READ ALL OF THIS: Early in this chapter, there's a shifting of a character that was someone that you thought you knew who really wasn't. Just roll with it, okay?
And yes, finally a flashback... after what, 20 chapters?
And, for the love of all that is good and right, don't ask me about updates. I try to update once a month. Please don't make me set an ultimatum. If I keep on getting emails or pms that demand for the next update, I will not update. You have no idea how hard it is for me to write under pressure.
But, of course, if you'd like to add something along the lines of "Update soon" or "Good luck with your next update" to a review, go ahead, you have the right to do that. Those don't bother me, it's the emails and the PMs that are ticking me off.
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For the Love of my Friends

Chapter Fifty-four: Uncertainty and Confusion

by Foxie

"Sasuke-kun?" Pulling his eyes away from the most amusing sight of Naruto cursing and shaking his fist at him, Sasuke turned to the soft call, not surprised to see Sakura. What was surprising, however, was that she had managed to come alone, a feat Sasuke would have thought impossible since he knew that Sakura was sitting near Ino. He thanked his lucky stars that he did not have to deal with that overly excitable blonde yet.

While this ran through Sasuke's mind, Sakura took several steps forward, close enough to hover her hand over the nasty scrape on his cheek. She was frowning heavily. Sasuke pulled her hand away from him, uncomfortable with her proximity but keeping his touch much lighter than he would have if he was fending off someone else's attentions.

"I'm fine." he murmured. He wasn't, actually. He felt like one huge bruise, like Lee had kicked him into a wall several times. Oh, wait, he thought wryly, he did. His ribs ached something fierce and he was almost positive that one or more of them was at least cracked, if not completely broken.

"Right." Sakura said, crossing her arms over her chest. She was not impressed. She glared lightly at her team mate, tossing her long pink hair over one shoulder. "And pigs can fly."

One of Sasuke's eyebrows rose at the challenge. He barely managed to suppress a smirk, choosing to keep a blank look on his face. "Well, with the right jutsu-" he started to say before he was quickly interrupted.

"Be quiet, you smart ass." she said, the sudden smile on her face teasing. She pulled a reluctant Sasuke away from the railing, ignoring his mumbled protests. "Let me see what I can do for you."

Neji walked out into the ring, his eyes squinting at first at the sudden influx of light. His gaze soon fixed on the complaining boy sitting in the dust. He tried to fit the childish image in with what he remembered from the mission in Wave Country a month or so ago.

Somehow, the cursing and snapping child did not match up with the slightly impressive genin who had gracefully if not eccentrically negotiated the end of a despotic businessman's rule over a impoverished country. What little respect Neji had for Naruto dropped down to zero.

"How utterly graceless you are." The sharp words made Naruto look up from rubbing his abused tail bone. The blond watched with narrowed eyes as Neji made his way into the ring, a faint frown on his face. "You could have landed on your feet."

"Where's the fun in that?" Naruto muttered underneath his breath, getting onto his feet. He took a couple steps further, reaching Hayate at the same time Neji did. He briefly met eyes with the man and nodded in acknowledgment before turning his sights on Neji again.

"Alright, Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuuga Neji." Hayate looked between the two, not liking the instant animosity in Neji's eyes. Feelings were best left out of fights like this and only made them even more nasty when they were involved. "Are you ready?"

"Yup." Naruto said, scowling at Neji. Hayate could only sense mild annoyance in the blond. That was a good sign. People shouldn't hold grudges over insignificant battles such as these. "Ready to kick his ass." Hayate hung his head, sighing softly to himself. Mild annoyance but eager to start a fight. That was not a good sign.

Neji closed his eyes, a smirk on his lips. "You should forfeit." he said smoothly. He opened his eyes. "You can't beat me."

"Sure I can't." Naruto said dismissively. "Because you're a genius and all that crap..." He rolled his eyes, showing how little he thought of that. "Listen, Neji. You're gonna have to learn to drop that 'holier than thou' attitude or you're gonna get your ass kicked by someone who isn't as nice as I am."

Neji's an ally, Neji's an ally... The mantra went on and on in his head. However, Naruto was finding it a very hard task to remember that, with Kyuubi making snide comments and Neji smirking that awful smirk that made Naruto just want to smack it off.

"When that day comes, I will accept it, for it seems to be my destiny." While Neji smirked at what he thought was humorous, Naruto hung his head. Not this destiny shit again! he moaned in his mind, tempted just to skip the fighting part and just throttle the uptight bastard. "But that day is not today."

"You're a pretty overconfident bastard, aren't ya?" Naruto murmured, summoning up all of his self control. He managed to replace his scowl with a more affable expression, hoping that Neji would take him more seriously. "The higher you are, the harder you fall."

Neji's stare was cold and unfeeling. "And the lower you are, the more insignificant your fall is. You would know a lot about that, wouldn't you, dobe?" he murmured softly.

A vein in Naruto's temple twitched. So Neji was going to treat him like a child? Fine, then he'd fight like a child. He allowed himself to speak his mind. "For the last time, asshole, you aren't allowed to call me that." Naruto told the older boy darkly. Neji ignored him.

"It is the natural way of things, this destiny between you and me." Neji drawled, his eyes cold. His impervious gaze made Naruto feel two inches tall. Surprisingly enough, it hurt more than last time, most likely because, this time around, Naruto actually liked the guy. It was just his current attitude that Naruto couldn't stand.

Neji continued without missing a beat. "It is survival of the fittest, if you will. The strong will triumphant over the weak." he paused, perhaps noticing the annoyed twitch of the vein on Naruto's forehead. He frowned at Naruto, as if the blond's sullen look was a breach of propriety or etiquette for their situation. "Do not get angry at me simply because I have informed you of the ways of the world."

"Blah blah blah." Naruto waved his hand dismissively. He was done listening to Neji treat him like an idiot. He turned to Hayate. "Hey, when can we start this fight?" While Hayate told the boy that they could start once they were done talking to each other, Neji watched the blond with narrowed eyes.

It's not enough, the prodigy thought to himself. He's annoyed, but he isn't rattled. He had raised his chakra (a rather sneaky intimidation tactic) and poked at Naruto's weaknesses but Naruto wasn't fazed. Even some of his better opponents were rattled at this point of the match. Maybe it's because I couldn't get too much information on Naruto. None of the adults liked talking about him.

Neji had a skill, one that he preferred to use early on in a match. This skill was his ability to reduce someone into tears with a few well placed jabs at their weak points. Even Lee, who was used to this verbal abuse, could be discouraged by Neji's venomous words.

Naruto, on the other hand, didn't seem to care. Neji looked the boy up and down, wondering what he had missed. The blond was the weakest genin of his graduating year, a year that included the talented Uchiha Sasuke. Naruto just had to be lacking in confidence.

But what was this about Naruto being stronger than Sasuke? How could that even be possible? Was this something that shadow kid used to rile me up? Neji wondered to himself. No, he said it like it was a fact.

Still, Neji worried. Was Naruto completely impenetrable? The fact that he couldn't get underneath the younger boy's skin bugged him, even though it would effect nothing in the outcome of the match. After staring at the blond for a moment, he was suddenly reminded of the boy's most obvious weakness. It would undoubtedly make him do something stupid during the match.

"Of course," Neji murmured, running a hand through his hair, "I would expect such immaturity and weakness from someone who befriended Hinata-sama." He had Naruto's full attention now. Neji kept his tone light and indifferent. "Birds of a feather, as they say. One weak person befriends another weak person in futile hopes of making themselves look stronger. But all your friends end up doing to you is dragging you down until you're just as weak as them." Somewhere in the audience, unknown to either of the two combatants, Tenten stared down at her trembling hands and ignored Sakura's worried queries about whether or not she was alright.

Naruto glared heatedly at Neji. Neji suppressed a smirk. He had Naruto now. "Then what the hell are Lee and Tenten to you?" he snapped angrily. "Tools? Targets for practicing your damn techniques? God, you are such an asshole!"

Neji wisely stepped away from what Lee and Tenten meant to him. "It's not who I affiliate myself with that's disgraceful, it's you." he said quietly. He took a few steps forward so that only Naruto and Hayate could hear him. "Hinata-sama, for example. You know what's happened to her, right? No, of course you don't." Neji was the very picture of disgust and contempt. "Hinata-sama, the precious heir of the Main Branch, has been beaten out of her prized position by someone much younger than her, who only started training a few years ago." Naruto's eyes were wide in surprise. "Yes, it's true. Hinata-sama, as I have always believed to be true, is a weakling hiding behind a strong name. She is the stain upon our honor and, as such, should be eliminated immediately. And you, as her friend, only reflect her weakness." Neji pulled back a little. "I don't know who to despise more, you or her."

Naruto felt something snap in him during Neji's droning soliloquy. The brat could rag on him as much as he wanted to, but Naruto drew the line at him verbally abusing Hinata. The girl had worked so hard to get where she was now. If this had been the first time around, Naruto was certain that he would have lost against the Hyuuga girl instead of winning. Neji had no right to look down on her.

Neji smirked, knowing he had touched a raw nerve. Naruto was shockingly resilient to insults directed at him but if you aimed them towards the blond's friends, the boy would see red. How foolish of him. He should learn to control his emotional reactions.

Naruto's head snapped to the side suddenly and he fixed a suddenly nervous jonin with a harsh stare. "How long did it take for me to beat Hinata-chan?" he demanded of Hayate, his words barely a growl..

The jonin composed himself, coughing into his hand. "Around fifteen minutes or so." he said blandly.

Naruto's eyes narrowed at the same time that a strange smirk appeared on his face. "Do you have a watch?" he asked casually. The jonin nodded wordlessly, indicating at the watch around his wrist. "Good. You can be the witness, then." He turned sharply towards Neji again. "Hey, bastard! I'll beat you under five minutes." Annoyed at the sudden increase of the Hyuuga smirk, he changed that condition, his eyes narrowed into thin blue slits. "Nah, I'll beat you under three. We'll see exactly who is the stain on the Hyuuga clan's damn pride."

Neji was tempted to roll his eyes. Who did this genin think he was, a god? No one could beat a Hyuuga under five minutes (let alone three), not even pathetically weak ones like Hinata. But Neji humored him. "And if the time lapses?" he inquired, a mockingly interested look on his face. Naruto had finally been riled up and, in his anger, would end up doing or saying something immeasurably stupid. And Neji, as usual, was correct in his calculations.

Naruto's grin was feral. "Then I'll forfeit." Neji smirked. The blond's stupidity apparently knew no bounds.

"Sarutobi" resisted the urge to scratch his nose, knowing that it would not be very characteristic of the man he was trying to be. But the genjutsu, as subtle as he had crafted it to be, was itchy, the chakra of the jutsu irritating his skin because it was wrapped too close around his body.

Despite the slight annoyance, he felt a moment of pride. Only Kurenai could pull off a better illusion than the one he had on. Only a master of illusions could beat what he could imitate with his sharingan.

Hatake Kakashi, Hokage for a day. Who would have thought? Certainly not his team. Naruto would have laughed himself into the grave. Hatake Kakashi, Hokage? Sasuke would have thought that the world was ending.

Kakashi becoming Hokage was about as likely as Itachi announcing that he was an advocate of hugging bunnies to cure diseases of the soul. It just wasn't going to happen.

The disguised jonin glanced over at the Kazekage. Still, it was only a matter of time before the impostor, whoever he was, caught on that Kakashi wasn't who he said he was. He had thought, originally and yes with arrogance, that the fake Kage was just that, a fake Kage who would easily be dealt with.

Seeing the man with his own eyes led him to the truth of the matter. Kakashi wasn't enough to fight off the Kazekage. The man had to at least be around the level of the two ninjas sitting next to him. Kakashi, nervous around so much tightly controlled chakra, had never been so glad to see Jiraiya and Tsunade before in his entire life.

Kakashi managed to fire a few Sarutobi-esqe remarks at the fake, hoping to see a reaction that would reveal a weakness or, better yet, and identity, but he was unsettled when he only revealed that, the more Kakashi egged him on, the higher the fake Kage's chakra spiked. It was now up to nearly double what it had been before, most likely the reason why Tsunade had sat herself between Kakashi and the Kage.

It's only fitting that a fake Kage be met with a fake Kage, he reasoned to himself once more, leaning back on his sense of humor. It was his remark to the real Hokage that had him in such a dangerous position in the first place. Zabuza was probably howling in laughter right now.

Flashback

The Hokage had maps and scrolls tossed all over his desk, his regular documents completely shoved off the limited space to litter the ground. The surface was needed for the maps, not for the endless piles of paper he had to look over and stamp so off to the floor they went. They could be dealt with after the invasion was dealt with.

Kakashi was envious of the older man's calm as he leaned over a map of the village, pointing out key locations to one of the ANBU leaders, only pausing every once and a while to confirm a fact with the stoic Suna jonin that stood off to the side of the room.

Baki wasn't a ninja that he knew a lot about but he could at least tell that the older man was nervous. For all of his blank looks, the man's chakra levels were swirling wildly. He knew this better than anyone in the room. He could not see the inner coil system like a Hyuuga but he could sometimes see the movement of chakra within the body, especially when it was as agitated as Baki's. Just another one of those things that he had to thank his dead friend for.

But there was no time for thanks, or even for heartfelt apologies. Those times were long gone, and the time for thinking about them was up. The ANBU leader in front of the room nodded and left silently, presumably to take orders to the various groups created to destroy the threat of invasion.

While Kakashi was busy pondering how many minutes it would take before the Suna jonin's face met the floor, his fellow Konoha jonins bristled around him with righteous indignation as they overheard telling words such as 'war', 'invasion', and 'betrayal'. He rolled his eyes. What, haven't most of them been involved in a war before?

He glanced around him, reevaluating them critically. Most of them were genins or chuunins during the last great war, he realized with a faint groan. Only a handful, like him, looked grim but ready. And only one looked pleased.

"Stop smiling, Zabuza." he told him quietly. "We can see your pearly whites through your bandages." Actually believing him for a moment, the blood thirsty swordsman touched his face before shooting him a glare.

"Don't make me bite you." the other man said in return, the threat relatively mild. Like a bull dog, Kakashi reckoned. The slightly taller man looked oddly civilized in a full on jonin uniform. And, of course, he wore a slightly skewed forehead protector that proudly displayed the symbol of the leaf. Zabuza, for lack of better terms, looked weird.

"Ooh, please don't." Kakashi said lightly, warming up to the insults. "I'm not up-to-date with my rabies vaccinations." Zabuza snorted.

"I'm surprised, with all the slimy slobbering mutts you have and dare to call summon creatures." the slightly taller man said, swinging his head towards the copy cat ninja. His brown eyes, while not exactly kind, were not cruel.

"I have you know that my summon dogs are highly respectable creatures with pedigrees." the first jonin nodded to him firmly. "You're just jealous that your bloodline isn't as pristine as theirs." Zabuza gave him a look.

"Pedigrees?" he echoed, revealing his misstep in the dance of insults. He quickly sought to correct it. "Yeah well... aw, dammit..." Kakashi grinned merrily, the expression apparent to all who looked even though half of his face was skillfully covered. Zabuza's eyes widened in realization, then narrowed.

"I hate you." he declared, pulling out his wallet and handing over a wad of currency. Konoha currency, the first jonin noted, secretly pleased that the often antisocial man was starting to fit in. "You and your little mutts too."

"I told you, my friend," the first jonin drawled softly, tucking the money in his vest, "Do not mess with the master. You can talk circles around everyone else, but not with me." He lifted his hand slightly. "Drinks later on with the guys?"

Zabuza gave him a look. "You gonna be late?" he grumbled, still raw about getting caught off guard. "Besides, aren't we involved in a war?"

The first jonin shrugged. "Aren't we always?" he murmured. A finger jabbed him in the spine. "Hmm?" He glanced lazily over his shoulder at a fuming Kurenai and a sheepish Asuma, who was smoking up a storm.

"Be quiet, she says." Asuma mumbled between puffs. "Pass it on."

"What is this, telephone?" Anko murmured from the other side of Kakashi. She looked considerably less stressed than the little jonin next to her, who was sweating and shaking. The poor kid was probably just turned recently, Kakashi thought.

"Might as well be." Asuma said blandly. "'specially with all the kiddy dramatics going in this time." Several of the younger jonins around him gave him hurt looks. "Come on, we're nearly invaded all the time!" He shrugged, unimpressed. "It's either this country or that country or this village that just has to get revenge on us because we're the incarnation of evil or... whatever."

"Well, this time is different." Anko insisted, leaning back to look at Asuma. Her usual smirk was gone, replaced with a steady frown. "First, we lose a grass team before the exam starts-"

"-faces ripped off and everything." Zabuza added in helpfully. The young jonin on Anko's left turned green.

"Then Orochimaru's spotted and he nearly takes out two chuunin platoons-" Anko pointed out heatedly, feeling guilt over the ones that did end up dying from the conflict. Kakashi knew she would have rather fought Orochimaru than have younger and less experienced chuunins have to struggle against him.

"-and Haku, which reminds me Kakashi, where should I hang the bastard's head? My living room or my bedroom?" Zabuza's voice was similarly heated. No one hurt Haku and lived to tell about it.

"And then that boy died. The medic nin." Kurenai chipped in, deep in thought. "Kabu-something. The adopted kid who forfeited the exam."

"We don't know if that's related." Kakashi said softly, reminding them without words of the strange message left near the boy's body. "But that's still way too many deaths. The fact that Orochimaru is involved at all makes things worse."

"Don't forget that the Uchiha kid was thought to have been here too." Zabuza reminded him. Kakashi paled slightly, his single visible eye widening.

"Shit, I forgot about that." he murmured. He started counting off the points on his hand. "That makes it even worse. Akatsuki movement, Orochimaru, and death rolled up in an exam fought between a bunch of kids. What is the world coming to?" This heavy statement makes the adults pause for a moment, all of them contemplating it extensively.

Gai, who had been unusually quiet, leaned in, breaking up the silence. "Wanna know what makes it worse?" he said in a hushed voice. He did not look like a person excited with the possession of a new piece of gossip. He, rather, looked like someone told him his grandmother died. "The Kazekage is dead."

All the jonins in earshot stared at him in silence. It was in this lull of conversation that the Hokage started the meeting. Slouching as usual, Kakashi didn't bother straightening as Sarutobi turned to them, though some of his fellow jonins lined up around him did so guiltily.

"I'm sure you've all grasped the situation by now." Sarutobi said dryly. "We're at war, only we haven't been informed until just now. Officially, we're against Suna and Oto, apparently, but we're only really up against Oto, as Suna refuses to follow a fake Kage." He inclined his head towards Baki. The ninja stiffly nodded. Baki looked extremely fatigued.

"So..." Up in front like the good little jonin he was, Ebisu implored his Hokage. "Tomorrow, you have to sit next to a man who most likely has aims to kill you? During the entire exam, where he has ample opportunity to stick a knife in your back?" The man sounded horrified by the very thought of it. Kakashi, who normally disliked the uptight jonin, had to agree.

Sarutobi folded his hands behind his back and closed his eyes. "Yes." he said simply. This was met with a roar of disapprovals.

"That can't happen!" Asuma snapped from the middle, dropping his smoke to the ground and not even noticing. The normally easygoing man was instantly enraged. "I won't let my Hokage die!" This was met with several yells of approvals. Sarutobi's eyes opened and he glanced at the rest of them, his gaze warming. He raised a hand and all noise stopped. Baki, with fake indifference, watched this through half closed eyes.

"But it must." The Sandaime said serenely. He looked at them all with sad fondness. "He will most likely consider it a huge insult if I do not appear and, if he is intelligent, will use it to rile up anti-Konoha feeling amongst our guests. With most of the people believing that he is the true Kazekage rather than the most likely murderer behind the deceased man's disguise, we cannot allow this to happen." He looked at them seriously, his forehead creasing in a frown. "We must go on as if nothing at all has changed."

"Hokage-sama..." Though Kakashi was a bit of a slacker and he was twenty minutes late to this very meeting, nearly all of the jonins turned to see what he had to say. It paid to have that sort of influence. "While I agree that is the best course for keeping control of the situation-" he ignored the sullen mutters at this "-isn't better to meet a fake Kage with another fake Kage?"

Sarutobi paused, dark eyes narrowed. "What are you trying to get at, Kakashi?" he asked, curious to find out what the experienced ninja was thinking.

Kakashi shrugged. "From what I overheard- which is a lot, by the way-, it seems like we're facing a lot of attacks to places outside the arena itself. Large scale attacks that involve huge numbers of canon fodder ninjas and summons and gods know what else." he leaned back, putting his hands in his pockets. "Don't you think that, rather than staying restricted to the arena- which is probably what the enemy wants in the first place-, you should be out there, fighting those battles instead of messing with whoever is pretending to be Kazekage?"

"Well, if you want to put it that way..." Sarutobi was quiet for a moment. It was clear to everyone in the room what the old man was conflicted over. Was he needed more in the arena, where there was a heavily concentrated people to protect, or was he needed outside, where there was more people spread out and more danger? His frown relaxed as he came to a conclusion.

"So, who wants to be Hokage for a day?" he asked lightly. Kakashi should have known, a fact that he realized when all thirty or so hands pointed in his direction, to stay in bed that day.

End Flashback

Kakashi was stuck between the relatively uncomfortable place of knowing his life was in constant danger (not really much a change from everyday life but seemingly amplified thanks to the current situation) and the sort of amusing place of knowing that this whole plan looked like it was going to blow up in his face.

The Kazekage was already giving him weird looks even though Kakashi tried to stick to Sarutobi's normal inflection. How well could this impostor know Sarutobi? Or was his genjutsu slipping? A quick check confirmed that it wasn't.

How long can I keep this charade up? An even more important thought rose to his mind. How long will I live after he figures out that I'm not Hokage-sama? Kakashi knew now that the fake Kage wasn't just a jonin that he could fight against. It was someone much stronger than him, someone would would most likely kill him as soon as look at him.

Kakashi was very quiet for a moment, his thoughts ground to a halt. And then, a phrase came to mind. When in doubt, agitate. Kakashi smiled to himself. He seems to hate when I talk about future generations. If I am going to get myself killed, then I can at least piss him off beforehand.

Jiraiya graciously gave him a lovely opening. "Naruto doesn't seem to know the meaning of the word self-preservation." he grumbled, squinting down at his student. "Doesn't he know that kid's just trying to make him do something he'll regret? Like saying he'll beat someone under three minutes or forfeit?" The older man groaned at Naruto's lack of tact.

"Oh, come now." Kakashi adopted what he thought was a grandfatherly smile. "It's a wonderful thing to see these young people hurl themselves into situations with everything that they have." He waited with bated breath.

The Kazekage couldn't resist. "Throwing yourself in situations like that only means that you will be killed all the more faster." the man argued softly. He glanced over Tsunade's shoulder at Kakashi. "It is the work of an idiot, and one who doesn't think before he leaps."

Tsunade turned to the Kazekage. "So you are an advocate of always holding yourself back?" she challenged. Kakashi could have kissed her. "It is ironically not the mark of a good ninja, to always keep yourself hidden away from everyone else."

The Kazekage tried to explain his reasoning. "There are limits-" Jiraiya, in his typical way, interrupted.

"Only when you throw everything into your battles will you find those limits. And when you find those limits, you can break them." he leaned back into his seat, a faint smile on his face. "A strong ninja, such as yourself, would surely know this."

The Kazekage's eyes were as cold as ice. Kakashi barely resisted the urge to twitch as the ominous level of chakra barely noticeable on the edges of his senses rose higher. "Name one person who ever accomplished anything by throwing his everything into a battle." the man hissed, his voice clipped.

"Yondaime Hokage." In perfect unison, the title was softly echoed by all three ninjas. The Kazekage blinked, his dark eyes shifting over to the Hokage Monument for half of a second but Kakashi caught it.

The Kazekage visibly backed off. "Point taken." he murmured silkily. Tsunade and Jiraiya were satisfied but Kakashi was not. He had seen the shift of the other man's attention.

Kakashi leaned back in his seat, his mind working quickly. He had a hunch about the identity of their fake Hokage. It's a little far fetched... but most foreign ninjas don't think much about the monument when they hear about our Hokages. His eyes flicked towards the monument for a moment before he shook himself out of it and went back to thinking. They think about bingo books or their achievements... they don't care to consider how we respect the memories of our past leaders. It's our monument to history, enemies don't care about our history. Only we care about that sort of thing.

Kakashi's thoughts were spiraling swiftly as he considered this. But our fake Kage looked towards the monument when we mentioned the Fourth. Just for a second, but he did. Kakashi sat back in his seat, his eyes locked on the form of the Kazekage. That's not what a foreigner does, that what someone from Konoha does!

The Kazekage very deliberately looked at Kakashi, alerting the jonin that the other man had been aware that he was watching. "Something wrong, Hokage-sama?" he practically purred.

Kakashi wordlessly shook his head, his mind already narrowing down the deserters from Konoha. He narrowed the list down to people who would want revenge and had as much chakra as the Kage did. Two people who stood out prominently on the small list were Uchiha Itachi and Orochimaru. Kakashi's sharingan itched.

"Of course not, Kazekage-sama." Kakashi murmured, turning his gaze back to the ring. It took a lot of will power to look away from his dangerous enemy, especially when all of his instincts were screaming that he should keep on eye on him.

Kakashi had a bad feeling that the whole situation had taken a turn for the worst.

Meanwhile, the match down in the ring had just started. After displaying his immense skills in the jyuuken field, Neji was annoyed to be inquired by Naruto if he had anything else to show the crowd.

"Come on, Neji!" Naruto pleaded, lazily twirling a kunai between his fingers. Several of his chakra points had been tapped but the boy showed little or no reaction at having his pathways blocked. "Jyuuken is so boring. Show me something else." His anger from before had not abated but he was not above telling Neji that his fighting style was lacking.

"Must you talk so much?" Neji murmured, his eyes flashing warningly. "You're giving people a headache." A minute had passed already. Naruto had enough chakra points blocked to take down a larger man than himself, but he was still standing strong. A vein in Neji's temple twitched. And mouthing off too.

Naruto went for the low blow. "Oh, and you would know all about headaches, wouldn't you, Neji?" the blond snarled, tossing his head. Neji's eyes widened. Naruto went on without a care. "You know what I think of you? I think you're a spoiled little brat just begging to get your ass kicked."

Neji dropped all attempts at keeping emotion off his face. "You know nothing-" he started to snap. Naruto's sharp laugh cut him off.

"You're the one who's ignorant, you stupid idiot!" he yelled. "Whoop de fricken do. Sorry about your dad, Neji, I really am. But you lose my sympathy at the point where you start blaming all of your troubles on Hinata-chan." The sentence ended in a low rumble and then his voice nearly exploded with the beginning of the next. "What the hell did she ever do to you?"

"She-" Neji paused, biting his lip. There was a reason, right? She was a part of the Main Branch, the people who had killed his father. His father had to pay for her father's mistake. He had to serve her, a weakling in the Main Branch who did not belong. Those were powerful reasons, in Neji's mind. But Neji, having an idea how Naruto thought, knew that they would sound weak.

Naruto crossed his arms over his chest. "If you got a problem with the way things are, fix it! Don't whine about it, don't use other people as scapegoats, and don't ever try seek pity from me." He paused for a moment, wanting to say something more but then just shook his head. His hands dropped briefly to his sides before he slowly moved into a different stance, one that looked nothing like the the lazy hand to hand he was using before.

Neji's eyes flared when he took in the open palmed stance. He had known that stance before he had even learned how to write his own name. "What do you think you're doing?" Neji asked dangerously.

"Jyuuken, what does it look like?" Naruto snorted. "I think you need to be taught that a little variety can go a long way." A brief burst of amusement twisted his lips upwards. "Oh, and that your rigid style sucks."

Neji had nothing to say to that. He darted forward, his hands sparking with chakra. He would break past Naruto's clumsy stance and close all of his chakra points. Neji had no idea what the blond thought he could gain by mocking him but he knew that the blond would pay dearly for his slight. Jyuuken wasn't meant to rest in the hands of a non-Hyuuga.

Neji's movements were quick and flawless but, as the saying goes, you fight fire with fire. As clumsy as Naruto's stance was, it was a fairly simple thing for him to do to twist his arm around and meet Neji's blow head on, palm strike to palm strike. Chakra sparked and curled around their hands for a moment before Neji was pushed back with just the force of Naruto's chakra alone.

"Whoops." Naruto murmured, not looking very contrite. "Sorry about that. My chakra control is shaky." Again, he fixed his stance, widening the space between his legs and squaring out his shoulders.

Neji looked at his singed hand for a moment before looking back at Naruto. His stance is fine, he realized after awhile, pinpointing the awkwardness in the stance. Nearly perfect form but he leans too far forward. Offensive in a defensive stance. That's why it looks odd.

Just a defensive stance. Just one stance. Neji relaxed. He doesn't know jyuuken. He only knows the stances, most likely from Hinata-sama. Jyuuken is so much more than a simple stance.

"Tick tock, Neji..." Naruto said softly, his voice barely a hiss. "If you're not going to move, then I will." And, to Neji's absolute horror, he moved.

Hiashi couldn't help but feel relieved that Hanabi had opted to go to the Academy instead of skipping out (an excused absence, of course, since Hiashi's permission went a long way) and watching the rest of the exams. Though he couldn't understand her reasoning behind missing a rare fight just to go to school, he was glad for her sudden wish to remain on even grounds with the rest of her peers, who could not attend the final exam because they had to go to class and could not miss.

He did not want her to see the mockery of jyuuken being played out in the ring. Or was it that he didn't want her to see how easily that the ultimate style of the Hyuuga family could be copied and twisted? Hiashi himself was not sure.

Neji was the pride of the Hyuuga clan, for all that the boy seemed to resent the family. Everyone talked about him and loved watching him fight. More than once, his fighting style was praised as being 'poetry in motion'. Hiashi was considering taking the sullen boy under his wing when he got a little older, wishing to impart some of the more advanced jutsu knowledge of the clan on the boy.

After Neji's first match, he was sure that time was going to be sooner rather than later. Hiashi had no idea that Neji had progressed so far on his own. The more traditional of his clan would most likely balk at teaching a Branch Member so many powerful jutsus but Hiashi knew that they could be overruled. He was, after all, the head of the clan and it was about time that they treated him as such.

But Naruto... Hiashi didn't know whether to feel shamed on his clan's behalf or to feel outraged by the blond's behavior. Instead, he felt an odd sort of helpless amusement. In the last two matches, in an arena filled with rivals and likely enemies, Naruto had revealed two huge weaknesses of the Hyuuga clan without a flinch.

First he exposed their weaknesses against underground assaults, and then he flaunted how easily it was to block jyuuken. You block jyuuken with jyuuken, obviously. Hiashi tried to keep a stern face up, knowing people were watching. It simply would not do if he starting grinning like an idiot.

We are too rigid with our style and the younger amongst us find it hard to cope with having their 'all powerful' jyuuken thwarted. Hiashi mused. They have it beaten in their brains that we are superior to everyone, and our bloodline and jyuuken are what makes us better.

Those weren't the reason why, of course. The Hyuuga clan was better than everyone else for many reasons, but not solely for those and certainly not because of jyuuken. Jyuuken was a means to an end, simply a way for a Hyuuga to best use their byakugan.

Hiashi managed to get his amusement under control, more serious thoughts clamoring for attention. Is there something wrong with the way that we train our own? He mused, trying to figure out a way around the clan's weakness. Do we teach our young too rigorously and, thus, doom ourselves? He shook his head. No... Hinata was not bound by jyuuken. She used different techniques when it became apparent that jyuuken wasn't working, as a smart ninja should.

So why is Neji's so panicked? Why doesn't he shifted over to different techniques like she did? A sudden thought hit him. Helpless amusement reigned once more as he recalled one of Naruto's sharp retorts. He was right. The higher you are, the harder you fall.

To have a variety of techniques... is a defensive tactic of normal ninjas. Hiashi leaned back in his seat, crossing his arms over his chest. If one jutsu doesn't work, then you try a different one. But a genius, a prodigy like Neji... prodigies are bound by the things they know. They are bound by habit, by things that they know the outcome of. He came to a conclusion. Geniuses are horribly rigid and cannot help but stick to what they know, what has given them victories in the past, what tactics they have been praised for over and over again...

Hiashi closed his eyes, feeling not shame for his clan's honor, but pity for his brother's son. Neji was going lose. Why? Simply because he was a prodigy and Naruto was a normal ninja.
-

Meanwhile, Neji was getting more and more desperate. He had quickly come to the conclusion that Naruto knew a lot more than a defensive stance or two. To make matters worse, Naruto, at the most inopportune moments, would switch from jyuuken to taijutsu in a flash, making his movements nearly impossible to predict. This was especially true for Neji, who was used to fighting against either taijutsu or jyuuken, not both of them at the same time.

The first time Naruto's glowing fingers tapped a chakra point(only marginally off target but close enough to close it), Neji panicked. He ended up making a wild movement towards Naruto that was neither jyuuken nor taijutsu. Naruto had dodged it easily, making Neji feel even more foolish for breaching his strict adherence to his fighting style but Naruto, as dense as usual, ended up making him forget about it.

"What the hell, Neji!" he called out easily, putting some space between them. "Stop standing there like an idiot."

The Hyuuga wanted to say something caustic but ended up swallowing his retort, as he realized what Naruto was doing. The blond was using the same tactics that Hinata had used in her previous battle against the younger genin. Naruto, without giving words for it, was trying to show Neji that, for all that the prodigy detested her, she wasn't as weak as he often claimed she was.

The worst part of it was that Neji knew he didn't even detest Hinata as much as he had lead Naruto to believe. Sure, there was a part of him that was annoyed with her weakness but he didn't hate her. He wanted to make her stronger! And so did Naruto, apparently. But their ways of going about it were vastly different.

"Jyuuken isn't going to work, you idiot." Naruto goaded, stalking Neji with a faint smirk. Neji once again bristled up in indignation. One did not stalk with jyuuken. One waited until one was attacked before reacting. "Shift to something else."

Neji violently rebelled. "No!" he snapped, louder than he meant to. "This is my... it's..." He trailed off, starting to see the point behind Naruto's insults. Neji was losing with jyuuken. Neji and Naruto both knew it. Naruto, though his knowledge of it was slim at best, had a better advantage with jyuuken simply because the idiot barely understood the meaning behind chakra control. Every mutual palm strike had Neji sliding back several feet from the power of Naruto's chakra alone.

Neji was starting to get tired, no thanks to that Shino's sneaky energy draining tactic. He could only defend for so long against such a steady flow of attacks but Naruto seemed to be bouncing around just as energetically as he had at the beginning of the fight. The blond's stamina, apparently, knew no bounds.

Has it only been two minutes? Neji cringed as the force of a blocked jyuuken strike vibrated up his arm. A strange aching pain made itself known. It was everywhere, missing no place on his body. But Neji knew its origin. My inner coil system... it can't take this... I have to stop fighting so close to Naruto.

"Variety, moron, variety!" Naruto switched to taijutsu, a brief blessed relief as it meant that Naruto's chakra was not slamming in to him. Instead, a well aimed kick rebounded off of Neji's instinctively heavenly spin. Neji knew it was bad when he had to block simple taijutsu with an advanced jutsu. "Must I tattoo it on your forehead?"

Neji quickly put distance between them. His jutsu had rattled him more than it ruffled the hairs on Naruto's head. He sought to regain an advantage. "Destiny-" he couldn't have walked three steps backwards before Naruto appeared low before him. He barely managed to bring his arms up in defense but the kick still managed to knock him back several feet. Neji managed to stay on his feet but only through sheer stubborn will.

Naruto scowled at him. His voice was harsh. "Take your life into your own hands, fight your own battles. Destiny and fate have nothing to do with what's happening! The only inevitable fate is death and, my friend, none of us are going to die here today." For all of his lack of finesse and refinement, Naruto had an odd aura of quiet conviction and fierce determination. In Naruto, Neji saw recognized that qualities that he did not have.

But Neji wasn't the type to roll over just at the sight of spirited resistance. He closed his eyes for a moment before shifting to a new stance. At Naruto's widened gaze, Neji knew that the younger genin recognized the stance that had brought down the bug user Shino.

"Be that as it may..." Neji said quietly, his eyes narrowing. For some reason, he just couldn't focus his eyes on Naruto. "You decided your own fate when you let yourself get caught in the range of my divination." It only took a half of a second to close the distance between him and his opponent but it took several long moments before Neji realized that something had gone horribly wrong.

He felt the muscles in his shoulders suddenly bunch up and freeze. His vision wavered for a moment, his fingers still pressed against the chakra point he knew was just beyond several layers of clothing, skin, muscle, and bone. Naruto's torso was shaking underneath his hand but Neji knew there was something wrong about the sight. He didn't know what until Naruto's hand rose and wrapped around his. The Hyuuga was suddenly aware that it wasn't Naruto who was shaking, it was him.

"Neji, stop." Naruto whispered, the look on his face neutral. It was an expression of forced indifference and it looked fairly odd on his features. Neji yanked his hand away, staring at his bandaged fingers as if they were some foreign entity.

"What did you do to me?" he mumbled, realizing that his chakra control had gone haywire. The reason why his vision was wavering wasn't solely because he was tired from his last match. The chakra in his eyes wasn't being distributed evenly. His byakugan was failing. He looked down at himself, knowing that at least half, if not all of Naruto's attacks, had been accurate enough to close several of chakra points. "How? You can't even see them."

Naruto smiled apologetically, tapping his temple. "I remembered." he said softly. "I can't see them, sure, but my memory's not half shabby. It's at least good enough to remember where a few of them are."Neji didn't know whether to laugh or to sigh. Sure, he remembers all the important ones, Neji thought sullenly. Just enough of them to nearly force me into unconsciousness. Glancing under half lidded eyes, Neji was at once struck by the sudden kindness of the younger genin.

His time is running out. If I stall for thirty or forty seconds, he'll have to forfeit by default. I could still win like that. But he's letting me waste time like this just so I can get a control over myself. Neji laughed at himself, surprised at his underhanded thoughts. Do I really want to win this? Do I really want to show him that jyuuken than that damn variety he keeps preaching about?

Neji closed his eyes, realizing that they were two different topics. My match or my pride. To win the match would sacrifice his pride but to lose the match would make his pride suffer as well. However, his desire to stay honorable to himself was more important than showing Naruto the true strength of a Hyuuga's jyuuken.

He knew what was more important. He slowly raised his hand, his eyes glued to the ground as if he could divine the future from the dust at his feet. "I forfeit, examiner." Neji said with all the bravo he could manage. The one bit of satisfaction he got from the bitterness of self defeat was the look of utter shock on Naruto's face.

"W-what?" Naruto sputtered, jumping forward two paces. The surprise turned into annoyed anger. "We still have time left! You don't have to bow your proud neck yet!"

Realizing that Naruto was pissed at having his fight stopped so suddenly, Neji allowed himself a smirk. "I know when I am going to lose." he said haughtily, drawing himself up to his full height which, he was pleased to note, was quite a bit taller than the slouching and pouting blond. "Besides, you put too much chakra into your blows. Any harder and you would have destroyed a few of my chakra points."

Naruto jumped forward suddenly. The transformation from sulky to concerned was almost instant. "Oh my god!" Neji was surprised by the guilty look on Naruto's face, having no idea how horrible Naruto felt, knowing that he had almost done to Neji what Neji had done to Hinata a lifetime ago. "I'm so sorry!"

For some reason, this inspired a faint smile from Neji. "That's why you should practice something before just jumping in and doing it." he scolded halfheartedly. When the blond wasn't trying to piss him off, he was almost endearing. Neji, surprised by this unusual train of thought, wrote off the odd observation as a lapse of sanity due to chakra exhaustion. His eyes closed halfway. "So tired..."

While Hayate announced the winner of the match to a wildly cheering audience, Neji started to stumble blindly towards the exit. He didn't realize that he was walking in the wrong direction until an unknown warmth situated itself under his arm and gently turned him towards the right way. Neji opened his eyes lazily, leaning back to avoid getting Naruto's spiky hair in his face.

The blond's face was very earnest and concerned. Almost like Lee but without the annoying edge that made Neji's teeth grind. The blond had one of Neji's arms wrapped around his shoulder and was supporting his weight, slowly but surely leading the older genin to the infirmary.

"...I'm taller than you." Neji muttered inanely, noticing this small fact as he nearly tripped over the younger genin. Naruto grinned.

"You're tired." he stated, genuinely amused. "I don't think I've ever hear you so obvious or unguarded."

Neji tried to pass a grimace off as a sneer but gave up halfway. The sudden rush of fatigue had hit him hard and he just didn't have any will left to be difficult. "Stupid... Shino... and then you." he yawned. The gesture gave him a little boost of energy, just enough for him to articulate a sentence. "After I sleep for a month, there will be a rematch. You and me, once more. I want to fight you without that bug kid's interference, and see who really wins."

"So you noticed that, eh? Alright." Naruto said good naturedly. "That sounds fun."

Neji bit his lip. "It does... doesn't it?" he stated softly, not wanting or expecting an answer. He heard vaguely a call for intermission break just as Naruto and he crossed the threshold of the exit.

"Alrighty then..." Naruto glanced over at him, recognizing an attempt to regain the patented Hyuuga mask of indifference. "Do you want my-"

"No." Neji pulled away from Naruto, brushing dirt off of his shirt. He walked off without a word, wanting to end the match like that because his pride had taken too much of a beating. Better to be seen as a jerk than a loser.

But Naruto, as usual, couldn't let him get what he wanted. "Hey!" the blond's voice echoed in the room sharply. Neji mentally begged for Naruto to leave him alone, even as he turned around, glaring coldly at the ninja who beat him. He tilted his chin up slightly, expecting to have to hear Naruto gloat, but the direction Naruto took the conversation in took him off guard.

"Your cousin loves you, you idiot." Naruto snarled. Oddly enough, Neji sensed that the blond was more upset than angry. Why did he care?

A little bit of life stirred back in Neji's eyes as he glared at Naruto. "Such emotions are weak." he snarled back, wanting the blond to just let him lick his wounds in peace.

Naruto had won. But under a forfeit, right? Neji slowly shook his head. That didn't diminish his victory at all. Neji was forced to forfeit because Naruto was beating him. If they had continued, chances were likely that he would have won anyway. The outcome was still the same

"Oh really?" Naruto tilted his head to the side, his eyes narrowed. "I beat you under three minutes." Neji winced. Even though he had forfeited, Naruto technically won under the conditions he had set. Neji would never be able to live this one down. "No one should be able to beat a Hyuuga under three minutes. No one. But I did, for Hinata-chan."

Neji didn't seem to know what to say to that. Maybe Naruto had a point but Neji was just too tired to care. "Well, you're just unnatural." he ended up saying, his insult halfhearted. Hopefully, the jab at the blond's inner parasite would make him go away. Unfortunately for Neji, he had no such luck.

Naruto smirked, a surprising expression for him to be able to wear comfortably. "Did you see me using any of that... unnaturalness during the fight?" He stood, ignoring the wide eyed look Neji sent his way. Neji hadn't expected him to confront that can of worms so easily.

While observing Naruto's inner coil system during the match, Neji had noticed a fairly powerful seal lurking just barely on the surface of the brightly glowing veins of chakra around his stomach. He had looked at it for a moment, concentrating on the seal alone and, chillingly enough, had made out a red monstrous face grinning out at him. It had made him miss a step and gave Naruto just enough of an opening to close a chakra point in his shoulder.

Neji leaned back, his eyes clouded over. "I should hate you." he said softly, knowing Naruto would hear. "I should hate you and lead others to hate you as well." Naruto said nothing, the only visible reaction was his jaw tensing. Neji looked at the tense set of the younger boy's face before he sighed, running a hand through his long hair.

He took two steps forward, clamping a hand on the shorter boy's shoulder. He was silent for a moment, his pale eyes locked on Naruto's guarded blue ones. "...You should get someone to check that seal of yours." Neji told him quietly. He was too tired to disguise the concern in his voice.

Naruto's wary look changed to one of confusion. "What?" he blinked twice, his hand coming to rest over his stomach. "Why?"

Neji's lips pressed together. He didn't want to have to explain it, just in case someone else overheard. From what he understood about people in Naruto's situation, the less who knew about it, the better. Demon hosts were treated much worse than Branch Members. But, as Naruto was unaware of his current situation, it was up to Neji to inform him.

"Youki is bleeding into your inner coil system." Neji said bluntly. Naruto's mouthed an 'oh', before he shrugged, simply smiling at Neji.

"I know." he said. Naruto looked oddly cheerful. "But thanks for worrying about me."

A vein twitched in Neji's forehead at the younger boy's nonchalance. "I wouldn't call it worry." he snapped. He took a couple of steps away from Naruto before his stern expression relented. "Beware of-"

"Gaara." Naruto finished, his smile only widening. "I know. Don't worry about me."

Mumbling something offensive underneath his breath while still giving Naruto a concerned look, Neji walked off to the infirmary, his confused and tired mind replaying the sight of Naruto's cheerful wave.

For all of his ease and nonchalance, Neji detected something faintly false. Something was worrying Naruto, and it apparently was more important than internal damage from demon energy and an actual demon itself, for Gaara couldn't be anything but a demon in disguise.

Neji found himself reluctant to want to know what concerned Naruto. If he didn't think those two things were bad, then he did not want to come face to face with what Naruto really thought was worthy of his apprehension.

Naruto, as soon as Neji was out of sight, sighed and leaned against the wall. He tilted his head back, knowing he probably had a ten minute rest, thanks to that intermission thing that Hayate had announced just as Neji and Naruto left.

He tried to smile. It's probably to give the audience time to bet some more. Although the idea was amusing, he found himself increasingly depressed. Frustrated at himself, he yanked at his hair.

"Dammit, what's wrong with you?" he demanded softly to the empty room. "You should be ecstatic, you moron!" But he wasn't. The more time that passed, the more deathly afraid Naruto became.

The invasion was supposed to start during the first round. It had started right in the middle of Sasuke's match with Gaara and everything had gone down hill from there. But it was second round already and Naruto had yet to see hide nor hair of any Oto or Suna ninjas.

"Just what the hell is going on!" Naruto yelled, flinging his arm out to the side. His fist hit the wall with a dull thud. He made a small pathetic sound, leaning heavily against the wall. It was clearly the small genin's only support.

Naruto tried and tried to keep things as close to the true time line as possible, knowing that he would be walking in the dark if he influenced things too much. He wanted to change things, of course, he wanted to change a lot of things! But selfish as it may be, he still wanted a monopoly over the knowledge of what was to come.

So he had made very few changes, most noticeably with how he interacted with people and who lived and who didn't. He couldn't stomach having Haku die again, just as he couldn't stand letting Kabuto walk around unscathed. But what was a few deaths here and there? What was a spared life or two? Did it really effect the time line that much?

Things were now spiraling out of control. Suna was on Konoha's side, if Temari's odd comment was to be believed, and Sarutobi probably knew about the Kazekage. Sasuke was free of a curse seal, Lee wasn't in a hospital, Hinata wasn't coughing up blood... These were all good things!

But Naruto was utterly and completely lost. I have more enemies than Orochimaru. But Orochimaru was the only person he had been focusing on. I was hyper focused on that bastard, unnaturally so. Why was that? Why wasn't Naruto thinking straight? Even if I did manage to kill him, it still wouldn't stop the invasion. Too many pieces were in play. It would be like trying to stop a tsunami with a spoon. There was something unnatural going on.

"Kyuubi?" he questioned reluctantly, not really believing that the fox would force him to focus solely on killing Orochimaru. There was a general shifting in the back of his mind, a sign that Kyuubi was pulling himself out of his private thoughts so he could interfere in Naruto's own.

Hey, don't look at me, kid, the demon said calmly. I happen to hate all of your enemies equally. Snake-face doesn't get any favoritism. He paused for a moment, running his mind over Naruto's conflicting thoughts and picking up on Naruto's anxieties. You want me to do something, right?

Naruto backpedaled his thoughts to the half formed plan he had entertained. Yeah. He straightened up. Could you?

Kyuubi snorted. Of course I could. The real question is will I?

Naruto hesitated, having a hard time reading the tone behind that last question. ...Will you?

The fox became irritated. Well, have you considered the repercussions? Correctly assuming that, no, Naruto had not, he continued. Of course I could do that. Super Kage Bunshin no Jutsu works wonders at giving me a lovely if not temporary body.

You always alter the jutsu. Naruto complained petulantly.

My apologies for not wanting to be short and blond. Kyuubi said, not sounding very sorry at all. The point is, I could. But there would be a price. His voice became both softer and harsher at the same time. There are side affects of my consciousness leaving your body.

Naruto slowly nodded, wincing as he realized what Kyuubi was hinting at. Super Kage Bunshin no Jutsu (which, he reckoned, really needed a better name) was an excellent jutsu but it had taken a lot of experimenting until Naruto had gotten it down.

It hadn't been the first time he had thought of finding a way to allow Kyuubi some freedom outside of the cage that was his body but it certainly was the first time that his efforts had worked.

His super shadow clone was based on the basic principles of a regular shadow clone. A shadow clone was formed with a concentration of chakra as well as a impressment of a consciousness upon the chakra. The chakra then would take on the shape and nature of the consciousness, thus creating a clone.

Of course, Naruto quickly learned that it was fairly difficult to create a Kyuubi clone if Kyuubi himself wasn't active in the jutsu forming. Not only did the demon have to be involved in forcing his consciousness on the chakra, but he also had to contribute a large amount of youki to the formation of the clone itself. After a few trial and errors, Naruto finally got the jutsu down.

Having Kyuubi out as a clone was... odd. And distracting, to say in the least. While there was an odd emptiness at the back of Naruto's mind (since, because Kyuubi was barely more than a mass of concentrated youki, he couldn't be in two places at once), Kyuubi was usually right in his face, being obnoxious.

The first time around, Naruto had suffered through Kyuubi's sudden bout of creativity when the clone popped into existence, several feet taller than Naruto and proudly wearing a crimson red cloak with the word 'Kyuubi' displayed in flashing neon colors on his back. Naruto nearly had a heart attack, especially when Kyuubi tried to go into the village. A rough impromptu wrestling match got the demon to promise not to do it again, in fear that Naruto would never let him out again.

Despite the demon's mischievous nature (which Naruto really couldn't condemn him for since Kyuubi had been stuck in his stomach for so long), there was a lot of interesting things that could be done with his Kyuubi clone that his shadow clones just could not manage.

Since the super clone had so much youki stored in it, Kyuubi could do jutsus independent of Naruto. The shadow clones, in comparison, could only participate in or aid the real Naruto with a jutsu. Another interesting change was, while shadow clones disappeared with a hard tap or two, his Kyuubi clone could take a lot more damage, again thanks to the extra youki.

But for all of the improvements, there was many downsides. Because Kyuubi was technically 'detached' from Naruto during the duration of the jutsu, there was some unexpected side effects to his 'return'.

First of all, Naruto found himself with many unexplainable burns. Normal burns were usually a pain because Kyuubi, as a creature of fire with an innate immunity to burns, didn't know how to heal them so Naruto had to heal naturally or with the aid of a medic nin.

But these were no ordinary burns. They were burns from overexposure to youki. They didn't last long, thankfully, since he had a certain immunity to youki itself, but their sudden appearance was a little shocking. His body, thanks to the slow mixing of his chakra and Kyuubi's youki, was normally unaffected by sudden spikes in youki levels, as long as they didn't last very long. To suddenly show a normal reaction, or at least normal as in a non-host reaction, to youki was a sign of something wrong.

And, to make matters worse, Kyuubi was upset to find that he had to reattach himself to Naruto's inner coil system every time he came back. While Naruto had a faint suspicion that his reattachment was what caused the strange burns, Kyuubi was much more concerned about Naruto's general healing rates.

As it turned out, the longer Kyuubi stayed out, the longer it took for Naruto to regain his fast healing abilities. Sluggishly, they would return after Kyuubi had attached himself back to Naruto's inner coil system and after a round of burns had appeared and disappeared, sometimes taking anywhere from ten minutes to an hour.

That left Naruto vulnerable for that period of time, susceptible to death by wounds that Kyuubi would have normally healed with a blink of his eye. Kyuubi was not pleased by the revelation of that weaknesses.

You realize then, if you make me go and... clean up... Kyuubi was reluctant but willing to listen. You won't be able to heal during the duration of your fight with Shukaku?

Naruto sighed. It was hard to get irritated with someone who was worried about his health, for selfish reasons of his own or not. I can beat Gaara before Shukaku get released, easy. He said confidently. But I need you to... uh... make a preemptive strike against Oto. The outcome of this invasion is more important than this match.

That match could mean your life, as could the invasion. Kyuubi said firmly. To me, they are the same. However, Naruto could already feel him relenting and giving way. Kyuubi knew how serious he was about the invasion. Finally, Kyuubi backed down, wordlessly giving the go ahead.

Mumbling a relieved thanks, Naruto quickly made the signs for his Kage Bunshin no Jutsu. The only thing that made a Kyuubi clone different from a shadow clone was the energy he pulled up to create it. He used chakra for his shadow clones; for Kyuubi, he bypassed the chakra and dipped deep down into youki and yanked it to the surface.

A loud pop announced the arrival of Kyuubi. Naruto looked up, resisting the urge to roll his eyes. Kyuubi had apparently restrained himself this time in altering the jutsu but his creative touches were still there.

The blond clone standing across from Naruto still managed to get a whole six inches on him. Instead of being dressed in shredded and tattered clothing, the clone wore a generic black cloak over whatever he was wearing underneath. The forehead protector was distinctly missing and the clone's spiky blond hair had faint red streaks in it.

The clone ignored Naruto's tapping foot, sedately pulling out a familiar looking red mask. He tapped it once with a clawed finger and a subtle illusion went over it, changing the chilling red to a bland white. The mask looked more like an ANBU mask than it had before.

Finally, Kyuubi looked at Naruto, his red eyes glinting in faint amusement as he looked down at his host. "Allow me my simple entertainment." the demon drawled, his voice slightly raspy compare to Naruto's voice. "While you go out and play and get yourself killed."

Naruto blinked at the sour tone before smiling slyly. "I'd be careful if I were you, Kyuubi..." he drawled back. "Your human is showing."

Kyuubi snorted derisively at that. "Don't be mistaken." he pointed a clawed finger at Naruto, his gaze suddenly serious. "Your weak little body croaks and there goes my humble wish to live for a decade longer."

"There isn't anything humble about you." Naruto pointed out, a faint smile contrasting with the harsh tone. Just as Kyuubi was about to respond to that, the sound of footsteps drew their attention.

After a moment, Naruto saw Shikamaru and Sasuke making their way down the stairs. Neither looked like they were in good enough shape to start fighting each other. Sasuke's black outfit was dusty and what little of his pale skin that was visible was either dusty, bloodied up, or bruised. Even his face hadn't been spared, though the wound looked a lot better at that moment than it had before.

Shikamaru looked worse, as he hadn't had a medic nin come and fix up what she could. His vest and shirt was split open diagonally, a bit dried blood coating the edges of the cut. His face was unnaturally pale, even paler than Sasuke's. He had tension around his eyes and mouth that led Naruto to believe that Shikamaru was most likely suffering a mild case of chakra exhaustion. Naruto wasn't too surprised about that. He knew that the genin had thrown his all into his match against Kankurou.

"Hey." Shikamaru greeted first, though Sasuke had been the first to spot Naruto. Nothing else was said until the two had made their way down the stairs and to Naruto.

"Intermission's over." Sasuke informed him, his dark eyes flicking over Kyuubi. Panicking for a moment, Naruto glanced over his shoulder to see if Kyuubi's features (a little altered but still obviously Naruto's) were visible in the bad lighting. He breathed a sigh of relief when he realized that Kyuubi had pulled the ANBU mask up.

His gaze met Shikamaru's just as Sasuke passed him to go outside. The Nara only raised an eyebrow, a single gesture that spoke volumes. Naruto smiled reassuringly at him, wordlessly telling him that everything was alright.

The exhausted genin was the only other one who knew what should have been happening but wasn't. While Naruto knew that he himself would undoubtedly worry endlessly about it, he was violently opposed to Shikamaru losing sleep over it. In the end, Shikamaru saw right through him, giving him a partially annoyed but mostly empathetic shake of his head.

Naruto turned to watch them walk out. "Good luck, you guys." he whispered, knowing that they wouldn't hear. The sound of a sudden rise in cheering met his ear right before the doors closed shut. Naruto sighed, his shoulders dropping.

Kyuubi sighed, pulling off his mask. He tossed Naruto an unreadable look. "In the end, it's always about that Uchiha brat." Kyuubi muttered, turning fully towards Naruto. "Can't you just tie him up and lock him in a tower somewhere, where he won't get himself into trouble?"

Naruto sighed. "Oh, how I wish life was that easy..."

They had walked the entire way down the stairs in silence. The silence itself was only disturbed by, naturally, Naruto's appearance. Sasuke wanted to get mad at Naruto for not choosing a side (more like, not choosing his side) but he knew it was a fruitless endeavor. Naruto wasn't the sort of person to choose one friend over another and, as much as Sasuke disliked it, Shikamaru happened to be one of Naruto's friends.

Off to the side, Shikamaru yawned to himself as Sasuke stared at him out of the corner of his eye. Normally, he didn't think too much of the lazy genin but his last match had shown him just how much skill laid beneath those sleepy eyes and stubborn frown.

The light from the sun was almost blinding as they made their way out into the arena. It briefly startled Sasuke, who had to keep his head down until his eyes adjusted. He was barely aware of the hum of an excited audience waiting for what would be an interesting match.

"Nara Shikamaru verses Uchiha Sasuke." Hayate announced, cheers from the crowd directly following it. Shikamaru rubbed the side of his neck, blinking sleepily. "Alright, ready?"

"Yes." Sasuke said immediately, even though he wasn't. He knew it would take more than mindless hand to hand combat to defeat the genius. He had to think quickly and had to keep constantly in motion. Shikamaru could not be allowed to catch him in any of his shadows or it would all be over.

Shikamaru yawned. "No." he said lazily. Hayate and Sasuke blinked at him in confusion, as did the rest of the audience. Frowning a bit, Shikamaru elaborated. "Examiner, I forfeit."

"What?" the examiner and his opponent demanded immediately. Shikamaru rolled his eyes.

He put his hands out in front of him. "No chakra." he said simply in a flat 'why didn't you see this coming?' voice. "Used it all up on Kankurou. You think a genin like me can manage difficult techniques like that without breaking a sweat? Gimme a break..."

Hayate smiled sheepishly at the genin. Well that explains why the guy is so sleepy, he thought humorously. Sasuke, on the other hand, was livid.

"Why the hell did you come down here in the first place if you were going to forfeit?" he demanded angrily. Shikamaru shot him a 'don't be stupid' glare.

"What are you complaining about? You had to come down here anyway, you have a match right after this." he said logically. He waved on of his hands indifferently. "Just consider me as your escort." He cocked his head to the side. "Free of charge, of course."

"Alright then..." Hayate said slowly. He leaned back, looking up at the crowd, then at the box where the eligible genins were supposed to wait. "We can start the next match. Gaara of Suna, please come down here!"

Gaara glanced down at the jonin, his gaze somewhat cold. His eyes met Sasuke's and his eyes turned arctic. His folded arms slowly fell to his sides and, without a further pause, he backed away from the railing, most likely heading for the stairs.

"Hey, Sasuke." Shikamaru leaned back, breaking Sasuke's glare at the retreating sand nin. The sleepy boy suddenly looked alert and serious. "You should probably forfeit."

Sasuke revived his glare and turned it on Shikamaru. "Why?" he snapped, his eyes narrowed dangerously. It was a look that would have made even Naruto back off but, for some reason, the shadow user was unaffected.

Shikamaru took a step forward, lowering his voice. "There's a reason why they waited till the third round to add Gaara in." he murmured lowly. "He's not genin level, nor even chuunin level. He's a force of nature, literally, and is easily the strongest ninja in his village right now."

"Well that doesn't say much for Suna, now does it." Sasuke said, a little snippy. Shikamaru's eyes narrowed and, to Sasuke's surprise, reflected his glare right back at him at full power.

"The proctors said that there's a possibility that someone might die in this exam." Shikamaru reminded him. "Though they might try and keep that at a minimal level, it is because of people like Gaara that some have died already." Shikamaru pulled back , knowing that there was no way to talk Sasuke out of the fight. "Watch yourself then."

Sasuke watched the shadow user walk out of the ring, his narrow eyes locked on the boy's slouching shoulders. In spite of his conviction to ignore the other boy's words, he couldn't help but remember things about Gaara that he would have rather have forgotten.

There was that aura of pure death around him... and he called Naruto his prey. Sasuke's fists clenched. And then there was that girl from Oto... Kin, I think. He nearly killed her during the preliminaries, right? He thought back on Shikamaru's words, then on what the red head had used to nearly kill the Oto nin. Sand... a force of nature indeed.

"Tch." Sasuke shook his head, purging the faint fleeting feeling of fear that were building up in his mind. "He knows nothing." He looked up, his eyes blazing in determination. "Gaara is nothing."

And then, the monster of Suna walked out into the ring, his cold green eyes stealing all the warmth from the sun.

"Ayah..." Naruto paced, gripping his hair with his hands. "Not good, not good!" He jumped towards the railing, leaning dangerously over it (having not learned his lesson, apparently). His wide eyes took in the silent standoff between Sasuke and Gaara. He groaned softly. "Definitely not good..."

"What are you moaning about?" The sudden words startled Naruto more than they usually would have. He was feeling so paranoid and anxious that even the sound of a pin dropping would have made him duck for cover.

As one could imagine, Naruto nearly leapt out of his skin. "Shika!" he announced rather inanely as he whipped around. The shadow user ignored this as he walked up to Naruto's side.

Shikamaru glanced over the ring and sighed. "So he didn't take my advice..." he stated flatly. "He either has a death wish or he's just plain nuts. Take your pick."

Naruto glanced over at Shikamaru, the look in his eyes unreadable. "You... tried to stop him from fighting Gaara?" he asked softly.

Shikamaru's eyes shifted over to him. "Was that bad?" he asked, a small frown forming. "Should I have just kept my mouth shut?" His concerns were valid, as he was wondering if telling Sasuke to forfeit had drastically changed the future. Naruto immediately started shaking his head.

"No! No... I... Thank you." Naruto sighed, slumping over. He was grateful for Shikamaru's attempt even as he knew that it would have never worked. Sasuke was too prideful. He rubbed a hand over his eyes. "He's a stubborn jerk, isn't he?" The sad part about it was that he wasn't even sure if he said it fondly or in exasperation.

"Sounds like somebody else I know..." Shikamaru commented lightly. Naruto smiled weakly at the attempt to cheer him up. Shikamaru frowned, turning back towards the fight. "Well, one could only hope that he has a better sense of self preservation than you do."

Naruto's shoulders drooped further. He had a pained look on his face. "Yeah, one could only hope..." he echoed. Shikamaru patted his shoulder lightly before walking away. He certainly did not want to watch the match. Perhaps Chouji could distract him from what was most likely to be an ugly match.

As Kyuubi might have bluntly stated it (had he not been distracted by his impromptu mission), hopes and dreams mean nothing in the real world, as long as they remain merely hopes and dreams.

And, as such, Naruto's hope for Sasuke to be more conscious about his own wellbeing was, at the moment, completely futile. The well meaning hopes of another are often shadowed by the pride and stubbornness of the one. Sasuke had no intention of backing out of a fight against Gaara.

The reasoning behind his stubborn decision to fight had less to do with actually beating the genin who was considered to be the strongest of all the Suna ninjas, and more to do with the fact that the red head had called Naruto his prey.

Sasuke's eyes narrowed. I'm the one who's going to fight Naruto in the next round, not Gaara. Naruto was his friend, his teacher, his rival... Gaara didn't have the right to fight him, not like Sasuke did. I want to show Naruto all that I've learned, from him and from Kakashi. His hand fisted. I want to show him how strong I am now.

Sasuke had always found it incredibly annoying how much Naruto held back in their fights. It was easy to see when he was. Naruto wasn't the sort of fighter that calculated his every movement down to the last degree, like how Nara Shikamaru would. He was one of those people that Kakashi had told him about, ninjas with something the jonin coined as 'battle instincts', where well thought out strategy was overshadowed by quick thinking and adaptive attacks and techniques. Naruto would only step back and calculate his movements if he was planning on holding back some of his power.

Naruto never performed more than four different taijutsu attacks during each of their matches, which, once Sasuke had identified which of the four he was using, made defending a lot easier. Naruto never summoned more than three shadow clones to assist him, and never used more than chuunin level ninjutsu, even though Sasuke was well aware that Naruto, if pressed, could summon a thousand clones, and could also perform jonin level jutsus, some of which he had even taught Sasuke.

After that one mission in Wave Country, Sasuke had never seen the legendary rasengan again, nor had he been able to see Naruto's new super clone technique. After the first month of Team Seven's formation, Naruto had become all the more secretive about his abilities, even about his strange blood line that allowed him to quickly heal from even the most lethal of wounds.

This pissed Sasuke off, for more reasons than even he could give voice to. For one, he wanted to see how strong Naruto was. He respected power, as most ninjas would, and it made him angry to see Naruto trying to hide it. For another, he thought (an occasional thought that he usually tried to ignore because it was too distracting) that he and Naruto were friends. Eccentric friends, of course, but still friends. He would never admit to anyone that he valued Naruto's (and, yes, Kakashi and Sakura's too) friendship but it was still there.

He, though he wasn't an expert in the topic, had thought that friends shared secrets and told each other things. He thought that friends depended on each other and trusted their lives with each other. Naruto, being unusually furtive and ambiguous (which was really out of character for the loud blond he had known during their Academy years), seemed like he was hiding some sort of awful secret.

Without mincing any words, to Sasuke, it seemed like a huge betrayal on Naruto's part.

Sasuke, still glaring at Gaara, was distracted a little by the red head's shift in attention. No longer was the red head giving him an arctic stare but he was staring up at the genin box with a strange expression on his face. It was composed of an odd mixture of excitement and apprehension.

Sasuke followed his line of sight and realized with a jolt that Gaara was staring at Naruto. The blond, in return, only leaned over the railing with an impressively indifferent look on his face as he gazed back down on Gaara. Then, the blond's blue eyes shifted over to Sasuke. Sasuke himself was surprised by the sudden smile of encouragement.

He tried to ignore it. "Tch." he turned towards Gaara, aware that only half of the sand nin's attention was focused on him. He shook off his momentary feeling of embarrassment. Damn Naruto... acting like a mother hen... "Let's start this fight."

"Yes." Gaara said, shifting his cold gaze back to Sasuke. His face was impassive. "Let's get this over with already." Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Did the other boy really think that he'd be so easy to fight. Those cold eyes told him that yes, he really did.

Sasuke was barely aware of the jonin stepping up to him. "Uh, Uchiha..." Hayate said, his voice pitched low. "Perhaps you should forfeit-" The jonin was subject to a very icy red glare.

"No." Sasuke hissed, glancing back at Gaara. He was sick and tired of hearing people tell him that he should forfeit. Even Sakura, who rarely ever was critical of him, mentioned it. Why did everyone think he was going to lose? He was an Uchiha! Losing wasn't in his vocabulary. "I don't care what others say. I'm not forfeiting."

Hayate stared at him for a moment before sighing and backing off. "Very well then." he said, looking at Gaara, then back at Sasuke. He made a decision to keep an eye out for the last Uchiha. It was one of his responsibilities as an examiner to stop the fights if it looked like someone was going to get killed. The question is, will I even have enough time to step in? He had seen the remains of the last person Gaara had fought. The girl was still alive, but only just barely. Hayate had been the one to step in and stop the fight but by the time he did, a lot of damage had already been done.

From the cold stare that Gaara was giving him now, Hayate had a chilling feeling that the sand nin remembered how he interfered and would not tolerate it happening again. Hayate gulped, then steeled his spine. He'd just have to do it anyway, whether the demon kid liked it or not.

"Uchiha Sasuke verses Gaara of Suna." he announced, projecting his voice. The crowds started cheering. Uchiha Sasuke was a crowd favorite, even more so now that Hyuuga Neji had been knocked out of the running. Hayate took several careful steps back. "Start!"

The Oto nin paced restlessly across the floor, impatiently waiting for the signal to start the invasion. He was one of the lucky few who were already positioned within the high walls of Konoha. His job of locating and poisoning Konoha's water supply would only be made easier by his strategic location.

However, he was, regrettably, also one of the few that their leader, the great Orochimaru, could call to go on errands, such as following suspicious characters that Orochimaru wanted to keep an eye on. Normally, this was would a fairly easy job for a ninja, but he himself had never been the best at stealth. Or reconnaissance. Or fighting. Or... anything, really.

To say in the least, Orochimaru wasn't very pleased with him at the moment, but could not kill him unless he planned on alerting the ANBU any more than they already were. The Oto nin thought it was terrifying that the ANBU were the only things that were keeping him alive, but he was still determined to get back in Orochimaru's good graces, conveniently forgetting that he had never been in Orochimaru's good graces in the first place.

Certainly, doing what he told would lessen the punishment for not being able to follow a few Suna ninjas, right?

The Oto nin made a small distressed noise, quickening his pacing. Definitely not enough. He distressed over this in his mind. Perhaps if I killed some noteworthy ninja? He thought over the various noteworthy ninja he could choose from and immediately blanched. There was no way he could fight and kill the Copy Cat Nin, Tsunade, or Jiraiya. He doubted that he could even kill a blasted Hyuuga. And he couldn't just say he killed someone noteworthy because Orochimaru had an uncanny talent for being able to tell when someone was lying.

His face lit up. I could kill one of the Hyuuga children! He thought with a grin. And then, when Orochimaru-sama asks, I'll be able to tell him that I killed a Hyuuga and he wouldn't be able to detect a lie because I'll be telling the truth. Because, of course, not telling the whole truth technically wasn't lying.

The ninja grinned to himself. "I'm so smart!" he murmured, delighted.

A low voice came out of nowhere. "Is that so?" the voice asked, completely devoid of emotion. Yelping, the Oto nin turned around, wide eyes barely catching the sight of a masked ANBU before cold steel whipped across his throat.

The Oto nin clenched his fingers around his own throat, trying to stop the sudden flow of blood. He dropped down to the ground slowly, staring at the ANBU in betrayal before life finally faded out of his eyes.

"Hmm." The ANBU flicked his wrist, making the blood on his katana fly off and hit the wall. "At least this one was quiet..."

Barely a second later, another ANBU was in the room. He looked at the corpse, then at the ANBU standing over it. "Was the plan changed?" he asked the first ANBU, suspicion and curiosity warring in his voice.

"Ah, no." the first ANBU said after a moment's hesitation. His long fingers tightened around the hilt of his weapon. His voice remained mild. "Was this your hit? My apologies... They all look alike to me."

The second ANBU slowly shook his head. "No, it's fine." He was quiet for a minute, gazing down at the dead Oto nin. The second ANBU didn't think it was a very clean kill but who was he to criticize? Finally, he came to a conclusion. "Are you from Platoon Eleven?"

The first ANBU was amused. "If I told you, I'd have to kill you." he said almost playfully, sheathing his katana. At the disappearance of the weapon, the second ANBU relaxed a little.

"You sound like you're from Platoon Eleven. You all are a bunch of weirdos." the other ANBU said almost petulantly. He turned away, waving a hand. "Oh well. Makes my job easier." He disappeared almost immediately in a cloud of smoke, most likely off after his next hit.

The first ANBU stood quietly for a moment before he gently took off his mask with his clawed fingers. Calm red eyes gazed down at the growing puddle of blood. "Looks like the old man knows far more than you give him credit for, Naruto." he murmured. Kyuubi tilted his head back and stared out the window in the direction of his host.

Going right after snake face's men? Rather gutsy of you, old man... His respect of aging Hokage reluctantly went up a few points. Kyuubi's eyes narrowed. If the ANBU forces know that Oto is against them and are systematically taking them out, one by one, then... His lips stretched into a wide grin. Unlike Naruto's cheerful smiles, this grin was anything but innocent. It could only be said to be ominous and threatening. The cursed kids are mine...

"Let's see what's more terrifying, my little kiddies..." he purred, pulling up memories of the five children who had nearly killed his host and his friends. "A snake made demon or the real thing."

There was no way around a perfect defense. Hence the phrase 'perfect defense'. And yet, the Hyuuga's so called perfect defense could be easily breached, simply because Sasuke doubted that they could spin around and around forever and ever. Hyuugas were not ballerinas, despite how they looked, and they would no doubt get dizzy after spinning for a while, thus creating an open for an attack.

Naruto always said that the perfect defense was a good offense, but only crazily strong ninjas like Naruto could actually pull that off without driving themselves in a coma. It still wasn't the perfect defense. Sasuke didn't think that Naruto even understood the meaning of defense. Or self preservation.

Sasuke doubted that there was really such a thing as a 'perfect defense', just as there wasn't a 'perfect attack' or a 'perfect strategy'. There were only defenses, attacks, and strategies perfect for certain situations, but not perfect all around.

So when Gaara said that his sand defense was a perfect defense, Sasuke wasn't about to buy it. Sure, the sand was fairly annoying, always moving about and blocking his attacks. But it was sluggish and slow moving, especially to the advanced sight of Sasuke's sharingan. It only took Sasuke a few moments to start moving fast enough to get by Gaara's sand. It only took him a moment longer to get close enough to hit him.

As he jumped back to dodge a wave of sand, he knew he'd savor the look of shock on Gaara's face for a long time. There's no such thing as a perfect defense, Gaara. His smirk fell as Gaara turned back to look at him with an crazy grin on his face. And was his face about to crumble?

What the hell? Sasuke frowned. His face looks like clay! Sasuke knew he kicked Gaara pretty hard across the face (the blood coming out of Gaara's mouth was a testament to that) but he also knew that skin wasn't supposed to look like that.

There must be something over his skin... maybe a second layer of sand? Though Sasuke cringed at the thought of having a layer of sand molded to his skin, he had to admit it was a pretty good idea. But it's still not a perfect defense. He knew at least one technique that could pierce through damn near everything, even if he hadn't fully completed his training for it.

Kakashi's chidori would take him down in a second. Sasuke thought with a frown. Mine too, I guess. The last part of my training was endurance but we've only just begun. I can only manage one chidori at the moment where Kakashi can manage several. With as little chakra as I have left from my fight with Lee, if I use chidori, I'll pass out soon afterwards. I should only leave that for a last resort. His fists clenched. Dammit! He'd just have to use something else then.

The reason behind Gaara's maniac smile became known as Sasuke felt a sudden absence of heat from the sun. He whipped around, shocked to see a wave of sand behind him. He immediately hightailed it out of there, climbing a nearby wall to escape the crushing attack.

He can control sand outside of his gourd? Sasuke cursed. However, to Sasuke's great fortune, doing so seemed to drain a lot of energy out of Gaara. He won't do that often. From his high up position, Sasuke could see how much Gaara was panting after such a dangerous attack. The sand nin composed himself, smirking up at Sasuke.

He's just telling me that I have his full attention now. Sasuke realized. He hadn't had Gaara's full attention or full killer intent on him before that moment. It seemed reserved only for Naruto. He squashed the growing feeling of fear in his gut. Good. I wouldn't expect anything less than that, he told himself firmly, trying to convince himself that Gaara's full attention was a good thing.

The thing was, he knew it wasn't. Intuition and reality told him it wasn't. And, like always, they were right.

The Uchiha kid was like an annoying little gnat darting around the ring. Gaara had little patience for that sort of thing. He just wished that the brat would stay in place so he could beat him and then move on to more important things, like Naruto.

Would he consider this a breach of our terms? Gaara was distracted once more, barely noticing as his sand whipped up around him to defend against flying weapons. He shook his head. No, our terms ended the moment this exam started. He smirked. So I can kill him. Fun fun fun...

Gaara froze for a second. Wait, do I want that or is that-

Just as he was trying to figure out why he kept hearing someone laughing in his head, the leaf genin appeared right underneath his nose. Gaara's eyes barely had the chance to widen before the brat went and kicked him again, this time across his torso. Gaara went sliding back, his sand sailing back with him, trying to catch up.

He regained his footing, just to realize that Sasuke was behind him. He managed to raise his arms to block the next three attacks that Sasuke managed to get in before Gaara's sand had caught up to intercept him. Gaara's arms hurt, but not from the attacks themselves. The vibrations of the blows made his arms feel weird. It had been a while since someone was fast enough and had gotten that close to him.

Bitterly, he wished that Yashamaru had been faster in his attempt to kill him instead of just slow enough for a younger Gaara to catch and squash. At least then, being quite dead, he could had done without the endless solitude and recent confusion that was his life.

Gaara had never learned taijutsu, genjutsu, or even ninjutsu. No one wanted to teach him anything, so fearful were they that he was going to kill them. So he taught himself what he could, made up jutsus of his own, and made sure that what he could do could make up for what he couldn't. Like taijutsu, for example. His sand jutsus were perfect for defending against all attacks, and for offense, they were so far reaching that Gaara rarely had to move his feet, thus ridding him of any need to learn taijutsu.

Gaara pulled his sand closer to him, warily eying Sasuke through the grains of sand as he idly rubbed his arm. "You're so annoying." he announced, his eyes meeting Sasuke's sharingan without a flinch. "Like a pesky little bug."

He watched Sasuke's eyes narrow at the insult, then move to take in his defensive movement. Gaara knew that he would see that the sand was no longer so much of a mobile defense, but more like solid walls. Gaara could tell the second that Sasuke had come to a decision, for the boy's smirk renewed itself.

"Well, apparently this pesky little bug was enough to scare you behind a fortress." Sasuke said smugly. A vein in Gaara's temple twitched. "But I do believe I have enough chakra left in me to bring you out." Gaara's frown became more pronounced as Sasuke darted away from him, retreating to the wall.

With several quick movements, the Uchiha had nearly scaled the entirety of the wall. He turned around then, dropping down to a knee and holding out his hand in front of him. A sound that reminded Gaara vaguely of chirping birds met his ears.

Ah. Gaara understood. A running start then. He had thought that the boy was retreating but it seemed like he wasn't. Gaara gathered the sand closer to him, making the walls so clumped together that even Sasuke's quick speed couldn't get by them. He layered the walls thickly with sand, confident that he could withstand any attack Sasuke threw at him.

Faintly, he heard the call, "Chidori!" He braced for the impact, not expecting the sudden pain that quickly followed as layers of sand, skin, and muscle were pierced. For the second time during that match, Gaara felt a fog take over his mind despite his best efforts to push it back.

Shukaku...

Sasuke could practically feel the crowd jumping out of their seats but he chose to ignore it. All that mattered was the fact that he breached the so called impenetrable sand defense of his opponent.

After seeing that he could not get around the thick defenses that Gaara had deliberately put around himself, Sasuke gauged how much chakra he had left and decided that he had to use chidori. Hopefully, the attack had done Gaara at least half of the damage that it had done to his defense because Sasuke barely had enough energy to raise his head.

Stupid Lee! He thought with a scowl. If I had fought Gaara first, I'm sure that I would have won this match easily. His palm with slick with blood. Now I doubt that I'll be able to poke Naruto, let alone fight him like I want to.

Sasuke pulled away from the shattered wall, yanking his arm out of the crater it had made. Blood seeped through the hole but not as much as Sasuke would have thought. Sasuke frowned. Where did I hit him?

He made the mistake of blinking. During that fraction of a second, part of the wall detached itself and slammed into his midsection. Sasuke, completely caught off guard, was sent flying back. He quickly got up, shaking off his dizziness.

Gaara let the walls collaspe back into the ground. He was leaning far over, his head slumped down until it was almost even with his shoulders. He clamped one hand over his opposite shoulder. It was not a gesture of pain or even an attempt to stop the flow of blood. All he did was press his hand to his wound, then draw it back to stare at his coated palm as if it was the only thing in the world important to him.

Sasuke could only watch in confusion as Gaara's head slowly swung up, revealing a wide crazy smile and glowing gold eyes. "That hurt." the red head said, cocking his head to the side. Sasuke wondered why his spine seemed to freeze at the sight of Gaara's inhuman gold eyes.

It's like looking into the eyes of a wild animal... he realized, backing up slightly. The small retreat egged the beast in front of him on and the match was over before Sasuke could even comprehend what he was seeing. So fast that even his sharingan could barely see it, sand slammed him into the side of the wall, clinging to the surface like stubborn mold.

As the sand began to slowly compress his ribs into his lungs, he could only wordlessly gasp, as the sand was aggravating his older injuries that he had gotten during his fight with Lee. An ending of a different kind was quickly approaching for Sasuke. Luckily for Sasuke, he passed out before the pain could get any worse.

The crowd's script for a fun drama was collapsing around the audience's ears as their hero seemed to be on the verge of death. There were the many who simply sat and watched the collapse indifferently, but a surprising number of people gasped in horror and stood up from their seats. The few people who were closer to Sasuke than the casual observer started yelling and, in some cases, crying. The various reactions created a horrible cacophony of sound.

But all the noise was over shadowed by a single powerful bellow.

"Stop it!" Gaara, his eyes glowing unnaturally, felt his head turn despite Shukaku's desire to kill the boy in his grasp. Even drowning under a haze of youki that was gradually taking over his mind, Gaara still listened to Naruto.

The expression on Naruto's face was fierce. He was grinding his teeth together so hard that it looked like it hurt. Chakra rolled in thick waves around him and his eyes glinted dangerously. "The match is over." Naruto said slowly, sounding each syllable out strongly. "Put him down." There was a heavy pause accompanied by an even heavier silence.

Gaara closed his eyes for a moment, his forehead tensing in concentration. He opened his eyes slowly. The silence was broken by the soft sound of sand moving back to him, and by the low thud of Sasuke crumbling to the ground.

Hayate immediately darted in, scooping the boy up in his arms. He backed away from Gaara cautiously, looking like he half-expected Gaara to attack him for interfering but Gaara was no longer interested in Sasuke.

Naruto gritted his teeth. Even he thought that Sasuke would have done better than that. Note to self, work on Sasuke's stamina. He brightened up a little, realizing that Sasuke had done the exact amount of work that he had done last time under a curse seal. So he is a little stronger... He deflated quickly. Or wait, didn't the curse seal hinder him? Aah... can't remember. I was too busy trying to save Sakura.

Someone appeared right behind him. Naruto glanced over his shoulder in irritation. He was about three seconds away from jumping in the ring. He didn't have the patience to talk to someone at the moment. "Uzumaki Naruto." the jonin called out, walking to him. He put a hand on the genin's shoulder and leaned down.

"Genma?" Naruto murmured, looking confused. "What's wrong?"

Genma froze for a moment, his senbon twitching slightly in his mouth before he shook his head. "Figures you'd remember my name, and yet your teacher..." He straightened, looking serious once more. "We've gotten a hold of some information that... well..." he looked at Hayate, who was quickly retreating with Sasuke.

"Information that you should have had earlier?" Naruto prompted, seeing the look of guilt in the jonin's eyes. Genma's eyes shot back to him in his surprise. "Maybe something that could have prevented Sasuke from nearly getting killed?" The tone changed from mild to dangerous.

Genma looked sheepish. He probably wasn't used to being chided by someone who was half his height. "Well, yes." he said with a healthy dose of embarrassment before he composed himself. "Look kid-" Naruto almost smiled at the return of the less formal jonin that he had gotten to know in his future. "Here's how it is. This other kid, you see, is Suna's most powerful ninja, and it's most powerful weapon. He's um... well, he's like you, but with the ability to call forth his demon." Naruto was unimpressed with this information, considering the fact that he already knew it. Genma sighed and shook his head, mumbling something about teenagers. "Forfeit, or he'll end up killing you too."

Naruto stared at him for a long moment before he threw his head back and laughed. Genma could only look at him incredulously. Realizing that he looked like an idiot, Naruto pointed to Gaara as an explanation. "Do you think he'd let me forfeit?" he said, stuck between not wanting to be amused and wanting to laugh his head off again.

Genma straightened up to look over at Gaara, shuddering at the look of death the younger ninja gave him in return. "Uh, good point..." he mumbled. He leaned over again to talk to Naruto. The jonin gave him a reassuring smile. "But we'll protect you! Don't worry about it."

Naruto almost felt bad. Genma was genuinely concerned for his well being. Naruto knew that Genma would protect him, if Naruto asked him to, and would probably die doing so. And because he knew that Genma would do this for him without question, he had to decline.

"Thanks but no thanks." Naruto said firmly, staring down at Gaara. "I'm not going to have your death on my conscience." Genma blinked several times in surprise but Naruto ignored him.

The thought of being responsible for someone's death, someone other than an enemy or a threat, almost physically hurt Naruto. He refused to let that happen again. He refused to just sit by and watch as his village fell down all around him. He refused to allow such acts of violence and murder that had been a part of his everyday life in the future happen again.

"Besides, I kinda owe this fight to Gaara." Naruto said out loud. And he did, for many reasons. For not fighting him before when Gaara clearly wanted to, for Gaara becoming Kazekage and helping Konoha out with Oto, for Gaara being his close friend and confidant later on in life, and for Gaara promising to take care of the people he would leave behind in a suicidal attempt to stop the war from ever happening. "I owe Gaara a lot." He turned to Genma with a faint smile. "Don't you have something else to do?"

I owe Gaara for everything he's ever done for me, and for anyone else. I owe him for getting himself out of the bad path he had chosen, just so I could see that not every demon host's life ended badly. But most of all, I owe him his life. He smiled sadly to himself as he turned away from Genma, leaping right over the railing. Even if I have to shove it in his bewildered and rebellious face, he's going to take it back and start living again, dammit.

Gaara knew he didn't have very long left. The wound in his shoulder wasn't fatal, though it probably needed to be tended to. He still had most of his chakra. He had plenty of energy and stamina left. But he still had very little time left before he lost.

Gaara didn't care about the match. Winning, losing, chuunin status, or genin status forever... That wasn't what he was concerned about. As far as he was concerned, the more important battle was in his head.

Shukaku and Gaara were rarely ever conflicted with one another. Shukaku wanted to kill something, well so did Gaara. Shukaku hated the world, Gaara hated it just as much. They were birds of a feather. Because they rarely ever fought, Gaara wasn't half as aware of his demon as Naruto was of Kyuubi. The most Gaara was aware of occasionally was of his sense of self fading underneath a stronger mental power, and then the next thing he was usually aware of was being covered in blood.

Shukaku and Gaara, Gaara and Shukaku... the villagers of Suna considered them to be one and the same. Was it that much of a surprise that Gaara had actually agreed with them?

It wasn't until Uzumaki Naruto's appearance in his life that he had begun to think differently. Gaara could trace his disturbing sense of individuality to that night not so long ago when he had the bright idea to break into Naruto's house in the middle of the night.

Gaara knew that his confusion was all of Naruto's fault. Naruto was the one who planted all of those strange ideas in his head. Who cared who he was outside of being the host of Shukaku? No one. No one but Naruto. And now Gaara.

Gaara grabbed his head, forcing Shukaku back so that he could think clearly. The demon had nearly surfaced twice during the match against Naruto's teammate (whatever his name was) and Gaara was hard pressed to keep him down at the moment, where there was more interesting prey wandering about.

Not only did Gaara blame Naruto for his confusion, but he also blamed the blond for making him want to fight Naruto. There was a big difference fighting and killing. Before Naruto, Gaara would have been content to just let Shukaku kill the blond in a rampage since he believed himself to practically be Shukaku anyway.

Now, Gaara actually wanted to fight the blond himself. Fight, not kill. Shukaku battering at his fragile control was not helping matters at all. It was only a matter of time before Shukaku won and took over, most likely wiping out half of Konoha in the process.

He didn't find the imminent destruction as concerning as the worrying thought that Naruto might be killed by the demon. He tried to squash that feeling, not wanting to admit that, for the first time in his life, he saw more worth in having someone live than just killing them because he could.

At least if Naruto lived, Gaara would know who to go to whenever he was feeling particularly violent or lonely. If Naruto died, the world would shrink back down into the single category known simply as 'People I'm going to kill'.

Gaara really hated Naruto for complicating things. His was the simple life: kill or be killed. Now it was neither kill nor be killed. He could tell by looking into Naruto's eyes that the genin didn't want to kill him and Gaara, to his own personal embarrassment, didn't really want to kill him either.

This would have probably been an interesting fight. Gaara thought bitterly. It might have involved into an interesting if not inconvenient friendship. But Shukaku, as usual, will destroy my life before it even starts.

Gaara would try and hold off his demon for as long as possible, but he knew that Shukaku would make his appearance sooner or later. Sooner or later, the small buds of hope growing in his mind would be squashed and everyone would die. Sooner or later, Gaara was going to wake up to a silent abyss, a bloody crater that used to be a town that another demon host had loved against all odds. And he knew that the faint foreign stirrings of guilt he was feeling at the moment for thinking of doing such a horrible thing would be overshadowed by the horror he would feel soon in the aftermath, knowing that what little hope he had for a future had been completely demolished.

Gaara hadn't felt so helpless and lost since he was a child.

TBC

This chapter ran on too long. Next chapter will be interesting, I think. : ) This was the raw version of the chapter, so I'm aware that there's probably a lot of awkward wordings and misspellings and grammar mistakes. If they're painfully obvious, do me a favor and point them out.