The only sound throughout the large room were the footsteps of Gaara as he made his way back to his team, and those of the medics who took away Misumi's body, covered in a blanket. Naruto frowned as he watched the body be taken away, kicking himself for not making a move on his own.

"Damn." Asuma said, shaking his head with his face etched in a deep frown. "I thought that kid had an evil look in his eye, but I didn't expect that..."

'Naruto didn't exaggerate in the slightest. I should've been ready to step in.' Kakashi thought as he watched Gaara make his way back to his team. 'But... something about that jutsu...'

Yoroi snarled and slammed his fist against the railing, drawing all the Konoha Genin's eyes to him. His sensei put a hand on his shoulder. "I know. There's nothing more we can do, save it for your match."

Naruto gave him a sympathetic look. "Sorry about your teammate." He said, getting their attention. He looked down and balled his hands into fists. "Kabuto helped me out back in the forest... I owe you guys. I knew how dangerous Gaara was, I should have done something."

Yoroi gave a sigh, feigning sorrow and understanding. Compassion and camaraderie were rare commodities among spies, especially under employment under a master like his. Truthfully, all he was feeling at the moment was frustration at his own weakened position, but he easily suppressed that. "You couldn't have known that Gaara would end it that quickly. And this is just how the world is. Being a shinobi means you could die any day, there's no telling when your number will be up."

Naruto didn't seem the least bit placated by that. "I know that, but..."

"But it doesn't make losing comrades any easier." Kakashi answered for him, causing his students to look at him. The look in his eye made them remember he had a lot of experience with that.

In the arena, Hayate cleared his throat, cutting off any further statements. "Excuse me, but as this was well within the allowances for the exam, we'll be continuing the prelims now." At that, the scoreboard sounded again. The Rookie 9, eager to get their minds off what they just saw, turned their attention to it. In a few moments the next match was decided.

Kiba vs Mubi

"Looks like it's our turn. I think we got one of those losers Naruto took down, this should be a piece of cake." Kiba said before looking down at the dog. "Let's show 'em what we got, huh Akamaru?" The dog barked in response.

"You're our last shot. Don't screw this up." Oboro said to his teammate.

"Relax; I'm up against a boy and his mutt. How tough could they be?"

Kagari face palmed as his teammate tempted fate. "We're doomed."

The two genin stood across from each other, both ready to fight. Kiba would normally be smirking, but the stench of the blood surrounding him dampened his excitement somewhat. Akamaru leapt out of his coat and stood on the ground beside him.

"And what's that tiny little runt gonna do? Growl at me until I cower in fear?"

"Word of advice. Don't taunt Akamaru." Kiba said seriously and the dog growled at his side.

"I'm positively shaking."

"If you're ready." Hayate said, looking from one to the other. "You can begin."

Kiba immediately leapt back as Mubi shot forward to attack and landed in a crouch, forming a single hand seal. "Alright. Ninja Art: Beast Mimicry! All Fours Jutsu!" Kiba declared as chakra began to visibly leak from his body. As the jutsu implied, he got down on all fours, his nails lengthening and his canine's growing larger, giving the boy a more feral appearance.

Mubi immediately halted his advance and sunk into the ground using the Underground Projection Fish Technique. 'Beast Mimicry huh? The name says it all. Animals are stronger and possess more powerful senses than humans, so this jutsu probably brings its user closer to the animal kingdom to enhance their abilities... so direct attacks are out. Good thing that's not how I fight anyway.' Mubi smirked. 'Problem is, that mutt might be useless in a fight, but it'll probably sniff me out... unless...'

Kiba's eyes scanned the arena as he waited for his opponent to surface. When he did, rising from the ground on the far side of the arena behind him, Akamaru immediately noticed and promptly barked in his direction, alerting his master of his presence. However, as Kiba turned to launch himself at his opponent, Mubi made a series of hand seals. 'Mist Follower Jutsu.'

As Kiba jumped and whirled around to face his opponent, he vanished into a mist that seemed to cover the entire arena. "What the... some kind of mist jutsu?" He turned to his dog. "Akamaru, can you tell where he's hiding?" The dog looked around for a moment before shaking its head. "Tch, he must have covered his scent. Where-" Suddenly a black shape began to rise from the stone nearby. "Huh?"

The shape gradually took the form of an Ame genin wearing all black, contrasting Mubi and his teammates matching yellow jumpsuits. "You don't stand a chance."

At those words, dozen more shadows began to raise, each taking the form of another black cloaked Ame shinobi, all slowly turning their heads towards him, mocking him.

"What the hell's this? Some kind of clone jutsu?" Kiba glared at the copies as they slowly began making their way towards him with eerie, zombie like gaits. "It's gonna take more than this to stand a chance against me!" He charged towards the nearest clone, its movements far too slow to mount any kind of defense. He slashed at it with his claw and struck true, but frowned. It was almost like punching through molasses. Its body melted into tar where it was struck and as Kiba skid across the ground and turned to face his enemy, he found that there was another clone growing out of where the first was wounded. His eyes widened and his jaw dropped in disbelief as both heads turned to regard him

"What in the-?"

"What's he doing?" Ino questioned, seeing Kiba appear to attack thin air. Akamaru was looking around uncertainly.

"He must be under a genjutsu." Sakura theorized.

Kiba continued to strike at the clones that came near him, but every time he struck one, the things multiplied. He would have gotten out of their encirclement, but they were everywhere. More and more kept coming and already there was barely a spot that didn't have one of the black cloaked shinobi almost in arm's length. The ones surrounding Kiba had been mangled and were now grotesque amalgams of bodies, with masses of limbs sticking out were they didn't belong, multiple heads and much constantly leaking tar out of unhealed wounds on their forms.

"Damn it, there's no end to these things!" He snarled before a canine cry of alarm caught his attention. "Akamaru!"

Turning to his partner, he found the tiny dog was in the hands of the Ame genin, his front paws held together in his hands and a kunai held to the dog's neck as more of the dark shinobi took up defensive positions around him.

"You seem like a pretty tough guy. I'm guessing it'll take a while for my friends to tire you out." Mubi began. His jutsu only manipulated three of the five senses: sight, hearing and feeling, but fortunately, the blood Gaara had scattered across the arena had covered his scent. "Lucky for me, you seem to care about this mutt so much." He brought the kunai closer to the dog's neck, causing it to whimper. "Forfeit now and your little friend won't get hurt."

Kiba snarled at the Ame genin. "You bastard!" His opponent simply chuckled... before Kiba grinned and vanished from sight. Before Mubi knew what happened, he'd been struck and sent flying, safely away from the little dog that landed on his feet rather like his hated adversaries: the felines.

"You should have tried that from farther away, dumbass. I could close that distance in a heartbeat." Kiba boasted; looking around as the various clones vanished. "Oh, I get it. Those were just illusions. So, I guess the game's over, huh?" He asked as Mubi got up and glared. "But I think Akamaru's gonna want some payback for that stunt you pulled, right?" Akamaru barked in response and Kiba kneeled down, letting the dog jump on his back as he made the tiger hand seal. "Ninja Art:-" There was a puff of smoke and the two vanished from sight. When the cloud cleared, it revealed that Akamaru had been turned into a copy of the feral genin. "Man Beast Clone!"

'Shit! There goes his biggest weak spot!'

The two Kiba's launched themselves forward, zig-zagging as they closed the distance and moving so fast the spectators lost all hope of telling them apart. Mubi could hardly rise up any defense as the two blitzed him. He managed to duck under an attack from the first Kiba and jumped back as the second swiped at him with his claws, only to take an elbow to the face when the first shot forward again. His guard shattered, he could do nothing as one of the animalistic twins slammed him in the stomach, launching him back to where the other appeared to send him away with a sweeping kick.

The Ame genin was ragdolled by the pair before finally, the launched him into the air. The pair of wolfish genin stood beside each other. "Man-Beast Taijutsu-" One of the two, the real Kiba declared before both leapt after their opponent, both spinning in the air so quickly their forms resembled drills before they began rotating together into a single twister. "Fang over Fang!" The two blurs slammed into Mubi, who let out a cry of pain as they drove him to the ground and dragged him across its surface digging a groove into the stone before slamming into a wall, kicking up a cloud of debris. Both jumped out of the resulting smog and when it cleared, it revealed the Ame genin was unconscious.

"Winner: Kiba Inuzuka."

"Ha! Looks like those Ame genin weren't so tough." Kiba declared triumphantly as he stood up straight, releasing his jutsu and retaking his normal appearance. A cloud of smoke engulfed his copy that reverted back to his true form and barked at his master.

"I knew Kiba wouldn't lose to that guy." Naruto said, grinning slightly.

"Damn it!" Oboro slammed his fist against the railing.

"Heh, looks like those guys are O for 3. Pretty sad." Temari commented, looking at the pair of Ame genin with a smirk. "They made it all this way for nothing."

"Congratulations, Kiba." Hinata said as her teammate returned to her side.

"Eh, it was nothing. Besides, we still have the finals to worry about." Kiba replied, suddenly serious. "We've got to show our stuff for Shino, and there are two guys here even I want to get into a fight with."

"Looks like things are winding down." Naruto commented as the scoreboard came to life once again.

Yoroi watched the lights dance across the screen. 'There are only three possibilities left, and all three are just run of the mill rookies. Lord Orochimaru tasked us to test Sasuke, and since Kabuto backed out and Misumi bit it, I'm all that's left.'

In moments the penultimate match was decided.

Sasuke vs Kankuro

"Looks like you're up Sasuke." Naruto said, turning to grin at the Uchiha. "You better not blow it, there's a lot riding on this."

Sasuke raised a brow. "You'll have to enlighten me on that."

Naruto's grin widened somewhat as he pointed at the Suna genin. "Both our teams are two for three. Whoever wins this match's team is undefeated."

Sasuke blinked before smirking. "Heh. I get it. Show everyone we're the best of the best. Fine, I won't be the one to blow our winning streak." He made began his walk to the stairs. "I wasn't planning on losing anyway."

"That brat huh?" Kankuro commented across the arena.

"Don't screw around with this one, Kankuro." His sister said.

"Yeah, yeah, don't worry so much. I've been looking forward to this."

Shikamaru was glaring at the screen. 'Great. This means I'm up against the guy who just lost his teammate... what a drag.'

Sasuke and Kankuro stood apart from each other; the black clothed genin took the wrapped object off of his back and slammed it on the ground, resting his hand on its top.

"Get him, Sasuke!" Ino cried from her place on the railing, getting no reaction from the Uchiha heir.

"I'm going to give you some advice." Kankuro began. "Once I unleash the Crow here, you're gonna want to give up."

Sasuke smirked. "Funny, I was going to say something along those lines to you." 'Should I go all out and use the Sharingan to end this quickly?' He thought on it for a moment. 'Why the hell not? The finals probably won't be today anyway if they have to call up VIPs from other nations, so I don't need to conserve chakra. It's best if I end this quickly, and don't show off anything the spectators don't already know I've got.'

"And... Begin!"

Sasuke immediately crouched down, ready to dodge or launch himself at his black clad opponent as he drew a kunai and spun it by the ring at its base into a reverse grip and activated his Sharingan. When he saw what truly lied in front of him, he couldn't help but let his smirk widen before he burst into blurred motion.

'Damn! He's seen through me.' Kankuro's expression twisted into a grimace. He'd hoped Sasuke wouldn't activate the Sharingan right off the bat. Clearly, he'd hoped in vain. He instantly began to move, grabbing the wrapped Crow and preparing to jump a moment too late. Sasuke reached them but at the last moment, diverted away from Kankuro and targeted the Crow. Something shot out of Kankuro's side, a blur that the spectators couldn't make out but the Uchiha heir ducked beneath it. He slashed at the bandaged object, managing to catch it as Kankuro leapt away.

As he sailed through the air, Kankuro threw out a free hand and dozens of senbon suddenly shot out, seemingly from out of his palm. Sasuke leapt back to dodge, leaning back in midair until he was parallel to the floor to let a second wave pass over him and then planted his hands on the ground to launch him backwards, and evading one final barrage.

"Idiot." Gaara said dismissively.

"Ugh," Temari face palmed. "Didn't I tell him to take this seriously?"

Both Sasuke and Kankuro landed and glared at each other, and for a moment all was still. Then, a crimson stain grew from the side of the bandaged object. Moments later the bandages unraveled to reveal... Kankuro, his right arm bleeding slightly, throws a fierce look at the Sharingan wielder.

"Huh?" Sakura voiced her surprise before looking to what she thought had been Kankuro. "Then what...?"

The clearly fake Kankuro's form cracked, its entire body seeming to break down into sand, revealing a new figure. An odd, four armed and three eyed wooden construct with jagged teeth, spikey brown hair and wearing a tattered brown cloak.

"A puppet?" Sakura questioned with a frown.

"Apparently, Kankuro's one of Suna's infamous puppet users." Kakashi commented, drawing all the Genin's attention. "Rather than fight directly, they use threads made of their chakra to control puppets to fight in their stead."

Naruto scoffed and crossed his arms, closing his eyes although you couldn't see it through his sunglasses. "So they spend all their time playing with dolls? Real intimidating."

"I'm with Naruto on this one. These guys sound like pushovers." Kiba agreed.

"Oh, I wouldn't be too sure about that." Kakashi shook his head. "Like you just saw, they're loaded with all kinds of hidden weaponry, all of which are typically poisoned." That caused both previously unconcerned genin to look back at him, their brows furrowing. "Not to mention that no part of them is essential, so they're very hard to disable without directly targeting the puppeteer and the chemical knowledge and fine chakra control required to control their puppets and create their poisons make them natural medical ninjas. Some of Suna's most dangerous ninja have been puppeteers."

"So, that's what you were hiding under those bandages." Sasuke commented.

Ignoring his wound, Kankuro smirked. "That's right. This here's my favorite puppet: The Crow. I inherited it from one of the greatest puppeteers in Suna's history. It might not look like it, but it's deadly."

"One of the greatest, huh? You must have a lot of faith in it." Sasuke replied. His eyes narrowed as he thought back to the exchange moments ago. The puppet wasn't a living thing; it had no muscles to give the minute signals his crimson eyes used to read his targets. 'My Sharingan won't be able to predict that thing's movements as well as they could a living being...'

Kankuro grinned. "Yeah, want to see why? Actually, why don't I just show you?" With a slight movement of his hands, Crow shot forward, extending its right arm forward to reveal a dagger below the wrist. Sasuke easily dodged the puppet, leaping to the side and charging at Kankuro. However, alarm bells went off in his head when Kankuro's grin widened and he once again moved his hands. Sasuke heard the faint sound of weapons being fired and turned just in time to see two daggers flying towards him, aimed at his head.

The Uchiha heir ducked under the weapons and responded by throwing his kunai at the puppet, aimed at the now revealed launching mechanism in the puppets mouth, only for it to weave to the side. However, that gave him all the time he needed to close the distance between himself and Kankuro. The puppeteer quickly cut his strings and ran through hand signs and Sasuke's eyes widened when his Sharingan told him what the jutsu was. He quickly deduced what the black clad teen was planning.

Sure enough, a moment later, Kankuro was replaced by the Crow, as Sasuke expected. What Sasuke didn't expect however was for his footing to suddenly be yanked out from under him. His crimson eyes looked down at his foot to find chakra threads connected to it before they snapped. 'Damn! He used his chakra threads to trip me up.'

Kankuro immediately reconnected to his puppet and had it raise all four of its arm, releasing a hail of senbon. 'You're mine now, you punk.'

Sasuke began to run through hand signs the moment the puppet raised its arms, taking in a deep breath as they fired at him. 'Fire Style: Phoenix Flower Jutsu!'

He put his hand to his mouth and released a stream of fireballs at the ground in front of him, erupting into small explosions that deflected the needles and obscured him his form behind a wall of fire.

"Damn, I almost-" Kankuro began as he gestured for the Crow to return to him when suddenly he had a kunai at his throat, causing him to halt all movement and his puppet to come to a stop in midair. Making a slight turn of the head, he saw Sasuke holding the dagger out of the corner of his eye.

"Nice try, but the game's over. Your jutsu tells me all I need to know. You rely entirely on that puppet, which means you're probably helpless without it, and if I see those strings so much as twitch, you're finished."

Kankuro glared at the Uchiha before shrugging. "Alright, alright, I get it. You win, I give."

"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha."

"Great job, Sasuke! I knew that guy was no match for you!" Ino cheered.

"Will the final two combatants please step down to the arena so that the final match can begin?" Hayate said as Sasuke and Kankuro vacated the arena.

Shikamaru sighed. 'This sucks...' he thought as he began the walk down to the arena as Ino called after him, "Don't you dare throw this match, you hear me!?"

Temari glared at her brother when he finally rejoined his team. "Nice going, Kankuro. That's why I told you not to hold back."

"Yeah, sorry, I know. I screwed up. Rub it in why don't