5 days later, the hall thing
"Welcome genins and congratulations on making it through the Forest of Death, but it seems that there are too many teams so we will be holding preliminary round to decide who will make it to the 3rd round," Minato said as the genins started murmuring "is there anyone who would like to quit?"
Kabuto raised his hand "I am too exhausted to fight" he said as he walked out, some of the jounins and Chunnins looked suspiciously at the teen while Minato discreetly signalled the Anbu to collect him later.
"If that's all let the match begin" that was when the adults went to the balcony but Hayate stayed behind to announce the matches.
"Ok, I'll be the proctor the matches," Hayate coughed "the matches will be decided on the screen" he pointed to the screen to the left of the screen that was attached to the wall "we will start it now" the screen suddenly sprung to life, they waited for sometime until the names showed up which read 'Sasuke Uchiha vs. Akado Yoroi' "ok, can everyone but the two fighters go to the balcony" the genins did as they were told while the two fighters got into position "and begin" he jumped away
On the balcony
The Konoha 13 cheered their friend on, their senseis were leaning against the wall, watching the match in interest, Gai wasn't there since he's on a mission to the Rain country, that was when they saw Itachi and Mirai walking up to the group, along with Obito, Genki, Michito and Okahito right behind the duo.
"Hey guys" Obito greeted
"Hey Obito, what are you lot doing here?" Kakashi asked
"We're here to watch the matches that's what" Genki said
"Really? I would have thought you lot would be on missions" Kurenai raised an eye brow at this
"Well, we just came back from one actually so we thought we might as well see how much the little brats have grown" Okahito said
"Look like Sasuke won" Hinata suddenly said, making the group turn to it and saw that Akado being carried out by the medics.
"The next match will be Shino Aburame vs. Zaku Abumi" Hayate announced "can both participants please come down"
"Good luck Shino" TenTen said
"Go kick some ass" Naruto said
"May the power of Youth prevail!" Lee said
"Hn" Shino said? As he nodded his head in thanks and walked down towards the fighting area, passing Sasuke on the way, who nodded at him.
"Yo Sasuke, great fight" Mirai said
"It seems that you have grown stronger" Itachi said as he ruffled his brother's hair, as said teen swatted his hand away and glared at the older teen who in turn wasn't fazed by it.
"So where's Madara?" Ino asked "I would have thought that he'll be here to watch"
"He wanted to come but Minato-sensei asked him to do something" Obito answered
"Like what?" Michito asked the others leaned in to hear the answer as well while also watching the match below.
"Well, he asked Madara to do his paperwork" everyone face faulted at this
"WTH, Madara would never do that" Izuna said
"I know, but Minato-sensei bribed him into doing it" he sighed and muttered "boy is Minato-sensei going to be bankrupt"
"So what did he get bribed with?" Naruto asked curiously
"Well, Minato-sensei said that if he did all his paperwork then he'll get the fangirls off his back for at least a month"
"That's a good bribe" the others muttered in agreement except Sakura who was clueless.
"Looks like Shino won" Neji said
Ok, so the matches were the same as the anime except Neji didn't try and kill Hinata, Gaara didn't cripple Lee, Izuna won against some random grass Nin and Ino won.
Hayate coughed "Ok, so the people who will go to the next round are as follows: Sasuke Uchiha, Shino Aburame, Kankuro no Sabaku, Ino Yamanaka, Temari no Sabaku, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Namikaze, Neji Hyuuga, Gaara no Sabaku, Izuna Uchiha and Dosu Kinuta" he coughed again "ok, everyone pick a number out of this hat to decide who will fight who in the next round" a random Chunnin walked in front of each genin with a hat filled with folded pieces of paper, each genin took a piece.
"I got 1" Naruto said
"I got 11" Izuna said
"I got 5" Kankuro said
"I got 9" Dosu said
"Troublesome, I got 8" Shikamaru said
"Hn, 4" Sasuke said
"2" Neji said
"I got 10" Ino chirped
"I got 3" Gaara said
"I got 6" Shino said
"And I got 7" Temari said
"The matches are as follows: Naruto Namikaze vs. Neji Hyuuga, Gaara no Sabaku vs. Sasuke Uchiha, Kankuro no Sabaku vs. Shino Aburame, Temari no Sabaku vs. Shikamaru Nara, Dosu Kinuta vs. Ino Yamanaka and Izuna will fight the winner" he coughed again as another random Chunnin wrote it down and Hayate stepped back as Minato stepped forward.
"The 3rd round will start in a month so you can all train until then, good luck" Minato said "and we'll see you next month" and with that everyone slowly filed out from the fighting hall.
In the Hokage office
Madara grumbled as he read and signed another document before putting it on top of the finished pile 'It'll be all worth it' he kept mentally chanting to himself as he put the last document on the finished pile, "finally" he slumped in his seat with a tired sigh, 'the preliminaries must of finished by now, wonder who won?' that was when Minato appeared in the room "Hokage-sama, how did the preliminary go?"
"It was great, most of the Konoha 13 got into the 3rd round" Minato sat as Madara got out of the seat for Minato to sit on "including your brother"
"Ah, I see. So what are you going to do about the war?"
"I don't know yet" he sighed "but me and the councils agreed that we will need to bring Jiraiya and Tsunade back before the 3rd exams happen"
"And let me guess, you're sending me to get Jiraiya to come back first so that he can train Naruto"
"That's right, and then you will need to bring back Tsunade a week before the exams start"
"Why me?" he raised an eye brow at this "I mean, why can't you sent Jiraiya and Naruto?"
"Well," he scratched the back of his head nervously "Tsunade still haven't forgiven Jiraiya for peeping on her in the hot springs 2 weeks ago"
"The pervert will never learn" he sighed "ok fine, I'll do it"
"Thanks a lot, I knew I could count on you" he grinned "you leave in an hour"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah" he waved his hand dismissively "well I'll see you later then" and with that he disappeared in a swirl of black and red fire.
At the ramen stand
The Konoha 13 minus Sakura who was still in hospital, were all talking excitedly about next month.
"So who's going to train you guys?" Chouji asked
"Well Fugaku said he'll train me" Izuna said
"Kakashi's training me" Sasuke said
"My dad's training me" Ino said
"My dad is training me as well" Neji said
"My dad and Asuma are training me" Shikamaru said lazily "troublesome"
"I'm getting trained by my dad as well" Shino said
"I don't know who I'm going to be trained by" Naruto said dejectedly
"Isn't your dad going to train you?" Hinata raised an eyebrow at this
"He said that he's busy preparing the 3rd part of the exams along with most of the ninja population" he sighed "I don't know what to do"
"Don't worry," Madara started as he appeared in a swirl of black and red fire "your dad has someone in mind to train you"
"Hi Madara" Izuna greeted as Madara nodded his head towards him
"So who's going to train me?" Naruto asked
"It's that old pervert Jiraiya"
"So where is he?" Kiba asked
"He's not in the village right now so I have to collect him" he sighed
"So when do you leave?" Izuna asked
"In an hour, I'm just going to get a quick bite before leaving"