Naruto: Dreaming of Sunshine

The best revenge is massive success. ~ Frank Sinatra

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The tournament brackets were posted at five am sharp the next day.

I knew that, because Asuma-sensei very kindly came and dragged us outside so that we could see them.

Ino leant on my shoulder, yawning and rubbing her eyes. Her hair was all tangled and frizzing, with her front bang in an impressive sideways cowlick, but she hadn't done more than half-heartedly run a hand through it yet.

I made early morning disgruntled mouth sounds at her.

"Yeah," she agreed. "But how would we hide the body?"

"Nnn," I said, making a vague flopping gesture with my hands that actually translated to nothing but was the most effort I wanted to spare.

"Very funny," Asuma-sensei said and patronizingly patted us both on the head. "And here I thought you would want to know who you would be fighting."

Not at five am, I didn't.

And us, most of the others were just as disgruntled. Neji and Tenten appeared unruffled by the early hour, and Lee was disgustingly cheerful. It shouldn't have been allowed.

I was, apparently, fighting someone named 'Netsui' from Hidden Cloud. That rang exactly no bells.

"Huh," I managed, actual words this time. "Thought we would be fighting each other."

Konoha had more ninja in the final round than any other village. Than any other two villages combined. I'd thought they would pair us all off in the first round to hack down the numbers. But apparently not, because everyone was fairly spread out. There were no intra-village fights in the first round at all.

That was closer to some vague nominal description of 'fair' than expected.

Kurenai-sensei nodded. "It was agreed before the Exams even started that no village would fight itself in the first round of the tournament." She smiled. "I rather think some of them might be regretting that now."

"Oboro," Ino said slowly, reading the name off the poster.

"Hidden Rain," I supplied, seeking out her name to confirm who she was fighting. "Genjutsu. Ambush type. Some earth jutsu. A nasty thing with oil and fire – might have been a team mate though."

Sasuke jostled my other shoulder, not looking very happy.

I found his name and his opponents. Hidden Star. Tumaru. I didn't know what he was worried about.

"Third round," he supplied, raising his chin at the poster. "You have to face Gaara."

My eyes snapped back up.

He was right. If we both won our matches – more 'if' on my part than his – in the third round of the tournament, I'd be facing Gaara. Of the Desert. The Jinchuriki. The Kazekage.

"Well," I said. That was a full statement all on its own. I frowned at the matches. "Then you have him in the semi-finals."

Again. 'If'. I had faith in Sasuke but. 'If'.

"I have to fight Lee," Ino said, joining in the chorus of anticipated despair. "Second round."

"Urgh," I said. "It's too early for this. I want to go back to sleep."

I didn't get to. In the end, we migrated to the dining hall for breakfast, which was at least warmer. With coffee.

The fact was, none of us really knew much about our opponents. Since we weren't fighting each other, it was a lot more intimidating. As much as knocking each other out of the competition would have sucked, we were known quantities. While I wouldn't have rated my chances against some – I knew how to fight everyone at this table.

"You think," I said slowly, staring down at my drink. "There'll be betting, right? And if there's betting, there has to be some kind of … guide book. So they know what the odds are. And stuff."

"Oh, yes," Ino breathed. "I knew we kept you for a reason. Hinata!" She leant across the table in the other direction, and had a whispered, hurried conversation. There were a few furtive glances towards us from the few other competitors also awake, but we'd been getting those all the time anyway.

About ten minutes later, Akamaru had been dispatched and returned with a – slightly soggy – magazine from the betting stand. It was too early for it to be open or for anyone to be placing bets, but the things had all been printed and waiting.

Kiba stuffed Akamaru, loot and all, down the front of his jacket. "Don't run off," he said, unconvincingly.

"We better go back to the cabins," Ino said sunnily, standing and stretching. "Lots of preparation to do."

Chouji looked sadly at his plate. He'd been taking full advantage of the 'eat as much as you can' buffet lines. "But Ino," he started.

"Chunin Exams, Chouji," she interrupted. "Think about what it would be like if Shikamaru and I were promoted and you had to keep on being a Genin."

He shrugged, apparently not very moved by it. "It wouldn't matter," he said. "There's nothing wrong with being a Genin."

"And if they broke up the team because of it?" she challenged. "It's Ino-Shika-Chou together, so you better not!"

"It's not going to happen!" Chouji said, clenching a fist and holding it up. "We'll always be a team!"

Though he did swipe one last muffin from the table before he stood. So I guessed Chouji knew his priorities.

Back at the cabin, we all piled into one under the amused gazes of our sensei and spread our spoils out on the floor, carefully unpicking the staples so we could take the pages apart.

We checked out ourselves first, obviously. Partly in narcissism – I wasn't denying it – but also mostly to see how accurate and detailed the information was.

"It must be from our registration folders," Tenten said. It wasn't much, nothing terribly detailed, but there were specifics like age, height, weight, graduation year, and number of missions that couldn't have simply been deduced.

"Konoha likely had to supply candidate information for the exam," Neji agreed with her.

Everyone politely said nothing when we flipped to my page and its ridiculous mission scores. And the tiny note of excessive hospitalization time. Thanks so much, Tsunade.

"So who are we fighting?" I asked, trying to hustle it along, when the 'politely saying nothing' extended into a meaningful silence.

It was kinda fun, going over the information in a large group. We passed pages around, waved them under peoples noses when there was something interesting that just had to be shared, bounced ideas off each other about that this-or-that really meant.

By the time Asuma-sensei came and got us at half past eight, we were a lot more amped for the fighting.

We were taken outside the village. There wasn't so much an 'arena' as much as 'a large flat grassland with stadium seating along one side'. Well, they were playing to their strengths, weren't they?

It didn't really give us a lot to work with in terms of environment for the fighting. That would put me at a disadvantage if I wanted to use Shadow Jutsu.

"Welcome to the Final Exam," the proctor told us. "As you can see, this will be the arena for the final matches. For the first round, we have thirty two competitors and sixteen fights so in order to complete them all today we will be running two matches at a time. To accommodate this, you will see that the arena has been divided in half. For this round, all fighting must take place within the designated ring – any competitor that sets foot outside this space will be disqualified. Each match will have a thirty minute time limit, and each match will start on the hour or half hour. Delays will not be tolerated. If you are late, you forfeit, it's as simple as that."

It would be an eight hour day then and starting at nine meant we would finish at five. Which left the evenings free for the dining and entertainment portion of the festival. It made sense.

"If you are in the first set of brackets, your matches will take place on the left field. If you are in the second set of brackets, they will be on the right. When you are not required on the field you are free to leave the arena, or to stay and watch the fighting in the competitors section."

The competitors area was where we were dismissed to in short order, up the back of the stadium. It had a good view of the proceedings anyway, so it wasn't too bad. We took over nearly an entire side of the section, and the Hidden Cloud and Hidden Rock teams gave us dirty looks.

People poured into the stadium and started to fill it up. There were individual boxes for the more important people – the Kage, for one, were all together, and I wondered if that was a smart decision – and Grass Chunin helping usher people in or moving through the crowds handing out booklets or refreshments.

There were opening speeches, but I tuned most of it out. It wasn't any new information, just greetings and an attempt to buzz the crowd.

The first two rounds were Gaara vs Tamashii – the girl from the Nadeshiko Village – and Temari vs Omoi, so at least the thing kicked off with a bang.

Tamashii was good, if nervous, but she fought with a chakram that channeled wind chakra. It sliced and diced, seemed to be controllable even after she threw it and when she was put on the defensive she managed to fill it out with chakra and turn it into a decent shield. But the outcome of the fight was almost a given from the start, and no one was really surprised when Gaara managed to immobilize her and the match was awarded to him.

"It was a good match," she said, after he had released her from the sand. "But if you ever visit Nadeshiko we will have a real match according to the rules of my village." And she bent slightly to press a kiss to his cheek, before sashaying away.

The crowd applauded again, a few hollering and cat-calling, because you kind of had to admire that. It was almost ninja sweet, even if you didn't know about Nadeshiko proposal rites.

On the other field, Temari was facing Omoi with the kind of ferocity that we all expected from her. She had a distinct type advantage – wind to lightning – and his sword meant that he needed a much closer range than she did.

It was not an easy match, by any means, and there were some serious techniques being thrown around. But in the end, she smirked up at the crowd when the match was awarded to her.

And it seemed like Hidden Grass had thought of everything, because in between matches there was entertainment. A marching band took to the field, filling in the time before the next match, so that things proceeded to schedule but no one got bored.

For the second fight, Karui – and it was her – fought the guy from Hidden Rock. But on the other field, Neji was facing off against one of the twins from Hidden Mist, Yoro.

That was where all my attention was focused. Not only because it was the first of Konoha's matches, but because the scenario looked awfully familiar. It wasn't that I thought Neji would deliberately hurt her. Against Hinata it had been personal. But it didn't stop the feeling that this could go badly.

And yeah, okay. It would look pretty bad if Konoha was remembered for beating on little girls. Not great for our image.

"Please do your best," Neji said, sounding a little stilted. "But it would likely be an intelligent move for you to yield."

"I'm going to fight," Yoro declared, raising her chin. She held up her fists, stomping into a fighting stance. "Just you watch."

She leapt forward when the referee signaled a start, leading with two straight kicks, and counting off specific numbers along the combination. It wasn't until the last one was thrown on 'shi' that I got the joke.

"Ni-san-go-ro-shi," I repeated with amusement. 2,3,5,6 and 4, technically. But it was also a pun meaning 'kill your brother'. "They're all going to be puns, aren't they?"

"Cute," Ino said. "Fits with how they introduced themselves."

Neji mostly defended, but very gently just … shut her down. At least the Gentle Fist didn't look violent, even when she was struggling to stay on her feet.

"I… surrender," she said.

We applauded. And when she got back to the competitors section, spine straight and head held high, we made a point of telling her she had done well. It was no lie, even if she was out classed.

And Haku just drew her very gently aside and wrapped her in a hug.

Then Ino had to go and fight Oboro – who seemed to feel cheated that he wasn't fighting me. Well it wasn't like I had anything to do with the match ups. I hadn't promised anything.

A ninja that preferred genjutsu and ambush was at a bit of a disadvantage when you had to start the fight six feet away in plain sight and wait for a referee to give the go ahead.

"Begin!"

Ino sprang forward, launching herself at him with kunai in her hands. It was pretty textbook taijutsu, but it started Oboro off on the back foot. He retreated and retreated until he had enough space to start a jutsu, and then a multitude of clones started rising out of the ground.

Not Earth Clones, they were too wispy. What had they used last time? Haze Clones.

They were genjutsu, wouldn't be able to do any damage, only now the entire arena was filled with bodies, and Ino would have a hard time picking out the real one. He could attack from anywhere, giving him the advantage.

"Summoning: Storm of Mirages!" She touched her fingers down on the ground, palm arched upwards so that there was room for something small to be summoned beneath it. There was no glimpse of it, though, because the air started to waver and distort, until there were wavy, shimmering reflections of Ino all over the place.

Now they were both hidden.

But. Ino was a sensor. 'Hidden' was a subjective measure.

Four kunai with trailing explosive notes flew out of the mirage – from different directions, even, impressive – to land in a square around a particular patch of ground. When they went up, they threw dust and dirt into the air, along with the tumbling body of a Genin.

Oboro hit the ground and rolled, glancing warily around at the mirages. He deflected the first volley of kunai thrown at him, and bolted for the side of the field. When he got there, he pulled a water canteen from his belt and flicked the cap off.

"Water Release; Black Rain Jutsu!"

Mist boiled out of the canteen, spilling into the air and forming a misty black cloud. It hovered forward, and started to rain. The rain was black – clearly it wasn't water in his canteen.

Then he flicked an exploding note forward. A kunai appeared out of the mirage to try and deflect it, but the oil caught fire and spread until the whole ring was burning.

I could sense Ino's chakra flare in a summons, then vanish. I didn't panic. She was fine. She was smart. She knew what she was doing.

The fire burnt itself out. The mirage had vanished; the arena was empty.

Then a hunk of sooty dirt shifted, near his left foot, a gapping maw - literally, teeth and tongue and all - opened, and Ino ascended up out of her summons mouth from where it was burrowed underground.

"Summoning; Hidden Tongue Hands!" Whip like tongues shot out of her sleeves, wrapping around him and binding.

Her hands came together in an odd, square seal. "Mind-Body KO!"

Oboro jerked violently, like a seizure. Then he slumped, eyes rolling back into his head.

The referee came over.

Ino released him, letting him slump to the ground, and stepped back.

"And the victor is Hidden Leaf's INO YAMANAKA!"

We cheered.

Ino gave a wave to the crowd that disguised how tired she looked. She had pulled out three summoning jutsu and a clan jutsu. That had to have taken a lot out of her. But she was smiling and happy and had done so, so well.

I glanced over at the other field, but it was well and truly quiet and empty.

"Anyone catch the other fight?" I asked, a little chagrined. If all went well, I'd have to fight the winner next round, and I'd missed it completely.

"It was very short," Hinata said softly. "The Grass ninja won it." She frowned faintly. "I think it was some kind of paralyzing genjutsu? His opponent passed out very quickly."

Muku, of Hidden Grass, had pretty fantastic odds on him according to the betting book. He was one of the favourites for the whole tournament. I was smart enough to admit that had me a little worried about facing him.

But my match was up next, so I had to go down to the field. Lee and I both headed down together, and I high fived Ino as I passed her in the hallway, but hurried along. I didn't want to be late.

I was kind of excited. Hah. I was excited. Saying 'kind of' was disingenuous. Nervous, yeah, but only in an anticipatory way. I felt ready. I felt prepared.

Even though we'd been watching fights here all morning, it was a different experience to be standing in the middle of the field, under the gaze of the whole stadium. The space felt bigger, more expansive. There seemed to be more people watching. The noon sunlight was high and bright, beaming down on us. I catalogued the shadows, of which there weren't many, aware of their placements just in case.

Netsui was tall and dark skinned and built like a wrestler. She had a katana at her waist and layered metal forearm protectors.

"Kunoichi like you make me sick," she said, voice a low growl.

I blinked, startled. "Excuse me?"