AN: If a chapter doesn't come out in time, I will not post an AN as a chapter, I will update my profile where I will let you know the changes in the updates. So if I miss out on an update check my profile out so your not confused! Thank you! Also we've reached 50 Followers! Thank you so much for the support and the amazing response I've reviewing from Altered I love y'all so much!!
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Chapter Twenty-Five
"The match between Neji Hyuuga and Shino Aburame will now begin!" Genma announces.
Neji activates his Byakugan and falls into his stance, eyeing Shino wearily, 'I need to keep an eye out for any kikachu he might try and sneak on me...he might have an idea of the blind spot since he's been training with Hinata-Sama these past months.'
Shino stays standing, his hands in his pockets as he too, eyes his opponent, 'Neji Hyuuga..the genius of the Hyuuga Clan who's helped Hinata develop her own style. This'll be an interesting fight.'
The Aburame raises his hand and a swarm of beetles comes together and flies towards Neji, the Hyuuga channels chakra to his palms and disperse the large swarm with a gentle fist, 'This isn't gonna work,' Neji thinks, "Eight Triagrams Heavenly Rotation!" Neji yells, the powerful attack instantly destroying Shino's beetles.
Shino sends an even large swarm towards Neji, 'His Gentle Fist won't work, his only option is to use his Heavenly Rotation and then come close for a short range attack.'
Neji uses Heavely Rotation once more, and as Shino predicted, he charged through the dust and thrusted his palm at Shino, the Aburame stumbles back before dispersing into beetles which attack Neji, more of the bugs flying at him from behind, "Heavenly Rotation!"
Neji takes deep breaths, trying to even his breathing out, 'Three is the most I can perform at a time, if he does that again I won't be able to use it. I need to attack him now!'
The Hyuuga scopes the arena with his Byakugan, he turns around and swats a beetle about to land on his blind spot, Neji's eyes narrow when he spots the Aburame standing only a few feet away, 'I knew it, so he found it while training with Hinata.'
Shino stays calm when Neji sprints forward and begins a relentless assault, the Aburame dodges his attacks swiftly and reaches his arm up to block a gentle fist strike, he immediately feels the pain of his chakra point being blocked but pushes through it and kicks Neji back in retaliation.
Neji watches him carefully, 'Did he just let himself get hit by the Gentle Fist?' The Hyuuga thinks.
Shino runs forward once more and Neji blocks Shino's first attack and counters with thrusting a palm into the Aburame's chest, Shino ignores the pain and pushes on.
Neji's eyes narrow in confusion, before they widen in realization and he looks down at his arms and legs and sees the beetles swarming them.
"They won't attack unless I tell them too, and at this point you can't use the Heavenly Rotation again unless you want to hurt yourself. Your only option is to forfeit or my beetles will drain your chakra," Shino states.
Neji grits his teeth, "I forfeit," he says, 'I won't be beaten by him again.'
"Shino Aburame wins!" Genma yells.
The arena yells and cheers for Shino, the Aburame releases Neji from his beetles and the two shake hands, "Lets have a rematch sometime, you won't beat me again," Neji says.
Shino nods, "I look forward to it."
The two return to the stand where Hinata congratulates Shino and then says to Neji, "Good job Neji-nii-San, but it seems Shino got the best of you this time," Hinata teases coming to stand next to her cousin.
"Aw Man! I missed Neji getting beaten by Shino?!" Naruto exclaims coming to stand next to Hinata.
"You don't have any room to say anything Naruto," Neji snaps back.
Naruto chuckles sheepishly, "You have a good point there hehe, but I won't lose to Hinata next time!"
"As I won't lose to Shino again either," Neji says.
Hinata smiles brightly, "You two are bonding! How cute!"
Before either of them can react, Genma announces the next match, "Temari of the Sand vs Shikamaru Nara!"
Temari smirks and opens her fan, riding it down to the arena floor.
Shikamaru sighs, 'How troublesome,' the Nara thinks, oblivious to Hinata and Naruto standing behind him, the Nara yells out when the two shove him over the railing and he lands on the ground.
"What the heck was that for?!?" Shikamau yells up at them.
Naruto cackles as he crosses his arms victoriously while Hinata sends Shikamaru a peace sign, "The crowd would've left by the time you walked down into the arena! Sorry Shikamaru-kun!"
Shikamaru grumbles as he just lays there for a moment.
Genma and Temari watch him, unimpressed by his lack of motivation.
Temari watches Shikamaru with a smirk, "Are you going to give up to?" She asks.
Shikamaru remains on his back, lying on the ground, 'What's the point? I'm just a secondary show. All they want to see is Sasuke's match anyways. To top it off I'm fighting another girl? What a drag.'
Temari grits her teeth, "If you won't attack I will!" Temari yells and grabs her fan before charging at the Nara.
Shikamaru sighs as he takes out two kunai, 'I forgot, this girl is spunky, I don't like spunky,' he thinks.
Temari yells as she slams her fan down on the Nara, sending dust flying into the air, when it clears Shikamaru is standing against the wall, "I don't really care if I become a Chunin or not, but I guess I don't want to lose to a female."
Temari sends a wind attack at Shikamaru, dust flying everywhere, Temari's eyes widen when she see's he disappeared and she looks around, stopping on the three trees in the arena.
"I see your game, but I'm not going to fall for it," Temari says with a smirk.
Shikamaru sighs, he was crouching behind one of the trees, staring at the sky and envying the clouds, he looks to Temari again, 'This sucks.'
Temari smirks, "I guess I'll attack first again," the Sand Kunoichi readies her fan, "Wind Scythe Jutsu!" She yells before sending another powerful attack.
The wind scratches the bark and takes off branches, Shikamaru grits his teeth as it bites at his skin, "Shadow Possesion Jutsu!" He says when the wind dies down and only dust remains.
Temari gasps and jumps back to avoid the attack, when she see's the shadow reached its limit she draws a line, "I get it now, you can use the shadow your in but your Jutsu has a limit," Temari says, 'That limit is fifteen meters and thirty-two centimeters. As long as I stay behind this line he won't catch me.'
Shikamaru stares up at the clouds once more, before looking down and forming an circle shape with his hands and closes his eyes.
Temari narrows her eyes at him, 'What's he doing?'
Hinata smiles as she watches him from the stand while Naruto looks at him in confusion, "What's he doing? I've never seen that hand sign before!"
Hinata chuckles, "It's not a hand sign, it's more of a...habit he has, let's just say he'll have a game plan soon."
Naruto looks at her, even more confused than he was before, 'What does that mean?'
Shikamaru breaks his circle and one hand reaches back into his weapons pouch, he opens his eyes and stares at Temari who smirks, "So you have some fighting spirit after all?" She says before sending another wind attack.
Shikamaru takes three kunai out as he struggles against the wind, he ends up leaning against the tree, he grips his weapons tighter as he pulls off his jacket, panting deeply when the wind finally dies down.
Temari looks around, her fan still shielding her body, "Come our coward!" She yells sending another attack at him, when it dies down she gasps seeing a kunai fly out and jumps back, the kunai landing in the dirt just passed her line, two more kunai come out but fly passed her, "Ha!" she gasps again seeing the shadow come out but smirks, 'Ha! Forget it! As long as I stay behind this line he can't reach me!'
Her eyes widen when the shadow comes farther, she jumps back and sees the shadow reached its limit again and looks up at Shikamaru who stood with his hands in position and his shadow still stretched out, "Your pretty quick on your toes."
"I see what your doing now! You weren't hiding in the shadows you were killing time and waiting for the sun to get lower and the shadow of the wall to get longer!" Temari yells, "The longer the shadow the longer your range is!"
Shikamaru stays quiet, watching her from underneath the trees and keeping his shadow stretched.
'Alright, I just need to calculate the height of the sun and how much length he's gained since his last attack to stay out of his range. Easy,' Temari thinks.
Kankuro's eyes widen, "Temari! Above you!"
Temari looks up when she see's a small shadow appear on the ground, "What is that!"
The shadow grows and Shikamaru used it to lengthen his attack and Temari jumps back out of range, she has to continue to jump and smirks when she finally reaches the end of his range.
Temari pulls her fan out and sticks it in the ground in front of her, shielding herself from his view, 'With the flying shadow on the ground he doesn't have anything else...I know, I'll use the Clone Jutsu to distract him and end the battle!' Temari smirks as she begins to form the hand sighs, 'Clone-!"
Temari gasps when she can't move her body, "W-What's happening!" She finds herself standing up as Shikamaru unfolds his hand sign, "It took awhile, but Shadow Possession Jutsu is complete."
Temari's eyes widen, 'But how!'
"Turn around, I'll let you look," Shikamru says as he turns his head so she can look behind her, she see's the kunai he threw at her before, his shadow connected to it which allowed him to connect to her.
Temari realizes his plan, 'I wasn't in control..I walked right into his trap!'
Shikamaru walks forward towards the middle and Temari meets him there, he raises his hand and Temari raises hers, fighting against his pull but failing. Finally, Shikamru speaks, "To hell with it I forfeit!"
"WHAT?!?"
"What! What did you say!" Temari yells.
"I used up all my chakra in that shadow possession Jutsu, in another ten seconds I'll be done," Shikamaru says, "Bummer, and here I'd already planned out the next two hundred moves in my head, but I'm running low on chakra and if I were to win this match it'd be to much work."
Genma smirks, 'This guy is something else,' he raises his hand, "The winner is Temari!"
Shikamaru releases his shadow and reaches up to rub his shoulder, "Man I'm beat."
Naruto growls, "That idiot! He had her beat and he just gave up!" He yells.
"That's not it Naruto-kun," Hinata's says, but her words fall on deaf ears as Naruto jumps down to give Shikamaru a piece of his mind.
Hinata looks around the stadium, 'The next match will be starting soon and Sasuke isn't here yet...that's not good,' Hinata thinks, the Hyuuga glances at Gaara who stood at the railing quietly, 'Who knows how long he'll wait for him..'
Temari returns to the stand and takes her place next to Gaara, "They don't know if he's coming or not."
"He'll come," is all Gaara says, he watched the arena like a hawk.
Genma glances at his watch, 'Hokage-Sama gave him ten minutes..time is up,' "The ten minutes have expired, this match is-"
Kakashi and Sasuke suddenly appear next to Genma, Naruto, and Shikamaru.
"Sorry were late, you wouldn't believe the traffic," Kakashi says.
"I told you he'd come," Gaara says lowly.
"And you are?" Genma asks.
Sasuke turns to him, "I'm Sasuke..Uchiha."
"So he came after all!" Lee says, Ino, Sakura, and Choji turn to him.
"Lee! Your here!" Sakura says, surprised by his appearance.
Naruto grins widely, "Glad you showed up! I always wanted to see Hinata-Chan kick your butt!"
"You lost to that Hyuuga? I always knew you were a loser Naruto," Sasuke says with a smirk.
Sasuke looks up into the stands and meets Gaara's eyes, waves of tension rising off of the two Genin.
Hinata shifts uncomfortably, while feeling the tension, Gaara's rising blood lust was even worse, she looks over and sees he was grinning like a mad man, 'Oh no..I don't think this match will end well.'
"Come down here Gaara!" Genma calls.
She watches the red head walk away with a horrible feeling stirring in her gut, 'This really won't end well.'
To be continued...
AN: I apologize for not getting this chapter done sooner. I skipped an entire week and I'm so sorry about that! My Grandma had an accident and I went out of town in her place so things around the house got really shaken up and I completely forgot about writing the chapters! Next week will be another update on Sunday, the following will be twice a week updated once more, I'll let you know if it doesn't work out, hopefully before the next update.
To hinatayvonne: I love both Shino and Neji as well, and I feel the way I wrote the fight worked out well and demonstrated their current skills in the story. The summon idea is very interesting, I know my Beta really liked it so we'll take it under consideration! Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
To cosmicblader12: I actually wrote that fight scene completely from scratch, I didn't think to rewatch the Naruto vs Neji fight so I forgot Kurama made an appearance. My bad. I'm glad you liked the fight scene and I hope you enjoy the two I wrote, technically I didn't write the Temari vs Shikamaru fight tho lol but I did make some changes. Thank you for the review and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
To LB Cat: I'm glad you liked it! I like the idea of a fight between Naruto and Hinata, it's always interesting coming up with the fight scenes! Thank you for reviewing and I hope you enjoy this chapter!
A special thank you to Rmitch306 for following Altered and another special thank you to jenv-arts, Melitalo13 and Kathuhrynne for following and favoriting Altered I hope you both enjoy this chapter and continue to enjoy Altered.
Don't forget to leave your thoughts by reviewing and don't forget to Favorite and Follow!
I'll see y'all next chapter! Bye!