Systematic Shinobi - Chapter 36.2 (Patreon)

Daiki shrugged at the blonde girls words and took his leave, making his way back up to the railing above.

As he did though and made to walk back to his spot, he passed by Gai and his team, and a certain bun haired girl wasn't very content to let him just go by.

Tenten grabbed his arm and pulled him in beside her, as she did, he thought he saw Hinata narrow her eyes in his direction.

"Really?" Tenten questioned him, gaze dry, "The hell was with the flirting?"

"Animal magnetism?" Daiki replied with a shrug and grin. It was more Ino flirting with him after all.

"Then I might just need to muzzle you." she deadpanned.

Ouch.

Daiki winced, but before he could reply, a hand clapped him over the shoulder, "That was a most youthful match Daiki-kun!" he looked over his shoulder to see Lee grinning at him brightly, "Though I am quite keen to test that boast of yours from earlier."

"Fine with me," he grinned back at the older boy, "Just make sure you pass these prelims, I'll happily fight you in the real third exam and show you why I'm the strongest guy there is."

"Yosh!" Lee pumped his fist, "I will strive to do so! If I cannot defeat my opponent and make it to the third exam, I will run five thousand laps around Konoha and on my hands!"

"That's the spirit Lee!" Gai cheered him on.

Neji, leaning over the railing snorted, "Such childish boasting," the Hyuuga said, "Mere words with nothing to back it up."

"Somebody's a little salty he isn't the strongest Konoha genin anymore," Daiki shrugged, "It's alright Neji, I don't think any less of you, it's only natural to be jealous of someone as awesome as me."

The Hyuuga merely snorted derisively and didn't reply again.

Somebody would really need to do something about that guy. Assuming Naruto didn't do it, Daiki supposed he wouldn't mind kicking his fate loving ass around.

Neji was a good ally to have after all, once he got that stick pulled out of his ass about fate.

And well, Daiki was pretty sure he could get rid of the Cage Bird Seal, plus he was in line to be Hokage so he could force the issue of abolishing it.

He wouldn't stand for any of his citizens being slaves. If the Hyuga wanted slaves, they should just go hunt some rock humpers.

"You really need to learn to stop running your mouth," Tenten sighed, "It's not like you're not strong, crazy strong and skilled for a rookie, but Neji's a genius you know?"

"I'm a super a genius four, which is forty thousand times better than a regular genius." Daiki replied without missing a beat

Tenten gave a slow blink, before shrugging, "Okay."

She apparently knew a losing battle when she saw one.

He wasn't quite sure he liked that though.

She clearly didn't believe him.

"I'm stronger, faster, more durable, know more jutsu," he shrugged and pointed out, "On top of that the Gentle Fist doesn't work on me."

"Don't go assuming just because you play with Hinata-sama and Hanabi-sama, that you've seen the true power of the Gentle Fist," Neji snorted derisively once again, not even turning around to look at him, "The difference between my taijutsu and theirs is as vast as the distance between heaven and earth."

Ooh, how testy.

"Being more skilled at it doesn't change what it does and what it does has no effect on me buddy," Daiki shrugged, "But I'll happily prove to you how much stronger I am once we fight in the third exam, assuming you don't get your ass kicked."

"Your words mean nothing, fate has already decreed that I shall be the victor." Neji replied simply and said nothing more.

What a boring guy.

He didn't get the chance at say anything else though, because Hayate apparently decided it was time to get a move on.

And the huge screen began to rapidly cycle through names.

Before landing on two surprising names

Daiki blinked.

Huh.

Temari Vs Tenten.

Maybe fate really did exist?

"Huh, guess I'm up." Tenten grinned eagerly, punching a fist into her palm.

She had no idea.

That besides himself and Gaara, Temari was the worst possible match up for her here.

"Gonna wish me luck?" she asked him, grin widening.

"Good luck," he replied, giving her a half smile, "If you win, I'll give you a present."

"Is it a lap dance?" Tenten asked impishly, raising an eyebrow at him challengingly.

"If you want, but I don't quite have hips like yours." he involuntarily grinned.

"Well, I'll hold you to that then." she laughed, walking passed him on her way down to the arena below, but as she did, she whipped her hand out and smacked him on the ass.

He blinked owlishly.

"Tenten!?" both Lee and Gai goggled at her actions in shock.

Her grin turning massive, Tenten continued on her way down, even as killing intent spiked in the room to almost massive degrees.

Moments later, the bun haired girl was down in the arena, standing opposite of the blonde suna kunoichi.

Who had quite the venomous look in her usually lovely teal green eyes.

Her venomous gaze flickered up to meet his eyes for a moment, before looking back at Tenten, lips pulling back nearly into a snarl.

Tenten said utterly nothing at the gaze directed her way.

'What's up with her?' Daiki wondered, she was much more derisive and mocking originally, but now she was blatantly angry about something.

Was it because of him taking the piss out of her the other day, mocking not only her, but her brother, her father and even her homeland?

'Maybe I should have given Tenten some advice?' he mused as Hayate stepped up to begin the match.

It might not change the results, but if Tenten knew in advance she would be fighting a wind user and that long distance weapon techniques would be useless, her chance of winning by getting in close would be much better.

He knew personally after all, that Tenten was both faster and stronger than Temari physically and much more skilled in close combat.

If she got close before Temari brought out her fan and pressured her, she could possibly wind.

'Oh well, too late now.' he mused as Hayate called for the beginning of the match.

And immediately grimaced as Tenten leaped back, gaining distance, her hands flashing into her equipment pouches and unleashing a bevy of shuriken in the blink of an eye.

Each spiralled through the air rapidly, and it wasn't just some random throw, each had their own specific trajectory, spread out and aimed towards Temari's vitals.

If she was say, a fire user, she'd have no choice but to dodge and give Tenten the advantage to press her.

Sadly, she was a wind user though.

Temari's hand went to the fan on her back and she pulled it forward, running wind chakra down its length.

She didn't even open the fan itself, just whipped the huge metal base of it and sent a short but powerful gust of wind to meet the shuriken, blowing them away.

'That wind chakra metal is really something.' he mused. It allowed the sandy blonde to perform high level wind jutsu, without hand seals and more or less instantly.

"Is that all you Konoha girls can do?" Temari scoffed loudly, "Throw around hunks of metal like some little academy brat?"

Tenten's lips fell into a frown, but she didn't reply with words. Instead, she reached for her pouch, drawing five kunai and with a whip of her hand, sent all five soaring through the air like bullets towards the blonde, one aimed for her head, one for her neck, one her heart, and two at her kidneys.

It was quite an impressive throw actually.

"This again?" Temari scoffed, unveiling her fan ever so slightly and swinging it.

Once again, a burst of wind chakra sent the barrage of kunai flying away.

But Tenten wasn't idle, already having leaped into the air, the bun haired girl drew a single scroll, unrolling it and giving it a whipping motion as if it were a whip itself.

Daiki saw her chakra spreading through the scroll itself, going through each and every single storage seal inscribed on the scroll.

There was a burst of smoke, and a split moment later, dozens of different weapons rained down from above down towards the blonde.

Swords, spears, sickles, scythes, axes, kunai, shuriken and more.

And with their trajectory, they didn't just go for Temari's front, but as they fell,, spread out so they were coming towards her from each angle.

"Hmph!" Temari open her fan a bit more and spun, unleashing another, though much larger burst of wind chakra that spiralled around her form and blew away all of Tenten's weapons once again.

It was almost comically unfair how badly Tenten's skillset matched up against Temari.

But such was the life of a ninja.

Unfairness galore, if one couldn't overcome a bad match up, they were destined to fail and die during their missions at some point, usually quite early in life.

"Tch." Tenten clicked her tongue as she landed.

"Done already?" Temari taunted, slamming the butt of her fan into the ground and leaning on it casually, tauntingly.

"Not quite." Tenten replied.

"No, you are." Temari denied, the blonde heaving her fan up before whipping it around, the two moons on it displayed proudly, "Wind Style: Wind Cutter Jutsu!"

From the fan, a compressed torrent of slicing winds were released, roaring through the air towards Tenten.

Just before they hit her though, the bun haired girl launched herself into the air, a pair of scrolls pulled from her equipment pouches. The wind tore through her previous position, leaving great gouges in the ground.

As soon as she unrolled them and channelled chakra through them, a pair of smoky dragons erupted from the scrolls and rushed down towards Temari.

Or so it seemed.

Rather, they slammed into the ground on each side of her and burst into a great cloud of smoke, obscuring both of the girls from view.

Though Daiki could see them both easily with his eyes.

Temari wasted no time in whipping her fan out, blowing the great cloud of smoke away.

But it was enough, Tenten was already in motion.

She spun like spinning top mid-air, rapidly rotating, and a moment later, a massive barrage of weapons launched down towards Temari. It was just like her previous attack.

Only, the scale was vastly different.

Where before it was multiple dozens, this time, it was multiple hundreds of different weapons that rained down like a metal shower of death towards the blonde.

For a split moment, Temari's eyes widened in panic, before she regained control and unwound her fan properly.

'It's over.' Daiki clicked his tongue.

"Wind Style: Raging Gale Wall!" Temari swung her fan, all three moons on it blazing proudly with chakra.

A massive churning gale erupted from the blondes fan, and despite the massive scale of amount of weapons aimed at her, they were blown away completely.

"I'm still not done yet!" Tenten roared as she fell towards the ground, she pulled her hands back and Daiki blinked as he saw chakra shining with his eyes.

Chakra strings, not ninja wire?

She whipped both hands out, all of the weapons lifting into the air and rushing towards Temari.

It wasn't some full on charge of weapons though, not something so straight forward.

They spread out, coming at the blonde from all directions, from three hundred and sixty degrees, aiming at every part of her body from her feet and ankles to her legs, stomach, chest, heart, neck and head.

…And the speed of the weapons shooting through the air was much greater than before.

'This is new.' Daiki blinked, surprised.

Everything had been going more or less the same as the other timeline, until now.