Chapter 57 Finals

The day had finally come to Naruto and everyone else in the village. The final part of the chunin exams started today, from all over the ninja nations important people came to see the genins. Many would be clients one day as they looked to see which village had the most promising genins for the next six months. For the past few days inns were crowed as more and more people came into the village. For Naruto, he had barely slept that last night, he was too excited. His month of training with the old pervert had done him some good. The boy was itching for his fight, the only downside was that he wasn't first up.

He made sure to eat a healthy breakfast, no matter how much he wanted ramen, his dad always made sure he ate well. Plus this was important he would need all the energy he could take. Plus he thought he could always send a shadow clone to the ramen stand for a quick snack between matches. That is if the clone didn't eat it first. He scowled at that memory the problem with shadow clones was that they thought too much like the person at times. At any rate he spent the morning preparing, going over his weapons, making sure he stretched out for a hard day. Plus anything else he could think of to pass the time and to make it go by faster. When the time finally came, he was out the door and ran straight to the stadium. Any concern for saving his energy didn't even enter his mind, he just wanted to get in there as fast as possible.

He made it there with plenty of time, already the place was packed with people as Naruto looked around for his friends. He saw Team 10 with Asuma by the rail and went over to them waving and calling out to them. Shikamaru raised his head with a lazy wave, Choji was happy to see Naruto and Naruto saw that Ino was looking a lot better. He couldn't see any scarring but then again, Konoha medics were some of the best.

Ino had improved and she didn't have any scarring thankfully, she had been afraid her 'perfect body' as she said, would be ruined with scars. Although it had taken some time for her to heal, it took a few days for her to wake up and then there was the physical therapy. A few of her tendons had been cut, but medical jutsu could repair those types of injuries if treated before they atrophied or if they weren't damaged beyond repair. Hers, had been clean cut through, the best type for medics to heal. But it took her two weeks to gain full functionality again as her body had to relearn how to use them.

It had been the scariest thing in Ino's life, she had never been injured that much before in her life and there had been times she thought her career as a ninja might have been over with. It had been a terrifying experience for her and a bit of a wake up call. Now she knew personally just how dangerous her life had become, it was the point that her father said many would either go on or it would break them. Well she wasn't going to let this stop her, she planned on learning from this and getting stronger from it.

"Hey Naruto," Ino waved to him as she saw the masked genin walk up to them. "So I hope you actually did some training unlike someone I bet I could name." She cast Shikamaru a glance.

He only sighed, truth was that he had trained with his dad, mainly due to his mother didn't want her son to do horrible in the exam and bring shame to their house. Plus he knew that she was actually worried, she only complained and yelled like she had when she was really worried about something.

"Oh yeah I trained a lot and got a few new surprises," Naruto grinned at the prospect of showing off his new skills.

"Great," Shikamaru sighed, "as if exploding clones wasn't enough for you, now what? Knowing you this place might not survive the experience."

"Hey I'm not that bad," Naruto glared at him. He noticed the looks all three were giving him as he slumped his shoulders. "Some friends you all are."

"Hey it's the truth," Kiba's voice came behind him as he noticed Team 8 with their sensei walking towards them.

"Hey guys," Naruto said as he smiled to Hinata, then he noticed something as the girl came up to him. "Hey Hinata-chan are you wearing a new coat?"

Hinata was wearing a less baggy coat, this one was a bit more slim at the waist as well. It was also unzipped from the top a bit showing a new mesh top just peeking out from it. She hadn't been sure of what to get when Anko took her and Sakura to get new clothing. She never was comfortable with showing off her figure so this was the best she could do.

"Oh that looks nice," Ino jumped in as she took in the new coat. "That looks really cute on you."

"Yeah it does," Naruto ginned at her. Hinata blushed a bit but was happy someone thought so as she wasn't certain about the new jacket. Plus the fact that Naruto himself thought so only meant more so to her. Plus it was really great to see him again, she had missed him the entire time they had been training separately. She was surprised when he gave her a hug, she felt all warm inside as he did so.

"Missed you Hime," he whispered into her ear at the nickname he gave her.

She relaxed into the hug as she felt herself nuzzle into him, smelling his scene and the feel of him against her. She forgot that they were in public she just wanted to enjoy the feel of her boyfriend against her. After nearly a full month she could just stay like they were for the rest of the day.

"Awww, that's so cute," Ino said nearly gushing at the sight. "I wish I could get a boyfriend to do that with."

"Like Sasuke would ever let you anywhere near him for things like that," Shikamaru sighed.

"What was that?" Ino snarled at him as the boy flinched. He really needed to remember when not to make certain comments around the blonde girl. She could be fearsome when she wanted to be and Shikamaru already had one girl he had to fight today, he didn't need another on top of that.

Although Ino's comment did snap Hinata out of her enjoyment, she noticed everyone looking as she quickly stepped out of the hug all red in the face. Public displays of affection were something a Hyuga was not supposed to do, plus it was embarrassing for her. Naruto only chuckled at the sight of her, she looked so cute like that.

"Oh by the way Naruto, you got that thing you owe me for losing the bet?" Kiba asked Naruto. After all Team 7 had arrived late and his team had beaten Naruto's. He knew that Naruto wouldn't run out on a bet and he was kind of looking forward to it. Plus Kurenai was talking with Asuma so now was the best time to get it out of the way while she wasn't looking.

Naruto sighed as he rolled his eyes, he pulled open his black vest and reached inside and tossed a familiar orange book to Kiba. "There, an Icha Icha novel."

Kiba grinned as he put it in his own coat, ever since Naruto first read it out loud to Sasuke he wanted his own copy. "What did you do, swipe this from your dad's collection?"

"Are you crazy?" Naruto said shocked. "If my dad knew I did that he'd skin me alive, son or not. I just pulled a henge of my dad when I went into the book store. They didn't even blink when I bought the book." If he had known this earlier he might have tried to get his own copies but that was a thought for another day. "Speaking of, I don't see him or Sasuke anywhere, not that I'm surprised."

"Y-you're father wouldn't be late for this would he?" Hinata asked hopefully.

"Well..." Naruto scratched the back of his head, he had been worried about all of this. In fact he had hoped that his dad wouldn't be late for once. This was a major day for him, if he made chunin today than it would be great and all, but he wanted his dad here to see him win.

"Man you'd think my own son would have more faith in me," Kakashi's voice was heard behind them. They quickly turned to see Kakashi walking towards them with his hands in his pockets. Sasuke was next to him wearing a new all black outfit and the sword strapped behind his back instead of the waist. "To think I raised such a son who has no faith in his own father."

"Well maybe if you weren't late all the time," Naruto grumbled but he was delighted to see his dad and Sasuke here. "So Sasuke, I hope my dad didn't work you too hard I know what he can be like when he actually puts effort into the training."

"Hn, we'll just see when the matches start and you better make it to the final round," Sasuke grinned at the masked boy.

"Only if you do the same," Naruto said back to him.

"Ah rivals in actions," Kakashi sighed and then looked around. "Hey I'm missing one of mine, anyone seen Sakura?"

"S-She said she would be arriving about now," Hinata told them. She guessed that Sakura would be here pretty soon although she hadn't seen the girl since their last training day yesterday. Given all the training both girls had went through, Hinata hoped that Sakura did well. Over the past month she had gotten a bit closer to the pink haired girl, here was a girl that tried her hardest to become strong only pushed Hinata even harder herself. She watched the Hatakes joking around as father and son, and for a moment she kind of wished she had that kind of closeness with her own father. But she knew because of their station in life they had to act a certain way.

It was then that she noticed a certain pink haired girl walking up to them. "Oh, Sakura just arrived," Hinata said.

"Oh really?" Naruto said turning to his friend, "Hey there S-S-Sakura-chan?!"

Everyone turned to face Sakura as she walked towards them, gone was the familiar red dress she usually wore. Now she wore a red vest that still held the white circle on the back, a matching low cut skirt also was on her with black shorts under it. The rest of her body was covered in a ninja mesh that looked exactly like the kind Anko wore. Even Sakura's foot wear looked a bit more like Anko's with light amored shin protection. Sakura also wore gloves with metal on the back of the hands just like Kakashi's gloves only these weren't cut off at the fingers like his. She definitely had a different look to her as her forehead protector was pulled down to actually cover her forehead.

She looked a lot more ninja-like now than he had and it was a just a shock to see her like this. Sakura knew people would stare but Anko had given her some coaching on how to deal with it. Sakura looked impassively at everyone. "What? Do I have something on my face?"

"When the hell did you get new clothing and why wasn't I invited?" Was the first words spoken, by Ino no less. Although she was happy to see her best friend she couldn't help but look at Sakura's new impressive look. In comparison to Sakura's older outfit, this looked a lot more functional ninja wear.

Sakura just shrugged it off, "Anko-sensei said I needed a new wardrobe if I wanted to be taken seriously as a ninja. Plus I have to admit, after getting used to it, it's easier for me to move around in without that long dress tripping up my legs."

She was honest about that, she used to have to be careful how she moved because the long front and back could easily catch in her legs. Although she wasn't too comfortable at first showing off so much (her parents had been shocked as well first time they saw her new look), she felt she could move a lot easier now. She looked up at her two teammates, "So what do you guys think?"

"It looks great Sakura-chan," Naruto said giving her a thumbs up after getting over his shock.

Sasuke only nodded, although he had to admit it was a vast improvement. He also wondered how much stronger she and Naruto had gotten. Although he knew that Sakura was technically the weakest member he had seen her grow over time when they were put into this team. Looking at her now, and the look of fire in the other girl's eyes was something new as well. He watched as the pink haired girl went over talking to Ino as the girls caught up. It also came to him that she once didn't call him Sasuke-kun or even cast a glance at him. That was odd as the girl always tried to catch his eye, even after their deal. Was it possible that the girl was finally becoming more mature? He hadn't even realized that he had been noticed by Naruto staring at Sakura. The blonde was grinning under his mask as he thought he saw that same look on Neji's face when he looked at Tenten.

'So is the cold bastard finally warming up?' Naruto thought to himself and to all the fun he could have with this later on. His thoughts were broken off as another adult joined the group, this one by basically jumping onto the back of his father.

"Hey there, miss me?" Anko said as she latched onto her man. It had been a very long month, there had been times she had been tempted to sneak off and see what Kakashi was doing, plus finding a little alone time together. But she was business first type of person, but now she could finally have her fun.

Kakashi chuckled as he felt her against him, wishing he didn't have his thick combat vest on as he was missing feeling her press against his back, as he did his best to look at her. "First off yes, and second, I see you couldn't resist to shape a mini-you out of one of my genins."

"Oh please I didn't go that far," Anko waved it off, "Besides she doesn't like snakes or bleeding people so it's not like I could make her totally into a short version of me."

Kakashi sweat dropped at that, "Uh good then…so are you planning on getting off my back anytime soon?"

"Nope, I feel comfy here," She grinned at him. "Besides I'm not that heavy."

"So you say," Kakashi meant to say it under his breath. Yeah he loved the woman, but having a person on your back too its toll on you after some time. Unfortunately she had heard him and that did make her jump off his back, spun him around to face her.

"What did you say?" Anko demanded, "Are you saying I'm heavy or something?"

Now Kakashi knew he was getting into dangerous territory, weight issues with a woman all men knew to avoid. Sure she had said 'heavy' and not that great taboo word of 'fat', but it was implied. So he did what any male would do, he would lie through his teeth. "Of course not but I nearly pulled my back climbing up a cliff one handed with Sasuke during training. Still a little sore back there."

Anko looked at him for a moment but the damn thing was, it was hard to tell when he was lying or telling the truth, with the exceptions for his excuses for being late. That damn relaxed voice and body expression coupled with so little of his face showing helped with that. But at any rate she had missed seeing him too much to really care and decided to let it slid. "Well at any rate I think you'll be surprised with the girl, I think I did some of my best work there."

Kakashi smiled at her, "I'll be looking forward to it."

"Ah Kakashi my eternal rival!" Gai's booming voice was heard.

Kakashi sighed, "Of course now he shows up." He turned to face Gai and his three students as they walked to the large group of genins and Jonins. Gai and Lee looked as fired up as usual, Neji looked the same as ever although Tenten was wearing her usual ninja clothing with full gear. Tenten originally wanted to put on this nice dress she had for today but Gai said that a true ninja should be ready for action at all time, and she should looked professional for the entire village with so many visitors around. Tenten didn't really get it but Gai had been unusually insistent for some reason. Looking around Tenten found it odd that Ino, Choji and Kiba as well as Hinata also seemed to be fully geared up. It was a bit odd but she just shrugged it off, maybe it was something that had been passed on to the Jonins.

Little did she know that on the request of their senseis that the others were wearing their normal ninja gear instead of civilian clothing. It wasn't too odd a request but it had come out of the blue which was a bit odd for them.

"So Kakashi, even though three of your students have made it this far in comparison to my two," Gai said not noticing the slight wince from Tenten. "My students will still out perform to make up for it, and show them which team has the most flames of youth."

"Uh-huh, sure, whatever you say," Kakashi sighed.

Gai pointed his finger at the masked man, "There you go with that too cool and hip attitude!"

Naruto of course just had to mess with his 'Uncle' when the man came onto the scene. This was a first that had happened and he just had to comment on it, knowing Gai's reaction this was just too good an opportunity to pass up. "Hey I just realized, my dad actually beat you to a place on time and you're the one running late, Uncle Gai."

At that all conversations going on stopped dead as everyone suddenly came into the same realization. Kakashi hadn't even realized it as he had gotten here on time for his son so he hadn't thought about it. Kakashi looked around to see the shocked expressions on everyone's faces. He wasn't always that late was he? He could arrive on time, well sometimes, occasionally, well when it was really important and couldn't be put off he could get there on time. He just didn't see the point most of the other time. Although he did admit, the look of sheer horror on Gai's face that he had 'lost' again to him was amusing.

Gai actually fell to his hands and knees as a wave of despair could almost be seen about his person.

"Gai-sensei, are you alright?" Lee shouted at his fallen hero.

"Oh what cruel day it is when I can not even beat my eternal rival to a meeting point," Gai said in a depressed tone. It didn't last long as he jumped up and pointed to the heavens. "Then I shall always arrive a full hour earlier from now on!"

"Yes so will I Gai-sensei!" Lee shouted out to him.

"Yes, and this will give us more time to train as well," Gai proclaimed as both Tenten and Neji gave matching dark looks to Naruto. The fact that sometimes Gai called for training in the early hours of the morning and might now be even an hour earlier was not pleasant for two of his genins.

"Remind me to thank you for this later, Hatake," Neji said to Naruto with narrowed eyes.

"Yes I think I would like that as well," Tenten said with a glint in her eye that Naruto had seen before. Usually right before she unleashed some unholy number of very sharp and deadly weapons at a target. Naruto gulped, sometimes he wished having his fun didn't blow up in his face like this at times.

Anko chuckled at the sight and noticed how Hinata and Naruto hadn't been more then a foot apart the entire time she had seen them. It was kind of cute in a way, she bet the young girl had been missing Naruto almost as much as Anko had missed seeing Kakashi. Almost, meaning that there were a few things an adult missed that a girl her age shouldn't know what she was missing. Maybe in a few years things would change. Although she had hoped that Hinata would be a bit more open, at least Sakura was willing to be less uptight.

She walked over to the short haired Hyuga girl and placed a hand on her shoulder and leaned down a bit. "You know, you could pull the zipper down some more on that jacket if you ever wanted to get more of Naruto's attention."

Hinata blushed at what Anko suggesting, she couldn't allow herself to do something so brazen in public, let alone with Naruto right next to her. Sure she was wearing a shirt under her jacket but it just showed too much for her. She just wasn't comfortable with her body, hence the jackets she wore.

Anko got a glint in her eye, teasing the girl was always so much fun. She suddenly reached to the zipper, "Here maybe just a few more centimetres."

"A-Anko-sensei!" Hinata panicked not sure what to do.

"Hey don't touch Hinata-chan like that," Naruto said to Anko although a part of him was interesting in seeing a bit more.

"Oh relax, I'm just making her more-Ow! Ow-ow-ow-ow-ow-ow!" Anko wailed as Kurenai grabbed one of her ears and pulling her away from her student.

"What have I told you about teasing Hinata?" Kurenai said in an even tone. She had moved over to intervene when she saw what was going on. Throughout the joint training, Anko had seen how easy it was to have what Anko thought of was 'fun' with Hinata. So Kurenai had to jump into the middle of things and settle Anko down. This was one of the few ways she could get the slightly younger woman to stop.

"Okay, okay I'll stop, now let go before you pull my ear off!" Anko yelled as Kurenai let go. Anko pouted as she rubbed her ear. She glared at Kurenai for spoiling her fun and then at Kakashi. "Hey I thought as the boyfriend it was your duty to prevent things like this?"

"Sorry, caught me by surprise and Asuma was ready to jump in if I did and I didn't want to start a brawl." Kakashi said with a shrug as he wrapped her up in his arms. He had to admit she kind of looked cute when she acted all childish and pouted like that. "Want me to kiss it and make it better?" He whispered into her ear.

She had a small grin on her face, "Maybe later."

"Yeah like I need to see this," Naruto muttered to himself, sure he liked the fact his dad and his 'aunt' were happier these days. Didn't mean he liked to see it when they got like this.

"Well looks like they're starting," Ino said seeing a different chunin walk into the arena.

Genma Shiranui walked out onto the field, he was a special jonin that always wore this bandana and had a senbon needle between this teeth. Many make jokes that one day he would stab his tongue or something. He was now the replacement Proctor for the final rounds of the chunin exam. As he took walked to the center of the stadium a hush fell over the crowd.

"Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the final rounds of the chunin exams." He said in a loud voice that carried over to the crowd above him. "This is the final round will be a tournament elimination round. The fights will end with either one or both withdrawing, signalling that they give up. If I feel the opponent can't continue to fight I can stop the fight and if the fight continues after I declare a winner, I can and will disqualify someone. In the case someone dies, well it's obvious the winner will be the person that's still alive."

"In this anything goes as long as you don't attack the stands, if anyone is found too reckless and are endangering the crowd I will kick you out of this exam." He looked around to the genins in the stands and nodded. "Alright now that you know the rules everyone get to the waiting positions. The rounds will go as they are shown on the board up there."

There was a large board above the stands that had many names on them. The fights in order it would seem would be Sakura vs Ami for round one, Naruto vs Gendo next, Temari vs Shikamaru, Neji vs Shino, Lee vs Dosu and finally Sasuke vs Gaara.

"Hey was that the same order as when we were told?" Sakura asked looking at the board, she was sure that the order had been changed slightly. They were fighting all the same people but the matches looked to have been switched.

"She's right," Shino said looking at the names.

"I guess they wanted to change things up a little," Kakashi shrugged his shoulders. "Now you all better get to your places and Sakura since you're up first get ready."

Sakura nodded her head as everyone walked to the place where only the genins would be. It was a special section on the lowest level of the stadium stands that was reserved only for those waiting for their fight. Along the way Sakura was mentally preparing herself, she had spent all month waiting for this and she wouldn't lose. Although it also meant that when she won she would most likely be facing Naruto next. She wasn't sure how she felt about facing her friend, but Anko had prepared her for this, that she might have to fight her friends.

At any rate she was pretty sure she wouldn't make it all the way to the end, but you didn't need to in order to make chunin. Besides, her real goal was just to beat that Mist girl that had hurt Ino. That was her primary goal, anything after that, well she would deal as it came to her.

Naruto watched Sakura and she was really focused, he walked next to Sasuke. "Man she's really serious."

Sasuke nodded but didn't comment, he knew this was personal for the girl. Her friend had been hurt by her opponent and it was payback for that. That was something that he could relate to, although his was on a whole other level, but still he knew what she was feeling. The fact she had so much focus, it got him interested in seeing just how much stronger she had become.

Up in a special section of the stands two of the world's mightiest leaders in the ninja world sat in their formal white robes. The first was the older Third Hokage sitting on a white chair as he watched on. Sitting next to him was the Kazekage of Suna, someone the Third had many dealings with over the years. Although he didn't know the younger man personally, they had spoken together many times since their villages held a formal alliance since the last Great Ninja War. The Kazekage had taken to wearing a mask at times so you could only see the eyes and part of the face. It wasn't uncommon as the Third could name a few of his own ninja that wore masks, two of those having the name of Hatake.

The Kazekage looked at the names being put up on the board, "I was told that my son Gaara would be fighting sooner than this."

"Oh yes sorry about that old friend," The Hokage said to him. "But the new chunin in charge wanted to mix up the fights, plus given that Kakashi Hatake was training Sasuke Uchiha, well we were all a little worried the man might be running late. So it was moved to the end, I hope that doesn't bother you."

"No it's just a surprise from what my children told me. At any rate it only enhances the climate of the first round eliminations. I'm eager like many to see how the last of your Uchiha clan stands up against my son." The Kazekage told the Hokage.

Although under the skin there was a more sinister face, that of Orochimaru as he watched on. For months he had been posing at the Kazekage for Suna. When he had came to the Fourth Kazekage for this little plan the man had been for it. After all the daimyo had been slowly cutting funding to Suna for years after the last war, plus the fact that Konoha was taking over ninja missions that they should have had originally stung their pride. It had been easy to convince him of a joint mission to at first weaken the village. But when the Kazekage had learned that Orochimaru planned to utterly destroy the village and during the chunin exams the man's convictions had waivered slightly. Mainly due to how many might see a village that broke not only a truce, but used the chunin exams for this plot.

Killing all the civilians also was frowned upon, but Orochimaru wanted to ensure the village would never recover and without the civilian population for infrastructure it would never recover. So when Orochimaru felt that his 'partner' might be a problem the solution was easy enough. Kill the man, take his face and dump the body in the dessert. It had been all too easy, the man had let his guard down and Orochimaru struck him dead before he knew what had happened. So for months he had been setting this up.

He had noticed the slight build up of military force but nothing in the areas where the combined forces were stationed. Obviously when that one man had been killed trying to deliver what he knew, the old man had known something was wrong. Orochimaru grinned under the mask, his old teacher was such a fool. He had no way of knowing that his own apprentice was here next to him or that the village had been infiltrated by two ninja forces.

Then there were his own people waiting in the forest, the summoning scrolls he gave them would allow them to summon some of the larger and more dangerous snakes. So while the great walls of this village fall on the outside, the village will burn on the inside and he would finally finish off his old teacher. There was a bit of symmetry to it all, he who was once up for Hokage, the one that would lead and if necessary sacrifice themselves for the village. Of course since he had been passed over it had been an eye opening experience for him.

So the man that could have been the one to protect this village, now was the instrument of its destruction.

And to make matters even better was that he could also put a large wrench into the plans of his other enemies. Mainly the Akatsuki, they wanted the Tailed-Beasts, for what even Orochimaru didn't know. But now that two of the human hosts were in this village it would mean that he could get rid of both of them. With luck the Kyuubi boy might even get killed in his match, the Mist boy was obviously trained in the old school way of thinking for that village. But at any rate the boy would die here and when he was done with the Suna he would ensure that the One-Tail was taken care off too when the boy's usefulness was over with.

Not too far away from the arena, the form of Jiraiya was standing on a one of the taller buildings in the village as he looked out over the forests before him, with his trusted telescope. It had more uses then just spying on the pretty women in the open air baths after all. Currently he was looking at the targets he was assigned to, after all the plan seemed to be going well so far. He looked over his shoulder at the stadium and a part of him wished he was there. After all he really wanted to se how well the kid did in the fights, the boy had some hidden talents. Oh well, things were about to get very interesting today anyway he mused.

Next up chapter 58: The Battle of Leaf and Mist