A/N: This is my first try as an author so bear with me. English isn't my first language so don't hesitate to pm me with any fault you find, I am always eager to learn.
Good reviews continue to appear and I am trying to reply to everyone the best I can, so thanks a lot to you guys. I am especially happily surprised to have not receive any flame yet, not that it would have really disturbed me or anything. Constructive criticism is also highly appreciated.
Now some stats on my story after its first week of existence not counting today, a total of 48 reviews, 15305 hits, 2 C2s, 90 Favorites and 93 alerts. That's 8 reviews, 2550 hits, 15 Favorites and 15 Alerts per day, I have no basis to compare those figures to but I'm quite satisfied anyway for my first try as an author.
Well that's it for the "Customer feedback analysis" for now :)
Welcome to the next chapter of Kaze No Kami.
Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.
Chapter 10: Chunin Exams – Preliminary Rounds
Forest of Death – Central Tower
As the genin and their sensei left the center of the room and made their way to the stairs on the sides in order to reach the watching area, only three ninja stayed down in the ring.
The first one was Geko Hayate the referee, then the two others were Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi whose names were just called moments before, supposedly randomly picked and currently displayed by a giant electronic screen at the back of the room.
Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi
The fight went on pretty quickly, Yoroi was using taijutsu only and surprisingly Sasuke too. Naruto wondered why the avenger was not using his trademark fireball techniques. Sasuke used a strange taijutsu combo to take out Yoroi.
"I have to admit that last move the Uchiha came up with was quite something" said Naruto to his teammates.
"That's not something he invented by himself Naruto-kun" replied Hinata as Naruto raised an eyebrow at her answer.
"What do you mean?" asked Naruto confused.
"It is a taijutsu move used by Maito Gai, my cousin Neji's sensei and Rock Lee the one Sasuke asked about in the beginning of the exams with Kabuto-san." said Hinata as she had occasionally seen Neji's training with his team in the past.
"I see, he must have awakened his bloodline during the time after the Wave mission and now. To think that the bastard would use it copy one of his own ally technique." analyzed Naruto.
Lee and Gai seemed a bit unnerved by what they saw in the arena but chose to say nothing about it. Kakashi just helped Sasuke leave the ring and then took the avenger with him somewhere.
The board then flashed again and the next fight started.
Aburame Shino vs Abumi Zaku
Shino once again displayed his strategical prowess as he came up with a 3 part plan to take down his opponent.
First, he showed his Kikai bugs around himself to everyone's eyes. This served as a distraction as a swarm of those bugs then discretely made their way around the unsuspecting Zaku. Finally as the Oto nin was panicking at the sight of the first trap, Shino sent a small portion of his familiars to sabotage his enemy's weapons, his arms.
The result was Zaku blowing up his arms with his own jutsu effectively ending the fight.
The next fight was then called.
Tsurugi Misumi vs Sabaku no Kankuro
Again, the fight was a quick one, Kankuro turned out to be a Puppet Master, his body turned into a puppet when his opponent tried to beat him with a taijutsu move. The real Kankuro was hidden in his strange backpack using chakra strings to operate the fake body. His opponent was beaten quite easily after that.
The next fight proved to be amazingly boring.
Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura
The two fangirls ended up in a double K.O., no one was impressed by their fight.
"As none of the contestant can continue the fight, no one shall advance to the next round" declared Hayate as he called the next match.
Tenten vs Sabaku no Temari
Another kunoichi fight, though this one proved to be a lot more interesting.
Tenten was heavily dependent on her weapons, Naruto was particularly interested in her ability with sealing scrolls and thought it would be a good idea to ask her about it later.
Temari was using a big ass fan and used it to deflect every attack made by Tenten by throwing Wind attacks with it. It was the first time Naruto encountered someone using Wind other than him.
Tenten lost after Temari used another combo of her fan and wind technique, the Ninpo Kamaitachi.
Then the next fight was called.
Kin Tsuchi vs Nara Shikamaru
Shikamaru was not pleased to have to fight a woman, but thanks to a good strategy he did not have to put much of a fight to win his match.
Finally a member of Team 8 was called next.
Uzumaki Naruto vs Kinuta Dosu
Naruto remembered his opponent from the first part of the exams, he was from the team who attacked Kabuto after he said Oto was a minor and weak village.
This Oto nin was interesting because even though he did not make solid contact with Kabuto when he punched him, Kabuto still suffered some kind of internal damage, Naruto thought that the special device that shinobi had on his arms was the cause of all that.
Naruto was pulled out of his musing by Dosu talking to him.
"So you're that kid from the bingo book that Kabuto guy was speaking about, must be some kind of bull from Konoha nins banding together to scare the opposition by spreading fake rumors like that." taunted Dosu but Naruto just stood in his original position not showing any signs of irritation whatsoever.
Seeing that Naruto did not take the bait, Dosu decided to charge. They ended up in a taijutsu spar.
As they were exchanging blows, Naruto occasionally felt the wind around him shifting, almost bending to follow the Oto nin's movements. The enemy's movements were good but a lot weaker and slower than what he had usually encountered against Kurenai or Anko.
He was about to launch his Kitsune Yuurei to finish his opponent when he suddenly lost his balance and almost fell to the ground. His vision was also starting to get blurred and his head was killing him.
"So it seems my attacks are finally starting to affect you, I was starting to wonder if you were immune to them." said Dosu.
Naruto then understood what just happened, "Y-Your arms, the sound ..." replied Naruto.
"Exactly, the sound. Do you even know what a sound really is?" asked Dosu.
"Vibrations ..." replied Naruto still trying to stay up.
"Correct, and if you are able to hear a sound then that means that your ears were able to capture the vibrations in the air." explained Dosu before adding "There is no defense against my attacks, and with my next attack I will rupture your internal hearing system" announced Dosu as he resumed the fight running straight to Naruto.
"Shit, I can't let him hit me again with that move or I'm done for" analyzed Naruto before planing for his next move.
Naruto started going through hand signs, then he called his technique as Dosu was approaching him, "Futon: Tsubame Gaeshi" said Naruto as he threw two kunai away.
The experienced ninja around him were a little surprised by what Naruto just called his jutsu,
"Those were the hand signs for the Kunai Kage Bunshin no jutsu, why did he call it Tsubame Gaeshi" was the question on every jonin plus leveled ninja in the room.
The kunai went straight around Dosu missing him from a good meter on each side, "I don't know what technique you tried to use but it obviously failed, you can't even properly throw a kunai straight at me after being hit by my jutsu earlier" taunted Dosu as he continued to run straight to Naruto to finish the job.
His arrogance made him miss the looks of surprise on everyone's faces as the two kunai Naruto launched suddenly separated in ten kunai each. Then the two barrage of kunai changed path and turned back in a curved path, this time to point directly at the back of the unsuspecting Dosu.
As a flock of bird, the barrage of kunai took form and dived in a straight path to pierce the back of the Oto nin.
Dosu could only blink as the pain took over in his whole body. Fortunately for him no kunai were aimed at a vital spot but the pain was still excruciating, he lost consciousness pretty fast.
The doctors went to stop the bleeding as soon as possible and Naruto was declared the winner in an absolute silent room.
The only 5 people who understood part of what Naruto called Tsubame Gaeshi were Team 8, Anko and the old man.
"So he did have to use hand signs and call the jutsu out loud after all to perform a jutsu that is not entirely based on wind manipulation" analyzed the Sandaime.
"Yugao will be pleased to know that he put one of the jutsu she taught him on weapons to use in a fight so fast, combining it with Wind chakra no less" Anko mused with a grin on her face.
"A good fight Naruto, great strategy against something you didn't expect, you turned what he thought as a weakness he created on you into a distraction to prevent him from noticing your attack until it was too late." said Kurenai as Naruto joined Team 8 back in the watching area.
"Thank you sensei" replied Naruto, "Your turn now Kiba and Hinata you have to pass this round too" added Naruto to his teammates as the next fight was called.
Hyuga Hinata vs Hyuga Neji
The fight between Hinata and Neji was a demo of Konoha's most noble family taijutsu style. Neji was at first surprised that Hinata was a lot more confident than usual, she also seemed to have increased her overall skill in the mastery of the Gentle Fist.
Nevertheless, Neji was more experienced, and he had seriously practiced the family art for a lot longer than her. So he eventually took the advantage in the fight and blocked a major part of her tenketsus.
He was increasingly starting to get annoyed by her attitude to never give up and tried to use a killing blow on her only to be stopped by jonins who did not want to have someone die unnecessarily.
He was declared the winner due to external interference. As he left, he exchanged hard looks with Kiba and Naruto.
The next fight was then called.
Rock Lee vs Sabaku no Gaara
Lee turned out to be a lot stronger than what most of the ninja in the room anticipated. He used very high taijutsu moves and his speed was on par with jonin level shinobi.
Naruto, though, already knew how the match would end. He remembered his conversation with Natsuki about Gaara being someone like him, jinchuriki for the one tailed raccoon Shukaku.
In the end, Lee used some ultimate taijutsu move, going above the human body's limits but failed to seriously injure Gaara. Gaara on the other hand did try to kill the Konoha shinobi but only managed to seriously injure Lee by crushing one of his arms and legs.
Before the psychotic red head could go on and finish Lee, Gai saved his student's life by interfering during the fight.
Gaara was declared winner by default because of Gai's interference and went back to his team waiting for him in the watching zone.
It was then time for the last fight of the day.
Inuzuka Kiba vs Akimichi Choji
Kiba and Choji faced each other in the ring for the last spot to the chunin exams finals.
Neither of them lost any time as they launched their special techniques right of the bat in preparation for the fight.
"Ninpo : Baika no jutsu" called Choji as he transformed his body in a giant human sphere.
"Ninpo : Jujin Bunshin no jutsu" said Kiba as Akamaru transformed into a second Kiba.
They then called their attack jutsu against each other.
"Nikudan Sensha" called Choji as the human sphere he transformed into seconds earlier began to rotate on itself and charged at Kiba and Akamaru.
"Gatsuga" a double tornado was launched in the direction of Choji as Kiba called his jutsu.
As the two jutsu collided, a huge cloud of dust covered everyone's eyes. When the cloud dissipated, Choji appeared the same as before still in his spherical form while Kiba and Akamaru were on the ground panting and bleeding a little.
"Damn, his jutsu has more power than mine I won't be able to get past him like that" analyzed the Inuzuka heir.
"I need to slow down his rotation power if I want a chance to defeat him" thought Kiba.
Choji charged at Kiba again but this time Kiba did not launch his Gatsuga immediately, he went through hand signs and then called a new technique, "Doton : Doryu Taiga".
A huge torrent of mud appeared in front of him as Choji charged at him.
It didn't stop completely Choji's movements but it slowed them down greatly as more and more mud were picked up by the Akimichi's heir jutsu.
Kiba then used Gatsuga again on the weakened form of the Nikudan Sensha and this time he overpowered it.
Choji was knocked out by the power behind the attack, then Hayate declare Kiba the winner of the last qualifying match of the preliminary rounds.
Kiba made it back to his team and thanked Kurenai for helping him with Doton manipulation.
After that, every contestant qualified for the finals went to get a number to determine the match ups for the finals rounds that would take place in Konoha's Stadium in a month time.
When all took a number and announced it, the match ups could be seen on a screen,
Match 1: Inuzuka Kiba versus Hyuga Neji
Match 2: Sabaku no Kankuro versus Aburame Shino
Match 3: Nara Shikamaru versus Sabaku no Temari
Match 4: Uzumaki Naruto versus Sabaku no Gaara
Match 5: Uchiha Sasuke versus winner of Match 4
Every contestant took a discrete glance at his or her future opponents then the Sandaime dismissed them all and wished them good luck and to work hard during the month they had to train.
Naruto regrouped with his team and sensei and they finally left the Forest of Death.
A/N: What do you think? Just changed Naruto and Kiba's matches as I didn't want them to face each other during those preliminary fights.
Also made Naruto struggle a little bit, it's not that funny if he walks over everyone every time ;)
Next time is training time, as usual Read & Review please.
New jutsu :
Futon : Tsubame Gaeshi , translated as Swallow Return, is based on the Ninpo : Kage Kunai Bunshin no jutsu but Naruto adds Wind elemental chakra manipulation to it and change the trajectory of the kunai barrage created.