Sorry! I know it's been a while. I've been a bit busy, and distracted as well. I CAN say that I managed to retrieve alot of writing for the story I thought I'd lost. It was much to my relief that I found it, because it contained most of the writing for the last 3-5 chapters at least. *WHEW*!

Anyway, this IS a short chapter, since I need to get to bed and I have to be productive tomorrow. I had planned on actually doing two fights in this chapter, but you'll only get one, and a little dialouge. Again, i'm sorry, but I wanted to get this out to you later rather than MUCH later (i figure I threw the 'sooner' option out the window at least 2 weeks ago since it's been over a month).

Hopefully the short chapter doesn't dissapoint too bad. Let me know what you think.

notice-ff style, disclaimer no jutsu!

"Since Uchiha Sasuke seems unable to be here at the moment, we will proceed to the next match; Temari and Shikimaru, come on down."

"Ah man, why did my match have to get moved up? This is such a drag!" Temari laughed.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun." She whipped her fan open and started a gust of wind. "Don't keep me waiting little boy! See you soon Naruto-chan," she ended, giving the blonde girl a wink as she hopped on her fan and rode the gust down to the proctor.

"Ah man, maybe I should just forfeit; I have to fight a girl, too…" Before Naruto could say anything, Kankuro stepped up.

"Hey, guys don't keep girls waiting," he said, pressing his palm into the center of the Nara's back. "Best get going." With the final word he pushed Shikimaru out into the arena the boy landing on his back with an annoyed look on his face. When Naruto stared at the Suna gennin he shrugged.

"What? I just thought I should encourage him to see what fighting this girl is like. If he's negative about fighting girls in the future it will be because Temari whoops him." Naruto gave a small grin.

"You know, I like the way you think."

"No problem; if Temari had heard him say that she'd forget about going easy on him, though. Of course," he added, looking down, "if he keeps this act up he'll get her temper going and he'll be screwed anyway." Looking down with him Naruto saw that Shikimaru had yet to move from the spot he'd fallen to.

"Hey! Get your butt moving Shikimaru! Why you just laying there? Come on, quit laying there and put up a fight! Are you waiting for lunch or something? Come on, get up off your arse and-"

Wow…glad it's not me she's mad at.

Hmm. Even Naruto thinks he's being silly. Look at him, laying there and letting people throw grabage at him like that. Lazy bum. Well, then, we'll just have to get things started on our own, 'cause this little boy is really starting to tick me off!

"Alright, if you won't down something, then I will," Temari cried out, charging at the boy and brandishing her fan. Shikimaru finally moved.

"That's right, this girls I spunky one. Man, I hate spunky. Still, guess I better do something," he muttered, pulling out a pair of kunai and throwing them just before Temari's fan hit the ground.

"Hah! Wait, where is he?" As the dust she stirred up with her strike cleared she was able to see he wasn't on the ground anymore, and wary of his shadow techniques she tried to locate him, only to discover him sitting on a pair of kunai embedded into the wall right in front of her.

"You know," he said, "fighting's a real drag, and I don't really care for making chuunin, but i can't loose to a girl so I guess I'm gonna have to actually put in some effort."

"Put some effort into this!" Temari swung her fan again, smirking at the closerange attack only to find that the boy had dodged again. "Well, at least you're good at something," she called out at the trees. Good at running. Coward. Why can't he give me a real fight?

The two continued to face off, Temari coming to enjoy the fight more as she saw the boy try harder and actually give her a small fight, even if it was sad to watch. He kept surprising her with that shadow possession of his, throwing it out further each time. She knew if he kept it up he'd have a chance…against a weak opponent. Such tactics would never work on someone with actual skill, like herself. Well, I suppose I should end it, she thought as she dug her fan into the ground to give her some cover while she planned his demise.

If make a clone to cause a distraction he'll go for it. He'll probably think that I'm setting him up with a classic trick of clone first, real ninja later, and attack the clone, then be too surprised to do anything then the real me attacks him right after. Yeah, that's it. She put her hands together. Clone jut-…what? From the other side of the arena Shikimaru smirked.

"Success."

"But, what…how? I've taken every precaution; there's no way your shadow should have caught me!" Shimimaru shrugged.

"Guess I better let you see what's behind you," he said, twisting his head so that they were both looking behind themselves, where Temari saw the hole Naruto had made earlier when she fought, and the shadow coming out of it. "You forgot about the hole that Naruto made during her fight, a huge mistake for a shinobi, but we all tend to ignore things like that. Anyway, it was simple to maneuver you to that hole so you'd forget about the danger." Up in the stands Naruto and Kankuro were staring in disbelief.

"He, he actually out smarted her…I've never seen someone outsmart Temari like that."

"I didn't even know you could think like that," Naruto replied, in awe of the maneuver. "I feel kinda dirty, though, 'cause now it's my fault Temari lost, even if it was to Shikimaru." Kankuro scratched his head.

"I don't know. He might have done it anyway." Back in the field Shikimaru was walking Temari and himself to the center of the arena and raise their arms. Temari fought as hard as she could, trying to stop the coming defeat.

"Alright, I give up," Shikimaru said. The arena was quieter than a graveyard before man of the civilian spectators began yelling at the boy for giving up, the shinobi spectators analyzing his choice.

"Wait; why did you give up?" Shikimaru shrugged.

"Well, here I was with another two-hundred moves planned out, but shadow possession takes a lot of chakra and I'm starting to really run low. It'd be two troublesome to take on any more matches after this, anyway. Too much work, especially after using up all that chakra." His shadow receded, though Temari remained standing still in shock, not understanding as Shikimaru rubbed his sore shoulders. "Well, there it is, that's my limit. Ah well; too bad I had to loose to a girl; hope the other guys don't mess up your looks," he said, waving as he walked off.

He, he actually gave up…because he doesn't think he can win the other matches? Who is this guy? Hey, and what did he mean about my looks! Temari ran off after him as the proctor declared her the winner and the hokage gave him a nod to start the next match, once again skipping Sasuke's match.

"Tsuchi Kin and Aburame Shino, come on down, it's your turn."

"Good luck on your match," Shino stated flatly to the girl as he turned and headed down the stairs. Kin shook her head at him.

"Wow he's weird. Doesn't he know how to talk normal?" Naruto shrugged, face curled up in disgust at Shikimaru's surrender.

"Not really, but he still acts really sensitive sometime. I think those bugs mess with his head, personally."

"Nah, I doubt it," Kankuro said. "Unlike my puppets, which anyone with enough talent can learn to do, it looks like a clan thing, and I bet a lot of people think he's too weird to talk with and avoid him." Naruto scratched her chin.

"I guess that makes sense…no one really does seem to like hanging around with him, except maybe Kiba, and Hinata's always nice to him…AHHH! Kin, what are you doing? Get down there for your fight!" Kin blushed. She had forgotten about the fight for a moment as she listened to the two of them talk.

"Ah, sorry, thanks Naruto," she said rushing for the stairs. "Wish me luck!"

"Believe it! After all, what are friends for?" With that Kin disappeared down the stairs. Gaara made a disgusted sound in his throat at the comment, choosing not to speak himself. Naruto would not listen yet, but soon she would see. She would see, when he took care of her boy-toy. Oh yes, then she would see…

Just then Temari and Shikimaru came up, the girl still yelling at him.

"-and just what the heck where you thinking with the jacket balloon?" SHikimaru gave her an annoyed look.

"I already told you, it works like this-"

"Hey, Temari," Kankuro called over, "cut the kid some slack. He was probably right about you being better for the long haul anyway. He's too young to have much chakra reserves." Both teens looked at him in confusion.

"What are you talking about?"

"Huh? Weren't you yelling at him about how the fight ended up?"

"What? No! I was trying to get him to see how stupid he was being, wasting his chakra like that. A mean, come on, one good clone would have done the same thing!"

"Clones don't cast real shadows," the boy said lazily. "Besides, you would have knocked it out with your wind before it got close enough to do anything."

"Wait…you guys are talking about the fight? Not how the fight went?"

"Why would we? That wouldn't do anything; this way we learn better for next time. At least we would if some snot nosed brat wasn't so sure his way was best." Shikimaru shrugged and the two sand siblings and him continued debated for a few moments before the fight began. Naruto, however, was distracted as Dosu came over to her.

"What is Kin to you," he asked quietly, making her jump as he loomed over her.

"Cripes, don't startle a girl like that! I almost kicked you in…well it wouldn't have been fun for you." He ignored her comment.

"You didn't answer my question." Naruto blew her bangs out of her eyes before turning to see Kin and Shino taking their places.

"She's my friend, and actually, I hope she wins this fight. I don't know Shino well enough to cheer for him over her." Dosu nodded slowly.

"Hmmm…I see. And where is the Uchiha, if I might ask? I was thinking we could fight here in the exam." She laughed.

"Ha! As if! If you make it that far, it's ME you'll be facing! I'm gonna beat Sasuke's butt into tomorrow…once he gets her," she grumbled. Dosu's eye twitched.

"Hmmm…"

"You talk even less than he does," she said, shaking her head as she turned to lean over the railing and start yelling her support for her friend as the match began. "Don't know what Haku sees in you." The boy's blush was obvious, even through his bandages, but no one noticed as the fight commenced.

Well, that's it for today. Again, I apologize for the short chapter. Shortest I've written in a LONG time. :( Still, after over a month of waiting, ya'll deserve SOMETHING over NOTHING. Hope you don't mind Tenten not being in the scene. That will be explained during the next chapter. I was originally going to let everyone participating in the exam get a small bit of screen time here, but then this short little scene for Tenten came into my mind and it will work better for her to be gone this chapter and show up in the next one, especially since it would add to the writing time here.

Anyway, thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed!

ps-reviews are nice. :)