Start of the tournament

Start of the tournament

It was becoming increasingly difficult to expand the chakra projection beyond it's current size the further I refined the technique. The biggest issue I was coming to face was the absolutely monstrous amount of chakra control needed to use it. For most jutsu or techniques involving chakra there was a certain rule of thumb that applied. Basically a jutsu must either be vague in what it did or only require a small area of chakra exertion. This was why even jutsu like [water dragon bullet] only created vague constructs that followed specific rules that were simple to understand.-

Techniques that broke this rule of thumb like my own or Narutos porcupine like technique came at heavy costs and difficulty as a result. Generally however the trade off was well worth it as these same jutsu and techniques tend to be very powerful. My own work in progress [chakra armor] technique was considered high A ranked and it wasn't even a quarter complete! Narutos technique was probably also A ranked though on the lower end of the spectrum because it wasn't all that powerful but had a bunch of utility.-

Anyways the village was getting rather crowded as merchants and foreign shinobi came to watch and bet on the tournament. Amongst them were the Fourth Kazekage and the wind Daimyo who were in an awkward position. It was sort of an open secret but the fourth Kazekage and current Wind Daimyo did NOT get along. Supposedly the reason for this was because the Kazekage named Rasa had sent one of the Suna's most powerful shinobi on a suicide mission because she was a threat to his reign as Kazekage. I was of course referring to Pakura of the scorch release who was an elite jonin of Suna that was very close to being an S ranked ninja.-

Her power and respected war history meant that she could vie for control over the village with Rasa and so he had her sent on an "ambassador" mission in the land of water but betrayed her causing her death but blaming the matter on Iwagakure(hidden stone). The wind Daimyo was VERY unhappy with this since not only was Pakura an amazingly powerful and talented kunoichi but she was also someone the man knew as a friend. As a result of Rasa's decision the Daimyo started cutting Suna off from funding via missions and political support effectively starving the village.-

Rasa was lucky however as he was a user of the magnet release kekkai genkai and specifically could control and manipulate gold sand. Thanks to this he was able to drag out gold from the desert sands that he sold to fund the village and keep it afloat if only just. Unlike the fire Daimyo I whole heartedly approved of the wind Daimyo on my first meeting. His clothes were bulking and covered him in a way that made it difficult to notice but he was not some untrained scrub and had some power to him.-

Everyone looked at me like I was an idiot for putting so much money on a losing bet but I wasn't going to explain myself to these people.

"You sure is was a good idea to put so much money on Naruto to win like that? Neji is quite the prodigy you know?" Guy asked curiously.

"I know he's talented but he did the one thing you don't want to do if you hope to beat Naruto, piss him off. That guys stubborn as a mountain as far as staying down is concerned if you get him angry." I said honestly.

"Sounds like a Neji might really have his work cut out for him then. For what it's worth try not to be too harsh on him, his situation is not a pleasant one." Guy said seriously.

"I don't blame him for lashing out like he did given his situation but he went too far with Hinata." I said calmly and Guy nodded in agreement.