16. Chunin Exams Final: Roar Of A Tiger

AN: I'm sorry this took so long. Truth is, I hate most of it but trying to scrap it and rewrite it would just take even longer, so I'm just going to post this. Also, like before, besides two very obvious match ups, all of these fights were chosen by my brother who knows nothing about Naruto. I had too many variables and differences to do cannon even if I wanted to and that's as random as I can get people.

Story Start: Chunin Exam Stadium

Naruto held up a hand and said "First round of the Chunin Exams, Neji Hyuga, are you ready?" When Neji nodded, Naruto said "Hinata Hyuga, are you ready?" Getting a second nod, Naruto's hand flashed down as he said "Then you may begin!"

Naruto took a chakra enhanced jump back as the two Hyugas stared at each other. Hinata automatically went into her stance but Neji remained in a casual position. He frowned at the stance Hinata took since it was a little different than the Gentle Fist beginner stance although it turns out he was frowning for another reason as well when he said "Lady Hinata, a word of advice before we fight. You're not cut out to be a shinobi. You should forfeit."

Hinata blinked but before she could ask what her cousin was going on about, Neji continued "You're all sweetness and light, a peacemaker, not a troublemaker. You're easily led, not a leader. And you have no self-confidence. You've got a world class inferiority complex, so I know you'd have been more comfortable and content staying at the Genin level. But applicants for the higher level Chunin selection exam must compete as a trio, and you couldn't bear to let your teammates down. The truth is, your participation has been reluctant from the start, hasn't it? You're the sheltered little baby of the Main Branch, aren't you? You have no self confidence and everyone is forced to go out of their way to protect you. Face it, you are a failure, and a failure always fails. A leopard doesn't change its spots, and your weak personality will never become strong. "

Hinata frowned as she thought 'Brave?'

'Yeah Hinata?' Her fighting spirit asked.

"Let's show my cousin how wrong he is.'

'With pleasure!'

Hinata's coat flashed green before she blurred at Neji whose eyes widened before he hastily deflected Hinata's palm strike from his chest but wasn't ready for the foot that came and sent him skidding as Hinata connected with Neji's left ribs. As Neji skidded to the side, his eyes widened as he saw his cousin use the momentum of the kick to turn towards him even as she pushed off with her left foot. She landed right in front of Neji who had stopped skidding and launched a retaliatory strike at her chest only for Hinata's own palm strike that she had sent out as soon as her feet touched the ground to hit it exactly dead center. The hit should have jarred Hinata's shoulder but she instantly bent her elbow and spun into Neji's guard and slammed her elbow into his face blowing him back from the condensed chakra she had put into the strike that mimicked the Gale Palm Jutsu.

As she turned to face her cousin again and fell back into her starting stance Hinata's lips quirked as she said "Tell me Neji, if I didn't want to be here, then why didn't I drop out when I had the chance to during the preliminaries. Also, I think you'll find that I'm more of a tiger person than a leopard. As for never changing my spots or in my case, stripes, people change them almost everyday as new experiences change what define us."

Neji growled as he got back to his feet and said "Foolish philosophical talk from a person who tries to deny their fate! You are bound to lose today and remain a failure Lady Hinata. That is your fate, and it shall always be your fate."

Chuckling from their proctor caused Neji to snap his head over to Naruto as the blond said "Oh, you have no idea how wrong you are on that count."

Neji opened his mouth to reply but suddenly found his mouth slammed shut as Hinata appeared in front of him and jumped up sending her right chakra coated foot crashing into Neji's chin. The force of Hinata's kick forced Neji's head back even as his body lifted to the same height and Hinata took advantage of that fact as she slammed a chakra infused palm strike into his stomach where the primary chakra coils started.

Neji was sent flying back and landed hard on his back while Hinata landed with the grace of a ballerina who had just performed a jump as part of her dance. Neji quickly got to his feet and used his chakra to unseal the Tenketsu that Hinata's strike had closed. Growling at his cousin's apparent luck since neither had activated their Byakugan yet, he snarled out "Congratulations Lady Hinata, I thought you were too soft hearted to take advantage of a person's distraction that way. But now it gets serious!"

Neji's Byakugan blazed into existence as he rushed his cousin who settled into her own stance and her coat suddenly turned yellow and markings that looked like spectacles appeared around her eyes. Neji briefly wondered what happened to his cousin but put that thought to the side as he concentrated on beating her to a pulp. Those plans were put on hold by Hinata herself though as she began dancing around Neji's strikes almost before he could launch them. And to make things worse, she hadn't even activated her own Byakugan yet.

Up in the stands, Hiashi sat next to his youngest daughter as well as other members of the Hyuga clan including all of the elder council. Hiashi frowned as he saw his eldest daughter's coat change color and markings appeared around her eyes. 'Is this her presence? I thought it was supposed to resemble a tiger.' Hiashi thought. His frown lightened slightly as Hinata began dodging her cousin's attacks while making it seem easy as she did so. And without her Byakugan either.

"It seems that Uzumaki has trained her well." Said Himobi, one of the eldest members of the council. The other elders nodded to the old woman's words although another frowned and said "Still, an outsider training our clan heir for this match does not sit well with me."

"Nor with me, but we really had no choice." Another elder said.

Hanabi frowned as the elders talked to themselves. Back in her academy days, her sister had seemed so weak. But now, she seemed to be easily holding her own against her cousin who was called a prodigy. Perhaps she should ask this Uzumaki person for training when she finished learning the Gentle Fist style. It wouldn't hurt to get the same training as her sister.

She was brought out of her thoughts when her sister's coat suddenly switched from yellow to green and Hinata went from dodging Neji's strikes to laying into him with a furious onslaught.

Back in the arena, Hinata dodged a palm strike that was aimed for her shoulder and thought 'I think we've got him mad enough, don't you?'

'Yeah, lets really put him to the test!' No question about who had sent that thought.

Hinata's coat switched colors from yellow to green and the markings around her eyes disappeared in favor for her activated Byakugan. Neji had a split second after the fact to take note of the changes before Hinata disengaged her resistance seal and shot at him with speeds that were easily double what she had been moving at in the beginning of the fight. As Hinata began landing blow after blow on his arms Neji was forced to backpedal to keep her from hitting his chest. That only worked for about twenty seconds though as Hinata suddenly seemed to disappear from his vision for a fraction of a second and he felt a painful strike land on his back. Gritting his teeth, Neji thought 'I didn't want to show this so soon but it seems I have no choice. I cannot believe she has forced me to use this!'

Neji suddenly began spinning forcing chakra out of his Tenketsu as he shouted "Rotation!" A spinning dome of chakra that flickered due to his closed Tenketsu shot out of his body throwing Hinata back before she back flipped and landed on her feet skidding. When she stopped, her eyes widened slightly at the sight of a very shallow but wide crater that had formed around her cousin.

"You learned Rotation?" Hinata asked with a raised eyebrow. She knew her cousin was a genius so it didn't surprise her that he could, more like that he was able to do it before he turned fifteen. Inside her head, Knowledge was going into overdrive trying to figure out how to get past the Hyuga's so called "Ultimate Defense".

Neji had a smug smirk on his face as he unlocked his blocked Tenketsu and said "Surprised that a lowly Branch member could figure it out? This only proves that it is your fate to lose to me today."

Up in the stands, all of the elders and Hiashi were stunned that Neji was able to learn a Main branch technique seemingly by himself. Hinata however was more focused on getting through the technique than wondering how he learned it.

'You're going to have to slice through it. Your Chakra Wave jutsu should suffice if you sharpen the edge enough.' Knowledge said.

'That could work, but I don't want to slice him to pieces as well.' Hinata thought back.

'He would deserve it for all of this crap abut fate he keeps throwing out of his mouth.' Rude said before Hinata heard him shout in pain.

'We do not maim or otherwise do permanent and/or major harm to family members, no matter how much they annoy us. We are better than that.' That was Hinata's 'Deadly Sin' aspect talking as it channeled her pride.

'Yeah, it's not nice!' Happy said adding her two cents.

'I say she just lets us out along with Whitey over here and we mess with his head a bit.' Rage thought with an evil chuckle.

Hinata cocked her head to the side as all of her aspects shouted 'YEAH!' 'Atori?' Hinata asked.

'Hm, could work. And the others could use the exercise.'

'HEY!'

Hinata winced at the eight shouts but nodded her head and looked back at Neji who was running towards her. The conversation in her head had taken a little under ten seconds but it seems that Neji was being a little impatient. Grinning, Hinata said "Hey Neji, want to know why I said I'm more of a tiger person?"

Nine tigers of different colors suddenly fazed into existence in a row in front of Hinata causing Neji's eyes to widen. He was so surprised that he didn't even notice that only one tiger wasn't semi transparent. All nine tigers grinned (even if one was timidly) before they opened their mouths and let loose with roars that shook the stadium.

"RRRAAAAWRAAAAAWWWWWRRRRRR!"

The roars of nine fully grown tigers practically right in front of you is enough to make your ears ring if not make you deaf. To make matters worse for Neji, a shockwave shot out of the pure white tiger's mouth from where it was standing protectively in front of Hinata in the center of the line. The shockwave slammed into Neji and sent him flying a good fifteen feet before he landed skidding as he held his ears.

Up in the stands, everyone also had clapped their ears as the nine simultaneous roars ripped through the air making their eardrums rattle. In the Hyuga section Hanabi was staring at the pure white tiger in shock since she had already noticed that it seemed more real than the other eight. She could hear the elders talking to themselves in an excited manner while her father had an unidentifiable look on his face as he studied the results of a month of training under someone who knew how to manifest the effects of their presence.

Up in the Kage booth, Sarutobi had a grin on his face at the sight of nine tigers standing in front of the Hyuga clan heir. From his right, Onoki gave a low whistle as he said "That's some presence the girl has. And to think, it appears that one of those tigers is actually physically there as well."

"Indeed. Being able to manipulate one's presence is an extremely rare and useful skill to have. I do not believe I have ever heard of a physical manifestation of someone's presence though." The Kazekage said as he leaned forward slightly in obvious interest.

Sarutobi's grin grew as he said "Indeed. She was trained by one of my best who knows how to use his own presence for the month but I never imagined he would be able to do such a good job with the time constraints they had."

Back in the arena, Neji was just getting up as he stared at the nine tigers in front of him. His Byakugan clearly showed them being there but he didn't see any chakra so it wasn't a Genjutsu. But because there was no chakra in them, his brain couldn't come to terms with the fact that they were actually there. He was brought out of his thoughts when Hinata allowed herself a grin as she said "Have fun guys."

She received four grins in response as Brave, Knowledge, Arrogance, and Rage launched themselves from their positions in the line and ran at Neji. Neji prepared himself to defend but was momentarily caught off guard as the green and red tiger put on a burst of speed and rushed around him to form a circle before the two turned and in perfect synchronism with the yellow and lavender tigers rushed him from all four sides at once.

As soon as they were in range Neji started spinning forming the chakra dome a second time. But to his surprise, all four tigers passed through the dome like it wasn't even there before they leapt at him. Neji's eyes widened but then the tigers passed straight through him before landing on the opposite sides of where they started.

Neji blinked before he started laughing. Looking at his cousin he said "This is the best you can do? I was actually worried for a moment, but this just makes it even more clear to me that you will never be nothing but a failure!"

Hinata rose an eyebrow while Atori began growling. Suddenly, the other eight tigers seemed to faze out of existence and his once pure white fur began flashing the eight different colors as he reabsorbed the parts of Hinata's aspects that the girl had helped him manifest. His fur then shifted back to white as his eyes turned from regular storm grey to pupil less lavender eyes and the veins around said eyes suddenly bulged as a Byakugan blazed into existence.

Neji had exactly two seconds to get over his shock before Atori let loose a roar, this time without the shockwave, and began running at him. Neji smirked and took a casual stance obviously expecting this tiger to pass straight through him as well. What he hadn't noticed was that while the first four tigers hadn't left any footprints, the mass of fur, muscle and teeth that was currently charging at him was leaving footprints with every step it took. Atori reached Neji's form in seconds and he suddenly reared up and let loose with another roar as he swung his right front paw and slammed it into Neji's face earning wide eyes from everyone in the stadium besides Naruto and Hinata as Neji was sent flying a good twenty five feet away by the blow. He was lucky that Atori didn't use his claws or else his face would be a mess of cuts right now instead of just having a massive bruise forming and he would probably be short one eye as well.

But Neji's problems weren't over as Hinata was suddenly right next to him with her leg raised parallel with her back and her foot coated in chakra. Hinata let loose with her axe kick and Neji had to quickly roll to the side to avoid both it and contributing to the crater that formed when her foot hit the ground. Neji tried to strike at Hinata's legs from his position only for Hinata to hop over the strike and slash her arm down. A thin laser like beam of chakra suddenly shot out of her pointer finger and Neji screamed in pain as the beam sliced along the arm burning the skin. If Hinata hadn't toned the focus of the beam down, it would have gone straight through skin and bone. As it was, it left a large burn along the entire length of Neji's right arm. Hinata landed and dropped into a crouch as she slammed a chakra infused palm into Neji's stomach, hitting one of the ten pressure points that Naruto had told her about over the month sending even more pain into Neji's form as he instinctively curled in on himself. When Neji was finally able to get over the pain, he felt a kunai resting against his jugular and saw the tiger standing over his form with its mouth open as if it was just waiting for the command to take a chunk out of his face.

"Yield Neji. You have lost this match." Hinata said calmly.

Neji gritted his teeth before he rose his right hand and said "Proctor, I forfeit."

Naruto nodded and said "Neji Hyuga has forfeited, therefore Hinata Hyuga is the winner."

The crowd erupted in cheers as Hinata put away her kunai and held a hand out for Neji to take. Neji though scowled and swatted it away as he stood on his own and began making his way to the balcony where everyone else participating in the exams were. Hinata frowned before she said "Neji, use this fight as a lesson. We make our own fates, and we're not bound to some predetermined destiny."

Neji's form paused for the briefest of seconds before he kept moving causing Hinata to sigh. By her side, Atori snorted and said "That kid needs some serious therapy."

Hinata shot Atori a look that obviously said she wasn't amused and Atori quickly apologized before he fazed out of existence. Naruto walked over and said in a low voice "Well done my apprentice." Hinata blushed as Naruto continued in a louder voice "Now if you'd please head back to the balcony so that we can get the second fight done."

Hinata nodded and began walking towards the tunnel her cousin had taken. As she did so, Naruto took his position in the center of the field and said "Will Shino Aburame and Rico Uzumaki please come down for their fight."

Rico and Shino both turned from their spots on the balcony and began walking towards the stairs. Naruto only had to wait a minute before he saw both boys come walking out of the tunnel. As he waited, he looked up at the Kage booth and saw the three village leaders talking about the last match. Naruto smiled as he was able to read the words likely and promoted off of the Tsushikage's lips. If the leader of the village that was the Hidden Leaf's primary enemy during the last war thought one of their ninja did good then that really said something about that person. Naruto just hoped that they were talking about Hinata.

He brought his attention back to his immediate surroundings as Shino and Rico took their positions in front of him. Looking at the two, he saw that Shino was as stoic as ever while Rico was standing as tense as a coiled spring ready to be unleashed. Smirking at that thought, Naruto said "Are you two ready?" Getting a nod and a monotone "Yes." from Shino and another nod and a much more lively "You know it." from Rico, Naruto rose his hand and said "Then second round, Begin!"

Naruto slashed his hand down and took a chakra laced jump to give the two some space for their fight. As soon as Naruto's hand fell down, Sparks began appearing all over Rico's body as he said "Just a friendly warning before we start. I wouldn't try to use your bugs to drain my chakra if I were you. I spent most of this month learning how to become a living bug zapper."

"I appreciate the warning, even if it is not very shinobi like of you to do so." Shino said in a monotone voice as he adjusted his sunglasses. The slight insult seemed to just wash over Rico as the two continued to stare at each other for a moment before Rico took a huge chakra laced jump back even as he blitzed through hand signs. Landing on the ground, he calmly said 'Lightning Style: Lightning Kunai Jutsu!" Eight kunai formed in his hands and he began throwing them one at a time at Shino who took a single jump back before he began back flipping with one hand to avoid them. (Think how he jumps backward in Naruto Storm Generation.) It wasn't that hard since Rico was only making even more distance between the two than his jump had made. That became obvious to Shino as Rico began a long chain of hand seals before he stopped on the common Lighting hand sign and said "Lightning Style: Lightning Wave Jutsu!" The sparks around Rico's body suddenly began multiplying like crazy before a literal wave of electricity shot out of his body expanding the further it went. By the time it reached Shino's form thirty feet away, the wave of electricity was easily twenty feet wide and fifteen feet tall.

The wave rushed at Shino at speeds no Genin should be able to avoid. But before it could zap Shino into unconsciousness like Rico had optimistically hoped, Shino vanished in a whirlwind of beetles before he reappeared to Rico's right breathing at a slightly faster pace than normal. Rico allowed the wave to sizzle out as he rose an eyebrow in appreciation and said "You've learned how to shunshin at our early age? And you've even managed to adapt it to better represent who you are. Well color me impressed."

"Thank you. I thought it prudent to learn this technique considering what you showed during the preliminaries since I had no way of knowing if there would be sufficient objects to replace myself with." Shino replied in his usual stoic voice.

Rico's head raised a bit along with his eyebrows as he h'mmed before his Katars were suddenly out with wind circling around him before he spun in a circle while slashing first his right Katar at Shino and then his left. As the blades were swung, the circling winds shot towards Shino's form like miniature Horizontal Tornado jutsu. The two wind vortexes rushed at Shino twice as fast as his Lightning Wave jutsu and slammed into Shino's body, only for said bug user to suddenly explode into hundreds of bugs that took to the air. Turning his head to look behind him, Rico said "I have to say that I'm even more impressed that you could make a clone of yours form that far away from you and having it seem to be the real you by seeming to appear in a shunshin as well."

Shino stepped out of the nearby woods that was part of their arena and said "Your observation skills are rather good. That clone was supposed to fool you for a bit longer."

Rico h'mmed again before he shot at Shino's form with his Katars already in position to hit him in the elbows. Shino quickly hopped backwards not wanting to risk blocking with kunai since Rico was still sparking. He couldn't afford to be distracted by any kind of electrical shock. Rico followed his opponent into the woods before Shino was suddenly covered in smoke and a log dropped down to the ground.

'Damn, I just let him lead me to right where he wanted me to go.' Rico thought as he looked around the woods trying to find his opponent. Not an easy task when the guy could make his coat blend in well with the surrounding bark of the tree by having his insects cover it in certain patterns. As he swiveled his head to search, Rico activated his Katars splitting function and began coating them in wind extending both their sharpness and reach. This would allow him to react faster to any threats as well as help make Shino think twice about trying to get close enough to engage him in close range. The sparks around him would keep the bugs away, now he had a fly swatter for the human as well. He was brought from his musings as he heard the sound of metal flying through the air coming from both of his sides. Rico flicked his Katars and sparks flew before the two kunai landed in the ground as Rico suddenly ducked to avoid the weighted end of a chain that had a five pound ball attached to the end. Looking at where the chain came from, he saw Shino holding the other end with rubber gloves on his hands.

Rico rose an eyebrow and said "Interesting weapon. I was under the impression that you Aburame don't use any weapons other than kunai since you rely mostly on your bugs to help. And why do you have rubber gloves with you? Are you planning on scrubbing the kitchen floor when you are done with this fight?"

"It would not be wise to get close to you while you have those weapons of yours. So I learned how to use the chain during this month. As for the gloves, I always keep them with me in case I fight an opponent like you. Do not fool yourself into thinking that you are the first shinobi with the Lightning element to think of constantly channeling it to keep our bugs at bay."

Rico h'mmed at that before he said "Yeah well, I bet I'm the first shinobi you'll see do this." 'Using this is way overkill. But it seems that he has counters for everything else so I'm going to have to do it to really put him on defense.' Rico's katars were quickly sheathed as he began running through hand signs, as he said "There's a reason why I'm called the Thunderstorm by my friends, that is true, what's not true is it's just because of my third element. It's because of my combining of the three." Stopping on one that was unfamiliar to the Aburame, Rico shouted "Storm Style: Raging Hurricane Jutsu!"

Rico's chakra skyrocketed as it became visible making the Whirlpool nin look like he was in a blazing bonfire. The chakra then shot into the air and began spreading out as it began manipulating the air around it drawing all of the moisture together to form storm clouds and also drawing all of the static electricity in the air into the clouds causing them to spark. The clouds began spinning, merging into each other until there was just one mass of clouds that covered the arena with an eye forming in the center of the cloud mass.

Up in the stands, Tsunami frowned as she thought 'Why are you using that technique Rico? Do you really think you need the extra edge that comes with it?'

In the participant's balcony, both Reina and Rachel sighed when they saw the clouds form beneath them as Rachel said "There he goes again, blowing everything completely out of proportion."

Reina frowned and said "Yeah, but for him to go this far and use his ace, how frustrated is he with his opponent? I wish we could see what's happening in those woods properly. For him to use something like this in an exam, especially so soon, his opponent must be either really good or really frustrating."

"Or both. I've heard that the members of the Aburame clan are almost as good tacticians as the Nara clan." Rachel said.

Most of the other participants looked at the two with incredulous looks at how casually they were talking about their teammate forming a typhoon out of thin air.

Back in the woods, Shino frowned as he looked up at the clouds that had formed through the branches of the trees. Looking back down as lightning flashed inside the clouds, he said "While it is certainly impressive that you can do so, I do not believe the situation you find yourself in requires the need to make an artificial Hurricane. Unless you plan to use the rain that I am sure is to come and the lightning within to try and electrocute me. However, even that seems excessive."

Rico grinned as the clouds suddenly started spinning faster gaining speeds of a real class one hurricane and rain began to pour down as he said "While it's true that you can use this jutsu that way, trying to be that accurate with the lightning is practically impossible without a level of chakra control that I am no where near possessing. So I'm going to keep the lightning in the clouds instead where they can add to the storms power. No, what I'm using this for is for the other two elements. Now let's see how you fight when even the weather is against you!"

As if Rico's words were the cue, the clouds began spinning even faster as the lightning inside added more heat. The rain began falling down in sheets that severely limited one's vision and the wind picked up enough to make the trees groan as the storm's rotating force was kicked into high gear. Shino felt his feet beginning to leave the ground and quickly applied chakra to his feet to be kept from blowing away. That soon became a secondary worry though as Rico launched himself at Shino using the wind at his back to augment his speed.

Shino could barely make out the vague form of his opponent as the rain hindered his sight which was already hindered by his sunglasses. The fact that the wind made the rain almost literally dance in the air before it hit the ground wasn't helping either. When Rico rushed him, Shino had exactly two seconds to bring his chain up between both hands and block the sparking fist. However, this left him open to Rico's simultaneous kick that landed unhindered against Shino's right side sending shocks of electricity through the bug user's body. The shocks were no where near lethal but they did the job in making Shino lose his focus and Rico began laying into Shino causing him to be shocked even more times. Shino tried to fight back but the rain made it hard to see and the wind hard to move. And his concentration was constantly broken by the small electrical shocks he was receiving. And the sound of the trees groaning as they were pushed around by the wind didn't help in that department either.

Up in the stands, no one could see anything besides Naruto with a visible shell of chakra that surrounded him as he stood in the eye of the miniature hurricane with his eyes closed. Anyone who had worked with the blond could recognize the signs of the blond using his chakra viewing technique since his chakra filled the entire eye and most assumed that it went further underneath the clouds. There were murmurs as everyone commented on the glimpses of the storm they could see under the clouds at the opposite side of the eye that they were sitting and the multiple flashes of lightning that continued going off in the clouds. The Kages were using the time to talk about if creating a Hurricane could be seen as being too impatient or if it was a viable strategy if used right. Five minutes later there was finally a break from the lack of nothing to see as Naruto's chakra suddenly dissipated and he took a step to the side as the battered and bruised form of Shino suddenly landed on the ground not five feet beside him and rolled once before he got to his legs shakily trying to recover from the extremely strong kick that Rico had just landed on his chest.

Said whirlpool nin shot into the eye already in a jump before he slammed his fist into Shino's jaw sending the Aburame to the floor again. This time Shino remained unmoving and Rico sighed before he squeezed the water out of his hair. He then made two hand signs and everyone saw the storm begin to rapidly dissipate. Within a minute the storm clouds were gone and the sun was shining into the arena revealing that most of the trees had began to bend in sharp angles in one direction and a few of the thinner ones were actually cracked. There was also a large amount of small puddles spread throughout the arena.

Naruto quickly took a few steps and crouched to check on the Aburame. Seeing that he wasn't in need of emergency attention, he took a moment to observe the small electrical burns that covered his body. 'Rico wasn't messing around.' Naruto thought before he stood back up and said "Shino Aburame is unconscious, winner: Rico Uzumaki." The crowd cheered and Rico gave them a wave as he began walking to the tunnel.

As he passed Naruto, the blond said in a low voice "A little extreme don't you think?"

Rico Tched as he said "The guy had counters for everything else I could use. I needed to be able to get close without him being able to counter properly."

"So you used the storm." Naruto stated already knowing everything that had happened in the woods. Rico nodded and continued on his way while the medics passed and began carrying Shino after him. Looking towards the participant balcony, he said "Misumi Tsurugi, Rock Lee, will you two please come down for your match."

Everyone heard a "Yosh! Time to show my flames of youth!" before a green blur shot out of the balcony and landed on the ground fifty feet from Naruto before it was suddenly beside the blond and turned into Lee who began doing stretches as he waited for his more sane opponent to take the normal way down. Naruto had to let a little chuckle out at Lee's enthusiasm as the two waited for Misumi to join them which thankfully for Naruto's sake only took about a minute.

Once both were in front of him, Naruto said "Fighters ready?"

"YOSH!" (No question of who said that.)

"Yes." Misumi said.

Naruto nodded and slashed his hand down as he jumped back and said "Third round begin!"

The fight, if you could call what happened next a fight, was short and brutal. Lee shot forward and slammed his fist into Misumi's chest. Misumi folded in on himself before he took a rising kick to his chin and was sent upward while Lee jumped after him. As soon as Misumi stopped rising, a flipping Lee was in front of him before he was hit by Lee's axe kick. The one-without-spandex slammed into the ground and created a half foot deep crater with his impact. Lee landed and immediately took a ready stance even as Naruto appeared right next to his opponent already in a crouch with his fingers checking his pulse. He was relieved to feel one although when he saw Misumi's eyes he figured the guy would be out for a while considering the hollow look in them. Standing back up, he said "Misumi is unconscious. Winner, Lee. Medics."

Hesitant clapping came from the audience as they tried to come to terms with the fact that the fight barely lasted ten seconds. Lee mean while was running around like a chicken with his head cut off doing a victory dance as he shouted to his sensei that he did it and said sensei shouted back how proud he was of his student's flames of youth. Naruto gained a tick mark after this continued for a full two minutes, by which time the medics had already came and left with the unconscious Misumi. Using the Big Head jutsu that Iruka had taught him, Naruto shouted "GET OFF MY FIELD!" Lee 'eeped' and ran in the direction of the tunnel that Naruto was pointing at.

Scene Change: Hidden Leaf Village Academy: Running Track

Konohamaru's class was currently running laps around the academy's track while Iruka watched them when they suddenly heard a far off voice shout "GET OFF MY FIELD!" causing all of the kids to look in that direction wondering what was going on.

Iruka smirked as he recognized the volume of the shout and thought 'Ah, a true masterpiece of the art of getting people's attention. I was wondering when Naruto would use my jutsu.'

Scene Change: Chunin Stadium

Naruto sighed as he passed a hand through his hair before he looked at where the rest of the exam takers were waiting for their turn and said "Will Reina Uzumaki and Shikamaru please come down."

Up on the balcony, Shikamaru sighed and said "Troublesome. Why do I have to fight a girl?"

Reina frowned at Shikamaru and said "Because we were randomly chosen to fight each other. Now get moving sloth or I'll throw you down there." The guy had proven to be extremely lazy and Reina wanted to teach the guy a lesson for complaining about having to fight a girl.

Shikamaru sighed as he gave a muttered "Troublesome." He then turned and began walking towards the nearby stairs. Reina walked right behind him to make sure he actually got in front of Naruto before the sun set. Once they were in front of him, Naruto said "Fighters ready?" Reina nodded and said "Yes." Shikamaru muttered a troublesome before he nodded as well. Naruto also nodded as he said "Fourth Round Begin!"

Naruto disappeared not wanting to be anywhere near Reina in case she decided to start things off with a metaphorical bang. His precautions were a good thing as Reina jumped back as she blitzed through hand signs before she shouted "Water Style: Thousand Needles Jutsu!" When she landed, the water in the puddles surrounding her bulged before needles shot out of the puddles towards Shikamaru in a crossfire.

Shikamaru cursed and instantly leapt back into a back flip as he began putting as much distance between him and those needles. As soon as he came out of the back flip he did a handless cartwheel to the side before doing another back flip. He continued to do this as he made a zigzag pattern to the arena wall and then began flipping up it as the justu shot exactly a thousand needles at him. The jutsu finally ran out when Shikamaru had reached a point about five feet from the top of the wall and had gone full circle around the rim. He was slightly panting since he hadn't expected the jutsu to last so long. It had easily shot ten or twenty needles for the first few groups but after that it had been just one needle after another. As soon as the jutsu ended all of the water senbon suddenly dispersed and the water fell back to the ground. Shikamaru breathed a sigh of relief as he continued to catch his breath. Just dodging his opponent's opening jutsu had left him almost as tired as one of his teacher's evasion training sessions. The only difference was that Asuma used wind senbon instead of water and hadn't sent them all at him one after another without any breaks like that.

Reina meanwhile was considering her situation as she looked up at the Nara clan heir. Thanks to her technique, there was no way Shikamaru's shadow could now reach her due to both the distance and the fact that he was on the part of the wall that the sun was shining fully on. As long as she was able to keep him at that distance she should be fine. The problem with that was that she didn't have many long range jutsu that she was confident would hit him without doing massive amounts of damage to the wall that could potentially harm the audience due to flying debris. As an Uzumaki, Reina was naturally a predominately Ninjutsu specialist. That meant that most of her jutsu were the kind you'd expect from a Jinchuriki since she had enough chakra to launch Water Dragons almost all day without getting tired. But she couldn't use such destructive techniques when they would tear huge chunks out of the wall even if they didn't miss their target. Reina sighed at her apparent lack of ability to use jutsu anymore before she reached into her kunai pouch.

Up in the Kage booth, Onoki studied the situation with a critical eye as he said "It was smart of her to drive the kid as far away from her as possible, but now she has to deal with that distance between them."

"I'm sure that she will figure out a way. After all, the Uzumakis in Bangal wouldn't have sent her team to the elemental nations if they weren't confident in each of their abilities." Sarutobi said.

The two other Kages blinked before both turned to their counterpart and Onoki said "Bangal? I've never heard of a place called that before. Where is it? You make it sound like it's not part of the continent."

Sarutobi chuckled and said "That's because it's not. It's actually a port city on the continent to the east of us."

Both Kages frowned as the Kazekage said "There is another continent? I thought ours was the only one since it's a super continent. "

Sarutobi just chuckled and continued watching the fight.

Reina meanwhile took out a scroll and unsealed what looked like a cross bow with out the bow string. Everyone began muttering to themselves wondering what she was going to do with a weapon that didn't have one of the most important things that made it work. But then she pulled the tanto that she always kept strapped to her back over her right shoulder out and placed it into the slot where crossbow bolts usually went. Reina pushed down on the tanto and all of the shinobi in the arena heard a faint click as the tanto snapped into place in a hollowed out hole. Shikamaru looked down at the girl trying to figure out what the troublesome redhead was up to. He got his answer when a bow string of chakra suddenly stretched across the bow part of the weapon and stretched back. Once the weapon was cocked, a chakra image of Reina's tanto was suddenly in front of the bowstring fully notched due to the odd indent in her tanto's handle. Then Reina took aim and fired sending the chakra tanto flying at Shikamaru who quickly had to dodge the speeding projectile that had easily triple the speed a thrown kunai should have.

Shikamaru stared at the blade's hilt that was the only thing still visible. Then the chakra sword burst apart into chakra's more natural gas like form and dispersed into the air leaving a hole easily a foot deep. He was snapped out of his look of fascination and slight fear as Reina shouted "Eyes up Nara!" Shikamaru's head snapped back to Reina's form just in time to see her snap off five more shots within a second of each other creating a nice spread with the first sword in the middle of a square that the other blades formed. Shikamaru cursed before he quickly jumped to the side and stuck to the wall again as the swords shot into the wall not two feet from him. Shikamaru cursed again as it became extremely obvious that he did not have enough maneuverability up here since he had to contend with gravity all the time.

Up in the Kage Booth, the Kazekage was looking at Reina's weapon in obvious interest as he said "A very interesting weapon. Obviously it has seals to allow the weapon to make a bow string out of chakra as well as chakra copies of her close range weapon. And it appears that it has quite the penetration power as well."

"Hm, and if I'm not mistaken, she's using wind chakra for the ammunition as well." Onoki said.

Reina meanwhile had cocked her weapon again and had began taking pot shots at Shikamaru while making sure that she kept him away from the shadows that were on the wall. This kept up for another seven or eight minutes before Reina appeared to get bored. She lowered her crossbow making Shikamaru breath a sigh of relief as he crouched before he saw her take out the scroll again and used another seal that held what looked like a small telescope. Rachel then attached the scope to the crossbow stock and then unsealed another attachment which extended said stock. Reina placed the stock against her shoulder so that she could look through the spy glass even as she pushed a button on the telescope. Shikamaru was confused at this before he noticed out of the bottom of his eyes a red dot that was just above his bent knee. Shikamaru's eyes widened before another chakra tanto nearly took his knee off. It would have too if he hadn't moved as soon as he saw the dot. Shikamaru cursed as this just got a lot harder since before Reena's aim was affected by the distance. Now she had a counter and was sniping him instead of just trying to get a lucky hit.

To anybody who knew the Nara clan, it was obvious that Reina was keeping her opponent on his toes so that way he couldn't come up with a plan to fight her. It seemed to work for another four minutes before Shikamaru suddenly threw out two kunai with balls attached to their ends which exploded in bright light that mimicked a thousand candles once the kunai were thirty feet away from him. Everyone's eyes snapped shut in pain, and when they could finally open their eyes again, they saw that Shikamaru had disappeared.

Reina frowned when she saw that her opponent had managed to give her the slip. Looking at the opposite end of the wall showed that he wasn't there preparing to use the wall's shadow to augment his own. Which left the choices of either him being underground in order to get closer or in the forest that was on the same side as the dark wall trying to come up with a plan.

Reina sighed as she flicked a lever on the side of her crossbow that read single fire on the top, semi automatic in the middle, and automatic on the bottom. 'I hate having to use these. They're such a drain on my chakra.' With her weapon on fully automatic, Reina aimed at one side of the woods and held down the trigger as her weapon began spitting out one tanto right after the other not even bothering resetting the bow string which had disappeared because a completely different launching system was being used thanks to seals. Reina swept the weapon across the woods tearing it apart before she reached the end and flipped the weapon back to single fire and popped the tanto out of its slot before she broke the crossbow apart and put all of its parts into their proper seals.

As she was doing this, most of the audience had their jaws on the floor as they all collectively thought 'What the hell?' Hearing people asking just what kind of weapon her niece was using, Tsunami chuckled and thought 'Ah, the wonders of seals. Of course, being able to learn how firearms work certainly helped when Elder Tanos was making it for her. I swear, that man could build a super laser that could destroy the moon if he wanted to. Good thing he's more of a professional gun expert than a mad scientist.'

Up in the Kage booth, Onoki and the Kazekage were drooling at such a weapon, literally, Sarutobi could actually see the Kazekage's veil dampening. Chuckling, he said "Impressive isn't it? Too bad it's more greedy than an Akimichi who hasn't eaten for a week when it comes to using chakra in that mode."

The two Kages looked at him as if he had just brutally murdered a thousand puppies in front of them.

"B-But I want one!" The Kazekage whimpered in a low voice that Sarutobi managed to still hear due to the fact that he was sitting next to him and had sharp ears. This caused Sarutobi to give a belly laugh before he said "You'll have to ask their Jounin sensei if she can replicate it then." 'Although I doubt she'd agree considering who's asking and what's going to happen after all this.'

While the two foreign Kages were drooling like kids in a candy store, (something which was widely copied by other ninja in the audience including one weapon using girl with buns in her hair who had stars in her eyes and sparkles surrounding her head as she drooled at the weapon.) Reina had sheathed her tanto and was now going through hand signs before she stomped her foot on the ground and said "Earth Style: Earth's Tremble Jutsu!" The Earth jutsu took a lot more chakra since it wasn't one of her natural elements but it could be said that the results were well worth it as the ground shook strongly once and cracks formed before the ground uplifted itself in huge chunks. (Think of what Sakura did to uncover Kakashi during her and Naruto's fight against him in the beginning of Shippuden.) Everyone saw Shikamaru who was ten feet behind Reina. Shikamaru cursed as Reina turned her head and gave an evil smirk as she said "Got ya." The last thing Shikamaru saw was a full body resistance seal flaring before he had a fist in his stomach.

As Shikamaru's unconscious form fell off of Reina's fist, Naruto appeared and said "Shikamaru Nara is unconscious, therefore Reina Uzumaki wins. We will now take a ten minute break to repair the arena. Please use this time to visit the concession stands and bathroom as the next break won't be until after the last fight of the first round."

Most of the audience began to stand up while others decided to remain seated as everyone talked about the fights so far. Meanwhile, earth style users came and began repairing the arena floor while the woods suddenly started repairing themselves as if there was someone out there using the fabled Wood style. (wink, wink) The Kages began talking to themselves about the fight and whether or not using what counted in the elemental nations as a chakra powered machine gun to mow down a forest to make sure your opponent wasn't there was a sound tactic or just overkill.

As this was happening, Naruto walked with Reina towards the tunnel to let them work as he said "You and your brother have been doing well so far."

Reina gained a slight blush as she said "Thank you Naruto." The two then split up with Reina heading to the balcony and Naruto going to use the water fountain by the restrooms.

Ten minutes later, the arena was back in its original condition and everyone was seated. Naruto appeared in the center of the arena drawing everyone's attention as he said "The Fifth Round is about to start. Will Temari of the Desert and Ten Ten please come down for their fight." (I swear to both log and god that my brother actually chose those two to fight. Ironic no? I ask my brother to pick the names since he never saw the show or read the manga and he picks a fight that actually happens.)

Temari used her fan to create a huge gust of wind that she rode on using her fan like a sky board to the amazement of some of the crowd. (think snow boards only used by sky divers. They are used to both control the person's decent and to do more aerial tricks than a person with just a parachute.) Ten Ten quickly followed her by jumping over the railing and taking ninja jumps to reach her spot in front of Naruto at the same time.

As the two kunoichi stood in front of him, Naruto once again noticed that Ten Ten had two Ninjatos strapped to her back. 'Probably wants them for quick draw purposes. I know I would if I was a weapons master and I knew for a month that my opponent was a long range wind user.' Naruto thought as he also noticed the two small fans in Temari's belt before he said "Fighters ready?"

"Yes." Temari said with a confident smirk.

"Yes." Ten Ten said as her eyes instantly turned serious and her hands twitched.

"Then let the fifth fight begin!" Naruto shouted as he shot back. Ten Ten immediately rushed her opponent as her hands went to her swords and she pulled them out and performed a downward strike with the two in the same movement. A loud "CLANG!" was heard as Temari quickly closed her fan and raised it to block the two swords. This became the pattern for most of the fight as Ten Ten began laying into Temari trying to cut her to ribbons as Temari kept back stepping while moving her heavy fan to keep the sharp and pointy toys of her opponent from piercing her flesh.

As she was constantly pushed back, Temari thought 'Damn, she's not giving me a chance to use the smaller fans I bought over the month. Although with how she's attacking, I think they would be bent into circles if I tried blocking with them too much. I can already see the dents forming in mom's battle fan.' Temari was brought out of her thoughts as they reached the forest and Ten Ten unleashed a viscous kick against her fan which had the effect of slamming her into a tree. (Hey, with Gai and Lee on her team, you know she had to get some kind of muscle.) Temari gritted her teeth to keep herself from shouting in pain before she really did when Ten Ten bypassed her defenses and stabbed both blades into her opponent's hands. Temari instantly dropped the fan and an instant later found a blade on either side of her neck.

"Yield. I took care to avoid the bones in your hands but I won't be so kind with my next strikes." Ten Ten said as Temari noticed that instead of the blades pointing to her throat, they were instead pointed down towards her shoulders. She wanted to go for her smaller fans that were tucked in her belt but knew that her opponent would be faster in her threat. Sighing, she rose her hand and said "Proctor, I yield."

Naruto nodded and said "Temari of the Desert has forfeited. Therefore Ten Ten wins."

The crowd cheered as Ten Ten sheathed her swords before she bent down and picked up Temari's fan. Taking out an empty sealing scroll, she sealed it before she handed it to her former opponent much to Temari's shock who was about to ask what the bun haired girl thought she was doing. Taking the offered scroll with a muttered "Thanks," Temari pocketed the scroll before she walked over to the medics who had been coming to look at her hands. Ten Ten nodded before she took off back to the balcony to watch the rest of the last two fights of the first round. (That's how a weapon master should fight a Wind type.)

Naruto waited until Temari and the medics had left the field as well before he walked back to his spot and said "Will Kabuto Yakushi and Rachel Aliston please come down for their match." 'How I wish I was in Rachel's place. That traitor wouldn't know what hit him. I still can't figure out how he had left that meeting without me finding any trace of him. Or how he could have been in two places at once. We were sure that it was him who had controlled those dead bodies to take the Uchiha kid at the hospital. But without confirmed evidence we can't take him in for questioning. Still, I told Rachel this morning to hold nothing back so she'll make him sweat at least.'

The two fighters turned from the balcony and made their way down. As they walked, Kabuto adjusted his glasses as he thought 'I'm glad I'm finally being allowed to actually finish an exam. With the destruction of the Leaf village there is really no more reason for me to hold myself back. Still, it's a good thing that no one can prove I was at that hospital since the body Kakashi 'captured' wasn't really me. Too risky being caught myself after all. And with an air tight alibi of me being on the other side of the village at the time, they had to drop their investigation of me. Thank god for shadow clones.'

The two fighters finally reached Naruto and the two stood in front of each other. Kabuto had a smile that was both relaxing and arrogant. Rachel meanwhile had a look of sheer determination on her face. Naruto for whatever reason had told her to go all out on this person. She planned to make this match just one big bad experience for the medic nin.

Naruto looked between the two and said "Fighters ready?" Getting nods from both, he said "Sixth round, begin!"

Naruto's hand had barely begun its decent before Rachel was jumping backwards to avoid the chakra scalpel aimed for her neck. Rachel's eyes narrowed and while she was still in midair quickly drew one of her hook swords and tried to chop the offending limb off. Kabuto quickly withdrew his left hand even as his right came out with an actual scalpel that he pumped chakra into and used to push Rachel's sword upwards as he stepped into Rachel's guard ready to shove the scalpel into the girl's chest. Rachel wasn't going to have it though as her other hand came up and grabbed Kabuto's wrist and sparks flew from her hand shocking Kabuto long enough for her to land and put some distance between the two.

As she landed, Rachel gave Kabuto a deadpan look as he rubbed his wrist applying medical chakra to get it back to one hundred percent. Continuing to look at her opponent nonplussed, Rachel said "You know, I always thought you medic nin were supposed to be more cautious. What is that saying, Medic nin are the last ones hurt? Seems to me you aren't a very good medic if you just rush into fights like that."

Kabuto scowled before both of his hands let up with medical chakra and he charged at Rachel again. Rachel in turn took another jump back as she put her hook sword back in its sheath before she landed and began back flipping at a rapid pace away from Kabuto who couldn't get close enough to use his scalpels. He followed her all the way to the arena wall getting frustrated the longer Rachel continued to evade him. Then Rachel reached the wall and planted her feet against it before she pushed off as her whole arm sparked and she slammed the arm into Kabuto's neck as she shouted "Lariat!"

Kabuto had exactly one split second for his eye's to widen before Rachel's arm crushed his windpipe and sent electricity coursing through his body. But then to Rachel's confusion the medic nin grinned before he fell apart into clumps of mud.

"Damn, mud clone. When did he make that?" Rachel asked herself as she quickly jumped back to the wall and began back flipping up so that way she wouldn't be on the arena floor if Kabuto was using the Underground Fish Projection jutsu. Stopping at a height of twenty five feet, Rachel considered her options.

'Alright, I've got a medic nin who is also an earth type. He can make mud clones so it will be difficult to know if the one I'm fighting is the real one or not. I should use Lightning style against him since Lightning trumps Earth. Since I can't see him anywhere it is a good bet that he knows that Underground Fish Projection jutsu. Whoever named it that was an idiot.' Rachel shook that thought away and thought 'Focus Rachel, you can take pot shots at idiots after you win. Now lets see, best way to counter that jutsu is to either use the Earth Tremble Jutsu like Reina did or to stream lightning through the ground. I'm pathetic at Earth jutsu so I guess I'll have to go with the latter.'

With plan in mind, Rachel took a chakra enhanced leap off the wall and landed near the center of the arena. As soon as her feet touched ground she dropped into a crouch and slammed her hands on the ground. Trails of lighting shot through the ground crackling as Rachel focused on pushing her Lightning natured chakra through it trying to draw out Kabuto.

Rachel kept the electricity flowing for a minute before she cut it off with a frown. Being trained by Uzumakis gives you some damn impressive chakra reserves but she couldn't keep that up for too long. She was also frowning because Kabuto hadn't come flying out of the ground twitching, and it was too much to hope that he was still down there unable to come back up.

Rachel's eyes snapped around the arena before they landed on the woods section. Sighing, she thought 'Of course he wouldn't just come up where I could see him. Still, if he thinks I'm going in there after him than he's crazy.' Rachel began forming hand signs before she called out "Lightning Style: Lightning Wolf Pack Jutsu!" Static electricity crackled around Rachel's form before it expanded and took the form of five growling wolves drawing murmurs from most of the crowd. Still looking towards the woods, Rachel said "I want him alive."

The wolves let loose with a collective howl that sent chills down most of the audience's spines before they charged into the woods. Reaching the edge of the woods, the wolves got out of their pack formation and split up in order to search better. As they slipped into the woods, Kabuto was leaning against a tree trying to get his limbs back into proper working order.

'Well now, I don't think I should use anymore mud clones against her.' Kabuto thought to himself as green chakra surrounded his arms as he tried to heal himself without using the Mystical Palm technique. It's not like he could use that when he couldn't even properly control his body's movements, so he was stuck pushing medical chakra through his coils by will alone like it was some kind of advanced chakra control exercise.

'I don't think I should try going underground either. Who would have thought she had enough chakra to send that much electricity through the ground. If she had controlled it a little bit better I bet she could have made a net.' Kabuto thought before he heard the crackling sound of electricity. Frowning, he looked around the tree he was leaning against and saw a wolf made out of electricity not twenty feet away. The wolf spotted him and seemed to grin as it raised its head and let loose with a howl. Four other howls answered and the wolf launched itself at Kabuto to keep him busy while its comrades came to help.

Kabuto uttered a curse and dodged the mass of animated electricity by jumping away. The wolf shot past him before flipping in mid air to slam all four paws against the tree it was heading towards and launched off at Kabuto's still airborne form leaving burnt paw prints in the tree trunk. Kabuto let out another curse as he shot a chakra string to the side and pulled himself towards the tree that it connected to. The wolf shot past him with barely an inch to spare and Kabuto felt his skin tingle from such close proximity to that much electrical current.

Kabuto landed on the ground and warily watched his opponent land and turn around as the wolf growled at him. But just when he thought he might have a second to come up with a plan to get him a few more seconds before it jumped at him again, Kabuto suddenly screamed in pain as another wolf jumped through the tree that he had his back to and through his body leaving that part of the tree scorched and Kabuto's body spasmodically twitching as sparks erupted all over his body. Kabuto's body crashed down onto the ground as it continued to involuntarily twitch for the second time that day. He glared at the wolf only for the wolf to place a paw on his leg shocking him even more and getting aother scream of pain from the traitor.

Back in the center of the arena, Rachel cocked her head and said "I didn't think they'd find him that soon."

Ten minutes later, Kabuto was staring hatefully at the five wolves who by that time had all met up and formed a circle around him. The reason why he was glaring was because the wolves were currently dragging him out of the woods by biting his clothes. Every time his body stopped twitching and he tried to get free, one of the wolves would move its muzzle just enough to shock him again. He had tried to substitute himself with the surrounding bits of trees a few times but the wolves would always either catch him before he could get away or somehow sniff him out and shock him again if he ever appeared with trees blocking their view.

In the stands, the civilian population that made a portion of the audience kept flinching as Kabuto kept screaming in pain due to the fact that he was determined not to let the pack of elemental wolves complete the mission that was given to them by their creator. After twelve minutes of hearing a scream of pain nearly every two minutes, the wolves finally came out of the woods dragging Kabuto between them. The guy had massive burns all over his body since the last time he had tried to escape the wolves apparently had enough and all five had briefly rubbed against him tearing his nerves apart and making them practically useless. For a normal person, it would take a medic of Tsunade's caliber to get the nerves even slightly repaired properly. For Kabuto, it was a really big nuisance since he had a regeneration blood line that would heal him before the day was done. Still, he wouldn't be able to do his part of the plan as he was and that infuriated him. Seeing that smug smirk on his opponent's face and the smaller one on the proctor's face only made him madder.

When the wolves had finished dragging Kabuto to Rachel, they burst apart into showers of static sparks which quickly dissipated. Naruto walked over and took one look at Kabuto appreciating the burns on the traitor's body before he calmly said "Kabuto Yakushi is unable to battle. This match goes to Rachel Aliston."

Applause rang throughout the arena as Kabuto was carted out by medics. Once Rachel had jumped back up to the balcony box, Naruto said "Will Gaara of the Desert and Sasuke Uchiha please come down for their match."

The audience immediately began talking about the fight that they had all came to see. A vortex of sand immediately appeared on Naruto's right as Gaara wasted no time coming down for his fight. However, after a minute of waiting, there was no sign of the Uchiha causing the noise level in the audience to increase as they wondered where the kid was. Naruto frowned and looked up to the Kage booth and signed a query in the village's sign language.

Up in the Kage booth, the three village leaders frowned since as far as they knew Sasuke was no where near the arena and the crowd was going to be getting restless soon.

Onoki had the biggest frown on his face as he said "I don't know which would be worse, the riots from the crowd if that boy doesn't show up or dealing with your son if he doesn't get his fight Kazekage. I've heard rumors about the kid and I don't like his chances of being understanding of the situation."

"I'm afraid I must agree with you on that one. We may have to postpone the match." The Kazekage said.

Sarutobi cocked his head to the side a little, almost as if he was listening to something neither of the other leaders could hear before he said "We will give him the standard five minutes to show, but no longer than that. If he cannot be bothered to come to the exam on time than there is no point in making him a Chunin."

Both Kages nodded although the Kazekage seemed reluctant. Sarutobi then saw Naruto ask him a question via sign language about what he wanted the blond to do. Sarutobi signed back his answer and Naruto nodded before he said in his announcement voice "Sasuke Uchiha has four minutes to appear before he automatically forfeits his fight and is disqualified from becoming a Chunin."

The noise level in the arena rose once more but Naruto and Gaara ignored it. One so that he could stretch his senses out to find the kid and the other ignoring it out of simple habit. As the two waited for Sasuke's arrival, Naruto's eyes flashed around the arena at speeds that made it look like they were still simply staring ahead. He spotted Haku positioned near the north entrance standing by an Anbu in his old hunter nin mask which had been repainted with the symbol of the leaf. Naruto passed his gaze over him as quickly as it had landed on him before he continued observing the crowds in the stands going over the plan that they had set up.

Four minutes of tense anticipation passed and Naruto pulled out a pocket watch. Seeing fifteen seconds until Sasuke was disqualified, he opened his mouth to speak when a whirlwind of leaves suddenly blew into existence to his left drawing his attention.

Naruto smirked as he said "You're cutting it awfully close don't you think Uncle Kakashi?"

From the whirlwind came a familiar voice as it said "Hey, I got us here on time didn't I?" There was a brief pause before the voice said "We are on time aren't we?"

The whirlwind of leaves settled revealing Kakashi and Sasuke standing close together almost back to back. Kakashi's hand was halfway through the motion of dropping off of Sasuke's shoulder showing that it was him who initiated the rapid travel jutsu. He had a concerned look on his face.

Naruto snorted and said "You had fifteen seconds before Uchiha over there was disqualified. Now get off my field, these people want to see a fight and they're going to be pissed if they don't get one soon."

Kakashi looked relieved before he nodded and wished his student good luck. Sasuke hned as he locked gazes with Gaara and took his place. As Kakashi disappeared in another whirlwind of leaves, Naruto said "Now that both fighters are here, let the final match of the first round begin!"

AN: I know it's terrible of me to end it right there but I'd rather have that fight with the invasion so there. All kindergarten behavior aside, I once again give my apologies for how long this took to write and how utterly terrible it is. The invasion is next though and there is going to be quite the family reunion in it so hopefully you can forgive me for this.