A/N: Ack, I only have 4 more uses of Microsoft Word until I actually have to buy it. Oh well, anyway, sorry for the wait, but procrastination in college means crappy last weeks.

Man, people really seem to like Hokuro. I was going to just let him fade out of the story, but now I may have to implement him in other places (Sasuke retrieval mission anyone?).

On a side note, while I was reading through my reviews, I realized something. Typically, any people who decide to flame me are little pansy ass cowards writing unsigned reviews that I can't reply to, to which I laugh at the cowardice of it all and how pathetic it is. Oh well, just thought that I would let that out. Anyway, on with the story.

Shadow Fox

Naruto calmly walked down towards the arena, Kyo at his side. He figured he could use Kyo for assistance, but he wanted to try to hide his shadow abilities so that he could hold an element of surprise, so he had Kyo walk with him instead of traveling through the shadows. He could hear Kiba boasting to the other leaf ninja about how he was going to beat this bandaged head guy in no time.

"This guy doesn't look so tough; Akamaru and I will beat him in no time at all."

"I would be a bit more cautious if I were you, He is a lot tougher than he looks." The lazy drawl of Shikamaru's voice could be heard issuing his warning.

"Yeah right, there is no way I am going to lose to some freak with his head covered in bandages."

Kiba grabbed Akamaru and jumped down into the arena. He looked over to see his opponent walking into the ring accompanied by a pitch black fox.

"So, you use an animal too? Interesting, but it won't help you any. There is no way that Akamaru would lose to some fox, and there is no way I will lose to you." Kiba boasted. He looked to Akamaru only to find Akamaru sniffing at the air and barking at him. "What's that, you say his scent seems familiar Akamaru?" Kiba then sniffed the air himself, "Your right, his scent does seem familiar, but I can't really place it. Let's forget about that for now and focus on the fight."

The referee signaled for the match to begin, and Naruto turned so that his right side faced Kiba. This was the opening stance for his style. Naruto turns so that his side faces their opponent. This creates more positions to dodge and roll around attacks and create counters. It also gives his opponent a false sense of security as it looks as though he has not defense in his stance, causing his opponent to attack more sloppily since they think he is inexperienced in taijutsu. However, he now needed to wait for Kiba to attack. His shadow taijutsu style only countered enemy attacks, it didn't initiate attacks. If he had to attack his opponent, it was fairly sloppy and not very efficient. Luckily, from what he remembered of Kiba in the academy, he was fairly hot headed, so he would probably try to constantly attack him.

"What's the matter bandage-head, too scared to attack me? You don't stand a chance; just give up now and save yourself from a world of hurt." Kiba taunted.

Naruto scoffed at him, he was really tempted to try using the thousand years of pain technique with a shadow spike right now, but that might cause some suspicion as to his identity, "Don't flatter yourself, you're not worth the effort." He hopped that would rile him up into attacking. Fortunately, his taunt worked as Kiba began to shake with anger.

"So I am not worthy of your effort huh? I'll make you regret those words."

Kiba got down on all four limbs and launched himself at Naruto. He launched a punch with his left fist, only to have Naruto spin around to his left. The punch passed right behind Naruto's back, and Naruto continued to turn as he lifted his leg in the air. Before Kiba knew what was going on, Naruto's right leg came over his head and wrapped around his neck. Naruto pulled his leg back, pulling Kiba down to the ground, and as Kiba's body approached the ground, Naruto stuck out his left knee, driving Kiba's back into his knee.

Kiba grunted in pain as his back was forced into Naruto's knee. Akamaru tried to assist his master and jumped to attack Naruto, only to be tackled to the side in mid air by Kyo. Kiba rolled to the side and jumped back to create some distance as he called for Akamaru to return to his side.

"Damn it, the bastard caught me off guard, I'll make him pay for that."

Once again, Kiba charged in for a frontal assault. He launched a punch with his right hand but this was simply dodged by Naruto. He then followed up with a kick with his right foot, but as his foot was about to connect, Naruto grabbed his leg. He then spun to his left and gave him two elbows in the face with his left arm, while his right Arm continued to hold Kiba's leg. He followed this up by continuing to spin to the left as he brought his right leg up towards Kiba's head. Kiba ducked under the kick but Naruto's leg continued its path until it stretched out over the kneecap of the leg that he held, and then proceeded to drop his weight to the ground, the force of his drop combined with the weight of his leg as it smashed into Kiba's kneecap.

Kiba was getting really pissed now. Every time he launched an attack, he was simply countered and those counters really hurt. He couldn't even get Akamaru to help him because every time he tried, he was attacked by the black fox.

'Damn it, I am not going to lose to this guy, but he keeps countering every time I attack. Well, I've still got a few tricks left. Let's see him counter these.'

Meanwhile, up in the stands, the only two people that wore green spandex suits were having a conversation about this boy's fighting style.

"Gai-sensei, what is the style that boy uses. I fought against him in the second stage of the exam but I could not recognize his style."

"For once my student, I do not know about a fighting style. I have never seen this style of fighting before, but it seems to revolve around narrowly dodging attacks and countering, particularly counters that use gravity to its advantage."

"I see…WHAT AN INCREIBLY YOUTHFUL FIGHTING STYLE!"

"INDEED IT IS LEE!"

Those who were standing in the vicinity of Gai and Lee slowly moved away from the two as they began to make quite a scene with their yelling and hugging and crying whatnot else.

Meanwhile, back in the arena, Naruto just got back up into his stance while Kiba began to settle into his again, only this time, instead of charging again, he merely smirked at his opponent.

"You haven't done too bad so far, but let's see you counter this." Kiba started moving towards him when he suddenly began to spin. "Tsuuga!"

Normally, Kiba would have saved this attack for use with Akamaru, but he was getting impatient, and Akamaru was busy fighting with the black fox at them moment. As he neared Naruto, Naruto began to get worried about the attack.

'Shit, I thought I would probably be able to counter his attacks, but I can't think of anything for this attack and it is too late to dodge…this is going to hurt.'

Up in the stands, Kin was gripping the guard rail tightly as she watched Naruto get knocked back a great deal, his body covered in scratches and gashes.

"That's it, it's over. Call the match ref; he's not getting up any time soon." Kiba boasted.

The referee shook his head and pointed towards Naruto. Kiba's gaze followed to where the referee was pointing and he saw his opponent getting back up to his feet. Although he was a bit wobbly on his feet, Naruto was still able to fight in this battle. As he swayed a bit on his feet, the wind caught a hold of his ripped and torn bandages and the bandages fell off from around his face. The bandages fell to the floor in dramatic slow motion as the wind blew through his hair for even more dramatic effect.

Up in the stands, TenTen could have sworn that out of the corner of her eyes, she saw Neji tossing his head to the side and letting his hair flap in the wind as he muttered "I have such a better slow motion dramatic pose then this guy." But she couldn't have seen that, there was no way that Neji would have done something like that, right?

All eyes in the audience were now focused on this boy with black hair, piercing blue eyes and mask that hid about half of his face. Many a gleeful squeal could be heard from the girls in the arena over the looks of this mysterious boy.

'I have missed seeing him without those bandages; it's such a crime to make him cover his face like that.' Kin thought to herself as she gazed at her teammate.

Naruto was now really glad that he was wearing his mask underneath his bandages. There were very few people who would probably recognize him with his hair dyed and mask on. Sasuke had been taken away after his match by Kakashi to deal with something that had happened to Sasuke. The only people who would possibly recognize him were Sakura, Iruka and the Sandaime. Sakura probably would not recognize him so he crossed her off his mental list, and he hadn't seen Iruka in the stadium since they arrived, so he thought that he might be busy with some other duties. The only person that he was somewhat worried about was the Sandaime, so he tried to keep himself facing away from where the Kages were seated.

Kiba meanwhile was not happy that so many girls were quite taken with this newcomer. It was almost like dealing with another Sasuke, only this guy didn't seem to be the brooding type that Sasuke was.

'How come none of the girls ever come for me, I am a perfect specimen of a man, the girls should be flocking to me. I'll just have to impress the girls by beating this new guy so bad that he will wish that he had never been born.'

Kiba then pulled out a round pill and threw it to Akamaru. Akamaru got a power boost and then moved behind Kiba as Kiba began to form hand seals. Akamaru then transformed into another Kiba, and the two of them stood side by side ready to attack.

"You want to try something like that Kyo?" Naruto asked his fox, who yipped at him in response. Kyo then ran to Naruto and began to climb around on Naruto's body, rubbing against him as he went. He then jumped down beside Naruto and began to subtly let the shadows pool around him so that it would be less noticeable. The shadows then merged on him so that he basically became a second Naruto, with a structure similar to a kage bunshin. This use of the shadows went unnoticed by most, except for one old man with a sharp eye.

'That is no ordinary fox that boy is using, that is a shadow fox, but how come it is with that boy? The clan that had an agreement with the shadow fox clan was wiped out, so how did this boy get their help, there are only a few people who could possibly even know about them. The only way I can think of for someone his age to know about them is if Naruto had gotten in contact with…' Sandaime's thoughts were interrupted as he caught a glimpse of the boy's face in a moment of carelessness. It was hard to tell with that mask covering his face and the different hair color, but those eyes were the exact same, even from this distance he could tell that there was only one person he knew with eyes like that. 'Can it really be him, is it really you Naruto?'

Kiba was now furious over having this boy practically copy his technique. He was planning on having a two on one advantage during most of his fights, but now, not only did this boy have a fox to help him and counter act his advantage with Akamaru, but now he was also able to have his fox transform into a replica of him, basically nullifying one of his own trump cards.

'Alright, calm down Kiba, you can still kick his ass, just figure out which one is the real one by his scent and attack him to end this fight quickly.'

Kiba started sniffing the air, trying to pick up which of them had the scent the scent of a human and which had the scent of a fox. He began to worry when he found that the two of them both had very similar scents. Then he remembered the fox rubbing up against Naruto all over his body, they must have been rubbing their scent on to each other, mixing their scents and making them similar. He was beginning to get worried, so he just launched into an attack, hoping that he could end the match now.

"Gatsuuga" he yelled as both he and Akamaru became a spinning tornado of claws. The two of them both converged, striking in an x-pattern on one of the Narutos.

'Shit, that hurt, I need to come up with a counter for that move, I can't take many more of them and I really want to hold off revealing my shadow moves for as long as possible.' Naruto thought. They had just so happened to hit the real Naruto.

Kiba begin to get his confidence back as his attack hit Naruto. The boy was looking pretty battered and wouldn't last much longer against this kind of assault.

"You aren't going to last much longer, and it seems that you can't find a way to counter my move. That's because my moves are perfect, you don't stand a chance. Just give up now while you still can."

Kiba's proclamation was only met with laughter on the part of Naruto. Kiba was getting angry at his opponent again. What was he laughing about, he was losing.

"What's so funny loser."

"You are so arrogant that it is amusing. That move of yours is far from perfect, and you rely on it too much. Keep relying on one move and people are going to find ways to counter it, you really should try a little variety in your choice of moves."

"Just keep talking loser, that move is all that I need to take out the likes of you, and you still haven't managed to counter it yet. This time it will finish you off. Gatsuuga!"

Kiba and Akamaru spun towards Naruto once again, only just before they hit him, Naruto vanished. When Kiba and Akamaru came to a stop, they looked around to see where there opponent had gone. He was right in the line of fire of their attack, but at the last second he disappeared. They soon located both Narutos at the other end of the arena, looking back at them with a look of smug satisfaction.

"It looks like I am just to fast to be hit by your attack. I suggest that you not try that move again, or I guarantee you that you will lose."

"Arghh, shut up already, Gatsuuga!"

This time however, Kiba grabbed Akamaru's hand and the size of their whirlwind of claws doubled. Naruto merely smirked as both he and Kyo positioned themselves in their shadow style stance at the edge of their attack. Just before the attack connected, both Naruto and Kyo spun around so that the attack just missed them. Naruto was on the left whirlwind, his back facing towards Kiba's attack, while Kyo was on the right side with his front facing Kiba's attack. Simultaneously, both Naruto and Kyo did a back flip. Kyo's leg came up to connect with Akamaru as he spun downwards from the whirling attack, while Naruto flipped completely over and his leg came down and connected with Kiba as he was going up from the whirling motion.

The attack caused quite a bit of pain in the legs of Naruto and Kyo, as their opponents were spinning rather quickly so there was a lot of force opposing their legs. However, the damage was much worse to both Kiba and Akamaru. The two of them both stumbled around a bit after ending their attack before they both fell unconscious.

"Winner, Dosu Kinuta."

Kin cheered for the victory of her teammate while some of the leaf ninja applauded out of courtesy, or in the case of the girls, to cheer for hot guy. The last match of the preliminaries was between Rock Lee and Gaara. It was a fairly interesting fight with Lee never giving up, but in the end, it was Gaara who won, leaving Lee injured badly.

All of the participants who had won their matches made their way to the ring for the announcement that the third stage of the exams would continue a month from now, giving them time to train in preparation for their next opponent. The then drew a number to determine who their next opponents would be. The match ups were determined as follows.

Sasuke V.S. Gaara

Kin V.S. Temari

Naruto V.S. Shikamaru

Shino V.S. Kankuro

Winner of that match V.S. Neji

'Damn it, all of that work to not show my shadow powers so I could surprise my opponent, and I get an opponent who already saw my shadow abilities.' Naruto fumed in his head, he could have come out of his fight with considerably less injuries had he just used his shadow skills.

They were all dismissed so that they could rest and began training for the next stage of the exam. After dismissing them, the Sandaime walked back to the Hokage tower, his mind filled with many thoughts, most involving a mysterious boy that seemed so very much to be Naruto. He would have to look into this matter a little bit more during this month.

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A/N: Yeah, I really am sorry about the delay, and even after that wait, I don't think that the fight is all that great. Sorry, I try to make them good, but writing fight scenes really isn't my strong suit. I can visualize some things, but I don't always describe them well. Also, I haven't seen Kiba fight. I read some online manga issues of this fight, but fighting styles are a bit hard to pick up on from still shots. Anyways, my mind is caught up in later plot points, so I am trying to do well on these, but my mind is on future plot points.

One thing that I need someone to tell me about is that if anyone knows, can you tell me about how the sacrifice for the Edo Tensei or whatever it's called works? Does Orochimaru have to physically kill people for the sacrifice, or is their spirit taken by performing hand seals or what? And don't think that you know what is going to happen based on this question, I like plot twists.

Next order of business, I have decided to advertise a story. Many of you have already read it and it is a story that I personally love, but for some reason, it doesn't have as many reviews as I think it should have. Granted, reviews don't equate to popularity, but still, I am going to advertise it. The story is called "From Ramen with Love." And it is probably the funniest story that I have read. I will mention that it is M rated as a disclaimer, but it does not have lemons in it, it is just very suggestive and lime heavy. Anyway, I suggest that if you haven't read it that you go read it right now.

I am going to hold off on the super powered Naruto mock story again because it is late. It will be the last rant, so don't bother suggesting other topics anymore. It is not just that I am running low on topics, but also that I am just getting somewhat tired of ranting for now, so the super powered Naruto mock story will be the last one, though I may have it span multiple chapters.

Till next time.