Why doesn't anyone has suggestions for who to fight? :/

Welcome back to another chapter of Team Itachi.

Yo: After going through your review for probably the sixth or seventh time I've heeded your advice and rewrote the part against Kin and the Sound Trio. Thank you for the input. And no, I'm not exactly offended :P

TheOrangeStar802: It's great to finally see someone saying "I thought this was going to be canon, but it wasn't" instead of "this is so identical to canon!". Hehe.

Charrmed: I'm pretty sure it was Tenten and not Ino who did the pushing! Hehe. Your Neji vs Sasuke idea is rather interesting but unfortunately I finished this chapter 5 minutes before reading your review. Anyway, I have other plans for Neji! ;) thanks for the review!

Thanks to Yo, Aurora-chan, TheOrangeStar802 and Charrmed for the reviews!

"Dosu Kinuta vs Kankuro Sabaku! Please come down to the arena!"

"My turn," Dosu smiled beneath his bandaged face, and leaped down towards the arena.

Kankuro did the same.

"Meh. I don't know any of these guys," Naruto put his hands behind his head.

"Still, it'll be good to see what the Genin of other villages can do," Sakura advised. She looked towards Dosu. "I didn't know the bandaged guy was still participating..."

"Yeah, after Sasuke beat him up so bad..." Naruto frowned.

Sasuke twitched at the mention, but said nothing.

Hayate paused for awhile to see if both parties wanted to exchange any pre-match banter. When they didn't say a word, the coughing proctor nodded.

"Begin."

"Let's see what you can do," Kankuro cracked his knuckles. He started unwrapping the bundle on his back.

Dosu attacked first, swinging a fist. Kankuro's hands left the bundle, as he blocked the punch.

Smirking, Dosu released his signature move.

"What is this noise?" Naruto complained, stuffing his fingers into his ears. He saw that the rest of the audience were doing the same. In the arena, Kankuro had a pained expression on his face as Dosu worked his magic.

To the one-eyed boy's surprise, instead of blood, various cracks appeared in Kankuro's ear.

Dosu swung a kick at the distracted Kankuro, knocking him to the ground. Again, instead of blood, there were cracks on the Suna Genin's cheek.

"Who the hell are you?" Dosu demanded, as Kankuro got back up. He used the Echo Drill again, and this time, Kankuro's other ear cracked.

Laughing in a funny manner, the rest of 'Kankuro' broke off to reveal a hideous-looking humanoid. Naruto gasped. 'Kankuro' now had spiky hair, three eyes and four arms.

From the bundle emerged the real Kankuro, laughing. "Everyone falls for that. Everyone, I tell you!"

As Dosu growled at Kankuro, Naruto turned towards Itachi. "Itachi-sensei. What's that... weird looking thing?"

Itachi studied the humanoid with interest. "That's a puppet. So this guy's a puppeteer. Interesting."

"A puppet?" Naruto frowned.

"You will see what it can do," Itachi gestured towards the arena.

"So you're a puppeteer." Dosu observed the puppet.

Kankuro waved his fingers, and the puppet moved towards Dosu. "I'll let you have a taste on what Crow can do!"

Crow opened it's mouth, shooting several senbon. One stabbed into Dosu's arm, and his single eye widened as he found something purple on the tip of the senbon.

"This match has been decided," Kankuro smirked, moving his fingers again. Scythe blades shot out from Crow's torso, and the puppet shot towards Dosu. "But I guess, just for fun, I'll kill you before the poison takes effect."

"So I was correct..." Dosu frowned. "That was poison."

Temari shook her head. "What is Kankuro doing?" She hissed softly to Gaara. "He shouldn't be revealing all of his secret techniques before the invasion starts!"

"Let it go, Temari," Gaara shrugged. "He's having fun."

Crow's scythes swung onto Dosu, but he jumped away, and the blades sank into the ground.

As much as I hate to admit it, I don't stand a chance of winning, Dosu thought. I've been injected with poison, and the Echo Drill will do nothing to that annoying puppet. I'd be better off giving up now.

"I give up!" He announced, just in time as one of the scythes stopped right in front of his chest.

"Good choice," Kankuro jerked his arm backwards, and Crow returned back to it's owner. The scythes disappeared back into the puppet's body.

Hayate nodded, gesturing to Kankuro. "Winner: Kankuro Sabaku."

"That was quick," Naruto blinked. "I wonder who's going up next? Maybe it's me? Heh heh!"

The electric board began the usual flickering. Naruto kept his keen eyes fixed on the board, and when it stopped, looked away in disappointment. It wasn't him!

Then, his head snapped back to the board as he realized who it was.

"Sasuke Uchiha vs Kin Tsuchi. Will these two Genin come down please?"

"It's time for Sasuke-kun to show his sexiness!" Ino announced excitedly.

"Sasuke!" Naruto yelled into the Uchiha's ear, patting him on the back. "You better win this one!"

"Sasuke-kun," Sakura smiled. "Do your best."

Sasuke grinned. "So it's my turn, huh?"

A hand on his shoulder made him look back.

"Sasuke..." Itachi frowned. "Don't use the Sharingan, or ninjutsu. You got me?"

"Big brother..." Sasuke sighed. "Right, I won't." He stepped down towards the arena.

Kin jumped into the arena. So it's Sasuke Uchiha. She shuddered as she thought of how Sasuke had taken care of their entire team under the influence of the Cursed Seal. Let's hope he won't do that again.

"My apologies for... um, almost killing you that time," Sasuke said awkwardly, getting into a taijutsu stance.

"You're apologizing for killing?" Kin raised an eyebrow.

"Sorta, yeah," Sasuke replied lamely.

Hayate looked between the two of them and nodded, bringing his raised hand down.

"Begin."

Kin immediately got out three senbon, flinging them towards Sasuke.

"Hurrh!" Sasuke ducked and flashed towards Kin, kicking her in the face. Whipping out a kunai, he launched into a flurry of kicks and slashes. Kin narrowly avoided half of them.

Seems like she's the weakest in her team, Sasuke observed.

Jumping a considerable distance away, Kin flung more senbon, watching as Sasuke dodged the needles with ease. He seems to be using only taijutsu. So I just have to maintain a distance from him.

Getting out her bell-attached senbon, she threw the needles.

"Is senbon all you can use?" Sasuke said with annoyance, knocking the needles away with his kunai. Then he blinked. In front of him were now multiple Kins.

Genjutsu?

Suddenly, there was a harsh ringing in his ears.

He covered his ears but the ringing got louder, and he screamed in agony as his eardrums were messed with.

Pain shot through his abdomen, and he looked down to discover four senbon sticking into his stomach. Suddenly, a senbon stabbed into his shoulder.

I need to get out of this!

A senbon struck him on his other shoulder. His hand leaving his ear to pull out all the senbon, the ringing only got harsher.

Calm down, Sasuke.

Another senbon hit him in the arm.

Calm. Calm. All you have to do is to hit the user of this, and the ringing will stop.

But which one is the real one? He looked up, to see the multiple Kins were still there. I'm sorry, big brother. Looks like I have to use this.

"Sharingan!"

Black pupils turned red and now with a fixed target, Sasuke leaped forward with a battle cry, punching Kin in the cheek. It was a strong one, and Kin was knocked to the ground.

Damn it, Sasuke, Itachi bit his lip. Please, don't use the Sharingan!

The pain from the Cursed Seal returned, and Sasuke winced, swiftly deactivating his Sharingan.

Getting up, Kin gripped onto a senbon in her hand, and used it as a weapon. She slashed wildly, but Sasuke dropped down and threw himself forward into Kin's legs, sending the Oto nin tumbling down again.

Groaning, Kin picked herself up.

Seeing that his opponent refused to quit, Sasuke leaped forward again, launching into a flurry of punches. Kin jumped to the side and managed to get a lucky shot, stabbing her senbon into Sasuke's shoulder.

Turning swiftly, Sasuke roundhouse-kicked the Genin girl to send her flying, before pulling out the senbon from his shoulder and tossing it to the ground.

These senbon don't hurt as much as I thought. I just have to keep any of it from going close to my neck.

As if his thoughts had been read, three senbon flew towards his neck, and Sasuke narrowly escaped by using shuriken to stop the oncoming needles.

Ringing invaded the Uchiha's ears again, and Sasuke frowned, quickly covering his ears. Senbon with bells attached flashed past him, and he relaxed when the ringing stopped.

To his surprise, three senbon pierced him in the shoulders and one brushed past his cheek.

How did I not sense that?

Pulling out the senbon, he swiftly charged towards Kin, closing the distance between them. He couldn't use any long-range attacks for this match, after all.

More bell-ringing senbon flew towards him, and Sasuke did a somersault into the air elegantly, dodging the needles in the process. Suddenly, two senbon struck his cheek.

"Next time I won't miss your neck," Kin assured, as Sasuke pulled out the senbon and addressed the blood dripping down his cheeks.

Is she using some sort of technique to ensure I won't detect the senbon?

More ringing sounded as the bells-attached senbon flew past again. Sasuke turned his head.

It took him a moment to make the connections, and on instinct, activated his Sharingan. He was two seconds early, and just managed to avoid the needles bound for his neck.

"So the first set of senbon you threw had bells attached to them," Sasuke concluded. "And then you threw more senbon right after while I was distracted by the ringing."

"Tsk." Kin mentally sighed. She was so close, too.

"Urkk!" His hands going up to his neck, Sasuke felt the Cursed Seal spreading.

Anko watched from the third floor of the room, a floor above the Genin and Jonin audience. She turned to the Third Hokage, who was beside her.

"Hokage-sama," she warned.

"I know," Hiruzen stared at Sasuke.

"Then...?"

"Just wait, Anko," the Sandaime advised. "Sasuke is strong enough."

Itachi started panicking, and was about to jump in.

However, true to the Hokage's words, Sasuke put all his will into stopping the Cursed Seal. Forcibly, it stopped it's spreading and returned to being only a simple mark on the neck.

Deactivating his Sharingan again, Sasuke went for his target.

I think I've figured out all her tricks. This match is mine.

Kin got into a stance, desperately wondering what she could do. Her taijutsu was basic level at best, and with this troublesome Uchiha kid figuring out all her tricks, she already knew what this match's outcome would be.

A punch to her face pulled her back to reality. Kin felt herself knocked to the floor and sliding backwards.

Sasuke pulled out a kunai and positioned it at her neck before she could do anything more.

"Give up," he suggested.

Kin sighed. She couldn't do anything more.

"I give up."

Hayate coughed, and nodded, showing he'd heard. Sasuke got off Kin, helping her up with a smile.

"You fought well."

Making no attempt to thank her opponent, Kin swung around and walked back up the stairs to join her teammates. Sasuke rolled his eyes. He disliked sore losers.

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha!"

It wasn't that much of a good chapter in my opinion, but at least I've cleared four battles already! As always, every reader is free to leave feedback on who should fight who. Until next time!