Hey guys here's the latest chapter and I hope you all enjoy. Just so you know I am still making notes of peoples votes and such, and just a warning that I've slowed down slightly on writing chapters as I'm real busy but I do have up to 66 written so I have a good little backlog so to speak so it won't affect things for a while if at all-I may speed up soon.

Naruto made her way back up to the balcony, a goofy little grin on her lips as she tucked her hair behind her ear-Neji would need to be checked over by the medics on standby-she hadn't hurt him really, a few nasty bruises but nothing serious. He'd stepped down before the fight would get to that point-Naruto was slightly disappointed but she'd earned her victory either way.

She grinned at the thumbs up Sakura gave her-and she caught Gai staring at her in shock and she raised an eyebrow, "Why are you looking at me like that Gai-san?"

"Do you realize what you've done Naruto-san?"

"Yeah. Yeah I do."

"Why did-"

"Like I said down there, the seal is disgusting-if I can help someone by getting rid of it then why not?"

"He was your opponent but you-"

"But I still helped him-well he's a Konoha shinobi I dunno what you'd expect me to say Gai-san. I do what I think is right even if it's hard sometimes."

"You..." Gai just stared for a long moment before beaming, "You truly do have a youthful heart Naruto-san!" that made the blonde blush and duck her head
slightly-and Tenten, from where she was stood behind Gai, smiled warmly.

"Thank you. For helping Neji. He'll probably never say it so I will."

"It wasn't a big deal. Really it wasn't." Naruto rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly.

Then Hayate's voice came from below. "Yuki Haku and Tenten, come down to the arena for your fight."

Naruto leaned forward and watched as Haku and Tenten both headed down to the arena, and once they were face to face Hayate looked between them.

"The rules are as previously stated." Hayate said loudly, "Are there any objections to the match?" Haku and Tenten both shook their heads, and with that the fight began, and Naruto watched curiously as Tenten and Haku fought-Haku was using his senbons, but he seemed to be holding back and avoiding using his mirrors for now, and Tenten-Naruto's eyes widened in surprise when she saw that the girl was using scrolls with seals that contained weapons.

She turned her head to Gai quickly, "Did she draw those seals herself?"

"Yes, she did." Gai looked proud.

"Oh that's so cool." Naruto grinned, "A fellow fuinjutsu user-"

"She's not quite on your level." Gai admitted, "But she is skilled-watch." and Naruto did, watching a barrage of weapons shoot out from a seal in a scroll-they were fast too, but Haku- Naruto grinned to herself as a mirror of ice formed almost like a shield-and then the fighting became that bit more intense, Haku using his ice to attack and defend along with his senbons while Tenten used her scrolls and weapons.

Then Naruto saw Haku's hands move and she smirked as she glanced sidelong at Sakura, who nodded at her, clearly recognizing the hand signals.

Sure enough soon Tenten was surrounded by mirrors, and Sakura shuddered slightly besides Naruto, who draped an arm over her friends shoulder.

"It's okay 'Kura-chan."

"I know, it just... it's scary being inside of that."

"You've been inside of that?" Shikamaru spoke up, eyes narrowed.

"Yeah, and Sasuke-kun was. Naruto-chan had to bust us out of there. Haku-san can move between the mirrors insanely fast."

"You think he'll win."

"I think it's likely." Sakura nodded, "No offence to Tenten-san but those mirrors-"

"And there are more." Naruto added, "Look at them Sakura-chan, there's no real gaps between them anymore-"

"Oh wow." Sakura hummed, "I doubt I'd be able to beat him-"

"You'd stand a decent chance, you'd just need to stop him from using it." Naruto remarked, though when Sakura caught her eye and raised an eyebrow, and Naruto paused before giving a sheepish smile.

Sakura wouldn't be fighting Haku after all. She'd only have one match, they'd all only have one match-if that, because then the attack would be starting and
the matches would be stopped.

Still that didn't mean they couldn't enjoy watching the matches, so Naruto swung her gaze back to the arena-though truthfully there wasn't much to see, Tenten was stuck inside of the mirror dome.

Then after perhaps fifteen minutes the ice was melting away and Tenten was hunched over with several senbon sticking out of her.
Haku turned to look towards Hayate, "Proctor-san?"

"Yuki Haku wins the match and goes onto the next round." Hayate called out, "Medics!" and the medics rushed onto the field quickly, splashing through the puddles from the melted ice to get to the unconscious girl, loading her only a stretcher and moving her from the arena.

Naruto noticed Haku looking towards the Kage box and she followed his gaze, smiling faintly when she saw the proud look on the Mizukage's face, the smug little smirk on her lips.

Then Naruto's eyes were drawn to the Kazekage and her eyes narrowed.

Rasa.

Gaara's father.

As if he could feel her looking at him his gaze swept over her, lingering slightly-eyes narrowing on her. And she could sense-huh. That was strange. There was anger, a lot of it, directed at her.

Had Baki told him that she'd been befriending Gaara? But surely that wouldn't cause that much anger? Something was wrong.

As if something was guiding her Naruto's eyes moved through the crowd again, this time landing on Karin, who was wide eyed and pale staring up at the Kage box. Yeah something was wrong.

"Sakura-chan." Naruto's voice was a whisper. "Something's up. I need to speak to Karin-chan."

"I-" Sakura frowned, "Right." She nodded, "Just tell them you need the toilet or something."

"I shouldn't be long but-"

"But you won't be cheering me on, it's okay." Sakura nodded, and then she turned her head when she was called down along with Temari.

While Sakura was on her way down Naruto slipped down after her, managing not to be noticed-thank kami, and then she henged, her clothes turning nondescript and her whiskers disappearing, hair turning brown as she slipped into the crowds, moving around the edge of the stadium, keeping an eye as the match began.

She managed to make it to the section Karin was in, and the girl clearly sensed her because she turned her head, and sure enough she had a panicked look on her face, and when Naruto nodded towards the doors Karin nodded, so Naruto moved to them quickly, ducking outside-no one would think too much of it, hopefully they'd just assume they needed the toilets or something.

A minute or so later Karin joined her outside, and the red haired girl grabbed her arm quickly, pitching her voice low, "Naruto-san?"

"Yes." Naruto hissed back, "Karin-chan something's wrong isn't it. I can sense something but I don't know what but I saw the look on your face."

"It's him. The man from the forest." Karin whispered, "Naruto-san I... what do we do? Should I tell your mom?"

Naruto's eyes widened in shock. But... why was she shocked? It made complete sense didn't it? Of course. The Kazekage was probably dead, Orochimaru hadn't formed an alliance he'd just murdered the man and taken his place.

She bit her lip hard, mind racing as she tried to figure out what to do.

"Not yet." she decided after a long moment, "Mom would want to tell the Hokage and her reaction might tip our hand."

"Tip our hand?" Karin's voice was worried, "Naruto-san what's going on?"

"There's going to be an attack." Naruto swallowed hard, "Listen, when you go back in, after Shino and Shikamaru's match I need you to tell her to be ready for a fight-be honest tell her you don't know what's going on but that I warned you." if her mom knew what was going on she'd never let Naruto do what she was going to-which would be stay as close to the Hokage as she could to defend him. So her mom couldn't know. Not yet.

"I-okay." Karin nodded, her face pale, "Whatever you say Naruto-san." her expression was determined. "What are you gonna do?"

"I need to speak to the sand siblings and Sakura-chan. I'll send a clone to speak to them. You just go back and relax as much as you can okay?"

"Of course." Karin nodded quickly, and she headed back in.

Naruto quickly created a shadow clone, sending it back inside while she lingered by the doors, peering in and smiling to herself when she managed to look at the fight between Sakura and Temari-she could see it, though not as well as she'd like.

Sakura was making good use of her earth jutsu to block Temari's attacks-and she was a lot faster than she had been before-Naruto was pretty sure she'd deactivated her gravity seal based on just how fast the girl was moving.

She smiled proudly as she watched Sakura summon up spikes of earth from the ground and send them shooting towards Temari-ripping through her fan and making the Suna Kunoichi let out a bellow of rage as they fought back and forth-she wished she could watch properly and really enjoy it, Sakura had grown so much that it was insane, she was nothing like the fangirl who had zero confidence deep down inside that Naruto had first met.

She was growing into a skilled, strong Shinobi.

Getting over her ridiculous crush had done her a world of good.

Naruto winced when she saw Sakura get thrown backwards, and then she was distracted by the arrival of Gaara and Kankuro, the red haired boy speaking up before Naruto could open her mouth, "I have left two sand clones up there, one of them is henged to look like Kankuro."

"Good. I'll have a couple of clones henged to look like Temari and Sakura so that they can meet us here without anyone suspecting that we're meeting.

"What's going on?" Kankuro hissed the words, "It's bad enough that we're disobeying our father-if anyone notices that we're talking to you then-"

"I'm sorry." Naruto blurted the words out, "I'm so sorry Gaara-san, Kankuro-san." she took a deep breath. "I really am but... I checked with my cousin Karin, she's a sensor, to her everyone's Chakra feels different, she was... she was with us in the Forest of Death when Orochimaru attacked us. She says that... that the man who looks like your father feels like Orochimaru."

"What?" Kankuro's eyes widened, "What the hell are you saying?" there was fear on his face.

Gaara didn't look quite so upset, though he was frowning. "You're saying Orochimaru killed our father and is posing as him to further his cause against Konoha."

"Under the circumstances no one in Konoha will blame Suna for what's happened but we'll need to reveal it as soon as we can."

"I will announce it during my match." Gaara shook his head, "Orochimaru won't be expecting to be exposed."

"That'll work-it should give the Suna shinobi who would have been attacking a moments pause and they might even help us when they find out what Orochimaru's done."

"He killed our father." Kankuro's voice was angry, "Someone needs to make him pay-"

"Not you." Gaara gave Kankuro a warning look "I know that you're angry brother but you are no match for Orochimaru. Neither am I."

"I'm not either, not really." Naruto admitted unashamedly, "But I'm stronger than you and I'll be backing up the Hokage-I'm sure together we'll be able to handle the snake bastard."

"Good. Make him pay." Kankuro spat the words, "I know he wasn't ever the best father but he was our father and Orochimaru needs to pay for this."

"He will." Naruto's voice was soothing. "I promise." she leaned against the wall, taking a deep breath. "We follow the plan guys."

"Of course." Gaara nodded, glancing back into the arena, raising an eyebrow, "They'll be out here shortly, I believe the match is over."

"Did you hear who won?"

"No I missed it."

"Shame." Naruto sighed to herself, "I'd have liked to hear who won-I'd have liked to watch honestly."

"They'll tell us." Kankuro shrugged, "We'll know who won in a minute."

And sure enough perhaps five minutes later Sakura and Temari arrived, both of them henged, though the released the henges once they were in the hall.

"Shikamaru made a weirdly flashy entrance so everyone was distracted and it was easy to slip away." Sakura was almost glowing with pride, her clothes were somewhat ripped and she had some cuts and bruises, but the smile on her lips told Naruto all she needed to know-that and the fact that Temari was bruised and bloody too, and looked disappointed.

"Sakura-san's a worthy opponent." Temari admitted "Now what's going on why are we all out here? This is kind of a giveaway if anyone sees us-they'll know that we're plotting."

"I had important information-Karin-my cousin, she can sense Chakra, and it feels different for each person to her. She was with us when Orochimaru attacked in the Forest of Death."

"It's Orochimaru." Gaara spoke up. "He's posing as father. Father's likely already been killed."

Temari's eyes widened in shock and she swayed slightly-Sakura grabbing her arm to steady her as the girl's face flashed through emotions quickly.
Then she was straightening, rolling her shoulders, "We grieve later. We destroy his plans we destroy him. Agreed?"

"I plan on exposing him at the start of my match." Gaara nodded, "He won't be expecting it, his shock should give us an edge."

"Good." Temari nodded, "Are we all ready?"

"Yeah, yeah I think so." that was Sakura, and she beckoned Temari closer, "C'mere. Let me heal you up-I tried to avoid hurting you too much because of
what's coming."

"Same here." Temari admitted. "Still you won fair and square."

"Let's hope that both of us win our next fights." Sakura's voice was serious, and all five of the shinobi gathered knew that no matter what was about to happen, they'd go out fighting.