All right, so there are a few things I want to cover here. First off, several of you voiced concern about the Lee vs Neji fight. While I understand that Lee does have the capability to beat Neji, I, personally, believe that this capability comes from the chakra gates. I take support from that in canon, Lee was unable to beat Neji, and that I don't see Lee being allowed to use the gates in a situation such as that. I made that decision for the additional reason that, at the time, I wanted Neji in the final rounds so that he could fight Tsumeki. I didn't end up doing that, and decided to... well, you'll see. Also, some issues came of Naruto's fight with Hinata. I'll go over my thoughts on that briefly. Naruto doesn't want to use his sword against people he doesn't intend to kill, because it is a very dangerous weapon. He waited until taking the hit from Hinata to use it because at that point, he saw no other alternative with which he could defeat her. Also, the bit with him reversing the sword to crack the blunt edge over Hinata's hand was less skill and strategy and more, "Oh shit, oh shit, if I don't do something, I'm going to chop her fingers off." Looking at it now, I probably should have just had him pull the hit, but, it's out there. Oh well.

The last thing I want to cover is an announcement. Please, don't misunderstand me and think I'm being angry or mean or belligerent or whatever. This is said in a totally mild tone, with no hostile intentions. I've had a couple people tell me that they have objections to my fic grounded in events from canon. I'd like to take a moment to say that if deviation from canon bugs you, I would stop reading now, because by the time that I'm done with this, it won't look a damned thing like Kishimoto's Naruto, and that's a promise.

NOTE: SEVERAL FIGHTS IN THE CHUUNIN EXAMS ARE NOT COVERED. ASSUME THEY WENT AS THEY DID IN THE ANIME/MANGA.

In this chapter, we get the final round of the Chuunin exams and the Sound/Sand invasion, and let me tell you, I am psyched to write the conclusion of this chapter. Have been for a very long time. That said, let's get right to it, you're probably sick of listening to me rant. If you guys even read these things, lol.

"Just a second!" came Tsumeki's voice from the other side of the door. There was some rustling around, and she opened it. "Naruto," she blinked, "what are you doing here?"

"Been a while since we've eaten together," he replied, smiling. "Thought we might on account of being Chuunin Exam Finalists."

"Oh, I'd love to, but..." she looked down at her attire, which was wrinkled and had paint stains on it. "I haven't done laundry in a while. I don't have any good clothes."

"Just do a transformation. Make it look like you do. You're a ninja, Tsumeki, think like one."

"I had never thought of that. That's clever."

"I could be in just my boxers right now, and you'd never know."

Tsumeki scoffed. "Thanks, I needed that image. And trust me, Naruto, I would know."

"Yeah, you probably would. C'mon, lets go, I already made reservations."

She lifted an eyebrow. "Reservations? That's awfully fancy sounding."

"C'mon, how many times is this going to happen?"

"For me? Once. For you, on the other hand, is yet to be seen. Give me a second." She shut the door. Naruto heard, "Transformation jutsu!"

When the door opened again, Tsumeki was wearing a cherry red sundress with matching sandals. Naruto's heart leaped into his throat for a moment, but he managed to settle it rather quickly.

"Very nice," he said. "I like that it complements your hair."

"Thank you," she said. "You look rather charming as well."

Naruto had abandoned his usual fatigues for the night, going instead for an orange button-up shirt with black pants.

"Shall we go?" Tsumeki asked.

"We shall."

She locked her apartment door, and the two headed out of the building.

"So, where are we going?"

"I booked a table at that steak place on the other side of town."

"Oh, really? I've heard they're good."

"I've heard the same, hence us going there."

"What would you have done if I hadn't come? I mean, you said you had reservations, so that means there's a table for two in there somewhere."

"I'dve sold the other seat for a profit."

"Pfft," Tsumeki scoffed, "as if anyone would have bought it. I'm practically a saint for being able to sit through dinner with you."

"You never know. Hell, I never know. There could be legions of ladies tripping over themselves to have dinner with me, and neither of us would know until they ambushed us, killed you, and hauled me off to be molested and never seen again."

Tsumeki gave Naruto an odd look.

"What?"

"Naruto, the hell is wrong with you?"

"What isn't. It's a shorter list."

She threw her head back and laughed. Naruto shut his eyes for a moment and listened. This laugh was rare. Her usual laugh, if one managed to get her past a giggle, was somewhat high and still reminiscent of the lower levels of humorous reaction. This laugh was deep, rich, and satisfying to listen to. It struck a resonating note within Naruto's head, and it was pleasurable to listen to it, and even to the echoes off of the building walls in the less-crowded streets of twilight.

"Naruto?"

"Hm?" Her voice shook him from his trance, and with regret he left that rare laugh behind. "Sorry, did you say something?"

"No, you just had a funny look on your face."

"My face always looks funny."

"Well, yeah, but funnier than usual."

Naruto smiled. "Oh, it's nothing, I'm sure."

"Thanks for dinner, Naruto."

"Sure thing, not a problem."

"And hey, I didn't have to kick your ass for this one."

"Always a plus in my book."

They were heading back to her apartment. They had spent a little more than an hour at the restaurant, all things included. It was dark out, and the stars were peeking out from behind the clouds whenever they had a chance.

"How are you going to prepare for the third round of the Exams?" Tsumeki asked.

"I can't just tell you that. You could use it against me if we ended up fighting."

"We already know I'd win. What's the big deal?"

Naruto rolled his eyes and bumped her with his shoulder. Tsumeki staggered to the left a bit, off balance. She laughed and jumped back at him to shoulder him to the side as well. As a testament to his larger size, he recovered by simply bracing his foot against her charge.

"Seriously though. I'll tell you mine if you tell me yours."

"Only if you go first," he said.

"Fine. I'm going to work on learning a fire jutsu or two. Something that might give me an edge over the other opponents. Y'know, it'll help me against the chick with the fan and her wind jutsu, and I could use them to ward of Shino's bugs, eliminate shadows that Shikamaru could use..." she shrugged. "It seems tactically sound, anyways."

"Yeah, that's not a bad plan. It could work."

"It could. Now, your turn."

Naruto sighed. "I'm really not sure." He looked up at the sky. "I'm going to work on my kenjutsu for sure, but I don't know how much I'm actually going to use my sword in a fight. I don't want to kill anyone, you know? And even if they had something to defend themselves with, I could cause permanent damage. You know, I almost cut off Hinata's fingers in our fight. It was a last minute save that kept them on her hand."

Tsumeki winced. "Yeah, I could see not using your sword."

"Yeah."

"But you've got to train in something," she said.

"I know. I have an idea of what I'm going to do."

"What is it?"

"I'm not sure I should tell you," Naruto said, grinning mischievously.

"C'mon! I told you what I was going to do!"

"You did. And now I'm making like a ninja and using the information against you."

"That's not fair!"

"Not in the least bit."

"Naruto!" she said, stopping. He turned to face her and found that she was pouting.

And she's being DAMNED adorable about it, he thought.

"What?"

"You tell me right now, or I'm going home by myself."

He rolled his eyes. How could he say no? "Fine."

Immediately, Tsumeki jumped forward, and it was as if she had never been sad at all. "Okay, now tell me!"

"I think I'm going to create a jutsu," Naruto said.

Tsumeki raised an eyebrow. "That's ambitious."

"It is."

"Are you sure you can handle that? I mean, you are just a Genin."

"And what better way to demonstrate that I'm ready to be a Chuunin than by creating my own jutsu? It'll impress."

Tsumeki nodded slowly as she mulled the thought over. "It very well could. That's actually not a bad idea. What's your jutsu going to do?"

"Dunno yet."

"What do you mean, you don't know? How can you create a jutsu if you don't know what it's going to do?"

"Dunno. I have a month to figure it out, though."

"You're going to need a lot more time than that," she said. "With your thick skull, any idea you have will spend half of the time you have trying to squeeze out of your head."

Naruto laughed. "Yeah, well, we'll see what happens, won't we?"

"We will."

"All right, here we are. Try not to get mugged on your way up the stairs."

"Please. As if a mugger could do anything to me now. I have my first tail, remember?" She beamed at the last part of the sentence, immeasurable pride welling up in her.

Naruto smiled back. "You do. And I'm very proud of you."

Tsumeki hugged him. "Thanks, Naruto."

He hoped she couldn't feel his heart racing. "Yeah, no problem."

She looked up at him and smiled.

Before he knew what he was doing, Naruto had leaned down to kiss her. Tsumeki let out a surprised, "Mmph!" but she didn't push him away. She didn't kiss him back, either.

He pulled away, fighting down the blush he knew would be trying to fight its way up his face. From the lack of burning warmth, he figured he was doing fairly well.

She just stood there, a surprised look still on her face.

"So...uhm...yeah. Bye." Naruto spun on his heel and walked away as swiftly as he could.

He couldn't fight the blush anymore.

(POV Change – Tsumeki)

She stood there in the street, unmoving, for some time. Her brain seemed to have shut down as soon as he touched his lips to hers, and by the time it had rebooted, he was gone. She knew that he had left, and she remembered exactly how he had left, but she couldn't manage enough control over herself to call after him, or even to kiss him back. She touched her fingers to her lips, as if trying to keep any trace of him that might have been left behind from escaping.

"Ms. Shuro?"

Tsumeki turned to the entrance of her apartment building. Her elderly landlord was standing in the doorway. "Y-yes?"

"Why are you standing outside? You might catch a cold, and you wouldn't want that to cut into your practice for the Chuunin Exams."

"It's really not that cold out, sir. I'll be fine."

He chuckled. "You younglings can't always go about ignoring nature. She'll catch up to you someday, the old bitch. Come inside. At least you can stand dumbfounded in the lobby, where it's warm."

Tsumeki laughed a little bit, but she went inside, thanking her landlord for holding the door open for her, and went up to her room.

(POV Shift – Naruto)

(The next day)

Naruto was in the Ninja Wing of the library again. He sat on the floor with scrolls scattered around him. He was somewhere in the giant maze of bookshelves, and nobody else seemed to have made their way to where he was, so he figured that he may as well sit here to read over the material he had found.

It was looking rather grim. Making a jutsu was going to be every bit as complex as he had thought it would be, and then some. The jutsu he had in mind would be simple compared to other techniques, as it was mostly just chakra flow and manipulation, but it would still be hard. Doubly so since this form of chakra flow was different than what he did with his katana, and he didn't even know if it was entirely possible. One of the scrolls he had set to the side had hinted that something similar might be possible, but it was vague on the point and listed no jutsus which produced an effect that was moderately close to what he was planning.

The real trick was figuring out the proper hand signs. Since different hand signs molded chakra in different ways, he'd have to figure out which ones would result in the end product he desired – obviously – so that he could start working on actually figuring out how to mold the chakra. With that thought, Naruto abandoned all other parts of the jutsu except the hand signs until he could figure them out.

"Ox...bird...rat...None of those are what I need. Dog? No, wait, wouldn't ox work? Yeah, ox is what I need, I think. Then maybe...ram? Yeah, we'll try ram, that could work...And tiger, too, that'll be an important one, I think."

Naruto continued to jot down (on his own scroll, of course) the hand signs he thought would be instrumental in figuring his jutsu out. Really, though, it'd be as much trial and error as anything. Even if he got all of the hand signs he needed, he still had to figure out the order he would put them in and then some might need to be repeated, and he still had to actually perfect the jutsu.

And he had a month to do it.

Naruto stopped for a moment, sighed, and returned to work.

(POV Change – Tsumeki)

It really did need to be taken care of. With this kind of investment, she couldn't allow the issue to sit. She didn't particularly want to, because it was a bother and she had better things she could do (such as, oh, I don't know, TRAINING). But, there was nothing to be done for it. She knocked on the door.

"Come in."

Tsumeki opened the door and winced a little bit. The bright, angry white of hospital rooms had always hurt her eyes, even when her sight was dulled by the concealment.

"Is it that bad?"

"No, the room is just really bright to me."

"Oh. Okay. What brings you here?"

Tsumeki shut the door. "May I sit down?"

"Of course."

Tsumeki walked to a chair that was next to the hospital bed and sat down. "It's just a matter I'd like to clear up between us."

"What do you mean?"

"It's about Naruto."

Tenten blinked. "Naruto?"

"Yeah."

"What about Naruto?"

Tsumeki leaned forward and looked Tenten in the eye. She made sure that her tone and expression were as gravely serious as possible. "He's mine."

Tenten frowned. "Says who? He isn't property."

"Says me." And the fact that he kissed me last night, she thought, but she kept that to herself.

"What, are you two dating now?"

"No, not yet, but -"

"Well, if you're not dating, then he isn't yours. I can make a move on him if I want to."

Tsumeki suppressed a growl. It was difficult. "No, you can't. He's mine, and that's not just me saying that. He's interested in me. Not you."

"And how would you know that?" Tenten snapped. "You aren't a mind reader. You're no Yamanaka. I have as much claim to him as the next girl."

This growl was much more difficult to subdue than the last. "No. You don't. Continue down this path, and we will have problems."

"If you wanted him, then you should have made a move on him before we started training together," Tenten said. "We've grown quite close. Closer than the two of you, I'm sure."

Tsumeki felt the concealment flicker. She was losing her temper. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. "Your back is still healing. I'll not stop you while you're infirm. Make good use of the time, because when you are out of that bed, we are at war."

"Fine by me," Tenten snapped. "Now, if that's all, kindly get out of my room."

"You don't have to ask me twice." Tsumeki slammed the door on the way out. "I'll kill her," she mumbled.

No, she thought. Don't kill her. Break her. You have all of the tools necessary to stop her foolish chasing of Naruto.

"Yeah, break her," she whispered. "Make her unable to bear the thought of..."

Tsumeki stopped. Dear God, she thought. What am I thinking? Making a move on Naruto or not, she's his friend. Beyond that, she's a Leaf Ninja – a comrade in arms. I can't just break her mind. That'd make me no better than...

She frowned. "Well, we can't stoop to that level, now, can we," she said to herself. "Looks like we'll just have to do this the mortal way and get Naruto first."

Tsumeki looked back at Tenten's door. Maybe I should apologize, she thought.

"No, that much is done. Make amends later – after you're with Naruto."

Right.

As she made her way out of the hospital, she renewed the promise she had made to herself when she was but a kit.

I will never turn into him.

One Month Later

The Hokage was saying something, but Naruto wasn't particularly listening. He was incredibly nervous. There had been talk that the matches had to be rearranged at the last minute, meaning Naruto might not be fighting Shikamaru like he had originally thought. That left any number of possibilities, and few of them were good. He could be put up against Neji, which would be an unmitigated disaster. Naruto beat Hinata by a fluke; Neji was regarded as one of the most adept users of the Jyuuken in generations. Naruto had no doubt that his whole chakra network would be shut down within a few minutes of the match starting.

Another alternative would be Shino, which was almost as bad as Neji. Sure, Shino wouldn't shut down his chakra, but his bugs ate it. They'd drain Naruto just about dry, and he'd lose the match by merit of chakra exhaustion. Sure, if he had some wide-area jutsu, he might be able to do something about it, but he didn't, so it was a moot point.

He could also be put up against Tsumeki. That wouldn't be as terrible as the previous two options, but Naruto couldn't deny that it wasn't terribly likely that he'd beat her. He only had a basic grasp of dispelling Genjutsu, and he had no idea where to start with Kitsune Illusions. And he also couldn't forget that she had a tail to tap, now. Even if he wore her down, she could just hit her tail up and then she's back in the game, not only rejuvenated, but stronger and faster as well.

If, somehow, he managed to fight Shikamaru anyways despite all this, it would likely mean his most likely win. The Shadow Possession Jutsu was a nasty one, but it was avoidable and beatable. Plus, his Shadow Clone Jutsu would be of great help; Shikamaru wouldn't know which one to possess. Naruto silently prayed that this was the outcome.

Sasuke was another fight that'd be tough, but he wasn't here. There was talk that if he didn't show up for his fight, he'd be disqualified. Being the last remaining Uchiha and the somehow hero of the village by merit of being a 'traumatized orphan' (Every orphan is traumatized, assholes), that was not desired. His fight against Gaara was the anticipation of many in the audience, residents of Suno and Konoha alike.

Gaara. There was someone Naruto was truly terrified to fight. He hadn't seen him fight – Ino had forfeited in the preliminaries, when he would have seen Gaara's fighting style – but he had heard that Gaara could bend sand to his will, and to destructive effect. Naruto wasn't sure what the extent of that effect was, but he wasn't keen to find out. Not to mention the guy was a freaking psychopath.

Temari was a fight that Naruto wanted. Regardless of the difficulty, the Sand Ninja had treated Tenten like shit, and seemed to have little respect for her opponents. Naruto couldn't let that treatment of his friends stand. He wanted to teach her a lesson.

Kankuro, the last Sand Ninja, Naruto was leery about fighting. He knew that Kankuro somehow controlled puppets in battle, but he wasn't exactly sure how, and so he couldn't exactly counter it. Moreover, he had no idea what the puppet Kankuro had was capable of, other than crushing all of the bones in Naruto's body. That'd be a fight to use the sword in; he could safely dismantle the puppet with chakra flow and not have to worry about killing anybody. Perhaps having that fight wouldn't be so bad.

Dosu, the Sound Ninja who had made it to the finals, was missing. Naruto wasn't too concerned about it; he hadn't wanted to fight Dosu anyways. Those sound-based techniques weirded Naruto out, and he didn't want to be on the receiving end of them. The problem with Dosu being missing was that there were now only nine contestants, meaning something odd was going to happen.

Even considering all of these potential fights, however, what made Naruto the most nervous was the aftermath of the third test. He hadn't talked to Tsumeki since they had gone out to dinner and he had kissed her. He hadn't been avoiding her, but with both of them not only training, but trying to train in places where they couldn't be spied on, they simply hadn't seen each other. He didn't know if that was good or bad. On the one hand, it could make everything go a touch smoother – both of them have had time to think on the matter (God knows I've spent far too much time dwelling on it) and how they might respond to the other when they finally had some time to talk. On the other hand, she might have been fuming with rage for the past month, each passing day only adding peppers to the stew. And Naruto didn't want to see the result of thirty days of peppers.

The Hokage had finished talking, and Naruto figured it'd be a good time to tune back in to what was happening. The proctor took over – and it wasn't Hayate, which Naruto found quite odd – and began discussing the rules of the tournament. Essentially, there were no rules except that if Genma (that was the proctor's name) decided to step in and stop a fight, it would stop then and there. No objections, no complaints. Then, he pulled out the list of matches.

"Look it over," he said.

The first thing that Naruto noticed was that Neji was getting a by. It made sense; with nine contestants, someone would either have to fight another battle or be given a freebie. It seemed that Neji's name was the one that was drawn, or perhaps selected, to not fight in the first bout. The first fight would be between Shikamaru and Temari. That'd be an interesting one; Temari seemed to have a good grasp on offensive jutsu, while Shikamaru's jutsu were extraordinarily... utility-oriented. Fight two would be Shino versus Kankuro, which could also prove to be a spectacle. The Aburame usually relied on their bugs to incapacitate enemies, but how would he deal with an inanimate puppet? Naruto figured that they'd find out. The third fight was the one that drew Naruto's eye the most, however.

Naruto U. vs Tsumeki S., the paper read.

Shit, Naruto thought. He chanced a glance at his redheaded teammate. She flashed him a foxy, mischievous smile and winked at him. Naruto had scarcely felt as threatened in his life as he did that moment. Tsumeki's expression held nothing but tricks and misfortune within. He prayed that there were no peppers involved in it.

Naruto didn't look back at the paper. He knew that the last fight would read Sasuke U. vs Gaara, and he had already figured that would be happening. The Hokage himself wouldn't cancel such an anticipated fight for rearrangement. He'd be deposed.

The worst part of the whole damned thing is that Naruto hadn't finished his jutsu.

He supposed the previous fights had been interesting. Or, rather, previous fight. Kankuro had forfeited to Shino before the fight even started. Nobody knew why. Shikamaru had tried for forfeit, but the Leaf Ninja in the Contestants' Box wouldn't let him. He actually showed an uncanny intellect during his fight with Temari. Naruto knew that he was smart, but that fight... it had been like watching a game of chess. Shikamaru played five turns ahead, and Temari went for the obvious takes. Shikamaru might have even won if he had actually trained some more. He had forfeited due to low chakra reserves and an inability to defeat his opponent in the little time he had left. Regardless of that, Naruto had been thoroughly impressed by Shikamaru's ability to compete with such an offense-based ninja and was reconsidering the likelihood of a victory against the Nara.

It wasn't the time for idle thinking, though. He was currently standing about twenty paces from Tsumeki, and he needed to kick his brain into overdrive to figure out the best counters for her techniques.

"Naruto Uzumaki versus Tsumeki Shuro," Genma announced. "Match three: Begin!"

Naruto immediately drew and threw a kunai. It didn't go far; it was purely meant to deflect the kunai he knew Tsumeki would throw, and it did its job admirably. Tsumeki ran straight for him. Naruto felt a taijutsu engagement coming, but he also had a nagging feeling in the back of his brain that this was oddly direct for Tsumeki, who would usually prefer to eliminate her opponents with as much distance and as little physical effort as possible.

He didn't have time to contemplate the thought, because she was right on top of him. She let out a barrage of punches at incredible speed; her taijutsu style had already focused on the number of attacks she could get out rather than the raw force behind them, but achieving her first tail seemed to amplify both counts. A single punch wouldn't knock Naruto off his feet, but seven of them would, and with the wave of attacks rolling at him, he knew that seven punches would be a mean feat. Normally, he'd do a hard block in a taijutsu situation, because he'd bruise the enemy more than he'd be bruised himself, but Naruto knew that a hard block would not be adequate for multiple incoming attacks. He settled with deflection; as her fist came in, he would simply push it to the side or sidestep it altogether. When he couldn't do either of those, he risked the hard block. It usually paid off, but several punches got through, and Naruto's chest felt a tad sore.

As the next round came in, Naruto threw Tsumeki for a bit of a loop. Instead of fully deflecting her punch, like she expected him to, he pushed it to the side somewhat, then grasped her wrist and pivoted hard, hauling her hand down over his shoulder. She flipped over his back and hit the ground hard on her back. She tried to kick at his face, but he used his grip on her to roughly jerk her to the side, sending her kick off into the opposite direction.

"Hey, Naruto," she said.

"Mmm?" Naruto attempted to put Tsumeki in an arm bar.

"That kiss. What exactly did it mean?"

The question caught Naruto off guard, and she used his momentary hesitation to wriggle free of his grasp and roll out of his range.

"Are you sure now is the best time to talk about this?"

"Probably not, but I'm asking anyways." They had struck positions about ten feet away from each other. Neither moved, waiting for the other to begin the next engagement.

"It meant..." Naruto glanced around, looking at all the other people. "Tsumeki, I-"

A fist came up under Naruto's jaw, and he stumbled backwards, off balance. She followed up with a sweeping kick and brought Naruto's feet out from under him. When Naruto's vision refocused, Tsumeki was on top of him with a kunai to his throat. "I'm listening," she said sweetly.

There was a poof of smoke, and Naruto was replaced with a large rock from nearby.

"Heh," Tsumeki chuckled. "Where'd you go, Naruto? I was so looking forward to your reply."

"Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Narutos erupted from behind a tree in the arena and rushed Tsumeki.

The Kitsune made several rapid hand signs. "Fire Style: Fire Breath Jutsu!" She exhaled a sizable cone of fire and swept it across the group of shadow clones. Within seconds, they were all gone. "That's another reason I looked up some fire jutsu, Naruto!" she called out. "I can cover a nice area with fire and get rid of all of your clones!"

Naruto gave no response.

Tsumeki jumped into the tree the clones had come from behind, but Naruto wasn't there.

"Come on, Naruto, this is no fun! Come out and play!" She stepped onto a branch, and there was a poof.

Naruto had transformed into a small tree branch in hopes of ambushing Tsumeki, and it had almost paid off. She jumped up and dodged his hands, which were reaching for her ankles. When she came back down, she landed on him, and they descended to the ground in a tumble. Even after the impact (and the brief loss of breath that came with it), they continued to wrestle for the dominant position.

"Well, Naruto?" she whispered while trying to dislocate his right arm. "What did the kiss mean?"

Naruto was trying to get Tsumeki under him and pin her with his weight. "Tsu-"

"Don't you DARE say it's not a good time," she hissed. She put more pressure on his arm. "What. Did. It. Mean?"

Naruto grunted and rolled, putting Tsumeki on the bottom. She wasn't face down, like he had wanted, but it was an improvement. "It means..." he grunted, and then sighed. "It means I kind of like you more than a friend, okay?"

She grinned. Naruto had to make sure he was focusing on the fight to avoid being dazzled by her. "Well, I kind of like you more than a friend too, Naruto. Now, why don't we give these people a real show?"

"Let's-"

Tsumeki used the substitution jutsu, and Naruto found himself on top of the same rock he had used earlier.

"-not." The hairs on the back of Naruto's neck prickled, and he trusted in his acquired sixth sense. Tsumeki was toying with him by trying to put him in a low level genjutsu. She did this enough to him that he could feel it. He didn't know if she knew that he could tell when a lower-level genjutsu was put on him, but regardless, he wasted no time. "Genjutsu: Release!" he said.

His hairs settled, and he stood up to see Tsumeki frowning at him. "That was awfully quick," she said. "How did you know?"

"Lucky guess," he lied.

"You're lying."

"Through my very teeth. Come on, Tsumeki. Let's not bore the audience with Genjutsu. Let's finish this match."

Her eyes glinted, and she grinned. Naruto could tell that her concealment wasn't up; it was a Kitsune Illusion disguising her appearance. He could tell because her teeth were a bit sharper and longer than a normal human's, obviously her taking what little pride she could in her heritage while hiding her appearance. "What do you have in mind?"

Naruto drew his sword and drove it into the ground. He backed up so that he and Tsumeki were equidistant from it. "First to the sword gets to use it."

"Dangerous."

"Very."

"On three?"

"One..."

"Two..."

"Three!" they said together, dashing for the sword.

It was obvious to Naruto that she would arrive first, so he skidded to a halt early and began making hand signs. Ox, tiger, ram, tiger, ox, dog... he said in his head as he made each sign. Tsumeki had the sword, and was coming towards him rapidly.

"Now or never," he said. "Fierce Diety Jutsu!"

There was an audible fizzle and pop. Chakra ejected itself from several points on Naruto's body, but other than that, nothing happened.

Still needs work, he thought.

Tsumeki leaped into the air with a chakra-assisted jump and yelled, "Surrender now, Naruto!"

"Not a chance!" he yelled back.

There was a poof, and Naruto's sword revealed its true nature.

It was a shadow clone.

The clone seized Tsumeki by the wrists and spun around once, launching her towards the ground. She hit it hard and skidded a bit, gasping for air. Before she had a chance to catch her breath, Naruto had a kunai at her throat.

"Enough!" Genma called. "The match goes to Naruto Uzumaki!"

Naruto sheathed the kunai and dispelled the shadow clone. He extended a hand to Tsumeki, who took it when she could finally move again.

"You okay?" he asked.

"Yeah," she said. "My back is bruised up and I think I have a few cuts from rocks, but I'm fine. That was clever. I didn't even stop to think that you might have been baiting me."

"Yeah, well, I use my head every once in a while," he said.

"Even I couldn't have seen that coming," she conceded.

Genma approached the two. "Ms. Shuro, you can either go to the infirmary if you feel you need medical attention, or you may return to the box if you wish to watch the next few fights."

"I think I'll stay," she said.

Genma nodded, and then looked at Naruto. "Fierce Deity Jutsu?"

"Working on it still," the Genin replied. "I knew it wasn't ready, but I wanted to see if I could pull it off anyways."

"That's dangerous," said Genma. "But gutsy. Let me know when you finish it; you've made me curious."

"Sure," Naruto said.

Naruto woke up feeling cold and slightly groggy. He was acutely aware that he was laying on something hard – stone?

"Wake up, idiot!" Tsumeki yelled.

"Huhwha?" Naruto said, bolting up.

"Someone used some sort of jutsu that put everyone to sleep!" she said. "The village is under attack!"

"What? By who?"

"Sand ninja is my guess. That Kankuro guy tried to kill you before you woke up, but I drove him off. He and Temari ran off with Gaara."

"Gaara?" Naruto remembered that Gaara had been fighting Sasuke and that he had gone into a weird sand ball thing, but after that... that must have been when the sleep jutsu happened.

"Yeah. I don't think anyone went after them, and..." she bit her lip. "I think Gaara is Suna's jinchuuriki. He was looking a bit funky before he left. If I'm right, we need to go and take care of him. Like, now."

Sasuke hauled himself up into the Competitors' Box. "Come on! We need to chase Gaara and the other two! We can't let them get away to do whatever it is they're planning!"

Naruto looked out at the arena. There was fighting in the arena proper, in the stands, and probably all over the city.

"You two go," Naruto said. "They're going to need help here." He grabbed his sword and drew it. "I'm going to stay."

Sasuke nodded. "Come on, Tsumeki!" He jumped out of the box and continued up over the wall.

Tsumeki started to follow, and then looked back at Naruto. "You stay alive," she said. "Because we need to talk about Us after I get back."

"Sure thing, Tsu. You go kick some ass."

She smiled and followed Sasuke out of the box.

Naruto stood at the edge of it and yelled, "Good morning Konoha, this is Naruto Uzumaki, your local weatherman, and I'm predicting cloudy with a one hundred percent chance of pain!"

(POV Shift – Tsumeki)

(About twenty minutes later)

Tsumeki was facing Gaara one-on-one. Sasuke had lagged behind to combat Temari, and she would have been tied up with Kankuro, but Shino showed up at the last minute and allowed her to continue on. He was proving to be a quite capable opponent, and he was for sure a jinchuuriki. He looked like he had transformed halfway between himself and a tanuki. Even without bringing the Tailed Creature's full power to bear, he was immensely powerful. She had had to drop the illusion over her appearance to conserve her chakra.

Tsumeki jumped and dodged an attack with a long, sand-extended appendage.

"What's wrong, little fox?" Gaara taunted, practically drooling with crazy. "Too scared to fight me?"

"Too cautious, more like," she yelled back.

"No caution! FIGHT ME! SHOW ME THAT I'M ALIVE!"

"Wha... Of course you're alive, you stupid bugger!" She dodged another attack. This time, the limb tore through the branch she had been standing on. Tsumeki grabbed a higher one and spun up onto it.

Gaara began to use a different technique. Instead of attacking her directly, he began to shoot giant claws of sand at her. She dodged the first one, and gulped when she saw what it had done. The tree it had impacted had a three-foot dent in it. Getting hit by one of those could very well mean game over.

Tsumeki jumped from the tree she was in and swung from branch to branch, moving towards Gaara at a high speed. He fired another claw at her, and she spun up onto the branch and launched herself with a chakra-assisted jump at the jinchuuriki.

"Fire Style: Kitsune Fire Claws!" she yelled. Her claws wreathed themselves with a flame as deep a red as her hair and fur, and she prided herself in remembering a jutsu she hadn't used since her childhood. She swing both claws at Gaara, and five lines of fire sprung from each hand to assault him.

He lifted his arm to protect himself, and he did succeed in stopping the attack in its tracks. However, the areas where the fire had impacted had turned to rough glass. Gaara dropped them from his arm, reforming into sand. The glass shattered somewhere on the forest floor below.

Tsumeki smirked. "Got ya." She bounced off his head and landed on a tree branch. While she went through the hand seals again, preparing to launch another wave of fire at him, when a quaking caught her off balance. She had to cease the jutsu to remain on the tree.

"Now..." Gaara said. "Now, you DIE!"

Sand exploded from the ground and swirled up to surround Tsumeki. Her eyes widened. She tried to jump and avoid it, but it moved too fast, and she was grabbed by the ankle. It quickly rose up around her body and threatened to begin crushing her. However, before it could, part of the cocoon of sand turned to glass, and Tsumeki broke through it. She landed on another tree, and wasted no time in jumping again, and again, and again. The sand was right on her tail (in a more literal sense than she cared to think about) when suddenly, it stopped and drew back. She chanced a look behind her to see it all rushing for Gaara, who was beginning to cackle madly.

"What in the hell..." she murmured.

It became quickly evident what was happening. As the sand piled up upon itself and swirled around Gaara, it began to take form.

And the form it took?

A giant Tanuki.

Tsumeki recognized it on sight from the stories her grandfather had told her. "Shukaku," she gasped. "The Ichibi."

When it finished forming, it must have stood half again as high as Konoha's own walls. Gaara was perched upon its forehead, only the upper half of his body vulnerable. It was only due to her Kitsune hearing that she was able to hear his next words.

"Play Possum Jutsu..." he said.

Gaara slumped over, and suddenly, the giant Tanuki's eyes went from dull brown to bright gold.

"Finally!" it yelled. "Finally, I'm out! And I'm here to stay!" It laughed maniacally. "It feels good to breathe again!" Shukaku inhaled deeply, and then paused. "I smell Ikuko..." He looked around. "Where are you, you damned fox?! I have a score to settle with you!"

Tsumeki found herself speaking before she could exercise any sort of better judgment. "He's dead!" she yelled. "But I'm his granddaughter! I'll be more than happy to settle that score!"

Shukaku looked down. "Ikuko's brat's brat, eh? And with only a single tail! Hahahahaha!" The laugh reverberated. Tsumeki felt her bones vibrate. "Well, I suppose we both have a tail, don't we? But I'm willing to wager that mine's worth more than yours!"

"Wager all you want!" she yelled back. She had no idea why she wasn't running. She was scared out of her mind. "You may be stronger, but I've got my grandfather's brain behind me! And if what he's told me about you is true, you haven't one to back you!"

"What the – are you calling me stupid, girl? I don't take kindle to insults!" Shukaku lifted a fist and slammed it into it's belly. "Wind bullet!"

Tsumeki's eyes widened, and she scrambled into the next tree. She was still flung away by the blast, which she hadn't the time to fully avoid. However, she recovered on the landing and began to run.

"Wind bullet! Wind bullet! Wind bullet!"

Three explosions of air trailed Tsumeki, barely keeping ahead of her.

How do you beat the Ichibi? Think, Tsumeki, think!

Another explosion caught her, but she kept her form the whole time, landing gracefully on the tree it propelled her towards.

Shukaku came out when Gaara went to sleep, so I need to wake him up. So, I need to get up there. But how?

"Stop running so I can kill you, you brat!"

Foxfire? But his mind will be strong, stupid or not, by merit of his power. How do you work that?

"You just make a lot of foxfire," she said. Her fists became coated with a blue flame that she knew would be pleasing to the eye of any to see it. She sprung into the air and made rapid punching motions. Balls of the same color fire flew and stuck to the first surface they touched.

That won't be nearly enough, she thought. I need more. Before she jumped again, she left a large ball of foxfire floating in the air on the branch. She threw more foxfire as she leaped to the next tree. Another explosion of wind came from behind her, and her heart suddenly skipped a beat. She looked behind her, and breathed a sigh of relief. Even if the trees were flattened and gone, the foxfire hadn't moved. Each ball was still pulling chakra from her, and therefore was still lit.

Tsumeki jumped down from the tree, plummeting towards the forest floor headfirst. She spun sideways, leaving a large double helix of fire behind her. She rotated so that her feet were under her and landed. She didn't dare stop for a moment, and ran along the floor, leaving two bright and burning trails of fire behind her. She threw a few balls to each side, breaking the trail, and looked at Shukaku. His eyes were starting to gravitate towards the fire, but they didn't stay long enough.

"You're making me angry, girl!"

I need more chakra, she thought. Tsumeki tapped into her tail, and suddenly, everything seemed clear. Colors were more vibrant, edges more defined. She smelled all of the scents of the forest, and the overpowering stench of death radiating from Shukaku, all more powerful now that she pulled power from her tail. Her legs didn't burn with pain like they had before; it was little more than a dull ache, easily pushed to the back of her mind. She moved faster, outpacing the wind bullets with what felt like ease. She stopped throwing errant balls of flame, and put both of her hands together. She channeled as much power as she dared into it, and it grew in size. Very quickly, she had to hold it over her head because it was bigger than her. When she dared invest no more chakra, she threw it in the air.

"That's it!" Shukaku said. It slammed a fist down into the forest, and Tsumeki narrowly dodged it.

Moment of truth, she thought. She willed all of the foxfire she had released to gather. It rushed towards the giant ball she had thrown, and as more and more foxfire joined the mass, it took the form of a giant nine-tailed fox.

(POV Shift – Kurenai)

The allure of the giant blue fox was powerful, even if it was miles out of the village. She was able to shut it out of her mind, but she watched the ninja round her, Leaf, Sand, and Sound alike, stop their fighting and begin to wander towards it.

Is the girl truly capable of such power? Kurenai wondered. Is this what she can muster?

She shook her head. It was best not to dwell on the topic. A momentary advantage was gained over the enemy shinobi, and she planned to capitalize on it.

(POV Shift – Tsumeki)

It had worked. The mass of foxfire had distracted Shukaku long enough for Tsumeki to rush up its arm, still left in the ground. She moved over it in bounds and leaps, not wanting to spend more time than necessary touching the Tanuki's body. The edges of her vision began to black out, and she knew that the foxfire was pulling from too much chakra. She had to release it.

Shukaku blinked as the fox dissipated. "That was impressive, brat! The last fox who had the gall to do that to me was old Ikuko himself! I'm going to enjoy – What? Where'd you go?"

Tsumeki bit her tongue. She needed as much advantage as she could get.

"Wha the – when'd you get on me? Get off!"

Arms of sand begin to rise out of Shukaku's body, trying to grab Tsumeki. She didn't have the chakra to fight them off. She simply kept moving and hoped that they wouldn't get her. She was pulling from the last dregs of her tail. That foxfire had taken a massive amount of chakra to produce, much less to maintain.

"I said OFF!"

The sand arms redoubled their efforts. Tsumeki was almost to Gaara when one grabbed her leg.

"No!" she yelled. "NO! No no no no no!"

"Hahahaha, got you now, girl!"

"No, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Tsumeki's voice rose and rose as she shouted, and chakra began to roll off of her body. "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Without any sort of hand signs or focusing, Tsumeki's claws wreathed in fire and severed the arms holding her. With one last jump, she catapulted towards Gaara, hitting him with a punch hard enough that she heard his jaw crack. The Sand Ninja's eyes snapped open, and this time, it was Shukaku's turn to lament.

"Noo! I don't want to go back into the seal!" Its eyes dimmed, and the giant body of sand began to crumble. Tsumeki, exhausted, could do little more than ride the waves of sand down.

Once she reached the ground, she stumbled around, looking for Gaara. She found him, laying down and breathing hard. She brandished a kunai.

"How..." he asked. "How did you defeat him?"

"I used my brain," she panted. "My skills. But mostly, my heart." She stood over him.

"Your...heart?"

"I have someone that I have to go back for. I can't just die. I have to be with him. I had to defeat Shukaku."

"Someone...to go back for."

She nodded and dropped to her knees. I'm so tired, she thought. "Someone to live for," she said.

"To live for," he repeated.

Temari and Kankuro, both looking injured, came out of the treeline. When they saw Tsumeki, they readied their weapons.

"No," Gaara said. "Leave her. Let her be."

"What?" asked Temari.

"Kill her," said Kankuro. "One less Leaf ninja. One more we can take out before the next assault."

"No," said Gaara. "She has...someone to go back for. Someone to live for. She's come this far. Leave her."

"Gaara, there's no time for this!" said Kankuro. He came forward with a kunai. "We have to retreat, and I'm not leaving a ninja to tell them which way we went.

"LEAVE HER!" Gaara shouted. "Leave her."

"You damned well better leave her."

Is that...Naruto? Tsumeki wondered.

Naruto came into her field of vision, bleeding heavily from his left shoulder. His sword, maimed and broken halfway up the blade, he still wielded in his right hand.

"The battle is over," Naruto said. "Your forces are retreating. You said it yourself. If you want to join them, if you want to go home..." He readied his broken blade. "You'd better leave her alone."

Kankuro's face twisted in rage. "I can -"

"Kankuro! Shut up!" Temari yelled. "We'll go, we'll leave her. Just let us take Gaara."

Naruto hesitated for a moment, but nodded.

The two standing Sand Ninja scooped up Gaara and began to retreat.

Naruto went to Tsumeki.

"Naruto... Your sword..."

"Badass Sound Ninja," Naruto said. "Oh yeah, we were fighting them, too, by the way. He found the resonant frequency of my sword or some shit. It broke." He put the weapon in its scabbard. "C'mon, let's get you home."

Tsumeki felt a sudden pain shoot through her, and she screamed. Her tail felt like it was growing.

Naruto watched it swell, growing to twice its normal width (but staying the same length), before it suddenly split down the middle.

Tsumeki had earned her second tail.

She would have to wait until she woke to discover that she had, however. She had passed out from the pain.

Naruto scooped her up in his arms.

"C'mon, let's get you home," he repeated. He began to walk back towards Konoha.

Wooooohoooooo! And that is chapter five! I hope you enjoyed reading that fight as much as I enjoyed writing it! Man, I'm psyched right now!

SUPER IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT! I have made a blog for Tsumeki-chan! You can go there to follow my thoughts on progress for the story and whatnot. I'll also be covering some big issues in the story that I want to make sure are cleared up on the blog, and they WILL NOT BE COVERED HERE. For example, within the next day, you can expect me to clarify exactly what's going on with Tsumeki's Concealment versus using a Kitsune Illusion to hide her appearance. So, if you want to get that, you'd better head over to tsumekichanff dot blogspot dot com. That should be the working link; if not, try different variations of it (such blogger dot com) or send me a PM.

Anyways, that's it for now. As always, please leave me a review, as I love reviews with all of my heart! Thanks for reading!

Update: Wow, thanks a bunch to fresh prince1 for pointing out that fanfiction dot net took my links down. If you can't decipher the URL from this post, I have a link up on my profile page.