Strongest Shinobi

After the week had ended, the Chunin finals were finally beginning. Like Jiraiya had said, the last part of the Chunin exam consisted of a tournament. The teams were split up and everyone would have to battle their battles on their own. It would be one on one battles.

From the initial hundred nine teams, only six remained. There were three teams from other villages and the remaining teams were from Konoha. Aside from that, two other participants had forfeited, as the injuries they had received from the second stage had been more severe than was thought. If they participated, it was guaranteed they would receive permanent injuries. that brought the count of participant to sixteen, rounding things up to five rounds.

On a big board were written out the opponents. Izana looked forward to start as soon as possible. The battles might take a while, but he wanted to be done with it as soon as possible.

The rounds were decided on the spot, showing a clear view of who would battle who and who would be the next opponent. Izana searched the board and quickly found who his next opponent would be.

It was a Genin from Amegakure called Tetsu. Izana looked around the crowd in search for his possible opponent. So far, Izana spotted two Ame teams, from which one of the five boys could be his opponent.

Izana's round would be fifth, so he had a bit of time to prepare. So far he knew that Ame shinobi were mostly adept with water and earth jutsu's. Their most used one would be the hidden fog technique which hides them in the fog, making excellent use of their stealth abilities.

The technique was a bit similar to the ones used by the hidden mist. The mist gave more visibility than the fog, but the range of the mist technique was larger.

The first group was led forwards to the arena, while the other participants were standing on the tribune to watch the fight. All around them were people from the village and a few instructors from the other villages, waiting for the finals to start.

The rounds started relatively quickly, the first round being Ren against a Suna shinobi. The man carried a giant fan on his back, indicating he could use wind release.

The fight started and Ren immediately tried to close the gap between them, his ninken running from the side after transforming in Ren. The Suna nin moved backwards and swiped his fan forward.

A massive whirlwind blasted forward towards Ren, while the ninken dashed forward, glancing towards Ren and barking in worry.

"Keep going!" Ren shouted as he kept dodging the whirlwind. It seemed to have eyes as it kept following his movements, though the wind was getting weaker.

The nin ken turned back to his target, closing in faster and faster. The Suna nin saw it coming and hit his fan towards the ninken to block the kicks and jumps towards him. Ren saw his chance as he too dashed forward, the whirlwind still close on his tail.

Ren was close enough to hit the Suna nin, but chose to jump over him. Ren and his ninken took a slight distance to hit back as soon as they could, while the Suna nin waved his fan to block his own jutsu that was redirected his way.

Seeing their chance, Ren and the ninken jumped forward as they finally managed to land some hits against the Suna nin.

Claw marks appeared on the Suna nin's arms, while he still managed to block his own attack and guard his vitals.

The attacks from Ren and his ninken became faster until the Suna nin was disarmed. Though the Suna nin wasn't happy about it, he chose to surrender as he could feel he wouldn't be able to rectify the situation.

The crowd clapped, congratulating Ren for his victory. The battles went by relatively fast, with Miyu winning her battle with ease as the match up was entirely in her favor. When it was finally Izana's turn, Izana couldn't wait to be done with it.

The Ame nin and Izana both entered the arena, waiting for the referee to be ready. Izana watched the Ame nin closely. He had seen a few techniques from Ame when he was away with Jiraiya, but maybe this one had one he hadn't seen before. Even then, Izana planned to finish it as fast as possible. The faster he was done here, the faster he could go back to the Uchiha residence.

The battle started and the Ame nin began to wave his signs. Izana immediately activated his sharingan, meeting the eyes of the Ame nin.

He tried to avoid it, but failed as he wasn't fast enough. His body stopped waving his sign in the middle of his jutsu, the build up chakra disspating. The crowd inhaled sharply as the Ame nin was placed under genjutsu at a incredible speed.

Izana shunshined forward, appearing behind the Ame nin and placed a kana against his throat. Immediately after, Izana broke the genjutsu and the Ame nin felt a cold blade pressed against his skin.

Cold sweat dripped from his forehead as the Ame nin never felt as close to death as now. He held his hands up in the air, stammering "I-I sur-surrender."

Izana lowered the kunai and returned to the stands.

The first day ended, with eight participants remaining. Three from Suna, two from Ame and three from Konoha, being Ren, Miyu and Izana.

Izana waved goodbye at the others after the times and dates had been told, returning to the Uchiha residence. The panthers appeared as soon as Izana entered his room. They shared the information they had collected and vanished as soon as they did.

The information wasn't as different as before, the only thing that did change was the pace at which the Root was disrupting Uchiha missions.

Izana ruffled his hair in irritation at the annoyance of Danzo. He really needed to find a time to get rid of him.

When such thoughts crossed his mind, the panther leader, Yoru came forward with his own information. Yoru had been responsible with shadowing Danzo and he didn't disappoint.

Danzo would be going outside of the leaf the following week. He was heading towards Amegakure, though the reason wasn't clear.

Izana smirked. Ah Danzo, I was just hoping for you to do this. Now it will be much easier to get rid of you.

Around that time the Chunin exams should be finished as well, as it would be finished in about four days. There weren't any major injuries in the participants so it could be finalised very quickly.

"Let's finish this quickly, shall we. We can't let such an opportunity be spoiled by an exam." Izana couldn't help but smile as he could finally rid himself of Danzo.