"Next up, Ino Yamanaka and Sakura Haruno."

A hush fell over the leaf students. "Woah, that's harsh." Naruto whispered to Kiba.

A member from the other leaf team walked over to him. He was a scrawny little guy with a bowl haircut and really thick eyebrows. "Hello, I am Rock Lee form team Gai, may I ask why you said that?"

Naruto shook his hand. "They used to be best friends, but they had a falling out over Saskue." Naruto looked around for Saskue, but he was no where to be seen.

"That is very sad; friends should not let that type of thing happen."

The two girls took their positions. You could tell that the two of them were enemies just by the way they were looking at each other, and not as in opponents, you could tell they genuinely disliked each other. Anko smiled. "I've been waiting for a strong girl to come up here, show the men what you're capable of."

"Wait just one minute!" Ino protested. "She's got a freaking machine gun! I get it if they both have pistols, but how am I to compete with that?"

Anko shook her head; she wasn't going to take the bait. "The rules are anything goes."

"You know what." Sakura threw her gun onto the ground. "I don't need a gun to defeat you."

Ino threw her weapon aside as well. "A fair fight then?"

Sakura raised her fist.

Rock Lee was ready to burst with excitement. "This is so exciting, no weapons no tricks, the way a fight is meant to be!"

"Begin."

Three different Sakuras charged at Ino. "So much for a fair fight." Ino threw he foot through the first clone, before she had time to recover the real Sakura punched her in the jaw, sending her skidding across the arena. "Ow, when did you get so strong?" Ino jumped to her feet.

"I've always been this strong." Sakura whispered. As she'd just found out her unnatural birth made her almost superhuman, her stomach churned just thinking about it. It was almost sad; Ino really didn't stand a chance. She landed another punch to Ino's stomach. Well she did say almost.

"Alright Sakura." Ino brushed herself off. "If that's the way you want to be." Ino stuck her hand into her tool pouch. Sakura took a step back, getting ready to dodge what ever was coming at her. Ino flung a fistful of petals into the air. "Hidden lily strike!" Ino was suddenly behind Sakura. She gave a firm strike to the back of the skull that dropped her like a sack of potatoes.

"What just happened?" Both Naruto and lee were sweating, Sakura couldn't lose this!

"Ino is much faster than she lets on, I could barely follow her."

Shikamaru nodded. "It's easy to tell from up here, but when you're in the middle of it, it probably seams like witchcraft." he looked over at Naruto. "The petals were a distraction; she sprinted around and hit Sakura from behind."

"No she teleported, she was one place one moment and then the next moment she was behind her!"

Shikamaru groaned. "Didn't you hear what Lee said? Ino is very fast in short bursts."

"Oh, well I guess that was a clever move, a little showy, I mean, a smoke bomb would have worked just as well right?"

Shikamru just shrugged. "We'll see."

Anko looked down at Sakura, she was out like a light. "Alright, the winner is Ino…"

"No,no,no!" Sakura pounded the floor with her fist. "I'm up, I'm up." She bounced around on her feet."

"Alright then, the fight continues."

Sakura let out a laugh. "You didn't really thing that punch would take me out did you?" She was putting on a brave face, but she was almost blind, that punch affected her vision. It was like she was looking through a tunnel.

Ino bit her lip. She wasn't expecting Sakura to be this strong, she'd already revealed on of her moves in front of everybody, and before the finals, she had to take her down quickly before she revealed anymore of her moves. "I was hoping it would, but I guess somewhere inside of me I'm still taking pity on you, billboard brow!"

Sakura let out a growl. "Ino-pig!" Her rage towards Ino was somehow helping her vision, because the dark spots were quickly being filled in. She charged Ino, not bothering with anything fancy, just swing after swing. "Even when you see how strong I am, you're still talking down to me." Ino was frantically backpedaling she could tell just by the way the air was hitting her face that those punches would destroy her. "I'm not a little girl anymore; I don't need your pity!" Sakura found herself shoulder deep in a wall.

"Woah, Sakura!" Ino gasped, almost terrified. "After all that wall was meant to be her face. Ino took advangate of Sakura's predicament and started taking shots at her, while she was stuck on a wall.

Sakura's fist, the was that was sticking out into another room, yeah it arched back through the wall and hit ino in the face, sending her back into the middle of the gym.

A bead of sweat rolled down Naruto's face. "Heh, Sakura's a monster."

Lee gave him a hearty smack on the back. "Just look at her strength her fire! You tell me that that is not a real woman!" He jumped up on the metal railing. "Woooo-hoooo! I love you Sakura, you are number one!"

Sakura stopped her rampage. She was getting a little carried away. It felt good, finally letting out all of her pent up aggression she'd been hold up inside of her. What with parents putting the future of their clan on her shoulders, her teammates thinking she's useless, finding out that she's a freak of nature, and Ino.

"Oh Sakura." Ino said almost like her mother when she spilled something, kind of disappointed but in a loving way, 'Oh Sakura'. "You talk and banter about how grown up you are, but you're still the same scared little girl, you still crave my attention." Why else would she be constantly making a comment about how strong she was now? Ino stuck her hand back into her pouch, and threw out another cloud of petals. "Hidden lily strike."

"Not this time!" Sakura spun on her heel.

"Just kidding." Ino flew at Sakura ready to punch Sakura's head off.

'Do you think we'll always be friends?' 'Of course we will!'

Sakura managed to spin around, just enough to avoid any spine damage. But the punch never game, just a loud echoing slap on the cheek.

"When I saw you that day, crying your eyes out on that stupid park bench, I felt so sorry for you. You were this pathetic little girl, without a friend in the world, so I gave you my favorite ribbon, in hopes it would shut you up." Ino laughed to herself. "I wouldn't have done it if I knew you'd follow me around like a lost dog after that. You were always asking me stupid questions and copying everything I did, I hated you."

Sakura shook her head, tears in her eyes. "You don't mean that. We were friends, you were like an older sister to me, and I know you liked having me admire you. You're the one that left me when I told you I liked Saskue."

"I just wanted something you didn't copy from me!"

Sakura nodded, she understood. "Well I don't copy you anymore Ino, you taught me how to become a strong woman, I'm who I am now, because of you. I'm strong now Ino I don't need you protecting me anymore."

Ino wiped the tears from her eyes. "Every time I attack you, I see the little girl I was friends with."

"Ino, I never stopped being your friend. Now come on." Sakura raised up her fists. "Let's finish this."

"Alright friend, but don't think I'm going to go easy on you."

"I wouldn't expect anything less than your best."

Ino slammed her palms onto the floor. "Flower Style: Pedal Shuriken!" All the Pedals Ino had scattered around the room, floated into the air and flew at Sakura like a hundred angry bees. Sakura flailed desperately trying to get rid of the razor sharp blades. Sakura finally collapsed onto the ground amidst a pile of bloody flower pedals.

"So that is why she used Pedals as her distraction, she was preparing for that attack." Lee was impressed, if not a little saddened that Sakura was losing the fight.

"Co'mon sakura! You're not going to let a few flowers stop you are you?" Naruto was screaming at the top of his lungs. "Get up! It's going to be really embarrassing if only Saskue and I make Chunin!"

Ino let out a small laugh. "That Naruto is so annoying."

"If anyone's not making Chunin, It's you Naruto!" Sakura was slowly making her way up to her feet, she was lucky that Ino was just trying to incapacitate her, because those Pedals could easily have killed her.

Ino cringed, the circuitry in her Pedals were shot, she was going to have to finish Sakura off the old fashion way. "Sakura!"

"Ino!"

Both of there fists made a solid connections to the others face. They stood there just like that for a moment or two, before they finally slumped over unconscious, and even Sakura didn't get up this time.

"Because neither of them is able to continue fighting, they are both disqualified from the competition!"