CH 27
e) Chunin – Phase III – "Preliminaries", pt 2
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
TEMARI (Suna) vs TENTEN (Konoha)Despite all preparation that could ever be made to get to this stage, there are times when experience counts. Well… that and a big ass fan with Wind Spell that can blow your opponent away.
Tenten was severely outmatched in this one. All her weapons didn't amount to much against Temari's frustration of having to wait for her baby brother to get old enough and have the correct number of missions under his belt in order to take the Chunin exam.
The weapons were scattered all over the ground and the Konoha Genin was suspended on the tip of the Sand Genin's fan. Temari commented, "How dull! It's a shame really…"
Hayate called out the winner. "The winner of the match is Temari of Suna."
The Kunoichi wasn't pleased with not having done that much damage. She tossed the girl after the announcement.
Lee wasn't one to sit idle, especially if something happened to one of his teammates. He jumped down and caught her.
"Nice catch," Temari sneered.
"What's wrong with you?" Lee yelled at her. "That's not how you treat a worthy opponent…especially not one you've just defeated!"
"Oh, shut up," the four, pony tailed blond girl said. "Get yourself and that loser out of my way."
Lee was not happy, so he tried a reverse kick, only to have it immediately blocked by the Suna Genin.
"Hah, just as I thought," Temari said. "You're not so fast after all!"
"What," Lee said confused.
"That's enough Lee," Gai-sensei said.
Lee turned and said, "But Master Gai…"
"Temari, get back up here," Gaara said looking directly at the funny guy in a one, piece green suit. Something about that person was different and he couldn't figure it out yet. "You've already been declared the winner… How long do you intend to trifle with that homely little Prince Charming?" (…i…)
"What," Lee asked again confused because that didn't quite sound like the insult it truly was. He scowled at the red haired boy.
Gaara only stared right back.
"Lee that's enough," Gai-sensei said. Then he stood behind his one of his favourite Genins. "My dear friends from Suna…If you don't mind, I'd like to offer a word of advice…" He looked up and continued, "Be prepared. You have no idea how strong this boy really is."
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
ROCK LEE (Konoha) vs GAARA (Suna)Everyone had been waiting in the Gallery in order for the weapons to be cleared from the arena floor. Intervals like this allowed for arena clean up and for everyone to do things have toilette breaks.
Soon the next set of names posted on the electronic scoreboard appeared and didn't surprise Naruto in the least. He knew whom he was going to be fighting.
Gaara got to the arena floor in an impressive show of travel by sand.
Lee jumped down and then took a side stance holding his left arm up and waving his hand in a 'come at me' gesture. The boy in green noticed something come at him, but he was quick enough to catch the sand cork from the Suna boy's gourd.
"Please…" Lee told his opponent, to the amusement of the Proctor. "Don't rush things."
Gaara just looked at him, with the intent to kill, but was surprised that the Konoha Genin didn't appear to be afraid of him.
"All right then," Hayate said. "Ninth battle, begin!"
Many in the observation gallery thought that Lee was weak, especially Temari, who'd blocked his kick.
"Konoha hurricane," Lee said and was shocked by being blocked by, 'SAND…?!' He then noted the hand-like claw try to get him from behind, but he immediately leaped out of the way.
The sand manipulation was a surprise to many.
Lee tried to attack with his fists or feet, but was blocked every time. He noticed that the person he was fighting hadn't even moved a muscle. 'He's not even looking in my direction to defend,' he thought. 'I'll break through, I know I will.'
Those in gallery had learned that the sand moved independent of Gaara's will. It was that and the fact that Gaara had never been injured in his life because the sand protected him.
It was also then that they learned that Lee had next to no Ninjutsu or Genjutsu abilities. "That's why the only moves he's been able to develop are Taijutsu," Gai-sensei said. "There aren't many ninja who can use neither Ninjutsu nor Genjutsu.
Lee saw row upon row of hands made of sand spring up to attack him. He leapt high and landed on the Shinobi hand sign monument, which was formed in the primary position for most hand signs. It was high enough out of the way to escape the sand.
Gaara was puzzled, but none of it showed on his face as he looked up at where the boy was sitting.
"Lee," Gai-sensei said. "Take them off!" Many wondered what the man was talking about.
"B..but Master Gai! You said…" Lee looked over with a respective salute. "To never do that unless I defending the lives of people who are precious to me!"
"It's all right," Gai told him with a sparkle smile and a thumb up. "I'll allow it."
The boy was partially confused, but lit up with a grin and laugh. He had a smile of determination on his face. He removed his bright orange leg warmers and revealed that he'd been wearing weights.
Gaara still looked up at the boy puzzled.
"Right," Lee stood up. "Now I can move freely." Everyone thought that the weight shouldn't have made that much of a difference.
'Hmph, there's no way that dropping a few weights will let you keep up with Gaara's sand,' Temari thought.
However, once dropped to the ground from that height, nearly everyone was surprised that they'd formed two deep craters at the base of the monument.
Kakashi had a hand in front of his face as though to hide his smile, even though his face was masked, "Aren't you overdoing it just a bit Gai?"
"Never forget that some traditions work," Gai told him. Then he looked at his protégé and said, "Go! Lee!"
"YES SIR," the boy said and leapt from a standing position so quickly that it was almost like he'd Kawarimi'd without replacing himself with an object. He landed slightly behind the Suna Genin and attacked again.
This time he was much faster because Gaara actually glanced behind him. The sand only just came up in time to protect the red haired boy. Gaara was shocked at the speed and from the fact that a foot had just passed through his sand protection. Next came a punch and he saw the fist, this was quickly followed by a series of punches and kicks all coming through and close enough that the Suna Genin was slightly concerned.
"It's because he had no aptitude for either Ninjutsu or Genjutsu that Lee devoted himself so exclusively to Taijutsu," Master Gai told everyone. "All his time, all his energy, all his focus…so that even, if he lacked any other kind of abilities at all…he'd still be unbeatable as a Taijutsu specialist!"
Lee moved around to Gaara's opposite side and then disappeared in a leap up. He came down with a forward scissor kick to his opponent's head and had actually managed to scratch his face.
Gaara was surprised at that. It was like nothing he'd ever felt and yet he knew that many others had.
"In terms of speed, Lee can't be surpassed," Gai-sensei told them. "I thought I gave you all fair warning…that this boy is really strong."
That one hit was enough to let Lee know that he could move faster and get more hits in. He actually grinned darkly, while his opponent scowled in a way that almost looked pouty.
Lee in a stance waiting for the boy to attack him, but then he heard, "Lee, now… explode!"
"Yes, sir," Lee replied and then leapt again over Gaara's head to a position behind him, except he didn't stay there, he jumped back to the front closer and said, "Over here…" With one solid punch he knocked the Sand Genin to the ground.
Kankuro looked and said, "This is bad…"
"What is…" Sasuke asked, keeping a Sharingan eye on the action. He was memorizing Lee's moves, but in the back of his mind he heard Naruto's voice telling him, 'The Sharingan may be great for memorizing the moves, but your body hasn't trained in the same manner to get those moves, you're going to be in a world of hurt if you try them without practice.' This had been quickly proven by the base tumbling moves that the blond boy had done, which Sasuke had noted with his Sharingan and had done immediately after he copied them. His pulled groin and leg muscles never forgave him that day. But it was a very good lesson learned.
It was then that they noticed a small shell of sand crack and fall to the ground. This had even stopped Lee by surprise, "What?"
Naruto narrowed his eyes and watched whom it was that emerged. It wasn't Gaara, but a small bit of the demon personality contained within the boy. His own, inner demon, was stirred by the sight of one of the 'Lesser' trying to appear intimidating.
Lee felt the shiver of fear because he knew that this wasn't the same opponent and yet it was. He still stood with a frown and made the 'Come and get me,' gesture.
The sand flowed and covered Gaara and it was then explained that this was the boy's 'Sand Armour'. An ultimate defence with nearly no weaknesses, unfortunately it was not one of the automated protections and required immense chakra to maintain.
Both opponents were now gauging each other and wondering who would do what, and Gaara was completely on defence.
Lee thought about it. 'It's an amazing defence, which makes my speed irrelevant. My only shot is to just keep pounding and punishing that outer layer of sand, but…only with…' He looked to his master with a question, 'The Lotus?'
Gai nodded.
Lee partially unwrapped, the white silk from his warms and let them flutter. Then he ran around the sand shelled boy, gaining speed.
"Come on…" Gaara said for the first time in this fight. "Hurry up!"
"As you wish," Lee said. He kicked up, under the chin, launching the red haired boy up. "That's not all!" He ran around again and repeatedly kicked him four times in succession. "Oww," he said softly, much to the surprise of Gaara. The arm wrappings unwound and wrapped around Gaara's body, tightly in an obscene form of mummification.
"Gotcha," Lee said, and dove them both forward to the ground. 'FORWARD LOTUS!' Slamming down hard to the ground lifting up the large stone slabs and crushing others.
They'd forgotten one thing. The sand protects Gaara and in a quick Jutsu of switching and cloning, they watched sand shell crumbled. Behind the crouched Konoha Genin, came evil laughter, "Heh, heh, heh."
The sand moved and slithered with an ominous, 'SSHHSSHHH,' sound. The sand whirled behind Gaara, but it was the grin and presence of 'other,' that caused Lee to shiver. The sand rushed the down boy, pushing him against a wall. Another hit and a crater formed behind him.
Gaara looked like he was enjoying this by the gross licking of his lips with a large tongue. The sand struck and pushed, again and again and again.
The gates of Lee's body opened and Gai told everyone that, "The Lotus will Bloom twice."
This horrified Kakashi and Tokuma. Such a technique destroys the body, but in finding out that the boy had managed to open five of the eight…at such a young age, that boy had just earned the respect of everyone in the upper ranks and one Genin who already knew.
"Eight gates," Sasuke said looking at the boy.
"Chakra converges in the body at eight areas, which pool and form nodes," Tokuma told them. "They act as the regulators for chakra use."
"The Lotus technique basically forces open the nodes, changing them and allowing the user to draw strength a dozen times his level, even if it destroys his body," Kakashi continued the explanation. Yet he needed to see this too and lifted his Hitai-ate up in order to watch what happened next.
Changes that occurred in Lee were scary. He skin turned red at the opening of the third gate, but he also opened the fourth.
Lee launched himself with a speed that lifted the stones on the floor. Stone and rock debris actually rose and scattered, hitting some of the spectators. That was nothing to what Gaara felt as he was kicked in the chin again with more speed and force than before, lifting him up again.
The Suna Genin was the struck repeated with foot and fist. Those that could actually see the action thought it looked like a pinball game and others just couldn't make out the moves due to the speed at which the strikes occurred.
Gaara was surprised and shocked, 'What? My sand armour? Is peeling off?' He looked up at the sense that something was above him. His eyes widened and he actually flinched at the sight of the boy releasing the 'Fifth' gate.
He was hit in the stomach forcing him in a downward move. But was again visibly surprised when the boy's wrapping secured him around his middle and pulled him back up, to receive a fist and foot strike so powerful that he heard the snap of the boy's arms as he fell back down.
That last hit forced Gaara's gourd to crack and in falling it formed a softer landing than expected, however it was still painful to the red haired boy. Despite his pain, he still manipulated the sand in a grasping motion. Two hands form from the sand and with a fisted moved, catching Lee's right arm and leg, 'Sabukukyu! The Coffin of Crushing Sand.'
Gaara sent the sand again this time intending to take the life of the one person that had actually, physically hurt him for the first time in his life. This time, he was stopped by the boy's mentor. He looked at the man looking down at him, only it wasn't from hate or fear. It was enough to snap free some painful memories that caused him to shudder.
"Why are you…" Gaara asked. "Helping him?"
"He's my lovable precious protégé," Gai told him.
The red haired youth scowled as he stood up. His sand slowly re-formed into the regular gourd at his back. He turned his back on the two strangely dressed people and said, "Forget it…"
Hayate said, "The victor is Gaara."
The medics didn't have a good prognosis for the outcome of this situation. Naruto knew better.
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
YAKUSHI KABUTO (Konoha-Sound) vs UZUMAKI NARUTO (Konoha)When Naruto saw his name on the board with Kabuto's, he knew it wasn't luck of the draw. This was the old man Hokage's doing. He sighed and then jumped down into the area and played the fool.
"All right," he yelled. "It's about time that it's my turn. All these fights made me want to be down here so bad to show every one of you what I can do!"
"Shut up Naruto," Sakura said to. "You're still a loser of the first degree." She smirked when his shoulders hunched down and his face looked completely upset at that. Everyone there thought the blond was still sweet on the girl by his actions.
Kabuto snorted and then tried to play nice guy, "Cheer up kid. I'll let you land a couple of punches to make you look good for your girl."
Naruto sniffled and said, "I don't think you should be doing anything like that. A fair fight is what I'm looking for."
Hayate coughed and asked, "Are you ready?"
"Yes," Kabuto said.
"Yes," Naruto said in a wimpy voice. "Sniffle."
"Begin," Hayate said, and suddenly he was moved to the platform, atop the monument that Lee had been on, far away from the arena by six blond heads. Squares of paper were being placed at every corner of the room by blond boys and in the centre of it. The original Naruto bit his thumb and activated the large Seal under his hand.
Naruto then jumped out of the way of Kabuto's punching attack, which had been delayed by his surprised expression at seeing about a hundred blond kids, flying about the room and placing paper patches on every dimensional surface of the room.
Kabuto couldn't figure out what was going on with that strange writing traveling up the walls like a black ink web. "What have you done?"
"Yes," Hayate said putting his hand against the Seal marks from the other side. "What have you done?"
"I've made the arena safe," Naruto said. "I mean for non-participants, Hayate-san. I didn't want you to be targeted for any reason."
"It's allowed," the Hokage said. "I've never seen anyone put up so many Seals up and activate them all at the same time, but it is allowed."
"Yes sir," Hayate said with a frown. He knew then that something was up, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was.
Kabuto didn't know what was going on, but at the moment he didn't care. His battle blood was rising and he wanted to fight. He ran up to the blond boy and didn't even bother to keep his promise to allow hits to make the boy look good in front of his girl. He punched, jabbed, kneed and kicked with a speed that surprised the blond, but that was all that was needed.
"Come on," Kabuto yelled, getting fired up at the fact that he could keep hitting the kid and the boy kept getting back up. "I know how much you can take."
"You led some of the older kids in mobs against me four years ago," Naruto said crouching down on all fours. "Didn't you? You were their ring leader for a time, weren't you?"
"You bet it was me," Kabuto laughed evilly. "How did you guess?"
"I've never forgotten who kicked me or how they did it," Naruto said. "My question is why? I didn't know you, so why attack a kid?"
"You want to know why," Kabuto strode up to him. "It's because you're the Fox Demon. You're the one that killed all those people twelve years ago."
"I was born twelve years ago," Naruto said. "How can a bawling little baby, in need of diapers, be the one to attack the Village?"
"So maybe you're just the container of the fox," Kabuto snorted. "A Jinchuriki for the beast, but we all know if it escaped once, it can escape again."
"How right you are!" Naruto looked up and Kabuto's next hit was blocked in a grip that cracked the bone in his arm. "But you and this entire god forsaken town have forgotten one important thing!" A clawed hand swiped the Sound Spy from shoulder to hip, doing a lot of deep damage.
"What could we have forgotten," Kabuto asked, spitting up blood.
"I was under the control of someone that hates this village. It is someone that has been around since it was founded," the fox told everyone in the room. "Now you'll all have to is figure out who this person was because I cannot tell anyone anything else." He then hit the man hard in his gut, launching him to the other side of the room to splatter against the Seal.
Everyone saw Naruto's eyes turn back to his normal blue, losing the claws and teeth of the creature that had just told everyone something that had not been known before.
"He can't lie," he said to everyone. Then he turned to the spot where the man had fallen. He walked over to Kabuto to check his pulse, but he already aware that the man was alive.
"The winner…"
"No Hayate-san," Naruto said. "This match is not over. Kabuto is only pretending injury and is now healing himself using the Medical Jutsu that his father taught him."
"Heh," Kabuto coughed once and then he sat up. Everyone saw that his injuries were closed. "How could you know that?"
"You researched me, I researched you," Naruto said with a shrug. "Are you still good to go?"
"What if I choose to with…," Kabuto asked casually, but suddenly had a shocked expression on his face.
Naruto shrugged and said, "I'm afraid that once inside this caged Seal, neither you nor I can say those words."
"Then how will this match end," Kabuto asked in a growling tone, his suspicions growing.
Naruto looked down at him and told him, "Only when one of us is dead." He took something out of his pocket and tossed to his opponent. "Did you want to wear a proper Hitai-ate? I mean from the Village you truly represent."
The metal clanked on the ground at the man's feet and the man stared at the single musical note etched in the rectangular metal. "Heh, heh," Kabuto laughed. "I guess this means I don't have to hold anything back," he looked up with hard eyes and asked, "Does it?"
"I'd be insulted if you did," Naruto said with an equally dark look that no one in the gallery noticed, but the Proctor, Hayate did and so did a few of the Jounin near the Hokage. He pulled his Wakizashi blade from its sheath, having chosen only to use that one sword in order to leave his other hand free to do one handed hand signs. He was most familiar and comfortable with that blade.
Kabuto told him, "I don't need this." He kicked the headband away and then removed the Konoha metal plate from his headband revealing the fact that he was a Shinobi from the Village Hidden in Sound. "I have my own."
From then on the battle was fast, fierce and totally violent in a way that had that the Genin in the gallery were being eternally grateful that they were not the ones fighting against Kabuto. They both had elements in play, but the one that stood out and had Sakura gasp out, "That's the Hidden Mist, thingy…"
Naruto's clones had taken the waters bottles from Team Seventeen that morning. They'd been filled the night before and were now being pulled from a scroll and poured at all four corners of the room.
Team Seventeen all had collectively gasped when Naruto had tossed his sword to land near where the Hokage was and then put up one hand in the air and the other in front of him just like Zabuza had done that one time when the man had attacked them on the way to Tazuna's village. The boy's fingers sped through the hand signs that even Kabuto didn't know what to expect, but then the arena was suddenly covered in dark cloak of mist.
Sasuke still had his Sharingan activated, same with Kakashi. Whereas the Hyugas in the room had activated their Byakugan limits, in order to see what was happening in there.
The rest of the witnesses could only hear the sounds of two people hitting each other. There was also the occasional, "Fuckin' clones!" and several, "Show yourself you damn brat," coming from Kabuto's increasingly frustrated voice.
Shuriken were flying by the whizzing sounds they made. Kunai thunked into the ground periodically and the tinging sound of senbon needles falling to the ground when they missed their targets could be heard. The mist was doing its job though, hiding everything.
Naruto was closing the Chakra points in Kabuto, much like Neji did again Hinata, but this was also different because the man couldn't redirect the links like he was used to. He was effectively getting shut down and soon he wouldn't even be able to heal his wounds by using specially prepared senbon needles at all the right points.
Temari wanted to see the blood bath and had pulled out her fan to clear up the mist. "Hey kid," she called down to the arena. "Either clear up the mist or I'm gonna do it for you."
"Go ahead," Naruto yelled back at her. "I'm kind of busy here."
"Wind Style: Warm Winds," Temari said, and then brought down the fan in one sweeping move. Many people gasped because instead of one Kabuto in the area there were three dead ones and one that the blond Genin was sitting on and examining the face while inserting more senbon needles into a few more paralytic points.
"Naruto," Kakashi-sensei asked, because he felt that it was up to him to ask the question. "Why are there some many of him?"
"Cadaver scroll," Naruto said. "Bastard had a bunch of look-a-likes ready to try and fool someone, unfortunately for him the Seal can't be fooled. It won't come down until one of us is actually dead." He finished trussing up the corpse and then began to cycle through his lens to try and find the man who'd Henged into something on the floor. "He's hiding in a Henge at the moment, but I destroyed his scroll, so he can't pull out another dead body."
"What if he had more than one scroll," Sasuke asked.
"They're all destroyed too," Naruto said.
"You didn't destroy any that you carried," Risa asked. "Did you?"
"I might have," Naruto said. "But I only carried the very basics today. The Sasuke's holding all the important ones for me."
Risa looked at their teammate who nodded in confirmation that the blond had left a lot in his keeping. She sighed and then asked, "What are you going to do now?"
"Well I have a couple of things I can do," Naruto said out loud. "However considering this man's loyalties, I figured I'd just give him the same treatment that his boss received. Whatever form he's in right now he will be affected and then I can just destroy everything within the Seal."
Now that comment had Kabuto curious about what the boy knew about Orochimaru. Destroying everything was too much. He needed to fight in order to survive, but that damn brat had done something to him that he had yet to work around. He revealed himself to have been Henged into one of the senbon needles on the ground.
That's when the trap sprung. The needle that he was imitating had been in a puddle of water. Being a needle meant that he didn't realize that the density of the water was not that of water, but of the more solid stuff.
Naruto closed his fist, like Gaara sand coffin only in this case it was a water prison that he'd created. He sighed stood up, pulling the water prison with him. He walked over to his sword, put the prison on the ground and grabbed Kabuto by the hair, which the man couldn't do anything about because his limbs were controlled by the controller of the water prison.
In one swift move the man was beheaded. The boy paused and waited to see if the Seal that he'd erected would be coming down or else stay up because this happened to be another cadaver.
The Jounin, Chunin, Genin and Hokage then noticed that every corpse had also been beheaded. They waited wondering the same thing as they realized that this was perhaps the hardest of all battles in the examination. It was only the Hokage and maybe of couple of hidden ANBU that knew that this person that the boy had fought was not a Genin level Shinobi.
There was a cracking sound and the Seal markings on the ceiling, walls and floor rolled into the larger one in the middle of the arena. The large scroll in the centre then turned into a large mound of grey ash.
Naruto bowed his head and again cautiously looked at the body at his feet. "This is the one that was marked by the Fox," he said to the panel of people in front of him. "The others did not have that mark on them. I believe that he had only prepared a few fakes with only his face, so it was a good thing that he'd been marked in this way."
As a precaution, he put the Kabuto's head far from the body. He knelt before the Hokage and said, "Mission Complete."
This was exactly what the old man had wanted the other Genins to see. The ones from Suna were looking a little bit jealous because they hadn't been able to kill anyone, but the others from Konoha needed to know the strength it took to follow such an order.
Hayate stepped down and called all others that had won down from the gallery. They were all lined up, Shino, Neji, Choji (who received the Bye), Shikamaru, Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, Risa, Sasuke and Naruto.
"To those of you that won your bouts and qualified for the finals of the third phase of the Chunin exam," he paused. "Congratulations!" He stepped aside in order to let the Hokage step forward.
The Hokage of Konoha looked at each of the Genin lined up. "As I mentioned earlier, you will conduct your final round of battles in front of everyone," he paused. "Each of you represents the battle strengths of your respective lands, so we want you to exhibit and fully showcase your various talents."
'Three from Suna and seven from Konoha, this will be interesting,' the Sandaime thought. 'I wonder which friend will fight friend? Naruto will be exempted though, as I've already prepared the papers for his new rank and only need to sign them after he hands in his mission report.'
"The true finals will commence in one month from now!" The Hokage then explained, "We call this the requisite preparation period."
"What do you mean," Neji asked.
"Well…It's a period of time that allows us to relay the result of the preliminaries to the Rulers and Shinobi Leaders of each land," he told them. "It gives us time to summon them and it also serves as a preparation period for each of you."
Kankuro was getting frustrated and asked, "What do you mean? I still don't get it."
"You must be prepared to understand your enemy and yourself," the Hokage explained. "During this period you can analyze the intelligence you have gathered on your foes during the preliminary round and use it to increase your chances of victory. Even though, up to this point, all the battles have been real battles…They were conducted on the premise that you were fighting an 'unknown' enemy."
The Hokage looked at all the faces and wondered, just who was really going to be ready to battle in the forum presented by a stage, set up and prepared for them to display their talents, "The finals are a different story," he continued. "Some of you probably ended up exposing everything you've got in front of your rivals…and some of you may have gone up against comparatively strong opponents and found yourselves badly injured. In order to make the finals fair and just, we give you this month. Each of you must embrace the opportunity to practice hard, learn some new tricks and of course get some rest, as well."
"Now before you leave, please take one of the slips of paper from the box that Anko is holding," the Hokage said. "Except for you, Chunin Uzumaki, your skills have been sufficiently displayed and recorded. You'll receive your new rank papers when you turn in your mission report."
Naruto swallowed as the others looked at him and some of them stared in wonder. He blushed, but looked straight ahead, immediately stood at parade rest and said, "Yes sir."
The papers pulled were in the following order: 1) Choji, 2) Risa, 3) Kankuro, 4) Neji, 5) Shino, 6) Gaara, 7) Sasuke, 8) Temari and 9) Shikamaru.
Ibiki then showed them the order of the tournament. One of the first two combatants was going to be fighting twice against the number three spot and that was just the luck the draw. Neji was going to go against Shino, Gaara was to fight Sasuke and then it would be the last two Genin.
The luckiest was Choji, who had been able to study everyone and if he paid attention he'd be in a fairly good position to at least defeat one of his opponents.
"Now then, it's time for you to go plan your strategies, rest up or whatever you please," the Hokage said. "We're all finished here, unless any of you have any questions?"
"May I?" Shikumaru asked.
"Go ahead," the Saindaime said.
"You said this is a tournament so…There's only one winner right?" The Nara asked. "Then…does that mean only one person gets to become Chunin when it's over?"
"No! That's not the case. The finals will be observed by many judges, not only me, but also, Suna's Kazekage, the Rulers and Shinobi Leaders of Countries that will be requesting missions, as well," the Hokage explained. "Based on your performance in the tournament, those judges will assign you an absolute value and all those who are deemed to have sufficient ability to be Journeyman ninja…even those who may have lost in the first round can become Chunin."
"Do you mean," Temari asked. "That it's possible for all of us to become Chunin?"
"Yes, however it is also equally possible that none of you will become Chunin!" The old man said seriously. "The advantage of fighting in more rounds in the tournament is in having a greater number of opportunities to display your talents for the judges. Does that answer your question Shikamaru?"
'Annoying old man,' Shikamaru thought.
"Well then, good work all," that old man told them. "You are dismissed until one month from now!"
Naruto - New, Yet So Old - Naruto - New, Yet So Old
TBC…(…i…) I had to use it. I just love that line in the manga.