Naruto : Venom

”Be back soon Kakashi-sensei.” I call over my shoulder.

”Alvarcus.” Kakashi says to me. ”Don’t kill him.”

”I’m still me, sensei. Whatever he did to me didn’t change who I am, just what I am.” I make my way to the combat area.

...

Kiba greets me with a feral grin, ”You’re going down buddy! Akamaru and I are going to kick some ass!”

In a monotone voice, I say ”I recommend you surrender. I can’t pull my punches right now. I could seriously end up hurting you.” I pause. ”Maybe even kill you.” Can’t say I didn’t warn him.

”Pfft! You won’t even be able to touch me!” He smacks his chest arrogantly.

”The last people I fought I ripped their hearts out on accident.” Kiba stops his warm up stretches. ”I can’t guarantee your safety.”

”Dude, we’re shinobi.” Kiba is undeterred. ”Danger is the job description. Quit beating around the bush and let’s fight already!”

”Contestants ready?” Hayate asks us.

”Hell yeah!” ”Bark!” Kiba and Akamaru are revving to go.

Hell no I am not ready. ”Yes.”

”Begin!”

”Akamaru! Man beast clone!” Poof, there are two Kibas now. ”I know I can’t hold back on you! Dodge this! Fang over Fang!” A tornado of claws and teeth zoom towards me.

Please be chakra strings. Black threads -dammit- rip out of my back and plant themselves on a wall and pull me to safety.

”Again!” Another pass, I move myself out of the way again. ”One more time! We almost got him!” Kiba and Akamaru zip straight at me.

”Will you surrender?” I ask. I’m not moving this time.

”Never! You’ll have to actually fight me!”

”Fine, but it’s not my fault if you die.” The twisting tornadoes are almost upon me.

~Can we kill him?~

”Not this one.” I let my threads rip themselves out of my chest. My skin splits from left hip to my right shoulder. My shirt is ruined. I will the threads to catch the tornadoes that are Kiba and Akamaru, black threads clamp down on both of my opponents stopping them instantly. They don’t have the drilling power to get through the Jiongu.

I doubt I could recreate the same feat if I used only chakra strings. The Jiongu is much more durable.

”Surrender.” I order.

Kiba starts wiggling to try and get free. I squeeze tighter.

”Surrender or I break something.” That just makes him struggle harder.

”Last chance, you made me go this far. Surrender or I break something on Akamaru.” I hear gasps from the crowd, and something infinitely more terrifying.

”Kukukuku.” Orochimaru is here. He knows I survived.

Kiba stills and turns a glare on me. ”That’s low. That’s real low.”

”You’re the one who isn’t surrendering when he is clearly beat. The match is over. You have five seconds to surrender or I start squeezing. Five. Four. Three.”

”Proctor I give!”

”Winner: Alvarcus Mar!”

Medics rush onto the combat area, they practically charge at me. ”Come, lay down. You’ve lost a huge amount of blood. Your wounds aren’t even bleeding, that’s how little you have. I have no idea how you are alive let alone standing.”

”Were you not informed?” He’s only a chunin. Do they not know? Who does know? Even some of the jonin looked shocked at me earlier.

”Informed about what? You can tell me all about it once you lay down.”

”I don’t require medical attention. See to Kiba and Akamaru please.” I wasn’t kidding when I said I could seriously hurt them. I’ve only wielded the Jiongu once before, and I ended up stealing still beating hearts.

”Now listen here, I watched you rip your skin up to use those weird black thingies! You need medical attention now! Get on the stretcher!”

I rip my shredded shirt off.

”I don’t require medical attention. The wounds have closed themselves.” I’m not even lying, the Jiongu stitched me shut. I now have a massive scar on my chest that is being held closed by black stitches.

On further examination there are some very unique stitched closed scars on my arms. I wonder what my back looks like? I had three hearts shoved into me after all. It can’t be pretty. One week ago I could count my number of scars on one hand. Now my body is covered in them.

”So it would seem. I’m going to run a diagnostic jutsu anyways.”

Stubborn medic. ”Fine, when the results terrify you don’t freak out.”

The medic places his green glowing hands on my chest. ”Impossible. That can’t be right.”

”What are the results?”

”Your organs are gone. Everything is gone, but you have 4 hearts. I must have done the jutsu wrong.”

”Nope, that’s right.” The medic stares at me in disbelief. ”I told you the results would terrify you. Now let me go.” I take advantage of his shock to get past him. I snag a spar shirt out of my mission bad and I head back towards Kakashi.

”Medic troubles?” He asks.

”Yeah. Apparently I have too many hearts and not enough of everything else.”

”Hmm... Interesting. You missed a fight by the way. Neji vs Hinata. Neji won, it was a tough match to watch.” I wince. If it was anything like cannon, it was a brutal fight.

”Next match! Rock Lee vs Gaara of the Desert!” That fight happened exactly like cannon, Lee put up one hell of a fight. In the end Gaara managed to catch him and crush his legs. It was brutal.

Gaara looks up at me and asks me a question while Lee is being carried off by the medics.

”Are you afraid of me now?” A simple question.

”Gaara, go back to your family. I’ve put up with enough shit from you Sand Siblings. If you keep acting like this, we are not getting ice cream later.”

Gaara does as told, which is mildly amusing. Temari and Kankuro have gobsmacked looks on their faces. I can’t blame them, I am surprised he didn’t try to kill me for that comment. Maybe he really wants that ice cream?

”Next match! Naruto Uzumaki VS Choji Akimichi! Begin.” What happens next is a game of kickball played by Naruto shadow clones with Choji as the ball. Naruto won.

”Would all of the winners please report to the combat area. We will be drawing numbers to determine the order of the final tournament.” Hayate wheezes out. All the victorious gennin make their way down to the floor. ”Please, come take a number out of this box.

”Me first, me first!” Naruto rushes towards Hayate, reaches in the box, and pulls out ”Number 1! Ha! Take that everyone else! I’m number 1!”

”Oh shut up Naruto. Getting number 1 just means you go first, not that you are the best.” I say while walking past him to the box. I reach in. ”Number 6.” I go back to the group of gennin.

Shino walks up to it, ”Number 9.”

Neji goes next, ”Number 2.” That means he is fighting Naruto, just like in cannon.

Gaara approaches the box, ”Number 4.”

Temari takes her turn, ”Number 7.”

Kankuro follows after, ”Number 5.”

Shikamaru goes last, ”Number 8.”

”That leaves Sasuke Uchiha with number 3.” Hayate announces.

That makes the match ups this:

Naruto vs Neji

Sasuke vs Gaara

Kankuro vs Alvarcus

Temari vs Shikamaru

Shino gets a by.

Kankuro. I will be fighting Kankuro. That promises to be an interesting match up. His puppetry vs my chakra strings. Or Jiongu now, I need to figure out if I even can use chakra strings anymore.

”I’ve had enough of these Sand Siblings! Proctor! I want to switch opponents!”

”No.”

”Fine, asshole.”

...

With the matches revealed, I decide it is time to go home. This is going to be horrifically bad. While distracted by my imminent fight with my parents, I fail to notice a Grass jonin approach me.

”You survived.” My world shatters. That is Orochimaru’s voice. He is right behind me. ”To live through two experiments! How marvelous! Tell me, how did it feel?”

I turn to face him. ”If you want to know so badly, I can stick some of the threads in you and you can find out for yourself.”

”Testy, testy! You know, I still owe you a debt.” He’s right, I only used one pause during our fight in the forest. I don’t see why that matters.

”I can teach you to control it.” Orochimaru offers.

I consider his offer. That is tempting, he has a good point. Who else could teach me about the Jiongu? Kakuzu? Fat chance of that happening. Even if I did find him, he would kill me out of annoyance.

”You don’t have to answer now. I am a patient man. Take this as a gesture of good faith, and a taste of what I could teach you.” He holds out a scroll to me. ”It is a jutsu scroll that has some basic information on the Jiongu and all of Kakuzu’s most used techniques. He’s the one I got the Jiongu from originally.”

”No strings attached? No debt fulfillment? No favors owed?”

”None. A token of good will. A glimpse into the future perhaps?”

I accept the scroll from him. Orochimaru smiles victoriously.

”You’ll come to me. Deep down you already know I am the best chance you have to achieve your dream. I can make you S-rank. You said it yourself, I am a great shinobi. I rank among the best. I will personally train you, all you have to do is accept my generous offer.” He walks away. Over his shoulder he calls out to me, ”We will meet again child. I will have you join me.”

Can today get any worse?

With I huge sigh, I start walking home. I better get this over with. I only make it one block.

Suddenly I am surrounded by four masked ANBU.

”Alvarcus Mar. You are to come with us. The Hokage wishes to speak with you.”

Great, now this is happening. ”Right now?” One of the ANBU members nods. ”What are we waiting for. Let’s go.” I’m whisked away in their shunshin. Kami that is an unpleasant feeling.