(A/N) I decided against Prelims. Pointless battles anyway. So anyone have any opinions on how the Finals should go? My smallest brother insisted upon Hinata and Neji fighting, so that's happening.

"Oi!" Naruto shouted, waving his arm.

Hinata and Fuu both waved back, and Sasuke nodded, continuing his stare down with Iruka.

"Who's that?" Naruto asked, bouncing up to Karin, who squeaked in surprise.

"That's Karin!" Fuu said, grinning. "We found her, and we're gonna keep her!"

Nearby, Iruka facepalmed but didn't argue.

Sasuke stopped his stare down of Iruka, to walk over to greet Naruto properly. "You got here before we did."

"We did!" Naruto said, grinning widely.

"Ah, you arrived," Gaara noted, strolling into the main room. "We have almost four days to recover, perhaps it will actually be interesting, instead of pointless."

"You would be working on your puppets anyway," Naruto said, waving his hand dismissively.

Gaara frowned at him. "Despite what you believe, I do not spend all of my time on my puppets. I have kata and exercises to do as well."

"Whatever!" Naruto chirped, seizing Karin by the arm and dragging her off. "They have ramen!"

Only one other team arrived during the time they were there.

"Hello!" The green genin said, waving happily to Kurama.

Kurama inclined his head. "I see you made it. Congratulations."

"How long have you and your summoner been here?" The Hyuuga asked suspiciously.

Kurama shrugged. "A few days. There's a second team here as well."

The Hyuuga snorted imperiously. "Losers, I'm sure."

"And I'm sure you can summon so well," Gaara commented, strolling around the corner. "Greetings."

"Hello," the female said, sighing. "I apologize for my idiot teammate, he has yet to have a proper beat down. We're working on it."

Gaara tilted his head. "Should the number of people arriving within the next 12 hours prove sufficient, we may have a preliminary round. Should I be paired against him, I will ensure he is thoroughly reminded that there are, in fact, people better than him."

The Hyuuga snorted.

"My name is Gaara, and the fox is Kurama. Your names?"

"Tenten," the female said, nodding.

"Neji Hyuuga," the Hyuuga said brusquely.

"Rock Lee!" The green one exclaimed. "Most youthful student of Maito Gai!"

"Told you they were Gai's students," Kurama muttered. "It's the green spandex."

Gaara raised an eyebrow. "Well, if you require leading to the Konoha section, I was heading there now."

"The sections of this tower are separated by village, prevents contestants from trying anything stupid with people from rival villages," Kurama explained.

"Makes sense," Tenten tried, looking only mildly exasperated when Lee ran past her yelling about meeting his teacher's 'eternal rival's' students.

"Are they always like that?" Gaara asked, raising an eyebrow at the still sulking Neji, and where Lee had been before he ran off.

"Unfortunately," Tenten sighed.

"Hey, Lee! I can't believe you guys made it!" Fuu shouted, buzzing over to the green spandex clad genin.

"That is like, worse then the orange jumpsuit phase I went through," Naruto admitted.

"You actually admit that was terrible?" Sasuke gasped.

Naruto pouted. "It wasn't that bad!"

Sasuke raised an eyebrow. "It was."

"It was pretty bad," Fuu called over. "But very eye-catching!"

Karin raised an eyebrow at Naruto curiously. "Orange jumpsuit phase?"

"He decided these horrid neon orange jumpsuits were the coolest things ever."

"Like the color of my headband!" Naruto shouted, pointing to the painted surface of his forehead protector.

Karin blinked at it. "That's a… uh, very bright color."

"And it glows in the dark," Gaara commented dryly, walking in with the other two members of Lee's team.

"Why?" Tenten asked rhetorically, looking mystified.

"Cause it's awesome," Naruto told her solemnly.

Sasuke and Gaara just shook their heads tiredly.

"Sensei does it too," Gaara sighed. "Where are Shino and Hinata?"

"Sleeping, I think," Sasuke said. "Not everyone has the stamina we do. Also, it's kinda late."

Gaara nodded. "In that case, we should all head to bed, in case of a Preliminary round tomorrow." "I guess you're right," Naruto admitted sadly.

"Due to the amount of genin that passed the second round, there will not be a preliminary round." Hayate, a sickly Jounin, said, before coughing violently. "Please come up and choose a number."

The nine genin walked up to select a number.

"4," Neji said, frowning slightly.

"5," Shino said.

"1," Gaara monotoned quietly.

"6," Tenten said, glancing at Shino thoughtfully.

"2," Sasuke said, narrowing his eyes thoughtfully at Gaara, who smirked.

"3," Hinata said quietly.

"7!" Lee shouted.

"8," Fuu chirped.

"9," Naruto said, grinning for a couple of seconds before realizing he wasn't going to fight until the second round.

"There will be one month between now, and the final round of the Chuunin exams. It will be tournament style. The person who wins may be promoted, or they won't, sometimes everyone is, other times no one is. Baseline, a promotion is not guaranteed."

"So what is everyone doing for the month?" Naruto asked, draped over the side of one of the couches in the apartment.

"I'm going with Kisame," Sasuke said. "I know I'm not winning against Gaara, but I might as well put up a fight."

"Showcase enough skills, strategy, and guts, and you'll probably make chuunin," Kakashi agreed. "Get Kisame to teach you a couple of water jutsu while he's at it, I know you don't know any of those yet."

Sasuke nodded, going back to sharpening his katana.

"I will be going with Sasori," Gaara said, glancing up from one of his puppets on the kitchen table.

"For the last time Gaara, if you need a table, use the coffee table, it's not like we use it for anything else," Shisui sighed.

"This is higher, and I don't have to sit on the floor," Gaara replied, replacing the part in his puppet.

Shisui rolled his eyes but dropped it. "Fuu? You thinking of anything?"

Fuu shrugged. "I dunno."

"Naruto?" Kakashi asked. "We do have a perverted idiot that taught your dad if you wanna kick him in the nuts and make him teach you."

Naruto chewed on his lip. "Maybe. I mean, I'll probably be fighting Fuu, cool as Lee is, I don't think he can quite reach Fuu when she starts flying."

"Aww, thanks for your confidence in me!" Fuu chirped.

"And besides," Naruto couldn't help but to add, "you've always got Chomei to get you out of a tight spot!"

"Argh, you!" Fuu leaped off the couch and lunged at him, both of them ending up on the floor, wrestling.

Shisui rolled his eyes. "Take it outside, or at least to someone's room, so you don't cause too much damage?"

Fuu and Naruto hopped up immediately, jumping out the nearby window, Fuu buzzing off towards a training ground, and Naruto hopping over roofs to follow.

Kakashi chuckled. "We'll get an answer out of them when they come back."

"And after they sleep off all the damage they did to each other," Shisui agreed tiredly. "Why did we want to be jounin sensei again?"

"Cause everyone else is an even worse missing ninja, and would be even worse teachers," Kakashi replied.

"And you can't say no to us," Gaara replied dryly, sealing up the puppet.

Shisui and Kakashi stuck their tongues out at him.

(A/N) I honestly have no idea what to do with Fuu and Naruto. Any ideas? Also, poll, go vote, yep.