Disclaimer: I owe you guys two disclaimers because I didn't do in the last chapter. Question: Do we still to do these things? I just do them in the spirits of things (and to make it seem like it's more words in this story than really is). I mean, I think everyone on this site knows we don't own any of the series we write about. We're just a bunch of people who love to write and write about our favorite characters doing shit we don't see in our shows, or whatever goes off in own heads listed as "canon."

Ah, well. You know me though; I still don't own Naruto.

(Else I probably wouldn't be doing this shit.)

(But I probably would anyway.)

A Nugget Of Advice, Chapter 6

Before the beginning of Naruto Uzumaki's match with Neji Hyūga…

Sakura Haruno sat next to her part-time friend/part-time rival for Sasuke Uchiha's affection, Ino Yamanaka, feeling somewhat anxious. It had been a month since the Preliminaries, and both of them were at each others' throats – literally. Now, both of them were sitting together at the stadium, waiting for their friends to come out, and to cheer them on. She found herself feeling bored, and lonely, without the presence of her teammates. Sasuke, she could understand, and even missing Naruto – although he was a headache – felt normal these days. Of course, she would never voice that – lest Naruto think she was starting to like him or something perverted like that. Boys.

Not being in the tournament meant she didn't have much to do this month, and she didn't see her team at all. No missions since Kakashi-sensei was devoting his time training Sasuke, and Naruto was getting his training… somewhere. Sakura really didn't know any of the details really of either of their training, and she admitted she was worried more so for Naruto than Sasuke since Sasuke was getting training from Kakashi (and Sasuke-kun was already a fantastic shinobi anyway). She didn't like to admit it, but she was worried about Naruto. Hopefully, he was getting some good amount of training somewhere in the village.

Sakura didn't know much about Neji Hyūga, but she knew that he was a strong shinobi. Much to her disgust when she saw it, Neji beat the hell out of his supposed cousin, Hinata Hyūga, in a pretty damned one-sided match-up. As much as Naruto annoyed her at times, she didn't want to see the blond get beaten down like that. She hoped Naruto was smart enough to swallow his pride, quit when he had the chance, and not end up hurt.

But being on Naruto's team for half a year, she was used to his habits and personality. He was stubborn, impulsive, hard-headed, and wouldn't give up without giving his opponents hell. It was stupid… but admirable, and the way he cheered on Hinata in the last part of the Chūnin Exams was endearing. He didn't even know he made Hinata fight harder in that match, did he? He even promised to defeat Neji for her too. She liked that about Naruto. No matter what, he wouldn't bow down to fear or anything like that. That stubbornness was how he was, and Sakura was slowly starting to accept him for it.

However, that stubbornness wouldn't help him in this match. She seen Neji in his match with Hinata. He was quick, powerful, and bright. Going up against Neji head-on – which Naruto was known to do so against his opponents – would be suicide. Some part of her wanted Naruto to believe that Naruto could kick Neji's ass, but a more logic side of her told her that this fight with Neji would be the end of Naruto's run in the Chūnin Exams.

Still, just like how Naruto cheered for Hinata in her match against Neji – or even with him cheering when Sakura herself fought Ino – Sakura would be cheering for her teammate.

"Hey, Sakura! Look, they're starting to come out now." Ino pointed to the fighters of the exams, excitement in her face and her voice. Ino grinned. "There's Shikamaru! Looking as lazy and depressed, as usual. God, would it kill him to be a little exuberant for once?"

Sakura perked up, and watched for her teammate. She saw him and smiled a bit herself. "And there's Naruto!" She drank in his new appearance, and looked a little surprised. Naruto was wearing a black jacket, black pants, and basically wearing something newer than his usual outfit. Personally, Sakura never understood why Naruto liked his orange and blue jacket so much. It was a horrible bright shade of orange, and a terrible color for a ninja anyway. Admittedly, her ruby red blouse was pretty bright too, but still, much better than bright orange. Either way, she didn't bother voicing her opinion about it – especially when Kakashi-sensei and Sasuke-kun had already done so for her.

Still, it looked good on Naruto. Perhaps Naruto was finally growing up.

Beyond Naruto, she quickly noticed a problem with the arena. She seen how they came down to the arena in a line. Naruto walked behind Neji, Shikamaru walked behind the girl from the sand, and the puppet user walked behind Shino, but Sasuke-kun's opponent – Gaara of Sunagakure – was lagging behind everyone. Sasuke was not there, and it worried her.

Ino voiced her worry first however. "Where's Sasuke-kun at? He's supposed to be down there!"

Sakura shook her hair, muttered a "I don't know", and returned her vision to the arena. She had that nagging desire to throttle Kakashi-sensei in his throat when she saw him. If Kakashi-sensei somehow got Sasuke-kun disqualified because of his laziness…

A few minutes of the announcer…. Um, "announcing" the semi-finalists, it was declared the first match would be Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyūga. Ino was with the rest of the crowd, vocally cheering, but Sakura said a small prayer for Naruto to herself. "Good luck, Naruto."

Ino must have saw her, because she ended up smiling in her direction. "Hey, I think Naruto's got this. Don't worry. That knucklehead's got to kick that Neji's ass after what he did to Hinata, right?"

Sakura wasn't so convinced though, and Ino's tone of voice also hinted the same thing. Nevertheless, she smiled back. "Right," she said to her rival/friend, and turned her attention to the stadium's arena, where Naruto and Neji would be fighting for the next few minutes.

After Naruto's match with Neji…

"..."

"Did that…?"

"Mmmhmm…"

"And Neji just..."

"Mmmhmm..."

"But Naruto just…!"

"Mmmhmmm..."

"Huh." Was the appropriate response from Sakura Haruno, as both her and Ino fell into contemplative silence.

Well, that match was sure, um, "convincing", Sakura thought to herself as she pulled the jaw back up, as well her hanging tongue. She watched Naruto basically destroy Neji in the match, never once getting touched. While she cheered him on like Ino, quite honestly she believed it would come down to the wire, or even Naruto would lose.

However, the universe decided that today, Naruto was to beat the guy who was arguably one of the strongest genin in the preliminaries from last month and with elemental ninjutsu no less. She and Ino were looking like gaping fish out of water when they saw rocks fly towards Neji's head, and when clones started coming from underground, it was nothing short of amazing to her. According to what she learned from her books and in school, one learning their elemental affinity and mastering it took quite a while, maybe even years, but Naruto had managed to do so in one month. Who the hell was this new Naruto, and where did he come from?

If Naruto could do all of that, she could only imagine how much Sasuke had grown over the month in terms of strength and speed as well. She had a feeling that both of her teammates were going to have green vests by the end of the day.

She smiled.

Ebisu had been to the Chūnin Exams many times in his career as a shinobi. Once as a genin, several times as a chūnin but many times when he was a jōnin. Mostly as a spectator, but in the rare one he was a proctor himself. There had been only a few times he had seen a few matches end so quickly. He had counted how many minutes the match went on. It came up to five on his watch.

It only took four minutes for Naruto to defeat Neji Hyūga in battle. Using the element of surprise and turning his opponent's arrogance against him. Naruto had seemed to do the impossible. Defeating one of the most strongest genin in the exams was no easy feat. And most of the crowd didn't know what to do. However, he heard some claps, applause. A yell here, a "Woo! Atta boy, Naruto!" there. Pretty soon, the crowd came more to life and a polite round of applause began. Ebisu was one of the many who clapped too.

And faces from his peers were delicious. Asuma looked gobsmacked with his jaw slacked and tongue hanging out; Kurenai looked similar, but after she recovered, Ebisu could make out a very small smile on her face. Perhaps she was grateful Naruto smacked – literally – some sense into Neji. After all, the Hyūga boy did almost kill her student last month.

Ebisu personally enjoyed Gai's – the sensei of Neji Hyūga's – reaction after Neji's nasty beat down by Naruto. Gai downright cheered that Naruto won. Ebisu himself kept smiling, very pleased with himself. This was all because of his doing. The reason why this happened was because of his teachings, not anyone else. Not even Kakashi. He gave himself a mental pat on the shoulder because he created that potentially dangerous Earth Release user down there. He did that.

Naruto walked to the Fighter's Booth, the place he was assigned to stay in until he was called to fight. He found himself in a conversation with Shikamaru Nara, who gave Naruto an amused smirk.

"Not bad, idiot. Seems like you aren't dead-last anymore."

"Heh. Thanks."

"Earth Release, huh? Not bad actually. I didn't see that one coming."

"Yeah, neither did Neji." In more than one way, Naruto thought to himself with a chuckle. "So who's next?"

"Sasuke vs. that scary Gaara guy." Shikamaru drawled, putting his hands on his head. "But Sasuke hadn't shown up yet. You know they have every right to disqualify Sasuke, right?"

Naruto frowned but nodded nonetheless. The proctor had already went over the rules when they were lined up down, showing them off to the crowd. Each match had a five minute break in between. If one of the contestants did not show up in that period of time, they would be disqualified. He didn't know why Sasuke was still not here – and if he had any sort of inkling, it was more than likely Kakashi's fault – but he did know if Sasuke didn't show up soon, he would be knocked out of the tournament by default.

"I hope he comes soon." Naruto expressed with a slight sigh.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Hey, maybe." He didn't seem like he cared either way.

"Attention: due to the decision made by the Hokage, the second match between Gaara of Sunagakure versus Sasuke Uchiha of Konohagakure will be moved to the fourth slot of the first round of the tournament." This announcement came to the claps and loud cheers of the audience. It seemed like a lot of people came here to see Sasuke and Gaara fight. The proctor (Genma, if Naruto remembered correctly) who was on the megaphone that almost couldn't be heard by the screaming crowd. "Therefore, will Shino Aburame of Konohagakure and Kankūro of Sunagakure move to the arena?"

Due to the Fighter's Booth looming right over the stadium's arena, Naruto watched clearly as a figure in black – some chūnin in black – flashed into existence, approached Genma, and apparently whisper something into his ear, because Genma started nodding a bit.

Then after a few seconds and a final nod from the bandana-wearing proctor, Genma picked up his megaphone again. "Attention: another update has happened in our scheduled match. Kankūro of Sunagakure has forfeited his match with Shino Aburame of Konohagakure. The winner by the default is Shino Aburame." The crowd interrupted with boos and jeers. People started protested in shouts and screams. They didn't sound like they were happy.

Genma patiently waited for a minute until the people settled down a little bit before announcing something again on his megaphone. "The next scheduled match is Shikamaru Nara of Konohagakure versus Temari of Sunagakure. Both fighters have five minutes to make it to the arena. Thank you for your time!"

"Well, it looks like your match is next. Knock her out, will ya, Shika?"

Shikamaru's lips moved to make a large frown. "Hey, why the hell is my match next? Move my match last, not the guy who's late to this thing. What kind of favoritism crap is this? And why did that puppet guy come all the way here, just to forfeit to his opponent without the match starting? Man, this sucks."

Naruto shrugged at him this time, though happy that Sasuke had a chance to compete in the tournament. "A ninja must be prepare for anything. That's one of the first lessons we learned back in the Academy. Isn't that what a ninja is supposed to do, instead of whining about things?"

"Shut up, Naruto." Shikamaru glared at him. Naruto noted the lack of a witty response from the lazy-looking Nara.

Naruto smirked in a small little victory, and patted Shikamaru on his shoulder. "Don't fret, guy. After all, you'll do fine in your match. You're going to kick that girl's butt."

"Hmph, yeah right." A female voice rang out, interrupting the conversation between the two Konoha shinobi. Temari walked past them as she taunted Shikamaru, giving a contemptuous glare towards the younger boys. "You don't have a chance, Nara. I'll blow you away."

"Tch, troublesome. Why did you have to say that all out loud, Naruto?" Shikamaru groaned. "Now I'm going to have to work hard."

"What? You didn't planto work hard at all?" Naruto felt his eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

Shikamaru grunted out a response. "I planned to come from this unscathed. Maybe even quit after the first ten minutes."

Naruto was about to scream at the boy for not wanting to fight to best of his ability, but stopped, thought about it for a bit, and realized what Shikamaru was saying... Would probably get him much closer to becoming a chūnin. "You know, maybe you're not as lazy as I thought. That's a good strategy."

"Huh?" asked Shikamaru, who, for once, stumped – by Naruto of all people. "What strategy?"

Naruto knowingly chuckle and patted his former classmate on the shoulder. "Good luck, Shika."

Shikamaru frowned – more so out of Naruto leaving him confused than the nickname. or even the too familiar pat on the shoulder. The only one who could confuse him like that was his own father, who was eons worldlier and smarter than him. However, when proctor Genma Shiranui called for him and Temari to come down to the arena to begin their match, he opted to go, instead of paying Naruto's words any mind.

Watching Shikamaru's match was interesting. Instead of being extremely fast like Naruto's had been, Shikamaru's match easily went past the supposed ten minutes Shikamaru said he would participate in. Shikamaru and Temari's fight involved both of them not trying to get caught by anything the other person was attempting to do. Both of them played the mid-to-long range game, and didn't want to get close to one another. Finally, due to some complex plan, Shikamaru created using nearby objects and the position of the Sun to get to Temari from a long distance, and to get his shadow to pin down hers, Shikamaru had the opponent in his hands.

And then let her go, crying out he had nothing to hit her with, that he was running out of chakra and there was no point to keep trying since she was a more superior opponent. If Shikamaru wasn't just being a lazy-ass, Naruto knew it had been the right decision for Shikamaru too. Even if he was just being lazy, no one else knew, and it looked good on the Nara's part. Iruka-sensei was right: if you wanted to be a chūnin, you needed to know your limits and be responsible for not only yourself, but for a team you would be serving on.

Out on the field, in the real world, doing risky decisions like fighting when you know you can't, was not only stupid but costly. If you were fighting a superior enemy that you could defeat, that was great. If not, it was better to retreat – why risk your life in a battle if your mission objective wasn't to die? And their mission for the Chūnin Exams was not to kill, or to die, or even to really win fights. Their mission at the Chūnin Exams was to get promote, to show their skills, to show the judges they knew how to think and act like a chūnin.

If anyone was going to be promoted here, it would be Shikamaru – without any doubt.

However, now that the match was over, and the proctor was now calling for the Sasuke and Gaara match to start in five minutes, Naruto's earlier concerns came back full force. He was hoping Sasuke would show up. "Where the hell is that guy? Kakashi-sensei is definitely to be blamed for this, I just know it."

After five minutes, Genma made a new announcement. "Attention: due to tardiness from Sasuke Uchiha of Konohagakure, the winner of the match is Gaara of Sunagakure." That led to a lot of outcries, boos, and jeers from the crowd.

"Oh shit..."

Then the proctor announced the next match.

"Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure vs Temari of Sunagakure! To the arena in five minutes!"

Naruto reviewed his findings of Temari in his head for a brief moment. The girl from Suna was a Wind Release user – and a pretty scary user too. If he got caught by one of her tornadoes, he was toasted. He also could not let her get any distance. That Tenten girl got a taste of that back in the Preliminaries.

Naruto had to get as closely as he could to the girl without getting thrown around like a rag doll. He could finish her off with taijutsu. He had a gut feeling she relied too heavily on her fan and her wind attacks. Take the fan away from her, and she would have to stick to fighting with her hands. He had an idea on how to make her get away from her fan. Of course, he had to be sneaky.

And sneaky Naruto excelled in.

As the proctor started to call for the match, Naruto made two clones underneath him underground, as Temari herself opened her metal fan and prepared for combat. As the proctor moved away from them, Temari already tried blowing Naruto back with a wind release technique. Naruto had no time to actually dodge it and so, wisely performed Kawirimi with a clone underground. Not what he originally planned but it was sure convenient that he had an easy "switch-a-roo" technique. Switching with clones always came in handy.

As he received his clones memories, watching the tornado decimate his clone, he performed the Kage Bunshin no Jutsu and had the clone appear on top of his position as a decoy and to create more clones on ground. Ebisu had showed him that trick with his shadow clones. Naruto could – if he properly directed his chakra in the right way – make clones wherever the hell he wanted, adding another positive property to his beloved Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.

Next, Naruto decided to create a squad of ten clones to act as more decoys for him, while he found his way to Temari. He had a plan that – if it worked – would make short work of Temari. Watching Shikamaru's match with her made him realize that Temari hated any sort of close combat with her opponents, and she made it her mission to get away to spam powerful wind release techniques. Every clone that popped, Naruto received its memories. One clone even gotten close enough to Temari to see her face – a creepy smile had been on her face as she swung her fan at the clone and "killed" him with a bit of her wind chakra.

That girl was having too much fun for Naruto. He shivered a bit.

Finally, Temari threw summoned a large tornado on the battlefield, and threw it at the Naruto clones up at the surface. Her tornado swallowed up many of the clones, obliterating his once army on ground. However Naruto was far from perturbed, glad it actually happened. Now that all of her targets were no longer pursuing her, she would realize he wasn't even there, and she would be on her guard. Waiting for him to come to her. She must have figured he had the ability to go underground by now, right?

Naruto created another clone at his side, and Naruto gestured it to go topside and distract Temari once again. "Engage her in taijutsu and I'll take care of the rest." Naruto whispered. They were directly under her at this point.

The clone nodded and plopped out of the ground, to attack Temari. The sand girl, whose reaction wasn't fast enough, got hit by a punch and staggered away. The real Naruto moved slightly underground, and was again directly under her. Temari, at that instant, recovered and slugged the clone with a good punch, while holding her fan like a crutch as it stood tall on the ground.

While this was all going on, Naruto peeked his head out the ground, placed his hand to the surface, and then raised said hand to touch Temari's fan. Then, applying a generous amount of chakra to it, Naruto's technique was finally completed. No more will Temari be able to shoot wind ninjutsu all over the place against him. All of this was because of chakra flow. The right amount of earth chakra would augment a weapon. The wrong amount – too much – would make the chosen item heavy enough to have a hard time to lift or worse, become damaged. That meant it would be nigh-useless, and in this situation, it would work wonders.

With the deed being done, he was now free to come up to the surface completely. Temari couldn't do anything now. He moved a few feet away from her, and then rose from the ground with a smirk on his face. Temari saw him, tried raising her fan, but found it that she could not, because the fan had become ten times the weight it originally was. Oh, the joys of having an earth affinity.

Temari struggled to get it up, confused on why it felt so heavy. She made a straining noise, which became confused, and ultimately, it then became frightened. She then opted to abandoning the fan, as it dropped and slammed into the ground like a bag of bricks, and moved away. As she was doing that, Naruto approached in swiftly, and swung at her with her with a fist right at the chin. Temari barely guarded against it, but it proved to be a bad idea – the bones of her forearm groaning in protest.

She managed to move away, and couldn't help but growl in frustration. "What did you do to my fan?"

"Oh, you noticed? I just made it useless. I seen how you fought before. You rely on your fan to use wind attacks, right?" Naruto rhetorically questioned, already summoning two clones under his opponent. He was just making idle conversation now.

"You… wait, you have access to… earth techniques, right? You used it to make my fan heavier..." She was starting to sweat bullets. The Sunagakure girl had realized she had made a huge mistake allowing Naruto to get any close to her, and, after a few seconds, realized she made a worse one when she didn't move and chose to stand there gawking in awe.

Hands grabbed her from the underground, and she yelped in surprise and fear as most of her body was dragged underground, her chin nearly slamming into the ground itself. She watched as Naruto walked up to her in a brisk pace, seen him crouch, and felt a kunai on her throat. "Surrender," he stated. "You're finished."

She sucked her teeth, knowing when she was beat. "Dammit. Alright, I forfeit."

"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki!" The proctor called out from a few feet away.

Naruto grinned and preened as the crowd cheered him on. Temari growled, looking as Naruto started to dance around like a little kid in the arena. "Hey, idiot! Get me out of here already!"

Naruto obviously heard her cry, and smirked. "Why? It's not like you can do anything to get out of it. Ask nicely, and maybe I'll get you out of there."

She heatedly stared at him, and then frowned at the male proctor from Konoha. "H-Hey, can't you get me out?"

"Hmm, maybe, though the kid is on to something here. What's the magic word that will get you out of there?"

Temari's face heated up in embarrassment and anger. She stared at the ground for a few seconds before mumbling out a "please." Thankfully, Naruto heard her, and she was released. Naruto smiled at her, and said, "Good fight," before leaving.

Temari huffed, but begrudgingly acknowledged the guy actually beat her. Despite the dopey look, and matching smile, the little brat was actually pretty clever. A strategist maybe? She could at least respect that.

She supposed she shouldn't be too mad. After all, in a little bit, Sunagakure would be getting the last laugh in on Konohagakure.

"Winner: Gaara of Sunagakure!"

Naruto watched, cringing as the match between Gaara and Shino Aburame – Naruto's former classmate and fellow countryman – finally came to a close. It was a fast, nasty match up that lasted a lackluster few minutes before Shino decided to forfeit smartly.

First, Shino's fighting style was a stationary style where he sent his insects at the enemy and drain them of their chakra. However, Gaara – whose fighting style relied also on not moving much and staying in place – never needed to lift a finger. It was the very same defense sand technique that Gaara had done against Lee – a technique that Naruto couldn't figure out yet, and it was scaring him since he was up against Gaara next. Shino's bugs couldn't even touch Gaara; not with that sand shield popping up every time. Every time Shino sent a cloud of bugs at Gaara, it was like seeing a bunch of flies being squished with a fly swatter at high speed. Shino also seemed to have nothing better than that, which was a shame. Naruto thought it was a good idea to just give up.

And he did, but almost gotten killed when Gaara decided – even after the match was announced to be over – that the battle wasn't over yet, and sent a blast of sand at him, and wrapped him in sand, ready to crush him. It took three jōnin and the threat of the proctor Genma to get Gaara disqualified, and imprisoned if Shino was killed. Gaara looked angry – angry at them stopping him from killing Shino! While killing was allowed in the match, it became illegal again after the proctor announced the match to have concluded. Gaara was willing to kill, and for what? That honestly unnerved the blond teen, and Naruto was fighting the psychotic Suna shinobi next.

It was funny, really. Naruto had feared very few times in his life. His first time in actual battle had been against his former traitorous teacher, Mizuki, but Naruto's anger had been ten times stronger than being scared of dying. Then those missing-nin brothers who attacked Naruto and his team, when he thought Kakashi-sensei was killed by them, he feared then. Every other time, his anger had clouded away that fear. When he seen that if they didn't help Kakashi-sensei when he was captured by Zabuza Momochi – the former missing-nin of Kirigakure – they would surely die, Naruto didn't let fear control him. Then, he thought back when Naruto and Sasuke were fighting Haku, and he thought Sasuke was killed by the Ice Release user. Naruto was livid, instead of frightful for his existence being extinguished. Even against Orochimaru, who was leagues stronger than anyone he ever fought in his life. He was angry, and that anger drove him to try, even if it turned out to be bad in the end. The fights he won and lost had always taught him a lesson: if he was still breathing, if he was still able to walk, the experience made him a little more stronger than before. That's how he always carried himself in this life: throwing caution in the wind.

But Gaara, as he felt his cold, teal eyes penetrate his heart, Naruto never felt the desire to run more than now. That aura he gave was murderous, like if he wanted to (or could), Gaara would slaughter everyone in this stadium, and that included him. It was at that moment Naruto actually thought running away would be preferably. Yes, because that's what Shino did, right? He retreated. It was the logical choice. It wasn't the most exciting, yes, but the smartest choice, the most logical. Shikamaru had retreated as well too, after he figured out his chakra was getting low – or whatever lame excuse Shikamaru had come up with it, because it didn't matter whether or not he was lying. He still got his chance to shine, and he looked like he was going to be promoted. It sucked that Shino didn't get that chance against Kankūro to fight, because he did have potential to also make chūnin. Both were calm, cool-headed, and would do excellent in battle. They thought things through before executing anything.

It was something Naruto secretly admired about both of them, and wanted to emulate. He wanted to stop being such a kid, and grow up a little, get a little respect for what he's doing and what's he trying to do. He could remember the days of being in school, people laughing at him for wanted to follow his heart, and become a Hokage. Admittedly, he was stupid for wanting that because he wanted to be respected, but as time grew, it became more than that. He wanted to have people's respect, yes, but he wanted people to count on him, their loyalty, their hearts, their minds, their… love. He wanted to protect the people he had come to care for, he wanted their love, and wanted them to be proud of him. All he was doing now, was trying to make the first step.

Did the first step lie in just admitting he might not have what it takes to kick Gaara's ass? He needed to know. He needed to see for himself. He believed he could, and he wouldn't give up without a fight. For once in his life, he was hoping to feel indignant, rowdy, angry – just like how it been against Mizuki, Zabuza, Haku, and Orochimaru. However, he felt nothing but fear, nervousness, and wondering if it would be just easier to give up.

"This is it, folks! This is the grand finals! Will Naruto Uzumaki of Konohagakure and Gaara of Sunagakure please come to the stadium arena?" The proctor yelled over his megaphone. Naruto flinched, realizing the five minutes were up.

He peered down in the arena, and saw Gaara down there, seemingly still there since his last battle. Naruto again felt Gaara's predatory stare look up at him. He heard the crowd scream, and he could swear he could hear a voice or two yell "Naruto!" He wanted to believe it was his friends cheering (Sakura, his former classmates, maybe even Kakashi-sensei, and Sasuke if they finally made it).

Naruto's fists tightened, and he gritted his teeth.

...No. He couldn't quit now. He wanted their respect, their loyalty – all of these people. Quitting now wouldn't do him any favors, until he sized up Gaara, and seen how his abilities stacked up to Naruto's. He grunted, wiped tears from his face, sniffed, and walked down those damn stairs. Fuck Gaara, and his scary little face. Fuck the people who thought he couldn't do this. He would prove them wrong. Dead wrong. Even if he didn't find a way to beat Gaara, he was not going to quit, because goddammit, that was his ninja way.

Unlike with Neji, there was no taunting. Unlike with Temari, there was no superior looks and arrogance on his opponent's face. Gaara wanted nothing more but blood from him. Naruto didn't give two shit's about anything the proctor was saying at the moment; shadow clones were created underground under his feet, moving all around the battlefield. No one would know, and the proctor didn't seem to flinch as Naruto did it. He needed to set up before the battle truly started. Gaara would not move from his spot. He never will. Naruto had to use that to his advantage. Perhaps overwhelming that shield with so many attacks at once from all angles would stop Gaara from doing anything, and allow Naruto a hit in.

No, wait, hold on, he would need more. Naruto remembered Rock Lee from last month, when he hit Gaara, the guy had sand cover his whole body not only acting as a second skin, but actually as armor. Naruto would need a lot more than simply overwhelming Gaara's shield. Breaking the armor underneath would prove even more of a challenge. It looked like he was heavily relying on his Doton: Moguregakure no Jutsu in this fight.

"Begin!"

Naruto made the first move, summoning some shadow clones, and giving them the signal to move. They moved it, and quickly gotten destroyed by a wave of sand that acted like a tentacle, swinging and destroying the clones, leaving nothing but smoke. Naruto wasted no time, and went underground. He already figured it wouldn't do much anyway. More clones were then created from his chakra – more distractions for Gaara.

On top, rocks rained from the heavens, ready to crush the Sunagakure shinobi, but after getting memories from a clone who was killed right afterward, Gaara's sand only formed a shield, and then after the rocks disappeared, sent sand shaped like bullets at the clones. Shit. Things were not going his way, and he had a nasty belief that there was no reason to go under Gaara and pull him under, since his shield protected him.

Actually, going underground was not safe for him anymore, as a tentacle of sand ripped through the dirt he was in. He yelped, as more and more tentacles came his way. He exited the dirt immediately, and found himself again on the defensive as Gaara sent a burst of sand at him, as if the gourd on his back belched it up. Naruto couldn't dodge it, and for the first time in this whole day, he felt himself getting hit.

He was blown back by the attack, his back hitting ground harshly. He roared out in pain, hissing as he tried clawing some of the sand out his eyes, and hacking up any spare sand that got in his mouth.

Gaara made no move to pursue the fallen Naruto, opting to instead look at him with folded arms and cold sea green eyes. The first time since this match started, Gaara spoke up. He rasped out nastily, "Pitiful. Is this all you can do? Shoot out rocks and hide in the dirt? Run and hide back into your little hole, pest." A cloud made of sand then loomed over Naruto ominously. "I shall end your suffering soon."

Naruto knew exactly what that meant, and tried out a newer technique he learned from Ebisu-sensei. Without announcing it, he performed the Shunshin no Jutsu and moved across the battlefield, barely missing raining death; bullets made out of sand pelted the space he once occupied. He stopped near the wall of the stadium, letting go of a breath of air he didn't even know he had. Gaara was incredibly deadly, and Naruto had to find some way to beat him, before the redhead killed him.

Naruto summoned more clones, filling his area with ten newer bodies of himself, already having a plan in mind. The Kage Bunshin no Jutsu was one of the greatest techniques to man. It might been embellishment, but he felt it was a true. Not only it was useful for swarming enemies with cloned bodies of himself, and also as a training tool, but everything on Naruto's person. Naruto had come prepared for the exams; kunai, shuriken, and other various miscellaneous tools he had at his disposal. Naruto had thought to himself that he might as well get his clones to make use of all this "overabundance" of weaponry on Gaara. You could call it in shades of that one technique that Tenten girl used in the preliminaries of the Chūnin Exams.

He signaled his clones to ready their weapons, as he done the same. The rings of eight kunai on each of his fingers, he held them up to his face, gritting his teeth. If this didn't work, he didn't know what would. 'That sand is stopping every change I can get to hit him. I need to stop it somehow. Perhaps… I can get past that defense. If I can make it so he can't defend an attack from all directions, it won't work for him.'

Then they charged. Each clone moved away from each other, in an effort to cover Gaara at a circle. The redhead shinobi stared impassively back at him and his clones, not making any sort of move to move. Sand started gathering around Gaara. He was that sure of his abilities, huh? Naruto couldn't wait to wipe that superior look off his face. Naruto considered his distance, and judged (hoped) that it was at a good distance to not get hit himself. He lowered his hands from his face – the clones all around mirroring his every action – then he threw them in back of his head, bent slightly, and chucked them forward. Like he thought, the sand from Gaara's gourd came up, in an effort to protect him.

But it wouldn't matter.

Some of his clones went towards Gaara, which the sand raised up to smack them away like flies. Those clones weren't armed with kunai however, and Naruto and the rest of the clones with kunai threw them at Gaara. Normal kunai probably would have done nothing to Gaara, but these kunai weren't all regular.

Naruto's clone technique copied everything on his person, and today, he was carrying things he didn't think he would really need but decided it was better safe that sorry. He was carrying a few tags on him – exploding tags.

Usually, since they were dangerous when either lit or primed with chakra, exploding tags were expensive in Konohagakure. Three strips of paper cost at least a few hundred ryō; a whole roll cost thousands. Normally, he had a few strips of paper on him if he could afford it. However, he didn't make a habit of buying them. A few days ago, he decided he needed some, and got a few. They were coming in handy, if he did say so himself.

On the eight kunai each clone was carrying, two kunai had been wrapped an already primed tag. Ten clones times two kunai rigged to explode equaled one barbequed Gaara – and it should break that barrier easily enough. He doubted any sort of barrier could tank a bombardment of explosions like Naruto planned. Gaara also was making no move to do anything about it, except defend, so Naruto would definitely have his way, he was sure.

As soon as he thrown the eight kunai, he moved, hoping to get away if need be. A chain of explosions rocked the area Gaara was in, and Naruto seen a gout of fire and black smoke fly freely into the air. Naruto expected a scene in front of him to be

When the smoke cleared, Gaara was seen again, a dome of sand holding around him before crumbling around him, and that put killed any sort of hope Naruto had to win this match. This guy… was unreal. He actually survived a bunch of explosions at once-

Naruto found his thoughts could not be finished as danger descended upon him. Seconds later, and sand rained down on him from the skies without warning. He went to move, but found himself that he could not, finding sand pooling at his feet, keeping him anchored to the ground. Naruto yelled out in pain as lumps of sand hit him in all parts of his body. The assault finished, and Naruto found himself on the ground. Sand then started covering him from head to toe. Gaara approached slowly.

"I despise exploding tags..." The redhead hissed.

"H-How? Why didn't you-" He was soon interrupted by the unhinged Suna shinobi.

"You, you and that damn Yashamaru are both the same in your cowardly methods. Instead of fighting me directly, you choose the sneaky and unhanded way. Killing me with exploding tags will not work. I will not die here!"

Naruto didn't know who was Gaara referencing to, and didn't care. He was going to die. Naruto was going to die because he was too proud and too stupid to give up. Ebisu-sensei was right – Gaara was on a different level than him. He should have gave up a long time ago. And now, not only was he going to lose the match, but he wasn't going to ever fight another person again in his life…

Naruto then remembered something crucial: he had left a few clones underground in the off-chance he needed them. Such a time was now.

"You have been a waste of my time." With one hand held up, he lifted the sand prison Naruto was now encased inside of. Gaara sneered. "Die."

"Enough!" The tournament's brown-haired proctor barked at Gaara. "The match is-

"Don't tell me what to do!" Gaara glared hatefully at the examiner, squeezing his hand down as he did so. The sand exploded, but Gaara was angered further for not being able to see his opponent's blood mixed with it. Instead, the sound of one of Naruto's clones popping sounded off.

Naruto escaped during the time the proctor and Gaara started arguing with a version of the Kawarimi no Jutsu that didn't involve hand seals. It was out of pure luck there.

Naruto climbed out of the underground, finding himself quite a distance from Gaara now. For all intents and purposes, I should have died right there and then, he fearfully panted to himself in thought. He just received the full memories of the unfortunate clone he switched with. The sand imploded on itself, and crushed the clone to bits before it was dispelled. If he got hit by that attack, there would be no coming back. That was too close, too close. He not only almost lost the fight, but his life as well.

Gaara survived a series of explosions that should have enough to put anything down. He was out of options. Something told him that trying that again would not work in his favor, and it was best to just do what Ebisu said he should do before. Naruto hated it, but he realized that he had done a lot in this tournament. He defeated Neji and Temari both in pretty decisive victories. Gaara was in a whole different league that the previous two opponents he fought. It was time to stop fighting.

"Proctor-san! I forfeit." Naruto declared quickly, without feeling an ounce regretful about it.

Genma looked pleased with such. "Winner: Gaara of Sunagakure!" The crowd then cheered loudly. "Gaara is the winner of the Chūnin Exams!"

Naruto sighed in relief. "Thank goodness… It's over."

"Good thing too." The proctor glared over in Naruto's direction. "Be glad you were able to get out of that prison technique alive, kid."

Gaara however did not share everyone's pleasure. "No, no! You are not supposed to quit! We are not finished yet, Uzumaki!" Much to Naruto's horror, Gaara flung away the proctor with his tail. The cheers of the crowd stalled, and Naruto heard Gaara yell out angrily to him, "Mother wants your blood, Uzumaki! We shall continue fighting!"

"You're insane! I gave up already!" Naruto stated, looking more alarmed as Gaara approached him slowly like a cat did to a mouse; like a lion stalking its prey.

Naruto took a breather when six ANBU stepped on the battlefield, all of them surrounding him and Gaara. "Get back, kid." One of the ANBU – a man – said to Naruto, who gladly started to move away. "Gaara of Sunagakure, for attacking a member of Konohagakure, you are hereby under arrest. Surrender or face the consequences."

Gaara snarled, then yelled out in pure anger, and perhaps a bit in pain. The disturbed boy started clutching his head. "WH-What's that, Mother?! You want their blood, all of their blood?! Y-yes, YES! I will give you their blood! ALL OF THEM!"

And then, hundreds of bullets of sand exploded from under Gaara's feet, hitting everyone near the far-gone shinobi. Naruto was lucky enough to not be anywhere near Gaara.

...Well, that settled it. Naruto need to get the fuck out of here. Let someone else deal with this-

He froze, and paralyzed when he felt a wave of killer intent wash over him like a flood. Naruto stiffly turned back, and found it was the wrong thing to do when spheres of sand started to stick to Gaara's figure, until he started warping into some a demonic creature. "And now, you're mine, Uzumaki!"

As this went on, Naruto heard an explosion from over his head, and found a plume of white smoke in the Hokage's Booth – where the leader of Konohagakure would have been watching the match. More anarchy started in the stands themselves when he started hearing yelling and sounds of battle all around him.

All around him, the world went to shit. And no one gave him a memo warning him?

Just great.

End.

A/N: So, Naruto just defeated Temari as well, but I had him lose to Gaara. In all honestly, I could not find a plausible way for Gaara to be defeated by Naruto. A lot of Naruto's current techniques can't really deal with Gaara, and it may be a stretch having Gaara able to stay conscious/not end up seriously injured with that explosion going off near him, but the guy fucking took a Reverse Lotus from Lee – which is said to be able to be fatal upon hit due to the sheer speed, pressure, and power of the strike – with just his sand shield. So, I think he can tank an explosion… or a couple.

As for people who will ask why did Sasuke not fight, I decided to change it up the canon, and make it somewhat interesting (or at least different so we don't have a repeat of the normal canon Chūnin Exams). Doesn't mean him and Kakashi won't show up soon though, because they will. Can't forget their part in the next upcoming arc. You should know what's coming. People are probably going to hate me, but eh. It's not Sasuke wanted to get promoted anyway. He just wanted to fight. I might consider rewriting the chapter over (one day) if anything.

In truth, I always hated doing the Chūnin Exams in my stories (see Stop The Future, and you'll see what I mean). Forgive me if it seems a little rushed, but I hate making it so long and drawn out. Kind of glad I got to skim over the exams. One of the reasons why I hate doing the Invasion/Konoha Crush arc in my stories is because usually, I feel like the matches have to be at least decent, and I, even though I have published plenty of Naruto fanfics, haven't perfected the art of action as of yet. Well, at least I'm done with it.

Next chapter will be out soon, and all that jazz.

Until then, fare thee well.