So, I realize that I haven't really shown you guys what it is that Akito and Hiro can do. So, this is going to be the chapter that's going to showcase a couple of the abilities of Ciara's teammates. Well, to a certain extent, after all, I've got to keep some surprises in store. So this chapter will be something of a taste of what's to come (there will be more in the finals).

Anyway, I hope that you enjoy this chapter, I'm writing the whole thing from scratch, so it's going to be a lot harder to write than most of the other fights. And they're not going to be particularly long fights, because these boys know what they're doing and they're not going to waste any time.

A hand taps on my shoulder, and I turn around to see Akito standing behind me, smiling softly. "Hey there, you okay?"

I breathe deeply and nod. "Yeah...I'll be okay."

He pats me gently on the head. "Good, because the second last match is about to start, and you two need to get back upstairs."

A jolt passes through me as I remember that there are still four competitors left. "Wait, then who-" I look around Akito's shoulder at the board, and a sigh of relief passes my lips. "You're...fighting that Sound ninja." Akito Takara vs. Dosu Kinuta. I was worried for a while that Akito and Hiro might have to fight each other. But it seems that now, my fears can be put to rest.

It also means that all three of us are going to the finals, because I already know that both my boys are going to win. That's why I let Naruto drag me back up to the viewing deck without complaint. Once there, the two of us plant ourselves next to Hiro and Yuki-Sensei. And only now does it occur to me and the two of us have been doing a lot of migrating during these matches. We've barely spent a match and a half in a single spot, without one of us moving at least five to ten feet.

Once upstairs, I watch as the proctor raises his hand. "The eleventh match, Akito Takara and Dosu Kinuta." He looks at the two of them, and neither one of them looks particularly nervous. Then again, it's hard to tell with Dosu, since his face is mostly covered. "You may begin."

Dosu sways a little as he sinks into a defensive looking position. "So...you're that ninja from the first day. You were protecting that girl up there..." His visible eyes finds me, and I glare right back at him.

"Why wouldn't I? After all, she's on my team. And she's the reason that the three of us got here in one piece." It almost sounds like he's trying to brag about me. "Anyone who tries to hurt her isn't just going to be dealing with her talents, they'll be dealing with me and Hiro as well. And the three of us are not people that you should take lightly."

"You know it!" Hiro shouts giddily, his smile bright as he watches the two of them try to one-up each other. "Now go on and finish this guy off! I wanna get on to my match, you know!"

"Yeah, yeah..." Akito waves his hand lazily. "Let's get this started then, shall we?"

"Gladly..." Dosu raises his arm with the sound generator on it, and it almost looks like he's going to flick it.

Luckily, from what we saw just before the first exam, Akito knows what's up with that thing. His hands are a blur as he weaves his seals, and just before Dosu can set off his sound waves, a flash of blindingly bright light fills the room, along with a crackling that sounds like water thrown onto hot oil with birds singing outside of the window. Breakfast, it sounds like breakfast. And then, it sounds like nothing short of a deafening thunderclap in the middle of the room, a sound wave far more powerful than what Dosu pulled on the first day.

When the light dies, what we see is Akito standing there with his hand pointed out, and two fingers extended towards Dosu, who is collapsed on the ground. Naruto's eyes go wide once more. "What...what did he just do to that Sound ninja?"

Akito chuckles, having heard Naruto's question easily. "Lightning Style: White Thunder. It hits in an instant and is almost impossible to dodge, even with advance warning." His fingertips crackle with residual electricity, proving his powerful lightning affinity.

Looking around, I can see new devastation added to what we've already managed to do to the room. There are fresh scorch marks on the walls, created by lightning this time, rather than my fiery breath from earlier. That means that this technique of his, apart from being obviously powerful, is also far reaching, and spew out in multiple directions. From the looks of it, it's meant to be inescapable. And judging by the fact that Dosu is lying unconscious on the floor, I would say that it proved itself to be a formidable technique. I wonder if he could have taken out a few of those tigers... I mean, I know that they're a lot bigger than humans, so it might not have worked so well...but still, that's one hell of a lightning attack.

The proctor blinks rather dazedly, like he's trying to remove the stars from his eyes as he examines Dosu's prone form. "Um...the winner is Akito Takara."

Naruto recoils slightly, his eyes focused on Akito. "He just...he totally just took that guy down with one move!"

I frown slightly at the sight. That did seem rather easy... Maybe it was wrong to put us in these exams...maybe they should have just bent the rules and promoted us without them. They did, after all, hold Hiro and Akito back a year so that they could be placed on the same team as me. Surely there's no need for the old man to just re-confirm things that he already knows.

Without any further ado, Akito jumps back up to the viewing deck and lands right beside me, grinning like a maniac. "So, was that cool or what!?"

I roll my eyes at him. "It probably would have been cooler if we were actually able to see what you did. Your stunt nearly blinded the whole room, you idiot." Okay, I might be exaggerating on that last bit, but he deserves to be chewed out for that. At least a little bit. "Anyway...there's only one match left." I glance over at Hiro pointedly. "And you two are pretty lucky that you didn't end up having to face each other." Honestly, that would have really bummed me out, because then our team would have a wedge driven in by a competition between the two of them for a spot in the finals.

"You're right, we did get lucky!" Hiro wiggles his ears and grins. "Well then, I guess it's my turn to make a spectacle of myself." Without even waiting for the board to announce him and Chouji as the last two competitors, Hiro presses his hand to the railing, vaulting over it easily. He spends about two seconds in the air, before his feet hit the floor. He carries himself with a light confidence, which is pretty typical of him. Even if his back is against the wall, or he's facing down a potential rock slide, he can keep his cool under pressure. And considering how many times we've been sent to the mountains to rescue hikers, I would know about the rock slide bit.

And judging by how quickly he got down there, he's in no need of any pre-match advice. Then again, he's fighting Chouji. And knowing that he's from the Akimichi Clan, hiro probably has a pretty good idea what he's dealing with. That clan has some pretty standard and well-known techniques, and I'm sure that Akito has yacked Hiro's ear off whenever I'm not around.

Ino, on the other hand, is my opposite in the cheerleading squad. "Go Chouji!" She's got no clue that Chouji is going to lose this match badly.

One last time, the proctor raises his hand for attention. "The twelfth and final match, Chouji Akimichi and Hiro Kazaki."

I lean towards Akito and whisper quietly. "How long do you think it's going to take him to end this match?"

"Oh...I'd give him about thirty seconds, give or take." I think Akito might just be saying that because his match only lasted twenty five seconds. These two get competitive over the strangest things. Which, actually, isn't very strange at all.

I shrug, ready to take that bet. "I say closer to a minute. You're the speed demon, remember?"

Akito smirks. "If you're right, the three of us go for barbecue later, and I'm buying."

"Deal." Though he should have learned from earlier that I rarely take bets if I think I'm going to lose.

Chouji is jumping from foot to foot, obviously excited about something. I wonder if his teacher bribed him with food if he won. I shake my head weakly. If that's the case, then Chouji is going to be sorely disappointed. I'm the one getting barbecue tonight. Since I can hardly expect Kiba to be fit enough for dinner tonight. I'll wait until tomorrow for that.

"You really think that he can beat Chouji in just a minute?" Naruto looks at me skeptically. "That's a bit unbelievable, don't you think?"

I point over to Akito bluntly. "He won in twenty-five seconds. And the first twenty seconds were all talking."

Naruto's face pales a little. "Jeez...I'm glad he wasn't my opponent."

"You should be..." I edge a little closer to Naruto as we watch the beginning of this last match.

And predictably, Chouji goes ahead and uses his family's signature jutsu, expanding his body and turning it basically into a big rolling meatball. And that's when the rumbling starts. Chouji is rolling around the floor so fast that he's nearly causing a mini-earthquake inside of the building. Luckily, Hiro is fast enough to dive out of the way of each pass as Chouji rolls around in circles. Hiro seems to be waiting for something, watching Chouji carefully as the younger ninja literally rolls circles round him.

Then, Hiro twitches, and he weaves a handful of signs. He's slower in that department than me and Akito, so I can catch the order of them. Snake, Ram, Dog, Rat, Snake, Tiger. His chakra flares, specifically around hi left arm, before he takes one huge step forward and drives his fist into Chouji's giant body on his next pass.

I suppose that it's a good thing that Chouji can't see while he's rolling around like that, otherwise Hiro would have had to chase him down to get that hit in. As it stands, Chouji goes flying across the room and smashes violently into the opposite wall, where he sinks to the floor in a daze.

The proctor calls for attention for the results of the final match. "Winner, Hiro Kazaki."

Akito smirks slightly, so I elbow him in the gut. "What is it?"

He chuckles and shake his head. "Fifty-six seconds. Looks like you win the bet."

"Was there ever any doubt?" I laugh at my good fortune. "Maybe one day, people will learn to stop making bets with me. Because I don't lose them often."

Naruto shivers beside me. "Yeah...she's not kidding." He's probably thinking back to a time when he and I used to make bets for fun, and he would lose without exception. If I bet on him, I win, but if he bets against me, he loses.

Now that the matches are over, the proctor coughs loudly for attention. He's going to announce the next part of the exam, I'm sure of it. "And with that match, the third exam preliminaries are now finished. Would all of the participants moving on to the next round please step forward."

"Guess that means us." I elbow Akito, before grabbing Naruto's hand and pulling him over the railing with me. The two of us race over to where the proctor is standing, and with the others joining us, we line up in front of the three proctors who have been overseeing this exam. Akito stands to my left, and Naruto to my right, while Hiro takes a place a little further down the line.

Our most recent proctor steps forward to address us. "I commend all those who have advanced to the finals for the third level of the Chunin Exams." He looks down the line. "Well, there's one person missing, but still, congratulations."

As I look up and down the line, I can see that it's really stacked quite unevenly. There are three from the Sand village, but the rest of us are here from the Leaf. And including Sasuke, that makes eight of us. Eleven ninja going on to the finals, and three quarters of them are Leaf shinobi.

Gramps walks over, tilting his hat with a smile. "And now, I will begin the explanation of the final rounds." I groan silently. Another long-winded lecture? How many of these does he expect us to sit through? "In the final rounds, each of you will put your battle skills on display. You'll demonstrate the power and control you've achieved in your respective disciplines. Accordingly, the final battles will commence on month from now."

"Wait, we're not gonna do it right here and now?" Naruto should really learn how to be less eager to jump into a fight. Though I suppose that he wouldn't be Naruto if he wasn't.

Gramps nods. "This is to provide a suitable period of preparation."

Neji frowns. "What do you mean by that?"

"Simply, this." Gramps takes a whiff of his pipe. "In addition to announcing the conclusion of the preliminary matches to each country's leaders, we must also have some time to prepare and distribute the summons for the final selection." Then, he smiles. "Not to mention that you examinees are going to need time to prepare for something that is this important."

"Look, I don't really get what you're trying to say." And Kankuro is probably not the only one thinking that. "What's the point of this?"

Gramps grows serious in an instant. "I mean that to know your adversaries and prepare yourselves, you need time. Even though up to this point, all the battles have been real battles, as I'm sure you can all attest. They were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an unknown enemy."

"But now that we've all watched each other fight and kick out our friends and teammates, that unknown variable has been taken out, right?" I watch Gramps carefully for his reaction.

And he nods approvingly. "Exactly. So, in order to make the finals fair and just, we're giving you this month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard and learn some new tricks. Because by now, everyone here knows your techniques, so using your old, tired tricks is a sure way to lose in the finals. And remember to get some rest as well." Of course he would round that off with some concern for our health.

Naruto stops listening to the old man and glares down the line at Neji and Gaara, so my fingers trail down and find his hand, and I squeeze it hard. He's got a hit list, and I am more than willing to help him cross names off of it. "We can do this, Naruto." I smile lightly. "Believe it."

"Now, with all of that behind us, I'd like to begin winding things up!" Gramps smiles. "But before we can bring this to an end, there is one more important matter that we have to take care of for the final round."

Naruto nods, but he's not quite content to just leave things like this. "Let's get on with it! I mean, come on! How long do we have to wait until we start training!?"

Gramps largely ignores Naruto's outburst. "In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you are going to take one slip of paper from the box that Anko is holding.

"Everyone just stay where you are, I'll come to you." She cuts us off before any of us can even open our mouths. She holds it in front of Akito first. "Just take one."

Akito reaches his hand inside, pulling out a single slip of paper. Anko holds the box out to me next, and I pull a slip of paper as well. It holds the number five. Naruto pulls a paper next, and seems confused by whatever is on it. Anko continues down the line until we're each holding a slip of paper in our hands.

Ibiki looks down the line and holds up a clipboard. "Good, now everyone has one. Going from left to right, tell me the number that's written on your slip of paper."

Akito holds up his paper for Ibiki to see. "I've got six."

"Five." I glance at Akito's slip curiously. We got numbers right next to each other...weird.

Naruto sniffs impatiently. "Number one of course."

"Seven." Temari is rather concise with her answer.

Kankuro hums slightly. "Eleven...but...I'm not sure that this is the right call for me."

Ibiki pauses, his eyes narrowing in suspicion. "Oh, and why is that?"

Kankuro shrugs. "I only came this far to make Gaara and Temari happy, so I don't see a point to me going any further this year." Neither of his teammates make a comment on that, and it seems to be rather tacit agreement.

Ibiki purses his lips, but nods anyway. "Very well then, you name will be taken from the list." He scratches on his clipboard, presumably taking Kankuro off the list of finalists. "Next."

Gaara's gravelly voice is heard next. "Three."

Shikamaru yawns. "Eight."

"I've got ten!" Hiro grins eagerly. "Looks like I'm the only one in the double digits."

Neji huffs impatiently. "Two."

"Nine." Shino is as silent as usual, saying only the bare minimum, and with a blank tone.

Ibiki makes the last notes. "And that means Sasuke will be number four."

"Right!" Gramps gives another nod of approval. "Now, I'm going to tell you about how the final selection tournament is going to work."

"Ha!?" Naruto twitches, not believing his ears.

Shikamaru, on the other hand, sounds offended. "Is that what the numbers were for? Drawing lots?"

Gramps ignores the outbursts once more. "Ibiki, you may reveal which ninja have been paired up."

"Yes, sir." Ibiki turns the clipboard around, revealing something or a horror story.

There are ten contestants on the page, paired up in numerical order. As numbers one and two, Naruto looks to be facing Neji right off the bat. And then Sasuke will have to deal with Gaara. On the other end, Shikamaru will have to fight Temari, and the winner of their match will fight the winner of Hiro and Shino's match. Whoever wins that match will have to... Oh...crap. Right next to each other are mine and Akito's names. We'll be the third match, and the winner of our match will face whoever wins their way through the uneven final matches. So I'll have to face Akito first, and if I win that, I could end up going against Hiro, or even Temari. And assuming that I make it through that, I could end up fighting Naruto or Sasuke, whoever ends up coming out of their block.

And I'm sure that I'm not the only one analyzing the match-ups. And Naruto looks rather pleased with his first round opponent. He also looks like he's imagining all the ways he could put the Hyuga in the ground. But on my end, Akito locks eyes with me, looking more than a little worried. We know well that this is the finals, but I'm sure that no one on my team wants to fight each other right off the bat.

Shikamaru is the first to raise his hand, though. "May I ask you a question?"

Gramps nods. "You may."

"Alright, if this is a tournament, does that mean there's only going to be one winner? I mean, only one of us is going to be able to become a chunin, then?" He makes a good point, but it sounds a little odd to me. If they only promote one genin to chunin each time...then how do we end up with so many chunin? It doesn't make sense...

"Actually, it's quite the contrary." Gramps says that like it's supposed to assuage our fear. "There's going to be several judges for the final round, including myself, the shinobi leaders, and the Kazekage, the lords from the various countries that ultimately will be assigning your missions to you. Through this tournament, these judges will be able to a thorough evaluation of your abilities." And Naruto is nodding his head like he understands what's going on. Which, somehow, I doubt he does. "They will then decide whether any or all of you possess the qualities required of a chunin. Even if someone loses the first round, they could still become a chunin."

"So...there's actually a chance that every one of us who competes in the final selection could become chunin." Temari sounds a lot less relieved than she should be. But I'll file that behavior under 'investigate later' for now.

"Correct. Conversely, there's also a chance that none of you will be chosen." Gramps does well at raising our spirits, before dampening them again. "The advantage in fighting more rounds in the tournament is in getting more chances to display your talents in front of the judges who will decide your fate. Does that answer your question, Shikamaru?"

My eye twitches slightly. I think that you've covered almost every possible question already...so can we just go? I'm hungry, and Akito promised to cover dinner tonight...

Gramps seems to notice that he is losing his pre-teen and teenage audience. "I think you for your patience. Now, let us adjourn until next month. Dismissed."

Finally... I grab hold of Akito and Hiro eagerly. "Come on, let's ditch this forest and head back into town, I'm hungry!"

As my stomach starts to rumble, the two of them laugh, and Akito wipes tears from his eyes. "Alright, let's get you some food. You've burned through a lot of chakra today, so I guess we should have seen this coming."

I smirk at my silly teammate. "Just remember, you're paying for dinner!"

"Yeah, yeah..." He smiles as the two of them let me drag them out of the building and back into the forest. And thanks to the five days of examinees running through the forest, it's already been mostly cleared of dangers. So there's nothing to stop us from making a beeline straight for one of the closest gates.