To recap the matches so far...

Satsuki Uchiha def. Yoroi Akado

Shino Aburame def. Zaku Abumi

Karasu no Kankuro def. Ino Yamanaka

Sabaku no Gaara def. Misumi Tsurugi

Neji Hyuuga def. Hinata Hyuuga

Suigetsu Hozuki def. Tenten

Haku Yuki def. Kaengiri no Atsui

Naruto Uzumaki def. Dosu Kinuta

Shikamaru Nara def. Kamaitachi no Temari

The next two contestants stood in the ring across from each other. On one side stood Choji Akimichi, known as being the boy whose only motivation was his stomach; arguably the only reason Team Ten was as competent as they were was because of Ino Yamanaka's tendency towards being a slave-driver to him and the equally unmotivated Shikamaru Nara.

On the opposite side of the ring stood Kin Tsuchi, the kunoichi from the Oto team. Despite her internal conflicts towards their master, Orochimaru, the dark-haired girl was determined to win her match against the Akimichi. Dosu had the misfortune to be matched against the Uzumaki, whose physical prowess and chakra pool were leagues above his, and Zaku had ignored the Aburame's warnings in his match and blown one of his arms clean off. He would be lucky if he could ever be a shinobi again. For this reason, Kin was determined to make sure Team Dosu didn;t completely fail to qualify for the next round.

"I'm sorry...but an all-you-can-eat barbecue dinner is on the line here!" Choji said, looking up at his sensei, who was already lamenting how his wallet would look that evening.

The Oto kunoichi smirked. "Then do your worst, big fellow" she said, drawing a handful of senbon, two of which had bells and wires attached. Choji looked indignant for a moment, but calmed himself. "At least she didn't call me fat..."

"Fighters ready? Then cough begin!" Hayate declared, as he leapt back.

"Baika no Jutsu!" Choji shouted, as his body expanded into a perfectly round ball, his limbs and head drawing into his body. "Human Bullet Tank!" The chubby boy shot forward, propelled by small jets of chakra from where his limbs were. Kin narrowly leapt out of the way of his attack, watching as he left a crater in a nearby wall, before turning around and popping his head back out. "Found you!"

The dark-haired girl threw a shower of senbon towards Choji, whose mass deflected it as he shot forwards again. "Dammit!" Kin cursed, dodging in another close call as Choji broke another wall. When he popped his head out again to locate her, Kin struck, throwing two senbon, one with bells attached, one without. "Gotcha" she said, smirking as she placed the Akimichi under an auditory genjutsu with the noise from her bells.

Choji raced towards her once more time, but this time, the Oto girl did not dodge. At the last moment, the Akimichi's Baika no Jutsu dissipated, and Choji leapt forward, aiming a right hook...and got a faceful of masonry wall, knocking himself out.

"Choji Akimichi is cough unconscious! Kin Tsuchi cough wins!" Hayate called, as the medics carted Choji away for a quick concussion check.

As the dark-haired kunoichi climbed the stairs, she pondered her hollow victory, conflicted about whether or not winning for Orochimaru's sake was even worth it. As the computer finished generating the next match, Hayate checked his handheld device and coughed again. "Daisoken no Chojuro, Mikazuki no Omoi, please cough come to the ring."

Omoi slowly got to his feet and made his way to the ring, still sucking on a lollipop. However, upon reaching the floor, he found that his opponent was not there. "C'mon, you sissy! Just go fight him!" Suigetsu shouted, grabbing and yanking on the other blue-haired boy's cheeks.

"But I'm nowhere near strong enough to fight him! I should forfeit now and save everyone the trouble!" Chojuro protested.

"You won't know unless you try, Chojuro-kun" Haku said, trying to encourage the boy.

"Oi, you!" Omoi said, addressing his timid opponent. "I don't know much about you, but I do know that you'll never know if you can beat me unless you try. And if you don't try, who knows what will happen? You could lack the confidence to act at a crucial moment, and someone important to you could get hurt or die because of it, and then more people might die because of that decision..." he trailed off on one of his tangents of overthinking, much to Karui's annoyance.

"A-Alright..." the blue-haired boy said, timidly making his way to the ring and pulling the wrapped sword off his back, revealing a large, vaguely sword-shaped slab of iron with two holes at the tip and a double handle at the base.

"C'mon, you can't be that weak. You're one of the Seven Swordsmen of the Mist" Omoi pointed out to his opponent. Chojuro's gaze sharpened.

"R-Right! I am one of Mei Terumi-sama's seven trusted elites! I can't fail her here by not trying!"

The white-haired Kumo nin grinned. "That's the spirit!"

"Begin!" Hayate shouted, and the two swordsmen leapt into action.

"Hiramekarei Kaiho!" Chojuro shouted, as blue chakra flowed out of the two holes at his sword's tip, forming a large hammer.

Omoi's eyes bugged out. "Holy shit!" he yelped, leaping to the side as the hammer projection created a large crater in the floor. This was followed up by a slash from Hiramekarei's longsword projection, which burned its' way into a nearby wall, slicing off a section of the sash Omoi wore around his waist.

After a few minutes of dodging and parrying Chojuro's strikes, the Kumo Genin landed on the ground. "You're damn talented, you know that?" he said, addressing Chojuro.

"I-I...thank you" the other boy stammered, as he formed a hammer again.

"However..." Omoi said. "Your self-confidence needs a lot of work, and your kenjutsu isn't perfect either." Chojuro whimpered slightly as he raised the hammer high in the air, while Omoi got into an iaido stance. "Work hard and get stronger until the next time we fight!"

As Chojuro brought the hammer down, Omoi spat the stick from his finished lollipop on the ground and tensed his muscles. "Cloud-Style Beheading..." he began, as small sparks of lightning discharged between his hand and the ground while his hand closed around his sword's grip. "Thunderclap and Flash!" In a flash of lightning, Omoi dashed past Chojuro so fast that Satsuki could barely track his movements with her Sharingan.

Omoi clicked his sword back into its' sheaf...and then Chojuro was thrown backwards off his feet, as a long diagonal gash sprouted on his chest from just above his right hip to just below his left shoulder. "Medic!" Omoi shouted, as Hayate took one look at what had happened and called the match.

"Chojuro cannot cough continue! Mikazuki no Omoi wins!"

As Omoi made his way back to the stands, he called out to his barely-conscious foe, who was being cared away on a stretcher. "I look forward to our next match!"

The randomizer stopped again, and two kunoichi paled as they saw the matchup. "Kongou no Karui (A/N: Literally "Adamantine Karui"), Sakura Haruno, please come cough to the ring."

Karui got to her feet and tapped Sakura on the shoulder. "C'mon Pinky, let's show them what us girls can do!"

Sakura snapped out of the brief trance that the idea of fighting her friend put her in, shaking her head. "R-Right!"

A few moments later, the two stood in the ring, opposite of each other. "Don't hold anything back, Pinky!" the red-haired Kumo girl said, manifesting a short length of chain from her hand. "Begin!" Hayate coughed, jumping back as the match began.

The two girls circled each other for a few moments, before throwing caution to the wind and charging in at each other. Sakura threw a punch, only to be caught and judo-flipped by Karui. Sakura landed feet-first and spun around, throwing another swing that the Kumo girl ducked under.

Changing tactics after noticing the failure of her previous attacks, the pinkette leapt over Karui's attempted leg-sweep and drop-kicked her in the back, forcing the redhead forwards while Sakura backflipped to land on her feet. Karui turned around in time to see Sakura swinging at her with another right, forcing her to guard herself. "SHANNARO!" Sakura's chakra-enhanced strike threw Karui nearly halfway across the arena, leaving the audience in awe of her strength, while the redhead struggled to regain her balance.

As Sakura pounced forward, intending to capitalize on her last strike, Karui leapt over her and forced her to her knees with a few well-placed kicks, grabbing her long, luscious pink hair as she fell forwards and using it to hold her in place.

"Listen Pinky...I know that you have a lot of promise as a shinobi. In truth, your potential rivals or even exceeds my own. But right now, you're still not living up to it. You can use chakra chains? Big fucking deal, someone can still counter that. You're clearly not all there physically either - a kunoichi can't afford to be on a diet, or worry about her looks. People die every day in our line of work, so toughen up already, and show me what you're really made of!"

Sakura reached into her kunai pouch and pulled out one of the daggers, holding it up to the light. "You'd be really hard-pressed to use that one me" Karui snorted, only for Sakura to snicker. "Who said it was for you?"

In a quick motion, Sakura sliced off the hair that Karui had been holding, causing the redhead to lose her balance. "You're right. I haven't been giving it my all; I haven't been trying very hard...but I can't be a kid forever. It's time for me to grow up!" Sakura said confidently, manifesting a chakra chain from her hand. Her opponent grinned.

"About time you figured it out, Sakura!" Karui responded, manifesting a chain of her own.

Four minutes of knock-down drag-out taijutsu later, and Karui finally defeated Sakura when the girl with a little less Uzumaki genetics ran out of chakra a little quicker, forcing her to concede. As the red-haired Kumo Genin climbed the stairs, the last match was displayed on the board. "Rock Lee, Kiba Inuzuka, please come to the ring. Time for the cough last match!"

Lee and Kiba stood across from each other, Akamaru sitting upon the Inuzuka's head. "You ready to kick this spandex-clad dude's tail, Akamaru?" Kiba asked, receiving a bark of affirmation from his ninken partner.

"Yosh! Let us have a most youthful match, Kiba-san!" Lee shouted, finishing a quick routine of stretches before their match. "Whatever, man. Let's go, Akamaru!"

Hayate signaled for the match to start, as Kiba pulled out two food pills from a pouch for himself and his dog...only to get kicked in the face by Lee, whose determined expression turned to one of apologetic dismay. Kiba bounced several times across the floor, before hitting the wall headfirst and knocking himself out.

"Kiba is incapacitated. Rock Lee cough wins" Hayate said. "Medics, please! This now concludes the preliminary round."

"Well done, Lee!" Might Gai said, as he leapt into the ring to congratulate his student.

"But Gai-sensei...was it not unyouthful of me to attack Kiba-san so?"

Gai's response to this was a punch to Lee's face. "Fool! It was not unyouthful at all to fight to your fullest! It would have been unyouthful if you had held yourself back against Kiba-san; now his youth shall burn brighter than before as he strives to surpass you!"

"You are as wise as ever, Gai-sensei!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

"LEE!"

"GAI-SENSEI!"

And suddenly, what appeared to be a sunset and crashing waves appeared in the arena as the two spandex-clad men amongst men embraced youthfully in a passionate embrace of youth. Several of the Genin attempted to dispel what they thought was a genjutsu, while Tenten and Neji, who appeared to have had experience with this in the past, merely averted or shielded their eyes.

The thirteen remaining contestants stood in the ring, as the Hokage, Anko and Ibiki joined Hayate to address them. "You have all done well in making it this far, all of you. For those of you visiting from other villages, your leaders are most assuredly proud of you, and to those of you from Konoha, I know for certain that I am proud of you" Hiruzen said, his face crinkling in a smile. "Now, if you'll draw from the box that Mitarashi-san is holding, you will learn who your opponent is in the finals, one month from now. Ladies first."

"One" Karui said, holding her paper.

"Five" Kin stated, a small smirk on her face.

"Eleven" Haku said politely.

"Thirteen" said Satsuki.

"Nine" Shikamaru yawned.

"THREE!" Lee shouted.

"Twelve" Neji said coldly.

"Six" Gaara's emotionless voice droned.

"Seven" Kankuro added.

"Ten" Omoi stated, sucking another lollipop.

"Four" Shino murmured from behind his jacket's collar.

"Eight" Suigetsu said, a sharklike grin on his face.

"Two!" Naruto called excitedly.

"Very well then" Ibiki said, as he finished transcribing the matchups onto a tournament bracket template drawn on a scroll. "Here are your matchups. You will have one month to train for the next matchups, while publicity spreads and draws the crowds for this event."

Block A:

Kongou no Karui vs. Neji Hyuuga

Naruto Uzumaki vs. Haku Yuki

Rock Lee vs. Mikazuki no Omoi

Block B:

Shino Aburame vs. Shikamaru Nara

Suigetsu Hozuki vs. Kin Tsuchi

Karasu no Kankuro vs. Sabaku no Gaara

Satsuki Uchiha - BYE

Naruto locked eyes with the Kiri kunoichi, who merely smiled in response. "She's...kinda cute..."

Karui shivered as she felt the Hyuuga prodigy staring holes in her. "Why do I feel like my days are numbered?"

Lee entered Nice Gai Pose Number Thirteen and Three Quarters with Bushy Eyebrows and Sparkly Teeth (TM), while Omoi rolled his eyes. "Yosh! This matchup will be so very YOUTHFUL!"

Shino and Shikamaru locked eyes (or sunglasses in the Aburame's case), nodded slowly, then looked away.

Kin flinched slightly at the all-too wide grin the Hozuki gave her. "Why do I have a feeling I'll end up like that Tenten girl if I'm not careful?"

Kakuro shivered slightly as his brother looked at him, then nodded slightly. "I'll forfeit when that day rolls around - I'll need every trick in Karasu's arsenal to survive in what happens after the exam."

Satsuki stood impassively to one side, but internally she fumed. "Great. I'm going on last, and if I want to fight the dobe we'll both have to get to the finals."

"Best of luck with your training, all of you!" Hiruzen stated, as the meeting adjourned and the Genin went their separate ways...

Author's Notes:

The preliminaries are finally over! I know, I'm evil for pitting the Hyuuga with the chip on his shoulder (if anything, he has an even bigger one after Tenten's injury against Suigetsu) against a Kumo Genin. :p