Mei was the next of the other Kage to arive. She appeared without ceremony on the edge of Tsunade's personal viewing platform flanked by Chojiro and Ai. She offered Tsunade a respectful bow. "Lady Hokage." She said.

"Lady Mizukage." Tsunade replied respectfully.

"Did I miss much?" She asked as she looked down to see Akari walk out onto the field.

"Just a warm up really." Lyto said from his seat.

Mei cast a glance at the man, ignoring Onoki's irritated grumbling. "You must be Lyto then." She said as she walked over to him.

Lyto nodded as he stood up to give her a proper bow. "Lady Mizukage." He said respectfully. "It's an honour to make your acquaintance." Offering the woman a smile.

Mei returned the smile as she took the ceremonial hat of the Mizukage off. "Likewise." She said as she took her seat in between Tsunade and Lyto.

"So who's up next?" She asked.

"I believe it's Naruto's Student versus one from my own village." Garra said as he leaned forward in his seat.

"One of Naruto's students?" Mei repeated. "I'm interested to see what she's capable of."

"Likewise." Tsunade replied. "She has some impressive Jutsu up her sleeve; still incomplete but that was a month ago. It will be interesting to see how well Naruto was able to train her in that time."

There was a round of cheers as Akari walked out into the arena, some were Suna nin shouting their encouragement for their own but the majority were the citizens of Konoha and by far the loudest was her Sensei's. She smiled as she spotted Naruto and the others in the bleachers.

She stopped walking as her eyes met Taki's, after a moment she raised a clenched fist to her.

From the stand Taki returned the gesture and smiled. She knew Akari wouldn't have a problem winning this fight.

Naruto sat with her a smiled. "This will be an interesting fight." He said.

From beside him Le Nodded. "I am excited to see how well she has incorporated my taijutsu training into her new techniques." Energetic as ever.

"So what exactly did you teach the Girl?" Hinata asked from behind him.

Naruto shrugged. "Nothing much." He said. "The jutsu she has developed she managed on her own. All we really needed to do was bring her chakra levels and Physical ability up to match the strain of her techniques." Naruto told her.

"Meaning what?" Kiba asked him.

Naruto smiled to himself. "We wore her to the bone and then some, day in day out for nearly a month."

"I can't wait to see what that will bring." Taki said as she watched the match begin.

Akari flexed her shoulders as she walked out to meet Seruga. He stood next to Shikamaru that same cocky grin on his face.

"You know I'm not going to go easy on you because you're a girl." He said snidely as he took the puppet from his back.

Akari levelled a cold hard stare at him as she took her head band from her waist and tied it around her head. "Like you're even a threat to me anyway." She muttered.

Seruga glared at her as she spoke and ripped the bandages off of his puppet. "Don't be cocky brat." He growled at her.

Akari shrugged. "I'd call it more a statement of fact really." She said just to get on his nerves.

Shikamaru watched the display between the two with the same expression as always as he took another drag on his cigarette.

Don't let her get under your skin so quickly. He though to himself as he looked at the Suna nin. "All right if you're both ready, then begin." He declared.

Seruga's puppet lurched forward with startling speed as he activated his puppet jutsu. Akari ducked back as the puppet swung one of its arms at her.

With a flick of his fingers the puppets hand snapped up and a poisoned blade came out as he angled the arm down for Akari.

She rolled to the side narrowly avoiding the blade as she pushed herself back trying to put some distance between the two of them. She came to her feet fully and held out her hand as she pulled out one of her demon wind shuriken she surged her Chakra through her hand bringing the blade up to max rotation as it began to crackle with her Chakra.

Seruga tensed as he looked at her. He would have to be careful about her shuriken he knew.

In the weeks that had passed he'd done some recon on her and knew just how much those Shuriken could cut through if they got a solid hit.

The two locked eyes for a moment before Akari moved in, aiming to destroy his puppet. She knew that if she could get rid of it then the rest of the fight would be easy.

Naruto had explained the Jutsu at length to her during their time spent training in the forest. It was favoured by shinobi that were not the best in close combat, made to keep the casters enemies at a distance.

Seruga kept his puppet on the defencive as Akari came in, taking pains to avoid the lightning infused shuriken that she held in her hand.

Even then Akari wasn't winning just yet. She had to make sure that she herself didn't take a hit from the poisoned blades that the puppet had. She knew that the initial dose had just been a simple aesthetic but she had heard he'd upped it to a proper toxin in the time between the preliminaries and now.

Another poisoned blade whizzed past her cheek and in that moment Akari had her opening, swinging her Shuriken clean through the Puppets torso splitting it in half.

There was a General cheer from the crowd as the puppet was sawed in half and then Akari began her attack in earnest.

As the puppet fell away in two pieced she surged forward hopping to get rid of Seruga with on quick but heavy hit.

Seruga smirked as she closed in and Akari's ears twitched as she heard the simple but constant 'clacking' sound that heralded a puppet.

Akari spun on her heel and brought her Arm up as the puppet brought one of it's poisoned blades down at her.

Akari grunted as she stopped the blade. "Damn it. How?" She asked as she ran her Shuriken through the puppets arms cutting it of just above the elbow, jumping back before it could attack again.

Seruga just laughed at her. "Seriously?" He asked her. "It' just a puppet. Not a person. It doesn't matter what you do to that thing I'll still be able to control it."

Akari looked between her forearm, the puppet and Seruga and let out a sigh of frustration. Seruga laughed again as he flicked his left hand. Akari prepared for the puppet to move but nothing happened.

She gasped to herself and threw herself up and back, jumping over the lower half of the puppet she'd left discarded earlier.

"Damn it." She said to herself as she pulled out her other Shuriken.

All she's managed to do was give herself more opponents to face. She landed ready for another attack when one of the Puppets arms cocked back at the elbow.

Seruga smirked again as he flicked another finger and the puppet shot something.

Akari swore as she held out her Shuriken.

Seruga laughed. "Shuriken won't do anything against a smoke bomb he mocked as the grenade exploded at her feet. Akari took a step back as the poisonous smoke filled the air around her.

Taki gasped as she saw the poison smoke cloud envelop Akari. Naruto put a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"You don't need to worry." Naruto told her. "This is nothing she can't handle." He told her.

Seruga laughed again to himself as the grenade went off. "Well proctor you better call it." He said. "That gas is pretty deadly."

Shikamaru sighed to himself as he shrugged, he was about to call the match when her heard a faint buzzing sound coming from the cloud. He strained his ears from a moment before he recognised the sound of Akari's Shuriken.

A moment later the cloud parted and Akari stood there, using her shuriken's like fans to keep back the smoke.

She smiled at Seruga as she threw both Shuriken strait at him.

He swore to himself as he dived to the side only narrowly avoiding both Shuriken. She was unarmed now and his puppet had a better chance of killing her now. He came to his feet quickly and pulled on the Chakra strings on his finger tip but the strings went slack.

He grunted to himself as he looked at his puppet just in time to see Akari reduce it to kindling with a lightning charged punch. "You bitch, so that was your plan all a long." He said.

Akari gave him a sly grin. "You bet." She said as she drew the wakizashi from her back and charged in.

Unsurprisingly Seruga was forced on the defensive almost immediately as Akari came in to finish off the match.

It started to take effect slowly as her blows became more sluggish and heavy, before eventually Seruga was able to go on the offensive landing a heavy blow to the jaw.

The girl was staggered by the blow and lost the grip on her blade as Seruga followed through.

"I'll admit you're pretty tough." He said as he punched her again and again. "That poison took much longer to take effect than it should have but now you're done." He said as he sent a kick into her ribs throwing the girl back.

As she landed he made a series of hand signs. "Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu." Breathing out a gout of heavy flame as he spoke. Akari dived to the side at the last moment only narrowly avoiding the full brunt of the flame, she winced as the fire washed over her arm but charged in regardless. Seruga stood there stunned that the girl was still moving before she slammed an arm into his face.

The blow was heavy, too heavy for a girl Akari's size. As he rolled to his feet he looked at her. "How?!" He gasped. "How can you still move?!"

Akari smiled at him as she grabbed the burnt sleeve and ripped it off, revealing a training weight tied around her arm.

"Training weights?!" Seruga gasped. "Then that means."

"You're blade never actually touched me." Akari told him. "I just wanted you to think I did."

She took off her other sleeve and took off the identical training weight that she had on her other arm. She flexed her wrists experimentally and rolled her shoulders as she advanced on him. "Alright, so now that the kiddy gloves are off, how about we start this match." She said as she loomed over him.

Seruga forced himself to calm down as Akari advanced on him. He wasn't going to beat her by losing his nerve.

From the stands above Kiba started to howl with laughter. "You guys are just too much." He said as she watched Akari take off the training weights.

Lee smiled at him. "Well it was the best way to develop her muscle tissue so quickly." He said. "Granted they're not as heavy as my own but for now it's enough."

Sakura nodded. "They've helped a great deal and with it she's be able to use her own Jutsu without issue."

"What Jutsu?" Taki asked her.

Sakura looked at her for a moment. "Oh right you were passed out for her fight." She reminded herself. "Well she-." Sakura began before Naruto cut her off.

"You'll see in due time." Naruto assured her. "Though she doesn't need it to finfish this fight."

Seruga was back on the defensive as Akari attacked again. She was a lot faster without those training weights on her arms and he could only guess she also had a set on her legs as well. He had to think he needed away to slow her down or better yet stop her entirely.

His eyes lit up as his mind ticked over and a plan formed.

Akari noticed the look in his eyes and sent out another punch like last time Seruga managed to block it at the last minute as he reached behind his back.

The next thing she knew the both of them were enveloped in a cloud of smoke. Akari jumped back out of the smoke fearing whatever jutsu her opponent was devising.

As the smoke cleared Seruga was still standing there, he hand extended like her was controlling another puppet, but Akari could see nothing.

Nothing ventured nothing gained. She said to herself as she charged forward. Seruga smiled as she charged and flexed a finger.

Akari felt something tug at her leg and the next thing she knew she hit the ground. She looked at herself as she picked herself up. What the hell was that? She asked herself. She tried to stand up but again, Seruga flicked a finger and Akari's arm shot out from under her, forcing her to lose all balance.

Seruga chuckled to himself.

From the stands Taki looked on confused. "I don't get it what's going on?" She asked them.

"It's Seruga's puppet master jutsu." Kakashi said.

"But I thought that was for manipulating inanimate objects?" Taki protested.

"Not quite." Kakashi explained. "The puppet master jutsu is used by creating strings of chakra that run from the users fingers to whatever they want, it is usually puppets giving the user unrestricted control over the puppets, but the strings aren't restricted to attaching to puppets."

"What does that mean?" Taki asked him.

"It means that Seruga can attach his strings to anything he wants." Naruto told her. "If it's a puppet it means he can control it perfectly but if it's a person."

"He can manipulate their movements." Taki said as she understood. "So what can Akari do now?" She asked.

Naruto shrugged. "Survive until he runs out of Chakra I guess." He said. "I've never been in a fight where the user used the technique like that."

Down in the stadium floor Seruga toyed with Akari. She was getting better at moving under his jutsu but he was still able to exert enough control over her to keep her at a distance.

Akari glared at him as she thought about how to get close to him. Every time she tried to throw a shuriken or kunai at him he was able to use his puppetry to make it a miss and she wasn't able to properly weave hand signs while under his jutsu.

She swore to herself as she lunged at him again but he was able to use the strings to pull her to the side with ease.

"It's no use you can't get at me!" He told her.

Akari glared at him. He had tried to use the technique to beat her against the wall of the stadium but she still had enough control of herself to keep it from hurting her too much.

Then she had an idea.

Yin and the others watched the fight unravel with interest as Akari tried in vain to get close to her opponent.

"The guy's smart to use his puppet master jutsu like that." Gee said as he watched the fight.

Makabi nodded "I'm interested to see how she'll get out of it."

"She won't." Sakura said as she drifted forward resting a slender hand on the railing of the viewing station. "She's unable to cast any sort of jutsu and she has nothing that will allow her to break the Chakra strings." The Kiri nin said in a matter of fact tone.

Yin just chuckled to himself. "She'll figure something out." He said with confidence.

From the side lines Azuko said nothing. His mind racing with other thoughts.

Seruga flexed his fingers causing Akari's body to spasm randomly as he tried to get some feeling into his fingertips.

It was odd. He could maintain the Puppet master jutsu for hours without feeling the effect, but over the last minute his fingers had begun to tingle and now they were completely numb making it harder for him to control her movements.

Akari smiled as she saw the look on his face. "Something wrong?" She asked him as she picked herself up.

Seruga growled at her and pulled her legs out from under her. She sent an arm out to catch herself but he pulled that away too forcing the girl to hit the ground with a heavy thud. "Just shut up!" He said irritably as he flexed his fingers again sending another spasm through Akari's body.

"What is it?" Akari asked him as she tried to stand up.

Seruga tried to knock her down again but she managed to keep her feet.

"Fingers numb?" She asked.

Seruga froze at that moment and Akari knew her trick had worked. She allowed herself to smile as Seruga tried to take her off her feet again but this time he was too sluggish and she once again kept her feet.

"You bitch, what did you do?" He demanded.

Akari smiled as she looked him in the eye. "Well I wondered to myself, 'since you've connected up by chakra strings, was I able to send my chakra back along those strings?'" She told him. "Nothing too big or else you'd have noticed, just a mild electrical current just enough to make your fingers go numb."

"So that was you plan." Seruga said, giving his hands a violent twist as he tried to throw Akari down again.

She hit the ground but never lost her smile. "Yep and now that I know that it's working I can do this." She said as she brought her hands together.

Seruga tried to keep her hands apart but both his hands were numb by now and he could accurately manipulate her movements anymore.

"Raiton: Arashi no tamashī no jutsu!"

Lighting Exploded all over her body throwing her hair in wild arks as the electrical energy of her Chakra raced down the strings connecting the two of them.

The current hit and Seruga let out a gasp of pain as the lighting went through his arms. He staggered back and let go of the strings as he tried to get some feelings back into his arms. He looked up too late to react as Akari bore down on him, she grabbed him by the face as she pushed them both black slamming the Suna nin into the wall of the stadium.

"Ranton: Hasai shōmei!"

Shikamaru watched the final moments in surprise as Akari let Seruga drop to the ground. She had been too quick for him to get her with shadow possession which in and of itself was impressive.

He hoped the boy wasn't dead. While there would be nothing Gaara could do about casualties cause in the Chunin exams it would put a bit of a strain on their relationship.

He smiled as the girl let her jutsu go and began walking back to the viewing platform for the other Genin taking part in the exam.

"The winner is Soji Akari." Shikamaru declared to a thunderous applause.

Hello again friendlies. Not a long wait for this one at least. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter and just as a note I'll be re-editing the rest of the story before I update the next chapter because i had to re-read the story because it had been so long and have noticed several really obvious and annoying spelling mistakes and the like so i'll take a day or two to re-edit and upload it all again. but after that it's on to Azuko's match in the Chunin exams.

Jutsu used were in order of appearance.

"Katon: Ryūka no Jutsu." (Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique)

"Raiton: Arashi no tamashī no jutsu!" (Lightning release: Soul of Storms)

"Ranton: Hasai shōmei!" (Lightning release: Crushing lighting)

Until next time i wish you all the best.
Yours truly.
Nicolai Grey.