Konoha's Legacy: An Alternate Version

by The Gemini Project

What if the Kyuubi never attacked Konoha? What if the Yondaime still governed Konoha? What if Naruto had a family? How durastic would the difference be? What could the consequences possibly be for Naruto or Konoha? Chp. 20 The Real Naruto

19. Chapter 19

Yes, I do live. Yes, I am back. No, I am not discontinuing the story. Yes, I will update.

Now that that is over with. Welcome back one and all! I am so, so, so, so sorry for the late update. It seems that's all I do nowadays, huh? But losing a job sucks balls. Looking for a new one is even worse.

But I finally accomplished it. I got me a job, which means I'll have a steady income, which means my life is back on track, and therefore, so is the story. Thanks to all who have not run away from the story and are still giving it a chance. I promise you won't regret it. It makes me sad that I missed the one year anniversary of this story's posting, but this should make up for it. For those of you who have had big questions dealing with a certain aspect of my story, you finally get your answer, and I hope you are satisfied with it.

As has been an issue with some of my more recent chapters, I struggled in certain areas of this one, so keep that in mind, be tolerant of any mistakes or miscalculations, and enjoy this chapter. It's a big one. Have fun!!!

Chapter Nineteen - The Preliminaries Commence

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Sasuke didn't know what to think as he gazed at the electronic board that had revealed the first two competitors. It would be he versus Inuzuka Kiba, a loud-mouthed, cocky, arrogant teenager from his graduating class. Although, if these pairings were set up to even things out, as Hayate had explained just a moment ago, then it would make some sense.

Both he and Kiba had been a bit arrogant back in the Academy, it was just Kiba was louder about it. He was probably the biggest of the genin's who graduated, and was quite strong, thanks to his harnessing of the animalistic characteristics of his family's arts.

Turning his head, he caught Naruto's eyes for a brief moment. In this moment, Naruto had all but sent a clear message to Sasuke. "Don't lose."

Sasuke would be more than happy to oblige his teammate's silent request. While Kiba may sport a more burly, physical offense, combined with impressive speed for quick and brutal strikes, Sasuke felt - no, he believed on a strong level - that he was faster and possessed better reflexes than his apparent opponent.

That was one thing Sasuke was proud of. Yamato-sensei had been a huge promoter of strengthening your strengths in order to subvert attention from weakness. He was surprisingly quick with a lean body, but lacked power. So they had worked on his speed in order to gain better reflexes. With enough speed and great reflexes, power would come from momentum.

Steadily, the remaining genin who were not involved in this fight made their way up the staircases on each side. One side consisted of the shinobi of Suna and Oto, each team's sensei standing behind them with the look of a spectator.

On the other side, Kiba's teammates, Shino and Sakura, along with Kurenai-sensei, stood next to his own teammates, Naruto and Hinata, with Yamato-sensei in the same spectator position. His observations were cut short as Hayate coughed into his hand.

"Very well. Inuzuka Kiba and Uchiha Sasuke will face off first."

"Is that little puppy of his allowed?" asked Sasuke, eye-balling the white furball atop Kiba's head.

"Of course he is. Didn't you hear the proctor? All ninja tools are allowed. Akamaru is no different." replied Kiba with an arrogant smirk and confidence oozing in every word.

"Very well, if you want him to fight with you, fine. Just don't accuse me of animal cruelty if he gets hurt in this fight."

"Don't be so smug, Sasuke-chibi."

Eyes shot daggers as the intensity began to boil. Both were itching for the signal to start to be given. Hayate took three careful steps back, looked between the two, then at them again, before bringing his left hand down in the signal. The preliminaries had begun.

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Sakura was a bit irked at how the prelims had begun. Her not-so-secret crush was paired up against one of her own teammates. Inside, she was torn. A few months ago, this wouldn't have been an issue. She would have no doubt on who she would cheer for.

But now, after having spent time with the loud and obnoxious Kiba, she had found that there were things she didn't understand that she now did.

Kiba was arrogant, smug, cocky, obnoxious, loud, and overall annoying. But at the same time, he was loyal, almost to a fault, and a very kind-hearted guy who cared about the well-being of all who he held important. This included her.

She felt a tug at herself. She felt guilty that she considered cheering for Sasuke, who seemed to not want anything to do with her, over Kiba, who was willing to do anything for her. And while the best thing to do would be to stay quiet about the whole matter, she couldn't shake the feeling that she might feel guilty for not cheering on.

She was stuck in a conundrum, and didn't know of a solution for her dilemma.

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As was mentioned before, Sasuke had speed and worked on that speed to off-set his power issues. The only problem with working on speed, was that it did not matter if your foe was either as fast, or faster, than you.

This was Sasuke's problem at the moment as he had barely managed to dodge several wild hay-makers and was staring cautiously at his opponent, seeing the arrogant teen in a new light.

"I suppose there is no way around it," he commented, giving Kiba his own version of a cocky grin. The reason was simple, for Sasuke at least. He was activating his Sharingan.

Black, onyx-like eyes became a dark shade of red as two tomes swirled into life, marking the intermediate level of the Sharingan. He yearned to unleash the mature form that his older brother possessed, but knew that he would need more time. Now all that was left was to analyze his opponent and make the appropriate counterattack.

Unfortunately, Kiba was not giving him a chance. "Let's see how useful those eyes really are, Chibi." Plucking a smoke bomb from his pouch, he threw with tremendous force, not giving Sasuke enough time to dodge. The pellet burst, unleashing a cloud of thick, purple smoke and gave another pill to Akamaru, while he chewed on the same exact pill that was fed to the white dog, now turned red.

When Sasuke tried to emerge out of the cloud of smoke, he was tackled by the small dog, who suddenly felt ten times stronger than a dog of it's stature should be. Back into the smoke he went, trying his hardest to knock the dog away and get out of the smoke, but kept getting tackled and dragged.

Finally, he was able to calm down and discern the dog's chakra among the hazy cloud and managed to back hand the mutt straight towards where he felt Kiba to be and jumped in the opposite direction. So far, his big advantage had been nullified by a meager pellet and a small dog. He would need to be wary of Kiba, from this point on.

"Well, well, seems the stoic Uchiha got his feathers ruffled. If you could barely fend off Akamaru, then you better just quit right now." When Sasuke slid into a taijutsu stance and gave a "come hither" gesture of the hand, Kiba growled like his dog.

Motioning for Akamaru to climb onto his back, Kiba hunched over and made one two-handed seal before crying out his technique. Meanwhile, Akamaru yipped on the teenager's shoulders, but only Kiba knew that the yipping of his dog was actually the call of it's own jutsu. "Shikyaku no jutsu" was the technique Kiba called out. Akamaru's technique washed them amidst smoke that was particularly common for a henge.

From the smoke emerged two feral-looking Kiba's and it was damn near impossible for Sasuke to tell them apart, even with the activated Sharingan. This would be difficult. He could tell this because of the significant spike in chakra between the two. In this formation, Kiba and his puppy-now-man-beast were beyond formiddable.

Feeling himself already being backed into a corner, he tried to rush through several scenarios and how he should approach them. The only one that seemed logical towards his own success would be to attack in a manner that would make it difficult for Kiba to dodge or counter. He didn't want to make a mistake and run into the fray with fists flying when this new change to his opponent might make that issue difficult.

But before he could use the technique he had decided upon, the two Kiba's took action, separating to different sides of Sasuke so that he was in the middle of the two. Then they began to sprint towards him and leapt into the air. The next thing that happened was something Sasuke had seen Kiba do on their joint mission to get the Firaga Ruby. They began to spin, creating an illusion of spinning drills careening towards their intended target - him.

Using all of his peripheral skills that his vision gave him, he tried to determine what the two spinning drills were trying to do. One was coming straight for him while the other seemed to be waiting for what he, himself, would do to try and go against the approaching drill.

Just like he expected, when he dodged the first one, the second came rocketing like an arrow shot from the strongest archer to wield a bow. It was such a narrow margin that he dodged the second one that he could actually feel the violently spinning winds that accompanied the drill.

'Wind...Didn't nii-san say that wind fueled a fire's flames?' thought Sasuke as he saw the two drills come around for a second go. 'Let's see if this theory pans out.' What he was hoping for was to avoid attacking the puppy and hit Kiba with a medium-level katon jutsu. But with the chakra being used to manipulate their bodies the way they were doing was making it harder and harder to discern the two.

As the first drill came in for another attack, Sasuke leaped over it and, molding his chakra and pulling off the right seals, launched a goukakyu at the second spinning Kiba. Unfortunately, he was so caught up in the attack that he didn't notice that the first drilling Kiba had rebounded and came for another strike. Grinding along Sasuke's left side caused the attack to veer slightly off course from it's original trajectory.

Thankfully, the fireball had a kick-back effect, helping Sasuke to propel himself backwards and slightly away from the drill that attempted to strike a finishing blow. As he fell, landing hard on his right shoulder, he could hear his technique go off.

Sasuke had designed the fireball to detonate upon immediate impact, so as to not actually engulf his opponent in fire. He may be trying to win, but he wasn't going to kill to do so. While a shinobi he was, cut-throat and ruthless just didn't suit him. Falling roughly to the ground, henge dispelling as it did, Kiba's puppy, Akamaru flopped around with singed hair that was still smoking and didn't seem to hold enough power left to stand, let alone fight.

As Kiba - the real Kiba, Sasuke noted to himself - fell to the ground, huddled over his dog to check on him, Sasuke checked himself. The damage done to him by that Gatsuuga was painful, but it wasn't debilitating. However, there was bleeding, indicating just enough abrasive damage was done to rip through layers of skin. And with the heat of battle came the release of adrenaline and endorphins, so it wasn't possible for Sasuke to even diagnose himself properly yet.

Standing up, wincing from the ache in his side, he took a couple of deep breaths, found some discomfort, but not enough to stop him from taking in deep breaths of air. Looking towards his opponent, he saw that Kiba was trembling - in rage, Sasuke would have to assume. Kiba's jaw was clenched so tightly that the boy's fangs could be seen. A low growl could also be heard coming from the enraged teen.

"Pretty good...for a pair of mongrels," commented Sasuke, ready to set the trap. It was up to Kiba to bite. Sure enough, his barb elicited a feral growl from his opponent. "Don't get pissed at me for trying to fight back. If you had just not let your puppy fight, it wouldn't have gotten injured." 'Just a little more' thought Sasuke. "So what, don't you want to avenge your dog, or are you afraid to fight me by yourself?"

They locked gazes with each other, allowing Sasuke's sharingan to help him penetrate the mental blocks in the feral shinobi, and begin to systematically break away Kiba's resolve. It was a genjutsu he was taught by his father and trained in by his brother that, even with the intermediate level of the Sharingan, one could manipulate an opponent's mind-frame, destroying their resolve.

To shinobi, resolve could be many things. If you were to tear away the resolve of a shinobi who feared battle, you could turn them into a cowering mess and make them wish to retreat. Sasuke was tearing away the resolve of Kiba, who had animalistic urges, which meant he could destroy any thought or reason behind Kiba's actions.

With another growl, followed quickly by an enraged roar, Kiba sprung into action, gripping the floor with his claw-like hands, and leapt for his opponent. But Sasuke was all too aware of the Inuzuka's intended attack, having seen it several times at the beginning of their fight. When Kiba was within striking distance, Sasuke parried a right claw hay-maker with his left hand and grinned. "It's over."

Stepping into Kiba's forward momentum, he drove his right elbow into the middle of the torso. The gagging and sputtering that followed was all he needed to hear in order to know the effectiveness of his blow, but that wouldn't be enough. Kiba was like an animal, damn near half-beast. It would take more than a good shot to the sternum to end this.

Following his attack, he released the caught right hand and swung his freed left hand in a knife-edge chop, palm facing the ceiling, to the right side of Kiba's neck, forcing the vertebral bones stationed there to contort and groan from the strain. Then he swung his right fist into Kiba's stomach, which slightly knocked the boy off his feet, but he wasn't done, still. Another punch to Kiba's gut from the left fist helped propel Kiba further into the air, followed by another right fist, another left, and finally, a final right fist. Each consecutive strike brought Sasuke closer to Kiba and helped set him up for the grand finale.

Rolling onto his back, and then onto his hands, which were positioned on each side of his head, Sasuke put all of his weight and strength into his arms as he positioned his feet for the next step of his combo that he had been itching to test. Using all the strength his arms could muster, he propelled himself into the air, his legs extending and his feet connecting directly with Kiba's jaw.

With his foe now launched high enough into the air, Sasuke landed back on his feet only to jump as high as he could manage, which just happened to be the ceiling. Applying chakra to his feet, he watched patiently as Kiba began to arch out of the attack and head for the ground, head first, still out of it and not able to recover. Everything was going exactly as he had practiced and simulated it would. Crouching on the ceiling, he launched himself at the unsuspecting victim, which was an appropriate title for Kiba now, given that as long as he finished the combo exactly as predicted, then Kiba would become a hapless victim.

As he got within appropriate distance of Kiba, Sasuke angled his body so that his head was at Kiba's feet and vice versa, but it wasn't enough of a shift in angle that it would stop his momentum. Sasuke flowed into the fall and the shift in angle, now in perfect position. Locking his legs through Kiba's arms and across the boy's chest, he gripped Kiba's pant's legs with his hands and they both careened toward the ground. In this position, it looked as if Sasuke was trying to piledrive Kiba into the ground head first.

That was exactly what happened too. With a devastating and sickening crunch upon contact with the ground, Sasuke released Kiba, who just flopped to the ground, out cold. Not really noticing the puppy, who's fur had returned to it's original white, walking up to be at it's master's side, he turned to look at the proctor, who nodded to him.

"Winner of the first match, Uchiha Sasuke" spoke Hayate, just incase it wasn't obvious enough.

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After his soft-spoken declaration, he called for a medical unit to come in and retrieve Kiba. Kurenai had come down to speak with the medic who had performed a preliminary diagnostic check of Kiba to see if anything serious had happened. The medic told her that he was going to be sore in his abdomen for a few days and he'll probably suffer from a moderate concussion, but it was nothing life-threatening.

Sighing in relief, she cast a dangerous glare at Sasuke who was looking at her. She knew that these fights could get aggressive, and all the genin should be willing to do anything to win, but to her it seemed unnecessary for Sasuke to go about gaining his victory that way. They were of the same village, so didn't that count for something?

Walking back up the steps to the balcony where the rest of her team was located, she was questioned by Sakura almost immediately. "Kurenai-sensei, will Kiba be alright?"

It was almost unbelieveable how much the girl had changed over the past month or so. Since the joint mission with Team Seven, the pink-haired girl had been more tolerable and willing to train hard. It was like she had a hidden motive and an inspiration, and whatever it was, it was helping Sakura. Relations within the team had improved as well, and Sakura became more amiable towards her teammates, letting go of her disdain at their quirks, and they her's.

Smiling warmly at her pupil, she told Sakura that Kiba would just be a bit sore and have a bad headache, but nothing more serious than that. Sakura sighed in relief and turned back so that she, like everyone else, could view the electronic black screen.

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Naruto was a bit surprised, just like Kurenai, that Sasuke would use such a move like that piledriver, which could cause serious, crippling damage to the recipient. But apparently, Kiba was alright, so he just let it go. When Sasuke made it back to stand with he and Hinata, Naruto sent a knowing smirk and a nod of approval, not really needing to say 'Good job' or anything like that.

But now that the match was over, Naruto had a little bit of time to stew on these preliminary matches. These fights were a brutal form of analyzing each other's potential. He tried to think of why they would need them to do something like this before the third exam. The only possible explanation that Naruto could think of was that the third exam would be held at a later date.

Another thing he found curious was this need for thinning the crowd. All throughout the exam, there seemed to be some sort of urgency to thin the number of participants. He recalled overhearing the second exam's proctor, Anko, making light that her portion of the exam would whittle down the numbers of the hopefuls, guaranteed.

The last thing was what the proctor of these match-ups said about the odd number of participants remaining. If everything went off without a hitch, then by the time these fights were through, then ten would remain. All of these factors could mean many things, but not one possibility stood out.

'Could it be that the third portion of the exam might be dedicated to another round of one against one match-ups?' he thought to himself. That would make the most sense. The lessening of the numbers through successive portions of this exam, leading to one last tournament to establish the most worthy to be chuunin. So drawn in to his own thoughts was Naruto, that he almost didn't hear the proctor.

"The next match's participants will now be shown," spoke the proctor, drawing all attention to the black board. The names that appeared were Aburame Shino and Yamanaka Ino. Having witnessed how crafty and cunning Shino is when in a fight, Naruto had a hard time believing that Ino would stand much chance. She was a friend of Hinata's, therefore a friend of his as well, but she never put much effort into her training. Maybe she would surprise him.

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Then again, maybe not. It lasted barely five minutes, before Shino's bugs had swarmed her body, turning her into a shrieking mess. Ino did not keep secret her detest for icky bugs, and Shino had always creeped her out with his use of insects. So Shino merely played against her fears, making her submit in a display that was half-comical, half-pitiful. Out of the corner of his eye, Naruto saw Shikamaru and Chouji both shaking their heads in disappointment, while their rather large sensei had his hand gripping his face - out of frustration or embarrassment, Naruto was unsure.

As they both climbed the stairs back up to the balcony, Hayate had called for attention to be given to the board once again for match-ups. An intriguing match-up indeed was displayed as Sabaku no Temari would go against Elru. Naruto thought it curious that the girl from Kid's team held no last name, but then he quickly realized that all of that team had not given any last names. A curious thing to lack, he thought, so he resolved to ask about that at some point. But right now, at this current moment, Naruto was more interested in watching what he had deemed as an enigma in the kunoichi from Kagegakure.

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Down on the floor, the two kunoichi faced each other, sizing each other up. Or, at least that's what it seemed like, but with the bandages over Elru's eyes, it was still hard to tell what she was doing. Temari sent a vicious sneer at the opposing kunoichi. "What luck?! I get matched up against a blind female. This is going to be easier than that Forest was."

"You should not judge a book by it's cover, kunoichi of Suna. These bandages may conceal my eyes, but I am not blind."

Hayate looked between the two, as he had done in the previous matches, and brought his left hand down in the motion for the fight to commence. Temari wasted little time in reaching behind her and setting her large fan down on the ground. Undoing the buckle on it, she opened it up to reveal three blue circles. "Let's just test that theory," she shouted as she brought it behind her, and then swung, unleashing a miniature windstorm.

The air became distorted as the force that the fan had unleashed spilled across the space between the two kunoichi. The one who this attack was meant for brought her arms up to shield herself and was forced several feet back from the windy assault. As the winds died down, Elru sprinted into action, dashing at her opponent with amazing speed.

As she approached Temari, Elru extended her left arm out, pointing it to the ground, a twitch from that arm causing a small metallic tube to slip out from the sleeve. Gripping it like one would the handle of a blade, she brought the arm up and then swung back down toward the ground, causing the metallic tube to extend into a staff. Temari saw that Elru was swinging the staff horizontally to counter a return swing of the fan. Gripping the fan tightly in her hands, she closed it and brought it across her body to block the staff.

What occurred was baffling to the sandy-haired blonde kunoichi, as the metallic edges of her fan blocked the thin, metallic frame of Elru's staff, and shook her entire body from the aftershocks. Such was the force of the collision that Temari momentarily lost hearing and almost saw stars.

Once she finally regained some composure, Temari managed to speak to her opponent. "That's some walking stick you have there." she joked, her adrenaline beginning to pump. The Suna kunoichi was always considered to be a bit of a tom-boy and always liked a good fight, not afraid to get a little dirt on her clothes, so to speak. "This could be a good fight. Let's make this last, shall we?"

With that, she pushed Elru away, and then swung her closed fan around horizontally, only to be blocked by Elru's staff. They had switched roles for a brief moment before Elru planted one end of her staff into the ground and used it as javelin, propelling herself towards Temari, trying to kick the young girl.

Temari, reacting quickly, rolled backwards, taking her weapon with her, and avoided Elru's attack. Once on her feet again, she moved into melee position, bringing her fan down and using it in the same way Elru had used the staff just a moment ago. Unlike Elru, however, Temari was successful, planting a hard kick in Elru's gut.

The bandaged-eyed girl coughed a bit, but had no time to try and recover in peace. Temari was pressing the advantage, having opened the fan once again, swinging it and unleashing another windstorm, but this one was much stronger than the first one had been. Elru had no hope of shielding herself or countering to defend, and the winds threw her back, tumbling across the ground painfully, her clothing ripping from the force.

Temari watched as her opponent struggled to stand, her mouth moving, muttering words that went unheard, but they kept moving in the same manner, as if her opponent was repeating something. Ignoring the curious side to her, she tightened every muscle in her two arms and two legs, stepping into the motion and swinging her fan with all her might. "This ends it!" she shouted, unleashing her strongest attack. She couldn't understand it, but there was something unnerving about Elru. It wasn't like the fear she felt towards her little brother, but it wasn't entirely unlike it either.

The torrent of air zipped through the air, threatening to practically destroy the young girl, but Elru didn't falter. She gripped her staff tightly, her mantra being repeated steadily louder, until she was in a full standing position, facing the impending stormy winds head on, with a determined expression etched on her face. "I cannot lose. I made a promise!" she shouted against the howling ferocity of Temari's attack and swung her staff.

Through the mass of swirling winds and the distortions in the air, it was hard to tell exactly what had happened. But Temari believed that no one could overcome that attack head-on. While she tended to only use the fan she wielded to unleash concentrated miniature windstorms, she did know that this was the strongest one she could produce using this method. 'This fight should be over', she told herself, repeating a mantra of her own.

But when she felt the disturbance, as well as her kunoichi instincts firing off, she instantly knew that it wasn't going to go the way she thought - and hoped - it would. Sending chakra to her eyes the way she had been trained to, she was able to see through all of the disturbance, and realizing that the reason behind the disturbance no longer existed for it's original purpose.

Surprised didn't quite express her reaction to Elru's counter. The girl had swung the staff she wielded in a manner to counter the flow of her wind, effectively halting the advance of the technique. Then she swung once more in a downward arc, parting and creasing the storm, which then dissipated, leaving a panting Elru amidst the weakened remnants of swirling wind.

Growling in frustration, she stood up straight and looked towards Elru, unsure of what to do next. If this girl knew how to disrupt her attacks, then what could she do? Thinking quickly, she tried to piece together an eventual scenario, based on her understanding of all the factors taken into account so far. The conclusion she came to was risky but if pulled off correctly, would work like a charm.

Her opponent was basically wielding a blade, with the way it cut across the air, but only when slashing through the air at a particular speed. Temari's fan was designed to unleash winds with minimal effort, but a thin object like her opponent's staff was not. If her estimations were correct, then it took a full-powered swing in order to create enough resistance. But if she could hinder Elru, then she might be able to capitalize and overwhelm her kunoichi opponent.

As the daughter of the Yondaime Kazekage, she refused to be outdone by this girl from an unknown village. 'I won't be shown up. Not now.' she declared to herself. Wrapping a length of strong wire around the butt of her fan and tying it securely, she closed the fan and rushed her opponent. When in striking distance, the two exchanged attacks, as well as impressive blocks, with their respective weapons. Temari shouted in frustration as she jumped back a few feet to avoid an attack from Elru, and threw her closed fan at the girl.

When Elru dodged and ran at her, Temari smirked in triumph. The girl had walked right into the trap. Pulling on the wire she still gripped in her hands, the fan came back into her waiting arms. Unfolding it, her grin grew wider as she realized this would probably do it. "It's over!" she shouted in elation.

Bringing it around to unleash her attack, she was surprised to see Elru had already dug that damned staff into the ground and used it to vault over her and avoid the attack. But Temari, already seeing Elru's planned method of escaping assault, closed the fan in mid-swing and pivoted around to face her opponent, who had just landed.

Rushing to greet the girl in a most unfriendly manner, she brought the fan down to club Elru mightily. Caught up in the act of seizing the moment, Temari did not even register how much she had been played. Within a mere few feet from Elru, Temari's fan was met with resistance. Pulling on it, she managed to catch the glint from the lights in the room off of a thin, metallic wire, connecting the butt of her fan to the staff driven into the ground.

'Unbelieveable,' she thought to herself. 'When did she manage to pull that off?' It wasn't much, but it was enough of a surprise that hindered Temari just enough to allow Elru a chance. With fingers intertwined, Elru's hands began to shimmer in a darkened glow, then the glow spread across the arms, then it happened with the legs and continued on until the glow encompassed the entirety of the kunoichi's frame. A dull hum was produced through the hazy glow, but the voice of the young girl rang out, declaring her technique.

"Kumori Hirameki!"

Temari, quick to get into a position that would be more favorable towards her defense against whatever this technique was, reached for a kunai in her pouch and brought one out, quickly cutting the wire. Not even bothering with sheathing the small tool, she simply dropped it and gripped her fan with both hands. Furiously applying as much chakra as she could into her legs and arms, she strained each muscle required in order to attack quickly.

But as soon as she had started the movement of bringing the fan around, she was caught speechless as the said object was blown from her hands, and she was blown from where she was standing backwards several yards. The impact, whatever it was that had hit her, was impressive, leaving her debilitated for several moments. When she managed to gather her senses, she looked up to see that Elru was right where she had been just a moment ago. It was only a second ago that she and Elru held distance between them, but then that one second's time elapsed and now she was on her back.

But the most prominent aspect of this strange cycle of events was that Temari felt like she had been put through the ringer with her sensei. The amount of force behind whatever that attack or technique was, was great enough to leave her spent. She couldn't move, couldn't even think of it, and if she could, she doubted that she would. There was no more will in her to continue this fight.

"You're a lot stronger than you look, girl." spoke Temari, giving a rare compliment to an adversary.

"I believe we are both guilty of underestimating the other in this fight, Temari-san." responded Elru, almost sounding disappointed with her confession.

"I just have one question. When did you manage to tie the wire from your staff to my fan?" asked Temari, still perplexed about how the young girl managed to pull that feat off.

"You have the sequence of events backwards. You think I had the wire tied to the staff from the beginning and was waiting to tie it to your fan. But that is inaccurate. When you blocked one of my swings, I took the opportunity to attach an open end of the wire to your fan. But it wasn't until I drove my staff into the ground that I attached the other end to the staff." Her response left Temari amused. If it had been the other way around, it would have made the girl seem highly unnaturally talented. But this way, she seemed only intelligent. It made her feel worse. She hadn't lost to some freakishly powerful or overly talented shinobi like her younger brother, Gaara, but to a unique kunoichi with brains behind the talent.

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Hayate called the match for Elru, as the girl returned to the overhang with her team. Temari was being assisted back up to the side with her team as well. When Elru reached her side, she was met by a beaming Naruto. "Sugoi, Elru. That was an awesome fight."

"Arigatou, Naruto-san." she responded, smiling happily, and a little proudly. Turning towards her team, Naruto saw that Kid was beaming, proud of Elru's fight. Ezekiel's face betrayed no emotion, but his eyes held a glimmer of pride and respect. Their sensei walked up to her, a bit gingerly Naruto noted, and patted the young girl's shoulder, smiling down at her in tremendous pride.

"Would you mind if I asked you what it was you did?" he asked in interest. He thought it was an innocent question, but he immediately felt the rising tension in all four people from Kagegakure.

However, when he looked towards Elru again, he saw her smiling at him. Vander seemed ready to speak for her, but she turned down the offer and answered for herself. "I'm afraid that that's my little secret for now.not tell you. Perhaps some day, Naruto-kun."

In understanding, he nodded his head as he responded "I can understand that. I'll hold you to it."

As the tension settled down, it only escalated again when the next match was revealed.

Sabaku no Gaara versus Kidremé. Kid, seeing his name on the board, stiffened for a moment, as though suddenly struck by nervous anxiety, but it was quickly squashed and replaced with an aura of confidence and enthusiasm. He walked towards the stairs leading to the battle zone, receiving hushed good luck's from his teammates and sensei.

The two young boys stopped a few feet away from each other. Gaara, arms crossed with an unreadable scowl on his face, and Kid, grinning like a child at christmas time. In an unorthodox move, Kid extended his hand to Gaara, in a display of pre-fight formality. "Let's do our best, Gaara-san."

Gaara just stared at Kid, then the hand, then back to Kid's face. Uncrossing his arms, he slowly let them drop to his side, but did not return Kid's gesture, choosing instead to glare at the proctor. A small spike in Gaara's chakra helped show his displeasure of waiting. Kid felt this spike and lowered the extended hand warily, cautious of any sudden movement from Gaara.

Kid's next action was peculiar. He turned around and looked up to his sensei, almost with a pleading expression that was saying 'Please forgive me' or something along those lines.

Hayate didn't seem to care for the behavior of Gaara, but brought his arm up. "Preliminary fight between Sabaku no Gaara and Kidremé of Kagegakure will now commence...BEGIN!"

After Hayate's call to start, Gaara sprung into action...or, at least, something did. The ground underneath Kid exploded, sending chunks of concrete and hardened dirt splaying out across the floor. But from the metallic-gray concrete and dark-brown dirt came a golden-tan substance - sand.

This substance moved with a life of it's own, swirling around Kid until it looked like a snake, ready to pounce from it's coiled position. As the sand slithered all the way around Kid's body, the young boy was elevated into the air. It was noted by the on-lookers that as the sand prison rose, so did Gaara's right hand, palm facing the sand he controlled.

Despite the situation, Kid managed to speak with an odd calm about him. "Well, well. So you have power over sand, eh? Interesting..."

He struggled a little against the cocoon of sand, as if testing it's stability. Gaara spoke to Kid, his words a promise, more than a threat. "Surrender now, or this will hurt."

"And by hurt, I guess you mean kill." Gaara's eyes held a small shimmer of surprise at the interpretation. "This sand reeks of blood. I can even sense the blood. It's repulsive...just how many people have you killed in your life?" Kid asked with genuine shock.

"I kill to survive. I kill to exist. And those who stand in my way, who act as obstacles, are treated as such, and removed from this world. It's how I live...how I've been forced to live." responded the red-head with a mechanical voice, holding no emotion.

Kid shivered as he assessed this revelation and his circumstance at the current moment, weighing his options, before he finally responded to Gaara's response. "Well...in that case, I guess I should be thankful you've given me an option..." joked the trapped shinobi, before his face, as well as his body, settled into one of ruthless resolve.

Without warning, a strange muffled sound came from within the cocoon of sand, followed by the sound of crackling and creaking. Surprise made it's way through everyone watching as the cocoon of sand was turned into a shell of glass. No longer resembling sand, the object it had become dropped to the ground and shattered, Kid remaining intact and unharmed.

As the two boys gazed upon the other, Kid broke the surprised silence. "Thank you for the sentiment, Sabaku no Gaara. But I'll take my chances."

"You...how..." muttered the Suna shinobi.

"When sand is introduced to a sudden surge of electricity, it solidifies into a fragile, reflective surface - glass." After his response, Kid held up his arms, giving Gaara a view of his palms. What was on Kid's palms were tattoos that looked like seals, but the designs were different on each hand, and unfamiliar to Gaara.

As Gaara was trying to analyze what the seals meant in this battle, Kid reached into a pouch on his left upper thigh and pulled out a small, slim piece of paper that had the same seal designed onto it as the hand that held it. Holding it between his fore and middle fingers, the youth spoke a silent chant before bringing the paper seal into his fisted hand and tightening, crinkling the paper. Smoke slowly, eerily crept out of the closed fist, until a hazy glow had settled upon the hand's entirety.

Taking that fist, Kid practically snarled viciously as he punched the ground, the hazy glow evaporating with the contact. The hazy glow had disappeared, but the energy that had created it was not gone. Instead, it had absorbed into the ground and was erupting. A shower of shrapnel had burst from the ground and flew with dangerous speed towards Gaara, who still remained impassive with an expression vacant of caring.

A wall of sand rose to defend Gaara, being moderately successful. The projectiles had penetrated the barrier, but still did nothing to injure the red-haired boy. Another minor spike in Gaara's chakra signified that something was about to happen with this sand. Sure enough, the wall of sand quivered, before the shrapnel imbedded in it shot out like rockets aimed for Kid.

Kid did not manage to dodge, instead opting to grab another small slip of paper - this time, from the pouch on his right side, and gripped it in the right hand, which hadn't been used so far. The smoke crept out of the fist like it had earlier with the left, but it wasn't a hazy glow like it had been with the left. It was thick like smoke, almost completely concealing the right hand, but it was apparent what Kid was doing with the appendage.

Slamming the hand down, palm open, to the ground in front of him, a surge of energy could be felt, as a strange light danced around the ground. With barely any time left before the fragments of doom would skewer the young teen, a solid wall erupted from the ground, effectively blocking the counter-attack, as the shards fell helplessly to the ground.

--------------------------------------------------

Arashi, who had been watching in earnest to see the potential of his friend's genin, was shocked at what was occurring. While, more than likely, Sabaku no Gaara would be oblivious to the workings of this Kidremé, having known Vander, it did not surprise him. This was alchemic ninjutsu, a process of funneling chakra through an alchemic design. The design would then manipulate the chakra however the design was made to. Recalling the words spoken by his friend when they were catching up earlier before the exam, he now understood how true Vander's words were.

(Flashback)

"It's ironic. In this world, the accomplishments of all previous shinobi to make ground-breaking leaps in the development of their ability, their legacy is always cemented and looked back upon. But what very few realize, especially the pupils of such shinobi, like the Legendary Sannin of the Sandaime Hokage, is that they will be the one's to surpass the previous generation. While the Shodaime and Nidaime Hokages were exceptional forces in this world, the next generation's leader surpassed them, with the Sandaime. They might not realize it, but the man's pupils are probably stronger now than he was their age.

"I take pride in that thought, because while other teachers may not openly say it - heck, they may even frown upon the prospect that their pupils might surpass them - it is an undeniable fact that as long as the teacher teaches the pupil to the best of their ability, then the pupil will surpass the teacher. It's natural evolution. Take one of my students for example. Kidremé has a defect in his chakra pathways that I am yet to find a way to fix. But when I met him, and decided to take him in, he knew the work that would be ahead of him to make up for his deficiency.

"With a constant flux in his flow of chakra, he can't properly mold chakra to any kind of benefit. I told him of my style, the one I had been researching. You see, while he couldn't mold chakra through the hand seals, he had an uncanny knack for being able to convert his chakra through design. He ended up saving us some money, actually, because he was capable of making explosive notes himself. So with this ability, he was able to study under me after I told him of my research, while living the life of a shinobi. He desired to help me, and before long, he had not only assisted me, but had mastered the basic principles and fundamentals of alchemy. I have no doubts, Arashi, that he will surpass me. But I do not fear such a thing, nor do I loathe that inevitable fact, because I will always be proud that I had a hand in making something special happen in that young boy's life."

(End Flashback)

During that conversation, Vander had described what it was they were working on perfecting. Alchemic seals, the designs of which would incorporate the theory behind the handseals that most shinobi used to execute ninjutsu. These seals would automatically mold the chakra for the person bearing the seals. And no doubt, that's what the marks on Kid's hands were.

The slips of paper that he saw Kid use the past two times were making sense of this phenomenon. On the small pieces of paper were designs of their own, that were similar to the corresponding hand's seal. And if he was correct, then when he felt the release of energy come from Kid, he was sensing the underlying dominance in the nature of the chakra.

The energy that was felt when the cocoon of sand was turned to glass had a dominant lightning chakra nature, as well as the attack that sent the shrapnel shards. And the wall was obviously earth in nature, which was perplexing. It took most shinobi, no matter how talented, years to train their chakra to accept the dominance of two natures. There were the rare - very rare, Arashi corrected himself - cases where a shinobi was blessed with multiple chakra natures. But in this case, it did not have the same feel.

To control two chakra natures meant to have exceptional chakra control. But the flux in Kid's chakra flow, as described by Vander, would make this impossible. So that meant that even if the alchemic seals did mold chakra, bending it to the will of the seal's owner, it would need control so as to not overflow the intended technique. Just like with regular ninjutsu, alchemic ninjutsu, as told from Vander, is highly dangerous if not balanced - dangerous, to those around the user and to the user himself or herself. Did that mean that the alchemic seals did more than mold chakra, but also acted as a focal point, drawing in the desired chakra? That would make sense, because then the purpose was clear for the slips of paper. They acted as triggers.

With any properly designed seal on paper, like explosive notes, they had a trigger set into it, as well as a limiter. If the small slips of paper that Kid used had the trigger designed into them properly, as well as a limiter, then he had by-passed his own weakness. Because, unlike jutsu's, where if you put too little or too much chakra into the technique it will have adverse side effects, with a written seal properly created, it would not trigger until filled with the appropriate amount of chakra, and even then, if the limiter was designed properly as well, then it would be impossible to overflow or underflow. It would merely stop taking chakra once the limit was reached and any possible excess chakra would simply wash back into the body of the owner.

It was a thrill to see this young teen overcome the challenges faced with. Even more thrilling was that Kid was the student of his friend. And adding to Arashi's delight in this spectacle was that this young shinobi was probably going to be powerful in the field that Arashi, himself, had set on the map. 'Another seal expert, eh Vander. I understand what you meant, a few weeks back. Ironic, indeed.'

-----------------------------------------------------

The impact of the shrapnel shards hitting the barrier Kid erected was great, but the sturdy wall stood against the punishment, enduring and lasting. What Kid did not take into account, however, was that with a large wall in front of him, his vision was impaired. Therefore, he did not know that just beyond the wall was a swarming mass of sand controlled by his opponent.

At the last second, he heard the shuffling sound and leapt from his blind spot to avoid three different tendrils of sand. The speed at which the tendrils attacked the spot he was at just moments ago was incredible. But he could not react quickly enough when out of the sand emerged Gaara, showing more emotion than he had so far. Frustration was evident with the scowl that adorned his features, and in his frustration, the sand swirled and decimated the wall behind him.

An involuntary shiver raced through Kid's spine as he looked upon the fearsome suna shinobi, now coming to grips with the level of difficulty this would prove to be. Earlier, when he had been able to feel the blood in the sand, he had desired to destroy Gaara for causing such havoc in such a short amount of time. But he hadn't taken into account that in order to have killed so many people, that Gaara would undoubtedly possess great strength. It was a foolish miscalculation that left the young boy feeling rather humiliated.

But now was not the time for him to dwell, to pity himself for his arrogance. He could not hold back anymore. Dodging out of the way as more tendrils of sand soared and tried to smash him into the ground, he continued to use his slips of paper and the alchemic jutsus he seemed to have an endless supply of to counter-attack and renew the assault on Gaara. But it was a losing battle. The sand would not only attack for Gaara, but it would also block for him. It quickly changed from a battle of attack/counter-attack, to simply attack/defend, with Gaara being the aggressor.

After taking a rather painful blow from a tendril of sand that caught him like a large tail of a great beast and smashed him into the ground, Kid seemed to have the most defeated look upon his face as he spat out some blood, rubbed more away from his mouth, and looked up towards his teammates and sensei.

It seemed as though everyone was drawn to the odd spectacle, as all eyes seemed to divert from shifting between Kid and Gaara to shifting between Kid and his team. "I'm sorry" was spoken from Kid, his voice sounding like a person disappointed and disgusted with something. Reaching behind him, he pulled from a concealed position a thin, long scroll and unraveled it quickly, not wanting to waste anymore time than was needed for this apparent gut-wrenching action.

Up on the balcony, Ezekiel was livid, his teeth bared in a demonstration of his frustration. Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke found their attention drawn to this disturbing spectacle, not quite understanding the meaning.

"We made a promise..." spoke Ezekiel in a voice just barely restraining his anger. "I THOUGHT WE MADE A PROMISE, KID!!!" Now all attention was definitely directed towards the genin that had always seemed so arrogant and calm, now turned emotional and frustrated.

In response, Kid just sent a half-hearted smile towards his teammate, before replying in a comical, light-hearted tone, "I guess I couldn't keep that promise afterall." Then, biting both thumbs, he smeared them across two areas of the unrolled scroll, and took one slip of paper out of each pouch, gripped them as he had previous ones, and clapped his hands together. The hazy glow that surrounded his left hand merged with the smoky glow of the right hand to make a pale light that glimmered with the promise of amazing things. Separating the hands, he placed each hand onto the two areas marked in blood, creating an instant reaction.

Dazzling blue and white light danced, racing around the young boy's body until it was impossible to discern his figure in the light. It continued like this for roughly one minute before finally the energetic reaction stopped and the haze began to fade and clear. What met the eyes of all the on-lookers surprised them - all but the eyes of his teammates, that is.

His body had changed, his clothing barely discernable through the new additions. His entire body had undergone a radical change, resembling a knight in white armor, but the armor was glassy, and shined under the lights above. Where there had once been a small boy now stood a lean, sleek figure. Long legs with flat-feet adorned the lower body while long, slender arms with thin, pointy fingers and long, thin blade-like protrusions jutted out from the arm at the elbow joint helped give off the impression of quick assault.

His face was left mostly unaffected by the strange substance, but the hair had the metallic gleam that the rest of the body possessed, and so did his neck. It was like another layer was added to his body, but it had done more than just that, but only Kid knew of this, as well as his team. It hurt to hear Zeke shout at him in anger, because he also felt the desperation and disappointment in the voice. The promise, given the history of the Chuunin exams of Konoha that they had a final tournament-style fight at the end, was to keep everything in check and don't reveal any trump cards.

Elru had shown a small portion of her's, but overall she kept it in check. But here he was, faced with the unfortunate circumstance of fighting arguably the strongest genin in this room, and needed help if he intended to move on. Funneling chakra towards the seals imprinted on his hands and placing them on the scroll activated a technique that Vander had helped him create. For not only did he lack the ability to control and mold his chakra correctly, but he also lacked the physical nature of a shinobi.

This was the answer to that problem. Based on his will and whim, he could influence the technique in one of two ways. Either reshape his body to one of a defensive nature, or one of an offensive nature. This was the latter. "Now, Gaara, let's do this. Unfortunately, I don't have the time to waste anymore. I'm on a tight schedule." And those words held great truth. He only had a brief amount of time to make use of this technique before the chakra energizing the armor would be depleted, effectively ending his fight. 'If my estimation is correct, I've probably only got 3-5 minutes.'

Crouching down, placing both hands on the ground, digging his fingers into the tiled floor, Kid dashed at break-neck speed towards Gaara and swung his right arm around in a claw-like slashing manner. The sand that continued to act as a shield went into action again, forming a wall before the red-haired boy, but Gaara fell prey to ignorance. The attack broke through the sand shield, and viciously struck Gaara across the left side of his face, sending the hapless, startled genin skidding across the ground.

An unfamiliar sight greeted the eyes of the on-lookers from Suna. Gaara, hit by a successful physical attack, and the sight of blood on the hands of the enemy that attacked him. Baki was very impressed with this feat, for he knew that it took a tremendous amount of power to break through all of Gaara's defenses. But what he feared was how Gaara would respond to this. It had been far too long since Baki had seen Gaara take any kind of injury. Never, actually, was the case. He could never recall Gaara taking any physical injury while under his tutilege. How might the boy react? With the shoddy mental stability that Gaara possessed, it wouldn't take much to set the boy off - and the demon sealed within him. This very well could turn ugly in a hurry.

True to Baki's understandable, and now justified, fear, a spike in the chakra signature, as well as a spike in killing intent flooded the room. Winds generated from the form of Gaara as the boy rose unsteadily in the middle of a miniature sandstorm. Jagged lines marred the red-head's face, blood dripping from the casing covering his face, and a horrified expression adorning his visage. "Why...does it hurt...mother? Why does it hurt, Mother? I don't...like pain. MAKE IT STOOOOOOOOOOP!!!"

Gaara's left eye turned dark black quickly after his panicked and crazed statement to "Mother" with a golden cross in the middle acting as the pupil. It was a tell-tale sign of the demon becoming dominant. The temperature dropped several degrees as a bloodlust the likes of which had not been felt washed over everyone present. Kid, being the one who had been the cause of this change in demeanor, felt the full impact of the twisted and deranged bloodlust.

But his teachings helped him overcome the initial fear and think through the possibilities. The large gourd on Gaara's back had disintegrated into a rich, golden stream of creamy sand that was wrapping around Gaara's left arm, enlarging it and making it look like a large, brutish claw. But Kid thought that he saw the flaw in Gaara's tantrum and increase in power. 'He's still only increasing his power, but is relying on his sand.' Kid believed that the sand was being manipulated by Gaara's control over Earth chakra and he felt that he had the advantage, for the armor was created through condensing the iron, lead, and calcium in his body with alchemized earth chakra as well, but it was being fueled by alchemized lightning chakra. The lightning chakra held an advantage over earth chakra-based techniques. 'I can still win.'

Vander, however, knew his student well enough to know what Kid was thinking, and he knew that what Kid was thinking was wrong. 'The sand was indeed being controlled through Earth chakra, but now, it isn't. Whatever is causing this drastic shift in power in Gaara is manipulating the sand through a different elemental nature.' And his worst fear was realized when he detected it floating in the air. The chakra now radiating from Gaara was not of the Earth nature, but of the Wind nature. And wind defeated lightning.

Kid did not possess the ability to detect chakra nature in one's chakra signature, so he was not aware of this. Blindly rushing towards Gaara in an attempt to end the fight quickly before his chakra ran out, he cocked his right arm back, ready to deliver another devastating melee attack. But the large arm of Gaara was deceptively fast and struck a mighty blow against Kid, who was knocked away easily. While the armored boy was not surprised about the power behind the attack, he was surprised that it was so effective at knocking him away and the speed of the attack. Another thing, one that scared him, was that his armor had cracked some on his right arm and right side of his leg and torso.

He now understood, but it was too late. Gaara was now fighting with wind-natured attacks. The chakra was so heavily influencing the attacks that it could be felt even with melee attacks. It was a lost cause, he knew he was defeated, and it hurt that he knew this. Resigning himself to the inevitable, Kid readied to surrender. There would not be any need to foolishly fight and humiliate himself further.

The sound of something shooting through the air fast caught Kid's attention and he barely avoided one of Gaara's trademark attacks. A shuriken of sand was launched from the bulky left arm of sand. "Wait. Gaara! I-" but he got no further as the appendage stretched out and grabbed him, lifting him into the air, and slammed him mercilessly into one of the walls, shaking the building from the ferocity.

With his armor further damaged and no longer giving him the benefit of protection and strength, he felt the impact and could not avoid another shuriken of sand that hit him with such force that his breath left his lungs. Before he could gather his breath back, Kid watched in horror as the solidified sand that had encased Gaara's left arm shed off and floated into the air, becoming a multitude of small sand bullets. Eyes wide in horror, he just barely managed to scramble away from his indention in the wall as several bullets were shot into his previous position. "Sabaku no Gaara, wait one second, will you? I surrender!!"

With his declaration, Hayate tried to intercept Gaara before he could continue with his rampage. But he couldn't get there in time as the remainder of the sand bullets were shot at an untrackable speed and barraged Kid. The sound of his armor shattering could be heard, but was then over-powered by the excruciating sound of his screams of pain and flesh being ripped into. Before anything else could happen to the poor boy, Kakashi appeared next to Gaara in the blink of an eye, the fingertips of his right hand glowing with five different kanji. Slamming the glowing fingers into Gaara's right shoulder - the shoulder that houses the seal of Shukaku - he effectively sealed off Shukaku's chakra.

Vander had rushed towards his pupil as soon as the Suna Shigure was being fired on Kid after surrendering, but was unsuccessful in getting there in time. His hands, glowing green with medicinal chakra, were focused on the most damaged areas of the boy, who always seemed strong but now looked to be frail and fragile. There was significant superficial damage ranging from shallow cuts to deep lacerations, and a troubling loss of blood at an ever-increasing pace. No doubt Kid would need a blood-transfusion within the hour.

But aside from the superficial, there was extensive internal damage. Ruptured vessels, splintered bones, and bruised organs all were causes for concern for the boy's life. When the medic team came to escort him off the floor and to the back, Ezekiel and Elru had rushed down to check on their teammate, as well as Naruto. To Naruto's surprise, it was Ezekiel who was the most concerned and emotional at this point.

"Is he going to be okay, sensei?" asked the worried boy.

"I am unsure at this moment. He has received extensive damage to his body and given his body's frail nature, I am unsure if he will be able to survive." responded Vander in a voice that seemed devoid of emotion. It was probably the nature of Vander's apparent main profession in the shinobi world, being a medical shinobi.

That news didn't seem to settle well with Ezekiel, who turned on his heels immediately and sent a powerful wave of murderous rage towards Gaara. Before he could react, however, Vander had lain a hand on Zeke's shoulder and squeezed tightly. "Keep your emotions in check, Ezekiel. Blindly fighting will not do anyone any good."

The tension remained high, as Baki escorted Gaara back up to their overhang, as did Vander with his remaining team. But Naruto was forced to stay on the ground floor, for his name had appeared on the electronic screen. It would be he against Kinuta Dosu.

-----------------------------------

Kakashi had just made his way back up to the platform he was stationed with his sensei and Jiraiya. Upon his return, he was immediately questioned about the incident with the young boy from Suna.

"Kakashi, was it what I thought it was?" inquired Arashi, a grim, serious look etched on his face as his eyes followed Gaara's ascension of the stairs.

"Hai, Hokage-sama. The seal was on the right arm, as you said it was. There is no doubt. There was heavy youkai influence." When his sensei gave a non-verbal affirmation to continue, Kakashi closed his visible pupil and sighed. "Bijuu."

The news, while expected, did not settle well with Arashi. He could not fathom why the Yondaime Kazekage would place this sort of burden on his own son. Was it in a move to bolster the military forces by having an ace in the hole? Or was it some other agenda that was beyond Arashi's spectrum of insight?

Arashi was, as seemed to be the norm as of late, pulled from his thoughts when a sudden explosion rocked the room. Dust hung in the air, as unsettled as Arashi's nerves, while the Hokage searched for his son's chakra signature. He felt horrible for having his attention on something other than his son when the moment was more than perfect for the young boy to do exactly what Arashi expected of Naruto.

Step out of the shadows of Arashi and what was once done by the most promising of shinobi in Leaf history. Make a name for himself. And finally, and most importantly in Arashi's view of things, prove he is deserving of the last name that Arashi had helped signify as prominent. But what troubled Arashi most about this was the lapse in consistency.

So much promise was shown in Naruto's early years of development, only to slump gradually and noticeably. But under the assumptions posed by Jiraiya, he was advised by the older man to leave Naruto be and allow the young boy to work through it until ready to man up to the responsibilities of a young shinobi in Naruto's position.

Days became weeks, then months, then three years passed, and it still showed no signs of relenting. Where once Naruto was on the verge of excellence in all fields, he ended his term at the academy struggling to stay on par with the middle of the class. Someone in that position, however, should not have been capable of the things that have been reported that Naruto has accomplished in the past few months. The learning and mastering of jutsus at an incredible pace, the brief but amazing spouts in combat abilities, and even the reported use of his own technique, the Rasengan, was leading to a large number of questions that left Arashi wondering several things. One of which was, did Jiraiya know anything about this? And the second was, given the nature of the rise in level of Naruto, just how far could he go?

--------------------------------

One common understanding in the rules of engagement when faced with a combat situation between a foe you have no information on is to engage the subject in hand-to-hand combat. This action quickly helps to assess the level of your opponent and force their hand before you have to force your's.

However, in this situation, it was proving to be a foolish choice for Naruto's opponent just so happened to be most dangerous in close-range combat. In an original assessment, Naruto felt that with the bulky size of the coat Dosu wore, that possibly Dosu was slow in movement. But as was shown on more and more occasions, first assessments were usually wrong. Dosu was fast...very fast. And, whatever that weird device was on Dosu's right arm helped to make even missed attacks hurt, much like Jyuuken, but it wasn't Jyuuken.

His vision was already blurry, for whatever was happening whenever Dosu swung that right arm, it had happened close to his head. He could literally see the effects and was already feeling very nauseated. Dosu's voice spoke through the heavy bandaging on his face moments later after Naruto was kicked in the gut and sent skidding across the ground.

"This is pathetic. You, son of this village's Hokage, have already fallen to my melody arm. This device sends out altered waves of sound with each swing of my arm, adding more impact to my attacks. And you foolishly charged in and became a victim to it."

Naruto gritted his teeth in frustration. This guy was sounding just like Neji and it was pissing him off. Mostly because it was true. As soon as he had gotten to a standing position, however, and tried to concentrate his chakra so that he might be able to unleash a counter-offensive, Dosu had already moved to be right in front of him. With another impressive swing of that dangerous arm, Naruto was struck in the gut and he could feel his innards trembling from the force.

Trembling and doubling over in pain, Naruto regurgatated and fell as a twitching heap. This pain was so tremendous, he wanted it to stop. In the back of his mind, he could practically feel another part of himself screaming in frustration, not in agony. Is this really going to be it? Are we going to be defeated this way? To this guy?

"I expected more from you, Uzumaki. But I guess it can't be helped with a wet-behind-the-ears rookie." With a huff, Dosu turned around and started to walk towards the steps, already believing the fight to be over.

Naruto was mentally screaming Stop!!! This fight isn't over!!! But he couldn't muster the strength to get up.

Suddenly, the world stopped. Dosu stopped moving, everything in the room dimmed, lost color, as though going out of focus. Then the image sucked itself into a hollow space and all that was left was a blinding white light. When, at last, Naruto's eyes adjusted, he was in a completely different room.

Room did not quite fit, though. It wasn't a room because there were no walls. The hard, chipped, and damaged floor he and the others had fought upon had been changed to one of a clean, polished surface, like a mirror. Realizing he didn't seem to be in any pain here, he stood up and looked around, gathering a better understanding of this place. The new landscape had a ceiling resembling the outside sky, but this one was in constant turbulence. The sky was dark, but not so that it resembled night. It was dark as though a storm was brewing.

What was truly the most strange thing about this realm was that it didn't feel like the realm he lived in. Everything seemed to be more artificial. The howling wind, the sudden claps of thunder, even the flash in the sky trying it's best to resemble lightning, it was all artificial. Without speaking to anybody in particular, Naruto muttered a simple question. "Where am I?" Though his voice spoke low, it still seemed to echo here.

"This is your mindscape." responded a voice all around Naruto. Looking around, he tried to identify the owner of the voice, only to not find anybody.

"Who are you," questioned Naruto, seeking to find this person. For some reason, this place seemed terribly foreboding and left him feeling sickly. It seemed to be a feeling reminiscent of home-sickness. He was yearning for company in this strange, turbulent-filled world and the owner of that voice might offer what Naruto was needing right now.

He heard chipping, like what one might hear when glass is cracking, and reacting upon instinct and his earlier observation of the floor, he looked down to see the ground cracking in a uniform manner. The lines that formed gave the look of a perfect rectangle, and this shape rose from the ground and stood erect in front of Naruto.

True to it's appearance, the glassy surface acted as a mirror, showing Naruto himself. But what was different about this mirror and it's reflection, was that the reflection did not behave as Naruto himself behaved. It was moving on it's own. The reflection walked forward, blue eyes shining and an arrogant, toothy smile etched upon this Naruto's features that seemed to ooze confidence. But the surprises did not end there.

The Naruto-reflection continued to walk forward until it stepped out of the mirror and stood only a few feet away from Naruto, looking as real and life-like as anything else in this world. But what was different about this look-alike was that it felt different. While everything here was surreal and felt artificial, Naruto couldn't feel that from this doppleganger. It felt as real as he himself felt in this realm.

Yet another surprising thing was that as soon as this figure stepped out of the mirror, the mirror shattered, as though it had served it's use and could now be disposed of. Taking a better observation of this doppleganger, Naruto could see just a few minor differences between he and the look-alike. Where Naruto wore his normal wind-breaker jacket and pants combo as usual, the look-alike wore dark, baggy pants, a dark undershirt, a vest that resembled the armor Kakashi-san wore at times when he came by to visit after missions, and a white, long-sleeved trench coat that Naruto could tell had what appeared to be flames licking at the bottom of the back-side of the coat. Leather fingerless gloves adorned the hands, and the standard shinobi sandals adorned the look-alike's feet.

It was the attire Naruto had seen his father in on more than one occasion, and Naruto felt a strange feeling creep into himself. His question earlier, the answer seemed to be right in front of him, but there seemed to be more to this, and what that was was hanging on the tip of Naruto's tongue, like he knew what this was, but couldn't quite bring it all the way into understanding.

"Who am I, you ask?" asked the doppleganger, mimicking Naruto's earlier question. "I am you, Naruto."

Skepticism must have still been in his eyes, for the look-alike put on a fake pout like he was hurt. "You don't believe me?" When Naruto shook his head side to side, the look-alike burst out laughing. A laugh that was neither pure nor sarcastic. It was a chilling laughter.

"You truly are pathetic, you know that? An eyesore. To think I am actually a part of you, that we were once a whole. But nooooo, you had to go and ruin it. Allow me to remind you just who I am.

"Five years ago, we were practically the best there was at our age. We trained almost non-stop, perfecting things that are usually held back from other's as young as we were, and advancing on a pace that Jiraiya had said was faster than even our father was at our age. Time passed, we met a young girl, Hinata, and turned nine years of age, gaining permission to attend the academy. That first year, we excelled at eveything that was thrown at us, and had no equal, not even Sasuke.

"But, that's when the looks came. The looks that started this. The whispers that drove this to happen. We both heard the mumblings of discontent from our peers, how they felt it was unfair for them to be compared to us when we were clearly outclassing the entire lot of them. But...that was when it happened. You were created. You, who represents the conscience of our conscious. You, who over-reacted to the envious spite sent our way. You, who drove us apart in your over-reactive, guilt-ridden mind.

"We had always focused on our training and had, therefore, never known what it was like to have friends, have fun outside training, and it was you, you who enjoyed such amenities like friendship, that feared pushing others away with our superiority, and decided to do something about it. But you couldn't just turn us off. I still existed. I represented our pride and our confidence. I was the lesser of our conscience, for I seemed to lack it, in your eyes. But, you were too young to understand the division of ego from conscience in the conscious realm of the mind. You felt that if we were hindered, somehow, that it would not only make it almost impossible for us to rise above the rest of those in our class, but we could co-exist in the middle of the pack.

"So you sought out one of Jiraiya's seal scrolls, for you knew the old man wouldn't condone this action. Managing to steal it while the horny, old man was off peeping at a local hot spring, you attempted to use an ill-advised, complex seal that acted to de-stabilize the natural flow of one's chakra. But when Jiraiya tried to interrupt you, you incorrectly performed one of the symbols and used the malformed technique on ourself. What you did, inadvertently as it was, was not only did you succeed in destabilizing the flow of chakra, but you also created a seal on us. What it did, even Jiraiya was unsure of when he tried to figure it out, but in response to your pleading, he promised not to tell our father, and kept it on, for you were so desperate for it.

"What the seal did was severed me, confining me into this pocket of your mind. But, as you grew over the years in my absence, I did so as well. It was like we were two completely different people residing inside one body.

"Your weakness and guilt led to our separation. But now, I believe you understand that we need each other. No longer can your weakness be our dominant persona. Remember back in that joint mission? When Hinata was hurt by Garrett? You were desperate for the strength to do something, anything, to change the tide of the battle. And in that desperation, I arose. The strength you yearn for when you need help, I am that strength.

"Now, this insect is insulting us, our father, our heritage, our namesake, and I will not allow him to go unpunished. If we cannot co-exist, then I will destroy you and rid this body of your weakness. Understand?"

An ultimatum the likes of which he had never heard. Either he co-exist with this wrathful, vengeful ego, or get destroyed by it and never exist again. Both choices seemed like lost causes. For if he were to give in and accept the other's help, then he might be overpowered and cast aside like he had to this other Naruto. Was it really worth it?

The answer came to him a moment later. Pride. Confidence. Arrogance. It was everything he needed right now. Naruto, at that moment, felt like he was a desperate man lost in a desert, who suddenly stumbled across a fountain of the most purified water. He realized he indeed needed this. He could no longer hide from his responsibilities, from who he was.

"Your hesitation is disgusting. If that's how you feel-" but that Naruto was cut off as he saw the other Naruto hold his hand out. Chuckling darkly, but with hints of relief, the pride of Naruto spoke one last time. "Good choice." Suddenly, the realm he was in melted away, being sucked back out, as the blurred vision of the chipped floor of the battlegrounds came back into focus.

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"I'm surprised, but I suppose I shouldn't be," commented Neji out loud, critical of Naruto's performance.

"Neji-niisan, please," pleaded Hinata, wishing that whatever Neji had against Naruto would just end already. The bitterness between them had always upset her, and tore at her heart, for while Neji did act unbecoming in comparison with her, he was still her cousin, but she always considered him her brother. She cared for him deeply for she had always felt guilty that he had that despicable seal etched on his forehead.

Turning her thoughts from her relationship with her cousin, she lamented on what his snide remarks were made in regards to. Naruto appeared to be defeated by this literal unknown. She had always felt Naruto held some greater strength within him, and evidence was apparent on a small number of occasions. So why wasn't he capable now?

"Hinata-hime, you should know that I speak only the truth now. Son of the Hokage, tutored by one of the Legendary Sannin, Jiraiya, and this is how he turns out? It's pathetic. Even you, Uchiha, should understand that." As he completed his statement, he was surprised to see Sasuke's sharingan activated, blazing with the power of his clan. The line of sight seemed to be focused on Naruto, before a smirk cracked the face of Sasuke, and the Uchiha turned to look at him with those eyes.

"It's not over, yet. Your eyes should be able to see it as well. His chakra is spiking. He isn't defeated, not yet." When he was finished addressing Neji, Sasuke turned his attention to the main floor, where Dosu was casually walking away and Hayate seemed prepared to give the call that the match was over. Acting quickly, he threw Hayate off his intended track with an outburst of a statement, uncharacteristic of the Uchiha.

"Hey, the fight's not over!" he shouted, causing all eyes to fall on him, including Dosu, who stopped in mid-step, before all attention fell on the person he was looking upon.

Dosu, as well as his teammates on the other side of the room, began sniggering snidely, apparently unbelieving of the Uchiha's claim. He felt his own blood boil as he heard that arrogant laughter, but then he felt it, and he was almost positive, given that the laughter had stopped, that the Sound nin, as well as everyone else, had felt it too.

A killing intent, not as strong as the Suna shinobi, Gaara, but still quite strong, filtered across the room, coming from one spot. Naruto.

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Chapter Nineteen finis. I'm evil when it comes to cliff hangers, ne?

So what did you think? I hope it was up to standards. I had to go back over the first two detailed fights, and improve some of the details, and I hope they ended up coming out alright. I want to let everyone know I was not Ino-bashing earlier in the chapter. I did that mainly for the comical relief. If they had been paired up in the actual story arc, I honestly believe that is exactly what would have happened.

Also, I wanted to give everybody the answer to one of the biggest questions people had about my story. How Naruto, who seemed on pace to be the strongest genin period, went to struggling in the middle of the pack. Well, I hope this answers that question. (But if you are still confused, go ahead and ask me about it in a review and I'll respond.) I said at the beginning of this story to not forget the beginning chapters, for I tended to back-track to those and answer questions about curious events happening in those chapters. That was fifteen chapters in the making.

Once again, I apologize for the tardiness of this chapter, and it doesn't exactly help that now that I have a full-time job, that I'm gonna be just as busy as I have been. But maybe with the stress of looking for a job off my shoulders, my mind will be much clearer to entertain my muse.

One note I would like to comment on. While I did say I won't beg for reviews, I must admit that I agree with other authors on this website. They help to propel one into action. Each review I get helps spur me on. It's odd. I can tell myself I want to write something, but my mind could blank on me. But as soon as I see a review, my mind instantly goes into artistic overload. So, review when you get the chance, it helps make my day that much better. (God I must sound pathetic. lol )

Quick translations:

Kumori Hirameki/Shadow Flash - Not much information is known about this technique, but from simple observation it appears to give the user a burst of speed resembling the Shunshin technique. Further information is needed, but it seems that only Elru can use this technique.

As for the next chapter, I suppose I could give you all a preview. The preliminaries continue, as the numbers are whittled down to the last remaining few. But, the spectators are left in awe. What is this? This explosion of power? All those watching are left to wonder the same thing as everybody else. Could this truly be: The Real Naruto!