Chapter 12: Culling the weak

The clone had made it back to the tower with almost no chakra left. Riku commended him on the sporadic use of the shushin. A jutsu that he learned from the Konoha library but used quite a bit of chakra. He picked up the supplies he had shared then went back inside the tower to find his team or Karin. Whoever he found first. From there he spent the remaining time of the test, either talking with the redhead, planning with his team or studying the two remaining chapters of his intermediary level fuinjutsu manual.

As more and more participants reached the tower, Riku noticed Jonin senseis arriving too but more importantly, the Sandaime. He quickly made a beeline for the old man.

“Hokage-sama, good morning!” he greeted and received a smile in return.

“Good morning to you too, Riku.”

“Do you have a few minutes to talk, it’s rather important?”

Hiruzen looked around and saw some genin still coming inside the tower. Turning to Riku he nodded.

“I found an Uzumaki in the forest. She’s from Kusa.”

“Really? That’s excellent news! I’m glad to hear that some of them are still alive.”

“I… have no opinion on that however from what I understood by talking with her, she hates her village. I’m not sure but I think they’re responsible for the death of a loved one and they’re not treating her very well. So I was thinking…”

“That Konoha would offer asylum?” the old man finished his train of thoughts.

“Yes. She’s smart, interested in iryoninjustu and also a very good sensor. She perked a bit at the knowledge that there was another Uzumaki in the village even though I’m quite sure she finds Naruto… quite loud.”

“Hmm…”

Hiruzen didn’t give an answer straight away but he did seriously contemplate the idea. The Uzumaki clan had been one of the most powerful in the Elemental Nations, rivaling the Senju and the Uchiha. They had made their own village and only got defeated because Iwa, Kumo and Kiri made a joint assault on them at the start of the second shinobi war with the purpose to weaken Konoha by taking down their foremost ally. Having one more member to perhaps revive the clan could be a great boon for the village for multiple reasons. One of them was the way Riku had spoken about Karin. Hiruzen had not missed that the genius liked the girl in some way and having her in the village could help tie him down. He didn’t give a straight answer however.

“I will think about it.”

“Thank you, hokage-sama.”

With that said, Riku bowed and left the Hokage’s side to go back to his team. As the clock in the hall rang, signaling that it was 9:00am and that the test was over. Jonin-sensei ordered their genins to gather in order in front of the Hokage while they joined the military leader’s side. Once everyone was in position, Hiruzen revealed the true nature of the last test. A public tournament where the genins would be able to display their skills in front of many nobles and other clients. In a way it was a very controlled and small war to show which village was stronger than the other. The better a genin will do, the more their village would gain in reputation and clients.

“So only the winner of the tournament can become chunin?” asked one Inuzuka Kiba.

“No. Being a chunin is not just about strength so all genins may be promoted or none .You may lose the first round but display enough skills and qualities to be promoted.” Riku answered before the Hokage could.

“That is correct. Now-”

“My apologies for interrupting, Hokage-sama.”

That was what Gekko Hayate said when he appeared in a shushin in front of Hiruzen, and reminded him that there were still too many participants for the final stage of the exam. Some people came from far away and they couldn’t have too many matches in one single day. Thus preliminaries would be needed to cut in half the current number of genins which was twenty two. It turned to twenty one when Yakushi Kabuto, a guy trying for the seventh time his luck, forfeited. Apparently he didn’t feel well enough to fight. Riku recognized him as the guy that got attacked by Team Oto before the start of the first test. With one less participant, their number was odd and so one genin would get a free pass to the final stage.

Afterwards, Hayate invited the genins and their sensei to vacate the hall since it would be the arena where the fight took place and to instead get up the first floor, giving a top down view to all the fights. The contestants were determined at random and displayed on a big screen at the end of the wall, behind where the Hokage had stood.

“First match: Uchiha Sasuke vs Akimich Choji.”

‘Well, that one is an easy one. Sasuke will trash Choji.’  Riku thought as he leaned forward onto the rail in front of him. He had been right, less than five minutes later when Sasuke overpowered a very reluctant Choji who despite his sensei’s bribe for food had not the heart to fight.

“Second match: Hyuga Neji vs Hyuga Hinata.”

“Shit.” Hinae let out and her team turned towards her.

“Bad matchup for two member of your family to fight sensei but-”

“It’s not about that, Yuuna. Neji… has a bone to pick with Hinata.”

“Who in their right mind would hate that girl? She’s the kindest person I have ever met!” Riku exclaimed in disbelief.

“Hinata is from the main branch and Neji from the side branch… Side branch members are… Servants and are forced to obey the main branch.”

“Forced? As in sla-”

“Yes. As such many in the side branch resent the main branch. Especially Neji since he blames Hinata for the death of his father.” the jonin explained.

“He’s arrogantly delusional isn’t it?” remarked Riku.

“In a way… yes.”

“Why does he blame her? What happened?” inquired Yuuna.

“Almost ten years ago, a diplomatic envoy from Kumo came to the village to negotiate peace. Only his true intention was to kidnap a Hyuga from the main branch and bring them back to Kumo so they could get the Byakugan. Short story short. The Kumo-nin kidnapped Hinata and got himself killed. Kumo played the victim and asked for compensation or else war. Neji’s father, also Hinata’s uncle, was the one who got the blame put on and paid it with his life.” explained Hinae.

“So Neji is an asshole that bullies an innocent Hinata because he can’t strike at the ones who put the blame on his father and because she’s weaker than him. Do I get that right?”

“Yes, Riku. You do.”

“...Hinae-san, would you be upset if I kicked his ass if I’m ever matched against him?”

“Had it been anyone else from my family I would have said yes. But Neji’s obsession towards Hinata makes it an exception.”

Without saying anything more, the group of four simply watched the match. Match was a big word though. Despite Hinata’s vaillant effort and (to Riku’s surprise) courage and confidence in herself from the cheers of Naruto, Neji completely dominated her. It was obvious he was the greater practitioner of the gentle fist, the Hyuga Clan personal taijutsu style. The Hyuga boy didn’t stop there however and tried to kill his own cousin with a strike to the heart. He was barely stopped by most Jonin of the rookie genins.  Hinata was quickly evacuated to the hospital. Riku had no doubt that her situation was dire with all the blood she had let out on the floor. Ignoring Naruto's grand proclamation of kicking Neji’s ass, Riku turned to Hinae.

“Forget about kicking his ass, Hinae-san. Given the chance, I’m going to cripple that little traitor.”

The seriousness and dare she say, murder, she saw in Riku’s eyes, made Hinae internally flinch. On one hand, Neji was part of her side of the family, on the other, Hinata despite being from the main branch, didn’t deserve such treatment. Especially when the only thing she wanted with her family was to unite both branches. With her heart in conflict she gave no answer to the dirty blonde.

“Third match: Uzumaki Naruto vs Warudo Riku.”

“YESSS!” Naruto yelled, while Riku sighed tiredly. Yuuna gave him a few comforting taps on his shoulders and a few words.

“At least you get an easy and quick fight.”

“I suppose.”

Jumping over the rail, Riku fell a dozen feet and landed without problem on the ground then made his way near Hayate who had been acting as referee for the preliminaries since the beginning.

“You’re going down, Riku! There is no way you can beat me!”

“Yeah, whatever. I’m ready, proctor.” Riku said and took the classic academy taijutsu stance.

When Hayate started the match. Naruto made two shadow clones and tried to overwhelm Riku with the numerical advantage in a Taijutsu confrontation. Riku simply threw kunais with explosive tags with enough chakra to push back Naruto a few feet from the shockwave. The kage bunshins were dispelled by the explosions and Riku was free to charge forward and give a good beating to his opponent that had not quite yet recuperated. One punch went to Naruto’s right kidney and an elbow to his left temple, sending him flying away another few feet but to the side this time. Believing that Naruto was knocked out, Riku relaxed his stance and began walking out of the arena, all the while waiting for Hayate to call out the match in his favor. He ignored Karin’s and Yuuna’s yells to ‘watch out’ and kept walking, feeling the detonation of another explosion which this time sent Naruto forward and way past Riku; all thanks to a previous exploding tag he had left on the ground just in case. Yet, it wasn’t over for the orange clad midget who stood up with difficulty but determination in his eyes.

“It’s good for you to be determined, Naruto, but there comes a time when giving up is necessary.”

“Never! I’m never giving up! I’m going to be the greatest Hokage! I can’t give up here!”

“You do know that the chunin exam happens every six months, right? Losing here is not the end.”

“I don’t care!”

Naruto charged again but this time, Riku didn’t take him down immediately, he targeted the kidneys once more, but also the ears, jaw, eyes and nose. So much so that he was sure Naruto had a severe concussion with how much his brain had been shaken up. Proof of that was Naruto going down and barfing everything in his stomach onto the ground.

“Proctor, anymore and-”

“I’M NOT… DONE!”

For the third time Naruto picked himself up from the ground. He was completely exhausted, with a swelling eye, a broken nose and a few missing teeth.

“Now you’re just embarrassing. Me, yourself and every shinobi in the room. You’re on your last leg and I’m not even done warming up.”

“I’m… going to…”

Riku didn’t even bother listening to the drivel his opponent was saying. Instead he made the hand seals for the chakra scalpels and sweeped behind naruto. He swung his hands perfectly and cut Naruto’s ligament in his knees. The effect was immediate and Naruto fell down on his face, unable to keep his body standing.

“Naruto, you’re a genin now. An adult. It’s time for you to stop spouting bullshit like a five year old playing ninja. In other words: Grow up.”

With that said, Riku dispelled the chakra scalpels and laid a heavy punch on Naruto’s head which knocked him out.

“Winner: Warudo Riku.”

Not wasting time, Riku got back up to his team who congratulated him half heartedly. It’s not like he had tried hard for his win and he didn’t begrudge them for that.

“That was…” Yuuna began but couldn’t find the right words to describe what she was thinking.

“I know.” he replied, looking down at Naruto being evacuated.

“And right after making a scene about how he would kick Neji’s ass.” Gou added.

“The worst of it? He has the potential for it. He’s just too stubborn to change himself  to be a great shinobi.”

The matches went on and on. The blonde wind user from Suna easily defeated the weapon mistress in Neji’s team. Then Kiba and Akamaru were soundly beaten by the blonde’s teammate. He was using both poison and puppets and got Kiba good. The match lasted less than five minutes. The next match was actually Shino versus Yuuna.

“Now, who is lucky? Be careful though.”

The girl nodded and left for her match. Shino had been clever by sneaking his bugs from behind Yuuna to drain her of her chakra but she kawarimi a bit to the side behind him. The genins present wondered how she moved that far that fast while the Jonin had their mind blown by seeing someone using nothing for a substitution. Riku was quite proud of Yuuna for finally being able to switch with a small pocket of air.

“She must have practiced in secret.’ he thought because the last time he saw her use the kawarimi like that she was failing.

From her position, she quickly fired two fireballs. The swarm of bugs did not completely dodge and was damaged badly, while Shino had to get rid of his coat less he’d burned to death. Acknowledging he couldn’t win, the Aburame forfeited. When Yuuna came back, Gou and Riku high-fived her.

The next two matches were a joke. Sakura got trashed by an older Konoha genin with more joints than normal and right after Ino was one hit knocked out by Gou who simply was too fast for the Yamanaka to use her clan secret technique.The penultimate match was Karin versus the joint guy’s teammate. It was clear that the young genin from Kusa was no physical fighter when she tried to put some distance with her opponent and threw some shurikens and kunais. The much older Konoha genin dodged them all and in a burst of speed went behind Karin and grabbed her in a full Nelson. Everyone thought ‘this is it” yet nothing happened. The young man simply held Karin and waited.

“Are you… Are you seriously draining my chakra?” the redhead said in disbelief.

“Yes! I’ll drain every single drop until you faint!”

Riku snorted at the smug tone his fellow leaf-nin used then facepalmed. He tried very hard to not laugh but couldn’t help himself.

“He’s soooo going to die.” he commented.

“Why?” Hinae inquired.

“Because she’s an Uzumaki, Hinae-san. I doubt his body will be able to handle all of Karin’s chakra before exploding.”

“Oh… Yeah, he’s fucked.” The Hyuga jonin swore to her students’ shock. She had heard awful tales from her father about how killing yourself would be faster than to challenge an Uzumaki in a chakra contest. At least you would die with dignity in the former case.

Down to the arena, the draining continued without interruption until the leaf-nin finally understood that something was wrong.

“What the… HOW?! How do you have so much chakra?! That’s… That shouldn’t be possible!”

Karin was done with the leech stuck to her back and tried to get free since he was distracted. Unfortunately his grip was too strong and that pissed her off even more. To Riku’s surprise, something unexpected happened. Faint golden chains sprouted from her back and pierced her opponent’s torso prompting him to release Karin on the spot. She quickly got away from his range and as if she always knew how to use them (despite the evident surprise on her face that she didn’t know she could do that), she raised him in the air and slammed him down hard against the ground. She did it a second time and a third, then retracted her chains. Hayate went to check the young man, shook his head and declared Karin the victor by K.O. .

Up into his personal space, Hiruzen nearly had a stroke at what he saw.

“We need her in Konoha! We can’t let Kusagakure have the adamantine sealing chains!”

His eyes following the redhead, he began to plan on how to get her into the village. If the reasons he already thought of made it a boon for Konoha that admittedly could be missed, the chains made it mandatory.

Riku caught Karin’s eyes as she made her way upstairs and gave her a thumbs up for her victory. She gave him a joyful smile in return, replacing the frown she had until now. He wanted to speak with her a bit but the last match of the preliminaries was announced.

“Tenth match: Gaara of the desert vs Nara Shikamaru”

“I FORFEIT!”

It was a surprise for no one that Shikamaru gave up right off the bat. Everyone had acknowledged that Gaara with his sand was utterly dangerous. Riku had heard the tale of Team 8 (or more accurately from Kiba) how the redhead from Suna was a complete bloodthirsty psychopath. The tale of how he literally crushed a team of Ame-nin was quite gruesome.

With the preliminaries over with a mini-Maito Gai (who went by the the name of Rock Lee) crying in a corner for not being able to show his spring of youth ( whatever the hell it was to Riku) the eleven contestant for the final stage of the chunin exam were decided. Another draw, this time from a box with numbered paper inside, paired ten genins against each other plus another freebie. One by one genin were called in an alphabetical order to pick a number.

“Akiyama Gou: #10

Gaara of the desert: #6

Hyuga Neji: #3

Kankuro of the desert: #5

Rock Lee: #11

Tanaka Yuuna: #9

Temari of the desert: #8

Tsurugi Misumi: #4

Uzumaki Karin: #7

Warudo Riku: #1

By default Uchiha Sasuke gets #2. As such the opening matches are as follows.

First match : Warudo Riku vs Uchiha Sasuke.

Second match: Hyuga Neji vs Tsurugi Misumi

Third math: Kankuro vs Gaara

Fourth match: Uzumaki Karin vs Temari

Fifth match: Tanaka Yuuna vs Akiyama Gou

The freebie goes to… once again Rock Lee.”

Hayate was done with his announcement and Sarutobi Hiruzen made his own. to Riku’s delight and most of the genins (with the exception of Lee) they had a month to prepare for their match.

It was with great anticipation that Riku left the tower with his temporary team.