"Winner, Hyuuga Hinata!"

Naruto could not help but feel slightly annoyed with the match he had jut witnessed. As the heir to the illustrious Hyuuga clan, Hinata was one of the few people in class who he could almost consider a social equal. Yet it seemed that every day she acted less and less like someone capable of handling any sort of responsibility, much less become the head of a clan as powerful and ancient as the Hyuuga. That match had been an absolute travesty, it was claer for anyone to see that Hinata had completely outclassed her opponent and had been in complete control of the match from it's inception till the very end. Despite this, from the look on her face one might easily think that she had been fighting for her life against a truly intimidating opponent rather then the bumbling, albiet powerful attacks of Akimichi Chouji.

Being honest with himself, Naruto did not think that anyone in the entire class would be able to best the timid girl in straight taijutsu if she ever actually got serious, exept perhaps for Ryo.

'It's not that she's weak, at least not physically. There's something that's holding her back...Why is there so much fear, so much weakness in her gaze?'

Speaking of weakness, the boy's attention suddenly shifted to his first opponent, Yamanka Ino. If he felt annoyed by the match between Hinata and Chouji, he was positively infuriated with his match against the fellow blonde.

She had once been one of his goals, looking back, he had both admired and envied the girl for her natural skill and grace. There had once been a time when he had seen real strength in the girl's eyes, they had been eyes which seemed to contantly look down at everything around her, cool enough to freeze the sun. Once upon a time, Naruto had wished that he could have eyes like that, the eyes of royalty.

Now though, her gaze had softened, when he had looked into them as they charged towards him, it had not been confidence, or strength, or resolve which he saw. They were eyes which had already accepted defeat.

Being the first male in an extremely long and unbroken chain of famel Uzamaki heir, Naruto had actually been rather envious of his female colleagues. He was all too aware that the minimal powers of purification which had resided within all of his ancestors were almost entirely depleted due to his being a male. Though he would never admit it to anyone, there was a large part of him that whished had been been born a female, with red hair and green eyes, like his mother.

Not that he wasn't proud of his father, of course. His father had been a great man, strong and brilliant, a worthy match for one with imperial blood. But amazing as he may have been, he was just the "consort" as the ancient laws would have put it. All of the power of the Uzamaki blood line resided within it's women, and Naruto was born a man.

Of course, he had long ago decided that this slight inconvinience would not hinder his ambitions in the slightest. One way or the other, he would restore the legacy of his ancestors, and unite the land under one banner. And he knew exactly how he would do just that, and by "exactly" he meant that he had a vague plan that he trusted to work itself out as it went along.

The current fight taking place in the top seed (which is of course, the only one really relevant to the story which is why it's the only one being discussed) was Ueyama Takahata, the number six versus the number five ranked Aburame Shino.

Takahata was a civilian born student who was well known as "tough guy" amongst his civilian born peers. He was also the younger brother of Ueyama Broli, the strongest delinquent in Konoha, rumored to be even stronger than most shinobi in a straight out fight. The younger Ueyama had joined the Ninja academy in hopes of surpassing his brother and one thing both siblings shared was the their complete ruthlessness in a fight.

The moment the match was called, Takahata launched a flying knee atack directly towards his opponent's face, aiming to end the match with a single attack. Shino however, being no slouch himself, managed to simply duck the atack and spun around to face his opponent just in time to block a haymaker to his jaw.

Not giving the introverted boy any time to recover, Takahata immediatly followed with with a left uppercut, taking advantage of his opponent being knocked off balance from blocking his first punch.

Shino barely managed to sway away from the punch, getting clipped on the edge on his chin before countering with a straight kick into the over-zealous boy's stomach which connected solidly.

Luckily for Takahata, he was quite used to taking hits, as his brother tended to dish them out on a daily basis in order "toughen him up". Having sensed the attack coming, he had flexed his abs as hard as he could in order to absorb the kick as best as he could.

Shino, not willing ti give his opponent time to recover, quickly followed up with a round-house kick to the other boy's head which was neatly dodged.

Wasting no time, young Ueyama drew his elbows in and hunched his back to minimilize his openings and rushed into his opponent's striking zone before throwing a strong right to his kidneys.

Shino barely managed to drop his elbow to block the attack and even so the punch was strong enough to completely numb his arm from the elbow down. Seeing his chance, the insect-lover threw a downward right hook at Takahata's exposed temple, not seeing the fist which had already been thown from his blind spot.

"Winner, Ueyama Takahata!"

Shino woke up to be greeted by the vast blue sky.

"I'm staring up at the sky, why? Because I lost. How mortifying."

"Next match Harumi Tenshi versus Inuzaka Kiba"

Harumi Tenshi and Kiba were long time friends who had always competed against each other whenever they took enough interest in something that is. Tenshi was a rather tall boy, with a solid frame for a ten year old, from a clan of weapon specialists.

Inuzaka Kiba was slightly shorter then his friend but a bit wider and he usually won most competetions against Tenshi that had to do with shinobi related skills.

Both students made their way confidentally into the fightier's ring, rolling their shoulders and posturing toughly as they circled each other.

"Ready to lose again, Shi-chan?" Kiba mocked with a smirk.

"Tch, ready to get spaded, Dog Boy?" Tenshi countered with a scowl. It never ceased to annoy him how Kiba always managed to beat him.

"Begin!"

The two boys lunged at each other with no hesitation at all, neither one of them displayed much in the way of technique or skill, but both managed to make up for this with pure strength, speed, and animalistic savagry.

Barely any punches were thrown before both fighters were rolling on the ground in a wrestling match. They kicked, bit, punched, pinched, pulled, scratched and squeezed each other in every attempt the could to cause the other discomfort. Finally, the young Inuzaka managed to wrap himelf around one of his friends arms well enough to lock in a solid arm bar, Tenshi reluctantly tapped when he was sure that his arm was about to break.

"Winner, Inuzaka Kiba"

And so the matches went for some time, Naruto went on to face all of those ahead of him in the top ten in the order that they were in after winning or losing.

Defeating Chouji ended up being a simple matter of getting around to his back and putting the larger boy in a choke hold, which ended up looking rather comical.

He defeated Hinata by glaring are her until she gave up. It took all of thirty seconds.

Shino had been more of a challenge but Naruto finally managed to make him submit with a triangle hold three and a half minutes in.

He and Takahata simply brawled for two and a half minutes until Naruto's greater stamina won out and he was able to knock the larger boy out with a decisive knee to the groin.

By the time te Uzamaki made it to Kiba's rival a bit of a crowd had started to gather around the ring, it was quite rare for a student to win so many matches in a row during a ranking tournament.

Tenshi's match only lasted a few minutes, due to his unpolished fighting stlye and confidence brought on from being much larger than his opponent, he had simply rushed in, hoping to tackle the blond to the ground in order to capitolaze on the size difference.

What happened was that he ended up charging face-first into Naruto's knee.

The fight with Kiba took a bit longer, the Inuzaka was fast and had good instincts when it came to fighting. Naruto only managed to win by allowing the larger boy to take hm down and surprising him with his own grappling skill and the fact that the smaller boy was actually much stronger than he looked. A scissor leg, choke hold ended up making the stubborn dog-boy pass out.

"Next match, Uzamaki Naruto versus Ryo Hagase!"

By now, the the majority of the class had more or less finished their placement bouts and were crouding around the ring in order to get a closer look at the match.

Matches between Hagase and Naruto were always interesting and very heated, the fact that the former numer then ranker had moved up to a second place contender in a single day was also the cause of much interest.

All around the croud, speculation and even wagers were being placed on who would come out on top in this match up. The favorite was, of course Hagase as his rival was already worn out from fighting seven other students before making it to this match. And all of them had been the strongest in the whole class.

Hagase confidentally made his way to the sparring area, slowly stretching out his arms, neck, and abdomen. "Geez, it took you long enough to make it here, Naruto. I was beggining to wonder if you'd end up losing to Shino for a second there."

The blonde merely scoffed at this, "I'm sorry that I made you worry but you shouldn't bother. You know that I can't stand to go a day without stomping your face in the ground."

"Begin!"

Naruto leapt forward with a savage grin on his face he jumped into the air and aimed a spinning round house kick at Hagase's head which was dodged neatly but he had been expecting as much.

Keeping the momentum of his kick, he brought his other foot around like a helicopter in order to get a second chance at his opponent.

This attack Hagase chose to block by bringing his own foot up to an almost vertical position and neatly rebounding the strike.

As Naruto fell he twisted he position to land on his hand with his legs still up, taking advantage of Hagase's one-legged status he brought both legs together as he spun like a top, bringing them down to sweep at the larger boy's legs.

Hagase jumped up with his one leg and spun sidewayse in the air before swiftly bringing his left leg crashing down on his rival's head.

Naruto continued his spin as he brought his leg over his head again and them in order order to block the kick with one leg and with the other he kicked out at the offended appendage's kneed cap.

The larger boy pushed off of the blonde's leg and hit an easy back-flip, evading the counter-strike and creating some distance between the two of them.

Naruto quickly recovered from his position and landed himself back on his feet, the moment his feet had touched the groun though, the other boy was already charging towards him and aiming a devastatingly fast left straight at his head.

He barely managed to avoid the strike by moving his head to the side and diverting the punch to the side with both of his arms.

Quick to capitolize, Hagase aimed a swift kick to the blonde's side which connected solidly, he even thought he felt a few ribs crack.

Naruto grimaced slightly in pain at the kick's impact but before he could recover, he founf his visions rather impaired by the hand which had suddenly grabbed his face and was now pushing his head down and rather painfully into the ground.

Hagase only a moment to smirk as the moment the blonde head hit the ground, he found his arm being constricted by his rival's arms and his leg's were attempting to control his neck.

"A triangle hold? As if I'd let you!"

With a roar of strength, the larger boy lifted Naruto's entire body with one arm and slammed him head-first into the dirt.

Senseing is intentions, the small boy quickly released the arm and aimed an executioner's kick at Hagase's head. which found it's mark terrifically.

Before the larger boy's head could even touch the ground, Naruto had repositioned himself in midair and grabbed the shaggy mane of hair. Twisting into a corkscrew to gain momentum, pulled the other boy's head upas he flipped until he landed himself on his feet and used the force to pull the larger boy over Naruto's own head and tossed him into the croud of his peers.

There was a a few moments of loud scuffling amongst the croud before Hagase emerged with an enraged snarl and used the bodies of his comrades the launch himself toward the blonde nuisance.

Naruto leaped back just in time to dodge a dangerous looking hand chop and was force to continue to retreat as said attack was wuickly followed by a lightning-fast leg sweep.

This attack fed into a jumping double-kick which the blonde was only able to partially block, he managed to divert the first kick to his chest by the follow up connected solidly witht he side of his head.

The force of the blow sent him careening sideways, he quickly tucked himself into a ball and rolled with the attack before flipping back onto his feet, his still slid back some and had to use his hand to steady himself.

Hagase allowed to even a moment's respite as he immediatly pursued Naruto, landing a savage toe kick to the smaller boy's chin that sent him rocketing skyward however the larger boy was far from done with him.

As Naruto's body went entirely vertical, Ryo Hagasa landed two vicious punches to the young prince's abdomen before grabbing onto his feet and twirling the other boy over over his headlike a lasso.

With a savage grin, Hagase flung the boy onto the ground with all of his strength, cracking the blonde's body against the ground like a wet rag.

Still, the larger boy refused to let go and lifted his rival once again into the air and back onto the ground as he spun around one hundred and eighty degrees in order to increase momentum.

Several times this was repeated until Hagase seemed to grow bored and flung the limp body straight into the air, a manic grin covered his face as he jumped after the body.

Whilst still in the air, he positioned the prone figure into a basic pile driver form with the smaller boy's legs and head switch with his own. And then they fell.

Less then a second before hitting the ground, Naruto wrapped his legs around his opponent's neck and twisted with all of his might. Causing Hagase to let go of the smaller boy just long enough got said boy to flip himself around, legs still around the other boy's neck.

CRASH!

Naruto used all of his power to fling his rival's head into the ground before positioning himself to land safely on his feet.

Hagase was barely able to curl his body into a ball as he hit the ground, so instead of likey breaking his neck and skull he probbaly only broke his shoulder and a few other "minor bones".

The momentum caused him to roll for several seconds before he opened up his body and pushed off the ground with his hands in order to gain some stability on his own two feet.

What he got instead was both of Naruto's feet drop kicking him squarely in the face.

Hagase's body sailed through the air and bounced of of the ground in a clumsy roll as the enraged prince pursued the flying body ruthlessly.

On the second bounce, the taller boy begand to gain his bearings just long enough to be kneed rather painfully in the face and thrown by his hair into a tree which he hit face-first.

Naruto's expression promised death as he threw himself into another drop kick, this time directly on his opponents back.

Hagase let out an anguished cry as it impacted which only seemed to feed the blonde's fury.

Using his opponent's back as a spring board, Naruto rebounded off of the tree and prapared his second attack, it was at this moment that his rival bunched his body into a tight ball and sprung off the tree with his hands, propelling both his feet into the prince's face.

"How do you like it bitch!"

For five minutes the battle went much ike this, only getting more and more savage as the time went by. Niether side seemed willing to give even an inch

Eventully, the fight simply turned into a brawl with either side grounded in one spot and refusing to give a centimeter of ground.

Hagase connected with a viccious right hook to his opponent's facewhich he followed immediatly with a left of the same kind and then grabbing then pulling his head toward him ended the combo with a monstrous knee to the face.

Naruto responded by head-butting the taller boy in the solar plexus and hammering his right rib cage with elbow before bringing his hand up in a vicious upper cut.

The time buzzer rang and immediately all of the chuunin instructors rushed in to break the two up.

"Winner: Ryo Hagase"

The entire class was completely silent, they had all been completely drawn into the fight the intensity of it had seemed like that of a life or death match, many had nearly forgotten that it was only a five minute long spar.

That a "winner" could be chosen just like that because of some supposed point system seemed ridiculous, especially considering how closely matched the two were.

"The hell!" One student spoke up from within the gaggle of wannabe ninja which had gathered during the fight. "How the fuck are we supposed to be ok with it ending like that! There's no way you can just pick a winner like that!"

This proclomation seemed agree with what most of the student body had been thinking and a murmur of ascent rolled through them like a wave of indignation.

More shouts of protest were heard until the croud began to seem much more like an angry mob then a group on irrate ten year olds.

Umino Iruka, as senior instructor of the class, took it upon himself to appease the students and cleared his throath before trying to calm the students down. He smiled pleasantly and his young charges and raised his hands in mock surrender.

"Now, now, settle down class. The point system is very reliable if you want to discuss-"

"Fuck discussion, Iruka-sensei! Let the fight keep goin'!" Interrupted one random voice, which Iruka suspected to be Kiba.

"Oraaaahhh! Keep it goin'!"

And just like that, the croud was even more wild than before, the screams were getting even more racous than ever before and an all too familiar vein was beggining to pulse on Iruka's forehead.

"I SAID, SHUT THE HELL UP!" The chuunin instructor screamed, using a mild genjustu to make it seem like his head had increased to a ridiculous sze. Instantly, the class became etirely silent.

Satisfied with the obedience of his students, the teach cleared his throught and continued with he message. "As I was saying, the scoring system is very rigid and entirely trustworthy. The entire spar was completely observed by no less than three upper-ranked chuunin, myelf included so I assure that the decisions is legitimate and final.

However, given the peculiarity and intenstiy of that particular spar, I don't mind sharing with you the details." Here the young man pulled out a small, yellow peice of paper and began to read from it.

"The taijutsu level placement bout between the number three ranked Uzamaki Naruto and the number two ranked Ryo Hagase ended with the folowing results:

Total number of solid hits landed- Hagase 214, Naruto 198

Total number of hits dodged- Hagase 52, Naruto 28

Total number of hits blocked- Hagase 31, Naruto 32

Total number of throws- Hagase 7, Naruto 5

Total number of throws reversed- Hagase 2, Naruto 6

Total number of counters- Hagase 27, Naruto 14

Total accuracy- Hagase 72.6%, Naruto 65.4%

And so you see, though it may have seemed to you academy students that the fight was evenly matched, in reality Hagase was winning the entire time, if you just look at the numbers anyways. Though in a real fight between shinobi, numbers like this don't really mean much."

And with that, the tournament was concluded and Naruto and Hagasa had long since left school for the day.