let us begin the third phase of the chunin exams!”


Ekyt stepped onto the North side of the floor. Linda was on the South side. Shikamaru was the exam proctor.
“Alright, approach,” he called out, bored. “Bow to me, bow to each other. Back up…HAJIME!” (Begin!)
Linda leapt in with a flying side kick. Ekyt knocked it aside with his forearm and started throw a punch, but felt something was wrong. His tricep felt…wobbly. He gave Linda a heel push kick, sending her across the floor, but not harming her. He leapt backward, his right arm hanging limply at his side. Linda couldn’t resist giving a speech to her former comrade.
“Like that? It’s called the Chakra Scalpel! I just cut your tricep. You might as well know…I’ve been trained by the best. Lady Tsunade and Lee. You’ve trained alone. Ekyt, I’ve sworn to save you from yourself, even if it meant ruining your body. This is my chance to save you from getting killed by crippling you!”
Ekyt shot a look at Tsunade and Lee, but said nothing to them. “Chakra Scalpel!” he called. His left hand hummed with blue energy.
“Oh, you’re going to face me like that, trying to pull off some heroic stunt?” Linda taunted.
Calmly, Ekyt put his left hand to his right tricep. “No. I’m healing myself. In case you didn’t notice, the Chakra Scalpel is also a healing jutsu.”


Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, Ino, Lee, Kakashi, Guy, and Asuma stood together, watching the fight. No one gave Lee a dirty look, that’s not what Ekyt would have wanted in this case. But the tension WAS high. They had all been rooting for Ekyt, thinking he would have had an easy victory. But that wasn’t going to be the case.
“She’s so fast! Lee, did you teach her that?” Sakura gaped at Linda, who was clearly enjoying her newfound talent. That undeserving dog! I can’t believe Lady Tsunade taught her anything! She must have put a bet on the match for Ekyt to lose!
“I did. I thought that she would need the help. She is my girlfriend. I hope Ekyt-san will not be angry…” Lee was focusing on the match, strangely silent, likely due to the fact that one participant was his girlfriend, and the other was one of his closest friends.
Naruto, who hated Linda, wasn’t shy about voicing his opinion. “Come on, take it to her already! She’s insulting you! Just knock her out! Come on, you can do it, believe it!


Linda began to weave her hands together.
“Chakra Kunai!” she shouted. She threw a series of glowing kunai, each with her chakra attached. As she thought, Ekyt leapt aside. Linda moved her hands to the side; the kunai were attached with strings of chakra! This time, they struck Ekyt in the side. His ribs groaned under the strain. Linda’s attack wasn’t done yet. She yanked her hands toward her, then thrust them forward again, pulling the kunai out, then sinking them back in to Ekyt’s side.
Shikamaru looked at Ekyt. “Do you want to quit?”
Ekyt shook his head and tried to focus on his breathing. He needed to think of a way out of this. Think…okay, this attack has range, and you need to end the pain before black out. You’ve got to get these things out of you and go on the offensive…That’s it!
“Chakra Hardening!” he called as soon as he felt Linda yank the knives back. This time, they glanced off a blue shield at his side.
“Huh?” Linda tried to attack again, but her kunai succeeded only in attacking a log. Ekyt had used the Body Replacement Jutsu. But where had he gone?
Ekyt was hanging from the rafters. He weaved his hands together. “Dragon’s Ember Jutsu: Clone Instigation!”
Flames shot at Linda from three sides, backing her into a wall. Ekyt’s clones handled that, all he had to do was use his genjutsu, and the match was over. As he began to weave his hands together, a series of ten kunai struck his legs. His legs gave out; that was bad news. They had been holding Ekyt to the rafters. Now he was free-falling nearly 100 feet to the floor. No way he could land on his feet. Linda didn’t throw those kunai…the direction was all wrong, and she couldn’t throw that hard, it would have to be a full grown man… Ekyt looked over towards the direction the kunai had come from. He saw a smug Ebisu smiling at him, twirling a kunai around his finger. Ekyt cursed, and tried to think of a way to get out of this.
Linda solved that problem. She got a running start, leapt, and shouted “Dynamic Entry!” she kicked the helpless Ekyt full in the stomach. That slowed his downward descent, but sent him sailing into the concrete wall at the other end.
By this point, Ekyt couldn’t even stand up. Determined, he dragged himself across the floor, starting to make hand signs.
Shikamaru stopped him. “It’s over. I can’t let you continue like this.”
Ekyt looked up, his eyes clearly saying “Let it go!”. Shikamaru raised his arm in Linda’s direction.
“Winner: Linda Mawashi.”


Kiba and Akamaru sniffed the trail. “This is the right way!” Kiba called to Hinata and Shino.
“Ruff!” Akamaru agreed. He and Kiba took off down the trail to the Village. Shino and Hinata followed, but lagged behind slightly. If Kiba was ambushed, they could bail him out. If all of them were caught, they were in trouble. The Mist Village produced quality ninja, and the three wound up having to fight the entire village, there would be major trouble, not to mention an international crisis.
The Akakomadori family was waiting for them.
“Come inside, quickly!” the mother told them, ushering the three Leaf Village Chunin inside a small house.
After brief introductions, Kiba got to the point. “We need to leave at nightfall. Your husband is alive and well, and being protected by the Leaf Shinobi, under our Hokage’s orders. He wants to move all of you to the Leaf Village. Trust me, you’ll like it. Your business will boom, the Leaf Village has quite a few partiers.”


Lee leapt down and celebrated with Linda. Ekyt was too disgusted to bother trying to get up and congratulate her. He couldn’t; someone else had won the battle for her. He knew who it was, too. After he fought the medic-nin off, Ekyt pulled himself to a standing position.
“Hidden Shadow Snake Hand,” he spat. The four snakes that burst from his wrist grabbed a railing and helped Ekyt prop himself up. That was when he heard Lady Tsunade cheering that she had won the bet. He remembered Linda saying that Tsunade had trained her. Ekyt put two and two together. He didn’t come up with four. He came up with “I’m really pissed”.
Ekyt whipped toward Lady Tsunade.
“You turned your back on me…over a bet.” He glared for a moment longer, then dragged himself away before Tsunade could say anything. Shizune looked at Tsunade.
“That was horrible. I don’t know how you could do that, Lady Tsunade. But I won’t judge, it’s not my business.” Shizune walked away as well.

Naruto, Sakura, Asuma, and Kakashi walked over to him. Ekyt refused to let them help him up.
“I’m salvaging what’s left of my pride,” he said bitterly.
“Let me take a look, okay. You can trust me, Ekyt.” Sakura got down on her knees and pulled out the kunai from Ekyt’s battered legs. She used her Chakra Scalpel to pull out the spare metal, then used the “Autonomous Cell Regeneration” jutsu to help Ekyt’s leg heal.
“Thanks,” Ekyt told her, making sure his eyes said ‘thanks’, because he KNEW his tone of voice didn’t.
“You got screwed man, believe it! But they might still make you a chunin!” Naruto glared at Ebisu. “Either way, that was low on Ebisu’s part.”
“Ebisu…” Ekyt repeated the name. He got to his feet.
“Hey, where are you? Kakashi-sensei, we have to stop him!”
Kakashi and Asuma exchanged glances. “Ebisu is a jonin, Sakura, I’m sure he can handle himself if Ekyt hits him.”
Kakashi’s voice indicated that that he was hoping Ekyt would hit Ebisu. Everyone knew that Ekyt could dismantle him. It was also clear that the jonin KNEW Ekyt had gotten a raw deal, and that they wouldn’t step in until absolutely necessary.


Ekyt stormed over to Ebisu. The smug jonin opened his mouth, when Ekyt cracked him in the face with a hard right hand.
“YOU SON OF A dog! YOU THINK IT’S RIGHT TO JUMP ME FROM BEHIND! I’M GOING TO DO WHAT I SHOULD HAVE DONE A LONG TIME AGO!” Ekyt picked Ebisu up by his lapels and held him close. Ebisu was shaking with fear. Ekyt threw him out to the middle of the floor.
“I SHOULD HAVE KICKED YOUR @$$ RIGHT AWAY! YOU’VE GOT NO GOOD REASON TO HATE ME, BUT NOW YOU’VE GIVEN ME ALL THE REASON IN THE WORLD TO HATE YOU!”
Ekyt zipped out onto the floor. He kicked Ebisu in the face with his heel. Ebisu leapt up to his feet, but Ekyt used the Body Flicker Jutsu to land right in front of him. His hands became blurs as he threw punches into Ebisu’s midsection, then gave him an uppercut, followed by a heel kick that lifted Ebisu off the ground. Ekyt leapt up after him and hooked his neck and leg.
“Backward Konoha Snap Dragon!” Ekyt yelled, throwing himself and Ebisu backward. Ebisu hit the ground hard enough to crack the hard cement. Ekyt picked him up again and threw him against the wall.
“Demonic Illusion: Hell Viewing Technique!” He shouted. Ebisu was frozen from fear. While he tried to fight off the powerful genjutsu, Ekyt made a series of handsigns that was unfamiliar to all but two people.
“Fire Release: Dragon’s Circle!” Ekyt called. He bolted forward, his right hand tagging Ebisu in the face. The hand had been holding a ball of condensed fire. The fire now appeared on Ekyt’s right foot, on top of his foot. He kicked Ebisu with a roundhouse. Then, for the first time, the fire grew on Ekyt’s foot and attached itself to the bottom of his foot. With a shout of effort, he gave Ebisu a side-kick in the stomach. Ebisu was now a charred mess. He slid down to the floor.
Ekyt picked him up, once he heard the jonin coming from behind. Holding him so close Ebisu’s nose was against his mask, Ekyt snarled “NOW you’ve got a reason to hate me.” He dropped Ebisu, and turned to the jonin. To his surprise, they didn’t lay a hand on him.
Kakashi stepped forward. “Come with us. You can meet with the others later, but right now, we need to talk with you. You’re not in any trouble. Just come with us.”

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