Making Use of Random Trees in the Arena (2)

"I can't believe he used four Rasengan on her!" Minato exclaimed. "That girl could have been killed! I know that that's a risk in the Exam and everyone signed the waiver, but it's still overkill. I mean, FOUR Rasengan…"

"At least he had the sense to just use the initial form," Kakashi consoled him.

"Initial form?" the Kazekage asked, trying not to sound too curious.

"Alterations to jutsu are made all the time," Kakashi answered, wondering what the best way to avoid having to answer without ignoring the question or outright telling the foreign leader to mind his own business, which was sure to go over poorly. "Size, shape, color…"

Itachi blinked. "Color?"

"Ah, yes. It's actually Sasuke's fault that Naruto's been experimenting with that," Kakashi replied.

"How so?" Itachi asked.

Kakashi sighed. "Naruto thinks it's cheating to be able to determine the attack range of a jutsu through the color, which Sasuke can do. I don't think Naruto really needs to bother because it's not like the two don't spar often enough that they don't know practically all of each other's moves and unless things go horribly wrong they won't ever have a serious life-or-death fight against each other, but what can I say? Naruto has a lot of free time and with his Kage Bunshin he has even more."

"My son seems to have an extremely well-developed sense of fair play," Minato noted. "Although whether this will prove to be a boon or a burden in his quest to become Hokage remains to be seen."

"Your son wishes to succeed you?" the Kazekage asked, surprised.

Minato nodded. "I was surprised when I found out as most people his age aren't interested in the position and he knows that it involves a lot of long hours, but he's quite determined to become either the Godaime or Rokudaime. Are any of your children interested in taking over after you step down?"

Dying was a far more likely outcome, Kakashi knew, but it wouldn't be very diplomatic to outright say that, now would it?

The Kazekage considered the question. "Would you believe that I honestly don't know? I've never asked them. Temari has shown an interest in the workings of the government and I've often thought she would do well as a diplomat but I haven't really seen any great interest from Kankuro and Gaara hasn't really seemed to be interested in anything. Then again, they're still young, so who knows where they'll end up?"

"Naruto seems to be getting on quite well with all of your children, even if he and Kankuro did get off to a rough start," Minato noted. "So if one of them became Kazekage someday and Naruto become Hokage that should strengthen the alliance between our two villages."

"That would be quite the change from the current state of affairs," the Kazekage mused. "The Tsuchikage has been in office since before any of the rest of us were born and Kiri's so secretive we barely know anything about the new Mizukage or what happened to the old one."

"That's no way to keep alliances," Minato agreed. "Speaking of our children, though…"

"Yes?" the Kazekage asked.

"You're not upset that my son beat your daughter, are you?" Minato asked with a grin.

"…No," the Kazekage lied.

———

Naruto waited with Temari while she got examined and patched up by the medic standing by. Granted that medic was only supposed to get involved in the case of a life-threatening injury that needed to be treated immediately or couldn't be moved and Temari really should have gone to Tsunade, but she didn't want to miss the rest of the matches. After giving up arguing with her, the medic healed what he could and released her back to the balcony.

"So why did you wait?" Temari inquired as the pair began the long trek back to where the others were waiting. "I mean, it was thoughtful but I thought you were worried that your friends were going to be fighting?"

"Oh, no, I got that taken care of," Naruto replied cryptically. "And I'll confess I had possibly slightly less-than-altruistic motives for waiting."

Temari raised an eyebrow. "Oh?"

"I may need a human shield," Naruto told her sheepishly.

Temari crossed her arms. "I just finished one match; I'm not going to take a hit for you because you pissed someone off."

"Oh, they wouldn't attack you," Naruto assured her. "They'd just try and get me out from behind you."

Temari was about to ask who he'd managed to piss off badly enough he'd rely on a still-injured person as a means of protection when she reached the balcony and saw Sasuke, Sakura, and Kiba floating a few feet apart in sand cocoons. That answered that question.

"Thanks Gaara," Naruto said gratefully. "You're a lifesaver."

Gaara cocked his head. "I do not believe I have ever been called that before."

"Well you've officially earned the title today," Naruto assured him. "After all, if they got into a fight and jeopardized their chances of becoming a Chuunin and consequentially my chances of avoiding intense youth training for a year with Gai then I very well might have killed them." He paused. "Which would be a bad things as they are my best friends. And Hinata-chan would probably be upset if anything were to happen to Kiba."

"It would be troublesome," Shikamaru agreed.

"Hey!" Kiba objected. "Are you saying you don't think of me as a close friend?"

Naruto elected to answer his question with a question of his own. "Do you still think I'm in love with Sasuke?"

Kiba snorted. "That's not going to change anytime soon."

"Well, there you have it." Naruto turned his attention back to Gaara. "Did they give you any trouble?"

Gaara shook his head. "No but they did plan out some very creative ways to kill you so I would watch out for them. Especially that one." He pointed at Sakura.

"Sakura?" Naruto asked, confused. He would have thought Sasuke would be the most experienced in planning out how to kill people since he'd been doing it for over ten years now.

"What can I say?" Sakura asked. "Medics have a far greater knowledge of the human body than most people and that does come in handy. I mean, just look at Kabuto."

"Kabuto?" Shino inquired. "The genin that gave up before the preliminary round?"

Sakura nodded.

Kiba burst out laughing. "That guy's pathetic! He tried to give up after we first met Anko! Not that I can blame him, mind you, but still!"

"Pathetic people can still be evil," Sasuke pointed out. "And can you let us down? The match between Sakura and I is going to take place in a minute and I don't think it will be very riveting if neither of us can move."

Gaara looked to Naruto.

Naruto nodded. "Go ahead."

With that, all of the sand that had been holding the three genin hostage dispersed and went back into Gaara's gourd.

"I still can't believe that he did that for the entire match," Sakura said, bemused, as she landed.

"What can I say?" Naruto said smugly. "Gaara clearly likes me more than all three of you put together."

"He does not!" Sakura insisted.

"There is no way he likes you more than Sakura and I," Sasuke agreed. "I mean, Kiba, sure but- "

"Wait," Kiba interrupted. "Why is it 'Kiba, sure'? He likes me just fine!"

"He barely knows you," Sakura reminded him.

"Sakura and I have spent just as much time with him as you did," Sasuke told Naruto.

"If he doesn't like me better than why would he do what I wanted as opposed to what you guys would want?" Naruto challenged.

"This is so surreal," Temari remarked as she and Gaara watched the four bicker about who Gaara liked better. "I honestly never thought I'd live to see the day someone was having this kind of conversation."

"Me neither," Gaara agreed. "Konoha is…strange. But it's a good strange. I don't think I want anything to happen to it."

Temari's breath caught. "Gaara-"

"Why would something happen to Konoha?" Shikamaru asked sharply.

"It wouldn't," Temari said quickly. "He's just saying that for future reference, like how I don't want anything to happen to Suna or you wouldn't want anything to happen to Konoha."

"I see," Shikamaru said, looking thoroughly unconvinced.

"The third match is between Sakura and Sasuke," Obito announced. "Will you two please get down here?"

That halted the argument.

"Try not to kill each other, alright?" Naruto implored. "If nothing else, I wouldn't put it past Kakashi to use one of your deaths count as not all of us making Chuunin and making us go through with…it."

Sasuke smirked. "Don't worry; I'll be back in ten minutes. If that."

Sakura's eye twitched. "I make no promises."