A Mysterious End

Rock Lee could barely believe what he had just said. No it was not okay for him to leave. Naruto was just brutally beaten into a pulp by one of the mysterious Volcano ninjas and then the one who took out Naruto was defeated without effort by someone from his own village, and to top it all off that boy was able to use a chain of skills that one of the Sannin considered high level. Who were these people?

Hyuuga Neji had a very different question. Will he get to fight? There were only three people left in the tournament which meant that one of them would get a bye and automatically advance to the next round. Two were from Konoha, Chouji and himself. The other was Kankuro from the Sand village, brother of Gaara of the Desert. If he had to fight Chouji Neji was not worried because while Chouji had improved a lot as a ninja, Neji had improved more. Kankuro was another matter though. Neji knew that he was strong because he had been part of the raid party sent by the sand to invade Konoha and the Sand wouldn't trust any Gennin with that task.

"Would Chouji Akimichi please report to the floor?" Chouji hopped down to the floor and walked down to the instructor. The instructor whispered something in his ear and Chouji recoiled in shock. He collapsed on the floor and appeared to be crying. Two members of the guard came and escorted him off the arena floor. "The last match of the preliminaries of this Chuunin exam will now take place. Kankuro vs. Hyuuga Neji."

"Now at least I will get to fight someone who will be a challenge." Neji had already released his Byakugan as he walked toward his opponent.

"I think that I will be more than a challenge to you." Kankuro removed the two bundles from his back that everyone knew to be the Puppets that were his trademark weapons.

"Now let the last of the preliminary matches begin."

"Someone move. He said start now."

"Hey Asano why don't you shut your yap and just be quiet!"

"Barota, do you think I'm in the mood to put up with your crap right now?"

"Hey kids. Why don't you stop arguing like little girls?"

"Fine but he started it." Asano truly showed his age of only ten by sticking his tongue out at Barota who just ignored it.

Neji tried to ignore the apparent idiocy of the very skilled ninjas above him. Based on the Chakra that was being emitted by the person standing in front of him the real Kankuro was in one of the two wraps behind the puppet body but due to the nature of the cases Neji could not tell which one.

Kankuro sat and knew that Neji knew he was concealed. He wasn't conceited enough to face the genius of the Hyuuga clan straight off. The problem was that Kankuro couldn't tell how much the boy knew about his whereabouts. I guess that we'll have to wait and see won't we boys.

"Now we'll find out where you really are Kankuro. Eight Trigrams Empty Palm!" A large burst of wind-like chakra burst from Neji's hand and knocked Kankuro against the wall behind him.

"That was pretty pointless considering it had almost no effect on me." Kankuro closed his eyes and ran his hand over the top of his head. After he opened his eyes he was met with a very unpleasant surprise. Neji was standing right in front of him and had assumed the stance for his technique.

"Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. Two strikes." Neji seemed to be aiming the strikes differently than any other time he had done this technique. First he hit the centers of Kankuro's hands. "Four strikes," now the arms at four different points, "Eight strikes," Oddly Neji now changed targets and hit the puppet on Kankuro's right at points that only he could see. "Sixteen strikes," now he dropped only a few inches above the ground performed a very fluid spin and in one motion rose and started hitting points on his third target. With the sixteenth strike however Neji seemed to hit air. "Thirty two strikes." Neji again changed targets and focused on the right hand puppet again. With twenty-eight strikes Neji hit various points in the bundle, with three he hit the air and with one he hit one that seemed to be about face level. As he delivered that hit the wrapping fell away revealing one of Kankuro's puppets. Neji was not at all fazed by this discovery. "Sixty-Four strikes." He delivered one more strike toward the puppet followed by two strikes into the air and the rest of the strikes were directed toward the bundle on Kankuro's left side. When Neji had finished he flipped his hair which seemed to get longer every time someone saw him behind his back and jumped back away from Kankuro.

Kankuro's face cracked to reveal the face of Karasu the Black Ant and the wrapping of the bundle to its left fell away to reveal Kankuro who seemed disoriented but obviously far from defeated. "Well that was interesting. I commend you on seeing through my defenses but I am far from defeated." At that Kankuro made a motion with his hands as if to call his puppets to attention, but as he did so the chakra strings he used to control them completely fell away from one and two fell away from the other.

"I'm not so sure about that." Neji once again assumed his signature stance. "The points I hit in your hands and arms prevent you from producing any more chakra strings so you can forget about regaining control of your puppet. Now shall we finish this?" Neji smirked because he knew that a large degree of Kankuro's hi-level techniques depended upon his two tools working together and with that not possible it made Kankuro a much smaller threat.

Kankuro was angered by Neji's arrogance. To think that he was finished just because he only had one puppet was preposterous. Karasu is after all the attacking puppet. All he needed was one hit with Karasu's poisoned blades and the battle was over. If he wanted his end to be swift he would get it. Karasu separated revealing the many weapon's hidden in its many compartments. They all lunged toward Neji in their last attack.

"Pity. I thought he would last longer." Neji began to whirl engaging his Great Whirl defense. All of Karasu's weapons were scattered on the ground as Neji stopped spinning. He walked forward and as he did so Kankuro basically threw the puppet at Neji hoping to throw him off balance and attack but Neji deflected the puppet severing the last chakra strings in the process. He finished his walk over to Kankuro and whispered in his ear. "It's over and I'm honored." Neji hit Kankuro between his eyes with a last Juuken strike and Kankuro collapsed. Neji stood up and walked toward the instructor, "He was knocked unconscious by that last strike so you can call the match now."

"With the conclusion of the final match the tournament preliminaries are now over. Will all match winners please report to the arena." Gradually the tired ninjas, including Naota who had recently recovered, made their various ways to the arena in front of the instructor. "Due to some unforeseen circumstances the matches for the first round of the preliminaries will be as follows. Asano of the Volcano Village vs. Rock Lee of Konoha." Rock Lee looked at his opponent for the next round and saw reflected the training he was going to have to do in order to prepare. "Hyuuga Neji of Konoha vs. Aguuyh Barota of the Volcano Village." Neji did not even look to acknowledge his next opponent; he already knew what he had to do. "Hyuuga Hinata vs. Gaara of the Desert." Anyone watching could see a look of fear pass briefly across Hinata's face, but she quickly suppressed her fear and did not let it show. "Lastly Naota will be given a bye because of the odd amount of people. Now go prepare for the next round. You have one month." Then the instructor walked away allowing the students to simply disperse as they would. The first to leave was the ninjas from the Volcano Village. They made their way through the streets of Konoha as if they were ordinary citizens. As they reached the Gate of Konoha one man stood in their path.

"Hello Kakashi-san. It has been far too long since we have seen each other."

"I have no idea what you are talking about. You and I have never met before. I have simply been asked to stop you as you left and question your group."

"Well then let me introduce myself. I am Ichigo Asano."

"That name is from the Rice country." Kakashi performed some hand seals unveiled his Sharingan and braced his right arm which now held the Chidori, its trademark cry whistling through the air. "Tell me do you three have any connection to Orochimaru?"

"Don't insult me. That bastard doesn't deserve me."

"So you do know him."

"Kakashi. You should not be worried about Orochimaru right now."

"What do you mean?"

"I always told you that your technique had two weaknesses and one day someone would exploit them. After all you were always the genius of the group, figure it out." Asano's eyes visibly flexed and a hoop formed around Kakashi's wrist that threw him through the gate and into the street. "Let's go guys."

"Hey Asano did you know that guy before you know, it happened?"

"Yeah Barota. He was my partner."

Authors note: If anyone would like to try to figure out what was implied by the last part you can contact me to guess. Feel free to chastise me if you find any errors.