AN: To be honest, I'm not sure how compelling these fights were, but hopefully they weren't too terrible. I'll be posting the next chapter now too because I'm feeling impulsive and I also think it's one of the best that I've ever written, and I'm so excited to hear what y'all think of it!]

Several more fights went by, none of which were particularly dramatic or interesting. Obito watched as Kana, the naginata-wielding kunoichi from Tsukigakure made short work of Kankuro, a shinobi from Sunagakure who manipulated a puppet with chakra strings. Though his mastery of puppetry was impressive, Kana took no time in busting it to pieces with her powerful naginata thrusts.

Following that match was one which ended even more quickly. Neji was put up against Midare, one of the shinobi from Amegakure. The moment Hayate swung his arm down to declare the start of the match, Neji closed in on Midare and used his Gentle Fist to completely disable his opponent. The Ame shinobi wasn't quick enough to react, and could only collapse in the face of complete annihilation.

Obito's attention was captured by the signboard as the next match was declared. Especially because his own name was on it again.

'Rock Lee vs Uzumaki Obito'

"Could the combatants please come forward?" Hayate requested.

Obito took the stairs, whilst Lee preferred the more direct route of vaulting over the guard rails. Before the match had even begun, Lee was dancing back and forth, one fist in guard position beside his chest and the other extended outwards, ready to strike. He bounced on his feet, clearly excited by the chance to show off his skills. Obito himself took on a far lazier demeanor, walking towards Hayate and Lee in measured paces. Since it was clear that Lee was ready to launch into combat the moment he was permitted to do so, Obito reached back and clasped his hand around the hilt of his wakizashi.

I'm going to have to make very short work of this if I want to win, Obito thought nervously. There were a few people in this room that Obito hoped to not face off against at all, and Lee was one of them. Unlike the others, though, Obito knew that against Lee he actually had a chance - but it would all depend on the very first strike.

"Very well, you may begin!" Hayate declared, swinging his arm down. Lee disappeared.

Behind! Obito thought, reacting as fast as he could to pull the blade from its sheath and turn to intercept Lee's powerful kick. He managed to get the blade out and in the way of Lee's foot, barely just in time. Though Lee was incapable of molding chakra for any form of jutsu, he had enough to circulate through his own body for simple offense and defense. If not for that, he would have kicked into the blade and sliced his foot clean in half.

Obito felt the weight pushing him down - Lee was not relenting, and Obito almost buckled. But this was it. This was the moment that would decide the outcome of this fight. A small, measured pulse of chakra was pushed into the hilt of Obito's blade. It snaked through a network of seals, and the point of impact between Lee's foot and the black blade glowed a harsh green. Then, it burst. Lee was sent flying backwards by a wave of force, somersaulting through the air several times to land on the ground across the room.

Lee didn't wait a single second to re-engage, and neither did Obito. He had just under half a second to act before he actually took a hit. Impulsively, Obito clenched his hands into a Rat seal and shouted at Lee. "HAAA!"

Lee's fist was a centimetre from Obito's cheekbone when it froze, and relaxed. Lee slumped, and fell to the ground. He had no apparent ability to move, completely and utterly paralyzed.

"I'm sorry, Lee, but you're just not ready to become a chunin yet," Obito declared. "Until you can resist the effects of genjutsu, you just need to keep on training."

Not even a single sound came from Lee, whose body was splayed across the floor.

"The winner of this match is Uzumaki Obito," Hayate declared softly. Obito knelt down and pressed a hand to Lee's back, releasing a pulse of chakra into his body that disrupted the simple paralytic genjutsu.

Lee vaulted up and looked around. Realisation setting in, tears emerged in Lee's eyes. He looked up towards Guy. "I'M SORRY, SENSEI, I HAVE FAILED! I WILL DO A THOUSAND PUSHUPS AS ATONEMENT FOR MY WEAKNESS!"

"I FORGIVE YOU, MY PRECIOUS STUDENT! WE WILL DO A THOUSAND PUSHUPS TOGETHER AND GROW EVEN STRONGER TO FACE ANOTHER DAY!" Guy shouted tearfully in response. He leapt down to the arena and the two embraced.

"Yeah, yeah. Get on with it," Hayate urged. "We're on a tight schedule here, can you move the brofest somewhere else?"

The two nearly identical shinobi marched dramatically out of the room, presumably to go do an insane and potentially unhealthy amount of 'atonement' exercise.

In the following match, Chouji went up against the girl from Sunagakure, Temari. As brief as the match was, nobody expected how well Chouji fared. Back in the academy, he never seemed like one of the kids to keep an eye on. Those unfamiliar with his clan mocked him - mocked his size, and his eating habits. Everyone else just thought he was a quiet, sweet kid who would be a perfectly average, competent shinobi. But nothing special. They had no idea just how hard he worked, and what kind of ideals pushed him to make his clan incredibly proud.

Chouji was the first to move, wasting no time to demonstrate his mastery over the Akimichi's signature Yang manipulation techniques. Expanding his limb size and rushing into a flurry of surprisingly fast strikes, he gave his opponent no room to manouver. Or so it seemed. Suna's Temari obviously had a great deal of combat experience, blocking each of Chouji's powerful strikes with her giant metal fan. Unable to match the pure force of Chouji's strikes, she instead allowed them to push her backwards in circles around the room. The moment Chouji lept back to re-evaluate and come up with a new strategy, it was already over. Temari had only been waiting for a moment's reprieve to open her fan wide and release powerful, rippling blasts of wind. Her jutsu gave her full control over the battlefield, making it far too costly for Chouji to reengage.

Had this been actual war, perhaps Chouji might have sacrificed himself to break through and create an opening for his allies. But it wasn't war, it was just a place for genin to show their combat skills. Unable to actually raise his hand and surrender from within the arena, Chouji leapt up towards the stand, declaring his withdrawal from safety. Temari slapped her fan closed with two hands, and gave a polite nod of the head towards her defeated opponent before silently returning to her teammates.

The display board began cycling through names again, revealing Gaara being selected for a second match against another of the shinobi for Amegakure. But this match didn't even have a chance to begin. Having seen how powerless his teammate was before, the Ame shinobi immediately withdrew from the match, giving Gaara an automatic victory and securing his place in the finals.

When Sasuke saw his name up on the electronic signboard, he was almost too quick to leap down and take his place in the stone-floored arena. His chosen opponent presented the perfect opportunity. Back in the forest, Sasuke had seen Tsukigakure's Kana fight. He knew she was incredibly strong. Now, he could prove himself. He would prove that he wasn't the Uchiha disappointment struggling to follow in Itachi's enormous shadow. He would prove that he wasn't the weak link of Team Six. He would prove that his mother, Clan Head Uchiha Mikoto, had the right idea of how to nurture a sharingan to its truest potential. Today, Uchiha Sasuke would become important in the eyes of the village. He glanced briefly towards the impassive figure of his elder brother in the stands before turning quickly away.

Kana quickly paced down from the opposite viewing stand, loosely grasping the naginata at her back in preparation for combat. She looked Sasuke up and down, and then nodded - as though to deem him an acceptable opponent. Sasuke felt a quick surge of pride at this, and made another resolution - he would honour the respect his opponent had given him, by going all out.

Hayate swung his arm down to officiate the start of the match, and both fighters disappeared. They each reappeared atop the Ram Seal sculpture, metal striking metal. Kana had thrust forward with her naginata, Sasuke smoothly blocking the bladed strike with a far smaller kunai. They both leapt back, each landing on one of the sculpture's green arms.

The two combatants eyed each other, and some silent communication seemed to pass between them. Without warning, Kana leapt towards Sasuke with her naginata outstretched. The sheer force made Sasuke slide backwards almost to the end of the arm, even as he brought up his kunai to defend. Finally regaining some control over his momentum, Sasuke allowed the naginata to slide past him as he spun and brought his right elbow around into Kana's gut. She mostly rode the blow, landing sideways on the wall behind the sculpture.

Sasuke didn't let up. Capitalising on this small window of opportunity, he directed chakra to his fingertips. The resulting swarm of flaming bullets forced Kana onto the defensive, and she leapt off the wall, making for the other end of the room. Sasuke followed, throwing handfuls of kunai along the Tsukigakure kunoichi's path, forcing her to defend with her polearm as she fled.

What ensued could only be described as a well choreographed dance. Blades struck upon blades with resounding clangs. Chakra vibrated through the air as the two combatants clashed against one another again and again and again. When the duo seemed to realise that neither was getting an edge over the other, they disengaged and stared one another down. Waiting patiently for a single mistake, a single opening. Onlookers held their breath, waiting for the suspense to end.

Kana shifted her weight, and in that moment, Sasuke cupped his hands to his mouth, and blew. A blazing jet of flame blasted out, sizzling its way through the air in a straight line towards the kunoichi. She returned fire, stabbing her naginata into the ground and, without pause, releasing her own jutsu from her mouth. A vortex of wind shot towards the emerging flames, engulfing and absorbing them. The flame became one with the wind, and it was all Sasuke could do to flip away, just barely avoiding being burnt to cinders by the flaming vortex.

Time to put mom's training to use, Sasuke smirked, as his eyes flashed red. Next time the Tsuki kunoichi tried anything, Sasuke would copy the jutsu and make it his own. He grabbed a new kunai out of his pouch, and began to circle around Kana, watching like a hawk. He watched cautiously as Kana leaned down, grabbing onto a piece of rubble that had been left from Ino and Sakura's earlier match. What's she gonna do? Throw it at me?

Kana quickly wove through a short sequence of hand seals, and Sasuke felt the sensation in his hand change - it was no longer the familiar cool steel of a kunai. He spared a quick glance downward, and saw the kunai was gone; it had been replaced with that same small chunk of rubble Kana had been touching just a moment ago. But Sasuke had caught the hand signs, burned the patterns of chakra flow into his Uchiha eyes. To Kana's shock, he replicated the same sequence of hand signs, manipulating his chakra in the same way his eyes had just watched. His kunai, which had made its way into Kana's hand, was now back in his own. As comprehension settled, showing through her now less startled expression, Kana sighed and raised her hand.

"I concede," Kana declared, grabbing her naginata and deftly swinging it over her shoulder. "Our abilities are perfectly matched, and yet if this fight were to continue I would be at a disadvantage. I'd heard rumours of the famed Uchiha clan, but now that I've seen it for myself… Well, I'd rather not continue."

Hayate nodded as though he agreed with the kunoichi's judgement. "Very well, the winner of this match is Uchiha Sasuke!"

Despite the applause and cheering from his teammates and friends, Sasuke couldn't help but frown. Kana had made the clever choice, though certainly toSasuke's own disappointment. Having never fought a shinobi from Tsukigakure, he'd really wanted to draw the match out and get another jutsu or two out of her, but it seems she'd caught on too quickly. As the adrenaline from the match wore off, Sasuke began to feel fatigue set into his body. He quickly proceeded up the stairs and collapsed against the wall, largely ignoring his teammates as they fretted over him. He vaguely registered Hinata offering to heal the plethora of nicks and scratches adorning his body, but waved her off, mumbling something about saving energy for her own fight.

Haku sized up his foe. The boy wore a plain white top, stained with smudges of dirt here and there, over a pair of red shorts. Unremarkable tabi adorned his feet. What drew Haku's attention most easily was the magnificent weapon he wielded on his back. Haku couldn't help but compare it to Zabuza's Kubikiribocho, for the weapon before him was not only similar in size, it had a similar aura of strength to it. Yet still, he didn't recognise it from his study of the Seven Swords of the Mist. This golden polearm was something entirely different, he could feel it.

The boy smiled obnoxiously, a jagged tooth making itself known to the world. Deciding to get this over with, Haku disappeared. Reappearing behind the Tsukigakure boy, Haku hurled a handful of senbon directly at the back of his neck. It wouldn't be lethal, but if just one hit the right nerve cluster, the boy would become paralyzed, unable to continue.

With impressive speed, the boy grabbed the handle of his weapon and shifted it upwards until the bladed section covered his neck, causing the senbon to all bounce away harmlessly. He turned and swung, the weapon slicing through the air. To others, it appeared to cut cleanly through Haku's body - until the form turned into water, making a puddle on the arena floor. Haku reappeared back in his starting position, now eyeing his opponent Katsuki far more warily.

"What's the matter, scared of this oversized butterknife? Well," Katsuki yawned arrogantly, "you probably should be. Tsukikosei is a dangerous tool, predating even those impressive weapons from Kiri. But hey, let's make this fair. I'll give you a moment to decide what you wanna do, and then I'll only move after you've had a chance to attack me."

Haku frowned. He could use his ice techniques, but there were onlookers from multiple different hidden villages. He couldn't risk revealing his origins through his easily identifiable kekkei genkai. So he would have to stick to water release. From what he could already tell, that meant he probably wouldn't win this fight - the boy was fast, and had incredibly sharp reflexes. Still, at the very least he could put on a good show.

"Water Release: Rain of Blades!" Haku called out before spitting out an enormous flow of water up into the air. The water hovered for just a moment, before forming into small, sharp daggers, and surging in towards Katsuki's location.

The boy didn't step away or make any attempt to dodge. Instead, he put a hand towards the amethyst set near the guard of the blade, and muttered: "Tsukikosei, Second Form: Crescent Blades." The golden blade broke apart, splitting into a swarm of ten small, sharp crescent moons. A discerning eye could tell that each single blade was connected to one of Katsuki's fingers by a thin thread of chakra. A certain Suna shinobi watched particularly carefully as the fight proceeded from this point.

Katsuki's fingers danced rapidly, and each of the blades began moving in what seemed to be well-practiced patterns, effectively defending the entire space from which Katsuki was in danger. The daggers of water were cut to pieces, splashing harmlessly away from the boy. And he still hadn't taken a single step.

The crescent moons reformed into the larger blade, and Katsuki waggled a finger tauntingly towards Haku. "You got anything more than that?"

Haku didn't dignify him with a response, instead drawing a concealed kunai from his sleeve and closing the distance faster than most of the audience could follow. He lashed out with the kunai, aiming for the boy's right shoulder. The boy was fast, but only just. Haku's kunai managed to just break the surface of Katsuki's skin before being repelled, and Haku was launched all the way back to the other side of the room by a singular, heavy push. As he landed, he felt a sharp surge of pain in his upper chest, faintly registering a cracking sound as three of his ribs fractured from the force of the boy's push.

One push was all it took to fracture Haku's ribs, and he'd barely scored the thinnest of scratches in return. Sighing heavily, Haku raised his hand. "I surrender."