As soon as Sakura and Ino cleared out of the arena, the names for the fifth fight in the preliminaries were called and Kankuro and Akado Yoroi made their way down to the arena. Kankuro had - rather cleverly in his opinion - switched himself out with Karasu when everyone had been paying attention to the bitch-fight between the two Leaf Kunoichi that had been passed off as a preliminary bout, and therefore was being carried into the arena rather than walking. Soon, Yoroi and Karasu were standing in front of the proctor who was refereeing the preliminaries waiting for their fight to start.

The moment the signal was given, both Karasu and Yoroi burst into motion. Yoroi grabbed the only bit on Karasu that would have been exposed skin on Kankuro, his face. Despite his facial covering that masked all expression, the man somehow managed to look completely stunned when absolutely nothing happened after he'd grabbed "Kankuro's" face. Whatever the man had planned to do had apparently required physical contact with the real Kankuro in order for him to pull it off.

Following Yoroi's failure, Karasu went on the offensive, and beat Yoroi to a pulp at Kankuro's direction. Kankuro found the fight to be easy, and was amused by the fact that he'd never once been forced to show himself throughout the entire bout. Apparently his opponent had been a one trick pony, and he'd somehow neutralized that trick without even trying. As soon as the proctor announced his victory, he swapped places with Karasu, and made his way back to Baki-sensei and his siblings. There was no reason to remain wrapped in those stifling bandages any longer than necessary.

Practically the instant Kankuro returned to his teammates, the names for the sixth bout were announced. Temari would be fighting someone named Tenten. As she made her way down to the arena and proctor who would start the match, Temari sized her opponent up. The girl looked more serious than her other Konoha counterparts, and obviously hadn't spent as much time on her hair and clothing as that ridiculous pair who had been clawing at each-other and trying to pull the other's hair had done. Good, this might actually be a real match, rather than a bitchfight like the one that had taken place between the two other Leaf kunoichi.

In the opening moves of their fight, her opponent showed herself to be something of a budding weapons specialist when she went on the offensive. It was such a pity that she had to come up against a Wind mistress considering. Unlike just about every other girl in Konoha that she'd encountered during her stay, the girl actually seemed to take her position as a Kunoichi seriously. She would rather have seen her in the final phase of the Exams than that pink haired harridan who spent a good minute pulling that blonde's hair.

When the girl realized that her initial moves had failed and that she would need to step up her game, she released three storage scrolls worth of weapons, and did something with ninja wire that undoubtedly would have caught Kankuro's interest as a puppet master before the bout was over, but eventually the fight ended in her favor as she blew the last of the weapons away and caught the girl in a Kamaitachi no Jutsu which was rather aptly named after the sickle weasel which floated through the winds slicing anyone it encountered with its razor sharp claws according to legend.

After catching the wounded girl on her fan, she flicked her aside and one of the boys on her team jumped down and caught her before she hit the ground. After the boy had caught his teammate, she talked a bit of trash with the boy she could be battling in a month, and left the arena. While she had a little more respect for her opponent than she did the two other Kunoichi she had seen battle, she still found the Leaf Kunoichi to be weak compared to her. She had hoped for a greater challenge than the one she had gotten only to have those hopes dashed.

Considering the apparent strength of the Leaf's forces, when it came time for the Invasion, Konoha was going to be toast.

As soon as TenTen's weapons were all cleared from the Arena floor, the names for the seventh bout were selected and announced. Lee wasn't sure if he should be happy or disappointed that he had been selected to fight Akimichi Chouji. While the Akimichi were powerhouses when it came to Taijutsu, the heavy boy was both slower and less experienced than him, thus the disappointment. The potential joy over the selection of his opponent came from the fact that he would have a much better chance of advancing to the finals and facing a truly strong opponent during the Third Phase of the Exams in front of all of the dignitaries that the Hokage had mentioned proving that a Genius of Hard Work could succeed.

The battle that came next was short, and almost brutally one-sided, as even with the weights holding him back he moved far too quickly for Chouji to counter. Chouji's punches and kicks were undoubtedly powerful as was his Human Bullet Tank technique, but he had been able to rather easily avoid them and kicking Chouji around like he were a soccer ball had not been nearly as fun as it had apparently looked to his audience who had cheered when Chouji had hit the far wall of the arena.

He had been hoping for a most Youthful battle in which both parties gave their all but, it looked like he would have to wait until the Third Phase for that to happen.

As soon as Lee and the rather battered Chouji were cleared from the arena floor, the names for the eighth bout were announced. They were Hyuuga Hinata and Hyuuga Neji. Hinata, who had been over the moon about the fact that Naruto was actually speaking with her, even if it was only about the properties of the homemade medicinal ointment that she had given him had been forcefully slammed down to Earth by the name of her opponent. That couldn't possibly have been a random selection. Someone had to have bribed whoever it was that programmed the boards, either that, or a Hyuuga had programmed the board at some point when it became apparent that Preliminaries would be necessary.

She understood why it had been done. Compared to Neji and her younger sister, she was weak. If she somehow made it to the final part of the exams and failed in front of the assembled dignitaries, her family would be seen as weak. By having her fight Neji and be eliminated now, it was guaranteed that a Hyuuga would make it to the final phase, and not shame the family when they did so.

She felt sadness and anger at this. She had worked so hard to be strong, and had hoped to prove to herself and everyone around her that she was so during the Chunin Exams. She had always wanted to be like Naruto who always picked himself back up off the ground and climbed ever higher after every time he did so. Every time she faced an obstacle however, she found herself stopping and backing away. This time didn't appear to be an exception, as while Neji kept telling her that she was a failure and always would be a failure she found herself drawing in on herself, trying to protect herself from his words.

Suddenly, as she was about to give up, a voice that never failed to cause her heart to skip a beat called out "C'mon Hinata, don't give up now, I know for a fact that you're much better than this!". Naruto believed in her! Naruto believed in her! She couldn't give up now, she had to prove to both herself and everyone else that she was as strong as Naruto believed her to be.

Emboldened by the words of the boy she admired, she moved to strike. Neji provided no openings, no matter what she did however. Eventually, after what seemed like forever, her eyes found one. She scored a hit! She scored a hit against Neji! She could do this!

She couldn't do this. Neji proved too strong, and too fast. He closed all of the tenketsu on her arms, disabling her Juken strikes. All she could do now was try to block him. She couldn't block him forever, and the pain in her chest from one of his earlier strikes grew to be too much. She collapsed, and nearly lost consciousness. As the proctor announced her defeat, and the Jounin moved in to save her from Neji's next attack, she struggled to rise. She wouldn't stay down. She wouldn't stay down. She would get up like Naruto. She stood, and then she fell...

Naruto clutched the railing in shock. If he had known that this would happen, he would not have called out any encouragement despite the fact that He'd promised Hinata that he'd be rooting for her as she'd left for the arena floor. He had seen Hinata faltering, and decided then would be a good time to cheer her up a bit, especially since he now considered her to be something of a friend now that he'd actually talked to her. After he'd loudly cheered her on, Hinata had fought instead of forfeiting like she had looked like she had been about to do. She had fought bravely, and now, because she had fought, she could die.

Neji however had not needed to be so brutal. He had not needed to put Hinata down so much, and he had not needed to attack her so viciously especially considering the fact that Hinata was both family and a comrade to the Hyuuga boy.

Hinata was his friend, and as soon as he got a chance to do so, he was going to show Neji exactly what he did to people who harmed his friends. If Hinata's teammates didn't take him out back and show him what they did to people who hurt their teammate first that is. As her teammates, the Inuzuka and the Aburame had first dibs on any actions that might be taken against the Hyuuga bastard for what he'd done to Hinata.

As she was carried off, Neji watched his cousin who persisted in calling him "big brother" despite the fact that he had done everything to make it clear that he disliked her go. She had proven herself a loser as Fate had decreed her to be, but...

As he looked back on the fight, he remembered the moment that her eyes had changed, and how there had been steel in her spine if only for a little while. In that moment, she had seemed strong and fierce, and traces of that fierceness had remained in the moments afterward when she refused to quit even though it was obvious from the beginning that she had lost, and in the moment she rose despite the fact that she should have stayed down.

She had lost as Fate decreed she would however. People don't change. Once a loser, always a loser. There were no exceptions.

As soon as Neji walked away confident in his understanding of how the world worked, the ninth match was called, and it was Nara Shikamaru and Tsuchi Kin who would be fighting in this bout. Shikamaru wouldn't have bothered, except that it would be more troublesome for him if he backed out now since he had failed to back out when he'd been given the chance to do so. If he just stayed up here now, he'd be hearing about it from his peers, his teammates, his mother, and Asuma-sensei for years. Whether he won or lost, it would be better to just get it over and done with now so he wouldn't have to hear anything about it from anyone.

Kin proved to be an interesting if somewhat easy to read opponent. After determining the nature of her sound based Genjutsu attack, he swiftly caught her in his Kagemane and made her knock herself out by hitting her head against a nearby wall while dodging a flying shuriken.

Now that that was over and done with, he couldn't wait for the tenth battle to take place so he could get the hell out of here and maybe catch some cloud watching time before the team went out for Chouji's consolation dinner.

After the unconscious Kin had been cleared away, the tenth match was called, and it was Gaara against Tsurugi Misumi. As Misumi made his way down to the arena, he wondered exactly how hard a time he would have of it. Kabuto had informed him of Gaara's status as the Jinchuriki of the One-tailed Tanuki Shukaku. This meant that in regards to power, his opponent was stronger than the average Jounin, and he would have to end this quickly.

Trying to get the fight over with as fast as possible, he moved to the boy the instant the start of the fight was called, and dislocated his limbs so the boy couldn't just throw him off when he wrapped himself around him as he did so. When he grabbed the boy in order to squeeze him to death or unconsciousness at the very least, it had probably looked like a weird sort of hug to everyone who had been watching, since he'd gone for the front as the boy's back was covered by a giant gourd. As he tried to crush the boy, he could feel sand move under his arms.

Suddenly, he felt himself flying away from the boy, his limbs ripping off and going in different directions as sand flew into his face, blinding him.

There was more pain than he'd ever felt in his entire life, and everything went black...

After the tenth bout had ended and those who passed had lined up before him, Gekko Hayate looked over the group of Genin who had made it to the Third Phase of the Exams. They were a strong bunch, and would most likely go far. Soon, the Hokage finished his speech to the young shinobi that were arrayed before him, and he went along the line with the box that contained the numbered slips of paper that would determine in which order the Genin would fight. Once he reached the end and the last number had been taken, the candidates called out their numbers.

"One." Hyuuga Neji called.

"Five." Aburame Shino called.

"Three." Rock Lee called.

"Four." The Suna Genin Kankuro called.

"Two" Uzumaki Naruto called.

"Seven." The Suna Genin Temari called.

"Six." Nara Shikamaru called.

"Nine." Uchiha Sasuke called.

"Ten." The Suna Genin Gaara called.

"Eight." Haruno Sakura called.

"The matches for the Third Phase of the Summer Chunin Exams will be: Hyuuga Neji vs. Uzumaki Naruto, Rock Lee vs. Kankuro, Aburame Shino vs. Nara Shikamaru, Temari vs. Haruno Sakura, and Uchiha Sasuke vs. Gaara." he announced after the last Genin had called out her number.

After the matches had been called, the Preliminaries had ended and everyone including Kakashi had gone home. As he made his way into his apartment and tossed his vest onto a chair that was completely covered in dog hair Kakashi sighed in relief that that ordeal was over. A moment later, he whirled and pulled out a kunai as he made his way to his miniscule kitchen to attack the person who was sitting at his dining table without his leave. He then lowered the kunai when he saw exactly who it was that was sitting at his table leafing through one of his few non Icha Icha books and chowing down on the leftovers he'd planned on having for dinner.

"Hello Jiraiya." he said. "Long time no see."

Edited 11-28-12