Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Shattered ❯ Kabuto's Secret Interest ( Chapter 10 )

[ X - Adult: No readers under 18. Contains Graphic Adult Themes/Extreme violence. ]

By: caro8

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto (enter sarcastic reason here).

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Chapter 10: Kabuto's Secret Interest

As the two nin's approached Genma and got into position, Naruto was already coming up with a strategy. When it came to brute strength, Choji could easily beat him, so hand to hand combat was out of the question. Naruto knew he would have to end the match quickly.

Genma waited until Naruto and Choji were in position before raising his arm. “Begin.”

Wasting no time Naruto created so many clones that even he lost count of them. Choji stood his ground as the clones surrounded him. Once he was completely surrounded the clones all moved in to attack him. Choji easily began throwing the clones around.

`Damn he is strong.' Taking a chance Naruto go over to the wall of the arena and disguises himself as the wall with a simple henge. He leaves a clone behind to act as himself. Luckily Choji was so preoccupied with the clones he didn't see Naruto hide. As a matter of fact very few people saw the switch, since all eyes were on the Choji and the clones.

Once all the clones, expect for the one acting as Naruto, were disposed of Choji turned to Naruto. He was slightly out of breath. “I'm impressed with your strength Choji.”

“Thank you.” Not waiting for Naruto to attack Choji starts to form his own hand seals. Naruto knew what was coming as soon as Choji doubled in size, then hid his limbs and head.

“Meat Tank!”

Choji wastes no time in rolling toward who he thinks is Naruto. The clone throws a kunai at Choji then leaps out of the way. Choji stops, turns and aims for Naruto once again. The clone continues to jump and run out of the way.

Eventually Choji grows tired of chasing Naruto and drops the jutsu. When he does a slash is evident on his arm from the kunai the clone threw earlier. Tired and low on chakra, Choji reaches into his pouch and pulls out a small bag with solider pills in it. In an act of desperation the clone rushes Choji and knocks the bag on the floor spilling all the pills. Choji grabs the clone and throws him at the nearest wall. The clone hits the wall inches from where the real Naruto was hiding and disappears.

“What the..” It's then that Choji realizes that the real Naruto is hiding. He quickly scans the arena. There are only a few trees in the arena everything else is open space. Choji knows Naruto wouldn't be stupid enough to hide in the most obvious area. “I'll find you.”

Choji starts walking over to the trees as he forms seals. “Mega Baika no Jutsu!” Choji more then doubles in size. He stops in front of one of the trees and rips it out. Holding the tree Choji walks over to the wall of the arena and starts running the tree along the wall as he walks.

“Oh shit.” Naruto doesn't move as Choji gets closer and closer to him. If he runs now Choji will just attack him with the tree, and that won't be good. Realizing he has no choice Naruto waits until the tree is almost on him before making his presence known.

“Rasengan!” The tree instantly explodes into a million pieces. Choji takes a small step back from the shock of the exploding tree, only to look down and see Naruto. Wasting no time Choji reaches down to grab Naruto. Naruto is able to escape Choji's hand, but he narrowly escapes Choji's foot. Even for his size, Choji is still pretty fast.

Naruto knows he can't defeat a giant Choji with taijutsu, so he begins running through all the ninjutsu he knows. Only one ninjutsu comes to mind, and he didn't really want to use it. Naruto was so caught up in his thoughts he didn't see the foot flying toward him until it was too late. Choji kicked Naruto, who flew into the wall. Naruto slumped forward and couched out some blood. He slowly stood up, using the wall as leverage.

“I have no choice.” Naruto reached up and wiped some blood from his mouth. He slowly begins to go through some hands seals. Looking up, Naruto smiled at Choji and slammed his hand to the ground. “Kuchiyose no Jutsu!”

A huge cloud of smoke instantly fills the arena. People in the audience are forced to cover their eyes; some even take cover behind those sitting in front of them. When the smoke clears people can't believe their eyes. Naruto is standing on top of Gamabunta's head. Gamabunta is holding his katana against Choji's neck. Choji is leaning against the wall of the arena with a look of complete terror on his face.

“I give up. I can't fight this.”

Naruto taps Gamabunta's head as a sign to lower the katana. Once he does Choji drops his jutsu and returns to his normal size.

“Thanks Gamabunta!”

“No problem gaki.” Gamabunta begins to sheath his katana, making sure not to hurt Naruto in the process.

Hoping not to anger the giant frog, Genma announced the names of the next match. “Will Hyuuga Hinata and Haruno Sakura please come down.”

Sasuke turned away from the fight and faces Sakura. “Good luck.” Sakura only smiled at him. Before walking away. As she turned to walk down the hallway she heard Naruto yell her name. She turned to see him jumping off Gamabunta's head onto the balcony. “Sakura!! Good luck!!”

“Thanks.” Behind Naruto and Sasuke, Gamabunta winked at her before disappearing in another rush of air and smoke. Turning she continued her walk down the hallway toward the stairs. She began running through strategies to use against Hinata. She knew her chances of winning were slim. Naruto had a hard time against Neji, and Hinata was able to hold her own against Neji. That was three years ago, who knew how strong she was now. But she too had gotten stronger. She knew that to both her and Hinata this was more then just a match. This was their chance to show everyone how strong they were. As she entered the arena Sakura knew she would not disappoint anyone.

Sakura fell into position facing Hinata. Hinata was in the Hyuuga fighting stance with her Byakugan activated. She was so focused on Hinata she didn't even hear Genma announce the start of the match. It wasn't until Hinata attacked that she knew the match had begun. Sakura knew that she had to stay as far away from Hinata as possible, so she threw three shurinken to stop Hinata. Hinata stopped running and rapidly spins, deflecting the weapons. Sakura takes advantage of Hinata's momentary distraction and begins to form seals. With her head lowered she whispers “Kokuangyou no Jutsu”

“Oye Sasuke.”

Sasuke already knows what Naruto is going to ask him, so without turning to face him he activates his Sharingan. “I'll tell you when she does a genjutsu.”

“Thanks.”

“She just put Hinata in the dark.”

Turning to watch the match again, Naruto's mood became very serious. “Sakura should end it quick.”

“You do know that whoever wins this match will have to fight you.” A silence falls between the two as they watch the match. Taking the silence as a yes, Sasuke speaks once again. “Are you prepared to face Sakura?”

A silence once again fell between the two of them. Sasuke thought that the silence was once again his answer. Just as he was about to return all his attention to the match he barely heard Naruto answer. “I don't know.”

When Hinata stopped spinning she was taken aback when she noticed she was in the dark. It took her a moment to realize she was in a genjutsu. It was then she was attacked from behind, a slash appearing on her shoulder. Sakura was attacking her from within the darkness. Hinata noticed that she could not see where Sakura was within the genjustu since she was completely surrounded by the chakra of the jutsu. Pulling out a kunai she prepared herself for the next attack. Sakura continued to attack Hinata, who was able to block the attacks just in time. After her last attack Sakura noticed that Hinata dropped her arms and was looking straight ahead. Sakura decides to take advantage of Hinata's sudden lack of defense and lunges at her once again. As she charges in Hinata suddenly turns and throws her kunai straight at Sakura. Sakura has just enough time to dodge the kunai, but in her hurry to move she drops the jutsu.

“How did you..”

Falling back into the Hyuuga fighting stance Hinata answers her unfinished question. “I looked for the area with the highest concentration of chakra.”

Sakura stands up and falls into a stance as well. Both girls engage in a stand off.

Feeling that Sakura needed some encouragement Lee jumped out of his seat and began cheering her on. “COME ON SAKURA!!” It didn't take him long to notice that Neji wasn't cheering along with him. “Neji, you should cheer for Hinata.”

Without turning away from the match Neji says, “Why?”

“You helped her train.”

“She doesn't need me to cheer for her.”

Deciding that the emotionless Neji wasn't any fun Lee sits down and smiles. “This match should get interesting if they use taijutsu.”

Neji couldn't help but hide the look of surprise on his face as he turned to face Lee. “You taught her the pressure point technique? With her medical knowledge this will be an interesting match.”

Lee can't help but smile at Neji with pride. “Maybe as good as our match.”

“No.” Neji smirks at Lee before once again turning back to the match.

Both girls are still in a stand off, walking in a circle. It is Sakura who makes the first move this time. She quickly moves forward and does some seals. “Doku Gasu” Sakura opens her mouth and a huge cloud of purple poison gas flies toward Hinata. Hinata knows she can't do her heavenly spin to combat this jutsu so instead she back flips out of range. As she flips Sakura creates two clones and rushes Hinata.

When Hinata lands she sees three Sakuras running at her. She makes a mental note to see if she can spot the real Sakura. The three Sakuras attack Hinata using taijustu, aiming at important points. But in the process the Sakuras also take some hits from Hinata. Suddenly Hinata turns her attention to the Sakura who is attacking the hardest and hits her square in the chest with her chakra charged hand. The other two Sakuras charge at Hinata's legs from the sides. Hinata sees them coming and hits both of them in the shoulder, but not before she takes a hit to the leg. It's then that she notices her mistake. She turns her attention to the Sakura in front of her. “Sakura?”

Sakura looks up at Hinata with a sad look on her face. “Sorry Hinata.” Then she disappears in a poof of smoke, along with one of the Sakura's to her side. Hinata turns to see the real Sakura with her hand on her shoulder. The hand is covered with green chakra, healing chakra. “I knew you would go for the one that attacked the most.”

Bending down Hinata touched the leg that the real Sakura had attacked and re-opened the point that was closed. When she looks back at Sakura, she sees that Sakura is standing in an all too familiar pose. Sakura is in the Lee stance. Taking the hint, Hinata falls into the Hyuuga stance once again. This time both girls charge at each other at the same time.

Hinata goes to punch Sakura in the face, but is blocked. Sakura quickly hits a point in Hinata's exposed ribs. Hinata drops down and attempts to kick Sakura's feet out from under her. Sakura quickly jumps over Hinata's head, hitting another point on her back as she lands. Hinata turns and tries to hit Sakura in the chest, but her arm is blocked once again. This time it is Hinata who closes a point in Sakura's arm. Hinata quickly begins to attack Sakura, and in the process cuts off the flow to Sakura's hands. Unable to attack Hinata with healing jutsu, Sakura jumps out of range and starts to form seals. Hinata notices that Sakura is gathering chakra to her lungs and quickly charges at her. Once Sakura is in range Hinata stops running and does her heavenly spin. Sakura is thrown back before she can do her jutsu. After landing from the spin, Sakura has just enough time to look up to see Hinata charging at her.

Sasuke had to hold Naruto back as he leaned over the balcony. “SAKURA!”

Neji had to grab onto Lee's arm to keep him from hurting himself and the people sitting in the row in front of them. “NO!”

Hinata was able to hit Sakura square in the chest with her hand. But Sakura was able pull out a kunai and hold in to Hinata's throat. Time seemed to stop. No one moved, no one talked. It seemed like an eternity before Sakura coughed out some blood and fell back.

“Winner Hyuuga Hinata.”

Medical nin's immediately rushed to Sakura. Naruto and Sasuke both jumped down from the balcony. The medical nin's surrounded Sakura, but where quickly pushed aside by Hinata. “Let me.” She quickly started to re open all the chakra points she had closed.

Lee pulled his arm free from Neji's grasp and started to leave. Neji got up and grabbed his arm again, stopping Lee. “The hit wasn't fatal. It was nothing like the ones I do.”

“I know, but I still have to go.” This time Neji let go of Lee's arm and watched him run off.

“Neji, don't worry he'll be fine.” Even though Neji and Lee were no longer his students, Gai still worried about them. Neji slowly sat down next to Shikamaru and Shino once again.

Shikamaru had a serious look on his face as he watched what was going on in the arena. It was Shino who finally decided to ask what was wrong. Sighing heavily Shikamaru leaned back in his seat. “Sasuke's match is next, and after that is Naruto and Hinata.”

Shino, Neji and Shikamaru didn't need to talk any further. All three understood the seriousness of the matches that were too come.

Naruto and Sasuke watched as an unconscious Sakura was taken away. Both nins want to follow and make sure she's okay, but they know they can't leave in the middle of the tournament.

“Naruto…”

Naruto and Sasuke turn to see a nervous Hinata. She's looking at the ground and tugging on her shirt. “I…uh…”

Naruto takes a few steps toward Hinata and places his hand under her chin forcing her to look at him. He swipes his hand on her neck and shows her the blood she had there. “She almost had you.” Hinata looks from his hand to his face to see Naruto smiling at her.

The moment is broken when Genma asks for Sasuke and Ryo to come down to the arena. Naruto motions for Hinata to walk with him back to the balcony. As they approach Sasuke, Naruto stops walking. “You better win Sasuke.”

“I will.” Sasuke is deadly serious, and Naruto notices it in his tone.

“Come on Hinata, let's go.” The two walk away from Sasuke and go toward the hallway that leads to the balcony. They walk in a comfortable silence. It isn't until they are halfway to the balcony that they hear descending footsteps. Naruto looks up to see Ryo walking down.

As Ryo passes them on the stairway he stops walking. “Naruto-san, I'll try not to hurt Sasuke too much.”

Naruto stopped climbing the stairs and turned to face Ryo. “What was that?” He felt the anger start to rise within. Naruto was used to hearing Sasuke talk with a cocky tone, but to hear someone else use the tone was too much. Not only that Ryo had the nerve to use that tone in regards to Sasuke.

Ryo still had his back to Naruto as he spoke. “I respect Sasuke very much. It's an honor to be matched with him. And you Naruto, I heard much about you from sensei.”

Now Ryo was talking about Kabuto. Naruto had to wonder if Ryo had a death wish. “Oh really?” Naruto couldn't hide his annoyance. But then again why should he, Ryo was just pushing all the wrong buttons.

Ryo finally turned to face Naruto. A huge innocent smile on his face. “I understand now why he left the Sound.” With that Ryo turned again and started toward the arena. Naruto continued his climb. Once he reached the balcony Hinata went to stand next to Choji. Naruto went to stand where he had stood before with Sasuke. He noticed that Hibiki was standing much closer to the railing.

Sasuke watched as Ryo entered the arena and moved into position across from him. When Genma announces the start of the match, Sasuke falls into the same taunting stance as before. Ryo simply stands there with his arms at his sides. Sasuke knows the stance is used to make the opponent think that they are not a threat, but Sasuke doesn't fall for it. He decides not to rush in just yet. He knows Ryo is fast and good at taijutsu. So he decides to start out with long-range jutsus.

Sasuke quickly does some hand seals and raises his hand to his lips. “Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu!” Ryo quickly jumps to the side but Sasuke follows him with the fireball. Ryo lands but when he notices the fire getting closer he starts doing back flips to avoid it. On his last flip, he jumps up higher then usual and throws some shuriken at Sasuke.

Sasuke drops the jutsu and quickly activating his sharingan pulls out a kunai to deflect all the shuriken. As Sasuke deflects the weapons Ryo lands and charges at Sasuke with a kunai in hand. Sasuke still wants to keep Ryo far away, so when Ryo slashes at him instead of blood Ryo sees mud. The replacement quickly turns to mud and spills all over the floor.

Ryo turns to see Sasuke in air with his hand to his lips again. “Katon Housenka no Jutsu” Suddenly small fireballs start to fall toward Ryo. Ryo starts to dodge them, while still keeping an eye on Sasuke. When he sees that Sasuke is no longer throwing fireballs at him, but is instead landing, Ryo quickly starts to form the seals for his tornado. Sasuke sees what Ryo is doing and he also begins to do the seals for he tornado.

“Kaze Kamaitachi!”

Both Sasuke and Ryo are looking at each other as their tornados collide and begin to battle it out.

“Impressive Uchiha-sama. But there are things that even your eyes can't copy.”

Ryo charges at Sasuke, while still maintaining the seal of the rooster needed to control the tornado. Sasuke tries to maneuver his tornado in the path of Ryo. Ryo stops charging and instead has his tornado attack Sasuke. Sasuke is forced to drop the jutsu. Once the tornado is gone Ryo drops his jutsu and charges at Sasuke while holding a kunai. Sasuke has no time to do a jutsu so instead he pulls out a kunai as well.

Sasuke is able to see all the moves Ryo is about to make, so blocking is pretty easy. Their kunai meet and both Ryo and Sasuke push at each other. Ryo couldn't help but notice that Sasuke blocked all his moves earlier. Even when he fought Hibiki he was able to get in a hit or two.

“Your eyes, can they see the future?”

“Yes.”

“What do they see?”

“My victory.” With that Sasuke starts to push Ryo back with the kunai. Not wanting to be out done Ryo starts to push as well. When Ryo pushed back Sasuke moved to the side. Ryo was pushing forward with so much force that he couldn't stop himself from falling. As Ryo fell forward Sasuke attached an explosive note to his shoulder and quickly jumped away. Ryo was unaware of the note attached to his shoulder until it was too late. The explosion of the note caused a huge dust and smoke cloud to appear.

Hibiki couldn't stop himself from running toward the balcony railing. He stood there in silence watching the smoke cloud. The arena was completely silent as they waited to see what happened to Ryo. As the cloud began to dissipate a silhouette could be seen standing.

“Oh no.” Hibiki knew what was too come. He turned to look over at where Kabuto was sitting. Kabuto had a smile on his face.

Sasuke couldn't believe his eyes. Ryo was standing and he still had his arm. The blast should have either left him immobile or killed him. Instead here was Ryo standing. His kimono was burnt and torn and small pieces of it were bellowing around him. His hair now looked chaotic. Sasuke could see the blood running down his back. `At least it injured him, but it should be worse then that.'

Ryo turned his head and looked at Sasuke from over his injured shoulder. His once youthful and innocent expression gone. Ryo now looked like someone who belonged to the Sound. “You will regret doing that Uchiha-sama.” Without looking away he ripped off what remained of his top. His back was completely void of scars, something his other two teammates were covered in.

“How? The blast should have….”

“killed me. Yes well.” It was then that Sasuke noticed the smoke coming from the wound. Ryo was healing himself. “My sensei was kind enough to teach me all about medical jutsus.”

Naruto was shocked to say the least when he saw Ryo standing there. But when he heard Ryo say it was because of what Kabuto taught him it all made sense. “Kabuto did the same thing when we fought.”

“You fought Kabuto-sensei?” Naruto turned to look at Hibiki. He hadn't meant to say that last part out loud. He nodded slowly at Hibiki. “Did you win?”

“No, but neither did he.” Naruto hated to admit his losses, but this case was different. Neither of them had won. Tsunade told him that Kabuto would have died had it not been for his medical knowledge. That thought alone made his loss okay.

“ I see now why sensei talked about you so much.” With that Hibiki turned back to the match, leaving Naruto with more questions than answers. But Hibiki made it obvious that he was done talking, so Naruto just turned back to the match as well.

Sasuke was not intimidated. Ryo would have to try a lot harder to scare Sasuke. He was still confident he could win the match. He had learned a little bit about medical jutsu's from Sakura, and he knew they ate up a lot of chakra. Whatever moves or jutsu's Ryo used from now on would be finishing moves.

Ryo turned to face Sasuke and slowly began to raise his hands. Sasuke mirrored his movements and also raised his hands. They both do the seals for the tornado, expect this time when they hit they both cancel each other out.

“Let's see if you can copy this.” Quickly Ryo starts to go through seals. Incredibly Sasuke copies every single seal. The number of seals is immense. Near the end Ryo and Sasuke cross their feet and rapidly turn their bodies. They use the force of the turn to create a blast that they aim at each other. The blasts once again cancel each other out. But the impact of the blast momentary hides Ryo, who takes advantage and runs behind Sasuke to attack. Once Sasuke realizes that Ryo is gone he concentrates on his surroundings and is barely able to dodge the punch aimed at his head. Ryo's momentum forces him past Sasuke, expect this time he doesn't fall. Instead he turns and without missing a beat aims another punch at Sasuke's head. This time Sasuke catches Ryo's fist and holds on to it.

A smirk appears on Ryo's face, confusing Sasuke. “Copy this.” Ryo raises his free hand and begins to do one-handed seals.

`Shit, I don't know how to do that!' Sasuke had yet to learn how to do one-handed seals, since the one person he knew who could do them was dead. Not even Kakashi could teach him, since he didn't know how to either.

“Harikeen Kaze!”

As soon as the words escape Ryo's mouth a wall of wind begins to surround the two of them. Sasuke lets go of Ryo and turns to try and get out of the jutsu but realizes the winds are too high to jump over and too strong to run through. He suddenly realizes that if he can't get out, neither can Ryo. He turns to look at Ryo, but instead of seeing Ryo standing where he left him Sasuke sees Ryo walking right through the wall. Sasuke decides to try out what Ryo did. He walks up to one of the walls and holds out his hand. But as soon as he gets to close to the wall his hand is cut. He turns once again and sees Ryo waving at him from outside the wall. It's then that Sasuke notices the walls are closing in on him, and fast. Before he gets a chance to come up with a plan the walls close in and grab him. He's lifted off the floor and cuts begin to appear all over his body from the wind.

The winds are so strong he can't even hear himself scream. `I'm going to lose.' Almost as soon as he thinks that he hears Naruto.

“…You better win Sasuke…” Sasuke remembered he told Naruto he would win. He wasn't lying when the told the blonde he would win either.

“…How can I be Hokage if I can't even save my friend from the darkness…” Sasuke slowly began to move his hands together.

“…So Sasuke, how strong are you really…” Even with all the wind Sasuke began to form seals.

“…You're a bastard you know that...” With the last seal formed Sasuke disappeared from the wind.

When Sasuke disappeared Ryo panicked. No one had ever escaped from this jutsu before. He began to look around frantically. He quickly noticed a few leaves circling around an area. The leaves grew in numbers and then Sasuke appeared in the middle of them. Sasuke is on his hands and knees and his body is covered in wounds. It was then Ryo realized Sasuke teleported out of the jutsu.

Not wasting a moment Ryo pulls out a kunai and charges at Sasuke. He knows he has to get Sasuke while he's down. As Ryo approaches Sasuke, Sasuke stands up and waits for Ryo to reach him. Ryo stabs Sasuke in the chest. Sasuke in return grabs on to Ryo and smiles. It's at that moment Ryo realizes his mistake. `Kage Bunshin.' Ryo desperately tries to free himself from Sasuke but it's too late. Sasuke appears and stabs Ryo in the forearm. Turning quickly behind Ryo, Sasuke stabs Ryo's other forearm. With Ryo now unable to form seals the clone disappears and Ryo stumbles back and falls to the ground. Sasuke quickly jumps on top of Ryo and holds a kunai to his throat.

It's then that Genma grabs Sasuke's arm. Sasuke gets up and takes a few steps away from Ryo. “Winner, Uchiha Sasuke.” Sasuke watches as medical nins take Ryo away. One approaches him and asks him to follow. Sasuke turns to look at Naruto, who is still standing in the balcony. “No, I'll be fine.” With that he starts walking toward Naruto.

“Will the next participants please come down.”

Naruto jumps down from the balcony and lands right in front of Sasuke. Naruto can't help but notice all the cuts Sasuke has. “You should go get treated.”

“And miss your match. No, my wounds can wait.”

“Stubborn bastard.”

“Don't lose.” With that Sasuke walks past Naruto. When Sasuke reaches the balcony Naruto and Hinata are already facing each other.

Naruto simply stared at Hinata. He didn't fall into any stance or pull out any weapons. He just stood there. He was too busy thinking. No he wasn't thinking of a strategy, he was questioning himself. `Can I beat her?' He didn't want to hurt her, but to beat her he would have to hurt her. `Hyuuga's are tough. Last time with Neji was special.' He didn't want to have to use the Kyuubi to beat Hinata. `How did Shikamaru do it; facing girls.' Naruto saw Hinata fall into the Hyuuga fighting stance. `Well at least she's okay with it.'

Naruto knew that if he has to face her in a match he might as well end it quick. He knew she deserved more, a strong willing opponent but he couldn't bring himself to hurting her. He raises his hands and crosses them in a familiar seal.

“Taiju Kage Bunshin no Jutsu.”

Clones instantly surround Hinata, but she doesn't flinch. “Naruto-kun, please don't hold back because I won't.”

Naruto simply stands there and says nothing. Instead he steps forward and blends in with all his clones. All the clones move in and begin to attack Hinata. While dodging and throwing clones around Hinata notices that two clones in particular stand out. One of them isn't attacking as much as the others and one is attacking more then the others. Thinking that Naruto might be one of the two she charges at them. Upon hitting the first one it disappears in a puff of smoke. She quickly turns her attention to the other clone. Upon hitting that clone in chest it falls to the ground.

“Sorry Hinata.” The clone looks up at her with a sad expression and disappears. Before she can react she feels a kunai to her throat. “I know what you look for. It was easy to blend in.”

Not wasting a moment Hinata begins to discharge chakra from her back, in an attempt to push Naruto away. Naruto tries to combat her chakra with his, but loses the battle and is thrown back instead. He lands in a crouched position and slides back to a stop. While still crouched down he begins to form seals.

“Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu”

Hinata jumps to the side to avoid the fireball, but upon landing she sees that the fireball is coming right at her. Hinata begins to flip out of the way, buts she's too slow. Before Naruto drops the jutsu he has singed her arm and leg.

Once Hinata lands she once again realizes she has lost him among the remaining clones. She takes a step forward and notices that some of the clones took a step back. `They want to stay out of range.'

`I can't keep this up.' Naruto realizes his plan to end it quick isn't turning out like he expected. Sighing deeply Naruto knows he has to use the Kyuubi chakra to end the match. He quickly dissolves all his clones. Hinata is slightly taken back by the disappearance of the clones. She simply stares at Naruto. He has no expression on his face. `He looks like he did before Sasuke returned.' As she watches Naruto she notices that his chakra is changing color. Thinking that he's preparing to use some kind of jutsu she goes into the Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou stance.

Charging at Naruto she begins with two hits, then four and so on. He simply lets her hit him as he waits for the right moment to make his move. Half way through her attack Naruto sees his chance. He hits her in the right shoulder with one hand and punches her with the other.

Hinata flies back and lands in a heap of limbs. It takes her a moment or two before she can get to her feet. Naruto notices that her right arm is hanging at her side in an unnatural way and that he lip is bleeding. Hinata raises her eyes to meet his and takes a small step forward.

“Hinata, please don't make me hurt you anymore.” Naruto didn't care if it sounded like he was begging. He didn't want to hurt her anymore. He was already disgusted with himself for hurting her this much, and he wasn't sure if he could hurt her more.

Hinata stood there for a moment before collapsing to her knees.

“Winner, Uzumaki Naruto.”

Without hesitation Naruto ran toward Hinata and grabbed her. As he turned her over so she could lie on her back he could hear the angry murmur coming from the crowd. At the moment Naruto didn't care about the crowd though, his attention belonged to Hinata.

“I'm sorry.”

“No it's okay. I knew you were going to be tough competition.” She smiled at him. But when his expression didn't change she reached up and touched his cheek. “I'm not mad.”

Naruto stood back and watched as medical nins took Hinata away. He didn't even notice Sasuke standing next to him until he put his hand on Naruto's shoulder.

Genma approached Naruto and Sasuke. “There will be a short intermission before the last match so the participants can prepare themselves.” Genma motioned to the medical nins standing behind the boys. Naruto watched as Sasuke followed one of the nins, before he too followed.

Kakashi watched as his students left the arena. He was slightly worried about Naruto. He knew that match against Hinata took a toll on his spirit. The next match would prove to be an even harder challenge for the boy.

“Kakashi, how is it Naruto can take on a Hyuuga like that?” Kakashi turned to see Shikamaru looking at him. “I mean it's twice he's done it.”

Kakashi took a moment to look from Shikamaru, to Neji, Shino and lastly Gai. Gai simply gave Kakashi a sympathetic look. “Naruto has his ways.”

Shikamaru quickly became irritated with the vague answer. “I should have known better then to ask you.”

“He's special.” Neji didn't know how Naruto was able to beat the Hyuugas so easily, but that didn't really bother him.

Gai turned away from his student to look at Kakashi. He knew what it felt like to have two of his students in the main event of the chuunin tournament. But Kakashi didn't exactly have normal students. “The response from the village to the next match should be interesting.”

Pulling out his novel Kakashi leaned back in his seat and began to read. “Yes, and hopefully I'll still have three students when it's all done.”

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Meat Tank - Um…do I really need to define this?

Mega Baika no Jutsu - GIANT CHOJI!!

Rasengan - If you don't know what this is, you should be hurt.

Kuchiyose no Jutsu - Summoning Jutsu

Kokuangyou no Jutsu - Bringer of Darkness; Used during the Hokage fight

Heavenly Spin - Only jutsu I translated cause typing Hakke Shou Kaiten gets old fast. Besides I assume when I say spin you know what I mean.

Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu - Fire Element; Grand Fireball

Katon Housenka no Jutsu - Fire Element; Mythical Fire Flower - weird name, its basically fire missiles.

Kaze Kamaitachi - Slicing winds

Harikeen Kaze - Hurricane Winds

Hakke Rokujuu Yonshou - Divination Field, 64 Strikes

Wow I used a lot of jutsu's in this chapter. And a lot of dust and smoke clouds. Couldn't help it, clouds add to the suspense. I'm sorry if you were expecting the fighting to be a lot longer, or if you wanted more talking or angst or something. I figured that once the tournament got underway there really isn't much time to do anything else. Did anyone notice the one Orochimaru move Sasuke used?? There will be more of those to come.

I found out that I have been spelling Choji wrong. It's Chouji, but since the way I spelled it looks and sounds right I'm not gonna change it. Just another example of how I can't spell to save my life.

All those quotes I used during the match between Sasuke and Ryo are from my fic. Some are from this chapter and others are from the early chapter. The whole point of that was to show how Naruto motivates Sasuke to keep going, just like Sasuke pushes Naruto as well. So yeah…..oh and the jutsu Sasuke used to escape the winds is the same one him and Kakashi used to make their grand entrance during the first chuunin exam.

Besides I know you just want to read about the Sasuke/Naruto match. Well to be honest I'm having a hard time with that one. I have a few ideas, and jutsu's I want to use. But I'm still trying to figure out who should win the match. Should I be evil and have Sasuke win, or should I be nice and let Naruto win, what do you think??

Okay so leave reviews, likes, dislikes, death threats, new year resolutions…..