The stadium where the finals for the Chunin exams were to be held was located just outside the central part of the Leaf Village. It was here that Sakura Haruno stood alongside the other finalists in the middle of the stadium as they all waited for the last portion of the exams to begin. The stadium was packed and it seemed as though the entire village had turned out to watch the battles. This wasn't counting the visitors from the other villages that had come to support their individual contenders.

There was a closed off section in the upper right hand side for all the visiting dignitaries and their entourages which included elite protection. Sarutobi sat in an individual area in the middle of the stadium with the Kazekage from the Sunkagure beside him. Sakura couldn't make out what they were saying to each other but to her it seemed as though the Third was uncomfortable.

Sakura rubbed her hands together nervously. She was the only member of Team 7 standing in the stadium. Naruto and Sasuke were nowhere to be seen and it seemed as though everyone was ready to get underway.

Hayate was supposed to be the proctor for the third exam but apparently there were complications and the battles for the final round were to be overseen by a man named Genma Shiranui. He had hardly spoken to them other than to tell them that he was going to be the proctor and then he had ignored them. Genma would glance up every so often at the Hokage for conformation that the exams should start.

Where are Sasuke and Naruto! These exams are ready to start any second and there's no way they're going to hold off just for those two! Sakura thought as she tapped her foot impatiently.

"GAHHHH WHAT THE HELL YOU FREAKY BULLS!?" Naruto yelled as he flew through one of the entrances and landed on the hard stadium floor. Dazed and a little confused the blond boy sat up rubbing his head.

"Naruto?" Sakura called and walked over to her teammate.

"Oh Sakura-chan! Am I too late? Oh right the bulls! Everyone needs to be prepared because there is a whole heard of those guys coming straight for us!" Naruto whipped his head around only to discover there was nothing there.

"Look I don't know what you're talking about but I'm glad you made it. Sasuke isn't here yet though and the exams are about to begin" Sakura said a little anxiously.

"Don't worry Sakura I'm sure the Teme will be here soon he's not going to miss an opportunity like this! I want to fight him myself!" Naruto exclaimed and Sakura relaxed a little.

"Hey you two enough with the chatter you're at a competition remember and people have paid to see you fight. So stand up straight and face the spectators" Genma instructed, removing the senbon from his mouth.

Sakura and Naruto exchanged sheepish glances and turned around to look at the crowd in the packed stadium. They cheered loudly calling out the names of their favourite competitors. Sakura observed her rivals carefully and happened to catch Gaara's eye. She flinched recalling her encounter with him at the hospital and quickly looked away. Naruto followed Sakura's eyes and narrowed his own when he met Gaara's gaze.

Sarutobi noted that the Uchiha boy had not arrived and the third exams were due to start in less than a minute. A Jounin guard came up and whispered something into his ear, Sasuke Uchiha was still missing and the Anbu Black Ops had found no trace of him thus far. Sarutobi's eyes narrowed, were they too late? Was it possible that the Uchiha boy had gone to Orochimaru already?

The third nodded and dismissed the Jounin before turning towards the Kazekage.

"It seems as though we are missing Uchiha Sasuke from our list of finalists. I know how eager you were to see the fight between him and Gaara but I'm afraid we need to begin the exam" Sarutobi said.

"That is a shame but surely you can hold off a little longer before beginning the exams. You must remember Sarutobi that I did travel a great deal to make it here today whilst you had the convenience of the exams being held in your village. I do not want my trip to be wasted and I think the Uchiha boy will make an appearance" The Fourth Kazekage said, his face shielded from view by a veil. The only part of him visible was his eyes.

"As you wish Lord Kazekage I will give Genma the order not to continue the match for another five minutes" Sarutobi replied and gave the Kazekage a controlled smile.

Meanwhile down on the ground of the stadium floor Genma informed the finalist that the matches wouldn't be starting for another five minutes to give Uchiha Sasuke time to arrive. Sakura breathed a small sigh of relief but her eyes hardened, five minutes wasn't a long time for Sasuke to make it especially if he'd left the village to train with Kakashi.

The minutes ticked by and Sasuke still hadn't shown up. Naruto's happy and determined demeanour became suspicious and doubtful.

Sasuke wouldn't miss this for anything so it's not like him not to be here on time, Naruto thought growing concerned that his teammate still hadn't arrived.

The crowd had started to become restless as many had bought tickets purely to see the match between Sasuke and Gaara. Sakura had heard the gossip flowing in and out through the hospital about it; their match was the one people were most eager to see.

Sakura once again found herself looking at Gaara and noticed he seemed to be shaking a little and wore the same expression he had worn last night in the hospital when he had tried to kill Lee. Did Gaara kill Sasuke? No it would be impossible for him to, Sasuke was with Kakashi and there was no way he could have!

Sakura's thoughts overwhelmed her so much that she didn't notice a dark green leaf spiralling through the air even though there were no trees inside the stadium. The leaf was soon joined by another one and another one. Naruto caught one in his hand and gaze at it curiously.

The leaves gathered in greater numbers and swirled around like a vortex before clearing to reveal Kakashi Hatake and his student Sasuke Uchiha standing back to back in the middle of the stadium. The crowd began to cheer wildly at the arrival of the Uchiha boy and Naruto wore a grin that Sakura thought might split his face in two.

His hair was longer Sakura observed and his genin uniform of blue shirt with the Uchiha crest and white shorts were gone. He now wore an outfit of all black including his ninja sandals but the emblem of his clan remained on the back of his shirt as dominant as ever. Kakashi remained the same and regarded Genma was a guilty smile under his mask.

"Uh I know we're a little late but you're not going to have to do something like disqualify Sasuke from the finals right?" Kakashi asked and rubbed the back of his neck.

"Like teacher like student I see Kakashi. You were never on time for anything from what I recall of our genin days. I was just about to tell the Hokage that Sasuke would be disqualified but you made it with thirty seconds to spare" Genma replied in a bored tone.

"Hear that Sasuke, we're not disqualified hm?" Kakashi stopped and noticed that his student was no longer beside him.

Sasuke had spied Sakura standing next to Naruto towards the end of the line-up of candidates and began to walk towards his teammates. Kakashi shrugged and disappeared presumably to seat himself in the stadium somewhere.

"Hn. Sakura" Sasuke said addressing her and ignoring Naruto. His tone suggested he was pleased to see her. His stare seemed to pierce through her but Sakura held his eye confidently.

"Sasuke. Nice of you to show" Sakura quipped and her eyes danced with mirth.

"Wouldn't miss it" Sasuke responded a smirk growing on his face.

Shikamaru rolled his eyes at the exchange of banter between the two teammates and glared at Naruto who fidgeted persistently beside him. It was obvious Sasuke and Sakura were in their own world of short sentence communication and inside jokes leaving Naruto feeling left out.

"YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO BE THE CENTRE OF ATTENTION DON'T YOU SASUKE!?" Naruto bellowed pointing his finger accusingly at his friend.

"Dobe I see you're as loud as ever" Sasuke responded and Sakura supressed a laugh.

"Whatever just don't slack off and lose to that Gaara guy. I want to fight you remember" Naruto said determinedly.

"Hn. Make sure you win dobe" Sasuke instructed and Naruto nodded happily.

Gaara had watched the exchange between Sasuke and Sakura and he felt the blood lust boil beneath his skin. The girl was important to him that much was obvious and he cared for her, did she play a role in his purpose? Despite Sasuke's knowledge of true loneliness was that girl Sakura Haruno somehow acting as a remedy?

She cared for him too and he cared for her, Gaara could feel it radiating off them and it made him almost physically sick. The sand ninja clutched at his head in pain as flashes of the man most precious to him appeared. Getting a hold of himself Gaara vowed to destroy Sasuke Uchiha and everything he cared about. The demon inside of him rumbled in agreement.

"It seems you were correct Lord Kazekage. Sasuke Uchiha has made it within the five minute time frame and now we can begin the final round of the Chunin Exams. However the decision has been made that the match between Uchiha and Gaara will be pushed back" Sarutobi said firmly.

"As you wish Lord Hokage. I merely requested that the time be extended and I have no quarrel as to when Gaara and the Uchiha boy fight. But nonetheless I do not wish to be bored" the Kazekage replied with a tone of arrogance.

Sarutobi not wanting to push the matter any further rose from his chair and addressed the screaming crowd of people below.

"Welcome all of you to the Chunin selection exams which have been held in the Hidden Leaf Village. We understand some of you have made a long journey here and we thank you for your efforts to come" Sarutobi said loudly and nodded towards the Kazekage.

"To the nine candidates before me I wish you luck and we ask that no one leave until all the matches have been completed. Now please enjoy!" the Third said happily and the crowd erupted into cheers.

Taking this as the sign to proceed Genma turned towards the Chunin candidates. "Alright your terrain is a little different but the same rules apply. Fight is until either someone dies or someone gives up. I can step and stop the fight at my digression and I don't want any arguments. Got it?"

All of the finalists remained quiet and Genma drew out a piece of paper with the match listings on it. "Right the first match is between Naruto Uzumaki and Neji Hyuga. Everyone else who isn't those two moves to the waiting area upstairs"

"You've got this Naruto" Sakura said cheerfully and patted her teammate on the back. Naruto grinned in reply and engulfed his female teammate in a tight hug.

"I won't lose Sakura-chan! Believe it!" he exclaimed and squeezed her tightly. Sasuke's eyes narrowed and coughed discreetly causing Naruto to let go of Sakura.

"Hn dobe don't lose to Hyuga. I still want to fight you" Sasuke said monotone.

"This guy is just a warm up our fight is the real thing!" Naruto exclaimed and Sasuke smirked.

Naruto took his place opposite Neji as Sakura and Sasuke climbed the stairs up to the waiting area for the candidates. They stood away from the other candidates but Sakura could feel Gaara's stare following her as soon as they left the stadium.

Sasuke felt her discomfort and turned around to glare at Gaara who stared at the Uchiha prodigy before breaking the eye contact and casting his bored expression over the battle ground.

"He tried to kill Lee last night in the hospital with his sand jutsu. If Naruto, Shikamaru and I hadn't arrived when we did I know he would have done it" Sakura muttered quietly to Sasuke.

"He's one sick psycho. I'd hate to be you Uchiha having to go up against him" Shikamaru said coming up to stand beside Sakura.

"Hn Nara" Sasuke grunted acknowledging the lazy genius.

"Sakura's right you know you should watch yourself out there. That guy Gaara kills for fun, he told us as much himself. Why are freaks like him even allowed in this exam?" Shikamaru continued.

Sakura had to stop herself from nodding in agreement but Sasuke gave a noncommittal shrug. "I'm not going to lose to him so don't worry yourself"

Shikamaru yawned and stretched his arms lazily above his head. "Well in any case this whole finals thing is a complete drag. All the hype over nothing and I'd rather be sleeping"

"Well the hype must be attributed to something. Why else would the ANBU Black Ops be here?" Sakura asked the two boys.

"ANBU Black Ops?" Sasuke asked and Sakura pointed discreetly to the black hooded figures with animal masks among the spectators. They were just visible to the naked eye from the finalist's area.

"Those guys have been there since these exams started. Look the fight's about to begin" Shikamaru said in a bored tone and Sasuke narrowed his eyes.

Naruto's fight against Neji began with a series of frontal attacks on his part each of which Neji dodged easily thanks to the use of his Byakugan. It soon became apparent to spectators and participants alike that Naruto had no hope of getting a hit on Neji in a close range. Neji soon achieved the upper hand and using his skill for spotting chakra points he was able to almost hit Naruto's shoulder but he missed.

The blond boy seemed to understand that he needed to distance his attacks as Neji could stop his chakra flow completely rendering him useless. Naruto performed the Shadow Clone jutsu and by evenly distributing his chakra, confused Neji's Byakugan by not making obvious which of the Naruto's was real. The shadow clones charged forward and distracted Neji with their multiple attacks and it looked as though Naruto would finally be able to gain the upper hand. But Neji dodged the kick and then destroyed all of the clones.

Naruto attempted the jutsu again except this time created a huge amount of clones. Sakura and Sasuke exchanged impressed glances, clearly Naruto had done what Kakashi had instructed and worked on the fundamentals. He now seemed to have a much greater handle over his chakra control. But Neji systematically destroyed the vast number of clones without breaking a sweat. The Hyuga boy then attacked what he assumed to be the real Naruto but it had been a clone. The real Naruto and one of the shadow clones come from behind to attack but Neji fended them off with his rotational defensive 8 Trigrams Palm Jutsu.

Neji then used his 64 Trigrams Palm Jutsu on Naruto hitting and effectively halting all 64 of his chakra points. Naruto fell to the ground again and Sakura had her doubts as to whether he could continue, after all a lack of chakra meant he was down to taijutsu which involved hand to hand combat and getting closer to Neji was not a good plan.

It was there that Naruto recalled his training with Jiraiya and knew it was now that he could call on the chakra of the 9 Tailed Fox. All the spectators and finalists watched in shock as Naruto was able to draw out the Fox's chakra. Huge swirls of orange surrounded his body before the blond ninja was completely engulfed in orange chakra.

Naruto charged straight for Neji tearing through the ground under his feet with the strength of the chakra he now possessed. Neji activated his palm rotation jutsu again and both ninja collided and a huge explosion followed. The dust began to settle and Sakura peered out onto the battle ground anxiously searching for a crop of spiky blond hair.

Neji pulled himself up from inside one of the two craters left in the earth from the explosion. Kakashi sighed from his position in the stadium and Sakura looked disappointed. Immediately the stadium erupted into whispers and murmurs which grew louder. Genma rolled the senbon around in his mouth before stepping forward to call the match. That was until Naruto broke through from beneath the earth to land an upper cut to Neji's jaw. That sent the Hyuga boy sprawling onto the ground and unable to move.

"The winner of this match is Naruto Uzumaki" Genma announced, impressed with what Naruto was capable of.

"Way to go Naruto!" Sakura yelled loudly as the stadium erupted into cheers.

In just a month he gained all that power and strength, and he still acts like an idiot with all that energy afterward. He'll be an interesting fight, Sasuke thought and smirked.

"HECK YEAH I DID IT!" Naruto announced and grinned before tearing around the stadium lapping up all the cheers and applause.

Maybe not the most humble way to go about a victory but then again those villagers have never clapped in support and appreciation of him before, Sakura thought happy for her teammate.

Naruto ran up to the finalist area and almost knocked Sakura over in his excitement. "Sakura! Teme! Did you guys see that! I totally blew him out of the water! You're going to have to bring your best if you want to beat me Sasuke!"

"Dobe watch where you're going" Sasuke said angrily.

"It's alright I'm fine Sasuke. Congratulations Naruto, you've really worked hard this past month and it shows" Sakura smiled at her teammate.

"See Teme that's the response to give to someone who just won a tough match like that!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Alright you won we get it. No need to rub it in our faces" Shikamaru interjected.

"Shikamaru you're so lazy I'm surprised you even made it to the exams" Naruto retorted.

"You're such a drag kid it's a wonder anyone can stand you" Shikamaru replied icily.

Naruto made to lunge at Shikamaru but Sakura caught him by the scruff of his neck. "Alright Naruto I've been patient enough with you but you're really starting to push it. Lay off Shikamaru already and watch the rest of the competition" Sakura hissed in his ear, fist cocked.

"Isn't your match up now?" Shikamaru asked turning to Sasuke.

"No it's at the end as a consequence for my need for a time extension" Sasuke replied evenly.

"That means according to the roster Kankuro and you are next to fight Shikamaru" Sakura stated peering at the sheet of paper tacked up on the wall.

"I know I know don't remind me" Shikamaru huffed and gazed at the clouds in the sky.

"Hey Sakura that also means your match against that fan lady is coming up soon!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Yeah it is" Sakura said quietly already thinking about her match.

The crowd began to grow restless and began to yell out for the start of the next match. A few began to shout out Sasuke's name clearly impatient to see the match between the Uchiha boy and Gaara. Genma sighed but moved to announce the next match.

"Next to fight are Kankuro and Shikamaru Nara" Genma announced and the crowd groaned.

"Well that's just great" Shikamaru complained at the thought of having to fight.

"They really want to see you fight huh Teme?" Naruto asked in a slightly jealous tone, his moment of glory forgotten by the spectators.

"All of the great lords and skilled shinobi are here to see Sasuke's match. At least that's what I heard around the hospital. They want to see what the last of the Uchiha clan has to offer, especially the Kazekage" Sakura added.

"Tch it's annoying" Sasuke replied not in favour of all the attention.

Kankuro stared out at the stadium, with the change in plans there was no longer a need for him to fight and an even greater need for him to keep his skills with the crow until they were needed.

"Proctor