Underneath the Underneath

By: FlameXFullmetal

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

A/N: Hi there! I'm back I am so glad that everyone liked the last chapter as I wasn't sure if the conclusion of the fight with Orochimaru was all that good. Seems like I was worried for no reason. I am hoping to complete the chunin exams in the next few chapters so the next couple chapters may be a bit longer than normal. Let me know if you like the longer chapters better than the shorter ones I have been putting out. Furthermore, I found quite a few spelling and grammar errors in the last chapter. I promise that I will go back and fix that at the end of the exam. Finally, in chapter 25 I accidentally misspelled one of the genin's names. Enji should actually be Kenji. I have corrected it in this chapter and will go back after the exams have ended to make the corrections. So, in any event you know the drill!

Bloody Rogue dragon deity king: Normally, that would be true. However, since the Shinigami took Orochimaru's soul via Naruto's sword, he took all of his soul. Even the small parts left behind in the seals. Even if it hadn't, only Sasuke knew how to revive him in canon because Orochimaru taught him.

Zabzab: I may actually go back and do that. Reading it now I realize how apathetic he seemed and that was not my intention.

MrFloridaMan: Still debating how I want that part to play out, but most likely there will be a t least a significant portion of a chapter for Sasuke's reaction.

Fazrulz: Originally I had them short because when I first posted the story everyone complained that the chapters were to long. So when I re-wrote the first ten (I think) chapters I shortened them considerably. Now I've got people telling me they wish they were longer! Lol I think I will try to lengthen them again and see how it goes.

"hello" people (bijuu in human form) speaking

'hello' people (bijuu in human form) thinking/coded hand signals

"HELLO" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity yelling

"hello" bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity talking

'hello' bijuu (full demon form)/summoning/deity thinking

hello jutsu

*******Leaving Behind Despair*********

It didn't take long before the group of six genin reached the tower in the middle of the forest and entered the tower. Noting the plaque on the wall Naruto felt his eyes narrow as he removed the scrolls from the seals and glanced at them once more.

"Open the scrolls. The heaven and earth aspect completes the text on the plaque." He said as both teams opened their scrolls. In a plume of smoke both Jay and Kakashi appeared smiling at their genin.

"Congratulations on being the second and third team to enter the tower. I take it that there was minimum difficulty?" Kakashi asked in amusement.

"Hai. Unless you count a sannin popping up." Karui said in agitation.

"Are you alright?" Jay demanded instantly.

"Fine. We wound up being drug in when Orochimaru attacked Sasuke Uchiha's team after he attacked us. Anyway we took their scroll as payment for saving their lives when we could have left them for dead."

"True. Well there are still four days left so I suggest you get comfortable." Jay advised then glanced at the plaque. "I'm sure that you understand the text behind me."

"Yup." Kimiko chirped and then grinned. "If your weak get stronger. If your dumb get smarter and if your both then you have an incurable disease called "fangirlitis" and you should stop being a ninja before you are crippled or worse." Everyone present couldn't help but laugh at the description that the bijuu in disguise gave.

"True enough."

"Sensei, one of my clones have located another Uzumaki in the forest. Her team is dead and they are bringing her to the tower as we speak." Naruto chirped catching Kakashi's attention.

"I see. You wouldn't have informed me if there wasn't about to be a problem."

"She has inherited the healing chakra and Kusa has been abusing it. They try and take her back and I will level the village." Naruto growled. Kakashi winced and nodded.

"I will inform Hokage-sama of the issue as well as your threat."

"Healing chakra?" Jay asked perplexed as they slowly moved from that room.

"The Uzumaki clan has several different kekkai genkai, most are passive in nature. No one inherits all of them and some of them are rarer than others. Chakra chains are one of the offensive bloodlines. However, the ability to heal a person of nearly any injury with a simple bite is one of the more unique and rare talents. However, it is also the most dangerous. Overuse of this bloodline will lead to death. Furthermore, the bites leave behind marks, that without the right jutsu, are permanent." Naruto explained the reasoning behind his anger becoming apparent. "Apparently, her mother died because they forced her to use this ability even when it became dangerous and have been doing the same with her."

"Tch..Bastards." Karui growled.

"I know right?" After a second Naruto tilted his head looked towards the Kumo team inquisitively. "Your village has been trying to increase the number of bloodlines that it has right?"

"Hai. Unfortunately some have attempted to use less than honorable means."

"Why hasn't Kumo offered sanctuary to the clans in Kiri wanting to escape the civil war? For that matter why hasn't Konoha?" Everyone froze at Naruto's question and Jay found himself repeatedly banging his head on the wall.

"How did we miss such an opportune moment for that?"

"I don't know. There might still be time. Want to use my summons to get the message to him? I'm sure they wouldn't mind."

"Hai." The Konoha team laughed as Jay wrote the missive with anime tears streaming down his face while his team both laughed and berated themselves for not thinking of that sooner. A quick summons later and the fox was off. Naruto had explicitly asked the messenger to get a picture of the Raikage's face when he read the message so that everyone could have a good laugh.

For the remaining four days the teams had little to do besides catch up, trade stories and watch as more teams made their way to the tower. In that time, team eleven had received the bounty for Orochimaru's death and were getting bored. So it was a relief when they were all called to the arena floor on the fifth day laughing as Sasuke's team barely made the deadline by mere seconds. As they lined up Naruto tried to suppress his laughter and tune out of the speech that the Sandaime was making. Instead he turned slightly to see Kabuto to his right and smirked.

"I see you made it again. Are you going to drop out again, coward?" He whispered just loud enough for Kabuto to hear. He was rewarded by the silver haired genin gritting his teeth and smirked as instead of withdrawing, he remained. Thankfully, killing was still allowed and he just hoped that the medic would face someone who would kill him.

"Now then the screen behind me will randomly generate the matches so I don't want to hear any complaining." The genin watched in anticipation as the board began to quickly flash through the names and Naruto felt himself snort.

"Random my ass. The Uchiha is getting the first match, just watch." Nearly everyone rolled theirs eyes believing it to be jealousy until true to his word Sasuke was selected for the first match.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. Kimiko Namikaze...

"Like I said random my ass."

"Jealous dobe?"

"Of what?" Naruto asked giving him a once over. "I have yet to see anything to be jealous of." Sasuke felt himself grit his teeth until he noticed who his opponent was.

"Well just watch as I destroy your teammate, dobe. Then you'll be forced to acknowledge I'm superior."

"The day you beat Kimiko is the day that the entire Uchiha clan is resurrected from the dead and the Nidaime let's go of his grudge towards the Uchiha." He retorted making Sasuke scowl in anger.

"Are both competitors ready?"

"Hai." Sasuke snarled.

"Keep your monkey marbles of of me Uchiha or I will personally rip them from your head and feed them to you." Kimiko snarled making the people that were aware of her identity wince. Kimiko's hatred of the sharingan was legendary and they knew that she would make good on her threat.

"Scared of the sharingan, huh? You should be."

"I'm not scared. I loathe the sharingan with every fiber of my being and wish that Itachi had finished what he started and wiped your clan off of the face of the earth." Sasuke snarled at the mention of his brother and the jonin winced knowing what she was doing.

"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Kimiko Namikaze begin." Whispers began at the name but it was forgotten as Sasuke ran at the vixen intent on making her suffer only to double over as her fist buried itself into his stomach. To Sasuke he felt as if he had just been hit by a sledge hammer and before he finished registering the pain he was flung to the opposite side of the arena and imbedded into the wall. Kimiko looking at him in disinterest.

"Either get up or don't I couldn't care either way." She growled. "The difference is if you get up I can hit you again."

"Shut up! Your nothing! A nobody! You came out of nowhere and have the audacity to look down on the Uchiha clan and one of it's elite! I'll make you bow to an Uchiha elite!" Kimiko blinked and looked around the room in confusion quickly spying Minato and Kushina in their ANBU masks hidden in the corner. Turning back to the clearly unstable and hallucinating genin she replied honestly.

"Where is Itachi, Mikoto, Shishui, Izuna or Madara? They are the only elite I recognize from your clan. The rest were nothing more than copycats riding on the coattails of those that had actually accomplished something. Never doing anything of note and acting like they were gods among men that should be worshipped. Five, brat, of your clan were elites. The rest were glory seeking brats who were incapable of doing anything on their own." Sasuke saw red as everyone in the room winced at the stinging (yet somewhat true) remarks. Unfortunately, for Sasuke, his anger made him forget about everything but killing the kunoichi in front of him. One moment he was racing towards her and the next he was slamming into the wall once more except this time she had followed suit.

"Well, shit." Naruto groaned making everyone blink.

"What's wrong Naruto?" Samui asked in confusion.

"Look at Kimiko's face." The kunoichi's face was twisted in pure rage and she was growling angrily. "Now look at Sasuke's. Then think back to the beginning of the match." It only took the sight of the sharingan for the dots to connect and when they did the color drained from the face of everyone present including his disguised parents.

For Hayate, he was fighting every one of his instincts which were screaming at him to flee. He felt as if there was a predator in front of him and he was the prey. The girl before him was radiating so much anger it was nearly palatable. He didn't want to be where he was right then and when he caught the blonde's words he wanted to be there even less. He could step in but he knew he couldn't until there was a clear decision. Unfortunately, by the time there would be he knew that it would be to late to save the Uchiha.

Sasuke was in pain. That much he knew. He went from being in the middle of the arena to the opposite wall before he could blink and then found himself flying to the other side of the arena just as fast. Only he didn't make it as something impacted his back and he swore he felt something break. The edges of his vision going black as he started to loose consciousness was suddenly driven away as his face seemingly lit on fire the agony was like nothing he had ever felt. The fire seemed to be spreading and before he knew it he was writhing on the ground in agony. It took him a few minutes but eventually he knew why he was in agony.

"My eyes! What did you do to my eyes?!" He screamed. Kimiko looked down at the writhing shinobi and slowly raised her clenched fist opening it slowly and several of the rookies ran from the room to vomit. Impaled on two of her claws, was a pair of blood red sharingan.

"I made good on the first half of my promise Uchiha. Now hold still so I can feed them to you." She snarled taking a step forward.

"Winner Kimiko." Hayate quickly intervened making her halt her advance and click her tongue in irritation. Looking down at her hand she flared her fire chakra incinerating the offending orbs before heading off to "clean the filth off of her hands" as she put it.

"Well that was unexpected..." Anko whistled as the medics wound up having to tranquilize the boy before fleeing from the room with him in tow. Hiruzen sighed at the amount of paperwork this was going to cause him.

"Not really, she did warn him."

Hinata Hyuga vs. Yoroi Akado...

"Kick his ass Hinata!" Naruto cheered happily. The unsaid request to dispose of the traitor went unsaid. As she took her place in the arena, Hinata watched her opponent closely. She knew approximately how strong he was based on his chakra reserves but she wasn't willing to risk being wrong. However, based on the way that he was standing she was somewhat less worried.

"Your teammate shouldn't be encouraging you to fight an opponent you can't beat." Hinata waited to reply until after Hayate had started the match and even then she held back until he rushed in towards her.

"Big words for a traitor trying to fight a Hyuga in taijutsu." She replied eerily calm before quickly spinning away from him and delivering a swift juken strike to the back of his head ending his life.

"Winner Hinata." Hayate said in shock that she would kill a fellow genin until her accusations of him being a traitor registered. He could tell that few others had heard the heiress and grimaced at the implications. Shaking his head he turned to look at the board once more.

Omoi vs. Zaku Kinuta...

As the two took their places Omoi stared at the sound nin carefully and took a deep breath. He knew that the nation was relatively new and that there had been some unsettling rumors about it but he harbored no possibility of losing the match. From the way his opponent moved he had little in the ways of ninjutsu and genjutsu, which meant that the nin focused on ninjutsu. He just didn't know which element.

"Begin." The match was quick. As soon as Zaku raised his arms revealing the tubes inside of them. Omoi had narrowed his eyes and moved at the last second. The blast of wind that the implants had caused missing him and he took the opening that the surprised genin gave vanishing from view and reappearing behind him, sword drawn. Zaku, believing he had missed, made to taunt him only for his head to fall from his shoulders.

"Winner, Omoi." Hayate announced getting slightly annoyed that all of the matches had ended with crippling or killing blows thus far.

Kin Tsuchi vs. Kurotsuchi...

"This should be easy." Kin boasted despite her nervousness. Kurotsuchi snorted and nodded towards Hayate indicating that she was ready.

"Begin." Once more the match was short as Kurotsuchi jumped into the air performing a short four seal sequence.

"Yoton: Sekkaigyo no jutsu." Kurotsuchi quickly spat out a white glob while going through a second set of seals.

"Suiton: Mizurappa." A blast of water struck the glob hardening it, and the force of the water jutsu sent it hurtling faster at the sound kunoichi, who had little to no speed due to her sole focus on genjutsu, was struck in the head by the speeding projectile. She was dead before her body ever hit the floor.

"Winner, Kurotsuchi." Hayate sighed. The girl donned an arrogant smirk and headed back to her teammates.

Naruto Uzumaki-Namikaze vs. Kabuto Yakushi...

Silence. That was the sound in the arena as heads turned slowly to look at the blonde boy smiling serenly at the shocked expressions.

"WHAT THE HELL?!" Kiba yelled in shock breaking the trance on everyone and turning the looks of shock on the Iwa nin's faces to looks of hatred.

"What's wrong Kibbles? It is my birth name. I have the birth certificate to prove it." Naruto replied before glancing towards the med nin who looked surprised. "Are you coming or not? I want to know if you are any stronger than your friend from the forest." Kabuto's eyes narrowed as he glared at the blonde. The remark had stirred the anxiety that he had been suffering from after Orochimaru failed to return from marking Sasuke.

"Eager to lose Naruto-kun?"

"No not really." Kabuto could feel his anger rising and he brought a kunai in front of him in a ready position.

"Begin."

"So tell me Kabuto, how long have you been working with Orochimaru?" That one sentence brought every conversation to a screeching halt as eyes began to widen.

"I don't know what you are talking about." Kabuto hoped that his voice was even and not giving away his anxiety.

"You he never made it to your meeting because I killed him right? Well, my team killed him in a joint effort but I was the one that removed his head." Any semblance of composure left at Kabuto at the moment as he surged forward angrily intending on killing the irritating blonde. Dodging the kunai Naruto smirked at the medic.

"I thought you didn't know what I was talking about? Why are you getting so angry? He was just a traitor." Naruto taunted and achieved the desired effect. Kabuto threw the kunai at him and ran forward hands glowing green.

"Ah, the chakura no mesu. To manage to turn such a supplementary healing jutsu offensive is rather demented, don't you think Kabuto?"

"Shut up!" He roared swinging at Naruto hoping to sever the arteries in his neck. Ducking under the swing Naruto buried his fist into Kabuto's abdomen sending him flying into the wall. Standing angrily Kabuto made another charge at Naruto only to stop halfway as he was wrapped up in glowing chains and his head separated moments later by a clone with Naruto's sword. To ensure that he was gone Naruto fired a quick over powered Gokakyu no jutsu at the body incinerating it in it's entirety.

"Winner, Naruto. That was unnecessary at the end Naruto."

"Yes it was. You saw just how proficient he was in iryo-jutsu to use the scalpels offensively. Add in he was working with Orochimaru and there is no such thing as overkill in order to prevent him from resurrecting or even healing himself despite his missing head." Hayate found himself secretly agreeing with the boy.

Ino Yamanka vs. Samui...

Ino took a deep breath and headed down towards the arena. She had seen how efficient the last Kumo shinobi had been and truth be told she was nervous. Most of the genin she had seen were fighting either way above chunin or near academy level and it terrified her. Especially as, even though she had trained much harder, she placed herself in the latter category. It wasn't true, that much she knew but at the same time it was also was as she had taken most of the time since graduation to repair the damage that she had done.

"Are both competitor's ready?" Both blondes nodded. "Begin."

At first neither blonde moved as they assessed their opponent and tried to strategize a way to win without giving to much away. They knew that they needed to keep as much secret as they could for the next matches so they wouldn't be predictable or reliant on half mastered techniques. Sighing to herself Ino drew several kunai and launched them towards her opponent while taking off to the right. Samui raised an eyebrow and agilely dodged the knives before catching the heiress' punch in her left hand and spinning delivering a powerful kick to her midsection. Ino was the one that displayed her agility when she flipped over the leg and attempted to mule kick the other blonde. Only for Samui to toss her away with the hand she was still clutching.

Ino flipped and landed on her feet frowning. She knew that the fight itself wouldn't be easy but she had expected some sort of surprise of opening that hadn't occurred. Samui on the other hand was focused on keeping her face neutral. The amount of agility that the blonde had displayed had taken her by surprise. If she hadn't been trained by B she probably wouldn't have been able to react to the attack fast enough. Another standoff occurred as the two eyed one another again. This time it was the Kumo kunoichi that moved first. Drawing her sword she dashed at the heiress intent on ending the match. Ino hastily drew another kunai and blocked the attack only for her entire body to seize and a scream of pain tore from her throat.

"Raiton: Jibashi." She quietly intoned. "Sorry but I prefer not to give to much away before the finals and since you're one of Hinata's friends I didn't want to hurt you to much." She explained as Ino passed out from pain.

"Winner, Samui." Hayate called grateful for a match that hadn't ended in a fatality.

Kankuro vs. Rock Lee...

Neither boy said anything as they awaited the signal to start. If Kankuro was honest with himself he was getting worried. So far most of the Konoha genin were insanely strong and some of them seemed to have a decent relationship with the Kumo shinobi. Shaking his head as he heard the command to start he blinked as the genin vanished and then he knew nothing.

For the spectators it was the fastest match yet. As soon as Hayate had said start Lee had vanished only reappearing when his foot went straight through the boy in front of him and connected with the bundle on his back sending flying and slamming into the wall. The wall cracked and the bundle unraveled as it hit the floor revealing an unconscious Kankuro on the floor. Lee stared in shock clearly surprised by the turn of events and Hayate sighed.

"Winner, Rock Lee."

Temari vs. TenTen (same as cannon)...

Dosu vs. Gaara...

"Begin." That was all it took for the bandaged genin to rush the jinchuriki pulling his sleeve up only to get trapped in a cocoon of sand. Reaching out and clenching his fist the genin exploded into a shower of blood and gore that had unprepared and even some prepared shinobi turn slightly green.

"Winner, Gaara." Hayate was not only surprised by the number of quick matches but also annoyed by how many bodies had been removed from the arena. Over half of the matches so far had ended in casualties and Hayate was certain that this was becoming the bloodiest of the chunin exams ever held in Konoha.

Misumi Tsurugi vs. Iwao...

Hayate sighed knowing that this match would just add to the growing list of casualties but watched nonetheless as both genin took their places. Glancing at both of them and getting a nod indicating that they were ready he took a breath.

"Begin." No sooner than he said that Misumi raced at his opponent.

"Doton: Doryuso," Immediately getting skewered by the earth jutsu that Iwao had produced near instantaneously.

"What kind of ninja uses a frontal assault on an unknown opponent?" Iwao sneered and headed back to his team.

"Winner, Iwao."

Neji Hyuga vs. Kiba Inuzuka...

"Let's go Akamaru! We can't possibly loose this match! We know how the Hyuga fight from all the time that we spent in Hinata's class!"

"Please do not compare that failure's ability to that of a true Hyuga. She is weak and will always be."

"Well, of course she's weak. She needs to be protected but that doesn't mean we didn't get the basics of how the juken works from her spars either."

"At least we agree on something." Neji grunted in disdain.

"Begin." Before Kiba could move Neji was in front of him and pain erupted through his body in multiple places as the older boy jabbed at his tenketsu shutting them down. A devastating palm strike sent him flying into the wall and into the land of dreams. Glaring at the barking dog he turned as Akamaru whimpered.

"Winner, Neji Hyuga."

Shikamaru Nara vs. Shino Aburame...

"I forfeit! The Aburame clan's jutsu is impossible to counter for a clan who relies on chakra to use their techniques."

"Winner, Shino Aburame."

Katsuki vs. Chouji Akimichi...

"I forfeit!" Chouji called out slightly in fear of the Iwa nin having seen how easily and ruthlessly his teammates had decimated and killed their opponents and not wanting anything to do with it.

"Winner, Katsuki."

"Pathetic."

"There is nothing pathetic about avoiding a fight you can't win." Naruto replied evenly making the Iwa nin growl at the Namikaze heir.

Karui vs. Kenji...

"You any good with that sword?" Karui asked in interest spying the blade on Kenji's back.

"Maybe. I'd ask you but Kumo swordsmen and women have always been good. It would insult your pride if I did." He replied making the Kumo kunoichi smile in return. Both genin drew their swords and waited for the signal.

"Begin." The two stood still waiting for the other to move analyzing their opponent's stance. Kenji found himself growing more and more self-conscious by the minute but kept a smirk as he waited for the right opportunity to strike. Karui found herself assessing the style that the boy was using and while not nearly as polished, as it was obviously self-taught, it was impressive for a genin that didn't have a full year of experience. She was so focused she nearly missed when he blurred from sight and swung his sword at her head. Quickly raising her sword to parry the blow she was taken by surprise at the force behind the swing.

"Impressive. There was a lot of force behind that swing." Karui praised jumping back and bringing her sword to into a downward slash that Kenji moved to block only to replace at the last moment when she changed the attack's direction in mid-swing.

"You are clearly self-taught."

"There is this weird sense of accomplishment when you learn something on your own. I intend to consult a swordsman in the future when I am comfortable enough showing my skills to a master. Although, you are wrong about one thing."

"What?"

"I'm not self-taught. I'm inventing my own style." He corrected swinging low in an attempt to disable her legs. Jumping over the swing she kicked him in the face and placed distance between them again.

"From scratch?!" She choked out remembering what B had told her about trying to do that before learning a style to have the basics down.

"Yes." He replied closing the distance once more only this time when she blocked her legs buckled due to the increase in strength that he seemed to have gotten.

'No.' She thought narrowing her eyes. 'He's increased the weight of the sword with doton natured chakra! Normally adding doton chakra increases the stability of the sword and durability. I've never heard of it adding to the weight of the blade.' She thought.

"Raiton: Jibashi." As her blade sliced through his he jumped back but not fast enough to avoid getting nicked by the blade. Electricity coursed through his body and he gritted his teeth as he pulled his hands up and began making hand seals.

"Suiton: Mizurappa." He called sending the water towards the kunoichi and watching as the lightening began to travel through the water. Karui cursed as the now electrified water crashed into her at the same moment that the lightening reached the caster. As soon as the lightening struck Kenji, however, he burst into smoke revealing a charred log in his place. Panting from his position on the wall, Kenji glanced around and froze as he felt the tip of a blade at his throat.

"Forfeit." Karui said through gritted teeth not knowing how long she would be able to maintain her grip on her sword if the spasms continued.

"I forfeit." Kenji sighed. His taijutsu was passable but he knew he couldn't beat her without his sword for reach and he had used most of his chakra in that last jutsu.

"Winner, Karui."

"That was good. I never thought someone would turn my jutsu against me like that."

"I asked sensei for some suiton jutsu to supplement my doton affinity in case I fought a lightening user and could force them to use jutsu. Sound strategy but it still takes way to long for me to do the water jutsu, and to much chakra so it's kind of a last resort measure."

"It's still good and something that I will have to watch for in the future when you finish your style." She complemented.

Emi vs Aimi...

"Good luck Aimi!" Hinata called making the girl blush in embarrassment and shame as she remembered how much she used to bully the other girls in the class. Emi smiled and held out her hand in a show of good sportsmanship.

"Let's show our classmates how much we've changed." Nodding in agreement Aimi shook her hand before separating and taking their places making the jonin smile in approval.

"Not just how much I've improved. How much better I am than my teammates." Aimi declared making some jonin scoff at the idea she was stronger than the Uchiha.

"Begin." The two girls flew at each other at nearly mid-chunin level speeds as they engaged in a fast paced taijutsu match that showed they had both branched out and learned a style different from the academy one and that the styles suited their body types and strengths greatly. Dodging a punch to the face, Emi jumped back and quickly formed a hand seal and inhaled.

"Suiton: Teppodama." She called firing multiple projectiles at her classmate who quickly weaved seals of her own.

"Doton: Doryuheki." Aimi called out creating a wall in front of her to take the blasts.

"Where did she go?" Emi wondered aloud as the wall broke apart to reveal her opponent was missing. Spinning she caught a fist headed for her head and threw the girl towards her own wall releasing another barrage of water bullets prompting yet another wall.

"Stop hiding behind walls!" She groaned in frustration before forming a different set of hand seals.

"Magen: Narakumi no jutsu." She called as soon as Aimi got close only for the girl to release the genjutsu and to place more distance between them. Emi was watching her opponent closely knowing that she didn't have the reserves to fight a prolonged chakra based battle but she also knew that taijutsu was out of the question as Aimi had slightly more strength and flexibility than she did.

"You've definitely improved Aimi. I'll give you that. More than I expected."

"What can I say? Ebisu is a good teacher when the student listens. Unfortunately, both of my teammates are hard of hearing." Both girls giggled at the jab and refocused on their opponent. Emi reached behind her and quickly pulled a canteen out. Opening it she adopted a somewhat familiar stance.

"Suiton: Kirigakure no jutsu." The mist, while not widespread or very thick did obscure sight for both opponents and Emi wasn't done jumping above the mist she formed yet another hand seal. If this didn't take out Aimi she was in trouble.

"Raiton: Jibashi." As electricity surged through the cloud the watching genin found themselves wincing in pain, especially the ones that had been on the receiving end of the jutsu. As the mist dispersed Emi tensed when her opponent was nowhere to be seen.

"Doton: Shinju Zanshu no jutsu." Aimi whispered coming up behind Emi and reaching out towards her leg. "Kanashibari no jutsu." Emi cursed as her body locked in place and looked up at the kunoichi behind her.

"We had a bad matchup didn't we?"

"Sort of. However, if you hadn't made so much noise jumping off of the ground I wouldn't have thought to hide as quickly and you may have gotten me with that suiton/raiton combo."

"Winner, Aimi." Hayate called proud of the two before him that had clearly done their hardest to erase their mistakes.

"The last match will be a three way fight between the remaining competitors. So will Sai, Haru and Katsu please report to the floor." As the named genin moved to the center Kakashi beamed at the other Konoha jonin at the victory of having all of his genin in the finals at once.

"Begin." The three launched at one another to test their speed, strength and flexibility in a taijutsu match. The three seemed almost even in strength until Katsu was able to land a blow to Haru's abdomen and knock him back spinning to launch a quick jab at Sai's face only to jump away as Sai tried to cleave the genin's arm off with his tanto. Standing apart they stared at one another and seemed to have come to the conclusion that taijutsu just wasn't going to settle the the fight. As Haru and Katsu began weaving seals, Sai drew a scroll and began to quickly draw.

"Choju Giga."

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu."

"Katon: Gokakyu no jutsu." As the two fireballs collided and exploded, black and white bests jumped over it and charged at the two genin forcing them to pull out kunai to defend.. Ink splattered everywhere and Katsu quickly launched several kunai in both directions. Realizing what his friend was planning Haru quickly brought his hands together and released another ninjutsu.

"Doton: Doryuheki." A wall sprung from the ground and intercepted the kunai aimed at him while Sai was forced to jump away from them only for the kunai to detonate on impact. Shielding his face and vitals from the debris Sai formed a quickly seal and focused on the ink at the other two genin's feet. He hoped he could get the technique to work before they noticed.

Hayate watched as the smoke slowly cleared and snickered slightly at the genin's situation. Haru and Katsu were trapped in a seal that had formed around their feet and he noticed that the ink splatters were no longer present. Seeing as they couldn't move he turned to check on Sai and sweat drop.

"The match has ended in a draw. None of the competitor's are able to continue." He declared shaking his head. The blast had knocked Sai into a wall and knocked him out in the process. He had just enough time to prevent his opponents from continuing. 'Genin.' He thought in amusement. Though he had to admit that it was a clever strategy that, he believed, only Sai could pull off.

"That concludes the preliminary examination. The chunin exams will continue in one month and will be conducted in front of your kages, daimyo and prospective clients of your individual villages. The matches will be announced the day of the finals and not a moment sooner. However, you will have this month to prepare for your possible opponents. Bear in mind that it is possible for all of you to become chunin while the reverse also holds true and none of you may become chunin. Good luck to you all." Hiruzen declared and the jonin nodded. They had a lot of work to do and he knew that it would be worth it in the end.

**********T.B.C*********

A/N: Hi there! Sorry this took a lot longer than I thought to type out and as a result delayed it's release. To be honest I got stuck on the matches and had to step away before I suffered writer's block. This chapter is, in all honesty, the average length of two chapters. I really want to get out of the chunin exams as they seem to give me anxiety and a lot of difficulty in writing. In any event, do you want a training chapter for the month and the reveal of the fourth's "survival" or do you want me to go straight to the finals? I know that people wanted a training chapter for Second Chances and I wanted to see what you thought. Also, tell me if you like the new chapter length. This will probably persist until the end of the exams and if you like it I will try to maintain the chapter length. Just bear in mind that this will slow down the updates. Finally, did you want me to place the jutsu and translations at the end of the chapters? I had someone point out that they had no idea what the jutsu meant when they were in Japanese and wondered if you would be interested in that. Until next time! Ja ne!