Drifting

by AlphaDelta1001

Naruto is many things; troublesome, wild, unpredictable, adventurous, untamable, unique. But there's a benefit to being wild and unpredictable; no one has the faintest idea what you're going to do next. NarutoHarem

26. Chunin Exam Arc II - Play for the Finish

NARUTO

Drifting

Play for the Finish

After being excused from the hospital last night, Tenten found herself waking up early that next morning from her bed in her team's room, still wrapped up in bandages, and expecting to see her teammates getting ready for the competition ahead. With one of the three of them having advanced further into the tournament then the rest, she'd decided that today she was going to do her best as a member of the squad to cheer Lee on in the finals. However, as soon as she sat up, ran her hand through her free flowing hair and rubbed her eyes open, she received quite the pleasant surprise.

A bouquet of flowers and a giant fox plushy sitting at the end of her bed.

While it was true she'd won a few prizes on her first night out at Yugakure from the stalls, she didn't remember ever winning those items. The reason for them being there at the end of her bed was revealed shortly afterwards when she looked to the side and saw Naruto was sleeping there, his knees on the floor and with his head lying near her legs.

Bewildered at seeing the blonde haired super hero, Tenten gave a warm smile and leaned over, running a finger over one of his whiskers before pinching his cheek. Her action eventually roused the dozing boy from his slumber, who sat up rolling his jaw to relieve himself of the pain. After which he then looked across the way to see the brown haired girl beaming at him with a bright coloration in her cheeks. She grinned when she saw him sit straight up, giggling at his expression.

"You're up!" the blonde chirped brightly.

"You too, apparently," Tenten laughed a little, at the same time nodding towards the presents. "What are they for?"

Naruto grinned and sat cross-legged atop the chair sitting directly behind him, "Get well gifts. Since you had to go to the hospital and stuff, I decided to go buy you some presents to make you feel better. I won you the fox so that it can keep you company while you were getting better."

Tenten reached over and grabbed the giant plushy, hugging it to her in a show of appreciation. "Should you be worrying more about your fights than worrying about little old me?"

"Honestly… I'm more worried about you than my fights," Naruto replied with a shrug. "If I was to choose between taking care of my friends and fighting the enemy… I would pick you over that, easily."

Cheeks glowing, Tenten smirked across at the jinchuriki at his well-put response. "If it wasn't for that Gaara, I'd be kicking your ass right about now."

"Wanna bet."

"Once this is all over, promoted or not, when we get back to the village and I'm all better I'm challenging you to a fight," Tenten stated with an all-knowing look in her eyes. In spite of her state, she still expressed extreme confidence in her abilities. That's probably why the jinchuriki liked her so much. "You may have beaten Neji, but you haven't beaten me yet. And I still remember the promise we made."

Naruto sat normally on the chair again and folded his arms all cool style, "You're on. But I'm going to wait till you're all better so that your throwing arm is in its best condition. You won't be able to hit me right if it's still wrapped up in gauze."

He then barely dodged her attempted flick to his nose, which got a good series of laughs out of the pair.

"Don't test me, buddy. I can still beat you up."

"She's still got good spirit," Naruto thought warmly, the pair snickering with each other as Tenten weighed the giant plushy in her arms, before then asking him about where he got it from and how.

While the pair talked with one another and opened up to a cheerful morning, a recently awoken Neji Hyuuga could be seen standing on the other side of the wall by the bedroom door with his arms folded and a smirk across his face. Assured that his friend and teammate was okay, and that her visitor wasn't disturbing her, he decided to excuse himself from big-brother guard duty and fetch himself some breakfast from the lobby. They were bound to come around on their own accord soon enough, so he chose to let them have some one-on-one face time together.

OOO

Later that morning…

Stadium…

Just like the day before the crowds filed into the arena at the prearranged time.

The stadium was quickly filled and the competitors were moved into their box, sans the ones who'd lost, the latter of which had now acquired their own private section directly alongside the balcony.

It quickly became clear to everyone present from the amount of bodies that filled the seats that the second day's events was going to be a hell of a lot bigger than yesterday's due to how quickly every booth, every balcony, every plaza and every reserve hosting the event was flooded by civilians. This was further highlighted by how everybody was quick to get into the swing of things, from the stall runners to the officials, and when the massive television screens inside the coliseum flashed into life under the rising sun, the mutterings amongst the crowd grew even more in volume to coincide with the rising levels of excitement.

The clamor was biblical. For one of the biggest events ever to be hosted by any nation, it was understandable why the stimulation and tension was so high. It was almost like everyone had turned out to see this in person.

Iruka, sitting up in the mid-section after taking some time off from the academy to come watch the finals, was waiting patiently for the event to start along with the thousands of other people around him. The Konoha contingent of instructors were waiting in their line at the front row, with Tsunade of the Sannin and her apprentice having taken up the same seats as before, the former's hands stuffed with betting slips. Clearly the overconfident Sannin had gone overboard in her attempts to make more money off of the golden goose of the tournament. There was no way she could lose.

Shizune could only look on in sorrow as her master clenched the papers tightly in her two hands with the proud grin on her face.

"I've got this one in the bag! There's no possible way I can lose!" the blonde woman cheered as she looked at the slips. "No doubt that spiky haired, loud-mouthed little runt of an Uzumaki will make it to fight that Kiyoko girl. However, there's no way he can beat her."

"And… on the off chance that he does?" Shizune asked mournfully.

"Then I've got my backup card," Tsunade exclaimed, holding up her other hand with the stubs. "Tsubaki will make it to the semi-finals and make up for all the losses that I may have today."

Sometimes there was just no logic to Tsunade's gambling. At times it was like shooting in the dark for her. If there were ten horses running, the odds were that Tsunade would pick all of the losing competitors over the winner. After losing she would then bet on another race and somehow make her money back, but not make any profit at all. Then there was every other day she would just lose repeatedly and they would end up skinning by on whatever spare change they had left, and try to make up on any debts they had collected. This went to show that Tsunade's luck was like the stock market.

One month you would be making it big and then the next thing you know, the line drops and the entire country is in recession.

Honestly, it was crazy.

While Tsunade and Shizune got comfortable in that corner, with the older woman showing off her slips with the best chances of winning, up in the back row in one of the main aisles, Haku could be seen standing in the shadows waiting expectantly for the next round of matches to start. You could see the anticipation hanging heavily over her and her intense look fixed on the arena below as she saw the proctors slowly move out and the competitors line up. Any bets she'd made, she made in support of the friends she knew were participating: Naruto and Tayuya.

"Show the world just how strong you really are, Naruto-kun… Tayuya-san," the ice user silently cheered, her eyes shimmering with glee.

With everyone in position, the daimyo up in their observation suite and the Kage down in the main box, the tournament officials stepped out into the somewhat repaired ring and stood before the thousands of spectators up in the stands. Checking his watch and glancing towards the big screen, Hayate made sure that the times were correct and the cameras had finished filing through all the connections. Once it was confirmed that everything was in working order, the man in the bandana turned to the audience and cleared his throat.

The moment his cough echoed over the loud speakers, the mutterings went silent. "Glad to see everyone's in a good mood," the man spoke with a small smile tugging on his lips. "If you're all ready, let's pick up where we left off." He then turned side on and directed their attention towards the jumbo-tron. "There is the line-up. From this point on the final leg of this race will commence, right up to the final match this afternoon. The competitors are here and we're ready to begin the fights. Will Shikamaru and Gaara please come down?"

The crowd broke into applause and cheers as the first two Genin slowly made their way down from the balcony. While Gaara left before his older sister could say anything, due to him turning into a cloud of sand and drifting all the way down, Shikamaru took his time navigating the stairs, hands in his pockets and a bored look on his face. By the time he reached the center of the arena, two minutes had past and his opponent was there waiting for him.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Sasuke frowned as he watched the Nara take up position in the middle and face his opponent down. Even though he was one of the many advancers from Konohagakure and was facing off against the most dangerous competitor in the exams, the guy looked like he was about to fall asleep. "Unless he's got some sort of killer strategy hidden under his belt, there's no way the sloth can win this."

Everyone saw what that Gaara was capable of. Only the right skill set and ability could beat that sand, seeing as how it moved like lightning itself.

"Have faith in the guy, teme," Naruto spoke up, leaning against the railing while his teammate stood beside him with his arms crossed. Of course, even the blonde couldn't hide the look of doubt he had on his face as he along with everybody else there watched the proctor recite the rules to the two competitors, especially to Gaara who'd nearly overstepped the boundaries in his first match. "Anyone can beat anyone in a battle. It just depends on what you've got hidden under your sleeve that can determine its outcome. Who knows? Maybe Shikamaru can win this one."

"Or maybe he won't," Tayuya also said, shrugging while she shared the same look of seriousness as Samui and Lee alongside her. The Kumogakure girl had immediately come to side alongside Naruto the moment all of them arrived at the balcony for the last day of the tournament. With the tensions being so high, everyone had their game faces on. "That all depends on the pace he's able to set at the beginning. He's not much for dealing out heavy blows, but he's fucking good at getting his opponents to move for him."

Unfortunately, that wasn't going to do him much good against this opponent. As it was made abundantly clear yesterday, Gaara didn't have to move to beat his opponent. He didn't even need to take a single step.

His sand covered that aspect for him.

"It'll take guts and a powerful drive to stand up to this adversary," Lee spoke with resolution in his voice. "Shikamaru-kun is smart. He can do this."

While the kids around him could agree on the smarts and probably the guts aspect, seeing as how Shikamaru was brave to the point of being absolutely sedated, it was the drive part that they were showing the most uncertainty over.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

With everyone watching on with baited breath as Hayate finished going over the rules and establishing his authority as the proctor, he looked between the competitors once more before speaking up. "Do I make myself clear?" He saw Shikamaru nod and Gaara just stare. At this he glanced towards the Suna Genin seriously. "Are you ready?"

"Yes," Gaara said back in a low voice, his expression overshadowing with killing intent.

Nodding, Hayate looked across at Shikamaru. "And you?"

"…"

He didn't receive an immediate reply. All he got was silence from the Konohagakure shinobi, as well as a firm glare. After several seconds of nothing but seeing a bead of sweat trickle down the Nara's forehead, the official's own brow furrowed as he waved to get the boy's attention.

"Shikamaru Nara?" Nothing. "Shikamaru Nara! Are you ready?"

Several moments of quiet later, the boy with the lazy expression then looked at the proctor with a sigh followed by a deep frown. "I'm out."

Hayate blinked, "Excuse me?"

"I give up. I'm out. I quit," the boy repeated before slipping his hands into his pockets and turning heel, leaving both the proctor and his opponent in his dust. Even though he didn't leave in a rush, his vacating of the center ring had everybody stumped. "Do I need to write it down?" His question was let fly without even being appropriately aimed. All it did was reverberate back towards Hayate at low volume.

A little bit overwhelmed, the proctor shook his head at the sudden development, cleared his throat and raised his hand to the crowd. You couldn't tell whether he was apologetic or not, but it was clear he had been thrown by the split second decision.

"Winner by verbal surrender: Gaara of Sunagakure."

OOO

(Stadium – Kage Section)

The village leaders, who had previously been waiting patiently for the beginning of the next fight, all raised their eyebrows at the sudden turn of events.

"Ha!" Onoki laughed, shaking his head, "Typical Nara clan habits. How did I know he was going to turn tail and run? He may as well have not gone down and wasted us several minutes.""

"Despite what you might think Tsuchikage-dono, that was an incredibly wise decision," Mei spoke in defense of the Nara youngster, a small but grim smile forming on her face. "Sometimes it's better to run then to stand and fight. In the face of overwhelming odds and when the dangers of the mission escalate to a level that is simply beyond your ability to handle, you place the safety of your comrades and your client first."

A grunted when he too reran the event for himself, "I still would have liked to see the kid fight. It might have turned out to be an interesting bout."

"But a quick one," the Kazekage cut in while closing his eyes. "No matter what strategy the boy might have cooked up, it wouldn't have been enough to stop Gaara. On his own, he wouldn't have stood a chance against him." Since he was the village's secret weapon and everything, it made perfect sense.

While the village leaders discussed the value or disappointment behind the call, Hiruzen was beaming. He actually held a silent applause at Shikamaru's decision to throw in the towel rather than stay and have a fight, because it was perhaps the best move anyone in this tournament had made thus far. The boy clearly knew what his limitations were and how strong his opponent actually was. Knowing that a battle would have only caused him serious injury or worse, he saw a way out and, without hesitation, took it.

The Third couldn't have asked for anything more from Shikamaru and tipped his hat to him for a job well done.

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

A loud groan echoed out when Asuma slapped himself in the forehead as he watched his student vacate the ring. Due to the silence, his exasperated exclamation could be heard all around, and had every Jonin in the row turn to him.

"Why didn't he just say that at the beginning and save us five minutes of waiting?" the man mumbled while scratching his head and stretching his neck back. "Damn it… for a second there I thought he was actually going to fight. Thank Kami he didn't…"

"Wait," Anko said loudly while leaning over, looking a little bit perplexed, "You wanted your student to give up? What about the tournament? Do you seriously want him ducking out on a chance of becoming Chunin?"

Asuma looked towards the woman and gestured towards the ring. "Have you been watching this shit as closely as I have? He didn't stand a chance against that Gaara kid." He looked back at the ring and watched Shikamaru enter the stairwell up to the balcony, while slowly being followed by his opponent when it was made clearly apparent that there was going to be no fight for him. "If he'd tried to fight him like Tenten did, he would have been slaughtered."

Kakashi gave a slight chuckle as his eye crinkled into a smile, "Another reason why he should get a promotion. He clearly knows when a battle is not worth having and would rather avoid conflict as opposed to putting himself or his team at risk. Better to fallback, rethink your strategy and avoid being sent to the hospital."

"Or to an early grave," Genma also added, getting nods from the others.

"That's a boy with his head on his shoulders," Kurenai chirped, smiling in approval. "Though he's not the most motivated, he's definitely the sharpest of all the competitors here."

"Now we have to see how the others fair against their opponents," Gai spoke up, arms folded and a tough expression in play.

All of the Jonin there were well aware of who else was involved. While Shikamaru was one thing, all of the other Genin participating were bound to give the audience a good show. After yesterday, there was no doubt in their minds that the other competitors were going to disappoint them either. They were sure to make something big happen.

The excitement wafted over them, especially Team Kurenai sitting in the spaces beside the Jonin kunoichi in question.

"Now its Tayuya's turn," Shino pointed, glasses flashing.

Kiba smirked and petted Akamaru on the head, the pup barking in anticipation. "That Iwagakure girl is a tough one no doubt, but our girl is even tougher! She'll wipe the floor with that candle chick without even breaking a sweat!" It wasn't just because the redhead was a hardnosed brawler as well as a deceptively good player; she was also a kunoichi of Konohagakure. The way he saw it, there was no way she could lose.

The ever nervous Hinata laced her fingers together and held her hands up to her chin eagerly. "T-Tayuya-san will win."

This was the exact thought the three kids had as they heard the next two names in the competition get called out and the people announced begin making their way down.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Watching Shirotsuchi jump down from her corner to the ground, Tayuya grinned as she too gripped hold of the guard rail. "Sweet. Let's get this shit over and done with." However, before she could leap off and make her way to the center, she stopped herself in the middle of launch preparations when she remembered something and turned around.

The teenagers beside her stood in confusion at her abrupt moment of hesitation, with all eyes training on Naruto when they realized she was looking in his direction. The blonde also appeared bewildered when she suddenly hopped off of the metal bar and stepped towards him. "What's up, Tayuya-chan?"

Before he could inquire into her odd behavior, without warning or hesitation, the girl leaned forward and kissed him full on the lips. She even wrapped a hand around his head to pull him into the lip lock, deepening the unexpected gesture of affection. This surprised the jinchuriki somewhat, but not as much as it did everybody else around him, with Lee, Samui, Sasuke, the Suna team and the Kiri team just staring with mixed expressions of shock and interest.

Eventually, after a few seconds of remaining in that position, the girl slowly pulled away to meet the red face of her boyfriend with her own. She grinned brightly and winked at him playfully.

"Just for luck," the musician said before back flipping over the side and landing gracefully at the base of the wall. As soon as she was down, she turned, gave a smirk to the kids up on the balcony, and ran for the arena's center to meet up with her adversary for the next round.

Eyes still wide in surprise, Naruto then broke out one of the happiest smiles anyone had ever seen on him. Eventually though, after some moments of pause, he managed to snap out of his daze to see everyone on the balcony was staring at him, most notably the stunned Sasuke, Lee and Samui. Looking between them, he shook his head in bewilderment.

"What? That's what boyfriends and girlfriends do, right?"

Sasuke blinked before pointing up towards the massive television. "In full view of the cameras?"

When everyone looked up at it, they saw a still frame and clear shot of the exact moment Tayuya pulled Naruto in for that searing kiss, which had all those in the competitor's box fixed upon silently for several seconds until the receiver let out a boisterous laugh.

"She did that on purpose," the blonde thought while at the same time rubbing the back of his head sheepishly. She didn't just want one for luck. She wanted to show off. "Damn, I love her."

OOO

(Stadium – Kage Section)

Mei giggled at the picture up on the big screen, "That's so sweet. I think those two make a really cute couple." She then giggled a second time, but this time with a little more cuteness in her expression. Perhaps a little too much cuteness for the mood she was giving off. "I'm… actually kind of jealous." That they were able to experience the joys of love in their youth, while she was still single and never even had a boyfriend before in her life.

Feeling a cold chill fall over them, Hiruzen, A and Hiroto leaned away nervously from the woman when a dark aura suddenly overcame her. Eventually the deadly, deadly radiation she was emitting with every laugh reached the Fourth Kazekage and Onoki, with the two other village leaders also becoming wary of the woman at the other end of the box and giving her strange yet cautious looks of concern.

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

Asuma looked over to see that Kakashi was eye-smiling approvingly while Genma was also grinning around the senbon in his mouth. Even Gai had sucked in his stomach and stuck out his chest upon witnessing the little show of affection on the big screen.

Meanwhile, Kurenai, who had remained silent throughout the event, looked across at Team 8 where she saw Shino and Kiba glancing toward Hinata repeatedly to see how the girl was taking things. So far, the blue haired girl had her hands covering her small smile and her cheeks were red as usual. Obviously she found the small show quite intriguing and was still in awe at the boy she admired greatly.

It was obvious to her sensei that the Hyuuga was sweet on the Uzumaki, while her teammates were only aware of her attachment at face value; figuring she just had a little crush.

No one really knew how Hinata would actually respond to such a sight, but they were making sure to keep an eye on her.

So far, there was no cause for concern… yet…

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

After getting the approval from both fighters and looking between them once more, Tenga brought his hand and held it above the center. "Ready… BEGIN!" Dropping it, the man jumped away and watched the two kunoichi slide into fighting stances. The moment the call for the match to begin resounded throughout the stadium, the crowd erupted into a series of excited exclamations and cheers, which filtered down to the middle and spurred the pair on for a good battle.

Shirotsuchi smiled, "I can tell you won't be an easy opponent. With your taijutsu and long-range genjutsu, you will be an incredibly difficult individual to approach."

"I made it a point to cover all of the areas where I'm weakest," Tayuya informed with confidence, unclasping her holster where her flute sat comfortably. "While I'm not as good as I want to be, I can still make my enemy's life a living hell."

"Well then, draw your flute and show me what you've got."

"I plan on doing this in steps. Don't rush me," Tayuya responded, a split second before her hand shot behind her and she threw a cluster of shuriken forward with the other.

Spotting the incoming projectiles coming in at close range, the agile Iwagakure shinobi ducked under them before springing back through the air. As soon as she was airborne, her hands slapped together to form a hand seal, but was seemingly too slow to react when her opponent unexpectedly chucked kunai at her from her other hand in an upward swing. The two knives embedded Shirotsuchi in the chest and then her face, knocking the girl out of the sky with her head cocked backwards from the impact of the salvo.

A second later, her body slammed into the ground with a loud thud, filling the air with dust and debris.

Drawing her flute, Tayuya waited for the dust to settle to see what had happened. When it did, she saw that her opponent's body had suddenly turned white, before her form started to melt across the ground. As the goop spread, the musician gritted her teeth and clenched her main weapon tightly.

"A Ro Bunshin (Wax Clone). Just like before," Tayuya thought, eyes cutting across the landscape. "Left, right, up, behind… no. Then where could she have…" Pupils dilating, the redhead then looked straight down and jumped. One cue, the earth she'd been standing on cracked before bursting upwards in a thick cloud of dust. "BELOW!" The kunoichi's flute cut out while she was leaping backwards into the sky, only to see a massive white hand of hot wax flying up at her, aiming for a grab.

Managing to flip away, Tayuya began a hasty, back-footed retreat across the grasslands, at the same time pursued by waves of the white gunk that had seemingly come to life, but was really being manipulated by its user from the shadows. Eventually she leapt high up onto a grassy ridge, where the white wax slammed into the base several meters below. Glaring down at it, the Konoha kunoichi then looked up towards where the stuff had emerged from, where she then saw her opponent standing yards away with her hands on the ground and a smile on her face.

"Yoton: Tokudai Numa Kyandoru!" (Lava Release: Huge Candle Swamp) Shirotsuchi chanted, watching as the bog of white ooze sprouted small protrusions and began burning at the tips. Standing up, she flew through hand seals again before resting on a single one. "Not finished. Katon: Kasumi Enbu no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Mist Blaze Dance Technique) A gust of hot wind then bellowed out from her lips when she blew, the breeze catching on the flickering candles and igniting it like gas, which charged towards Tayuya in the form of a wall of flames.

The red head gave an audible gasp and crossed her arms over her face, the blaze smashing into her, enveloping her, and seemingly incinerating her in a bright, orange hell. The crowd awed at the sheer destruction of the technique, which blew up the entire ridge Tayuya had been standing on, leaving nothing but a pile of scorched rubble inside a crater moments later. When the smoke and dust slowly lifted, revealing her partially destroyed candle swamp, Shirotsuchi gazed across to see whether her opponent was still there but in a state preferably not conscious.

Finding no body, except for a burnt log sitting precariously inside the rubble, the Iwa girl gave a look of alarm before glancing around for her would-be foe. All of a sudden, a red blur darted at her in her peripheral vision, getting Shirotsuchi to turn and see Tayuya jabbing out at her with her flute. Alarmed, Shirotsuchi skillfully slipped around the forward blow, only to receive a painful sidekick straight into her stomach that lifted her off the ground and sent her flying across the field.

Giving a strangled yell of pain the kunoichi with the candle on her head flipped backwards to right her body before springing into form and retreating even further. When she landed atop a distant hill, she saw Tayuya face her, lift her flute to her lips, and begin to play.

Catching the beautiful melody echoing through the air, Shirotsuchi grinned and formed another hand seal, before slapping her hand into the ground. "I've seen your genjutsu before! I know your limits and I know the distance it has to cover before it has any effect! That's plenty of time for me to do THIS!" Her fingers dug into the hill and cracked it under the force she pumped down.

Looking surprised, Tayuya suddenly felt the ground beneath her collapse in on itself, like ice atop of a lake. Glaring down, she immediately saw the hot white wax her opponent had used before start to bubble out of the small hole she fell into and flood the area again. Quickly finding her feet stuck fast, the red head attempted to pull her legs free and get away, but to no avail as her body started to sink into the gunk.

Struggling and feeling the sting of the heat, the red head glared back up to see Shirotsuchi stand and smirk her way, the candle on her head burning brightly to convey her rising confidence.

"I knew you would try to take me out in close quarters and not waste chakra on a genjutsu to surprise me. You were certain that I would attempt to avoid it the instant I heard your flute music and instead counted on your superior taijutsu to defeat me." She cocked her head to the side and grinned as she watched her opponent slowly begin to merge with the wax, like she was stuck in quicksand. "That was a mistake. I had plans to stop you at both checkpoints, and now you fell for my trap."

Remaining quiet, Tayuya smiled. "If you think I'm trapped…" She bit into her thumb, "Then you're hilariously mistaken. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" (Summoning Technique) Slamming her hand into the wax beneath her, a sealing array expanded from the point of contact before a blast of white smoke exploded over the area.

Shocked, Shirotsuchi shielded herself from the cloud that washed over her, wincing under the winds before glaring back to see it clear up. When the ritual fumes lifted, the Iwa kunoichi's eyes widened when she saw the very things that the red head had managed to call upon to save her from the pit. Effortlessly standing atop her gooey swamp of wax, shadowing the entire area, were three massive, fearsome looking figures.

Looking over each of the giant forms, Shirotsuchi and the crowd began making out the details of every one of the newcomers. The first of them was wearing a green suit, had long hair covering its face, and was wielding an enormous club. Another was only wearing khaki pants with an exposed, muscular body, bandages covering its eyes, and melee gauntlets on its arms with boney spikes attached to them. The last one was an armless individual completely wrapped in bandages from head to waist, with brown pants. Each being stood hunched forward like a zombie and each of them stood to the height of an average tree.

Shirotsuchi was baffled. "W-What the hell are those?"

Tayuya, perched atop her favorite one, the individual warrior with the club, smirked in her adversary's direction as she wiped the gunk that had stuck to her shins and sandals. "These are my Doki. Each of them represents one of the three wise monkeys, and each of them was designed and hand crafted by me. It took ages and countless hours of work, but I was finally able to create the perfect brutes to harry my opponents around. And just so you're wondering, I fashioned them out of leather, lining, silicon, dirt and canvas. Play nice now." She jumped back to gain distance, and upon landing back on ground level, began playing her flute once again.

Responding to the music, the three massive beings jerked into life before charging towards the still shocked Shirotsuchi.

Shaking herself out of her bewildered state when she saw the three enormous shadows fall upon her, the girl with the wide hat gave a determined grin and started flipping through hand seals once more. In spite of her first plan failing, she still had one last card to play that she could definitely use to turn the tide of this fight around.

These things were big and looked like they could deal a lot of punishment if they got too close. There was no way she was letting any one of them touch her.

"Don't underestimate an Iwagakure kunoichi. She can be just as deadly as a Konohagakure kunoichi!" Ending with her arms crossed, the flame in the lantern on top of her head blasted into life, causing smoke to escape the vents before the smirking girl threw her hands in front of her, just as the forward Doki with the massive club raised it to flatten her into the ground. "A party like this deserves a cake! Yoton: Tokudai Kyandoru Sābisu Setto!" (Lava Release: Giant Candle Service Set)

As soon as she began whipping her limbs out in front of her, massive white jets of wax spewed out of her arms and came straight up out of the ground. The massive wave struck the three charging ogres and began enveloping them in immense amounts of the hot substance. Dispelling seconds later when the sheer amounts of lava-like ooze became too much for them, the wave then began to grow and pile up on itself.

Lowering her flute at seeing her Doki easily dispatched, Tayuya's eyes panned upwards as the huge waves of white gunk grew and grew, blasting straight into the sky in a twisting and contorting mass of thick, bubbling fluid. A minute or so later and watching the extraordinary sight, the red haired kunoichi soon found her attention fixed on an enormous cake made out of white candle material jutting into the sky. The way it was layered and morphed made it look like a wedding cake, not something too glamorous but clearly bigger than anything a local baker could cook up for you.

It was about as high as the stadium was tall, easily blotting out some of the sky from where Tayuya was standing and where it was positioned on the hill. The sight of the magnificent structure had jaws drop all around, leaving everybody wondering how the hell the Iwagakure kunoichi was able to form such a piece.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Naruto too was gawking at the thing he saw Tayuya's opponent conjure seemingly out of nowhere. "Holy shit. That thing's bigger than a castle!"

"That must have taken an enormous amount of chakra to form," Samui said firmly, her stunned gaze narrowing into a scowl as she surveyed the pure white tower. "It's too flashy and too noticeable. However, it was an effective defense. She was able to alter the structure of the battlefield to her liking while, at the same time, eliminate a clear threat to her from the area."

Shikamaru gritted his teeth as he looked toward the top of the mountain of wax, where he could see candles burning at the top. "She knows how to manipulate her abilities well. If she's as good at molding wax as she is producing it, then she can use that entire structure to battle without having to waste anymore energy creating more."

Everyone continued to look on observantly, watching as the one who produced the enormous cake leapt up the various layers of the structure before arriving at its peak.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Coming to the edge at the summit of her handmade building, Shirotsuchi looked down towards the ground where she saw her opponent glaring up at her. Breathing out an exhausted sigh, with her eyes and face showing the strain of her defensive counter, the girl with the lantern on top of her head then formed a single hand seal and began to concentrate. As tired as she was, she was not going to give in just yet. She still had a lot of fight left in her.

"You're in my range," Shirotsuchi declared, gritting her teeth in effort. "Yoton: Tajuu Doru Chokoku Mori!" (Lave Release: Multiple Wax Sculpture Harpoons) The moment she said that and cast her hand forward, spears began shooting out of her enormous tower like rounds from an artillery battery, which she sent flying straight at the red head.

Alarmed, Tayuya began flipping away to avoid the first shots before beginning to retreat through long, reverse leaps. Jumping backwards along a zigzag path, she avoided the rain of deadly weapons that skewered the ground and created a field of standing poles. When she came upon the rough ground of a barren area, she jumped straight up to the top of the nearest rocky tor. Taking up position there, she then looked to see the barrage of spears had stopped and that she was out of range.

Smirking, the musician formed another hand seal before driving her palm into the ground. "I was going to save this for the next round… but you haven't given me much choice. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Just like before, a blast of white smoke filled the air around her, the cloud spreading and blocking her from view of her opponent, who watched on with concern and anticipation as to what she had next in store for her.

When the veil eventually lifted, the kunoichi on top of the massive wax castle blinked in surprise when she saw another figure standing in front of her opponent. Straight and firm, and clad in fine, red samurai armor with gold trim, a superb crest atop its helmet with a protective face mask, the warrior stood before the crowd at attention, surprising all those watching. His main weapons; a long katana and a short blade sheathed at his side.

Tayuya smirked from behind her new summon and brought her flute up to her lips. "Say hello to Hayabusa." She then pressed the instrument to her lips and began to play, her melody filling the air and jumpstarting the armored soldier into life.

Its protective wear clicking and clanking, the samurai dropped into a wide stand and gripped the handle of its sword. As soon as it had set itself into its stance, its once lifeless eyes blazed into life with a flash of hold, before it then leapt forward off of the rocky outcrop and began dashing towards the massive candle cake at a ridiculous speed.

Hearing the flute music start to play and seeing the samurai start charging towards her, Shirotsuchi smirked and threw her hands forward, beginning to wave them at the approaching enemy. "Like hell I'll let that thing get close to me." Spears and waves of hot wax then began shooting off of the cake tower, hooking and shooting through the air toward the warrior approaching her from in front. However, as fast as the lances and shots traveled, the figure merely jumped out of their way, moving left and right and avoiding the onslaught of death.

It was faster and much more nimble then both the Doki and Tayuya, which had Shirotsuchi react in alarm before she dropped to her knee and slammed both hands down into her structure. "Yoton: Ro Nadare!" (Lava Release: Wax Avalanche) The moment she said that, the entire front section of her cake facing the enemy began to melt at an alarming rate, charging towards the approaching mannequin at high speed in the form of a wall of boiling wax.

As if spotting the approaching danger, the armored samurai darted out of the way, going around the wave and then beginning to leap up the layers of cake that were still intact. Climbing higher and higher from the other side, while at the same time avoiding the still melting half, the fast-moving and nimble Hayabusa headed towards the Genin at the top, who glared the charging puppet down.

When it was just seconds away from reaching her, Shirotsuchi formed a single hand seal and her form sunk into the cake. The girl's entire body disappeared into the wax tower in an instant, just as the samurai reached the top and slashed out at her with a quick draw of its sword. Its blade missed her head by a hair.

Tayuya smirked as she glared up towards the top, her flute playing stopping for but a moment. "You think you can hide?"

Unbeknownst to her opponent, while Hayabusa had been charging up the giant wax cake, it had left a string of explosive tags along its path with every step it had taken. They had been slapped onto the structure all around its sides, right up to the top level. As soon as the mannequin sheathed its sword back into its scabbard from its lunge, the tags ignited and detonated one after the other, following a spiral pattern and blasting the entire battle encampment to pieces. The force of the continuous explosions shook the stadium to its core and had the crowd scream at the sheer destructive power behind the display.

When the explosions died, it revealed craters punched all around the cracked and splintered cake fortress. As soon as the reverberations dissipated, the enormous, beaten castle began to crumble and, within seconds, caved in on itself. The huge tower collapsed to the ground in spectacular, almost dominoes like fashion, to form an enormous pile of white rubble clogging the air with dust and debris, and causing another shockwave to ring out when all of its weight was returned to the earth. Once the ground stopped shaking from the second disaster, the once impressive wax structure now lay upon the fields in a useless heap.

With the smoke clearing and sight to the competitor started to return, a figure dropped down from the sky in the form of Tayuya's samurai companion. The puppet landed with a light tap and a clatter of armor, crouched onto one knee with its hand gripping its prized weapon tightly. Head bowed almost respectfully, it rose to its feet and faced its master, who smirked at the mannequin victoriously. Playing her flute for several seconds longer, allowing her partner to return to a normal standing position, she then gingerly lowered her instrument.

"That takes care of that."

However, just as she was about to take a step forward, the ground at both her feet and the samurai's feet unexpectedly burst upwards. From the debris that came with the blasts, white tendrils of wax shot out and began wrapping around both figures. While Hayabusa didn't react at all due to it only being a puppet as it was bound and incased, Tayuya struggled furiously and attempted to thrash against the white arms that began to envelope her. Soon enough, her body was held down and nearly completely overcome by wax, leaving her fighting fruitlessly against the now hardening substance.

"D-Damn it! What the fuck?!"

"You really gave me a hard time there. No one has ever made me fight this hard before, except for my teammates," Shirotsuchi's voice spoke up as her body suddenly rose up from the ground directly behind the trapped redhead. Due to her current situation, the musician was unable to look behind her to see the burnt, battered, and exhausted form of her opponent smirking at her. The candle on her head was still burning brightly and her eyes shone with intensity, showing her confidence in her victory, as well as her fatigue. "You're really strong. I never knew a kunoichi like you would have such assets and partners to fight with. They're dangerous, your puppets."

Tayuya, gritting her teeth, then gave a cocky grin and glanced over her shoulder… or at least tried to. "They're just one of the many ways I can fight. Against opponents like you, my mannequins are an ideal choice."

"Well… unfortunately… since you can no longer play your flute, you won't be able to call your Hayabusa buddy to help you. Not that you would be able to even if you could, since I now have both of you trapped in my wax," Shirotsuchi responded, raising her burnt hand towards the musician and preparing to clench it into a fist. "Now that you're cornered, I'll give you this one chance… give up."

At first expecting her opponent to surrender due to her dire situation, the Iwagakure kunoichi was baffled when she suddenly heard her start to laugh. After a few seconds of listening to her chortling rise in volume, Tayuya then gave a wider smirk, attempting to crane back to see her opponent, but was unable to.

"It seems like you've forgotten all of the other ways I can fight."

Shirotsuchi's eyes then widened considerably and her shoulders jerked back, her form staring straight ahead of her when she felt someone standing in her shadow.

Gulping, the kunoichi glanced behind her, where she saw another Tayuya standing and smirking across at her. Baffled, the Iwa girl looked her up and down before turning around, where she saw that the wax cocoon she had incased her foe in and the samurai were still standing there. Confused, she looked between both the new Tayuya that had appeared out of thin air and the one she had trapped, before glaring at the newcomer.

"W-What's going on? What's happening?"

Tayuya chuckled and nodded towards her, "Good effort. But I'm afraid, what you've been fighting this entire time was just an illusion."

Shirotsuchi blinked in confusion, "What? B-But…"

"You fell for my latest symphony," Tayuya continued, holding up her flute and flashing her silver battle instrument. "Mateki: Maboroshi Shiro Senko. (Demonic Flute: Phantom White Flash) I had you trapped the moment I summoned my Doki. The real me was standing here this entire time, while the real Hayabusa defeated you over a minute ago."

Blinking in shock, Shirotsuchi turned around, where she saw that the wax she'd cocooned her two targets were gone. All she could see now was the back of the armored samurai sheathing its sword into its scabbard. Before the Iwagakure kunoichi could say a single word, the click of Hayabusa's weapon echoed throughout the stadium, a split second before the candle girl's body stiffened and her face shot skywards.

A streak of white light flashed through her midsection and a blast of raw, blue chakra directly from the circulatory system shot out of her gaping mouth, moments before her eyes rolled into the back of her head and she collapsed to her knees. After which, she then dropped onto her front, her hat falling off of her head and the lantern's flickering candlelight going out.

Eventually the genjutsu shrouding Tayuya and her partner dissipated completely, revealing her standing perfectly in a less damaged area without a single scratch on her. Once her opponent was down, the redhead looked down at her smugly, while the proctor dropped down beside the Iwagakure kunoichi to check on her condition.

Assured she was alive, Mizore waved her hand in the air, "Winner of Match 2 by knockout: Tayuya of Konohagakure!"

At that, the previously stunned crowd cheered and applauded, sending their congratulations to the victor in a storm. The red haired winner smiled towards the people and waved, dismissing her summon before beginning to walk back to her balcony. Of course, as she walked along she threw both hands in the air and accepted the audience's praise with an enthusiastic grin and a boisterous laugh.

This was perhaps one of the cleanest wins she'd ever had, and against a strong opponent to boot. It was a damn good day to be Tayuya.

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

All of the Jonin sitting in the front row were applauding the winner, especially Genma and Anko, who couldn't help but grin and cheer respectively at their student's success. The only people who weren't exactly cheering or applauding as heartily as the rest of the stand were Kiba, Shino and Hinata, who were a little bit thrown by what they had just seen.

"What just happened down there? I don't get it," Kiba said, earning a bark from Akamaru. All three of them saw the redhead summoning three enormous Doki and then back away while playing her flute. When the massive ogres went to stomp out their target, the Iwagakure Genin produced a massive wax castle, drowned them, and then proceeded to use moves that didn't get anywhere near her target. It looked like she had been fighting an invisible foe the entire time, right up to when the real Hayabusa destroyed the castle and she came up out of the ground with her back turned to her opponent, who used that opportunity to slice her down with her partner.

It was like they were watching a one-sided sparring match with only one participant.

Kurenai smiled down at her students when she proceeded to put their confusions to rest. "Tayuya produced an illusion that made her real-self invisible while at the same time made her opponent believe that she was physically fighting somebody else. Because Shirotsuchi thought she was actually fighting her opponent, she wasted all of her chakra on needless moves while Tayuya didn't waste any whatsoever. All she did was create the illusion of a battle."

"But… how did she do that?" Hinata asked. "How did she manage to trap her opponent in a genjutsu when she was using her flute to control her puppets?" Not to mention Shirotsuchi had been aware of her intentions to trap her in a genjutsu and had been actively avoiding her techniques from the start. So how…

Shino, figuring it out, raised an eyebrow in interest, "That's the beauty of it." When everyone looked at him, he lowered his head and adjusted his glasses. "Tayuya mixed in genjutsu strains with the same flute music she was using to control those three Doki. While she was getting them to move forward, she trapped her foe in an illusion that got her to waste time and energy chasing ghosts. An excellent and deadly strategy. Why you ask? Because while her opponent is lying unconscious on the ground, Tayuya is still standing."

Kiba scrunched his face in confusion, "That seems very complicated…"

"Only a talented kunoichi like her could ever pull something like that off," Kurenai spoke up, drawing her students' attention to her so that they could see her approving gaze. "If she keeps that up, her genjutsu capabilities might even surpass mine some day."

"Give it a few more months and I can make that happen, Nai-chan," Anko spoke up while flashing a grin across at the raven haired woman.

From the look in her eyes, it was really hard to say anything against the purple haired ANBU member or doubt she could actually pull something like that off. After all, she was renowned for her teaching methods and their results. She was a skilled tutor.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Samui blinked as she watched Tayuya wander back up to the balcony, "That technique she used at the end… what was that?"

"That was no ordinary sword," Sasuke said, his Sharingan deactivating from watching the entire scene play out. "That samurai puppet was using a weapon coated in strange chakra that went straight through its target." It was fast too. Since the mannequin wasn't a real person, it was able to move faster than a normal shinobi could.

Hearing everyone try to break down the mechanics of the weapon brought a smile to Naruto's face as he lent against the railing. "That's Hayabusa's main attack. It's armed with a sword that is coated in refined mental energy, the same chakra that she uses for her Doki. Originally that chakra was designed to eat away at another person's, but she sharpened it and transformed it into a sword that can attack the chakra circulatory system directly." A bright grin spread across his lips. "If you get hit by that blade through the mid-section, it cuts through your system and stops it dead. The shock is enough to knock you out."

"I can assume you wouldn't be able to mold any chakra for a while afterwards either," Samui followed up, seeing the blonde nod and convey an intrigued look. "That is quite a fearsome attack."

"Yeah. She spent ages working on it. That sword took her the longest because she needed a tough weapon that could function how she wanted it to," Naruto replied, looking over the side to see the redhead crouch down and jump straight back up onto their balcony.

When the musician perched herself on the safety rail, she grinned at the faces there to welcome her before thumbing over her shoulder, "You're up, shithead." She raised the same hand for a high five. "Tag in." It was a gesture the jinchuriki was happy to return, slapping the girl's hand before leaping over the side while she hopped into the box, where she watched Temari across the way bring her fan about before leaping over the side as well. Apparently, she was just as psyched up about this fight as her opponent, as she'd left with a smug grin on her face.

Sasuke stared after the fan-girl while she followed Naruto out to the center. "She might be a bit of a problem."

"Nah, it's cool," Tayuya grunted as she dusted her front down and leant forward against the railing. "Shithead's got this one in the bag."

"That Sunagakure kunoichi is clearly a long-range specialist… not someone a close-range fighter like Naruto will be able to get close to so easily," Samui stated, remembering the battle in the previous rounds yesterday, which saw Sakura quickly being dispatched by said girl with barely any effort on the latter's part, sans that little runaround with her opponent's strategy play. "However, the disadvantage falls both ways. If she lets her opponent anywhere near her, she's in for one hell of a fight…"

Lee nodded firmly and held up a clenched fist, "That is exactly what I would be looking for; an opening at my range where our fists can clash in explosive combat!"

Tayuya smirked confidently while everybody else watched with interest, "His opponent is also incredibly smart… probably in the same boat as the sloth." Eyes briefly cutting over to the Nara, who waved uncaringly at the nickname everyone had decided to give him, the redhead then turned back to the center. "To keep her opponent away on open ground, seeing as that the start is a direct engagement, she'll want to crack out her best move to get him away from her if he's planning on swinging around."

Everyone held unanimous agreement over that and watched with baited breath as Mizore began steps into starting the battle.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

The proctor from Sunagakure looked cautiously between the two opposing forces. Being the current mediator for this match, she had to ensure that the correct and proper actions in accordance with the tournament's guild lines were followed by the competitors so that a good, clean fight could be had.

Bringing a hand up, she held it between them, "I don't need to explain the rules again to you two, do I?"

Naruto shook his head, a wide grin forming on his face as he looked the confidently standing Temari from toe to head. He bowed towards the girl respectively, earning a cocked eyebrow from his opponent. "Good luck to you, Temari-chan."

The golden haired beauty smiled and nodded back in acknowledgement, "Thanks."

Still beaming, the boy straightened up and threw the fan user his most charming smile, "By the way, I really enjoyed our bath together the other night. I know it was your first time and that you weren't expecting it to go for as long as it did, but I would like to apologize for any discomfort I may have caused you."

That comment got both the Genin and the proctor's eyes to widen and their faces to turn red. Anyone else well within earshot of the group also reeled back in shock at the various implications of that statement. Eventually, after turning a bright shade of scarlet, Temari gritted her teeth, gripped the base of her fan tightly and slammed the tip of it into the ground in front of her, splitting the hard earth with a loud clang.

"You REALLY don't know how to think before you speak, do you?" the sand kunoichi growled through a glowing face.

Naruto chuckled good-naturedly and rubbed the back of his head. "What? I didn't say anything wrong, did I? I mean, didn't you enjoy how hot and relaxed the experience made you? I know I enjoyed it."

Grabbing her nose to stop the blood flow, Mizore looked between the two before taking note of the increasing killing intent and embarrassment coming from the now tomato-faced Temari, whose fingers dug grooves into her metal fan before she brought it up and swung it behind her. "I'm going to cut you to pieces, you pervert! START THE MATCH!" The teen's scream had the proctor jump away in surprise and raise her hand above her.

"Match 3 between Naruto of Konohagakure and Temari of Sunagakure: BEGIN!" she shouted quickly.

The moment the whistle was blown and the proctor leapt away for safety, Temari jumped backwards and continued to do so until she'd reached a comfortable distance. This immediately had Naruto go on the defensive.

"I'll get him to my range and attack," the kunoichi thought as she skidded to a stop, kicking up dust. "He's dangerous at close-range. I'll rob him of that advantage and take him down with one move. That means I'll be using my trump card right from the get-go!" Upon stopping, Temari lifted her right hand and thumb, and bit into the tip of it.

Seeing what his opponent intended to do, Naruto smirked and back flipped away as fast as he could, stopping just as Temari lowered her thumb from her lips and brought his own hand up to bite into. His actions surprised the kunoichi and the audience, as everybody had been under the initial impression that the blonde haired jinchuriki would pursue his foe to try and engage her in close combat as opposed to long-distance fighting. However, just how a lot of people in the audience from the Konoha contingent knew Naruto for his wild and uncouth fighting style, there were many others who knew him for his unpredictability, which he could turn on and off like the switch on a light.

Iruka, who was up in his seat, smiled pleasantly at the change in approach his student had decided to take and nodded approvingly. "Looks like you've acquired some new skills, Naruto. Good on you."

The boy in orange removed his thumb from his teeth and flicked it out. "Shinobi draw blood to fulfill a contract. If you intend to bring out a heavy hitter in the first minute then I should respond in kind. Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" He slammed his hand into the ground, filling the air with clouds as a blast of white smoke exploded from the point of contact.

Cracking her fan open, Temari looked on nervously, wondering what kind of creature her opponent had decided to summon to the field before her eyes widened in surprise when she saw the wings of a massive bird part the clouds with a powerful gust of wind and reveal itself to be an enormous swallow standing in front of the jinchuriki. The massive black bird with the samurai crest above its eyes and metal blades attached to its talons let out a loud shriek before crouching low in front of the audience all-cool-style, earning around of gasps and cheers.

Naruto grinned from ear to ear at seeing his partner emerge from the smog. "You really know how to make an entrance, Saito!"

"The grandest of all the birds in the sky needs to make a flashy entrance, kid," the enormous swallow replied with a wide grin spreading across its beak. "Since you've summoned me right now, I assume you're getting your posterior handed to you on a silver platter. Do you wish for me to make a counter to the supposed main course?"

"Not just yet, but I do need your help right now," Naruto said brightly.

Gritting her teeth and backing away when she saw both sets of eyes of her opponents fall upon her, Temari quickly dabbed her blood onto each of her fingers and pulled her hand back. "I still haven't worked out the correct method of execution for this jutsu, but I can still use the basic move set." Clearly, even with her opponent's battle companion in sight, she was not deterred in the least. She still intended to take him head on. "Don't take me lightly! I'll cut both of you down with this! Kuchiyose no Jutsu!" Slapping her hand on the floor, a puff of smoke also exploded around her, before the cloud was quickly cut away by a small creature wielding a large weapon.

Both Naruto and Saito looked up in surprise when they saw a white weasel with a patch over its eye and wearing a black vest with red trim appear. The creature was hovering above the ground with a golden sickle and chain in its hand, which it whipped around it like a skilled martial-artist before holding it behind it with a hard glare fixing on its targets. The fan-wielder behind it smirked as she rose back to her feet with her main weapon held to the side.

"What do you request of me, Mistress Temari?"

The kunoichi chuckled, "Kamatari. I have targets for you. Think you can handle them?"

The weasel grinned as well as the blade of its oversized weapon flashed. "By your will, I shall cut down all enemies who stand before you." Its tail whipped behind it while its chain jangled in the air.

The previously surprised king swallow fanned his wings and stepped back. "I see. A sickle weasel? So you're facing off against a wind user?"

"Yep."

Laughing, Saito dug his talons into the ground. "You've summoned me to duel with an interesting opponent, kid. It will certainly give me great pleasure to defeat a high-class flier like this one on the field of battle." The bird glanced behind him briefly at his partner and nodded. "You handle his partner and I'll take him. You may want to get back and hang on to something."

Naruto threw his fist forward while his eyes flashed with confidence. "Don't worry about me. TAKE HIM!"

Throwing her own weapon back, Temari took it into a two-handed grip and, clenching her teeth tightly, drew her fan across with a gale of wind as strong as a hurricane exploding forth from it. "GO! KIRIKIRI MAI!" (Quick Beheading Dance) The tempest she summoned swept up her partner and sent the weasel blasting towards her targets at high speed. The summon let out a battle cry as he charged the giant swallow with the wind, spiraling at the Konoha duo with invisible agility and his blade slashing through the air.

Kicking off the ground, Saito blasted forward in kind with incredible agility, a loud crack of the sound barrier being broken echoing throughout the stadium. The avian warrior shot towards the approaching mass of wind at bullet speed, the giant bird letting out a roar as the talons on his feet bared open and his blades flashed in the wind. In the blink of an eye, he too disappeared into a different zone of speed altogether, both the weasel and swallow literally taking on the form of wind.

"Futon: Tsubasa Bofu!" (Wind Release: Wing Storm) Saito's cry filled the air before the two forces of nature collided in the center.

It happened instantaneously. Saito's talon blades clashed with the sickle blade of Kamatari, before the two started spiraling around each other in a high-speed engagement, which from Temari and Naruto's point of view looked like a miniature tornado had suddenly formed right in the center of the arena. From that point onwards, everything erupted into chaos.

A shockwave rang out as the tornado grew in size. Within seconds, the once small twister grew so large that its top disappeared into the clouds of the atmosphere high above and caused hurricane winds to fill up the entire arena. The force of a typhoon took hold of the stadium, sending gales, dust, debris, leaves and almost everything the forces could pick up in all directions. The audience literally had to hold onto their seats as the winds grew so powerful that those in the front row were nearly picked up and sent into the towering vortex undulating in the air in front of them. The screams of the civilians bracing themselves was drowned out by the storm of the two attacks engaging each other in a fight for dominance in a completely different space.

Those in the competitor's balcony also had to hold on to keep from being sucked up.

"W-What power!" Samui thought through clenched teeth. "So these are what wind users are capable of?" Though they were both summons, it was still incredible.

"Damn, shithead! Isn't this a little bit much? Holy shit?" Tayuya thought as she tried to keep one eye on the battle in front of her, but was unable to as she was holding onto the railing for dear life, alongside Lee, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Samui.

Tsubaki was also forced to hold on, looking on in shock as the winds ripped apart the arena.

Both Temari and Naruto, who were closest to the action, held their ground as best they could too. Their arms had been thrown up and were attempting to block out the wild gales threatening to hurl them into the atmosphere. Unfortunately though, after several minutes of trying to keep themselves planted, they were suddenly hit by the tornado's edge expanding as another shockwave blasted outwards. The flash of blinding light from the wind smashed into the two Genin with the force of a tsunami, both of them crying out when they were knocked off their feet and sent tumbling through the air away from the center of the arena. Temari was only lucky she was in the most open area, as she bounced across the ground before rolling to a stop at the bottom of a hill, underneath the storm of wind.

Naruto however, was sent straight into a forest, where he crashed through the woods and disappeared inside the thick undergrowth.

Several minutes passed and the storm continued; ripping any nearby trees straight out of the ground by their roots and tearing the field asunder. Eventually, after reducing the land to a shredded plate of grass and scattered natural life, the tornado died down. The winds lifted from the area and the air slowly cleared, leaving a ruined battleground and a ruffled audience. The crowds gawked in shock at the sheer power that had been displayed in the center of the ring, which had left the two opponents… well…

Contact with the cameras would be established shortly.

Pulling herself back up to the top of the hill, a disgruntled Temari glared out across the valley to see that both summons were gone, that all of the grass and earth looked like a plow and tractor had just gone rogue all over it, and that her opponent was no longer in sigh. Clicking her tongue, she jumped up with her fan in hand and ran out to the middle.

"Where did he go?" the kunoichi thought with a serious look on her face. She had been cut up from flying debris and bruised badly from her landing, which had left her in an incredibly unkempt state. Her opponent wouldn't have suffered as much damage either, seeing as that their techniques were evenly matched. However, in the slim chance that hers won out… "He couldn't have gone far."

Checking the ground and surveying the field, she then noticed a small section of forest not affected by the winds with snapped branches. It looked like a huge chunk of something or a body had flown into it, which quickly lured the girl over. Searching the place, she then saw the area where said body could've landed and, to her surprise, she saw the telltale traces of blood on the floor.

A lot of it.

Immediately catching onto the hint that her foe was probably injured, Temari turned her attention to the region and began searching for a trail. If he was really hurt and staggered from the attack, then there was a good chance he would have left traces of his presence and his route of travel in the area.

Heart racing, she began hunting him down. She wasn't going to give him a chance to just slip away and possibly recover enough to mount a counter attack. If she was going to defeat him, she was going to defeat him right here and now. With her fan folded up and held firm, she started searching the woods and floor for any clues leading her back to her target.

She was quick to find it; a line of blood following a zigzag path through the woods along the grass. There were even signs of it pressed up against trees, indicating that the blonde was probably staggering from a grievous wound. Seizing the chance, Temari chased up the route, which eventually led her out of the heavily covered patch and into a clearing. Looking around the grassy and rocky field, she walked out further with her senses trained and wide open, searching for any signs of danger. Moving around a granite outcrop, she then happened upon the other side, where she found her opponent.

However, immediately upon setting her sights on him, she saw that he'd gotten off of that crossing of wind attacks a lot worse than she did. The sight had her look on in surprise.

OOO

(Stadium – Middle Section)

Hanabi, seeing Naruto's state on the big screen, stood up from her seat with eyes filled with dread. "N-Naruto-onisan!" Her expression turning pale and into one of horror, she activated her Byakugan to get a better look at him. Zooming in one his form with her doujutsu, her expression became even more concerned when she saw his chakra system was out of control and that his heart rate was irregular. "N-No…"

Hiashi, who had also watched the whole thing unfold, took on a more serious look as he saw the boy's condition. "He got hit… badly…"

Not too far from them in a different part of the stands, Iruka also sat, looking terrified at the big screen at what had happened to his student. "It's over… there's… just no way he can get up after that."

Everyone, Kage, Jonin and rivals included, could only look on at what they could see up against the rocky wall the blonde haired jinchuriki was lying against.

OOO

(Konohagakure – Chunin Exam Stadium)

"Damn it, brat. How could you be so careless?" Jiraiya thought desperately as he glared towards the screen. After seeing the two wind users clash with their respective summons, he had been able to see the sheer scale of the forces colliding. They'd ripped up the entire battlefield, sent gales across both the stands and themselves. There was no way anyone could have gotten off of that without a scratch.

Isaribi, who was holding her hands up to her mouth in terror, watched silently while Kin's hands fisted her trousers and her teeth clenched hard.

"He… lost…"

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

There, lying against the base of a rocky outcrop, the jinchuriki could be seen sitting in a pool of blood, his right hand over his side and more of it seeping down his head from a bad wound. His clothes were practically soaked as his breathing came out raggedly and his right eye was clenched shut from the amount that was spilling from whatever wound he'd sustained up top. From the way he was shaking and the way he was struggling to maintain consciousness too, it was clear that he was in really bad shape.

Upon seeing her foe and the state he was in, Temari stepped completely into view and stopped in plain sight of him. Her expression fell from shock to serious as she took him in. "You don't look so good."

Panting, the grievously wounded Naruto with the massive gash in his side and blood seeping down his head gave the girl a charming grin. "Funny… because you look even more beautiful with your hair down."

Blinking, the teen glanced up and grabbed her hair, where she then realized her ties had come loose and her hair was hanging freely. Smirking, she then glared back across at him confidently. "Your summon was impressive… but it looks like their fight ended in a stalemate. Ours however…" Her expression dropped from its cool one to a desponded one. "It looks like I came out on top and you got fucked up."

Naruto chuckled painfully before coughing, blood seeping out from his mouth, "I'll admit, I don't really look so good right now. B-But I can still fight," he stated, reaching behind him and pulling up a kunai. His blade flashed in the air while he rested it across his lap, showing his intentions to keep on going despite his wounds. "Come on. You've got me cornered… why don't you finish it?" If he was going to go out, he was going to go out swinging.

For his bravery, Temari actually cracked a small smile. But looking him over again, hearing him cough and choke up more blood, she knew better than to continue a fight that would, from this point onwards, be completely one-sided. With a sigh she strolled forward, holding her fan relaxed at her side while she covered the small amount of space between her and the boy in orange, whose outfit was steadily becoming redder.

"You're in no fit state to continue. If I was to hit you with an attack from this distance, it would kill you instantly," Temari informed with a shrug. "To be honest, I'd rather not fight someone who can't even defend themselves anymore. There's no fun in that." She continued walking, seeing the boy's face take on a look of disappointment and upset, which she shook her head at. "I'm sorry, but I'm calling this fight. We're done." She began to raise her hand to call the medic.

Naruto, nodding his head in understanding, raised his kunai arm and held it out. "Yeah… I guess you're right…" It was then his expression switched from one of pain and sickly, to one of disgusting mischief, which stopped Temari dead in her tracks when he looked back up at her with the look of the Devil himself. "We ARE done." He then stabbed the knife into the ground.

The moment he did so, the rope that had been buried under the knife snapped and, in the blink of an eye, a net made of rope burst up out of the ground Temari was standing on and wrapped her up faster than she could blink. Letting out a shriek of terror when her fan was knocked out of her hand, the kunoichi from Sunagakure was then suddenly thrown off her feet and dragged along the earth, the net pulling her across the bumpy surface before flinging her like a trebuchet over the tree the trap had been rigged to. It then flung her back down to ground level, where she was left dangling two feet above the floor like a pendulum, her legs and arms tangled up in the webbing.

She was trapped.

"W-WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?!" the stunned teenager shouted, looking around wildly from her absolutely caught position.

The proctors, Jonin, Kage and crowd looked on in both bewilderment and silence, having not expected that to happen.

Hearing a boisterous laugh, Temari looked towards her 'defeated opponent' disappear in a puff of smoke. Moments later, the real Naruto strolled out from the forest with his hands in his pockets and shoulders rolling in a manner that showed he'd been stretching. From his state of dress, not only had he obviously been roughed up a little from being tossed about on the winds, but he'd also crashed through several trees. The actual blood dripping down his head and the bruises he sported showed he hadn't gotten off Scot-free, but was still standing regardless. After showing off his disheveled state, the boy held his arms out in a 'what up' gesture.

"Oh it's so simple, isn't it?" the jinchuriki exclaimed with confidence before pointing across at the girl, "I did that to Iruka-sensei on four separate occasions when he came chasing after me through the forests around my village, and trapped him in the same net system. Man, I love my teachers." He slipped his hands into his pockets as he sauntered forward.

"Y-You were over there this whole time?" Temari shouted at the boy, giving him a once over to see the bloody mess on the ground where the shadow clone had been. "What the hell? What the hell is that?"

Naruto grinned slyly, "Thickened syrup and tomato juice." He then pulled out from behind his back a two-liter bottle of the last stuff and shook it. "Want some? I've got enough for two."

"But… I… y-you got hit by the rebound of the wind attacks like I did! You flew right through the trees! I saw the branches…"

"And assumed I got hurt? Yeah. Any decent shinobi worth their skills tracking somebody would think the same thing. But unlike most ninja who grow up in comfy homes and beds, I grew up in a shitty apartment and with animals in the woods, and hunt some of them for dinner on a regular basis. I got thrown through the branches and cushioned my landing in the shrubs," Naruto recited while sauntering towards his foe. "You nearly got me there. I would've been knocked out if I hadn't controlled my flight, but thankfully I'm good at navigating in freefall. I knew you would come after me and out into the open, which was why I rigged the whole system before the tornado died down. All I had to do was give you something to follow afterwards."

Stunned, Temari gritted her teeth. "Did you… plan this from the very start?"

"Yep!" Naruto nodded with a smirk, wiping away the blood dripping down his face with the back of his sleeve, "A wise shinobi will analyze the battlefield carefully and use the surroundings to their advantage. I knew chasing after you would've just been a reckless waste of energy considering you're a long-range specialist, so I just got you to come to me." Still grinning, he then turned toward the sky and spoke up a little louder. "How was that, Saito?"

"I can see why Swift chose you as the first contractor for our scroll," the voice of the massive swallow spoke up when he finally fluttered back down to the ground from high altitude, where he had concealed himself earlier within the clouds. Seeing the enormous bird land gracefully, Temari also noticed that he had his talons wrapped around Kamatari, who was now lying unconscious under him. This had the girl tense in disbelief, which the bird and her opponent quickly noticed. "A second-class wind summon can't defeat a fully-fledged one. However, don't take this loss badly. You and your partner make a superb team… we were just better."

With that said, the sickle-weasel dispelled in a puff of smoke, leaving Naruto to congratulate his partner by petting him on the shoulder.

"Thanks dude. You did great."

Ruffling his feathers, Saito gave a curt nod. "I expect to share a drink with you after this, in order to commemorate our first successful battle together."

"I'll be looking forward to it, dattebayo," Naruto replied brightly, giving him one last nod of thanks before the giant bird also disappeared in a cloud. Once the fumes cleared, the jinchuriki glanced back at his opponent with a bright expression on his face. "Looks like I win."

Scowling, Temari tried reaching for her pouch, "I can still get out of this!"

Naruto quickly raised a hand, "You… wouldn't want to do that." He then used his finger to point down at the ground. Puzzled, the girl looked where he was directing her gaze, only for her expression to become alarmed when she spotted a cluster of explosive tags laid down all around her. The jinchuriki smirked as she reevaluated her situation. "Normally I wouldn't lay traps with the potential to kill my targets. However, in this case, I knew I was going to need some extra leverage to convince you to surrender. If you somehow managed to get out before they went off you deserve a round of applause, but I doubt you would be able to reach for a blade in your position in the time it would take for me to kill you myself."

Her brain running her situation over and over again, and upon hearing the boy speak, Temari clenched her fists angrily at being fooled by such a character. However, after looking up at him and seeing his cool and dashing smirk thrown across at her, she realized she'd been had. And had she had been.

This boy, despite his fool's act and appearance… he was brilliant.

He was able to create a strategy to beat her even before he was set to fight her, and lured her like a rat to a trap. There was just no other way to describe it. It was amazing.

The thought had her sprout an unfortunate smile before she relaxed where she was dangling like bait over a shark tank. "You win… I give up."

With that said, Naruto waved over to the nearby proctor. Tenga acknowledged the words he'd heard before turning to the audience, waving to the crowds.

"The winner of Match 3 by way of verbal surrender: Naruto of Konohagakure!"

There was a moment of silence, as the crowd was still trying to process what had happened. However, once it was announced that the winner was the blonde from the hidden leaf, the crowd erupted into applause and brought sound and life back to the arena. The jinchuriki accepted their congratulations with a wave of delight, before he wandered over to Temari and removed the tags from the ground. After which, he then turned to cutting her down.

He began slicing through specific ropes one after the other, which confused the kunoichi.

"You have to cut them in a certain order, otherwise you'll activate the second and third traps, which are the bamboo spears that will skewer you or the catapult mechanism that will send you straight into the stadium wall and break your neck," the blonde whispered, looking into the stunned eyes of the golden haired kunoichi with a fond smile. "Every trap needs to have fail safes, which is why I told you to stop to save your life. Of course… even though I thought about every possibility, there's no way I would harm a beautiful thing like you. That would be madness for me."

Temari had to fight down a blush at his shameless and blatant flirting. Since she wasn't able to hit him, she merely just dangled there watching him as he carefully cut her down. Like a gentleman he caught her when she fell and deposited her on the ground, giving a stretch and finally vacating the area, leaving the kunoichi to watch him and collect her gear as she saw fit.

Under the cheers and applause of the crowd, Naruto marched to the competitor's balcony with his hands behind his head and a spring in his step.

OOO

(Stadium – Kage Section)

"Heh. I didn't expect that," Onoki chuckled with a grin. "What a sly little bastard. I never knew Konoha was actually manufacturing little devils like that in their ranks. Are you developing a thing for smart-aleck shinobi with a talent for strategy, Hiruzen?" The short old man looked across the other overwhelmed faces of the village leaders towards the Third, who responded with a brief glance his way.

After getting a load of the Tsuchikage's face, the old Sarutobi looked towards the arena floor again with a pleased smile. "That boy is in a league of his own compared to his peers. He doesn't follow the conventional practices of a shinobi nor does he conform to regular combat etiquette. He's a sharp hunter, has a wild but deadly fighting style, has good senses in all fields, and best of all… has a compassionate heart and a brave spirit. Though some of his actions would be considered questionable compared to normal shinobi standards, there is no denying that he has outstanding results. I can't think of anyone else more deserving of a promotion than him."

The Fourth Raikage grunted with a smirk of his own as he leant against the arm-rest of his chair, "If he's so good, then why don't you promote him to Jonin? He has the skills to take down an extremely talented Hyuuga and he's deceptively intelligent despite his outlook. Turn all of that to teaching other shinobi to change the system and you'll have something truly impressive."

A giggle came from the Mizukage sitting quietly on her end, "Indeed."

Hiruzen's grin brightened, "I'll put that into consideration."

After all, Naruto had already displayed qualities worthy of a shinobi of higher rank. He was noble, was willing to protect his companions, showed terrific insight and an ability to teach, and he could lift people's hearts and minds when the world was collapsing all around them. That was worthy of both a shinobi and a Hokage in the making.

"If Minato and Kushina were alive today, I'm sure that they would be proud of him," Hiruzen thought, giving Naruto his own praise in the form of applause.

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

Asuma chuckled in amusement while rubbing the back of his head. "Wow… for a second there I thought he was actually going to lose."

"He really fooled everybody with that strategy. That was a damn good play," Anko laughed, having initially thought herself that the jinchuriki had copped it from that last exchange. And what an exchange it had been.

The tornado appearing in the middle of the arena and nearly destroying everything had been one hell of an introduction to a satisfying conclusion. The best bit about that is that Naruto had intended it to be the cover up for his actual move, which was to lure his opponent in afterwards when she thought she had won.

It must have come as a great shock to her when she found out she'd been played like a piece in a shogi game.

Kakashi eye smiled brightly as he also applauded his student, "I couldn't have expected anything more from him."

"Yosh! What a terrific battle! A splendid display of youth!" Gai cheered, pumping his fists all excited like, getting his fellow Jonin to lean away from his radiating fires of passion.

Genma eased him away with a few hand gestures, "Settle down, dude. No one wants anyone from the audience flying off the handle here."

Across the way, while Team Kurenai was singing their own praises, with Kiba and Hinata showing their extreme appreciation over the results, Sakura, Ino and all of the other defeated Genin in their row were passing on their congratulations too. Though Kankuro was appearing extremely disappointed that his older sibling had lost, everybody else was in high spirits.

OOO

(Konohagakure – Chunin Exams Stadium)

As all those from the hidden leaf who had watched the battle for themselves sang their appreciation and cheered boisterously at seeing another one of theirs making it through, Isaribi was beside herself.

The purple haired girl was hugging Kin tightly and almost crying tears of joy at seeing her Naruto pull through. While the raven haired girl from the same apartment was a bit peeved at being used as a recipient of such emotions, she too couldn't help but smile and cheer as she held up a fist to the pleased looking blonde on screen and beam at him.

"What an idiot… scaring the shit out of everyone like that." He seriously knew how to play it close to the chest.

Jiraiya, of course, had breathed a sigh of relief himself and was also clapping appreciatively at the battle. While it wasn't how he had expected it to pan out, the result was exactly what he had been holding out hope for.

"He's truly showing the tact of someone who really knows what they're doing out there."

In all honesty, the Sannin wasn't sure if he would have concocted a well-timed strategy in the middle of a fight as good as that one, had he been given the opportunity. That was some seriously smart stuff.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Jumping up to the top, Naruto grinned at the greetings of applause he received. Even Shikamaru, surprisingly enough, was throwing him his praise in the form of claps. Upon nodding to everyone in acknowledgement and thanking them, he jumped down to stand on his own two feet, only to have his back buried in the bar when Tayuya came to hug him.

Upon returning the hug, he felt the girl push away before punching him in the chest, albeit lightly. When he looked at her face, he saw her disapproving scowl. "Scare me like that again, even in a joking manner, and I will shave your eyebrows off."

Blinking, the jinchuriki gave a weak grin and nodded in understanding of that threat. "S-Sorry… Tayuya-chan." He then got a peck on the cheek that brought life back to his face and he hugged the girl tightly to him.

Grinning from ear to ear, the girl rubbed her face against his shoulder. "That was well played shithead. Good going."

As Naruto rocked the girl from side to side comfortingly, he then noticed Samui was standing close at hand and was looking at him seriously. Taking in her expression and the way she was trying to size him up, the blonde thought he was going to get an earful from her as well. However, this was not to be as the kunoichi from Kumogakure smiled and nodded to him respectfully, a light trace of red evident in her cheeks.

"That was seriously cool, Naruto-kun."

The jinchuriki chuckled nervously and rubbed his head, "R-Really? I thought I was being a bit of a bastard there, but if you think it was cool…"

"If it was just an ordinary prank, you would have been considered a bit of a bastard," a new voice spoke and everyone turned to see Temari had hopped up onto the balcony in the same area and was looking across at the jinchuriki with a smirk in play. "But because it was a fight… I'm not going to hold anything against you for that stunt." She nodded to the victor with a warm glow on her face. "Good fight."

Returning the girl's smile, Naruto nodded. "You too."

Satisfied, Temari pointed at his jacket and overall person, "You may want to tidy yourself up. That look is a bit unbecoming of you."

Realizing he was still covered in a bit of dirt, bruises and twigs from his crash-landing, Naruto groaned and picked at his jacket. Removing it and beginning to rub down his pants, he and everybody else was then jolted out of their shock over the fight to Lee, who gave his characteristic cheer before jumping up onto the safety rail.

"YOSH! Now it is my turn!" The Genin in green gave everyone a thumbs-up and flashed them a glint of his teeth. "Wish me luck, everyone!" After getting a satisfying return for his exclamations, the energetic kid then flew off and headed for the ruined center of the pitch. With the exam staff fixing up everything as best as they could, this gave him plenty of time to make his way to the starting point. However, it was not like he needed to rush.

Remembering who Lee was now up against, everyone turned to the Kirigakure team's corner where, looking past the ever-stoic Gaara, they saw the team's own blonde slap her face to get blood into her cheeks before Olympic diving out of the box. Every shinobi in that balcony watched the blonde in the equally tight uniform rush out to the middle of the arena, literally dancing all the way there before sliding to a stop just as her opponent did.

Sasuke frowned when he surveyed the area and watched the two kids all the way out there put themselves through a series of stretches to warm up before the starting gun could be fired. "Now I'm just guessing… but I think we're going to be in for one hell of a close-quarter fight next."

Shikamaru nodded, "Agreed."

After seeing Temari return to Gaara's side, Samui sided up to Naruto and nudged him in the arm, getting him to look across at her. "Whoever wins this battle is going to be facing you in the next round."

Smiling, the jinchuriki acknowledged this as did everyone and turned his attention to the competitors, all of whom were then reminded of the instructions by the proctor overseeing their start.

"I'm really hoping Lee wins this one. This kind of opponent is right up his ally."

However, in spite of his confidence in his friend and the grin on his face, the jinchuriki couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was going to happen.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Hayate, glancing warily between the two eager children, cleared his throat and lifted his hand. "Are you ready?" Seeing their nods and smiles gave him the assurance he needed, before dropping his hand and jumping away. "Match 4 between Kiyoko of Kirigakure and Lee of Konohagakure: Begin!"

The moment the proctor landed a safe distance away, Lee quickly burst into action.

Exploding from his stance, the Bushy Browed hopeful charged at Kiyoko at full speed, launching a flying side-kick straight at her face. However, the moment the boy was airborne and his foot was just inches away from making contract, the girl swayed out of the way at the last second and grabbed his ankle, using his momentum to yank him out of the air, spin him, and throw him across the field. Watching Lee curl up into a ball in midflight, spin to recover and skid across the ground, the blonde haired kunoichi then grinned excitedly and slid into a stance just as Lee did as well.

The boy with the fuzzy eyebrows placed one hand behind him and held the other in front. His youthful smile glinted under the light of the sun at the same time his feet spread to accommodate his wicked form. "You're good. I'll be sure to use all of my hard work and training to defeat you!"

Kiyoko returned the grin with gusto while spreading her own legs, holding up both arms in front of her and taking an obvious offensive stance. This surprised the audience and all the competitors watching as nobody had seen the girl take any form of fighting yet, seeing as how easily she'd taken her first battle. However, when she assumed the starting position of her fighting style, it was an orthodox stance with her left arm held across her front at an angle, with her elbow protecting her side and forearm protecting her stomach area, and her right fist held up to her face with the elbow also protecting her side. Her left fist was held further forward, showing exactly which her leading hand was.

Fists clenched, she faced off against her adversary with vigor. "Let's have fun, okay?" Kiyoko chirped brightly.

Grinning, Lee launched at her once again, cutting across the field at remarkable speed. Once he got into range, he leapt through the air and threw his body into a series of spinning legs, after which he then shot out with a low blow. "Konoha Senpu!" (Leaf Whirlwind)

Just as Lee's signature kick cut out to strike his opponent down, the girl suddenly pivoted on the spot and threw a kick at his approaching leg, causing it to overshoot his target and literally knocking him spinning out of the air by using his momentum against him. The bushy browed fighter let out a cry of surprise as he fell spiraling to the ground, but manage to land on his hand and cork his body around for another kick, which his opponent blocked with her knee before thrusting down at him with a swinging left overhand. Lee instinctively reacted and leapt out of the way, twisting through the air horizontally before landing on his feet, sliding away and kicking up dust.

Breathing out hard, Lee tried again, dashing a lap around his opponent who followed after him by rotating her position to keep her eyes fixed firmly on her target and shuffling across the ground to match him. When he dashed in and lunged, he threw a right hook her way, only for the girl to jab out in a counter, causing him to veer slightly before she suddenly kicked straight at his leg. Using her opening jab as a blind spot, her blow smacked him in the forward leg and caused the boy to stumble forward with a start, before he ultimately fell and tumbled across the ground. Rolling to a stop, he spun around again and glared, seeing his opponent take on her fighting stance again with her left fist held forward.

Growling, Lee leapt to his feet and rushed in a third time, coming at her with a swinging right straight. However, he was thrown off course a second time when he had to sway to avoid a swift left jab, causing him to miss his mark. After which he was then forced to start dodging a series of consecutive left jabs thrown by his opponent. He backed down quickly, seeing his foe smirk at him before she swung in with her right palm open for a thrust that Lee spotted and quickly jumped back to avoid. He returned with a spinning kick, but it was parried out of the air with her left hand, which was then used to fire off another jab at him that he had to duck. However, he was once again distracted by her left fist corking back that he was hit behind the leg by another sweeping kick from her, which knocked him off his feet and left him wide open for the girl to come in with a swinging right hook.

Spotting it at the last second, the boy let out a cry as he forcefully spun himself through the air, using his momentum to throw a kick at the girl in a counter, which she blocked by crossing her arms and lifting her knee. The horse-power kick slammed into her guard and knocked her skidding back along the ground with a loud shockwave ringing out, at the same time Lee managed to push himself away from his opponent and recover from his staggered assault.

Sliding across the ground to a stop at the same time as his adversary, Lee took another stance and glared across at said individual, breathing heavily.

"This is weird. Why can't I break through her guard?" Lee thought desperately, a bead of sweat running down his face as he looked the girl over. "With my taijutsu, I should be able to get through her defenses, but she keeps blocking all of my attacks like she knows they're coming." What's more, the strength she had behind her limbs was also on an entirely different level. Lee knew how strong he could hit, as he could crack stone and wood with the power of his attacks.

But this girl was blocking them like none of his blows were even fazing her at all. She was also still smiling, which told the boy that she was enjoying herself.

Feeling the strain, Lee shook his head, his vision of his opponent distorting slightly as he locked his glare back onto her.

"Her stance is a big problem," Lee thought again. Looking at the position of her arms and how her left hand was held further ahead of her than the other, he made a guess as to what was making getting close to her so difficult. "The position of her arms allows her to guard from all sides. With the way she's able to move her feet and position herself, she can also keep track of all of my movements."

That wasn't all…

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Shikamaru gritted his teeth. "Lee's taijutsu is fantastic, but his opponent isn't shaken up by it in the slightest. With that speed, he should be able to make anybody nervous…"

"But why isn't it working on her?" Sasuke murmured, Sharingan activated as he followed the entire course of the battle. Even with his improved eyesight, he couldn't see any possible reason why Team Gai's taijutsu practitioner couldn't get to his opponent.

Sure her guard was strong, but he couldn't see any reason why she was able to counter against his attacks so perfectly.

Tayuya, also looking dead serious, glanced across at Naruto to see his attention fixed squarely on the battlefield. Noticing his analytical gaze just as Samui did, the musician nudged him in the arm. "You can see. What's going on?"

Biting his jaw tightly, the jinchuriki spoke, "It's not her guard that's the problem. It's the position of her hands." Everyone looked at him in surprise before glancing back out to the girl in question. "Lee hasn't realized this yet, but she's doing the exact same thing to him that she did to Ino in the first round. The only difference is her fighting style. She's leading him around using hand and shoulder feints and luring him into positions that will allow her to attack safely with minimal effort. However, that's only half of Lee's problem." Naruto's gaze darkened as he broke it down. "She's using a defensive, counter-throwing style and an incredibly tricky one. I've used it before in fights against larger opponents. Do you see the way she has her left fist extended?" He pointed towards the girl's extended left, which everybody acknowledged with a nod. "That left fist is hanging directly in front of Lee's field of vision whenever he closes in on his opponent. Because of that, she's blocking out his view of her and fucking up his depth perception."

Shikamaru and Sasuke, realizing what Naruto was saying, gave the situation an even more serious look over.

"For someone who fights using only taijutsu, that's a really bad thing," the Nara stated.

"If you can't gauge the distance between yourself and your target properly, for all ranges that's a glaring disadvantage," Sasuke stated while folding his arms.

Samui rubbed her chin thoughtfully. "So… whenever Lee moves in to attack that left fist gets in his way and blocks all of his blows. At the same time, it distracts him from counter attacks coming from around or below."

"That's not the only thing," Tayuya added while taking on a serious expression herself. She remembered something like this a while back when Naruto first started sparring with her, as he'd used a fighting style similar to the one Kiyoko was using. Now that she knew exactly what she was looking at, she can add in her own input. "If that left fist is hovering in front of Lee's eyes, it makes it look like his opponent is standing miles away from him. If he can't move fast enough to get past it, then she can nail him with as many counters as she pleases without taking any hits in return."

This realization spelt trouble for the boy in green. If he couldn't figure out the problem soon or get around it, then this fight was as good as over.

His opponent hadn't even started using her fingers yet.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Lee frowned, moving from side to side and trying to find a way around the guard. Surveying his opponent for a little bit longer, he then clicked his tongue in frustration. "No way around. I need to move faster if I have a chance of landing any attacks on her."

"Lee! Take them off!" the voice of Gai filled the stadium and turning everyone's attention to the front row, where the boy's sensei could be seen standing with his grin in full blast. "If you're having trouble, do it! Show everyone in this country what you're made of!"

Hearing the words 'take them off' immediately put a delightful grin upon Lee's face. Doing as he was instructed, he quickly sat down on the ground and yanked down his leg warmers. While he was doing so, both Kiyoko and the entire audience watched in interest as he proceeded to remove two weight-bands from around his shins, which he had concealed under his orange pads. Once he pulled the cuffs back up and stood holding both weights in hand, the boy smiled across at his foe with confidence burning in his eyes.

"You are strong. If I'm going to contest with you on equal-footing, then I will come at you with everything that I have!"

Blinking, the curious Kirigakure kunoichi then giggled brightly and nodded, "Sure! I have absolutely no problems with that."

With that said, Lee chucked both weights over his shoulders, the crowd watching them sail through the air before seeing them crash into the ground several meters away. When they landed, the two bands hit the earth with explosive, earth-shattering force that sent clouds of dust and rubble rocketing into the air. Those that were familiar with weights immediately had eyes bugging out of their skulls at the catastrophic impact of both training devices as they were buried deep into the ground.

Just how much weight had this kid been carrying?

However, instead of gawking in awe at the sight, Kiyoko's grin widened even more and she let out a laugh. "AWESOME! You've been holding that much back all this time?!" She then developed a more intense smirk and changed her hand positions and stance, which had Lee look back at her in surprise. "Finally! An opponent I can go head to head with! Bring it on!"

Hearing this brought a grin to Lee's face, "RIGHT! HERE I COME!" Crouching low, he then suddenly vanished in a green haze, stunning everyone at his increase in speed.

Expression becoming a little bit more serious, Kiyoko spun around a split second and threw her right arm back. The moment she did, a loud crack rang out as she deflected a right straight sent at her by her opponent reappearing directly behind her. As soon as their eyes met, both showed the fury and intensity of two hard-core close-range types, before the boy in green vanished in another green haze and leaving his opponent, standing with her arm still raised.

Upon seeing him vanish, the blonde haired kunoichi smiled and sprang forward through the air, avoiding the ground she had previously been standing on exploding as an axe-kick was dropped right down on top of her from a blind spot by her foe reappearing once again. The girl with the wild blonde hair skidded back along the ground with her hand on the floor, stopping her momentum before looking up. When she saw her opponent with his foot buried in the earth glaring back at her she exploded forward, dashing at her target at invisible speed.

Lee responded likewise, grinning as well as he lunged towards the girl and uncorked a right straight, which she intercepted with a right straight as well. Moving in a completely different time frame, when both opponents' attacks collided, the impact caused a shockwave to ring out that cracked the ground and stopped both fighters dead in their tracks.

After the shockwave rang out like a clap of thunder throughout the stadium, both Lee and Kiyoko vanished, the former disappearing in a green blur and the latter disappearing in a yellow haze.

Seconds later, shockwaves began ringing out across the open field as the two crisscrossed over the grasslands and traded individual, staggering blows that ripped the earth apart and filled the air with the sounds of a high-speed battle.

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

Kiba's eyes went wide at the speed he could see the two competitors moving… well… whatever there was to see. All he could see were two indiscernible blurs darting across the center field and hear the sounds of thunder claps all around the area. "How fast are they moving? That's like… ridiculously fast!"

With her Byakugan active, Hinata followed the fight at the pace Lee and Kiyoko had set, and was simply astonished at the physical capabilities the pair was now showing to the world. "B-Both of them are so strong. It's incredible."

Gai smiled proudly as he watched his student open up all of the stops and unleash them upon his opponent all at once. "When Lee first came to me, he didn't have any talent for ninjutsu or genjutsu whatsoever. So moving past them, we decided to focus all of our attention on the one thing that he was good at, and that was his taijutsu. By concentrating all of his time and effort on his close-combat skills, we were able to eliminate his need of the former two practices and made him a master of the art of hand-to-hand fighting." The gleam in his eyes showed just how much pride he had in his student. "There's not a Genin alive that can compete with the level of skill he's attained…"

"Except for that girl of course," Kakashi murmured, furrowing his brow as he watched the fight play out. As fast as Lee had gotten and as remarkable as that was, what was even more surprising was that his foe was also moving just as fast as him. The silver haired man's brow narrowed even more as he saw the two blurs crisscross again and exchange blows. "As strong as Lee is, this kunoichi can go toe to toe with him. That's something we shouldn't take lightly."

Kurenai frowned as well when she recognized this for herself and nodded, "This one might be problematic."

Though the adults didn't say it out loud, there was just something off about this girl's fighting style and how she was able to contest with Lee so perfectly. Though they had a sneaking suspicion, the group of Jonin quickly deduced that they hadn't seen everything this girl had to offer.

Her insane strength, her speed, her ability to match her opponent in taijutsu blow for blow… there was something unsettling about that.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Reappearing out of the speed zone he'd been fighting in, Lee spiraled through the air with a kick and threw it out in front of him. His foot cutting through the empty space, a loud clap of a shockwave rang out once more when his attack collided with something invisible and knocked it out of flight. What appeared a split second later was his opponent flying backwards through the air with her arms crossed over her face and eyes glaring at his opponent.

Grinning at finally staggering his opponent with a blow, the bushy browed fighter leapt backwards through the air and landed solidly on the ground. As soon as he did, he quickly unfurled the bandages around his arms and let the strands float through the air, before vanished at high speed.

After managing to stop herself from flying backwards, Kiyoko, with blood leaking out of her lip, looked up in slight surprise when she saw her opponent vanish again, before looking around her through her peripheral vision to see a cloud of dust kick up from the ground. This cloud began spiraling around her at speed like a twister was forming, her eyes quickly tracking the source of it and finding out that it was in fact her opponent drawing the ring of dust around her.

Eyes darting left and right, she then smirked and, wiping the blood from her face, crossed her arms in front of her in a defensive stance. "Running around me like this won't help you."

The ring of cloud then vanished when her opponent blurred out of focus, before reappearing directly beneath her. Tracking him, Kiyoko's eyes cut down, where she reacted in time to block the kick sent straight up towards her chin. Her arms blocked the blow, but she was still lifted off of the ground at the force behind the attack.

Grinning, Lee leapt off of the earth using his arms and began plowing kicks up into the girl's guard one after the other. "NOT DONE YET!" He grunted with every attack he threw, his kicks slamming into the girls arms and pushing her further and further into the sky at speed. The consecutive series of kicks had everyone in the stadium gawking at the sheer amounts of raw power being displayed, as the bushy browed taijutsu specialist forced both him and his opponent high into the air above the arena.

Upon securing an appropriate height, Lee then moved into his next step. "NOW! Kage Buyo!" (Shadow of the Dancing Leaf) Throwing his arms out, the bandages he had fluttering through the air wrapped around their target, enveloping her and binding all of her limbs together. Within seconds, the boy had his opponent cocooned inside of the strips, after which he grabbed her from behind, and positioned them in midair with their heads pointing directly towards the earth. "Try this on for size! Omote Renge!"

The pair began to descend, with Lee kick-starting their plummet by starting to spin at a ridiculously high velocity. Upon shouting out the name of his technique, both his and his opponent's forms suddenly blurred out as they flew straight towards the floor in the form of a fast-moving drill. Seconds later, they collided, a great shockwave ringing out as a blast of dust and rubble rocketed into the air like an exploding mine, with the stadium shaking at the force of the impact.

Moments upon making landfall, a shadow leapt out of the cloud and landed safely outside of the massive crater that had been formed. Crouching low, a slightly grungy looking Lee panned up with a glare, his eyes focusing on the pit before a smirk formed on his face.

He clenched his fist victoriously. "Yes! I did it!"

The crowd sat stunned, as did everybody else who saw the technique unfold.

That had been one wicked display.

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Utakata winced at what he saw transpire out in the open. "Ugh. That's not good." Immediately after the comment, he looked across at his other teammate to see the orange haired girl standing impassively with her arms folded and glaring down at the arena. After looking at her serious expression, the boy focused his attention on her. "Do you think Kiyoko will be alright?"

Not even needing to think about it, the kunoichi nodded. "She'll be fine."

"…"

"…"

"…"

"She's just getting started."

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Watching the dust settle, Lee quickly saw the unmistakable form of his opponent's body appear out of the cloud. However, due to what had transpired with his technique that resulted in both of them crashing into the ground, she was not exactly in a state that was deemed intact or decent.

Her entire upper body was buried underground and her legs were sticking up out of the earth, bent over lifelessly from landing headfirst the way she did. Once the air completely cleared, the civilians, the proctors, Kage and Jonin could clearly see exactly what had happened and what the Konoha Genin had done to his opponent. The sight was easily cringe worthy, and immediately drew one of the officials down to the side of the crater to assess the situation.

After looking at the lifeless form for a few moments, Tenga furrowed his brow before turning towards Lee still crouching a short distance away. Glancing between them a couple more times, the man cleared his throat before raising his hand, "The winner of Match 4 by knock-"

However, just before he could call it, the legs inside the hole suddenly twitched. Staring down in surprise, the shinobi from Kumogakure instinctively jumped back just in time to watch the legs in the center of the ditch roll over and pull the rest of the body buried underneath the earth up and out with a pop.

The audience and Lee then proceeded to watch in disbelief as the thought-to-be-knocked-out or dead Kiyoko emerged from the ground completely unharmed, but covered in dirt and gravel.

"Oh man. That was rough. I could have been killed if I didn't react in time to break my fall." Crouching low, the kunoichi shook her head and dusted whatever crumbs she had stuck in her hair out of it before standing up. When she did, she showed that she had a bit of a disgruntled look in play, which conveyed her overall response to the technique she'd just been hit with. After rolling her neck around and cracking it, she then focused her annoyed glare on her opponent. "A little bit much, don't you think?"

Lee straightened up a bit in bewilderment. "B-But… how? There's no way I could have messed that up. My timing was spot on."

Kiyoko smirked and massaged her shoulder, "Oh yeah. You got me good alright." Cracking her neck one last time, she grinned at her stunned adversary. "But it's going to take a lot more than a freefall and a pile drive into solid rock to take me down. My body's a lot more sturdy then that."

Clenching his fists, Lee attempted to move, but then winced when his legs refused to function properly. He let out a cry of pain and gripped his stinging knees, a sight that did not go missed. "Ugh… even opening the first gate takes a serious toll on the body. I… I can't move…"

Seeing the agonized expression on her opponent's face, Kiyoko tilted her head curiously and smirked at her good fortune. "Performing that little maneuver must have hurt you quite a bit, eh?" Her question got the boy in green to look at her, where he saw her mischievous face flicker into play. "As much as I would like to wait for you to recover so that we can carry on fighting, I think a little payback is in order. You did just drop me from several stories above the ground. It's time I return the favor." She then brought her right hand up and straightened her index finger, which immediately had alarm bells go off inside of Lee's head.

Forcing himself to his feet, the taijutsu specialist attempted to move. However, in the blink of an eye, faster than even he could react, his blonde haired opponent fazed out of sight before reappearing directly in front of him. As soon as she materialized out of the air, she shot at him with her finger.

"Shigan!" (Finger Gun) Kiyoko shouted, a loud clap of a gunshot ringing out when her finger drilled straight into Lee's shoulder.

The boy let out a cry of agony as he was sent tumbling backwards along the ground. When he skidded to a stop on his hands and knees, he immediately reached up and gripped his shoulder, which now had blood pouring out of it. The crowd gasped in shock when they realized the girl had punctured straight through his skin and muscles, leaving a gaping hole in his limb.

Naruto and Kin, though both in different villages, clenched their fists tightly when they saw what had happened.

It was the same technique she used to knock out Ino and the same attack that decimated the Otogakure team all those weeks ago.

Clenching his teeth and pressing his hand against his wound, Lee bit back the pain as best as he could, while looking up at his opponent to see her shake out her hand and smile across at him.

"You've got good reflexes. You may have avoided taking a shot to a vital point, but I still clipped you."

Expression becoming serious, the boy in the spandex slowly pushed himself back into a proper standing position and glared hard at his adversary. Huffing at the pain, he removed his blood-covered hand from his shoulder and held his fists at his sides, facing the girl from Kiri with determination and an unshaken resolve. In spite of the damage inflicted upon his body and all the failed moves he'd attempted to use against her, he was still determined to win.

"I have never faced an opponent as strong and as dangerous as you before in my life," Lee stated assuredly, narrowing his tired eyes on his enemy. "It is clear to me now how powerful you really are. Your taijutsu is perfect… and your sense of timing is even greater than mine. It's incredible."

Kiyoko blushed and rubbed her cheek bashfully. "Thanks." She'd never been complimented by a boy so enthusiastically before on her abilities, since she was on a team comprised of a guy with a cool disposition and a hardcore kunoichi from the same village.

Lee smiled and puffed his chest out, sucking in air and recovering as quickly as he could from the strain of opening the first gate. During which time, he began to accumulate chakra at his center. "I hit you with one of my strongest attacks and you survived. While it is true that the lotus had opened in that instant, it still failed to bring me my victory. But the thing about the lotus flower is that it doesn't bloom once." As soon as he said that, his energy spiked, and both life and color returned completely to his face. Muscles tightening and winds beginning to pick up, the boy sprouted a wide and determined grin. "It blooms twice! Kyuumon! (Gate of Healing) Open!"

Feeling the boy's chakra unhinge and seeing him visibly recover from his fatigue, the Kirigakure kunoichi Kiyoko stepped back a tad and looked at him in surprise. After which, she then grinned excitedly. "Wow! You can open more of the Eight Gates! AWESOME!" She brought her fists up and took up an offensive fighting stance with her characteristic guard. "How many of those can you actually use? Show me!"

"Gladly!" Lee shouted, and as soon as he did, the air around him started to rush upwards when his chakra spiked considerably and began to course off of him at an alarming rate. As the audience watched in intrigue, they saw a blue aura begin to waft off of the boy crossing his arms over his face as the gale blasting from his form increased several times over, and his skin turned dark. Eyes turning completely white, his chakra burst outwards in a shockwave, sending dust and debris flying. "Seimon! (Gate of Life) Open!"

The proctors immediately leapt back when they felt the raw power begin to reverberate off of the boy, while his opponent held her ground and watched enthusiastically as her adversary took it up another notch. Feeling the hot winds hit her in the face and wave her hair around, she hardened her stance and looked on with shimmering eyes as his output increased even more, growing and growing as he dug even deeper to open the other gates.

While the crowds and observing shinobi sat shocked, the Kiri ninja wasn't swayed in the least.

Her grin became more devious as she watched her opponent pretty much remove all of his restraints. "Incredible. A Genin who can actually open the gates of the chakra pathways… that's fantastic! Shit. I don't stand a chance against him in that state. He'll beat me to death. If I'm going to defeat him here today, I'm going to have to guard against his next assault with everything I've got." That said, she clenched her fists and concentrated.

She was going to have to time this right.

Oh no. She didn't intend to block with just her arms.

She was going to protect herself with her entire body…

…

…

And take out his hands and feet at the same time.

"Shoumon! (Gate of Pain) Open!" Lee roared, his chakra exploding forth and actually digging a massive crater into the ground he was standing on. The amount of power leaking out of him was so great, not only did his muscles noticeably bulk up a bit, but his veins were pulsing visibly on his skin and his limbs visibly strained to hold it all together. Once he was certain he was holding a decent amount of power, the red faced boy crouched down and prepared to charge. "PREPARE YOURSELF!"

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

Kakashi, Sharingan unveiled, was watching the scene with a combination of shock and horror before he looked across at Gai to see him staring seriously down at the field. In fact, it wasn't just him that turned to the student's teacher. Every other Jonin in that isle also looked at the man with expressions of bewilderment and concern.

"He can open four of the eight gates?" the silver haired copy ninja said in amazement.

"Five… actually," Lee's instructor corrected.

"Gai! How can you teach a technique like that to Lee?" Asuma said loudly, gritting his teeth in slight anger over the seriousness of the situation. "Lack of ninjutsu and genjutsu ability aside, that's a kenjutsu level technique no Genin should be able to use."

"All of that power gushing out of his system at once will rip his muscles to shreds," Genma stated.

Gai, unflinching under the words being thrown his way, closed his eyes and lowered his head. "I have no excuses. Lee is my precious student and a boy I see a lot of myself in. As his teacher, I would not have taught him how to open the gates if I knew he couldn't handle it."

"That's beside the point," Kurenai exclaimed.

Asuma pointed down towards the arena, where they could see the steam and chakra bellowing off of the steroid induced Genin. "If he was to use that in a fight, even in a friendly spar with any of the children from our village, he could kill them. Do you seriously want to weigh the responsibilities of that possibly happening on both of your shoulders teaching him that technique?"

This earned the group of Jonin Gai's glare as he looked over at them. "I trust my student to know when and when not to use the power granted to him by the eight gates." He nodded back to the center ring. "Down there, there is a Genin who can take a full first degree lotus and a drop from several stories above the ground and stand with barely even a scratch on her. If there is a foe out there that is able to force him to dig deep and find more strength, then who am I to say that he can't?"

Though Gai's reasoning was questionable, seeing as that learning how to open the eight gates was questionable, the instructors chose to let it slide for now. Turning back to look down at the arena, they all wondered at once how the kunoichi was going to stand through such a storm.

Off to the side, past the stunned Team Kurenai and all those others in the audience, the Hyuuga clan and Iruka included, in the competitors balcony every Genin standing there was in shock. Not only were Naruto, Sasuke, Samui and Tayuya visibly showing their disbelief, but so were both members of the Kirigakure team on their end.

Even Tsubaki hadn't accounted for such a development, as indicated by her gawking expression

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

In the blink of an eye, Lee suddenly rocketed from his spot at blinding speed and charged straight at his opponent, causing everyone to lose sight of him. His take-off was marked by the ground he had been standing on caving in on itself with explosive force, enough to create several sonic booms going off at once.

Grinning widely, Kiyoko stepped forward and threw a speedy right overhand at full speed, spotting her opponent heading towards her in a timeframe all his own. "COME ON!"

The moment she shouted and cut out with that punch, the force of a cannon impacted against her chest and sent her blasting into the sky at supersonic speed. Spiraling upwards uncontrollably, the blonde haired kunoichi had her face scrunched up in pain when, several seconds after being launched from the earth, she was smacked off to the side again by her opponent reappearing directly beside her. Immediately after that, all hell broke loose. At the rate of a machine gun, claps of shockwaves began exploding all throughout the sky, as Lee began smacking around his opponent at untraceable speed.

Bouncing off of the floors of the stadium and the side walls, the spandex wearing Genin batted around his foe one crippling hit after the other, his fists and feet crashing against her form that it was now just an indiscernible yellow blur moving through the air.

After what felt like an endless, merciless beating being dished out by the boy from Konoha, he soon decided to end it. After setting the Kiri kunoichi up with a few well placed hits left and right, suspending her dead center above the ground, the boy appeared directly above her and smashed her back towards ground zero. However, before her body could touch the earth, it was yanked back towards the red-skinned powerhouse by one of his gauze strips wrapped around her waist. Having tied it on, Lee wasted no time in reeling her in at high speed, both his right fist and leg cocking back as he dove straight towards her to meet her half way.

"THIS IS IT! ONE… MORE!" Gritting his teeth as blood began seeping out of his nose and his muscle fibers tearing under the strain, the boy thrust forward with both limbs in a killer finisher for his wicked combination. "TOMON! (Gate of Limit) OPEN!" With his chakra rolling off of his body like water from a hose, the boy's limbs crashed into its target at full speed, a massive shockwave and a clap of thunder ringing out as Kiyoko was sent rocketing into the earth. The moment she made impact a blast of rubble and dust shot up into the sky and blotted out the sun.

The tremors that followed were even more shocking, as the audience not only had to shield their faces from the blast of dust that hit them, but they also had to hold onto their hats from the earthquake that also hit. Moments later, when the chaos ended and the aftershocks of the combination ended, the center of the battlefield was left in utter ruin. The cloud of dust clouding the arena slowly dissipated, revealing an enormous crater in place of one of the many areas dotting the open field.

When view of the ring cleared up and the cameras trained back onto the ring, the crowds quickly spotted Lee lying on the ground not too far from the crater. Panting heavily with his face scrunched up in pain, the boy sat up and looked out across the ruined landscape. When he saw the enormous crater, and the hand of his opponent lying limply in the center of it, the taijutsu specialist gave a weak grin and sat up.

"Y-Yes… AHH!" Lee suddenly shouted, holding back a cry as he attempted to grip his wrist. Failing in that endeavor when he realized both of his arms were in absolute agony, he looked down at his fists to see what had happened. When he did, he saw that he had blood coating his gauze and dripping down onto the floor, and also had blood dripping down from his shin guards.

This meant that all of his muscles, including in his fists and legs, were pretty much fucked up.

But that was the risk he was willing to take with this move. He just didn't expect to rip open the skin in his hands and legs at the same time.

Weird.

However, just when he was thinking he'd won and was going to be declared the winner of this match, a collective series of gasps and clamor from the audience drew his attention back toward the crater. When he looked into the gaping hole in the middle of the field, Lee's eyes widened in horror when he saw the silhouette of a person pull themselves out of the dirt and, dusting their body of all the grime and mud covering them, stepped out of the hole and back onto the debris covered valley floor.

Tsunade, who had seen the whole thing for herself, stood up out of her seat and gaped down at the arena. "N-No way…"

"That's… impossible," Anko also said, gaping alongside the other Jonin in the same row.

Mouth hanging open and expression exhausted, Lee could only stare in utter silence as he watched his opponent stroll out of the fog and back onto open ground. Still kneeling on the ground with blood dripping from his hands and legs, the boy saw his adversary stop several meters from him and shrug off more dirt that had been caught in her hair. After which he then observed as she shook her head clear of dust and beamed in his direction.

"That was some attack. All I could see was a green blur shooting around me and pummeling me every time I was sent flying. If I wasn't so tough I probably would have been killed," Kiyoko chirped.

As shocking as it was to see the girl still alive, it wasn't like she'd gotten off completely unscathed from the attack. Her entire body was battered and bruised, and she even had blood trickling down from her head and the corner of her mouth. That meant she'd actually taken some damage from the assault she'd been hit with. However, in spite of the blood and the notable bruises that had her limping slightly, she seemed perfectly fine.

Cracking her neck to the side and groaning from the throbbing pain, Kiyoko grinned victoriously at her foe. "Damn… any longer and your attacks would have completely broken through to me. In the end the whole thing turned into a battle of wills. The strongest attack vs the strongest defense. Who could outlast the other? Well… it looks like we got our answer." Watching the boy try to force himself to his feet but fail miserably and seeing the blood dripping off of him, the girl winced and pointed it out. "Wondering why you're so damaged from kicking the crap out of me?" She giggled and tapped the side of her nose when she saw him nod, "Sorry. Not telling."

Gritting his teeth and struggling some more, Lee eventually pushed himself to his feet. However, with his arms hanging at his sides and his muscles sending waves of pain through his body, he just could not hash it. The audience, who was watching on closely in bewilderment, knew it was only a matter of time before he was done.

Giggling and swinging back and forth on her feet, Kiyoko then swung her right arm around in circles. She moved it so quickly it looked like she had a propeller blade attached to her shoulder with a fist at the end, a sight that had Lee look at her in fear.

"Well, this was fun and all… but I'm winning this thing right now," Kiyoko stated, disappearing in a yellow haze and catching Lee completely by surprise. "So long."

Responding immediately, the boy attempted to counter with a right cross, but the moment his fist shot out to hit his fast-moving opponent, he was grabbed by the wrist, had it twisted back, before his leg was kicked out from behind him. After a spectacular backwards flip through the air, Lee crashed to the ground with a cry of pain, his legs swung over him and feet on the ground above his head. The way he landed looked incredibly painful, and in his current condition with his muscles as messed up as they were, there was no way he couldn't have felt that fall.

Kiyoko, stepping back and looking down at the motionless and pain-stricken teen, grinned when she saw his face before waving towards a nearby Mizore. "Medic!"

Wanting to save the competitor from further pain, seeing as how he could barely move anymore, the kunoichi proctor raised a hand and waved to the crowd, "Winner of Match 4 by TKO: Kiyoko of Kirigakure!"

Under the bewildered and disbelieving stares of the crowd, Kiyoko grinned, waved happily, and after wiping the blood from her face, crouched next to the boy she'd downed and beamed at him. Tilting her head over his crumpled state and pained expression, the blonde girl nodded to him respectfully, "That was a really good fight you gave me. If I didn't have my trump card backing me up, you would have beaten me for sure. Your taijutsu is amazing." Seeing Lee blink in surprise and smile in return, the girl straightened up and scratched her cheek bashfully. "Umm… say… I'm just wondering… would it be possible if you could introduce me to your friend Neji?"

"N-Neji-kun?" Lee replied in surprise. "You… would like to meet my teammate?" In spite of his position on his back with his legs swung over him, he was still able to speak quite fluently.

A shade of red appearing on her cheeks, Kiyoko slipped her hands behind her and rocked bashfully on the spot. "If it isn't too much trouble. It's just that… I think he's kind of cute…"

OOO

(Stadium – Former Competitors Section)

Everyone sitting in that row all turned to the side when they heard the distinct sound of loud snickering and attempts to restrain laughter coming from Tenten, who was doing her best to keep herself from making a scene. Unfortunately, due to the silence of the entire stadium, she was the only one in the area making any noises whatsoever, and after hearing what was captured over the speakers through the camera had her face turn red from holding back the need to holler out in amusement.

"Cute?" the kunoichi snickered.

Omoi, rubbing the back of his head, also looked out over the field. "Well… I guess everybody has their tastes…"

Neji, being the subject in question, could only try to hide his face under his bangs when everyone turned to him for his opinion on the situation. However, the boy wasn't too keen on commenting and resorted to just sitting quietly with his arms folded and his face as hidden from view as he could possibly make it.

OOO

(Stadium – Front Section)

Tsunade grunted as she leant back in her seat, arms folded. "Well… it was a good effort on the green brat's part, but that wasted move will cost him… dearly." After all that moving about, that Lee kid would've definitely torn up more than a few muscles. With the amount of chakra he was expelling all at once and the level of experience she assumed he had with the technique, she didn't expect him to be able to move properly for over a week.

Looking over at her master, a concerned Shizune blinked, "That amount of chakra pouring off of a person would definitely have adverse effects on a human body, but what about his knuckles and shins?" She'd seen the results afterwards. Torn muscles wouldn't show on the surface, but internal damage would still be evidently clear from the person's actions. So if that blood wasn't caused from his muscle fibers splitting and breaking under his skin, then what? "Did he hit her too hard?"

Tsunade, shivering at the memory of the blood, gritted her teeth in careful thought. "I don't know. But what I do know is that that girl is not normal. None of the members on that team from Kirigakure are."

It was the Uchiha who was up next.

Perhaps the raven haired genius could shake his opponent up a little, and show the world what she was really hiding under that cool expression and coat hanging from her shoulders.

OOO

(Stadium – Kage Section)

"Well… that was…"

"Unbelievable," the Kazekage offered the Fourth Raikage helpfully, earning a grunt from the bulky man.

"I was going to say fixed, but that would imply some underhanded play went on down there," A replied with a frown as he glared at the arena and watched Kiyoko make her way back to the balcony under the gradual applause and clamor of the crowd. Narrowing his eyes, he observed her as she left with a spring in her step and a song in her heart. "That girl… she managed to survive an assault that would have killed or crippled an ordinary shinobi of any ranking. How was that possible?"

Hiruzen, awfully disturbed by the turn of events, glanced across at Mei sitting comfortably and silently in her corner. "Tsubaki and the other boy I can understand, Mizukage-sama… but this girl. Who exactly is she?" There was not a person alive who could have withstood that attack and come out of there still in one piece. She didn't even have any special abilities… or so it seemed on the surface. They probably just haven't seen it yet.

Lee's use of the dangerous eight gates aside, the fact that the girl was able to get up after taking it up close and personal was a remarkable feat no other shinobi could have hoped to make it through. It was just unfathomable at how preposterous it was.

Glancing back at the questioning looks from the other village leaders, the auburn haired woman laced her fingers together and sighed. "Kiyoko may seem like an ordinary kunoichi. However, just like Tsubaki, she grew up in a harsh environment surrounded by war and bloodshed. She was abandoned by her parents and wound up in the same orphanage as Tsubaki. When they met, they became fast friends and have been partners ever since." She looked up and watched her girl wave to the crowd on screen and beamed. "Unlike her companions though, Kiyoko has an incredible talent for taijutsu… probably the greatest in our village. She not only learned how to fight on her own but she also learned skills and techniques from the Kaguya clan records, who used to be some of the strongest shinobi in our country who specialized in close-combat." Especially the users of their kekkei genkai.

Raising an eyebrow, Onoki leaned forward. "So… those attacks she used with her finger… they were Kaguya based?"

Mei nodded. "Yes. She has a fierce and incredibly dangerous style of fighting, probably just as great as the Hyuuga's. However, her hand-to-hand combat skills are only half of her arsenal. She also has a special ability that prevents anyone from laying a single scratch on her. Blades can't even pierce her skin."

This had more than a few chills go all around the box.

While shinobi with incredible durability and high stamina weren't the most common warriors amongst village rankings, as ninja were meant to be more agile and stealthy in battle, this Kiyoko girl created her own law of how combat on open ground could be done just like Naruto before her. Her durability accommodated her fighting style perfectly, which involved deceptive positioning, handwork, and kicking. The attacks she dealt had incredible piercing power and, at the same time, utilized her opponent's force, reflected it, and turned it against them. That was unbelievable control and precision, especially for someone with her personality.

This was definitely worthy of merit, something that Hiruzen wasn't afraid to reward. However, while Mei did divulge some information, it still wasn't enough to figure out the riddle behind Kiyoko…

And as if Tsubaki wasn't a big enough problem.

Speaking of which…

OOO

(Stadium – Competitors Balcony)

Overcoming the shock at the awesome display of power and speed from the battle he'd just witnessed, Sasuke breathed out a sigh and made his way over to the exit. "Guess it's finally my turn."

Shikamaru followed after the Uchiha with his eyes over his shoulder and smirked, "Break a leg."

"I don't intend to, but whatever," the raven haired prodigy waved carelessly. He made sure to share a bro-nod with his blonde haired teammate before he vacated the premises completely, after which it was just a quick march down the stairs and out onto the field. With nothing but a clear day waiting to greet him as soon as he walked out, the boy was incredibly confident at his chances of winning.

While Naruto saddled up next to Samui and Tayuya, both of them having taken up position on either side of him rather closely, Gaara and Temari had turned to look over at the Kirigakure team to see their heavy hitter take her leave.

Rolling her head around in a careless manner, the orange haired Tsubaki breathed out a sigh and stepped up onto the railing. With her hands still in her pockets, she stood upon the guard rail and looked out across the field, her teammate jumping up to their balcony to tag her in, as well as wish her the best of luck. The still grungy looking Kiyoko grinned when she glanced up at the cool-looking girl from Kiri, who kept her eyes fixed on the ruined center.

"You made one hell of a spectacle of yourself out there," Tsubaki spoke seriously. "While I don't condone your actions, I still feel that I should caution you for your next fight."

Kiyoko stuck her tongue out sheepishly before grinning at her friend. "You just worry about yourself, sis. You've got an Uchiha out there fighting you."

The girl grunted and prepared to step forward. "No one will be able to even touch me." She gave a small smile as added incentive. "I'm just that good."

"Cool as usual," Kiyoko laughed before watching the tall girl leap from the side and down to ground level. "Go get him, Tsubaki-chan!"

Oh yeah. This next battle was definitely going to be an interesting one.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

Once a still shocked and rattled Lee was carted off of the battlefield on a stretcher, the proctors selected a space for Sasuke and Tsubaki to confront each other. When both Genin made it down and stood across from their opponent, they faced each other with serious expressions in play and gazes narrowed.

Hayate took up the post between them, looking between both fighters cautiously as the excited clamor of the audience fell around them. The names of the two most skilled participants on paper popping up on the screen for their match were enough to draw the world's collective attention to the middle of the arena, where Jonin, Kage and nobles alike put a clamp on whatever discussions they were having amongst each other to direct their entire focus towards the two teenagers. On first glance, it was immediately clear that they were ready to go at the other person's throat… well… Sasuke anyway.

Tsubaki looked the same as she always did; cold, collected, calculating, and with her hands slipped uncaringly into the pockets of her jeans.

Clearing his throat, the proctor raised his hand. "Are the two of you ready to begin?" Receiving looks of acknowledgement from both participants, Hayate proceeded. "Match 5 between Tsubaki of Kirigakure and Sasuke of Konohagakure: Begin!" Jumping back, the official gave the two whatever space they required for their battle and watched them size each other up.

Curious about his foe, Sasuke activated his Sharingan. Just like all those before him, he was overwhelmed by the sheer amount of chakra he could see wafting off of her. While his insight wasn't as clear as the Hyuuga's Byakugan, he could still see enough of his foe's signature to know just how far above in terms of stamina and raw power she had over him. It actually had him break a sweat the second he saw the eternal flame of her blue aura blasting him in the face.

Noticing the Sharingan activate, Tsubaki grunted and nodded upwardly at the boy. "Don't stare too hard. You'll go blind." She could guess what he could see with those eyes, though she didn't really care either way.

Sasuke clicked his tongue and stepped back, sliding into a defensive fighting stance. "I can see why everyone has been having so much trouble fighting against you. The amount of chakra coursing through your body is unreal."

Rolling her shoulder, Tsubaki stared carelessly across at the boy. "I have more power in my index finger alone than an ordinary person. You would want to take these words into consideration."

Grunting, the raven haired boy took a crouching position. "I'll keep them in mind."

Raising an eyebrow, Tsubaki tilted her head, "You're still willing to fight?"

Sasuke smirked, "What do you think?"

Staring at him long and hard, the girl then closed her eyes and smiled in amusement, a low chuckle escaping her lips. "You really are a bold one. I commend you for your bravery." But then, after several moments of tense silence, the girl's smile vanished and she opened her eyes, her irises fixing like blades on her adversary. The instant she did so was the moment she made her move. "However…"

Recoiling in shock, Sasuke looked straight ahead of him when he suddenly saw his opponent standing just inches away from him, her face hovering in front of his. She had previously been a few yards off, but somehow she'd managed to cover the distance between him and her in the amount of time it took for him to blink.

She was still standing normally. The only difference was that one of her hands was no longer in its pocket.

"It'll take more than bravery to defeat me."

Before Sasuke could throw a counter or voice some sort of retort, just like Akatsuchi before him, he was lifted straight off his feet by a blast of invisible force kicking him in the chest. Using only her finger, the orange haired girl propelled the hapless Uchiha across the arena, through the forest, and straight into one of the barrier walls on the other side. His body smashed into it with an almighty crash, filling the air with dust and debris till all of it lifted to reveal the crater the boy had formed on his collision with the concrete divider.

Lowering her hand, Tsubaki continued to smirk as she gazed across the way, spotting with eagle-like vision the 'person' she'd managed to send flying with her technique. While it seemed from everybody else's point of view that she'd been able to take Sasuke down with one hit, she had in fact hit a substitute, which turned out to be a simple tree log lying in two, broken halves in the center of the impact crater.

Chuckling, the girl closed her eyes. "Impressive. You were able to dodge me going at that speed. Everybody else would have fallen prey to that attack, but you're something else." She then looked up, where she then saw a shadow leap out from a blind spot to suspend itself in the air high above. "You can thank your clan's eyes for saving you from the same fate."

Letting out a shout, Sasuke uncorked the arm he had held behind him and chucked the massive shuriken he'd drawn straight at the Kirigakure kunoichi. The enormous Fuma blade flew out of his hand and across the field, charging towards the girl at full speed. Its shadow hit the ground as it spun towards its target.

Watching impassively as the projectile closed in on her, Tsubaki just stood in place, unflinching and unmoving.

For a moment Sasuke thought she was going to duck or dodge, as he expected her to so that she fell prey to the second Fuma shuriken he had hidden underneath his first one. However, much to his complete and utter shock, not only did the girl not even respond to the incoming attack, but she just remained in place. The girl simply stood there without even flinching and not only did his first Fuma blade hit her but the second one too.

The entire crowd let out a collective gasp when they saw the orange haired Tsubaki stagger under the enormous windmill blades cutting into her. The attack making contact pretty much silenced everyone in sight, getting some of the Jonin watching to jump out of their seats and look down at the field in surprise.

The girl got hit. Why didn't she move?

Why didn't she try to defend herself?

It was mindboggling, even for her opponent, who landed on the ground and glared up to see his foe stagger to a stop and remain in place with her body hunched over the Fuma shuriken buried in her in two separate places.

At first the Uchiha figured she was going to keel over. That his fight was over. That he'd killed his opponent and that he'd won.

However, all of that confidence disappeared in a heartbeat when, all of a sudden, he saw the girl straighten up and look at him. In that instant, Sasuke broke character and took on a look of horror when he saw where exactly the giant Fuma blades had hit his target.

"An obsolete clan with predictable techniques… that's what the Uchiha are," Tsubaki spoke, despite having one of the massive shuriken blades buried in her face and the other one driven straight through her chest cavity.

The audience and the Kage could only gawk at the sight.

There was no pain in her voice, expression or eyes. There was not a single waver in her step or any care toward the fact she even had two massive weapons sticking in her. Hell, there wasn't even any blood.

"W-What the hell is going on?" Sasuke thought in shock.

The entire stadium was confounded.

Looking up at the big screen, every single member of the audience was staring with wide eyes and mouths hanging open at what they saw; the competitor Tsubaki standing perfectly still with a massive Fuma shuriken impaling both her head and her chest. It was almost like she was wearing some sort of freaky scary movie costume and was going to a party as a murdered kunoichi fresh from battle. But that wasn't it at all. She genuinely had two massive fan blades stuck in her, which the entire stadium and world saw with their own two eyes.

The Jonin instructors who'd never seen anything like it weren't the only ones astonished. The Kage up in their box was also looking absolutely staggered, save for the village leader of Kirigakure. Next to them there sat the rest of the audience, the daimyo up in their five-star section, Haku, and the two Akatsuki members hiding at the entrance to the stands.

While Kisame had an amused grin on his face, Itachi's own eyes were locked onto the middle of the ring with his Sharingan staring a hole into the girl. Being as discreet as possible, the raven haired rogue was attempting to figure out how she was doing it, but as good as his own eyesight was he just could not see how the girl was pulling this trick off.

She was standing there. She was still physically standing there, but for some unexplainable reason she was just not keeling over. In all good conscience she should be dead.

But defying all the laws of the physical world, she wasn't.

This definitely had the world's collective attention. Everybody left and right of all ages, classes and creed began trying to figure out how the hell she was doing what she was doing, but no matter how hard they thought they just couldn't fathom it. The only ones who weren't surprised in the least by the scene were the Mizukage, Tsubaki's teammates, and Kurenai's squad, who'd seen firsthand exactly what she was capable of.

For the rest, it was just absolutely bewildering.

Taking note of the shocked look she was receiving from the Uchiha, the Kirigakure Genin reached up with her hand and effortlessly yanked the Fuma shuriken out of her face. With a quiet squelch sound it came free, and she ungraciously dropped it to the ground. She did the exact same thing with the massive blades lodged in her chest, which she removed in the exact same way as the first one before tossing it aside. The second windmill blade clattered along the ground loudly, snapping Sasuke out of his reverie.

Sharingan still active, he glared at the Kiri Nin standing before him. "Are you human?"

Blinking, Tsubaki nodded, "Yes."

"Well… if that's the case," Sasuke replied, drawing a set of shuriken, fanning them between his fingers and chucking them at his opponent. The blades cut through the air in several different directions. However, instead of embedding into their target like the larger shuriken, the small stars passed right through her like she wasn't even there and hit the ground several yards behind her. It was almost like she was just an incredibly good projection in the air and nothing more. This sight had the Uchiha grit his teeth. "If you can breathe, bleed, touch, talk or feel you can be beaten. Everyone can be beaten in some way."

The orange haired girl carelessly dusted off her shoulder before smiling up at the raven haired boy. "I don't know about anybody else, but I'm afraid you're going to find that task a little bit above your pay grade in this match."

Sasuke's glare tightened, "We'll see."

Still smiling, Tsubaki lowered her head towards the youngster as he took another stance. In his eyes she could see how hard he was thinking and trying to come up with a plan to beat her. Of course, seeing that he was also a little bit stressed over the whole situation, she decided to offer him a little bit of a helping hand.

"Since I haven't done much in this tournament yet, I'll give you three chances." She held up her hand and three fingers, surprising Sasuke somewhat as she continued speaking, "Three chances to try and defeat me with your best shots." She then slipped that hand back into her pocket and her expression lost its smile. "Consider this your final warning as well."

Processing this information, Sasuke's expression quickly became serious again and he took up his fighting stance. "Thanks. But if you seriously intend to just stand there and take all of my attacks head on, then you're going to be in for a shock."

Tsubaki smirked, "Who said anything about taking your attacks head on?"

Jumping back, the boy slammed his hands together and began flipping through seals. The crowd and his opponent then watched as he landed a good distance away, where he finished weaving signs and sucked in air, bringing his fingers up to position over his lips. "Try this! Katon: Gōkakyū no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique)

In a blast of hot air, a jet of fire shot forth from Sasuke's mouth, which warped and merged into an enormous ball of flames that he sent careening across the field towards his opponent. The sheer size of the attack meant that its expanding form hit her before the actual charge did, the attack consuming her completely before exploding with earth rattling force. The shockwave and the heat the explosion released washed over the crowd and had everyone in the front row shield their faces from the sheer power of the attack going off.

Eventually, the cataclysm ended. The flames dissipated on the wind and left a cloud of smoke and dust hanging in the air above the enormous crater formed from the jutsu.

Sasuke looked up with confidence brimming on his serious expression, wondering if he'd finally managed to put his opponent down in their short skirmish. However, when it seemed like his victory was assured, the moment the cloud of smoke lifted, to his and the crowd's utter astonishment they saw Tsubaki standing in the middle of the crater without a single scratch or burn on her. The fumes pulling across her unblemished form revealed she hadn't moved an inch either, even when the ground beneath her was utterly ruined.

Without even a sign of shock, pain or emotion, the girl gave a small yawn before returning to just staring at her opponent.

"A little warm, don't you think?"

Brow furrowing, Sasuke held in his frustration as he looked his opponent over. "Not a damn response. She didn't even flinch. How is that possible?" An uneasy feeling settling over him, the boy began wondering whether continuing this fight or not was a good idea. The fireball technique was his clan's signature jutsu and one of the strongest attacks in their arsenal. It was the basis to almost all of their fire release techniques and a rite of passage for all clan members. But for some reason, this girl stood there and took one in the face without a single tell in response. She didn't even budge an inch. What the hell was she?

Fists clenching, the boy turned side on before beginning to sprint around his adversary, eyes surveying the battlefield for any sign of a genjutsu or disturbance. However, finding nothing out of the ordinary and confirming that the girl was still present and not using some sort of illusion, the Uchiha began running a couple of incredibly fast laps around her while coming up with some form of strategy, before coming at her from the front again.

"If attacking her directly doesn't work," Sasuke thought before leaping into the sky and drawing a set of shuriken, "Then I'll attack the ground at her feet."

She was standing on earth; basically the foundation for all things living or dead. If he attacked that instead, then there was a good chance he could damage her.

While flying through the air, the boy chucked the shuriken he had drawn straight towards his opponent. However, instead of hitting her directly, the blades instead impaled the ground around her or sailed straight past her, trailing thin wires through the air and cutting off all possible routes of escape for the Kirigakure kunoichi.

Spotting the flash of wire, Tsubaki looked over her shoulder to see where the others landed and took note of the crisscrossing strings. "Interesting…" Glancing ahead again, she saw her opponent land atop a faraway tree, having fed enough wire between him and his shuriken to actually gain that distance and at the same time stay connected. She then saw him yank the wire with his hands and teeth, watching as a flash of them flew towards her from the many crossing each other.

Instead of pinning her like they would any other targets, the wires simply passed through her, leaving the orange haired girl standing perfectly in place and wondering what the boy was attempting to do. She saw the wires cut up the ground and the grass around her. Were they supposed to damage her?

Clicking his tongue in annoyance, Sasuke slapped his hands together to form another seal and quickly flipped through a combination. "Not done yet!" Grinning, his cheeks puffed up as he sucked in air again, before he exhaled it all at once. "Katon: Ryuka no Jutsu!" (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique) In a flash of orange, flames burst forth from the boy's lips and fanned out around him. Upon taking the shape reminiscent of an actual dragon from Tsubaki's point of view, the fire then shot down the wires thrown by the boy and headed straight towards her.

Almost instantly after hitting the ground around his target, following the cords thrown by the Uchiha, the flames set the earth ablaze and began to cook it. The grass in the area was instantly incinerated. The earth cracked under the force and stone began to melt under the high temperatures as the fires increased in size. Spreading as if the soil was covered in petrol Sasuke brought a raging hell down upon his foe and lit it up directly at her feet.

However, as the fires continued to scorch the earth and practically burnt it black, in spite of the unbelievable heat rising into the air, Tsubaki was unfazed.

The girl merely stared up at her opponent and watched him cut the feed to his technique, leaving her bathed in flames and in clear view of the cameras. After several seconds and allowing the fires to lick at her skin and clothes, the Kiri kunoichi then gave a blink before rolling her shoulder.

"Nice try… but attacking the earth I'm standing on still won't be enough," Tsubaki informed, watching the flames around her die and leaving the small hill and crater scolding hot. Eyes fixing on the raven haired boy up in the tree and now on his feet too, the kunoichi smirked. "You have a good set of skills and a keen intellect. However, if fire release attacks are all you've got, then I'm afraid you're done."

At that, a steel hard resolve set in the Uchiha's mind.

He still had one try left.

If he fucked up, then he was done for either way.

This was something Sasuke knew all too well. Now that he was at the end of his count, he was now more determined than ever to finish this battle. With his Sharingan unable to break down the trick behind this girl's strange intangibility, with no strategy to effectively go on since he couldn't move her in the slightest and with his strongest attacks not having any affect whatsoever, he was down to one last resort.

Eyes flashing with determination, the boy flipped through a couple of seals before finishing by gripping his left wrist and holding it firmly beneath him. After a moment of concentration, his hand suddenly ignited a whitish blue and the sound of birds chirping filled the air as sparks of electricity began to seemingly radiate off of his entire hand. The zaps and crackles of sparks surrounded him and illuminated his entire body, the crowd looking up at the big screen in surprise at what they saw.

Even Tsubaki blinked in shock at the sight of his next technique.

"That's…"

OOO

(Stadium – Team Instructors Section)

"Kakashi… that's your…" Gai spoke in surprise, glancing across at the man to see the Jonin in question smiling.

Giving a nod at the looks being sent towards him by the other teachers, the instructor of Team 7 focused on the arena to see the glow of his student's technique flare into life. "Yes. It is."

"The original technique of Konoha's Copy Ninja Kakashi," Asuma murmured, watching on with a bead of nervous sweat running down his face. After the incredible display of power and skill he'd seen in this battle so far, he was in the right to be anxious at this point. "So you actually taught one of your students how to use that move?"

"Chakra that's visible to the naked eye," Genma said as he recalled seeing this attack before in the past. Looking across, he could see the stunned looks from all of Team Kurenai, and smiled when he figured that neither of them had seen something like this before. "Reckless… but considering the circumstances, I don't see a reason why he can't try."

"His opponent is clearly in a whole other league compared to him," Kakashi explained, furrowing his brow. "Just like Lee, Sasuke knows he cannot defeat this kunoichi any other way and has thus resulted to using the only card left in his hand." His fists clenched uneasily as he looked across at Tsubaki on the receiving end of his student's glare, whose surprise ebbed away once she got a good look at the next attack coming her way. This didn't provide much comfort for all those watching. "He'll need it…"

While the others thought it was a bit irresponsible of Kakashi to teach his student such a deadly move, they realized it would be futile to try and explain anything to him. After all, both Kakashi and Gai were in the same boat in teaching their students dangerous moves, so that pretty much made both of them of the same species.

Arguing over it would have to wait until later. Now they wanted to see how this next attack would pan out… and whether or not it would have any effect.

OOO

(Stadium – Arena)

"Chidori!" (A Thousand Birds) Sasuke shouted, eyes widening as he cocked his arm back before, in a light blue blur, dashed straight down the side of the tree before charging across the battlefield towards his opponent. Head held forward and arm held back, the youngster trailed a massive gash across the field as his electricity induced hand was aimed to take his opponent down in one go.

The amount of speed he'd built up and the amount of chakra he had accumulated in his hand reached everyone in the arena in some way. The crowd was not only awed by the sheer sight of the attack, but also by the aura they could feel it was giving off. Even the proctors made sure to give the boy an extremely wide berth as he went charging past them with his attack blazing a path towards his foe.

Everyone watched with baited breath as the Uchiha made a beeline toward his target along a straight and true path, a yell bellowing out as he took aim with his arm. Thanks to his Sharingan, he didn't have to fear an attack from a blind spot. His clarity and point of view was absolutely perfect, and from what he could see, nothing was standing in his way.

Several seconds later and closing in on his perfectly still target, Sasuke struck.

Letting out a roar of effort, he drove forward with his fully corked jab and sent it straight into the girl's chest, with all intents and purposes of plowing it through her to the other side. If knives didn't work, fire didn't work and destroying her foundations didn't, then this attack would.

It had to!

A loud thump rang out as the screech of a thousand birds echoed throughout the stadium, silencing all those watching and leaving everyone in a state of amazement when they saw the attack shoot forward. With its linear path and its directness, you would think one wouldn't be able to pull off such a straightforward attack successfully. But against all odds, the Uchiha did.

At least, that's what it seemed like, until Sasuke looked up in shock to see that his opponent had grabbed his wrist at the last second and was now holding his lightning imbued hand tightly in her grip.

When his stunned gaze locked onto Tsubaki's, who glared back at him intensely with fire burning in her eyes, the boy growled and attempted to force his hand through. However, after a few moments of useless pushing and pulling, he found that his arm just would not budge. The girl had him in a vice and the Uchiha could feel the strain of her fingers tightening around him like cuffs. You could tell she was also pissed.

It was then, after a few seconds of being held there against his will and feeling his Chidori crackle away inside of her palm, Sasuke then looked up in bewilderment when he saw the electricity zapping off of his limb suddenly run up the kunoichi's hand and forearm, before being sucked into her skin. The chakra in his attack faded in an instant when the electric currents jumping off of him were unexpectedly drawn into his opponent and absorbed, stunning the boy as he attempted to twist his way out. But try as he might, no matter how hard he fought, the girl was just not letting go.

The audience was stunned into silence.

Sasuke glared at her again, Sharingan blazing, "W-What the hell are you?"

Eyes narrowing, Tsubaki looked down at the boy's hand she was holding onto before glancing back into his blood red eyes.

"I think I'm right in saying that you've used up the last of your tries."

Eyes widening in alarm, Sasuke quickly responded by trying to yank his arm free again. But then, just as he was rooting himself to the ground for another pull, his body suddenly froze up, and his muscles started to contract and tighten uncontrollably. Pain beginning to shoot through him in waves, the trembling Uchiha remained standing for several seconds longer before collapsing to his knees, a strangled groan escaping his lips as he felt sweat start pouring off of him and the sting continue to escalate at an alarming rate.

Soon, he was struggling to maintain consciousness.

Through the burning agony coursing through his system, Sasuke looked up to see his wrist was still being held tightly in the girl's grip, his Sharingan deactivating due to his intense flickering between complete blackout and barely blurry. Because of this, he could no longer see the chakra running out of his opponent.

It was not like it would have helped him any, as he still could not figure out what the hell his opponent was or what her attacks were.

"Wh… What are you…?" Sasuke asked through a strained voice, his body shaking as he knelt there for several seconds longer before his eyes then widened when his senses eventually did the full lap inside of his head. The realization hit him with the force of a sledgehammer. "Wait a second… this static chakra… I've felt it before." Alarmed, he glanced at his opponent again and scowled, sweat dribbling down his face and cheeks in his trying efforts to bite back the pain and maintain consciousness. "Your affinity… could it be…"

Blinking as she heard the Uchiha's strained words, Tsubaki's frown deepened before she raised her hand to him. "Figured it out?" She then began extending her finger.

Realizing what was to come should the tip of her index touch him the raven haired teen reacted instinctively and threw his other hand forward, dropping a few pellets along the ground. When they rolled to a stop at the girl's feet and ignited, Tsubaki's eyes widened considerably in shock and a grin formed on Sasuke's face, a split second before both of them were instantly engulfed in flames and debris by the small bombs detonating all at once.

A shockwave rang out across the arena and the air filled with thick, black smoke at the conclusion of the concussive explosions, after which the raven haired avenger then came springing out of the ember filled cloud and into the trees. Managing to get as much of his bearings back from the scolding pain that had previously been racking his body, Sasuke started making his way over to the rocky outcrops. If he could find a hiding place in amongst the trees and cliffs there, he would be able to stall for enough time until he came up with an effective plan to use against his enemy.

Tsubaki was too dangerous to go head to head with. He'd approached her in the opening of this fight the wrong way.

What he really needed was a plan.

"She's not unbeatable. Her intangibility applies to all the other elements except one!" Sasuke thought hurriedly as he continued leaping through the trees across the arena, putting as much distance as he could between himself and his foe. "Lightning! If I can find a narrow corridor and blindside her with one more Chidori, I'll be able to beat her!"

However, while he was making his hasty retreat through the trees, he failed to notice Tsubaki also jump out of the cloud of smoke that had formed from the explosions. Appearing on the other side and dusting off her slightly singed coat, the orange haired girl breathed an exasperated sigh and glared off in the direction her target had gone.

As impressive as his counter had been, it pissed her off more than it hurt.

She had to make herself intangible to avoid the brunt of the blasts, but that resulted in her releasing him at the last second and allowing him to get away. Though it was a reckless and desperate attempt, it had still been an incredibly clever play.

"This kid isn't just smart... he's strong too. You've taken this a lot further then I thought you would've. That's four strikes," Tsubaki spoke, before bringing both hands out in front of her and holding one palm above the other. As soon as she did, her eyes narrowed dangerously. "I won't let you reach five." The moment she spoke those words, electricity began crackling between her fingers before forming into a small ball of lightning, which she held inside her hands. This lightning then started to course all over her and, in the blink of an eye, the kunoichi's entire body started to glow a bright blue. "Yata no Kagami." (Eight Yata Mirrors)

The moment she spoke the incantation, a beam of electricity shot out from the ball in her hands and darted across the arena at lightning speed. As soon as the bolt of light was released and started zigzagging through the air like an actual electric current, Tsubaki's form broke apart into thousands of photons and traveled along with the stream of energy, her electrified form disappearing from sight.

This bolt of lightning reached Sasuke in an instant, the boy spotting the flash of light in his peripherals as he was in the process of leaping across to another tree. While in mid-flight, he looked over his shoulder in surprise, wondering what the flash of blue was before Tsubaki suddenly materialized out of the air directly beside him, hands in her pockets, a glare directed at him, and a kick spinning straight down at him.

"What?!" Sasuke's eyes widened in shock, a split second before the girl suddenly slammed her glowing foot on top of his skull and sent him into the earth.

With a clap of thunder ringing out, the Uchiha crashed into the grassy hill a full two stories beneath him on the edge of the tree line. Upon making impact, an explosion of dust and rubble shot into the air like a landmine going off, moments before the cloud lifted to reveal the young prodigy lying unconscious in a small, man-shaped crater with blood dripping down his head and out from the corner of his mouth.

After being hit by her lightning fast kick, the shock of the same attack that had sent Akatsuchi rocketing away in his match was just too much for even the raven haired prodigy of Konohagakure to take.

It was over.

Shaking off the surprise of watching another impossible scenario take place, Hayate quickly moved forward to check on the downed Uchiha along with the other proctors. After making sure he was still alive and seeing Tsubaki land several yards away with her hands slipped into her jeans, the proctor then turned to the audience and raised a hand towards the emotionless kunoichi, who remained in place with her gaze set on her downed adversary. "Winner of Match 5 by knockout: Tsubaki of Kirigakure!"

Under a quiet applause and the clamor of the crowd, the orange haired girl turned heel and began making her way back to the balcony, where she intended to watch the next fight unfold.

TO BE CONTINUED…

---

Author's Note: Another chapter down, another on its way, and things are shaping up to be really exciting in the next few rounds.