A.N.: The next chapter is here. Thanks to everybody who reviewed the last one.
A.N.2: Now reposted with less grammar and spelling errors.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto. Is there anybody who thinks otherwise?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The next morning~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They almost couldn't believe it, but they survived. They had spent the night trembling, huddled together, while the sandstorm raged around them. It was completely unbecoming for tough young ninja, but even the mightiest and most arrogant of them had to bow before the forces of Nature. The winds had been howling around them the whole night, trying to tear their fragile tent from its place behind a rock, but the ninja wire held tight. The storm settled for tearing holes into it by scraping endless supply of sand against it. It succeeded, but the six people and three dogs managed to stay grounded, once more thanks to the ninja wire and the chakra they used to stick to their boulder when the gusts of wind were too strong. Before morning came they were all so exhausted they fell asleep without bothering to station guards. They were lucky nobody found them while they were defenseless, but considering all the sand covering them it wasn't that much of a surprise. They were virtually invisible even from a few steps away.
When they finally mustered the strength needed to get up, it was nearly noon. Only the fact that the boulder that had shielded them from the storm protected them also from sunrays saved them from overheating. They dug their way from under the sand and surveyed their surroundings. It looked like a completely different landscape. Where there used to be rocks only yesterday, now stood sand dunes.
"Whoa," Naruto commented. "Are we still in the same place?"
"I think so," Hotaru replied. "I think we would be able to tell if the wind carried us along with the boulder."
"Good thing is I can see the Red Dragon from here. It doesn't seem far," the blond reported.
"You know distances in the desert are confusing," the purple-haired kunoichi commented.
"I know," he replied, "but this really appears much closer then yesterday evening."
"I could be a mirage," Hotaru pointed out. "I heard whole caravans got lost in the desert chasing after them."
"Now who is calling disasters upon us," the jinchuuriki muttered.
"Did you say something, Naruto?" The kunoichi smiled too sweetly.
This was when Hana joined them.
"How are they?" the boy inquired.
"Better now. They should wake up soon," the vet answered.
"That's good to hear," Naruto smiled.
"We should get going," the dog mistress suggested. "We lost enough time and who knows how close the deadline is."
"We're lucky we survived at all," Hotaru said. She had heard some horror stories about the deserts of Wind Country from her former teammates.
"I'm worrying about the other teams," the youngest of the three said. "If the storm caught them in open plain, how would they manage to survive?"
"Better not think about it," the purple hair girl suggested. "At least the local teams have some experience with sandstorms and the others are capable as well. Trust them to pull through somehow."
"You know, Hotaru, you would sound more convincing if you believed it yourself," the boy observed.
"I suppose so," the girl replied, "and we should really get going now."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Afternoon~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The Red Dragon Fortress was indeed close, but the fact that the sand from the night's storm buried the entrance made it hard to find, but the team managed. The keen noses of the Haimaru triplets triumphed once again. Upon entering the fortress they were greeted by a wizened old shinobi covered in so many scars that almost no unmarred skin was visible. He walked with a pronounced limp and one of his hands seemed to be missing several fingers. They were tempted to ask what had happened to him, but kept their mouths shut.
They felt elated when the man announced that this was the last stop before the Golden Sand Castle. He also informed them where the Castle was, namely in a valley to the west of Suna village, hiding under a cliff not far from the outskirts of Sunagakure. Then he promptly kicked them out.
"Figures," Hotaru muttered.
"What figures?" Naruto inquired.
"That the finish would be so close to the village," the scantily clad kunoichi explained.
"Why?" the blond was curious.
"Because the senseis of the successful teams and proctors and even the local Kage would be coming there," she elaborated. "They wouldn't want to travel too far."
"That makes sense," he agreed.
They spent the rest of the afternoon and most of the night traveling. They settled for a short nap not too far from the plateau hiding Suna. Around an hour after sunrise they were on their feet again.
Finding the Castle proved to be surprisingly easy. Even though it couldn't be seen until they were almost upon it, they managed to catch tracks of another team and followed them to the Castle gate.
"Finally here," Naruto almost shouted, only the dirty glances from his teammates made him keep the volume down. They didn't want to alert any potential enemy so close to their goal. He started running towards the looming gate.
"Stop!" Hana shouted. The boy immediately obeyed. His teammate's tone implied how much pain he would be in if he didn't. "There might be traps!"
"I don't see any and I don't smell anyone here," the blond defended.
"The scents from the castle can hide it," the Inuzuka said. Even Naruto had to admit it was true.
They approached the gate with utmost caution, but they haven't encountered any traps. Finally they stood before the gate.
"Hurry up and open it," Hotaru said.
"Right on," the dog mistress replied and took out the two keys she had been keeping. She tried to insert them into the keyhole. "This isn't the right one and this isn't it either."
"I'll go next," said Naruto and took out his own keys. "Damn, that's bad." Since Hotaru had only the duplicates, that meant neither of their keys was the correct one. She tried them nevertheless, with predictable result.
"I can't believe this," Naruto exclaimed. "After all this and we get stuck just before the finish!"
"Yes, it's a pity," the purple-haired kunoichi agreed, "but we shouldn't despair. There is still one thing we can do."
"What is it?" the youngest genin asked.
"Wait until somebody brings the key to us," she answered with an evil smirk.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Night~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They spent the whole afternoon laying traps around the castle. They discussed possible strategies of ambushes. Naruto created clones, disguised them as wildlife and stationed them all around as guards. They would know about any approaching team an hour in advance. Yet the wait was almost unbearable.
"What if nobody comes?" Naruto couldn't help but worry. "What if they wouldn't have the right key either? What if everybody died in the sandstorm? What if they were blown away and can't find their way back? What if the deadline passes and we wouldn't know it? What if we cannot beat them?"
"Oh for Kami's sake, be quiet already," Hotaru couldn't stand his whining anymore. "Whatever happens, happens. We did all we could. And now let us get some rest or we'd lose for sure." That made the hyperactive boy finally shut up, but he still couldn't sit down quietly, instead marching back and forth.
"Can't you just go to sleep like us?" Hana asked in annoyance.
"You know I can't," he answered. "My clones would pop."
"Oh," the Inuzuka couldn't believe she forgot about this. "Just don't step into any of our traps."
"That haven't happened for months," he defended. He just hoped the girls wouldn't use that incident to tease him, but they were genuinely tired and sleepy.
A few hours after the girls fell asleep, a clone dispelling alerted Naruto to somebody's approach. He analyzed the received memories and then decided to go take a look himself. Even with his excellent night vision he couldn't see much, but there definitely was something big heading their direction. He ran back to the camp to wake the two kunoichi.
"Somebody's coming," he announced.
"Who and where?" the Inuzuka asked instantly awake.
"I don't know," he answered. "They seemed to be camouflaged. I could barely recognize movement."
"That might mean a Suna team then," Hotaru assumed. "They would know how to move around the desert undetected."
"We'll see when they come closer," Hana said. "Now does everybody remember the plan?" After receiving two affirmatives, she continued. "Well, then get on your positions. The enemy could be here soon."
The following waiting was almost unbearable. They were tired, cold, because the infamous cold desert nights finally came after the storm changed the weather, impatient, jittery and anxious that they would fail their test so close to the goal. They realized that this was exactly what the proctors were playing at and could understand that real ninja missions can be even tougher than this, but that changed nothing about the fact they were close to their endurance limits. Only the overabundance of water kept them in the game for so long.
Another clone dispelled itself. It let Naruto know that the enemy entered the canyon leading to the Castle. He could now recognize three figures shrouded in sandy-colored long robes the citizens of Suna seemed to favor. He signaled his findings to his teammates.
It didn't take long for the robed team to appear near their hiding spots. They waited until they got a bit further before springing their trap. The trick with explosive notes had worked before and even now it succeeded in throwing the victims high into the air. They landed with hollow thuds and sounds of splintering wood. 'Crap, puppets,' was a thought that ran through all three Konoha genin minds. 'Where are the real ones?' immediately followed. 'The puppeteer must see the puppet in order to control it properly,' Naruto recalled one of Tenzo's lessons. The canyon was curved, so they couldn't be too far behind. Other possibility was above, but his clones should have spotted them already if that was the case, that is unless the other team were experts at hiding, which puppeteers usually were. So where?
His thoughts were interrupted by the remains of the puppets springing back to life. The Blast notes had left them in pieces big enough for the puppeteers to use. He was going to remedy it.
"Drat it!" He shouted a coded warning to his comrades. He didn't pause to see whether they took cover, his hands were almost through the series of handseals before he finished. He sent the Fuuton: Cutting Blow into the canyon. His Wind jutsu were always more destructive in enclosed spaces. Even if the wood was reinforced against chakra-induced damage, this should leave it in a thousand little chunks.
He didn't wait to observe the results of his handiwork and ran from his hiding spot as soon as the winds died down. A split second later and he would have been smashed by the boulders that suddenly started raining from above him. He was sure there were none the last time he checked. 'A Doton user,' he realized. 'Is he above me? How comes the clones haven't spotted him?'
He tried to sniff the air, but he wasn't as good as an Inuzuka, and considering how his jutsu mixed up the currents in the area, he doubted even Hana would have an easy time finding them.
He created a bunch of clones and made them scatter. He was now sitting duck on the bare canyon wall and he at least wanted to confuse his opponents. He purposefully produced a great cloud of smoke along with the clones and utilized it to hide his movements. There was a small alcove in the rock near his position and he used it to hide himself, while his clones ran around trying to discern the enemy's position.
Hana cursed under her breath. Naruto succeeded in destroying the enemy puppets, but the dust he raised with his technique made her dogs sneeze, thus giving away their hiding spots. They had to jump out quickly to avoid a hail of senbon. Too bad she couldn't see clearly where did they come from. She noticed a number of Naruto's clones running around aimlessly. Four shuriken flew at them and two of the replicas were destroyed. The dog mistress smirked. Now she saw where did they come from.
Before she could do anything about it, a handful of kunai came flying at her and she was forced to dodge. That had been someone else. They were in an unfavorable situation, there was no use pulling any punches. She took out Soldier pills and threw them to her dogs. A few seconds later they turned into vicious wolf-like beasts. Sometimes their appearance was enough to scare an opponent off, but those were tougher. She expected nothing less from her fellow chuunin-wannabes. The Inuzuka foursome started climbing the canyon walls.
Hotaru was the only one who remained concealed. At least she was pretty sure the enemy hasn't detected her yet. She yearned to jump down and join the fray, but that would remove her element of surprise. She would have to wait until they showed themselves and then strike. Now where they could be holed up again? One was probably somewhere above, he had unleashed the avalanche on Naruto. The other should be on the opposite side of the canyon throwing the kunai. Where was the third? She had no idea.
Naruto felt the rush of memories from his clones popping. Most of them showed him just the bottom of the canyon, but one had come from above. There was one of their elusive attackers! According to the clone's memories, he had suddenly sprouted from the ground. Naruto had heard about such techniques, but couldn't perform any of them. Pity, they would have come in handy. He would have to figure a different way of getting up there. Too bad he couldn't command his clones with just a thought.
"Scouts attack," he shouted jumping from his hiding spot. Immediately a good portion of the wildlife turned into short blond boys. The ninja showering the canyon with kunai was momentarily startled, but quickly recovered and started hitting the newcomers instead, as Naruto gathered from the received jumble of memories. Most of his clones in vicinity were destroyed quickly, but some of them remained. And most importantly, he got a good visual of the area. 'Kawarimi,' he thought and switched with one of his clones. The replica that appeared on his spot was immediately destroyed by some senbon. The Suna genin looked startled when one of the clones rushing at him refused to pop upon being hit. Instead he drew a ninjato and swung at him. The Sand shinobi recognized the barely noticeable distortion protruding from its tip. To avoid being sliced by the Wind blade he took a giant leap backwards, hoping to land on the other side of the canyon. He was hit by a lightning bolt midair and promptly fell to the bottom. Hotaru finally joined the fray.
"One down, two to go," she shouted merrily. Instead of an answer came another batch of kunai. She batted them away with her kodachi, then noticed the tag burning at one of their handles. Her eyes widening she jumped up, but the blast caught her nevertheless. She was thrown out of the canyon.
The Suna kunoichi who had thrown it had little time to rejoice. Naruto saw her and rushed towards her at top speed. She saw his approach and started flinging her weapons at him. Naruto dodged and blocked to the best of his ability, but it wasn't enough. One kunai embedded itself painfully in his side. It made him stumble, but his rage at the girl pushed him on. Her eyes widened in fear. He didn't know what she saw that was so frightening to her, but it didn't matter. She was going to pay.
Hana and the Haimaru siblings reached the top of the canyon. She saw one of the enemies launching kunai after kunai at her youngest teammate in an attempt to stop his charge. That didn't interest her. She trusted Naruto to handle himself. She was intent on finding the last one. She sniffed the air. The ever present sand made it an unpleasant task, but she wasn't deterred. There. She smiled. He was well hidden, but she was just too good at finding people.
The Suna girl noticed movement behind her. Some instinct made her throw herself to the side. It saved her from being hit by another sword-wielding blond boy. 'Clone,' she recognized and destroyed him with a well placed shuriken. The distraction was enough for the original, who used it to get close to her. She turned just in time to see him raise his weapon. A quick flick of her wrist sent her kunai flying at him. At the distance he had no chance to dodge. He didn't even try. He swung his sword downward. She saw the kunai piercing his side, then his sword landed and she knew no more.
Hana saw from the corner of her eye how Naruto and the enemy kunoichi downed each other. 'Crap,' she thought, 'that means it's only me and the other guy now.' She could see him now, a faint mound in the sand covering the plateau. If she couldn't smell him, she would have completely missed him. He was a puppeteer without his puppets, useless and just hiding. She couldn't use a Tsuuga on him while he was underground, but she had more than just the Inuzuka family style at her disposal. A couple of handseals and a deep breath later she spat a fireball at him. He was forced to leave the suddenly hot spot. That was when her dogs charged. He couldn't dodge three Tsuugas at once. 'Success,' she thought grimly, surveying his damaged body. Then she went to check on her teammates.
Hotaru got off easy, she was only shaken and bruised and woke quickly when the vet poured some water on her. Naruto was worse of, one of the kunai went in really deep and she suspected there was some poison involved as well. If she didn't know about the jinchuuriki's miraculous healing ability, she would have been deeply worried for his life. She tried to patch him up to the best of her ability nevertheless.
Hotaru meanwhile searched the defeated team. She managed to find six keys in total, two of them were of a kind they didn't have, both of them golden. She showed them to Hana triumphantly. "Think these are it?" she asked.
"Golden keys for the golden gate? I don't know, it just sounds too cliché," the Inuzuka doubted.
"But it's fitting," the purple-haired girl argued. "I say these are it."
"Let's see," the dog mistress replied. She picked up her wounded teammate and together they made way to the gate.
"Yahoo!" shouted Hotaru when the first key fit. "I told you so!" Hana just smiled. The door unlocked without trouble and they entered the Golden Sand Castle. Finally, after days of torture, they reached their goal.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Golden Sand Castle~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They were greeted by a proctor as soon as they entered through the gate.
"So another team made it," he said, "but there must be all three of you to complete the second task successfully."
"There are all three of us," Hana pointed out. "Nobody ever said we have to all be unharmed."
"Well, excuse me, but your teammate doesn't seem to be able to continue."
"Oh, he's a tough little one," the Inuzuka said. "Just let him sleep overnight and tomorrow he'll be up and about again. Though it would be better if a medic could see him," she admitted. Naruto choose that moment to let out a moan. "And it would be better if he could see him now," the vet added. "And there's a wounded Suna team just outside the castle."
"They are still in the Exam," the man stated. Both kunoichi had to suppress a shudder. It was just too cruel. "Now follow me to the infirmary."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The infirmary~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Naruto woke up in an unfamiliar room. His side hurt, but it wasn't too bad.
"Awake already?" asked Hotaru from another bed. The blond had a sudden sense of deja-vu. Who did they fight with this time? Ah, it was that Suna team. He remembered the girl he had fought. She had hit him with a kunai and then he had slashed her with his sword. Red line had appeared across her torso. Had he killed her? Cold fear ran through him. In all the missions he had undertaken, he had never actually killed anyone. He had beaten them and hurt them, he assisted in the kill of the bone freak, but never had he directly taken another life.
"Hey, Naruto," the girl called.
"What?" he asked startled.
"You spaced out," she replied. "Should I call a medic? It was some nasty poison on that blade. The mednins were at a loss how are you still alive."
"No, it's fine," he refused. "I'm feeling all right."
"Really?" The girl raised a purple eyebrow. "You don't seem alright from here."
"I don't need a doctor," the boy scowled. He could barely stand being at their mercy. "It's just that girl."
"Which one?" she teased. "I didn't know you had a girlfriend."
"I don't," he scowled. "I mean the girl from the Suna team. Did I kill her?"
"Oh," Hotaru finally realized what was bothering her friend. It was bothering her too, after all. "I don't know," she said. "They were all still alive when we left them, but the proctors refused to take them in when we told them about it."
"That's just…" he trailed off. He had no idea what to say.
"Cruel is the word you can't find?" Hotaru offered.
"Maybe," he replied. "Now here probably should go a speech about the reality of shinobi life."
"Probably," she agreed. "It sounds now completely different than it did at the Academy, doesn't it?"
"I wouldn't know," he shrugged. "I never attended."
"I forgot," she said. "But you've heard it before, didn't you?"
"Yes," he confirmed. "Countless times."
"So what do you think about it now?" Hotaru inquired.
"That it doesn't capture the reality," Naruto answered.
"Too true," the girl nodded sadly.
"What about, you, Hotaru?" he asked quietly.
"What about me?" She looked at him questioningly.
"Have you ever killed anyone?" Naruto asked quietly.
"Once," she answered. "It was on a C-rank with my original team. The caravan we were protecting got attacked by bandits. I sliced one of theirs throats."
"What was it like?"
"Bad," she admitted, "but I consoled myself that it was just some lowlife who belonged to the gallows anyway."
"But this girl wasn't," the blond pointed out. "She was just somebody wanting the promotion, just like us."
"Yes," she nodded sadly. "That makes it so much worse." Naruto sighed.
"So how do we deal with it?" He was at a loss.
"I don't know," she confessed, "but we have to come up with something."
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~After the second exam~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
They spent three days waiting for the mysterious deadline. Naruto was back on his feet within the first one and even Hotaru quickly shook off the effects of the blast. The fate of the Suna team still weighted on their conscience, but it didn't drag them too down. Everybody was bored with being cooped up in the castle. Finally the time of concluding the Second Exam came. All successful teams were called to a large chamber.
Four squads had made it through the desert in time. There was Team Tenzo, the Iwa team they had been arguing with before the First test, The Suna team with the cat boy and another Suna team favoring robes as their dressing style. They didn't have a lot of time to observe each other, because a side door opened and in walked four people. Naruto immediately recognized Tenzo among them and smiled at his guardian. Then he couldn't help but gawk when he noticed his companions.
One of them was a big man in standard Suna shinobi attire, with the exception of its coloring: it was decorated with wild stripes in all shades of yellow, orange, dark brown and black. It gave him the appearance of a large tiger. Something about him reminded the blond of a certain green-spandex loving jounin from Konoha he had met once.
Second was a man in Iwa uniform with long dirty blond hair tied in a high ponytail. He would have looked normal if it wasn't for his hands. Were there mouths on his palms? The Konoha genin didn't really want to know.
Third entered a geisha. She had everything a geisha should have. Her black hair with bluish tint was tied up in an elaborate style and held up with golden needles and combs. White paint covered her face and intricate red make-up enhanced her impossibly green eyes. Her finger- and toenails were polished crimson. Her slim figure was clad in an expansive yellow kimono with designs of cacti and dunes, tied with a red obi. Her elegant feet were clad in high soled sandals that were suited only for slow walking. The young ninja couldn't fathom what was somebody like her doing here. Then she headed for the 'Team Robe,' as he privately dubbed them, and it occurred to him that she might be their sensei. The fact that the style of the kunoichi of that team was similar to that of the older woman's supported that theory. Then the geisha moved her arm and a picture of a scorpion was revealed on the inner side of her wide sleeve. Suddenly she didn't look so decorative, more like deceptively dangerous, resembling a deadly scorpion hiding under a beautiful desert blossom. Yes, now he believed that she was a formidable kunoichi.
His musings were interrupted when Tenzo came to them. They greeted him like they had believed they would never see him again. And truthfully, there were occasions when they believed they wouldn't get out of the blazing sandy hell alive.
"So is everybody alright?" their sensei asked his charges.
"We'll live," Hana answered everyone.
"Good thing you insisted we bring so much water," Hotaru added. "I'd never believed it, but we really needed most of it."
"Yeah," Naruto agreed shooting covert glances to the other teams.
"Is something bothering you?" the Mokuton user asked. The blond's eyes darted toward the other finalists once more. Everybody seemed to be preoccupied with their reunions. Good.
"Tenzo," he started, "are jounin everywhere weird?"
"Yes," the older man confirmed, "in fact the better the ninja the weirder he or she is." A horrible idea suddenly struck the young jinchuuriki. It was almost too terrible to even consider, but once it appeared in his brain it refused to go away. He couldn't help but voice it.
"If the more powerful ninja means the weirder person and the five Kage are the most powerful shinobi around, does that mean that the Five Great Villages are governed by the five greatest whackos around?"
"Unfortunately yes," Tenzo nodded solemnly. "Just why do you think there are so many wars?"
Before Naruto could wrap his mind around the idea, the door opened again letting in a couple of Suna ANBU.
"The Kazekage is coming," the jounin said. "We have to stand at attention." He quickly ushered them into position, the other teams lining up beside them. The proctors started filing into the room. They recognized the scary Matsumoto Hiroki, the shameless Museitabi Asami, now thankfully fully clothed, the monk, who wasn't dressed like a monk anymore, the pitiful man and the scarred man whose names they never learned among them. Two more masked guards came and after them a man in blue and white robes wearing a hat with kanji 'Wind' on it. Everybody straightened up. The dignified village leader (or greatest nutcase in Hidden Sand? Naruto couldn't help but wonder) assumed place on a dais and turned to the gathered genin.
It was the first time Naruto came face to face with Gaara's father. So this was the man he had heard so much about. He didn't know what he imagined him to be, but somehow he felt let down. He had expected a monster, but instead he saw just a man. A cold, hard man of power, but just a man nevertheless. He didn't even strike him as a particularly cruel type. Although he couldn't tell for sure due to the veil obscuring the Kage's face, he thought the man was looking directly at him. What was he thinking? His musings were cut short when the Kazekage started speaking.
"Congratulations to all who made it this far," he started. "You have proven your strength and endurance. But now the final test lies before you, the one-on-one tournament that would take place a month from now. Does everyone of you feel up to it or does somebody wish to quit? Because from now on it's an individual competition, you wouldn't be hindering your teammates." He waited for a while. Nobody spoke up. They all went through hell and back to get that far and they weren't quitting now no matter what chances of success they had. "Nobody? Well," the Kazekage continued, "since there are twelve competitors, there would be six matches in the first round. The winners will advance to the semifinals. After that the final match would be a three-way battle, assuming that all three winners of semifinal matches are able to continue. If there aren't any questions, we will now choose the match-ups."
One of the proctors standing behind the Kage moved forward. There was a box in his hands.
"I am Maruishi. I am the proctor of the Third exam. Now every one of you pick one of the stones in the box." He then walked along the line and held the box out to the competitors. One after the other they reached inside and took out a rectangular piece of rock. When it was finished, he returned to the side of his Kage. "Now everybody tell me the number inscribed of your stones, starting from you," he pointed at the genin on the opposite end of the line from the Konoha team.
"Five," a long-robed boy said.
"One," the Kimono-clad girl reported.
"Twelve," a blue-dressed youth announced.
"Four," the giant from Iwa read from his stone.
"Eleven," his sister said.
"Six," their black-cloaked teammate added.
"Three," the armored samurai-look-alike announced proudly.
"Eight," cat-boy told.
"Nine," a girl with unbelievably long braids reported.
"Seven," Hana spoke.
"Ten," Hotaru said.
"Two," Naruto closed up the reports.
"Alright then," the proctor finished writing on his pad. "This is the match up for the finals." A tournament table appeared on the screen behind him. It said:
1. Kaede – Uzumaki Naruto
2. Shinkudai Toshiro – Akatsuchi
3. Gennosuke – Kamizuru Kageromaru
4. Inuzuka Hana – Kineko Akira
5. Mizue – Uzuki Hotaru
6. Kurotsuchi – Aoyume Daiki
Naruto was pleased with his first opponent. The kimono-clad girl looked like one of the weakest contestants, and though looks were often deceiving among ninja, he was more confident he could handle her than almost anybody else. He just didn't like the fact that should he win, he'd face one of the giants. Oh well, no sense worrying about that now. After all, the bigger the enemy the bigger a target he makes, Gaara had proven that enough.
Hana was excited by her pairing. She couldn't wait to show the arrogant cat dude up. He was probably having some ideas about showing her up, at least his smirk and the look he sent her way suggested it, but she was fully determined to set him straight. She sneered back.
Hotaru took one good look at her opponent. It seemed like this Exams would turn out better for her than the last one. Her opponent looked more decorative than dangerous. Of course so did she, but appearances were deceiving. She just hoped this particular deception wasn't too deep.
"The Final tournament will take place exactly one month from now in the Great Suna Arena," the Kazekage spoke. "The first match would begin exactly one hour after sunrise. Whoever fails to show up would be disqualified, no pardons given. You are now dismissed." He turned around and walked from the room. Others followed suit. Soon the area was completely vacant.
A.N.: The pictures of the succesful teams are on my DeviantArt profile now. Should I start a poll on the result of the tournament? Probably not. It wouldn't change anything, because it's already prewritten.
Next time: The month inbetween.