Chapter 21

Shino stood watching Shikamaru quietly as the minutes mark passed since the beginning of this fight. Neither one wanted to move since they knew the first one to move would likely lose. Each of them had an advantage that could win them the match in a second. Shino could eat Shikamaru's charka stopping his shadow and possibly eat the charka in the shadow itself. But Shikamaru could also stop Shino by freezing his bug and himself with the shadow so that they could not eat the charka.

The tension in the stands was growing as well with each passing second which was weird since most times a match like this would be considered boring. Then without warning a blast of smoke filled the arena around the 2 contestants. Then two blurs shot out of the cloud as an explosion rocked the place causing the dusk cloud to move.

The two blurs landed revealing Shino and Shikamaru and out from them came there attacks. Shikamaru's shadows leaped from the ground and shot towards shino with almost untold speed but they were stopped and blocked by Shino's own attacking bugs which drained the Charka from the attacks. Both attacks where stopped as the bug retreated and Shikamaru was forced to end his justu for a few seconds. They smirked at each other Shikamaru made the first move as the field was covered by a cloud again increasing his attacks range and power.

Shino not letting this happen jumped and disappeared with a replacement justu. Then out from three different locations came waves of bugs heading towards Shikamaru. Shikamaru changed the tentacles of shadows and set them up spinning around him rapidly forcing the bugs back then splitting the tentacles apart thousands of needle shape tentacles shoot out from the main ones attacking and destroying many of the bugs.

Up in the stands Naruto smirked, "well it seems that we have been really underestimated those two."

Sakura nodded, "I know his first match was something to watch but this is insane. I never knew these two could be so powerful."

"They are going to be Chuunin I can tell that already. Though I wonder why Shikamaru is trying so hard," Naruto said though the last part was not meant for anyone just himself.

Down in the arena Shino had been forced back out into the open as the shadows Shikamaru had been using. But they were forced to retreat as the cloud passed completely bathing the arena in sunlight. Slowly both Shino and Shikamaru stopped resting for a few moments sizing up each other trying to find a good enough weakness to win the match.

"I wonder why Shikamaru has not used that new justu just yet. The field is still set just fine for it but why not use it I wonder." Sakura said wondering.

Naruto was thoughtful for a few seconds but it was Benihime who spoke, "Because I think it takes a lot more charka to use then he lets on. Also if you think about it while yes it is a powerful justu there might be big limits on it. Like amount of things he can control at one time and remember while he could control Shino he cannot probably control all of his bugs."

"Those reasons would make a lot of sense. That probably means Shino will win then." Sakura said.

"Possibly but if the first match, or even this match is anything to go by I would not count Shikamaru out just yet. Though if this keeps up much longer I don't think either of them will have enough energy left to take on Hinata let alone beat her." Benihime said with a small smirk.

Naruto turned towards her looking at her closely for a few seconds before speaking, "you knew this would happen didn't you."

"Nope but I was hoping for this. I knew that Shino and Shikamaru would likely win then fight each other to a tie. I was not sure how Lee's fight would go but I figured it would still be hard for him. Meaning since I gave Hinata the perfect tool to beat Gaara she would have the best chance at winning this set of Matches. Though as it is I think she will not have to fight," Benihime said.

"But that means she will win right and become a Chuunin?" Haku asked.

"No not true. There are judges all around the arena watching and grading your skills as you fight. And even if you beat everyone that does not mean you will become Chuunin. But it gives you a better chance to showcase your skills and talents. So you could win and not become a Chuunin but the person you beat in the first round could just because he displayed better overall skills." Sakura explained quickly enough.

"So in short no one could become a Chuunin in this, but on the other hand everyone could become a Chuunin in this part of the exam." Haku asked.

"That is correct, though both of those situations are pretty rare." Naruto said nodding, "In this case I think Shikamaru, Shino, and Hinata will all become Chuunin. Though I wish I was there then I would prove I am worthy of being a Chuunin."

Sakura shook her head before reaching over and bopping Naruto hard on the head, "I prefer the way we did it. It was simpler and easier to set pant bombs for the Anbu then to go through all Hinata and the others have done."

"You call sneak into Anbu headquarters and planting paint bombs all over the place simple!" Anko said staring at them in a little shock.

"Well yeah didn't you hear it was us who did it?" Sakura said looking at Anko in surprised.

"No, to be honest no one ever said a word about who caused it, and the Hokage never said anything since we did not need to know!" Anko said looking at Sakura and her team with a new respect.

"Not surprising considering there are those that would love to use that information if they could," Naruto said with a slight glare at them signaling that line of talk over. "Anyway this fight is about to end look."

It had been about a minute now and Shikamaru was the first to move, looking like he had a plan. Moving rapidly towards Shino he pulled out a kunai and made to through it, but was stopped as a wall of bugs rose to stop him. Shikamaru smirked and replaced himself with Kunai next to Shino bringing the Kunai, in his hand up then straight through Shino's neck.

Shino though instead of falling down dead fell apart into hundreds of bugs. Shikamaru seemed to have expected this as he disappeared in a puff of smoke. Shino then without warning was sent flying out a tree on the other side of the field and landed hard on the ground. His bugs around the field could be swarming towards him to help but suddenly there were two flashes of blinding light causing nearly everyone to be blinded for a few seconds. As people started regained their eye sight again they could see that Shikamaru had Shino pinned under him with a Kunai barely an inch from his neck. Shino bugs were all grouped up around the location of the light had come from swarming them.

It the Jonin had already shown up and was calling the match as the rest of the non-ninja crowd regained their eye sight. The crowd breaks out talking at once. While the match did not have the power Hinata's did or the grace and speed of Lea's match. But it was still a good match since it was a battle of wits.

Naruto smiled at this before turning to Benihime, "well it seems Hinata can possibly fight again. But the question is if Shikamaru feels up to the fight or was this last fight to much for him."

"Do you think he will stay in?" Haku asked after a few moment of thought, "I mean it is safer for him to keep the rounds the way they are so far, since he showed a very fine set of showing for those two rounds. If he goes out again he risked looking a lot worse than he did before with his decrease Charka and stamina."

Benihime hearing this sighed, "I guess you have a point. Though that would mean Hinata does win the final part of the Chuunin Exams meaning she has a better chance of becoming a Chuunin, though unless she gets one more fight I am not sure if she will."

They all nodded falling silent as they walked Hinata walk out onto the field. Shikamaru had not moved since the end of the last match. He was keeping a blank look on his face making him nearly unreadable from this distance. As Hinata stopped near him the Jonin reappeared talking to both of them. After a few moment of talk the Jonin nodded and called the crowd.

"The Shikamaru is ready and willing to compete in the final match." The Jonin said.

At this the Hokage stood up causing the stadium to fall quiet. He took a few seconds before speaking, "To you Hinata Hyuga and you Shikamaru Nara. I give you my greatest praise for reaching this point in the exams."

The Hokage paused for a few seconds letting his words sink in before continuing, "Now you have only one more person to face in this Exam, but do not think that this is the end. Remember that everyday a Ninja life is at risk, meaning once you become Chuunin and possibly one day Jonin you should never stop reaching greater heights. And now will you show us all your true skills as a Ninja!"

"Begin," the Jonin yelled!

Hinata deciding to not disappoint charged in quickly moving into a flurry of attacks. Shikamaru was almost catch by the sudden speed was barely able to dodge Hinata fast paced strikes. But after a few seconds he seemed to get used to the speed of the attacks and was able to dodge and block the attacks without too many problems or at least so it seemed.

Shikamaru could feel his charka points being closed all over his arms each time he blocked an attack and though he was now used to the speed, he did not have the speed needed to counter attack. But then surprisingly he found an opening, in a split second he decided to make use of it. He did not realize that his speedy decision had led him into a trap.

Hinata smirked seeing Shikamaru take the bait. As he moved to take a shot for the opening in her attacks, she moved sliding around him as he moved closing different charka points with a quick set of jabs as she went. She skidded to a stop on the other side of him as he fell to the ground clutching his side in pain.

"You left that opening for me to find didn't you," Shikamaru said slowly standing up in spite of the pain.

"Maybe I did maybe I didn't, but I cannot let you have time to figure that out." Hinata said moving forward to take him out in one blow. But without warning she was thrown backwards as a shadow leapt from the ground.

Shikamaru smirked a little bit in spite of the pain. "You think I would let you win that easy?"

Hinata seemed to shrug, "well one could always hope."

Shikamaru smirked even more, "True but one does not always need to hope if one has planned for what is to come." With that he popped a pill into his mouth.

Hinata thanks to her activated eyes noticed that not only did his charka levels increase to normal but also that his charka points where open again. He was back to almost full power meaning that this fight was going to be a lot harder than she had thought it was going to be. As he slowly moved into a new stance Hinata could not help but feel that her chances of winning this match had just dropped.