Chapter 24: More of the Third Test

Link was standing there, her blade wire coiled up and in her right hand, waiting for the instant the wind was gone to shoot it out at the clones. Soon the wind started to slow down though still to fast to go through, but it was a sign Naruto was running out of chakra.

But when other spirals of wind, in other positions around Link appeared and started cutting into the earth and forming a sphere around her she saw just how misleading that sign was.

"Oh damn, he's going to the second stage," Jiraiya said taking a step forward.

"But, but you said that could take out half the audience," Temari said from Gaara's other side.

"I know that, but it doesn't look like he does," Jiraiya said.

"We have to stop him!" yelled the Raikage standing up.

"No, give it time, he may manage it," Tsunade said.

"I know Naruto, he would never do anything that could possibly cause harm to this village," Gaara said, the only Kage in a seat.

x-X-x

"You should give up, I don't know how long I can keep this from taking the ground from under you," one of the Narutos said.

"Like hell! You're just imprisoning me, once you get tired, I'll be out, and you'll lose," Link said.

None of the Narutos answered, the wind just got faster, and became more sphere like. The wind spirals caused deep grooves into the earth, almost making a crater. The ground directly beneath Link was all that was still in the area of the sphere. But apparently Naruto couldn't hold the force of the Rasengan back any longer and it became a full sphere, taking out the ground beneath Link and causing her to fall into the winds of the attack.

The winds whipped her around roughly, pushing her into the ground and ripping her off it in one forceful motion. The winds were whipping her around the entire sphere, sometimes dumping her in the center, the only calm place. But with no ground to stand on, she barely had time to breath before falling back into the powerful gale.

With each passing moment the winds became stronger and stronger. But they also grew more and more wild, and bordered on chaotic.

x-X-x

"He doesn't want to kill her," Jiraiya said.

"He could end up doing much worse," Tsunade said walking forward and leaning on a railing over the rest of the crowd.

That's when it started to happen, the Rasengan became to powerful. It started reaching out and destroying the Naruto clones that maintained it. If too many were lost, the rest couldn't contain the attack.

"Jiraiya, what happens when the attack destroys enough clones that the rest can't contain it?" Tsunade asked.

"A bomb of wind. With a normal Rasengan it's like a medium strength wind. It knocks the user down, but that's it. At this scale… I have no idea how much damage it could do, the winds could be powerful enough to be felt throughout the village," Jiraiya said.

"Imagine if he didn't have his control back…" Tsunade said.

"He'd never be able to even start a normal Rasengan, let alone this size," Jiraiya said.

Tsunade nodded, "and I thought he'd be safe…"

x-X-x

The wind grew stronger and wilder, barely half the Narutos were left. Link was still inside and conscious, though severely battered. The crowd was on the edge of their seats, eager to see how this turned out. There was no real individual match that called the attention of the people, just the fact that the exams were back, but they were all glad they showed up, this was one interesting fight.

"Sakura, do you know what he's doing?" Ino asked, her eyes on the fight.

"No, but I hope he does," Sakura said, her knuckles turning white in her lap.

Then it happened. It sounded like a bomb going off, and felt like a hurricane. The Rasengan destroyed one to many Narutos and was now out of control. All the other clones were gone the instant the control was lost. The blast shot Neji back into the opposite wall of the arena and nearly decimated the trees. Smoke completely covered the area that Naruto and Link had once been.

Nearly the entire audience was knocked backwards from the gust of wind. Even Tsunade found herself being helped back to her feet. As the crowd got up they all remained on the feet, watching eagerly the fate of the two ninja who were at ground zero of the blast.

Link opened her eyes. She was sore all over from the wind whipping her around, but that was it. She heard the blast, but didn't feel it at all. Slowly she became aware of her surroundings, she was just outside the crater of the blast. She was huddled in a fetal position and there was something heavy covering her.

Then she realized what it was, Naruto was hunched over her, protecting her from the front of the blast. Before the Rasengan fully went off the real Naruto came from the trees and grabbed Link, pulling her from the bowels of the attack. Naruto had taken the full force of the blast and showed it. His pants and jacket were it tatters, and practically nonexistent on his back. And though he was in such a bad condition, he was still awake. He was on his hands and knees covering Link, his eyes slightly opened looking down at her.

"Hey, you alive?" he asked.

Link just looked at him, "but I'm your enemy," she said.

"Only in a tournament. There's no need to kill you. There's no need to kill anyone," Naruto said as he slowly pushed himself off his hands and onto his knees sitting on his feet.

"Why did you do the last blast then?" Link asked sitting up slowly, the dust was almost completely gone now.

"I didn't want to, but I had to do the second stage to beat you. I could've contained it, but that would've killed you instantly. I only wanted you beaten enough to win," Naruto said in between moans of pain.

"You can't stand now, can you?" Link asked.

"Heh, it was a bit too strong," Naruto said with a slight grin.

Neji came walking up to them, he had a few scratches, but was definitely on the better half of the spectrum, "are you two okay?" he asked.

"Sorry Neji, I couldn't grab both of you, and she was right in the middle of it," Naruto said looking at Neji's cuts.

"It's fine Naruto, I'm rather surprised you even saved her," Neji said. Naruto started to get up, but fell back down, he was to beaten. Neji looked him over, "it looks like you over did it," Neji said before turning around to the audience, about to announce something.

"Wait, I give up," Link said.

Neji turned to look at Link, Naruto's eyes shot at her as well, "What? I can't move, I'm almost completely defenseless," Naruto said.

"Yeah, because you decided not to kill me. If you hadn't grabbed me I'dve died and lost, so you should win," Link said standing up.

"But I did save you! You can't talk about what would have happened if you're a chuunin! You have to only deal in what did happen," Naruto said.

"That's why I'm giving up. I'm thinking like that, so I'm not fit to be a chuunin," Link said as she started walking away towards the medic area.

Neji and Naruto looked at each other. Naruto's expression was completely blank, while Neji had a grin on his face. He turned back to the audience, "The winner is Naruto!" he yelled.

The crowd cheered loudly and Neji signaled for medic ninjas to get Naruto. 'You definitely have an ability to change people Naruto…' Neji thought as the medic ninjas carried Naruto away.

x-X-x

"He did it! He won!" Ino yelled.

"I hope he isn't hurt to bad, it'd suck if he was forced to forfeit his next fight," Chouji said.

"I'm gunna go check on him," Sakura said before running by them.

"Is she okay?" Chouji asked watching Sakura running away.

"I don't know, maybe she just wants to congratulate him right away," Ino said.

Sasuke smirked, "it's a bit more than that," he said, but when prodded for more information, he proved to be very unhelpful.

Sakura ran through the stadium, ignoring the people around her, ignoring the glares as she passed, only one thought in her mind, 'please let him be okay.' Sakura soon found herself outside the medic room of the stadium. She paused a moment, allowing herself to catch her breath, before calmly walking in. Soel and Coe were sitting on the edge of a bed talking to each other, both being heavily bandaged up. When Sakura came in they quickly quieted down and looked at her.

"Hey, what the hell happened in the fight? Both of 'em came in here but neither said anything," Coe asked her.

"It…was really interesting…" Sakura said as she walked past, Naruto was probably in the next room getting fixed up.

"How did she win?" Soel asked.

"She didn't," Sakura said before going through the door.

"No way. The way she got you, she had to've won. Plus she walked in, he had to be carried!" Coe said.

"What would she get from lying?" Soel asked.

x-X-x

As Sakura entered Link stood up, her mending finished. She looked over at Sakura with a blank face.

"What happened in the smoke?" Sakura asked.

"He could have let me die, or get severely injured. But instead saved me and took the blunt of the blast. He even covered me when it went off," Link said.

Sakura smiled slightly and looked at the floor, "that's Naruto," she said.

"He's one of a kind," Link said before leaving.

Sakura's smile widened slightly, "he sure is."

Then Sakura's smile vanished and her head snapped up. There was a curtain pulled around a bed and four medic ninjas stood around the bed healing the occupant. Sakura walked up to the bed, afraid of what was behind it. When she was a few steps away the curtain was pulled back and all four medic ninjas started walking away.

"What are you doing here?" one of the medics asked stopping in front of Sakura.

"I want to see him," Sakura said pointing at the bed.

"I'm sorry, he can't have any visitors. He needs his rest, I don't think he'll be able to fight in his next match," the medic ninja said.

"Listen, I'm going to see him. I'm a medic ninja too, so whatever comes of it, I can handle. If you try to stop me, you may need someone to help you," Sakura said before walking past him.

The medic turned to watch her go, but didn't follow, or try to stop her, just in case it wasn't an empty threat. Sakura reached the bed and saw Naruto in a bad state. His jacket and shirt were on the floor next to his bed. His entire torso was wrapped in bandages, and Sakura could see there was more wrapping and padding on his back. Both his forearms were wrapped up and stray bandages were on the rest of his arms. His forehead protector was next to his head; in its place was a wrapping that also covered his left eye.

Naruto's other eye was shut, and though he was almost perfectly still, Sakura could see his chest rising and falling with his breathing. Sakura breathed a small sigh of relief at seeing him still alive. She walked over to his shirt and jacket and bent to pick them up. As she was bent over her necklace came out of the collar of her shirt. She stood back up and tossed Naruto's shirt and jacket on a bed next to her.

Sounds in the other room signaled a new person in the medic area, another fight had ended. Sakura turned back to Naruto and started unfastening the necklace, his necklace, the necklace he won from Tsunade. She took it off and leaned over Naruto and put it on him, "Here, I was just holing on to it while you were gone. You're here now so you can have it back," she said as she fastened it behind his neck.

"Thanks Sakura," Naruto said as Sakura stood back up. She startled and looked at Naruto, his right eye open and head tilted towards her, "you were always there when I needed a hand," Naruto said.