Who Am I Fighting In The Chunin Exams?

The Chunin Exam third preliminary round was about to begin. I looked at the chat and grinned.

I chuckled at the flood of messages.

The viewers finished voting and I checked the results.

As expected, since the matchups were most likely to follow the original story, the kunoichi took first place. An extra character won.

"Hitting a girl feels kinda bad though..."

"We will now announce the two competitors for the first match."

Because of the butterfly effect I caused, both the order and the matchups had completely changed. I was pretty sure the first match in the original was Sasuke's... Since the story had already diverged, I really wanted to fight Neji.

Tenten and Choji descended into the arena. "Tenten, fighting!" At my cheer, Tenten gave a confident grin, nodded at me, then started stretching to warm up. Choji... was just fat.

"Ready... begin!"

The moment the match started, Tenten summoned a scroll and unleashed a barrage of weapons. Choji used Baika no Jutsu to enlarge his body, then spun with Nikudan Sensha to deflect the weapons and rolled straight toward her. Tenten was faster than expected though. She barely dodged, but she managed to evade his attacks cleanly.

Sure enough, after a while Tenten, whose attack power was lacking, lost to Choji. She trudged back up to the stands looking disappointed. I told her she did well, then looked up at the board to see the next matchup.

As soon as the match began, Naruto used his specialty, Kage Bunshin no Jutsu, to surround Neji and charge in. Neji activated his Byakugan, but because the clones had the exact same chakra distribution as the original, even the Byakugan couldn't tell them apart. Still, no matter how much Naruto and his clones attacked, they couldn't land a single clean hit on Neji. Neji easily destroyed the clones.

Frustrated, Naruto used Tajū Kage Bunshin no Jutsu to create even more clones, but Neji countered with Kaiten. Nearly all the clones were wiped out by his defensive rotation technique.

"Did you really think you could win?" Neji taunted.

"Grr!"

Provoked by Neji's words, Naruto charged in alone. But Neji was ready.

Gentle Fist: Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms!

"Two Palms!"

Thud!

"Four Palms!"

"Agh!"

"Eight Palms!! Sixteen Palms!! Thirty-Two Palms!!"

Thud thud thud!!

"Sixty-Four Palms!!"

"Aaaaaagh!"

Every strike landed perfectly. Naruto collapsed, groaning in pain. Neji looked down at him, then raised his head to glance at the examiner.

The examiner approached Naruto, checked on him, and was about to declare the match over when—

"UAAAAAAAH!!!!"

With a roar like a battle cry, Naruto slowly stood back up. The examiner glanced at Neji once more before stepping back. True to his protagonist nature, Naruto refused to give up. He staggered toward Neji.

In the original story, he might have won by miraculously using the Nine-Tails' chakra. But right now, his chakra pathways were blocked. He couldn't even use his clone technique anymore. Neji approached the struggling Naruto and struck his chest with an open palm.

Naruto coughed up blood and collapsed.

The defeated Naruto was carried out on a stretcher. Neji calmly walked back up to the waiting area. When our eyes met, he said coldly, "You're next," then returned to his team.

"Hah~ This little punk... is he provoking me?"

At that moment, the board displayed the next matchup for the third round.

When I descended into the arena, Sasuke was already there. He didn't look well. He must have been hit by Orochimaru's curse mark. If only he'd run away better... Seeing him touch his neck with a grim expression made me feel a little bad, but I wasn't about to let my guard down. I focused completely.

"I wanted to fight you."

"Me??"

"Yes. I wanted to fight someone strong."

"You... talk like an old man. Fine, I'll make sure you're satisfied."

We stood in the center of the arena, keeping our distance, staring each other down.

"Match... begin!"

The instant the match started, Sasuke grabbed a kunai and charged straight at me, only to suddenly veer sharply to the left, aiming for my blind spot as he swung.

Four Gods of Death Style: Vermilion Bird Gust!

Whoosh!

I used the skill to deflect his attack. I caught his wrist on the horizontal swing, yanked him off balance, swept his legs out from under him, then jumped over him and slammed my fist down.

Four Gods of Death Style: White Tiger Mountain Thunder!

BOOM!!!

Sasuke rolled to the side to dodge. He threw shuriken like scattering petals. Multiple shuriken flew at me from all directions at once. I used the Vermilion Bird technique to deflect only the ones on my left, creating an opening, but when I looked ahead Sasuke had vanished.

I turned my head to search for him when I heard his voice from above.

Four Gods of Death Style: White Tiger Mountain Thunder!

BOOM!!!

I was so shocked that Sasuke was using my own skill that my reaction was delayed. But thanks to my high agility rank and the fact that Mountain Thunder, while powerful, was a bit slow, I barely managed to dodge.

I jumped back and stared at him in disbelief.

The sudden appearance of Sasuke using Mountain Thunder caught me completely off guard and rattled my mentality slightly. Sasuke noticed my movements had slowed and vanished again.

Bam!

"Ugh!"

A kick from below suddenly struck my jaw, launching me into the air.

Leaf Gale!

While I was airborne, Sasuke latched onto my back. I instinctively blocked his left kick, but he spun and struck me with his right foot from the opposite side, then rotated again and slammed his heel down on me.

Thud!!

Lion Combo!

"Cough!"

The blow to my stomach made me cough up blood. I shook my head to regain focus. I'd thought I could win easily since Sasuke wasn't in good condition, but that momentary lapse in focus had let him land solid hits and deal serious damage.

The taste of blood in my mouth pissed me off. I opened the Eight Inner Gates up to the fifth gate, Dumen, even though I hadn't wanted to use it. The chakra—no, mana—blazed around my body like fire. Sasuke took a startled step back, then got angry at himself for being afraid. He clenched his fists and glared at me with wide eyes. I was about to charge at him when—

Kakashi and Guy suddenly burst in. Guy stopped me and said, "I'll ask how you know that technique later. For now, the match is suspended. Release the Eight Inner Gates."

I obeyed and released the gates. Immediately, my entire body burned with intense pain. It hurt so much I regretted opening Dumen and struggled just to stay on my feet.

Meanwhile...

"Sasuke, didn't we agree you wouldn't use the Sharingan?"

"I didn't..."

"Don't lie to me. You definitely used it at the end. I told you—if you use the Sharingan, the match will be stopped."

In truth, Sasuke had promised Kakashi not to use the Sharingan because of the curse mark Orochimaru left on him. But at the very end, angry at his own moment of fear, he had unconsciously activated it.

"But to win—"

"Enough! You made a promise with me and broke it. And if I hadn't stopped the match, you would have died."

"What?!"

Kakashi turned away from Sasuke and looked at the examiner.

"Sorry for the interruption. Sasuke forfeits."

"Ah... yes, well... Then the winner is Jin."

"Hold off for now."

As soon as the quest completed, my stat ranks were restored. Thanks to my high stamina, the pain became somewhat bearable. Now the problem was how to handle the aftermath... For now, I went to the hospital to get checked out. Fortunately, since I'd only opened the gates and my stats had recovered, there was no serious damage to my body.

"I'm still not feeling well. Can we talk later?"

I tried to buy time by avoiding Guy's gaze since he'd followed me all the way to the hospital, but he wasn't having it.

"I know you've mostly recovered already! How do you know the Eight Inner Gates and how are you able to use it?"

After thinking for a moment, I decided to just go all in.

"Self-taught."

"What?? Don't lie. This isn't something a lowly genin can learn by themselves!"

"Whether you believe me or not, it's self-taught. I'm not lying."

Since I hadn't learned it from anyone but obtained it as a skill, insisting it was self-taught wasn't a complete lie... I brainwashed myself into believing that. Guy stared into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠my eyes. Seeing no hesitation or sign of deception, he fell into thought.

"A genius, perhaps..."

Guy muttered to himself, having come to an enormous misunderstanding. I quickly changed the subject because I was afraid I'd end up becoming his disciple if this continued.

"I want to go watch the matches of the members I left behind. Is that okay?"

"No. Rest here for today. You're not fully recovered yet."

With that, he gave me one last look before heading off to watch Rock Lee's match.

"Phew~ At least I bought some time. If I wasn't careful I would've become Guy's disciple and gotten trained to death."

"I'm in a bad mood since I lost, so the stream ends here."

"See you tomorrow..."

I ended the stream like I was running away. I was worried about Hinata and Ino, and I was curious whether Gaara vs Rock Lee would play out like in the original, but my body really hadn't fully recovered yet. I decided to rest for the rest of the day.