An Itachi Fanfiction

The Finals Begin

We continued to train every day with no problems. The day before the finals, I dropped by Naruto's room. I was playing Shogi with Shikamaru when Naruto practically jumped out of bed, scaring us both. Shikamaru and I caught him up on everything he had missed.

Apparently, Chōji had also ended up in the hospital from eating too much, big surprise! Apparently, he wasn't allowed to eat much so we decided to tease him with the fruit basket I brought. We were on our way to his room when we passed Lee's and saw Gaara trying to kill him. I tied him up with my snakes while Shikamaru used his Shadow Possession Jutsu to paralyse him.

"What are you doing?!" I asked him with wide eyes.

"I was going to kill him," he replied with no emotion.

I placed my hand over my mouth. "But why..."

"If you don't get out of the way, I'll have to kill you as well," Gaara said to us.

I stepped in front of Naruto and Shikamaru. "If you want to kill anyone in this room, you'll have to get through me first".

I heard Naruto and Shikamaru yelling things like, "Get out of the way," but I kept my focus trained solely on the boy in front of me.

"I don't want to hurt you Gaara, but to protect the people I care about, I will. It saddens me because you've become one of those people," I continued.

Gaara told us his story; how he had always been ridiculed by everyone, even his own family, how his uncle and father had tried to assassinate him and how he gave up as I had suspected. By the end of it, I felt incredibly sorry for him.

I wanted to say I was just like him, but what I went through wasn't nearly as bad as what he went through. Instead, I smiled. "As I said, that doesn't make you a monster, it makes you lonely. You don't have to become the monster that everyone already expects you to be. I believe in my heart that you are a good person. Please, prove me right, and prove everyone else wrong".

Just then, the door opened and Guy Sensei walked in and put an end to this. With Gaara gone, everyone went home to rest up for the big day.

The next day, Sasuke left early to train one last time and I slowly made my way over to where the finals were being held. All the final competitors were there except Sasuke. After waiting a while, we decided to start and trust that Sasuke would make it in time. They told us the schedule for the Exam. Apparently with Dosu's 'disappearance,' Shikamaru would now fight the victor of mine and Temari's fight.

Naruto and Neji were fighting first. Everyone else cleared the field and went to where the competitors were supposed to be. The match began with Naruto throwing a few kunai but missing Neji. He then attacked Neji directly, who easily dodged the attack. Neji attacked Naruto with Gentle Fist but missed Naruto's pressure point. Neji said that Naruto used the Shadow Clone Technique and attacked, but Neji skilfully defeated them all. The real Naruto remained standing, with Neji saying that fate was determined at birth and being Hokage was chosen by destiny. Naruto got angry at Neji's cruel words and pointed out that he didn't give up so easily, then he used his Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu. Naruto's clones failed to hit Neji, and Neji aimed for what he believed was the real Naruto, but was unsuccessful. Then Naruto used more clones of himself to attack Neji, only to fail when Neji used the Eight Trigrams Palms Rotation. Naruto made more clones, which surrounded Neji, and charged at him again, only to be repelled once more by Neji's Rotation. Neji then took the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms stance, which surprises and proceeded to strike all of Naruto's sixty-four chakra points. The proctor then walked up to the two to determine whether the match is over or not. Even after all that, Naruto was still conscious following the attack. Naruto managed to get back on his feet. Neji took off his headband and revealed the Hyūga Family's curse mark. I placed my hand over mine. Neji then explained about the cursed seal.

Neji struck Naruto with several hits. After having all his own chakra closed off, Naruto somehow managed to harness the chakra of the Nine-Tailed Fox. My eyes widened in disbelief. Neji and Naruto then faced off once more, Naruto now being able to move fast enough and strike hard enough to avoid Neji's attacks. They then clash, creating a massive explosion in the arena. After the dust cleared, two holes were seen in the ground; Neji crawled up out of the first one. Neji walked to the second hole and seemed to mock Naruto, who was lying there unconscious. However, that Naruto turned out to be a shadow clone and the real Naruto, having dug a hole underground, surprised Neji with an uppercut from below, hitting Neji right in the jaw. That moved caused Neji to lose the match.

The next match was supposed to be between Sasuke and Gaara, but the former was still late. I looked over at the Great Stone Faces. 'Where are they?' They considered disqualifying him, so I yelled out, "Stop! He'll be here, just give him a little more time!" After great consideration, they decided to move his match until last and if he didn't show then, then he'd be disqualified. I didn't argue, I thought it was fair. Besides, if he didn't show up, then my father would be the least of his problems.

Shino and Kankurō were supposed to go next, but at the last minute, he withdrew. I facepalmed. 'After all our hard work?' I gave him a death stare before focusing my attention back to the arena.

Next was me and Temari. I was about to go to the arena, but I suddenly sensed my father. I looked around until my link with him drew my attention to the Kazekage. 'That's him! I would love to show him how strong I've become, but I can't risk using up all my chakra. I need to save it all for him'. After some hesitation, I slowly put my hand up. "Excuse me, I'd also like to withdraw". The Sand Siblings looked at me with wide eyes. I winked at Temari. "Your welcome," I whispered to her. "Good luck, both of you," I said, also looking at Shikamaru as I said that. I looked to my father and noted the look of surprise on his face. As I was staring at him, I noticed a crow staring at me. I winked at the crow before returning my attention to Temari.

Temari glided onto the arena on her fan and I laughed when Naruto pushed Shikamaru onto the arena. Just before the fight began, I moved to sit next to Ino and Sakura. After saying our greetings, we turned our attention back to the arena as the fight began. It appeared that Temari was able to evade Shikamaru's Jutsu and adapt to his tactics; however, Shikamaru had subtly been luring her to the tunnel Naruto created in the previous match. Shikamaru caught her in his trap through the tunnel and had clearly won, but he forfeited at the last second, claiming to have used too much chakra in capturing Temari to continue the match, also adding that if he continued and won, it would just mean more work.

Finally, it was Gaara and Sasuke's turn. Gaara had already gone down to the arena as the rest of us anxiously waited for Sasuke. As they were about to disqualify him, a puff of smoke appeared, Kakashi Sensei and Sasuke in the middle. I jumped down onto the arena. "Where the heck have you been?! One more second and you would've been disqualified!"

He shrugged his shoulders. "Sorry, we were training".

I gave him a death stare. "I'm going to kill you!" I then shook my head and let out an exasperated sigh. I looked at him with a smile. "Good luck". Before he had the chance to ask about my match, I returned to my seat so the fight could begin.

Using the speed and Taijutsu abilities he gained during his training, Sasuke was able to bypass Gaara's defences with ease. However, Gaara retreated inside his Shield of Sand. With Gaara unable to move while within his shield, and Sasuke unable to break through its defence, Sasuke started using the Jutsu I saw him training with Kakashi Sensei: the Chidori. With it, Sasuke was able to pierce Gaara's shield, stopping his transformation, and becoming the second person to ever injure Gaara.

Suddenly, I looked around and noticed that everyone was falling asleep. I realised it was a Genjutsu and put my hands in a hand sign and said "Release!" so that the Jutsu wouldn't affect me, Sakura doing the same. Suddenly, there was an explosion coming from where the Hokage was.