Chapter 14: Death by Snake

A/N: Result list at the end. Warning: spoilers.

Sakura stood there, shocked. She? The victor? Suddenly, a loud, choking noise distracted her from her thoughts. She spun around, wincing in pain, and saw a disturbing sight. The Kazekage seemed to have disappeared and in his place was a white faced man with a snake coming out of his mouth. The snake's mouth was open and out of it came a sword, which was pointed straight at the Hokage. The only thing that had saved him was a man who had stopped the blow with his body. The Kazekage seemed to have disappeared

The Third Hokage leapt up, assessing the situation. Jiraiya had saved him with himself! His first thought was to find a way to save Jiraiya. His second was sadness as Oruchimaru swung the sword through the man. Jiraiya was dead.

Naruto leapt at the monster, only to be slapped back. In his regular fashion, he duplicated about a million times over and charged again. Four ninja dropped down around their master and deflected him. The sound ninja four.

The Third Hokage re-assessed the situation. Dozens of Sound Ninja released their guise while another, still hidden, activated a powerful Genetsu on the entire crowd. Maybe it was time for that jutsu.

Sakura and Hinata released the holds on their kunai and used "release."

In the crowds, Shikamaru used "release", then kicked Choji and Ino awake. "Come on," Shikamaru ordered, "Lets take out that Genetsu user."

Meanwhile, back at the "kage" box, Naruto attacked again. "Stop bothering the old man!" he roared and leapt at the largest of the Sound ninja four. He hit him, stopping some sort of Jutsu the four were starting around the area. Then Narutos pilled on the man in mass.

This was it. The Third Hokage was one symbol from activating the move that would finish off himself and, hopefully, Oruchimaru. Suddenly, two hands grasped his wrists and yanked them apart. At the same moment, a voice called out "Dynamic Entry!" as Might Guy kicked Oruchimaru in the face. "Don't sacrifice yourself so easily," the Hokage heard from behind him. He gave a half grin. Kakashi.

Lee watched his master kick Oruchimaru in the face and responded by activating the second gate, his energy from the first exhausted by his duel with Sauske. As he ran at the white faced man, Lee transformed four of is weights into Nunchucks and dropped the rest to the ground. He wrapped his weapons around Oruchimaru's arms, pinning them, then started kneeing the guy and head-butting him while watching Kakashi come at them with the Chidori. At the last moment, he leapt into the air, keeping his arms in place, but dodging the bolts of lightning that tore Oruchimaru in half.

Pain. Thoroughly irritated, Oruchimaru threw the young boy aside, each half of his body launching snakes to reconnect himself. Then he ripped his own face off, revealing another stolen identity behind it. Suddenly, he was looking at a foot. Ouch.

As he watched Lee launch Oruchimaru at him through the air, smoker (Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji's teacher) took out his brass knuckles and smashed the monster back at the boy.

Lee kicked Oruchimaru again, and again, and again. He bounced him off the back of each of the three remaining sound ninja four. When Oruchimaru tried to spear him with his sword, Lee grasped the snake's throat and jabbed the sword through the bone-man of the sound ninja four, thus making him collapse to the ground. Then Lee hit Oruchimaru again. The woman of the sound ninja four split in half. Lee activated the third gate and used the power to wrap up the three remaining sound ninja with Oruchimaru and stabbed through all of them with Oruchimaru's sword.

Oruchimaru reeled in his snake, taking Lee with it. He grasped Lee's leg and slammed the boy to the ground. Suddenly, his head was struck by a Rasangan. He roared in pain as layer upon layer of guises started to fall from him like dead skin. Then the Rasangan exploded, taking him with it. He slumped to the ground, still attached by the dying snake to his three underlings, and the dying Jiraiya slumped on top of him.

A/N Sorry for the gruesome ending, but how else can Oruchimaru get killed? Here are the statistics on the actual tournament.

Naruto (slight injuries, lost)

Neji (uninjured, won)

Shino (slight injuries, won)

Shikamaru (uninjured, lost)

Sauske (concussion and some broken bones, lost)

Rock Lee (strained muscles, won)

Sakura (temporary partial paralysis, bleeding wound, won?)

Hinata (bleeding wound, lost?)

Other casualties: Oruchimaru, Jiraiya, the sound ninja four, multiple generic ninja

Chapter 15: Sakura vs. Neji

The battle raged on. Without Oruchimaru, or the sound ninja four, the battle was half done. When Naruto, Kakashi, Might Guy, and the Third Hokage started to look around outside their own little duel, they saw that Shikamaru had taken control.

Shikamaru looked at the chaos around him. He had woken his teammates and detected the geietsu user, then sent Ino to take him out. That done, he calmly took control of the situation, sending some ninja to take out the sound ninjas in the crowd, some to lead the flow of civilians out into the villiage, and some to protect the village walls. Even the Jonin quickly took his orders and went to their duty. Shikamaru hated to lead, but he was good at it. It was his cross to bear.

Soon, the battle was at its completion and the damage was assessed. Dozens if not hundreds of sound and sand ninja were killed, as were many of the leaf village. One of the youngest casualties was Naruto's friend Konahamru.

Lee took three days to recover from releasing the gates, but came back with no lasting problems.