As a loving and benevolent author I decided to post the next chapter before going to bed as I've only just gotten home from a day visiting family. My normal posting schedule should resume after this.
I hope you guys enjoy this chapter-some fights will be the same and some won't be for reasons of plot and convenience-also I really thought it'd be funny if Naruto got paired up against the guy who absorbed Chakra.
Again-don't be too harsh on Sasuke, he's a dumb traumatized kid, and there will be a chapter later that helps explain why he's acting the way he's acting.
Once everyone was gathered up on the next level in the viewing area, Naruto leaning on the railings next to Gaara, his siblings stood on the other side of him.
Once the arena was clear Hayate glanced between the two girls, "Are you both ready?" he received twin nods, and then he stepped back, leaping out of the arena, "Let the match begin."
And Sakura didn't hesitate, rushing forward-and she'd gotten so much faster than she'd been when they first met-and she hadn't even removed the gravity seal-Naruto couldn't help but notice.
The pink haired girl had a determined look on her face as the Oto Kunoichi threw several senbon towards her.
Naruto felt herself tensing-she could remember Wave, remember the last time Sakura had gone against someone using senbon, the blood staining her pretty red dress, Sasuke looking almost like a pin cushion.
Against her will her gaze swung to Haku, who was stood with his teammates, his gaze focused on the match as Sakura easily dodged the senbon-though her eyes narrowed at the faint jingling of bells-they must be attached to the senbon and used to distract her opponents Naruto realized distantly.
Still Sakura was fast and strong, and she got in close enough to kick the next lot of senbon from the other girls hand.
Naruto turned her gaze back to the match when she heard Sakura laughing, and a smile played across her lips when she heard what Sakura was saying. "You're pretty good with those Senbon but you're not as fast as Haku-san was." and Naruto glanced at Haku again, who looked amused and, noticing her gaze met her eye.
"Sakura-san's gotten much stronger."
"Is she one of the ones from-" that came from a short light blue haired girl, and Haku nodded before she could even finish.
"Yes she's one of the Genin team that Zabuza sensei and I fought in Wave."
"Looks like she's been training a lot." the voice came from behind Naruto, and the blonde turned her head, smiling slightly when she saw the familiar man, his gigantic sword strapped to his back.
"She has Zabuza-san."
There were several Genin watching them with wide eyes at that, most of the Konoha shinobi were- and it was Ino who spoke up.
"How do you guys know each other?"
"They tried to kill my grandpa." Naruto remarked lightly, shrugging, "Until I tricked Zabuza-san into admitting that he has feelings-"
"She's a menace."
"My adorable Genin are all menaces." that voice was familiar too, and Kakashi joined them, one hand in his pocket and the other clutching a familiar orange book, "But smart strong menaces. And I admit my adorable little Naru-chan is the worst of the lot of them." behind him were a group of people Naruto could only assume were Jounin sensei's.
"Kakashi-san." Zabuza nodded his head respectfully, "Looks like you've been doing a good job."
"Sakura-san's much faster than she was." that was Haku, who's gaze focused back on the arena, where Sakura ducking and dodging the senbon Kin was tossing at her. "Though I wonder why she's not attacking."
"She's biding her time." that was Sasuke, who looked slightly tense as he eyed the two Kiri shinobi wearily.
It was the closest he'd come to speaking to Naruto since she'd knocked him out-but when she shot him a hopeful smile he turned his head away, an angry look on his face.
"He's probably right." Naruto said as her shoulders slumped and she focused on the arena, "She's trying to see how many senbon Kin has."
"That's smart. She seems to specialize in them." Haku remarked, moving from his teammates sides to stand with the Sand siblings, Naruto and the two sensei's, "If Sakura-san can get her to use them all she'll have the advantage."
And sure enough after perhaps twenty minutes Kin seemed to have ran out of Senbon, and Naruto found herself smirking as Sakura ran through handsigns and slammed her hand into the ground, a pillar of Earth shooting out of the ground and sending Kin flying through the air, and Sakura was taking off, leaping on a second pillar which lifted her high into the air so that she was above Kin, and then she leapt off it, bringing her foot down on the falling girl's shoulder and kicking her into the ground hard, landing a short distance away in a crouch-not even faltering as she twisted, kunai flying from her grip and slicing the Oto Kunoichi's shoulder as she was staggering to her feet, and Sakura was moving even as the Kunai hit it's mark, fist smacking into the girls face hard, sending her flying backwards and hitting the wall at the edge of the arena, and Kin dropped to the ground, slumped and unconscious and Naruto cheered loudly, throwing her fist into the air, Haku joining her, clapping loudly-and so did Temari and Kankuro-they weren't exactly friends yet but they certainly preferred Sakura to the Oto girl. Even Gaara was smiling as Naruto cupped her hands over her mouth and cried.
"You rock Sakura-chan!"
"And the winner of the match is Haruno Sakura!" Hayate landed in the arena, coughing before calling, "Medics will remove the injured competitor and there will be a five minute break while the arena is being fixed."
And with that Sakura was rushing up the stairs, laughing loudly, a huge grin on her lips, "I did it Naruto-chan!"
"You were awesome." when Sakura reached them Naruto almost lifted her in the tight hug she gave, "You were so cool. It was like you weren't even trying."
"I dunno about that." Sakura flushed, "I just figured that if I could out last her she'd run out of senbons and I'd be able to get the jump on her."
"Your strategy worked perfectly." that was Haku. "You've grown immensely in time time since we've last met. I hope we get the chance for a rematch."
"I'm not sure if I'd be that good." Sakura was beaming despite her modesty, and Haku laughed.
"You already know my most useful trick, if you were fast enough you could stop me from using it entirely-without that I believe we'd be on a much more even playing field. Besides who knows, you pack a mean punch now, perhaps you could smash my mirrors."
That made Sakura laugh, "You just don't want to have to fight Naruto-chan again."
"I think most people who have witnessed her fighting would choose to steer clear." Haku remarked, "I still have the scar from my fight with her."
"I'll take that as a compliment." Naruto grinned, "Oh! By the way Haku-san, meet Gaara no Sabaku. Gaara-kun, meet Haku-san."
"It's a pleasure to meet a friend of Naruto-san." Haku smiled politely.
The word friend, as always, made Gaara start slightly, but he nodded.
"Likewise." his gaze swung to Sakura, "You fought well Sakura-san... the moving pillar of earth-"
"I got the idea from our training." Sakura admitted, "Your sand pillars. Of course it's nowhere near as useful and versatile as your sand but it works."
"Perhaps we could have some training sessions." Haku suggested, "Before the final stage of the exams-"
"Yeah right." Naruto laughed, "You just wanna see more of our skills so you can see just how awesome we are and how best to fight us-"
"I had to try." Haku laughed back, "I suppose we'll just have to wait until-" he was interrupted by the call that the arena was clear, and a moment later the names were flicking on the screen once more-and Naruto let out a bright laugh when her name popped up on the screen, her opponent was one Akado Yoroi.
"Heh, looks like I don't have to wait around Sakura-chan."
"Aren't we the lucky ones." the pink haired girl rolled her eyes as Naruto leapt over the railings and into the arena, her opponent was boring and went down the stairs, but soon he was stood across from her and the proctor coughed before speaking.
"Nohara Naruto Vs Akado Yoroi, are there any objections?"
"Nope." Naruto stated brightly, and the man who had been chosen shook his head as well, and Naruto tilted her head, getting a good look at him, black sunglasses, a cloth covering his face. Interesting.
"If you're ready, let the match begin." the proctor leapt out of the way quickly
Naruto grinned before surging forward, Kunai, forcing herself to remember that she should go slower than she was capable of-holding back was important for now, kunai slicing the mans arm open. He reached out in a painfully obvious grab and his fingers curled around Naruto's wrist. She paused, her eyes narrowing at the strange sensation, like he was tugging something out of her. A faint trickle in the scheme of things but... still. Her eyes widened in realization as the mans eyes widened, clearly what was a trickle to her was a flood to him and he was gasping. Her Chakra, the asshole was trying to drain her Chakra.
She could hear Kurama cackling with laughter in the back of her mind, and she could almost picture him led on his back laughing so hard that he couldn't even stand.
"You really did get lucky brat." Kurama cackled, "His technique is beyond useless against you. Literally anyone else and he'd have a good chance but you-" "He's literally stuck with the one person who he cannot beat using it." "I hadn't even noticed." "It's pathetic." "I know right?" "Y'know what would make the fight more interesting-" "I'm not letting you eat him Kurama."
"He's still trying to drain you, you do know that?"
"What are you doing?" Yoroi's voice was annoyed, "Are you even paying any attention to me? Can't you feel what I'm doing?"
"Yeah, you picked the wrong person to do that too." Naruto tried to keep her face straight but she was laughing despite her best efforts. "See, if you do that for too long with me it'll overload your Chakra system." she saw his face pale when he realized that she was barely feeling what he was doing.
"Yeah, I kinda have a lot of the stuff, honestly I could give it away. Here." her grin became devilish as he tried to let go of her she pushed it outwards and into the man, who let out a terrified whimper, trying to pull back and release her wrist, but she grabbed his wrist, gripping it tight and forcing his hand to stay where it was "Why don't you take some more Yoroi-san?" she asked innocently, tilting her head slightly as his face started to pale and his eyes started to go glazed. Once he was suitably out of it Naruto shoved him backwards and twisted, bringing her foot up in a perfect roundhouse kick, sending him flying and smashing into the wall on the other side of the room.
She then turned, an innocent grin on her lips as she looked up towards the others and rubbed the back of her neck, "I think I'm done?" she could hear Sakura laughing loudly from up above, and she could almost picture Kakashi's exasperated expression.
"Congratulations." Hayate nodded, "You're through to the third exam Nohara-san. Medics!" a moment later a couple of medics were gathering up the unconscious shinobi and carrying him away.
"Thankfully it seems that this fight hasn't caused any damage to the arena." he looked somewhat bewildered by the strange new turn of events-after all it wasn't often that someone won without any real fighting, "Which means we can continue immediately. Nohara-san if you'd like to head back up to rejoin the others?"
"Of course Hayate-san." Naruto gave a bright grin before she took off at a run and rushed up the wall leading up to the balcony-ignoring the surprised noises from a few members of the rookie teams who hadn't learned how to tree climb yet-Kiba, Ino and Choji-the others had either learned how to do it or at least knew enough to recognise it, and when she reached the railings she caught them and hauled herself up and over, flicking her hair over her shoulder and laughing at the raised eyebrow she was getting from Kakashi.
"Naruto-chan, did you have to beat him like that?"
"But Kakashi-sensei, all I did was use his dumb technique against him it was super easy-" her eyes narrowed when she heard a scoff and her eyes flicked towards a boy with long dark hair and pale eyes-one of Gai's team it seemed. "Got something to say?"
"Nothing. Your fate has already been decided." that earned the boy a raised eyebrow, but before Naruto could respond Hayate spoke up, "We'll be selecting the next match now." the screen came to life again, and on the screen popped up two names.
Hyuga Hinata, and Hyuga Neji. Huh," Naruto's gaze flicked between the two pale eyed Genin. It was pretty easy to guess that they were the next match. It would be interesting, she knew the Hyuga had the Byakugan.
Also she really wanted Hinata to put Neji on his ass, he was a total asshole. But the look on Hinata's voice was wide and almost frightened, and Naruto's brows furrowed. She didn't like that actually. Clearly given the look Neji was now shooting the younger Genin there was a lot of history there.
Maybe the match would be less interesting and more tragic? She watched Neji turn his back to Hinata as he made his way down the stairs to the arena, and before Hinata could follow Naruto darted forward, resting a hand on the girls shoulder, squeezing gently.
"Good luck Hinata-san. Kick that assholes ass." she saw the girls eyes widen and her face flush.
"I-I.. t-t-thank you N-Naruto-san."
Then she was turning and making her way down the stairs.
