Before we begin, I would like to apologize for the long time between this update and the last. Multiple things happened that ultimately lead to me forgetting I was even writing something to begin with. Ever since I was a child, I have had both poor short term, and poor long term memory. I cannot recall my name on command, unless I have been saying it in my head within the past seven or so minutes. On top of that, my depression hit me hard, ruining my sleeping schedule and leaving me borderline suicidal. This, of course, left me with no will to even attempt something like writing, and compounded my normally low self-confidence.
I've done what I can to get past it, and it won't be a problem again for a while longer. This si something I am very much used to dealing with, and my experience allows me the advantage. I'll be writing again, though updates will likely be slow. At least, until I totally remember what I was planning with this story. All I have in relation to that is an image of the seal I wanted the sandaime to use. Luckily, memories like that tend to be highly detailed for me, so I can infer what I wanted the sandaime to be.
I will not say thing kind of thing will not happen again, I know it will. If it does happen again, I'll try and move past it quick to get back to writing. All I have left to fix is my sleeping schedule, which I'm contemplating leaving as is. My parents never need me for anything, and they have no plans regarding me. I have only one friend, and he knows I'm nocturnal by nature, so he doesn't care if I visit at night. And, of course, being up now leaves me with plenty of time for writing. Hmm... plan decided. Get coffee.
The first match had been a shock, but the civilians got over that shock when they saw who was to fight in the second match. God was fighting, or as others knew him, Sasuke Uchiha. They waited, and waited. Five minutes passed with everyone eagerly looking down at the arena, as if their very gaze would summon the errant Uchiha.
Another ten minutes passed, with no sign of the Uchiha showing up. Gaara was calm, and seemingly had limitless patience. The Sandaime however, didn't. He was getting bored of sitting there, doing nothing. He stood calmly, gaining the attention of the audience with his mere presence.
"Sasuke Uchiha has until the end of the final match of the first round to show up. If he fails to do so, he will receive an automatic bye to a restricted chunin rank. The third round will begin now." This caused the proctor to stand up a little taller, before he called out the next two contestants.
"Will Shino Aburame and Kankuro Sabaku please come down to the arena?" Before Shino could even move though, Kankuro shouted out his forfeit, causing Shino to be the winner.
"Very well, Shino Aburame is the winner. Will the next contestants, Shikamaru Nara and Temari Sabaku, come down?" Shikamaru watched as Temari floated down on her fan, trying to decide on whether or not he wanted to do this. In the end, he figured to go for it, not wanting to try and face his parent's wrath if he dropped out now. After taking the long way down, further annoying his rather temperamental opponent, he stood calmly. He made sure his pose looked lax, calm, and serene.
When the proctor started the match, shikamaru burst into action, throwing a kunai and using his Shadow Possession Jutsu to follow it's shadow. Sadly, Temari leapt to the side a little, avoiding both the kunai, and the shadow. He was left with no time to branch his shadow out though, as Temari's leap to the side had been her swinging her mighty fan. The winds lashed out at him, sending him flying back as they lifted him from the ground. He quickly cancelled his shadow technique, needing to conserve his chakra. As he landed, he through another kunai, this one with a tag on the end. Temari assumed the tag to be explosive, and knocked the kunai of course using her winds.
Instead of a large explosion, there was a small boom as smoke exploded from the tag. The next thing Temari knew, she was being engaged in close combat as Shikamaru appeared from the smokescreen to her rear left. By now, the smoke had surrounded her completely, blocking the fight form the eyes of the audience. Temari was left in a dangerous situation, as her fan was to large to use in the close quarters combat she was now in. As Shikamaru sent her skidding back with a rather strong kick, she threw the kunai she had been grabbing out to buy herself some space. However, Shikamaru switched with it right as she threw it, causing it to miss and him to be right back into her space, pummeling on her again until a vicious blow to the head knocked her out. As the smokescreen cleared, the audience saw that Temari was laying on the ground, seemingly unconscious. The proctor checked her over, before calling the match and signaling the on stand-by medics to pick her up. The medics also checked over Shikamaru, but found no injury upon him, allowing him to return to the stands to watch the next match.
As Gaara appeared in the arena and Shikamaru moved to the stands, Sasuke and Kakashi were no where to be seen. The third hokage made himself comfortable, and many ninja dug in to wait out the chronically late jounin.
Again, I apologize this took so long. A little lost on what to do with it. Next chapter may take just as long, so don't get to excited. I'll work on it, but I'm not making any promises.