The four boys walked to the training yard, Kiba and Naruto in the lead. Naruto focused on the flow of his chakra—a couple days in a coma had left his chakra network feeling well-rested. He was practically giggling with anticipation. They heard the thunk of shuriken striking wooden targets before turning to see Tenten in the yard drilling ranged weapon techniques. There was plenty of space for both parties, and Tenten watched them curiously from her side.

"You ready?" said Kiba as he stood across from Naruto over packed dirt.

"Bring it on," said Naruto. "And your dog too, doesn't matter."

Kiba activated his beast mimicry technique and sprang onto the offensive. His eyes morphed into beast-like slits as his sharp teeth and nails hardened. Naruto stepped back and conjured two shadow clones to counter Kiba's frontal assault. The clones exchanged a series of blows with Kiba, forcing him back with a combination of integrated maneuvers. Kiba landed a swinging claw on one of the clones, and as the clone dispersed the other caught Kiba in the gut with a turning kick. Kiba lunged at the surviving clone, but the clone seized Kiba's arm as the true Naruto jumped forward and delivered a chop to the side of Kiba's head, sending him staggering back in dizzied surprise.

"Oh!" Choji rooted from the sideline. "Don't let him do you like that, Kiba!"

Kiba growled and pounced at Naruto again, but again his claw barrage was eluded. Naruto maintained fighting position with one to three clones around him at a time, tactically transitioning between defense and offense, and deconstructing Kiba's moves.

"Naruto is handling himself pretty well," said Shikamaru. "When they fought in the preliminaries I thought Naruto's win was a fluke, but now he actually looks like he knows what he's doing."

Naruto knocked Kiba back again with a two-clone-combo. Both young shinobi were breathing heavily. He's not nearly as fast as Jiraiya-sensei, and he's moves are getting easier to predict.

Kiba crouched down and let out a sharp whistle, calling Akamaru to his side. Akamaru growled at Naruto, his fur on end, as Kiba performed a short sequence of hand signs. "Jujin Bunshin: Beast Doppelganger!" Kiba grew even more feral looking as he and Akamaru transformed into matching man-beast humanoids. They snarled and began slowly circling Naruto and his current two clones.

Kiba and Akamaru blitzed in from opposite directions, faster and stronger than before. They managed to break through the clones that opposed them, leaving only the true Naruto between the man-beasts. Naruto dodged a charging tackle, and jumped back from snapping fangs. One of the beasts slashed him in the side, ripping through Naruto's shirt and leaving a trail of shallow claw marks.

"Kiba's out for blood," said Choji. "Don't kill him!"

Naruto released a focused burst of chakra from his feet, propelling him straight up over Kiba and Akamaru as they rushed toward him. "I call this one, Naruto Uzumaki: Clone Avalanche!" said Naruto. He conjured a dozen shadow clones that descended alongside him. The clones tackled Kiba and Akamaru to the dirt, and Naruto delivered a chakra-concentrated finishing blow on Kiba as he landed. Kiba's jutsu released, and he and Akamaru reverted back to their base forms. Naruto held Kiba in a headlock with one clone sitting on Kiba's back, while two more clones pinned down Akamaru. After a minute of squirming, Kiba tapped out and Naruto liberated them.

Naruto sat back and wiped sweat from his brow with a grin. "You good, Kiba?"

Kiba growled and rolled away from Naruto, taking a few minutes to sulk on the ground.

"I'm feeling hungry for ramen and gyoza," said Naruto.

Shikamaru called out to Tenten. "So, how do you think Naruto will do against Neji? You know Neji much better than any of us."

Tenten twirled a kunai on her finger. "Right now, you've got no chance," she said. "Neji will sweep the bracket."

Naruto looked across the yard. "I guess we'll find out." He thought back to the preliminaries, when Neji had decimated Hinata. He's tough, and I don't know if I could have beaten him back then, but with just a little bit of training with Jiraiya-sensei I'm already a lot stronger. "Take me on right now, and maybe you'll change your mind."

Tenten smirked. "Maybe another time."

"What are you smiling about?" said Shikamaru. "We all saw you get clobbered in the preliminaries."

Tenten grumbled as she stormed off to finish her training routine, and Naruto led Kiba, Shikamaru and Choji to Ramen Ichiraku around the corner. Naruto chowed through three bowls of ramen as Choji retold their adventure of the lionbear hunt, nearly causing Naruto to gag on a mouthful of noodles when he got to the reward money.

"You've improved since the Forest of Death, I'll give you that," muttered Kiba. He massaged his jaw where a bruise was beginning to form. "But I hope you realize that Neji is no joke. I happen to know a bit about the Hyuga Clan with Hinata as my teammate, and Neji is their top up-and-coming prospect by a wide margin. The dude is a freak—he was the best of his academy class in every category."

"Yeah, well, I'm pretty sure Shikamaru and I were the worst at the academy, but look at us now," said Naruto. "Who says that's so important?"

"Just don't underestimate him," said Kiba. "He'll most likely be promoted to jonin rank eventually, let alone chunin. He's a dangerous combination of skill and a strong bloodline. You're going to need a few more tricks up your sleeve if you want to stand a chance."

"I can't give up all my tricks with a competitor here," said Naruto as he pointed his chopsticks at Shikamaru. "But I'll just say that Neji better watch out! All you're doing is making me more excited for the fight." Naruto ordered another bowl of ramen as the sun set over Konoha.