Yay! No more writter's block for this fan fic. But I'm am slow on my typing because I gotta lot of crap to deal with. Work, end of the year prodjects, grades, girlfriend, etc. So I'll update when I can. Until then, hope you like the chapter. Sorry again it took so long.

Chapter 25: Ichibi vs. Gobi

Maemi dashed at Yasuo. But Yasuo had expected this and quickly moved to the side. Yasuo held out his arm. The sand from his gourd surrounded his arm, then hardened to form a sharp spike.

"Whoa… Garaa-sama couldn't do that," Maemi muttered. Yasuo grinned like his father used too.

"I'm not my father. I'm much stronger then him," Yasuo said as he charged. Maemi leaped up into the trees, barely missing Yasuo's attack. He started doing hand signs for his jutsu. He knew the weakness to Yasuo's sand.

"That won't work!" Yasuo said. He ran to the tree where Maemi was. Before Maemi could finish the hand signs Yasuo cut the tree down in one swipe. Maemi quickly jumped to another before he feel to the ground. He was careful not to mess up the hand signs but upon landing, screwed it up.

"Damn," he muttered as he started over. Yasuo reared his arm back. Sand from his gourd was surrounding his arm again. As he punched forward the sand shoot forward, hardening ever inch of the way, forming a long enough spike to hit Maemi.

Maemi looked up a second late. Before he had a chance to move completely out of the way, the spike punched through his shoulder. Maemi yelled in pain. Blood dripped down on the leaves below.

"Maemi!" Michiko screamed. Yasuo laughed. The spike shortened bringing Maemi back to the ground. Yasuo removed the spike from Maemi's shoulder and held Maemi high with his other hand.

"Die already," Yasuo said as he punched through Maemi's heart. Michiko screamed as Yasuo's fist made contact with Maemi's flesh. A poof of smoke and Maemi was gone.

"What… a clone. Shit," Yasuo muttered as he looked around for the real Maemi.

"TETSU SOURAN NO JUTSU!" Maemi yelled. He focused the magnetic current around his hands.

"Die!" Yasuo yelled and punched forward, extending the spike once more. Maemi held his hand in front of him. As the spike got close to Maemi's hand it broke apard and the single grains of sand flew away.

"What? What did you do to my sand?" Yasuo yelled.

"Nothing. This jutsu lets me control magnetic currents. Iron is in sand. I just had the magnetic currents around me repel the iron. Your sand won't work on me for the next five minutes. Plenty of time for me to beat you," Maemi explained.

Maemi charged again. His fist balled and reared back. Yasuo put his sand shield in front of him. The sand repelled as Maemi got close and punched Yasuo in the face. Yasuo stumbled back a bit, shocked by the contact of the attack.

"Your sand won't work. I told you that already. Just give up. Most your attacks revolve around the sand, don't they?" Maemi said, smiling.

Yasuo smiled. He then laughed. "Your right Maemi, without my sand I am defenseless," Maemi didn't like the way Yasuo stressed "I," "But Ichibi isn't."

Yasuo started doing hand signs.

"Shit," Maemi muttered. He dashed towards Yasuo but it was too late. Yasuo collapsed, fast asleep.

"Michiko-chan! Jiro-kun! Run n-" Maemi was cut off. Yasuo had grabbed him by the throat and raised him off the ground.

Yasuo wasn't the same though. His eyes had rolled into his head. He had an evil grin on his face, one like Maemi had never seen before.

"Shit. Yasuo's going to kill us all," one of the sand nins said.

"It's every nin for herself," the other sand nin said and ran off.

A few thoughts raced through Maemi's head. His jutsu was set to repel Iron. All he'd have to do is put his hand over his heart and in a few minutes he'd die. But he didn't want him to die. Just let him go. Maemi put his hand on Yasuo's chest. It took a moment for him to get close enough to Yasuo's heart for him to wince in pain. A moment later Maemi fell to the ground, gasping for air.

Once the pain left Yasuo he saw Maemi still gasping for air at his feet. He then reared his leg back and kicked Maemi in the gut. Maemi raised from the ground a foot and fell hard. He coughed and clutched his gut. Yasuo was about to kick Maemi again when he suddenly vanished.

Yasuo looked around stupidly for Maemi, wondering where he had gone too.

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Maemi opened his eyes. He didn't know how long he was out but he seemed to be alive. Slowly he stood up, moaning in pain. He clutched his shoulder as pain filled every nerve in his body.

"Don't move," Michiko said softly.

"How… how long have I been out?" Maemi asked.

"You've been out a few hours. Yasuo left already to catch up with the rest of his team."

"Too bad I got to them first," Jiro said, holding up an Earth scroll.

"Great. Now we just need to get out of here," Maemi said, smiling weakly.

"I guess the Ichibi is stronger then the Gobi," Jiro said.

"No. The Ichibi is just stronger then me. The next time we fight, I'll be at full strength with the Gobi," Maemi said. Maemi stood up, clutching his shoulder. "We need to get to the center now. But we gotta remember this; there's going to be a lot of traps there since the exam's almost over. We might even run into Yasuo again."

Michiko and Jiro nodded. Jiro put Maemi's arm around his shoulder to help Maemi stand and started walking to the center of the forest.

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'YOU LOST IT!" Yasuo yelled. He had returned to normal now, no longer possessed by the Ichibi. He punched a tree in frustration.

"W-we didn't lose it. It was taken from us," the male ninja said.

"And I suppose you fought for it to the end Hoshi?"

"He was too strong for us. Ask Ayame, she'll vouch for me. This guy was too strong for us," Hoshi pleaded.

"SO IT WAS ONLY ONE! Only one ninja took the scroll from us."

"Hoshi's right Yasuo. This guy from steel was strong," Ayame said.

"Steel? It must have been that Jiro guy. C'mon. We need to get to the tower." Yasuo said and started walking.

"But why? We don't have any scrolls. We can't get into the tower without them." Hoshi asked.

"But we can steal them from teams that already have them. Or if were lucky we can take it from teams that have extra scrolls. No let's go, now. Before the steel nins get there."