Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto...
Here is the expected chapter, sorry for the wait, my betas took a while and it is a long chapter for what I have, around 4000 words. I hope you enjoy...
Chapter 19 – Preliminaries continue… bad ideas…
"You mean you're just going to stand there and let me use my jutsu?" Ino asked.
"Ladies first" Naruto replied coyly.
Ino smiled 'what luck! This will be over so quick.' She proceeded to go through several hand signs. "Ninja art: Mind body transfer." Ino kneeled down, nearly collapsing, as Naruto looked like he was visibly hit.
Kurenai shook her head. 'Either that is the gutsiest idea or the stupidest move one of you have ever made.'
Asuma was just looking and shaking his head "I can't believe he would just let her do that. He has just lost." A couple minutes went by and nothing happened. "Wait she should already be in control of Naruto. This might be bad."
Ino was standing in a concrete hallway, water was ankle deep and there were pipes running all over the place. There was also wind blowing in a rhythmic pattern and Naruto was just standing right in front of her. "Wait… this isn't supposed to happen. What is going on?" Ino commented.
Naruto looking sheepishly "I am not sure myself. All I know is that this is the first time I have been here. Do you feel that breeze? It almost sounds like breathing." A look of horror comes over Naruto's face. "You have to get out of here, and I mean now."
Ino had already wandered closer to the origination of the wind. She then enters a large room with a large double gate on the far end of the room with a small piece of paper over the two gates with the kanji of seal on it. Curious, she starts to approach as Naruto enters the room. Large red eyes appear behind the gates.
"So you bring me an offering kit?" A booming and gravelly sounding voice comes from the cage. "Come closer little girl, let me feast upon your marrow."
Ino continued to approach the gates. Naruto ran up and just barely caught up with her. He then quickly pulls her away just as a large set of claws come through the gaps in the bars just missing her. "That was too close. Dammit fox why did you attack her?" Naruto asks angrily. Ino is just in awe as the outline of a huge fox appears behind the bars. It appears to be smiling a very sinister grin.
"I thought you brought me a peace offering. I guess I was mistaken." An evil laugh follows the statement.
"Shut up you damn fox!" Naruto replies coldly.
"I like your spirit kit. Call me again if you are ever in need. Also I would like to talk some time, it is lonely down here." The fox says as it disappears back into its cage. The body fades leaving only the eyes and they eventually faded too if only after a few minutes.
"Wha…wha… what was that?" Ino asks as she is panting with sweat beading up on her face.
Naruto still holding her takes a deep breath and begins. "Ok, you remember your history?" Ino nods.
"Ok, remember them telling us that the Fourth Hokage defeated the Kyubi, right?" A laugh came from the cage. Ino looked in that direction, but then nodded.
"Well, he didn't kill it." A look of terror fell upon Ino's face.
"He was not able to kill it, nobody could… he is a demon after all and no mortal can kill them outright. So he did the next best thing, well… the only thing he could do, he had to seal it in a new born baby."
Ino looked into Naruto's sad eyes, and had a feeling she knew what was coming next in her gut, as she fought back tears.
"And that baby was me." Naruto looked down at his feet. "I am sorry you had to find out this way, I did not know this would happen. I promise. I am his jailor, as you can see for yourself."
"And it has been amusing and intolerable all at the same time." Replied the fox from his cage, "Just let me out of here, and I will be able to feast on those that have hurt you over all those years kit. I promise their deaths will be just as painful as the beating they gave you, before I send them to the afterlife. I like you because you have shown me your resolve and I owe you."
"I said shut up you damn fox." Naruto yelled at the cell, tears streaming from his eyes. "Ino, please you mustn't tell anyone. This is more for your safety than mine." His eyes were pleading for her to understand. She looked at Naruto confused.
"There is a law forbidding people from talking about this, unless they have knowledge of it. I am the only exception as I am the one burdened with this." Naruto explained as Ino started to cry.
"I am sorry Naruto, I didn't know." She shook her head as more tears came welling from her eyes. "I didn't know. I am so, so sorry Naruto. Now I understand why my father said never to use any of our jutsu on you ever. I'm so sorry I have been so mean to you over the years." Ino said as she continued to cry.
"Ino you have not been as bad as some. Some have tried to kill me. Some nearly succeeded." Naruto stated nonchalantly.
Ino was shocked. She knew that he was sent to the hospital fairly often but she did not know that he had been nearly killed.
"They thought I was the Kyubi. Therefore by killing me they would be freeing the village of him. They did not understand the difference." Wiping the tears off Ino's face with his hand, "You are not a bad person, just misinformed. So how do we get out of here so you are not hurt?"
Ino makes a hand sign. "Release!"
The concrete room disappears and the arena again comes into view. After a couple seconds Ino screamed, she then slumps to the ground tears streaming from her eyes. Naruto immediately runs over to her and lifts her off the ground bridal style as Hayate looks at her. "Since Ino is no longer able to battle the winner is Naruto Uzumaki."
The medical ninja come over and Naruto carefully places Ino in the stretcher. They take her away as one asks him what happened.
"She saw something she should have never seen." Naruto slowly walks up the stairs to stand beside Hinata. She sees pain in his eyes. She puts a hand on his shoulder, and smiles at him.
"We can talk about it later Naruto-kun." Hinata squeezes his shoulder.
The electronic board now runs through the next contestants. "I always knew you would be more than a match for that wimp." Neji commented. While looking at the board, he added "and now I can remove another weakling."
Naruto and Hinata were confused until they looked at the board. Neji Hyuga vs. Hinata Hyuga. Naruto got really angry. A look of concern was on Hinata's face as she followed Neji down to the arena.
"It is fitting that the main branch should be pitted against the side branch." Neji says to Hinata as they take their respective starting places in the arena. Watching her take her stance "you know you will lose. It was preordained, it is your destiny. You are a weakling and cannot overcome that flaw in yourself. You are a failure and you always will be. Just give up the match and we will not have to subject the family honor to this shame you will bring upon it."
"I am sorry brother, I cannot just give up. I am here to show I have changed. Prepare yourself brother." She said as she activates her Byakugan.
"So you do have some courage. It will only spell your doom in the end. Give up this fleeting dream and go back to your kid games. You are not a ninja and you should have never been allowed to try." Neji continues to taunt. This even starts to annoy Hayate.
"You may begin." Hayate says as he backs away.
"You are just a shy insecure girl playing at being a ninja. You don't belong here, you should be at home. The main branch has become weak and you are epitome of this."
He starts with a left hand strike which is easily deflected by Hinata. She makes a strike attempt with her right hand but has hers is also deflected. They continue to trade blows but neither seeming to land a blow. This continues for several minutes.
Naruto can feel the chakra from the strikes even from the balcony. Neji's strikes continue to have the same intensity but Hinata's strikes appeared to be weakening. This confused Naruto, because sparing with Hinata has given him an idea of her chakra reserves. Either she is lulling him into thinking she is getting weaker or there is a big problem. She at last landed a strike but Neji does not seem fazed by it. He then pulls her sleeve up revealing chakra burns on her chakra points all over her arm.
"I have sealed up all your chakra points, now this match is over." Neji boasted arrogantly. "Like I said, this match was over before it started. Go home, you are a failure and have always been one. You are a blemish on the honor of the main branch. You should have forfeited when your name was called. It is not too late to keep the shame you will inflict on the main branch to a minimum. "
Thinking quickly, Hinata switched stances from Gentle fist style to another that Gai had only recently taught her. She then hits the quick releases for her armbands and threw them both at Neji. The first he was able to duck but caught the second in the chest knocking the wind out of him. "You are wrong," Hinata said calmly, "you are the one that is hurting. You are the one who is worried about the divide between the main and side branches. I have changed and I intend to prove it."
Neji returns to his stance looking very pissed.
"Give it up you cannot win. Once a failure, always a failure. You cannot win even if you try to change your style, it will ultimately prove pointless. Give it up and I will spare you the indignity of this loss. " Neji says as he blocks several of Hinata's attack but is hit by a few of them causing his lip to bleed and a swelling bruise to appear on his cheek. He then takes a hit to the chest as he also hit her over the heart. She stumbles back coughing up blood.
"Hinata! You are not a failure! I believe in you!" Naruto yells.
"Ah, another loser. Is that your cheering section? A loser coming from a group of losers." Turning and looking at Naruto. "You would have lost too, it is destiny. You are a loser and will always be one." Turning and looking back at Hinata who is starting to pick herself up off the floor, he spat at her. He then returns to his stance.
"Shino get ready to grab something." Naruto whispers as he mounts the railing. Shino nods at his statement.
Neji activates his Byakugan and charges as Kurenai jumps from the balcony.
Hinata's eyes roll into the back of her head and she starts to fall.
"The match is over Neji" Hayate yells, but the Hyuga genius had already landed a strike to Naruto's chest. Three jonin and Hayate held him back as Naruto staggered back, coughing up blood from Neji's hit, but was still standing.
"As expected the main family is given special privileges." Neji says as he pulls away from Gai, Kurenai, Kakashi, and Hayate.
"What is your problem Neji, I know you do not like the main branch but to try to kill Hinata?" Naruto kneeled down and wiped his hand in Hinata's blood.
"I knew you were a jerk. Killing your cousin is not right not even to become a chunin." Naruto holds the bloodstained fist out to Neji. "I swear I will beat you. Not as badly as you did her but I will show you how you are wrong. I will make you understand just how you are wrong."
"A statement from a loser is not a threat that I worry about." Neji said rudely. "Go worry about your playmate. I am sure she is in need of medical attention."
Furious Naruto runs at Neji to start an attack, but is intercepted by Rock Lee. "I know you are angry Naruto. But would it not be great if the gifted genius is defeated by sheer will power or maybe even by a loser. Now would that not be grand?"
Shino was already bringing Hinata down to the medical personnel. One came over to Naruto and asks if he needs help then but then suddenly jumps back in alarm.
Kurenai placed her hand on Naruto's head. "Your eyes are showing. You should calm down and go with Hinata." She whispers.
Somewhat mollified, he starts to calm down and headed off with the medic. As he went his eyes slowly changed from bright red to a deep purple.
"I am worried about her too." Shino said. "You did very well with that substitution. I will watch the competition for you. She will need you…now go to her."
"Thank you Shino" Naruto said quietly as he went down the hall.
Kurenai and Naruto followed until they came to the emergency room doors. Naruto was then lead to a side room where another doctor began to examine him. Kurenai accompanied him into the examination room.
Naruto continued to cough up blood. The doctor looks at him and says "if I get any information about your friend I will let you know. Now let's check you out. Tough battle?"
The doctor's hand began to glow green as he passed it over Naruto's head and moved it down his body. "Oh, I see. How do you feel?"
"Sort of tired and short of breath. Why?" Naruto asked and continued to cough up blood.
"Well if you were anyone other than Naruto Uzumaki you would be dead." The doctor says with a smile. "Well… You have a collapsed lung and torn bronchial tube. You are bleeding internally, but thanks to your guest you are healing just fine. You will continue to cough up blood for the next few days but after about an hour or two you it will not be fresh blood, the clotting and healing has already started. From what I know of medicine you would not be standing and you would have been bleeding out on the arena floor drowning in your own blood. I envy you and your ability to heal. Actually have for quite a while. I remember a patient about nine years ago with kunai wounds. I offer you the same treatment." He smiles and hands Naruto a pill. "This is a plasma pill it should help you with replacing the lost blood. It is a pleasure to treat you again. You make my job easy. I recommend a couple days rest then you can get to training. I can arrange for you to get the same room as you friend if you like." The doctor winked at Naruto causing him to blush.
"Thank you for looking at Naruto. I know most people do not like to deal with him." Kurenai said to the doctor.
"I only have one complaint about Naruto." The doctor said, as both Kurenai and Naruto began to frown. "He would always run away from the hospital too soon for me to examine him to make sure he was ok."
This brought a small laugh to Naruto who promptly coughed up more blood. "I also prescribe no laughter for the rest of the day. I will go check on your friend. Naruto please listen to my advice for once." Naruto nodded his head as the doctor left the room.
Naruto ate the pill he was given, and lay back on the examining table, suddenly very tired.
About five minutes later the doctor came back in smiling. "Your friend will be coming out of surgery soon but she is out of danger now. She will still be out of action for a month or more. Apparently her opponent did a number on her organs, but we were able to get to her in time. I hope this is good news. You will be able to visit her in about an hour." With that news Naruto started to cry as Kurenai tried to comfort him. The doctor left them to themselves.
After an hour Naruto was feeling better, but had something on his mind. "Kurenai sensei, we need to talk to Ino."
"Why? What happened?" Kurenai asked.
"We got to meet my guest."
A look of shock came across Kurenai's face.
"He almost got her when she went too close to his cage. I talked to her in my mind I think. She said that her father had told her not to use her jutsu on me. While the fox bastard was not that mean, he had a very cold sense of humor. He also told me to come and see him if I was ever in need of help."
Kurenai helped him down from the table and they walked to the infirmary holding area for all the patients. They soon found Sasuke, Ino and the others who had been injured except for Hinata.
Naruto went over to sit at Ino's bedside. "Hi Naruto," Ino said in a concerned tone. "How are doing? I heard about Hinata, I am sorry. Who knew Neji would turn out to be such a jerk?"
Tenten did not look pleased with that statement.
"I heard you switched with her, with what would have been a fatal blow." Ino continued.
This disturbed Tenten even more.
"My guess is that you saved Hinata's life. I hear you keep doing that. Soon you will have to take ownership of that." Having said that, Ino winked at Naruto.
"Huh?" Naruto looked confused. "I don't understand Ino. I was worried about Hinata to be sure. I had to protect her. I knew Neji has his problems but this is like the last time when I came in and rescued her from Hanabi. This time I got a ruptured lung for my trouble."
Ino gasped. "And you are moving around now? Wow you are one tough guy." Ino said seductively.
"That maybe, but I will heal. I am also worried about you. You collapsed after your jutsu." Naruto said with a worried look on his face.
Ino waved Naruto closer. She shyly gave him a small kiss on the cheek. "You are sweet, and don't worry. Your secret is safe with me. You are one incredible guy, to deal with that thing. I hope it works out for you with Hinata." She whispered.
Naruto looked at her blushing and confused while holding his cheek. "So when can I get up again? I want to give my Sasuke-kun a great big hug." She said with a large smile while winking at Naruto. This again brought a confused look to his face.
"You can't be serious that Neji was trying to kill Hinata?" Tenten asked.
Naruto turned to her coughed up some blood into a cloth he was carrying and then said, "It looked that way, she was really torn up and then he went for a killing blow. I switched with her and took the blow for her. I knew that he was doesn't like the main branch, but I am not sure why. He was always distant after we came back to the compound after the attack on me and Hinata nine years ago."
"I was not aware you and Hinata were attacked." Tenten responded. "I know people would attack you fairly often. My father considers you a hero. I am not sure why, but he thinks you are great. I also wanted to thank you for helping save our weapons shop."
"I appreciate your father and the weapons I am able to purchase from him. They are very good quality and he does not try to charge me more than any other customer. He is a good man."
He studied her with a look of concern. "Are you ok? You took quite a hit from falling on Temari's fan."
"It still hurts some but I will be better in a few days. Thank you for your concern. I still find it odd that people do not like you. You're such a nice person. "
"Thank you Tenten. I like you too. Well I have to check up on Hinata and the finals." Naruto looked at Ino with a worried look on his face. "Sorry about what you went through."
"Hey you have a real thing problem to deal with and I do not envy you. If you need some help let me know." Ino said with a very warm smile.
"Thanks Ino, you are a good friend." Naruto smiles and walks out of the infirmary still occasionally coughing up some blood.
Kurenai leads him to another room. Hinata is lying in bed hooked up to a respirator and heart monitor. Her skin was very pale and she looks very bad. "They say she is healing better than expected. My guess is that is her guest."
Naruto nods agreement.
"Let's get back to the arena. As there is nothing we can do here."
Naruto nods as he squeezes Hinata's hand and leaves thinking 'Get better soon. I will be waiting.'
As he headed back to the arena he sees Neji in a room with a person he did not know they appeared to be yelling at each other. Not wanting to get involved they continued on.
As he entered the arena he saw Chouji and Kiba going at it. They both attacked Chouji with meat tank, and Kiba and Akamaru with their fang over fang attack. When the attacks collided the dust was brought up in the arena. When the dust cleared all three were unconscious. Hayate declared the match a draw, leaving both as losers of the preliminaries.
Shino informed Naruto that Lee had given a really good fight against Gaara but was just not able to finish the fight, and Gai had to step in before Lee was permanently hurt. With only one match to go Naruto looked over at Sakura wondering if she would be able to go through with her fight with Dosu. When their names were called she promptly told the proctor that she would forfeit the match. Naruto thought it was a smart move remembering what it was like to fight them before.
The Hokage explains that the Chunin exams are a substitute for war in a way and also a way to showing off the individual shinobi village's skills to the prospective clients. They will have a month to train and learn new skills. The third exam will be a tournament that will pit the winners of the preliminaries against each other in front of an audience. Lots were drawn, it was determined that the matches would be as follows: Naruto fights Neji, Sasuke fights Gaara, Kankurou fights Shino, Dosu fights Shikamaru and the winner of that fight will fight Temari. With that knowledge the finalist were sent off for their month of training.
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A/N: I hope you enjoyed it and yes I changed some of the fights. Any similarities to another story is just that. So enjoy the story. I also am sorry that last chapter was mostly like cannon but was easier and wanted my Sasuke bashing limited. Again sorry for the lateness of posting this. I should have the next one in fairly short order. Please do not shoot the author, and remember this is an Alternate Universe. I have several surprises in the next few chapters so keep reading and enjoy. I will try to get the next one up ASAP, but I am limited by my Beta readers for edits and refinements, but great thanks to Alicia Kawa Uchiha for her supurb editing. And yes they have their own projects so any who want to beta let me know. Thanks RaiderXV...