Chapter Ten of the amazing fic of Sky Ninja has arrived.

We are now in the finals of the Chunin Exams, and if anyone cannot remember who is fighting who then here is a small recap:

Uzumaki Naruto vs. Hyuuga Neji

Nara Shikamaru vs. Brother Seirei

Brother Chichi vs. Uchiha Sasuke

Brother Musuko vs. Gaara

Yamanaka Ino vs. Kankuro

This is the order that they are fighting in. If you guys want to make bets now, by all means go for it.

Disclaimer: Don't own Naruto, but if it is up for grabs, sign me up!

Now on with the fic.

Today was the big day. Everyone had gathered at the arena to watch the event. The finals for the Chunin Exams were about to take place when the fighters had all gathered in the center at the given time.

While that time was coming, all the ninjas who had not made it into the finals had entered in and sat down around the arena.

Team 8 had entered along with Sakura and Chouji, the only ones who had not made it into the finals, took seats near each other. Their senseis took different spots around the arena. Rock Lee was still in the hospital trying to recover from the last fight against Gaara. Everyone who was a finalist was in the center of the arena, greeted by a new official. He had his head bandana on backwards and also a senbon needle in his mouth like it was a toothpick.

"Good morning, I'll be your new official for these matches, Genma. You all know who you will be facing and when they are. Now with the Hokage's permission, we will begin the first match which consists Uzumaki Naruto of Team 7 and Hyuuga Neji of Team 9." Genma turned to look at the Hokage who was sitting in his private box where the Kazekage was also.

The Hokage looked at all the fighters who had reached the finals, especially the three Sky Ninja. He had remembered what had happened last night, when he brought in all the senseis once more.

(Last Night; In Hokage Office)

Sarutobi was sitting behind his desk looking at Kakashi, Kurenai, Gai, Asuma, and Anko.

"Alright, a month has past since the prelims. The subject of this meeting is still the same, information on these Sky Ninja. Anyone who has anything considering this, please step forward and speak." the first to step forward was Kurenai, "Yes Kurenai, tell us what you have."

"Well," she couldn't find the right words, but she tried the best she could, "Hinata has been training with one of them." the jounins and Hokage all looked at her in shock.

"And you allowed this?" Sarutobi proclaimed with both surprise and a little bit of frustation in his voice, "She has the Byakugan, one of the most powerful bloodlines Konoha has. If they manage to find a weakspot in it, they can be a trouble if they are our enemy."

"You still don't trust in them do you?" Kurenai said, "They have not yet made a wrong move against our genin or any one elses. More importantly to me, Hinata has made a friend, and that is something that I don't want her to lose ever."

"You know the ninja world as well as I do, Kurenai. Alliances are as easily broken as cutting a string, and can be remade in the same day. I will not trust them, until they show loyalty to this village."

"They've shown it to my team, and to me as well." and just like that, Kurenai made her way to the door. Before exiting, Kurenai said one more thing, "The one with the gray hair. He was able to defeat Kiba without a sweat. If he can do that, he is easily on the Chunin level. Don't underestimate them if they do turn on us." after that, she left without another word.

The Hokage getting back to business, "Does anyone else have any news?" the room became quiet as the jounins started looking at each other, "No one? What about you Kakashi?"

"I have been too busy with training Sasuke for the Finals."

"How has that been going along?" Sarutobi asked.

"The mark on his neck has been well sealed and no longer has an influence on him. But every now and then, he manages to pull off some manuevers that only someone with a Byakugan could use."

"Has he been able to use the Sharingan?"

"Yes he uses it. That's when he's able to do the manuevers. Everytime I see him doing it, he seems to be a completely different person though."

"Anything else? What about Naruto or Sakura?"

"I haven't seen Naruto at all since the day he badgered me to train him. And Sakura, she's been kind of ify lately. Everytime I've seen her, I'd ask her about Naruto or how things were, she would then hesitate and say everything was alright. I can't shake the feeling that something is wrong with her though."

"Women, you can never truly find out how they'll act." the Hokage commented, recieving a glare from Anko. "Anyways, it seems that no one else has anything else to say, correct?" all shook their heads no, "Very well then, you are all dismissed." everyone left the room.

(Present Time)

'We still have little info on how they can fight. And now, one of them knows how a Hyuuga fights. I just hope that are friends and not foe.' the Hokage escaped his thoughts and replied to Genma with a nod of his head to commence the tournament.

Genma looking back at the ten genin, "Alright. Naruto and Neji, you stay here. As for the rest of you, see yourselves to the waiting area on the side of the arena." the other shinobi complied and left the area, leaving the blonde and the Hyuuga facing each other. "Ok guys, the rules are the same being that there are no rules. I will stop the battle when I see fit that it is over." stepping back from the two, Genma continues talking, "Fighters are you ready?"

"Been ready since a month ago!" Naruto said, "You're going to pay for what you did to Hinata."

Neji simply snuffed at what the blonde said, "She was fated to lose. And your fate is the same as well."

"All this fate talk and yet you have no idea of what I'm capable of."

"It does not matter, you will lose one way or the other."

"You just like to get into people's heads don't ya?"

"I don't need to if you are to lose." this was really getting Naruto annoyed. All this talk about fate and him losing, he just wanted to knock this guy into next week.

'Come on Naruto, show him what you are truly capable of now.' Musuko said to himself, 'Show him your definition of fate.'

"The first match of the Chunin Finals begins, now!"

With Genma's hand lowering to start the match, Naruto's hands rose into a cross sign, "Kagebunshin no Jutsu!" seven Naruto's appeared in a second in a V formation with the ends nearest to Neji. The two clones at the ends moved from their spots and went after their target. The clone on the left did a sliding kick at Neji while the right one went for a head punch. Neji saw this coming a mile away though and grabbed right clones fist before it could even touch him.

"You gotta do better than that to beat me." Neji threw the right clone over his shoulder and slammed him into the second clone making them both puff out of existance. "But then again, the victor has already been chosen."

Grinding his teeth, Naruto signalled four more clones to go after the silver eyed genin. They each took a position diagonal of where Neji was standing and then charged him, hoping to overcome him by numbers. "Why bother, when I have already been chosen to win." Neji said as ducked two of the clones. They punched each other in the face and puff out. While as the other two came in, Neji extended out his right fist and left foot in opposite directions and connected with the clones and they too puffed away. "Heh, just as expected from the dead last ninja." just then, he felt something hit him in the back. Neji came bursting through the cloud of smoke and saw that he was heading straight at Naruto. Neji quickly reacted by landing on his hands and doing a spring kick into Naruto's chest sending the blonde into the air and also puffing out.

Looking about, Neji saw Naruto standing where he himself was recently. Thinking over as to what just had happened, 'Of course. When the clones dispersed, they covered the area with smoke, giving Naruto the perfect cover for a sneak attack from behind. And I would have recieved even more damage from this clone here if I had not reacted.' Looking back at Naruto who was smiling now, 'He has gotten better.'

"Now. About this fate trash that you've been talking about. Did it say anything about me getting in the first punch? Or was that just a coincidence?"

"Hmph." Neji smirked as he wiped away imaginary dust from his shoulder, "It was coincidence, because it won't happen again." Neji closed his eyes, and when he opened them, veins appeared around them. "Byakugan!"

Naruto looked into his opponents eyes, seeing the change in them. "So this is the Byakugan." he then remembered to about a week ago, what his sensei, Musuko, had told him.

(A week ago)

Naruto was relaxing after a long spar with Musuko that he had just lost to. As he sat there, Musuko came up to him to chat.

"Naruto, you improved greatly over the time we have been training with each other. I only have one question for you; Do you think you can beat Neji?"

The blonde looked up to the white haired shinobi with a question on his face, "Of course I can beat Neji. With what you've taught and what I've been doing on my own time, there's no doubt I can."

"Then let me rephrase the question. Do you think you can beat the Byakugan?" Naruto's questionable face turned into one that of deep thinking, "The Byakugan allows one to see everything around him. A From-Behind-Attack would then become useless as he would know you were there before you attacked." pausing for a second, "Neji graduated at the top of his class. He is highly intelligent, and not to mention is exceptionally good with the Byakugan. Defeating him will be no easy task."

Naruto quirked an eyebrow, "How do you know so much about Neji?"

"I know too many things. But that's not the point that I'm trying to make with you Naruto. The point that I'm trying to make is that you have to find a way to surprise the all-seeing eye. And for the next week until the tournament, we are gonna find a way to beat it. I don't care if it even beats it, even just aiding you a bit is better than nothing."

"Musuko-sensei was right about one thing, it won't beat it, but it will help out." with that, Naruto performed the same handsign and this time created thirty clones surrounding Neji.

"You bring on even one hundred of your clones Naruto, it will not matter. Fate has already taken hold of this match, you will lose." all the clones snarled.

All at once the clones jumped into the air to dive bomb onto the Hyuuga. Neji moved into a position that Naruto had not seen before. To be careful, Naruto had one clone grab another. The clones then threw the ones they had at Neji. The thrown clones extended their feet to give a high impact kick. The Naruto clones were just about to hit Neji, when all of a sudden, "Kaiten!" the Hyuuga began spinning. As he spun, chakra surrounded him to create a swirling sphere around him. As the clones made contact, they instantly were shot away and puffed out. The other clones seeing this stop going towards the spinning Neji until he had stopped. They landed a few yards away from Neji as his spinning ceased, and when he completely stopped, that was the signal for the clones to hit him head on. Even though Neji had stopped, that didn't mean he was vulnerable, now that his number were smaller, he began dodging attacks while at the same time striking the clones out of existance. Remembering what had happened last time, Neji continued moving from place to place as not to be left in the smoke.

In the end, all of the clones were defeated, and without even a bead of sweat from Neji. Neji became overconfident as he stood there watching Naruto grinding his teeth.

"Like I said, fate has deemed you the loser." Neji said mockingly as he cracked his knuckles.

"Enough!" Naruto couldn't hold it any longer, he pulled up his hands and he formed the cross seal again.

"Heh, more clones? Go ahead, this time I- wait." Neji stopped as he saw Naruto move his hands into another seal, and another, and another, "This is not the same jutsu."

"Fuuton: Taifuu Kasoku!" a large gust was felt by Neji as it came from Naruto's direction.

"A wind element jutsu!?" Neji narrowed his eyes, "He can't possibly know an element jutsu let alone know what his is. It takes too much chakra."

Just then, Naruto ran at his opponent, but with greater speed than any of his clones had. Neji was so surprised at the speed, but was able to react to the attack in time to block. Naruto then threw in his leg which went as fast as he had ran and made contact with Neji's side. He was thrown to the side.

"Did your fate consider this? Or was this just another coincidence?" Naruto mocking his opponent, but Neji did not respond immediatly. He stood up and gave a small chuckle, "What's so funny."

"Heh heh, I told you fate had deemed me the victor. You may know a wind jutsu, but you are still the loser."

"And why is that?" Naruto asked.

"You're in range." Neji then moved into another stance. He crouched down with his arms extended in opposite diretions, one in front, one in back. "Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou." and Naruto's nightmare had begun.

One after another, the hands struck Naruto's body. He could feel his coils close up with each blow and the pain the came with it. When the final point had been made, Naruto fell on his face. Neji backed away from the blonde as not to be scuffed by the dust that was lifted from his fall.

"Hmph. You were deemed the loser by fate. And the loser you are. I have closed all of your chakra coils. There is no possible way you can defeat me now." he then turned to Genma, "Official, please end this battle."

Genma nodded and raised his hand, "The victor of the first battle,"

"Has not been decided, yet." Neji, Genma, and everyone else in the audience looked at Naruto, he was standing up.

"Impossible." Neji declared, "You shouldn't be able to even move."

"I told you. I'm gonna make you pay for what you did to Hinata." then to Neji's amazement, Naruto took a step forward, "And believe me, you're gonna pay." the blonde then placed his hands together in prayer form.

Neji took a step back, 'What is this? Such chakra. There shouldn't be any. But this...this is different from before.' just as he finished, a burst of chakra came from Naruto, red chakra.

As the chakra enveloped his body, he created more of his clones. Each clone appeared in front of the other doing a frame-by-frame action of Naruto pulling back his fist for a punch, all this in under one second. The final clone that was produced was right in front of Neji with his fist back all the way and once he appeared, he threw said fist right into the Hyuuga's face and sending him onto his back a few yards away. The line of clones remained where they were as Neji stood up from the punch.

"I don't know how you managed to reopen your chakra coils, but I will still win. Fate has said so that-"

"You know something?" the front Naruto clone interrupted, "No one knows their fate. People claim they do, but in the end, they are always people who just use it as an excuse and then fall on their faces."

"You know nothing of fate!" Neji shouted out with rage in his voice, "We who are born in the branch family-"

"The branch family?!" Naruto interrupted once more, "That's what this is all about. You being in the branch family? I don't care what they thought of you, but if you think you've been living in a virtual hell. You're not even fit to have the name Hyuuga."

"What did you just say to me?" Neji still in rage.

"You have a family, Neji?"

"Yes, but my father-"

"That doesn't matter to me right now!" Neji was caught off guard by Naruto's shouting, "You have a family. They love you. They nutured you. You had someone to look up to. Someone who would protect you from others. If you think that is hell, you are sadly mistaken."

"You don't understand." Neji made a move to his forehead protector, "The branch family has a mark, branded on our foreheads." Neji then pulled away the protector and the bandages to reveal the seal, "Everyday, the branch live in fear that the Main house members will one day use it on us and kill us."

Naruto lowered his head, but with a smile on it, "Heh. Living in fear. Is that all?" Neji almost gasped at the reaction Naruto had, "I too have a mark, but it's not like yours." Naruto pulled away a part of his shirt to reveal his left shoulder and chest. Scars were everywhere along with some bruises and stitches as well, "These did not come from training or in fights, but I will admit that some came from shuriken and kunai." some people in the audience went wide eyed at the sight. Including most of the genin. "All my life, from the day I was born, I lived in fear that one day I would die. But not by some stupid mark, but by people who wanted to kill me for reason I did not know. I had no family to protect me, no friends, it was just me and people who were by far stronger than me. You think you lived in hell. Think again."

Neji was taken back at this, but he did not let anyone see it. He thought that he had it bad. How is father died in place of his uncle. How Hinata was treated ten times better even though see was ten times weaker than he was and a disgrace to the clan. To him, he did believe that fate had did this to him, he could see no other way around it. But then Naruto, he really did have it worst. He was treated like the rat of the streets for his entire life, even by ninjas from the very same village. And yet, he still kept that happy demeanor about him. He had a new respect for Naruto, but none the less, Neji simply replied in the following way,

"Hmph. I told you, that is fate. And fate had deemed to live in misery."

Naruto had not succeeded in changing Neji's view on fate. So he did what he knew he had to do, beat the tar out of Neji.

The two saw the signal in each other that they were ready to continue. Both smirked and got into position.

Naruto started the battle again by going through a series of the same hand signs for the Taifuu Kasoku.

"That's not gonna work for you a second time Naruto." Neji said with confidence, "My teammate has gone much faster than you and I can still beat him."

"Well that does put a small damper in my plan, but..." Naruto moved to remind Neji of his line of clones, "Have you ever fought more than one of your teammate at once?"

Neji's eyes narrowed. With that speed and the numbers, he was going to have troubles.

In a flash, the clones went at Neji full force.

"Kaiten!" Neji spun around followed with his chakra field. The clones had no way of stopping in time and so hit dead on into the field and puffed out, leaving only the real Naruto left. "You can bombard me all you want, I won't get tired of seeing your clones fly away with those stupid faces."

"Oh don't worry. The next move, you won't even be able to see." Naruto placed his hands into the same cross sign again. The entire arena was then filled with clones, each looking at Neji with a sinister grin which Neji returned the grin as well.

"Heh, here it comes." all the clones spoke at once.

Neji prepared himself, getting in a readied stance as well as activating his Byakugan.

The Hyuuga began strategizing in his head, 'There are twenty in front, to my right and left, and behind. If I can use the Kaiten again then use my usual taijutsu against the remaining clones. This should be just like before. Then I will go after the real Naruto. With this number of clones, he should be practically drained of his chakra. This match is over.'

That was what Neji had thought. Naruto had beaten him in three simple moves.

One: the clones had all moved the hands into the same signs.

Two: all the clones then cried out, "Oiroke no Jutsu!" Instantly, all clones turned into...well, you all can probably guess. The traditional nude female Naruto covered in smoke. Neji, with his Byakugan activated, saw everything. It didn't matter if there was smoke, he saw it, he saw fourty women, all nude. Completely overwhelmed by the sudden sight, Neji covered his eyes and deactivated his Byakugan.

"Ah! Wha- what the heck is wrong with you?! You sick twisted perv-" 'Wait!'

Three: While Neji's eyes were covered, the real Naruto charged at him in his original form and gave an uppercut to Neji's chin. Neji went up into the air only to then land on his back and the clones poofing out of exitstance.

Neji and Naruto were the only ones left in the arena with the spectators looking on with different expressions. Those expressions being of anger, joy, shock, confusion, amazed, and just plain pervertedness. Naruto had beaten the top genin of that year with his own jutsu, his own sick, twisted, justu.

Genma approached the center of the stage and raised his hand, "This match is over. The winner, Uzumaki Naruto."

After a few seconds of silence, the crowd went into an applause for the blonde's victory. Naruto gave his foxy grin to the others and went over to Neji's side as he still layed on the ground.

"Hey, you alright." Naruto asked. Neji simply smiled and said, "I'll beat you next time." he raised his hand weakly which Naruto took to shake. After the shake, some medics appeared and carried Neji off the arena. Naruto then did the same.

"You...have got to be kidding me." Sakura had her fists clenched tight and her teeth grinding, "You're telling me that Naruto won...WITH THAT!?"

"You gotta admit Sakura, he used his head on that won." Sakura turned to Hinata who was a bit shy to look at the pink haired girl in the face, "He found a weakness and went for it. The Byakugan allows the person to see 360 degrees around themselves as well as look through objects. With Neji's Byakugan activated, and being a gentlemen, Naruto used that jutsu because he knew that Neji would be the polite one and shiled his eyes. But that wouldn't be enough just to close one's eyes if they have the Byakugan active, they could still see through their eyelids. Therefore, Neji had to deactivate the Byakugan, leaving him completely blind and open to any attack." Sakura was astonished at how well Naruto had planned this out, and also that Hinata wasn't stuttering through her words. Hinata finished, "Neji was just lucky that Naruto didn't use a weapon to finish the match."

"Wow." Sakura said, looking down at the walking Naruto, "I never thought he could be that capable. I mean, last I saw of him, he just managed to beat Chouji, and I know Neji could have easily beaten him then."

Hinata giggled, still not making eye contact, "A lot can change in a month. I'm one of those examples. I was timid and incredibly shy, but now thanks to Chichi, I have become less of who I was and more of what a kunoichi should be."

"Wait. Chichi? You mean one of those Sky Ninja?" Sakura asked.

Hinata nodded, "He helped me, and I helped him. And now, we are the best of friends." Hinata moved her hand to the diamond tear around her neck to remember Chichi's promise to her.

Sakura noticed the tear and almost felt crushed and at the same time jealous. The Sky Ninja have only been there for one month, and one had already given a gift to Hinata. Meanwhile, Sakura had known Sasuke since the beginning of the academy and not once had he even complimented her on anything. She started to think of how pathetic she was for not even being able to get a guy to like her while Hinata had, being the shyest of them all. She thought it was hopeless for her, then it hit her. That night before the Forest of Death, Musuko. He was the first person to knock some sort of sense into her head about what a kuniochi really was. He even kissed her on the head saying he cared about her. Maybe, maybe Sakura had-

"The next match is about to start!" Sakura's train of thought was broken as Genma annouced the next match, "Will Nara Shikamaru and Brother Seirei please make your way to the center of the arena." the two ninja's obeyed and faced each other.

"Hey, you're pretty tall," Shikamaru said looking slightly up to Seirei, "Hope you won't be so troublesome for me."

"That all depends," Seirei responded, "if you are the genius these people say you are."

"Ready?" Genma asked, the two nodded, "The second match of the finals, begin!"

(In the medical room)

Neji was lying in a bed unable to move for the moment from the uppercut. All he could do was lay there, thinking.

'How? How could I be so blind? I should have known he would do something stupid like that. But why? Why did I lose? Fate deemed me the victor.' Neji stopped thinking when he heard foot steps nearing his bed. Moving his eyes to his left, he saw gray hair and a sky ninja forehead protector. Chichi.

"What do you want?" Neji, almost speaking down to Chichi, continued, "I don't need to see the likes of you or any of your kind in here."

"Too bad." Chichi replied, "You're gonna have to live with my company for awhile." he then sat down in a chair next to the Hyuuga. "Now, tell me, did your 'fate' have anything about you losing to a jutsu like that." Neji didn't answer, "You see, you won't answer the question because you have just found out your fate crap is in fact, crap."

"No. Fate has deemed my life a misery. All because my father was born second."

Chichi shook his head, "I don't know anything about your father or what happened. But I can give you proof that fate does not control your life." Neji's eyes turned away from Chichi showing that he didn't want to hear. Too bad for Neji, but Chichi went on, "Your last fight against your cousin, Hinata." Neji's eyes went back to the sky ninja after hearing Hinata's name, "What do you think happened to her after your fight?"

"With my striking at her heart, she should have been in critical condition when she left the arena floor. But that was all fate. She was deemed to lose."

"And if she were to die?" Chichi's voice sounding a bit more tense.

Neji sensed the change and retorted, "Then it was because fate deemed it so." Chichi's fist clenched tightly ready to punch out Neji right where he laid. But instead, he started laughing.

Swinging his fist in front of Neji's face in a playful manner, he said, "I only wish that I had fought you instead of Naruto. He may have left you temporarily immoble. But I," he chuckled a bit, "I would have left you without legs." he pulled his fist away and returned to his seat.

"Anyways, back to Hinata. You were right about what had happened to her after the match. She was in serious condition."

Neji said in disbelief, "But if she was, she would be limping around or in pain. She has seemed completely fine over the past month."

"Like I said, she was in serious condition. In fact, your little stunt...actually killed her." Neji's eyes widened as Chichi continued, "So does that was fate? She was supposed to die in the match? Your cousin, of all people, you decide to take her life. Yes Neji you did kill her, don't bother trying to deny it or even try to reason with it. It's just lucky for her that me and my team have a medic jutsu just in case of such occasions. With it, she was perfectly healed as if it was her first day out of the academy." Chichi stopped talking to let it all soak into Neji's big head.

After awhile, Chichi started again, "So, can you tell me why she avoided death? It can't be by fate, because if it was, she'd be still dead." Neji had no answer, he was left speechless, "Hinata is living proof that fate does not exist. As is Naruto. You said fate had deemed him the loser, and yet he won. You said fate deemed Hinata that she would be a loser forever, and yet she could possibly be able to beat even you. Now tell me, is your so called 'fate' still in existance for you?" Neji returned his gaze to the ceiling. Chichi rose from his seat, readjusting his kunai on his shoulder, "I leave you to think about what has happened in this room. Hopefully, you will come to your senses." and with that said, the sky ninja exited.

Seirei made a move to the handle of his sword, but Shikamaru acted faster and pulled three shuriken out of his pouch. The lazy ninja then threw them at the sky ninja and jumped away from his opponent. Seirei responded to the shuriken by turning with his back facing the shuriken and him slowly pulling the sword of his back. The shuriken hit the blade and landed on the ground as Seirei held the sword in his hand.

Shikamaru was now ten yards away from Seirei and began thinking to himself, gathering up information, 'That sword of his can be used as both a shield and a weapon. He is able to use wind jutsus so long range attacks will be even worse for me. But if I go into close combat, then he's got his sword.' he then began to moan, 'This is going to be so troublesome.'

"Hmph." Temari huffed with a small grin. Kankuro noticed this and asked what for, "That Shikamaru kid is keeping his distance. He's not staying too far as to avoid a possible wind attack, and he's not getting close enough for a sword attack. He's at perfect range to keep a watch on what Seirei will do next. There's only one thing that he doesn't know."

"And that is?"

"Seirei has no wind affinity." Kankuro then had a confused look.

"Then how did he use that wind jutsu against you before hand?" Kankuro asked.

"See that ball, that's what took my chakra before, it wil take Shikamaru's as well." the two looked at Seirei, wondering what he could possibly do in this match.

Back with Seirei and Shikamaru, Seirei placed the tip of his sword on the ground.

"So, you going for the whole medium range? Excellent choice." he then lifts up his sword into the air, "That means you're easier to get." Shikamaru narrowed his eyes as Seirei swung his sword and created a whirlwind which was aimed straight at the lazy ninja. Shikamaru acted as quickly as he could and jumped to the right of the whirlwind stream only to recieve a small gust that he had to cross his arms in front of him to keep standing up.

When the wind died down, Shikamaru lowered his hands only to see that Seirei had disappeared. Shikamaru started looking around when he had found him, or actually, Seirei found him. The gap in Seirei's sword had Shikamaru's spinal cord in it with Seirei standing right behind him.

"Nice try Shikamaru." Seirei said, "But I know a fake when I see one." Seirei then swung his sword around himself and sliced Shikamaru in two. Some people in the audience gasped at the carniage, but others looked on as the two pieces of Shikamaru poofed into a sliced log. Kawamiri.

After the logs landed on the ground, Seirei placed his massive sword onto his shoulder standing in the center of the arena, looking at the trees along the walls.

"Come out come out wherever you are." he sang out lightly.

Shikamaru could be found crouching behind a tree facing the back of Seirei.

'Ah, this is so troublesome. He has perfect range with the sword and wind jutsus. I can't get near him!' with that final thought, Shikamaru took his hands and placed the tips of his fingers together as he also closed his eyes. After about half a minute, Shikamaru opened his eyes, 'Got it.'

Seirei stood where he had been, waiting impatiently.

"Well. Think I gave him enough time to think this over." Seirei said to himself as he removed his sword from on his shoulder, "Hey Shikamaru, hope you didn't forget about this." Seirei then tapped the ground with the tip of the sword. The light blue ball at the base of the sword then came sliding off and onto the ground.

Shikamaru turned around from where he was behind the tree and saw the ball, 'Oh, what a drag! That's how he got that girl's wind chakra. If that hits me, then he'll be able to use the shadow possession too!' Shikamaru turned back and placed his head against the tree to continue thinking, 'If I move, he'll probably see me then I'm toast. But if I stay, he that ball could hit me and then I'm toast that way.' the lazy ninja decided to stay where he was and hope that Seirei didn't hit him.

Seirei went into the putting position with his sword like he did with Temari, he pulled back the sword to hit the ball. Now was Shikamaru's chance. In mid-swing, Shikamaru jumped from his hiding place, still behind Seirei, and formed the rat seal. His shadow shot out at the sky ninja to capture him.

"Got ya." Shikamaru said as the shadow neared Seirei. However, Shikamaru spoke too soon, because when his shadow got about six inches away from Seirei's feet, it stopped. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed as Seirei turned around with a smile.

"Excellent, you showed yourself." the sky ninja looked down to the shadow near his feet, "You didn't think I forgot what you could do. I made sure I kept my distance from any shadows." Seirei then returned to his putting position, this time facing Shikamaru, "Now, hold still." Seirei swung his sword and struck the ball hard.

The ball went right at Shikamaru. Luckily enough, Shikamaru had achieved a new limbo skill and bent back as the ball went flying over his body. The ball hit the wall behind Shikamaru and bounced off into another direction, then another. It continued to bounce around not hitting either Shikamaru or Seirei. Shikamaru was able to dodge the ball when it came near him, but Seirei remained where he stood not even getting knicked by the ball.

Naruto stood up in the fighter's box watching the ball bounce around like crazy, "Why hasn't it hit Seirei?"

Musuko answered him as he walked up to Naruto's side, "Seirei is not the smartest of all three of us, but when it comes to angles, there's none better than Seirei." looking back at Seirei who was calmly standing still, "He has calculated the angle of trajectory for each bounce and knows where it will be in the next second."

"Angle of what?" the blonde questioned.

"Basically Naruto, he knows how to make the ball hit where he wants it too." Musuko tried to simplify it. Naruto nodded with mouthing the word 'oh'.

The ball continued bouncing around the arena. Finally, Seirei said something as the ball flew by him, "You just won't keep still will you?"

"I don't think I have any good reason to do so." Shikamaru responded.

"Then I should probably make sure it hits the next time then." and with that, Seirei flung his sword behind his back. The ball bounced off the wall behind Seirei as it came and slid into the gap of the blade. As it did, Seirei swung the sword forward and pointed it towards Shikamaru. With the forward momentum, the ball shot out of the sword and went at the lazy ninja and three times its original speed. Shikamaru had no time to react as the ball went right through his chest, bounced off the wall, went through him again, and back into the sword, "That my friend is what you call, 'Perfect Geometry'."

'Incredible.' Shikamaru was completely baffled, 'There's more to him than he lets on. I can't be entirely sure as to what he's going to do next. He provides me with no information whatsoever. Man, this is really, really troublesome.'

"So," Seirei spoke out to the lazy ninja, "let's see what this shadow possession can do." just then, Seirei's shadow shot out and went towards Shikamaru. His opponent noticed this and lept out of the way of the shadow, but Seirei turned the shadow back at Shikamaru and so began chasing him around the arena.

After a few more jumps the shadow had stopped moving further and so receeded back to its owner's position. Shikamaru stood a pretty good distance from Seirei, and since Seirei no longer had the wind jutsu, he was safe against any long range attacks.

The lazy ninja scanned over his surroundings, he was up against the wall of the arena with the sun in his face. As for Seirei, he was on the opposite side, making sure he kept his distance from Shikamaru. However, Shikamaru noticed something, the shadow of the arena walls was about ten yards away from where the sky ninja stood. He knew that Seirei was too far away to get him in a shadow possession jutsu from either direction, but after a few quick seconds of thinking, Shikamaru had a strategy all set up.

Seirei latched onto his sword with both hands. He knew that he could not go into close combat with Shikamaru without some sort of distraction otherwise he would be caught in his shadow, but he also knew that this fight would have to be won by the shadow possession, nothing else would work against the other genin. And so, after a few quick seconds of thinking, Seirei had a strategy all set up.

Too bad for the other's opponent, they had planned out the fight perfectly. One just didn't see the next step.

Shikamaru ran forward a few steps and stopped to perform his jutsu. He knew he was well in range now and shot out his shadow at Seirei. Seirei saw the shadow and jumped away from the shadow as Shikamaru did before. With each jump, he moved further away from the shadow, but closer to the arena's shadow. Exactly how Shikamaru had planned it.

Just then, the shadow stopped moving forward as it had reached its limit. Seirei stopped jumping and remained where he stood. He saw where he was and he knew; he was cornered. Behind was the arena's shadow, and if he went into it, he would surely be caught, and if he moved forward he would be caught by Shikamaru. He had no where to go. Seeing where he was, he stabbed his sword into the ground behind him knowing that it would be of no use to him to attack Shikamaru. He stood where he was and looked at his opponent with a small grin.

"You've done well. You have me cornered." Seirei said.

Shikamaru smirked, "No, I have you right where I want you." he placed his hands into the rat seal as Seirei knelt down to one knee. Within the second, Shikamaru had lost.

The lazy ninja was narrow eyed. Slowly he stood up with his hands to his sides and legs straight together. Seirei gave his opponent a large smirk as he rose to both his feet.

"Good, you went straight behind me. Just as planned." Seirei walked to Shikamaru, leaving his sword stabbed in the ground, "Since I know that you're really smart, I'll let you think of how this happened. Don't worry you can still talk."

Shikamaru remained standing still looking right at the sword. He then saw that the shadow of the sword, it had no gap. He had put the pieces together.

Seirei allowed himself to be cornered. Placing his sword behind him and out of his hands, he showed to Shikamaru that he could not use the shadow possession jutsu and therefore making the himself completely open. But just in case of a trick, Shikamaru did not use the jutsu at Seirei directly. Instead, he moved his shadow to the side where the arena's shadow was casting. Using the shadow, he was able to travel behind Seirei without wasting distance. But what Shikamaru left out in his strategy was that Seirei wasn't the one performing the jutsus. The sword had the ball, meaning that when Shikamaru had his shadow move by the sword to get to Seirei, his shadow crossed the sword's and did a double possession. Shikamaru could have easily released the jutsu, but since the sword also had the jutsu active, Shikamaru was caught in the jutsu himself. Because of this, he was now open for Seirei to beat the living crap out of him. Shikamaru's plan went according to plan, but Seirei's went one step further.

The black haired ninja reached his lazy opponent after Shikamaru had figured it all out. Shikamaru then said, "This whole thing was too troublesome in the first place."

"You did pretty darn good though man. You had me running there for the moment. What I think you need is a little more motivation."

"That's what your brother told me to do too."

Seirei chuckled a bit, "So, do you want to end this match nicely or with some broken ribs." Shikamaru grinned and shook his head no.

"I forfeit." Seirei nodded at the decision and went back to his sword. Genma entered the field and declared Seirei the winner. Seirei pulled out his sword and released Shikamaru of the shadow possession. Without a word, Shikamaru went back to the fighter's area in the lazy way he always did, Seirei following shortly after.

"Genius fighting Genius." Temari said in an ironic way as she watched Seirei return to the fighter's area.

"Heh. Believe me," Temari turned to look at Musuko leaning against the wall, "Seirei is no genius. No offense to him at all, but he doesn't strategize at all. He just makes the stuff up as he goes along. Sometimes he plans the stuff out. But this, he was just not thinking."

"Then why did he say, '...just as planned.'?" Temari asked.

Seirei responded this time as he walked up the stairs, "Because it made me look smarter." looking to Shikamaru, "In all honesty, I just put my sword back there because I wouldn't be able to use it in the fight and it would only slow me down against your shadow."

Shikamaru, along with Temari, Naruto, Sasuke and Kankuro, all sweat dropped. The genin genius was beaten by a simple act of lightening a load.

"Yo. Uchiha child." Sasuke looked out into the arena to see Chichi standing out in the center next to Genma, "The instructor called out our names. You coming or not?" Sasuke then remembered that his match was next and so walked down the stairs to where he was to meet.

"Fighters, are you ready?" Genma asked.

"Yeah. I want to get this thing over with as soon as possible." the Uchiha said quite confident about himself.

Chichi looked over to where his two teammates were. He saw Seirei raise his hand with two fingers up. Chichi replied with a nod which also signalled Genma.

"Very well, the third match of the finals, begin."

Sasuke ran at Chichi as Chichi did the same thing in return. The two genin met in the center of the arena as Genma moved as fast as he could out of there. Sasuke made the first move and threw a right hook to Chichi's head. Instantly as Sasuke's fist came past his head, Chichi caught it with his left hand while still looking at Sasuke.

"Too slow." was what the sky ninja said as his fist came into Sasuke's chest. Sasuke would have flown back if it weren't for Chichi still holding onto his fist. Said ninja pulled back Sasuke for a kick straight into Sasuke's gut. As the foot connected, Chichi released the fist and sent Sasuke flying a couple of feet. The Uchiha landed on his feet not appearing to be harmed.

Chichi remained where Sasuke was just a moment ago staring at Sasuke, waiting for the Uchiha's next move. Sasuke gave a small huff and went charging back at Chichi for another match in taijutsu. As before, Sasuke threw back his fist for a hook. Chichi simply extended out his hand to catch it, "You people just don't learn." Chichi was about to catch the fist when it vanished.

Sasuke had jumped up into the air and performed a flip. In the middle of his flip, he threw in another punch that Chichi blocked as he did a 360 on the ground. Chichi made his 360 into a 720 when Sasuke landed down on his feet, the sky ninja did a round house kick which connected to Sasuke once again and sent him flying. Chichi lowered his head in disappointment and shook his head slowly, "No one learns here, do they?" the genin then walked to Sasuke as he laid on the ground. Sasuke was not badly hurt and so began raising up to his feet.

'Such speed. Such reaction. It's like he's not even thinking of his next move.' Sasuke thought to himself. He was then lifted off the ground by Chichi grabbing onto his collar.

"You think too much." the sky ninja then threw Sasuke up in the air and performed another roundhouse kick into the Uchiha's side.

"Then I'll just fight then." Sasuke retorted as he landed on his feet with a flip at the same time performing hand signs, "Katon: Goukakyuu no Jutsu!" placing his hand to his mouth, Sasuke shot out a large ball of fire directed right at Chichi. Chichi's eyes narrowed at the oncoming fireball and quickly jumped out over the ball. As he dodged the ball, Sasuke came up at him and delivered a kick to his head. But Chichi was too quick, he grabbed onto Sasuke's leg and threw it away, allowing the two of them to land safely on the ground.

As the two landed, Sasuke pulled out a kunai for each hand and threw them one after the other. Chichi reacted by catching the first one, spinning, and throwing it back at the second kunai and stopping it from proceeding. Then Chichi ducked as Sasuke did a roundhouse kick of his own. The sky ninja countered the move with a leg sweep which Sasuke then fell onto his butt. He was open for another attack, but Chichi left him where he stood and awaited to see what he would do next.

Chichi crossed his arms and said to the Uchiha mockingly, "This is what you got. I thought you Uchihas were a high class of ninja. If that is so, show me."

Sasuke, standing back up, "That's because I haven't used my full power. But seeing that you want it so badly, why should I hold it back." right before Chichi, Sasuke disappeared. In the next second, Chichi heard a voice behind him, "This fast enough for you-" Sasuke, with a smirk on his face, was answered with an arm in the side of his head.

"Still too slow." the impact sent Sasuke to the right of Chichi, but the Uchiha remained steady on his feet. Chichi looked into Sasuke's eyes to see the sharigan with only two tomoes in each eye, "Your sharigan will do nothing against me. With it not fully developed, you can't do anything against me in taijutsu, and there is no use trying to copy any of my jutsus, I hardly use any." Chichi then moved into a stance. With his left foot extended pointing at Sasuke as well as his left arm, his right foot and leg bent in towards his body, "But if you feel like trying, go ahead."

Sasuke replied by charging at Chichi head on, when close enough, Sasuke jumped up to do a double leg kick, but Chichi crossed his arms to construct a shield which Sasuke simply jumped off as he made more hand signs, "Katon: Housenka." out from his mouth shot multiple little fireballs aiming right at Chichi. Chichi ran around the arena as not to be hit by the attack.

'These fire jutsus will become a problem for me. Guess I'll have to use Numeri.' as he thought that, Sasuke appeared behind Chichi and pulled off one of the kunai on his shoulder strap. Without another thought, Chichi swung around and threw a punch into Sasuke's face followed by a second punch to his right arm which held the kunai. With that punch, Sasuke dropped the weapon and fell to the ground. "No one, touches my whistles."

"Whistles?" Sasuke wiped away some blood dripping from the corner of his mouth, "Don't you mean kunai?"

"Allow me to show you." he put away the kunai Sasuke had took, and took out two other ones. Putting the handles at the right corner of his mouth both pointing to the right like a flute, he blew into them to make a pitch from the kunai.

"Heh heh. This will be fun." Musuko said as he heard the whistle.

"What do you mean by that?" Naruto asked his sensei.

"Let's just say, Chichi has a way with wildlife. You'll see in a few minutes, Naruto."

"Sasuke is in trouble now." Hinata said to herself.

"What do you mean by that?" Sakura questioned the Hyuuga.

Hinata giggled abit, "You'll see."

Putting away the kunai, Chichi resumed the fight. This time he took charge at Sasuke, and this time Sasuke activated his sharigan. Chichi threw in a punch which Sasuke blocked with his arm and then returned it with another one of his punches. The sky ninja simply caught the fist, but was not able to counter the attack as Sasuke turned his back to Chichi, and grabbed Chichi's hand with his free one. The sky ninja could not get free of the Uchiha's grip as he was thrown over Sasuke's head and into the wall. Chichi managed to do a split second flip so that his feet landed on the wall and gave him the perfect springboard to launch back at Sasuke. He threw a punch in mid-air at Sasuke's face, but the Uchiha ducked at the last moment, and as Chichi flew over him, he flew his fist up into Chichi's gut and shot him up into the air.

"What?" Musuko was leaning on the railing in shock, while Seirei looked stunned from where he was standing.

"What? What's going on?" Naruto asked somewhat confused.

"Brother Chichi got hit." answered Musuko.

"Is that a such a bad thing?" Temari retorted.

"He's never been hit in taijutsu. Even in the academy against the teachers." Seirei said calmly, yet nervously at the same time.

"But aren't teachers usually chunin level or higher. He wouldn't have even been a genin by then." said Naruto.

"Exactly." everyone almost gasped at what Seirei said. They all looked back down to see Chichi had landed on his feet and was back in a stare down with Sasuke.

Sasuke had a devious smirk on his face as he looked at Chichi who looked almost puzzled by what had happened. His sharingan was still active as he waited for his opponent to attack. However, his waiting stance was changed when he saw Chichi smirking as well. Sasuke got into a ready stance and asked, "What's so funny?"

"Heh." Chichi replied, "Tell me Sasuke. Do you like animals?" Sasuke was silent, not understanding the question, "Cause I think you might like this one. Oh, and you should probably chech around your shoes." Sasuke looked down at his shoes to see a dark blue liquid, as thick as blood. The liquid was moving past him towards Chichi, meaning that the source was behind him. What really got him nervous was when he looked at everyone up in the stands and the fighters waiting area. They all were pale as ghosts. Knowing that something was behind him, he turned and faced what it was. And like everyone else, he also turned a bit pale.

It was a blob. A big blue blob with multiple tentacles, and feet. Two tentacles on each side could be seen as a use as arms. One tentacle, being larger than the others, extended from the top of the blob to look like a neck of some sorts, only it was in the shape of a tube. From this tentacle was where the dark blue liquid was coming from. Sasuke stepped backwards as he looked up at the blob.

"Wha-what is that." Sasuke was wide eyed. Meanwhile, Chichi stood in a relaxed manner and answered the question, "That, is Numeri, the vicious liquid. A very deadly creature, but can be the most loyal of all animals. That is, if you can tame it."

"He summoned Numeri. He's done for." Seirei smirked at the sight of the blue blob.

"Wait. Summoned? When did he do that. Let alone, how can he do that." Kankuro questioned, "Summoning jutsus take alot of skill to do, also they need hand signs. I have not seen him do a single sign."

"Brother Chichi doesn't summon like every other ninja does." Seirei responded, "In fact, he doesn't even have a contract which you need to summon." a confused look went onto the genin's faces again.

"Then...how did this...this thing, get there." Naruto asked.

"Like I said before." Musuko said, "Chichi has a way with wildlife. Remember those kunai he blew into?" Naruto nodded, "Those kunai, they are used as animal whistles, not weapons. By playing them by the type of kunai, the number of kunai, and where he places it in his mouth, Chichi is able to make any sort of call to summon animals that already live on this planet. It just take awhile to get them to come here." Naruto looked back at Chichi, who was standing still smiling at Sasuke taking steps back.

'Woah. Something like that actually lives here?' Naruto thought, he looked back at Chihi, 'Just what are these three really capable of?'

The fight then continued with Numeri raising one of its tentacles. It shot out at Sasuke as he ducked down before it reached him. The main tube tentacle looked down at Sasuke as he ducked, which then lead to the remaining tentacles going for the Uchiha. Sasuke dodged each and every one of the tentacles as it went by, but that didn't stop them from turning around and striking again. Several more run bys with the tentacles and Sasuke was completely surrounded by the tentacles. With a small twitch, the tentacles constricted around Sasuke's body and were about to ensnare him. Sasuke did a final sequence of hand signs and shot out a burst of fire out of his mouth. The flames made the tentacles burst into pieces and the Uchiha was free from the blob's grasp. Bits and parts were strewed all around Sasuke, and he saw the blue blob's main tentacle writhe around like it was in pain, it made no sound though to confirm it. Just then, the writhing stopped and the main tentacle bent back down towards Sasuke. It did a small flinch, and when it did, Sasuke could see the blue liquid that he had just destroyed with his fire jutsu flow back into the feet of the blob and grew four new tentacles.

"Fire jutsus will do you nothing against Numeri, Sasuke." said ninja turned to see Chichi still where he was, "It's not called the vicious liquid for nothing."

Sasuke turned back at the blob only to be returned with its main tentacle pointing right at him and the tentacles going right at him as well. Sasuke jumped to the side and dodged passed two of the tentacles, as he jumped, the main tentacle pointed at him once again.

'Why does it keep moving and looking at me. It has no eyes. Unless...yes.' the other two tentacles came at him and he ducked and laid flat on the ground remaining completely motionless. The tentacles receeded to Numeri as the main tentacle removed its false gaze on Sasuke and began wriggling around, 'That's it. It can only see things that move. If it remains still, it thinks it is dead or apart of the terrain. But if it moves, it will attack until it doesn't move anymore. So for right now, I'm safe, but I can't do anything if I don't move.'

"Very good." Chichi clapped slowly for the Uchiha, "You figured out how Numeris hunt." the sky ninja began walking towards Sasuke still lying on the ground. Numeri's main tentacle pointed at Chichi and instantly shot its tentacles at him. Sasuke became confused for a moment, he had thought the blob was on Chichi's side. But his confusion was thrown away when the tentacles stopped just a foot away from the shinobi and receeded back to itself, and the main tentacle continued to wriggle around. "Amazing creature is it not. It really can't tell between friend or foe. It just hunts. But I'm different from friend, or foe. You see Sasuke, I never knew my parents." Chichi took a few more steps towards his opponent, "I was a newborn baby, lost in the center of a rainforest. Now I know what you're thinking right now, 'How on earth could a newborn survive in the wild?', well I'll tell you. I was raised by a species of animal not well known by most people. It was the size of a rhino, as clever as a fox, fast as a snake, skin harder than a turtle's shell, but still as smooth a seal's stomach, it had the killing instinct and hunting skills of a tiger, and best of all, it had the motherly passion of any known female who had just seen a newborn. It took me in, taught me how to hunt, how to fight within the pack that we lived in. In time, ninjas came to our pack, we were going to have them for lunch, but they defended themselves with weapons and fighting skills of their own. It was then, I found our that I could use the same skills as they could, and with those skills along with my teachings from my mother, I became the alpha male of the pack, and with that position, I gained the respect of every animal that I encountered. I learned their abilities and understood their calls, and with those calls, I bring them into battle to aid me. It doesn't matter if they cannot see me or just hunt everything in their path, they know what I am, and they lower themselves to me. In return, I show them what an alpha male should be; like a good king." Chichi was now standing right next to Sasuke, "That is why Numeri doesn't attack me, nor will a bear, a snake, or even one of those summons that ninjas use. Because it is the animal's nature to sense what something is truly capable of." he knelt down and whispered into Sasuke's ear, "They do not fear you, but they fear me." and with that, Chichi grabbed Sasuke by the back of his collar and lifted him up. Sasuke made sure he could be as lifeless as possible as to not let the Numeri react, "Now Sasuke, it's your choice. Either I punch you in the face and you lose consciousness, or you move to attack and Numeri gets an afternoon snack."

Sasuke responded, trying not to move his lips as much as he could, "I will never lose to the likes of an animal like you."

Chichi lowered and shook his head, "Musuko was right. You are self centered." he walked away from Numeri with Sasuke still in hand, when he believed he was far enought distance, Chichi pulled back his arm and slammed Sasuke right square in the face. The Uchiha flew across the arena...and poofed into a log.

Chichi's eyes widened as he saw up behind Numeri was the real Sasuke standing on the side of the wall a good twenty feet up. His sharigan was activated once again (he deactivated it when he lyed down on the ground) and he performed three hand signs.

"He's going to use it." Kakashi said to himself as he stood guard around the stands, "He's going to use the Chidori."

Sasuke placed his hand out in front of him, lightning began sparking about and the sound of birds chirping was heard throughout the arena.

"Time to show you my true power." without another word from either of the two, Sasuke ran down the wall at incredible speeds with the lightning hand dragging along behind him destroying everything in his path. He came off the wall and onto the ground, and he was heading right at the back of Numeri. Chichi could do nothing but watch as it all happened so fast, "Here's what I think of you and your alpha male crap!" Sasuke then lunged his electrocuted hand into the back of the blue blob. All the tentacles and feet of the blob began flailing upwards as it was struck with the Chidori. Its belly bulged out, and finally, Numeri exploded into pieces.

The Uchiha stood with a smirk on his face as the pieces of the blob landed on the ground around him and Chichi. All that the sky ninja did was look Sasuke dead in the eye, with anger in them.

"Heh, what do you think now? Do you think I was too slow there? Do you think that I'm still a self-centered little jerk? Do you still think that I think too much? Well take a look." his stretched out his arms to display his results, "Your creature is dead. But don't worry, you'll see it soon again. I've got one more of those just for you." Sasuke, with a larger smirk now, walked towards Chichi slowly. In front of him, he saw a piece of the blob he had just destroyed, and to get his opponent even more angry, Sasuke decided to step on the blue puddle.

Big mistake.

When Sasuke stepped on the puddle, a shock came up his leg and into his body. The shock was so intense that he fell down to the ground. His arm landed on another puddle nearby and that too got shocked.

'What's going on? I can't move.' Sasuke laid on the ground as Chichi came walking towards him, this time with a smirk on his face.

"Idiot. You didn't kill Numeri. The impact simply made it explode. Numeris live in Kumo, they practically thrive on the electric jutsus the ninjas use there. You simply gave him the ability to stun you." as Chichi finished his statement, the blur liquid flowed into one spot and rejoined to create the Numeri once again. Sasuke couldn't be seen by the blob, but he could be seen by Chichi, who lifted him up by the front of his collar now, "Did I tell you I'm a major animal lover, and that anyone who tries to kill an animal at all, I'll beat the living crap out of them?"

"No." Sasuke said barely, "You left that part out in your stupid speech."

"Good to know." Chichi then smashed his fist into Sasuke's face and sending him across the arena completely knocked out. He didn't puff into a log this time. "I win." Chichi walked back up to the fighter's area and watched as Sasuke was taken off the floor by medics.

Spectators looked at the sight in shock. Most of them had their money on Sasuke winning as he was the top in his class, but this Chichi fellow, he blew their bets right out of the water. To the spectators it was a battle worth watching and they all cheered on for Chichi in good sportsmanship. However, the shinobi did not just see this as a sport, but a display of skill. For Sasuke was beaten with not one ounce of chakra used by Chichi while Sasuke almost depleted his own with those fire jutsus and Chidori.

"It is very interesting how these...'Sky ninja' fight. Don't you think so as well Hokage?" the Kazekage spoke to said person who was seated by him during the finals.

The Hokage replied, "Yes...they show remarkable strength. They show the makings of true ninjas." after a pause, the Hokage asked, "Do you happen to know where this Sky Village may be located, Kazekage?"

Kazekage replied with a sigh, "Sadly no. I know as much about these shinobi and their village as you do. My apologies."

Just then the crowd began to cheer even louder than before. "What are they cheering about?" asked the Hokage.

"Isn't it obvious Hokage?" said the Kazekage, "The people are excited to see the next match. The people have seen what two of the Sky Ninja can do, now it is their third team mate that is up. Then there is our prize shinobi, Gaara. Everyone here knows; this will turn out to be a very interesting match." the Kazekage eyed closely as Genma arrived back on the arena floor to introduce the two new fighters.

Gaara walked down the stairs side by side with Musuko, both not saying a word to the other or looking at one another. All that could be heard was the cheering of the crowd.

'This isn't good.' Sakura thought to herself as she watched the two walk on, 'Musuko is going up against Gaara. I remember what happened to Lee when he fought that sand freak, and it wasn't pretty. Lee is still recovering, possibly not to even be a ninja again. Musuko made one mistake against Kiba, and that didn't hurt him badly. But one mistake against this guy...and there maybe no more mistakes ever.' Sakura was on the breach of sweating as she thought as to what might happen to this ninja who had come into her life.

Back with Gaara and Musuko, Genma asked if the two were ready. Musuko nodded as Gaara only looked at Genma, the kind of look that says, 'I will devour your soul.'

Genma raised his hand to silence the cheering from the crowd, "The fourth match, begin." lowering his hand, he jumped back to safer area.

Gaara started the fight by sending sand out of his gourd and sending it at Musuko without even a moments though. It seemed that all Gaara wanted to do was finish him off quickly. Musuko on the other hand had different plan, he went on the defensive and began dodging the sand attacks as they neared him, moving back towards the wall each time. He was trying to get into the wooded area of the arena, hoping that could help him out, even though there was little wood to begin with. Musuko managed to reach the wall and began hiding behind trees, but Gaara just cut them in half with his sand and continued with the rampage.

"Crap, well there's one plan gone. Time to use..." Musuko saw from the corner of his eye a section of sand coming at his side, "Oh crap." the sand hit him head on and did not stop until it rammed the sky ninja into the wall. The flow of sand continued and pushed Musuko further into the wall making a full imprint of his body on the wall. While all of this was going, Gaara did not move a muscle as he heard Musuko shout out from the pain.

"You will not live." Gaara said in a scary, death sentence-like voice. But his eyes opened up as he turned his head to see Musuko against the wall, the only thing was; Musuko wasn't there. In the shinobi's place was smoke and remnants of sand around the imprint. "A shadow clone? Then where is-" Gaara was cut off by a voice behind him.

"Aww. That hit the spot." the sand ninja turned around to see Musuko step out from behind one of the cut down trees and...zip his pants, "Sorry about that man. I didn't go before the finals." Musuko scratched the back of his head in embarrasment.

Gaara did not reply, he just bared his teeth and sent more sand than before at Musuko. He was not a happy camper at all.

"Now for some fun." Musuko crouched down and prepared to jump. When the sand came close, the sky ninja jumped clear of it all, but that didn't stop the sand from still going after him like it did before.

Musuko knew the situation as it was. Gaara was able to control the sand from within his gourd. The defense around him was instant if one could not hit him fast enough as Lee was able to. He knew he wasn't that fast, nor were his senbons, so an actual attack was completely worthless. Somehow, he had to find a way to get by the sand. Luckily for him, he had some plans that he had made before the fight that should bring down Gaara, hopefully.

Gaara on the other hand did all that he knew what to do, and that was to kill his opponent no matter what. Gaara did not even have to look at Musuko to attack as the sand knew where to strike all by itself. He didn't need multiple plans, he had the defense, the offense, and his opponent running like a little rabbit. There was no way he could be defeated, but he did need to finish this, before the plan was to take place.

The two continued playing cat and mouse for what seemed an hour, but in actuallity was only a minute or two. Just then, the sand stopped going after Musuko and receeded back to around Gaara. Seeing that the sand had stopped, the sky ninja knelt to a knee to catch a breather. Gaara stood there, watching Musuko lower his head and heave in air into his lungs, the shinobi would not last much longer.

"It's finished." Gaara simply said, and sent one tentacle of sand at Musuko.

Musuko stayed where he was with his head still down, but what caught Gaara was that Musuko stopped breathing heavily. The sky ninja's head rose with a smile and he rolled to the side to dodge the sand. He landed back on one knee and pointed his left gauntlet at Gaara. He shot out of the device three senbon needles. Gaara ignored them as his sand shield rose up infront of the needles. Gaara sent forth another wave of sand attacks at his opponent, but something caught the corner of his eye. It was his sand shield, it had collapsed, and with two needles still coming at him. The sand ninja only had enough time to side step one of the senbons, but the other plunged into his right arm. Gaara grabbed his arm and flinched away in pain. The sand that was going after Musuko turned around and surrounded its master in protection.

"How? How did my sand fail?" Gaara questioned himself, he then looked at Musuko in anger, "What did you do?!"

The sky ninja stood up from where he was and put his hands up in defense, then replied, "A magician never reveals his secrets." a grin crawled up onto his face.

"A magician?" Temari repeated, "What does he mean by that?"

"He likes magic tricks." Seirei responded as he stood next to the wind mistress, "Ever since he was a little kid, he loved it all, and he has incorporated it into his techniques. Isn't that right, Naruto." the black haired ninja smiled at Naruto.

"Heh. I still don't know how he does some of his stuff." Naruto did his foxy grin as they all looked back down at Gaara and Musuko.

"What do you mean by, 'magician'?" Gaara asked still holding his arm.

Musuko smiled and began walking in a circle around the sand ninja, "You see Gaara, I love magic tricks. They baffle the mind, they defy the laws of physics, and the people always enjoy them. And the best part is: when they ask you so many times, 'How on earth did you do it?', I just respond the same way, I don't reveal my secrets." Gaara saw that Musuko to his right now, and so turned towards him and prepared his sand shield, "Heh heh. Don't worry, a magician doesn't do the same trick twice. Otherwise it gets really boring. But you have to remember this about magic." Gaara lowered his guard, as he knew this was going to be a long monologue.

What Gaara was going to do was wait for the right moment to attack Musuko, when he least expected it, and it would all be over. He just had to wait.

"Now, every great magic trick consists of three acts. No more, no less. The first act is called, The Pledge: the magician shows you something ordinary, a deck of cards, or a bird, or a man. He shows you this object, and pledges to you its utter normality." Musuko continued to walk around Gaara which the sand ninja returned by always facing him, "Perhaps he asks you to inspect it to see that it is indeed real, unaltered, normal. But of course, it probably isn't." Musuko continues, "The second act is called, The Turn: the magician makes his ordinary something, do something extraordinary. Now...now you're looking for the secret, but you won't find it. Because of course, you're not really looking, you don't really want to know, you want to be fooled." for some unknown reason, the aura around the arena seemed to get darker, but Musuko went on, "But that isn't enough." Musuko stopped speaking. The reason for this was that sand came from the ground and wrapped around the ninja before he could say more.

Gaara's left hand was open and facing Musuko as he was enveloped in the sand. Gaara wasn't just sitting around and listening to Musuko's annoying story, he had a plan. He continued to turn towards Musuko as he did not want the genin to see that he was sending sand into the ground. Gaara had sand waiting right underneath Musuko's feet and waited to pounce when the time was right. The time was right.

Musuko's face was still visible to everyone while the rest of him was covered in the sand. Gaara spoke, "Now you die." sand then covered up the sky ninja's face, covering him completely, "Sabaku Soso! (Sand Burial)" the sand compressed down. No noise was heard from the clump of sand, but that was normal, no one ever felt the pain.

The sand ninja turned to look at Genma, signalling to announce the winner. Genma nodded, but then remembered the note Musuko gave him. He pulled it out and read it aloud.

"Making something disappear isn't enough.That's why there is a third act called, The Prestige: where you bring that something back." Genma had a confused look on his face. Why would someone write down what they would have already said? If Gaara didn't attack him, he would have finished it.

Gaara's eyes went wide open.

Everyone saw what happened, Gaara gave a gasp, his legs began to tremble until finally, he fell to his knees.

"H-h-how?" Gaara said softly just before he fell forward onto the ground. His eyes still open.

No one at all knew what happened, until they saw the mound of sand that Musuko was in. The mound fell to the ground, and had contained nothing inside of it.

What had happened to Gaara? What had happened to Musko? More importantly,

"What the heck is going on?!" Sakura shouted out, as well as some other people after her. People in the crowd were shouting while others were whispering to each other as to what they thought had happened. But all the would come to an end. As they looked down at Gaara, they saw something move, his gourd.

The gourd began moving back and forth on Gaara's back, then it stopped. Silence took the crowd once again, except for Naruto.

"No...it can't be." Naruto leaned over the railing.

"Oh," Chichi said with his hand on the blonde's shoulder, "but it is."

Just then, the sound of the gourd breaking was heard, and out of the gourd, came a fist. Bit by bit, the gourd was broken away to reveal Musuko climbing out of it, without a single scratch on him.

"I told you he likes magic tricks." Seirei folded his arms in approval.

Musuko was standing next to Gaara as he brushed off some sand on his clothes. Genma, as well as most everyone in the arena, were awe struck by Musuko coming out of the gourd. The sky ninja then looked at Genma politely, which then Genma agreed.

"The winner is, Musuko!" said ninja gave a bow as the crowd cheered on for the sky ninja's victory. After that, he went back to where he was supposed to.

"Ah man," Kankuro said looking at his brother, "This isn't good. We need him for the operation, Temari."

"I know. We gotta stop this thing now."

"But we have to wait for the signal." the two sand siblings looked up to where the Kazekage was sitting.

The Kazekage was sitting where he was, just looking at Gaara lying on the ground. Then he looked at Musuko, this ninja came out of nowhere and with his team, and took the Chunin Exam for themselves. There was no way that these three were merely genin.

"Hokage," said person looked over to the Kazekage, "Do you believe that these sky ninja are really genin?"

"I should ask the same about Gaara. He has the ability to manipulate sand at his own free will as I can see. He could easily take out most Chunins. You know as well as I do that there are Genins who are at the age of eighteen and still have not shown the ability to become Chunin." looking down at the three sky ninja, Sarutobi continued, "These three have proven that they are definetly Chunin material. They fully deserve the rank." the two kages looked back down at the other ninja. The Kazekage was looking more at Temari and Kankuro, with a small flick of his hand, the two genin nodded.

Temari and Kankuro jumped out onto the arena floor as medics came to fetch Gaara. Temari landed in the medics path while Kankuro went to Gaara's side and pulled him up onto his shoulder.

"What are you two doing?" asked one of the medics, "He needs medical attention."

Temari responded by pulling her fan off her back, "You're the ones that'll be needing medical attention." and with that she swung her fan and sent the medics into the walls.

Everything after happened almost all at once.

Several more people lept up into the air surrounding the arena. All had cloaks on so they were not detected. When they revealed themselves, they were shown to be sound ninja. A loud crash could be heard in the distance. By just looking at it, it would only be a tower of dust rising into the air, but in reality it was a massive snake that had broken through the walls of Konoha. The sound ninja around the arena all then placed their hands into identical signs and had casted a genjutsu onto the spectators, putting them into a deep sleep. The only ones unaffected by this were the Jounin and Chunin ninjas along with a very few amount of genin, those being the finalists of the exams, Sakura, and Hinata. Just after everyone fell to the jutsu, the group of shinobi around the arena doubled in numbers as another group came. They were seen to be sand ninja.

The Hokage saw this all and stood up to aid his fellow ninja in battle, however his attendee had been struck by an unknown kunai and sent to the ground not able to fight. As he was sliding dowwn to the ground, Sarutobi was unknowingly taken hold of from behind. Looking behind him, he had seen,

"Kazekage. What is the meaning of this?"

The Kazekage replied in a cold voice, "Konoha was stood tall for too long. Now, you shall see it fall to rubble right infront of you." as he said this, four other ninja leapt onto the roof above them and stood on each corner.

One was a boy who had eaten one too many dangos, one was a lengthy boy with not two but six arms, another boy had a pale look to him and another pale look coming out of the back of him, and there was one girl who looked like she could just screw over a bear any moment.

The Kazekage, with Hokage in hand, leapt up to the center of the roof. He was then followed by four anbu agents in cloaks, but they didn't make it in time, as the four sound ninja on the roof activated a jutsu that surrounded them as well as the Kazekage and Hokage in a purple barrier. One agent tried to break through it, but was met with failure as he was set in flames as he made contact. The anbu agents knew they couldn't do anything to break in, the Hokage was on his own.

Down with the finalists, they had all exited out of the waiting area and were faced to face with the sand siblings who have been accompanied with other sand ninja now. The sand ninja were standing in between the two genin groups.

"Madame Temari, you and Kankuro take Gaara out of here and treat him. We will hold them off as much as possible." one of the sand ninja said. Temari nodded and the three of them left the arena and into the forest. The sand ninja redirecting his attention to the genin with a smile, "So...who wants to die first?"

The genin were all in battle position. That is, execpt for Chichi, Musuko, and Seirei, they were just shaking their heads and smiling.

Finally, Chichi spoke, "Once again, no one learns. Did anyone see me send Numeri away? Anyone?" Chichi asked a blank audience as the blue blob formed behind the group of sand ninja without their noticing. Numeri then entangled them in his tentacles, slowly dragging them into his gooish belly where they remained slighty visible, "Brother Musuko?" Chichi extended his hand towards Numeri in a gentlemens way.

"I'd be delighted to." Musuko pulled out one of his senbon needles from his gauntlet. With a snap of his fingers, the needle began dancing with lightning around it. Musuko then threw the needle into Numeri, which then sent an intense shockwave throughout the creature as well as into the sand ninja within it. And as before, Numeri scattered across the arena and left the genin with a bunch of unconscious sand ninja.

Now that that threat was dealt with, the genin grouped up.

Musuko started, "Well. It seems Konoha has a little invasion on its hands. Pay up Seirei."

"Later."

"Wait. You knew about this?" Naruto shouted out at his sensei, "And you didn't even tell me?"

"I had a feeling that the Sand and Sound were in on something. But Seirei shoved it away. So he owes me for the bet."

"What bet?" the confused Shikamaru asked.

"Nothing important now." Seirei interjected, "Right we need to deal with Gaara and the others with him."

"Why?" Ino asked, "There are thousands of other ninja at the walls of the village. Why not go there?"

"Because they have enough people there. And beside that...Gaara is their secret weapon." Seirei answered the kunoichi, "Am I right Musuko?" the white haired ninja nodded.

"But he's immobile as of now. We don't need to worry about him." Ino blurted out again.

"That's where you're wrong, Ino." Chichi responded, "Gaara is healing himself as we speak. If we don't hurry, he'll soon return to his normal self."

Ino was about to ask another question when Shikamaru closed her mouth to shut her up, "Please. You're questions are so troublesome." lowering his hand, Ino remained silent, "These guys seem to know what's going on. We have no other choice but to listen. So do the same." Ino slightly nodded.

"Ok." Musuko started off, "The three of them went off into the woods, probably to get plenty of cover. We need to split up into groups of two. Naruto, I need you to come with me to go after Gaara. Shikamaru and Ino, you two are to stop anyone coming behind us to stop us from reaching our goal. Chichi and Seirei," a pause for a moment, "have fun." the two sky ninja smiled and then vanished into thin air. The rest of the group followed behind Musuko and Naruto to find Gaara.

Up in the stands, Hinata and Sakura been looking on at the fight that had been going on with the jounin teachers and the invading shinobi. Not one hit had been touched on either of them, a reason why they were ranked as jounin. A few times, some ninja appeared next to them to get an easy kill. Sakura had frozen in fear everytime, but Hinata had dealt each one a fatal blow with her Jyuuken and Byakugan.

After awhile, Kakashi had appeared in front of them deflecting attacks from enemy ninjas.

"You two alright?" the jounin said not looking at them. Both girls nodded, "You need to get out of here," deflected a blow, "and find Gaara. They wouldn't have done the invasion at that moment unless he was an important part of it." blocked an attack and killed his attacker, "Find him, and stop him. This'll be an A-rank mission, find whoever else you can to join you." once more another block, "Go, now!" he jumped away to fight off in a different location.

The two kunoichi looked at each other in shock, they had just recieved an A-rank mission. Hinata had never had one of those before. Sakura did, but that was in the Wave mission and was first believed to be C-ranked. These two had been totally taken off guard. So off guard, that a sand ninja came up behind and was about to slash Sakura in the back. Just then, Hinata's diamond tear glowed brightly and THUD!, the ninja fell down onto the ground knocked out. The two looked behind them to see none other than Chichi.

"You two alright?" the two girls nodded, "Good. Hinata, I thought I tought you better than to let your guard down." Chichi quirked an eyebrow.

"Sorry, Chichi." Hinata blushed, "It's just that...I got an A-rank mission."

"Oh." the sky ninja remained still as a sound ninja this time came up behind him for a kill. But Chichi elbowed him the gut while still standing still, and when the ninja bent over in pain, Chichi elbowed him in the back of the head to knock him out onto the ground, "Well, anyways. I came to ask you if you wanted to help me with something. I wanted you and I to go after Gaara. But since you already have a mission.."

"No." Hinata interrupted, "That's actually alright, that was the mission anyways."

"Nice. Well come on now. We got to catch up with the others."

"Others?" Sakura asked.

"Yeah, the genins down below didn't get effected by the genjutsu, so we've gathered up to go after Gaara." Chichi and Hinata were about to set off, when Chichi stopped and turned, "You're coming right?" he asked Sakura. She nodded, and the three of them jumped into the woods to go after the sand siblings.

With Temari and Kankuro, the two were well ahead of the persuing group, but for some reason, Temari had stopped dead on a tree. Kankuro noticed this a second later and stopped further away. Slowly turning around as he still had a wounded Gaara in his arm, he asked, "Why'd you stop sis?"

The kunoichi turned her head around to look at the path they had just taken and responded, "Trouble." Kankuro almost gasped, "You go on ahead. We need Gaara for this to be a success." the puppeteer nodded and left his sister behind.

Temari stood on the tree branch as she stood right where she was. Still facing the way they came, she said, "You can come out now. He's gone." just like that, Seirei fell from the treetops and right next to Temari where she couldn't see, "I'm glad you don't keep a lady waiting."

Back with the group consisting of the four genin, they had gone through the forest without a single bump in with the enemy.

However, that was all about to end soon.

"We should be getting close." Musuko replied leaping through the trees, "I can sense my chakra is near."

"Dare I ask as to why Gaara has your chakra?" Ino questioned.

"The senbon needle that I shot into his arm had a small portion of my chakra. It should still be there for how long he had the needle in him." the genin took the story and continued on into the forest.

"Where do you think you kids are going?" the group was stopped by several sound ninja appearing infront of them, "We're not allowed to let you by. Otherwise the invasion will be a failure. So how bout you kiddies just surrender and nothing bad will happen to ya." the ninja in middle spoke, indicating he was the leader.

"We would gladly surrender to you." Musuko said which caught the other genin off guard, "But you'd have to answer to the guy to your left." Musuko pointed over to his right. The sound ninja all looked over there to see, nothing. Looking back, Naruto and Musuko had vanished, "They're all yours guys. Have fun!" Musuko shouted to Ino and Shikamaru as he and Naruto ran towards their target.

Ino nodded and Shikamaru just shrugged it off, considering it troublesome.

Musuko and Naruto, now without the two behind them, picked up the pace thanks to the Taifuu Kasoku. The sky ninja could sense the chakra getting closer with each step.

After a few more tree leaps, Kankuro was in their sights. Gaara was still in a wounded position with his arm around his brother, giving Naruto and Musuko the advantage.

"I'll go in first Naruto." Musuko said silently as not to be detected, "You come in as back up." the blonde nodded and watched his sensei run up ahead to attack.

Kankuro was in mid-air jumping to another tree, when he was kicked in the back of his head. The puppeteer did a full flip, but also lost his grip on Gaara. Gaara was still weak and fell down to the ground three stories down. Musuko saw this and went down to see if he was alright. Upon arrival, Musuko turned Gaara's lifeless body over to see he was only damaged in the face. Where pieces of it were breaking off and revealing one of Kankuro's puppets instead. The puppet then shot out a kunai at Musuko, but he just managed to evade it. He jumped away to keep his distance from the puppet.

"Heh. Like my brother?" Kankuro asked standing on a higher tree branch, "He can be very vicious if you try to help him up. If you know what I mean." with a flick of his wrist, Kankuro's puppet went flying after Musuko. However, it was kicked away by not Naruto, but Chichi.

"Thanks bro."

"No problem. You guys going after Gaara?" Musuko answered with a nod, "We'll deal with this guy then."

"We?" Naruto asked popping from the trees. As he finished, Sakura and Hinata jumped down next to Chichi.

"We." Chichi retorted. Musuko and Naruto then nodded and left to go after Gaara. Who seems to not be so weak if he can ran by himself. Chichi placed his gaze on Kankuro, "You're opponent is us now."

Kankuro did a scan of the three genin, "Two girls and a wild child. I think I can handle that." he pulled the white straps on his back off to reveal a second puppet, this one having red horns and a head resembling a horses.

Gaara was standing by himself in an area where it was partially covered by trees. Leaning against one of the trees, Gaara was catching his breathe, while at the same time thinking of his battle.

'How did he get into the gourd? How did he get pass my shield? How did he survive the sand burial? He should be dead, but he isn't! He must die, or else I will never be truly alive.' the thoughts ended as he sensed another pressence, that not being Kankuro's or Temari's. Turning around, he saw the two last people he wanted to see; Musuko and Naruto.

"Gaara," Musuko said to the sand ninja, "you are injured. The fight is over, ok. Your invasion, it will become a failure. Just give up and no one else will be harmed."

Slowly, Gaara stood up from the tree and faced the two shinobi. He began to smile, his smile then turned into a synical grin as he started laughing sinisterly, "It doesn't matter anymore." sand was now coming out of his gourd and moving around onto his body, "As long as the blood of you two is stained in my sand, I will consider it a victory." his left arm, chest and the half of his face was covered in the sand now, and slowly, it was forming his figure into something else.

Black streaks could be seen along the sand now to look like fur patterns, his eye turned black with a golden center. His mouth grew larger and began drooling like some sort of wild animal.

Gaara had turned into a monster, "Your blood is mine!"

Everyone has been left off with a battle that will be hard to beat. Can they make it in time to actually confirm a victory for Konoha? Or will it become a victory for Suna and Oto? Over 16,000 words, dang I never thought it would be this long, but it's still good for me. It means that you guys will get pulled further into the story. Next chapter will consist of the fights, so be patient for it. And remember, reviews are like cake. The more I have, the faster I move and the better it tastes! Please review and hope to see you all next time.

Disclaimer: I don't own the Prestige. I just always wanted to put that part of the movie into a fight. And so I did.

With that all said, I'm out like the second half of about.