Alright! I did it! And, as promised, I made the chapter longer. It's twice as long as my normal chapters. I hope you like it! I can't wait to show you who fights who later in the preliminaries!


Chapter 37: Preliminaries Part 1

"Now… Please begin."

As soon as the proctor says that, the man named Yoroi performs a hand sign. His right hand then gets enveloped in a blue chakra glow. He then reaches for his weapon pouch and pulls out shuriken that he throws at Sasuke. Sasuke then immediately takes out a kunai knife and deflects the shuriken back at his opponent.

Then something unexpected happens. Sasuke stumbles from the movement and falls to the ground. What? How can a ninja fall like that? He does look pretty beaten up, though. For some reason, even if I don't know the guy, I can't help but cheer for him deep down.

Yoroi doesn't miss his chance and tries to punch down on Sasuke. The latter then dodges at the last second, resulting in Yoroi's punch to destroy the floor boards under him. That was close… It doesn't end there though. Sasuke pins his kunai in the floor and rotates back to Yoroi, and pins him down in an armlock. I can't even blink or I'm afraid I'll miss something! I hear Naruto cheer for his teammate. I'm almost tempted to start cheering too.

Yoroi then places his hand on Sasuke's chest, maintaining a firm grip on his clothes. Then I see it again: the blue aura! What's he doing? Sasuke's grip suddenly loosens, leaving an opening for Yoroi to punch him, sending him rolling away. He then immediately chases after him, grabbing his hand in his glowing hand.

"Sasuke-kun!"

The pink-haired girl screams for her teammate.

"What the heck is that?"

I turn to my teammates, hoping one of them might have the answer. Both Maru and Koji shrug and shake their heads. I sigh and turn back to the fight. Sasuke's arms were lying on his sides, seemingly to have lost all their strength. Wait… Is he sucking his chakra? That would explain the extreme loss of stamina. He shouldn't be able to even move at all, then…

"Damn…"

Sasuke's voice is even shaking.

"…You!"

He then kicked Yoroi off of him. How did he even find the strength to do that? He then starts getting up.

"Heh… You guinea pig. You still have power left?"

Yoroi says mockingly. Guinea pig? What does he mean by that?

"Sasuke! Are you really Uchiha Sasuke? Is that the best you can do?!"

Naruto shouts at his teammate. That's true… Even though he's getting his chakra sucked, why hasn't he been using any jutsu before that? Yoroi then charges at Sasuke. Sasuke then high kicks him in the air. It's not a normal high kick, though. It's like its goal is to propel the opponent high enough, as opposed to knocking him out. Sasuke then jumps up with yoroi, positioning himself behind him.

"Ugh…! Leaf Shadow Dance!"

Yoroi screams. So this is a known move in Konohagakure.

"Take this."

Before Sasuke does anything, he coughs out blood and starts shaking. What's going on? Something's not right with him. That's when I see it. Black markings on his neck start spreading. This seems serious. It doesn't last long, though. It recedes right after appearing. What was that?

Sasuke then regains his composure and places his hand on Yoroi's back. He rotates Yoroi's body in the opposite direction as how he starts rotating his own body and performs a kick on his opponent's left side. Yoroi blocks it however. Sasuke then, taking advantage of Yoroi being concentrated on blocking the kick, punches him downwards up his chin. He doesn't stop there, though. He punches Yoroi in the stomach, pushing him down with him to the ground. Just as they are getting close to the ground, Sasuke performs a powerful rotating kick on Yoroi's stomach, causing him to crash even harder on the ground. Sasuke then attempts to roll away, but collapses on the ground further away. The proctor then looks at both contestants. He goes to check Yoroi's body. Sasuke then sits up with his last strength.

"I'm stopping the fight here. And thus, the winner of the first match is Uchiha Sasuke!"

I exhale and close my eyes, trying to calm myself down from the adrenaline rushing through me from the amazing fight. And that was just the first match! I can't wait to see what happens next. Sasuke's taken away by a man with silver hair and a mask after Naruto calls him an idiot for winning but being so beaten up.

"Phew… I can't wait for my turn now."

I grin while saying that to my teammates.

"Let's just hope none of us end up against each other."

Koji says while leaning on the wall. Yeah, I wouldn't want that either. Except if it's Mari or someone on her team. I'd gladly take them down.

"Without further ado, let's move on to the next matchup…"

After having another coughing fit, the proctor points at the display. Pick me, pick me, pick me! I really hope it's my turn next!

"Akimichi Choji versus Yuto."

Aww… It's not me.

"Good luck out there."

"Show them what… you're made of."

Yukari and Ikki cheer Yuto on. He gives them a thumbs up before heading down. His opponent is a Konohagakure shinobi. He's quite… round. How is that possible when he's a ninja? Doesn't all of the exercise affect him at all?

"And begin."

The proctor jumps away as soon as he says that. The Choji dude then takes out a bag of chips and starts wolfing it down. What's he doing? This is no time to eat! Yuto is just standing there, his hands in his pocket. Is any of them planning to do something? After finishing his bag of chips, Choji then makes a hand sign. Yuto's own hands then come out of his pockets.

"That was refreshing. Now! Human Expansion Jutsu!"

In a big poof, Choji became a giant inflated human balloon. So he uses his weight as his weapon! I see. So that's why he's rounder than your average ninja.

"Human Boulder!"

His ball-like form then starts spinning rapidly and heads towards Yuto. This is bad! Yuto doesn't seem disturbed in the least, though. He does a bunch of hand signs and…

"Earth Style: Stone Fists Jutsu!"

His closed fists then get covered in stone, making them much bulkier than they actually are. He then prepares to perform a powerful punch on the giant human ball rolling towards him. And then the impact happens. His punch was just enough to change the rolling Choji's direction to avoid being hit. Choji, apparently not able to fully control himself, ends up crashing into the wall and getting knocked out.

The proctor then waits a bit. He approaches Choji's now deflated body to check if he's really out cold.

"Alright, the winner is Yuto."

That was it? Well that didn't quite match up to the previous fight. It's almost disappointing… At least Yuto won in the end. I wonder who's next.

Yuto comes up and goes to his team that look thrilled to see him win. I give him a thumbs up when he looks my way and he gives me a smug grin. He's always been pretty confident in himself. People don't really expect him to be since he doesn't really talk to anyone. He told me once that he didn't approach people because he didn't feel like they were worth his time and effort.

Gaara comes from leaning against the wall and stands next to me.

"Getting excited?"

I ask him.

"I think you're the one who's the most excited."

"How can I not be?"

The display board the lights up again. Two names that I'm unfamiliar with then show up.

"Next match is… Aburame Shino and Abumi Zaku."

A guy with black circular sunglasses and a coat covering up half of his face calmly makes his way to the battleground. Another guy makes his way there too. Something's off about him, though. It seems as though his arms are broken. They're both bandaged and held up with some more bandages around his neck. What's up with that? Isn't he in a huge disadvantage with such an injury?

"Please begin."

The proctor then distances himself from the contestants.

"If you fight here, you'll be finished. Forfeit."

The guy named Shino warns his opponent.

"Heh…"

Zaku smirks and then starts slowly moving one of his hands.

"This one moves a little bit…"

He then fully extends his arm with a twisted grin.

"And one arm is enough against you!"

Zaku then runs to Shino and tries to hit him from the side. Shino easily blocks it with his arm. They exchange a few words that I can't really hear from here.

"Shut the hell up!"

Zaku sounds really annoyed. He opens up his hand that Shino's still blocking and something, like high air pressure comes out and blows Shino away. He's lying on the ground, motionless. Is it over? The proctor isn't saying anything yet…

Shino then gets up. It doesn't even look like he's been harmed. Something… is coming off of his face. No! Something is coming out of his skin!

"What is that?!"

"Looks like bugs."

Gaara answers me. Bugs? There're so many of them. And so many are coming up from behind Zaku! So Shino can control bugs?

"These are my Parasitic Insects. They attack their prey in numbers and eat chakra. If this many attack, you will die."

Zaku looks like he's starting to panic.

"If you don't want that, then give up. That's your best option. If you use that technique on me again with your one arm, then my bugs will attack you from behind. The same goes for whether you decide to target my bugs, but I'll be the attacker instead. Either way, you can't escape."

Shino sound so calm and collected. He kind of creeps me out, but in a pretty awesome way. Controlling bugs just looks so cool!

"Ugh…"

What's he going to do? With one arm he was already at a disadvantage. Now with someone as good as Shino, his loss is nothing but guaranteed.

"Don't mess with me!"

Zaku then takes out his other arm and extends one towards Shino and the other towards the bugs. What? His arm is fine?! Was he bluffing the whole time?

"Take this!"

As soon as Zaku said that, an explosion occurred, but not where he was expecting. His arms! They got blown off!

"Wha?! What?!"

He screams in pain as one his forearms falls to the ground. This is brutal! He just lost his arm! It came clean off! What happened?

"Bugs…"

Gaara says as he frowns in concentration. Bugs? I look more closely and see bugs coming out of a hole in his hand. That's probably what he uses to cast that jutsu. So Shino just blocked it off with his insects.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me."

Shino's still so calm about everything. I mean, he does have this match in the bag practically.

"Y-You!"

Zaku tries to land a hit on Shino, but he's too late. He instead, receives a punch right to the face which knocks him out.

The proctor goes to check up on him.

"It's over… It seems."

I gulp at the outcome. I didn't think the matches were going to be this violent. There are some pretty heartless shinobi here. Or maybe that's just how shinobi should be.

"Now I'm a bit scared about my match, hehe."

I whisper to Gaara.

"Kiu… You're skilled enough to pull it off. But don't be scared to forfeit. It's better than this outcome."

He motions at the arm that the medics are picking up from the floor.

"Yeah…"

The display board starts flashing again. Who is it this time? Oh…

"Next up… Yakushi Kabuto against Yukari. Please make your way to the centre."

Yukari! I'm a bit worried about her…

"You can… do it, Yukari."

Ikki pats her head, trying to calm her down. I go up to her.

"Show 'em your awesome new techniques! I know you can do it."

Yukari takes a deep breath and nods.

"Thanks, everyone… I-I can do this!"

She makes her way down as the man names Kabuto gets there too. It's that guy that was hanging out with Naruto's group before the exams started. He seems a bit like a pushover. But then again, maybe I shouldn't judge by looks.

"Begin."

The two of them don't make a move. They're eyeing each other, probably waiting for the other to make the first move. Kabuto then throws three shuriken at Yukari. She dodges two of them and blocks one with her kunai. She then takes out some of her kunai with paper bombs attached to them and throws them at the ground in front of Kabuto. He dodges them and goes far back as they detonate. Wait these are not normal paper bombs. The smoke is much lighter. Kabuto is standing where he is, completely still. What's going on?

"Genjutsu."

Yuto chuckles.

"How's that possible?"

I ask him.

"You do know that someone can fall under Genjutsu through his five senses right?"

I nod.

"Well it seems that Yukari uses the olfactory sense to do that. She infuses smells with her chakra to mess with her victim's mind."

My eyes widen. Since when did she become so powerful?

"So you're saying he's under Genjutsu right now? I wonder what she's making him see."

Yuto shrugs.

"I don't know. I asked her before and she said that she couldn't explain it. Then I asked her to show me and she flat out refused. All she told me was the name."

"The name?"

"Of her jutsu. She calls it Twisted Dreams. Don't ask me why."

I look back at the match and see Kabuto finally starting to move. He does a hand sign. It's the release sign. Yukari gets back, staying on her guard. When Kabuto gets out of the Genjutsu, he smiles. He then lifts his hand.

"That was impressive. I don't think I stand a chance. Proctor, I forfeit."

Wait… He's forfeiting? Then that means…!

"Uh… I guess Yukari's the winner then."

Just like the proctor says! Yukari wins! She can't seem to believe it either but she comes up to us with a big smile. Ikki rushes to congratulate her.

"Awesome job! I didn't know you were this good!"

Yukari giggles at me.

"I can't wait to see how good you've become, Kiu!"

"You can bet on it! Let's just hope my turn comes up soon."

The screen starts flashing again. It has to be me this time, right? Let it be me! I'm so excited after seeing Yukari's match.


Thank you so so much for everyone who's supporting this and reading and reviewing! I really appreciate it. I never thought this'll be so successful. I thought Daughter of a Snake (for those of you who know it) would be my most popular story but this one surpassed it by a mile! I'm so happy, thank you again :)

Review and tell me what you think!