Thanks you everyone for the reviews so far

Thanks you everyone for the reviews so far! I'm so surprised at how many reviews I have for this. Well, anyway, thanks for all the reviews and keep them coming!! Please read and review!!

Disclaimer­-I will never own Inuyasha and/or Naruto… no matter how much I wish I could!

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Chapter 11-Chunin Exams Final

A month had gone by quickly for Kagome, Sesshomaru, Itachi, and Inuyasha. During the month, they were on missions ranked for ANBU and training for the exams even though they didn't really need it.

Kagome and Inuyasha hardly saw Sesshomaru since he was with his father on days when they weren't training or on missions. Kagome and Itachi were hardly out of each other's sights, especially since Itachi cared for his little Kagome a lot.

Inuyasha was with another genin named Shippo when he wasn't training with his sensei for the exams as well. Inuyasha and Shippo were known pranksters to get attention among the villagers.

Sesshomaru was always with his father learning how to be the next Tsukikage. His father deemed him ready to be the next kage whenever Sesshomaru wanted to end being an ANBU.

Now that the month was over, the newly appointed young ANBU and their captain/sensei headed towards Konoha. Itachi was holding Kagome while walking towards Konoha once more.

Itachi had on his ANBU uniform without the mask. His hair was pulled into his usual low ponytail style. His eyes showed the coal black when just walking, but in battle his sharingan was shown with the three tomoes spinning wildly.

Since they were not permitted to wear the entire ANBU uniform, the young ANBU were to wear the white armor and black underneath that. Itachi was holding their masks in case something happened during the final part of the chunin exams. They also had their weapons ready for use during the exam.

When they entered Konoha, they went straight to the arena where the exams were being held. Along the way, they had all the citizens of Konoha staring at them since they recognized the uniforms for the ANBU ranks.

As they entered the arena, they went to where the other genin were waiting. They realized that they were the last ones to come. Even Kakashi was there!

"Welcome to the third part of the chunin exams. The rules for this part are that there isn't any. You may do whatever and anything you wish to your opponent except kill them," said the referee. "The first match will begin momentarily. Will everyone except Neji Hyuuga and Kagome Higurashi please leave the arena?"

When everyone left except those whose names were called, Itachi went up to the hokage and gave him a letter from the current Tsukikage. The letter just stated that Kagome, Sesshomaru, and Inuyasha were now ANBU rank and can give up their matches before it ever started. The hokage looked down and watched Kagome and Neji walk towards the middle of the arena.

With the other genin, Sesshomaru and Inuyasha separated themselves from the others. Shippo wasn't there since he was badly injured from training and the punishments from all the pranks they did. The chunins and jounins always caught Shippo instead of Inuyasha for reasons unknown to the silver-haired half-breed.

"Hey, who do you think is going to win? Kagome or Neji?" asked Naruto to Shikamaru. He watched Kagome jump away from a kick on the side coming form the left.

"Probably Kagome since she's wearing the ANBU uniform. Neji should just give up now since he is out of his league with her," answered Shikamaru. "This is all too troublesome."

"She's ANBU? Then, why is she still participating in the chunin exams?" asked a startled sand-nin by the name of Temari. She watched as Kagome formed many hand seals and sent a dragon made of fire towards Neji, who barely dodged the fire dragon.

"We have no choice but to participate. The Tsukikage, our father, told us that we still have to participate. What good would it do if we just completed the first two pars and not the last?" said Sesshomaru in his cold emotionless voice.

"Since my brother is your teacher, what happens to him if you aren't his students anymore?" asked Sasuke staring at the two silver-haired boys. "What was that note he gave to the hokage?"

"Actually, since we're now ANBU, he goes back to ANBU rank and becomes our captain. At the beginning of this year, our otou-sama and Itachi made a deal. We were supposed to become ANBU when we became jounin, but Itachi-sensei thinks we are ready now," said Inuyasha.

"That note was probably saying that we could give up our matches if need be. It will be up to us if we want to fight or not," answered an emotionless Sesshomaru while watching the fight down below.

Down in the arena, Kagome was staring at Neji. She was getting really annoyed that he continued talking about fate being on his side during this match.

"You might as well give up now, Kagome," said Neji. He moved into the Hyuuga taijutsu stance. "You ate still destined to lose against me."

"Listen, Neji, you have to stop talking about fate. You can choose your own destiny. I know about that curse mark. I was branded as well, but I got rid of it," said Kagome. She walked up to him. "Let me help you. I can help you make your own destiny."

Neji didn't listen to her. When she was close enough to her, he punched her in the stomach. She backed away a bit and got into a stance that left no openings.

"Then I guess I'll have to really knock some sense into you. Instead of me surrendering, it should be you," said Kagome.

Since he couldn't hear her, he charged at her again and made to punch her but missed this time. He kept trying to hit her with either kicks or punches until he would get tired of it. He would miss since Kagome would keep dodging all the attacks.

When he took a breather, Kagome ran up to Neji by using chakra to her legs. By the time he blinked, she was already there in front of him with her miko powers on tow of her fingers.

Kagome pressed her two fingers to where the curse mark was. Neji felt something run through him. It felt painful enough to make him fall on his knees. After a couple of minutes, Neji began to feel like a huge burden had been lifted off of him.

Neji looked up with shock on his face. He saw Kagome a few feet away and staring at the audience. When he followed her gaze, he saw her staring at the Hyuuga clan head.

He turned back to Kagome and said quietly, "Why did you do that? Why would you?"

Kagome sighed and faced Neji. She answered, "Now you can choose you own path. You won't have to worry about that mark anymore. Soon you'll be able to live like everyone should—be that person civilian or shinobi."

"Arigato Kagome," said Neji. He turned to the referee. "I will not continue this match."

"This match goes to Kagome Higurashi," said the proctor.

Everyone in the stands were either cheering for the winner or staring at the little girl in wonder. They had no idea what just happened down there.

Hiashi stared at the retreating forms of Kagome and Neji. He knew what just happened between them. He knew that Kagome could get rid of the Hyuuga mark, but what he didn't know was that she could get rid of other branch members' marks. (A/N-Let's just say that he could tell if someone doesn't have the mark on…)

When the arena below was empty, the referee waited a while before wanting to call out the next match. Up in the waiting area for the awaiting genin and ANBU, Kagome and Neji walked in. Everyone, except Sesshomaru and Inuyasha, was staring at Kagome in wonder.

She walked over to Sesshomaru and Inuyasha. She waited a while before asking, "So what happened while I was gone? From the looks of things, it looks like something might have happened."

"Hn," said Sesshomaru. He looked over to Kagome. "The other genins were just wondering who would win between the Hyuuga boy and yourself. Apparently, the Nara genin figured out that we were ANBU rank and thought that the Hyuuga should have given up before anything could happen to him."

Inuyasha stared at his brother. He then exclaimed at him, "That has to be the longest sentence I have ever heard you say, Sesshomaru."

Once that was said, he received a very cold glare courtesy of Sesshomaru himself. Kagome laughed at what was going on between the two-inu brothers. Unknown to the three Tsuki-nins, although they could feel something was going on, the rest of the participants of the exams were examining Neji and his curse-free forehead.

"So it's now gone forever? You can't get it back?" asked Naruto, who was continuing to poke Neji's head.

With every poke to the head, Neji had an angry tick mark on his head. So, you could really see hoe angry he was. Before Naruto could poke his head again, he practically screamed for everyone to hear, "Will you stop poking me in the head already?! It's gone forever!"

By this time, Kagome and the Taisho brothers intervened with their conversations. To Kagome, it sounded like they didn't trust her answer about getting rid of the mark.

She walked over there and said, "If you don't believe him, then you should just ask the person who got rid of it in the first place. I've been trained to cure curses since I met Itachi, but before that, I started learning from my clan."

"Well then, I certainly believe you since there haven't been an effective miko since the Higurashi clan died," whispered Temari. "Besides, your clan's abilities reached everywhere around Fire Country."

"I wonder how that happened," mumbled Inuyasha. He walked over the hyperactive blonde and asked to talk to him in private. Before he left, Inuyasha said, "Good luck on your match Sasuke. You're going against the future Tsukikage."

Inuyasha lead Naruto out of the room before he could receive a slap to the head from Sesshomaru and angry Kagome. Since everyone in the room heard that, they turned towards the two Tsuki-nins.

Sesshomaru ignored the stares coming from the Suna and Konoha nins. Instead, he released a large amount of killing intent at the door where Inuyasha left through.

Kagome, sensing the intent from the dog demon, went over to him and tried to calm him down. "Calm down Sesshomaru. You can kill him after your match with Sasuke. That is after I heal you from what injuries you might receive."

Sesshomaru's killer intent went down a little bit, but it still remained. He turned away from everyone and faced the arena. He would certainly kill the half-breed when he returned from his match. Either that or he could wait until they went home so the villagers could get him, but then his father would get him… after his match is when Sesshomaru would hurt Inuyasha.

Down at the arena, the third proctor stood in the middle and yelled to everyone in the audience, "Will Sesshomaru Taisho and Sasuke Uchiha please come down for your match?"

With a quick glance at Kagome and then the door, Sesshomaru jumped over the ledge and landed on the ground below. Sasuke jumped down as well and made his way to where Sesshomaru and the ref were waiting.

Once the match began, Sesshomaru jumped a few feet away from Sasuke. However, Sasuke ran at Sesshomaru with his fist next to his side ready to punch his opponent. Even though he probably knew he wasn't going to hit him, he could at least try.

Before Sasuke could land a hit on Sesshomaru, the young demon pulled tensaiga and stuck it in the ground. The sword made a barrier around him so Sasuke's punch was deflected.

'What in the world was that?' thought Sasuke as he jumped back away from the barrier surrounding Sesshomaru. He activated his sharingan to see what the barrier was made from.

As Sasuke was getting a closer look at the barrier, Sesshomaru was thinking about sticking either tokijin or tensaiga through the young Uchiha. Of course, his sensei said to not technically kill him, but if he ended up dead, he could always bring him back… that is if the fang allowed him to.

"What in the world is that blade made out of?" asked Sasuke when he realized that the sword didn't have any chakra in it to make the barrier. 'That has got to be something relating to demons,' he thought.

"Hn. My father's fang," answered Sesshomaru as he pulled the sword out of the ground and charged at Sasuke.

Before Sasuke could dodge the sword, it was plunged deep in his chest. It even came out from the other end of his body! There was one problem though… there wasn't any blood coming out of the wound.

"How come I'm not dead?" asked Sasuke after the ref declared Sesshomaru the winner, and said demon pulled out the sword.

"Hn," said Sesshomaru. "I'm not obligated to answer that question. If you wish for an answer, you should go talk to your brother."

"I'm asking you. Why didn't you kill me when you had the chance?" asked a very stubborn Uchiha. He didn't understand why he was still alive. (A/N-It sounds like he wanted to die just then. Also, I think he was away when Sesshomaru first used the sword, so he didn't know it was for healing.)

Before Sesshomaru could respond, the proctor asked them to leave the arena for the next challengers. The two boys, or rather one boy and one inuyoukai, left the area for the next round.

However, once they arrived at the area where everyone else was, they saw Itachi talking to Kagome and Inuyasha. They both had their ANBU masks on their hips strapped to their waists. They walked over and heard their conversation.

"Alright, the Hokage wants us to protect everyone while he takes care of Orochimaru. He will fight the snake until he wins of dies. By that time, we need to get everything else taken care of," said Itachi.

"If Orochimaru still lives, can we at least go after him? He needs to die since he is long overdue for his death," growled Kagome. She really wanted to kill that snake no matter what.

"We will have to see what goes on between the Sandaime and the snake before we do anything. This is a battle between teacher and student. Nothing we do will change it," said Itachi. He looked over to Sesshomaru and Sasuke. "Good match you two. Sesshomaru, you heard what I just said?"

"Hai," answered Sesshomaru as he grabbed his mask and put it on his waist as well. "When will we attack the invading ninjas?"

"We'll attack whenever the first stage is in motion. It shouldn't be long now since the starting attack will be when the sand-nin has his match," said Itachi. "I wonder how that's going to happen though."

"Is it because Shippo isn't here to fight him?" asked Inuyasha. "If it helps, I'll fight him after my forfeit."

"Why would you surrender your match to a dead-last like Naruto?" asked the young Uchiha who decided now to make him self known to the other 'genin'.

"It's simple really. We're both hated by our villages. If I win out match, then the villagers here would walk all over him as if he was weak. If he wins, then the village would hopefully leave him alone or still hate him, but he would be okay… I think," answered Inuyasha. "Besides, we're both the same thing."

Before anyone could ask what he meant by that statement, the proctor called down the next match.

"Would Inuyasha Taisho and Naruto Uzumaki come down for their match?" asked the proctor.

Inuyasha and Naruto made their way to the arena. They received some glares and shocked gasps as the audience watched them head towards the referee.

"Ref, I give. It wouldn't be right to attack a fellow half-nin," said Inuyasha once they reached the middle of the arena. (A/N-Half-nin because he is a half-demon and half-nin… I think that would work…)

The ref thought about it for a while and then announced, "The winner of this by forfeit is Naruto Uzumaki."

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Well? There you go! Another chapter and I hope this somewhat makes up for the long wait. Anyway, I think this is almost done… I'm thinking about finishing this at the end of the exams… I'm not really sure though.

Also, you all should know the drill by now. Please review!! I would like at least some more reviews before continuing. Again, PLEASE REVIEW!!

-Ichigo Mirai