Chapter 4

As soon as the medics have taken Misumi away, to the medical room Hayate announces the next match.

"Can (cough) Yoroi Akado (cough) and Shino Aburame (cough) please make their way (cough) to the arena floor." Hayate announces.

Yoroi makes his way down overly confident that he can win, Misumi may have failed but he won't. Shino just camly walks down neither overly confident, nor nervous, he won't underestimate his opponant nor overestimate, he would just approach this match in the most logical way.

Once Yoroi and Shino get into position Hayate signals the match to start. Yoroi in a burst of impressive speed rushes at Shino a faint glow surrounding his hand, Shino has no time to dodge as Yoroi places both hands onto Shino.

"You should surrender kid, the Jutsu I'm using absorbs Chakra." Yoroi announces arrogantly.

"A shame it won't help you." Shino states in a monotone voice.

Yoroi becomes confused by Shino's words, but that confusion turns to panic as 'Shino' bursts into a swarm of insects, indicating that it was an Insect Clone.

"You're the one who should surrender." Shino's voice suddenly says from behind Shino.

Yoroi screams loudly as the bugs begin crawling onto him.

"My Kikaichu much like your Jutsu absorbs Chakra, so the logical thing for you to do is surrender." Shino states.

Yoroi however appears not to hear him, as he continues screaming while trying to beat the Kikaichu off him. This proves ineffective however, leaving Shino to watch on as the Kikaichu drain Yoroi's Chakra until he passes out.

"Winner: Shino Aburame." Hayate announces as another team of medics arrive, with a stretcher to take Yoroi away.

The audidence cheer respectfully, but it's quiter than the cheers Neji received due to the match not being as exciting. Hiruzen claps politely for Shino's win while Orochimaru internally seeths, at his second subordinates failure.

"Yoroi's ability is impressive, but his execution of it is sloppy." Izumo states writing in his clipboard.

"So Yoroi's a no, but what about Shino?" Koetetsu asks.

"His usage of the Insect Clone Jutsu to bait in Yoroi was a sound strategy, but let's wait and see how he handles Neji before deciding." Izumo answers getting nods from his colleagues.

Neji watches with a calculating eye as Shino makes his way back to the competitors box, Neji is not a person who is easily impressed yet he could not help but be so with the Aburame heir, he was actually looking forward to his next fight. His attention is drawn back to the field as Hayate calls for the next competitors.

"Can (cough) Hinata Hyuga (cough) and Kakuro of Suna (cough) please make their way (cough) to the arena floor." Hayate announces.

Hinata is extreamly nervous as she walks down to the arena floor, despite training with her father for an entire month, she just couldn't lose her nervouse demeanour. In contrast her opponent Kankuro is extreamley confident that he can win, normally he'd be nervous about taking on a Hyuga, yet from what he could tell about his opponent, she was a nervous wreck who seemed afraid of her own shadow, he could use this to make her surrender before the match begins.

Once the pair reach the centre of the arena Kankuro begins his plan.

"Look at you shaking like a leaf, you should just surrender and stop embarrising yourself and your Clan." Kankuro says trying to project a sense of power into his words, to make Hinata lose even more confidence.

Hinata takes a step back at Kankuro's words, she then scans the arena crowd and spots her father Hiashi looking at her expectently, her younger sister Hanabi looking at her with hope, Naruto looking at her encouraging, along with Kurenai and her teammates. She takes a deepbreath to steel her resolve before entering a fighting stance, signalling her desire to fight.

Kankuro internally curses that his plan to get Hinata to forfeit failed, he could now only hope that he could defeat her.

"Begin." Hayate says.

Hinata activates her Byakugan and has to stifle a gasp, the Kankuro in front of her is a puppet the real Kankuro is hiding in the bundle on the puppets back, Kankuro who can see through his puppets eyes knows this and curses. Since there's no point in keeping up the charade, the real Kankuro emerges from the bundle eliciting surprised gasps from several people in the crowd.

Kankuro makes a movement with his finger, and a hail of poison coated senbon shoot towards Hinata. Hinata though counters by using the Eight Trigrams Palm Revolving Heaven, which creats a dome of Chakra that protects Hinata, by blowing away the Senbon. Kankuro curses at this before sending his puppet after Hinata, hoping to get her with one of the hidden poisoned blades. Hinata's Byakugan is unable to see the poison, but she can see the hidden blades on the wrists and correctly deduces that they're coated in poison. Using a surprising amount of flexibility Hinata evades the hidden blades, careful not to even get a scratch.

Kankuro is greatly surprised that the Hyuga girl is dodging his puppets attacks, with such flexability. So he makes another move this one makes his puppet separate into several pieces, each piece has a poison covered blade. Kankuro then sends each piece after Hinata one at a time, making it harder for Hinata to dodge, yet even with the increased difficulty Hinata is still able to dodge each attack, making moves that make several people wince at how she bends her body.

Kankuro begins to get irritated at not hitting Hinata, this irritation makes him get desperate and he sends each piece of his puppet at Hinata all at once. Hinata once again uses the Eight Trigrams Palm Revolving Heaven, to blow each piece away while also simutaniously breaking them. Kankuro seeing that his puppet is broken surrenders.

"Winner: Hinata Hyuga." Hayate announces.

The crowd roar in approval for a Konoha victory over a foreign Ninja, they're also excited from the really good match. Hinata stunned by the crowd's applause, she had never received such praise before, shes even more stunned when she hears Naruto's and Hanabi's voices in the crowd congratulating her, but it's when she locks eyes with her father and sees the proud look on his face, that she allows happiness to overflow her.

"That was an impressive match, both deserve promotion." Kotetsu says writing in his clipboard.

"Yep, though Kankuro did make an error that in the field could've cost him his life, so don't forget to take that into account." Izumo states.

Kankuro has finished picking up the broken pieces of his puppet, and has walked up to his Sensei Baki. Baki just looks at Kankuro with a neutral look.

"What do I do now Baki-Sensei?" Kankuro asks.

"You've lost your main puppet, and the other one is useless without it. Therefore your main priority during the invasion then will be to help Gaara when the time comes." Baki says making Kankuro shiver at the thought of helping Gaara.

Orochimaru is now really angry though he's careful not to show it, two of his subordinates are down and now one of the Sand Siblings is useless, for the invasion. His plans were going down the drain fast and he hadn't even launched his invasion yet, but still he will wait for after the final match, for when the people are at their euphoria, that is the best time to crush them with his invasion.

To Be Continued...

Author Notes: This was the last chapter that GDW311 wrote before discontinuing the story and letting me adopt it and re-update it.