The Will of Fire Lives Stronger Than Ever

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Got it?

Author's Note: this idea wouldn't leave me alone and I can't concentrate on Naruto: TSC because of it. Don't read if you don't already know how it happens in canon.

This story will begin in the Chunin exam preliminaries at what as in canon, Naruto vs. Kiba. What would've happened if Lee had fought Kiba and Naruto had fought Gaara in the preliminaries? Naruto will have to reveal a hidden strength to hope to defeat Gaara.

Ch1 You Don't Stand a Chance!

The Chunin Exam Third Round Preliminaries were more than halfway over.

Sasuke Uchiha, the avenger of Team 7, won out against some older Leaf genin who could absorb chakra through his hands by creating an Omote Renge knockoff that he called the Shishi Rendan.

Kankuro, a sand genin who was a puppeteer, beat an older Leaf genin who could stretch his body like rubber by having his puppet, Karasu, break his spine in a killer hug while Kankuro was hiding in the binding that normally held Karasu.

Shikamaru, Konoha's resident lazy genius, defeated a sound genin named Kin. She used a genjutsu that created hallucinations via the sound of her bells. Shikamaru won by using the Kage Mane to ram her head into a wall.

Temari, a sand genin used a giant fan to quickly crushing Konoha's weapons mistress, TenTen. All in all it was a rather unimpressive mismatch.

Shino the bug man, won against and sound genin named Zaku. He plugged Zaku's air cannon's with bugs. Zaku won't be using his arms anytime soon.

Battle of the Fangirls. Sakura vs. Ino. Call it what you will, but sparks were flying on minute one. Sakura proved that she no longer needed to be protected by Ino. The determination showed was impressive but the level of fighting was not. It was a tie.

Inuzuka Kiba vs. Rock Lee!

"Yahoo! All right Akamaru! This eyebrow freak probably can't fight worth anything anyway!" Kiba yelled as he jumped down to the stage below. Akamaru yipped in agreement.

"Yosh! It is finally my turn! I will defeat this adversary and make Gai sensei proud!" He shouted, in all his green spandex glory.

"Lee kun!" Commanded Gai. "Be wary of the dog. It may be part of one of his strategies." Gai whispered ominously, as if it was not common knowledge.

"Hai, Gai sensei! Such youthful and important advice!" Lee shouted as he scribbled in his notepad.

"Don't write it down Lee kun! You won't have time to review your notes in battle!"

"Oh! More great advice!"

"Go down there and make me proud Lee Kun!"

"Hai!" Lee vaulted over the railing in the observers balcony and down onto the stage.

"Hey Naruto, do you think Kiba will be all right? You saw what he did to Sasuke Kun, and Kiba isn't nearly as good as he is." Sakura asked, having recovered from her match by now.

"Definitely. Kiba's tough, and I doubt that Lee would needlessly bash a fellow Leaf nin anyways. At the very least I'll get to enjoy seeing dog breath get his ass handed to him!"

"Yeah."

"Yo."

"Kakashi sensei! How's Sasuke doing?" Naruto and Sakura asked excitedly.

"He'll be fine. He just needs some rest." Team 7's cycloptic sensei replied. Sakura sighed in relieve. Naruto looked forwards to match that they would no doubt have soon.

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Kiba had sobered up slightly, having heard the conversation on the balcony by the members of Team 7 with his enhanced hearing. If this guy could trash Sasuke he would have to go all out just to hope to win.

Of course, the fact that Lee was just standing there gesturing for him to go first wasn't helping his ego.

"Come on Akamaru, Let's go! Shikyaku no Jutsu! A more feral looking Kiba leapt towards Lee with Akamaru charging up the left side.

Lee muttered "Gomen." Under his breath and quickly pivoted out of Kiba's way. He pushed his head down onto the ground spun him into a nearby wall. He merely grabbed Akamaru out of the air and kept him at arms length. (Yes, people, the same maneuver he used against Naruto before the Exam)

The collision with the wall caused Kiba to black out for a full minute resulting in his immediate disqualification; as such a long period of time is defiantly long enough for someone to kill you. Needless to say, Kiba, of course, was cursing loudly at this.

The next match was Hinata vs. Neji. Hinata put up a brave fight, but in the end she was overpowered by the stronger and faster Neji. Naruto complained loudly during the match, saying that nobody who tries is a failure, and that when they fought, he would kick Neji's ass. For Hinata, a fellow failure in need.

Sabaku no Gaara vs. Uzumaki Naruto.

"Just get it over with." Gaara said in a monotone, having already Shushined down to the arena.

"Finally! It's my turn to shine!" Naruto exclaimed excitedly.

"Hey, Naruto."

"What Kiba? I gotta start my match!"

"Give up. This guy will kill you in cold blood the moment this starts. Be smart about this for a change." Kiba warned.

Naruto snorted. "Like I'm gonna give up against him. I can let the teme upstage me now, can we!"

"I'm being serious! You don't stand a chance!"

"Don't bother, Kiba. If you knew him better, you would know that he never gives up. He'll find a way to win." Sakura interjected as Naruto jumped down to the arena. Although she wouldn't admit it, she was worried. Sakura saw the way that Kankuro and Temari looked at him with obvious fear.

"Naruto! He uses sand!"

"Right!"

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"Begin!" Hayate jumped away from the two combatants.

Naruto immediately charged to give the raccoon eyed freak a five finger sandwich. To his surprise, the gourd Gaara was wearing exploded into sand and Naruto impacted a wall of sand.

Naruto tried to jump away as the sand started to engulf him. Key word is tried.

"You're not worth my time. Sabaku Ky-"

"Kage Bushin no Jutsu!" The sand exploded outwards in not a rain of blood, but a rain of ten Narutos. "Alright, you surprised me once. I wasn't expecting you to use the sand like that. But you can't stop all ten of me!" The ten Narutos proceeded to charge Gaara just as the original had done before.

Needless to say, they didn't last long. After about ten seconds of clone/sand war, only one was left and Gaara was untouched.

Gaara formed his sand into a spike. This one was more entertaining than most, but was quickly becoming boring. Yes, mother would feast on his blood!

"Urk!" The spike of sand sailed straight through Naruto's heart. He fell down in a graceful, yet bloody arc with a small smirk on his face, as if he knew something you didn't. The body then burst into smoke.

The only way that you could tell that Gaara had noticed was that his eyes widened by a fraction and that his sand was still swirling.

Behind the giant statue that someone had conveniently placed next to the wall was our blond haired idiot. "Well, damn. Looks like it doesn't matte how many of me there are, they can't outmaneuver the sand. I was saving this for Sasuke teme, but I guess I'm gonna need it now. Good thing he's not here to see it firsthand, he'd probably copy it like he did with Lee's jutsu."

Author's Note

Next chapter you get to see what Naruto's secret power is and the preliminaries are finished up. Tell me what you think of it please. How far I go with this depends on how many reviews I get. I will definitely go to the end of the Chunin exams, but if you want me to, I'll go to Sasuke retrieval mission and beyond.

If you don't know what the jutsus are just go to www . leafninja . com and look for them. It's great for Naruto canon info.

Hope you like it

Over and out.

EyeOfTheBlizzard