I'm YOUR loser, always and forever

by PrimalKitsune

Naruto Uzumaki had never been what you would call normal, he was an outcast, an irritation...a loser. but when he gets placed on a team with Satsuki Uchiha he learns she's the furthest thing from normal herself, so when he's with her he feels like he's not so abnormal, and he didn't really mind being a loser, so long as he was her loser. (fem Sasuke) (first 2 chapters not my best)

18. Chapter 18:The preliminary rounds part 2

I hope you all enjoyed the last chapter, now onto Ino vs Sakura. I know this isn't the most beloved fight but I will put some focus on it as Sakura is one of the more major side characters in this story.

A big thanks for the support of the last few chapters, it means a lot.

Also for anybody wondering about the possible changes to Naruto's chakra I've alluded to, his chakra is still fucked up by the five pronged seal so yeah, that's kinda stopping the development, even if the instability it caused is a factor of that chakra even awakening in the first place.

Also as a response to a ff review by robbler about Kakashi being caught out by the Gekai's trap. Honestly I agree, kinda regret writing that, the problem is I wanted Naruto and Satsuki to at least be imprisoned for a bit not just have Kakashi instantly break them out by going on a warpath, I wrote it badly, that's on me.

Anyway, let's start the show.

Sakura and Ino didn't break one another's gaze as they walked down into the arena, it was clear to anyone watching this was a weighted match, a lot more was behind it then just a preliminary match.

"What's the story here Kakashi?" Guy spoke hand on his chin, seeming quite interesting as another of his rivals students was fighting and this was another leaf on leaf match, but even more so, two genin from the same graduating class.

"In all honesty I'm not too sure, I know they used to be friends, best friends in fact, but I believe they had some sort of falling out and have been rivals ever since. At least that's what Iruka told me." Kakashi spoke, in truth he wanted to see how far Sakura had come since the exams began, by all the physical test scores from the academy not to mention the unique clan jutsu Ino had access to, she should win this easy, she was the superior kunoichi, but he'd entered his team in these exams for one specific reason, to smash them against the wall of adversity, and see which of them made the hard climb over that wall and emerged greater ninja, or looked at that wall and gave in, and from the new look in Sakura's eyes, it seems that wall was overcome.

"*cough* begin." Hayate spoke, seeing no words needed to be exchanged between the two kunoichi.

Both didn't move, seemingly just waiting for the other to strike first.

It seems both got tired of the little standoff as they ran at one another without a word and began to exchange blows.

"I've always looked up to you Ino, since the moment I first met you, I knew you'd be a great kunoichi, like Satsuki you're a clan ninja so I suppose that's to be expected, but even then I couldn't help but look up to you, not to mention my jealousy." Sakura thought as he grabbed a kick from Ino and gave her a fierce gut punch. Only for Ino to be replaced by some of the debris from the arena, as it was slightly damaged from the previous fights.

"You've always been chasing after me Sakura, ever since we were kids, in truth? I liked it, it made me feel special, like a big fish, even if the pond was small, and I worried about you, you were never as skilled or gifted with jutsu as other clan shinobi were, so I pushed you away, my best friend, thinking it would somehow keep you safe." Ino thought as Sakura deflected her shuriken with a kunai.

"So that's why."

"So that's why."

They both thought in unison, as they each grabbed the other's arms, face to face with one another, as their strength pushed against each other.

"I'm not going down without a fight!" They both screamed in the other's face.

What ensued was mainly a taijutsu and bukijutsu battle, Sakura and Ino seemed perfectly matched in both taijutsu and use of ninja tools and neither had decided to start expending chakra yet, however there was one major factor in this battle, fatigue, not only was Ino better trained and used to longer fights but the blonde was also fully rested, Sakura was not, her subpar level of sleep, proper meals and general rest was catching up quickly, she had to make a move right now, she wouldn't last if the fight continued to be drawn out.

"Naruto, Satsuki, I'll show you both that I won't be left behind anymore!" Sakura yelled in her mind as she ran at Ino, her attacks forced entirely and aggression, little care for her ability to defend any counter attacks.

Eventually the pressure was too much and Ino took a blow to the stomach, knocking the wind out of her. Sakura didn't stop there and gave a harsh blow to Ino's face, sending her flying across the arena.

She stood there panting, she poured a lot into that attack, she was exhausted, hopefully she was knocked out.

"Yeah! Way to go Sakura!" Naruto shouted from the stands, she looked up gave a tired smile and a weak thumbs up, even Satsuki had a small smirk on her face.

"Honestly getting beat up by those sound ninja may have been good for her." Satsuki thought as she saw a brand new Sakura with heaps more fighting spirit then she'd ever seen the pink haired kunoichi display.

"Like hell…I'll go down with just that." A voice spoke as everyone saw Ino picking herself up.

"Yeah c'mon Ino!" Choji shouted from the stands as Ino picked herself up before Hayate assumed she was unconscious and called the match.

Ino spat out a glob of blood and wiped her mouth with her hand, removing most of the blood around it.

"That all you got? Sakura?" Ino said clearly not done just yet, but it was clear she was slowing down too. She'd definitely have a nasty bruise on her face later that was for sure. But while Ino has tired Sakura was running on fumes, she didn't know what else she had.

"Come on Sakura, you can do it!" Lee shouted from the stands, not wanting to see his friend and crush lose.

Sakura looked up a Lee, a burning look in his eyes as she called down to her, she thought back to how he fought against all the odds to save her, she wouldn't, she couldn't give up, the only she's going down is if Ino makes it so she can no longer move, sadly Ino agreed with that, and had a solution.

She reached into her pouch and pulled out a small blade not too dissimilar from one of Naruto's kodachi, although it was shorter and it's handle seemed to be slightly more bulky, it also bore the clan symbol of the Yamanaka instead of the Uchiha.

"Oh shit is that? Asuma, did you get her one of those, that's a serious ninja tool." Kakashi spoke seemingly quite surprised at what looked to be an ordinary blade.

"Heh, not me but Inoichi, was a birthday present apparently but decided to give it to her early when he found out she was taking the exams." Asuma chuckled, taking his current pack of smokes, only for Kurenai to shoot him a look which caused him to put them away.

Kakashi and Guy idly thought it was still funny that they thought nobody knew about the two of them.

"Urr am I the only one missing something, how's hers any different from mine?" Naruto said, pulling one of his blades out, Satsuki nodding alone with him.

"That's not any ordinary blade, it's edge is completely standard the trick lies in the handle, as Ino said earlier the Yamanaka manage all shinobi botany and production of plants with useful properties, poisons, paralytics, sedatives and painkillers just to name a few, aside from there special mind based ninjutsu they fight with poison and other substances more so then any of leaf village clan, but there are quite a few problems with coating a blade with poison, it can dry up naturally or via use of fire jutsu, it can wash of thanks to water jutsu or significant potent wind jutsu even, how that blade works is you insert a vial of whatever you want to coat your blade in and it slowly releases it throughout a fight, making sure your blade is always coated in whatever you've put the handle, I just hope she hasn't used anything too dangerous." Kakashi explained as the gathered genin listened in.

"Wait, it's one of those vial blades, aww mannn. I've wanted one of those forever, she's so lucky." Tenten spoke, leaning on the railing in a huff, proud of her vast collection of weaponry, constantly wanting to add to it.

"Sakura will be *yawwwwwn* fine, probably just a paralytic, she used it with some blow darts to get us our scroll yesterday." Shikamaru spoke lazily, leaning on the rail.

Team seven plus Lee breathed a sigh of relief, they knew Sakura and Ino had been antagonistic to one another for years, so it wasn't completely out of the question she would use a more dangerous substance, although none believed she permanently harm Sakura in any way.

They all observed a trickles of liquid started to run down the edge of Ino's blade, hopefully Sakura could find a way out of this, but it wasn't looking good right now.

Seeing Ino take out a blade Sakura readied a kunai in preparation to counter her attacks, this was really, really bad, she didn't think she had the ability to block her properly, she just had no energy, every movement and limb felt heavy, she couldn't keep this up.

Ino then rushed Sakura, swinging her coated blade at Sakura who was dodging by a hair, she saw small droplets fly off of Ino's blade, suddenly it clicked in her mind, ever since they were kids Ino had know everything there was to know about flowers, fauna and all types of uses and meaning in each plant leaf, it was one of the few things Sakura wasn't the best at in there academy class, Ino had always been better, she was of the Yamanaka clan so it made sense, and what made perfect sense now was that the blade Ino was swinging at her was obviously covered in some type of poison or concoction, so if she was even scratched by that blade, the match would be over.

This assault kept up with Sakura's movements getting slower and sloppy. Until the inevitable happened, with a powerful strike Ino disarmed Sakura, kunai flying out of her hand, and it a quick motion sliced Sakura across her arm.

Her eyes widened as he held her arm, it wasn't bleeding badly but that wasn't the problem, first she started to not feel her tongue or the inside of her mouth, she then lost the ability to grip her injured arm, then she fell to the floor, only able to twitch parts of her body, she was fully paralyzed.

"Sorry Sakura, you're a lot better, I'll grant you, but still not better then me, don't worry, you got really far but this is the end of your road." Ino spoke, honestly quite proud of her pink haired friend/rival.

"I can't move. Can't do anything, again, again I can't do a single thing, not like Naruto, or Satsuki, I just wanted to win, but it can't, I just wanted to show, that I'm a proud ninja…too." Sakura thought as she could barely move.

"Come on, get up Sakura!" Naruto yelled down to her, not wanting a member of his team, his friend to fail now that she had come so far.

"You can do it Sakura get up!" Lee yelled along with her, not wanting her to lose himself, he'd seen her come so far, she couldn't lose now!

"Get that hell up, us this all your ambition to be a kunoichi is worth." Satsuki muttered under her breath, not wanting to see her fellow kunoichi lose also.

Almost as if Sakura heard them, with the last vestiges of strength and raw willpower she had, she managed to grab the vial blade Ino was dangling between her two fingers in front of her face, not meant to be overtly mocking but not lacking the insinuation.

Before Ino could react she shoved the blade halfway into Ino's lower leg.

"You sneaky bitc-." Ino started to say as she feel over too, just as paralyzed as Sakura.

"Hmm, she's come far, further then I thought she would, I'm proud of her, she'll be a great kunoichi yet." Kakashi spoke with pride, this exam really had been the making of Sakura.

"*cough* both Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka are unable to continue *cough* I declare this match, a tie." Hayate spoke after checking them both over, two medical teams taking them away to administer an antidote if there was one and bandage their wounds.

"So what does that mean? Is Sakura gonna be in the final?" Naruto asked his sensei in a worried tone, Sakura deserved the chance to become a chunin like everyone else here!

"I'm afraid she won't be able to fight in the finals, but neither will Ino advance, she didn't win that's true, but she didn't lose either, sometimes on a mission you have to realize you may not make it out alive, but the mission still needs doing, what Sakura accomplished is a good example of that, but she did amazing, you should be proud as her teammate and friend of how far she came during these exams." Kakashi explained, of course the sad reality of suicide missions was always a possibility in their line of work but Kakashi would do whatever he could to make sure his team never ended up in such a situation.

"Then I'll just put on a bigger show during the final rounds, and make up Sakura's share." Naruro affirmed, fully intent on staying true to his word, it was his nindo after all, Naruto's own path of the ninja forming an evolving by the day, each hardship and lesson mutating this core belief into a new entity.

"Don't get ahead of yourself, most likely I'll be picking up both of your slack." Satsuki teased with a smirk, Naruto just gave her a challenging look, clearly intent on proving her wrong.

"That's a good look in his eye. I still wonder, who will end up the greater of the two of you in the future, I still have no idea." Kakashi spoke as he looked at his two students.

"Please, you'll be fated to lose, along with those two." An arrogant voice called, both turned to see Neji standing there with a smug look on his face, like he knew something both of them didn't.

Kakashi just sighed, he was worried about this, over the past year when he was raving about Lee Guy had mentioned that his other male student was quite problematic, he had talent in spades, apparently more so then any Hyuga in the 'main branch' but he held onto this ridiculous notion that everything was controlled by fate or something, Kakashi thought it was stupid at the time, his opinion hadn't changed much.

"The hell you just say?" Naruto said getting in Neji's face, Kakashi was worried slightly then, I mean Naruto wouldn't right? It wouldn't leak out over something like this, he subtlety lifted his headband and saw no flares of red chakra from Naruto, just the normal blue.

"I said she was fated to lose, just like how your teammate was fated to win as am I, that's how the world works, we are all subject to fate." Neji spoke, a smug tone still in place like he knew everything about everything.

"What a load of crap." Satsuki muttered to herself, she didn't win her fight because some divine forces said she should, she won because she was stronger, better then her opponent even with her disadvantages. The idea of fate meant that Itachi was meant to turn into a genocidal madman, that the Uchiha were meant to be wiped out, she couldn't accept that, not ever.

"Tch well just wait till your match, we'll see how much is fated when you're up against me or Satsuki." Naruto said back, really not liking this guy's attitude.

Neji was about to retort only for the firm hand of Guy to clamp down on his shoulders.

"That's enough Neji, pack it in." He spoke, a very stern look on his face, matched by his tone of voice.

In truth Guy tried his best with Neji, but it was an uphill battle, obviously he loved all his students…well maybe one a bit more then the other two but he still cared about Neji and Tenten. The problem was that Neji was constantly spouting all this fate crap and how someone at the bottom would always be there, to both him and Lee, and while Lee was a lot more vocal about his discontent of the notion, that wasn't to say Guy likes to either, personally he wanted to just do what he would have done in Lee's shoes, beat to concept of 'fate' out of Neji, but he had a duty of care, so he held his tongue and fists back, that wasn't to say he didn't shut Neji up when he'd had about all he could take of his drivel, honestly he hoped Neji would get massively humbled in these exams, preferably by Lee but Guy would take what he could get.

"Whatever, you, Naruto Uzumaki are fated to lose, while I am fated to win, that's all there is to it." Neji finished as he distanced himself from the group, Lee just tried to best to hold his tongue and gripped the railing, bending the metal slightly while Tenten just let out a sigh, why did both of her teammates have to be so difficult?

She soon perked up however as the screen read her name along with someone called Temari, across from her the blonde haired sand ninja smirked and jumped into the arena standing there with a smug look on her face.

Tenten jumped down and reached into her pouch and grabbed some shuriken, ready to throw as soon as the proctor gave the signal to begin.

She would win here, she wound make it to the finals, and she would become chunin, taking her one step closer to matching up to her idol, the greatest Kunoichi of the modern day, Lady Tsunade.

It seems however, it just wasn't Tenten's day.

What followed was a complete dismantling of Tenten's entire battle style, she fancied herself a bit of a bukijutsu specialist and she wasn't half bad let that be known, however none of her attacks even touched Temari, Kakashi took one look and what she was doing with his Sharingan and declared it over.

Satsuki wished she could see it for herself but she was unable to so she asked her sensei.

"Wind style, sorry Guy, but your girl ain't winning this one." Kakashi said as he turned to his rival who just gritted his teeth, he knew Kakashi was right.

Temari was using quick and simple blasts of wind around her body to completely nullify Tenten's attacks.

She even broke out some sort of trump card, a technique she called rising twin dragons, which was a flurry of thrown weaponry from two storage scrolls at once, but it was still useless, all types of ninja tools and weaponry littered the arena floor, then Tenten unleashed her final trick, ninja wire connected to the weapons, but still, useless, one wide blast of wind with her fan and all the wires were cut, Tenten couldn't do a thing.

Temari made a big show of unfurling her fan throughout the fight, and when she'd funny unfurled it, she decided to stop playing with the poor leaf kunoichi.

"Wind style:wind scythe jutsu!" She yelled as she swung her fan and a focused blast of wind was launched at Tenten, lifting her up into the air, and littering her body with cuts. It was over, no doubt about that.

Temari decided however to be a cruel bitch and folded up her fan and placed it right where Tenten was falling meaning she would land right on it, she did and Tenten let out a weak gasp of pain before falling unconscious, she then crudly threw her off the giant folded fan onto the floor.

"Tenten!" Guy and Lee shouted as Hayate called the match, a slight cough as he spoke as always.

Both green clad ninja ran up to tye beaten girl as a stretcher was called, that was a bad blow, and one only inflicted to be cruel, Tenten was already finished with her wind jutsu, Temari just did it to be sadistic.

"How could you treat an opponent like that!" Lee yelled after the retreating Temari.

"So what, she knew the risks coming into this, I just didn't expect someone who got this far to be so weak." She mocked as she walked off, Lee rose, possibly to attack her, not thinking straight, his harsh treatment of his teammates and general unsportsmanlike conduct of the sand kunoichi really getting under his skin.

Guy lifted his arm, blocking him as the medics arrived, she just shook his head sternly, Lee just seethed and kept back into the viewing area, ever more eager for his fight, he needed to punch something.

All the leaf ninja agreed with Lee, that was unnecessarily harsh, team eight however, knew it could have been a lot worse, as the girl's red haired teammate may have not even left her alive. They saw him fight while in the forest, Kiba and Hinata, the two members of team eight left to fight, knew that if they got matched against him, they'd forfeit, right then and there, no way were they fighting someone like that, both wanted to advance to chunin of course, but you couldn't do that if you were dead.

Both were honestly quite jealous that Shino was home free without any issues, he'll his opponent even had prior injuries, lucky bastard.

"Uggg, hey guys, what did we miss?" A voice called, everyone turned to see Sakura and Ino walking back over to them, bandages on their wounds and they seemingly were a bit groggy, it seemed there was an easy antidote to whatever Ino used, but there were still some effects from the paralytic.

"Oh, good to see you're both alright, you only missed a single match, Guy's student Tenten fought the kunoichi from the hidden sand, it…didn't end well." Kakashi said scratching the back of his head, he felt bad for Guy and his student of course, but straight up bukijutsu and nothing else wasn't going to work at the higher levels of shinobi combat, there were too many ways to completely counter it, she should look into nature manipulation to enhance her weaponry, some fire nature chakra and the wind that was defending that sand kunoichi would have been turned into fuel for the fire, making her defense useless, plus Kakashi always viewed bukijutsu as a supplementary shinobi skill, not a main one.

"So who's up next?" Ino asked, only for Kakashi to point to the screen filtering through names again.

Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi

"Oh man, my turn?...maybe I should just quit?" Shikamaru muttered to himself, however Asuma, Ino and mainly Choji were used to this by now, all three shared a look then grabbed him and pushed him over the railing into the arena.

"Hey! What the hell!" He yelled out as he was man handled and thrown over the railings, he did manage to flip and catch himself however.

He turned to his team smugly grinning and flipped them the bird with a disgruntled look on his face.

"You'll thank us later Shikamaru, after all, who knows what aunty Yoshino would do if she found out you quit." Ino spoke smugly, knowing what Shikamaru feared above all things was his mother and her unending wrath, proven by the visible cringe when he heard his tiger moms name.

"Man this is such a drag, but that troublesome blonde is right, mom would murder me if she found out I dropped out after getting so far, guess I better do this then." Shikamaru thought as he looked across to see it was the single sound kunoichi.

"Sound again huh? Well I know from the forest she's a genjutsu type shinobi, but these sound ninja's jutsu are all kinds of out of the box and weird, so I got no idea what she's gonna hit me with. The second problem is that she saw my jutsu in the forest, she knows to watch the shadows. Just my rotten luck." Shikamaru thought, yawning after his thought, he really could not be arsed with this right now, he just wanted to play some shogi and sleep in, but he'd been stuck in that damn forest and bad barely gotten any sleep, and Shikamaru wasn't a person who functioned well on no sleep.

"*cough* begin." Hayate spoke, starting the 6th match.

In truth most people thought Kin had it in the bag, she knew about Shikamaru's shadow jutsu and she still had more tricks up her sleeve. One of which was senbon, a weapon which both Naruto and Satsuki were intimately familiar with and both cringed slightly when they saw Shikamaru take a needle right to the leg.

Kin had this trick, a simple mind game where she'd throw a needle with a bell and one without to try and catch someone out, Shikamaru saw through it easy, however it seems that wasn't the plan, using the bells Kin managed to place Shikamaru under a light genjutsu, one that distorted his senses and made him an easy target for Kins blows.

But in the end it was all for naught, as using the almost nonexistent shadow created by the thin length of ninja wire Shikamaru got Kin under his shadow possession, and in a brilliant use of the battlefield had then both quickly bend over backwards, the only issue was Kin as two use to the wall and slammed her head against it, rendering her unconscious and Shikamaru the winner.

"Way to go Shikamaru!" Ino yelled from the stands, happy one member of their team won.

"I thought he was gonna quit, that's normally what he does from what I know." Naruto spoke as Shikamaru walked up the stairs, pulling the senbon out of his leg with a wince and throwing it away.

"Man, glad that's over, can't wait to sleep in my own bed after today, gonna feel like heaven." He muttered as he walked back over to his team, giving Choji a high hive as he leaned against the banister next to him.

"Yeah that's more like it." Naruto deadpanned, he liked Shikamaru but dude was beyond lazy, I mean, Naruto put everything he had into being a ninja, while Shikamaru slept through most of everything in the academy, the fact that their test scores were basically the same still bugged him.

"Heh, just like his dad that one, bet Asuma has never won a game of shogi against him." Kakashi muttered to Guy who chuckled at his words, knowing his rival was more then right.

After some time the next two names appeared on the screen.

Kiba Inuzuka vs Naruto Uzumaki

"Yes! Man, we drew the free pass Akamaru, talk about lucky." Kiba laughed as he jumped into the ring, happy that he didn't have to fight that psycho from the sand village and this would be an easy win, I mean it was Naruto for god's sake, the idiot who couldn't even do a basic clone, who had probably been carried here by Sakura's booksmarts and Satsuki's skill, but he couldn't sandbag any of the actual ninja anymore, just him and Akamaru giving him a beat down to get an easy pass.

Satsuki just turned to Naruto and nodded to him.

"Give him one for me, loser." Satsuki said as she and Naruto shared a smile as Naruto hopped the railing.

Honestly Naruto should have been more sad at fighting a fellow leaf ninja if he was honest…but Kiba? With all his big talk and writing him off, not to mention his utterly sad and desperate attempts to somehow win Satsuki's affection. Well, Naruto wondered if he would be able to give Kiba one from Satsuki in all honesty, because he had quite a few of his own to get in first.

Naruto smirked and cracked his knuckles and neck as he stared down Kiba, oh he was gonna enjoy this.

"Man, you're actually going to fight?! Dude I thought you would see you are fighting me then call it quits, first off, you're well *snicker* you, second you got here last minute, you are still worn out from the forest, I got here first day, I've been chilling while you've been sandbagging Sakura and Satsuki and three, you are fighting me, next head of the Inuzuka clan, I've got awesome clan jutsu and training someone like you just can't get, so give up now, you may be a no talent loser but you are still technically a leaf ninja, I'd rather not beat you up as this match is already a foregone conclusion." Kiba ranted to Naruto smugly, thinking there was no way in hell Naruto could beat him, god his stupid smug fanged grin was so fucking punchable.

"I swear to god loser you better not live up to that name and lose this otherwise I'll kill you, no way you let this smug mangy prick rob us of our fight. Although if he does lose I may get to beat Kiba half to death with zero repercussions…silver lining I suppose." Satsuki thought as she listened to Kiba brag.

Mangy mutt, she'd put both him and his filthy beast down!

Satsuki shook her head as that dark thought crossed her mind, was that even her thoughts? She needed rest, her head hadn't been right for days.

"I don't back down and I don't quit, that's my ninja way, so get Akamaru out of here and let's start this!" Naruto responded Oh he'd show him, every mocking word outta his mouth was another fist he'd plant into his face.

"What? No man Akamaru is fighting with me. Never fight without him?" Kiba said bewildered, God was he honestly so thick that he didn't know about ninken.

"Oh what the hell, that's gotta be cheating! Ref, is this allowed?" Naruto asked Hayate who just coughed and responded.

"No, as a ninken Akamaru falls under the same classification *cough* as an advanced ninja tool, like a sand village puppet or large battle fan, there *cough* are no rules barring the use of *cough* these methods of fighting so *cough* ninken are allowed." Hayate spoke, making Naruto's mood drop.

"Come on man I don't want to punch a dog, that's messed up." Naruto spoke to Kiba, really not wanting to have to punch or hit a dog at all, he'd feel bad.

"I wouldn't worry about Akamaru, I'd worry more about what Akamaru and I are gonna do to you." Kiba spoke, not budging on leaving Akamaru out of this fight, a ready bark from the small dog showing he was ready to go.

"Fine, sorry in advance Akamaru, blame your idiot owner if I have to rough you up." Naruto spoke as he pulled out a Kodachi and a handful of shuriken, Kiba lowered himself into a beast like stance, ready to pounce.

"*cough* begin." Hayate spoke, as soon as he said that Naruto tossed the shuriken at Kiba, he hoped he wouldn't have to rely completely on his ninjutsu in this fight, he didn't know how effective it would be with his mess up chakra, but it was his greatest asset.

Kiba simply dodged the shuriken and quickly closed the gap between them both, Naruto tried to block with his blade but Kiba simply knocked it out of his hand and delivered a powerful blow to his stomach, knocking the wind out of Naruto and sending him across the floor.

"Hah! Still as pathetic as ever huh Naruto? Yo ref, call it, that loser ain't getting up after this. I think Akamaru could have beaten him solo. Hahahaha." Kiba laughed as he turned away.

"Honestly what did you think would happen Kakashi, I've seen his test scores, there's no way he could ever beat Kiba." Kurenai spoke smugly, writing off Naruto, honestly quite happy that her student was beating Kakashi's, her being a new green jonin and him a veteran who had spent most of his ninja career as a jonin.

"Test scores? That's what you're basing Naruto off, hahaha, honestly, that's why you're still a rookie Kurenai, sure you can be great on paper, but at the end of the day, it's about guts, will and a drive to never give up, Naruto won't stop, you'll have to kill him first, just keep watching, he'll prove it to all of you." Kakashi spoke, while it was true Naruto still had a long long way to go, he wouldn't be taken out with just that, Kakashi, Sakura and especially Satsuki knew better.

"Get the hell up, you loser." Satsuki thought, she knew he was better then this, better then Kiba.

"You better stop calling me that, there's only one person who calls me a loser, and it sure as hell ain't you." Naruto spoke as he picked himself up, mostly muttering to himself.

"Damn, guess you always were pig headed, ok, try this!" Kiba yelled as he chucked a handful of smoke bombs all around Naruto, rushing him again along with Akamaru. Some move blows were given, Kiba's amazing sense of smell allowing him to fight blind in the colored smoke.

The smoke cleared showing a beaten Naruto laying there with Kiba and Akamaru standing over him.

"And stay down you lo-." Kiba started to say, only to be cut off before Kiba could say the word, but Akamaru turned into Naruto and punched him hard in the face.

"Don't call me a loser! Last warning!" Naruto yelled at him, As Kiba picked himself up Naruto picked up his dropped blade and held it to the throat of what a shadow clone was holding.

"You lose Kiba." Naruto spoke as he saw a clone, a real physical one, something Naruto should not be able to do, holding Akamaru, with the Naruto that hit him holding his blade near Akamaru, clearly as a hostage to make Kiba quit, the Naruto he beat up disappearing in a poof of smoke.

"I gotta say you surprised me, I mean you couldn't do a single clone in the academy now you can make physical ones? But sure, go ahead, attack Akamaru, I know you won't though." Kiba spoke, somewhat impressed, physical clones weren't an easy type of jutsu, but with Naruto's whole aversion to Akamaru fighting at all he knew he wouldn't kill him, he was bluffing, I mean, if he was serious he would have folded, that Kiba knew, but Naruto wasn't that type of guy, meaning Akamaru was nothing but an advantage for Kiba.

Naruto looked over to the sad face of the small dog, and he whimpered to sell it more. Kiba called his bluff, he couldn't kill a dog man!

"Shit." Naruto muttered under his breath.

"So drop Akamaru, because holding him won't end well for you." Kiba spoke as he flicked something into Akamaru's mouth then took one himself.

"Oh shit was that?" Kakashi asked as he looked over to Kurenai, her smirk confirmed it.

"What is it Kakashi sensei?" Sakura asked as she watched them fight , not knowing what Kiba just gave his dog and took himself.

"It's called a beast pellet, it's derived from the food pill but it's full of extra ingredients that send someone into a feral like state, only Inuzuka use it as both them and their ninken already fight like animals, do the negative effects don't really affect them much, but they give an explosive boost to chakra, speed, power and overall ferocity while also numbing them to pain and warding off exhaustion and need to sleep, it's bad news for Naruto, I'm surprised Kiba even has some, it's a big risk having a genin that fresh and a ninken that young using those things Kurenai." Kakashi said to his colleague, who just shrugged.

"Well Kiba said he got them from his mother, honestly I don't know much about them?" She spoke, they sounded strong, what was the big deal?

"So the little bastard stole them, you mean, no way Tsume Inuzuka would be dumb enough to give Kiba those at his level." Kakashi spot back, Kurenai gain a worried look on her face, Kiba was gonna get his ass beat for this, Tsume Inuzuka, current clan head and Kiba's mother was not a woman you messed with.

"But what's so bad about him using them, they sound great to me?" Satsuki spoke, still watching the fight, Akamaru's fur had started to turn red and Kiba gained an even more feral look.

"Yeah they are great on paper, but while the Inuzuka handle the effects better to the point they are the only people not mad who use the things they are not immune, ninken killing owners, Inuzuka turning on their teammates are just some of the possibilities of an untrained ninja using those things, you have to through special training and be a certain age to use them, Kiba's a teenager, the pellet mixed with all those raging hormones from puberty? It's a bad mix, if Naruto can't pull something off here, we'll have to step in to stop Kiba from killing him." Kakashi explained, Kurenai's eyes went wide, she knew Kiba wanted to win and could be a bit rowdy, but stealing and taking a dangerous combat stimulant?! She'd kill him herself if his mother didn't first.

"Kiba, Naruto." Hinata muttered, now very worried about the both of them.

"Come on you idiot, no lousy stimulant is gonna stop you from having our is it?!" Satsuki screamed in her mind as she bit her thumbs nail as Naruto's odds were looking worse by the second.

"Oh yeah that's the stuff! Man this shit is awesome!" Kiba yelled out as he gained a more feral appearance, incisors sticking out of his mouth and a mad look in his eyes, Akamaru's fur literally turned red and in a movement he went straight for his clones throat, tearing it to shreds even if he was small, the clone poofed and Naruto was left alone against two wild animals.

"...did you just dope your dog?! That's messed up man!" Naruto yelled out, being his first response to this.

"Oh I'd be more worried about yourself, especially after I do this! Let's go Akamaru!" Kiba said, his voice low and feral, Akamaru ran to him, and jumped on his owners back as Kiba made a handsign and grinned.

"Ninja art:man beast clone justu!" Kiba spoke and in the place of Akamaru was a second Kiba but the feral Inuzuka wasn't done.

"Ninja art:beast mimicry!" Kiba spoke as he stance lowered more, his nails lengthend and became even more feral if that was possible, this was bad, really bad, Naruto didn't even know if he was fighting ninja anymore? Because it was like he stepped into the arena with two feral beasts, if he had to geuss they'd rush him with taijutsu with incredibly ferocity, he had to somehow shut then down…wait, the scroll Satsuki gave him he remembered something in it!

He quickly got to out, the storage scroll baring the symbol of the Uchiha clan and opened it, it took more effort then it should but he. Channeled chakra into the scroll and the item he wanted appeared.

He put the scroll away and created three clones and they all spread the tool around them.

Before Kiba was a very large amount of makibishi spikes, meaning Kiba could not advance to Naruto without turning his feet and Akamaru's paws into mince meat.

"Good thinking, after all Inuzuka mainly rely on their potent animalistic taijutsu." Guy spoke, being the resident expert on all things taijutsu.

"True that will slow him down, but he may just run through them, we can't predict anything Kiba will do right now, he's lucky Akamaru hasn't tried to bite him yet." Kakashi spoke, Naruto had bought himself time but he wouldn't beat Kiba like this, he needed a plan, and with no long range ninjutsu he most major advantage wouldn't allow him to counterattack, and he was pretty sure Kiba could literally shrug off shuriken in his state.

"You think that's gonna stop me!" Kiba yelled as he and the Kiba clone Akamaru backed up, seemingly going for a run up.

Both ran on all fours in perfect sync and then then jumped and span.

"Fang over Fang!" Kiba yelled as him and Akamaru became twin missiles of beastial might that passed right over the mikibishi spikes and into the safe zone Naruto and the clones had left for themselves, Naruto and his clones were eviscerated, Kiba took chunks of him.

Until all three popped, they stopped their spinning and looked around, Naruto wasn't here, just more damned clones, then Kiba smelt burning. Him and Akamaru looked down to see the paper bombs under them.

"SHIT!" Was all he had time to say as they exploded, sending them both flying back, the beast clone jutsu broke and a still red Akamaru flew along with Kiba, the problem is it didn't blast them that far and Kiba had no choice but to grab Akamaru as they slammed into the ground, currently covered with makibishi spikes, the one saving grace was that with the clones gone so we're all the cloned spikes, meaning Kiba had significantly less spiking in his back, some drew blood but his mesh lined coat blocked most of them.

In a poof the original Naruto appeared, apparently hiding as a single spike with a transformation jutsu.

"Heh, he's always been tricksy. He made three clones not 2 and grabbed a paper bomb when he placed his storage scroll back in his pouch then placed it and hid himself in the clones smoke, very nice." Shikamaru spoke smiling, he'd known Naruto for a while and he'd always been good for a prank, trick and a laugh, seems it translated to ninja work pretty well.

"Even with the numbed pain from the pellet that's still gotta hurt, will slow him down too." Kakashi spoke proudly.

"That's more like it, Naruto defying everyone's expectations of you always." Satsuki thought smirking.

"But you've not grown at all, you might as well be moving in slow motion while that useless idiot keeps getting better at lightning speed." Her inner voice spoke, making Satsuki shake her head in an attempt to dispel the darker thoughts.

"Giving up yet Kiba? I can keep going all day if need be." Naruto spoke, in truth that was a lie, his already lacking reserves of chakra plus that damned seal messing with him made to so he had a push more chakra into his jutsu, he was gonna start running low soon, he couldn't go mad with clones, he had to make them count.

"You damn bastard, I'll…*groan of pain* make you pay for that." Kiba spoke as he picked himself up, definitely in pain from almost taking a paper bomb point blank, he'd managed to move away at the last second, negating some of the damage but still taking most of it, the stimulants pain numbing effect being doing work, as he he didn't know if he'd be moving as well if the pain wasn't numbed, Kiba knew a rib was broken or at the very least cracked.

"I'm not some useless kid anymore Kiba, I came here to win, to show everyone that I'm strong enough to become a chunin, it's the first big step on my road to being Hokage." Naruto spoke, not just yelling about Hokage like a kid but speaking with true conviction.

"You, Hokage? What a sick joke! There's no way someone like you could ever be Hokage!" Kiba yelled at him, before he did something utterly, batshit insane, he took a second pellet, shocking every single person in the know about the danger of the stimulant.

"*growl* stay here Akamaru, I'll gut him myself!" Kiba spoke, his eyes becoming slit as he crouched and leapt at Naruto like a wild animal, Naruto tried to dodge but there's was nothing he could do about the speed and ferocity of Kiba eventually a blow struck, Kiba clawing his side, luckily his clothing and mesh took most of it but Kiba's claws still cut into him and ripped away all defense, and like any predator hunting its prey, Kiba focused on that weakness.

Naruto wanted to get some distance, make some clones to back him up but he just couldn't, he couldn't mold chakra fast enough with the seal on him and Kiba was attacking him he had barely any room to block attacks, let alone counter or get some distance.

"C'mon loser, don't you dare lose." Satsuki muttered, gripping the railing hard, she knew Naruto was better then Kiba but off his face on combat stimulants Kiba was a completely different beast, literally, the leg humping mangy mutt was now a hungry wild dog, frothing at the mouth for his pound of flesh.

"*growl* get fucked!" Kiba yelled his voice still low and guttural as he aimed a punch at Naruto, he used both arm to block the blow but it was way too strong so Naruto was still launched back into the wall with a crash.

Naruto fell to the floor in a heap in a significant amount of pain, consciousness fading.

"No no no, get the hell up!" Satsuki shouted down, he couldn't lose like this, she told him she wanted to fight him, so he couldn't just lose like this!

"Sat…su…ki." Naruto thought, his mind fuzzy.

"You're one of the ones I want to fight the most." Her voice echoed out, he wanted that too, more then any he needed that, to have her acknowledge him, he wanted nothing more in this moment, Hokage was probably still a couple of years off to be honest.

"Loser."

"You loser."

"You're such a loser!"

"Loser!"

"Idiot."

"Dumbskull."

"Barkbrain!"

"Why are we best friends again?"

Was that Satsuki's voice? He remembered something, him and her sitting by the river they always sat by.

"Honestly I've fought a lot of people, my own clan, people from other clans but to be honest with you…your one of the people I've always wanted to have a good dance with *****rama ." The voice sounded out, with the memory there came more memories, of battle, of fighting against people, exchanging blows and the jutsu he used to do it.

"Get the hell up! I ain't done with you yet, you damned loser!" Kiba snarled, not through beating on Naruto, the animal he had unleashed inside him wanted to break something.

"Thought I told you…not to call me that, bastard." Naruto spoke, picking himself up, leaning against the wall as he panted, his body was broken. He knew that something important was probably fractured or bleeding right now, adrenaline the only thing letting him continue, he had to end this now.

Naruto formed a basic ram hand sign and gathered what chakra he could into a jutsu he didn't know he knew, his lifted up his hands as chakra surged around them, so much so that they had a blue aura around them.

"Let's go!" Kiba snarled as he pounced at Naruto, instead of blocking his blows Naruto dodged through them, almost like he done the same a hundred times, seeing his opening his struck, his immensely enhanced blow struck on Kiba's right side, ribs cracked and the people in the stands could feel the force of the blow, Kiba fell to his knees and hacked up blood, but that blow took a lot from Naruto, his chakra wouldn't last much longer.

"I'm not quitting, I'll win the exams, then finally get Satsuki to go out with me, become clan head then become Hokage myself, just to rub it in your face!" Kiba snarled, picking himself up, he would be down for the count if he wasn't meditated.

"Like HELL!" Naruto spoke, not missing a beat and hitting him with his other enhanced strike, sending Kiba flying back, jaw dislocated and fractured, Naruto could feel the crunch, it didn't feel half bad, especially after the utter crap Kiba just spouted to his face.

Naruto shuffled over to Kiba lying there on the floor and with great effort drew a blade held it to Kiba's throat then turned and nodded to the proctor who just nodded back.

"Winner, Naruro Uzumaki!*cough*." Hayate spoke as Naruro fell onto his back breathing heavily.

Naruto then collapsed back onto the ground breathing hard, the still injured Akamaru walked to Kiba, limping as he was still hurt.

"Sorry buddy, he'll be fine I think, just had to break a few things." Naruto muttered breathlessly to the dog.

Kakashi jumped down and picked Naruto up while medics took away Kiba and Akamaru who refused to leave his side.

"You did amazing Naruto." Kakashi spoke as he carried him up to the viewing arena and placed him down to rest.

"Heh, not half bad. Loser." Satsuki said, smiling. To which Naruto gave a smile, a chuckle and a thumbs up.

"Heh, you dance pretty good." The voice from his memories spoke before they faded from his mind like a dream after waking.

Annnnnd we'll call that one done. Hope you enjoyed it, I deliberated with Naruto using the Uzumaki barrage there at the end but decided against it, I may have him use it in another fight or some rendition of it, maybe with an alternative name but I can't think of a good one.

At the end there yes that was a chakra enhanced punch not dissimilar from Tsunade, it's based however of Hashirama's version (he uses it in I think an ultimate move of his in the storm games, ps I will take cool shit from the storm games if I think it fits)

While Tsunades is more a scalpel, requiring immense chakra control Hashirama's is more of a giant club, put big chakra into fist and unga bunga some poor bastard with the immense chakra he has.

But let me know what you thought of the new versions of Sakura and Naruto's fights, BTW for Ino I wanted her to lean into the more florist/plants thing and have her use all types of concoctions to fight with, rather then only the mental jutsu, which she didn't use because it's not meant for a 1v1 fight as Shikamaru says in the original.

But I hoped you all enjoyed, just a quick note the next chapter may be kinda slow, as mentioned I do a lot of my writing during my free time at work and I've got a 2 week holiday coming up to bash shadow of the erdtree, so sorry if it's slow but I'll work on things when I can.