Author's note: Alright so here's the next chapter hope you enjoy.


Previously on the TNBT:

"So when do these practices begin sensei?" asked Hana.

"Right now..." said Suji "...would Naruto, Itachi and Anko step up?"

A resounding *SLAP* was heard through the room as everyone but the 3 aforementioned students amd the instructor slapped themselves.

Soon shouts of outrage and declarations of love broke out.

"ENOUGH." That seemed to calm the class a bit. "It was a coincidence that it happened, although many might not be happy, I ask that you all quit complaining. For team placements their is no guarantee that you'll be on a team with anyone you'd like to be with. Grow up, in less than a year you will be the next fresh batch of genin and must all learn how to work well with one another if you plan on surviving past your first B-ranked mission."

After this was said the whole class was so quiet that you could hear a pin drop.

Without any more troubles the rest of the teams were made and soon enough the students had all made their way out to a nearby field and separated into their designated teams, trying to come up with a plan of sorts.

"Hey, I'm Naruto and that's Itachi le-"

"I know who you are Mr. Namikaze Jr-sama and elite Uchiha-sama," interrupted Anko with a sneer ad she walked away towards her group of friends.

"Hmm, what's her problem?"

Itachi who had been silently watching the altercation with narrowed eyes could only "Hn" in response. She hadn't really left the best first impression on either one of them and while Naruto was more easy going and would definitely attempt to befriend her again, Itachi was more serious. There have been cases where ninjas have betrayed other ninjas and he would have to be careful around Anko. It was clear to him that she seemed to hold a grudge towards them due to their royal lineage.

Naruto being the first born of the current Hokage, heir to the Namikaze-Uzumaki clans and the first born of the last known main house Uzumaki was definitely considered royal lineage. He was the first born and heir to the Uchiha clan, a very powerful clan and one of the founders of Konohagakure no Sato. Unlike them she didn't have a family that was well-versed in the ninja ways, now that he though about it she might actually not even have a family. She was about 9 years old and the 3rd shinobi war had finished roughly about 8 years ago so there was a possibility that they had been killes in action. Maybe they weren't even ninjas to begin with. For all he knew they could have been merchants. Merchants were always in danger on the road and it's possibile that bandits may have killed her parents off. He would have continued thinking about all the possibilities but soon Seiji came and started the first round of fights.

"In the following matches there will be a three vs three where both teams will be provided with a piece if paper. You must decide who to give this paper to and must protect this paper from the enemy team. The winners will be announced either when a party is unable to continue or when the paper of one of the teams has been stolen or destroyed. No lethal force is allowed although you may use your standard issue tools, if I say to stop the match then you must comply. Understood?"

"Hai."(24)

"So could (don't feel like writing names) and (same as previously written) report to the arena? Everyone else wait patiently until it's your turn.

(I'll skip the fights that lead up to team Naruto)

"Hmm." So far Suji was satisfied with some of the performances he has seen. Anko's group of friends all seem very skilled but then again he already knew that, he had been teaching them for a while now. Of course there were also those who he was greatly disappointed in *cough* fangirls *cough* but he knew that at this point there wasn't much that could he done. With the students graduating in less than 6 months they would soon take the exam given to them by their Jonin and many would fail.

Next up was a team that would definitely not disappoint. He had been ordered by Orochimaru himself to put these three together in a team. He immediately complied, Orochimaru was a powerful figure in the village and while many may see it as a bit strange for Orochimaru to take an interest in 3 very young Genin hopefuls, he did not. After all the team was compromised of 3 highly skilled students and a person of Orochimaru's skill would definitely being out the best in these three students.

"The match between Naruto Namizake-Uzumaki, Itachi Uchiha and Anko Mitarashi vs (don't feel like writing out the names) begins... now!"

As soon as the last word had left Seiji's mouth Itachi had flung 3 shuriken with 2 looking to be off target. This led to one of the students letting his guard down only to be shocked as the 2 shurikens clashed and soon enough the trajectory of one of the shurikens was changed and before he even realized it the paper he had held in his hand had been stabbed by the shuriken and said shuriken had soon stopped on the floor. Realizing what happened one of his teammates attempted to run for the paper only to spin stop once she saw that Naruto had picked up the paper and had quickly ripped it up.

Throughout the classroom only compliments were heard for the team.

"Well done guys, you managed to take down the opposition in a very effective manner and even managed to throw them off their game with that one surprise."

Naruto and Itachi seemed relatively satisfied. Anko on the other hand seemed annoyed, Naruto and Itachi had finished the drill very early and as a result she didn't get a chance to do anything. Thinking about it and seeing the praise that the two got only seemed to infuriate Anko even more. She just knew that this was their way of getting back at her for how rude she was to them earlier and as a result she refused to let them show her up. Anko was very ready for the next round.

"Ok so for this next round the rules will all be the same. The first match of the semi-finals will be Kurenai Yuhi, Hana Inuzuka and Yugao Uzuki vs Genma Shiranui, Gekko Hayate and Seijoka Akashita will begin shortly. All fighters please make your way to the field." In less than a minute all those present on the field were in a battle stance. " The fight will begin... now!"

Immediately Kurenai had jumped back while Hana had adopted a protective position in front of Kurenai while Yugao was up ahead.

Hayate, Genma and Seijoka had all decided to stay back. They each knew about Kurenai's aptitude for genjutsu and didn't want to be caught within the range of her genjutsu.

No one would move an inch and the spectators were getting impatient. Seconds turned to minutes and finally Kurenai reached into one of her pouches and pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it at the floor. This caused the enemy team to put even more distance between themselves and Kurenai's team. After some waiting the smoke began to dissipate and as soon as it did purple was seen being followed by brown and black in that exact order. Muscles tensed and soon enough the action began. Kurenai was still in the back and had maintained a safe distance from her enemies yet she wouldn't do anything which not only confused her enemies, but also the spectators with the exception of three people.

Due to Kurenai hanging back Hana was soon double-teamed by Genma and Seijoka who were fighting her using their fists and a kunai respectively. Hana was using her claws to try to create some distance between herself and her opponents. Hana went to swipe diagonally at Genma only for him to duck very low to the ground and have to retreat from a kunai that would have stabbed right through her shoulder if she wouldn't have moved. She cursed wishing that it would have been a wooden kunai. She had noticed earlier that Seijoka was reaching for a kunai and had wished that it would have been a wooden one because due to her sharp claws she would have had an upper hand fighting against a wooden tool but when she saw the metallic glare of the standard issue kunai, her hope had vanished.

This time Genma pressed forward and swiped low under another diagonal swipe, again Seijoka came to his defense with a horizontal swipe of her own kunai that scratched one of Hana's claws when contact was made. However, unlike last time they didn't give Hana anytime to breath as Genma has spit out the senbon in his mouth at Hana. Hana who was caught off guard, deflected the senbon that due to the close proximity would have hit her neck but was soon kicked into a tree that was near their starting position.

Meanwhile Yugao and Hayate had been fighting the whole time with kunais. Yugao had swept Hayate's legs from under him and was about to plunge her Kunai into his abdomen but had to block a kick that would have made contact with her jaw if it would have been left unprotected. The sheer force of the kick and her weak grip had resulted in the kunai being forced out of her hand. She quickly moved back while shooting shuriken of her own, which were for the most part on target. This had slowed down Hayate's advancement and she was able to get her kunai back and quickly she sprung back into action and brought the kunai in a downward arc while Hayate brought up his kunai and another one that he quickly drew to stop the kunai in Yugao's hand. The two started to put more force into the clash. It was clear that Yugap had the upper hand, she had a stance that better utilized her energy and was also pushing downwards while Hayate's hands were too close and his legs were at an awkward position. This resulted in Hayate tiring out much quicker and realizing that he was going to lose the clash. Right when his arms were about to give up, Genma had managed to sneak up on Yugao and throw her near the tree that he noticed Hana was currently standing up by. He also noticed that Kurenai was right behind Hana.

Looking at each other Genma, Seijoka and Hayate nodded before rushing at the trio of girls. Due to the adrenine and excitement coursing through them they forgot about Kurenai's ability with genjustsu and soon another smoke bomb was dropped courtesy of Hana. By the time it was dropped they were too close and were deep inside the smoke. Sounds of fighting were heard for about a minute before everything went quiet. Soon the smoke started to dissipate once again and all but three were shocked by the outcome. So shocked in fact that not a single noise or word was spoken. On the floor, the aggressors of the final attack were seen and standing triumphantly were the trio of girls.

"Winners, Kurenai Yuhi, Yugao Uzuki and Hana Inuzuka. Job well done."After that the class was still a bit confused but eventually cheered for them.

Would Naruto, Itachi, Anko and (dont feel like thinking up names) step up and go to the left and right side of the field respectively?" With that said both parties were on their way to their designated areas. " The final match of the semifinals begins now!"

This time Anko has rushed forward quickly and delivered a low sweep that had hit the enemy in the leg and followed it up by another to fully throw him off balance, this converted into a kick to the solar plexus that had looked like it was going to create separation between the two, only for the student to come right back and get a hard knee to the face. Very few noticed that during the initial low sweep she had some ninja wire ready and had managed to wrap it around her opponent, after the second one she had layered the wire and when she delivered the kick to the solar plexus she had tugged on the rope. With one enemy disabled she was about to go right after another one when she realized that the paper was retrieved and destroyed.

"Job well done guys, Brilliant use of ninja wire Anko. There will be a thirty minute break and then we will proceed with the finals until then, do what ever you'd like," Suji finished with a proud smile.

"Wow Anko you work fast. Very nice job disabling (random name). You made it look easy." Naruto walked up to her.

Anko just looked at Naruto with a glare. And soon left.

"Naruto you should be careful around her."

"What do you mean Itachi?"

"She seems hostile towards us and I would much rather not have to worry about making a potential enemy within the village."

"Are you saying that you feel like Anko would attack us?"

"Hn."

"Well thanks for the heads up but I will keep on trying to befriend her."

"Hn. It's your grave."

With all that said the rest of their conversation was rather nice and joyful. Naruto had looked over at Anko's group every once in a while and was treated with the sight Anko glaring at Itachi and him everytime.

Soon the 30 minutes went by and Suji came back to start the final round.

"Alright could our final teams report to the arena." All six contestants could be seen walking towards the field. Naruto had a happy expression, Itachi looked indifferent, Anko was still glaring at Naruto and Itachi, Yugao looked indifferent, Hana had a cocky smirk and Kurenai wore a calculative look on her face.

"For the finals the rules will be the same as the ones from previous rounds. Now are both sides ready?"

Only nods were given.

"The final match starts in 3, 2, 1, now!"

Like her previous match kurenai had thrown a smoke bomb at the floor. Both teams had waited for the smoke to clear and once it cleared, they leapt at each other. Metal struck metal, flesh struck flesh, flesh struck... air?

Anko had decided to target her friend Kurenai and had been surprised when she had thought that she would make physical contact only to be surprised when she had gone right through Kurenai. Immediately thinking that she had been caught in a genjutsu she flared her chakra, however, Kurenai did not disappear.

"Anko, she's in the tallest tree, the one that's near their starting position." Said Naruto who quickly had to dodge an incoming shuriken.

Ankle puffing her cheeks in frustration at having been corrected by the boy she had been rude to the whole day, dashed at the awaiting Kurenai who was discretely preparing a genjutsu for Anko.

Kurenai had noticed that her good friend Anko had been very pissed and it seemed that she was pissed at the Namikaze and the Uchiha. She had an idea as to why she was pissed so she hadn't asked. Seeing that another was like than 10 feet away from her she launched her genjutsu.

Anko who was still mad hadn't realized that she had been caught by a genjutsu, so when she had hit Kurenai only to phase through her again she yelled in rage, "NAMIKAZE WHAT THE FUCK!"

Hearing his name and the obvious rage in her voice Naruto had turned towards her for a split second wondering what was going on. "What's up?"

Anko forgetting about the current drill stormed towards him while spitting insults. "You little bastard, what's your problem?! Trying to screw me over on purpose! Just leave me ALONE!"

Not knowing what to do, Naruto had turned his back and started facing Hana again. He was about to charge Hana and end the match when he heard a *cling* that had come from behind him. When he turned around the first thing he noticed was the back of one Uchiha Itachi who by the look of it had thrown something. Still not understanding what was going on he looked a bit up ahead to see Anko with her arm stretched in front of her looking as if she'd thrown something as well. Finally realizing what goes on he silently thanked Itachi.

By now everyone was quiet and shocked. They never thought that Anko would turn on a teammate, especially one whose parents were who they were.

"What do you think you're doing Anko?!"

Anko was pissed.

Itachi was pissed.

But so was Naruto.


Author's note: Anyone see what I'm doing here? I'll finish the match next chapter, but please, for now just read enjoy and review.