Neji spat out blood and collapsed on the ground. "Can't…move…" He groaned unsuccessfully trying to get up. He looked forward as Naruto approached him equally exhausted, blood dripping from his broken nails.

Silence prevailed for a few second before Genma's voice rang through the arena.

"The winner of the first match: Naruto Uzumaki!"

Slowly the arena erupted into applause and whistles and yells. Naruto panted and looked up at the audience, they were smiling and cheering for him. "They…they 're happy that I won…they don't hate me even though the fox…"

The smile on his face grew bigger and bigger before he pumped his fists in the air happily. "Yeah!" He laughed running around the arena.

Genma's eyes followed him around the arena. He shook his head impressed at the fact that after all of that he still had energy to run around. "That kid's on his way." He smiled.

Naruto stopped in the middle of the arena to catch his breath. He grinned looking around the audience, they were still cheering. To finally be acknowledged…it felt amazing. Suddenly he forgot all about those glares people gave him when they would see him on the street… those same people… all of them… were now cheering for him.

He was pulled out of his thoughts when he saw a familiar figure running towards him.

When Neji crawled out of his hole and the smoke completely cleared, Hinata's heart stopped when she saw her beloved's body motionlessly lying in the dirt. She thought it was over, he had lost… but when he burst out of the ground beneath Neji's feet and the body in the hole burst into smoke revealing another hole underneath it and her cousin collapsed into the dirt, she couldn't believe what she was seeing. That had seemed to be a major turn in events as she wasn't the only one absolutely shocked by Naruto's unexpected win. Kakashi, Gai and all the genin around her visibly displayed shock on their faces. And they weren't the only ones. When she ran down the stairs towards the arena she caught a glimpse of the other members of her clan, including her father. They were completely stunned as well.

But what stunned Hiashi even more was what his eldest daughter did next.

Getting onto the battle field she ran towards her boyfriend just as he turned towards her. He grinned happily when he saw her and spread his arms to catch her into a hug. Instead, Hinata jumped onto him wrapping her arms around his neck, almost making him fall, and after he wrapped his arms around her waist… she gave him a long, joyful kiss.

Needless to say, the audacious move the Hyuga Princess pulled earned quite the reaction from the astounded audience. The cheers, whistles and yells became louder.

"No way!"

"Oh my God!"

"Way to go, kid!"

"Are you seeing this?!"

"He has a girlfriend? Aw… but he's kinda cute…"

"Now this is a show! I'm so glad I came to see the matches!"

Sakura's and Ino's jaws dropped but not nearly as much as Lee's did. After all he was at the hospital and he didn't even know the two liked each other let alone this.

"The flames of their youth burn brighter that ever!" Gai was tearing up.

"They sure do." Kakashi stared at his two students.

The two were aware of what was happening around them, but even when the two released each other the kiss continued for a few more seconds before the two broke apart.

"You did it! You actually did it!" Hinata wiped her happy tears.

"Of course I did it! You doubted me?" He grinned.

She giggled. "Of course no-" but when her heart calmed down and her vision became clear again, she looked up at the audience and realized what she had just done… in front of the whole village.

"Eeeep!" She squealed hiding her face in Naruto's jacket making him laugh.

"Let's get out of here, the second match should start now." She nodded and she headed towards the exit. "Wait a sec." Naruto said, his smile dropped and was replaced with a serious expression. He walked towards Neji who was still on the ground.

"You know…I failed the graduation test three times…"

Neji blinked in surprise.

"Cuz there was this one jutsu that I just couldn't get, no matter how hard I tried. " Naruto continued looking at him. "That's right, I flunked the Shadow Clone jutsu every time. But now…it's my specialty. So don't go wining to me about that destiny crap, cuz it means nothing to me."

Neji didn't say a thing.

"I worked hard and I changed my destiny, and so can you. You can't blame your life on other people. You choose how you want to live. It was your choice to hate Hinata and it was your choice to underestimate me and make fun of me, and look where your so called destiny got you. You need to let that go… and set yourself free."

Neji wordlessly looked up at the bird that flew across the arena. His eyes were drawn to a destroyed nest the bird came from. It must have been damaged in the wave of their battle… but the bird chose to build a nest there…

Naruto walked away with Hinata and the cheering died down. The medics carried Neji away and the exams were to continue.

Up in the viewing area where the contestants watched the match. Kin and Zaku made their way towards the contestants as Zaku was in the hospital getting treatment for the damage Shino's bugs caused to his arms.

"Kankuro, we have a problem." Zaku said in a serious tone.

"Hm?" Kankuro turned his attention towards his teammate. Temari turned towards them while Gaara just glanced.

"I snuck out of the village before the exam started and went to meet with Lord Orochimaru as planned." Kin explained. "Seems he got a word from Kabuto… we're busted, they know about our plan."

"What? How?" Kankuro replied.

"Hayate." Kin answered.

"Didn't Kabuto say he took care of him?" Kankuro's brows furrowed in anger.

"Seems like he didn't." Zaku added. "And that's not all…they caught Kabuto and handed him over to that psycho proctor from the first exam."

"Damn it." Kankuro spat. "My match is up next and the plan was for me to forfeit anyways so I say we scam before we get caught too."

"We need to let the Kazekage know first." Kin said.

"He doesn't know?" Temari's eyes went wide. "We need to be quick."

She was cut off by the proctor who called Shino and Kankuro down to start the second match. While Shino made his way down towards the battle field he stopped dead in his tracks after Kankuro loudly announced that he's backing out of the fight. As the shocked audience protested and booed, Genma called Shino the winner and Invited Temari and Shikamaru to the field.

"Go, I'll buy you some time." Temari said before she used her fan to elegantly transport herself to her position where Shikamaru was waiting…in the dirt, looking at the orange clad idiot who had pushed him over the railing and a giggling Hinata who was standing next to him.

As the fight started one of the jounin burst into the viewing area where the Kage were sitting and whispered into the Hokage's ear.

"Lord Hokage, we have an emergency. One of the ANBU just spotted Orochimaru just outside the village."

"What?!" Hiruzen whispered back. "Make sure he doesn't get in the village, pull all the jounin out of the arena except Genma."

"Yes, sir."

Almost half an hour later there was no word from the jounin as Shikamaru made his way back to the viewing area.

"You idiot! What in the actual fuck were you thinking?! You had her and you forfeit?! What's wrong with you?!" Naruto was red with rage and incredibly confused about the outcome of the match.

"I don't want to waste my breath explaining it to you."Shikamaru said calmly looking at Temari who wasn't enjoying the applause. But the look on her face as she looked around the audience wasn't the one of the thought that she didn't deserve the applause, but it seemed as she was looking for something or someone.

"Unbelievable… The puppet guy forfeits, you forfeit, that Sound guy with long sleeves ends up dead and Sasuke has to fight that creepy Sand guy who beat the shit out of Lee. Am I gonna be the only one that actually won this freaking thing?" Naruto rubbed his temples before turning towards Hinata. "Actually that's not that bad."

She giggled. "But Sasuke might win. You thought that you were not going to win, remember? So you never know."

"Yeah, you're right. All we can do now is cheer for him, right?" She nodded.

Temari was back next to Gaara as Genma invited Sasuke and him down to the battle area. "Gaara, Lord Orochimaru will be here soon, we don't have time for this." Temari said quietly.

"I don't care." Gaara responded coldly not even looking at her. "Mother wants blood." He disappeared in a wave of sand before reappearing in the battle field across from Sasuke. "Let's get this over with."

"Hn." Sasuke smirked.

Suddenly Gaara flinched and grabbed his head moaning in pain. "Patience mother… you will soon have fresh spilled blood…"

Sasuke's eyes widened. "What is he talking about? Who is he talking to?"

A few seconds later Gaara returned to his usual passive self and crossed his arms. "Go ahead… I will give you a brief moment before I kill you… attack." He had seemed to be looking at Sasuke but his eyes seemed so dull and cloudy, almost like he was looking through him.

Sasuke raised a brow at his words before sand started to pour out of the gourd on Gaara's back.

"So this is the sand Kakashi told me about… is it really that dangerous? Well, I guess I would know if I had seen him fight Lee at the preliminaries. Guess we'll just have to see."

Sasuke charged at Gaara but just as he was about to punch him a knob of sand swiftly rose from the ground and blocked his punch but then started to crawl up his arm. Sasuke shook the sand off of his arm before going in for another punch only to have the sand block it again. He punched repeatedly, trying to get close to the guy but the sand did exactly what Kakashi said it would do. He could not lay a finger on Gaara, and the guy was doing nothing. He was just standing there glaring at him. He almost menacingly grinned at him seeing that he was gettingagitated that he wasn't able to hit him.

He used all four of his limbs trying to inflict some kind of damage but to no avail. But then he thought of something. He charged him again but this time activating his Sharingan. He was hoping to use it later in the battle to surprise his opponent but it seemed like there was no other choice at this point. As the majority of the sand flew in front of Gaara to protect him Sasuke smirked and moved behind him in incredible speed. Gaara's eyes widened as the Uchiha swiftly disappeared out of his view. Feeling his opponent behind him he turned only to see his fist as it slammed on his cheek, cracking his sand armor and knocking him to the ground.

Naruto jumped up as he gripped the railing. "He got him!"

"Yes!" Hinata agreed happily.

Gai narrowed his eyes. "Such speed…"

Lee looked in shock. "That move… that's my taijutsu!"

"So that's the sand armor, huh?" Sasuke asked rhetorically. "Come on." He challenged Gaara who in return just sat there staring at him. "Then if you won't come at me, I'll just come at you!"

And with that he charged at him again and the blows at the sand continued, however this time the reaction of the sand was delayed as it had trouble keeping up with Sasuke's kicks. Gai and Lee looked on, astonished by his incredible speed. It was the same speed Lee had when he would remove his weights. But lee needed years to get to that level of speed…but it took Sasuke less than a month to get there.

"Sasuke… you really are a genius beyond imagination..." Lee mused.

Finally Sasuke landed one more punch causing the crack on his face to become wider, but before Gaara went onto the ground Sasuke grabbed the straps of his coat and pulled his towards him and his knee dug into Gaara's stomach.

Gaara made some distance from Sasuke as he sat on the ground angered. His sand scattered on the ground around him.

Temari looked in shock. "He got hit again. There's no way!"

Kankuro shook his head as a drop of sweat appeared on his face. "The sand armor takes too much chakra… he won't last long like this…"

Gaara finally got on his feet and made a hand sign causing all the sand to start to gather around him in a perfect sphere. Sasuke grimaced. "What now?"

As the sand covered him in layers Sasuke attempted to get in another punch before the sand closed him off completely but as he charged at the hole that that getting smaller, stiff spikes burst out of the sand and he froze. He felt a drop of blood trickle down his face and more blood leak out of his fist that was still pressed against the sand. He didn't know what kind of jutsu this could be so he jumped away from the sphere.

"The sand is a lot harder now, there's a major difference in the density this time. I can't get to him now."

He attempted to break the sand over and over again but the spikes just kept coming. But as he got closer to Gaara in those attempts he could hear him repeating hand signs. But for what?

"What is he up to? I think I should just break the sand before he has a chance to finish it."

Sasuke then made some hand signs himself and held his left hand with is right as a blue ball began forming in it leashing out lightning bolt type chakra around it.

Hiruzen raised his hat so he could see better. "Is that…Kakashi… of course you did…"

"What is that?!" Naruto leaned over the railing.

Sasuke roared: "Chidori!" Before running towards the sand sphere.

Sakura's eyes widened. "That's amazing! The chakra is visible to the naked eye!"

"And you can hear it too. It's like electricity!" Ino added.

As the Chidori made contact with the sphere a large cloud of sand formed around Sasuke as he looked in front of him with his sharingan. "Got you."

Inside the sphere which seemed untouched, Gaara was now looking at his hands… on them there was something he has never seen before… and frankly he thought he would never even see…

"Blood…" Gaara stammered out. "My… blood…"

Suddenly a menacing scream came out of the sphere. "MY BLOOD!"

Sasuke backed away as a giant sand claw burst out of the sphere.

"No! Gaara!" Temari yelled out.

The Kazekage cringed. "No… this will ruin our plan! Not yet Gaara!"

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Gaara yelled out as the claw became ever bigger and sand started to engulf half of his body and a sand tail started to form. The tail smashed into the ground and it came back up with such force it sent pieces of rock flying into the audience. The arena filled with screams as people started running out of it.

As if the situation couldn't get any worse a beat up jounin appeared next to the Hokage. "Lord Hokage, we couldn't stop him!"

Hiruzen got up and yelled. "Evacuate the arena immediately! The exams are over!"

"Yes, sir."

The Kazekage slammed his fist against his chair. "Damn it!" But as he got up to leave two ANBU blackops appeared in front of him. "You aren't going anywhere."

Hiruzen, now dressed in his armor appeared in front of the closed village gates where dozens of bloody jounin were lying on the ground.

He looked around. They were still breathing. But his breath caught in his throat as a familiar voice addressed him.

"Well, well… It is nice to see you are still alive, Sarutobi."

He turned towars the owner of the voice and frowned. "I wish I could say it was nice to see you are alive, but it is not…"

"… Orochimaru…"