AKT 12

AN: Sorry for taking so long to get this chapter out, but I just haven't felt like writing. Here's the finish of the preliminaries.

"Winner: *cough* Shino Aburame."

When Shino returned, Kiba asked, "What happened? Why did his arms explode? Do you have a jutsu that makes your arms explode? I don't want 'splodey arms!"

"I blocked the holes," was his characteristically terse reply.

After the room was cleaned up, during which time Kakashi helpfully filled in the Konoha genin on the basic facts of the Aburame clan, the next match was announced.

Dosu Kinuta vs. Tekika Enzeru

The bandaged sound nin and the kunoichi from the kiri team made their way down to the floor. They lined up in front of each other, and Gekkou started the match.

The instant the match started, Tekika threw off the trench coat she had been wearing (Think Anko, but buttoned and different clothes underneath) revealing a pair of bladed whips slung over her shoulders. She was wearing a sleeveless gi top over a long sleeved chain mesh undershirt (like light chain mail, what Anko wears) and shinobi pants and sandals. She unwound the whips with a flick of her wrists and began to whip them around in a fanning pattern, creating shallow gouges in the floor all around herself. (ever seen underworld? The one vampire with the dual whips that had silver embedded in them.)

After she finished showing off, she flicked her right wrist expertly and sent her whip whistling toward Dosu. He simply dodged her attack, as he felt that it was not worth the chance of getting entangled if he blocked.

Eventually, after several minutes of attacking and dodging leading to no real progress, Tekika jumped back and formed a hand seal while still holding her whips. "Kirigakure no jutsu [hidden mist jutsu]! Now let's see you dodge."

Silence permeated the room, punctuated by a slight pinging noise that no one seemed to notice, until the distinctive whistle and crack of a whip being swung announced to everyone that the kiri girl had begun her attack. Several jounin sweat dropped at the stupidity of using a jutsu like the hidden mist jutsu and then attacking with a weapon that gives you an audible warning when it's used. (What? Not all females can be intelligent. If there weren't some stupid women, the stereotype would not propagate.)

Dosu, who had been echolocating with the light pinging noises he was making by flicking the gauntlet on his right arm, allowed the tip of the whip to hit his melody arm, and used the resulting sound waves to blow out his opponent's equilibrium. He smiled as he heard her cry of pain and her whips clatter to the ground as she brought her hands to her ears and fell to her knees.

Dosu quickly rushed up behind her, pulled her head back by her hair, and pressed a kunai to her throat.

By this time, the mist had cleared enough for Gekkou to see that Dosu had a knife to the girl's throat, and declared Dosu the winner.

One quick sweeping later, the next match was announced.

Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka

*insert Ino-babble here to the effect of 'Sasuke will be mine, I've always been the better kunoichi'*

Sakura slowly untied her hitai-ate and retied it over her forehead before she spoke, "Remember what we said about the next time we wore our hitai-ate's on our foreheads? I will fight you all out. Besides, I already have Sasuke-kun. Almost every night for the last few months actually," she then continued in a stage whisper, "He's rather large you know."

Ino's face went beet red as she sputtered for a few moments.

After Ino had collected herself somewhat, and after she had moved her forehead protector from her waist to her forehead, Gekkou began the match.

It was at this point that everyone heard the door bang open, and all eyes turned to see Naruko walk into the room, complete with puffy red eyes.

The fighters just stood there and watched as their fellow kunoichi made her way to the upper balcony, and resumed her seat against the wall. However, she did watch the match.

"Where were we? Oh yes, Magen: narakumi no jutsu [demonic illusion: Hell viewing jutsu]"

Ino screamed and fell to her knees, before she shakily raised her hands into a ram seal and yelled, "Kai! [release]" freeing herself from the genjutsu.

"I-It's not true! There's no way my Sasuke-kun would do that ecchi stuff with you!"

The deep blush on Sakura's face reduced the impact of her sneer somewhat as she said, "That was the night before last."

All of the Konoha genin in the room, save Naruko, as well as several of the Konoha Jounin instructors, and the Hokage himself, turned to look at Sasuke for confirmation. His blush said it all.

At this point, Ino broke down into tears. Sakura took this opportunity to weave three or four layers of genjutsu around her opponent without her notice. She then slowly circled around the crying blond until she was standing behind her.

"Asuma, do you have any tips for how to deal with a crying blonde kunoichi?" Kakashi asked.

"It depends on whether or not you are the cause." Asuma replied, before he turned back to the fight.

After a few minutes, Ino once again collected herself. She stood and pulled out a kunai. "Fine! I don't need all this hair getting in my way anymore then!" She then raised the kunai to her ponytail and sliced through it, the majority of her formerly long ponytail held in her left hand. She then proceeded to throw the fistful of hair at Sakura. "There, you won Sasuke's heart, now I'm gonna win this match!"

She then went through the hand seals for her family's famous Shintenshin no jutsu [mind body switch jutsu] before she slumped to the floor. The 'Sakura' she had aimed at found herself caught by a strand of hair reinforced with chakra attached to her leg.

Ino was surprised when her Jutsu did not connect. She had no choice but to cancel the jutsu, but by then it was too late. The real Sakura, which Ino still couldn't see, had pressed a kunai to Ino's throat, and Gekkou ended the match.

Sakura was gracious enough to help her friend up to the balcony. Sasuke stopped his girlfriend along the way though. "I appreciate that you were using psychological warfare to unbalance your opponent, to great effect I might add, but did you have to use our affairs as your ammunition?"

Sakura pulled him into a deep kiss before she whispered in his ear, "yep!" She then indicated the now gaping Ino and added, "and that's why."

Sasuke gave a wry smile, and said, "Good job, Sakura-Chan."

The next match was then announced.

Kiba Inuzuka vs. Kenpachi Konpaku

The leader of the Kiri genin squad, dressed in black shinobi pants, a black shinobi shirt with a chain mesh shirt underneath, and his kiri headband around his forehead (The standard Jounin outfit without the vest basically), was wearing the standard kunai holster and weapons pouch, as well as a pair of katana and a pair of double edged Chinese long swords (Jian swords, think tai-chi swords, but sharp) strapped to his back, with the two katana over one shoulder and the two Chinese swords over his other shoulder, each pair of swords forming one leg of an X across his back.

The two combatants reached the center of the floor, and Gekkou quickly started the match.

Kenpachi started off by drawing both of his Chinese long swords, and activating the same jutsu that both of his teammates had used. "Kirigakure no jutsu"

"Hah! That technique didn't work for either of your teammates, what makes you think it will work for you?" Kiba taunted.

"Simple really, they were amateurs trying to use a professional's technique. I am next in line to become one of the seven swordsmen. There really is no comparison." Kenpachi's voice echoed from all around, making it impossible to discern his location from his voice.

"So you can throw your voice. Big deal, all I need to do is sniff you out!"

"Thank you for that information. Now all I have to do is hide my scent." A small explosion was heard, and the entire room was filled with an intense smell of fish. It was so overpowering that Kiba cried out and covered his nose, and Akamaru whimpered and attempted to do the same.

The dog ninja did not have to wait long for his opponent to strike. Seemingly out of nowhere, one of the Chinese swords came swinging at Kiba's head. He barely managed to dodge in time, receiving a horizontal cut on his cheek. A moment later, a sword slash came from a different direction, leaving a matching cut on the opposite cheek. Kenpachi then put three more slashes on each cheek, giving Kiba a bleeding set of 'whiskers' similar to Naruko's, except they were cuts, and there were four on each side.

"There, now you match your mutt whisker for whisker."

Kiba growled and formed his family's hand seals, announcing his jutsus turning him and Akamaru into (more) feral looking Kiba twins. They then proceeded to blindly initiate their dual Getsuuga [piercing fang] technique, hoping to score a lucky hit.

They were rewarded by the sound of swords being sheathed.

"Giving up after seeing our awesome power?" Kiba taunted.

"No, I merely wish to keep my swords intact. My water swords don't cost a small fortune to fix if they break. Suiken no jutsu! [water sword jutsu]"

"Isn't that technique a specialty of Takigakure?" Kurenai asked Kakashi.

"Yep," Kakashi responded.

The mist faltered due to the lapse in concentration of its creator, giving Kiba and Akamaru a golden opportunity to attack. They took it, not realizing that their opponent wanted them to perform their piercing fang attack. As they came spiraling in at him, he positioned both his water swords in such a way that they were at an angle to the tornadoes similar to the blade on a pencil sharpener. The result was that the super sharp water swords shaved down the claws of Kiba and Akamaru, forcing him to cancel his jutsu or lose his fingers one shaving at a time. He then quickly lashed out at both Kibas, scoring a slash across the chest on both of them. This dispelled Akamaru's transformation.

Kenpachi then quickly raised the mist once again, and within a few moments was behind Kiba, with his water swords crossed and pressed against his throat. Kiba realized that he had been defeated, and called out his forfeit. Gekkou then called the match in Kenpachi's favor.

After Kenpachi returned to the balcony and Kiba and Akamaru were taken in for treatment, the display announced the next match.

Shikamaru Nara vs. Hinata Hyuuga

After a moment of hesitation, Gekkou said, "Shikamaru advances *cough*"

Finally, the last result was shown.

Sasuke Uchiha vs. bye

"Sasuke Uchiha has been given a bye, *cough* therefore he advances. *cough* the finals will be held one month from now. Come forward and receive your number *cough* for the finals pairings. The pairings *cough* will be announced three weeks from now."

Gekkou then yielded the floor to the third hokage for further explanation.

The third explained how the finals would be in front of a large crowd and how any number of the finalists could be chosen to become chuunin, and how foreign dignitaries would be attending, the whole nine yards. After wishing them all luck, the genin were dismissed.

I think that I'm going to go on hiatus until the holidays are over. Don't hold me to that though, as my moods about writing tend to be mercurial at times.

What did you guys think of Kenpachi? He's my first non-disposable Original Character. I have to thank stephaniekit for her help in giving me the initial inspiration for a kiri team, as well as helping me name them. Without her, the last three chapters could not have happened, as she helped me move past a brick wall I had hit.

No, I don't think that Kenpachi will be hooking up with Naruko; she's a bit gun-shy about guys from Kiri right about now. I already have her next beau firmly in mind; I'm just doing some research on how to get the relationship started.

Please review, as insightful reviews are instrumental to helping me improve my story. Ja ne.