Scarlet Eyes - A naruto fanfiction (Under Re-write!)

The finals : Part 1

Yurika P.O.V

The list of finalists had been chosen. From Konohagakure only me, Naruto,Neji, Sasuke, Shikamaru and Shino had made it to the finals. We were given a month to train. Naruto was going to face Neji, Sasuke would face Gaara, Shikamaru and Temari. Shino and Kankuro. I was going to face...the sole candidate from Amegakure, Mizushima Ryouta. Apparently Ryouta was excellent with water style jutsus...something that put me at a disadvantage against him as I merely used my mangekyo in battles. I never trained my sharingan much...so copying jutsus was out of the question...for now.

I had to train all by myself...but it's not like I've been left behind or something. Kakashi-sensei had the training manual that his deceased comrade used to follow and... I'm surprised that he was weak even though he trained so much. Either he slacked off on the training or he is simply a klutz.

My speciality was something that Orochimaru and Kabuto had drilled into me. Ice style. They were the ones behind the attacks on the Yuki clan. They made sure that the village men were so scared of kekkei genkai that they betrayed the Yuki clan. Orochimaru lost no time in capturing a few kids for his experiments and...killed the others. I never used my Ice style jutsus since it made my skin crawl...to think that the genes of dead people exist in my body... Kabuto inserted them inside me. I almost fainted when I saw Haku during the mission in the land of waves...I felt as if I...was the murderer. Still I polishes my skills. If there is something I can do to help Sasuke, I will do it. He is my elder brother after all.

I hardly got to meet any of the finalist candidates during the one month training period. Neji was trained by Hyuga Hiashi himself. Shikamaru trained under his father Nara Shikaku, the village's chief advisor. Shino too learnt form his father. Naruto leant from Jiraiya-sama and Sasuke was being taught by Kakashi-sensei. It was easy to understand why they were unavailable... They were busy.

Now that I think about it... I have never seen this Ryouta guy in the written exam or the forest of death. Apparently he defeated a ninja from Sunagakure when I was busy looking after Sasuke. Well... I'll find out about him when I enter the battle arena...for now I'll focus on maintains my mangekyo for longer dueation and...mastering Ice style jutsus for...just in case situations.

It is surprising how fast time can go.

* * * * *

The first match was Naruto against Neji. Naruto's fight with Neji in the first match of the finals was a very dramatic one. During the fight, Neji lectured Naruto much just like he had done with Hinata during the preliminaries, telling Naruto that failures remained failures and that this could not change. Naruto eventually won the battle through a combination of the demon fox's power sealed within him and sheer belief in victory. In the process, he changed Neji's outlook on life, and inspired him to create his own fate, thus forming another important bond. Naruto was able to make Neji understand that destiny could be changed. He vowed to become the Hokage and free the Hyuga clan members from the cursed mark on their foreheads.

The second match, which featured Sasuke versus Gaara, was moved to be the last, as Sasuke hadn't arrived yet. Normally he would have been disqualified on the spot, but his match had been highly anticipated - in fact, some of the crowd commented they had mostly come just to see him fight, forcing the Third Hokage to give in to the Kazekage's request to postpone the match.

The third match featured Shino versus Kankurō. Victory was given to Shino on default, since Kankurō forfeited the battle.

The fourth match was Temari versus Shikamaru. Both Temari and Shikamaru were excellent strategists, but Shikamaru was better. Although it appeared throughout the match that Shikamaru was using pointless attacks, he was actually five steps ahead, and managed to skilfully manipulate Temari into a position where he could attack from behind, using the tunnel which Naruto had dug during his match with Neji to stealthily extend his Shadow Imitation Technique. This took control over Temari's body, and forced her to imitate every one of Shikamaru's movements. Although Shikamaru could have won, he quit instead, saying that he was too low on chakra. His real reason for quitting, however, seems to be because he is incredibly lazy and saw no point in winning, which would only lead to having to fight in further matches. He also didn't want to hurt a girl.

My battle with Mizushima Ryouta was supposed to be the last battle but it was pushed ahead to give Sasuke a little more time to arrive. Nobody wanted to see him disqualified.

I wanted to win the battle and make Sasuke proud of me...but sometimes fate is a bitch.

I nearly fainted when I saw who Mizushima Ryouta was... The name was merely an alias... His real name was...

Matsudaira Yukio...

I never thought I would ever see him again...