A Wolf and A Tiger

Chapter 3

A Wolf Comes Out

Just as their lips were about to meet, "hey, wolf boy, Hyuga, you do know we're waiting on the both of you to begin, right," the voice of Anko came in beside of them, they jumped and turned to see said woman just standing there with arms crossed and looking on impatiently. They blushed a deep red, Zen-Aku rubbed the back of his furry head while Alyssa bowed her head and found messing with her fingers was a good idea, "I heard everything, be sure to keep that Naruto form, and get in there with the rest of your squads." Zen-Aku made sure to he was keeping his Naruto transformation before him and Alyssa walked back into the area where the other genin and the hokage and the jonin senseis and the chunin exam proctors were all waiting for the two of them.

Each genin squad was lined up in front of the hokage, starting with team 10, team 8, team 7, team 9, Kabuto's team, sand siblings team, and finally the sound ninja team, the jonin senseis were behind the hokage, Orochimaru, Bakin, Kurenai, Guy, Kakashi, Asuma, and another sensei.

"Glad to see you two could join us, is there a reason that you two were out in the hallway for so long," Hiruzen asked the two of them, Naruto was still mad at the hokage so he just looked away stubbornly, Hinata, who was also upset with him, looked away as well.

"They were talking about something and then about to make out," Anko announced out loud with no shame at all, everyone looked at the two of them who moved to the back of their squads since they came in late and everyone was already in position.

"You mean that while we've been here waiting for the two of you, you've been out having a make out session with someone who's currently the enemy," Sakura seethed and would have tried to hit him, if not for the hokage watching them, she would have.

"I don't see what the problem is, more than one person can become a chunin during this thing, including the other genin from the other villages, so nobody here is actually an enemy, they're fellow examinees, not enemies," Naruto told her with a small glare.

"Enough talk, first of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam, now pay attention, lord hokage is going to explain the third exam to you, and you better listen carefully maggots," Anko ordered them all, before the third hokage stepped forward. Then came a speech about inter village cooperation, how it was made to show off their individual abilities and what each village's strength was using what they know and what they can all do, the same thing that Zen-Aku and Alyssa already concluded.

Then came in a random chunin who bowed before the hokage and spoke, "lord hokage, before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed proctor of the third exam to speak first," the now named Hayate asked the hokage who nodded. Hayate turned to them before speaking again, "it's nice to meat you all *cough*, there is something I'd like all of you *cough* to do before the third exam, *coughing fit*, and that is a preliminary exam with participation in the main battle on the line."

"I'm sorry, sensei, 'scuse me, but I really don't see the point, what's this preliminary all about, why can't we just move on to the third exam," Sakura asked the coughing chunin, seriously, get the guy a cough drop or lozenge or something.

"Think about Haruno, dignitaries from all over the nations are coming here to see what the villages have to offer, we can't waist their time with matches that show nothing of any real meaning when true fighters need to be showcased," Naruto pointed out.

"Shut up idiot, you don't know why, quit trying to think and just stick to failing, like you always do," Kiba barked out with a snort of laughter at the end, some of the other rookies snickered, those that weren't were Gaara, Hinata, and Sasuke.

"No, Naruto Uzumaki is right, that is the reason why we are having the preliminary matches, important dignitaries are coming so we can't waist their time with matches that provide nothing of any real value, like he said," Hayate confirmed. "Now, if there is anyone who feels you are not in top physical condition, now is your chance to *coughing fit* bow out of the exam, the preliminaries will be starting immediately, also, the winners will be from one on one sudden death elimination fights."

Then came a round of protest from most of everyone, everyone except Zen-Aku, Alyssa, Gaara, Sasuke, and those that weren't rookies, and after some debate about Sasuke's curse mark between him and Sakura, Sasuke chose to stay and fight instead of getting the curse fixed first. It was a stupid move to Zen-Aku, he should let the curse mark be looked at and make sure he isn't a danger to himself or others, but he knew that Sasuke would never willingly take himself out of the exam, so there was only one course of action left. Naruto raised his hand and everyone looked to him as though he was about to give up, "I'm not about to quit, but I would like to report an injury that needs to be looked at as it could be a danger to others, and to himself," Sasuke made to stop him but was ignored. "Team seven was attacked by one of the legendary sanin named Orochimaru, I got separated from them and swallowed by one of the assailant's summoned snakes, when I returned to the scene, Orochimaru bit into Sasuke and placed a curse mark on him. This curse mark is an unknown and as such is to much of a risk for the other contestants to take part in the exam, it also is clearly causing him a lot of pain, I move that he be removed so that the curse can be properly removed or sealed away."

"I understand, however, we cannot remove him if it is against his will, this is an individual choice, but the moment the mark goes out of control is when we will stop it, so the move to remove him from the exam is denied," Hiruzen announced.

"Foolish old man," Naruto muttered under his breath and made Alyssa giggle at his remark, "more than likely the fights will be at random, let's hope we don't fight one another," he whispered to her and she nodded back.

"Now then, we will begin the preliminaries, the round will consist of one-on-one individual combat at full battle intensity, there are twenty people with the dropout of Kabuto, so we will conduct ten battles with the survivors going to the third exam. As for the rules, there are none, you fight till one dies or admits defeat, or he is physically unable to continue the contest, those losing are advised to admit defeat to avoid death, but as proctor, I can decide if a match is over as well *cough*. I will intervene if a match seems hopeless to save as many lives as possible, now it is time to reveal what will be your fate for these matches," Hayate announced before Anko spoke into a headset and a panel on the wall opened up to reveal a screen. "The names of each pare of opponents are chosen completely at random, before each match, these names will appear on the display behind me, so let us begin and announce the first two opponents," after some beeping and name generating, the names for the battle appeared.

YOROI AKADO VS. SASUKE UCHIHA

"Damn, and here I was thinking that I'd get to dust off my skills as soon as I could, oh well, time to see how the wounded Uchiha does I suppose," Naruto whispered to Alyssa as they saw the board, it shouldn't be much of a fight.

"Now then, those whose names have been drawn, come forward," Sasuke and Yoroi stepped forward and stood in front of Hayate, "for the first match, Yoroi Akado and Sasuke Uchiha have been selected, any objections," he received a no, "everyone else go to the upper area."

Everyone headed up and stood on a catwalk overlooking the fight, and as soon as the match started, Zen-Aku and Alyssa knew who would win, Sasuke would win through the use of taijutsu, but how he was going to win is the question. It was actually touch and go for a little while with Yoroi being able to steel chakra, but in the end, Sasuke was finally able to get the upper hand through something he called the lions barrage, when he learned it or when he might have stolen it is another question.

YOROI AKADO VS. SASUKE UCHIHA-WINNER IS SASUKE UCHIHA

The match was over and Kakashi rushed down there in a flash and drug the Uchiha off to seal the curse mark, Zen-Aku could have went with them, he was very good with seals now, it was in his Uzumaki blood after all, but decided against it. If the Uchiha wanted to be stupid and compete in the condition he was in, he's just not going to get any help whatsoever from the duke org, not until he was asked for it, and Zen-Aku knew that he wasn't going to ask, not by a long shot, but now was time for the next fight.

ABUMI ZAKU VS. SHINO ABURAME

This fight was another easy win to determine, especially for Alyssa, she knew that Shino could win this easy, not just because of his various bugs, but how he used them, he could subtlety move them to take you down in any way he saw fit and you'd never see it coming.

ABUMI ZAKU VS. SHINO ABURAME-WINNER IS SHINO ABURAME

"I never would have thought that Shino would be that good, I'm starting to want to fight him now," Naruto said with crossed arms and a thoughtful look on his face, then came a poof behind him and Kakashi showed up looking as laid back as always.

"Kakashi sensei, what about Sasuke, how is he," Sakura asked worried about her teammate that was stupid enough to fight even though he knew that he shouldn't with a curse mark that is an unknown to everyone except its caster.

"Oh, he's fine, sleeping soundly in the infirmary," Kakashi answered her, but Zen-Aku knew that it wasn't just sleeping soundly in the infirmary, he's probably under armed guards that are watching him like a hawk.

"I don't really think it matters in the long run, but the next match has been named," Naruto noted to the two of them, they looked and saw who it was that was going to be fighting, it was more than likely going to be a short match.

TSURUGI MISUMI VS. KANKURO

Zen-Aku knew this match wasn't going to be worth watching so he decided to talk some with Alyssa, it was also a good way to get to know more about someone he hoped to be more than friends with, "so, who do you think that you'll get to fight?"

"I don't really know, if I had to choose, I'd like to save a fight between you and me for the third round, but for now, I'd have to choose someone like Ino or Sakura so that I can take them down a few pegs, they're to full of themselves," Alyssa answered.

"I'd like to save a fight between either you, Sasuke, Gaara, or Shikamaru, everyone else isn't able to fight against us, or can't develop a tactic like the Nara can, I'd much rather fight with those that stand a chance, it'd be more fun that way," Naruto explained.

TSURUGI MISUMI VS. KANKURO-WINNER IS KANKURO

"Like I thought, the fight wasn't really worth watching, and I thought that you said you didn't want to fight me, did you change your mind or would you just rather I fight you instead," Naruto asked her.

"I thought that it would be best if you and I fought since I know that you won't actually try and kill me, I don't know about the others, but I think they might actively try and kill me, especially the other village ninja," Alyssa stated while watching said ninja.

"You're right, I would never try and kill you, I'm not sure I could even if I tried, you've had years to prepare for a fight between us, where as I've not trained as long as you have in this world with their techniques," he admitted as the next combatants were called.

SAKURA HARUNO VS. INO YAMANAKA

"Damn, now whoever wins is going to have even more of an ego, Ino will because she proved she was stronger than Sakura and the true top kunoichi at the academy in the eyes of most and claiming that she should be with Sasuke. If Sakura were to win, the rest of the team would never hear the end of it and we'd have to put up with all kinds of yells that might actually deafen us," Naruto guessed out loud and in earshot of a still going to the ring Sakura.

She turned her head almost like a robot would to face him, "Naruto, I don't know what's gotten into you, but you had better cheer your teammate on, I wouldn't want to come back up here and fight you after I destroy Ino," before walking to the floor.

"Not to mention the fact that her fight with whoever she goes up against in the finals would be so boring and one-sided that the dignitaries might just walk out if they saw it," Naruto continued and clearly ignored his teammate.

"That's mean of you to say Naruto, you should pay attention more to your teammates and how they feel, she's been feeling useless ever since the wave mission and this would be a good opportunity to prove herself, don't undermine that," Kakashi warned.

"I'm not undermining it, I'm just stating that out of all of us here, her and Ino are the weakest out of the entire group of candidates, even some of those that have already left on the first round, but now, if she goes against someone like Gaara or Neji, she'll die," Naruto informed.

"That's true, out of all of us, Sakura is weaker than everyone, at least Ino has her clans jutsu to tip the scale in her favor, but other than that, they are the same, good chakra control because of small reserves, no talent in taijutsu, genjutsu, or ninjutsu. They have book smarts that can be just as advantageous as a genius level intellect, but that means nothing if you don't have the knowledge on how to apply it," Alyssa reaffirmed as she watched the match begin in a pathetic way, neither was trying very hard.

"Out of all the kunoichi here, they also have the least amount of use in seduction, that is one of the kunoichi necessities, for missions that require seduction and information gathering or assassination, they lack in that area as well," Naruto pointed out. He was clearly missing the aura that started coming form those kunoichi that heard him, it may be true, but an unspoken rule is that you don't talk about a woman's charms, or lack thereof, so casually, Kakashi stepped away from him a little bit. He finally noticed when Alyssa was releasing a little growl that sounded like a tiger a little bit, "of course, that is a sensitive matter and we shouldn't be discussing these things out in the open, let's watch the match," he offered calmly while a bead of sweat dripped from his brow. That lowered the tension in the air some and allowed him to let out a breath and watched the rest of the fight, it was a travesty, Sakura got caught in a simple trap through the use of some hair that Ino cut off for a surprise attack using her mind transfer jutsu. If he was an idiot and wanted to impress her or something, he would have shouted out at her and told her to fight it, with how low the chakra levels of each were, it might have worked, but he knew that if she did get trapped like that then she deserved to lose.

SAKURA HARUNO VS. INO YAMANAKA-WINNER IS INO YAMANAKA

Kakashi went to pick Sakura up after she collapsed after Ino undid her jutsu when the match was called, and Asuma did the same with Ino since she collapsed as well from chakra exhaustion, and after they were situated on the balcony, the next match was called.

TENTEN VS. TEMARI

"Interesting, the weapons user that I've heard about is going to be up against one of mister one's siblings, should be interesting to see what her power is," Naruto commented in earshot of Kakashi who figured it out immediately, Gaara was a jinchuriki.

When Tenten threw some weapons and they missed Temari though, it was clear what went on, Temari was a wind user, and therefor used the wind to block the weapons, this fight was easy to determine to Zen-Aku and Alyssa then, Temari would win. After a few more failed tries, sometimes she used scrolls to summon the weapons, other times from different angles, but finally, Temari unveiled all her power and made quick work of Tenten with hardly any effort at all with a simple wind scythe jutsu.

TENTEN VS. TEMARI-WINNER IS TEMARI

Temari got rid of the limp form of Tenten by throwing her across the floor that was riddled with weapons where Lee caught her and that caused another useless incident, Zen-Aku just wished they'd stop having I'm the better ninja contests and got on with it. Thankfully, Guy got down there just in time and prevented anymore of the pointless argument from spreading, the argument might not be that pointless, but Tenten lost, she may have tried her best, but in the end, she still lost to Temari, just pick up the teammate and leave.

SHIKAMARU NARA VS. TSUCHI KIN

The next match was called, and it was a possible unknown, the girl's power was unknown, but they knew Shikamaru's, so it was a coin flip chance to see who would win this fight, and it actually was a close fight at one point. The use of the bells used a sonic vibration that aggravated those with sensitive hearing in the stands as well though, but when Shikamaru finally used his shadow possession jutsu to send a shadow along the string controlling the bells, they wondered how he was going to win. They got their answer when he took out some shuriken and threw it at the opponent, this in turn got a shuriken thrown at him as well, but when he bent backwards to dodge it and so did his opponent, she hit her head on the wall and knocked herself out.

SHIKAMARU NARA VS. TSUCHI KIN-WINNER IS SHIKAMARU NARA

"That was interesting, too bad Shikamaru is starting to show what he can do, if he keeps this up, he might make chunin faster then any of us, including you," Alyssa guessed and got a mock glare from Naruto, he knew she was teasing, but two can play at that game.

"So, are you that worried about little old me, deer, I was beginning to think you was just caught up in the moment earlier, it's good to know that you actually do care," Naruto teased right back, but her own little mock glare was enough to know it worked.

"Was that pun with the deer intentional," Alyssa asked him in a deadpan, she knew she didn't tell him about having the souls about all three of her zords in her, so he must be going off the memory of her having them back on Earth.

Naruto turned his head to her and rose an eyebrow, "I didn't actually mean that to be a pun, but thank you for pointing that out, what ever happened to your zords anyways, I'm asking because I don't want to fight you with three wild zords while I have none."

"I don't have their bodies with me, I only have their souls in me instead, elephant gives me a good memory, deer gives me a good healing factor and prowess in making ointments, and tiger gives me an advantage of strength and agility," Alyssa informed.

"No wonder I could never beat you when it came to academics, I would call it cheating to use an elephant's memory if it wasn't part of your soul now, oh well, but I guess the tigress of the leaf is actually a good name for you then, huh," he asked with a smirk.

"Um, Naruto, I'd hate to break up your two's flirting, but maybe you should keep an eye on the board," Kakashi pointed out and making them blush a little before they looked at the board, it was a match that would not prove exciting.

NARUTO UZUMAKI VS. KIBA INUZUKA

"Here I was hoping I'd get Gaara or Neji, but having a main event like that would be better suited for the final round anyways," Naruto commented, he was about to make his way to the ring when he heard Alyssa behind him.

He turned and was surprised when she hugged him tightly before whispering, "be careful Na, I mean Zen-Aku, I know you'll win but I at least want to make sure you're careful, it'll be bad if a lonely dog takes out a lone wolf."

"Don't worry, deer, I'm as wily as a fox and as cunning as a wolf, a small mut and his dog doesn't stand a chance against me," Naruto said before getting some courage and quickly kissed her cheek before hoping down from the balcony and into the ring.

"Bad luck for you Kakashi, your student doesn't stand a chance against Kiba and Akamaru," Kurenai stated as she stood next to said ninja, but it wasn't Kakashi that answered her, it was actually the Hyuga of team 8.

"Actually, it's bad luck for Kiba, sensei, after so long of showing everyone a false face, it'll be nice to actually see how he fights when he doesn't put on an act," Alyssa stated as she watched Kiba jump into the ring as well and land in front of Naruto.

"You know him best Hinata, but you also know Kiba as well, you really think the dead last of every year will be able to go against a train Inuzuka and his ninja hound," Kurenai asked and gaged her student's reaction to the question.

"I think we need to contact his mother and sister, his mother to inform her of her son's condition and his sister to look after the injuries of Akamaru," Alyssa stated as she was sure that at worst case, they needed to bury a teammate, best case, extended hospital stay.

Down in the floor level, the match has now started, "hey Naruto, don't take this so personally when I rip you to shreds, I'll try to make it as painless as possible though," Kiba exclaimed as his dog barked in agreement.

Naruto sighed before he spoke, "can you hurry this along, I'd like to have at least some entertainment and I know I won't find any here," the jibe worked and got Kiba riled up enough to go on all fours and start his man beast mimicry technique.

"Look, I feel sorry for you, so I'm going to finish you off in one shot, okay," Kiba said as calmly as he could before squatting down and preparing his jutsu, a blue chakra aura appeared around him before the changes took hold, longer finger nails, sharper teeth and the like. He got on all fours and launched himself at Naruto and was fixing to strike him with a well-placed elbow to the chest with his enhanced strength, but something happened that shocked all who witnessed the fight, Naruto dodged the elbow and countered.

Kiba was about to hit Naruto when a hand caught the elbow with his right hand and struck at Kiba with his left elbow in the collarbone of the mut and cracked it right then and there, then he brought up his fist and slammed the back of his hand into Kiba's nose. Kiba was so off balance that he didn't have any time to react when Naruto brought his right fist and implanted it into the boy's sternum and sent him flying to where Akamaru was waiting for his master to be done with someone clearly out of his league. Judging from the gasps that he was hearing, nobody expected Naruto to be able to counter, attack, or not be able to get up after any attack from the mut, but they should have known, he wasn't the most unpredictable ninja in the hidden leaf for nothing you know.

"If that was the best that you could do Kiba, I suggest you quit before you hurt yourself," Naruto warned him as he flexed his fingers, the new body that Zen-Aku was in was incredible, it was almost frightening to feel the power he now had access to.

"This is unreal, there is no way the dead last could ever hope to beat me, a loser like you will never defeat me, come on Akamaru," Kiba yelled out before him and the dog ran for Naruto, Kiba took out some smoke bombs and threw them at him. While the smoke was covering the area, Akamaru went in and started to search for him and attack Naruto while he was blinded by the smoke, only problem was, when the smoke cleared, everyone saw that it was only Akamaru standing there with a confused face. "What, where did he go, nobody got out of the smoke, what happened," Kiba yelled again before a pebble was thrown at him, another pebble and he looked around to find his opponent wasn't in sight, when another pebble hit him he finally looked up. On the ceiling was Naruto, standing upside down, looking on in boredom at the lack of awareness by the Inuzuka, who were known for their savagery and animal instincts in battle, clearly, the trait skipped a generation.

"But, how did he get up there, I never even saw him leave the smoke, and he was still there when the smoke bombs went off, how did he do it, what have you been teaching the boy Kakashi," Kurenai asked, she was clearly in shock at not seeing Naruto pull that off.

"Oh, you know, the basics," in truth though, he had no idea that Naruto was that fast, hell, if the small cracks in the ceiling was anything to go by, the speed was new and not even under full control yet, but it was still impressive that he got up there without anyone knowing.

Naruto cut the chakra to his feet and fell head first to the ground where he flipped at the last second and landed with grace on the ground, barely even facing his opponent in a turned to the right position and barely even acknowledging the Inuzuka's presence.

"That's it, I'm going all out and beating you so badly, you'll never even dream about becoming the hokage again," Kiba yelled out before tossing a food pill to Akamaru who ate it and grew in size a little, changed color and jumped on Kiba's back before turning into his clone. "Beast mimicry, man beast clone," he announced and looked as feral as possible, Naruto wasn't impressed, in fact he seemed only mildly interested in the transformation into a 'beast', which wasn't really all that impressive. "All fours jutsu," the launched themselves at Naruto and intended to take him out with a joined claw press, probably going to crush his head or shoulders in their grasp if they could, that's if they could, Naruto did the unexpected again. He grabbed their hands like someone was forming the snake hand seal and used their own momentum to flip them so that they were on their backs before sending a chop to both of their stomachs and leaving the ground cracked when they landed from the force.

They got up quick enough after that and made for quick attacks to through him off balance, but Naruto just dodged them with the least amount of energy needed, but when they tried to rush him, Naruto jumped in order to dodge. The twin Kibas saw this as their chance and went in for their fang over fang attack, so what did Naruto do, he crossed his arms and caught them with the palms of his hands while they kept on spinning, Naruto brought his left hand up while taking his right hand down. When enough space was between the two hands, and therefore fang over fangs, he used their own force to spin him and let them pass over and under him as he spun and landed safely on the ground as both Kibas came to a halt on each side of him. They got ready and went for another fang over fang and this time went for a side by side assault, thinking he wouldn't do the same trick again, and they were right, he wouldn't do the same thing twice, so he didn't, instead he bent backwards and let them pass above him. One Kiba threw a smoke bomb his way and in hopes to blind him while the other kept an eye on the ceiling to see if he headed there, he didn't so they went in for the kill, now Naruto was forced to block a little bit as he stood in the same spot and took the beating. When the smoke cleared and revealed him to be only a little scratched up, they went for the same move again, only this time, Naruto did something else then jump. They were watching the ceiling, but not the floor, so he immediately went into the floor and hid until he noticed Akamaru over him and grabbed him by the neck, so when Kiba stopped, he was alone and the Akamaru Kiba was in the grasp of Naruto.

"You're getting on my nerves Naruto, now let Akamaru go or else you'll really piss me off," Kiba yelled over to him, Naruto ignored him and punched Akamaru in the gut so that he'd transform back to his dog form, then he effectively broke its leg with one hand.

"Now it's just you and me," Naruto said as he tossed Akamaru to the side, "I'd advise you to give up again, but I know you won't even if I did, wannabeast," that was apparently to confusing for the mut to understand, so he had to explain it. "You wanna be a beast, but you don't actually know how, or what one looks like, so let me show you what a true beast looks like," he decided to also show off a little bit, and by that, he was going to make a show of him dispelling the transformation of Naruto. First came the fingers, it appeared that the skin was being peeled off of them and showing black gloves as it was going up his arm and uncovering the rest of his appearance, then came the back where it then headed down and undid the legs. It then traveled up his torso and undid the head for last and showing everyone the face of a true wolf with piercing amber eyes and gray hair with a single horn resting perfectly on his forehead, this was the truest form of Zen-Aku, the wolf duke org. "Ready to give up yet," his voice changed as well, now it was deeper and sounded like he was growling a little bit, when Kiba responded by throwing shuriken at him, Zen-Aku disappeared from view and became a shadow that appeared in front of Kiba. With one swipe of his right clawed hand, Kiba was sent crashing into the wall of the arena, only thing that was seen of him was his feet hanging off the edge of the hole, and he wasn't even moving, which had Kurenai panicking a little from a friend's son possibly being killed.

"Now that's just showing off, Zennie," Alyssa stated and got everyone else to turn to her at what she just called the thing that used to be Naruto, she blushed from their stares and stepped back a little bit as to help avoid their stares.

"What did you just call me, my name isn't Zennie, deer, it's Zen-Aku Uzumaki, get it right or I'll start calling you little kitten," Zen-Aku yelled out to her with a tick mark on his head, he was Zen-Aku the wolf duke org, not someone to be given a pet name.

"Fine, I'll call you by your name and not use pet names, but you need to stop calling me deer and never again call me little kitten, you got that," Alyssa said with a slight glare at being called kitten, she was a tigress, and anything less was too insulting.

"Fine, hay, proctor, I think Kiba's down for the count, and I'm not going to be the one to check for a pulse, that's your job," Zen-Aku reminded the still dumbfounded proctor who shook his head out of his stupor long enough to go check the boy stuck in the wall.

"Kiba is alive but not in any condition to fight with the injuries he has sustained, the winner of this fight goes to Naruto," Hayate was interrupted by a cough from the boy, "sorry, Zen-Aku Uzumaki."

ZEN-AKU UZUMAKI VS. KIBA INUZUKA-WINNER IS ZEN-AKU UZUMAKI

Zen-Aku made his way up to the balcony to watch the other fights with his hands to his sides and looking all serious, but behind the wolf mask he was smirking at seeing everyone's shocked faces, maybe the merger was a good thing after all. When he made it over to where he was standing before, Alyssa greeted him with a hug and a return kiss on his cheek, "I knew you could do it, but did you have to make a show of transforming," she asked while still in the hug.

"Maybe a bit of the old idiot side of Naruto stuck around a bit, but it's not like it hurt anyone, other then the mut though, but I don't count that since it was a battle and all," Zen-Aku said as they broke the hug.

"I think an explanation is an order," Kakashi said as he and Kurenai were standing behind them, if they explained and didn't like the answer, both of the kids were going to have hell to pay come the next training session.

"Fine, we'll explain later, let's watch the rest of the matches first though," Zen-Aku suggested and they turned to see who it was that would be facing who, and wouldn't you know it, the next one to fight would be Alyssa herself.

HINATA HYUGA VS. NEJI HYUGA

"Damn," Zen-Aku cursed, he knew the relationship between them better then anyone, Neji, like all Hyuga, hated Alyssa because she doesn't use the main style of the Hyuga clan, she uses her own tiger style that far outclasses the gentle fist with the byakugan. He also knew her well enough to know that she wasn't going to use her own style, the family hated her enough, it would add more fuel to the fire if she were to fight Neji and win using the tiger style instead of the gentle fist. Even after years of practice, she was never as good with the gentle fist as Neji or her father, she was better then her sister who was talented as well, but that doesn't account for much when everyone else that needs to be beat can't be beat with her gentle fist.

When Zen-Aku turned to look at her, she moved to stop what she knew he would say, "I know, but I can't add more fuel to the already burning fire, if I beat him with the tiger style and make the Hyuga look weak when they use the gentle fist, they might put the seal on me. I won't forfeit either, I have to try, as long as I fight my hardest with the gentle fist, then there's a chance I'll get at least some credit," she walked by him and gave him a quick peck on the cheek before walking down, this seemed to be their ritual before a fight.

When she got down there, Neji was waiting for her, Hayate started the match and they both got into position for their gentle fist and without a single word began to trade blows at a lightning fast pace, and to those that couldn't tell, it seemed like they were evenly matched. Zen-Aku knew differently, Neji was hitting many more times then Alyssa was at the moment, a lot more, with each attack of hers, he blocked, each attacking hit that he threw, she had to block or evade, she was trying her hardest to hit him, but it wasn't enough. She was losing ground fast, but for a moment was almost about to get the upper hand Neji revealed to have attacked her at the same moment and it was a chest blow, as well as an arm blow, when she coughed up blood, she continued by knocked his hand away. She made for a strike and was grabbed by Neji and attacked her arm again before knocking her away from him with a single palm thrust that did even more damage, then Neji began a speech about her being a failure, which caused a growl to come from Zen-Aku.

When Alyssa refused to forfeit and was going to have to be knocked out before she left of her own free will, she coughed up even more blood and Zen-Aku almost sprang into action right then and there, but then he saw Neji's eyes, he was going to kill her. She continued anyway and continued to try and fight him with the gentle fist style, actually, her own style won't do much good right now with the damage already done, even though she was really trying, it didn't matter to Neji and he uppercut her and drove her back. She moved in to attack him again and Neji hit her hard enough to send her down and almost killed her, Zen-Aku was shaking, if he moved to kill her, there would be one less genin making it to the third round, and when she got back up, Neji looked ready to end it.

That was when Hayate, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Guy got to the ring and stopped him from killing her, Hayate in front and pointing to his headband, Kakashi grabbing his right arm, Kurenai grabbing his left arm, and Guy putting his arm around the boy's neck. They weren't the only ones to go down to the ring though, Zen-Aku made it down in time to catch her as she was falling and coughing up some blood, he held her in his arms in quite the caring way. "I swear, I will make him pay, you have my word on that," he swore as she was in his arms, she actually smiled at him as she was fading out, she wasn't dead, but it would take a little time for the deer wild zord to heal her fully.

"Hey, loser, I wouldn't worry about her now, she couldn't make it using our style, so she made her own, the nerve, she was too weak, so she would remain weak, once a failure, always a failure," Neji commented in such a stupid way.

"I guess that means nothing coming form someone who is as blind as a bat then, her style was superior to yours, so you berated her for it, and you call her weak when it is you who are the weak ones, I swear on her blood, I will kill you. I won't beat you come the finals, if we meat, I swear that I will not beat you, but I will kill you, not a single one of your skills will ever work on me, disgrace," Zen-Aku swore.

"You better not ever hope that day comes, because you will lose, failure," Neji turned his back on him and walked back up to the balcony to overlook the rest of the matches, just as the others did, and it wasn't until Alyssa was on her way to the emergency room that Zen-Aku left her side.

When he finally went up to the balcony, the jonin were all looking at him with a little distain at just willingly outing that he was going to kill a fellow leaf ninja because of what happened, but not all could really blame him, but some were still giving him looks.

GAARA VS. ROCK LEE

Gaara was up against Rock Lee, the one tails jinchuriki vs the taijutsu specialist, this should be fun to watch, if anything he could see Lee go all out and how far he could push Gaara, might not be much but it might be a lot as well. Oddly enough, Kankuro came over to Zen-Aku's side of the ring and decided to talk to him since he decided to watch further towards the steps then the rest, "hey you, how come you're over here by yourself, why aren't you hanging with your buddies," the sand genin asked.

"I figured I'd be close to the steps in case news on the condition of the last combatant, she is precious to me, but shouldn't you be over on the visitor's side of the stage, this is the home team's side," Zen-Aku stated to the boy.

"Since nobody is stopping me or asking that I go back, I'll stay until I feel like leaving, but I did want to know, what's the deal with that Neji guy, I don't think we saw everything he had to offer in the last fight, what's his story," Kankuro asked casually.

"Fine, I'll tell you, what you saw wasn't all, or even half, of what that kid can do, he held back a lot, and considering how much he hates who he just beat, that means something about his control, I've never actually seen him go all out," the duke org informed.

"Wow, seems like your well informed, and you keep a cool head, you know what, I like you," he obviously thought that would get him on his good graces, or at least get some insight about what the mister numbers thing was all about.

"I'm indifferent towards you, but if you want information, I might as well tell you why I call your little brother mister one, not that the truth will make a difference," Zen-Aku walked over to the sand ninja and whispered in his ear, "that's the number of his tails." That is when it clicked for Kankuro, why Gaara calls him number nine, he holds the nine-tailed fox, the most powerful of all the tailed beasts, which means that there is no way that they could win against him, "but don't worry my seal is much more stable than his."

"His seal is unstable, is that why he's insane and has a bloodlust," Kankuro asked, this was important news, news that need to be given to his superiors right away, if the seal was unstable, the one-tailed Shukaku could come out at any moment.

"Yes, Shukaku wants to drive his host insane and be released through sleep deprivation, which is why he has insomnia, the nine-tails thought that Shukaku had gotten over being sealed a while ago, but that clearly isn't the case," the duke org explained. "However, I am an Uzumaki, we are known for our seals, and since I've found out about being an Uzumaki that is known for seals, I've done nothing but train in them, give me a little time and I'll get a seal that can fix him."

"Thank you so much, it might actually be nice to have my little brother back and not some insane, out for blood, psychopath," Kankuro commented before turning to watch the fight, "your friend is going down, he'll never beat Gaara, not in this lifetime."

"I wouldn't be so sure about that, it's possible that he has something we have to see, but who knows, you may be right, let's watch and find out," Zen-Aku commented as they began to watch the fight.

The match started with Lee doing a leaf hurricane that got blocked by Gaara's sand, the next little while Lee spent trying to get by mister one's defense with various melee combat attacks while defending against some sand that attacked him, Lee even threw some shuriken.

"With the sand protecting Gaara of its own accord, there is no way that guy can get through his defense, the guy's done for if all he uses is taijutsu," Kankuro commented again, which was true, you can't beat Gaara using basic taijutsu like what Lee used.

Then Gaara used his sand to throw Lee before he continued the assault of taijutsu while defending against the sand before jumping out of the way and landing on the statue of a ram seal, where he took off some leg waits that were extremely heavy.

"What in the world is with this crazy messed up world where you have people willing to do that," Zen-Aku commented out loud as he saw how much the leg weights actually weighed, probably close to an entire truck, on each leg.

His speed increased, and it seemed like he was beginning to get threw Gaara's defense, before he actually got through the defense and dropped his heal on mister one's head before he continued his assault and hit Gaara again with his bare fist.

"Oh no, he's had his shell cracked, it's his last line of defense with his sand in case the sand storm that surrounded him ever actually got beat itself," Kankuro informed, it was a good lesson, but came with a flaw in of itself.

"But the chakra used to keep it up takes its tole on him, and unlike the sand, the shell can be cracked and got past, but you still have to watch out for the sand that can come up to protect him, in other words it's a giant weak spot," Zen-Aku pointed out.

The sand armor reformed and after a moment of staring, and a subtle nod from Guy, Lee unwrapped his hands and traveled at great speeds around Gaara before finally kicking him up into the air and kept kicking him until he was high up. At one point though, Lee closed his eyes because of the pain he was feeling, so he didn't see that Gaara traded places with a sand clone until after he had enacted his primary lotus and spun Gaara head first into the ground.

Kankuro was looking on stupefied at what was just done to his brother, "don't worry, he replaced himself with a sand clone when Lee wasn't looking, he's fine, but this match might as well be over with how far he's pushed his body," Zen-Aku commented.

That calmed the sand ninja down as Gaara came out of the sand left behind, before attacking Lee with wave after wave of sand, Lee stood no chance of winning now that he's used such a physically demanding technique. Lee began to dodge some, but he still got pounded by another wave of sand-based attacks, he dodged a few more before getting hit again with some more, the pattern repeated a few times more until Guy gave Lee a signal to do something else. A large column of sand was sent for him and in an instant, Lee moved just like before and dodged out of the way of the attack, this obviously left people in the audience confused, even Zen-Aku was confused about what just happened. Then he heard the explanation about the eight inner gates from Kakashi, they sounded powerful, and this was the first time that he was hearing about it, this obviously meant the match wasn't over yet, probably not going to be over for a little while longer. Gaara sent another round of sand at Lee and it was dodged every single time, before Gaara stopped for a moment and gave Lee enough time to release the third gate and became powerful enough to actually turn his skin red from so much blood pumping through his veins. Then came another gate opening and brought forth even more power and began his attack aimed Gaara where he kicked him up very high in the air with a single kick before he was attacked again with various punches at different angles and making Gaara stay in the air. Then Lee opened another gate and came the hidden lotus by knocking Gaara away before bringing him back with the use of the green beast's own wrappings where he knocked him back down with both his right leg and right palm in one powerful thrust.

The destruction from the outcome was unbelievable, but what was even more unbelievable was the speed at which Gaara turned his gored into sand to soften the blow, the control he had over sand was just unbelievable, almost unrealistic. When Lee fell to the floor and was out of energy from the overuse of his own technique, Gaara saw that as his perfect chance to catch him with his sand and put an end to the weak green beast, but was only able to get his left arm and leg at the moment. When Gaara tried again and looked like he would finish the fight off, Guy stepped in and protected his student, something that Gaara couldn't understand at the moment, not without being shown any kindness. Then Zen-Aku saw something that he had never seen in all of his combined centuries of lifetime experience, he saw someone stand back up from his pure willpower alone, the boy wanted to fight, even while he was unconscious, he still wanted to prove himself.

Zen-Aku was more amazed with this world more and more, he actually smiled at that fact before speaking to Kankuro, "tell Gaara that I'll fix his seal, from one jinchuriki to another, if nobody else accepts us, we'll have to help each other out."

"I'll tell him, but you won't have to worry about someone not accepting him, he's still my little brother, and while we might not be as tree hugging about it as you leaf ninja are, we still care about our family, take care," Kankuro bid farewell and walked over to his side.

Zen-Aku watched him go and just waited for the next round, with Guy's interference, that meant that Gaara actually won, bringing everything to a close aside from one match, the sound ninja versus Choji, it might be a close fight as well.

GAARA VS. ROCK LEE-WINNER IS GAARA

DOSU VS. CHOJI AKIMICHI

Choji expanded so that his ears were covered and used his human bolder jutsu to spin around and try to attack Dosu, but he had little control over this form and got himself stuck in a wall where Dosu ended the match. He ended it by sending a sound wave through his body using his natural water, since the human body is seventy percent water, and water carries sound waves, all of Choji's body was basically one big ear.

DOSU VS. CHOJI AKIMICHI-WINNER IS DOSU

"With that match over, the preliminaries are now finished," Hayate announced before all of those that advanced, except for Sasuke, went down and stood in front of the giant ram hand seal, "I commend all of those who have advanced to the third level of the chunin exams."

Then came the explanation of how the matches were set up, basically a tournament, one to be held one month from now to give all of the dignitaries time to get wind of who would be fighting who, which was arranged from drawing slips of paper.

Dosu-9
Zen-Aku-1
Temari-7
Kankuro-5
Gaara-3
Shikamaru-8
Ino-10
Neji-2
Shino-6
Sasuke-4

This meant that it will be Zen-Aku vs Neji, Gaara vs Sasuke, Kankuro vs Shino, Temari vs Shikamaru, and Dosu vs Ino, and this couldn't be any better for Zen-Aku, he gets Neji in the first fight, the very first fight is going to be him versus the Hyuga, wonderful. Then came the announcement that the judges will decide weather or not any of them get to become chunin or not, so it didn't matter if you won the tournament or not, you still might not become a chunin in the end, or that all of them will become a chunin.

All of the genin left after that and went their own way, he decided to head for the hospital first thing and check in and see how far along the deer zord had come in healing Alyssa, and stay to keep her company.