The Lightning Uchiha

The Chunin Finals: Invasion!

Raiden was focusing on Naruto as the match had started. Naruto wasn't getting anywhere in this match; he just didn't have the kind of Jutsu that would be best against his opponent. Raiden thought that he should help with Naruto's training; he certainly had the potential to be a great ninja. He just needed someone to train him properly. As the fight was drawing to a close, Naruto surprised everyone by making a hole/tunnel that went right under Neji and burst out of the ground, uppercut Neji knocking him out with a sneak attack.

'Huh, not the best way to do it, but that was pretty good, all things considered. You've been working hard, haven't you, Naruto.' Raiden thought with a small smile watching his teammate win his match.

Once Naruto got up to the finalist box, Raiden congratulated him with a smile and a head nod, "Congratulations on winning your match Naruto."

"Gee, thanks, Raiden," Naruto responded with a giant smile and rubbed the back of his head. "So, where's Sasuke? Has he not shown up yet?"

Genma then shouted from the arena floor, "Would Sasuke Uchiha and Gaara of the Sand come down!" At this, Gaara appeared on the arena floor in a swirl of sand with his arms crossed. After several minutes of waiting, Genma made another announcement, "Due to Sasuke Uchiha not being here; his match will be postponed till after the fourth round. Sasuke Uchiha will also not be eligible for the rank of Chunin due to him not arriving on time... If Kankuro and Shino Aburame come down-" Genma didn't even get to finish as he was interrupted by Kankuro yelling from the finalist box.

"Proctor-san, I forfeit!"

This elicited a chorus of booing from all the spectators.

"In that case, the winner of round 3 is Shino Aburame. Onto round 4, would Temari and Shikamaru Nara come down." Genma said. At this, Temari jumped out of the finalist box and rode her fan, gliding to the ground next to Genma, but Shikamaru stayed put.

Raiden could tell that Shikamaru was about to forfeit. Still, before he could, Naruto pushed Shika over the edge of the balcony, making Shikamaru land on the arena floor on his back.

'Heh sorry Shikamaru.' Raiden thought, smirking.

Shikamaru didn't get up and move. He just laid there on the ground as the spectators threw garbage at him, yelling at him to fight. It wasn't until Temari got annoyed with Shikamaru just lying there did she finally lose her temper. Between the weird way Raiden was acting towards her and now this slacker clown not getting up to fight, she had had enough. She jumped in the air and tried to bring her fan down on his head.

The fan collided with the ground and made an explosion of dust, but when it cleared, Shikamaru wasn't there, and there was a small crater where Temari's fan impacted, making her eyes widen in surprise. She then looked up to see Shikamaru standing on two kunai that he stuck in the wall about 4 feet up.

Thus beginning the fight. Shikamaru had mainly kept his distance throughout the fight and used his shadow possession jutsu to try and capture Temari. Raiden was impressed by the amount of strategy that Shikamaru showed. Yeah, he knew that Shika was a genius, but he'd never seen Shika's genius in action before. And it was exciting. First, he made Temari think that she was safely out of his Shadow Possession jutsu's range, and once she felt she was safe, he broke that by extending his shadow once more, making her retreat back farther. All the while she was retreating, she thought that she was the one making the decisions on where she was going, but it was Shikamaru who was pushing her into position. Once she was in position, Shikamaru used the hole Naruto made when he was fighting Neji to come around from behind her and get her in his shadow possession Jutsu. Although right as he was about to make her forfeit, he was the one who quit instead, claiming that he was out of chakra and if he did advance, he'd have to fight Raiden at some point, and he didn't want to do that.