Naruto: The New Sealmaster

Dai vs Akimich Choji

He instantly walked over to Dai and slapped his back. Kazuto was also there trying to enthuse their team member, but Dai seemed deep in thought. Which was honestly quite strange for the guy who usually only went on instincts. Aoshi thought he knew what it was about.

"I know you feel indebted to the Akimichi for letting you have those techniques."

The shocked expression he showed was proof of how correct Aoshi was.

"But that does not mean you have to lie down in this fight. Instead, show that you're worthy. Respectfully, beat his ass Dai. I know you can!"

And then he slapped his back once more, bringing out a small chuckle from Dai which set off Kazuto into a pep talk. It all seemed to work as Dai walked down to the arena with authority and might in his step. The guy had always seemed huge for their age, and he was a year older after all, but now that he thought about it, he actually was massive. He stood tall, taller than most adults, and with large muscles in front of Choji with an intimidating stare. He gave the other boy a bow to show respect, which was returned, and then the fight began.

Not many in there actually cheered for Dai, as Kazuto, Aoshi, and Hachiro were the only ones who knew him, but he knew he had their support. All of the younger kids cheered for their friend Choji.

"There's no way Choji is losing this one. The Rokushō kid is impressive, and I was surprised by the..uh.. Sarutobi kid, but there's no way this Dai guy can measure up to Choji."

It was Asuma who was talking out loud to the other group leaders. Most of the others looked unconvinced, but muscles and a large stature didn't always mean power in the ninja world after all. It was Hachiro who would counter him.

"Don't sell Dai short. He has some very interesting techniques in his locker. Techniques the Akimichi denied to use in fact."

That earned him surprised gazes from most around him, and some of the kids seemed confused as well. They decided to keep cheering for Choji and watch the fight intensely.

Aoshi had a hard time seeing Choji win this, and assumed the confidence came from ignorance in Asuma's case. That would also show to be apparent in the next moments.

Akimichi Choji used his clan's iconic technique to expand his stomach into a circular shape and then used a technique to hide his limbs inside his body and shoot himself towards Dai like a cannonball. Dai remained. He gathered his chakra and methodically went through the hand signs before shouting out.

"Great Hardening: Iron Frame"

His body took on a grey tint as Dai widened his stand and reached out one arm towards Choji. He was planning on meeting him straight on and catching the boy. It worked. Choji slammed into Dai's hand, but Dai didn't budge in the slightest. Instead he stood still until he managed to grip Choji which brought a stop to his rolling. Asuma was astounded.

And then Dai punched the kid. Now, Aoshi knew the power behind those punches and it was really like getting hit by an anvil falling from the sky. Truly something to be scared of, and it showed as the kid's technique was deactivated from the punch alone and he flew across the arena into the opposing wall.

Maybe Choji could have taken that hit and stood up if he had been ready for it, but he hadn't been. It was a punch which brought the kid close to fainting, which surprised Dai who started running over to check on Choji"

"Call the match and get some medics in here!"

Choji had not only hit the wall, the wall had caved in and buried him inside it. Dai went through some hand seals though and used an earth technique to bring the kid out from the wall, showing the proctor that he was incapable of continuing.

"The winner of the match is Dai."

As the medics got Choji up on a gurney, he opened his eyes and saw how remorseful Dai was.

"I'm sorry kid, I didn't mean to really harm you."

Choji smiled at his fellow shinobi.

"Don't be. It was a fair fight, and that was an impressive punch. I'll come back stronger one day though, you'll see!"

That was the last thing he said before getting taken away from the area. Seeing as Dai was still rather sullen, it was a muted celebration when he got back up there. Looking around, the others didn't blame him as hard as he blamed himself. Hachiro was the one to bring him out of it by taking him aside and talking about it. Soon, the next match appeared on the screen.

Dosu vs Misugi

Aoshi didn't care in the slightest about either contestant. Sensing their chakra levels, they were nothing special either. He knew the Dosu guy was a sound ninja, and Misugi was one of the odd ninjas who accompanied Kabuto. The fight was soon over. Misugi had some kind of jutsu which let him extend his body and contort it however he wanted, but he was no match for Dosu's pure strength or technique.

"The winner of that round is Dosu. Now we will have two more rounds where some people will be randomly selected to fight again. Everyone please prepare yourself, if you can't get down in the arena you will be automatically disqualified. The exception being Hyuuga Neji. If his name were to appear, Rokushō Aoshi will take his place since he was the one who incapacitated him wrongfully."

Aoshi received a look and nodded in acceptance. He was aware this was going to happen but there were a couple of people now who wouldn't be able to fight. Neji and Sasuke being two of them. The billboard ran through the names and soon two were selected.

Kankuro of the sand vs Shimura Tetsuo

An interesting battle for sure. Neither was truly tested in the last round, so they would be fighting at full capacity. Let's just say it showed. The battle took one turn after another. With Tetsuo melting the rocks around them and Kankuro managing to trap him once or twice. It was an interesting battle, and it gave some knowledge concerning how powerful the two were. Eventually, the battle ended when Tetsuo managed to fool Kankuro into thinking he was one of his puppets, only for Tetsuo to send a massive blast along the chakra strings. With both of Kankuro's hands being severely burnt, he couldn't go on.

A well fought battle, with Tetsuo being the more clever one. It wasn't certain that he was more powerful but that didn't matter.

"The winner of the battle is Shimura Tetsuo. Medics, get in here quickly."

Kankuro was escorted away by medics. He had no trouble walking or anything but the pain in his hands and arms were excruciating. They had blackened slightly, a bit more and Aoshi was certain that Kankuro would never be able to use chakra strings again.

The billboard came to life for one final time and two names appeared for all to see.

Dai vs Dosu

That was a shame. Dai had made it through his last battle because of an advantage in strength and techniques. This one would be tougher. Dosu seemed very experienced compared to others around. Aoshi was certain Dai would have a difficult time, but only slapped his back to show his support before the big guy left.

Sound is an interesting phenomenon. In the air it travels rather fast, faster than most people. But in solids, say for example a piece of iron, it travels several times faster. This matchup was in Dosu's favour, and it ended very abruptly. Dai started the fight by hardening once more and running at Dosu. The sound ninja raised his arm with holes in it and let Dai's strike hit it. The sound reverberated through the hall, but one sound seemed even louder. The sound of Dai fainting right there on the spot. He had no chance, and the fight was over.

He was bleeding from several orifices, but according to the medics he would be fine after a night's rest. So Aoshi, Kazuto and Hachiro went back up to the balcony to await the final announcements.

"The winner is Dosu, which concludes the preliminaries. Could all winners come down so that we can explain what happens next?"

The winners who were still there walked down to stand in front of the proctor and the hokage. They were Shimura Tetsuo, Rokushō Aoshi, Higurashi Tenten, Nara Shikamaru, Uzumaki Naruto, Dosu and finally Gaara. Neji and Sasuke would be getting the information at some other time.

"To those of you who won your bouts and qualified for the finals of the third phase of the chunin exam, although two of you aren't here, congratulations!"

Then the hokage took centre stage and started explaining the finals. The finals would be in front of very important people to each of the respective nations and the hokage made that very clear.

"And thus the finals will commence one month from now!"

Naruto got pissed that he couldn't just finish it right then and there, the idiot was dumb enough to forget his own teammate was with the medics. The hokage explained that the month would be a preparatory period both for them and for him. He would have time to invite foreign convoys and important people, and they would have the time to come up with strategies to win against their opponents. Then they went around with a box full of notes and told them to take one.

Aoshi got number six, and soon they had all gotten their numbers. It turns out that their matchups for the final were now decided. Naruto would face Neji first, then Sasuke would face Gaara, the third fight would be between Aoshi and Tetsuo and finally Shikamaru would face Dosu, and Tenten would face the victor in that fight. Aoshi was rather two-minded about his battle. First he would fight Tetsuo, which was a fight he needed to have even though it probably wouldn't be pretty. Then if he won he could have to face Tenten, which was a problem in and of itself.

The final thing before they were dismissed was the Hokage explaining that although it looked like a tournament, who would be promoted was not decided by who won. It would be decided on whether they had proved they possessed the necessary qualities to become a chunin. Going further in the tournament meant you had more chances to prove that.

"Well then, good work, all! You are dismissed until one month from now!"

The next second Naruto started screaming about something, but Aoshi waved it off to go to his team. They congratulated him once more, and he was happy to receive their praise, but Dai, Hinata and Rock were all that was on his mind.

"Let's go to the Hospital and check how things are going! Aunty, are you coming as well?"

Kurenai was already walking towards him when he said it, and with a nod she and her team came along. The large group went over to the hospital only to find Naruto angrily rushing out with some odd guy with completely black glasses following him. Kakashi stood by the reception and they joined him. Before they could get a word in, the receptionist spoke.

"As I told the other kid, visitation hours are over. Unless you have a good reason I won't let you through."

Kurenai showed her proof of being Hinata's sensei, and was let through.

"Don't worry, I'll give you all an update. See you at home Aoshi!"

Everyone understood, and while they asked the receptionist questions regarding each of their team members, Kakashi pulled Aoshi aside.

"What are your plans for this month? Anything in particular?"

Aoshi sighed. He had a few plans but he wasn't certain he could pull anything off in a month. Nothing that would change his chances significantly at least. The only thing he could think about was perfecting some seals.

"I have several plans, but the best one would be to develop my sealing techniques I think. Currently, my chakra amount is what's holding my plans back..There are no good references available to me currently though."

Kakashi stood there, thinking for a short period. Then he walked over to the receptionist and whispered in her ear. She nodded and the two of them, and only the two of them, were let in. Aoshi looked back at his friends with confusion clear on his face.

"I'll see you all later!"

Soon he stood inside Sasuke's room. The fact that a couple of ANBU were currently clearing out a couple of bodies was disturbing, but since Kakashi didn't react it was obviously something that was already dealt with. The two walked past the bodies and ended up next to the hospital bed.

"You wanted to inspect the seal on him right? Well there it is. Just make sure to keep this under wraps. Others can't know. Are we clear?"

Aoshi looked up at his teacher with stars in his eyes until he got into business mode and checked out the seal. It was an odd thing. It seemed to be made to absorb chakra, but not the regular kind. Clearly some other special kind, but inside the seal was also some odd chakra. It seemed to have a similar chakra signature as Orochimaru, actually no, the exact same. So the seal had Orochimaru's chakra inside it, clearly with some kind of seal to let the chakra infect the user, and then it was made to absorb some kind of chakra that was unknown to him.

"What kind of chakra is this made to absorb? I am afraid I don't quite understand it."

Kakashi waved away the ANBU until they were alone.

"Yes. I believe it might be nature chakra. You might want to look into it at some point, but people mainly talk about it when talking about summons."

Kakashi placed two scrolls in Aoshi's hand and he nodded.

One of them contained the full seal used to suppress the cursed seal Orochimaru placed there. It was called the Evil sealing method. He frowned quite a bit after inspecting it.

"You do realise that this only works as long as he wants it to right? As soon as he feels powerless, he'll tap into the power within the seal. Then he'll get corrupted and want to use it more. Doesn't that sort of limit the usage of the seal?"

By the look on his face Kakashi already knew what he was talking about.

"I'm unfortunately not a sealmaster. The seal should be able to do a job, but if he gets too corrupted we might have to act. There is another person in Konoha with a cursed seal from many years ago, she has been able to keep hers inactive for many years. I just hope Sasuke has the fortitude to hold it in until we manage to solve the seal. If we put a heavier seal on him, he won't be able to use his chakra at all."

That was..true. The seal was too connected to his chakra system and would shut it down if it was left fully out. Aoshi sat down on the bed and inspected what he had been given. It was very interesting, but sadly not enough for him to come up with a good method.

"Thank you for this, but I think I'd need some more inspiration before I set off."

That second, an Anbu agent came in and gave Kakashi a report which made him happy.

"I suggest you make a quick move over to the hot springs then. And I'd suggest you see what you find outside."

Aoshi didn't understand at all how that would help him, but seeing as Kakashi smiled at him without saying another word, he supposed he might as well just accept it.

"Alright, I'll go right now. See you later, hope Sasuke wakes up soon!"