After the Kazegake (definitely not Orochimaru) convinced Hiruzen to wait until Sasuke arrives, the next match was moved up.

The next match was Kankuro vs Shino!

But Kankuro instantly withdrew, since he thought, revealing his puppets hidden mechanism might jeopardize their plan later on.

So it was now Shikamaru's and Temari's turn.

Naruto pushed the hesitating Shikamaru down and the match began!

Of course, Shikamaru forfeited at the end, which made Temari the winner, like in the original timeline.

Naruto then jumped down to the stage to shout angrily at Shikamaru.

While Naruto berated an annoyed Shikamaru, it was decided that they would continue to postpone Sasuke's match.

There was only one more match they could move up though, and it was Gaara vs Eiji!

"Gaara, I doubt I need to tell you this, but you can't lose until you face Sasuke in the later rounds, or it will be problematic for our plan..." - Kankuro

"..." - Gaara remained silent and appeared at the stage.

Eiji walked nonchalantly down, while Shikamaru and Naruto were still at the stage conversing there.

Then Naruto suddenly turned towards Eiji "Hey, you! Don't you dare lose to this creepy guy!" - Naruto

Eiji just shrugged his shoulders and ignored him.

"ARE YOU IGNORING ME?! JUST YOU WAIT UNTIL YOU FACE ME!!"

"Calm down and let's go already. People are waiting for the match to start..." - Shikamaru took Naruto with him to leave the stage and recalled worryingly their scary encounter with Gaara not so long ago.

Meanwhile, on the spectator stage, Tenten had a worried expression: 'So this is really you, Eiji? What happened to you after disappearing for 2 weeks without any word?'

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Eiji and Gaara faced each other, but before Genma could start the match Eiji asked Gaara: "You know, I wanted to ask you for some time now...what's up with your black eye-rings? Do you want to rebel against society or something?"

"..." - Gaara

"To shy to answer? Whatever..." - Eiji picked his nose and looked towards Genma.

Genma then started the match.

But Eiji didn't move, instead, he was in a thinking pose while continuing to pick his nose: 'Hmm, should I just defeat him? But will they even start their plan then? I think it would be best to just stall for time at least until Sasuke arrives and then just go with the flow...'

Gaara of course didn't wait like Eiji and emptied his sand gourd.

The sand transformed a giant sand arm and moved it towards the still contemplating Eiji.

'Hm?' - Eiji looked briefly at the sand arm, but he just continued to stand there.

But when the arm was about to him, it suddenly split in two and landed in two parts with Eiji standing between.

"!" - Gaara

"What was that speed? I couldn't even see any movement..." - Lee

"What? How is he able to cut Gaara's sand? This is impossible..." - Kankuro

Hmm, it sure feels weird being able to use my other hand without problems again...' - Eiji

His hand was actually healed, because of the self-healing ability he got from the Power of the White Snake.

Gaara was shocked for a moment before he got excited and had a scary expression and whispered something with mother.

"Shit, this is not good, it already started and he already forgot our plan..." Kankuro to Temari

"I thought only Sasuke would be able to get him this excited..." - Temari

"Fortunately it looks like it seems to have settled down." - Baki

Somehow Gaara was able to calm down, so he manipulated the sand which was next to Eiji after his failed attack, to attack him.

The two sand masses rushed towards Eiji at the same time and were about to crush him.

Eiji glanced at the sand masses before just vanishing.

He then appeared behind him and moved his arm.

"!" - Gaara's body cried out that he was in danger, so he recalled the sand to form a shield instantly.

But Eiji's movement was actually intended to just snap his booger towards Gaara.

The booger was blocked by the sand shield.

"Hm, you know, being over hygienic isn't really good for your health." - Eiji

"What is this guy, he is just playing with Gaara at this point..." - Kankuro

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Sasuke arrived at the spectator seats.

"SASUKE!!" - a worried Sakura rushed towards him, while Kakashi was berated by Guy: "You finally arrived? This time it was really close. What would you have done if your pupil got disqualified?"

"Well, looks like we still made it in time, so no reason to complain, right?" - Kakashi

"Humph!" - Guy

Meanwhile, Eiji, who for the whole time was splitting some of his attention to his surroundings, was smiling slightly: "'Looks like they finally arrived. So how about increasing the pressure and force the enemy to make a move? Meanwhile, I can use the time until they start acting, to try out using Sage Mode in an actual fight."

Somewhere far away in the Konoha woods, a Shadow Clone which gathered natural energy was dispelled.