A Senju Tale: Change of Fate - 20 The Final Frontier

Team Jiraiya kept up a freakish pace. They sped through the forest. Fugaku led the charge monitoring their front side with his sharingan active. Through training, he now had three tomoes. In the middle was Minato. He used his sensor capabilities to watch their flanks and scanned back and forth with his eyes. In the back was Nawaki. He kept tabs on all of their surroundings and guarded their rear.

As they ran, Nawaki could sense 5 teams within a 3 mile radius. Suddenly he could feel one of the teams getting closer. Upon focusing on their location, he immediately recognized their signatures. He was about to speak up to inform his team but it was too late.

A huge wave of gold dust crashed towards them. Just in time, Nawaki and Minato threw their special kunai. Minato grabbed Fugaku and the three of them teleported to safety. Upon landing in a tree, their opponents revealed themselves. It was the Suna team made up of Rasa, Baki, and Sasori.

In a classic standoff, the two teams started each other down waiting for the other to make a move. Out of nowhere, a golden fist flew towards the Konoha genin. Nawaki jumped towards it. With a single kick, the fist exploded and the dust fell to the ground.

Rasa laughed and then said, “I am glad you have met my expectations. Honestly, you probably even exceed them. If your teammates are anywhere near as strong as you, neither of our teams would get out of this battle as a whole.”

Nawaki thought for a moment and then replied, “Then what do you suggest we do?” Rasa then replied, “Well there are 3 options. First, we could fight. That would probably result in both of our teams failing the exam. Second, we could just go our separate ways and pretend nothing happened. Lastly, we could cooperate. My team already had 6 tags. We could work together to take out two teams and we will probably find two more tags for you guys. What do you say?”

Nawaki turned to Fugaku. He nodded to confirm that Rasa was not lying. Nawaki chuckled as he recalled the last time he had to make a choice with three options. He then said, “Option three sounds like it would be fun but I think it would be best if we just went our separate ways.”

Rasa sighed. He wanted to work with the opposing team to see their true strength. He was intrigued about the markings on Nawaki’s face and was eager to know more. He then said, “Very well then. See you soon.” Rasa waved before him and his team took off.

In the observation room, Hiruzen laughed after seeing the interaction between the Konoha and Suna genins. He thought that they made a sound decision.

Once they left, Nawaki sighed and dropped down to sit on the branch. He turned to his teammates and said, “Well, that was interesting.” The three of them laughed. After getting back into formation, they got moving again. Over the next hour, not much would happen. They found one tag. All they needed was to beat one team and find another tag on their way to the central tower.

Nawaki scanned the area. 3 teams were nearby. Of those 3, one of them stood out as much stronger than the rest. As he tried to decide between the other two teams, he turned to Minato and said, “Pick a number. 1 or 2.” Minato laughed. He knew exactly what Nawaki was doing. He then replied, “2.”

Nawaki then said, “Alright, then we head straight east from here. We should run into a team within 10 minutes.” The trio made a sharp turn and headed in that direction.

After about 8 minutes, they were nearly on top of the other team. They stopped in the trees above and waited. About a minute later, 3 Kumo ninja could be seen walking below them. Nawaki turned to his teammates with one of his kunai in hand. They turned to him and nodded to confirm that they understood the plan.

The Kumo genin were quietly walking through the forest. They had yet to run into any other teams and or find any tags. However, there were still three and a half days left in the test. No problem. Suddenly two kunai zipped past them and landed in the dirt behind them.

As they looked at the kunai, they heard a thump in front of them. They looked back to see a lone ninja before them. One of them then said, “Nice aim.” The three kumo genin laughed. As they were laughing, there were two flashes behind them. Instantly, the three of them dropped to the ground.

The lone ninja then complained, “Come onnn. I didn’t even get to have any fun.” The three laughed, before Nawaki stood up revealing himself before saying, “Sorry Fugaku, those guys went down in a flash.”

Fugaku rolled his eyes at the pun as he bent down to retrieve the tags. He sighed and said, “Damn, these losers only had four. Guess we still need to find one more.” After collecting their kunai and the tags, they took off once again.

They decided that they would move straight towards the center tower and would hopefully find a tag on the way. If not, they would just set up an ambush and take them off someone else.

As they traveled, Nawaki felt that the flow of energy was disturbed right ahead of them. He signaled for them to slow down. When they reached the location, they landed on the ground. Looking around, nothing really seemed amiss.

However, Fugaku could see it clearly. With his sharingan, he saw through the simple genjutsu that was concealing the base of one of the trees. He walked up to it, dispelled the genjutsu and turned back to his team with a tag in hand.

Seeing this, Minato smiled and said, “Well let’s get going then. It’ll probably be nice to relax for a bit while we wait for the test to end.” The trio nodded to each other and took off for the central tower.

Once they reached the central tower, 5 hours and 23 minute had passed. Not the best recorded time but still pretty good. As they looked around, Rasa’s team and Mei’s team had already made it.

Without waiting around, the trio explored the central tower. After entering, they were given room keys. There was a floor of bedrooms that were prepared to accept the passing candidates.

Aside from the sleeping arrangements, there was a dining hall, gym, hot spring, and lounge. It was pretty nice. The trio decided that they would do light sparring each day to keep active but for the most part, they would take it easy. The next 3 days would consist of eat, spar, bath, sleep, repeat.

When the time limit was up, everyone was called down to a small indoor arena. Standing in the front of the room was Hiruzen. Beside him were the jonin sensei for each passing team. The teams that made it were Team Jiraiya, Team Tsunade, Team Orochimaru, Team Sakumo, Rasa’s team, and Mei’s team. Essentially, everyone that Nawaki expected would pass did.

Once everyone had settled in, Hiruzen spoke up, “Congratulations on passing the second exam. Unfortunately, too many people remain. Thus, we will be forced to hold preliminaries to cut down your numbers. In addition, if anyone is unable to continue today, feel free to drop out. From here on out, it is an individual competition. That means that if you lose, nothing will happen to your teammates. If you wish to drop out, you may do so now.”

Two people raised their hands. They were Mikoto and Tsume. They both looked as if they had broken some bones. In addition, Tsume’s ninja hound was limping.

After the two drop outs made their way to the stands, Hiruzen continued, “For those that remain, you will be matched up randomly. Once the fight begins, it will not end until one of you submits or is unable to continue. Technically, killing is allowed but we will intervene if we determine that a match is over. If you would all direct your attention to the screen behind me, the first matchup will be displayed.”

Everyone stared at the display in anticipation. The different matchups flashed through Nawaki’s head. He wondered who it would be fun to go up against. There were so many good options. He only knew one thing: he just had to battle Rasa in the finals. Finally, two names popped up on the screen.

Seeing this, Hiruzen said, “The first match will be Namikaze Minato against Baki of the sand. Everyone else, please make your way up to the stands.”

Nawaki was excited. This would be a really good match. Between Minato’s speed and Baki’s strength, they would put on quite the show. Everyone shuffled up and into the stands. Jiraiya, Fugaku, and Nawaki sat together. Team Tsunade joined them.

Looking down into the arena, Koryu stepped forward. He then said, “Hello, I will be in charge of these matches. I already introduced myself before the second portion so I’ll get right into it. Fighters, are you ready?” Both Baki and Minato nodded as they got into position. Koryu then said, “Ready… fight!”