"Oh, man." Shikamaru sighed as Kiba was carried away on a stretcher. His furry companion, Akamaru, was also lying on the torso of his human friend, just as badly beaten up.

Despite their conversation about women being weak just a few minutes prior to the fight, Inuzuka had just gotten his ass demolished by Tenten, the female teammate of Rock Lee and Neji.

He was completely knocked out, while the girl was only a little agitated. Her physique was far ahead of their own, and made Nara seriously question their prowess as mere rookie genin. It even made him question how they made it to the finals in the first place.

She simply walked past the boy of the ponytail, which he took as disrespect. He could not deny he was starting to get nervous, especially as his own opponent was the blonde girl that destroyed Chouji with barely any effort.

For now, though, there was one more match ahead before his own. That of Neji, the Hyuga prodigy that nearly got Hinata killed in the preliminaries. However, this match would not be as easy, as he was going to face the redhead freak that almost killed Minoji, his opponent in the preliminaries.

Rock Lee was cheering for his teammates like there was no tomorrow. Alongside the trio of suna-nin, they were the only complete team still participating in the exams.

"Good job, Tenten!" He gave the girl a thumbs up accompanied with his shiny smile, which caused a little blush on the girl's face. "Go, go, Neji!"

The Hyuga ignored the cheers of his teammates and jumped directly into the arena from the fence of the platform of the participants. Immediately, the intense roars and cheers of the audience filled his ears. Even if he preferred silence, he could not say he minded the noise of the stadium.

As for the boy of the red hair, he calmly walked down the stairs all the way to the actual entrance of the arena. He took his time, and when he emerged from the tunnel, blood was soaking from his clothes and the few traces of sand still visible floating around him. As he walked forward, he stained the vibrant green color of the grass with dark tones of red.

Not only Neji was unsettled by this, but also the referee, Hayate, who believed the tunnel to be empty and closed.

The sickly man gulped before forcing himself to keep his stuff together.

The prodigy of the Hyuga clan thought a good way to reply to that would be to immediately adopt his fighting stance, that characteristic of the Gentle Fist style. The veins around his eyes emerged from his skin as he focused his chakra on them. Very few sights were as intimidating as that of the Byakugan.

"Alright, the rules have already been explained. I will intervene if there is a clear winner, without the need of one dying." The proctor wanted that to be as clear as possible.

Neither of the genin replied, instead giving each other deadly stares filled with killing intent.

The sickly jounin sighed and then extended his arm into the small space between the two genin. He hesitated for a few seconds, before removing his arm and yelling. "Begin!"

Meanwhile, among the audience, a group of the already eliminated genin gathered to watch their old and new friends compete in the final phase. Ino and Chouji were sitting alongside the members of team Shibire, whom they had met in the preliminaries.

One of them, and whose name was used for the overall team, was the leader, other than their assigned jounin. His hair was brown and he had thick sideburns, though no trace of a beard.

As for Minoji, he was the shorter member of his team, but was also a year younger due to his good grades getting him a year ahead of his generation. His dark hair was a little curly, though not long enough to show much, while his most distinctive characteristic were the green lines tattooed on the skin between his eyes and ears.

Then there was Tanzo, possibly the one who had gotten closer to team 10 due to his match against Shikamaru. He was not too different from Nara, as he was also a little lazy and definitely the smarter member of his team. His black hair was styled similarly to that of Sasuke, though he wore his hitai-ate on his chin.

Behind the genin, the masters of teams 7, 10, 8, as well as teams Guy and Shibire, were also sitting together. The assigned jounin for team Shibire was Ken Utatane, who very characteristically wore a construction helmet over his hitai-ate, as well as a pair of safety glasses.

"Is Naruto really not going to come?" Asked Ino while turning around.

"He is busy training." Replied Kakashi with his usual tone. "Believe me, I tried to convince him."

"I think he could've used a little distraction." Continued the girl.

"What a shame." Chouji added. "Hopefully he is doing a little better."

"I do wonder where Shino and Hinata are."

Akimichi turned around to look at his blonde teammate. "No idea about Shino but Hinata is probably still in the hospital."

"That Neji guy really fucked her up." Added Tanzo, though not with much confidence as it was a complicated topic.

"Well, now he's facing a freak of his same caliber."

The central viewing tower was the tallest one in the stadium, and had a special balcony destined for nobles and leaders of the many nations of the shinobi world. For the specific case of the Chunin Selection Exams, which was the main use given to said building, the tower was destined for the leaders of those nations that reached the final phase of the exam, and who would act as juries to decide whether the participants are worthy of becoming chunin.

For that edition of the exams, only genin from Konoha and Suna had made it. For such, only the Hokage, as the host, and the Kazekage were present on the balcony with their respective elite guards. Despite the alliance between the two nations, their time in the balcony had been mostly silent and tense, with some glances being exchanged periodically.

As the match between Neji Hyuga and Gaara of the Sand was about to begin, a figure, escorted by two ANBU, entered the balcony through the main gate. Half of his face was covered in bandages, while only one of his hands was outside of his gray tunic. His stare was stuck on the floor beneath him as he approached the leader of the host village.

Hiruzen immediately knew it was Danzo, and it made him lower his guard a little. The advisor walked up to the man and moved close to his ear. There, he whispered.

"We should make our move first." Said the man of the gray tunic.

A drop of sweat went down the Third's forehead as he glanced for a split second at the Kazekage, then back to the arena.

"No, we shall not." He cracked his knuckles as he observed the apparent dominance of Neji over his opponent. "After all, we are not entirely sure if Suna is involved and if anything will be attempted. We shall stick to the plan and the established protocols."

Danzo replied with a few seconds of silence. Then, he spoke. "I'll be ready. Black ops squads have been deployed to all key locations of the village. Do you know anything about Jiraiya?"

Sarutobi wiped the sweat that was starting to build up on his forehead. He figured it was starting to become suspicious. "He's in the Forest of Death. He'll be ready for action."

The advisor nodded, not entirely satisfied, and left the same way he arrived. The two ANBU followed, while those who were there guarding the Hokage turned to look at their leader.

The Third cleared his throat before turning once again at the Kazekage. "What an intense match this has been! Don't you agree, Lord Kazekage?"

The leader of Sunagakure turned to look at him and revealed that his eyes were wide open, almost tense. Hiruzen's smile fell slightly.

"Indeed, Lord Hokage." He always spoke almost in whispers. "I'm sure there are more surprises ahead of us."

"Lady Hinata, Neji's match is about to begin." A maid, with the same eyes as every other member of the Hyuga clan, said softly.

The young woman was sitting next to the bed of the still recovering heiress of the main branch. She was holding a book, which she had been reading out to the bored and depressed girl.

The chief of the clan had been very clear to her that Hinata should stay in the hospital, but she thought going to the stadium could ease her mood.

"No, thanks, Natsu."

While always gentle, being forced to deal with the many troubling family dynamics of the main branch of the clan had been very hard for her. It did not matter how many advances she achieved with the daughters of the chieftain, the man would always find a way to regress them.

She opened the book once again, intending to continue reading to the young heiress. The girl was looking out the window, like she had been doing the entire time. Even if the sun was bright and it was midday, she was stuck in bed and felt too humiliated to even try going outside aided by Natsu.

"Musasabi Naruto was taken aback when he entered the hall; there was a strange atmosphere."

It was probably the seventh time Natsu was reading said novel to Hinata, but it was the girl's favorite. Despite the great variety of books she had access to, she always requested the Tale of the Utterly Gutsy Shinobi, by Lord Jiraiya of the Sannin.

"Mahiru Kokage watched Naruto and spoke to him, unexpectedly. 'You have been badly injured!'"

Just as she uttered that final line, a sound that was not supposed to be there caught her attention. It was almost like something burning. After two seconds, she recognized it and tried to jump onto the girl, who was taken by surprise by the actions of the maid.

An explosion followed and at least three floors collapsed, including part of the one Natsu had just been standing on. The young woman immediately stood on the bed, careful not to step on the heiress, while activating her byakugan.

She looked in every direction, not realizing that it was too late for her to detect the threat on time. The window right behind her broke as one man entered the room from it. Natsu quickly turned around, adopting her gentle fist stance.

However, her move was interrupted by the blade that suddenly stabbed her chest. From behind, another man was just waiting for her to be distracted.

The maid collapsed fairly quickly and slipped from the bed. She fell through the recently destroyed floors and died upon crashing in the lobby.

In her last moment, she was only able to recognize where the two men came from. Their uniforms, wearing pieces of white armor, was clearly that of chunin or jounin from Kumogakure.

Hinata was helpless. She was barely able to breathe correctly after the severe damage received in her chest and lungs by Neji's pummeling. The explosions, and those that followed all across the hospital, only made her paralyzed from the shock and unable to try anything to save herself.

This made it easier for the two kumo-nin to simply abduct her and leave the building just as quickly as they had made it in.

As they reached the roof of the building, they could clearly see as explosions began to set off in almost all of the important buildings of Konoha. The invasion had begun, and a smirk formed on the faces of the kidnappers.

Both Gohan and Sakura had taken flight not too long ago. The former was holding back his speed considerably, however, as the girl was not able to reach such levels yet. The Saiyan also wanted her to enjoy the flight, as he figured that if she was constantly trying to catch up, it would not be exactly a fun experience.

Right before leaving, Piccolo had given Sakura a set of his gi, adjusted especially for her and without any added weight. She had been expressing discomfort with her old clothes, which were quite dirty and damaged after so long without being able to change. As expected, she was quite thankful, even if she was not exactly a fan of the turban, which she removed. Just like Gohan, she kept the cape.

They had been crossing the many forests, grasslands, rivers and lakes of the Land of Fire, which seemed to be quite a lush and naturally rich land despite its misleading name. Sakura had never seen many of those places, and only then truly realized how immense the country was.

However, all of that did not distract her much from the excitement of going back home and meeting with her friends once again.

"Can't wait for you to see Konoha and meet everyone! I'm sure they'll like you." She said.

Gohan laughed nervously, still remembering the assassination attempt very clearly. He had his reasons to doubt the girl's optimism, but figured that having her could perhaps give them a more friendly reputation.

However, the girl suddenly stopped her flight, and simply stood floating midair. The half-blood also stopped and turned around, wondering if something had happened. Her face, previously filled with excitement, had now been overtaken by visible concern.

"Something is wrong." She said, before glancing directly at the Saiyan's eyes. "We're close, I can sense their energies."

Gohan focused on the energies around and in a matter of seconds realized what the girl was talking about. He could very clearly feel as several different energy signals simply vanished out of nowhere. Many people were dying.

"Carry me and let's hurry up!"

The boy nodded. He quickly approached and grabbed her by her left arm. He then charged his Ki, which manifested as a blue aura around him, before shooting out into the skies at such speed that it broke the barrier of sound with ease.

Neji removed his two fingers from the redhead's chest. Blood was coming out of the latter's mouth at very dangerous rates, and the suna-nin collapsed to the ground.

The prodigy of the Hyuga relaxed his posture and returned to a regular stance. Having lowered his hands, he walked away. Several bruises had been accumulated on his face and arms, but ultimately, he was the clear victor of the match.

Hayate slowly and carefully approached to confirm that Gaara was indeed unable to continue the fight. However, a sneeze escaped his nose as he was right next to the boy. This caused the boy's sand to suddenly gather into a massive sphere around him, possibly as a defense mechanism.

The proctor jumped back as purple spikes emerged from the sphere of sand. He turned to the Hyuga, but was unsure whether to call him back.

"The battle is not over yet." He finally stated, which caught the attention of the prodigy.

Neji turned around only to find that a massive arm had emerged from the sphere of sand. It was nothing like a human arm, and several purple veins had formed all over it. It grabbed the prodigy like he was a toy and quickly began increasing the strength of his grip.

In the balcony of the participants, reactions were mixed. Those from Konoha were horrified at the sight of Neji being slowly crushed, while Gaara's teammates exchanged glances and nods.

As feathers began to fall down from the sky, like rain all over the stadium, the two Suna-nin jumped into the arena.

"It's time!"

Shikamaru yelled and tried to stop them, but failed. He turned to the other participants, Neji's teammates, who were just as confused as him.

Unlike Nara, though, both of them knew they had to act quickly.

"That's genjutsu." Tenten recognized before making the kai hand seal to release it.

Shikamaru followed, and the girl then aided Lee in dispelling the jutsu, as he was unable to do it by himself.

"We'll go help Neji, if you want to stay here you're free to do so." Said the girl before jumping into the arena and rushing behind the two Suna-nin.

Lee grabbed the wrappings around his legs and removed a set of very heavy weights from each of them. Then, he loosened the bandages around his arms. Shikamaru's jaw dropped at the small craters left by the weights due to their sheer weight. And yet, nothing could have prepared him for the insane levels of speed the boy displayed the next second.

In the blink of an eye, Rock Lee had reached the sphere of sand, and began attacking it with swift combinations of kicks and punches. In a matter of five seconds, the sphere had been covered with holes all over it.

Nara could not deny that perhaps he was a little lucky that the exams were apparently being interrupted, as he would have been beaten up by such monsters.

As it became clear to Lord Third that a tailed beast was being unleashed upon his village right in front of him, he slowly turned to look at the Kazekage, who was sitting right next to him.

The leader of Sunagakure did so at the exact same time, creating a sequence that for both of them lasted far longer than it really did.

As their eyes finally locked, what was coming became almost obvious. Though, deep inside, Hiruzen hoped that there was still a chance it would not come to it.

"Shall we get going?" Asked the Kazekage.

Behind him, his guards flickered before throwing a smoke grenade right in between the seats of both Kage. The smoke released by the explosion was more than enough to completely cover the balcony and leave it completely out of visibility for anyone that was looking from outside.

The sound of several metallic weapons clashing and even chakra being released was the only thing that reached the ears of the two Kage. However, all of that was easily surpassed by the incomparable sound of the chakra explosion that came from the middle of the arena.

While he could not properly see, Sarutobi knew that sound very well. In fact, he had heard the exact same thing thirteen years prior.

"No…"

Was the only thing the Hokage could utter as he recognized the explosion that came right before a tailed beast was released in its complete form.

There was no doubt anymore. Konohagakure was under attack, and Sunagakure was directly involved.

Longer chapter! (And so are the next few).

This is where the fun begins!