Chapter 2: Preliminaries begin

Naruto felt himself wake up and quickly made his way out from under the tree where he was resting. He spotted Ino awake and slowly made his way towards her, he also noticed Sakura waking up from her spot next to Sasuke where she had most likely spent the night watching him when she wasn't on watch. Naruto made a clone to go out and find a animal so they could eat before they left as he started up the fire that they had put out last night as too not attract attention. "Hey Naruto, you're up early, are you sure you should be up so early the sun just came out." Ino's voice snapped Naruto from his thoughts as he turned towards her.

"I want to get the day started as early as possible. The faster we can get the scrolls we need the faster we can leave this forest." Ino was looked surprised before letting out a small chuckle as she looked at his bandages and noticed they were still in pretty good condition.

"Yeah, I miss my bed. This place is crazy, even Sasuke was hurt." Naruto frowned at the mention of his teammate, he was once again interrupted from his thoughts when his clone came back with a rabbit. Ino looked at the clone an saw it had brought food and her eyes widened a bit. "I didn't know your clones were so useful."

"They're very useful, but they cost a lot of chakra." Naruto took a moment before setting the rabbit over the fire as his clone had already skinned it. "Ino, go wake up Choji and Shikamaru and I'll wake up my team." Naruto had to hold back the venom that wanted to leak into his tone. Ino nodded before walking over to where her teammates were resting. Naruto walked over to Sasuke's tree as he heard Sakura speak to him for the first time since she had abandoned him, she had circles in her eyes from lack of sleep.

"Naruto, I'm glad you're ok." Her voice was raspy it was obvious she had not been resting.

"Stop pretending like you care Sakura, there's no one here to fool." Sakura looked hurt by his words but before she could respond Sasuke groaned and sat up. He looked around groggily and his eyes grew wide when he noticed Naruto.

"So you managed to survive, huh dead last." Sasuke's remark made Naruto's eyes blaze with anger as he slowly calmed himself down. Naruto had to remind himself he still needed them to pass this part of the exam. Naruto glared at them before responding.

"Get up, Ino is waking up team 10 and as soon as we eat breakfast were leaving." Naruto's icy tone took Sasuke by surprise as he responded with an icy tone of his own.

"And why should I listen to you."

"Because I'm not a coward who runs away from a fight." Naruto's reply sent Sasuke into a rage as he stood up with his Sharingan active as he glared back at the blond. Sakura quickly stepped between them as she spoke to both of them.

"Guys please." She pleaded to her two male teammates. "Let's just be glad we all managed to survive." Sasuke said nothing as he clutched his neck before he huffed and pushed past Sakura and shoulder bumped past Naruto who glared at him. Sakura turned to Naruto. "I'm so sorry I left you Naruto but after Sasuke collapsed I-"

"Shut up Sakura, it doesn't matter what you say. It doesn't change the fact that you left me for dead out there after I came back and risked my life for you two." Naruto didn't wait for a reply as he left to go to the others.

It was an awkward breakfast with all of team 7 being very quiet. Eventually the teams decided to head towards the tower after deciding to team up. The group had been traveling for a couple of hours in silence before Shikamaru had asked Naruto why he wasn't with the rest of his team when the sound team attacked along with asking when he had shown up. Sakura looked over to them as she, Ino and Sasuke were leading the group. Before she or Sasuke could talk Naruto beat them to it

"We got separated when an enemy team ambushed us." Sakura looked surprised and Sasuke looked impassive. Ino took notice of Sakura's expression but said nothing.

"I showed up when Sasuke woke up with those weird markings. I was going to show myself then but decided to see how things played out when Sasuke beat the sound team." Naruto's answer surprised Shikamaru who nodded with a calculating look. At this point Choji decided to also speak up.

"You looked real cool against the Hyuga Naruto. I didn't even see the clone come up behind him." Choji's praise caused Sasuke to look over at Naruto with a hard expression before he turned back around.

"Yeah it was pretty cool but nothing is ever gonna be as cool as Sasuke." Ino's reply was expected but it still annoyed the blond to be compared to Sasuke.

The two teams made a quick stop to eat lunch before continuing. They had traveled for another four hours before they stopped as they heard two people arguing. It was one of the other sand teams, they were all wearing tan shirts and black pants. The two arguing had short brown hair and eyes. Their female teammate had long black hair as she tried to get them to calm down. The group had already made a plan to capture any enemy teams they ran across. Sasuke made himself known to the sand ninja as Shikamaru sneaked behind them and used his shadow possession jutsu to immobilize the enemy. They started screaming curses and threats but stopped when Naruto made 2 shadow clones and knocked them out. The group tied them up as they searched the sand Ninjas and managed to acquire a heaven scroll. They decided that Sasuke being the best fighter should keep the scroll, Naruto had to hold a remark as he figured causing an argument would slow them down more than necessary.

The two teams set up camp for the night as Choji and Shikamaru decided to go to the nearby river to fill up the canteens and catch some fish. Sakura set up the fire as Sasuke went off to a nearby tree to rest. This left Ino and Naruto alone and she took advantage of the time to replace his bandages. "So what actually happened between you and the rest of your team? You guys have been glaring at each other all day." Ino's question caught Naruto off guard he must have shown it as Ino spoke again. "Hey, what's with the face. My clan specializes in information gathering it was pretty easy for me to see you guys weren't telling the whole truth."

Naruto thought pretty hard before answering. "I'll tell you after we reach the tower." Naruto didn't want to tell Ino who would then confront his team, that would cause them to go slower, plus he really needed to talk to the Hokage about Orochimaru and the seal he had put on him and Sasuke. Ino glared at her fellow blond clearly not liking the answer as she finished applying new bandages.

"Fine. I expect you to tell me as soon as we get inside the tower then." Her tone left no room for argument and Naruto really didn't feel like starting a fight with the platinum blonde so he nodded. Soon enough everyone minus Sasuke gathered around the fire and soon the dinner was eaten and everyone drew lots to see who would take watch. Naruto had gotten the second to last watch with Choji taking the last spot. Shikamaru would start off, with Ino going next then Sasuke followed by Sakura. Before they each went their own sleeping areas Naruto heard a noise as he prepared to jump into action. Kabuto pushed his way past the bushes as he made himself known to the others, this caused everyone to jump up and get into a combat stance until they saw it was another leaf ninja and lowered their weapons slightly. '

"Oh! Hey Kabuto what are you doing here?" Sakura was the first to break the silence.

"My team and I decided to split up to cover more ground, I saw you guys were all gathered and I figured I could come help out some fellow leaf ninja." His response put everyone at ease except for the two male members of team 7, though for completely different reasons. Naruto because his instincts told him not to trust him and Sasuke because he wanted to fight Kabuto for his scroll. It took Sakura, Choji, Shikamaru, and Kabuto himself to convince Sasuke to let Kabuto join them to hunt down other teams. He had convinced the group that his team already had both scrolls and that they were going to meet up with him at the tower tomorrow. Soon the night passed and when it was Naruto's turn to keep watch he went to a well-hidden branch made 4 clones to patrol for him and meditated until it was finally Choji's turn.

The group woke up just before dawn as they made their way towards the tower when Naruto felt something was off. He noticed his chakra had shifted slightly and quickly cleared the disturbance and saw he was put into a mild genjutsu. Naruto stopped and warned the others. "Guys stop, we were put under a genjutsu." Sasuke was quick to reply.

"And how would you know loser." His voice carrying a mocking undertone. Kabuto put his hands together and shouted 'release' and confirmed that they were in a genjutsu. Sasuke glared at Naruto before releasing the genjutsu himself as the others followed suit. The group was on guard as a voice spoke out and 3 figures rose from the ground.

"So you noticed the genjutsu huh, well it doesn't matter we will be taking your scrolls from you now." The middle ninja said. Naruto noticed that all the genins were wearing respirators and were from the rain village. They all had on a tan jumpsuit and masks around their eyes with the one on the left covering one eye and the one on the right covering both eyes. The middle one had two eye holes and was glaring at the group.

Sasuke stepped up to the rain ninjas. "Hmph, you weaklings are the ones who are about to lose their scroll." Sasuke then rushed towards them and punched the one in the middle and was shocked to see his fist phase through him before receiving a counter punch from the one-eyed rain ninja. Sasuke rolled with the punch and backed up where everyone got into their fighting stances. The rain ninjas seemed to multiply as more and more of them rose from the ground around them.
"Oh man, there's a lot of them." Choji's voice cut through the air as random clones rushed the group who started to fight back only for their attacks to go through them just like Sasuke's attack. Random clones would counterattack against the group making everyone even more confused when their attacks would fail. Naruto suddenly moved his head to the left as he felt the wind from the rain ninjas punch, acting on instinct he grabbed the outstretched limb, before turning around and tossing him over his shoulder unto the ground before delivering a devastating haymaker to his face breaking his respirator and knocking the rain ninja out.

"The real ones are hiding with the clones!" Naruto warned his companions as he saw Sasuke activate his Sharingan with a look of anger and kicked the one who had his eyes covered in the stomach and as he doubled over Sasuke took advantage by uppercutting him and knocking him out. The last rain ninja tried to run away but was caught by Shikamaru's Shadow possession jutsu. The rain ninja looked around in panic.

"Wai-"

He couldn't finish as he was knocked out by Kabuto who told the others to tie up the rain ninjas as Ino and Sakura searched them. The girls found they had a heaven scroll. Upon seeing this the group sighed in relief at the sight of it. Ino let out a small cheer with Sakura before Naruto looked at everyone. "Let's get to the tower as soon as possible, I want to get out of this forest. " Naruto snapped everyone out of their mini celebrations and soon the group was moving and after half an hour they came to the tower. Kabuto was called over by the rest of his team as he said a quick 'bye and good luck' After that team 10 also said their goodbyes and left to enter through another door but not before Ino whispered to the blond that she still wanted an explanation from him. It was just team 7 for the first time since the encounter with Orochimaru, things were tense and Sakura read the message on the door as a way to ease the tensions.

"For those who have earth, they must seek heaven, for those who have heaven they must obtain earth. I wonder what that means."

Naruto and Sasuke just stayed quiet as they watched Sakura ponder the riddle. Sasuke became inpatient as he took out the scrolls and opened them and threw them on the ground when they started to smoke and soon Naruto heard a very familiar voice and he let out a small smile.

"You guys just barely met the deadline but I'm glad you made it." The smoke cleared completely and allowed them to see their scarred academy teacher. Iruka had a big smile on his face before he noticed Naruto's bandaged chest and frowned but said nothing. "If you guys haven't figured it out yet the riddle on the door represents how to become a well-rounded ninja. It means if you lack heaven which represents intelligence that you should study to learn all you can. The other is fairly obvious that those who lack earth which represents bodily strength should train to acquire what they lack. " Sakura nodded paying close attention to her old sensei while Sasuke ignored him completely as Naruto nodded along. "The next stage begins in about two hours so take your time to rest before you're summoned. Good luck guys I'm proud of you." Iruka suddenly went up in smoke and disappeared.

Naruto frowned. 'I couldn't ask him about going to old man Hokage.' Naruto went through the door and found three beds and two doors one of them was opened leading to a bathroom and the other was closed he assumed was the entryway to where they needed to go. Naruto saw Sasuke go into the bathroom and close the door as he and Sakura were left by themselves. Naruto moved to one of the beds and laid down when Sakura interrupted him.

"Look Naruto I'm sorry about what happened in the forest." Sakura was still standing in the middle of the room.

Naruto took a second to compose himself before he answered. "It doesn't matter anymore Sakura. What's done is done."

Sakura let out a small smile. "I'm glad you could forgive us it won-" Naruto cut her off.

"I don't forgive you Sakura, not you or Sasuke." Sakura froze before her face grew red with rage.

"What is your problem! I made a mistake and I've tried to apologize for it and every time I do you just blow me off! We're supposed to be a team you Idiot!" Sakura screamed at the blond and was walking over to him to hit him when she froze from the killing intent that Naruto was releasing.

'How dare she, How DARE she!' Naruto seethed as he continued to glare at the pinkette. He slowly got up from the bed and walked over to her and Sakura backed up until she fell on one of the beds. "My problem is that one of my teammates is a deranged emo who used his already incapacitated teammate for a substitution and the other one is a useless fangirl that would rather run off with her precious crush than go help her bleeding, badly injured teammate. My problem Sakura is that my teammates abandoned me in the middle of a forest filled with dangerous man-eating animals and enemy ninjas." Naruto's voice never rose but Sakura could feel the pure loathing in them. "So no Sakura I don't forgive you or Sasuke because as far as I'm concerned you, Sasuke, and this team can go to hell." Naruto finished his tirade and noticed Sakura had started crying halfway through. He went back to his bed and laid down waiting for Sasuke to exit the bathroom. Sasuke exited after another 10 minutes and ignored both his teammates as he laid in his own bed and promptly fell asleep. Sakura had rushed into the bathroom after Sasuke had gone in and slammed the door shut. 'Great' Thought an already annoyed Naruto. 'She's probably going to be there for the rest of the time we have left' Deciding that going to the bathroom to clean up was not worth the hassle Naruto began to meditate again to pass the time and sooth his chakra flow. It was another hour before Sakura came out with puffy eyes and simply went to the final bed to rest for the remaining time. Naruto took this chance to go into the bathroom. He noticed there were spare medical supplies and used them to bandage up his torso. He also noticed they had spare shirts and pants. 'Good I've gotten tired of running around with my chest always exposed.' Naruto threw the remaining pieces of his shirt away and put on a short-sleeved black shirt. the bandages were visibly sticking out but he didn't care anymore about his appearance. Naruto made it out of the bathroom just as the door opened and an ANBU told them to follow her telling them the next part of the exam was starting.

They made it to a big open room with stairs that lead up to catwalks where he could see all of the jonin senseis where. Naruto took count of all the teams that made it. 'All of our classmates made it, so did Lee's and Kabuto's team along with the sand team with the crazy redhead and the sound team.' Naruto stopped his observation when the ANBU told all the genin to line up so the Hokage could address them. Naruto saw Kakashi grab Sasuke and whisper into his ear. Whatever was said the younger man didn't like as he grabbed his neck and glared at Kakashi. The blond turned his attention from them to the Hokage who was standing in front of a statue of arms doing a hand seal. Naruto noticed the proctors from the first two parts of the exams as well as a jonin who was dressed in the standard leaf village chuunin uniform, he had brown bangs that stuck out of his bandana which had the leaf village symbol. The man kept coughing every couple of minutes and Naruto wondered if he was going to be ok. He saw the Hokage step up before announcing the true purpose of these exams which was to simulate war between the villages. He explained how they helped build relationships along with showing potential clients with up and coming talent.

"Unfortunately." The third began to say. "It seems too many of you have passed, we will need to conduct a preliminary round to reduce your numbers before the finals." This had an instant effect and had the genin yelling in protest. "Enough, people all over the world will be coming and there are simply far too many of you." At this point, the sickly man who was coughing interrupted the Hokage.

"Please allow me to explain from this point on lord Hokage." The third simply nodded as he allowed the man to step forward. "My name is Gekko Hayate and I will be the proctor for this part of the exam, from this point on we shall have a series of random one on one fights to cut you in half." The proctor stopped midway through the speech to cough. "Over to my right there is a screen and your names will appear randomly on the screen, those chosen will then fight. Before we begin would anyone like to back out this is your last chance to do so." Team 10 looked unsure as they had just gotten here and Ino sent a worried glance towards team 7. The Only person to back out was Kabuto who said he was out of chakra after spending 5 days fighting in the forest.

"Sorry I just can't keep going." The Proctor just nodded and an ANBU lead Kabuto out of the room.

"Does anyone else wish to leave?" The proctor waited before he continued. "Very well, all of you go upstairs to your jonin senseis and come back down when your name appears on the screen. Team 7 ended up standing in between teams 8 and 9.

"Ha! Can you believe all us rookies made it this far." Kiba's boisterous gloat was largely ignored as the first two names appeared on the screen.

Sasuke Uchiha V.S Yoroi Akado

Sasuke went down the steps and smirked at his opponent who was standing across from him. Naruto heard Sasuke mock his opponent, a man with a face mask and bandana. He was wearing a blue and white shirt, blue pants and his eyes were covered by dark glasses. "This will be over fast" Sasuke's opponent doesn't respond and he simply drops to his fighting stance.

"Do you think Sasuke is healed enough to fight him?" Naruto turns to Ino, his response of 'I don't really care' never came out as he looked back to the ninja down below.

"I'm sure he'll be fine." Naruto's response caught Kakashi's attention as he was expecting a more Naruto like response. Ino just nodded as everyone turned to the proctor who started speaking.

"If both parties are ready." The proctor paused to make sure both genins were prepared. "...BEGIN!"