Chapter Twenty-One

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

Note: About Naruto cross-dressing as 'That Man'…That was what Sasuke always referred to Itachi as in the version of the manga I read when he didn't want to admit they were related and he's been referring to Orochimaru as that since the massacre. In chapter two, Naruto did the Oiroke no Jutsu to pose as a girl Orochimaru when he was framing him, hence the cross-dressing. Although the other finalists, not being privy to such information, are probably getting even more concerned about those two.

"So what do you know about this Lee kid, Kakashi?" Minato asked as the next pair of genin made their way to the arena floor. "He's Gai's student, right?"

"Indeed," Kakashi confirmed. "He's unhealthily devoted to youth and being exactly like Gai. He can't use chakra for ninjutsu or genjutsu so he's remarkable with taijutsu but tends to risk permanent disability or even death to prove himself."

"There's nothing wrong with risking that so long as it does not happen," the Kazekage noted.

"True, but you can't always guarantee it and too many risks could backfire," Minato countered. "So…does his emulation of Gai and fascination with the Power of Youth make him more youthful than his mentor?"

Kakashi considered the question. "Not yet. In a few years, though…"

"So he'll need to pass, soon," Minato remarked. "How are Naruto's chances?"

"I think he'll come out just fine," Kakashi replied. "But Lee's no pushover." And it wasn't like Naruto could use his Sage Mode given the only way they knew of to learn that was spending weeks with the toads, which Naruto obviously hadn't his timeline. Using Kyuubi chakra was also risky as Naruto's control wasn't the greatest and the goal was to get Lee through the fight without needing intensive care and life threatening surgery. Kakashi didn't really know much about Lee's life at present, but if the events of the previous time's Chuunin Exam were any indication, the kid could really use a break.

"That's good," Minato said. "I don't need Naruto to win the Tournament or anything, but if he doesn't make a strong showing he's going to be so disappointed."

"Kakashi must have faith if he was willing to lay down money for it," the Kazekage said idly.

"Well, that and I could never bring myself to bet on Gai's student," Kakashi confessed. "It's not like he's not a good instructor, because he is – although his training methods are completely insane – but he would never, ever let me live it down."

"You almost bet on Hyuuga Neji," Itachi pointed out.

"…But I didn't," Kakashi said finally. "And Neji being Gai's student was really what decided me in the end."

"May we have a most youthful match," Lee said, bowing.

Naruto bowed back. "If by 'most youthful' you mean 'impressive enough for a promotion' then I hear you."

"One question before we start…I know Sakura used to love Sasuke, but did she ever harbor feelings for you?" Lee asked.

"Well, she did confess her love to me once," Naruto answered. "But that was mostly because she wanted to kill Sasuke."

Lee blinked. "…Pardon?"

"We have an interesting team dynamic," Naruto said with a shrug.

"So it would appear," Lee agreed.

"If you guys are quite done with the small talk," Obito spoke up, "then the second match of the finals can begin."

"But…but the small talk is a vital part of my very ninja style!" Naruto protested.

"Be that as it may, Lee doesn't really look like he needs to be saved from self-destructing, so just get on with the match," Obito instructed.

Maybe he didn't. But wait until he started opening those gates…Naruto didn't remember how many of them Lee could open at this point in time, but he was fairly certain he could already open enough to turn red, which probably wasn't good for him.

Lee came at him quickly, aiming a high kick at his chest. Naruto jumped back so it only grazed him but Lee didn't give him any time to recover as hands were suddenly everywhere and Naruto didn't have time to do anything but block it.

Naruto knew that theoretically, his ungodly stamina should allow him to outlast Lee if they kept this up. The problem was, not only would it fail to showcase anything but his staying power but it also left Lee in a position to land a hit an do some serious damage.

"I don't know what this is called, but I saw that creepy kissing lady doing it," Naruto announced. He breathed wind-infused chakra into the palm of his hand, shaping it into a small ball shape whirlwind and shot it in Lee's direction.

Naturally, Lee dodged and the sphere tore a hole through the wall behind him. It was close, though, and the backlash was enough to toss the boy back several feet.

"You know," Obito lamented. "There's a reason we can never manage to get this place insured…Ah well, it's not like the repairs won't come out of your mission pay anyway."

"Who is the 'creepy kissing lady'?" Sasuke wondered.

Sakura narrowed her eyes in concentration. "I don't remember her name, but she was a Kunoichi who attacked us a few times when we were dealing with Sora."

"Sora?" Sasuke asked blankly.

"You know, that guy whose father infused him with Kyuubi chakra?" Sakura prompted.

Sasuke shook his head. "No, I really don't know. I was probably… elsewhere at the time. But let me get this straight: you guys encountered some semi-possessed guy and had to deal with some sort of kissing killer?"

Sakura nodded. "It was a bit more complicated than that, but basically."

"And you guys wonder why I left…" Sasuke muttered.

"Oh please, like that disgrace to medical-nin wasn't getting up to some even more twisted things," Sakura shot back.

"If he was then I didn't have to see it so I couldn't care less," Sasuke replied.

"Or that vampire girl," Sakura continued.

"Who?" Sasuke asked, puzzled.

"You know, the one that healed people by biting," Sakura elaborated.

"Karin wasn't really a medic-nin," Sasuke pointed out. "And she had to get bitten to heal people, not vice versa."

"Whatever," Sakura said. "It was weird. And she was creepy!"

"She actually reminded me of you when we first got on a team," Sasuke said casually.

Sakura's eyes darkened. "What?"

"Think about it. Both of you were obsessive about me, good at chakra control, violent when angry at loud annoying teammates…" Sasuke trailed off. "Although I don't believe you ever rolled around in my discarded clothing or made plans to drug other people so you could ravish me, but then, she was sixteen and you were twelve."

"Sasuke," Sakura said warningly.

Sasuke blithely ignored the warning. "But then, there were some differences too. You had pink hair, she had red. You needed to believe in what you were doing and she was more blindly loyal. On the other hand, she was never useless…"

"Seriously, it's like you want to die or something," Sakura marveled.

Lee had apparently taken the time Sakura and Sasuke were bickering to reveal his nindo to Naruto. "And so you see," he concluded. "It matters not that I have no inborn advantages for I am a genius of hard work!"

"That is amazing," Naruto, always a sucker for a sob story, gushed. "I am truly inspired. I may not be the most naturally gifted either, but I AM a genius of stamina."

"No natural advantages?" Sasuke shouted down. "What about the Kyuubi?"

"Or being the Hokage's son?" Sakura added.

"Or the fact one of the Sannin is your godfather?" Kiba joined in.

"Or the fact you always seemed to know everything before we were taught it?" Shikamaru deigned to contribute.

"Or-"

"Yep," Naruto said loudly, ignoring his rather unsupportive friends. "I did everything all by myself."

"Well then we shall have to see which is greater: my hard work or your stamina," Lee declared.

"Lee," Gai called out.

Lee immediately turned his attention to his mentor. Naruto cursed the fact that Lee was his friend and thus attacking him when he was distracted during the Exam would probably be a bad idea. "Yes, Gai-sensei?"

"Take them off," Gai ordered.

Lee's eyes widened. "Are you sure? I thought-"

"I know," Gai nodded, smiling. "But it's time to show these people what you're made of."

"I will," Lee nodded determinedly. He bent down and began unbuckling the weights around his legs.

Naruto was REALLY cursing having an honor code right about now.

"You think taking off a few paltry weights will give you enough of an advantage?" Temari asked skeptically.

"I don't know," Shikamaru said thoughtfully. "Loud and ostentatious though they may be, I don't think Gai and Lee would make such a procession about just a few pounds. Besides, they are both known to take things to the extreme."

"But those things are tiny!" Temari protested. "How heavy could they possibly be?"

Temari's question was answered as Lee casually tossed the two weights to the side as if they weighed nothing. To the surprise of most of the stadium, the weights left a huge crack in the floor and caused a large cloud of dust.

Temari blinked. "I stand corrected."

"I knew I should have made a bet," Shikamaru said absently.

"Then why didn't you?" Temari demanded.

Shikamaru shrugged. "It was too-"

"Troublesome, right?" Temari rolled her eyes. "How did I know you were going to say that?"

"You've said more than two words to him?" Kiba offered.

"No one asked you," Temari snapped.

"I don't need to be asked," Kiba declared. He cocked his head. "You know, you two would make a good couple…"

Shikamaru would have responded, but he felt secure that the Suna Kunoichi would react enough for the both of them.

"I'm sixteen! He's twelve! What the hell is wrong with you?" she demanded.

"Thirteen," Shikamaru corrected.

"That's not much better," Temari insisted.

"Eh, in a couple of years in won't make a difference," Kiba said dismissively.

"Then come back then!" Temari ordered.

"Oh I will, I will…" Kiba said, an evil glint in his eye.

Akamaru barked twice.

"What? No, I don't think it's weird I keep trying to set all my friends up," Kiba denied.

Akamaru barked again.

"But Ino really would be good with that one ANBU guy. And he looks just like Sasuke but paler so it's not like she would even have a problem on that front!" Kiba objected. "And you have to admit, the thought of Lee with pink hair is enough to be rooting for Lee to get the girl…"

"Can he really understand all that barking?" Neji asked.

Shino shrugged slightly. "I do not know but it may not matter. Why? Because that boy has enough problems."

"Poor Hinata-sama…to think she's on a team with him," Neji shook his head. "And I thought Lee was bad…"

"Didn't you say something to the effect of those first two when Naruto tricked you into revealing you came back?" Sasuke whispered.

"…No," Sakura lied.

Lee was moving too quickly for Naruto to see clearly. He could see the blur and knew that if he could manage to win if he could land a solid hit, but that was proving difficult under the circumstances. For perhaps the first time in his life, he wished he had a Sharingan so he could tell where Lee would be and attack there but then he reminded himself that that would be cheating and promptly dismissed the half-formed thought.

"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu," Naruto said, forming the hand seals as he dodged Lee's right fist but was hit by Lee's left foot. Naruto doubled over, automatically clutching his stomach. Lee sans weights packed quite a punch. Or kick, whatever. He quickly straightened and slipped into his army of clones.

"I may not be able to tell which one is the real you," Lee admitted. "But it does not matter as one hit should dispel the fakes and I can take them out quickly enough."

"Try it," a clone challenged. For that, he was the first to go.

Naruto waited silently as Lee moved through his clones and dispelled them with ease. Fortunately, it seemed that Lee had chosen to start with the clones on the opposite side of Naruto so Lee made his way towards his real opponent last.

Having had to dispel dozens of shadow clones already, Lee was getting frustrated and was beginning to slow down. Perfect.

Naruto wasn't entirely sure he should be using this during the exam but…Gaara had killed someone and Sasuke had used the Chidori the first time and would very likely use it again so why not? It would do some damage but probably not anything near how bad Lee had been wounded after opening all those gates and being on the receiving end of Gaara's desert coffin.

"Rasengan!" Naruto cried out as Lee was dispelling the clone to his left.

Lee's eyes widened and he tried to get out of the way but it was too late. The Rasengan did not hit him head on, but it still sent him flying and his head hit the floor with a sickening crunch.

Obito waited for a moment to see if Lee would rise to his feet. When he didn't, he hurried over to see his condition. "Naruto is the winner of the match. Someone get a medic."

Immediately, the medic's standing by went to Lee's side with a stretcher.

Naruto bit his lip as he hurried up to the balcony to rejoin his friends. "Think I overdid it a bit?" he asked, concerned.

"It could be worse," Sasuke said with a shrug. "He may need medical attention, but so did half the people from the prelims. Besides, it's not like getting hit will jeopardize his chances of remaining a ninja."

"That is something," Sakura agreed, remembering that even breaking half his limbs wasn't enough to dampen Lee's insane resolve as he'd only made his condition worse in the month before the finals by trying to ignore his injuries.

"Who's up next?" Kiba asked.

"That would be me," Shikamaru said, raising a hand lazily. "I'm not really sure I want to, though. I mean, after me is Neji and then Sasuke. Who really wants to see me fight?"

"It doesn't matter who does or does not want to see you fight as you will not like the consequences if you forfeit and don't give me a chance to," Temari said, grabbing his arm and dragging him towards the stairs. "You think you know 'troublesome', trust me, you have no idea."

"While I admire Temari's determination, any match involving Shikamaru that doesn't come with some sort of external time constraint will take hours," Naruto remarked. "Do you guys want to ditch again?"

"But I'm up after the match," Sakura protested.

"HOURS," Naruto repeated.

"I don't know…" Sakura trailed off.

"I was up after Shikamaru's match during the prelims," Sasuke reminded her. "And I made it back in time."

"Yeah, but you're an Uchiha," Sakura pointed out. "Everyone wanted to see you in the Finals so they weren't about to toss you out of the prelims for being a few hours late."

"And Neji's the Hyuuga's up-and-coming prodigy and they'll want to give him a chance to shine," Sasuke pointed out. "Besides, Naruto's right: the fight will take hours."

"But so will lunch…" Sakura replied.

"I was going to say something about being shocked that Sasuke would actually agree with me, but then I realized that he would just say that it would happen more often if I was right more often so…yeah…" Naruto trailed off.

"It's kind of pathetic you can have arguments with me in your head," Sasuke said bluntly.

"And I don't even win them all the time," Naruto said sadly, shaking his head.

"Fine, let's go," Sakura decided. "Kakashi's kind of busy making sure your dad doesn't die, so he can't come, so does that mean it'll just be the three of us?"

"That's no fun," Naruto said, shaking his head. His eyes lit up. "Hey, Gaara, want to go grab lunch with us?"

Gaara blinked slowly. "But what about the match?"

Naruto waved his concerns away. "Don't worry; we've done this before. I just need to leave a few shadow clones and then one of them will dispel and let me know when the match is over. It's not really going to be very exciting, I don't think, and the only one of us that will need to rush is Sakura."

"Alright," Gaara agreed. "Where are we going?"

"Ichiraku Ramen," Sasuke and Sakura chorused.

Naruto scratched his head. "Really? I was actually going to suggest that barbecue place as I was worried you might be getting sick of ramen but…if you insist!"

Kakashi had turned his attention to his team the minute it was time for Shikamaru's match and so saw them depart. This was going to take awhile.

Lucky bastards.

Review Please!