Okay, an actual fight scene. Among other things.

I don't own Naruto

"Well, we're here. What I'm going to have you do is simple. The three of you are going to spar, and I'm going to watch. To decide on an actual training regimen, I need to have a rough idea of what your abilities are. The match will be a simple, three-way fight. Please form a triangle so that we can start." The three walked away from each other, then got into their fighting positions. Hideko was standing next to the river; across from her was Shinsuke. Standing farther from the river was Shiori. "Now then, begin!"

Shinsuke removed a weapon scroll from his pouch and ran his hand across it. A tanto appeared, and he grabbed it, placing the scroll back in his pouch. He started in a sprint toward Hideko. She formed a series of quick hand seals, and some of the water from the river flowed in front of her, forming a bubble. It sat there for a minute, then, with a sudden pushing motion, flew straight towards the charging ninja. He tried to jump out of its way, but it hit his right foot, causing him to spin, then land on his side.

Shiori, watching this, saw an opening. She charged straight at Hideko as the ball hit Shinsuke. Hideko, hearing this, turned just in time to get punched directly in the gut. However, as the blow landed, her body turned into liquid, then fell down, splattering the ground. Shiori took a step back in surprise just as Shinsuke was getting up.

A pair of Hidekos burst out of the water in front of Shiori. One of them punched toward her face, which was ducked, while the other ran past, getting behind. Shiori, who was now surrounded, formed a hand seal and pressed her hand to the ground. The ground she was standing on rose up to nearly tree level. She took out a kunai and threw it at the Hideko near the river, watching it dissolve. She turned toward the real one, which was dodging a series of slashes from Shinsuke's blade. The color of her eyes had been inverted, giving her a demonic appearance. 'That must be her bloodline.' She pressed her hand against the ground, causing the pillar to shrink back down to its previous level.

Meanwhile, Hideko was forced on the defensive, dodging Shinsuke's attacks, but unable to launch any of her own. She could feel her chakra running out, and it was only a matter of time before her Suro Shiryoku undid itself. She tried to think of something, but couldn't. She kept dodging attacks, when suddenly her foot slipped. Taking advantage of this, Shinsuke took the opening. There was nothing that she could do as she was forced to watch his foot moving forward, hitting her in the chest, sending her backward. She started to get up, but noticed Shiori standing over her. Her bloodline undid itself as Shiori punched her, knocking her unconscious.

Shiori turned to her final opponent. "And then there were two." He smirked.

"Soon to be one. Me." He charged straight toward her. She pulled out two kunai, flinging one straight at him. He deflected it without missing a step. Soon he was next to her. Their blades collided as Shiori blocked his attack. She saw what happened to Hideko, and hoped to have learned from it. She countered with a punch toward his face, followed by a slash from her kunai. He dodged both of these, and began his own attack.

The fight continued like this for a few minutes, before Shiori saw the opening that she was looking for. She lurched forward, but instead of attempting to attack, she grabbed his left arm with hers, then, before he could react, twisted around and elbowed him in the gut. Then, while still holding his arm, she brought her foot up, colliding with his face along the way. He let go of his blade as she brought hers toward his neck. However, to her surprise, he managed to catch her arm with his right. They stood like this for a few seconds. Each of them was holding one of the others arms, and neither of them could move without taking a blow from the other. Shinsuke was the one to finally saw something.

"Alright, this is getting old. We'll both let go on three. Alright?" She thought about it for a moment.

"OK"

"One"

"Two"

They said the last one together. "Three"

Each let go and, not wanting to be hit, jumped away from the other. Shinsuke reached back into his pouch and pulled out the scroll from before. He ran his hand across it and, with a puff of smoke, a naginata appeared. He grabbed it, spinning it a few times, and put away the scroll. Shiori dropped into a ready position, kunai still in hand, and waited to see how he would attack.

She glanced at Etsuya for a second. He was sitting up in a nearby tree, staring at the two of them. On the ground below him lay Hideko, though she couldn't remember him ever bringing her over there.

Shinsuke, realizing that this was as good of an opening as he could ask for, reached into his pouch, grabbed a number of shuriken, and threw them towards his opponent. She looked back, but it was too late to block them. Two of them scratched both of her arms as a third flew inches away from her head. At first, she thought that she was lucky, but after seeing Etsuya drop from his tree, she realized what had happened. Shinsuke had purposely missed hitting her anywhere vital. She watched, without moving, as Shinsuke put away his weapon, and then moved to collect his tanto. Etsuya walked toward the two of them; Hideko was still unconscious.

"Alright, I think I saw everything that I need to. We'll head back to the meeting area. Shinsuke, carry Hideko back." He nodded and walked toward the unconscious girl, picking her up. He then headed out after the rest of his team.

It was almost half an hour later when Hideko woke up. At first, she had no idea where she was. Then, everything came back to her; she lost. She was the first one gone of her squad. She was in the shack in area 12 that served as her squad's meeting spot. Her teammates and Sensei were there, as well. "Shiori, you realize that this was training and not an actual fight, right?" She said, staring straight at her teammate.

"Of course. I wouldn't have stopped attacking if you were an actual enemy." Etsuya, sensing a fight on the horizon, decided to end it before it started.

"Alright, then, since your finally awake, I suppose I should talk to you about your spar. Hideko, your taijutsu is terrible. If your opponent is using a weapon, use one yourself. Shiori, stay focused on what's going on around you. The only things that mattered were you and your opponent. Shinsuke, stop charging into fights. Read the people around you, and then act." His squad seemed to agree with him, or at least, they didn't want to argue, which was just as good. "Now then, in three days, we start taking missions. We need to get as many of these problems out of the way as possible before then. So, we're going to keep meeting out here each day between now and then. The meetings won't be long, just from 1 to 3. It's important that you put some work in on your own, as well. And with that, this meeting is over."

Hideko replayed the events of the match the entire way back home. 'That was terrible. How can I ever impress Sasuke like that? I have to get better. I have to improve. Etsuya-sensei said that my Taijutsu was my biggest weakness. I should probably start there.'

Shinsuke searched for something to eat. He wasn't really looking forward to going back to his apartment. God knows what fate awaited him there. After his brother abandoned the village, his parents became pretty much smothering, and it took all of his effort to actually get them to let him live in an apartment (mostly to get away from them).

He would never forgive Aoi for that.

His parents would probably have found out that he was part of a squad by now, and he was almost positive that they were waiting to ambush him. He needed an excuse for why he wasn't there. So he was pretty relieved when he saw a familiar face. "Hey, if you're here, I guess Naruto's probably nearby, huh?"

Hinata was obviously not expecting him to be there. She jumped, spinning around. "Shinsuke, you shouldn't sneak up on people like that." He tried not to laugh. She never liked getting surprised, especially considering that she was, as he had called her on a number of occasions, a stalker.

"Relax, I was just looking for something to eat. Oh wait, I forgot to ask, how did your exam go?"

"Umm, good. We passed. You did too, didn't you?"

"Of course, how could you think I wouldn't? This is me you're talking about! But in all seriousness, I almost failed. I was going to find something to eat, do you wanna come along?"

"Like a date? But you know that I-"

"Yeah, I know about the thing you call a relationship with Naruto. It's just as friends, which is code for, we're splitting the check." He couldn't help asking her along. For one thing, having a witness wouldn't hurt. For another, she was like a sister to him. He had talked to her after having seen her following Naruto one time, and they had been friends ever since. And while she always seemed nervous, he knew that was just how she was. He had tried to get her, on more than one occasion, to talk to Naruto, but never could. What she really needed was some self-esteem. He hoped that her squad would help her with that. Until he heard who was on it. Shino, as far as he could remember, had never said more then ten words through all of last year. Kiba was, in a word, overwhelming. He was sort of like Naruto with a dog. So, he decided, it would be up to him to help Hinata.

After talking to her family, and dinner, Shiori headed into a random training area. Her skills might not be that bad, but she still had room to improve. Of course, it would be better if she had someone to help her. But being alone didn't bother her. She was used to it. She had taught herself everything so far, and if she had to keep doing that, then so be it. However, when she got there, she noticed that someone was already there. On the ground, near a tree covered in various marks, was someone around her size. They appeared to be asleep. However, upon closer look, she realized that she knew that particular ninja. It was Hideko, who had apparently worn herself out training. She took a few steps towards the sleeping girl. She nudged her, hoping she would get up. When that didn't work, she tried a different tactic.

"OI, HIDEKO WAKE UP!!! YOUR IN THE WAY!!!" The girl jumped up, suddenly aware that her name was called. "Do you always just fall asleep in the middle of training?"

"Do you always train at night?"

"Usually. It really doesn't matter. Are you going back home then? I mean, it's pretty late."

"No, I have to get stronger."

"…What?"

"I need to get stronger. If I don't, Sasuke will never look at me. Sakura already has a head start, being his teammate. If I don't catch up, I'll fall behind and lose my chance."

"Your out here for that? Hideko, have you ever seen Sasuke? He doesn't care about anyone. You can't fall behind; no one can even make progress. It's a lost cause. Not to mention that he isn't even worth it. It's not like he's the only other human on the planet." Hideko just glared at her through this, holding in her anger until she was done. As soon as she finished, Shiori braced herself for what was about to happen.

"A lost cause!!! This isn't a lost cause!!! How can you even say that!!! This is DESTINY!!! Sasuke is AMAZING!!! Do you understand that!!!" Shiori was expecting something like this. She wasn't entirely sure why she had said anything, but it still felt good to say. She knew that she would never win this, so she figured that it was a better idea to just walk away. There were plenty of places to train other than this one. However, there was one last thing that she wanted to say before she left.

"The way that you talk, you would think that you WANT more competition."

'Well, that was interesting.' Shinsuke walked back to his apartment. He hoped he had wasted enough time that, if his parent's were there, they had already left.

On the way, he reflected on what Hinata had told him. A few of the teams he was expecting to fail, but some of the people who failed surprised him. He had known a few of them pretty well. 'Oh well, there's always next year.' He walked up the steps in his apartment and looked toward his room. Outside of the door, he saw two people he knew way to well. 'And… now it starts.'

Okay, Chapter four is done and up. Yahoo, i think. So...Read and Review