*STABSTABSTABSTABSTABSTABSTABSTABSTAB*

The storm of blades flew straight through Orochimaru. A speeding figure suddenly dashed towards Esumi and their hands reaching for her throat.

“Guh…” She sounded out unprepared.

The figure grabbed Esumi by the throat and held her against a tree.

“How….?” Esumi choked out.

“Shadow clone. Esumi-chan… Even my dear Sasuke wouldn’t be much of a match against you… But it’s still too early for you to face me quite yet….” Orochimaru hissed.

“I will kill you….” She barely managed to say.

*STAB*

“What… When did you…”

“You can’t trick me that easily… I’m not just a little girl. I’m Yada Esumi. The greatest kunoichi in the world.. and Avenger of my family..”

Esumi’s clone that was being choked by Orochimaru fizzled into yellow electricity as Esumi pulled her blade out of Orochimaru’s heart. He fell forward as Esumi stood over his body. He whizzed as he crawled on the ground and held his hand out. With an almost instantaneous motion, spat out another Orochimaru from his mouth and slithered away rapidly.

“YOU CAN’T RUN FROM ME OROCHIMARU!” Esumi shouted as she covered herself swift-natured chakra and sped off towards Orochimaru.

*CRASH*

An attacker from above attempted to attack Esumi. Esumi swung her steel anchor and clashed with the figure. She easily overpowered him, but the attacker seemed to have expected this and kicked Esumi. She was sent sliding back as Orochimaru stood behind his savior with a mocking grin. Three other figures appeared out of the bushes and stood next to the original figure.

“Little Sasuke-kun? Now isn’t the best time… You and your little multi-colored hair group need to get.. I need to take out Orochimaru.” Esumi said.

“I will take him out instead.” Sasuke said.

“Thanks for tiring him out for us though! Really appreciate it sexy kunoichi!” A white-haired shark teethed ninja said.

“Disgusting…” A red-headed bespectacled woman said.

“Suigetsu. Jūgo. Hold her off while I take care of Orochimaru. Karin tell me if anything changes with Orochimaru’s chakra.” Sasuke said as his eyes turned red.

“You know Sasuke-kun, even though you’ve gotten very handsome like your brother. I wouldn’t mind it eating dirt for a little while. This was a serious moment ya know! I chase my family’s killer. We fight a very tough battle. He overwhelms me until I find my second wind and with a surprising counter attack I get a killing blow in and avenge my family!” Esumi narrated.

Sasuke ignored her and from his hand lightning came together and stretched in the form of a long sword towards Orochimaru. Orochimaru tried to dodge, but only managed to block. Unfortunately for the Legendary Sannin, Sasuke’s attack pierced through him.

“I should’ve known you would do something like this…” Orochimaru hissed.

“Hey! Don’t ignore me like I’m not here! My story is still going on! Wait your turn you little shit!” Esumi yelled.

Suigetsu and Jūgo stood in front of Esumi.

“Hey, you two-bit losers who won’t contribute anything meaningful in the next 20 years better get out of my way while I stab Orochimaru into pieces!” Esumi warned as she pulled out black steel trident and dashed towards Orochimaru.

Suigetsu formed water around his finger tip and aimed it at Esumi before firing an extremely fast water bullet. Esumi got caught up by Jugo as Suigetsu was charging his attack. Jugo formed his arm into a large blade and slashed down at Esumi. Esumi easily deflected Jugo’s attack and pierced straight towards his chest.

It was at this time that Suigetsu’s jutsu reached and seemingly blurred through Esumi’s head. Esumi’s trident failed to pierce through Jugo’s skin. They locked eyes and time seemingly stopped for both Esumi and Jugo.

“Shadow Clone Jutsu.” Esumi said as 3 clones poofed into existence.

“Jugo! Get her already!” Karin shouted.

Jugo suddenly turned towards her and leaped at her with his arm transformed into a hammer.

“What not me you idiot!”

Suigetsu appeared to her rescue

‘So she isn’t a fighter.. Probably a support.. I’ll take her out first if Jugo can’t. The sharingan built in genjutsu is sweet. Now Sasuke-chan….’ Esumi thought as she looked towards Sasuke and Orochimaru’s battle.

‘So that’s his true form over all the years of his experimenting… How the hell did this pretty face force him to show that form over me? Was it the lightning? Whatever! I’ll just kill him when he’s super weak. Although it would’ve been great if I avenged my little brother and mother all by myself, I guess it doesn’t matter as long as Orochimaru is dead in the end…’

Sasuke managed to capture Orochimaru in a genjutsu while in his giant snake form that was cut into pieces. His life force was rapidly depleting. With a flare of swift-natured chakra, Esumi disappeared and with her trident that was crackling with dense and concentrated yellow lightning chakra tore right through Orochimaru’s giant serpent form multiple times over. All that was left was tiny pieces after she was completed.

“I’ll make sure you’re done this time.” Esumi started to go through hand signs before thrusting her hand out.

All the cut-up pieces of Orochimaru started to conglomerate together in the air. With an evil grin Esumi’s trident started glowing yellow. A few seconds later, the trident appeared as if it was made completely of yellow light. She threw the trident at the mass of Orochimaru flesh and as it made contact with it, it exploded in a bright yellow light that consumed the area around it. Sasuke was forced to hop away as he looked at his teammates attacking each other. He went over to break them up as Esumi looked for any signs left of Orochimaru with her Sharingan and Byakugan.

‘None… Only traces left of him are of that mark on Sasuke’s neck.. Mom… Rami my little brother… I’ve killed him for you… You can finally rest in the afterlife now...’ Esumi thought as she looked down at the ground.

Sasuke managed to free Jugo of his genjutsu.

“Sasuke-chan. I’m not in a fighting mood right now. So take your little group and leave.” Esumi told them.

“I don’t know what your circumstances are with Orochimaru. But I don’t care. Do you know where to find Itachi.” Sasuke asked.

“Go ask him yourself.”

Esumi soon disappeared from Sasuke’s group sights.

“Who was she Sasuke?” Karin asked.

“A strong kunoichi… One that my brother said I should defeat before even thinking about going after him..”

“Why didn’t you take her down then? She doesn’t seem so tough.” Suigetsu said.

“She doesn’t know anything about Itachi. She’s useless to me for now.”

‘Yeah whatever Sasuke. I just think you were too chicken to fight her after seeing that explosion.’ Suigetsu thought.

*IN SUNAGAKURE*

“I hope we can get through these chunin exams peacefully.. Even though we were told to show off as much as we can..” Sho stated.

“I think we did a good job so far. Last round we were the fastest team to complete the Demon Desert, that should show off our village’s strength pretty good right?” Fu asked.

“No. Only strength will do so. This final part of the exam is our only chance.” Khael said monotonously.

“I guess you’re right Khael. Do you think Aomatsuna-sama would want us to go all out or be exceptionally cruel?” Fu asked.

“Probably the second one. For some reason they love fighting opponents till they show everything they have and then stomping them into the ground. I don’t get the appeal to be honest… Just end the fight or run away.” Sho said.

As these three were chatting, the announcer of the final stage of the joint chunin exams between Suna and Konoha was also finishing up talking about the rules for it. It was a 1v1 tournament type of stage. The electric board starting to flash names.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

[ Sho vs Burami ]

“This fight looks like it’ll be boring. Just some normal looking dude fighting a gross fat ninja.”

“I bet you 500 ryo the fatty wins.”

“You’re on. KILL HIM DEAD, BORING GUY!”

Sho sighed as he stood face to face with his opponent. His opponent was a big round shinobi. He had an unflattering outfit. A red open vest and red pants.

“Let’s have a good match..?” Sho asked.

“Get ready to lose. You’ve got the great Burami of Grass as an opponent. My magnificent folds are undefeatable.”

“Fantastic…” Sho muttered as the referee started the match.

Burami leaped at Sho with a diving drop kick.

‘Oh yeah, show off our strength… I nearly forgot.’ Sho remembered as he pulled out his scroll and drew an image. The image flew out of the scroll and clashed with Burami’s attack.

“What the?! A Panda!?” Burami shouted.

The cartoonish panda soon overpowered Burami and lifted his huge body in the air. Sho jumped high in the air above Burami and made eye contact with him as his drawn panda slammed Burami on the arena’s ground. The arena’s floor below Burami was cracked and sunken due to the impact of both his body and the panda’s strength.

“Fire Style: Flaming Whirlwind Kick.” Sho said as his leg was engulfed in flames.

Sho started to spin while diving towards Burami with his leg aimed straight for his stomach. After Burami recovered from the panda’s attack, his eyes bulged in panic. He struggled to form some hand seals, but managed to make it in time as he spat out a purple cloud-shaped jutsu at Sho. The flames that engulfed Sho’s leg began to expand and form a fiery stream that seemed to dance around his body as he crashed towards Burami.

“Wow… How beautiful…”

“Isn’t that the one kid that Esumi had following her?” Temari, one of the proctors of the exam, asked.

“Yea. That’s him.” Shikamaru, another proctor, answered.

“I see…”

Sho and Burami’s jutsu clashed and the jutsu exploded into a large cloud of purple gas. It completely enveloped Sho’s body, but was quickly being evaporated by Sho’s flames. It seems as if Burami’s attack was served to increase Sho’s attack because his flames which were previously orange slowly turned purple.

“Wow…. It became even more wonderful… GO SHO!!!!”

Burami was still on his back and on the arena floor as he stared at the incoming wonderfully grand fire attack. He quickly tried to retreat, but somehow forgot about the panda that was bigger than himself. It stomped on his big belly and forced him to stay still. He frantically clawed the panda’s leg, but failed to do anything.

“I SURRENDER! I SURRENDER!” He shouted as snot and tears started flowing down.

*BOOOOOOOOM*

Sho crashed into the arena with a gracefully grand attack. Dust rose and blocked all view of the arena.

“Oh, he’s friggin dead.”

“I didn’t think he’d be so merciless in the first round.” Shikamaru said.

“The student of course would be just like the master.. Both cruel monsters..” Temari said as if remembering a certain event.

“I wonder if the fire kid is gonna be disqualified. I heard the fat guy yell his surrender before the attack landed.”

“How was he going to stop himself though? You saw how long he took to build up that move.”

“Let’s see…”

As the dust cleared, everyone could finally see the outcome of the battle. Sho’s attacked completely cratered the arena. The referee appeared on the other side of the arena with Burami foaming at the mouth and pissed his pants.

‘How embarrassing….’ The referee thought.

Sho pulled his foot out of the arena and looked at the variety of expressions at his victory. He dusted himself off as his cartoon styled Panda was sucked back into his scroll.

‘I hope that was good enough for my master..’ Sho thought.

“Winner Nine Sho!” The referee yelled.

Sho returned to the other participants as the electronic board started to flash through names.

“Pretty flashy finish there Sho-kun. I think your opponent pissed himself.” Fu laughed.

“I wasn’t planning on hitting him anyway.. I noticed the referee moving before I had to stop it myself.” Sho responded.

The next two rounds were fought by two leaf shinobi and two sand shinobi. The only notable one was called Konohamaru. But the three still weren’t worried. Khael however had a strange feeling of being watched by the judges. She didn’t know why they were being watched in particular though. But it put her on edge.

“We’re being watched..” She whispered.

“By who?” Fu asked confused.

“Them.” Khael pointed as her name was suddenly flashed on the electric board.

“Continue with master’s instructions. But get ready for anything.” Khael warned as she slowly walked to the arena in her black cloak that covered her from the neck down entirely.

[ Khael of the Hidden Demon Village vs Ameno of the Hidden Sand Village]

Khael’s opponent was a rather pretty woman. She had brown hair and a white sleeveless outfit. She looked like a gentle woman. But it didn’t matter to Khael. She will just follow the orders her master told her.

“Begin.” The referee ordered.

From under Khael’s cloak, movement was seen crawling towards the neck area of her cloak. As Khael’s cloak stretched, a strange creature was seen exiting from it and placing its hands on Khael’s head.

“An alligator?”

“A skeleton of a crocodile?”

“Let’s have a good match.” Ameno said politely.

‘Bones… That reminds me of someone…’ Gaara thought to himself.

Khael didn’t respond to her greeting.

Ameno started going through hand seals and formed water praying mantis claws on her arms. She dashed after the motionless Khael. Khael’s fingers twitched underneath her cloak and suddenly numerous bone animals started digging and clawing through the arena’s ground. As they surfaced, they all turned to look at Ameno who was inches away from slicing Khael’s face off.

*CHOMP*

A shark more than twice the size of Khael and Ameno burst from the ground and nearly bit Ameno in half. It managed to give her a deep cut on her wrist and break her concentration from her water jutsu. Ameno hurriedly hopped away while using medical ninjutsu to heal her wound. Sadly, for her Khael still had more to show. The bone animals that crawled from underneath the arena’s floor attacked! A deer skeleton held down its head and dashed towards Ameno who was trying to heal herself. Ameno constantly avoided and skidded around the arena.

More and more animals started to chase after Ameno until she was cornered by an army of skeleton animals.

“I think this might be it for me. I surrender.” Ameno said.

The bone animals broke apart and all the bones started to fly under Khael’s cloak until they were all gone.

“Winner Khael of the Hidden Demon Village.” Shikamaru said as the audience started to applause.

Khael returned next to Fu and Sho with her same old cold glaring look to some and blank faced to others. Her eyes shifted to the Kazekage and the people around him before quickly looking back at her friends. Sho and Fu congratulated her on her win which caused her to briefly turn red in happiness.

“You were right about them. They are watching us. But I wonder why?” Fu said as her name was finally flashed on the screen.

“It might be because we are from some unknown hidden village and we are able to take out fighters from the 5 great hidden villages.” Sho suggested.

“I don’t know.. But whatever I guess it doesn’t matter.” Fu said as she hopped into the arena.

[ Fu of the Hidden Demon Village vs Shira of the Hidden Sand ]

Fu’s opponent was a fit looking young man. He had multiple scars on his body which gave him a sort of aged look.

“Hello there! After this beating, would you like to be friends?” Fu asked in a happy-go-lucky manner.

Shira remained silent as he focused in on Fu and entered his combat stance.

“I’ll take that as a yes Silent Guy. Don’t try and go back on your word later!”

“Begin.” The referee stated before quickly disappearing from the arena.

Fu took out her golden shield as Shira blurred towards her.

“Wow that shield seems pretty tiny.”

“It does look nice though. I wonder if that’s real gold.”

“Like a little girl could get in contact with that much gold. Unless she’s a princess of a famous country, I don’t think that’s real gold.”

Shira punched at Fu multiple times. Fu smiled as she blocked every single one of his strangely silent attacks.

“Hey how are your attacks so quiet?” Fu asked as Shira continued his assault upon her.

She kept accurately blocking each attack of his expertly before he suddenly grabbed her wrist and threw her to the other side of arena.

"Wheee!!"

“Hey that was fun! Maybe next time I’ll get to twirl you around huh?” Fu asked happily.

Shira appeared in front of Fu and started his onslaught again but mixed more grabs this time. Fu decided to play at his pace with an obvious smile on her face. She let him grab her and suddenly webs shot out from her chakra points on her arm and wrapped Shira up like a mummified doll. And with a spinning toss, she launched him in the air. She then bit her thumb and with the leaking blood used the summoning jutsu to summon 5 large buffalo who jumped towards the wrapped-up Shira that was falling down.

“WHOA I DIDN’T KNOW BISONS COULD JUMP!”

“They can’t sweetie. Those are ninja bison.”

“Can our cows jump like that mommy?”

“No. Our cows are normal cows.”

“Ooh. That buff guy better figure out a way to get out of those wrappings or he’s dead meat!”

Fu stared at Shira with a smile wondering what he will do now. Until the webs surrounding Shira started cracking and with a burst of visible yellow chakra? He swiftly took out the incoming buffalo and dove towards Fu with his new appearance. His muscles seemed to have increased and buffed up. His pupils have disappeared and his skin has gone red.

‘That’s similar to his jutsu…’ Gaara thought.

Fu’s smile never ever left her face as she blocked Shira’s devasting attack. The arena cracked deeply. Shira and Fu sunk downward at the impact of Shira attacking Fu’s shield. He didn’t stop there though. He punched and kicked upon Fu’s shield in a most expertly manner, causing them to sink further into the arena.

“I got a move similar to this one too! Watch!”

Fu with her non-fighting arm poked herself in three spots and also went under a change in appearance. Although her body mass didn’t increase, her skin did go red and she had a visible green aura surrounding her.

“What? You can perform the Eight Gates jutsu?” Shira said, finally saying his first words in this entire match.

“Hehe! I learned this move from my new village! Pretty cool huh?” Fu said smugly.

‘New village? How could a new village gain access to one of Konoha’s secret kinjutsu?’ Gaara wondered.

‘A spy? Is there a spy in Konoha that has access to our secret jutsu? They even shared it with another village without letting us know? I’ll have to tell the hokage about this. She’ll decide what to do about this Hidden Demon Village..’ Shikamaru said as he prepared a messenger bird.

Fu took this chance to go on the offense. She appeared next to Shira and tried to bash his face with her shield, but actually was feinting Shira into attacking so that she could deflect his punch and cause him to smash the ground instead. As Shira was momentarily open to attack, Fu uppercutted him with her shield.

“Guh!” Shira spat out blood from the attack and was launched in the air.

Fu went through a few hand signs before taking off in the air with bug-like wings made out of the green aura surrounding her and appearing behind Shira. Shira tried to retaliate, but Fu flew at a distance away from him and webbed him up once again. She increased the durability of this web by infusing some of the green aura of the Eight Gates kinjutsu into the webs. With Shira connected to a string of web attached to Fu’s wrist, Fu started to spin quickly while flying towards the ground. Also causing Shira to spin around wildly and rapidly. The spectators could see Shira desperately trying to escape from the entrapment of webs and held in their gasps and excitement.