Hopefully this chapter is up to your standards. It took awhile to think everything through, but I can say that I'm happy at how the story is coming along.

Reviews are still being greatly appreciated! Thanks, and now on with the story.

Chapter 8: The Grand Uchiha Royale!

It was morning in the Uchiha home with the Uchiha servants going around getting everything cleaned up; onyx eyes opened at the sight of sunlight and the little heiress got out of bed after a long, uncomfortable sleep. Katara was wiping the sleep from her eyes as she looked at herself in the mirror, seeing her bed head along with her pajamas. She swiftly entered into the bathroom and brushed her teeth and hair. After leaving the bathroom with new clothes, which she received yesterday from her parents, she was getting ready for the battle that was going to happen later today. She was wearing a new black ninja skirt with matching undershorts with a crimson tank top with a white undershirt. She also had on black ninja sandals with new and sharpened weapons along with sporting a pony-tail with her bangs shaping her heart-shaped face; she was sitting in front of her mirror, putting her leaf headband on her forehead, when a knock was suddenly heard from her door. Without looking away from the mirror, she said a quick 'come in' and in entered her twin brother.

"Hey Kay, ready for today?" asked the bright Uchiha.

"Just one more thing…..I've having some trouble putting my headband on." Replied the Uchiha and right when she said that, her headband fell from her forehead to cover her eyes. Her brother chuckled at her and stood behind her to give her a hand.

"Here, I'll do it. Sometimes, Kay, I don't know how we're related." Chuckled Haku as he perfectly tied her headband in just one shot at it.

"Hey! That's not nice!" Katara jokingly said to her brother as she hit him softly on the arm.

"Alright, Alright," while putting his hands up innocently. "Gomen, so are you ready for today?" asked the Uchiha again.

The room got quiet as the Uchiha heiress became silent and put on a sad look on her face. She looked away from her brother as she gave him her answer, "It just seems weird……..I mean, we've never actually fought each other in this type of situation. I don't know if I can do it."

"Kay, promise me something………when we're both out there, don't go easy on me cause I surely won't go easy on you…give it your all and I'll do the same!" confidently said Uchiha Haku and with that, his sister gave him and smile and a hug.

"Alright then, let's go!" Katara said as she dragged her brother out the door.

Once more, both finalists were at the stadium near the end of town; the arena was still a bit damaged from yesterday's previous on goings, but most of it was replenished. At the moment, the Hokage was making a speech about what was going to happen and how this battle was once in a lifetime. Each Uchiha was in a different room, getting ready for their entrance and for one little heiress, the suspense was killing her. She was listening quietly to the Hokage's speech:

"Never have I ever imagined that two great shinobi from the Hidden Leaf Village would be the ones fighting in the finals, and nevertheless, siblings from the Uchiha clan. They both make our village and their clan proud with how far they've come. Hopefully, you will all see how they've worked hard to and from this point. Now without further ado, I proclaim that the finale of the final exam will commence."

At that moment, the doors to their rooms opened and each Uchiha stepped forward, right into the arena, hearing loud applauses from all angles. Katara was looking all around the stadium and saw the whole Uchiha clan take up a quarter of the seating; scanning the whole Uchiha clan, she saw Sasuke clapping and smiling down at her. She suddenly felt a new feeling surge within her that gave her the confidence she needed; she actually felt anxious and no longer nervous; she was going to do this no matter what.

"Alright, the same rules as before; I have the right to stop the battle if needed. Both of you give it your all and you both may, BEGIN!" exclaimed the proctor, while Haku and Katara were standing across each other and looking at each other.

Silence overtook the arena as both Uchihas began to glare at each other. Obviously each twin was different from each other; they each had different strengths and weaknesses. Uchiha Haku was quicker at making seals, had better precision, better with weapons, and had decent chakra control and has fast speed, but his sister was his counterpart. Katara was swifter on her feet, had very good chakra control, and was decent at weapons, but both Uchihas' Sharingan were close to being of equal power.

Almost simultaneously, each Uchiha took out a kunai knife and went head on at each other; the sounds from each slash from their weapons were heard over and over again. Then their kunai battle took to the skies as they kept leaping up higher and higher each time, meeting up with the other in the middle of the stadium, in midair. Once they fought with their kunai knives at the highest point of the stadium, they both saw that the other was ready to take the battle to another level.

Uchiha Haku was the first one to make a move; he quickly threw shuriken attached to wires with paper bombs all around the stadium. Right then, Katara knew that she had to be careful or else she would end up setting off one of the explosives. She turned on her Sharingan and began looking for a way out of this trap, without setting off anything. On the opposite side of where she was standing, she saw the exit, but in order to get there, there were difficult obstacles on the way there; each wire was set up in a different way, which would make it hard for a person to get through. Even though the circumstances were looking pretty horrible, she decided to take a chance and went to the direction of the exit. Carefully making sure she didn't misstep, she managed to get halfway there. 'Alright, I got past the most difficult parts of the maze, now here's the easier part….' With that thought, Katara was getting ready to avoid a double-looped wire and once she passed it, she heard a huge boom coming from behind her; she turned her head and saw that the explosions were being set off. Looking behind her, there was a hidden wire beneath the wire she just had avoided; 'That's not possible; I double checked that one……there's no way I could've missed that wire, unless………OF COURSE! How could I be so stupid! I should've known this was an illusion the first time we looked at each other when the proctor told us to start!'

Once realizing that her brother put her in a genjutsu, she focused on breaking the illusion and managed to destroy it and come back to the real world.

Haku's illusion managed to keep his sister busy for longer than he had imagined. He knew that once she comes to a dead end, Katara would try to over analyze a situation, which was probably why she was stuck in his genjutsu for awhile. Just as he was about to land a hit on her, she managed to use her incredible speed and defend against his punch with two hands in front of her face. She was very lucky to have come out of his illusion before it was too late; at the moment, Katara was pushed back a bit from Haku's punch, but there was no damage from his hit.

Getting up from the ground, Katara stood up to face her brother; Haku was waiting for his sister to get up with his palms facing towards her, at the ready. Once up, the Uchiha heiress knew that they were going to move towards taijutsu, hand to hand combat. Katara got her palms ready to fight against Haku and then, they jumped into action.

Punch after punch was delivered from each Uchiha; Haku tried to land a corkscrew kick at his sister when her back was behind a wall; but fortunately for her, she managed to avoid it by doing a 360 flip off the wall, landing behind her brother. He turned around just in time to see a roundhouse kick connect with his side. The kick caused his body to be pushed to the right, and taking advantage of her brother's state, she did an uppercut with her left fist, sending him high up into the air. Once joining her brother in midair, she realized that he used a substitution jutsu, since at the moment, his body turned into a wooden log.

The Uchiha heiress decided to seek out where her brother was hiding, so she had both her feet planted on the ground, put her palms together and deeply concentrated. After a minute of concentrating, she spotted his distinct chakra signature hiding behind a bush, healing his wound from her kick.

'She's spotted me that quickly?......' thought Haku.

Three shuriken came out from the bushes, coming directly at Katara; her Sharingan eyes widened at the speed and precision these weapons were going to hit her, so instead of trying to run from them, she decided to stand her ground. As they were about to make contact with her skin, she did the splits and managed to duck in time, causing the shuriken to become entangled in the wall behind her and she then did a one-handed cartwheel to get on her feet again. Out from the bushes came Haku as he used his speed of weapons to throw a dozen more shuriken at his opponent. Katara quickly took out two kunai knives, in each hand, to cancel out each shuriken that was being thrown at her. With her Sharingan eyes, she was able to keep up with this pace and managed to stop each shuriken headed after her. The ninja stars landed near her feet and she waited for her brother's next move as she watched him carefully with her Sharingan.

His Sharingan was also staring back at her with the same intensity; in one swift move, her brother came charging at her with a kunai in hand; once reaching within her range, he quickly rammed his weapon into her right side, managing to seemingly knock the wind out of her. Another poof was heard as Haku realized that his sister ended up using a substitution in the last minute before the attack even hit her. Looking quickly around him, Haku began scanning the area for where his sister could be; he looked from every angle and just when he was searching the ground below him, he felt her presence close to him. Right when he turned is head, he saw Katara up in the air, coming down at a fast pace with an axe kick coming down at her brother. As the kick was about to make contact with its target, Haku managed to roll out of the way, nearly avoiding the full damage of the assault. Since Katara's attack nearly missed her brother, it caused another huge crater in the stadium, along with a loud collision when the kick contacted with the ground.

The crowd was astonished with how each moment of this battle was turning out with more intensity and seriousness. At the moment, both Uchihas were standing a few feet from each other as the audience watched closely as to what would happen next.

'Hn…..this battle is turning out more violent than I've expected. I can see the passion in both of their eyes; it all comes down to how much more one wants this more than the other.' Thought the Hokage.

The Uchihas began to charge once again after the other, both with chakra enhanced fists; once reaching their targets, both came forward and hit the other with a fist on the cheek, pushing the other back a few feet. Once they both recovered from the attack, both Uchihas were now going to change the pace of the battle and they were going to heat it up. Standing a few feet from the other, they both began making the correct seals for a huge ninjutsu; at the same time, both Uchihas yelled out, "Fire Style: Great Fireball Jutsu!" Blazing fire came out of the mouths of both Uchiha twins as the heat in the arena increased; the fireballs took up most of the space and the heat intensified the longer they kept their jutsus going. Each time, one twin would gain the advantage, but then it would switch back and forth as they each gave their all to push the other's fireball back. Finally, this battle between fireballs was canceled out causing steam to come up from the contact of both hot substances. The audience, along with the two finalists, had to shield themselves from the extreme heat coming from the steam.

Once the steam was gone from the scene, the Uchihas suffered some minor burns from the extreme heat; more injuries were just added onto their bodies, but they both weren't done yet. With his fast ability to make seals, Haku pulled out one of his newly found tricks; his jutsu was another technique from the Uchiha clan, and as he finished with the last seal, the Uchiha proclaimed, "Takibi (bonfire) Renegade!" Suddenly, his eyes turned a deeper shade of red, and flames of fire were held in both his hands. Katara watched carefully with her Sharingan to anticipate her brother's next move. To her it seemed that he was able to control the flames without getting burned; her thought process was interrupted when she had an ominous feeling that a fireball was headed her way. Looking up, her prediction became true as several balls of fire came directly at her from all sides. Seeing that she was about to become surrounded, she leaped up, which unfortunately was a bad move for her. Uchiha Haku began another round of fire throwing, and this time, she had to think quickly on her feet to avoid them. Being in midair gave her a slight disadvantage, but before the fireballs came in contact, she managed to fasten wire to her kunai, throw it to the wall behind her, and pull herself away from the flames headed after her. Once she managed to get her footing on the wall, her brother began to throw more fireballs, but this time, she landed on the ground and began a nice even pace of running in zigzags; she wasn't able to avoid all of them this time, because three managed to skim her thigh and arms; she noticed his attack caused her to burn and have cuts, and looking more closely, she realized that there were hidden shuriken in them.

At the moment, the injuries that Katara had sustained had accumulated, and she knew she had to move to a safe area to heal most of the major ones, like the burns on her arms and legs. Right when another fireball was about to hit her, she threw out a smoke bomb to cover her, and then she escaped to go behind a tree. Making sure as to not give away her hiding spot, she hid her chakra signature and began to heal herself with what chakra she had left.

Leaving her hiding spot without any intention of getting caught, she swiftly tried moving from spot to spot to find a secure location to think of a plan, but luck didn't seem to be on her side today because her brother discovered where she was and right when she was about to run across to the other side of the stadium, he continued another round of fire throwing, causing destruction wherever the flames landed. Without any intention of trying to dodge the flames, she felt that she needed to stop them once and for all; standing her ground, she focused her chakra into her palms; as each fireball was coming at her, her Sharingan kept up with the pace of the flames, and as they came closer, she demolished each one by wiping her hand out in front of her as if her palm was like a fan. Realizing that Katara could counterattack with wind, Haku stopped his renegade of fireballs, deciding to try another tactic.

Drawing blood from his thumb, the male Uchiha made more seals and slammed his left hand on the ground, calling upon a summoning: "Summoning Jutsu: Honoo the Blazing Wolf!" Smoke began to envelop the field and as it started to disperse, a red crimson wolf with silver eyes stepped out, standing right beside her brother. Panting hard with her hands on her knees, she thought, 'This is bad....pant…….this fight is taking a lot out of me, and I'm pretty sure it's taking a lot out of Haku too. I'm not sure how much longer I could take.'

Haku's wolf, Honoo (Blaze), on command of his master, began to run around the little heiress, and from his fur and fast pace, it caused a huge forest fire to surround her. Starting to feel the affect from the fire's smoke, she started a coughing fit as the smoke started to fill up her lungs. Her eyes began to water as the smoke began to cover her vision; she tried to cover her eyes and mouth with her hands, but with the smoke that already was in her system, she could barely stand up, let alone find a way out. Finally she couldn't take it anymore as she fell to the ground, coughing her heart out; there was just too much smoke to handle and her body was beginning to blackout; her eyes kept closing and opening as her own will was pushing her to stay awake. Shakingly standing up, while coughing, she used what little concentration she had and drew the moisture from the air, gaining some amount of water. As steady as her body would react, she swiftly drew the water to cover her, and blast out in tentacles to disintegrate the fire.

Once the fire dispersed, Honoo was waiting right outside, as if he knew she was going to get rid of the fire and with a swift movement of his fur, fire began to come directly at her in thin slices. She frantically tried to avoid each one, but got burned on her arms and legs, and plus the wind that was powering the fire waves was causing her to be pushed back. Her intuition was telling her that there was a presence right behind her; she realized that she was too focused on his summoning, resulting in losing track of her brother. Right when she turned around, it was too late, as he was in front of her, and by managing to do a combination kick that caused her to fly upward, he finished her off by causing her to collide with the ground with a flying roundhouse kick.

As Katara's body hit the ground, she slowly slipped into unconsciousness and her Sharingan was turned off due to the impact; as she was about to black out, she heard a million voices call her name, and then she let the darkness overcome her.

'Where, where am I?' Katara thought as she saw a huge silver dragon in front of her, watching her with fierce blue eyes. The silver dragon opened its mouth and said aloud:

Youdon't know where you are? Well, for starters, you're actually unconscious right now….

What?!

Your brother managed to knock you out; and you are about to lose this battle; I say, you just borrow some of my chakra to win this….. The silver dragon said with an evil smirk.

No way! And by the way, who are you?

Ha-ha……you don't remember? Well, I'm Hikari, the nine-tailed dragon demon and I think you need my help to win. I mean what else are you trying to do in this fight? We could end this right now.

Standing up with all her strength, Katara screamed out in her subconscious mind, "No……..tightening her fists, I don't need your help; I can do this on my own! Now leave me alone!"

Fine, but you'll need my help later! Til' then, we'll keep in touch. And you better wake up….

In reality, Katara was knocked out for quite awhile; everyone was impatient and just wanted the proctor to proclaim Uchiha Haku as the winner, but her brother was just too stubborn. He kept arguing with the proctor and told him to just wait a bit longer; in truth, he wanted a great fight and he felt that his sister would wake up at any moment now.

"I'm sorry, Haku, but this crowd is getting restless; they won't wait any longer….I need to call this fight off." Replied Hayate, the third proctor.

"Not yet! She's going to wake up, just you wait." Said the Uchiha.

As if his prayers were answered, his sister slowly lifted herself on her feet, looking more determined than ever. Seeing that this fight was not over yet, Katara activated her Sharingan, but it wouldn't turn on. She tried over and over again, but she saw that it just wouldn't activate; her brother saw with his eyes, that she was having trouble with her Sharingan, so he waited for her to calm down. The heiress was panicking as she hopelessly tried to turn on her bloodline limit; she was afraid that she had lost it forever, so trying once more she calmly stood with her feet and palms together, summoning chakra into her closed eyes. Feeling the chakra flow to her eyes, she reopened them, but something was different; these eyes no longer saw what her Sharingan eyes saw; these eyes were seeing right through her brother and right into his chakra network.

The audience was in shock, especially the Uchiha clan, as they saw that one of their own had the Hyuuga eyes. To them, it seemed like Katara's eyes had the same composition of the Hyuuga's Byakugan, except her eyes were not pure white, but their regular color.

'I-impossible!' thought Lord Uchiha

Itachi's eyes widened a bit, seeing that one of the clan members had another bloodline limit. 'Unbelievable…..even through her one month training with me, she never showed this much progress. Seems like she is full of surprises.'

'Umm……….this is just awkward, but I guess I'll have to work with what I got.' Thought the heiress.

After deciding to work with what she had, she was doing her best to adjust to the Byakugan's view of battle; she remembered watching Keiko fight with the Byakugan, and she figured that maybe it wouldn't be so hard, so she might have a chance at copying those moves. So she jumped into battle once more, with her newly developed bloodline and played the role of a Hyuuga by using the gentle fist or Jyuuken; she started using similar techniques Keiko would use with palm to palm tactics of trying to disrupt the flow of her opponent's chakra network, while also at the same time, ducking and avoiding hits from her brother. It seemed that everyone was astonished at how well she was adapting to the Byakugan, and as she did a full spin to turn around and block a kick, she managed to hit some of his tenketsu points. Haku then took hold of his sister, spun her around, and threw her into the opposite direction into a wall. The crash was monstrous, and the cement that was holding up the wall, also fell onto her was she collided. As she got out of the rubble, her Byakugan eyes were gone, replaced with her Sharingan ones; once and for all, they decided to end this taijutsu battle, so both decided to add power and speed to their attacks, and with chakra infused fists, they both charged at each other. Once coming into close contact, both landed a punch on the other's cheek, and the power of each punch caused them both to completely crash and demolish the walls they collided with.

Both Uchihas came out from the rubble, with multiple injuries, but at the moment, none of them could feel their injuries as their determination to win this battle overcame them. They wanted to win and they felt that this battle was coming to a close. With one more move left in the battle, both Uchihas got ready to perform their most powerful jutsus; they both began to concentrate all the chakra they had left into their strongest attacks. Katara had one palm over the other, getting ready for a wind-water based attack, while Haku, on the opposite side of the arena was going to use a lightning and fire-based attack. Her brother began to gather chakra from his surroundings; all of a sudden, the clouds became a dark grey color as lightning and thunder came about. Haku began to absorb the lightning from the clouds to power up for the attack; on the other hand, Katara began gathering the moisture from the air to gain more water needed for this attack.

As they each finished with their finishing touches on their jutsus, Katara's jutsu was a star-like shape with chakra spiraling around it, with a water center, while Haku's jutsu was black, and looked like it took the shape of a wolf with lightning coming from its fur. Both Uchihas charged at each other with their attacks and once at close range, both their attacks collided and canceled each other out. As their attacks came into contact, both had the same thought: 'This is it………..a fair fight and I'm going to win!'

The biggest explosion caused both the Uchihas to collide into the walls; causing the destruction of the remaining walls. The bright flash and explosion from both their attacks took all their remaining chakra. As they both got up as steady as possible, they shakingly grabbed onto the rubble to forcefully lift themselves up. Katara was standing on both her feet, but her right arm was suffering from Haku's Kuroi (black)- (Shadow) Jutsu the most and it was currently bleeding as she was clutching onto it to stop the bleeding. Haku on the other hand was not in a better state either; his left leg and right arm were suffering from the effects of Katara's Wind-Water Combination: Shiroi (white) Hoshi (star). As they both were walking towards each other for another round, they both couldn't help but fall down on their backs. They both used up too much chakra in that last attack, so as they both shakingly tried to stand up again, but they fell again.

With that final showdown, the proctor declared this battle over; "This battle will no longer continue; both finalists are unable to fight any longer; this battle between Uchiha Haku and Uchiha Katara is a tie." Applause was occurring throughout the whole stadium as both Uchihas were lying on the ground. As they both heard their names being called, they both slipped into darkness with a smile on their faces as medics quickly rushed to their sides.

Hope you all enjoyed reading that! :) Next time, we'll see who of the finalists made it to Chuunin, or if any did at all.

Make sure to review please! All reviews will be greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

katara