Lee notices by then, but decides to take the puppet out - Kankurou doesn't have many other tools, it seems to him. He dashes in and to the side, lining himself up for a series of rapid, devastating blows.

The knife that was launched earlier comes swerving back in on the end of a chakra string, throwing off Lee's first strike. The next two hit, and on the third it splits in half with a loud crack.

Kankurou emerges with his hands up. "That's it for me."

"Yosh! You are a clever opponent! I enjoyed our match!" Lee declares as the match is called, giving a thumbs up and a gleaming smile.

"Yeah. Same." Kankurou's a bit more subdued, as befits someone whose primary weapon was just destroyed. He gathers up the pieces and returns upstairs.

Next is the long awaited Chihiro vs Naruto Battle Royale, Some Holds Barred.

Naruto congratulates Lee, and bounces down to the arena for his fight against Chihiro. He's entirely cheerful for this, none of the mocking or angry body language he'd had against Neji.

And, immediately after the match begins, he makes a horde of clones, more than he'd summoned in the entire Neji fight - 

And Naruto and five decoys use the chameleon technique, the real Naruto changing which side his kunai holster is on - he doesn't want to get cut in half, but it's best if Chihiro's not having to hold herself back against the clones, so they've instead marked the real one. Chihiro will pretend she doesn't see the shifted holster, of course, until it's time to pull her 'final' blow against Naruto.

Chihiro opens with a spin of her blade, unenhanced. Not very flashy, but it buys her breathing room and sets a foundation for the level of control she has with it, despite its size.

A bunch of the clones are destroyed!

Other clones use the clouds created by the destruction to jump high or low, rushing Chihiro from paths not trivial to cut through - while a few hang back in the most hidden spots, hands together, intensely concentrating.

Here she puts her acrobatism on display. When not hindered by a broken rib, she's really quite impressive. It's like a dance, without the raw power of a Lee or the intensity of a Neji.

Naruto is a very good dance prop!

Have some swirly flashy light shows - also known as a two thirds complete Rasengan - to complement that dance! This is mostly useful for knocking blades incredibly off course, not so much in combat, but it has a chance of making openings for clones to exploit.

It's still very impressive. As is the way she can rapidly adapt to and cover for the openings the clones try to exploit.

Swoom goes the chakra when Naruto hits the area with cross-winds and destabilized rasengans.

(Not having to worry about tiring himself out is fun! Also he is probably going to be very tired by the time it gets to surrender time.)

Chihiro has a technique the creates a circular pulse of wind centered around her. If she gets the frequencies right, it can cancel out other wind techniques. Making it big enough for that to be useful is something she can only do once or twice, but the tradeoff is worth it.

Naruto doesn't, actually, have infinite cool combos to show off, and Chihiro needs to conserve at least some of her chakra for the Sasuke fight, so he'll back off soon enough, help her with making a show of hunting down his clones - especially the camouflaged ones.

(In all fairness she could totally win this fight if they were going all out - that got tested - but that'd either involve very little showing off or a lot of exhausting Chihiro.)

When she's narrowed it down to three, she stops pretending she can't see the clues and goes after the real one.

He surrenders with a sheepish smile once she has him thoroughly menaced.

"Good fight!" he says, laughing a bit.

"Yes. It was." There's a trace of a smile on her face.

He makes the seal of reconciliation, then bounces back to the spectator box, since he doesn't need healing.

Sugira has a somewhat frustrating fight with Temari. It'd probably be a lot easier if he knew literally any fire techniques. She successfully stays out of stabbing range, knocks even the most accurate kunai off course, he doesn't want to reveal his teleports here -

He scowls at being pushed into revealing his lighting rays so soon. Still, he can re-memorize everything between battles, and Elieyha's unlikely to adapt for Sugira showing a skill with relatively weak ranged lightning attacks. And it's better than having to reveal either third-level spell...

The rays ignore whatever weird sorting algorithm local chakra natures have going on, lancing towards Temari. He only needs to cast the spell twice, for a total of four small bolts, before she's surrendering, clearly injured.

There's another brief pause, then the next match: Elieyha versus Rock Lee.

Lee is excited and enthusiastic and determined, and when it becomes clear he can't hit her he backs way off and quickly removes several weights - which leave craters in the floor even from the short distance he drops them.

He is then very, very fast.

Fast enough to hit Elieyha.

Her skin shatters at the contact and flakes into sand. She seems shocked for a moment, even as an arm of sand beats Lee back and prevents him from pressing the opening.

And then a sandstorm explodes into the air, kicking dust up from the arena floor, rushing violently enough to scrape the stone walls surrounding them.

Lee isn't fast enough to avoid that.

But he's tough, and stubborn, and plows through any damage she deals - growing ever faster, his blows hitting harder, as his veins bulge and skin reddens, and as the air around him warps with the sheer pressure of the chakra churning within his body.

The storm grows ever more intense, particularly around Elieyha. It's like trying to punch through a spinning wall.

The ground below, loosened by the sandstorm into compliance with her will, also begins to come alive against him, changing its shape and density unpredictably, and actively attempting to trip and block him.