It was over; everyone could tell from the lack of sounds.
Hayate coughed, squinting, and wondering how on earth was he supposed to tell anything in the dense forest—and how were the other genins going to fight now?—but his solution came when the Senju emerged from the forest, leaves and sticks in his hair and an unconscious Hyuga on his back.
"Hehe, sorry for the mess!" he grinned, rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. "Guess I went overboard."
"WINNER: Senju Haruto!"
The stadium erupted in cheers, which made Haruto wave at his fans. Wow, it felt nice to be popular.
"Um, Senju-sama." The addressed boy turned to see a few medics with a stretcher and first-aid kit. "would you please let Hyuga-sama onto the stretcher? We need to bring her for further treatment."
Haruto made a face. "I didn't hurt her that badly," he said though he did as told. When Hinata was carried away, he straightened himself and glance at the forest he'd made.
"Clear it, kid," Hayate ordered through the coughs wrecking his body.
Haruto started joining him in coughing as well. "I can only grow them. I have absolutely no idea when it came to summoning them back. I didn't even finish reading the scroll yet!" He winked, trying to wriggle his way out of the decapitation of the forest but from the way the proctor's eyes narrowed, no such luck.
From where he sat as the Hokage, Sarutobi chuckled as Haruto received an earful from the proctor. He took a long breath before releasing his breath, watching as smoke drifted up from the pipe. "He has quite the talent, doesn't he? Hinata-chan didn't do too bad either; they're both inheritors of the Will of Fire, it seemed." He said it in light-hearted tone, trying to strike up a pleasant and civil conversation.
Beside him, his advisers snorted, which dashed his hopes of a pleasant conversation.
"Still going about that Will of Fire crap?" Danzo looked irritated. "But I must agree with you about the boy's talent. The Hyuga's prowess can be found anywhere, merely mediocre, nothing to be in awe at."
Koharu and Homura instantly agreed, nodding their head and looking at Danzo like he was the Hokage. Though Koharu added her own two cents: "That boy had ruined the arena. How are the preliminaries supposed to go on now?"
Sarutobi rolled his eyes, there went his plan to kindle their old friendship (emphasis on old ). "A good deal of fire jutsu will bring the whole thing down. Nothing to fret about." A few shinobis volunteered, and in a few minutes the forest was burning away, accompanying the cracklings of fire was Haruto's howl of anguish.
It might've been comical had it the pain evident in his voice not been real.
"Next time," sneered Neji cruelly to the redhead downcast Senju, "think before you grow trees wherever you like. You needn't waste your energy on someone like Hinata anyway."
Haruto's head snapped up, furious. "How can you say that? She's your cousin and she gave her best!"
"Apparently, that's her best. She never stood a chance against you, Senju, so why waste your chakra?" In the stead of Kakashi, Asuma and his students dragged Haruto away from beating the shit out of Neji who sneered right back. He would've taunted the impatient redhead more had it not been his turn for a fight.
He couldn't resist adding: "If you need such a technique to beat someone like Hinata, maybe you aren't as strong as I originally thought."
"Neji!" protested Tenten disapprovingly though he ignored her.
He glanced at the board, snorting when he saw the name Misumi Tsurugi, a fellow Konoha Genin though he doubt the clanless nobody would pose much of a challenge; he was fated to be of no talent. He leapt off his perch above and to the charred arena where the trees were being uprooted by earth jutsus and moved out of the way.
***
"THIRD MATCH: BEGIN!"
Surprisingly, Neji's opponent lunged first. The Hyuga fluidly settled into his stance, palms up and out. "Bring it," he hissed under his breath as his Byakugan activated—unlike that weakling Hinata, he didn't need handseals—and concentrated on the enemy's physique.
He blinked in mild surprise when he realized that his opponent was no longer running, instead, was elastic and was stretching himself like rubber, wrapping himself around Neji. The Hyuga's instant reaction:
"Hakkesho Kaiten!" Instead of getting broken bones, Misumi merely chuckled and pulled back, his elastic body prevented Neji from twisting him like pretzels with his price perfect defense; the pale boy had to admit he was mildly annoyed. Well, then, he'd just have to get physical, shut off the opponents' tenketsu and they would be immobile.
Neji lunged, close enough, and thrust his palm out right at where his opponent's pinpointed vital point was. "Hakke Kūshō!" Much to his satisfaction, his opponent went flying, crashing into the wall behind him. Despite his arrogance, he did not let his guard down, merely concentrated harder.
Misumi seemed to be truly out of it but when Neji flicked a kunai his way, the body melted into water. A water Clone, Neji noted with disgust and annoyance as he whirled around.
"Shōtei!" Expelling a bit more chakra than needed for this technique, Neji was not happy about it but it was worth it as he crumpled to the ground, the chakra having damaged his ribs and broken more than one bone in the body. But just for good measure and to satisfy a sadistic part of him, and to vent his anger out that he lost his chance at fighting Hinata and showing her place, he gave his opponent another few well-aimed Shōtei.
That guy was fated to lose to him.
"WINNER: Neji Hyuga!"
***
Haruto grumbled in displeasure, crossing his arms like Satsuki often did. "Great, now he's gonna have an even more bigger head." He glance at the board, eyebrow twitching in annoyance at the loud whoop and another loud proclamation. "Oh, even better, face-offs of two ego-head."
"I know you're in a bad mood that your girlfriend isn't here," Haruto spluttered indignantly at Ino's proclamation. "But you don't have to insult people just to vent."
"I'm not!"
"Hush, kids," said Asuma-sensei as he gazed down where Kiba had leapt down, following Kankuro's example. "The fight's starting."
Hayate glanced at the two kids from different villages. "Ready?" When he received identical nods and confident grins, he declared, "INUZUKA KIBA VS KANKURO OF THE SAND: BEGIN!"
Unsurprisingly, Kiba charged first. "Let's go, Akamaru!"
Unraveling the mummy from his back, Kankuro sneered, "Let's see what you've got, Konoha-nin."
"Gatenga!"
Throwing themselves forward at surprising velocity and speed at Kankuro, who's eyes widened in surprise when he saw the twin buzz-like shapes, coming towards him. He hands only had a split second to form a rather simple replacing jutsu before they hit.
Kiba and Akamaru landed side by side, the human cursing when he saw that they'd hit the puppet instead of the ninja. Kankuro sneered, his fingers moving nimbly; those movements were useless to Kiba, he didn't see what he could work out from there but in the next second, the guy's puppet—he called it Karasu, huh, what a lame name and partner; Akamaru was so much cooler!—flew into the air.
And the next second, Kiba found himself and Akamaru running, dodging the bombs hurled out by the puppets. Kiba growled, eyes scanning the smoke covered arena and realizing that he was now at a disadvantage. Akamaru barked; oh, that's right, he could just rely on his sense of smell.
"Come on boy, let's end this with a bang!" Knowing what he wanted, Akamaru jumped onto his back. "Jinjū Konbi Henge: Sōtōrō!"
"Garōga!" Kiba inhaled deeply, pinpointing where his opponent was and hurled himself into the smoke in a spinning tornado. The ground, even though they did not touch it, cracked and jagged rocks flew from the sheer vacuum of the vortex. Kiba felt proud that they can show those Suna-nins what they Konoha-nins could do! No one underestimates the Inuzuka Clan!
He felt something tearing and cracking before he stopped spinning, landing and separated from Akamaru. The smokescreen was clearing but he still couldn't see very well, so he was totally unprepared when someone hugged him from behind; at first, he thought it was freaky puppetmaster but then he realized the arms were wooden and—
"Gah!" Searing, something flowed into his veins and Kiba instantly recognized it as poison. Akamaru barked in alarm when he stumbled but the puppet—he dimly made a note that it wasn't Karasu—clutched tightly onto him. With a snarl, and a ferocious surge of strength, he elbowed the puppet and wriggled free.
Kankuro, however, wasn't done yet; Kiba could only smell him but he knew that his opponent wasn't in his striking range but the Suna-nin's voice was heard loud and clear as he spun both of his puppets. "Dokukiri Jigoku: Baribari Hyaku Renpatsu!" Karasu's body parts cracked open new components and the next thing, Kiba knew, he was choking on a cloud of purple smoke consisting of poisonous particles.
Something pierced his neck and the rest of his exposed skin, tingling and all he could feel was something invading his body before unconsciousness took over.