Note: Some of the content may contain jutsu and characters from the Naruto manga, which is far ahead of the anime. There may be some spoilers for those who only watch the anime.

Battle 1: Team 8 vs. Team 10

Kiba, Hinata, Shino vs. Shikamaru, Ino, Chouji

"It shouldn't be a problem." Kiba boasted. "Team 10 doesn't have nearly enough power to beat us. They're gonna get trashed so badly."

Hinata was happy that her teammate was so confident, but inside, she felt sad for having to fight with her friends. "K-Kiba-kun, I think maybe we shouldn't hurt them too much. Umm, that is, they are our friends."

"At any rate, we need to move out." Shino said. "Knowing Shikamaru, he'll want to find his opponents first so that he could devise a strategy to defeat them." He quickly released his destruction bugs onto the area around his team. "We can make that difficult for him if we use our skills to find them first."

"Yeah." Kiba agreed. "Akamaru! You remember Chouji's scent right?" Akamaru barked in confirmation. "Alright, tell me when he gets anywhere near us. Hinata?"

"I understand…" Hinata mumbled as she performed a hand seal and activated her powerful ability. "Byakugan!"

As the three teammates' senses tuned in, they gasped in surprise. Shino gathered his bugs as he prepared himself for battle. Kiba was already performing the hand seal for his Shikyaku no Jutsu (four legged technique). Hinata had gone into her jyuuken stance.

"Damn." Shino whispered to himself. "They're already here."

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Shikamaru's plan was simple. How effective it would prove to be, not even he knew. Due to the rush, Shikamaru had not given his full time into creating a strategy for his team. He knew that Team 8 undoubtedly overpowered his own team, he just hoped it would be possible to defeat them.

"Chouji, go on ahead as planned." Shikamaru ordered. "Ino and I will try to single out Shino and take him down. Let's go!"

"Okay." Chouji said as he jumped onto the ground and ran far ahead of his teammates.

"How are we going to separate Shino from the rest of the group?" Ino asked.

"Don't worry." Shikamaru replied. "That's also going to be partially Chouji's job."

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"Where are they?" Shino asked, facing Hinata.

"I'm not sure, they're too far for my field of vision to exactly pinpoint them." Hinata answered. She added a silent sorry when she finished speaking.

"I can smell Chouji." Kiba said. "But I don't know exactly where he is either." He concentrated more of his chakra to his nose and enhanced his sniffing abilities even further. "Wait, I got a location on Chouji! Hah, he's alone too. I'm gonna rip his fat ass a new one." Kiba quickly ran off into the direction of Chouji's scent, burning with excitement.

"Kiba, wait!" Hinata shouted as she jumped onto the branches in Kiba's direction. "I'm going to go after him!"

"Wait for me." Shino said as he also prepared to leap onto the tall trees. Suddenly, two kunai darted in his direction. Shino jumped onto one of the lower tree branches, barely dodging the kunai. He quickly noticed a shadow run up the tree.

"Kage Mane no Jutsu!" Shikamaru shouted as he chased Shino with his shadow. Shino quickly jumped onto another branch and released his bugs around him.

"So, you've managed to separate the three of us." Shino noted.

"Your three speeds are too different." Shikamaru explained. "Kiba is faster than Hinata and you by far. Even if you were to chase him, you would not be able to keep up with his speed. And Hinata, who was sure to run after Kiba even when she knew she couldn't catch up, would still try with her full speed. You would not be able to catch her, especially since I'm in your way."

"I see." Shino thought to himself. "Hinata, who was trained under the jyuuken style, excels in speed and accuracy. Negi showed this in his Kaiten and Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou. I would not be able to follow her while carrying my destruction bugs, which slow me down to a degree."

"Are you sure one on one is the best method for defeating us though, Shikamaru?" Shino questioned. "Kiba is the strongest one of all of us in a physical sense, Hinata is from the most powerful clan of Konoha, and I will not be such an easy opponent for you either."

"We'll see about that." Shikamaru said as he extended his shadows once again in Shino's direction. "Well," Shikamaru thought to himself. "Kiba would have caught up with Chouji by now."

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Chouji stopped running as soon as he heard something that resembled to the crashing sound of a stampede. He knew Kiba wouldn't take long to get to where he was standing. He also knew Kiba had the definite advantage with his dreadful speed. But Shikamaru trusted Chouji to fight, and that was all he needed to bring up his confidence and motivation.

"Come on, Chouji. Let's get this over with." Kiba shouted as he sped towards his opponent. Having his Shikyaku no Jutsu already activated, he dashed in front of Chouji creating a large amount of smoke as he stopped.

"You may be stronger than me in a one on one fight, Kiba." Chouji stated. "But if Shikamaru trusts me to beat you, then I can't fail him."

"One on one?" Kiba chuckled as the smoke started to clear. When the smoke finally dissipated, two people stood in front of Chouji, both of them with Kiba's form. "Sorry, Chouji, but this is a two on one."

Before Chouji could react, he was suddenly confronted by two drilling fangs. "Gatsuuga (double piercing fang)!" Kiba shouted as he and Akamaru drilled towards Chouji in a blinding speed.

"Bubun Baika no Jutsu (partial multi-size technique)!" Chouji responded as he held both his hands in front of him. "Hands!" He concentrated his flow of chakra to his hands, inflating them to the size of thick walls, blocking Kiba and Akamaru's fierce attack. Kiba rolled off to Chouji's right side, Akamaru rolled off to the left.

"Again, Akamaru." Kiba ordered as he started spinning again. "Take him from both sides this time!"

Upon hearing this, Chouji walled his sides with his inflated hands. Kiba grinned and tossed a pair of smoke bombs at Chouji, blinding his sight. All Chouji could see and feel were blurred slashes of the two piercing attacks. Kiba and Akamaru pressed on their attack as they continuously barraged their opponent with their Gatsuuga.

"Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji shouted as he cleared the smoke with his now enormous body. He followed up with his signature combination. "Nikudan Sensha (meat bullet tank)!" His giant mass now rolled into a grinding ball of destruction, and drove towards one of spinning attackers.

"Damn it." Kiba thought to himself as the rolling Chouji headed his way. "The Gatsuuga is no match for his Nikudan Sensha. I can't let myself charge into that." He quickly stopped his attack and jumped out of Chouji's destructive path. "Akamaru, stop the Gatsuuga!" Kiba ordered as he continuously dodged Chouji's attack. Acknowledging his partner, Akamaru reverted to his canine form and hopped on top of Kiba's head. Kiba knew that it would be trouble fighting such a large opponent. "Alright, Akamaru. We're going to have to use that, again." Akamaru let out a small whine, but nodded in confirmation.

Both Kiba and Akamaru jumped into the air at each other, joining in one giant cloud of smoke. As the smoke faded out, a large two headed white wolf now appeared, howling and baring their fangs. "Soutourou (double-headed wolf)!"

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Back at the other battle site, Shikamaru was too busy avoiding Shino's destruction bugs to extend his shadow. Using a combination of agility and kunai carrying explosive tags, he was barely able to escape the chakra draining insects. Shino, on the other hand, was merely waiting for an opportune time to place a female bug on Shikamaru, disabling his ability to hide from the destruction bugs.

"Now!" Shino whispered to himself as he closed in on Shikamaru. Taking him by surprise, Shino threw a punch at his opponent, secretly throwing one of his female bugs on him. However, as the punch landed, Shikamaru disappeared into a puff of smoke. "A bunshin?" Shino grunted in surprise. He barely noticed the shadow coming from his back side. "Shit."

Now it was Shikamaru's turn to go on the offensive. Additional shadows that appeared to be those of the tree's came out at Shino. Shadows of branches started to extend in Shino's direction. Shino desperately tried to avoid the shadows, but found it increasingly difficult as he traveled on the treetops.

"Due to the thickness of the trees, shadows were everywhere." Shikamaru thought to himself as he hid in one of the large bushes. "It's going to be difficult for you to track where my shadow is coming from."

"His territory is almost unlimited here." Shino realized as he dodged another shadow. "I must find a place with fewer tree shadows." He quickly scanned his surroundings for bright areas. Upon finding one, he made his way to the area while dodging more of Shikamaru's shadows.

"Damn." Shikamaru cursed as Shino safely made it to the area with fewest tree shadows. "The longer the fight goes on, the more disadvantaged it becomes for me." Unlike the chuunin exam, the time was still prior to noon. As the sun slowly hovered directly above the trees, the shadows of the forest were waned. "I need to end this soon." Another shadow latched out at Shino, but before it could reach its target, it suddenly stopped just a few feet away from Shino's shadow.

"It seems like that's the limit to your Kage Mane no Jutsu." Shino noted as he saw his enemy's shadow try to reach out to him. He slowly traced the shadow to where Shikamaru was hiding. "My destruction bugs will come for you soon."

"Heh." Shikamaru grinned. "Whoever said that was my Kage Mane no Jutsu?" The quivering shadow in front of Shino now formed into the shape of a hand. "Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu (shadow neck bind technique)!"

"What?" Shino gasped as the hand shadow revealed the two kunai it was holding. Before Shino could react, the hand shadow threw both kunai at him, placing both of them deeply imbedded in his chest.

"Got him." Shikamaru whispered to himself as he retracted his shadow. He took a closer look at his fallen target, his eyes widened as the impaled Shino dispersed into a swarm of insects. "Kikaichuu Bunshin (destruction bug clone)?"

"You can no longer hide from my Kikaichuu." Shino thought to himself as he sent his swarm of destruction bugs at Shikamaru's hiding place.

"Shit!" Shikamaru grunted as he felt some of the insects climb up on his feet. "His bugs, they're here already?!"

"It was clever of you to use your Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu in place of your regular technique." Shino complimented. "But I would have thought that you would realize it was my Kikaichuu Bunshin you were chasing all along. Your strategic performance fails to impress me this time – UGGH!" His thoughts were suddenly disrupted as it fell dormant deep within his body ,which he no longer controlled.

The destruction bugs on Shikamaru now fell off of him, due to the lack of commands that they received from their unconscious master. "Heh." Shikamaru chuckled as he walked up to Shino. "I guess the Shintenshin no Jutsu (mind body switch technique) was a success?"

"Eww eww eww." Ino shouted in Shino's body. "This is definitely not a comfortable body to be in."

"Eh, I would have came up with a better plan for you, but it was too troublesome." Shikamaru sighed.

"Shikamaru never said this would be a one on one fight, Shino." Ino boasted "While Shikamaru chased your Kikaichuu Bunshin, he had me set up tripwires everywhere to find where you would run to. While you focused on finding and attacking him, you lost focus on your surroundings so I could successfully use my Shintenshin no Jutsu on you. This is probably a waste of time to explain it to you since you can't hear me anyways."

"Quit bragging already." Shikamaru said. He suddenly grew more alerted as he sensed someone else in the area. "Ino, look out!"

Suddenly, the Hinata dropped from the trees and charged at Ino. "I'm sorry, Shino… and Ino." With a quick thrust of her palm, she landed a heavy chakra filled blow onto Shino's chest, rendering both Shino and Ino unconscious. Returning to her jyuuken stance with her Byakugan fully activated, she turned towards Shikamaru. "I'm truly sorry, Shikamaru, but I will be your next opponent."

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Chouji was in trouble. He had nearly taken Kiba and Akamaru's new form of Gatsuuga, the Garouga (double wolf fang) straight on. The shockwaves had thrown Chouji off to the side, ramming him into a tree.

"Come on, one more time." One of the heads of the Soutourou shouted as it spun itself into the large drill of Garouga again. Following their noses, they headed straight for their opponent at full speed.

Knowing he couldn't dodge, Chouji raised both his arms again. "Bubun Baika no Jutsu, arms!" Chouji shouted as he inflated his arms to block the oncoming attack. Even with his newly created wall, The Garouga still managed to throw Chouji right through a tree.

"Akamaru." Kiba panted. "This technique uses too much chakra, we need to finish it with this one last Garouga." Akamaru barked in acknowledgement. They spun themselves at Chouji again, using the last reserves of their chakra.

"I won't lose to you two!" Chouji exclaimed as he wrapped himself with a wire strung with kunai. "Baika no Jutsu!" As Chouji increased his body size, the kunai wire surrounded him, making him a gigantic spiked ball. "Nikudan Sensha!" Chouji cried as he turned into a rolling spiny boulder.

"This is it!" Kiba shouted as he and Akamaru executed their final Garouga. The two destructive attacks collided into each other, creating a large explosion and flinging dust everywhere. As the dust cleared, both genin appeared standing opposite the other, glaring at each other while panting for breath. As if linked in unison, both fighters fell to the ground simultaneously, both of them knocked unconscious by the massive collision of the two powerful attacks.

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Shikamaru was not doing well against Hinata. It was near impossible to create any distance from her, and every blow that Hinata landed on him drained much of his chakra. Her jyuuken fighting style was far stronger than any taijutsu that he knew, and he did not have enough time to perform any hand seals for his ninjutsu techniques. As the fight continued, Shikamaru felt that there would be no way to win the fight.

However, he was still determined to continue fighting. Even though he was a lazy coward, he would not back from a fight once it has already started. Dropping his guard, Shikamaru allowed Hinata to press her chakra filled palm on the tip of his chin, throwing him a good few meters away from Hinata.

"Good, this will do." Shikamaru said, calculating the distance between Hinata and himself. Before his opponent could reach his position, he quickly ran in the opposite direction, preparing his kunai and explosive tags for his upcoming attack. As Hinata slowly started to catch up with him, he threw two kunai with many explosive tags onto one of the trees in front of him. Once Shikamaru ran past the tree, he detonated his explosive tags, making the large tree fall in Hinata's direction.

Hinata quickly reacted to the falling tree, dodging it by leaping to the side. "You may have dodged the tree, Hinata." Shikamaru said. "But that won't be good enough."

Hinata gasped as she suddenly found that she was unable to move, caught in Shikamaru's Kage Mane no Jutsu. "H-How?"

"The falling tree attack was just a feint." Shikamaru explained. "Look at where my shadow is coming from." Hinata, using her byakugan instantly found the answer. The fallen tree had created an extended shadow in her direction, allowing Shikamaru to use it as a hidden bridge to her own shadow. "It would be improper to hit a girl." Shikamaru continued as he performed another hand seal. "So I'm just going to put you to sleep using your pressure point. Kage Kubi Shibari no Jutsu!"

The shadow formed a hand over the back of Hinata's neck, but found that it was unable to reach the pressure point. "Damn it." Shikamaru whispered. "My chakra is too depleted to go that far."

"I'm sorry." Hinata said in her ever so timid voice. "But during out fight, I hit many of your tenketsu points. You won't be able to use much of your chakra for awhile."

"I see." Shikamaru sighed as he released his shadow hold on Hinata. "I had used up too much chakra during my encounter with Shino anyways. I guess fighting you right afterwards was just too much for me."

Hinata slowly approached her former opponent, who dropped his legs down to the ground and leaned his back on the log. "Shikamaru?"

"I hoped that we would be able to beat you guys." The lazy shinobi sighed as he stared at the clouds. "But I guess it was just too much for us. Your team is too overpowered against ours. I guess I'll go and check up on Chouji later, after I rest up a bit." With that, Shikamaru instantly drifted off to sleep.

Winner: Team 8

Two figures stood above the large lake, facing two others who were almost invisible due to the thick mist that surrounded them. One of them was carrying a large blade on his back, the other, holding a mask on his face. The two that they faced seemed to be almost identical in all except height and age.

"How odd." One of them said to the figure with the large blade. "Momochi Zabuza of the hidden mist, an S-rank criminal in the bingo book. And your fearsome and powerful apprentice, Haku. We will be your opponents today."

The younger of the two pointed at Haku. "I have heard that you hold a bloodline limit. Please allow me to fight you here and now."

"Hmph." Zabuza scoffed underneath his bandaged mouth. "Very well, today you will feel the cold steel of my blade. Haku, go!"

"Yes." Haku whispered in acknowledgement as the two dash towards their foes.

"Gai-sensei!" The smaller figure shouted as he went into his renge (lotus) fighting stance.

"Let's go, Lee!" The older one exclaimed as the two charged into battle.

Next Chapter: Gai vs. Zabuza, Rock Lee vs. Haku

Readers place your opinions in the review section! Remember, the outcome of these battles do not depend on how many votes a certain side has, but rather on the reasoning and explanation of why they should win.