Her preliminary went by in a flash – afterwards, she couldn't even remember the names of her opponents.
The Ame genin had gone down with little effort, but the other genin from Konoha had proved a little bit more tricky. She'd used a long-range medium for her genjutsu, with irritating squawking blue birds that Fū had had to take great pains to avoid. But in the end, of course, it hadn't been a problem.
...
After two weeks of loitering around – while making sure her shiroari and kabutomushi were breeding properly – her following match came, and it wasn't much of a challenge for her either. Her opponent was a Suna genin who seemed to have an extraordinary amount of pride in his puppet. Her shiroari had just bred recently, and she'd been making sure to keep them extra hungry; Fū took great pleasure in seeing his horrified expression after having them eat up his puppet in a few seconds.
In the final match – as it should've been – Fū faced off against the other most powerful genin in the exam. He was a red-headed boy from Konoha, with a tantō that must have been at least half his short height strapped across his back. But despite his disarmingly young appearance, the genin, Naruto, had been making waves in the Chūnin exams as an especially dangerous opponent to watch out for.
The battle had been going more or less in the direction she expected, when the boy suddenly slammed his tantō into the ground and electrocuted all of her insects.
"No!" she screamed, her vision flashing red as she watched them blacken and shrivel up. In her mind's eye, she recalled with a flash her mother's eager face as she watched Fū unwrap her birthday present. "Chōmei!"
"You sure?" he asked uncertainly, tail whipping around fretfully. "I thought we'd agreed not to attract too much attention.
But at her insistence, he reluctantly agreed, and she transformed into her initial jinchūriki form before proceeding to pummel the brat into the ground where he belonged.
Fū probably should have ended it there then, but she'd always had a rather nasty habit of playing with her fish before skewering them.
The worn-out boy seemed to have given up all hope, and had just been lying still on the ground, his chest slowly rising up and down with every breath. To his credit, he did not seem altogether afraid.
And then –
"Naruto!" With some encouraging words from his teammate, the redhead was back on his feet with renewed strength in his eyes. Fū had been taken aback at first, watching with disbelief as it all happened, but she finally dove towards him with her hands outstretched.
With her enhanced vision, she could see the artery in his neck pulsating. Just a single slash, and he'd be dead, and she'd have avenged her poor insects.
There was something materializing in his hands; it was chakra, made so dense that it had become visible. Fū narrowed her eyes, but kept going; she was confident that there was no way it'd penetrate her hardened shell armor.
They met each other head on. Fū swiped at his neck, but he dodged; nevertheless, she reached under his arms, and lifted him off the ground. As she did so, she felt the ball of chakra he'd summoned slam into her torso. The impact was so powerful, the sand around her exploded up with a bang like massive waves, hiding them from the watching eyes of the audience.
Gritting her teeth, Fū held on to his struggling body, and streaked upwards to the sky. Letting out a hiss of pain, she felt the ball of chakra grind abrasively against her armor and begin to inch its way inwards to her flesh; with shock, she realized that her armor was cracking. Panting, Naruto determinedly continued to drive his hand against her. It was like a small contained storm that tore away at her shell as if it were made of paper.
Before Fū could pass out from the pain, she dove, and just before they reached the ground, she released the boy. With another explosive crash, a shockwave of dust and sand swept through the arena.
Gasping in agony, with blood dripping out through the gaping cracks of her armor, she soon dropped to the ground, her wings curled protectively around her. Black tendrils of unconsciousness began to creep upon her vision.
When the sand had settled down, the match was over. Holding their breaths, the watching crowd quickly identified the victor.
There was stunned silence. And then –
"The winner of the battle is...Fū from Takigakure!" the proctor announced, as shakily, Fū got to her feet. At the other side of the arena, Naruto lay unmoving on the ground, his eyes closed. There was another long pause – and then the crowd rose to their feet, erupting into an uproarious round of applause.
The Suna medics were already moving into the field with a stretcher, but a silver-haired jōnin with a Konoha forehead protector – likely the boy's sensei – stopped them. Beside him stood the girl who'd interrupted their battle. Come to think of it, she was the same girl who'd been a headache to deal with in the preliminaries; Fū couldn't quite place her name. She was white-faced as she followed the jōnin, but just as they knelt beside the redhead genin, he stirred and opened his eyes.
"Naruto!" said the girl, looking quite relieved as she threw her arms around the dazed boy.
"Ow," he winced, and she immediately let go, apologizing. The jōnin asked him a few questions, to which Naruto shook his head no. Waving away the stretcher, the jōnin and the girl helped him get up. Silently, Fū watched as they hobbled out of the arena together.
"What's wrong?" Chōmei asked, sensing something was off.
"Nothing," she said, feeling a lump in her throat. "Chōmei, you saw what happened with his sudden chakra surge. Do you think that kid is a jinchūriki like me?"
"Everyone knows Konoha got their hands on poor Kurama," Chōmei said contemplatively. "Though we don't know who the vessel is right now. It's not unthinkable."
Fū cocked her head, her brow furrowed. "But his teammates don't hate him."
"Maybe he has a better personality than you," Chōmei offered.
With the help of several brave, but wary Suna medic-nin, Fū was soon patched up. Wincing as they healed her with the soothing blue glow of medical ninjutsu, she noticed Suzuru skulking around the bleachers. Oddly enough however, Mushimi had disappeared; even after scanning the entire stadium, she couldn't find him. She'd been half-expecting an abrasive rebuke about her entering her jinchūriki form...with a shrug, Fū stopped thinking about it.
After an hour, the Chūnin certification ceremony was held. All of the genins – having been more or less restored to a conscious state – stood in line before the Kazekage, who gave another boring speech about the honor that the title of chūnin held and the duty they owed their villages. And then, the names of the passing genin were called.
"Fū from Takigakure," said the Kazekage, glaring out at her from under his green pointed Kage hat. Hopping up, she collected her chūnin certificate of achievement to polite applause. Rolling it up immediately, she stuffed it in her strap.
"Uzumaki Naruto from Konohagakure." No surprises there; looking much recovered, the redheaded genin walked up and accepted his certificate.
"Kankurō from Sunagakure." This time, the Kazekage's face eased up just a bit as he looked down at his son. With a pat on his shoulder, the boy accepted his certificate with a bow, to enthusiastic applause.
"Hyūga Neji from Konohagakure." With a blank expression on his face, the boy took the certificate and walked away without any further response.
And so on and so forth; three more genin were awarded the certificate – two from Amegakure, and another one from Konohagakure. The Konoha boy, who had a scar running down his face, looked stunned as he walked up to receive his certificate. But as soon as the paper was in his hand, and he'd examined it to make sure that it was real, the boy began jumping up and down in excitement. As he distastefully watched the boy holler, the look on the Kazekage's face made it clear that he was beginning to regret his decision.
To end the ceremony, a row of Suna jōnin performed some impressive tricks with their jutsu, making fountains out of sparkling sand and giant structures that towered over them. And then, just as the sun was beginning to set, it was finally over. With an air of shooing the strangers out of their village, the Kazekage dismissed them all and disappeared.
It was then that Mushimi finally appeared. Pocketing something that jangled in his pouch, he exchanged a meaningful glance with Suzuru. Then, turning to Fū with a scowl, he motioned towards the village gates with a jerking gesture.
And so, they left Sunagakure.
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