Aye, sorry guys and gals. My last update was interestingly on my sister's birthday, and it seems I said I would try my best to get it up that Monday. But something came and steered me off path. A Science Fair Project. It's due Monday, and I still have to work on it, so don't expect another chapter until sometime next week. Also, I'm going to stop saying "I'm gonna update insert day of week here" because whenever I do, I end up not doing it, and I'm afraid people are gonna start hating me for fibbing. Yeah, ok, I'mma shut up now.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, but I guess I do own that new move I made for Shino when he gets surronded in bugs, unless that happens in the book or anime (cause I don't remember). If he does use a technique similar to that, then of well, it belongs to Masashi Kishimoto then.
"If Sabaku no Gaara and Aburame Shino would walk up to the center sometime today, that'd be great."
Shino slowly walked up to the left side of the circle. Gaara blinked and slowly began moving his gourd around. He slowly took it off his back and dropped it on the ground in front of Temari. He then began to walk forward toward Shino. Everyone looked as Gaara walked forward and then they shifted sights to his gourd on the ground.
"Gaara...don't you need this to fight?" Temari asked.
"I've seen this guy fight before," Gaara stated as he turned around, stopping his walk halfway. "Not only can I control the sand in the ground and in the air, but if I used the gourd he would easily clog it with his bugs. It was a precaution I took. I started training with out the gourd. Hopefully it works."
"But...the Shield of Sand!" Kankuro said lowly.
"The Shield of Sand used sand from the gourd. Now it's just going to use sand from the ground and air. The Armor of Sand is the same deal."
Gaara turned back around and kept walking toward the center. This was odd; this would probably be the only time in Gaara's life that he would fight without his gourd.
Now in the center, Gaara faced Shino. Genma sighed and took a slow deep breath. "The third fight, Sabaku no Gaara versus Aburame Shino, can now begin."
Sand started to fly around Gaara, in a small whip shape. A swarm of bugs came out of Shino's coat and surrounded him as well. Suddenly the both jumped backwards as their weapons collided, demolishing each other. Now it was clear to both of them that if their weapons collided, no one would win. Gaara slowly began to focus his chakra and a large wall of sand appeared in front of him. Suddenly, the wall began to fall, and a form of sand could be seen. The sand had now finished its fall, and a sand clone of Gaara could be seen. For a second, the clone simply stood there. In a quick flash, it extended its arm all the way to Shino ready to fist him in the face. A large swarm of bugs quickly formed in front of Shino's face, blocking the attack. Then another swarm of bugs, bigger than before, appeared behind Shino, and flew toward Gaara. They flew over the clone of Gaara and went right toward the real Gaara's face, with their usual intent to drain him of his chakra. The bugs quickly crashed into some sand that appeared in front of Gaara, and they slowly fell to the ground. The Shield of Sand fell back down as the two fighters faced each other. This seemed like an equal fight. Silently, Shino sent a swarm of his Kikaichu bugs along the floor as Gaara stared in his face. The bug's started crawling up Gaara's legs, and he remained still. The bugs began to feed off of Gaara, and after around a minute or so, Gaara fell on the ground, eyes still open. Shino walked over to the body and looked down. Suddenly, Gaara's face had several cracks in it, and it fell to pieces. Shino slowly turned around only to receive a slamming fist to his face from Gaara's own fist. Gaara didn't stop his attacks there, though. After the punch, Shino was sent back a few feet, and Gaara pulled up a wall of sand and around six large sand fists erupted from this sand wall to strike more hits on Shino. Shino slid back another couple of feet after this barrage with bruises all over his face. Shino quickly brought up his hands and performed a hand seal combination of Ox, Hare, Tiger, Dog, and Dragon. His whole body quickly became surrounded by his little bugs. Shino then dashed toward Gaara, ready with a punch to his own face. Shino surely knew that the Sand of Shield would stop this simple punch, but his bugs could then quickly travel through the sand suck that chakra right out from his face. As Shino threw his fist forward, a small little shield of sand appeared in-between Gaara's face and Shino's punch, blocking off the attack. Shino quickly sent his bugs the command to get the chakra out from Gaara's face. The bugs surrounding Shino's other fist quickly detached and seeped through the sand and unexpectedly tackled Gaara's face. Gaara jumped back as the bugs began to devour his chakra. Gaara quickly made the hand seal of the Tiger and he suddenly disappeared underground. As he did so, Shino dispersed the bugs from his body and they quickly vanished. That was the wrong move for Shino, though, because Gaara suddenly reappeared behind him in his normal form and threw a blasting fist to the rear part of his head. Shino was sent forward, headed for the ground, but as he dove for the ground, he used his hands and twirled himself around on his fingers, performing a backflip and landing back on his feet, facing Gaara. Gaara suddenly turned into sand once more and reappeared on top of a rocky pillar a few meters away from Shino. Gaara extended his arm toward Shino and separated his fingers.
"Ryūsa Bakuryū!"
An extremely large wall of sand could be seen forming behind Gaara. The wall grew larger and larger, taller and taller, until it was at least around half a mile into the air and around half a mile wide. The stands where the people were standing were on the side of it, so they were not to be hurt. The other contestants and all of the Jonin sensei went up to the stands for the small contestant's cavern was sure to be flowed with sand. Gaara was about to release his wave of lethal sand, and Shino was sure to drown in it. Shino had to think fast. Getting on a pillar wouldn't work since the sand was sure to hit that, and neither would going underground (which Shino had just learned to do before the tournament with the help of his bugs) because he wouldn't be able to get back up. He could only do one thing, and he wasn't even sure if it would work. He began to run toward the 100-foot-tall wall of earth the stands were sitting on. Upon seeing this attempt to flee, Gaara quickly released the wave of sand and it came crashing down to the earth, heading toward Shino quickly. Shino sped up his dash and began to traverse the wall upwards with his chakra. The sand would still be above him by the time it reached him, though. Sacrificing even more chakra, he broke out into an all-speed dash toward the wall. The sand was still going to end up above him, and while running, he noticed he was adjacent with an earth pillar that sat in front of the stands. When Shino was face to face with the audience and spectators, he quickly did a backflip and attached his feet to the pillar, and then from there he leaped off the side of the pillar onto the roof of the stands, watching the wave just barely miss his toe as he landed. Shino looked down on the roof which he was standing and saw some grains of sand. In a quick infuriating-like rage, those small grains of sand flew up into the air and combined with a long pillar of sand that flew up from the ground to face Shino. The sand quickly spiraled around Shino like a snake, and that sand quickly called more sand to help entrap the young ninja. In a matter of seconds so much sand was gathering around Shino that only his face could be seen. Gaara silently coughed and then spoke up.
"Surrender."
Shino began to struggle a little and the bond of the sand became tighter. Shino then had a flashback of the second stage of the Chunin Exams, when he, Kiba, and Hinata were watching that fight between Gaara's team and the team from the Hidden Grass. Gaara took care of the leader of that team like nothing with this attack that Shino was bounded by at the moment. He then remembered what Gaara did after that: his Sabaku Sōsō, which instantly annihilated the young grass-nin. Shino had no choice but to give up. He did value his life. Gaara made a small hole in the entrapment of sand that Shino was caught in and Shino put his right arm through it, and he held it in the air for a small period of time, stating that he had given up. Upon seeing this, Gaara released the sand holding Shino. Shino fell down and began to slide off the roof of the stands, but a large hand of sand caught him and dropped him off in the portable bed that the medic-nin had prepared. Shino hadn't suffered much damage from the fight, but from Gaara's coffin at the end and the coffin's bindings, he suffered minor bone fractures. The medic-nin nodded to Genma as he came to them and then they promptly dashed back to Konoha hospital with Shino in their care. Gaara jumped off the pillar, creating a small surface of sand beneath his feet as he landed, and he calmly walked back to the small cavern, where the others had returned after the wave of sand perished away. Genma went back to the center again and waved his hand in the air.
"Sabaku no Gaara advances. Now, the fourth match. If we could have Nara Shikamaru and Kankuro would step up to the center her, please."
Shikamaru awoke from his daze in the cavern and saw Kankuro walking ahead. "Don't tell me it's my turn to fight already?!"
Naruto patted Shikamaru on the back with so much force that he went flying a couple feet ahead of Kankuro, landing on his face. "You bet! Get him, Shikamaru!"
Ino cheered for Shikamaru along with Naruto. "Yeah, just hit him where it hurts!"
Shikamaru stood up, dusting his shoulders and walking off toward the center. "I don't think so..." He made a small grin as he stared towards Kankuro. "I think I've got it planned out."
Genma raised his hand as the fighters neared the center. "The fourth fight, Nara Shikamaru against Kankuro, Begin!"
