Chapter 73: I, Your Father, Like to Doodle

Though he was surprised by the transformation of Gaara's arm and the tail slowly taking form from the gourd on his back, the smile on Lee's face only became more prominent as the fight continued. Gaara's attacks had a lot of forward momentum, but he couldn't change directions quickly, nor did he seem to be in total control of his actions. For someone as skilled in Taijutsu as Lee, the enraged boy may as well be telegraphing his attacks a week in advance.

After failing to grab Lee several times, the expression on Gaara's face became even more deranged as he screamed, "Stop! Moving...!" with a cracking voice. At the same time, we aimed the palm of his transformed arm at Lee, a gaping, anus-like hole opening in the middle to blast out a highly compressed bullet of air.

"Whoa...!"

As Wind Release techniques were both fast and nearly invisible, Lee was 'almost' caught off guard by Gaara's palm-based flatulence. He nearly got sucked into the vacuum produced as the bullet passed his position, giving Gaara a very brief window where he might have been able to grab him.

Sweeping past Lee's location, missing the markedly faster boy by a wide margin, Gaara released a high-pitched scream that was equal parts rage and frustration. The transformation that had overtaken his arm began to encroach upon his face, but it didn't get very far before Lee landed a very heavy kick to the affected area, shouting, "You're wide open...!" as he sent Gaara's body flying out of the transformed sand, seemingly unconscious as he bounced, rolled, and skid across the ground.

"Dammit...!"

"Shit...!"

"Gaara...!"

Ignoring the attention they were receiving from everyone else, Baki, Kankura, and Temari all gripped the catwalk's railing at nearly the same time. The reason Gaara had such dark circles around his eyes was partly due to the fact he never got more than a few minutes of sleep at a time. If he ever fully succumbed to unconsciousness, there would be nothing to stop the Shukaku from taking over. At the very least, that's what they all believed.

Instead of turning into a massive Tanuki, Gaara remained lying face-down on the ground for several seconds, his body unmoving. For the briefest of moments, the trio from Suna weighed the possibility that he may be dead, but then a faint snoring sound began echoing through the area, its origin the slumbering redhead that had half of his face swollen...

Though he had many questions and doubts, Baki leaped into the training field to retrieve Gaara's body, cradling the incredibly thin boy in his arms as he firmly asserted, "Suna will tend to its own wounded..." while staring up at the congregation from Konoha. To his tremendous surprise, Hiruzen just gave a curt, ostensibly understanding nod as he said, "If you require any assistance or supplies, let our hospital staff know. They will be more than happy to render their services to the Kazekage's youngest son."

Without offering a reply, Baki Shunshin'd away with Gaara in tow, leaving the still-stunned Temari and Kankuro behind. He would ordinarily never let the two out of his sight, but as 'Saiko Dadi' had made his presence known, Baki presumed they would be safe as they waited around to draw lots at the end of the Preliminaries. The boy was all but engaged to Temari, so he wouldn't stay idle if Konoha attempted to attack or capture her...

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While the Chunin Exam Preliminaries continued, Baki had Gaara stripped down to nothing but his underwear so that a team could inspect the seal on his body. What they discovered was a 'second' seal drawn around his original, an intentionally faulty seal that gave Gaara access to Shukaku's power but at the cost of his mental stability.

Upon hearing the report, Baki, standing with a stern expression and his arms crossed, asked, "How does a second seal just miraculously appear?" before asking the even more relevant question, "Will Gaara be able to use the Shukaku's power in the future?"

In response to Baki's questions, a very nervous-looking member of the sealing team replied, "We...we don't actually know. The structure of the seal is unlike anything we've ever seen before. At first glance, it doesn't even appear to be a language at all...just a bunch of carelessly scrawled symbols..."

"I take exception to that."

Surprising everyone in the room, Wu, or, more accurately, one of Wu's clones appeared out of thin air, revealing, "I'm the one that placed the seal on his body. I said I was insurance, remember?"

Recovering from his momentary stupor, Baki's expression became serious as he said, "Dadi-sama...I expected you to stay back and watch over the Kazekage's remaining children..."

Rolling his eyes, Wu retorted, "Yeah, because who ever heard of a Shinobi that could be two places at once? I'm pretty sure Konoha's been teaching the Clone Jutsu to literal children since the village's founding, but I guess it's still a mysterious, unheard-of technique back in Suna..."

"..."

While everyone else in the room looked at Wu as if he had lost his mind, Baki just remained silent for a few seconds, his expression unchanging as he eventually asked, "Will Gaara still be able to make use of the Shukaku's power?"

Nodding his head, Wu explained, "Of course. I just set a trigger to have the seal would 'close' whenever he lost consciousness. He can still utilize the One-Tail's power while he's awake, and there's nothing preventing him from 'willfully' relinquishing control to the beast."

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Breathing a sigh of relief, Baki's expression softened ever-so-slightly as he expressed, "Then it would appear Suna is in your debt..."

Shrugging his shoulders, Wu casually replied, "Aren't we basically a family at this point? I'm also fairly certain that Temari will 'reward' me plentily for looking after her beloved baby brother. She's a very 'family-centric' young woman."

Though 'Dadi's' words were a little crass, Baki just gave a curt nod before asking, "Are you here at the behest of the Otokage?"

Shaking his head, Wu replied, "I might occasionally listen to the requests of others, but I tend to do my own thing. You'll understand more of what I mean in the future once things have begun to settle down. Just try not to be too angry with me, okay?"

Furrowing his brows, Baki asked, "What do you mean?" in a stern, almost threatening tone. Unfortunately for him, Wu just made a peace sign before appearing to disperse. In reality, he was still in the room, silently cackling at the spurned Jonin's reaction...

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After the battle between Gaara and Lee, the method used to determine matches regained the element of randomness. People would enter the training field as their names appeared on the monitor, fighting it out until one side had either been knocked out or surrendered. Attacks intended to kill were prohibited, but if you made a mistake that ended up costing you your life, you had no one to blame, not even yourself.

Kicking things off, Kiba ended up being matched against Hinata, leading to a 'very' one-sided match as the latter was stronger, faster, and much more skilled. Kiba also didn't have the heart to pit Akamaru against one of his teammates, so he only put up a perfunctory struggle before dropping out of the match.

Following the fairly anti-climactic match between two teammates, things got a lot more interesting as Sasuke was pitted against Neji. Though Wu had taken the top spot at the Academy, many people compared the two geniuses and wondered which would win in an actual match. Spars could get pretty intense, but when there were actual stakes, tensions reached levels no 'friendly' training could match.

Despite having substantial confidence in his Taijutsu abilities, especially when paired with his Three-Tomoe Sharingan, Sasuke made sure to stay well out of Neji's range for the first half of the match. One of the pitfalls of the Gentle Fist was that it consumed a considerable amount of Chakra for defense. Neji had never attempted to master a single ranged Ninjutsu, so whenever Sasuke blasted him with fireballs and assailed him with volley after volley of shuriken, all he could do was disperse them with his Eight Trigrams - Revolving Heaven or deflect them with a kunai.

After ensuring that most of Neji's reserves were drained, Sasuke took the fight to close quarters, unwilling to simply 'run away' the entire match. He ended up suffering quite a bit due to his hubris, losing the function of his left arm during the very first exchange, but managed to secure the victory with a well-placed kick to the tip of Neji's chin. It appeared to be a light blow from the spectators' point of view, but the long-haired Hyuga ended up dropping to the ground like a marionette with its strings cut. Luckily for him, Sasuke afforded him the courtesy of catching his droopy body before his face could become acquainted with the ground.

Upon seeing his 'rival' defeated, Lee collapsed to the ground on his hands and knees, tears streaming down his face due to the realization he would no longer be able to 'prove' himself against Neji in the Finals. The usually hyper boy had no idea he had effectively defeated a superweapon from a rival village, so he was despondent until Tenten pointed out that he could just as easily prove himself by defeating Sasuke.

Regaining his vigor in an instant, Lee very publically informed Sasuke that the two of them would 'settle things' once and for all in the Finals. Sasuke usually ignored it when people challenged him, but after witnessing Lee's performance in the match with Gaara, he gave the bushy-browed, bowl-headed boy a smirk and said, "Try not to lose before then..."

While Guy was screaming something about youth in the background, the monitor looming over the training field displayed the names of the next participants. The first was a bespectacled Genin who appeared to be in his mid to late twenties despite a purple mask covering the lower half of his face. His name was Tsurugi Misumi, but no one bothered remembering it as his opponent, Uzumaki Naruto, utterly dominated him.

From the moment Hayate gave the signal to start, Naruto began weaving hand signs over and over again, 'spamming' Wind Release Jutsu like they were going out of style. His opponent was a Taijutsu specialist who could dislocate the bones in his body and stretch his limbs to strangle anyone unlucky enough to get caught in his grasp. Unfortunately, Tashigi never had the opportunity to exhibit his gimmick as Naruto never once allowed him to get within ten meters of his position, much less grappling range.

Following Naruto's bullying of Tsukatsu, Tenten thought she might finally get a chance to shine, but her would-be opponent, Yakushi Kabuto, gave up the moment his name appeared. She was half-tempted to attack him anyway but settled on puffing out her cheeks after Wu whispered a few comforting words into her ear.

With Tenten's 'match' decided, everyone Wu cared about in the Prelims had either passed or been eliminated. Thus, while everyone else stuck around to witness the final matches, he rode on Temari's shoulder after she excused herself to go to the bathroom. Kankuro warned her to be careful, but, as she was actually just going there to speak with Wu, she surprised the makeup-wearing boy by rolling her eyes and telling her to mind his own business.

As Temari was usually very 'gentle' toward family, Kankura was a little surprised by her words. However, as it wasn't the first time she had been snippy with him, he simply assumed she was experiencing period cramps and didn't question the matter further. In reality, Temari was frustrated to learn that Wu had apparently been present in Konoha since her arrival but had neglected to pay her a visit. Well, he did, but he didn't reveal himself, his clone simply spying on her for a couple of minutes before moving on to its next target...

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(A/N: It's rumored that Wu can seal the very Heavens themselves...!)

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