Naruto: The New Beginning

76. Duels

---

Zaku Abumi is a ninja from the Hidden Sound Village, with black hair styled in a wild manner.

In the anime, Team Dosu travelled to Konohagakure to participate in the Chūnin Exams with the secret goal of killing Sasuke Uchiha.

Before the exam started, Zaku and his teammates overheard Kabuto Yakushi talking about their village and decided to attack him.

After Zaku threw Kunai as a distraction, Dosu attacked Kabuto and damaged his hearing.

To prevent the situation from escalating, the exam proctors, led by Ibiki Morino, appeared and settled things down.

After Zaku passed the written portion of the Chūnin Exams, he moved on to the second phase alongside his teammates.

Zaku has air vents in the palms of his hands, which he uses to unleash Wind Release jutsu and sonic attacks. It's rumoured that Orochimaru may have modified him.

Shigure was a ninja from the Hidden Rain Village, with brown hair, two scars on his face, and stitches at the corners of his mouth. He carries seven umbrellas on his back and has a rather aged appearance.

In the original story, Shigure and his two teammates were killed by Gaara's Sand Waterfall Funeral jutsu, which is as deadly as it sounds.

These two seem much more normal compared to the usual shinobi from Konoha when they first appear, and their meeting is just a series of trash talk.

Shigure starts: "Kid, you're out of luck for meeting me. If you know what's good for you, you should surrender."

Zaku retorts: "Old man, maybe it's time for you to retire."

Hayate Gekkō waved his hand and announced, "The sixth match of the preliminaries, begin!"

Shigure pulled out five umbrellas from his back and threw them into the air, forming hand seals:

"Ninja Art: Senbon Rainstorm!"

The five umbrellas spun rapidly, unleashing countless senbon needles. Under Shigure's chakra control, they surrounded Zaku from all directions and rained down upon him.

As the saying goes, "When it rains needles, you better find cover."

But Zaku wasn't one to sit idly by. Powerful gusts of wind erupted from his palms, blowing the senbon away as he dashed forward, escaping the barrage from all sides.

Of course, Shigure wasn't about to let him off easily and continued to guide the remaining senbon to pursue Zaku.

Zaku charged ahead and closed the distance between himself and Shigure:

"Wind Release: Decapitating Airwaves!"

Shigure quickly removed an umbrella from his back to block, but the powerful air current sent him crashing into the wall, knocking him unconscious.

"Ah... Damn!" Zaku was also hit from behind by the remaining senbon, turning him into a pincushion. Fortunately, the needles weren't strong enough to hit any vital spots.

"The winner is Zaku Abumi," Hayate announced.

Medical staff carried the two away for treatment as the screen began selecting the next battle.

"The next one is me! It's gotta be me!" Rock Lee couldn't help but chant, eager to prove himself.

Kakashi watched Lee, reminiscing about a young Gai.

Gai seemed to sense this, turning to flash Kakashi a thumbs-up and a gleaming smile.

Kakashi chose to ignore him.