28 Naruto : Domination: Chapter 28

I looked him over, searching for revealing bulges under his clothes, telling calluses, or hidden weapons. Nothing. He was somewhat... adequate.

The next ones in the arena were Yuguto and the other Iwa shinobi.

...

I took the few moments before the beginning of the match to gesture to Hana. ~Information gathering. Follow~

She quirked her eyebrow at me, but I was already talking, so she immediately understood that I had just asked her to back me up.

It was time to mess with my next opponent, and squeezing my knowledge of the future for all it was worth I asked: "Ne, don't you find strange that from all the Kiri' ninjas there wasn't a single one with a kekkei genkai?"

I was discretely observing the shinobi from Mizu no Kuni when I said that so I noticed the minute tensing of his stance and, more importantly, the shift in his chakra.

He was probably on an assassination team since he could keep his character disguised very well, but there was no mistaking the sudden feel of 'watchful-ness' that exuded from him.

"It is a bit strange." Hana agreed. "They do have some infamous ones after all. Which were them again? The ones with the bones?"

"The Kaguya, yeah. One of the three founder clans of Kiri, if I remember it right." I drawled.

Then the match began and I turned my attention towards the jinchuriki. Naruto had all the subtlety of a sledge hammer, was stupid, and had lousy chakra control, but fighting someone that basically didn't run out of chakra was a problem.

Hana too was carefully watching the match. Yugito had already engaged in a melee, her nails black and twenty centimeters long scraping against the kunais and armguards of her adversary.

"Taijutsu specialist." Hana analyzed, her lips parting to reveal her sharper than normal canines. Then she narrowed her eyes when she took notice of Yugito pattern of attacks.

"The Kumo's girl has no hope, Daisuke is the best in taijutsu." the only remaining Iwa shinobi sniffed.

Then a blaze of blue fire engulfed Yugito's opponent and the sarcastic comment I was preparing died down.

Why killing him? I sighed. There was so much wrong with these people. Then I glared murder to the cheering crowd. Disgusting.

Hana was unaffected by the display, but she was tactful enough to not poke fun at the Iwa shinobi she was about to face.

I watched Yugito with a blank expression, but not hiding my disapproval either.

She locked her eyes with mine and we entered a staring contest, ignoring the beginning of Hana's fight completely.

When the Kumo kunoichi finally arched an eyebrow, it took it as a victory and bluntly asked: "Why kill him? You were clearly superior enough to subdue him without unnecessary bloodshed."

She slowly tilted her head, suddenly reminding me of a cat. Did the Nibi bleed over?

I knew that the bijus were not inherently evil, but sure as hell they didn't fucking care about killing humans. And obviously, whatever shit happened to Yugito in the manga to make her approachable hadn't happened yet.

She offered a predatory smile that confirmed my fear.

At the loud cheering, I turned my attention to the center of the arena, where a ruffled Hana was standing over a slumped form, cradling her left arm like it was broken.

Technically, it would be my turn immediately after they left the arena, but I didn't care, and hopped down to the mednins taking care of her in the corridor that led to the stairs which opened the way to the contestants' balcony.

I rushed over, taking in the bored expression on the Iwa med-nin's face.

She rolled her eyes at my appearing at her side instead of being in the arena. "Just go." she interrupted me.

And my name was being called by the referee, so I just squeezed Hana's not injured hand and went ahead.

She owes me a favor doesn't she? I can use it to have her surrender against Yugito instead of getting herself killed.

I planned, and I soon found myself into the arena, facing the Kiri shinobi.

I was distracted, and had to talk with Hana before her match, so, I wanted to get it done quickly.

In the moment the referee gave the start and jumped back, I let go of the hold I kept on the first gate. "Kaimon, kai." I whispered. It required the same effort of snapping my fingers.

A split second later I was on the Kiri shinobi, who simply hadn't time to react in any way beyond widening his eyes.

My elbow slammed against his temple and he went down. Simply as that.

Without closing the gate, I ran to the contestants' balcony, ignoring the referee calling my victory.

Hana was looking at me with a sly grin on her face. She opened her mouth to comment about my blood thirsty-ness but I cut her off.

"I'm calling in my favor, if things get too hard against your next opponent, don't escalate, surrender." I whispered to her in a conceited tone.

She frowned, offended by my request. "You don't think I can win." She replied, her tone hurt. She took a step back from me but I grabbed her not hurt wrist, preventing her to further the distance between us.

"It's not that." Even if it's true. "Please, just trust me on this." She has an arm in a cast, too.

She moved her hand in a clockwise motion, freeing herself. "Why should I?" and she showed me her teeth in a way that was as far from a smile as it was possible, regressing to the most basic expression of aggressivity her clan was capable of.

"It's clear that you don't trust me!" She hissed, and jumped down the balcony, kicking away my hand that was trying to grab her at the same time.

I grabbed the rail and was about to follow her when I was yanked back.

I spun as fast as I could, my right leg sweeping low and my right arm already jabbing forward to crush the trachea of whoever was so stupid to surprise a shinobi in a stressful moment.

My right wrist was grabbed in a steely hold and my right leg impacted painfully against the shin of the one behind me.

"A spat with your girlfriend is not a reason to lash out to the concerned super pervert!" Jiraya of the Sannin lectured me.

He was a tall and well-built man. He had waist-length, spiky white hair tied back into a ponytail, with two shoulder-length bangs framing his face. There were red lines under his eyes which extended further down his face, going all the way to the bottom.

Wrinkles around the corners of his mouth and a wart on the left side of his nose. He was in his usual attire, which consisted of a green short shirt kimono and matching pants, under which he wore mesh armor that was visible at his wrists and ankles.

He also wore handguards, a black belt, traditional Japanese wooden sandals, and a red haori with two yellow circles on each side. He carried a large scroll on his back, he wore a horned forehead protector with the kanji for "oil" (油, abura).

I knew who he was, I knew what he was capable of. That didn't stop me from trying to toss him out of my way and going to Hana's side. Hana was going to get herself killed. I stopped thinking.

My right leg bent and I tried to kick his knee out of place while I applied the same clockwise motion with my right hand, freeing my wrist.

I shot my hand forward again, a chakra scalpel forming on my fingertips.

He was surprised, I could tell, but with the same ease I had dispatched Kurotsuchi, he had pinned me down an instant later.

I tried to lash out in any way but I could no longer feel my chakra. Fucking seal masters.

Immediately, my mind went in overdrive, I was almost in a frenzy. I couldn't free myself. So, convincing him it was.

"She's going to get herself killed!" I hissed.

The sannin looked at me with an unreadable expression. "And how would you know that?"

In my frenzy, I suddenly found again my calm. I shouldn't know that she's a jinchuriki should I?

"Because she and the rapping guy have a strange as fuck bloodline, she's dangerous, and Hana is for one hit and escape tactics, not face to face battle, and she's injured." I spoke quickly.

The man tilted his head, his spiky white mane following the movement. "And what do you propose I do? Let you jump in and break the chunin charter, throwing us into another war with Iwa? And Kumo too, for what matters."

I heard a scream. Hana.

I tried to break whatever shit he had placed on me but I really had no idea how to go about it, I could move only my head.

But it wasn't true, I was breathing, I was alive, that meant that my heart was working and that my diaphragm was moving. Moving muscles meant that only the muscles I contracted consciously were out of my control. Maybe I could do something...

"I expect you to save a kunoichi from the leaf. Order her to surrender!" I said, desperately looking for something into the eyes of the toad sage.

If understanding or pity, I didn't know.

I couldn't even feel what was happening in the arena since I was cut off from my own chakra.

"You all signed up for this, death was a possible conclusion, but it was her choice." He answered.

"She's been bred and raised to kill and be killed, she doesn't know a choice exists!" I snarled back. "Either let me go or help me!"

The crowd started screaming. And I couldn't see anything, pinned on the ground as I was.

"She's free to surrender at any time." Jiraya pointed out. Then glanced over the rail to see what was happening. "Not that she looks willing to do so."

Before I could answer, he went on: "The best you can do for your teammate is cheering for her, like everyone from Konoha is doing."

I narrowed my eyes: "Will you let me go if I cheer for her?"

The sannin arched an eyebrow and smirked. I'm not stupid. His answer was clear.

I tried to fall into myself, the gates were something one could open only through gruesome training, reaching a level of self-awareness, of proprioception, capable of giving you a feel of the gates.

Since they weren't something one was simply aware of. Then it came the more complex part of managing to open them.

At first it was like breaking down a door, with time, one grew used to it enough that the breaking door became a dam bursting open. My training had... loosened the dam.

For me opening the first gate was more similar to cutting a single string, and closing it required roughly half an hour of meditation.

But all the extra chakra flowing through my body was no longer turbulent, fast, yes, it stretched the capacity of my coils, yes, but it was steady.

Once I got really used to the first gate I would replicate the same training with the other gates, until I managed the first five or six, the last two were not something a human body could handle. Since my body was still maturing it should even increase my chakra capacity, since my coils were still developing.

Anyway, opening the gates was not a direct manipulation of your chakra, so it should have bypassed the seals that I couldn't perceive that Jiraya had placed on me.

I tried, like I had planned to do to free myself in the first stage. But it didn't work.

"Let me see her." I growled when the crowd went 'oooh' again.

The sannin rose me from the ground and kept me right holding on the scruff of my neck. I still could move only my head.

Maybe he's doing something through my tenketsus and it's not a seal...

But my ability to analyze the situation left me when Yugito's arm punched through Hana's ribcage, her black, sharp black claws covered in blood and with shards of bone exploding from my team mate's body.

Even then, it wasn't that the detail that burned itself in my mind. No, far from that. I could see Yugito's face over Hana's shoulder.

She was smiling.