The tension was so thick as Assassin and Gaara stared each other down, it was like it could be cut with one of Assassin swords. They stood there watching each other, analyzing one another for any weak spots or openings they could manipulate to their advantage. Eventually it was Gaara who grew impatient and struck first.

Three streams of sand exited through Gaara's gourd and flew towards Assassin. Unsheathing his swords, Assassin twirled them through his fingers once before he began to counter.

He sidestepped to the right and slashed one of the streams, causing the sand to fall and break away. Stepping to the left he dodged another and slashed it, causing the same result. The third came at him like an angry rhino, charging at him with great speed. Putting the pommels (ends of his swords) together he began spinning them quickly. As the sand made contact it was shredded instantly, falling all around Assassin.

"That all you got? I don't wanna end this fight too quickly." Assassin grinned under his helmet, dragging the blades of his swords into the ground and making a loud scratching sound. Gaara looked unimpressed as he formed a hand seal.

"Sand coffin!" He announced loudly. Shino's and Hinata's eyes widened in fear at the attacks name. They had witnessed it three times back in the forest, and it still terrified them to think about it.

Before Assassin could blink the sand around his feet swirled and started crawling onto him, clinging to him like a lost child. Before long Assassin was covered head to toe in a thick layer of sand. Gaara outstretched his right hand, palm wide open. That's when panic began to set in for Hinata.

"S-Stop the f-fight! Stop the fight!" Hinata called.

"What's wrong Hinata?" Kurenai asked, raising an eyebrow. She was shocked to see how much panic was shown in Hinata's dull gray eyes.

"He's going to kill Assassin! We…we saw him use the same jutsu back in the forest." She shuddered at the memory. Kurenai's own eyes widened, but she was stopped before she could have the match ended.

"No one's stopping this match until this prick is dead." Assassin grunted out.

"Sand burial!" Closing his hand, the sand constricted and tightened around Assassin, closing off his view from everyone and everything.

"…Did you forget what I told you?" Assassin questioned, laughing loud enough for everyone to hear. "Nothing gets in my suit jackass! It protects me from everything…even fire!"

Four clones puffed around Assassin. They each removed the bottom of their helmets, pulled out a metal chain and threw it over Assassin, tightening it around him. Each clone began doing the same hand sign.

"Fire style: Dragon Fire jutsu!" Fire came out of their mouths and traveled on the chains to Assassin. It hit him dead on, and the fire expanded into a giant ball that surrounded him. Team 7's eyes widened as they stared as the fire roared, memories flashing back to the forest when Orochimaru first attacked them.

Soon it died down and everyone was shocked to see Assassin encased in a solid block of glass. The sides began to crack before Assassin broke free on his own.

"Little science lesson for ya. Hot enough fire turns sand into glass, meaning your little sand coffin bullshit is useless." He informed before doing a hand sign. "Earth style: Great Mud River!"

Gaara suddenly felt the ground under him become slippery, so slippery in fact he almost lost his balance. Looking down he realized the ground was slowly turning into mud. He jumped away, and almost slipped again when his new spot was becoming muddy. This repeated several times until his half of the field was coated in a thin layer of mud.

"That's the lamest jutsu I've ever seen!" Kankuro mocked from his position on the higher level. He let out a sound that was similar to a squawk/squeak when a sword from one of Assassins clones came flying at him. He ducked, which caused the sword to get suck in the wall behind him.

"It only gets better clown face." Assassin informed before doing a new hand sign. "Earth style: Mud Wolves!"

Howling could be heard from throughout the room. Some of the mud began rising from the ground and started taking shape. Before anyone knew, four wolves made out of mud were formed on the field. They snarled and howled as they stared Gaara down.

"Another little lesson for ya. Mud and wolves are bad on their own, but throw in me and my clones? You're in for one hell of a time. Clones one and two take the left and three and four the right. Attack!"

Two clones and two wolves took the left side while the others took the right. Assassin was leading the charge by going straight down the middle.

Multiple streams of sand exited from the gourd and charged back at them. Clone two jumped into the air and laughed to himself when he saw one get slashed and destroyed. It was short lived, however, when he himself was slashed.

"What do I pay you idiots for?!" Assassin exclaimed as he slid under one of the streams.

"We get paid?" Three asked before one of the streams grabbed onto him. Lifting the clone into the air the sand tightened around him, destroying him.

"Useless. Four to me, you know the plan."

"Sadly, I do." The clone sighed, jumping over to Assassin before he could get destroyed. One of the wolves on his side however wasn't go lucky. The sand captured the mud wolf and covered its whole before squeezing. It popped and sent the mud all over the field. Gaara watched the as the mud slowly swam to a specific spot before the wolf remade itself. Howling it charged back to join the fight. "You know what you're doing?"

"Yeah, causing a distraction." Assassin grinned before grabbing the clones arm. Using Suits strength Assassin started spinning in circles before launching him at Gaara.

As the clone flew through the air he pointed his swords at Gaara, planning on impaling the red head. He got closer and closer, getting ready to end this fight once and for all. But was stopped however, as a stream of sand shot up from the ground and latched onto his hands. Three more streams formed and grabbed onto one of his limps. They pulled him apart, destroying the clone.

More sand poured from the gourd and wrapped around three of the wolves, holstering them up into the air as they howled in discomfort.

Gaara froze as he felt something biting his leg. Looking down he realized one of the wolves had gotten past the sand and was now biting his left calf. The sand around Gaara started moving whirling crazily as if it were angry before grabbing onto the wolf and tearing it off of him.

As Gaara was staring down at his leg, he noticed as a wall of sand suddenly speared in front of him. Two objects were straining against the sand and were an inch away from Gaara's eyes. On the other side stood Assassin, feet trapped in sand as the wall blocked his swords from hitting the red head.

"I…should've thought this through more." Assassin sighed as the sand tightened around his ankles. He was lifted up into the air before being thrown across the room. He landed in one of the walls, his body forming a small crater in the stone. "Ok I'm not gonna lie, that kinda pissed me off." Pushing himself out of the crater he landed into a kneeling position on the ground.

He had an idea. A dumb idea, but an idea nonetheless. But the sand coming at him full speeds needed to be dealt with first.

"Earth style: Golem technique!" Assassin slammed his hands onto the ground, which started rumbling soon after. Two stone golems rose from the ground roaring in anger. "Give me some time to think of a plan. Attack!"

The golems roared in acknowledgement and charged Gaara. Several smoke clouds appeared behind them as 10 clones now joined the fight.

"Earth style: Rock Shelter!" Slamming his hands onto the ground yet again, two curved walls of stone appeared on his sides before closing up, sealing him inside. Assassin sat down cross-legged and began to think. "I have a really dumb idea."

"Letting 'him' out?" Suit questioned.

"Hell no. I said dumb not suicidal." Assassin scoffed, forcing himself to ignore the screams of terror and anger from his golems and clones.

"So, what are you thinking?"

"…I'm feeling a bit bomby."

Outside his little dome the golems and clones weren't fairing well against Gaara and his sand. 10 streams were currently chasing the clones, his wall of sand was blocking off one of the golems, and one stream had the other golem trapped. It closed around the golem before tightening, forming yet another sand burial. The stone golem as crunched and cracked under the sand pressure, and eventually was destroyed beyond repair.

"This has gone on for far too long." Gaara grumbled to himself, having the wall of sand topple over and trap the other golem. It squashed the golem against the ground with immense pressure and destroyed it as well. After doing so the clones were also captured and destroyed by squeezing.

Even more sand poured from the gourd and gathered to form one gigantic stream. It rushed forward and smashing itself against the dome. It didn't take long for it to begin cracking and crumbling under the sand, and eventually it broke.

The dime was ripped away to reveal sitting Assassin sitting down inside. The sand wrapped around Assassin before slamming him against the wall, keeping his arms and legs separated in an 'X' fashion.

"Your clones and golems are gone, and now you're trapped. Just give in so we can move on." Gaara ordered, sounding bored.

"You see I would if I didn't, ya know, have a backup plan. A good assassin always thinks a step ahead, I think about 20 steps ahead." Assassin informed before whistling.

Dust and pebbles began falling from the ceiling and onto Gaara. Looking up he noticed cracks started forming. The ceiling eventually broke, allowing seven clones to fall down.

The sand whirled before some detached from Assassin and flew towards the clones. Time seemed to slow down when Gaara heard more cracks. Looking to his left two clones broke through the wall and latched onto Gaara's front and back. More cracks could be heard and he looked down, stunned to see two more clones break through the ground and latch onto his legs.

More sand broke away from Assassin and tried tearing the clones off of Gaara, but their grips were far too strong. Grinning Assassin pulled his hands through the sand before forming another hand sign.

"Earth style: Suicide Bombing Clone!"

Everyone's eyes widened at the announcement and as the clones began glowing white. But Assassin wasn't done it.

"Earth style: Rock Shelter!" Slamming his hands against the wall two more domes of rock formed and surrounded Gaara, trapping him and the clones inside while most of the sand was outside.

There was a muffled boom on the inside of the dome. Team sand and their sensei held their breaths as they kept their eyes on the dome. The fact that the sand that once held Assassin against the wall flew down onto the ground, releasing him.

"Is he…is he…" Temari couldn't finish her question. It was too difficult to get out.

"No, no way. Gaara…Gaara's tougher than that." Kankuro comforted, feeling as though he was lying.

"Was that overkill? I'm pretty sure that was overkill…nah." He laughed to himself before forcing the dome apart. Gasps could be heard throughout the room at what was revealed.

Gaara was laying down on his front, scathed and burnt, but not blown to pieces like Assassin had thought. Slowly the redhead got onto his knees before pushing himself to stand up, hiding his face from all. He looked up, surprising Assassin.

Instead of being brutally mutilated, Gaara had cracks in his skin. The pieces slowly started to break off and fall, landing onto the ground before breaking apart into sand. He grinned evilly with a crazy look in his eyes.

"What the hell? What's going on?!" Naruto exclaimed loudly, shocked by the ordeal.

'It's like a shell made out of sand.' Kakashi noted to himself.

"Not…not even a scratch." Shikamaru gasped.

Everyone watched as the sand slowly rose from the ground and started covering Gaara, fixing and patching the holes and cracks of his little shell. Assassin got back into a fighting stance, watching as Gaara's crazy look was slowly covered and transformed to his usual calm and glaring look.

"A suit made out of sand that protected him? Can't decide whether that's lame or impressive." Assassin whispered to himself and Suit. The two formed another hand sign, ready to continue until a voice stopped them.

"That's enough." Sarutobi called, shocking everyone.

"Lord Hokage?" Hayate asked, stunned that the Hokage would stop the fight. Sarutobi glanced at him before staring at the two fighters.

"This fight was the prime example of when an unstoppable force, Assassin, meets an immovable object, Gaara. Not only have you two been fighting nonstop for an entire hour, you two still have the energy to keep going. Impressive if I do say so myself." Removing his pipe, he blew some smoke into the air. "The fact of the matter is that not only has this fight been going on for far too long, we have other fights that must go on, and I am quite scared that if the two of you would continue fighting, the field itself would have to be replaced."

"Okay…so? None of those are really my problem." Assassin stated bluntly and disrespectfully, causing Sarutobi to chuckle.

"Sharp and to the point. Since the two of you are still standing, it is with my authority as the Hokage that I allow the two of you to continue onto the finals!" He announced, surprising everyone in the room.

"…Cool with me. Sorry Red but it looks like I'm just the one guy you can't kill." Assassin chuckled as he patted Gaara's shoulder. "Don't feel so bad, you're only the 200th thats failed."

He walked away, ignoring the looks of shock he received from many and the harsh glare he received from Gaara. He didn't have time to be dealing with them, he had a cute dog and cuter owner to checkup on.