-1Naruto: Jade beast of Konoha

Chapter 7- Tournament Day 1: Odd happenings, and Shikamaru victorious

Naruto looked at the victory he had just achieved and let off a large smile, he had done it, he had won against Neji. He had pulled off the victory which no one else though could win. Still it a close run thing as true as far from assured. Naruto looked across the arena floor at his rival who had just defeated. Naruto hoped that he would be able to now see past that his own fate was decided already. Naruto then made his way up to the waiting area.

Naruto landed on his second jump right past his the bar into the contestants waiting area. As he looked at the other waiting competitors he gave off a large smile looking at in the direction of a number of his fellow competitors. He could tell that they were preparing themselves for their own matches, most focused of all was Shino. Shino was always quiet, but now he looked extremely focused on the fight which be ahead of him. Naruto hope that his fellow leaf shinobi would win his match, heck he wished all of his fellow leaf shinobi would win their matches. Especially the next one, it would be between Gaara, and Sasuke. Even he knew that this was the match that everyone was here to see.

"Man, you did get good, Naruto," Naruto heard turning left to notice Shikamaru sitting leaning on the dividing bar, "I guess your not one of us losers anymore are you?"

"Shikamaru, um what do you mean by that," Naruto asked confused by what Shikamaru had meant by the statement.

"Nevermind, it would just be to troublesome to explain it," Shikamaru said shaking his head, "Well where is Sasuke, do you know why he had not shown up yet?"

"Hmm…good question, I don't know, where could that stuck up jerk be," Naruto replied.

The two stood waiting to see what would happen. Naruto then figured out what Shikamaru had mean in his statement. Naruto was a bit surprised for a second, he never thought anyone saw him in the same group as themselves. He felt a small smile creep across his face as he thought about it. Then his mind returned to the problem at hand. Each one of wondered what would happen with this situation. Naruto and Shikamaru were as curious about this match as the rest of the fans where in their seats. Even the some of the big Whigs who came to see this exam did so, only to see Gaara and Sasuke fight it out. Gai who had been celebrating Naruto victory in the stands a few seconds earlier, was now wondering where his rival, and his rival's protégé were at. As they waited, people began to hear strange rumors of the possibilities of things that could have happened to the young shinobi.

Suddenly the judge on the arena cleared his voice looking around at everyone in the stands.

"I am sorry to tell you, that the current match has been postponed until later. It will be move to the end of the round in order for both contestant to be able to make it to the stadium on time," Genma announced loudly, "So we may now move on, may we please have Shino Aburame, and Kankuro, so we may begin with the next match.

"Shikamaru, who do you think will win this match up," Naruto asked with a curious look on his face.

"I have no clue, they are both very well matched, but then I don't know that much about either one of their fighting styles."

Naruto noticed Shino moved to get into the arena when he noticed Kankuro raise he hand up.

"Judge, I have agree to forfeit this match, I don't feel up to it," Kankuro announced with a very disappointed look in his eyes, as if he really didn't want to give up the match.

"Alright, that makes Shino, the winner of this match up," Genma replied quickly, "So now we may move on to the next match, may we have Shikamaru Nara, and Temari."

"Oh man, I might as well give up now," Shikamaru said to himself quietly.

"What, your up Shikamaru, what are you doing, here, go kick her ass," Naruto yelled pushing Shikamaru into the arena.

Naruto smiled, he knew that Shikamaru could find a way to win this match. He hoped that his friend would show all of the skills that he normally seemed to hide except in rare instances, like his prelim match with that sound girl. He was surprised though that he did not go on the attack, and just stood still as the fight began. What was up with this, why was Shikamaru not going on the attack already, it looked like he wanted to be hit by the sand girls be attack. Naruto then sighed as he notice Shikamaru run away from the girl. What was he thinking, he could not win this match by just running away, he would have to fight her at some point. Naruto watched carefully, looking for any attack Shikamaru could make, but he ran again when the sand girl attacked him. What was wrong with him, how was he thinking he was going to be a chunin with this performance. Naruto then noticed a thin shadow running at Temari, and he let off a smile. Shikamaru had planned out his attack, and now he was going to attack her. It was to short though, and he was forced to run from the girl again. Naruto just sighed, this had to be the oddest fight he had seen. It was as if it was more of a board game then a fight. Time went by as the two moved around the arena, Shikamaru at the edge, and Temari near the center to avoid Shikamaru's shadow. Naruto then noticed Shikamaru throw his jacket into the air as it explained, he noticed that it dropped a number of kunai with explosive tags on it. When the kunai hit the ground the blew up creating only a large whole, but also forcing Temari away form the center. Shikamaru had already launched out his shadow at her before them move and was finally able to capture Temari in his shadow. Shikamaru then ran at her in such a way that she was forced to run at him in kind and when he threw his left hand he nailed her, but when she threw the same punch she just hit air. The punch actually managed to knock out the sand girl, ending the match in favor of the leaf. Naruto let out a loud cheer for his friend, it make the leaf a good three for three, though how Shino won was a bit odd. Now would come the main event, the fight everyone was waiting for.

A/N- I know this one is short, but I wanted to separate this from the Gaara vs. Sasuke fight and its results. I also know Shikamaru did win the first fight, but well, I just decided to change that on a kind of whim, though in the end it won't have that much of an effect. I hope you liked it, and please leave a review, thanks for reading.