AN: Ok with a pretty big delay this mini part is over! I had a lot of trouble getting this pushed out cause I also finished something else up and then my brain was like "what nah it's done no more writing" even though that sure was a lie. Regardless, here's the chapter!
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After getting to the tower they had a lot of time to waste before the second exam ended. Sasuke spent most of it trying to increase his reaction times in case he did have to fight Lee at some point.
"You sure this is a good idea?" Naruto gestured to the makeshift launchers they'd made. "Like, even I'm kinda not too sure about it right now."
"Nah it'll be fine, I'll just dodge them."
"You know, I think I'm gonna wait with Sakura to have enough plausible deniability about this whole thing."
"I really love the faith you've got in me right now."
Naruto just waved at him as he left the room. Luckily they'd set it up so he could fire them without needing another person's help. Turning on his sharingan Sasuke got ready.
"Ok so maybe" with most of the shuriken from the launcher lodged into him he came to the other two. "It was a bad idea."
After that failed attempt to train he waited out the rest of the time in a hospital bed inside the tower. The injuries weren't bad enough that he actually needed to stay there, but the shame he felt for putting himself there was. It was only when the next exam was going to start he actually left it.
"This is bullshit" Naruto was in a huff, in fact most of the people there were in a similar state.
"What did I miss?"
"We have to do a preliminary round now before the real third exam apparently" Sakura filled him in.
"And Kabuto fucking dropped out."
"Why do you care about that?"
"I wanted to fight him! But no! We had to get to the tower cause someone's a scaredy cat."
"I said if we ran into them, we just didn't happen to do so it's not my fault!"
"Naruto Sasuke" the Third Hokage paused his explanation of the exam because they'd gotten too loud.
"That's us."
"I'm aware, could you save the bickering for after I'm done talking?"
"Yes they can!" Sakura answered for them while she covered both their mouths.
"Thank you."
The rest of the explanation was fairly straightforward. They'd get assigned an opponent at random, fight, and the winner would move on. The very first round was Sasuke against some guy he'd never met before, which was great since it wasn't Lee.
"You both ready?" Hayate stood in the middle of the room.
"Yup."
"Yep."
"Then begin."
Yoroi opened by flinging some shuriken at him. With the sharingan it was easy enough for Sasuke to deflect them with a kunai and keep his distance. Given that move he assumed Yoroi wanted to force a close combat fight.
"I guess that loud kid was right, you are a scaredy cat."
He grit his teeth hearing that. It was an obvious bait, but Naruto would never let him live it down if this random guy insulted him and then won. Against his better judgement Sasuke moved in to meet him head on. This guy wasn't very fast, and even up close his technique was pretty sloppy. It was easy for him to block the attacks and retaliate.
"Gotcha now" Yoroi's hand wrapped around Sasuke's arm. With his grip the strength began to drain from Sasuke's arm.
"Well a bullshit move" there hadn't been any hand seals for it, so he couldn't even copy it.
"Don't waste your breath, a few moments of my technique and you'll be finished."
"Really?" Sasuke used the moment Yoroi said that to pull out a kunai and slash through his wrist. "Does it work if your hand's cut off?"
"FU-" before he could finish screaming in pain Sasuke kicked him in the head.
"Uh, well" Hayate looked him over. "He sure looks down. Winner, Sasuke."
"See, imagine if we fought them in the forest" Naruto gestured to Yoroi as he was stretchered out. "You'd beat up that guy, I'd get to kick the shit of Kabuto, and Sakura could knock out their third dude."
"Well you should have tried harder to find them then. Or were you still traumatized from almost drowning in a forest?"
"It was very convincing! I'd like to see how you'd handle that!"
"I would break out of the genjutsu, it's not that hard."
"I would break out of the genjutsu" Naruto repeated it in a nasally voice. "I'm Sasuke. I have fancy eyes that let me do whatever I want."
"They don't let me do whatever I want. Like, that guy could steal chakra, I can't do that with my eyes."
"Yet. I know they shoot fire out of them."
"Oh my god no that's a different version of the eye."
"What does that even mean?"
"I'm not sure ok! I just know it's different!"
"Oh my god shut up you two!" Sakura had sat through this argument many times in the past. "I can't focus on these other fights!"
"Fights?"
"Yes there's been two rounds!"
"What!" Sasuke turned and looked down at the ring. Some guy was getting stretchered out while a sand ninja headed back to the stands.
"We talked about eyes for at most two minutes!"
"Well it's my turn so you better cut the eye talk out" she headed for the stairs.
"Do we really talk about eyes that much?"
"I think we do given what you just said."
"Huh."
Turning their attention to the fight it was Sakura vs Ino. Sasuke didn't really know too much about Ino, but apparently there was some backstory going on down there.
"Does Sakura have a best friend she didn't tell us about?' Naruto sounded pretty hurt.
"I, apparently?"
The fight seemed pretty one sided at the start. Sakura got most of the early hits in, but Ino managed to rough up a good amount as well.
"I feel like there's always a lot of talking when we have fights" Sasuke felt like that was kinda weird given that they were ninjas.
"Well, it's just banter."
"Is it? They're both cutting their hair down there."
"Look, I don't know."
As they watched Ino use her Mind Transfer Jutsu, Sasuke felt a pair of eyes on him.
"What?"
"It's weird to see another person with a mind control move."
"I do not have that."
"Kakashi used it on Zabuza so I disagree."
"Naruto the sharingan cannot do that."
"It so can, Kakashi tell him!"
"Guys could you at least try and focus on the fight?" Kakashi felt the other teams watching them bicker.
"Sakura's fine, now be on my side."
"FINE!" the shout from the ring ended their current talk. "I'VE GOT SOMEONE TRYING TO STEAL MY BODY AND I'M FINE?"
"Wow" Kakashi watched her beat out the jutsu with just sheer rage. "You guys really got her mad down there."
"She could have yelled that at anyone."
"NO IT WAS YOU" as Ino shakily got back to her feet Sakura pointed up at Naruto.
The fight ended pretty abruptly after that. They both rushed in with an arm drawn back, but Ino missed the memo and didn't also put up a block. If the hit didn't knock her out the impact with the floor did.
"Winner Sakura" Hayate waved a hand in front of Ino's face.
"Is it so much to ask" Sakura came back over to them. "For the two of you to not talk about dumb eye powers?"
"Now, when you put it like that it doesn't seem like it is, but it's actually pretty hard to do."
"Is it Naruto? I've gone most of my life not doing it."
"Oh hey look this fight ended" Sasuke tried to help him out and distract Sakura.
"What no way" she turned to check.
The fight had in fact already ended. Ten Ten, who Sasuke had seen with Lee, had gotten completely beat out by this girl with a fan. As the next fighters went in Sasuke realized something.
"Didn't we wipe that team out?" he pointed over to the remaining Sound genin.
"Hm, yes?" Naruto had clearly forgotten who's scroll they ended up with at the end.
"Yeah we did, I guess they got new scrolls somehow" Sakura could at least recognize him.
"I guess there was a lot of time for that, it still feels kind of weird."
"Especially given how fast the other two have lost" Naruto watched Kin get stretchered out. "Oh it's my turn finally!"
"That's right!" Kiba hopped down into the ring. "It's time for me to show you just how strong your one true rival is!"
"Huh?"
"What?"
"How are you gonna show me how strong Sasuke is?"
"No I'm your rival!"
"Since when?" Naruto looked back to Sasuke. "Did you swap with Kiba?"
"What no way, rivals for life."
"Yeah sorry dude, we've got a thing already."
"No way! We've had a thing for years!"
"Dude we really haven't."
"Yes we did! It was me and you as the two worst in the class! Not counting Shikamaru."
"Yeah obviously."
"And as such our rivalry was born! Who would really be the worst!"
"But, I finished tied for the best."
"Irrelevant! We're rivals!"
"So are you two gonna fight or '' Hayate had called begin a while ago.
"Yes cause we're rivals and this is my chance to prove how strong I am!"
"Again, we're not rivals, like, if I had to pick a non-Sasuke rival, hm" Naruto scratched his chin. "Lee would be a good one for sure, maybe that guy from the mist since I want a runback. Hey Shikamaru would you wanna be rivals if I needed one?"
"No."
"You'd ask Shikamaru before me?"
"I mean yeah he's really smart."
"That's it!" Kiba pulled out some pills. "I'm going to crush you right here and now! Then you can come crawling to me asking to be my rival!"
"I'm not gonna do that."
"Shut up!" He tossed Akamaru a pill and ate one himself.
Sasuke watched Naruto water blast them as Akamaru hopped on Kiba's back. It looked like Kiba was still up, but that little dog was probably down for the count. Most of Kiba's attacks involved him rushing Naruto, which left him pretty open to get blasted by a ball of water.
"Stop doing that!"
"No?" Naruto had just held the one hand seal.
"Please?"
His reply was to blast Kiba with water again.
"Well he looks down" Hayate checked him out after the latest blast. "Winner Naruto."
"Hm, so you're all going to the third exam" Kakashi looked them over.
"You don't so very happy about how amazing we're doing."
"Well, it's not that, but there's three of you, and one me. I can't exactly give you all one on one training."
"Oh we get to learn who your favorite is!" Naruto came back in time to hear that.
"This is not what this is."
"No it totally is" Sakura ganged up on him with Naruto.
"Yeah so who's it gonna be!" Sasuke wanted in on bullying him.
"Uh" Kakashi had backed himself in the corner.
"If you pick Naruto it's nepotism cause you're dating him mom."
"No I share a boyfriend with Naruto's mom, that's different."
"So it's me?"
"I care about all my students equally."
"So you'll train us all."
"No."
"Then who are you gonna train?" Sasuke was getting annoyed with the run around he was giving them.
"Well, given everyone's general backgrounds, I think it makes the most sense for me to train Sakura."
"Ha I'm the favorite!" Sakura pointed a thumb at herself.
"That's bullsh-"
"She's the only one of you who doesn't have a ninja parent and/or prodigal older brother who's got nothing else going on."
"Ok so technically my parent is a secretary so I think that doesn't count."
"Well, I think it does so get over it."
With their bickering taken care of Team Seven watched the rest of the matches. Aside from watching Lee destroy the ring, most of the fights were pretty boring. At the end of it all the ones going to the next round were: Team Seven, Shikamaru, Dosu, Neji, the Sand Team, Shino, and the Mist Team. Sakura was up against Temari, Sasuke had Gaara and Naruto had Neji. As they all prepared to depart the Sound Jonin caught Sasuke's eye. On his left hand there was a ring with the word sky on it.
