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Chapter 14: First Round Jitters

As the days carried on Naruto took note of exactly who was showing up in the tower. On the night he arrived he noticed the team that had met up with them before the first exam; the white-eyed boy, Neji Hyuuga, the girl with buns in her hair, Tenten, and the kid in green spandex, Rock Lee. Upon seeing their sensei he had a brilliant idea, after learning his name, Maito Gai, he went to Haku's room and marked it as Gai's, from the shouts of vengeance from upstairs that he heard later, it was quite obvious his prank had worked, he'd deal with the consequences later.

The next team he noticed was a team of sound ninja that he didn't know. There was a girl with long black hair put into a bow at the bottom, a kid with some kind of headgear on, and a guy that looked like a mummy, Naruto thought they looked weird, but he didn't care. The last team to show up on the final day were Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji. Upon seeing them he rushed to meet them.

"What's up you guys?" Shikamaru, Ino and Chouji turned to meet a grinning blonde, "You guys cut it close huh?"

Shikamaru wearily rubbed the back of his head, "Man that entire test was troublesome… We just got our scroll."

Ino sighed, "We stopped looking for weak teams and just waited near the tower, we got lucky to find someone that was already hurt to fight."

Chouji walked up with an uncomfortable look, "Naruto… is there a place to eat around here?" Naruto smiled and pointed in the direction of the mess hall, Chouji grinned and took off.

Ino looked at a well-rested Naruto, "Naruto when did you get here? You don't seem weakened at all."

Naruto walked with them to find a seat somewhere, "I got here on the first day." Upon seeing their faces he explained, "On the first day when I went off to take a leak a team tried to jump me, but I knew that would happen so I set some counter-measures and got them myself, it took 3 hours to get a scroll, after some situations we hooked up with Big Boss's team and we both came here and arrived by the next evening."

Team 10 looked shocked, Shikamaru spoke up, "So you've been here for four days?"

Naruto nodded, "Yep, only Team 8 and that team from Suna beat us here."

"I guess Sasuke-kun kept you and Forehead safe out there huh?" Ino looked at Naruto expectantly.

Naruto shook his head, "He fought, we all fought, but I got the scroll."

Haku walked up to Naruto to end his conversation, "Naruto-kun, good you're here, it's time to start the next part of the exam, can you follow me to the main room?" Naruto looked back at Ino and Shikamaru and motioned to follow.

XxX

The genin all met in the main room, an arena looking setup with stairs leading to balconies for viewing the events below. Naruto saw every genin he had noticed enter the tower and quite a few jounin standing in front of them. As he tried to put faces to names he saw the Sandaime Hokage walk up, part of him wanted to yell out to the old man but his tact gave him reprieve from doing so. As he took his position towards the front of the jounin he cleared his throat to gain attention. The old man went on a tangent of how the chunin exams were important for maintaining relations between nations and such, by that part of his speech Naruto had tuned him out as he had been bored out of his skull until he heard the words 'first fight.'

As he snapped out of his trance he talked to Sakura, "Sakura-chan what's going on?"

She cast a short look before pointing up, "There's an elimination preliminary round of fights between us before the final part of the exam, that screen is to show who gets a bye to the next part."

Naruto looked angry, "So someone won't have to fight? I wouldn't take it, if I didn't win my fight then I didn't deserve to be here."

Sakura looked at him strangely, "Yeah, but a lot of people are hurt and wouldn't be at 100%."

Naruto nudged her and told her to look up, "Well it isn't us so don't worry about it."

Sasuke Uchiha advances

"Where is the teme anyway? I haven't seen him since we got here."

Sarutobi looked at Naruto, "Sasuke has been taken to the hospital for his injuries in the Forest of Death."

Jushiro scoffed, "More of Konoha's favoritism for that clan again, me and Naruto probably never had a chance at getting it huh?"

As the board started shifting for the first bout Sarutobi spoke once more, "Jushiro-kun, you know my hands are tied in certain areas, you should pay attention though." He pointed up as the board stopped.

Looking up, Jushiro almost began to laugh, "Of course it is, how could I have thought any different."

Match 1: Jushiro Moyomoto vs. Dosu Kinuta

"Right off the bat… How did I know, ha. Alright let's do this. I want to go home already." Jushiro began rolling his wrists to loosen them as the floor began to clear.

Naruto walked past with words of encouragement, "Don't worry Big Boss, I'm sure Haku-chan wouldn't mind if you lost… Stay youthful… ha ha ha."

As the rest took their places in the balcony Jushiro glared at Naruto and then at Dosu, "Thanks runt… I wasn't really that pissed off going into this thing, but you better hope I vent enough on mummy-man here, because you're next."

Dosu laughed, "You weak Konoha ninja, you live in luxury, your best genin couldn't possibly touch me, you are far too soft."

Jushiro assumed his stance, "Whatever. Shut up and fight."

"I am Hayate Gekko, I will be your proctor for this part of the exams, the fights will take place until one side gives up, is incapacitated, or dies, however when I say a fight is over then it ends." The two nodded, "Very well, begin"

Jushiro crossed his arms and gave an appraising look at Dosu, "So… How are you gonna fight me?"

Dosu raised the gauntlet on his right arm, "You'll see, very soon."

Jushiro looked up at Naruto and mouthed the words, 'this is you brat.' Naruto smiled as Jushiro ran at Dosu he flicked his gauntlet, Jushiro stumbled off balance and dodged a punch from Dosu. As he landed he couldn't see, and it took all of his willpower to not throw up. As he got his bearings back he heard Dosu laughing.

"What the hell was that?" Jushiro had stopped stumbling but couldn't see straight.

Dosu stopped laughing to explain, "This is my Melody Arm, it allows me to use vibrations to attack you, in different ways."

Jushiro understood the concept, "So if I don't beat you fast you're just gonna keep doing that shit aren't you?"

Dosu nodded, "My attacks will only get worse as our battle progresses."

Jushiro nodded, "Okay, understood."

He transformed his ring into his cestus as Dosu laughed again, "You're going to pit your arm against mine, you're a fool."

Jushiro motioned for him to come, "Then spin the wheel raggedy man."

"Aw man that mummy guy fucked up… And Big Boss is still gonna be pissed when he gets up here… I hope I fight next." Naruto slinked down while holding the railing as Sakura looked at the fight,

"Naruto why are you so sure he messed up? Why do you think it's over?" Naruto sighed and pointed back to the fight, Sakura looked at him with a raised eyebrow before looking into the arena.

Dosu and Jushiro ran towards one another while cocking their hands back for a punch, "You really are a fool boy, the vibrations from my arm will shatter yours on contact!" As the two launched their punches their fists collided. For a moment there was nothing, until the gauntlet on Dosu's arm cracked and broke into pieces. As he saw this he recoiled in shock as Jushiro smirked, "What , what did you do to my Melody Arm!"

Jushiro stood straight up, "I destroyed the base materials holding it in one piece, you seemed to be so proud of it, and honestly it was a pain in my ass so it had to go."

Sakura looked at the scene in awe, "Naruto what was that?"

Naruto stood up, "It's alchemy, you've never seen Big Boss fight before I take it?" She shook her head no, "He uses alchemy like me, only his focus is different."

Sakura just looked between the two brothers, 'What did you two do to get so strong.'

Dosu screamed in frustration and charged Jushiro, leading with his right as old habits die hard. Jushiro punched the ground forcing slabs of it to rise just as Dosu reached him. After a thud Jushiro walked around and found that Dosu had knocked himself out by charging into the wall. Jushiro burst out laughing at the fallen Oto ninja as he hovered above, "You suck! What the hell were you thinking? You ran face-first into a wall! Proctor guy, call it."

"Dosu is unable to continue, the winner is Jushiro Moyomoto. *cough*" Hayate pointed at Jushiro.

"Primetime! What do you know about that?" Jushiro gloated all the way up the stairs, as he passed Naruto he ruffled his hair, "Beat that brat."

Naruto pushed his hand off, "That guy was a lightweight anyway, I could've beaten him with one hand tied behind my back."

Jushiro kept walking to his team, "Maybe… But it's not my problem."

Naruto fumed, "Big Boss got his early… They'll probably make me go last or something."

Sakura shook her head, "No Naruto, they said it was random, who knows when you'll fight?"

Naruto sucked his teeth, "Nothing like this is random Sakura-chan, a few fights might be, but when it comes to me it is always worst case scenario."

XxX

Fight 2 ended up being Chouji against Shino. Ino fired Chouji up by calling him fat, but that just ended up rolling him into a mass of Shino's insects. Needless to say he was drained rather quickly.

Fight 3 was Ino versus Sakura, it was a pretty low level fight that ended with the two girls knocking each other out.

Fight 4 was Kiba against Temari,. Kiba and Akamaru tried a blitzing buzzsaw tactic of launching Gatsuuga at her repeatedly but she kept blowing them back before catching them in a whirlwind that shredded the boy and his dog into unconsciousness.

For fight 5, the Oto kunoichi Kin fought Shikamaru. Shikamaru allowed himself to be hit by her senbon on string in order to trap her with his shadow. He forced her to knock herself out by dilling her head into the wall behind her.

Naruto was beyond pissed, "Damn it they should have let me fight first, I'm fresh, we haven't done anything in days."

By now Kakashi had shown up, "Naruto don't worry about it, you'll fight soon enough."

Naruto was getting stir-crazy, "But Sakura fought, the teme got a bye, and Big Boss beat that Oto guy's ass, I'm bored Kakashi!"

Kakashi flipped through his Icha Icha book while listening to Naruto's rant, "Calm down, the next fight is up."

Match 6: Kankuro vs. Blank Nogami

Blank stood and stretched his joints with pops and cracks, "Alright finally, my ass is numb."

Eiko gave him a hug, "Good luck Blank, you can win against this guy."

Blank gave her a confident smile, "Naruto beat this guy with one punch in the streets, I think I'm safe."

Jushiro clapped him on his shoulder, "Don't lose, I want to see you both in the finals this time." Blank nodded and walked to the stairs.

As he and Kankuro took their starting spots Blank narrowed his ryes, "Naruto's punch is still on your face? Damn I guess the kid did hit you hard."

Kankuro got angry, "That brat sucker-punched me! I'll beat you and then I'll show him what really would have happened in that fight."

Blank scratched his head, "You really don't know what you'd be getting into, but that's neither here nor there; you have to beat me first."

Kankuro smirked as he pulled his bundle off of his back, "You know, you're right."

As it hit the floor Hayate came up, "The next bout, Kankuro vs. Blank Nogami, begin!"

Blank just waited for Kankuro to move patiently. After a minute or two Blank spoke, "Dude are we going to fight or is it a staring contest now?"

Kankuro just smirked, "I've got all day… we can take as long as needed for this."

Blank shrugged, "Alright, but just because I'm bored." Blank went through his hand-signs, "Let's see how you like this." As he finished his signs a small burst of chakra came from his body.

The two continued to stand until Kankuro looked confused, "What was that? That didn't do anything."

Blank shook his head, "Maybe you'll find out what it does later."

After speaking he rushed in to attack Kankuro, quickly Kankuro's bundle unraveled to reveal a puppet that launched at Blank. Blank dodged the puppet after seeing the blades on its arms, as he got some distance he spoke up, "Wow… a puppet, never fought a puppeteer before, interesting."

Kankuro smirked, "Well seeing as how it's a new experience for you I guess I should warn you, Karasu isn't a very good opponent to remain stationary against." He sent out Karasu to attack Blank once more.

Blank smiled as he began a sequence of dodges, "I can see that, guess I have to move now, so let's go."

Blank tried to go on the offensive by rushing Kankuro after a dodge, Kankuro quickly called Karasu back to interfere with his rush. Blank got some distance and threw shuriken, however once again Karasu blocked his weaponry and attacked in retaliation. Blank was sick of the dodge-fest and spoke again, "Dammit, I'm getting tired of your damn puppet, can you at least turn that chattering noise off, it's pissing me off?"

Kankuro smiled and kept up Karasu's attack, "Nope, sorry pal but I wouldn't if I wanted to, if it's getting to you you'll start making mistakes."

Blank jumped and began running on the walls to get a different angle of attack, 'There has to be some way I can get to him now, I have to close the distance.' As he pondered his attack Kankuro ordered his puppet on a wild, flailing charge at the red-head kid. Blank let the puppet crash into the wall and grinned as he saw it break into segments. He leapt off the wall while rushing Kankuro, "I hope that thing had a warranty! You're done son!" As Blank got within 10 feet a blade passed by him and cut him across the arm, stopping his charge.

The blade looked like an arm, as he held his cut he turned to see all of Karasu's dismembered parts floating in the air. Blank looked at Kankuro who was smirking, he looked back at the weapons and sighed, "You are an asshole you know that?"

Kankuro smirked, "I've been told that from time to time." He sent the blades flying at Blank who could only begin rapidly ducking and dodging.

XxX

"Blamk is getting beat." Naruto looked over to his brother and Eiko to see their reactions and here their comments.

He walked over as Eiko sighed, "Blank is an idiot, why is he only loading up the one move?"

Jushiro shrugged as he leaned on the rail, "I don't know, maybe he just wanted a good fight today?"

Eiko huffed and pouted, "That's stupid, so he's restricting himself just for that?"

Naruto looked at the two teens, "What are you guys talking about? Blank hasn't launched an attack since the fight started."

Jushiro ruffled Naruto's hair, "All he needs is to get close, his attack is way overloaded by this point since he hasn't discharged it at all since the beginning."

A look of understanding dawned on Naruto's face, "He's really going to use that here? And he loaded it up? That Kankuro guy better keep him away."

XxX

Kankuro had been keeping Blank at bay for the entire fight, grinning at the red-haired kid he began to taunt him, "Do you even have any jutsu? All you've done is throw shuriken and kunai at me. You've got to have something better than that." Blank jumped away as Karasu was called back to Kankuro's side.

Blank huffed and flexed his arms and grinned, "It'll all be over soon, don't you worry."

Kankuro sneered, "Yeah it will be all over, right now!" He shot a pellet from Karasu's mouth as it exploded around Blank.

Blank leapt out of the purple smoke, 'Poison! Damn it I should have known better.' As he landed a safe distance Blank noticed it was getting harder to breathe, 'Damn, he actually got me, but I'm still conscious, I'm not done yet.'

Kankuro could tell that Blank was in dire straits and chuckled at his strained breaths, "You like that? You were getting too bothersome attacking from a distance, you stopped running in so I decided that I wouldn't give you the option to run." Blank felt himself begin to slow down and see his vision blur as Kankuro's chuckle turned to laughter, "You see? My poison is taking effect. If you surrender now then I might let you get the antidote."

Blank looked at Kankuro with difficulty, "Well… If that's the case then I guess I can just beat you and take it."

Kankuro laughed deeply again, "You can barely stand, how exactly can you beat me? You don't even have any jutsu."

Blank straightened up and spit, "Just because I wasn't blasting at you doesn't mean I don't have any techniques." As Blank said this he put his hand into a fist, upon opening it lightning channeled around his arm.

Kankuro tensed up as Blank spoke again, "It's a shame it took so long to charge up, I guess that means I need to train it more."

Kankuro spoke as he saw the lightning course around Blank's body, "What the hell is that?"

Kankuro was banking on his poison shutting Blank down before he could attack. Blank set into a stance and spoke, "This is my technique, Raiken, it lets me convert the kinetic energy from my motion and add chakra to add to my taijutsu, cool huh?"

Kankuro sent Karasu back out to attack, "You won't get near me!"

As the puppet got within a good range Blank threw a hard punch forward at it. A good jet of lightning shot from the fist and hit the puppet, breaking Kankuro's chakra strings, seeing his opening Blank ran in, "Oops, forgot, my technique can disrupt chakra sometimes, too bad." Kankuro was able to regain control of his puppet soon after the charge began but it was too late.

Blank rushed in too quickly and shouted, "It's over! Raiton: Shougekiha (Lightning Release: Shockwave)!" The attack forced an expanding field of electricity to come from his hands. Kankuro and his puppet were both caught in the blast and forced away from Blank. As Kankuro's body came to rest Blank walked over and went through a few handsigns, "Raiton: Gawagawa Kisoku (Lightning Release: Arc Restraint)." Blank wrapped Kankuro in a band of electricity and held it on as Hayate walked over to check.

"*cough cough* Kankuro is incapacitated, Blank Nogami is the winner."

After getting his hand raised Blank walked over to Kankuro, "Hey, um good fight… Can I have that antidote though? I kind of don't want to die."

Kankuro chuckled as Blank let him go, "Sure… you have a weird jutsu."

Kankuro reached into his pouch and handed him a vial which Blank took and drank graciously, "Yeah I'm not really from Konoha, this is my family technique." Blank reached out and helped Kankuro up.

As they went their separate ways Kankuro complained, "I can't believe I lost to a guy who didn't hit me once."

As Blank made his way back to his team he dodged an incoming Naruto's tackling hug, as Blank laughed from above Naruto he complained, "Blank why did you do that? I just was trying to congratulate you."

Blank looked at him apologetically, "Sorry Naruto, I'm still pulsing with electricity, it won't go away for a while… Watch this." Blank smirked evilly as he touched the railing surrounding the balcony. He was rewarded with music to his ears as he heard a snap of electricity followed by multiple yelps from all who were reclining on it, both genin and jonin alike. Ignoring the glares he was getting from all of the people he shocked he chuckled, "I love doing that so much."

Sakura looked around and back to Blank, "Um Blank-san, you said you weren't from here, where are you from?"

Blank smiled at the girl as he adjusted his hitae-ate, "My family is from Kumokagure, they just moved out here after the last war. They let my family keep our clan secrets so we have Raiken as our style of combat."

Sakura nodded and looked at a rising Naruto, "Naruto you know interesting people, how strong is the girl after I just saw the other two?"

Naruto watched Blank walk away, "Big Boss's whole team is strong… They should be chunin already, but certain circumstances stopped them each time."

Sakura was interested as was Kakashi. The one-eyed man lowered his book as he spoke, "Mind elaborating on that Naruto?"

Naruto sighed, "They failed the first time on the second exam, that was Big Boss's fault apparently. He got lost and they spent forever looking for him, they took so long that when they reached their checkpoint the exam was over."

Kakashi nodded, "What about the other times?"

Naruto shook his head, "The last time Big Boss took the exam they all made it to the finals. They made Eiko-chan and Blank fight each other in the first round, Blank pulled his punches and lost. Eiko-chan had to fight Big Boss next and lost, and Big Boss actually won the whole damn tournament pretty easily but didn't get promoted."

Kakashi nodded again, "I remember that from last year, Jushiro did fight well. He was far stronger than quite a few genin, I was the second examiner last year."

Naruto looked back around and stopped on Team Jushiro, "I don't really care if I pass, I mean it would be nice, but Big Boss's team deserves it, and if Boss gets promoted then we can actually have nice crap in our house." He grinned up at Kakashi as he eye-smiled back

XxX

Match 7 Eiko Tanahashi vs. Tenten

Eiko got a hug from Naruto before heading downstairs, "Go get her Eiko-neechan!"

Eiko giggled as she pried Naruto off of her, "Neechan Naruto-kun?"

He grinned sheepishly, "Why not, it's not like you aren't right?" Eiko winked at him as she descended the stairs.

Sakura looked between the two as Eiko walked away, "Why are you two so close Naruto?"

Naruto turned to Sakura, "Because she's nice to me, she was the first girl that ever was. And she was Big Boss's first friend in Konoha."

Sakura looked at Eiko down in the arena stretching and waiting on Tenten, "You two must've known each other for a long time then."

Naruto grunted in response, "Almost five years now."

XxX

Hinata looked at Naruto embrace Eiko as she walked to her fight, 'How close is Naruto-kun to that girl?'

Kurenai saw her discomfort and spoke, "She's probably his sister figure." As Hinata looked up at her she continued, "Naruto doesn't know many people in this town, very few are actually women, and even less than that are women who don't actually dislike him. She seems to be kind of motherly to her team and Naruto by extention, she probably got close to him when he was younger."

Hinata looked back out, 'Sister? I still have a chance with Naruto then…' She smiled and looked at the soon to ensue battle. Shino smirked under his collar as he looked at a smirking Kurenai.

XxX

Eiko and Tenten eyed each other, both with smiles on their faces as they sized one another up before Eiko broke the silence, "Well I can see you're just as excited as I am about this fight huh?"

Tenten nodded, "I actually get to fight now, and you seem to be pretty competent by the way you carry yourself."

Eiko scratched her cheek in embarrassment, "Well I may be a little rusty in pitched combat, I haven't fought a proper opponent in quite a while."

She cracked her knuckles as Naruto yelled at her, "Gross Neechan!" She just smiled at him and pulled out a scroll.

Tenten raised her eyebrow but kept her smile as Eiko bit her thumb and smeared blood on the scroll to summon a sword with curved blades coming from both sides of the hilt, a double-bladed sword if you will. Eiko crouched with the sword behind her, "This is my sword, Souseiji Eidan (Twin Judgment), my favorite weapon."

Tenten's smile grew bigger, "You use weapons?"

Eiko nodded, "My teammate made this for me," Jushiro smirked in acknowledgement as Eiko continued, "It's very special to me, and hard to master."

Tenten nodded, "I agree, just because it isn't a big flashy jutsu doesn't mean weapons aren't cool too."

Eiko smiled at the girl, "Well let's get ready, I really want to fight."

As Tenten took a battle stance Hayate moved between the girls, "The 7th match; Eiko Tanahashi vs. Tenten, begin!"

As he jumped out of the way of the kunoichi, Tenten began throwing shuriken and kunai at Eiko. Eiko brought her sword in front of her and began to spin it rapidly to block the opening salvo of projectiles coming her way. After her block she set her sword to her side and ran in towards her opponent. As Tenten dodged her swipes Eiko took a sweeping swing at her followed by a sweep that took Tenten's legs from beneath her.

Tenten rolled away and forced Eiko back with more shuriken to gain some space to pull out her own scroll, as Eiko's eyes widened Tenten summoned a wakizashi to fight her in close. Eiko clashed blades with Tenten as she saw the smile on the girl's face. As the two strained against one another Eiko struck up some small talk, "Why are you so excited for this?"

Tenten grunted as she tried to overpower Eiko, "Because I never fight people who actually know how to use their weapons, I'm fired up to fight someone like me." Eiko smiled again before kicking Tenten's ankle out, forcing her to stumble, as she fell forward Eiko collided a fist with her stomach. As Tenten slumped over her fist she followed up with a thrust kick to the side of her head, she saw Tenten roll a few feet and waited for her to rise.

XxX

Naruto shook his head, "Man neechan is being mean."

Sakura again looked at him in confusion, "Why? What did she do?"

Naruto sighed, "She's gonna start breaking her weapons with Souseiji Eidan really soon."

Sakura looked back down to see a rising Tenten and a smiling Eiko, "Hey Naruto, why is Eiko always smiling, I've ever really seen her with an angry look on her face once before?"

Naruto smiled fondly, "Because neechan is sweet, she never really gets mad, she only gets angry if someone tries to hurt those close to her."

Rock Lee was frantically gripping the railing as he saw Tenten go down, "Come on Tenten, your flames of youth burn brighter than hers! You can beat her!" Neji looked at Blank and Jushiro who had looks of indifference on their faces as the fight progressed.

XxX

Eiko twirled her sword absently with her smile still present as Tenten rose to her feet. As she stood and steadied herself Eiko put her hand on her hip, "Okay, now let's try this again!" Tenten pulled out a second scroll and summoned a barrage of weapons to throw at Eiko. As the wave of weapons began flying Eiko threw her sword out at Tenten. The blades spinning wildly as they cut through Tenten's would be barrage, she watched as it made its way back into Eiko's hand.

She looked down to see her weapons were either nicked, cracked, or flat out broken. Tenten huffed, "How did you do that? Those were all high grade!"

Eiko smiled further as she took a finger and ran it over the blade, "My teammate is a blacksmith in his spare time and he made me this as a gift. It's the best weapon in Konoha I can almost assure you. You won't find such a craft elsewhere, mostly because he made it from foreign metals." She knocked on the blade twice for effect.

Tenten looked at her and pulled out two more scroll, "I still have one move left for you!"

Eiko ran in while making hand-signs, sword in hand, "No you don't! Kanashibari no Jutsu (Temporary Paralysis Jutsu)!" As the jutsu took effect Tenten's movement stopped long enough for Eiko to place her sword on Tenten's neck and smile at her, "Please yield…"

Tenten sighed as she spoke, "Proctor, I surrender."

Hayate moved up, "Winner of Match 7: Eiko Tanahashi."

Naruto whooped loudly as Eiko waved to him. Eiko looked at Tenten to see her admiring Souseiji Eidan with fervor, "Hi… Can I help you?"

Tenten nodded her head furiously, "I need to get something made like this, who made it?"

Eiko pointed up at a waving Jushiro, "That would be him, he's a blacksmith. He makes all of our specialty items." As she turned to climb the stairs she saw Jushiro getting grilled by Tenten, who apparently jumped up to him.

As she laughed at the look on Jushiro's face as Tenten spoke a mile a minute about making her weapons for cash she saw Naruto walking over. Naruto and Sakura stopped in front of her, "I knew you'd win Eiko-chan, why didn't you use Kanashibari sooner?"

Eiko looked down at the boy, "I wanted to see how good she was, she's decent, but we're not regular genin."

Sakura looked at Eiko with a longing look, the fight between her and Ino had not really been very impressive. She knew it was a low intensity battle with no really impressive events of which to speak, and now looking at Eiko handily dispatch a skilled opponent with relative ease. She sighed, catching Eiko's attention, "What's the matter Sakura?"

Sakura looked at the older girl sadly, "You're so much stronger than me, you actually can help your team in a fight, I never end up doing anything useful from the sidelines."

Sakura turned to the sound of a snort from Naruto, "Really? Well I guess some other pink-haired girl kept a giant snake from devouring my sorry ass in the Forest of Death."

Sakura's attention was again shifted as Eiko put a hand on her shoulder, "If you think you're weak then get stronger, it's that simple. I was like you before… I used to think Blank and Jushiro-kun were so far ahead of me that I could never catch up, but I got sick of it." She pulled her sword back out, "I trained as hard as I could, learned things that could help the boys, and eventually I got right up there, and you can too." She began to walk past the two members of Team 7, "You just need to find your niche."

Naruto smiled as Eiko walked away. Sakura looked up at Kakashi, "Kakashi-sensei, what do you think I should learn how to do?"

Kakashi looked down at Sakura, "Well, you have excellent chakra control, and you are extremely smart so I would recommend genjutsu for you, we'll talk about it after the preliminaries." She smiled at him as the next match appeared on the screen

Match 8: Hinata Hyuuga vs. Neji Hyuuga

Naruto looked at the board as a thought hit him, 'Hyuuga… are they close?' He looked over at Neji who was smirking in Hinata's direction, 'This guy… looks way too happy to be fighting Hinata.' As he turned his gaze to Hinata she had a terrified look on her face, 'Look at her, this guy has her petrified. She's strong, I know she can beat him.' Naruto met her fearful look and gave her a genuine smile. The look on his face calmed her down considerably as she met Naruto's eyes. She steeled herself as she walked down the stairs to fight.

Kakashi spoke up, "Hyuuga vs. Hyuuga; a family feud in the flesh."

Naruto looked at his sensei, "So they are related."

As the two Hyuuga genin looked at one another from across the arena Neji broke the silence, "Hinata-sama surrender. You know that you cannot defeat me." Hinata's eyes shied towards the floor, "You have gotten this far from the merits of your team, but you are nowhere near my level in strength, give up." Hinata looked deeper into the tile on the floor, "Hinata-sama why did you even choose to enter the chunin exams?"

Hinata looked up slightly but could not look Neji in the eyes, "Ano, I wanted to enter so that I might be able to change myself."

Neji scoffed, "Hinata-sama you cannot change, a failure is a failure no matter how much you want it to change." Hinata looked to be on the verge of tears as Neji's verbal assault continued, "You want to prove that you aren't a loser, that you aren't a failure to your clan and father, but it is not your destiny to do this. You were born weaker, you were destined to never reach a level of strength, you simply must give up being a shinobi altogether." Hinata shook as she heard these words until a shout broke the room.

"No! Hinata don't listen to this douchebag! What the hell does he know?" Naruto was looking as if he would jump the railing, "Who are you to tell Hinata what she can or can't do? Look at her, why would you want to treat the sweetest girl in the goddamn world like that? Hinata you better not be listening to this, you can win, I know you can, I believe in you!"

Neji glared up at Naruto, "Trash and losers like you should stay out of the affairs of others."

Naruto sneered at Neji, "You're fucking lucky that running down there to beat your ass would get me and Hinata kicked out or you'd be tasting shoe leather right now!"

Kakashi grabbed the boy to calm him down, "Naruto cool off, you need to control yourself." Naruto settled for setting a hard gaze on the arena floor.

As Neji looked back over to Hinata he saw that her apprehension was gone, she had set her mind to fight, "Prepare yourself my brother." Neji smirked as the two Hyuuga settled into their stances.

Hayate stepped forward, "Match 8: Hinata Hyuuga vs. Neji Hyuuga, Begin!"

Neji and Hinata remained motionless until Neji spoke again, "Hinata-sama, you cannot win, my eyes can see your every weakness, give up."

Hinata lowered herself and the two rushed in to begin. Palms flew as they used their Juuken techniques to pummel one another. Naruto couldn't believe it, 'THIS is Hinata? I've never seen her look so intense… it's kind of cool.' As the fight carried on Neji slowly took control. After a flurry from both that left Hinata's arm outstretched as he pulled her sleeve down to reveal the tell-tale red marks that showed that her tenketsu were sealed off.

She looked at him in shock, "Y-you mean a-all this time?"

Neji smirked, "Yes, all this time I was aiming for them, your Juuken is useless now, you have no hope of victory." Emphasizing that point with a hard palm strike to Hinata's chest that sent her to the floor, Neji turned to Hayate, "Call the fight, she's done."

As Hayate moved to end the bout a shout rang out, "NO!"

Eyes turned to see Naruto gripping the rail hard, "Don't you stop this fight, Hinata isn't done yet!"

Sakura grabbed his arm, "Naruto, she's down, she can't fight anymore."

Naruto gave her a bitter look, "Then why is she standing up?"

Attention turned to Hinata who had made it to her feet, breathing heavily, "I won't quit, if I quit now, in front of the person I admire, I'd never forgive myself." She looked fondly at Naruto before looking back at Neji and re-activated her Byakugan.

Neji looked at her in near disgust, "Why do you continue to defy your fate? Why must you keep fighting this useless battle, you will never win? Do not go against what fate has decided for you."

She gave him a weak smile, "No Neji, I am not defying anything, but it is you, who is running from fate." Neji gave her a murderous look as he charged with intent to kill with one strike.

In the blink of an eye all of the Konoha jounin sensei were holding the boy back as he fought against them, "What is this? Protecting the main branch again I see, your damned favoritism." Gai shook his head, "Damn it Neji you said you wouldn't let this branch house thing rile you up." Hinata coughed blood as she fell to the floor. Kurenai ran over to her as Naruto, Rock Lee, and Shino dropped from the balcony to her side.

Naruto dropped to his knees at her side, "Damn, damn, damn, this is all my fault!" Naruto grabbed her hand, "Hinata, come on, you're okay right?"

Hinata looked at him weakly, "Naruto-kun?"

He snapped to attention at her voice, "I'm right here Hinata, what do you need?"

She coughed blood as she spoke, "Do you, do you think I did well."

He smiled at her, "Yeah, yeah you did Hinata… I don't think I could've done better myself."

She tried to speak again but another violent cough of blood forced Kurenai to cut in as she opened her jacket and listened to her heartbeat, "She's going into cardiac arrest! I need a medic!"

Naruto watched in shock as she was rushed off by the medic-nin who had responded. As they left the arena he heard a shout, "Hey loser." Naruto knew he was the one being spoken to as he turned to face Neji Hyuuga, "You should stop all of your stupid cheerleading, it's annoying. And remember this… A failure is a failure, you cannot change what you were destined to be."

Naruto grabbed his pants, "You can suck my failure balls."

Neji smirked arrogantly, "I see, hm."

Naruto reached down to smear some of Hinata's blood on his hands, "Neji Hyuuga… You'd better hope you never see me in the streets, if you do I cannot be held personally responsible for what I do. But I can do this, I vow on my right arm and to Hinata to defeat you."

Neji walked back up to the balcony, "Don't make vows you cannot keep."

Naruto fumed as he made his way to the stairs until Kakashi stopped him, "Naruto, you should stay down here." He pointed up to the screen.

Fight 9: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Zaku Abumi

Naruto turned and made his way back to the starting point, waiting for his opponent. As Zaku stood across from Naruto he grinned sadistically, "You really shouldn't have made that promise, you can't beat me punk. Don't worry though, I'll take that arm you offered up out of principle." As he cackled, obviously amused at his own joke, Naruto kept his eyes solely on Zaku until he finished laughing.

Naruto simply said, "I'm going to make an example out of you."

The tone of his voice as he said this was cold enough to make Gaara raise a non-existant brow out of interest.

Sakura looked at the blonde boy and spoke aloud, "I've never seen Naruto look like this before… Is he really serious?"

Jushiro looked at the boy in interest, 'I was going to make fun of the brat, but there is a difference between crossing the line and sprinting over it, if I said a word about Hinata he might try to kill me.'

Kurenai thought along the same lines, 'Does he even know how much he cares about her?'

Hayate stepped between the boys, "Match 9: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Zaku Abumi, Begin!"

As Hayate moved, Zaku moved his hands up at Naruto, "I'll blow you away in one shot, Zankuuha (Slicing Sound Wave)!"

As the chakra built up in his arms Naruto barely moved until he finally made his hand signs, "Fuuton: Daitoppa (Wind Release: Great Breakthrough)!" Despite the similar blasts from the two boys Naruto's attack was pure rage inspired as it somehow overpowered Zaku's attack after a few moments of struggle and sent the boy back into the wall. As Zaku collided with the concrete wall he exhaled heavily.

As he stood he looked at Naruto in anger, "What the hell? That jutsu should be one of the strongest wind attacks in existence!"

Naruto stood at attention once more, "You got those surgically implanted with those fucking tubes in your arms huh?"

Zaku smirked, "Yeah, so what? You jealous?"

A ghost of a smile appeared on Naruto's face for a moment, "Your fake-ass arms can't beat me. Your power isn't your own you loser."

Zaku screamed at Naruto, "What would you know you fucking brat, these arms make me strong, strong enough to deal with anyone who gets in my way! I'll kill you!" He ran at Naruto and once again thrusted his arms out, "Zankuuha (Slicing Sound Wave)!" Naruto dodged this time as he didn't want to use his alchemy yet. Zaku just kept blasting away at Naruto with his air tube attacks, "Hold still you little bastard! Stop moving and just die!"

XxX

Sakura looked on in worry, "Why is Naruto not attacking? He's going to get caught at some point with one of those."

Jushiro walked over, "Naruto is extremely mad right now, if he didn't get a lot of movement in then he can't vent his anger. This Zaku guy is screwed the second he hits Naruto."

Sakura snapped around on Jushiro, "But that's too risky, if he can beat him then he should just beat him!"

Rock Lee walked over to Sakura, "No Sakura-chan, he still wants to hurt Neji, but he knows he cannot do that here, he's wasting his own energy to calm himself down. Jushiro-san is right, this fight will not take too long."

Kurenai walked over to Asuma to watch the fight. Asuma noticed her and struck up a conversation, "So is Naruto really that mad right now? Because from what I've heard that kid is too goofy to feel anger like this. Look at him, his face is like stone."

Kurenai nodded, "He actually spent some time with Hinata recently, I think he sees a lot of herself in him; no one really believes in either of them, they both are underestimated and put down. He actually might kill this guy right now."

Asuma gave her a strange look, "This kid wouldn't do that would he? He can't really be that strong."

Kurenai shook her head, "I'm not really sure myself, but with what his brother is actually capable of I wouldn't be surprised… Or did you forget Jushiro Moyomoto from last year's chunin exams."

Asuma conceded his argument and looked back at the fight.

XxX

"Kid you are a coward! Stop running from me!" Zaku fired off another blast from his arms that Naruto simply dodged.

Naruto stood still at last, "Alright, this is useless, you obviously can't hit a moving target with those oversized fans so I'll give you one freebie. Better make it count." Naruto closed his eyes and turned his back to Zaku. Zaku cackled, "You are so dead! Zankuuha (Slicing Sound Wave)!"

The blast hit Naruto like a tree trunk and sent him sprawling along the ground for a few meters before he came to a stop. Zaku laughed loudly, "I showed you! You fucking runt, I told you my arms are the ultimate ninjutsu!"

XxX

The entire viewing crowd looked stunned except for Team Jushiro, Jushiro saw the looks on Sakura, Rock Lee, and Kakashi and sighed, "You guys don't even know how tough he is do you? That was a love-tap in comparison to what I do to him. He's just milking it."

Sakura shook, "He took that attack with his back turned, he was standing still. How can he survive that?"

Jushiro leaned on the rail and looked back at the fight, "Because I trained him, my team beat the crap out of him before he ever became a genin. One decent level jutsu can't beat him."

XxX

Zaku's laughter came to a stop as he heard a voice, "Well, that wasn't bad. But you need something with a little more kick to it." He looked over to see a bleeding Naruto standing up and dusting himself off, "I hope that wasn't your best shot because that won't be nearly enough to put me down."

Zaku shook in anger, "Well how about this then! Zankuu Kyokuha (Ultimat Slicing Sound Blast)!"

The resulting blast from Zaku's arms obliterated the ground in front of him and almost destroyed the statue in the room. As the destruction settled he saw the results of his attack, but no Naruto. He looked around quickly for him, "Where is he? Did I obliterate him?"

Naruto dropped from under a balcony on the side of Zaku, "Man you have decent attacks, but you cannot set your moves up to save your life."

Zaku snapped at him, "When did you move! I never saw you dodge!"

Naruto shook his head, "Well when you scream the name of your move from twenty feet away and I'm facing you it's kind of a given that I have to move right?"

Zaku thrusted his hands back out at Naruto, "Well dodge this! Zan-"

He never finished his attack as Naruto ran in to punch him dead in the face with his right hand. Zaku flew across the floor and stood slowly, "Good, good, at least you don't have a glass jaw, although yours is probably broken now." Zaku rubbed the lump on his jaw signifying its injury. He thrusted his arms out once more until Naruto ran back in and began battering him with close attacks like inside elbows and knees, "You can't fight in close can you? All you have are those arms, you one-trick pony." Zaku grunted with each attack on his person.

He tried a desperation punch but Naruto swatted it aside and grabbed the back of his head with both hands and began battering his body with knee strikes. The time in the clinch tenderized Zaku's body, he was sure he had broken ribs and he couldn't gain enough distance to gather any chakra to his arms to force him off. Zaku tried to shake himself violently to pry Naruto off but this was his final mistake. As he was jerking his head around to escape, Naruto pulled his neck down, this led to Zaku forcing his head into a push downward that had Naruto crack him directly in the face with a knee strike. After this disorienting strike he followed up with three more knees to the head before Zaku's knees gave out and he dropped. While he was down Naruto kept his head cradled and exposed as he dropped even more knees on his head.

Naruto was stopped by Hayate Gekko calling him off, "Zaku Abumi is unconscious, the winner of this match is Naruto Uzumaki."

Naruto walked back up the stairs with his hand in the air as he was confronted by the remaining Konoha genin in attendance. Ino spoke first, "Naruto what was that? You could've killed that guy!"

Naruto tried to walk past but the wall was too thick to budge, "Yeah I could've but I didn't, he's fine, he'll just have a hell of a headache when he finally wakes up."

Sakura spoke next, "Naruto you knocked him out before he fell, why did you keep hitting him?"

Naruto frowned, "Because no one stopped me. If you were really fighting to the death would you give up such a huge advantage just because he wasn't standing up?"

Shikamaru looked at the place where Zaku's head was during Naruto's knee drops and nodded, "He's right, that guy tried to kill him, he's lucky that the proctor stopped the fight." The girls frowned but Naruto shook his head sadly and walked past.

As he walked he was this time stopped by Lee and Maito Gai, the older taijutsu user spoke first, "Naruto I don't think I've ever seen anyone use taijutsu like that before, I was always told that you didn't have much taijutsu skill."

Naruto shrugged, "Well I can't really drop knees on anyone's head in the academy. It's me and my brother's style, we are the only ones in this village that fight like that."

Rock Lee was taking notes and looking at Naruto in awe, "Such an efficient style, Naruto-kun you must allow me the honor of sparring with you sometime, what is it called?"

Naruto smiled at the bowl cut boy, "We call it Akuma-ken, the devil-fist style, you only saw two parts of it, the Wing-Chun and the Muay Thai parts." Rock Lee nodded and kept his notes, Naruto continued, "And yes we can spar, but not until I beat that sneer off of Neji's face, no offense Gai, but he needs a serious ass-whooping."

Gai nodded grimly and then turned his attention to Rock Lee, "Okay Lee, your bout is next! Go down there and show that Gaara the power of youth!"

Lee had a fire burning in his eyes as he hopped around, "Yes Gai-sensei I will not lose to this Suna ninja today!" Gai looked on as Lee hopped the rail to face his opponent.

XxX

Match 10: Rock Lee vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Rock Lee fought well against his mysterious opponent but Gaara was too much for the energetic genin. Even after opening three of the eight gates he was still overwhelmed in the end. Gaara ended up destroying Lee's right arm and leg with his sand, but before he could finish Lee off he was stopped by Gai.

As the preliminaries ended the Third Hokage announced that the genin had a month to prepare for the final round of the chunin exams, a tournament format of one-on-one matches. As the genin drew their numbers the matches were decided.

Match 1: Naruto Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuuga

Match 2: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Match 3: Shikamaru Nara vs. Shino Aburame

Match 4: Jushiro Moyomoto vs. Sabuku no Temari

Match 5: Blank Nogami vs. Eiko Tanahashi

Match 6: Winner of match 1 vs. winner of match 2

Match 7: Winner of match 3 vs. winner of match 4 vs. winner of match 5

Match 8: Winner of match 6 vs. winner of match 7

Naruto had an evil grin on his face as he heard the match-up placements as Neji just gave him a smirk in response. Gaara had a stoic look with the exception of a twitching eye. Shikamaru and Shino looked indifferent but gave a nod of acknowledgement. Jushiro winked at Temari who blushed and glared in response. And Blank and Eiko smiled at each other.

The chunin hopefuls were dismissed as the month of training began.

Damn college, I'm sicker than hell. I have not been sick in nearly 10 years, 6 months in college and I've got f'n strep throat. This chapter took too long because of many outside forces, but it sucks in comparison to my other chapters, I think it's my weakest yet, but it had to be written to move forward in the story. Next chapter should be up fairly quickly because all of my college shit is done for now. FAFSA's still a bitch though, for those of you not in college you might learn this fairly soon.

Any questions or comments of anything relevant will be answered and referred to next chapter.

Defeat the World, Kenchi out.

Oh! And stay youthful. (ha ha ha ha)