Thinkers

"And that's the Match! Joker has declared our son to be the winner!"

Many people cheered. Some made booing noises. Naruto simply pirouetted and grinned back at the crowds. Interestingly enough, Hyuuga Hiashi clapped slowly for a time, before getting up to visit his nephew who was now being carted to the medical ward adjacent to the arena.

"Forgive my asking, Hokage-dono, but why did you have the Uzumaki boy's parents as officiators?"

"I second Otokage-hime's question."

The Hokage chuckled slightly. "They're the only ones who can keep the boy under some semblance of control. Especially if he ever went... berserk."

The Kazekage paled at the prospect. He was not a stupid man - the Kyuubi was defeated twelve years ago and here's this twelve-year-old boy whom the Hokage hinted was like Gaara? Knowing what Gaara was like when he lost control, he didn't want to think of how bad the young Uzumaki would be.

The Otokage briefly shivered, the only part of her mask of confusion that was imperfect.

"Alright, Son, that's enough," stated Joker, stopping Naruto from basking in the attention, both good and bad, from the audience. He then turned to the box for the participants and began shouting names. "SABAKU NO TEMARI! ABURAME SHINO! GET YOUR REARS IN GEAR!"

Temari leapt off the balcony and used her fan to glide to the arena floor. Shino chose a more direct approach.

He stood up on the handrail and simply stepped off. As he collapsed bonelessly, several members of the audience screamed in fear, including Kurenai. But the boy simply stood up and dusted himself off, like nothing had happened.

One could hear Naruto laughing through the stunned silence on his way up the vertical wall to the balcony. A common thought amongst the civilian population was: Have these kids never heard of STAIRS!

"Well, it seems Shino knows how to fall with style! But I wonder how it would measure up to his opponent's form of descent!"

The audience chuckled nervously at that.

As Shino walked at a pedestrian pace towards the center of the field coming to a stop opposite the blonde from Suna, Temari taunted him. Well, tried to.

"Do you think that your stunt made you look good in the eyes of the dignitaries? You probably just lost your Village a lot of money being so reckless!"

"You talk too much," droned Shino emotionlessly, to which Joker chuckled.

"Alright, time's a-wastin'! Begin!" declared the clown.

As Temari back-flipped to gain some distance, she swung her fan to try and force Shino to move away, or injure him at the very least. Instead, he leapt forward and stuck himself to the ground with his chakra, allowing the worst of her wind attack to pass right over him, merely ruffling his hair.

He began to crawl forward and then, pushing himself upward, broke into a dead sprint, surprising the older girl with his recklessness. Still, she quickly folded her fan and swung it like a bludgeon, clipping Shino in the temple and sending him tumbling. While she was committed to the follow-through on her swing, she noticed a fist-size mass of glowing insects that the brunette boy had left behind. She had no time to block, so she instead used her wind-natured chakra to push her body backwards.

Though she managed to get away from the worst of the explosion, the rather impressive fireball that the insects left behind still managed to knock her off-balance and singe some of her clothing, sending her tumbling.

Shino merely stood up and popped his neck before dusting himself off. He wasn't even bleeding, just scuffed.

Croc and Guy chuckled together. When the boy had come to them fifteen days prior to the tournament and asked for pain tolerance training, they just had to oblige the young Aburame.

Certainly, the boy didn't have iron-like bones yet, but most pain just simply didn't bother him anymore. At the most, he was slightly concussed from the blow to the head.

"Clever reckless punk," muttered Temari as she picked herself up.

She at least was able to keep a hold of her fan, but that was a small consolation.

She opened it and watched Shino staring impassively at her, waiting for her to get up and make the next move. Her eyes narrowed as she studied him.

She thought that the Aburame were cold, clinical, and logical, but there was apparently an oddball that her father's spies had missed. Evidently, Shino went nuts in battle, but was perfectly calm at all other times.

She swung her fan again, trying to hit the Aburame heir with a long-ranged attack. Just as the fan passed the midway point of its arc, Shino was suddenly next to her on her blind-side, punching her in the kidney. She managed to focus chakra there to lessen the blow and begin repair, but it still hurt like hell.

Deciding to throw caution to the wind, she swung again, throwing herself backwards and barreling through Shino, knocking the younger boy over. She leapt atop her fan again, using wind chakra to assist in her glide, getting to the opposite side of the arena as the boy.

As she got into a ready stance, she heard a faint buzzing to her left. She turned just in time for Shino to give her a boot to the head, nailing her in the center of the forehead, sending her tumbling again.

As she sat up, shaking off the concussion, she realized the other boy's game. He was spreading small clusters of his bugs around the arena and using kawarimi with them whenever a bug got close! The amount of control necessary to make the switch with such a size difference... Anyway, her first attack had helped him spread some of his bugs around, and his charge was just a means of getting a single bug on her fan, which then hovered near her until she attacked again, allowing an opening.

"I've figured you out," stated Temari as she stood.

"Really?" deadpanned Shino.

"Yeah, you kawarimi with your little pests. Surprising tactic for an Aburame."

Shino leaned forward far enough that she could see his smirk over the top of his collar. "Look down."

She did only to find that there were bugs hidden in the blades of grass she stood on - and they were glowing! They made a huge circle around her!

This was where he had first thrown himself to the ground, she realized. And he expertly shepherded me back towards this spot!

"All it takes is a simple command for them to detonate now," Shino said, rolling his shoulders. "But I figured I should give you the chance to give up, seeing as how you are the Kazekage's daughter."

She swallowed as she realized her predicament. On the one hand, he was hesitant to kill her as that might spark bad political relations between their Villages. But on the other hand, he was vicious, as exemplified by his preliminary match, and probably wouldn't hesitate any further to kill her if she didn't give up immediately.

"I forfeit."

"Smart girl," was Joker's response as the glowing of the insects faded. "WINNER: ABURAME SHINO!"

"You must be glad that one of your own kin wasn't killed," jibed the Hokage.

The Kazekage's fists clenched the arms of his chair almost imperceptibly. "Of course I am glad. She is my daughter, after all."

Elsewhere, various Jounin gave mutters of approval on Temari's ability to keep a cool head throughout the one-sided match. They also approved of Shino's tactics, though the first bit was rather reckless. Still, it was very unconventional.

They compared it to the match between Naruto and Neji, another one-sided match, though it wasn't apparent that it was so until the second half. Clearly, the influence of the young Uzumaki had changed Shino. Though, they had not seen enough of Naruto's performance to give him a promotion.

Shino's insects swarmed back to him as he walked back to the balcony, surprising many among the audience by how many were out on the field. Frowning, Temari followed after him.

"AND WHAT A FIGHT! Shino's expert use of his kikaichu insects and only two jutsu allowed him to dominate the match! For those keeping track, the two jutsu employed, in order, were his Hotaru no Baku, a self-designed explosive attack, and kawarimi, one of the most basic jutsu in any ninja's arsenal!" Letting the crowd digest that, particularly the wealthy prospective clients, Harley paused in her announcing. "And now begins Match Three! Another of the Kazekage's children, Sabaku no Kankuro, and the resident shogi champion, Nara Shikamaru, are the players this time! Will the Rookie Genin beat the arguably more experienced Puppeteer or will the Suna Prince avenge his sister?"

Kankuro's eye twitched. And he had planned on giving up in order to hide his weapon's mechanisms and poisons. Oh well. Not like he had to go all-out, but he wasn't going to under-estimate the other boy either.

Deciding he was honor-bound to fight, Kankuro walked down the side of the building.

Shikamaru was going to give up on principle, but the decision was taken out of his hands by Naruto. And, surprisingly, Shino.

Kankuro was startled when Shikamaru's body fell past him, and even more so when the other boy rolled with his landing. Though the younger Genin did look a little dazed.

Muttering something that sounded suspiciously like "troublesome psychos throwing me like a sack of potatoes," Shikamaru stood up and lazily ambled over to where Joker stood, making sure to place himself as far west as possible, putting the dark-haired boy closer to the larger shadows in the arena.

Kankuro knew that the lazier boy had chosen the terrain carefully, though he wasn't sure why the more sparsely vegetated side of the field would be considered more advantageous. It possibly had something to do with the longer shadows over there.

When Kankuro and Shikamaru were both in starting positions, Joker began to talk. "You two had better make this as interesting as the other matches have been. Begin, slackers!"

The kabuki enthusiast reached behind him to grasp the wrappings around his puppet only to have a kunai impact the center of his face, giving off a wooden sound. Everyone turned to see Shikamaru back-pedaling towards the shadows behind him. The crowd looked back to see sand crumbling off of Kankuro, revealing a puppet underneath, which those who knew the boy knew that it was named Karasu. The wrappings opened up to reveal the real puppeteer.

Annoyed, Kankuro pulled the kunai out of Karasu's face and glared disdainfully at Shikamaru who merely shrugged. The face-painted boy threw the kunai back at Shikamaru, who in turn deftly caught it with his hand by the pommel ring.

"Ever play mumblypeg?" asked the Nara of Kankuro.

"... What?"

"It's a game of psychology."

"I know what it is!"

Shikamaru smirked, and then darted behind cover. Karasu followed, but a small shadow darted out from behind a different tree towards Kankuro. Seeing this, Kankuro had to back-pedal until he was two meters out of the range of Shikamaru's shadow. Unfortunately, he had to pull Karasu back as well, considering that he couldn't project his chakra strings that far yet.

Grunting with frustration, he had Karasu open its mouth, revealing a kunai launcher within. Taking careful aim, he had it shoot the kunai at the tree Shikamaru had first hidden behind, assuming that the other boy was trying to trick him by having it appear to come from a different tree.

Wrapped around the handle of the kunai was several explosive tags, which detonated when the small knife hit the bark. Just before, however, the shadow that had been questing for him disappeared and Shikamaru dodged behind another tree.

The top half of the assaulted tree fell backwards into the wall, splintering as the branches hit the concrete.

"Plenty more where that came from!" yelled Kankuro as he aimed again.

Another explosion and another felled tree, and Shikamaru dodged in the same direction again. Kankuro smirked at his foolishness and continued to herd the younger boy out of the shadow.

"Hey, Muscles?" asked Naruto.

"What's up?" answered Chouji around a handful of potato chips.

"Isn't Shikamaru faster than that? I thought he had gotten pretty fast when I played mumblypeg next to him in class..."

"Oh, he is fast. That's a bunshin."

"Thought so."

Once there were only three trees to hide behind, Kankuro laughed. He still had eight explosive kunai left in Karasu. He took careful aim again... and found himself moving against his will. Unable to turn his head, he glanced down with his eyes and saw a shadow attached to his... attached to Karasu's... and going behind Karasu at an angle back to a random tree that had not been blown up yet.

"Kagemane success!" declared Shikamaru loudly.

The boy then walked out from behind the tree, Kankuro following his every movement. Lazily, the Nara walked forward, causing Kankuro to leave Karasu behind. When Shikamaru got close to the puppet, it fell down, the chakra strings stretched too far to keep the construct standing. Shikamaru kept walking until Kankuro was mere centimeters from the wall, and then he leaned back, standing on the small pile of sand that had originally concealed Karasu.

"Say goodnight!" taunted the lazy Genin.

"Goodnight," responded Kankuro, smirking at the wall.

The sand under Shikamaru's feet exploded, a hidden explosive tag going off, remotely and seallessly triggered by the kabuki enthusiast, breaking the Nara's jutsu.

Shikamaru had a rough-and-tumble landing. When he managed to sit up, he saw one of Karasu's blades within a millimeter of his eye.

"You lose," Kankuro declared.

Shikamaru smiled nervously.

"What! No blood?" wondered Joker. "Oh well. WINNER: SABAKU NO KANKURO!"

The crowd cheered, especially due to how exciting the fight was, but they were cheering for both fighters.

"HOW EXCITING WAS THAT! First, the puppeteer dominated the fight, then we had a tense turnaround, and then the Konoha-nin was surprised at the last moment! Both fought well and thought ahead!"

Kankuro surprised his father and sister by helping Shikamaru to his feet.

"Good fight," murmured the hooded Genin. "I think you may be as smart as my sister, if not smarter."

"That exploding tag at the end really surprised me," muttered Shikamaru.

"Yeah, I tend to leave a bunch of those around."

As the two boys returned to the balcony, Hatake Kakashi and Uchiha Sasuke appeared near Joker.

"You're late, Kakashi!" growled the clown in a tone that allowed for none of his excuses, before turning to Sasuke. "Your dance partner looks murderous - you almost stood him up!"

The raven-haired boy openly glared at Joker, particularly for the gay joke, but the clown ignored him in favor of calling Gaara down to the arena floor. The young Jinchuuriki smirked before sand-shushin'ing to stand across from Sasuke.

"And here is the fight awaited for by the rich clientele! The son of the Kazekage versus the Last Uchiha!"

"When I decide to stop the match," began Joker. "Well, you had better stop. Anyway, GO!"

Sasuke had to immediately dodge a torrent of sand, throwing a brace of shuriken at Gaara as he did so. The sand created a Sunabunshin (sand clone) to catch and return the weapons before the clone dissolved. Sasuke, Sharingan spinning, easily dodged the pointy metal projectiles and switched to a familiar stance.

Naruto snorted.

"What?" asked Chouji.

"The Gouken may be effective against Gaara's sand," explained Shino. "But your body has to be hardened to the stresses put upon it by practicing the style." Shino shook his head. "There is no way Sasuke's body is up to it, even if he trained in it for the whole month."

"Still," remarked Naruto. "Makes one wonder if Kakashi copied it from Lee so that Sasuke could copy it from him."

"That makes him even worse off," stated Shino. "It means he didn't actually learn it and is following a set pattern."

"Definitely looks like it," Chouji observed. "Those seem to be the exact same attacks Lee did in the beginning of his match with Gaara."

When Gaara shielded himself in a spherical mass of sand, Sasuke decided to try and pierce it. He gathered a great deal of chakra and charged his hand with electricity.

"Chidori!" (Thousand Birds)

The young Uchiha rushed forward, intent on killing Gaara with one hit. He charged forward and pierced the shell... and nothing happened at first. Then the sand caught up and wrapped around Sasuke.

"Pathetic," deadpanned Gaara, rising from a whirlpool of sand not too far away. "Verify my existence."

"Hold it!" growled Joker in Gaara's ear, startling the redhead. "Normally, I'm all for slaughtering haughty copy-cats, but today I'm feeling particularly benevolent. So, release him."

Gaara, recomposed, glared at Joker. "I'll kill you too."

"I'd love to see you try," laughed the clown.

When the sand began to rise up around the acid-burn victim, Gaara suddenly found himself looking up at the sky, his jaw throbbing as he lay on his back, the gourd having landed nearby. The sand encasing Sasuke fell apart due to a lack of concentration on it. The Uchiha quickly scrambled out of the silica particles as Joker called the match.

Both the Otokage and the Kazekage stared at the arena floor, dumbfounded that a simple Jounin from Konoha, whose specializations happened to be chemistry and interrogation, managed to knock Gaara down.

"Now you know why I had him be the proctor."

"WINNER: SABAKU NO GAARA! And you," he said, addressing Sasuke. "Get to the medics or something."

"In a rare show of charity, my husband forced the Sand Prince to release our darling Last Uchiha!" The amount of sarcasm on the word darling was practically tangible. "Still, with Gaara winning Match Four, that leaves us with deciding who Akimichi Chouji will fight. I'll stick my hand in this box, which has four numbered balls within. Whichever number comes out indicates the Match number of the person who he must fight!""Don't wanna fight Gaara," muttered the large Genin.

"You have a one-in-four chance," replied Shino.

"And fifty-fifty to fight a Konoha-nin," remarked Naruto. "Relax. My dad can handle ol' sandy toes if he gets out of line."

"One! Akimichi Chouji must fight Uzumaki Naruto!"

"BANZAI!" screamed the crazy blonde happily as he leapt the railing of the balcony.

Chouji opted for the stairs instead of getting to the arena floor in a non-traditional manner.

Joker mimed as if to catch his son, but suddenly put his arms behind his back, grinning as Naruto landed on his face at the older clown's feet. There were some laughs from the audience at that.