Sup guys, another chapter here, I'll answer a few things about stuff that came up in reviews at the end, anyway enjoy :) Unless I smash out the 9th chapter tonight, which is highly unlikely, don't expect another one for a bit, because a tidal wave of assignments is about to hit me in the face.

Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto.

The Champion of Clan Namikaze

Chapter 8: The Preliminaries

By the time the second stage of the chunin exam was completed seven teams were standing in an arena with high balconies on opposing walls looking down on where the fights would take place.

Team 7 had been the second team to make it to their destination following Team Gaara. The other five teams were a team from the Sound Village that Naruto had seen little of, Team Gai, Team 8, Team 9, and Kabuto's Team.

Naruto was glad that all of the rookies had made it through unharmed; maybe his training tips had been of use after all.

As they all milled around waiting for the event to proceed, the Hokage stood before them and gave a speech stating that one of the main purposes of the chunin exams was as a simulation of war and that the finals were a place where a village could show its power. Finishing up he bid the competitors good luck and told them to fight their best for the sake of themselves and their village.

An average looking tokubetsu jounin with brown hair and a pronounced cough then took the place of Hiruzen Sarutobi.

"Okay, listen up. My name is Hayate Gekko and I'll be your proctor for the third stage of the exam. This also means that I'm going to be your proctor today for the preliminaries. There are too many competitors for the final and to thin the numbers out everyone will be fighting to move on. By beating your competitor, who will be randomly drawn, you will be securing your place in the finals where promotion to chunin will be considered from your performance. To proceed, your opponent has to either concede, or be unable to continue fighting. I reserve every right to step into a fight and make a call on the victor and when I tell you to stop there will be no questions asked; my decision will be final. Before we proceed if any of you would like to withdraw then now is the time to do so," the speech he gave was interrupted by sporadic coughing.

The only person to stand down from the upcoming challenge was Kabuto.

"Go figure," Naruto said out of the side of his mouth toward Sasuke; the Uchiha simply nodded with a sour look on his face. Now that Karin was living him and had given him information on Orochimaru, Naruto had filled his team in. Sasuke wasn't too surprised that Kabuto was the spy, it explained a lot about the 'genin'.

"Well that makes it easier, now that there are only 20 of you there will not be any byes. Please go and stand up behind the railings and wait for the rounds to be drawn," with that the genin made their way up and the three rookie teams and Team Tenten stood together waiting to see who would fight first.

"Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura I'd like to talk to you for a bit," Kakashi called them further along the balcony to have a chat, "Now I think you guys should hold back showing your true strength if necessary, the less these foreign villages and the other competitors know about you the harder it will be to prepare for the finals."

"We were thinking the same thing sensei," Sasuke said with a dull look on his face as if that course of action wasn't obvious, "There really isn't any point wasting the effort here just to look flashy."

Naruto looked a little disappointed that his sensei was reaffirming what Sasuke had already decided for the team, but he knew it was for the best.

"Good luck out there, not that you'll really need it," Kakashi said with an eye smile, leaving them to rejoin their friends.

Most of the rookie genin were hoping against hope that they wouldn't have to fight one of Team 7. As much as they thought they might have a chance, the rookies knew the strength of that team, and it would be a downright challenge to go head to head with any of them.

But one of the genin teams was also hoping not to get paired against a particular sand genin, having seen him destroy an entire team in mere seconds.

It wasn't long before the first match up flashed onto a massive screen sitting behind Hayate.

SASUKE UCHIHA vs YOROI AKADO

"Well good luck teme, kick his ass,"

"Tch, you make it sound like it'll be hard,"

"Still as overconfident as ever Sasuke," Kiba said as the Uchiha jumped down into the arena.

"Like you can talk Kiba," it was Sakura's turn to jump to the defense of her love.

"Yeah but at least we have the power to back it up!"

Naruto just looked blankly at the boy before looking at Akamaru, "So how about you and stupid here fight me later Akamaru?" Naruto said with a broad grin as he leaned down to talk to the dog. Kiba went red in the face at Naruto's jab, but was even more embarrassed when the dog retreated behind his leg, rather than growl at the blond, "What were you saying before Kiba? Couldn't hear you over the sound of your dog whimpering," Naruto stuck his tongue out and pulled the bottom of his eyelid down as he looked straight at the Inuzuka. The other genin could only laugh at the scene.

"Hey guys," Sakura got their attention, "The fight's about to start. Pay attention."

They all turned to watch the fight as Sasuke stepped up to confront Yoroi.

Yoroi got into stance waiting for Sasuke to make a move but as he looked closer he noticed something strange. The boy wasn't even in any sort of a stance. He was just standing with a hand in his pocket reading a book.

When Yoroi growled at being underestimated the Uchiha looked up, "Oh, were we supposed to be starting now? That's a shame. Well let's get this over with."

Without actually putting the book down he simply beckoned Yoroi toward him with his free hand.

Kakashi could barely contain his glee at what his student's attitude when Rock Lee called out, "He's so hip and cool!" A number of the other genin couldn't help but laugh along with the sniggering jounin.

Yoroi was furious at how much he was being underestimated. Little did he know though that Sasuke wasn't underestimating him; he was just testing him. He had his sharingan active the whole time as he waited for Yoroi to make a move, trying to analyse exactly what made Yoroi tick, while of course finishing the chapter he was up to.

The angry nin charged at the young Uchiha and launched a furious punch at his head as the boy continued to read, until his eyes snapped up and he caught the right fist of Yoroi in his left hand. Stepping forward, pushing his shoulder into the chest of the genin, and turning, Sasuke used the momentum of Yoroi's charge to flip the genin over his shoulder and slam him into the ground on his back.

But something was wrong. Sasuke noticed that as soon as he touched the genin that was now quickly recovering and was back in a fighting stance he felt his chakra being absorbed.

So it's going to be one of those kinds of fights then. Well he seems to require contact to do it, so I'll just have to remove that advantage.

Sasuke quickly shun-shinned to create some space and formulate a plan. It didn't help Yoroi's chances that the boy was just as furious as ever. Sasuke watched as he charged across the arena and saw his opening. Quickly stashing his book the Uchiha flung his hands toward his approaching opponent.

A barrage of shuriken approached the genin that was moving with surprising speed toward the black haired Uchiha. After a few quick hand seals from Sasuke the shuriken multiplied, filling the air, leaving no way for Yoroi to dodge them as he advanced.

The genin stopped in his tracks and pulled out his kunai, the entirety of his attention now on deflecting the deadly flying objects.

"Hah! That the best you can do you punk? Some shuriken? You're gonna have to try harder than that to get the better of me!" Yoroi was smiling as he went to move.

"Tch, the first move is always a feint you rookie," and with that Sasuke flung two kunai down to each side pulling the wires that were attached to the shuriken he had just thrown taught.

Yoroi was now trapped, tangled in the mess of ninja wire that connect the kunai now stuck in the ground with the shuriken stuck in the walls and floor of the room.

"Now you might have a problem," Sasuke said holding a wire in each hand that was connected to each of the kunai he had just thrown.

Lightning chakra flared and arced from between his fingers and quickly travelled the length of wire, reaching the tangled mess that contained Yoroi.

All genin could do was scream as the electricity travelled through his body. It wasn't long before his eyes rolled back into his head and Hayate was forced to call the match.

Sasuke released his technique and cut the wires and the other Konoha genin fell to the ground an unconscious twitching mess. The medic-nin quickly rushed to his aid and carried him away from his position on the ground as Sasuke shun-shinned back up to his position with his team; his book out as he leant against the railing.

"Sasuke Uchiha is the victor and will be advancing to the next round," Hayate said from his position in the arena, coughing as he waited for the next two competitors to jump down from the railings.

"Sasuke-kun, that was so cool! Good work with your new jutsu," Sakura knew that he was going to be fine, but it was still awesome watching him deal with the genin so easily.

"Hmph, the guy was a fool getting so easily riled up," Sasuke couldn't help but smile at the ease with which he was moving through to the next round.

Sakura walked up beside the young Uchiha and put an arm around her teammate as he leant over the railing reading his book and they waited for the matchup to appear on the screen.

She could feel the glare she was getting from Ino when the girl realized that Sasuke wasn't going to shrug her hand from his shoulder but before anything could happen between the two hotheaded women the next two competitors flashed up onto the screen.

SHINO ABURAME vs ZAKU ABUMI

Everyone's attention was drawn to the floor as Shino and Zaku both made their way down to fight.

The fight was mostly uneventful in that Zaku couldn't make a solid hit on Shino, and it wasn't long before he resorted to a jutsu that he seemed extremely confident about.

Shino attacked him from two sides through the use of a bug clone, and as Zaku attempted to respond with a mysterious jutsu in his arms he cried out in pain.

His arms exploded from the inside out from an unseen pressure and the boy collapsed; now short the use of two limbs. The medic nin quickly rushed to his aid but it didn't look like the boy would ever get the use of his arms back.

Shino didn't seem to care either way for the fate of the sound genin as he made his way back up to the others and Hayate announced the victor.

The next matchup was just as one sided.

"Hey look, it's the make-up guy," Naruto said to his teammates, "Hey what's with the make-up? Are you trying to make your opponent mistake you for a girl and go easy on you?" Naruto called out loud enough for everyone to hear. Kankuro shook with anger when he heard laughs from a number of genin.

The Konoha genin from Kabuto's team did everything but go easy on the sand nin but to no avail. He ended up with his bones crushed by the sand ninja's puppet.

So far the results of every single match had been brutal and it was starting to wear on some of the rookie genin who hadn't really had much experience with that sort of violence on their missions. Naruto could see the slight worry on some of their faces.

"Guys," he said turning away from the railing to look at Team's 8 and 9, "It's fine, you didn't train all this time and go through all this to lose. I believe in you, don't be chickens!" he smiled his goofy smile and they seemed to cheer up a little.

"Okay Naruto, but I just hope we don't get paired against that Gaara guy, you should have seen what he did to a team of genin in the forest. Killed them all in one move; it was ruthless!" Kiba looked nervously over at the sand nin and Akamaru whimpered in agreement with his master.

"Yeah well, we can sort him out when we get around to it," none of the other genin knew of the plot that Orochimaru was planning and so had nothing to suspect of the sand genin, but Naruto knew better. They could end up fighting this guy for real.

The next matchup flashed up onto the screen, surprising the two Sasuke fan girls.

INO YAMANAKA vs SAKURA HARUNO

"Hey, Naruto, watch this," the Uchiha said under his breath, nudging his blonde teammate with a wry smile on his face, "Sakura good luck, I want to see you in the finals," and with that he leaned in and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

Naruto had to admit the scene was priceless. Ino went red in the face in anger, and Sakura went red in the face from embarrassment and surprise at what had just happened. Sasuke had just changed the dynamic of the upcoming fight and it was priceless.

Now Ino wanted to avenge what she thought was lost love and win back Sasuke, and Sakura wanted to defend what she thought was the love she had earned. Naruto turned to his friend with a smile, "Man you've really done it this time. Do you even care that Sakura thinks you actually like her now?"

Sasuke just shrugged with the same wry smile on his face and for once Naruto couldn't work out what was going on behind the black eyes of the mysterious teen.

The fight started with Ino rushing to the side while throwing a number of projectiles; trying to put Sakura in a position for her mind control technique no doubt Naruto thought as he looked on.

Sakura responded quickly, pulling a kunai from a leg pouch and blocking any of the kunai that looked close to making contact.

Ino had seen what Sakura could do with a single hit, and wasn't going to let the pink haired girl get close enough to land a punch.

Sakura moved toward the blonde and tried to close the distance but Ino wasn't having any of it. She quickly back stepped, throwing more kunai at the approaching kunoichi but it didn't stop her as Sakura just used her kunai to block any that she couldn't dodge.

Ino didn't know what she could do. All she had was her Mind Body Switch Technique and she couldn't perform that on Sakura if she was paying attention. That's it!

"Sasuke! Put your shirt back on!" Ino said as she went through a series of hand seals. While this may have worked brilliantly on old Sakura, it only slightly disturbed the kunoichi charging her as she saw a tick mark appear on her face and she stumbled slightly before recovering.

Ino hoped it was enough.

"You really think some underhanded trick like that will work Ino-pig!"

Ino had gone through the hand seals required but it was too late; Sakura was already bearing down on her and she couldn't get her jutsu aimed in time.

"I CONCEDE!" Ino cried out just before Sakura's fist could crash into her.

The pink haired kunoichi managed to acknowledge her opponent's cry of defeat and merely hit the girl, rather than add her chakra to what would have been a knockout punch.

The fight was uneventful but when they walked back up to the railing after Hayate called the match Ino turned to them and did something rather unexpected.

"I can see now why Sasuke likes you Sakura, you are a much stronger kunoichi than I am. But just you wait, I'll get stronger and I'll prove to Sasuke that I'm the one he should love!" the blonde finished with her usual fan girl fervor and went back to standing over with her team.

"Oh boy, look what you've gone and started now Sasuke." Naruto wasn't sure whether or not he regretted giving the boy access to his collection of Icha Icha.

Naruto could only laugh at the result of Sasuke's kiss and Sakura once again had no problem putting her arm around him. He couldn't help but feel a slight twinge of jealousy at the scene, even if he thought that he'd long since gotten over his hang-ups with Sakura.

"That would have taken some self control Sakura, to not turn around during that fight when Ino called out that Sasuke had his shirt off huh?" Naruto japed, having seen her stumble.

"Hmph,"

Before he could think about it any longer it was time for the next fight, a fight that he was actually interested in the outcome of.

This time it was Tenten's turn to duke it out with a member of the sand team. All he could do was hope she had what it took to overcome the blonde kunoichi after seeing how Kankuro treated his victim.

"Temari of Sunagakure vs Tenten of Konohagakure, begin."

Tenten opened immediately by launching a large number of projectiles from a scroll she had unraveled as soon as they were given the signal.

Temari wasn't fazed as she quickly brought her fan up, swinging it in a broad arc and producing a gust of wind so powerful that it forced the projectiles away from her midflight.

She was a complete counter to Tenten's conventional style of attack. That didn't mean that Tenten didn't have other avenues of attack, but her other methods weren't as strong.

After training with Naruto she started to realize the benefit of being able to use her weapons in close quarters combat as well as from afar and had started to train accordingly. With this in mind she threw a smoke bomb and created four bunshin to charge from the smoke.

Unfortunately for Tenten Temari just created another wave of cutting air that passed straight through the bunshin dispersing the illusions while also blowing away the smoke and nearly knocking Tenten from her feet.

She charged at the sand nin in the lull between her attacks but only made it half way across the arena before another wave of cutting air hit her. While she was stopped by the barrage of wind Temari just backed up to create more distance between the two that Tenten would have to traverse in cutting winds.

There was nowhere for her to hide or make an approach from. It was so infuriating and it was starting to work on the leaf nin's patience as small cuts started to bleed all across her body. She needed to try and end this now; she wasn't going to win a battle of attrition.

Knowing it was a longshot all she could do was try her strongest technique. Tenten placed two scrolls on the ground and activated them, causing two massive plumes of spiraling smoke to rise as the scrolls unraveled into the air.

Tenten jumped and began preparing to throw a massive number of weapons at the sand nin but as soon as she had left the ground Temari had her dead to rights.

The blonde quickly forced air towards the airborne Kunoichi with her massive fan, and directed it into a spiral. Soon a twister was raging in the arena with Tenten caught in the middle of it being cut repeatedly by the sharp blades of wind.

When it was all over she fell defenseless towards the ground, but Temari was already beneath her, fan now closed and pointing upwards, braced against the ground.

If Tenten hits that on her fall she could be in serious trouble Naruto thought, prepared to step in for the sake of his friend.

As Tenten continued to fall, it was evident to everyone that she was clearly in no state to continue fighting, but Temari clearly had no problem inflicting more damage than was necessary.

The collision never came. Tenten simply disappeared before colliding with the fan that Temari was holding out with a smirk.

When everyone looked around she could be seen lying with her friends and rookie genin up on the balcony. Naruto didn't appear to have moved, a stern look upon his face as he contemplated the attitudes of the sand ninja he'd seen so far.

Only a few people knew what Naruto had done and a few of the jounin had managed to catch a glimpse of someone rescuing Tenten, but it had only been for a fraction of a second.

Seeing as how the Konoha ninja was in no condition to fight and had already inexplicably exited the arena Hayate called the match in favor of Temari and the next fight was announced.

KIN TSUCHI vs SHIKAMARU NARA

So it was another sound village genin fighting the resident lazy bum Shika. From what Naruto could tell from the time he'd spent with Shikamaru though was that the guy was smart. Naruto couldn't tell how smart, but most likely smarter than a few of their present company combined.

This might be an interesting matchup, might not be exciting but it'll be interesting.

Shikamaru and Kin hadn't fought before so this was new territory for both of them.

Then again this could be quick.

They all watched as the two stood in the arena just waiting for the other to make a move. Naruto noticed that Shikamaru had a look on his face that said he really didn't want to be there, Typical Shika.

Kin pull a number of senbon from a pouch and launched them at Shikamaru. Shikamaru noticed that a number of them rang with tiny bells as they flew.

No doubt to disguise the ones without any bells.

"Hmmm a rather simple technique don't you think?" Shikamaru said as he dodged the majority of the senbon.

"My technique is genius! I still managed to hit you even when you dodged so I don't know what you are so confident about," Kin was annoyed that someone had the audacity to mock her technique.

She threw another batch of senbon, this time using strings attached to her previous bells to ring them in an attempt to distract the black haired genin who was obviously underestimating her. A few more senbon found their target.

She was destroying this guy, she didn't know what his problem was and she went to throw another wave but couldn't move.

"WHAT? What's happening? I can't move!"

And checkmate, Naruto thought from his position as a spectator.

"Well in your confidence you neglected to notice my shadows creeping across the floor. I had a few in case you decided to run, but it turns out you weren't as good as you claimed," Shikamaru said as he as he walked backwards, "All I had to do was make them thin enough that you wouldn't see them, or you thought they were the shadows of the strings you had, either way you're mine now," And with that he walked backwards a little further and fell flat onto his back.

The girl had no choice but to follow his movements and she slammed her head against the wall behind her, having been closer to the edge of the arena to begin with, knocking her out cold.

"Well that was boring," Kiba said with a yawn, "I wonder who's up next?"

His eyes widened when he saw the match up flash onto the screen.

NARUTO UZUMAKI vs KIBA INUZUKA

"Guess we won't have to wait until after to have a little fight after all Akamaru," Naruto said as he vaulted over the railing and landed in the arena.

"Stop addressing my dog like he's in charge!" Kiba yelled as he followed the blonde over the railing.

"Good luck Naruto-kun," the shy Hyuga of Team 8 called out after them.

"WHAT! You're supposed to be rooting for me! What is this? Pick on Kiba day?" Kiba was crestfallen that his teammate was supporting Naruto even if he knew she had a crush on him, "Come on Shino show me some support why don't ya!"

"Hmmm… Goodluck," Shino said almost inaudibly.

"Well gee thanks for your shining encouragement," Kiba said gruffly before turning back to face Naruto who was just chuckling at the whole scene.

"Before we start Kiba, let me take my weights off," Naruto said as he took off his jacket and flung it to the side for dramatic effect. It made an audible crash on the ground that surprised everyone.

"Naruto-san is so youthful!" Rock Lee shouted from his position on the sideline, surprised and excited that he wasn't the only person in attendance wearing weights.

Rather than take his boots and bracers off he simply disengaged the seals and rolled his shoulders out.

"Alright Kiba, hit me with your best shot,"

"Akamaru, let's get him," Kiba said as he tossed a small pill at the young pup and shouted, "Gijū Ninpō: Jūjin Bunshin (Imitation Beast Ninja Art: Beast Human Clone)," quickly followed by, "Gijū Ninpō: Shikyaku no Jutsu (Imitation Beast Ninja Art: Four Legs Technique),"

All of a sudden Akamaru had transformed into Kiba and the two looked identical as they faced the blonde on all fours. Naruto hadn't seen the full extent of Kiba's fighting ability in this stance and if he wasn't using Hiraishin he could say that he really didn't want to.

As they charged him Naruto quickly created a clone to counter one of the feral fighters.

He noticed that the style they fought with was much like his own style, although a lot more animalistic. It was an unpredictable brawler style and they lashed out with claws and feet trying to get a hit on either of the Narutos.

Naruto had yet had the need to draw a weapon, being able to block the attacks with this bracers but it wasn't before long that Kiba decided to change what appeared to be a stalemate.

Kiba lashed out at Naruto with a claw at head height, causing him to duck under the swipe and ready a counter attack. He was surprised though when Kiba continued his strike right into the side of his clone, dispelling it and giving the two 'Kibas' the advantage in the fight over Naruto.

Kiba was good for his age, Naruto knew, but after all the training he'd done he didn't have anything on Naruto as the blonde kicked what he assumed to be Kiba away and made some space.

"You're going to have to try harder than that if you want any chance of beating me Kiba. Hit me with your best shot."

At this point Kiba realized that he was only being toyed with. He knew Naruto could make a ton of those clones and just overpower the duo.

"Okay, well you asked for it. Akamura, Gatsuga (Fang Passing Fang)," the two Kibas started to spin, becoming blurs as they launched themselves at the blonde Ninja.

Naruto quickly formed a clone, and they stood waiting as the ninja and his dog spun around the room, waiting for an opening as the two blonde ninja stood and waited.

Kurenai leaned over to Kakashi, "Surely Naruto's not going to try and tank the hit? The kid's strong, but that's a pretty strong attack itself."

"I'm sure Naruto has a plan," Kakashi said, confident in his student's abilities.

Kiba and Akamaru decided to launch their attack.

As they flew through the air towards Naruto he held his right hand back toward the clone as it seemingly generated spinning chakra into an orb the size and shape of a rasengan.

What's dobe doing? I've seen him use the rasengan one handed before. He's even used that big on before, why would he need a clone for a small one?

Kiba and Akamura were just metres in front of Naruto and on the attack when Naruto thrust his hand forward, "Spiralling Explosion!"

He released all control on the now highly dense chakra and it expanded to an orb one meter across in a matter of moments before exploding completely.

The resulting shockwave rocked the arena and even left a sizable impression on the floor below the explosion. Kiba and Akamaru, having been on either side of it in their attack on Naruto were flung towards each end of the arena both sliding to a stop on the ground unconscious.

When Hayate and the rest of the competitors had recovered from the sound and shockwave of the move that had been amplified due to the indoor acoustics he declared Naruto the victor and the medic nin rushed to help the downed genin.

Naruto picked up the coat he'd thrown away earlier and shun-shinned back to the others.

Most of the genin looked in awe of the power of the move he had just displayed. Hinata was both amazed and a little shocked that he had done such a thing to his friend and teammate. Naruto noticed the concern on her face.

"Don't worry Hinata-chan, that's not nearly enough to keep Kiba down for long. It's good to get a decent beating every now and again, hell I get the crap beaten out of me regularly by ero-sennin and look how I am, just fine!" he added exuberantly to try and get everyone to cheer up.

"He mean's Jiraiya-sama guys, you know his god father the legendary Sannin," Sakura had noticed that a few of the genin were a little confused by who ero-sennin was.

"Yeah and he's a massive pervert, so ero-sennin fits." Naruto said defensively when his friends gave him a look that said 'you really shouldn't be talking about a legendary sannin and respected village shinobi like that'.

"Whatever guys, Kiba will be fine, the next fight is starting," Sasuke was still reading his book but still managed to pay enough attention to realize that the next fight was between Hinata and Neji Hyuga.

As Hinata and Neji jumped down into the arena Naruto walked over to his best friend.

"So dobe, when did you come up with that move, it's pretty flashy, I thought we weren't doing flashy today?"

"Yeah well you know, I needed to give some kind of show," Naruto said with a cheeky grin on his face, "And I came up with it a few days ago. Pretty neat huh?"

"Yeah, all I can say is I wouldn't want to be Kiba right now," Sasuke said returning his attention to his book before he was distracted by the dialogue taking place between the two Hyugas.

"Withdraw now. You know you'll never be a strong shinobi, weaklings will always be weaklings and you are destined to live out your fate as a weak and shy girl who will never amount to anything! You can't run from your true nature."

Hinata was visibly upset at the tongue lashing that Neji had been giving her since they got into the ring, and now that Naruto knew what was going on he was angry at the Hyuga boy.

"Hinata-chan! Don't let him tell you what you can and can't be, if you have the desire to change nothing can stop you from achieving your goal!"

"Except you know death maybe?" Sasuke said nonchalantly loud enough that only Naruto could hear as he continued to read his book and listen to the scene unfolding in the arena. He got a small punch in the arm from his friend before Naruto turned back to look at Hinata.

"You can beat this guy! Don't let him tell you you're worthless!"

Hinata, her confidence renewed, turned to face her cousin.

They fought like their lives depended on it. At first they traded blows equally with their gentle fist style, neither landing a hit, but it wasn't long until Neji showed why many, even Rock Lee, claimed he was the strongest genin to come out of Konoha.

He scored the first hit, and then another and his advantage multiplied and in moments he'd scored enough that Hinata was on the verge of collapsing.

Hayate called the match in favor of Neji when he noted that the Hyuga girl could barely stand.

"See you are worthless, a pitiful display of a ninja,"

"I'm sorry to see now that you are the one suffering."

"How am I suffering when you are the pitiful weakling of the main house?"

"You are suffering because you are obsessed with the fate of the main and side branches within our clan, because you are trying so hard to prove you are worthy of the main house,"

And with that Neji snapped, charging at the young defenseless girl with intent to kill.

Naruto went to move, but held back when he saw Kakashi, Hayate, Kurenai and Gai jump in and stop the boy.

"I already called the match, now stand down!"

The Hyuga had no choice but step back from Hinata and the jounin released him.

Naruto quickly shun-shinned down into the arena to catch the defeated and now unconscious Hyuga girl before she could hit the pavement.

"If I end up fighting you in the finals Neji mark my words that I will show what it means to change oneself by humiliating you in front of everyone, mark my words."

"Yeah? What are you going to do? It's not like Kiba would have been a challenge, you're just as much a loser as Hinata,"

"I will crush you into dust if that's what it takes for you to fear me. Because anyone who hurts my friends the way you hurt Hinata and the way you tried to attack her just now should be very much afraid."

With a cold look at the arrogant Hyuga Naruto shun-shinned back up to the balcony and carried Hinata to the infirmary.

"Will she be alright?" Naruto said as the medic-ninja made a preliminary assessment of her condition.

"She should be okay, any more treatment like this though and it might have been another story," God damn it Neji you will pay for this you arrogant prick.

Naruto was in no rush to return to the arena and when he finally made his way back he found Rock Lee on the ground with medic-nin rushing in to help him. Sasuke filled him in and apparently even though Lee went all out Gaara had still managed to crush his arm and leg.

From the look of the damage the kid might not ever be able to continue his career of a shinobi.

This Gaara really was a piece of work it seemed.

The final fight was between Chouji and Dosu from the sound village. Naruto was still put off by the earlier events, and didn't pay much attention to the fight. In the end Dosu managed to come ahead as the victor through the use of a sound technique that overwhelmed the Konoha genin.

At the end of the day, ten of the genin would be advancing to the finals and the matchups for the day were announced.

Neji Hyuga vs Naruto Uzumaki

Sasuke Uchiha vs Gaara of the Sand Siblings

Kankuro of the Sand Siblings vs Shino Aburame

Shikamaru Nara vs Temari of the Sand Siblings

Sakura Haruno vs Dosu Kinuta

Each of the competitors locked eyes as Hayate continued.

"You all have one month to train and rest before the finals commence, you are dismissed,"

The genin left to lick their wounds, check on their teammates or just get some rest.

"I don't know about you guys, but I hope the finals last long enough for me to kick that Neji guy's ass," Naruto said as team 7 walked into the infirmary to check on Hinata before flashing back to his house to rest.

Karin, with nothing to do but sit in the house and read was laying on the couch when they arrived.

"Hey, how did it go?"

"We all got through, not surprisingly, but there were a lot of injuries, those sand ninja aren't exactly the friendliest people around, guess they've got sand in their cracks or something? Only reason I'd be angry like that all the time,"

This got a little chuckle from Sasuke as he sat and continued reading and Sakura could only roll her eyes at the two boys who had actually become fast friends since the Land of Waves.

xXx

Kakashi arrived the next morning to take Sasuke on a month long training trip, something Naruto had no problem with; he was the one with a sharingan after all.

When Jiraiya arrived at the compound Naruto was training and the Sannin blindsided the boy. Slamming a fist into his god son's mouth he sent the boy flying across the grounds and skipping across one of the small ponds.

"Hey! What was that for?" Naruto demanded of the Sannin when he walked back over sopping wet.

"That was your warm-up, now get ready for a month of getting your ass kicked; I'm not going easy on you. Oh and Sensei told me you had a defected kunoichi staying with you now," He leant in suspiciously and lowered his voice, "Have you seen her naked yet?"

Now it was his turn to be sent flying across the grounds, "WE'RE ONLY TWELVE YOU SICK BASTARD!"

And with that the training began; Sasuke with Kakashi, Naruto with Jiraiya, and Sakura had the help of a few Naruto clones or Jiraiya whenever he wasn't tearing Naruto a new one.

Jiraiya had upped his game so training with the Sannin really was just getting beaten to a pulp. Even when the pervert wasn't restricting him from using Hiraishin he still managed to get the upper hand, and so Naruto came in from training as sore as ever.

The only consolation he had was that he had Karin to keep him company whenever he wasn't getting his ass kicked, and it turns out she was actually a pretty decent medical ninja. He had no idea what Sasuke was doing in his month of training, but Naruto spent the month either getting a beat down from his god father or having Karin heal said beat down.

Sakura also was progressing well in her combat training and whenever she wasn't practicing her skills she had Karin explaining the basics behind medical ninjutsu; she figured it might be useful to have a medic-nin in the squad if they ever returned to normal missions.

What they didn't know was that Sasuke was getting almost exactly the same treatment as Naruto. All the while they were getting faster, stronger, and were learning a new jutsu.

Both Jiraiya and Kakashi had no doubt that Team 7 would be the ones to watch when finals time came around.

So some of you were wondering if it would a be a harem and my response to that is no. Women very rarely share unless something happens in their life, changing their disposition or its a culture thing. Seeing as how it's not an evident culture thing from everything that can be seen in the manga and anime there really isn't much I can do to actually justify that happening. That and it'd have to be cool with Naruto, and he just doesn't seem like the type.

One of you commented about Orochimaru's fight not going the way you expected, but yeah you nailed it in the fact that he had people to protect. Naruto also didn't know it was Orochimaru until after he'd used his strongest combo move with Sasuke, and the guy didn't seem harmed. So Naruto wasn't about to just risk it in an all out fight. Which was why he attempted to retreat, the only thing stopping him being Orochimaru's threat on Tenten. And then almost straight away after biting Sasuke Orochimaru left, so he didn't need to get everyone away or go all out. In the end that's really the only way I saw that fight going down.

Finally, my quote was actually wrong. I was tired at the time, and I should have checked the quote before I challenged you guys :P I was going for Predator when he's trying to get the predator to fall for his traps. But you know.. I messed it up :P Hope you enjoyed the chapter guys and gals.

Okay that's it see you next time :P

Oh and review!