Chapter 8 – Become a Chunin! Part 2.1 (Eliminate the opponents)
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
"Normal speech"
'Inner speech/thoughts'
'Kyuubi/Tailed beast speech'
xxx
Together with Sasuke, Naruto sat on a couch with the Hokage looking at them from behind a table. Neither of them said anything, they barely even moved, save for the occasional glance of the older man at the young girl lying unconscious next to the pair. It seemed as if all of them were waiting for somebody to come inside and tell them some good news. The silence was unbearable, mainly for the two Genin, and they kept their eyes pinned on the floor. When even a heartbeat became too loud, the door to the room finally opened and a tired face, covered with a mask, peeked inside.
"It's done." Kakashi stated and walked next to the table to sit down in a chair, rubbing his head considerably.
"…and?" The Hokage quietly asked. Kakashi waited with the answer and glanced at the duo behind him.
"I won't lie. She's alive but in a coma. It is Orochimaru's curse mark we're talking about here after all. It is nothing short of a miracle she had survived for so long already but I guess we'll just have to thank our unpredictable ninja for that." Both men stared at the blond-haired Genin until said boy raised his head.
"Kakashi-sensei… don't try to act impressed. I did nothing useful..."
"On the contrary, Naruto-kun, you stalled the chakra inside the curse mark from taking over Sakura's body the moment it had been imprinted on her, increasing her chances of survival." The Hokage said supportively.
"Yes. As the Hokage said, you did your best." Kakashi added with a sad smile and watched as Naruto clenched his fists.
"So… what now?" Sasuke quietly joined the conversation.
Kakashi sighed and turned around to stare at the Hokage with a serious gaze. The leader of Konoha grabbed the smoking pipe and deeply inhaled the tobacco within. Looking at the two Genin, he closed his eyes for a moment.
"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun, you did your best. Taking on Orochimaru and surviving is no small feat, I hope you realize that. To improve your mood, I think I need to say the following. Sakura will be fine. Kakashi used a particular seal on her that prevents the chakra within the curse mark from invading her system. While she is indeed in a coma, it is most likely because of the shock. If her Will of Fire burns strong enough, there is no doubt in my mind that she will eventually wake up." He said with a fatherly smile. Taking another shot from his pipe, he continued in a slightly more serious tone.
"However, it is probably clear to you that you two will continue the Chunin exams without her. You did pass it, after all. I'm saying this because I don't want to see you fight at half-power just because your mind is with your teammate. I'm certain she would want to see you two in the finals."
When Naruto and Sasuke nodded, the Hokage's expression changed further and he positively began to radiate anger.
"Orochimaru… I never thought he would return at such a time. From what you've told me, it seems he was after Sasuke-kun and you've probably realized why."
"…my Sharingan?" Sasuke said with narrowed eyes.
Kakashi butted in and looked at the Genin with stern eyes.
"I do hope I don't have to remind you that everything you hear in this room is classified."
"Yeah."
"Right."
The Hokage continued as if nothing happened.
"Although something like this has happened, the Chunin Exams will still continue but I want you two to keep your eyes open for anything suspicious."
Hearing that, the two boys glanced at each other, Naruto taking the role of talking.
"Now that you brought it up… I think there is something we should mention."
"What?"
Naruto scrutinized his Jonin-sensei and the Hokage without blinking before continuing.
"Kabuto. I don't know his surname but apparently he is a Genin from Konoha. He's… for the lack of a better word, suspicious."
The Hokage put his pipe on the table and folded his arms.
"You're accusing a ninja from your own village, Naruto-kun? That's… bold. Why?"
Naruto returned the intense gaze, trying not to blink.
"It's not just me, Sasuke thinks so too. Kabuto, he… he possesses these nin-info cards, which wouldn't be so suspicious if not for the information written within. He knows things he's not supposed to know, unless he has spied on people. He knows too much about my abilities, I mean… too much." He put an emphasis on his last words, making Sasuke raise his eyebrows.
"There is something about him which puts me off, not to mention, he knows about what missions I have done. Including the Mizuki incident."
Now Sasuke's eyebrows were even higher. He didn't understand what his teammate was talking about but apparently the other two knew.
"I see."
Before the Hokage could say anything else, the door opened again and showed a mildly injured woman with purple hair.
"Anko! What happened?" Kakashi exclaimed and quickly guided her towards the other chair. She nodded a silent thanks and looked at the Hokage.
"Orochimaru happened." She said. With narrowed eyes, she noticed Naruto and Sasuke sitting behind her.
"So he didn't get the Uchiha kid…" She said, somewhat relieved.
"No, but he got their teammate. Kakashi put a seal on her but she's in coma."
The kunoichi flinched and touched her own neck, a pained expression in her eyes.
"She's still alive?" She asked rudely, ignoring the Hokage's grimace.
"Yeah, thanks to Naruto. Immediately after she had received the curse mark, he put a chakra restriction seal on her." Kakashi proudly puffed his chest, causing Anko to chuckle a little. She glanced at the quiet blond and gave him a thumbs up.
"Nice one, brat."
As Kakashi helped her take care of her wounds, she stared at the Genin with a thoughtful expression. When her curse mark throbbed with pain, she turned around to the Hokage.
"I have a proposal concerning the girl." She stated, gaining the attention of all the people in the room, aside from the one unconscious girl.
"Let's hear it then."
Anko massaged her neck and ignored the old memories flashing through her mind. With closed eyes, she opened her mouth.
"I know they are your team, Kakashi, but how about letting me train the girl? If she wakes up."
Kakashi narrowed his eyes and waited with his answer until he tied the bandage around her upper arm.
"AFTER she wakes up? Well… it may be a good idea but do you think you could handle it? Training someone is different than what you're accustomed to."
Watching the conversation with dissatisfied eyes, Naruto quickly objected.
"Whoa, hey, slow down! I don't understand. Why would it be a good idea? Aren't we Team 7?!" While Sasuke was quiet, his face betrayed his hidden emotions and one could see the complaint in his eyes. Kakashi raised his hands in defense but it was Anko who answered the boy. With a bit of hesitation, she leaned forward and tucked the collar of her shirt down to show the exact same curse mark that Sakura had, imprinted on her skin.
"Because I know what it's like to train with it, to fight with it and to live with it." She said in a distant voice. Naruto and Sasuke stared at her with wide eyes, no longer protesting. The idea still left them with distaste in their mouths but deep down they knew it was what was best for Sakura. Thus, they had no other choice than to accept it as soon as possible.
"I see no problem with it. She will officially stay a member of Team 7, however." The Hokage said.
"Fine, whatever."
"Now that we've gone over this… it's a good thing you came here, Anko. I actually have another job for you." The Hokage continued and looked at the kunoichi with a serious gaze.
"What is it?"
Along with Kakashi, he pointed at the unconscious girl in the corner of the couch.
"This girl is called Kin from Otogakure and it seems she's in league with Orochimaru. I think you know what to do, Anko. Just do it in a way that lets her live."
Anko's eyes fell upon the motionless girl and a slightly disturbing grin appeared on her face.
"Should be fun."
…
For the remainder of the five days reserved for the second part of the exams, Naruto stayed inside his room and tried to get rid of the emotions bubbling within him. Having slightly more than three days and no room to train, it was practically the only thing he could do. He wasn't particularly angry, yet the itch in his skin couldn't be scratched. He was restless.
There wasn't any real cause for it, he tried to convince himself. He and Sakura weren't good friends. Hell, they were barely any kind of friends. But both of them belonged to the same team, Team 7. They were comrades and ever since the failed, bloody mission, she had begun to act like one. She no longer yelled at Naruto and even tried to start a normal conversation with him. She was still obviously infatuated with Sasuke but she was slowly learning how to control her obsession. None of this of course could erase all those years of her rotten behavior towards him but as simple as humans are, they tend to think of the good times rather than the bad ones. Naruto was no exception and while there were dark parts of his life, some darker than others, the quiet and peaceful times he'd encountered so far with Team 7 were the memories that stuck in his mind these days.
In his opinion, the changes Team 7 underwent were incredible. Sasuke was no longer as snarky, moody, emo… well, he was no longer the same brooder he was in the Academy. He still had those qualities but the edges around him were now smoother. Sakura had changed into somebody that had the potential to become a good ninja.
And now it had been taken away from her. Just a simple bite from a madman made her into motionless pile of flesh and bones. Kakashi and the Hokage could assure him as much as they wanted to but they were still just words. Until she woke up, he would operate under the assumption of the worst case scenario. That she would remain like that.
And it made him angry. It made him depressed. It made him furious. It made him lethargic. Sakura could be a pain in the ass when she tried but in the end, she was still a part of Team 7. In the end, she reacted to the danger faster than any of them and chose to sacrifice herself for her teammate.
How could he be not restless?
It was on the morning of the fifth day that Naruto woke up without feeling the need to run a hundred circles around the tower. His mind was surprisingly clear, as if the previous two days of trying to rip apart his own skull and pluck out the anxiety directly from his brain had never happened.
'Right. Today is the end of the second part of the exams. Finally.'
Walking through the corridors, he noticed the building was slowly filling with the other Genin that had passed the test. He even saw some familiar faces but he didn't feel like socializing. Actually, he didn't feel like doing it at all. The thoughts he'd had before the written test began returned. But before he could address them, a boy with raven hair appeared next to him.
"I overheard some of the Jonin-sensei talking about too many Genin passing the second test. It seems something is going down today."
"Too cool for a greeting, Sasuke?" Naruto snorted and shook his head in amusement.
"Bite me, dobe. I'm not in the mood."
Naruto raised an eyebrow and glanced at the other boy. It looked like the blonde was not the only one who had spent days arguing with himself.
"Sakura?"
The Uchiha scoffed but, after a moment, sharply nodded.
"I won't forgive her if she doesn't wake up. I have enough things to avenge."
…
Gathered in a spacious hall, all of the Genin who passed the second part of the exams anxiously listened to the explanation from the Hokage about the true reason behind the Chunin exams. Some of them loudly protested, some of them accused him of being unfair but it was all for naught. The Hokage continued through all of their objections; the young shinobi needed to know the truth about their profession, about being a ninja serving their village.
Meanwhile, Naruto partially listened to the old man too but most of his attention was on the rest of the Genin. He wanted to know who else had passed. As his eyes moved from face to face, he counted 25 people. The number wasn't making much sense as every team was made from three people. Looking over the Genin again, he realized his mistake. It wasn't just Sakura who was missing, but also Kin. What surprised him was seeing the latter's team tiredly, but proudly standing with the rest of the Genin.
'Wait a minute. They are still allowed to continue?' He wondered. But he couldn't dwell on that thought for much longer because a sickly looking Konoha shinobi landed in front of the group of Genin and took out a senbon needle from his mouth before speaking up.
"My name is, uhm, Hayate Gekkō and I'll be your proctor for this part of the exams."
When he was met with confused stares, he coughed and continued.
"Uhm… that is, we will now hold a preliminary for the third part of the Chunin exams."
'What?' Naruto frowned. He wasn't the only one as the air was filled with loud protests from the rest of the Genin.
"Yes, uhm… it seems this year the exams have been too easy and we have too many participants for the third exams. As the Hokage-sama explained, uhm… it would take too much time for all of your fights to happen and the important clients who are going to watch them don't have it."
As more protests were addressed towards him, Hayate raised his hand.
"Uhm… think of it as another simulation. In the second part of the exams, you were supposed to show us how you can survive in enemy territory. This, uhm… is a scenario where you have been captured and are forced to fight the enemy if you want to escape. So, uhm… those who are not feeling well or doesn't have the strength to continue after this explanation can step forward and quit as the preliminary will take place right now.
'Whew… it's a good thing we had enough time to rest. Right. I'll show them. We'll show them. Sakura can watch the rest of Team 7 in the finals.' Naruto thought and stared at the proctor with unwavering eyes.
However, what came as a surprise to him was that some Genin actually stepped forward. Two of them were Genin from Amegakure who looked dead tired. They left their teammate, apparently the leader of their team, alone and rather dissatisfied. Watching the third person quit made Naruto actually stare in shock.
It was Chōji Akimichi, one of the few people the blond could say he liked and one of the few people who always treated him well. He was being supported from both sides by Shikamaru and Ino, both of them looking incredibly sad. As his attention was on them, Naruto missed the exchange of glances between the silver-haired boy with glasses and a Jōnin wearing a headband with a sign for Otogakure. The silver-haired boy grinned but didn't move an inch which made the Jōnin narrow his eyes.
When Shikamaru and Ino left their teammate to the medics and returned to their positions, Naruto tapped the boy on his shoulder.
"Shikamaru… what happened to Chōji?"
Shikamaru glanced at the depressed Ino and shook his head.
"Long story short, we ran into heavy trouble and Chōji protected Ino. It wasn't even necessary… troublesome large-boned idiot…" It was all the blond was able to pry from the Nara clan heir before the proctor coughed again.
"Well, uhm… we will now begin the preliminary round as promised. The round will consist of one on one fighting. We have uhm… 22 participants, which means 11 matches. There are basically no rules, the fight continues until one of you dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat. So, uhm… acknowledge your defeat unless you want to die. However, after I decide that the winner is clearly established, I'll jump in and stop things if you won't do it yourself. We don't want pointless corpses. Your matches will be chosen by this…" He turned around and pointed at an electric score-board that appeared on the distant wall.
"This board will announce each match-up for each battle. We will begin immediately. After the first match-up is decided, I ask that the other participants move to the upper level." As he pointed to the stairs leading to the upper level, the names of every Genin present began to flash across the board until it stopped at two names.
"First match: Shino Aburame versus Suzumebachi Kamizuru."
…
Up in the stands, Naruto watched as a young kunoichi from Iwagakure repeatedly yelled at Shino and threatened to kill him in the name of their clan, Kamizuru, for the shame Shino's clan, Aburame, brought upon them when they utterly defeated them a long time ago. The blond had no idea what the girl was talking about but, apparently, Shino did. However, the quiet boy didn't try to defend himself from her verbal attacks and instead just calmly asked the proctor to start the match, infuriating the kunoichi further. When she summoned a large number of bees to attack Shino, the blond turned to Kakashi.
"How is Sakura?"
Eyeing the match with his one eye, Kakashi waited with the answer until Shino successfully evaded a barrage of stingers and retaliated with a few shuriken.
"There has been no change."
A small twitch of an eyebrow meant Sasuke was listening to the conversation as well. Without even looking at his two students, Kakashi's expression relaxed a bit.
"Don't worry, one person that could help Sakura is supposedly coming to Konoha soon."
Some of the Genin watching the match grimaced in disgust when Shino revealed his own secret, bugs creeping out of his body, which he used to fight his opponent soon after that with good results.
"Who is that person?"
"You'll see when he gets here."
"Fine." Finishing the conversation with a grumpy response, Naruto returned his attention to the match. At least, he did for a while, as it looked like it was not going to last much longer. While the Iwa kunoichi seemed well versed in the techniques of her clan and was capable of using her bees in a multitude of different attacks and coordinating them to create diversions from all sides, Shino was clearly stronger.
Trained from a young age by his clan superiors, the young heir of the Aburame clan had extensive knowledge on bugs and insects, bees not being an exception. He knew their strengths and weaknesses and exploited that knowledge in a way that allowed him to gain the upper hand. While he was silent most of the time, using his voice only when he deemed it necessary, and he used to hide most of his face behind a pair of goggles and the high collar of his jacket, Shino was an extremely intelligent Genin with great analytical and observational skills. Those traits naturally showed themselves in the fight as he cleverly mixed his bugs with the cloud of the kunoichi's bees and made them suck the chakra from them, rendering them useless. In quick succession, he then surrounded the girl from all sides, using his own body and his bugs to stop her from dodging his next attack.
Since the kunoichi was hell-bent on trying to win the match no matter what, Shino was forced to not-so-nicely knock her unconscious with a sharp blow to the side of the head when he used his own version of the Clone technique to surprise her from behind.
"Winner: Shino Aburame." Hayate announced after checking up on the defeated girl.
Calmly and composedly, Shino casually strolled up the stairs and took his place among his teammates, accepting shy compliments from Hinata with a nod and ignoring Kiba's rants with a cool demeanor. Seeing the weird group, Naruto just shook his head in amusement and watched the board until it displayed another match-up.
"Second match: Shikamaru Nara versus Kabuto Yakushi."
Both Genin from Team 7 aimed their sights at the silver-haired Genin calmly walking to the proctor, ignoring an intense stare from a certain Otogakure Jōnin. Even Kakashi narrowed his eyes, recalling the accusations about the boy his two students had made a few days ago.
However, to their surprise and confusion, the match didn't last long enough for them to discover anything. At first, listening to the bored and tired 'troublesome' of the Nara heir was amusing. It got old really soon though and the longer they watched the fight, the more boring it became.
"This… doesn't make any sense…" Naruto muttered as he watched Kabuto only dodging Shikamaru's attempts at binding him with his clan secret technique, a manipulation of shadows.
"Yeah, it looks like he's really weak… losing to the bored idiot so quickly." Sasuke agreed in a disappointed tone.
"Well, maybe you've just been wrong." Kakashi casually replied, but he raised his headband to uncover his Sharingan and used it to observe Kabuto with a serious expression.
After the talk he and the Hokage had had with his two students about their suspicions, he'd decided to check the boy out. It wasn't really in his nature, to jump to conclusions just because two Genin said something unclear, but his gut was telling him he should do it anyway.
'Took the Chunin exams seven times and, each time, he quit after the second part. Even if everything else was satisfying, just that one thing makes him quite suspicious. He had been discovered and brought to the village by the Hokage himself and, prior to that, there is no record about this kid anywhere. I could write all of this off as a mere coincidence. An unusual one but still plausible. Still, a coincidence is for civilians. For a shinobi, there is no such thing as a coincidence.' He thought and stared at Kabuto as the boy displayed incredible skills by evading everything Shikamaru tried on him.
'However, even with my Sharingan, he looks just like an ordinary Genin…hmm.'
The match went on for a few more minutes before Kabuto secretly glanced at the Oto Jōnin and smirked. Landing on both of his feet, his legs wobbled and he fell on his right knee. With his left arm raised, he turned to Hayate.
"I surrender."
"Are you sure kid? You, uhm… still haven't received even a single injury."
Even Shikamaru looked surprised and slowly lowered his hands, releasing his Shadow jutsu in the process. His breathing accelerated, Kabuto smiled.
"I'm sure. Nara-san has quite the jutsu and my stamina is at its limits. I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to evade his attempts for much longer."
Hayate narrowed his eyes and chewed on his senbon for a second before shrugging and raising his arm.
"Winner: Shikamaru Nara."
Nobody noticed one boy with a Byakugan activated staring at the silver-haired boy with confused eyes. But even that boy stopped doing it when the board showed the next match-up.
"Third match: Tenten versus Shigure."
A girl wearing her hair in buns on either side of her head frowned and jumped down to face her opponent, cautiously measuring him with her eyes. Most of her attention was directed towards the umbrellas the man was carrying on his back in a sheath.
"She's from the team lead by the Might Guy you've told us about, right?" Naruto asked his one-eyed Jōnin sensei.
"Yes. She's an expert in bukijutsu, a weapon-user." Kakashi replied and glanced at his fellow Jōnin in a green spandex suit. The man noticed it and struck a flashy pose with a thumbs up. Rolling his one eye, Kakashi sweatdropped and barely nodded in his direction while Naruto and Sasuke were busy covering their eyes from the bright glint the man's teeth were radiating.
"Damn that's disturbing…" Naruto shuddered and rubbed his eyes. Sasuke just silently nodded, his lips closed in a thin line of disgust. Kakashi nervously chuckled, hiding his embarrassment at knowing such a person, but then spoke to his students.
"That's one way to put it, but don't forget what I've told you. His looks are a deception. You should watch the match. All of his students are extremely good in their own area." He stated in a more serious tone, causing the two Genin to look down where Shigure, a shinobi from Amegakure, was busy belittling the girl.
"Just surrender now and you won't have to become a pin cushion, girl."
Tenten narrowed her eyes and took out a pair of scrolls.
"Trying to scare me off? Tough luck, scarface. As my idol is Tsunade-sama, one of the Sannin, I will show you that girls can be just as strong as boys." She exclaimed and growled to the proctor to start the match already.
Just as Hayate did that, Shigure reached to his back sheath, took out all four umbrellas, and threw them into the air, while Tenten remained stationary and just observed the situation.
"Die, brat." Shigure clapped his hands together, forming a single hand-seal that caused a rain of needles to fall from the levitating umbrellas directly at Tenten. The girl kept her cool and jumped in the air.
"It's useless to run, it's useless to hide, girl! All those needles are controlled by my chakra to strike the prey. There is no escape!" Shigure yelled as the needles changed their direction to fly again at the girl in the air. Taking a deep breath, Tenten calmly released the seals in her hands which immediately started to emit a thin trail of smoke. In an instant, the smoke changed its form to create two dragons that soared around her, obscuring her body in an explosion of smoke. As the needles from Shigure's technique pierced the cloud, the loud sound of metal striking metal could be heard.
When the smokescreen cleared itself, Tenten was in the middle of two flying scrolls, spinning around at an amazing speed all the while grabbing the many weapons falling out from the scrolls and throwing them at the needles. Each and every single needle was rapidly knocked out of the air while their source, Shigure, just stared at the scene, dumbfounded. He wasn't the only one as even Naruto and Sasuke watched the girl in amazement.
"Holy crap, she's like a tornado." Naruto commented with a gaping mouth. Kakashi nodded with a smile.
"Like I said, an expert in handling weapons. What you see here is probably months of pure hard work. Most Chunin can't handle so many different weapons so fast."
"Interesting…" Sasuke muttered with an excited grin. He was right, the Chunin exams were really full of strong people. He just had to wait through the boring parts.
After the last needle fell to the ground, rendered useless, Tenten stopped spinning and grabbed the scrolls before gracefully landing on the ground. Without wasting a single moment, she took out a third scroll from her pouch and lightly touched it with her hand. An instant later, she was already in the middle of a sprint towards her opponent with a Tantō in her hand.
A few moments later, the fight was over with a clear winner. Tenten looked once more at the Ame shinobi, lying on the ground with a shallow cut diagonally stretching across his whole torso before expectantly gazing upon the proctor.
"Ah, uhm… right. Winner: Tenten!" Hayate quickly raised his hand and announced the winner of the third match. While the medics hurried to the scene and put the injured Genin on a stretcher, Tenten walked up the stairs to join the rest of her team who waited for her exuberantly next to Team 7.
"Wooohooo! You showed them Tenten-san! That's the power of youth right there!" Lee jumped up and down, clapping his hands the whole time. When even Might Guy joined his student in the energetic cheering, Tenten averted her eyes in embarrassment. And as luck had it, she found herself staring at the sweatdropping Naruto who didn't know how to react to the duo in green spandex.
Luckily, he noticed Tenten's gaze and nodded to her in acknowledgment of her victory.
"That was cool how you handled all those weapons." He said with a slightly impressed voice. Tenten narrowed her eyes and studied the blonde with a critical look before accepting the compliment with a smile.
"Thanks. You're… "
"Uzumaki Naruto." Naruto quickly introduced himself, nervously extending his hand. Tenten shook it and for an instant a small grin appeared on her face.
"Riiight, you're that kid from the first part of the exams. Good call by the way."
"Fourth match: Rock Lee versus Kankurō."
The proctor's voice interrupted their conversation as the ever enthusiastic Lee raised his fist with a tear of happiness in his eye and instantly jumped over the railing before his teammates could even hope to wish him luck. From another part of the upper level, the boy with a painted face grimaced and went down too.
"I hope we'll have a splendid match, shinobi of Sunagakure!" Lee exclaimed and showed Kankurō a thumbs up. With an exasperated glare, the foreign Genin turned to Hayate so that the man would start the match.
"Uhm, your teammate is a bit…" Naruto cut the silence between him and Tenten, making her to frown. Despite her expression, a chuckle escaped her lips.
"Eccentric? Can't deny that." She stated and watched as the boy in green spandex opted to start the match by playing defensively.
"He's all the sorts of over the top but he's also a really good guy. I couldn't hope for a better teammate." She continued with a soft smile, causing the blonde to look away from the fight and at her face.
As the sound of Lee's happy exclaims of dodging Kankurō's every attack filled the hall, Naruto seemingly hesitated for an instant before speaking again.
"Y-you know, I noticed you fight by unsealing your weapons from those scrolls. How did you learn Fūinjutsu?"
Turning to him with a surprised face, Tenten raised her eyebrow.
"Huh, you're probably the first person to ever ask me that. But I'll probably disappoint you. I only know generic sealing techniques for storing things in scrolls. Fūinjutsu is kind of difficult to learn so I decided not to focus on it too much." She said and focused her attention back to her teammate's fight.
"Oh, okay." Naruto replied and sighed. He had hoped Tenten could be a person he could ask things about seals. He wiped the sweat from his brow.
'But really, getting so nervous just because I'm talking with somebody I don't know, I really must have changed. I could feel knots in my stomach.' He thought while Lee kicked it up a notch and increased the speed of his movements to the point where his opponent was becoming slightly hesitant.
"You use intriguing attacks, my honorable opponent, but the power of youth cannot be stopped!" Lee exclaimed and, sliding in from the front, dug his fist deeply into his opponent's gut.
'He's fast.' Naruto thought and remembered his training with Gravity seals.
To everyone, including Lee's, surprise, the Kankurō that received the brutal punch shattered into wooden splinters, revealing the real Kankurō further in the back with his hands raised. Rotating them around, he tried to maneuver the remnants of the wooden body and send them flying at Lee using some sort of strings, barely glowing in the air.
He did so without much luck as Lee increased his speed further and almost flashed backwards, appearing as a blur to some Genin observing the match. He didn't stop and, increasing his speed again, he ran circles around the shocked Kankurō, forcing the dust under his feet to levitate and create a thin cloud. From within the cloud, Lee rocketed towards Kankurō. But before he could hit him, he stopped himself and landed in a crouch. After a millisecond pause, during which he allowed Kankurō to see only his grin, his left leg shot upwards.
Following Kankurō's body getting blasted into the air, Lee jumped above him and sent him crashing down with a second kick to the abdomen.
The Suna Genin was unconscious before he even hit the ground, a small trail of blood flowing out of his opened mouth.
"Winner: Rock Lee!"
From the corner of his eye, Naruto saw the rest of the Sand Siblings stiffen when Lee walked up to their defeated brother but it was pointless. Lee just deeply bowed to the boy.
"Thank you for the good match, Kankurō-san."
Then and there, Naruto's opinion of the weird boy in green spandex with bushy eyebrows rose a bit higher.
'She was right, he's a good person not to mention a strong opponent. Rock Lee…' He glanced at Sasuke, who was tightly gripping the railing, and grinned.
'Sasuke knows it too. If he'd gone against him that time before the first test, he'd have probably lost really fast. I don't think we have seen even half of what this guy can do… and damn, was he fast. Even if I released all of my Gravity seals I'd be barely faster.'
The blond looked up when the next match-up appeared on the board.
"Fifth match: Hinata Hyūga versus Ino Yamanaka."
Turning his attention from Might Guy and his team's celebrations, Naruto stared at the blonde girl who was walking down the stairs with an incredibly conflicted expression. This sudden change in her behavior really threw him off and so he left Sasuke and Kakashi and moved towards the rest of Ino's team. With a tap on the shoulder, he spoke to Shikamaru.
"What's up with her? I didn't think Chōji's inability to continue would hit her so hard."
Shikamaru was leaning against the railing, his eyes closely studying Ino's movements and so he didn't even raise his head to answer the blond.
"You think I know how a girl's mind works?" He sighed and rubbed his head.
"But if I had to guess… it's because she had been training with Sakura and obviously thought she got stronger, yet she still let her teammate get hurt. Moreover, we heard about what happened to Sakura, that she's in bad condition because she sacrificed herself for Sasuke's well-being. I think that it's that contrast between their actions, one getting protected while the other one was the one doing the protecting, that really got to her. I'm afraid she now thinks she's useless… troublesome girl…"
Together with Naruto, he observed the dispirited greeting Ino exchanged with Hinata. It seemed both girls didn't really enjoy the prospect of fighting each other. Though, it was hard to tell with Hinata, as it was in the girl's nature to be shy and passive. When it took too much time for Naruto to react to Shikamaru's explanation, the Nara hair finally turned his head and looked at the blond questioningly. Naruto shrugged.
"You claim you don't know how girls think yet it seems you actually do."
Shikamaru just continued to look at him, returning his attention to the match only after he heard the sound of metal hitting metal.
"Did Asuma-sensei tell you about Sakura?" Naruto inquired with a concerned frown.
Using her superior reflexes, Hinata avoided most of the kunai Ino threw at her, but it was obvious the Hyūga didn't like violence. She had too many chances to end the fight, too many openings she could have exploited, yet she continued to just defend herself. She probably wanted to tire Ino out so that she would eventually give up.
"Yeah, he said something about her getting injured when some violent Genin tried to attack Sasuke from behind." Shikamaru casually replied, though he kept glancing at Naruto, clearly suspicious of his sensei's clarification. His mouth twisted into a frown when he noticed a look of confusion in Naruto's eyes. It lasted only for an instant but he still caught it and it only increased his suspicions.
There was something going on around Naruto Uzumaki.
"Y-yep, it came out from nowhere and only she saw it so she reacted to it first." Naruto retorted in a strained voice, trying to mask his surprise with a cough.
In an attempt to avoid Shikamaru's gaze, he peeked at the ongoing match to see Ino staring at Hinata with her arms extended forward and her hands forming a triangle. She was seemingly aiming at the other girl with one eye closed.
"This is probably over." Shikamaru commented, retracting his gaze from Naruto. He was still under the impression that something was fishy but deemed his teammate's match to be more important for the moment.
"Huh? Why?" Naruto narrowed his eyes in bewilderment, glancing between Ino and Hinata, whose veins around her eyes bulged and became visible.
'That's the Byakugan Kakashi-sensei told us about… freaky.' Naruto shuddered at the sight.
"Ino's going to use her clan's jutsu… once she catches Hinata with it, it's over. However, if she doesn't… stupid blonde, you have to corner her first…" Shikamaru muttered the latter quietly yet anxiously, as if he was addressing it to his teammate.
When Ino's body jerked and suddenly fell to the floor, lifeless, Hinata moved to the side, seemingly trying to dodge something invisible, so fast, she almost broke her ankle. She tripped and fell on her back but quickly bounced back to her feet, heavily gulping.
"What?!" Shikamaru exclaimed.
"What?" Naruto jumped in surprise and looked at his former classmate.
"She… she dodged it?" The Nara heir muttered in disbelief before deciding it was probably too tiring to get so excited and just leaned on the railing again.
Hayate walked to the motionless body of the blonde girl and, examining her closely, pointed his hand to the other girl.
"Winner: Hinata Hyūga."
…
After a brief talk with Hinata, whose cheeks gained a strong pink tint and she began to stutter after Naruto complimented her on her match but also innocently pointed out her reluctance in attacking, the blond talked about the fight with Kakashi. The Jōnin had informed him about what had happened at the end of it, clearing up some questions his student had about it. The following match was in no way important to Naruto, as it was between a Genin from Kabuto's team and a member of the Otogakure team, Zaku.
The only interesting thing was Naruto's question aimed towards his sensei, when he grimaced at the Oto Genin.
"We captured their teammate during the second test. They shouldn't have been able to continue the exams. Am I missing something?"
Kakashi covered his Sharingan after catching a glimpse of the match with it and turned to his student.
"Well, technically speaking, you fail the second test if you can't acquire both scrolls within the time limit, you try to leave the area or one of your teammates dies. Kin is not dead. It is a similar situation as with Sakura. Additionally, since the team from Otogakure seems to be connected with Orochimaru, the Hokage wanted to see them continue so he convinced the others to let them pass."
"That isn't really fair."
"Life rarely is, Naruto. You should know."
Their conversation was interrupted when Hayate announced the winner.
"Winner: Misumi Tsurugi."
The other boy, Zaku, was taken by medics while the board flashed through another set of names, stopping at two.
"Seventh match: Naruto Uzumaki versus Temari."
Naruto's eyes gained focus when the match was announced and he looked to his right, at the seemingly older girl from Sunagakure. He followed her movements, from jumping on the railing to landing on the ground, down on the lower level, and despite his protests, despite his attempts at calming down, a small grin formed on his face. Although he tried to deny it, suppress it, he couldn't help but look forward to the match. Temari of the Suna siblings trio looked like a good opponent. Not personality-wise, he knew her far too little to know that. No, she just seemed tough.
It made the small glands located on his kidneys start secreting adrenaline, pumping it into his blood-stream with every heart-beat. It was finally his time to prove himself. To show everybody a glimpse of what he was capable of now.
"Good luck, Naruto."
The supportive words from his sensei went unnoticed and the blond energetically sailed through the air to land in front of his opponent.
"Are both participants ready?" Hayate asked both of them.
"Yeah, let's get this over with." Temari stated in a bored voice. Feeling a shiver coming from within his spine, Naruto's grin widened.
"I'm ready."
"Begin!"
As soon as the proctor ended the exclamation, Naruto backed away from the girl and landed on one knee, supporting his body with his left hand pressed against the ground. He waited.
At the opposite side of the arena, his opponent waited as well. It seemed both of them wanted to see what they were up against. Seconds passed in almost dead silence as even the onlookers could feel the heavy atmosphere. On one hand, it was apparent most of the shinobi in the hall knew about Temari and her power as a Genin. However, nobody knew what Naruto could actually do. Those who'd heard about him knew only one thing. He used to be dead-last.
With a palm full of kunai, Naruto cut through the air with the hand and sent them flying straight at Temari. Not wasting a moment, Temari gripped the large folding fan and swung it down. The strong blast of wind instantly knocked down all of the kunai speeding towards her.
'Shadow Clone jutsu.' Naruto formed a single hand-seal and two clones popped into existence at his sides. With a mental command, he ordered them to position themselves around Temari. Narrowing her eyes, the girl suspiciously eyed the clones, thinking they were just the regular illusions.
'Now.' All three versions of Naruto brought their hands down and let smoke bombs explode beneath them. The cloud of smoke surrounded them and hid them from Temari's sight. After a short pause, three sets of kunai flew from each cloud.
Naruto jumped from his cloud in time to see all three sets of metal projectiles hit the floor after Temari spun around and blew all of them away with a strong gust of wind.
"Is this all? You seemed more confident a few days ago." She said, frowning at him in disappointment.
Landing on the ground, Naruto stared at her for a few moments with a serious expression before his grin returned.
"I'm not even warmed up."
At that moment, two sets of kunai shot from the clouds obscuring his clones and flew at the girl faster than before.
"I thought you'd realized it's useless, I can…" Temari exclaimed loudly but she trailed off after the kunai continued to fly at her even after she sent a blast of wind at them. Rolling backwards, she barely avoided the now slower kunai and watched them smash together. She quickly got up, a look of surprise written all over her face but Naruto was already closing in on her.
Cursing quietly, she hastily swung her fan in an attempt at pushing him back but, in a puff of smoke, he disappeared and only a kunai remained in the air. He reappeared behind her and, being only a few steps away from her, punched the ground. Just when she realized he'd used Kawarimi and turned around to blast him away with a second blast of wind, a barrier made from earth erected itself and hid him from her view.
'Earth release: Earth Shore Return jutsu.' Naruto thought and jumped over the barrier at the same time the full brunt of Temari's attack hit it. Only with a large amount of luck and a bit of instinct did the girl manage to raise her fan and protect herself from a brutal punch to the abdomen. The power behind the strike still pushed her a few inches backwards though and she felt a pain in her palms from trying to hold the fan in the right position.
Ignoring it, she strained her muscles and swung the fan again, blasting Naruto away, but he disappeared in a puff of smoke.
Hidden in the slowly vanishing cloud of smoke, Naruto rubbed his knuckles after successfully swapping positions with his clone.
'She's got good reflexes.' He mused with a satisfied grin. He then heard his opponent's voice.
"Okay, you're not that bad. That trick with the kunai surprised me."
'Time to take it up a notch.' Naruto threw another smoke bomb on the ground, ordering his remaining clone to do the same and, along with the clone, jumped in the air. Both of them threw a single kunai at the girl.
After they got blown away, the real Naruto smiled.
"Trick? No, you're just not the only one with a wind element affinity." While Temari narrowed her eyes in dismay, he extended his arms forward.
'Wind release: Great Breakthrough!' He pumped enough chakra into the technique to cause a powerful gust of wind to travel across the hall and towards the wide-eyed Temari.
"Damn." A curse escaped her lips and she fully opened her fan to reveal three purple circles inscribed on it before swinging it down, hard.
"Sickle Weasel jutsu." She whispered and manipulated the air currents around her to send a gale of countless invisible blades at Naruto. The technique fought the Great Breakthrough jutsu for a while, eventually cutting through it and enveloping Naruto within it. When it seemed the match was over, Naruto puffed out of existence and reappeared at Temari's side, running at her from within the smoke-screen.
His gravity seals deactivated, the blond crossed the distance in a matter of instants and, even though Temari was able to hear him coming, she couldn't protect herself well enough. Naruto cocked back his right fist and then punched it forward. His fist tore through a part of her fan and his knuckles hit the clothing covering the soft abdomen of the shocked girl. As there was nothing absorbing the power of the punch, Temari was blasted backwards, landing a few feet away in a heap.
She remained conscious but a fit of violent coughs prevented her from getting up again. When the fit stopped, a kunai was already pressed against the skin of her neck.
"Give up." Naruto said quietly, yet firmly. When she seemingly tried to get up, he pushed the tip of the metallic weapon further and let it dig into her skin, drawing a tiny droplet of blood.
"I knew… I knew you still had that one weird clone… but I never thought you could move so fast… I horribly underestimated you… damn." She grumbled through gritted teeth.
A hand tapped Naruto on his shoulder and he heard the voice of the proctor.
"It's over." Hayate stated and straightened his back.
"Winner: Naruto Uzumaki."
…
A group of medics checked over Temari's condition and concluded she had suffered some minor internal injuries from Naruto's special punch. Despite her vehement protests, during which she had to grit her teeth from the pain, they put her on a stretcher and prepared to escort her to a room for the injured. Naruto used that short moment of preparation to call out to the girl.
"Temari-san."
"What, uuh…?" She snapped and raised her head but the pain quickly forced her to cool off. Naruto grinned in a friendly manner and nodded to her.
"Good match."
Temari stared at him for a while with an unreadable expression before relaxing and completely lying down.
"Bite me, Uzumaki."
The blond snorted and watched the medics take the girl away, in his mind thinking about a surprising fact.
'She's a bit similar to Kurotsuchi.' An unpleasant feeling chilling him on the back of his neck caused him to stop his train of thoughts and turn around to see Temari's brother, Gaara, staring at him with an expression Naruto could only describe as disturbing enjoyment. It made the hair on the blond's skin stand up and he could almost feel the oppressive pressure coming from the boy. The stare lasted only for a few seconds, after which Naruto noticed other stares.
Most of the people previously watching the match were openly staring at him with confused or suspicious eyes. Jōnin were whispering to each other, aside from Kakashi, who was giving the blond an eye-smile.
"Eighth match: Neji Hyūga versus Jibachi Kamizuru."
Naruto moved towards the stairs and, walking by a boy with featureless, white eyes, he noticed the analyzing look from him. When he turned to confront him, the boy just smirked and continued walking with a haughty expression.
'…' Naruto just blanked and ignored it.
He also missed the sad look on Hinata's face as she cradled a small tube filled with some sort of ointment and let herself get patted on the shoulder by Kurenai. She obviously wanted to help patching Naruto up but the tiny cuts he had suffered were already healed. After the blond got up to the rest of his team and received praise for his victory, he watched the match and recalled what his Jōnin-sensei, Kakashi, had told him and Sasuke before the exams began. It was not because he wanted to. It was because of the current match-up.
'Remember this, Naruto, Sasuke. There are going to be a lot of strong Genin in the upcoming Chunin exams, there's no doubt about it. I will not reveal everything I know about them, at least not until you pass into the finals, which I'm not even doubting. However, I will give you some information so you'd know who to study during these first two parts. From all Genin in Konoha that are going to participate, I want you to take a close look at the team under the guidance of Might Guy. It is unquestioningly the strongest team right now. Moreover, even though I don't know what you two are fully capable of, one of Might Guy's students, Neji Hyūga, is probably the strongest Genin. Yes, even stronger than you two.'
That was the most important thing he remembered from the small talk. At first, he had suspected Kakashi was trying to scare them. But, looking at what was happening in front of his eyes, he had to admit the one-eyed man was right.
It took only a minute but what happened between Neji and his opponent could only be described with one word. Massacre. The poor Genin from Iwagakure had no chance at all against the Hyūga prodigy who devastated him with overwhelming force. He dominated the match from beginning to end. While Sasuke gritted his teeth and flared his Sharingan, Naruto gripped the railing.
'Kakashi-sensei was right, this guy is a monster. Even if I went all out I don't think that I'd be able to win. Not as I am right now.' He nervously grinned.
'The finals will be interesting.'
"Winner: Neji Hyūga."
…
"Winner: Kurobachi Kamizuru."
The third member of Kamizuru clan from Iwagakure was the winner of the ninth match between him and a Genin from Kabuto's team, Yoroi Akadō. It was a boring match and Naruto spent it mostly by awkwardly talking with others who came to congratulate him on his victory in his match. Namely, Shikamaru and, surprisingly, Tenten, who was a bit disheartened that he had defeated a fellow girl so easily.
"Tenth match: Sasuke Uchiha versus Kiba Inuzuka."
Naruto glanced at his teammate, who'd finally calmed himself down after seeing Neji decimate his opponent,t and lightly elbowed him in his side to get his attention. Sasuke raised his eyebrow.
"What, dobe?"
"Ah, back to being friendly I see. Nothing much, just don't get too conceited. Kiba is not as weak as you think he is." Naruto stated.
Sasuke scoffed.
"You think I would lose to him?" He asked in an almost offended tone.
"I just expect you to get into the finals so we can have a proper match too."
Sasuke froze and narrowed his eyes. His expression broke down after a moment when a hungry grin appeared on his face.
"You can count on it." He replied and jumped down at the same time as Kiba did in the distance.
Kakashi looked at the blond with a smile carefully hidden under his mask.
'Yeah, they are going to be good friends soon.'
His eyes intently glued to the slowly starting match, Naruto bit his lower lip. He knew Kiba from his time at the academy. Kiba, along with Shikamaru and Chōji, had become one of the first people he could consider to be his friends. They were the only ones who didn't care about what the adults told them about the blond and sometimes played with him after school. The Inuzuka eventually grew into a person who was a bit arrogant. However, Naruto knew that deep inside, the boy was actually a loyal friend who he could depend on. They could and would sometimes bicker but that was probably normal. It was quite apparent even now when Kiba tried to taunt Sasuke with tough talk.
The proctor announced the start of the match and Naruto frowned. He'd told Sasuke the truth; he didn't really think his teammate would lose. On the other hand, the Uchiha tended to underestimate some of his opponents and, since Kiba was quite a bad student back at the academy, it could happen again.
On the lower level, Kiba got on all four and chakra, flickering in the air, started to pour out of him. In an impressive feat of speed, he crossed the distance between him and Sasuke and tried to punch the boy in the abdomen. Heavily surprised at the sudden acceleration, Sasuke barely dodged the strike that left a few holes in his shirt. Fortunately for him, that was all the attack did to him. Cursing at himself for miscalculating Kiba's abilities, he instantly activated his Sharingan. Two tomoes appeared in both of his eyes, allowing him to track Kiba's fast movements like they were nothing. Though it wouldn't have helped him much if his body wasn't able to move fast enough.
When Kiba tried to strike the Uchiha for the second time, the raven-haired boy ducked under the swift kick at the last moment and used the opening to throw a set of shuriken at his opponent. Kiba cursed and, thanks to his heightened reflexes, he escaped with only a few scratches.
As soon as he landed on the ground both he and his dog, Akamaru, jumped back, away from Sasuke, Kiba throwing a smoke bomb under his own feet to conceal his presence.
Sasuke narrowed his eyes and, after a brief pause, flashed through a set of hand-seals and took a deep breath.
'Fire release: Phoenix Sage Fire jutsu!' A volley of unpredictably moving fireballs emerged from his mouth and flew at the area of the smokescreen. The attack covered the whole cloud and a grunt was heard from within. The smoke dissipated and revealed Kiba with a coat lightly burnt on several places. Akamaru was on all fours, growling, and his fur was slowly becoming red, which alarmed Sasuke. Kiba plucked something out of his pocket and threw it into his mouth.
With his Sharingan, Sasuke could faintly see a sudden increase in chakra flow in Kiba's body and frowned when the boy kneeled and let his dog jump on top of him. Akamaru loudly barked something, his owner joining him soon after that.
"Beast Ninja art: Beast Human Clone jutsu!" He barked and, in a puff of smoke, two versions of Kiba intently glared at Sasuke who looked at them sourly.
Since Kiba was focusing on his own technique, Sasuke flicked his wrists before he heard another exclamation.
"Let's do this, Akamaru. Fang over Fang!" Spinning like a set of tornadoes, Kiba and Akamaru shot towards Sasuke with great speed. Even though his Sharingan was able to see them, Sasuke's body wasn't as fast and, despite his attempt at dodging the attack, he received some damage. Although, it was only a single scratch.
In the short amount of time that he was in the air, he flicked his wrists again.
'One or two more times…' He thought.
On the upper level, Naruto was squinting his eyes, trying to see through Sasuke's plan. He knew the boy was planning something but he wasn't sure what it was. It took him watching Sasuke get almost hit two more times before he caught a faint glimpse of something metallic. He grinned.
'So you don't want to show more of your jutsu and plan on defeating Kiba with the least amount of chakra possible, huh? So melodramatic, Sasuke.' Naruto thought and shook his head.
Kiba followed Sasuke and, together with Akamaru, aimed his Fang over Fang at the boy. Seeing the Uchiha calmly awaiting the attack, not moving an inch away, set off alarms in his head but it was too late. As he flew closer to Sasuke, Kiba felt something painfully restricting his movements and his spinning momentum quickly died down.
It was only then that he noticed what'd happened.
"Wire strings." Sasuke answered for him with a grin. Truthfully, Kiba and the transformed Akamaru got caught in a net of wire strings Sasuke set up using his kunai that was now embedded into the stone wall behind him and the ground behind Kiba. The Uchiha purposely let himself get almost hit a few times to manipulate Kiba into following him closer to the wall.
The wild Genin realized his mistake and tried to quickly unbind himself but Sasuke was already in the air and, delivering a devastating drop kick to the boy's back. Under the force of the kick, the kunai holding the wires were forced out of the wall and Kiba hit the ground, face first. He wasn't instantly knocked unconscious but his head was spinning and he was clearly unable to continue the match, despite his slurry protests.
"Winner: Sasuke Uchiha."
…
"You know, you could have avoided even those scratches if you'd gone all out from the beginning." Naruto commented after Sasuke returned to the upper level and sat down to take care of his minor injuries. The Uchiha scoffed and stubbornly shook his head.
"You didn't go all out either."
"…"
"Besides, it would have made me look weak if I had to go all out on somebody like him." He added with a frown. Naruto wanted to say something else to him but Kakashi was faster.
"Either way, you did well. Techniques of the Inuzuka clan are difficult to avoid." He stated and gave his student a thumbs up.
"Final match: Dosu Kinuta versus Gaara."
The announcement caught the attention of both boys. Sasuke hastily finished bandaging his arm and got up. Along with Naruto, he stared at the redhead appearing on the lower level in a custom version of a Shunshin jutsu. Both Genin noticed his face and had the same thought when turning to the other Genin from Otogakure, the opponent for Gaara.
'This is going to end quickly.'
And it happened just as they thought it would, even though they had no idea what kind of abilities the weird Genin from Sunagakure possessed. The only thing they knew was the look in the boy's eyes. It was the same all the time. It was a look of bloodlust. An intensive, chill inducing bloodlust, too strong for a kid of his age.
The two members of Team 7 remembered Dosu from the little fight they'd had just a few days ago. The boy had appeared to be quite smart, perceptive. He acted more like a shinobi than a newbie Genin. After they had discovered he had ties with Orochimaru, it'd only gotten more obvious that Dosu was not a weak ninja.
However, no matter how hard he tried or how many techniques he used on Gaara, he was unable to even touch the boy. Seeing the sand swirling around the redhead like a living entity protecting him from any harm, the duo realized how it was possible the boy had cleared all of his missions without receiving any injury.
"Is this it? Did you use up all of your jutsu? If you did, it's my turn now." Gaara stated in a deadly calm tone.
From that point onward, it took him only a minute to corner his opponent and enclose him within a coat of sand.
Naruto wasn't sure what was happening but he knew that if somebody didn't stop it, the Genin from Otogakure would die.
Gaara started to slowly clench his opened fist and a pained cry escaped from Dosu's lips.
"Argh! I… surrender… AAAARGH!" Along with the sickening sound of something getting popped, a red stain appeared on a part of the sand that was strangling him. Naruto and even Sasuke grimaced. They held no compassion for Dosu whatsoever but the scene was getting uncomfortable.
"It is part of a ninja's job." Kakashi said in a hard voice but he eyed the proctor as if trying to tell him to stop the match.
And he didn't need to do it for long as Hayate quickly landed next to Gaara and exclaimed.
"That's enough, he surrendered."
"No! It's not enough…." Gaara mumbled, clearly ignoring him. Another popping sound later and Dosu screamed louder before he finally fainted. With a grimace, Hayate resolutely jumped towards the unconscious boy and, with a swift slice of his previously hidden Tantō, he forced the sand to fall down and to let go of Dosu. He immediately motioned the medics to come and turned to Gaara, who was glaring at him in obvious rage.
"I said I don't want unnecessary corpses. Winner: Gaara."
…
All eleven winners lined up in front of the three proctors that had overseen the Chunin exams so far, with the Hokage calmly smoking his pipe behind them. The leader of Konoha was going over each and every face, carefully recalling all of their matches.
'I don't think there have been any surprises, aside maybe from Naruto-kun. What is surprising, though, is the number of Konoha Genin passing into the final round. Shino-kun, Shikamaru-kun, Tenten-kun, Lee-kun, Hinata-kun, Musumi-kun, Naruto-kun, Neji-kun, Sasuke-kun… nine of the finalists are from Konoha, only one is from Iwagakure and only one is from Sunagakure. I suppose I should be glad that somebody from Iwa managed to pass or the Tsuchikage would've been rather… unpleasant during his stay here. Not to mention that the Kazekage would've been extremely disappointed to see none of his children in action if Gaara-kun didn't pass.' Sarutobi Hiruzen, the man called 'The Professor', thought while spitting circles of smoke from his mouth. With a cough, he stepped forward.
In the course of the next several minutes, he explained, in detail, what was going to happen with the rest of the Genin that had managed to pass to the final round. As always, his explanation was long, full of phrases and difficult words that made some of the young finalists squirm in place and yawn from boredom. However, they needed to hear it. They needed to hear just how much the final round meant, not only for them, but also for others. For the Lords, Kages and other important people visiting Konoha just for that one long day. Just how much it could potentially mean for the whole village, which could attract more and more customers.
"As you will all represent your Hidden Village, it is necessary for you to gather all of your strength. Because of that, the final round will take place in exactly one month. I advise you to use this time wisely. Get to truly know yourself and your enemies. Calculate your chances based on what you have learned about the others. Up until now, you were forced to fight in unprepared matches, when you had basically zero information on your opponents. You were fighting somebody unknown. The finals will be different." The Hokage said, closely watching the finalists' expressions. He glanced to his left at Anko, who was holding a small box, and nodded to her. He then turned back to the Genin and cleared his throat.
"That's how it is. Before I can dismiss you, there is one more thing. Anko here, is holding a box that contains pieces of paper. I want each of you to take one."
As Anko passed all eleven of them, each Genin suspiciously reached inside the box to take out a small, crumbled piece of paper with a number imprinted on it. They all gave their numbers to the third proctor, Ibiki, who then proceeded to write something on a small board. After that, he showed it to them, while informing them.
"The last part of the Chunin exams is a tournament. I think it's self-explanatory so I hope all you understand it."
While the others tried to overcome their surprise at seeing their future opponents, Shikamaru did so the fastest and, with a self-pitying grimace, turned to the Hokage.
"I reckon only one of us can win the tournament, hence becoming a Chunin?"
The leader of Konoha shook his head.
"No, Shikamaru-kun, that's not quite it. Including myself, there will be various judges, like the Kazekage, Tsuchikage and feudal lords, watching the final stage of the exams. Throughout the tournament, we will be evaluating your abilities and those judged to have the necessary qualities of a Chunin will be able to become one. Even if they lose the first match."
"So all of us could become Chunin." Tenten muttered.
"Or none of you." The Hokage said in a grim voice.
"So troublesome…" Shikamaru sighed.
While the Hokage dismissed the Genin, Naruto stared at a certain shy girl and rubbed his temples, feeling an exemplary headache coming.
'Why does Hinata have to be my first opponent?'
…
In a different part of Konoha, two shady men stood face to face, their bodies partly covered by dark shadows.
"So, Kabuto, mind telling me what that little provocation was during the preliminary?" Orochimaru said, while licking his mouth with his abnormally long tongue, still dressed as a Jōnin from Otogakure.
Kneeling on one knee, Kabuto's face was pointed at the ground so that the infamous Sannin couldn't see his expression.
"Hmm, nothing really. I just thought it would have been really suspicious of me to just suddenly withdraw from the exams since I was not even injured."
Orochimaru narrowed his eyes, the split end of his tongue that resembled a snake slightly vibrating and a dangerous smile appeared on his face.
"Don't tell me this is about 'that man', Kabuto. You still dislike him for what happened in your distant past? So you're trying to sabotage this… last mission of mine?"
Kabuto's eyes, hidden from view, almost bulged out of their sockets from the shock and a small bead of sweat formed on the side of his forehead. The silver-haired boy suppressed the memory of a young woman dying in his arms and gulped down his saliva. He couldn't see it, but his senses were telling him the stare from Orochimaru was boring into the back of his head and even a shinobi of his caliber was afraid that his voice would tremble in that moment. He cleared his throat and raised his head to look at his superior.
'Should have known he'd notice. Sorry, Naruto-kun. I tried to warn you as subtly as I could. I hope a brat like you can do something.' He thought. In his mind, Naruto was completely expendable but he hoped he could use the blonde for his own selfishness.
"Of course not, Orochimaru-sama."
With a wide grin, Orochimaru darkly chuckled.
"Kukuku, you really are an interesting child, Kabuto."
Trying to change the flow and direction of the conversation, Kabuto pushed up his glasses, secretly wiping the sweat from his brow, and raised a question.
"If you don't mind me asking, what about the girl with the seal?"
Orochimaru withdrew his tongue and grimaced with a distant look in his face.
"She's as good as dead. If by any chance she does survive it's nothing of my concern or interest. I'm more interested in others."
"You mean Sasuke-kun."
The grimace disappeared from the Sannin's face and was replaced with a wide grin, his tongue once again slithering around his lips.
"Yeeees. He managed to escape me, kukuku, but I will have him. The darkness is still within him, I could feel it. We only need to… inspire him… to use it."
"What about Naruto-kun?"
Again, the smile disappeared.
"Uzumaki Naruto… he is the one holding the darkness within Sasuke back. Building a bond between the two of them, a bridge of camaraderie, is quite an annoyance. However…" He trailed off for a moment.
"…even a bond like that can be used for my purposes. You just need to know how to manipulate it."
"So we do nothing?" Kabuto asked in dismay.
A dark chuckle resonated through the air, the likes of which would make the skin of any ordinary person crawl.
"We let events flow naturally and poke where we need poke."
End of chapter 8.
Another chapter behind us. Yeah, sorry about the delay, uneexpected meetings, work, responsibilities and writer's block kept me from finishing this sooner. In this chapter, we got to know that Sakura's fate is not really set in the stone and she definitely won' shook the curse mark off as easy as Sasuke did in canon. You can count on it. Naruto and Sasuke consider Sakura at least their comrade and seeing her barely alive is not without consequences.
We also saw that Kabuto's actions are not simple. Fights were short but I tried to show something from each one. The finals are coming, what is going to happen?
To adress some reviews from ch.7:
*Krazyfanfiction1 - thank you and I'll think about it. Could be fun.
*Umbra_Venator - there will be but not for long and won't be very important... I think. You may think I'm a jerk for not revealing who it will be but truthfully, I just let the story write itself. I don't want to state that f.e : Naruto x Kurotsuchi, if I'll find out later that the pairing doesn't make sense.
*Otherguy14 - she won't be a romantic interest but for now, I'm keeping her in my mind. She will reappear though. Mangekyou... not a bad idea but I don't think he would regret is so much... at least not at that moment. He needs to see Sakura more as a friend for that. Curse mark... she will suffer because of it. I hope you liked the matches.
*Shawn2012 - it just didn't seem right. I mean, I spent many chapters showing the progress Naruto made and despite that he still recieves the seal? Nah, his progress should have logically helped him to prevent that.
*MadaMag - oh... I guess it's not Area 44 then... *sulks*. Oh... did I really lost count of scrolls? Damn... red hair, well, he saw Karin's healing abilities and even then, he's not very much convinced... so far. Thank you :D
Thank you for all your support, all of you (sorry if I didn't respond to your review). I hope you'll like the future chapters too. Until next time.
Thanks to TheVastEmptiness for beta.
