Author Note

I've just read Chapter 489 and now it became clearer to me. Hinata's confession was like it never existed. The blond idiot is happy, smiling to the heavens as he heard Tsunade was better. Besides this, though, this story is getting interesting once more. And for those who read my story 'Tired', somehow I was right regarding the key to Naruto's power which was with the toads. Now that Naruto will open the seal placed by Yondaime, he'll have more chakra than any other human being on the elemental nations.

Plus I'm eager to see what jutsu the key toad was referring to. Furthermore, Kabuto's position struck me as odd. I mean, first he swears revenge on Sasuke to what he did to Orochimaru. Then, he goes up and joins the very same organization Sasuke is a part of. It appears to me he wish to destroy everything from the inside. Call it a hunch, but I believe that inside Kabuto's body lies a dormant Orochimaru, just waiting a while to resurface once more. Overall, the chapter was nice and I'm looking forward to what happens once Naruto places his hand in the two squares, like instructed by the key toad.

I'd like to take this opportunity and say thank you to all the readers of this story as well as the others. Since the beginning of my adventure in fan fiction, I was wondering whether or not the readers would actually enjoy my stories, but from the reviews I received (at least the majority of them), I have no doubt that all of you enjoyed it and I say thank you; for the reviews, for the constructive criticism that helped me cover from plot holes that were developing, everything.

I also want to place a special thanks to some, as they helped me a lot from reviewing my stories as my beta; to submitting nice reviews and sharing storyline discussions.

Dbtiger63

Kingkakashi

Dreetje

Kyuubi123

Skazi

Savanin

Buzzbumble

Now, without further a due, I'd like to present a new chapter of the Full Moon story.

ENJOY!!!

Chapter 25 – The invasion prelude

Beta: Kyuubi123

After the end of the second phase six genin teams managed to finish, quite to everyone's suspicion, including some of the genins. The Iwa teams were stronger, more skilled. Although none of them could be considered genins in the first place, not all of the teams were captured by the jounins inside the village, which meant only one thing. The Hidden Village of the Rock was gathering information on Konoha's shinobi, perhaps even gauging how easy it would be to infiltrate the village without getting caught.

As of now, Iwa already knew that a few of their shinobi were captured, which meant war was now unavoidable. If Iwa ddi not move against Konoha, Konoha would have every right to declare war on Iwa for tampering with the chunnin exams and attacking the clan heirs deliberately.

Right now, the genins were lined up in front of the Hokage and a few jounins. Some of them looked tired. Others seemed on the verge of collapsing from exhaustion due to escaping mostly unharmed from the place called the "forest of death". Konoha was the best represented village of the exams with four teams that managed to pass with Suna passing only one and the new village of Sound also passing one.

Minato eyed the chunnin hopefuls with a smile on his face as these exams could be quite taxing. Nevertheless, it was required of chunnins to be in the front lines. If they couldn't handle five days inside a forest, how can they expect to survive in a full-scale war? Also, a chunnin is a born captain of a squad and as such, he would have to face dangerous situations, while at the same time keeping their composure leading ordering his or her squad.

"Congratulations to everyone for passing the second phase. The exams are tough, but nonetheless necessary for us to see whether or not any of you deserve to be promoted. As chunnins, all of you will be performing gruesome and challenging tasks in the name of your respective villages, so this test serves as guidance for the Kages to determine how each one of you behave under stressful situations. Now, since the second phase is now over, let's proceed with the third phase..."

Minato stopped talking immediately as a strong and deep voice echoed throughout the gigantic gymnasium.

"Allow me Hokage-sama, there are certain measures that must be taken care of before we can proceed to the third part..."

The Hokage smiled and nodded as he knew the voice had its merit. Suddenly, in the middle of the field, a considerable typhoon started forming until two presences could be seen inside. The wind was starting to increase, until the genins had to shield their eyes. After a few minutes, the wind died down as a carbon copy of the Yondaime Hokage appeared. On his side was a big wolf and it was wiping its tail while focusing its attention on the genins. The presence alone was enough for some to gasp as they had yet to see Namikaze Naruto after his transformation.

Immediately; Ino, Sakura, Temari and a genin from Sound Kin Tsuchi blushed at his looks. However, a second later, all of them had different thoughts. Sakura shoved the image away and focused on Sasuke's, Temari focused on Suna's plan to invade Konoha as did Kin. Ino, though, was the only one who kept looking while drooling at the thought of what Naruto would do to her.

"Welcome to the third part of the Chunnin Exams. I'm Namikaze Naruto and the wolf next to me is Gekkou. I'll be the proctor for the third exam, but first we are in need of a preliminary round."

The genins started mumbling between themselves at the absurdity of more fights. The jounin-senseis all smiled at their genins' bad luck, while some observed Naruto with a smile on their faces. Both Kakashi and Asuma participated in Naruto's growth throughout the years and they could see how mature he looked as he stood in front of the genins.

Shikamaru was the first to speak.

"Why do we need a preliminary round in the first place? None of us are in any condition to be fighting."

Naruto smirked at Shikamaru's question, but answered nonetheless.

"As it stands, there are eighteen genins here. The third exam consists of a showdown of one on one skills and nobles from all the elemental nations will be present to watch. Should all of you participate, it would take too long for the exams to end and it is possible that it would take more than one day for the entire tournament. Needless to say, people would be bored. As for you being incapable of fighting, that's not of my concern it's yours and you had best deal with it!"

Naruto smirked even more once he heard Shikamaru grumble his usual 'troublesome', before proceeding with the explanations.

"As I explained, we'll now proceed with some preliminary matches to reduce the number of participants. The electronic board behind me will determine who will fight against whom. Also, remember that as proctor, my word is final. If anyone violates my orders, he or she will be disqualified immediately. Besides that, anything is allowed. Also, one other thing...If I see that the opponent is incapable of fighting, I have the right to intervene and stop the fight. Now, before I begin the preliminary match, is there anyone who wishes to withdraw?"

As soon as Naruto asked, a silver haired man by the name of Kabuto raised his right hand and vocalized his wish to withdraw from the test, earning a nod from Naruto. Son and Father exchanged looks for a while, before Naruto acknowledged Kabuto's request. It was no secret that Kabuto had an amazing history with the chunnin exams as this was the eighth time he had failed to pass.

Surely, it was suspicious, but right now there wasn't any evidence that Kabuto was playing for the other team.

With that taken care of, the board's lights started to scramble throughout the genins' names, before stopping.

Uchiha Sasuke x Inuzuka Kiba

Both genins smirked for different reasons. Kiba smiled because he would finally teach Sasuke a lesson in humility. Sasuke smiled as he believed his fight would be easy, granting him a ticket to the third phase. As he walked, though, a strange mark on Sasuke's neck started to glow red, forcing the Uchiha to bite his lips in sudden pain.

Sasuke remembered both his brother and his sensei performing a strange ritual that managed to stop the seal's effects on Sasuke. However, it was their fear that Sasuke wouldn't be able to control the seal, thus, becoming another victim of Orochimaru's cursed seal. Itachi wanted nothing more than to rid his little brother of the seal, but he didn't know how to and even if he did, he needed Sasuke to cooperate and he knew that cooperation with others wasn't in Sasuke's vocabulary.

Instead, Itachi did something that in everyone's opinion was more efficient. Sasuke remembered all too well, because he could sense his brother's killing intent which meant he wasn't kidding. Itachi allowed Sasuke to have the seal, but if his little brother ever betrayed Konoha, Itachi would have no qualms with slicing Sasuke's throat immediately.

It was cruel, yes but nevertheless effective as Sasuke's resolve around controlling the seal doubled. He knew how one Mitarashi Anko managed to grow strong without depending on the seal and if she could do it, then for an Uchiha, it would be like a walk in the park. Sasuke was selfish and arrogant, but he wasn't foolish enough to challenge Itachi but that his brother already knew.

As the two combatants eyed each other, everyone could feel their anticipation regarding this fight grow. Naruto waited for a bit, until no one would interrupt him anymore, before he signaled for the fight to begin. As soon as he showed his hand, both Kiba and Sasuke vanished within a blur and exchanged a few punches against each other.

Kiba, with his canine traits, had the upper hand in strength but Sasuke was faster in the taijutsu department, hence how the Uchiha landed a fierce punch on Kiba's jaw sending him flying a few meters before Kiba flipped his body and landed safely on the ground. Though he had to stop a while to clean the blood that came from his mouth he was otherwise okay. Instantly molding some chakra, Kiba performed his clan's famous jutsu that allowed a human being to use all four limbs to move, instead of just his legs. Plus his canines and finger nails elongated.

Sasuke saw Kiba approaching fast, but he didn't need the Sharingan to predict Kiba's movements as he evaded the Inuzuka's charge. Sasuke was caught by surprise once he saw a white little dog charging at him from behind, but he managed to punch Akamaru's face sending the dog flying towards Kiba, who snarled at Sasuke for hurting his partner.

Charging once more, Kiba took four shuriken and threw them at Sasuke with considerable speed, forcing Sasuke to evade them all, but it served Kiba's purpose as it allowed him to land a fierce slash on Sasuke's stomach, ripping his navy blue shirt. Sasuke felt incredible pain as he looked at his chest only to see that three slashes were carved into his flesh and blood was pouring out of the wounds.

Focusing on the battle, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and went through some hand seals, before gathering as much oxygen as possible inside his lungs.

Katon Goukakyuu no Jutsu (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu)

The fireball was considerably large, but Kiba and Akamaru managed to dodge by jumping to the air as Kiba gave a red pill to Akamaru. The dog suddenly grew in size and his fur was now fire red. Holding the ram seal, Akamaru jumped on top of Kiba's back.

Juujin Bunshin no Jutsu (Beast Man Clone Jutsu)

Akamaru suddenly transformed into an exact replica of his owner as the two charged together against Sasuke. At first, Sasuke smiled since he was seeing everything with his sharingan, but the information given by his doujutsu made him frown as he recognized the Inuzuka's next technique. Although Sasuke managed to predict Kiba's movements, he wasn't fast enough to stop them from performing the Gatsuuga (Double Piercing Fang). Both the real and clone Kiba started spinning, until both of them created a spinning drill, charging Sasuke with the promise of causing immeasurable pain to the Uchiha.

As Sasuke saw the two spinning drills coming at him, he realized the weakness behind this technique. Because of his sharingan, he could see the movement in slow motion and he could see both Kiba and Akamaru's right hands were extended, hence why the technique simulated a drill. So, Sasuke had to avoid being hit by the extended hand or even attack it, eliminating the threat.

A smirk appeared on his lips as he started going through a number of hand seals.

Raiton Baisuu Rakurai (Lightning Release: Multiple Thunderbolt Jutsu)

Immediately, two thunderbolts left Sasuke's hand, as each one charged towards each spinning drill, before the attack landed, stopping Kiba and Akamaru's movement immediately as thousands and thousands of volts ran through their veins in a minute. The dog was out cold instantly and Kiba was no better as his body was paralyzed. Even if he wasn't, the damage to his organs was too extensive and he was only seconds away from falling unconscious on the floor.

Sasuke, though, wasn't aware of Kiba's condition as he charged with a kunai in hand. Kiba was unable to even move a finger to stop it. Suddenly, as Sasuke was a couple inches away from hurting Kiba, quite to everyone's shock in the room, Naruto managed to grab the Uchiha's wrist, saving Kiba's life.

"As stated before, I can stop the fight when the opponent is unable to fight. Winner Uchiha Sasuke"

Sasuke looked at Naruto for a while, wondering why the hell he stopped Sasuke from landing the winning blow, while Haku's medic-nin team arrived to take care of Kiba and his dog. Naruto knew Sasuke's smug feelings of superiority to others and looked at the brooding Uchiha with a smile on his face, before the board indicated the next fight.

Yamanaka Ino x Kin Tsuchi

"Uchiha, you can't be here, Proceed to the upper levels. Now, the next fight shall begin immediately. Could the next combatants approach the arena, we don't have all day here"

Sasuke snarled at the blond a bit, before leaving the arena just as the ladies arrived. Somehow, he knew that he would be punished for what he attempted, but he didn't care. In his mind, he didn't do anything wrong. Kakashi's stern face, however, told him otherwise. He always drilled the word teamwork in the genins' minds and right now, Sasuke pretty much forgot that Kiba was a genin from Konoha just like him.

Back at the arena, Ino and Kin eyed each other.

Naruto already authorized the beginning of the battle, but neither made the first move as they were analyzing each other.

Suddenly, Ino grabbed a kunai with her left hand as she charged against Kin, but Ino lacked the necessary speed for a direct attack, allowing Kin to dodge the attack and land a fierce kick on Ino's back. Kin followed with a couple of shuriken that impaled Ino on her back quite to her team' shock as she fell on the ground dead. Kin was almost smiling at her victory, when the body turned out to be a tree log. The real Ino was behind her while doing hand seals.

Suiton Ja no Kuchi (Water Release: Snake Head Jutsu)

The Oto genin was surprised by the sudden attack, but she was ill equipped to avoid as the huge snake opened its mouth, enveloping Kin. Since Kin was close to the wall, Ino's attack propelled her opponent towards it, before hitting her head on the wall, dropping unconscious on the ground.

The Yamanaka heir smiled triumphantly as Naruto declared her the winner. Suddenly the board sprang to life once more, before stopping.

Sai x Sabaku no Temari

As the opponents appeared at the arena, Naruto saw the battle fan on Temari's back and smiled. In his first years studying wind manipulation, he learned that wind chakra is very tough to manipulate without a proper instrument like a battle fan or a metalized weapon. However, later Naruto learned that by using more chakra, a shinobi can manipulate wind without the need of a catalyst.

Still, he was interested in what kinds of techniques this genin would show.

As soon as he authorized the battle, Sai charged at Temari with his broken sword, but Temari defended with her battle fan, before twisting her body and aiming a reverse kick at Sai. The Konoha genin saw the move, though, as he blocked the rather weak kick with his left arm. He then surprised everyone by landing a fierce knee to her jaw, sending Temari flying as she spit blood. Not wasting any time, Sai jumped in the air and sent Temari flying with a strong kick on her stomach.

Sai didn't want to waste any more time with this fight as he picked a blank scroll and his brush, before drawing some lions. Focusing some chakra, the creatures suddenly escaped from the scroll and charged the still flying Temari. The woman, for her part, was dizzy because of the brutal sequence of attacks. However, her blurred vision managed to see the creatures charging at her. She knew that the battle would be over if she didn't do anything to stop them.

Suddenly, opening her fan entirely, Temari sent a strong whirlwind at the lions and gave a sigh of relief as they disintegrated. Sai was in front of her as he charged at her once more, but this time Temari was prepared. Opening her fan entirely, she focused as much chakras as she could muster for one of her strong assaults.

Fuuton Kamaitachi (Wind Release: Cutting Whirlwind Jutsu)

A gigantic tornado was soon charging at the surprised Sai, who was caught in the tornado, while his body was suffering major cuts and bruises from the attack. Temari was confident that this attack would give her the victory, if not at least hinder him for her to deliver the winning blow, afterwards. However, she was surprised once Sai's body was replaced with a strange black substance as her attack ended.

Suddenly she had the desire to simply close her eyes and fall into a peaceful slumber as Sai materialized behind her back and landed a poisoned dart on her arm.

Temari only heard the cute proctor giving the victory to her opponent, before the medic-nins approached once more and took care of her.

As the fights were progressing, Minato was very content with his genins' display of skill so far. He was certain that they would grow to become legends just like their respective fathers and mothers, though in Sasuke's case, Minato wished he could follow after his mother, instead of his father Fugaku.

Looking at his son also made him smile as Naruto's authority was being respected without question from the genins. Suddenly, Minato saw something in Naruto's eyes that caused him to worry. Naruto was placed as proctor for the exam for the single reason that he could summon Gekkou .The wolf had the skill of detecting genjutsu from a mile away. No matter how skilled an opponent is with genjutsu, the wolf could detect them immediately.

Following Naruto's line of sight, Minato saw the jounin from Otogakure from the corner of his eye. Upon first appearances, the man was pretty much normal. Black long hair tied in a pony tail, pale almost white skin and wearing only black clothes. If Naruto was looking at this man in particular, then it was because Gekkou warned him. Looking closely, Minato saw some resemblance to the sannin Orochimaru and he smiled for a bit.

For now, he wouldn't do anything. Clearly, Orochimaru liked to play games, saying he was here the entire time without anyone noticing. Also, if Minato acted right now, there was a chance that the snake sannin had a backup plan to escape, thus ruining the opportunity to skin the treacherous serpent. For now, Minato would live with the knowledge that Orochimaru could hide his chakra and be aware of the usage of advanced henges. Looking back at his son, he signaled the chunnin to proceed with the fights, earning a nod.

Nara Shikamaru x Haruno Sakura

Immediately as his name appeared, Shikamaru let out a groan in frustration for two reasons. First was the troublesome idea of having to fight once more after spending five whole days inside that damn forest and the second was the idea of fighting against the opposite sex. He could say beating on a woman was his least enjoyable activity. Shikamaru didn't have time to ponder, though, as Ino pushed him over the balcony resulting in him falling hard on the floor.

Upon looking at the troublesome woman, Shikamaru let out another groan in frustration before he picked himself up and cleaned the debris that landed on his clothing due to the fall.

Placing both hands inside his pockets, the Nara heir walked peacefully towards the center of the arena where Naruto and Sakura were waiting for him. The blond smiled at his lazy friend, since he knew that getting things done just wasn't Shikamaru's forte. Naruto knew Shikamaru would rather lie on the grass and watch the clouds pass by without a care in the world than having to fight right now…especially against a girl.

As the two genins positioned in front of each other, Naruto looked from one to the other one last time, before authorizing the battle.

Sakura didn't waste her time and charged Shikamaru with hand seals for a simple bunshin jutsu. She knew Shikamaru to be smart, probably the brightest mind of their generation, but she was counting on the two clones to trick him. However, the Nara heir just stood there as the two Sakuras attacked him with their fists. They passed right by him, like he didn't exist, until Shikamaru blocked the real Sakura's punch with his right arm.

"How did you know the first ones were clones?" Sakura asked, as the two were locking their arms for a second.

"Huh, what a drag. Out of the three, only you had a shadow. My family's technique relies heavily on shadow manipulation and if there's one thing every Nara knows to pay attention to it's the enemy's shadow. It says a lot about the technique or rather the enemy's position."

Sakura grinded her teeth and backed away from her opponent, however as she was about to perform evasive maneuvers, she was feeling weird. It was like she couldn't move her body, no matter how much her mind willed it to move. Looking down, she realized in shock the reason as Shikamaru spoke once more.

"Another thing you should know Sakura is to never get too close to a Nara, we can control our shadow and bind yours, thus controlling your body movements."

The moment Shikamaru stopped talking, he was already positioning a kunai inches from Sakura's jugular. Sakura was doing the same, but without a kunai.

Naruto already saw enough as he gave the victory to Shikamaru, quite to Sakura's protest, since he had yet to land a finger on her to which Naruto gladly explained.

"If you were an enemy, you'd be dead right now. Shikamaru was holding a kunai within inches of your throat. One slice and you'd be dead." Naruto explained, much to Sakura's frustration at being beaten so easily by Shikamaru. However, as much as she tried to protest, in her mind, she knew Naruto was right. Shikamaru could easily kill her if he so wished to. It didn't mean, though, that her proud personality would acknowledge said fact.

Sabaku no Gaara x Akado Yoroi

As the two genins approached the arena, Naruto and the others focused their attention on Gaara. All of they could feel the potent chakra this kid exhaled and Naruto could see Gekkou's apprehension as he followed Gaara's movements. Naruto knew this to be troublesome, seeing as to this moment, this was the first time he ever saw Gekkou behaving like this. Clearly, something was off about this kid and apparently his father was suspicious as well.

Signaling for the genins to begin, Yoroi was quick to charge Gaara with a kunai on his right hand, but as soon as he approached Gaara, the man's instincts prevented him from being hit by the sand that erupted from the suna genin's sand container. Now, as Gaara ushered his sand against the disguised Konoha genin, Yoroi kept dodging as best as he could but was failing as the sand was scratching his limbs. Suddenly, Gaara expanded the sand until it surrounded his opponent. Yoroi found little room to escape as the sand slowly buried him underneath, until his body was completely under the sand.

Gaara, while extending his hands, was smiling like a maniac craving for Yoroi's blood. As soon as Gaara closed his hands, everyone could hear the shouts of pain from within the sand, before blood spilled everywhere. It was a gruesome scene as a couple of the kunoichi closed their eyes in fear at what they just witnessed. What was worse was that Gaara's face betrayed his emotions. He was smiling from ear to ear as the thought of killing another human being filled his mind with desire. Naruto was watching the entire thing, but he was ill prepared to stop it from happening. Granted, killing was allowed in the exams, but doing so in such a gruesome manner felt odd to him.

Looking at his father, Naruto was surprised to see that he stood from his chair and was fixing his gaze on the Suna genin.

Unknown to Naruto, Minato knew what he felt and it wasn't human. He wasn't sure how, but this Gaara exuded demon chakra in that jutsu of his. It shouldn't be possible, unless…The Fourth Hokage didn't want to complete his line of though. He always dreaded the existence of these particular individuals named Jinchuuriki or more accurately, demon jailers. Minato admitted knowing very little about this type of human being, but he knew about the history behind them and how the Shodaime Hokage provided each hidden village one bijuu as an act of good faith.

The fight continued on as another genin from Suna engaged a genin from Konoha called Tsurugi Misumi. Although Minato admitted never hearing about this man before in his life, his mind was more concerned with the thought of having to deal with a jinchuuriki in the upcoming war. Minato paid little mind as the Suna genin turned out to be a puppeteer, winning his battle by crushing Misumi with his puppet.

Next in line was Chouza's kid Chouji against a genin from Otogakure, but the fight ended as soon as it began. Chouji tried to run over his opponent with his meat grinder technique, but Dosu just dodged, before seeing Chouji colliding with the arena wall. All the man had to do was to place his sound producing arm near Chouji and he was unconscious soon after.

Aburame Shino x Hyuuga Hinata

Back to Naruto, he called the last two genins of the preliminary match. The blond was enjoying these matches greatly as a great level of skills was displayed by the genins. Now, two of Konoha's famous clans would once again face against each other and Naruto was eager to see who would win. The Hyuuga's doujutsu was a fearsome weapon to face, but surely the Aburame's bugs were not to be treated lightly.

As the genins stood in front of each other, Naruto took his time to observe them.

Just like any Aburame, Shino was reserved as he stood with both hands inside his coat pockets. Black shades prevented anyone from openly guessing his thoughts regarding Hinata, but from experience, Naruto didn't need much to tell that Shino must have considered every logical point of view even before the board indicated to whom he would face up against. Hinata, for her part, was looking at her opponent with a firm resolve, quite different than any Hyuuga out there. Normally, a Hyuuga would look at others with severe disrespect, almost on the verge of openly admitting the other as inferior, but not Hinata.

Just like Neji, Hinata looked at her opponent with respect as expected from an honored shinobi. Smiling, Naruto wondered just who managed to mold such a personality into the little girl. Her father couldn't be, simply because Naruto knew how strict the man was to upholding the clan's costumes. Perhaps Neji or even her sensei Kurenai to whom Hinata greatly respected not only as a jounin, but also as one of the top kunoichi of Konoha.

Needless to say, this fight will be the best one from this exam.

Within a second, Hinata already positioned her body into the famous jyuuken stance as she was prepared to give her all. Shino, though, remained with his hands inside his pockets, but Naruto just knew he was up to something. As soon as he signaled the beginning of the most promising match, Hinata vanished. She was in front of Shino, instantly much to the Aburame's shocked expression. He tried to dodge, but it was too late since Hinata already managed to land a powerful jyuuken strike to his main chakra tenketsu located near his stomach.

The battle was over before it began as Shino slowly fell on the ground, unconscious. Suddenly, his body disintegrated into bugs, surprising Hinata, but her Byakugan was activate the entire time, hence how she managed to block the incoming punch that came from her back, until she twisted her other arm, attempting to land a jyuuken strike to his arm, but Shino knew more than enough of his teammate's abilities, hence why he preferred to take evasive actions. As he made back flips, Shino started making hand seals, quite to Naruto's surprise, since he knew those hand seals and was surprised to see a genin with this peculiar ability.

Fuuton Reppushou (Wind Release: Gale Wind Palm Jutsu)

The concentrated jet of wind charged at Hinata, but because of the Byakugan, she could see the wind approaching her position, allowing evasion maneuvers. As soon as the wind projectile passed by, Hinata charged at Shino with great speed, while dodging Shino's bugs from sucking her chakra dry. Problem was some bugs managed to have a feast with Hinata's chakra, but not enough to impair her and end the battle. As soon as she approached Shino, Hinata started to perform a considerable series of hand seals, as water began to gather around her.

Suiton Mizukadou (Water Release: Water Vortex Jutsu)

Suddenly, Hinata started spinning like the Kaiten, as the water around her accompanied her movement. Shino just observed as Hinata started approaching fast to his position. He managed to avoid it by jumping in the air, but Hinata actually counted on this, as she threw a couple of shuriken at him. Shino looked at the flying projectiles and narrowed his eyebrows at Hinata's resolve on this fight. Summoning some bugs, they started swirling around him, defending him from the projectiles as he fell on the hard floor.

Hinata, however, wouldn't let it slide as she fell into a familiar Hyuuga stance.

"You're in my field of divination, Shino…"

Not long after Hinata warned Shino, she was already by his side, as she delivered one of the Hyuuga's most potent attacks. However, by the sixteenth strike, Shino's body suddenly disintegrated once more into bugs, halting Hinata's movement instantly. However, as she looked at the bugs surrounding her, something felt different. The lights on the stadium were starting to diminish and a heavy fog was starting to form. The Hyuuga genin's eyes were slowly closing as suddenly Hinata wanted nothing more than to sleep. She was so engrossed in the fog's effect that she didn't pay attention to what her all-seeing eye was telling her, until it was too late.

Her chakra was all but sucked by the bugs. However she didn't fell on the floor as Naruto was right there to stop her fall. It was an interesting match and certainly Hinata was captured in a genjutsu. Well, points for Shino on that one.

"Winner of the last fight…Shino Aburame"

As Shino went up to the balcony, Naruto walked towards the middle of the arena and issued the end of the preliminary matches. A while later, the genins stood in front of Naruto, who happened to be standing in front of the Hokage and the rest of the attending jounins.

"To those who made it to the main match of the Chunnin Exam's Third Part, congratulations are in order"

Minato eyed every genin that now stood in front of him with a smile on his face.

Five genins from Konoha, two from Suna and one from the Sound hidden village; frankly a better result than he hoped for as the genins from Konoha managed to display a great level of skill and will certainly improve at the third exam, granted nothing happens that would force the village to abandon the exams for its own safety.

"Your main match fights will be shown in front of everyone. We wish for all of you to show off your abilities as your country's representative power. Therefore, the main matches will begin in one month time" At the startled looks, Minato explained. "The one month time is to conduct appropriate preparations. We are going to announce to the feudal lords and head ninjas of individual countries that the preliminary matches have ended. And time is needed to gather those people for the main matches."

Every one of the genins seemed to understand the reasons, but Minato wasn't finished as he explained one more thing which was crucial to the upcoming matches.

"Also, this one month time will serve as preparation for you candidates. These preliminary were held in a way that none of you knew about the other's abilities. Now, though, every one of you knows how the other fights. Therefore, the one month time will serve for each one of you to train more and hopefully come up with new skills to surprise your opponents. Now, in order to determine who will be paired against whom, please form a line and grab a number from the box my son is holding.

After the genins picked their numbers from the box, Naruto asked them to announce it. After looking at the white balls, everyone showed the number to Naruto, while announcing it.

"3" Said Uchiha Sasuke, showing a stoic demeanor, like he was sure to beat everyone he'd be faced against.

"4" Said Aburame Shino, while adjusting his glasses

"...troublesome, I picked number 8" Said Nara Shikamaru with a groan that could be heard a mile away

"Ah...mine is 5" Said Yamanaka Ino as she wondered what the hell the numbers were for.

"2" Sabaku no Gaara said

"1" Sai, already getting suspicious at his bad luck, even though he didn't know what would happen.

"6" Sabaku no Kankuro said with clear boredom on his face.

"7" Kinuta Dosu said, being the last one to announce.

As Naruto was busy writing something on a piece of paper, the genins were becoming annoyed as they had yet to hear the reason behind the numbers and which order would be followed concerning the fights. The blond proctor took his time to write every name, before he looked up to see the genin's faces, staring at him.

"Now, as Hokage-sama explained, the numbers determine your battle positions on this tournament chart." Naruto said, as he flipped his piece of paper so that every genin in the room could see. Sai cursed his bad luck once more as his suspicion was true. He would be facing Gaara of all people.

Sasuke made a sound of boredom as his opponent was the Aburame. To Sasuke, the notion that his opponent came from one of Konoha's famous clans told him that he was in for quite a battle and Shino was a tough one, even if appearance alone wasn't much from the Sharingan's point of view. Shikamaru, for his part, was just content as he wouldn't face a woman, although Dosu was a tough shinobi.

Seeing as his job was pretty much over for now, Naruto released the genins to meet him at the arena in one month from now, earning a nod from the chunnin hopefuls.

After that, every final participant left to their respective training regiments in order to incorporate new skills to their repertoire and increase the already existing ones.

===One week time skip===

One week had already passed since the end of the preliminaries and the genins were trying their best to improve their skills.

It was now night time in Konoha as the moon illuminated the entire village with its bright white light. However, where is light there is always shadow. Because of this, three presences managed to find a place where they could hide from the constant Anbu surveillance scouts. The final matches were only three weeks away and the plan was in its final preparations.

"So, it appears that Konoha is already wary of a possible invasion." Baki said, as his face appeared from the shadows. He addressed a man with gray hair and ponytail as he fixed his glasses that were until now reflecting the moonlight, before the man's menacing eyes showed and a smile was evident on his face.

"Indeed, The Yondaime Hokage is tightening the village's security, but whether Konoha knows about the war or not, it's unclear to us. For all we know, the man is just increasing its security for the noble's arrival. I hear that some Daimyo will attend the exams."

The third shadow now appeared as the Iwa headband glistened because of the moonlight. His size easily doubled that of Kabuto and his bulky muscles were proof of Iwa's strength. He had brown eyes and his black hair fell to shoulder's length. A minor scar was located on his left cheek, probably caused by a kunai or a sword's slash.

"Granted that Konoha managed to capture some of my ninjas, it's wrong to underestimate their efforts of protection. It's wise to remember that Konoha survived through the two last great shinobi wars relatively unscathed compared to Iwa."

Iwaso was his name and his logic rivaled that of the Aburame Clan, much to Kabuto and Baki's constant snarl. None of them liked him and the fact that he was constantly berating the alliance's plans was quite unnerving. To them, every damn Iwa shinobi was against Konoha plain and simple. Mindless drones, ready to lose their lives in battle, their shinobi should be thankful to Orochimaru for presenting them the opportunity to crush Konoha for good.

Suddenly, a thick white mist started gathering around the three as Kabuto cursed Konoha once more. Luckily, he knew this to be only standard procedure in order to gauge whether or not they were planning something. If they attacked, immediate retaliation was in order, if they remained still, nothing would happen. Still, the three just vanished from their positions, earning a sigh in dismay from Zabuza as he wanted to decapitate someone today. It was the thought of how much he could kill in three weeks time that convinced him to continue his scouting mission. Granted no one made a move yet, but still Zabuza was ready.

Little did he know, though, that every war has consequences and that he would find out the worst pain a father could suffer.

===the date of the exams===

On the date of the final exam, the entire Konoha stadium was shaking in excitement. This exam was very promising as the heir of the Uchiha Clan would be participating along with the heirs from the Nara and Yamanaka Clans as well. Also two of the Kazekage's sons would participate. Certainly, for the many bystanders, this exam showed great promise.

However, to those aware of the possibility of an invasion, every second that passed was like torture. To many of the shinobi disguised within the audience, the feeling of dread only intensified at the thought of facing three villages at once. However, to the elite of the elites, fear was something they cared very little about. Konoha's pride was amongst its elites and where talent wasn't enough, teamwork would fill in to better protect the village.

As the chairs were starting to be filled, Minato had already arrived next to his sensei Jiraiya on the Kage stand as they waited for the Kazekage to appear. The genins were already in the middle of the arena together with Naruto, who by the way was resting his hands inside his pockets, while waiting for the Hokage to address the crowd initiating the final matches of the exams.

Back at the Kage Stand, Minato's attention turned to the presence of the Kazekage who arrived with two of Suna's jounins.

"Greetings, Hokage-dono, Jiraiya of the Sannin, it's a pleasure."

Both Minato and Jiraiya were aware of the possibility of Orochimaru impersonating someone with great influence. It was the perfect cover, seeing as none of them would be stupid enough to question any high official personnel based on speculations alone. Certainly Orochimaru wouldn't underestimate anyone, either. He was a sannin after all.

"Greetings Kazekage-dono, thank you for coming. I trust the trip here wasn't too taxing on your part."

"Not at all, it's I who appreciate the invitation. Certainly, the Uchiha will prove to be quite a show against my Gaara." Said the Kazekage, which earned a slight smile from Minato and Jiraiya.

"Uchiha Sasuke is extremely gifted, but he has yet to win his first round against Aburame Shino. Also, Sai is no pushover. Indeed, these exams will prove to be quite entertaining, Kazekage-dono"

Suddenly, a jounin materialized behind Jiraiya as he whispered something in his ear.

The Kazekage eyed the two from the corner of his eye, while Jiraiya told Minato that the stadium was already filled and that he could give the speech to which Minato nodded, before getting up. As the Hokage gave the audience a warming welcome, the Kazekage looked at Minato's figure with a smile on his face. But it wasn't the usual smile that he showed so far, it was carried with enough malice that showed nothing but the very intent to watch Konoha burn to the ground.

Indeed, the exams will be quite entertaining, but neither you nor Konoha will live to see the end of it Minato-kun.

Author Note

Okay, I'll stop right here for now.

I intend to focus the entire invasion next chapter. Once the shits hits the fan, who will emerge victorious, three hidden villages, driven by past hatreds while manipulated by one man whose only wish is vengeance for not being chosen as Kage or Konoha, a single yet powerful village that so far managed to withstand its ground throughout all the tribulations ever since its foundation.

Which side will win no one knows (except me of course), but it's certain that blood will be spilled from both sides and some losses may never be forgotten.

See ya all next chapter as Naruto gets his taste of war and how much damage past wounds can cause.