The Tournament (II)

The next day, Kojiro and his companion walk inside the stadium and go to the VIP. Like before, the room is full of drinks and snacks and has a nice view of the arena. As they sit down on the couch, Hayate Gekkō appears in the middle of the stage, making the stadium quiet.

"Welcome *cough* to the semifinal of Chunin Exam *cough* This day is the final test for all the participants to become a chunin. Let me remind you of the participant that successfully fight their way to the semifinal."

Hayate then looks at the giant monitor in the stadium as it shows the list of participants that successfully walk to the semifinal.

~Match 1: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Gaara of the Sand~

*Break 15 minutes*

~Match 2: Temari of the Sand vs. Shino Aburame~

*Break 30 minutes*

~Final Match: - vs. -~

"Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara of the Sand. Please come down to the arena."

He then sees Naruto jump down from the arena while Gaara appears near Hayate in a swirl of sand. Hayate looks at them both before nodding his head and saying.

"I know I already say this before *cough*, but I will repeat it. No area in here is out-of-bounds, so go nuts *cough* Just try to keep the audience out of it. Do you understand?"

"Yes"

"Yes"

"Good, then Let's begin the semifinal. Fight!"

After saying that, Hayate disappears from the arena and leaves both Gaara and Naruto in the arena. After a few seconds of looking at each other, Naruto then begins to leap away from Gaara and then summon his clone. Just like his fight against Sasuke, Naruto let his clone to hold Gaara while the original prepared to use a Jutsu.

However, before Naruto could move his finger, Gaara already sent a massive quantity of sand toward Naruto. Seeing the sand, Naruto jumps high above while he does the hand seal once again, and this time he successfully finishes the hand seal.

"Water Release: Wild Water Wave"

After saying the name of the Jutsu, Naruto began to spew the water from his mouth. The water washed the sand that came at him and made it crumble to the ground. Kojiro can see Gaara frown seeing his sand get wet because of Naruto Jutsu.

Seeing his chance, Naruto creates another batch of clones as Gaara's first attack has obliterated his previous one. Naruto then begins to charge at Gaara with his clone following him. Naruto started his attack with a quick jab to Gaara's stomach, but Gaara already saw his attack and blocked his punch using the sand from his gourd on his back. Sadly, Gaara not only fights one naruto but a dozen of them. One of the Naruto clones come from above him and punch Gaara right in the head while the other also begins to hit him one by one.

Gaara, who is currently in a defensive position, manipulates his sand and then moves his sand in a circular movement. With that move, Gaara successfully kills at least five of the clones. Gaara then does a quick hand seal before inhaling a large portion of air before exhaling it.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough"

Surprised at Gaara attack, Naruto gets thrown away from his position, but he easily sticks to the ground using his chakra around his feet. However, before Naruto could do anything, sand suddenly shot up and captured him and then locked his movement.

However, Gaara is surprised at Naruto, who smirks at him. A second later, naruto that inside the sand cage disappears and only leaves a white smoke. Kojiro looks up and sees the real Naruto standing on the wall and already finished his hand seal.

"Water Release: Water Bullet Technique"

Coming from Naruto mouth is a torrent of water that launches itself toward Gaara at high speed. Seeing the torrent of water coming at him, Gaara raises a wall of sand to block the water. Both Jutsu collides, the water against the sand. While Gaara was busy blocking Naruto water Jutsu, he didn't realize that the Naruto clone who disguised himself as a rock near him. The clone dispels its disguise and then charges at Gaara at full speed. When the clone is close enough to Gaara, the clone then does a round kick.

However, before the kick could touch Gaara, a wall of sand suddenly appeared and blocked the kick quickly. Seeing his clone failed, Naruto stops his Jutsu and begins to change his tactic by making a series of hand seals while the clone of him disengage from the fight and try to see an opening for a surprise attack.

"Water Release: Water Trumpet"

Naruto then uses another water, Jutsu, but this time the water is more powerful than the previous water bullet. Seeing the torrent of water, Gaara tries to use the sand around the arena; however, sadly, for him, the sand around the stage has already become wet because of Naruto's previous Jutsu.

Gaara leaps away from Naruto water attack and land on the dry area where the water is not yet touching the area. Gaara then controls the sand around the arena and begins to block Naruto's attack with his new sand that he got. While attacking Gaara using his water Jutsu, Naruto created two clones without using a hand seal. The clone then walks away from him and begins to make a hand seal.

A few seconds later, the clone also begins to spew the same torrent of water as the original. Gaara tried to use his sand from the gourd, but before he could do that, the clone from before also spewed another torrent of water, making Gaara trapped inside a four torrent of water.

For a few seconds, Gaara tries to fight the water, but to his dismay, he cannot move away from the water or even manipulate the sand under him. After another five seconds, Hayate appears near Gaara and looks at Naruto, who nods at him and deactivates his Jutsu.

When Naruto deactivates his Jutsu, Gaara gasps for air before looking at Naruto, who walks at him with a smile on his face.

"The winner of the first round is Naruto Uzumaki!"

The crowd then explodes in excitement, while in the arena, Naruto walks toward Gaara and extends his hand at him. Gaara hesitated a little before slowly grabbing Naruto's hand as the blonde helped him to stand up.

"It was great! We should fight again next time we meet, believe it!"

Naruto gives Gaara a bright smile that makes the Ichibi Jinchūriki smile a little at the blonde behavior.