Naruto: God of Shinobi

Chapter 53: Where Is Naruto?

The arena had not been full like this in years.

It sat in the middle of the village like a stone bowl turned toward the sky, walls too tall to climb, an open field of dirt and grass and scattered trees down at the bottom where the fighting happened. From above, the stands wrapped around it in tiers, packed shoulder to shoulder with merchants and farmers and shinobi from villages that hadn't sent anyone to the exam in a decade. The pavilion sat at the far end, orange tile roof catching the sun, and underneath it the Third Hokage sat with his hands folded in his lap, watching the empty floor.

Beside him, a veil of cloth hid most of the Kazekage's face. Two Sand jonin stood at his back, still as statues.

Down on the floor, the genin waited in a loose line. Neji stood with his arms crossed, Byakugan quiet behind pale eyes that missed nothing anyway. Shikamaru had his hands shoved in his pockets and looked like he'd rather be asleep. Gaara stood apart from everyone, sand curling lazy circles around his sandals. Temari and Kankuro stood together, and Sakura stood at the end of the line, hands at her sides, trying not to look as sick as she felt.

Shino said nothing. Shino rarely did.

Dosu wasn't there.

Sasuke wasn't there.

Naruto wasn't there.

Somewhere up in the crowd, a man shouted something about wanting his money back, and a few people around him laughed.

Hayate Gekko stepped out onto the sand and coughed into his fist, the sound rattling off the stone and carrying farther than it should have.

"First match," he said. "Naruto Uzumaki of the Leaf against Neji Hyuga of the Leaf."

The crowd leaned in as one. Neji walked to the center and stood there, arms still crossed, eyes on the gate where Naruto was supposed to come through.

Nobody came through.

The murmuring started low and climbed. Hayate glanced at the gate, then up at the Hokage's box, then at the Kazekage's, and the veiled head there had tilted forward, waiting for the boy who carried the Fourth's name to walk out and prove it meant something.

He kept waiting.

Hayate crossed to the wall and murmured something to a proctor, who took off running toward the box. A minute passed. Two. The Third Hokage listened to whatever was said, nodded once, and turned to speak to the Kazekage, whose veiled head tilted the other way before giving a slow nod back.

Hayate came back to the center.

"By order of the Hokage and the Kazekage," he said, "the match between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga is postponed. Until Naruto Uzumaki arrives."

The stadium came apart. Boos rolled down from every tier, and somewhere a program went sailing onto the sand.

Neji didn't say anything. His jaw was tight enough to see from the stands, and he turned and walked off without a word.

Hayate let the noise burn itself down before he coughed again.

"Second match. Sasuke Uchiha of the Leaf against Gaara of the Sand."

The crowd settled, hungry now, wanting anything. Gaara walked out alone, sand shifting around his ankles, eyes flat and unblinking on the gate.

Sasuke didn't come out either.

This time the murmur turned into something closer to a roar before Hayate even got to the wall. Up in the box, the daimyo were leaning together, whispering, and the Kazekage's veiled face had turned toward the Hokage like it expected an explanation right then and there.

Hayate made the same trip. Got the same nod back.

"By order of the Hokage and the Kazekage, the match between Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara is postponed. Until Sasuke Uchiha arrives."

Whatever had been holding the crowd together snapped. Cups came down, then a shoe, then somebody's rolled up program that unraveled halfway and fluttered like a dying bird.

"Where is he?" someone screamed, and it wasn't clear if they meant Sasuke or Naruto, because by then it didn't matter which.

Down in the competitor's hall, the noise turned to a dull roar through the stone, and the genin stood around not looking at each other.

Neji broke it first. "Where are your teammates."

Sakura's hands twisted together. "I don't, um. I don't know."

"You don't know."

"I haven't seen Naruto since we left the hospital. That was a month ago. And Sasuke, he's been off training with Kakashi sensei since, since right after, so I haven't. I haven't seen him either."

"A month." Neji's eyes narrowed. "Your village doesn't know where its own genin are."

"That's not, it's not like that, okay, they're probably just, they got held up, or, I don't know, maybe the training ran long, that happens, right, training runs long sometimes." She heard herself and stopped.

Kankuro snorted from the wall. "Maybe they ran off. Wouldn't blame 'em, this whole exam's a joke."

"Naruto doesn't run." Neji said it flat, no room in it.

"How would you know?"

"I know."

Shikamaru let out a long breath through his nose. "Troublesome. All of it."

Temari had her arms crossed, fan on her back, watching the exchange with something close to amusement. "Your village can't keep track of its strongest genin. That's not exactly reassuring, considering."

"Considering what," Sakura said, too fast.

Temari just smiled and didn't answer.

Off to the side, Gaara hadn't moved. Sand turned slow around his feet, and his eyes stayed on the empty hallway like he could will Sasuke into it through sheer patience. He didn't care about Naruto. He didn't care about the crowd. He was waiting for one specific fight and nobody was giving it to him yet.

Sakura looked around at all of them, at Neji's cold face and Shikamaru's bored one and Temari's smug one, and she made herself say it.

"He'll come. Naruto wouldn't miss this. He wouldn't."

She didn't sound sure. She wasn't sure. But she'd said it out loud, and that was something.

The third match brought Hayate back out to a crowd that had gone from angry to just tired.

"Third match. Shikamaru Nara of the Leaf against Dosu Kinuta of the Hidden Sound."

He looked at the empty spot where Dosu should have been, and didn't bother pretending to be surprised.

"The Hidden Sound has informed us Dosu Kinuta hasn't been seen in one month. He's declared forfeit. Shikamaru Nara advances."

"Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered, and walked off without looking at anybody, hands still in his pockets like the whole thing was beneath the effort of caring.

The boos this time came out flat, worn down, more habit than heat.

"Fourth match. Kankuro of the Sand against Shino Aburame of the Leaf."

Kankuro walked out with his puppet bundled on his back, face paint sharp under the sun. Shino walked out across from him, collar high, hands buried in his sleeves, saying nothing, same as always.

The crowd watched with the wariness of people who'd already been burned twice.

Kankuro clutched his stomach. "Can't do it. Stomach's, uh, it's bad, real bad. I forfeit."

Nobody bought it, not for a second, and this time the crowd didn't just boo. Cushions rained down. A bottle shattered somewhere near the wall. Somebody's shoe hit the dirt with a wet slap and just sat there like a punctuation mark.

"This whole shit is rigged!" "This is a joke!" "Give us a real fight!"

Kankuro left without a backward glance. Shino stood there another second, then turned and walked off too, quiet as ever.

"Winner," Hayate said, "Shino Aburame."

Hayate had to wait longer this time for the noise to die, and it never fully did, just thinned out into a grumbling static.

"Final match of the first round. Temari of the Sand against Sakura Haruno of the Leaf."

A pause spread through the stands, confused rather than angry. They knew Temari, the fan, the girl who'd put Tenten down hard in the prelims. Nobody knew the pink haired girl walking out to meet her.

Sakura wasn't the girl from the academy anymore. Her hair was cut short now, just below her ears, out of the way for good. The old dress was gone, replaced by dark blue and red, a real uniform, kunai pouch strapped tight to her thigh, scroll pouch at her hip, forehead protector tied clean across her brow and catching the light.

Somebody up in the stands muttered something about a letdown. Sakura heard it and didn't flinch.

She'd broken her knuckles on trees for this. Run until her legs gave out under her, more than once. Burned through her chakra and then kept going on nothing, because that was the only way to find out what was actually left underneath.

She hadn't done it for the crowd. She'd barely done it for herself, if she was honest. She'd done it so that when he came back, if he came back, she wouldn't be the one standing behind everybody else, waiting to be saved.

The crowd didn't matter. The dignitaries didn't matter. Even the empty spot where Naruto should have been didn't matter, not right now.

Temari stepped out across from her, fan on her back, blonde hair tied high, and looked her over. The hair. The gear. The way she stood now, steadier than before.

"You ready for this?" Temari asked.

Sakura didn't answer with words. She planted her feet.

Hayate raised a hand toward the stairs. "Remaining competitors, to the balcony. The match will start shortly."

Neji went first, then Shikamaru, then Gaara moving like he had all the time in the world, then Kankuro still pale from the crowd's reaction, then Shino, silent as the walls.

The floor emptied out until it was just the two of them standing in the dirt under a sun that hadn't moved an inch through any of it.

Hayate lowered his hand.

"Begin."

---

Next Time: Fruits of the Training -- A real ninja doesn't need the crowd to know what she's worth.

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