The exhausted Team 7 walked into the tower with Karin looking much different from how they entered the forest. Sasuke had a simple black tanto sheathed on his right hip and a hilt bandaged ninjato sheathed across his back, his forehead protector down over his left eye and he was constantly looking around to double check blind spots. Sakura just looked done and collapsed when they got inside, falling to her knees and slumping in on herself with a sigh of mental exhaustion. Naruto seemed fine mentally, but his clothes were in tatters and his forehead protector covered his left eye as well.
Karin decided to follow Sakura's lead, feeling the weight of all the pressure from the last phase of the exam still she looked up at the plaques on the wall.
"If you do not possess Heaven, gain knowledge and be prepared." Sasuke read out loud, "And if you do not possess Earth, run through the fields and seek strength." the boy finished with a frown, contemplating the words.
"A riddle? But we got here with the scrolls right?" Naruto asked, annoyed at the unlisted challenge, Sakura nodded, staring blankly at the plaques. Even Karin could tell Sakura was checked out at this point.
"We should open the scrolls." Sasuke said, "The riddle is talking about the scrolls for the purposes of the test, I think, so we just need to open them to get to the next phase."
Naruto frowned, "We were warned not to open them." he pointed out.
"We were warned not to open them until we got to the tower." Sasuke clarified, "We're at the tower now." he finished and Naruto nodded along with the logic. Karin was pretty sure that made sense, and Sakura wasn't arguing either.
So Naruto and Sasuke opened the scrolls of heaven and earth, but Sasuke activated his Sharingan, "It's a kuchiyose! Drop it!" he exclaimed, tossing the heaven scroll he'd unfurled, a moment later the earth scroll joined it as the two boys stood between whatever was being called and the two kunoichi.
"Yo!" Iruka greeted with a grin as the smoke cleared, then dropped his grin at the sight of his genin, "What the hell happened out there?" he asked, suddenly concerned, looking at Karin with thinly veiled suspicion. The red haired girl hid behind Naruto who was grinning at Iruka.
"Iruka-sensei!" Naruto greeted cheerfully, offsetting the dour mood that was settling down, the scarred man still looked concerned, "I met Karin-neechan, she's an Uzumaki too," the blonde began, explaining why the red haired girl was there and surprising Iruka, "We took her with us and she helped us, she knows surgery!" he continued before Iruka could interrupt and Iruka was concerned as to why surgery was considered helping, "We fought these giant snakes and this asshole who was summoning them! He was super strong and I even lost my eye!" Naruto pointed to his covered left eye and Iruka thought he might have a heart attack, "But it's okay because Sasuke gave me one of his, and we beat these other normal genin teams, they didn't stand a chance!" Naruto finished.
Sasuke returned Iruka's confused stare with his remaining eye, "What? He's telling the truth." the Uchiha confirmed, deciding not to elaborate further. Iruka blinked and took in the appearances of the genin again.
"Okay, wait, hold on." Iruka said as he pinched the bridge of his nose, taking a moment to compose himself, "Did the snake man say his name?" he asked, deciding to focus on that for now.
"Orochimaru." Sakura answered blankly. Iruka took a deep breath as Naruto and Sasuke glanced at the pink haired girl, she still looked vacant.
"You fought a Sannin," Iruka began, taking another deep breath, "and you survived." he was as proud as he was horrified. Naruto and Sasuke shrugged, not sure how else to respond to that. Karin agreed with Iruka's response entirely but wasn't going to bring it up while she was still an unknown to him.
"I learned a new ninjutsu." Naruto spoke up and Iruka laughed, Naruto's innocence despite his appearance looking like a war orphan and a child soldier at the same time had the chunin startled enough to be mildly hysterical. Iruka mused that basically was what Naruto was as he stopped laughing.
"Naruto-kun," Iruka began, "good work." he said after a deep breath, "All of you, good work. You three passed the second phase of the exam." he finished with a nod. Then he turned on Karin, "That being said, you still failed." he told her.
Karin frowned, she figured that but she still panicked, "I want to defect to Konohagakure no Sato." she said, trying to sound resolute but her voice wavering as she started sweating. Naruto and Sasuke were both surprised, Sakura was still catatonic.
Iruka noticed the reactions of Team 7, "Excuse me?" he asked, deciding he'd help Sakura in a moment, "You're a genin of Kusagakure no Sato, right? Why should our village take you in?" Iruka asked, raising an eyebrow as tears welled up in the girls eyes.
"Hey have a heart, y'know!?" Naruto spoke up, clearly upset with Iruka, "Her village is killing her!" he said emphatically. Iruka just looked more confused.
"She's Uzumaki like he is," Sasuke said with a nod to Naruto, "but her branch has some healing power that slowly kills the user, from the sounds of it her teammates and village abused this power at her risk from the sounds of it." he explained, Karin was surprised that the dark haired boy had come to her rescue, Naruto seemed to do it naturally but Sasuke never gave any indication he'd be willing to defend her case.
Iruka frowned at the explanation, "Hokage-sama will want to speak with you." he said finally, "Follow me, she can stay with you guys for now but you will have to abide by Hokage-sama's word." the man said as he lead them deeper into the tower.
Naruto grinned, fears put to rest at the fact the Hokage would decide, and followed after the chunin without a worry. Karin followed hopefully behind the blonde, nervous but most of her panic dulled by Naruto's confidence.
Sasuke watched Sakura until she slowly stood up and followed behind the others, the girl trudged mechanically after them and it was obvious she wasn't ready to get up yet. Sasuke followed his pink haired teammate without a word.
Iruka took them to a rather spartan room, it had an adjacent bathroom with shower, sink, and toilet, but the room itself was a bland square with a table, four chairs, a lounge, and three mattresses. Karin took the bathroom first. Sasuke put his new swords on the table, sat down, and stared at the sheathed weapons. Naruto picked a mattress and dived on it, putting his hip pouch on it and taking off his shuriken holster and sandals.
Sakura was stopped at the door by Iruka who pulled her aside, "Sakura Haruno," he began, trying to get her attention, thankfully she looked at him, "you seem out of it. Do you need to talk?" he asked, unfortunately she shook her head. Iruka frowned at the lack of response and let her go.
The pink haired girl wasn't completely unresponsive so he couldn't use a medical excuse. She didn't look okay to Iruka but if she was capable of communicating she wanted to deal with it alone and communicated such, there wasn't much he could do.
The kunoichi sat down on the couch with her hands on her lap and stared at the wall. Iruka would ask Kakashi to talk with her, knowing the jonin would probably have about the same luck.
"You guys will be brought food by myself while you're here since you finished the test before the fifth day, there's a limit to what I can bring, but I'll try to bring some ramen at least." Iruka explained as he turned to leave, knowing that if Naruto was in high spirits he could probably distract the other two.
Hiruzen Sarutobi was a legendary man, known as the Kami no Shinobi due to his mastery of ninjutsu. Karin was trembling now that the gravity of the situation was on her and he was staring at her. It felt like she was staring death in the face, and death was smoking tobacco out of a pipe.
"Good to see ya, old man!" Naruto greeted cheerfully and Karin almost fainted, "This is Karin-neechan, she's Uzumaki too, which makes her family." the bright boy explained, "So she has to live in Konohagakure no Sato."
Sasuke had decided to let Naruto speak, he still had respect for the old man so letting Naruto speak so out of turn, before being spoken to and with absolute no regard for military station, it was hilarious to the Uchiha. The dark haired boy didn't show it on his face and would never admit it.
Karin was just staring at Naruto in shock because he spoke to the leader of his village like the man was an old dude who worked next door to him and not the legendary Sandaime Hokage. The red haired Uzumaki considered fainting as the shower ran in the bathroom.
"Uzumaki?" Hiruzen asked, looking at Karin. The girl was sweating hard now, the hairs on the back of her neck were on end. The girl stammered a moment then swiftly bowed and took a deep breath to compose herself.
"Yes, Hokage-sama?" Karin asked without looking up, she was actually too scared to look up.
"It sounds to me like Naruto-kun just adopted you." Hiruzen said sternly and Karin felt like she was going to have a heart attack, "Which would make him your clan head, I think." the man said with a chuckle, Karin felt all of the pressure come off and she sighed in relief, "I won't be enrolling you into the shinobi corps straight away, I'll give you time to settle in which will give me time to ensure Kusagakure no Sato is polite enough to forget you exist." the man finished the last part very sternly.
Karin nodded, she got the message, keep her head down and be quiet, like a ninja should, "Thank you, Hokage-sama." she said with honest gratitude.
"Thanks, old timer!" Naruto said, apparently skipping over the part about being a clan head entirely and almost giving Karin another heart attack.
The Sandaime chuckled as he left, and as he walked out the door he nodded and Kakashi walked in with Haku. Kakashi closed the door as Haku rushed to Naruto taking in his appearance.
"Naruto-kun, are you okay?" Haku asked, concern evident on his face, "Iruka told us what happened." the boy clarified with his attention on Naruto.
"I'm fine Haku-chan," Naruto assured, "I even got a jutsu I can teach you now!" he added cheerfully, "It's Futon: Toppa, your chakra is wind natured too, right?" the blonde questioned and Haku nodded.
Karin watched the exchange with some confusion, surprised at how close the two obviously were, the older pretty girl with dark hair was practically doting on Naruto, and the young blonde clearly loved the attention, "You must be Naruto-nii's girlfriend." she said and they both blushed bright red, "I approve." she decided with a nod, she heard family was supposed to approve of people being married into the family and didn't concern herself that probably didn't mean she was supposed to say it.
"I am a boy." Haku said, composing himself before Naruto did but still blushing.
"And he's not my girlfriend!" Naruto insisted, still very flustered. Sasuke and Kakashi both rolled their visible eye. Sasuke caught himself doing the same thing as Kakashi and tried not to be horrified.
Karin was just stunned, "You're really a guy?" she asked, embarrassed of her mistake but stunned, Haku nodded.
"Haku is more like his wife anyway." Sasuke decided to speak up, Kakashi was impressed and downright proud of that, Naruto sputtered and Haku blushed brighter at that. Karin was just confused now.
"We're not married!" Naruto denied vehemently.
"He does act like a housewife." Kakashi decided to join in on the teasing, much to the chagrin of Naruto.
"You can't prove that!" Naruto denied in a manner that implied it was one hundred percent true. Karin thought she was starting to get it now.
"Oh, that kind of housewife." The red head spoke up, the fact she wasn't even teasing made it more mortifying for the blonde. Haku took a moment to decipher the tone and wasn't sure whether he should be offended or not.
"Please, I am Naruto-kun's vassal and tool." Haku said, Karin raised an eyebrow at that one, Kakashi noticed the word tool and frowned under his mask. Naruto looked like he was about to protest at that.
"That's even lewder than what I said." Karin said bluntly, unknowingly cutting off Naruto who didn't get the implication and was just confused, Haku's blush was practically luminescent, and Kakashi just chuckled.
The shower stopped, Kakashi watched the bathroom door for a moment while Haku tried to think of a way to deny that one and seemed to be having an existential crisis. Naruto didn't look like he was going to get it but was still embarrassed from the other teasing and Sasuke was just keeping up his bored outward appearance.
Soon, Sakura stepped out of the bathroom, "Sakura-san," Kakashi spoke, his tone normal but it did get their attention that he wasn't calling her -chan, "how are you holding up?" he asked.
Sakura blinked blankly at Kakashi as she wondered how to answer the question, everyone was looking at her and her pause over such a question was telling of her current state. Sakura didn't want to tell, she wanted to be harder, she wanted to stand with Sasuke.
"I'm fine." Sakura lied with an ease that surprised her, her tone gave nothing away and her voice was completely neutral. Kakashi didn't believe her, but he was impressed anyway, not by her lying skills, no one believed her, but the fact she wasn't having a break down.
"We killed in there." Sasuke said suddenly, Kakashi thought for a moment that Sasuke meant that they did well, but the silence from Naruto at the words and the expressions on the boys faces told him otherwise. The jonin was concerned, but he was proud of Sasuke too, the boy had willingly given up his eye to a teammate who needed it, the man never would have expected it out of him.
"How did it feel?" Kakashi asked simply, watching the boys to see how they reacted, he noticed Sakura was watching the boys and knew she hadn't killed, which meant she had other issues. Haku was watching Naruto, concern evident in his brown eyes for the blonde. Karin was curious too, she heard some ninja liked it.
"Angry." Naruto's answer was surprising as usual, Kakashi raised an eyebrow at the blonde boy, "They wanted to hurt Karin-neechan," the jinchuriki began, "and now that they're dead I can't make them say sorry." he explained. The logic was downright childish, Kakashi almost laughed.
"Honestly?" Sasuke spoke up, "Relief," he started, startling Kakashi, "I was constantly concerned I was going to die because of I was getting whittled down in there, by the end he was just another enemy to get rid of." the Uchiha explained.
Kakashi was pretty sure neither of those were healthy answers, but they also didn't speak of a demonic desire to kill so he was out of his depth. He was a veteran with his own issues, not a therapist.
"Well, Karin-chan, you're coming with me." Kakashi started after a moment, "If you're going to be living in this village you might as well see Naruto's home, Haku-chan knows the way." he began before Naruto could argue about where Karin was going, Haku blushed as he realized what would be learned by the new Uzumaki, "Team 7, I am not allowed to provide any assistance until after the official end of the second phase in three days." he finished as Karin stood up to join the man, "Good luck!" he said with a wave.
Iruka brought them Ichiraku Ramen for lunch every day. Naruto appreciated that, but he was still dressed in his tattered rags. Haku hadn't even been allowed to bring him a spare jumpsuit and he didn't generally take one on missions so he didn't bring one into the forest.
With nothing else to do Naruto trained, there was no space for shurikenjutsu, ninjutsu, or even a lot of taijutsu Naruto liked to do. So the blonde occupied his time with stretching, sit ups, push ups and squats. Sasuke had joined in but struggled to keep up with Naruto's ridiculous pace.
The Uchiha knew by now that comparing himself to the blonde was a bad idea. He may be an elite member of a prestigious clan, but Naruto was part of a once prestigious clan and had a demon sealed in him. Also Sasuke had given Naruto his best advantage over the blonde. Sasuke still felt it had been needed to be done, Orochimaru was terrifying.
Despite this Sasuke used Naruto as a benchmark, pushing himself to keep up with what the blonde was doing with physical training so he didn't get outpaced too much.
Sakura was withdrawn as she watched them, but joined in on the training eventually, to the surprise of both boys. The girl couldn't keep up at all, and her mood only got worse, but she still joined in every day until the second phase ended.
Anko was surprised, somehow twenty one genin had actually made it through the second phase of the exams. The team from Otogakure, the Kazekage's kids from Sunagakure, the team with that kid who had taken this exam more times than most people proctored, Maito Guy's team, and the entire rookie nine.
It was most surprising that all the rookies had made it, the woman took special note of Kakashi's genin, Naruto was still dressed in his shredded clothes and Sasuke was glancing over his shoulder every five seconds. Word had traveled about the two, every jonin in the room knew they fought Orochimaru and lived.
The genin were all lined up in the round room with a large statue of two hands performing a hand seal, their jonin sensei looking on, with some extra onlookers including the next proctor, the Hokage himself, and two young girls Kakashi had brought with him. Anko was worried about that man, she hoped he hadn't lost his mind.
"I would like to congratulate all of you for passing the second phase of the exam," Hiruzen announced to the genin, "and I would like to ask, if any of you have guessed at the true purpose of this exam yet?" the old Hokage asked in a lecturing tone. The genin looked at each other in confusion.
"To test our capacity as shinobi, right?" Kankuro spoke up, that's what he figured, it's what everyone signed up for after all.
"Well you aren't wrong about that much," Hiruzen nodded, "but there is a darker meaning." he continued, "In times of peace, without war, these exams act as a proxy for war. Villages competing against each other, and in the final phase those who proved themselves greatest compete for an audience, it is there that many decide what village to send a mission to." he explained and realization dawned on many of the genin, "However something unexpected as occurred this time, twenty one genin reaching the final phase is impressive."
"Hokage-sama, as the proctor of the next phase, Hayate Gekko, may I take over?" A man with tired eyes and brown hair in the standard jonin uniform asked with a cough. The Hokage nodded and he continued, "Simply put, too many of you passed." he said, ignoring the surprised reactions, "The third phase is a public tournament, the idea is to only show the best of the best, so we will be holding a preliminary tournament here in the tower to thin the herd." he explained with some coughing, "That being said, if you're too tired to continue you should bow out now, at this point the tournament is a test of the individual so don't worry about holding your teammates back if you feel you can't continue."
"I'm completely out of chakra to be honest." Kabuto spoke up, Hayate raised an eyebrow but no one stopped the genin from leaving. In the spectator stands Karin noticed he was lying but wasn't sure if she should tell anyone yet.
No one else quit so Hayate continued after a cough, "Alright then, your names have been placed in a machine, it'll shuffle your names and you'll fight someone at random in one on one bouts. All forms of jutsu and tools are permitted. Everyone who isn't fighting is a spectator, interfering in someone else's fight is a disqualification." the man explained, gesturing to a large screen above the statue.
Names flashed across the screen for a bit but settled on the first match soon enough, Sasuke Uchiha vs Yoroi Akado. The other genin went up to the stands as Sasuke moved into position across from the other genin.
"Hey Haku-chan!" Naruto greeted happily as he ran up into the spectator area, "What's that?" he asked, pointing to the bundle of dark orange and black cloth that Haku was holding.
"I brought you spare clothes for after the second phase officially ends." Haku said, a little annoyed Naruto couldn't at least change his clothes yet.
"Cool, I hope I get to fight soon." Naruto said eagerly as he turned to watch Sasuke's fight. A few people noticed this interaction and Haku felt their eyes on him, but refused to meet them with his own.
Kakashi wanted to tease but he focused on Sasuke for now, the boy was still on edge and his fingers were twitching towards his new weapons. The Uchiha was a serious boy before, but he looked hardened by the Forest of Death, his one eye staring at his opponent with unnerving focus.
As soon as Hayate said they could begin, Sasuke activated his Sharingan and watched the boy approach him, unsheathing his new ninjato with his right hand as he did.
Yoroi frowned under his face concealing veil, kenjutsu was definitely a main weakness of his, but he palmed a kunai and prepared to fight the younger genin anyway. The two were still for an uncomfortable amount of time, then Yoroi moved, Sasuke moved faster. Yoroi attacked with his kunai and Sasuke copied the move the owner of the sword had used when Sasuke tried that. Sasuke was shorter than Yoroi, but he had the Sharingan to help him fight.
Yoroi screamed as the ninjato took the first two fingers of his right hand, Sasuke was surprised at how easy that had been. The Uchiha decided he'd won and sheathed his ninjato, Yoroi took offense to that and jumped at the genin. Sasuke's dojutsu saw the attack but the ninjato was too long to be drawn quick enough to react at his current level and the other genin was unarmed so he blocked with his forearms.
Yoroi grabbed Sasuke by the forearms, getting Sasuke's left arm bloody, and there was a glow of chakra at the contact points, "Got you!" the older genin taunted with a laugh, "Now I'll drain your chakra and you'll be too weak to fight back." he explained.
Sasuke scowled since he could feel the older ninja spoke the truth from his energy disappearing. The Uchiha wrenched his left arm free and turned the right side of his body away from Yoroi, pulling the older boy closer as he grabbed the hilt of his stolen tanto with his left hand and unsheathed it, the sharp blade cutting through cloth and flesh to leave a gash in the other boys chest. Sasuke followed this up with a side kick from his left leg into the new wound.
Yoroi lost his grip on Sasuke and stumbled back, he wanted to continue but Sasuke wouldn't drop his guard again, "You win." Yoroi confessed with venom as iryo shinobi came out to take him and his fingers away. Sasuke sheathed his sword, but all the jonin noticed he kept his Sharingan active and when he joined the spectators he crossed his arms and kept his left hand near the tanto.
"Zaku Abumi vs Shino Aburame!" Hayate called out and the two genin came down to face each other. Zaku was grinning and Shino was hard to get a read on since he wore sunglasses and the collar of his jacket hid his face, "Begin!" Hayate gave the signal.
Zaku raised both of his hands at Shino, "Zankukyokuha!" the Oto genin shouted before his arms exploded.
The jonin of Konoha discussed the Aburame clan bugs as Zaku was taken by the iryonin, the other Konoha genin decided Shino was actually pretty scary, some of them decided on creepy.
"Misumi Tsurugi vs Kankuro!" Hayate declared, watching the other boy from Kabuto's team and wondering why they all dressed the same. Kankuro came down with the bandaged thing on his back ready to go, "Begin!" Hayate called once they were both in position.
Misumi dashed at Kankuro, taking the inititive he contorted his body, grappling the Suna nin with his limbs acting like constricting snakes. Kankuro's bandaged object fell to the ground behind him, "Give up, or I break your neck." the genin threatened harshly.
"Screw you!" Kankuro responded, and Misumi twisted, making Kankuro face the other way. Kankuro's head turned fully around and Misumi was suddenly face to face with a puppet, "Heh, you dumbass." the Suna genin spoke as he stood up out of his bandaged hiding spot, "I switched with Karasu already." he explained and Misumi found the grapple reversed on him by the puppet under his opponents control.
Misumi also had to be removed by iryonin, Hayate had to admit they certainly had some vicious kids in this batch, "Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka!" he called out, watching the two girls.
Ino smirked confidently and jumped down, "You're going down now forehead, and then Sasuke-kun is mine!" she declared. A lot of the other ninja in the room were less than enthused for her reasons, Temari in particular was scowling at her and Kin was glaring.
Sakura didn't respond and slowly walked down to stand across from Ino, "What's wrong? Want to quit already? You know you can't beat me." Ino started off with some banter and psychological warfare.
"Honestly yeah," Sakura surprised everyone with that response, "I wanted to quit after Kabuto quit, even before Kabuto quit I wanted to quit, I wanted to quit back in the forest, and I even considered quitting on that damn tenth question." the pink haired girl confessed, not sounding too distraught despite her words.
Ino was at a loss for words and looked at the proctor to see if he'd take that as her win, he shrugged, "Are you saying you quit then?" Hayate asked.
Sakura thought about it with a frown, "The only reason I even got this far is because my team is so strong that my weakness is barely even a hassle to them." she said, "I've always considered myself to be a true ninja..." she paused before scowling, "but those were just empty words, because Naruto and Sasuke were always in the lead!" she cried out suddenly.
Ino was mostly surprised that Naruto was included in that, still Sakura hadn't answered the question and Hayate hadn't said to begin yet, "So you can't take the heat?" Ino asked, if she could get an easy win she'd take it.
Sakura shrugged, "I couldn't keep up, I was completely outpaced, but I learned a lot." the girl mused, "Honestly, I might quit on being a ninja." she confessed, "But first, I need to test myself against someone normal, so I'm glad I got you Ino." she added, that was a backhanded compliment, "I'll try not to make this easy for you."
Ino wasn't sure what to say to that so she just nodded and took a basic stance. Sakura took the academy basic taijutsu stance. Sakura remembered her grades still, taijutsu was her lowest, a C, but academy grades were different from ninja grades. Thankfully for Sakura Ino was never much better in taijutsu.
"Begin!" Hayate called and Sakura rushed Ino, the pink haired girl threw a shuriken as an opener and created a duo of bunshin. Ino dodged the shuriken and retaliated with one of her own as Sakura weaved through her bunshin, confusing Ino as to where the real Sakura was.
Soon Sakura was upon Ino, attacking from different angles and Ino couldn't tell where the real Sakura was so Sakura landed multiple strikes on Ino before the girl managed to break off and pull out a kunai. Ino wasn't sure where Sakura got this resolve suddenly the girl was fighting her with actual intensity.
Sakura pulled out her own kunai and dropped the bunshin, her control was impeccable but her reserves were still awful, she couldn't risk getting tired against Ino. The two kunoichi circled each other, kunai pointed at each other.
Sakura moved first, stabbing at Ino with far less intent than she'd punched and kicked. Ino deflected the thrust off the edge of her own kunai and stepped to the outside of Sakura's strike, reaching out and grabbing a handful of her hair, holding Sakura in place.
"Got you, now give it up, Sakura." Ino declared, pointing her kunai at Sakura. The pinkette did not respond verbally, instead using her kunai to cut her hair short and diving forward, rolling and twisting off her shoulders to face her stunned blonde opponent as pink strands of hair fell to the ground between them.
Ino realized just how seriously Sakura was actually taking this, the kunoichi in the red dress was on edge, staring Ino down with a harsher look than she'd ever had back in the academy. The blonde kunoichi almost felt back for using the pink hair in her hand to perform a chakra hair trap.
Sakura realized she was paralyzed and there was panic in her eyes, Ino put away her kunai and was concerned when Sakura's panic didn't go down. The Yamanaka performed her family Hiden, and Sakura's world went black.
Ino watched her own body slump down and smirked at the proctor, raising her hand to surrender in Sakura's name. She stopped, the Yamanaka girl couldn't move the stolen body of Sakura. That never happened before, "Oh no you don't, this is my body, get out!" Ino could have sworn she heard Sakura before something pushed her out.
Ino Yamanaka jumped to her feet in her own body, startled since she knew you could not just throw off he family Hiden like a genjutsu, and it wasn't a matter of willpower either, "What are you?" she asked Sakura, trying to figure out what just happened.
Sakura looked like she didn't understand the question and was trying to come up with an answer, "I'm a kunoichi." she decided with a resolute smile. That was not what Ino was asking but she'd ask the girl how she threw off the Shintenshin no Jutsu later.
Sakura threw her kunai and Ino jumped, Sakura jumped at her and Ino met her a quarter of the way by jumping at Sakura as she landed. Ino's right elbow met Sakura's right forearm, a straight left punch from Sakura was blocked by Ino lifting her left forearm, and Sakura kicked out with her left leg, going under Ino's right elbow and catching the blonde in the ribs with her shin. Sakura followed up by stomping her left foot forward and delivering a vicious right haymaker that Ino barely blocked, the blonde jumped back as the strike landed to get some distance.
Sakura used shunshin to catch up and opened the next taijutsu exchange with a left jab that Ino deflected off her right wrist, lifting her left arm to guard the right hook from Sakura. Ino retaliated with a right straight punch and Sakura brought her right palm up to knock it away before twisting the left side of he body to Ino, driving her left fist into Ino's face with all the momentum she could manage.
Ino fell back, her right eye was black and she was unconcious. Sakura won, the pink haired girl couldn't believe it. The blonde girl was the first one who lost and didn't require urgent medical attention, so Asuma just came down and got her after Sakura was declared the winner.
Sakura went back up to join her team in a daze, she hadn't expected to actually win.
"Temari vs Tenten!" Hayate declared the match up, letting the girls come down.
"So do all Konoha konoichi fight like cats or just those two?" Temari asked, Sakura took offence to that but couldn't do anything yet so she glared.
"I'm not a rookie," Tenten said with a smirk that annoyed Sakura more, "but I can sort of relate to Sakura, my team is hard to keep up with too." the girl said sympathetically, Sakura decided she hoped Tenten won for the honor of Konoha.
"Well unlike you two I'm not the weakest on my team," Temari began, "that was Kankuro." she added with a smirk, Karin shuddered as she remembered how Kankuro won his match.
"Hey!" Kankuro protested but was ignored.
"Begin!" Hayate told them.
Sakura felt bad for Tenten, and was also disappointed. The poor girl had been defeated easily and was draped across the Suna konichi's battle fan. Temari tossed Tenten over the weapons she'd thrown, Ino had woken up by now and thought that was going overboard.
Lee jumped down and caught Tenten before she hit the ground, "Nice catch!" Temari said mockingly.
"Is this how you treat an opponent who fought to their utmost!? What are you doing!?" Lee demanded to know with righteous fury.
Temari wasn't phased, "Shut up!" was her answer, "You're annoying, now take that trash away." she added with a dismissive gesture towards Tenten. Lee looked like he wanted to attack but Gai arrived by shunshin and took them both back up.
The arena was quickly cleared and the screen flashed through more names, "Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi!" Hayate declared and Kin moved down to the arena.
"I got paired off against one of the kunoichi, troublesome." Shikamaru complained and Ino glared at him.
Asuma sighed and tried to get the lazy boy to go, "Come on, if you quit now I'll put you through remedial training." the jonin threatened. Shikamaru rolled his eyes and trudged down the stairs. Kin glared at the boy as he moved into position.
"Begin!" Hayate called and Kin opened with senbon, Shikamaru dodged some of them, mostly the ones with bells. Then the genjutsu hit and Shikamaru was paralyzed with pain and unable to balance standing straight up he dropped to his knees. It looked like hundreds of Kin were converging on him.
Shikamaru removed that idea from his head by fluttering his chakra to break the genjutsu, "Kagemane no Jutsu," the boy said suddenly and Kin noticed he made a hand seal, "success." the genin intoned as he stood up, "You know, I've been thinking." Shikamaru began as he put his hands in his pockets, Kin frowned as her body copied his posture, "Some genin I know came out of that forest different, stronger too." Shikamaru frowned, "I'm thinking they figured out what it took to be chunin in the forest, and I don't think I did." he admitted, "Oh would you look at that," his tone was sarcastic now, "you got me rambling and now I'm just about out of chakra. Oh well." he raised his hand and so did she, "I quit."
Kin felt movement return to her body but didn't move except to drop her raised arm. The young girl didn't like winning in this way, it hurt her pride and made her look bad. She glared at Shikamaru as she walked back up to spectate with her team.
"Naruto Uzumaki vs Kiba Inuzuka!" Hayate declared.
"Alright! Finally!" Naruto was so excited he used shunshin to get down there and started hopping in place with excited energy, raring to go. Haku giggled at his antics, happy to see the boy hadn't changed too much.
Kiba jumped down, his dog Akamaru on his head jumping down, "Let's kick the ass of the dead last." Kiba told his dog with a smirk.
"Wait are dogs allowed?" Naruto asked, confused by this. Kakashi wondered why no one taught Naruto about Inuzuka during the academy.
"Ninken are considered tools." Hayate informed and Kiba grinned at Naruto, Akamaru barked.
"Well then Naruto-kun should be able to use me." Haku said, stopping whatever banter Kiba was about to attempt with that jaw dropping statement.
"No way, Haku-chan!" Naruto called back, the innuendo going right over his head, "I want to win without yours or Sasuke's help." he said with a grin directed at Kiba. Sasuke raised an eyebrow at this.
"Begin!" Hayate said and Naruto pulled a canteen of water out of his hip pouch. Kiba crouched and performed Shikakyu no Jutsu, his appearance becoming more feral and Akamaru jumped on his back as he performed Jujin Bunshin, turning Akamaru into a copy of Kiba.
Naruto was surprised and dropped the canteen, spilling water at his feet and using Mizu Bunshin on it. Kiba and Akamaru rushed him and the blonde created sixteen Kage Bunshin. Kiba wasn't sure how to deal with this, he and Akamaru were now outnumbered and on the defence, worse whenever he or Akamaru dispelled a bunshin Naruto made another.
Kiba dropped a smoke bomb to get cover from Naruto and break off from the blonde chakra machine. Eighteen of Naruto used Toppa, the Futon no Jutsu blew away the smoke and sent Kiba and Akamaru for a short flight across the arena.
Kiba rolled to his feet next to Akamaru, "What the hell is this!?" he asked hysterically, "You were the dead last!" he reminded, unable to understand how Naruto had improved by this much already, he wondered if he was slacking on his training.
With shunshin the bunshin descended on Kiba, "I trained!" all of Naruto shouted, sixteen of them pushing Akamaru into a defensive fight that the transformed canine spent more time running away than fighting while one Naruto grappled Kiba and the other performed hand seals and touched the Naruto grappling the other genin.
Kiba found himself engulfed in a sphere of water, from the grappling mizu bunshin, and unable to move as Akamaru was chased around and tried to help him by throwing shuriken. The other Naruto bunshin defended the Naruto maintaining the Soroi no Jutsu.
With only a few shuriken leaving shallow grazes on Naruto, revealing he was maintaining the jutsu himself, and with Akamaru unable to help him beyond that he had no options, "I give up." the Inuzuka said with a frown, he didn't like it, but he knew he was beat.
As soon as the proctor declared Naruto the winner the blonde let Kiba go and dispelled all his clones, "Hell yeah! I'm getting closer to taking your hat, old man!" he celebrated confidently. The jonin in the room that weren't Kakashi were shocked at the way the boy spoke to the Hokage, and Hiruzen himself just chuckled.
Naruto had just displayed surprising talent with two different elemental natures. Haku was stunned at the Futon no Jutsu and remembered the blonde had said he had a ninjutsu to teach the older boy. Team 10 and the rest of Team 9 were shocked except Shikamaru, who seemed to have guessed at something like this. Sasuke realized that Naruto didn't want to use his eye to win in a tournament for some reason.
Hinata met Naruto at the stairs on his way to his team, Haku watched them, "I'm glad you won, Naruto-kun." the Hyuga said shyly, which was harsh on Kiba, her teammate and caught the attention of a few Konoha jonin.
"Thanks, Hinata-chan!" Naruto was as oblivious as ever.
"I made this medical ointment." Hinata continued, "I want you to use it." she added, offering the blonde boy a small container. Everyone who was paying attention noticed she was giving healing ointment to the barely injured Naruto who had won, and not her teammate who lost to Naruto.
"Wow, you made this? Thanks a bunch, Hinata-chan!" The blonde was still absolutely clueless, opening up the ointment container to rub the cream into the cuts he got from Kiba's shuriken, the Inuzuka himself getting up into the stands and trying not to be annoyed by his teammate crushing on his opponent.
Karin, Kakashi, Sasuke, Sakura, Kurenai, and Asuma looked at Haku who was smiling at the display, but all of them could tell the smile was forced and the boys left eye was twitching. The bearer of Hyoton was trying to mentally insist he was happy for the blonde to be getting attention from the girl, that Hinata was cute, and that he wasn't jealous of an awkward twelve year old kunoichi.
Not even Haku believed himself and he approached the two, "Naruto-kun, I brought you clothes." he reminded. Hinata stepped back with a frown, not wanting to be rude but annoyed that Naruto's attention was so swiftly removed from her, she took some satisfaction that Naruto at least put the cream away in his equipment pouch.
"Thanks, Haku-chan!" Naruto exclaimed boisterously as he grabbed the clothes and tossed a smoke bomb, surprising a few that he'd use a smoke bomb as a changing room. When the smoke cleared Naruto had new black pants and a dark orange jacket with black sleeves over a fishnet shirt. The orange jacket had a white version of the Uzumaki clan symbol on it and Naruto zipped it up after the smoke cleared.
Haku remained in the smoke and it could be seen he was flustered when it cleared, the teen had seen everything. He reminded himself that Naruto was twelve and his mind betrayed him by reminding him that meant the boy would get bigger and he blushed harder.
"Why fishnet?" Sakura asked, looking at Haku with a raised eyebrow and the boy struggled to think of an appropriate answer.
"Oh that was my idea." Karin lied, it was believable since she wore fishnet too and Haku decided Karin was a good person.
"Hinata Hyuga vs Neji Hyuga!" Hayate called out the next match, the older Hyuga walking confidently down to the arena as the younger shook like a leaf in the wind.
"You might as well give up now." Neji told Hinata as he walked past, and she looked like she was considering it.
"Kick his ass, Hinata-chan!" Naruto encouraged and Hinata was startled but nodded and followed Neji down to the arena.
"Begin!" Hayate called and the two Hyuga activated their Kekkei Genkai and engaged each other in a vicious taijutsu battle. As they fought Kurenai and Gai explained some common knowledge about the Byakugan and Juken, Haku was impressed since from what he was hearing each strike landed must hurt far more than it seemed.
Sasuke seemed to take minor offence to the Byakugan being compared to the Sharingan from his bristling but accepted they were both dojutsu of Konoha so it stood to reason people would compare them. He didn't like people thinking that the Hyuga dojutsu had greater vision than his, but was pacified by their unanimus agreement that the Sharingan granted more combat versatility over all forms of being a good shinobi while the Hyuga focused purely on taijutsu. He still copied the movements of their Juken with his eye in case he had to fight one of them in the final round.
Hinata was clearly losing but refused to stay down, even when her Juken strikes no longer gave off flares of chakra and her breathing was growing heavy. Her Byakugan wasn't even active anymore as she continued to stay in her stance.
Neji shook his head at the girl, "Just give it up, Hinata-sama," his choice of honorific surprised those who weren't familiar with him using it, "you are fated to lose. You are weak, soft of heart and lacking the will required of combat." he lectured.
"No!" Hinata refused, "Someone finally believed I could win," she explained, "and they never give up, so neither will I!"
"Not giving up?" Neji asked with a raised eyebrow, "There is far more to being a shinobi than simply refusing to give up. If all you can do is endure than you are still weak and should stay off the field of battle." the older Hyuga said, "Proctor-san, call the match, Hinata-sama is clearly unable to continue despite her insistance otherwise." the boy demanded.
Hayate wanted to call it, "Can you lift your arms?" he asked Hinata instead, noticing her guard was lowered. The girls shoulders trembled but she failed to lift her arms, eventually she shook her head, "Then the winner is Neji Hyuga." the proctor announced.
"As expected, the weak are fated to lose." Neji declared, deactivating his dojutsu turning away from his cousin.
"Neji-niisama," Hinata spoke up, "I think being angry at fate and refusing to change it, that makes you weak." she accused. Neji bristled, and the veins on the side of his head bulged. The boy turned and charged the younger Hyuga. The jonin moved to stop Neji, Kurenai had a kunai to his throat even, but they were too late to stop the chakra from his strike hitting Hinata in the chest.
Hinata stumbled back with a gasp, coughing up some blood as she collapsed, "Get the Iryonin!" Hayate demanded. Hiruzen was giving Neji a stern glare.
"The match was over, Neji." Gai lectured sternly, the Hyuga of the branch house deactivated his dojutsu again. Haku was shocked over Neji's outburst and glared at the boy as Naruto jumped down to check on Hinata.
"Neji Hyuga, you are on thin ice, and count yourself lucky the girl still lives." Hiruzen said in a tone that brooked no argument. The jonin released the male Hyuga and he watched Naruto as the boy watched Hinata be taken away on a stretcher.
"It's natural for the weak to feel sympathy for each other." Neji told Naruto, who simply turned and glared at Neji, his one blue eye staring at Neji with a bit of actual hatred. The blonde kneeled down and put his right hand in Hinata's blood.
"I swear on this spilled blood," Naruto began as he stood up, "I'm going to kick your ass and make you eat those words!" the blonde declared, pointing a bloody fist at Neji. Between this and Karin, Haku was starting to think Naruto was a bit quick to latch onto people, then realized Naruto had latched onto him quickly too.
"Rock Lee vs Gaara!" Hayate declared and the red head was there with a Suna Shunshin. Lee jumped down.
"Yosh! Let us have a splendid battle!" Lee said boisterously with a stiff bow. The red headed boy did not respond and just stared blankly at Lee with murderous eyes. Oddly enough Kiba looked nervous about the fight and Shino seemed to be buzzing. Kurenai wondered what had those two so on edge.
"Begin!" Hayate called out and Lee moved fast, delivering a right roundhouse kick that was blocked by sand.
"Get away from his sand!" Kiba shouted suddenly and Lee backflipped away from Gaara as the sand rushed to catch him. Kurenai now knew something was up, but she wondered how savagely the boy would have to kill someone with the sand to get her genin this nervous.
"Lee!" Gai called out and got the attention of everyone, "You have my permission, take them off!" he said, confusing almost everyone and concerning almost all the rest. Lee gave a happy grin and a nod, jumping up to the top of the statue of a hand seal in the room.
The Konoha genin reached under his orange leg warmers and pulled out leg weights, "Training weights? Taking those off won't make a difference against Gaara." Kankuro said, he'd seen the sand work enough to know that. He became less certain when Lee dropped the weights and they shook the room and kicked up massive clouds of debree.
Lee moved fast. Sasuke could barely believe it, even Neji was shocked, and Naruto was looking in awe at the training weights lying in their craters. Haku noted Naruto's reaction and figured he'd need to make sure the boy didn't start himself off with weights that were too heavy.
Gaara was startled, he couldn't see the attacks coming, or even landing, but he could see the automatic defense of his sand being blasted away and soon he was taking blows from an opponent too fast for his sand. Soon Lee struck the Suna genin in the chin, knocking him into the air.
The bowl cut genin turned and jumped, the bandages on his arms unwrapping and curling around Gaara before he started spinning. The two genin fell through the air in a death spiral, "Omote Renge!" Lee called out the name of his attack before they hit the ground.
"You taught him that kinjutsu!?" Kakashi asked Gai, clearly shocked and catching the attention of those who didn't know that was a kinjutsu. Sasuke noticed it was pure taijutsu, he thought he might be able to copy it but he'd need lots of physical training, and the last part seemed like there was more to it than just body movement. The Uchiha had seen the chakra build up, it reminded him of the Chakra no Bakemono within Naruto but clearly different.
Karin was realizing that there really was a difference between the military rank of a ninja and the threat rank of a ninja. Everyone fighting was supposed to be a genin like her, but she felt like she'd have difficulty even beating Ino or Sakura. It put the exams into perspective for her.
Lee jumped out of the crater, breathing heavily, "Rock Lee is a splendid young ninja," Gai praised, "I taught him what he'd need to overcome his disability." the man excused his teaching decision. No one pulled rank on him over it, but a few jonin were still worried about the kid.
"Kakashi-san, what merits that taijutsu to be considered kinjutsu?" Haku asked, knowing that usually kinjutsu weren't forbidden due to how dangerous they were to your opponents, they were forbidden because just practicing them could cause injury or death.
"It's a taijutsu that requires you to open Kaimon, one of the Hachimon." Kakashi explained, "Hachimon are there to limit the flow of chakra within your body, your body naturally needs these limits as pushing beyond them can be harmful. Technically speaking even an untrained civilian has the strength to break their own arms, the Hachimon limit this to 20% of your full strength." the jonin lectured, Haku supposed the man could be a teacher sometimes.
Sasuke was interested in this, with that kind of power he could stop Naruto from outpacing him and surpass his older brother. The Uchiha watched as Gaara stood up, he still had his Sharingan active and was starting to feel the drain but pushed himself, growing more determined to push the limits of his ability as he watched Lee do the same.
"Kyumon! Open!" Lee shouted before rushing Gaara, sending the red haired boy flying with each strike, Gaara himself seemed surprised but also oddly unharmed as he was knocked around the field of battle like a pinball.
"Saimon! Open!" Lee's skin turned red as he continued his vicious taijutsu combo, the Konoha genin's bandages became wrapped around the Suna genin to drag the red haired boy into the bowl cut boys punches and kicks. Sakura felt less certain about herself watching such a fight, she couldn't even follow it with her eyes.
"Shomon! Open!" Sasuke noticed Lee was starting to bleed from the nose as the green blur continued his combination of attacks. Even the Sharingan was having trouble following.
Tomon! Ura Renge!" Lee shouted as he finished the taijutsu with a punch that put Gaara in another crater and fractured Lee's arm. The Konoha genin rolled away from the impact zone panting breathlessly and his power up disappearing.
The dust cleared showing Gaara's gourd had become a cushion of sand and the red head stood, his Suna no Yoroi cracked and falling off his face to reveal a bloodthirsty grin of bared teeth. The sand moved, catching Lee by his left arm and a leg. The sand crushed those and Lee screamed in pain as the sand travelled up to engulf him.
Gai jumped down and knocked the sand away with his fists, "It's over." Hayate told Gaara firmly, "Gaara is the winner!" he added, looking at Lee who was standing in half a combat stance and unconscious. Gai took Lee away, ignoring Gaara who was glaring at him for taking his kill.
There were only two genin left who hadn't fought and one of them was muttering with Shikamaru as the other eagerly got into the arena, "I think you might be onto something man, this whole thing seems way above us." Choji told Shikamaru who nodded in agreement.
Asuma decided to put a stop to that, "Hey, Choji, all you can eat BBQ will be my treat if you win." the man said lazily. Choji was in the ring in an instant and he looked hungry. Shikamaru sighed and watched the fight, hoping Choji didn't get too hurt.
"Begin!" Hayate told them and Choji used his Baika no Jutsu to go from chubby genin to giant living bowling ball. Then his arms and head disappeared into his body to complete the look.
"Nikudan Sensha!" Choji announced as he started spinning. Sasuke had noticed something, he'd seen how the other clan genin had moulded chakra, he knew nothing he witnessed was Kekkei Genkai but he knew a lot of it was Hijutsu. However he also got the sense that, much like he still hadn't gotten the suiton no jutsu he'd copied to properly work but could practice with them it would be the same for these hiden ninjutsu.
Sasuke also realized this was not worth it at all and if he got caught trying to figure them out then Uchiha or not the other clans would try to have him killed. The Uchiha watched the Akamichi chase Dosu around the arena as he pondered this. He got the feeling there was some underlying training required to use the clan hijutsu anyway, or his clan would have probably stolen some long before the massacre.
Sadly for Choji, Dosu was adept at dodging and waited for the chubby genin to hit a wall. The Oto nin leaped at the bowling ball of a ninja and slammed his gauntlet into the boy. Sasuke winced in some sympathy for Choji at that, the guy didn't stand a chance and was unconscious and in pain, blood was coming from his ears and nose when the iryonin arrived.
With the last fight done with Sasuke finally deactivated his eye, he wanted to push it for longer but felt he might pass out if he did. Kakashi noticed but didn't say anything in front of everyone.
With the preliminaries done the remaining ten chunin hopefuls pulled numbers out of a box to determine how the tournament phase of the exam would play out.
The first round would be Kin Tsuchi vs Temari, the two Kunoichi stared each other down but neither said anything.
The second round would be Kankuro vs Shino Aburame, who also merely stared each other down silently although Kankuro broke the stare early since Shino was wearing sunglasses anyway.
The third round was Sakura Haruno vs Dosu Kinuta, the pink haired girl looked terrified again as Dosu just glared at the girl. Sakura decided she definitely needed more training.
The fourth round would be Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara, the dark haired of the two met the death glare from the red head with a tired stare. The Uchiha knew that regular swords would be useless against the other genin.
The fifth round would be Naruto Uzumaki vs Neji Hyuga, the pale eyed boy gave the blue eyed boy a disdainful look that was returned with an angry glare.
After that the brackets converged, the winners of the first and second round would fight, then the third and fourth, then the winners of the semi-finals would fight and the winner of that would fight whoever won the fifth round. Naruto didn't like being in the fifth round, he wanted more opportunities to prove his stuff.
The Hokage told them all the Chunin Exam Finals was scheduled for a month away, and advised they take that opportunity to train for their opponents. Most of the genin were already thinking of doing exactly that.