As Naruto's match was about to start, I took a look around the stadium. I could see some familiar faces, like Hinata, Kiba, Sakura, and Ino among others. I also saw some Anbu, which was weird. As far as I knew, they had no reason to be here; maybe they were protecting the Kage's? Speaking of the two Kage looking over everyone, I felt that familiar yet sinister chakra I'd felt all over the place since the Chunin Exams began. That chakra that had been on Sasuke's mark, Anko's mark, and on the Sound Ninjas. That couldn't be good.

"Let the first match begin!" the proctor announced.

After standing there for several seconds, Naruto made the first move by throwing some shuriken, and a kunai. After blocking the kunai, Neji was assaulted by a flurry of blows from Naruto, however easily defended himself. Naruto's attacks were sloppy, predictable, and unrefined, whereas Neji had perfect form and his Byakugan to help him. The downside for Neji though meant that a skilled opponent could read his moves if he or she were familiar with how a Hyuga fought. His style was textbook Hyuga; after sparring with Hinata for years, I could tell at least that much.

Neji made his first attack of the match rather than defending, and it seemed to do decent damage. From what I knew of the Hyuga style, they fought by fucking with their opponents chakra network. It was why they were so feared; a prolonged fight with a Hyuga would render you incapable of moulding chakra. From the way Naruto grabbed his shoulder, it seemed all Hyugas used that style.

Naruto responded by getting back up like nothing happened, the kid was stubborn as always. Reigning his composure, Naruto created several more clones and renewed his assault. In my earlier scan of the crowd, I had seen TenTen, so I looked over to where I remembered her being, and she looked like she didn't have a single worry. Was she that confident in her teammate? I knew nothing about Neji other than he was a prick, so I had no idea if that confidence was justified, but Naruto seemed to be holding his own at least.

Neji's attacks consisted of defending, but because of how he utilised his chakra, his blocks also counted as attacks. Every clone he defended against, would "pop" as it were, dispersing in a brief explosion of smoke. There was one clone however, that didn't pop, it simply fell to the ground. Hmmm. That must be the real one then, smart; by making himself part of the attacking clones, he could distract Neji somewhat by having one of his clones hang back acting like it was the real one. One of these days I wondered if I could learn that jutsu from Naruto. I'd never make it my staple like Naruto seemed to have done, but the usefulness of that jutsu was limitless.

I had other, more powerful skills in terms of attack power than that. Although, my jutsu were geared towards killing. I was still intensely curious about how my Corruption spell affected someone's body; I had yet to test it on a living person. The only one that could tell me for sure was either a Byakugan user, or maybe a sharingan one.

As Naruto's last clone was killed, I could see the frustration and confusion on Naruto's face. I think I knew why; no matter what angle Naruto attacked from, Neji always countered it. Oh Naruto, have you already forgotten our sparring sessions with Hinata? The Byakugan gave the user near 360 degree vision, so they could see almost any attack coming. I wasn't supposed to know their vision wasn't perfect, however Hinata and I had become good enough friends that she had confided in me. I would never tell anyone I knew their clan's biggest weakness. Maybe only weakness. If I ever found myself becoming the enemy of the Hyuga, it would be invaluable information to have.

"What do you think, Shikamaru?" I asked my brother.

"Hmm, Naruto has definitely gotten better, but he's still up against Neji. I think ultimately Naruo will lose" Shikamaru said, and honestly I had to agree.

As much as I wanted to believe he would win, I had to accept the high likelihood he would lose. There was always that part though, that thought he would defy the odds and pull a victory out of his ass like he'd done with Kiba.

It was after Naruto's latest round of shadow clones that Neji revealed his "Ultimate Defense" as he called it. The Eight Trigrams Palm Rotation. Honestly it looked impressive, but I wouldn't call it an ultimate defense; Gaara and I had a much better one. I had a guess at what the purpose of this rotation was: to cover up for the fact that the Byakugan didn't have a perfect 360 degree vision. No one told me this of course, but it was the logical answer when you knew about the weakness.

I had no idea how his attack worked, but it looked like it had to be a conscious choice. That alone made it inferior to mine since Xorrion didn't need my input to defend me. Neji had decided to take his opponent seriously, or to totally humiliate Naruto, I wasn't sure which but I was betting on the latter. Neji had changed his stance, and called out the name of his attack "Eight Trigrams sixty-four palms". Whatever it was, one could assume it had sixty-four attacks.

After Neji's barrage of attacks, using mainly his fingertips to strike, Naruto was laying on the ground and struggling to get up. Interesting. I could no longer sense chakra emanating from Naruto. I could tell he still had it, but it wasn't going anywhere. So that was the gentle fist in action huh? I wondered if my Demon Skin jutsu would defend against it.

Neji was currently shit talking Naruto again as he was on the ground, talking about some destiny bullshit. Does that kid ever shut up about destiny? If destiny was real, Azeroth would have been destroyed dozens of times over. During Neji's tirade, Naruto had managed to force himself to stand, despite having his chakra points closed, as per Neji's own statement. Tough kid. I wasn't sure if it was Naruto's own natural toughness, or it was the Nine Tails inside him. Probably some combination of both.

"You're gonna make me cry" Naruto had said, I only caught half of what he'd said.

"I don't know what you mean" Neji replied.

"You have no idea what you did to Hinata? You already forgot how you mocked her for trying her best?! That's what I have against you. Who cares about branch families or main families?" Naruto shouted.

"That's none of your concern. The branch families have always been inferior to the main family" Neji said, contradicting himself in one sentence.

Neji removed his headband revealing a light green symbol on his forehead.

"This is the result of the Curse Mark Jutsu that the main family has put on every member of the branch family. It will kill us if we rebel against the main family. They used the excuse of potentially being captured in enemy territory as a reason to put it on us. But that was a lie. After all they don't have it, so it is obviously a means to control us." Neji said with venom in his voice.

That was an interesting jutsu. As a former Warlock, I was quite versed in curses, despite the fact that I was mainly able to apply them instead of remove them. The curse mark on Neji's forehead was much more elegant than the one on Sasuke. Probably because they did different things. I could probably remove it given some time. I was not inclined to rush however since everything I'd seen from Neji made me dislike him intensely. I was only inclined to remove it because no person should be essentially made a slave. I had contracts with my demons, but they had entered the contract voluntarily with no coercion.

"What is the point of all of this?!" Naruto had asked.

Oh Naruto, how innocent you are despite your rough upbringing. The whole point of Neji's mark was for control.

"To keep us in our place" Neji said.

They had gone back and forth for a bit with Neji explaining more about his clan, before Naruto had finally had enough.

"I understand, but that has nothing to do with destiny. I ain't buying that" Naruto said.

"Very well. Once a failure, always a failure" Neji said, before attacking.

Naruto was still injured from Neji's previous attack, so was unable to dodge. Neji rushed forward, and attacked Naruto's midsection with his palm. With Naruto on the floor Neji tried to end the match.

"Proctor, end this already. He is never going to win" Neji said

The proctor hadn't even been able to get a word out before Naruto was standing again.

"It's not Hinata's fault that her father was born first." Naruto said.

Naruto had gone still suddenly, looking as if he was meditating. Making a hand seal in front of him, he had a look of intense concentration on his face. Or was it constipation?

"Why bother trying to defy your destiny? You were meant to lose to me." Neji said with a smirk.

As Naruto had finished whatever he was doing, red chakra had begun to seep out of him as he was shouting. The small rocks around him had started to lift off the floor, and the chakra coming out of him was violently thrashing everywhere, creating a strong wind. Interesting. So this was the manifestation of the chakra I'd sensed in Naruto all those years ago. After learning what was sealed inside him, this could only be the Nine Tails Chakra. It was powerful, but I doubted this was even a fraction of its power. No way Naruto's tiny body could handle the full power of the beast inside him.

After a bit of time, the chakra seemed to have stabilized somewhat, and as Naruto went on the offensive, his speed seemed to have doubled. He was nowhere near as fast as Lee though. Neji was able to keep up with Naruto, but barely. He countered all of Naruto's attacks, even using his Rotation a couple of times. During their fight, Naruto and Neji had exchanged words, but I couldn't hear what they'd said through the thrashing of Naruto's chakra. Eventually they ended up striking each other with kunai at exactly the same time, creating a shockwave that kicked up a massive cloud of dust.

The clearing dust revealed two craters in the ground of the arena. Neither combatant could be seen, so it was easy to guess that they were each in a crater. When all of the dust that had been kicked up was gone, a hand shot up out of one of the craters. The hand uncovered a Neji, beaten and bruised, and wobbling on his feet. The shaky Neji slowly walked over to the other hole in the ground where Naruto was.

"As I thought, it was your destiny to lose to me" Neji said arrogantly.

He was about to turn to the proctor to end the match when a bloody fist shot up from the ground beneath Neji, clocking him in the chin from below. That fist belonged to Naruto, and his fingernails had all been split, causing the blood from earlier. Neji had spat up some blood when Naruto's fist had connected, sending Neji to the ground.

As Naruto sat there panting hard, the "Naruto" that was on the ground poofed out of existence. A clone then. When the smoke cleared, there was a hole underneath where the clone had been. So Naruto had buried underground to attack Neji, placing a clone to distract him. Clever.

As Neji lay there, unable to move Naruto spoke

"I failed the clone jutsu three times, so don't talk to me about not being able to change destiny" he said.

"The winner is Naruto Uzumaki" the proctor said, to the sudden pandemonium of the crowd.

'Unbelievable'

'How did he get so strong?'

'When did he learn to control the Nine Tails'

Those were the thoughts of many in the crowd.

"Awe man, Naruto beat Neji? This is such a drag. I thought Naruto was dorky and uncool just like me, and now he won his fight?" Shika said, grabbing his head in despair.

"Hey now Shikamaru, you may be dorky, but no one said you were uncool" I said.

"That's easy for you to say Kari, everyone thinks you're scary and badass" my brother said.

"Don't underestimate the strength and coolness of being smart. Who thinks I'm scary?" I asked slightly confused. Sure I'd lost my temper a couple times, but I never did anything that would be considered terrifying.

"Literally everyone, you killed that guy in the preliminaries" he said, seeming surprised that I didn't remember.

"Yeah what about it? It was kill or be killed" I asked.

"Still, your summoned creature killed him like he was nothing" my brother replied with a bit of a shiver.

"He kind of was nothing honestly, he relied mainly on his power to drain chakra. Plus he was going to kill me if I didn't" I replied.

"I suppose, it was still freaky though." Shikamaru said.

Sometimes I forget that despite his intelligence, he's still just a kid.

"Don't worry about it, your big sister will always be here to protect you" I said with a smile and rubbing his hair that was similar to mine.

"I'm the older one!" he said, smacking my hand away.

"I think you may be delusional"

"I'm two minutes older!"

"Are you now?" I asked, still grinning.

"You're such a drag sometimes" he said, looking away. I still caught a hint of a smile though.

Naruto came bounding up the stairs not long after we finished talking. He had a shit eating grin on his face, and his hands were behind his head.

"Hey Naruto. I see you won your fight" I said.

"Yeah I was pretty cool out there wasn't I?" He asked

"Maybe, but bragging lowers your coolness" I told him

"Awe, don't be like that. He impressed everyone by beating Neji" Shikamaru responded.

"I suppose, but if you really want to be cool, you should be aloof and mysterious" I replied with a smirk.

"Really? Just that easy?" he asked.

"You can ask Shino over there for tips" I said pointing over at where Shino was standing.

"Why would you do this to me?" Shino asked as he was bombarded with questions by Naruto.

I just smiled and waved.

"You're evil" Shikamaru said.

"The next match is Kankuro and Shino Aburame" the proctor said.

There was a couple moments of silence before Kankuro spoke

"I'm unable to continue, and withdraw from the match" he said.

The crowd went wild in anger, apparently they had wanted to see the match.

"Very well then, that means…" the proctor was interrupted by a gust of wind as the blonde haired chick with the fan landed next to him on the field.

"You're eager aren't you?" he asked.

"I just want to get the show on the road" she said with a smile.

"The next match will be between Temari, and Shikamaru Nara." the proctor continued.

"Awe man, this is such a drag. That dude with facepaint just had to withdraw and make my fight come sooner" my brother said.

Unlike her flashy entrance, Shikamaru just walked down the stairs calmly, and slowly. He really didn't want to fight at all it seemed. That was fair I guess. The only reason he'd entered the exams was so his teammates wouldn't have to fail out for him refusing. Getting down to the arena, he just kinda stood there instead of going to the middle.

"What are you waiting for?" she asked.

"It's such a drag that I have to fight in this thing at all." he said with a sigh.

"Fine, if you won't do anything, than I will!" she said, making the first attack.

As she reached her opponent, she swung down with her giant fan. As it hit the ground it made a cloud of dust, and as it cleared, it showed Shikamaru, unharmed and standing about a foot away with his hands in his pockets.

"I really don't want to bother, but if I must, I can't be beaten by a ninja from an enemy village" he said.

"Is that so?" she asked, before opening her fan and creating a gust of air, which shikamaru neatly dodged before disappearing into the nearby trees.

The two just sat there like that for a good five minutes before doing anything. Eventually Temari got fed up and attacked again, but Shikamaru ended up using that as a chance to try and catch him with his shadow. We were both Nara, so naturally he'd use his shadow.

She had seen it in time though, and managed to back up enough to be out of his range. Clever as ever, my brother was. I knew his range was greater than that, but he was giving her a false sense of security. After the dust and wind calmed down, she had made a line in the dirt marking what his range was.

Looking back to Shikamaru, I saw him doing that thing with his hands, thumbs and all his fingers spread apart and pressed together. It was a thing he did when he was thinking of something important, usually a plan to beat his Sensei in Shogi. Shikamaru sat like that for what felt like forever, long enough for the sun to lower in the sky enough to make the shadow cast by the wall a bit longer.

By the time he was done, about fifteen minutes had passed. It was then that he made his move. When Temari had made her most recent attack out of impatience, he had taken off his jacket to create a makeshift parachute that he'd attached a Kunai to. Throwing it in the air, and moving his shadow at the same time, he'd almost caught her this time.

"You were killing time, waiting for the shadow from the wall to get bigger, weren't you?" she asked.

There was no time for my brother to answer however, as the shadow from his parachute started to appear, and it gave him extra range, surprising her. She wasted no time retreating from his shadow, but what she didn't know was that she was being herded towards the hole in the ground made by Naruto's attack. I could see what he was doing from my vantage point higher up the wall.

When he finally let her stop moving, she was right next to the hole that Shikamaru wanted her to be next to. She had stopped moving for a bit, apparently thinking up a plan, but it was too late. When it looked like she was about to move, Shikamaru trapped her with his shadow.

"How?!" she said incredulously.

Turning his head, Shikamaru allowed her to see his handiwork. Controlling her body, he walked them both to the middle of the stadium. Raising his hand, which also made her hand raise, he promptly surrendered.

"Why the hell would you surrender?!" she yelled.

"Because I'm out of chakra, and cannot continue" he said. Proving his point, his shadow receded, returning control of her body to her.

She just gave him a look of utter disbelief. I personally thought Shikamaru had plenty of steam left in his engine, but that he just couldn't be bothered to continue. It didn't really matter much to me. He was still my brother whether or not he was a Chunin or a Genin, it was up to him which he wanted to be.

"Very well. The winner is Temari!" the proctor said to a totally shocked crowd.

Naruto had jumped down from the balcony we were on to berate Shikamaru for quitting so early.

"The next match will be between Kari Nara, and Gaara" the man said, and if I thought the crowd had been loud before, apparently I was sorely mistaken. They were now so loud it was starting to make my ears ring.

"Fine fine, let's go" I said, also jumping off the railing and walking up to the two already down there.

"Be careful of that Gaara dude Kari, he's dangerous" my brother said.

"Don't worry Shika. I'll be fine." I told him with a smile.

"Shika huh?" Naruto said, grinning.

"Not a word" he glared at Naruto as they both went upstairs to the viewing balcony.

Gaara apparently was taking his sweet ass time to get down here though, since it took him like five whole minutes to finally arrive.

"Okay, I want a clean fight from both of you. Begin!" he said, starting the match and jumping away.

As soon as he started, sand started flowing from Gaara's gourd, and even now I could still smell the blood that emanated from it. I jumped back as well, since Xorrion could block the sand, no reason to make it harder on him. Before we could do anything though, Gaara suddenly grabbed his head, and started talking to himself about his mother… What the hell? I could sense the second more sinister chakra inside Gaara thrashing about, trying to take control. So that was it. His beast was starting to take over. It must be the same one he'd used to kill that sound ninja.

Gaara just looked at me with a crazed look in his eyes; was he that eager to fight me? Probably. Last time we'd clashed had ended in a draw. He was probably eager to kill me, the little psycho. Well to be fair, now that I thought about it, his psychopathy was probably caused by the thing sealed inside him. As Gaara appeared to calm down, the crazed look diminished, but was still there.

We stood there for several seconds before Gaara decided to make the first move, sending a wave of sand at me. I debated on whether I should dodge or not, since I didn't want to have Xorrion drained too fast. This guy's sand packed a punch, and he'd had a month to train as well, though I doubted he actually used that time. Xorrion however had gotten stronger, so I figured I'd may as well ask.

'Xorrion, you think you can withstand his sand better now?' I asked mentally.

'Easily my Lady. I have recovered and grown much since we last faced this mortal' Xorrion replied, also mentally.

I decided to use one of my new skills I hadn't had a chance to use yet: Curse of Exhaustion. Looking right in Gaara's eyes and weaving some bullshit hand signs that didn't mean anything, I acted right as his sand hit my shadows. I could see the effects of the jutsu happen, his sand that he had to control manually had slowed down considerably. I needed to test his automatic sand defense, so I threw a couple shurikens at him when the sand fell back to the ground.

That sand that sprung up to defend him had no such reduction in speed. So given that, it was logical to conclude that the automatic sand defense wasn't his own skill. I didn't know where it came from, but the only thing I could think of was that it came from the beast inside him. Interesting. If not for my explanation for Xorrion, one could think that I may have one such beast stealed within me as well. I had the chakra and strange abilities for it. On that thought, I may just let people think that.

That wasn't the only thing Gaara did though, he kept attacking with his sand, trying to hit me from every direction, only to be rebuffed by Xorrion.

"Are you like me? You cannot be harmed" Gaara asked.

"No. I am not like you. But I am a different brand of crazy" I said, deciding to test a jutsu I'd mastered some time ago, but had no reason to use.

Once again, I did some fake hand signs and cast shadow bolt. Dark violet shadows gathered on my hands before coalescing into a short spearhead about the size of one's head.

Gaara didn't say anything, just eyeing the jutsu warily. I didn't give him long to look at it before sending it booming through the air towards him. It wasn't an especially fast attack, but it was still a bit faster than a thrown shuriken, and guided by my will, as long as I could see the opponent, it would never miss. Gaara's sand tried to stop it, but it only slowed it down enough for Gaara to dodge it himself, causing his eyes to go wide. It must be bringing flashbacks of Lee, obliterating his sand.

The bolt sailed past Gaara's head and buried itself into the ground. The ground around the impact started to turn black, and a bit of frost was creeping around the edges. When the spell dissipated, the ground returned mostly to normal, and the frost also vanished. The only thing left was a small hole, and the ground was eroded slightly. Looking back at Gaara, there was a small cut on his cheek; so he hadn't entirely dodged it. The edges of the cut also looked slightly blackened. That was interesting. If it was what I thought it to be, that meant my shadow bolt had gained a necrotic aspect to it that it never had before.

This was my staple skill, just like how Naruto's shadow clones were his staple. I'd have to be careful with this skill, it could do some serious damage to allies. Seeing what Shadow Bolt had done, I decided against using Corruption on Gaara. I didn't want to kill the kid, even if he was kinda creepy and more than a mild psychopath. Killing people because you were insane, and killing people because you enjoyed it were very different things, even if slightly similar.

Gaara's only weapon seems to be his sand. It was a glaring weakness considering he could only carry around so much of it. In cases where his opponent could break through the sand, Gaara was screwed.

Casting another Shadow Bolt, I sent at Gaara to see what he'd do the second time, knowing it would punch through his sand. This time he tried to stop it by engulfing it with sand before it could reach him. It only worked partially, diverting its trajectory to hit the ground before I could make it hit Gaara. As Gaara was busy with that one, I sent another at him, making Gaara's eyes go wide. This time it hit him on his shoulder, shattering the sand armor that Gaara had used in his fight with Lee. Because of the armor, he didn't take severe damage since the necrotic aspect was eating the sand, and not his skin. His shoulder had to have at least been bruised though.

After standing still for a bit longer, Gaara acted again by making a hand seal, which was unusual since until now he hadn't used any. This time though instead of attacking, Gaara seemed to be encasing himself in a sphere of sand. Hmmm…

Before it closed, I sent another Shadow Bolt at Gaara, and this time, before the bolt hit his sand sphere, spikes shot out and impaled the bolt, dispersing it. Even though the actual bolt was gone though, the new necrotic aspect I was still getting used to started eating away at the sand. Good thing I was a ranged combatant or I'd be skewered by those spikes.

'Xorrion, do you think you could get around those spikes?' I asked.

'Yes. I can drain the chakra from them to render them harmless.' he told me.

'Good. Do it. Destroy his defense.' I commanded.

'Yes, Master' he replied.

I wasn't sure how Xorrion was going to do it, and that was the benefit of working with an intelligent being. If I didn't have a solution, he might. I hadn't told him how to do it, so that meant he could do it in any way he pleased. My shadow undulated in place before darkening, signaling that Xorrion had taken control of it. I wasn't sure why that happened, it just did. Probably the same reason the shadows darkened when Shikamaru controlled them.

The shadow split up into several branches, and rushed towards the sphere of sand. During this time, a sandy eye had formed above the sphere, and I suspected Gaara could see from it. The shadows didn't take long to reach the sand, and when they did, they darted out all at once to strike it. Ahh, it seemed Xorrion went with shadow stitching; good choice now that I thought about it. Instead of turning the sand sphere into a pincushion like I had expected, only a single spear of shadows had managed to penetrate the shield. Damn that shit was dense. From inside the sphere, an ear piercing scream could be heard.

'Xorrion, retreat now!' I said, not sure what Gaara would do.

"BLOOD! IT'S MY BLOOD!" Gaara had shouted, loud enough for the whole arena to hear.

Uh oh. That was a crazed scream if I've ever heard one. Xorrion had retreated just a little too late, and as he was pulling out of the sphere, a massive hand was holding on to the shadow spear. So that was the form I'd seen when Gaara killed the sound guy. It was a simple matter for Xorrion to free himself, all he had to do was create several more spikes from the end of the spear, impaling the hand  with more shadow spears. Needless to say, the hand quickly let go before retreating back into the sand shield.

Not long after the hand retreated, the sand shield dissolved, revealing a normal, but crazed looking Gaara with a bloody hole in his side. Also at the same time, I felt something strange, and looking around it seemed the spectators on the stands were passing out one by one.

"Master, someone is trying to influence your mind. Let me get rid of it" Aztog said, suddenly appearing at my feet. Shit. I'd wanted to hide him for longer.

Aztog used the skill that all Imps had to purge magic effects from their master. Since everything in this world essentially used magic, but chakra instead of mana, his ability would work on anything that was caused by chakra. I felt a slight burning sensation, then suddenly the strange feeling vanished, and I could think clearly again.

"Thanks, although I wished you'd kept hidden for longer. But oh well, nothing to do about it now" I said, annoyed, but not angry. After all, how could I be mad at Aztog, when he was just looking out for my well being?

"I am sorry master." he said dejectedly.

"Don't worry about it, you were being helpful" I reassured him.

Suddenly, there was an explosion of smoke up where the Kage's were sitting. Looking up, I saw several figures rushing towards the spot; they could only be the Anbu. The Anbu attacked several people that ran out of the smoke, and killed them instantly. Two figures jump up and out of the smoke: the Kage's. The Kazekage had the Hokage hostage. Uh oh. The "dead" ninja started moving, and closed the two Kage's in a square; preparing to cast a jutsu. They appeared to be talking to the people around them, but I had no idea what they were saying.

I had my own problems to deal with though as Gaara's teammates and Sensei arrived to back him up. Gaara seemed to be losing his shit, grabbing his head and trembling. The blonde by his side was talking to the other one beside him and their sensei.

"His chakra is almost totally gone" she said.

"That's what he gets for trying to transform before we got the signal" their Sensei berated.

Suddenly, the proctor, and of all people Sasuke appeared beside me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Sasuke.

"Kakashi and Guy are in the stands fighting, and Kakashi told me to back you up" he said, sulking. Why was he sulking? Cause he didn't get to fight Gaara?

"Continue with the operation" the man said to his students, and they took off carrying Gaara.

"Do you really think things will go the way you have planned?" The proctor said.

"Would we be doing this if we thought otherwise?" he asked.

"Sasuke, Kari, the chunin exams end here. Kari at least has already reached the strength of Chunin, if not Jonin. Both of you must go after Gaara, but be careful. This is the real thing now." the proctor told us.

"No, I'll stay here and help with the Village. Sasuke has gotten stronger since I last saw him. I can feel it." I said.

If Sasuke wanted to fight Gaara so badly, I would facilitate it. After all, he kinda got shafted during these exams.

"Fine, I'm not your superior, so I can't really command you" the proctor said.

"Thanks, Genma. I know what I have to do" Sasuke said, before taking off. The sand Sensei tried to stop him, but was prevented by the proctor, now named Genma's kunai.

"Are you sure about this? It could be harder than going after Gaara" he asked.

"That's why I'm doing it. How can I get stronger if I take the easy route?" I replied.

"Very well."

The sand ninja didn't let us chat for long before attacking. He was more skilled than Gaara in terms of actually fighting, but with Genma here, we could win. The first thing I did was cast Curse of Exhaustion; with me doing it before we fought, the sand Sensei was less likely to notice. To him we would just appear to be faster than normal. My Imp had been forgotten when the explosion happened near the Hokage, and since he'd already been seen, may as well keep utilizing him.

"Aztog, go help Kakashi. While he's strong, he could use the help of another fighter" I ordered.

Appearing again, Aztog took off to help the Jounin.

"I have no idea what that creature was, but are you certain you wish to send him away?" the sand ninja asked.

"We'll be fine. Kari here was about to beat Gaara anyway from the looks of it. You seem weaker than him" Genma taunted. Damn, he had that much faith in me?

We readied for battle and the Sand ninja attacked in earnest.

    -      -

Aztog obeyed his master's command without question. He had no worries about her safety with his comrade demon Xorrion to see to her defense. She had sent him an image of what this "Kakashi" person looked like. So far he hadn't much contact with the people of this world, focused on his training as he was. This energy called Chakra was quite vexing. He had managed to create his fireball, but not throw it. His master had told him she'd encountered a similar problem.

It didn't take long to arrive at the spot he figured Kakashi was. There was only one group of people fighting after all. He got there in time to block a thrown weapon at a pink haired girl.

~clang~

The two halves of the weapon fell to the ground as Aztog's claws sliced it neatly in half. There were surprised faces all around, and Aztog used that chance to attack another of the mortals his master had ordered him to assist. He wasn't sure if killing was permitted, so instead he opted for merely maiming attackers of the one his master deemed worthy of aid. Others may have thought his loyalty strange, however he had served his master for centuries. In that time, she had saved his life many times, when other Warlocks would sacrifice their demons just to run away. In turn he had saved hers as well.

"Who the hell are you?" a man in a green outfit demanded, blocking another attack with his leg.

"My master has commanded me to assist the silver haired one however possible" Aztog told the strange man. What kind of outfit and hairstyle was that? He wasn't one to judge so he let it go.

"Master? The creature must another one of Kari's summons" the silver haired man said.

"How can you be sure?" bowl-cut said.

"Only Kari's creatures say 'my master'. The one I know of never leaves her side, so this must be a new one" Silver Hair said again.

A ninja had gone to attack the pair of unconscious ones on the floor, and since the one Aztog was tasked to assist was defending them, that meant Aztog must defend them. Blurring forward, Aztog slashed at the Ninjas arm, leaving deep gashes and causing the man to yell out.

"Vicious little guy, isn't he?" bowl-cut said.

"My master's orders are absolute" Aztog said, slashing another kunai out of the air.

"Sakura, go wake Naruto and Shikamaru. Naruto will be ecstatic about getting a mission after such a long time" Silver Hair said.

"What kind of mission?" Pinkie said.

"It will be your first A-Rank assignment in a while" he said.

Another ninja went to attack the girl, and Silver Hair was too slow to stop it, so Aztog dashed forward, slashing with his razor sharp claws and defending her.

"Uhhh, thanks" she said.

Aztog just nodded, and went after another ninja.

"Sakura, go after Sasuke with Naruto and Shikamaru" the man said, cutting his thumb to summon a ninja hound. Said hound appeared in a puff of smoke.

"Take Pakkun here, he will track Sasuke down for you" Silver Hair said.

Sakura went over to wake the two sleeping forms.

"I know Kari said to help me, but please, go with those four and help however you can. If you get in shit, tell Kari I asked you to" the man said to Aztog.

"Master will not be upset. I was told to help you, and helping those kids will help you. There is no conflict of orders" Aztog said, nodding at the Jounin and going to join the kids.

'What did she do to earn that kind of loyalty from her creatures?' Kakashi thought to himself.

    -    -

The sand ninja lay unconscious beneath my feet, and Genma had a serious wound to his abdomen. He likely wouldn't live if nothing was done. I supposed it was time to reveal another of my new tricks. This person had fought with me, so it was only fair I prevented him from dying. I still hadn't perfected my healthstone, but it would at least save the man's life. After pulling one out of my ninja pouch, I offered it to him.

"Here, crush this in your hand, and it should make that wound in your stomach ease up a bit" I said, handing the rough green stone to the proctor on the floor.

"What is this?" he asked, taking it from my hand.

"Shut up and hurry, or you'll die from blood loss. It's something I made recently but haven't perfected." I said, urging him on.

He did as instructed and crushed the stone in his hands, and a neon green light exploded from the gem, turning it to dust. The energy itself traveled towards the man's wound, imbedding into it. The man gasped, and ended up passing out. Shit. Looking at him, the wound on his stomach was visibly sealing to the eye. Damn, it was much better than I thought. I had expected it just to stop the bleeding, but not only did it do that, it closed the wound up some as well.

Looking around, I saw that there was a purple translucent cube on top of the roof the Hokage had been on, and some Anbu were attacking it trying to get in. Off in the distance, a giant three headed snake was going on a rampage. Honestly I was debating on which direction to go. I'd sensed Aztog moving away from me at high speed, so he was likely going somewhere with Kakashi.

Looking at the two unconscious forms on the ground, I tied up the sand ninja, and disarmed him. I thought about stripping him down so there was no way he'd escape, but that might be taken the wrong way. Instead I just robbed him of all his gear, and tied his hands in such a way that he couldn't make hand seals.

As for Genma, I gently carried him to the nearby entrance to the second floor balcony. He should be safe in here until this whole thing is over. His wound looked much better after absorbing the healthstone. If it worked like this now, I could only imagine what it would do when I perfected it. I could leave the stone as it was, but it really sucked having to use part of a soul to make it in a world that would hate such a practice, no matter how good it worked. Using a soul also meant that I couldn't teach it to others. This world wasn't my own, and the energies functioned differently; anyone who could control chakra should be able to make one.

Leaving the stadium, I once again thought where I should go. The Hokage had those Anbu already trying to get in, I couldn't help much more than they could. That giant snake, though, could kill a lot of people. I didn't particularly care much for the people of this village, but the people I cared about did, so that was enough. My path was clear.

I took off towards the snake.