129 The Chunin Exams - 55

She was using chakra strings.

Not just a few, but literal hundreds of them at once. Daiki could see each and every single one of them spreading out from Tenten's fingertips, branching out like a glowing spider web.

Chakra strings varied. For instance, Kankuro, needed to use a full hand to use just a single puppet, but controlling one puppet, was vastly harder than just controlling the movement of a single weapon.

While Tenten was using a vast amount of chakra strings, not a single one even came close to a fraction of the control of a true puppet user.

She didn't need that kind of ability for controlling weapons though, which was why she was currently able to use so many.

'But when did Tenten get so good with chakra strings?' Daiki wondered, even as Temari sent out a quick burst of wind to blow the weapons away and immediately backpedalled, getting distance as Tenten landed and whipped her hands again, sending the weapons back after her before they even hit the ground.

Was it because of him helping her with her chakra control? That was the only difference with her that came to mind here.

…And beyond that.

'That's some amount of chakra she's using.' he whistled lightly. Out of all the genin gathered here, beyond himself, Naruto and Gaara, Tenten definitely had the most chakra.

Actually, she probably had more chakra than Kurenai if he wasn't wrong.

Temari was a flurry of movement, ducking beneath her fan as a shield, spinning and unleashing burst of wind and on the retreat constantly.

Sweat was already beginning to pool on her forehead and the blondes eyes were beginning to shine with panic.

The constant harrowing of the weapons and their speed, left her little time at all to use a powerful enough jutsu to regain the advantage.

And in fact, if she didn't have such a powerful wind chakra metal weapon to rely on, and had to use hand seals for her jutsu like most, she would have already lost.

It wasn't Temari's skill here that was letting her keep up, it was her weapon.

It just went to show, in a battle between equals, it would be those with the better equipment that had the advantage.

Still, it had become more of a battle of attrition.

Would Temari be able to defend long enough for Tenten to run out of chakra?

That question was answered only partially.

Tenten faltered for just a moment, the sheer amount of chakra she was using visible to him in how quite a few of her chakra strings flickered out, the weapons at the end of them clattering to the ground.

And it was enough for Temari to gain a foothold.

She slammed the butt of her fan into the ground, "Wind Style: Protective Wind Barrier!"

A churning barrier of wind erupted from the ground and formed a spherical barrier around the blonde, bouncing away the weapons Tenten continued on with.

The barrier flickered away almost immediately after.

"This is it!" Tenten declared, drawing her hands up and thrusting them down, sending all the weapons, still hundreds strong towards the blonde.

The blonde who had used the split few moments of being protected by her wind barrier to raise her fan up above her hand.

"Yeah it is!" the blonde agreed, "Wind Style: Great Task Of The Dragon!"

A powerful gale wind sparked into existence up above, and a moment later, a huge, massive even, glowing green tornado of wind erupted and roared down like a churning dragon.

Just before the weapons would have gave Temari the same outfit as a hedgehog, the massive wind jutsu shot down, enveloping the bun haired girl and almost immediately, the chakra strings flickered out and the weapons clattered to the ground uselessly.

He heard Tenten scream in pain only for a moment, before her voice was drowned out by the roaring hurricane.

'That's some jutsu.' Daiki grimaced, definitely an A-rank jutsu if he wasn't wrong.

Though even with her fan enhancing her ability and making wind jutsu cost much less chakra to use.

Temari could only hold it up for a short period of time.

The blonde slumped to her knees, panting deeply, exhaustion etched on her face as she leaned against her fan.

And a split moment later the huge hurricane flickered and died away. And Tenten came into view, her eyes shut and body filled with bleeding lacerations from where the wind jutsu had sliced into her body all over.

She hit the ground a moment later with an audible thump, completely unconscious.

While Temari panted deeply in exhaustion and kept a keen eye on her downed opponent, Tenten didn't even twitch.

She was so still, Daiki might have feared that jutsu had killed her, if not for the fact he could still see her breathing, see straight through her chest to her heart and see it still pumping, if slowly.

'For an A-rank jutsu in scope, the damage it dealt wasn't all that special.' Daiki noted. Even with the wind chakra metal boosting her abilities, it seemed Temari still couldn't use that jutsu fully.

"Tenten is unable to continue, Temari is the winner." Hayate announced after a few moments of Tenten remaining still.

That was his cue.

"Tenten-san!" Lee vaulted over the railing down to the arena before and sprinted rapidly towards his downed teammate.

He was still wearing his weights though.

So before he even made it half way to her, Daiki had already rushed passed him and scooped the older girl up into his arms.

"Daiki-san?" Lee skidded to a halt, blinking at him in surprise.

"I've got her, don't worry." He nodded to the older boy.

"…Okay?" the bowl haired shinobi looked a little lost.

Better him than the medic ninja on staff really. If any complications came about, he could provide way better healing than them.

And he definitely wasn't gonna let Tenten die.

He made a single hand seal even with the girl in his arms, a swirl of leaves forming around his body as he disappeared with a shunshin.

As he did though, he noticed Temari's eyes narrowing at him, or perhaps the girl in his arms?