Author's Note: Okay, it seems that the beginning of the finals got quite a nice overall reception. That's pretty good, thank you guys for reviewing. Anyway, enjoy the second part of the first round.


Chapter 28:

Fight to become a Chunin, Part II

or

Cats, Tanukis and Beetles, oh my!

"Look, it's Hinata-nee chan's turn to fight!"

A week before the Finals had started, Hikari Hyuga had reserved several front row seats for herself, her closest relatives, and some other Hyuga members. To her left was Hanabi, her youngest daughter, and to her right were Neji and his father Hizashi. A dozen other Hyuga members of both Main and Branch houses occupied the remaining seats, among those were some whom had disproved of Hinata being kept as the heiress as opposed to Hanabi. Naturally, they weren't going to voice their thoughts in front of her mother, but it was no secret to anybody as to who weren't fond of Hinata.

So far, the mood had been quiet among the Hyuga, even during the Naruto fight, but seeing their heiress walk into the arena alongside her opponent caused them to stir with excitement.

"It was about time," Hikari told her daughter. "Let's hope the results of the training pay off."

"Hinata-sama's opponent didn't strike me as a particularly strong opponent. Hinata-sama shouldn't have any trouble defeating her."

"Maybe you're right, Neji-kun, but underestimating your adversaries is not a wise thing to do. I thought that after your battle against the Uchiha, you'd know that," Hikari reprimanded him.

Neji couldn't help but frown at the mention of his most brutal humiliation so far. His only consolation was that nobody from the clan besides Hinata was there to watch Sasuke pounding the Hyuga prodigy to near death. Not that it made the memory any less painful.

"There's nothing wrong in making a general assessment of your adversary as long as you keep your guard up," Hizashi intervened. "And while I agree with Hikari-sama's statement, I also agree with Neji in that Hinata-sama's match will end in victory."

"I hope you're right, Hizashi. We all have high hopes on Hinata's performance," Hikari replied.

Meanwhile, in the arena, Hinata and Tamaki were in front of each other, waiting expectantly for Yugao to announce the start of the match.

"The fourth match of the Chunin Exam Finals between Hinata Hyuga, from Konoha, and Tamaki, from Konoha..." the purple haired woman raised her hand in the air. "Begin!"

Wasting no time, Tamaki started to form hand seals that Hinata recognized as those used for the Summoning Jutsu.

"I can't let her summon her cats!" Hinata thought as she activated her Byakugan and launched herself at her adversary.

Tamaki had to interrupt the seal sequence in order to avoid Hinata's palm strike. However, much to her shock, Hinata's Byakugan detected two blurs that rushed towards her. Upon closer look, she realized the blurs were Tamaki's cats, who leaped into the air, ready to pounce her.

With almost no time to react, the Hyuga heiress turned around and managed to kick the male cat, Denga, before he could slash her. She managed to hit the female cat, Hina, with a palm strike, but not without taking a painful scratch from her in return.

"How did you do it?" Hinata asked as she proceeded to heal the scratch. "I interrupted your summoning jutsu!"

"That you did," Tamaki said as she started to put on her bladed gauntlets. "But Denka and Hina were already in the stadium. I knew that you wouldn't let me summon them."

"She baited me by pretending to summon her cats, when the cats were already there...I have to stay alert, Tamaki might not be the strongest kunoichi, but she's really crafty," Hinata thought.

Tamaki just finished putting on her gauntlets. "So are you ready to fight? This time for real?" Tamaki asked as she and her cats adopted a fighting pose.

As Naruto watched Hinata and Tamaki fight each other, he was approached by the third jinchuriki in the Competitor's Box.

"So, that's the girl you told me about?" Fu casually asked.

"Yeah.." Naruto replied with a small smile.

"She's pretty cute. And looks like a nice girl. No wonder why you like her," Fu stated.

"Yeah… well, if only she liked me back..." Naruto sadly replied, looking down.

Fu looked at him with her eyes wide open, as if Naruto said an obscenity. "Are you kidding me?"

"Huh?" the blond dumbly asked.

"Come on, that girl's crazy for you!" Fu exclaimed. "Didn't you notice the way she acts when she's around you?"

"...how?" Naruto asked, not sure if that was a rhetoric question.

"The same way you act towards her?" Fu asked, hoping that it would ring a bell. "My goodness, you may thank Kami for your good looks and skill as a ninja, because otherwise you wouldn't go a long way with that empty head of yours," Fu stated as she lightly knocked Naruto's head with her knuckles.

"Knock it off!" Naruto protested, swiping Fu's arm away. "Listen, it's not that easy, okay?"

"How so?" the green haired girl asked.

"Hinata and I know each other since we were little. We were each other's first and best friend for half our lives. And I absolutely loved how things used to be. But know I find myself seeing her with different eyes, and realize that things will never be the same no matter what I do. Hell, even if she does likes me back and we become a couple...what if things don't work out and we break up? We won't be able to go back as just being friends like nothing happened."

Fu placed a comforting hand on Naruto's shoulder. "Yes, you're right. Things will be different. But they may be better as well. Nothing ever stays the same, and trying to force them so is foolish. It sounds to me that your friendship with Hinata wants to become something more. You should let things flow their natural course, don't fight against it. Besides, even if things don't work out, I'm sure you'll never stop being friends. If Hinata was the kind of person that would give up on you the moment things don't go smoothly, you wouldn't be her friend either, right?"

Naruto stared at Fu in disbelief for a few seconds. "...don't take this the wrong way, but you're way smarter than you look."

"Of course!" Fu proudly replied. "People tend to assume that just because I'm bubbly and outgoing, I'm easily distracted, and more often than not say the first thing that crosses my mind without thinking first..." Fu then paused, and looked confused. "...wait a minute, where I was going with all of this?"

"...that you're smart?"

"Ah, yes, of course! That I'm super smart and you should totally follow my awesome advice!" Fu energetically declared once again. "So when the match is over, I want you to walk towards Hinata and give her a huge kiss in the lips!"

Naruto remained silent for a few seconds. "I think that maybe I should try to tell her how I feel first. Thanks for your advice. So how about if we focus on the current match?"

Fu smiled. "That's a good idea too."

"Come on Hinata, you can win this!" Naruto shouted.

"Go Tamaki! Kick her ass!" Fu cheered. Naruto then turned at her with an indignant scowl. "What? Hinata may be your crush, but I don't know her at all, while Tamaki is a friend of mine."

"Lightning Release: Thunder Palm!"

Hinata activated her signature jutsu, as her hands started to crackle with blue and white electricity, before she tried to strike Tamaki. The cat kunoichi elegantly jumped back, avoiding the attack.

"Guess I better do my best to avoid your sparky hands," Tamaki commented.

"Your hands aren't exactly fit for caresses either," Hinata replied as she dodged a swipe from Tamaki's bladed gauntlets. Her Byakugan detected one of the cats trying to attack her from behind, but she was quick enough to repel him with a good placed kick. 'Thanks to sparring with Naruto, I'm used to fight against multiple opponents at once,' Hinata proudly thought. Upon seeing the cat, Denka, easily standing up, she added: 'But these cats won't poof after taking one hit.'

This time, both Tamaki and her cats lunged at Hinata from different directions. Hinata merely jumped aside, hoping for the three to crash into each other. But displaying their agility, the two cats managed to quickly turn around and leap at Hinata once again. She quickly struck one of the cats, the male one, with an accurate palm strike, but the other one sank her fangs on that very hand.

"OW!" Hinata yelped as she tried to shake the cat from her arm.

"Gotcha!" Tamaki shouted before lunging at Hinata, her metal claws aimed at her.

Even with the cat still biting her arm, Hinata managed to jump aside, and Tamaki's blades only slashed her coat. Hinata managed to get rid of Hina by strongly smacking the cat's head. Then, she looked at her partially shredded coat.

"I really liked this coat..." Hinata whined as she looked at her now ruined piece of clothing.

"My grandma sells clothes. I'm sure you can find something. Besides, aren't you Hyuga like completely loaded?" Tamaki asked as she dashed against Hinata once again. "Death Steel Ring!"

Once she was close to her target, Tamaki started to rapidly spin with her arms extended. As fast as she could, Hinata took off her jacket and tossed it at Tamaki, who instantly tore it to shreds the moment it touched her. When she was about to counterattack, Hinata was once again blindsided by Denka and Hina.

"Don't forget about us!" Hina meowed.

"Vacuum Palm!" Hinata was able to blast Hina away, but Denka managed to slash one of her arms. "You know, I used to love cats, but after this fight, I don't think that will be the case."

"You should admire cats for their skill and intelligence!" Tamaki mentioned as she dashed towards Hinata once again. ·"Drill Claw!"

Tamaki leaped at Hinata with her gauntlets facing forward, as she started to spin while on mid air. The attack was similar to Kiba's Fang Passing Fang, except that Tamaki moved faster while her spinning speed was lower.

"Vacuum Palm Wall!"

Hinata thrust both palms forward, releasing a powerful vacuum shell, blasting Tamaki away and countering her attack.

"Tamaki-chan!" Denga cried as he and his sister rushed towards the brown haired girl.

"Ugh...that was surely something..." Tamaki dizzily commented as she tried to stand up. "But such a strong attack must have cost her a ton of chakra. I think this is the time to counterattack."

Back in the stands, Kiba, Shino and Kakashi were watching the match.

"Boy, Hinata surely is way more than she looks," Kiba commented. "I thought that Tamaki would win easily, but Hinata is proving to be especially strong."

"Just like how you thought that Karin would be an easy win?" Kakashi sharply replied. Kiba frowned, and averted his eyes.

"Hinata may be silent and meek, but that does not make her weak. Don't forget the clan she hails from," Shino punctualized. "Then again, Tamaki had only been using the most basic moves of her arsenal."

"Indeed. Tamaki has been smart in trying to assess her opponent's strength before going all out. I think she's about to get serious," Kakashi observed. "Though I wouldn't put past Hinata to still have an ace in the hole."

"And now...!" Tamaki dramatically exclaimed as she crossed her arms in front of her face. "...you will experience the power of feline ninjutsu!" Tamaki spread her arms outwards, and she was enveloped by a fiery blue aura of chakra. "Let's go!"

Tamaki dashed at Hinata at an amazingly fast speed. All what Hinata could do was adopt a defensive stance and hope to block the incoming hit and counterattack.

"Cat Claw Dash!"

Hinata tried to dodge, but even then Tamaki managed to leave a minor scratch. Her Byakugan noticed that upon rushing past her, Tamaki turned around was heading towards her once more.

"Cat Claw Dash!"

This time, Hinata managed to completely avoid Tamaki's onslaught, but unfortunately this time she didn't attack alone, and Denka and Hina managed to add more scratches to Hinata's ever growing collection.

The process repeated quite a few more times, with Tamaki viciously assaulting Hinata, the two cats blindsiding her, and the Hyuga doing nothing but trying to defend herself.

'If I continue like this, she will beat me!' Hinata thought as her mind tried to come up with a solution. 'Just like she does to me, I need to attack her when she's vulnerable.'

Upon dodging one of Tamaki's fast attacks, Hinata quickly formed several hand seals.

"Lightning Release: Thunderbolt!"

Blue lightning bolts came from Hinata's fingers and flew towards Tamaki. However, making a display of cat-like agility, the brown haired girl merely leaped above the electrical attack, which merely hit the ground instead. Once again, she was left wide open to Denka and Hina's attack.

"I don't like it. Hinata-sama is cornered, and is forced to fight on the defensive," Neji observed. "If this continues, she might lose."

"Ha, look at that! The clan heiress, losing to some clan less kunoichi that relies on cats to fight!" a Hyuga elder stated. "Look at how awful the clan's image will be after this!"

"If she's losing this badly against that girl, I can't imagine if she were to fight against somebody truly powerful like the Uchiha or Naruto-san," a younger Hyuga added.

It was clear that Hinata's poor performance made her detractors more eager to share their thoughts about the current heiress.

"Shut up! Hinata-nee chan will win! You'll see!" Hanabi protested.

"The match hasn't ended yet," Hikari reminded everybody. "Do not cast your judgment before the proctor announces a winner."

Despite her protest, Hikari was afraid that Hinata would lose. So far, her efforts of teaching her the clan's two most powerful jutsu weren't as fruitful as she had hoped. "Come on Hinata, I know you can do it!"

"Okay, I believe that this has been going on for long enough," Tamaki declared. "Denka, Hina, get ready, we're about to finish this!"

"Alright, Tamaki-chan!" Denka replied as he and his sister moved in opposite directions.

"That's it, this is the end," Hinata grimly thought. "I have no way of countering Tamaki's attacks, and this one seems to be even stronger than the ones before. If only I was able to master the Heavenly Spin..."

Hinata then briefly remembered when she tried to learn the Heavenly Spin. She had seen Neji mastering it in no time, but even with her mother's help, she was unable to get it right, so she decided to ask Neji for advice.

"Show me how you do it," Neji asked as he activated his Byakugan.

Hinata nodded, and started the jutsu. However, when she was mid spin, she tripped on her feet and fell into the ground face first.

"Ouch!"

"I believe I saw where the problem lies," Neji stated as he helped her back on her feet, his Byakugan now deactivated. "The Heavenly Spin requires speed. You don't spin with enough speed, and thus you're unable to build enough momentum, so when you release your chakra, you lose your balance."

"My mother said something similar," Hinata replied. "She told me the same about the normal Gentle Fist. That's why I had the idea to combine it with Lightning chakra. It makes my strikes faster."

"And why don't you use the same method for the Heavenly Spin, then?" Neji asked.

"I tried, but while generating lightning chakra in my hands is easy, generating it through my whole body is much harder. Not to mention that I'll need to do it while spinning, and it requires a lot of concentration," Hinata explained, then she looked downwards. "Besides, now I see it was nothing but a crutch to make up for my lack of prowess. It would be better if I try to learn the clan's jutsu the old fashioned way instead of relying on these shortcuts."

"I don't believe they're shortcuts. You clearly aren't as suited for the Gentle Fist as the rest of us, so you changed it to fit you better. Maybe that's what you need to do in order to master the Heavenly Spin."

Despite Neji's thoughts, Hinata had been trying to learn the Heavenly Spin like any other clan member would, with little success.

"Maybe if I followed Neji's advice and tried to add lightning to it...but it's too late now," Hinata thought in resignation. "...or is it?"

Tamaki and her cats charged at her from three different directions.

"No, it is not. I still have one chance to do this...' Hinata thought as she ran through the hand seals she used for the Thunder Palm, except this time she tried to spread the chakra through the whole body. Soon, she felt her body crackling with electricity. 'Now's my chance!'

Hinata noticed that she was starting to spin at a much faster rate than when she tried to do it normally. And when she reached the optimal spinning speed, she released her chakra through all her tenketsu.

"What the...?" a confused Tamaki asked as she was about to skewer Hinata.

"Heavenly Spin!"

What happened next left everybody else completely dumbfounded, the Hyuga more so. Instead of turning into a spinning blue dome of chakra, Hinata released several charka shockwaves in every direction, as well as plenty of lightning bolts. The energy released was so powerful that it hurled Tamaki and her cats backwards, and slammed them against the arena's wall.

The Hyuga heiress stopped spinning, and then started to walk in a zig-zag as if she was drunk, before falling on her knees.

Yugao checked Tamaki. She was unconscious and had multiple bruises and burns, but nothing too threatening. She noticed that Hinata didn't look much better, at the very least she was conscious.

"Tamaki can't continue fighting! Winner of the fourth match, Hinata Hyuga!" the purple haired woman declared. "There will be a recess of ten minutes before the next match begins!"

Once again, the crowd erupted into cheers. While the medics took Tamaki away, Yugao noticed that Hinata didn't move from her spot. She went to check if she was okay.

"Hey girl, are you feeling alright? Can you continue?" Yugao asked.

"I feel a bit dizzy..." Hinata explained.

"I think you exhausted most of your chakra," the purple haired woman explained.

"I see...did I lose?" Hinata asked.

Yugao stared at her, confused. "No, you won. Didn't you hear me declaring you the winner of the match?"

"What?" now a bit less dizzy, Hinata noticed the medics taking Tamaki away on a stretcher.

"Are you feeling alright?" Yugao asked. Weakly, Hinata nodded. "In that case, you should return to the Competitor's Box and wait for your next match."

"Kurenai...did you teach her that?" Asuma asked his girlfriend. The power of that jutsu left the Sarutobi completely stunned.

"I can tell you I have nothing to do with that. That must be something she learned from her family," Kurenai replied, just as astonished.

"I don't think so, that doesn't look like the traditional Hyuga jutsu at all. It has to be something she came up on her own," Asuma countered. "Albeit it looked like something she improvised in the spurn of the moment than an actual justu."

"I'll have to ask Hinata about it. Then again, I don't mind the means, Hinata won her fight. And I believe her improvisation may land her a promotion."

...

"Mother...what was that?" an incredulous Hanabi asked.

"I'm as perplexed as you are, honey," Hikari replied. "It's as if Hinata tried to combine the Heavenly Spin with lightning chakra."

"Whatever it was, it was amazing!" Hanabi gushed. "When the exams ends, Hinata-nee chan has to teach me that jutsu!"

"It was impressive, indeed, although it looked out of control," Hizashi observed.

"I believe Hinata-sama tried to use lightning chakra in order to reach the necessary speed to perform the Heavenly Spin. However, she didn't take into account how the elemental chakra would affect the jutsu as a whole. Hence such chaotic results," Neji wondered aloud. "You might not be a prodigy like me, Hinata-sama, but you're surely resourceful."

...

"Wow, Hinata, that was amazing!" Naruto cheered upon seeing his teammate back.

"T-Thank you..." the Hyuga weakly replied.

"Truth be told, I didn't like the idea of fighting you but after seeing that...boy, I can't wait until the first round is over so we can fight each other! It will be epic!"

"I'm glad you look forward it, Naruto-kun, but I don't think I will be able to give you much of a fight. I'm almost completely out of chakra," an exhausted Hinata told him.

"Oh, that has an easy solution!" Naruto then grabbed his hand, and Hinata soon noticed her chakra reserves being replenished.

"Naruto-kun, you're giving me your chakra?" Hinata asked in disbelief. "But-"

"No buts!" Naruto interrupted her. "Listen, you healed me before, and besides, I want to fight you at your full power. Don't worry about my chakra, I have plenty to spare. I don't think I ever suffered from chakra exhaustion in my life."

"If you say so..." Hinata conceded as she felt Naruto's chakra being pumped into her system, and she started to heal her many, many, many scratches and wounds Tamaki had left on her.

"Naruto," Gaara's voice said, startling both the blond and the Hyuga again, since neither of them heard him coming. "My match is about to begin. I hope that this time, you can get a better appreciation of my skills."

"Yeah, sure! I won't take my eyes from the fight!" Naruto told his fellow Jinchuriki. "Good luck out there!"

"It's not him the one who needs luck," Tenten, who had heard the conversation, thought. "Let's hope Gai-sensei's training was enough to defeat that sand guy."

"Oh, Tenten!" Naruto called her.

"Yes?"

"Haku isn't here, but if he was, he'd wish you good luck!" Naruto said as he gave her a thumbs up, and winked at her in a very unsubtle way. "If you know what I mean..."

Tenten looked at him puzzled, and tilted her head as if saying "no, I don't know what you mean" but she merely thanked him, and followed Gaara into the arena.

"Naruto-kun, that was really sweet," Hinata praised.

Naruto widely smiled. "Thanks!"

Hinata then grew serious. "But please, don't do it again, ever. It was painful to watch."

"...huh?"

"Well Kazkekage, your son is about to fight," Jiraiya mentioned. "I heard that he's quite powerful, somebody befitting his status."

"Indeed. He may not bring shame to our village like his sister did," Rasa coldly stated, his eyes fixed on the redhead.

"What is this 'status' you talk about, Hokage?" the Raikage asked with mild interest.

"The son of the Kazekage, of course," Rasa replied. "Given that you're the son of a Kage yourself Raikage, I'm sure you can see my point of view."

Gaara and Tenten went in front of each other. Tenten was uneasy, and seem to nervously shift on the spot. Gaara was calm to the point of looking bored, his arms crossed. Upon checking that both combatants were ready, Yugao proceeded to start the match.

"The fifth match of the Chunin Exam Finals between Tenten, from Konoha, and Gaara, from Suna..." the purple haired woman raised her hand in the air. "Begin!"

The moment Yugao's last word left her lips, a huge amount of sand started to pour from Gaara's gourd. Tenten yelped and jumped backwards a few times in order to put some distance. Gaara made no attempt at closing the gap.

"Okay, let's see how that strong that sand of yours really is," Tenten stated as she pulled out a medium sized storage scroll, and leaped mid air while she opened it."Manipulated Tools: Steel Storm!"

A rain of kunai and shuriken fell upon Gaara, but the sand formed a barrier that protected him from any harm. Gaara made a couple of hand seals.

"Wind Release: Sand Shuriken!"

The wall of sand shot several razor sharp projectiles that, despite their speed, Tenten managed to swiftly dodge. However, one of them managed to grace her left leg, leaving a superficial gash, making her wince.

'I better step up my game,' Tenten thought as she pulled out yet another sealing scroll, from which she pulled a simple metal staff. She twirled the staff a few times, before adopting a battle pose.

Gaara took it as a hint to attack. Motioning his arm forward, Gaara commanded the sand to attack.

"Sand Barrage!"

A torrent of sand flowed at great speed at Tenten. Keeping her cool, the Konoha kunoichi stepped aside to avoid it, and dashed at Gaara at a fast pace. When she was in melee range, she was about to smack him with her metal staff when another wall of sand automatically appeared between her and the redhead.

"I already got you," Gaara thought as he prepared a counterattack.

However, when Tenten was centimeters away from hitting the wall of sand –and have her weapon stuck on it–, she stopped, and much to Gaara's puzzlement, she vanished before him.

"Huh?" Gaara dumbly asked.

The reply came in the form of a painful hit to the back of the head that sent him falling into the ground (fortunately, the sand formed a cushion on the spot he was about to fall, making it a bit less painful). When Gaara was standing up, Tenten suddenly appeared before him and kicked him in the ribs, hard. Before the sand had the chance to repel the odango-haired threat, Tenten appeared behind him again and smacked him in the legs.

Seeing no other option to keep Tenten away, Gaara formed a tornado of sand around himself. Tenten was forced to jump out of the tornado's area of effect if she didn't want to get shredded by the sand.

In the Kage box, Rasa was speechless.

"That girl..." he babbled. "How can that normal girl be beating Gaara like that?"

"Our Genin are full of surprises, don't you think so?" Jiraiya replied with a complacent smile.

Neji was just as speechless as Gaara's father.

"When did Tenten become this fast?" he pondered.

In another section of the stands, Tenten's sensei and second teammate were watching the fight with utmost interest.

"YOSH! Tenten's training is finally paying off!" Lee exclaimed.

"Indeed! We did a great job fanning her flames of youth, don't you think so?" Gai asked. "Now Tenten is so fast that the sand can't keep up with her!"

"And the best part it's that she didn't use her ace in the hole yet!"

Yes. It has to believe that such amazing speed was nothing but a positive side effect of the real training she underwent.

Tenten assessed the situation. It didn't appear that the sand tornado would slow down any time soon. She'd need to find a way to break that defense. She pulled out another scroll and jumped.

"Manipulated Tools: Rain of Fire!"

A storm of kunai rained upon Gaara, which were all stopped by the sand. However, these kunai all had explosive tags attached to them. The Konoha kunoichi made a hand seal, detonating all of them at once.

Multiple explosions rocked the stadium. When the dust cleared off, part of Gaara's sand had been turned into glass, but he still had plenty to spare. The tornado had disappeared, being replaced by a dome of sand with presumably Gaara inside of it. A few grains of sand detached from the dome, and formed an eye that floated above it.

"Huh? Is that an actual eye? I guess that he uses it to see while inside that dome," Tenten deduced. "Anyway, I better try to break that shell."

Discarding her metal staff, Tenten pulled out that same weapon storage scroll and unsealed a couple long swords. She then rushed at Gaara, and tried to slash at the sand dome.

However, when she was at fighting distance, a giant arm of sand emerged from the dome, and tried to grab her. Tenten was able to stop in time and jump backwards, but the arm followed her. Each of the hand's finger took the shape of a serpentine dragon and tried to bite her, but once again the weapon mistress managed to avoid them. When she fell back enough distance, the dragons returned to the dome and disappeared.

"So, that's your strategy, uh? To fight defensively and wait for me to get tired trying to breach your unbreakable defense," Tenten thought as she stabbed both long swords into the ground. "Okay, let's see what you do when your defense fails!"

The odango haired kunoichi crossed her arms in front of her face, and started to channel her chakra. Her body started to glow with a faint green light, as small pieces of dirt started to float in mid air. She then spread her arms outwards, and her body burst with chakra in such a sudden and potent way that even non-sensors were able to feel it.

"Gate of Opening: Open!"

"What!?" Neji exclaimed out loud. "Gai-sensei taught her how to open the Celestial Gates!? I never thought he'd do such a thing...but then again, I don't think there's nothing else she could have done if she wanted to beat Gaara."

Both Gai and Rock Lee were trembling with excitement upon seeing Tenten opening the first Gate.

Technically speaking, opening the Gates is a very easy process, and once you know how to open one, you can open all eight of them. The problem, though, is handling the backlash of the gates. The first time Tenten opened a Gate, despite the immense rush of power, it afflicted her body so much afterwards that she needed a whole day just to recover her mobility.

So, besides her usual training in marksmanship and armed melee combat, Tenten joined Gai and Lee on their morning workouts in order to train her body to be more durable, stronger and faster (qualities she also needed to defeat her opponent). Thanks to the intensive training, Tenten's body was good enough to at least withstand the backlash of the first Gate.

Although, when Gai offered to teach her the Front Lotus, Tenten declined, claiming that she had another idea in mind of how to use her newfound power.

"Okay, Gaara, let's see how your defense can withstand this," Tenten said as she unsealed a single kunai from a storage scroll. Upon grabbing it, the kunai started to glow with a blue aura. "HA!"

Tenten tossed the kunai at the sand dome with such force and speed, that it tore both an entry and an exit hole on it, briefly revealing a stunned Gaara inside before the holes slowly closed, before they crashed against the ground, making a small explosion.

"She pierced my sand dome? How?" The puzzled jinchuriki wondered.

Tenten smiled wickedly as she pulled out eight more kunai, holding four on each hand. After infusing them with chakra, she tossed four of them at the same time, and as it happened before, they pierced the sand dome as if it was wet paper.

"This is bad, if she can bypass my defense, I can't stand still!" Gaara thought as he undid the sand dome and started to run.

Tenten laughed at the running redhead. "You can run, but you can't hide from me and my flames of youth!" the odango-haired girl claimed, and upon noticing what she said, shuddered in disgust. "Ew! Why did I say that?"

Tenten continued to pelt Gaara with her chakra-enhanced weapons. The Suna jinchuriki could only try to dodge the steel projectiles, or try to deflect them with his sand.

"I can't let her force me to fight defensively, I need to attack too!" Gaara thought as he made several hand seals. "Monstrous Sand Arm!"

Gaara's sand formed a huge arm ended in a clawed hand that shot at Tenten, and tried to grab her. The kunoichi proved to be too fast for Gaara's sand, and vanished before his very eyes. Feeling a hunch, Gaara repeated the action, except he aimed the arm backwards.

The attack failed once again, but the sound of a female voice yelping followed by brief air current made him realize that his hunch was right.

"Dammit, he realized that I would attack him from behind! I better not be so predictable!" Tenten thought.

"She's too fast. I need to stop or at least slow her down," Gaara thought as he started to send sand underground. "She likes to jump a lot, but sooner or later she'll fall in my trap."

Tenten continued pelting Gaara with her enhanced weapons, which Gaara barely avoided by moving as fast as his nonathletic body allowed him to, and using sand to slow and divert the attacks. Both combatants started to notice that Tenten's pace was starting to slow down, and her green aura looked more dim.

"Oh no! The power boost of the first gate is fading already?" she thought in horror as her energy started to slowly being replaced by exhaustion.

"She's slowing down, now's my chance!" Gaara thought as he made a hand motion. "Sand Coffin!"

Sand burst from under the spot Tenten just landed on. She tried to jump, but she wasn't fast enough, and several sand tendrils wrapped around her legs, stopping her from moving. More sand started to wrap around her body until it formed a cocoon that left only her head exposed.

"And so it ends," Gaara declared, as he walked towards her. "Now please surrender. I have no wish of inflicting you more harm than the already done."

'Dammit he got me good! What the hell am I supposed to do?' Tenten's brain raced through the possibilities, until she came up with a solution, albeit one that she didn't like one bit. 'I haven't mastered it yet...but I can't give up so soon...'

"Well?" Gaara was waiting.

"I don't think I can surrender just now," Tenten replied, as the green aura surrounding her started to once again glow with more intensity. "Gate of Healing: Open!"

The burst of chakra was so potent that it completely blew the Sand Coffin apart. Taking advantage of Gaara's shock, Tenten managed to close the distance gap in less than a second and kick him in the face before his sand protection had any time to react, sending him flying backwards. Rather than follow on the attack, though, Tenten went to retrieve the two long swords that she discarded earlier, and dashed towards Gaara, leaving a green glowing trail behind.

"I haven't mastered this technique yet, but if it worked for Hinata earlier, I don't think why it couldn't work for me," Tenten thought before leaping mid air.

"This is bad! Sand armor, now!" Gaara thought as sand start to form a skin-tight protection around him.

As she fell, Tenten spread her arms and started to spin. "Raging Bladestorm!"

Tenten turned into a tornado of razor-sharp death that rushed towards Gaara. Using the sand as a spring, he jumped out of Tenten's way, who stopped spinning upon missing. However, much to Gaara's frustration, she attacked again.

"Raging Bladestorm!"

"Not this time," Gaara replied, still keeping his cool while he went through hand seals as fast as he could. "Wind Release: Roar of the Desert!"

Gaara sent a barrage of sand at her, but Tenten was spinning at such speed that she somehow managed to cut the sand stream in two, which was unable to even stop her down. Gaara tried to jump aside, but he was unable to avoid multiple cuts on his body that thankfully, were absorbed by the sand armor, which started to crack.

"I see I have to crack that armor if I want to do any damage," Tenten thought as she prepared to attack again.

"Here she comes..." Gaara thought as he prepared his counterattack.

However, rather than using the same attack for the third time, Tenten vanished before his eyes, and appeared a second later in front of him, centimeters from his face. Before Gaara –or his sand– had any time to react, Tenten kicked him in the jaw, which sent him flying upwards. But it didn't stop there, as Tenten managed to jump into the spot Gaara was kicked to, and smacked him again, sending him flying into different directions, his armor cracking with each hit. With the last hit, that send Gaara back into the ground, the armor was completely broken.

"I'm running out of energy, I need to finish this now!" Tenten thought before raising both swords above her head. "Reverse Raging Bladestorm!"

This time, Tenten spun vertically, turning herself not in a tornado but more like a human buzz-saw, flying down at Gaara.

Gaara, upon seeing Tenten coming down, knew that there was only one thing he could do.

"Ultimately Hard Absolute Defense: Shield of Shukaku!"

Between Gaara and Tenten appeared a toy-like replica of the One Tailed Beast, wearing a wide-brimmed rural hat, that was roughly thrice the size of Gaara. Upon impact, Tenten started to cut through it.

"Impossible! Nobody is able to bypass my ultimate defense!" a concerned Gaara shouted aloud.

Unfortunately for Tenten, her spinning speed started to slow down, until she was forced to cancel the attack, and jump backwards to put some distance.

"Damn, I ran out of energy before I could finish this...2 Tenten thought in frustration. "Every bit of my body hurts...I could win this if I opened another Gate, but then the backlash would be so bad it could end my ninja career forever...guess I'll have to try in six months..."

Tenten dropped her long swords – which felt like they weight a ton each – and raised her hand.

"Proctor, I wish to forfeit," Tenten said between pants.

"Are you sure?" Yugao asked.

The weapon mistress nodded. "I don't have any more energy left. If I keep pushing my body further...I'm afraid I may not make it. I can always try next time."

"Good choice, girl," Yugao replied with a smile. "Tenten forfeits the match! Winner of the fifth match, Gaara!" the purple haired woman declared. "There will be a recess of ten minutes before the next match begins!"

Tenten sighed and dropped on her knees. "Can you call the medics, Yugao-san?"

The proctor nodded, and made a hand signal, prompting two medic-nin to enter the arena. But before they could take her away, Gaara walked to her, as he recalled his sand back into the gourd.

"You proved to be much stronger than I had initially thought. I wasn't expecting a worthy adversary until the later rounds, but you proved me wrong. Even in defeat, you should feel proud of yourself," Gaara told her.

"T-Thank you..." Tenten said between pants. "Maybe one day...you can...give me a rematch?"

"You can be sure of it," was the last thing Gaara said before Tenten was carried away to the infirmary, and Gaara himself returned to the Competitor's Box.

"Jiraiya, I'm going to admit it," Rasa began, still refusing to address the Hokage by his title. "That girl gave Gaara quite a fight. But she was destined to lose even before the match started."

"You seem to have quite a lot of hope in your kid, haven't you?" Jiraiya replied. "Tenten proved to be exceptional, yet she isn't even among the strongest Konoha Genin in the competition. Others such as Naruto or Sasuke might be able to defeat him."

"I find it unlikely. There's no Genin who can defeat Gaara," Rasa replied as he dismissed the idea with a hand wave. "No matter who he fights against, he will rise victorious."

"We'll see about that, Kazekage. We'll see."

"In the end, Tenten lost. What a pity, I was sure she was about to win," a deflated Lee said.

"She had the bad luck of having to fight against an extremely resilient opponent. If we only had a bit more time to master the Gates..." Gai wondered aloud in resignation.

"Still, that Bladestorm was really impressive," Lee observed. "She knew how to take advantage of the Gates' power boost, and apply it to her area of expertise."

"Yes, even if she lost, she gave it everything!" Gai agreed. "Who knows, maybe she impressed the examiners enough to promote her!"

"So, how I was out there, Naruto?" Gaara asked upon returning to the waiting area.

"Simply amazing!" Naruto praised. "Now I can't wait to fight you, and see how well my jutsu will do against yours!"

"Maybe we can use that as an extra motivation to win our following matches," Gaara replied. "Though even if I do not wish to demean or underestimate our potential rivals, I'm sure I can defeat almost everybody here until our paths inevitably cross."

"You're pretty strong, so I wouldn't say it's a crazy idea," Naruto admitted. "But I'm pretty strong too!"

"You don't have to tell me. I see you made a number on my sister," Gaara reminded him, which caused Naruto to laugh very awkwardly.

"So, this will be the last match of the first round," Shisui commented.

"Yes. Now it's Karin's turn to fight against that Jinchruiki from Taki," Shizune mentioned. "First Sakura and now her. Why did all my Genin end up fighting against a Jinchuriki? That's not fair."

"Sasuke didn't fight against one," Shisui reminded her. "Anyway, I saw how strong Karin grew during this month. I'm sure she'll do fine."

"Thanks for the assurance, but I doubt her opponent spent this month slacking off."

"At the very least, Karin seemed confident that she could win," Sakura piped in.

"Alright, Fu is finally going to fight," Shibuki stated, eager to see her in action. "I wish her fight was a bit sooner..."

"You must feel really proud of her, don't you, Shibuki?" Rasa asked. "After all, a minor ninja village being able to compete against the Great Villages...you must feel like a kid that's allowed to hang out with the grownups, aren't you?"

"With all due respect, Kazkeage-dono, Takigakure might not be a Great Village, but that's no reason to underestimate us," Shibuki firmly replied. If Rasa thought that he could use his status as a Kage to bully him, he had another thing coming.

"I agree with Shibuki. Let's see his Genin fight first before casting a judgment," the Raikage intervened.

Rasa frowned, while Shibuki looked at A in disbelief, surprised that the scary-looking man would come to his defense, something Jiraiya found mildly amusing.

"T-Thank you, Raikage-dono..." Shibuki stuttered.

"Alright, it's my time to fight!" Fu excitedly claimed. "Why am I always one of the last to fight? It's as if everybody forgets about me or something."

Naruto chuckled. "You know, people also tend to forget about Shino as well, being so silent and all that. Another thing you have in common?"

"Har har," Fu sarcastically laughed. "Oh, and by the way, thanks a lot for telling me about Icharaku! I didn't know you could eat so good! Albeit my teammates were rather mad at the bill I ended up racking..."

"I know, right? That's the best place to eat in the world!" Naruto proudly agreed.

"And the manager and his daughter were super nice to me!" Fu continued, just as excited. "And were very sad that I wasn't going to stay in Konoha. Then he said something about wanting to move to a bigger house, which frankly I don't know what it had to do with anything...anyway, I better not start rambling, my match is now, wish me luck!"

"Hey!" Fu's rival, Karin, protested, as she walked towards the Jinchruiki duo. "It's me whom Naruto should wish luck!"

"Oh. Why, exactly?" Fu asked, as she scratched her head.

"Because we're from the same clan, the Uzumaki!" Karin told her.

"Really? That's so cool!" Fu replied, cheerful as ever. "If you're family of Naruto, then I need to know you better! Say, how about if we go to eat something after the exam is over? Though you will have to pay, since I already blew up all our money on ramen..."

"You blew all your money on ramen?" Karin asked incredulity.

"It's that I couldn't decided what kind of ramen I wanted to order, so I order one of each to see which one I would like the most...and I ended up liking all of them so much that I ended up ordering one of each ramen again! Too bad neither me nor my teammates have enough money anymore...though maybe I can ask Shibuki for more money since he's here...?" once again, Fu lost herself in her thoughts.

"I think I'm going to the arena..." Karin stated as she left, not wanting to be caught by Fu's inherent weirdness.

"Fu, I think you should go too," Naruto told her.

"Huh? Why?"the green haired girl asked. "Oh, right, the match! Karin-chan, wait for me!"

And Fu rushed into the arena after Karin.

Unlike the other Chunin hopefuls, Karin and Fu didn't get into position to fight each other. In Fu's case, she flew around the stadium, scanning the stands, until she found the people she was looking for: Kakashi's Animal Squad. She smiled and flew down at them.

"Hey guys!" Fu chimed in. "I'm so happy to see you here! Hope you cheer for me even if my opponent is a Konoha ninja!"

"Given that Karin is the reason for me being already out, let's say that I wasn't planning on cheering her," Kiba replied.

"Sure, Fu, you will have our support for your match," Shino agreed.

"Although I wouldn't count on Shino cheering you on very loudly," Kiba said before chuckling.

"Haha, yeah, that wouldn't be him. But knowing that he's rooting for me is enough," Fu replied.

"Fu, I don't want to be rude, but shouldn't you go back to the arena?" Kakashi pointed out. "You may get disqualified for fooling around. You can always talk once the exams are over."

"Oh, right! I better get going!" Fu said before flying back into the arena.

"Wings..." Kakashi thought, his interest mildly stirred. "Are they the product of a Bloodline Limit...or something else?"

While Fu had a brief talk with Team Kakashi, Karin was also looking for somebody else, two people to be precise. Thanks to her sensor ability, she was able to find said people in no time. The first was her mother, whom she waved at despite sitting in one of the middle rows. But lucky for her, the other one was sitting in one of the first row seats.

"Hey, Neji-kun!" Karin shouted as she waved at him. "Wish me luck!"

In normal circumstances, Neji would have merely nodded at her, but at that distance Karin wouldn't notice such a subtle gesture, so he was forced to wave back at her to acknowledge her. This display didn't go unnoticed to his immediate family.

"That girl seems to be very familiar with you, Neji," Hizashi observed. "Who is she?"

"A teammate of Sasuke Uchiha," Neji replied. "After Sasuke...beat me near death, Karin healed me back. If it wasn't for her intervention, my recovery wouldn't have been so quick."

"I see," Hizashi said.

"And that's it?" Hikari asked, a bit confused. She felt there was something more to the redheaded girl.

"No. A few weeks ago I treated her to lunch as way to thank her for her kind action," Neji explained. "She liked my company, so she requested for us to eat together some more. I must admit, I do enjoy her company as well."

"So you're dating her," Hikari concluded.

"Ohhhhhhhh, Nii-san has a girlfriend!" Hanabi stated in a teasing tone.

"No, Hikari-sama. Why do you say that?" Neji asked.

The Hyuga matriarch barely resisted the urge of both slap her forehead, and slap Neji quite a few times. The worst part was that Neji seemed to be awfully oblivious about it. For a so called "genius", he could be unbelievably dense.

"Neji-kun, when we're back home, you and I are going to have a serious talk," Hikari stated in a firm, almost reprimanding tone.

"I don't understand, Hikari-sama. Did I do something wrong? Do you not approve of me spending time with that girl?" Neji asked in confusion.

"Actually, it's the complete opposite."

Hikari's answer left Neji even more baffled.

After a delayed start, Karin and Fu were in front of each other, ready to prove which one of the two was more deserving of being a Chunin. Yugao wasted no time to start the match.

"The sixth match of the Chunin Exam Finals, and final match of the first round, between Karin Uzumaki, from Konoha, and Fu, from Taki..." the ANBU raised her hand in the air. "Begin!"

Karin wasted no time and opened the fight with her blond relative's signature jutsu.

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

Unlike Naruto, Karin's limit was still four clones. Not even the month of training was enough to push beyond that limit.

"Scatter!" the original redhead ordered her clones, which did as she said, and surrounded Fu in a circle.

"Did you forget that I can fly?" Fu said as her wings sprout from her back and started to fly. "Surrounding a flying target is useless."

"Oh, I was expecting that," Karin replied with a wicked chuckle. "Everybody, now!"

"Adamantine Sealing Chain!"

Karin and her clones cast one hand upwards, and shot a chakra chain from the palm of their hand. During her training, Karin was able to learn how to cast her chakra chains from her hands instead of her back. While the hand only has enough surface for one chain, it was much easier to direct and control as a result. Never mind that it used less chakra, and it was easier for a clone to do it.

"Oh shit!" Fu cursed after narrowly dodging a chain. "Oh shit!" Fu cursed louder when another chain almost touched her. "OH SHIT!" she cursed the loudest when a chain wrapped around her legs.

Karin and the clones who failed to catch her quickly dispelled their chains and rushed towards the clone who succeeded. And between the five of them using Chakra Enhanced Strength, they forced Fu back into the ground.

"OH SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!" Fu yelled as she was jerked down, before being slammed back into the ground with such force that it made a crater on impact.

"Haha, yes! Good work, girls!" Karin congratulated as she high-fived her clones.

However, much to their shock, Fu emerged from the crater with nothing but a few bruises. She appeared to be a bit dizzy by the way she moved.

"W-Wow...that was...b-brutal..." Fu slurred. She shook her head in an effort to return her mind back to normal. "Sooooo...shall we continue?"

Fu's nonchalant attitude only made Karin even madder. She gritted her teeth, and angrily pointed at her. "Everybody, get her!"

The clones nodded, pulled out a pair of kunai each, and charged at the green haired girl. Fu also pulled a kunai, and charged at the clones as well. When she met them, she started to expertly hack them down as she parried their blows. In less than ten seconds, the clones were no more.

"That was fun, but how about this?" Fu stated as she put back the kunai on her tool pouch and started to make hand seals. "Wind release: Savage Whirlwind!"

Fu created a whirlwind of dust that flied at Karin. The redhead replied with an elemental jutsu of her own.

"Earth Release: Earth Style Wall!"

Upon finishing the hand seal, Karin slammed both hands down, erecting a wall of earth that managed to stop Fu's wind attack. However, much to her shock, the Taki kunoichi broke through the wall as if it was never there, and charged at Karin.

"She could have easily flown over it. She did that to try to intimidate me. This girl isn't as stupid as she looks," Karin thought as she braced for the impact.

"Dammit, how could I forget that I could fly over the wall? I broke a nail punching it down!" Fu absentmindedly thought as she charged.

"That kunoichi of your village is pretty strong, Shibuki-san," Jiraiya told Shibuki.

The young Taki leader smiled. "Thank you, she's indeed a very special girl."

Jiraiya nodded, and then leaned towards Shibuki. "Nobody would ever guess that she got so far thanks to the help of two Jonin, right?" Jiraiya whispered on Shibuki's ear, low enough so neither Rasa not A would pick up what he was saying.

Upon hearing those words, Shibuki's face lost all trace of color. "Uh, H-Hokage-dono...I'm s-sure that..."

Jiraiya shot a fake reassuring smile at the panicky Shibuki. "Relax, Shibuki-san. Enjoy the fight. We will talk about this once the exam is over," Jiraiya told him, then he frowned, adding an unsaid "Because we will talk about this."

When she was in close quarter distance, Fu threw a punch at Karin, which the redhead managed to catch. She later tried to do the same with her other hand, but the result was the same. Upon seeing that Fu was unable to shake her hold, Karin smirked, and started to spin Fu in circles before tossing her high into the air.

Unfortunately for Karin, Fu spread her wings while mid air, and dived straight at Karin.

"Oh shit!" Karin blurted before jumping aside.

The redhead barely avoided the green-haired meteor that crashed against the ground. Still, the resulting shockwave was enough to make Karin fall on her butt. Like before, Fu emerged from the crater as if she barely register the hit.

"Seriously, what the hell do they feed you!?" Karin asked in frustration. "It can't be because she's a Jinchuriki. Naruto is also one and he isn't invulnerable!"

"I ate a lot of ramen this week, but I believe we already had a similar conversation," Fu replied, before letting out a loud belch. "Sorry, I think the spicy beef ramen didn't agree with my stomach."

"Guess I'm going to need some more firepower then!" Karin angrily stated as she pulled out a kunai with an explosive tag attached to it and tossed it at Fu's feet.

Fu yelped, and jumped backwards, barely avoiding the explosion. Karin tossed three more explosive kunai, and seeing that she would be unable to put enough distance while on land, Fu once again spread her wings and took off.

"Oh no, you don't!" Karin said as she made a hand seal. "Adamantine Sealing Chains!"

This time, Karin shoot several times from her back. Fu managed to dodge some, but two of them wrapped around her legs. With her opponent trapped once more, Karin grabbed the chains and pumping as much chakra as she could into her arms, she began to pull down.

However, Fu wasn't going to allow being slammed into ground a second time, and she began to pull in the opposite direction. The girls engaged in a game of tug of war for a couple minutes, with none of them gaining the upper hand. Until an idea popped on Fu's chaotic mind, and not only stopped pulling, but she flew down at Karin.

Karin at first grinned in victory upon being able to pull Fu down, but her grin was short lived when she realized that the Taki jinchuriki was flying at her at an unbelievable speed, her fist forward. The poor redhead was unable to avoid the brutal impact, which made a thundering noise, and raised a dust of cloud.

When the cloud dispelled, everybody could see Fu sitting on Karin's stomach. The Uzumaki girl didn't move, and her forehead was bleeding. Her glasses laid broken a few meters from her. Yugao could still sense her chakra, which meant she was still alive, but clearly she wasn't going to continue fighting.

"Karin is in no condition to fight! Winner of the sixth match, Fu!" the purple haired woman declared. "There will be a recess of fifteen minutes before the next round begins!"

Fu, being the third foreign ninja defeating a local one, and the second in a row, didn't sit well with the public, who filled the air with their boos and profanities. However, like Gaara, and unlike Karui, Fu paid them no heed and much to everybody's shock, Fu broke into a happy dance.

Naturally, everybody took this as a sign of mockery, and boos grew louder. But this didn't deter Fu, who continued dancing as if no one was watching her. The boos eventually died down, but Fu made no sign of stopping her dance.

Yugao walked to her, and placed a hand on her shoulder. "Fu, you need to-" The purple haired woman was interrupted by Fu grabbing both her hands and forcing her to dance as well. Yugao, however, forcefully made Fu stop. "Enough of this! If you don't return to the waiting area this instant, you will be disqualified, you got that?"

"Okay, okay! Sheesh..." Fu grumbled as she walked away. "I didn't know Konoha had laws against dancing..."

"I guess it was much to ask for both of my Genin to win their matches," Shizune sadly stated, before letting out a long sigh.

"Hey, Karin fought really well. She might still be a Chunin," Tsuande reassured her. "Well, at least one of the medics did make it to the final round, even if it wasn't one of your pupils."

"Yes, I'm happy for Hinata, but I doubt she'll go much farther given that she's going to fight against Naruto-kun," Shizune pointed out.

"Do you think Naruto-nii san will be able to fight Hinata?" Hagane asked.

"Nah, Naruto's super crazy for her. He'll probably hold back," Kaida replied.

"What about Hinata? Will she hold back too?" Hagane asked.

Kaida pondered for a few seconds before answering. "Maybe? I mean, I don't see Hinata going all out against our brother."

"Then it's going to be one boring match," Hagane replied.

Infirmary, shortly before the second round begins

Tenten opened her eyes. Where was she? The last thing she remembered was that she was fighting Gaara. As her memories slowly returned, she remembered that she had forfeited due her sheer exhaustion. And now she was lying down on a bed, her body full of bandages. Being unable to recognize her surroundings, she tried to sit up, but her body was hit by a wave of pain when she tried to move.

"UGH!" she moaned.

"Easy there. I don't know what you did, but you looked pretty beaten up when they brought you here," a voice said besides her.

Tenten turned her head left, and saw Team Kurenai's only Genin who didn't win his first round match, Haku. Looking around, she also saw other beaten participants lying on beds, such as Choji, Temari and Tamaki. It was hard to tell if they were asleep or not.

"Haku...? How long have I been here?" she asked.

"About twenty minutes. The stadium has trembled a couple times, I guess that's what woke you up. Pity, it looked like you needed the nap," Haku told her. "So, how was it?"

Tenten let out a long sigh. "I was this close to winning. I risked my body in a way you couldn't imagine...and in the end it was for nothing. That Gaara was nearly impossible to beat."

"I know what you feel. Fighting Sasuke-san wasn't exactly a walk in the park," Haku emphatically said. "Funny thing is, have I been the one to fight against Gaara, I might have won since I'm a Water Release user."

"I'm lightning, but I haven't worked on elemental ninjutsu much," Tenten admitted.

There was a moment of silence that was interrupted by another thundering noise, maybe caused by the kunoichi fighting now.

"Hey, Tenten-chan?" Haku asked.

"Yes,?" she replied, turning her face at him again.

"There was something I wanted to tell you..." Haku began. He swallowed, and tried to keep hold of his nerves. "I planned to wait until the finals were over, but given that both of us are out already, I don't see any reason to wait anymore."

Tenten titled her head quizzically. "And that would be...?"

"Well..." Haku began, and swallowed again. "I know that we don't know each other much, but you're smart, confident, strong, not to mention pretty girl, and...I really like you. So...would you like to go out with me sometime?"

"What? You like me...?" Tenten dumbly replied as the Ice Ninja's words started to sink. "You like me?... Oh my..." this was something completely new for her. Despite being fourteen years old, she had decided to focus on her ninja career first, and never showed any interest in any boy (and much to her chagrin, made her realize that until now no boy ever showed interest in her).

"I'm sorry if I'm being too forward or blunt, but I don't feel like keeping it to myself anymore.." Haku said in an apologetic tone.

"No, it's okay. Oh boy, now I understand why Naruto told me that..."

"What did Naruto tell you?" Haku asked, mildly concerned.

"It doesn't matter now," Tenten replied. "As for you...well, you kinda caught me by surprise with that confession," Tenten laughed awkwardly. "And I don't think I should give you an answer now without thinking about it first. This...was kind of unexpected. Just give me a couple days to make up my mind, okay?"

"Yeah, sure, I can wait."

"This doesn't mean I'm going to say no. Or yes. I mean, I don't want to give you false hopes. It's just...well, very unexpected. I don't want to give you false hopes."

"I know. You just said that," Haku smiled at her. "Don't get so flustered. Take all the time you need."

"Y-Yeah. I better try to get some sleep."

"That would be good."

"But I don't think I'll be able to sleep anytime soon after you dropped that bomb on me."


Author's Note: And with that, the first round concludes. The second round will be the next chapter, and the finals the one after that. So get ready for Sasuke vs Karui, Naruto vs Hinata and Gaarav vs Fu.

And speaking of the latter, did I mention how much I love writing Fu? Because I do. A lot.

But there won't be just fights, and as hinted in the last scene, more relationships will take off in the following chapters ;)

Now, something a little different. I've seen several authors issuing story ideas, challenges, so I decided to follow suit. So here it is:

Shattered Team Seven Challenge

The story begins at the beginning of the Sasuke Retrieval Arc, when Sakura confronts Sasuke, and asks him to let her go with him. However, unlike canon, Sasuke allows her to come with him. Since Sakura was the one who alerted everybody of Sasuke's defection, by the time anybody notices their disappearance, it's too late and they're already gone. Fortunately, they arrive just after Orochimaru possessed a new body, so there are still three years left to bring Sasuke back.

Sakura, however, managed to send a message to Konoha telling everybody that she's still loyal, and will try to convince Sasuke to go back to Konoha, as well to spy on Orochimaru.

These developments made Kakashi to be consumed by guilt, and in order to atone decides to train Naruto in order to make him as strong as possible. This idea clashes with Jiraiya, who wanted to take Naruto on a world trip in order to train him. Eventually they reach a compromise: Kakashi will train Naruto for a year, then take the Chunin Exams, which he will take Shikamaru's spot on Team 10. After that, once he's promoted, Naruto will leave with Jiraiya. Kakashi will teach Naruto about elemental manipulation, while Jiraiya will teach him how to use Sage Mode.

Then, the time skip happens. You can write the new Chunin Exams, as well as other arcs you might want, or skip directly towards the beginning of Shippuden.

At this point, whatever happens to Sakura is up to you. She can continue as a spy loyal to Konoha, decide to turn traitor for real and pledge her loyalty to Sasuke alone, or even have her true intentions being found by Orochimaru, who either kills her or has her experimented on. If you choose the two former options, she may get medical training from Orochimaru and/or Kabuto. You can choose if it's Sakura who had a positive influence on Sasuke, or if it was Sasuke and Orochimaru who were a harmful influence on Sakura.

Now, some additional points:

1) Pairings: The pairing I recommend is Naruto/Hinata, for obvious reasons. Though if you prefer, you can pair Naruto with any girl of his age group minus Sakura (with this kind of plot, it would make zero sense). No harem and no yaoi, please.

2) Since Sakura will no longer be Tsunade's apprentice, you can have another character fill her spot. You can have more then one character training under Tsunade as well.

3) Naruto and Kakashi will be in need of two more teammates to form a full squad. Which characters you choose is up to you. The only condition is that these spots must be filled by CANON characters. You can have two permanent additions, or pick temporary members from other teams. If you want to use the first options, here are some suggestions: Sai, Yamato, Shizune, Anko, Yugao, Genma.

4) If you must include bashing, keep it to a minimum.

5) If you take the challenge, remember to send me a PM so I can read, review and recommend your story.

I might issue more challenges in the future if I have any good idea.

Well, that's all.I will post the challenge on my profile as well if you want an easy place to check it. Let's hope some people find the challenge worth doing. Also, don't forget to leave a review! Reviews make me really, really, really happy!