Naruto and shino reached the arena together and other contestants are already present there except sasuke and dosu . Neji is glaring naruto with a hateful expression . Contestants look at each other to measure their strength with their own eyes.
" Let the finals of chunin exam begin, " Hokage did the announcement for beginning of the final exam . People are getting crazy to see a live action between ninjas.
" I am your proctor of the final phase of chunin exam . My name is shiranui genma . I am a special jonin of leaf village . My decisions will be final . No killing is allowed infront of this many people ," Genma explained the rules to the participants. In this crowd their are a lot of vip and damiyos sitting with people. They can provide a lot of missions to ninja villages directly or indirectly .
" Now only the participant of the first match should remain here. Naruto uzumaki and neji hyuga you are facing each other in first match ," genma said to them.
All the other participants left to the waiting area in the stands. Announcement was already made about the first match between naruto and neji . Some changes were made because of dosu's absence in chunin exam. He was killed by gaara when dosu attacked him. Not even his bones were left after he curshed him in his sand coffin.
" Kazekage san we shall begin the first match . Its almost time to start the finals ," Hokage said to fake kazekage.
" Hokage dono you are right , its almost time. I am hoping to see the last uchiha in action soon against my son . I have not seen him with the other participants earlier. You can give the signal to start , " Fake kazekage said to hokage. His face is covered and people can only see his eyes. He has big plans for the konoha today but after he watch the sasuke's match . He patiently waiting for that moment. Hokage signaled a start for the matches.
" Begin " Genma said to both naruto and neji. Neji didn't wasted anytime and rushed towards naruto to give him a terrible defeat. He activated his byakugan and saw that naruto is collecting chakra in his hand.
Naruto collected chakra in his both hand . He made that chakra more denser . Neji started to attack his chakra path but naruto started blocking his gentle fists with his hands .
" How are you blocking gentle fist style with your hands ," neji asked after seeing naruto not taking any damage from it. He didn't stop to attack him. Naruto is continously blocking his gentle fists with his hands .
" Quite simple , you are using raw chakra to attack my chakra points with both your hands . You trained it like a sword piercing your target with your style . So I also practiced using raw chakra to block anything with hands only. Its raw chakra versus raw chakra , how do you like it ," Naruto said while blocking his attacks . Whenever their hands clash with each other they produce sparks of chakra .
" What the hell naruto is doing ," kiba couldn't understand why naruto is close combating with neji. Its highly dangerous move against a hyuga .
" Well that's impressive , I have never seen neji this much frustrated in a battle . By this time I would have been defeated by him ," Lee said to kiba . Kiba was surprised to see lee in a very healthy condition . Lee reached the arena with gai just on time .
Hyuga clan members couldn't believe their eyes .Even in their dreams they never thought someone can block their gentle fists with hands .
Naruto grabbed neji right hand fingers with his left hand fingers and started to do handseals with it, while other hand blocked his left hand attacks . Neji knew what kind of jutsu he is going to use on him. Neji immediately made some distance between them.
" Fire ball jutsu "
Neji immediately start rotating himself in a sphere of chakra to protect himself from fire ball jutsu . He stopped when naruto stopped his fire ball jutsu.
" Naruto used opponents hands to make handseals thats a plus for him in the battle . That hyuga boy used rotation which is a main branch secret jutsu which surprised me ," kurenai said to asuma . Kurenai is happy that neji is getting paid for what he did to hinata . Asuma is surprised by this kind of tactic by naruto.
Even shikamaru is amazed by naruto's tactic . And other participants were nervous how flawlessly naruto is toying with neji . Now whole audience is silent . They thought naruto will be defeated in few minutes but he countered every gentle fist attack neji throw at him.
Hanabi was amazed by how his cousin and naruto's battling each other . Most shocking moment for her and hyuga members was when neji did rotation infront of everyone .
" I can't believe he forced neji into using his ultimate defense ," Tenten thought it was easy win for neji like everyone but reality is different this time around.
"Even I cannot imagined neji nii san will know kaiten which is a main family secret jutsu . Naruto kun has definetly more tricks up his sleeves . He looks way too relaxed than usual ," Hinata said to her classmates and tenten . She is amazed by their fight . Ino and sakura were silent because they didn't know what to say after watching the match .
" Enough already I cannot hold back now , You are in my range ," Neji took a different fighting stance . Hyuga clan people were shocked at his change of battle stance . At the same time naruto's aura changed and it mixed with his chakra and mental energy.
" 4 palms"
"8 palms"
"16 palms"
" 32 palms"
"64 palms , I won naruto , fate is on my side, proctor please call the match, he is not in any condition to battle me " neji smirked and almost thought he won the match. Everyone thought the same.
" It tickles quite a lot , Its your best move or anything else you want to try ," Naruto reaction was not what anyone expected . He moved and looked back at neji .
'Thank god it worked even against his gentle fist . It will not affect my movement , I should put more energy in it and see what happens, ' naruto thought and started to put more energy around his body.
A blue outline is fromed all around naruto's body . It shocked hyuga's that 64 palms were block by a child . Orochimaru was surprised too.
' I make the right decision on that day when attacking his team . That's why I attacked his team when he left them alone. He would have delayed me and would have stopped me from giving him curse mark. He has lot of potential even as a child he is monster like itachi . He is a dangerous child I cannot see fear in his eyes ," Orochimaru has other thoughts going in his head. He has a cruel smile inside his mask.
In the arena naruto is getting impatient when he saw neji is not doing any new moves.
" What is that ," neji asked him after getting frustrated that his palm attacks didn't work on him. He tried many times but then naruto moves and giving him clear signal that his moves are useless against him.
" Its my aura defence , it blocks everything harmful reaching towards me . Its my ultimate defence which I wanted to test against your style. You can clearly see how it works. Its even more powerful than your kaiten and gaara's sand armour . I can clearly say its the best defence in the world right now ," naruto said to neji with a mocking smile . Neji didn't want to give up against him . He tried to attack again and again with his gentle fist style . Now he is waiting for naruto to run out of his chakra. He tried to give him a shock by his kaiten .
Naruto made some distance and start to do handseals .
" water style : water bubble jutsu, " Naruto opened his mouth and a large number of bubbles he aimed towards neji .
Neji didn't want to risk anything so he did kaiten to protect himself from bubbles. But this water bubbles did not burst like other bubbles . It became water and started to spread on the arena ground. Soon whole stadium was filled with water.
Naruto did something unexpected he started to collect lightning in his hand without handseals . Raw lightning is dancing in his right hand. He pulled his right hand backward and then thurst his right hand palm forward in the direction of neji.
" Lightning palm, " Naruto said and the lightning which looks like a big palm made of lightning left his hand and travelled towards neji and shocked him in his place . He tried kaiten but he is wet from the water and he got the shock of his life. He become unconscious .
Genma saw this and came down to announce the result but as aoon as he touched the water he got shock by remaining lightning inside the water . He looked at naruto as if he wanted an answer.
" How are you standing without any shock, " Genma asked naruto and looked at him in a way that he will not announce the result if he will not answer the question .
" Its because of my aura defence , it protects from the sole of my feet till the hair of my head. So lightning effect is nullified ," naruto explained him and waiting for the result .
" Winner : naruto uzumaki, " genma announced the result of first match . Everyone was silent . In the beginning no one expected him to win . Then a round of applause was heard from audience for him .Naruto didn't show any emotions on his face and walked towards the waiting stands of participants .
" Next participants sasuke and gaara can come down, " genma said after looking towards waiting stands of participants. People were waiting for this match . Now all hokage wanted to delay this match as long as possible . Kakashi deliberately made sasuke late for this match . Orochimaru didn't want the match between gaara and sasuke to get cancelled.
" Hokage dono people are waiting for him but it seems he will be late . Could you postpone his match for the timing and made it the last match ," Orochimaru wants to see the match of sasuke to understand how much he progressed after the curse mark he gave him .
" It would be unfair to others if we postpone his match and wait for him . Don't you think kazekage kun ," hokage countered fake kagekage with his words. Hokage is not making it easy for orochimaru to get what he want .
" Hokage dono please see in the audience . You can see a lot of vip, businessmen and damiyos are sitting here to see the strength of genins produced by ninja villages . They want to see the last uchiha and for that they travelled from there home town to here . I personally came to see the match between my son and the last uchiha . I hope you consider it ," Orochimaru as the fake kazekage said to hokage . He knows hokage will not gamble with his village honour on the line .
" If you say like that then I have to reconsider it kazekage kun, " Third hokage said to fake kazekage . Then he signaled his anbu to go and inform the decision made by him to genma . The anbu leaves without delay.
Genma was waiting in arena for the participants and hokage's signal to disqualify sasuke . An anbu arrives and tells the decision of hokage to him in his ear and leave the arena soon after that . Gaara is already on the arena for the match.
" The match between sasuke and gaara is postponed and will be held as the last match . So the next participant shino aburame and kankuro will have the second match. So please come down and gaara can leave the arena for timing ," Genma announced the change to gaara and to audience. Gaara didn't waste any time he left to the waiting stand of participants.
Kankuro is now in dilemma he thought that he doesn't have to fight with anyone as the invasion can begin at anytime . They all are waiting for the signal from kazekage. Kankuro cannot expose his puppet as it will show all his tricks.
" I forfeit the match . My puppets are not ready to face anyone, " Kankuro said to genma from the stands . Audience couldn't understand why he came here in first place if his puppets are not ready . They start abusing him with all kinds of word.
" O. k winner of this match is shino aburame . He advances to next round . Now we have to move on another match. The next match is between shikamaru nara and temari . Come and take your places ," Genma announced it to participants and audience .
Shino was shocked because he already planted his bugs on kankuro as a precaution and he knows that he has poisons on his puppets but why would he forfeit the match.
Shikamaru is another person who is in dilemma he has to fight another girl because that dosu guy didn't arrive on time . He is not happy with the decision made by hokage in favour of sasuke. Sasuke gets a time break while he has to fight a girl not in the last match but the second match . Sasuke created a troublesome situation for him .
Temari didn't like to forfeit her match even if she has battle this village afterwards . She jumped from the balcony and landed on the arena. She is waiting for shikamaru and still waiting. Shikamaru walked slowly without a care in the world . He entered in the arena with his usual bored expression .
" So I get a lazy ass to beat today ," Temari said to shikamaru . Shikamaru didn't reply but gave her a bored look. Temari didn't like his lazy expression. Shikamaru is looking at the water which still remained in the field after naruto did his last attack and it has its own shadows because of the position of sun .
"Begin ," Genma said to both of them . As soon as the match started temari unfolded her fan and started her attack .
Shikamaru hid himself behind the trees . Temari threw shurikens on him but shikamaru jumped on other tree . Temari started blowing the wind from her fan . She is slicing the trees. Suddenly a shadow is approaching her and she jumped backwards. Shikamaru shadow twisted and directed temari in a certain direction to jump. His shadow stopped . And temari marked his shadow's limit. Shikamaru jumped out of the tree and ran as fast as he could while doing hand seals . Temari jumped back but slipped on the water left behind by naruto . She cursed her luck. Shikamaru captured her in shadow possession jutsu .
" How the hell did you manage to capture me I checked your shadow length ," temari said to shikamaru . Shikamaru bored expression changed into a smile.
" Always watch your surrounding . Even water puddle can leave the shadows and this place is full of water puddles . That's one advantage for me ," Shikamaru said to her . He put his hand on the empty pocket like searching something . Temari did the same and grabbed the kunai . Shikamaru put his empty hand on his throat like he is about to slit his neck and temari did the same but with kunai .
" Surrender or die . I still have a lot of chakra left to maintain this for 10 minutes. You lose ,"Shikamaru said to temari. And temari surrendered to shikamaru this time. She didn't want to die before the battle . Genma looked like he was impressed .
Shikamaru went and took his kunai and shuriken from behind a sliced tree . Everyone jaw dropped because they finally knew how he charged toward her without a shuriken and kunai . It was a trap created by shikamaru, a well made trap . Everyone is impressed. They made a round of applause for him.
" Winner : Shikamaru nara . Next match is between sasuke and gaara. Please come to arena ," Genma said while facing the stands . He looked at the shikamaru who is going back to waiting stands .
Ino and chouji were surprised by his change .They both had thought he will give up at the last moment . Now the two back benchers naruto and shikamaru who almost skipped most of the class have advanced to chunin semifinals with shino the silent guy of class . Konoha rookies couldn't believe what's happening in exam .
" What the hell is happening ino , they never took the class seriously except shino and now they both are in semifinals . Whatever we learned in academy is not enough for us ," sakura could not stop complaining about the irony which is happening with them.
" It was not the academy that we have to take seriously sakura but the life itself . They both understood that fact If I may guess . What do you say chouji ?" Ino is shocked as well. She couldn't grasp what's going in the head of both shikamaru and naruto .
" I think shikamaru didn't want to take the exam for second time . He said to me its very troublesome to take exam for another year. Maybe he can become chunin this year and get rid of this genin exam forever . That has to be his plan . Oh my god I have to take genin exam all over again with you ," Chouji said to them and he instantly became worried about next exam . He remember the lack of food in the forest of death even now. Even if it was for one day it was a painful experience for him .
" You are right chouji both naruto and shikamaru are definitely going to be chunin this year after showing such brilliant performance . As for shino he was unable to show anything because his opponent forfeited the match . He won the match but he didn't show anything as the performance to impress the judges. I hope he will do something in semifinals, " Asuma said to genins . All the rookie genin heard him and now they knew that they were never ready for the main exam but those who passed the preliminary were already prepared and knew when they have to get serious.
" Don't worry about the next chunin exam you have plenty of time for that . You just have to be prepared for anything like them . No matter what you throw at them they will overcome it easily ," kurenai said to them . She knew the hardships of the genin more than anyone .
" That means sasuke kun will become chunin too this year ," Sakura said that expecting the answer should be in sasuke's favour .
" I don't think he can become chunin this year . He is already late which is not a disciplined behaviour especially during chunin exam. Naruto and shikamaru can lead the group with ease which is a huge factor in becoming chunin . They make plans after thinking about others and play according to the team . I don't think sasuke is ready to lead a group . His ego and pride let him down in social interaction a huge minus in becoming a chunin. He has skills but not a chunin material right now ," Gai said to them . If he see according to chunin selection procedure only naruto and shikamaru fit the category right now . Ino and sakura wanted to defend sasuke but couldn't because sasuke never interacted freely with anyone because of his pride and that's a truth .
Inside the arena suddenly two figure emerged with the leaf flying around them . It was sasuke and kakashi. They look at genma who look at them with annoyed expression.
" I hope we are not late proctor genma ," Kakashi asked genma with his famous eye smile.
" Your match is postponed already and it became the last match. You arrived just in time for your match. By the way your other student is already in semifinals. He defeated neji hyuga easily . Other than him shikamaru nara and shino aburame advanced to semifinals. Only sasuke's match is left with gaara ," Genma told kakashi . Genma is impressed with both naruto and shikamaru's performance.
Kakashi left the arena and went near the place where all the other jonin sensei were waiting for him. He greeted everyone and like always gave them an eye smile . Gai in response gave him his shining teeth smile .
" You are late kakashi sensei half of the matches are already finished ," Sakura said to kakashi .
" We were busy sakura , so how was the naruto's match ," Kakashi asked sakura but gai answered the following question .
" You would have seen his aura defence and his lightning palm. He created his two original jutsu which decimated neji . His lightning palm is just like chidori but he can cast it without handseals and he can throw it from a distance to his enemy. Even though neji is my student and he lost this match but it is his first loss. Now atleast he can stop talking about the fate and can embrace a new path in life ," Gai said to kakashi . Kakashi is shocked after hearing this new information . He missed a great chance to see a new jutsu.
In the arena the match is about to start . Gaara is quite impatient after waiting for this match . Genma gave them the signal to begin .
Gaara gives a mocking smile to sasuke. His sand immediately start to leave his gourd and starts to spread around him . Suddenly gaara's concentration breaks and he starts talking with his tailed beast shukaku.
"Mother I am sorry for the awful blood you tasted last time . This one is strong and you will like his uchiha blood ," Gaara said to shukaku but for everyone he is talking to himself. Sasuke thought he is insane and he made some distance between the two of them .
Sasuke jumped in air and throw the shurikens towards gaara . Gaara 's sand blocked it and it turned into the sand clone of gaara . He threw back the shuriken to sasuke who dodged it easily . Sasuke activated his sharingan to read all his movements .
Sasuke punched the sand clone but he grabbed it . But sasuke destroyed the sand clone with a round house kick soon after that . He reached close to gaara and tried to kick him but blocked by sand . So he accelerated his speed which he practiced during one month training and he imitated the style of lee and start attacking gaara.
Gaara recognized the style of lee . After all he is the only person who can hit him with such ease. Sasuke dodged all the sand attack and landed a solid hit on gaara in the rock lee style . Gaara pushed back by the punch and his sand armor around face is broken .
Gaara starts to collect the sand all around him as an shield which looks like a football. And soon after that a small sand eye is seen above the sand shield . Sasuke attacks the shield but it didn't even budge from its place . Sasuke got injured because of it . Gaara's sand is producing big spikes to injure sasuke if he gets too close .
" Damn what is this sand made up from , it is so hard ," sasuke said while bleeding from hands and legs. Sasuke made some distance between them. He literally jumped on the walls of empty side of stadium and did some hand signs . He started collecting chakra in his hand and it became visible to naked eyes . It became chidori and he started running towards gaara and avoiding the big spikes which is produced by gaara from the sand egg . He plunged his hand inside the hard shell of sand and it injured gaara .
" Blood, its my blood, " Gaara said from inside . Scaring the shit out of everyone from sand . Sasuke broke free from his sand and a hand of shukaku chased him which later retreated . From the hole of sand sasuke saw a different kind of eye, an eye of a demon . Sasuke was scared for few minutes . The shell of egg broken down and an injured gaara emerged out of it .
Everyone in the audience became silent after seeing this kind of match till all started to fell asleep for some reason . Kazekage looked at hokage and said something to his men behind him . His men ran forward and threw a smoke bomb as a signal .
But someone changed its direction with his sword and send it up above the air . The war has begun after the signal . A war in which konoha is alone . While sand village has allied with sound village to decimate konoha .