"Hello everybody enjoying the show from home, I'm Jim, your announcer, and we will be starting shortly," he was handed a piece of paper and looked back to the camera, "We have just received the bracket," the man started to turn the paper towards the camera, before it cut to an image, "Oh right duh, why would I show you?"

Shikamaru Nara

V.

Temari

Winner of Match One

V.

Sasuke Uchiha

Kankurō

V.

Sakura Haruno

Naruto Uzumaki

V.

Neji Hyūga

"Each and every one of these contestants has had plenty of time to prepare. Expect to see the best of the best here, folks."

The contestants were all standing in a line in the middle of the stadium. "Here. Look at this," Hayate, the proctor of the third test, said as he held out a paper, "Shikamaru Nara and Temari are first."

"What?! Why?! It says me and her are 8th and 9th. Why aren't we going last?"

Temari glared at the boy, "Are you really that lazy?"

"I couldn't sleep last night. I'm really tired."

"So then just give up," Temari said as she smirked and crossed her arms. Shikamaru had thought about that as a possibility.

"Yeah right," he said as he turned around, putting his hands behind his head, "Like I'm gonna let a girl boss me around."

The rest of the genin cleared out, heading to their designated viewing area. Naruto had time before his match so he went to find Hinata. Secretly, he was pretty nervous. If he faced Gaara and he somehow let Shukaku out, he would be in a rough spot. He made sure the Hokage knew it was a possibility, asking him to have a barrier team on standby, to which he obliged.

"Naruto-kun!" Naruto heard someone yell, "Over here!" He saw Hinata waving and smiling. Kiba was sitting to her right. They were sitting behind the jōnin team leaders and the rest of Chinmoku. The match had already started and Asuma was watching his student intensely, 'Surprised you didn't just give up immediately, Shikamaru. Who knew you were so bold?'

'Why did I have to be so stupidly bold?' Shikamaru thought to himself as he rushed to the tree line, avoiding several wind scythes. He slid behind one of the trees and crouched down. He needed to think of a plan.

About twenty minutes had passed. Temari stood leaning on her fan. She hadn't even moved from that spot. "Are you just going to-" she was cut off by a long black line emanating from the tree line. She recognized it from the preliminaries and leapt away. She kept jumping back until the shadow stopped moving. She smirked and drew a line in the dirt. She looked up at the frustrated boy, "So this thing has a limit, huh?" She was about to speak up when she realized she couldn't move.

"You're pretty gullible, huh?" Shikamaru said mockingly as he pulled out a kunai, "You're right. This thing does have a limited range. It's just farther than what you thought," he smirked as the girls face twisted in anger.

'How could I be so stupid?' Temari beat herself up over it as Shikamaru and herself approached each other.

Shikamaru put the blade to the girls throat, "Give up. Or I'll make you." Temari blushed a little bit. Shikamaru was oblivious as to what that meant. She literally couldn't look away from him, for one reason or another. 'That was... he's your enemy Temari! Stop thinking like that.' The boy took a step forward, causing Temari to whimper out of shock. Shikamaru laughed and held his other hand up, "Come on now. I don't want to kill you."

"I, Temari, submit this match."

Immediately after the words left her mouth, Shikamaru fell backwards and sprawled out on the ground, "Thank kami. I could barely have held that for 5 more seconds," Temari grew a tick mark.

"You. What?"

"I played you. You look pretty stupid right now," Shikamaru said while standing up to face the completely red girl. Red with anger now, not attraction.

Asuma looked down at the boy lazily walking past his fuming opponent. He let out a laugh before whispering under his breath, "Dammit, Shikamaru. Lazy Nara bastard.

"Uh, Shikamaru," Hayate called out through coughs, "Where are you *cough* going? You have another *cough cough* match."

"Nah. I forfeit," he called over his shoulder as he walked towards the exit, "It's a real drag, but there's no way I could beat Sasuke, even at full energy."

Hayate stood in awkward silence for a bit before Temari finally calmed down and left, "Will Sakura Haruno of the leaf *cough* and Kankurō of the sand please come *cough* down."

The two obliged, hopping from the railing and walking down the stairs respectively. "Why'd you have to jump from the top, Haruno?" Kankurō asked the kunoichi. Sakura just ignored him.

'It looked cool, okay?! CHA!'

She had been training with Tsunade for the past two weeks or so. Kakashi recognized her impeccable chakra control and recommended her to be a medical ninja. She was learning under the best of the best. Technically you have to be a chūnin to learn medical ninjutsu, so Tsunade had just been teaching her basic evasion and chakra infused strikes.

Kankurō started the match by unleashing a volley of senbon from crow. Sakura responded, slamming her fist into the ground. The earth in front of her tilted upward, much like a mud wall. She ducked under behind the makeshift wall, avoiding the senbon. She noticed a sort of liquid secreting from the needles. She couldn't tell what it was, but she most definitely knew that it wasn't good. What she did know, however, was that Kankurō controlled his puppet using chakra threads. 'If I can just sever one of them... yeah that'll work. I'll just have to be quick.'

Kankurō leapt back. He needed to keep distance between them. Sakura was very proficient up close, unlike himself. All she needed was one solid punch. Kankurō even hypothesized that she could do some major damage to Gaara if she wanted to. He needed to play his game. Or else. Kankurō continued to rain senbon as flicked his left pinky up, causing crows left hand to flick upwards. A net shot out of the hand and it landed on the ground. He took his left chakra threads off of crow. Although he hadn't mastered it quite yet, Kankurō was able to use crows basic features using only one hand. The chakra threads from his fingers would multiply and connect themselves to the necessary joints. He was weaker this way, but it allowed him to multitask. He stopped shooting the senbon, instead releasing a smoke bomb on top of the net, hiding his and the nets position.

Sakura peeked over the rock wall, only to see another wall, this one made of smoke. She threw a paper bomb kunai into the smoke, trying to get it to disperse. When she heard the explosion, she looked over the rock once again to see a net flying at her. She reacted quickly, uppercutting the rock, severing it from the ground and catching the net before landing several yards away. As she blasted the rock, a senbon came flying towards her, too quick for her to react. She felt herself slowly losing consciousness, 'Damn... cheap poison tricks... I'm not done yet CHA!'

She yanked the senbon out, and rushed towards where it came from. She leapt through the smoke, swinging wildly with all of her might. She connected with something, and heard a loud clattering and a gasp, "CROW! NOOO!" She landed, facing away from the puppetless puppet master. She jumped backwards, spinning in midair.

She was low on chakra. She pumped everything she had into her right fist. "CHAAAA!" She connected with the sand ninjas jaw, knocking him across the stadium into the opposite wall. The impact shook the entire stadium, causing Hiruzen's pipe to fall from his mouth.

"WAYDA GO SZAKURAH!" She turned to see the very obviously drunk Tsunade, "i so prouda yoo," she whispered to herself before falling back into her seat. Sakura tried to wave but immediately passed out. Tsunade began to cry. She looked at Shizune, "IS SHE DEAD?! IZ SAKURAH DEAD?!" Tonton looked around at the staring eyes before growling. After scaring off the onlookers, she stuck her nose up triumphantly

"Lady Tsunade please calm down, Sakura is not dead," Shizune hoped. She didn't really know. Sakura most likely probably wasn't dead though.

Hayate walked over to each contestant to check if they were still able to fight. After lifting up an arm on each of them only for it to flop back down, Hayate waved over the medical ninja, "As neither contestant *cough cough* is able to continue, this match *cough* is a draw." The medical team carried off the two fighters and Naruto and Neji both hopped down.

Shisui turned and looked at Hinata, "Who are you rooting for kehiban? Your family or your lover?" He planted his chin in his hands and smirked.

Hinata pretended to continue watching the arena, "Huh? Did you say something Shisui?" The man went pale before dropping his head.

"Grrr. Nevermind."

After Shisui turned around, Kakashi spoke up, "I'll be right back." He got up and walked to the aisle. When he reached Hinata he bent down and whispered to her, "That was so cool," he shed a tear as he eye smiled, causing the girl to giggle.

Naruto stood silently across from Neji. The two had fought before. Naruto was able to easily beat him, but that was a long time ago. Back when Neji was as arrogant as can be. The two bowed to each other."Naruto-san."

Naruto still thought it was weird how Neji referred to him using -san. After a while he just took it as a sign of respect, "Neji-san."

"Begin!"

Naruto didn't really have a plan. He knew Neji was strong, but he didn't know how much stronger he had gotten over the past month. He knew he wouldn't be able to use chakra threads with Nuibari, so he had to work something else out. It would be tough to break through Neji's 360 vision. As long as the byakugan was activated, if Naruto was anywhere, Neji could see him. He had to find some sort of blind spot. He didn't know if that was possible. He pulled out a kunai with a paper bomb attached before shouting, "Shadow clone jutsu!" It had been a while since he had used it. When he used to have hiraishin, there wasn't much need for it. His clones began to circle Neji. 'If I can't find a blind spot, then I'll just attack him from every angle possible.' Him and his clones all chucked their kunai before leaping back.

Neji spun in a circle, knocking each kunai back towards Naruto and his clones. The paper bombs went off, and Neji saw each of the Naruto's burrow. He watched as each clone dug deeper and deeper into the ground. The clones stopped. Neji saw each of them forming a ball of chakra in their hand. Neji has never seen such concentrated chakra before, 'Fascinating. That could do quite a lot of damage if it lands,' Neji thought, 'if.'

Naruto hollowed out a cavern using his Rasengan. He had enough space to do what he needed to, "Secret Orange technique! Impervious Rasengan barrage!" He began to launch his Rasengan up towards his opponent. Neji was able to either dodge or deflect all of the Rasengan. The barrier team even set up just in case one of the Rasengan flew into the crowd. Naruto's stamina was truly impressive. He launched the Rasengan for nearly 5 minutes straight, draining him and Neji quite a bit. Naruto threw his final Rasengan as the earth above him began to cave in.

It was silent for a little while, Neji deactivated his byakugan. He and Hayate approached the hole. After removing a couple rocks, they found that the body wasn't there. Neji reactivated his byakugan, only to find Naruto about to shoot up from the ground behind him. He quickly used rotation to deny the boy as he shot up from the rocks. Naruto was sent flying to his back about 10 feet away. Neji readied himself as Naruto stood up. Neji charged his opponent, only to be knocked to the ground from behind.

"Found the blind spot," Naruto said as he rushed the downed Neji. Naruto got a real lucky break. He basically just guessed where the blind spot was. He had created three shadow clones. He had one toss the other two in the air when Neji deactivated his byakugan. One of the clones grabbed the other, and threw it towards the back of Neji's head. The clone held Neji's arms behind his back, and the real Naruto held a kunai to him.

"I, Neji Hyūga, give up," he muttered angrily.

"Naruto Uzumaki is the winner of this match, by way of submission."

Gaara was able to easily handle Shino. He suffocated Shino's swarm of bugs using sand, making him almost completely helpless. Shino, absolutely distraught at the loss of his insects, submitted. There were now three contestants left.

The third Hokage got up from his seat, "Because of the nature of this exam and the odd number of contestants, the final battle will be a 1 v. 1 v. 1 between Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, and Gaara of the desert. We will take a brief intermission before the battle." Lord third paused for a little, "And a final message to those contestants," the three looked up at him, "Good luck."

Hey all!
Sorry to end on a cliffy there. I'll be working on the final battle today. If I can get it done today expect to see it later tonight.
Anyway~
Hope you enjoyed this chapter! It was, as always, a lot of fun to write. I'm so happy with where this story has come. At the time of writing this it's reached almost 200 reads! That means a lot to me. Thank you all so much for reading this story day in and day out. I hope you have a good day/night (or else!)

Jerry