Naruto woke up feeling refreshed. He felt the best he had been since the exam started. Maybe it was because he finally had a good long eight hours for sleep. He looked to his sides and saw that both his teammates were still out so he just laid down and stared up at the ceiling.

A few moments later, he sensed two chakra signatures approaching their room. 'Didn't think they would come this early, but given the situation, I can't fault them.' He stood up and shook his teammates awake, Sasuke much easier than Shikamaru. He opened the door when he heard a knock. "Good morning, Jiji. You too, Kakashi-sensei." Naruto greeted them before he let them in.

Sasuke was sitting on his bed while Shikamaru was still trying to rub the sleep away from his eyes. "Iruka said that you encountered Orochimaru in the forest."

"Yes, we've got a lot to tell you," Naruto replied as he took a seat on his bed before recounting their story. Shikamaru and Sasuke also recounted their point of view. "Orochimaru placed some sort of seal on Sasuke. I noticed it when I recovered their unconscious bodies. I felt chakra coming from the seal introducing itself to Sasuke's body. If I were to describe it, I'll say that a normal person's chakra will be varying shades of blue, where much denser chakra would be dark blue like mine. However, this one was basically black. Thick and evil and nothing like a regular person's." Naruto said, gaining worried looks from Kakashi and Hiruzen.

"Where is this seal, Sasuke-kun?" Hiruzen asked. Sasuke turned around and took off his shirt to show the seal sitting at the base of his neck. "It is as I feared…"

"Did anything else happen regarding the seal?" Kakashi asked.

"Yesterday, we engaged the genin from Oto. During the troublesome battle, I sensed a dark chakra coming from Sasuke. Even though I'm not a sensor, I could sense it quite clearly. Sasuke engaged with one of the genin and easily overpowered him. However, the seal comes with a drawback in that it makes his bloodlust increase," Shikamaru recounted.

The adults looked towards Sasuke looking for his explanation. Noticing their gazes, Sasuke sighed. "When I woke up, the seal was already activated. When using the seal, it's like the rational side of my mind was pushed to the side and all I saw was red. However, I was stopped when Shikamaru spoke some sense into me," he said while nodding in thanks towards Shikamaru.

"Yes, that is what the cursed seal of Orochimaru does to you. This is not our first time encountering a seal as such. However, it is a more developed version of the one we are familiar with," Hiruzen said.

"The more you use the seal, the more dependent on it you will become. Soon, if you use too much of its power, you will become nothing but a slave of Orochimaru." Kakashi said. Sasuke looked disgusted at the thought of becoming Orochimaru's puppet. "This is why I am going to seal it." Kakashi continued.

Naruto looked at Kakashi in surprise, "you know fuinjutsu, Kakashi-sensei? What seal are you using? I thought of sealing it but I didn't know if it was going have any negative effects or not."

"I dabble. I'm going to use the Fuja Hoin (Evil Sealing Method) . It will depend on the strength of Sasuke's will to hold it down. If Sasuke wills himself to never use the seal, it will be strong. If not, it can break. Come, Sasuke. You can rest again later," Kakashi said before he and Sasuke left in a shunshin.

"Naruto-kun, Shikamaru-kun. Look out for each other and have each other's backs. You did good during your time in the forest. Shikamaru-kun, it's okay if you didn't get the information from the genin. It-" Naruto intersected before Hiruzen could finish.

"Wait Jiji. We did get information. Here," he said as he threw two scrolls to Hiruzen. "I got the two Kusa-nin who attacked me when I was on my way to find my teammates."

Hiruzen smiled at his forward thinking. It was definitely a skill needed for a chunin. "And you didn't tell me this yesterday?" Shikamaru asked rather angrily.

Naruto rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly, "Hehe, I kinda forgot…"

Shikamaru let out a puff before shaking his head mumbling about troublesome teammates. "Thank you Naruto-Kun. Shikamaru, Naruto, you and your team did well. Congratulations on passing the exam. Please don't think too much on this matter, I have shinobi focusing on it. Now, get some much needed rest and I will see you soon." The Hokage said before disappearing in a shunshin.

Naruto left to go shower while Shikamaru went back to sleep. The events for the next few days were uneventful. Team 7 would come down to the canteen to eat and then go back up to their room. They found out that they were the second team to pass and were quite pleased about it. It was not until the end of the five days when things started getting interesting again.


The five days duration for the second test have ended and all the passed genin were gathered in a hall under the tower. The hall had a fighting arena in the middle while there was a balcony surrounding it for spectators. There was also a giant stone monument of hands in the ram seal. The Hokage was addressing the batch of chunin hopefuls in front of him.

Naruto and his team stood in line with the others. He was happy to see that Team 8 and 10 had passed. Team Gai, the Sand Siblings and Kabuto's team were the other three teams remaining.

"Congratulations fellow genin on passing the second test of the Chunin Exams. The Chunin Exams is and has always been a competition between the genin of different villages. However, it also showcases a villages' strength and its upcoming generation of shinobi. The final exam is a tournament observed by many people from all across the elemental nations. One does not have to win the last phase to be promoted to chunin. You only need to display skills that may qualify them for promotion." Before the Hokage could continue, he was interrupted by a familiar shinobi.

"Excuse me Hokage-sama, if I may interrupt, I would like to continue from here," he asked as Hiruzen nodded.

"My name is Hayate Gekko, the third proctor of the exams. As the Hokage *cough* previously said, the *cough* last phase attracts many viewers. Hence, a preliminary examination must be done. We *cough* do not want too many matches on the day of the finals and we don't want matches to be rather lacklustre." Hayate explained.

One of Kabuto's teammates spoke up, "we just reached here. Do we not get any rest?"

"Unfortunately, no. The life of a shinobi is unfair so you will be handicapped for your match."

"We will *cough* have one on one matches which will be randomised. Is there anyone who would like to quit? From here on, you are on your own and quitting does affect your team's performance." Hayate asked and saw that Kabuto raised his hand.

"My team just arrived and I am low on chakra. So I will resign," Kabuto said before Hayate allowed him to leave.

Kabuto's reason seemed reasonable and clear; however, it rang alarm bells for Naruto. 'Low on chakra? I sensed that he had almost all his chakra left. Besides, for someone who took the exams seven times, he shouldn't be so easy to quit. Something is definitely very off about him.'

"Very well, if no one else is quitting, the matches will start," Hayate said before he pointed to the board behind him. The names of the genin were being randomised before they stopped. "Alright, can everyone except the participants go to the spectator's area? Match one: Yoroi Akado vs Sasuke Uchiha!"


Naruto stood on the spectator platform with the rest of the examinees and their respective senseis. Shikamaru was to his right with Choji beside while Kiba was on his left with Shino beside him. They were leaning on the railing watching Sasuke's fight.

"Hajime!" Hayate announced the start of the match before he jumped away. Sasuke stood there not moving as he crossed his arms and stared at Yoroi. A tick mark can be seen on Yoroi's forehead. 'How dare he underestimates me, I will make him pay!' Yoroi thought before he rushed forward.

Yoroi threw a punch which Sasuke deflected before he sent a kick towards his opponent's stomach. Yoroi dodged the kick and backflipped away. Sasuke used this opportunity to rush forward and press Yoroi. They engaged in a bout of taijutsu but Sasuke soon realised that something was amiss. He was only using taijutsu yet he was steadily losing a lot of chakra.

Yoroi smirked when he saw Sasuke's face of realisation. "Yes, I can absorb chakra. And now you will perish!" He exclaimed as he took out two kunai and slashed away at Sasuke. Sasuke took out his own kunai and blocked Yoroi's attempts. At one point, he saw that Yoroi over-extended so he jumped over him and landed behind to try to attack from behind.

Yoroi looked up as Sasuke jumped over him. He quickly turned around and thrusted his kunai. The look of shock on Sasuke's face brought him elation. Sasuke was not expecting him to be as fast as he was.

Yoroi's elation quickly turned to misery when he felt a sharp pain on his back. Suddenly, the Sasuke in front of him shimmered away. He was staring at nothing and his shoulder was hurting like hell. He then felt cold metal near his jugular. "I win," he heard from behind him. Sasuke had a kunai stabbed into his back near his shoulder while another kunai was on his neck. "When?" He managed to ask in his pain.

"You were in my genjutsu as soon as the match started," Sasuke replied. Yoroi turned to see two sharingan eyes staring at him before he was knocked out. 'Damn Sharingan!' "Shousa, Sasuke Uchiha!"


Naruto and his peers watched as Sasuke won with barely any effort. "Damn, if only I could have a sharingan," said Shikamaru.

"And why's that Shika?" Naruto asked, amused as he could already guess Shikamaru's reason.

"Sasuke just made eye contact and he immediately won. If I could do that, I wouldn't need to put any effort into fighting or training," Shikamaru said as everyone around him chuckled at his laziness.

'Looks like his sharingan got stronger. He must've unlocked his third tomoe during the test in the forest. Before, he could only hold the genjutsu for short periods and a weak one at that. Now, he could at least make a stronger genjutsu." Kakashi thought. Sasuke smirked as he stood in between Naruto and Shikamaru.

"Looks like I'll be seeing you in the third phase, Naruto." Sasuke said.

"Eh, you'll never know. I might lose and not make it…" Naruto said with a straight face. He looked towards Sasuke and then to Shikamaru and Kakashi before looking back to Sasuke. They held their poker faces until they couldn't hold it anymore and started laughing.

"You too, Shikamaru. I want to see you in the finals," Sasuke said.

"Must I? Can't I just forfeit so I don't have to do the final phase? You know what, maybe I should," he said.

"Oh no no, you're not getting away that easily. All three of you are making it to the finals," Kakashi said as he ruffled all three of his genin's hair.

Naruto looked up at Kakashi and gave him a deadpan stare, "you bet on us didn't you?" He said.

"Yup." Kakashi nonchalantly said with an eye smile.

Naruto sighed. After living with Kakashi for so many years, he found out that the Jonin of the village liked to bet with each other and almost everyone participated. He looked towards Shikamaru and said, "your mother's not going to stop nagging if you forfeit. You might as well just give it a try."

Shikamaru sighed and sadly nodded. Their conversation ended when the next fight was announced. " Match two: Sabaku no Temari vs Konoha no Tenten!"

'Sorry Tenten, you're good but Temari is the worst matchup for you. She's going to roll through your weapons with her fan.' Naruto thought. His thoughts were made true when Temari won the match minutes later. "Shousa, Sabaku no Temari!"

" Match three: Shino Aburame vs Choji Akimichi!"

"Good luck guys!" The leaf genins exclaimed as the two participants made their way down.

"Hajime!" Hayate announced before he jumped away. Immediately, Choji activated his family jutsu. " Bubun Baika no Jutsu (Partial Expansion Jutsu)! " Choji exclaimed as his fist enlarged to ten times its original size. He rushed towards Shino and punched him but he burst into a cloud of beetles. It was an insect clone.

The real Shino was behind Choji and attacked with a swarm of his chakra-eating beetles. Choji tried his best to dodge but couldn't run away from the swarm of beetles. He gave up and he used another of his family's jutsu. This time, his entire body expanded and he turned into a giant human ball. He tucked in his limbs and rolled towards Shino. He crushed the beetles that were in his way and slammed into Shino and the wall behind him.

Shino had used a kawarimi and substituted with his beetles. Choji rolled again towards Shino but every time he hit, Shino either kawarimi-ed or turned out to be a clone. Eventually, Choji lost as his chakra was absorbed by the beetles.

"You fought well, Choji-san. Unfortunately, you were just too big for my beetles. Rest well," Shino said before the medics took Choji away. "Shousa, Shino Aburame!"

The other leaf genin clapped at their friends' battle and congratulated Shino. " Match four: Shikamaru Nara vs Misumi Tsurugi!"


Shikamaru stood across the Konoha genin. He was one of Kabuto's teammates. "My teammates may not have made it to the last round but that doesn't mean I'm the same!" He exclaimed. Shikamaru could see the sheer determination on his face. 'Troublesome…'

"Hajime!" As soon as the fight started, Misumi used his jutsu and his arms extended towards Shikamaru. Shikamaru had to dodge the kunai aiming to slice his limbs off. 'His arms can extend which means he doesn't need to come in close. I don't have any jutsu suited to long range. I can't keep up this troublesome dodging forever.'

Shikamaru dodged and weaved while throwing shuriken in between. His supply of weapons was starting to run low. "You can run but you can't hide, Nara!" Misumi taunted as now his entire body extended and his upper body rushed towards Shikamaru. Shikamaru was caught off guard as Misumi appeared near him and spat out senbon from his mouth. Shikamaru could not dodge in time and was hit in the arm.

'Damn it, I thought only his arms could extend.' Shikamaru backflipped away to create some space in between. He plucked out the senbon and threw it away. He was lucky that the senbon was not coated in poison. "Scared, Nara?" Misumi taunted as he prepared to rush in.

Shikamaru took out smoke bombs and threw them all over the fighting area. The whole area was covered in smoke. Misumi extended his arms and twisted them like fan blades. The smoke cleared and Shikamaru could not be seen. Suddenly, he found that he could not move. His head turned against his own will and he saw Shikamaru and his shadow connected to his own.

Shikamaru had used the Doton: Moguragakure no Jutsu (Hiding like a mole jutsu) to go underground and appeared at Misumi's blind spot where he captured Misumi with his shadow. "I have my kunai holster on my left leg where you have it on your right. I can end your life right now or you can forfeit," Shikamaru said as he moved his hand to take a kunai from Misumi's pouch.

Misumi forfeited and Hayate ended the match. "Shousa, Shikamaru Nara!"


The spectating genin clapped in congratulations before the next match was announced. " Match five: Hinata Hyuga vs Neji Hyuga!"

"Come on Hinata, kick his ass!" Kiba exclaimed among other supportive shouts. Hinata blushed before nodding and getting into her stance. She made eye contact with Naruto who nodded at her. 'I can do this, my friends believe in me, Naruto-Kun believes in me!' She thought.

Hinata and Neji's fight was very intriguing to Naruto. On one hand, He knew how gentle Hinata could be and how she is always looking for a way to not hurt her comrades. However, he also knew that she had the potential to be strong. On the other hand, he knew of Neji's skills. He was the top genin of his class and was considered a Hyuga prodigy. It was an interesting fight indeed…

Their fight could not have made Naruto's blood boil even more. Hinata had improved from her academy days however, in the end Neji still prevailed. The thing that made Naruto's blood boil was Neji's actions and words. He talked about fate and Hinata's luck in being born into the main family of the clan. Then after incapacitating Hinata, he went for the kill even though the proctor ended the match. He was stopped by all the jonin sensei and Hinata was taken away.

He locked eyes with Hinata who was on a stretcher and gave her thumbs up for her good effort. He turned to Neji who was also heading to the infirmary and called him out, "Neji! I promise you, that in the final round, I will fight you and prevail! No one attempts to nearly kill my friend and get away with it!"

Neji scoffed and replied, "bring it on, Uzumaki. I will show you the margin between us!"

Naruto looked back to the board and saw the next set of names. " Match six: Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka!"


Sakura and Ino stood in front of each other ready to pounce as soon as the match started. "I'm not going to hold back, forehead!" Ino said as she took out a kunai.

"Neither am I, Ino-pig!" Sakura replied as she took out some shuriken.

"Hajime!" As soon as the match started Sakura threw out her shuriken and started weaving hand signs. Ino deflected them with her kunai and rushed towards Sakura. She noticed that Sakura disappeared and immediately recognised that it was a genjutsu. She dispelled it in time to see Sakura rushing in with a kunai. She swiped at her several times but managed to dodge most of it, only receiving small cuts.

She created some distance between them with a few backflips and threw her own shuriken. However, these shuriken were laced with poison. Knowing this, Sakura dodged them, not risking getting hit by the poison. Sakura closed in and engaged Ino with taijutsu. Their taijutsu were developed versions of the academy style as they engaged in a bout of taijutsu. After receiving a few bruises each, they disengaged and returned to long range fighting.

Sakura dodged and deflected the poison laced kunai and shuriken but she noticed it was as if Ino was corralling her. To stop her plans, Sakura retaliated with a few more shuriken and threw smoke bombs. She made a few regular clones to throw Ino off. Ino switched weapons and threw senbon instead as she was steadily running out of throwables.

One of the senbon hit Sakura and all the bunshin disappeared. Sakura's body slowed down as the paralysis began and she slowly could not move. Ino weaved a few hand signs and placed her hands in a circular shape. " Shintenshin no Jutsu (Mind Transfer Jutsu)! " The jutsu was specialised for the Yamanaka who worked with the mind. It allowed Ino to enter the mind of Sakura and control her. Ino's body went limp as her mind left her body.

However, instead of hitting Sakura like she intended, she hit nothing. "Sorry, Ino-pig. Looks like I won this time," she said as she looked towards Hayate who called the match. "Shousa, Sakura Haruno!"

A few moments after the end of the match, Ino returned to consciousness. "What happened?" She asked.

"I placed you under a genjutsu when I used those bunshin and smoke bombs. I knew you would try your mind jutsu and if you missed, you would be unconscious for five minutes," Sakura explained as she accompanied Ino who was on a stretcher to the infirmary. "You hit pretty good, though." She said, referring to her cuts and bruises.

Ino sighed and chuckled. "I guess I would just have to win the next one," she said.


Naruto was impressed by their match. He could tell that they had come a long way since their fangirl days. He could see a slight glint of acknowledgement in Sasuke's eyes although he knew he would never say it out loud.

"You know, you had quite a hand in their development," Kurenai said as she approached Naruto.

"Me?" Naruto was confused. He had not seen his peers in months.

"It was about something you said to them near the start of your genin days," she said, causing Naruto to dive into his memories to recall ever talking to them.

Flashback to One Week after receiving Genin Team

Naruto sat at Ichiraku eating his third bowl of ramen. Kakashi had dismissed them early as he said he had "work" to do. Naruto knew he was probably just going home to read his erotic novels. He sensed two familiar chakra signatures and one suppressed chakra signature approaching the stand.

Ino and Sakura sat on the stools and ordered their ramen. "It's been a while since I saw you two. You guys don't normally come here, have you finally decided to taste the greatest ramen of all the land?" Naruto said.

"Nice to see you too, Naruto. We were just walking through and saw you eating so we decided to have ramen," Sakura said as their ramen arrived.

Naruto narrowed his eyes in speculation. They were not usually the ones to regularly approach Naruto to talk and eat. "So how's your team, Naruto? How's lazy boy and Sasuke-Kun doing?" Ino asked.

From there, they had a conversation on their genin team and post graduation. Shino was not here with them as he needed to attend some clan activities. When Naruto was eating his fifth bowl, he finally received the killer question.

"Naruto, I know we weren't that close to you, but you are one of two who apply to the question." Naruto raised his eyebrow and allowed Sakura to continue. "So the question is: do you and Sasuke even bat an eye at people who like you?"

'Ah, that's the question they wanted to ask since they came here…'

'Just your luck, kit.'

Naruto pondered for a while before he answered them. "No…" he said as both Sakura and Ino had dark clouds over their heads. "Are we just not pretty enough or something?" Ino asked.

"No no, I didn't say that. Let me finish. I do admit, physically some of the fangirls do look pretty. However, I can 100% say that that's not what we are looking for. People like Sasuke and me, we don't want you guys to follow us around and try to impress with looks. We don't want those, what we prefer is for you to fight for yourself. To be different from the others and let your actions make you attractive. In other words, the best way for you guys to attract Sasuke is to be a kunoichi . A kunoichi who is strong and fights because of their hopes and dreams and not for attraction. Be a kunoichi Sakura, Ino. Remember these words, be a kunoichi…" he said as he slowly faded into the wind.

Sakura and Ino sat there staring into space before they fully digested what Naruto said. Then they realised that he literally disappeared into thin air, "what the-". Teuchi was unfazed by Naruto's disappearance as if it was an everyday occurrence. He collected Naruto's stacked ramen bowls and his money and continued his job as usual.

Naruto shunshin to the roof of Ichiraku. "It's not nice to spy on your team, Kurenai-sensei." He said as Kurenai appeared beside him.

"You could sense me, impressive. Yugao-chan was right with you. You have a good way with words." she replied.

"Eh, it's the truth, that's why it sounded so "good" I guess. Besides, I don't want my friends to die just because they weren't willing to become strong for a boy. Hmm… maybe Yugao-neechan's hatred for fangirls is rubbing off on me," he said as he turned to Kurenai. For the first time, he had a close look of Kurenai and he could admit that she was quite pretty. "I can see what Asuma-san takes interest in," he said, causing her to turn red and stutter.

"Wh-what do y-you mean? Asuma? Who?"

Naruto just gave her a deadpan stare. "For a genjutsu specialist, you are not really good at keeping the illusion of your relationship. Oh well, I've to do some training. Ja ne!"

Flashback End

"Ehhh?!! Wait, you mean my words actually did something?!" He said, getting a nod from Kurenai.

"Yup, you may not remember it but they did. They started to train their hardest and after some conditioning from me, they basically pushed their battle for attraction aside. Now they try to best each other as kunoichi," Kurenai said.

"Damn," was the only thing Naruto could think to say.

Their conversation ended as the next fight was announced. " Match Seven: Rock Lee vs Sabaku no Gaara!"


Gaara appeared with a sand shunshin with a menacing aura. Everyone could feel that Gaara was ready to kill and were getting worried for Lee. Lee; however, ignored it and excitedly jumped down from the spectator's balcony. "Yosh! Let's have a most youthful battle!"

"Hajime!" Gaara stood still as the cork on his gourd opened. Sand flowed out from his gourd and it surrounded him. Lee immediately rushed in with great speed. The speed was definitely faster than a regular chunin's. He went for a kick but the sand around Gaara rose and protected him. The sand rushed after him for a counter attack but Lee was too fast.

He went again and again, but the sand kept on protecting Gaara. After dodging the waves of sand coming at him, Lee landed on the stone monument and thought of ways to bypass Gaara's defence. "Lee! You can take them off!" Gai shouted as he gave a thumbs up at a shocked and elated Lee.

"Really?! Thank you Gai-sensei!" Lee exclaimed as he removed his leg weights and threw them away. "I feel so much better now!"

'What's a few weights gonna do against Gaara?' Temari thought. 'He was wearing weights? He was already so fast,' Shikamaru thought. The weights fell to the ground and impacted it with a large explosion of dust and dirt. There were two large craters now.

"WHAT?!" Everyone's eyes were basically popping out of their heads. The thought of wearing those weights was absurd. 'Oh Gai… ' Kakashi thought as he witnessed his eternal rival's antics.

After removing those weights, Lee was a blur of speed and Naruto could see Gaara slowly getting worried. His usual calm and relaxed demeanour broke as Lee got closer and closer to hitting him. The only reason Naruto could keep up with the fight was because of his regular spars with Kakashi. Even then, he could just barely keep up. Lee was faster than him with his weight seals off. After a few tries, Gaara's ultimate defence was overwhelmed and he was sent sailing across the fighting area. Even the sand armour he had on his body was broken.

Lee appeared behind the flying Gaara and kicked him up into the air. His arm bandages loosened as they wrapped around Gaara and Lee manoeuvred him downwards head first. " Omote Renge (Frontal Lotus)! " The ground broke from the impact. Lee could be seen sitting outside of the impact zone while Gaara was lying down in the epicentre of the impact area.

Lee had a look of triumph but he was severely tired and weakened, negatives of using the frontal lotus. Naruto knew that it was a powerful move but he also knew that the fight was not over yet. The Gaara in the middle of the crater started to physically break down showing a sand kawarimi. Gaara substituted with his sand during the attack.

"What? A hollow sand armour?!" Lee exclaimed before he started frantically looking around. Gaara appeared behind Lee and sent waves and waves of sand. It was like a mini sandstorm. Gaara was pissed, very pissed. Lee was overwhelmed by the sand and was thrown into the wall.

"Gaara has never been hit before, so he's really going for the kill," explained Kankuro.

"Damn, Lee has to get out of there somehow," Shikamaru said.

"Lee! Remember, the lotus blooms twice!" Gai exclaimed as he gave a thumbs up.

Lee looked at Gai and nodded his head. He breathed in and out before he burst in power. "Gai, don't tell me you taught him that," Kakashi said as he watched Lee explode with power.

"I taught him it as a trump card. He was only to use it when things got tough and it's getting really tough now. He's going to open the eight inner gates," Gai said.

Naruto watched as Lee's skin colour changed to red and his chakra could be physically seen around him. Lee exploded as he rushed towards Gaara. The ground around him breaks from the pure power and strength behind Lee's muscles. Naruto could no longer see Lee. The only thing he saw was Gaara getting thrown around like his punching bag.

As a final move, Lee sent Gaara flying into the ground. The ground exploded as Gaara impacted the ground. Lee landed a few metres away, panting and on all fours. The sand armour on him cracked and Gaara stared at the crawling Lee. Opening the eight inner gates had put him into a position where he could no longer fight. Gaara gathered his chakra and sent his sand towards Lee. The sand wrapped around his left leg and arm. " Sabaku Kyu (Sand Coffin) !" The sand crushed Lee's limbs as he fell to the ground in pain. "Now you will die!" Gaara announced as the sand started to wrap around Lee's body. However, before Gaara could fully engulf Lee, Gai stepped in and ended the match.

"The match is over. I won't let you kill him," Gai said in a very expression opposite to his usually cheerful demeanour.

"Why?" Gaara asked.

"Because he is my student and he is someone precious to me," Gai replied before he shunshin with Lee to the infirmary.

Gai's words left Gaara pondering. 'Precious?'

"Shousa, Sabaku no Gaara!"


After clearing the grounds and fixing most of the fighting area with a simple earth jutsu, the last match was underway. "Due to an odd number of participants, the last match would be a three way fight. Match eight: Kiba Inuzuka vs Sabaku no Kankuro vs Naruto Uzumaki!" Hayate announced.

'Shit, I've to fight Naruto. But it's fine, we've improved since the academy and there's a chance we can team up on the Suna-nin,' Kiba thought as he reached the less destroyed fighting ground.

'They're probably gonna team up on me. I've got to get Karasu ready…' Kankuro thought.

Naruto fist bumped Shikamaru and Sasuke before he shunshin to the fighting area. The three Genin stared at each other as tension grew. Each waiting to make their move. "Hajime!" Unlike what his opponents thought, Naruto created a clone and they rushed towards both Kiba and Kankuro.

Naruto appeared in light step in front of Kiba as they engaged in a bout of Taijutsu. "You've improved, Kiba," Naruto commented as he sent a side kick to his torso. Kiba jumped away to dodge and released Akamaru from his jacket. He saw Kiba get on all fours while Akamaru transformed into another Kiba. The two Kiba's came rushing at Naruto with their combination jutsu.

" Gatsuga (Fang Passing Fang)! " Kiba exclaimed as he and Akamaru came flying at him, rotating like a mini tornado. Naruto dodged it by backflipping away but as soon as he landed, another Gatsuga was coming at him. He was forced again to dodge as Kiba relentlessly attacked.

The other Naruto attacked Kankuro and his puppet. He engaged Kankuro before he could release his puppet. He pulled out a kunai and was met head on by another kunai. He aimed for his puppet and kicked it away after using a light step to go behind him. They exchanged kunai attacks with each other but Naruto realised something was different about Kankuro. He could sense Kankuro's chakra, but it was not in front of him. 'Interesting…' Naruto thought as he thought of a plan.

' Futon: Daitoppa (Wind Style: Great Breakthrough) ' Naruto thought as he gathered air in his lungs and shot out a ball of wind towards Kankuro. Kankuro immediately leapt away to avoid it. "Clack." Naruto's eyes widened and he smiled. 'That's it! The sound of wood. The one in front of me is a puppet.'

He threw smoke bombs around the area. The Naruto fighting Kiba also disappeared in the smoke. "I may not be able to see you, Naruto. But I can always smell you!" Kiba called out as he and Akamaru put their noses to use. He picked up the scent of Naruto after a few seconds and used a Gatsuga towards his position.

As Kiba and Akamaru rotated at high speeds, the smoke cleared to show Naruto standing still, almost as if waiting for Kiba to hit him.


'What is Naruto thinking? Why is he not dodging?' Sasuke thought.

'He must be a clone. I don't think Naruto is dumb enough to take a jutsu head on…probably…' Shikamaru thought.


As Kiba closed in to Naruto, he winked and turned around and picked up Kankuro's "puppet" and placed it in front of Kiba's jutsu. Kankuro did not have time to move away as he was hit dead on. The Naruto holding him dispelled as Kankuro was sent flying into a wall. He became unconscious as his puppet fell limp.

Kiba and Akamaru ended their jutsu, confused about what just happened before they felt a cold blade near their necks. A clone was holding a kunai to Akamaru's neck while the real Naruto held Arashi near Kiba's jugular vein. "Thanks for taking him out Kiba but I still won," he said as Hayate called the match. "That was a good match, your jutsu made me think on my feet and I couldn't rest for a second."

Kiba sighed in defeat before chuckling. "Don't worry, we'll have a rematch just the two of us and I'll win next time," he said. Naruto resealed Arashi and his clone dispelled. He gave Kiba a fist bump as they made their way back up the spectator area. Kankuro had regained consciousness and was now getting berated by his elder sister.

"I told you to not underestimate them. Now look, you lost!" Temari reprimanded.

"How was I supposed to know that he'll see through my trick? I would've won if it was a 1 on 1 fight." He replied.

"No. You would've still lost," said Gaara in a cold voice. Temari and Kankuro felt chills run down their spines. "Uzumaki is stronger than you, he would've won nonetheless. Now shut up."

"A-as you wish Gaara," Kankuro stuttered.

Naruto walked up to Sasuke and Shikamaru who looked happy for him. "Looks like I'll be seeing you guys in the final test," he said.

"I look forward to fighting you, Naruto," Sasuke said as he extended a hand out to Naruto.

Naruto looked at the hand and smiled. It just showed how much their friendship had grown throughout the years. From their hatred in the academy, to their rivalry, to now their strong bond as members of team 7. Naruto shook his hand and nodded, "I look forward to it too…teme." Sasuke smirked at the verbal jab.

"Shika, you better be at your best and don't forfeit or we'll kill you ourselves." Naruto said as he shook Shikamaru's hand.

"Yeah yeah, I better not be paired up with a woman. They're so troublesome to fight," Shikamaru said, likely jinxing himself. He then smiled at Naruto and Sasuke, "I probably won't make it to the end but you guys definitely have a chance. Good luck."

Kakashi had been watching from his spot near the wall and smiled at the interaction. 'If only our team could've been like this, eh Obito. Looking at them, it's like what we could've been but didn't. Sensei… I'll make sure they stay this way. I know you guys are watching,' Kakashi thought.


"Can everyone come to the centre of the fighting area," Hayate called.

Eight chunin hopefuls stood in line as they faced the Hokage and all three proctors of the exam. Naruto, Sasuke, Shikamaru, Sakura, Temari, Shino, Gaara and Neji stood proud as they passed the preliminaries. The other genin who were not in the infirmary stood behind them with their senseis.

"Congratulations on making it this far in the exams. The final phase of the exam is a tournament between the most promising genin from the participating villages. It will be a one on one style competition with winners of the match moving on to fight against other winners until there is one victor. However, as previously mentioned, you need not win the whole tournament to be promoted. The final phase will take place in one month. Use that month to train and rest well. I will leave it to the proctors to explain the selection process," the Hokage said as Hayate stepped up.

"You will be randomly drawing a number from the hat Anko is holding," he said as Anko raised the hat and waved it. "You will be paired according to your numbers."

Anko went around and the genin took out a piece of paper each. The final pairings were: Match 1: Neji vs Naruto, Match 2: Shikamaru vs Temari, Match 3: Sakura vs Shino, Match 4: Sasuke vs Gaara.

Naruto and Neji made eye contact. It seemed fate wanted them to meet at last. Shikamaru grumbled at needing to fight a woman. Sakura nodded and was excited to fight her teammate. Sasuke could see in Gaara's eyes that he was out for blood but he was not worried. He knew he could defeat him.


Bro writing fights is so troublesome...

As you can see, I skimmed the canon fights like Neji vs Hinata and Temari vs the GOAT.

I didnt want to skip them entirely as I still wanted to mention them at least from Naruto's POV.