(Welcome to chapter four.)
After three days of resting, it was the day of the prelims and all the genin that made it there including Naruto's squad, squads eight, ten, Guy's, Gaara's, and Kabuto's stood before the Sandaime, the proctors for the Chunin exams, and their Jonin senseis.
"All right, I would like to congratulate each of you for making it this far in the Chunin exams!" The Hokage announced. "However, we have to have a preliminary match so we can cut this crop in half."
"So before we begin, is there any of you wishing to withdraw now?" Anko asked.
Kabuto suddenly raised his hand, "Yes I am wishing to withdraw."
Naruto flinched as the glanced at Kabuto knowing what he's planning to do, dropping out so he can sneak off to Orochimaru and give him a report. As Kabuto left the Sandaime began again.
"If that's all, then I'll hand this over to your new instructor. Hayate!" The Hokage called as a pale white skinned Jonin with bags under his eyes approached.
The proctor let out a cough before speaking, "Hello, my name is Hayate Gekkou and I shall serve as the proctor for the next stage of the exams. In these preliminaries each of you will be chosen to randomly fight another Genin in this room. Your names will be displayed up there," He motioned as a huge screen was lowered down and their names were displayed, "However due to having uneven participants one of you may not be selected to fight. The rules are simple. You're allowed use of any weapon or jutsus, but when I tell you to stop, you will stop or risk disqualification."
"Let the match-ups begin!" The Hokage called as the machine started mixing up the names and after a minute the first two names that came up were 'Sasuke Uchiha' and 'Yoroi Akadou'. Sasuke smirked, Yes.' He thought. Naruto and Sakura glanced at their teammate hoping he doesn't flip out like before.
"Very well. Those who were selected remain here, and the rest of you go above where you may observe the fighting from a safe distance." Hayate instructed everyone.
So everyone besides Sasuke, and Yoroi left for the catwalks. The Konoha Genin were on one side, while the foreign ninjas from Sand were on the opposite side.
Naruto watched sitting on the railing of the catwalk like a spider as Catastrophe contacted him, "Naruto."
'Yes Catastrophe?'
'Before or if we are selected to fight take note it may be against one of our very own ninja from our village, but do not let that stop us from fighting to our fullest should they provoke it out of us.'
'No problem at all.' Naruto replied and turned to watch the match.
"This first match Sasuke Uchiha versus Yoroi Akadou." Hayate began, "Let the first match of the preliminaries begin!"
Naruto and the group watched the match seeing Yoroi was a chakra absorber. The more blows he tried landing on Sasuke the more chakra he was absorbing. Sasuke was getting weaker by the minute, and felt the curse mark on his neck was trying to take him over. Sasuke struggled to keep it contained and instead focused on using Taijutsu with a technique known as Konoha Kage Buyou that he copied while fighting Lee before the exams began. He then slammed Yoroi to the ground knocking him unconscious and out of the match.
"Sasuke Uchiha is the winner!" Hayate declared.
"All right Sasuke!" Sakura called while Naruto smirked.
'Well Sasuke congrats, but do not think this will make you seem any stronger after all that fool was nothing compared to the real threats in this room.' He thought glancing at Gaara having felt vibes from him since he got the spider sense.
Sasuke fell to the ground, but was caught by Kakashi's knee. Kakashi told the emdic he'd take Sasuke personally and vanished.
Soon the computer started up again with the drawing and the two names that came up were 'Shino Aburame' and 'Chouji Akimichi'. Hinata, Kiba, and Kurenai turned to Shino who nodded and walked his way down to the arena while Chouji looked ready and joined Shino.
As the two genin met Chouji spoke, "Don't think just because we're from the same village I'm going to hold back."
"It would be an insult if you did." Shino added.
"If you are ready you may begin." Hayate spoke as the two went at it using their family's secret techniques but eventually Shino's insect technique ended up towering over Chouji's expansion technique when the insects sucked out most of his chakra until Chouji gave not wanting to be drained dry.
"Shino Aburame is the winner." Hayate called.
Hinata and Kiba applauded while Kurenai smiled seeing Shino return to them as Shikamaru, Ino, and Asuma checked in on their comrade. "Sorry guys, guess I couldn't do it." Chouji said.
"Don't worry about it. As soon as you're healed up we'll get some barbeque." Asuma said.
"Cool." Chouji said beginning to salivate as he was carried off by the meds.
They then watched the screen as the next names were drawn. The next two names that were drawn were 'Misumi Tsurugi' & 'Kankuro'.
The two genin went onto the arena and waited for the go, "You may begin!" Hayate called.
(Match plays out like it did with Kankuro winning)
After Kankuro used his ninja puppet to defeat Misumi, he returned to the catwalk with his sibs. The group then watched and noticed the next two names to come up were 'Ino Yamanaka' & 'Sakura Haruno'. "Well Sakura hope you're ready." Kakashi said.
"I am sensei." Sakura said confidently.
Soon the two kunoichi's made it to the area and got into fighting stances. When the matched was announced to begin the two kunoichi went at it in a Taijutsu fight since they both barely knew any real offensive jutsus. The two eventually delivered a double punch knocking each other out.
"Due to a double knockout, neither genin will advance." Hayate called the match.
Kakashi and Asuma shunshined down and carry their respective student back up to the catwalk where they laid them down to rest up.
When they awoke Naruto looked down at them, "We have to say both of you performed well for your skills."
"Uh arigato." Sakura said.
"Yeah thanks." Ino added.
Naruto lifted Ino's chin up to make her look at him while this made the blonde kunoichi blush as he whispered to her, "Our other and we were rooting for you so you know." Ino blushed at how he whispered into her ear.
They looked back at the drawing board as the next two names that were drawn were 'Naruto Uzumaki' & 'Kiba Inuzuka'.
"Sweet! Come on Akamaru, let's show that web spitting punk what a real ninja is like," Kiba said with confidence but Akamaru wouldn't budge, and ran behind Hinata so Kiba wouldn't pursue him, "Akamaru what's wrong?"
"It's obvious your dog is smarter than you. Knowing who it can and cannot fight against. We'll be on the arena. Don't keep us waiting." Naruto said leaping from the railing and landed down on the arena on his feet.
"All right Akamaru you win." Kiba said before he went down to the arena as well.
Hayate stood in the center, "This next match between Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inuzuka will now commence. If you are ready fight!"
Kiba then took off to attack Naruto with his clan's speed but when he was right on top of the blonde, said shinobi jumped over Kiba and landed with perfect grace on the floor and looked to him, "Good try Kiba, but not good enough."
"I'll show you not good enough, Shikyaku no Jutsu!" Kiba called as his body started looking more feral; "Now here I come!" he tackled for Naruto who once again kept flipping over him.
"You know Kiba this is starting to be a bore, so how about we show you just what you're really up against!" Naruto called as the symbiote formed around him transforming him into Catastrophe.
"This again, Naruto I don't know what this is but it…" Kiba began but was cut off.
"It's not just Naruto this time dog boy. Call us Catastrophe!" he declared with a manic laugh.
The Sandaime was surprised Naruto would take that form while Kakashi and Asuma were in shock while Kurenai remained neutral having already seen this form of Naruto's. Anko licked her lip eager to see what the spider boy would do, while on the other side Gaara was staring at Catastrophe with his arms quivering a bit.
'This feeling, he is not like he was when we first met; he may be more worth knowing that I thought.' Gaara thought.
"You think I'm afraid that freak of a form think again!" Kiba called to Catastrophe.
"Oh we beg to differ Kiba we know you're afraid," Catastrophe said as his fork tongue slicked his lip, "You think by acting tough like that you can hide your fear, but you cannot hide your true feelings from us!"
Kiba frowned as he tried attacking Catastrophe but the symbiotic ninja kept catching Kiba and throwing him around but the Inuzuka just kept coming.
"Naruto's not even flinching." Shikamaru gasped.
"He truly is not what he used to be." Shino added.
"Did you know about this Kakashi?" Asuma asked.
"Heard yes, but this my first time seeing it up close." Kakashi admitted seeing it was more than what the Sandaime said it was.
Back on the arena, Catastrophe was jumping from wall to wall while Kiba kept on coming at him, "So much for your family speed or is it perhaps you're still a pup?" Catastrophe mocked him.
"Damn you!" Kiba cried, "Gatsuuga!" he continued striking but Catastrophe was shaking off his moves while throwing his own punches and kicks which was really leaving bruises on the Inuzuka heir.
"You're still not worthy enough to truly take down so let us wrap this up." Catastrophe called creating nine shadow clones and they all fired a web shot at Kiba from multiple angles and started running around circling the dog ninja making the webbing wrap around him.
"Hey, what!" Kiba called as he was being spun into a web cocoon like what a spider does to bugs.
Soon Catastrophe and his clones have webbed Kiba up in a thick cocoon and the real one turned to the clones, "We'll take it from here boys." He said as the dispelled and Catastrophe gripped the webbing strand that extended from his wrist and started spinning the cocoon around and around by the web strand while Kiba let out a muffled scream from inside.
"Round and around and away it goes!" he released it sending the cocoon heading upward to the ceiling, but using his fast reflexes jumped upward above the cocoon and slammed his fists down on it sending the encased shinobi crashing onto the arena while Catastrophe touched back down perfectly.
"He won't be moving after that last attack for several hours so no point in continuing it." Catastrophe said turning his hands into sharpened claws that shredded the cocoon releasing Kiba who looked beaten to a pulp while unconscious.
"Naruto Uzumaki is the winner." Hayate called.
Sakura applauded, "Way to go, Naruto!"
"Naruto defeated Kiba like he was nothing." Hinata gasped.
Kurenai smiled, "Yes, goes to show you should never underestimate your opponent."
Catastrophe held up his right arm shooting a web thread to the ceiling and pulled himself back up to the catwalk where he transformed back into Naruto. "Not much of a work out, but it was good for what it was." He flexed his fingers around.
"Not bad there Naruto, you've really come a long way." Kakashi said.
"Was there ever any doubt?" Naruto asked as they watched to see who would be next.
The next two names that popped out were 'Hinata Hyuga' & 'Neji Hyuga'. Everyone from Konoha gasped in surprise. Kurenai and Shino looked at Hinata who was shocked as ever. While Guy, Lee, and Tenten saw Neji had no emotions at all.
Both of them walked down, and stood on opposite ends of each other awaiting Hayate's word.
"If you're ready you may begin!" shouted Hayate, before he jumped back.
Hinata got ready to attack but Neji spoke causing her to halt, "Give up."
Hinata suddenly froze in place while the genin were surprised as Neji continued to berate her bringing down her self confidence while Naruto started frowning as finally had it as he launched a small web at Neji's mouth covering it.
Neji mumbled surprised at that web launched at his mouth and struggled to pull it off before looking up at Naruto who was frowning. Neji removed the web covering his mouth as Hinata refused to walk away leaving Neji irritated.
So Hinata and Neji went at it with their gentle fist art with both sides appearing even. However as Hinata continued pushing herself to her limits Neji just attacked even harder. Neji started delivering blows at her chakra network to disable her chakra flow followed by striking lethal organs. Soon they stood on opposite ends with Neji looking as calm as ever while Hinata stood with blood dripping from her mouth and such all while trying to keep balanced.
Neji looking totally pissed off at Hinata for trying to lecture him and charged her in blind rage only to be restrained by Hayate, Guy, Kurenai, and Kakashi.
Neji obeyed his sensei, while Hinata coughed up more blood before falling backwards. Before she could hit the ground Naruto jumped down sending a web for her and caught her pulling her upward so she landed into Kurenai's embrace.
Naruto watched as Hinata was taken away feeling worry for her until Neji snapped him out of his thoughts, "Do not feel sorry for her. She was doomed a failure right from the beginnin, and like all failures they meet the same fate of losing to their superiors as is it their destiny." Neji said with no regrets.
As soon as Hinata was out of sight Naruto morphed into Catastrophe, face and all before extending his symbiotic limb to grip Neji by the throat and brought him into his face, "If there's one thing we detest more than traitors or any kind of filth in this world it's stuck up bastards like you who think you know everything about everybody when you don't know squat! We should probably do Hinata a favor and finish you here and now!"
"NARUTO!" The Sandaime called approaching him, "Drop him now or you will end up being disqualified from the finals."
Naruto turned toward the Hokage before returning to his original form and dropped Neji on his ass, "You got lucky that time, but rest assured we aren't finished with you." He told Neji before going back to the catwalk where Guy, Lee, and Tenten stood.
"We assume you want to scold me for threatening your comrade?" Naruto asked not showing any sign of worry.
"Well Naruto it was wrong of you to threaten Neji like that." Guy started.
"Yes how unyouthful for such a ninja." Lee added making Naruto cringe.
"However," Tenten finished giving Naruto a curious look, "We all couldn't blame you for that reaction, we also didn't like how Neji was acting."
"You're his team, what does he have against Hinata?" Naruto asked.
"It's not our place to say Naruto, but it's not just Hinata he's got issues with it's the entire main house of the Hyuga clan." Guy explained.
"We see," Naruto replied crossing his arms, "Regardless of his issues we still refuse to tolerate his behavior."
Tenten watched as Naruto took his spot sitting back on the railings and thought, 'Wow, for a minute I actually Neji sweat when Naruto threatened him, this guy may be stronger than Neji. I'd love to see those two go at it.'
A few minutes later everyone waited for the next names to be drawn, and the two that came up were 'Gaara' & 'Rock Lee'.
"Yosh, I shall show you all the power of youth!" Lee ranted as he leaped from the balcony and onto the arena.
Gaara vanished in a Shunshin of sand and appeared on the arena, "If you're ready you may begin!" Hayate called.
Lee began charging forward throwing a punch but a wall of sand blocked his blow, so he tried using his other arm to punch but met the same results.
"Whoa where's that sand coming from?" Sakura asks.
"The gourd on his back." Naruto replied looking at it until Kyubi called.
"Naruto!"
"Kyubi what is it?" Naruto asked.
"That's no ordinary sand emitting from that boys gourd." Kyubi explained.
"What do you mean?" the blonde asked confused.
"Only one creature is able to manipulate sand to that degree, Shukaku."
"Shukaku?"
"Yes, he is the Ichibi of the tailed beasts." Kyubi explained.
"So he's just like us, but judging from the look on his face he's probably had it worse than I did in the past." Naruto noticed.
Lee then started releasing a barrage of kicks at Gaara who didn't even move because the sand in his gourd kept coming out and blocking the attacks. When Lee saw his attacks weren't doing anything he removed the weights on his legs and began moving faster making the sand harder to block. Unfortunately it didn't seem to matter, so Lee pulled out a bigger stop by using the chakra gates. By the time he opened the fifth gate he was looking extremely exhausted from the affects the previous gates had on his body.
Gaara who had taken so many fast and powerful hits was looking no better than Lee. However, his body cracked open revealing to have been a cocoon of sand while Gaara was completely unscratched. Gaara taking advantage of Lee's weakened state used his sand to crush Lee's legs as the Taijutsu freak screamed in pain. When Gaara was ready to finish him, Guy stepped in shielding his student. Seeing as it was clear who won Hayate labeled Gaara the winner and the Suna shinobi shunshined in sand back to his team.
The Konoha watched the medics take Lee away, and Naruto heard them talk about how bad his wounds are and that he may never be a ninja again.
"He had such dreams and all were taken away." Naruto said as he turned seeing Neji not showing any sign of sympathy believing it to be another case of fate and destiny in his opinion. Tenten however was in deep sorrow for her teammates' loss until Naruto put a hand on her shoulder comforting her.
"His defeat will be avenged Tenten, we will make sure of it." He said glaring over at Gaara.
"Naruto," Tenten gasped as she wiped a tear away and smiled at him, "Arigato."
They soon returned to the catwalk where the final two out of three names popped up being 'Shikamaru Nara' & 'Temari. Shikamaru groaned wishing it was him who would be the odd one who didn't have to fight. Tenten was shocked not getting a chance to fight, while Temari had no worry at all.
The fight went with Shikamaru pitting his families shadow manipulating jutsu against Temari who was using her giant fan combined with wind based jutsu. It was going as far as it could but when Shikamaru finally caught Temari in his shadow the Suna kunoichi was worried about what would come next until Shikamaru raised his hand making her do the same. Shikamaru then declared forfeit claiming he didn't have enough chakra to finish.
Soon the winning genin composed of Naruto, Shino, Neji, Tenten, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro minus Sasuke met on the arena and presented themselves in front of the Hokage, Hayate, Anko, and Ibiki.
"With this the third exam preliminaries are finished." Hayate began.
With only eight competitors now, they were each assigned a random number by Anko.
"State your number you have drawn." Ibiki ordered as he looked at Neji first, and saw the boy show him the number in his hand.
"I got two." Neji said showing the paper with the number written on it.
"Seven" Temari said.
"Three." Gaara said.
"I have eight." Tenten showed hers.
"I have five." Shino showed them his.
"I got six." Kankuro said.
"We got number one." Naruto said.
"Then that leaves Sasuke Uchiha with number four." Sarutobi said.
"All right. We have your names, numbers, and who you will be facing one month from now in the finals in the Chunin Stadium," Ibiki showing them a list, "Study it well."
Match 1: Naruto vs Neji
Match 2: Gaara vs Sasuke
Match 3: Shino vs Kankuro
Match 4: Temari vs Tenten
"You now know who you are fighting in one month. Good luck to all of you, as you will need it for the road ahead in preparing for what lies ahead of you." The Sandaime said as he looked at the competitors.
Naruto turned to Neji who could tell he was going to look at him, "It seems fate has given us the opportunity to avenge Hinata's defeat," He told Neji in a mocking tone that irritated him. "We shall see you in a month, and when it comes you will be begging for mercy." He said not wanting to stick around with the others and ran out of the building before web slinging off back to the village.
(And that's the chapter. I skipped certain matches because they were going to be the same results. Don't miss next time.)