Naruto – The SERIES

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Well, I sort of got Writer's Block for my other stories… so I began working on this one.. -_-'

Chouji's ears twitched as he heard movement behind him. He turned and found himself face to face with Karasu, Kankurou's doll. Chouji planned on delivering a blow, but stopped himself as he saw that the doll was releasing a purple gas from out of his mouth.

'That's… poison gas…!' Chouji immediately leaped away from the doll, only to be intercepted by Kankurou, who punched him back towards the doll. Chouji, who landed in the cloud of smoke Karasu had created, hold his nose and mouth and had his eyes closed. He ran as fast as he could, away from the poison cloud.

Kankurou smiled. "Oy, you forgot to cover your ears…"

There Where When is Now

Chapter 17

Chouji's eyes widened as he heard the words come out of Kankurou's mouth. He swallowed and tried to confirm his entire body was still working as it should. As he did, he didn't feel like something was wrong. He frowned at the grinning Kankurou. 'The effect of his attack must come later, then. I guess it's time to finish it off before I feel the poison…'

Kankurou grinned at the hesitating Chouji. 'Damn… To be quite honest, the poison Karasu released can't get inside the body through the ears. So this fat guy is completely unharmed… But he doesn't know that and is quite likely panicking… Now he gets reckless and makes mistakes a lot easier…'

Chouji rushed forward, screaming his lungs out, ready to pummel the grin that was a little too apparent on Kankurou's face. Suddenly, Chouji found himself unable to move… 'What? This feels a lot like Shikamaru's Shadow Copy…' And then Chouji noticed he could still move his arms and his head. 'No, the only thing I can't move are my legs…' Chouji looked down at his legs and saw nothing out of the ordinary. 'What's going on?'

Suddenly Kankurou threw a kunai straight in Chouji's left arm, which earned him a loud yelp. After that, he appeared before him and punched him hard in the gut. Kankurou quickly avoided Chouji's fist by jumping back. "Still can't move? I see you're confused as well. I'm holding you in one spot with my Chakra.. The move's called Suna Kanashibari. My Chakra is in the sand that is beneath your two feet and it's stopping you from moving."

Chouji gritted his teeth and tried to jump. The result was that he fell on his back, with his face facing the air.

Kankurou gazed at Chouji. "Well, you freed yourself." And then he chuckled. "But, now your entire body is on top of sand on the ground. And now my Chakra is stopping you from getting up again. Chakra is a handy thing, ain't it?"

Chouji snarled, until he saw Kankurou appear above him and felt him landing his knee hard in his stomach. Chouji's eyes widened as he saw Kankurou grab a kunai and put his against his neck. "Give up… or die."

Chouji groaned.. "I give up.."

Aoba frowned. "The fight is over! Winner: Kankurou!" Aoba faced the remaining participants. 'I didn't really like this battle… Too little action for my taste..'

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"Uughh…"

Hiashi was jumping over big crates created by Manda's poison. The poison's smell was simply terrible and he hated to admit it, but it faintly stung his eyes. He wanted to get away from the poison as fast as he could. Right now, Jiraiya and Orochimaru were facing off above him. Even though there was silence now, he could still feel the ground shake a bit. Hiashi gazed upwards as he jumped and noticed that all the trees were burned down.

'The attacks they are using are so strong… It can really bring down an entire forest…'

The two of them were too busy with each other, Hiashi figured, so he didn't have his Byakugan activated. He was therefore, quite surprised to see Orochimaru appear before him with a seal already finished.

'Shit..!'

"Kanashibari…"

And Hiashi had stared straight in Orochimaru's eyes. Orochimaru had used the same move he had used on Sasuke and Anko in the Forest of Death. The one where the opponent could no longer move. "Heh, it must be extra aggravating for a Hyuga to be unable to move." Orochimaru stated with a chuckle. "Did you think I forgot about you? Right now, Manda is attacking Jiraiya and his GamaBunta. Jiraiya doesn't even know I am here, attacking you."

"You are clearly underestimating me, Orochimaru." Hiashi stated. "Such a basic move like this can not stop an elite Hyuga."

Orochimaru calmly shook his head. "I didn't really expect it would. But I'm not underestimating you, I just never fought you before, I wanted to see what a Hyuga can do. Then again, I know Dareda Hyuga…"

Hiashi's eyes widened completely. "You've seen… Dareda?"

Orochimaru frowned. "You two.. have a history?" Orochimaru wanted to continue, but was forced to jump away from the attacking Hiashi, who had a few Kunais in his hands and was about to slash him apart.

"Orochimaru… show me what you can.."

Orochimaru chuckled evilly. "As you wish…"

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'Two Shinobis with demons inside of them… they are the only Genins who are stronger than me… Uchiha Sasuke can not be stronger than me.. But I do see him as a rival, a quite powerful one. His speed is probably higher than Lee's. But he has elementary skills and has the Sharingan as well. I wonder how much stronger he has become.'

Hyuga Neji wondered as he watched how Chouji and Kankurou walked back up to the waiting room.

"All right! Let the next match begin! Gaara!! … Sarutobi Shigeru!! Both of you come down here!"

Gaara seemed to snort before sand surrounded him and took him down to the arena. Shigeru simply jumped down.

'An old classic Ninjutsu versus Genjutsu battle. But Gaara has a major advantage, he can control sand, and this arena is filled with it…'

Aoba suddenly looked at Gaara. 'I can feel he has already used an amount of Chakra… but I have not begun the battle yet. What did he use?' Aoba continued to gaze at Gaara before shrugging. "Begin match!!"

Shigeru quickly scanned the entire area around him and was planning to use anything he could. 'His main skill is sand..' Shigeru stared straight into Gaara's eyes. 'It's quite impossible for me to get past that shield of his… What can I do?'

In the waiting room, Neji smiled as he had his Byakugan activated and saw what the two Chakra specialists were doing. 'They're both pretty good… But Gaara does have the advantage..'

Gaara didn't even react to the sudden Kunais coming from every direction. His Shield of Sand protected him like it always did. Shigeru snorted. He had used his Chakra to control the Kunais in every corner of the arena.

Shigeru quickly performed many difficult seals as Gaara was simply watching and had his hands folded. "Ikuta Zanzou!"

Kakashi's eyes widened. 'What the..!? That's Kinjutsu! Did the Third also know this move?' Kakashi sighed. 'I forgot to use my Sharingan… It would've been great if I knew this one as well…'

Neji frowned. 'What did he do? I don't understand it. I see him and all of his Chakra, from the looks of it, nothing has changed.'

Gaara continued to stare at Shigeru for a little while, before stating his favourite sentence. "Is this all you've got?"

Shigeru seemed to smile at Gaara, while Gaara simply stared at him.

"So be it.. Sabaku Kyuu!!"

The large hand of sand embraced Shigeru easily, but when it tried to squeeze Shigeru, it went straight through him. Gaara simply stared, not being puzzled even one bit. In fact, he was already looking at his left, where Shigeru was now standing, and had moved the large hand towards there as well. And yet, the same thing happened. From the looks of it, Gaara didn't seem annoyed and had spotted him elsewhere already. He simply moved his Desert Coffin towards him again. This went on for several minutes, Shigeru simply appearing elsewhere the entire time. But Gaara didn't move on inch at all.

"Bunshin no Jutsu!" Gaara created another clone. The clone immediately performed one seal. "Sabaku Kyuu!!"

Now two big hands of sand were terrorising the arena. As the one of them moved towards Shigeru, the other immediately attacked where Shigeru would appear next. But the same thing happened. The second hand also went straight through Shigeru's body.

This time, Gaara frowned. He closed his eyes and shook his head. 'Then I will attack all…'

Neji was analyzing the battle in the waiting room. 'I see…'

"What's going on?" Sasuke asked Kakashi. Sasuke didn't have his Sharingan activated and thus did not know how Shigeru kept dodging Gaara's attacks.

Kakashi moved his gaze from the battle to Sasuke. "He has given his own Chakra a certain barrier. When it comes into contact with another form of Chakra, it immediately moves away from it. It's a forbidden Jutsu and comes in handy. But, Shigeru will have to come up with something else if he wants to attack Gaara."

Sasuke turned back towards the battle and watched the great hands of sand dance throughout the area beneath. "To be honest, I don't think Shigeru has the power to get past that Shield of Gaara."

Kakashi shrugged.

Gaara simply watched Shigeru stand there. He withdrew his Desert Coffins and made his clone disappear. Immediately after that he performed new seals. "Suna Sunaarachi.." And then he grinned…

The referee's eyes widened. Aoba knew what this meant.

'Wholy Crap…' Neji thought as he saw what was about to happen. 'This will attack even us…'

Kakashi thought the same thing and glanced worriedly at the crowd.

And then, the entire arena was engulfed in a gigantic and ruthless sandstorm. But Gaara had made sure his attack was mainly focused on Shigeru. He had hardened the sand in the area he and Shigeru were in. It didn't take long before Gaara could hear Shigeru wince in pain. However, de didn't change facial expressions and it seemed he narrowed his eyes and made the sandstorm even more ruthless.

Soon, Shigeru was screaming in pain as sand slashed at him and he had nowhere to run to. 'Shit… what can I do against this? There's no Genjutsu at all to be able to escape from this… But.. he's using the sand to create this sandstorm, therefore, his Shield of Sand should be deactivated.' Shigeru gritted his teeth as he slowly moved towards Gaara and ignored the wounds the sand was creating.

Gaara slightly opened his eyes some more as he saw Shigeru appear in front of him. He then watched how Shigeru's fist moved towards his face. He was almost tempted to shake his head.

Shigeru didn't expect to find the Shield of Sand still active. Gaara had quickly used some sand to throw Shigeru away. 'How…!?'

A chuckle would be heard in the waiting room, if it weren't for the raging sounds of Gaara's Sandstorm. 'Heh, he thought he used the sand he used for his Shield of Sand for this sandstorm now. How wrong he is… The Shield of Sand is automatic. That brat doesn't have a clue.'

The crowd was screaming as sand hit all of them as well, though not as hard as it did to Shigeru.

Gaara still stood with his arms folded as stared at Shigeru, who was currently lying on the ground. 'Pitiful…' Gaara really had to fight the urge to kill him.

Suddenly, Shigeru rose from the ground swiftly and ran towards Gaara in high speed, despite the harsh sandstorm. Gaara still had his arms folded as he watched him approach. Shigeru evaded a sudden wave of sand and planned on hitting Gaara again.

Gaara was almost tempted to roll his eyes. 'I already know this one is an illusion, my Shield of Sand can easily protect me even after a short interval.'

As soon as Shigeru hit the Shield of Sand, another Shigeru appeared on the other side of Gaara and attacked him as well. Even though the sand was still in front of Gaara, another part of the Shield of Sand stopped Shigeru's second attack as well.

'How stupid.' Gaara thought as he easily swept both Shigeru's away.

Shigeru cursed as he landed on the ground and let his illusion vanish. 'Otori no Jutsu will not have an effect on him. I do have another Kinjutsu…. But that one is really useless against this guy…' Shigeru's eyes widened as another sand wave hit him hard on the left. Shigeru was swept away by the wind of the sandstorm and crashed hard against the wall.

Gaara made the sandstorm vanish, much to the crowd's relief and then spoke up. "All the sand that I've used for the Sandstorm is now on the ground all over the place, ready to explode."

In other words, Gaara just explained that he used Suna Bakuhatsu and was ready to activate it. There was no escape for Shigeru.

Shigeru coughed up some blood as he narrowed his eyes at Gaara. 'This guy…. He's not even fighting me seriously, he hasn't moved an inch from his spot…'

Shigeru sighed as he uttered the words… "I… Fine.. I give up."

Aoba nodded. "This match is over! Winner: Gaara!!"

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Suddenly, Hiashi chuckled. "Senshin-Byakugan!"

Orochimaru narrowed his eyes and his smug grin was gone. "Your eyes are pretty annoying. But, without Jiraiya, there is no way you can win against me."

Hiashi snorted. "Don't underestimate a Hyuga. We are the strongest clan in the Leaf Village."

Orochimaru remained silent as he took on a fighting position. "Don't act too smug, I have defeated your Hokage, remember?"

Hiashi narrowed his eyes. "Yes, and I shall make you pay for that."

Hiashi immediately went forward and appeared behind Orochimaru, already performing the first steps of the 64 Opening Points Attack, only to find that Orochimaru had already vanished. Hiashi quickly threw several Shuriken upwards, straight at Orochimaru, who had jumped away from Hiashi. Orochimaru, still in the air, quickly deflected the Shurikens with his Kunais and suddenly performed a very difficult seal.

'I do not know this Jutsu..' Hiashi thought, as Orochimaru suddenly made a coffin appear beside him.

"Kuchiyose Shogyou Sosei!"

Hiashi's eyes widened as he saw who was in the coffin. 'Can't be….'

Orochimaru chuckled. "Heh, I thought you might like it. I've studied the Hyuga Clan back in the old days, the same with the Uchiha. The Byakugan is very interesting, but the Sharingan suits me more."

Hiashi gritted his teeth as he turned towards Orochimaru. "How..!?"

"Simply put, I knew how strong your twin brother was, stronger than you. This skill is my Forbidden Jutsu, my Summoning Worldly Resurrection. I just revived your brother, Hyuga Hizashi. But.. I don't think he wants to catch up.."

And then the coffin opened and a slightly damaged Hyuga Hizashi stepped out. Orochimaru immediately jumped behind Hizashi and put a kunai stuck to a note in the back of his head. Hiashi watched as his deceased brother returned to his true self, only to be controlled by Orochimaru.

Even Hiashi's Senshin-Byakugan wouldn't offer much help now…

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Aoba smirked as he saw the two next contestants look at each other. 'This next match will be quite something, Uchiha versus Hyuga, a battle where I may have to pay attention..' Aoba adjusted his glasses and shrugged, before he announced the next match. "Alright! Step up!! Uchiha Sasuke and Hyuga Neji!!"

Both contestants moved with great speed and appeared in the arena in a split second. They stood watching each other, maybe even defying one another as they both smirked.

Aoba took a look at the raging crowd and nodded. "Yep. Let this match begin!!"

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"Why do you want to do this anyway?"

The reaction the girl received was a shrug, before the man answered. "Something tells me something's very wrong there."

Mokito also shrugged as she followed the two men, Sinobi and Kisame, through the forest. "I just wonder what Orochimaru has been up to in the Sound Village…"

"Yeah, and another thing… Those two big Summoned animals over there tell me someone's fighting." Sinobi stated as he stared a mile and a half ahead, at GamaBunta and Manda. "These particular two are very strong summons. " He paused as he narrowed his eyes. "Maybe even stronger than my summoning…" He paused again, to gaze at Mokito and Kisame. "And your summons."

Kisame chuckled. "Heh. Judging from the big frog, Jiraiya is over there, the Legendary Nin from the Leaf. And it's kinda obvious the snake is Orochimaru's Manda."

Sinobi nodded. "Indeed.. We'll just observe and see what's going on exactly."

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'This will be very hard…. It's best not to physically attack Hyugas, because of their Gentle fighting style. I'll simply begin with Ninjutsu and see what he's capable of. It's best not to activate the Sharingan yet.' Sasuke thought as he sized Neji up.

'Uchiha Sasuke… Finally a chance to fight him… ' Neji thought. "Byakugan!!" Neji narrowed his eyes. 'Such determination… He must have figured out a plan already.. Or he is overconfident.' Neji performed several seals. "Hyouketsu no Jutsu!"

Sasuke's eyes widened. He quickly evaded the Ice beam Neji sent his way by jumping to the left. He watched how the ice beam struck a tree and froze it completely. 'I didn't expect him to attack so soon… I thought Hyugas were more the defensive type..' Sasuke shrugged. 'Oh well…' "Jishin no Jutsu!!"

Neji simply jumped towards the walls and put Chakra under his feet to be able to stand on them. He watched as Sasuke used an Earth element Attack and made the entire ground shake. 'That's very tricky attack… But he'll have to stop the attack some time, in the meanwhile, I can't touch the ground, or he will trap me with it… then again, he's kind of underestimating me…'

Neji simply jumped down on the ground, which caused Sasuke to frown. As soon as Neji landed on the ground, Sasuke trapped him with his attack, surrounding with boulders and alike. Neji simply shrugged and released Chakra from his Chakra holes to release himself..

Neji snorted. "You just wasted an amount of Chakra using an attack which is very ineffective on me. I thought you were a genius."

Sasuke snorted back. "Same could be said to you and your Ice attack."

"Hurry up and come at me. Show me what an Uchiha can do against a Hyuga." Neji spoke with confidence.

Sasuke smirked. "Very well.." And then the skirmish began. Kicks and punches were being dodged or blocked.

Neji tried to hit Sasuke, but found himself unable to. On the other hand, Sasuke wasn't hitting Neji either. A fist slipped past Sasuke's defence, but Sasuke leaned backwards the make Neji's fist soar over him. As Sasuke leaned backwards, he continued it with a somersault, planning to kick Neji in the face while doing so, but Neji had already jumped back and had a few Kunais ready in his hands. As he threw them with exact precision, Sasuke had just landed, but had already attached Chakra to his feet to be able to quickly jump away again.

Neji rushed forward, ready to strike his palm at Sasuke's chest. Sasuke slapped Neji's hand away with his wrist and made a sweeping motion with his body. What followed was a series of kicks, low-high roundhouse kicks. Neji kept ducking and leaning backwards to avoid them. All of a sudden, Neji smirked and let one of the kicks hit him.

"Tenketsu-Kaiten!!"

"What the hell..?!"

Itachi shifted his glance towards Dareda. His gaze already asked the question 'What?'

"Tenketsu-Kaiten… Stupid that I never came up with that… I have the Kaunta-Kaiten.. That kid is truly something." Dareda explained as he watched Neji perform his newly acquired skill.

Itachi simply shifted his glance back towards the battle. 'Sasuke…. You are still so weak..'

Sasuke expected Neji to receive a blow from him, but found himself caught in Neji's Chakra and he couldn't move either. As soon as he found out he couldn't move at all, Neji started spinning like top, while being completely enveloped by Chakra. 'Wha-what's going on?' And then Sasuke received the hits on his body. All of them were too effective. And Sasuke felt that they actually drained Chakra. 'Shit… this is a combination of his Kaiten and his opening Points Attack… I have to get out of this before he hits all of them..'

Too late. Neji let Sasuke drop to the ground. "All of your Opening Points have been hit by me. You shouldn't be able to use any chakra anymore." Neji explained. 'But, he still has Lee's TaiJutsu style, so he can still fight on..'

"Is that what you think?" Sasuke responded as he stared straight into Sasuke's eyes.

Suddenly, Neji felt Chakra in Sasuke. 'What..!?'

Sasuke's Curse Seal…. had now been activated.

'Somehow, I kind of expected this… Lately my Opening Points Attack isn't effective against the people I fight. Naruto, that Aburame Shino, Itachi and his friend and now Sasuke… All were able to easily survive it. Should I double my efforts, or just do the Opening Points attack again?' Neji narrowed his eyes at the Chakra patterns on Sasuke's body. 'No… not in this case.. The Chakra is being forced out.. So my attack is useless. However, my Kaiten will prove quite effective against him…'

"Do not worry.. He can now control this level of the Curse Seal. I made sure he did." Kakashi explained to Naruto, as Naruto looked worriedly at Sasuke.

"Oy, Kakashi-sensei.. that Curse Seal… does it make him a lot stronger?"

Kakashi nodded. "Yeah, but it drains Chakra fast. The fact that Neji closed all opening points doesn't mean anything now, since the Curse Seal forces Chakra to come out, in other words, it nullifies the Opening Points attack's effect."

Naruto frowned. "I..uh.. see."

Neji shook his head. "I see, the same as back in the previous Chuunin Exam… This is like in the Forest of Death. Well, come.."

Sasuke's speed had increased dramatically, and he now had his Sharingan activated. Sasuke smirked as he ran around Neji in great speed. 'Such… power..'

Neji slightly grinned. 'Now I can see how much better I have become…'

"Your little brother isn't that bad either." Dareda stated as he watched him cross around the arena.

Itachi simply watched. "He's…. coming along.. However, he has too many weak spots.. If it wasn't for that Curse Seal, Sasuke would have been already defeated. It was a bad move not to activate the Sharingan immediately.."

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"I really hate Manda… Such a bothersome opponent.." Jiraiya spoke up as Manda came out from the ground before them.

"I couldn't agree more, Jiraiya!" GamaBunta screamed. "But now we have to defeat this snake!"

Jiraiya's eyes widened all of a sudden. "Hey! Where's Orochimaru!? Shit, I bet he's on his way to Hiashi already! Let's finish this off quick, GamaBunta!"

"Heh! As if you two could!" Manda immediately responded.

Manda revealed his own tail and showed GamaBunta and Jiraiya it held an enormous Boulder. He threw it at them, but GamaBunta and Jiraiya already noticed the boulder would miss them. So they simply frowned at Manda.

"I thought snakes had good eyes.." Jiraiya pondered as the boulder landed a few meters in front of him and GamaBunta.

And then, The land under GamaBunta and Jiraiya crumbled to millions of pieces.

"Heh, I was digging the ground beneath you and made it looser, a simple hit from the boulder was enough to make the ground underneath you crumble. This way, even a frog like yourself can't leap away. However, as soon as the rocks stop falling you can escape, so I have to.."

And then Manda quickly towered above GamaBunta and Jiraiya, who were trapped in the hole Manda had dug, and performed his Poison Rain again. "Ready to die?"

"Shit… I hate situations like these!" GamaBunta screeched.

Jiraiya turned very serious. "Not to worry… Time for a great Fire Shield don't you think?"

GamaBunta chuckled. "Are you sure? Last time we did that"

GamaBunta found himself interrupted by Jiraiya. "No time to waste!" They stopped falling and saw the liquid already forming in Manda's mouth. "Bring on the oil!!"

And then, GamaBunta sprayed oil over themselves and all around them. Jiraiya watched as Manda started releasing the drops of toxic and let them fall towards them.

"Katon Tate!!"

'I hope I'll still be ok after this..'

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"Hizashi…" Hiashi uttered nervously.

Orochimaru chuckled evilly. "Well.. I don't think you can win now, Hyuga-kun. I do wonder if Hizashi owns that Senshin-Byakugan as well… Even if he doesn't, I'll help him kill you.."

Hiashi's eyes narrowed. "You take Hyuga's too lightly. I will not be held back just because of this. My brother died a long time ago. This is just a walking corpse with the same appearance."

"Keep telling yourself that. Question is, do you believe yourself?" Orochimaru asked and then continued by getting ready to attack. "Oh well, here we go."

Hiashi braced himself as he saw both Hizashi and Orochimaru approach him… "Senshin-Byakugan!" And then he saw it… his brother was real, and yet, he wasn't… 'What kind of Jutsu is this..!?'

He had no time figure Hizashi's body chakra out as they had already begun to prepare some Jutsu's.

"Senshin-Byakugan!!"

"Old Blood Awakening!!"

Hiashi narrowed his eyes to see what the differences were now. 'Hizashi always was a step beyond me, it's no surprise he had mastered the Byakugan before he died. But what happened with Orochimaru? It almost indicates there are three people in one body..' Hiashi thought as he observed Orochimaru's body.

"Afraid, Hyuga-kun?" Orochimaru began.

Hiashi didn't respond and started to think about a plan to get out of the mess.

"Brother. Do not concern yourself over death. It's a relief, actually. No worries, no complications, no conflicts, no struggles, isn't that what one wishes?" Hizashi suddenly preached.

Hiashi stared at his deceased brother for a while before responding. "Silence. I do not wish to hear more. This will be a very complicated battle, but I have become stronger throughout the years. I will not go down so easily.."

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TBC

A/N: Well, I hope you enjoyed yourself reading this chapter. Please review, I want to know what I can improve and so on. Right now, I got home from partying and all I want is to enter the heaven that is my bed, farewell..