Disclaimer: do not own Naruto, the character or the anime/manga, Feneris however is my own Character.
True Power
Chapter 17: The Chunin Preliminaries
"Two demon carriers squaring off. This should be interesting."
Feneris of the Moonstalker Clan
In the Hokage tower there is a giant square of stone. The remaining teams were gathered around it waiting for the next challenge in the Chunin exams.
"Okay, listen up!" Feneris yelled walking into the tower. "You are at the prelims of the final challenge. You will be paired against another Gennin in a tournament challenge of sorts. Those that make it through the prelims will advance to the finals. This is also your last chance to turn around, anyone willing to step down?"
"We will," the bandaged Sound Ninja with the speaker attached to his arm called out. "My team has suffered too much damage." He glanced at his team mate's shredded hands and the kouichi's broken arm.
"Very well! First up will be Ino and Sakura," Feneris called out, as the two Gennin made their way down to the arena.
Ino and Sakura's battle was short. The contestants fought it out to the end. Sakura used her newly learned psiconic skills to stop a barrage of shurikin, and Ino used her family's signature Body Swap Jutsu to try to take over Sakura's body. However, Sakura managed to kick the intruder out of her mind. Sakura then collapsed from chakra exhaustion.
"Next match… Kai and Namimaru!" Feneris announced.
Kai was faced off against Namimaru, a Tide Gennin. Kai initiated the battle with a large windmill shurikin, which his opponent countered with a sheet of water springing up from the ground. Both opponents were evenly matched, and among hailstorms of kunai and mini tidal waves, Namimaru managed to emerge victorious.
"Next… Gaara and Kankuro."
Kankuro was scared. He was still afraid of Gaara, even after not seeing him for a good seven years. "Missed me?" was the only warning Kankuro got before a giant hand formed of sand closed around him squeezing the air out of his body, until his body splintered and revealed itself to be a puppet.
"Sandstorm Haze Jutsu," Gaara said, as he made a hand seal.
Sand whipped around Gaara's body obscuring every one in the arena pit. Kankuro was scanning the area for Gaara, until he realized that the sand was starting to bury him alive. He tried to scramble free of the sand only to have it solidify into sandstone. When the sandstorm cleared all that was visible was Kankuro's painted face.
"Surrender?" Gaara asked.
"Yes," Kankuro squeaked.
"Winner… Gaara!" Feneris yelled out. "Next Rock Lee and Temari!"
The battle between Lee and Temari was very short. Lee was fast enough to dodge her attacks and blows from her fan. Lee then moved behind her and broke her fan with a downwards kick, the added momentum from his weights crushing the wood. He then clocked her on the back of the head and knocked her out.
"Winner… Rock Lee! Next, Sunamoru and Chouji!"
Chouji was faced off against the Sand Ninja wearing plate armour. Sunamoru was faster then he appeared and his plate armour was able to stand up to the blows made from Chouji's enlarged limbs. When Chouji expanded and attempted to flatten Sunamoru with his Meat Tank Jutsu, Sunamoru grabbed a scythe he had strapped to his back and slammed the blunt end of the weapon into Chouji's stomach. Chouji stopped, vomited his lunch all over the arena floor, and surrendered.
"Next up… Shikamaru and Haku!"
"Heh, Troublesome," Shikamaru muttered before he made his way to the arena.
Haku was sizing up his opponent. He knew the Nara Clan used shadow jutsus and they were strengthened by the presents of more shadows.
"Demonic Ice Prison!" Haku yelled, making the hand seals of the Orca and Shadow.
The entire arena pit was soon encased in a giant sphere of ice, which became semi-transparent causing the shadows in the arena to fade and meld together.
"Damn," Shikamaru thought. "He must know my jutsus are weakened if there are not enough shadows."
Haku charged at Shikamaru, his sebon ready to strike. Shikamaru made a hand seal and said, "Shadow Bind Jutsu."
Haku suddenly found it impossible to move. He glanced down and saw Shikamaru's shadow holding on to his own. However, Haku suddenly managed to pull one hand out of the grasp of the shadow bind and yelled out, "Release!"
The shadow released its hold on Haku. As soon as the ice demon carrier was free, he ran to the ice wall and sunk into its depth.
"I surrender," Shikamaru said to Feneris. "I don't have enough chakra to perform any more jutsus."
"Very well," Feneris said. "Winner is Haku! Next up… Sasuke and Tenten."
Sauske managed to best the weapon master with his sharingan. The abilities of the copy eye allowed him to dodge ranged weapons with ease. Tenten, seeing this, started using close combat weapons, until Sasuke kicked her in the face and knocked her out.
"Interesting. It seems that Itachi sealed his curse." Feneris though before announcing, "Winner Sasuke! Next up… Shino and Kiba!"
Kiba and Shino used their family jutsus to their best advantage. Kiba used some very advanced family techniques that he shouldn't have been able to use at his rank. Shino used some kaki bugs with a rune on their shell. Kiba slashed with his claws to try and get the bug user only to be hampered by the noticeable drain in his chakra whenever he approached Shino. Shino finally made a hand seal and said, "Trapping Spider Web Jutsu."
Webs shot from Shino's hand and trapped Kiba. The kaki bugs swarmed around his body until Kiba passed out from chakra exhaustion.
"Winner Shino! Next… Neji and Hinata!"
Hinata managed to put up quiet a fight against Neji. She first trapped him in a basic Genjutsu and then attacked him with the gentle fist style. Of course, when Neji broke out of the Genjutsu the fight really started to turn in his favour. However, Hinata, boosted by Naruto's cheers managed to beat up Neji pretty bad before she was rendered unconscious by Neji's blows.
"Alright… and finally… Naruto and Mizuashi!" Feneris announced.
Naruto was facing a Tide Gennin who was wearing an aqua breather and had a tank of water strapped to his back.
"May the best man win," was all Mizuashi said before he pulled out a katana. Naruto pulled out his flaming sword, Pyron, and charged towards Mizuashi. Sparks flew as the blades collided. Mizuashi made a hand seal and several water clones formed from the water in the tank.
"You're not the only one who can make an army of clones!" Naruto stated, as he made a hand seal, "Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
For every water clone that Mizuashi made Naruto made a shadow clone. All the observers soon saw a small army of Narutos fighting a small army of Mizuashis. Needless to say water was everywhere from the water clones, and shadow clones were disappearing left and right. Naruto cleaved a water clone in two, the fire from Pyron leaving great clouds of steam. He saw the real Mizuashi and made a slash with his katana. Fire flowed from Pyron's blade like a river and swept towards the Tide Ninja.
"Water Shield Jutsu!" Mizuashi bellowed, as the flames were about to hit him. When the steam cleared, Naruto could see the Tide Ninja being encircled by a giant sphere of water. "Try and get through this," he taunted.
Naruto sheathed Pyron and stared at his hand for a minute. Then, he charged at the sphere and punched it. The water's surface broke into a whirlpool that was centered at his fist. As Naruto pushed onwards, the maelstrom grew until Naruto could move right through it. When Naruto broke through the barrier, he kicked Mizuashi in the jaw causing him to fly backwards and the jutsu to break.
"What in Kami's name?" he gasped.
"That's the Drill Fist Style," Naruto said proudly.
"Then I surrender," Mizuashi said. "I'm out of chakra anyway."
"Winner is Naruto!" Feneris called out. "And that concludes the prelims. You will be given one month to train and recover. Now the lists of who is facing who, is on the board there. Make good use of that information."
Naruto emerged from the pit and found Haku and Gaara. The three proceeded, with the rest of the victors, to check the list for who their opponents would be.
1st: Haku & Namimaru
2nd: Sunamoru & Naruto
3rd: Sasuke & Shino
4th: Gaara & Neji
5th: Lee & Ino
As the day ended, the golden light of the setting sun found Team 7 sitting at the Ichiraku Ramen Bar enjoying a celebratory bowl of ramen, or in Naruto's case, several celebratory bowls of ramen.
"So what should we do to train?" Naruto asked, between mouthfuls.
"I think we should go to Kakashi to see if he has anything good," Haku suggested. "If he doesn't, we can go to Feneris to see if he has anything."
"Sounds good," Naruto said, ordering another bowl.
Authors note: Ye gods! Never in my life did I imagine I would get this many reviews.
If you think I rushed the prelims to much tell me.