Fox, Waitress, and Valkyrie

Chapter 21: Let the Finals Begin

Let the finals begin and not a moment too soon. Yes, after three long chapters of buildup it's time for the finals. But first, let's get down to reviews.

Bluestone: I just think that's his character. I mean if all that's been in your mind for your whole life basically, it'd be hard to get out of your mind.

Dragonnoir: It's definitely controversial that's for sure. The trio was mainly just really angry but now they can finally start acting like ninja. I also doubt that Hinata would go that far, but I doubt that she would just step aside. Sorry, Tayuya will be paired with Haku, but man do I have a troublesome pair for Shikamaru. One who is just about as much trouble as Tayuya.

Beau-jeezay: Oops. Yeah I'll have to get that taken care of. Thanks for letting me know.

Ranmacat: Thank you. I'll update as fast as I can.

DrunkmanSquakin: Oh you'll see the angle that I have for her and I think that you'll like it.

DeExil: You know it's funny, Kushina is either pure evil or complete good. I'm doing the impossible and making her human. I personally love her character (even though practally nothing has been revealed about her that I know of).

LordHatred and MorganDaratrazanoff: Thanks a lot. I'll try and update as soon as possible without sacrificing quality.

Alright well, let's get this thing underway shall we?

…........................................

Time was running out for all participants for the exam finals, and everyone was getting ready in their own way.

Lucien had finished his balance training with Kanna and was now working on his sword training with Haku. For that exercise he was supposed to use his sword to hit a bunch leaves as they fell to the ground. If that wasn't tough enough, he had to do the entire exercise blindfolded. However, the exercise worked very well and made him more efficient with his sword work as well as increased his speed. In break times, he still worked on some strategical exercises to help him out think the Nara genius

Shikamaru had not been slacking around either. He was getting drilled by his sensei and his own father. His father had been training him in more advanced techniques that would further help him to they and take down the silver haired gennin.

Kushina had begun to take it easy on the ramen waitress. With time starting to run out until the finals came, Ayame couldn't afford to take to big of a hit and risk getting injured. However, that being said, Ayame was still working hard on her bow skills. Even when she wasn't working on using the bow as a middle range weapon, she was still working on new submission maneuvers and her accuracy with her bolts.

Hinata was now getting special training with her father. After she advanced, he actually admitted that he was proud of her performance and offered special training. They talked about some Hyuuga maneuvers that would help Hinata to repel the bolts that Ayame would fire. She was still a bit nervous about fighting Naruto's girlfriend, but she knew that if she was going to win the heart of her beloved, then this is one fight that she could not afford to lose.

With Hinata being trained by the elite Hyuuga, Neji was left bitter and untrained. The fact that he and his sensei were really not seeing eye to eye after his fight with Lee. That left his training options to Tenten and … well … Tenten. His anger would propel his training and he would show all of them that it was not a good idea to mess with the Hyuuga prodigy, even at the cost of his best friend at the academy.

Sora, also thought that she would be on her own training. However, in Kakashi's place, Ebisu had to this point been a very effective trainer for the girl. So far he had helped her with her current jutsu and was on the verge of helping her reach a breakthrough on her next lightning jutsu. She really didn't want to fight against Neji with all the history that they had, but she also knew that Neji was in a dark place and a good old fashioned slug fest was the only thing that could bring moody Neji into the normal Neji that she knows and tolerates.

Gaara had spent the last month in a desperate struggle to try and keep the raging beast inside him dormant, but struggled every single night. Especially on the night of the full moon. That night, he had to go on a killing spree in the forest. He searched out anything left alive in the Forest of Death. Mostly, all that he found were animals, but he was able to find a could of gennin still clinging to their life. He was constantly on the wait for his fight because he knew that the blood from the one who defeated his brother would be the only thing to satisfy the chaos inside him.

Sasuke himself was getting pushed harder then anything from his scarecrow sensei. His rivalry with the silver haired gennin Lucien was one that was years in the making. They butted heads very often in the academy and he was the only one who could match him in spars. Not only that, but his team got a C-ranked mission before his team did. Also, his team had gotten more C-ranks. He knew that a win over his rival would assert himself as the most dominant gennin of the class and he would be one step closer to his ultimate goal of getting revenge on his brother. He knew that Lucien would beat Shikamaru, unless Shikamaru was completely sold on revenge. If that was the case, then Shikamaru could probably be persuaded in joining his cause.

After mastering step two, Jiraiya had shown him step three, which he was supposed to master in his time away from training. In the last week, Naruto worked mainly on his taijutsu and making sure that it was as crisp and flawless as possible. Naruto also worked hard on his summoning and on his channeling of the chakra of the beast inside him. On the Rasengan, Naruto had not gotten much progress. Completely containing the jutsu was not an easy task to complete, but Naruto knew that he would be up to the task and find a way to complete it before his match with the redhead Gaara. He had to if he was to be successful.

Time had continued to progress, and it was now the day before the finals were to begin. Almost all of the sensei's had given their gennin the day off so that they would be perfectly fresh for the exams. In that time also, Lucien and his crew arrived back in the village to see a fair of some kind already in progress. After a brief convincing from Kanna, Lucien and company went to the fair and had a great time.

Naruto and Ayame also attended the fair together. It was the first time that they had been together in almost a month and they were practically dying to see each other. They started out their date by first going out to get something to eat. Naruto wanted to get ramen, but he also knew that Ayame would want to eat something different. He knew that she had a strong affinity for sushi, so he took her to the nicest sushi place in the fair.

They placed their order for food, and in the meantime began to talk for a long time about their month apart.

"You know Naruto-kun, I missed you so much over this month you know?" Ayame said.

"I did too Ayame-chan. I hope that Kaa-san wasn't really too tough on you." Naruto said while Ayame just giggled.

"You know your mother and how she is. She'd pretty much beat me up, and then heal me just so that she can beat me up some more. It was good for me though. I got a lot better at fighting. What did you and that pervert do for your training?"

"He taught me a lot. First thing that he did was teach me how to summon a really huge frog like Yondaime and himself can." Ayame was very confused about summoning because it really wasn't something that was covered at the academy. Needless to say, she was incredibly shock at the prospect of riding a talking frog as big as her house. The very thought gave her nightmares. "Yeah it takes so much chakra that I have to borrow … well … that."

"That? You mean … oh Kami that?" Ayame said worriedly. "Isn't that really dangerous though? I mean what would happen to you if it came out?"

"I don't know. We did discover though that it's chakra is tied to my emotions. Ero-sennin told me that if I used it's chakra to protect those I care about, then there's no chance that it will come out and do anything to me. However, if I ever walk on the dark side ..."

"Naruto-kun, I've known you essentially my whole life." Ayame told him. She reached out and grabbed his hands. "I know you so well. And I know that there is no way that you would ever walk on the dark side. Besides, even if he does try and come out, I know that you would force that evil bastard back into his cell."

Naruto looked at Ayame kinda funny. She was a type of girl that never swore unless she was really angry. He assumed that it was all the time that she spent with his mom. That reminded him of another thing that happened, but he wasn't sure how she would react. But he figured that he had to tell someone about that and she was the only available person.

"By the way, Ayame-chan? Something really strange happened while I was training. I saw this … girl after an explosion during training." Ayame always listened to Naruto, but when he said girl, her ears pinned forward. She was not a jealous person by any means. Quite the contrary, she knew that the only thing he loved as much as her was her ramen and there was no way he'd ever risk losing both. However, she was still intrigued by what happened. "You see, after the explosion I saw this girl, but here's the strange thing. She looked like someone that we both know really well." He left out the part that she was just wearing a scowl but he figured that wasn't really relevant information.

"Who did she look like Naruto-kun? Lucien? Kanna? Haku?" Naruto shook his head at all of those suggestions. "Well tell me. No wait, Naruto-kun let me see how good you are with your kekki-genkai. Show me what she looked like."

Naruto had no idea how to do this. Over his time of practice, his ability with his bloodline had gotten much better, but at the same time, he needed to alter the image just a tad. He looked to his left and saw a woman in a simple blue shirt with jeans and decided that would be a good cover for the girl. He then used his transformation and Ayame could tell right away who this person looked like.

"You know what, they do look very similar. You think that she's ..."

"No idea. I don't even know how she got there." Naruto said as he reverted back to his original form. "But I do know that this is something that I need to look into."

The day had come and gone just like that and before Naruto and Ayame knew it, the time had finally come for the finals to begin. Most of the gennin that were competing dressed similarly to the way they dressed in for missions with a few exceptions. Ayame recently bought Naruto a new combat outfit that he was currently dressed in. It was a black shirt without sleeves and matching black pants. His sleeves though were made up by a layer of orange spandex beneath the shirt. Lucien had also changed his outfit into something that Kanna had insisted that he wear. It was a green tunic with matching green pants with a white undershirt underneath. He also had on leather wrist braces but now, like Kanna, he also chose to show his bare feet. He wore a brown headband underneath his protector. (It's Rufus's outfit from VP:S). Other then that, everybody was dressed the same. The odd thing was though that Sasuke had not shown yet.

Gaara was giving Naruto a very sinister and evil looking gaze from across the arena and it was beginning to put every member of team one on edge. Meanwhile, Shikamaru looked to be in a zone. He certainly remembered the butt kicking delivered by Kanna, but now it was a little different situation. He didn't want revenge for Ino any more, but he still wanted to beat the other gennin good.

Before the opening ceremonies began, team one finally reunited for the first time in a month. Even Kanna and Haku were present for the reuniting.

"Well, well, looks like both of you made it through your training." Lucien said as he approached the group. Kanna had a firm hold on his shoulder and Haku stood to the left. "Man, you guys are looking great. Especially you Naruto. Looks like Ayame really whipped you into shape in more ways then one I might add."

"Actually, we've been apart as well. Ayame-chan trained with Kaa-san and well … let's just say I got stuck with the world's biggest pervert." Naruto said with a huge smile. This was the first time he had been with his best friend in a month and was really feeding off the energy from his entire team. "If you ask me, you and Kanna were alone in the woods. Are you sure nothing didn't happen on your side?" Naruto asked with a leer. Lucien and Haku just groaned while Kanna blushed a deep crimson.

"Touche. But still it's good to see both of you are alright. I would ask what you guys have been learning, but I think that it would be better if we just waited and saw. I like to be surprised." Lucien then caught Gaara's glare and look of blood lust directed at Naruto and his look turned very serious. "Hey Naruto, that guy is troubled I can see it. If there's anyone who can snap him out of that it's you. Always remember that during the fight." He then turned his look to Ayame. "You know how important this fight is right Ayame?" Ayame nodded. Her talk with Kushina had given her a focus that she rarely experienced. "Good. Hinata won't pull any stops on you. Don't even let her hang around and gain confidence. You need to take her out at the start. End it quickly."

Ayame nodded. She had a similar tactic in mind, but still to here it from the strategist of their team was a very reassuring thing. Naruto had also heard what he wanted to from his best friend. During the ceremony, team one knew that nothing was going to stop them from becoming chunin.

In the forest, many Oto and Suna ninja were starting to accumulate. They knew what the signal was and were simply waiting for it. Temari and Kankuro were along with them, but they had a couple of targets specially in mind. Part of the plan was for them to be in the middle of the arena so that they could help Gaara in any way possible. This however worked out better for them. Instead of worrying about possible invasion plans, now they had time to train and prepare themselves for their new rivals. Kankuro himself couldn't wait to rip apart the Konoha gennin that defeated him in the exam prelims. Meanwhile, Temari still couldn't believe that the girl on that team got the jump on her and she wanted to get back at the girl.

Also, a four man squad from Oto was getting ready for a sneak attack. They didn't really get along to well, but still they were a very effective unit. However, one of them at the moment seemed to be very distracted with something. More specifically, the redheaded girl of the group just couldn't get an image of a clueless blond out of her mind and it was driving her crazy.

Who the fuck is that? I swear, I mean I know that I've seen him before but I have no idea where. Maybe I can find that perverted shit and beat the fuck out of him until he tells me just where we met before I castrate his perverted ass for peeping on me.

That same redhead had been in a bad mood for about a week and the other members had no idea why but they did know that they wanted to stay as far away from her as humanly possible.

The opening ceremonies had ended and the chunin exam floor had cleared except for the two contestants and the proctor. The rest of the contestants had cleared into a special box reserved for just them. Ayame stood about ten feet from Hinata and just glared at her, while Hinata gazed into Ayame's eyes with determination.

"Look Ayame,": Hinata started. "I know what you and Naruto-kun currently have. However, for the same reason why I admire Naruto-kun is why I won't give up on him."

"I know Hinata. However, I've been good friends and now the girlfriend of Naruto-kun. I know everything about him and I will never let him go as long as I live."

Sparks started to fly between the two girls who were fighting over one thing and one thing only. Everyone in the arena could sense the tension starting to fly between the two and it looked as if everything was about to explode all over the arena. Ayame took her bow off her back and Hinata activated her Byukugan. Finally, after seemingly hours of intense glaring, the proctor announced that the fight was to begin.

Hinata wasted no time in going after the ramen waitress. Her palms and fists were ready to seal every single chakra point in Ayame's body in one fell swoop. However, just when it seemed that Hinata was going to hit her, Ayame used her bow to parry Hinata's fist aside gently. Hinata's momentum carried her right into a trip from Ayame and the waitress hooked the left heel of the Hyuuga heiress. Hinata, though had studied her competition and used her other foot to trap the Hyuuga in a body scissors. She then used her leg strength and position to flip the ramen waitress on her belly. With Ayame in a situation like that, Hinata changed her position and put one leg just underneath Ayame's left shoulder blade and tried to put pressure on a chakra point in Ayame's left arm. Ayame, though reached for her bow and smacked Hinata in the face with it getting her off. Both girls got up quickly and resumed their staring match.

"Nice strategy by Hinata." Lucien muttered. "Ayame may have it much rougher then I originally thought."

"What do you mean? You honestly don't think that Ayame-chan is in trouble do you? There's no way that she'll lose here." Naruto said.

"Maybe, maybe not. It has to do with scouting." Lucien pointed out. "You see, me, you, Hinata, and Ayame have all known each other since the academy. Which means that Hinata knows everything that Ayame is going to do and vice versa. However, Hinata has flipped the tables by trying to use Ayame's submissions against her as we just saw. Because Ayame can't copy what Hinata will do, Hinata is starting to take the psychological advantage. That in itself is key in a match like this."

"I'm still not worried. I know that Ayame-chan will take Hinata down." Naruto said.

Hinata and Ayame went back at each other. This time, Ayame led the charge with her bow leading the assault. Hinata had a hard time defending against the onslaught of attacks dealt by the bow. Hinata let the bow graze her cheek but at the same time she was able to lean in and get in Ayame's face. Worriedly, Ayame went back on the defensive. She knew all about the gentle fist style from her training with Kushina and was easily able to tell just where Hinata was aiming for. At the same time, Ayame also knew that she couldn't afford to let even one blow land. She then reached back for a dangerous strategy that she felt might work in this situation, but was too scared to attempt in practice.

Ayame leaped backwards and let Hinata close the distance. That however was what Ayame wanted. She put a bolt in her bow and fired point blank at the charging Hyuuga. Surprised by the lethal attack, she leaned back just in time for the bolt to pass by her cheek, drawing a bit of blood.

Using the time that she just aquired, Ayame jumped back and loaded her bow with a single bolt and put all of her chakra into that arrow. She wanted to end this battle with the same attack that saved her against Tenten.

"Give it up now Hinata. It's over. You've seen this attack before and know what it can do. I don't want to have to end this tragically, and you know that."

Hinata stood back up and used her bloodline's famous glare to stare down Ayame. "You know as well as I do that he wouldn't quit. I will never quit and never back down. I can't face him unless I follow that to my grave. Just try it."

"I hope you survive Hinata. I think that you're one of the kindest and strongest girls that I know and I'd hate to kill you. Finishing Strike Pulverizing Storm." Ayame fired her bolt and it multiplied hundreds of times. Hinata however made no effort to try and dodge. In fact, she just dug her feet into the ground and began to spin around very quickly. Out of her fingertips came very small looking laser beams. She kept sinning and spinning and one by one, every single one of the arrows fell.

The entire arena was shocked, but nobody was more shocked then the top elite of the Hyuuga clan. Hiashi had only taught Hinata the basics of the trigram rotation, and here it seemed that Hinata had improved it into something that could be used in a more versatile manner. He had no idea what his daughter was capable of and was extremely curious to see what she could do.

"Tou-san," spoke a small Hyuuga girl from Hiashi's left. "What is that technique? Is that something that I will be taught sometime?"

"That Hanabi is an adaptation on an ancient Hyuuga technique. In fact, I think that may even be an improvement."

"But I don't understand, why is it that neechan would try and change our style? I mean, it's what makes us the strongest clan in Konoha. Why change what works?" Hanabi asked.

"Hanabi, our eyes make us a very dominant clan. However, not all Hyuuga are built to execute that style. I saw in our previous sessions, that your sister lacks a couple of the essentials that would suit her for out style. I tried to force those essentials on her, but now I see what she did behind my back. She changed our style to fit her. It doesn't make her weak, just … different I guess. It's something that the whole clan will have to deal with." Hiashi noted.

In the gennin booth, everyone was stunned. Lucien, who had thought that the fight could go either way, now did not like Ayame's chances. He had never even heard of Pulverizing Storm being stopped dead in its tracks the way that it had. In fact, everyone thought that Hinata was in a good position to win. The only one who felt that even after all this that Ayame would win was Naruto.

Ayame was mystified. She had never seen a defense like that. It looked like the same defense that Neji used, and at the same time, so much more powerful. She had no idea what to do now, but it would need to be a huge move to turn this fight back in her favor.

Hinata however didn't even give Ayame room to breathe. She regained her assault with a flurry of palm strikes that all barely missed the target. Ayame knew that her same tactic of backing up and firing wouldn't work twice, so she needed to try something else. Hinata kept on attacking and attacking while Ayame kept on backing up until her back was against the wall of the chunin exam arena. With her back against the wall and nowhere else to run, it looked over. Hinata attacked with a palm strike and Ayame used her riskiest strategy to this point.

She jumped into the air and used her hands to hold onto the wall of the chunin exam floor. The next move that Ayame pulled was wrapping her legs around Hinata's neck and used her powerful legs to swing the Hyuuga girl down to the ground. With her legs still around Hinata's neck, Ayame grabbed both of Hinata's wrists. Ayame then let go of Hinata's neck with her legs and made her way back to her feet. Ayame then lifted the top half of Hinata up and put her good foot on the back of Hinata's head and ruthlessly shoved the Hyuuga's head onto the ground, knocking her unconscious and officially ended the fight.

Ayame won the fight and looked over her injuries herself. For one, in the last attack, Ayame's left leg was completely numb. The impact from Hinata's body easily injured it. Also, Ayame took a few gentle fist shots to her chest and was having a small bit of trouble breathing. She also had minor scrapes, but nothing serious there. Ayame knew that she got pretty lucky in the end.

Meanwhile, the entire arena erupted in applause. Not only for the reason that a Hyuuga was knocked off by a ninja of no pedigree, but also because it showed the dominance and capability of Konoha kunoichi.

Hiashi was disappointed by his daughter's loss for sure. He knew that it could come back to bite them later, but he was also proud of his daughter's fighting abilities.

"Tou-san, Hinata lost to a commoner. How big of a disgrace is that anyway? I mean, Hyuuga shouldn't lose to commoners."

"Hanabi, your sister fought well out there. You see, many ninjas of non-noble blood have gone on to become great shinobi. For one, both our current hokage and Yondaime were both born from either lesser clans or no clan at all in Yondaime's case. If your sister keeps improving at this rate, she may well one day even surpass me." Hiashi said.

"I knew Ayame-chan would do it. Wow she's gotten really strong over the last month." Naruto said very excitedly.

"And so has Hinata. She gave Ayame the fight of her life to be sure. She's come a long way from blushing every time you walk into a room that's for sure." Lucien said.

"Yeah she's gotten better that's for sure. But why would she blush when I walk into a room. I thought that she always did that." Lucien slapped his forehead. Even to this day, it shocked him how the boy could be so dense.

As Ayame limped her way to the contestant box, Lucien turned his attention to his former best friend. Or to put it better, his two former best friends before joining team one, Sora, and Neji.

….....................................

Chapter 21 is done and the finals have begun. Likely next chapter will cover the next fight between Sora and Neji and will also cover the Lucien vs Shika fight.

I'm putting this chapter up on nothing more then fumes so I have no idea how it turned out.

Expect a new chapter of Tanebi to be released sometime later this week.

Thank you for reading.

Next chapter: Friends turned Rivals

Please review