48 Finals Part 2

"Shikamaru versus Temari!" Temari jumped down and used her wind Chakra and her fan to slow her descent. Hayate called out Shikamaru again as the crowd began complaining while they waited for him, he was busy looking over the field from the stands contemplating whether he would forfeit or not.

Seeing his fidgety disposition Naruto wrongly assumed that Shikamaru was eager to get started, with a "Go get Shikamaru!" he shoved him into the arena. Landing on his back he looked up to the clouds and thought, how free and lucky they are. The match played out similar to the original time line. Temari attacked him when for being too slow to get up, but he reacted quickly as he dodged at the last moment, deciding he doesn't want to lose to a girl, he began to fight seriously.

Shikamaru retreated to the cover of some nearby trees and used the threat of his Shadow Possession Jutsu to force Temari to keep her distance. When she ascertained his shadow's maximum reach, Temari marked a line into the ground and began her battle of attrition.

Shikamaru sat down, closed his eyes and placed his hand into on top of one another and cupped his fingers while placing his thumbs together. Doing this many people thought that he was using a new hand sign, when Asuma explained that this was his thinking posture and how he formulates his strategies.

Temari not wanting to him to complete whatever Jutsu she thought he was performing and started attacking from afar with her Giant Folding Fan. Before the attack landed he took shelter behind the trees, and struck out with his shadow again, this time it extended farther than before rapidly closing in towards her body. The setting sun lengthened his shadow's range and forced Temari to dodge it, he continued to attempt to let his shadow reach farther by making a parachute out of his shirt, headband, and Kunai. The shadow from the air born object extended his reach a little further, forcing her to repeatedly move away from him to avoid it.

She attempted to finish the fight quickly, expecting things will only become easier for Shikamaru as the fight goes on, when she suddenly found herself somehow already caught by Shikamaru's technique. Throughout the whole battle Shikamaru has been maneuvering her towards a hole in the ground that Hinata created during her earlier match with Sakura, which in turn allowed him to catch her with his shadow from by sneaking up behind her.

Shikamaru approached Temari, apparently to deliver a finishing blow, when he raised his hand Temari flinched as he forfeited instead. He claimed that, even if he won this match, he's spent too much chakra to be able to safely fight in later matches. The observing older ninja are impressed by the wisdom of this decision. Naruto however, was upset by this and entered the arena as he began accusing Shikamaru of being stupid for throwing the match.

Temari didn't approve of his forfeiting either as she berated him he shrugged his shoulders and said "What a drag." Shikamaru then looked to Naruto and said, "You're up next, be careful Shino is a lot stronger than he lets on." Naruto grinned and said "So am I" He looked to Shino who appeared as the announcer called his name.

"Naruto versus Shino!" Naruto walked up to Shino and the two shook hands, as the match began Shino spread his Chakra eating insects all around his body. Naruto threw some Shuriken and as they approached they turned into large windmill Shuriken through Naruto's transformation Jutsu. Shino dodged and sent out a sphere of insects to try and swallow Naruto, Naruto smiled as he placed his hand out in front of himself and gathered the chakra into a Rasengan, both the Hokage and the Kazekage's eyes bulged, so did every experienced Leaf Nin in the audience.

"Naruto can use the 4th technique! Does he know? Did Jiraiya tell him?" Sarutobi was felt mixed up inside, he knew Naruto using this technique would draw suspicion that Minato's child survived, and it wouldn't take them long to figure out that he was the Nine Tailed Jinchuuriki, but he also felt so incredibly proud of him and wished that Minato and Kushina could see his achievement.

The Kazekage tapped his finger on the chair as he said, "What an interesting child, to be able to use the Yondaime's technique so efficiently." The 'Kazekage' had figured out Naruto's identity and looked at him like he was a threat.

As the two clashed bug against Rasengan, the bugs slowly ate away at the Chakra in Naruto's hand. Shino and him backed off, and Shino said with a frown on his face "Too many died, what a crazy attack. When'd you learn that Naruto?" Naruto looked at Shino in surprise, he didn't think his bugs would be able to stop his attack, let alone devour it. After rubbing his nose he placed his fingers out and shouted, "Listen up, yours truly spent the last month training with the Leaf's Legendary Sannin Jiraiya the Toad Sage!"

Everyone was shocked as people gasped and spewed things like words of disbelief, but the fact that he used the Rasengan was proof enough, because only a few people knew that technique. Kakashi had appeared with Sasuke, the two both saw Naruto fending off Shino with the 4th's technique, when Kakashi saw how well Naruto used the technique he almost felt like crying. It had been forever since he had seen his master's technique, and to see Naruto master it when he was so young, made him feel proud.

"What's that technique?" Sasuke asked as Kakashi laughed and said, "What was my Chidori not enough?" He held out his hand, and created a Rasengan, "This is my teacher's personally created Jutsu; however its structure is a hundred times more complex than the Chidori, so I thought we wouldn't have enough time to cover it, but my Chidori isn't any weaker, they're both A Rank techniques for a good reason." Kakashi finished as he dispersed his Rasengan.

Shino looked to Naruto and said, "Well throwing my bugs at you is pointless, might as well try this one out." Shino bit his finger and performed a summoning Jutsu, a 20 foot Hercules Beetle appeared from the smoke with Shino standing on top of its head. Naruto smiled and did the same, surprising everyone again as a 25 foot black fox wearing a Konohagakure whole band type forehead protector around his ear like an earring.

Naruto stood on top of Shade as Shade started speaking, "So Naruto, is this our opponent?" Naruto looked ahead at Shino as the crowds broke in to a heated debate. "There's a Fox Summoning Scroll!" The Kazekage shouted, Sarutobi stroked his beard and tried to hide his surprise while saying, "It's a big world Kazekage, you never know what you will see in this short life." The Kazekage looked to him and smiled while saying, "At least we agree on this matter."

Shade had leapt towards the beetle and began going toe to toe with it, as the insect rammed back a large pile of fragmented land shot out from the two monstrous beasts impacting one another. Naruto lifted his hand into the air and made a Giant Rasengan and cleared away the smoke as he slammed the attack into the beetles shell. Shino's summon technique broke, as it dissipated Naruto sent a clone using a Rasengan to chase down Shino, but as soon as the attack landed it turned into a pile of bugs that shot through his clone causing it to explode, and attempted to surround the real Naruto.

Shino appeared out from behind a tree and said, "Sorry Naruto, but that was my bug clone, you had way too much Chakra; even the ones I secretly latched on to you during our fight weren't slowing you down at all." Sino poked his glasses and continued, "They've invaded your body and have been leaching your Chakra for some time, honestly I've had an easier time draining an A class Chakra beast." The bugs had completely covered Naruto and savagely ate away at his Chakra, when he suddenly chuckled while saying. "Damn Shino your strong, didn't think you could make me use this." Kurama's Chakra surged through out Naruto's body as the one tailed shroud appeared,

"That boy can use the Kyuubi, and it doesn't appear to be stolen energy, they're actually working in perfect symbiosis." The Kazekage shouted again, Naruto was quickly rising to the top of this Kazekage's kill list. "When did that boy manage to control the fox's power so well?!" Sarutobi said shocked gripping the edge of his chair. "There was no hiding it now; the group searching for the Tailed beast would surely come looking." The Hokage thought as he placed his hand between his fore head and sighed.

The bugs in Naruto's body began to screech, and they tried to leave his body before they were killed by Kurama's Chakra. Naruto pushed them out and watched as they exploded inside his Tailed Beast Shroud; Shino looked to Naruto in surprised and held his hands up before saying "I surrender, I'm already low on Chakra, and I lost too many of my insects. It's not worth losing more." Naruto removed the shroud and smiled as he heard loud cheers roaring out from the stands, he placed his hands on his mouth and blew kisses into the crowd while saying "Thank you, thank you my adoring fans."

He looked over to see Sasuke standing next to Kakashi, he waved his hand at them as he jumped back up next to them, Naruto was hugged by Hinata and the two shared a happy moment, Naruto then smiled at his team before saying, "You're up Sasuke, be careful around Gaara, he's. . ." Sasuke patted Naruto's shoulder and said, "Relax, I know."

During their training; Kakashi had informed him of Gaara's identity, and during this conversation Sasuke thought of the beast inside him, while remembering Kibo's words about him and Naruto having similar partner.

He looked to Kakashi and asked "Is Naruto a Jinchuuriki too, is that why the villagers treat him like a monster?" Kakashi then replied "Do you consider Naruto a monster?" Sasuke thought about how he felt about him and said with a bit of embarrassment "He's probably my best friend."

"Sasuke versus Gaara!" Hayate called out as Sasuke jumped down and faced off against Gaara. Gaara looked at Sasuke and smiled as he said "I'm going to enjoy breaking you." Sasuke placed his hand out using the stance as Lee; Gaara frowned remembering his earlier match, as the battle started Sasuke disappeared kicking the side of Gaara's face.

Gaara was sent flying, but he sent his sand out to both catch himself and reach towards the air born Sasuke. Sasuke shouted "Great Storm Fire Ball." as he spit out a bright red flame that had lightning bolts coursing alongside it, as it made contact it turned the sand into a glass bridge that he used to chase down Gaara.

The sound of lightning screaming could be heard as bolts of lightning streaked out from his hand. Gaara sensing danger sent a huge sand wave towards Sasuke, behind the wall of sand he had made 6 spears and hardened the sand to a terrifying level. Launching the sand spears from behind cover of the sand wall; they blew holes through the sand wave and was followed by the sound of the air tearing.

Sasuke activated his golden Sharingan and sent waves of confusion and surprise throughout the crowd, "A gold Sharingan?!" The Kazekage shouted as did Sarutobi. Sasuke's father looked on in awe, "I've never heard of a Gold Sharingan before!" The rest of Sasuke's family showed similar reactions. Even Itachi was surprised because Sasuke had managed to keep his new Sharingan a secret from him for so long.

As the Kazekage shouted in surprise, Sasuke had leapt across the spears and knocked them into the ground while using them as stepping stones. Gaara seeing that Sasuke closed the distance he formed a thick sand dome and added multiple layers to it. "Chidori!" Sasuke shouted as his fist charged into Gaara's sand bubble, the lightning weakened the sand as his arm plowed straight through Gaara's defenses.

Sasuke's fist pierced through Gaara's shell and into cut into his shoulder, Sasuke tried to pull his hand back out when the sand grew stronger, while it held him in place Sasuke felt a tug on his body. He sent off another Chidori when a great claw of sand with purple tipped quills on it charged out towards Sasuke, Temari knew Gaara had lost it, and ruined the Kazekage plan.

"I'm HURT!" Gaara screamed, "Blood! Mother I'm bleeding!" The sand fell showing Gaara with a large wound on his shoulder. A Shinobi hiding in the crowd, started to cast a mass Gen-Jutsu, as many of the audience began collapse into a deep slumber.