Fox In The Leaf

Monster vs Beast

Naruto launched himself at Gaara the second he heard Genma finish. He saw that much like with Lee, Gaara didn't move at all from his spot. He just stood there with a blank look and his arms crossed but Naruto knew that it wasn't the redhead he should be focused on, it's his sand. Naruto threw a punch, aimed at Gaara's face and just as he expected the sand moved to block his attack. Jumping back, Naruto created a shadow clone and both charged again, this time in a pincer maneuver with the clone coming at Gaara's right and the original to his left. The clone gave a flying kick and the original go for a sliding kick. The sand blocked both and grabbed the legs of the Naruto and his clone. The sand spun them around once before throwing them away. They slid on the ground, with the clone dispelling and Naruto flipping back on his feet

Gaara looked into Naruto's eyes and spoke in his monotone voice "is that all? Mother expected more."

Naruto smirked as he charged again while placing his hand together in a prayer fashion. Once he was a few feet away, he jumped over him.

Gaara continued to stare forward, not concerning himself with what the blonde did. But his eyes widened when his sand blocked a heavy strike from above him. He then felt that his sand blocked something behind him, but the sand that blocked the hit above him still remained there. Looking up he saw that Naruto wasn't there and turning his head he saw that he wasn't there either

"Where are you looking?!"

Moving his gaze back forward he saw that Naruto threw another punch but again was blocked. He looked back up and willed the sand to move to the side and he saw that what was blocked were Naruto's bracers. Looking back, he moved his sand to see that the greeves were embedded into the sand defense

When Naruto placed his hands together he was really doing it to put his hands close enough to the clasps to undo them and when he jumped over he dropped them on top of him and once he landed behind Gaara he unclasped his greaves and threw them at Gaara's back. He then jumped back over and was lucky enough to land in front of him without being seen.

Gaara willed his sand to toss the bracers and greaves away and used the sand that blocked Naruto's fist, to grab hold and kept him in place. Gaara launched a tendril of sand at the struggling blonde

Naruto was pulling as hard as he could at the fist stuck in the sand until his eyes widened at seeing the sand head his way. The sand impacted in his stomach and pushed him back a good distance. The sand pulled back a bit before whipping at Naruto, which launched him to impact the wall hard enough to create a dent and cracks.

Gaara pulled back his sand and had it swirl around his feet. The amount of sand began to increase in mass as the ground around Gaara began to become sand itself from the grinding he was doing

Naruto fell face-first onto the ground "...ok ...that hurt". He lifted his head and his eyes widened when he saw a big wave of sand about to crash down onto him. "oh shit!" he quickly got to his feet and jumped to his right, narrowly avoiding the sand as it slammed onto the ground he was just laying at. 'Damn! Good thing I took off my weights or else that would have finished me'. He didn't have time to think anything else as he found himself dodging massive tendrils of sand aiming to slam, whip or strike him. "Where the hell is he getting all this sand!?"

~with Participating genin~

Shikamaru and Shino were watching with anticipation as they both were silently wishing their friend luck

Kankuro was standing a bit away from the Konoha-nin with her sister Temari as they watched the match "he won't last long against Gaara. If anything he is just delaying his death"

Temari nodded her head "too bad, kids got some skills". She then looked up to the general crowd and whispered: "think it will start soon?"

Kankuro turned his head to look at Temari "maybe. All we were told was that it would start during the finals