Starting over

#55 Of Dogs And Men

Naruto POV

I watched as Kiba also got into his fighting stance, with Akamaru growling at me. Shizune still was unsure if she could really start the fight, since there were still some shouts from the crowd. She looked at me with uncertainty in her eyes. Then she looked at Hiruzen and seeing him nod, she started to match, simply shouting for us to begin as she already jumped up into the ranks to get out of range. I threw my Hiraishin kunai at Kiba who dodged it barely.

I then looked at the two and chuckled. "You know, this seems a bit unfair. Let's make this a bit more interesting.", I stated as I flew through a few handsigns and slammed my hand into the ground. "I guess no killing?", came Akira's voice out of the cloud of smoke that had been produced by the summoning jutsu. "You are right.", I answered and pushed a bit of chakra into my sword. A yellow flash engulfed me and as the cloud of smoke dissipated I was no longer at the tiger's site. There were a few gasps around the shinobi that were watching who had fought alongside my father and recognized his jutsu. "Oh so you let your poor summon fight for you?", Kiba shouted after he had gotten over the shock of a live tiger standing before him, obviously not knowing where I was. I chuckled, causing him to turn around with wide eyes. Akira growled as Kiba took some sort of pill out of his pockets and threw it to Akamaru. The dog caught it in his mouth and swallowed it quickly. Just after that, he grew to double the size of Akira, who was only about two feet tall at the moment, and his fur colour changed. "Go get her boy.", Kiba said to his partner and focused back on me. I nodded at Akira and smiled at Akamaru's whimpering as Akira grew to her normal fighting size. She now towered over the red dog with an evil grin on her face. Kiba made the mistake of looking back to see why his partner was whimpering and was horrified. Akira just had lunged at Akamaru and had sunk her fangs into his neck, drawing a pained howl from the dog. Akamaru screamed at this and charged at my partner. I sprinted forward and grabbed his arm. "Oh no, your fight is with me.", I said flinging the boy over myself and into the wall. I collected the Hiraishin kunai and took out a few more, scattering them around the part of the arena, where Kiba had landed. Meanwhile one could hear Akamaru silently whining, indicating that he was still alive. When the dust around Kiba had settled I saw the boy slowly standing up, bleeding heavily from his left arm and leg. I looked at him half expecting him to quit. But deep down I knew that wouldn't happen. Kiba glared at me with a fire in his eyes, that promised he would do everything he could to avenge his dog. Taking another pill out of his pocket he popped it in his own mouth and immediately exploded with chakra and his wounds closed instantly. I could actually see the chakra flow around him. He went through a series of hand signs and slammed his hands onto the ground. I heard the earth rumble and flashed away just as dozens of earth spears shot through the ground. I looked at the Inuzuka and wondered what else he had in store. However I didn't want to risk him getting a lucky hit so I readied my sword and shot forward at the brown haired boy. Pumping chakra through my sword, I cut straight through the kunai that he had brought up to block my attack. He quickly reacted and dodged my sword and recovered immediately to attack me. I flashed away to one of the kunai and flew through a few hand signs putting my hand to my mouth. Blowing through my fingers, the air was infused with chakra and a giant barrage of wind bullets rained down on my enemy.

There was a gasp among the crowd as the entire area where Kiba had been erupted in dust and dirt. I watched intently as the dust settled once again, revealing a dome made out of earth. I had kept the jutsu a bit underpowered since I didn't want to kill anyone, but apparently Kiba had trained quite a bit in the last month. I looked at the dome and then noticed that Kiba could probably travel underground if his chakra nature was earth. I grinned, formulating a plan in my head and put my hands in my favourite hand sign. I intently overpowered the shadowclone as I wanted to create a lot of smoke to conceal the swap for the case that Kiba somehow was watching me. The clone took my position and played as if the jutsu that I had attempted had failed, causing all of this smoke. I, meanwhile, flashed to one of the hiraishin kunai and hid behind one of the trees, that stood near it. I heard how the clone jumped as soon as Kiba shot out of the ground and how Kiba threw some kunai, which my clone blocked. Then I heard that Kiba engaged my clone in a kenjutsu fight, kunai against katana. That was my cue and I silently slid out of my hiding spot and creeped up on the duel. I silently waited for my chance, while the clone did a great job to keep Kiba's attention away from me. Then I saw my chance as Kiba had his back towards me and charged my clone with his kunai raised. My clone blocked and kicked him back, directly into my arms. I smiled and held my katana to his throat, forcing him to stretch. Shizune jumped down and screamed for me to stop, immediately calling for the medics. I grinned and released Kiba from my hold, giving Akira a wave to come over to me. She obliged, letting Akamaru out of her grip, leaving him to bleed on the ground. Kiba ignored the medics and ran to his partner, crying tears of joy as he saw that the dog was still alive. The medics went after him and put both of them on a stretcher, carrying them away. "Winner; Naruto Uzumaki Namikaze!", Shizune announced. "You can go up to the balcony.", she said to me, earning a nod. I flashed to my hiraishin kunai, picking them up and then I went to Akira and we went up to the others. "The next fight is between Gaara no Sabaku and Tenten, would the two fighters please come down.", Shizune demanded loudly.