A/N: So, let's get this outta the way before we begin this chapter: The preliminary round won't start in earnest until *next* chapter, as I want to use this one to give Naruto some page time that isn't combat, or the discussion of it.

You're gonna get some (fairly melancholy) NaruSatsuki this chapter, so I think it'll be fun to read regardless.

Time for Chapter 26

Enjoy!


Medical jutsu was truly a marvel. When applied by skilled hands, it could practically erase even the most severe of injuries. Anything from a small cut to a severe wound could be taken care of, given that the medic in question was savvy enough. In Naruto's case, he had been lucky enough to be under the care of a pair of highly trained professionals, and as a result, he had felt largely healthy when he had taken his leave to Team Seven's shared dormitory for their temporary period of rest.

That had all happened roughly six hours prior, and the cell was now all closed up in their room. The genin had spoken very little to one another upon their first conscious reunion in over a day. Even after having been given medical attention, they were simply too exhausted. Sleeping arrangements had worked themselves out nonverbally. Satsuki took the single bed for herself, while Naruto and Shikamaru slept on opposing sides of the mattress on the floor. The thought had crossed the blonde's mind to argue against it, but he had lacked the energy.

Now, after having been soundly asleep for a large majority of the six hours Team Seven had occupied the tower, Naruto found himself very much awake. His rousing had not occurred on its own, as he had been jarred awake by his subconscious. As his eyes dragged open, Naruto was met by a vision that caused him to flinch. Standing over him, her eyes gleaming red with her sharingan, was Satsuki. While those details alone would have made the sight unsettling, her expression was chilling even through the darkness.

It was her eyes. Their color and tomoe aside, they held an emotion Naruto could not properly decipher or label. An unusual mix of curious and predatory. Regardless of the specific details, it made the Jinchuuriki greatly uncomfortable.

"Having trouble sleeping?" he asked, choosing to remain calm until he had a reason not to. When she did not respond in any way at all, Naruto carefully scooted back several feet and silently stood up. Despite his shift in position, Satsuki remained frozen in place, with only her eyes following him. It was then that Naruto noticed something disturbing. He had spotted the odd tattoo on his teammate's neck just prior to falling asleep, but had opted to save his worries for the morning.

It was now clear that he would not be afforded that luxury, as the marking had spread onto her face and all across her neck.

"Hey, what's up? Are you alright?" Naruto asked in a hushed tone, stepping forward and putting a hesitant hand on her shoulder. Though his words warranted no response, the moment his hand made contact with her, Satsuki blinked several times. Her dojutsu quickly deactivated, and the markings receded back to the mark on her neck.

"Why am I standing up?" she asked, suddenly looking quite woozy as she met his eyes skeptically. Naruto furrowed his brow. She appeared to be as lost as he was, if not more so.

"You were watching me sleep, I think." he said. The Uchiha girl's face twisted into an expression of embarrassment.

"Was I? I'm sorry." she muttered, shrinking in on herself a bit as she looked away. The blonde let his hand drop from her shoulder and waved it dismissively.

"It's fine. Was just wondering if something was wrong." he said. Satsuki nodded and sat herself back down on the edge of her bed. She then rubbed her eyes and let out a small yawn.

"I'm alright. Just sore and wishing I was in my own bed." she replied. A loud snore promptly echoed from the other side of the room, reminding the pair that Shikamaru was still very much asleep.

"Yeah, the floor kind of sucks. It's way too hot in here, too." Naruto said with a chuckle. The raven-haired girl studied him wordlessly for a few moments.

"You can have it if you want it." she offered, standing up and presenting her previous sleeping spot to him. Naruto raised an eyebrow at the offer.

"You've never been snuggly before now." he pointed out. The raven-haired girl's face gained color at his words.

"We're not gonna share, dumbass. We'd be switching places." she clarified. Naruto grinned at her obvious discomfort.

"I know. Just messin' with you." he said cheekily. Satsuki's lips pulled into a thin, irritated line at his teasing. No matter the situation or straits, the blonde would never miss an opportunity to push her buttons at least a tad.

"Do you want the bed or not?" she pressed, keeping her voice low so as not to wake the sleeping Shikamaru. Naruto shrugged his shoulders and scratched his cheek absently.

"I'll take it if you want me to. I'm just surprised you're offering at all, to be honest." he said simply. Satsuki's features relaxed slowly, a sigh eventually escaping her lips.

"If anybody deserves a blanket right now, it's you. You took way more punishment than me or Shikamaru did. I'm just being fair." she said. There was a slight trace of discomfort in her voice, and though it was subtle, Naruto easily noticed it.

"Are you sure you're alright?" he asked seriously. The Uchiha girl opened her mouth, an automatic response likely preloaded, but she stopped. As short as their interactions had been before bed, Satsuki had been visibly shaky.

"I'm just…feeling weird. Like something's wrong with me." she admitted. Naruto glanced back over his shoulder, where a small table with two chairs resided. He then gestured toward them.

"Come and sit. Let's talk about it, and then get some sleep." he suggested. To his surprise, his teammate did not argue. She simply made the short walk across the room and sat down in one of the chairs. Quickly joining her, the Jinchuuriki seated himself in the chair across from her and turned on the lamp in the center of the table. The light was quite dim, but enough to give him a better look at Satsuki's face.

"I feel like I missed a lot after I got stabbed." Naruto said once they were both settled. The raven-haired girl nodded and tucked a strand of her dark hair behind her left ear.

"I wasn't awake a ton longer. I got knocked out right after you did." she said, fidgeting with her fingers under the table as she spoke. The Jinchuuriki pointed to her neck.

"He put that weird tattoo on you, am I right?" he guessed. Satsuki then reached across herself and covered the marking with her hand.

"Yeah, he did." she said quietly. A wide range of emotions were flowing from her. She seemed simultaneously exhausted, and wide awake. Unsure, but also closely guarded. She was teetering on an edge, that much was clear. Just as Naruto was about to make further comments, she spoke again.

"I really thought you were going to die. I heard your heart slowing down." Satsuki said numbly. Naruto's gaze fell to the wood of the table. While hazy, he indeed recalled the pain, and the cold embrace of death approaching him. Satsuki's hands found their way to the top of the table, with her nails digging into the wood.

"I got so angry. Every part of me wanted to kill him. I gave it a shot, too. I tried to burn him to death. It didn't work, and then he finished me off." she said, her voice a hissing whisper. Naruto looked on with wide eyes as raw emotion seeped from his teammate.

"I'm never strong enough when it counts. I froze up and let you and Shikamaru fight him alone. By the time I had the guts to help, you were already beaten to hell. Then, you went and showed me just how weak I was by protecting us in a way I never could have." she continued on bitterly. Naruto shook his head

"You're not weak, and I didn't carry us any more than you did." he said. If Satsuki had heard him, she simply ignored him.

"It's always the same. I'm always too frail to keep people safe." the Uchiha girl lamented. She looked on the verge of tears, with her bottom lip quivering, and her eyes glassy. Having seen her in such a state only one other time, Naruto found himself at a loss.

"You saved my life against Haku. I'd be dead right now if it wasn't for you." he countered. Satsuki shook her head and gripped her temples.

"It took me sacrificing everything to even give you a chance." she said hoarsely. Two droplets then hit the table, reflecting light from the lamp on their cascade down from Satsuki's face. She was crying. Quietly, slowly, but crying all the same.

"I get handed another family, and I'm still not ready to defend them either. What does that make me? Just some freeloader?" the raven-haired girl whispered, more to herself than Naruto. She was having a breakdown. A nasty one, at that. At a loss for words, Naruto simply reached across the table and laid his hand on her cheek. Glancing at the hand from the corner of her overflowing eyes briefly, Satsuki then turned her brittle gaze to him.

"Everything I touch goes away in the end." she said hollowly. Naruto wiped a few tears from her face before setting his hand back down on the table.

"Where is this coming from? There's more to this than what you're telling me." he pressed gently. Satsuki sniffled slightly, her expression settling into apathy once more as she erected her stoicism anew.

"You know what happened to me." she said. Naruto took a moment to consider his words. The topic had shifted to one of great sensitivity, and one he knew very little about.

"I'm not gonna die on you. I swear." he assured her. The Uchiha girl stared at him in silence. It was clear that she was quickly becoming unreachable emotionally. Her defense mechanisms were kicking into high gear after having failed once.

"Don't make me that promise. You can't keep it." she said bluntly. Naruto frowned and leaned across the table a tad.

"What makes you think I can't? I'm not a liar." he questioned. Satsuki took a stabilizing deep breath to keep herself grounded.

"Because, you don't care about yourself. You care about us, you care about me, but not yourself. You'll get yourself killed being selfless." she replied. Her words were as on the nose as they possibly could have been, and despite his best silent efforts to tell himself otherwise, Naruto knew it.

"Can you blame me for wanting to protect you two? I've never had anybody else." he said in response. The light of the lamp then flickered a bit.

"No, I can't, but it proves my point. You're a danger to yourself. You weren't afraid to die today. You were reckless, and you got yourself skewered. You were willing to trade your life for ours." Satsuki said. The blonde swallowed a lump forming in his throat. She saw right through him on several levels.

"You're angry at me, aren't you?" he asked. The Uchiha girl reached across the table and tapped him on the forehead with her index and middle fingers. She then turned that slight contact with her fingers into a full hand on the side of his face, mirroring what he had done only minutes prior.

"For being yourself? No, I'm not. What I'm angry at is the fact that I can't seem to stop worrying. You're a walking heartbreak. I know you are. All the same, seeing you bleeding out on the ground made me so angry that I tried to kill a Sannin." she replied. Naruto struggled to find his voice for several seconds.

"Sounds kinda romantic when you put it that way." he said in a half-hearted attempt at humor. Satsuki found none whatsoever.

"If it is, it's in the worst possible way." she said solemnly. Her hand then slipped off of his face and rested back on the surface of the table. Her eye contact, however, did not waver even slightly.

"If you care about me, and I know you do, learn to have some self-love." she said seriously. Naruto struggled to hold her gaze. She was asking more of him than perhaps anybody ever had. To love himself. It was a foreign concept to the Jinchuuriki. He had never found a reason to have any affection for the person he was. Despite the magnitude of the request, he was well aware that it was born of some sort of care, if a very eclectic sort.

"While I work on that, I want you to learn to stop blaming yourself for every little thing." he finally said. Satsuki's expression kept consistent, but her eyes showed a transition through a number of emotions. After a time, she raised her thumb to her mouth and bit down, just hard enough to draw a prick of blood.

"Do it to yours now." she ordered him vaguely. While quite skeptical of what was transpiring, Naruto found no reason not to do as he was being told. As such, he quickly followed suit. Once both of their thumbs were bleeding, Satsuki raised hers to the center of the table.

"Now, press yours to mine." she said. The Jinchuuriki nodded and carefully overlayed his thumb with hers. The pressure caused both of their tiny wounds to send a small stream of blood down into the ridges of their hands. Satsuki then interlaced their fingers and squeezed, marking both his palm and her own with their shared blood. Despite not knowing what exactly he had just participated in, Naruto could sense its intimacy.

"It's my family's brand of a blood pact. It's usually reserved for bigger things than two kids with mental issues, but…I think this is important. We could both use the motivation." Satsuki explained, an odd twinge of pink on her cheeks. Naruto processed the information for a moment.

"Bigger things? Wait, are we married?" he asked incredulously. Satsuki groaned and separated her hand from his. She then stood up and stretched.

"No, moron. I'd have at least kissed you or something. It was a promise to keep up our own ends of the deal. You learn to like yourself while I learn not to blame myself." she explained. The blonde scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

"Okay, yeah. That makes a lot more sense." he said with a chuckle. Satsuki then walked over to the bed and pulled the top blanket off of it, tossing it at Naruto.

"Do your part, and I'll do mine. Now let's sleep." she said. The blonde quickly wrapped the blanket around his shoulders and returned to the floor at the side of the bed while Satsuki burrowed under her own blankets.

Within minutes, the entirety of Team Seven was at rest once more.


Kakashi took a moment to compose himself as he stood before a door. No matter how disagreeable or upset he was feeling, his job came with a certain level of intrinsic respect for rank. As such, letting his emotions run wild was unacceptable if he hoped to keep his position. Determining that he was ready to be civil, Kakashi turned the handle and opened the door without bothering to knock. Looking up from the desk of his temporary office in the tower, Hiruzen raised an eyebrow.

"No greeting? That's unlike you, Kakashi." the old man commented as the Copy Ninja stepped inside and shut the door behind him. Once again, Kakashi silently reined himself in. There was much he wanted to say, but a good deal of it was unacceptable.

"Forgive my lack of formality, but I feel like I have the right to speak freely." he said calmly. With unflinching composure, Hiruzen gestured for the younger man to continue.

"Speak your mind, then. Off the record." he said. Kakashi nodded, refusing an offer to sit down a moment later.

"Why wasn't I told immediately?" he asked. Hiruzen pursed his lips and folded his hands in front of himself on his desk.

"It wasn't as simple a situation as you'd like it to be." he replied. The Jonin scowled and shook his head. He had a great deal of respect for the Hokage, but his refusal to be upfront from the very start was instantly frustrating.

"How complicated could this have possibly been? Orochimaru is a monster, and you should know that better than anyone else. Especially after what happened the last time he was here." he said rigidly. The corners of Hiruzen's mouth twitched downward.

"Believe me, I remember. If I had thought I had the time to contact you, I would have. Anko was all I had available at the time." he said. Kakashi threw up his hands in frustration.

"You knew where I was. You gave me temporary leave so I could be here for the Exams. Anko and I aren't, weren't, in the same class. I could have made up the difference. I could have made it. You know that as well as I do." he shot back, his volume rising ever so slightly. Hiruzen exhaled through his nose and rose to his feet. A rare action in his case.

"Could you have stopped him, Kakashi? Do you honestly believe that?" he asked seriously, his weathered eyes boring into the Jonin's own.

"I could have given him enough resistance to make him back out. He wasn't here for a pitched fight. He only scuffled with my team because he had a goal in mind, and he made quick work of Anko from what we could tell." the younger man said. The Hokage did not falter.

"Your team would have been automatically disqualified had you been sent." he said. Kakashi scoffed at the elderly leader's words.

"You think that's what I'm worried about here? They almost died. Naruto probably would have without medical attention, and Shikamaru was apparently on the verge of a stress-induced heart attack when he dragged them through the front door." he replied. Hiruzen sighed and sat back down in his chair.

"I'm not sure what you want from me. If you think I made the wrong call, then that's entirely up to you. I'm not blind to how terribly things have turned out. I just need you to understand how utterly hopeless a situation it was. Even if I had sent you, there is every chance he would have simply killed you. He and Anko had history together, and she was shown no mercy." he said wearily. It was a fair point. One that Kakashi couldn't help but at least somewhat acknowledge.

"I heard that Satsuki was marked somehow. Is that true?" the old man asked to break the silence that had set in. The Copy Ninja nodded stiffly,

"Yes, she was. From what I can discern, it's a seal of some kind. It's loaded with chakra. According to what little I could get out of Shikamaru before he left to sleep, it gave her a huge power boost against a group of genin from the Sound Village." he reported. Hiruzen drummed his fingers on the desk pensively. There was a hint of recognition in his eyes.

"If things are as they seem, restraining that seal as soon as possible is our best course of action. How are you with fuinjutsu?" he asked. Kakashi made a 'so-so' motion with his hand.

"Decent, but not amazing. I'd need an array set up ahead of time." he said honestly. Hiruzen nodded and rested his chin on his interlaced fingers.

"The procedure will weaken her greatly. I'll leave it up to you whether or not you want her to fight before we act." he said. Kakashi considered his options briefly. Satsuki was almost certainly strong enough to completely wash a good majority of her opposition without a fuss, but there remained several threats, one of which was on her own team.

"I'll let her compete. Can you have an array ready for me by the time she's finished?" he asked. Hiruzen gave a curt nod.

"Consider it done. Now turn in for the night." he said, tacking on an order at the end. Kakashi took a deep breath and promptly exited the office. Once he was out in the hallway again, he began a trek toward the room occupied by Team Seven. It was two floors down. As he walked, the Jonin took stock of the situation once more.

By some miracle, all three of his genin were relatively healthy. Naruto still had a sizable bruise of unknown origin on his back, and Shikamaru's ear still had a hole punched in it, but they were healthy otherwise. If anything, their individual mental states were more of a concern following such a close call. Satsuki seemed to be the most outwardly shaken. Shikamaru and Naruto had been mostly relieved to simply be alive.

'They should be proud of themselves. They did a good job. Better than they had any right to.' Kakashi thought to himself as he rounded a corner and approached the stairs. If anything, they had overcome a more difficult test than they could ever face from their fellow genin in the third phase. All three of them were well above average for their rank, and were unlikely to run into much resistance against most of their peers.

'Shikamaru probably finds a way around all but two or three of them. Satsuki and Narutuo should be fine, too. I'm not all that worried.' the Jonin reviewed, reaching his second set of stairs at the thought. His team's dormitory was nearby, just around the next corner. They certainly needed the sleep they were currently enjoying, but for the sake of his own nerves, Kakashi had decided to check on them.

As he rounded the final corner, the Jonin spotted something unexpected. Standing at the door of Team Seven, trying the handle testingly, was a boy with red hair and a gourd strapped to his back. Though it was not immediate, Kakashi indeed recognized him. Gaara of the Sand. He and the remainder of his team were notable for a number of reasons. They were the children of the fourth Kazekage, and had completed a B-ranked mission. No small feat for a fresh genin team.

He had also allegedly murdered a team from Kusagakure during the second phase.

"You could always knock, you know." Kakashi called out to the Suna boy, slowly advancing down the hall as he spoke. Gaara did not flinch at the interruption. Instead, he simply stepped away from the door and turned to face the Jonin.

"I doubt they'd let me in. They don't seem too friendly to me." he said with a shrug. Kakashi studied the boy carefully. He was unnervingly calm, and the air around him smelled of blood.

"They're actually a nice enough group. Just not in the mood for conversation right now." the Copy Ninja said evenly. Gaara chuckled and tried the handle again without taking his eyes off of his superior.

"Honestly, they should show me more gratitude. They wouldn't be here if not for me." he said vaguely. Kakashi leaned against the wall of the hallway.

"Oh yeah? And how's that?" he asked. The Suna boy finally gave up on the door handle and folded his arms across his chest.

"He probably didn't bother telling you, but I gave Shikamaru a heaven scroll. He never could have gotten it alone." he revealed. The Jonin raised an eyebrow and stood up straight again.

"What reason could you possibly have to help them?" he inquired. Gaara's eyes drifted back to the door, almost as though he was staring right through it.

"Naruto Uzumaki. He's your village's container, isn't he?" he responded, answering Kakashi's question with a question of his own. The Copy Ninja's eyes narrowed. How a boy of foreign origin and low rank knew of such a thing was utterly puzzling.

"And before you ask…" the redhead began, closing his eyes mid-sentence. The floorboards then began to creak oddly.

"...I could feel him from across the desert." he concluded, his eyes snapping open again as he spoke. His irises had shifted from blue in color to gold, with an odd diamond-shaped pupil in their center. Before Kakashi could respond to the subtle revelation, Gaara began to walk away in the opposite direction. Watching him intently, the Copy Ninja's form then flickered.

In an instant, he was in front of the boy again. Slinging an arm across the front of Gaara's shoulder and leaning into his ear, Kakashi made his words count.

"You have a thing or two to learn about respect. Be careful who you threaten. Touch any of them outside of this Exam, and I'll hang you out to dry. You have my word on that." the Jonin said, an undertone of menace clinging to his calm tone. Gaara said nothing in response. He simply shrugged Kakashi's arm from his shoulder and kept on walking.

As Gaara disappeared down a flight of stairs at the end of the hall, Kakashi watched him like a hawk. Once he was well and truly gone, the Copy Ninja nodded to himself and returned his focus to his team's door, which he promptly opened with his spare key. Peering inside quietly, Kakashi felt himself relax. Silently stepping into the room, the Jonin found each of his genin out cold.

Satsuki was on the right side of the bed, with only her nose on up poking out from the covers. Naruto was unconscious on the floor on the same side, with a blanket loosely covering him. On the opposite side of the bed was Shikamaru, who lacked a blanket, but arguably seemed the soundest asleep. Satisfied with their condition, Kakashi slid out of the room and closed their door again, locking it on the way out.

'I wish I could let you all sleep in. You've earned it.'


Naruto rubbed his eyes and patted his cheeks to make himself more alert. Despite having slept rather well, he was exhausted. His eyelids were heavy, his arms and legs were sluggish, and his hearing was muffled.

'Probably the blood loss.' he thought to himself as he glanced around the large room he and the remainder of the genin were gathered in. The floors were made of solid concrete, with no indentations or cuts in the surface. The ceiling was extremely high, with a tall statue on the far side of the rectangular space. On the right side of the room was a balcony with metal railings and a set of stairs leading up to it.

"This place is huge. You'd never know it looking at this place from the outside." the blonde commented. Satsuki blew a strand of hair out of her face.

"We're underground right now, so it makes some sense." she said. Indeed, the group of prospective chunin had been led down several flights of stairs upon being awoken roughly thirty minutes earlier, and their final destination had been where they now resided.

"It's still kinda packed. I figured less people would be here." Shikamaru said through a yawn. Naruto nodded in agreement. There were a fair few genin remaining after the second phase. Too many, it seemed. From what the Jinchuuriki understood, the third phase of the Chunin Exams was based around head-to-head combat. With such a large pool of genin, even eliminating half of the group would leave a substantial number of people. Far more than the yearly average of freshly-promoted Chunin.

The room was naturally organized into individual groups, as most teams were inclined to keep within their familiar groups. Especially those from foreign villages. After several more minutes of mulling around, the genin were all silenced by a puff of smoke in front of the statue. Standing in the wake of the smoke was Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. Alongside him was Genma Shiranui, and Hayate Gekko.

With an approving nod, and several moments of silent assessment of the diverse group of genin before him, Hiruzen stepped forward and cleared his throat.

"First and foremost, I would like to congratulate you all on making it this far. The second phase tends to be the most strenuous, so your success in overcoming it speaks volumes." he began, earning a collective cheer from several of the more energetic teams.

"Unfortunately, while this year's crop of applicants for promotion is certainly quite talented, a problem has arisen. Under normal circumstances, the third phase would take place all at once, right here and now. Due to the excessive number of you still present, however, we've been forced to improvise." he continued, gesturing up to a screen on the left side of the room.

"In order to reduce the number of genin, we will be hosting a preliminary round. Each of you will fight once, with the winner advancing to the final round, and the loser being eliminated entirely. Thankfully, there are an even number of you remaining." the Hokage explained. The room then shifted around a bit. It was common knowledge that the third phase would consist of head-to-head combat, but the current arrangement was a surprise.

'So, that's why Kakashi-sensei was so strict about us getting to bed.' Naruto thought to himself. He then took a glance at his teammates. They both appeared quite calm, though a new tension was visible in their postures.

"Momentarily, a pair of names will appear on the screen. Once they do, all those not listed are to go up to the balcony, while the two selected genin will remain on the ground floor to participate in the first preliminary match." Hiruzen announced eloquently. The genin all nodded in unison.

"If we're all clear on the arrangements, we can get started." said Hayate, who had stepped forward into the space between Hiruzen and the group. Hayate, who Naruto could only assume was their proctor and referee, then pointed up the screen, where a blur of names were flying by. Slowly, the roulette came to a halt, with two names visible on opposing sides. At the sight of the result, Shikamaru gave a deep sigh to Naruto's left.

"First up, Shikamaru Nara of Konoha will face Kin Tsuchi of Otogakure!"


A/N: Oh yeah baby, Shikamaru is up first. I'm gonna try to put a fun spin on that fight, so it won't just be a rehash of canon.

I hope you guys enjoyed Naruto and Satsuki's scene. I tried to keep it pretty controlled, as while they definitely have something right now, they aren't romantic quite yet.

Please leave a review. I feel good about this chapter, and I would love to hear my reader's thoughts :)

See you next chapter!

Read and Review!