-Christchurch Earthquake Notice-

I'm writing this on Tuesday the 22nd of February, and just about four hours ago at 12:51pm there was a huge earthquake in Christchurch, where I live. It was a 6.3 magnitude, but it was only 5km deep and in Lyttleton, and the damage is even more severe than the 7.1 earthquake last year. Unlike last year, this one was in daylight, where everyone was up and around, so it is really serious.

I was in the mall with my friends because school had ended early when it struck. Everyone was screaming, I could hear the loud rumble of the earthquake and glass shattering. Almost everyone ran outside afterwards.

School is out for at least a week. I saw photos of the area around my school, and it is flooded from liquefaction.

Last year's earthquake had no casualties, but this time there are 65 confirmed deaths, and that number is expected to rise. There are about 200 trapped in buildings. It is pouring down with rain right now, and I can only pray for those out there right now, homeless or trapped under buildings.

I know this may seem boring to you, as most of you are probably in the U.S… (Just guessing!) but I'm not sure if this earthquake is going to affect my writing in anyway, so I'm giving you a reason for it now.

There is no internet connection for me right now, so I thought I should write the new chapter, as I was so busy with Graphics and Art. (I know what you're thinking: Art? Are you kidding? But serious art actually has a lot of work, and I'm doing NCEA this year too, so I have to work extra hard!)

Crap, there was a big aftershock just then…

Refer to Standard Shadow Stratagem!

Day of Chunin Exam Tournament

Naruto groaned, wriggling comfortingly into his bed covers. So… warm…

If there was one thing good about being a human, it was the feeling of semi-consciousness and snuggling into a bed.

Obviously you can imagine why demons don't have a bed. For one, some demons don't sleep. Most demons also do not stay in one place for too long. But the number one reason is image.

And that's reasonable.

"Ah, my almighty demon son! Ruler of the neighbouring lands! What have you got there?"

"It's a bed! Complete with goose down duvet and lavender pillows for therapy!"

"…What."

Naruto stretched out his arm, and his fingers brushed against something…

"Hiya Naruto!"

Naruto's eyes snapped open, and he jumped out of bed into a defensive stance, glaring menacingly at the enemy.

"Oi! Easy! I'm just here to tell you not to be late to the Chunin exam tournament."

He stared at the small orange toad atop his bed.

"…Eh?"

The toad blinked at him. "Oh! Right, I'm Gamatachi! Jiraiya summoned me!"

Naruto blinked, before relaxing. "Ohhh… how the hell did you get in here?"

"I poofed here of course!"

"Uh, okay…" Naruto said. "You can go now, I'm about to get changed."

"I won't look, but I wanna follow you, cause I'm bored, and you have nice snacks," he said, popping a potato chip into his mouth.

"Hey, what the- how did you… never mind…"

Naruto got changed quickly and ate breakfast, silently glaring at the small toad that was devouring all of his chips. He left the apartment, with Gamatachi atop his head still eating.

Hopping from roof to roof, he smiled gleefully as he heard distressed cries from Gamatachi clinging to his spiky hair. Something caught his eye, and he looked down at a street beside him.

"Hey it's Hinata!"

"Who- waa!"

Naruto leapt down beside her, startling her.

"N-Naruto! Err…frog?"

"I'm a toad you- mmff?"

"Ignore that thing. He's one of Jiraiya's pets. How have you been?"

Hinata smiled and said, "I have been f-fine, my team has b-been helping Shino prep-pare for the exam."

Over the month before the tournament, Naruto and Hinata had frequently eaten with each other at Ichiraku Ramen. They were now very close, pretty much best friends. Obviously neither has confessed their love for each other, to which Jiraiya plans to do something about. Hinata has almost lost her stutter, to which she is pleased with.

"Good-luck for y-your fight, Naruto."

"Thanks Hinata!"

They reached the Chunin stadium and separated. Naruto walked onto the field, where all the other competitors except for Sasuke were. Genma, a jounin, was also there. Naruto stood next to Shikamaru.

"Where's Sasuke?" he asked.

Shikamaru shrugged. "Am I supposed to know?"

"Err…"

"The answer is no. Troublesome…"

He then noticed the toad on his head, and blankly stared at it.

"…"

Naruto blinked, before eyes widening in realisation.

"Gamatachi! Go away!"

"Aww, okay Naruto! But next time Jiraiya summons me, I'm eating your food."

Poof!

Genma coughed to get everyone's attention.

"Is everyone here yet?"

"Sasuke isn't," Naruto replied.

Genma groaned. Well that totally messes up the match plans… He sulked.

They waited for 10 more minutes, and it was clear civilians were getting restless. And ANBU appeared next to Genma and whispered something to him. Genma whispered something back, and the ANBU nodded and disappeared.

Moments later he appeared again, whispering to Genma before disappearing.

"Right, we will be starting now. This is how it is set up." He took out a piece of paper, with the match schematics. "You will all have you designated matches, then the winners of the first two fight and the winners of the last two fight. Then the winners of those fight, and the winner will win the tournament. Any question?"

"Does that mean only one of us can become chunin?" Temari asked.

"It is good if you can win the tournament, but how you fight is the key part in deciding whether or not you are fit to be chunin. That means there is a possibility that all of you will become chunin, or none of you will become chunin."

"Sasuke's not here yet, and his match is first. Is he disqualified?" Shino asked.

"It has been decided that Sasuke's match will be postponed for the moment, and the second match will begin first."

Shikamaru sighed in defeat.

"Is that all? Very well then, could everyone except Nara Shikamaru and Sabaku Temari please head towards your designated balcony."

Genma addressed the now quiet crowd."

"Welcome all to Konohagakure's Chunin Exam Tournament. This is for you to witness the most talented genin display their skills. Those worthy will be promoted to chunin. The first match has been postponed due to one of the combatant's absence. We will now begin with the second match, between Nara Shikamaru from Konohagakure and Sabaku Temari from Sunagakure."

The two fighters stood facing each other, though Shikamaru was more slouching.

"You lose if you are knocked out or rendered incapable of fighting any longer. You can forfeit at any time. Remember, just because you win, does not mean you will become chunin. Ready?"

Temari nodded.

"Actually, I'd like to-"

"Don't you dare!" Temari hissed.

Shikamaru sighed and scratched his head. "But-"

"No!"

"It's too-"

"No!"

"I don-"

"No!"

"…W-"

"No!"

"…Troublesome…"

Genma raised an eyebrow in amusement.

"So did you want to say something?"

Shikamaru tried to ignore the deadly aura coming off Temari in waves, screaming, 'If you even dare to forfeit I will guarantee you will never be able to have children ever!'

"…Never mind…"

Meanwhile everyone was thinking around about the same thing.

…Whipped…

"If there are no more problems… begin!" He disappeared, just as Temari sent a wave of deadly winds at Shikamaru with her fan. Shikamaru did the sensible act of hiding behind a tree.

"Come out you coward!" Temari shouted, sending another gust. Slices appeared on the tree and the surrounding stadium walls. Many leaves were blown off, but it was a very sturdy large tree.

Shikamaru ignored the command and stayed behind it, but threw a kunai in retaliation. It was blocked easily, but she quickly had to jump back as a shadow on the ground chased her. She kept leaping back as the shadow continued to chase, until it abruptly stopped before retreating. Using her fan, Temari marked the spot.

"Hah, so you're shadow can only reach this far. As long as I stay behind this line, you can get me with your shadow."

Shikamaru gritted his teeth, before sitting down and putting his hands together.

"…What is he doing?" Sakura asked.

"He's done that a few times, but I don't know what he's doing…" Ino replied.

"He's thinking."

Everyone looked towards a smirking Asuma.

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked.

Asuma chewed on his cigarette, as smoking was forbidden in the stadium. (To which he mourns.)

"Did you know that boy's a genius?"

"Shikamaru? Genius? But he's so lazy!" Ino shouted.

"Indeed he is, but I know for a fact that he has an IQ over 200."

Everyone's eyes widened. Asuma chuckled.

"And I've never beaten him in shoji…" His eye twitched. "Whenever he didn't know where to move, he would do that pose. It's his thinking pose, and it allows him to focus and come up with brilliant strategies."

Everyone looked in awe at the young genin… who was still doing nothing.

"Are you sure, sensei?" Ino asked sceptically.

"You'll see."

Back on the stadium floor, Shikamaru finally opened his eyes, just as Temari sent another gust of slicing wind.

"Are you gonna fight me or not?" Temari screamed in frustration. She was a long range specialist, so she didn't want to risk getting any closer, especially considering Shikamaru's shadow manipulation.

As if on cue, the shadow headed towards her again, but this time Temari stood there, confident the shadow would stop at the line.

"Shit!"

She leapt back quickly as the shadow passed the line and narrowly missed snagging her foot. But it stopped just a hands length past the line, before retreating.

Temari thought for a moment, before drawing a new line.

"I see, you were just waiting for the sun to go a bit lower, and the shadow of the wall to become longer. Very clever, but now I know your trick!"

"…Tch."

Shikamaru took out a kunai with a small bag attached to it and threw it into the air. He then quickly threw another kunai at it. The bag burst, exploding with little bits of paper fluttering in the air, creating thousands of shadows on the ground. Shikamaru instantly sent his shadow towards Temari.

But Temari was a quick thinker, and used her fan to blow the paper away before Shikamaru's shadow could reach her.

"Hah! That failed!"

What she didn't notice until it was too late was that the shadow wasn't going for her, it was aiming for the fallen kunai sticking in the ground from the one he threw up before. It was before the line, and it connected with the shadow before heading for Temari.

Before she knew it, she couldn't move.

"Heh, got you."

Shikamaru walked forward a little, copied by Temari. He stopped and took out a kunai from his holster, to which Temari copied but she didn't have a kunai in her hand. He held it up, about to throw.

"Forfeit," he commanded.

Temari glared, struggling to get out of the hold. Shikamaru narrowed his eyes and drew his arm back to throw.

"I forfeit! I forfeit!" She screamed, seeing no way out.

As soon as she said that, Shikamaru collapsed onto the ground, his shadow retreating.

"Urgh, finally… a few more moments and I would have had to forfeit…"

Temari stared at Shikamaru. "Wha… that was just an act?"

"Sabaku Temari forfeits. Nara Shikamaru wins."

Asuma appeared beside his student, helping him up.

"Good job, Shikamaru."

"Troublesome… thanks."

An ANBU appeared beside Genma again and talked to him before disappearing.

"It has been decided that the first match must begin or the missing combatant will forfeit. If he Uchiha Sasuke does not appear within 10 minutes, he will forfeit."

Many unhappy mutters were heard, mainly because everyone was looking forward to seeing the last Uchiha fight with a Hyuga's who's clan rivalry was well-known to all.

Eight minutes passed. Genma looked at his watch, but looked up when a swirl of leaves materialized in front of him. They disappeared to reveal Kakashi and Sasuke.

"Ah, I'm terribly sorry about this Genma, I know how much you hate unplanned occurrences. Has Sasuke been forfeited?" Kakashi asked.

"No, you had two minutes left, and another match was put in front…" he said with a twitch in his eye. Kakashi was right. Nothing pissed him off more than going astray from the schedule.

"That's good then. Good luck, Sasuke," Kakashi said before transporting to where most of Konoha 12 was.

"Kakashi! My eternal rival! What made you so late to this most youthful competition?" Gai shouted.

"Maa maa, a little cat wanted to play with the birdies a while longer than planned."

"?" Everyone thought.

"Would Hyuga Neji please come down."

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

Gaara stood by the corner, staring impassively at the fighting below. His sister was fighting another boy. If he wanted to, he could have told his sister that she should attack more, but he honestly didn't care.

He didn't react when Naruto sidled up beside him.

"Hi Gaara."

"…"

"So, how have you been doing?"

"…"

"Have you trained hard?"

"…"

"Do you still want to kill me?"

"Yes."

"Oh… do you hate me?"

"Yes."

"…How cruel…" Naruto sulked for a while. Then he started again.

"Who do you think will win?"

"…"

"Do you think Sasuke will appear soon?"

".."

"Is Shukaku still a psychotic maniac like I remember him as?"

That made him turn his head to face him.

"You… have met Shukaku?"

Naruto nodded enthusiastically, happy he finally got a good reaction.

"Only once, with Father." He hesitated. "They don't like each other a lot."

"…"

"…You are unable to sleep, right?" Naruto asked cautiously. Finally making progress, he didn't want to stuff it up now. He didn't know why he was so desperate to make friends with him. Probably the kinship he felt towards the demon-holder, even if the demon is crazy.

"…"

"I… might be able to help with that…"

Gaara stared at Naruto, not having shown so much emotion in a long time.

"…What?"

"Err, I mean, I could streng-"

"Sabaku Temari forfeits. Nara Shikamaru wins."

Temari came up from the stairs, cursing loudly.

"That stupid damn Konoha genin! How dare he out-smart me?"

Kankuro laughed. "Ha ha, finally bested!"

Smack!

"Ow! What was that for?"

"For being the stupid idiot you are!"

He sulked in a corner, and Gaara ignored their very existence.

A/N: Okay, that's done! Finished in one day, so still the day of the big earthquake, but I can't upload it cause I have no internet connection. So when I can put it up, I'm sorry for it being so late.

It's the next day now, and it turns out I just had to turn the modem off and on…

Shika's fight is different for obvious reasons. (If you don't know, it's cause Naruto didn't dig a hole etc.)

Also, I based the title of this chapter off the Sontaran Stratagem from Doctor Who.

Comments and constructive critism welcome~