/qst/ — Bloodline Survivor Quest 02

>>6401257 (OP)
You can’t really argue with his reasoning. Fighting here serves no purpose beyond getting yourselves into the public phase of the exams, so there’s no reason to risk making that process harder than it has to be. As for the question of fairness… there’s no such thing for a shinobi, at least not in battle. But right now Hiroshi-kun’s idea of fairness is what’s fair to his teammates, as opposed to other shinobi. On the one hand it could be seen as naive, but that way of thinking – of devaluing honor, loyalty, and camaraderie – is the sort of thinking that eventually gets you people like Hidan. And given the choice, you’d rather have more people like your teammates in the world than more bastards like Hidan.

“You sound certain of this,” the Hokage muses, the look on his old face almost something like approval. “Very well. I would ask that you also step out. You will be escorted out along with Yakushi-kun.”

As Hiroshi-kun turns to leave, he flashes you a thumbs-up. You answer with a little nod.

“If anyone else would like to leave, now would be the time to say so,” the Hokage declares calmly.

No one else speaks up.

“Then I will pass this on to the proctor.”

The Hokage steps away, allowing for the man who looks like he never sleeps to step up. He also coughs into his fist the same way the Hokage did, although instead of just being an old man this proctor seems to be chronically ill.

“I am Gekkō Hayate, proctor for the third stage,” the man introduces himself, gesturing to a black screen high on the wall behind him. “This screen will display two of your names randomly. Those candidates whose names are displayed will fight either until one candidate gives up or I decide that one can no longer continue. This will happen eleven times.”

“While full force is authorized, any attacks obviously intended to kill an opponent who cannot defend themselves are prohibited, and will be dealt with harshly.”

>1d11 please
>taking the first two

Rolled 5 (1d11)

>>6401269
Smart thinking Hiroshi-kun.

Rolled 3 (1d11)

>>6401269

>>6401269
The display flickers to life, then begins to flash through the characters of twenty-two names in blinding succession. Eventually it snaps to a stop on two:

“The first match,” Hayate-san declares, “will be Uzumaki Naruto against Akimichi Chōji. All other candidates and their senseis will withdraw to the observation level.”

Naruto-kun seems to be fired up for his fight, while Chōji-kun – the large one out of the three from the yakiniku place – pulls out a small bag of what you think are potato chips for a snack while everyone else is getting out of the way. Interesting priorities. Maybe there’s a reason behind it, maybe that reason is just gluttony. No way for you to know just yet.

“Hey, so we don’t have anyone from our village here,” Akiji-kun observes. “What do you wanna do?”

>We’ll find a spot and observe by ourselves.
>May as well say hi to Sasuke-kun, Sakura-kun, and Kakashi-san.
>Whatever we do, let’s leave the Sand team alone for now.
>Other?

>>6401318
>Whatever we do, let’s leave the Sand team alone for now.

>>6401318
>>Whatever we do, let’s leave the Sand team alone for now.
they give us the creeps

>>6401318
>Let's go talk to the Sand team. Gaara's actually a pretty chill dude.

>>6401318
>May as well say hi to Sasuke-kun, Sakura-kun, and Kakashi-san.

>>6401318
>We’ll find a spot and observe by ourselves.

>>6401318
>We’ll find a spot and observe by ourselves.

Just caught up on the last thread, but I gotta say, good stuff, QM! You've got excellent prose, and I'm always a sucker for a good Naruto quest.

The first thread will be on the board for a (long) while, but don't forget to archive it before then!

>>6401318
>We’ll find a spot and observe by ourselves.
If someone wants to come talk to us, that's fine too. I mostly want to see how Akiji's feeling.

>>6401318
“Let’s just avoid the Sand team for now, whatever we do,” you decide.

“Agreed,” Akiji-kun nods. “That Gaara guy gives me the creeps.”

You laugh a little to yourself. “Gaara-kun’s not that bad, but Kankuro’s a jerk.”

“I… think your warped standards are showing themselves again.”

…

Your team eventually takes up a position between two of the Konoha teams – Kakashi-san’s team, and the team Chōji-kun is on with the burly jōnin-sensei. Eventually, only the two candidates and the proctor remain on the floor.

“Alright,” the proctor declares. “The first match – Uzumaki Naruto versus Akimichi Chōji.”

He raises his hand, then lowers it and takes a leap backwards. “Begin!”

Neither opponent starts off instantly. Instead, there’s a little verbal back-and-forth between the former classmates.

“I got lucky,” Chōji-kun muses, tossing aside his now-empty bag of chips and clapping his hands together. “Thank you for the meal!”

“Keep thinking that,” Naruto-kun shoots back. “Underestimating me’ll just make this go quicker, ya know!”

Naruto-kun produces his weapon – a long-chained kusarigama – and sets the weighted chain end spinning while Chōji-kun forms his hand seals. “Konoha-ryū taijutsu: Nikudan Sensha!”

Chōji-kun suddenly expands vastly in size, forming a massive ball of humanity before pulling his head and legs inside his clothes – making his own sound effects as he does so. Then he starts to spin… faster and faster until the tiles below him start to crack.

Naruto-kun’s chain slowly stops spinning. “Oh crap, that’s not gonna work!”

Instead of attacking with the kusarigama Naruto-kun dodges as Chōji-kun rolls at him aggressively – but slowly. The energy on Naruto-kun’s end is actually comedic, but effective in keeping him away from several successive attempts by the now boulder-sized genin to run him down.

“Um… what am I watching?” Akiji-kun wonders aloud.

“To be fair that’d probably hurt if it hit,” you admit. “He’s just so… slow. And loud. It hurts to watch.”

It takes a while for Naruto-kun to come up with something like a plan, but eventually he does start to fight back by forming an unusual hand seal. “Kagebunshin-no-jutsu!”
>1/2

>>6401577
He creates a small number of clones, who try to slow Chōji-kun’s roll without success – despite the fact that they’re physically real and don’t require any nature transformation, they’re also apparently pretty fragile. The amount of weight behind Chōji-kun’s attacks means that even despite his slow speed there’s a lot of force involved, and the shadow clones just can’t withstand it for long enough to really matter.

“So he’s not going to get it done in one strong attack,” you muse. “What now?”

The answer Naruto-kun comes up with is actually pretty good – he probably has no makibishi in his pouches, and at that size the little iron spikes wouldn’t do Chōji-kun much harm anyway. But hira-shuriken thrown at the ground hard enough can stick with their points facing outward, and so Naruto-kun leaves some behind as he dodges another rolling charge.

“Still didn’t do much,” Akiji-kun muses. That having been admitted, Chōji-kun dodges the next time Naruto-kun tries the same trick. Then as his opponent makes a wide turn, Naruto-kun makes a… decision.

“Come on!” he shouts. “Bring it on, fatso!”

… you can actually SEE the moment Chōji-kun realizes that he’s been insulted. In fact, you can saw with confidence that he starts spinning even faster, ripping up floor as he goes.

“I’m not fat!” he shouts back. “I’m strong, and the strong EAT!”

Eat the wall, maybe.

Naruto-kun barely dodges that last attack, and it’s clear on his face that he knows it. But he also quickly realizes that his plan worked, and Chōji-kun has trapped himself by slamming too hard into the wall. So Naruto-kun takes immediate and merciless advantage, sprinting past his opponent and up the wall. He creates a shadow clone when he nears the ceiling, and in one smooth movement turns as he uses the transformation technique to become some kind of weapon.

Then his clone pushes off the ceiling into a dead sprint, before hurling the giant folding shuriken with all his might.

“Don’t you ever…” the clone begins even as the shuriken transforms back.

“… underestimate me!”

This time the blow strikes Chōji-kun dead on, unable to deflect it using his rotational speed. And on the contrary, Naruto-kun’s body retains the speed of a thrown shuriken to add to the force of his punch.

There’s a burst of smoke from that side of the sparring floor.
>2/3

>>6401588
When the smoke clears, it’s obvious who has won. But the proctor still makes it official.

“Akimichi-kun is unable to continue,” Hayate-san declares after examining Chōji-kun, who’s lying on the floor exhausted at the center of a ring of cracks. “The winner is Uzumaki Naruto-kun.”

Naruto-kun also seems to have lost his wind, and his right fist is bleeding enough to be visible from here. While his teammates seem enthusiastic but not surprised, the same can’t be said for the other Konoha genin who are all floored – you overhear words like ‘loser’ and ‘screwball’ being used.

>1d10, taking first two

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>6401596

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6401596

>>6401603
>>6401606
Seriously, a joint 1% probability and you get THIS result. Cursed. You'll see in a few minutes.

>>6401596
Naruto-kun stops as he walks past Chōji-kun on the way to the stairs back up to the observation level, and kneels for a moment. He says something inaudible, and pats Chōji-kun on the shoulder. Then he continues towards the stairs.

By the time he’s rejoined his team, the names are already flashing across the screen again in rapid succession. You notice something, a disturbance on the sparring floor. Just as the names on the board stop, one of the two candidates named appears below in a swirl of sand.

“The second match,” Hayate-san announces, “Will be Gaara versus Rock Lee.”

The bowl-cut guy you noticed with his team a few days ago, one of the early finishers, is immediately fired up to the point of cheering out loud – the exact same as his similarly dressed and coiffed sensei.

>Continue watching together with Akiji-kun?
>Go and ask what Naruto-kun said to Chōji-kun?
>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?
>Other?

Welp so much for our best match up for best gainz against Lee. Damn shame. There is no one else we can fight that will benefit us like that.

>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?

>>6401855
It seems Rock Lee vs Gaara is a universal constant which you can match your heartbeat to and know you are on the canonical path. So says the Kwisatz Haderach, praise be his hallowed name!

>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?

Gaara's a good guy, right Ryōko? Surely nothing will go wrong.

>>6401855
>>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?

>>6401855
>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?

>>6401855
>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?
Too late :(

>>6401855
>Maybe go talk to the Sand team about Gaara-kun?

>>6401855
Since the team from Sunagakure looks at least ‘mildly concerned’, you decide to give talking to them a try while their teammate is down on the floor fighting. You approach them at something like a normal speed even while Lee and his sensei are hyping each other up.

“You seem jumpy,” you muse aloud. “Gaara-kun seems too strong to worry about him.”

“Who says we’re worried?” Kankuro-kun shoots back.

“You do,” you observe. “Through your body language.”

The two genin have to silently admit that you have a point. Even their jōnin-sensei seems to be a bit uncomfortable at the moment. That’s unusual.

“Gaara can be… a lot to deal with,” Temari-kun, if you’ve heard her name correctly, admits. “Just… just watch. You’ll understand.”

You glance over at the jōnin-sensei, trying to weigh his reaction to Temari-kun’s words. The expression you see there is still the same, discomfort – it’s probably not unreasonable to assume that he’s seen exactly what Temari-kun means, and that he doesn’t disagree.

Lee-kun finally drops down into the arena, and joins Gaara-kun and Hayate-san at the center. Hayate-san coughs into his hand before starting the match.

“Gaara-kun vs Lee-kun… begin!”

The proctor has barely had time to leap backwards when Lee-kun opens with a strong taijutsu assault. “Konoha Senpū!”

His spinning kick comes fast and strong, but not nearly fast or strong enough. Sand has already burst from the vessel on Gaara-kun’s back to intercept the blow before launching a counterattack which forces Lee-kun to evade with a series of somersaults back through the air. Not dissuaded, Lee-kun takes a stance before swiftly closing and renewing his taijutsu assault. His style is varied enough, if a bit stiff, and his speed is comparable to your own.

And it does hardly anything against the sand which moves even faster to defend Gaara-kun’s body, from all angles.

“I dunno what that bowl-cut is planning,” Kankuro-kun grumbles, “but it’s not gonna work.”

“So he uses sand to attack and defend,” you muse. “Not bad… but is it really okay for him to just be standing there?”

“Don’t get it mixed up,” Kankuro-kun counters. “That sand moves on its own. It’s like a living thing. Gaara’s not even taking this seriously yet... it's the only reason that guy's still alive.”
>1/2

>>6402245
As he withdraws, Lee-kun slips on sand spread out under his feet. He almost takes a crushing blow for that misstep, but manages to somersault high through the air until he lands in a crouch atop the fingertips of the massive statue.

For a few moments, it becomes a standoff.

Then Lee-kun’s sensei holds out his fist and sticks his thumb up. “Alright Lee, take ‘em off!”

“But sensei!” Lee-kun protests. “You said that was only as a last resort!”

“I’m making an exception!” his sensei replies. “Go for it!”

Lee-kun excitedly complies, removing what look like bands of weights from around his ankles. “That is much better!” He exclaims. “Now I will be able to move freely!”

“Heh,” Kankuro-kun chuckles as Lee-kun releases the weights. “If he thinks dropping a few measly little weights is going to make a difference, he’s even dumber than he…”

The weights hit the ground on either side of the statue and immediately rock the whole arena, sending dust clouds drifting around the room. Even most of the jōnin senseis seem taken aback for a moment.

Then Lee-kun disappears.

Rather, for a moment his speed throws you off. His body becomes a blur of motion, striking Gaara-kun’s defensive sand from multiple angles in quick succession. You can hear him taunting as Gaara-kun’s eyes also struggle to keep up with this newfound speed, far in excess of your own. Eventually Lee-kun rises up with a short hop, spins in the air, and lands a heavy axe kick that hits Gaara-kun in the forehead.

“Gaara… got hit?” Temari-kun wonders in shock.

After a momentary reset, Lee-kun returns to the offensive. After a few more probing blows a powerful punch slips past Gaara-kun’s defenses and knocks him to the floor several meters away.

It takes a few moments before Gaara-kun gets up… and you don’t like the look in his eyes. Even less than the cracking layer of sand sitting atop his skin like armor.

“Uh-oh,” Kankuro-kun grumbles. “It’s been a while… since I saw that look in his eyes.”

Sand armor… a powerful defensive ability, assuming he can also harden it like armor. Unlike your own defenses this one seems more prone to cracking, but it also sits outside the skin rather than internally. So even if it might be less durable – which you can’t be sure it is – that would simply make it a sacrificial layer, where the Shikotsumyaku tends to only stop crippling injuries so that your rapid healing can handle the damage to your soft tissues.

As impressive a defense as it is, you also have to note that regular taijutsu is a poor measure of its durability. The bones in a fist compress quite a bit when used to strike, meaning the force of Lee-kun's punches will be dispersed more than your strikes would ever allow. If he were smart he might try using his elbows instead.
>2/3

>>6402289
“Are you… sizing them up?” Temari-kun observes. You spare her a glance, noting that she seems stunned at your own lack of obvious shock at any of what you’re seeing.

Honestly you’re just as surprised as any of the other genin here. The main difference is you know that it wouldn’t do you any good to waste time acknowledging that sensation when you could skip straight to digesting what you’re seeing so you can devise a counter. After all, either one could plausibly be your competition in the public stage of the exams.

Lee-kun has settled on an approach, slipping past Gaara-kun’s sand defenses to land an upward kick on his jaw. Gaara-kun is lifted off the ground by the force of the impact, but Lee-kun is hardly finished. Instead he lands another kick, and another, and another. The force of successive kicks carries Gaara-kun high into the air in a mad display of taijutsu taken far past its logical extremes…

>1d10, best of three

Rolled 2 (1d10)

>>6402296

Rolled 1 (1d10)

>>6402296
let's see it

Rolled 4 (1d10)

>>6402296

>>6402296
As Lee-kun’s kicks take both opponents higher you feel something else rising just as quickly – annoyance at something irritating your eyes. For just a moment you give into the urge and wipe away the grit, just for a single moment. Lee-kun seems to slow his progress at about the same time before wrapping Gaara-kun in bandage bindings, then taking them both into a headfirst spiral.

The descent precedes a devastating impact that rocks the whole arena yet again, and the dust soon starts to settle. Lee-kun looks like he’s just about exhausted himself, and Gaara-kun is laying on his back in the middle of a crater of shattered stone.

“No way…” Kankuro-kun gasps. “There’s just no way.”

As you watch carefully, you note a crack across Gaara-kun’s face. Then another appears. The color starts to fade from his skin and hair, and pieces of his ‘face’ begin to fall inward – revealing an open void, like the inside of a cast statue or a clay pot.

“Substitution,” you realize. “Damn it…”

It must have been in the brief moment when you were wiping your eyes. That suggests to you that Gaara-kun’s jutsu timing is exceptional, but it doesn’t tell you as much as you’d prefer. Not having noticed what happened is very different from not having observed the situation at all, since even if you didn’t catch what Gaara-kun did when he did it the context would still tell you things. But as it stands you don’t know what opening Gaara-kun seized upon to use a substitution or how fast it actually was, and because of that you don’t know whether it was something that could work against you under other circumstances.

You can’t help but curse quietly to yourself. Getting exactly no information out of that exchange is the worst feeling.

Gaara-kun reappears from the dust and sand that’s settled around the impact area, behind Lee-kun who seems stunned that his opponent managed to pull one over on him. And if the look on Gaara-kun’s face was intense before, now it strikes you as positively deranged.

“No…” Temari-kun shudders. “Don’t tell me… it’s starting to awaken?”

If Gaara-kun has taken any notice of his opponent’s condition he takes no notice. It’s all Lee-kun can do to keep dodging and blocking as the sand hammers away relentlessly, and he can barely do that. Even raising his arms prompts a grunt of exertion and pain.

>1d10, best of three

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>6402647
RIP Lee you were the only one I was looking forward to fighting.

Rolled 7 (1d10)

>>6402647

Rolled 5 (1d10)

>>6402647
Hm... I was under the impression that Ryoko was one of the strongest competitors here, but thinking about it, she doesn't have many answers to an awakened Gaara, huh?

>>6402647
It’s obvious even from here that Lee-kun’s torn multiple muscles and burst tendons throughout his body, just based on how his range of motion and the obvious pain even the slightest movement results in. While it may not be physically incapacitating, the mental fortitude to endure that much pain with a grin is truly impressive.

Lee-kun manages to get a little bit of distance, and takes a deep breath.

Crossing his arms and settling into a stable stance, he begins to build up chakra. Not just a little bit of chakra, like what you’d use as part of a ninjutsu technique, but a massive amount that starts to cause the air to shimmer and writhe. With a growing roar the chakra even becomes faintly visible in blue around his body as his already-ruined muscles bulge. His hair stands on end, forced upwards on a rising current of raw power.

Then his veins bulge, and his skin takes on a red tone.

“What the hell is even happening anymore!?” Kankuro-kun protests loudly.

“Brute force activation?” you realize. “The chakra must be temporarily splinting his muscles and bones… he’s even forcibly increasing his blood oxygenation levels…”

It’s not healing, not even close. The sheer amount of chakra flowing through his body has reached the point where it’s basically forcing his tortured muscles and cracked bones into their proper positions for one last offensive, whatever the repercussions might turn out to be.

The results are more like an explosion, Lee-kun’s speed exceeding your ability to track by far. You can figure out what’s happening as Gaara-kun’s body is blown straight up out of the rubble and dust caused just by Lee charging forwards, probably because of another rising kick like before. Only this time the force of the impact and the violence of Lee’s assault leaves Gaara no space to respond.

Cracks appear as a green blur hits the ceiling above you as well as the walls, using the confines of the building to change directions. Catastrophic blows shatter pieces of Gaara-kun’s sand armor away before the sand he had been using to fight can even catch up with him. The genin’s little more than a ragdoll, being played with by a force you can barely see as a blur of motion.

And then Lee-kun moves to end it, launching a series of linear attacks straight downwards at a practically-immobilized Gaara. You can only assume there’s a ‘final’ blow, because as Lee-kun forces even more raw power out through his body his speed exceeds the point where you can even tell he moved except by seeing the results of his attack on his opponent.

The arena explodes yet again.
>1/2

>>6402738
Of course, you saw this developing. It happened a fraction of a second before impact.

“Gaara!” Temari-kun shouts in alarm.

“No way!” Kankuro exclaims. “Is it even possible… could Gaara actually… lose?”

“… it’s over,” you muse, grim with the realization. “It was a spectacular effort, it just wasn’t enough.”

Kankuro-kun stares at you. “What? What do you mean?”

When the dust begins to settle, it becomes obvious. You point it out. “Look.”

Gaara-kun barely managed to cushion his fall by turning the sandy jar on his back into sand, which is probably the only reason he’s conscious right now. And as hurt as he is, you can tell it’s only a matter of time before he shakes it off.

Lee-kun, on the other hand, is done. His chakra has crashed, and with it the only thing keeping him from the full effects of the backlash. He can barely raise his head now, the muscle tears and cracked bones having gotten even worse after that last burst of effort. If a professional could see to him starting today… it might take six months before he could move normally again. And that’s assuming there’s been no significant trauma to his spinal cord.

“What’s the proctor doing?” you question aloud as the sand starts to creep towards Lee-kun, who barely has the strength to try crawling away. If nobody does anything, Lee-kun will be lucky to survive – and there’s no time to debate, either.

>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.
>As a candidate, it isn’t your place to get involved in someone else’s fight.
>Other?

>>6402742
>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.

>>6402742
>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.
We're a student of Tsunade, and while we can't exactly treat an injury of this level, we should at least try to avoid further damage. Rule-breaking aside, I'm sure this will also look good for inter-village relations.

>>6402742
>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.

>>6402742
>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.
These kids really want to pass this exam.

>>6402742
>As a medical ninja, you can’t allow a pointless crippling injury. Step in.

>>6402742
1d10 please, best of three

Rolled 8 (1d10)

>>6402894

Rolled 9 (1d10)

>>6402894

Rolled 6 (1d10)

>>6402894

>>6402894
In an instant your body moves, your mind having decided on the action without any need to deliberate. You know you need speed, and your body answers. You know you need strength, and your body answers. The blow not only disperses the sand, it also shatters the already-fractured tiles where it strikes.

Anyone who noticed your movement – and not everyone in the room seems to have – either chose not to interfere or saw no opportunity to do so.

“This match is over,” you declare, rising from your knee to face Gaara-kun down. “Hayate-san, please call it for Gaara-kun.”

“On what grounds do you claim to be able to stop the match?” Hayate-san asks you as he approaches from near the side wall, from which he’s been watching. To his credit, his voice betrays neither protest nor accusation, and so you answer in the same spirit.

“I am a medical ninja,” you answer, still watching Gaara-kun warily as he staggers to his feet. “Lee-kun was obviously suffering from hairline fractures and partial-thickness ruptures of bones and muscles throughout his body – and that was before this last push.”

“That is not disqualifying,” Hayate-san observes.

“Maybe not,” you answer, “but with his chakra weakening, the only thing keeping his ruined body going is gone. Not only is he now defenseless, but if another attack hits him in this state the trauma may be impossible to heal.”

“… why?” Gaara-kun demands, his voice strained as his breathing has yet to normalize after his own injuries. “Why interfere? He’s not worth your time.”

>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.
>Why is he so eager to finish off an opponent? This isn’t even the public phase of the exams.
>Shinobi may die on missions, but this isn’t a mission so a medic shouldn’t accept that outcome here.
>Other?

>>6403016
>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.
Violence requires reason. Our clan never cared for the reason for its violence. If you seek violence, always has a good reason for it. We learned to control our violent tendency rather than let it control us, unlike the rest of our clan. We saw firsthand what happens when you don't do that. Don't make that same mistake, dear Gaara.

>>6403016
>>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.
Kaguya moment

>>6403016
>Maybe you're overestimating the value of my time.

>>6403016
>>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.
"Why try to kill him then? If he's not worth MY time, he isn't worth yours either. Take the win.

>>6403016
>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.

>>6403016
>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.

>>6403016
>You lost loved ones to a senseless act of violence, so you’re stopping this senseless act now.
Hm, I wonder if Ryoko can take Naruto's place when it comes to convincing Gaara. We've already had like, two conversations, coming up on a third.

>>6403016
“… I lost people I cared for to an act of senseless violence,” you reply coolly. “So you may not think it’s ‘worth my time’, but that’s not for you to decide… not what my time is ‘worth’, not the ‘worth’ of your opponent.”

The sand around your feet starts to move, but your focus is on Gaara-kun instead. Your eye contact never wavers. After a moment, the sand slowly starts to recede and reform into that gourd-like container he carries it around as. The sand even begins to cover his skin again, as well as any outward signs of his injuries.

“I’m tired,” he declares, beginning to turn to leave.

Then he stops, as movement behind you catches your own attention – it’s Lee-kun, back onto his feet with one trembling arm raised. But only just, and there’s no saying for how long. The development brings his sensei down from the observation level, and he places a hand on Lee-kun’s shoulder.

“It’s alright, Lee,” he assures his student. “You’ve already done…”

… oh.

“… not even conscious,” the sensei realizes with a trembling voice, “and still desperate to show the world what he can do. Lee, you’ve already…”

You glance at Hayate-san, and gesture for him to call it.

He clears his throat. “As Rock Lee-kun is unable to continue, the winner is Gaara-kun.”

Gaara-kun goes back to what he was doing before and leaves the arena, while medical ninja swoop in to see to Lee-kun. After conferring briefly, they step away to speak to Lee-kun’s sensei. “Guy-sensei, this student is yours?”

“He is.”

“Well, you should know that Lee-kun’s injuries are much more serious than they look,” the medic-nin says. “There’s hardly a bone in his body that isn’t fractured, and his muscles are a mess… recovery is going to take six months at the very least, and if he’d taken any more trauma on top of this, who knows what could have happened.”

Satisfied that things are being handled, you begin to walk away even as the medic-nin continues speaking. “Whoever called the fight just by looking at him has good instincts… who was it?”

You don’t turn back. That, most certainly, is ‘not worth your time’.

>1d9, taking the first two

Rolled 6 (1d9)

>>6403508

Canon battle was cool and so was this.

Rolled 7 (1d9)

>>6403508

>>6403508
You head up the stairs, walking first past the remainder of Chōji-kun’s team. As you approach Team Kakashi, you hear an announcement from the floor. “The next round will be Abume Zaku-kun versus Inuzuka Kiba-kun.”

>Stop here and watch with Team Kakashi for a little while.
>Walk on, stop with Team Guy for a few minutes.
>Rejoin your own teammate for this matchup.
>Other?

>>6403723
>Stop here and watch with Team Kakashi for a little while.

>>6403723
>Stop here and watch with Team Kakashi for a little while.