Sasuke activated his Sharigan as soon as Hayate said go. As Lee ran forward, Sasuke met him. Lee punched, Sasuke ducked. He kicked, Lee jumped backwards and was back the next instant. "You are better than the last time we fought," Lee stated.

"I... have been training to get my speed higher," Sasuke told him. Sasuke jumped back and took out two shuriken that were tied to ninja wire. He ran forward again, spinning the shuriken around him in a very fast speed.

Lee, realizing that even jumping over the blades was useless considering the wire, decided to go for Sasuke himself. He bent down and jumped in the air. "Konoha senpu!"

"Fire Blossom!" Sasuke had seen him and had spun the kunai around him. Sasuke then put the wires in his mouth and did a few handsigns, ending on Tora. Fire charged up the wires at Lee, hitting him. Lee dropped down, barely scratched but his bowl cut haircut was ruined a little. The right side was now off. "How much hair gel do you have in that!?"

"I see that I am not going to beat you at this level," Lee stated. He looked up to the seats and looked at Sakura. Whom was having trouble deciding who to cheer for. "And Sakura-chan should not have to worry like this. So let us end it." Lee jumped up on a tree and looked for the approval of his sensei. He got it and was about to take off his weights.

"Damn it, I have to use that jutsu," Sasuke swore rather loudly. "Lee, against you, this is the ultimate jutsu!" He formed a handsign.

"Lee, don't let him use it," Gai shouted. The boy jumped down from the tree, dropping his weights as he did.

"Too late! Behold the power of the only D rank kinjutsu! Ninja Centerfold: Hot spring Sakura!" Sasuke was covered in smoke and Lee landed, about to punch him. The smoke cleared when Sakura, her hair wet and wearing nothing but a towel, suddenly hugged him. She whispered something in his ears, making his face turn red while he nodded. Suddenly that fist reared back and instead of hitting his enemy, Lee knocked himself out.

Sakura changed back into Sasuke. "Too easy." He looked up at the scowling Naruto and grinned. "Yeah, I remembered you using that against Iruka-sensei."

Hayate gaped at the sight he just saw, unable to believe someone would knock themselves out in the Final Exam. "...Cough. Winner, Uchiha Sasuke."

Sasuke walked up to the stands to see Sakura running at him. "What did you say!?"

Sasuke grinned at her. "That if he did that, you would go on a date with him." The unexpected happened. Sakura's fist met his face.

"You jerk! You arrogant asshole! How dare you do that to him!? It would have been better if you had me naked and make him pass out from blood lost!"

"But I thought..."

"No, you didn't think! That might have ruined his career! Of course, you don't care! All you care about is getting stronger so you can kill that person!"

Sasuke grew quiet. "That isn't all I care about."

"Then what is!?"

"My friends."

Sakura scowled at him all the more. "Which you obviously didn't care enough about. Lee wanted to fight you fairly at you best. And you did this to him."

She stomped away from him, letting him know how much she hated him right now. There was being a ninja and winning anyway possible. And then there was this. Sasuke completely ruined his chances at being a chunin.

And it wasn't over for Sasuke. Even Naruto was mad at him. "Nice job, Assgay," He shushined down to the arena along with Gaara. "We are in a bad mood so we will end this quick."

"How do you plan to do that? You saw how the girl faired."

"We imagine it must be heavy wearing all that."

"Second match of the Chunin Exam ready. Go," Hayate called out.

"Enmu no Jutsu!"

"Dessert Coffin!"

Darkness covered the arena just as the sand came crashing down on Naruto. "It missed."

Zabuza grinned, he knew what came next. "He is going to state the eight points."

"You already know this, Gaara. But there are eight points on your body we can strike that can kill you right now." The sound of dripping water came from somewhere in the darkness. "But we have a better idea right now."

"...Rain," Gaara asked as he felt water start to fall down.

"Close. It is coming from us. And it is going to flood the arena." Naruto had originally planned on Venom holding the water to use in his ice jutsus. But he felt those would not be of use here against Gaara. The darkness was pushed up as the water filled the bottom of the stadium. Gaara used his sand to float up into the air and he got caught.

The darkness fell away to reveal a spiderweb covered the upper half of the arena. Naruto was hanging from it in the center, the slanted eyes of his mask the facing him. "We were expecting more to drive you up into these." He stopped dropping the water, which was well over six feet deep now, and vanished.

Gaara knew this was the moment he would try to kill him. So he formed a sphere around him that was skin tight. In the air, a eye of sand formed while grains of sand filled the air. They spread out from the central sphere. Naruto danced along the webs, still hidden. But the moment that floating sand hit him, Gaara would know where he was.

He found himself pressed against the wall and looked for an escape. He saw two.

Gaara watched the sand fill the arena but Naruto was nowhere in sight. They eye cast about, looking for him. The pupil shifted until it saw a web hanging from it. It then shifted to see above it. Something was obscuring the view a little, making the air waver.

"Found you, Uzumaki Naruto!" Sand began to focus around him. Naruto dropped his cloak and jumped. His webs caught the sphere that held Gaara. As more wrapped around it, Naruto jumped up on a web not supporting him and the sand. He cut the others and was the only thing suspending Gaara in the Air.

"Enjoy your bath!" The web covered it, securing the sand in place before dropping the sphere.

For a moment, nothing happened. Then the sand tried to expand out. The webs stretched and contorted but held strong. Hayate watched from the water's surface. "Cough. So this is why you made the heavy comment."

"...Shit!" Naruto jumped from his position before a claw of sand tore through the webs, aiming for where Naruto. It fell back and began to fall apart. "Call it," he told Hayate. When he hesitated, Naruto said it again.

"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto dived into the water, absorbing it back into Venom. He pulled the remains of the webbing off and dug through the sand. He found Gaara and pulled him up to the surface. "Breath damn it. We don't want to give you mouth to mouth." He reached up, grabbed the web, and pulled himself up onto it. Letting Gaara hang by his feet, Naruto slapped him on his back. Gaara began to cough the water from his lungs. "Whew, that is a relief."

Gaara snapped his eyes open and his sand began to surround him. Naruto dived to the right, vanished, and Gaara felt something touch his neck before he reappeared. The Kage Keiri was against drew a thin line of red. His sand moved to catch up with him but there was nothing it could do at this point. "You already lost, Gaara. Relax and watch the show."

"I...lost?"

"Yes, but it happens. At least you didn't lose your life for it." He put the Kage Keiri back on his back and pulled him from the sand. Righting him, he set Gaara back on the ground.

Gaara couldn't believe it still. "How... How could I lose? I can't lose. I am a weapon..."

"Whoa, hold on. A weapon," Naruto asked him. "We knew a weapon once. Maybe you would like to meet her."

Gaara focused his eyes back on Naruto and began to growl. "No one beats me!"

"Gaara, calm down," Temari yelled. "Please stay calm!"

"Listen to your teammate, Gaara," Naruto warned him. "We won't hold back if we have to fight again."

It took some effort but Gaara got back in control. "...I lost, something I will accept. Pray, Uzumaki, that we don't meet on a battlefield." Gaara reformed his gourd as he walked back up the stands. 'The signal hasn't been given. I must wait until then. And once it is, your blood, Uzumaki Naruto, belongs to mother.'

Naruto watched him go, strung a web up to the stands, and swung up to by Haku. He lifted his mask and gave her a kiss. "Inspiring, no?"

—oo000oo—

Zabuza laughed as he stood up and began to clap. "The kid is good."

"That he is. But so is Gaara. If Naruto was anyone else, he would have won. I am disturbed though that the Kazekage would turn his own son into a weapon."

"I am guilty of something like that as well. But that is in the past, as they say. Recommend that both become chunin?"

Sarutobi closed his eyes for a moment. "Gaara has my support. Naruto held back though so I want to know how strong he is first."

"Agreed. He shows great promise as an assassin. I wouldn't be surprised if he does make it to be a hunter nin... I heard a rumor that he killed over two hundred bandits back in Wave. Any truth to that?"

Sarutobi faked his shock well. "Mizukage-sama, that is absurd! A genin of that kind of strength participating in a chunin exam!? Plus, I read the statement of that mission myself. There was less than two dozen there by the time his team arrived on the scene."

Zabuza chuckled. "Of course, Hokage-sama. And I was the Mizukage at that time as well." The looks they shared said the same thing. Bull shit.

—oo000oo—

"Cough. The forth match of the Chunin Exams is about to begin. Ninja ready? Go!"

Naruto looked up from Haku when he heard that. He had been flirting with her, and promising Hinata to make it up to her later as it was still a general secret that they were together. "We missed it?"

"Shikamaru won," Haku told him before giving him another kiss. "But he said he will forfeit the next math. Said it was too troublesome."

"How did he do?"

"Strategy is his strong suit. We believe he will likely make chunin."

Naruto nodded. "And Kiba?"

"No, too hot headed. Fell for all his traps."

Naruto nodded, he had expected much the same. Even with Akamaru there with him, thinking was not his strength. Kiba was like a weapons master. In a fight, he found it better not to think, rather to react, to always be moving. With no plan, it was impossible to see what he was going to do next. Shikamaru had no doubt hated that. So he had to make him do as he wanted. "How long did it take before Shikamaru started to get Kiba to do what he wanted?"

"Over five minutes of dodging and attacking," Haku told him.

"...Maybe he will. We will have to wait and see."

Temari down below unfurled her fan and blasted Shino's bugs back. He jumped out of the way of the wind take several kunai from his sleeves and threw them. Temari couldn't swing her fan back fast enough to knock them aside. So she let the kunai hit the hardwood of her fan.

Her eyes widened as the kunai fell apart into the insects. "Kawarimi no jutsu." She was replaced with a log from one of the broken trees. 'Okay, getting close to anything from him is bad. Meaning I need to stay far enough that I can destroy anything I.' She looked back at the wall behind her. She didn't like the small size here. She would have given anything for it to be held out in Suna. Then they would have been fighting out on the open sands.

She looked back at Shino. He was just standing there, not even looking for her. An obvious trap. She looked down at the grass and watched. There. It was small but the grass had shifted. He was searching for her with his bugs moving out in a spiral from him. She had about ten seconds until they reached her. She needed to end this now. Plus, he was one of the Aburame. A lost of one of their numbers would help in the up coming battle.

She bit her thumb and spread the blood across her fan. "Summoning no jutsu!" She threw her fan out, sending out a much greater blast of wind. A one eyed weasel wielding a kama appeared, flying through the wind, spinning his blade. Shino looked over at her just in time to be cut in half. The winds hit the walls, gouging deep gashes in them.

After a moment of Hayate just impassively looking on, Temari lost her patience. "Call the match alre..." The Shino on the ground turned to bugs as well. A kunai was placed against her throat as bugs covered her body, sucking her chakra dry.

"Surrender or die," Shino told her simply.

"You knew where I was, didn't you?"

"Check your fan," he told her. There, on the wood, was a single red bug, while the others were all black. "A female. They admit a very strong chem to attract males. I always knew where you were. Now surrender before you die of chakra exhaustion."

She growled after a moment but she couldn't think of a way out of this. Across the way, Kamatari waited for her orders, his kama hefted on his shoulder, unsure what to do. He would cut her apart if he attacked right then. "Kamatari, use your wind!"

Shino tensed as he heard that. The weasel nodded before he threw his kama. It sailed through the air, gathering wind about it. He waited for her to reveal it was a bluff. But it got closer. Then he saw it. Throwing it like he did, the blade would travel around her, cutting him in half, for real this time. Shino dropped just in time, as the kama rounded around Temari while the wind with it pulled the bugs off her and hit them against the wall.

Temari squished the female while she grabbed the scythe and jumped into the air. Another blast of wind carried her over to her friend. She scratched his ear while she gave it back to him. "Impeccable aim, as always."

"One of these days, you are going to get hurt by stunts like that." Kamatari told her. "Kill him?"

"...Yes." She was breathing deeply, those bugs had taken a good portion of her energy before she could get them off. Kamatari held up his weapon, ready to rend him apart with it.

Shino, took a quick look at the situation. His insects were easily driven away by the winds these two produced. Beyond them, he didn't have much in the form of strength. And he couldn't get close to one a beat them because the other would use their wind to force him off. The same thing with his insects. So he could either fight them both at the same time or surrender... What he really needed was a bigger bug.

Shino pulled a real kunai out and cut his thumb with it. With the kunai still in hand, he formed several handsigns and threw it. Temari knocked it up into the wall behind and above her. The blade sunk into it, dispersing the chakra and blood it held. If Shino was someone else, he would have smiled.

Temari felt a blast of hot air hit her from above. A moment later, another hit her. Something big was breathing one her. Slowly, the two sand ninja looked up. And what they saw was a giant Kabuto beetle. But unlike the normal ones, this had razor sharp spikes all over it, big and sharp enough to tear her apart. Its eyes were focused on her and Kamatari. "Think we can handle that?"

"Honestly...no." The bug lunged at them, creating a crater in the ground. They jumped to the side and Kamatari swung at it with his kama. The beetle caught it his his horn, twisted the hook at the end around it, and tossed it aside. It then hit Kamatari with the horn, pinning him against t and the wall. One of his claws raised into the air and was brought down. Kamatari tensed but hear a clack! Temari had hit it with her fan like it was a club, knocking it on its back.

"Get him! Once he is defeated, the bug is gone as well!"

Kamatari nodded, kill the general, beat the army. He jumped into the air and dived into the ground. Temari backed against the wall again, so she didn't have to worry about things attacking her from behind while she watched the beetle and Shino. Both were watching her as well for Kamatari.

Kamatari jumped into the air behind the beetle, swinging a much smaller kama, and slashed the beetle's back. It spun around, finding Kamatari had already started burrowing again and was gone. Temari hit it with as strong a blast of wind she could. Her chakra formed blades of wind inside it, making it cut the beetle up really bad. It wasn't enough to finish it but it was enough to slow it. On the back swing, she got the normal bugs Shino sent after her.

"If you surrender, Kamatari might spare you," she told him.

"...Velve, finish her," Shino said to the beetle. The beetle faced her and charged.

Kamatari jumped into the air behind Shino and swung the blade again. He had jumped forward so it didn't kill him. But it did slash him from his right shoulder to his right hip. "Temari!" He threw his kama at the beetle, hitting it just at the first horns hit her. It disappeared in a cloud of smoke while Temari was knocked backwards, bleeding from a wound on her shoulder. He scurried over to her on his short legs, ignoring Shino as he laid on the ground.

Shino reached pulled up his sleeve and revealed a storage seal. A spider came from it and he put it on his back. The baby sword spider used its web and needle like legs to sow up the wound in mere seconds. The spider returned to his arm where he sealed it again. He stood back up, hurting, as did Temari. His hands were shaking now as he tried to steady himself.

"Temari, are you able to continue?"

"I will," she told him.

"Don't forget you have fights after this one and you will need something left to fight with."

"If we hold back now, we won't win. Get it." Kamatari grabbed his giant kama and started it spinning. A ball of wind chakra formed in the middle. He threw it at Temari who swung her fan like a bat. The fan met it and it groaned as it strained to push it away. A moment later, it grew in size and Temari sent it at Shino. She couldn't tell if it hit him from the resulting explosion but part of the wall collapsed, revealing some very shocked people at the snack stands.

No one said anything as they looked for some sign of Shino. "How did he get away from that," Naruto asked, shattering the silence.

Temari dropped her shoulders as Shino appeared from behind the wall, dusting himself off. "...Is that it?"

"Not possible," Kamatari stated. "You should be a smear on the sports page now. There is no way you should have survived it."

"I am a man of many talents." He had thrown a kunai at it, making it explode before it hit him. The wall behind him had fell and he landed on a cushion of bugs. Shino pointed his arm at them. "Do you surrender?" A bluff, he was out of chakra with that save.

Temari growled, she couldn't do much else. That was an all or nothing attack. She was running on fumes. But she was willing to bet so was he. "Kamatari?"

"I am done," he told her. "Just enough left in see what you decide."

"...Throw me at him." Dropping her fan, she jumped on his kama and he used it to launch her at him. Shino widened his eyes a little as she nearly flew too fast for him to counter. He couldn't dodge or block but he could still attack. Both hit the other with their fist. They went rolling on the ground. Neither moved for a moment before Temari pushed herself up on her hands, then to her feet.

Hayate looked at Shino and found him still awake and started to count. "Stop," Shino told him. "I surrender."

"Winner, Sabaku no Temari!"

She looked around and no one did anything. "Figures," she started to mutter before the cheering came. They had been so caught up in it that no one had dared to move in case there was more.

Naruto shushined down there, over by Shino. He grabbed him by the hand and pulled him to his feet. "Nice one."

"Thanks, Naruto. I believe if you had faced her, it would have been quick. Good luck on your match."

"Isn't luck something that is illogical?"

Shino nodded a little as the medics took him. "Just trying to be a good friend."

Naruto nodded to him and fixed his eyes on Sasuke before pulling his mask down and taking the Kage Keiri in hand. "Uchiha Sasuke, step down into the arena," Hayate called up to him.

Sasuke started down the stairs but stopped as he passed Lee. "I am sorry, I should have done that better." He really was. He had, once again, only been looking at the victory. Not the how he would get it.

Lee saw this and nodded. "You saw an obvious advantage and took it. I... I am not mad about it. Go show us a most youthful battle!" Gai smiled at how his student had taken this. So he joined him when he said, "YOSH!"

Sasuke got down there to find Naruto was still looking at Lee. He then held his hand out to shake his. "Maybe you fucked up. But you did good by him so you're good by us." They shook hands and backed away.

"The fifth match of the chunin exams are about to begin. Ninja ready? GO!"

"Dance of the Crescent Moon." Several clones rushed Sasuke as the real Naruto jumped into the air and he brought his blade down, aiming to cut his collar bone in half. But Sasuke moved to the side. "...How did we miss?" He looked into Sasuke's eyes and saw his Sharigan. It was wavering for some reason. "Of course."

He slashed with the Kage Keiri and Sasuke drew a ninja-to he hid on his back. He brought it down through the hole at the end. The Kage Keiri hit it and the bell at the end chimed. "RAGH!" He fell to the ground, clutching his head. Sasuke used his sword as a pole vault and sent a kick to Naruto's head. His foot was grabbed by Naruto's hand. "Gotcha."

—oo000oo—

"Hinata, Naruto-kun, we have a gift for you," Haku said when they met in the forest once a few days before the Chunin Exams finals.

"What is it," Hinata asked.

Haku created a sliver of Serum and pressed it into their symbionts. "That." She took a bell from her pocket, channeled chakra into it and rung it. All three of the tensed with pain but they didn't drop. "We figured it out, how to survive sound attacks."

"Don't keep us in suspense," Naruto told her. "We want to know how, Haku-chan."

"Serum draws my chakra into itself before it is hit by sounds. He stores it in itself so we do it outside of combat. When the sounds hit, he uses the chakra to lessen it to just painful instead of killing. We are sure in time, we can even keep it from killing us." Both Hinata and Naruto hugged her.

"Thank you, Haku-chan," Naruto said to her.

"Yes, thanks, neesan."

—oo000oo—

Naruto threw him into the wall. Sasuke landed on his feet and jumped back at him. "Found a way to beat it, eh?"

"Haku-chan did," Naruto replied. "She gave it to us, and we can't thank her enough." He brought the Kage Keiri down on his blade, keeping it from killing him. They began to shadow each others moves in a way. The older ninja from Konoha thought the same thing. A spar of Sharigan users. Naruto had no such Kekkei Genkai but his spider sense told kept him from getting hit. He was enjoying this as he watched Sasuke's eyes. They were still wavering, almost like they were trying to change.

Sasuke on the other hand, was not. His Sharigan could tell him where he was but he was just countering now. He needed to attack. And with his eyes burning like they were, it wasn't helping. Not to mention his ace in the hole wasn't much help anymore. Naruto tensed when he heard it but he didn't drop to the ground in pain like he did in the forest.

He tripped and was unable to block. The black zanbatou slipped through his defense and went for his neck. He was going to die if Naruto didn't stop it. That burning flared and stopped.

The Kage Keiri wasn't just there anymore. A image of it stopped at his neck, another went up to his head, another went down. There were several images of what Naruto would do. Sasuke flipped his his sword around and slammed the bell against Naruto's. It shattered.

Both jumped from each other. "...Now your eyes looks like Kakashi's," Naruto said to him. "The Kage Keiri was weakened because we let go of it that time. This one is now even stronger."

Sasuke knew what this was. The images were told to him when he was younger, that they were what his enemy was going to do. And that only a person that knew what you were going to do to what you knew could counter it. Right now, he was looking at Naruto and he saw several images of what he could be doing. It was unbelievable. If his father could have seen this, he would demand that Naruto be taken into their clan or be killed. Even Sasuke knew his father held the thought that he believed the Sharigan was the ultimate power. That nothing could not be seen by it.

Naruto ran forward, clearing several of his paths as more popped up. He followed the path to his right, swinging at Sasuke's stomach. Sasuke side stepped it and stabbed low. All of the images left but one. Naruto formed a second blade in his left hand, a curved zanbatou he swore he saw on a man in the crowd, a guy wearing red. The two Kage zanbatou swords crossed, pushing his sword down. Sasuke groaned as the image then showed him what was next. And that he couldn't dodge this one. Naruto's boot came up over his swords, meeting Sasuke's face and throwing him back.

Naruto raised the Kage Ashura and threw it like a spear. It drove into the stone and nearly hit Sasuke. He entered a stance with the Kage Keiri in his right hand raised above his head, pointed to the ground. The swords met again, the bell, still causing damage to Naruto but he pushed through it.

Naruto jumped back and formed the handsign for the Enmu no Jutsu. Darkness descended in arena again. He wasn't sure if this would help much but the Sharigan didn't pierce things like the Byakugan could so he hoped so.

"Shit," came from Sasuke, meaning it worked.

Naruto ran forward, meaning to end this. He was five feet away when Sasuke rung his bell again. He gave a "ah" a moment later. Naruto swung and the ninja-to blocked it. "I really am going to have to thank Kin for that."

"Kin? She helped you?"

"Just gave me an idea. Echolocation uses sounds to discover where something is around the source." The bell was ringing again from the hit.

"Man... Do you feel that?" A feather fell into his outstretched hand. Making him grow sleepy. "Kai!" The genjutsu dropped from him.

"That you," they asked each other. "Guess not," Naruto said as he dropped the the darkness.

"Uzumaki, Sasuke," Gaara roared as he jumped down at them. "Your blood is mine!"

—oo000oo—

Orochimaru ran to get Sasuke but the Sand Jinchuuriki got in front of him. At his proclamation that he would kill them, Orochimaru growled. "I need him alive!"

Gaara turned to him as sand began to cover his right side. "I don't care! They both will die!" Hayate drew his sword and tried to attack Gaara. His sand blocked it and was about to crush him. Naruto pulled him from it and swung up onto the roof with Sasuke and Hayate.

"Must be the attack Kin-chan told us about," he said as he looked around. Haku-chan and Hinata-chan landed next to him. "Sound coming from the north. Sand from the south. Hayate-sensei, help protect the Hokage and the Mizukage. Sasuke, we are going to..." He jumped out of the way as Gaara brought his claw down on the roof. "We are taking prince charming here away from others. Hinata-chan, Haku-chan, help where you can." He hit Gaara with his web and swung him around a few times before throwing him in the direction of the of the forest.

—oo000oo—

"NO!" The Kazekage couldn't believe it, the battle had just started and already a key thing had gone wrong. Gaara was not in at the highest concentration of Leaf ninja to kill them. He was chasing after two ninja that were hopping over the buildings to the forest.

"Yes," a voice said around them. Mist began to thicken around the Sand Ninja. The screams of pain met their ears. "The Thunder of the Hidden Mist has arrived!"

"Raiga-sama," Ranmaru said to him, "there is no need to show off."

"Ruin my fun," he said to his friend and apprentice. "Just when I was about to go meet this Venom of Konoha, you asses had to show up."

"Think of it like this," a new voice said to him. "Gives us a chance to get to work together again."

"That is true, Mangetsu."

"Oh god," one of the sand ninja said. "Two of the Seven swordsmen of the Hidden Mist."

"That's right," Mangetsu said to him. "I am the Flood of the Hidden Mist. Zabuza, the bastard, killed the former Mizukage and brought most of us back together."

"...Raiga-sama," a fourth voice said. "Mangetsu-sama, it is good to see you again."

"Haku," the two said, sounding happy to see her. "We were just looking for you boyfriend. Care to help us," Mangetsu finished.

"What the hell did I get myself into," the Kazekage asked the air.

'Something that hopefully kills you,' Baki thought.

"Summoning no Jutsu!" A rabbit with a double bladed sword on his back appeared in the mist, dispelling it. With the mist gone, it revealed both a man that stood taller than most but lean with two spiked swords in his hands. The other had blue hair and slightly sharp teeth. His sword was huge even by the stands of zanbatou. Ten feet long, it wasn't elaborate, just a sword over two and a half feet wide, six inches thick at the thickest, on a shaft a yard long. "Hello, Mandarb-san."

"Haku-chan. So, what need of you the Blade of the Hare Tribe?" Haku pointed at the Sand Ninja. "Oh, good. The Blade was afraid it would be boring."

—oo000oo—

"Beware, all ye enemies of my home," Jiriaya shouted. "Fore I am the Great..."

A pool of water just appeared in front of him, being held in place by chakra. Hinata was standing on it, looking down at the snake inside it. "Summoning no Jutsu!" A cloud of smoke appeared and a shark dived into the water. "Jiriaya-sama, we am Hyuuga Hinata." Blood was filling the water as the shark tore into the snake.

Jiriaya frowned, "Up staged by a child."

Hinata smiled under her mask. "Scale-san, enjoying your meal?"

"Have I ever mentioned how much I enjoy your company," the shark asked her.

—oo000oo—

Naruto and Sasuke stopped and faced Gaara. "Think you can handle this, spidey?"

"Just don't get in the way, chicken butt."

"I am going to tear both of you apart."

"It you can," they told him. "If you can."

—oo000oo—

Author's notes. Mandarb is Old Tongue form the Wheel of Time series. It means Blade. The sword he wields isn't a double bladed sword but rather a handle with with swords like Darth Maul has. He, of course, thinks highly of himself as he speaks in third person.

Originally, I was thinking of having Naruto or Hinata, when it was flooded with water, to us it to summon the sharks. But then I decided to have Hinata use the same thing as Naruto did to summon the Sharks. This creates a body of water big enough for sharks to be used in several situations.

No, Kisame is not joining back up with the Hidden Mist. Not right away at least. Maybe later. But I have nothing planned. And Naruto is only thinking about giving Sasuke the Tiger Contract, hasn't yet.

See ya space cowboy.