Chapter 9-Preliminary Knock Out
5 days have passed and now the passing teams are lined up in front of the Hokage, with their team Sensei, as the Hokage addressed, "Congratulations for passing," as Tsunade overlooks the teams, the Suna team was looking slightly uncomfortable (well 3 of the 4 were), before she continued, "Now due to the amount of passing individuals, we are going to have a preliminary matches, because there are too many of you and with the risk of a stamina freak (insert Naruto and Lee sneezing) or heaven forbid smart people trying to out strategize each other (to the sneezes of: Shikamaru and Temari) and we can not have the final round last for days," before she was interrupted by another Jonin, who finished the speech off, while Anko ordered a screen to be lowered.
Once the speech was finished, the screen blinked into life and 2 names had started to blur before stopping and displaying the names: [Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto vs. Uchiha Sasuke] with the last name causing the whole towers populace to go deaf, as a pink haired banshee screeched, "BAKA, YOU BETTER LOSE TO SASUKE-KUN," much to the disgust of all there. After re-orientating themselves all Genin but Naruto and Sasuke, who of which the former showing respect for his opponent by: slipping into a wide legged stance, with his left arm stretched out, hovering over his left leg and his right arm, positioned level with his head, fist clenched.
But Sasuke however, simply stood in an at ease stance, with no real sign of treating Naruto as a threat, though he did have a scowl on his faces, that Sakura swooned, "Sasuke-kun," over and over. A minute later, the referee Genma (?) asked, "Ready," which he got a nod from Naruto and a, "Hn," of Sasuke, knowing it was the best he is getting, he commands, "Hajime," causing Sasuke to run his mouth off with, "Dobe just give up, the Uchiha can only be beaten by other Uchiha," in an arrogant tone, making the observes frown and Gekko to groan.
In response Naruto simply rolled his eyes and stood at the ready, which really irritated Sasuke, as the latter dashed forward to deliver a punch and missed, when Naruto used his flexibility to quickly bend backwards out of the way of the fist and then transitioned it into a backwards handstand style backflip, using the momentum to dig his feet into Sasuke's chin and launched the emo into the air, with a backwards spin. Somehow righting himself from the spin, Sasuke landed himself on the wall behind him and then jumped forward; flashing threw several handseals, arriving on the tiger seal, "Katon: Cho Karyuka no Jutsu," and breathed out a gigantic dragon of orange fire, that raced towards Naruto and as it hit Naruto, Sasuke yells, "Die Dobe."
Cackling at his flame engulfed target, Sasuke gloated and celebrated his victory, before the sound of heavy foot steps, within the fires were heard. Walking out of the fire was a figure, seemingly made of magma with lances of fire, arcing between the cracks in the rocky plates and it eyes glowed a powerful blazing orange, after walking out of the fire, the figure looked over the duck haired emo with an akinned deadpan and said with a familiar, "You know teme, you should never use a jutsu when you have not mastered it, because while it could be powerful it means jack without control," as he then raised his arms and said, "let us show you, Katon: Saramandā no yoroi," as the arcing flames, grew and formed into a spectral dragon (See Dragon Aspect from Skyrim: Dragonborn).
When the armor was formed, the magma figure lashed forwards and swings his fist into Sasuke stomach, singeing his shirt and charring, then he switch the punch to a plowing move to ram Sasuke into the ground, with the jolt of the attack knocking Sasuke out. Once Sasuke was out cold, Naruto who he revealed was lava figure, when he receded his lava form, stood down knowing he had won and there was no point continuing, before heading upstairs to his girls.
On the otherside of the room, Naruto spied a very Orochimaru-like man looking at him with contempt and power hunger, before notice someone whom made his eyes widen, as he saw familiar face of a friend he had in Oto (one of the only 3 he had) and swore that he'd rescue, when he had the chance and mission to do so. The girl that caught Naruto eyes was Tsuchi Kin (see main cannon for appearance) and when she felt someone looking at her, she became alert and looked around, it took a bit but she was able to zero in on the feeling and when she did, her eyes widen and began to form tears, 'Naruto-kun,' she thought, as she response was, 'Kin-chan,' mentally.
While Naruto and Kin were having their moment, the board flashed through several names and landed on: [Nara Shikamaru of Konoha vs. Kingu Roxas of Iwa] which yielded Shikamaru as the winner, whom use the shadows created by: Roxas' Earth Jutsu to extend the reach of his shadow, to catch him from behind and then Shikamaru moved him into position to smack his head on the wall, so hard that it had caused cracks and made Roxas shout, "I yield,." After Shikamaru's match, Kin was up again Kankaro and won because the former, shot senbon at his true self, which paralyzed him and made his seen body flop to the ground like a string cut puppet.
Hours of boring matches latter and Genma had announced, "Okay genin, there still too many," to the 16 ninjas that had passed, before saying, "So We will be having another round of preliminaries (the screen flaring to life once more to show [Inuzuka Kiba vs. Uzumaki-Namikaze Naruto]) so if all except for the chosen return to the balcony and we will proceed."
(A.N. the fights from here are from the Canon – bar Sasuke vs. Kabuto's teammate and The Neji Hinata fight ended with Neji winning but getting disqualified for not stopping when ordered. Also Kin and Shikamaru did not face each other but rather cannon fodder from Ame and Ino tied with Kurotsuchi)
10 hours later, the second round of prelims were finished and the numbers were acceptable for the third round, which is now that we find: Naruto, Kin, Gaara, Dosu, Shino, Temari and Shikamaru, waiting in a line up to be given a number and shown who will be there opponents. The number was given buy have the Genin drawn a number from a box and the numbers drawn were: 1 for Naruto, 2 for Gaara, 3 for Dosu, 4 for Shikamaru, 5 for Temari, 6 for Shino and 7 for Kin, which made the matchups: Gaara vs. Dosu, Shikamaru vs. Temari, Shino vs. Kin and Naruto vs. Gaara/Dosu.
"Okay genin, you have your numbers, know whom you are fighting and now you have a month to prepare, whether it be to learn new move or refine old ones, so used this time well and make sure to give your audience a good show," announced Tsunade at the end of the matchup phase, before dismissing the group to their own devices. The ninjas were gone, only Naruto and Kin remained, which the latter immediately latched on to the former and cried her eyes out at been reunited with the one she loved, as the former embraced and said, "sorry for leaving you," before kissing her on the lips, as he shushined them to the Senju compound.