In that split second, I slammed my palms together as hard as I could right in front of his face, a striking 111 decibel soundwave in one sudden millisecond. It was effective as a startling factor since he wasn't prepared, Giichi shutting his eyes tightly and thrown off-balance. 

A little unconventional, but good use!

Blinking behind him, I protruded my Hidden Blades and as I slammed my hands to his back, the blades slicing through him in an upward angle. Just as quickly, I sheathed my blades, removing my hands afterward and jumped back a safe distance.

My staff hit the ground shortly after my movements, the wooden clang echoing through the silently startled arena. Giichi gave a strangled and painful cry. The noise prodded at my heart.

Oh god, I'm sorry Giichi. I didn't want to hurt you too much, but I have to fight to become Chunin here...!

"Wait, what just happened?!" I heard from the observation deck. It sounded like Temari.

Startled noises were heard from the more vocal rookies, especially from Giichi's teammates.

"When could he move that fast...!" Lee gaped, his voice cutting through the air.

"Giichi!" one of Giichi's teammates, the silver-eyed female, called in worry. I could hear the male teammate gasp in shock.

"He got stabbed! He's bleeding!! How?! That's unheard of...!"

"Woah!" Naruto exclaimed, "Angel-kun Blinked, right?"

"How? He didn't touch him anywhere to place the mark..." Sakura faltered, realizing when I placed the teleportation mark, "oh! It was planted when Angeles leaped over him! His hands connected with Giichi's shoulders!"

Giichi heard the commentary and his eyes snapped to his right shoulder. Sure enough, he spotted my small chakra-made hat mark on his jacket.

"That must have been when he planted the mark!" Naruto finished Sakura's outspoken thought.

Lee muttered to Neji nearby, "what pierced him...? Angeles didn't have anything in his hands! Find out, please!"

I felt a small burst of a chakra signature from above, and watchful eyes on me.

Giichi lurched forward, grasping at his wounds that went all the way through his torso, beginning to stain his jacket and shirt red. Spots of crimson began to form a small puddle under him as well. 

I got him good.

He spoke no words, just quiet breathing as he got a grip on what just happened.

Neji's voice entered the air, just loud enough to be in my range of hearing, "he has some sort of contraption on each arm in those metal plates. I had no idea... I thought they just served for protection, but no... hidden blades are on the inner sides of the forearm guards!"

Tenten sounded shocked, "no way! There are weapons like that? Those weapons have to have been specially made...I never heard of something like that before..."

"So they just pop out when they're needed? How does he use them?" Lee asked, generally confused at to the function of my arm guards.

"Quite the mystery..." Gai-sensei commented, thoughtful. 

I slowly returned to my battle stance, taking my mind off of the commentary and cautiously watching my opponent's reaction to what I had done.

It wasn't a good one, for sure. Distinctly, I could feel his animosity seeping into the air through his chakra after a moment of no reaction. He made multiple incredibly fast hand signs and blasted a wave of wind in my direction with a uncoordinated swipe of his arm. Leaping out of the way, I toughed out the after-gusts of wind when I rolled to recover my landing.

I heard Sakura's voice as she shouted loudly, "Angeles, be careful!"  

Glancing at Giichi's face as I focused on him, it wasn't at all hidden that he was extremely pissed. His shoulders were moving to his heaving breaths, making more hand signs and bellowing in rage as he sent more wind slashes in my direction. In retaliation, I launched myself out of the way of the multiple attacks, circling around the arena and dodging to avoid being pinned against a wall again. Aftershocks of wind and debris was everywhere, the observers having to stand back or hold onto the railing because of all the pressure. 

One attack got lucky and sliced me in the shoulder, whipping me off balance and making me spin quite fast mid-air, sending me rolling across the stone. I stopped rolling with my face to the sky. Hearing gasps from the observation deck, I grasped at the wound between my shoulder and my neck to stop the sudden flow of blood.

That was unnecessarily powerful...

I didn't have enough time to raise myself up, since Giichi was gracelessly throwing an overkill of wind at me. The attacks blasted around me and kicked up a ton of dust from the relentless attacks into the same general spot over and over and over again, earning a couple of gasps from observers.

"He's going all out!" I heard his female teammate scream above the wind, watching Giichi throw his attacks wildly.

"This is bad," The blue-eyed male shouted in response. You could hear the fear clearly in his shaky tone, "that tattooed guy is going to get massacred!"

Shakily getting up on my knees, I pressed my hand hard against my wound, red soaking my hand and feeling the sting of more hits that landed on me. Luckily I dodged enough that only some clipped me and not outright went through me.

That one attack was pretty severe. Any deeper and that would've snapped my collarbone clean in half. 

I gritted my teeth, taking a sharp breath in from the pain.

This isn't going to go very well...let's see what happens.

"WELL!? COME AT ME, ANGELES!" Giichi roared, "DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE SCARED!!!"

He's gotta be out of his mind, I thought, beginning to stand again. Taking a deep breath, I kept a level head as I focused through the stinging pain. When I didn't answer or move towards him right away, that frustrated the crap out of Giichi. His face twisted like putty in loathing.

"COME ON!!!!" he bellowed, throwing more attacks at me. Taking a couple of hurried steps to avoid the first oncoming slash, I stumbled and my legs nearly gave out. This startled me and I had to duck to avoid the next slash, rolling. Quickly getting up, I hopped out of the way of the attack that struck where I lay only seconds ago. Swiveling on my heel, a vertical wind attack went right past me, inches from my face. This close dodging went on as I heard more voices from above.

"Why isn't Angeles fighting back?!" Kiba burst, bewildered, "he's going to get wrecked if he keeps it up!"

Shikamaru made an approving noise, and Choji's voice piped up in confusion, "Shikamaru?"

"He'll be fine," Shikamaru sounded sure of himself, but still a bit bored.

"What makes you say that?" Ino questioned.

Shikamaru just groaned, "I'd be wasting my breath explaining it to you. Just shut up and watch."

Keeping up with the attacks, I kept a close eye on Giichi as I moved.

"This isn't getting anywhere!" Tenten cried, "Angeles will get hit sooner or later!"

"Look closely, Tenten," Neji pointed out to his teammate, keeping his eyes on the battle, "what do you notice about Giichi's attack pattern?"

It took a moment, but she got it as she gasped, "they're getting smaller...! Is his chakra running out?!"

Bingo, I thought with a smug tone, but the thought was gone when an attack almost hit my leg.

Focus now!

"Angeles has angered his opponent to the point that they don't even care how much energy they're wasting," Neji ventured in a matter-of-fact tone.

"Amazing...!" Lee sounded amazed, to be sure.

Doing a cartwheel to avoid the next wind slash, I saw something new coming at me, but it was too fast to react to it.

"What?!" I blurted, getting slammed. I flipped and skidded in a crouching position, grunting. I didn't get a chance to do anything else as I heard Giichi's utterly furious voice again.

"TAKE THIS, ASSHOLE!" Giichi howled, making more hand signs as he threw the biggest attack yet.

A literal wave of wind akin to a tsunami rose before my eyes, bigger than any I've seen. My eyes widened and I felt my face twist into something out of shock.

"Well...shit."

KABLAM!

The wind was extremely strong, dust covering almost the entire room, well over half of the room covered in the whirling cloud. The dust spread and coughing ensued around the room. The arena became silent as they all waited for the dust to settle.

Everyone was focused on where I had been, even Giichi, which was what I wanted. 

He didn't realize he was attacking a clone from the smoke. 

I came up from behind once more, grabbing him around the arms and waist and picking the shorter genin up in one swift motion. Bending my middle backwards, Giichi sailed over me with a shout and I proceeded to slam his head into the cement floor with enough force to really do some damage.

The observation deck was silent with shock as I straightened myself upright. Realizing that might have not been it, I whipped around my head to see Giichi's legs fall the rest of the way down to the floor, laying on his front. 

Half expecting my genin opponent to rise, I picked my staff from where it lay nearby. The genin was silent, shaking harshly as I watched with silent apprehension. With a lot of effort, he moved his arms and placed his palms to the ground, lifting himself slowly but surely.

He's not used to getting wounded like this, from the look of it. That's... a lot of blood. Did I do too much?

My grip on my staff got a little tighter, a little stressed that he was getting up once more and hoping that he would forfeit for his own sake. Giichi coughed, struggling. I mentally prepared myself for more fighting.

He fell once more, pathetically groaning, then silence followed. Giichi didn't move anymore after that.

Hayate quickly made his way over and crouched near Giichi to inspect him. I watched the proctor intently, forcing my tense shoulders to relax. Hayate looked a bit startled, the expression seeping into his voice as he coughed harshly into his clasped hand.

"I'd say...he's done. As the winner of round three, Angeles will proceed."

Naruto cheered the loudest of my supporters, conversations filling the spacious arena as medics came over with a stretcher. I took a couple of steps back to give the medics space, then turned away with a victorious expression.

A warm feeling spread across my chest despite the pain I was in. My hand found my shoulder wound and proceeded to put pressure on it again.

I did it! I'm exhausted, but I did it.

"This is worse than I thought...! We need to get him into surgery."

I pause, my stomach immediately sinking and my expression faltering into one of shock, staring at nothing in particular. I stood still as I listened to the medics place Giichi onto the stretcher they brought along. I registered his team frantically running past me to see what was going on.

My ears registered nothing but ringing as I realized what I had just did.

Did I...did I almost...?

"Angeles."

Kakashi's voice filtered through the loud static in my ears crystal clear. Blinking myself out of the daze, I realized that I was standing extremely stiff, my hands shaking. I registered someone crying behind me.

"Angeles, look at me."

My eyes focused on my silver-haired sensei. From the expression he gave, he looked concerned.

"They will take care of him. Don't worry about it."

I lowered my head, my eyebrows curving upward in indecision, gripping my wound a little harder. Kakashi took this as a sign that I didn't believe him, but changed the subject anyway, "those wounds look nasty. Let's get you to the infirmary to clean you up, alright?"

Nodding in a sombre manner, I followed my sensei off of the arena, hastily following the medic ninja to get to the right place. I felt eyes on my back as I left, the feeling ominous and uncomfortable. I heard the screen shuffle names once more as we left earshot of the arena.

--------------------------------

"We have a month to prepare...?"

Sakura nodded, seated next to the bed I rested in as I looked over the slip of paper she had given me. The paper held information of the matches that would be in the final round.

I'm going against that one silver-haired female from Giichi's team...she must have passed, then. She must have a grudge on my win. I'll have to train hard to make sure I surpass anything she throws at me.

"The Hokage said that we needed time to prepare against the ninja we were assigned to fight in the final rounds," Sakura explained sullenly.

Lowering the paper from my eyes and redirecting my gaze to Sakura's face, I realized she was still bummed out from her tie with Ino. We had a moment of silence as I watched her space out.

"Hey..." I leaned forward to try to catch her eye. It worked with the vocal cue, her gaze moving towards mine with a dejected look.

"I...I heard you tied with Ino," carefully bringing up the subject, I questioned, "how are you holding up?"

Sakura's eyebrows upturned, her eyes flickering away as she responded, "well, I'm okay, I guess..."

"I see," I frown a little, realizing it wasn't the match that bothered her. Speaking a little quieter, I brought up the topic I was sure she was upset about, "it's not about the match...it's about Sauske, isn't it?"

She jolted a little, confirming my suspicion.

"I'll be released from here soon. Wanna eat later? Kami knows we need something proper to eat after the whole Forest of Death mess. My treat."

--------------------

After walking Sakura home after dinner at a small restaurant to cheer her up a little, I wasn't tired in the slightest. I decided to walk around the quiet town for a little bit.

It was relaxing, listening to the owls and calm in the village after dark. The full moon shown brightly in the black satin sky, mesmerizing me. Before long, I realized it was pretty late into the night. With that, I decided to head back home.

Rubbing at my shoulder to massage the swelling, I strode with a lax pace...that is, until I heard running. From the noise, it was a chase and it was on the rooftops. That sent my heart into a pounding frenzy and I quickly slipped into a dark alley to hide from the oncoming individuals. Scanning the sky, I locked my sights on a ninja after a moment. My eyes widened in recognition.

The proctor? Hayate?!

The next person I saw that was chasing the preliminary proctor made my blood run cold, feeling the animosity coming from him in waves.

That's the sand village team's jonin...! Baki, was it? What the hell?!

Knowing there was something going on, I silently followed the chase on the ground to where they stopped near Kikyo castle, Baki striking at Hayate and preventing him from getting away. Hidden a good length away, I watched what was going on, keeping my breath quiet.

Is this about the Sand allegiance with the Sound...?

"Well well well, if it isn't the exam proctor," Baki growled, "what are you doing here, all alone?"

"Seems I have no choice but to fight..." Hayate coughed, pulling his katana from the sheath. A standoff began, the air extremely tense.

Hayate engaged first, both delivering blows, but it was over quick. After pulling the Crescent Moon Dance, Baki threw a wind sword jutsu and completely decimated Hayate. I gasped at Hayate slamming to the rooftop dead, then immediately slapped a hand over my own mouth.

Shit!

Baki quickly turned at the sound, but I was already gone.

Gasping for air, I frantically told myself to relax as I placed a palm to my chest and closed my eyes. I Blinked to one of the training grounds, knowing if I Blinked home the enemy would know where I lived. In the bushes where I had put a mark previously, I didn't move from the brush for a moment to calm down.

Hayate must have listened in on a meeting or something. They killed him to shut him up...!

My hands wouldn't stop shaking as I thought about what happened.

This isn't something to be taken lightly. I watched Hayate die...! I have to tell someone! 

I went to get up, but paused.

Wait. Should I tell them everything? The Sound and the Sand? The prepared attack...? I could save so many people! I could save the Hokage!

Raking my hands through my hair, I grunted as I thought, no that's way to dangerous. That puts me and the timeline in incredible danger. It would throw everything off...this is important to Naruto's, Sauske's, Konoahamaru's, and Garra's development. Not to mention the entrance of Tsunade after the Third's passing.

Giving myself a few moments to think it through, I stared up at the moon.

Too dangerous. I'll just have to report what I saw. But...should I report seeing Baki...? This could hint to the betrayal of the Sand, thus uncovering the mission to overthrow the Hokage way too soon. It's a day after the preliminaries after all.

I sighed.

That's it, then. I'll just warn the Hokage that I saw Hayate dead near Kikyo tower. I mean, I got to do something at least! I refuse to sit back and let everything happen on it's own.

Quickly getting up, I sped around the trees into the clearing and skidded to a stop, wavering to catch my balance. Kabuto stood in front of me, illuminated brightly by the blue moonlight. He was not happy, even from behind the glint on his glasses his stance spoke of irritation. My eyes widened as he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, the glint of the glasses fading to show his intense glare.

"So...you heard too, huh? Looks like there was more than one rat listening in tonight."

I'm fucked. Absolutely fucked.