Puppets of the Leaf:

Ch 13

By Riotv2

*Knock…Knock…BANG!!*

"NARUTO!!! C'mon it's time to go or you'll be late!"

The pounding on the front door of Naruto's apartment only increased from there, as the blonde picked himself up off of the floor where he had apparently fallen asleep the night before.

Slowly, much to the anger of the screaming person who had been making the racket, he made his way to the door, trying to rub the sleep from his eyes while he went. When he lifted the latch on the doors lock with a click, which seemed to be unusually loud in the morning hours, the door was suddenly kicked inward by a very unhappy pink haired girl.

"Baka! Do you have any idea what time it is?!" The girl stormed into the room and loomed over the sleepy boy who had been knocked to the ground.

"S…Sakura…AHHH I'M LATE!" Quickly he scrambled up and into his room, presumably to get dressed.

"You have exactly 30 minutes to get there, Naruto, so hurry up!"

As she looked around the small room which served as his kitchen/dining room/living room, the girl realized that it was the first time she had ever been in her teammates home before.

"What happened? I thought you were going to go to bed early last night." She called out as she heard a crashing noise come from what she assumed to be his bedroom.

"Yea I know…but I got caught up in something…where the hell is…ohh." he called back and she suppressed a giggle at his antics.

Carefully she examined the objects spread out on the table before her, scattered tools, and a mostly used up spool of wire, along with some wood shavings. And on the ground beside the table she found a mostly naked attractive blonde female, sprawled out on its side.

'What the hell did he get caught up in!?'

She recognized the puppet for what she…it…was, having seen it a on quite a few occasions, so decided not to kill him over it…this time, despite the fact that it's very existence, was demeaning to women, and kunoichi in particular, she had never seen him doing anything perverted with it, and had actually seen him become angry at the insinuation.

Now that she looked closely at the puppet, she realized just how lifelike it was, aside from the holes on its hands and thighs she could easily mistake it for a living person.

In fact it almost made her envious of it's…development…then wondered how exactly Naruto knew so much about women to be able to mimic one so…perfectly…there was even a strange birthmark on it's shoulder.

'Could he…nahh.'

Behind her a door shut, and she turned to see a small puff of smoke dissipating around him in his usual orange jumpsuit. 'UGG when is he going to get rid of that thing.'

"What was that?"

Naruto just looked at her blankly. "What?

"The smoke…never mind. Ready?"

Naruto nodded excitedly as he replaced Kunoichi's bow and resealed her into its scroll.

"Yup let's go…by the way, I appreciate the wake up call, but what made you come?"

Sakura shrugged, as they made their way out the door. "Kakashi-sensei asked me to make sure you were on time, while he went to get Sasuke-kun."

"Ohh." Briefly his thoughts drifted back to his conversation last night with his teacher, but he quickly shook them from his mind as he focused on what would lay ahead.

Naruto and Sakura finally made their way to the Stadium where the final exam would be taking place. All around citizens of Konoha and ninja alike were crowding the spectator entrances, trying to get a good seat. On the wall of the massive stone building, a large poster depicted the first round matchups. There were other people crowded around those making bets on the outcomes.

Sakura escorted him to the participant entrance, and then hit him lightly on the shoulder. "Well good luck Naruto." As she turned to leave, Naruto called after her to stop.

"Hey, would you hold on to this for me until after the exam?" He held out the long scroll which had been attached to his back. "It's that giant puppet I told you guys about. I probably won't need it for this."

Sakura took it skeptically, still not totally convinced that he had actually built something like what he claimed. "Sure. Now get in there, you're just in time."

With a last wave to his teammate, Naruto ran into the Stadium to join the other finalists.

The first thing he noticed was that, while all of the ninja were divided by their respective villages, one raven-haired ninja from his own village was even standing apart from their old classmates.

That thought stopped Naruto in his tracks as he looked over each of his friends. Immediately he burst out laughing, drawing everyone's attention to him.

"Hey Naruto, *munch munch* what's so funny?" Choji asked him around a mouth full of chips.

"It's just…how many Leaf Genin entered this exam?"

'Troublesome…' "Around ten teams worth, not counting the rookies…why?"

His laughter erupted anew, and he had to wait a minute before he could answer. "It's just…out of thirteen teams of Genin, only the rookies even made it this far!" Despite his continued laughter, everyone else had fallen silent to think about that.

The silence was short lived however as a slight chuckle was heard from the last source any of them had expected it to. Sasuke made no attempts to hide the fact that he had found the comment funny, and soon all of the other Leaf ninja were also laughing. While the three sand siblings, and the lone sound ninja, all stood there staring at them.

"I don't know what they find so funny…" The now recovered sound girl scoffed. "…it doesn't say much for their village that all of their experienced ninja were outclassed as they were."

"It does say much about them, however." Both Kankouro and Temari backed away from their younger brother slowly. The fact that he had chosen to comment on the strength of their opponents made it clear that he intended to kill them all.

Their musings were interrupted by the appearance of a Jonin, who was chewing on a senbon of all things. Naruto looked at it and briefly considered trying it with one of his before he remembered that they were coated with toxin.

"Ok everyone, the finals are about to begin, and the Hokage is going to give a speech in a moment, but I need to explain how this is going to work."

Naruto took up a position next to his teammate, who was wearing a new look. His arms were covered in bandages, and had on a high-necked collar, presumably to hide the mark on his shoulder.

"The rules will be the same as the preliminary rounds, one on one, no time limit, you win if you knock out your opponent, capture him, or kill him, though I'll try to step in before that happens. If you lose you are eliminated from the tournament, however even if you lose in the first round, there is still a chance that you can be promoted, likewise if you're the last one standing at the end, you might not be promoted. So just do your best to impress the two judges." He pointed a thumb over his shoulder at the two chunin from before the first round. "This is no time to hold back on your skills. Give it your all. Any questions?...no? good."

He turned to face the Kage's Box at the top of the arena and bowed, his signal that they were all ready.

As promised, the Third went into a long speech about the exams fostering friendship among the villages. Naruto, once again, heard none of it.

He was currently sizing up not only the foreign ninja, but his own friends as well. Shikamaru and Choji didn't seem to have changed at all, while Hinata, whom he hadn't seen since the hospital, was still wearing the same coat, but she now had on a pair of fingerless gloves, and she almost appeared to be standing straighter, more confidently, however that all disappeared when she caught him looking at her. She visibly withdrew inward, and her face turned a light shade of red. He also saw her arms tense up as if she was visibly fighting the urge to do something.

While he was happy to see her coming out of her, weird, shell, he wanted to know just what kind of 'training' she had been put through, and if it was as bad as Sakura had described, however even he knew that it would be rude to just ask. He'd just have to wait for her match and see.

The Hokage finished his speech and the Jonin, who had introduced himself as Genma, called out the first match. "Uchiha Sasuke and Sabaku no Temari, remain here, the rest of you proceed up the stairs to the competitors box."

As they all made their way towards the door, Naruto stopped near his teammate. "Good luck Teme. Don't lose until we get a chance to fight."

Sasuke looked at him and smirked. "Just worry about yourself. You'd better not embarrass the Leaf against that other 'doll' user."

The jibe at Naruto's puppets was obviously in good humor, so he let it slide, for now anyway, later though he'd probably make him pay.

He made his way up to the box with the others and found that the Sands puppeteer was walking towards him. "Hey, Uzumaki, I've been meaning to ask…where did you learn to use puppets?"

Naruto shook his head. "Sorry can't tell you. Not even my teams Jonin Instructor knows."

Kankouro was now confused. "So wait, you can't tell me or you won't?"

"Both. Sorry, but I made a promise to keep it a secret."

The larger boy crossed his arms in a huff. "You know what I think? Maybe my Sensei was right…I think there's a Leaf spy in our village, and he stole it from us. What else did he steal for you?!" the boy was getting angry.

Understandable, given what Kakashi had told him, about the Suna nin. His dream was to revitalize the Puppet Corps to their former glory. Seeing the technique used in another village…he had every right to be angry.

"Listen…if we had stolen the technique from Suna, do you think the Hokage would have let me enter the exam, knowing your team was here? It would be an act of war."

Kankouro seemed to think on that for a second then visibly shook it off. "When we fight…I'll make you tell me where you learned my technique."

With that the boy went back to his younger sibling and Naruto made his way to the railing to watch Sasuke's fight, which was already in full swing.

Currently, Sasuke was displaying an impressive agility as he jumped, sidestepped and generally, avoided the large metal fan that was being wielded by the angry Suna Kunoichi. His strategy was simple, and obvious; she was a long range fighter, so get her into close range. The strait forward tactic appeared to be working, every time she tried to create some distance, he would move with her, even while avoiding her attacks.

What was surprising his two teammates, however, was the fact that Sasuke hadn't even tried to attack her back yet. He was relying on an almost aggressive defense. Sasuke had never before displayed this level of…patience.

He was steadily pushing her back towards the wall of the arena, and she could find no way to avoid it. Finally Sasuke seemed to falter and sidestepped to the wrong side allowing her to hop backward, so that she was near the wall. As soon as she managed to break away, Sasuke began a short series of hand seals, and exhaled a large ball of fire at her. "Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu!"

Temari looked at the jutsu and smiled. With a twist of her wrist the fan opened to its fullest and she swept it through the air before her, creating a powerful wind. The two attacks met and the added wind and oxygen turned the large fireball into a smoldering maelstrom, and a follow up wind from the girls fan reversed the direction it was traveling, sending it back at the waiting Uchiha 'prodigy'.

The devastating counter was obvious to anyone who had ever seen the girl fight before, which Sasuke had, so it came as a shock, to those who knew him, that the 'rookie of the year' would make such a basic mistake.

Everyone watching the match, mostly Konoha citizens, held their breath as the inferno enveloped the Uchiha heir. And for a few agonizing seconds the entire crowd waited patiently for the fire to burn it self out.

When the fires, finally, abated, all that remained was a burnt, smoking, circle in the center of the arena. However, there was no trace of the Uchiha. Temari began to cast her gaze around the battleground, searching for her opponent, and nearly missed the small crack that had appeared in the ground before her…almost.

With a grin she closed her fan and prepared to bring it down on the head of the Leaf nin as he emerged from the ground, however it was instantly grabbed from behind by a strong hand as it broke through the surface of the wall, followed by the upper half of Sasuke's body as he placed a kunai at her throat.

The girl gritted her teeth in frustration. She had been caught completely by surprise by the move, and she franticly searched for a way to escape. Then she saw it, he was still halfway embedded into the wall. She pushed against said wall with her legs and let go of the fan she held, as she twisted, kicked off and away from him, the Kunai leaving a small cut across her neck.

The force she applied to the, already crumbling wall caused it to break up and he fell into a roll, coming up in a crouched ready position, holding her own fan before him.

She came to a similar position, except she held up only her empty hands. Looking at her, Sasuke smirked and stood up, resting the large weapon on his shoulder, marveling at its surprising weight, suddenly glad that he hadn't been hit by it.

He never took his eyes off of her as he turned slightly towards the hole he had made in the wall, which now revealed a small man-sized tunnel that extended under the ground. With a large arrogant smirk on his face he let the large fan drop into the tunnel out of sight, and out of her reach. The shock written across Temari's face was soon replaced by anger as she let out a low growl.

"I'm guessing that you've trained with that weapon for most of your life. Which means that without it…well you would have lost even with it."

Without waiting for her response Sasuke ran at her, intending to end the match with one more attack, however he didn't anticipate, the small, normal sized, fan she had pulled from within her waist band. Nor the small, but powerful wind attack that came from it.

Still, rather than try to dodge, Sasuke simply leapt strait into it, and was just above her when the blades of wind hit him full in the chest and caused him to erupt into a small inferno, which was fed by the wind, as it engulfed her.

She had managed to throw up her arms first, using the small, now destroyed fan to keep most of the flames off of her head however she still received major burns over most of her body.

The ground near the wall, where the crack had formed before, slowly began to fall inwards, as Sasuke, the real Sasuke, climbed out from under the ground. "Katon Bunshin…"

With that smirk still plastered on his face, he walked towards the girl and was about to deliver a final kick to her head, when he was stopped by Genma. "That's it! The match is over. WINNER: UCHIHA SASUKE!"

With a final look at the girl, Sasuke walked back up to the stands to a thunderous applause rising from the crowd.

As he saw what his teammate intended to do, Naruto ran down to meet him on the stairs, and caught him near the bottom. "Hey, Teme! What was that about?! You had already won…"

Sasuke didn't acknowledge his remark, and only paused near Naruto for a moment. "Don't lose…I'm fighting you next."

Naruto watched him retreat back up to the fighter's area, but couldn't follow as the next match was announced.

"Sabaku no Kankouro Vs. Uzumaki Naruto…"

The blonde boy turned and looked back and forth at the door to the arena and the back of his teammate. He wanted to confront Sasuke about his actions, but knew that he'd be disqualified of he didn't go out there. "This isn't over Teme!"

From up in the Hokage's box, the Third was livid about the action of his Gennin, and turned to the Kazekage to apologize, only for the words to get cut off in his throat when he saw the Sands Kage wasn't even paying attention to the match.

"Is something wrong Kazekage-san? That was your daughter that just fought, correct?"

"Hmmm…ohh yes it was, but I'm afraid I didn't really expect her to win against your Uchiha, skilled though she is, it was just a bad match up."

"I…see..."

Sarutobi Sasuke frowned at the demeanor of the other Kage, but was brought from his musings as a chunin handed him a report from the medics on the status of the girl.

"I see, my medic team reports that she will need to be off her feet for a few days, but she will make a full recovery. She is welcome to remain in the leaf while she recovers of course…"

"I thank you, Hokage-dono. For your generosity as well as your hospitality."

"It is no problem…… You did the same for us the last time the exams were being held in Suna…remember?"

The Kazekage hesitated for a split second. "Yes, of course, but thank you all the same…"

"…Sabaku-no-Kankouro Vs. Uzumaki Naruto…"

"Tell me Hokage-dono, this Uzumaki…Is it true he fights with puppets?"

Sarutobi smiled a grandfatherly smile. "Ohh yes…I realize that the technique is of your village, but let me assure you…"

He was interrupted by the Kazekage waving his arm between them. "Please do not worry about it…I know that you didn't steal the technique maliciously, the basics of the technique are simple enough to emulate. Besides it is a dying art I'm afraid, there hasn't been a true Puppet master in Suna since Sasori of the Red Sands."

The third nodded to him self. "Still…I am interested to see how he matches up against my son…this should be interesting."

As the two puppeteers stood face to face, Genma looked back and forth between the two. 'wow…talk about tension…' "Ok…you both remember the rules… Begin!"

As one, both combatants leapt backwards into the trees that lined the arena, those few that survived the last match intact, and were hidden from view. Still in the center of the stadium, Genma looked around and let out a dejected sigh. '…just great…this could take a while…'

….

Kankuro, sat huddled in the dense cover of a tree, going over what he knew of the loudmouthed blonde that had the nerve to either copy or steal the puppet technique from his village. '…the only puppets I've seen him use are the cloaked one from the prelims, and that fox one…but he had a third scroll on his leg then, so he probably has as many as three…good thing I had Baki-sensei send me another one when he went back to the village.'

Silently he unraveled Crow from the bandages on his back and took a scroll from his sleeve, rather than unseal it though, he set it down in the crux of a branch and scanned the area for any sign of the orange jumpsuit that the kid insisted on wearing.

'…where are you…ahhh…'

Strait out in front of him, almost directly across the arena, he could just see a small orange blur dart from a tree trunk to the one next to it.

Kankuro smiled and sent a Kunai, with an exploding tag attached to it, out of Crows mouth and strait at the tree Naruto was hiding in.

The weapon hit the trunk of the tree and exploded, taking a good chunk of the wood with it, and sending Naruto flying out into the open, where he landed in a heap. When the blond didn't get up, Kankuro sent Crow up out of the tree he was in and had it fly, joints clanking eerily, over his opponent, and sprayed him with poison gas.

Now knowing he had the blond where he wanted him, Kankuro dropped from his hiding place and slowly walked towards the leaf nin, over whom Crow was still standing, just in case he tried something.

"Tsk…tsk…don't you know the first thing about puppet tactics? Rule One: Always control your puppet from cover…Let me tell you, that orange thing you're wearing is a good way to get kil…huh?!"

The boys rant was cut off by a senbon sliding past his head. As he leapt backward he forced Crow to stab the prone Naruto with a long metal spike which had extended out of its hand. The body didn't move.

'Crap, a fake?!'

He pulled his puppet close to him, now too exposed to try and move to some cover. He had been effectively lured out of hiding, and he wasn't naïve enough to think that Naruto was in the same place his attack had originated from.

"What was that you were saying about cover?" The voice seemed to be coming from all over the arena, so he couldn't pinpoint his location.

'Shit! That's a skill only the senior members of the Corps can use…where the hell did he learn it?!'

"Come out and face me you thieving bastard!"

"Rule Two: Never panic in the face of an enemy…"

Kankuro gritted his teeth in anger. With a twitch of his fingers, two of crows hands opened at the wrist, and he began to shoot out several smoke bombs all over the arena, in an attempt to create some cover for him to hide in.

He never had a chance to move, as an orange blur barreled into him from behind, sending them both rolling across the ground, while crow collapsed.

When Kankuro got a look at him, he could clearly see a small puncture hole in Naruto's chest, from where he had been stabbed by Crow. The 'wound' wasn't bleeding.

'He made a puppet replica of himself?'

To be sure that it wasn't the real Naruto, who had disguised himself as a puppet during the prelims, Crow came at him from behind and stabbed two of the spikes into his back.

'Naruto', recoiled from the impact slightly, and then snapped his arm up towards Kankuro and an arrow shot out of the hole that was visible in the blonde's palm.

The arrow, while it didn't have much in the way of power behind it, still managed to at least reach its target, as Kankuro ducked aside. He glared at the puppet, becoming angry at the blonds, basic, tactics. There was barely any strategy, and yet Kankuro was stuck in a tight spot, facing a hidden enemy, that had caught him out in the open, and still the blond refused to press the attack. 'He's playing with me…'

"What the hell are you waiting for?! If you were a REAL puppeteer this match would've ended the moment I got caught in the open!"

"I'm waiting for you to get serious." Again the voice answered from all around.

"What…"

"I am the only person in this village who uses puppets…and from what I've been told, there aren't too many left in Suna either."

"Just what the hell are you getting at?!"

"Look around…it's not just my village watching us…there are people from Suna here too, the Daimyo's, merchants, travelers, they're all here to see us fight…If we're ever going to have a chance to show what a Puppet user can do, it's right now."

Kankuro took a good long look at the stands around him, and knew that the bastard was right.

"What if we died tomorrow…chances are our art would die with us."

Kankuro looked at his puppet for a moment and then turned sharply as Naruto's voice came from directly behind him.

"What do you say…Lets showed what puppet users are really made of."

Despite himself, Kankuro found the kids enthusiasm addictive. He called his puppet back to himself, and took a ready stance as Naruto did the same with his puppet copy.

"OK, Baka, lets see if you can back up that talk."

With a smirk, Naruto brought his hands together again, his puppet mimicking the movement, and their appearance began to waver slightly.

'An illusion…'

Both the boy and puppet was consumed by puffs of smoke as a jutsu was released, revealing Naruto, no longer dressed in his orange jumpsuit, but a long sleeved black shirt, with an thin orange trim running around his high collar and down one arm to wrap around his right wrist in an intricate fire pattern. The sleeves were loose, better for concealing his actions. He also wore slightly short dark grey pants with black sandals.

His new clothing was barely noticed as Kankuro stared openmouthed at the mostly nude blond girl next to his opponent, while blood began to flow freely down his nose. From all around them, came the noises of men falling out of their seats mixed with the angry shouts of, what seemed to be every woman in the arena.

From her position in the front row, which she had insisted upon to show her support for her only female student, one kunoichi merely stared at the scantily clad puppet before her, Her gaze had come to rest on it's right shoulder, and her red eyes narrowed dangerously at the small blossom shaped birthmark. 'What…what the HELL!!!'

Naruto smiled gleefully at the reaction he had gotten from the crowd. Kankuro had barely recovered his cognitive faculties, when Kunoichi produced a long bow from…well somewhere…and pointed a loaded arrow at the boy. The action shook him from his stupor as he registered the movement.

'crap!'

The arrow was released, and it hit Crow in the center of its chest as he barely got it in front of him. The Suna nin let out a sigh of relief.

'That was definitely a henge on that puppet, but how?'

Puppets were not alive, and didn't have any chakra to mold for a jutsu of any kind. '…except for 'those' kinds of puppets…'

Naruto continued to fire arrows at Kankuro, who continued to let them hit his puppet, while it surged towards the two, forcing both Naruto and Kunoichi to back petal away from it to keep the range that gave his puppet the advantage. Suddenly Crow shot up above them, and Naruto sent Kunoichi up to intercept the attack he was sure would come, only for her to be intercepted by a large figure that had leapt out of the trees.

The figure wore a torn cape similar to Kankuro's other puppet. Its torso had expanded, and enclosed around Kunoichi, trapping her inside its body. Naruto felt his strings get severed from the puppet as soon as the body closed, and instantly grabbed two more scrolls, one from his leg and the other from his hip pouch.

Kankuro let out a sigh. "Was that a…a human puppet?"

Naruto, who had begun to summon his next two puppets, paused. "A what?"

"That…that girl… was she ever alive?"

Naruto didn't know what to make of the question. "N…no…"

"But she looks so…real."

Now Naruto understood the confusion. "Ohh that…simulated flesh. We sometimes use it to test out weapons or jutsu to see what kind of damage it would do."

Kankuro barely registered the words as two more puffs of smoke erupted from the two scrolls the kid had taken out. Now coming strait at him, was another puppet, the one he had seen the boy use in the preliminary rounds, and tried to maneuver his own new puppet into it's path in an attempt to 'capture' it as well.

However when it tried to open its torso, another figure appeared in front of it, this one completely covered in white, except for a metal plate covering its face emblazoned with the Leaf symbol.

The puppet threw out its arms and they wrapped around the entire puppet, trapping Ant's arms at its side, and keeping its chest closed. To the Suna puppeteer, it looked like a long white rope had ensnared his puppet.

Both of them were pulled to the ground again, as Blade flew over their heads, right towards him, only to be intercepted by Crow. His two puppets were designed to be used in conjunction with each other, but the unusual abilities of Naruto's new creation had effectively separated them. So, shifting his concentration solely over to Crow, he began to try and maneuver his first puppet around Blade, to make a direct attack against its controller.

Finally, after a few moments, Crow charged right at Blade, with its four arms reaching out, each with a thin blade affixed to its palm. As the two puppets came within range of each other, Blade took a swipe at Crow, severing three of its four arms however the damaged puppet, continued past its opponent, and headed strait at Naruto.

Halfway through its charge it was intercepted by a large mass of wood and fabric, in the form of Ant. Kankuro cursed as he had forgotten the other puppets in his haste to finish the fight. Frantically he looked around for the white puppet, which must have thrown Ant to intercept Crow. However it was nowhere to be seen, neither could he find Blade, now that he thought of it. So be brought his hands together, in an attempt to replace himself with a tree branch, but as his hands met, two more, white gloved ones burst out of the ground and wrapped around his, while Blade came falling down from above in attempt to capture him and end the match.

Though, while he could no longer form hand seals, he could still move his fingers enough to cause Crows head to launch at Naruto. The attack caught the blonde off guard long enough for him to shake loose of his white bindings, and hop away from Blade, while Naruto rolled out of the way of the head, which had produced another needle like blade from its mouth.

Both boys had to continue to dodge the attack of the other, while trying to direct the actions of their own puppets. During all of this, Kankuro had managed to bring the rest of crow, albeit in pieces, back into the fight, and now had all four of its arms, as well as the head going after his opponent, each with a poisoned blade on it, while Naruto still had blade trying to hit him with its own limbs, and the white arms, which were still extending from under ground, continued to try and trip him up.

The fight had now reached so many fronts that quite a few of those watching, Genma included, had difficulty keeping up.

Finally, after a few minutes, Naruto was caught in the back of his feet by a stray leg, and began to fall backward. At the same moment, one of the stretched out arms, caught a hold of Kankuro's foot and he too lost his balance. Capitalizing on each others predicament, one of Crows arms, cut into Naruto's forearm, while Blades 'mask' opened, shooting out several Senbon which all hit Kankuro's leg.

Suddenly, the fight came to a screeching halt, both boys found themselves in a situation that would normally mean the end of the match.

Now Genma, who had been ready to call the match over when he saw Naruto get hit with the poisoned weapon, stopped when he also saw Kankuro struck with the senbon.

"I've got you Uzumaki! That poison will kill you in a matter of minutes…but…"

"Let me guess…you'll give me the antidote if I quit right?"

Genma took a step back, interested as to where this would go.

"That's right…I've only got one antidote with me…and if you don't quit I'll destroy it." Kankuro had the look of a man assured of victory as he held out a small vial of clear liquid.

Naruto laughed. "Go ahead." Kankuros face fell and became angry.

'Fine! Have it your way…' His hand squeezed and the vial shattered, pouring the contents on the ground. The Suna nin watched his opponent carefully, expecting for him to be in shock. He wasn't. In fact he seemed…amused.

"What the hell is so funny?! Don't you realize you're going to die?"

For a brief second Kankuro's attention was diverted to the stands where a few people had cheered at the prospect, they however were silenced, by one crazy pink haired girl nearly breaking the neck of the one closest to her.

The reaction confused him, but the thought was tossed aside as he saw Naruto plunge a small object into his leg. After a second, he withdrew it and tossed it over to the boy. When he caught it a look of horror crossed his face.

"No…there's no way…you…you couldn't possibly have…" his hands began to tremble so badly his dropped the empty syringe.

The strength left his legs and he fell forward, landing hard on the ground.

"W…what the hell is this?!"

"You already used that trick during the prelims. Remember…you poisoned a friend of mine."

In the stands, next to Kiba and Kurenai, Shino sneezed, causing his teammate to gasp at him. The reaction was ignored.

"Long story short…he still had a few drops of the antidote you gave him…enough for another friend to make more for me."

Kankuro had now lost all feeling in his legs, and the numbing feeling was slowly creeping up his waist.

"What did you do to…"

"Don't worry, unlike you, I don't use lethal poisons. You'll be fine in a day or two."

Genma shook his head, with a small smile. "Winner…Uzumaki Naruto!"

Surprisingly there were quite a few cheers as Naruto collected his and Kankuro's puppets, while the medics came to collect the paralyzed boy.

Before they could take him away though, Naruto walked over to them, carrying both Crow and Ant. "Hey don't worry about these two ok? I'll keep an eye on them until the exam is over. Then I'll bring them by the hospital for you."

His smile was incredibly disarming, but Kankuro couldn't bring himself to return it. Despite all that had happened, all that was about to happen…he had a grudging respect for the boy. He knew what he was about to do would likely mean his execution, but he needed to.

"Hey…do me a favor…be careful when…when you fight your next opponent. Just stay alive."

Naruto looked at him strangely as Kankuro was carried off towards the medical area.

'I'm sorry Uzumaki…'

"Well Kazekage-dono? I hope you are satisfied with the match between our two puppet users?"

"Yes it was a most…interesting match."

"I admit that I've seen very few shinobi use the technique, other than Naruto of course, but I must say that your son shows great potential for the art."

"Quite so…The Corps are looking to him to revive the technique within the village."

The Kazekage had not met his gaze at all since the tournament began. He continued to stare down into the arena, and hadn't shown the least bit if unrest that so far two of the three Suna Ninja left in the exam, his own children no less, had been defeated by Leaf Genin.

"I am sorry that the Otokage could not be here. I would have liked to finally meet with him face to face…have you by any chance?"

The question, innocent enough on the surface, prompted a reaction from the Kazekage, even if it was only a slight inclination of his head, the movement, and subsequent pause afterward, spoke volumes to the Third.

"No…I have not had the pleasure…but it is to be expected with a new village…so much paper work."

Sarutobi nodded with a slight chuckle at the private joke that was always shared by Kages of all villages. The amount of paper work for any Kage was staggering.

"Tell me, your other son…Garra is it?... I have heard accounts of him from the second part of the exam, and again during the preliminary round, how do you think he will match up against a Hyuga?"

The Kazekage turned his head marginally to the right meeting Sarutobi's gaze for the first time. "I am far more interested in his inevitable fight against your Uchiha."

"Man, what a drag…"

Shikamaru had been 'fighting' against the sound girl for only a few minutes, and already he had tried to quit, though it was before the exam, and Naruto had forced him to hop over the railing with his strings. He could have resisted of course, but it would have required way too much effort.

So now he knelt lazily under the shade of one of the trees, defecting senbon needles lazily with a kunai while he watched the clouds. He had noticed that the needles all had bells attached to them, and strings attached to those, which he had cut while deflecting them all.

From the very moment he entered the ring he already had figured out over seventy ways to defeat this girl, though the easiest was just to wait until the sun had set enough for him to stretch his shadow all over the arena. So that's what he was doing, besides, the girl had to be running out of weapons.

"ARRGG! What is with this guy…It's like he doesn't even care about this fight!" Kin ignored the chuckle that came from the proctor of this exam, at her expense.

Kin fought down the urge to throttle the man, mostly because it would get her disqualified, and partly because he could, in all likelihood, kick her ass.

Instead, she took out her last few remaining senbon, holding them in both hands, and threw them all at once towards the lazy leaf nin.

Shikamaru simply scoffed at the attempt and leapt strait, up into the surrounding trees, knocking one of the projectiles away at the same time. An instant later, he dropped back down in the same spot, and breathed out an annoyed sigh. "How troublesome…are we done yet?"

Kin gritted her teeth so hard that Genma could have sworn that he heard one of them crack under the pressure. Violently, she brought her hands together and channeled a lot of chakra down the strings she had attached to that last volley, when the energy reached the bells attached to the strings, everything went deathly quite, as if all of the sound had been sucked up into a vacuum. Only to be replaced an instant later by a high pitched 'BANG', which not only covered the immediate area in a short lived cloud of dust, but also tore the trees apart where they stood close to the center of the blast.

The loud sound seemed to resonate with the bells that littered the area from her earlier attacks, and the noise level only grew, sending practically everyone in the stands into a fit of deafness, and in some cases, blood loss due to ruptured eardrums. Even the two Kages had to rub a distinct ringing out of their ears.

Genma, for his part had both hands clamped to the sides of his head, with blood leaking out between his fingers, and his mouth opened, in a silent scream of pain.

When the shockwave settled enough to tolerate, Kin removed two unusual looking plugs from her ears, and smiled in satisfaction as the Proctor dealt with the aftermath of the attack.

Above the ring, in the Hokage's private box, both Kages stared in apparent horror at the carnage that had just been unleashed below them.

The Kazekage, narrowed his eyes at the girl and for a moment lost a bit of control over his Killing Intent. It wasn't much, but it had gotten the attention of the Third.

"That fool…" It was barely a whisper on the Sand Shadows lips, but still the third had picked up on it.

"I agree. That was a highly reckless move. It looks as though many of the spectators have been injured."

The last was said to the Hokage's aid, who, had disappeared to alert all available medical staff to begin assisting the civilians.

The Kazekage, who apparently hadn't even noticed that he had been overheard, was silently planning ways to punish the girl, but in the end decided to give her first to the rest of the men in his village, and to offer what was left to Manda as a sacrifice. 'She had better pray that she doesn't survive what is to come.'

Kin stalked her way over to the pile of rubble that had been the spot where her opponent had been crouching. She was breathing a bit heavily from the amount of chakra she had used, but other wise she wasn't in that bad of shape. She was eager to look down on what was left of the boy that been mocking her since she entered the ring. But after a moment of kicking around some of the debris, she became worried that she could find any trace. The last time she had used that technique, it had made an awful mess of the person who had been caught in the middle like that, as far as she knew there was still a blood stain.

But now there was nothing, she began to look all around her in a panic, and caught a slight movement out of the corner of her vision. Instantly she began to back flip away from the area, and had to continue, until she was almost flush against the far wall on the still sunny side of the arena.

When she came to a stop, she looked at the ground, and about fifteen feet away from her, sat a dark pointed line that was trembling with what she took to mean exertion.

'That bastard, tried to catch me in his shadow…'

As the shadow began to retract, she began to scan the darkened side of the ring, for her opponent, who had apparently survived her trump card well enough for him to manage his own attack.

Still she could find no trace of him, when she suddenly fell under a heavy shadow. Quickly she glanced upward towards the sky, to see a large fan being held up by the wind, and in place by a long string, as if it was a kite.

'Shit! A distract…!!!'

She was unable to finish her thought, because she suddenly was unable to move.

Very much against her will, her gaze was directed towards the wall opposite where she was standing to see the string, extending from a large hole in the wall. Through which Shikamaru stepped holding said string. Calmly, almost lazily, he began to walk towards the girl, while at the same time she was walking towards him.

Franticly she began to go over how he had managed to get away from her attack. She focused her attention on the hole behind him, the one made by Uchiha Sasuke during his match. 'He hid underground when the sonic blast went off, it shielded him from the concussion, and he used the Uchiha's tunnel to move away from the area…ohh crap…'

She found herself face to face with Shikamaru, who was now holding onto the large fan, having brought it down from the sky while they were walking. She had been so distracted by her thoughts, that she never even noticed herself mimicking the movements.

With one fluid motion the Leaf nin held the heavy object directly over her head, and looked at her expectantly, while she held up only air. "Well…are you going to quit or are you going to make me drop this on you?"

To her further horror, his arm began to tremble slightly. "I'm waiting, it's very heavy and holding it up is far too troublesome…"

Finally to both of their reliefs, Genma stepped in to declare Shikamaru the winner. The lazy Nara, Released the girl who barely got out of the way before the fan left a crater in the ground before her. Upon seeing this, her eyes nearly popped out of her head.

"W…where the hell did you get that thing anyway?"

In response Shikamaru merely walked away and pointed to the hole he had ambushed her from. An image of Uchiha Sasuke dropping it there flashed through her mind.

The Sound Kunoichi watched him as he made his way back up to the stands, a small blush spreading its way across her cheeks.

She was about to follow him when a strong hand clamped down on her shoulder. "You will come with us."

Slowly Kin turned to see two ninja standing behind her, both with white animal masks covering their faces. "What…"

The second of the two indicated the stands around them. "Your attack injured a great many civilians, not to mention the visiting dignitaries. We're placing you under arrest until your Kage can be contacted."

The color drained from her face. 'no…when he's done with this village, he'll come after me…'

The three of them vanished into a swirl of leaves.

­­­­­­

"Hai, Hokage-sama, the more serious of the injured civilians have been brought to the hospital, otherwise we are ready to continue with the exam."

The third fire shadow nodded to his subordinate and signaled to Genma in the ring.

"The last match of the first round…Hyuga Hinata vs. Sabaku no Garra…"

Hinata gulped nervously. She had been dreading her match since the prelims, and now that it was time, she couldn't decide what she was more scared of…her opponent… disappointing her clan…or looking like a fool in front of Naruto.

Her opponent was already making his way down to the ring. He hadn't even spared her a glance. Her eyes, seemingly of their own accord sought out her crush, only to wish they hadn't.

Naruto was staring right at her, his trademark grin spreading across his face. "Don't worry about it Hinata…you'll do great, I know it."

The girl nodded to herself and, wishing that she had the same confidence, followed the last of the three Sand Siblings down the stairs.

No sooner had she taken her first step down when she heard a deep voice within her head.

'Hinata.'

Flashback

"Hinata. Come in here."

She had only just arrived back at her clan's home following the end of the preliminary round, and had been told to report directly to her father.

As protocol required, she knelt outside of the sliding paper door, which covered the entrance to Hiashi's private study.

After a moment of silence he had called her inside.

"Your performance during the preliminary matches…was unlike you."

He had been there of course, standing behind the Hokage, he had seen what she did to her opponent.

"I…I…" He voice failed her. "Tell me. Was it your intention to remove the arm of your opponent?"

The comment reminded her of what she had done, quite accidentally, and brought tears to her eyes. Her father just nodded. "Yes, I thought as much."

As he leaned forward over his low desk, she seemed to shrink more. "Up until that moment, you were doing quite well."

It was if he had just dumped cold water on her. In a flash of shock her head snapped up and she stared at her father openmouthed. 'Did he…was that…a…compliment?'

"The Clan Elders believed that you had finally come around. That you finally had displayed even a few of the qualities that would have made you a great clan head."

She didn't know what to think.

"I will NOT tell them that you defeated your opponent…by accident."

His voice was level, but the words carried with them a warning that was unmistakable.

"This will not happen again. For the next month, I will personally oversee your…training."

Flashback End

The memories of those first few training sessions, nearly made her quit the exam, but soon she found herself facing her opponent, with no clear memory of actually walking into the arena. She couldn't even remember activating her bloodline, yet she had. The fact that she could do it without seals, hadn't impressed her father any when she showed him. Just as it clearly hadn't impressed Garra.

Through the eyes of her bloodline, she could clearly see a large mass of Chakra contained within the gourd on his back. She had watched his match in the preliminaries, and it came as no surprise when she saw the chakra surge upward, shooting the cork at her.

It was an opening move he'd used against many opponents. It tested the speed and reflexes of those he fought, and thus he knew which of his victims would be able to provide the best validation of his existence, so when the girl before him, whom he had virtually disregarded, avoided the projectile with barely a move of her head, his interest was piqued. He had been briefed on the girls clan of course; The Hyuga…renowned for their perfect chakra control and highly developed form of Taijutsu. Details were pretty scarce, however all Suna Ninja had been ordered to treat all members of this clan, even the children, as if they were Jonin level. This girl though, had shown that she was an inferior example of her Clan during the preliminary round. The damage she had done to her opponent had impressed him slightly, mostly due to the amount of blood that had been spilled as a result, however her own reaction had caused him to write her off as a weakling and it highly disappointed him that he would have to fight her now.

"Combatants ready…"

Hinata took up the typical relaxed stance of her family's style while Garra hadn't moved at all.

"…BEGIN!"

Three long ropes of sand extended out from Garra's gourd, and flew at Hinata at a speed which slightly surprised her. She was however easily able to duck under the attacks when they sped over her, and then to roll to the side when they changed directions. This impromptu dance continued for only another moment, when the two strands separated into four and came at her from both her left and right.

Hinata, tracking all of them through her bloodline, took a few steps to her right, towards the strands of sand, and, performing a quick pirouette, touched both along their lengths as they flew by, and did the same to the others when they passed her on the other side.

The result was instantaneous. All four strands of sand, from their tips to the point where her hands had made contact, lost all cohesion, and dissolved.

The crowd leapt to their feet in a roar of applause for the Hyuga heiress, while Garra simply cocked his head to the side. He tried to lift the fallen sand again, but the chakra stored within it had been completely displaced. His eyes glinted as he locked gazes with her. "You…will give my existence meaning…"

Hinata, a little unnerved by the look he was giving her, quickly replaced herself with a fallen branch, left over from another round, as the remainder of the sand around her surged inward in a large mass.

As she came to rest from the replacement, she began to run at Garra, jumping, dodging and disrupting any masses of sand that came near her. Several times she'd had to retreat as a wall of sand rose up before her, only to continue when she had gotten around the obstacles.

The more sand-based attacks the girl had managed to avoid, the more Garra's bloodlust grew, already he could feel 'IT' begin to stir in the farthest reaches of his mind.

The girl swiped her hand through a patch of sand that had managed to catch her foot, and continued towards him. He had prepared for this though. When she was within striking distance of him, an entire circle of sand rose up around him in a pillar, with another slightly larger circle doing the same around both of them. He grinned madly as he reached out towards where she had to be. "Mother…wants…your blood…"

Hinata was growing more nervous by the second. She now found herself trapped in a slowly contracting column of sand that had closed over the top. Trying to go underground, even if she did know any Doton Jutsu's, would be suicide against this opponent. Her theories on Juken's effectiveness against the sand had proven correct, and she might be able to get out by disrupting the chakra flow in the wall before her, but probably not before the rest of it crushed her. She was left with no choice. Slowly she closed her eyes and inhaled deeply to calm herself.

Flashback

Hinata fell to the ground in exhaustion. It was only the beginning of the second week of her training, and after Neji had revealed that he could perform the ultimate defense of the Main Branch, Kaiten, Hyashi had insisted that she also master the technique. The problem became almost instantly apparent though. While virtually all Hyuga have perfect, or near to it, chakra control, this particular technique required one to expel chakra from all of their tenketsu at once, while spinning.

Hinata, no exception to this, could push chakra out of practically every part of her body, a fact that had caught Neji off guard when she launched a Juken strike with her elbow. Her father's reaction was to berate her about deviating from the traditional Juken form. The problem was that she couldn't manage all of her Tenketsu at once. She lacked sufficient chakra.

"Get up and do it again."

She was nearing complete chakra exhaustion, and collapsed to her knees again when she tried to comply with his wishes. As her Byakugan faded she thought she saw signs of regret, even worry on her father's face, they were gone though by the time she looked up at him, having been replaced, if they were even there at all, by disappointment.

The Hyuga Clan Head, closed his eyes and began to walk away, as the sliding door before him opened and Neji limped in to the training room.

Hyashi considered his nephew with a critical eye. "You were supposed to assist with my daughters training."

His voice was flat, stern, but there was no anger there. The Hyuga were above anger.

Neji bowed deeply, though it must have hurt him, not physically, to do so. His contempt for the Main house was no secret.

"I am sorry Hyashi-sama. I was training with my team and was brought to the hospital following that."

Hinata also looked at him when she heard his voice.

"How, exactly, were you injured?"

In truth Hyashi knew how skilled the boy was.

"My Sensei arranged a sparring match for us. Our opponent…"

"'Opponent'? You mean that your whole team sparred against one individual? And you had to be taken to the Hospital?"

Neji bristled at the accusation. "The matches were one on one, consecutive." Lying would be useless, Hyashi was notorious for reading lies through body movement.

"I fought him last and had to be treated for a paralyzing nerve toxin."

"I see."

Hinata looked up at her cousin remembering just who it was that had put him in the hospital. 'Naruto-kun…'

Hyashi looked back at her over his shoulder.

"Tell me, was he not also the one who eliminated your team during the second round of the exam?"

"Hai, Hyashi-sama."

Hinata couldn't believe her ears. Naruto had beaten Neji not once, but twice. Her cousin was a prodigy among even the Main House, and here she couldn't even manage to perform this one Jutsu.

Hyashi again regarded his daughter. There was something stirring within her. He could see it. A small twinge in her spine, tightening of her fists, her pulse was quickening, there where many signs that this Uzumaki was having a profound effect on her.

"Hinata…Your training with me is over. I will not oversee it any longer, not until you prove yourself to me will I take an interest in your skills."

With that he walked out leaving the two of them alone. Neji stayed only another minute before he too left.

Alone, Hinata's mind raced over what she had just learned. She was happy to know that her crush was continuing to grow stronger. However she also felt even more unworthy to ever have his attentions. She remembered watching him train with his puppets, his fight during the prelims against her own teammate had been like watching a well rehearsed play.

Then his concern for her wellbeing before and after her match came to mind. And with it the confidence he had inspired within her.

She could not perform the Kaiten. Maybe someday but not now. She would need a similar defense however. This was why her father had insisted on her learning it.

Thoughts began to click inside her head, pieces fell into place, and an idea took shape. Slowly rising to her feet, she set off to work it out while she recovered her depleted chakra.

Flashback End

The sand was closing in on her, yet she seemed to take no notice. Instead she tried to focus herself. In the back of her mind, with so much riding on this match, she could vaguely hear the voice of her father, his disapproval of her beginning to erode her already shaky confidence in herself.

Then she willed the voice to change.

It became slightly higher in pitch, then more friendly and familiar. The words changed as well. No longer could she hear disapproving, or hurtful words being spoken at her. But it seemed the words were encouraging her, holding her together as they've always done, only louder now without her fathers overshadowing them.

Her eyes snapped open, Byakugan blazing, staring strait into the eyes of Garra through his two walls of sand. Instantly her arms were thrown out to her sides, and she focused a large amount of her chakra to her hands, willing it through the tenketsu located at the very tips of her fingers. The chakra took shape as her fingers began to glow a faint blue.

She brought her arms around in a slow arc which steadily picked up speed until they appeared to be nothing but a blur. The Chakra she had pushed out of her hands, rather than be thrust outward in a shield, took shape as long lines of blue energy.

"Shugohakke Rokujuyon Sho!" (Protection of the Eight Trigrams Sixty Four Palms)

The lines sliced neatly into the column of sand that surrounded her, and to the crowd it seemed that the sand was just exploding outward in small intervals as the girls chakra disrupted the chakra that was contained within the sand.

………………………………….

In one particular section of the arena, a large group of individuals, all with white piercing eyes, gasped in shock, and several older men began to hound a stoic looking Hyuga Hyashi.

Contrary to outward appearances though, the Hyuga Clan Head was in complete and utter shock.

"Father…what technique is that? I've never heard of something like that." His younger daughter's question was a good one and mirrored the thoughts going through his own mind.

"It seems…" the onrushing of voices clamoring for an explanation, of why the heiress to their clan was using a technique not of the clan, silenced immediately. "…that Hinata has created a new technique."

The silence continued. Most of the Elders had all but written the girl off as a failure, and the thought that she could actually create such an effective technique actually shook them to the core.

'…Hinata-chan…' Despite the 'all seeing' eyes that surrounded him, not a single person noticed the small smile that had appeared on the face of the girl's father.

……………………………………

Garra couldn't believe his eyes. This girl had just devastated his sand with one technique. He could no longer feel the sand that her chakra touched, and consequently could not manipulate it. She had forced all of his chakra out of the surrounding sand, and forced him into a precarious position. He would still kill her of course. That was a given. But now, he would likely have to work to do it.

He was starting to enjoy this match very much.

He began to focus his chakra downward through his feet and into the ground, reestablishing his hold on the sand that now covered the floor around them. The girl's arms had begun to slow, indicating that her technique was coming to an end. Then he would have her.

……………………………..

She could feel her control over the chakra in her arms beginning to fail. She slowed her movement, slicing the last few tendrils of sand out of the air, and settled into the traditional Juken form. Even while she was working with her team on it, she never dreamed that the end result of this technique would be so efficient.

Unlike with the Kaiten, her defense didn't expel chakra, but rather focused it, so she didn't lose any of it until she let the technique go at the end. It had cost her very little of her reserves to perform, though the mental focus required left her feeling slightly lightheaded, but she couldn't lose sight of what she was doing.

Though he probably didn't know, she could clearly see the chakra extend outward through the ground from him, saturating the already used sand around them.

A small surge in the chakra still contained within his gourd was all the warning she had, and his hand shot outward, followed by a small wave of sand. He was trying to distract her until he could regain all of his discarded sand. So rather than back off, Hinata charged at the wave, cutting through it with both hands, and getting caught in the shoulder when the wave changed directions leaving her with a small gash on her shoulder blade. Surprisingly she didn't stop at the injury. Instead she lunged outward, and managed to impact Garra's out stretched arm just below the elbow.

Quickly he drew it back, while trying to put distance between them. The small amount of sand that had rushed up in his defense had been completely obliterated by the attack. His arm felt numb, and as he watched, the Armor of Sand that had covered it began to slide off the limb, revealing highly pale, dry skin beneath, which looked as though it hadn't seen the light of day for many years.

Hinata had no time to contemplate this however as she had to move to avoid being crushed by another wave of sand from the side. When she came to rest and saw that the sand wasn't pursuing her, she took a look at her opponent, so see him still looking at the hand she had managed to catch. There was blood on it, hers, from where she had grabbed him with her injured arm.

Garra looked at the small red drops in awe. Then did something that unnerved the girl, to understate matters.

He licked them off his skin.

The simple yet disgusting act brought a look of horror to her face and a look of rapture to his.

"Your blood…is so pure…so delicious…" he looked right at her with a crazed look. "…Mother wants more…"

His attacks began again, much faster this time, and Hinata found herself hard pressed to keep up. Her shoulder began to throb in time with her heartbeat. Her high degree of flexibility, one of the only things she had over both her sister and cousin in terms of skill, served her well now as she was forced to dodge more than she was able to attack with her Juken.

…………………………….

It was blindingly obvious to all those watching from the competitors' area, that Garra's only skill lay with his sand. It seemed unfair to Naruto that Hinata kept getting paired up against opponents who excelled against close range combatants such as her.

His grip on the railing before him, had only tightened throughout the entire match, the only exception being when she had pulled that amazing jutsu out of nowhere to escape that pillar of sand.

Behind Naruto, his teammate only scoffed at the Hyuga Heiress's predicament.

"What is it now Teme, do you have something to say?"

Since confronting him after his match, Naruto had avoided talking to Sasuke, partly because he wanted to watch the fights, but mostly because he knew if he had to listen to the boys attitude for much longer, he might well hit him.

Sasuke had always been a bit arrogant, but now…Naruto didn't know what was up with him, but he suspected that the source of it came from the mark on his neck.

"Not really, I just wish they would hurry up so I can get to my next match…against you."

The blondes grip tightened on the railing so much that the metal actually groaned in protest, and Naruto spun around to face his teammate.

"What the hell is with you lately, Sasuke?!"

The two were so close now that each could only see into each other's eyes, and to Naruto's amazement, and regret, all he saw was insanity. What Sasuke saw however was a person who was worried not only about Hinata, but himself as well. The realization set him back a small degree. So rather than snap back at the boy, to further unsettle him for their fight, he relented and backed off.

"…Nothing."

Sasuke turned around and proceeded to ignore his friend in favor of the match going on below them. After a brief smile, Naruto did the same.

………………………………….

Hinata was running out of options. Her opponent, who seemed to become further unhinged as the fight dragged on, had learned his lesson, and was careful to keep his distance from her. Using his sand more to herd her into one side of the arena, and thereby limit her mobility.

As she got nearer to the wall and farther away from him, Hinata knew that she would lose the match, and with it her life, unless she did something risky. So when she was close enough to the wall, she preformed a back flip from her position just as a large mass of sand impacted the ground where she had stood, onto said wall. The very second she felt the solid surface beneath her feet she launched herself out over the sand, in a spiraling leap which brought her back within effective range for her Juken. As she landed, she had to smack aside two masses of sand, and when she landed in a crouch she thrust out her uninjured arm, surrounded by a mass of blue energy. The palm thrust connected solidly with Garra's midsection, causing him to double over onto his knees while holding his stomach with both arms. He bent forward as a terrible wail tore from his open mouth.

The scream of pain reminded her starkly of the one that had issued from her opponent during the prelims. Only this time, she had done it on purpose, and so held her ground, while waiting to see of the judge would choose to end the match.

Genma was trying to decide just that in fact.

Before him Garra had just taken a full powered Juken strike to his stomach. He knew exactly what the Hyuga's signature Taijutsu did to the human body, and was frankly amazed the boy had survived having his organs pummeled like that. He wasn't entirely sure that the scream he was emitting was a result of the pain though. To him, for a moment, is almost sounded like a sort of insane laughter.

Either way, he couldn't let this go on. He threw his hands up into the air and announced Hinata as the winner, only for the scream/laughter to rise to new heights.

Garra slowly inclined his head to take in the girl before him. "M…Motheerrrr…wants…to…to meeeeet… you…"

As she watched sand began to gather to him and slowly slide up his body. When it finally reached his head, his grin hadn't faded at all. The mass of sand continued to gather in size, and Hinata retreated back to stand beside Genma, who had readied himself to intercede, when it became obvious that Garra had no intention of submitting to his judgment.

The large pile of sand began to undulate, and shift, as if it were a balloon filled with water. It expanded in some areas, contracted in others, and generally began to take the shape of some kind of overly large animal.

The hairs on Naruto's neck stood on end, and a warm feeling began to shift and churn in his stomach.

Two large 'arms' reached outward to support the large form, still on Garra's skinny legs, a tuft of red hair still visible on it's head, while a long tail-like appendage whipped behind it eagerly.

Genma took a step forward, placing himself between Hinata and the beast Garra had become. "I have already made my ruling on this match. If you pursue this, then you will leave me with no choice."

The laugh that issued from the monster of sand echoed maniacally throughout the arena. Garra took a step forward, and Genma shot the senbon out of his mouth at a high speed. The wooden needle impacted the sand creature in the forehead, and buried itself so deep that it must have hit him.

Hinata was just as surprised as Garra seemed to be at that moment. Especially when, through her bloodline, she saw the chakra-filled sand surrounding the needle, begin to sift and fall away, taking the needle with it, leaving a small patch of pale, dry skin behind it.

"W…what…"

"That Senbon is inscribed with a tiny chakra suppression seal. It should have pierced his head as well, but the sand was denser than I had anticipated."

Even as they watched Garra's sand began to recover the bare spot. "Very well…you die first."

A large arm whipped outward, and caught Genma on his leg as both Leaf nin tried to leap away. The blow sent him tumbling to the side of the arena. And Hinata watched while several Leaf Jonin and ANBU stepped onto the top of the wall of the arena, intent on interceding.

…………………………..

Sarutobi leaned forward in his chair, and with a slight gesture to the two Chunin guards at his side, sent them forward to help stop the rampage that was to come. The two guards barely made it to the ledge of the Kage's box, when the two Suna guards, flashed outward, burying a kunai into the backs of the Leaf nin.

Sarutobi watched all this with out even a twitch.

"Now, now you wouldn't want to spoil my son's fun would you…Sarutobi-sama."

The only reaction that came from the old man was to sigh heavily. "Should I even bother to ask what you did with the Kazekage?"

A hissing laughter issued from the 'Kazekage'. "So you did know. For how long may I ask?"

The two dead Chunin disappeared in a puff of smoke, as the Kazekage tilted his head in amusement. Sarutobi rose to his feet and met the gaze of the man next to him.

"I've met the Kazekage, face to face, on several occasions, and, believe it or not, he has even met Naruto, and was quite looking forward to see him take part in the exam. Yet you act like you've never even laid eyes on him before. You see the Kazekage and I have become good friends over the years, even if 'official' relations between our nations are currently strained. Besides…you never could completely mask that snake smell Orochimaru."

The man grinned evilly beneath his mask.

"How long have you been impersonating him?"

"Kukukuku. Ever since the fool refused my proposal." The Hokage nodded mournfully.

"…what now?" The Sandiame Hokage looked completely resigned to what was about to happen.

"Now…you die…sensei." Orochimaru slowly pulled his disguise off, revealing a face that looked far younger than it should have been. Following his lead, the two Suna guards that had attacked the Thirds shadow clones, removed theirs, revealing them to be four not two, and each had a satisfied grin on their faces.

"Shall we…" Orochimaru indicated the roof of the building. Sarutobi took the lead, followed by his former student, and three of the four Sound ninja. The fourth, a boy with six arms, looked down into the arena to see several Jonin step up to fight the Sand's demon carrier, and laughed.

"You're gonna be way too busy for that." With that he tossed a large smoke bomb over his shoulder and followed the others onto the roof.

AN: And thus the exam ends. Thanks to all of you who've reviewed. I'm currently working on the next chapter and is should be out sooner than these two were.