Chapter 13 – Preliminaries
A/N # 1: I apologize for the delay, but I needed the results from a poll I had posted on my profile page before I continued (I always like to have the main idea for the next two chapters of my stories before I write a new chapter).
A/N # 2: I have posted a new poll on my profile; since the subject of the poll is of big importance I need your votes. The question on the poll is "Should Kitsune of Las Noches end in Part 1 of Naruto or should I continue the story into Part 2 -Shippuden?" Please vote; I really need your opinions on this as I really cannot decide on this one myself.
To StrongGuy159: I'll forgive you this time; I am, however, thoroughly serious on what I will do if it happens one more time, so don't do it again. I understand that you wanted an update soon; I nearly lost a very close relative, however, when someone recently tried to make good on a similar threat he had given to my family member online, so I'm taking those types of comments very seriously now. This does not mean I can't accept criticisms but I won't tolerate comments of a threatening nature such as the one you had posted.
Preceding note aside, please still keep sending reviews, favs, and follows.
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and/or Bleach
[Konoha Hot Springs, Konohagakure]
Current Time….
Naruto had been training in preparation for the Chunin Exams Finals, on and off, for three days; he would often train either by himself or with his fracciones. As he bathed within the hot spring, however, he was thinking about the person had been training with earlier today: Sasuke Uchiha.
He was surprised when his teammate had asked him to help him with his training; though Naruto knew what he had told Sasuke in the Forest of Death had reached him, he had not expected that the Uchiha would have begun to change so soon. When Sasuke told him about what he had seen in his recollection of his clan's massacre back in the forest, however, Naruto agreed to help him reawaken his Sharingan but Naruto told Sasuke that he should ask Kakashi with his training after he had done so since Naruto could not teach him how to use the dojutsu for obvious reasons. After three hours of sparring, and of Naruto having to give his best impression of a villain to provoke his teammate, Sasuke had finally reawakened his dojutsu; before Sasuke left to find Kakashi, however, he asked Naruto a shocking question….
"This may sound stupid but….. do you know what happened that day? You knew about the massacre before you returned to Konoha even though you weren't here when it happened…" Sasuke had asked him.
After a few moments of awkward silence Naruto admitted to Sasuke that he did; this was because Aizen was somehow able to record detailed knowledge of "significant" events and people that had occurred in the Shinobi World, with the Kyubi's Attack on Konoha being one of the few events that had certain gaps in information. Though he normally would forbid access to this knowledge, keeping it in his secret archives in Las Noches, Aizen had allowed Naruto to read his records on the Shinobi World, primarily because Aizen thought that, for some reason, it would help him in his conquest of that world.
When Sasuke tried to press Naruto for the truth of that day Naruto simply said that he would tell him when the time was right; though this angered Sasuke, he was forced to comply when Naruto released some of his spiritual pressure. Though this frustrated Sasuke he was, at the very least, relieved as that meant that he might be able to find his path soon.
After replaying what had happened that day in his mind, Naruto got out of the hot spring he was in for two and a half hours. As Naruto headed towards the exit he noticed a man, who was standing on top of a large toad, about to peek into the women's area of the spring, to which Naruto smirked; even though he hadn't met the man Naruto, thanks to the records in both the Namikaze Estate and Las Noches, already knew who it was. The blonde-haired ninja used his flash-step to appear by the man's side.
"You know if the women inside spot you you're a dead man, right…Jiraiya-san?" Naruto asked as Jiraiya, caught completely off-guard by Naruto, fell off the toad and landed on his face; after a few seconds, the self-proclaimed "super-pervert" finally got up, acting as though nothing had happened.
"Well, if that's the case, I'll just have to avoid getting caught, Naruto," the toad Sannin said, answering the young ninja's question. Naruto did a facepalm in response to the Toad Sage's comment before he said anything.
"I was afraid that this would happen; my own godfather is truly the pervert everyone says he is," Naruto chided, having learned of his relation to the Toad Sage thanks to some of the documents he found at his Estate. Upon noticing that the Sannin now had a sorrowful expression, however, Naruto decided to console him.
"I know what you're thinking, Jiraiya-san, and you don't have to be down on yourself for that; I know you've been tracking down Orochimaru and the Akatsuki all this time. I don't hold the fact that you weren't there for me against you, so don't have to feel guilty about it," Naruto said to which Jiraiya smirked.
"Well at least you managed to care of Orochimaru; I won't have to worry about him anymore. We both still have something else to keep an eye out for, however…" Jiraiya said, earning a nod from Naruto. While he did not know how Naruto had learned of the Akatsuki, Jiraiya was just relieved that he knew; it made his job a lot easier.
"I'm pretty sure the Akatsuki will soon make their move against me; rest assured, however, because those missing-nins will only be greeted with the ends when they do come," Naruto proclaimed, to which Jiraiya, surprisingly, did not question him. If these had been normal circumstances the Toad Sage would've been completely concerned for Naruto's safety; these were not normal circumstances, however, as Jiraiya realized that Naruto was already at a level several times greater than a Kage. I wouldn't hurt, however, to stay close by for the time being.
Pushing those thoughts aside, the sannin and his godson did a quick catching up before Naruto decided to continue their conversation at another time. Jiraiya then accepted Naruto's offer to stay with him at the Estate; Naruto was about to leave before Jiraiya decided to ask one more question.
"I have ask, Naruto… has the Kyubi….?" he began until Naruto interrupted him.
"You don't have to worry about him; it took me a while to earn the Kyubi's trust, but I did earn it. He stopped trying to break the seal at least three years ago," Naruto said, to which Jiraiya breathed a sigh of relief. With that Naruto finally left the hot springs as he prepared for the next day….
[Chunin Exams Preliminary Arena, Konohagakure]
The Next Day….
Naruto and the rest of his team had arrived at the assigned meeting area for the third phase of the Chunin Exams; they were surprised by the number of people who were apparently still taking part in the exams despite the eliminations and the withdrawal of both the Otogakure shinobi and Kabuto's Genin Team. Sasuke and Sakura were further surprised by the presence of the Sand Siblings considering what happened four days prior; after a few tense days, the leaders of Sunagakure were able to reestablish relations with Konoha after a team of Sand shinobi found the murdered Kazekage, which was another piece of Orochimaru's handiwork based on the evidence at the murder scene. This allowed the three Sand genin to continue participating in the exam.
As Team 7 stood alongside the other contestants, the Third Hokage, with Kakashi and the squad leaders of the other participants by his side, declared that because there were still too many contestants, 18 in total, to start the Chunin Exams Finals; a series of preliminary matches, therefore, would be held to thin out their numbers. After everyone went up to the arena's viewing area, a screen up in the wall was turned on with the images of the contestants appearing; after a few seconds only the images of Sasuke and Choji were still on the screen, indicating that this would be the first match.
Sasuke beat Choji through a combination of his Sharingan and taijutsu. Shino fought in, and won, the next match in whom he fought a shinobi from Amegakure. The next match saw the defeat of another Ame shinobi at the hands of Kankuro and his puppet Crow. The next match pitted Sakura against Ino; the two kunoichi ended up fighting to a draw, knocking each other unconscious in the process, after duking it out for more than 15 minutes; this forced Hayate Gekkō, the exam proctor for the preliminaries, to disqualify both Sakura and Ino. Sakura woke shortly after the fight up and was greeted by Ino; they became friends again despite their continued rivalry over Sasuke. Sakura then heard someone slowly clapping; she looked up and was suprised to see that it was Naruto.
"And so the flower finally begins to blossom; took you long enough," Naruto said to which Sakura simply smirked.
"I'm tired of needing you and Sasuke to save me all time; after what happened in the Forest of Death I vowed to become stronger so that maybe one day maybe I'll be the one doing the saving," she replied. Naruto simply encouraged her to keep improving before he turned his attention back to the fights.
The next fight was between Temari and Tenten; it was a one-sided battle as Temari wind attacks easily repelled all of Tenten's ninja tools. After defeating Tenten, Temari tried to throw the now-unconcious kunoichi at her own weapons, though Tenten's teamate Rock Lee managed to catch her before she fell. Lee and Temari almost got into a fight of their own until Naruto intervened; Naruto, having gotten to know Lee before the preliminaries, convinced him that he could always avenge his teammate in the Finals. Naruto then turned his attention to Temari.
"What you just did was completely uncalled for; if I see, or even hear of, any more displays like that on your part and I'll make sure that you'll never wield that fan again," Naruto said coldly; Temari, with her previous encounter with the shinobi forever burned into her memory, simply nodded and went back to the viewing area without saying a word. Naruto and Lee did the same after Tenten was carried away on a stretcher and awaited their respective matches.
After Shikamaru won the next match against the last of the three Ame shinobi, the selection screen began its selection for the next; to the surprise of everyone in the arena, the next match would be between Naruto and Kiba. As the news of Naruto's victory over Orochimaru was already known to everyone in the shinobi world, the participants expected Kiba to immediately forfeit and were shocked when the Inuzuka clansman looked at Naruto as he was excited to face the blonde-haired ninja. Kiba and Akamaru, Kiba's canine companion, rushed down to the fight area and were surprised to see that Naruto was already waiting for them.
"I suggest that you forfeit right now, Kiba; I really don't want hurt an old friend," Naruto stated bluntly; he was disappointed when Kiba simply smirked in response.
"No way I'm just going walk away from this fight, Naruto; if I can beat you I might end up as the Hokage," Kiba declared; after a few moments of silence, Naruto simply sighed.
"While I respect you're resolve, I also dream of becoming Hokage one day, Kiba, so if you are not willing to forfeit this match then I'll just have to end this fight quickly," Naruto said as he stuck his zanpakuto in the ground. Kiba simply made his smirk even wider.
"I hope ready to lose, Naruto," Kiba boasted as he and Akamaru prepared for battle.
"Ready? Begin!" Hayate said as everyone else in the arena watched the battle with great interest. Though the spectators figured that Kiba had lost this fight the moment Naruto became his opponent they wanted to see what the blonde-haired was capable of if he was able to defeat a Sannin without getting a scratch; Gaara, Neji, and Lee were among those who were studying Naruto every move. The other members of Team 7 were also watching this match closely to see if Naruto would use any abilities that they had not yet seen.
Kiba, meanwhile, gave Akamaru a pill while a he ingested a pill of the same type, which Naruto recognized, based on the sudden and profound increase in Chakra from both Kiba and his companion, as a military rations pill. Kiba then used the a technique he called the Man Beast Clone to transform Akamaru into an exact copy of himself.
"Yahoo! Let's do this!" both likenesses of Kiba yelled; while these turn of events caught the specatators by surprise to varying degrees Naruto did not appear react in any visible manner. Naruto had not even remove his hands from his pockets, where they had been since he placed his zanpakuto in the ground; the lack of a reaction only irriatated both Kiba and his lookalike in attacking Naruto.
"Man-Beast Ultimate Taijutsu: Fang Over Fang!" both Kibas roared as they charged towards where Naruto was standing while spinning their bodies at an incredible speed; this act of spinning, however, meant that neither of the two Kibas noticed that Naruto had suspiciously not even moved a muscle. The Kibas quickly fell upon Naruto before anyone could say anything and delivered a barrage of powerful beast-like strikes; after a few moments the two tag team members emerged from their winning blow as Naruto fell to the ground with multiple injuries. As everyone looked on in shock and disappointment both Kibas walked up to Naruto; one of the two fighters, the real Kiba, began taunting Naruto.
"I can't believe that Orochimaru guy lost to a guy like you when you can't even beat me; if it makes you feel better, though, I'll become Hokage in your place," he said with a smirk on his face; before he could say anything else, however, someone standing behind both Kiba interrupted his gloating.
"You even cockier and dumber than I thought, Kiba," the person said with an all too familiar voice that made Kiba's heart stop; the Inuzuka clansman looked behind him and was horrified to see Naruto standing right behind him... completely unscathed. Kiba looked back at the injured "Naruto" and became even more terrified he saw that the Naruto he hit had vanished into thin air.
"That's impossible; I know I hit him with my attack and he didn't use a clone jutsu," Kiba thought to himself; Naruto traced Kiba's thought to the letter.
"I didn't use a clone jutsu; what you attacked was an afterimage that I can create when I'm moving at twenty percent of my top speed and above. Now then, let me end this fight," Naruto said, terrifying his opponents even further as he held his right hand in front of Kiba and Akamaru; Naruto's index and middle fingers were pointed upwards while the other finger were closed together.
"Bakudō # 1. Sai," Naruto said as his moved his outstretched hand in an outward sweeping motion. Both Kiba and Akamaru, who was still in his Beast Clone form, suddenly felt their arms lock behind their back while their legs had also been locked in place, the latter of which caused both them to fall to the ground; despite using every ounce of strength that they had, Kiba nor Akamaru were to move a muscles in any of their limbs.
"It's useless to struggle against that technique; I've paralyzed all of your limbs and I'm the only one who can undo your bindings. The next time you choose to fight me you should learn how to take me seriously," Naruto said.
With both Kiba and Akamaru unable to fight any further, Hayate declared Naruto the victor, ending the fight; after Naruto released both Kiba and Akamaru, the dog reverted back to his canine form while Kiba declared that Naruto was now his rival. Naruto simply encouraged him to get stronger if he wished to face him again before both shinobi went back to the viewing area while everyone just looked as if he were a ghost. After winning his fight, Naruto proceded to watch the next fight, which was between Hinata and Neji, who are apparently cousins.
Neji attempted to assault Hinata psychologically, saying that she would always be a failure and therefore had no chance of beating him, only to stop when Hinata, encouraged by Naruto's prescence, refused to back down. When Naruto had vanished seven years earlier Hinata, after a few weeks of digging around, became one of the few people to find out what that had went off to train somewhere and that he would return someday though the Third Hokage, having learned of this, convinced her to not tell anyone else about this revelation. Having gained feelings for Naruto before he left and inspired by the lenghts he would go better himself, Hinata vowed to do the same; by the time Naruto had returned to Konoha, Hinata had gained much more confidence in herself as well as a greater willingness to take decisive action. This new sense of confidence, along with the fact that she had also demonstrated a great deal of improvement in her abilities as a kunoichi, was what convinced Hiashi, her father the head of the Hyuga Clan, to let his elder daughter keep her position as the heiress to the clan; these changes were the reason why Hiashi was amicable towards Naruto, having learned of his influence, and in fact was one of the more vocal of the Jinchuriki's supporters within the shinobi council.
Despite Hinata's growth, however, Neji still proved to be the stronger of the two, easily winning the match; Hinata refused to give up, however, and when Neji began berating her yet again, lecturing on how she could never change her destiny, Hinata simply said that if he, for all his talk about destiny, had refused to accept what he said was his destiny. Neji was so enraged by Hinata's comment he charged at his cousin, intending to kill her, despite the fact that he had already been declared the winner; he was stopped, however, when Naruto, who had intervened, stood in Neji path, the tip of his zanpakuto milimeters from the Hyuga's throat. After Hinata was carried away by a couple of medics, Naruto sheathed his zanpakuto and walked towards Neji.
"Before these exams are over, I'm going to shove your belief in destiny down your own throat, Hyuga," Naruto coldly whispered into Neji's before walking away, leaving Neji somewhere between shocked and scared for his own life.
As Naruto was watching the ninth, and last, match of the preliminary rounds, which pitted Lee against Gaara, he entered his spiritual state, which looked like a giant boiler the had been inundated; the Kyubi, who had been watching everything unfold as closely as his jinchuriki, had an idea of why Naruto had come to see him.
"I guessing that you've noticed what Shukaku is doing to that guy," the Kyubi said, to which Naruto nodded in reply.
"Do you there's any chance that I can help Gaara, Kurama?" he asked; Naruto noticed that a giant vein poke out of Kurama's forehead.
"You're the one who's knows about those sort of things better, Naruto, so you have to be the one who makes that call. As for my name, didn't we agree that you wouldn't call by it until you finally released me?" Kurama asked with a great deal of irritation in his voice (A/N: To prevent confusion among you readers, I mean that Naruto releases Kurama as a zanpakuto and not in the sense that Kurama breaks free from Naruto). During his training at Las Noches Naruto had learned Kurama's name; though it was originally out of necessity, as Naruto needed to know the Tailed Beast-turned-zanpakuto's true name in order to use its power, he eventually managed to befriend the cynical kitsune which allowed Naruto to use his name in normal conversation.
"I only agreed to not call by your name until that time in front of other people," Naruto said; Naruto then looked around before he asked Kurama, "Do you see anyone else here?" Kurama smirked.
"Alright, Naruto, you got me," Kurama said before he went to sleep; having gotten Kurama's answer to his question Naruto left his spiritual state.
Naruto returned, so to speak, from his conversation with Kurama just as Lee unleashed the fifth chakra gate; despite the power the technique unleashed, Gaara's ability to manipulate sand allowed him to lessen the damage he sustained while Lee's body took a great deal from using the chakra gates. Even though Gaara was declared the winner he tried to take advantage of Lee's weakened state by trying to crush Lee's limbs with his sand; at this point, however, Naruto once again intervened though this time he had to release his reiatsu in order to pin down Gaara and his sand. The moment Lee was carried to a safe location by medics Naruto released his grip on Gaara; needless to say, the Sand Jinchuriki was seething though he was now too weak to use his sand for anything but defense.
"Why are you just walking away like that?" Gaara hissed as he stood back up; Naruto only sighed at this.
"When I fight you in the Finals, I'll let my actions answer that question for you," Naruto replied as he back went to the viewing area leaving Gaara speechless as he stood.
Now that the preliminary rounds have ended, the Third Hokage called for the advancing genin to assemble before him; after congratulating the remaining participants on their victories, Hiruzen annocunced that they would have a month to prepare before the Finals began. After explaining the reasons behind the break Hiruzen revealing that whether they become chunin or not, regardless of the outcomes of their future matches, depends on their performance which would be evaluated by a council of judges, which included Daimyos, high-ranking shinobi from the participants home villages, and by Hiruzen himself. The finalists then received a number from a piece of paper they each grabbed from a bag; Hiruzen revealed that the final part of the exam was an eight-man tournament to be held before an audience of spectators that included the judges. After each genin declared what number they received the proctor for the Finals, a man named Genma Shiranui, showed them a bracket that showed the genin their opponent for their next fight.
1 Naruto Uzumaki
2 Neji Hyuga
3 Gaara
4 Shikamaru Nara
5 Temari
6 Sasuke Uchiha
7 Kankuro
8 Shino Aburame
After seeing their matchups the genin were dismissed by Sarutobi so that they could have their month of preparations. Naruto soon began training in preparation for his fight with the Hyuga prodigy...
Next Time - Round 1: Naruto vs. Neji
A/N # 3: The eight finalists are the same as in the actual story; I did, however, change up the matchups except Naruto vs. Neji and Kankuro vs. Shino. The reason is... to be revealed in the next few chapters.