Happy New Year…in…Arrears!

'Greatness' is back! I'm still in school but this chapter has been buzzing in my ear since last year. I couldn't help myself. I want to remind you all that I will continue my stories, if they need to be continued, but I will put 'Anything but being a Ninja' on temporary hiatus. I'm still surprised that my first story is this popular. Thank you all! You're all WICKED AWESOME! CYBER PIES FOR YOU ALL!

About this chapter, I really wanted to get past the chunin exams to get into the real story. I want to ask if there's anyone kind enough to draw Kumo (or Gumo) or Wraps (the mummy puppet. I'd be very thankful.

About the pairing, I think I should wait some time before I pair Naruto would anyone, but his team mates and anyone else is free game. I've got someone in mind but I'll have to wait a few more chapters before I go with it. Still, I'd be grateful if you send your pairing opinions via review or PM.

Thank you for all your reviews!

Jacanon: Naruto wasn't under powered dude. He got blindsided by jelly fish poison when he was flicked on his nose. He doesn't have any anti-venom for them but he does have pain numbing injections. Those weren't normal jelly fish, they were summons. Not ordinary jelly fish. I mean do ordinary jelly fish sing? He had to get passed the summons before he could get to her, like cutting the head off the snake, that's why he seemed to be focused more on fighting them. If you don't get what I'm saying, send me a PM.

Greer123: thank you bruv,

Namittheking: again, he wasn't under powered. He was blindsided and the girl took advantage to the fact that he was too distracted. Neither Yagura nor Kakashi blindsided him. Cool?

Luffyxrobin-luffyxnami: I'm not pairing Shin yu with Konohamaru, so you can chillax. And sorry dude, but I don't write harems, I can tolerate pairing him with someone a few years older than him but not someone as old as Konan.

Let me get this straight. My friend does not like his birth parents, his own friggin' birth parents, not Naruto's parents. I made Naruto similar to him; he also doesn't like his birth parents (Minato and Kushina). Say my friends name is Bee; he doesn't like Mr and Mrs Bee, not Minato and Kushina. Get it?!

On another note, don't ask me a question if you don't have an account for me to respond with 'cause I'm gonna stop responding here in favour of sending PM when I can. Cool? Awesome!

Hope you enjoy reading as much as I enjoyed writing.

Again…enjoy…

CHAPTER 12

"We're losing him!"

"Clear!" Ba-bump, ba-bump. The boy saw butterflies flutter around his vision, he weakly raised his hands to catch them, but the little critters phased through his hands, he felt his arm pushed back onto the bed…bed?

"C'mon Naruto! Again! Clear!" Bump-bump, ba-bump-bump. What is making that noise? The boy wondered, his bleary eyes, looking at the butterflies that fluttered erratically around him, as if they were reacting to the noise as well. His eyes fixed behind the butterflies to the lone person, or thing that stood amongst them. His mummy puppet. Wraps. He closed his eyes, and relaxed.

It all passed him in a daze as his eyes were closed tightly. There was hope he would survive, he would get through it.

It all lasted five minutes.

"You too huh?" he tiredly turned to who had spoken and smiled faintly at Sai who was busy drawing in his paper pad, he waved at Ami as she smiled brightly at him, "out of all of us, I never expected you to get put through the wringer,"

"I'm human too," his voice was croaky and dry, he smacked his lips and Ami jumped off her bed to tip a glass of water into his mouth, "thanks,"

"Don't worry about it." she took a seat beside his bed, which was between his and Sai's, and looked at him intently, "you worried us there,"

"I'm sorry," he looked to his right and lightly ran his fingers through his sister's hair then through Shin yu's; she was propped up against him, hugging him tightly, "what time is it?"

"If you're worried about whether or not you've missed your match then don't worry about it; the Hokage has called for a one hour intermission so the remaining contestants can rest up."

"Good, then we still have a chance to make a good showing,"

"Naruto, I don't think you understand the severity of what just happened to you; a poison expert got poisoned! If that's what you face in the first round then what's to say the second round won't be harder?"

"I survived didn't I? You didn't exactly come out without a few bumps and bruises too you know," he looked around his teams medic room and furrowed his eyebrows, "where's wraps?"

"I know that and I know where I went wrong; I intend for the mistake to never repeat itself again," she pointed to the corner of the room beside her bed, "your mummy puppet has been standing there ever since they dropped you off," Naruto looked at the puppet curiously and then down to his finger where a thin, almost invisible green string from his pinkie connected to the puppet. It was strange because, when someone is knocked out his control over anything external would diminish. If his puppet was still erect and partially operational even when he was close to death, how was it so?

He was broken out of his musings, "that's good, now can we focus on how we're going to destroy the rest of the competition?" Sai said from behind his paper pad, he was busy sketching out something his team couldn't see, "oh and Naruto, your parents were here,"

"So?"

"They want to pull you out of the exams,"

"Like hell they are," he summoned some thin but sturdy strings to lightly lift his sister and best friend off him and into an empty bed beside his own. He grunted in strain as he tried to stand up, but his arms were just too weak to take his weight off the bed. He still couldn't feel his legs. His eyes roved over the room again and landed at the large and fully stocked medical cupboard by the wall at the team's beds feet. He commanded his mummy puppet to open it and bring out the foldable wheel chair, he had wraps set it up and carefully lift him onto it,

"Where are you going, dickless?" the artist got too got off his bed, his feet shook uncertainly before he got his breathing under control,

"I'm going to see the Hokage. You two coming?"

"Sure, why not," the two other team mates said at the same time and followed Naruto out of the medic room with the mummy puppet pushing his wheel chair. He stopped at the door and cast some strings to pick up his coat and his blood sealed scrolls before he continued on his journey to the Kage's booth.

Most of those that blocked the way cleared off when they caught sight of the only team to have all their members in the second part of the third round of the chunin exams. They got to where the Kage's stayed to watch the exams and the mummy knocked on the door,

"Enter,"

He rolled the wheel chair inside and his team mates chose to stay outside, "Naruto? What are you doing here; your meant to be resting," his mother asked as she rushed to his side, she knelt down and began frantically looking over him,

"You're pulling me out of the exams,"

"It's for your own good," Minato said with as much authority his voice could muster, the other Kage's watched the drama curiously from their sides of the booth, "you're too injured to keep going,"

"You guys lost the privilege of doing what was best for me when I was 5. I'm continuing with the exams whether you like it or not," he had wraps stand between him and his mother, stopping her from coming any closer, and bowed to the other two Kage's, not missing the secretive smirk from the Mizukage and the Kazekage's rolled eyes,

"Naruto, if you keep going you'll get worse. You can't even stand for kami's sake!" his mother hastily said as she looked at her husband to back her up,

"I don't need to stand to be able to fight, but you don't know that," the mummy puppet gave an involuntary cackle and Naruto cracked a grin, "I'm more protected than you think, Tou-sama"

The Hokage looked away to muse over what his son had said, "I'll allow you to continue but any sign of trouble and I'll have Kakashi pull you out,"

"Fine by me Hokage-sama," the mummy pulled his wheel chair out of the room and when the door was closed he slumped into the chair and sighed tiredly, he took off his coat and laid it on his lap while he sealed the large scroll into his spider tattoo, "where's sensei?"

"She went to get some food a minute before you woke up; hospital food sucks," Ami said with a wide grin; maybe she was going back to how she usually was but now with a healthy respect for death and pain. The fact that she had on her lucky apron and her bandages were testament to the fact that she still loved 'dirty' blood.

He nodded and rolled to the contestants' booth, they still had five more minutes before the end of the intermission. The remaining contestants gaped when the saw the poisoned son of the Yondaime being rolled into the booth with a toothily grinning mummy, with his team mates trudging beside him. Naruto was rolled till he was by the railing and he looked over the edge down at the arena. Kakashi grudgingly slinked to the centre and began calling matches till it was Ami's turn, she rolled her neck and grinned at her team mates before she leaped over the railing and landed softly by Kakashi.

The man raised his hands up, "Ami of Konoha vs. Dusty Akakama of Suna, begin!" Dusty was a 14 year old girl with a slim body build. She had on camo brown pants, camo brown scarf and an oddly neat plain white shirt with the Suna symbol dotted all over. She held in her hands two sickles that hummed silently like Naruto's obsidian scythe when he coated it with chakra. Half of the girls face, leaving her shoulder length red hair exposed, was covered by her scarf but her visible coal black eyes portrayed the fact that she was not going to underestimate Ami. Not in the least.

The purple haired girl cracked her neck and grinned at her opponent, she sauntered over and her grin reduced to a smirk as she looked the girl over, "hey there,"

Dusty cocked her head to the side curiously and she lowered her weapons, "hello," he voice was slightly muffled by her scarf but it came out clear enough,

"What's good with you?" Ami sheathed her kunai and held a hand out for Dusty to shake, her opponent looked at her hand warily and sheathed one of her sickles, shaking the hand tentatively.

"Eh, got my ears pierced last week and my kaa-chan got me a dog," she used her weapon to lightly scratch the side of her head, "you?"

"Nothing much. Say Dusty-san what's it like in Suna?"

"Well-"

Her story was cut off by the proctor; "if you girls don't mind…" he waved nonchalantly between them then at the audience.

"Oh yeah," the Suna genin said idly, her eyes roved over the crowd then back to Ami, who was doing the same thing, "we still have to fight,"

"I guess so," the genjutsu user muttered, "let's continue this after the exams, ok?"

"I'm down with that. Good luck Ami-san," she unsheathed her sickle and took her stance, Ami doing the same with two kunai,

"You too," the Suna ninja first attacked; she brought her knives down on Ami but the girl slide out of the way and tried to kick back but Dusty, who was surprisingly capable with her weapons, met the kick with a raised shin, elbowing the genjutsu user in the belly. Ami gingerly stood back up and threw her knives; Dusty crossed her sickles together and caught the kunai mid-flight with the space between them. She twirled around and threw the weapons back, but stumbled when her vision blurred, unintentionally throwing the knives in the complete opposite direction.

She then felt a savage punch to the side of her face, then a merciless punch to her belly. She was then round house kicked a few feet away. She lay on the floor, trying to catch her breath as well as her vision but a snap kick to her side flung her away, but she kept firm hold on her weapons. Dusty cursed up a storm and closed her eyes, her mind still like the harsh sand storms of her home village, and crossed her weapons again, "Hiden art: Sickle storm scissor fingers" she spun around on the balls of her feet and the ground underneath her kicked up and whirled around with her. The vortex of brown wind then turned into a deep bloody red, the top curving and closing so it looked like a red cat-like sclera eye. The vortex then began spitting out multiple red sickles that whirred noisily and homed into Ami's general location, as if they had a mind of their own.

The genjutsu user looked on with wide eyes as the sickles impacted around her, stepping out of the way when some got too close for comfort. She grinned and ran through her arsenal of special genjutsu, "Purple illusion: Stampeding bulls" she ended the long chain of hand seals with dragon and clapped her hands, the sound ringing out above the noise of the attacking sickles and the spinning red vortex, she then stamped her feet. The vortex flicked once, then twice before a dazed Dusty could be seen stumbling around on her feet. Ami clapped her hands and stamped her feet again and the Suna ninja was blown off her feet by an invisible force.

The illusion she cast was a custom made illusion that was inspired by a dream, a good one, about some stampeding horses. The illusion changed those horses to purple bulls that chased after the target. The pain was not felt but the feeling of having all those bulls run into you would simulate the feeling of being off balance, throwing the person off his or her feet. It wasn't a traumatising illusion but it was very terrifying, so it greatly surprised her that when she was about to hold a knife to the scarf wearing girls throat she was quickly kicked away. Dusty stood up, still swaying on her feet, and stumbled to where Ami was recovering.

Kage's booth

Minato nodded in respect to the Hidden Sand Leader, "so far all your ninjas don't give up easily, and I respect that,"

"Thank you Hokage-dono, they have been taught to keep going until they cannot stand anymore,"

"And she's from a clan too," the Mizukage piped up,

"Yes, the humble Red Sickle users, rumoured to be related to the Uzumaki and the Uchiha because of their peculiar features and prowess with their weapons," Rasa droned, "I know her parents, really nice people,"

"I remember fighting one during my chunin exams all those years ago, if their standards are still the same then Ami has to do a lot better than that," Minato said. The two fighters below him were clanging weapons and elbowing each other.

Fighters Arena

Ami grit her teeth as she shuffled back after blocking a sickle slash, "you're very strong Dusty-san,"

"Right back at ya Ami-san," she too grit her teeth when an elbow met her side and narrowly dodged the blunt side of the kunai to the head, "can you tell me why you're holding back?"

"I like you, I don't want to traumatise you," she raised her forearms and her right knee when Dusty threw a fast snap kick to her side, she stepped back and had to repeatedly raise and lower them to defend against the attacks, "you've seen what I can do to grown men," this time she grabbed the thrown limb and swept the other leg from under her, Dusty back flipped and flipped again when her leg was thrown away, "why are you holding back?"

"pretty much the same reason," she twirled a sickle and threw it at her opponent, Ami glared at the weapon and ran away from it, the curved knife followed her around till it whirred noisily back to its owner, "you know, if we keep holding back no one's going to win anytime soon,"

Ami sighed, her shoulders slumped in defeat, "I know," she was about to go into a chain of seals but was forced to fall to her back, a sickle whistling over her head, and roll away when the weapon jammed into the ground and cut through till it reached Dusty. There was a curious looking translucent blue rope that was connected to the sickle from her hand. The purple haired girl stood up and flashed through some hand seals, the Suna ninja sheathed her weapons and also went through some hand seals, "Water release: Drilling water bullets!"

"Wind release: Drilling air bullets!" both fighters began spitting out sharp projectiles from their mouths that clashed between them, splashing water about. This continued for a moment until Dusty misfired an air bullet and a water bullet slammed into her shoulder.

"Purple illusion: Yami's army!" the illusion caught the girl and she was subjected to iron skeletal hands ripping out of the ground and clamping onto her legs, she tried to pull away but all movement left her, allowing the skeletons to pull her into the ground and subsequently unconsciousness. It was the same illusion she used against an Inuzuka chunin in the second exam. The only conscious fighter looked at Kakashi and the man called the match in her favour. Oddly going out of character, Ami accompanied the unconscious Dusty to the medic bay.

"Next match is Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha vs. Jizo of Suna!" Naruto sighed sourly when he saw who he was fighting,

"Of course I get a puppeteer…" his mummy puppet lifted him up with the wheelchair and jumped over the railing, dropping him gently in front of Jizo. The girl wore the seemingly patented brown camo print all the genin of Suna wore, but she had a black top and camo pants and scarf that trailed to her heels. She had on the patented face paint of a Suna puppet user. She had an average build for a 14 year old. Her blonde hair was in a messy bun and her dilated teal eyes scanned her opponent. She had a large bandaged bundle on her back that wriggled in anticipation.

"You sure you're ready for this, Naruto-san?"

"I'll be fine," the blonde boy rolled up his sleeves, exposing the thick tattoos that lined up his forearms to his shoulders. The girl nodded approvingly at the art depicted on his arms,

"Aren't you too young for those?"

"Tattoos are awesome,"

She giggled at his response and raised a delicate eyebrow, "awesome?"

Naruto cracked a smile, "yes, they are. Anyways, I see you're a puppet user too,"

"Yes, though it seems you too use puppets. How'd you learn it?"

"Blood," he remembered all the times he cut himself with his own weapons accidentally, narrowly keeping his limbs "sweat," all those days he woke up at sunrise to train and didn't stop training till well past sunset, "and tears," those days he had to do the unthinkable to further expand his knowledge on human anatomy as well as animal anatomy, "just like every other ninja,"

"If you two are done flirting," he expertly ignored the dual glares both competitors threw at him, "we have an exam to conduct. Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze vs. Jizo of Suna, fight!" quick as a flash the mummy puppet pulled his controller away to the far wall and Jizo leaped away as well.

The stare off was electrifying.

Then in sync both puppeteers removed their choice puppets from where they were kept, Jizo slamming down the wrapped bundle on her back and Naruto pulling out the large scroll from a seal in tattoo and the mummy puppet slinked to his front and cackled loudly, sending tendrils of icy fear cascading down all the spectators backs. The puppet removed the obsidian scythe that was strapped to his back with a smooth swish and took the basic stance for the 'Dizzy spell stinging fist' taijutsu style. Jizo sent her strings into the wrapped bundle and it exploded in a shower of bandages to reveal a hulking humanoid puppet with a golden brown tigers head and brown tiger's paws and feet. The puppet crouched down on its cat like legs and snarled at him.

"Say hello to Killa, my first puppet," Killa sprinted forward and leaped at him but wraps batted the large man-tiger out of the air and shoulder tackled it into the wall. Killa clawed the mummy's belly and blinked in confusion when the large clump of bandages he had cut out began connecting back together. Wraps cackled maniacally and smashed the blunt side of Naruto's obsidian scythe into the side of Killa's arm. The beast puppet caught the attack and tried to pull the weapon away, the thin mummy puppet showed a surprising show of strength by holding on firmly. Killa opened its mouth and fired out sporadic bursts of senbon. All attention was focused on the puppet fight until…

"You can control two puppets!?" Jizo brought their attention back to the fight as she split her attention between controlling her man-tiger puppet and running away from a large gold and red snake that slithered to her quickly. In a burst of speed and toxic green chakra the snake caught her and wrapped her up tightly. She couldn't call her man-tiger puppet back to her because it was currently being occupied by the very capable mummy puppet that matched it blow for blow, leaving no opening for her to exploit. The python puppet tightened its hold on her, cutting off her connection to her puppet and also driving all air out of her lungs.

"Say hello to python, my…something puppet," Naruto said blandly, he commanded the mummy to hoist his opponents limp puppet onto his shoulders and stomp over to his tied up opponent. Jizo clamped her eyes shut and concentrated with all her might for a single thread to come out of her fingers, "and don't to detonate those bombs you have inside your puppet," she snapped open her eyes and gulped when the scythe almost touched her throat, "forfeit," she nodded in defeat and the snake unwound from around her.

"Winner by forfeit, Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto! Man kid, this fight's shorter than I expected," Naruto shrugged, sealed up python and waved at the female puppeteer before he was wheeled back to the contestants' booth. Jizo ran up to him, her beastly puppet lumbering behind her, and stopped him,

"How did you know I had explosive tags in Killa?"

"I didn't," he laughed when her shoulders slumped and continued his journey back to his team mates, "oh and great fight,"

"Thanks," she murmured dourly and walked back to her team mates.

"What is with you and flirting with older girls, Dickless?" the ever annoying Sai said loudly, attracting the attention of his horny sensei, his questionably psychotic female team mate, the female senseis' from the other villages, the other remaining female contestant from the Konoha, the spectators in the crowd…and his parents. Basically everyone in the entire arena.

The blonde boy sighed tiredly and covered his face, "I'm finished," he murmured quietly, he removed his hands and glared flaming red daggers of endless pain at said, who wore his infuriating smile, "I swear to kami Sai," he left the threat hanging like an over bearing cloud of acid that would begin raining at the slightest whisper, obviously Sai disregarded the threat,

"I was just being honest; I've read that honesty fosters good relationships,"

"That wasn't honesty that was thinking out loud and for the love of kami. Wasn't. Flirting!"

"Then why was she blushing?"

"I literally squeezed the air out of her, she was trying to get her breath back!" Naruto struggled to get up from his chair and personally beat sense back into the emotionally conflicted boy, "and for crying out loud I'm not dickless!" his last yell rang around the quiet arena. Sai smugly crossed his arms over his chest, his job done. Meanwhile Naruto's head fell on his chest and his shoulders slumped in embarrassment, swearing to himself that he would murder his team mate in his sleep.

"Uhm…well…" the silver haired proctor tried to wrap his mind around the fact that the blonde haired son of the Yondaime had lost his cool…as well as all the others that knew him, heck even Shibi gaped. He shook his head and coughed into his hand, "next match, Sai of Konoha vs. Hitomi Amari of Konoha," not even giving the black haired boy a chance to jump into the arena, the mummy blurred to him and booted him down. Sai winced and stood up, rubbing his sore behind and already regretting goading Naruto. Hitomi grasped the railing and with an overly dramatic twirl she landed before her Konoha opponent. She wore baggy purple pants and a white and black striped shirt over her, the shirt seemed too large for her; it stopped at her knees and the sleeves fully hid her hands, falling down to her shins. Her hair was in two long light blue pony tails and she had rosy red cheeks that flushed shyly under Sai's silent scrutiny. She blushed a red so deep Hinata nodded in respect.

Sai raised an eyebrow at her, "any problem?"

The girl idly kicked a stone and tapped her hidden fingers together, "…you're cute…" she squeaked out bashfully and covered her face,

Not even having the will power to cut off such an adorable 14 year old girl, Kakashi raised his voice, "Sai of Konoha vs. Hitomi Amari of Konoha, fight!"

The girls attitude took a 180 degree change; her red face evened out and her fidgeting stopped completely, making the ROOT ANBU operative come to a realization, 'she's just like Ami,' Hitomi waved her long sleeved above her head and flicked them violently at the boy, the sleeves acted like harsh tentacles; they smashed into the ground and pulled out a clump of earth from under him blindingly fast. Sai used the force of the throw to flip around and grasp the wall with his chakra, he pulled out his brush and pad and began drawing, he finished six seconds later and a lion leaped off the pages and charged at Hitomi. The girl flicked both of her arms and wrapped the ink lion up with her sleeves and ripping it apart mercilessly. Sai expertly used the minute distraction to charge at her behind the lion, frantically drawing stick men and sending them over to their deaths.

The girl whipped her head and her long pony tails elongated and slammed into his chest, sending him away again. He coughed and stood up in time for a sleeve to smash the ground underneath him and throw him off his feet again. He staggered back to his feet and jumped over the attacking sleeves, running up the length of the arm and kneeing the girl on the face. The hard blow knocked the girl's concentration off and the sleeves went limp, her neck snapped backwards and blood arced out of her nose. Though she recovered faster than he anticipated; she stood up without bending her knees or using her hands and whipped her hair at her attacker. Sai brandished his brush-tanto and clanged his weapon against the hair. Steel sparked violently on contact but the boy stayed strong. The hair pulled back and hovered above Hitomi's head, the tip twirled together till it was a sharp tip and it rocketed down at him.

Sai had to make use of all the agility and reflex he had gathered from his time at ROOT ANBU training and Team Anko training. He flipped and slide under the attacking hair, then he had to step away and bend back from the attacking sleeves. To the spectators it was like watching what they imagined a sea monster attacking a ship looked like, a very agile ship. In the boys head he was analysing his opponent, 'she hasn't used any sort of ninjutsu yet and she isn't fast in close combat, her hair and her sleeves seem to be attached to her body and not attached at the same time,' he batted away a sharp hair spear, stepped back from a sleeve tentacle and used the tentacle he stepped away from to jump over the second tentacle.

His eyebrows furrowed and he threw his brush-tanto at the girl, perfectly in between two crossed sleeves and formed a rat hand seal. The brush exploded, throwing the girl away but the sleeves and the hair stayed intact but limp. He ran over to her and kneed her stomach when she huffed back to her feet mechanically, she tried to do so again but he punched her chest and drop kicked her. Hitomi growled at him with her blood painted teeth and was about to flick her hair at the pest that kept stopping her progress but Sai tackled the girl to the ground, flipped her to her belly and used his forearms and arm to hold her neck in a basic submission manoeuver, not giving her arms room to control her sleeves.

"That's enough. Winner, Sai of Konoha!" Kakashi exclaimed as he pried the boy off his opponent, he blinked in confusion when the girl reverted back to her shy persona as the medics looked over her for any injury.

"Girls huh?" Sai said as if reading his mind and the lazy jounin snorted,

"I know what you mean," The man called for the next match and that was over a long while later. The Hokage called the jounin up and announced that there would be a thirty minute intermission before the exams continued so that the competitors could rest up. When the intermission had ended the first match of the quarter finals was called, "next match Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze of Konoha vs. Ami of Konoha,"

"Oh no…" Naruto sighed, cursing his bad luck as his mummy puppet hoisted him up and dropped him in the arena with his team mate. Meanwhile his team mate couldn't be any happier,

"Oh yeah!" if there was a sure way to defeat Naruto it was with genjutsu; his chakra was too dense to pass through his tenketsu fast enough to dispel it and if it did pass through it was excruciatingly painful for the boy leaving him vulnerable until he recovered. That was why immediately after Kakashi had started the match Wraps hurtled to her, "oh no you don't!" she cast a quick disorientation illusion and the mummy puppet rocketed straight past her and rammed into the wall. Her blonde team mate was frantically looking around, shaking his head to clear up the mixed colours he was seeing. Closing his eyes wouldn't have changed a thing; it was his brain and chakra network the jutsu targeted.

The girl sauntered to him smoothly, occasionally giggling when the calm boy cussed,

"Oh Naruto," she sighed and stood in front of him with her arms akimbo, "Naruto, Naruto, Naruto," she sighed wistfully when she heard another crash behind her, correctly assuming that the Wraps had again crashed into the wall, "it seems I'm the predator now," she made a growling sound and trailed a dainty finger down Naruto's face, "though I still wonder; how are you going to get out of this situation?" she sat on the boys lap and smelled his face like a cat about to eat a fish, "oh my you do smell delicious," most would classify what she was doing as flirting but her team mates called it intimidation, which seemed to be working until…

Naruto stopped hyperventilating and smirked, "got you,"

"What?"

"Kai!" a visible sphere of toxic green chakra erupted out of the boy's chest and threw both of them in the opposite direction.

Naruto yelled.

Ami screamed.

Both grasped their heads and bit their biceps to keep their pain inside, drawing blood. The proctor contemplated calling the match as a tie until the seemingly motionless mummy puppet that refused to go limp, fell on his knees and crawled over to Naruto's purple haired team mate and fixed his forearm between her neck, eliciting a pained struggle from the girl. She couldn't get the strength back into her limbs as her wiggling reduced and eventually stopped altogether. Her body felt like a large piece of old wood, freshly cut out of the tree and sturdy as a rock, with small ripples of pain smashing through her from the tip of her toes to her head. There was this odd weight that blocked her lungs, like the vice clamp hold one of her mother's rapists held her neck with as she watched her mother get manhandled.

Over with Naruto he felt like small sticks had been inserted in each and every one of his tenketsu, with them increasing and decreasing in size at random moments before it settled back to its original size a minute later.

The arena was quiet.

The blonde boy huffed and weakly struggled to sit up, his breath was laboured and weak as his hands shook with the effort of hoisting himself up. The pain all over his body started up again as he fell on his back.

"That's enough-"

"No, give me a second" the boy grunted,

"C'mon kid-"

The boy glared icily at the copy ninja as he rolled to his belly and struggled to his feet, swaying as if he was indecisive, he then took his first step to his incapacitated team mate, then the second, then the third. He couldn't hear himself think over all the noise the crowd was making, over the sound of that annoying thumping in his ears, fourth step, he gnashed his teeth as he stumbled but didn't fall over. He grasped his chest and wiped the perspiration that fell from his head, his stumbled again, his vision doubling with another pulse of pain.

Kakashi sighed, "Naruto-"

The boy ignored him and knelt by his team mate's side and put a finger onto her forehead, a chakra string attaching firmly, and he sucked out his catastrophic chakra from her system. The weight that had settled on the girls chest, the one that rippled with her pain and wanted to squeeze the life out of her, lifted and she could breathe again, the memory of her mother's death went with it and she blinked in confusion up at the person that had pulled her out.

"Naruto?" she croaked, not yet having feeling in her body, "what happened?"

The boy slumped beside her, the mummy puppet laying him gently down, "what did you see?" the compressing feeling his chakra had on people if it was introduced into their systems brought about hallucinations and asphyxiation if he pumped in too much, like he did with Ami. The first person he had practiced his dispelling with was the old librarian, Sami Yamanaka. The man had said he saw his late daughter leaving for a mission in the last shinobi war with her team and not coming back.

The girl, who had turned and looked at him, tore up, "my-my mom,"

Naruto sighed and looked up at the Kage's booth, at his father, "Kakashi..."

The man looked down on both fighters, he fell on one knee and looked down at the bow, "yes?"

"I can't go on,"

The man put a hand on Naruto's shoulder and squeezed lightly, "a good ninja knows when to retreat," the blonde nodded and closed his eyes. As if the crowds in the spectators stand could hear what the child had whispered all fell silent, looking at the proctor as he stood up smoothly, "neither fighters can continue, this match ends in a draw." The yells were deafening. The medics skittered into the arena and began attending to the injured duo. Naruto and Ami were hoisted onto stretchers and lugged to the medic bay.

"It seems you always get into some sort of sticky situation, Naruto-san," the young medic murmured to him as she roved her hands over his upper body, another female medic close to her age was attending to Ami who was already conked out.

"Seems so," he murmured back, "be honest with me Sami-san, did I make the right decision? Giving up so close to the end, that is," he winced when the girl flexed his arm slowly and carefully massaged the limb, she did it again with his other arm, then his legs.

"I actually thought the first time you was here you wouldn't be able to continue. In my professional opinion you made the right decision, pushing your body that far is very dangerous," she massaged his right arm again, drawing delicate circles on his arm soothingly, "your…special chakra is too…" she scrolled through words in her mind, "thick, too heavy to pass through your tenketsu. You pushed out too much and your muscles are paying for it; I can only image what else would pay if you kept going," she gently flexed the arm, rolling the shoulder around before she dropped it and went for his right thigh, "I do wonder though, with your chakra being so one in a million how do you perform jutsu?"

"Like any other ninja but I just need to push more through my fingers," the girl hummed, understanding what he was saying, "it's because of my chakra I can't do medical ninjutsu; it'll do more harm than good if it gets into anyone besides me," she nodded and slowly bent his knee till it was a perfect 90 degrees, she then continued bending it even slower. Naruto clenched the bed and screwed his eyes shut; this was almost as painful as the time an incomplete explosive tag exploded under him.

"Deep breathe," she murmured and relaxed his leg, "what about that puppet, why is it still standing?" Naruto opened his eyes and looked at his mummy puppet, then at the faint string of chakra coming out of his pinkie finger and connected to the mummy's spine,

"I don't know, maybe I'm so used to controlling it I don't notice it anymore," his analogy was very true; he had been using Wraps so many times for so long that he had almost literally turned into an extension of his consciousness, except for the fact that he couldn't see out of the mummy's eyes. He was distracted by this fact; he began plotting out different seal combinations he could make to simulate seeing through a puppets eyes, maybe even going further to seeing 360 degrees around him. Seeing through his beaver spy puppet was different because the small animal had a brain he could connect his own to. He blinked in confusion when he was brought out of his complex musing by someone snapping his or her fingers in front of his face. The boy chuckled nervously when his eyes focused on Sami's face, "sorry did you say something?"

The girl rolled her eyes and continued her administration diligently, sometimes asking him to move a body part if he could.

Kage's booth

"What do you think about the last match, Hokage-dono?" the Kazekage asked, he shifted in his chair to get comfortable in his chair, "to me he performed how any of my ninjas would perform; till he couldn't move anymore,"

The blonde Hokage nodded slowly, his eyes were where his son formerly lay, unable to move, "against my better judgement he went through with this match, but besides that he threw in the towel before anything else could go wrong,"

"His team mate shouldn't be so easily forgotten; from start to finish she was amazing, a true konouchi, even if her genjutsu are questionable. Though she has to work on her playfulness I can see how she could use it against an opponent. Would you mind if I meet her after the exams Hokage-dono?"

"I don't mind in the least," he looked at both other Kage's, "so far who's getting your votes to become chunin?"

Mei rolled her tongue and furrowed her eyebrows, "we can talk about that later, if you don't mind; let's finish with these exams,"

"I don't mind at all,"

Arena

Since the last match, Naruto vs. Ami had ended in a draw the next match would immediately be the finals. This meant that Sai and his opponent were finalists.

"Next match, Sai of Konoha vs. Aratsuki of Kiri," Sai didn't feel as confident as he was at the start of the exams. Both of his team mates were in the medic bay and out of the race; he had been training to face with either of his team mates but with the unfortunate development his mind was forced to frantically remember what his opponent could do. He coolly walked down the stairs and stopped before his Mist opponent.

The boy, Aratsuki, was a tan boy that wore a peculiar looking yellow face mask that covered his upper face. He had a white shirt with the sleeves torn off roughly and khaki green pants that were tied at the ankles, where his green shinobi sandals started. The boy flexed his fingers as he eyed his shorter and younger opponent, also trying to remember what the boy could do. Kakashi started the match and swiftly leaped away but neither fighters' moved.

Sai cocked his head to the side and his face stretched into his signature empty grin, "aren't you going to make your move?"

Aratsuki cleared his throat roughly, "aren't you?" his voice was like hearing a steel being cut, but duller and more humanly.

"I'm thinking of what jutsu to use on you," the ROOT ninja whipped out his brush and paper pad quickly and drew a straight line with the tip of his brush pointing at his masked opponent after the line had been drawn, "Ninja art: Ink chain" the ink line shot off the paper and dug into the ground, with a small tremor it popped out and wrapped the Kiri ninja up. The other boy didn't even raise any sort of defence, instead he dissolved into a small puddle of water, Sai hummed and commanded his ink chain to intercept a sword stroke that came down at him from above, "you have to do better than that,"

Aratsuki pulled his also peculiar yellow katana away from the black chain and with a swift chop the line disintegrated. The boy didn't have any sort of sheath on him, which meant that he knew a bit about sealing. The boy twirled his yellow katana and a Sai was forced to bend away from a torrent of water that shot out of the tip, the water sliced thickly at the wall behind him. He flipped away once, using the aerial somersault to brandish the short tanto out of his brush. He raised his weapon and caught the downward slash from the other boy; there was a brief tussle for foot hold from both of them before Aratsuki used his superior height and strength to kick the boy's unprotected chest. He zipped forward and elbowed the black haired boy's mouth, bashing the side of his sword at the side of Sai's head and kneeing his chest again, throwing him a few feet away from him.

During his beating the young artist did not let go of his brush and paper pad. He pushed himself to his feet and slowly rubbed the thin trail of blood at the side of his mouth, his spine tingling grin still firmly in place. He threw his brush at the kenjutsu user, "Shadow shuriken technique" the jutsu made the Kiri ninja raise an eyebrow, that is until the brush-tanto exploded in a large plume of smoke, covering the entire section Sai stood in, and dangerously whirring shuriken burst through the smoke at once. Aratsuki snorted and expertly parried and flipped away the projectiles. The smoke infuriatingly didn't clear up, instead more and more shuriken exploded from it, peppering the ground around him with spinning stars.

"Water release: Spinning blade!" after yelling the peculiar jutsu, the Kiri kenjutsu user expertly twirled his sword above his head, clanging off the multiple attacking shuriken. He then let go of his sword, it still spinning above him protectively, and punched the ground. the spinning sword vibrated, the only reason most knew it was vibrating was the humming noise it was making, and visible divided into two, then four, the eight, then sixteen, all still spinning above him, it kept multiplying till yellow katana's covered him in a vibrating dome. The protection allowed him to go through hand seals, "Water release: Drilling water bullet!" a pathway cleared by his swords opened and he fired sporadically into the chakra smoke, in the general direction of where the Konoha ninja was before the smoke covered him from view, not taking a pause for a breather until two minutes later.

His senses flared and he pulled a sword from the spinning dome of death and stabbed it into the ground, he pulled his sword out and glared at the chunk of wood on its blade. He flicked the piece of wood away and stabbed it back into the ground again, pulling out another pesky piece of wood. It was like watching some sort of twisted variation of whack-a-mole; the boy would stab his yellow into the ground where he 'felt' Sai was about to pounce but pulled out pieces of wood after annoying pieces of wood. This kept on going for a few minutes till he pulled on up…

And it was riddled with explosive tags.

"Oh-" his curse was cut off by the sizzling chunk of wood exploding, blowing away his protective sword barrier and dispelling them when they smashed into the walls. Ink tigers stampeded out of the forest in the arena and leaped into the smoke, there were audible clangs and slashes after the tigers entered.

The piece of wood wasn't covered in explosive tags but smoke bombs on paper. Inhaling so much smoke, having smoke cloud his vision and constantly have to rely on his hearing to detect the ink creations was wearing down on him, he stabbed a tiger and kicked another tigers jaws, all the while wondering just how much chakra the boy had.

Not much if the fact that Sai was on his second chakra pill. He popped it into his mouth and summoned another tiger, hoping to kami that his kenjutsu using opponent was weakening. Substituting himself with logs while using "Earth release: Hiding like a mole" was not as easy as he made it to be; he had to split his attention between staying under the ground, holding his breath and searching for nearby logs. Summoning another tiger to attack; that was what he had been drawing in the medic bay before, he barrelled in after it and leaped into the smoke, he clanged his tanto against the katana and stepped back, unsettling the taller boys footing and sweeping his feet from under him. The ROOT ninja looked down at him and savagely kicked his sword arm, throwing his weapon out of the smoke and into where his widely spread chakra smoke was settling. He kicked again when the boy made to grab his leg, stepping on his fingers and kicking again at his head.

His face was now clean of any expression, and it unnerved the Kiri genin how much the boy had pushed him in so little time. He held his injured limb with his uninjured arm and tried to roll away from the merciless boy but Sai had other plans; the boy took a step back and rushed at him, kicking him straight out of the smoke into Kakashi's sight, as well as others that watched. Sai caught up to the human projectile and knelt on his neck, holding his tanto to his neck. The savage kicks to the arm and torso had done a number on the older and definitely more experienced Mist genin; his shirt had splotches of blood and scratches from where the ink tigers had managed to tag him, his pants were also scratched up but thankfully still had enough materials to hide all that was meant to be hidden. His mask was intact but it didn't hide any of the purple bruises he had on his face where Sai's foot met.

He coughed and spat out some blood, looking up at the ROOT ninja defiantly and groaning when another foot met his arm, another met his thigh and more met his face.

"Forfeit," he winced when a foot met his ribs again and again, over and over, "I said forfeit," Aratsuki spat at him and a mighty foot threw him into a wall, more rained down on him unforgivingly. The proctor didn't step in because technically the Kiri genin could still recover from the onslaught, though the chances looked slimmer with each kick, and with each fraction his face swelled up, with the way he gradually stopped moving…

He whizzed over and pulled the boy back by the collar, then resolving to glare down at him when he struggled to go back to kicking the poor Kiri ninja, "alright, that's enough, winner Sai of Konoha!"

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Ameagakure no Sato

Konan blankly looked outside the windows of the Kage's tower in Ame. The rain cascaded down the glass and dripped down almost joyfully. She felt a presence behind her and didn't bother to turn around and acknowledge the presence of her team mate. The man, or his Deva path, stepped beside her and looked out the massive window, "what is on your mind Konan?"

"Nothing you should concern yourself about," she responded blandly, her pale face was free of any emotion as she breathed out, "what is the plan?"

"Zetsu has informed me that the chunin exam in Konoha is very interesting, he says the Yondaime's son is a puppet user and the boy is very strong. Did you know this?" he carefully observed her face for any sort of break but didn't find any,

"No,"

"That should be noted; I've added Sasori and Diedara to Itachi and Kisame's team to battle against him in case he interferes,"

"When do you want to start gathering them?"

"In a few years; the three tails has still not regenerated, Madara says that he thinks the holder is still alive. Did you know this?"

"No,"

Pein glared at her lightly, "what I did was for your own good; you were being a thorn in a straight forward plan," the woman ignored him and turned around to leave the room, "where are you going?"

"To get some air,"

"Don't stay out too long; you might catch a cold," she nodded and left the room. Half a second later the ground rippled and Zetsu came out, Madara followed with a swirling vortex, "what do you think?"

"She's hiding something, I just know it," the masked Uchiha said lowly,

"But she hasn't done anything wrong since that time," Zetsu said,

"You said you couldn't track her when she disappeared, what's to say she didn't sell the information about Akatsuki to some village," Madara growled,

"Konan isn't like that; she doesn't betray her comrades,"

"think whatever you want, Nagato," the swirl masked man said idly, waving the rinnegan user away, "keep an eye on her," Zetsu nodded and slinked back into the ground. The mysterious Uchiha twirled around and flicked out of sight inside a ripple in the air, leaving Pein to glare on the last the man stood.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

"Did you hear what leader-sama said, Sasori-dana? He said there's a puppet user in Konoha, a really strong one too, yeah!"

"Yes I heard what he said and it doesn't make any difference, he would fall to my art," the stone faced Suna puppet user said as he and his partner walked down the underground tunnels under Ame, their main headquarters. His face didn't betray what he was thinking (do you really want me to tell you why?) the thought that there was a puppeteer in Konoha, already reputed for besting a Suna puppeteer and able to use more than one puppet greatly intrigued him. He knew as a certainty that the puppet users in his home town were not weak, not in the least, so for that boy, 9 years old from what the Akatsuki main hunter ninja reported, to be able to best one of his countrymen in honourable puppet combat, as honourable as being a ninja could get, was very intriguing. Add in the fact that after a deep investigation into Naruto's origins, it looked faintly similar to his own. Very, very faintly.

One of the puppets the boy used stood out, the destroyed one, the man-spider puppet. Zetsu reported that the boy could hide inside the puppet and fight with so much ferocity it looked eerily like when he was in his Hiruko puppet body. The man-spider puppet was said to be riddled with traps and escape routes that aided the child when the pesky jelly fish summons held him down. He truly hoped that the child was able to restore his puppet shield body in time so they could fight. If he found the boys combat ability worthy enough…his dead body would be made immortal in his arsenal.

He mentally nodded and proceeded down the tunnels, tuning out the insistent blabbing his bombing partner had fallen into.

"I wouldn't underestimate Naruto if I was you,"

Both Akatsuki partners turned around in sync with smooth swishes of their red clouded and blankly until the Iwa bombers face stretched into a childish scowl, "Itachi…"

The Uchiha nodded at him respectfully then turned back to the Suna missing ninja, "I've sparred with him, since he started training, and I would say his close combat as well as long range combat is almost too impeccable for his age," he droned, his almost eternally activated sharingan eyes fixed firmly with Sasori's. His partner, Hoshigaki Kisame, furrowed his eyebrows at the Uchiha,

"He can't be that strong, you've got your eyes, I've got Samehada, Diedara has his bombs and Sasori has his puppets, we all have experience. What makes you think he'd be able to stand against us," the Uchiha had been newly inducted into the organisation last year and he was quickly making a name for himself; completing missions with his partner and assuring a 98% success rate in each. All the rouge ninjas in the organisation knew Itachi's ties with the Yondaime's son. The man would gladly admit that leaving the boy that idolised him with only the message to get stronger wasn't the easiest thing to do but it was necessary to ensure that Konoha wasn't weak in his absence.

"He wouldn't be alone, for starters; he works in sync with his team. His seal work his amazing. His puppets are creative and formidable and for what he lacks in genjutsu he makes up in taijutsu,"

"I still doubt he's that strong Itachi," Kisame snorted,

"Your just too afraid to admit that he can beat you, yeah," Diedara chortled, laughing boisterously but stopped half way when Itachi blankly looked at him and continued down a door beside them leading to another tunnel to another place,

"Don't say I didn't warn you,"

"Don't worry, yeah! We won't, ya loser!" the irate Iwa nuke ninja yelled after him, Kisame snorted again and followed after his Konoha missing ninja partner. Sasori and Diedara kept walking to where they were heading to. The Suna missing ninja's mind again wondered back to the boy,

'If you are able to make 'The Bloody Uchiha' cautious then you will be a worthy opponent. Yes, I will make you my puppet,' darkness swallowed the duo, the bickering bomber and the thoughtful puppeteer.

Authors note

And done! I enjoyed writing this, I really, really did. The fights and making up OC names was really fun. I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. I write my stories like I write my other stories, happily and as descriptive as I can make it. Check them out! I recommend: 'The White Hornet', 'Shadows Smirk' and 'Out of the Blue'! If you read those and you like them enough you can check out my AU stories. I assure you they're wicked awesome.

Next chapter is gonna be really good, I've got it all planned out to the very last detail. I hope you guys keep reading to find out the s*** I'll put Team Anko in.

So, what'cha think? Good? Bad? Meh? I really want to know! With these last words…please…REVIEW!

B.j.