'Woah, neither of them won,' Kyo said in awe.

Ralfe breathed a sigh of relief at the prospect of not having to fight either of them. Genma appeared behind them.

'Those two were extremely strong. Beyond the level of ordinary genin,' he said. He rotated his toothpick in his mouth.

'I'm going to see Rina in the medical room. You coming?' His students nodded and followed him from the stands.

In the medical room lay Shadow, Kira and Rina, who was just regaining consciousness.

'Uh... I lost...,' she said, crestfallen.

'You faught well,' said Genma. 'You have nothing to regret.'

'Really,' she said hopefully. 'Did I do well?'

'You were awesome,' replied Kyo cheerfully.

'Yeh,' agreed Ralfe, smiled.

'Did you win your fight?' she asked him.

'Yep. And Kyo's is next. We're just taking a time out after their fight.' He nodded towards Shadow and Kira in the next beds. 'They got a double KO,' he explained.

'You should try and recover some chakra before your next fight,' said Genma to Ralfe.'

'Don't need it. I've shown the examiners all my moves. There's not much more I could do to prove I have what it takes to become a chuunin.'

Kenpachi and Rukia followed the medical team down to the infirmary. There they found Kira, but the medics didn't allow them to wake him up. Kenpachi sighed, then turned to Rukia.

'You're the last one left in the tournament. Don't forget that this fight isn't just for your benefit. You represent the village of Mist here. Your victory shows the strength of the Mist as a whole.'

Rukia rolled her eyes at him.

'Don't get all scared just because you lost. If Kira can at least tie with the Sand's strongest, then I can certainly beat their second or third best.'

Kenpachi shrugged and looked away.

'Gah. Why is she always so overconfident?'

He looked back at her to find that she was already leaving to watch from the stands.

'Well, I guess it's because she didn't show any of her moves out in the forest besides the Kirigakure no Jutsu...that should give her a definite edge in her coming fight...'

He nodded, as if agreeing to himself. Then he jumped as Tsavong appeared behind him in a puff of smoke. Kenpachi turned to talk to him.

'How do you think he did?'

Tsavong studied Kira for a moment, then turned to answer Kenpachi.

'He did pretty well, but he didn't listen to the advice I gave him earlier...after that first trick with the Goukazame and Suikodan he went straight for the kill with every strike...oh well. He's definitely improved since he became a genin, but he seems to have hit a plateau...I'll have to talk to him about it after the exam.'

Suddenly Genma disappeared, only to reappear moments later, with a scroll in his hand. He unravelled it and showed it to them.

'The new match-ups. They had to rearrange them after both of the last fighters were beaten.,' he said.

Fight D: Kyo vs Haru

Fight E: Ralfe vs Soni

Fight F: Rukia vs Winner of Fight D

Fight G: Winner of Fight E vs Winner of Fight F

'It basically means that the winner of the next fight will progress to the final four, along with you Ralfe, the Sand nin Soni and that Mist nin Rukia over there.' He nodded towards the Mist cell.

'Hey Tsavong, the new match-ups are here.' He tossed the scroll over.

Tsavong caught the scroll in mid-air, studied it for a moment, then handed it to Kenpachi. Kenpachi took it in at a glance, then looked up to his Jounin leader.

'If Rukia wins her first match, she has a chance to go against that tactician from Konoha...' He muttered. 'That would be an interesting fight...What are her chances at becoming a Chuunin?'

Tsavong pondered that thought for a moment before responding.

'I'd say she's got a better chance than either you or Kira, but it all depends on how she handles her first match...'

Kyo and Ralfe returned to the competitors' balcony while Genma returned to his seat in the stands.

Raidou announced the next match: 'Would Kyo of the Leaf and Haru of the Sand come down to the arena?'

'Good luck buddy,' said Ralfe.

'Don't need it,' said Kyo with a grin, though they both knew that this would a hard fight. He walked down to the centre of the arena and faced his opponent.

'Begin!'

'Art of Pyromancy,' Kyo declared, creating a wreath of flame around Haru. He killed the flames with sand and slowly walked towards Kyo.

'Just what I was afraid of, he can extinguish my fire with his sand.' thought Kyo. 'Looks like I'm going to have to have to use taijutsu for a while.' He drew out three shuriken and threw them at Haru.

A sand version of Haru rose up from the grpund and caught the shuriken. It smirked and hurled them back.

Kyo rolled to the side to avoid them. 'How could he catch my shuriken?'

He drew another shuriken and threw it, and then declared 'Shuriken Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!' The shuriken multiplied into a hail of twenty shuriken. The sand Haru broke apart into a sand shield, blocking them all

Kyo focused his chakra to his feet and jumped high in the air. 'Katon: Housenka no Jutsu!' Kyo shot many small balls of flame towards Haru.

Shadow sent sand flying at the firebals, extinguishing them. 'Shadow will be avenged, I plan to win this for him!' Haru said running forward throwing needles of sand at Kyo as he went. Kyo jumped to the side to avoid them.

'Oh, yeh? Well I plan to win this for Rina, who was beaten by your team mate.'

He landed and drew two kunai, threw one at the clone and ran towards Haru brandishing the other. The kunai struck the clone's face and was embedded there. He pulled it out and threw it at Kyo. It nicked his leg as it flew past.

Kyo continued to run, stabbing across the clone's face with the kunai in his left hand, simultaneously punching to its head with his right fist. It exploded in a cloud of sand.

'Ha, I got it!'

Suddenly Haru was behind him, swinging his fist into Kyo's neck.

A crack rent the air as something snapped.