Chapter 58 The battle of leaf and mist

Sakura felt a wide range of emotions as she walked into the small artificial field where the battles would take place. She could hear the crowd cheer as the first fight would start and already she was feeling her stomach tie into knots. She had never had so many people looking on her at this moment, and she was thankful her parents wouldn't be here. She didn't want them here just in case something happened to her and they were fine with it. Sakura knew her parents didn't want to see her fight because they didn't want to see her hurt. It was hard enough on them to have their only child as a ninja. But still, even with that with all the people here it was kind of imposing.

She walked onto the field and towards the center as she spotted the Mist girl, Ami. The other girl was still covered in those bandages that Sakura knew were razor shard with metal lining. She bet that those bandages could also act as armour if needed. She had spent the month thinking up all kinds of strategies with this opponent. Looking at the smug look on the other girl's face turned the knot in Sakura's stomach into a fire. This was the girl that had nearly killed or ended the ninja career of her best friend. Ino was the closest thing to a sister she had in this life, she could still see Ino's pale face as she slept in that bed after the match. Sakura felt her fists clench and had to force herself to relax a bit, Anko kept telling her during the training that emotions could be a fuel for a fighter's resolve, but too much emotion driving your actions would lead to your downfall.

Sakura needed to keep her mind sharp and pushed down the fire a bit, it was still there but she was going to use her emotions, not let them use her. This girl was dangerous and Sakura would take no chances.

The Proctor went over the rules, they were the same as before and when he asked if they understood they both nodded. He moved back and he began the match, Sakura wasn't surprised when the other girl launched an attack right off the bat. Throwing several shurikens as Sakura, it was a standard type of opening move also with the insane training that Anko but her through it was easy to deflect them all with her metal tonfas. She stood her ground defiantly at the other girl.

"What are you still using basics, I thought Mist ninja were supposed to be bad asses, or is that only the boys?" Sakura was also taught to never underestimate attacking a ninja's pride by Anko.

Ami's eye got a small tick at that. "Fine, I was planning on playing with you like the other weak Konoha girl but if you want me too I'll be all too happy to cut up that face of yours."

Quickly the girl's hands went into several seals, "Water Style: Water Bullets."

Ami opened her mouth as small bullet like objects of water flew out at amazing speeds. Sakura tried to use her tonfas to deflect them like last time but the force of them was much greater. It was like feeling softballs hitting her weapons, that made her slow down as her weapons were knocked off course from the impact. Gaps opened up in her defence as she felt the bullets starting to hit her body. She was thankful for the new armour mesh she was wearing. If she had been wearing her older clothes she would really had been hurt but she knew there would be some nasty bruises from where she was hit. One hit her in the face she, the blow made her stagger back as she tried clear her head.

She saw the other girl raise her arms and the bandages coming at her, Sakura knew that there was no defence she had for that, so like Anko said to her, when you can't defend go on the offensive they usually don't plan on it. Sakura ran forward trying to avoid the bandages and it was working, Ami hadn't expected someone to run straight at her knowing that her bandages were razor sharp. A few of the bandages got close enough to cut her, but instead of cutting into flesh, sparks flew off Sakura's body.

The ninja mesh was a very sturdy kind that Konoha made for their ninja, it couldn't stop stabbings and blunt force would still be felt and could still injure, but against slashing it held up pretty good. That was the reason Anko had changed her look for the mesh, this would help Sakura get around the slashing effect of the bandages. Ami realized this too late as Sakura got in close and started to throw blow after blow with the tonfas. Ami's bandages did absorb some of the damage but blunt force was still something you felt. Eventually the Mist girl managed to get some distance between her and Sakura as she tried to plan her next move.

Sakura however could see she had hurt her opponent but she was feeling it too, the blows from before were starting to be felt so they were even at the moment. But Sakura wasn't going to let the other girl have the offensive, she had a battle plan and it was now time to use it. She placed her tonfa behind her lower back where the holders were located and went to start her own hand seals.

"Water style: Aqua Tower," Sakura called out as she slammed her hand into the ground. The great thing with this stadium was that you could use the natural elements to your advantage. It wasn't advertised but Anko had given her a hint the other day. The hint was that there was water running under the stadium and not just in the pipes for plumbing, but small hidden pockets of water under the ground. This was to test a genin's ability to sense the elements around them. Well since she knew there was water she had been trying to find it since the fight started, it took time as she was still getting used to using her water element but now she knew where it was.

She wasn't strong enough yet to make enough water out of the moisture in the air like the Mist ninja seemed to be but this was enough to get her started. The tower of water rushed towards the surprised girl as the Mist ninja jumped to the side to avoid the crushing water.

Ami looked around the area, now very wet from all the water the pink haired girl was nowhere in sight. "You know I was thinking this wasn't going to be a challenge but I guess I was wrong. But if you think that using water against me is going to work, then you're wrong."

"Well if you fight fire with fire," Sakura's voice was heard behind the girl as Ami threw up her arm to block a kunai with the amour of her bandages. "Then you should fight water with water I figure."

Ami grunted as the bandages barely held, they were more for attack then protection. And the kunai was already cutting through the material that the thin metal was woven into. So Ami kicked out, her leg swinging outward and hit Sakura in the ribs. But instead of a solid hit, Sakura turned into a pile of water.

"A water clone!?" Ami yelled out as she looked around to see puddles of water slowly rising up and forming more Sakuras.

Up in the stands everyone was watching Sakura's fight with interest. Especially Sakura's team and friends.

"When did she learn to do that?" Ino yelled out feeling a little jealous, it seemed that Sakura had grown a lot in the past month, she was kind of jealous of that.

Anko smirked, "Why my training of course."

"And who gave you the scrolls to teach her those moves?" Kakashi asked his girlfriend who at least had the common sense to look a little sheepish at taking all the credit.

"Okay you got me there, but I did all the grunt work," Anko told him and then back to the match. "Well most of it, Kurenai gave her a few tips as well given that Sakura is a natural with chakra control. She's got a few new genjutsus in her deck now."

"Wow really?" Naruto said excited as she looked at the fight, "When is she going to do that?"

"She already has," Sasuke said with a smirk. Naruto looked over to see his eyes had turned into a sharingan but now they turned back to normal. If Naruto didn't know any better he swore that Sasuke almost looked…proud of Sakura.

And he was, Sasuke had missed when it had happened but when Sakura had disappeared he had an idea. So he activated his eyes and looked through the genjutsu that Sakura had cast. He had to admit that it was a very good one. But Sakura was running low on chakra, she was pulling everything out to crush this Mist girl. If she didn't end this soon, she was going to run out of chakra and then Ami would take full advantage of that. He had to admit that Sakura had changed a lot since the academy days, especially when he saw her today. She looked more mature and her fighting skills were impressive for a genin. She wasn't on his or Naruto's level still but this battle was showing that she had talent.

Who knew what kind of ninja she would be in the future, but looking at her know he got the feeling she could be a very powerful one if she kept this kind of training up. Sasuke was surprised by his line of thinking, this was the girl that usually had been mostly brains in the academy and who used to bother him all the time for dates. But now, she was had not only kept her word to his request but she was surprising him. Sakura had trained and was fighting to the honour of her friend, a motivation that he could get behind. He saw a fire in the girl that he hadn't seen before and that sheer determination reminded him a bit of himself. How he trained all those years at first to be noticed by his father, to catch up to his old rival and hero, his brother. Then it was to catch up to Itachi to make him pay for what he had done.

Sasuke knew that determination to become stronger, he had seen it in Naruto and now in Sakura. At the moment he wasn't sure what he was feeling towards his female team mate but this day, Sakura Haruno had gotten the attention of Sasuke Uchiha.

Back in the fight Ami was getting frustrated with the water clones, she didn't know this skill herself unfortunately. Sure the water clones were solid and used a lot less chakra then say a shadow clone, but these clones were pissing her off. Where was the original, that was what she wanted to know as she used the bandages to cut down all the water clones as they came.

What she didn't know was that Sakura was making the other girl used up as much chakra and physical strength as possible wearing the other girl down. Using chakra for the bandages and fighting the water clones was the perfect way to help with that but she was running out of time. The illusion she had cast wouldn't last forever. When the pillar of water had hid her from view she cast an illusion that Kurenai had taught her. It was mainly a veil type illusion, as long as the person stood still they could remain basically invisible. It was a genjutsu used for scouting when you had to hid for long periods of time watching over an area.

But maintaining it was slowly draining her chakra, it wasn't much as it was simple and her chakra control meant that she put in the perfect amount into it, so no wasted charka but it was still draining her and the water clones weren't helping. She was trying to get her clones to manoeuvre the other girl closer. So far it had been working.

"Where the hell are you!?" Ami thrashed around wildly trying to get the real girl, wherever she was.

"Here!" Sakura yelled out from behind as Ami felt an explosion of pain. Sakura moved and used her weapons but this time it wasn't in a swinging arc. This time she held the weapons straight with the smaller end extended just beyond her fists with the long ends resting against her arms. She punched out with straight jabs to Ami's back. She hit the spin, the kidneys, shoulder blades, nerve clusters that Anko showed her. The bandages might have acted like a light armour but against blunt blows, but theses blows were smaller and more focused. Plus Sakura could hit really hard even without the training.

Ami cried out from the pain and tried to fight back but Sakura kept herself behind the girl. The Mist girl stumbled around as Sakura started to take the girl down piece by piece until finally one final blow to the back of Ami's skull was the final moment. The girl crumpled to the ground like a rag doll, Sakura panting over her as she was declared the winner. Sakura smiled a bit before her legs gave out and she fell to her knees. She felt completely wiped at the moment, she wasn't sure how much more of this she could take but this was as far as she wanted to go. She completed her goal.

Up in the stands her friends were cheering for her.

-Naruto vs Gendo-

Naruto couldn't wait for his chance when his time came. He gave Sakura a quick congratulations before he left for his own battle. He was the first to arrive at the field and ready to kick ass. He was so full of energy that he near nearly bouncing with the effort. Gendo looked slightly pissed and he looked like he wanted to take the defeat of his teammate against Naruto.

"Once I'm done with you, if I meet that pink haired girl I'm going to crush her. Ami got over confident and lost because of it but I won't make that mistake." Gendo said to him.

Naruto only grinned under his mask at the other boy, "Good, I don't want to have to finish this too quickly anyway."

"Alright you two know the rules," the Proctor said to them. "Begin!"

Gendo didn't waste any time as he came at Naruto, he pulled the thick sword from the holder on his back freeing the weapon. Naruto did the same as his smaller blade took on a white glow as he blocked the attack. Naruto grinned under his mask, it took time but he felt that he finally managed to get the sword to glow when he wanted it to for once. Up in the stands Kakashi grinned as he saw it as well, he was glad that he had the blade reforged. It felt right for Naruto to use the White Fang's chakra blade in this battle and the fact that Naruto seemed to have gotten the hang of putting his chakra into it was a bonus.

"An interesting blade but something that small will shatter," Gendo said looking coldly at Naruto as their swords were locked against each other.

"This blade has been through war and carried by legends, it will never break to someone like you," Naruto told him confidently. Although on the inside he was thinking that the other guy was right, the sword had been broken once and he feel the blade starting to give. It was a great sword but it wasn't meant to take this kind of force. Unlike the other guy's sword, it was larger and although a slower weapon could taken and deal out a lot more punishment.

Naruto pushed off as he took a few steps back but was surprised the other genin didn't slow down. Apparently the other boy trained himself to move fast even with the large weapon. Naruto went on the defensive as he parried the blows instead of stopping them, it would save the damage to his own blade. The sword fight was a fast and furious thing, Naruto with speed and agility on his side and the other genin with a powerful defensive that Naruto couldn't get past. It was an impressive skills to see for those that young.

In one moment Naruto ducked under the large blade as Naruto's white blade tried to go up in a vertical cut, the other boy dodged this by leaning back. Naruto didn't stop though, he used his momentum to spin him himself around and try for a low horizontal cut to the legs. But the spin took too much time and Gendo was able to see what was going to happen, so the boy jumped over the blade as both boys went into a guard position.

Naruto had hoped for a win that time if only he had been just a little faster than the boy's legs might have been taken out.

Gendo had spared with many that used swords in his training but this style was totally unique. It was wild and flowed, there was some structure to it but it could change at will. Most styles you have set moves and many learned only those moves but this boy looked to be making them up on the spot. At least that's how it felt to him, there was no way the boy's style could account for those types of moves ahead of time. Even sword fighters that had a free flow style and improvised didn't seem to have this boy's natural ability to make things up as he went along.

"Tell me, what style is that?" Gendo asked out of curiosity.

Naruto had been thinking long and hard about this for a long time, but during his training month he had finally got the perfect name. He thrust his sword out pointing at the other boy, "This is my own unique fighting style. I use everything that I've been taught over the years and my own abilities, I haven't gotten around to naming it but you're the first to hear the name. This is the Hatake White Fang Style!"

Kakashi's head made a small jerk up as his visible eye widened for a split second. He had been caught by surprise by the name that Naruto had shouted out. Then as the shock wore off he smiled broadly under his mask at his son. He kind of wished his father was here to hear that, even though that Naruto wasn't the grandson of Sakumo Hatake by blood, he was in spirit. He had never felt more pride for Naruto than ever in that moment.

Anko who was at his side noticed the look, normally people wouldn't be able to see what Kakashi was thinking or feeling. But those few that were close to the man knew him enough to guess, and Anko was very close to him. She grinned as she slightly bumped him with her shoulder. "The brat sure has a way of surprising people huh?"

Kakashi only chuckled as he nodded, not really trusting his voice to give away the emotion he was hiding.

Eventually Gendo was getting tired of them playing around, it was time to end this whole affair. He jumped back giving them some space as he buried his sword into ground and started hand seals. Naruto saw this and got put away his blade, he would need his own hands free as he started his own. Naruto finished first as several clones came into view but before they could do anything the other boy finished his own hand seals. With all the extra water on the ground thanks to Sakura and Ami's match there was plenty of water for the Mist ninja to create a thick fog.

"Oh man not this crap again," Naruto muttered remembering this same thing with a certain ex-Mist ninja in Wave. He heard his clones being attack in the fog, most likely because the other boy couldn't tell which was the real one and which was the fake. He listened but the other boy was very silent, Naruto only had a small amount of time before the attacks would reach him. Thankfully coming up with plans in the last moment was something he excelled at.

Up in the stands those that knew Naruto were getting a bit worried when the mist set in. In one particular stands sat the Hyuga family, minus Neji as he was with the others given he had a match coming up. They were all watching interested in what would happen with this match, especially Hinata who was watching worried about Naruto.

"Farther is Naruto does well in the chunin exams will that go towards proving himself to the elders?" Hanabi asked watching the fog.

Hiashi was surprised by the question but thought about it, "I suppose so, it's rare to be made a chunin at the first attempt plus there are elders here watching."

"Oh," Hanabi paused for a moment, "so if Naruto gets accepted will I be able to call him Nii-chan when he marries Hinata?"

Both Hiashi and Hinata were surprised by that, and Hinata's face got all red at the thought. Hiashi looked at his eldest child as Hinata looked down at her fingers. She felt her face all hot at the thought of her actually marrying Naruto. It was a nice image for her to think about but it was also embarrassing how Hanabi brought it up like that.

Suddenly there was a shout from Naruto from the center of the fog and Hinata looked up worried that he had been hit. When suddenly something large shot out from the fog, it wasn't clear what it was at first as some of the fog clung to whatever it was. When it cleared everyone was shocked to see Naruto riding on the back of a giant toad with battle armour on. They were very high in the air as Naruto laughed out as they continue to rise up above the fog.

"What the hell is that, a giant frog!?" Ino screamed out in both surprise and disgust.

"Actually I believe that's a toad," Shino said in his usual calm voice.

"That's a summon animal isn't it?" Anko asked looking at it. "When the hell did he learn that?"

"I have an idea," Kakashi said watching.

"Alright it actually worked out this time!" Naruto shouted out happily. He wasn't sure what type of toad he was going to summon as it could have been anyone. At least it hadn't been someone small like Gamakichi or worse that Mr. Gamariki guy. That guy really made him uncomfortable, there was just something wrong about a giant green cross-dressing frog with huge lipstick lips and eye liner. The first time he met that guy when Jiraiya had summoned him, Naruto just didn't get along with them. They would butt heads on everything.

He looked down at the toad and he didn't know this one, well whatever he looked pretty strong and he could really jump. "Hey thanks for the lift."

"Not a problem, so you're the new contract holder huh?" the toad said in a gruff voice. "Sorry to cut it short but we're starting to fall, I hope you got a plan."

"You bet," Naruto grinned as he went into the hand seals. Thanks to Jiraiya he had finally gotten the hang of his wind chakra now it was time to try the new move the old pervert had promised to teach him. "Wind Style Hurricane!" Naruto yelled out as he thrust his palm out while holding his wrist. Suddenly a large blast of wind shot out over the area blowing away all the fog.

Gendo had to stick to the ground with chakra to keep his place in the earth without getting blown away. When the wind stopped he looked up in time to see Naruto fall back down on top of a large toad creature. Gendo hadn't known about this ability, then again the boy hadn't done much in that previous fight he had in the elimination rounds. No matter, he would cut the boy down to size but first. He started his own jutsu as all the water started to move around the area.

"Time to stop playing around," Gendo said as he finished his seal with Naruto just standing there waiting full in confidence. Gendo thought that the boy would pay for his arrogance for that. "Water style: Water Hydra!"

Several large heads came out of all the puddles, it was like a water dragon only there were at least five different heads.

"Crap!" Naruto hadn't planned for something like that, he had never even heard of such a thing. "Hurry up and dodge!"

"You don't have to tell me twice!" the battletoad said as he jumped out of the way of the deadly focused water. It crashed into the ground with devastating force but there were too many and they were too fast. The toad was hit hard first, he disappeared back to where the toads became from before he got too seriously injured. It was too bad too, he had been enjoying himself until that moment. Without something to stand on Naruto ended up falling, without anything to stop it, well until one of the water hydra heads slammed into his chest and thus sending him into the ground.

When he hit the ground he was sure a rib or two had been bruised pretty badly, thankfully the Fox should be able to heal that easily enough before the next round. Although at the moment it was hard to get back up as the wind had been knocked out of him.

Gendo grinned at he saw his fallen prey, "You should lay there like a good failure and let your entire village see just how weak the Hidden Leaf has become."

Naruto only laughed as he tried to get up.

"What's so funny?" Gendo said as he started the hand seals against to finish him off.

"That you never bothered to count the puddles," Naruto grinned at him.

Gendo's eyes widened, he looked around in time to see several shadow clones jumping on top of him holding him in place as he struggled to get free. He cursed himself mentally as he had overlooked the battlefield. With his water manipulation he should have felt all the sources of water but the boy had put these clones in a henge. Obviously back when the fog blocked his view, sure you could sense you enemy by feeling them through the fog that you create but if no one moved it was a lot harder. He saw one clone walk around to face him but this didn't hold on to him.

"Oh man this is going to hurt," one clone said to Gendo's left.

"Yeah, sucks to be you," another said.

This clone that was facing him wasn't a shadow clone but an exploding shadow clone. It blew up destroying the shadow clones and sending the Mist genin flying, he skipped a few times on the ground before he slid to a halt. Naruto managed to get up and look at his opponent, the boy didn't seem to be getting up anytime soon.

The Proctor decided to step up and look the boy over, the kid didn't seem to be in any need of dying despite the explosion but he wouldn't be getting up anytime soon. He looked to Naruto and saw the boy was standing up holding his ribs. Genma had to admit the kid had a nasty streak with surprises, setting up your shadow clones like that was a good set up. The exploding one had been the icing on the cake for that one.

"The winner is Naruto Hatake," Genma proclaimed.

There were cheers all through the stadium and Naruto couldn't help but wave to them, he looked through it all trying to spot certain people. He saw his dad and his team but it was close to them that he spotted the person he wanted to see most. Hinata was by the rails looking at him and he couldn't help but wave to her.

-Meanwhile-

ON the streets of Konoha a trio of travellers walked, they were members of a trading guild looking to set up a trade route with the village. At least that was their cover story, they were actually members of Suna that had infiltrated the village on orders. The three of them were just one of many teams that had infiltrated the village. They were to meet up with two other teams and start the invasion from the inside, their goal was to attack one of the gates and see if they could be opened or make an opening for the outside forces.

That was all the information they were given as it was all they needed. But that was okay with then, as a ninja they knew that knowing too much could be dangerous if they were caught and forced to admit what they knew. Currently they were in a small street with people going about their daily business. One of the men stopped to look at the fruits on sale.

"What are you doing?" the tall one said to the one looking at the fruit.

"I'm hungry okay, who knows when we'll eat," he said annoyed as he looked at an apple for sale.

"You should have thought of that sooner," the last one said.

He just ignored his companions as he replaced the apple and was about to ask how much when suddenly his combat senses went off. He didn't know what set it off but when he looked up he noticed that the store owner was gone. "Hey where did that guy go?"

"We got bigger problems," the tall one said to him sounding worried.

The hungry one looked around and now he knew why he felt his warning senses kick in. It had suddenly gotten too quiet for a street, mainly due to the fact that suddenly everyone had disappeared.

In the shadows a masked ANBU watched the three of them, little did those three know that all the 'civilians' had been ninja and ANBU pretending to be civilians. The ANBU looked at two of his team members and nodded his head.

"Begin the operation," The ANBU said silently.

The three man Suna team didn't know what hit them before it was too late.

Next up chapter 59: The Battles Continue