A/N:

Hi, friends! It's been a long four years. I had this chapter drafted way back when and never finished editing it. And I probably never would have, but I figured, I had this entire story planned out and I just got stuck right here. So, screw it. Here's where it was at when I let it sit. Best to just throw it out there and see what happens, quality standards be damned. I'd like to get back into writing, and I was quite fond of this-and so excited to get to the end! Gotta remind myself to not jump the shark, however tempting that would be. And hey, maybe posting what I have will give me back that spark.

Oh, and happy (late) Halloween!

"Come on Sakura, hurry up! I wanna get good seats! It's going to suck if we have to sit far away and can't see anything."

It was the morning of the tournament. Crowds of people were gathered outside the entrance of the arena. Sakura let her eyes wander as she was dragged around like a ragdoll by Ino, who was making good time as she elbowed her way through the crowd.

"What do you mean they're all sold out?!"

"Front desk said tickets for the Tournament ran out a week ago. Unbelievable..."

"Just watch out for the scalpers. What a scam."

Making their way through the front doors, Sakura was floored at how large the arena was. There was a huge flat screen monitor showing the center of the arena ring, which was currently empty. Spectators who didn't have tickets were gathered around making small talk, evidently planning to watch the tournament from here.

This is a crazy amount of people, Sakura thought. She didn't remember the entrance being this big. Were there really this many people at the Chunin exams?

"Are you sure it's okay for you to be in the stands, Ino?" Sakura said. "I thought I remembered the candidates being in some kind of waiting area... um, last time."

Ino would be really pissed if she got disqualified for breaking the rules.

"Eh," Ino said, waving her hand dismissively. "Team Ino isn't scheduled until later. Besides, I want to get a chance to size up the competition before our match. You know what they say: save the best for last."

Our match?

"I'm not sure I follow."

"Don't worry about it. Wow! Look at the crowd!"

The open stadium seating area was packed. Sakura scanned the crowd looking for any open seats—it looked like they had got there just in the nick of time. Yanking Sakura's arm one last time, Ino managed to grab a seat right up at the front. There was a large stone wall separating the arena from the stands, but otherwise, the seats were the perfect viewing distance, if not a bit too up close and personal for the sort of fights they were about to witness. The arena itself was circular and grassy, with a large ring in the center, raised about waist high from the ground, with stairs on the north and south ends.

"It's gonna start any minute now," Ino said excitedly. "I wonder which teams'll face off first?"

"What do you mean which teams?" Sakura said. "The Chunin Exam Finals were one-on-one matches."

"No, I don't think so. This is definitely a team tournament."

"No, they were definitely not a team tournament." Sakura insisted. She could practically feel the blood draining from her face. "The Chunin Exam—"

"Well, you're wrong."

"No, you're wrong—"

"May I have your attention please?" A loud voice boomed through the speaker system, interrupting their argument. "The tournament committee has unanimously decided that in lieu of individual matches, the Chunin Exam Tournament rounds will instead consist of team matchups. The first round of the tournament will begin immediately. Team Eight and Team Nine, please report to the ring."

"Awesome!" Ino grinned and pumped a fist into the air.

Sakura said nothing.

Team Eight and Team Nine approached the arena ring from the north and south entrances. The cameras overhead were focused on the middle of the ring, where Anko stood with a microphone in hand and a huge smile on her face.

"Ladies and gents, sorry to keep you all waiting! My name is Anko Mitarashi and I'll be hosting this year's Final Exam Tournament! Will Team Eight and Team Nine please step forward?"

The crowd broke out in applause.

"Alright! Let's review some the rules! Fighters, you can use any techniques and weapons available to you. Team leaders, feel free to discuss amongst yourself the terms of the matches."

Up in the stands, Sakura was growing concerned. Were the stands always this close to the field?

"I wonder what sort of show-stopping, jaw-dropping performance these young competitors have planned for us today?"

The crowd continued to roar.

"Will it be one-on-one consecutive matches? Or perhaps an all out three-versus-three brawl!?"

Was there always a giant stone ring in the center of the arena? What was it for, anyway? Also, where did those huge flat screen TVs on either side of the arena come from?

"Any combatant who is still standing can be called on and multiple turns are allowed. First team to reach three wins will move onto the next round!"

Back on the ground floor of the arena, the genin were sharing bewildered looks. They clearly had no idea what was going on.

"What happened to our individual matches?" Tenten whispered to her two teammates.

Rock Lee just shrugged, looking lost. Neji didn't say a word.

"Teams, please step up to the plate." Anko said. "Time to decide the terms!"

"What terms?" Tenten said.

"It makes no difference to me who I fight, or what order we go in, if that's what your asking." Neji said, shrugging.

Shino nodded. "Likewise."

Anko broke out into another grin and turned to face the cameras once more. "You heard 'em, folks! The team leaders have reached an agreement! It looks like we're gonna have randomized match-ups!"

All six genin in the arena nodded, and then almost immediately paused, looking very confused.

"Um," Tenten said. "Huh?"

You and me both, Tenten, Sakura thought. This had Ino written all over it...

Addressing the crowd in the stands, Anko outlined the new rules: a member from each team would be randomly selected to fight. The first team to hit three wins would move onto the next round.

"Ino," Sakura yell-whispered into Ino's ear over the crowd, "I don't think this is right."

"Multiple fights are allowed," Anko continued, "And if you lose two matches in a row, you are disqualified!"

Maybe it was time for a more aggressive approach.

"Ino! I think you might be confusing this with another manga."

Ino finally looked at her. Several seconds passed. Then, she shrugged. "No, it was definitely Naruto."

"Any last questions, fighters?"

The silence stretched.

Finally, Neji spoke. "These rules... Does this mean that some of us might have to fight more than once, and that some of us may not fight at all?"

"What?! Some of us might not fight?!" Rock Lee said.

"That's fine," Shino said.

"Hey, WAIT A SECOND!" Kiba snapped. "I'm the team leader! Shino, what the hell?!"

"Wow, Kiba," Tenten said. "Took you that long, huh?"

"Shut up!"

Ignoring them, Anko raised her mic. "Let's set up the scoreboard!"

Sakura watched as the digital scoreboards on the giant screens across the arena update to read 'TEAM SHINO and TEAM NEJI.'

"Goddamnit," Kiba said.

"AND THE RANDOM SELECTION IS GOING! Let's see what the first matchup is going to be!'

As the crowd waited with bated breath, the scoreboard began quickly scrolling through the names of the teammates. After a few agonizing seconds, it landed on HINATA HYUGA and NEJI HYUGA.

"GODDAMMNIT." Kiba looked ready to jump back onto the arena platform. "Can we please redo the rules?! Shino isn't even our team leader! That position belongs to me!"

"Give it up, Kiba." Shino pointed towards the center of the ring, where Neji and Hinata were now standing. "It's started."

"AND OUR FIRST MATCH OF THE ROUND... HINATA VS NEJI! BEGIN!"

"A word of advice, Hinata. Withdraw now."

As surreal as the day had been so far, the beginning of the fight was surprisingly unsurprising for Sakura, all the things considered. She'd always loved the Hinata Neji prelim fight, after all.

"You're too kind, and gentle. Admit it. You have no confidence. You feel feel inferior to everyone else here..."

Although really, Neji was kind of a dick, wasn't he?

"You couldn't bear to let your teammates down, could you?"

Hinata had not made a sound throughout Neji's tirade. She simply stared at him with those blank eyes, as if she were looking right through him.

Neji seemed as confused as Sakura felt by her response. After all, the whole point of his speech was to intimidate her into quitting. "..Are you even listening to me? Lady Hinata?"

"Yes," Hinata nodded.

From the sidelines, Kiba was becoming increasingly distraught.

"Kiba, don't," Shino pulled him aside the moment he looked ready to jump onto the platform. "Listen. Even if Hinata cannot win this fight, she can potentially weaken Neji. If he is selected again, it would make it easier for us to defeat him. He's the rookie of the year and our strongest competition. If anyone could hope to match him, Hinata... she also has the gentle fist-"

"I forfeit," Hinata said.

Beneath his collar, Shino's jaw dropped.

"WAIT," Kiba scrambled onto the ring. "THAT DOESN'T COUNT."

"AND THE SCORE IS NOW 1 TO 0 IN FAVOR OF TEAM NEJI!"

Kiba's incoherent protests were drowned out by the roar of the crowd. The scoreboard was already cycling through the second set of names, readying the audience for the next match.

"And it looks like our second match will be... NEJI VERSUS KIBA! Wow, it looks like our random selector really likes you, Neji! You better watch out!" Anko laughed.

Sakura watched the next fight with much less enthusiasm than she had been feeling earlier. For a moment, she had almost forgotten that Hinata wasn't Hinata.

I guess Ino wasn't interested in watching that fight, huh? It was probably for the best.

Below, the two genin were circling each other, but nothing seemed to be happening. Kiba and Neji appeared to be talking, but Sakura has a hard time hearing over the loud shouting of the audience.

"Man, I can't wait to see Neji get destroyed. That guy was so snooty! Can you believe what he said about my team?" Ino leaned into the rails and at the top of her lungs, shouted, "KICK HIS ASS, KIBA! YOU GOT THIS!"

"YEAH! I WANNA SEE THAT LITTLE HYUGA BOY GET POUNDED INTO NEXT TUESDAY!" Someone in the audience yelled.

"Yeah!" Naruto shouted, having materialized on the other side of Ino sometime between the two matches. "Go Kiba! Woo hoo!"

"RIP THAT HYUGA'S ARMS OFF AND SHOVE THEM DOWN HIS-"

"-WE'VE BEEN WAITING ALL GODDAMN DAY. I WANNA SEE SOME BLOOD!"

Holy... A crumpled beer can whizzes past her head. These guys are really excited for the finals.

It was sort of interesting watching them fight, Sakura decided. Neji was graceful; every move seemed calculated to preserve as much energy as possible. He almost looked like he was dancing. Kiba looked like he was dancing too, but where Neji seemed practiced, Kiba seemed instinctual. The whole 'running around on all fours' thing was a little weird and frankly, Sakura wasn't sure how that was supposed to help... but then, she knew next to nothing about fighting. It all seemed a little too violent to her... At any rate, the match was moving much too fast for her to follow.

"Wow! Did you see that, Sakura?" Ino was leaning into the rails again. It seemed a little dangerous... "That dog just turned into him! That's so cool! Why don't I have a dog like that?"

When Sakura looked back, there were two spinning vortexes heading straight towards Neji—too fast, evidently too fast for Neji to bother dodging. He seemed to realize this and was calmly waiting. The next thing she knew, Neji was spinning, too—there was a huge crash and a blinding light as both participants flew into the air and out of the ring.

When the dust settled, both Neji and Kiba took a moment to stand. Neji was in much better shape—apparently, there was something to that whole 'energy conservation' thing. While the fight seemed to be an even match early on, it was clear Kiba was burning through his energy much faster.

"That was insane! Did you see it, folks?" Anko said from the side. "It looks like both contestants are outside of the ring and struggling to stand up. I guess I'll start the count."

"Wait..." Kiba wheezed. "What count?"

"One! Two!"

"What... count?!"

"Oh, didn't I tell you?" Anko said. "The win conditions for fights. Anyone who is out of the ring for more than ten counts is automatically disqualified! Three! Four!"

"You're... kidding..!"

Both Neji and Kiba scurried onto the edge of the ring before resuming their recovery.

"And... they're back!"

Ten count? Disqualification? Sakura was lost. "Ino, what's going on here? I don't remember anything about these rules."

"I don't know, it seems pretty normal to me. Isn't that how stuff like wrestling and MMA or whatever works? "

"I don't understand why there's a ring at all."

"Ooooh! And it looks like Kiba's down!" Anko said, interrupting their argument. "I'll go ahead and start the ten count. One! Two!"

"Shut up! I-I'm fine!" Kiba was clearly struggling to get up and had one hand clutched to his chest. "Damn, Hinata was right. That Gentle Fist stuff is no joke..."

"Three!"

"I said shut up already!" Kiba was now on his knees, attempting to push himself up off of the floor.

Neji gave him an odd look. After a moment, his eyes hardened. He marched over to Kiba, who had only a second to look up before Neji reached him.

"Hey, what do you think you're-"

Neji picked Kiba up by his jacket, lifted him up, and hurled him out of the ring.

"Oh GOD DAMNIT, NEJI, YOU ASSHOLE. I was already down!"

"Sorry," Neji said impassively, although he did flinch at the sound of something cracking as Kiba hit the dirt a dozen feet away from the edge of the ring. "It's nothing personal. I don't want to take any chances. You understand."

"And it looks like Kiba's out of the ring again! I'll be restarting my count, naturally. One! Two!"

Kiba stayed down for the count. Given his current condition and his struggle to stand up at all, the odds of him making it back into the ring were pretty slim to begin with, Sakura figured. And even if he did, would he really want to? He could get called again for the next match.

"Ten! That's it, folks! Neji's the clear winner here!"

After the match was called, Shino and Hinata walked towards their teammate, who was still crumpled on the floor outside the ring.

"Great job, Kiba." Shino said. His tone seemed neutral, but was that a hint of sarcasm in his voice?

"Yes," Hinata said vacantly. "Great job."

"Man..." Kiba let his head collapse back onto the dirt. He knew Hinata was impressionable, but did she really have to start mimicking Shino of all people?

From the other side of the arena, Rock Lee was waving his hands in the air. "WOO HOO! GO NEJI! YOU ARE THE BEST!"

"Yeah, that was amazing, Neji!" Tenten grinned. "We only need to win one more match and this round is ours!"

Neji nodded, trying to hide the fact that he was still winded and struggling to catch his breath. Defending against a speedy, irate Kiba who happened to have a penchant for spamming Fang over Fang was a great way to drain his chakra reserves.

The names on the scoreboard were already whirling as Neji began walking across the ring back towards his teammates.

"It looks like the next match is going to be... NEJI VERSUS SHINO!"

Neji nearly stumbled at the sound of his name. He did a doubletake at the scoreboard. "Are you kidding me?!"

Wow, Sakura grimaced. Ino must really hate Neji.

From the other side of the ring, Shino adjusted his sunglasses and smirked at his opponent.

For his part, Rock Lee seemed genuinely distraught. "Three fights in a row?! But- but... I have not gotten to test myself! This isn't fair!"

"Can you believe it, people?" Anko shook her head, an insidious smile still lighting up her face. "That's three matches in a row! How brutal! I love it! I only wish you guys out there in the stands could see how much he's sweating! He's practically quaking in his boots!"

Curled up on the floor still, Kiba started to laugh before promptly devolving into a coughing fit.

Neji took a deep breath. Be calm. Like the ocean. Calm. Calm...

"Third fight, Neji versus Shino! And... begin!" Anko announced with a flourish of her hand. Behind them, the crowd cheered.

Shino and Neji locked eyes and spent the next several moments staring each other down. Without warning, tiny black bugs began swarming out of Shino's jacket, catching Neji completely off-guard. In a large wave, the flying insects began hovering around Shino, coalescing into one quickly expanding horde.

Neji activated his Byakugan and grimaced. Shino was completely covered in bugs under his jacket. Disgusting. From the edges of the ring, Neji could see thin lines of beetles beginning to crawl towards his opponent. And... was the swarm around Shino expanding towards him?

Neji pursed his lips in frustration. "Please tell me you're not doing what I think you're doing."

"You're familiar with the Aburame clan's insects, I take it," Shino said. Behind him, Shino's bugs had completely encapsulated the south half of the ring.

"If you think you can just force me off of the ring, you can think again," With a huff, Neji turned to Anko, who had conveniently edged herself towards the far end of the ring that happened to be bug-free. "I thought these matches were supposed to be about demonstrating our skills to the tournament committee. This hardly constitutes a fair fight."

"Wow! Millions of tiny insects appear to be swarming out of Shino's clothing!" Anko announced excitedly into the microphone. "And... Oh, it looks like they're crawling up his neck and over his face! How delightfully gruesome! I wonder what this fledgling Bug Master has planned next?!"

"A win's a win," Shino said. "In ordinary circumstances, you'd have time to evade and come up with a strategy. But right now, I only need ten counts. Furthermore, I'm not the one coming straight out of a fight. I wonder how quickly my parasitic beetles will be able to drain you of all your chakra. Normally, it takes less them less than a minute..." Shino said. "It'd be a shame if you risked it and lost anyway. I wonder what the odds are that you'll get called up four times in a row."

Silently, Neji glared at the Bug Master while he weighed his options. He could try rushing him, but he was unfamiliar with Shino's skills, although it was clear that Hinata's teammate was a formidable opponent. He appeared confident, too, and Neji couldn't tell if he was bluffing. The score was zero to two. Was it worth taking a loss? Would he really get called for four matches in a row?

"This is bullshit," Neji finally said. He found himself relaxing marginally. Wow, Tenten was right—swearing really was therapeutic.

Shino shrugged.

"Fine," Neji sighed. "I forfeit the match."

"And the winner by forfeiture is Shino! It looks like the Bug Master's creepy beetle swarm was just too repulsive for the Hyuga boy's delicate sensibilities! Committee, please update the scoreboard!"

Shino walked out of the ring and joined his team, noting that Kiba seemed to be standing and apparently fine. Giving him a sideways glance, he said, "Why aren't you still on the floor hacking your lungs out?

Snorting, Kiba reached into his pocket and pulled out a handful of pills.

"Wow," Shino deadpanned. "Food pills heal internal injuries now?"

"Whatever," Kiba glared. "I mean, I wasn't that injured, okay? I'm fine."

"Kiba currently has two broken ribs and a dislocated shoulder," Hinata informed them both.

"No, I don't!"

From behind him, Shino jabbed Kiba sharply in his side.

Kiba crumpled to the floor, howling.

"Will both of you just shove off already?!" Kiba glared as he limped away from both of his teammates. His team was the absolute worst.

From across the arena, Neji had just stepped out of the ring. Rock Lee seemed to be in shock that Neji has forfeited and was struggling for words. "NEJI! What were you-"

"Don't," Neji lifts up a hand and cut him off. "We only need to win one more match, and they need to win two. Statistically -"

"—Realistically," Tenten interrupted, "It's unlikely you would have been called for a fourth match in a row, so you might as well have fought and worn down Shino some."

"Me next, me next, me next!" Rock Lee began chanting to himself.

Ignoring Rock Lee, Neji shook his head. "In theory, yes, but these matches are obviously rigged." As he spoke, he glared at Anko, who was at that moment still spewing nonsense at an audience who was alternatively booing and cheering in equal parts. At who, Neji couldn't tell.

"Er, well," Tenten said, "I wasn't going to say anything, but—"

"AND THE NEXT MATCH IS TENTEN VERSUS KIBA!"

"Noooooo!" Rock Lee wailed, dropping to his knees.

...

"Oh, wow! I haven't seen a match over that quickly in ages! How embarrassing!"

...

"I can't believe you lost to Kiba," Neji said; his voice somehow conveying both incredulity and mild disgust. "He was literally coughing up blood two minutes before the match started."

"It's not my fault," Tenten said glumly. "What was I supposed to do?"

"Not letting Akamaru sit on you for ten seconds outside of the ring would have been a good place to start."

"That's not—" Tenten flushed. "Look, he was transformed into Kiba—"

"-which you easily could have dispelled at that point if you hadn't been too busy—"

"—and also, Akamaru is just a puppy. It's not his fault—he didn't know what he was doing!"

Neji sighed.

"You didn't really expect me to hit a puppy, did you?"

"..."

"You did great, Tenten!" Rock Lee gave her a thumbs up.

Okay, that had to be sarcastic. "Just leave me alone," Tenten said before turning and walking away from the ring, presumably looking for somewhere she could sulk in peace.

Sakura was biting her nails as she watched the final spin of the scoreboard.

Anko was riling up the crowd, soaking up the cheers and clearly living her best life as announcer-slash-referree. "IT'S TWO FOR TWO. THIS WILL BE THE FINAL MATCH UP OF THE ROUND!"

"PLEAAAASE PICK ME!" Rock Lee was on his knees again. "I haven't gotten a turn! I want to fight!"

"Whoaaa, slow down there, buddy! You're interrupting my speech!"

"I CAN WIN THIS!"

"Man," Ino said. "This next fight better be a good one! I can't believe how pathetic these teams are. Can you believe we've only had ONE decent fight since this round started? I'm gonna be seriously pissed if nothing cool happens. HEY, YOU!" Ino abruptly shouted.

About half of the fighters on the field looked up at her.

"YOU GUYS BETTER DO SOMETHING COOL THIS TIME, YOU HEAR ME?!"

"Ugh," Neji promptly buried his face in his hands.

"And there you have it, folks!" Anko said. "HINATA VS ROCK LEE!"

"YOSH!"

Neji let out a sigh of relief.

"Aww, man," Kiba groaned. "Why couldn't it have been Shino?" After a second, Kiba seemed to realize he'd said that out loud, and gave Hinata an apologetic look. "Er, no offense, Hinata."

"I am not offended," Hinata blinked.

"..right."

"Hellooooo, Team Shino to Konoha!" Anko said impatiently. "Please send your fighter into the ring already! We don't have all day!"

Rock Lee was already at the center, jogging in place and whispering to himself.

Nodding, Hinata jumped onto the ring.

As soon as she reached the center, Rock Lee abruptly fell into a bow. "I am honored to have this chance to participate in the final match against a member of the Hyuga Clan. Please..." Rock Lee seemed to stumble over his words at this point. "Er, that is... Please do not forfeit immediately. I really do want to fight." In a much louder and more confident voice, he continued, "I will show the world how great of a ninja I am! That is all! I wish you the best of luck!"

Hinata nodded. Hinata slowly opened her mouth to say something, but before she could get a word out, she was interrupted by the sound of Ino screaming at the top of her lungs from the stands.

"YOU BETTER NOT FORFEIT HINATA OR I SWEAR I'LL MAKE YOU REGRET IT! YOU'LL RUN SO MANY LAPS YOU WON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT TO DO WITH YOURSELF! I WANT TO SEE A GOOD FIGHT, DAMMIT!" After a moment, Ino added. "AND DON'T EVEN THINK ABOUT LOSING, EITHER! YOU'RE REPRESENTING TEAM INO OUT THERE SO YOU BETTER NOT MAKE US LOOK BAD!"

Hinata stared at Ino for several seconds. Eventually, she nodded.

"AND HERE WE GO! HINATA VERSUS LEE, BEGIN!"

As soon as Anko waved her hand, Hinata immediately raised both hands and Rock Lee braced himself defensively. She must be preparing to... wait... "What is this...?"

Hinata was whispering very quickly under her breath.

Rock Lee looked confused for a moment, but his expression quickly morphed into one of horror. "OH NO. NO, NO, NO-"

Hinata's lips continued to move rapidly, her words indiscernible to the audience.

"Wow, it looks like Hinata is unleashing some sort super cool new jutsu! It appears to be having devastating effects on Rock Lee! He's completely unable to move!"

"-NOOOO! That thing is happening again! Is this some kind of curse?!"

Walking up to Rock Lee, Hinata tapped him on the chest. Rock Lee fell over like a log.

"UPDATE people SET surface_area="1000 m^2" where NAME='Rock Lee'."

"I-I can't... I can't get up!" Rock Lee groaned, struggling and failing to get off of the floor.

"It looks like Rock Lee is unable to get up! You know the rules, people! I'll start the count! One! Two!"

Hinata stared at her opponent with an almost bored expression as his face turned redder and redder, growing increasingly desperate to push himself up.

"Three! Four!"

"Come on, Rock Lee! Get up! I know you can do it!" Tenten yelled from the sidelines.

"Five! Six!"

From across the ring, Neji was glaring at Hinata like she was evil incarnate. What kind of secret main branch jutsu was that?!

"...NINE, AND TEN! Rock Lee is out! Hinata wins this match. AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS, FOLKS! TEAM SHINO WILL BE MOVING ONTO THE NEXT ROUND!"

The crowd burst into applause.

"I knew they could do it!" Ino grinned back at Sakura.