I was not looking forward to this fight. Hinata's cousin was by all accounts a prick. One of the Jounin had said that the fights were completely random… I call bullshit. There's no way that both the Hyugas were randomly chosen to fight each other. These people had a sick sense of humor.

"Kakashi… what the fuck" I said out loud.

"Hmm?" he replied.

"There is no fucking way in hell that it was 'random' that Neji and Hinata were set up to fight each other" I said, gritting my teeth.

"If I were to be honest, you are probably right. However we have no proof." Kakashi said.

"If I find the person who decided that this would be funny, or some sort of test, I will kill them" I declared.

"Be careful, what if that person was the Hokage, or some official from the land of fire?" Kakashi warned, mildly concerned.

"Then I will gain enough power to be untouchable, and then kill them" I said.

Kakashi could only sigh, apparently he didn't believe I was serious. If by some miracle this was actually by chance, then there was nothing to worry about. However, if it wasn't… I was having trouble controlling my chakra from going wild inside me. I think I needed some air.

"I'll be back later, I need some air or I'm going to destroy something." I told the people around me.

-

"Was she always that protective of Hinata?" Kurenai asked.

"Yeah. They grew up together along with Naruto, and she has seen how her family treats her" Shikamaru

"Hinata used to be really shy. But when she met Kari, she got better at not being weird." Naruto said.

"You idiot Naruto, just because you're shy doesn't mean you're weird" Shikamaru said.

"Whatever" he replied.

"Do you think she meant what she said? That she would kill the person who set up the match if it turned out to be the case?" Kurenai asked

"Probably not"

"Yes"

There was a bit of a silence before eyes turned to Shikamaru

"What?" He asked.

"You believe she'd do it?" Kakashi asked

"For her friends and family, she would burn the world to the ground" Shikamaru said, with a far off look in his eyes.

"Probably a dumb question since you're her brother, but how do you know?" Kurenai asked.

"Because there was one time that someone called Choji fat. They were bullying him quite badly. When Kari found out, she went into a rage and beat those five kids nearly to death. Lucky for her, she has our father to back her up. She also had Choji's dad who was so happy Choji had found friends that would do that for his son. Kari was still grounded for hurting them so badly, but no one was upset with her. To Kari, family and friends are more important than anything" Shikamaru explained, talking quite a lot for him.

"And she obviously considers Hinata to be one of her friends" Kurenai said with a smile.

"Yup. She won't say it, but all of the 9 other rookies, except maybe Sasuke, are considered her friends." Shikamaru continued.

"So what if Sasuke was in trouble, would she help?" Sakura asked, having come back from the infirmary recently.

"Hard to say honestly, from what I can tell she has no ill will towards Sasuke. She'd probably only help if he asked for it." Shikamaru explained.

"So never. Sasuke would never ask for help" Kakashi said with a laugh.

"Ain't that the truth" a couple rookies said at the same time.

While the group was talking, the next match had begun.

"I never thought we'd have to fight each other like this" Neji said.

"I know what you mean" Hinata said, looking Neji in the eye.

If it was the Hinta of the past, where she was shy and timid, she wouldn't have the courage to look Neji in the eye. She would have been staring at the floor like a kicked puppy. However with Kari's help over the years, she had gained some measure of confidence. She was still shy, but she could show some backbone when needed.

"Ah, it seems you've grown up a little, cousin of mine" Neji said with a smirk.

"With no help from my so-called family" Hinata spat.

"What was that?" Neji said dangerously.

"You heard me. Now let's get this over with" Hinata said.

"You should withdraw now. You are destined to lose to me. You always have been, and always will be a failure." Neji said. If Kari had been there to witness him say that to Hinata, then this wouldn't be a fight between Hyugas.

"Your harsh words might once have had an effect on me, but now, they just make you seem pathetic" Hinata said, shocking Neji.

As they both got into their fighting stances, Lee was surprised.

"It's that style. The Hyuga style" Lee said.

"The Hyuga style?" Sakura asked.

"It is the most effective form of Taijutsu in the Hidden Leaf Village. Neji is the strongest Genin to ever come out of our village" Lee said.

"You saw Kari fight. You still believe he's the strongest?" Shikamaru asked.

"Yes. I firmly believe that Neji would win against Kari" Lee said.

"If you say so" Shikamaru said, heavily doubting bushy brow.

Back on the ground below, the fight had begun and was now in full swing. Using the same style, they were mostly even right now. Neji was holding back for now however, testing his cousin. As their hands collided, shockwaves of blue chakra exploded outwards from each impact. Hinata seemed to have the upper hand a couple times, nearly hitting Neji. Nearly.

"Did she get him?" Sakura asked.

"Not quite, but getting close is all it takes. You don't even have to get hit for their attacks to harm you." Lee said.

"Lee is correct, while we practice a more brutal form of Taijutsu, doing external damage, the Hyuga use a more elegant and subtle form. Their attacks hit the inside of the body; the internal organs." Guy said.

"That's true, no matter how strong the ninja, they are always vulnerable to that kind of attack" Kakashi said.

"I bet Kari could come up with a counter" Naruto said.

"If that were the case Naruto, she would be hunted by every single village, and probably eliminated by the Hyuga" Kakashi said.

"Why?" Naruto asked.

"Because that is how feared the Hyuga are. If you come up with a counter to the uncounterable, don't you think everyone would want it?" Guy said. Surprising Kakashi with his insight.

After a minute or so of fighting, Hinata appeared to land a direct hit on Neji. They stood there for a couple seconds, seeing who would be affected the most. Unfortunately it appeared to be Hinata, as she coughed up a little blood as her internal organs and chakra network were damaged by Neji's chakra. Hinata didn't give up though as she pushed her body to attack more. But that blow from Neji had slowed her down quite a lot. Neji had caught her arm, and was systematically attacking various parts of it to impede her chakra flow. He had lifted her sleeve to reveal large welts, presumably where her chakra points were.

It was at this moment, that Kari came back into the arena

-

What I saw when I entered the arena was Hinata's cousin, her family, the one who was supposed to protect her, intentionally crippling her. He had just finished fucking up her arm before attacking her chest, and throwing her back. Upon stopping her roll, Hinata stayed on the ground for a couple seconds before getting to her knees. She spat up some blood, so presumably either that attack, or a previous one had done a lot of damage. She refused to give up and stood back on her feet. Again she coughed up more blood. What the fuck was that proctor doing?

Rushing forward, she attacked Neji with all she was worth. I could tell her injury was affecting her, she was a lot slower than I remember her being. In their exchange of blows, Hinata had missed and left herself open. Neji ruthlessly took advantage of that opening, kneeing her in the stomach, and slamming the palm of his hand into her chin, causing her to reel back. I was about to lose my shit. It seemed I wasn't the only one at least, Naruto looked like he was almost there as well.

Hinata again refused to quit, emulating Naruto quite well whether intentionally or not. She rushed forward, but even slower this time and tried to attack Neji. She missed and he attacked her midsection again, causing an explosion of chakra to come out of her back. This time after collapsing, she didn't get up as quickly.

The proctor was about to announce her defeat when she got back up.

"Why are you still getting up? You can barely stand. Just accept defeat and you won't have to suffer anymore" Neji said.

Hinata just shook her head.

"Very well then, I will end it now" Neji said, before activating his Byakugan.

I'd had enough.

'Xorrion, restrain him' I commanded.

As Neji was about to attack again, my shadow arrived via Xorrion and halting all his movement. I was pissed and not controlling my chakra at all. All eyes turned to me when they saw Neji be stopped; apparently the Jounin were about to intervene as well. Oh well.

Walking forward, my chakra started to leak out of my body, despite my wishes even if I'd had any. My constant use of the shadow realm to use my warlock-spells-turned-Jutsu had changed my chakra somewhat. It was still chakra, however it was no longer blue, it was the deep violet black of my warlock spells back on Azeroth. It created an aura around me that whipped around me as if in a typhoon. As of right now, it did nothing except look intimidating, and give people a sense of my chakra. I suspected that as I became more powerful, it would begin to affect the landscape when I lost control of it like this.

Neji still had his Byakugan active, and I allowed him to look at me since he was still paralyzed by my shadow.

"Neji. What do you see?" I asked him.

He couldn't answer, and I was genuinely curious about what he'd see. He was looking at me, his Byakugan meeting my blazing violet eyes, like he was about to die, and he was looking at Sargeras and Deathwing, coming for his soul. I. Was. Pissed. At everyone. How could the proctor allow this to go on for so long?

"Neji, you're the lowest form of scum I think I've seen in a while. You talk about the elite like you are a member, but you are nothing. How dare you treat your family like that." I said deathly quietly. I didn't yell at him, but my voice had gone a few octaves deeper without my noticing.

The other jounin had gotten here by this point, and Kurenai had rushed to attend to the fallen Hinata. Naruto had joined them and was trying to see if she was okay as well. It wasn't long before she passed out, but it seemed at least she would live. Thus, Neji would also live. Probably.

"Fuck you Neji" I said, turning to leave. Hinata was okay for now, and the Jounin had the situation in hand.

I had made it to the doorway of the arena before I heard someone clear their throat. I turned around to see Kakashi pointing at my shadow. Oops, Neji was still immobilized. As I left the Arena for the second time, I heard Neji start back up about his failure shit. I couldn't hear much but I think I heard Naruto make a vow of some sort to Neji. I needed more air all over again. I also realized what I needed next besides my next demon. I needed to learn to create my health stones. One of those would have brought Hinata back from the brink of death immediately. That would have to come later though, since the demon at the moment was more important.

I would come back after the next fight was over and they explained the finals. If I went back now, I would probably do something I'd regret. Another thing I'd have to work on was controlling my emotions. I couldn't have my chakra flaring up like it had every time I was angry. I already knew how to summon Aztog, my Fel Imp, so that wouldn't be very hard. What I needed to figure out was how to create a health stone.

From what I knew, there were two ways to make a Healthstone. Souls, and pure magic energy. One of the commanders of the Alliance, Jaina, had told me a story one time when she gave Anduin, the king of stormwind, a healthstone. I had asked the same question he'd asked her: How did she make it? She wasn't a warlock, she was an Archmage. She had told both of us that she used pure magic to make it. Then of course was the way I always made them: storing fragments of souls from the beings I'd killed to make them later. My way was obviously a no-go because anything soul related in this world was strictly forbidden for some reason. No one would tell me why, just that it was.

So that left me with trying to make one out of magic, or in this case, chakra. How in the fuck was I going to do that? I'd never done it with mana, let alone chakra. Although maybe it wouldn't be as hard as I thought. Maybe. If I wanted to make this work, I'd have to learn medical Ninjutsu. Fuck. That sounded so boring. My theory was that using a soul, there was nothing inherent inside of it that would heal someone, so basically you had to mold every aspect of that soul to make it give its energy up to pass on to someone else. What if I used medical Ninjutsu to make the stone instead of a soul? It would probably be more effective as well when I wouldn't be using an unwilling soul fragment to give up the last of its energy.

I suspected I could be quite talented at being a combat medic. From what I'd heard in passing, they could use either Yin release, or Yang release to heal someone. I'd found so far that I was exceptionally good at using Yin release, so in theory if I could use it to heal people, I could crystalise Yin Chakra somehow to store a one time use healing jutsu. This was one of those things that I would have to make sure anyone could use. If I was the only one who could make these fuckin things, then I'd never get a good nights rest. Everyone would be hounding me for more. I'd have to talk to my father about maybe having the Nara clan be in charge of it since we used Yin chakra anyway.

My thoughts of experimentation with chakra had calmed me down quite a lot. With the knowledge that Hinata would be okay in the end, I was able to return to the Arena. I hastened my steps when I heard an explosion, kind of like a massive weight hitting the ground.

It had been about half an hour since I'd left the arena. Arriving back, I looked around to see who was still here. There was a big hole in the wall as if a boulder crashed into it, and Lee was standing on top of the statue. He had just dropped what appeared to be leg weights from up there and that had been the massive explosion I'd heard. I decided this time to stay back, I didn't really want to talk to anyone right now.

Lee had leapt from the statue to continue the fight. His speed was insane, for this world. I'd seen faster on Azeroth, but right now Lee was currently the fastest I'd seen since coming to this world. He was currently fighting the redhead sand ninja, Gaara. From what I remember, Gaara's sand acted a lot like Xorrion could inside my shadow. The main difference was that there was no intelligence with his sand, it only acted as defense. To attack with his sand, it seemed he had to actively control it on his own.

Lee's crazy speed was overwhelming Gaara's sand defense. It was interesting to see this, as Xorrion also had the weakness of speed.

'Xorrion, do you think you could keep up with that kid's speed?' I asked him.

'As of right now, just barely. It would take all my concentration and I would be unable to help you with other things' Xorrion said.

'As of right now?' I questioned.

'I will continue to improve, so in the future, defending against this level of speed will be trivial' he explained.

That was good. As far as I could tell, Gaara's sand was autonomous. Only time would tell if his sand could improve as well.

Since our chat was mental, almost no time passed as I was talking to Xorrion. Lee was making some progress in his fight with Gaara, however I could tell that would change. The main reason Lee seemed to be winning right now was that Gaara was in a state of shock. I suspected that no one had ever beat his shield before now. It wouldn't be long until he had… there it is.

Lee had just finished a particularly strong barrage of kicks and punches, when there was a lull in the combat. Looking at Gaara, he looked to have cracks all over his skin. They seemed to be dripping sand from the cracks, and when the chunks fell away, they pooled into more sand on the floor. Was it some sort of armor? Interesting.

"What is that?" Lee said, though I barely heard him.

The others were too far away for me to hear, but that was fine, I could see for myself what was happening. Lee apparently wasn't done yet though, it looked like he had something else planned. Sprinting around Gaara in a circle, creating cracks in the floor, Lee punched Gaara into the air. Evidently he didn't go up far enough since Lee started repeatedly kicking Gaara furter up into the air. What was the end goal?

When Gaara was almost at the height of the Arena, I saw Lee close his eyes for some reason. Maybe something to do with what he was currently attempting? When He finally got to the top of his ascent, the bandages that were around his arms started unraveling, only to re-wrap themselves around Gaara. Once Gaara was a comfortable mummy, Lee then started to spin rapidly as he fell towards the ground. The two created a massive crater in the ground as they landed, kicking up a shit load of dust. I was petty. I asked Xorrion to block the dust. I know. It was lame.

When the dust cleared, Gaara was in the center of the crater which was several feet deep. Lee was on the edge of the crater kneeling on the floor, apparently unable to move. Uh oh. Gaara didn't look much better, however soon after he showed his trump card. Apparently dubbed sand armor by his team member, he would infuse it with his chakra and coat his body in it.

Slowly, the sand version of Gaara in the crater dissolved back into sand. Gaara himself started reforming from the sand behind Lee, and he had a crazed look in his eyes. That was similar to the look he had when I met him in the forest. He was going to kill Lee if he got the chance. It was Gaara's turn to go on the offensive; up until now he had just been reacting to Lee's attacks, but it seemed he was tired of that.

A massive wave of sand came from the ground, and swallowed Lee before throwing him up against a wall. That attack must have drained Lee quite a bit, since he would have easily been able to dodge that attack when the fight started. That seemed to be the beginning of the end for Lee, as each time he got hit with more sand, he got slower. Which in turn made it easier for him to get hit with more sand.

It wasn't long before Lee was almost beaten, laying on the floor unable to move. It seemed Lee had one last trick up his sleeve though, as for some reason his chakra seemed to spike massively.

'Xorrion, what's going on with the kid?' I asked, since he could sense chakra/mana way better than me.

'Something has opened up inside of him to allow the chakra to flow more freely' Xorrion responded.

Interesting. A technique perhaps? What had Guy taught his student? Lee could only use Taijutsu, so that meant that this must be a purely taijutsu technique. Damn. Out of my wheelhouse then. If only I could spike my chakra that much, I would pretty much be unbeatable. However with my already large chakra reserves, I'm sure doing what Lee did would kill me.

As I was thinking through what was happening, Lee's chakra spiked again, even more than the previous spike. What the hell? It went on like that three more times, and by the end of it I could visibly see Lee's chakra, and it had turned a hue of green, and his skin had turned red. As Lee started his counterattack, he was moving so fast that he was destroying the arena floor. Lee struck out at Gaara, many times faster than he had been moving before, and so fast his sand had no chance to defend him.

'Alright Xorrion, do you think you could defend against THAT?' I asked

'No…' Xorrion said sadly.

'Then it just means we have to get much stronger, if this fight has taught us anything, it's that our weakness is speed.' I explained.

'I agree. I will endeavor to be fast enough that no one shall be able to harm you, my Master' Xorrion said with a level of conviction that I hadn't heard from him before.

How do you create a technique that can defend against any level of speed? This kind of speed was rare for now though, so it wasn't an immediate concern. However it would need to be dealt with soon. I had too many things I needed to work on right now that were of more importance. Namely, a health stone, a soul stone, and summoning another of my demons. I had realized that I needed to make a Soul Stone when I saw Hinata almost die in her fight with Neji. In theory a soul stone would allow someone who died to be brought back from the dead, however I would have to hide this ability, since it would not be well received. I would do it anyway though, since if I could stop someone in my family, or one of my friends from dying, I would.

As Lee continued his assault, Gaara looked worse and worse, with his sand armor cracking, and not being able to keep up with the damage. Lee was bouncing him around like a pinball in the air, smacking him against walls, and even Lee's other attacks. Lee would punch Gaara, and he would go flying, only for Lee to disappear and reappear in the path of Gaara's flight to punch him again in the opposite direction. It was a brutal, one sided beatdown, and I could tell that Lee wouldn't be able to continue this for long; Lee's body was tearing itself apart with this level of chakra going through it. Whatever Lee had done was unsustainable, which meant I was not interested in it.

I hated only being able to damage in bursts, I much preferred a sustainable style of fighting. What was the point of destroying your body like this? What if you had more than one person to fight? What were you going to do if when your technique ran out, your enemy wasn't dead? No, fighting at a pace you could maintain for as long as possible was superior. Or if you had a massive attack, it should be used when you have allies to cover you, or use it when it wouldn't cause you to be unable to fight. While Lee's technique was impressive, it was also reckless beyond measure.

Lee apparently saw his limit approaching as well, since he prepared his final attack. He had just finished a series of attacks, when he grabbed Gaara's waistband, causing it to stretch and pull him back to Lee. With the extra force of the yank, Lee punched him again, this time both of them making the crater from before even deeper when they landed. Xorrion again blocked the dust for me that they kicked up with their landing. The other Genin couldn't see what happened apparently, as I heard Shikamaru yelling about how fast it was.

After the dust settled, Gaara was once again in the bottom of the crater, and Lee was kneeling on the edge of it. What most of the people didn't see was Gaara's gourd of sand dissolving, cushioning his impact so it was just enough for him to stay conscious. As Lee was trying to get up, Gaara was also making a move. He raised his hand to control his sand manually, and move it towards Lee. Shit. I knew that gesture, he had used it on me back in the forest.

By the time I realized what Gaara was going to do, It was too late. I could at least prevent Lee from dying.

'Xorrion, save Lee.' I commanded.

'Yes' He said.

While Xorrion was fast, we were pretty far away. Xorrion manifested with none of the fanfare from before. Leaving my shadow, Xorrion bolted forward faster than we'd shown others previously. Lee was about to die, now was not the time to be subtle. Upon reaching him, Lee was already mostly covered by sand, and was barely able to slip between them. Since I had realized too late what was happening, Xorrion could only cover about seventy-five percent of Lee's body, leaving his left arm and leg unprotected.

"Sand Coffin!" Gaara said, closing his fist.

The sand visibly compressed, crushing everything inside of it. While Lee's vital organs were shielded by Xorrion, his arm and leg weren't so lucky, and they were basically reduced to boneless sacks of crushed meat. Even covered by sand, and Xorrion, everyone could hear Lee's scream. As the sand dissolved away leaving Lee barely alive, Xorrion also retreated back into a nearby shadow. I don't think many people saw what I'd done, distracted as they were by the fight. I wasn't fool enough to think the Hokage hadn't seen, or someone like Kakashi with his Sharingan.

When I thought it was over, Gaara went after the unconscious Lee again.

"I don't know how you survived that, but you won't live this time. Now you die" he said, sending his sand after Lee.

Before I could react, Guy Sensei had stepped in, protecting his student. Not sure how he did it, but he dispersed the sand with a wave of his hand. Guy stood there, just looking at Gaara. I couldn't see the look on Guy's face, but it was fucking with Gaara. He grasped his head and started rocking back and forth.

"Why do you protect him? He failed" Gaara said to Guy

"Because he is my precious student" he said, causing a totally dumbfounded look to appear on Gaara's face.

Gaara just stood up, all the sand around him reforming into his gourd, and walked away.

"Whatever. I quit" he said.

Too bad that didn't happen sooner. Lee lost the match the second I intervened, however hopefully people would think it was Guy, and not me.

As Gaara was walking away, there was a shuffle behind Guy, and everyone was shocked to see Lee getting back up. I knew though, that it wasn't really Lee getting up, the kid was totally knocked out. He was standing up by sheer willpower. Guy was talking to Lee, but when he saw the same thing I did, he started crying. Since I was still at the entrance of the Arena where I had stayed the whole fight, I could see Guy's face. We made eye contact and he gave me a nod, I assume one of thanks. Did he see what I'd done? Probably. Guy gently hugged Lee, slowly bringing him to the ground, and calling for the paramedics. Naruto had also jumped from the railing, and sprinting over to where Lee lay prone.

As the medics looked over Lee, they called out to Guy and pulled him off to the side. They ended up near the entrance of the Arena close to where I stood, so I could hear them.

"You're his Sensei correct?" the man asked.

"Yes, I am. What's wrong?" Guy asked worriedly.

"I need you to understand how close your student came to dying. It's a miracle he isn't dead. His whole body is suffering from multiple tears and rips to his muscles. It will be a difficult road to recover. His left arm and leg are almost useless. His muscle fibers and tendons are torn to shreds, and his bones may as well be dust. Your student will live, however there is almost no chance he will ever be a ninja again." the medic said.

"Dear lord…" Guy said, with a look of grief and regret on his face.

"That's not all. I have no idea what happened, but your student was shielded by something" the medic continued.

"How can you tell?" Guy asked, with a side glance in my direction.

"There is clear definition on where the damage begins. That would mean something had been in the way to prevent the rest of his body from suffering the same damage. Whatever could withstand the level of crushing force required to do this to a human body, is out of this world. The military would love to get their hands on whatever material saved him, and also managed to leave no trace. Do you have any idea what that might be?" the medic asked

"Not a clue. I've never given Lee anything like that" Guy explained, with a thoughtful look on his face. The grief was still there though.

"I'm sorry, I know how important this is to you both, but his days as a shinobi are over" the medic said with a bow, before walking away.

Naruto started shouting something towards Lee as he was carried away by the stretcher, and Kakashi had to come settle him down. Guy was just standing there, looking like a broken man with tears streaming down his face. Eventually he turned, and started walking towards me. Why? It wasn't long before we were standing face to face, with me having to look up at him.

"Thank you, for saving Lee's life." He said, before embracing me in a tight hug. I had to suppress Xorrion's desire to stop the movement. My arms were pinned to my sides, so I couldn't even move.

"Uhmmm.." Was all I could say. Even in this new life, I hadn't gotten used to physical contact with others. I was at least better than how I was back on Azeroth.

"I don't know why you are hiding your strength, and I don't care. But thank you. It was because of my negligence that this happened, and if not for you it would have killed Lee" Guy said quietly so just the two of us could hear it.

'Why is this man dripping on you, Master?' Xorrion asked with confusion.

'He is extremely sad. Physical contact can make others feel better' I explained to my demon.

'Why is he sad?' Xorrion asked, never really able to understand human emotion much.

'The easiest way I can explain it would be this: How would you feel if I nearly died in front of you, with you unable to help?' I prompted.

'I see' he replied quietly, apparently in thought.

Suddenly, my shadow writhed beneath us, startling both Guy and I. I hadn't done anything, and hadn't told Xorrion to do anything. From my shadow, said demon appeared next to us, looking intently at Guy Sensei.

"Uhhm, Kari, what is he doing?" Guy asked warily.

"I have no idea. Xorrion?" I said.

He didn't reply, but instead grasped Guy's shoulder gently, in what I could only describe as comradery, or comfort. Was he trying to comfort another being besides me? Interesting. It seemed he was growing.

"I am sorry. I was not fast enough to save him" Xorrion said. Apparently my description of how Guy was feeling hit Xorrion hard.

"Was it you who stopped Gaara's attack?" Guy asked.

"I was under orders from my Master, but yes." Xorrion replied.

Suddenly, Xorrion was the new victim of Guy's crushing embrace. Xorrion just looked at me in what could only be panic, as he had never had anyone hug him before. I just smiled at him and shook my head.

"Thank you. Thank you so much!" Guy said, tears coming out anew.

"He is leaking on me. Help" Xorrion said.

"Just deal with it. I had to" I said with a grin. It was a depressing situation, so bringing some levity could only help.

Finally, Guy released my demon, and looked him up and down.

"So, you are Kari's summoned creature." he said.

"Yes"

"Is that why you call her master?" Guy asked.

"Yes"

"You are more impressive than Kakashi made it seem." Guy said, Xorrion's recent actions making Guy slightly biased.

"Guy, we are making a scene. The others are watching" I said, trying to hide behind Xorrion's bulk.

"Let them watch. One day I wish to fight you. But not today." Guy said

"I thought Kakashi was your rival?" I asked.

"One can have more than one rival." said Guy.

Oh no. Please no. Was I going to have to deal with this muscle head all the time now? Fuck.

"Can I have everyone's attention please?" Hayate asked to the arena, now standing at the front.

As we all went to the front of the arena, he continued.

"Congratulations everyone for passing the preliminaries." he said.

"Wait, they're over? Wasn't there one more fight?" I asked.

"Yes, there was. That fight occurred while you were out of the Arena" Hayate explained.

Ahh, so that's where the hole in the wall came from. Looking around at who was left, it was obvious that Choji had lost. The hole in the wall must have been from his Human Boulder Jutsu.

"I will now begin the explanation on how the final rounds will be conducted" the Hokage said.

Finally. I wanted to get some sleep. It had been a long fucking day.

"In the final round, each of you will display your combat prowess, and display the power and control you've achieved in your respective disciplines. As I said before, these battles will determine your future as a shinobi. We will conclude the Chunin exams exactly one month from now" the Hokage explained.

"Wait, we're not gonna do it right here and now?" Naruto asked.

Sometimes I forget that Naruto isn't the sharpest. Of course we wouldn't be doing it now. Everyone is beaten and bruised from the forest, and the fights we just had. If we are to display our skills to the muckety mucks of the world, it wouldn't look good to appear half dead. Plus if we're all exhausted, we can't show off to our best.

"No, you all need some time to recover and prepare before the finals." The hokage said, mirroring my thoughts.

"What's that supposed to mean?" someone asked, I think Neji. Wasn't he supposed to be a genius?

"Time to prepare means that we need to send out the notices to everyone that the final exams are going to be held soon. Then they need time to get here. It also gives all of you time to come up with new strategies, and recover from today's events. Everyone knows what you're capable of, so if you use the same things over and over, it's a sure way to suffer defeat." the Hokage explained.

He was half right, I hadn't shown anyone my full capabilities. That didn't mean I wasn't going to slack off however. I still had my own things I wanted to get done.

"Before all of you run off, there's one more important thing we have to get done before the finals can be done. All of you must take one piece of paper from the box that Anko has" the Hokage said.

"All of you stay there, I'll come to you." Anko said.

She went down the line and everyone picked a piece of paper. They appeared to all have numbers on them. Mine had a 4.

"Now that all of you have your paper, read aloud what number you have" said the Hokage.

"I've got eight" said the sound ninja

"Number one" Naruto said

"Seven" Blonde said.

"Five" said Face Paint

"Three" Said Gaara

"Nine" Shika said.

"Two" Neji

"Six" Shino

"Four" I said last.

"Very good, now I'm going to tell you how the finals will go. Ibiki, you may now reveal who will be facing who" Hokage said.

"Really… Drawing lots?" Shikamaru and I said at the same time.

Looking at the chart, It seemed that Sound guy and Shikamaru would be first. Then me and Gaara, followed by Naruto and Neji, then Kankuro and Shino. Shikamaru got the short end of the stick and would have to fight twice.

"So if this is a tournament, does that mean there's only one winner? Only one of us is going to become a Chunin?" Shikamaru asked.

"Actually no, quite the contrary. All of you could become Chunin, or none of you. It all depends on your skills that you show off. You could beat all your opponents, but still not be considered Chunin, while one of the people you beat could be promoted. It's more than just fighting skills that make a Chunin. Thank you all for your patience. We will now adjourn until next month." the Hokage explained as he dismissed us.

I decided not to linger, and left first. I had a lot to do and not a lot of time to do it. First, summon Aztog, second, learn to create healthstones, third, I figured I needed an ability that would do constant damage. For that my best option was Corruption. A spell that did shadow damage for as long as it was applied. All warlocks could use it, so it was the only damage over time ability I had.

I had a lot of work to do in the next month…