Years Arc: Chunin Exams Tournament

Tsunade took her seat and looked over at the other end of the Hokages box at Lady Chiyo. "Thought you were retired or dead by now."

Chiyo scowled and looked over. "I see the years haven't helped you learn any manners, slug princess. I was asked to step in temporarily until these youngsters can sort themselves out. Unlike you, I wasn't forced to come back to my home."

Tsunade scoffed and was ready to bite back when the Raikage entered shortly, followed by the Tsuchikage. Tsunade hummed and looked back out over the arena, 'wonder what those two were discussing before they showed up.'

The Tsuchikage grinned, "allies shouldn't argue so blatantly out in the open, you know, slug princess."

Lady Chiyo laughed "allies. Everyone knows there are no real allies here. We're all just waiting for the right time to kill the other."

"Perhaps for the old and senile generation that you two belong to, but I for one would be perfectly happy if there was no more war," Tsunade said, making sure to look at the Raikage who simply huffed and looked out to the arena.

Their argument didn't get a chance to take off as the arena's main gates opened, and the genin entered. Sakura looked up and bowed to Tsunade, who gave a slight nod of encouragement.

"So it's true you took on a student Princess. I wonder if she's any better than the first student you took. Though I doubt a shinobi from a formally civilian family will accomplish much." The Tsuchikage said, grinning as Tsunade tried not to just rush the old cogger for insulting both her students.

Tsunade took a deep breath and glared at the old man. "Sakura Haruno is more than capable, and she will prove it in this tournament."

They all noticed the Raikage's annoyance as he growled, "Haruno."

Tsunade cleared her throat "that is a separate matter that we've already discussed, Raikage-sama. Today we are here to see how our shinobi have progressed."

Ino bumped shoulders with Sakura, "you nervous?"

Sakura looked at Azuraki, who was whispering to his teammate "a little bit. He got to see me fight, but I don't know a thing about him. What about you?"

Ino hummed, "She looks tough, but she uses chakra blades like Asuma-sensei's, so I should be able to take her since she's nowhere near as good with them as he is."

Taki's leader gave his speech and went to join the Kage while the first match between Tenten and Temari started. Temari smiled "wow, just like old times ey Tenten-chan. Wonder if you'll be able to last longer this time."

Tenten scowled and pulled the large scroll off her back "we'll see about that. You best put up your best fight because I plan on doing the same."

Temari unfurled her fan. "I never hold back against you, Konoha shinobi."

Sakura watched as Tenten opened up with a volley kunai that Temari swatted away with ease. "Did you not learn anything from our last fight. Your projectiles will never reach me."

Tenten smiled, "don't be too sure about that. The fight's just started."

Sakura leaned forward in her seat in the participant's box as she watched the fight progress. Tenten's weapons were scattered all around the field, and Temari stood in the middle without a scratch on her. "No offense Tenten-chan but you're kinda one-note. Being an expert with weapons will only get you so far."

Tenten snapped her scroll shut with a flick of her wrist and pulled out two smaller ones. "Yeah, being a weapons expert won't get me far enough." she threw the scrolls in the air and put her hands together in the ram sign. "That's why I use Fuinjutsu as well."

Temari flicked her hand open and prepared to blast away whatever projectiles the scrolls produced. She wasn't ready for flash bombs to appear and detonate almost immediately. As Temari used her fan to block the blinding light, the projectiles around the arena shot ninja wires from seals. Some of the wire connected to other weapons and those that missed were grabbed by Tenten using chakra threads. She flicked her wrist and made some of the weapons rise into the air, creating a net around Temari.

As the flash-bang faded, Temari quickly realized she was surrounded by ninja wire and weapons. "Tsk damn it." she unfurled her fan to the full three moons and let loose a maelstrom of Futon.

Tenten dug in and pulled the wires hard, tightening the net of weapons, but the wires were ripped from her hands, and the net was broken. As the whirlwind died down, Temari stood in the middle, panting with several cuts along her arms and legs. "Look at that you managed to put a few scratches on me."

Tenten winced, looking down at the cuts on her hands "yeah, I did." she clenched her fist and charged Temari, grabbing kunai on the ground as she ran.

Sakura cocked her eyebrow as Temari snapped her fan shut and engaged in taijutsu with Tenten. "Oi Kankuro, why isn't Temari using her Futon?"

Kankuro scoffed, "why should I divulge that you're the enemy today."

Sakura sighed, "and here I was going to keep your poisons to myself, but I guess if you want I can show them to Tsunade-sama she'd probably be more than happy to help me break them down and learn all that makes them tick." Sakura pointed up, "Of course I'd have to go to the Hokage's box to talk to her, and I'm sure if that's who I think it is representing your village, she won't be happy to hear you've given Konoha samples of your poison."

Kankuro cursed, "damn pinky, when did you get ruthless?"

Sakura smiled. "I have to do what I have to do. Now spill it. Is she just confident or what?"

"She's probably running low on chakra. That fan helps reduce the amount she needs to use, but that big storm just now ate up a lot of her reserves. She doesn't want it to get too low; she might not be able to recover enough for her match tomorrow."

Sakura scoffed, "So confident she'll win this time."

Kankuro shrugged "she won the last fight against that girl. I don't see why she won't win this time as well."

They looked over as an explosion rocked the arena and threw Temari and Tenten to opposite ends. Both kunoichi staggered to their feet before staring each other down. Tenten fell to her knees and collapsed nearly at the same time as Temari. The proctor for the exam looked up to the Hokage's box and, after a few moments, nodded and declared the match a draw with both sides eliminated.

The medics carted the two kunoichi away, and other shinobi cleaned up all the weapons on the field. Once things were done, Nida of Iwa, a large, heavyset boy with dark hair and eyes, stepped down into the arena and smiled, "come on down, puppet boy, let's see what's stronger your little dolls or my fist."

Kankuro ground his teeth, "oh, I'm gonna enjoy putting him down." He dropped down into the arena as he unfurled crow from his back.

Nida cracked his knuckles and sank into the earth quickly as the match started and reappeared behind Kankuro, who nimbly dodged and put crow between them again. Crow fired off his poisoned senbon, and Kankuro cursed as the senbon bounced off Nida's skin. "Let me guess you have some kind of earth armor on now, don't you?"

Nida smiled, "you figured it out quick."

Kankuro sighed, "my little brother has a similar jutsu. Good thing too because now I know what to do." He pulled a second scroll out, summoning black ant.

Nida charged and met the puppets head-on, batting away their various projectiles. As he closed in, Kankuro moved Black Ant to flank Nida as Crow produced two swords and moved in to attack. Nida dodged the blades and fell back.

Neji hummed, "That Nida guy is building up chakra for something."

Sakura looked over and saw his byakugan active and sighed, "It must be nice to get such a detailed look at potential enemies like this."

"I plan on watching all the fights this closely." Everyone in the box understood the implications of that and shifted in their seats.

Kankuro pumped his fist as Nida was locked into Black Ant. He started dismantling Crow "best yield Iwa. I doubt your armor can handle this many swords, and I poison all my weapons."

Black Ant started to rumble and shake before its stomach shattered, and bits of earth rained down. Kankuro pulled Crow back "tsk damn it, he blew the earth armor off and busted Black Ant open."

Nida smiled and slipped back into the ground and popped back out after a moment. Crow was already rushing Nida, who engaged in taijutsu with the puppet and tried to get past it to rush Kankuro, who was putting Black Ant back together.

Crow fell back and fired a volley of kunai with explosive tags from its mouth. Nida tried to jump back but felt something grab him and keep him from moving back too far. Nida cursed and looked down, seeing chakra threads attached to him. The kunai landed and exploded around him and kicked up dust.

As the dust settled, Kankuro smiled and moved his puppets into place. Nida tried to avoid the senbon spray from both puppets, but his armor was chipping. Once Nida had distance from the puppets, he jumped up and prepared his jutsu so he could drop into the earth and refresh his armor, but a kick to his lower back broke his concentration, and he fell on his face.

Nida quickly recovered, seeing he was surrounded by Kankuro and his puppets. Kankuro smiled. "Did you think because I use puppets, I can't kick your ass myself?"

Kankuro twitched his fingers, and his puppets fired more explosive kunai. Niba braced, and his armor was broken by the explosion. He was sent flying towards Kankuro, who had a kunai at the ready. Niba twisted his body as he flew but felt the kunai drag across his exposed arm.

The Iwa shinobi tumbled to the ground and got up shakily as he felt the poison do its work. Kankuro smiled, "don't worry, I'm not using a deadly one, but you will be knocked out in a couple minutes. You should probably just yield now, so you don't get hurt."

Nida smiled, "so I have a few minutes to knock you out before I pass out."

A few minutes later, Tsunade smiled. It would have been more satisfying for one of her shinobi to take down the old fence-sitters only genin to make it to the third round. "I see Iwa didn't bring their best to this chunin exam. Let me guess the good ones are all at home waiting for when you get to hold the exams."

The Tsuchikage sneered, "perhaps they are. Though do you have room to talk? The first Konoha brat to go up knocked herself out."

"And yet she also took down her enemy. A good shinobi doesn't leave the job to someone else. They finish the assignment even if it costs them."

Ino and Kirisu, a dark-skinned girl with short black hair and dark eyes, dropped into the arena. Sakura chewed her lip as she looked over Ino's opponent. Kirisu stood at least a head taller than Ino. "damn, she's got some muscles on her. She's probably a taijutsu specialist," Sakura said.

Azuraki gave that annoying smile of his "She is our taijutsu and close quarters specialist. There's no other genin who can beat her in hand to hand combat. She's even taken down several chunin in sparring matches. Your friend is a Yamanaka, so she's definitely going to lose. Though maybe you or the Hyuga could actually give her a fair fight."

Sakura crossed her arms, "doubting Ino is exactly why this fight isn't going to go how you think it is."

Kirisu smiled as she slipped on her chakra blades, "so blondie, are you just looks, or can you actually put up a decent fight?"

Ino did a couple quick stretches and grinned, "thanks, and yeah, I think you'll find I can put up a good fight. Might put up too much of a fight for you to handle."

The match started, and Kirisu immediately rushed in close and started to throw punches. Ino dodged and redirected punches away from her as best she could. Her defense was holding for now, but Sakura saw the signs of it slipping. Ino surprised her by partially sinking into the ground to avoid a punch and delivering a series of jabs to Kirisu's stomach.

Ino slipped all the way under the ground as Kirisu tried to punch down at her. Ino reappeared a few feet from Kirisu and said, "Shinranshin no Jutsu."

Kirisu tried to rush Ino, but her legs wouldn't move. "What the hell did you do?"

Sakura saw Ino was struggling as she smiled. "Mind-Body Disturbance. You don't control your body anymore. I do." Kirisu suddenly dragged her chakra blades across her thighs. Kirisu cursed, and her arms trembled as she tried to resist Ino, who was starting to pant.

Kirisu's left arm suddenly jerked upwards as her right blade sunk into her leg. "Ow, you fuck! I'm going to put you in the ground for that one."

Ino staggered as she released the jutsu, and Neji said as he deactivated his byakugan. "she's probably new to using that jutsu; it's taken a lot out of her, but she did get a good hit in."

The crowd cheered as Kirisu powered through and broke Ino's defense and landed a solid blow to her abdomen. Sakura was surprised again as Ino's hair shot forward and stabbed into Kirisu's arm and shoulder. Kirisu unclenched her fist and grabbed Ino by her shirt before lifting the girl and slamming her into the ground as Ino's hair pulled out of Kirisu's arm.

Ino coughed up blood as she was slammed into the ground again before getting kicked into the arena wall. Sakura cringed, looking at the nasty gash across Ino's stomach and blood dripping from her broken nose. Ino stumbled to her feet as her hand lit up with the green tint of healing chakra, and she pressed it to her stomach. Neji looked at Sakura "have you been helping her train?"

Sakura smiled and shook her head. "No, I didn't. I did encourage her to train harder, though."

Kirisu smiled, "good, heal yourself up. I'm not done beating you down yet."

As Ino finished healing her stomach, Kirisu tied some cloth around her wound to help stop the bleeding, then charged Ino and channeled chakra into her blades. Kirisu's slashes were slower, but so was Ino, who staggered backward, her arms covered in cuts. "I-I yield the fight."

Kirisu spit and slipped her blades into her weapon pouch "you put up a good fight but not good enough."

Ino grinned, "yeah yeah, I know."

The medics came out and escorted the two kunoichi to the medical area.

Azuraki smiled, "come along, Pinky, it's time for our fight."

Sakura sighed, "you're gonna regret calling me Pinky again."

She stepped past him and hopped into the arena quickly, followed by Azuraki. The crowd murmured about this matchup. Sakura ignored the obvious ones of her being a kunoichi against one of the shinobi who got to skip the prelims. People countered that with the fact that she was Tsunade's current student, and that had to mean she was skilled. Sakura swelled with pride and looked at her opponent, who whistled, "I didn't know you were the Hokage's student. I'm impressed. I guess this fight is going to be more fun than I thought."

The match started, and Azuraki ran through hand signs and punched the ground, making a dust cloud filled the air. Sakura could sense the chakra in the air keeping the dust cloud from dispersing quickly. She ducked at the last second as a fist flew past her Sakura kicked behind her from her crouched position but hit nothing but dust.

"Oh, you've got good senses to hear me coming, but I know you're not a sensor, so you're at a disadvantage here."

Sakura clenched her teeth and ran forward to where she was pretty sure the middle of the arena was. She cleared her thoughts and channeled chakra into her ears and nose to feel out where Azuraki would come from. She heard the crunching of dirt from her left and turned, powering her fist like Tsunade taught her and slamming her fist into the ground.

The crowd cheered as the stadium shook, and bits of rock shot up into the sky along with Azuraki, who was looking quite shocked as he laid on a piece of debris. Seven Sakura's jumped out of the cloud and towards Azuraki, who smiled and threw shuriken at all of them. Sakura took the shuriken to the arm and twirled, delivering a glancing blow to Azuraki that sent him falling back into the dust.

Sakura fell back into the dust, pulled the shuriken out of her arm, and then healed it quickly. Azuraki laughed, and Sakura could hear him catching his breath "that's some crazy power your teacher must be proud of you."

Sakura grunted and staggered as she was kicked in the back, "I try my best to make her proud." She focused her senses and smelled him coming from directly in front of her. Sakura channeled her chakra and made a mudslide throwing Azuraki off balance. Sakura punched the ground again, breaking up the earth around him. Sakura picked up a chunk of earth and hurled it at Azuraki, who barely dodged it before disappearing in the dust cloud.

He smiled, "I'm not the best at direct confrontation, but even so, it's not usually this hard."

Sakura smiled, "compared to Zabuza Momochi's hiding in the mist, your attempt at hiding in the dust is pathetic." She took some satisfaction in the crowd's reaction and Azurakis face.

Azuraki shook his head in surprise and smiled, "alright, I was going easy, but I'll give it my all this time." he kicked up his dust cloud again, and they were back to square one.

Sakura looked around, using her chakra to enhance her senses. It was different this time; she didn't hear anything until the last second when she felt how close he was. The kunai sank into the back of her shoulder, and Azuraki was already fading back into the dust before Sakura could turn on him. She pulled the kunai out and healed her wound. Azuraki whistled, "mystic palms, you're like a mini Tsunade, it's adorable."

Sakura gritted her teeth and channeled her chakra to prepare for the next attack. Like the first time, Azuraki was nearly on top of her before she could tell where he was, but unlike the first time, Sakura was ready, and her hair shot out like blades to her right shoulder. Azuraki cursed as one of them sliced up his arm, and was forced to fall back. This game continued with either Azuraki landing a hit or Sakura slashing him with her hair.

As it went on, Sakura was missing more and more, and the nicks and shallow cuts would burn through her chakra too much to heal. She gritted her teeth and said, "Alright, fuck this, I'm ending it!"

Sakura punched the ground pulling a good-sized boulder from the ground and threw it up into the air. The crowd cheered as she jumped and landed on it, facing the ground. Sakura channeled all her chakra and pushed off the boulder back to the ground, where she delivered a punch at the maximum power she could muster. The arena walls cracked as the ground was torn up, and the dust cloud was blown away. Azuraki was thrown off balance, and Sakura charged him and rammed into him with her shoulder throwing him into the wall where he crumpled to the ground.

Sakura staggered, feeling almost completely drained by the actions. It took a moment for the proctor to get to their feet and call the match with Sakura as the winner. She nearly collapsed with relief, and the medics were quick to get them, and the proctor announced a short break while they repaired the arena due to the extensive damage.

Once the damage was cleared up enough to hold a match, the final match of the day, Gaara vs. Neji, was cleared to begin.

As they took their positions, Neji spoke, "Do you plan to attack this village like you did mine?"

Gaara grimaced. "I regret my actions back then. I only plan to win and become a chunin. I will advance down the path that will let those who I've hurt know that I am different, and I will make sure my village knows I am here to protect them."

Neji took the standard Jūken stance. "It seems Naruto has gotten to you as well. He does seem to have a way of making you rethink your decisions."

Gaara's sand swirled around him "yes, he helped open my eyes to some things. Though my siblings also did smack some sense into me as one might say."

The match began, and Gaara's sand shot forward like a snake only to be deflected by Neji's air palm. Neji moved closer and closer to Gaara and deflected the tendrils of sand that attacked. Neji stopped his advance and changed stances to perform the Hakkeshō Kaiten as sand came at him from all sides.

Once his rotations were done, Neji went on the attack again, trying to blast past Gaara's defense. For his part, Gaara looked like he was actually focusing on the fight as his sand curled around himself and Neji.

Sakura sat up in her cot in the medical tent and looked around as she heard the crowd cheering in the stadium "guess Neji and Gaara's fight is going on."

"I heard you broke the arena," Ino said as she walked up and sat next to Sakura's cot.

"I didn't break it; I just cracked it a bit."

Ino stifled her laughter "they had to hold an intermission while they fixed the arena enough for today's last fight."

Sakura adjusted her position. "Honestly, maybe they just need to make stronger buildings."

The two of them laughed quietly, and silence took its place after a moment. Sakura glanced over and sighed, "you're staring at them again."

Ino blushed and looked to the door of the medical tent. "I'm just- I wish I could have helped more. I know we've talked about it before, but I can't help it. Whenever I see your scars, I remember I was passed out the whole time tucked inside a tree."

Sakura patted her head, "It's ok. You can make it up to me with some sweets and tea." Sakura said jokingly.

Ino laughed briefly, "sure thing. I'll get you extra cake, so you don't tell my dad about my poor performance in the first exam."

"I'll hold you to that," Sakura said as she adjusted her position.

Gaara grunted as Neji landed a series of strikes to Gaara's chakra points before jumping back and using the air palm to blast away sand tendrils. Gaara panted as his sand armor cracked and fell away in chunks.

Neji cursed as sand kept attacking. "That sand of yours has a mind of its own. It's a ferocious obstacle to overcome."

"I doubt you will overcome it, but I welcome the challenge," Gaara said as his sand curled around and four tendrils fired at Neji, who pivoted and dodged as he closed the distance.

The match dragged on until Neji burned through his chakra and yielded the fight shortly after. With the final battle for the day finished, everyone was dismissed, and the winners were told to rest up and prepare for the fight tomorrow.