Disclaimer: I do not own any of the Naruto characters. All of them belong to Masashi Kishimoto. Rei Kitsuna, Kristi Kitsuna, and Hige Inuzuka are mine however.

Chapter 10: Preliminaries and Training

So, everyone gathered in the large room hidden within the tower. I looked around me and saw ten teams facing forward. That meant only half of the teams made it through the forest with both scrolls. I looked forward as the next proctor began to speak. "Well, we didn't expect this many kids to pass the two tests already. We are going to hold preliminaries to lower the numbers. You will have no time for a rest so if you are not ready leave now." He stopped talking and looked around. There were quite a few people who left. Within minutes there were twenty four kids left standing, my team included. "Very well, head up the stairs to either the left or right and we will begin momentarily." He walked to the center of the small arena and nodded to someone. The board behind him began shuffling names and everyone became silent. I looked at the board and saw two names that remained, Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado. I watched as Sasuke-kun smirked and walked confidently to the center of the battlefield. His opponent's expression was hidden behind a small fabric wrapped around the bottom half of his face. Most of my attention was on Sasuke-kun though; he seemed different for some reason. A few seconds later, he and his opponent were exchanging hits. Several minutes had passed and I still couldn't decide who the winner would be. Sasuke-kun had just kicked his opponent to the air, and then flickered beside him. "What is that? I could see strange markings begin to cover Sasuke-kun, originating from his left shoulder. They were shortly pushed away and Sasuke-kun slammed his opponent to the ground, winning his fight. Kakashi took him somewhere else while the preliminaries continued. I'd look into it some more later; something was going on. Two fights later and it was my turn. Obviously my opponent would be one of my teammates.

Tsubaki-chan and I walked reluctantly to the center of the floor. I really wanted to fight, but not against my best friend. We smiled apologetically at each other and attacked as the proctor told us to begin. We were going to try our best to win, even if we were best friends. As we ran at each other, my hands began to glow with chakra. When she was close enough, I jabbed out my hand, hoping to get her in the stomach, but she evaded. I kept jabbing at her but she dodged if of my attacks; "I should've got her with that one!" I know she had very good evasion skills as a medic, but that attack definitely should've touched. At that moment, I felt a slight tingling feeling in the back of my mind. I concentrated on it as she ran towards me. "Duh, it's a genjutsu. I should've known that sooner!" "Release!" I opened my eyes to see that neither of us had moved. I sighed at this, hoping she wouldn't use genjutsu anymore. I ran at her, trying for a second time to use my clan's taijutsu. This time I was subjected to genjutsu, but she still managed to dodge my attacks. My chakra cut sliced her right forearm as she pulled it back from a punch. Feeling the contact, she flipped backwards, out of my reach. As her left hand took on a green glow, due to the healing chakra, I began forming hand signs, not giving her a chance to fully heal. "Fuuton: Wind Dragon Jutsu" I sent my dragon towards her, hoping to end the battle quickly. She huffed at me and ran away from it. I had the dragon follow her around the arena; she was waiting until my control broke. I practiced this jutsu for hours though; I could hold it until my chakra ran out, which I had plenty of. I sped the dragon up and it wrapped itself around Tsubaki-chan's body, trapping her. She looked slightly worried, not planning for this. I released the jutsu, the powerful gust blowing her against the nearby wall. She hit it hard. I ran at her as she began to rise. I saw that random blue flame again and I punched Tsubaki-chan in the face, hard. I looked in the direction I saw the flame as I heard her clone disappear in a puff of smoke. She was staring at me, wide-eyed. "How did you..." she stopped her sentence short. "I'll tell you later." She looked pleased at that answer and ran at me, both her hands glowing, her chakra scalpel in place. She sliced at me and I jabbed back, trying to find an opening on each other. As her right hand came at me, I ducked under and spun to her side. Right before she turned around, I swung my right hand out to the side of her neck. Within seconds she was laying on the floor, unconscious. I had hit her pressure point, effectively knocking her out. I sighed and looked as Hitoshi-sensei appeared beside us. He bent down to pick up Tsubaki-chan and we walked to Hige-kun after I was declared the winner. I collapsed as soon as I stopped walking. Hige-kun laughed at me, and then looked over to Tsubaki-chan who was now lying against the floor. "She'll wake up soon" sensei assured us.

After a few short hours, the preliminaries were over. The people who were moving on to the final exam were Sasuke Uchiha, Naruto Uzumaki, Neji Hyuuga, Shino Aburame, Kankurou, Temari, Gaara, Shikamaru, Dosu, Hige-kun and me. We had one month to prepare for the test and I was brimming with excitement.

My team went to dinner to celebrate Hige-kun and I moving on to the final part. Tsubaki-chan was fine with not being able to move on; at least that's what she said. I told her of how I saw the blue flame again and she suggested looking in the scrolls to see if it was a clan thing. I agreed and went straight to my house after eating.

After reading through the ninjutsu scrolls, and not finding anything on a blue flame, I decided to read through the history scroll. As I reached over to grab it, I looked at the sealed scroll. I've tried opening it many times, only to end in failure. It had a picture of an ancient looking fox on the outside, but that was all I noticed of the scroll. I sighed and opened the scroll regarding my clan's history. I really hated history. Two hours into reading I saw a picture of a blue flame; it was inside a drawing of a person, where their heart was. "Well, this explains what I was seeing." I read the paragraph to the side of it.

The Kitsuna Clan has the ability to look at one's aura. An aura is a person's spirit and can never be hidden or concealed like chakra. Auras are usually blue in color, but can be slightly darker, having a dark blue or purple hue to it. This darker color signals evil intent or an evil character. Auras can also range in brightness. The brighter the aura is, the healthier the owner. If it is dull, the person is most likely sick or dying. To acquire this skill, clan members trained their senses. They would train their eyes the most, however. They would train themselves so that they would be able to pick out even the slightest change of their opponents stance, breathing patterns or more. Once a member could see auras, their eyes changed to the color of their own aura, almost always blue. This is different from a bloodline trait however since it does not use chakra. It becomes similar to a natural characteristic.

Okay, guess this is the thing I'm gonna be working on for the next month. But first, it's time to go to bed, I'm extremely tired!

Thump Thump Thump! Ugh, who could that be? I don't have to meet with sensei for another; I looked over to the clock, four hours! Oh, this had better be good! I grumpily got up from my soft bed and made my way to the door, still clad in my pajamas. I wasn't changing for anybody at six o clock in the morning. I opened the door slowly and lifted my face so I could look the tall guy in the face. "What do you want?" I asked the Anbu. He tensed at my demeanor; guess I was supposed to be more polite to my 'superiors', like I care. "Hokage-sama needs to speak with you." And in a puff of smoke he was gone. I sighed as I went to get on more clothes. I respected the Hokage too much to appear in just my pajamas. I wrapped some athletic tape around my legs starting from my waist and ending to just below my knees. The wrap supported my knees during impacts to the ground when jumping. I pulled on my blue skirt after. Next, I pulled a fishnet shirt over my head. The netted sleeves barely passed over my elbows. Over that I put on my blue, over the shoulder top that matched my skirt. I pulled on my gloves and finally, tied my headband around my waist; it rested gently over my left hip. Okay, all set!

I knocked gently when I was outside of the Hokage's office. "Enter" his loud voice beckoned to me. I entered slowly and stood still when I was directly in front of his desk. "You called for me Hokage-sama?" "Ah, Rei-chan, yes I did. You are living on your own, correct?" "Hai Hokage-sama" "How are you supporting yourself?" He looked genuinely curious. "Well, Kristi-nee kept a jar of money in her room in case of an emergency. I use that and the money I earn on missions." To be honest, I was beginning to run low on money since I haven't been on a mission due to training for the exam and the exam itself. But, what did money have to do with why I was called here? "Are you aware of how big your clan was Rei-chan?" "Um, I know there were a lot, about as much as the Hyuuga and Uchiha clans, right?" I wasn't very sure since I couldn't remember many faces, but I do remember Kristi-nee saying a lot of names whenever she told me stories. "You are right, there were a lot, many more than either clan you mentioned however. And they also had a large amount of money that I held onto in case you or your sister needed it." My eyes widened at this; I wouldn't have to struggle to get by anymore. "It is yours to take of course, so do you want it?" I nodded my head, "Yes please Hokage-sama, I'm running low on money now." He nodded at me and sent for the person in charge of watching over the money. When the shinobi returned, he handed the Hokage a card. "Here you go Rei-chan, if you ever need anything, give this to the person you are paying. They will take the account number on there and tell the shinobi overlooking the money that you owe them however much." "Hai, thank you very much Hokage-sama!" "You are welcome, now I believe you have some training to do for the exam, correct?" I nodded and ran out of the room.

"So now that I have money to spare, I think I'm gonna go shopping." Besides, I have an idea I'd like to try out, but I need something first. With this thought I walked into the nearest weapons store. I looked around for several minutes, but didn't find what I was looking for. I walked up to the counter, "Excuse me, do you know where I can find a, um, battle fan?" If that was what it was called. She thought about my question then smiled, "Yes, there is a small variety at the other weapons store. It's a tall building not too far from here; do you know which one I'm talking about?" Yeah, I did, and it was ten times more expensive than this place, but if what the Hokage said was true, then I should have no money issues. I nodded and left the store, a new destination in mind.

I stared up at the tall building. There were signs everywhere, advertising newly made weapons or even requests. I walked in and looked all around me. To my left was an entire section devoted to kunai and shuriken. To my right were swords, spears and even bows and arrows. The swords intrigued me, so I walked towards them, being diverted from my main goal of entering the store. I scanned the sword collections; they were locked safely within a glass case, not that the glass would be much help against someone who really wanted one of the weapons in front of me. As I was walking along the wall, looking at all the swords, an employee walked up to me, "Can I help you with anything?" He was silently criticizing me; I could tell as I looked into his eyes. Probably because I was only 13. "Actually yes" A sword had caught my attention a little while ago, but I wanted to keep looking. I hadn't found anything better yet though. I walked back to it. The wrapping around the hilt was black with blue weaved in. The sheath was a very smooth, rich black color. There were blue outlines of black foxes running against the black background. It seemed as if they were running towards the only other color on the sheath, a silver crescent moon. "Can I see that please?" I looked to the clerk as I asked. He made a face, "You're looking at it now. I don't have time to babysit kids so leave." He started to walk away and I stuck my tongue out at him. As he was leaving, an older man grabbed him by the shirt and pulled him back towards me. "I'm sorry young miss, was my worker being rude to a much valued customer?" He directed an angry look towards the young man, "Yes, but don't punish him. I would've done the same thing if I saw a kid looking around at weapons that looked too big for them. Especially in such an expensive place." I smiled sweetly at him. The guy was being rude, but I didn't want him to get fired on my behalf. "Very well," he looked to the guy he was holding, "she saved you this time, but remember to be polite to everyone. The next one might not be so nice." The young man nodded and left. "So, you said you wanted to see the sword?" I nodded. He took it out of the glass case carefully and handed it to me. I have never handled a sword before so I was kinda nervous. I gently pulled it out of the sheath to reveal the hidden blade. It was just as dark as its cover! It was beautiful. I wasn't quite used to its weight however. I went through a few kata, or sword patterns, that I saw in a scroll somewhere. I returned it to its sheath. The old man looked at me in amazement, "That was beautiful miss, ""Rei Kitsuna" I told him. His eyes widened even more. "Well, I guess it isn't so surprising after all then." I looked at him in confusion. "What do you mean, what's not surprising?" "There's a story behind that sword. It was rumored to come from a clan that descended from fox demons of ancient times; that clan being the Kitsuna. The original owner was one of the best swordsmen to ever live. He made this sword himself. I think it's only right that you, as the remaining Kitsuna, take the sword." I looked at the sword in awe; made by one of the best swordsmen ever, and he was from my clan! I felt so honored to be holding it. "How much is it?" "No charge" I looked up, very surprised. "It has to be worth a lot though; I don't want to just take it from you." "Think of it as a gift, for being so easy-going about my rude employee." I sighed, he wasn't gonna let me pay for it no matter what I said. "Okay, thank you very much for the sword!" "Not a problem Rei-san." "Please, just Rei is fine, it's not like I'm someone important. Oh, I actually came to buy a fan and I was told that you carried some. Would you mind showing them to me?" "That would be no problem at all, follow me Rei." Excited that I could possibly be getting two new weapons to master today, I followed him to the third story of the store. "These are the only fans in the store; sorry it's a bit limited." I looked at the dozens of fans. Sure, it was a smaller collection than the other weapons, but it still looked like a lot to me. I glanced at each one carefully, trying to find the perfect one. My eyes settled to one immediately. The fan was tan-gold in color with a strip of burgundy across the top. A burgundy colored dragon took up the length of the fan beautifully. It was made of tough steel, similar to kunai, so it'd withstand a decent amount of attacks; it folded easily despite being made of steel. When I finished examining it and testing its weight, which was heavy for its size, I looked up to the old man and smiled. I had just found what I was looking for. "I'll take this please, how much?" This time he gave me a price and I paid for it fully. I left the store quickly and left to meet up with my team for training. I was going to be late but oh well; I was going to be busy this month!