Chapter 12 revised and edited. Review or PM me on what you think about this chapter now.

Disclaimer – I don't own anything from the Naruto anime/manga all I own are my original characters and plot twists.

'Talking'

"Thinking"

'Heavily demonic voice'

'Fox talking'

"Fox thinking"

*expression*

Jutsu

Flashback

Chapter 12 – Chunin Exams – Preliminaries

'Iruka-sensei what are you doing here?' Asked Naruto.

'I'm here to welcome you back and congratulate you on passing the second phase of the Chunin exams.' Said Iruka smiling.

Iruka told them about the purpose of the second exam which in addition to survival, was to test the integrity of the ninja to not read classified documents or in this case the scrolls. After that he bid them farewell and they went into the tower's inner area.

-line break-

Naruto found out that Kiba's team had already arrived as well as Gaara's team. Since there were still two days until the exams were over Naruto decided to work on his Flying Thunder God technique in an attempt to finally be able to move all the way to the kunai. After placing Haku in the designated medical ward so they could look him over due to the poison from Orochimaru, he looked around for a place where he could be alone and found that the arena which depicted a gigantic set of hands making a seal with a viewing platform was completely empty. He then got to work and critically examined the seal and compared it to what he saw in the scroll he stole back when he was an academy student.

"Hmm my memory isn't that fresh but I'm pretty sure that last symbol was different. Well there can't be any harm in testing it out." Thought Naruto.

-line break-

After two painstakingly long hours Naruto had made new seals with the different symbol and equipped all of his three pronged kunai with them. He was about to test them out when Gaara approached him.

'Naruto Uzumaki.' He said in that same monotonous tone he always used.

'Garra.' Replied Naruto inclining his head slightly to see Gaara as he was sitting on the floor. 'Would you like to sit down?' Offered Naruto gesturing to the floor next to him.

Garra politely declined but went on to speak 'When you mentioned that word to me, friends, I could not understand you. I thought you were someone who could understand my pain.'

'Why does me having friends make you think I don't understand your pain?' Inquired Naruto.

'Those with friends cannot understand me as I live only for myself and to prove my existence. It is because of my loneliness that I am, as I am. I was born in the loneliness.
I came into this world by taking the life of what I would have called my mother at which point I was constantly feared for what I contained. I thought I could trust people in my naivety but my father disproved this with his constant assassination attempts on my life, the life of his own flesh and blood.' He paused before continuing.
'I realised that I couldn't trust my father and he realised that he couldn't kill me so he sent me to my uncle. I thought it was then that I had someone I could trust but this was a lie as one day he was ordered to kill me by my father. However despite this order he told me, after I had almost killed him, that he could have declined.
It was then that I realised I had no one which was further punctuated by the fact that he told me he hated me and in a last ditch effort gave up his life in an attempt to kill me.' Finished Gaara.
Naruto looked into his eyes and thought he saw anguish in them.

'Tell me why is it that you fight Uzumaki?' Asked Gaara.

'I fight to protect those important to me. A friend of mine once told me that if you have someone to fight for, you become truly strong.' Said Naruto.

'I don't understand, others make you weak and can cause you to die if you rely on them.' Said Gaara confused.

'Gaara I make you this promise, I will make you understand because even though you don't believe it I have suffered just as you have, but I found a way to achieve true strength and it is this, that I shall show you.' Said Naruto.

'I think you are a fool Uzumaki but if you can prove that my way is wrong and your way is better I will try to change, however if you cannot prove your way is better than mine I will crush you, drench my sand in your blood and prove my existence.' Stated Gaara before walking off.

'Now one test should be all I need.' Said Naruto who picked up a three pronged kunai and jumped down to the arena.

'Here goes something.' Said Naruto before he threw his kunai at the wall. The kunai embedded itself into the wall and Naruto flashed away in a blur of orange.

"Please tell me it worked." Thought Naruto as he slowly opened his eyes and saw that he made it all the way to the kunai.

'Awesome! It worked!' Shouted Naruto ecstatic before he decided to turn in for the day.

-line break-

Two days later

-line break-

The second part of the exams was now over, the teams that made it were: Team seven, eight and ten, Guy's team, the sound team, the sand team, Kabuto's team and a team from the hidden stone village.
The teams assembled in the arena that Naruto had been practising in before with the Hokage standing in front of the Genin with their Jounin behind him. He told them that the Chunin exams serve the purpose of not only testing ninja, but also of moderating the levels of the ninja in each nation as well as developing friendship.

'Just tell me the details of the exam I can handle anything you can throw at me.' Said Gaara when the Hokage finished speaking and answering other questions.

'Very well I will now tell you exactly what the details of the third exam are.' Said the Hokage.

Just then Hayate appeared bowing in front of the Hokage and asked him if he could speak first, to which the Hokage obliged.

Hayate explained that they needed to hold a preliminary as there were too many people which was meet with cries of outrage, but he justified it by talking about the fact that many important nobles and feudal lords would be coming to see them and they didn't want to waste their time and that they were only looking for the best of the best shinobi.

'The preliminaries will begin immediately if any of you *cough* aren't in top physical condition *cough* now is the time to quit.' Said Hayate.

Kabuto gave up but no one else did. Sakura wanted Sasuke to but he told her that the only reason he fights is to test himself and that all the best are here.

'So what am I supposed to just watch you suffer? I can't bear to watch.' Cried Sakura.

'Then don't watch. But stay out of it has nothing to do with you. I am an avenger whether I become a Chunin or not means less than nothing to me. My goal is to test myself against the best and the best of the best are all here.' Replied Sasuke.

'Sasuke she just cares about you, you don't have to be so mean. A flat, mind you own business would have been enough.' Said Naruto calmly.

'Naruto you are one of the one's I want to fight the most.' said Sasuke grinning which caused Naruto to grin back.

'Now, the preliminaries will follow sudden death elimination of one-on-one matches with only the winner moving on to the third exam. As for the rules there are none, you will fight until one dies or concedes defeat or is rendered physically incapable of continuing. Naturally those who are losing are encouraged to quit, to avoid having a fatal outcome, also as proctor I will intervene if the situation seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible. Now we will see what fate is in store for you.' Said Hayate.

Anko spoke a command and a panel on the back wall diagonal from the hands opened revealing a screen.

'The panel you see will give the names of the two competitors who are chosen completely at random. I guess there is nothing more to say so let's begin.' Concluded Hayate.

The screen begun going through names and landed on

Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado