Chapter 7: The finals

Naruto

It was time, Naruto was up against Neji. he knew this wasn't going to be difficult but he didn't want to end the fight too fast either. He had Zabuza's blade sealed in a scroll, he didn't need it against Neji. the match began and Neji got into a fighting stance, dojutsu activated, he looked focused. Naruto knew the byakugan's blind spot but didn't think he needed to exploit it, after all he Izuna didn't have a blind spot and he always managed to fight on even ground with her.

"It's your fate to lose to me." Neji said right before he charged, he threw gentil fist strikes at Naruto but couldn't connect. Naruto was dodging and ducking and his hands were by his side the whole time. He punched Neji in the chest to gain a little distance, he must have hit a little too hard because he was clutching his chest in pain.

Naruto then created one shadow clone to charge Neji, the clone went for a right hook but Neji used the rotation technique to pop the clone. Naruto smirked and formed a rasengan in his left hand, Neji looked afraid and took a step back. Naruto charged and right before impact Neji used the rotation again, Naruto slammed the ball of chakra into the rotation dome. It grinded against it for a few seconds before over powering it, Neji was sent flying back skipping across the ground and finally crashing into the far wall, cracking the surface.

When Neji failed to get up Naruto was made the winner, with a large grin he returned to the stands to watch the next match.

Sakura

She had watched Naruto dominate his fight and was feeling nervous, she had trained her ass off with Kakashi for this match but she wasn't sure she could do it. She knew that he used some kind of sound based attack, she figured it had a limited range but she didn't have any ranged jutsu.

As she walked to the arena she was trying to forget her worries, if she second guessed herself in the fight she could die. She just hoped Kakashi's training paid off. Once she was in front of the living mummy her breathing became even and her heart rate slowed, she was calm.

The match began and Sakura immediately jumped back gaining some distance, the sound ninja chased her without thinking. This was what she was planning on, she had placed a paper bomb on the bottom of feet and used chakra to keep it in place but just before she jumped she let it fall to the ground. The sound ninja stepped on it and it blew, though he was able to escape the blast he had a burn on his leg.

While he was checking his injury she threw a dozen shuriken with wire attached, he dodged but he had done exactly what she wanted yet again. She pulled on the wire and the shuriken came back towards him, he managed to avoid being tied up but his arm with the metal thing on it was caught. Sakura could see the wire cutting into him, his arm was bleeding and a small puddle of blood formed at his feet.

The sound ninja was yanking on the wires trying to free himself but Sakura held firm, he was screaming in pain now and Sakura wished he would give up. She was resolved to win no matter what so she took a breath and heaved on the wire as hard as she could, she heard her opponent scream in agony as he fell forwards face first. She jumped into the air before he could stand and pulled out a kunai, aiming for the back of the neck. Before she made contact she was stopped by the procter, the sound ninja was unconscious and she was announced as the winner.

For the first time since joining team seven she felt like she wasn't a failure, she felt proud.

Izuna

It was time for her match, she wasn't in a rush to enter the arena. Garra was already there waiting, but Izuna was slowly walking down the steps. Taking as long as she could to make Garra mad.

Once she arrived and the match had began Garras sand came at her without him even controlling it, Izuna was flipping and dodging all of the sand with ease though it was faster than she expected.

After she had avoided his attacks she stood in one place near the wall of the arena, she wanted to try a new technique. She made the hand signs and waited for the sand to return. Garra growled and sent a huge wave of sand at her, it was coming from all sides and she knew it was now or never. As the sand came crashing around her she launched her jutsu. "Chidori barrier" a small dome of lightning surrounded her repelling the sand, Izuna thought the dome would be bigger but figured it was due to the small amount of chakra she had used.

Once the barrier was down she drew one of her swords and channeled chidori into it, at the same time she pulled out some shuriken and channeled chidori into those too. She threw the shuriken, they plowed through Garras sand like it wasn't even there. As he looked on in shock at his sands failure Izuna appeared in front of him, she ran him through the shoulder with her blade.

Garra screamed in pain and the sand around him went crazy, Izuna retreated back a few metres. She watched as the sand made a dome around him blocking him from view.

Kakashi

He looked on in amazement at his student, not only did she know his technique but she had mastered it even better than he had. He didn't know what to think of her. He noticed feathers falling from the sky and realised what was about to happen, he looked to the crowd and saw them falling over asleep.

Izuna

She had been stopped many times in her pursuit of Garra, this annoyed her greatly. She knew Garra was different and he seemed familiar to her, he was the host of the one tails. She never met the host in her past life but she had fought the beast itself. She wasn't sure why she was chasing him, maybe she wanted to keep her friends safe from the beast.

Once she finally caught up to him she stopped and examined, he looked like he was about to transform. Half his body looked like a tiny one tailed beast, he also had a tail. He sent his transformed arm at her and she jumped higher into the trees.

She decided to end this fight before he could transform, she made hand signs for a fire dragon but before she could use the jutsu hr curse mark froze her in place. She couldn't move and her strength felt like it was being drained, she was in pain too and didn't know what to do. She couldn't even use her dojutsu, Garras sand came at her again but this time she could do nothing about it.

Before it connected with her she was scooped up by someone and dropped on a branch away from the attack. It was Naruto who had saved her. He stepped past her and jumped at Garra a rasengan in both his hands. His attacks plowed through Gara's sand and into his chest sending the red flying to the ground.

Naruto waited to see if he re emerged, he knew from experience that a host was not easy to kill. As he was thinking about it a giant sand beast rose up above the treeline, Naruto thought for a moment on how to deal with this. Izuna was suddenly standing next to him, she looked tired but ready to fight.

"I don't have much left but i can keep the sand off you." Naruto looked to her before responding.

"You sure?" he asked she just nodded her head, Naruto grinned and bit his thumb and slammed his palm into the ground. "Summoning jutsu."

Naruto

As the enormous smoke cloud cleared Naruto and Izuna found themselves on top of the chief toads head.

"Alright listen up, we need you to get us in close. We will take care of the rest." Naruto said to the giant toad. The chief toad jumped into action, literally. He jumped to avoid air bullets and fired off his own water bullets. This went on for a few minutes before the stalemate was broken, the toad charged head first at the beast and stabbed his sword through its chest.

Izuna and Naruto didn't waste the chance, the jumped off the toads head and onto the tailed beasts. As they ran towards Garras unconscious body the sand around them erupted into action trying to kill them. Izuna charged her sword with chidori and cut down the sand around Naruto giving him a clear path. Once he was a few feet in front of him her foot was caught in the sand, Naruto was about to be caught to so she charged a handful of shuriken with chidori and threw them then cast the shadow clone sign. This made dozens of charged shuriken that cut threw all the sand around Naruto, he pulled his fist back and punched Garra with a huge right hook.

Garra was sent flying to the ground making a crater on impact. The tailed beast disappeared along with the chief toad, Naruto and Izuna fell from their positions. Izuna couldn't break her fall, the curse mark had rendered her useless yet again, Naruto shot a red chakra arm out to catch her before she hit the ground.

Once they landed safely Naruto walked over to Garra who was beaten and bloody.

"Garra, I don't want to kill you. I know what it's like to bear the burden of a tailed beast." Izuna called out before Garra could speak.

"What are you doing, kill him and be done with it." Naruto sighed to himself.

"I don't want to, we don't have to kill every enemy. Garra i want you to leave and i don't want to see you again, not unless you change."

Quickly after he said this the other two sand ninja showed up to collect Garra and they took off. As Naruto walked back to Izuna she spoke again.

"It would have been a lot easier if you just killed him."

"We don't have to kill all the time anymore, we aren't at war anymore." Naruto picked her up and took off back to the village.

"Yeah whatever, thanks by the way. I'm not sure what would have happened if you didn't save me." Naruto just smiled at her and kept jumping through the trees headed for home.