Kabuto ran through the trees with a practised ease, his teammates not far behind, as they began their search for the last Uchiha.
The dense forest provided decent cover for the disguised genin ad they weaved through the hidden traps layed out by chuunin hopefuls. Orochimaru had ordered him to assess the boys skill and leave him alive, the genins lack of his family's bloodline left him witha problem, his plans to advance could not proceed until it activated or else taking his body would be pointless.
Finding the boy however would be easy, headstrong and arrogant, the raven haired boy believed his companions to be beneath him thus ignoring their suggestions or plans no matter how useful they were.
A smirk made its way onto his face, it would be fun to toy with him, to rip his confidence to shreds and let the snake sannin mould him into a traitor. Enticing him with false promises of power and jutsu's that would allow him to kill his brother like he yearned.
Of course the boy would be allowed to grow skill wise, however only minutely so that he was lulled into a false sense of security, eagerly he picked up the pace.
He had an Uchiha to play with.
Now Naruto knew that letting Sasuke take charge was a bad idea, his blinded views of their skills would only put them in danger, but shit hit the dan as soon as night had fell.
Things were already beginning to change, instead of Orochimaru targeting them under the guide of a kusa kunoichi, Kabuto's team had appeared, all sense of friendship and camaraderie gone.
"Kabuto-san!" Sakura was horrified, she hadn't believed that a leaf village ninja would attack one of its own, but she failed to realise the silver haired nins true intention.
"I'm afraid were running out of time Sakura-chan, and a fresh genin team is and easy target."
Anger boiled in Sasuke's viens, how dare that thing underestimate him? He was the last Uchiha, that dirt was not worthy enough to fight him.
But while these thoughts were running through his head, the kyuubi jinchuuriki wanted to smack some sense into the other boy, his views were haughty and distainful, and would cause more trouble than he was worth.
A curse slipped from his mouth as his attention faltered, the ninja infront on him was no mere genin, rather an all rounder specifically proficient in medical ninjutsu.
While some would find this ineffective in a battle, Naruto knew from witnessing it first hand that his opponnets chakra scapels could cause harm just as well as any other tool, no doubt he would use it to his advantage. But with their team 'lack' of knowledge (not including him) they wouldn't know how to properly defend themselves, and he couldn't do anything flashy without is rising suspisions.
However their was one way that could slightly delay their attackers. Grabbing onto both of his teammates, he began to dragg them away and summouned shadow clones, ordering them to form a circle around the opposinf team.
"Water Release: Wild Water Wave"
Naruto cackled, spitting water directly into their faces would blur their vision allowing them to escape, and just enough time to make shadow clones and henge them into his teammates sending them in different directions ultimately confusing the other team.
Kabuto wasn't going to win this time.
--Time skip to the preeliminaries-
Making it to the tower had been hell, alot of the genin from other villages had been smart, camping out near the tower and waiting to attack the approaching teams was a good plan, though against someone like Naruto with his use of kage bunshin was useless.
That didn't mean however that slipping past them was easy, he had to subtly give Sasuke hints on how to get past without causing a fight. Taking a leaf out of the sannins book, they slipped past the unsuspecting predetors like snakes in the grass.
Peering over his shoulder he noted that Shikamaru's team hadn't done so well. Judging by the injuries that they had sported, most likely they walked straight into an anbush.
Although there was a good chance that the Nara had let that happened so that it wouldn't raise anyones expectation as a genin team arriving unscathed was unheard of. He snorted, how typical of the shadow user.
He listened as the Hokage droned on with his explanation of how the exams was a substitue for war and a prominent event that helped keep peace, coming to the conclusion that it was all bullshit and honestly couldn't believe that they fed that crap to shinobi.
No staged fight or supervised battlegrounds would stop villages from betraying one another, rather it was the ideal place for manipulation and for spies to be planted. A fact that Otogakure exploited and almost caused the downfall of Konoha.
Leaning against the faded red railings, he waited for the first fight to commence.
Sasuke vs Yoroi
To his bemusement things had played our fairly the same, though to him it was clear that hidden plant was actually holding back, it wouldn't do for the famed Uchiha to not make it to the finals and deter the invasion plans. However the untrained eye would not be able to detect this leaving many to believe that the victor was skilled.
The events however placated any worries that he had, the future had not been changed so drastically yet meaning that they still had the upper hand.
"See that dobe, you wont be able to win like that."
"SHUT IT, I CAN AND I WILL BELIEVE IT."
Inwardly Naruto winced, his own voice was hurting him, years of war had taught him favor silence and all the advantages that came along with it.
Shrugging of Kakashi's hand that attempted to restrain him from attacking Sasuke, he walked of towards team 10 hoping that the Nara was awake.
"For God's sake how much do you sleep."
Lazily the accused boy peered up at him, stretching languidly like a cat.
"I spent five days in a forest with no sleep, I deserve to be lazy."
Thankfully nobody noticed them signing to each other, not that they would understand, only anbu or higher ups were privy to that specific skill as it helped relay information without the lower ranks finding out.
What should we now?
Let the events play out, the results are almost the same, if the matches seem to be playing out in the wrong persons favor we'll interfere.
How?
Subtly, genjutsu should do the trick, minor chakra disruptions should work as long as neither of the hyuuga's have their byakugan activated.
The next match is Temari vs Shikamaru!"
Wait, what?
