FR: Ok so like I told you Ino. I have a plan for you

Ino: hmph you better

FR: duh I had this in my head for a while so just be patient ok

Ino: fine

Hinata: um what exactly is the plan?

Ino: good question

FR: sorry but that's a secret…...now can one of you untie me please?

Ino: no

FR: *sigh* fine I'll just remain captive until you see the plan. Anyway guys enjoy the story

"Normal speech"

'Normal thoughts'

"Demon/Summon speech"

'Demon/Inner Sakura/Summon thoughts'

Jutsu name

(author comment) - not a lot of them

flashback/memory

~locations and transitions~

Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto, it's owned by one wiser than me

Chapter 26: Prelims part 1

Naruto was standing in front of a Kurama sized bowl of Chicken ramen. NAruto couldn't help but drool at the idea of jumping in and eating all of it with no remorse. Getting a running start, he jumped into the air, ready to do a swan dive into the holy broth but before he made contact, he heard a loud Ping that startled him. Naruto's head bolted up from the sound and cursed at the fact that it was all a dream. Naruto was hoping to sleep more but unfortunately, he heard the PA system act up again

{all teams that have passed the second part of the exams please make your way to the arena for an important announcements}

Naruto groaned at this as he got up from his bed. It was the middle of the afternoon and he was feeling lousy. His body wasn't in pain or anything but it felt like his skin was on too tight and it was just plain uncomfortable. As he was making his way to the arena he heard his name being called

"Hey Naruto-kun!"

Turning around, he saw running towards him a glasses wearing red haired girl. She wore a black shirt sleeved shirt covered by a mesh shirt. Over this she wore an olive green jacket that shown some wear and tear. She also wore black shinobi pants that cut off below the knee and black sandals. Her hitai-ate was missing the metal plating that would show what village she was from, so she wore the cloth as if it was a bandana. This was Karin, a girl one of his clones had saved from being attacked by a bear. A bear that Naruto knew as Kuma-san. Naruto's clone had stopped Kuma-san from killing the girl by staring into its eyes and amazingly bopping it in the nose. Naruto promised the bear that if it behaved he would pay back the food that he stole the last time and then some. Kuma-san reluctantly relented and let him go but not without swiping at Naruto a few times which earned him a hard fist to the head

Naruto smiled at the girl "Hey Karin-chan. What are you doing here?"

Karin stopped running when she caught up with him and they began to walk towards the arena "I asked hokage-sama if I could stay since my team was killed and I had something important to ask him later when he had the time. He seemed really busy these last few days so I don't think I will be able to ask him until the exams are over"

"Is one of those things about our name?" Naruto said with a bit of apprehension

Karin nodded her head "yeah. I just want to know why you were never told about our clan!" she said as she let out some anger at the end

Naruto nodded his head as he also wanted to know but withheld his anger "hey we don't know if I really am from your clan. Remember you said Uzumaki's area all red heads and I don't think I dyed my hair at all in my life. He could have just given me the name to fill it in"

Karin shook her head "maybe but I still think that you should have known the origin of the name"

Naruto chuckled a bit sheepishly at this "well uh I wasn't really the best student so for all I know it was taught but I never paid attention" 'or I was kicked out before I could learn it'

Both arrived at the arena and each went into different directions. Karin went to the side so she would be out of the way and Naruto went to his team where he noticed a deep scowl on Sasuke's face. Naruto had heard that they had to put a seal on him to subdue what the snake - teme placed on him. He also heard that it wasn't an easy thing to do since Sasuke fought against them every single step of it. It was only the threat of disqualification that made Sasuke comply to it.

Sasuke was looking around for someone. He was looking for the Grass Kunoichi that Orochimaru disguised as but much to his chagrin, she wasn't there 'damn it, looks like he's not here!

Sakura gave a small wave at Naruto as he walked up "hey your almost late. Hokage-sama is about to start talking"

Naruto rubbed his head sheepishly "sorry I was in the middle of taking a nap"

Sakura just sighed in exasperation

As Team 7 listened to the hokage begin his speech on how the chunin exams were used as a replacement for was, Naruto focused on the other participants. He could see that all the rookies had made it as well as Team 9, the Oto team, the Suna and that guy Kabuto's team. Naruto was glad to see that his friends had made it through the forest of death. As his eyes went through the teams his eyes stopped at Hinata and he could help but blush hard, thinking of what the two had almost done in the nurse's office. Shaking his head he scanned the rest of them and his eyes stopped at Ino. he wanted to walk up to her again and apologize for the fight that they had but after how Ino yelled at him, he felt that she wouldn't want anything to do with him and it hurt his heart thinking about it. He finished scanning the other participants and his mind was stuck on two of the other genin.

The first one was Gaara. Naruto knew that he had to be wary of the red head. After their first meeting, he told himself that he would steer clear of him, and after what his clones experienced in the forest of death, he was even more determined to stay away.

The next person was Kabuto. After his fight with Orochimaru, Naruto was wary of the smell of snakes. He still would trust Anko with his life but anyone else with the smell will never have his trust.

Naruto was brought out of his thoughts when it was stated that there would be preliminaries and if anyone wanted to pull out of it they needed to speak up. Naruto looked around to see if any of his friends would back out but much to his relief the only one that did was Kabuto who stated that he wouldn't be able to continue due to injury and exhaustion. Naruto could tell it was a lie and he glared at the retreating form of Kabuto

The Hokage was watching Kabuto leave and in the corner of his eye he saw Naruto glaring at the silver haired boy. 'So there is something up with the boy. I will have an Anbu squad tail him. It is unfortunate that I had to pull Anko off observation before she could discover anything but I need her here as a potential guard for Sasuke'

A chunin came up to walk next to the hokage and began to speak to the genin "*cough* Hokage-sama *cough* may I begin these prelims?"

The hokage nodded his head before he looked towards the genin and smiled "one last thing I must say is good luck and I hope to see your potential" he then went to one side of the Observation platform so he could watch the coming fights.

The chunin then looked to the genin "alright everyone *cough cough* my name is Hayate Gekko and for this part, we will be having *cough* a one on one match. The fighters will be displayed on the big screen over there" he said pointing at a large screen that was lowering right above the massive stone structure in the form of the Tiger hand seal

The screen began to pull up the names of all the contestants in yellow as Hayate continued to speak as he coughed into his fist "*cough cough* the screen will randomly choose who will fight who and the winner will move on to the finals" the screen then randomly went through the names getting everyone to watch the screen in anticipation. After a few seconds of name rotations it landed on two names

Sasuke Uchiha Vs Zaku Abumi

Hayate looked at the names then turned to the genin "ok *cough* everyone that isn't fighting please move to the observation platforms."

As most of them went to the platform Dosu stood next to Zaku, with a hand on his shoulder, as he whispered into his ear "Zaku, throw the match. If he did get the curse mark from Orochimaru-sama, than you don't stand a chance in winning"

Naruto could hear what was being said from Dosu thanks to his enhanced hearing 'curse mark? Is that what that Snake gave him? Must be what Hokage-jiji had to handle with the teme' Naruto looked around to see if anyone else heard it but the only one who would have possibly heard it as well was Kiba and Akamaru, unfortunately they seemed to be in the middle of a conversation and didn't catch it

Zaku who had no real sense of subtlety screamed back "Hell no! I'm going to prove to him that we are valuable and the best way to do it is to beat this punk into the ground!"

Dosu shook his head but still whispered "idiot! You can't use your arms! They haven't healed from the Katon you got hit with in the forest! If you go into this you will lose!"

True enough both of Zaku's arms were useless right now as they were bandaged heavily and put in slings. Zaku didn't care, thinking he could still win without them. Shrugging off Dosu's hand he yelled back "fuck off! I don't need them to beat this konoha scum!"

Dosu shook his head and walked away, knowing that his teammate would lose this fight.

Hayate, who stood in between the two fighters looked at each and brought up his hand "*cough* are you two ready?" Zaku scowled at the Uchiha while Sasuke only smirked. Hayate took this as a yes, dropped his hand in a slicing motion "Hajime" and jumped back to allow them to start

~Sasuke vs Zaku~

Zaku was the first one to move charging in a mad dash towards Sasuke 'I can kill this trash easily! I'll show them that I have more value then all of them!'

Sasuke smirked as he ducked under a kick before jumping back from a follow up kick "your weak. Someone like you is nothing but a nuisance"

Zaku growled when he heard this charging at the Uchiha, kicking randomly now with no luck "shut the fuck up! I'll show you! Your nothing! And I'll prove it!"

Sasuke just kept dodging with an arrogant smirk on his face. He felt himself superior as he hadn't even activated his sharingan. Sasuke felt like it was time to act so while ducking under another feral roundhouse, Sasuke swept his foot on Zaku's only leg that was on the ground which got Zaku to begin falling to the ground. Twisting on his foot Sasuke kicked Zaku away from him and watched as Zaku roll on the ground

Once Zaku stopped rolling, he quickly got to his feet and charged again "that was just a lucky shot! It won't happen again!"

As Sasuke kept dodging the kicks Zakue threw at him, he began to enjoy the desperation that Zaku was giving as he. It was desperation one got when fighting a superior opponent 'only a loser would be like this.' this thought brought up another person into his mind. Someone that he wanted to see in this desperate state as well 'the dobe should be like this against me. He is nothing but a clanless loser that's beneath me'. Sasuke punched Zaku hard in the face making the Oto nin take a few steps back, while in his mind he could see Naruto stand tall over him after one of their spars 'yet there he is! Looking down on me like he's better than me!'. Sasuke followed with a flying spin kick 'no one is better than an Uchiha!' Sasuke gave an uppercut that took Zaku off his feet a bit.

Zaku didn't get a chance to recover as Sasuke moved forward and kicked him high into the air.

Sasuke leapt after Zaku and was putting in chakra into his limbs to finish it off as he positioned himself to be directly under Zaku, shadowing Zaku's body position a bit. Subconsciously he began activating the curse seal which caused a flame pattern to slide up his neck. After it reached his chin he gripped his shoulder in pain 'shit I can't use the stupid seal! Thanks to the old man and Kakashi it burns more when I use it. I need to find a way to unseal it ...but for this weakling I won't need it'. Pushing the curse seal back he continued his assault on the airborn Zaku

Anko, Hiruzen, Kakashi and Naruto noticed the black flame patterns growing and all of them scowled at it for their own reasons

Anko because she hated the curse mark and the fact that the kid was activating it did not sit well with her

Kakashi and Hiruzen were not happy on how willingly the boy seemed to want the power it gives.

Naruto scowled at this since it felt fowl, like it was negativity itself to a small degree. He also hated anything that had to do with the snake-teme 'whatever that curse mark thing is, I'm glad I don't have it'

They all resumed watching the fight as Sasuke attacked

Sasuke pressed his hand on Zaku's back and made his move. Using his hand as a bit of leverage Sasuke kicked Zaku in his side

Zaku felt a few of his ribs crack from the impact since he couldn't use his arms to block the blow "you fucker! I'll kill you"

Sasuke just smirked more as he pushed his leg a bit more, in a way that would push Zaku down further. Shifting a bit Sasuke threw a left backhanded fist into Zaku's face and a loud *crack* was heard signifying that the nose had broken. Using the momentum of the backhand, Sasuke threw a right hook into Zaku's stomach. Now that Zaku was closing in on the ground Sasuke flowed with the hook, flipping in the air Sasuke delivered an ax kick into Zaku's stomach right as he impacted on the ground cause the floor to crack a bit from the force of it "Lions Barrage"

Zaku coughed up blood from all the hits he had taken but the worst one was the kick he received as it also hit his arms

Sasuke tumbled off Zaku to land face down on the ground. 'Damn my body couldn't handle the move. Heh at least he should be out of the fight now'

Zaku was in agony from not only the injuries on his arms but from the many fractures he was now sporting. It was through sheer anger that kept him conscious' NO I WILL NOT LOSE!'. Zaku gritted his teeth as he slowly placed himself on his stomach and very slowly got up on his feet. He could feel the pain in his ribs and arms but right now he didn't care "I'LL KILL YOU". he slowly lifted his arms into the air pointing them at the downed Sasuke, ignoring the pain he could feel in them

Dosu's eye widened at this but did nothing to stop him. 'Whatever happens is his own fault'

Rin didn't care and only watched on to see what happens

Naruto could feel the KI coming of Zaku and could tell that he has lost all sense. He wondered if he should say something but turning his head towards Kakashi he saw that his sensei didn't seem all concerned about Sasuke. And more concerned about what would happen to Zaku.

Kakashi heard about the burns the kid received and based on how Zaku was fighting he realized that right now his arms are useless in anything including jutsu. Depending on the severity of the injury and the jutsu used it could backfire in a very bad way. Turning to the other senseis he spoke "I would suggest you get your genin to cover their eyes"

Asuma, Kurenai and Guy looked at him with a serious look and nodded before speaking to each of their genins to close their eyes and as a precaution cover their ears.

Cover his eyes and ears but could still hear some of what was around him 'Rama-tou-chan, a little help in my hearing please'

"Try and shift the chakra in your ears away from them. The problem is that you always have chakra flowing through them"

Naruto complied with what Kurama said and shifted his chakra as best he can but found it to be difficult since the seal on his stomach was throwing his skills for a loop. He got it to work and his hearing lessened to the point where everything was muffed

Zaku gave a mad grin as he activated his jutsu "Zankūkyokuha!" Zaku could feel the chakra needed for the move, shift into his arms but it didn't activate the way he wanted. Instead the sheer force caused both his arms to explode, pushing him back, spraying blood everywhere and leaving nothing but dripping bloody stumps. So in shock by what happened Zaku immediately fainted from this

Hayate jumped down and called for a medical team to come and take Zaku away

Sasuke laid there watching in morbid fascination at what he had just seen. So focused on the prone form of Zaku leaving on a stretcher he barely heard himself being declared the winner

"Winner Sasuke Uchiha"

Everyone had kept their eyes closed and ears covered so no one really saw what happened.

The only ones that witnessed it was the chunin, Jonin, the hokage and Karin who had not gotten the warning before hand.

Karin felt a little sick at seeing this and sat down in the corner trying not to vomit.

Naruto may not have seen what happened but his hearing was still good enough to hear a muffled boom and the smell of blood was still in the air

Sasuke made his way up to the observation platform to see everyone covering their ears and closing their eyes. He quirked an eyebrow and looked towards Kakashi who just shook his head signifying not to ask but Sasuke had a feeling it was to not see what he had seen. He went to be with his team and sat down. Was he sat he looked towards Naruto and scowled, but much to his surprise Naruto turned his head to look at him, while still blocking everything out. Sasuke just looked away in anger

After a few more minutes of waiting, a cleanup crew had removed the blood from the ground and signaled that it was all clear. The jonin senseis taped their genin on the shoulders to allow them to see again. Most were confused about why they had to do that but some figured that it was something gruesome, namely Neji, Naruto and Shikamaru

Hayate coughed again, whether it was to get everyone's attention or because he needed to was unclear but everyone looked to him "alright *cough cough* now that the first match is done, let's move onto the second match". Everyone looked towards the screen to see who would fight who.

Temari vs Kiba

Kiba jumped up in joy "hell yeah. This is going to be fun!" Kiba jumped over the railing to land onto the fighting floor

Temari smirked thinking that the boy was nothing but a simpleton 'this should be an easy fight'. She also jumped over the railing but instead of landing hard on the ground, she came to a slow stop with a bit of wind around her feet.

Naruto looked down at this and felt the need to say something "Hey Kiba!"

Kiba looked up to Naruto with a confused look "whats up?!"

Naruto's eyes shifted from Kiba to Temari and back "fight her seriously! She isn't someone you want to mess with!". 'If she is on Gaara's team, than she must be strong'

Kiba would have normally passed this off but coming from Naruto, who he knew had improved a lot thanks to Hinata telling them about it, he figured he should go all out. "Got it! I'm winning this fight!'

Temari just scoffed at this "hah! Like this dog boy could even think about beating me"

Kiba turned to face Temari and growled. Walking to his position he spoke quietly to Akamaru who was still in his jacket "ok Akamaru, get ready cause I think we are going to have to start with using that"

Akamaru looked up in curiosity *ARF?*

"Because if Naruto is telling me to be serious. Than I should be serious." Back in the academy Kiba had learned to trust Naruto about some things since when Naruto had a gut feeling about something it was usually right.

Akamaru agreed with this and jumped out of his jacket to stand next to Kiba

Hayate stood between the two while lifting his hand "contestants ready?". Both nodded as they got ready. "*cough* Hajime" and jumped back

~Kiba vs Temari~

Kiba immediately pulled out a food pill and tossed it to Akamaru. Akamaru jumped in the air to catch the pill. Kiba smirked as Akamaru began to change color from white to brick red "you ready?! Well let's go" Kiba put his hands in a hand sign "Ninja art: Beast Mimicry All fours jutsu! Man Beast Clone!". Kiba was then shrouded with a bit of chakra as he dropped to all fours in a feral stance while Akamaru turned into copy of Kiba

Temari was stunned to see what Kiba had done and with his ninken partner. 'This might be a bit harder than I thought'. She reached over her shoulder and pull off the big metal bar she had attached to her back 'but lets see if he is good enough to get ME serious'

Kiba snarled at Temari "lets go Akamaru!". Both Akamaru and Kiba charged on all fours in a zigzag pattern making sure not to get in each other's way before jumping in the air

Temari kept her eyes on Kiba, thinking that if she could take him out, then the fight would be over. She was surprised at the speed that Kiba had as they both charged at her. Seeing them jump in the air she brought up the bar and blocked the claw strikes aimed at her. She was even more surprised at the force behind the strike 'ok he has some strength but he is still outmatched'

Kiba and Akamaru were pushed back as Temari swung the bar at them. Flipping in the air both tried the same tactic but this time they tried a pincer attack with Kiba on Temari's right and Akamaru to her left

Temari almost lost sight of Kiba but still kept her eye on him. Turning to Kiba she swung the bar at him much to his shock and hit him in the face hard, launching him away. Unfortunately Temari was not fast enough to dodge the punched aimed at her to look behind her she felt the fist impact on her left cheek 'damn it, I was careless'. The hit pushed her back a bit but she regained her footing to glare at the pup mad man.

Kiba got up from the ground with a bit of blood coming from his mouth "ok nice hit but it won't win you this fight"

Temari was hoping that the hit would have knocked him out but apparently his head was hard enough to endure. She put the bar at her side and flipped it open showing one violet circle "ok I will admit that you have some skill, but not enough to win"

Kiba rejoined Akamaru as both stared at the fan 'so it's a fan. Don't know what she can do with it but we shouldn't give her a chance to use it'. "Again!" Kiba and Akamaru charged again,going for another pincer attack

Temari smirked as she still kept an eye on Kiba. When she channeled the chakra needed and he was close enough, she swung the fan to blow Kiba off course

Kiba was surprised that he flew off in another direction that he didn't catch himself, and hit the ground in a rolling tumble

Twirling with the swing, Temari blocked Akamaru's strike. Adding a bit of strength and chakra she swung the fan to throw Akamaru off she added wind chakra to it, to blow Akamaru further away and into the wall.

Akamaru let out a yelp from the impact and slid down before shaking his head and getting back up

Kiba made his way to Akamaru "ok Akamaru time to hit her hard! You ready?!"

Akamaru nodded, knowing what his partner wanted to do

Kiba grinned "then here we go!" running towards Temari they began "Fang over Fang"

Temari's eyes widened at the sudden drill attack that was coming her way. Instinct told he better to dodge then block so she jumps out of the way of the two drill attacks. She doesn't get the chance to stop as the drills split from each other and start charging at her from different angle "shit!"

Kankuro looked a bit worried at the prospect of Temari possibly losing this fight as she continued to dodge without a chance of fighting back

Naruto kept his eyes on the fight until Sakura tapped him on the shoulder, turning he looked at Sakura who looked a little nervous "whats up Sakura?"

Sakura looked from Naruto to the fight "I actually wanted to ask you this for a while and seeing Kiba fight made me more curious. Did you learn your style from an Inuzuka?"

Naruto looked back down to the fight before giving Sakura a confused look. It took him a second to realize how she might have gotten to that conclusion. Both his fighting style and the Inuzuka fighting style are similar but are fundamentally different "no I didn't . it's a style I made up that works best. It does seem a bit like Kiba's style but it moves differently"

Sakura was a bit more curious about it "what do call it than?

Naruto turned to Sakura "I like to call it…"

They were interrupted but a yell of pain. Looking back they saw that Temari had been hit in the back

Temari was having trouble keeping up with the two. The one time that they stopped to take a small break from the attack was very short lived and she began dodging again. One attack was coming at her and she knew that her footing was off and she wouldn't be able to jump, so putting her fan in front of her she braced herself. The attack pushed her back and her feet were dragging across the floor. So focused on the attack in front of her that she didn't see the second drill coming from behind. She felt the impact hit her hard as she was flung across the arena to crash land on the other side.

Kiba and Akamaru stopped their attack to see if she was down for the count. Kiba hoped that she was because he had been putting a lot of chakra to keep the attack going. It had paid off as he and Akamaru had gotten a few good hits in but he was starting to run low 'damn she is good at dodging. But that last one should have brought her down'.

Everyone was stunned to see Temari getting up. She had cuts all over her body, she was bleeding from her head and her clothes were in tatters.

Temari glared at Kiba and Akamaru 'damn it! He wouldn't let up! Heh I hate to admit it but that move is hard for me to counter' she took a deep breath and calmed herself. She was glad that Kiba had paused his attack 'but he made a mistake. He gave me this time to finish this' Temari swung open her fan to the fullest, showing three violet circles on the fan, and in an arcing motion she sent a massive gust of wind towards both Akamaru and Kiba

Kiba and Akamaru weren't ready for this and were both launched back. Kiba was able to land on the wall with his feet but Akamaru was not so fortunate as he was flopping around in the air and impacted the wall hard enough to dispel the clone jutsu and knock him out "AKAMARU!". Kiba dropped to the ground and ran to his ninken partner. He checked on him and gave a sigh of relief that Akamaru was just knocked out with a bit of bruising. Turning to Temari, he wanted to pay her back for what she did but he knew that he had lost his advantage in this fight. He wanted to keep going but he knew that he was now in a losing fight. They were both exhausted but for different reasons. She had been dodging most of the fight since he wouldn't stop the assault. She was tired from dodging and the few damaging hits she took and he was tired because of assaulting nonstop. She had more chakra and the ability to end him. He hated what he was about to do but he had no choice, his partner was down and he wouldn't last much longer. With a tired sigh he raised his hand "I forfeit"

The rest of the rookie nine were shocked to hear that one of the most stubborn of the group had given up.

Both Hinata and Shino were shocked at this but Kurenai nodded her head in approval 'he knew it was a losing battle now. Well done Kiba'

Temari was glad for this as she was still in pain from that last hit in the back. She gave a half smile at Kiba "not bad, I was almost worried I would lose but you gave me a good fight"

Kiba gave a tired smile "well from that last move, I would say it was a good thing I didn't give you a chance to use it earlier"

Hayate dropped down to the floor and pointed his hand towards Temari "winner by forfeit: Temari"

Kiba picked up Akamaru and made his way to the viewing platform. While passing Naruto he looked at his friend who gave him a smile and a thumbs up which he returned. Kiba sat down next to his team with Akamaru in his lap.

Kurenai turned to him with a smile on her face, "I'm proud of you Kiba"

Kiba gave a grin "well if it wasn't for Naruto telling me to take it seriously, I probably would have lost sooner"

Kurenai looked towards Naruto who was looking at the board for the next fight 'I'm curious to see what the boy is capable of. From what I have heard he was the dead last of his class but he has the trust of many from his group.'

The names of the next fight were up and only one person thought it was irritating

Shikamaru vs Kin Tsuechi

Shikamaru sighed at this "troublesome. Well might as well get this over with so I can take a nap". He began to make his way towards the stairs in a lazy manner

Naruto was excited to see how his lazy friend would handle this fight

~Meanwhile in an Unknown location~

Kabuto was in the middle of healing Orochimaru from the burns that Naruto gave him in the forest "Orochimaru-sama, you should really consider transferring to another body soon"

Orochimaru grunted in pain as a bolt of it ran through his body from his shoulder "it would jeopardize the whole operation if I did so now. Just focus on keeping me on my feet until the time is right"

Kabuto grimaced at the wound that seemed to be spreading from the shoulder. He had been able to slow it down but not stop it "that's a very long wait Orochimaru-sama but I think I can do it but on that day you need to do it as quickly as possible"

Orochimaru smirked as he gave thought of his plan "kukuku it will be worth the pain to see the old fossil dye and Konoha burn. With the contribution from Danzo, it will be more fulfilling to see the look on his face"

Kabuto shifted to be behind Orochimaru to continue working on the wound "are you sure we can trust Danzo-san? He doesn't seem the type to keep up his end of the bargain"

"Kukuku it doesn't matter. He doesn't know the full plan, he wants my old sensei dead. This aligns with our interests so he is willing to give us what we want as long as we kill him. Let him have the ashes of the village afterwards, it doesn't concern us"

"Very well Orochimaru-sama"

~back to the fights~

"Winner Shikamaru Nara"

Naruto felt a bit sorry for Kin after losing in such a manner but he was glad that Shikamaru won. He watched as Shikamaru slowly walked by "way to go Shikamaru!"

Shikamaru turned his head to look at Naruto "it was troublesome but at least now I can take a nap without Ino bugging me

Naruto chuckled as he looked back to the screen to see who would be the next fighters. He was hoping that he would get to fight next but he didn't like the next fight that popped up and he felt worry take him as he saw the names

Neji Hyuga vs Hinata Hyuga

Naruto turned his head towards Hinata and could feel that she was extremely nervous

Neji scoffed as he made his way down to the floor and as he passed Naruto, he gave a sideways glare at him

Naruto could feel some hatred directed at him but most of it seemed directed at Hinata

Kurenai looked at the girl and frowned as she knew about the relation between the two. "Hinata. You don't have to do this"

Hinata looked at Kurenai with a small bit of hurt in her eyes and shook her head, saying nothing as she began to move towards the stairs.

As she passed she made eye contact with Naruto as he gave her a reassuring smile which built up her spirits and confidence

Naruto watched her walk by and before she made it too far from him he spoke in a soft voice so those around him can hear and Hinata as well "remember what I said to you when we were training. Fight how you want to and that only the words from those that want to see you improve are the ones that matter"

Hinata smiled at this as it was during one of their sparring matches that he said this after she had told him about how her father would speak of her. He had told her that his words should be used to prove him wrong and only the words of certain people should be remembered.

Team 10 and the rest of team 8 and 9 looked towards Naruto and smiled. Lee and Guy had anime tears and were about to hug but they were stopped by Tenten, not wanting to deal with it.

Team 8 nodded towards Naruto with smiles on their faces, even if Shino's wasn't visible

Hinata made her way to the floor and stood face against her cousin

Hayate stood between the two and although he knew nothing about these two he could feel the tension "are both contestants ready?"

Hinata was the only one that nodded as Neji just scowled

Hayate nodded and brought his hand down "Hajime"

~Hinata vs Neji~

For a moment neither moved and just looked at each other. Neji was the first to speak "you should quiet now. You cannot think that you have a chance of defeating me"

Naruto didn't need his senses to feel the venom the guy had for Hinata. He didn't like the fact that he was looking down at Hinata like she wasn't worth his time but he kept himself glued to his spot.

Hinata felt a twinge of doubt after hearing Neji say this and a part of her wanted to just walk away but looking up to Naruto, her doubt vanished and her confidence grew "no I will prove that I am capable of fighting"

Neji brought his hand in front of him and closed his eyes as he activated his Dojutsu "Byakugan! You will never prove that you are anything but a failure!"

Hinata brought her hand up and did the same hand sign to activate her Dojutsu "Byakugan! I'm sorry Neji-kun"

Neji felt anger build up when Hinata said this and charged

Hinata charged as well meeting him in the middle as the both of them began to their match

Guy's team watch impassively as his student fought against his cousin. He would have called it a youthful match but he could see the anger in Neji's eyes 'my dear student, you let anger drive your hands. Don't let this diminish your flames of youth'

Some of the rookie 9 were cheering for Hinata but the one that everyone expected to be cheering was watching at the fight sadly.

Kurenai looked at Naruto with a quirked eyebrow "what is it Naruto-san?"

Naruto continued to watch the fight as he poke "She hates this fight"

Kurenai understood what Naruto meant but she was surprised to hear what he said next

"her heart hurts everytime she lands a blow. So much so that she is subconsciously holding back"

"How can you tell?"

Naruto gave a small sad smile "because she does the same thing when we spared against each other. I've seen how fast she is when she uses posts and it is faster than what she is doing now."

Kurenai nodded "but she does seem to be dodging very fluently. Much better than before"

It was true Hinata seemed to be less dodging and more dancing around the blows. It was more like she was a current of water flowing around a rock in the way. It was one of the ways Naruto told her to alter the Hyuga style

Neji was growing angry as he saw the altered version of the gentle fist. He jumps back quite a bit and glares at Hinata "you disgrace the Hyuga clan by changing the style"

Hinata felt guilt in her but she let it go, since Naruto helped her out with it and her mother had encouraged this as she said that the Hyuga clan needed to change if it was ever to get better. "I choose to fight this way. The people important to me have helped me become stronger and I will show you what they have taught me" Hinata lowered herself into a stance with her legs spread apart and both palms facing forward

Neji grew confused a bit at this as he figured it was one of the eight trigrams palm technique but it was off 'she is too far away for it to even be used' to his shock she spoke

"You're beyond the range of my divination"

Neji felt even more confused 'if I am beyond the range than why does she act like she is still able to use it?!'

Neji got his answer as Hinata bolted forward towards him at great speed. His guard was lowered and he was unprepared for what came next

"Eight trigrams 32 Palms" Hinata launched two palms into Neji's stomach. Hard enough to push him back but not enough to knock him off his feet. Hinata twirled around his body to land two more on his back with one hand above the other in vertical position. Then she went to his side hitting him on his side. She continued to twirl around Neji hitting him in different spots as she moved around the body

Neji could feel the impacts from around him as some of his chakra points were being closed but he noticed that most of the ones hit were not closing.

Once Hinata was coming to a finish in the move she bent her knees to be low and in a twirl she swept his legs from under him and while he was in the air she threw the last palm strikes in his stomach to launch him away

Neji coughed up some blood as he rolled on the ground. He was able to catch himself and shifted to he could roll on his feet

Everyone was shocked to see Hinata pull off a move like that as they never thought that she would do something like this.

Neji slowly got to his feet as he glared at Hinata before he launched himself at her

Both continued to block redirect and dodge blows from each other but one of them was growing weaker as the fight kept going

Naruto grew more and more worried as the fight continued. Doubt kept creeping into Hinata's heart, while anger filled Neji's. He felt a bit of relief when both stopped fighting and stood apart from each other

Neji smirked as he stood up straight "you have lost Hinata-sama. All your points have been closed and you have exhausted yourself with that disgrace of a move."

Hinata was breathing hard as she looked at Neji. she knew that she didn't have enough energy to continue this fight but she chose to not give up the fight until the end "I *pant pant* will not ...give up" Hinata stood as straight as she could as she looked into Neji's eyes "I am sorry Neji-kun"

Naruto's eyes grew wide as he moved forward "we have to stop this!" he was stopped when he felt someone grab the collar of his jacket. Turning his head he saw it was Kakashi

"Hold on Naruto. It's against the rules to interfere with a match"

Move his arms back, he slipped out of his jacket "he's going to kill her"

Kakashi's eyes widened

Neji saw red when he heard her apologize 'what right does she have to say that to me!' Neji charged towards Hinata who stood there unmoving with a sad smile on her face. Neji pulled his hand back to strike at her heart. Thrusting his finger strike forward, it was stopped when someone grabbed his wrist and stood in front of him

Naruto landed in front of Neji a split second before Neji could strike Hinata and he grabbed the Hyuga boy's wrist to stop it. Although he stopped it, it still impacted on him but not at full strength. Naruto was glaring at Neji holding both the strike back as well as he anger "how dare you try to kill her!" he said through gritted teeth

Neji scowled at him "you dare interfere with this?! You'll be disqualified!"

Naruto continued to glare "I don't care. You tried to kill her and if I am disqualified for this than whatever ...but I'm not the only one that stopped you"

Neji then realized that he was surrounded by most of the jonin senseis. Kakashi held his arm just above Naruto's grip, Kurenai was gripping his other arm and his sensei Guy, had his arm around his neck

Guy spoke up at this "this battle is over Neji. Stand down"

Hayate dropped down next to the group "due to interference Hinata Hyuga is disqualified. Neji Hyuga is the winner. *cough* contestant Uzumaki, if you interfere again you will be removed from the chunin exams"

Naruto turned his glare to Hayate, which made the man flinch at the intensity "if it means saving my friends, I don't care!". He then let go of Neji's wrist and walked around everyone to get to Hinata

Hinata was so exhausted that she couldn't stay on her feet.

She began to collapse onto the ground but was caught by Naruto "that was a good fight Hinata-chan"

Hinata felt happy hearing praise from Naruto but she couldn't stay awake much longer and fell unconscious after she smiled

Kurenai walked up to the two "I'll take her to the infirmary. Don't worry she'll be fine"

Naruto reluctantly handed Hinata to Kurenai and watched as the older woman walked away with her. Turning to glare at Neji he pulled out a kunai

Everyone almost thought that Naruto was about to attack Neji but were stunned to see Naruto cut his hand deep

Naruto let his blood pool a bit in his hand before closing it, letting it run down his hand and arm. Thrusting it towards Neji he spoke with anger in his voice "Neji! Pray we don't fight in the finals because if we do ...I'll destroy you!"

End of the chapter

Well the first part of the prelims is here

Ok for Sasuke vs Zaku, he is one of the few fighters that would lose to Sasuke at this point so I pitted them together

For Kiba vs Temari. In canon Temari went against Tenten and it was a poor match up so I chose to make a fight where Temari wouldn't get a chance to fully get a move in as Kiba's fang over fang would keep her on her toes but with Temari being as skilled as she is would be able to dodge most of the hits. In the end she got an opportunity and won

Shikamaru vs Kin…well Canon and a good way to show a bit of what is happening behind the scenes

Neji and Hinata played out mostly like it did in canon apart from the parts I wrote. The move Hinata did was inspired by the game (even though I didn't know where it came from until after I wrote it :P) except for the last part which was somewhat original

Also like it said Hinata was holding back subconsciously

Hinata was not struck in the heart as she was in canon so there is no blood for Naruto to use to swear his victory, she will also not be crippled during the finals

If the fights were not good, I'm sorry. I am not very good with fights as in my head I can see a fight but writing it down is difficult for me

Well next chapter will have a few more fights and some of them will be canon

Please read and Review