Portal to a New World

Chatper 14

The Premiliaries Begin

All six of us, KaTrena, Heather, Mandy, Jordan, Dia, and I entered the tower. The jacket Dia held around her peirced hand was drenched in drying blood and KaTrena walked over to her, removing the jacket, "How is it?"

Her hand was covored in so much blood it was blackish, some more blood seaped out from the wound, "Uh... It hurts?"

KaTrena frowned. I walked over toward the far end of the tower entrance, looking up at the sign hung high on the wall, Japonese writting inscripting it. The room was all tan stone and the left side of the room had a doorway. I stared at the tablet and the others walked up to my sides, looking up at it. Mandy arched an eyebrow, "How do we read that?"

I shrugged, "I use to know what it said, but I forgot..."

Dia sighed, "It says... 'If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowleadge and be perpared. If you do not possess Earth, then run through the feilds and seek strength. If you open both Earth and Heaven scrolls, dangerous paths will become safe paths. This is the secret of ... it should lead you on your way.'"

Heather blinked, "This is the secret of it should lead? Isn't that a bit chopped up?"

Jordan nodded, "Oh, that's right! There was a missing letter!"

KaTrena looked at Dia,"What was the missing letter?"

Everyone turned to Dia and she shrugged, "Don't look at me..."

I looked at the Heaven and Earth scroll, "Y'know what's ironic? The tablet claims those with Heaven have knowledge, but must seek strength. KaTrena's team are weaker than we are, but smarter. The ones who possess Earth, us, are stronger, but must seek knowledge."

Jordan smirked, "Yeah, you're right! Accept you lack both knowledge and strength!"

She broke out in laughter and I growled, "Shut up!"

Dia snickered, "Hey, aren't we suppose to open the scrolls?"

I waved my hand in 'whatever' fashion, "Who cares? It's just summoning of Chuunin to lecture and congratulate us..."

Everyone frowned, "Oh..."

We all left the room and into another. There were belconies that came off from the walls on the sides of the room and staircases that lead to them just on the sides of the doorway, imbended into the north wall was a TV screen. People were gathering and lining up, on the sides stood Jounin and Chuunin, in the front stood the sensei's of the teams, proctors, and the Third Hokage.

We quickly ran and lined up. I stood in the front, Dia behind me, and Jordan in the back on the far right. To our left stood KaTrena's team. KaT in front, Heather behind her, and Mandy in the back. To their left was Lee, Neji, and Tenten. I peered past everbody to Gaara's team on the opposite side, he, like me, was infront. As I stared he obviously noticed and looked at my way. His expression was passive for a moment until I saw a glint of anger, dispite this, I smiled and waved. Gaara huffed and rolled his eyes, turned away.

Dia behind me snickered, "He still hates you..."

Oh, how I hated that sing-song voice expression. Anko spoke, "First off, congratulations on passing the Second Exam. We now have the explaination of the Third Exam from the Third Hokage-sama, listen well."

The Third Hokage stepped foward, "The Third Exam will begin. But before the explaination, there's one thing I want to make clear to you. It's about the true purpose of this exam. Why we do join exams with the allied nations?To maintain the relationship with the allied nations and heighten the level of ninja. Do not let those reasons decive you. This Exam, so to speak is, the epitome of war between allied nations. For example, the two teams to the far left, made up of three genin from three different countries.", We all flinched and some looked our way, we smiled nervously and quickly avoided eye contact, the Third continued, "If we were to go back through history, the allied nations right now were neighboring countries that fought eachother over and oven again. To avoid military power, those countries decided to choose a place to fight. That is the beginning of the Chuunin Exams."

Naruto tilted his head to the side, "Why do we have to do that? We're not doing this to select Chuunin's?"

"Yes, this is what proves who is worthy of the Chuunin title. But, on the other hand, it's also a place where ninja fight and carry their country's dignity. In this Thrid Exam, feudal lords and famous people from various countries who made potential clients are invited here as guests. Feudal lords from other countries with hidden villages and ninja leaders will see your battles. If there's a significant difference in power, the strong country will be flooded with jobs. If a country is seen as weak, there jobs will decrease. At the same time, countries are able to show how their village has grown and possess exccelant military power to the adjacant countries. In other words they put foreign pressure on them."

Kiba frowned, "So why do we have to fight with the risk of losing our lives?"

Hokage answered, "The country's power is the village's power. A village's power is the ninja's power. True ninja power is only born in life-and-death battle. This Exam is also a place to show-off the ninja's power of one country. Since this is an exam where you fight with your life on the line, it has a meaning. Your predessessors have fought and dreamed of being in the Chuunin Exam because of it."

Tenten questioned this time, "But then why do you say it's to promote relation?"

"I told you in the beginning to not get confused with that."

I smiled, "I understand!"

Gaara scowled, "I don't care..."

I flinched and glared in his direction and muttered, "I wasn't talking to you... backwater, desert idiot..."

Hakage nodded, "Let the premiliaries begin!"

All the genin, Jounin, and proctors went to the stairs and found their places. On the way to the stairs, I felt someone grab my hand and tug me back. I stumbled and turned around, "Hey, what's the-"

I stopped and came face to face with Sasuke, he was holding the left side of his neck with his right arm. I grimced, "You..."

"How did you know about Orochimaru?"

I blinked, "Huh?"

"The man you warned me about!"

I flinched and looked away, "Oh, well, y'see... I saw him earlier and... er... he looked very dangerous! And... he was staring at you a lot so... I assumed..."

He sighed harshly, "Nevermind..."

He began to walk away and Dia ran up to his side, "Sasuke!... Shit!"

He turned and looked at her, "What?"

She stared intently at where he covored the cursed seal, "That must hurt... shit... didn't we say to stay away from that guy?!"

Sasuke snapped, "Well, you weren't being exactly specific about it! There's a lot of 'dangerous looking men' in that forest! How was I suppose to know?! Not only that, but he was impossible to run away from! And when that didn't work, I had to fight!"

"And you lost?"

"No shit!"

Dia mouth twitched down and she stared at the ground, "Sor-ry..."

Sasuke 'hned' and walked away. I walked by her with a sheepish expression, using the same sing-song voice, "Sasuke hate's you..."

"Shut up!"

I snickered and we stood on the left balcony, between Orochimaru's team and Gaara's team, while KaTrena's team went to the opposite to stand between Lee's and Kiba's team. As we found our spots, Jordan, Dia, and I glared at Orochimaru. He looked at us for a moment and then shifted back to wherever 'Micheal Jackson' was staring at.

Jordan leaned toward them a bit and whispered, "Little boy raper..."

Orochimaru looked back to us and we quickly diverted our gaze. Suddenly, the TV screen began to shift through names in yellow letters. It stopped and was Japanese, but we all knew it said-

Uchiha Sasuke vs Akadou Yoroi

Sasuke and Yoroi walked down the stairs and faced eachother in the middle of the arena, the referee (I forgot his name! Please reveiw and tell me!) Held his hand in the air and looked between them before bringing his hand down, "Begin."

He jumped away and Yoroi formed the tiger seal, Sasuke took his stance. Then chakra started to stream on his hand and he had his other hand in his back pouch. Sasuke pulled out some shurikans and Yoroi threw some shurikans at him. Sasuke suddenly screamed in pain, the cursed seal on his neck was glowing a orangeish redish. Dia gritted her teeth and gripped the coat around her hand. Sasuke trembled, "Shoot!"

He dropped to the ground as Yoroi avoided the shurikans. He ran over to Sasuke and threw a punch at him. But Sasuke moved just in time and Yoroi punched a hole into the ground. Sasuke stabbed a kunai into the ground to stop and swung to kick Yoroi in the legs. He triped and Sasuke quickly grabbed his hand and held him down with his legs. Yoroi put his hand on Sasuke's chest and his hand glowed with chakra and slammed him in the gut. He grunted and let go of Yoroi. Yoroi then charged at Sasuke as he got up. His hand covered in chakra again and jumped at Sasuke. He grabed his head and pinned Sasuke to the ground. Sasuke started to look like he was getting weaker and was trembling, but then he made a fist, "Get off!"

Sasuke kicked Yoroi off from him and he stood back up and ran at Sasuke, trying to grab him again. Sasuke dodged his attempts until he touched one of his bangs. His eyes widened as he fell to the ground once more. Dia gripped harder and I looked over to her, "Why you being so shaky? We already know he's gonna win."

"I don't care, this is much more tense than it is on television..."

It was easy to see Yoroi smirking even under his black mask, "What's wrong? You done already?!"

Sasuke turned around and tried to kick him, but Yoroi jumped up and missed. Yoroi's hand kept on having chakra run through it and Sasuke was losing chakra eachtime they made contact. Dia spoke up, "Come one Sasuke! He's using Kyuushuu no Chakra! He's draining your chakra away for himself! Don't let him touch you!"

Sasuke looked over to her, "What?!

Yoroi cut in, "You don't have time to be distracted! This is it!"

Yoroi was running at Sasuke. Sasuke smirked and began to dodge everytime Yoroi began to grab at him. Then, Sasuke suddenly dissapeared, moving too fast for us to see. Lee looked shocked as Sasuke appeared again and kicked Yoroi in the chin. This made him fly into the air, Sasuke got on four legs and jumped up behind him, "From here on out, it's all original, eat this."

We all reconized this as Lee's Shadow Dance. Sasuke then winced, the cursed seal burned red and began to expand up his neck and the left side of his face. Sasuke grunted in pain but kept fighting, "Let's get this on..."

Sasuke flipped Yoroi around and went to kick his side, yet Yoroi blocked with his arm, "Not good enough!"

"I'm not done!"

Sasuke backhanded him in the neck to knock him at the ground, he punched him in the stomach and then used Yoroi's body to flip and smash him into the concrete using the back of his leg. Sasuke slid backwards and rolled onto his stomach, soon standing up. The ref. raised his hand, "I will now stop the match. Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

Both Naruto and Dia raised their arms in the air, "YAAHOOO!"

Gaara smirked slightly and Kakashi walked down to Sasuke, grabbing his shoulder and forming a seal, they dissapeared in a column of smoke. Off to seal the curse. The ref. announced, "We will now select the next fighters!"

The TV screen began to sort through names and stopped at-

Aburame Shino vs Abumi Zaku

KaTrena gasped and looked over to Shino, smiling, "Good luck!"

Shino nodded and walked past her to meet with Zaku. Zaku's arms were bandaged and hung like he was hugging himself. I smirked, remembering the time when Sasuke when all cursed seal on his ass for hurting Sakura. The ref. brought his hand down, "Begin."

Shino spoke in his monotone voice, "You fight me here, you'll never be able to fight again..."

Zaku pulld one arm from the sling, "One arm is good enough for you."

Zaku ran at Shino head on and aimed for a hit, but Shino blocked, "You can't beat me in your condition."

"Take this!"

There was a flash of light and a explosion followed. Shino lyed on the ground and KaTrena leaned over the bars, "Shino!"

The smoke cleared and a strange tinkling noise floated in the air. Shino slowly stood back to his feet and faced Zaku, three, small holes were on his left cheek, bugs crawling out from it. The majority of people's faces twisted in digust while KaTrena smirked. Shino formed the tiger seal and a whole colony of kaki gathered behind Zaku. His eyes widened and he shook in fear. Shino explained, "These guys are called Kaki bugs. They attack their prey in groups and consumes their chakra. If I attack you with this many, you will never fight again. If you don't want that, give up, that is recomended. If you use your left hand, I will make the bugs attack you from behind. If you use it on the bugs, I'll attack you. Either way, there's no way out of this situation. You're suppose to keep your trump card until the end."

Zaku moved his right arm and pointed it at the colony, the left at Shino, "Don't underestimate me! You said you're suppose to keep the trump card to the end, RIGHT?!"

KaTrena gritted her teeth and watched intently. (The only one's who watched the Chuunin Exams are Jordan, Dia, and I)

Zaku was just about to use Zankuuha on Shino and his bugs, but chakra began to explode from his arms. His eyes were wide with shock and he hung his body, just barely standing, "MY ARMS!"

He weakly looked at his hands and gasped, Kaki crawled around on them and all on the holes bored into his palms, made to mold chakra into wind currents. Shino walked up behind Zaku, "When I recommended you to give up, I told the bugs to plug up those annoying holes and stay still. This is what a trump card is..."

Zaku yelled out in anger, "Shut up!"

Shino punched him in the face and sent him across the room. The ref. walked over to Zaku and examined his damaged arms, "Winner, Aburame Shino!"

KaTrena squealed and leaped in joy, "Woohoo, Shino-kun!"

Shino put his hands in his pockets and looked up at KaTrena, his cheeks lifted. Basically, behind the coat's collar, he was smiling. He walked back up the stairs and KaTrena skipped to him, "Great job!"

Shino nodded, "Thank you."

Lee looked over to the curious Neji, "Who is he Neji?"

Neji formed handseals and ended with the traditional Hyuuga seal, he opened his eyes in the Byakugan. He stared intently at Shino and he gasped, "What a guy... I understand he used a jutsu to summon those bugs but... I didn't think they lived inside of him!"

Gai nodded, "He's part of the Aburame clan, the clan of insects."

Neji, "I've heard of it before...The story of the clan that has bugs live inside of thier body from birth and use them to fight. They control bugs with their minds and let the bugs battle for them. In exchange they feed the bugs their chakra for food."

Lee stared at Shino, "I understand he must be the clan's successor."

The TV screen sorted through the names again in yellow and ended in-

KaTrena M. vs Mandy W.