Chapter 11

Sakura could not help but jump for joy as she reached the contestants box. She had won a fight against Neji. True he had underestimated her in every way possible. But it was a victory none the less. Besides as a ninja you took ever advantage you could, no matter what it might be.

Sakura though did feel a little sorry for Ino as she walked out onto the field. Her former rival, form when they would both chase after Sasuke's attention, was at a great disadvantage. While Ino was as strong as Sakura had been, that was nowhere near strong enough to win this fight. As Sakura had been push most days to become better and better in her new team. And unless Ino had a similar drive Temari was going to walk in and back out of this match without a problem.

Ino though did not seem too worried as she stood looking at Temari with a cocky expression on her face. Temari on the other hand look to be rather bored. Sakura could see even from this distance the large fan on Temari's back, and her only hope was that Ino did not make too big of a fool of herself in this very soon to be defeat.

As the signal to begin was given, Ino jumped back throwing several throwing stars at Temari. None of which even got close to Temari. Sakura was a little surprised as she had not seen Temari move at all. Was Temari really that fast on the draw, or was her skill over Wind Jutsu that strong.

Sakura watched really closely as Ino sent three more sets of throwing stars at Temari testing the edge of her defense. Not once did Temari move, and each set was knocked aside without a problem. It made Sakura realize that Temari must have already active a Jutsu before Ino had even thrown the first set of stars, thus her ability to block all of the attacks.

However when Ino tried to copy Sakura's own tactic adding paper bombs to a set of Kunai Temari made her move. She had learned the dangers of a static defense rather well thanks to Sakura's own match. And was not able to be caught in the same trap. It did help that Temari unlike Neji could actually battle at range as well.

So reaching behind her Temari drew her fan, and sliding it open sent out a powerful gust of wind. Thus sending the kunai and bombs right back at Ino. Temari must of laced the blast of air with Chakra as well for a few seconds after the Kunai had been sent flying back, the paper bombs connected to them exploded with quite a bit of force. Ino was able to escape from this rather surprising turn of event, but just barely.

However as she leapt away, Temari appeared behind her. Ino began to turn, moving to block but Temari was too fast. With a powerful blow from the now folded fan, Temari sent Ino into the ground, causing her to bounce a little from the impact. Sakura sighed, hoping though knowing Ino would not rise from that kind of blow. Few could.

Indeed a few moments later, the match was called with Temari being the victor. Sakura felt both sorry and mad for Ino. Sorry because Ino had been given a really bad match up. Mad because the foolish girl had not trained at all. At least it was not as embarrassing for Ino to lose like it had been for Neji.

Sakura glanced over at the rest of Ino's team and wondered just what the chances of them even winning let alone reaching Chuunin rank really were. For that matter what was the chances of her own team becoming Chuunin, or what was left of her team.

She supposed of all of them; Gaara, Shikamaru and herself might have what it took to earn the rank. And out of all of them, only Shikamaru promotion would really mean anything. Sakura was in a weird spot when it came to promotions as she was now directly under Naruto's command, and he was likely directly under the Hokage. So a promotion might put her above her other classmates, but even if Naruto remained Genin, he would still outrank her.

Gaara, well, from Sakura had found out did not care about rank. As long as he had someone 'worthy' to fight he was happy. While Shikamaru, Sakura wondered if he would even be willing to take on the rank, as it would mean more work for him.

Sakura was distracted from this continued line of thought as the next two were given the signal to start. Lee versus Gaara. It was this match that many people had come to watch. For Rock Lee, was one of the most powerful Genin rank ninja, but he could not use Chakra. Whereas Gaara was the son of the Kazekage, the leader of the Hidden Sand Village.

It started out, rather slower than Sakura would have thought considering Lee's rumored ability. While Gaara was not able to catch Lee yet with his sand, which seemed to move and act without any commands. Lee was not able to slip by Gaara's defenses either always getting blocked at the last moment by the sand.

"I thought Lee was faster than this," Sakura said.

"He is, Guy has already given his permission for Lee to go all out," Tenten said, she was Lee's teammate.

"If this is all out, he will lose," Sakura said, coming over to stand by Tenten as to better talk with her.

Sakura was though surprised when Lee suddenly vanished, reappearing on the other side of the field. That was speed she had never seen before, only heard rumors about. It was the power given by releasing the Eight Gates. Anyone could releases the Eight Gates if given enough training, as each of the eight gates were limiters on their own body. Releasing all eight, you could use any Jutsu you wished, and had the strength of a god, but by doing so, your body would start destroying itself the moment you unleashed the power.

Sakura had read quite a bit about the moves used in each of the Eight Gates. And knew that to use them was a great risk. However one could in theory activate all eight gates, as long as they did not do anything once the final gate was open. However to do so required a great deal of stress to begin. As it was Sakura was sure she would never see a full Eight Gates Release, or the Taijutsu moved that normally came with it either.

"It seems you are a worthy challenge," Lee was saying his voice carrying clearly to the stands, "I shall indeed have to go all out."

With that he reached down and pushed his long leg warmers down revealing two sets of weights. Sakura was a little confused as to how removing those could help Lee speed up. Each weight, unless they were some super heavy metal could only weight two, maybe three pounds each. Ten at the most. And with six on each leg, that could end up boosting him a little bit.

Sakura could hear many people, even those up in the stand snickering at this move. Or at least they were till Lee threw the weights at Gaara. The first one as it impacted with Gaara's defense, and broke right through it catching him in the side spinning him like a top. The second one went right above him, barely missing his head. As they impacted the ground behind Gaara a huge wall of dust was sent up.

"My goodness, how much does he have on?" Sakura yelled out, her mouth open in shock.

"About a hundred pounds per weight, each of the six are chakra activated," Tenten said, soundly slightly amused as she looked about seeing everyone expression of complete shock.

Sakura did not even have time to turn to look back to where Lee had been. As he had appeared right next to Gaara, Lee's foot coming down right towards Gaara's head. Gaara's sand reacted in time, but was busted apart. However Lee's hit missed by a half inch.

Before Gaara could even react, Lee was behind Gaara and throwing a punch. Gaara's sand, moving on its one blocked the attack, slowing the blow enough to keep Gaara safe. Again like before Lee disappeared and appeared on Gaara's other side and aimed a kick for Gaara's waist. And once again, just barely the sand blocked Lee's attack. And that was only in the first two seconds.

Gaara who had been calm, almost bored up till this point was turning about in fear and shock. He only seemed to catch one of every three blows. And Lee's hit were almost hitting time and again. And finally as ten seconds elapsed since Lee began his assault, a blow slipped through.

Gaara while expecting the blow was not able to react in time. However as his sand had slowed Lee's punch, he was no knocked out form the force alone. Instead he was thrown away from the mass of sand that had been surrounding him. Lee appeared in front of Gaara's path, and with a powerful kick sent Gaara skywards.

Leaping upwards, Lee sent cloth bandages around Gaara tying him up. Then, the pair together, came flying and spinning back towards the ground, with a yell that was audible throughout the stands the pair seemed to crash into the ground, only for Lee to jump clear.

"Primary Lotus!" Lee yelled out before reappearing only a little worse for the wear.

"Not bad," Sakura said, now leaning forward on the railing looking down at Lee with renewed interest, "This match has just begun it seems."