This is a must, because I'm keeping to the storyline... At least for now ^-^

Also, I believe I cleared up the mystery of how Kabuto sneaked into the village, eh? heh-heh

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Chapter 7: Preliminaries

Once you finished training in the morning like usual, you started heading to the stadium. Once you had gotten there, you remembered that the stadium was going to be used for the finals, not the preliminaries, so you started heading to the indoor arena. That's where the matches were going to be held. Of course, you were the first one there. You waited there, looking down at the arena. It was almost time to see how your students have grown. When you first got them as your team, Jade was a bad as Sasuke. In every way. Kurashin was always trying to organize everything, not really thinking on his feet. Saioga. Well, let's just say that he was as bad as Konohomaru at everything that he did, except being a prankster. He wasn't as bad as Naruto, but he was still pretty dumb. Time to see how far they've truly grown.

After waiting for a little while, everyone came into the arena. The Hokage explained what he had to, and that guy, Kabuto, left. You were curious why he left. You've never once gone down into the arena with the others, so while he was walking to the exit, you saw him smirk as well as adjust his glasses. Now you were curious why he smirked back at everyone before leaving. It was definitely odd. You also noticed something else strange. There was a mark on Sasukes neck. It looked an awful lot like a curse mark that you've seen before. Other than Kabuto smirking, and a mark on Sasuke neck, everything was normal.

Everyone headed up the stairs to watch the fights. The name board selected the first two names just as everyone got up there. Sasuke and Yoroi were up first. Yoroi was from the Leaf Village, apparently. You've never seen him before this though. The fight went to Sasuke, then Kakashi took him off instead of letting the medics take him. So that mark was a curse. Your instincts barely ever lie. Well, they never lie, you just tend to ignore them some times.

The second matches names then came up on the bored. Abumi and Shino were the next ones to get down into the arena. You were impressed with Abumi for his trickery, but then again, it wasn't so hard to tell that he was bluffing when he said that he didn't have the use of his arms. The Sound Village doesn't seem to have intelligent ninja, from seeing this. If he was able to use one, he'd be able to use the other. Shino pulled through the match with no problems at all. His insects really are something. To think that he gave them the silent command to plug up the holes in Abumi's hands. Genius.

Second fight cleared, the names for the third match appeared on the bored. It was Misumi and Kankuro up for the third match. Kankurou was from the Sand Village, and Misumi was Yorois and Kabuto's teammate. Kankuro underestimated him, but still won the match. Misumi moved with lightning speed against Kankuro, getting him in a vice-like grip. His techniques made his body as flexible as a snake. Just when he thought he had Kankuro, he realized that he was gripping a model of Kankuro, which would be his marionette, Crow, and it started to tighten around his body in a lethal embrace. Kankuro then came out of the thing he carries on his back. Misumi was carried away in a stretcher.

Since the third match was over, the names of the two fighters for the fourth match came up on the bored. The two fighters for this match were Sakura and Ino. Sakura used images to get close enough to get a hit to land. After that, Sakura got Ino mad, and she sliced off her ponytail with her kunai. Unfortunately for Sakura, Inos hair was going to get to her. Ino used her mind transfer technique and ended up in Sakuras body. Right before giving up, Ino was forced out of her body. Everyone was curious how. The match ended in a tie.

Both fighters losing in the forth match, the fifth match was going to start. The fighters were Tenten and Temari. Both of their names started with T, you couldn't help but notice. To you, it was something to get a small laugh out of. No matter what weapon Tenten used, Temari merely deflected it using her fan. In the end, Temari won the match by catching Tenten in a powerful tornado. Tenten landed on Temaris closed fan. Even though the match was over, Temari tossed Tenten off of her fan. Lee had to catch her. Lee tried to attack Temari, but she blocked it with her fan. Lee then went back up to everyone else with his sensei, Guy, at his side.

Things were only going to get better, you could tell. The sixth match was Shikamaru versus Tsuchi. Tsuchi. Odd name. Shikamaru won by using his shadow possession jutsu and making Tsuchi hit her head against the wall. Pretty lame lose for Tsuchi, but whatever. She was also from the Sound Village. She did really well in using her techniques. Shikamaru was definitely confused for a little while from her using the bell on a string, then using the sound of the bell to cause him to see illusions. You concluded that she was the smartest one from the Sound Village that's fought so far.

For the seventh match, Naruto was up against Kiba. A fart distracted Kibas sense of smell, then Naruto was smart enough to transform into Kiba while Akamaru was also Kiba at the moment. When Kiba hit Naruto, he quickly transformed into Akamaru. Kiba thought he hit Akamaru, and then turned and punched the real Akamaru. Naruto then transformed back into himself and kicked Kiba. You were about to laugh at Kiba getting confused by a former prankster like Naruto. Luckily, you didn't. Naruto finished up the match by using a new move of his called Naruto Rengen. Kakashi looked a little impressed by Narutos win. Wait, Kakashi? You didn't notice that he was back until just now. Oops.

The next match up was Hinata versus Neji for the eighth match. Hinata didn't stand a chance, but she didn't give up. In the end, Neji won, of course. Neji actually aimed to kill Hinata with his very last blow. Neji, was a dangerous guy. You were glad that Saioga didn't get matched up with him. You felt bad for Hinata though.

Moving onto the Ninth match, Lee was to fight Gaara. Just by looking at him, you knew that Gaara was one dangerous guy. While watching Lee power-up, and Gaara still beating him, you were glad that Jade didn't go up against him. Sure, Jade is strong, but you had doubts about him being strong enough to take down Gaara of the Desert. After opening gates to fight against Gaara, Lee still had his left arm and leg severely damaged. With all the damage done to his limbs, he wouldn't be able to be a ninja.

The next match, the tenth match, was Choi against Saioga. No fight there. Saioga won hands-down. All he did was call him fat, then kick him in the head while he was rolling toward him. As you thought, it was the shortest match yet.

The eleventh and final match was Kurashin versus Kinuta. Kurashin had a little trouble at first, but he figured out what Kinuta was doing, and tried to cover his ears using chakra. Unfortunately for him, Kurashin's plan didn't work. He ended up unconscious from the sound waves that were Kinutas technique. It was unfortunate, but it happened.

Jade and Kabuto were going to end up fighting, but sense Kabuto didn't even stay, Jade was able to move on to the finals anyway. Jade would've won anyway. You had the most faith in Jade out of your three students. Everyone that won their match then picked a number out of a hat to determine who they would fight in the finals. It was a weird way to do it, but whatever. You weren't in charge.

After all that, everyone left, and the preliminaries were over. Everyone had three months to train for the finals. Everyone that lost that wasn't injured really bad, had even more time to train. You had six days left to go before meeting up with who you thought would be Iruka. He surely picked a nice spot to meet up at.

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Alright, chapter done. Now that that's out of the way, the really good ones are coming up! Ooooooohh! I can't wait to post them up! ^_^

Saioga: Heeeeyyy... Why'd I go against Choji? Why'd Kuashin get the challenge? Even though he lost! *laughs*

Kurashin: I... *sigh* Need to work on my defensive techniques...

Jade: No fight for me? Hmph...

Sunset: At least you got a free pass into the finals, right?

Jade: ... *disappears*

Saioga: Can someone answer meeeee??? Why'd I get Choji?

Sunset: *ignoring Saioga once again* Please look forward to the next chapter!