The day had passed quickly as Naruto trained his body to withstand the stress of his blood jutsus. He had not gotten the full grasp of his self created taijutsu, what he called the Tahatsusei Buki. However, his advance in his Ketsueki Sattou was great. He can now recover from the blood loss of creating 3 blood clones in 10 seconds without even feeling the slightest bit dizzy. As a break from the blood jutsus, Naruto decided to practice his aim.
Blood kunais, Naruto's preferred projectile, dotted the wall of his room, chasing after a blood clone in the form of a lizard darting around on the wall. For the past hour, the lizard has been sliced and diced over 50 times but it's getting harder and harder to hit as Kyuubi increases the speed and unpredictability of the small reptile.
A short while later, there was a knock at the door. Naruto goes to answer the door as the lizard dissipates. It was Sasuke. "Naruto. Tell me. What happened back there in the forest?"
Seeing Sasuke actually seeming concerned about him, Naruto wanted to tell him the truth, but having been forbidden by the Sandaime, he said, "Gomen, Sasuke… Sandaime-ojisan forbad me from telling."
Knowing that the man was Orochimaru, the renegade Sannin, Sasuke was suspicious. 'How could the dobe fend him off single handedly!' "Look dobe, I know who that man is. Orochimaru isn't a weakling. How did you do it! Tell me! How did you get away from him! HOW ARE YOU SO STRONG!"
Surprised at this, Naruto just stared at him. 'Tell him. He would accept it. He is not tainted with the prejudice of the other villagers, as he is an orphan.'
With Kyuubi's concent, Naruto told Sasuke the truth. The Kyuubi, what happened with Haku, what happened with Orochimaru. Everything. As Sasuke listened to the whole story, everything started to make sense. When Naruto acted weird after the wave mission, his ability to detect Anko, his ability to fend off Orochimaru. All his questions were answered.
When Naruto was finished, Sasuke just nodded and accepted that as the truth. "Don't expect that just because you are the future chosen warrior of the blood that you can defeat me in this exam." Said Sasuke with a smirk. "You're not immortal yet." With that, Sasuke walked out.
At this time, Gaara appeared with a whirl of sand in Naruto's room. "What have you decided Gaara?"
"I spoke with Shukaku last night and I have decided to accept his offer to teach me. I will become the next Chosen Warrior of the Earth."
"Great! I wish you the best of luck. Are you prepared for the third exam? It's approaching the fifth day."
"I am ready. I must return to my room and explain to my brother and sister. I will see you in the next part of the exam, Uzumaki Naruto." said Gaara as he disappeared once again in a whirl of sand.
"Ja ne!" replied Naruto. 'Hey Kyuubi! Can I take a break? I'm tired of nailing your lizard.'
'Fine. I could use some sleep anyways.' Answered Kyuubi. Naruto walked out of his room and wandered off. As he wandered through the tower, he saw Sasuke in the training room torching wooden dummies and the fuzzy eyebrows kid beating a log to mulch. He kept on wandering and as he went past the medical room, where all the injured genins went to get their wounds from the forest treated, he saw a familiar figure.
It was Haku! He was treating a female stone genin with a swollen wrist. He stuck her hand into a bucket of water, did a few one handed seals and when her hand came back out, the wrist was encased with a thin layer of ice. "It should be fine by the time the ice melts off. Good luck with the exam!"
"Oy! Haku!" yelled Naruto.
At this, Haku looked up and called back, "Ohayo Naruto-san!"
They talked and found out what happened after they returned from the wave country. Turns out Haku had an audience with the Sandaime and had convinced the old man to talk with the Mist. The meeting went well and the Sandaime convinced them that Haku was led astray by Zabuza and that the leaf will recompense the mist for the loss of their nin. Haku was now officially a leaf nin! He decided that he didn't like to kill and chose the path of a medic nin. Having learned in the hospital for the past months, Haku had to memorize the different charts on the human body from blood vessels and nerves to bone structures, organs and the different glands. Having become an outstanding medic nin, he was one of the few selected to get some experience healing shinobi injuries by help at the tower during the preliminaries.
At this part, Naruto froze. "Preliminaries! What preliminaries!"
"They didn't tell you yet? There were a lot of people that passed the second exam this time around. It's not the end of the fourth day yet and already there are 15 from the leaf, 3 from the stone, 3 from the sand and 3 from the sound. That's 24 people already. They're going to have a preliminary round before the third exam to lower the amount of people."
"Oh…" Before Naruto could say more, Shikamaru walked in.
"Oy medic-san. My teammate is injured in the training room. You mind?"
"Not at all, I'll go right now. See you later Naruto-san."
"Ja ne."
"How troublesome…" muttered Shikamaru, with a sigh as he shuffled out of the room. Naruto left as well and continued his little walk. He stumbled across a large room with a large statue of a Hokage with his hands in the tiger seal. He wandered around and saw that the place was pretty old and had been fixed dozens and dozens of times. 'Kid…this is probably where your preliminary will be held. The floors and walls have been chipped and destroyed multitudes of times and fixed.' Naruto nodded and went back towards his room.
On the way, he heard sobbing. Curious and concerned, he tip toed towards the room from which the noise came. He peaked into the crack in the doorway and saw Hinata crying into her pillow.
Jutsu:
Tahatsusei Buki Multiple weapon
It's Naruto's self created taijutsu using his shape changing blood as a weapon.
