Gaara of the Desert walked onto the field. As he walked out, he passed Rock Lee from Konoha and gave a head nod as to congratulate him on his victory he just had and received one in return as if to say good luck to him. He was matched up against a ninja from the Hidden Sound Village in the Rice Country and Kankuro had already won his match for the Sand Village. He was very confident, but knew sand ninja were quite strong and he had learnt his lesson never to under estimate anybody.
His opponent stepped out and showed no fear or nervousness, in fact he seemed strangely confident. "Gaara of the Desert or the sand demon. It is a pleasure to fight against you, the Uchiha told me about you and your sand defence. I hope my techniques can give you a little difficulty." Gaara said nothing, he almost smiled. He knew back in the Chuunin exams if he had of transformed he would have beaten Uchiha Sasuke-but that wasn't the issue now. His job now was to become a Chuunin and make people recognise him as an important asset to their village rather than a failed experiment. He ha wished very much for Uzumaki Naruto to be present for the exams, but he was off training with a legendary sannin, improving his skills. He wanted to show Naruto what skills he had when he sees him again.
The referee began the match and Gaara remained where he was and scanned the field and his opponent carefully. The enemy ninja charged straight at him, which took him by surprise. If Sasuke had indeed told this ninja some information about him, then surely he would have said frontal attacks are not the best option-unless this ninja's techniques required him to do this. Gaara had looked on the battlefield and noticed there was no sand, only mud. Even in the ground, it was soil rather than sand he could use and if he was going to use it, then he would need the chakra from his gourd which meant more chakra consumption. He controlled some sand to come out and easily block the frontal physical attack of his opponent. The ninja tried another attack but once more it was no use. Gaara was sick of playing and made a solid rope from his sand and was able to grab the sound ninja by the ankle. Rather than worrying or even flinching, the ninja made some seals, "Light flash technique." Out of the ninja's eyes, hands and mouth, extremely bright lights began to flash. It temporarily blinded Gaara and caused him to close his eyes and cover his face. He had already done this before he realised he was in trouble and tried to open them but couldn't see anything. The only thing he could do was use sand to spin all around him and hope that it would stop the opponent from attacking but unfortunately wasn't and copped a shot the mid section.
Luckily for Gaara, he had absorbed most of the shot with his sand armour; and thought about the technique he got done with. Gaara opened his eyes and everything was blurry. He could just make out his opponent and could at least get some direction with his sand to keep him at bay for a short while. The sand though would be difficult against light moves as they were not physical attacks he could block and along with how much chakra was eaten up with his style of fighting-he may need to get a little unorthodox in his fighting. He felt the demon stir inside of him slightly, wanting to act on the pain that had just been given to him from this sound ninja. Gaara felt he was strong enough not to use it now though and his opponent began antagonising him. "Why fight against Shukaku Gaara? Why not use it to crush me? Have you become soft?" The ninja repeated the attacks but in different directions and Gaara could only stand and try to defend them. The sound ninja was very arrogant, not unlike Sasuke and although his taijutsu wasn't as good as Sasuke or Rock Lee, his use of light techniques and an absence of natural sand was troublesome. Gaara needed a way to even out the match and it began with attitude. Light may move quicker than his sand, but that was no reason to give up. He was the Sand's hidden weapon and wouldn't allow anybody to think of him as unworthy of this title. Even though Gaara didn't have a lot of sand to work with, there were always solutions around a problem. He began breaking everything down, starting from the opponent's attacks. The sound ninja had only shown his ability to create light as a distraction or a retinal damage attack and follow through with his own combination. From looking at it this way, Gaara had an idea to fight this ninja. He closed his eyes and made the third eye technique from sand attached to his retinal cords. He could now use this eye instead of opening his own to block and counter the enemy. The sound ninja had some trouble and was frustrated at how Gaara could know where he was, even when having his eyes shut and couldn't use his light techniques to blind Gaara. He wasn't that quick and his automatic defence and third eye were very capable of handling him. Gaara even tried a few quick attempts to circle and corner the opponent but the sound ninja was just able to read what was going on and retreat. "Seems you have figured out a way to this style of fighting-Light Mirror Vanish Technique." Gaara looking through his third eye saw that the sound ninja glowed for a second and completely vanished. Gaara opened his proper eyes in response and looked around the battlefield but couldn't find him. There was no way it was genjutsu and the ninja had actually used some kind of technique to vanish. Before he knew what was going on, his automatic defence started going crazy, blocking shots this ninja was throwing at him. "Your automatic defence won't keep me out." He heard from thin air and Gaara didn't know how he would fight an opponent he couldn't see.
He needed some time to think and knew his ultimate defence for the time would have to do. He got all the sand from his gourd and compressed it around him tightly in his own ball of protection. He had no more sand left while he was in this, but it gave him some thinking time he needed. As he was in there, he hoped the light ninja didn't have any attacks like the electric one Sasuke had used to pierce through his sand and knew he was safe when nothing happened. This ninja used light somehow to reflect off his body and make him invisible and Gaara figured he may have to go ad lib to win this fight. When he was ready to continue, still not knowing where the sound ninja was, he broke down the sand ball barrier around him and moved it around, giving him a chance to hide and make it appear he was never in there at all. The battlefield was bare and nobody knew where both ninjas were. Then from nowhere, a figure came running through the rain but it wasn't too clear who it was. A kunai came from thin air and went through the figure exposing it as a sand clone. "A little something better than sand clones Gaara." There was nothing else that happened for a while until another figure came out and swung a punch into mid air. "You shouldn't gloat too quickly," said Gaara still looking at nothing and moving his sand around at once. The sound ninja came back into vision and tried some hand seals but wasn't quick enough against Gaara's hand motions. The sand he controlled came around and wrapped up the enemy's wrists and fingers like handcuffs so that he couldn't perform anymore techniques at all. "How did you know where I was?"
"You underestimated the usefulness of a sand clone. I was counting on you breaking it up and then I moved my sand through the air around a general direction and wait for it to latch onto thin air which was your body. That is how I knew where you were despite being invisible to my eyes. But no more talk, Desert Coffin." More sand came from his gourd and wrapped around the ninja, taking him into the air. The enemy broke down in tears. "No, not this technique, please. Please. I give up. I give up." Gaara smiled and released the sand prison. He was never going to kill him but he had won and was good enough this time to be a Chuunin. He wished Naruto was here to see it.