OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Anko blinked, trying to clear her head. What just happened? She was walking and then...now she was...at a dango stand? Dango! 'No, this stand isn't where I was going...was it?' She smelled the scent of the dango and she lost her train of thought. Her mouth watered and she yelled "Oi, can a girl get some dango around here?"
Meanwhile with Naruto...
Naruto tried to avoid the rest of his team as much as possible until it was time to meet back at the Hokage's office.
He walked there slowly, working on his mask, making sure that he would come off as normal as possible. He couldn't have them find out about the curse seal. He decided to track down the toad hermit and get him to do something about the seal after the exam was over.
He sensed Sakura and Sasuke coming up behind him. He tensed, but kept walking at the same pace, like he didn't notice them.
Sakura cried "Hey, Naruto. Going to the Hokage's?"
Naruto put on a happy voice "Yeah, Iruka-sensei said he'd meet us there and take us back, right? I'm really looking forward to the final part!"
Sasuke said "One would think that you'd had enough fighting for a while. Besides, we're just meeting up with the other teams. The final part isn't for a month from now."
"Heh, I forgot."
"Baka."
Naruto had actually forgotten about the month in between parts. He frowned. Should he go look for the toad hermit during the month? He would have an excuse to go looking for him... soon they made it back to the office.
The Hokage looked at Naruto. The boy had been acting strangely since he had finished the Chunnin exam. That the man who he had run into was Orochimaru worried him further. He said "Congratulations, Naruto. Are you ready to go meet back up with the other teams?"
"Hai, Ojii-san!"
Some of the happiness in Naruto's voice was real. In truth, he was glad that he wouldn't have to fight until a month from now. A fight would probably aggravate the curse seal and now he could go get the curse seal fixed before he had to fight.
Sandaime looked at Naruto. The boy seemed to be fine today. Maybe he was alright afterall. Perhaps Iruka was right and Orochimaru had just been testing the strength of the leaf village. There had been no sign of his former student in the forest, after all. It didn't make complete sense, but he supposed he should just be glad that the genins came out in one piece. He said "Ok, then. Iruka, take them back to the tower."
"Hai, Hokage-sama." He took them back to the tower.
When they got there, Naruto noticed that all of the genin teams had made it there. When Iruka left, Kiba walked up to him. "Naruto, what are you doing here? Did you fail or something?"
Sakura said "We finished on the first day. Iruka-sensei let us go home for a couple of days."
Kiba looked in disbelief 'Finish on the first day? But we barely got out this morning!' He said "Prove it."
Sasuke sighed and tossed Kiba one of their scrolls. He read it and was left with his jaw on the floor. 'How could the idiot's team have finished that fast? Even with that Uchiha jerk...that's got to be a record or something.'
Naruto had walked off several minutes before. He looked around. None of them seemed to have been in too bad of a shape, though many seemed to have been injured. With a sinking feeling, Naruto saw how many genins had passed. The final part of the exam wasn't made for so many to take it. He hoped this wouldn't mean preliminary fights.
With it being so necessary to keep good control over his emotions, he decided to go hang out with someone who wouldn't put him on edge. He went over to Hinata. She seemed nice enough and she didn't talk much. "Hey, Hinata."
Hinata was shocked that her crush was now standing beside her and talking to her "H..hi, N..naruto. H..how d..did you d..do?"
Naruto looked at her and faked a smile "Heh, I got lucky. How about you?"
"W..we p..passed okay."
"That's good."
Hinata's face was beet red. Naruto thought 'Why does she act like that when I come around her? She's done that before. Kyuubi?'
'Don't ask me for help for your ningen problems, gaki. Although...' The fox snickered 'It seems the female child wants to be your mate.'
'What?!' Naruto blushed. 'What the hell? She just stutters and blushes around me. That means she likes me, like that?'
'Not that I care, but she's not a bad ningen for your mate. She comes from a powerful clan.'
'She's a nice girl. That's why I came over. I knew she wouldn't harass me about passing early, but, she really likes me like that? What would she think if she knew about you? She'd hate me too like the others. I...' Naruto was elated on one hand, that someone maybe loved him, but he knew that if she knew the truth, it would go away. It would hurt them both less if she knew. He could get the doubt over with now and she could get on with her life...
Kyuubi sent 'Now's not the best time to let your secret out, kit. She's probably not going to take it well. Do you want everyone in the stadium to know?'
Naruto frowned 'I'll tell her later, after the tournament, then.' The thought of her reaction made his heart clench and his neck throb. 'Damn it. I've got to keep control of these emotions. No extremes! I can't afford for this thing to activate. Kyuubi's seal won't stop it completely.' He realized Hinata had been talking to him. He said "Nani? I didn't hear you."
Hinata blushed redder "I..I a..asked i..if you w..were okay."
Naruto managed a half smile "I'm fine. I was just thinking."
Hinata thought 'He looked so sad for a moment. I wonder what he was thinking about.'
Naruto thought 'Who would ever want to be my girlfried, Kyuubi? I've been chasing after Sakura as a ruse. I know she would accept me even less than Hinata. She doesn't even accept me the way I present myself now.'
Kyuubi sent 'I thought you were getting off that subject. Talk to the girl.'
Just then the Hokage made an announcement. Naruto barely contained a groan as he heard it. There were going to be preliminaries and what was worse, they were going to start immediately.
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO I know, this was a short chapter. Gomen for that, I would have gone ahead and done the preliminaries in this chapter, but I hadn't decided whether to do canon matchups yet, or to alter the matchups a little in light of recent events in the story (i.e. Naruto's curse mark). I would appreciate some feedback on this. Because I can only get on the internet once week for a while, and I need feedback for the next chapter, it may be two weeks before I can update again, gomen for that, but it can't be helped. Well, don't forget to RandR. Ja ne.