Preliminaries Part 2

Tenten and Temari faced each other as they were already down.

"That's the second person from Sunagakure. This match looks to be interesting." Neji said.

"Do your best, Tenten!" Lee yelled as he encouraged his teammate.

"Tenten, power of youth!"

"There's no limit to your youth Tenten!" Gai said as she encouraged his student.

"You guys are doing very well to encourage Tenten, but Temari is Tenten's worst opponent to face." Hiroki said.

"Huh? Why is that?" Lee said.

"Her ninja tool." Hiroki said with crossed arms as he pointed towards Temari's back.

"What is that?" Neji asked.

"You guys will see." Hiroki said.

"The fifth battle of the preliminaries, Tenten versus Temari. Begin!" Hayate said.

From the start, Tenten already opened some space between her and Temari. The two Kunoichi waited for the other to make a move, but they kept still as they stared at each other. Tenten had a serious expression while Temari had a tranquil one.

"What happened? Please begin." Hayate said.

"Are you planning to wait out and see how I make my move? Let me just tell you, once I start my attack, you'll be over in a second." Temari said as she took a step forward and at the same time, Tenten took a step back.

"You're trying to be cool and see what I do first. A hundred years too early. It doesn't matter to me, come first." Temari said as she pointed to herself with confidence.

"You said it! Well, I won't hold back." Was Tenten's response as she got into her stance. She then jumped up and threw four shurikens at Temari, who didn't move from her spot, but wasn't hit by the shurikens either as they seemed to pass through her.

"They missed? Impossible."

"What happened? Is that a warm up or are you scared and your aim is off? I thought I would enjoy it a little bit more, but evidently it's not promising." Temari said.

Tenten only looked at her and grit her teeth.

"No way. I can't believe Tenten's attack missed." Lee said.

"It's unbelievable indeed. Tenten's attacks always hits the mark ten out of ten times." Gai said.

"There's no reason for them to miss." Neji said.

"That's right. She didn't miss. She was made to miss." Gai said.

"That's pretty much it, Gai. As for how Temari did that, let's watch and see." Hiroki said as he already knew the reason.

"You saw that right, Sasuke?" Hiroki asked as he looked at the last Uchiha.

"Hn." Was Sasuke's answer.

"You guys are cheating. You can see everything with those eyes of yours." Naruto said.

"Hahaha. Naruto, don't complain. You should be able to know what happened. I've shown you once in training how to make this happen." Hiroki said.

"Ooooooh. Now I remember. It's..." Naruto was about to say how it was done, but Hiroki covered his mouth.

"Don't spoil things. Let's just watch." Hiroki said.

"Ah, Suna wins another one I guess." Shikamaru said.

'Calm down. Don't let her get to you.' Tenten thought to herself as encouragement. She then looked at the distance between her and Temari and saw that there was a good three meters between them.

'If it's going to miss, I'll just have to make it impossible to.' Tenten thought.

'Huuum. She's measuring the space. I guess the next attack will be a big one.' Temari thought as she placed her hand at the fan on her back.

'So that fan is he secret. If so...' Tenten thought as she started going circles around Temari. The Sunagakure kunoichi just stood still.

"Get ready for this." Tenten said as she grabbed a scroll from her pouch and jumped in the air and unrolled the scroll. She then started spinning the scroll and herself together with it. The then started throwing kunai, knives, shurikens and all other types of cutting weapons at Temari like a hurricane. Temari on the other hand just took out her fan and the weapons Tenten threw at her were unable to touch her. She had opened one third of her fan as she held it with one hand next to her. Tenten finally came down with the scroll and when she saw that nothing had hit Temari, she was startled.

"No way! My flying weapons. Is there a secret mechanism to the fan?" She asked as she looked at Temari and the fan.

"This is the first star." Temari said as a purple circle was shown on the face of her opened fan.

"There are two more of them. When the third star appears, you will lose." Temari said with a smirk.

The others watching the fight knew that Tenten had met a fierce opponent.

'I wanted to use this in the finals, but if I want to get through the preliminaries, I'll have to use it now.' Tenten thought as she grit her teeth. She then took out two scrolls. She crouched down and placed one on each hand as they stood vertically with her hand on top of them.

"Hah! No matter what you do, it won't work." Temari said.

Tenten took her hands off the two scrolls and started weaving hand seals as the scrolls kept standing up.

"Soshoryu! (Twin Rising Dragons)"

A thick cloud of white smoke spreader around the gymnasium and two smoke dragons rose. As the were high up in the air, they showed themselves to be the two scrolls Tenten had placed on the ground. The two scrolls then started to intertwine with one another. Tenten then jumped in between the two intertwined scrolls as she was high in the air together with them. She then started get weapon after weapon and throwing them at Temari. It was as if a rain of cutting weapons was falling on the gymnasium as the weapons went fast towards Temari.

"Even if you increase the amount, it's still the same." Temari said as she opened her scroll two thirds of the way and showed the second star. She then swung it and blew all the weapons raining down at her to other areas.

"I'm not done!" Tenten said as she jumped once more and she started pulling the fallen weapons with very thin metal wires. All the weapons she threw were now airborne and ready to rain down at Temari once again. Tenten motioned her hands and the weapons dove down. Once they were half way towards Temari, she fully opened her fan and swung it, blowing the weapons and Tenten away.

"Third star." Temari said as she swung her fan and she disappeared from Tenten's view.

"She disappeared? Where is she?" Tenten asked.

"I'm over here." Temari said as she flew over Tenten with her fan and then came down.

"Ninpo: Kamaitachi" Temari said as she swung her fan. It caused many currents of wind to collide with each other, creating a twister so powerful that it sent Tenten off the ground and started cutting her bit by bit.

"Tenten fought well, but she won't be able to get out of that twister." Neji said.

The twister died down and Tenten started falling down. Temari went under the place Tenten would fall and placed her closed fan right under, waiting for Tenten to fall down onto it while on her back. What she didn't expect was someone to jump on top of her fan and catch Tenten.

"Well, that was a good match." Hiroki said as he held Tenten and then dropped down from Temari's fan.

"He was here just now. I could barely see him move. He's speed is not any slower than mine." Lee said as he saw Hiroki.

"Hehe. That's Hiroki for you." Naruto said as he chuckled.

"Kakashi, that student of yours, he's not simple." Gai said.

"Don't underestimate him just because of his age. That kid is a little monster." Zabuza said to Gai. He then looked at Kiri.

"Now you see what I meant? He's not simple and don't underestimate him. Not even for a fraction of a second."

"What are you doing?" Temari asked as she looked at Hiroki on top of her fan.

"The match was already over. Tenten is already knocked out and I'm not someone that is going to let you to hurt her any longer." Hiroki said as he looked at Temari with his red sharingan eyes.

"Hiroki Uchiha, you can't interfere in a match." Hayate said as he walked up in front of Hiroki.

"See this a warning. If you interfere again, you will be disqualified." Hayate said.

"Is that so?" Hiroki said as he looked at Hayate.

"You said it yourself. There are no rules and you never said that someone couldn't interfere in the matches when you stated how the matches would work. Are you going back on your own words? And the match was already over, right? I guess it doesn't really matter if I came here and did the job for you. What would happen if Tenten fell on top of the fan and by any chance she broke her spine? Would you take the responsibility for it? I guess you wouldn't." Hiroki said as he walked with Tenten on his arms and put her on the stretcher that was already coming with the medic shinobi.

"Hehehe. That boy is quite bold, Kakashi. I get surprised every time I see him act." Zabuza said.

"I get surprised as well, Zabuza. Trust me. He's not the type to follow the rules with strictness. Sigh." Kakashi said.

"Kakashi, that boy, what type of training have you been giving him?" Gai asked.

"Huh? I'm giving him normal training like everyone else on my team. To tell you the truth, Hiroki is the one that I least have to worry about regarding his training. Every day stays at the training ground with Naruto after being dismissed. He knows many things that shinobi his age don't know." Kakashi said.

"Lee, when it's time for Hiroki to fight, pay attention to it and engrave it in your head. You might learn a thing or two from it." Gai said as he looked at Lee.

"It's the same for you, Neji. Pay close attention to it as well." Gai said as he looked at Neji.

"Uwaaa. Hiroki-kun is so cool. I wish he could carry me like that." Ino said as she had hearts on her eyes.

"Shouldn't you be a little jealous? He's carried another girl like that." Sakura said as she provoked Ino.

"Now that you say that, I'm really jealous. Damn it, Tenten. I'm not going to lose to you." Ino said and Sakura started laughing at her friend.

On the other hand, Hiruzen observed Hiroki's actions and the boy impressed him.

"Hoh. I can't see many young shinobi being so direct and standing up to a Jounin like that. He didn't step back and his argument was on point." Hiruzen said. Ibiki and Anko only listened to what he said and didn't comment on it.

'Hiroki-kun, Hiroki-kun. Each time I see you perform, it makes me want to get that body of yours.' Orochimaru thought as he licked his mouth.

Hiroki jumped back to his spot and he could feel Orochimaru's stare at him. He stared back at Orochimaru and said: "creep."

"Temari wins the fifth battle." Hayate said.

Temari then jumped back to her spot, next to her brothers. She then looked at Hiroki and grit her teeth. She was not happy at all for how Hiroki had interrupted her from doing more damage to Tenten.

"Temari, if that brat gets to the finals we'll show him. He doesn't know who he's messing with." Kankuro said.

"Shut up, Kankuro. He's strong. You and Temari can't deal with him. We aren't here for fun and games. We have a mission and we need to complete it." Gaara said. His brother and sister didn't say anything after that. They felt fear towards Gaara and they didn't want to anger him.

"Now then, let's move on to the sixth match." Hayate said as some chunin finished picking up the weapons that Tenten had thrown. The screen on top of the stone hands brightened and flashed with names and the stopped.

"Next battle is between Hiroki Uchiha versus Kiri. Could the two please come down." Hayate said.

"Oh, it's your turn Hiroki. Beat him up." Naruto said as he cheered for Hiroki.

"Hey, you better win. I'm going to wait for you in the final." Sasuke said as he smirked at Hiroki.

"Hn. Leave it to me." Hiroki said as he smiled to both and the walked his way down leisurely towards Hayate.

"Here I go, Zabuza-Sensei." Kiri said as he was about to jump down, but was stopped by Zabuza.

"I told you before, but I'm going to tell you again. Don't underestimate him. He's fast and he packs a punch." Zabuza warned his student. Kiri then jumped off the upper area and arrived in front of Hayate.

"Zabuza-sama, why didn't you tell Kiri to give up the match?" Haku asked.

"Haku, I can't say that otherwise it'll affect Kiri's growth in the future. You know how proud he is. Hiroki is very strong and Kiri can't win against him and even though we told him how powerful his opponent is, he still didn't step down." Zabuza explained to Haku.

Hiroki finally arrived in front of Hayate and Kiri. Kiri was looking at Hiroki with a smirk on his face.

"You took your sweet time, huh?" Kiri said.

"Yeah." Hiroki said curtly.

"Don't worry this will be finished very quickly. I'm just curious if the Uchiha only depend on their eyes. Are they really powerful without it?" Kiri asked.

"Well, our sharingan is a kekkei genkai, much like Haku's ice. Take out her ice, is she still powerful? It's a rhetorical question. You don't need to answer." Hiroki said as he looked at Kiri.

"Hiroki Uchiha versus Kiri. May the sixth battle begin." Hayate said

"Well, since you're asking about my sharingan, I'll deactivate it to fight against you. You then tell me after the fight your answer." Hiroki said as he deactivated his sharingan and his eyes returned to black.

"Don't underestimate me." Kiri said as he took out a scroll and unsealed a heavy sword from it.

"That heavy sword looks like the one Zabuza has." Naruto said.

"Is he your apprentice?" Kakashi asked Zabuza.

"I've taken him under my wing once I returned to Kiri. He showed good ability with a heavy sword so I took him as my disciple in kenjutsu." Zabuza said.

Back on the battle, Hiroki was a bit surprised seeing the heavy sword in Kiri's hand.

"So your going for a sword. No problem." Hiroki said as he unsheathed his tanto.

Kiri seeing the small blade had a scornful smile on his face.

"That small blade won't be able to do anything. I'll finish you off in less than a minute." Kiri said as he started weaving hand seals in a very fast speed.

"Kirigakure no jutsu." Kiri said as a thick mist started to spread around the gymnasium.

"What's going on?" Ino asked as she saw Hiroki and Kiri starting to disappear inside the thick mist.

"It's the silent killing technique. Zabuza used that when we were on our mission a few months back." Naruto said.

"Isn't that dangerous then?" Ino made another question.

"Hehe. Not to Hiroki. You'll see what I mean." Naruto answered as he grinned.

"Huuum. That's quite hard technique for a genin to perform. The amount of chakra and control needed is very high. It's impressive that your student is able to use that technique, Zabuza."

"Yeah, he's been working hard to learn it." Zabuza said.

"Neji, can you see what is happening inside?" Lee asked.

Neji activated his byakugan and was able to see what was happening inside the fog.

"The genin from Kirigakure has started to move. Hiroki just seems to be standing there." Neji said.

"If Hiroki doesn't do anything, he will lose." Lee said.

"Ahahaha. That won't happen, Lee. Hiroki is just doing his own thing. This mist is nothing to him." Naruto said as he laughed hearing Lee's comment.

On the battle, Hiroki could hear that Kiri started moving towards him in a very fast speed. He felt Kiri's presence going around him to get to his back. When Kiri arrived in about five meters from Hiroki's back, he jumped and swung his sword.

*clank*

The sound that came out was of metal hitting metal, but it was heard only once.

"How?" Kiri asked. His sword seemed to be stuck to something and wasn't moving no matter how hard he tried pulling it.

"Your jutsu is very good, but it's useless against two types of shinobi. Unlucky for you, I'm both types." Hiroki said.

"What do you mean?" Kiri asked.

"A sensor and a wind user." Hiroki said as he made a single handed seal and a strong gust of wind started blowing all over the gymnasium as it began blowing the thick mist away.

"Oh. Not too bad. He solved the problem straight away with a very simple solution." Hiruzen said.

"That's what I meant, Lee. We've fought against an opponent that used the same technique and it was Hiroki's idea to get rid of the mist with wind and it worked wonders." Naruto said.

"Wow. That wind is strong. Not even a bit of mist was left." Choji said.

"He's a strong wind user. The same as you, Temari." Kankuro said.

When the mist was lifted, Kiri was able to see what was keeping his sword stuck. He was surprised to see that Hiroki had coated his Tanto with chakra and stuck it to the long sword. What intrigued him was that he was using his whole body strength to pull his long sword and Hiroki was only using hit right hand to keep it in place.

"Your mist is gone. What are you going to do next?" Hiroki asked as he looked at his opponents face. He then recreated the chakra from the tanto and Kiri leapt back, making space between them.

"I'll show you!" Kiri said as he started becoming angry at how Hiroki talked to him. He felt that the shinobi from Konoha was playing with him. He took out a scroll and unsealed the contents from it, showing to be a big water tank. It probably had over one hundred gallons of water inside it. He opened the tank and the water came out of it as it washed the floor.

"Suiton: Mizu Tatsumaki" Kiri said as three water tornadoes started circling him.

"Make your move. Hehe." Kiri said while looking at Hiroki.

"That's quite and amazing technique. It can defend the user as a barrier and attack his opponent at the same time. Not bad." Asuma said as he analyzed the technique.

"His wind will be useless against that water tornado. How will he defend himself and also beat his opponent?" Gai asked.

"Hirok is not only a wind user. He can use other elements. He will figure something out unless he already has." Kakashi said.

"That is a nice jutsu. I'm surprised, but that won't be able to stop me getting to you." Hiroki said as he took out three shurikens from his pouch and threw them towards the water tornadoes.

"What is he thinking? Those shuriken won't be able to do anything to those water tornadoes." Anko said as she watched what Hiroki did.

"What is that boy thinking, Kakashi?" Gai asked.

"You'll see." Kakashi said.

"Is Hiroki-kun going to be alright?" Ino asked as she looked at Sakura. She felt that Sakura was the best one to answer her question.

"Yeah. He'll be alright. He always has something in mind. He will win." Sakura said as she smiled at Ino and comforted her worried friend.

"Shuriken Kagebunshin no jutsu." Hiroki said as the three shurikens multiplied in mid air and transformed into thirty. Now there were thirty shurikens flying towards the tornadoes. Ten for each.

"Hahaha. You're wasting chakra. You won't be able to pass through the tornadoes. Those shurikens are useless." Kiri said as he laughed at Hiroki.

"I can't change what you think with words. Only with actions." Hiroki said and made a one handed seal as the shurikens flew inside the water tornadoes.

"Katsu!"

*Booooooom booooooom boooooooom*

Three loud explosions sounded out and everyone in the gymnasium heard it. The three water tornadoes turned into water puddles after the loud explosion.

"What? Those shuriken exploded. How was that possible? There weren't any explosive tags on them and they are too small to have any either. How was he able to make them explode?" Kurenai asked as she looked at Kakashi.

"That is an original technique belonging to Hiroki. He's created it himself. And he can create many more of those. What he made now is just a small number. How he made those, I have no idea." Naruto said.

"Neji, could you see?" Lee asked.

"Yeah, those shuriken have an extremely large amount of chakra infused in them. Once they went inside the tornadoes, he made them burst, creating the explosions. If someone were to use that technique, they would certainly need large amounts of chakra to do so. My guess is that Hiroki's chakra is almost depleted." Neji said as he explained.

"Hiroki's chakra pool is extremely large. Even larger than a Jounin's. That right now only tickled the total amount he has. From everyone here, the only one that has a slightly larger chakra pool is me." Naruto said.

"You have larger chakra pools than Jounin? Haha. Don't make me laugh. You're a dead last who barely graduated from the academy." Neji said in a mocking tone.

"He's not wrong. Naruto's chakra pool is much bigger than Hokage-sama's. If we were to compare, Hokage-sama's chakra pool is a large lake and Naruto's is an ocean." Kakashi said.

Neji and the other genin had opened mouths as they became shocked from what Kakashi said. Who could know better than Naruto's sensei? If he was saying that, then it really was true.

"I might be dead last, but that was over a year ago. Today I'm stronger than you think." Was Naruto's response to Neji.

On the other side of the upper area, Ibiki was carefully paying attention to the battle.

"The residue from the explosion seems to be the same as the one from the Forest of Death." Ibiki said as he analyzed it.

"Are you sure?" Anko asked. She was one of that went to investigate the scene and she was utterly surprised by the big destruction it caused in the forest. All the trees in the are had fallen and burnt and the animals as well. No life was left in the area.

"Hokage-sama, after the preliminaries are over, I want to bring him for questioning. Can you please allow that?" Anko asked as she looked at Hiruzen.

"Huh? You can bring him only if he wants to follow you. Kakashi is already unhappy with you for what you made Hiroki go through. I don't want to have my shinobi fighting each other needlessly." Hiruzen said.

"Hai." Anko said as she remembered that she had her ears pulled by the old man for doing things on a whim.

"That's what my shurikens can do. Think they are still useless?" Hiroki said to Kiri.

"Shut up! I'm not done." Kiri said as he started weaving hand seals and the puddles of water started rising into the air and separate, becoming thousands of small droplets that looked the same as rain.

"Suiton: Amefuribari" (Water style: Needles of Falling Rain.) Kiri yelled as the rain droplets began falling towards Hiroki as they were being guided by Kiri's chakra as he maintained the last hand seal.

"Not bad. If you were pitched against others, you might have won, but too bad for you. I have a lot of resources to counter your techniques." Hiroki said as he raised his right hand and small lightning sparks were created. Hiroki then made a throwing motion and two small lightning senbons flew towards Kiri and hit both of his shoulders in the nerve, paralyzing him from the shoulder down, making his arms useless. The hand seal he was holding became undone and the needle rain became normal water. Hiroki then made fast hand seals and blew towards the falling water, making it spread out to the sides.

"I don't want to get wet. Haha. Anyways, I guess we can call this over, right?" Hiroki asked as he looked at Hayate. He then sheathed his tanto and waited for the Jounin to decide.

"Kiri, can you continue to fight?" Hayate asked. He knew that Kiri wasn't able to use his arms anymore and the fight was as good as done, but he couldn't call it Hiroki's win if the opponent didn't give up.

"Yes, I can continue the fi..."

*Bam* *crunch*

Before Kiri could finish, Hiroki moved from his spot and kneed Kiri on the chest, sending him towards the wall. Dust rose after the impact. It was so fast that it took sometime before everyone could notice what happened. After the dust cleared, everyone saw Hiroki in front of the unconscious Kiri and also the broken wall. They knew from the large cracks on the wall that the impact was not light.

"Lee, Hiroki is faster than you are. Learn from this match and strive to get faster and stronger with the power of youth." Gai said.

"Hai, Gai-sensei!" Lee said as he had fire in his eyes.

"He's strong. Very strong." Neji said as he grit his teeth.

"Hokage-sama, that boy, his level is higher than a normal chunin. He has good chakra control and he always seems to have something up on his sleeve to counter his enemies. And from what we saw in this match, he can use two different elements. Two elements that are complete opposite of each other."

"Yes. He's an excellent shinobi for the age he has. His parents must have taught him very well." Hiruzen said.

"I guess he has no choice now." Hiroki said as he looked towards Hayate. He then placed his hands in his pockets and walked leisurely back to the upper area.

Hayate looked at Kiri and checked his condition. He then called the medics and they took him out on a stretcher.

"Due to the opponents condition, he is not able to continue and so, Hiroki Uchiha wins the sixth battle of the preliminaries. Let's move to the next one."

The screen brightened again with random names and stopped on two names.

"The seventh battle is Shikamaru Nara versus Kin Tsuchi. Please come down and face one another." Hayate said.

"Ah, man. What a drag." Shikamaru said as he started going down.

"Good luck, Shikamaru." Naruto said with a smile.

"Yeah, yeah." Shikamaru said lazily.

"You're going to win. Don't be lazy like that." Hiroki said as he passed by Shikamaru on the stairs.

"Whatever. I can't disappoint my team and Sensei. Nice fight by the way." Shikamaru said.

"Thanks." Hiroki said as he continued walking back to his team.

"Hiroki-san, thank you for not harming Kiri at a greater extent. Zabuza-sama appreciates it, even if he doesn't say it himself." Haku said.

"No problem. He didn't come with any killing intent towards me and I saw that he has a lot of potential. Take good care of him, Zabuza." Hiroki said.

"Good battle, but it's not fun. I already knew you'd win." Naruto said as he fist bumped with Hiroki.

"Hehe. I can't lose to anyone right? You and Sasuke promised to be the ones to beat me." Hiroki said.

"Be sure about it. I'm going to beat you." Sasuke said as he smirked.

"The seventh battle of the preliminaries. Begin!" Hayate said as Shikamaru and Kin were facing one another.

"Don't lose, Shikamaru!" Ino cried out.

"Yeah, yeah. Man, what a drag. My opponent is a woman. It's hard to get to it." Shikamaru said.

"If that's what you're thinking, I'll end this quickly." Kin said as she smirked.

'You could say that these guys from Otogakure pack some power due to the small battle they had against team seven, but I don't know anything about the techniques this one used. The good thing is that they don't know about my shadow manipulation.' Shikamaru thought.

Shikamaru then half kneeled and did a hand seal as his shadow got darker and started moving towards Kin.

"Kagemane no jutsu." Shikamaru said.

Kim was startled seeing the shadow moving towards her and leapt away.

'I don't know what that shadow will do, but I'll just keep my distance.' She thought.

Kin then threw two senbons with bells tied to them. Shikamaru dodged them and the senbons got stuck on the wall.

"Bells?" He said as he looked back and heard the bells.

"Heh. That's a classic. Next, you'll throw senbons with bells and senbons without bells at the same time, right? I'll respond to the sound of the bells, intending to dodge them, but I won't notice the quiet senbons, and, ouch. Isn't that right?"

"You're quite chatty." Kin said as she threw two more senbons at Shikamaru.

"So in order to not get caught by the shadow senbons, I'm alerted by the trick and look closely." Shikamaru said as he dodged.

*cling cling*

The sound of bells came from behind Shikamaru and his reaction was to look.

"From behind?" He said as he turned. He then saw that the first two senbons with bells that Kin threw were moving.

"String? Shit! Too late!" He said as he turned back to Kin and was hit by two senbons.

"For the moment I dodged a fatal hit." Shikamaru said as he pulled out two senbons that hit his right arm. Now it's my turn." He said a bit angry.

"That's not going to happen." Kin said as she stroked the strings and the bells rang out again, louder this time.

"What is happening?" Shikamaru asked as he got groggy and started losing balance, kneeling on the ground.

"That happens to anyone that hears my bells. The sound vibration of this special bell reaches the brain directly from the ear drum. And then it will make you hallucinate." Kin explained.

Shikamaru listening to her, covered his ears with his hands.

"It's useless. You can't avoid the sound of my bell by doing... that...that...that..." Kin said as Shikamaru saw many Kins appearing out of nowhere in front of him.

"Shit! Which one? Which is the real one?" Shikamaru said as he tried figuring out the real one.

"You can't do anything, can you? Well, I'll cook you slowly." Kin said as she took out three senbons. Shikamaru was hallucinating and he saw the many Kins taking out the three senbons. He felt that it would be hard to dodge them since he didn't know where the real one was.

"Taking me lightly." Shikamaru said.

Kin threw the senbons and shikaru raised his arm to block them.

"This time was three, next time will be five and the next one will be seven. I'll continue until you become a hedgehog." Kin said.

"You're lying. You said you'd end it quickly in the beginning." Shikamaru said to Kin as if he was complaining.

"I see, you can't endure the pain an want to be eased. Then I'll finish it here. This is your death warrant." Kin said as she was about to throw the senbons at Shikamaru, but then she lost the control of her body.

"What is this?"

"Finally, Kagemane no jutsu is a success." Shikamaru said as he got up.

"No way! Your shadow isn't anywhere." Kin said as she looked all over her surroundings.

"You don't realize it yet?" Shikamaru asked.

"No way!" Kin said as she looked that the shadow of the string was darker and thicker.

"It's just that, you fool. A thread at this height can't have a shadow. I can stretch and thicken my own shadow." Shikamaru explained.

'The shadow is getting thicker. This wasn't the shadow of the thread.' Kin thought as she felt dumb not to notice.

"That's right. I stretched my shadow and made it narrow, so it looked like the shadow of the thread and stuck it on you." Shikamaru said as he extended his right hand and Kin copied the movement.

"Even so, how do you win with that? From what I see, I'm just going to move the same way as you." She said.

"Annoying. Shut up and watch." Shikamaru said as he moved towards the pouch on his thigh and grabbed a shuriken. Kin did the same action.

"You stupid! If you continue this and attack, you will be wounded as well." Kin said.

"Hehe. I know that." Shikamaru said as he got ready to throw the shuriken.

"We're gonna throw shuriken at each other. Let's see how far we can go." Shikamaru said as he began his throwing motion.

"Fool! Stop!" Rin yelled.

Shikamaru threw the shuriken and Kin did as well. The shurikens were going straight to their faces. Shikamaru then started leaning back and Kin copied.

"You're only tal..."

As Shikamaru leaned backwards, Kin hit the back of her head at the wall and was knocked out.

"Hehe. And that ones a goner." Shikamaru said as he flipped back up.

"If you're a shinobi, you have to grasp the situation and the layout when you battle. Even though we made the same movements the distance of the walls behind us was different. I just used the shuriken and called away the attention from the wall behind us." Shikamaru said as he pulled out the senbons out of his arm.

"Winner, Shikamaru Nara." Hayate said as he gestured to the lazy shinobi.

"Good fight Shikamaru." Ino said happily.

"That guy is dull and plain, but that was cool." Naruto said.

"He is the smartest one out of everyone here. The members of the Nara clan are very smart shinobi with high I.Q." Hiroki said.

"I.Q.?" Naruto asked puzzled.

"It stands for Intelligence Quotient. It is a way to measure how intelligent a person is. Shikamaru has the highest score out of everyone here. Even higher than the Hokage. Just from that, we can see how smart he is." Hiroki said.

The screen brightened and the names flashed randomly.

"Me next. Me next." Lee said as he hoped to be the next one to fight.

"Only one guy from Otogakure now. Of the ones still left to battle is me, Hinata, Naruto, Choji, Neji, Lee, the two others from Kirigakure and that sand guy." Kiba said.

'Just spare me from that guy.' Kiba thought to himself. He didn't say it out loud because it would be embarrassing.

"This years rookies look quite challenging." Neji said as he looked at Hinata, who was far from him. Hinata looked at Neji and noticed he was looking at her. She instantly averted her gaze.

Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka were the two names to show on the screen once it stopped.

"Yes. Finally. It's my turn. Hehe." Naruto said excitedly as he smiled.

"Yes. Lucky me. If it's that guy we'll absolutely win, Akamaru." Kiba said.

"Do your best, Naruto." Sakura said.

"Hey, teme. Don't lose." Sasuke said.

"Hehe. Leave it to me, datebayo!" Naruto said.

"Naruto, you've seen the past battles. Use what anything you learned if you can. Good luck." Hiroki said as the two bumped fists.

'Naruto, show us how much you've grown.' Kakashi thought to himself as he looked at his student.