Disclaimer: I own nothing about Naruto.
A/N: This chapter is a little rushed, but I think that it turned out all right. Please enjoy, since it might be a week before I have time to work on this any more.
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Chapter 7
"Normally, we would have simply given you all a month to prepare for the finals. But this year seems to have an abnormal number of passing teams, so we're going to have to have some preliminary matches," the Hokage announced.
Eight teams remained after the infiltration test. All of them gathered in a closed arena with their jonin-senseis to hear about the next phase of the exam. Naruto noted the other teams and the jonin on catwalks.
Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Hinata, Shino, Kiba with his dog, Lee, Neji, and a dark-haired girl who Naruto didn't know were all of the Leaf ninja who had made it. He saw Kakashi on the catwalk with a jonin wearing green spandex who looked just like Lee, but older. Among the Leaf jonin, there was a woman with long, dark hair and red eyes next to a tall man with short, spikey black hair and a beard.
There was a team from Sand, Clouds, Rocks, and Mist each. The Mist jonin was a tall woman with long, auburn hair and green eyes. Naruto recognized her from his first C-rank mission. He hadn't had much contact with any of the genin, but he knew that ninja would be tricky no matter what and wasn't overconfident.
"…at random, so make your way to the catwalks with your jonin-sensei," the Hokage finished.
'Crap. I wasn't paying attention to what the old man was saying. Here's hoping I'm not first up,' Naruto thought.
The entire group of genin proceeded up the catwalks while a proctor waited in the middle of the arena. Everyone was looking up at a giant board expectantly. Two names came up: Choji Akimichi and not Naruto. Choji hopped into the arena along with one of the ninja with a Rock symbol on his forehead protector.
The proctor called, "Fight!" and Choji took up a defensive stance. The Rock-nin pulled out a kunai and threw it, but Choji dodged. When Choji dodged, the other ninja made hand signs and a wall of earth came up in front and behind Choji. The other ninja made more signs and the walls smashed into each other, but Choji broke the walls by expanding his body.
Choji turned into an oversized bowling ball and rolled around, chasing the ninja from Rock, until the Rock ninja made more hand signs and trapped Choji in a giant earthen box. After a few minutes of slamming noises from the inside of the box, the proctor called the match for the Rock ninja.
The giant board changed and two more names came up. Naruto didn't recognize either, but a ninja from Mist with a sword and a ninja from Cloud with a sword hopped down into the arena. That battle was short, because the Cloud-nin charged his sword with lightning and cut the Mist-nin's sword in half and then stabbed the Mist-nin through the arm, pinning the Mist-nin to the wall while his other hand held a kunai at the Mist-nin's throat. The proctor called the match for the Cloud-nin.
The giant board changed again, reading "Naruto Uzumaki" and "Kankuro of the Desert." Naruto hopped down as did the Sand ninja dressed in black with strange face paint. Kankuro had a bundle on his back that Naruto wondered about, but he got into a fighting stance.
The proctor called, "Fight!" and Naruto body-flickered at the same time creating four shadow clones. He hit Kankuro, knocking the Sand genin back, but Kankuro's head opened up, revealing a nozzle that hissed at Naruto. Naruto replaced himself with a shadow clone that dispersed as it inhaled poison gas and three others body-flickered around the puppet. One hit the puppet with a low sweep kick, the second simultaneously hit it with a roundhouse kick to the torso, and a split second later the third dropped an axe kick, breaking the strange puppet into pieces with an explosion and a crack in the ground beneath it. The cloud of puppet pieces dispelled the three clones.
As the shadow-clones were dismantling the puppet, Naruto body-flickered to the Sand ninja who was controlling the puppet and kicked him with a roundhouse kick hard enough to make a wet crunch sound and send the Sand ninja flying hard to the ground. Some of the jonin were making conversation, but the conversations ended when Naruto destroyed the puppet and crunched the puppeteer at the same time.
The proctor called the match when it was obvious that Kankuro had a broken arm and several broken ribs. "Sorry I kicked you so hard," Naruto said to the injured Kankuro who had a terrified look plastered on his face. "I thought you were another puppet," Naruto tried to explain, but the medics carted the Sand-nin off out of the arena.
Naruto returned to the catwalk where the jonin in green spandex approached him. "The flames of your youth burn bright, Naruto!" the man exclaimed.
"Uhh… Yeah. Right. Who are you again?" Naruto asked, confused.
"I am Might Gai! Kakashi's eternal rival!" Gai exclaimed. "Your taijutsu is nearly as good as my beautiful student, Lee!"
'Yeah, except he flawlessly mixed basic ninjutsu into his taijutsu,' thought the bearded jonin. 'His taijutsu is close to jonin level and the skill of the ninjutsu that he employed is nearly the same. But the council will have a hard time approving the kid for promotion. I'm glad none of my students had to fight him.'
"Just watch, sensei! I will prove that someone can be a ninja even without ninjutsu and genjutsu!" exclaimed the miniature version of the green-spandex jonin.
The board flickered, quickly diverting Naruto's attention from the weird pair, showing Hinata Hyuuga and Temari of the Desert. The shyest girl from their class jumped down along with the blonde girl with a giant fan from the Sand.
"Do your best, Hinata!" Naruto cheered. The girl had obvious self-confidence problems and Naruto didn't see anyone else jumping into her corner, but no sooner had he cheered, Kiba yelled out,
"Come on Hinata! You can beat her!"
The proctor yelled, "Fight!" and Hinata took up a strange taijutsu stance. Naruto looked at the rest of the genin from his class. Only Naruto and Kiba were cheering.
"Come on, guys. Show your support for your comrade! GO HINATA! YOU CAN DO IT!" he shouted.
Shikamaru, Ino, Lee, and Shino joined Kiba and Naruto in cheering for Hinata. Temari was staying away from Hinata and Hinata had activated her byakugan. Temari used her massive fan to unleash a wind ninjutsu, but Hinata rapidly spun around, creating a dome of chakra that diverted the jutsu.
'They're all cheering for me! I can't let them down!' Hinata thought as she ran forward, attempting to strike the elusive Sand-nin, but Temari was faster, keeping Hinata at bay. Hinata pulled several kunai out and threw them at Temari, hoping that it would force the Sand-nin into a close-combat battle, but the kunai merely missed. Hinata could see the wind that Temari had used to divert the kunai and knew that the battle would come down to which one of them had more stamina.
After many long minutes of battle, Hinata ran out of chakra diverting one of Temari's wind jutsu and the match ended when she collapsed from exhaustion and the wind jutsu tossed her across the arena, but it was longer than many on the catwalks thought it would be, especially Neji and Gaara.
Kakashi turned to the woman with red eyes and said, "You look surprised, Kurenai."
"She's never fought so hard is all," Kurenai mumbled. "I wonder what it was that finally motivated her."
"I wonder," Kakashi smiled behind his mask while reading his romance novel.
Naruto turned to the arena where Sakura and a girl with two buns in her brown hair were about to start. Naruto noted that the other name on the board was Tenten.
"Come on, Sakura! You can do it!" he cheered.
Both kunoichi took taijutsu stances. Tenten started by throwing several kunai and throwing stars at Sakura, but Sakura dodged with a body-flicker and engaged Tenten up close. Tenten pulled out a kunai, slashing at Sakura, but Sakura back-flipped away, drawing a kunai of her own. Sakura quickly pressed back in, kunai in hand, but the two were near even at taijutsu.
'This only worked on Naruto the first time, but maybe I'll get lucky and Tenten hasn't trained against genjutsu like we have,' Sakura thought.
Sakura took the initiative and quickly made the hand signs for the one genjutsu she had learned from Kakashi, putting Tenten into the Hell-Viewing Jutsu. Using her opponent's momentary paralysis, Sakura rapidly struck Tenten from behind, knocking Tenten out.
"Well, my eternal rival," Gai started, "it seems that your student has surpassed mine. I will ensure that my student trains even harder from now on!"
The board flickered, reading Neji Hyuuga and one of the Cloud kunoichi. Both jumped into the arena, ready for battle.
"Fate has decreed that I will win. There is no shame in surrender," Neji droned at the Cloud kunoichi before the proctor even started the match.
"Shut up and fight, you fatalistic freak," the Cloud kunoichi spat back.
"Fight!" shouted the proctor.
Neji activated his byakugan and the kunoichi started with hand signs. Neji paused for a moment before blinking once and moving toward the kunoichi. She simply started a new set of hand signs, which ultimately did nothing to stop Neji's advance.
'Using genjutsu against the byakugan. Bad idea, sweetie,' Kurenai thought. 'That's almost as useless as using genjutsu against the sharingan.'
Neji closed and began striking softly. The kunoichi from Clouds thought she was blocking his strikes, but Neji began ticking off numbers.
"Two," he started. "Four," he said a moment later. "Eight," he rapidly progressed. "Sixteen," he mumbled as his strikes gained even more speed. "Thirty-two," he said as the kunoichi noticed that she wasn't able to block anymore. "Sixty-four," he said as the kunoichi felt exhausted. "Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms," Neji breathed. He could see that the girl's entire chakra network was shut down. "You cannot continue. Fate has spoken," Neji intoned as he walked back to the catwalk.
The girl managed to stand up and trip herself, falling unconscious to the ground. The proctor called the match. The board flickered, showing Kiba Inuzuka and one of the Mist ninja. Naruto was stunned at Neji's cold demeanor, while Lee said with as much determination as Naruto had ever heard, "That is my main competition. I will defeat him."
The proctor yelled, "Fight!" and the Mist-nin unleashed a white fog that covered the entire battlefield. Kiba yelled in animalistic fury and a twister erupted from the mist to strike down again. The Mist-nin had a sword out which had blocked Kiba's attack, but his sword was now cracked.
"How did you find me?" the Mist-nin asked.
"Pfft. There's more than one sense," Kiba scoffed.
"I see," the Mist-nin muttered, already making hand signs. "Water Style: Water Dragon Jutsu!" A giant water dragon erupted from the dissipating mist, but Kiba responded with his own attack. "Garoga!" Kiba and Akamaru were identical, but they spun together, creating the vortex to strike directly at the water jutsu. The Mist-nin ended the water jutsu, but threw a storm of kunai and shuriken forcing Kiba and Akamaru to dodge backward while he made several hand signs.
"Water Style: Rotting Mist!" The Mist-nin summoned a fogbank of acrid yellow, but this time Kiba and Akamaru screamed as soon as they smelled it. Kiba yelled out that he resigned the match before the Mist-nin had a chance to attack.
The board flickered again, showing Sasuke Uchiha and Rock Lee. Lee jumped down to the arena, taking up a taijutsu stance. Sasuke activated his sharingan and took up a defensive stance. The proctor yelled, "Fight!" and Lee swiftly moved in to engage Sasuke. Lee wasn't as fast as a body-flicker and Sasuke was accustomed to fighting three or four body-flickering Naruto's simultaneously, so he was able to keep up with Lee, but only just.
Lee struck with a more refined leg sweep than Naruto, spinning up into an axe kick that dropped onto Sasuke's block. Sasuke rolled with the kick and tumbled to the side. "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu!" A ball of fire blasted out of Sasuke's mouth, forcing Lee to retreat. Sasuke followed it up with half a dozen kunai thrown at several spots around Lee, hoping that at least one would find a home. Lee dodged them all and ran in to engage again.
Sasuke whipped down into the same sweep kick that Lee had previously used against him, but Lee picked up both legs and launched like a missile at Sasuke, striking him in the chest with both feet. Sasuke rolled again, throwing Lee off. Sasuke body-flickered behind Lee, trying to grab the taijutsu expert. Lee felt Sasuke behind him and whispered, "Gate of Opening," as the first of his eight gates opened and he evaded Sasuke's grasp.
"How many gates can Lee open?" Kakashi asked Gai.
"Five," Gai smiled and then he yelled, "Remove your training weights, my precious student!"
Both combatants looked up at the catwalk, but Lee replied, "But Sensei—"
"DON'T ARGUE! JUST DO IT, LEE!" Gai screamed.
"I'll wait," Sasuke said. Lee took off the heavy weights that had been around his ankles, which fell to the ground with a loud clang. "Can we continue?" Sasuke asked. Lee nodded, moving almost as fast as a body-flicker.
Sasuke continued blocking, still accustomed to three or four simultaneous attacks. Compared to Lee's rapid succession of attacks, he could still keep up a good defense, but a single target was much more difficult to hit than three or four targets. Lee partially unraveled the bandages on his hands and forearms, continuing his assault on Sasuke. Sasuke dropped his defense to see what Lee would do and Lee wrapped him in his hanging bandages.
As Lee began his spin, Sasuke used a shadow-clone as a replacement and watched the technique from two angles. His shadow-clone dispersed, leaving Lee triumphant, until Lee realized that it had been a shadow-clone. Sasuke engaged Lee again, this time using Lee's own moves against him. Lee had long practiced with Gai using the same techniques, so he simply whispered, "Gate of Healing," and fought harder.
Sasuke, having seen how to open the first gate from Lee replied, "Gate of Opening," and increased his speed to keep up with Lee.
"How many gates can Sasuke open?" Gai asked Kakashi.
"I have no idea. I never taught him the technique," Kakashi replied.
"Without physical training, it is impossible to learn to open the gates," Gai retorted.
"Sasuke trains with Naruto every day," Kakashi countered.
Gai grumbled as he watched his student's skin turn red and muttered, "Gate of Life."
Sasuke kept up with Lee only due to his intense training with Naruto and the benefit of his sharingan. He had no illusions that he would be able to keep up without either of those advantages. "Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!" Sasuke unleashed a swarm of fireballs at Lee as he tossed shuriken at the speeding, green taijutsu freak. Lee batted the fireballs, seeming to ignore them as he flew toward Sasuke.
'Maybe if I open that second gate? Shit! He's starting to move faster than I can,' Sasuke thought as he opened the second gate. The two furiously fought for long seconds before Sasuke had a realization. 'Dammit. This is stupid! He admitted that he can't use genjutsu or ninjutsu. He's only used taijutsu so far, so he probably can't defend against it.' Sasuke locked eyes with the furious Lee before disengaging and watching Lee fight harder and harder against an illusory enemy. Lee opened the fourth gate, but Gai stepped in realizing that Lee was trapped in Sasuke's simple genjutsu. The proctor called the match as soon as Gai intervened.
The board flashed, showing Shino Aburame and the last Mist ninja. The two met in the arena and the proctor yelled, "Fight!" The Mist-nin started making hand signs, but a swarm of insects surrounded the poor girl. Shino remained calm in the middle of the massive insect swarm.
"You'll find that I'm not susceptible to genjutsu," Shino commented as the girl tried two different genjutsu on him.
"No! I CAN'T lose!" she screamed as the insects drained her chakra.
"It's unfortunate that you were paired with me then, because you WILL lose," Shino stated as the girl started to waver. She threw a kunai that Shino easily avoided. The proctor called the match as the girl collapsed from exhaustion moments later.
"How boring," the Mist jonin commented.
The board flickered again, revealing Ino Yamanaka and the last kunoichi from Cloud. She hopped down into the arena and the two stared at each other before the proctor yelled, "Fight!" Ino left strands of her hair as traps all over the arena while the other kunoichi charged her body with lightning chakra.
Ino backed herself against a wall as the Cloud kunoichi tried to run through her hair traps, but it gave Ino enough time to aim her Mind Body Switch Jutsu. Ino's body collapsed as she inhabited the Cloud kunoichi. As the Cloud kunoichi, she said, "I quit."
The proctor said, "Okay. Since Ino Yamanaka is unconscious and you quit, both of you lose the match."
Ino released the jutsu and stood up in her own body screaming about it being unfair. After several minutes of heated dispute, she decided against revealing her clan's signature intelligence gathering technique and took the loss.
The board flickered to reveal Shikamaru Nara and the kunoichi from Rock. He strolled down to the arena floor and started to say, "I quit," but before he got it out, Ino yelled, "If you quit, I'll tell your mother!"
"How troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. "Let's get this over with."
"Fight!" the proctor yelled.
Shikamaru threw out several kunai, some of which had exploding tags to distract the kunoichi. She dodged and started making hand signs, but Shikamaru said, "Shadow Possession Jutsu, complete," and the kunoichi found she was frozen in place. Shikamaru walked backward and she walked backward until she bumped into the arena wall. Shikamaru said, "Sorry about this, but this was the fastest way to get this over with," as he bent forward and so did she. He whipped his head backwards into empty space, but the kunoichi knocked herself out on the wall. The proctor called the match.
The board flickered again and the last two names came up. Gaara of the Desert and the last ninja from Rock entered the arena. "Will you prove my existence?" Gaara said, bloodlust dripping from his voice.
The proctor yelled, "Fight!" and the Rock-nin made hand signs in rapid succession. The Rock-nin fired off a bunch of rocks at Gaara, but sand always intercepted the bullets. Nothing managed to penetrate as the Rock-nin tried attack after attack. Gaara finally got bored and the sand formed a claw, grabbing the Rock-nin and slamming him into the ground with a cough of blood. The sand continued to crush the Rock-nin after the proctor called the match, forcing the Sand Jonin to step in and calm Gaara, who just kept muttering, "Kill! Kill! Kill!"
The jonin and remaining genin gathered in front of the Hokage. "Before you take a month to prepare yourselves, you will all draw numbers to determine your matches in the public arena," the Hokage said with practiced authority. "Step forward and draw your numbers."
The proctors called out numbers as they filled out a chart. Neji would fight Sakura. Sasuke would fight Gaara. Naruto would fight the Mist-nin. The Cloud-nin would fight the Rock-nin. Shino would fight Temari. And Shikamaru would skip the first round.
—Naruto's house, that evening—
"We all made it!" Naruto exclaimed to Kushina and Jiraiya. "The whole team is in the finals!"
Sasuke sat quietly on the couch, reading a book of poetry that he'd come to enjoy after picking it up some years ago.
"Who do you have to fight, Naruto?" Jiraiya asked, genuinely curious. He hadn't been to a chunin exam since his own decades ago, but he planned to see Naruto's chunin exam. 'And that's why you master the basics,' he thought.
"Some guy from Mist," Naruto said. "Sasuke has to fight that crazy sand guy and Sakura is going to fight Neji."
"I'll work on a training program after I talk to Kakashi, Naruto, but I expect that you three will start training separately," Jiraiya explained. "You might have to fight each other in later rounds, so it makes sense to give you all the best chance of success."
"Kakashi already spoke to me, Jiraiya. He expects that you'll train Naruto and since Kurenai has a student in the finals and he doesn't want to call in any other favors, I'm going to train Sakura, while he trains Sasuke," Kushina explained.
They were all surprised by the knock at the door. Everyone except the Hokage that they knew usually used the window. Naruto opened the door to find Hinata, looking petrified.
"H-hello, N-Naruto," she stammered.
Naruto looked outside, down the hall both ways, while Hinata stood stunned at Naruto's abrupt response. "Hi, Hinata! You'd better come in before the hall-monster get you," he teased. Hinata didn't know how to respond.
Kushina pushed Naruto out of the way and said to the terrified girl, "Why don't you come in and have some tea? It'll calm your nerves and we can chat like civilized people," with a warm, welcoming smile.
Hinata entered slowly, sitting in a chair whispering, "Thank you, Uzumaki-san." She looked at Jiraiya, who stared at her and Sasuke, who ignored her.
"Damn, boy! You got girls knocking down the door to get to you!" Jiraiya exclaimed as Naruto and Jiraiya started another boisterous argument over the propriety of commenting on Naruto's non-existent love life. Naruto led the sannin to the couch where they would bother Sasuke instead of Hinata.
'Damn, she's cute. And not already hung up on Sasuke,' Naruto thought while he argued. 'But she's the heir to a major clan, so maybe it isn't the best idea to get tangled up with her.'
Hinata sipped her tea while Jiraiya and Naruto made noise in the background. Kushina gave her a reassuring look and said, "Now then. What can I do for you, Hyuuga-sama?"
"Please, call me Hinata," Hinata started. "I know that I'm not in the finals, but I was wondering if you wouldn't mind training me. You are reputed to have the most stamina of any kunoichi in history and I am weak in that area. Additionally, I thought that I might include Sakura because she is going to fight my cousin and I would dearly like to see him lose."
'This is perfect! It couldn't have worked out better if someone was planning it!' Kushina thought. "I think that we can arrange that, Hinata. But will your family have any problems with it?"
"My father is grooming my sister to take over the clan and my team won't be on any missions, so I doubt he would have noticed, but I asked him before I came here anyway and he told me that it wouldn't bother him," Hinata explained.
"ALL HYUUGA WOMEN HAVE GIANT BREASTS!" Jiraiya screamed, holding his hands in front of his chest. Hinata blushed, but pretended not to hear it.
"SHE'S RIGHT OVER THERE AND WE'RE ONLY THIRTEEN, YOU OBNOXIOUS, PERVERTED, PEDOPHILE!" Naruto screamed back.
"I'M SAYING FOR YOU NOT FOR ME! AND I'M JUST A PERVERT! I'M NOT A PEDOPHILE!" Jiraiya defended, before noticing Kushina, Sasuke, Naruto, and Hinata all staring at him. He stopped screaming and calmly said, "Right. I'll go find a hotel then," fleeing out the window at top speed, fearing for his life.