Chapter 7: The preliminaries begin

The wind blew lightly, shifting the sand of the village around as everyone in the village rushed about their business. A small black haired boy was running along the streets, a glare on his face as he headed towards a commotion going on in the town square. It seems some of the children were surrounding and bullying a small red-headed boy who was crying, unsure of why they would be picking on him.

The black haired boy barged through the group and stood in front of the red head with his back to him and his arms wide, protecting him. "You creeps leave him alone, he hasn't done anything to you jerks" the black boy demanded as the leader of the group stepped forward, a smirk on his face, "out of the way punk, this demon has what's coming to him."

The black haired boy raised his fists and grit his teeth, "if you want to hurt him, you will have to go through me" he said to which the leader smirked as he and the group rushed forward to attack. After a hard brawl, the black haired boy turned to the red haired, his face beaten and bruised and the bullies gone, and grinned, "Hey are you ok? You shouldn't let those guys bother you they are just jerks. I'll always be here to protect ya" he said as he held his hand out to the red head who took his hand and stood up weakly. "Y..y..you are my best friend and you always have my back. T..t..thank you Ryouske" the red haired said as a fragile, but kind, smile formed on his face as Ryouske grinned rubbing the back of his head.

Ryouske opened his eyes and looked at the ceiling of the room he was in, he was still in the Battle Tower after passing the second Chunin exam. He sat up on his bed and looked down at his arms hanging in a sling, his thoughts turning back to his dream, no not a dream….a memory.

There was a knock on the door and Namito walked in, smile in place. "Hey bro, you feeling alright? You look pale" he asked his friend who did indeed look an odd shade of white, Ryouske just nodded and walked to the door. "I'm fine" he said with a grin as Namito opened the door for him and they both walked to the main hall of the Battle tower where Lukyo stood in one of the rows of candidates that stood waiting for information.

Ryouske stood in front of Namito and Lukyo and smiled over his shoulder at them but frowned seeing Lukyo's look of concern. "Don't worry Lu, I'm alright. No need to worry about me, I'm tougher than I look remember?" he said to his teammate who nodded pushing his glasses up nose and smiles reassured.

Their attention was then drawn to the front where the Jounin of the teams that were left, the Hokage, the special Jounin and Anko were standing in front of a statue of two giant arms doing the hand sign of the tiger. Hiruzen stepped forward to address the crowd of Genin, "Congratulations all of you for passing the second stage of the Chunin exams. I can see you all worked very hard to get here and I am proud of you all", during this Anko caught team 13's eyes and gave them a proud wink.

Hiruzen then continued, "however, it seems too many of you were able to pass and while this is a proud thing to see, there are, unfortunately, too many of you to pass onto the third stage. It has been decided that here in this tower, preliminaries will be held to decrease the number of candidates that are here." At this announcement everyone looked confused until Kiba blurted out, "WHAT THE HELL?! YOU MEAN WE DON'T EVEN GET TO REST?!"

At this outburst the Hokage looked at him and sighed nodding, "that is true, the preliminaries will be held immediately. It will test how you respond to situations that you are thrust into where resting is not an option." Kiba made a sound of frustration and looked away as Hiruzen continued, "however, if anyone feels that they cannot go on any further, raise your hand now and you can try again next year." Everyone looked around expecting someone to raise their hand, which someone did, it was Kabuto. Kabuto walked forward with his hand raised and rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "yea sorry, I can't go on anymore I'm at my limit." The Hokage nodded his approval and Kabuto turned to walk to the door stopping to look at teams 7 and 13, "sorry guys, I'm just out of chakra and can't go on, but you guys go for it" he then took his leave, not noticing Ryouske watching him out from the corner of his eye with his eye narrowed in suspicion.

No-one else raised their hand, Sakura almost did on Sasuke only to be stopped by him but apart from that no-one did. Hiruzen then nodded to Anko who spoke into a microphone and seconds later a panel in the wall behind the statue opened up to reveal a monitor screen. "The names of two candidates will be shown on this screen, those two candidates will then gather in this arena to fight where the winner will proceed to the final exam," Hiruzen explained.

Getting no complaints or questions, the monitor then started the randomising process until it stopped on the first fighters. "Sasuke Uchiha VS Yoroi Akado" the preliminary proctor Hayate Gecko, a sickly looking man wearing a Jounin jacket and the usual headband, black shirt and trousers and sandals, said indicating for the fighters to gather while everyone else went to watch from the balconies.

"This should be interesting" Lukyo said as he, Ryouske and Namito stood watching with Anko appearing behind them and patting Ryouske's head. "You guys alright?" she asked getting nods and grins from her team, only for her smile to turn into a frown of worry as she looked at Ryouske's arms. Her concerns were waved off as Ryouske assured her he would be fine.

The fight between Sasuke and Yoroi, a leaf ninja wearing a purple bandanna around the top of his head covering it, tan shirt underneath and a purple mask and tunic, then began with Yoroi getting the upper hand and pushing Sasuke onto the defensive. It wasn't long, however, before Sauske managed to turn the tables on Yoroi, knocking him into the air and gliding under him to touch the middle of his back. To everyone's surprise Sasuke managed to kick Yoroi into the air where he then followed him up and began a barrage of twisting kicks ending with a slamming kick to Yoroi's stomach, sending him flying down onto the arena floor.

"Winner is Sasuke Uchiha" Hayate proclaimed as team 7 cheered Sasuke on, but became silent when Sasuke began to fall back only to get held up by Kakashi who then took him away to seal the curse mark Orochimaru had given him. Ryouske looked up at Anko and raised an eyebrow, "during that fight, Sasuke's curse mark was playing up wasn't it, Insansei?" A vein appeared in Anko's head at Ryouskes new nickname for her but she ignored it and nodded, "yea, that snake bastard must have given it to him. He will be fine though, Kakashi will help him" she smiled, reassuring Ryouske.

The monitor then began to randomise names once more, stopping on two more names, "Shino Aburamae VS Abumi Zaku" Hayate announced and the two Genin gathered in the arena where the fight then began. Namito looked at Zaku and raised an eyebrow, "how is that guy supposed to fight? His arms were wrecked by Sasuke" he pointed out.

As the fight drew on, shino managed to hold Zaku back with his army of bugs, leaving everyone to believe that Shino had this fight in the bag. That is until Zaku brought his arms out of the sling and pushed them forward, unleashing a wave of air pushing the bugs and Shino back. As he prepared another wave, however, chakra exploded out of his arms and they soon hung by his side limply. It seems that Shino's bugs had crawled into the holes on Zaku's palms and clogged up his windpipes in his arms, thus making the chakra explode out. The fight was ended when Shino appeared beside Zaku and delivered a fierce punch to his jaw, rendering the man unconscious.

"Winner is Shino Aburame" Hayate announced as Shino walked up the left balcony to rejoin his team. The monitor then began to randomise the next names that were to be announced, stopping on Kankuro and Misumi Tsurugi. Kankuro was a boy wearing a black jumpsuit with a hood that was shaped like cat ears with the sand village headband stitched into it. On the front of the jumpsuit was a circle that was half yellow and half red, he also wore traditional shinobi sandals and on his back was something big wrapped in bandages.

Mismui was wearing the same outfit as Yoroi but had glasses on as well. The match then began with a shock as Misumi's body began to stretch as if he was made of rubber and he soon had Kankuro in a tight grip and was squeezing him tightly trying to make him give in. the spectators thought it would all be over until Kankuro's face began to crack and chip away revealing wood underneath. The whole of Kankuro then chipped away to reveal a wooden puppet with long arms and legs and wild fuzzy brown hair wearing a tattered brown cloak.

"Where is the real Kankuro?" Namito asked, but his question was soon answered as the bandaged object began to move and Kankuro emerged from it with strings of chakra reaching from his fingertips and stretching to the puppet where they connected to it. Kankuro then smirked and raised one of his hands making the puppet turn its head and open its mouth shooting kunai at Misumi, making him drop the puppet.

"Ha! Gotcha" Kankuro stated as the puppet then wrapped around Misumi and began to squeeze until with a loud CRACK, Misumi's body became broken, thus making him unable to continue. Hayate coughed and raised his hand, "the winner is Kankuro." Kankuro walked onto the balcony where his team were waiting and looked down at the arena. Lukyo pushed his glasses up his nose and furrowed his brow in thought, "so he is a puppet user, he will prove to be quite challenging" he stated making Namito and Ryouske nod in agreement while Ryouske's eyes focused on Kankuro and his team.

The female member of his team was a girl who had blond hair tied up into 4 pig tails at the back of her head and wore her sand headband around her neck. She was wearing a white tunic that ended above her knees tied with a red sash. She was wearing fishnet garb underneath the tunic and on her right leg while also wearing traditional sandals. Strapped to her back was a large fan folded up.

The third team member was who really caught Ryouske's eye though. He was a grim faced youth with red short hair, pupiless white eyes, dark rings around his eyes and the kanji for love on the left side of his forehead in red. He was wearing a black tunic and trousers with a white sash tied around him from his right shoulder down to his left hip. Going from his left should to his right hip was a brown leather strap that his sand headband was tied onto and on his back was a big sand coloured gourd with red string around the middle of it that was attached to his body via the brown strap. There was something about the boy that was familiar to Ryouske, he just couldn't picture it.

Instead he turned to Anko with a raised eyebrow, "hey Insansei, who is that guy with the red hair and the gourd on his back? From the sand village?" Anko looked over at the boy in question and nodded, looking back at Ryouske, "that's Gaara of the desert, the sand villages best Genin. He and his team are the ones who broke the exam record by getting here within 1 hour and 30 minutes, give or take."

Namito whistled in amazement and Lukyo nodded his agreement, but Ryouske just looked at Gaara with wide eyes, his head swimming as he tried to think of why Gaara was so familiar. He finally turned away to look at Anko, "oh by the way, you might wanna inform the Old man about Kabuto. He is not what he seems" Ryouske stated to Anko who just frowned. "What do you mean squirt?" she asked and Ryouske continued, "he had access to information about certain candidates that no Genin should be able to have and the total teams each village sent, if he is a Leaf shinobi then Naruto is a genius." Anko nodded saying she would inform the Hokage when their conversation was interrupted by the beeping of the monitor and Hayate stating the names.

"Ryouske Tenno VS Sora Aoi"

Anko looked at Ryouske with a frown and put her hand on his shoulder, "you sure you are up to this? There is no shame in throwing in the towel now because of your arms," she asked clearly worried about the youth, Ryouske just shook his head and grinned at her. "I'll be fine insansei I'm a member of team 13 after all, I'll never give up, ya know?" he said lifting her worry. Namito patted his shoulder and grinned, "Show that guy why having any of us in a fight is bad luck to our enemies" Ryouske nodded and turned to Lukyo who smiled at him pushing his glasses up his nose, "yes, you can do it Ryo."

With a grin and his determination burning ever bright, Ryouske stepped onto the railing of the balcony and dropped down onto the floor landing on his feet and looked at his opponent. Sora Aoi turned out to be a Leaf shinobi with brown spiky hair, blue eyes and a gentle face. He was wearing a navy blue shinobi shirt with the bottom half of it being red, a black jacket that ended at his lower abdomen that had yellow straps going under the arms of the jacket complete with a black hood. His trousers were black with a dark blue belt going around his waist and yellow straps criss-crossing over the front of them where underneath them the groin of the trousers were navy blue and on either hip was a red pouch to hold his ninja tools. He also wore black and yellow shinobi shoes.

With a smile he waved at Ryouske and got into a fighting pose, "no offense or anything but I won't be going easy on you just because your arms are in a sling." Ryouske smirked and got into a crouched stance, "wouldn't have it any other way." As soon as Hayate told them to begin, Sora charged forward throwing strikes at Ryouske who, being caught off guard, got them straight in the chest and jumped back gritting his teeth.

Sora then charged forward preparing to continue his assault, that is until Ryouske ducked under his attack and brought his knee up to Sora's stomach causing him to double over, where Ryouske followed up with a roundhouse kick knocking Sora back only for him to land on his feet smirking at Ryouskes skills. Once again Sora rushed in but this time he started weaving hand signs and breathing in air as he brought his hand up to his mouth in the shape of an O.

"Fire style: Fire bomb jutsu" he called as he spat out balls of fire which head towards Ryouske who then proceeded to attempt to dodge them, unfortunately getting hit by one of them on his right arm burning the sling. The others hit the wall and disappeared. Using Ryouske's lack of focus to his advantage, Sora then proceeded to rain strikes at Ryouske, who managed to dodge them except for the last one where he turned his right side into the punch and taking the hit onto his right arm, causing a loud resounding CRACK to sound out.

Ryouske jumped back as everyone stared at him in shock, thinking Sora had made his right arm worse, but all were surprised when Ryouske began to laugh and looked up with a wide grin on his face and grabbed his right arm where, to everyone's shock, he pushed it up and flinched from the pain and then began to move his arm, having put it back in place with help from Sora's attack. "Now" Ryouske began as he grabbed his left arm and wrenched it back into its socket, "this is where it gets fun" he ended with a determined look at his opponent, this time getting a few gasps as he opened his eyes. His Sharingan was active.

"What?! Ryouske has the Sharingan?! I thought only the Uchiha and Kakashi sensei had that" Sakura exclaimed as the man in question had returned to find his student talking about him. Kakashi's visible eye widened when he saw Ryouske's eyes and he looked at Anko who just grinned winking at him, "so the rumors were true, huh Anko?" Anko nodded poking her tongue out at Kakashi, "that's right, now shush my student is about to kick ass."

Sora smiled and raised an eyebrow, "looks like things have just gotten interesting" Ryouske nodded in agreement and both fighters ran at each other, Sora drawing a kunai and Ryouske drawing his katana from its seal and both fighters clashed, their weapons ringing as they clashed, metal against metal, both fighting for dominance against the other. The clash was ended when Ryouske kicked Sora away and then quickly thrust his arms out.

Hiruzen's eyes widened when Ryouske announced the name of his next jutsu, "Striking Shadow Claws", at Ryouske's call, claws made of shadow extended from his sleeves and lunged at Sora grabbing him and with a pull from Ryouske, brought Sora falling towards Ryouske who launched a kick at Sora's face and then twisted, using the claws to slam Sora into the wall, retracting the claws.

The pale faced jounin of the Sound ninja team, who was secretly Orochimaru in disguise, widened his eyes in surprise "That is a variation of my jutsu, that cunning little bastard." After waiting for Sora to stand up, Ryouske then created 4 water clones, each holding a katana, and rushed at Sora, waving his hands in a circular motion as if he was running his hands along a crystal ball. "Sky Style: Tidal Wind" with a smirk he appeared behind Sora and thrust his hands forward and from them a blast of spiralling wind burst forth, water spiralling in the wind, heading straight for Sora, knocking him off his feet.

He landed on his feet and looked up at Ryouske, panting with exhaustion from the relentless assault Ryouske had done to him and was about to charge forward when he noticed where he was standing. Ryouske stood in front of him, completing the circle that the clones had formed around Sora, katanas raised. With wide eyes, Sora swore under his breath as the 5 Ryouskes each did the same hand sign and waved their left hand down their katanas in unison, causing wind and lightning to surge around the blades " Sky Style: Gale Spark Slice."

Each Ryouske then grinned and swung his katana towards Sora, making blades of wind and lightning fly toward him slice at his arms, legs and chest. As they flew they blades turned in an arc and converged together to create a tornado that lifted Sora off his feet and into the air. The Ryouske clones disappeared as the real Ryouske's Sharingan flared and with a tired smirk he jumped up toward Sora and grabbed the back of his jacket.

Much to everyone's surprise, Rock Lee most of all, Ryouske then drove his knee up into Soras back and launched his fist into his stomach at the same time, flipped over him to knee at his face and then finished by driving his foot down onto Soras stomach, sending him crashing down to the ground, with Ryouske landing on his feet next to him.

Panting heavily, Ryouske walked weakly up to Sora and smiled just as weakly down at him, "sorry Sora, but Leaf shinobi or not, I couldn't hold back either." Sora smiled and nodded exhaustedly, "thanks for…giving me a challenge" he said, going unconscious a second after. Recovering from his shock, Hayate raised his hand and looked at Ryouske, "Winner is Ryouske Tenno."

Applause was heard from the Hokage and Jounin, mostly from Anko, and cheering from Naruto, Namito and Lukyo, "YES! WAY TO GO BRO!" Namito yelled out causing Ryouske to smile and wave at him, right before he fell forward, exhausted and falling unconscious as he went. Thankfully Anko appeared before him and caught him, albeit with him landing face first into her generous cleavage.

"Poor guy pushed himself to his limit" Anko stated softly, carrying her weakened student to the medics and thinking to herself with a grin, "If the little perv was awake his nose would be a river by now".

Aaaaaaaaand DONE. Well that's chapter 7 done. Phew this took me a while due to lack of muse but FINALLY IT IS DONE.

Next chapter will be Ryouske's training with a new sensei (sorry no hints :P )

Until next time folks

This is HaremKing666 signing off stay pervy everyone ;)