World Wide Ninja Challenge!

The Tournament of Awakening!

Naruto and Sakura slowly opened the scrolls. They frowned upon finding nothing except a ring of text that looked very familiar.

"A summoning seal?" questioned Sasuke.

The scrolls then begun to smoke as if it were burning. Naruto and Sakura quickly dropped them. The moment they hit the ground, they erupted into one big cloud of smoke. Everyone tensed in preparation for another fight. When the cloud finally did clear, the trio were stunned speechless to find…

"Iruka-sensei!" exclaimed Naruto, haven regained the power of speech.

"Long time no see, guys!" greeted Iruka with a smile. "You look like you've went through a lot of trouble."

"What's going on, Iruka-sensei? Why did you appear through a summoning technique?" asked Sakura, who was still a bit surprised by Iruka's odd method of arrival.

"Well, selected Chuunins are suppose to welcome you guys to the tower. Our task is to pass you a message from Hokage-sama and then unlock one of the doors behind me," he explained. "Since the examinees arrival is random, we use summoning scrolls to transport here quickly. You guys only just made it in time. Congratulations, you pass!"

Sakura and Naruto grinned at each other. Sasuke coolly smirked as expected from him.

"I would treat you guys to ramen, but it'll have to wait until later. For now…" begun Iruka.

"Um, Sensei, what would've happened if we had opened the scrolls outside of the tower?" interrupted Sakura.

Iruka scratched his chin and chuckled.

"Well, since your reliability was being tested, if you had broke the rules we Chuunin were ordered to knock you out," he explained.

Naruto and Sakura sweat dropped with paler looking faces.

"Thank you, Kabuto-san!" thought Naruto with Sakura's exact thoughts.

Sasuke smirked knowingly at them.

"Aren't you glad that you didn't open the scroll now?" teased the Uchiha.

Naruto and Sakura chuckled nervously. Sakura then pointed to the slip of paper on the wall.

"Iruka-sensei, what does the text on that paper mean?" she asked.

"Oh that? It's a principal that Hokage-sama wrote himself. You would all do well to remember it. Basically Heaven refers to one's state of mind while Earth refers to one's strength. The phrase if you do not have Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared concerns you, Naruto."

"Me?" echoed Naruto.

"Yeah. Although your body is certainly strong, you lack knowledge. A sign that you should study more and prepare for your missions," teased Iruka.

Sakura giggled while Naruto frowned in annoyance.

"The other phrase, if you do not have Earth, run in the fields and gain strength concerns you, Sakura."

Sakura's giggling ceased and gave way to an embarrassed flush while Naruto grinned at her. This was going to be good.

"Basically you are quite learned in the way of the ninja, but you lack strength. A sign that you need to practice your skills more."

Sakura stuck her tongue out in embarrassment.

"As for the last phrase, if you have both Heaven and Earth than dangerous paths will become safe concerns you, Sasuke."

Sasuke shrugged carelessly, those things came naturally to him after all. It was common sense stuff, really.

"The five day survival mission you guys took part in was just a test of your basic Chuunin abilities. A Chuunin is expected to be able to lead a team. Thus it is important that you inscribe in your hearts the importance of having both knowledge and strength during missions. Never forget that, it could very well save the lives of your comrades during a mission."

"Yes sir!" chorused the group with salutes.

Iruka returned the salute before forming a seal. With that, the seal on one of the doors dispelled. It slowly opened a crack.

"Good luck, Team Seven!" said Iruka before stepping aside.

With that said, the trio approached the doors to their destiny…

One inside the spacious room, Naruto and company were graced with the sight of twenty-one other examinees lined up in front of Sarutobi, the Jounin teachers of each team, several examiners, as well as Ibiki and Anko. The room was bare except for a giant Buddha statue that was sitting cross legged with its' hands in a simple chakra molding position. A hand railed walkway made up the upper landing. Naruto and the others quickly lined up. Once they had done so, Anko begun to speak.

"First off, congratulations on completing the second exam. Since time is officially up, only you eight teams out of a possible fourteen will be taking part in the next exam. Hokage-sama will now give an official explanation of the third exam," announced Anko before nodding to Sarutobi.

The Third nodded back and took a step forward with his arms behind his back. He quickly cleared his throat and begun to speak.

"Before we start the third exam, I want to make one thing clear to you," Sarutobi paused to look into everyone's eyes. "It concerns the true nature of this exam. Are any of you aware of why we are taking this Chuunin exam together with allied nations?"

Although Kabuto and the twelve rookies knew the answer, nobody spoke.

"To those who believe its' purpose is to build friendly ties between our neighboring countries, this is a lie," declared the Third. "The exam, so to speak, is the epitome of the wars that occur between our countries."

A murmur sounded amongst the examinees.

"What do you mean?" asked Tenten.

Sarutobi took a drag on his pipe.

"Well, if we go back in time for a moment, the allied countries have staged wars with each other over land and power many times. So to avoid wasting military power, we now settles our disputes twice a year with the Chuunin exam. This method is used to judge which countries have become too powerful, so that adjustments can be made as necessary," he replied.

"But why do we have to do this? Shouldn't we stop fighting each other?" asked Naruto, never one to find diplomacy easy to comprehend. "And what about becoming Chuunins?"

"Relax, you will be judged during the exam to see if you're worthy of becoming Chuunin," reassured the Third. "I'm just letting you know now, that you will also be fighting as representatives of your country's dignity. This is most important since the Feudal Lords and famous figures from around the world shall be attending this event as guests. Thus, your abilities will be showcased to the world."

He paused to let this sink in before continuing.

"The strongest country seen in this exam shall be flooded with jobs. While the countries seen as weak will have fewer jobs. Do not disgrace the country you are representing, it will impact all of you greatly in the long run."

"If that's the case, then why do we have to put our lives on the line during the exam?" asked Kiba.

All of the elder ninjas grew serious.

"A country's power, is the village's power. Likewise a village's power is its' ninja's power. A ninja's true potential can only be realized during life or death situations. This results in balance, the most important principal of strong Shinobi. That is the reason for this," replied Sarutobi.

"I don't really care, just tell us the details of this little game," demanded Gaara quietly.

"Very well…" the Third was just about to speak when another ninja appeared out of thin air.

He kneeled before Sarutobi.

"Pardon me, Hokage-sama. I, Gekkou Hayate, hence known as the judge, shall explain the proceedings," said Hayate quietly.

Sarutobi nodded.

"Please do," he consented before stepping back into line with the other adults.

Hayate stood up and faced the examinees to reveal a sickly looking face with tired black eyes. He had a navy blue bandana wrapped around his dark brown hair. He was dressed in the common ninja apparel of Kakashi and the other Jounin.

"Pleased to meet you all. Before we begin…" he coughed. "I'll need you to fight in some preliminary matches to determine who shall advance to the main battles."

"What are you talking about? Why do we have to fight in preliminary matches?" demanded Shikamaru.

"The third exam will be done likened to that of a martial arts tournament. However, whether it was because the first two exams were too easy is beyond me. But there are simply too many examinees left. So, according to Chuunin exam regulations, we have to reduce the number of participants," explained Hayate.

A murmur of complains and disbelieving outbursts sounded amongst the testers. Hayate silenced them by clearing his throat.

"There is a reason for this," he coughed again. "Ahem, as Hokage-sama mentioned, there will be a lot of guests attending the final exam. Because of that, we cannot have a lot of matches in one sitting. Time is pressing so I'll explain how the preliminaries will work now. If anyone doesn't wish to participate after the explanation, please let me know. The preliminary battles will start immediately after that."

"Immediately!? But we just got through the second exam!" reminded Domino. "Most of us are bordering on exhaustion!"

"She's right! Damn, this is troublesome," grumbled Shikamaru.

"It cannot be helped. We simply don't have time to let you guys rest right now. Just try to bear with it," reasoned Hayate with a cough. "But since you all seem so uncertain about the situation you will be facing, take a few minutes now to decide if you want to participate or not."

Hayate then went to converse with the other adults while the teams talked amongst themselves…

"There's no way that I'm quitting," thought Sasuke while Naruto and Sakura were talking.

Almost unconsciously, he grasped the Cursed Seal. The pain had subsided a bit since he had almost submitted to that thing. But he could still feel it, sleeping in the darkest corner of his mind. Sasuke was just considering trying to talk to it when Sakura interrupted his musings.

"Sasuke-kun, you should withdraw from the matches," suggested Sakura worriedly.

"What?! Why, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto in surprise.

Sakura ignored him.

"Sasuke-kun, you've been acting different ever since Orochimaru beat you. That mark he gave you hurts right?" she asked.

Sasuke glared at the ground.

"Mark?" echoed Naruto.

Again Sakura ignored him.

"Please stop, Sasuke-kun," tears touched the corners of her eyes. "I'm afraid. I don't want you to change again."

Sasuke had to admit, Sakura had a knack for making one regret things. She just looked so vulnerable and judging by the solemn look on Naruto's face, he felt the same way. The mark suddenly begun to burn more painfully causing Sasuke to wince.

"Damn it!" he hissed within his mind.

It was waking up…

"Just as I thought," murmured Sarutobi.

He and the other adults had been carefully observing the exchange between Sakura and her teammates. They didn't look thrilled.

"What should we do, Hokage-sama?" asked Ibiki while staring at Sasuke.

"I say we take him out of the exam and isolate him with ANBU units," suggested Anko.

"Don't bother. He's not the type to listen to that kind of advice so easily," waved aside Kakashi with a knowing smile. "It's his nature as an Uchiha."

Anko glared at Kakashi.

"Don't be a fool! There's no telling how much influence that thing has over him already! If I have to, I'll make him quit by force!" declared Anko with steadily increasing volume. "The Cursed Seal reacts whenever he tries to mold chakra. It during those times that he is most vulnerable to that thing's will!"

"Hey hey, Anko-san. Getting upset about it won't help the situation. I don't mind keeping an eye on the boy with my ANBU team, but if it's alright with you I'd like to observe him just a little bit longer," said Sagitario while twirling a lock of his hair absently.

"Are you mad!? That's a forbidden technique we're talking about! It amazing that he can even stand it!" snapped Anko before glaring at Sasuke. "Anyone else would've died by now."

"What do you think of this, Hokage-sama?" asked Kurenai.

The Third took a drag on his pipe.

"We'll watch his performance for now. If the seal reacts negatively during the battle…" he glanced at Sagitario.

"Yes, Hokage-sama. I understand," responded the ANBU captain with a nod.

Anko tsked in irritation and glared jealously at Sasuke once more. Hayate then moved back in front of the crowd…

"Okay, you've all had plenty of time to decide. Now is the time to let me know if you will continue with the exam," stated Hayate while withdrawing a clipboard with the examinee's information attached to it.

Sakura took this opportunity to desperately hissed in Sasuke's ear.

"You're in no condition to fight right now, Sasuke-kun!"

"Shut up, Sakura!" Sasuke hissed back.

"I knew it! You've been in pain all this time!"

"Sakura, be quiet," Sasuke was getting annoyed now.

"No! I don't care what you say! I'm telling the examiner about that bruise!" threatened Sakura while raising her hand.

Naruto and Sasuke gasped in alarm and froze when they heard Hayate speak.

"Yes? You there," he said with a slight cough.

Everyone turn to who he acknowledged to find Kabuto's hand in the air.

"I'll be quitting," announced the gray haired ninja with a smile.

For the longest, everyone just stared at him. Then Hayate begun flipping through some pages on his clipboard.

"Let's see, Konohagakure no Yakushi Kabuto eh? You're dismissed then," said Hayate once he found Kabuto's data page.

"Right," said Kabuto while turning to leave.

"Hang on! Kabuto-san, why are you quitting?!" asked a baffled Naruto.

Kabuto faced Naruto with a surprised expression on his face.

"I'm sorry, Naruto-kun. But my body is completely worn out now. That's not all, ever since that scuffle with those Sound guys I haven't been able to hear very well out of my left ear. There's no way that I'll be able to fight again right away," he explained.

Naruto's gaze dropped sadly to the floor. Kabuto saw this and tried to cheer him up with a smile.

"Don't worry, Naruto-kun. I'll make it next year for sure, but it would sure be nice to have a Chuunin like you for a friend!" said Kabuto cheerily.

This had the desired effect and the blond perked up a little. With that said, Kabuto waved his farewell to Sakura and Sasuke before striding out of the room. He smiled the whole time. With Kabuto gone, the remaining examinees turned to face Hayate, who was staring at them expectantly. Thirty seconds passed and nobody else had raised their hands.

"I'm assuming that nobody else wishes to quit?" asked Hayate with a cough.

Nobody said anything, though Sakura did look like she was going through an emotional struggle. The pink haired girl seemed to have made up her mind and attempted to raise her hand again. As quick as lightening, Sasuke seized her wrist and glared into Sakura's eyes.

"Keep quiet about this bruise," he hissed angrily.

Sakura begun crying.

"Why are you trying to act tough? I don't want you to suffer anymore!" she whispered between hiccups.

"It doesn't concern you, Sakura!" growled the Uchiha before letting her wrist go. "I already told you that I'm an avenger. For me this isn't just some damn exam! I don't care about being a Chuunin either. Right now, this is the only place were I can truly find out if I am strong. I'm going to fight the strong guys here and I won't allow you to stop me. Got it?!"

Sakura's gaze dropped to the floor.

"You jerk! Can't you see that Sakura-chan is worried about you? You're one heartless son of a…"

"Naruto," interrupted Sasuke with a smirk. "You're the one I want to fight the most."

Naruto was stunned speechless. Sasuke was actually acknowledging him as a true rival!

"Since nobody else is going to quit lets move on. For the remainder of the exam, there will only be one on one matches. This includes the preliminary battles," begun Hayate at that moment with the explanation. "There will not be a time limit, you may fight as long as necessary. Since we have twenty-three people here, we will have twelve matches. One of you will have to fight twice. The win lost decision is determined by the following. Death, knock out, or surrenders. If you do not wish to die, surrender when you have an opportunity. If I, the judge, determine that the match has been won however. I may stop you to prevent unnecessary death," he then turned to Anko.

With a nod, she said something into a radio device that had been concealed by her hair. A loud mechanical whirring sounded and a section of the wall next to the Buddha statue slid aside. A giant television monitor slid forward from the new hole in the wall. Hayate cleared his throat.

"This monitor will randomly select and display the names of two fighters before each match. We shall now begin the pairings for the first match."

The screen came to life and the versus abbreviation appeared in the center. The area above and below that then begun displaying names at an extremely fast pace. Soon, the names begun to slow down until it stopped completely.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Akadou Yoroi

Sasuke smirked.

"Right off the bat eh? Perfect."

Sasuke stared excitedly at Yoroi, who was chuckling with his own giddy excitement.

"The opening match shall start with Uchiha Sasuke and Akadou Yoroi. Will those whose names were pulled step forth," ordered Hayate.

Sasuke and Yoroi did so and faced each other.

"Good, are there any objections to this match?" Hayate asked them.

"None!" replied the battle ready fighters.

"Then we shall now begin. Will everyone else head to the upper level please?" requested Hayate.

Everyone did as asked, with the exception of Kakashi. He approached Sasuke and lowered his head to his ear.

"Don't use your Sharingan," he muttered.

Sasuke smirked.

"You already know about it then?" he asked.

"Yeah, if that Cursed Seal on your neck becomes uncontrollable, you may die. Be warned, if you try to use your Sharingan I will stop this match. Good luck, Sasuke-kun," said Kakashi while calmly striding away.

Sasuke watch his back for a moment before returning to his musings.

"So my guess was right. This seal reacts to my chakra," his hand shot to the seal again. "The pain and that voice always seem to get stronger when I try to mold chakra. If that's the case, then I'm limited to nothing but non chakra enhanced Taijutsu. It'll have to do," he smiled confidently.

Hayate glanced back and forth between them before raising his hands into the air.

"Begin!"

Yoroi immediately formed a seal.

"Kyuin no Jutsu!" he cried.

Sasuke tensed.

"Kyuin? An absorption technique?"

Yoroi's hands begun glowing with an aura of blue chakra. The purple wearing ninja then hurled a swarm of shuriken at Sasuke like a quick draw specialist. Sasuke only just managed to draw a kunai and deflect the flying stars back at him. Yoroi avoided them with a high jump. Sasuke's seal gave way to a violent throb of pain at that moment.

"Submit to me."

The Uchiha swore under his breath at the poor timing. He ignored the voice and quickly lunged aside just before the sunglasses wearing ninja could hit. His fist smacked the ground causing him to hiss in pain. Angrily, he shifted his gaze to the Uchiha. Sasuke quickly kicked Yoroi's legs from under him causing the older ninja to lose his balance. Sasuke then pulled a Domino and used his legs to paralyze Yoroi from the neck, via a chokehold.

"Got cha!" cried the Uchiha victoriously.

Oddly enough, Yoroi laughed. He then had the hand that Sasuke was holding onto press firmly against the Uchiha's chest. It immediately became engulfed in chakra again. Sasuke started feeling sick at that moment, as if his strength were being sucked out of his body. Almost effortlessly, Yoroi pulled his arm free of Sasuke's grasp. The older ninja then slammed his elbow into Sasuke's guts. The Uchiha cried out in pain. His legs loosened enough for Yoroi to escape the chokehold. The older ninja quickly hopped out of retaliation range to safety.

"Sasuke-kun!" cried a worried Sakura from somewhere on the upper level.

Yoroi charged. Sasuke sensed his approach and quickly jerked upright into a sitting position with the intent of sweeping his foe's legs again. He was too late though, Yoroi's chakra covered hand seized hold of Sasuke's head like a basketball. Sasuke cried out in agony as his strength started draining from his body again. The Cursed Seal's burn soon became unbearable.

"Let me help you."

"M-my…chakra…" moaned Sasuke weakly.

Yoroi laughed.

"You've just noticed eh? This is my special ability. Using my palm I can suck all the chakra you have right out of your body. It's quite tasty!" he teased.

"Get…off of me!" Sasuke roared before kicking Yoroi in the stomach.

The older ninja's breath left him and he went sailing back a few feet. He stumbled a bit but managed to catch his balance easily enough. He laughed as Sasuke weakly struggled to his feet.

"Oh, you still have some fight left eh? Don't worry, it'll be over soon."

His hands radiated with chakra again and he charged. Once in range, Yoroi thrust his hand towards Sasuke's head. The Uchiha dodged it easily enough. Yoroi reversed his error into a swipe that Sasuke quickly ducked under. They did this again and again until finally Yoroi managed to brush a strain of Sasuke's hair. It was only for a second, but the sickness and draining effect was instant. Sasuke staggered forward on wobbly legs.

"Damn it!" cursed Sasuke weakly, he could barely stand.

"I need you to accept me now."

The burning grew worst.

"What's wrong, running out of gas already?" taunted Yoroi.

With a growl, Sasuke spun into a powerful but sluggish roundhouse kick. Yoroi easily hopped out of the way of the sneak attack. The elder ninja laughed at Sasuke's pitiful Taijutsu skills. Things were not going well for the Uchiha.

"What the hell are you doing, Sasuke!?" shouted Naruto. "You won't even warm me up fighting like that! Pull yourself together, dummy!"

Sasuke glanced at Naruto in annoyance, but it was the person standing next to him that caught is eye. Rock Lee was staring into the Uchiha's eyes almost as if he were silently cheering him on. Sasuke's eyes widened.

"I've got it!"

Since Sasuke had his back turned, Yoroi took advantage of that moment to charge.

"Pay attention, you fool!" he cried triumphantly.

Sasuke quickly whipped around in time to avoid an arm thrust. Yoroi followed up with several sumo style arm thrusts in a row. Sasuke dodge at least eighteen of these before inexpertly ducking at the last second. Yoroi's nineteenth thrust pulled his weight directly over Sasuke. With a smirk, Sasuke pulled a Rock Lee and kicked Yoroi in the chin hard enough for his feet to leave the ground. The Uchiha boosted off and begun landing kick after kick into his stomach causing him to raise higher and higher into the air. He then vanished in a flash of high speed and reappeared behind Yoroi.

Rock Lee and Gai gave startled sputters. Sasuke was using the opening combination for their sinister move! Even the others were stunned speechless.

"The rest is all original," whispered Sasuke into Yoroi's ear. "You lose."

Sasuke pressed his finger tips to Yoroi's back.

"Voice, if you can hear me, lend me your power!" pleaded Sasuke with his eyes closed.

"It shall be done. I grant you the power that is Devil."

Sasuke gasped before coughing up a mouthful of blood. The burning of the Cursed Seal intensified until it spread throughout his whole body. His eyes snapped open with the cold glare of the beast that lived within. But the transformation seemed different somehow. Instead of being forced into a state of deep sleep, Sasuke's own mind remained active.

"This is my gift to you. Perhaps now you will embrace me more willingly."

Sasuke smirked, his own smirk that remained unaltered by Devil. The markings then vanished completely as Devil withdrew back into his mind. The dark being had replenished Sasuke's chakra levels! With his own normal strength restored, Sasuke fueled his muscles with chakra and lashed out with a brutal kick aimed at Yoroi's side. The older ninja blocked it with his forearm but still winced at the strength behind it.

"I don't know how you got this much power back boy, but it's not good enough!" cried Yoroi.

Sasuke twirled into a quick spin. Yoroi never saw it coming when the Uchiha smashed his knuckles into his masked face. Yoroi cried out in pain as he sailed back towards the ground. Sasuke quickly slammed a haymaker into the stunned ninja's chin, speeding up his fall. Sasuke then vanished in a flash of speed again and reappeared with his foot in motion. He smashed it into Yoroi's stomach just as the older ninja hit the ground.

"Shishi Rendan!" cried Sasuke over the scream of Yoroi.

Yoroi coughed up a large mouthful of blood even through his mask. His body then went limp. Sasuke hit his back painfully onto the ground from the overall force of his own Lion Combo attack. He laid there, completely stunned. Hayate took this opportunity to examine Yoroi. As it turned out, the older ninja was completely out cold. Hayate turned around to find Sasuke tiredly climbing back to his feet. Hayate cleared his throat.

"The match ends here. Winner, Uchiha Sasuke."

The Konoha Genin erupted into loud cheers.

"Way to go, Sasuke!" praised Naruto.

Sasuke smiled before tiredly falling over. He landed into the left arm of Kakashi. The gray haired Jounin was reading Flirting Paradise in his right hand.

"Good work, Sasuke," he muttered absently while turning a page with his thumb.

The Uchiha's gaze shifted to Lee.

"Rock Lee was it? Thanks to you, I was able to win that fight. If I hadn't see your technique before, I might have lost. I also owe you my gratitude voice. If you hadn't restored part of my strength, I would never have been able to use Lee's technique," thought Sasuke.

The voice didn't respond but there was no doubt that it had heard him. At that moment, a team of standby medics entered the room. They had Yoroi placed on a stretcher and lead away for medical treatment. One of them approached Sasuke.

"Sasuke-kun, we will give you the best medical treatment that we possibly can," he offered.

"Don't worry about it, I will take care of him," shot down Kakashi before kneeling next to Sasuke. "Sasuke, I'm going to seal that Cursed Seal in the back room."

"Can't it wait until after the preliminaries? Besides, I don't want it sealed!" argued Sasuke.

Kakashi's eye narrowed dangerously.

"I feared that something like this would happen. That thing has a hold on him," mused Kakashi darkly. "I cannot permit that, Sasuke. If we don't seal it, something irreversible may happen to you. I won't listen to your selfish request twice, now come on."

Reluctantly Sasuke climbed to his feet and followed Kakashi out of the room. The others watched this with intrigued expressions. Naruto turned towards Sakura once they left the room.

"Ano sa Sakura-chan, did you see a weird mark on Sasuke's body during the battle? That wasn't the mark you were talking about earlier was it?" asked Naruto.

As much as Sakura wanted to tell Naruto, she had promised Sasuke that she wouldn't. Her eyes lowered to the floor.

"I don't know, Naruto," lied Sakura.

Naruto sensed Sakura dishonesty, but didn't comment on it. Everyone returned their attention to Hayate.

"We will now begin the next match. If you'll please turn your attention to the monitor."

Like before the names begun speeding by. They slowed down until only two were displayed.

Harime Elaine vs. Tenten

"Alright! It finally your turn!" gushed Domino excitedly to her chuckling best friend.

"Show everyone what you can do," encouraged Genmaru with a warm smile.

Elaine nodded with a determined smile.

"Yeah, I'll do my best!" vowed Elaine.

She turned towards the approaching sound of footsteps.

"Elaine!" called Sakura cheerfully, her worries about Sasuke momentarily forgotten. "Good luck, I know you'll do really well!" gushed the pink haired girl.

Elaine smiled and put her hand behind her head in embarrassment.

"Thanks a lot Sakura, I sure hope so!" replied the blue haired girl while sticking out her tongue happily.

The only one more excited than Elaine, with the exception of maybe Domino, was Naruto. He was practically bouncing with excitement.

"Oh boy, this is going to be great! I'll be rooting for you all the way, Elaine!" declared Naruto.

"Really? Thank you very much, Naruto!" said Elaine in grateful pleasure.

Sagitario approached them at that moment.

"Excellent, Elaine-san. Please do your best, I want to brag all about my students after these preliminary matches are over. Perhaps afterwards we can have dinner together eh?" offered the green haired Jounin with a warm yet beautiful smile.

"Um, no thanks Sagitario-sensei!" replied Elaine with a sweat drop.

"You're at it again, Sensei?" accused Domino with an annoyed frown. "I should've known that it was too good to be true!"

Sagitario laughed.

"It was just a joke! I'd never try to date my own student," lied Sagitario with a sweat drop.

Domino's glare made him shift his gaze to Naruto and Sakura, who didn't quite know how to react. He smiled warmly at them.

"Ah, you two are Kakashi's yes? He speaks very highly of you guys. It's an honor to meet you," he said before taking Sakura's hand and kissing it.

The pink haired girl blushed while Naruto frowned. He didn't like the guy already. Sagitario sensed Naruto's thoughts and smiled at him.

"Iruka-sensei tells me you like Ichiraku Ramen. If you like, I'll be happy to treat you sometimes. I'm very interest in hearing all about you, Naruto-kun. Genmaru says that you have a lot of potential."

Naruto grinned at the mention of ramen. As far as he was concerned, anyone who would treat him to his absolute favorite meal couldn't be that bad. His childhood crush on Sakura ended where his ramen began.

"Well, we don't want to keep everyone waiting. Elaine, I seriously wish you the best of luck during your fight. Be careful, okay?" requested Sagitario with a wave over his shoulders as he headed towards Anko and Kurenai, his intentions very clear.

"Yes sir, Sagitario-sensei!" replied Elaine before making her way to the battle area where Tenten was already waiting.

Everyone turned to watch the match.

"Go, Tenten! Use your youth power!" cheered Lee.

"Believe in your power, Tenten! You're in the springtime of your youth!" cried Gai

"We're with you, Tenten! Fight with everything you have!" came Lee again.

"Yosh! That's the way! Show us your fighting sprit!" went Gai.

Neji smirked.

"This should be interesting," he murmured.

Tenten chuckled with a sweat drop. Hayate then spoke.

"We will now start the second match. Harime Elaine will face Tenten. Do either of you object?" he asked.

"No!" replied the girls with excited smiles.

"Then we shall start the second match now," Hayate raised his hand into the air. "Begin!"

Tenten immediately leaped back a few feet. Elaine dropped into a combat stance and waited. The girls begun scanning each other's stances for any openings or weaknesses in them.

"Tenten is good," observed Elaine. "She put enough distance between us to easily shift from offense to defense in an instant. She doesn't show much of a weakness in her guard either. Gai-sensei trained her well."

The girls observed each other like this for nearly a minute before Elaine allowed a weakness to show in her stance on purpose. Just as the blue haired girl hoped, Tenten took the bait and high jumped into the air to hurl a swarm of shuriken at her. With the greatest of ease, Elaine caught the seven stars on her fingers via a Kakashi.

"What!?" cried Tenten in dismay.

With a confident smile, Elaine charged at Tenten's landing point while she was still in midair. The moment Tenten landed, she was in for a pounding. Tenten touched down and immediately tried to throw a punch at Elaine. The blue haired girl unexpectedly dove into a forward flip and landed a double stomp into Tenten's chest. The pink shirted girl landed with a cry on her back. She immediately rolled aside to avoid getting pelted by her own shuriken that Elaine had hurled after her. Tenten kicked up back onto her feet and boosted off towards Elaine with a Kenpou style palm thrust. Elaine knocked Tenten's arm aside and spun into a heavy backlash kick.

Tenten performed a triple back flip to safety. Elaine then assumed the Hakuda style battle stance while Tenten reassumed her Kenpou style stance. They had entered a stalemate.

"Yeah! Elaine, you can do it!" cheered Naruto.

"You're amazing, Elaine!" praised Sakura.

"Go go go!" chanted Domino while punching the air with every chant.

"Tenten! You're looking good down there! Give it your all!" cheered Lee.

"Yosh! This is the power of youth! Right, Lee?" said Gai with teary eyes.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The two embraced and begun crying. Everyone sweat dropped. Even Elaine and Tenten giggled at the cuteness of the awesome relationship Lee and Gai shared. Just like father and son, sort of. Everyone then turned their attention back to the battle at hand.

Tenten dashed forward and swung her leg in a beheading sidekick which Elaine ducked under. Tenten used the added modem of her missed attack to drop into a low power thrust . This blow caused Elaine to stagger a bit, giving Tenten time to aim a more focused thrust towards Elaine's chest. This resulted in the blue haired girl losing her balance completely. Elaine rolled into the fall and boosted off with her hands back onto her feet. She then dove aside to avoid Tenten's follow up kunai wave. Elaine withdrew a pair of kunai in both hands and charged.

Tenten smirked and produced a scroll from her pouch. She took to the air just as Elaine got in range for a swipe with her knife.

"Take this!" cried Tenten before performing an array of aerobic flips in midair while opening the scroll.

Tenten then begun to spin in place while her scroll twirled gracefully around her. She spun faster and faster until she appeared as nothing more than a blur. A whole assortment of weapons then begun raining towards Elaine. Some of them were swords, others were maces, even staffs and the common Senbon and other ninja gear rained down.

With a hiss, Elaine started running around in an effort to avoid the projectiles. At some point, she found her back pressed against a wall. She tried to deflect as many as she could with her kunai but a few still managed to score shallow cuts on her arms and legs. Elaine gasped for breath when the wave finally came to an end. Tenten touched down a few feet away and glared at Elaine, who for the most part was unharmed.

"She's good, she deflected and avoided the worse of my attack. I may have to use it after all," thought Tenten nervously.

Tenten cried out in alarm when a kunai sailed pass and scored a cut on her cheek. She had been so caught up in her thoughts, that Elaine had been able to attack her with her guard down. The blue haired girl was rushing towards Tenten. She quickly threw her other kunai at the pink shirted girl. Tenten caught the knife easily enough, but this allowed Elaine time enough to close the gap and land a knee blow into her chin. Tenten cried out in pain before she felt her legs get swept from under her. The weapons master caught her self with her hands and attempted to sweep Elaine's legs. But the blue haired girl performed a quick somersault to safety. Tenten quickly leaped back a few feet and produced a pair of scrolls from her pouch.

"This is it!" she cried.

Lee and Gai gave startled starts.

"No way! Is she going to use it now?!" exclaimed Lee.

"Use what, what's she going to do with those scrolls?" asked Naruto curiously.

Lee looked sadly at him.

"She may end up killing your friend, Naruto-kun," replied Lee quietly.

Everyone gave starts and Naruto grasped the hand rails so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

"Be careful, Elaine!" warned Sakura.

Tenten kneeled and carefully balanced both scrolls until they stood upright. Elaine tensed as Tenten begun forming seals. Once done, Tenten crossed her arms in front of herself.

"Shoshouryu!" cried the weapons master.

There was flash of light from both scrolls before an explosion rang out, creating a big cloud of smoke. Elaine shielded her eyes until the fog passed. When she looked up again, two serpents made out of smoke rose into the air and intertwined in a dance of some sort. They formed a tunnel before transforming back into Tenten's scrolls. In a flash, Tenten vanished and reappeared in the center of the two scrolls. She then begun summoning and hurling weapons at Elaine in a nonstop barrage.

"Shoot!" thought Elaine before diving for a nearby spear that was laying on the ground from Tenten's first attack.

Elaine expertly begun twirling the halberd about herself and deflecting the projectiles. This time, much to everyone's surprise, none of the weapons got through Elaine's defense. It wasn't until eight minutes later before Tenten ran out of weapons. The blue haired girl shank to her knees and leaned on the battered staff to catch her breath. Tenten landed nearby and stared at Elaine with disbelieving eyes. It quickly turned into an angry glare.

"I'm not done yet!" she declared before taking to the air again. "Take this!"

Tenten waved her hands as she flipped through the air. Elaine had to admit, Tenten looked as elegant and beautiful as swan during this new plan of hers. Thin thread of chakra then appeared leading from Tenten's fingers to her weapons. Tenten yanked back her hand causing all of the weapons, including the staff that Elaine wisely let go of, to fly into the air. With a smile, Tenten shot her hands towards Elaine causing the projectiles to fly towards her once more. Elaine quickly flashed through some hand seals and smashed her fist into her palm. She then pressed her hands to the ground causing the summoning seal to appear around her.

"Suiton, Suijinheki!" cried Elaine.

The Third gave a start.

"The Water Wall!? That's his technique!" he realized.

A huge torrent of pure water rose up out of the ground. The water circled around Elaine before shooting straight up into the air. The blue haired girl was being shielded by a funnel of water! Tenten gave a startled cry as all of her weapons were swept into the rapidly revolving wall of water. They were quickly fired back at Tenten like a hail of bullets. She screamed in pain as they cut into her at least three hundred times. One for every weapon she had summoned. Tenten landed with a grunt on her back as Elaine's technique came to an end. The raising water begun slowly raining down on everything in a light drizzle.

"Tenten!" cried Lee, Gai and Neji in alarm.

Both Elaine and Tenten slowly rose to their feet. Tenten grasped her left arm and winched. Elaine's expression turned sad for a moment.

"I'm sorry about this, Tenten. I don't really want to hurt you," she apologized.

Tenten didn't say anything to that, but her just manageable smile told her that she understood. With that, Tenten faced the judge.

"I'll quit," she said.

Everyone gave a start of surprise, even Elaine was stunned by Tenten's statement. Hayate gave Tenten a quick once over and stared hard into her eyes for a moment before nodding. His raise rose into the air.

"Winner, Harime Elaine," Hayate announced.

Elaine immediately rushed to Tenten's side.

"Why did you do that, Tenten? I know that you could've kept going if you wanted to," asked Elaine.

Tenten shook her head in the negative and smiled.

"I was never a match for you to begin with, Elaine. During the fight, you were holding back the entire time right?" asked Tenten.

Elaine sweat dropped and put her hand behind her head guiltily. She chuckled nervously in the tell tale sign that Tenten's guess had been correct.

"I'm sorry," apologized Elaine.

Tenten shrugged it off.

"There will be other opportunities for me to become a Chuunin. I'm just glad that I made it this far," she said. "Don't lose to anyone else okay?"

"Yeah! Okay," promised Elaine with a smile.

With that, Elaine helped Tenten back to the upper landing. Everyone except for the Sand and Sound Ninjas surrounded them.

"Tenten! You fought magnificently!" cried Lee with teary eyes. "I have been moved to do my best as well!"

"Yosh! This is the spring time of youth! A new rival has appeared for you, Tenten!" joined in Gai.

Tenten laughed with a sweat drop.

"You did okay. Well done, Tenten," said Neji quietly while glaring away, never really being the social type.

"Thanks, guys!" said a grateful Tenten. "I'll have to train harder for next time."

Everyone else gave Tenten their praise as well. Domino then hugged her best friend.

"You did it! I knew you would!" she said proudly.

"Once this is over, remind me to prepare something extra special for you to celebrate," said Genmaru.

Domino caught the meaning and cheered.

"Awesome! Could you bake strawberry cupcakes this time?" she begged.

Everyone sweat dropped. Domino's weakness was pretty obvious now.

"Um, thanks Genmaru," said Elaine gratefully. "Best let Domino have her way though," she joked with a laugh.

Everyone joined in until Hayate drew their attention by clearing his throat.

"We will now start the third match. Pleased turn your attention to the monitor."

The names sped by until two were displayed.

Abumi Zaku vs. Aburame Shino

Zaku smirked.

"Heh, who's the other weakling?" he joked.

Shino stared at Zaku with furrowed brows. A sign that he was glaring at him.

"Come forth fighters," ordered Hayate.

Shino and Zaku did so. The bug tamer raised an eyebrow at the sight of the slings Zaku's arms were in.

"We will now begin, are there any objections?"

"None!" they said in unison.

Hayate then raised his hands.

"Begin!"

As promised, Kakashi escorted Sasuke to a sheltered room below the combat area. Kakashi withdrew a small bag of powder from his pouch. Wordlessly, he spread the content on the floor in the shape of three rings. Each ring orbited the next. Kakashi then firmly grounded several kunai into selected parts of the rings. Once done, he turned towards Sasuke.

"Take off your shirt and sit in the center of the barrier," he instructed.

Sasuke did so with a frown, he was debating whether to try and convince his Sensei to let him keep the seal unaltered. But he knew from the warning look in Kakashi's eye that that just wasn't going to happen. Silently he straightened his back in preparation for whatever Kakashi had planned.

With a nod of approval, Kakashi then withdrew a vial with the Dragon Clan's crest on it. The content of the glass container was pure dragon blood. It was an extremely rare elixter with enough properties in it to, in essence, strengthen the effect of most Jutsu requiring blood offerings. Kakashi dipped his index and middle fingers into the liquid and begun writing Japanese characters around the site of Sasuke's Cursed Seal. Once done, Kakashi formed several hand seals.

"Fuja Hoin!"

With that, Kakashi pressed his palm to Sasuke's Cursed Seal. The dragon blood begun to glow, then a huge wave of force radiated around the duo. This was the barrier cornering the Cursed Seal's power source. Sasuke screamed in pain as the Cursed Seal's burning jumped to extreme levels. The blood then begun to move of it's own accord until it formed a ring of text around the seal. Sasuke felt the burning give way to a numbness that was as cold as ice. All of his chakra, as well as the presence of the voice, left him. His body craved nothing but rest as this draining took place, but Kakashi started speaking.

"The Evil Sealing Method, is an advanced sealing Jutsu that is dependant upon your will to maintain it. Fueled with the added strength of dragon blood, the Cursed Seal will never be able to trigger again. However, if your will should ever waver, the seal will consume you in all of its' fury. If that happens, you may no longer be you," warned Kakashi.

With that, the blissful sanctuary of sleep claimed Sasuke. Kakashi warily stood to his full height and reached out to the Cursed Seal with his senses. A void of nothingness confirmed that it had been properly sealed away. Kakashi sighed in relief.

"My my, you've certainly grown, Kakashi. Who would've thought that you would become strong enough to perform that seal. And with dragon blood no less, impressive," came a hoarse voice directly behind the gray haired ninja.

Kakashi spun around to find Orochimaru staring at him with that sadist smile on his face. The snake tamer begun to radiate with a cold aura of purple chakra.

"You!" hissed Kakashi coldly.

"Long time no see, Kakashi," smirked the snake tamer.

"How did you get in here?" demanded Kakashi while reaching for his kunai pouch.

"Don't bother, I'm not here to fight. I just wanted to see the boy for a moment," said Orochimaru. "As for your question, let's just say that security isn't very good around here, Kakashi. Or should I say Sharingan no Kakashi."

The gray haired ninja stiffened.

"Yes, I'm aware of the Sharingan in your left eye. A gift from old Obito no doubt. Did you find the added chakra helpful for your seal?" he teased causing Kakashi's eye to narrow. "How I long to have the power of an Uchiha for myself. Sasuke-kun will be sure to deliver."

"Don't kid yourself Orochimaru, Sasuke will never team up with scum like you!" said Kakashi darkly.

"I wouldn't say that, Kakashi," contradicted Orochimaru. "I am the one who created that seal. Sasuke-kun won't forget the power it offered him. I think the rest of what I'm going to say is obvious eh?"

"Still the same as always. You never did do anything for others without making them pay a price first," muttered Kakashi while slowly grasping right arm. "That's why I'm going to stop you."

"Oh really?" drawled Orochimaru while advancing towards him.

Kakashi's palm filled with a sphere of chakra that begun to give off electrical discharges. The loud chirping of birds filled the room. Orochimaru paused to admire the light show.

"Take one more step and I swear. One of us will die here!" shouted Kakashi.

Much to Kakashi's irritation, Orochimaru laughed.

"You poor fool. Do you really think that you can shield him from what he desires?" he taunted. "We both know that he will do anything it takes to get stronger. After all, his big brother did take away his family."

"Get out!" bellowed Kakashi.

"Very well, I can wait a little longer. At some point, he will come to me for power," he said while turning around. "If you truly want to stop him, then you should kill me while my back is turned, Kakashi. Try, if you dare."

Kakashi never moved and his chakra sphere faded from sight. This man wasn't someone he wanted to mess with. With a frustrated grunt, he watched Orochimaru walk away into the shadows. Even now, he could feel his body trembling in fear. With a sigh, he picked up Sasuke's sleeping form and prepared to carry him to the hospital…

The two fighters glared at each other in classic stand off. Zaku's legs were bent and ready for evasive maneuvers. Shino stood tall as usual with his hands in his pocket.

"This is a warning. If you fight me as you are, you will not be able to fight again," declared Shino emotionlessly. "Surrender."

Zaku grinned.

"Don't kid yourself. I can still move my left hand! That'll be more than enough to defeat you!" shot down Zaku while removing said hand from its' sling.

He then charged and threw a wild left hook. Shino didn't even flinch when he blocked it with one arm. His right hand was still in his pocket.

"You won't be able to defeat me with one arm," stated Shino calmly.

"Shut up and fight! Zankuha!" cried Zaku angrily.

His fist, that was still held in place by Shino's arm, snapped open and released a blast of pressurized air. The gust easily blew Shino off of his feet. He rolled several times on the ground and came to a stop face down. Zaku grinned.

"Had enough already?" he taunted.

Shino quietly rose to his full height. He then brushed a bit of dust off of his shoulders before staring at Zaku. Much to the human windbag's shock, bugs begun scurrying out of Shino's collar and sleeves.

"What the hell, man!? That's freaking creepy!" shuttered Zaku before tensing.

Zaku sensed a bunch of energy sources behind him. He turned around to find an army of bugs crawling towards him! He begun to tremble in revulsion, bugs were so not his thing.

"They're a rare specie of parasitic insects call Kikaichuu bugs. They consume the chakra of those they come in contact with in less than a minute. Since you are their target, they will attempt to devour your chakra. Even if you fight back, you won't be able to defeat two opponents at once. This is your last chance. Forfeit," droned Shino.

Zaku growled. He was caught in a sandwich with no way out. Zaku's eyes seemed to grow crazed with both rage and fear. He screamed while thrusting his palm towards Shino. The bug master didn't seem fazed in the least.

"I'm not going to lose to you!" roared Zaku angrily.

With a cry of pain, Zaku thrust his other hand towards the bug army. His dislocated arms had regained mobility! Everyone gasped in surprised while Shino frowned, things were not going as planned after all.

"Zankukyokuha!" cried Zaku.

At first nothing happened at all. Then, in an explosion of air pressure and chakra, Zaku's arms exploded! Zaku screamed in agony. His right arm had gotten completely blown off to the point were flesh was raining to the ground. A spray of blood gushed from his severed limb while his hole covered left arm hung limply by his side. Zaku managed to flip his palm upwards with teary eyes to find a bunch of bugs crawling out of the hole in his palm. His air releasing device had been clogged!

Zaku managed one last glare at Shino's calm face before his consciousness left him. Hayate immediately moved to examine Zaku's body. After a moment he shook his head, this match was over.

"Winner, Aburame Shino," he announced.

Nobody cheered due to the gruesomeness of the end results. It wasn't everyday that one got to see someone's arm explode. Shino wordlessly returned to the upper level. The medical team had Zaku placed on a stretcher and carried away for emergency treatment.

"Whoa, that was intense," said Domino seriously for once.

The other Genins nodded in agreement or at least had the decency to look solemn. Lee seemed especially surprised.

"How did he do that?" he whispered.

Neji wordlessly activated his Byakugan. His vein covered eyes x-rayed Shino's body. He gasped after a moment.

"Impossible! Those things are living inside of him!" he reported.

"There's a reason for that," said Gai. "Since birth, children of the Aburame clan are exposed to those insects. Their bodies serve as a nest for them to reside in, and they consume the host's chakra. But as a result, the host gets full control over them and can use them to fight in battle."

Everyone nodded in understanding. It seemed that there was more ways to fight than any of them could possibly imagine. Naruto begun to tremble in excitement.

"I can't wait for my turn! This is getting pretty cool!" he excitedly rambled.

"Congratulations, Shino-kun," said Hinata quietly.

"Yeah, nice one bro!" added Kiba.

Shino stared at the dog tamer.

"Hopefully you will do the same," he said coolly drawing an annoyed grumble from Kiba.

"Cocky bastard!" he thought.

Hayate silenced them with a cough.

"Let's move on to the next match shall we. If you'll turn your attention to the monitor."

Everyone was just about to do so when a poof of smoke appeared on the battle site. Kakashi emerged from it.

"Hey guys," he greeted.

"What do you mean 'hey guys?' Where's Sasuke-kun? Is he alright?" demanded Sakura.

"Sasuke is fine. He's resting in the hospital right now. He just used up a lot of chakra that's all," replied Kakashi.

Sakura sighed in relief. With one less worry on her mind, she and everyone else glanced at the names displayed on the monitor.

Kankuro vs. Tsurugi Misumi

Both fighters grinned confidently and strode to the ring before Hayate could beckon them. Everyone knew the routine by now so Hayate cleared his throat.

"The next match shall be Tsurugi Misumi against Kankuro. Are there any objections?"

"None!" replied both fighters.

"Okay then," Hayate raised his hand. "Begin!"

"I hope you're ready for this, kid," begun Misumi with the trash talking. "I'll try to make this short and painless."

"Funny, I was going to say the same thing," said Kankuro smugly while relieving his back of the body he carried. "But I can't promise that it'll be painless."

Misumi charged. He attempted a side hammer punch once in range but Kankuro stopped it with his arm. Misumi smiled.

"Nan no Kaizo," he murmured.

Kankuro gasped in alarm as Misumi's body elongated and snaked around Kankuro's. The startled Sand grunted while trying to free himself. The rubber band man's head appeared near his ear on an impossibly long neck.

"Holy crap! He's just like that snake freak!" exclaimed Naruto.

"What do you think of my Soft Physique Modification technique?" taunted Misumi. "With it, I can take my joints off their hinges and loosen my body with chakra. Now that I've caught you, I'm going to strangle you until your bones break. But you can save yourself now, all you have to do is give up."

"No way!" hissed Kankuro thru clenched teeth.

Misumi's eyes narrowed.

"You may want to reconsider that decision. As you are now, you won't be able to use any techniques or tools. Last chance, give up or I break your neck," threatened Misumi.

"Go to hell!" spat Kankuro.

"Fool! Die!" cried Misumi before giving his arms a yank.

A sickening crack rang out throughout the room. Kankuro's broken neck hung limply towards the ground. Everyone tried not to winch as the sound echoed in their minds. Misumi's eyes smiled in satisfaction.

"Too bad, you should've quit when you had the chance," he murmured.

Oddly enough, bits of Kankuro's face crumbled away. His head then spun completely around like a freaky owl. The spot were the skin was missing revealed a grinning wooden thing with beady black eyes.

"My turn!" said the creature in an alien voice.

"What the!?" cried Misumi.

The things face and clothes completely fell away and the creature wrapped Misumi up, with super long arms, into a bear hug. Misumi cried out in pain as the thing's grip tightened. He then tried to get a good look at it.

The creature was a marionette made out of strong lignum wood. The arms appeared to be crafted from bamboo though. It had a head full of wild brown hair that added to the wraith like look gained from his ragged cloak. It had three crazy eyes and a nutcracker type jaw. This was Karasu.

Misumi's gaze shifted to the bundle that the thing had been carrying. A hand popped out of it and gave a yank on one of the wrapping. It fell away to reveal Kankuro! With a smirk, he held up his left hand. Several chakra threads were attached to his fingers.

"Y-you're a p-puppeteer!?" gasped Misumi with what little breath he could draw.

"That's right!" responded Kankuro before clenching his chakra covered hand into a fist.

Karasu's tightened his grip to the point where Misumi was certain that his back would break.

"Ahh, mercy! I-I-I gi-give up!" he managed after his arms started breaking.

"Heh, lucky you," commented Kankuro with a smirk before unclenching his fist.

Karasu let go of Misumi and let him drop to the floor. The purple clad ninja begun whimpering in pain. Hayate raised his hand.

"Winner, Kankuro," announced the judge.

Naruto immediately begun complaining.

"Hey two on one isn't fair! Is that thing even allowed in here?!" protested Naruto with a frown.

"There's nothing unfair about it, it's just a doll. No more than a mere tool," explained Kakashi.

Naruto didn't look pleased about it, but he stopped complaining all the same. Everyone watched the medical squad carry Misumi away for treatment. Once this had been done, Hayate faced everyone.

"We shall now take a short intermission. Please use this time to freshen up and use the bathroom. We resume in five minutes," announced Hayate before exiting the room.

"See ya!" said Naruto promptly while dashing off to the bathroom.

Genmaru, Neji, Shikamaru, Chouji and Kankuro followed suit, although less enthusiastically. Sakura bowed her excuse and took off for the ladies room. Ino watched her for a moment before following after her. The others split up into their own private groups. Only Elaine, Domino, Tenten, Kiba, Shino and Hinata mingled.

"This tournament is something else! The battles so far have been really swell!" said Tenten.

"Yeah, most of the other fighters are pretty strong. Your match was spectacular, Shino!" agreed Elaine.

"It was nothing. My opponent was in no condition to fight. His defeat was inevitable," droned Shino.

"Um, I feel bad for everyone who got hurt so far. I hope they'll be okay," voiced Hinata quietly.

"Don't worry so much, Hinata! The examiners did say that we were fighting life or death battles you know. Personally I can't wait til our turn comes, right Akamaru?" said Kiba with a grin.

The pup yipped in agreement.

"Demo…" begun Hinata with lowered eyes.

Domino approached the shy girl and tilted her head up with a finger to her chin. Hinata blushed as she gazed into her eyes for a moment. Domino then smiled.

"You're really cute you know. You shouldn't look down so much, Hinata. It's hard for others to admire you," chided Domino.

Hinata blushed even more deeply. It wasn't very often that someone told her she was cute.

"I'm sorry Domino-san, I'll try to look up more," promised the Hyuuga quietly.

"Don't be so formal! Just call me Domino," requested the lavender eyed girl with a teasing smile.

"Um, okay…Domino," she stopped herself just as she was about to add the san to the end of her name.

Satisfied Domino turned around and started stretching.

"Man, I can't wait until my turn comes up! I want to kick some butt!" she said with a laugh.

"Don't we all!" joked Elaine. "Let's all do our best when we fight, okay?"

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Sure, I don't have a problem with it. Just don't cry when I whoop you!" taunted Kiba.

Akamaru barked a "That's right!"

By this point, the others started coming back from the rest room. Sakura in particular seemed extra determined about something. Only Ino had yet to come back yet. Hayate entered the room at that moment and coughed.

"We will now resume. Please turn your attention to the monitor," he requested.

The usual random selection occurred until two names were displayed.

Haruno Sakura vs. Yamanaka Ino

Sakura gasped in surprise. She heard a similar sound behind her. Everyone turned towards it to find Ino, just arriving from the bathroom. The two rivals then glared determinedly at each other. Without saying a word, both of them made their way to the battle area.

"Whoo! Go, Sakura-chan!" cheered Naruto.

"Do your best!" added Domino and Elaine.

Shikamaru and Chouji groaned.

"Why those two of all the combinations?" grumbled Shikamaru. "This is so troublesome."

Hayate then spoke.

"The next match shall be between Haruno Sakura and Yamanaka Ino. Are there any objections?"

"None!" replied both girls.

"Very well then. Fifth match, begin!"

"I didn't think that I would be fighting you so soon, Sakura. Don't hold back okay?" asked Ino.

Sakura didn't seem to hear her. It was almost as if her mind was somewhere far away. She snapped out of it quickly though and glared determinedly at Ino. Best of friends turned rivals, the girls charged.

Sakura speedily zigzagged left and right to throw off Ino's intuition and lashed out with a snap kick. Ino ducked it and entered a tai chi style stance. Her fist shot forward in retaliation. Sakura knocked the punch aside and ducked for a sweep. Ino hopped over it and immediately ducked under Sakura's follow up kick. The blonde bombshell leaped back to put some distance between them.

Sakura quickly hurled a pair of kunai after her like a quicksilver. Ino snagged one in midair and hurled it at the other one, knocking them both aside. Sakura charged and attempted a jump kick. Ino sidestepped it and hopped out of range of Sakura's follow up backhand. Sakura threw a jab that Ino blocked and quickly retaliated with her own. Sakura likewise blocked it. The two then tried using high kicks at the same time. Their legs collided, canceling out that move.

Sakura immediately threw a feral punch at Ino's head. Ino ducked it and threw a triple punch combination at Sakura's face. Sakura blocked the first two, but Ino faked the last one and drove her fist into Sakura's diaphragm instead. The pink haired girl gasped as a spray of spit flew from her mouth. Ino took advantage of her opening to throw a power punch at Sakura's face but something made her hesitate. She instead just bitch slapped her.

Everyone was stunned speechless at the sight. Ino was even more so and she gazed sadly at her trembling hand. Sakura just stared at her, wide eyed. It quickly turned to a look of determination.

"Ino, I can't thank you enough for the friendship we once shared. I'm sorry that we ended it over Sasuke-kun. But now that it's come to this I have no intention of fighting you over him right now," said Sakura. "You should know that I'm stronger than you."

"What was that!? Do you realize who you're talking to, you crybaby!?" cried Ino furiously.

Wordlessly, Sakura untied her forehead protector. Ino lowered her eyes to the ground until they were hidden in shadows. After a moment she smiled and withdrew her own forehead protector from her pouch.

"I understand now, Sakura. I'm sorry it took so long for me to realize it," apologized Ino quietly.

In unison, both girls tied their forehead protectors to their foreheads. They then looked each other in the eye with the knowledge that they were true equals.

"Just as we swore upon these forehead protectors. With our full powers, lets have a fair fight!" they thought as one.

Both girls charged. Once in range, they both threw power punches. Their fists collided with enough force to make the very air ripple. The resulting shockwave forced them both in a skid away from each other. Once they both came to a stop, they assumed battled ready stances. They only admired each other's pose for a few seconds before charging again. Sakura formed seals as she went.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!"

One Sakura then became three via a replication technique. Ino stopped in her tracks and carefully begun looking for clues to the identity of the real Sakura. Sakura suddenly sped up on chakra fueled legs, startling Ino out of her observation. She tensed expectantly when the first Sakura spun into an overhead kick. It vanished before the blow landed, obviously a clone. However the distraction it offered caused her to lose track of the other Sakuras. The one in front of her vanished when the real Sakura punched through it to score a sledgehammer blow to her face. Ino hit the ground hard and rolled a few times.

"Stop playing around Ino, or else you're going to get hurt!" warned Sakura while the blonde struggled to her feet.

Ino wiped a trickle of blood from her mouth with a smirk.

"That was a lucky shot and you know it!" shot back Ino in amusement.

The girls then rushed each other and lunged with straight arm punches. They caught each other's fists with their free hands respectively, resulting in a stalemate. They pushed against each other for a moment before breaking the lock. As one they withdrew and hurled shuriken at each other. The flying stars collided and deflected each other harmlessly aside. Once the girls skidded to a halt, they boosted off towards each other and hit each other in the chin at the same time. The force of their punches made each fly back to land painfully on their backs.

Everyone's eyes was on them now, the shockwaves from their blows had been strong enough for them to feel it even from the upper level. These girls were giving it everything they had and more. Tiredly they climbed to their feet.

"There's no way you're as strong as me, Sakura! I refuse to believe it!" cried Ino heatedly.

Sakura giggled.

"Funny. There's no way that a slovenly person like you is my equal. As much time as you spend on your hair and appearance, you may as well work in a geisha house," quipped Sakura.

Ino growled as her vision became red. She withdrew a kunai from her pouch.

"What do you know!? Stop underestimating me!" shrieked Ino.

Sakura tensed as Ino raised the knife in front of herself. Then the oddest sight of all befell her. Ino had cut through her own ponytail! Everyone gasped in shock.

"What do you think of me now, damn it!?" she screamed before throwing her hair to the ground.

The others sweat dropped while Sakura laughed at the sight of the now less cute Ino.

"What a fool. That isn't going to make you any stronger, Pig," teased Sakura.

"Shut up! I'm going to make you lose, Sakura!" shouted Ino while forming a seal.

A glint appeared in Sakura's eye.

"The Mind Transfer technique eh? You do realize what'll happen if you miss, right?" asked the pink haired girl.

Ino knew only too well the flaw in her technique. The range of the technique was limited to whatever was directly in front of her. She also knew that it was slow to kick in and that if Sakura dodged it, her body would become a punching bag for her rival. Ino glared at Sakura.

"So what!? You won't know what'll happen until I try!" snapped Ino.

"Alright. Your funeral, Pig," said Sakura with a smile.

"Ninpou…"

Sakura begun running.

"Shin Ten Shin no Jutsu!"

Sakura abruptly came to a halt after the incantation. Ino herself sank to her knees. Everyone tensed.

"Did the technique work?" whispered Elaine with everyone's thoughts.

Sakura or Ino, begun to laugh.

"Nice try…Pig."

Everyone exhaled the breath they had been holding. Sakura was still in control of her body.

"Alright, Sakura!" cheered Domino.

"Darn, she screwed up!" grumbled Shikamaru.

Sakura smiled and begun to advance towards Ino's body. She stepped on Ino's hair…

"What the!? I can't move!" cried Sakura in alarm.

Sakura glanced at her feet to find a threads of chakra wrapped around her ankles. They appeared to be strains of Ino's hair.

"You're mine now, Sakura!" cried Ino suddenly while jerking her head up to stare smugly at her foe.

"Did you…?"

"That's right, hun. I only pretended to use the technique to lure you onto my hair. By adding my chakra to it, it became a strong strain of living rope if you will," taunted Ino. "Get ready, once I enter your body and make you say 'I give up,' I'll win! This time, I won't miss!"

"Oh no! Sakura!" cried Elaine.

"Hurry and run away, Sakura-chan!" added Naruto.

At the prompt of her friends, Sakura begun to struggle. It was no use though, her legs weren't going to carry her anywhere.

"Game over! Ninpou, Shin Ten Shin no Jutsu!" cried Ino.

Ino slumped over and Sakura's struggling ceased. A shadow passed over Sakura's eyes as Ino invaded her body. It wasn't long before Sakura's mind was forced into a state of semi-consciousness. The pink haired girl then felt her mouth curl into a smile that most definitely wasn't her own. She tried to fight, but Ino's hold on the body was too strong. Sakura felt her arm rise into the air.

"I, Haruno Sakura, sur…"

"Don't do it, Sakura-chan!" screamed Naruto. "You've come too far to let Ino beat you like this!"

Everyone begun looking back and forth between the possessed Sakura and Naruto. Ino smiled cruelly at the blond.

"You're wasting your breath trying to tell me that now. This fight is…"

"Get out!" screamed Sakura's consciousness.

"What the!?"

The body begun to tremble in a tug of war between the two battling wills. Sakura was fighting her!

"I'll never let you win, Ino!" screamed Sakura with momentary control over her body. "Get out of my head!"

"Sakura! Give up already!" came Ino after regaining control.

"Get out!" came Sakura again.

Hayate slowly back away from Sakura/Ino as if she had gone mental.

"You can do it, Sakura!" cheered Elaine.

"Yeah, stomp her good!" encouraged Domino.

Sakura's body gave a violent jerk before becoming enveloped in an aura of green chakra.

"GIVE ME BACK MY BODY!" the aura expanded until everyone had to shield their eyes from its' brightness.

When the flare ended, Ino was back in her own body struggling to climb to her feet. Both she and Sakura were breathing hard, but Ino was the first to speak.

"How is this possible? You have a barrier around your mind! I couldn't completely force you to sleep!" gasped Ino.

"I have the strength to match my beauty. We girls need such things if we're to survive, right?" replied Sakura just as breathlessly.

With grins, both girls stood up to continue the match.

"Yeah! Sakura, you rock!" cheered Domino excitedly.

She, Elaine, Naruto, Lee and Genmaru all begun giving various cheers in favor of Sakura. The sparring girls rushed each other. They reared back their right arms and each fueled their fists with what remaining chakra they had left. Their blows connected squarely into each other's cheeks and drew both spit and blood from each. They once more sailed backwards onto their backs. This time, neither of them got back up again. Hayate examined both warriors before raising both of his hands.

"Neither are able to continue. This match is a double K.O!" announced the judge.

With that said, both Kakashi and Asuma when to retrieve their battered students. The two Jounins smiled at each other in a congratulatory manner. The girls had fought well. They carried them both to the upper landing and gently set them down next to each other. Lee, Naruto, Elaine, Domino, Genmaru, Shikamaru and Chouji all gathered around them worriedly. They all wanted to ask them if they were okay, but Kakashi shushed them.

"Let them rest," he ordered quietly. "They'll wake up soon. None of their wounds are serious."

Everyone sighed in relief. This had been a battle to remember. The formerly unreliable Sakura and the loud mouth Ino had given new meaning to the term, kunoichi. Hayate then drew everyone's attention to the monitor as usual. The randomization process, did the usual stuff until two names were displayed.

Nara Shikamaru vs. Tsuchi Kin

"This is such a drag," grumbled Shikamaru. "Why do I have to fight a girl? On top of that, I don't know what kind of techniques she'll use. She didn't exactly do very much during that fight in the forest."

With a sigh Shikamaru went to the battle area. The Sound placed a hand on her hip and sneered once he arrived.

"I'll make this quick," promised Kin.

Hayate then did the usual procedure.

"Nara Shikamaru shall fight Tsuchi Kin. Are they any objections?"

Shikamaru had a whole lot of objections that he wanted to voice, but he keep quiet about them anyway.

"None," said both fighters.

"Good. Sixth match begin!"

Shikamaru formed the ram seal.

"Tsk, is that trick the only thing you know?" complained Kin with a frown.

"Shut up! Who asked you anyway!?" snapped Shikamaru. "Ninpou, Kagemane no Jutsu!"

Kin rolled her eyes as Shikamaru's shadow slowly advanced.

"I've seen this trick before you know. As long as I'm moving, you'll never catch me with it!" declared Kin.

She leaped away from Shikamaru's shadow and hurled a pair of Senbon at the lazy ninja. Shikamaru ducked under them and frowned when they started jingling. He turned towards the needles, which had embedded themselves in the far wall, to find bells attached to them. Shikamaru smirked.

"That's a lame trick. Let me guess, you're going to throw another pair of needles shortly. One with a bell and another without one. This way, I'll react to the sound of the bell and avoid that one but the needle without the bell will catch me off guard and hit right?" betokened Shikamaru. "I won't fall for that!"

Kin smiled and withdrew a second pair of needles that didn't have bells.

"You really do talk too much!" she said while hurling them at Shikamaru.

The lazy ninja easily avoided them. He frowned when he heard the jingle of bells behind him.

"What the, those didn't have bells," he thought while looking behind him.

The two needles from before were the source of the jingling. Shikamaru then noticed a thin thread of nearly invisible wire attached to the bells. Shikamaru's eyes widened, it was a distraction!

"Too late!" cried Kin as he started turning back around.

Shikamaru took a pair of needles directly to the arm. With a cry, he stumbled backwards and fell onto his butt. By this point, both Sakura and Ino had woken up.

"Shikamaru!" cried Ino in alarm upon seeing him downed.

Naruto and the others were relieved to see them up an about again. They all managed a few words of acknowledgement, but the lure of the fight was just too much of an attention grabber. They spread out a bit so that Sakura and Ino could watch it as well. Shikamaru had climbed back to his feet while grumbling the whole time.

"Stupid bells, but at least I didn't take a critical hit," he muttered while removing the needles from his skin. "You'll pay for that!"

"As if I'll really let you do anything!" shot back Kin while pulling on the thread attached to the bells again.

They begun jingling again, but there was something different about it. Shikamaru begun to grow dizzy and his vision was distorting. His legs refused to support his weight and he dropped to his knees.

"What did you do to me!?" demanded Shikamaru heatedly.

Kin laughed.

"Surprised? Everyone who listens to my bells become like that," teased Kin. "This is a special bell that uses vibrations to influence the eardrum and brain. It will then trigger a Genjutsu image."

Sure enough, Shikamaru begun seeing doubles of Kin. He quickly tried to cover his ears and shake away the illusion.

"Don't bother. You can't shut out my bells that easily!" declared Kin.

Shikamaru looked up to find eighteen Kins smirking at him. He growled.

"Damn, which one is the real one?" he muttered to himself.

All of the Kins begun speaking in unison.

"What's wrong? You don't know where to send your little shadow?" they taunted while withdrawing more needles. "Let's find out what you'll look like as a human hedgehog!"

Shikamaru shielded his face just as Kin hurled them at him. His arms throbbed with sharp pain as the needles pierced them.

"Damn wench!" yelled Shikamaru angrily. "You said that you would end this quickly!"

The Kins smiled.

"Oh yeah, I did. Very well, since the pain seems so unbearable to you," they withdrew more needles. "This is the end."

Kin reared back her needle arm. Kin paused with a gasp.

"My body!?" she cried.

Shikamaru grinned as all of the Kins became one again.

"Shadow Imitation is a success!" he announced.

"Impossible! Your shadow is nowhere near mine!" disbelievingly uttered Kin while looking about.

"What a fool. You still haven't noticed?" asked Shikamaru.

Kin's eyes widened in shock.

"You didn't?!"

"Yeah, that's right. I stretched my shadow and made it look like it came from your string," explained Shikamaru. "If you had any kind of brains at all, you would know that a string held at that height could never cast a shadow."

He lifted his right arm making Kin follow suit.

"Not bad smart guy, but how are you going to win now? We're just moving the same way," reminded Kin with a victorious smile.

"Shut up and watch," snapped Shikamaru.

He withdrew a shuriken from his pouch and Kin did the same. Her eyes grew wide.

"Are you crazy!? You'll end up hurting yourself too!" cried Kin.

"Think I don't know that?" shot back Shikamaru while rearing back his arm, Kin did the same. "Let's see who can take the most pain!"

They both then hurled the stars at each other. Everyone tensed in anticipation. Shikamaru shrugged before jerking his head back as hard as he could to avoid the flying star. Kin smiled as her body did the same.

"Hah, I knew you were just bluff…ack!" she cried out as her head smashed into the wall behind her.

Kin's eyes glazed over and she slumped to the floor, completely out cold. Shikamaru made her knock herself out! Shikamaru laughed.

"Idiot! A true Shinobi should be wary out the landscape during battle! We may move the same, but you were much closer to the wall than I was!" he declared, not that Kin was listening anymore.

Hayate signaled the medics before raising his hand.

"Winner, Nara Shikamaru," he announced.

"Way to go, Shikamaru!" cheered Ino.

"You're cool!" cried Chouji.

"Great fight!" added Sakura.

Naruto frowned.

"It wasn't all that much, but it was kind of cool," muttered Naruto, he was more of an action man after all.

The others offered their praise as Shikamaru returned to the upper level. He slapped Chouji a lazy high five and nodded his thanks to everyone for their kind words. Hayate then had them look at the monitor again. It did the usual stuff until…

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba

Naruto erupted into deafening cries.

"At last! It's my turn! YEAH!"

"Do your best, Naruto!" cheered Sakura.

"Finally, a chance to see just how far along you've gotten," thought Genmaru with a warm smile in Naruto's direction.

"Show us some action!" cried Domino excitedly.

"Good luck, Naruto! I'll root for you all the way!" said Elaine with her best smile.

"Leave it to me!" declared Naruto while flexing his muscles. He then grinned excitedly.

Kiba's toothy grin lit up his own face.

"Hell yeah! We'll whoop him for sure right, Akamaru?!" said the dog tamer confidently.

The pooch yipped a positive response while flashing a dog grin.

"Um, do your best, Kiba-kun," encouraged Hinata quietly.

"Try not to embarrass yourself," said Shino.

Whether that was meant as a joke or an insult was at a lost for Kiba. He didn't think too much of it though. With a careless wave over his shoulder, Kiba headed down to the battle area to meet Naruto. Once both fighters were ready, Hayate begun the official announcement.

"The seventh match shall now begin. Uzumaki Naruto will face off against Inuzuka Kiba. Do either fighter have any objections?"

"None!" replied the duo without hesitating.

Hayate nodded to both warriors before raising his hand.

"Preliminary match number seven, commence!"

"Finally! I'm tired of all that waiting!" cried Naruto excitedly. "Prepare yourself, dog boy! I'm going to show off some of my really cool moves!"

Kiba snorted.

"Don't get so cocky, Naruto! The fact that you've matched up with me means that I've already won this!" declared Kiba while rubbing his nose. "Right, Akamaru?"

The pup yipped in agreement. Naruto felt a vein throb in his temple.

"Why you…keep dreaming! You don't stand a chance against me!" cried Naruto while pointing at Kiba.

"Heh, we'll see about that, dork," quipped Kiba while unzipping his jacket.

Akamaru leaped out and stood proudly next to his master. This only annoyed Naruto even more.

"Hey dog brain, don't bring puppies in here! He's going to interfere with the match!" argued Naruto.

"You really are an idiot! Akamaru is going to fight too!" shot down Kiba.

Akamaru barked in a manner as if to say "That's right!" The dog growled at Naruto, who paled before turning to Hayate.

"Ano sa, that's illegal isn't it?" asked the blond with a frown.

"No, bugs and animals are treated as weapons. It isn't a problem," replied Hayate.

Naruto's face fell, but he quickly perked up again.

"Fine, it's just another handicap. I'm still going to win!" proclaimed the blond.

"Don't act so tough! Just for that…" Kiba glanced at Akamaru. "Don't do anything okay? I'll take care of this twit myself."

The dog whined as if to say "Are you sure?" Kiba just grinned at him.

"Don't worry Akamaru, it won't take more than a few minutes!" reassured the dog tamer while glaring at Naruto. "I'll beat him in one hit out of pity."

"Sure, whatever. Let's see if you can even touch me," taunted Naruto with a smile.

"Quit acting tough!" snapped Kiba once more while kneeling and forming a seal. "Gijyuu Ninpou, Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

The effect of Kiba's Beast Mimicry Technique wasn't unlike that of Naruto's Kyuubi transformations. An aura of blue chakra surrounded Kiba and he crouched on all fours. His finger and toenails elongated and his naturally sharp teeth became even more deadly. But the biggest change was in Kiba's speed. The dog tamer became a blur as he dashed forward to score a elbow into Naruto's stomach before he could even react.

Naruto's was winded as he landed painfully on his back. He didn't move save to suck in air. Kiba narrowed his eyes as if daring the blond to get up again. He growled when Naruto did just that.

"Yo Kiba…don't underestimate me!" warned Naruto with a savage grin.

The dog tamer begun to tremble in both fear and fury.

"Yeah! Get him, Naruto!" cheered Sakura.

Lee, Genmaru, Domino and Elaine all begun cheering for the blond as well. This only served to make Kiba madder.

"Damn it! I said to stop acting tough! You're bleeding, you fool!" roared Kiba.

It was true, a thin trickle of blood was leaking from the corner of Naruto's mouth. He didn't seem fazed by it though.

"Better worry about yourself. I let you hit me that time just to see how strong you were. I'm not impressed," revealed Naruto. "Maybe you'll make me break a sweat if you use your little dog!"

Kiba clenched his fist at his side.

"You're going to regret those words!" threatened Kiba. "Let's go, Akamaru!"

The white pup yipped eager for a chance to fight. Both he and Kiba then rushed the blond. Along the way, Kiba withdrew some smoke bombs from his pocket. He tossed them at Naruto's feet, resulting in a big veil of pepper. Naruto held his breath and glanced warily about for his dog loving foe. An unseen punch to the cheek caused the blond to stagger. He then felt several more punches strike his stomach, back and face.

"Damn it! I am not going to get beaten up by a cheap trick!" vowed the blond before blindly dashing forward.

Naruto cleared the smoke only to be pounced on by Akamaru. The startled blond staggered backwards into the smoke from the force of Akamaru's tackle. Kiba scored several more blows before finally leaping out of the clearing smoke veil. He grinned upon spotting Naruto laying face down and Akamaru sitting next to him, wagging his tail.

"Yeah! We got him good! Great work, Akamaru!" cheered Kiba while holding his arms out to embrace his pooch.

Akamaru rushed towards Kiba happily, but oddly enough he bit Kiba's arm. The dog tamer winched in pain and stared at his pup sadly.

"Akamaru…why?" he murmured.

The dog then gave a very familiar grin.

"You fell for it!" crackled Akamaru before going up in smoke.

It cleared to reveal Naruto with his teeth latched onto Kiba's jacket. Kiba was besides himself with fury.

"You bastard! Get the hell off of me!" he roared.

Naruto was only too happy to oblige. He started spitting in revulsion.

"Goddamn, man! You even taste like a dog!" complained Naruto.

Kiba didn't have much interest in Naruto's joke. He begun frantically looking around for Akamaru.

"What the hell did you do with Akamaru!?" demanded Kiba after a moment of searching.

Naruto produced the mutt from behind him and held it up by its' forelegs.

"You mean this guy?" teased the blond with a laugh.

The other Naruto that was laying behind him sat up and laughed as well. The blond prankster had used the Shadow Replication technique! Akamaru whined causing Kiba to growl angrily.

"Let him go or I swear!" threatened Kiba.

Both Narutos shrugged.

"I already told you, you can't beat me," they said in unison.

"Yeah! That's the way, Naruto!" cheered Domino, Sakura and Elaine.

"Was he always this smart?" asked Ino in awe. "He's easily going head to head with Kiba!"

"Who would've thought that he could use his techniques so well, and with such perfect timing!" agreed Chouji.

"He's a lot better than I expected," added Shikamaru.

"Very well done, Naruto. You may just be ready for him yet," thought Genmaru proudly.

Kiba closed his eyes and breathed for a moment to calm himself. He then stared at the blond with a smile in place. Wordlessly he reached into his pouch and produced a tiny black sphere. With a flick of his thumb, the ball sailed into Akamaru's mouth. The dog quickly swallowed it. Immediately, Akamaru begun to convulse violently. The dog's fur became wild and spiky, but the eye candy was the color change in his fur from white to blood red. With a tiger like roar, Akamaru kicked his captor with his hind legs hard enough to destroy the clone. Akamaru returned to Kiba's side and growled at the real Naruto, who was stunned speechless.

"What the hell did you feed him!?" demanded Naruto with wide eyes.

"It's called a soldier pill, moron!" snapped Kiba before eating one himself.

Kiba's aura spiked to higher levels and he sank to all fours again. Akamaru hopped onto his master's back with a growl.

"You're finished! Gijyuu Ninpou, Jyuujin Bunshin!" cried Kiba.

Akamaru went up in a poof of smoke. When it cleared, a second Kiba stood in the dog's place as a result of the Man-beast transformation. The only way to distinguish Akamaru from Kiba was the fact that Akamaru didn't have an aura around him. The two Kibas growled ferociously at the unnerved blond.

"Those eyes don't look too friendly," thought Naruto nervously while tensing.

In a flash, Kiba and Akamaru separated and attempted to strike Naruto from both sides. Naruto quickly pulled off a back flip to safety. The moment he touched down, Naruto disengaged the catch release on his arm weights. They hit the ground with a soft boom. Naruto crouched to try and remove his left leg weight, but Kiba rushed him before he could even tug on the brace. Naruto quickly rolled onto his back and used his legs to launch Kiba to the wall behind him.

The dog tamer easily caught himself and ricocheted off the wall towards the blond again. Naruto quickly fueled his arms with chakra and pushed off the ground into midair, causing Kiba's strike to miss. Naruto touched down a few feet away only to get swiped at by the waiting Akamaru. Naruto ducked just and time and swept the transformed dog's legs from under him. Akamaru caught himself with his new hands and lashed out with a kick directly into Naruto's chest. The blond went sailing backward to receive a scratch from behind by Kiba. Naruto winched.

"Damn it! I feel like I'm the ball in a tennis match!" thought Naruto while rolling between Kiba's legs.

Once behind Kiba, Naruto took to the air with a high jump. Kiba and Akamaru charged towards the area Naruto was going to land with grins on their faces.

"I see an opening!" announced Kiba. "Eat this! Gatsuuga!"

Kiba and Akamaru dove forward and begun spinning at insane speeds. The two vortexes that were Kiba and his pooch, plowed into the hapless blond just as he landed. With a cry of pain, Naruto got bowled over and landed painfully on his back. He hacked up a mouthful of blood before going still. Kiba and Akamaru skidded to halts a few feet away.

"How'd ya like that!? Double Fang Destroyer is a success!" taunted Kiba before laughing his head off.

"Naruto! Please, get up!" pleaded Elaine worriedly with everyone else's thoughts.

"Elaine…I won't give up yet!" thought Naruto determinedly.

The blond climbed shakily to his feet.

"I'm…going to become Hokage…I can't lose here…not while I have a promise to keep!" gasped Naruto.

"Hah, don't make me laugh! A weakling like you could never be Hokage! But don't feel bad, I'll become Hokage for you!" declared Kiba before laughing again even more loudly than before.

Naruto's trembling hands became fists.

"A dork like you, Hokage! You shouldn't set impossible goals like that. Deep inside you know you'll never become Hokage!"

"That's not true!!" cried Elaine who looked besides herself with fury. "Naruto has a Shinobi's heart and more Hokage level strengths than you'll ever have! I know he'll become Hokage because he promised me! You're the one who shouldn't set impossible goals, you jerk!"

Everyone stared at Elaine in wide eyed silence. This was the first time any of them had ever seen her lose her temper. The sight was both unnerving and impressive at the same time. Domino and Sakura glared at Kiba as well.

"That's right! Naruto will become Hokage, got that!?" backed up Domino.

"Come on, Naruto! Show this guy what the future Hokage is made of!" added Sakura.

"Yeah!" chorused the others.

Even the Jounin and Sarutobi himself nodded encouragingly. Naruto smiled as he gazed at everyone he came to call friends, the very people who believed in him.

"You guys…" he felt something warm and wet slid down his cheeks.

They were tears of happiness and love for those who acknowledged him. Hastily he wiped them away before gazing at Kiba with eyes that radiated hope. The smile that followed was both happy and beautiful, a mixture of sadness and relief. Slowly, an aura of extremely bright chakra radiated around him. The light from it almost made the blue seem as white as snow. It then expanded, until it was triple its' usual size! A loud snapping sound rang out as his leg weights were crushed under the pressure of Naruto's chakra. They detached from his legs and dropped to the floor.

"Kiba…I made a promise to someone very precious to me that I would become Hokage. This time, I intend to keep it for both her and everyone else in this village," said Naruto with that expression still on his face. "It all starts now."

Naruto vanished from sight.

"What!?" exclaimed Kiba before an enormous pain shot through his guts.

He doubled over to find Naruto standing in front of him with his fist buried in his stomach. Kiba weakly hacked up a mouthful of blood. Naruto then vanished again just before Akamaru could try to assist his master with a punch to Naruto's back. Unable to stop, Akamaru accidentally sent Kiba flying into the wall behind him. Akamaru whimpered and took a step towards Kiba, only to get knocked into the air by an uppercut from Naruto. Akamaru yelped and landed on all fours, he shook his head in an attempt to clear away the dizziness.

Naruto stood calmly between them with his eyes closed and his fists by his side. Kiba and Akamaru climbed to their feet and nodded at each other. With a cry, they charged at Naruto and started throwing dozens of punches and kicks. Naruto never moved from that spot, but every time it looked like a blow would land the blond would flicker. Genmaru smiled at the confused looks on the beast warriors, and everyone else's, faces.

"Not bad, Naruto. You're able to move so fast now that it's hard for an untrained eye to even tell that you're dodging," he observed.

"Hey what's going on? Is Naruto using a Genjutsu?" asked Lee.

Neji activated his Byakugan. Not even a minute later he gasped.

"This guy…his chakra is moving so fast that I don't think he's staying in one place for very long! He's just dodging Kiba's attacks!" reported Neji.

Everyone found this bit of news especially shocking. Domino begun to laugh.

"No way! He almost moves like…"

Naruto vanished completely, resulting and Akamaru and Kiba punching each other in the face. They howled in pain while holding their noses.

"Damn, Naruto! I'll teach you to make a fool out of me!" growled Kiba before smashing some more smoke bombs to the ground.

Kiba and Akamaru grinned and wordlessly charged the fog covered blond.

"Gatsuuga!"

Once more they became vortexes of fangs and claws. They then starting ripping into the smoke repeatedly with the hope of hitting Naruto while he couldn't see anything. They finally ceased the technique when the mist started clearing. Naruto was nowhere in sight.

In a flash, Naruto appeared behind Akamaru in midair. The dog tried to spin around, but Naruto had already lashed out with a kick into Akamaru's neck. The dog yelped and his eyes rolled to the back of his head, leaving only white in them. He sank to the floor and transformed back into his normal form. Akamaru was out cold!

"Akamaru! No!" wailed Kiba in dismay.

When Kiba looked up again with bloody murder in his eyes, he found himself surrounded on all sides by seven more Narutos. The blond wonder had used the Shadow Replication!

"This is it!" cried the clones.

Kiba cried out in pain as his legs got tackled from behind by one clone, and he took a direct tackle from another clone. The real Naruto then appeared below the airborne dog fighter and kicked him higher into the air with an axe kick. Naruto vanished after this and his clones leaped up to score kick after kick into Kiba's back, knocking him higher still. Kiba was now nearly thirty-two feet in the air. The real Naruto appeared above him in a flash and, with a loud cry, started stomping on Kiba's stomach repeatedly the whole way back to the ground. Naruto then spun into a very Sasuke like stomach smash while his clones all kicked upwards into Kiba's back.

"Naruto Gakeppuchi Rendan!" they all cried as one.

A geyser of blood sprayed from Kiba's mouth upon impact. Between the brutal stomach smashing and the combine kicks of the clones, Kiba's innards were screaming in pain. The real Naruto performed a flip off of Kiba's stomach while the clones withdrew their legs. Kiba dropped lifelessly to the ground, completely out cold. Hayate examined Kiba for a moment before raising his hand.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto," he announced.

Everyone begun to cheer as the clones went up in smoke. Naruto grinned at them and vanished in a flash. He reappeared a split second later between the others. They all started heartily patting him on the back.

"You did it, Naruto! Alright!" cheered Sakura.

"You were amazing, Naruto! Also, what you said before was wonderful," added Elaine with a slight flush.

Even Shikamaru and his squad were impressed.

"Yeah! It was a piece of cake since I had you guys rooting for me!" bragged Naruto happily.

"Um, Naruto-kun," came Hinata's quite voice.

Everyone turned to her curiously. She started blushing as she offered the vial of ointment again.

"What's that, Hinata?" asked Naruto curiously.

"M-medicine, for your wounds, Naruto-kun," replied Hinata with a tomato red face.

The blond grinned and accepted the gift.

"Thank you, Hinata! You're a great person!" praised the blond.

Hinata smiled back and fiddled with her fingers.

"You're welcome, Naruto-kun."

The blond immediately opened the container and stuck his finger into the content. He then applied the cream to one of the many cuts he had received during the course of the exam. It felt cool to the touch even though a small bit of steam rose from the wound. In an instant, it healed until not even a scar remained. Naruto was ecstatic!

"Wow! This stuff works great!" cried Naruto happily. "You guys should try some of this!" he held the vial out to everyone who had just fought.

Kakashi sweat dropped.

"You're the only one here that would heal that quickly, Naruto. The power of the Nine Tails never ceases to amaze me," mused the gray haired ninja.

Everyone then took notice of the medical team's arrival. Kiba and Akamaru were in bad shape it seemed. Hinata bowed her excuse to the others and rushed to Kiba's side just as the medical team placed him on the stretcher.

"Um, please take this," she requested while offering another vial of ointment. "Use it to treat Akamaru and Kiba-kun."

Kiba sat up and stared at Hinata for a moment before grinning.

"Heh, you shouldn't worry so much, Hinata! These wounds aren't all that bad," said Kiba with a wink. "There are still nine of you guys left. You, Chouji, Domino, Neji, Genmaru, Lee, those Sands and that Sound guy. Listen, if you get paired with that guy with the gourd give up right away. Do the same for Neji too, he won't be going easy on you at all."

"Kiba-kun…" said Hinata sadly.

"Promise me you won't fight them, Hinata! You could get seriously hurt or worse, killed!" pleaded Kiba earnestly.

Hinata gave the merest of nods. Kiba smiled before laying back down.

"Thanks, Hinata," he said before allowing himself to be carried away.

Hinata watch for a moment before returning to the upper level. At Hayate's usual cough, everyone then turned towards the monitor. The usual animation occurred until…

Shishikura Domino vs. Temari

"Whoo Hoo! It's finally my turn!" cheered Domino excitedly.

"Awesome, Domino!" said Elaine happily. "This is your big chance to shine!"

"I can't wait to see you in action, dear," added Genmaru with a warm smile.

Domino hugged him.

"You're so sweet! I'll try to win this one for both of us!" promised the lavender eyed girl.

Genmaru kissed her on the forehead and returned the embrace.

"Aww, that's cute!" said Sakura and the other girls at the sight.

The couple blushed and separated.

"Well, I better head down there now!" said Domino with rosy cheeks and a hand behind her head.

Everyone offered one last moral boost before she headed to the battle area. Once there she faced Temari, whose hand was on her hip impatiently. The two girls stared at each other in complete seriousness that was rare for Domino. Hayate proceeded to the opening statement.

"The eighth match shall be between Shishikura Domino and Temari. Do either of you have any objections to this?"

"None!" replied both girls.

Hayate raised his hands.

"Eighth match, begin!"

"I'll just warn you right now, if I start attacking you're finished," declared Temari.

Domino sighed and shrugged.

"I've heard that line so many times, it's boring," said Domino before placing her hands on her hips and leaning forward. "Are you really as strong as you say?" she asked with a wink.

Temari smiled and grasped her fan.

"Why don't you attack and find out yourself," she invited mischievously.

Domino giggled.

"You really are a tomboy! It's too bad, you're pretty cute you know. You're letting your looks go to waste."

Temari didn't respond, but she chuckled all the same. She never encountered such a happy go lucky personality before. It was a funny new experience considering that anyone else would have been out for blood in this situation. Domino then sank into a combat pose. The two stared at each other excitedly for a moment, then Domino charged.

The lavender eyed girl's fist shot forward in a power packed straight liner. Since there was no dirt in the tile filled room, Domino didn't bother creating armor. Still, her fist rang out as it struck Temari's fan, which the shapely blonde shielded herself with. The blow had enough force to make her slide back a few feet. Temari's eyes widened in surprise.

Quickly the fan user spun into a crouch while swinging her partially opened fan. Domino stomped hard enough for her feet to become planted in the ground. The lavender eyed girl shielded her eyes with her arms now that she was anchored in place. Temari grimaced, this girl was frighteningly strong.

Once Temari's attack came to an end, Domino reared back and punched the ground hard enough to crack several of the tiles around her. With a smile, Domino begun flashing through several hand seals. An aura of gold chakra engulfed her and the broken tile shards rose into the air and started orbiting her.

"Doton, Doryuudan!" cried Domino before thrusting her hand towards Temari.

The razor sharp shards shot towards the fan wielder like a swarm of bullets. Temari smiled and swung her fan so fast that unless one was looking for it, it was difficult to see. An even stronger gust of wind picked up that scattered the shards in different directions. Domino went flying onto her back as well, despise her prior preparation for such a thing. She shielded her face as the shards started raining around her. Thankfully none of them hit her while she was laying there. Temari spoke once she climbed back to her feet.

"There are three stars decorating my fan," she announced while pointing to the two purple spheres on the paper part of the weapon. "Once you see the third one…you lose."

Domino sweat dropped.

"I hate to burst your bubble but I don't think another little gust of wind is going to defeat me," she pointed out.

Temari smiled.

"Are you sure about that?" she taunted. "Personally, I'd surrender if I where you. Your defeat is certain, little girl."

Domino didn't waste her breath trying to make a comeback to that. She quickly dashed towards Temari and leaped into a jump kick. Temari blocked this and grunted as her fan was nearly dislodged from her hand due to the force of Domino's strike. Domino boosted off of the fan straight into the air and came crashing down with a two handed smash. Temari was brought to her knees as her fan begun to cave in slightly from Domino's strength. Domino shifted her weight on the fan into a one handed handstand. She boosted off into the air again and came crashing down a second time with a double stomp.

The tile beneath Temari gave way, and she cried out as she plummeted. Temari stopped her decent into darkness just in time by using her fan as a brace. She dangled from it with gritted teeth.

"Temari!" cried Kankuro in alarm.

Domino peered down towards Temari with a grin on her face.

"Give up?" she asked the Sand kunoichi.

"Heh, as if!" shot back Temari before pulling herself back up.

Domino waited patiently for her. Although she could've ended the match right then and there, Domino was simply having too much fun to stop now. Once Temari was back on solid ground, she stood up and dusted herself off. She then closed her eyes and snapped her fan open completely.

"Third star, you lose," stated Temari with a smirk. "You should've dislodged me when you had the chance, kid."

Domino pouted.

"But then we wouldn't be able to play anymore!" teased the earth manipulator.

"Unreal, how can anyone be this strong?" gasped Ino.

"Because she's Domino!" replied Elaine with a laugh.

"Go for it, Honey!" cried Genmaru supportively.

"Hah, this is great! Domino already has it won!" declared Naruto with his hands behind his head.

"Yeah!" agreed Sakura.

The others started cheering as well while the adults started at Sagitario as if to say "What kind of training did you make her do?" The green haired ninja laughed and joined in on the cheering.

"Feh, I'll silence your little fan club with this! Kamaitachi!" Temari waved her fan twice in rapid session resulting in a tornado!

"Uh oh!" hissed Domino before quickly running in the opposite direction.

The lavender eyed girl was too slow however and the torrent of wind easily over took her. The wind lifted her a good fifteen feet into the air and started slicing and dicing her repeatedly. Domino's mouth opened into a scream of pain that was drowned out by the whistling noise of the wind.

"Domino!" cried Elaine and a teary eyed Sakura.

Naruto and Genmaru shook with fury at the sight.

"Domino!" hissed Genmaru angrily.

It took all of his will power not to jump down there to his girlfriend's rescue. He knew that Domino would never forgive or speak to him for a long while if he interfered. He instead clenched his fist by his side.

Domino grunted as she slowly curled herself into a ball. Temari smirked.

"Making yourself a smaller target isn't going to save you! You're trapped in that technique!" she declared.

Domino begun to tremble for a moment before violently snapping her body to it's full height. An aura of gold chakra engulfed her right then and there. The massive energy surge canceled out the tornado completely, much to the total shock of Temari.

"Tsuchi Tora no Mai!" she cried.

Domino then spread her arms out on either side of her and started revolving in midair. Temari stumbled as every single tile started lifting off of the ground. Quickly, the fan master tossed said weapon into the air. With a high jump, Temari hopped onto it and hovered in place. Hayate took to the air and landed next to the others on the upper level. The tiles then started spreading out and leveling off at different heights. Some of the tiles started moving about as well.

"The Dance of the Earth Tiger!?" exclaimed Elaine with wide eyes.

"Earth Tiger? What do you mean, Elaine?" asked Sakura.

"This is a highly concentrated Taijutsu style that makes use of the environment to aid whoever invokes it. It's one of three Earth based Taijutsu dances that Domino has mastered. In the case of the Earth Tiger dance, Domino's overall speed will begin to rise in addition to her strength as she battles," explained Elaine. "But to use it without her armor. The strain she'll put on her body will be tremendous," she silently added.

"Hang on! So she's getting faster now?!" asked Naruto in awe.

"Yeah. As you know, the Earth Dragon Circular Battle Dance is the first style that Domino starts with. This dance gradually increases her strength with each action she takes. The second dance, Earth Tiger, affects her speed as the battle carries on. Then there's the third dance …"

Domino stopped spinning and dropped gracefully onto the tile beneath her. She smiled confidently and started dashing towards Temari. As Domino's foot started to step on empty air, one of the other tiles quickly moved beneath that foot. Domino ran on the hovering tiles in this fashion with a noticeable increase in her running speed, but nowhere near the extreme levels of Naruto's just yet.

Domino lunged towards Temari with a brutal power punch. The fan rider hovered higher into the air, just out of her reach. Domino was easily caught by one of the tiles. She then started running upwards in a circle as if she were climbing stairs. Her running speed jumped to higher levels as she went. Temari hopped and started spinning while waving her fan. A swirling gust wind begun blowing the tiles out of alignment. Domino ended up falling since the tile that was suppose to catch her got blown away.

The earth manipulator dropped safely onto another tile beneath her. Temari touched down safely on a tile as well. The two fighters stared at each other for a moment. Domino then became a blur as she jumped from tile to tile towards Temari. The Sand gasped, her speed had increased again!

"Here I come!" cried Domino before leaping directly at Temari.

The Sand, quickly hurled her fan at Domino like a boomerang. Domino thrust her palm in front of herself. Several of the tiles immediately moved to form a wall in front of her. The flying fan bounced harmlessly off of the barrier and returned to Temari's hand. As quickly as she could, Temari ducked behind her fan and swung it upwards. The fan vanished into thin air, and Temari was nowhere in sight either.

Domino landed on the tile Temari had been standing on and glanced warily around.

"Darn, where'd she go?" whispered Domino to herself while panting a little from the side effects of her enhanced running speed.

"Right here!" came Temari's voice from behind her. "Kamaitachi!"

Domino was a blur as she leaped from tile to tile in an effort to stay ahead of the resulting whirlwind. Temari smirked as the wind started gaining on her. Domino then took a surfer dude approach and hung on to the tile she was standing on. The gust of wind blew the tile and Domino towards the far wall at high speed. Domino quickly boosted off towards it and started quickly running along side it as a speeding blur. As Domino ran, she became faster and faster still.

With a cry, she launched towards Temari and took hold of her arm. She then went into a quick spin and hurled Temari into the air. Quickly Domino clapped her hands together causing all of the tiles, except for the one she was standing on, to pelt Temari repeatedly. Temari blocked what she could with her fan, but a lucky shot still hit her hard enough in the head to knock her out.

Domino caught Temari unconscious form in midair with some tiles. She then directed all of hovering floor pieces back into their original places. Once the battle area floor had been reconstructed, Domino sank tiredly to her knees. Hayate jumped back to the lower level moved to examine the K.Oed Sand. After a moment, he raised his hand into the air.

"Winner, Shishikura Domino!" announced Hayate.

"Done like dinner!" said Domino with a grin.

"Yatai! That was amazing, Domino!" cried Sakura.

"Show off!" teased Elaine with a laugh.

Domino stuck her tongue out before grinning, flashing the peace sign and winking. She then turned to look at Gaara and Kankuro, who were just staring in an intrigued fashion. She smiled in a way that said, "Want to play?" Kankuro and Gaara glared, Domino sure knew how to rub a victory in the enemy's face. With that, she returned to the upper level.

The medical squad arrived at that point and examined Temari. The Sand kunoichi had no serious injury, but the giant lump on her head from where the tile struck was unnerving. Odds were high that she would have to spend a night in the hospital for observation. The team placed her on the stretcher and carried her off. Everyone then started animatedly talking about the highlights of the match.

Not too long after that, Hayate's cough made them turn to the monitor. Once the animation ended, two names were displayed.

Hyuuga Hinata vs. Hyuuga Neji

Hinata trembled in fear while Neji glared at her. Nobody cheered or even knew quite what to say to either of the Hyuugas. The family feud between them was well known among nearly everyone present. Wordlessly, Neji headed to the battle area. Naruto sensed the tension in the air, but put on a smile anyway for Hinata's sake.

"You can do it Hinata, I'll be rooting for ya!" he promised.

Hinata swallowed nervously but managed a 'thank you' before heading to the battle area. She and Neji then faced each other.

"The next match up shall be between Hyuuga Neji and Hyuuga Hinata. Do either of you object?" asked Hayate.

"No," replied the fighters.

"Okay then. Ninth match, begin!"

"I didn't think that I would be fighting you, Hinata-sama," begun Neji.

"Nii-san…" murmured Hinata.

"Big brother? I didn't know that they were siblings," voiced Sakura in confusion.

"Truthfully, those two are cousins. As descendants of the Hyuuga clan, Neji was born into the Branch Family while Hinata was born into the Head Family," explained Lee.

"Head Family and Branch Family? What's the difference?" asked Naruto.

"Well, the Hyuuga clan's Head Family is considered its' founders. The Branch Family carries the same bloodline abilities, but its' purpose is to protect those from the Head Family. Since the Branch Family is treated as inferior, there has been a lot of quarrels between them and they are not on good terms with each other," explained Lee.

"What caused the quarrels in the first place?" asked Sakura.

"Hm, my guess is because of this. Old noble families like Uchiha and Hyuuga pass their bloodline abilities down to the next generation. But unlike Uchiha, the Hyuuga clan had certain rules about that. The rules seemed more favorable to the Head Family."

"I see," said Naruto before turning his attention to the upcoming battle. "I hope this doesn't get too messy."

Neji narrowed his eyes.

"This is your only warning Hinata-sama, give up. You're not suited to become a ninja," declared the older Hyuuga, much to Hinata's dismay. "You're much too soft and you always let others take the lead. Also, you lack self confidence. You thought more than once that it would be okay just to remain a Genin, but at the coaxing of your friends you took part in this exam. Am I wrong?"

"That's not true, I'm taking the exam willingly! I wanted to change myself and…and…" stammered Hinata.

"Tsk, Hinata-sama, you're just a spoiled child. People cannot change, a failure will always be a failure. That's why terms like Elite and Failure exist. You'll always be judged by your looks, personality, body and abilities. But they will never change no matter how hard you try. Just like how we can't change that I'm from the Branch Family and you're from the Head Family," said Neji in contempt.

Naruto begun trembling in rage at what he was hearing.

"Who does this bastard think he is!?" thought the blond heatedly.

"I've seen many things with my Byakugan, Hinata-sama. That's why I know that you're just a scared little girl in the wrong place. Even now, you're thinking of trying to scarper," he stated coldly.

"That's not true! I-I…" cried Hinata tearfully.

Sakura turned to Kakashi.

"What's a Byakugan?" she asked.

"It's an advance bloodline that is similar to the Sharingan. However, Byakugan exceeds the Sharingan when it comes to foresight and clairvoyance," explained the older ninja.

Neji formed a seal with his hands clasped together. He closed his eyes and frowned.

"Byakugan!"

They snapped open and throbbed with veins once more. Hinata trembled at the sight of Neji's fearsome eyes. She then felt an enormous amount of pressure on her head. Her eyes begun rolling and Hinata almost thought she would swoon. The pressure then ceased.

"You're not fooling anyone. Since your eyes rolled to the top left after you felt my pressure, this indicates that you were recalling a past event. After that, your eyes moved to the bottom right meaning that you're imaging physical and mental pain. In other words, you imagined your old self and predicted the outcome of this match. A prediction that says you will lose!" said Neji coldly.

Hinata gasped in fear and raised her arm almost unconsciously. She pressed her finger to her lips out of habit.

"The fact that you just put your arm in front of you means that you want to distance yourself from me with a barrier. You don't want me to see your true feelings because what I said has all been correct. Also, your action of touching your lips indicates that your mind is disturbed. This is a defensive action that tries to lower nervousness and uneasiness. This shows that you already realize that you'll never cha…"

"You can change!" bellowed Naruto angrily.

Everyone turned towards the blond, who was gripping the hand rails tight enough to turn his knuckles white.

"Don't try to label people like that, you bastard! Hinata, beat him up or at least say something back! It's making the rest of us mad!" cried Naruto.

Hinata's gaze lowered to the floor.

"Naruto-kun…thank you, for everything. I'm not going to run away anymore," promised Hinata before glaring determinedly at Neji.

The older Hyuuga stiffened.

"Her eyes changed! Just from a few words!?" he realized. "So you're not giving up huh? Don't blame me for what happens later on then!"

Hinata formed the same seal as Neji did.

"Byakugan!"

Her eyes gained the same look as Neji's. She then sank into the gentle fist Taijutsu style, Juken.

"Let us fight now, nii-san," she requested quietly.

Wordlessly, Neji assumed the same stance. Lee started trembling.

"This is bad. They're both using the same Hyuuga style," said Lee with clenched fists.

"Hyuuga style?" echoed Sakura.

"Yeah, the strongest Taijutsu style in Konoha. Remember when I said that the strongest Konoha Genin is on my team? I was referring to Neji," he explained.

"But what is this Hyuuga style?" asked Sakura.

Gai answered this time.

"Juken, a combat style that deals massive damage even at the slightest touch. Unlike Gouken, the hard fist style Lee and I use, Juken doesn't try to break bones. Juken instead attempts to damage an opponents chakra circulatory system and internal organs by forcibly entering the user's chakra into the opponent through direct contact."

"One other thing to note. There's no way to train your organs against damage from that style. Take a hit and you're sure to die," added Kakashi.

"Ano sa Ano sa, what's the chakra circulatory system?" asked Naruto.

Everyone sweat dropped except for Lee, who raised a professor like finger.

"Simply put, it's similar to blood vessels. Basically, there are pipes that circulate chakra throughout the body. This chakra pathway is closely linked to your internal organs as well. Which is why a hit from the Juken style is often fatal," explained the mini Gai.

"But that should be impossible to do, Kakashi-sensei!" said Sakura. "The chakra circulatory system is invisible to the naked eye! How would you attack it?"

Kakashi grew thoughtful for a moment.

"I suspect that it's because of the Byakugan. Its' clairvoyance is so highly focused that it should be no problem for those two to see it," replied the gray haired ninja.

Everyone returned to the match with a good deal more worry than before. This Hyuuga style sounded really dangerous.

The two fighters charged. Once in range, Hinata started off with a palm thrust. Neji knocked it aside and begun bobbing and weaving as Hinata followed up with several more. Once an opening had been noticed, Neji started thrusting right back. Hinata easily dodged them due to her natural flexibility. They went back and forth like this until Hinata attacked with a particularly vicious thrust at Neji's midsection. The older Hyuuga stepped out of the way of the attack and assumed a ready stance.

The duo circled each other to search for openings. Slowly Hinata inched forward. Once close enough, she lunged into a thrust that Neji blocked. With a hiss, they resumed the back and forth spar from before. They quickly tired of this and with loud cries they thrust at the same time. Neither fighter moved and the silence was at an all time high. Then the unthinkable happened, when Hinata coughed up a mouthful of blood. Neji watched several droplets land on his hand.

"So this is the best that the Head Family can do," said the older Hyuuga coldly.

Hinata's breathing was a bit labored, but this fight was far from over. She quickly knocked Neji's hand away from her heart and attempted a thrust towards his face. Effortlessly, Neji seized her arm and rammed his index and middle fingers on his free hand into it. Hinata gasped in pain as her arm went numb. It was getting hard just to stand. Wordlessly, Neji slid the sleeve of Hinata's jacket up to reveal several bruises decorating her slender arm.

"You where…when did you?" stammered Hinata.

"Yes. The whole time we fought, my target has been the Tenketsu on your arms," confirmed Neji darkly.

"Tenketsu?" asked Sakura once more.

"The chakra circulatory system releases the stored energy thru three hundred and sixty one points. These chakra holes are called the Tenketsu. They're very small, no bigger than the point of a needle really. This is where Juken is most effective. By forcing chakra into these holes, one can close it and trap the chakra in the body. This gives the user total control over the enemy's chakra and, if hit accurately, can stop the natural flow of chakra completely," explained Kakashi. "One other thing, the Sharingan is incapable of seeing the Tenketsu. Only a Byakugan user has that much clairvoyance."

"Darn it! Does this guy has a weakness at all?" grumbled Naruto.

Neji attacked with a power packed palm thrust. Hinata went flying back with a cry. Fortunately for her, Neji didn't try to hit any critical areas or chakra points. Still, Hinata had a difficult time rolling onto her hands due to the damage that had already been done. Neji watched her for a moment.

"Hinata-sama, this is the difference in our unchangeable powers. Now do you see why this fight was pointless?" asked Neji.

Hinata remained silent as more blood dripped from her mouth onto the floor. She stared at her life blood sadly.

"This is your last warning. Give up or I just may kill you," threatened the older Hyuuga.

Much to Neji's surprise, Hinata struggled to her feet.

"I'm not going…to run…I won't take back…my words!" she stood up and gasped for breath. "That is my way of the ninja, my nindo!"

Hinata gazed fondly at Naruto and smiled. The boy who had inspired her to never give up, smiled back. This time, Hinata was fighting for more than just herself.

"Hinata…" murmured Naruto proudly.

"She's a lot like you, Naruto-kun," said Lee with a smile.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"Come to think of it, she was always watching you," pointed out Sakura.

Naruto took comfort in the thought. He had a lot of truly special friends, it only served to remain him that they were all precious to him. Hinata returned her gaze to Neji with renewed determination.

"Let's settle this then," said Neji coldly.

The moment his killing intent surfaced, Hinata felt her heart give a violent throb. She then coughed up a third mouthful of blood. Her legs started trembling like jelly as her hand covered her damaged heart. Neji dropped into a Juken pose anyway, even though it was clear that this match was already won. Everyone grew alarmed when they saw this.

"Those eyes…Hinata won't get killed will she?" asked Ino nervously.

"Of course not!" snapped Domino. "I'll rip that guy limb from limb if anything happens to her!"

"You'll have to beat the rest of us to it. Still, this guy's strength is almost unfair," said Sakura.

"Neji has been toying with Hinata the whole time. You would know that better than anyone, right Lee?" said Genmaru.

"It's true," replied Lee sadly. "Neji has barely even scratched the surface of his abilities."

"It doesn't matter! Hinata, do your best!" cried Naruto.

With a nod, Hinata raised her hands and charged. Neji tensed. Once in range, Hinata started off with a thrust. Neji knocked it aside and countered with his own. Hinata blocked it with her arm and pulled off a high kick. Neji ducked it and lashed out with kick towards Hinata's stomach. The girl easily brought her leg down on Neji's, canceling out his attack. Hinata then spun and attempted a back knuckle as Neji started rising. The older Hyuuga leaned back and avoided the strike.

They separated and rushed each other once more. This time Neji took the offensive and started lashing out with rapid arm thrusts. Hinata blocked until an opening appeared and started lashing out with her own thrusts. Forced back onto the defensive, Neji started retreating as he blocked in the hope that Hinata would wear herself out from using the extra energy to follow him. The younger Hyuuga quickly caught on and attempted a low spinning sweep to try and throw Neji off guard. He quickly hopped back to avoid this and grunted. Hinata was fighting with a lot more fire than he ever would have thought possible.

The two begun circling each other while Neji lashed out with thrust after thrust. Hinata easily blocked all of them. A glint appeared and Neji's eyes and he pulled back on the last thrust. Just as he hoped, Hinata took the bait and tried to attack with a power thrust. As quick as lightening, Neji seized Hinata's arm and pulled her forward. Now that the younger Hyuuga was off balance, Neji struck her in the chin with a brutal open palmed uppercut. More blood spewed from her mouth as Hinata staggered backwards. Tears of pain touched her eyes as she entered a coughing fit.

Once she got a hold of herself again, Hinata wiped her mouth with her sleeve. She raised her arms once more and charged to resume the fight. Hinata had just reared back her arm for another strike, but Neji beat her too it with a iron hand style power thrust directly to her heart. Hinata's eyes returned to normal before glazing over. She then slumped limply on Neji's arm. The shock everyone felt at seeing Hinata like this was extreme.

"You really are stubborn, Hinata-sama," said Neji without looking at her. "Your low level attacks had no effect to begin with. Hopefully you'll remember this lesson, if you don't die."

The older Hyuuga let her fall to the floor. Neji then folded his arms and took a few paces backwards so that Hayate could call the match. The judge examined Hinata's non seeing eyes and shook his head.

"This match is over. Winner, Hyuuga Ne…"

"Don't stop the match!" cried Naruto, much to Neji's irritation.

"But Naruto-kun, that was a finishing move! Neji aimed for her heart!" said Lee sadly.

"Yeah, Naruto! Can't you see that she fainted and…" Sakura stopped upon seeing the smile on his face.

In confusion, everyone followed Naruto's gaze to find Hinata climbing to her feet again!

"Impossible!" exclaimed Neji.

It took some time, but Hinata was soon upright again. She was breathing heavily as a Juken miracle. She had survived a death blow!

"How is this possible!? You should be dead right now!" murmured Neji worriedly.

Hinata staggered forward.

"I can still fight…" gasped the younger Hyuuga.

"Don't bother acting tough. We both know that you can barely stand. Even now you curse your powerlessness. It won't change so just give up. Don't suffer any more than you already have, Hinata-sama," said Neji in almost a pleading tone.

He clearly didn't want to hurt her anymore. Still, Hinata shook her head defiantly.

"Your wrong, nii-san. The person suffering the most right now isn't me. It's you, nii-san," said Hinata.

"What!?" murmured Neji darkly.

"You're the one who feels the most confusion and pain between the head and branch families. Just let it go," requested Hinata.

"Damn you! What do you know!?" bellowed Neji angrily before charging at Hinata in a blind rage.

"No!" cried the others.

Neji had just reared back for a death blow when he came to a halt. Hayate stood in front of Neji with a powerful chakra force paralyzing his body. Gai had one arm wrapped around his throat just tight enough to warn him that he would cut off his air. Kakashi had Neji's outstretched thrusting arm in an iron grip. Kurenai had Neji's other arm in the same grip. Lastly, Sagitario had the tip of his sword pointed directly at Neji's heart.

"Neji, cut it out now. You made a passionate promise to me that you wouldn't fight with her over the head family," said Gai seriously.

Neji growled.

"Why did the other Jounins stop me too? The head family gets special treatment again huh!?" snapped Neji angrily.

"You shouldn't worry about petty things, Neji-kun. You don't really think that we'll let you kill Hinata-chan over something so pointless do you?" said Sagitario calmly, he wasn't smiling this time.

Hinata suddenly dropped to her knees and started coughing violently. Kurenai and Hayate rushed to her side while the other Jounins continued to restrain Neji. Naruto, Lee, Elaine, Genmaru, Sakura and Domino rushed to the hacking Hyuuga as well.

"Hinata, are you alright!?" asked Naruto once in range.

Up close, the Hyuuga girl looked really battered up. Two trickles of blood were flowing from her mouth and staining her hoodie. One eye was closed tiredly while she gazed at her friends with a half opened second eye. Her breathing was ragged, but sometimes would grow so quite that it was hard to tell if she was still conscious or not.

"Naruto-kun…" was all Hinata managed to say before passing out completely.

Immediately, Kurenai unzipped Hinata's hoodie and pressed an ear to her heart. Hinata's heartbeat sounded irregular.

"Damn it, she's going thru ventricular fibrillation!" hissed Kurenai before glaring hatefully at Neji. "You were trying to kill her!?" she demanded.

Neji smirked.

"Instead of wasting time with me, shouldn't you get her some help?" he said in mocked politeness.

"Hey get a medical team out here quick!" cried Kurenai desperately.

The med squad was quick on their feet. They quickly ran a full check up on her condition and health stasis.

"Not good, she won't last ten minutes at this rate! We have to get her to the emergency room now!" said one of the medical ninjas.

The squad placed her gently on a stretcher and, with cries of hut hut, rushed her out of the room. Everyone watched them go with feelings of sadness and regret. Why did this have to happen to her, was everyone's thoughts at that time.

"Hey, the blond joke of a ninja there," called Neji to Naruto's back. "Here's a piece of advice for you, stop cheering like that. It's disgraceful and something that is only done by fools. One other thing, a failure is a failure no matter what he does to change. You're one of them."

Naruto turned around and glared at Neji hatefully.

"Do you want to find out how much of a failure I am?" asked Naruto in a voice barely above a whisper.

Neji smirked.

In a flash, Naruto was enveloped in chakra. He slowly took a step towards Neji.

"Stop it, Naruto-kun!" cried Lee.

Naruto stared at him with smoldering eyes, it was obvious that the blond was really upset.

"I know how you feel, but if you try to fight him now you'll be disqualified from the exam! I say wait until you can fight him in an official match!" reasoned Lee.

Naruto glared at Neji again but didn't make any moves yet.

"A failure can defeat a genius with hard work remember? Don't forget that you're not the only one who wants to fight Neji, but if you match up with him in the main matches I won't hold a grudge. I only ask that you wait!" pleaded Lee.

"He's right, Naruto," added Genmaru seriously. "Look around you."

The blond did so to find everyone, except for the Sands and the Sound ninja glaring at Neji. At first, Naruto did nothing. Then, he lowered his fist and let the strength offered by his chakra slip away.

"Fine. But if we fight…I swear I'll take you down!" promised Naruto with one last glare at Neji before striding away.

Lee flashed Gai the nice guy pose as if to say "That was good right Sensei?" Gai returned the gesture as if to say "Very nice Lee, well done!" With that, everyone returned to the upper level. Hayate had a janitor come out to clean the battle area. Everyone took this time to start chatting about the matches except for Naruto, who wanted to be left alone for a while. The others were reluctant to allow this, but they knew that the blond needed a moment to calm down after his outburst with Neji.

"Poor Hinata, I hope she'll be okay," commented Elaine sadly.

"She better be or I'm going after Neji for sure!" vowed Domino with a glare in Neji's direction.

"I agree, but I'm kind of worried about Naruto. He took it pretty hard," said Sakura absently while gazing at the blond.

Naruto was leaning on the railing with a look of deep thought on his face. Most would've thought that he was thinking about Hinata, but truthfully he was brooding on the events that got him where he was today. Chief of his thoughts were all of the precious people he could now call friends.

"I feel kind of bad for him too," said Ino worriedly.

The others muttered their agreement.

"Yeah well anyway…" Shikamaru turned to Chouji and pat him on the back. "Looks like you're in trouble now pal. Only the strong guys are left." teased the lazy ninja.

"Oh no!" moaned Chouji on weak knees.

"Geez it's not that bad, Chouji!" said Ino with a sudden mischievous grin. "There's just that Sound guy, that Sand guy, Lee and Genmaru!" she teased, making the butterball tremble even worse.

"I hear that Lee is stronger than Sasuke too," added Shikamaru.

"AHH, I'm quitting!!" wailed Chouji fearfully.

"Really, then I guess you don't want that all you can eat barbeque then!" said Asuma.

"Aw, but I want that!!" whined Chouji.

Asuma kneeled next to him.

"Relax Chouji, if things look bad I'll stop the match. In the meantime, think of all those glazed chicken and fish platters. You'll do fine, right?"

"Yes sir," mumbled Chouji miserably.

The others laughed…

Kankuro gazed at Gaara out the corner of his eye. The gourd wearing Sand was trembling for some reason.

"Oh great, he's excited now," realized Kankuro with a sigh. "This is so not what I need."

Kankuro gazed towards Neji.

"He certainly seemed strong," he thought before noticing Naruto standing alone.

Wordlessly, he started heading towards him.

"Where are you going, Kankuro?" asked his Jounin Sensei, Baki.

A well muscled man with bandage wrappings covering half of his tan face and all of his hair. He wore the same ninja apparel as the others except his were all lime green in color. His black eyes followed Kankuro's movement like a hawk.

"Just a bit of recon. Back in a flash," replied Kankuro with a wave over his shoulder.

He approached pretty much unnoticed by the blond, who was deep in thought.

"Hey, little man!" greeted Kankuro much to Naruto's annoyance. "Why are you here by yourself? Shouldn't you be with your buddies?"

"What do you care?" snapped Naruto before staring determinedly away from him.

Kankuro smiled.

"Hey don't be like that. I wanted to ask you about that Neji guy. What's his story?" asked Kankuro curiously.

"He's going to get his ass kicked! That's his story!" cried Naruto with fire in his eyes. "Anyway, what are you asking me for? Do I look like his mother or something?"

Kankuro sweat dropped.

"Look, I know we got off on the wrong foot before but I think you're a cool kid. Let's be friends, what do ya say?" asked Kankuro amicably.

Naruto frowned, the offer seemed genuine but he still didn't trust the guy.

"No thanks, there's nothing cool about you at all!" replied Naruto.

"This brat! I'll kill him!" thought Kankuro while glaring at the blond.

A familiar cough drew everyone's attention.

"We're now ready to start the selection for the next match. Please turn your attention to the monitor," requested Hayate.

"Yosh! It'll be your turn for sure this time, Lee!" declared Gai.

"No, I'd rather go last!" said Lee with his nose turned up.

"Are you sulking?" asked Sakura with the other's thoughts.

That question was never answered, since Genmaru suddenly teleported into the battle area drawing everyone's eye. He glanced towards the upper level.

"Hey don't keep me waiting," joked Genmaru good naturedly.

Chouji screamed.

"Yeah! Yer safe!" he cried happily.

Everyone glared at him. Ino and Shikamaru then punched him in the head.

"Don't scare us like that!" scolded Ino.

"You had us thinking it was you for a second," grumbled Shikamaru.

Everyone then glanced at the monitor.

Vaughn Genmaru vs. Rock Lee

"Yeah! You fell for it!" cried Lee with a kick to the air. "By saying that I wanted to be last, it didn't happen! Take that you random selection guys!"

"Good one! Lee!" praised Gai.

Everyone sweat dropped.

"Here Lee, let me offer some advice!"

"Yes sir, Gai-sensei!" replied Lee at full attention.

"Nobody else has noticed, but the chakra radiating from his hand is suspicious!" declared Gai.

"I see!" said Lee while taking notes on a notepad he produced from his pocket.

Everyone sweat dropped again.

"Hey, don't write that down you fool! You'll have no time to read it during the battle!" cried Gai.

"I see!" replied Lee while jotting that down as well.

"Will he be okay? He doesn't seem too sharp," said Domino with a twitching eyebrow.

Everyone else sighed.

"Yosh! Let's go, LEE!!" cried Gai while pointing to the air.

"SIR!" replied Lee with the fires of youth in his eyes.

The mini Gai then leaped down to the battle area. Once he straightened up, he bowed respectfully to Genmaru. He then assumed the initiative granting pose again.

"I'm honored to be able to fight you this early!" said Lee confidently.

Genmaru returned the bow.

"The honor is all mine, Lee. Please, let's give it our all," said the misty eyed ninja cheerfully.

"Lee! Genmaru! Do your best!" cried Sakura.

"Give us a great show, honey!" cheered Domino.

"No matter who wins, we're all rooting for both of you!" came Elaine.

The others voiced their agreement to that. Hayate then begun the start step.

"The tenth match shall be between Rock Lee and Vaughn Genmaru. Do either of you object?"

"No!" they replied excitedly.

"Okay. Tenth match, begin!"

Genmaru sank into a loose fighting stance. Lee relaxed his stance a bit as well. It was obvious that the two wanted to warm up and test each other's basic abilities first. Lee started the match off with a charge. Once in range, Lee leaped.

"Konoha Senpuu!" cried Lee while going into a spin kick.

Genmaru ducked under it just as Lee hoped. The misty eyed ninja was now vulnerable to his unblock able secondary low kick, or so Lee thought. In a flash of speed, Genmaru vanished from sight and reappeared a few feet away. Lee aborted the kick and rose to his full height.

"Interesting. It was faint, but Genmaru-san used a carefully controlled burst of chakra to avoid my attack. This may be more difficult than I first thought," mused Lee with a smile that was mirrored by Genmaru.

Genmaru tilted his head a bit as if saying, "Take another shot." Lee jumped at the chance, albeit more cautiously than last time. Lee quickly closed the distance between them and attacked with a spinning axe sweep. Genmaru leaned back to avoid the kick and speedily swept Lee's other leg from beneath him. Immediately, Genmaru rammed his elbow into Lee's side while he was airborne.

Lee winched and caught himself with his palm. Lee then performed a leg sweep in a fashion similar to a break dancer. Genmaru pulled off a quick double back flip to safety only to take a kick to the back from Lee due to his sudden burst of speed. Genmaru stumbled forward into a roll, and ended up facing Lee. He was just in time too, Lee had followed up his move with a backhand. Genmaru stopped this with his palm and retaliated with a slow power punch to Lee's midsection. Lee caught Genmaru's fist, but the blow had been close enough to his stomach for him to feel it through his palm anyway.

Lee carefully placed his right foot behind Genmaru's left foot and bent his knees. This had the desired effect of forcing Genmaru off balance. Immediately, Lee tried to flip Genmaru onto his back. Unfortunately, it wasn't going to be that easy. Genmaru leaned into the throw and managed to land on his feet instead. The misty eyed ninja used the momentum gained to reverse the grappling move back on Lee. Just when it seemed that Lee would hit his back, he vanished in a flash of speed and reappeared a few paces away. But Genmaru was nowhere in sight.

"Nani!?" cried Lee before performing a forward roll.

He was just in time too. Genmaru's head piercing freefall move with his sword missed completely. The misty eyed ninja smiled at Lee in a congratulatory manner while twirling the blade a few times. They then assumed battle ready stances. Genmaru seemed to glide rather than run as he dashed towards Lee in the form of a reddish blur. Lee somersaulted over Genmaru's low sword sweep and lashed out with a juggernaut kick. The counterattack passed through an after image, Genmaru's speed was off the chart!

Lee quickly withdrew and twirled a pair of kunai around his fingers. He then leaned back and blocked Genmaru's overhead swing with the knives. With a cry, Lee pushed Genmaru's sword away and went into a shoaling spin while thrusting rapidly with his knives as he went. Genmaru performed several sideways Lunar saults while occasionally knocking aside a kunai thrust that got a little too close. They came to a complete stop and took turns throwing roundhouses at each other. Due to how quickly they would perform the spin kicks, they never were able to hit each other. After five of these, they separated.

Neither fighter seemed remotely tired in the least. Genmaru smiled and sheathed his sword.

"That was great, Lee. May I assume that the warm up is over now?" asked Genmaru with that kindly smile still in place.

"Yes it is, Genmaru-san!" replied Lee with a determined smile. "Please attack me with everything you have! I want to fight you at your best!"

"Likewise," replied Genmaru. "You should remove those weights you're wearing, Lee."

The stunned silence that followed was extreme.

"He knew about them all this time!?" thought Lee in awe.

Nervously, Lee glanced at Gai. Gai immediately struck the nice guy pose.

"Go ahead Lee, take em off!" he okayed.

Everyone was momentarily confused.

"But Gai-sensei, I thought that was only permitted when protecting many important people!" questioned Lee.

"It's fine, I'll allow it this time!" waved off Gai with a dazzling grin.

Lee begun to laugh with giddy excitement. Quickly, he lifted his leg warmers to reveal weights just like Naruto wore. The difference was that his had a lot more metal plates attached to the braces. Naruto and Genmaru grinned just as broadly as Gai.

"Cool! You've been holding back on us, Fuzzy-brows!" cried Naruto.

Lee stood up to his full height with a weight in both hands.

"Much better! I can move a lot easier now!" he let go of them.

The weights seemed to freefall in slow motion drawing everyone's eyes to them. Once the falling training gear did hit the ground, the results were very chaotic. An ear splitting boom rang out and twin pillars of dust rose into the air. When it cleared, they found that the weights were in nearly three feet deep craters! Everyone's eyes grew as wide as saucers. Gai then gave a two fingered salute.

"Get him, Lee!"

"Yes sir!" cried Lee excitedly.

Lee bent his knees only slightly before vanishing from sight. A millisecond later he appeared behind Genmaru and lashed out with a brutal right hook. The blow never came close to connecting. Genmaru vanished and reappeared besides Lee with his fist already in motion, but there was something odd about it. Both of Genmaru's pistons were covered in scorching hot flames. Even everyone in the upper level could feel the heat coming from his fists.

"Shounetsu Knuckles," murmured Genmaru before slugging Lee in the cheek

The spandex wearing warrior slid side ways for a good five feet. Gingerly he touched his enflamed and stinging cheek. Genmaru aimed his right fist at Lee in the universal declaration that his blazing hands would be Lee's downfall. Domino squealed excitedly in the stands.

"You're so cool! Get him, baby!" cheered Domino with more gusto than ever.

Naruto and the others could only manage a 'whoa.' The match had just gotten started and already the odds had shifted to Genmaru's favor. Elaine giggled at the stunned expression on everyone's face as their eyes followed the flame's dance.

"That's one of Genmaru's Kekkei Genkai techniques," explained Elaine with a smile.

"Hang on! Genmaru had a bloodline ability!?" exclaimed Sakura.

"Yep, it's a pretty rare occurrence that a few males in our clan obtain from time to time. It varies a bit depending on the element they use though. In Genmaru's case, he could super heat the chakra around his hands to the temperature of the sun if he wanted. He turned this ability into a fighting technique, Burning Knuckles. I doubt I need to explain the reason for the name," explained Elaine.

"But before he didn't even know what that ability was!" pointed out Sakura.

"Neither did we. Genmaru didn't exactly show off this ability all that often, and he just recently got it about a year ago. Had Sagitario-sensei not caught Genmaru messing around with it last week, we probably still wouldn't know what it was. A negative of being such a rare occurrence I suppose," explained Elaine sheepishly. "Anyway, the more chakra he puts into the technique, the more it takes after an actual fire. He only just learned how to use it properly before the Chuunin exam started."

"Yeah, and he's going to kick Lee's butt with it!" declared Domino with a laugh.

Everyone sweat dropped at Domino's passionate energy. It seems that this battle was going to be more interesting than expected.

"Very nice, Genmaru-san. I was not prepared for that at all," admitted Lee while trying his best to ignore his smarting cheek. "It's my turn now!"

Lee vanished again and reappeared behind Genmaru with a spin kick already in motion. Genmaru only just managed to seize Lee's leg in mid-kick with his blazing hand. Lee's leg immediately protested to Genmaru's touch, but Lee ignored the pain anyway. Quickly Lee drew a kunai from his pouch and hurled it to score a cut along Genmaru's cheek. The misty eyed ninja was lucky that he had leaned his head aside or else the damage could've been much worse. Still, the sting from his cheek took too much of his attention allowing Lee to free his leg from Genmaru's grasp with a jerk.

Lee then performed a sweep. As expected, Genmaru leaped backwards to avoid it. With a smirk, Lee hurled a swarm of shuriken after him before immediately vanishing from sight. Genmaru was a blur as he withdrew a kunai, deflected the wave, and spun into a helicopter style rising slash all in one motion. Lee barely avoided the kunai as he pulled off a double back flip to safety.

"He predicted where I was going to show up!" observed Lee during his aerobic display.

Before the second flip had even been completed, Lee vanished again and Genmaru with him. From there, Naruto and the others only caught brief glances of them as they reappeared and vanished over and over again as they fought. They level of speed they were fighting at was amazing.

"Darn, where's Sasuke when you need him!? He could've gave the play by play!" grumbled Naruto as he struggled to keep up with them with his eyes.

Genmaru reappeared at that moment and raised his hands, palms up, into the air. The reason for this became clear when Lee appeared with a heel drop already in motion. Lee hissed at being predicted again when his ankle started screaming in pain from Genmaru's touch. Genmaru flipped Lee onto his feet and pulled off his own Juggernaut kick right into his midsection. Lee flew back and landed with a winded grunt on his back. Genmaru held his leg in place without lowering it. It was clear, that his speed was still higher than Lee's even without his ankle weights on.

"Not good, at this rate I'll lose!" realized Lee in dismay. "There's no choice, I'll have to try and finish this in one blow…"

"This is amazing! First there was Naruto, then Domino and now those two can move like that too! This tournament is filled with nothing but titans!" exclaimed Ino in awe.

"I know, it's mind boggling how strong they are. They're on fire!" agreed Shikamaru.

"What a pair. They truly are a sight to behold," thought Kakashi with his arms folded.

Everyone else was either too stunned or too excited to think of a good cheer. Still the atmosphere more than made up for it. Sakura turned to Gai.

"I noticed this during the battle. Why doesn't Lee use a Ninjutsu or a Genjutsu?" she asked.

"That would be a wise thing to do, but he can't. You see, Lee has no talent in Ninjutsu or Genjutsu moves whatsoever," replied Gai with a smile.

"How can that be!?" exclaimed Sakura.

"I'm not sure why, he's been like that ever since I met him. Normally this would be a problem, but in Lee's case he had devoted himself fully to developing his Taijutsu. It was the only thing he could turn to if he was to survive as a ninja. And that's why he can win!" declared Gai with a dazzling grin.

Lee stood up and begun unraveling the bandage wrappings on his arms. Once done, he took a deep cleansing breath and stared determinedly at Genmaru.

"It's all or nothing!" he thought.

"Now, Lee! Let the power of youth EXPLODE!" bellowed Gai.

"SENSEI!" cried Lee with the fires of youth burning more brightly than ever.

With that, Lee vanished once more. In an instant, Genmaru had rose a few feet of the ground thanks to a hard kick to the chin from Lee. Genmaru cried out in pain.

"What this!? He's even faster than before!" realized Genmaru as he sailed into the air.

Lee wasn't done there though. Quickly he boosted off to land kick after brutal kick into Genmaru's stomach. The duo rose higher and higher into the air, but the strain of pulling off so many kicks at such high speed caused Lee to winch just for a moment. He shook it off and vanished to reappear behind Genmaru for the grand finale.

"Omote Renge!"

Lee's bandage wrappings snaked around Genmaru's body, binding him completely. With that, he and Lee started spinning at dizzying speeds. Like a rocket fired from a rocket launcher, they freefell to the ground for a titanic level smash. A huge cloud of dust picked up barring everyone's view of the devastation Lee had caused. When it cleared, everyone was stunned to find a seven foot deep crater. Another foot deeper and the tile would've collapsed completely. Genmaru however was nowhere in sight, much to the shock of everyone present. Lee leaped, unharmed out of the carter and sank to his knees with heavy breathing.

Genmaru appeared behind Lee and vomited into the new hole in the ground due to the dizziness he felt from Lee's attack. Once finished, Genmaru glanced weakly over his shoulder.

"That was terrible," he groaned…

"What's going on!? How could he have escaped!?" cried Gai in frustration.

"Simple Gai, take a look at your student's bandages," instructed Kakashi.

"Huh?" grunted everyone except for Kakashi, Elaine and Domino.

From what they could see of Lee's wraps, they had been burned almost completely away. Gai begun to tremble at the sight.

"Genmaru must've heated up his chakra enough to burn his way free. Then at the last second, he escaped from Lee's technique," observed Sakura.

"Looks like the tables have been turned, Gai," said Kakashi coolly.

Gai lowered his gaze to the floor.

"Lee…"

Weakly Lee held up his arms and examined his bandage wrappings.

"I see. That was a brilliant plan on your part. I didn't expect you to use your chakra like that," admitted Lee quietly without looking at Genmaru.

Genmaru strode towards Lee and kneeled next to him. He still looked a little dizzy, but he managed a good natured smile anyway.

"That wasn't much Lee but I'll admit, if you had got me with that move I would've lost. Personally, I'm having a great time fighting with you," said Genmaru honestly.

"So am I, but I won't be much of a challenge to you now," said Lee with a sad smile.

"Hm?" grunted a puzzled Genmaru…

"What's the matter with Lee-san? He should try to attack Genmaru while his guard is down," said Sakura.

"It's not that simple…" murmured Gai.

"What do you mean?" asked Sakura.

"Sakura, why do you think the Lotus is a forbidden technique?" asked Kakashi.

Sakura lowered her gaze. Truthfully, she didn't know why.

"Think of it as a double-edged sword. Since it's a Taijutsu skill that requires high speed movement, it puts a lot of strain on the body. Right now, Lee is in so much pain that he can't move very easily at all," explained Kakashi.

"No…Lee!" cried Sakura.

"The kid just had bad luck matching up with that guy. Frankly he should just give up," commented Kankuro.

"That's not true. Lee isn't the type to just quit when the going gets tough," said Gai. "Lee is…a genius of hard work! I have never ending faith in him and what more, I'm very proud of the strong man he has become!" Gai smiled as he watched his pupil…

"I see," murmured Genmaru. "You know, it's not all that bad. I think you have more power than you realize, Lee."

"Are you just trying to make me feel better?" asked Lee.

Genmaru chuckled.

"You have no idea just how lucky you are, do you?" Genmaru teased. "Take a look around you, Lee. This is your strength."

Lee did so, and what he saw brought tears of happiness to his eyes. The encouraging stares of his peers and most importantly, the proud gaze of his Sensei. Lee smiled and returned his gaze to Genmaru after wiping his tears away. Genmaru smiled encouragingly as well.

"Genmaru-san…thank you. I almost gave up back there, but you…" begun Lee.

"It's okay. You don't have to thank me at all," said Genmaru while rising to his full height. "Let's give these guys a sample of the power they gave us."

Genmaru offered Lee a helping hand. Lee took it and rose to his feet. Once upright, the two took a few paces away from each other backwards. They then entered another battle stance. This match wasn't over yet, not by a long shot.

"Yosh! Excellent work, Lee!" cried Gai while pumping his arms.

"He did it!" cried most of the others at the same time.

"Lee-san! You're amazing!" cheered Sakura.

Genmaru and Lee stared at each other for a moment.

"Last move decides it?" asked Genmaru.

"Yeah!" replied Lee.

Calmly, Lee crossed his arms in front of himself. Kakashi's eye widened in shock at the sight.

"Gai! What did you do!?" demanded Kakashi.

"I think you already know, Kakashi," replied Gai with a smile.

"Are you telling me that that kid can open the gates."

It wasn't a question.

"Yeah," replied Gai more seriously this time.

"Damn it, Gai! How many of the eight gates can he open!?" demanded Kakashi angrily.

"Five," replied Gai quietly.

"Have you lost your mind!?" shouted Kakashi at the news.

"Hang on! What are these gates you're talking about?" asked Sakura.

"Hachimon, the process of opening the eight chakra gates to gain temporary strength. It is crucial if Lee is to perform the Reverse Lotus, a much more powerful version of his Initial Lotus," explained Gai.

"Hachimon?" echoed Sakura.

"Yes. You see, in the Chakra Circulatory System there are eight points where the chakra stored is strongest. Two are in the head, and six are in the body. In order they are the Gate of Opening, the Gate of Rest, the Gate of Life, the Gate of Pain, the Gate of Closing, the Gate of Joy, the Gate of Shock and the Gate of Death. They act as limiters to control the amount of chakra that flows thru your body," explained Kakashi. "The Reverse Lotus forces these gates open to grant the user easily more than ten times their normal strength. But it comes at a terrible price."

"Why's going to happen?" asked Naruto nervously.

"With each gate that is opened, the body will further destroy itself from the inside out. Also, if at any time the eight gate is ever opened…the user will die," said Kakashi gravely.

The tension that followed that statement was extreme. Kakashi glared at Gai once more.

"It's too late for me to stop you now Gai, but you went too far this time. I never thought you would willing risk the life of a kid."

"What do you know, Kakashi!? Lee has something to prove to everyone right now! The desire to be the best ninja he possibly can is a goal that he was readily willing to die for! To help him reach that goal, I was willing to do anything it took! Right now, Lee is a man who can defend his dreams! If you need proof, then take a good look at him!" shouted Gai.

"This is for you, Gai-sensei!" mused Lee before taking on a frown of concentration.

It wasn't visible, but a powerful force begun to surround Lee. Every single mind was put under unimaginable pressure as it grew stronger. Slowly, Gaara's hair rose into the air as if it were being blown by a gust of wind. Veins started bulging from Lee's muscles and forehead and his skin started turning into a dark shade of reddish tan. Lee's pupil's lost their coloration until they were completely white. The force everyone felt, became visible as a HUGE aura of green chakra. More than half the room was covered by Lee's chakra force!

"Gate of Life! Release!"

He lowered his arms and revealed a face that seemed filled with rage. The tiles all begun to shatter and bits of them were rising into the air. Lee hunched over as his power shot through the roof!

"Not yet! I need more!" he thought. "Gate of Pain! Release!"

Lee's muscle mass practically doubled as the veins in his body further bulged outward. Lee screamed in both pain and fury as his power further increased. Genmaru frowned in concentration at that moment. Genmaru's chakra then jumped until it was fully maxed. His aura easily covered more than half of the room. To say the least, it was HUGE! The two auras begun to collide and push at each other while making no real progress. Although there was no killer intent in either fighter's aura, everyone still felt that they would go mad if they stayed any longer.

Then, at a speed that not even Naruto could match, the two fighters vanished. The site where he had been standing erupted into showers of tile fragments. The others cried out in alarm as a huge gust of dust swamped them. The force behind the high speed brawlers attacks were incredible. With every blow that landed or even missed a constant barrage of dust winds would kick up, blinding everyone. Even if they could have opened their eyes, they wouldn't have been able to see the two fighters at all!

At some point, the two reappeared again in midair. Genmaru looked just as bloodied and battered as Lee. These two were clearly giving it everything they had. Lee further pushed his powers to the limit.

"This is the end! Gate of Closing! Release!" cried Lee.

His spandexes begun to tear as it grew too small to fit his super powered frame. A shockwave of such strength that it forced everybody to their knees erupted from Lee's body. He vanished once more, and Genmaru went with him after taking a blow to his solar plexus. They abruptly reappeared on the other side of the room. Lee reared back for the explosive finish on the barely conscious Genmaru. Naruto was positive that he saw Genmaru flicker for a moment.

"Ura Renge!"

Lee pulled Genmaru towards himself with his free hand and lashed out with a brutal punch/kick combination. The biggest dust gust of all blinded the others as Genmaru plummeted to the ground with such speed that it was sure to kill a normal man. Genmaru smashed completely thru the tile floor, into the darkness below. Lee strength then left him and he landed with a winded thud on his back. His twitching body wasn't going anywhere by the looks of it.

"He won!" exclaimed everyone in awe.

"Genmaru!" Domino wailed.

Lee smiled where he laided.

"It's finally over," he mumbled exhaustedly.

"I'll say!" agreed Genmaru voice before he appeared standing over Lee.

"Impossible!" cried just about everyone in awe.

"Genmaru-san, you used a replacement technique right?" asked Lee with a knowing smile.

"Yep, I would show it to you but you pulverized it with that last attack. It was one of my favorite logs too," said Genmaru with a hearty laugh.

Lee closed his eyes and exhaled a content sigh.

"Genmaru-san, if there's anyone I could lose to. I'm glad it was you," said Lee before giving him the thumbs up.

Genmaru returned the gesture and Hayate raised his hand.

"Winner, Vaughn Genmaru!" announced Hayate.

Everyone jumped down to check on Lee, who was being treated by the medical squad.

"Hey, how are you feeling, Fuzzy-brows?" asked Naruto.

"Sore but I'll manage," replied Lee with a tired smile.

"Gosh, I hope it's not too serious!" commented Elaine upon seeing the bruises covering Lee's body.

"I may have went a little rough on him," admitted Genmaru with a sheepish grin.

"No way, it looks like Lee did more damage to himself this time around!" said Sakura while holding Lee's hand to comfort him.

Sakura grew instantly concerned when Lee's face flushed.

"Lee-san, are you alright? You're not running a fever are you?"

"No, Sakura-chan!" replied Lee with an even deeper flush due to embarrassment. "I'll be fine."

Gai gave Lee the nice guy pose over Sakura's shoulder. One of the medics then turned to him.

"You're the Jounin in charge of him right? Lee is really lucky right now. He only just avoided tearing his muscle fibers," he reported.

"Yosh! Lee, another excellent rival has appeared for you!" cried a teary eyed Gai.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

The two started sobbing while everyone sweat dropped. The medic then continued with his report.

"Lee's body is very weak right now so it'll take some time for him to heal. Off the record, we're looking at about three months before he's fit again. We'll need to observe him in the hospital in the meantime."

Everyone cheered at the good news. Lee was going to get better soon!

"That's great, Lee-san!" said Sakura enthusiastically.

"Yeah, the only down side is that you'll probably miss the main matches," added Domino just as cheerfully as everyone else due to the good news.

"But we'll be sure to tell you all about them!" promised Elaine.

"Thanks you, guys," said Lee before exhaustion finally forced him to sleep.

The medical staff bowed respectfully and carried Lee away for treatment. Hayate then drew their attention.

"I understand the situation, but we need to start the next match now," he said.

Everyone nodded in understanding and headed up to the upper level. The monitor then proceeded with the animation sequence…

Vaughn Genmaru vs. Sabaku no Gaara

A stunned silence overcame the room. Everyone gave Genmaru a worried glance. If he felt any fear or dismay at being forced to fight twice in a row, Genmaru wasn't showing it. He merely locked excited eyes with Gaara's cold ones.

"Will the fighters please come forth," requested Hayate.

Nobody cheered or even said anything. They all knew that Genmaru was at a disadvantage and thought better of planting false hope. The two fighters calmly strode to the battle area and faced each other. Hayate then begun the usual start step.

"The eleventh match shall feature, Vaughn Genmaru and Sabaku no Gaara. Do either fighter have any objections to this?"

"No." they replied.

"Then we shall start. Preliminary match number eleven, begin!"

Gaara removed the cork from his gourd and threw it at Genmaru's face. The sword wielding fighter easily caught it without so much as a flinch. Genmaru examined it for a moment before tossing it aside. The two then stared at each other, daring the other to make the first move. Seeing than Genmaru had no intention of starting off, Gaara formed a seal. A large wall of sand rose from Gaara's gourd and solidified until it looked like a giant spear. It then lunged forward to impale the misty eyed ninja.

Slowly Genmaru grasped the handle of his sword. With just a split second left to dodge the sand, he vanished from that spot and appeared directly in front of the redhead. Gaara gave a start and instinctively took a swat at Genmaru due to his unnerving, in your face, arrival. Genmaru leaped aside and almost lazily drew his sword and sliced Gaara's arm in the blink of an eye. Gaara's arm erupted into a spray of sand!

"I see, so he was wearing it eh?" observed Genmaru before attempting to slam the knuckles of his free hand into Gaara's face.

The sand only just managed to block Genmaru's attack, or so Gaara thought. Genmaru's incoming knuckles seemed to vanish into the sand before bursting through it and slamming into Gaara's face. By putting on a burst of speed, Genmaru's fist had gathered enough momentum to smash through the sand into his face. Gaara flew back to land with a grunt on his back. The misty eyed ninja hopped back a few feet and sheathed his sword…

"Ha ha! Get him good, Genmaru!" cheered Naruto.

"Impossible!" murmured Kankuro in awe.

"Genmaru! You're amazing!" cheered Sakura.

"Yay, Genmaru is the best fighter here after all! I love you sweetie!" cried Domino with explosion level excitement.

By this time, Gaara had climbed back onto his feet. The sand then started to surround him.

"Uh oh, this is bad!" said Kankuro.

"You bet it is! Bad for your partner that is!" said Naruto with a grin.

"That's not what I meant, kid!"

Gaara's face started cracking at that moment and begun to crumble away. What was odd was the crazed look Gaara was wearing. Like he was having the time of his life, but was also on the verge of madness. Genmaru stiffened as Gaara's killing intent spiked to danger levels.

"Is that sand on his body?" wondered Elaine upon seeing the fragments of his face that fell off burst into sand on the floor.

The sand from his gourd then covered him up and started reconstructing the crumbling face mask he was wearing. It then covered the rest of his body as well. Once the process was done, Gaara seemed to grow calm again.

"Hey, what's going on?" asked Naruto.

"That is Gaara's Suna no Yoroi technique. Normally Gaara is protected by his sand shield but if that should fail, Gaara uses the Armor of the Sand to protect himself. It's the ultimate defense," answered Kankuro.

"So then, he doesn't have a weakness?" asked Naruto worriedly.

"I wish I knew for sure myself, kid," lied Kankuro. "Sadly it's full of weaknesses. One being that it consumes a massive amount of chakra, and two being that it's really thin and not too hard to penetrate…"

Gaara and Genmaru stared at each other for a moment.

"So, is that it?" asked Gaara. "I want to enjoy this a little more. Mother hasn't been able to get any blood yet," announced Gaara darkly.

"Mother?" echoed Genmaru.

He never received an answer to that, the sand suddenly shot towards him like a bullet. Genmaru took to the air and hurled a wave of shuriken at Gaara. Gaara's sand had no trouble blocking this, but by the time the sand wall lowered again. Genmaru was standing directly in front of Gaara with the tiger seal formed.

"Katon, Karyuu Endan!"

At point blank range, Genmaru rapid fired forty fireballs at Gaara's face. The Sand ninja was engulfed in a huge wall of flame that blocked him from view…

"Gaara!" cried Kankuro in alarm.

"Yatai!" cheered everyone else.

"There's no way anyone would be alive after taking that attack at point blank range!" bragged Domino proudly. "He won!"

Everyone waited in anticipation of Gaara's well being. When the flames finally cleared, everyone was stunned to find Gaara in a four foot deep crater. Another foot deeper and he would've fallen straight through the tile to the dark depths below. The redhead wasn't moving and his eyes were glazed over. Genmaru slowly back away and kneeled with a frown, he was breathing heavily.

"Yosh! Excellent work, Genmaru!" cried Gai while pumping his arms. "You'll truly make an excellent rival for Lee!"

"He did it!" cried most of the others at the same time.

"Is he dead?" wondered Shikamaru pensively.

"This can't be! There has to be a mistake!" stammered Kankuro in absolute shock.

Hayate approached to examine Gaara's body. His eyes grew confused when Genmaru halted him with his hand.

"It's not over yet," said Genmaru knowingly.

Everyone stared at Gaara's body only to see it crumble away into a pile of sand. Somehow or other, Gaara escaped his sand armor just before impact!

"What's going on!? How could he have escaped!?" cried Gai in frustration with everyone else thoughts.

Kankuro chuckled in relief.

"Gaara must've created a Suna Bunshin," he said with a smirk.

"A Sand Clone!? When did he…" begun Naruto.

"I believe it was when he shielded himself from Genmaru's shurikens. He must've dematerialized into tiny sand particles and hid while his clone took the brunt of the damage. Very clever, ne?" answered Sagitario, back from his failed attempt at flirting with Anko.

Everyone stiffened at the news…

"Shoot! I used up most of my chakra!" realized Genmaru warily.

A chilling laughter erupted from behind Genmaru. The fire manipulator expectantly looked over his shoulder to find Gaara standing behind him, having meta-morphed back to his regular state. With a blood thirsty grin, Gaara formed a prayer seal. His sand shot straight up into the air and came crashing down in an attempt to crush the misty eyed ninja. Genmaru avoided it easily enough by performing a series of back flips but a particularly fast moving clump of sand seized his ankle in mid-flip. It proceed to pick him up and slam him into a nearby wall.

Genmaru winced in pain, but quickly rolled out of the way of the sand's follow up battering ram like move. Genmaru then charged at Gaara while forming seals as he went.

"Shounetsu Knuckles Rendan!" cried Genmaru.

His fist erupted into twin burning pistons. Since his chakra was decreasing quickly, Genmaru's carefully controlled aura became fully visible. As expected, it was flickering due to low reserves. Genmaru vanished in a flash and appeared before Gaara with a heavy punch to his face. Gaara staggered back a bit and shook his head to try and clear it. This action however, left him vulnerable to a through beating as Genmaru slugged him again and again at insane speed. Gaara was starting to slowly rise into the air as Genmaru pummeled him, boosted off and leaped back to pummel him some more.

This continued until Gaara was over twenty-five feet in the air and burned to the point where the feel of his super heated armor was unbearable. Genmaru vanished one last time and appeared over head for one last attack. He flashed through some seals and focused as much energy as he could into the move.

"Ryuuoh Ninpou, Dai Ryuuka no Jutsu!"

Elaine and Domino gave a start.

"Is he mad!? If that thing misses, we'll all be fried!" cried Domino in alarm.

"Hm? What's going to happen?" asked Sakura nervously.

Elaine sighed.

"That's Genmaru most powerful Ninjutsu technique. The Dragon Lord Skill, Ultimate Dragon Fire. It's a concentrated ball of flame that could easily destroy this entire forest if it misses. Since Genmaru is thinking of using that move, he must be getting desperate to finish him off," explained Elaine.

"It's that powerful!?" exclaimed Naruto.

"Yes. Or rather it would've been if Genmaru was at full strength," said Sagitario. "Since Genmaru is attempting this with very little chakra, it's destructive power isn't as high. Still, there's no doubt that this tower will turn into a conflagration zone if it misses."

Everyone paled, this was a big gamble Genmaru was taking…

Genmaru made a funnel with his left hand and extended his right palm towards Gaara. In less than ten seconds a huge ball of flame, that was burning the handrails due to it's bulk, was formed. One thing for sure, with this ball's size the odds of a miss was pretty slim. Genmaru blew into the funnel he formed and the giant ball broke up into several smaller, but much hotter fireball. They all launched towards Gaara until they passed him before reversing directions and colliding directly into each other with Gaara sandwiched between them. A fiery explosion of tremendous proportions rang out at that moment. The shockwave that followed blew everyone back into the wall behind them. With that, nobody knew anymore…

Everyone begun to stir a few minutes later. The pain they all felt was proof enough that whatever had happened wasn't a dream. Naruto tried to use the rails to pull himself up, but his hand screamed in pain from the heat of the metal. With a hiss he cradled his aching hand and struggled to climb to his feet. The battle area was in ruins and there were tiny flames burning merrily upon the stone floor. The eye candy however was the sight of both Genmaru and Gaara laying a few feet away from each other out cold. Hayate was unconscious as well by the looks of it.

"What the heck happened? Is everyone alright?" rasped Naruto with a parched throat.

Several replies of I'm fine and the heck if I know answered him.

"Ow!" whined Domino painfully while rubbing her back. "Damn it, Genmaru! I'm going to knock you into next week!"

She then noticed, like everyone else, the K.Oed forms of Genmaru, Gaara and Hayate. Elaine and Kakashi immediately set about dousing the fires with their water Jutsu. Once that was dealt with, Anko withdrew a regulations and rule book manual from her jacket.

"Okay, normally this match would be ruled as a double knock out. But since the judge is down too it comes down to this. The first of the two fighters to stand up will be the winner of this match or if Hayate stands up first, neither fighter advances," said Anko.

"So it all comes down to chance eh?" grumbled Sarutobi. "Very well, let's see how this plays out then."

The words had no sooner left his mouth when Genmaru, Gaara and Hayate all begun to stir. Gaara's armor was really really hot right now, in turn the heat was making it hard for him to move at all. Genmaru's chakra was nonexistent making it hard for him to move as well. As for Hayate, he had taken a hard blow to the head against the wall and didn't look like he would fair any better than the others.

"Come on, Genmaru! Get up!" cried Naruto.

"You can't lose after coming this far!" came Elaine.

"Genmaru! All you have to do is stand up and you'll win!" added Sakura.

"You promised that we would all go to the finals together!" cried Domino.

The supportive cheers seemed to spur Genmaru on and he rose shakily to his hands and knees. Sadly, Gaara wasn't going to make it easy for him. The redhead thrust his fist at Genmaru causing a blob of sand to smash into him, knocking on his side. Gaara's fist then opened into a palm allowing his sand to slowly creep towards Genmaru for the killing blow. The misty eyed ninja saw this coming and begun to roll away from it. Gaara rose to a sitting position and thrust his other palm forward, speeding up the sand even further.

Genmaru desperately begun to climb to his feet. Seeing that the sand wasn't going to reach him in time, Gaara canceled the move and started standing up as well. Complete silence came over the room as they each were in half crouched positions. In the end, they both rose to their full height at the same time. Genmaru managed an amused, if exhausted smile.

"Looks like the fight must go on," he murmured.

"I'll kill you!" was all Gaara said before thrusting his palms forward again.

Now that he was upright, the sand seemed to move much faster than before. Genmaru drew a pair of kunai from his pouch and started slicing through the oncoming sand like they were jungle vines. Gaara grimaced, his chakra was depleting with each failed attack that he fired at Genmaru. What more, Genmaru would take a few steps forward every time he cut through a sand wave.

"Just a few more steps!" thought Genmaru desperately when he was only nine feet away.

Gaara seemed to be straining himself as he focused all of his chakra into his sand.

"Sabaku Kyuu!"

A huge tidal wave of sand rose into the air. By the looks of it, Genmaru had no chance of cutting through something that big. Quickly, Genmaru took off running directly towards the sand.

"Is he crazy!?" exclaimed Kankuro.

Sagitario, Domino, Elaine and Naruto smirked.

"Far from it," replied Naruto knowingly.

Genmaru grasped the hand of his sword and vanished from sight.

"What!?" cried Gaara in alarm. "I thought he ran out of chakra!"

Gaara sensed a presence behind him and turned around to see Genmaru leaping out of the hole in the ground that was behind him. Gaara's eyes widened in shock…

"How did he…?" begun Sakura.

Elaine and Domino giggled.

"Genmaru dove into the hold Domino had made during her battle earlier. He then punched through the floor tile he weakened when he attacked Gaara with his Flame Missiles," explained Elaine cheerfully.

"Wow!" was all Sakura could manage…

Genmaru drew his sword and freefell with the intent of beheading the Sand ninja. With no chakra and most of his sand on the other side of the room, Gaara knew that he had lost. Oddly enough, Genmaru stopped the blade inches from Gaara's face.

"I'll quit," said Genmaru quietly.

Everyone gave starts of surprise.

"You…why?" demanded Gaara in a hushed tone.

"Killing someone like you, won't ease your pain and suffering. You're a lot like a really good friend of mine, in more ways than one. It's only right that he defeats you," replied Genmaru darkly.

With that, Genmaru sheathed his sword and walked away to rejoin the others. He paused when he heard Gaara gasping in pain.

"Please mom, don't pick on me anymore! I'll be a good boy, I'll get you some blood!" muttered Gaara like a delusional person.

Still, the look of hatred he gave Genmaru showed his will to destroy him at all costs. But he didn't do anything more than stand there, holding his head as if it pained him. Nobody understood what was going on, nor did they really want to know. Wordlessly, Hayate stood up and raised his hand.

"Winner, Sabaku no Gaara," announced Hayate.

There were no cheers, only silence. Gaara sat quietly where he was with no will of his own.

"Gaara!" cried Kankuro and his Jounin Sensei in alarm.

The duo leaped down to see if he was alright. They exchanged a few words before they each seized one of his arms and carried him to the upper level. Gaara didn't protest or even move at all. Not knowing quite what to make of the situation, Hayate merely requested that everyone turn their attention to the monitor one last time. They all had a million questions that they wanted to ask Genmaru, but they knew that now wasn't the best time. The monitor did the usual animation until the last two names were displayed.

Akimichi Chouji vs. Kinuta Dosu

Despise what they had witnessed, Ino and Shikamaru still managed a few encouraging cheers for Chouji as he advanced to the battle area. He and Dosu faced each other wordlessly.

"Now, let the twelfth and final match, begin!" said Hayate without doing the regular start phase this time, since they were the last two.

"You can do it, Chouji!" cried Shikamaru.

"Do your best…Fatty!" added Ino.

A vein jumped in Chouji's temple.

"Damn it, I'm going to get those guys! Let's get this over with so I can beat them into a pulp!" bellowed Chouji angrily.

"Alright then. Let's have a go…Fatty," taunted Dosu with a smirk.

"What did you say to me!? You bandaged imp!" snapped Chouji with the eyes of death. "Baika no Jutsu!"

Like before, Chouji blew up like a roly-poly balloon.

"Eat it and weep you mummified weirdo! Nikudan Sensha!" cried Chouji before tucking his limbs and head into his clothes.

Chakra gushed out of his sleeves and pant legs.

"Hurray for big boned people!"

Chouji shot forward in an attempt to bowl Dosu over. The Sound ninja easily avoid the slow moving ball that was Chouji by hopping around him. At some point, Dosu found himself pressed against a wall. Chouji charged at him at full speed. Dosu easily jumped right over him, causing the butterball to smash into and get stuck in the wall by mistake. Everyone sweat dropped and Dosu laughed at Chouji's predicament.

"Oh well, at least with his head covered the Sound guy won't be able to use his attacks," groaned Ino.

"This is such a drag," grumbled Shikamaru.

Dosu punched Chouji's body as hard as he could. His fist sank into Chouji's squishy body, not that it did any damage to the butterball.

"Get your hand out of my ass! My ears are covered you pervert!" taunted Chouji from somewhere in his outfit.

"Not quite, you lose," contradicted Dosu before flicking the metal arm that was buried in Chouji's anus.

Chouji cried out in pain before a loud boom rang out from the metal arm. The force of it both demolished the wall, and did massive damage to Chouji. The big guy's head and limbs popped out of his clothes and he was completely out cold. Dosu withdrew his arm and smirked.

"What a fool. The human body is made up of seventy percent water. If you knew anything at all about sound, you would know that water transmits it at high frequencies. In other word, your body is one giant ear when it comes to my attacks," explained Dosu.

Hayate examined Chouji and sighed.

"Winner, Kinuta Dosu," announced the judge. "This concludes the preliminary matches."

Everyone that was present begun to cheer, save for the adults. Anko then took charge.

"Alright you lot! Line up and listen up good!" ordered Anko.

Quickly every moved to do just that, except for Kakashi and Sakura. Kakashi requested that Sakura gather the information on the finals. He left saying that he had to check on something. After that, the others lined up while taking care not to trip over the ruin of the battle area floor. Sarutobi spoke once they were all at attention.

"To those who have made it to the main matches of the Chuunin exam…congratulations. If you are ready, I'll explain the third exam now," said the Third.

Everyone gave the go ahead.

"As you know, your matches will be carefully observed by the judges and Feudal Lords. To have the best chance of becoming Chuunin, withhold nothing from them. The final exam will commence in exactly two months from today," begun Sarutobi.

"Hang on, two months!? Why can't we do it now?" asked Naruto.

"The two month waiting period is necessary to provide our guests with time to arrive. Also, you examinees are advised to take this time to prepare and learn new skills to better your odds. Make use of what you have learned today watching the preliminary matches. They will be essential to the rigorous training you will no doubt go through. Train hard and be sure to get some rest before the finals commence," Sarutobi paused to look at each of them. "Before I let you go, we need to get one last procedure out of the way. Anko, if you'll please."

The petite woman smiled and produced a small black box from her jacket.

"Okay you lot. One at a time I want you to reach into this box and take one rubber ball. On these balls are a number that we will use to determine the match ups for the final tournament. Once everyone has a ball, state you name and number out loud," explained Anko.

She then moved to one end of the line and held it out to each person. Once everyone had a ball, Ibiki stepped forward with a clipboard in hand.

"Starting from the left, state your name and the number on the ball," he instructed.

"Kinuta Dosu, number eight," said Dosu.

"Uzumaki Naruto, number one of course," said Naruto.

"Shishikura Domino, number seven," came Domino.

"Harime Elaine, number ten," followed Elaine.

"Kankuro, number five," went Kankuro.

"Sabaku no Gaara, number three," murmured Gaara.

"Nara Shikamaru, number nine," grumbled Shikamaru.

"Hyuuga Neji, number two," said Neji.

"Aburame Shino, number six," concluded Shino.

"Okay, that leaves Uchiha Sasuke as number four," observed Sarutobi.

Ibiki jotted all of this down and showed the data to the Third. He nodded and stepped forward.

"We shall now announce the pairings for the main matches. Ibiki, you may reveal the match ups now," said the Third.

Everyone tensed as Ibiki flipped his clipboards over. The paper displayed the following in this order.

Match one: Uzumaki Naruto vs. Hyuuga Neji

Match two: Uchiha Sasuke vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Match three: Aburame Shino vs. Kankuro

Match four: Shishikura Domino vs. Kinuta Dosu

Match five: Harime Elaine vs. Nara Shikamaru

Everyone gazed determinedly at their chosen opponents. Things were sure to get very interesting yet. Shikamaru then raised his hand. Sarutobi gave him the go ahead.

"Out of curiosity, since this is just one big tournament does that mean that only the winner will become Chuunin?" asked Shikamaru.

"Not quite. As I said, you will all be observed by several judges as you battle. They will be the ones who grade your performance, they will then take a vote on whether you are suited to become Chuunin. Those who are voted as qualified will become Chuunin right then and there. This is possible even if someone loses in the first round, it's just easier to display more of your skills if you win your way up. This in turn increases your odds," replied the Third.

Everyone nodded in understanding. It would take more than beating the tar out of someone to advance by the looks of it. Everyone was now being pressured to make the most of each fight in order to have the best chance.

"Alright, if there are no further questions. You are all dismissed until two months from now. When the time comes report to the battle dome in the center of town for the tournament. Good luck to you all."

Kabuto strode calmly into brightly lit room in the east wing of Konoha's hospital. The room was so clean that it was disorienting. The only thing contrasting the brightness was the dark pool of blood spreading from one of the bodies of a trio of Konoha's ANBU squad members. Kabuto smirked and pushed a pair of brand new glasses further up the bridge of his nose.

"Too easy," he thought while advancing on his goal.

A single bed surrounded by life support equipment. Laying on it was Sasuke, in a state of deep sleep due to some drug or other that he had been injected with. Most likely it was morphine. He was wrapped completely in a blanket save for his extremely pale face. He was wearing an oxygen mask that steamed with each breath the Uchiha took. His eyes and forehead was also covered by a damp rag. Judging by his sweaty face, he was running a high fever. Kabuto stood next to Sasuke and watched him breath for a moment.

"Looks like our brilliance proved more problematic than expected. We stood out too much, Sasuke-kun. Now we must deal with the watchful eye of Orochimaru-sama. It's not fair to you, Sasuke-kun. You're so young and yet you've been tainted with the devil's own heart already. That Cursed Seal will prove to be your own undoing in the long run. Perhaps I can save you from that now," thought Kabuto before picking up a nearby scalpel.

Slowly, he lowered the surgical knife to Sasuke's throat. It flew out of his hand by some strange force. Kabuto smiled in recognition.

"Well well, Kakashi-san. You disarmed me even in your blind spot, well done. But a word of advice, you should have at least ten ABNU stationed next time," teased Kabuto.

"You're not a normal Genin are you? You sensed my presence and immediately readied this knife. Impressive," observed Kakashi while approaching the younger ninja.

"You overestimate me, it wasn't anything special, Kakashi-san," said Kabuto in amusement.

"So what do you want with Sasuke?" demanded Kakashi without missing a beat. "Finding you like this, I ought to haul you in for questioning."

"Is someone as lowly as you even capable of that, Kakashi-san?" quipped Kabuto while turning to face the older ninja.

"Are you looking to take me on, Yakushi Kabuto?" asked Kakashi with dangerously narrowed eyes. "As the adoptive son of Konoha's medical chief, I wouldn't think you were capable of that. What's your connection to Orochimaru?"

Kabuto sneered.

"It's nothing that you would be able to prove, even if you did take me in for questioning."

"Just answer my question!" snapped Kakashi in annoyance.

"And if I say no?"

"I'm the one asking the questions here, punk. Now give me some answers," Kakashi's tone had dropped to danger levels.

"Look, you'll get your answers soon enough. In the meantime, why don't you just let me go this time eh?" taunted Kabuto scornfully.

"I'll teach you not to screw around with me, you little prick!" growled Kakashi with a kunai in hand.

"Heh, give me a break. Don't act so arrogant Kakashi-san, I clearly have the advantage right now," countered Kabuto while producing his own kunai.

Kabuto aimed it over Sasuke's throat. As quick as lightening, Kakashi closed the distance and knocked Kabuto's weapon away. He then pulled off a grappling move that ended with him pinning Kabuto to the floor. Kakashi twisted his arm behind his back. Kabuto went limp, and one of the deceased ANBU bolted upright and made a break for the door.

"Damn it, he used Shikon the Dead Soul technique to switch bodies!" realized Kakashi.

Kabuto had just reached the door only to find another Kakashi waiting for him.

"A Shadow Clone!?" thought Kabuto darkly.

The two Kakashis had Kabuto trapped. At least until he dropped lifelessly to the ground. Another corpse that was near a window sprang to life and weakened the window with a swarm of shuriken. Kabuto then smashed through it for a twenty foot drop to the trees below. Kakashi looked out the window just in time to see Kabuto removed his ANBU mask and smirk at him. The crafty kid had gotten away…

Genmaru, Sakura, Elaine, Domino, Naruto, Shikamaru, Shino and Tenten all stood in the entrance hall of the tower. The group were finally on their way home to get a bit of rest so that they could prepare for the upcoming tournament. The candidates in particular seemed somewhat lost in thoughts.

"I guess this is the last mile stone then," commented Sakura in an effort to strike up a conversation.

"Yeah, we have nothing but a good two months of training to look forward to in the meantime," agreed Domino.

"That's fine by me, I just need to find a practice partner to train with," added Naruto thoughtfully. "I doubt if Kakashi will do it though."

"I'm sure you'll find someone, Naruto," reassured Elaine. "Say let's make a promise! If any of us match up with each other in the main event, we all have to give it our best shot. No holding back this time okay?"

"Yeah sure. It's still troublesome either way," grumbled Shikamaru.

"I find this term favorable," droned Shino quietly.

"Works with me!" agreed Domino.

"Me too, I'm game," added Naruto.

"Good, the main matches should be something to see then. Say Naruto, might I have a private word with you?" asked Genmaru.

"Um, okay," agreed Naruto.

They separated from the others until they were out of earshot. Naruto then gave Genmaru a puzzled look.

"What's up?"

"It's about your training for the tournament. If Kakashi doesn't offer to train you, I can set up a training program for you. In addition to myself, Sagitario-sensei and few of my clan members can help you train, Naruto," offered Genmaru seriously.

"Really? That'll be great! I'll need to run it by Kakashi-sensei first but I'll be happy to receive training from you! What kind of training will we be doing?" rambled Naruto in one breath.

Genmaru just smiled with a small bit of sadness in his eyes.

"He's just like him…" mused Genmaru. "I'll give you the details when we start. If Kakashi gives you the okay then I'll need one week to get everything set up. Just do a bit of training on your own until then, okay?"

"Yeah, okay!" replied Naruto vigorously.

With that, the duo regrouped with the others. Sakura raised an eyebrow at the noticeable spring in Naruto's step. She, Domino and Elaine gave Genmaru a funny look. The misty eyed ninja just shrugged with a good natured smile in place. He knew only too well that Domino would get him to spill his guts soon enough, so they didn't press him about it.

"Alright then guys and gals. See you in two months!" said Domino cheerfully.

"Take care!" added Elaine.

"Eat your vegetables!" joked Genmaru.

Everyone slapped their heads at the pun. But smiled and waved them off anyway. The Dragon trio all departed. Since the others didn't have their full team, they stuck together for the duration of the trip out of the forest. It was going to be a long two months…

Hey Hey Hoo, Aninene is here! Finally the bloody site let me post this chapter!! Let's all celebrate, the tenth chapter is finally up!! Also another two chapters for my upcoming fic has been completed as well, YEAH!! You've seen it, the major changes have taken root! I'll just admit this, the only trace of canon is just going to involve Jiraiya. (For those who know who I'm talking about) Everything else is all me :)

Here are the highlights of this chapter. Lee doesn't have his bones broken this time around, The battle order has been switched up a bit, Gaara was nearly killed this time, the time before the tourney starts is now two months and lastly a new training plan is in store for you guys. Ah, that was fun. :)

We have reviews! Let's get cracking shall we.

zerodragon: Yeah it's kind of like that. The dragon team has a trio of kids who are as strong as Chuunins already, but still carry the title of Genin. Then the lovable Sagitario is currently captain of a squad of ANBU but acts as a Jounin sensei to Elaine and the others. I had a lot of fun making Naruto beat the snot out of Orochimaru! XD Also rest assured, Sagitario and company will get a lot more attention from now on. It was my plan all along after all.

Digi fan: Me too, I'm so proud of myself. That scenario was long too! It took two extra cups of coffee to finish it on schedule. XD

jbalman: That's a definite possibility, but it wouldn't be considered a bloodline since it's not something Naruto was born with. YAY, I feel a since of pride hearing you say that! I'm really happy that you're enjoying it! I'll continue to do the best that I can, please let me know how I'm doing as the fic continues. :)

rockleefan: I'm glad you liked that scene. It was one of the most fun to write and a highlight of the fic. Ah, you've touched on a subject that I was just going to introduce. About Genmaru, there's a hint of foreshadowing about a upcoming window into his past when he was talking privately to Naruto. Also, I couldn't agree with you more. The Sannins rock big time! Especially Tsunade!! (Sighs while love hearts floats around head) Yes I know she's old but still what a cutie eh? XD

I love reviews! I can't stress it enough, they really inspire me guys. Please keep submitting them, you're making me one happy author. :)

This dang on Disclaimer is getting on my nerves. Here it comes again. (sigh)

I do not, have not and will not ever own any pair of the Anime Naruto. Only my original characters and elements remain my own. Anything else belongs to Bandai and Mr. Kishimoto.

Boring boring boring! But at least that's over and done with. And now the Ranking System!

Naruto - D Rank with a Focus Gauge of 0/100 after using his Limit Break against Kiba

Sakura - D Minus Rank with a Focus Gauge of 0/100 after using her Limit Break against Ino

Sasuke - D Rank while unable to use Jutsu with a Focus Gauge of 40/100

Sasuke - D Plus Rank with power restored by Devil

Kiba - D Plus Rank

Akamaru - D Rank

Akamaru - D Plus Rank after eating Solider Pill

Shino - D Plus Rank

Hinata - D Rank

Hinata - D Plus Rank using Byakugan

Ino - D Rank

Shikamaru - D Rank

Chouji - D Rank

Tenten - C Minus Rank

Lee - C Rank

Lee - B Rank after opening Chakra Gates

Neji - C Rank

Neji - C Plus Rank using Byakugan

Genmaru - C Rank

Genmaru - B Minus Rank at full strength

Genmaru - C Minus Rank exhausted while fighting Gaara

Domino - C Minus Rank

Domino - C Rank using the Earth Dances

Elaine - C Minus Rank

Dosu - C Rank

Zaku - D Rank due to injuries from Devil Sasuke

Kin - D Plus Rank

Gaara - B Minus Rank

Temari - C Minus Rank

Kankuro - C Minus Rank

Kabuto - B Rank

Kakashi - B Rank

Stay tuned for the next exciting installment. It's time for something brand new, Yahoo!