"Fuck NO!"

A beautiful day was taking place in the respected and feared Konohagakure no Sato. Today an air of excitement could be felt all around, countless vendors, different food, and game stalls could be found anywhere you looked. Children ran carefree on the streets playing and laughing like there would be no tomorrow.

The day of the Chunin Exams finals had finally arrived, a famous and prestigious event that takes place every six months in many different villages; visitors from distant lands were seen enjoying the nice atmosphere and welcoming warmth of Konoha's residents. All in all, it looked like the final tournament was going to be a fun and great event.

A shocking contrast with the conversation going on at the Hokage's office.

"You must finally be going senile in your advanced age, old man." The powerful and feared white-haired Sannin walked around the room as he venomously spat his disagreement with the Hokage's latest directives. "You're being stupid!".

Sarutobi Hiruzen had to resist the urge to chuckle at his students' childish behavior. It was truly refreshing to see him so focused on the matter at hand, it truly was heart-warming to see him so concerned, it almost made him reconsider. "You're being stubborn Jiraiya, this isn't up for negotiation."

Jiraiya was torn between smashing his head repeatedly on the wall or smashing Hiruzen's on his desk. "How do you expect me to let you in there alone?! Don't you realize how unreasonable you're being?!"

"Jiraiya." Oh, Jiraiya didn't like that tone, that was the voice that said you wouldn't be changing the man's mind. "I've made up my mind, this is something I must do. I can't allow you to neglect your duty to this village for the sake of keeping me safe."

Just last night Jiraiya had come to him with very concerning news, ever since Kakashi informed him of Rasa's absence- Hiruzen had grown weary of the standing between their allied nations so he had Jiraiya do a little digging. The man had been stationed in the village helping out with Naruto's training but that didn't stop him from using his carefully built spy network.

The information he got was not what they were expecting.

One of Jiraiya's spies had come across a lifeless body buried in the desert, just away enough from Suna to ensure that it would be hard to find but not impossible, whoever did it had been trying to make some sort of statement.

It's not every day that you find the corpse of a Kage after all.

"We both know the Kazekage that's resting in a hotel right now has to be him!" It wasn't so hard in Jiraiya's mind, to stay with Hiruzen and take on their invaders by surprise when the whole thing starts. "You have to let me help you sensei, please."

Beggin wasn't a good look on Jiraiya, it pained Hiruzen greatly to see him in such a state but it was necessary. "You're my best student Jiraiya, I know you understand what I'm asking you to do is the right thing, it truly warms my heart to see your concern for my safety but it is misplaced. This is my duty as Hokage and as a former sensei."

That was as far as it got and Jiraiya knew it, Kami knows he hates being in these kinds of situations, so powerless...

So utterly useless.

He knew his sensei was right, everyone had their task to fulfill and he had to comply, it didn't matter if he liked it or not, no matter how close he was to the seasoned old warrior Jiraiya was still a Shinobi under his command.

If his sensei wanted him to defend the village from their soon to be invaders with the aid of the toads he would do just that, he hoped to whatever god was listening to his thoughts that Sarutobi was still the same man worthy of being called the second 'Kami no Shinobi'.

"The ANBU are already on the move as we speak." Seeing as their little conflict was settled Hiruzen decided to update the Sannin on their current activities. "Civilians from strategic places are being evacuated as we speak and many of them are being replaced by our forces in disguise, there was however no way to start an evacuation on the Hospital and the academy."

It was funny to think that right now some of the foreign visitors were buying food from Shinobi in disguise, it was however a necessary step. Nothing would've pleased Hiruzen more than keeping their visitors safe but as a Kage, it was his duty to ensure the safety of his people first and foremost. They hadn't managed to evacuate half of their citizens yet and probably wouldn't be able to.

Many of the people in the arena were after all Konoha's citizens eager to watch the new batch of shinobi giving their all.

Hiruzen went for second best and put as many of his available shinobi in the protection of the places he knew they wouldn't be able to evacuate without alerting their enemies.

He sighed as he looked outside the window in his office and stood from his chair. "It's time."

—

The arena where the tournament would be taking place was full of people from all over the nations, even nations whose shinobi weren't competing. Loud cheers of excitement and chants of "Start already!" echoed around the stadium.

The Sandaime Hokage made his way into the Kage balcony where he found the 'Kazekage' waiting for him. He smiled at him and exchanged pleasantries to then move forward and use his powerful voice to address the public.

"Ladies and Gentlemen!..." The crowd erupted into even louder cheers and yells of 'Sandaime-sama!' at the sight of their beloved Hokage. "We are here today to celebrate the end of the Chunin Exams, I hope you all find the matches you're about to see to your liking. Let us all rejoice in our Shinobi's powerful show of their Will of Fire!"

The people went crazy in excitement and anticipation after the Hokage's speech and even more when a massive door in the arena where the fights would be taking place opened and in walked the contestants.

Naruto and Sakura both walked together smiling brightly and looking for familiar faces in the crowd. He might've known that something big was going to happen but that didn't stop him from feeling excited at the prospect of showing everyone how much he had grown since their graduation.

"Attention contestants!" A man with brown hair wearing a bandana not too different from the late Gekkō Hayate stood in front of them chewing on a senbon needle. "You already know your opponents and the order in which you will be fighting, my name is Shiranui Genma and I will be your proctor. You already know the rules and stipulations so there's no point in going over them again."

Behind him in a far wall was a giant screen that turned on right after his explanation was over revealing the names of the first match's contestants.

Nara Shikamaru VS Uzumaki Naruto.

"Everyone but Shikamaru and Naruto, make your way over to the contestant balcony." The Chunin hopefuls did as they were told, leaving behind only Shikamaru, Naruto, and his teammates.

Not much needed to be said between Naruto and Sakura, she stood in front of him with a warm and caring smile as she wished him the best of luck and left, not without stopping to say. "Kick his lazy ass Naruto!"

Ino and Chōji were sharing similar thoughts from their place on the spectator's podium. "You better do something Shikamaru!" Was her yell of encouragement as she frantically shook her fist in a promise of pain if he didn't.

"Are both contestants ready?" Asked Genma receiving only nods of agreement, he then jumped away and left both Genin to their devices.

Both Naruto and Shikamaru sported playful smirks on their faces. The Uzumaki simply took both of his staffs and started dancing around with them, showing off how skilled he had become in using them.

"You've become arrogant ever since you started copying my clothes, Naruto, so troublesome." Joked Shikamaru, noting the similarities between his clothing style and Naruto's, the main difference between them being the length of Naruto's sleeves and the color of his jacket.

"Well, I have to say they're pretty cool, though I look far better in them than you of course." He then rushed Shikamaru who only had time to fish a Kunai out of his pouch.

Naruto then started using both of his staffs to beat the crap out of him, Shikamaru managed to use a Kunai to block a few of his strikes but Naruto had an advantage over him in hand to hand combat, his style of fighting was fairly unpredictable, anytime he thought he had seen an opening Naruto would do something he had not seen coming. The blonde could use both of his weapons perfectly and mix his attacks with a few well-placed jumping kicks whenever Shikamaru tried to go low.

Seeing little choice, the Nara heir allowed one of Naruto's kicks to hit him in the face head-on and was sent flying away from him, in the air he threw a smoke pellet on the ground to cover himself.

Naruto was an accomplished sensor and knew where exactly Shikamaru was but decided not to risk getting close to the black-haired genius without the ability to see.

Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!

With both hands on a crossed hand sign characteristic of his favorite jutsu, Naruto sent 5 clones of himself into the smoke to fight Shikamaru. Having expected something of the sort Shikamaru used the cover the smoke provided him to use his clan's Kagemane no Jutsu to create a cover around himself. Every time one of his clones stepped in they would be frozen in place long enough for Shikamaru to stab them with his kunai.

Wanting to take the initiative for as long as possible Shikamaru then extended his shadow and made it launch forward to capture Naruto. The Uzumaki saw a string of shadows coming toward him and jumped away only for it to keep on his pursuit, Naruto jumped and jumped away until the shadow could no longer follow and used the special seal on both of his staffs to put them together into one large Bo-staff, he then started to spin it as he channeled his chakra creating a gust of wind that cleared the smoke from the arena and revealed Shikamaru was no longer there.

Naruto turned his gaze to a rock where he knew Shikamaru to be hiding in and was about to use his long-range Raiton Jutsu when a sizzling sound reached his ear. He looked down and found a kunai with an activated exploding tag and a shadow string.

"Son of a-"

BOOM

The tag exploded and Naruto managed to jump just far enough to avoid a lethal blow but was still caught in it and sent crashing into a tree, his back making a loud cracking sound on impact only to then fall to the ground.

He got back to his feet quickly however and was just about to run at Shikamaru when he found that he couldn't move.

Kagemane no Jutsu: Success

Shikamaru emerged from his hiding place and walked towards the frozen Naruto placing a kunai on his neck. "Give up."

Much to his surprise, Naruto didn't give up and instead smirked smugly. Suddenly a kunai was placed on his neck from behind. Shikamaru smirked when he realized he had been set up by Naruto and released his hold of him, as he did the clone that was pointing a kunai to his neck disappeared and the real Naruto jumped back to prepare a follow-up attack.

"I give up."

Shikamaru's sudden proclamation had everyone confused and some were even a little angry.

"SHIKAMARU YOU LAZY IDIOT!" The voice was that of his blonde-headed teammate and it immediately made Shikamaru regret what he was doing just a little.

"I'm almost out of chakra while Naruto hasn't even started to breathe heavily, I also know for a fact that if he wanted to he could've broken free of my shadow binding himself. There's no need to keep this going, he wins." Now, it was true that he could've easily broken Shikamaru's technique, it's easy to overpower it with his chakra because Shikamaru still neglected training it or training at all.

Naruto knew for a fact Shikamaru was lying about his chakra, while it was spent he still had more than half of his energy left, why would he lie about it?

"Winner: Uzumaki Naruto!"

The crowd erupted into loud cheers and a certain silver-haired Jōnin looked fondly at his student turned little brother as he released Shikamaru and both walked together back to the contestant's booth.

On their way, Shikamaru could feel Naruto's questioning look on his back and he answered it simply. "I have a feeling I'll be needing my energy later."

Naruto stopped breathing for a short second before continuing to walk after him. If there was someone who would be able to figure out something weird was going on today it would be Shikamaru.

"Yosh! Kakashi, it seems like Naruto-kun's flames of youth still burn as brightly as the day we met!" Flames could be seen burning in the man's eye and all everyone around him could do was sweatdrop at his antics and try to ignore him.

Almost everyone.

"My dear friend Naruto-kun is full of youth Gai-sensei!" Lee was still bound to a wheelchair but nothing could've stopped him from showing up to the finals and showing his support to everyone's favorite blonde.

"Well said, Lee!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"SHUT UP!" Yelled absolutely everyone around him making them both deflate and sulk in a momentary depression.

Up in the balconies, the Kazekage watched as Hiruzen observed the young Uzumaki as he returned to the competitor's booth with a smile on his wrinkled face. "You seem fond of that boy Hokage-dono."

Hiruzen turned to look at the man's veil-covered face and smiled slightly. He was perfectly aware of who that man truly was but replied either way. "I had the privilege of watching Naruto-kun grow into the fine Shinobi he is today."

That seemed to be a good enough answer for the Kazekage as he simply turned his attention back to the matches.

"Haruno Sakura and Sabaku no Temari, come down here."

Both girls perked up at the mention of their names and had different reactions. Temari smirked at what she thought would be an easy match and unfolded her fan as she jumped from the railing, using it to glide down to the ground in a show of her skill with wind jutsu.

"You got this Sakura-chan!" Naruto hugged Sakura's shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile as she set off to the arena to face her smirking opponent.

"You'd do well to give up little girl, the Kunoichi of this village are a joke." Temari's mocking was of course referring to Tenten and her easy win in their match during the prelims. It had been a terrible matchup for the kunoichi in team 9 and it had gotten way over Temari's head, Sakura decided she would make sure to show her just how wrong she was.

Genma called the match and jumped away, leaving the two girls ample space for their fighting.

'She uses long-range jutsu, I need to get close.' Decided on her course of action, Sakura rushed her as fast as she could hoping to catch her off guard but ended up being blown away by Temari's quick use of her Kamaitachi no Jutsu with the aid of her battle fan. As she landed, Sakura threw a few kunai and shuriken her way only to have them blown away once again.

Realizing her opponent was faster than anticipated Sakura went through a short set of hand seals and performed the regular Bunshin making 6 of her start rushing Temari once again. She knew they were Illusions and only one of them was the real one so she used her fan and blew them all away but much to her surprise all the Sakuras disappeared leaving no trace of the real one behind.

She was left alone in the middle of the Arena and no matter where she looked Sakura was nowhere to be found; suddenly a hand emerged from the ground right below her and she jumped just in to jump in time to avoid it but Sakura didn't count on her falling for that trap so she quickly jumped from the ground in time to hit the still airborne Temari hard in the stomach and send her flying towards the trees in the arena.

Temari crashed loudly into a tree and fell limp on the floor, after she took her time recovering she quickly stood up and started walking back toward Sakura with an enraged look on her face. 'That bitch!'

She suddenly tripped with seemingly nothing and fell back to the ground. Sakura made use of the false surroundings illusion on her and decided to act before she had time to release it. She dropped from the trees and tried to stomp her back; Temari rolled on the ground and quickly stood up as she released the Genjutsu to start a Taijutsu bout with the pink-haired.

Temari proved to be a lot better in Taijutsu than Sakura anticipated and after trading blows for a while managed to use the closed fan as a weapon giving Sakura a hard blow with it in the stomach and then to the head sending her flying and crashing hard with a few rocks scattered around the area.

Sakura stood up dizzily and Temari decided to act before she had time to recover. Using the same jutsu she used on Tenten before, she sent her flying in the air and kept her elevated as multiple cuts and gashes appeared all over her skin and clothes.

Her screams of pain started being heard all over the arena and back in the competitor's booth, a blond-haired teen started cheering her on desperately.

"YOU CAN DO THIS SAKURA-CHAN! DON'T GIVE UP!"

Something started stirring in her after her loud teammate's bold exclamation. She started falling and Temari placed her fan for her to fall on top of it and humiliate her in the same way she did Tenten but Sakura wasn't having any of it.

She twirled around mid-fall and re-adjusted herself to dive fist first while focusing enough Doton chakra on her first that it quite literally solidified it and made it look like she was wearing a rock glove. Temari noticed and tried to use her fan as a bat to fend her off.

BOOM

Sakura landed and the force of the impact was so strong that the collision between the two made a big cloud of dust rise. In the stands, all the spectators were watching in shock at the edge of their seats, desperately trying to see what was of the two girls. The dust cleared and revealed a barely conscious Temari on the ground and a Sakura breathing heavily on her knees with a smile on her face.

She had made it.

"Winner: Haruno Sakura!"

"Way to go Sakura-chan!" With complete disregard for the rules, Naruto jumped from the railings and ran toward her teammate. He helped her stand up and raised one of her arms in a show of her victory. Loud claps, cheers, and whistles accompany his actions.

Looking up Sakura watched as people cheered her on and chanted her name in support, being moved to near tears she looked around the audience for her sensei and found him standing with Gai, his sharingan eye uncovered as he eye-smiled at her and gave her a proud thumbs-up.

"Calm down mother... I will give you blood soon." Back in the competitor's booth, Naruto observed his soon-to-be opponent as he helped Sakura to a seat. All he could feel when he looked at him was anger, anger because he hurt one of his dearest friends severely and ended his shinobi career for good.

He was even angrier because he tried to do it twice.

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