Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto or Assassin's Creed
Chapter 10: Eliminations
The group arrived at their allocated room, Kin had already been taken to the Hokage as to inform him of what she knows; Naruto sighed, he had to meet Kakashi in order to inform him of the seal on Sasuke, he also needed to send a message to Haku; he had found out from Kin that sound was planning an invasion, and that Orochimaru is the leader of Otogakura, thus he needed to have Haku find out where Orochimaru was, maybe even find out if they are working with anyone.
Sakura sighed; she was extremely nervous about spending the night in the same room as Sasuke, even though Naruto was there too, she could not let the self-consciousness go, she had liked Sasuke for the longest time, and she knew he did not care for her; she remembered how he would look at Haku and blush every time the feminine boy was around them, it made her feel inadequate; not only was she less feminine than a boy, but she was also said boy's subordinate; though she did acknowledge him; he was what she aimed to be, she wanted to surpass him, maybe even stand next to Naruto; 'Stand next to Naruto? What am I thinking' she thought to herself, 'I like Sasuke-kun not Naruto-sama; though recently I've been seeing Naruto as strong and handsome, but I like Sasuke-kun, don't I?'
Sasuke sighed; the area he had been bitten has been hurting him and he felt another presence, something telling him to go wild and destroy everything and everyone; he remembered how he went berserk when he saw the three from Oto, he removed the hands of one of them, 'did I kill him? What the hell was wrong with me?' he thought, he also remembered how Naruto had taken care of everything and how Sakura was able to knock him out with a single punch to the stomach; he did not like it, he was supposed to be an elite and she was just Sakura, a merchant's daughter who was playing ninja; his pride would not allow him to let it be, she got the drop on him; Naruto he could have understood, she boy was hiding his true strength, he could tell when they sometimes spared in the academy, but Sakura had grown powerful in the short time since they returned from wave, he also noticed that she had grown closer to Naruto and treated him with the utmost respect; 'didn't she like me? What in the world happened for her to become like this.'
After getting settled down Naruto left the room and headed straight to the roof of the tower, when he got there he whistled and two pigeon came down landing on his outstretched hand; he tied a small scroll to one leg of each pigeon and allowed them to fly away; he took a deep breath then exhaled; 'things are going to be a lot harder from now on' he though.
Few Minutes Later with Haku
Haku was walking around the estate, he had a very bad feeling and it had nothing to do with his now short hair; he was sure that something had gone wrong, but what, he did not know. It was then that he heard a pigeon hitting its beak against the glass windows of the estate calling for his attention, he rushed towards it. 'I guess my feeling was correct after all' he thought as he started removing the letter tied to the pigeon's leg.
Haku read the letter a couple of times allowing the information to settle in and his brain to process it. 'I need to check where the snake Sannin has gone to' he thought as he rushed to the armory. Once there he proceeded to outfit himself with his 'work cloths', a white assassin's robe, weapon and ammo holders, and his former masters infamous weapon; the sword however was hidden inside a sheath, in order to hide the fact that it was that exact sword and drawing unwanted attention towards the young assassin.
With Kakashi
Kakashi was at the memorial stone talking to his sensei and friends, he needed to clear his head; though he knew his Genin team could handle themselves, he still worried; true Naruto was a master assassin, and Sakura showed great promise, heck Sasuke was Rookie of the year; they could handle themselves, but he was still worried, many what ifs plagued his mind; 'what if Naruto had to leave their side and an incredible enemy showed up' or 'what if one of the villages sent Jounin teams disguised as Genin and proceeded to attack them? Naruto could hold his own against three maybe six Jounin ninja, but what if there were more and Naruto could not protect his teammates?' and the final thought was 'what if Orochimaru intervened? The message sent did mention Orochimaru.'
While he was lost in thought a messenger pigeon landed on his head and started taping his head with its beak; when he realized, Kakashi caught the pigeon and removed the letter tied to its leg. After reading the letter, he burned it with a small amount of fire chakra and started heading towards the forest of death, he will deal with that cursed seal.
Two Hours Later
Kakashi arrived at the tower in the center of the forest; when the Jounin examiners saw him they checked him for any type of Jutsu before letting him go in; he understood why, apparently Orochimaru's involvement has been found out. When he arrived at his team's room he knocked at the door.
Sasuke answered the door when he heard knocking, and he was surprised when he saw Kakashi. "Kakashi-sensei, what brings you here?" asked the Uchiha.
"I heard about your encounter in the forest and about the seal that was placed on you; one of our Jounin, Mitarashi Anko has it, and such a seal is a curse which in itself needs to be sealed off" said the silver haired Jounin.
"So what are you going to do?" asked Sasuke.
"I am going to ask you to come with me in order to perform the sealing ritual, it will take time and will result in you being extremely tired afterwards, meaning you will need rest"
"Then no, I have to be there for the closing ceremony of this round otherwise I will be disqualified."
"True; however you will be ready before then, it only needs a day of rest and you still have four more days before the end of this round"
"I understand" said Sasuke "let's get to it then."
And with that the two Sharingan holders of Konoha left the room.
"Naruto; how did Kakashi find out so quickly?" asked Sakura, who had seen the entire exchange.
"I sent him a pigeon, sent one to Haku too; he should now be looking around for any traces of Orochimaru; though I doubt he would find him" said Naruto who was lying back on one of the three beds in the room.
"I see" said Sakura ending the conversation.
Final day of the second round arrived; Naruto and his team were in the arena waiting for the other teams to arrive; since they arrived only two teams had made it to the tower before the final day; the first was the Suna team, which had arrived the day after, the other was a team from Ame which arrived the following day.
The doors to the arena opened to reveal four more teams have finally made it, all four were from Konoha. The first was team Eight; they looked slightly overworked; they were followed by team Gai; which made relax slightly knowing that after the exams, he would induct Tenten into the order; after team Gai came team Ten; they were relaxed and looked like though they did have a fight, it must have been early on in the round but they arrived slow in order to conserve strength and make sure they were not followed; the final team to arrive was Kabuto's team; that team looked worst off, it was possible that they had gone through a lot and had probably fought just outside the tower.
When Ino saw Sakura, she could not contain her happiness; she was excited to see her best friend, and she wanted to prove to her that she was much stronger than before, maybe then Sakura would acknowledge her and talk to her about the big secret.
Ino was not the only one excited to see members of team Seven; Hinata too and for similar reasons wanted to prove herself, especially in front of Naruto, who had promised her and her team that should they prove themselves, he would tell them what the three they have been attempting to follow where really doing.
After the Hokage explained the reason behind the exam, Gekkou Hayate, the proctor for the exam explained that there will be an elimination round before they proceed to the third round, with Kabuto forfeiting due to chakra exhaustion. "May Uzumaki Naruto and Inuzuka Kiba enter the arena" said Hayate.
With his order, both Naruto and the Inuzuka entered the arena. When the match began, Kiba quickly ate a solider pill and gave Akamaru one in order to fight Naruto. Naruto decided to end the fight before it truly began; he threw a metallic ball to the floor and it exploded giving a bad stench and an incredible about of smoke, much more than the usual smoke bomb. When the smoke cleared Naruto was standing, Kiba and Akamaru in his hands, unconscious.
"Winner, Uzumaki Naruto" said Hayate.
"How did he do that?" asked Ino.
"The stench bomb cut Kiba's sense of smell of, and while he was blinded, Naruto when behind him and Akamaru and struck them both to the back of their heads; it's not fatal, but that never was the point" Sakura answered. "You can ask Hinata, she had her Byakugan on, she saw it all."
"I—It's true; could be because he did not want to show all of his skills now" said Hinata.
"What do you mean?" asked Ino.
"He is far more skilled than a Genin, heck; Kakashi-sensei has trouble when they are sparring, he has lost several times. Naruto is the strongest Genin in Konoha, this is most likely a walk in the park for him; so he does not want to scare the participants by showing them the real difference in skill" said Sakura.
"What do you mean strongest Genin? He is just Naruto. Right?" asked Ino.
"Well, Naruto is much stronger than he lets on, trust me I know" answered Sakura.
"Uchiha Sasuke VS Akadou Yoroi; May the two participants enter the arena" said Hayate, interrupting the Genin's discussion and causing the arena to quiet down; after all, this was the long awaited match of the last Uchiha in Konoha.
The match took its toll on Sasuke, mainly because of the cursed seal; however he came out of it the victor, much to the jubilation of the crowd and Sasuke fans.
And so the matches continued, Tenten lost to Temari after having her weapon attacks nullified by her wind Jutsu; Kankuro beat Kabuto's other team mate, Tsurugi, killing him with the use of his puppet; Shino faced off against Neji in what at first glanced appeared to be a single sided match until Neji used the Kaiten to deflect the bugs attacking him which quickly turned the tables in his favor; seeing he can no longer win, Shino declared his surrender.
"May Hyuga Hinata and Nara Shikamaru enter the arena" said Hayate.
When the two contestants entered the arena, Hayate declared the start of the match.
Shikamaru was at a loss, he could not exactly hit a girl, but he also could not afford to lose quickly, especially since his mother was in the stands, and he knew she would flay him alive if he gave up without putting any effort in the fight.
Shikamaru started with the Kagemane Jutsu in order to try and end the match quickly, only that proved difficult since Hinata was escaping his every attempt, he could not get his shadow close enough to her without her either noticing and dodging it, he was running out of chakra fast and needed to end the match quickly.
On the other side, Hinata was also tired of only dodging attacks and wanted to take it to the offensive, so she made up her mind and attempted to attack Shikamaru from the back, when her strike connected also did Shikamaru's Jutsu and the crowd went silent, it looked like Shikamaru's win, just turn around and put a kunai to the back of her neck, however, he did not.
Seconds later the Kagemane was undone and the boy stood still in his place, not moving a muscle.
"Proctor, I hit a tenketsu on the back of his neck that caused him to become paralyzed, he won't move for fifteen minutes" said Hinata, catching her breath.
The proctor went to check on Shikamaru only to find him paralyzed.
"Shikamaru is unable to continue, winner, Hyuga Hinata" said Hayate "Now may Haruno Sakura and Katai Yunnosuke enter the arena"
Sakura entered the arena ready to fight against the Ame ninja, this was her chance to test out her training against someone her own age; she wanted to see how much she had progressed.
While the Ame Ninja started using water Jutsu after Jutsu as soon as the match started, Sakura evaded them using as little movement as possible, waiting for her chance to retaliate and finish the fight in a single hit; she knew from her training with Haku and Naruto that a counter-attack is much more efficient than attacking time and time again, if she knew not all of the attacks will hit. Finally she found an opening and took her chance, she fired a single poison dart at her opponent and dodged his next attack, after the attack's execution the Ame ninja started to convulse, the poison had started to affect him and he could no longer move according to his will; when he fell to the ground Sakura looked at the proctor.
"I poisoned him, here is the antidote; if not administered quickly he'll die" she said as she walked away from the arena, tossing the antidote to Hayate.
"Winner Haruno Sakura" said Hayate while he administered the antidote, and then he continued "May Yamanaka Ino and Oki Fuyuko advance to the arena"
This match was over faster than it had begun, as soon as the proctor said start, Ino initiated her Shintenshin Jutsu forcing the Ame ninja to declare her defeat.
"Nemui Ichiro and Akamachi Chouji it is now your turn" said Hayate.
This match was a spectacle, when it began Chouji used his Baika Jutsu in order to expand and perform a body slam on his opponent, Ichiro on the other hand shot the Akamachi with a sleeping dart at the same time; the result, a double knockout with Ichiro becoming unconscious because of the body slam and Chouji because of the dart.
After confirming both as nonresponsive, Hayate declared the match as a draw.
The final match in the preliminaries was Gaara VS Rock Lee; the match was exciting to say the least, Lee after opening five of his chakra gates was able to break some of the sad armor surrounding Gaara, however the match ended when Gaara performed the Sabaku Kyuu, crushing Lee's leg in addition to the damage the taijutsu specialist received from being attacked by Gaara's sand and opening the gates, which caused him to faint.
After the final match, the victors were asked to come back in to the arena and draw lots in order to decide the fighting order for the final round's match schedule.
1: Naruto VS Neji
2: Sasuke VS Gaara
3: Temari VS Hinata
4: Sakura VS Ino
And the winner of match 4 against Kankuro
Naruto headed out of the stadium accompanied by Sakura and met up with Kakashi who was waiting for him outside.
"Kakashi-sensei, take care of Sasuke, he was given some sort of seal by Orochimaru, can you try sealing it and training him afterwards? He is going to need all the training he can get to fight Gaara" said Naruto.
"Of course, that was what I wanted to tell you from the start, since I won't be able to help you two in your training for your matches against Ino and Neji" said Kakashi.
"Don't worry about us, I'll have Haku help Sakura-chan, as for me, I will have a very important meeting to attend that might take up most of my time" said Naruto.
"Very well then, I'll see you to in a few weeks" said Kakashi as he proceeded to leave the area and go to where Sasuke was.
AN: first of all sorry for the long update, I have been, well at first busy with exams, then STWOR, and now I have University once again, so I have not updating as fast as I should. Also I have been getting writer's blocks when it comes to this story and am still having trouble with some of the events that are supposed to take place in the near future.
On another note, I am looking for a Beta to look over any grammar and spelling mistakes I might have made.
And finally I thank you all for reading this chapter and being patient with me.
Slices out