Chapter 11: Chouji's Breaking Fist!!!

"THIS MATCH IS OVER, THE WINNER IS SAKURA HARUNO!!!"

Sakura sighed and smiled down at Ino, who begrudgingly returned the expression, despite her rather quick loss. Naruto leapt on down to help carry Ino up to the balcony while she waited to get control over her limbs again, and as he passed Sakura, he gave her a wide smile and said, "The old pervert was right… you and Tsunade obaa-chan are dangerous."

Sakura smiled to herself and followed Naruto and Ino back up to the balcony as the final two competitors made their way to the arena. Naruto looked around and his face suddenly grew serious, and more than a little concerned. "Hinata-chan… wasn't there a trio of Mist nin here? Where are they?"

Hinata activated her Byakugan and did a quick scan of the building. "I'm sorry Naruto-kun… they're not in the building. Maybe they gave up on the exam." Naruto nodded, but still couldn't stop the little feeling that something was amiss. He was soon distracted from his thoughts though, as Ino started shouting, "KICK THIS GUY'S BUTT CHOUJI!"

Naruto and Hinata both looked down into the arena to find Chouji up against a grass ninja neither of them had remembered seeing before. He wore a mask over his mouth, and his headband looked tattered and tarnished, no doubt from several missions and fights this ninja had seen. His brown hair fell messily about his head. Naruto got the same odd feeling he had about the missing mist ninja, something just didn't feel right about this guy…

"The final match of this Jounin Exam preliminary tournament will now commence. Chouji Akimichi .vs. Ryako Katuya. BEGIN!" The masked one who Naruto assumed was Ryako leapt above Chouji's head and shouted, "SUITON: WATER SHARK MISSLE!!!" Naruto's suspicions proved at least somewhat grounded after all. Chouji leapt out of the way just as the giant shark shaped blast of water impacted the ground. "A water jutsu!? This guy's wearing a grass headband, how would he know... unless…"

"This guy's not really a grass nin…" Chouji said to himself, smiling slightly. Making his familiar hand signs, he shouted, "MULTI-SIZE JUTSU! SPIKED HUMAN BOULDER!" Chouji once again became the rolling ball of fat and muscle, and his already wild mane of hair grew around him and hardened into spikes. He barreled toward Ryako, who leapt over him again, and shouted "SUITON: EXPLODING WATER SHOCKWAVE!!!" A massive stream of water erupted from Ryako's mouth and collided with Chouji just as he turned to try and nail the grass nin again. Chouji spun in place, but eventually started rolling through the water attack and almost hit Ryako as he landed. The grass nin barely managed to sidestep and his mask flew off, torn from his face by a single spike of Chouji's hair.

Naruto and the others gasped aloud, Ryako was grinning at Chouji with a mouth full of teeth so sharp, there was no way he could've been human, at least not completely. Neji started in shock; he hadn't seen teeth like those since… Kisame. But that wasn't possible; Kisame hadn't shown himself around Konoha since Itachi was killed… and yet this guy had teeth just like his, and his water techniques came with almost equal speed and force. As Ryako and Chouji continued to duke it out, Neji examined the fight closely with his Byakugan, trying to get a fix on Ryako's chakra system…

"Alright then, fat boy… try stopping this! SUTION: GRAND WATERFALL JUTSU!!" A spinning vortex of water began to form around the ninja, aiming straight at Chouji. Chouji put up his arms, when a slight glimmer caught his eye. He saw a single shuriken flowing in the water vortex, and then another, and soon he realized that the entire vortex was filled with water and shuriken. "Killing intent… this guy doesn't just want to win, he's trying to take me out!"

"See ya around, fatso…"

The vortex shot at Chouji, who quickly made hand signs and said, "PARTIAL MULTI-SIZE: ARM!" Chouji's arm grew to an immense size and he flung his giant fist at the oncoming vortex. "GIANT'S PUNCH!" The two attacks collided and created a huge explosion of water and shuriken. Everyone had to duck to keep from getting shot full of the flying weapons. Once the explosion was done, Ryako found Chouji on his knees, holding his arm now pierced by at least a dozen or so shuriken.

"Smart move, fatso! Blocking sharp metal objects with your bare hand is always a good idea!" Ryako laughed to himself. Chouji didn't look up; he only smirked, and in a cloud of smoke, vanished. The only thing left behind… was an empty bag of potato chips.

"What the hell…"

"SPIKED HUMAN BULLET SLAM!!!"

Ryako looked up just in time for Chouji to slam him into the ground, spikes ripping through his body and he was crushed underneath the boulder that Chouji had become. Chouji bounced off to the side and changed back to himself, "Don't EVER call me fat."

Neji ran to Ryako with his Byakugan active. He closed his eyes and nodded. There would be no second chance for the grass nin. "RYAKO IS DEAD. THE WINNER IS CHOUJI AKIMICHI!!!" Everyone was dumbstruck, and Chouji looked away from the battle, his face slightly pale. He didn't have a choice, the man was trying to kill him, and so he fought back.

However, his guilt didn't remain for long…

Naruto leapt down from the arena and examined Ryako himself. Upon confirming that he was quite indeed dead, he searched the ninja's vest, until his hands clamped around… a headband. Pulling it out, he found a music note emblazoned on the metal plate of the forehead protector.

"Another sound nin… looks like Orochimaru has been experimenting again…" Naruto growled and threw down the headband at the now dead ninja. Chouji looked confused for a second and asked, "Wait, he was a… how did he get through?"

Naruto remembered the three missing mist ninja…

"The missing trio of mist ninja… Orochimaru must have sent his cronies to take them out and replace them with his own men. This must've been one of them… which means that there are two more spies among us."

Neji shook his head, "I've examined everybody here, there are no more sound nin…" Naruto shook his head, "I know that. But how did this guy get in? He couldn't have been here beforehand, none of us remember seeing him today. He ambushed us for the first time today. That probably means that Orochimaru will be sending in his cronies at certain points during the next round. We won't see them until the finals begin…"

Neji nodded and said, "I suppose… but why? Why not just send in men without sound ID and try to infiltrate us from the beginning?" Naruto chuckled and said, "He isn't doing this for that kind of information… this one wasn't meant to actually kill Chouji. He was sent as a test dummy, to gauge the strength of a leaf chuunin."

"So, Orochimaru is…"

"Preparing to strike Konoha again. And we have to be on our guard. Neji, go tell Tsunade about this, see to it that ANBU is on patrol immediately." Neji nodded and shouted, "THE PRELIMINARIES ARE OVER. THE FINALISTS ARE AS FOLLOWS…"

The screen listed the names of those victorious in the fights.

"Hinata Uzumaki, Naruto Uzumaki, Sakura Haruno, Chouji Akimichi"

"IT IS THESE FOUR WHO WILL BATTLE ONE MONTH FROM NOW. REST AND PREPARE YOURSELVES FOR THAT DAY! THE PRELIMINARIES ARE OVER!!!"

A/N: It would appear that old Oro is playing his hand a little earlier than expected. If the two spies were not found, then where are they?

Naruto: No matter who it is, if anyone who wears a sound headband gets in my way, I'LL MOW THEM DOWN!

Shikamaru: Take it easy, idiot. You've got training to do before the finals.

Naruto: Yeah, yeah, whatever. Hey, Hinata-chan, you okay? You look a little pale…

Hinata: Oh… I'm f-fine, Naruto-kun. It's time for training.

Naruto: "Hmmm… she usually doesn't stutter anymore… I wonder what's up."

Next time: "Training begins, Hinata's revelation!!!"

I apologize for the long update wait. Readjusting to school took longer than expected… not to mention I was playing my brand new NINTENDO WII!!!!

Lee: YOSH!!!

That's right, Lee. But I promise this story will pick back up again! YO QUIERO REVIEWS!!!