AN/ Soo yeah. I'm back. Didn't abandon it or anything. I just had a lot of stuff pop up all at once along with a nasty case of writer's block, and to be honest I was considering not posting it today either, because I really wanted the Choji Kiba fight to be much more intense than it ended up being. In the end I decided to keep it as it was. On a related note, the scene at the end of the chapter is not going to evolve into a yaoi relationship. If Naruto ends up in a relationship in this story, it will be with a girl, not a guy, and definitely not Shikamaru (or Choji). On another related note, no, Naruto did not meet or train with Jiraiya over the break. Basically the only thing that happened over that period of time with Naruto is that he trained with and strengthed his friendship with Kyuubi. Jiraiya did enter the village and do his usual Jiraiyaesque things, but he did not interact with any of the genin or their sensei beyond casual conversation, if he even did that. He will play a part later on, but for now, no. There's more AN at the end, and reading it might answer a few questions before they're asked, so please do so before you review.

Chapter 8

The whole arena was silent for just a moment, and then Choji shouted, "Multi Size Technique!"

With this, his whole body seemed to expand, until he appeared to be nothing more than an oversized roly poly. Once this was done, he shouted, "Pleasingly Plump! Human Bullet Tank!"

Suddenly, his head and limbs were sucked into his torso, turning him into nothing more than a ball, which soon started rotating at incredible speeds. When it touched the ground, it bounced once, and then shot towards Kiba at high speed.

Both Kiba and Akamaru easily dodged it, and soon, Kiba was shouting his own technique name, facing the back of the still rolling Choji. "Tsuga!"

Kiba jumped into the air and turned into a high speed whirlwind of spinning claws and fangs, as Akamaru ran along the ground behind him. Choji managed to reverse his direction by bouncing off several walls, leaving a number of craters, and was soon heading straight towards the spinning Kiba.

They collided at high speed, and winds shot out from the force of the impact, earth breaking beneath them. Kiba's whirlwind bounced away, while Choji emerged from his bullet tank mode and staggered around for a moment, obviously dizzy. Kiba, the momentum of his attack putting him on the opposite side of the arena, couldn't take advantage of Choji's state. Akamaru, on the other hand, did.

The little white puppy shot forward, and bit down hard on Choji's ankle. Choji shouted and instinctively jumped, but the little dog held on tight, refusing to let go. After a moment of hopping around, Choji raced through some seals and cried out, "Partial Multi Size Jutsu!"

With that, his left leg expanded at incredible speed, and so did his right arm. Akamaru was sent flying by the sudden expansion, and Choji moved to strike the dog with his now much larger arm, while it was still in midair and unable to defend itself.

Seconds before impact, Kiba arrived, moving at incredible speeds for a genin, and caught Akamaru, pulling his dog out of harm's way, and narrowly avoiding the hit meant for Akamaru, getting off with just a graze from the massive limb.

When he landed, he immediately dropped Akamaru, and shouted out, "Four Legs Jutsu!"

Kiba's chakra surged, and his whole body started to change. His canines, already sharp and pointed, grew even longer and more ferocious looking. His finger and toenails grew and sharpened, becoming more claw like, and the pupils of his eyes became nothing more than vertical slits. Soon, looking almost more dog than human, Kiba shot towards Choji, moving twice as fast as he had been going mere moments ago, with Akamaru racing right alongside him, still in dog form.

The instant they reached Choji, it became clear that they had the advantage. They were moving too fast for him to keep up, and although he was able to maintain a good defense using his multi size jutsu, he just couldn't land a blow, and was being rapidly worn down.

Kiba and Akamaru were soon circling around Choji at speeds too fast for him to keep up with. The still partially expanded Akimichi was obviously struggling to stay with his opponent's, and a long series of narrowly avoided blows, with the margin of error shrinking with each strike, made it clear that he was outmatched.

The stadium was already roaring, and when Choji suddenly shrank his oversized limbs back down to size and reentered his bullet tank mode, they only got louder.

Kiba and Akamaru both backed off, easily avoiding the cumbersome bullet tank, and then followed behind the ball of expanded human flesh, waiting for Choji to emerge so they could strike. They were obviously expecting it to happen when he collided with the arena wall, and ran forward in striking position the instant it happened, but instead they were forced to jump back as Choji just kept on going up the wall, still in ball mode.

Soon, Choji had reached the top of the wall, and Kiba and Akamaru had both jumped back to the center of the arena, looking nervous. Choji emerged from ball form and spun in midair, a grin on his face, and went through a few hand seals before suddenly expanding his left arm to several times the size of his body.

Kiba and Akamaru immediately separated, avoiding the oversized fist that crashed down where they had been standing moments ago. Choji's body followed his limb, and soon enough, in a familiar pattern, he once more found himself fending off his two foes, who were moving around him at high speeds, looking for an opening.

The battle continued as it was for a few moments, and then, as they passed by each other on one of their circuits of Choji, a small pill shot from Kiba's hand to Akamaru's mouth. On the next rotation, as Choji was starting to wonder why the small white dog was suddenly big and red, they both skidded to a halt and Akamaru jumped onto Kiba's back. Choji swung towards both of them, and his roar of exertion drowned out the sound of their combined jutsu.

The effects, however, were easily visible, as two Kiba's emerged from the dust cloud caused by Choji's fist impacting the ground. His shock gave one of the Kiba's an opportunity, and a quick Tsuga later, Choji was bleeding from multiple wounds across his back, and his arm had shrunk down to normal size once more. Both Kiba's shot forward, now moving even faster than before, but Choji once more raced through hand seals, and a quick shout of "Human Bullet Tank!" brought him up the wall once more to safety, while Kiba and Akamaru, indistinguishable from one another, remained behind on the ground.

Choji emerged from his jutsu at the top of the wall, just like last time, but this time he simply collapsed to his knees on the horizontal surface, panting heavily and bleeding from his back.

He looked down at his two opponent's and grinned. "Man, you guys are fast. How'd you do that?"

One of the Kiba's rose onto two legs once more, while the other transformed back into a once more white furred Akamaru. "It's practically all we've worked on. Our whole team is fast, although you wouldn't know it by looking at Shino. Sensei always said if the opponent can't catch you they can't hurt you, and it made sense to us, so that's kind of been our priority in training."

"Oh, that makes sense. And it's kind of true, you guys are way too fast for me. Proctor, I surrender."

The proctor nodded by way of acknowledgement and gestured for some medics to look at Choji's back, while Kiba and Akamaru merrily headed up to the competitor's box.

The proctor turned to look up towards the competitor's box and called out, "Could Hinata Hyuuga and Temari of the Sand please come down to the floor?"

Temari smirked and let loose a bit of killing intent as she jumped off of the balcony onto her fan, gliding down into the arena with a grace that awed the audience.

Then, in a move that awed her friends, Hinata jumped off the balcony just as Kiba had at the start of his match, and walked forward with a confidence that had never before been present.

Kiba entered the competitor's box just in time to hear the tail end of his fellow Konoha ninja's surprised muttering at Hinata's sudden about face, and frowned.

He still wasn't particularly happy about the methods used, but even he couldn't deny the results. He silently moved forward to stand next to Naruto, hoping as he did that Hinata would notice. Down on the field, the once shy Hyuuga activated her Byakugan and visibly flinched, before turning to look back at the competitor's box for a moment. She turned back to the field after a moments hesitation, and was once more all business.

Across from Hinata, Temari smirked. "My my, what a surprise. Last time I saw you you were all stutters and nerves. What happened? Had a change of heart little girl?"

Hinata didn't answer, simply glared at her opponent with her activated Byakugan.

"Well no matter, I'll crush you anyway. I'm ready proctor."

"And I am as well."

"Alright. Begin!"

Temari snapped open her fan, and as she swung it shouted, "Doesn't matter how fast you are, it won't let you dodge this!"

A massive gust of wind shot towards Hinata at incredible speed, and Temari smirked at the moment of panic that flitted across Hinata's face.

The smirk disappeared along with Hinata, as all her attack struck was a swirl of leaves. A similar swirl appeared behind Temari, and a few blows later, the blonde from the Sand village was on the ground unconscious, a victorious Hinata looking down on her.

"Winner, Hinata Hyuuga!"

The crowd went wild once more, and Hinata glanced up at the stands for a moment before smiling and turning to walk up the stairs.

In the stands, Hiashi Hyuuga frowned, unknowingly matching the look on his nephew's face.

When had Hinata gotten so strong? How had he missed this?

Next to her father, Hanabi Hyuuga just smiled, pleased to see her sister finally coming into her own, and just as pleased to see the shock on their father's face.

In another part of the stadium, Kurenai simply smiled in response to the questioning gazes of her fellow sensei, pride etched on her face. Both of her students had made it past the first round, and both of them had looked damn good doing it. For just a moment in time, all was well once more.

Then, her features hardened and she resumed her vigilance. It never hurt to be too careful.

"Could Naruto Uzumaki and Rock Lee please come down?"

Naruto and Lee looked at each other, and the crowd fell silent. Simultaneously, they both grinned, and held out their hands.

"Good luck Lee."

"May our flames of youth shine brighter than any before us!"

Their words echoed throughout the strangely quiet stadium. Lee, of course, didn't notice the absolute lack of cheers, nor the glares that were being thrown the way of his future opponent as they both jumped down into the stadium, but other people were significantly less oblivious.

"Hey Ino?"

"Yeah Sakura?"

"Why are they glaring at Naruto?"

"I don't know… He didn't pull some big prank we didn't hear about over the break did he?"

Gaara turned his head to view the crowd, and felt his hatred growing. They were looking at him again, those eyes, those same eyes! They always did this, wherever he went, it wasn't right!

The pain surged through him, and Gaara almost reacted in his usual bloody fashion, but then he hesitated.

The blonde boy jumped down into the arena, the annoyingly green one following him, and the glares went with them.

There was another?

Shikamaru shifted his nervous glance away from Gaara and towards Naruto, who was calmly walking towards the center, ignoring the looks he was getting. His eyes narrowed, and he sighed under his breath.

Then, Naruto did something even more confusing. Now at the center of the arena, facing Lee down in the noonday sun, he reached up and pulled off his customary orange jumper, throwing it to the side. The crowd's reaction was instantaneous, a chorus of boos hisses and jeers rained down on an apparently uncaring Naruto, along with the occasional piece of trash. A moment later, the boos and hisses seemed to redouble, only this time their target appeared to be the crazy proctor from the Forest of Death, who Shikamaru had noticed giving Naruto the evil eye after the preliminaries.

Shikamaru turned his head once more to Naruto, who now appeared to be casually talking to Lee, and frowned. Nothing stood out, beyond an odd lack of scars and what appeared to be a strange tattoo on his shoulder. Nothing that should have brought on this sort of reaction, at least.

Shikamaru silently slipped out of the competitor's box where he had been waiting. At this point, whatever happened in the coming fight wasn't important. Answers were.

The proctor raised his hand, and started to bring it down.

The audience took in a breath, all at once.

Several civilians rose to their feet and rushed towards Anko.

Lee and Naruto tensed their muscles.

Then, suddenly, a swirl of leaves appeared in the middle of the arena, a swirl which quickly faded away to present Kakashi and Sasuke, standing back to back. Sasuke was smirking, while Kakashi was reading his book. The silver haired Jonin lifted his head to look at the proctor, noting out of the corner of his eye Anko quickly and efficiently avoiding the civilians that had rushed her before she disappeared in her own swirl of leaves, even as the chorus of jeers died down.

"Are we late?"

The proctor frowned, and lowered his hand without saying the word begin at all. "Yes, but it doesn't matter. The Hokage made an exception, so you weren't disqualified."

Sasuke's smirk widened, and he looked at Lee, saying, "I'm looking forward to fighting you later on."

Lee frowned, and didn't respond.

Kakashi noticed some orange out of the corner of his eye, and turned to look at the source. What he saw, a shirtless and pissed of Naruto, was not what he had been expecting. "Eh? Naruto? What are you doing here, shouldn't you be up in the stands?"

Naruto blinked. "Umm, no? Why?"

Kakashi frowned beneath his mask. "Well, Neji beat you right?"

Naruto's look of confusion abruptly turned to one of shock, and then anger. "You didn't even bother to find out what happened in my match?"

Kakashi jerked back as if stung. "You won?"

Naruto snorted and jerked his head. "Get off the field sensei. My match is about to begin."

The proctor, who had been eying Kakashi with a mixture of disbelief and shame, turned to look at Naruto. "I'm afraid not. His match was supposed to be first, and since yours technically hasn't started, he's actually the one that's going at this point. You're going to have to wait your turn."

Naruto shrugged, and said, "Whatever, I can wait."

Sasuke smirked. "Still want me to verify your existence?"

Gaara looked up for a moment, and then frowned. "Yes, but a question first."

Sasuke was clearly surprised. Gaara just didn't seem like the inquisitive type. "Umm, ok. Go ahead."

"You are teammates with the boy in orange? Naruto Uzumaki?"

"Yeah, why?"

"They look at him with the same eyes. Why?"

"What do you mean?"

"They hate him, they fear him, they revile him. Tell me why."

"They don't hate him. I mean…"

"They hate him. I saw, they looked at him with those same eyes. Is he a monster like me? Does he seek to verify his existence?"

"No way. Naruto may be a little weird, but he's not nuts like you are."

"Very well. You shall both verify my existence. I am ready."

Sasuke noticed for the first time the restless state of the crowd, and Naruto's shirt discarded on the floor. "Yeah, I'm ready too."

"Begin!"

As Sasuke raced forward, displaying incredible speed for a genin, Naruto found himself in the middle of an old fashioned stare down, with none other than Shikamaru on the opposite end.

"Naruto."

"Shika. What's up?"

"You're so freaking troublesome Naruto. Why'd you take off your shirt?"

A frown flitted across Naruto's face. "I just found out my sensei assumed that I would lose and end up in the hospital after the preliminaries, to the point that he didn't even bother checking afterwards. I'm not in the mood for twenty questions."

"I don't care. Naruto, weird stuff seems to always happen around you, and I can't figure it out. First one thing seems like the only answer, and then something new comes up that makes that one thing impossible. I thought I had you figured out, but you taking off your stupid shirt just proved me wrong. Why did you do it?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Alright, fine. Until a few minutes ago, I thought you were the container of the Kyuubi. Was I wrong?"

Naruto subtly stiffened, but not subtly enough.

"No, guess not. Alright, so that brings us back to the same old question. Why did you take off your shirt? If they hate you because you're a container, how is that connected to Anko Mitarashi, the crazy proctor?"

Naruto remained silent.

"I've never seen that mark on your shoulder before either."

"Look, what are you accusing me of?"

"Nothing, I'm not accusing. I don't care that you're a container, you're still Naruto, but I hate mysteries, and I've given up on trying to be subtle about figuring you out. For once, it's actually easier to just freaking ask, so that's what I'm doing."

"Fine. You know Orochimaru?"

"Yeah."

"In the Forest of Death, he marked me with a Cursed Seal. Kyuubi beat it off, but the symbol stayed. Because my shirt was so tattered after I blew myself up against Neji, the whole village saw it, and suddenly they had two reasons to hate me twice as much. Now I'm further away from being Hokage than ever, I just found out my sensei has absolutely no faith in me, and I'm pretty sure I just heard a crazy ass fellow container mark me and my teammate for death. To top it all off, now I'm standing in a dark hall alone with a kid I haven't talked to since the academy who seems determined to pry each and every secret that I've got out of my cold dead hands. Plus, I'm pretty sure a month ago, a pedophile bit me in the neck."

"Crappy month?"

"God yes."

"Well, you can still count Choji and me as your friends."

"Thanks Shikamaru."

A small explosion and a surge of cheering caught their attention, and Naruto sighed. "Ready to go watch the fight?"

"Sure."

They walked off up their stairs together as another explosion and surge of cheering rattled the arena.

AN/ Ok, answer time. First of all, Hinata's mysterious change and sudden power boost. I will not tell you why or how she has changed, because that would be a spoiler. I imagine I'm going to receive some angry reviews telling me that Hinata could never beat Temari, and to be honest, that's true. Canon Hinata could never beat Temari, but my Hinata, with confidence and the Shunshin, can. Moving on, what did everyone else do over break? Again, that would be a spoiler, so I'm not telling. This probably confused you more than it enlightened you, but to be honest that's kind of the point. We're coming up on a completely AU arc that I've been building up to for some time, and answers will arrive with that arc. It's still a couple of story lines away though, so be prepared to wait. See you next time o faithful readers, and hopefully next time won't be quite so long a wait as this time.