Playing Catch The Soul (NejiTen Story)

Memory 10: Finals (Chūnin Exams Part 5) Age: 12

Present TenTen's POV

"Come on Lee-Kun we have to cheer Neji-Kun on!" TenTen exclaimed. Rock Lee was crying as he ate ramen while staring at a Sakura poster. TenTen sighed and dragged him to the arena where the Chūnin finals would be. She was sad that she didn't make it into the finals but she continued to cheer on Neji. She knew that Neji didn't like people cheering for him since it distracted him greatly. So she sat quiet next to Gai and Lee on the seats.

TenTen focused to see who is left to fight in the finals. Neji, Shikamaru, Sakura, Tenmari, Gaara, Kankrou, Naruto, and Sasuke. "If I didn't fight Sasuke-Kun I would have been in the finals..," Lee muttered and picked up his ramen noodles in silence. Gai sheepishly grinned and patted Rock Lee on the shoulder. "Cheer up. At least cheer on Neji-Kun," Gai said. Rock Lee put down his ramen and pumped his fists.

"Go Neji-Kun! You can do it!" Rock Lee exclaimed. Neji shot a glare at Rock Lee and TenTen punched him in the arm. "Baka the finals haven't even started yet!" TenTen exclaimed and crossed her arms. Neji looked back at the battlefield and the map of the fights that was given. Soon everyone got in their places. The finals had started.

The first battle was Gaara and Sasuke. That was one that interested me. Because Gaara was a Jinjuriki and Sasuke was a prodigy. Though I knew who won in the end. The battle started by the way there stance was. Sasuke of course, had his Sharingan. Gaara wasn't in a certain battle stance but sand was floating on the top of his head.

As soon as the gong rang, I noticed that the Third Hokage was watching. I didn't know how he was Hokage after the Fourth died. They should have gotten a fifth Hokage. Maybe a girl this time. As the match had started, Gaara started off by shooting sand at Sasuke. "Chidori!" He yelled and pulled out his katana in a levitating form as if almost slicing the sand.

Though I thought slicing sand was impossible. Not to mention that Gaara had the advantage fighting on an earth-type place where he could easily crush the rock into sand. Though the move that Sasuke created caused the sand to flow out in the air. Air mixed with the sand almost making it look like a dust cloud. TenTen was silently cheering for Sasuke. Since she had pride in Konoha's Genin.

Though when the dust cleared, no one was there but Gaara standing. Sasuke should be fighting. But somehow, he disappeared. The Third himself looked surprise as Iruka when down to announce the winners.

"Sasuke is eliminated. The winner is: Gaara," Iruka said and held Gaara's hand up. The people of the Sand Village that came to watch cheered. Gaara sat in the line of when people battled. The next fighters was Sakura vs Tenmari.

"Go Sakura-Chan!" Rock Lee cheered. Sakura glanced at Rock Lee for a split second. Rock Lee looked like he was going to faint. Sakura stared coldly at her opponent's eyes. Tenmari just had a smirk on her face as she set her fan firmly placed on the ground. As if she didn't need a battle stance.

As soon as the gong rang. Sakura had charged at her opponent with brute strength as her right fist had glowed a light blue showing that there was focused chakra there. Tenmari just raised up her fan as the first moon had shown and she blew it. Sakura quickly focused her chakra to her feet to jump higher to avoid the blast. She wanted to kick Tenmari on the face but she quickly noticed it and simply scooted out of the way.

With the impact that Sakura created with her foot, created a crack on the battlefield. I could tell she used unrivaled physical strength on accident. she was hoping that Tenmari would have fallen in the crack. Instead, Tenmari had blown her fan at the right time forcing Sakura to go down the crack.

Sakura quickly focused chakra to her hand as she gripped onto the rock of the side of the crack and climbed her way up. Tenmari had blown her fan again. Sakura quickly shielded herself from it with her arm. Though when Tenmari had finished, there were scratches and bruises all over Sakura as the second moon was shown on Tenmari's fan.

Sakura forced herself to get up and fight. She refused to loose. She barely got up as chakra was focused to her fist. Though part of the chakra was leaking put through her cuts. She winced in pain as she performed a jutsu.

"Unrivaled Physical Strength!"

Suddenly, the crack fell on the floor. Though Tenmari couldn't jump high enough to avoid it so she accidentally dropped her fan. The fan went through the crack as the battlefield crack was sealed. The fan disappearing forever. A weak smirk had formed on Sakura's face. Tenmari glared at her in anger and she charged at Sakura with her own fist.

Instead, Sakura had grabbed her fists cracking her knuckles and flipping her to the ground. Now Tenmari was weak and because of the impact Sakura threw at her, blood was running through her nose. Tenmari had forced herself to get up though it was no use as Sakura had restlessly beaten her.

It wasn't long before the gong rang announcing Sakura as the winner. She grinned with pride as Tenmari limped out of the battlefield. Next fight was Shikamaru and Kankrou. The two got in there battle stances as Shikamaru had a blank and tired expression on his face. Kankrou was clearly annoyed, causing him to charge first with his puppets.

Shikamaru had wrapped them in a shadow jutsu that had somehow broken all the limbs of the puppet as the weapons came spilling like blood. Kankrou glared at him and quickly rebuilt the puppet, only for Shikamaru to toy around with it again. Breaking it.

Kankrou hopelessly tried rebuilding it. The last time which was the tenth, Shikamaru got tired of it and put the puppet in a shadow possession jutsu. Using the shadow tails as chakra strings similar to one's that Kankrou uses to control his puppets. Kankrou had planned ahead and brought out another one of his puppets.

One of them shot poisonous darts as Kankrou was out of Shikamaru's shadow range. He couldn't control the puppet. Kankrou had sent the darts flying out into separate directions. Shikamaru had caught them all with his shadow tails. Though it wasted he vast majority of his chakra. He sighed and leaned against the wall of the battlefield to regain energy.

Kankrou however, was restless. He quickly got back his puppet dragging it back to him with shadow strings. Though the problem was, Shikamaru had noticed the shadow of the puppet helped his range increase. Kankrou's eyes widened as he pulled out the third puppet and started to fight. Charging the first one at him as an iron shield. The second one used to be his weapons as the line of offense. The third and final one was used as a decoy. Of courses Shikamaru had the mind of a strategizer.

He used his knowledge and got his shadow range increased with those giant puppets and was able to put Kankrou in a shadow possession jutsu. What he did was throw him against the wall of the battlefield later controlling one of his puppets. The one that had most of the weapons. Shikamaru smirked as he threw the puppet at him.

Kankrou was knocked out because of the impact.

"I knew it. He was at a disadvantage with his giant puppets. Shikamaru-Kun had used the shadows," Ino said in front of TenTen and Rock Lee. Choji nodded as he chewed on his potato chips loudly. Though I could barely make out what he was saying always talking with his mouth full.

Next fight was Neji vs Naruto. Rock Lee stood up and started to cheer. "Go Neji! Come on beat his a-," Rock Lee was quickly cut off as TenTen calmly put him down to his seat. Rock Lee sighed as the gong rang and the battle had started.

*look at the video to see the fight*

TenTen and Rock Lee were shocked but were cheering him on after Neji had won. Neji had sat on the benches as Iruka announced the winners.

"Gaara, Sakura, Shikamaru, and Neji," he said. Everyone stood up and cheered. Through the crowd of people that were cheering I could see a light blue aura in the distance. I didn't bother to shout "Neji-Kun!" At him because he'll just disappear anyways. He slightly smiled as he walked up next to me.

Maybe he disappears when I talk I thought.

"You did fight good, TenTen-Chan," Neji said and smiled. I glanced at him. Neji had a chuckled as he pecked my cheek. My eyes widened with a blush.

"I'll see you again, TenTen-Chan," Neji said and smiled as he disappeared into thin air. My eyes were wide as a tear rolled down my cheek.

"N-Neji-Kun..."