Dream Team (NaruHina)

#25 Better Late Than Never

Hinata gave Naruto a quick kiss after she had leapt down to the floor. Naruto smiled as he flashed back to the competitors box. The purple haired girl waited for her opponent to come down , while taking out her short swords. She knew a bit of Kankuro's abilities, since they had fought together a year prior but that didn't mean that she would become careless.

As Kankuro stood opposite of her the two genin looked at the proctor to start the match.

Kankuro immediately threw a few kunai at his opponent, to keep her busy, while he unraveled his puppet. Hinata blocked the kunai with ease and readied her swords as she engaged with her wooden opponent. Her hands were a blur as she parried the various strikes from the four armed humanoid that came at her. The many hidden weapons the puppet had didn't make it any easier as there were a few times Hinata had to disengage to not get hit by a blade that had suddenly come out of nowhere. Activating her Byakugan, the Hyuuga looked at Kankuro, who frowned, knowing that he didn't have any real chances against the doujutsu. He didn't give up though and made Karasu charge again, activating another hidden mechanism that released some kind of liquid on all of the weapons. Hinata saw the liquid and thought it better not to come in contact with it, as she maneuvered her way around the puppet and precisely cut the chakra strings that the sand genin used to control the puppet. The wooden form collapsed as Kankuro called out to the proctor that he forfeited.

Bowing to each other, they went out of the arena, Hinata going back up to the competitor's box and Kankuro taking his place next to his father in the stands. Naruto smiled at his girlfriend as he put an arm around her waist.

"Nice fight." He whispered as he gave her a quick peck on the cheek.

The two remaining competitors made their way to the arena, even though it was already clear who would win. Choji was sweating bullets as soon as he realized that Gaara was his opponent. Naruto thought that he would forfeit, but was surprised to see that the Akimichi didn't want to surrender. The fight started and it was as expected. Gaara completely manhandled the larger genin. Choji managed to escape the sand trap a few times, enlarging the trapped body parts but after a few minutes of being chased around he found himself trapped again and out of chakra to perform his family's jutsu. As he was lifted up by his trapped arm he surrendered. Gaara let him down, before disappearing in a swirl of sand and reappearing next to Temari.

"I guess it's my turn again." Naruto said as he flashed back down to the arena floor.

Hayate looked at the boy as he waited for any sign of the Uchiha's arrival. He was about to call it when he saw a swirl of leaves appear at the entrance to the arena. Kakashi and Sasuke stepped out of it. Kakashi looked around with an eye smile before he walked up to the proctor. "We're not late, are we?"

"You are just in time a few seconds more and Sasuke would have been disqualified." Hayate announced. Meanwhile Sasuke had taken position opposite of Naruto, a confident smirk on his lips.

"Alright, both fighters ready? Begin!" Hayate started the fight, jumping away as usual. Sasuke got into his taijutsu stance, looking at Naruto who dropped into his own. Suddenly Sasuke launched forward, his speed having increased tremendously within the past four weeks. However Naruto wasn't a normal genin so he could keep up with the increased speed. Blocking the strikes from the Uchiha he retaliated and managed to slip past the defenses, launching the genin away from him. Sasuke caught himself midair and flipped so he landed on his feet.

A murmur went through the stands as the famous Sharingan flared into life. Charging again, Sasuke was surprised to see Naruto still be able to block all of his attacks, although he was not able to land a hit himself either. They tried for another two minutes to hit each other but neither was having any success in breaching the other's defenses. Jumping away Naruto went through a series of hand signs and put his hands together. A massive air dragon rose up behind him, it's glowing yellow eyes targeting Sasuke. Said boy was surprised to see Naruto change the style of their battle. However he had himself under control fast enough to fly through his own set of hand signs before putting his hands in front of his mouth, blowing out a massive amount of fire that formed a wall in front of him.

As the dragon crashed into the fire the advantage of fire jutsu against air one's became apparent, since it dispersed almost immediately. Sasuke used the advantage of still being hidden behind his fire wall to go through another set of hand signs, creating a barrage of fire bullets that crashed through the fire wall, flying at the blonde genin. Naruto had to interrupt the chain of hand signs he was going through as he focused for a short amount of time, before he flashed to the other side of the arena, evading the attack. Another murmur went through the crowd as they saw that Naruto could use the hiraishin in battle. Even though he was not as proficient as his father, most of the crowd understood what it would mean to have a shinobi able to perform the hiraishin in their ranks. Sasuke looked around trying to find his opponent, before another flash cut through the arena and he felt cold steel at his throat. "Yield." Naruto demanded, increasing the pressure on Sasuke's skin. The Uchiha thought for a second before he raised his arm. However he didn't surrender, but when Naruto slightly decreased the pressure on his neck Sasuke moved around, getting his head out of the blone's grip. Suddenly he fell over, holding his stomach. Sasuke had focused so much on the kunai at his throat that he had missed the short sword in Naruto's other hand. Said sword had cut his stomach open and was now pointed at his chest. Hissing in pain he looked up only for Naruto to demand surrender for a second time. This time he didn't get a choice as Hayate stepped in, ending the fight. Medics rushed to the kneeling Uchiha, whose blood was forming an ever growing puddle on the ground. Naruto took out a tissue and cleaned his sword, before incinerating the cloth with a small fire jutsu. Meanwhile another Anbu appeared next to the proctor and whispered something in his ear.

"Alright, can the remaining genin come to me?" Hayate instructed after the Uchiha had been carried away.

"Now for the next round, there will be a two against two fight. Temari Sabaku and Gaara Sabaku will face off against Hinata Hyuga and Naruto Uzumaki. The rules stay the same, but if one competitor is eliminated the other will still be able to win, provided that he can beat the opposing genin." Hayate announced, earning a large round of applause from the spectators since the fight promised to be a good one.