This is my first story. Don't hate for no reason. Will take fair criticism though.

I do not own Naruto or anything related. That goes to Masashi Kishimoto

CHAPTER 21

Today was the last day of the second exam. Naruto had woken up with Hinata resting on his shoulder, his arm holding her close, and honestly he couldn't think of a better way to wake up. Currently his team was being guided somewhere, most likely to end the second exam, begin the third, or maybe both. He was happy to see that Team 10 had already made it, but sad that he hadn't yet seen Team 7. Despite leaving them in the forest Naruto really did want to see them succeed. But beside themselves and Team 10 two other teams had made it: Gaara and his team, and Kabuto and his team.

Eventually Team 8 was guided into a large room along with the three other teams that had made it and were lined up according to their teams. In front of them stood a platform where they saw their sensei's and proctors, but also in the center, the Sandaime Hokage. They stood there waiting as the last few minutes of the test ticked away. But with less than one minute remaining Team 7 suddenly ran into the room. They looked beat up and dirty, seeming as if they went to hell and back for their two scrolls.

'At least they made it,' thought Naruto. Once the clock struck twelve the exits shut closed and the Hokage stood up, "Well done, all of you who made it through the second exam, with this you have shown responsibility and capability in completing not only retrieval missions, and delivery missions. However the Chunin Exams are used for much more than just promoting genin, It is a substitute for war."

The Old Hokage let the silence resonate with the genin, "Instead of showing a village's strength through countless deaths and battles in war, we use the Chunin Exams as a stage to show possible clients but more importantly, other villages the great strength of our "weakest" ninja. Leaving up to the imagination what must be the incredible strength of our most powerful. This not only increases the clientele of the villages, and therefore the economy, but also prevents war."

Hiruzen looks into the crowd of genin and can see how bored they are, though he does see some pensive looks. Chuckling he says, "I know I am boring you with my speech so let's continue with the exams."

"I can take it from here. *cough*" A man shouted. A sickly man with pale skin and deep bags under his eyes walked towards the center of the room. He looked through the genin, "My name is Gekko Hayate, and I am your third proctor. *cough* From this point onward *cough* you move forward as individuals not as a team. *cough* *cough* If you want to quit now, you may."

One hand rose from the crowd, "I would like to. Something happened to me in the forest, and I couldn't sleep it off." Looking over his shoulder he saw Kabuto raising his hand. He had been in the tower since last night so he should be fine by now. Naruto whispered to Hinata, "Check him, he should be good enough to continue."

Listening, Hinata silently activated her byakugan, not to go unnoticed by many of the jonin. Hinata didn't directly look at Kabuto, thanks to the near 360o vision she had. But what she saw confused her. She whispered back to Naruto, "His reserves are full, but not only that, he has just as much chakra as Kurenai-sensei. He doesn't even have any injuries, he should be fine to continue."

"Thanks Hinata-chan, you can deactivate your eyes now." 'Why the hell is he quitting now? That's definitely suspicious.' Naruto thought it over but after a minute he refocused his attention back onto the proctor.

"That's it? No one else? *cough* Well damn, not only are there too many people, *cough* it's an odd number. We have to do preliminaries."

"Preliminaries?" Sakura shrieked, "We just got out of the forest!"

The proctor shrugged, "You should have gotten to the tower sooner. *cough*"

A electronic board began lowering from the ceiling as the Hayate began to explain, "The preliminaries will be held in one-on-one fashion, *cough* the winner will be in the third exam. And because there's seventeen of *cough* *cough* of you one of you won't have to fight. Now which ever *cough* two appear on this board will fight first, everyone else, move to the balcony *cough*

As the board began to randomize through all the names the genin looked up, waiting in anticipation. Finally the board landed on two names: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Shino Aburame.

Shino remained silent while Sasuke just grunted. As Hinata walked up the stairs to the balcony he shouted to his teammate, "You got this Shino!" Naruto quickly followed it up with, "Yeah! Kick his ass."

Making it up the stairs he walked past his own sensei and walked up to Team 7. He was about to ask about the seal when Sakura spoke first, "You have to do something about the seal!"

Naruto froze and asked, "What happened?"

Kiba began to explain, "Soon after you left Sasuke woke but he had this weird chakra around him, he became really angry and violent, and these weird black marks began to cover his skin, all coming from the seal. And every time he uses chakra, the seal starts to affect him again."

Naruto grimaced, "Then he's definitely not winning his prelim. I should've just sealed it in the forest."

Sakura became irate, "You could have!?!"

"Yeah, I just didn't want to make it worse. It was sannin's work after all. Look, I'll seal it after if you want."

Sakura was about to respond when their sensei spoke up, "Don't worry about that, I'll seal it. You were going to use the Fuja Hoin right?" (Evil Sealing Method)

Naruto spun on his heels, "Yes, but you know fuinjutsu?

The silver haired man shrugged, "Not too much, but I do know the Fuja Hoin."

"Okay I guess. See ya!" Naruto walked away feeling slightly guilty that he wasn't able to help Sasuke. After a minute though he had to shake it off and prepare for a fight.

-in the arena-

Once the proctor saw everyone but the combatants up on the balcony he began shouting, "The rules are simple, *cough* you win if your opponent yields, or can no longer fight. Other than that, everything is allowed, including lethal force, though it is not recommended. Hajime!"

Hearing the match start Sasuke charged at Shino hoping to keep it a taijutsu match. He thought he was fast enough to blitz Shino but as soon as he landed a hit across his jaw, the Shino that he hit dissipated into bugs, 'Shit a clone.'

Many of the bugs quickly latched on to Sasuke and began to drain him of his chakra, 'Damnit! Now I'm on a timer.'

The bugs began to swarm around a certain spot at the other end of the arena where Shino appeared and began sending bugs to swarm Sasuke, hoping to keep the exhibition of his skills to a minimum. Across from him Sasuke realized that this wouldn't be possible without jutsu so calming down, though staying aware of how close the bugs were getting, he focused on his chakra and attempted to separate it from the seal.

"Katon: Gokakyu no Jutsu! (Fire Release: Great Fireball Jutsu) Sasuke despite the pain he was getting from his neck he shot the fire ball straight at the swarm hoping for them to burn but just after the fireball ended he collapsed to the floor, doing his best to restrict the seal. Seeing as Sasuke was about to burn his precious insects Shino quickly sped through hand signs of his own, "Doton: Doryuheki." A large wall of earth rose up from the ground directly in front of the bugs protecting them from the flames but seeing Sasuke collapse Shino used another jutsu, "Doton: Shinju Zanshu no Jutsu."

Just as quickly as the wall was erected, Shino sank into the floor, as well as his bugs. Sasuke tried to move but he could feel the seal trying to gain control. Suddenly the floor below him felt soft, too soft. First his legs sank under the floor, then his torso until he sank all the way to his neck.

Stuck in the ground, Sasuke was angry, 'Not again! I'm an Uchiha, this should be easy!' The seal that he had been keeping in check (kinda) started to feed off the anger that was slowly rising. Black markings began to spread across his body. As the marks covered his arm he was able to free it from under the ground followed by his other arm using them to push himself out of the hole.

Sasuke now had these black spreading across his skin, sharingan active with hatred in his eyes, "YOU CAN'T BEAT ME I'M AN UCHI--"

His sensei appeared behind him, and with a swift chop to the neck Sasuke was left unconscious, "My student will surrender. *sigh* Guess it's time to seal up that mark." The silver haired jonin said walking out of the arena, Sasuke hefted up onto his shoulder.

There was silence as Sasuke was slowly carried away though the proctor was first to recover, "Aburame Shino wins by forfeit!"

The board once again began to shuffle through names eventually landing on: Sabaku no Temari vs Haruno Sakura.

Quietly the two girls walked down the stairs meeting across from each other in the middle of the arena.

"For Sasuke-kun," Sakura whispers. However it was just loud enough for Temari to hear it, making her burst out in laughter, "That's why you are doing this? Not for a promotion, not to get stronger, but for a boy?"

"I'd do anything for my Sasuke-kun!" Sakura said resolutely though there were shouts of defiance from the audience. But Temari just scoffed, "You are a disgrace to all kunoichi. Do you even train on your off time?"

"No, I don't want to bulk up, I have to look good for my Sasuke-kun."

"You foolish, naive girl. I hope that beating you to a pulp will make you rethink that." Temari finished by pulling a long metal bar off her back, almost wielding it like a sword.

Seeing both fighters get into stance the proctor shouted, "Hajime!"

Immediately Temari charged and tried to hit Sakura over the head. Sakura attempted to dodge, and though it didn't hit her head, it did clip her leg, sending her tumbling to the ground. Not giving her a moment of rest, Temari charged Sakura once again and hit her across the chest with her fan, knocking her to the wall. Temari charged once more and swung the metal bar across Sakura's face. Temari let all her anger loose on the annoying fangirl pounding her all across the arena, never even letting Sakura stand up. After a few minutes Temari stopped pounding her into the ground and instead she put her in a choke hold. With no chance to escape Sakura mumbled, "I forfeit."

Letting the girl go Temari was disgusted, "You don't deserve to be here. You don't even deserve to be a shinobi. Girls like you are what give kunoichi a bad name."

"Sabaku no Temari wins by forfeit!" The proctor shouted, hoping to end their conversation. Temari simply scoffed and walked away leaving behind a battered and bruised Sakura. Near catatonically she walked back over to her teammate where she quietly asked, "Do you think I deserve to be a shinobi?"

"Of course!" Kiba reassured her though he did take a breath, "But…It would be better if you trained a little more…maybe get off that diet?"

Kiba could see the tears forming in her eyes so he wrapped her in a hug, "I believe that you can be a strong kunoichi…I just think you need to work a little harder for it." Sakura wiped her tears and hugged him back, "Thanks Kiba."

Following the girls' battle the board once again randomized through names, finally landing on: Uzumaki Naruto vs. Higurashi Tenten.

Naruto was about to walk down the stairs when just before he took a step Hinata spun him around and planted a kiss on his cheek, "Good luck Naruto-kun."

Naruto smiled, "With you here I won't need it." Excited Naruto jumped down from the balcony. Standing across from him was a girl wearing a light pink chinese-styled no sleeved shirt and long pants. She had brown eyes and brown hair formed into two buns that looked like panda ears.

The proctor saw that the two combatants were ready to battle so he shouted, "Hajime!"

Immediately jumping into action Tenten jumped backwards and threw a few kunai to create distance. Naruto dodged backwards and unsealed a few seal slips. Quickly Tenten pulled a few scrolls out of her pouch and unsealed tons of large shuriken. And threw them towards Naruto. In response Naruto nearly instantly writes out a seal and throws it to the floor.

Making a hand sign whispering, "Kihon Fuin Kekkai," (Basic Sealing Barrier) a 4 meter by 4 meter blue barrier appeared in front of him, blocking the projectiles. Tenten saw the barrier so she unseal a bo staff and charged, attempted to strike Naruto across the head but reacting quickly Naruto unsealed a kunai and blocked the strike with his left hand, while making a seal with his right. Behind him a clone appeared and jumped over it's creator, prepared to hit Tenten over the head and when she went to hit the clone with her staff Naruto held a grip on it so she let the staff go and she somersaulted backwards to avoid the strike.

Quickly she took out another scroll from her pouch and unsealed a much larger one from it. From the much larger scroll she unsealed a mace and ax. She was about to charge when Naruto shunshin into her guard and placed two seals on her weapons. Suddenly the two weapons were much too heavy to hold and they fell to the ground with a loud boom making two small craters. Tenten was shocked at how quickly Naruto was able to counter her.

Jumping back Tenten took out two more scrolls from her bag and thought, 'If this doesn't beat him. Nothing else will.'

Running through hand signs she jumped in the air shouting, "Soshoryu!" (Twin Rising Dragons)

The two scrolls she was holding unfurled and began to spin around her in the air. Suddenly from the scroll kunai, shuriken, swords, and weapons of all sizes began to fly out of the seals on the scrolls. Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief but knowing he only had seconds he quickly unsealed a strip of paper and drew a seal wrapping it around a kunai and tossing across the room.

Suddenly all of the weapons spawning out of scrolls began to follow the stray kunai. When Tenten finally landed after the jutsu she panted, tired and dizzy, she hoped that she at least injured Naruto, when suddenly she felt something attach to her shoulder.

Snapping out of her daze she asked, "What did you do?"

"I attached one of my Jiki Hiki no Fuin (Magnetic Pull Seal) to you. So you should probably forfeit."

"Never!" she shouted.

"Well you should because if I were to deactivate that seal over there," Naruto pointed to a point across the room where there was a cluster of weapons, "and activate the one attached to you, all those weapons would fly straight towards you like a homing missile."

Tenten widened her eyes in shock and fear.

"I don't think you can dodge or block all of that."

Tenten sighed and admitted defeat, "I forfeit."

Naruto deactivated his magnetic seal and removed the one attached to Tenten's shoulder, "You used your seals well. Are you interested in fuinjutsu?"

Tenten stuck out her hand, "No, mostly just bukijutsu (weaponry). Storage scrolls just make it easier to carry."

Naruto stuck his out too and shook it, "I figured, but you could make your weapons harder to break with durability seals or make them easier to wield with weight changing seals. Make them lighter as you carry it and make it heavier right before you strike."

Tenten smiled in appreciation and interest, " Maybe you could teach me how?"

"Sure! I could find time to teach you."

"Uzumaki Naruto wins by forfeit!" The proctor interrupted their conversation, "Please return to the balcony."

Very calmly the two combatants walked back up to their teams. When Naruto returned to Team 8 he received a hug and a kiss on the cheek from Hinata, "Well done Naruto-kun!"

Naruto smiled, "Thanks. And once you win all of Team 8 will be in the finals."

"You think I will?"

Naruto pet Hinata's hair, "Of course! You're one of the best genin here!"

Hinata blushed, "Thank you Naruto-kun." Hinata rested her head on Naruto's shoulders as they waited for the next names to be called.

To be Continued...

I made the matches different for two reasons. One because they did say the matches were picked at random so I pretended they were randomized differently. And two...because I just like to make myself suffer with extra work. I will post every one to two weeks. Thank you for reading