A/N: A little surprised at how many people decided to stop reading my story since I've been gone, but I'm gonna work extra hard to get my readers back! Here's the next chapter. Gonna take my girlfriend to Prom tonight so I decided I'd start writing since I'm in a good mood. Anyway, without further delay, ON WITH THE CHAPTER!

Yoroi looked terrified for a minute before he realized that this guy wouldn't be able to do anything without chakra, and he made his way down to the arena. Gaara was already there waiting for him, arms crossed and stoic. Yoroi got into a defensive stance before Hayate looked between them and started the match with a call of 'Hajime!"

The cork in Gaara's gourd popped out and a stream of sand started shooting out of it as Yoroi dashed towards Gaara. Yoroi launched a barrage of punches and kicks at Gaara, a shield of sand jumping up to block each blow. Gaara didn't move this entire time.

Yoroi stepped back after his latest flurry of punches and a look of determination jumped into his eyes as he planned his next move. Before he could jump forward, he heard Gaara speak.

"Is that all?" Yoroi's eyes widened as Gaara spoke. "There hasn't been nearly enough…blood."

Yoroi started back pedaling frantically as the sand sprang to life and shot towards him, attempting to ensnare him. A tendril of sand shot forward and srapped around his ankle and started swinging him around before letting him go, causing him to slam against the wall. Yoroi fell to the floor and coughed up blood as he got back up to his feet. He glared at the sand wielding shinobi, whose stoic expression had changed to a psychotic grin in his direction. Yoroi started running forward, ignoring the pain in his chest, and made to grab at Gaara's face. Gaara simply continued to grin at him, confident in his shields power.

As Yoroi's open palm made contact with the shield of sand, the sand fell away, allowing Yoroi's hand to make contact with Gaara's forhead. Yoroi started to drain away his chakra, the armor of sand falling away as he did so. Gaara's eyes widened as he felt the horrible feeling of his chakra draining away from him. This continued for a couple of second before the color of Gaara's chakra changed and Yoroi started screaming. His hand started to burn, and the burning sensation continued as the chakra travelled up his arm. Yoroi's grip tightened uncontrollably as he continued, unable to stop draining his chakra. A minute passed and Yoroi finally dropped to the ground, convulsing in unimaginable pain. Through his pain, he felt himself enveloped by something and he was floating with a yell of "Subaku Kyuu!". He looked down from his spot in the air and realized he was cocooned inside a ball of sand. He saw Gaara down below him, arm outstretched towards him and livid with unimaginable anger.

"How dare you! You tried to take mother away from me! Mother wants you blood!"

He braced his outstretched arm with his free one before closing his fist.

"Subaku Sousou!" Gaara yelled as the sand that encased Yoroi imploded, crushing Yoroi and causing blood to spray in all directions. A rain of blood fell onto the arena in the aftermath of the kill.

The sand separated from what remained of Yoroi, the mashed remains of his bones and organs falling to the ground with a plop. Most of the rookie Genin looked sickened, the older ones looked only lightly shaken, and the Sand Genin looked on indifferently, this being a normal occurrence for them.

Gaara shunshined back up to his spot in the stands, his evil grin still in place as he shuddered softly, caught in the middle of one of his psychotic episodes. His siblings shied away from him a bit as the final match was announced.

Nara Shikamaru vs Higurashi Tenten

The two Genin began their trip down to the arena. As they got to their respective starting points, Shikamaru started mumbling about how troublesome it was to fight girls.

Tenten glared at him as she started yelling at him.

"Don't underestimate me or treat me like I'm made of glass Shikamaru no Baka! I have over a years experience on you and I suggest you give it your all if you don't want to get your ass kicked!

Shikamaru stared at her for a few seconds before he got into his own lazy combat stance, hands in his pockets and a lazy look in his eyes.

"Mendokusai. Well, I guess it can't be helped."

"Ready?" Hayate asked them both.

The two shinobi nodded at him.

"Hajime!"

Shikamaru jumped back a few steps and threw a few kunai at Tenten, who had already jumped back a few steps as had just thrown a few kunai of her own. A few of her Kunai deflected most of his, but one got through. She ignored it when she saw it's trajectory would take it harmlessly past her. But, as it got closer, she saw that it had a flash tag wrapped around it's handle for a grip and her eyes flashed to Shikamaru. She saw his hands up in the Rat hand seal as the tag went off automatically, blinding her and allowing his shadow to reach her from across the arena. She was frozen and the only thing she could move was her mouth.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu successful." Shikamaru stated.

Now, lazy as he may be, but Shikamaru knew how to make his jutsu more effective. He not only had a complete stock of flash tags, along with flash tag kunai, he also positioned his weapons pouches in the places least likely for a ninja to place them, so he could still use his weapons while his opponent couldn't during his Kage Mane no Jutsu. He reached down to his ankle, where he kept a few hidden kunai in a pouc h. Tenten, being a weapons master, didn't keep anything there because of the inconvenience that would come from needing to reach them in the middle of a battle. Shikamaru pulled out his kunai, walked towards her, her walking towards him as he did so. When he got close enough, he put the kunai to her throat and looked her in the eye.

"Call the match Hayate-san. It's over."

"Winner: Shikamaru."

Tenten looked shocked at being defeated so easily. As soon as Shikamaru released the jutsu, she took it in stride. She reached forward and extended her hand to be shaken. Shikamaru looked at her incredulously before reaching forward to shake it back.

"It looks like I was the one who shouldn't have underestimated my opponent." Tenten said.

Shikamaru gave her a small smile before turning and walking to the lineup of ninja that had formed in the last few seconds.

They each drew a number to decide their finals match-ups.

Momochi Haku vs. Haruno Sakura

Subaku no Gaara vs. Nara Shikamaru

Aburame Shino vs. Uzumaki Katsumi

Momochi Naruto vs. Subaku no Kankurou

Hyuuga Hanabi vs the winner of match 4

As soon as they got their match set-ups, the group of ninja were alerted to when the finals would take place and were dismissed. Nobody noticed as a certain young Uchiha followed his pink haired teammate out with a purposeful element to his stride.

A/N: Well, I'm glad I got this one out. I'm going to try to write a little bit every day and update every Saturday. I seem to end up with longer chapters with that strategy and I was to set myself a deadline from now on. Read and Review guys and I hope you have enjoyed this episode of The Maelstrom's Revenge. Sen Ningyu no Sasori OUT!