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Welcome to Chapter 14: Chunin Exams Pt.5

Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy



Flashback Start:



Kakashi informed Naruto that another Sannin by the name of Jiraiya wanted to train him. Hinata went to train with her father, who wanted to show her a powerful Jutsu. On the other hand, Aiko walked aimlessly around the village a day or two after the preliminaries were over. When she passed an alleyway, she looked over and saw a familiar sight. She smirked before walking down the dark Alleyway. "Kukuku looks like you actually got my message," A pale-looking man said with a smirk. "I got your message," Aiko said. "When are we going to start my training...Lord Orochimaru". 



Flashback End:



Aiko stood panting in a dark room, the only source of light coming from two candles located in the eyes of a giant stone snake. Flame-like marks covered half of Aiko's body on her left side. "Again," ordered a voice in the darkness. Aiko closed her eyes and took in a deep breath to focus. When she opened her eyes, they were blood red with two tomoe with a black slight going down the middle instead of Ice-white. She ran through hand signs in a blur of speed before facing her open palm down.

The sound of a thousand birds echoed throughout the hollow room. Lighting chakra, colored in purple, was being held in Aiko's palm. "Now cover your hand in it," Ordered the same voice. Aiko concentrated and focused on covering her hand in lighting chakra. The resulting experiment was a success as the purple lighting crawled up Aiko's hand in an instant. Aiko smirked at her hand before she charged forward towards the body that belonged to the voice. 

"Dark Lightning Blade!" Aiko mentally said as she thrust her hand forward. She missed the body by an inch, and the owner of the voice reappeared behind her. Aiko reacted quickly and spun around with the new technique in both hands now.  She constantly threw her lighting-covered hands towards the person in the hope of striking him once. She fainted left, and the person fell for it. She threw her right hand towards the head of the target, but she was restrained before she could connect the deadly Jutsu. 

"Kukuku, That was a close call Aiko-Kun," Orochimaru said as he chuckled. Aiko observed the scene in front of her, as was taught to her. Her right hand was a mere millimeter from Orochimaru's face, while her left was a mere inch away from his right lung. "I thank you for your praise Lord Orochimaru," Aiko said in a dead, monotone voice. This caused Orochimaru to smirk, "This girl is becoming quite powerful. She's been able to master every Jutsu I taught her. She even managed to master the curse mark, all within a single month".

It had been a whole month since the end of the preliminaries. During that time, Orochimaru taught Aiko how to use snakes for attacks like how he does. Her snakes are white, whiter than Orochimaru's snakes. She signed the Snake summoning contract and can now command the snakes, even giant snakes like Manda. "I think it's time I sent you back to the Leaf Village. The Third Round is about to start," Orochimaru said. Orochimaru released Aiko from the restraints of the snakes, letting her stand up. She bowed towards Orochimaru, "I will not fail you, Lord Orochimaru," Aiko said monotonously. She left in an Ice Shunshin; the cold wind from it barely fazed the Snake Sannin. 'It will be fascinating to see what she does in the exams," Orochimaru mused before he puffed into a cloud of smoke, a Shadow Clone. 

Naruto, alongside Hinata, was standing in a line at the center of the arena. Every one of the fighters was present except for Aiko. "Alright, is everyone here?" Genma Shiranui, the new proctor of the Third Round after the mysterious death of Hayate Gekko, asked. "Aiko Yanaka is not here," Naruto stated. Genma raised an eyebrow at Naruto and looked for Aiko but could not find her. "Since Aiko Yanaka is not here yet, we will have to postpone her match," Genam announced. 

The Genin could hear the crowd boo loudly. They had been looking forward to seeing Aiko's match. "How's Aiko been doing?" Naruto whispered to Hinata curiously. A guilty look spread across Hinata's face. "I haven't seen her since the end of the Preliminaries," Hinata confessed. Naruto's eyes widened just the tiniest amount in shock at the news Hinata just gave him. "She's been missing for a month?" Naruto said with a worried tone. 

"She hasn't been missing; she's hasn't been seen for a month. She was probably out training this entire time," Hinata said in an attempt to quell Naruot's worry. "I just hope we can still save her," Naruto confessed. Hinata smiled at Naruto, "You love her a lot, don't you?" Hinata asked. Naruto nodded his head. "I want to save her from her dark self. I want to be able to hear Aiko's cute laugh again". Hinata placed a hand on Naruto's shoulder before giving him a quick hug. "Don't worry some much, Naruto. With what Master Jiraiya taught you, I'm sure you can bring her back," Hinata said comfortingly. Naruto gave Hinata a thankful look before everyone had to leave, except for him and a Hyuga by the same of Neji. 

All the matches had been conducted, and Aiko had yet to show up. Genma stood in the middle of the arena with Gara to his left. "If Aiko Yanaka does not show up in the next minute, she will be disqualified," Genma announced. Naruto and Hinata gazed down into the arena with worried looks on their faces. "Where is she? She's missed the entire Third Round," Hinata said with worry in her tone. "She'll be here. Even if Aiko isn't the one in control at the moment," Naruto said with a reassuring tone. 

After waiting a few more seconds, Genma sighed before he started to address the crowd. "The time limit is up. Since Aiko Yanaka is not-". Genma was stopped mid-way through his sentence by a sudden drop in the air's temperature. Everyone in the Arena could feel the drop in the temperature; some even started shivering. "She's here," Hinata said with relief. An Ice Shunshin appeared to Genma's right, and out of the Shunshin came Aiko. 

"Am I late?" Aiko questioned with a knowing smirk. "Yes, yes you are," Genma said with an annoyed tone, "You take after Kakashi, too much kid." "I'm nothing like that pathetic excuse for a sensei," Aiko snarled. Genma raised his eyebrow at Aiko before he raised his hand right above the two Genin. "You two ready?" He questioned. The only answer he got was Aiko settling into a stance and Gaara having sand start to surround him. "Begin!" Genma shouted before jumping out of the way. 

Aiko wasted no time in charging Gaara in a burst of speed. She disappeared and caused Gaara's eyes to widen slightly. The sand to Gaara's right just barely blocked a punch that was aimed for his head. The only problem was that the sand started to freeze over. "Impossible!" Gaara said to himself. The same thing happened on his other side, and his head snapped in that direction. The next thing he knew was the heel of Aiko's foot connecting with the back of his head, slamming his head into the ground. 

Aiko jumped back and began to weave hand signs in a blur. "Ice Style: Ice Breath." Aiko spewed a massive and concentrated blast of ice-wind towards Gaara. Gaara surrounded his entire body in a dome of sand as the Jutsu hit his sand. Aiko landed with a smirk spread across her face, expecting the sand Gaara used to be completely frozen. Her eyes widened, and she growled in anger when the dome of sand had no signs of freezing. "If you want to hide in your little sand dome Gaara then that's fine by me!" Aiko said before she disappeared and then reappeared on the wall the furthest from Gaara. "Because I have a Jutsu that I've only tried out on weak opponents. I need a strong one to see how it works," Aiko said before her eyes changed.

Kakashi saw the change in Aiko's eyes, and his own widened slightly. "How did she get those Sharingan eyes?" Kakashi questioned in his mind. Aiko started to weave hand signs in a blur of speed on she had her right palm facing downwards. Lighting chakra started gathering under her palm before it spread up and covered her hand. Naruto and Hinata's eyes widened at the sight of Aiko's new Jutsu. "Did you teach her that Jutsu Kakashi-Sensei?" Hinata questioned. "No, I didn't teach her that Jutsu. Someone was teaching her something during the one month between the preliminaries and now." Kakashi said. 

"I have a sneaking suspicion about who taught her this past month," Naruto said, slightly hinting at who he was thinking about. "You don't think she would actually go to Orochimaru for training, do you? He's the one who gave her the Curse Mark," Hinata whispered. "It's only a suspicion but one that doesn't have some sort of evidence," Naruto said. Aiko charged towards Gaara at high speeds with her hand hovering next to her side. She thrust her hand towards Gaara's sand dome and pierced it. 

"What is this?" She heard Gaara's voice question. "My...Blood! I-it's my blood!" Gaara screamed. Aiko sensed danger and jumped out of the way just in time to dodge Spikes protruding from Gaara's dome. "That was a close one," Aiko muttered to herself. "Mother...Mother wants your blood!" Gaara said in a crazed voice. Aiko's face contorted into a look of disgust before she smirked. "Well, I'm standing right here!" Aiko taunted. A massive arm with black-tipped claws came rushing at Aiko. 

Aiko sidestepped the massive arm and activated her Lighting Blade, slicing the arm. The arm dissolved to sand as she heard Gaara's screams of pain from within the sand down. Aiko charged once more with her Lighting blade in both hands. She sliced any of the arms that came at her. The closer she got to Gaara, the more frequent the rate of arms attacking her got. When she got in front of Gaara's sand dome, she cut the spikes forming and threw her other hand towards Gaara. She felt her left hand pierced Gaara's right shoulder. 

Gaara screamed in pain and blasted Aiko back with his sand. Aiko jumped a few times before landing on her feet. Before she charged back in again, Aiko sensed something going on. She looked around and saw all the spectators had fallen into a deep sleep, feathers falling around them. "Genjutsu" Was Aiko's thought. She raised her hand in a seal and muttered, "Release." Aiko immediately felt the release from the Genjutsu that was cast. She saw Konoha Shinobi defending themselves from Oto and Suna Shinobi. 

"So this was Lord Orochimaru's plan," Aiko said to herself. The barrier around Gaara's body disappeared and revealed him in a partially transformed state. Two people landed next to Gaara, a blond-haired girl with four ponytails and a guy with paint on his face, and picked him up. "What do you think you're doing!" Aiko shouted. "Getting out of here," The boy responded. The three jumped out of the arena and out a hole on the wall in the spectator's area. Aiko took off in pursuit of the three, intent on finishing her match and finishing Gaara off.

Aiko jumped through the trees of the forest surrounding Konoha as she pursued the Sand Siblings. As they jumped through the forest, Aiko could detect two chakra signature's pursuing them. She recognized them as Naruto and Hinata's chakra signature's. "What the hell do those weaklings want?" Aiko questioned before she increased her speed. She stopped when she realized that the three Sand Siblings had stopped their running. Aiko noticed the blond-haired girl nodded towards her brother before the brother took off with Gaara. 

Aiko tried going after the two boys that left but had been blown back by a violent wind. She was slammed against a tree and was frozen for a second. "What happened!" Temari shouted as she slammed her War Fan on the tree branch she was on, "I ht you with one Wind Style Jutsu, and you go all icy." Temari didn't know that the 'Aiko' that she was seeing was currently trying to suppress the real Aiko and Eleven-Tails. Why was she doing that? It was because her head hit the tree hard, and that caused the seals on the real Aiko and Yuna to loosen. 

Aiko shook her head before glaring at Temari. "You're going to pay for that," Aiko said as she got into a stance and started weaving hand signs. She finished throwing hand signs and speed out a massive amount of icy wind towards Temari. Seeing this, Jutsu Temari smirked and grabbed her fan, and fully opened it. "Wind Style: Gale Raging Wall," Temari shouted as she swung, releasing a wall of pure wind. Aiko's signature Jutsu was blown back towards her, and her eyes widened. 

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" A familiar male voice shouted from behind. An Earth wall sprung up from the ground and shot all the way up towards where Aiko was, protecting her from her own Jutsu. Aiko's head snapped down to below her, and she saw Naruto with his hands on the ground, looking up at her. Hinata landed next to Aiko right after that. "I don't need your help to fight this Suna trash!" Aiko shouted. "Don't you want to fight Gaara?" Hinata questioned. 

Aiko stopped and said no words. Naruto flashed up next to Aiko and slyly placed his Flying Raijin formula on her back. "We can deal with his siblings while you go after Gaara," Naruto suggested. "Tch, Fine! I'm only letting you help me because I want to kill that Gaara kid," Aiko said. "I'll distract this one while you two continue to pursue Gaara and the other sibling," Hinata said. "Alright, thank's Hinata," Naruto said with a nod of his head. Hinata nodded her head in return before she jumped over the wall and began her assault on Temari. 

"Let's get going," Naruto said before he jumped over the Mud Wall, Aiko following closely after him. They ran through the trees and soon encountered the other Sand Sibling and Gaara. The sibling known as Kankuro sat Gaara down and began to fight Naruto. Aiko jumped for Gaara but was forced to dodge an arm made of sand. Gaara had regained his consciousness and jumped away from the battle with Aiko in hot pursuit. Gaara stopped suddenly on a branch and clutched his head. 

Aiko stopped on a tree branch a little further from Gaara and observed him. "Stop...Stop it!" Gaara screamed. Aiko looked at Gaara with a tilt of her head. "What's wrong with this kid?" Aiko thought before charging towards him. Before she could get close to Gaaa, she was grabbed by the ankles. She looked down and saw sand swirling around her ankles and slowly crawling up her leg. She looked up at Gaara, and for the first time in a long time, Aiko flinched at what she saw. 

Half of Gaara's face was showing, and the other half showing was of the One-Tailed Beast, Shukaku. "Mother wants your blood Konoha Shinobi" Gaara growled. "I don't know who you're talking about, but that's not going to happen!" Aiko declared as she le outa burst of her chakra from her feet, freezing the sand. She quickly broke out of Gaara's grasp and leaped back. Aiko weaved hand signs and took a deep breath before spewing out multiple cylindrical air streams towards Gaara. 

Gaara brought his hand up and blocked the attack with his sand arm before shooting out more sand towards Aiko. She dodged that before throwing a single hand sign. "Fire Style: Majestic Deystoryer Flame!" Aiko muttered before taking in a deep breath and releasing a massive, unrelenting wave of fire towards Gaara. Gaara's eyes widened, and he realized that there was only one thing left he could do if he were to survive. When the fire stopped, what stood in front of Aiko was no longer Gaara. What stood in front of Aiko was a fully transformed Gaara. 

The One-Tailed beast stared down at Aiko before letting outa high pitched "Weeee." He slammed his paw down towards Aiko, but she narrowly dodged the massive paw. "If I'm going to beat this Gaara guy, then I'll need to use my trump card," Aiko said as she ran through a series of hand signs before slamming her palms onto the ground, "Summoning Jutsu!". Naruto, Hinata, and the rest of the Sand Siblings could see a massive puff of smoke. They had already stopped their fighting when they saw Gaara in his transformed state. 

When the smoke cleared, it revealed a colossal purple snake. When Naruto and Hinata saw the snake summoning, they finally realized who had trained Aiko. "Lady Aiko, what are your commands?" Manda asked with an unusual tone of respect. "I need you to restrain that," Aiko said as she pointed towards The One-Tails. "As you command," Manda said before he slithered forward at speeds faster than what The One-Tails could process. "Why are you so dam fast!" The One-Tailed beast shouted in anger as he tried attacking Manda with wind bullets. 

Manda dodged the Jutsu with ease and coiled himself around Shukaku, immobilizing him. "You must hurry, Lady Aiko; I will not be able to hold him forever," Manda said. "I just need to get to Gaara and kill him," Aiko said as she jumped towards Gaara. She attempted to throw a punch towards Gaara, who already had his hands in the Ram hand sign. She was forced back by sand but continued forward. She brought her fist back and threw it at Gaara but sand quickly wrapped around her fist. That was quickly followed up with her other hand and both feet being restrained. 

"I just got control, and I'm not letting you give it back to him!" The One-Tailed Shukaku shouted. Sand started to surround Aiko quickly, and soon enough, she was consumed by it. The sand was suffocating her. Aiko tried to breathe, but she couldn't get any oxygen. Her vision slowly faded to black, and when she opened her eyes again, she was inside the Mindscape. Dark Aiko looked around frantically with both an angered and confused look on her face. 

"Why the hell am I back here?" She questioned. Her eyes suddenly widened, and she whipped her head around towards the real Aiko and Yuna were being held. She saw that Aiko was missing from where she was supposed to be. "Where did she go!" Dark Aiko shouted in anger. "How am I supposed to know? You're the one in control of her body," Yuna growled. Dark Aiko growled with anger before raising a single hand in the Tiger Seal. Seals across Yuna's body started to glow, and Yuna began to howl in pain. "I'll ask again, you overgrown fleabag! Where. Is. Aiko." Dark Aiko questioned slowly, with rage dripping from every word

"Right behind you." Dark Aiko whipped around but was not fast enough to dodge a punch aimed for her head. The fist connected with her jaw, and she was sent tumbling across the mindscape. Dark Aiko stood up shakily before wiping away some blood that came dripping from her mouth. When Dark Aiko saw Aiko, her eyes widened slightly. The area over and around the inside of Aiko's eye was colored black, stopping at the bridge of her nose before going out down her cheeks at diagonal lines. Aiko's Ice-Blue eyes were now a Sharingan with two Tomoe marks and a slit down the middle like before, but the only difference now was that it was golden in color instead of blood-red. 

"What the hell is that!" Dark Aiko shouted. Aiko stood up straight and assumed a wide stance with her left side in front. Her right fist being held in the center of her chest, right above her solar plexus. Her left hand was open-faced, her palm facing towards Dark Aiko and bent forward slightly. "I was in here for long enough to learn something new. It's my Sage mode, My Wolf Sage Mode," Aiko declared. "Your 'Wolf Sage Mode'?" Dark Aiko said with a confused tone. 

"Mama is made up of not only her Tailed Beast Chakra but also Natural Energy. Whenever I accessed Her Chakra, I was also tapping into her Natural Energy, so it wasn't that hard to achieve this mode," Aiko explained. "Tch, that doesn't make you stronger than me!" Dark Aiko yelled as she activated her Stage One Curse Mark and charged. Aiko stood her ground as Dark Aiko charged towards her, only slightly narrowing her eyes. When Dark Aiko got close enough, she threw a punch with her right hand. Aiko, using her enhanced Sharingan, perceived the attack and bent backward slightly.

In one swift motion, Aiko grabbed Dark Aiko's wrist with her right hand and flipped her over while using her left hand to assist. Aiko slammed Dark Aiko on the ground with immense strength. Dark Aiko spat out some blood when she hit the solid ground. Using her free hand, Dark Aiko shot multiple Ice-White Snakes towards Aiko, forcing her to let go of Dark Aiko's wrist. Dark Aiko jumped off the ground and shot more snakes toward Aiko. 

Aiko reached for her kunai pouch and pulled out two kunai. She held one in each hand and applied some of her Wind Chakra to them. She stated to slice through all the snakes that Dark Aiko was sending her way. Dark Aiko smirked when she thought she had her. She created a shadow clone and replaced herself with it before disappearing. She came up behind Aiko with a kunai of her own but was surprised when Aiko jumped and flipped over her.

"How did you sense me! You were occupied with the snakes!" Dark Aiko shouted. "Sage Mode enhances my abilities and allows me to sense things were better the before," Aiko explained before hitting her with a backspin heel kick, hitting her in the side of the head. Dark Aiko fell to the ground and spat out more blood. Aiko walked up to the grounded Dark Aiko and squatted down next to her. "You're not going to be able to win this," Aiko said. "Oh yeah?" Dark Aiko said, smirking. 

Aiko felt herself being wrapped up by a stretchy-looking arm tightly. She tried struggling but was just squeezed harder. Dark Aiko stood up and smiled at Aiko. "Lord Orochimaru taught me few new tricks. Like how to extract Chakra from others," Dark Aiko said with a happy smile. "Don't take my chakra!" Aiko pleaded, "It will turn people who can not control it into stone." "Tsk. Like that's going to work on me," Dark Aiko scoffed before she started to r drain Aiko of her Sage Chakra. 

The marks around Aiko's eyes began to disappear slowly as Dark Aiko took Aiko's sage Chakra. Dark Aiko smirked when she saw the last of Ako's marks fade away. Just before she could gloat, she felt off. Lie something inside of her was turning solid. She looked at her hand and feet and noticed that they began to turn into stone. The lengthy arm wrapped around Aiko loosened its grip before it was retracted back to Dark Aiko. 

Dark Aiko saw the stone creep its way up her arms and legs. "what...what did you do to me!" Dark Aiko yelled. "I tried to want you, but now it's too late," Aiko said. Dark Aiko tried to attack Aiko but couldn't move as the stone fully consumed her. Aiko brought her fist back and coated it in her chakra before punching Dark Aiko's now stone body. The stone burst into millions of prices before fading away. Aiko turned back towards Yuna and brought her hands together in the Ram Handsign and mumbled release. 

Yuna has instantly released from her restraints and landed on the ground. "That was a job well done, my little pup," Yuna said with a proud tone. "Thanks, Mama!" Aiko said with a happy tone. "But now you have to save the One-Tail's Jinchuriki," Yuna said. Aiko nodded before she waved at Yuna as she disappeared from the Mindscape, fully in control of her body for good. When Aiko reopened her eyes, she was being suffocated by sand. She let outa large burst of her chakra and escaped the burial of sand. 

She stood right in front of Gaara and noticed that he was asleep. "There's only one way to wake someone up," Aiko thought. She pulled her fist back and punched Gaara hard. Gaara's eye's snapped open, allowing him control of his body and what he was doing again. "No!" Shukaku shouted as his form started to crumble, "I just got out!". Aiko smirked in victory, but that moment was short-lived when her footing crumbled underneath her, and she began to freefall. 

The ground came towards her fast, and she covered her face with her arms. She expected to hit the ground at any second, but she had confusion running through her mind when she hit something soft instead of the solid ground. Aiko opened her eyes and saw she landed on a cushion of sand. She looked over to where Gaara was and saw he had his hand stretched out towards her as he laid on his own bed of sand. "Thank..you," Gaara said in a raspy voice. 

"No problem," Aiko said with a wide smile. "You're different than before. You don't have the dark aura around you anymore," Gaara commented. "I wasn't in control of my body for a long time," Aiko exp[laein, eliciting a confused look from Gaara. "Long story."  Aiko heard footsteps rapidly approaching n both her and Gaara. She looked up from her bed of sand and saw her teammates, Naruto and Hinata, along with two others she didn't notice. 

"You guys!" Aiko exclaimed happily as she jumped up and ran towards the two, engulfing them in a tight hug. Naruto and Hinata shared confused looks but accepted it, feeling Aiko was different. Temari and Kankuro picked Gaara up and put his arms over their shoulder. "Thank you, you two...for everything," Gaara said as he gave his two siblings a genuine smile, something they had never seen Gaara do before. Just as they were about to leave, Aiko called out to them. 

Gaara halted his siblings and looked at Aiko. "Can we be your friends?" She asked whilst gesturing towards Naruto and Hinata. Gaara nodded his head, accepting Aiko's offer. Aiko smiled happily as the three Sand Sibling jumped away. Aiko turned back towards her team, but she fell to the ground before she could utter a single word, fainting from chakra exhaustion. 

The next thing Aiko knew was the smell of chemicals that invaded her nose. She slowly opened her eyes, only to be greeted with a sight that she would consider adorable. The first thing she saw was Hinata sleeping in a chair with Hanabi fast asleep on her lap. She smiled at the two before looking over to her left. Naruto was resting his head on the edge of Aiko's bed while using his harms as pillows. The only sign of him sleeping was the gentle rise and fall of his back. 

Aiko smiled fondly at Naruto and moved her hand over and placed it over his. This jolted Naruot awake, and he immediately wrapped his hand and intertwined his fingers with hers. "Is that really you, Aiko-chan?" Naruto questioned. Aiko leaned towards Naruto gently placed her lips against his. She cupped his cheeks and held him there for a few seconds before letting go. "Does that answer your question?" Aiko said with a smirk. "It does," Naruto said with a smile. 

"Aiko Onee-san!" A small voice cheered happily. A small body landed on Aiko's stomach and hugged her, "I missed you!" Hanabi exclaimed. Aiko hugged Hanabi back. "I missed you to Hanabi-Chan," Aiko replied. "Aiko! I'm so glad you're awake," Hinata said, stepping next to Naruto. "It feels good to be awake," Aiko said, slightly referring to being back in control of her body. Naruto and Hinata caught Aiko's hint, and they nodded their heads. 

"So," Aiko said as Hanabi hopped off Aiko, "Did I miss anything during the Chunin Exams?". Naruto and Hinata looked down with sadness. "What happened?" Aiko asked. "The Third Hokage was killed by Orochimaru." 



(A/N)



Published: Tuesday - December 14th, 2021 - 3:27 P.M.