(A/N) And we are back. I'm sorry for not updating the past few days, but I've been annoyingly busy.

It's time for the final matchups in the prelims! These are going to be fun.

Not much to say, so on with the story!

()()()()()()()()

Chapter 30: Preliminaries, part 2

"Alright, *cough* the ninth matchup of the *cough* preliminaries is Choji Akimichi vs. Dosu *cough* Kinuta. Hajime!"

Instantly, Choji ran through hand signs and yelled "BAIKA NO JUTSU!" However, this time, Choji did not just expand into a round ball. This time, he expanded into a giant round ball. From top to bottom, Choji was now 20 feet tall. He had a ten foot radius, and he looked pissed off.

Choji yelled out "NOBODY CALLS ME FAT!" before he tucked in his arms and legs, and began spinning in place.

Dosu was extremely intimidated by the 20 foot tall wrecking ball that was spinning in place faster and faster. He was thinking that he might have underestimated the fat kid, and was beginning to regret calling him fat. However, he knew how his melody arm worked, and the fatter the opponent, the more effective it was, as the sound waves would wreak havoc on the fat cells.

So he dashed towards the spinning ball, and was about to make a swing, when the ball shot forwards at an insane speed, and completely squashed Dosu. Leaving an indent in his wake, Choji continued rolling around the stadium, and proceeded to squash Dosu's body once more. The wrecking ball that was Choji repeated this process several times, until he finally came to a screeching stop.

Releasing his jutsu, Choji proceeded to pull out a new bag of chips and began munching on them as he started to head back to the stands.

Hayate stepped forwards as the medics rushed forth and began peeling Dosu off of the floor, and said "The winner *cough* of round nine is *cough* Choji Akimichi."

When Choji got to the top of the stands, everyone looked at him with new respect in their eyes. In fact, Ino had stars in her eyes and said "That was awesome Choji-kun! In my opinion, there is no kill like overkill, and that definitely qualified as overkill! How about we head out for lunch together sometime?"

At that, Choji blushed a bright red and said "Umm…sure thing, Ino-chan. I'll try not to eat as much as I normally do."

Everybody was completely surprised that he said that. After all, it is only once in a blue moon that an Akimichi willingly restrains his eating habits for others.

Naruto smirked at this, as he recognized that the two would be Konoha's next couple. However, Naruto was unable to tease the two, as the screen had begun cycling through names again.

This time the matchup was Rock Lee vs. Kiba Inuzuka.

Immediately, Guy called out "ALL RIGHT! IT'S TIME FOR THE MOST YOUTHFUL OF SHOWDOWNS!"

Lee also called out "YOSH! LET US MAKE THIS A MATCH TO REMEMBER, KIBA-KUN!"

Kiba meanwhile had a smirk on his face, and he said "This is gonna be fun! Alright Lee, let's make this our best match yet! I'll race you downstairs!"

"A YOUTHFUL RACE TO START A YOUTHFUL FIGHT! I LIKE IT!" called out Guy. "THE FIRST ONE TO THEIR POSITION EARNS THE CHANCE TO RACE ME! ON MY READY!"

"GO!"

To everyone who wasn't experienced that was watching, Kiba and Lee appeared to blur out of existence, and reappear down in the stadium a moment later.

"IT'S A TIE! LOOKS LIKE BOTH OF YOU WILL BE RACING ME!" shouted Guy.

Kakashi just looked at Kiba in shock, and he turned to Guy and asked "What the hell have you been doing with him? I leave him in your care for a week, and he's that fast already?"

Guy just turned to Kakashi and gave him a blinding grin, and said "That's right! The flames of youth in Kiba burn just as hot as Lee's, if not hotter. Those two are the strongest of friends, but the bitterest of rivals. Kiba trained day and night for three straight days just so that he could catch up to Lee's level. Seeing Kiba catch up only stoked Lee's flames even more, and they pushed each other to the edge and beyond. Now they refuse to be out done by each other. They are like you and me, Kakashi, eternal rivals! Now they are pitted in combat, and we will see whose flames burn brighter!"

Back in the stadium, Hayate had stepped forwards, and was saying "Round ten *cough* is Rock Lee vs. Kiba Inuzuka. Hajime!"

Right when Hayate said to begin, both Kiba and Lee started doing stretches. Kiba asked Lee "Should we do a warm-up first, or go straight to full power?"

"Let us do a warm-up, so that the crowd may feel our burning youth!" answered Lee.

The pair finished stretching, and Kiba reached into his coat and pulled Akamaru out. He said to his dog "Akamaru, stay out of the warm-up. We'll fight together afterwards."

Akamaru barked in agreement, and walked a little ways off and sat down. Kiba and Lee both got into a ready stance, before Kiba lunged at Lee with a clawed hand. Lee ducked under the hand, and attempted an uppercut, but Kiba jumped into the air to dodge it. Lee leapt after Kiba, and attempted a rising kick. However, Kiba grabbed Lee's leg and did a backflip while holding his leg. Mid-flip, Kiba released Lee's leg, sending him flying to the ground. Lee recovered by flipping in midair, but the ground he landed on cracked from the force of Kiba's throw.

The two combatants were back on the ground again, and they charged each other once more. They began a fierce dance of punches, kicks, dodges, and blocks, until Kiba slipped up on one of his kicks. Lee grabbed Kiba's leg, and spun Kiba around by twisting his leg. However, Kiba just controlled his spin and landed on all fours. Kiba then used the power of both his arms and his legs to shoot of the ground towards Lee, and he called out "TSUGA!" as he spun into his technique. Lee just waited for Kiba to approach, and right before Kiba connected, Lee slammed his fist down into the oncoming whirlwind.

Lee's attack slammed the whirlwind downwards, but it did not stop it. Kiba drilled through the stone floor a little before he came to a stop and jumped away from Lee.

Suddenly, Guy's voice was heard from the stands, saying "ALRIGHT YOU TWO! ENOUGH WARMING UP! ITS TIME TO GET THIS SHOW STARTED!"

Both Kiba and Lee called out "HAI, GUY-SENSEI!" before getting back into their ready stances. This time, Akamaru walked over to Kiba's side, and Kiba called out "Jujin Bunshin!" This caused Akamaru to turn into a perfect replica of Kiba.

Lee grinned at this and said "Let's see how long it will take for one of you two to hit me this time!" before charging the two Kibas.

Lee was following the principle that the best defense is a good offense, and he showed his taijutsu mastery by successfully attacking both Kiba and Akamaru while leaving no room for either to counter. He would attack one of them with a flurry of blows, but whenever he would see the other prepare to attack, he would change targets.

However, both Kiba's suddenly jumped away from Lee, giving them time to start rotating. Kiba called out "Gatsuga!" as both he and Akamaru became spinning vortexes and shot towards Lee.

Now Lee was on the defensive, and he used all of his speed to dodge the well-coordinated vortexes. However, Lee was eventually caught, and Kiba slammed into him. Lee managed to block the hit with his arms, but the vortex pushed Lee all the way to the wall, before slamming his back into the wall. Lee grunted in pain, but he could feel that Kiba was losing momentum, and the moment that Kiba stopped spinning, Lee pushed Kiba forwards before sending him flying across the room with a roundhouse kick.

With Kiba out of the way for the moment, Lee looked down at his arms. To put it lightly, they were shredded. Since they were heavily bleeding, so Lee pulled some spare bandages out of his pouch and wrapped them around his arms.

Meanwhile, Kiba was standing up slowly. He felt that his right arm had been broken from Lee's roundhouse. He called Akamaru over to him, and said quietly to his dog "All right. My arm's busted, but I also shredded Lee's arm pretty badly. If I know him, he'll try to finish this with one move by using the Omote Renge. If he does that, we'll use that technique we've been working on ever since he showed it to us." Looking over to Lee, he saw him look to Guy, and he saw Guy give the slightest of nods.

Lee then pulled down his leg warmers, to reveal a bands on both of his legs that had the kanji for "gravity" on them. Lee made a hand sign, and the kanji disappeared. Lee pulled his leg warmers back up and stood up, before calling out to Kiba, saying "I'm sorry to do this to you, my rival, but I'm ending this fight!"

Lee then seemingly vanished, only to reappear in front of Kiba and deliver a fearsome kick that sent him flying into the air. Lee then vanished again, and reappeared behind Kiba. He grabbed hold of Kiba, and began spinning extremely fast. Suddenly, the Kiba that Lee was holding turned into Akamaru, and the real Kiba appeared behind Lee and grabbed a hold of him. Lee was now in the same position that Kiba had just been in, and Kiba called out "Omote Renge: Reversal!"

Kiba pile-drived Lee into the ground, sending chunks of the floor flying, and leaving a huge crater, but he did not put his full strength into it. As soon as the technique ended, Kiba ran over and crouched next to Lee. Kiba was shocked to find that he was still conscious.

Lee weakly held his arm out, and said "Good match…my rival…" before falling unconscious. The medics hurried forwards and put Lee on a stretcher and then hurried him to the medical ward, with Kiba and Akamaru close behind him.

At this, Hayate stepped forwards and said "The winner *cough* of round ten is Kiba *cough* Inuzuka. We will take another *cough* short break while we *cough* repair the field. The final match will *cough* be decided when the field is *cough* fixed."

(In the stands)

"Damn, both Kiba and Lee have now officially earned my respect." Stated Naruto.

However, Kakashi was not in the mood to be impressed. He turned on Guy and said "You taught genin how to open the eight gates? Are you mad? And more, you taught that to Kiba without my permission!"

Guy just said "I taught Kiba only the first gate. However, he clearly opened the second when he used that technique. I didn't teach him that though, so he must have taught himself how to open more than just the first gate. I also never heard him speak a word about a technique that counters the Omote Renge, so he must have made that himself. You should be proud of your student, Kakashi, not angry at me."

Kakashi sighed and said "I guess not. However, I will be having a strict word with Kiba about the dangers of the eight gates. I am actually quite pleased to see just how strong he has gotten from just a week of training with you. I never would have thought it possible to advance that fast."

Guy gave another flashy grin and said "It's just another miracle brought on by the power of youth!"

Kakashi sweat dropped, but pursued the subject no further. Maybe there was something to Guy's youth thing after all.

Shaking the horrifying thought out of his head, Kakashi then said "So the final three people are Shino, Fu, and Yugito. I wonder what the matchup will be."

Naruto grinned and said "All of the possible matchups of those three would be very interesting fights. They are all on the same team, and know each other's moves very well. This will probably be the best fight of the preliminaries."

"But aren't Shino and Fu-chan dating? Wouldn't they not fight each other if they got matched up?" asked Ino.

Naruto grinned and said "No, Fu would want to fight, and from what I've seen of those two, what Fu says, goes. They would just treat it like an intense sparring session without any rules. It would actually be a pretty cool fight to watch. Anyways, it looks like they've finished repairing the field, so let's see what the final matchup is."

The screen flickered to life, and began the final cycling of names. It stopped on Fu Aburame vs. Yugito Nii.

When the two in question saw this, they silently walked towards their positions. Once ready, Hayate stepped forwards and announced "The final *cough* match is Fu Aburame vs Yugito *cough* Nii. Hajime!

(In the stands)

The normally quiet Shino surprisingly spoke up the moment Fu and Yugito left, saying "This is the matchup that I was hoping wouldn't happen."

The ever curious Ino asked "Why?" and Shino responded by saying "It's because I don't get to fight."

Everyone sweatdropped at his surprisingly selfish answer, until he continued, saying "It's also because this will be the most destructive fight of the preliminaries. Kurenai-sensei had to ban the two from sparring because they would destroy whatever training grounds they were sparring in. They both like using jutsus that most would consider to be "overkill". However, what we see as overkill, they see as a normal means to an end. I think it's due to their rather impressive chakra reserves, but then again, both Naruto and Hinata outclass them in chakra and they aren't overly showy."

At this, Hinata giggled and said "Well, both Ruto-kun and I would be more "showy" as you say, if it were not for the fact that our "showy" jutsus would cause village wide panic. We have a tendency to model our strongest jutsus into the form of something that has to do with a kitsune, usually with multiple tails, as a show of respect to Kurama-sensei and all of Kitsune kind. The civilians of the village have unfortunately developed an unhealthy fear of anything to do with foxes, and we do not wish to cause panic, even if it would be funny to see the villagers running around screaming. That and the fact that are "showy" jutsus would level a good portion of the village if we released them. Now let's watch the fight then."

(With Fu and Yugito)

"So, are you ready to reveal our secret?" asked Fu to Yugito.

"Yup, let's get this show started!" answered Yugito.

The two both made a hand sign and yelled "KAI!" There was an explosion of shimmering scales and blue flames, and when it settled, it revealed Fu and Yugito in their Hanyou forms. They also had new outfits.

Fu was wearing a white low cut tank top with a red trim along the edges that was cut along her midriff so that it revealed her stomach. She wore tight white shorts, also with a red trim, that went down to a little above her knees, and wore white ninja shoes. Both arms had white armlets with a yellow trim, and tied to her right arm was a leaf Hitai-ate. She had a ninja pouch on her right leg, and wore a necklace that ended in a realistic looking beetle. Her mint green hair was slightly longer than it was during the team assignments, but it still retained the previous style. Finally, she had a tattoo of a beetle on her lower back.

Yugito was wearing a low cut blue short sleeved shirt that had black markings that made it resemble Matatabi. She wore black pants with a blue flame motif and black ninja shoes. She had a leaf Hitai-ate secured around her left arm at the edge of her shirt, and a ninja pouch on her right leg. Her blonde hair was no longer tied in a ponytail, and hung loose down to her mid-back. Finally, she wore a necklace that ended in a cat's eye gemstone.

(In the stands)

"What the hell just happened to those two? They sort of look like Naruto and Hinata." Yelled Ino.

Hinata giggled and said "They decided to reveal their biggest secret. They are actually both Hanyou, like Ruto-kun and I. Didn't you ever wonder why Yugito-chan's eye color suddenly was different after she came back from her first training session with her sensei?"

"Well, yeah, but I just thought they were crazy contact lenses or something. You're telling me that her eye color changed because she became a Hanyou?" asked Ino.

Naruto then said "That's right. Yugito-chan merged with the Nibi bijuu, which she was previously the jinchuriki of. She got two tails, a pair of cat ears, and her distinguishing mark, which is her different eye color from the merge, as well as turning eighteen."

At this, Shikamaru asked "What do you mean by distinguishing mark, Naruto?"

"A distinguishing mark is a mark that all Hanyou carry. It is usually unique to each Hanyou, and it cannot be changed with a henge. My mark is the whisker marks I have, and while Hina-chan also has them, I cannot hide mine with a henge while she can. I just get around that by using a henge that has bandages on my cheeks whenever I don't want civilians to bother me. Hina-chan's mark is her fox tattoo on her breast, and as I said, Yugito-chan's is her eyes. I have to assume that Fu-chan's is the beetle tattoo on her lower back." Explained Naruto.

"Wait, if those eyes are the mark of her being a Hanyou, wouldn't that mean that Haku is one too? She has the exact same eyes as Yugito." asked Shikamaru.

At this, Haku stepped forwards and said "Well spotted. I guess I'll reveal my secret to you." She made a handsign and said "Kai" before exploding into a whirlwind of blue flames and snowflakes.

The whirlwind died to reveal Haku, who also had gotten a wardrobe change. She now wore a silver with a light blue outline long sleeved kimono that was opened a little in the front, revealing some of her cleavage. The kimono had light blue snowflakes of varying shapes and sizes as a pattern. She wore basic silver shoes, and had a light blue sash around her waist. Finally, she wore a silver necklace that ended in an icicle made of actual ice.

After staring for a moment, Ino said "Well, that's certainly a very nice kimono, but it doesn't seem to be too useful for a ninja. It has to be hard to fight in that. Besides, you're not even wearing a ninja pouch!"

Haku giggled at Ino's statement and said "I prefer kimonos to other things as I find them comfortable. I am quite used to fighting in them, so they don't hold me back. I also don't need a ninja pouch, thanks to Naruto Nii-san." She pulled up her kimono's right sleeve a little and revealed an armband that had an extremely complicated seal on it. She then continued, saying "Naruto invented this special storage seal. It can seal an absurd amount of items of any variety within it. The drawback is that the more items inside of the seal, the more chakra it takes to get an item out. So it really is only practical for those who have insane amounts of chakra, like us Hanyous."

Ino then turned to Naruto and asked "How come only Haku-chan has one of those seals? Wouldn't you use one as well?"

"I intend on using one, however the one that Haku-chan is using is the first one I made. I finished the design only a few days ago, and I only had time to make one armband. It takes four straight hours to draw the seal, then I have to transfer it to whatever I want to have it. I gave the first to Haku because she would be able to use it the most effectively, as her primary ninja tools are senbon. In a most storage scrolls, they store by the amount of items, and senbon rapidly fill the scroll to its capacity. With this seal, it won't run out of capacity, and the only drawback of the seal barely affects her." Answered Naruto.

Shino then surprisingly spoke up, and said "Since today seems to be the day that secrets are revealed, I shall reveal mine as well."

Shino made a hand seal and said "Kai" before his body literally turned into millions of Kikai. They flew around before coming back together and forming Shino once more. As with the others, he had a wardrobe change as well. He now wore a long black trench coat (think Ibiki's coat) that was open in the front, revealing a dark blue muscle shirt that showed off his surprisingly defined muscles. He wore black pants and a pair of black military boots. He still wore the same glasses and had the same bushy hairstyle. He completed his outfit with a leaf Hitai-ate that was tied around his forehead.

Shikamaru then spoke up, saying "Badass outfit, Shino. I have to assume that your Fu's mate. Although mate wouldn't really be the right term.

"You are correct." Answered Shino. "Fu made me her king, as she is a queen of insects. She merged with the Nanabi, the seven tailed Kabutomushi, who she once held as her prisoner. Now, let us watch the fight."

"Wait one second!" shouted Ino. "If Haku-chan has the same distinguishing mark as Yugito-chan, then doesn't that mean that she is Haku's mate?"

Naruto grinned and said "Yes it does."

"But wouldn't that make her a lesbian?" asked Ino.

Naruto's grin widened and he said "Actually, both are bisexual. But I don't think they will be sharing each other with anybody else. Now shut up so we can watch."

(With Fu and Yugito)

Both Fu and Yugito had been idly sparring with each other while the people on the stands were talking. They actually had been listening to the whole conversation.

Now that they had everybody's attention, they halted their sparring, and Fu said "Alright, let's put on a good show, sister!"

Yugito nodded and started going through handsigns. She finished and called out "Neko no Hi: Sei Akujo!" (Cat fire: Hellcat), before exhaling a large amount of blue flames. The flames came together and took the form of a cat with red eyes, before pouncing at Fu.

Right before the flaming cat was about to reach her, Fu flapped her wings and took off into the air, leaving a cloud of scale powder behind. The moment the flaming cat touched the powder, the powder ignited, causing a huge explosion.

Yugito shielded herself from any debris with her arms, but kept a close watch on the cloud of dust that explosion had left behind. Sure enough, a large blade of wind cut through the cloud and headed straight at her.

Yugito made a few quick hand signs and said "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!" before exhaling a ball of fire at the blade of wind.

To Yugito's surprise, when the fireball connected with the wind blade, it caused another explosion. Right after the explosion subsided, another wind blade came shooting at her, this time at a 45 degree angle. Looking closely, Yugito saw that the wind blade was sparkling slightly.

Yugito did a backflip to dodge the blade, and the blade sliced deep into the stone floor. Yugito looked up and saw that the dust from the first explosion had finally settled, and she saw her opponent hovering in the air, tails buzzing behind her. She called out and said "Very clever, putting your scale powder within your wind blades so that my fire wouldn't just absorb the wind and get bigger."

Fu just grinned and started spinning in midair, causing a tornado of wind and scale powder to form around her. She called out "Rinpun: Tatsumaki!" (Scale powder: Tornado) and with one final spin, she let it loose upon Yugito.

The tornado churned up the floor as it traveled towards Yugito, who made a few quick hand signs and exhaled another fireball at the tornado. While she exhaled, she continued making hand signs and the moment she finished the fireball, she called out "Neko no Hi: Kansho-Ki!" (Shock absorber), before releasing a dome of blue fire from her body.

The moment Yugito's fireball connected with the oncoming tornado, there was a massive explosion as the fire ignited the powder. The explosion released a huge shockwave that knocked the people in the stands over.

When the dust finally settled, it revealed that Yugito's dome of fire was still standing, although it was no longer a circular dome. The force of the blast had put a huge dent in the flaming dome on the side that faced the blast. The flaming dome then flickered and died, revealing a panting Yugito.

Suddenly, the ground directly in front of Yugito cracked, and then broke and Fu flew out, attempting to deal an uppercut to Yugito's jaw.

Yugito back flipped away from the punch just in time, and when she landed, she watched Fu carefully.

Fu grinned at Yugito and said "You must be feeling exhausted after using your Kansho-Ki. That jutsu creates a dome that absorbs incoming shockwaves, but it puts a tremendous strain on your body, with the strain being greater if the shockwaves absorbed are stronger. And given the fact that that explosion's shockwave knocked everyone in the stands over, including our fellow Hanyou, you must be about ready to drop. I just hid underground the moment I saw you go to use a fire jutsu. Thank kami I have an earth affinity as well as a wind one."

Yugito let out a pained smirk and said "You're right. I feel like I'm about to drop, but I won't forfeit."

Fu's grin widened and she started going through hand signs while jumping backwards before saying "All right. Then let's see how you deal with this! Rinpun: Nanabi Kaze!" (Seven tailed winds) before she did a backflip, shooting six vertical wind blades from each of her tails. The blades converged into a massive vertical blade, and when Fu landed her flip, she exhaled a seventh blade horizontally. The horizontal blade sped into the vertical one, creating a cross of wind that sped straight towards Yugito.

Yugito barely Kawarimied with a piece of rubble in time. She watched as the wind cross sliced into the wall and cut straight through it, not stopping for anything. The cross continued well into the forest of death, cutting through everything in its way, before it finally dissipated right after it sliced the gate surrounding the forest.

(In the stands)

Hinata relayed the information of how far the cross went, along with how many things it killed (15 giant spiders, 12 giant leeches, a wolverine, and a passing flock of birds) to the other watchers, as she had watched it carve a path of destruction with her Byakugan.

Ino just yelled "Is Fu crazy? Yugito could have died!"

Naruto grinned and said "Nah, she would have received some nasty cuts and be unconscious for a day, but she would be fine. Hanyou are pretty tough, you know. So while that may have seemed like overkill for you guys, that's what it would take to bring us down for a day. That and Yugito is just stubborn."

(With Fu and Yugito)

After Yugito finished watching the cross, she turned her attention back to the grinning Fu and started going through an insane amount of handsigns with amazing speed. She finished and called out "Neko no Hi: Kokuten!" (Sunspot), before holding her palm to the air. A small blue fireball appeared in her hand, and it started to rapidly expand until it was five meters in diameter. The now massive fireball gave off so much heat that it raised the temperature of the entire room to over 100 degrees.

A spot on the fireball that faced Fu gradually started getting darker and darker, before it finally turned black. Suddenly, a wave of intense blue fire shot out of the black spot straight towards Fu, using the fireball as the source of the flames.

Fu barely Kawarimied with rubble in time, but she wasn't out of trouble yet. The dark spot on the fireball started shifting towards her, with the accompanying stream of flames turning the stone it hit molten.

Fu then started flying close to the ground, so that the fire stream wouldn't hit any bystanders, and flew in a circle around the fireball, gradually making it use its fuel source. The fireball eventually ran out, and the black spot disappeared when it did.

After the attack ended, Fu carefully landed on a part of the ground that wasn't molten, and called out to Yugito, saying "Great, now it's annoyingly hot in here. How about we just end this like we usually do? I'm getting sort of bored and we put on a nice show for the audience."

Yugito answered by saying "Sure, why not. A fight between us wouldn't actually end anytime soon, so let's just end it that way."

Fu then flew to where Yugito was standing and…

"ROCK"

"PAPER"

"SCISSORS"

The combatants held out their hands. Fu held out rock while Yugito held scissors. Seeing this, Yugito raised her hand and said "Procter, I forfeit."

A clearly stunned Hayate walked forwards and said "The *cough* winner of the final round is *cough* Fu Aburame! Will all of the winners please come outside with me so that we can explain the rules for the finals. And to get out of this sauna!" He added mentally.

All of the winners headed out of the room and into what appeared to be a small classroom. Once they were all there, Hayate walked in holding twelve slips of paper, and handed one slip to each genin. He then said "Read *cough* off the numbers *cough* that are on your *cough* slips."

"One" said Hinata.

"Four" said Ino.

"Five" said Shikamaru.

"Two" said Neji.

"Seven" said Shino.

"Eleven" said Gaara.

"Six" said Temari.

"Three" said Kiba.

"Nine" said Haku.

"Eight" said Choji.

"Ten" said Fu

"Twelve" said Naruto.

Hayate coughed and said "Very well. The first *cough* matchup will be Hinata vs. *cough* Neji. Second is Kiba *cough* vs. Ino. Third is Shikamaru vs. *cough* Temari. Fourth *cough* is Shino vs. Choji. Fifth *cough* is Haku vs. *cough* Fu. And sixth is *cough* Gaara vs. Naruto. You all have a month to *cough* rest, relax, and train *cough* before the finals, so I would *cough* suggest using the time *cough* wisely. You will all *cough* be escorted back through the *cough* forest in a half hour. Do what you *cough* want until then.

With that said, Hayate left the room, and the time to prepare for the finals officially started.

()()()()()()()()

And that's a wrap. For those of you who can't understand Hayate due to his cough, I will repeat the matchups in order:

Hinata vs. Neji

Kiba vs. Ino

Shikamaru vs. Temari

Shino vs. Choji

Haku vs. Fu

Gaara vs. Naruto

So now everybody has a month to prepare. I need to think of how I want to do this. It will probably be one big timeskippy chapter with various events and happenings thrown in.

Until next time,

Slice N Dicer