Hime: Hello everybody! I'm so sorry I haven't updated in so long! It's really hard to juggle life when you're studying for a diploma and a committed school club member like me! Anyways, thank God for school holidays ne? (even though it's only a bloody week)

On with the story! *pumps fist in the air*

I do not own anything!

At the training area, Team 8 & Team Gai got into positions; their eyes on one another as the others watched from the sides.

"Will Hinata be okay?" Ino thought worriedly, looking at Hinata's neutral expression.

Tsunade got into the middle of the two teams, acting as proctor for the tournament.

"Go all out kids! HAJIME!"

Before any of Team Gai's members could move, they notice Hinata already acting quickly, they watched as she took out some smoke bombs and released them onto the ground, shrouding herself and her teammates in it's smoke.

Neji activated his Byakugan immediately on instinct but to his surprise, they weren't in sight?

What the-?

"Mist?" Lee asked aloud.

Tenten looked up to see a heavy mist coming towards them which meant only one thing.

Team 8 had a strategy in mind.

"Neji, keep your Byagukan up. Alert us if you see any movement" says Lee as he got into a battle stance.

"Hai"

It was silent for a few minutes, putting Team Gai's genins on age; Tenten in particular who could not stop twirling her kunais in her hands.

WHAT THE HECK WERE THEY PLANNING?!

It was then when Tenten felt something crawling over her legs. She pocketed her right kunai and reached her hand down to brush it off but strangled scream left her throat when her eyes finally noticed on the army of fire ants that were swarming over her legs.

Adrenaline pumped through her as she jumped backward and scrambled to slap the small biting creatures off of the red inflamed skin on her legs.

"H-HELP!"

Tenten looked up in desperation for assistance but only to see that Neji & Rock Lee had their own battles with fire ants to deal with. She watched as Neji violently flip his head over he ran his hands through his long, always carefully looked-after brown hair wildly to brush off the ants. He angrily and loudly cussed at Shino as he did so.

"DAMN YOU ABURAME! STOP THIS NONSENSE & FIGHT LIKE A NINJA YOU-!"

Tenten then decided that she need not hear anymore so she turned her attention to Rock Lee who had pulled down his jumpsuit to reveal his torso. The top half of his body was totally red from all the mad scratching he was doing; his face scrunching up in agony as he did so.

Tenten could not help it, her teammates looked so helpless and she had no idea what to do either; she felt tears forming her eyes.

"Stop...please…"

"Do you surrender?"

Tenten's eyes widened and looked around, still scratching at her legs.

That sounded like Kiba!

"Neji! I heard Kiba just now!"

The Hyuuga prodigy growled in response; he really was not in any mood to entertain anyone at the moment, "TENTEN I AM IN NO WAY OR FORM TO FOCUS RIGHT NOW. COULD YOU-?!"

Neji was cut off in mid-sentence as he was tackled to the ground by a shrouded figure. Tenten squinted her eyes only to realize that it was Kiba!

Oh shit!

"Neji!" Lee cried out, noticing his teammate in distress. But before Lee could make any move to help, he realized that he was immobile when her fell face-first onto the ground. He turned on his back with a grunt of pain to find that his feet were bounded together, making him immobile.

A bolas?

Tenten meanwhile could not believe the situation she was in; her hands were no longer her own, she could not stop scratching at her legs thus she could not use her weapons. There was no way they could get out of this situation hence there was only one thing to do.

"STOP! JUST STOP WE FORFEIT!"

"Smart move" she heard Hinata say before feeling a tap on her shoulder.

Tenten blinked, astounded and began to look around at her surroundings. The sun was scorching hot, no essence of a mist ever being in the area. The terrifying atmosphere and the feeling of danger was no longer felt and when her eyes finally settled upon Neji and Lee, they were both fine but they looked just as stricken and jittery as she was. She found the members of Team 8 standing close by; Hinata stood next to her whereas Kiba was on Lee's right and Shino was at Neji left.

"H-How?" Tenten asked, shaky from what had just occurred.

"It was a genjutsu wasn't it?" Lee asked, realizing it.

Kiba grinned and wrapped an arm around Lee's neck in a brotherly gesture, "You betcha! Hinata's just awesome!"

"H-hinata?" Neji repeated, amazed.

Shino nodded, "Hinata-chan has been training under Kurenai-sensei as a genjutsu specialist for quite some time now."

The members of Team Gai looked at Hinata in surprise but before she could react to it, Tsunade interrupted.

"TEAM GAI FORFEITS SO TEAM 8 WINS THIS ROUND!"

At that, the other genin teams at the side clapped in respect even though all they saw was Team Gai reacting under the spell of Hinata's genjutsu and her teammates watching their opponents suffer in amusement.

"Way to go you guys!" yelled Naruto.

"Awesome job!" cheered Ino.

"Now now, you two. Don't get too excited." Kakashi tells the blondes.

Asuma smirks, "Yeah cuz you two are going next! Against, each other!"

The blondes froze and looked at each other before breaking out into smirks.

"Looking forward to it!"

As the Team 7 & Team 10 made their way to the fields…

With Team 7

"Uhmm, guys shouldn't we come up with a plan?" Sakura asked. "We are going up against Shikamaru's team."

Sasuke scoffed, "Puh-lease it's a team of a lazy-ass, a dumb blonde and a fatso. Why should we be worried? We'll be fine, no need to worry. We'll just wing it as always."

Naruto shook his head, "You're wrong Sasuke. Naras are know to be incredibly smart, you've missed Shika's match at the Chuunin Finals so you don't know how good of a battle strategist he can be."

Sakura nodded in agreement, "Plus, Ino and Chouji shouldn't be that underestimated either. Did you know that their fathers along with Shikamaru's father were a team called Ino-Shiko-Chou? They were one of the best ninja factions in Konoha history! Now Team 10 is the second generation of that. Their fathers would have definitely thought them some stuff."

"Plus Ino has been taking her ninja training very seriously as of late so we need to be careful. There is no telling what that devious mind of hers can come up with" Naruto pointed out.

Sakura nodded, remembering her match with Ino at the Chuunin preliminaries whilst Sasuke looked skeptical.

"Whatever"

With Team 10

"Shika, which plan are we using?" Ino asked.

"I don't know, we'll try C. This will be hard cuz we're facing Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura."

Chouji nodded, "The unpredictable ninja, the ticking time-bomb and the wild card."

Shikamaru groaned, "This will be troublesome."

Ino smacked him upside the head then, "Would it kill you to be a little optimistic?"

The Nara heir just grunted in response.

Hime: Done! :)

Sasuke/Sakura/Ino: When am I going to have a scene with Naruto?

Hime: Maybe sometime in the future...

Sasuke/Sakura/Ino: WHAT MAYBE?!

Hime: Anyway, ja ne! Please review! *runs off to hide from angry kuniochi*

Sasuke/Sakura/Ino: GET BACK HERE YOU BITCH! *chases after authoress*