Disclaimer: Refer to chapter 1.

AN: Full Chapter Title: The First Match! The Yamanaka Heiress vs. The Last Uchiha!

'I can't believe this.' One Ibiki Morino could hardly believe what he saw from his seat. Hayate Gekko was no longer the proctor of the Chunin Exams. He was currently hospitalized. In his place was another. If any other option was available, he knew the Hokage would have taken it but there honestly wasn't. There was no one with the village's Shinobi on high alert after what they learned from Hayate.

"Y-Yama…" He hardly managed the name but he was lucky.

"-naka." The Uchiha hadn't left his side since he had suddenly appeared with him. He finished the name for him. "He wants a Yamanaka."

After Inoichi was done, the village had no one to spare to proctor the exams.

"Alright you brats, stand on either side, here or here." All except for one Tokubetsu Jonin Anko Mitarashi.

The proctor for the Second Stage produced results at least. Both Genin wordlessly obeyed her even if they never broke off eye contact with the other.

"First things first, the Seal of Confrontation." Anko modeled the seal with a smirk. "Do it now or you're disqualified." The two complied without a word between them. "Good."

"The rules are the same as the preliminary so I'm not going to bother with repeating them. No complaining from either of you. Ninja, especially Chunin like you're shooting for, need to be able to remember information like that for months." Anko looked to both, hoping to catch some surprise but she only ended up rolling her eyes at their glaring contest. "Fine then, keep glaring at each other, see if I care." She huffed before raising her hand into the air.

"When I drop my hand, the match begins." She lifted her hand higher into the air. "When I raise my hand, the match ends."

She wasn't receiving much of a response from either so dropped her hand.

Ino immediately charged forward. Sasuke blocked her kick to his chest by crossing his arms before throwing his weight forward in the addition to a single step to knock her onto her back. She used the force of his movement to spin and strike high at his shoulder only for him to lean back. He didn't try to grab her and instead had to dodge the kunai she drew from the pouch on her leg by leaping back. He caught sight of the wire string carrying an unknown sphere at the end of it and a perfectly aimed shuriken severed the string.

His sandaled feet struck the ground just as she lowered her foot to the ground.

Their entire clash had lasted hardly a blink of an eye.

Neither of their breathing had shifted.

Sasuke's coal black eyes locked with her light blue ones and he lifted a hand into the air. He brought his fingers back into his palm before he adopted something close to a boxing stance.

Ino was a blur of motion when she threw a number of shuriken forward. Sasuke's eyes tracked each of them before he deflected each to the ground between the two. He made to make the same gesture as before when Ino threw a kunai low to the ground, aiming for his shins. He stopped it in the midst of its journey with another shuriken and caution entered his eyes.

He didn't seem to expect any tricks from her.

She offered him nothing but a cold smile before she charged forward.

Sasuke didn't show anything in his eyes as he countered her blow for blow.

'She's not this stupid. She knows her Taijutsu doesn't match up to mine, she could never hope to match up to me now so why is she wasting her time?' Sasuke knocked aside a punch, lifted his leg to stop a kick with his armored shin, and turned to the side to avoid a second kick. 'What is she planning?'

He broke away first. He flipped across the ground before he came up with some distance between the two.

"You've made an impressive improvement." In the blink of an eye he was gone from where he stood. He struck Ino in the side with a kick that threw her across the ground. His foot remained extended as Ino skidded across the ground even as she tried to stop herself. He lowered it to the ground with a grin. "But you're still nowhere near close to my level."

Ino didn't remain on the ground longer than it took to rise. She threw a trio of shuriken forward that Sasuke deflected with a kunai that was drawn and moved at blinding speeds. He threw it towards her in the same instant it took him to deflect all three of her projectiles and she narrowly avoided the knife. It buried itself into the wall behind her.

She caught the glint of the wire string hanging from the ring and immediately leaped away.

'That's part of his setup for that Jutsu he used in the Second Stage.' Ino severed the wire string with a shuriken sent straight down as she was airborne. She struck the ground and dashed to the side. She didn't let her mind flash to the preliminaries when he had tried to burn that girl to death.

Sasuke followed after her, matching her speed easily from his initial burst as he reached her side.

"I see you've down your homework." Ino ignored his voice, she threw several shuriken at him she didn't hear strike. He didn't even bother to deflect them. "You didn't waste any of your time it seems." His kunai swung at her head but it was slow. It was intentional. He wanted her to block it and she did. The clash lasted for only a moment before she found herself swiftly overpowered by the Uchiha. "It's a shame that all your hard work will end up going to waste."

"Why's that?" Ino managed to stop him if only for a moment.

"You can't beat me." Sasuke ended the stalemate with ease. "It's hopeless."

His foot crashed into her chest and she was powered back through the air. The Uchiha remained where he stood instead of pursuing his opponent and slowly lowered his foot, the same as before towards the beginning of the match hardly a few minutes ago. Ino recovered quickly, hitting the ground feet first, and glared at Sasuke. She threw her kunai forward and the Uchiha moved his head to the side to avoid it.

She threw a trio of shuriken forward again just as he began to charge towards her. She drew a pair of kunai to her hand and blocked his rapid strikes from his own pair. She didn't manage to keep hold of both of her weapons for long, a particularly strong strike sending one clattering to the ground. He threw one of his own at her but she countered it. By the smirk on his face she knew he had down it simply to mock her. She lunged forward and he blocked her strike like she thought he would. She broke away from the short clash by jumping back and turning before her feet hit the ground. She ran, hugging the wall while throwing her kunai into the stone next to her. Sasuke of course followed after her with a roll of his eyes at her simple tactics when something unexpected happened.

He ran into the trio of wire strings binding her shuriken to the ring at the end of her kunai. The still airborne shuriken suddenly curved back and wrapped around him the moment he slammed into the string at his near top speed to get to Ino once more. His arms were trapped at his sides even as he came to an immediate stop, saving himself the humiliation of striking the ground face first.

"You're smarter than I thought." Ino didn't waste time with speaking to him as she turned, forming the hand sign necessary for her Clan's infamous Hiden Jutsu.

Sasuke jerked his body to the side, ripping the sole kunai in the wall free, and he dashed across the arena. Ino dropped her hands but didn't let the irritation her plan failing caused.

'I should have expected that would happen.' She could only chastise herself as she moved after the Uchiha and reached into her ninja pouch. 'He knows how I plan to end this fight.

"I forfeit!" She could imagine it actually. He would be forced to do as she wished the moment her Mind Body Switch connected. His plan probably revolved around avoiding her line of sight anytime he saw that hand sign and then attack her when she missed.

'I'm going to need to immobilize him completely before I can use the Mind Body Switch.' It would be the only way for her plan to work. 'I wish I knew some Genjutsu that could do the job but this will have to do.'

Ino threw a kunai, an explosive tag trailing behind it, and the Uchiha predictably dodged it even with his arms still at his side. He smirked at her before spinning, the kunai connected to the wire strings binding him streaking through the air. It struck her kunai and sent it right back towards her.

The tag was burning and Ino dodged the blast it unleashed moments later. She used the results of the explosion, a cloud of smoke and dirt, to vanish from sight. By the time it cleared from in front of her, the Uchiha had freed himself from the wire strings wrapped around him. He rolled his shoulders for a moment before he brought his fist into his hand.

Ino was suddenly behind him in a burst of smoke with a smirk, aiming to kick him in the back of his head, but she only succeeded in striking the air and completing a hundred eighty degrees turn. Sasuke threw his hand out and aimed to strike her with the back of his armored hand but his hand went through nothing but the illusion she had cast. His eyes didn't widen as he immediately lunged to the side to avoid the several kunai sent at him from above by an airborne Ino.

"That's not going to work." He stepped back from where he landed, giving Ino plenty of time to rise form her crouch upon landing. She didn't glare at him as she expected but looked at him with nothing but a type of calculation he hadn't seen in her eyes before. He should have been concerned but wasn't as one hand came up to the clasp of his cape. Within moments it fell to the ground.

"Are you sure?" Ino planted a hand on her hip, the other being filled with three kunai. "I'm sure I can beat you if with just kunai and shuriken if I need to."

"Really?" Sasuke didn't laugh but it was close. He threw a single kunai forward at blinding speeds and cut a strand of Ino's hair. "Can you do the same to mine?" His question was rhetorical thanks to the helmet covering his head. "Don't bother answering. We both already know the answer is no."

He vanished in a burst of speed. Ino didn't let panic overtake her as she threw two of her kunai where he appeared at her side. He dodged them by turning to the side and his foot lashed out at her side. She used her free hand to vault over it using his armor and threw her third kunai forward. He stopped it.

He actually caught the ring at the end of one finger, spun it, and then sent it back towards her.

Ino launched herself across the ground and avoided it but the Uchiha didn't pursue. He let his leg fall back to the ground and chuckled. A trio of shuriken suddenly soared towards Ino but her own shuriken countered them, sent all six scattering to the side of the space between the two Genin.

Ino drew a pair of kunai from her ninja pouch and threw them forward. Sasuke's coal black eyes spotted the explosive tags trailing behind both and a shuriken sent them off to the side. It bounced off of one to strike the other. Neither came close to striking him but that was never the intention.

The Yamanaka detonated them in midair. She used the smokescreen to vanish from the Uchiha's sight.

"Ino…" Sakura looked down from the stands, worry in her eyes.

"Don't worry about Ino." Asuma took a moment to glance from the arena to her. "She'll be fine down there. She's going to win."

His reassurance didn't do much for Sakura. She knew where Ino had disappeared to in the explosion and it was likely the Uchiha she was fighting knew as well.

He was simply dragging everything out. His brief clash with Ino was telling.

'He instantly overpowered her and noticed.' She had seen his eyes narrow, his mind begin to work. He had stopped himself from going any further, from forcing his opponent to the ground. He let Ino believe she had enough strength to bring it to a stalemate when she didn't. 'He's not fighting her with anything close to his full power. I don't know if I should be happy or not.'

'He hasn't even activated his Sharingan yet.' That fact more than anything made Sakura worry for the fate of her best friend. It proved how much Sasuke was limiting himself for the match for whatever reason. 'He's not taking this seriously at all.' The early stages of the fight proved it. 'He went for that same Ninjutsu he tried to use on Kin knowing Ino would dodge it, knowing she scouted it and he clearly telegraphed it. He's only used his Taijutsu and Shurikenjutsu to taunt Ino. He wants to make this match longer than it needs to be.'

Her eyes glanced to where the competitors waited. Her eyes found Naruto's armored form easily. A pair of his centurions stood with him, summoned sometime after Sasuke had left for his match, and he quietly conversed with them. Their eyes never moved away from the match but they weren't focused on it at all.

'What is he planning?'

"Impressive!" Sasuke's shout drew her attention back to the match.

He had caught Ino's fist in his palm to stop a clash of their respective Taijutsu she hadn't seen. His grip was enough to prevent her from breaking free no matter how much she pulled. He turned, grabbing hold of her arm below her shoulder, and flung her onto her back. Ino was quick to roll onto her stomach and avoid his foot as he brought it down. She moved onto all fours and threw herself back and onto her feet once more as Sasuke did nothing to pursue or pressure her.

The best he did was throw a single shuriken forward. She easily ducked underneath it and fired back with a kunai from each hand.

"I thought I already showed you why this won't work." He used a single kunai to stop her. The end of the blade of one was trapped by the ring at the end of the hilt and the ring of the other was caught on the tip of the kunai. He moved his hand and began spinning the kunai around as the other fell at his feet as he walked forward. "You can't beat me by throwing weapons at me Yamanaka."

"I'm sure I can Sasuke." Ino reached into her ninja pouch.

He appeared at her side with the spinning kunai raised to her neck. She leaned to the side to avoid it before jumping away. She landed some distance away just as Sasuke let the kunai fly forward by tilting his enough for it to fly forward. She dodged it but once again lost several strands of platinum blonde hair.

"Look at how easy that was." Sasuke lowered his hand to his side. "Give up before I aim for your neck Yamanaka."

"And embarrass myself losing to someone like you?" Ino threw back her head and laughed. Sasuke appeared in front of her and swiped at her neck but she had expected it. She flipped, her sandaled feet striking him in the chin narrowly avoided by the Uchiha as he leaned back. She landed on her feet once more and smirked at the Uchiha. "I'll never give up."

Determination burned in her eyes.

"So be it." Sasuke's arms were suddenly a blur. A dozen kunai and shuriken soared towards Ino and her eyes widened only momentarily before she threw herself into action.

'Just like training with Asuma-sensei.' He had attacked her with barrages of weapons plenty of times. She knew how to counter them.

She threw herself into a dead sprint, moving around the Uchiha. His adjustments were slight to follow after her with his weapons.

'He's summoning them.' She could hear the telltale sound even among the barrage of weapons he fired striking the arena. 'Seals on his armor.' She replied in kind with several kunai, each of them spotted and deflected to the ground by a shuriken.

Ino smirked as the explosive tags on each detonated, separated them with a cloud of dust and smoke.

"Katon: Hosenka!" A dozen miniature fireballs ripped through the cloud moments later. He wasn't planning to hit her, it was clear from the way he spaced them out, he just wanted to draw her into the air as she avoided them.

She dropped low to the ground instead, felt the heat of the flames as they passed over her back, and threw a trio of shuriken low to the ground.

The Uchiha was the one who took to the air in the end, launching more miniaturized fireballs from his mouth after taking a breath.

'He has a limit.' Ino immediately noticed as she rose back to her feet and dodged to the side to avoid the trio of fireballs soaring towards her as the Uchiha began his descent back to the ground. 'What is it?' She quickly ran a mental count. 'Two when he jumped, three just then, and three more now. Eight.' She dodged the three newest fireballs as Sasuke landed on the ground.

'Nine.' She dodged his next small fireball. 'Ten.' She turned to the side, avoiding the tenth fireball.

'Twelve.' He fired two more to no avail. Ino jumped out of the way of both.

His hand fell from his mouth and he inhaled.

'His limit is twelve.' The number wasn't a comfort to Ino. 'He's a lot stronger than I thought.' She had studied the techniques Uchiha were known to use and, unsurprisingly, they had been Fire Release ones of varying power. The one he had just used, Fire Release: Phoenix Flower Technique, was one she made sure to remember. 'The usual Uchiha could fire six. Proper breathing and good Chakra control could increase that to ten. Twelve is pretty extreme especially with the size he fired them at.'

Ino looked at the Uchiha that she was facing and swallowed.

'He's not a prodigy for nothing it looks like.'

"Are you going to give up yet? Do you understand how hopeless it is to battle me?" Sasuke was looking for her to surrender and Ino cursed herself.

'He knows I'm afraid now.' She should have controlled herself better. She should have made sure to simply attack but she didn't. She couldn't help but think even in the heat of combat, think about how strong Sasuke Uchiha really was, and almost wish she hadn't gotten matched up with him.

'He's going to try to get me to forfeit.' She had to control herself. She needed to use this, get him off his guard and attack. 'I can't let him get in my head.'

"Are you scared of me that much Sasuke-kun?" She smiled at him, didn't need to hide her delight when something very important crossed his face.

Rage. If he was angry, he wasn't thinking clearly.

"I fear nothing." His words were clipped, his tone sharp. She had gotten under his skin rather quickly.

"You fear a lot, don't you?" The twitch of his face was telling. Her smile widened as she crossed her arms behind her back. "You're afraid of failure for one. I can see it in the way you're looking at me, the way you're standing like that. You're trying to hide it but you can't keep it hidden from me." Ino readied a handful of shuriken behind her back. Her smile widened. "Just admit it Sasuke-kun."

"I'm going to enjoy beating you."

'Predictable.' Her eyes didn't widen at the handful of shuriken he summoned to his hand to throw. She responded in kind. He threw more to counter hers as she drew a kunai to her hand to deflect the shuriken that were aimed for her, the other throwing another kunai forward.

Sasuke copied her from earlier. He dashed to her side and tried to run circles around her as he threw a number of shuriken towards her. She ran in a straight line to avoid it.

"Don't be more afraid than you already are Sasuke-kun, there's nothing to be ashamed about." A shuriken came close to her chest but a new kunai brought to her hand deflected it. She threw both forward and the Uchiha caught them out the air, his barrage ceasing as he glared at her. "I can see it in your eyes right now."

"Beneath all that anger, all the boasting, and all your pride, you're nothing but afraid." Ino's smile turned into something else as she came to a stop. She knew he wouldn't throw the kunai forward for now. He was using them to suppress his rage. She could tell by how white his knuckles wore. "You're afraid of so many things it's almost sad, almost enough to make me pity you."

Her two kunai were thrown but she didn't bother deflecting them. She kept her eyes focused on Sasuke as he rose his hands and formed a number of hand signs, his body nearly shaking with his rage.

'I struck a chord.' She had seen him form hand signs slowly before. It was a prelude to a powerful technique, one he wanted her to know was coming but couldn't stop. 'He's going to use something powerful.'

"Burn."

He didn't speak the name of the technique.

He merely breathed out an inferno.

'He's…how can he be so powerful?' Kiba wanted to growl as he saw the inferno the Uchiha unleashed in his anger from where he sat. 'How can he be so far ahead of me?' He remembered their almost clash in the hallway from over a month ago. He remembered how easy the Uchiha had put him on the floor when he tried to fight him before the Chunin Exams.

He hated the fact he was still so much weaker than the Uchiha. The fires raging below them, spreading to cover half the arena, were signs enough of the gap in their strength.

'I've got to get stronger if I want to beat him, beat Naruto.' He knew the blonde was stronger than the Uchiha. 'I've got to get stronger and stop him for Hinata.'

Sasuke didn't know of Kiba's silent vow and wouldn't care even if he did. All he cared for currently was burning the girl he was fighting to death.

'This…this…' The flames ceased as he dropped his hands to his side. He could only curse himself in that moment.

"You're good Yamanaka." Sasuke resisted the urge to run a hand over his sweating face. "Your plan was to get me to waste my Chakra in my anger as I tried to show you just how outclassed you were." He chuckled as he took in the dying flames of his attack. "I should have expected as much from you."

Ino burst out of the ground beneath him suddenly, a kunai in both hands slashing at him.

He grabbed hold of her wrist to stop her. He forced her arms out to her side as he smirked at her.

"You're still nowhere near good enough to beat me." He rose both feet and kicked her in the chest, launching himself off of her. He spun in the air to land on his feet while she was thrown through the air. He launched a number of shuriken at her by swinging his hand at her, letting their expulsion from the seal at his wrist send them forward. Ino successfully deflected all of them with her kunai as she twisted in the air and landed feet first in a crouch.

"Am I?" Sasuke only raised an eyebrow right before he heard the hissing below him. His eyes widened.

He hardly began to move when the ground at his feet exploded a moment later and Ino tossed her kunai to the side. They embedded into the ground and she reached into her ninja pouch before bringing her hand up to her mouth.

'Snake. Rat. Snake. Tiger.'

'She's better than I thought.' Sasuke admitted such a fact in the privacy of his own thoughts. He glanced to where his hastily arisen wall of dirt had saved him from taking the full force of the blast. He had managed to funnel enough of it to the side with the half dome. 'Far better.'

'I should use my Sharingan and end this.' It was tempting to use the Dojutsu. 'I should trap her in a Genjutsu and cripple her.' He wanted to do it but didn't. His eyes looked to the participant box and found Naruto's eyes watching the match. 'I promised a show after all.'

"Katon: Haisekisho!" The voice came from above him. The Uchiha shielded himself with his arms as a black cloud settled around him, expelled from Ino. His eyes widened for the second time in a matter of moments seconds later.

"Sh-" Ino bit down on the flint she had placed in her mouth to ignite the gunpowder.

AN: Nothing yet.