I don't own Naruto.
Cool
Hey, I just wanted to reply to a guest who thinks that Sakura should have beaten Naruko – Naruko has the Sharingan. She's already better than most of the rookies just with that. Also, she actually takes training seriously, unlike Sakura (who is all brains and fan girl at this point in time) so she is physically stronger than Sakura. Finally, before Naruto Shippuden, Sakura is absolutely useless (seriously, think of one time in which she was useful) so she would obviously lose to Naruko. Be realistic.
After his one-day rest, Naruto had continued his training with Jiraiya and had learned a few other simple jutsu. His training with Kurama, however, wasn't going as well – he still hadn't completed the jutsu. One good thing did come out of his training though.
Flashback
"Yo Kurama, I'm going to try to hit a tree now."
"Try, but let me warn you that it's not ready yet."
Naruto ignored this and tried hitting a tree with his incomplete Chakra Ball, but when he swung his arm, the air resistance caused the Chakra Ball to lose its shape and disappear. Well, it lost its shape, but the chakra didn't disappear – it moved back to coat his arm instead.
"You didn't have enough control over it so it lost its shape."
"Grr! Guess I'll have to keep training."
While Naruto was walking, he felt a strong breeze around his legs, and when he looked down he realized that his chakra-coated arms were creating small breezes just by him swinging them.
"I see! So it raises my physical capabilities! I'm guessing if I condense the chakra even more, it will work better."
Naruto condensed the chakra so much that it disappeared, but he felt his arms become stronger. He smiled at this.
"Hey brat, try using my chakra."
When Naruto condensed some of Kurama's chakra into his arms, his arms began turning slightly red. Seeing this, Naruto sent a large amount of Kurama's chakra to his arms, causing them to turn totally red.
"Cool! I can turn red! I'll call this 'red mode'."
Flashback over
Anyway, Naruto was walking around in the village when he spotted Kin and Zaku walking quickly towards the exit of the village, so he called out to them. When they turned, their faces lit up with genuine smiles before returning to their serious faces.
"What's up guys?" Naruto asked them.
"I'm sorry Naruto, we can't really talk now, we're in a hurry," Kin said.
"Ah, okay. Well, stay safe, yeah? And make sure to come to the finals to watch me beat everyone up!" Naruto waved to them.
While they were walking away, Zaku said to Kin, "We can stay with him for a bit, can't we?" After a little debating, they decided to spend one hour with Naruto messing around, doing pranks and having a good time.
When they were about to leave, Kin said, "Thanks for everything, Naruto."
"Yeah, I'll never forget my first true friend," Zaku said with a smile, before they walked off.
Naruto didn't see the tears falling from Kin's eyes, or Zaku's bitter smile.
...
Naruto spent the rest of the month training. On the day before the exam, Jiraiya told Naruto to rest.
"What, you have some business to attend to?" Naruto asked with a cheeky smile.
"Yeah, but this time it's serious," Jiraiya said with a serious face. "It's about my former teammate, Orochimaru."
"What's he gonna do?" Naruto asked with a worried look.
"We think he's going to attack the exams," Jiraiya said darkly.
"Well then isn't it dangerous to keep the exams going!?" Naruto asked incredulously.
"Don't worry; we've got this under control. You just focus on the exams!" Jiraiya said with a smile.
"Sure!"
Finals day
All the contestants were lined up in a large space with a huge crowd watching them, making lots of noise cheering and talking in general. Shortly after the Hokage and the Kazekage arrived, a jonin walked to the participants and signalled for the crowd to quieten down.
"Welcome to the finals. I, Genma Shiranui, will be the proctor for your exams because the original couldn't make it. The finals carry the same rules as the preliminaries. We will begin immediately, so Sasuke Uchiha and Neji Hyuuga, you two wait down here while the others go up."
As a side note, he said, "Make sure to entertain the crowd, yeah?" but only so that the participants heard him.
Soon enough, the fight was about to begin.
"Begin!" Genma shouted before jumping back.
The two rushed towards each other and began a fierce taijutsu battle. Since Neji couldn't look into Sasuke's eyes (otherwise he would be caught in a genjutsu), he couldn't fully dodge all of Sasuke's attacks, and Sasuke was using his Sharingan to dodge Neji's attacks. Realizing he was at a disadvantage, Neji jumped back, but Sasuke chased him, a smile creeping onto his lips.
"He's retreating already! I've won this!" Sasuke thought.
Just when Sasuke got to Neji, Neji shouted, "Kaiten!" and began spinning around rapidly, ejecting chakra from his body. Sasuke was forced to retreat.
"Fire Release: Great Fireball jutsu!" Sasuke shouted before blowing out a large quantity of fire from his mouth.
Neji countered it by thrusting both his hands out. "Eight Trigrams Vacuum Wall Palm!" he cried, and a blast of chakra from his hands hit the fireball, causing the two jutsu to cancel each other out.
When the smoke cleared, Neji had disappeared.
"Where is he!?" Sasuke thought anxiously, before detecting Neji behind him. He quickly spun around, but it was too late.
"Gentle Fist Art One Body Blow!" Neji struck Sasuke several times with his palms, causing Sasuke to fly back and hit the wall. When the smoke cleared, however, Sasuke had gone.
"Hah! That won't work on me!" Neji shouted, before jumping to the side just as Sasuke rushed to him from behind.
Sasuke was so shocked that he couldn't react fast enough when Neji performed a counter attack, unleashing a deadly combo. Sasuke was blown back again, and this time when he stood up his legs shook a bit.
"Just give up. Fate has decreed that you won't win," Neji said with a cocky smile.
"You know what? Hinata was right, go shove your fate bullshit up your ass! I have an ambition that I must complete; I have something that I need to fight for. What do you have? Nothing!"
"Hah! How naive you are! I have felt pain that you have not felt. I have been looked down upon simply because of the age of my father, despite the fact that I am considered a prodigy. Of course I would be stronger than you, when I carry a burden like that!"
"You wanna talk about pain!? Well then, have you felt the pain of being alone? Have you felt the pain of watching your whole family being killed!? HAVE YOU FELT THE PAIN OF HAVING YOUR TRUST IN THE PERSON YOU LOVED MOST BREAK!?" By now Sasuke was livid.
"Don't talk to me about pain! Amaterasu!" Sasuke activated his Mangekyo, and Neji's arm immediately caught on fire.
He began screaming from the pain, and after his entire family insisted that he gave up, he gave up. Sasuke got rid of the black flames before walking away. Just before he went off, he stopped and turned to Neji.
"You think you know all about fate? Let me tell you this: I know more about it than you, and I know for sure that it can be changed."
"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!" Genma announced, before the crowd went crazy. The other participants began congratulating Sasuke, especially Naruko and Naruto, and Sakura, Ino and Kakashi came to congratulate him as well.
"Next fight: Shino Aburame versus Kankuro of the Sand!" The two walked down and faced each other.
"Begin!"
The two remained where they were as they each began thinking of a plan. Finally, Kankuro made the first move, rushing towards Shino. Shino extended his arms, and a number of bugs flew towards Kankuro and latched onto him. After a while, they flew back, but Kankuro was perfectly fine.
"What!?" Shino said in shock.
"Hahaha! Looks like your bugs don't work!" Kankuro gloated before charging once again. Shino couldn't keep up with him in a taijutsu battle, so he kept retreating.
"Is retreating all you know?" Kankuro mocked him.
"Damnit, Shino! Beat him up already!" Naruto cried out from the crowds. "I know you can!"
Shino looked up, and seeing Naruto's determined face gave him an idea. He extended his arms again, but this time only a few bugs came out. In fact, they were so few in number that Kankuro lost sight of them.
"Well, they were only a few so it doesn't matter," Kankuro thought.
Shino then swung his arms out wide, and unleashed a huge number of bugs to the right. They flew in a circular motion before heading straight for Kankuro. Kankuro suddenly realized something and narrowed his eyes.
"It's a genjutsu! Kai!" Kankuro cried, and the genjutsu was expelled. However, he found that another large group of bugs was heading to him from the left.
"This again? ... Wait, it's another genjutsu! Kai!" Kankuro expelled the second jutsu and found himself back in reality. Suddenly, he felt his energy leave him, and he collapsed.
"What!? How did you do this?" Kankuro asked Shino feebly.
"Simple. When my first bugs attacked you, I realized that you were hiding inside another of your dolls. I released a small number of bugs to infiltrate that defence, and then I distracted you by making the genjutsu," Shino explained.
All of the jonin were thinking the same thing: "Incredible! That's some jonin-level thinking!"
"Shino... you really have gotten stronger!"
"Winner: Shino Aburame!" The crowd erupted yet again. While this fight wasn't as intense as the one before it, they were all amazed by Shino's thinking ability.
Naruto and Kurenai immediately began to congratulate him.
"You'd better not disappoint!" Kurenai said with a slight smile to Naruto.
Naruto nodded vigorously. "Don't worry!"
"Next fight: Naruko Uchiha versus Shikamaru Nara!"
Yo. Don't have anything to say apart from thanking you for supporting this story. Keep bringing the new ideas – they are actually useful!
Peace.