The crowd stayed silent even when the judge announced the victor. Nobody dared say a word as Dix walked off the stage to take his place at the viewing platforms. Soon a team of medical ninjas arrived to take care of Neji, but even those came late as they were stunned the same way as anyone else.
"Remarkable..." said Hiruzen next to the Kazekage at the top of the middle building. That one turned to the side to look at the Third.
"It seems like there is someone quite special in the younger generation, you are quite lucky to have such capable young ninjas, Lord Hokage."
"It would seem so." came the mumbling reply. Hiruzen had much to think about.
When Neji was escorted away the judge announced the next fight and asked the competitors to get on stage. Sasuke was supposed to fight with Gaara, but former was nowhere to be seen. They waited out a bit, and the Hokage was about to disqualify him, when the Kazekage started insisting on waiting. Thus Hiruzen was forced to make a special decision and put Sasuke's match to the last place and continue with the tournament.
Soon the judge announced the news and the crowd went wild after the long silence that was before that. Soon everyone forgot the shock they experienced and were looking forward to the fight of the last Uchiha.
Next the judge asked the next match's pair to come down and take their places. It was a fight between Shino and Kankuro. The crowd started to settle down, but then again they got riled up. Kankuro didn't want to reveal his trump cards before the invasion starts, so he admitted defeat even before he set foot on the stage. He was showered with shouts and badmouthing, but he didn't care.
The judge was very visibly annoyed, but there was nothing to do. He announced the 'results', then asked the next pair to move. It was the turn of Shikamaru and Temari. The latter pulled out her fan and used wind release to fly down from the waiting room right away. Shikamaru had a bit of inhibition and didn't really want to move, but Dix cheered him on a bit, at which he was willing to pick up the pace. In the anime Naruto had to push Shikamaru off from the waiting room onto the stage, which was a long fall, and also didn't correspond with Dix's style. He was prepared to teleport him on stage with FTGT, but fortunately that wasn't needed.
Even though Temari was quite hot-blooded for some reason this time she waited it out until Shikamaru arrived and took his position. Soon the judge gave the go, at which Temari attacked right away with her wind, while Shikamaru retreated to the shadowy regions of the arena and hid.
The arena was a round building with really high walls. Inside the terrain was mostly flat with a few natural object in it, like trees and bushes, so Shikamaru had many places where he could hide. In the original Naruto made a tunnel between two holes in the ground, which Shikamaru would've used to give the checkmate, but were now missing, so he had to think of something else with less options to choose from.
Temari on the other hand was a long-range fighter specialist, this distance was the best for her, so it would only take time until she completely overwhelms Shikamaru or destroys all the covers he could hide at.
This time Shikamaru used the same parachute method he used in the anime, but instead of making it a bait, as it was his best trump-card, he change it around a bit. Even though Kankuro noticed it once again and informed Temari, the attack was deployed in a way she was unable to react to fast enough. Temari already put down her fan to block view of her, so she can make an effective attack, but because of this she was unable to see how the parachute will be a staging area for the next attack.
Even though technically Shikamaru won, when he successfully possessed Temari with his shadow it soon dissolved on its own. Nobody really understood what happened, but Shikamaru raised his hand and admitted defeat, saying he ran out of chakra. If he strained himself a bit he should've been able to quickly knock Temari out, but he was a lazy guy, also he didn't care much about the fight. For him it was simply a fun puzzle to solve.
The last few matches were quick to finish, and Sasuke was still nowhere to be seen. He was supposed to fight next, but he was still away. Even though he was given a lot of time, he didn't show up, so the Hokage wanted to kick him out of the tournament, but once again the Kazekage insisted on waiting a bit more.
After a few minutes the judge was about to announce Sasuke's disqualification, when suddenly magical leaves started falling from some unknown place in the middle of the arena. There were no trees around whatsoever, but that wasn't really important. Suddenly Sasuke and Kakashi appeared between the leaves, with their back to each other, just to maximize the coolness of their entry.
Sasuke was wearing new clothes, his old white-blue style outfit was probably damaged during his training with Kakashi, so he got a change, which was full black with the Uchiha's emblem on his back. Sasuke was the king of emo ever since he had his family massacred, who knows why, but with this new outfit he transformed into the Lord of Edge himself. Black hair, black eyes, black clothing. The only non-black thing about him except his skin were some white clothes on his limbs, which were there due to the extensive training he did.
As Sasuke arrived Gaara was ordered to enter the arena. He opted to leisurely walk down the stairs, where he was a bit delayed. He was 'attacked' by two low level ninjas who were trying to boycott the next match for their lord. Gaara stopped walking, and 'listened' to them. For some reason he waited around a bit, then released his sand and left behind a few bodies the next second. Just like in the anime Shikamaru and Dix were on their way back to the viewing platform and witnessed everything Gaara did. The former was quite shocked, while the latter was disappointed at his fellow Jinchuuriki's low efficiency.
"This doesn't look good for Sasuke... We have to help him somehow..." said Shikamaru, still panting after what he had seen.
"Nah, he will be alright, trust me. Or if not, I can protect him, easily." came the nonchalant answer.
"Yeah, I can believe that. Actually, how are you so strong?" Shikamaru asked, more like a joke, as he never actually wanted to know his friend's secrets. He believed they were hidden for a reason.
"Hehe, you haven't seen anything yet." At this Shikamaru raised an eyebrow and looked questioningly at Dix, who didn't comment anymore, just laughed a bit.
"Lets go..." Shikamaru ended the conversation.
All the while Gaara finally reached the stage and stood a few meters in front of Sasuke. Everyone was ready and the crowd turned completely silent once again. Soon the judge walked next to them, and gave the signal.
"Begin!" he shouted then jumped back right away.
Gaara began releasing his sand, at which Sasuke rushed to create some distance between them. It seemed like the sand will attack right away, but suddenly it stopped, as Gaara started struggling with his unstable state of mind. Soon he got his shit together, and was ready to fight.
Sasuke began by throwing a few shurikens which were all caught by the sand, that turned into a sand clone soon. Sasuke had a bit of fight with it, but it could only resist for so long. Next a direct attack was approaching Gaara that was supposed to be blocked by the automatic sand shield, but Sasuke pulled a fast one on him, and by mimicking Lee's moves with his sharingan he was able to bypass the sand shield with his new speed he trained trough the past last few weeks.
In the anime somehow Sasuke was able to completely mimic Lee's fighting style, even though he only saw it for a few minutes when they fought back before even the first exam began. Well, that't not really whats important. Right now Sasuke had a valid reason to know how Lee fights, because he was actually there at the preliminaries. Gaara was being pushed into a corner as he kept taking hit after hit without being able to retaliate or defend against them. Soon he had enough and he formed a huge ball around him with the sand. He activated his Absolute Defense.
When Sasuke tried to use his fist against the ball it suddenly grew spikes on it and injured him. He retreated a bit, but Gaara didn't show any signs of leaving the ball, so Sasuke decided to one up his game. As his opponent was sealed away, just defending without attacking, he jumped back all the way to the wall, then jumped on it to make completely sure he isn't caught by surprised while he focuses on his new jutsu.
After a few seconds of intense concentration and a few handsigns, lightning-based chakra started heavily concentrating in his left arm, followed by a sound that was similar to many birds chirping at once. It was the Chidori, Kakashi's only original technique, which he passed down to Sasuke. To use it he needed speed and good reaction time, something which was provided to him by his sharingan. Attacking with the Chidori leaves the user vulnerable to counter-attacks, but if it finds its target then it can cause great destruction.
Sasuke attacked with his Chidori, evaded the spikes that were in the way at Gaara's ball and made his technique successfully connect with his enemy. Next Gaara painfully cried out. It was a bit sad hearing it, but whoever knew Gaara's real personality couldn't really feel pity. What they really thought was the absurdity of the situation. No one managed to injure Gaara before, so this was kind of a shock for them.
Sasuke tried to retreat after his finished attack, but found himself stuck in the hole he himself made in the sand ball. It was trying to keep him there, but didn't actually start killing him right away. Because of this Sasuke had a bit of time to whip up another Chidori that started electrocuting Gaara inside. Gaara kept screaming in agony, and was unable to keep a hold of Sasuke, who managed to slip away from the death trap he was stuck in.
What tried to go after the fleeing Sasuke wasn't simply sand. It was more like the hand of a Lovecraftian monster. Everyone in and around the arena got shivers sent down their spines, but that was only the beginning. The long flailing arm soon retracted, but the hole in the ball didn't close, so Sasuke was able to see the monster writhing inside. Suddenly the eye of the horror looked at him from within. Next a loud, high-pitched monstrous screech was heard.
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