Naruto vs. Gaara

Yugito Nii suddenly vanished, but with her Byakugan, Hinata could still track her easily. She blocked one of Yugito Nii's straight punches, swiftly released her Gravity Seal, and matched Yugito Nii's new speed.

This made Yugito Nii leap back.

With her Byakugan, Hinata found the location of the seal within Yugito Nii's body. Like Naruto's, it was in her abdomen.

She gathered chakra at her fingertips until they began to glow and runes appeared.

"Five Elements Seal!" Hinata shouted, striking Yugito Nii with her right hand and placing the Five Elements Seal atop Yugito Nii's primary seal, completely cutting off her connection to her tailed beast's chakra.

I... have... been... cut... off... The tailed beast had been completely severed from Yugito Nii, and Yugito Nii lost her cloak as a result.

"Eight Trigrams Three Hundred Sixty-One Palms."

"Two Palms."

"Four Palms."

"Eight Palms."

"Sixteen Palms."

"Thirty-Two Palms."

"Sixty-Four Palms."

"One Hundred Twenty-Eight Palms."

"Two Hundred Fifty-Six Palms."

At last, Hinata said, "Three Hundred Sixty-One Palms!" ending her assault and completely sealing Yugito Nii's chakra pathways, causing her to collapse unconscious to the ground.

"Hinata Hyuga wins," Hayate announced.

"What did she do?" Sakura clearly had no idea what had happened.

"She placed a seal over Yugito Nii's primary seal, blocking her ability to use the tailed beast's chakra," Kakashi explained.

"Wow," Sakura said.

"I guess Naruto must have taught her that, since he knew she might face a jinchuriki."

"That was awesome, Hinata! You kicked her ass!" Kiba Inuzuka shouted.

"Thanks, Kiba," Hinata replied, then looked at Naruto.

"Next, I'm facing Gaara."

"I will enjoy watching you bleed." A twisted smile appeared on Gaara's face.

"Uzumaki Naruto, Gaara, please come to the arena so we can begin the semifinals," Hayate called. Both of them appeared in the arena using the Body Flicker Technique.

"Are both sides ready?" Hayate asked. They both nodded.

"Begin!"

Naruto and Gaara stood several steps apart, studying each other expressionlessly.

Suddenly, a light breeze swept through the arena as Gaara's sand slowly flowed out of the gourd on his back and danced around him. Seeing the sand begin to move, Naruto jumped backward to widen the distance.

All of a sudden, Gaara clutched his head in pain, confusing Naruto. Why had Gaara suddenly started hurting?

It must be because of the One-Tail, Naruto thought, noticing Gaara doing everything he could to ease the headache.

Gaara slowly raised his head, his face filled with bloody fury.

"Prove my existence, Uzumaki!" Gaara shouted, sending a wave of sand at Naruto. Naruto began dodging nimbly as he watched the sand split into several waves, trying to surround him.

Naruto skillfully evaded the sand, ducked down and slid beneath it, then landed a vicious right hook on Gaara, knocking him to the ground.

Naruto noticed that Gaara's sand armor had barely cracked and had already re-formed.

That thing is tough, Naruto thought.

Naruto drew several shuriken and threw them at Gaara from multiple angles, but the sand quickly formed a round shell and blocked them all.

"Lightning Release: Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!" Naruto said, throwing a shuriken at Gaara. It instantly multiplied into dozens.

Gaara used his sand to block the shuriken, but was surprised to find them piercing deeply into it. He had to reinforce the sand wall to keep the shuriken from hitting him.

Gaara quickly shouted:

"Sand Bullets!" Then he fired swarms of small sand spheres at Naruto at high speed.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto shouted, spewing a massive fireball at the incoming Sand Bullets and burning them away completely.

"Fire Release: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" Naruto rapidly formed hand seals and unleashed a stream of flames at Gaara, who blocked it with a wall of sand.

Gaara's eye twitched as he sent his sand toward Naruto once more.

"Lightning Release: Lightning Fist!" Naruto shouted.

Naruto infused his hand with lightning chakra and delivered a powerful punch to Gaara's chest, completely shattering his sand armor and injuring Gaara, nearly breaking one of his ribs.

"Gaara got hit hard," Temari said. She had never seen anyone able to touch, let alone injure, Gaara—except Naruto.

"Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" Naruto said, spewing out a massive fireball. The fireball collided with the oncoming wave of sand, turning it into crystal. Naruto rushed forward and shattered the crystal with a punch.

Suddenly, several arms of sand burst from the ground and grabbed Naruto's ankles.

"Die!" Gaara roared.

"Sand Burial!" Gaara said, increasing the pressure within the sand coffin to crush Naruto completely.

"Yes... I have proven my existence." Gaara smiled wickedly.

Everyone fell silent, waiting to see what would happen.

Then Naruto's voice echoed from within the sand.

"Gaara, you underestimated me."

Gaara's eyes widened in shock as he watched Naruto calmly walk out of it like a ghost.

Naruto immediately created two Shadow Clones, one standing to his left and the other to his right.

"Fire Style: Dragon Flame Jutsu!" the Shadow Clones shouted, spewing a massive torrent of fire toward Gaara.

"Wind Release: Great Breakthrough!" Naruto said from between the Shadow Clones, unleashing a powerful gale that mixed with the flames and formed an enormous sea of fire.

Gaara stared in shock as the flames drew closer and closer.

"Sand Shield!" Gaara shouted. All of his sand left the gourd and formed a rather thin protective shell around him.

It seemed Gaara had lost quite a bit of sand from the earlier attacks.

Fire and shield collided, and the flames completely engulfed Gaara.

Before long, Gaara appeared within a crystalline dome, wearing a sly smile.

Gaara quickly broke through the crystal and stared at Naruto.

"Sand Shower!" Gaara declared.