Angel of The Hidden Leaf

"Next Match! Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi!" I exclaimed from above the battlefield.

Kin Tsuchi stepped forward with that confident smirk on her face while Shikamaru looked like he has something better to do. Probably cloud watching if you ask me, the only thing that stops him from forfeiting is probably his family pride and the plan.

"What a pain..." He muttered lazily with both hands inside his pocket. "It's a woman too, so I can't get too into it." He added to himself.

Kin just smirked after hearing that. "Is that so? I'll make this match over soon then..." She looked closely at Shikamaru, or more closely his family crest. "I see, so you're a Nara... So I guess I have to stay away from your shadow then?"

Shikamaru looked at his opponent for a moment. His face is a look of utter focus and concentration. Gone was his lazy and laid back attitude, replaced by the cunning and clever face of a great strategist. The smartest genin of Konoha is about to create a strategy to win this fight, who knows what's going on inside that quantum computer of a brain he has.

"Oi, behind you!" Shikamaru exclaimed.

There was a moment of silence. Everyone couldn't believe that Shikamaru just used the cheapest trick in the book of childish trick. "What? Do you think I would fell for that?" Kin asked before taking out a couple of senbon with bells.

The girl threw the senbons straight at the Nara. But Shikamaru simply dodged it with a smirk on his face. "I see... You probably gonna throw another senbons at me with one with bells and one with no bells." Then he pointed at his enemy. "But I bet you will get caught off guard to what's behind you!"

I'm starting to think that something is very wrong with Shikamaru at this point. Kin seemed to be agreeing with me since she just scoffed at his pathetic attempts. "Tch, that cheap trick again? And you called yourself a ninja?"

Then, Shikamaru made a hand seal and his shadow slowly grows. It went straight towards Kin, but the girl swiftly jumped back to dodge it. "And this stupid trick too! What are you, a one trick pony?" She asked him.

"Shut up!" Shikamaru exclaimed. "You just don't know what I've prepared for you right behind your back!"

Kin rolled her eyes and twitched her fingers. Loud ringing sounds came from the bells as the girl uses strings to ring them. The ringing sound seems to be very loud and the frequency is very high. I can even fill slight pounding in my head after hearing that one. I quickly put up a vacuum shield around my head to protect myself from the ringing.

Shikamaru seemed to be very affected. He shook his head as he tried to pin point Kin's location. "Damn it, now there's a lot of you..." He put a hand over his head. "But still, I still have that, behind your back."

"Your shadow, your only stretch of hope won't know where to stretch to." The woman said with a cruel smirk on her face. "Senbon after Senbon I will keep torturing you until you're nothing more but a human pincushion."

The woman was about to throw a bunch of senbon at Shikamaru, only to find her body paralyzed. "Impossible! But..." She looked below her and watched in shock as the shadow of the string slowly deformed into a huge shadow. "That wasn't the shadow of the strings..."

Shikamaru smirked a little. "Yes, it wasn't. A thread that high couldn't possibly make a shadow." He explained. "I created it during your evil monologue and..." He stretched his body a little. "Reverse Psychology is a much better distraction than letting you attack me."

Kin scowled a little at the spot she's in. "Tch, then what are you going to do?" She asked. "I will do whatever you do no matter what."

The Nara slowly took out a shuriken and Kin followed the suit. "Impossible! If you do this, then we both will be wounded!" Kin exclaimed when she and Shikamaru prepared to strike.

Shikamaru just smirked a little and let the shuriken fly towards the girl. The opposing Shuriken went straight towards his head, but the Nara simply leaned back to dodge it.

'THWACK' Kin's head impacted the wall behind her harshly, knocking her off out cold. "I told you, watch your back." Shikamaru said before back flipping like a badass he is. "I wasn't lying am I?"

I grinned a little after hearing that. "THE WINNER IS SHIKAMARU NARA!!!" I yelled out, followed by a cheer from the audience.

"YEAH! GO YOU LAZY BASTARD!" I heard Naruto yelling from the spectator's platform. "Show those sound Shinobi that Konoha isn't to mess with!"

[LINE BREAK]

A few matches later the preliminary match of the chunin exam is over. The remaining contestants are Sasuke, Haku, Naruto, Neji, Shikamaru, Shino, Dosu, Garra, Temari, and Kankuro.

"All right everyone! You've all fought well in this competition. Now would everybody please take a number." I handed out some rolled up pieces of paper. "This will determine your opponent for the final stage of the chunin exam."

Everyone grabbed a piece of paper and showed it to me. "All right, it's settled then. Haku vs Dosu, Shikamaru vs Temari, Shino vs Kankuro, Naruto vs Neji." I paused a second after saying that last one. "Sasuke vs Garra." For some reason, I have a feeling that the next match would be truckload of unexpected bullshit.

I studied all of their expression. Shikamaru looks very annoyed while Temari looked over confident as usual. Dosu and Haku both has a flat and calm look on their faces. Sasuke looked very excited for some reason while Garra has a cold aura of death around him. Shino just looked at his opponent calmly while Kankuro just smirked at him. Neji has that calm and composed look on his face while Naruto is smirking like a certain fox sleeping on my head.

"You all have three months to train, study your enemy, or pray to god you'll survive the next battle." I glanced at Neji and Sasuke after saying that last part. "The final battle will be held on an arena. Kages and feudal lords will be the spectator, so you better give it your all."

With that, comes the end of the second stage of the Chunin Exam. Everyone returns home for their well earned three months break.

That includes me by the way.

[LINE BREAK]

A few hours later inside the tower...

"I've done everything I can. The rest is up to you." Sakura said with her flashlight in her hands. "You sure you're up for this?"

Anko stood in front of Sakura with a very nervous look on her face. She wore white clothing with thick purple rope gripping her waist. The woman gagged a little whenever she looked at her own body.

Kabuto stood beside her while tapping a seal on the side of his head. He seems to be slightly nervous as well, but he didn't show it.

"Okay, so here's the deal." Sakura started her explanation. "You will disguise yourself as Orochimaru who disguised himself as the Third Kazekage." She explained simply. "Kabuto will be by your side at all times and he will contact you telepathically using that seal. All you gotta do is to do whatever he says, got it?"

Anko gulped a little but she nodded anyway. "All right…" then she looked at Kabuto with an unreadable look on her face. "Brat, if we get through this… I owe you a drink."

Sakura smiled after hearing that. "Great! Don't worry about the Hokage, I already told him about this." Then she chuckled a little. "Well, it's more like he already knows about everything."