Prove the Pervert Wrong

by KyuubiMan

Jiraiya is disappointed that Naruto is still determined to retreive Sasuke, and refuses to train him unless he changes his mind. Naruto, being as hardheaded as ever, is unwilling to give up, meaning that he has to train himself.

6. Naruto's True Ambition Construction Wo

Prove the Pervert Wrong

Chapter Six: Naruto's True Ambition – Construction Worker

Disclaimer: If you're trying to track me down to sue me for making this fan fiction, you should know that I'm not making money for writing it, nor do I claim to own Naruto. Sorry (not really)…

"Speech"

/Thoughts/

"Jutsu!"

---

Pre-Chapter A/N: Hey all, I'm just gonna take a moment to deal with some stuff that came up in reviews before getting to the story. Nothing bad, really, but I'd rather not have people more confused/disappointed than necessary… I might ramble a bit, but please bare with me.

First issue: more than one person has asked what Naruto meant by saying that Anko's threat didn't carry much weight with him. That was a general reference to the hellish existence that is life as a jinchuuriki, which is why Chouji and Ino didn't understand. I would expect that Anko would know how badly he was treated, so she would know that nothing she could do could ever compete with the hell he's already passed through.

Second issue: my title for chapter five was questioned. Considering the time I put into coming up with chapter titles (the whole fifteen to twenty seconds), I feel the need to defend them. If you'll kindly take a moment to look at the far-left frame of the middle row on page eight of chapter ninety-four of the manga, you'll notice that Anko's bellybutton is clearly visible through the mesh. That implies, to me at least, that it's see-through. While it would be unethical for Kishimoto to make a woman's nipples clearly visible in a manga easily accessed by children (I doubt shounen-jump would even let him), the fact of the matter is that she qualifies as "nearly-naked" in my book.

Third issue: generally speaking, people seem to be okay with the nicknames. The problem is that some of you don't seem to understand the cat reference with Kankurou… I don't really know what the things on his hood are supposed to be, but they look like cat ears to me. During their first conversation in the manga, Naruto and Kankurou found each other to be very annoying, meaning that Kankurou has to get a nickname. He's a puppeteer, he has cat ears… Puppeteer-cat-guy!

Fourth issue: how far is this story going to go? I already answered this question in a reply to a review, but I've decided that I should probably tell all of you, just to be fair. This story will end when the Sasuke conflict ends. Also, before you ask, I'm not going to say whether it ends well or not, as that would kill any remaining suspense. There is a strong possibility that I will write a sequel story to deal with some major issues in Naruto's life that will arise later on in this story, but I'll only write the sequel if people still like this story when it ends…

Final issue: while I do appreciate any help you guys try to give me, I just want you to know that it's unlikely (not impossible, but unlikely) that technique suggestions will make it into the story. The timeline's already pretty tight, and I already have a pretty good idea of what techniques I want him to learn. If anyone has a really good idea that not only fits in with his natural style, but also fits in with the other techniques that he's going to learn or seems to be extremely useful in a situation that he's going to encounter, I'll probably be very thankful for the help, but otherwise it probably won't happen… Sorry, but the quality of the story would be compromised if I took every suggestion I ever got.

All of that said, on with the story!

---

"Lee, can you take the one on the left?"

"Yoshi!"

"Tenten you take the one on the right. I'll go for the middle one."

"Alright Neji." Tenten drew two kunai and assumed a defensive stance, while Lee and Neji prepared to charge their (rather large) opponents.

"It's no use kid, no one can beat Yawarakai's kekkai genkai. Physical attacks won't have any effect." Neji smirked, causing the cloud-nin to turn red.

/Obviously, you've never fought a Hyuuga./ He quickly ran up to the one who was apparently named Yawarakai and planted a jyuuken blast straight to the kid's heart, causing him severe pain before rendering him unconscious. Upon seeing their "invincible" comrade fall, the others dropped their guards, leaving Lee and Tenten mile-wide openings. The enemy dealt with, Neji took the scroll out of Yawarakai's shirt pocket and tossed it to Lee. "Let's get going, I don't want to be the last group to get to the tower."

"Yoshi!" Tenten let out a long, heavy sigh at Lee's enthusiasm, but was glad that they were finished with the test so soon. It only took them fifteen minutes to get to the tower, summon the chuunin with their scrolls, and enter the inner chambers. They were surprised to see that the damage from Lee and Gaara's fight had already been repaired, and the giant statue had even been redone. Instead of the sheep seal, the giant hands were forming the dog seal, which looked far less impressive in their opinion.

Continuing on to where they knew the lodgings were, they were surprised to see eleven people already asleep, as well as one very awake Gaara. "Rock Lee… It's a… pleasure to see you again." None of them could really think of a creepier way for him to have said that, but Lee didn't let it get to him.

"Call me Lee!"

"Lee…" Gaara maintained his far-off manner of speaking, as though he was either deep in thought or in desperate need of something to eat. "You are a… friend of Naruto's?"

"Yes, Naruto-kun is a friend of mine. Why?"

"…Never mind." Even Lee was beginning to be affected by the creepy, blank stare that Gaara always seemed to have. It was almost as though he had no emotions at all. "I'm going to get something to eat." He left the room at a pace far slower than they would have expected, and they used the privacy to pick out beds and go to sleep.

---

"Alright, everybody up! Anyone that isn't ready in ten minutes misses breakfast!" With a series of loud yawns, fifteen people slowly sat up in their beds. Naruto, as the first person to entirely regain consciousness, was the one who asked the question on six of their minds.

"There's breakfast?"

"Oh that's right, some of you showed up last minute last time…" Anko's smile couldn't have been more cheery, leaving Naruto to wonder if she planned on poisoning everyone. "Well, I told you that you had to find your own food in the forest, but we don't want those of you who get here quickly to starve. I went to the trouble of making the breakfast myself this time, since you all got here so damned fast, so hurry up and get ready!"

"You made it? What're we having?"

"Dango!"

"For breakfast?"

"Yup! Dango and red bean broth! Everybody's favorite! Now hurry up, unless you want me to be drinking something red other than bean broth!" She slammed the door, ensuring that none of them could go back to sleep. Team Gai, who had arrived only fifteen minutes earlier, groaned slightly, but got ready like everyone else.

As they entered the kitchen, they finally registered that Anko was wearing an apron. It took a moment for them to get over the shock, but they all recovered before she could notice, which was good considering that she would have beaten them into bloody pulps if she had noticed. Gaara was sitting at the table, calmly eating the dango with the same bored look on his face, and Anko was eating hers with a wide smile.

"Good, you're finally here. Hurry up and sit down before I eat it all!" They warily sat down and took some dango, glanced at Gaara to make sure he hadn't died from some kind of food poisoning, and started eating, all in complete synchronization. After tasting her dango, they found it hard to believe that Gaara could keep a straight face while eating it.

"This is delicious! Anko-sensei, can you teach me to make this?"

"Sorry, uh…" She thought back to the last exam, "Ino, was it? This is my secret recipe. I'm not even gonna teach it to my kids!"

"Oh…"

A few minutes later Anko, Naruto, and Chouji were practically at war over the remaining dango, causing everyone else no small amount of discomfort. Watching three people eating like that so early in the morning was almost enough to make Ino lose her breakfast, to the point where she actually had to turn away from the table for a few moments. Anko, of course, won the little war, and was wearing the appropriate victory smirk.

"Now, on to business."

"Business?"

"Oh, nothing terribly important. I was just wondering how you all got here so quickly. Also, Naruto, thanks for pulling through for me. My reputation would have been shot…"

"No problem, Anko-chan! I didn't even really do anything…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"Gaara gave us an extra earth scroll he had, so we didn't even have to fight anyone."

"He…" She turned to Gaara, "you had extra scrolls in under three hours?"

"Only three: two earths and one heaven. We collected the scroll we needed in the first half hour." She considered questioning his use of the word "only," but decided to let it go.

"Thanks for the breakfast Anko-chan, but I think I'll go do some training now."

"Wait a minute Naruto; we're not done here just yet." Seeing quite a few cocked eyebrows, her smirk grew considerably. "We need to talk about the… 'house rules.'"

"Eh? What kind of rules?"

"I've been warned about the kind of training you've been doing recently by Hokage-sama, and I'd rather you didn't mess up my newly refurbished tower." Temari, Kankurou, Shimaru, and Kaen all looked up at Naruto, wondering what kind of training she was talking about. "I don't want you using any S-rank ninjutsu during your training, and if you use that scream thing she was telling me about I'll kill you myself. We just finished fixing the floors last week, and--"

"S-rank!" Of those who didn't know about Naruto's training, Temari was the only one who understood the jutsu ranking system. "He knows an S-rank ninjutsu?"

"Actually, he's apparently invented three in the last few months… Anyway Naruto, don't go around destroying my tower, 'kay?" Seeing her licking her lips put him off slightly, but he decided to ask anyway.

"Uh, about that, Anko-chan… You're a jounin, right?"

"Yeah, a special jounin. Why?" She took a long slurp of her red bean broth. "You don't want to spar or something stupid like that do you?"

"Heh… no, it's just that I was wondering if you could… help me with a new technique I'm working on?"

"You're working on another technique?" His hand went to the back of his head, more out of habit than anything else.

"Well, I used this one on accident once, and I was hoping to figure out how to do it whenever I want to…"

"On accident…?" /How do you use a technique on accident?/ "Sorry, but I'm really not supposed to help you during the exam. Maybe if I find you interesting enough I'll help you afterward, but you're on your own for now."

"Oh…" His voice was dripping with disappointment, so much so that she began to think he wanted to be pitied, just so she would break the rules for him.

"Somehow, I think that three S-rank jutsu will be enough for the preliminaries…" He headed out towards the battle arena wondering how much he could get away with, leaving Kaen to ask the question that was bugging him the most.

"Anko-sensei, what does S-rank mean? I've been told that my techniques are B-rank, but no one's ever explained it to me."

"Your techniques are B-rank? That's interesting… you must be pretty strong. Well, B-rank is indicative of jounin-level techniques, and S-rank is two levels above that."

"Two levels? But there's only one level above jounin… After kage, there's nowhere to go."

"You think so, huh?" She looked around at the rest of the genin, wondering what they thought. It was obvious that most of Naruto's friends knew exactly what an S-rank technique was, probably because of Sakura. "Well that's true, in a way…" Kaen and Shimaru were left completely confused by that response, leaving a silence for Temari to take advantage of.

"But Anko-san, how is it possible for him to have invented three S-rank techniques?"

"Yeah… we aren't really sure about that, to be honest. Hokage-sama says that they were all improvements on A-rank jutsu that Yondaime Hokage created, but other than that I don't know anything. His friends do, though." Kaen looked beyond displeased.

"Wait… Anko-san, you're saying that he knows A-rank jutsu too?" /I'm still stronger… His techniques are probably useless in real combat./

"A few. Actually, I heard a rumor that the only reason he was able to become a genin was that he learned a B-rank kinjutsu in one night, and then used it to defeat a chuunin who taught at the academy."

"You believe stories like that? This is a waste of my time, I'm leaving." He got up and left, but he wasn't missed by anyone remaining at the table. Kankurou and Temari had a private discussion about Naruto's techniques, wondering what they could be, Gaara sat quietly staring straight ahead, and Shimaru decided to follow Anko's subtle advice.

"So Sakura, what kind of techniques did he come up with?"

"Huh? Oh right, Naruto… I don't know if he'd want me to tell you all of the specifics, really. You'll probably see at least one of them in the prelims though."

"Oh come on, you can tell me about at least one of them can't you? Pleeeease?"

"What do you guys think? Would he be mad?" Kiba snorted loudly and looked at her like she had to be kidding.

"That idiot? He'd just be happy that he managed to seem impressive to someone." They had to admit that that did sound like Naruto. "You should warn him about that 'oodama' thing, at the very least."

"Naruto wouldn't use something like that in the prelims! That would kill someone even if he missed by ten feet!" That comment caused Gaara, Temari, and Kankurou to look up, but she didn't notice. "He'll probably just use that scream attack, or the one he figured out last week."

"What about that 'dangan' thing? If he wants to end it quick, he'll probably just aim one right at the person's leg or something."

"I don't think he'd go as far as disintegrating someone's leg just to end a match quickly."

"'Disintegrate?'" Shimaru was suddenly very pale, but it was Anko who had voiced the question. "What the hell do you mean by that?"

"I pretty much mean 'turn into dust…'"

"Wait, did you say it was called 'dangan?' Meaning that it's a ranged attack?"

"Yeah… I guess he wouldn't mind if we told you about just this one technique. He basically figured out how to launch a rasengan from his hand. It goes really fast, too. I couldn't even see it!"

"What's a rasengan?"

"Oh, sorry Temari, I forgot you guys didn't know. It's an A-rank ninjutsu that he learned from Jiraiya. Basically, it's just a ball of swirling air that rips things apart."

"You're wrong, Sakura." Everyone turned to Anko curiously. "It only rips things apart if they're extremely rigid, like a tree trunk. Something that can move around more freely, like human innards, will allow for damage far more explosive due to the rotation."

"Oh…"

"From what I've heard, only one person has ever survived a direct hit from a full-power rasengan, and he was some kind of expert medic-nin that healed himself while he was being hit." Shimaru was looking paler by the second, Gaara looked more interested than he had been in months (which they didn't think was a good thing), and everyone else looked extremely frightened by the idea of fighting someone with a technique like that. "If he really has a projectile version that moves so quickly that you can't see it…" A few moments of silence passed as everyone thought about what she was implying.

"Anko-sensei?"

"What?"

"Don't you have, I don't know, official exam work or something to do?" Anko's smile made a triumphant return.

"Naw, I set up the exam so that I wouldn't really have any work to do while it was going on. I probably should go make sure that Naruto isn't destroying my tower, though…"

"One last question."

"Shoot."

"Since when are you so nice?" Although Sakura had been expecting Anko to get mad, the woman's smile grew even bigger.

"Let's just keep that our little secret, okay?" She gave them all a wink and left the room, none of them sure whether she had been referring to her being nice or the answer that she hadn't given.

---

As she neared the arena, Anko felt an incredibly immense chakra being concentrated before she heard Naruto scream "Ninpou: Ryuu no Hikou!" What really caught her attention was the sound of concrete cracking, something she was not prepared to tolerate. She dashed into the room to find that there were several foot-shaped impressions in the walls and ceiling, and Naruto looked like he was about to pass out.

"Chikushou! Naruto, didn't I just tell you not to destroy this room?" Naruto, laying face-down on the floor, let out a little laugh.

"I didn't destroy it, I just damaged it a little…" He rolled onto his back so that he could breath better. "Besides, it's not like I meant to do it."

"You're gonna be the one to fix this up, and it had better be ready by the time we have the prelims in here!"

"What! Why? It's just gonna get torn up in the fights anyway!"

"Because I told you so, that's why!" /Who the hell does he think he is, anyway? Does he realize how much it cost the village to repair this place?/ "You'd better get off your ass and fix it soon, because I'm not gonna be patient about this!"

"Okay, okay, I'll fix your stupid walls! It's just…"

"What?"

"I'm a little too tired to get up at the moment…"

"After one technique? You? I'm not gonna believe that! Get up!" He struggled for a moment before he managed to sit up straight, but she noticed that he was having trouble moving his legs. "I don't need to get a medic in here do I?"

"No, but it'd be nice if you'd help me get up…" His heavy breathing told her that he was being serious, which she found disturbing.

"So you're actually saying that you, Naruto the freaking chakra fountain, used all of your chakra on a single technique?"

"Looks that way… Wait… 'Chakra fountain?' Who the hell calls me 'chakra fountain?'" She walked over and grabbed his hand, ready to pull.

"No one." /Yet…/ She pulled him up until his weights were off the ground, but the sudden weight increase at that point caused her to drop him. "Kuso! How much do you weigh?"

"Right now? I think he said… about 2,000 pounds."

"Oh yeah, you're training with Gai…" She pulled harder and managed to get him to his feet, but didn't let go of his hand. "Are you sure you're going to be okay like this?"

"I'll be fine!"

"Says the boy who couldn't even stand up."

"Shut up! I'll be fine, I just need to wait for my chakra to come back."

"'Come back?' Chakra doesn't just 'come back,' idiot."

"Mine does!" She decided that he must not have known about the concept of getting a second wind, but she didn't really feel like explaining it to him. "Anyway, I guess I'll fix your precious walls now. Where's the cement?"

"What makes you think I have cement? I didn't plan on you breaking everything so soon, so why would I have repair stuff lying around?"

"How am I supposed to fix it without cement!"

"That's your problem, isn't it?" Her evil smile made its return, giving him the proper motivation to become silent.

---

Naruto managed to fix the walls in time, but no one was able to figure out how. Deciding that she didn't really care, Anko had everyone gather in front of the statue to wait for Tsunade to come and kick off the preliminary matches. Said Hokage arrived slightly early, and she wasn't really eager to sit around doing nothing.

"Alright everyone, since there are only five minutes left we can probably start this now. Genma, start explaining."

"Hai, Hokage-sama." He turned to the genin, "my name is Shiranui Genma, and I'll be the examiner for your third exam. In case you haven't figured it out yet, which seems almost impossible given that almost all of you were here last time, there are enough of you that we're gonna have to have preliminaries. If you're gonna give up, do it now. Otherwise, go ahead and get off the stage and we'll show--" Suddenly the doors burst open, revealing three rock-nins. Kiba, realizing that Shino had been right again, glared at his bug-using friend, but was ignored when the rock-nins started talking.

"Boufuu, quit walking so damn slow! We only have like three minutes left!"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm comin'! Three minutes is better than zero, right?"

"Uh-oh, looks like they already started… Ankoku's gonna kill you if he can't pass the exam because of this."

"Because of what?" The third rock-nin entered the room, "oh, did they start early? I must admit Boufuu, Oka is probably right about it being your fault that we took so long. If you hadn't insisted on taking out all of the competition left in the forest, we could have been here four days ago…"

"But it was fun, wasn't it Ankoku? Besides, we aren't late, so I'm sure they'll let us participate." He turned to the gathered jounin and Tsunade, "ain't that right?"

"You are on time, technically, so I'll explain everything for you right now. I'm the third examiner, Shiranui Genma, and we're going to have a little preliminary match before the third exam."

"Preliminary?" Ankoku's similarities to Gaara were so striking that several of the genin were left unnerved. Not only did they use almost exactly the same tone when speaking, but they looked like twins. If it hadn't been for their radically different personalities, Ankoku would have struck fear into many hearts in that room. "Whatever for?"

"Too many people made it to the third stage of the exam, and we won't have time for that many matches during the main event. If you'll kindly take your places on the upper level, we'll display the names of the combatants."

"Oh, alright then. Oka, Boufuu, let's go." They slowly took their places at the very end of the railing, and Anko had the people in the control room reveal the display board. In a somewhat untraditional move, Tsunade and the examiners took their places along side the gennin on the upper level. She had decided that, if she was going to have to be at the exams, she was at least going to have a good view of the fighting.

The display scrolled through names at random until it landed on the first two participants. "Sabaku no Gaara, Yamatake Oka, please make your way to the arena floor." Both were in place in under a second. "Before we begin your match, there's one rule: you can do whatever you want, but the match won't end until one of you yields or is unfit to fight. Once that call is made, it's irreversible, and any attempt to continue the fight will result in immediate disqualification. Begin!"

Gaara just stood there, completely bored, arms crossed and staring straight ahead. Oka, on the other hand, looked like he couldn't wait to begin. He also looked about six feet tall, and extremely muscular, with dark brown hair and eyes, wearing a disturbingly tight brown gi.

"So, you're name's Gaara is it? You know, you act kind of like Ankoku… If I didn't know that you can't possibly be as good as him, I'd probably be a little intimidated." Gaara blinked slowly, but not as a reaction, and otherwise he was completely still. "Well, if you're not going to attack, I will!" Oka flipped through several seals before landing on rat and shouting "Itami no Jutsu! (Pain Technique!)" Gaara then did something that no one except the rock-nins expected: he fell to one knee and cried out in pain. Even most of the jounin went wide-eyed, wondering what the hell was happening. The only Konoha jounin who had ever seen the attack before was Kurenai, who was surprised that such a young child could have actually learned it. Gaara's scream didn't last long, but he did remain on one knee with a pained look, sand slowly pouring out of his gourd.

"What kind of technique is that?" Boufuu turned to Naruto, an excited look on his face.

"That's one of Oka's favorite genjutsu. Not the strongest, really, but by far the most fun for him. It tricks the brain into thinkin' that the entire body's in extremely intense pain, as though all the nerves are bein' attacked at once. Best of all, there's really no defense against it. He usually doesn't use it right off the bat, but I guess that guy's similarity to Ankoku struck a chord…"

"Pain…?" The thought of an unstoppable wave of pain put many of the genin ill at ease, and even a few of the jounin looked unhappy. Kurenai, however, knew that the technique had one major weakness, even if Gaara was hardly the type to be able to exploit it. Not only that, she also knew that the pain caused by the technique wasn't nearly as severe as Boufuu was making it sound.

"Yeah. I've only ever been hit with it once, and I can tell you it's not an experience I would willin'ly repeat. It's indescribably terrible. That poor kid's probably gonna pass out if Oka doesn't stop soon. In fact… Oi, Oka! It's no fun to watch if you're gonna beat him that quick! He can't even do anythin'!" Oka looked up at him angrily.

"It's not my fault that he doesn't have any resistance! Someone this weak shouldn't even be taking the exam! Don't worry, you'll be down here soon enough--" Oka's head suddenly came into contact with a large hand made of sand, which knocked him into the wall and caused him to lose control of his genjutsu. Gaara stood back up, shook his head, and resumed his bored stance.

"Is that it?"

"Oh, so you've got a good move? I was beginning to worry that you weren't gonna be any fun at all… Well, try this then!" His hands flew through another set of seals, "Chi Ishi! (Thousand stones!)" Gaara saw a thousand fist-sized stones suddenly jump up and cling to his body, but they weren't really there. Although he felt significantly heavier, he really couldn't imagine an attack type that would have less of an effect on him. Oka put on a toothy grin, which looked odd with all of his missing teeth. "Let's see you dodge this while combating the weight of 1,000 stones!" He charged Gaara, who looked even more bored than usual, and tried to plant a roundhouse kick in Gaara's face.

Gaara's sand easily caught Oka's foot and proceeded to slam him into the ground before wrapping itself around him and holding him in the air. The Konoha genin that remembered the attack became anxious, but Temari and Kankurou knew better. Gaara had, after all, not killed a single person unnecessarily since his fight with Naruto. His sand quickly rearranged itself to cover only the elbows, knees, and hands, and Gaara held out his hand. As he clenched it shut, he said the name of his technique: "Sabaku Sousou!" The sand crushed every part of Oka that it was in contact with, dropping him helplessly on the ground. Watching from above, Ankoku found himself suddenly interested in his seeming double.

"Oh my, would you look at that Boufuu? He might just be a fun opponent after all."

"Heh, maybe for me, but he's got nothin' on you Ankoku. Still, that is an interestin' technique… I'm surprised Oka would go down so quickly, considerin' his taijutsu skills. He shouldn' have been so careless."

"Yes, I suppose you're right…" /I hope I get to fight him, though…/

"Shousha: Sabaku no Gaara. Medics, get out here and help this guy so we can begin the next match." Gaara was back next to Temari and Kankurou in a swirl of sand, and the display board was again flashing through names, leaving everyone a chance to talk about the match. The medic-nins carried Oka out on a large stretcher, trying to stem the blood loss as they went. Of course, no one that knew about Gaara was even remotely surprised with his victory, but everyone else was impressed. When the board stopped, both of the combatants looked uncomfortable with the match-up, but for very different reasons. "Hyuuga Hinata, Kankurou, please make your way down here for the next match."

"You can take him, Hinata-chan!" She looked over at Naruto, surprised at the random vote of confidence, and was soon very red in the face. "Shino beat him, how hard can he be?" If Shino hadn't been so emotionless, he probably would have had a vein going in his temple, but that didn't happen. Hinata did have to suppress a laugh though, which Naruto took as a good sign.

Realistically, Kankurou thought he was probably going to lose. Even two puppets aren't very useful against someone who can see and destroy chakra strings, and his close-combat skills were severely lacking. Assuming that she wasn't completely without talent, he couldn't think of a way to win.

Realistically, Hinata thought she was probably going to lose. Even if Naruto had confidence in her, she remembered Kankurou's puppetry, and she didn't think that she stood a chance against it. Assuming that his technique hadn't been completely lost in the six month span since the previous exam, she couldn't think of a way to win.

"Begin!" Hinata instantly jumped back and activated her byakugan, and Kankurou brought out his first puppet. As it turned out, that was his biggest mistake, as it allowed Hinata to come to a very important realization.

/He controls the puppet with strings made of chakra? 'Things made from chakra will be destroyed by putting chakra into them…' I can win this!/

"Oi, Hinata-chan! Hurry and beat him up, would ya?" Her confidence restored, Hinata gathered her strength and ran at Karasu. Dodging the knives shooting out of his mouth, which she had seen before his mouth had opened, she quickly cut the support strings to his head and shoulders before Kankurou was able to pull him away and reattach them.

Kankurou then unleashed both of his puppets on her, Kuroari going high and Karasu going low (which looked odd considering that Kuroari was far larger than Karasu). She decided not to chance being captured by Kuroari, instead charging straight for Karasu. It took her a moment to realize that she could easily tell which weapons he was planning to use based on the movements of his chakra strings, but she was still able to use that knowledge to dodge the knives in Karasu's wrists. Still, even though she was able to predict the attacks and disable them, fighting two opponents at once was no mean feat. As she moved to cut the strings attached to Karasu, Kuroari was suddenly thrust down at her, causing her to abandon her attack and roll out of the way. Her arm was scraped, but not by anything poisonous, and she got back up immediately.

The puppets began another dual assault, this time side by side, which was Kankurou's second big mistake. Hinata quickly realized that, if they're side by side, the puppets can't come to each other's aid as quickly. Seeing that Kankurou was expecting her to go after Karasu again, which was obvious considering the way he was preparing the trap on Karasu's side, she decided to try her luck with Kuroari. Actually, as she thought about it, Kuroari was the obvious choice anyway, given that he was bulkier and had fewer weapons.

Easily slipping behind Kuroari, Hinata quickly cut three of his five support strings before Karasu managed to come to his aid. She jumped over Karasu's head and cut the remaining strings on Kuroari, grabbed the disabled puppet, and jumped far enough away that Kankurou wouldn't be able to reattach any of his strings without her noticing.

Kankurou's third mistake was a lack of patience. If he had waited for Hinata to come to him, she would have brought Kuroari with her, but instead she used the giant puppet as a shield when Karasu charged her. The knives embedded themselves into Kuroari, connecting the two puppets, and the unexpected weight increase on his right hand caused Kankurou to fumble with Karasu, leaving Hinata an enormous opening to cut his remaining chakra strings. She quickly tossed both puppets outside of Kankurou's range before charging him. Given Kankurou's lack of ability in close combat, it wasn't very surprising when he didn't even manage to dodge one attack. Her jyuuken blast hit him square in the chest, causing his heart to stop for a moment, and he passed out from the pain. Genma walked over to the unconscious Kankurou, checked him out, and knew it was over.

"Shousha: Hyuuga Hinata."

"Way to go, Hinata-chan!" She knew in her mind that other people were cheering as well, but she couldn't hear anyone except Naruto. "I told you you could do it!" Unfortunately, getting all of that attention from Naruto caused her to blush so severely that the excessive blood in her head, combined with her fatigue and increased heart rate, caused her to faint. She was still to be allowed to participate in the final matches, but Kurenai had to take her to one of the beds to rest for a while.

"Come on, I'm next! I'm next! I just know I'm next!" Naruto was jumping up and down, repeating the same words over and over again while the display was choosing the names, but he nearly face-faulted when he saw the names it ended on. "I'm… not next…"

"Aburame Shino, Touketsu Kaen, please make your way down to the arena floor."

"Oh, so I get to fight one of the 'rookie nine?' It's not Naruto, but it's a start…" Kaen, dressed in an absurd looking white outfit with blue and red flames on it (especially absurd with his long, light blue hair), jumped down to the stage. Shino, dressed in his usual outfit, walked slowly down the stairs without a word. "Don't bore me, Shino…"

"Begin!"

Anko, curious at Kaen's mention of B-rank techniques, watched with rapt attention as he charged Shino and connected with a punch to the face. Shino didn't bother to try to dodge the punch, choosing instead to let his bugs flutter inconspicuously onto Kaen's fist. He quickly rose, completely unfazed by Kaen's attack.

"Oh, so you work with bugs, huh?" Shino was surprised that the kid had noticed the bugs going onto his hand, but didn't react visibly. "Should've recognized the name… Your clan's pretty famous, isn't it? My clan is famous too, but only because they're so despicably weak…" Behind Sakura and Shimaru, Aoshi bowed his head and grimaced. "Well, I'm afraid that these bugs won't work on me." He formed the bird seal, "Bottou! (Immersion!)" His arms and torso were suddenly covered in water. His newly formed prison of water drowned the bugs on him before disappearing into nothing, leaving his clothes as dry as before he had used the technique.

"You've killed my bugs…"

"That's what you get for sending them at me so carelessly… 'Play with fire' and whatnot. How about this time you take me more seriously? I don't know how I'm supposed to show my strength when you're still taking me lightly, and I find that very irritating." Shino nodded, but otherwise didn't move. "Oh, do you want me to come at you? That'll work, I guess, but how about I do it a little differently this time?" Quickly forming the ox, monkey, and tiger seals, he shouted "Kaen! (Blaze!)" and dashed at Shino.

Anko, from her position next to Tsunade, couldn't recognize the techniques Kaen was using at all. First he had encased parts of his body in water, then he not only created what looked like fiery swords around his arms, he also used the fire to propel himself forward. As far as she was aware, techniques like those weren't taught in Konoha…

Shino managed to jump out of the way when the fiery punch came his way, but the wave of heat that came off of it singed his jacket. Kaen didn't stop at one attack though, instead using the rotation from his first punch to throw a backhand at Shino with his other hand, extending the flames just enough to catch Shino's jacket on fire. Rather than discard the burning jacket, Shino jumped back and rolled along the ground to put out the small fire, then stood up calmly.

"You're still underestimating me, Shino… I can't bring out the good techniques until you get serious, so let's hurry it up, eh?"

In the upper level, Sakura couldn't believe what she was seeing. During their team training, Kaen had never shown even one of these techniques. As she thought about it, she realized that he hadn't really used ninjutsu at all.

"Aoshi-sensei, what's with these techniques? I've never even heard of them before…"

"Well, you wouldn't have, considering that they haven't been in use for nearly a century. These are our family's old techniques, but they haven't been used because no one in our family has had the talent for them. As a jounin I'm expected to be able to use techniques like these, but I wasn't able to learn them for some reason…" His grimace became more severe, but then he took a sigh and adopted a more neutral expression. "Kaen, on the other hand, managed to figure out the techniques on his own, just by reading the old family scrolls that describe them. He's gotten quite a few of them down."

"A century…?"

"Yeah. Back when the techniques were still in use, our family was known for being able to master every type of elemental attack, and Konoha was very happy to have us join the village. Unfortunately, our family has been in something of a slump since then, so not many of us have even made chuunin. I made jounin, obviously, but only by specializing in taijutsu. He surprised us all by learning the techniques." He smiled warmly, but she could tell that it wasn't entirely genuine. "I couldn't be more proud of that accomplishment."

/If I send more bugs at him, he'll kill them with water or fire. Attacking head on isn't an option either, as I'll catch on fire. I don't know how much chakra he has, so tiring him out is an unreliable option, and I don't know of any ninjutsu that would be useful in this situation. He's faster than I am, and that technique was able to increase his speed, so taijutsu is essentially useless as well. Even using my bugs as a sacrifice to distract him, I can only guarantee one good hit, which doesn't do me much good if I don't know how well he'll take it. I could create a bunshin with my bugs, but there's no way to hide it from him in this environment. Considering that I have almost no knowledge of genjutsu, I appear to be out of options…/

"Are you sure you don't want to get serious? I'm going to get serious soon whether you're ready or not, so it's in your best interest to--"

"I give up." Many mouths went slack-jawed, but Hinata and Kiba knew that if Shino was giving up, there was no logical way for him to have won.

"You… give up? That's no good! I didn't get to use almost any techniques! You could have at least waited until I used one of my better techniques!"

"Shousha: Touketsu Kaen. Please clear the stage for the next match."

"Killjoys…" Kaen slowly made his way back to his father, who couldn't have looked prouder of his son, and the display board once again started choosing names. Anko had to admit that she was impressed with his techniques, given that he was a genin, but she really didn't think they were deserving of his cocky attitude. She could easily think of several counters for them, even if they would be difficult for someone like Shino to pull off. Deciding that he probably had better techniques in reserve, she turned her attention to the display board.

"Naruto-kun, I'm sorry, but they will not choose you next. I, Rock Lee, shall be the next to enter the ring!"

"What! Why should you get to go next?"

"Because I called it first."

"Kuso…" Everyone except the rock-nins sweat-dropped at the thought that Naruto and Lee actually considered it to be some kind of competition.

"So Ankoku, what did you think of that boy's techniques? From the sound of things, we barely saw the tip of the iceberg. No pun intended…"

"I'm unsure Boufuu. He certainly seems stronger than most of the others here, but he also seemed unpolished."

"Heh, you're one to talk. Granted, your skills are deadly, but your taijutsu's pathetic."

"True, but I don't rely on taijutsu the way he does. If he really wants to become a chuunin, he's going to need to work on that. At least, he will if he wants to become a chuunin while I'm taking the exam."

"Anyone caught your interest yet?"

"Just the boy with the sand… I was interested in that little blond boy until he started shouting like an idiot, but…"

"Yeah, I understand what you mean. Strong people don't strive so hard to commend the weak, eh? Well, if anyone here is strong we'll find out soon enough." The board stopped right as he finished his sentence, almost as though he had triggered it.

"Yatta! Time to show off my skills!"

"What! That's my line! As long as I'm facing you, there's no way I can lose!"

"Dream on Dog-boy! My skills are gonna blow you away!"

"Inuzuka Kiba, Yamanaka Ino, shut the hell up and get down here." He smirked at their reaction to his order, causing the senbon in his mouth to snap upward. They both jumped down and stood casually, trying to psyche each other out, but it didn't work very well for either of them. "Begin!"

"Akamaru, you stay out of this. Considering that it's just her, it wouldn't be right for us to go all out."

"What's that supposed to mean, Dog-boy? I can take you both on with just one technique!"

"Let's just see you try it Ino! Tsuuga!" Kiba began rotating before shooting at Ino. To his great surprise, however, she simply held out her hands, making a rectangle with her thumbs and forefingers.

"Shinranshin no Jutsu! (Body Traitor Technique!)" Kiba suddenly stopped mid-spin and landed on the ground, turned around, and charged Akamaru. After easily taking down his very confused dog, he proceeded to remove his hitai-ate and smash his head against the wall repeatedly until he gave himself a concussion and fell to the ground unconscious. "Ha, I knew that new technique daddy taught me would kick ass!" She had, of course, spent several days building enough annoyance in her father that he was willing to teach her the technique just to shut her up. With Naruto getting so much stronger, and the fact that using shintenshin no jutsu on him was supposed to be dangerous, it had seemed logical to have a backup. Had she told her father that reason in the first place, he would have been much quicker to teach it to her.

"Shousha: Yamanaka Ino." She jumped up and down for a few moments, shouting in triumph, before calming down enough to return to the others.

"What about her Ankoku? That technique was definitely effective…"

"Yes, but it wouldn't be against me. She'll probably lose in the first round of the actual exam."

"Yeah, but she could still be interestin' for a while…"

"…Maybe."

The display again began its cycle through the names, drawing everyone's attention. "I'm so next!"

"No, Naruto-kun, I will be next! I can feel it in my young blood, the call of battle!"

"But I called it this time!"

"Yes, but if you'll recall, it didn't respond to my dibs. There's no reason that your dibs would outrank mine, so--"

"Yes there is! I'm gonna be the next Hokage, my dibs totally outranks your dibs!"

"That doesn't take effect until you actually become Hokage, Naruto-kun."

"…Chikushou…" Everyone sweat-dropped again at hearing their childish argument, but when the names were picked all attention returned to the board.

"Ah, I see that I finally have a chance at entertainment."

"Go easy on him, Ankoku. There's really no point in killin' so soon."

"Don't worry about that, Boufuu. Unlike you, I have no intention of killing anyone in this part of the contest. They're far too weak for that."

"Tsuchi no Ankoku, Akimichi Chouji, please come down to the stage." After warily eyeing Ankoku, and remembering what little of the boy's conversations he had overheard, Chouji's decision was a simple one: there was no way in hell he was going to fight that guy. Asuma, guessing at Chouji's decision, decided to sweeten the pot.

"You know Chouji, if you win… I wouldn't mind getting you some all-you-can-eat BBQ when this is over." Chouji looked unconvinced, but Asuma had a backup plan. "How about I get you BBQ every day for the next week?" /Assuming that I can scrape the money together…/ Weighing his options, Chouji was soon able to choose the right path.

"B-B-Q! Yoshi, let's get it started!" He mindlessly jumped into the arena, leaving those around him to shake their heads at his food obsession. Ankoku, who had used the stairs, was featuring the usual bored expression and crossed arms. If it wasn't for his black hair, black clothes, and black eyes, he really would have looked exactly like Gaara (except for the forehead kanji and gourd, obviously).

"Alright, let's get this charade over with. Please be fun, Akimichi Chouji."

"Begin!"

"Baika no Jutsu!" Chouji swelled to several times his normal size, tucked his arms and legs into himself, and rolled towards Ankoku like a giant bowling ball. Ankoku didn't move a muscle, yet the floor reformed itself into a wall of cement in front of him, easily halting Chouji's progress. Chouji, not paying enough attention, rolled into said wall and rebounded before coming to a stop and returning to his normal size. Those who had seen his attack before were surprised that the wall hadn't even been dented, and that he appeared to have hurt himself.

"You aren't that weak are you? I was hoping to have a little fun today… Well, if that's really the best you can do… Ninpou: Kuragari! (Ninja Arts: Darkness!)" He didn't make any hand seals, but it soon became clear that he didn't need to when Chouji wandered around with his arms outstretched, not even noticing when he ran into solid objects. A piece of the floor then broke itself off and launched into the back of his neck, knocking him unconscious.

"Shousha: Tsuchi no Ankoku."

"Was he really that borin' Ankoku? You only gave him one try…"

"Yeah, these Konoha ninja are turning out to be weaker than I expected. We fought people stronger than this in the forest… Maybe you'll be luckier, though."

"I hope so, this is drivin' me crazy. Well, get on up here so they can start the next match."

"Yeah." None of the Konoha genin knew which was worse: that he was calling them weak, or that he seemed to have an ability similar to Gaara's. They all decided it was probably the latter, even if they didn't want to fully admit it, and found that they were just glad that they hadn't been fighting him instead of Chouji.

"Naruto-kun, you can have this fight; I don't want it." Naruto thought back to the previous chuunin exam before getting red in the face.

"No way, you don't get to do that! You can have this match, I want to be last!"

"Don't steal my philosophy! I'm the one who decided that, if you want to hit the pole, you shouldn't aim for it!"

"Yeah, but I'm the one who used it first this time!" Everyone except for Naruto, Lee, and Gai quickly realized that that wasn't even true, but none of them wanted to get sucked into the conversation.

"…Kuso…" Seeing Lee's spirits down, Gai took his chance to interrupt.

"Lee, you must not exclude the possibility that your trick will be remembered, in which case it will backfire on Naruto and work in your favor!" He struck his nice-guy pose, embarrassing Tenten and Neji to no end.

"You're right! Thank you Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"If you two don't shut the hell up," Sakura raised her fist angrily, "I'll shut you up!" Silence quickly fell, neither of them forgetting for even a moment that she was Tsunade's apprentice. When the board finally displayed the names of the chosen fighters, however, Lee jumped in the air and let out a shout of joy.

"Yatta! It worked Gai-sensei! I finally get to fight!"

"Good work Lee!"

"Rock Lee, Chiri Boufuu, please come down to the stage now."

"Ankoku, should I test this guy first or go all out right away?"

"Despite your confidence, you really aren't very strong… You should go all out."

"That was cold, Ankoku…" Boufuu lowered his head in false sorrow, then jumped down and took his place across from Lee. "Try and be challengin' okay? It's been quite a while since anyone other than Ankoku and Oka gave me a hard time…"

"Boufuu, don't underestimate him. I get the feeling that, even though he looks like a complete idiot in that ridiculous spandex, he's hiding something."

"Heh, you worry too much Ankoku! With my techniques, this guy's gonna go down easy!"

"Begin!"

Lee wasted no time in charging Boufuu, who barely managed to dodge before jumping back several feet and forming the dog seal. "Kyuu! (Gather!)" The effect of his technique was far from hidden, as dust gathered from all around the room and attached itself in dense chunks to Lee, taking on extremely odd shapes. "That's highly condensed dust that's stuck to you. Probably weighs about a hundred pounds, and it'll screw up your aerodynamics enough that you'll be way slower than usual! It's just too bad we're indoors, or there'd be way more…" Lee, Gai, and Naruto couldn't help but smirk, but Lee didn't bother to say anything. Ankoku, noticing the simultaneous smirking, allowed his curiosity to get the better of him.

"You, blond boy, why are all of you so happy all of a sudden? Does he have a counter for this technique?"

"A counter…? No, I wouldn't call it a counter, but this attack won't really affect him."

"How is that?"

"Well, considering the amount of weight Fuzzy-brows was already wearing, a hundred pounds is nothing!" Ankoku cracked a wide smile at that, and even uncrossed his arms to lean on the railing.

"Really? Well, I was right about him after all, wasn't I? Boufuu, you'd better be careful! It seems that you're wasting your efforts on that one."

"Are you sure? Naw, you must be wrong Ankoku, no one ever deals with the speed difference well. I'll be perfectly--" Lee's fist smashing into his face stopped Boufuu's arrogant rambling, and it was quickly followed by a roundhouse to the ribs and a side-kick to the chest. Boufuu, caught completely off guard, was thrown into the opposite wall before crumpling in a heap on the floor. The dust fell off of Lee almost immediately, and Boufuu was coughing up a surprising amount of blood. After several minutes went by without him moving at all, Genma checked him out.

"Wow, he really can't take a punch… Shousha: Rock Lee." Ankoku looked like he had nearly been sliced in half; never in a million years would he have believed that Boufuu would have gone down that quickly. The idiot didn't even get a chance to use a second attack! While it was true that Boufuu wasn't elite by any means, it was also true that he had the second best mission record of all Iwa genin. His taijutsu and ninjutsu skills were both at chuunin level, and his analytical skills were normally spot-on. For him to have messed up that badly, Lee had to have been quite something… Mentally noting to keep an eye on Lee, Ankoku turned to the Konoha genin.

"I guess your friend is stronger than we gave him credit for. Don't worry though, I won't make the same mistakes." Returning to his normal, bored look, he turned to the display and awaited the names of the next combatants. When Lee returned he was congratulated thoroughly by Gai, berated by Naruto for "not beating him faster," and told to "shut the hell up" by Sakura and Ino after a few rounds of name exchanging with Gai. In other words: business as usual.

When the names where finally chosen for the next match, there were four extremely anxious genin: Tenten, Neji, Temari, and Shimaru. Three of them were nervous because they were left with a fifty percent chance of fighting Naruto, a fight that they didn't want to even imagine after hearing about his techniques, and one of them was nervous because her opponent's teacher was also her idol, the strongest kunoichi to ever grace Konoha.

"Haruno Sakura, Tenten, please… ah hell, you know what to do." Although they couldn't help but feel that Genma was getting lazy, they both jumped over the railing and got ready. In reality, he was just trying to keep things interesting. "Begin…"

Tsunade shifted slightly, but that was the only indication she gave that she was even paying attention. Shizune knew that that was Tsunade's way of showing confidence in Sakura, but it still seemed a little rude to her.

Tenten, unsure of how much Tsunade had actually taught Sakura, decided to test her first. Somewhat nervous, she took out two kunai and threw them in Sakura's direction. What surprised her wasn't that Sakura dodged them, it was that Sakura dodged them before they left her hand. Luckily for Tenten, Sakura decided to play it safe by not attacking right away. Not wanting to resort to anything too major at the beginning of the fight, Tenten settled for a kunai/shuriken assault. As expected, Sakura dodged the first few kunai before they even left Tenten's hands, never taking her eyes off of her opponent.

Seeing that she had the setup she wanted, Tenten quickly released a line of shuriken with one hand, and three kunai from the other. Sakura had yet to land, meaning that she was literally falling into a trap. Tenten's attacks were centered around Sakura's landing point in such a way that escape seemed impossible, with the shuriken blocking land-based escape paths and the kunai blocking aerial escapes. It was obvious that she wanted Sakura to dodge by throwing herself on the ground, as that would leave her vulnerable for a few moments, but Sakura had another idea entirely.

The moment she landed, Sakura used the skill that Tsunade had taught her and punched the floor in such a way that one of the tiles flipped up onto its side. As soon as she heard the shuriken hitting it she pushed it back down to get a clear view of Tenten's movements again, which was definitely a good thing considering that several kunai with explosive notes were already headed her way. Quickly rolling under them, she decided it was time to begin her attack. Tenten, seeing Sakura charging directly at her, decided that it would be stupid to continue to hold back.

On the upper level, Lee was very conflicted. While it was true that he had an undying youthful love for his beloved Sakura, the fact remained that Tenten was his teammate. He wanted to cheer them both on, but he didn't want to imply that he wanted either one of them to lose, meaning that he was left with no other choice than to be silent. Naruto, having no conflict whatsoever, was easily loud enough for the both of them. "Come on Sakura-chan! You're not gonna lose to her, are you?" Sakura couldn't help but grin at how clueless he was, but she kept her attention on Tenten's actions.

Confident in her ability to win, Tenten pulled out a scroll and began to summon weapons from it, hurling them at Sakura as quickly as she could. Although Sakura had no trouble at all in dodging the barrage, it did hamper her advancement towards Tenten, which she knew was a slight problem given that she was more of a close-range fighter. Fortunately there was one thing that she knew she could count on: Tenten had a finite amount of weapons. Once Tenten discarded her scroll, Sakura again charged her. A big smirk on her face, Tenten pulled her hands up into what she hoped was a convincing looking defensive stance, tugging on the wires that were attached to the weapons she had thrown. Luck again sided with Sakura as the light glinted off of one of the wires just in time for her to notice it and look around.

The sight of so many weapons closing in on her from all directions was not a comforting one, as she knew there was no way to dodge effectively with Tenten controlling the weapons via the wires. Still, she managed to keep her wits about her and jumped over the set of wires on her right. With all of the weapons again coming from one direction, she waited until just the right moment before punching up another floor tile. Tenten, who had been expecting that tactic to make its return, was able to guide half of the weapons around the tile and aim them directly at Sakura. Had she known that that was exactly what Sakura was expecting, she would have pulled them back instead, but the mistake was already made by the time she realized that it was a mistake.

Sakura jumped over the floor tile before any of the weapons made it to her and made a mad dash towards the relatively-defenseless Tenten, who abandoned her wires in favor of jumping back out of the way. Finally, after all of that dodging, Sakura had Tenten exactly where she wanted her. Immediately preceding Tenten's landing, Sakura punched the floor hard enough that she actually formed a large crack. Landing on said crack, Tenten struggled to keep her balance, giving Sakura more than enough time to land a punch. She held back enough that she only broke three ribs, but Tenten didn't get up again.

"Shousha: Haruno Sakura."

"Yatta! Way to go, Sakura-chan!"

The upper level suddenly seemed very empty, with seven of the original eighteen ninja in the medic ward, but that's not why the remaining genin were worried. Genma, on the other hand, was glad to finally see a fight that was not only interesting, but involved less dialog than action. As the display board began the selection process, Neji, Shimaru, and Temari all found themselves crossing their fingers, hoping not to be Naruto's opponent. Neji actually thought he stood a chance against Naruto, but wanted to save that confrontation for the finals. When the fighters were chosen, all eyes (except for Ankoku's, the rock jounin's, Naruto's, and Gaara's) went to Temari, some pity evident in them. Neji and Shimaru let out loud sighs of relief before climbing down to fight. Shimaru looked somewhat pathetic standing across from Neji, but that was probably because he was a good four inches shorter and looked like a total momma's boy. He had short brown hair not unlike Kankurou's, and was wearing a T-shirt and shorts, all bright blue.

"Neji-san, could I ask you for a favor?"

"A… favor? We're about to fight!"

"Yeah, but the favor is something you could do for me during the fight. You're a Hyuuga, you see, and I'm not really all that strong… Since you're gonna win anyway, could you take it a little easy on me?"

"You came all this way just to ask me to go easy on you? Why don't you just give up?"

"I can't do that, 'cause that would disappoint my parents. They're both jounin, and they really want me to do well, so it would hurt them if I just dropped out. At the same time, I don't want to be hurt by you, so…"

"You put that much stock in what your parents think?"

"Of course! My parents are the most important people in the world to me, and I never want to see them hurt! I'd die before I'd let that happen, but I'm asking you to go easy on me because--"

"Alright."

"You mean it?"

"I could never live with myself if I hurt someone like you too badly." /Not after that fight with Naruto, anyway…/ "But you'd better not be trying to trick me, or you'll regret it." Shimaru raised his hands defensively.

"No, no! Really, just about the only thing I've got going for me is genjutsu, and doujutsu like the byakugan are supposed to be able to see through genjutsu, so…"

"If you two are done chatting, I'd like to get on with your match." Genma snapped his senbon down angrily. "Begin!"

"Alright Shimaru-san, at least try something before I beat you."

"Yeah, sure…" He formed an ox seal, "Gentei! (Limit!)" The moment the attack hit, Neji fell to one knee. "Neji-san? I thought your byakugan was supposed to see through genjutsu…?"

"What did you do to me? Every muscle in my body feels weaker…"

"It's just a basic genjutsu that adds to the limits on your muscles. You've heard of the hachimon, right?" Neji nodded, remembering Lee opening them during the previous exam. "Normally, when all of your gates are closed, you can only use twenty percent of your actual muscle strength. Your brain limits the amount of strength you use to lessen the damage you do to your muscles. With this genjutsu I created a synthetic gate in the brain, 'genteimon,' which drops that figure to five percent."

"You know such a high-level genjutsu and you asked me to go easy on you?"

"But the byakugan--"

"The byakugan sees through genjutsu outside the body! I can't see things inside my own brain!"

"Really?" Shimaru looked ecstatic, causing Neji a surge of anger. "In that case, maybe you shouldn't hold back on me…" He grinned sheepishly and scratched the back of his head, excited that he had a technique that could bypass the Hyuuga defense. "Let's start over! I'll lift the genjutsu and we'll go for real, okay?"

"Sure." /Like I have a choice…/ Shimaru happily lifted the genjutsu before resuming a defensive stance, much more confident than he had been previously. "Don't expect this to be easy, though."

"Of course not! I'll probably go down if you even hit me once! I'm just happy that I'm not letting mom and dad down." Shimaru's smile was easily the largest and warmest that anyone in the room had ever seen, making it obvious that he was completely serious. "When I tell them that my first original genjutsu worked on a Hyuuga… they'll be so happy! You have no idea!"

/I wouldn't, as my parents are dead…/ "Here I come, get ready."

"Yoshi!" Neji charged from thirty feet away while Shimaru formed the monkey, rat, and ox seals. "Kokyuu Genkai! (Breath Limit!)" Neji stopped fifteen feet short of Shimaru and fell to his knee again, this time panting like a dog that's gone a day or two without water.

"What… did you… do to… me now?" /Damn it, I can barely breath enough to stay conscious! He's got moves like this and he lacks confidence? Who does he think he is, Hinata-sama?/ Shimaru again scratched the back of his head in a very Naruto-like gesture.

"I paralyzed one of your lungs!"

"You… have a… ninjutsu like…"

"No, no, this is genjutsu, not ninjutsu!"

"How…"

"Don't you know how genjutsu work? A genjutsu is a chakra disruption in the opponent's brain that causes them to perceive reality incorrectly by manipulating the flow of electricity and chakra. I just made your brain fail to recognize one of your lungs for what it is, which left it paralyzed and you out of breath! It's probably my best technique, since it renders my opponent practically useless… If I'd known it worked on Hyuuga, I never would have asked you to go easy on me."

In the upper level, Kurenai was very impressed. Kakashi, wondering just how impressive Shimaru's techniques actually were, leaned over to her. "What do you think? He said it was 'original,' have you ever seen this?"

"No… I've never even heard of genjutsu creating artificial additions to the hachimon! This kid must be one hell of a genius…"

"Actually, Aoshi seemed a lot less confident in Shimaru than Kaen."

"Yeah, but Kaen's his kid, isn't he? Parents have to be like that, it's like a law or something. For a kid that young to have developed lower level genjutsu…"

"'Lower level?' I thought you were impressed by it."

"That's not what I mean by lower level, Kakashi. You're a jounin and you don't know things like that?"

"I never really specialized in genjutsu, so I never bothered to look up the terminology or anything."

"Ugh… Well, to put it simply, higher level genjutsu affect the conscious mind, and lower level genjutsu affect everything that the brain deals with subconsciously. Because the illusion isn't affecting anything that he's consciously aware of, Neji's byakugan is completely useless against it. There's a problem with lower level genjutsu though."

"What's that?"

"Almost no one is intelligent enough to actually use them."

"This kid's really that impressive?"

"Yes. I've never actually known anyone who could use them before, and lower level genjutsu users are extremely rare. We're talking one every few generations, at the most. When they have shown up in the past, they've always been among the strongest fighters of their times."

"You think he'll win?"

"I don't know; it really depends on how he utilizes everything. If Neji figures out how to cancel the techniques, Shimaru's finished."

"Yeah… What rank do you think those techniques are?"

"Kakashi, you do realize that the ranking process is extremely complex for genjutsu, right?"

"Be honest…"

"…A- or S-rank, probably."

"Gentei!" Neji, who had already been having trouble breathing, collapsed completely on the floor, sure that he was going to pass out. "I've always wondered if these techniques would work well together… I probably still won't beat you, but at least I can throw in my ace in the hole!" He quickly formed the dragon, bird, and ox seals, "Ninpou: Ikuji wo Korosu! (Ninja Arts: Kill Self-Confidence!)" There were some gasps at the name (including one from Kurenai, who couldn't imagine a genjutsu powerful enough to change a person's self-perception), but he ignored them.

Neji, barely able to move at all, curled himself into a ball and started sobbing. It was a terrifying sight, and one that left Shimaru looking like some kind of sadistic freak. All of Neji's thoughts were suddenly about his own inabilities, weaknesses, problems, and failures. He was completely without happy thoughts, and was even beginning to doubt that he was capable of being happy.

"Aw crap, I didn't think it would be that effective…" /Great, just great. The first time I use the technique, and I already can't stand the effect it's having./ "I can't bring myself to fight you if you're gonna be like that. Kai!" After a few coughs and some shuddering, Neji shakily got to his feet.

"Why'd you release it? You almost beat me."

"Yeah, but it didn't feel right…"

"What do you mean by that?"

"My parents didn't raise me to get my kicks from watching people cower in fear, completely unable to resist me. If I won that way, they wouldn't be proud at all… I can't really beat you any other way though, so I give up. You win!"

"Wait, what?" Shimaru's smile returned, giving most of the people in the room a warm tickling feeling in their spines.

"Think of it this way: the only tactic I have that will work is the one I'm forbidden to use, so I lose by default! My parents won't be disappointed by that, they'll just be glad that I'm not a monster that would actually take advantage of that situation. I'll just have to figure out some other techniques by the next chuunin exam, and then they can be proud of me…" Genma looked about ready to vomit at the kid's sickeningly nice personality. He really couldn't imagine a jounin being proud of a child that wouldn't be willing to take advantage of that situation, and he didn't want to try.

"Shousha: Hyuuga Neji. That leaves only two genin: Temari and Uzumaki Naruto, get down here."

Ankoku found that he was extremely disappointed with Shimaru's decision, as it meant that he wouldn't get a chance to fight the genjutsu master, but he tried to look as bored as usual. Of all of the fighters that he had watched, Shimaru had been the most interesting by far.

Because Neji's muscles weren't back to normal yet, Shimaru helped him up the stairs, which was both embarrassing and appreciated. Back on the upper level, everyone was staring at Temari, who was seriously considering giving up. From what she had been told of Naruto's techniques they were all extremely deadly, not to mention that he had defeated Gaara's perfect form without them after the last chuunin exam. The idea of fighting someone stronger than Gaara, with six additional months of training and several extremely powerful techniques, was not one that she wanted to contemplate. Naruto, already on the arena floor, was growing impatient.

"Temari-chan! Hurry up!"

"Temari, er, nee-san…" Gaara seemed to have difficulty describing anyone as being a family member, which was understandable given his past. He cleared his throat and tried again. "Temari-nee-san, go ahead and fight him."

"Gaara, are you ins—I have no chance against him!" /Oh yeah, great save…/

"I would appreciate it if you fought him. It could be a… favor… to me."

/Well crap. 'Damned if you do, damned if you don't,' eh? …That Naruto guy probably won't kill me, and Gaara will probably be pretty pissed off if I refuse the first favor he's ever asked of me… Chikushou…/ She jumped down into the ring, an action she regretted almost immediately.

"About time, Temari-chan! I was beginning to think--"

"Begin!" /Why do these kids talk so damn much? I remember a day when fights were all about the fighting. Good times…/

"Just so you know, Naruto, I'm expecting you to go easy on me. Anyone who can beat Gaara should have no problem with me, not to mention all of your new attacks I've heard about, so I'm not really sure why you even want to fight me."

"It isn't obvious?" She shook her head slowly, trying to think of what he could mean. "Think about the last exam for a second, okay Temari-chan?"

"The last exam…?"

"Yeah!" She thought about it, but shook her head when she couldn't figure it out. "Even though it was cancelled, most of the fights happened in one way or another… I beat Neji, Gaara beat Sasuke, Shino beat Kankurou, and you beat Shikamaru. After that I beat Gaara, and Shino was hurt too badly from fighting Kankurou to have fought you. The only match left undecided was the final match, which would have been us!"

"You… really think that way?" /What a freak…/

"Of course! Don't you remember me saying that I would win? I don't go back on my words! As far as I'm concerned, I'm about to do it by beating you!"

"But if I give up, you still win…"

"Yeah, but it's not the same. You wouldn't have given up six months ago, would you?" She smirked, realizing that he was completely wrong. After seeing him beat Gaara, she wouldn't have even considered fighting him. Still, she knew it was important to him, and because he was having such a positive effect on Gaara she shook her head. "So, let's finish what we started!"

Temari opened her fan to the third dot, not wanting to bother with undue arrogance. "Alright, but I won't hold back! Ninpou: Kamaitachi!" It was only after using the technique that she realized that the rasengan, from what she had heard about it, sounded like a wind based technique. She was somewhat frightened that he was going to seriously hurt her, but she knew there was no way to stop her attack.

A wide grin on his face, Naruto prepared his chikara no sakebi, unleashing it right as her winds were about to hit him. He was very curious to see how effective it would be against her wind attacks, remembering that he was able to feel them even in the stands. The moment Naruto used his technique, Kakashi, Gai, Tsunade, Lee, Ino, Sakura, and Neji threw themselves onto the floor. Anko finally learned that Tsunade hadn't been exaggerating the power of the attack when she was blown backwards three feet into a wall, even though she was on a platform more than ten feet above him. With nowhere to go, as he was using the technique inside, the air currents traveled around the room in a sort of extremely weak hurricane for a few minutes before subsiding. Temari, Gaara, Shimaru, Kaen, Ankoku, Kurenai, Asuma, Anko, Shizune, Aoshi, the rock jounin, and Genma all slowly peeled off the walls, landing flat on their faces and leaving large dents behind them.

"Whoops… I guess I should have toned it down a bit more." The large number of dents in the walls made him cringe, as he just knew that Anko was going to make him fix them all. "Uh, Senbon-guy… I think she's out…" Looking around, he realized that more than half of the people in the room were unconscious, including Gaara (whose sand hadn't reacted quickly enough to the unexpected attack). "Oh… you are too. Baa-chan, is there some way we can declare me the winner without waiting for him to wake up?"

Tsunade warily got up, unsure of whether or not it was really safe to do so. "I suppose that Sakura could make sure she's really unconscious…" Sakura hopped down, checked Temari for a second, and nodded. "Alright… Shousha: Uzumaki Naruto. Oh, and in the future, try not resorting to A-rank techniques at the slightest provocation."

"Yeah, yeah," he waved a dismissive hand, "I'll think about it." She pinched the bridge of her nose, making a mental list of the reasons not to jump down and punch his face in. It was a surprisingly short list.

"Of course, we still have to wait for everyone to wake up before we can continue…"

---

"Tsunade-shishou… it's been an hour…" As Tsunade's apprentice, Sakura had been elected as the official representative for those who hadn't been hit by Naruto's attack. If the sannin was going to listen to anyone, it was going to be Sakura. "Don't you think that we should… go ahead with the people that have already woken up?"

"Sakura, we should at least wait until everyone who won a match wakes up… They have to draw their numbers, after all."

"Couldn't you just assign them randomly or something? This is getting really boring…"

"It might be boring, but we're still going to wait. Didn't I at least teach you some patience? If you really can't wait, you should at least try using the skills I taught you to speed their recovery…"

"Oh! Good idea, Tsunade-shishou!" Tsunade couldn't help but feel that she had taken on a complete idiot as an apprentice.

"You… didn't even consider it?"

"Uh… I was… I'd better get going!" /Kuso… She'd better not stop teaching me because I'm a moron…/ Sakura jumped away and went to help Gaara, leaving Tsunade holding the bridge of her nose again. Of course, as Sakura soon found out, there was a very good reason that Tsunade hadn't bothered with the same course of action: there was no real damage done. The victims were unconscious, but it was nothing that could be cured by medical techniques. Although it seemed strange that they would stay out for so long, she knew there was nothing either of them could really do.

"Naruto! This is all your fault! Why'd you have to go and use a powerful technique like that indoors?"

"Ino-chan! It's not like I didn't hold back!"

"You call that holding back? It was even worse than when you used it outside!"

"But that was just because it had nowhere to go…"

"If you knew that was going to be a factor, you should have held back more! Chikushou, why'd you have to get cool techniques? An idiot like you… you're just gonna end up hurting all your allies." Naruto paused for a moment, looking almost out of breath.

"You… really think that…?"

"Of course! Just look around you! Even some of the jounin got knocked out! You just wildly throw your techniques out and hope that no one you care about gets hurt! Does 'restraint' even have a meaning to you?"

Naruto didn't respond; he was far too busy thinking about what she had just said. /Hurting my allies… The Hokage is the strongest ninja in the village, the one that protects it. If I hurt everyone in it… Besides, what if I hurt Sasuke? I've been preparing so much for Orochimaru that I haven't really thought about fighting Sasuke, but…/

As Naruto sulked, people gradually began to recover from his attack. Gaara and Ankoku awoke at almost exactly the same moment, moving into the same stance at the same time. Even they found the similarity to be creepy, but neither of them showed it. The last to get up was Genma, who slowly returned to his usual spot and put a fresh senbon in his mouth before speaking.

"Alright, everyone that won a match had better get down here quick, or that blond idiot's gonna knock us all out again…" No one found his joke very amusing, but they all made their way down regardless. Ibiki and Anko stood on either side of him, Ibiki holding a small box. "Everybody draw a number from Ibiki's box, then tell me what number you drew."

They all drew numbers, reported them to Genma, and mentally calculated their places. Of course, those mental calculations were completely unnecessary, as Genma showed them the match list anyway. The matches for the first round were: Gaara vs. Ankoku, Neji vs. Lee, Hinata vs. Ino, and Sakura vs. the winner of the match between Kaen and Naruto. Kaen, Ankoku, and Lee looked very happy about their match-ups, but everyone else looked either disappointed or uneasy. Sakura, in particular, was very unhappy with the thought of fighting either Naruto or Kaen in the first round. She honestly didn't think that Kaen stood a chance against Naruto's techniques, but she wasn't exactly eager to fight him if he won. Of course, everyone was left slightly on edge by Naruto's attack, but they tried not to show it. Even Ankoku was beginning to be interested in him again.

"The main matches will take place one month from now in the--"

"A month? Why aren't we having them now?"

"Because we need time to announce who's going to participate. Daimyo from every country come to watch this, and we need to give them some time to get here." Genma launched into the explanation about the chuunin exam being like a war between the countries, which most of the veterans found much less interesting the second time. Tsunade was glad not to have to give it herself, as she had always thought it to be a stupid idea considering that the people taking the exam weren't even the elite of the villages.

When he finished his explanation he didn't really have anything left to say, so the room went silent. It took a few moments for Tsunade to realize that all eyes were on her. "What are you all waiting for? Go train or something!"

"What, that's it?"

"What else are you expecting?"

"I don't know. It just seemed rather abrupt…"

"Not everything has a fancy ending. You should really know that by now." Kaen shrugged and walked out of the tower, closely followed by all of the examinees except for Naruto. Said genin was still struggling with what Ino had said to him, and hadn't even listened to Genma's speech. He couldn't help but think that she had been right about his techniques, and about his being too stupid to use them. Seeing that something was troubling him, Anko decided to be nice and get his mind off of it.

"Naruto, look what you did to my tower! I hope you realize you're gonna be the one to fix it!"

---

Luckily for Naruto, Anko provided cement for the repairs. He chose that time to tell her that he hadn't actually repaired the prior damage, opting instead to have some kage bunshin use henge to cover the footprints during the prelims. Surprisingly, she wasn't angry, but she did watch him to make sure that he actually did the work. She didn't really care about the tower as much as she let on, but it was fun to give him a hard time about it. Just for the sake of being mean, she made him do the repairs without kage bunshin. It would have been much funnier for her if he had at least taken his weights off, though.

"Naruto, you're taking way too long. Just take off the damn weights!"

"No! I already told you, they're important for my training!"

"You don't need to train twenty-four hours a day!"

"Yes I do! I wish you people would stop telling me not to train so much! How else am I supposed to get strong enough to get Sasuke back?"

"Wait, what? I thought you were training to become Hokage."

"That comes later. First I have to kill that Orochimaru bastard and bring Sasuke back."

"You want to beat Orochimaru? I hope you realize that he's so strong that he makes even me look like a completely inept moron." Naruto ignored her, choosing instead to focus on getting concrete to settle rather than drip from the ceiling. "You're… you're serious, aren't you?"

"Of course I'm serious! How many times do I have to tell you that I don't go back on my words? I will bring Sasuke back here, I will kill Orochimaru, and I will become Hokage!"

"You're…" She had to consider it for a moment. Was he really an idiot for saying that? While it certainly seemed true on the surface, and his ninja talents hadn't really had any incredible amount of promise at first, she had to admit that he was always surprising everyone. No matter what he did, people ended up underestimating him, which only seemed to motivate him more. "You're… an interesting guy, Naruto."

"I get that a lot." He grinned at the fact that he had actually managed to get the cement to stay in place long enough to settle, leaving only five more dents in the ceiling for him to deal with before moving on to the walls.

"Do you remember what I said the other day?"

"What other day?"

"When you asked me to train you, stupid. I told you that 'maybe if I find you interesting enough I'll help you afterward.' Technically, my part of the exam is over, and I can help whoever I want…" Naruto froze in place, not sure if it was some kind of cruel joke.

"Are you saying that you--"

"For the moment, at least, you certainly seem interesting. We share the goal of killing Orochimaru too, and you are showing a lot of promise…"

"So, you're seriously--"

"Jiraiya-sama seemed rather against anyone training you, though. He's not exactly a push-over, so maybe it isn't worth it…" Naruto was beginning to consider killing her just to be sure whether or not she would train him. He didn't know, of course, that she was just enjoying pissing him off. "Then again, crossing my future boss isn't high on my to-do list. I'll make you a deal."

"What kind of deal?"

"As long as you stay interesting, I'll help you with your training. Stop being interesting and it stops being worth it."

"You're really gonna help?" She allowed herself a non-creepy smile, which almost made him fall off the ceiling.

"As long as you hold up your end. But before I start training you, hurry the hell up and fix my tower!"

"Yoshi!" Naruto hurried over to the next hole, happier than he had been in months. Finally, after all that time, he was going to have someone to help him with his ninjutsu! Kakashi had given him the bakuretsu kage bunshin scroll, but beyond that he hadn't really done much of anything. Anko, on the other hand, was basically offering to spend hours each day working on his techniques!

"Oh, almost forgot the other condition."

"What other condition?"

"Just that, if you're going to train with me, you're going to stop training with anyone else."

"What!"

"You can keep Gai's weights if you really want to, but I'm gonna need all of your time."

"But that'll slow me down!"

"No, it won't. If anything, it'll speed you up."

"How in the hell do you figure that, Anko-chan? You're not even a real jounin! Super-brows-sensei's help is making me way better with taijutsu, and you really aren't that good with it, so I still need him!" She snickered at the name, although she found herself wishing it involved his spandex somehow.

"Hmm… Gai is definitely a better teacher for taijutsu than I am, I can't argue with that. As for why you should train with only me… besides the fact that I was Orochimaru's old apprentice, I—don't look so shocked! It's not that disturbing! Anyway, besides that, there's the fact that your training has been too spread out."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you haven't learned to allocate your time properly. Training everything every day is just stupid. You need to work on one thing at a time so that you can give it your full concentration, and then you'll finish it faster and get more out of it."

"But…" He had to think about it, but he decided that she made a little sense. "Were you really Orochimaru's old apprentice?"

"Oh, are you just figuring out that that means I'll be the best one to teach you to fight him?" Her smile morphed into a smirk. "Yes, I was, and it's also one of the main reasons I want him dead."

"I'll… have to think about it."

"Wow, is Gai that good of a teacher or are you just a complete moron? Well, the offer's not gonna be there forever, so get back to me soon." A few minutes went by in silence, Anko beginning to wonder if he was seriously stupid enough to not accept her help, before he snapped her out of her thoughts.

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why would I need to spend so much time with you that I couldn't spend any with Super-brows-sensei?"

"Call it… 'specialization.'"

"And you really think that you can make me strong enough to beat Orochimaru?"

"It'll take a while, but--"

"I don't have a while! You've got about two years! Can you do it or not?"

"T-two years! Are you insane? You're not even a chuunin yet! Do you realize how ridiculous--"

"Can you do it or not?" She had never seen him look so serious, which was odd given that he was standing upside-down holding a bucket of wet cement over (er, under) his head.

"I…" /Damned kid and his ridiculous ability to surprise people! With my luck, the surprise will go the other way…/ "I'm your best shot. I refuse to promise you results like that, but you're not going to do much better with anyone else." He suddenly looked very deep in thought, another first for her. After about two minutes of silence, he looked up (down) at her.

"I'll try it, but if it isn't working I'm going back to what I've been doing."

"Hmm… Alright!" Her smirk morphed back into the non-creepy smile, which he found somewhat creepy given that her smiles were supposed to be creepy. "You've moved up a little on the interesting scale, so I won't disappoint. Just remember: you're the one who set the timeframe, so I expect you to keep up with it!"

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry about me. I don't care what kind of training you've got for me, as long as it's gonna make me strong enough in time! There's no way I'm gonna fail!" He stood there grinning for a few more seconds before she realized something very important.

"Don't stop fixing the room, idiot!"

---

A/N: Over 100 reviews! Yatta! …Er, I mean…

Sorry that the fights were so short, but these were preliminary matches… Naruto's fight would have been longer, but I just found the idea hilarious for some reason. It was sort of necessary anyway, so that Ino was able to make that comment.

I don't know how much you're all gonna like the idea of Anko training Naruto exclusively, but it was just the path that made the most sense to me. She's got plenty of reasons, he's got plenty of reasons… It was planned from the beginning, and it's a far cry from an apprenticeship, I promise. I do love having Anko around though, even if she is hard to write properly…

Original characters! Yay! Love 'em or hate 'em, they're necessary. I bet you're all just dying to know what all of those names mean, too! Well, just because I actually took the time to find real Japanese words, I'll tell you!

Yawarakai, the incredibly short-lived embodiment of the generic absolute-defense, has a name that I found funny. You see, "yawarakai" means "soft" or "tender," and one translation I found even said "limp," but I don't really want to get into that side of the joke (that's Sai's job). Just in case you're actually wondering, even though I doubt you'll ever see him again, his kekkai genkai actually does live up to the hype they were giving it, which I'm pretty sure is a first for absolute defenses in the Naruto world. His kekkai genkai was actually that his body absorbs physical blows and negates their effect (imagine punching that special "tempur-pedic" foam that they make beds out of), which is why he didn't even try to defend himself from Neji's attack. Those cloud-nins would have lost anyway, don't get me wrong, but the only reason that they lost so easily was that they were too cocky.

Moving on, "kuro" means "black," and "mushi" means "bug," while "shi" means death and "maru" means circle. I realize that "maru" is in a lot of names, and I'm really not sure if it means "circle" in those instances, but it does in this one 'kay? The kanji is "死丸" for those of you who feel like being smart asses (yes, I realize that that can, and probably should, translate to "dead circle," but there's no way in hell I'm calling him "Shinomaru"). I thought having the sweet mama's boy be named "black bug death circle" would be kind of funny, so there you are. With his intellect and genjutsu skills he could have easily won the tournament, but he's got morals damn it! Oh, and for the record, his genjutsu are A-rank (except for ikuji wo korosu, his only higher level genjutsu, which is S-rank). The ranking system is different for genjutsu than for ninjutsu, so don't start thinking that he has some insane amount of chakra. Also, I did make up the crap about higher and lower level genjutsu, so don't go looking for it.

Moving on again, "Touketsu" means "frozen," and "Kaen" means "blaze." I suppose you understand what he meant by "crappy puns" now… I'm into puns, but I'll try not to play that one too much. His name also describes his personality pretty well (to me at least). Also, before you ask, he's nowhere near jounin-level, even if he does have a lot of B-rank techniques. I don't want to give too much away right now, but he's seriously not jounin-level. He is a genius though, so don't underestimate him just because he's a jackass.

In case you don't know, "Yama" means mountain and "take" means "peak," while "Oka" means "hill." In other words, his name is "Mountain-peak Hill," which I imagine would be a pretty cruel thing for parents to name their child. Seriously, who names their kid "Hill?" Of course, he actually was fairly strong, and could have easily advanced against almost any other opponent. Good thing Gaara got rid of him, eh?

Sabaku no Gaara's seeming double in all but personality, "Tsuchi no Ankoku" is the darkness of the earth. Literally, that's the translation of his name. Okay, I guess you could also translate it "darkness of the soil," but that doesn't sound nearly as cool… Just so you know, his abilities are NOT an exact copy of Gaara's. They're actually quite different, but similar enough to intimidate everyone for now. Ankoku's abilities are cooler in some ways, but weaker in others. That's really all I'm willing to say about him at the moment, as I don't want to give anything away, but that's going to be a fun fight to write…

"Chiri" means "dust," and "Boufuu" means "storm." Not only does that fit his attacks, it also fits his ridiculously over-confident attitude. While it's true that it was his idea to wipe out all of the competition, it's also true that he didn't help at all. Oka did most of the work with techniques you didn't see, truth be told. Boufuu did have better attacks, but nothing that could have stacked up with Lee (or almost anyone else that he could have ended up fighting). The main reason that he lost, however, was that I can't stand his style of speaking. It fits him, don't get me wrong, it's just annoying to hear it in my head (especially in his voice).

I stole the name "Aoshi" from Rurouni Kenshin's Shinimori Aoshi, in case you were wondering. Although the Kodachi is my favorite type of sword, I always hated that guy, so I gave his name to the weakest jounin just to insult him. Of course, my Aoshi is a pretty nice guy (you haven't seen much of it yet, but he is), so it could just as easily be perceived as a compliment… Kuso…

Of course, they say that writers put part of their personalities into every character they write… Does that mean that I've got six or seven different personalities? What about Kishimoto? Taking the time to think about how many characters he's actually made (especially when you include all of the other manga ideas he's had), he shouldn't even be able to form coherent sentences if that saying's true. I'm just saying…

At this point, I think it's time for some Q&A!

Am I absolutely terrible with fight scenes, or is it bearable? If I do suck, I'd love to hear some tips before the finals!

Should my character descriptions be more in-depth? The reason that I avoid describing them in too much detail is that my writing style is mostly dialogue-driven, but I could stand to be better about it.

Does anyone seem out of character in this chapter? I have trouble writing forceful personalities, especially Naruto and Anko…

Do Ankoku and Kaen piss you off? I hope they do…

Those of you who know Japanese better than I do, is my Japanese okay?

Do you think that Anko will have a positive effect on Naruto's training?

Did Aoshi make the right decision in nominating Kaen and Shimaru for the exams?

Thanks for reading my story so far! My favorite chapter is still number two, but I thought this one was alright. I hope you've enjoyed it! Please review!