chapter 27

The two of them land on the arena. They stood a distant from each other

"Start" hayato said starting the match

Karin starts by throwing kunai at Temari. Not affected by the kunais coming her way she opens her large fan blow away the attacks

Karin already expected for the attacks to be blocked as she was just testing to see what she could do

{water style: water whip}

A whip made of water charges at Temari trying to bind her.

"That isn't going to work"

Seeing this Temari jumps away making the attack miss but Karin didn't stop she attacked again but this time Temari uses her fan to blowing the attack together with Karin.

Karin was sent flying but managed to land safely.

'She is strong than I expected' Karin thought

Seeing simple attacks won't work on her she decided to bring out her chakra chains lunching them at her

The chains went in a web like form trying to trap Temari in. but Temari acted fast jumping away making while blowing away the chains

"You have some skills there, guess it's my turn to attack"

Saying that tamari opens her fan

{wind style: slicing whirlwind}

A large whirlwind, charges toward Karin. Seeing Karin quickly made another set of hand seal

{earth style: earth wall}

An earth wall comes out from the ground blocking the attack. As Temari was ready to make another attack, she suddenly stops as jumps away from the ground.

As she jumped four chains came out of the spot where she was.

'She put her chains in the ground to attack!!'

Using the earth wall to block her view Karin tried to sneak attack. Not given up the chains chase after her. Temari uses her fan as cub to deflect the chain but the force sent her flying. Not wanting to waste the chance Karin moved. Throwing explosives kunais at her

***boom***

The explosion covers the area where Temari was.

"Nice one Karin!!" Naruto shouted

But Karin didn't drop her guard as she could feel that Temari was still okay

The dust clear but Temari was not there

'Above' Looking up she sees her gliding with her fan

You're stronger than you look but that is enough

{ Wind Release: Great Sickle Weasel Technique}

A one-eyed weasel came out cutting everything in its path at a very fast speed. Karin tries to block it with her chains but the force at which the weasel came was to much as it successfully knocked her out.

"Winner Temari" hayato announced seeing that Karin couldn't continue fighting.

"Ahh!! That was so close"

"Yeah but her opponent was stronger than her"

Karin was carried away by the medics. As they called out the names for the next match. Ryu went to see Karin while the next match started. it was Shikamaru vs kin from the sound village. It was a battle of strategies, but Shikamaru won at the end using his clan's technique.

Next was Naruto vs kiba Ryu watched the match with very great interest as he wanted to see how this Naruto compares to the canon Naruto. It was a good fight as kiba fought coordinating with his dog but he still wasn't match for Naruto's unlimited clones.

The next as Neij vs Hinata as Neij's father didn't die due to Ryu interference he doesn't talk about fate and destiny as he did in the anime. It was an intense fight as hinata who has trained together Naruto and the other is also stronger but she wasn't a match for Neij.

Ryu looked at Naruto who was helping hinata off the stage. This time he didn't develop feelings for sakura so, he and hinata had a little thing going on.

The next match was the one Ryu was waiting for lee vs gaara. Lee was pumped up for the match as he stood in the arena. Lee used his best speed to lunch his attacks but a sand shied was always there to stop him. Soon lee was pushed back by gaara's attacks.

Standing on top of the stone hands lee asked guy for permission to remove his weight. The other were confused as to why he would think that removing some weight will help him in the battle.

'It's here' Ryu looked at the battle with a rare expression on his face.

Soon the crowd was shocked because the moment the weight drops a rumbling followed.

'It's even more epic watching it live' Ryu thought as he felt the goosebumps on his body.

Lee's speed increased so much that the sand couldn't keep up. Gaara was able to counter after getting use to the speed. Lee was able to gain back advantage when he opens the 5th gate.

The Jonins were shocked seeing lee using the 8 gates while Kakashi was angry at guy for teaching lee the technique.

Lee overpowers gaara with his increased speed and power. Soon he broke through his sand armor but gaara could still move while lee fell unconscious from the backlash for the technique. Gaara moves his sand to catch lee

"I think that is enough from you" Ryu said as he blocks the sand coming at lee

"When did he?" People were shocked as they didn't see when he reached the stage

Guy landed afterward next to lee as he checked on his condition

"Thank you" guy said

"It is alright let me heal him" Ryu said as he uses his healing technique to fix lee's body. After the medics came to take lee the hospital.

With this he shouldn't Have any complications' he had interfered early as he doesn't want lee to get hurt.

After guy said that lee was going to be okay as he follows him to the hospital. Ryu went back to where Naruto and the others were.

The battle that followed was choji vs dosu. Choji did well at first but was ultimately defeated by dosu. With that the preliminary battle were done they were given a month to prepare for the finals.

After Ryu was thinking about when Jiraya was coming back he knew it is around this time that he came back.