Sasuke chose to take the stairs down to the arena floor. He was more than capable of jumping the distance, as Lee did moments after the match was called, but a few moments to plan and prepare would be useful. Sakura had told him a little about Lee after she rejoined his group at the tower, and Sasuke had to admit to himself that he was quite nervous at facing down a taijutsu powerhouse, even if Lee could not use ninjutsu or genjutsu. The stories Naruto told of his time training with Guy and Lee did not help any either.

But he was not without his own abilities, hard learned and hard trained. He had his tools. He had his training. He had his mind. He only needed to use them the right way, and he could win. So he walked down the stairs slowly, thinking carefully, and by the time he reached the bottom step, he was already reaching into his pouch and retrieving a pair of lightweight goggles, tinted slightly red. By his first step on the arena floor he was lightly fingering the various orbs, flasks, and tags on his person, checking the dots and scratches he placed on them for identification. One more step, and his smile was back in place. I got this.

Lee was already waiting on the floor, standing at the ready, one hand forward and a cheerful smile on his face. "Yosh! I am ready for our youthful battle, Sasuke-san! I will defeat you with my hard work, so others may know how hard they must work to earn the right to try and woo Sakura-chan!"

Up on the observation platform, Sakura palmed her face, trying to cover the faint blush slowly creeping its way across her cheeks. Based on the glances and laughter she got, she was only partially successful. I am going to need to talk to Lee about this, she thought to herself.

Sasuke managed a cheerful smirk while checking the fit on his goggles and slipping them on. "As you like, Lee." He stepped forward and offered a fist. "No hard feelings?"

Lee grinned and stepped forward to bump fists. "There are never hard feelings, when two opponents give all on the field of battle." He backed up and returned to his ready stance. Sasuke stepped back as well, and beneath his goggles, his eyes turned red.

Hayate stepped back and raised his hand. "Begin," he said, jumping away as he did so.

Lee wasted no time. The moment Hayate moved away, he was charging across the floor, his poise and form perfect, his speed incredible. But it still took time for him to run that distance, and in that time, Sasuke had already reached into his pouch and dropped the small sphere he had felt for earlier. It exploded into a cloud of smoke, thick and gray. Sasuke ducked and tumbled slightly to the side as Lee continued through the smoke in a single bound, scything through the spot Sasuke had been standing with a whirlwind kick that parted the cloud for a moment before it resettled.

The green clad genin landed on the other side of the cloud and turned to face it. His smile had not faded in the least, and he took his same starting position as always. "You think you can hide in that smoke, Sasuke-kun? You will find that I am not so easy to fool!" He reached into his pouch and pulled out a length of black silk, which he quickly tied over his eyes before returning to his stance.

Sasuke, watching Lee's chakra through the smoke screen, smiled and quietly pulled another sphere out of his pouch, this one significantly larger and made of metal with a single button on the top. He crouched, carefully positioning his feet as quietly as he could, before he deliberately scraped one of his feet across the ground, so lightly as to be nearly, but not quite, inaudible.

Lee turned his head slightly at that lightest of sounds and dashed into the smoke, spinning into another kick and hitting nothing but air. He turned his head back and forth, breathing silently, and when he heard another scrape behind him, he did not hesitate, delivering a jump kick that made the air whistle in its passing. With each sound came a fresh attack, delivered with careful and impeccable form and precision.

Sasuke watched each attack carefully with his sharingan, observing his foe's every move. He pulled out a kunai and lightly tossed it to one side, and Lee promptly attacked that area with flying kick, then stopped where he was to listen carefully in the smoke. A shuriken, tossed lightly in the other direction, had the same result. Finally, he pressed the button on the metal orb and tossed it just out of his reach. It landed with a thump, skidding slightly but not rolling. In moments, Lee was there, nudging the sphere with his foot, a curious look on his face.

"You might have made it if you had not stopped in place, Lee." Lee spun in place, arms raised, ready to defend himself, but Sasuke only stepped back slightly. He made no effort to keep his footsteps silent, and Lee charged immediately. He only made it three steps before he stumbled, his legs pinwheeling slightly before he crashed into the ground and slid to a stop near Sasuke's feet.

Sasuke shook his head and knelt down next to Lee, who was laying in a heap. "The sphere had a numbing agent. It won't hurt you, but you're not going any-" Sasuke's jaw snapped shut as Lee's fist smashed into it, sending Sasuke tumbling out of the smoke cloud, skidding and bouncing across the floor before he fetched up against the wall. He looked into the cloud, then his eyes widened as he rolled to one side just in time to avoid a crushing knee drop from Lee that cracked the cement floor.

Lee stood smoothly with his back still to Sasuke, although Sasuke's sharingan eyes could make out a tiny amount of hesitancy in his motions. "A mere numbing agent will not stop me, Sasuke-san. It is true, I cannot feel my body, but I know my body through years of training." He turned and entered his starting stance, a broad smile on his face as he removed his blindfold. "I do not need to feel my body to control it!"

Sasuke was no fool. He knew he was good at taijutsu, very good at it compared to most genin, but Lee had focused entirely on taijutsu alone. It would have been the height of arrogance for him to assume he was better at it then his opponent. The moment Lee began to charge at him, Sasuke was backing off, exhaling a cloud of fire as he did so. He had no reason to believe the cloud would deter Lee much, and in that way avoided disappointment when Lee dodged around the fireball. The fight quickly devolved into a game of keep-away, Sasuke relying on his fireballs to shield him from attack even as Lee used his speed to avoid the fire and try to move in.

Unfortunately, that stalemate could not last long. With each cloud of fire, Sasuke's chakra reserve dwindled, but Lee lost little of his strength as he dodged around them. In a fight of endurance, Sasuke would lose.

Sasuke made another set of hand seals then inhaled deeply, holding his breath for the right moment and letting the chakra flow into his chest. When Lee charged forward he exhaled again, but this time he spit out a thin stream of fire, just as he had when Haku had tried to trap him. He aimed the stream slightly lower than he normally would, worried about possibly killing Lee, but Lee jumped away, sailing over Sasuke and landing with a quick roll before righting himself and rushing to one side.

Sasuke followed Lee's frantic moves, trying to tag him in the legs to end the match, but Lee was no slouch when it came to evasion. He was effective in his dodging, taking advantage of Sasuke's limited movement. Any time Sasuke's plasma lance came close to his legs, the boy would leap into a wildly different direction, forcing Sasuke to spend effort redirecting the stream. Sasuke continued to exhale his technique until spots began to dance in front of his eyes, then let it end and took a quick, gulping breath. Lee lunged forward, darting in to finish the fight, but Sasuke quickly exhaled an enveloping breath of fire directly in front of himself, spinning around to cover all directions in a giant burning cloud with what little breath he had managed to take. He finished, and caught sight of Lee landing on the statue.

The boy was laughing cheerfully and reaching down for his ankles, yelling, "I can't believe it! Finally!" Sasuke felt a chill down his spine as Lee pulled off a pair of training weights and held them out. Naruto had told him about his own training sword and how it worked, and he was not surprised when the weights hit the ground hard enough to leave a small pair of craters. Sasuke knew he had only moments to act. He dipped both of his hands deep into his pockets and pulled them out, clutching two fists full of his enhanced dust.

Lee jumped from his perch and landed in a deep crouch, mere feet from Sasuke, who was already raising both arms in an overhand throw. He released the right handful of dust at Lee, who lunged forward… and then vanished in a blur, barely visible even with Sasuke's sharingan. But even as Lee vanished, Sasuke's left arm continued downward, still carrying the paralytic dust, and with a quick flick, Sasuke tossed it directly behind himself, scattering it as widely as he could.

Lee was not a sannin, and did not have any special resistance to the poison. The moment he hit the glittering cloud, his body spasmed, turning his powerful charge into a powerful and painful tumble. He crashed into Sasuke's back hard enough to make both of their teeth rattle and sending them both tumbling part way across the arena. When they rolled to a stop, Sasuke picked himself up and checked on Lee, who was twitching violently on the ground. Even paralysis can barely hold him, Sasuke thought. Sweet kami, what a beast! He pulled out a kunai and held it to Lee's throat, even if his arm was shaking after the hit. "It's over, Lee. Stop shaking and let them call it."

Lee continued to fight for several moments before he finally lay still, a deep sigh escaping between his lips. Hayate jumped down to them and had a quick look, then nodded and turned to the observers. "Winner, Uchiha Sasuke." Sasuke was slightly surprised at the cheers he got from Sakura and Naruto, and he saw Shino give him a nod from the railing. The other Konoha shinobi were either smiling or cheering. Even Guy seemed enthused about the match, in spite of his student's loss.

A thought crossed Sasuke's mind, a sudden moment of… pity. He was surprised to find that he did not feel the pity out of disdain, but out of respect. Lee might have crushed any number of foes with his obvious speed and strength, and only had the bad luck of being picked against someone who had the tools to defeat him. It felt wrong, in a way, for someone so obviously strong to fall to nothing worse then bad luck.

"Wait," he said as the medics came out to tend to Lee. He dug into his hip pouch, then pulled out a small vial and handed it to one of them. "Antidote," he grunted. "He should be fine in a few minutes after he gets this, unless he got hurt in the tumble." He turned to Lee and crouched down to pat him on the shoulder. "If Kakashi had not discussed that exact scenario with me and my team before our match, you probably would have crushed me in a few more moments. I need some taijutsu practice, and I would enjoy testing myself against you again." Lee managed to force a shaky smile, and after a moment, his thumb came up, even if he couldn't get his arm up with it.

He stood, and saw Guy giving him the same thumbs up, this time accompanied by a youthful pose, while behind him, Kakashi clapped slowly, his one visible eye filled with warmth. Naruto was grinning at him cheerfully, and Sakura was right there with him, smiling at him with her eyes alight. For a moment, he was not Uchiha Sasuke, avenger, tasked with slaying the last of his kin. He was just Sasuke, genin, who had won a tough battle and earned the respect of others.

He breathed deep and allowed himself a smile. It felt… good.

Team Seven was quite loud in their celebrations when Sasuke arrived, but that good cheer died when the next match was announced.

"Gaara, Zaku, please come down for your match."

Gaara vanished from his place by his team and reappeared on the floor in a swirl of sand, his face blank, almost disinterested. His plain black clothes were unmoved by his arrival, and his thin shoulders were unbowed by the obvious weight of the huge gourd on his back. Zaku, meanwhile, jumped down from the platforms with a smirk on his face and a swagger in his step. He wore a brown shirt, with the kanji for death scrawled down the front three times.

"Poor little guy," said Zaku, running a hand through the black tuft of hair that sprouted from his headband. "Stuck fighting a real shinobi from the only village worth a damn. You're probably gonna die, little fellow, unless you want to give up."

Gaara only gave Zaku a frightening smile, one full of teeth, his eyes shining with an odd inner light. Zaku's grin faltered for a moment, then came back full force. "Hey, I gave you a chance," he said with a shrug. "Don't go crying to your momma when I spank you then, kid."

"I'll talk to her before then," said Gaara, his smile not moving in the least.

Hayate held up his hand, then let it drop. "Begin!"

Zaku laughed cheerfully as he raised his hands, palms pointing at Gaara to reveal two holes leading into his arms. "Die," he shouted, pushing a blast of chakra laced air out of the holes. A nearly invisible distortion of air lanced out, blowing dust into a great cloud and engulfing Gaara. Zaku's laughter reached even greater heights as he pushed harder, slashing into the dust cloud and the barely visible figure of Gaara within. "Die!"

He finally released the jutsu, chuckling as the dust slowly settled, but his humor was short lived. As the dust fell out of the air, it revealed Gaara, standing just as immobile and emotionless as before. The only indication that he noticed the attack was the thick umbrella of sand that was slowly dropping to the ground.

"I see," said Gaara with a cold tone of voice. "You are like me. You want to prove your existence by ending my life, just as I look to do the same with yours." His smile was cold but genuine as he raised both of his hands and pointed them at Zaku. "Allow me to show you how helpless you really are."

The sand that had been floating beside Gaara lunged forward, its oddly flowing form spreading into a vague clawed shape as it reached for Zaku. Zaku shouted and jumped away, pushing as hard as he could with his chakra and riding the backblast from his arms to speed his escape. He landed twenty feet away with a surprised look on his face as he watched the arm of sand return to its controller.

Then Zaku started to laugh again. "I guess you're right, little genin. I do want to kill you. I want to prove my strength. I want everyone to know how strong I am!" He howled at the ceiling, raising his arms and screaming his fury. "I'll never roll over and call myself weak again! Not for you, not for those pussies up there watching, not for the damned Hokage himself!" The room cooled significantly at those words, and more than a few of the other observers glanced at the Hokage, who to his credit did not glare or otherwise react beyond a small smile at being dismissed by a genin. Even the others from Suna looked unhappy at the words. In the shinobi world, you can hate your foe with all your heart, but you did not insult such a long lived and powerful one casually. The other genin from Otogakure did not agree, however, because they both laughed loudly at their teammate's comment.

Zaku continued to laugh as he raised his arms and sent another, stronger blast at Gaara, one strong enough to blow away any dust he might have stirred and revealing Gaara's sand in action. It moved without any real effort from the Suna genin, forming a solid shield between the two of them and deflecting the twin blasts of air with its bulk. Then Zaku rotated his wrists slightly, pulling his palms closer together. The twin streams of air combined and focused, and a single small area of the sand shield started to divot under the pressure. Sand began to blow out of the divot at an alarming rate, scattering across the arena. "Hide all you want behind your sand," snarled Zaku, "It won't save you. I'll carve my way straight through!"

Zaku wavered for a moment when the laughter started. It was a low and deep chuckle that made chills run down his spine, a sound born of sand that had been blown away from the shield started to stream back to it, reinforcing it even as more sand blew away. The shield of sand then began to advance slowly towards Zaku, and no matter how he focused on it, he found he could not push it back.

"Yes," said Gaara, slowly walking forward behind his shield. "Push. Fight. Struggle. Put all of your energy and life into your futile attack. Prove my existence as I remove your own." Several tendrils of sand whipped out from behind the shield, sliding along the ground and lashing at Zaku's feet, forcing him to turn his palms down and use them to thrust away again. He snarled as he rose into the air, his fury written clearly within his eyes, then came to a sudden, jarring stop. He looked down and saw a fourth strand of sand clinging to his ankle like a tentacle, pulling him down.

Zaku shouted and flailed, but the sand was irresistible, pulling him down to the ground, and to the waiting coils of the other tendrils of sand. Gaara raised his hands and the sand began to creep up Zaku's body slowly, clenching his limbs and torso painfully tight. "Hey," he said with a chilling smile, "I gave you a chance. Don't go crying to your mother when I spank you." His dull monotone turned the mockery on its head, from hot blooded trash talk to a cold eulogy. He raised his hands fully, and the sand flowed up to cover Zaku's body completely.

No, thought Zaku as the sand enveloped him, I will not die here! He pulled up as much chakra as he could manage, exhausting his reserves instantly, and focused it all into his arms, biting back a scream as the pressure within the sand skyrocketed.

Gaara opened his mouth to call out his deadly attack, feeling a rush of warmth from the knowledge that it would be the last thing his foe ever heard, but with sudden and terrible force, the ball of sand exploded, sending Zaku flying across the arena. Zaku managed to roll to his feet as he skidded away, but it was a graceless act. His arms dangled at his side, shredded to the bone, and several gaping holes could be seen where his arms had simply popped.

"How often can you do that?" asked Gaara, slowly approaching the panting Oto genin. "How many times can you blow apart your own limbs before all that is left is ragged meat and blood for Mother?" He began to raise his hands again, and the sand coiled and whirled around it, reforming into countless tendrils.

Zaku sighed and dropped to a knee and bowed his head in submission. He had no reserves and no functioning arms or hands, and he had been taught carefully the difference between betting his life and committing suicide. I bring no value to my village dying here. "I yield," he said quietly. "I can't defeat you… yet."

"I do not accept."

Zaku's head snapped up as Gaara's sand rushed at him, but he was not fast enough to escape its grip. The sand lunged at him, one huge mass, a wave of unstoppable earth. Gaara laughed as his sand flowed, until the sound of his voice was drowned out by a keening whistle, and Hayate's sword sliced neatly through the wave of sand. The sand crumbled when it was bisected, then regathered itself at Gaara's feet.

"The match is over," said Hayate, and he did not cough or breathe shallowly as he spoke. He was in full control of himself, if only for a few moments, and in those moments, he had power. "If you try to continue, you will forfeit. And if you still try to continue, I will slay you."

Gaara smiled. "So others have said. I am here, and they are not. I will kill you too, proctor."

"And will you kill me?" called out Sarutobi Hiruzen, taking a single step towards the distant genin, his hands still folded neatly. His face, however, was set in a grim manner, and his eyes gleamed with dangerous power. "Do you think you can also slay the Third Hokage, God of Shinobi? Will you try, for the sake of slaying some lowly genin?" Hiruzen smiled, and it was not a friendly or charitable smile. "Be careful, lest you draw the attention of others who would prove their worth to you."

Gaara froze in a rare moment of indecision, before he gave the older man a stiff nod and his sand withdrew into his gourd. He walked to the stairs in silence, and up the stairs in silence, and across the platform in silence, ignoring each glare and frightened glance he received from the others, until he returned to his family and sat on the bench, in silence. And in that silence, he could almost hear their thoughts about him. Madness. Danger. Fear.

It was almost enough to make him smile.

"I'll feed you soon, Mother," he whispered quietly to himself.

Sakura shivered as Gaara sat in his place with his team. She was quite an observant young woman, and she noticed how the boy's own team leaned away from him as he approached. Even his own team feared him.

Those thoughts were banished when she saw the next match flash on the board, and she shot a nervous glance at her best friend, biting her lip slightly as she did so. Ino still looked so tired and withdrawn, even days after the forest, and for a moment, Sakura had to fight the urge to tell her to yield and spare herself, because her foe certainly looked like they knew how to fight.

She opened her mouth, then shut it as Ino shot a glance at her. As worn down as she looked, something in Ino's eyes sparkled, and she straightened herself as she stood, a little steel sliding into her spine.

Hayate called out clearly for all to hear. "Yamanaka Ino, Temari, please come down for your match."

Author's Note: That was a tough chapter to write, and I apologize it is comparatively short (I aim for 5k words minimum in a chapter now, and this fell short at around 4k before notes). First, I has Sasuke v Lee, which I wanted to make as something other than the one sided crush-fests I generally see in fic. Then I had Gaara v Zaku, which was really hard to make even remotely interesting. Hopefully the next update will not take nearly as long, especially considering one of possibly the most interesting fights is coming up next. It will not be as one sided as you might expect.

I wanted to suggest a fic I happened to catch, Re-alignment by pointer39. It is written fairly well for a fanfic, but where it shines is its depiction of the interactions between Orochimaru and Jiraiya, which tend to have a solid tactical feel to them. Worth reading for that alone, really.

Full credit to those of you who caught the Princess Bride reference last chapter. While the theory comes from much further in the past, I decided to do the proper trope thing and refer to it in the manner most would recognize it.

CuteKirby knows already, but for those curious, Shikamaru does not fight a girl this time (amongst other things, we're running out of them.) His fight will probably be the second most interesting, after Sakura's… or maybe after Ino's, depending on your point of view.

I want to thank Erasels for the negative review. No, seriously. I hit 300 reviews yesterday, and of those three hundred, I had one person slinging racial slurs as a guest (modded out), and two from Erasels. It was bound to happen, but hitting 300 beforehand is, from my view, an excellent and telling trait.

For those of you like Quinn1989, who think Naruto is not getting enough credit, just wait for it. It's in the next couple chapters. It'll be so much fun.

Death276 mentioned that he forgot about the Sound trio. Frankly, I did too. I knew that I was forgetting someone, so I looked up the contestants when I started planning the exam arc and realized I had forgetting an entire team.

And thanks again to Heaven's Eagle for beta work.