To recap the Chuunin Exam finals so far...

Neji Hyuuga def. Kongou no Karui via knockout

Naruto Uzumaki def. Haku Yuki via forfeit

Last time on Path of Shadows, Path of Lights...

"Rock Lee, Mikazuki no Omoi, your match begins in two minutes. Please come to the ring!"

Omoi side-eyed the green spandex-clad Konoha Genin he was to face, who immediately leapt to his feet. "YOSH! It is time for my flames of youth to burn brightly!" Lee shouted, before leaping over the railing the same way Naruto had in the previous match, landing in the middle of the ring to loud fanfare.

His opponent followed him down much more slowly, exuding an aura of calmness and irritation. Inwardly, he was rather worried about Karui after her match with Neji.

"I do hope that she recovers well from her match, because if she doesn't, then she might never be a shinobi again, and then I'd have nobody else to share the pain of Bee-sensei's raps, and he'd probably write an utterly terrible commemorative rap in honor of her all-too brief shinobi career, and then the ladies in Kumo might see me as an available commodity because I wouldn't be around Karui anymore, and I'd have to reject all but one of their advances, and then they might kill themselves out of grief, and then Kumo would be weakened for a generation and could get steamrolled by a hypothetical alliance of S-Ranked Missing-Nin, and Yugito-san and Bee-sensei might be kidnapped, and then the world could end, and Raikage-sama would have my head for it..."

By the time Omoi's mental tangent had ended, he was already in the ring, standing across from Lee, who was bouncing up and down on his heels, warming up for their fight. "From a casual glance, this guy wouldn't seem like much. But I can tell, just based on how easily he beat that Kiba kid in the preliminaries, he's strong...I can't afford to give him an inch, or he'll take a mile and make me regret it" Omoi thought, placing a hand on his katana's grip.

"LEE!" shouted a voice from the non-competitor section. Might Gai gave his pupil a thumbs-up, before continuing. "IF YOU NEED TO, YOU HAVE MY PERMISSION TO TAKE THEM OFF!"

Lee's eyes widened. "You...you mean it, Gai-sensei!?"

"OF COURSE I DO! LET NOTHING HINDER THE FIRES OF YOUR YOUTH IN THIS MATCH!"

Genma chuckled. "Gai, Gai, Gai...same as he ever was, back when we and Ebisu were Genin under Choza-sensei. But that's a tale for another time...BEGIN!"

Lee immediately dashed forward and delivered a series of swift high and low kicks to Omoi, ending with a speedy roundhouse. "LEAF HURRICANE!" the bowl-cut boy shouted, throwing Omoi back.

The white-haired Genin skidded along the ground, but ultimately regained his balance. "Holy crap, he's fast! It can't have been more than three and a half seconds since the fight began, and already I'm losing!"

Finally getting the chance to unsheath his katana, the Kumo Genin was now on his guard enough to spot Lee's next attack, a flying drop kick from behind him. "Cloud-Style...Reverse Beheading!" Spinning around in a circle, Omoi slashed directly behind him as Lee came down to deliver his next blow. The bowl-cut boy's eyes widened, before he threw another roundhouse kick to do his best to change direction in midair, barely avoiding Omoi's slash. "Almost got you" the Kumo Genin smirked.

Lee landed and performed a back kick, followed by a series of rapid-fire punches, forcing Omoi to retreat again. Just as one of the blows was about to make contact, however, Omoi vanished in a puff of smoke, replaced by the almighty log that has bailed out generations of shinobi in times of need. Lee was distracted for a few crucial moments by this surprise replacement, giving his foe time to rush in from behind with a lateral slash. "Cloud-Style...Deception Beheading!"

Lee brought one leg up to defend himself from the surprise attack, and as Omoi's sword cut through his bright orange leg-warmer, he made contact with something metallic underneath it. "Hmmm?" With another quick slash, the leg-warmer was cut apart, revealing a set of weights with intricate seals on them. "Training weights? Seriously?" Omoi asked.

"The best Gai-sensei had for me!" Lee affirmed, flashing Nice Gai Pose 17B (TM).

"Take them off. I want to fight you without anything holding you back" Omoi responded.

Lee took a flying leap backwards and ended up standing atop the wall around the arena, looking down almost 20 meters to his foe below. "YOSH! I'LL TAKE THEM OFF!" Lee said, removing the leg-warmers and weights underneath.

"Weights? Really, Gai?" Kakashi asked.

"Lee has been spending every waking moment of his days for the past year wearing those weights. He's become incredibly strong...I daresay that someday he may have even greater mastery of the Eight Gates than I do!" Gai exclaimed.

"Alright! Now I can move freely!" Lee shouted, dropping the weights. The crowd watched in amusement as "a few extra pounds" fell to the arena floor below.

A few moments later, the weights hit the ground and created a massive crater and cloud of dust, and the jaw of every person in the audience dropped. Omoi's eyes bugged out in surprise, and he almost swallowed his lollipop by accident. "Holy shit! He was that fast with all that weight on him?!"

Then Lee vanished, and Omoi was kicked into the arena wall.

"Holy shit!" the Raikage exclaimed, standing up in surprise. "What have you been feeding this kid, Sarutobi?"

Hiruzen chuckled. "You'd be best off asking Might Gai that question."

This caught both Mei and Ao's attention. "Might Gai? Is he perchance related to Might Dai?"

Hiruzen nodded. "Dai's son." The Mizukage and her retainer both took on an expression somewhat similar to reverent awe. "I see that Gai's father is still considered a legend by Kiri for killing four of the Seven Swordsmen in a seven-on-one battle..." Hiruzen thought in amusement, and no small amount of awe himself.

Back on the battlefield, Omoi had spit the stick of his lollipop out and was now solely concentrated on finding Lee and attempting to predict his next move. A punch from the left was narrowly dodged, followed by a kick from the right. After thirty seconds of ducking, weaving and getting hit (and holy shit, the bowl-cut boy hit like a steam liner from the Land of Snow), Omoi figured out that Lee was following a subconscious pattern, but still seemed to be holding back.

Twisting slightly to the left in anticipation of Lee's next attack, Omoi channeled a stream of lightning chakra into his sword. "Cloud-Style...Surprise Beheading!" he shouted, cutting Lee deeply across the chest. Lee reacted at the last moment, his defeat assured from the deep, bleeding gash running from shoulder to hip, and hit Omoi in the head with a powerful kick, knocking him out immediately.

The two fighters both fell to the ground, and Genma rushed over. "There is no way that either Rock Lee or Mikazuki no Omoi can continue, so this match is a draw!" The crowd rose to their feet, screaming and applauding both fighters.

"I'm impressed, Raikage-dono" Hiruzen said. "Your Genin managed to draw against arguably the strongest teenage Genin in Konoha."

A snorted in response. "It's not that impressive when you can tell that they were both holding back. That Lee boy had another trick up his sleeve, and Omoi didn't get the chance to reach his top speed by a long shot."

As the medics carted both boys off to the clinic in the stadium, Genma looked back to the stands. "Shino Aburame, Shikamaru Nara, please come to the ring."

Shino and Shikamaru stared down, the Nara's face unchanging while the Aburame's remained unreadable due to the sunglasses and hood he wore. "Shikamaru-san. I wish you the best in our match" Shino said neutrally.

"What a pain" Shikamaru groaned. "I'll make sure not to let you down too much."

"BEGIN!" Genma shouted, and for a few long moments, the duo simply continued to stare.

Then, a number of insects flew from Shino's coat towards Shikamaru, who leapt back in response, throwing explosive tags for cover, which also served to distract the Aburame's kikaichu beetles. The Nara noticed the crater from where Lee's weights had dropped, and the shadows being cast by the debris that had been kicked up by their formation.

"Perfect" Shikamaru thought, throwing a few more explosive kunai, this time in a straight line. The small bombs went off, and created a long, rocky furrow in the ground, allowing Shikamaru to extend his shadow further than normal through the trench's darkness.

"Ninpo: Shadow Possession Technique" the Nara said, as his shadow immobilized Shino. "Wait, something doesn't feel right..." Whirling around, Shikamaru spotted the real Shino, while the one in the Shadow Possession dissolved into beetles. "A Bug Clone. Of course." Another wave of kikaichu forced Shikamaru to retreat again, and so the cycle began again.

After fifteen minutes of Bug Clones, shadow tricks and whatnot, Shikamaru finally caught Shino in his Shadow Possession Technique. "Well, I guess it can't be helped...I surrender" Shikamaru said.

"I understand, Shikamaru-san" Shino responded. "My kikaichu tell me that you are running low on chakra and would likely have little success against Satsuki-san."

The two Genin walked calmly towards the stands, as Genma called the match for Shino, before consulting his scroll again. "Since Suigetsu Hozuki and Satsuki Uchiha both have byes, the final match will be Sabaku no Gaara versus Karasu no Kankuro."

Before anyone could say anything else, Kankuro shouted from the stands. "I FORFEIT! NO WAY AM I FIGHTING GAARA!"

Genma sighed, then began to speak again. "In that case, we will have a fifteen minute intermission, before Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyuuga."