15 Chapter 15 : The Worthy Rival

Shikamaru and Temari faced each other in the arena and as she looked at him defiantly, Shikamaru looked like someone who had no desire to be there but his father had pushed him to train, a request Shikamaru himself had made.

He had two best friends, Choji and Naruto. If Choji was the friend in terms of relaxation and good times, Naruto was the friend who reminded him that he was a shinobi, they especially appreciated Naruto for his ability to face him in shogi even if he had more victoires.

So, even though he was lazy in general, he wasn't going to sit idly by watching a rival progress and become more and more powerful.

 He and Temari faced each other with a good distance separating them when Genma signaled the start of the fight .

Temari didn't waste time, she knew how Shikamaru's technique worked. They were already at a good distance for her so Temari wanted to wave her fan to attack her opponent but Shikamaru also knew the Temari's abilities and acted accordingly.

 The young Nara immediately began running along the fighting area in a circle around Temari to avoid the latter's potential attacks.

 "Clever..." Temari said shaking her fan and sent a violent gust towards Shikamaru who acrobatically jumped very high to avoid the attack but from the air he threw three shuriken at Temari who swept them away with her wind.

Once on the ground, Shikamaru continued his race around her but getting closer and closer to Temari in order to trap her with his shadow. 

Temari understood that and with a smile she let him approach but when he was a little closer, she sent a wind attack at him that sent him flying towards the trees.

 "It was a good try but I saw in your little game from the start…" Temari taunted Shikamaru who had already gotten up.

 "Tch ! This one is really annoying..." he thought as he took some shuriken out of his bag. While he was running around her, he took the opportunity to analyze the topography of the land and try to use it to his advantage but there wasn't much he could do (Naruto didn't dig a tunnel ).

The tilt of the sun meant that part of the battle area was shaded, that was precisely where he was and he thought about luring Temari there but he quickly dismissed the ridiculous idea because she wasn't stupid enough and knows his abilities.

 If Temari couldn't come to the shadow he had to take the shadow to Temari and immediately, he thought of what Naruto told him earlier before looking towards the sun and smiling.

Temari wasted no time and sent a wave of cutting wind towards the trees and Shikamaru got out of there before contact to start running in a circle around Temari again.

 "So that's all you can do ? Running like a frightened little fawn?" She said contemptuously as Shikamaru threw Shuriken at her which she deflected with an upward wind like the first time.

This time he pulled out several Kunai including one with an explosive note and three others with dense smoke balls before throwing them towards Temari who noticed the bombs and with a sneer she deflected them upwards where the note and the Smoke bombs exploded creating a smoke screen not above Temari but further up to the east.

 Shikamaru without wasting time moved closer to her, throwing his last smoke bomb between the completely annoyed Temari and him.

 *POOOFFFF*

 "Enough of this little game, you'll open your eyes in a hospital bed..." She said with annoyance and while she wanted to perform a powerful Jutsu with her fan, His body suddenly became paralyzed .

 "Looks like I finally got you…" Shikamaru said in annoyance as the smoke cleared slightly for the audience to see him performing the mudra of his shadow technique.

Temari wondered how this could have happened and looked down at the ground to see that she and Shikamaru were under a large shadow, as if something was blocking the sun's rays and now it was she realized it was the cloud of smoke bombs.

 "It looks like you finally understood, you know my ability so I had to put you under a shadow that would help me get you more quickly.

In a shadowy area my ability gains range and speed, if I had sent the bombs into the sky myself then you would've guessed my intentions so I tested you.

You've the habit of deflecting projectiles by an ascending wind by making a movement from the bottom left to the top right with your fan, It's almost 11 a.m so the sun is still quite tilted towards the east.

I attacked you on a precise angle where your right side would be towards the East so that you send the projectiles there." Shikamaru explained calmly to Temari who was looking at him with annoyance.

There was a certain noise in the crowd who appreciated this tactic . The members of the Nara clan were known for their intelligence and Shikamaru had just given them an excellent demonstration. 

 "You may have paralyzed me but you can't beat me by just keeping still..." She said to Shikamaru who by mimicry made her abandon her fan and then use his second technique learned with his father, the shadow-Neck binding Jutsu.

Hands made of shadows appeared on the girl and began to crawl over her towards her neck, she actually felt the weight of those hands on her and knew she was going to be strangled.

 "I'm giving up the fight..." she said with great frustration after meeting Gaara's gaze. They had a much more important mission and it was the attack on Konoha with Oto, this exam doesn't matter and if she had just lost it was mainly due to negligence but if she faces Shikamaru during the attack, she'll kill him without hesitation instead of playing with him.

 Shikamaru was declared the winner to the applause of the audience, he returned to Naruto who was eating chips with Choji and they started teasing him while Ino looked at Naruto from time to time while putting her hair back in place.

Naruto was much more handsome with longer hair and he was shiny, she didn't even know how to talk to him because earlier like Sakura she was horrible to him because of what people said about him. She was definitely right to be embarrassed because Naruto didn't like her at all.

 Genma announced the next match and it was a match that interested several people in the crowd, Lee vs Gaara.

Lee had a certain reputation in the village among high-ranking ninjas but also among civilians because he was a special case , an exception in having graduated from the academy without be able to perform basic Jutsu.

Never according to the rules Lee would have even been a Genin but Konoha had made this exception so people wondered how competent the child was elsewhere to graduate without being able to perform any ninjutsu or genjutsu.

 The officials of the other villages, already greatly impressed by Naruto and Shikamaru, awaited the match with a certain impatience ; the examination of this assignment seemed to reveal very promising young ninjas.

To Obito, the fact that Hiruzen had mixed other villages into Konoha's examination was a serious mistake that could cause the fall of the village by exposing their future assets to potential enemies. 

 "Did you bring them?" Obito asked Lee who stood up next to him and the latter nodded in confirmation. Obito wished him luck as did Gai who yelled the same thing to Lee from his position alongside Kakashi and Yamato.

Gaara in a small tornado of sand appeared and Lee made a big acrobatic jump arrived in the arena to face Gaara who looked him in the eyes before having a strong migraine to listen to the voice in his head .

 "It was you who eliminated that incompetent Kankuro, you seem strong… strong enough to satisfy my thirst. Die for my pleasure..." Gaara said before attacking Lee with his sand long before Genma gave the signal but he saw Lee avoid the attack with a quick series of back-flips.

Genma would've taken out Gaara by now but this kind of thing was part of the shinobi's life because in a battlefield, the enemy will not wait until you are ready and Lee proved that he had good reflexes.

 "Hey, you don't know how to follow the rules in Suna? This is Konoha, we ain't savages..." Lee said to Gaara before taking out a Kunai to rush on him quickly and seeing the speed of his opponent, Gaara sent several quick sand attacks which Lee avoided all getting closer to Gaara who was surprised at Lee's speed.

However, this speed was the one he had with his weights, in this reality because of his rivalry with Obito, Lee was much stronger than in the main reality and he had learned more techniques from Gai . 

 He got closer to Gaara and wanted to attack with his Kunai but a barrier of sand rose to block his blow, Lee chained several quick combinations but the sand was still there to block his attacks, as if this sand had a conscience.

 "Since normal attacks aren't working, we'll try something else..." Lee said but immediately, he felt something under his feet.

Gaara had discreetly spread his sand on the ground so Lee felt strange movements under his feet and he disappeared from there while where his previous position was, four long spikes of hardened sand came out of the ground. If he hadn't moved then he would have been impaled.

 "This guy is fast but he doesn't stand a chance against Gaara..." Temari said next to Kankuro with his new puppet.

In the crowd people were really intrigued by Gaara's sand which gave him good attack but also terrifying defense.

As for Lee, they were surprised by his speed and he defended himself quite well even though they thought Gaara would eventually get him and some criticism made Obito and his close friends laugh, these clowns had no idea what Lee was capable of .

 Unlike the preliminaries arena where there were large slabs of stone on the ground, the current battle area only had dirt under their feet and this gave Gaara an advantage and he began to attack Lee with a everywhere on the ground and if Lee dodged a spike from the ground then Gaara attacked with sand shuriken or a powerful jet of sand.

The attacks were getting faster and faster so Lee decided to take charge of the match and literally break Gaara's rhythm.

With a body flicker, he appeared above Gaara with a hammer kick like facing Kankuro and Gaara with a sneer gathered sand above him to block him when a loud thud was heard.

 *DTOOM*

 Lee's powerful kick surprised Gaara and dispersed a lot of his sand, there was even a slight tremor in the arena from the force of the kick but as soon as Lee hit the ground, he disappeared again by Shunshin only to reappear on Gaara's right side to hit him with a powerful diagonal kick from top to bottom, the sand had blocked this kick but Gaara was forced back.

 *DTOOM*

 *DTOOM*

 It continued like this for a few more moments as Obito watched his rival fight. People didn't understand the ordeal Lee was going through to support and control the weight in his legs. A terrifying control of his balance and the balance of his weights to allow him to move on tree branches like other ninjas without breaking them; he underwent permanent training and perform Shunshin with as much dexterity with such weights was costing him energy and chakra.

Obito had recognized his worth for a long time and to him, Lee was a true genius of hard work, an extremely formidable rival in the field of Taijutsu .

 Gaara brought out more and more sand from the ground depriving Lee of ground so the latter made a big jump to fix himself on the large walls with the chakra in his feet, he searched his shin guards to take out his weights which looked like small black metal bars.

When the audience saw this, some were surprised that he was carrying weights despite such speed, it explained the heaviness of his blows but their shock was not yet complete.

Lee dropped his weights and They were so heavy that when they fell, they caused an explosion on contact with the ground that caused very slight tremors to be felt in the arena 

 The officials, kage and ninjas of all ranks saw this and were surprised or even shocked. Since the start of this fight, Lee was moving faste with such weight.

 "He has taken off his weights, Lee will finally show the whole village what he's capable of. A ninja who can't perform ninjutsu or genjutsu and yet…Lee…" Gai said with emotion before he started crying ridiculously next to the completely embarrassed Kakashi and Yamato.

 "Show all these despicable people why you're my rival, Lee..." Obito said with his arms crossed watching the fight.

 Shikamaru : Your rival? Wait, do you also carry weights like him? 

 "Of course, Lee and I learned our taijutsu from Gai sensei and developed different styles but when it comes to hard work he's slightly above me. I've deep respect for that weirdo…" Obito replied, smiling slightly and it was one of the rare times Shikamaru saw him smile.

Obito Uzumaki who had the reputation of the most talented and strong Genin in the village had recognized someone as a worthy riva