'Thoughts' "Speaking" Author's Notes/ Bijuu Speaking "Telepathic Talking"


=Chapter 9: Preliminaries Part 3=

"Please can Kumogakure Team 25 and Takigakure Team 5 come down please." 'Finally! These preliminaries are soon to be over! I've had enough of this already, why did you choose me!' Kakashi sighed and motioned for the teams coming down to start. "Preliminaries Match 8... Start!"

"Lightning Style: Charged Voltage!" Rat put his hands together in the Monkey seal, and took them apart, lightning fizzing in the centre of the two. He channelled more chakra in and it fired towards the Taki-nin.

"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"

"Lightning Senbon!"

"Water Style: Water Wall!" The arena floor broke and water rushed out of the ground. "Water Style: Tsunami!" The water wall grew larger in size and rushed towards the Kumo-nin. "Go!"

The remaining two started launching kunai but had no luck as the three dodged the incoming attack, however being pushed back from the tsunami.

"Water Style: Whirlpool Nest!" A large dome made out of water surrounded the three nin, whirlpools around the edges of it. The whirlpools moved to the front, absorbing the attack of the tsunami and kunai. The spray cleared, revealing the floating dome of water in the air. "Man, I really didn't want to do this but here we are!"

"Lightning Style: Lightning Ball!" The dome opened slightly to let the charged lightning balls rush out, hitting the ground and exploding. The Taki-nin jumped out of the way but Rat still fired his attack, eventually catching one of the Taki-nin's legs. Kakashi sunshined in and got the injured nin out.

"Water Style: Tsunami!" The tsunami rose out of the ground, gaining more height and flooding the arena.

"Hidden Waterfall Style: Slicing Blade!" The caster jumped into the air, heading towards the floating bubble of water.

The whirlpools turned to the slicing blade, blocking each strike and forcing the bubble of water down into the path of the tsunami. The three Kumo-nin nodded at each other and the chakra output of the arena increased dramatically.

"Focus on blocking the sword, I got this!"

The bubble of water got pulled up to the arena roof, out of range of the tsunami that crashed into the wall, tearing part of it down. The remaining two Taki-nin looked in confusing at the teamwork of the three nin.

"What the hell's wrong with your teamwork?"

"I agree, it's like you can read each other's minds!"

"Well, if you spend enough time with your team, you can read each other's minds!"

"Prove it!"

The three Kumo-nin nodded at each other once more before the bubble dispelled, them landing on the floor.

"Lightning Style: Charged Voltage!"

"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"

"Water Style: Coral Sprouts!" The room started flooding before coral erupted from the floor, heading towards the remaining nin. The lightning hit the water, electrocuting it and shocking the Taki-nin, which the Kumo-nin jumped up at. The blast of air hit the attack of coral, shattering it and throwing it in the air and towards the shocked Taki-nin.

Screams of pain were heard throughout the arena as the Kumo-nin charged in to finish the job, cutting through them with kunai and hitting all with taijutsu, almost play-like.

The two bodies dropped towards the ground in a near-death like state.

"Winner, Kumogakure Team 25 by knockout!"


=Kage Lounge=

"Alright, where is that Hokage?"

"Calm down, it's only been three minutes Tsuchikage-dono."

"Probably throwing a rant from a mission failure or something like that." The three remaining Kages snickered at Gaara's statement.

"I don't think that's how Hokage-dono acts, considering how he acts around us."

"Could be a mask, just saying."

"May Konohagakure Team 10 and Iwagakure Team 45 come down please."

"He's not even here to see his own people fight."

"Hey, at least my granddaughter's there!"


=Arena Floor=

Ino-Shika-Cho and the Iwa-nin landed swiftly in the arena, eyeing each other. The arena tensed up as the Iwa-nin found out exactly who they were up against. A legendary Konoha trio, known for their history of working together and their skills.

"Preliminaries Match 9... Start!"

"Die, Konoha scum! Lava Style: Quicklime Jutsu!" Kurotsuchi spat a quicklime out of her mouth, sizzling and heating up the air.

"Shadow Web!" Shadows sprang out from the arena and spectators areas, creating an intricate web of shadows across the arena.

The three Iwa-nin did a few hand seals before burrowing underground the arena, heading towards the Konoha-nin.

"Earth Style: Falling Earth Spears!" Spikes rose out of the ground, ready to skewer Ino-Shika-Cho.

"Earth Style: Mudslide Jutsu!" The caster punched the ground, mud rushing out of the arena walls and covering the place.

"Earth Style: Earth and Stone Bamboo Shoots!" Four sharp bamboo shoots came from the four corners of the arena, heading towards the Konoha-nin.

"Shadow Web!" The shadows in the arena moved around Ino-Shika-Cho and started deflecting the incoming attacks. "Shadow Stitching Jutsu!" The shadows leapt out from the web, darting towards the Iwa-nin.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" A wall rose up between the Iwa-nin and the shadows, forcing them to go round.

"Got you!" The shadows reached the Iwa-nin, immobilising them. "Black Spider Lily!" The Iwa-nin got pulled closer to Ino-Shika-Cho, unable to do anything.

"Mind Destruction Jutsu!" The three Iwa-nin felt an urge to fight each other, forcing Shikamaru to release his shadow. The three Iwa-nin backed off from each other and started engaging in a taijutsu fight.

"Partial Expansion Jutsu!" Choji's hands grew bigger and used them to capture the Iwa-nin, still wanting to fight each other.

"Lava Style: Quicklime Jutsu!" Kurotsuchi shot quicklime at her ally, trapped in Choji's hands. It made contact with her teammate's face, burning it and causing severe damage to the rest of the body, not able to cope with the heat and pressure. Choji released his hands, letting the poor girl drop to the floor and for Kakashi to take them out of the way and leaving the other teammate to attack.

"Earth Style: Earth and Stone Bamboo Shoots!" Four stone bamboo shoots headed towards Kurotsuchi.

"Earth Style: Mud Wall!" Four walls rose up to block the incoming attacks. The attack collided with force, shattering the walls and going to impale Kurotsuchi. She substituted with her teammate, whose eyes widened.

Blood sprayed, the limp body of the Iwa-nin impaled by four sharp shoots that they cast. The shoots disappeared and the body dropped to the floor.

"Mind Disturbance Jutsu: Release!"

Kurotsuchi snapped back to her own self and looked around. The urge was gone and she saw her teammate lying on the ground and another of her teammates by the referee. "What happened..?" Then she remembered. Every single thing.

She lifted her hands up and spoke. "I surrender."

"Winner, Konohagakure Team 10 by severe injury and surrender."


=Orange Flames=

The group looked down at the arena in confusion and awe at the scene that had unfolded before them.

'Man, you guys have really gotten strong without me...' Menma stood up, not that anyone noticed him and made a clone. "I'm going out to stretch my legs." He disappeared in a black flash back to who-knows-where.

The rest of the group decided to follow him and left some clones in their place. Fortunately for them, no one else noticed that the disguised Orange Flames had left clones behind, spare the two stalkers after Menma.


=Kage Lounge=

The Kages were once again analysing the matches when Danzo arrived, along with his ANBU.

"So I believe Team 10 won their match?"

"You trained your shinobi well, Hokage-dono. They took out one of my strongest Chunin teams."

"Indeed but where did you go?"

"Village problems." 'Not that you need to know though.' He activated his sharingan and looked around the arena. Normal, normal, shadow clones, normal-

He inspected the shadow clones in the arena, a group of Kumo and Suna-nin, not including the Kazekage's siblings. 'Why are you clones?'


=Spectators Area=

"May Sunagakure Team 9 and Konohagakure Team 40 come down please."

'Team 40?'

'I haven't seen them before.'

'Are they strong?'

'Troublesome.'

'They smell of trouble.'

The Konoha 9 watched as the two stalkers walked down to the arena, taking in every detail of them.


=Arena Floor=

The Suna-nin watched as their opponents made their way down. One fat, one not as fat. Both creepy.

'Odd... I haven't seen them around before but they can't be too strong.' The copy nin shrugged it off before declaring the match. "Preliminaries Match 10... Start!"

"Wind Style: Breakthrough!"

"Wind Style: Gale Palm!"

"Wind Style: Air Scythe!"

The jutsus attacker the two Konoha-nin, who easily dodged it. They seemingly levitated in the air, shocking their opponents and spectators alike. The bulkier one seemed to create a red axe out of midair and started running through the air. The other one ate a small pill and his chakra started increasing again.

The bulkier swung his axe had down on the ground, shattering it and sending rocks flying in the air.

"Wind Style: Tornado!" The wind started spiralling in the centre of the arena, gathering speed and absorbing all of the debris scattered in the air. "Attack!" The wind spun faster and started moving towards the Konoha-nin. Their response was a smirk and the smaller one rushed into the tornado.

The tornado stood still for a second before swelling in size and bright lights shone out of it. It revealed the smaller one, grinning and showing no scars or any cuts like it.

"The hel-" He was cut off with a slash to his back, knocking him down and out.

"One down." The remaining two nin looked around, eyes widening. "Two to go." He brought his axe down to slash, for the Suna-nin to dodge.

"How long will you last against us?" The smaller one flew into the air and brought his hands out, red chains sprouting out of it. "Slice and dice!" Spikes grew out of the chains and he turned his hand back, spinning the chain.

He brought his hands forward and the chain let loose, homing on the poor Suna-nin. They managed to keep dodging until the chain managed to capture one of their legs, dragging the nin to the ground, all the while cutting the leg.

The bulkier one brought his axe down once more, knocking the nin out before the chain threw him to the side. "One to go." The chain reared its head back once more before going to the Suna-nin.

"I surren-" The nin's vision turned black and they collapsed to the ground, blood leaking out of every open wound in the body.

"Winner, Konohagakure Team 40 by death and severe injury!" He brought out his orange book, ignoring the scene and showing no emotion on the outside. The inside however, was a different story as he was mentally puking at the sight before him, as well as being insanely confused at what just happened. He looked up once more at the board not spinning anymore as there was only Match 11 left. "Please can Sunagakure Team 16 and Iwagakure Team 9 come down please."

The last match wasn't paid much attention too by the spectators as they were already getting fidgety and bored from the length of the matches; they just wanted to go already!


=Few Minutes Later=

"Earth Style: Hidden Mole Jutsu!" An Iwa-nin appeared behind the Suna-nin and threw a few kunai which were easily blocked. He then did a few more hand seals before slamming the ground. "Earth Style: Rock Spikes!"

The Suna-nin were tossed into the air by the spikes rushing out of the ground, blood spraying from the contact. The remaining two nin started launching kunai at them, only for them to be blocked by Kakashi who declared them the winner.

"Winner, Iwagakure Team 9 by injury! This concludes the preliminaries, Kazekage-sama will give the rest of the details."

A few flickers of sand later, Gaara appeared in the centre of the arena and motioned for the rest of the Chunins to come down. "Congratulations on making it to the finals, now you will have three weeks to train and hone your skills for the final matches, where you will prove to your Kage that you have what it takes to become Jonin, along with all of your stats. You will have more details when the matches come round. You may stay in the Land of Wind to train, as we have allocated areas for you all, or you may go back to your own village if your Kage believes you have time to train there. You are dismissed, any questions go to your Kage."

The Orange Flames, along with Temari and Kankuro, poofed out of existence, shocking everyone as they thought it was just clones fighting. The Konoha-nin went back with each other and went out of the arena, discussing the battles.

The rest just mingled around for a bit before going out, leaving the Kages to themselves.

"Well, we have a promising bunch of Jonins this year."

"Indeed, although some a bit overkill if you ask me."

"The more Jonins we have, the more secure the next generation."

"I take it you're going back Hokage-dono?"

"I am." The man of little words left the room, along with the ROOT ANBU swarming the arena from the shadows.

"What about you Tsuchikage-dono?"

"Well, I need to train my few remaining teams for this, and I doubt this place has the facilities like in Iwa so I'm going to take my leave."

"Then I guess I'll see you all in three weeks."


=Mount Myoboku=

"Go into the mode and try gathering senjutsu chakra, use the raw power of it to push me away!" The teacher figure turned yellow and absorbed nature energy, the eye having a slit through it and then having a toad's eye mixed in.

"That's what I'm doing!" The female figure started turning a forest green colour before nature energy was being absorbed from the environment. Tomoes started appearing on her cloak as the pure energy pushed the teacher back.

"Ooh another fight!" An all too excited figure started infusing chakra before jumping into the fight.

"Let's go, I need to stretch my arms!" A figure threw two scrolls in the air and unsheathed two different swords.

"Count me in!" The area dropped a few degrees as the wind started cutting around the area even more.

"This isn't about you guys!" Bugs flew out of her arms to try and stop the over excited figures of the Orange Flames.

"Can you guys shut up for once?" Another figure was still writing down in a scroll, trying to figure out something that they just couldn't put their finger on.

"Plasma Style: Lion's Beam!"

"Heh, I'm taking that!" He brought the tip of his sword to the incoming attack, the sword glowing purple, red and yellow.

"Ice Style: Ice Spears!"

"Oh." The figure writing in the scroll closed it and put it away.

"My." He stood up and looked towards the fight.

"He's broken."

He brought his hands to the side and jumped into the middle of the fight.

.

.

.

"Shinra Tensei!" Three of the fighting figures got pushed back by the repulsive force as the other two channelled enough chakra to their feet to withstand the attack.

"Hey, Temari, Kankuro, you wanna go back to Suna?" A clone of the teacher appeared in front of the two siblings, watching the fight from afar.

"Please do."

"I can't stand it here."

They grabbed onto the clone before disappearing in a yellow, orange and red flash.

"Boys..." said a blue haired woman after walking out of the shadows with the 'Dog' symbol on the back of her hood.

"Yes ma'am..?"

"What did I say about going crazy without warning?" The perpetrators gulped before jumping out of the way as paper flew out of Dogs arms and folding back into the ground.


=Sunagakure=

"Well, go on, say your goodbye to your boyfriend!"

"Shut up."

"Troublesome."

Menma had taken Temari and Kankuro to the gate to see her 'boyfriend' and the Konoha-nin off. Of course, being the prankster he is, Menma couldn't resist but still tease about 'boyfriend' and such.

"Well, see you in three weeks Konoha-nin, don't slack off because I need a fight!" He gave a thumbs up to them, earning visible confusion.

"You are so youthful Menma-kun, of course we will not slack off training! I look forward to our fight with you!"

"That's the spirit Lee!"

"Gai-sensei!" The two started bursting into tears once more, the rest of them deadpanning at the sight.

"Lee!" A genjutsu of waves lapping against a beach started forming.

"Gai-sensei!"

"Lee!"

"Shut up!" The genjutsu shattered as Sakura punched the ground.

"That's not very youthful Sakura-chan!"

"Well, we have to be going now. Sayonara." Gaara and his siblings walked away from the gates, just to avoid any more damage to their health, leaving Menma with them.

"Well, see you all in the finals!" He waved before poofing back out of existence.

The Konoha-nin left without a word and began the three day trek back to Konoha, the Konoha 9, along with Neji, still talking about the matches and who they might be up against.


=Three Days Later: Konoha=

Danzo was reviewing the data from Uzushio, the Akatsuki and the Orange Flames but he stumbled across something. A request to eliminate a group of A-Rank criminals near the Land of Rivers. He smirked, this was a perfect Intel gathering opportunity. Yes, he had two plans, both of which he would put in action right now.

"ANBU." A flicker and an ANBU was kneeling in front of him. "Send my strongest agents to the ruins of Uzushio and after that..." He paused, thinking how he would put this. "Get me my messenger."

He wrote down in a scroll somethings before a messenger ANBU arrived in front of him. He handed him the scroll and gave the instructions. "Give this to a messenger bird, tell it to find any member of the Orange Flames of the Sun." The ANBU nodded before disappearing.

A few minutes passed and a hawk flew into the sky, heading towards wherever the Orange Flames were.

Not that it had any idea of where they were of course.


So... How'd I do? Good? Bad? Awful? Trash? Amazing? Tell me!

If you have any suggestions, let me know and I'll incorporate them if I like them!

Yes! I have finally finished the Preliminaries! Better writing up ahead!

And that's all for now!

See you later: Ja ne!