Thanks to the fact that they had had three days' rest, both Sasuke and Naruto were feeling at their maximum and couldn't wait for the final exam to start.
With everything locked up in their apartment, Naruto and Sasuke headed out for the colosseum. When they got their and signed in, they found out that they weren't the first people to arrive.
Naruto in particular was in a trance the second that he saw his sister Azula. He didn't know what to say or do. Thankfully she was on the opposite side of the group of shinobi so he didn't have to say anything to her.
Azula though was a little bit creeped out at the trance like state Naruto seemed to be in as he stared at her. She was going to have a word with him after his match which just so happened to be first.
Thankfully though, they didn't have to wait all that long for the other competitors to make it to the arena. Once everyone was done, it was time for a speech by the venerable Sandaime Hokage. Eventually as the competitors left the arena and went up into the competitors' area.
All this left was Gemna Shiranui, Naruto Uzumaki and Hinata Hyuga.
Naruto noticed that as he looked at the girl, he couldn't help but wonder how someone could become so shy. She had even gone to the point of placing the hood of her jacket over her head. It seemed as if she just wanted to tune out the whole world.
Naruto didn't care about the obvious horrendous parenting on display through the girl though. He had a fight to win.
"Go!" Gemna called out to the two shinobi.
"Get ready because you are going one on one with the great one." Naruto boasted loud enough so that all of Konoha could hear him. He was going to great pleasure in showing Konoha just how much they had dropped the ball in treating him like a piece of shit.
Naruto sped off at a speed which forced Hinata to instantly activate her Byakugan. This wasn't even so that she could use the gentle fist. This was merely so that she could have a better chance at avoiding the attacks of Naruto who was moving at a fast pace.
It wasn't as fast as Neji or Sasuke showed during their preliminary fights but it was definitely faster than what Kiba was capable of using in the spars that they had had with one another.
Naruto and launched a punch at the girl. Thankfully for the sake of the spectator's and more importantly, the Hyuga clan, Hinata dodged the attack. Naruto went on the attack for a whole thirty seconds of intense fighting without managing to land a single blow on the girl.
He knew he was making it hard for himself by solely engaging the Hyuga clan heir in a taijutsu spar but he wanted to show off just how far he had come from being the supposed dead last.
Naruto however managed to turn the tide of the fight as he slipped through the guard of Hinata and delivered a haymaker punch right to the sternum of Hinata.
The attack was fuelled by a chakra enhanced punch and was powerful enough to crack a rib of Hinata.
The girl who wore a beige coloured jacket was flung to the ground and before she could even hit the ground, she was wheezing, struggling to get any form of air into her lungs.
She was winded.
This didn't stop the little girl though. She didn't like the way that Naruto had treated Kiba during their fight despite the fact that she used to have a crush on Naruto.
This was a fight and she knew that if she didn't get up, then not only would she be shaming her family with her lacklustre display but she would also be quitting on herself. She knew that she didn't have much confidence if any at all. She had made amends with herself over this during the previous month. This didn't mean that she was going to rest on her laurels and be satisfied with her improvement though.
No, she wanted to improve even more. She had made it to the finals of the chunin exams! Maybe then her father wouldn't be so mean and uncaring to her.
Hinata struggled to get up off the ground but she was determined to do so. As she did this, Hinata placed her hands on the fluffy parts of her hood. "I-i-I w-will not lose!" Hinata said with more confidence as she the words came out of her mouth. To compound on this, Hinata pulled her hood down for the first time in ages.
The veins around her eyes stood proudly as the pale eyed girl was determined to the fight against Naruto. She even went on the front foot and started attacking Naruto despite the pain she felt from her chest. She knew that if this was a real mission, the enemy wouldn't give her a chance to get back up off the ground and that was something that she had to punish.
Just like when Naruto was going on the offensive, the defender managed to find a way to dodge the attack. One minute into the rushing offense, Hinata managed to score a glancing blow on the Naruto's right forearm.
Naruto felt the pain coming through his arm and it was only then that he realised just how deadly the gentle fist was. He struggled to properly control his chakra in his right hand and that was only from a glancing blow.
He knew that he had to end this fight before Hinata could get any more hits on him. Naruto didn't know what it was about that Gaara who he had to fight in the next round (he was confident Gaara would pass) but there was something odd about that boy that put Naruto off. The only time he had felt something similar to this was when he fought Orochimaru in the forest of death.
When she got the hit on Naruto, Hinata grew more confident in her abilities and pressed on to go for that knockout blow. She had just the jutsu in mind to win this. All she needed to do was get into position.
That didn't go according to plan as when she extended her palm to give an injection of her own chakra into Naruto, Naruto launched out his left hand and decided to trade blows with her.
Hinata knew that she couldn't do this because whatever Naruto was doing with the chakra in his hands, it made his punches that much more potent. She tried to get out of the way but it was too late.
Naruto once again punched her right in the sternum once more and he heard a cracking noise. He knew that he had broken bones in the girl but he continued on. He had to fight until either Hinata quit or the proctor deemed that the contest was over.
Naruto didn't let Hinata have time to herself this time to get up and stabalize herself. He jumped and knelt on Hinata's hips and delivered a punch to the jaw. All it took was one for Naruto to knock the girl out into the land of sleep. He gave one more punch for good measure before Gemna called the fight over with Naruto the winner.
Blood was seeping out of the mouth of Hinata with her limp body on the ground motionless.
What Naruto didn't know was that the heiress of the Hyuga clan was fan favourite. A lot of people realised how kind she was and hoped that she would win. There was also a large amount of people who had betted on the outcome of the match and they were not happy at all with the outcome.
All of this resulted in Naruto getting booed. He didn't care though. He had guessed that he would be getting this reaction like this so he had steeled himself.
"Good work Naruto, you did really good down there." When Naruto heard the voice of his sister, all of the negative emotions that he had had regarding the crowd went out the window. He turned his head from facing the ground to the face of Azula and saw her big, bright smile.
He couldn't take it. All of the emotions that he felt regarding the rather harsh treatment he had given his sister came back to the surface.
In an action that surprised everyone except for Sasuke, especially Azula, Naruto walked up to the girl without saying anything and gave her the biggest hug she had ever received. She was completely baffled by the hug but she didn't mind it one bit.
There was something about wrapping her arms around Naruto that felt like everything that she had to worry about went out the window. He was like her guardian angel. She had no idea why she was thinking this, maybe because it was the first boy to give her a hug that was neither Jiraiya nor Kakashi that she actually liked as a person.
"S-sorry about doing that Azula-chan and I am also really sorry for all the times I was mean to you when I was younger." Naruto said as he gained a bit of confidence and looked Azula in the eyes.
He could see the blush on the face of his sister and at that moment, he thought it was incredibly cute. "It's okay Naruto-kun." Azula said with a bashful smile on her face.
Shikamaru who was watching this couldn't believe what his eyes were telling him. All throughout the academy he remembered Naruto hating Azula and now it looked like they were best friends if not boyfriend and girlfriend. "Tch, troublesome." Shikamaru said before turning his attention back to the arena below.
Gaara meanwhile was looking on with a calculating gaze.
"Will Shino Aburame and Gaara Sabaku please come down here for the next match?" Gemna called out to which the two shinobi made their way down to the arena but not before Gaara stared directly at Naruto.
"So how was your training with Kakashi-niisan!?" Azula questioned with a look of excitement on her face. She was eager to see what else her two teammates knew. Just from what she saw from Naruto was enough to let her know that neither of them had been slacking in their training.
"We didn't train with Kakashi." Naruto replied.
"What! Why not?" Azula questioned with obvious shock on her face. She thought that they would have jumped at the chance to get taught ninjutsu by Kakashi. She knew she would have if it had not been for her godfather coming back for a while.
"Well he had a pretty bad track record as a sensei if you could call him that. I mean the only thing that he taught us was teamwork and that was something that we learnt much better as the three of us on our mission anyway."
Azula had to admit that Naruto was right. Kakashi-niisan hadn't really taught them anything. Still, he was her pseudo big brother and she had to defend him. "Kakashi-niisan… he's not really that good with people. I mean it took me ages to get him to open up to me and I am his sensei's student!"
"So, if he is that bad, he should look being a sensei like a job and as a time to relax. There are lives depending on his teaching or rather lack thereof." Sasuke commented. He completely agreed with Naruto.
"Alright, so if you didn't train with Kakashi-niisan, then who did you train with?" Azula said as she knew if she didn't stop the conversation about Kakashi right then, it would lead to nothing but bad mouthing her big brother in all but blood.
"That's a secret Azula-chan. You're just going to have to guess after watching us fight." Naruto grinned at the girl.
"Aww that's not fair." She pouted in response.
"Winner by forfeit is Gaara Sabaku." Gemna said as he used chakra to enhance his vocal projection.
As the proctor said this, all three of Team Seven instantly turned around to the arena. What they saw was Gaara holding his head as he squatted. It was creepy in the eyes of Azula how he was constantly screaming mother.
"You're next Uzumaki. I don't care if you forfeit. I will kill you and prove my existence."
Naruto merely shrugged it off. He had enough confidence in his own abilities that he could win this fight. Azula though was concerned. She got this weird feeling from Gaara and she had no idea what it was. The only thing that she could confidently say was that Gaara was strong, real strong and she wondered just how strong Naruto had become.
"Will Sasuke Uchiha and Temari Sabaku please come to the arena." Gemna stated out loudly.
Sasuke steeled himself as he knew that this would be his first real chance to break free from the constant comparisons with his elder brother that had plagued him ever since he was born.
"Good luck Sasuke." Azula said with a grin on her face. The thought of fighting Sasuke in the semi-finals of the tournament was something that she was eagerly anticipating.
Sasuke merely nodded. He didn't respond as his mind was too busy focusing on his upcoming match. Admittedly, he hadn't really studied much up on Temari apart from the fact that she used a fan to propel her wind ninjutsu. The second he saw that, Sasuke knew that he had this fight in the bag.
A second later and Sasuke found himself standing right across from his opponent. He saw a determined look on her face. It was obvious to him that she wanted to prove that she was as better than him when that simply wasn't going to happen as far as he was concerned.
"Begin!" Gemna called out as he moved to the side. Out of all of the first round matches this one was the one that he was looking forward to the most. The Kazekage's daughter against the last member of the Uchiha clan; it was a punters dream.
Said Kazekage was taking a keen interest in this fight ever since he had failed in applying the cursed seal to young Sasuke-kun. He wanted to see what else the young Uchiha had learnt in one month's time. After all, a strong body was essential to the transfer of his soul.
Meanwhile the second that Temari heard the go ahead, she immediately pulled out her fan and swung it in Sasuke's direction. There was only one problem that the blonde haired girl ran into was the fact that Sasuke was no longer standing in the spot where she had aimed her fan.
Sasuke had instead dodged to the right and was rapidly closing the distance between the two of them. Despite all the preparation that Temari had put herself through, she still panicked when Sasuke rushed her at a speed which beat the ultimate defence of her brother.
Temari quickly swung her fan in the opposite direction as a means to counteract the incoming advances of Sasuke. Sasuke merely dodged the incoming blast which levelled the trees behind him.
As much as she didn't want to admit it, as time went on, Temari saw that the distance between herself and Sasuke was shortening. What made this even worse was the fact that she assumed that Sasuke was using far less of his energy to move around the arena floor in comparison to her keeping him from getting close to her.
Sweat was falling from her hair as he she poured chakra into her attacks. The effort was draining the girl from Sunagakure. Eventually there was more of a gap between Temari's attacks and Sasuke had enough time to close the distance between the two.
There was lighting which cackled around the fist of Sasuke and he intended to give a pain inducing punch to the blonde haired genin. Thankfully for her sake though, she managed to bring her fan up and protect her face from getting hit.
The sound that came from her fan getting hit by Sasuke's lightning covered hand was not one that she liked all that much. Her fan had taken the brunt of the damage and despite the fact that it was made from the finest steel that Suna had to offer, there was a dent in the metal.
Sasuke continued on. He knew that if he let up, that his enemy would have a chance of getting back into the fight. As far as he was concerned, now that the fight was a close ranged one, the match was as good as over.
The second punch that Sasuke gave to the enemy was much like the first one. Sasuke's punch connected with the fan. He managed to hit the same exact spot as before and the fan buckled under the weight. There was a serious bend in the weapon that would take a long time at a dedicated weapon smith workshop to fix.
It was much the same for the third and fourth hit. Temari idly wondered as she struggled to stay in the fight if Sasuke was simply trying to destroy her weapon. The fifth attack that Sasuke launched was the one that differed. Sasuke launched a sweeping low kick which made Temari horizontal. Sasuke followed up dropping his heel into the face of Temari and she smashed the back of her head into the ground and the rest of her body followed after.
There was a clear snap noise the second that Sasuke's foot connected with the face of Temari. The fact that she had a broken nose didn't stop her from getting back up off of the ground and into a fighting position. Sasuke was admittedly impressed. He wasn't even sure that this was something that even Azula would do. He knew for a fact that a fight in the chunin exams which had Ino getting a broken nose would immediately forfeit.
He supposed that deserved some sort of respect. Sasuke decided at that point to end the fight right then and not drag it out any longer.
Before Temari could even react in thanks to still being dizzy due to her concussion, the woman from Suna was unable to stop it when Sasuke appeared inside her guard, grabbed her throat with one hand, used his other to place Temari's left hand over his head so that it rested on his back.
With his left hand, Sasuke grabbed the skirt of Temari and yanked it up in conjunction with lifting her by her throat. When he had lifted the girl in his hands up as high as his reach would allow, Sasuke choke slammed the girl in his hands down onto the dirt.
Temari was lights out the second her body slammed into the ground. Her limp form offered no movement and Gemna Shiranui had no choice but to call the match in favour of Sasuke.
"Winner of this fight is Sasuke Uchiha." Gemna stated to the crowd who started cheering loudly as they loved what they had just seen. Sasuke merely turned his back to the crowd and headed up to the area where his two teammates were standing.
"Congratulations Sasuke!" Azula said with a big smile on her face. Sasuke responded with a small smile on his face. She knew that that was all she would ever get from Sasuke so she was content with that. She saw the nod that was shared between Naruto and Sasuke and was happy that her team was finally together as one.
x-X-x
For Kakashi who was in the stands, he couldn't be more impressed with the performances of his two students who had been on show so far even if he tried. The only problem with this happened to be the fact that he had absolutely nothing to do with the development of either Naruto or Sasuke.
During the month that he had off from everything, Kakashi took time to reflect on his teaching methods it was there that he realised that he indeed had been in the wrong.
Admittedly he had been waiting for them to come to him and ask for training. He wanted them to know that they couldn't do everything on their own and that it was okay to ask for help.
Naruto and Sasuke were right. That was the wrong approach because the only thing it did was alienate Kakashi from his team. Both Naruto and Sasuke did not like him one bit and he knew that they had absolutely every right to be furious with him.
He had been constantly late to every single training session by no less than three hours each time. He had done nothing to deserve the title of sensei as a civilian kid could have grasped the idea of working together as being better for completing missions than working individually. He didn't teach them anything in terms of increasing their own skill sets and even left the team work up to the three genin to figure out for themselves.
They even felt the need that they had to take matters into their own hands by requesting a mission outside of the village because they never thought that they would have an opportunity to improve. Considering the fact that it had taken them four months to get to this point, Kakashi believed that they had every right to think this way. Of course the way that they went about this was completely wrong but that was a topic for a later date.
When the exams were over, Kakashi vowed to himself that he would become worthy of the title of sensei and teach his students any and everything that they could possibly want. He would even teach Sasuke the chidori.
x-X-x
It was now time for the fight between Azula and Neji. Out of all of the first round fights, this was the one that everyone had come to see. From all of the speculation going into these fights, Neji was a generational prodigy for the Hyuga clan and was even stronger than the heiress. Azula was merely the daughter of the stronger man in the recent history of Konoha so she was expected to be powerful in her own right.
"Begin!" The proctor of the fight called out as the two shinobi prepared for their fight. Azula started things off by going through hand seal after hand seal.
"Fuuton: Renkudan (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet.)" Azula called out as she unleashed he jutsu at her enemy. She didn't exactly have to worry about wasting chakra because for some reason, she had an endless supply of the stuff.
If the attack hit, great. Azula wasn't planning on that to happen though as she used this jutsu as a way to see how her opponent would react. There was no real surprise when Neji decided to move out of the way.
Much like the fight that Temari had with Sasuke, one shinobi attempted to make the fight a close ranged one and the other wanted to keep it at a long ranged fight. The difference in this being that Azula had a much larger supply of chakra and wouldn't get tired so quickly.
The blonde haired girl continued to use the same air jutsu to keep Neji at bay as he attempted to get closer to her. She had experience fighting with fast shinobi as she was on the same team as Sasuke Uchiha but she hadn't sparred with him since her academy days and she knew that that counted for nothing.
Neji dodged yet another attack and continued forward. He knew that he was not going to get anywhere with staying at this pace so he increased it with a bust of adrenaline.
Azula was shocked with the increase in speed. This did not stop her from going through a different set of hand seals as she saw Neji rapidly shortening the distance between the two.
The shoulder blade level golden blonde hair rapidly grew in length as well as becoming as strong as steel. Neji was at a loss despite the fact that he could see what was going on. He struggled to comprehend that someone could grow their hair and use it as a weapon.
In the space of four seconds, the hair had stretched from Azula, wrapped around the left leg of Neji and flung the boy into one of the outlying trees. Azula followed up this by launching most of the threads which were needle like in the direction of Neji through the use of chakra.
As he was in mid-air, Neji managed to regain control of his senses and prepared himself. He used the ligaments and tendons in his knees to great effect as he created a makeshift springboard and catapulted himself in the direction of Azula.
Along the way he copped a fair few needles which embedded themselves into his skin but the pain was nothing that he couldn't fight through.
The move was something that surprised Azula and she did her best to prepare herself but unfortunately it was not to be. Neji managed to get two hits in with his jyuken taijutsu style before Azula managed to counteract the attack.
Azula used chakra to make her hair surround her body. There was a blockage in her arm but it was nothing that using a large amount of chakra couldn't fix.
Neji meanwhile saw this and knew that it would do no good for him to get his hand crushed. He knew how powerful that hair jutsu of Azula was just from a few of the needles.
Once the hair covered her whole entire body, Azula launched yet another barrage of her needle hair at Neji.
The brown haired boy did his best to dodge the incoming attack but there were a few that caught the left side of his body. Thankfully though after a few seconds of being released from the main body of hair, the chakra dissipated and the hair turned back to normal.
There were a few pricks along his body where blood was starting to come out. Azula was doing a little bit better but she was not unscathed. Neji had missed one of the tenketsu points in the girl and hit one of the blood vessels under the skin in her arm and caused it to burst.
Neji was panting as his lungs were working overtime to get oxygen through his body. Despite his physical fitness, the fight was so frenetic that Neji never had any time to reduce his heart rate. He had been working at a constant eighty percent of his maximum heart rate for the last ten minutes.
Azula was slightly better in the fact that moulding chakra didn't cause as much stress on the heart and lungs as moving at a constant, high pace did. This wasn't enough to prevent any sweat from coming from her brow.
Seeing that what she was doing now wasn't getting her anywhere, Azula decided that it was time for a change in the way she planned to take down Neji. She immediately went and created three clones and had them surround Neji in a diamond.
"Fuuton: Renkudan! (Wind Release: Drilling Air Bullet.)" Azula called out yet again as she released a jutsu. It just went to show just how much chakra the girl had flowing through her system and she could do this and not come out the end of it with chakra exhaustion.
The Hyuga heir had to catch his breath and was therefore unable to move so that the clones of Azula were unable to position themselves around him. When he saw the four respective jutsus coming his way, Neji didn't become fearful of what might happen. Instead, his expression stayed the same as he performed a jutsu of his own.
The kaiten was a sight to behold and no one in the colosseum was more surprised to see the usage of this particular jutsu than Hiashi Hyuga. The thought of a member of the branch clan being able to use the kaiten was truly baffling to him. It just went to show just how skilled his nephew was.
Neji didn't have time to gloat about his ability to use a jutsu that was supposedly forbidden to him as Azula launched the same jutsu at Neji. It forced the boy to continue using the chakra demanding kaiten to dodge the incoming attacks.
It was only now that he realised just how much of a bind he was in. he had assumed that whatever the red chakra was inside of Azula, it was the reason why she could spam jutsu after jutsu and not get tired.
This happened twice more before Neji began thinking to himself. This is fate telling me that I am not to win today. It was the fate of the yondaime's daughter that she was to succeed.
Before Azula launched yet another, Neji spoke up. "Proctor, I forfeit." Neji called out. He was out of chakra and he knew that he would never be able to get in close to Azula where he could use his superior taijutsu to win the match.
The blonde haired girl stopped her attack and turned her attention to the proctor. She wanted to wait for conformation before she stopped the fight. When she did get it, she jumped for joy whilst the shadow clones dispelled themselves.
Author's Note: Re-broke my ribs at the gym so now I have to have two months off from all physical activity. At this point the pain isn't even the worst bit. Not being able to play sport or train for two months is much worse!