Okay, so my computer turns on now. Sadly it still won't acknowledge the existance of the internet so I'm still using the laptop. On the plus side, I was able to copy over this chapter for my devoted readers!
Naruto: Preliminaries
Day five dawned and Naruto dressed quickly in anticipation of the end of the second exam. The third exam would be a tournament and he wanted to see who his future opponents would be. Sadly his short green kimono and brown obi were too badly bloodstained for him to want to rewear them just yet, so he had been forced to change his outfit completely. Luckily for him, he always carried a scroll of spare clothing; this particular outfit had been a gift from the Mitsusha's maiko and he liked it very much, though it was hardly standard ninja attire.
His new kimono was shin-length, dyed in flame patterns in warm colours and subtly damasked with phoenixes. Under it he wore close fitting black trousers and kosode over his ever-present mesh armour. The kimono was fastened at the waist with a black obi with the red Uzu spiral embroidered on the ends, and on his feet he wore tabi and zori: while the flexible ninja sandals were nice and all, Naruto liked the more solid zori better. Especially since they were easier to customise and 'improve' with seals.
As today Sakura had braided his now much longer hair against his scalp on each side of his head then tied the ends together in a stubby tail at the nape of his neck, Naruto's overall look was nothing like it normally was. His hair all flat against his head and wearing a long kimono, he looked very courtly, formal and more than a little feminine. The blond carefully adjusted his wakizashi and tanto to mimic a samurai daishou, surreptitiously checking the seals hidden inside his broad sleeves where he had moved the rest of his weapons to. He loved wide, loose sleeves.
"Ready, taicho?" Sasuke asked, raising an eyebrow.
Naruto had taken the Uchiha aside as soon as he was released from the infirmary and told the younger boy all about the seal, possible youki effects and Yoko's perspective on the origins of the Uchiha. The black-haired boy had listened intently, finally bowing stiffly to the jichuuriki in awkward but sincere thanks. Since then Sasuke had not called Naruto 'dobe' once, sticking to the other, more respectful nickname. It was starting to drive the blond demon container up the wall.
Be careful about using chakra until kaa-san's had a look at that seal," Naruto warned his team-mate, "I'm not sure how much youki it will channel into your system at a time or of what sets it off."
"I'll be careful," Sasuke agreed, fingering the hilt of his ninja-to. The Uchiha looked very ANBU-like in his dark top and trousers, steel toecapped boots and ninja-to hilt protruding over his right shoulder. All he lacked was the porcelain animal mask. And at least a foot in height; He may be an inch taller than I am despite being nearly two years younger but he's nowhere near as tall as the other Black Ops members.
"Ready you two?" Sakura called from outside, banging on the door. Sasuke opened it and led the way down the hall, Naruto taking the rear and the kunoichi in the middle.
Sakura's hair was now shorter than Naruto's, a neat bob the okiya-raised boy had trimmed to end just below her ears, and she had managed to clean most of the blood spatter off the green lining of her lab coat. She wore it right-side-out now, looking more like a little girl playing medic than a competent kunoichi. It was an effective façade; only the mesh armour covering her arms suggested that here was a ninja and even that did not give away how incredibly dangerous the pinkette could be to those who crossed her.
Team seven arrived on the ground floor and joined the small crowd of genin waiting in the arena where the Sandaime was standing with a sickly-looking jounin with a full-length katana strapped to his back. Naruto let the hokage's lecture wash over him, gaze moving around the room to find his sensei; the blond still hadn't forgiven the Sandaime for his interference in his life and the secrets the old man had kept from him. Tou-san wasn't happy when he found out how much of the stuff I should have had never reached me. At least kaa-san stopped him from beating those responsible into the ground and promised to get it all back.
And there's Kakashi-sensei, with Azuma, Gai and Kurenai. There's a Suna jounin for Gaara's team -probably the 'Baki' Kankurou mentioned- another Konoha jounin I've sensed around the place but never met and an Oto joun... Is that Orochimaru? He's the Sound team's sensei? Just great. Pretty good disguise though: I can't sense the size of his reserves through it, though the scent gives him away.
Ooh, Sakura got him with her hiccup technique. The irregularity's kinda small at the moment but it'll spread. He's as good as dead already, sannin or otherwise.
Naruto firmly put the snake sannin out of his mind and turned his attention back to the sickly jounin, who had just introduced himself as Gekkou Hayate, proctor for the preliminary rounds of the third exam.
"Before we begin does anyone wish to drop out?" The jounin paused to cough. "It is now possible for you to do so without affecting the other members of your team as from now on you will be graded individually."
Kabuto dropped out, claiming exhaustion. Naruto found that exceedingly suspicious considering how well-controlled his chakra felt, but said nothing. He could mention it to Sensei later.
"Very well. When two names appear on the screen up there those listed will come down and fight," the jounin went on, "and the victor will continue to participate in the third exam a month hence."
The first pair were Akado Yoroi from Kabuto's team and Uchiha Sasuke, so all the other genin left the arena, walking up into the stands.
Naruto took a moment to whisper to Sasuke, "His chakra feels hungry; take care," before joining Sakura and the rest of the rookies on the balcony.
"How d'you think this'll go?" Kiba wondered loudly as Hayate signalled the start of the match.
"Quickly," Naruto said dryly. Below them Yoroi lunged forward, hands glowing as he tried to grab the Uchiha. Sasuke danced out of reach, threw himself into the air then kicked his opponent in the head with a perfect copy of Maito Gai's 'dynamic entry', making Kakashi chuckle. Yoroi stumbled to his feet again, slightly dazed, then keeled over forwards as Sasuke's ninja-to severed his hamstrings and hovered over his upper spine.
"Yield," the Uchiha suggested evenly, hands perfectly steady and eyes blank black. He hadn't even bothered to use his sharingan and the fight had been over in under a minute.
"Akado Yoroi is unable to continue! Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!" Hayate said, recognising the other genin was now crippled. Sasuke stalked up the stairs to the balcony, sat down with his back to the wall and set about cleaning his blade.
"Nice one; quick and clean," Naruto offered.
"He was pathetic," Sasuke grumbled. "A grappler stands no chance against a swordsman."
"If both are only moderately capable, true," Kakashi-sensei agreed, "but in a fight between masters it can go either way. Sasuke, I have someone who should examine you waiting."
"Can it wait a little longer, please Kakashi-sensei? I want to see my team-mates fight," Sasuke asked, tone slightly pleading.
"All right then," the copy-nin agreed with an eye-smile. "Who's up next?"
Next turned out to be Aburame Shino versus Zaku, the Sound-nin Sakura and Sasuke had brutally beaten in the forest; the spiky-haired nin still limped ever so slightly as he entered the arena.
The fight was almost as short as Sasuke's had been, ending when Zaku blew his own lower arm off trying to use the air vents in his hands after the Aburame blocked the tubes with his kikaichuu. Shino won.
Then it was Kankurou the kabuki fan against Tsurugi, Kabuto's third team-mate. Like Yoroi, Tsurugi was a grappler and he lost badly when he mistook Kankurou's Karasu puppet for the Suna-nin himself and tried to strangle it with rubbery limbs. Kankurou used the puppet to poison his opponent, leading him to be declared the victor as inin dashed into the arena to carry the unfortunate victim away.
Sakura was up next, her opponent Ino. The pinkette wandered down the stairs to the arena with a distant look in her eye, clearly trying to decide how to win. The Yamanaka on the other hand looked very, very nervous indeed.
"Hajime!" Hayate said, moving out of range as Sakura seemed to dissolve into a cloud of cherry blossom. There was a tense pause as Ino spun around, performing kai to disperse illusions. The Yamanaka's surroundings remained unchanged for an instant, then Ino was neck-deep in the arena floor with Sakura kneeling over her, kunai pressed against the blonde's neck.
"Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no jutsu," the pinkette said dispassionately, features twisted in disappointment. "No-one ever looks down."
"Shousha, Haruno Sakura!"
The pinkette swept off the field, leaving a horribly embarrassed Ino to be dug up by the referee. Sasuke looked moderately amused by her effortless victory, probably because that was the technique Kakashi-sensei had used on the Uchiha during the bell-test. None of team seven could be caught that easily; they treated the ground with the suspicion it deserved.
"Congratulations," Naruto told Sakura with a grin as she dropped to sit next to Sasuke.
"It is nice to see that some kunoichi take their profession seriously," Temari added on her way down to the arena for her match. As the Suna genin was almost the epitome of a tough kunoichi, that was a definite complement.
The Suna girl was up against Tenten, who didn't seem to be able to do anything at all with chakra, relying entirely on her vast array of throwing weapons. A very poor strategy; Temari was a wind user and sent the projectiles flying wide before knocking the girl out against the arena wall with a concentrated gust of wind from her fan.
The next match was between the Oto kunoichi and Shikamaru, who complained all the way down the stairs about how troublesome it was to have to fight a girl.
The kunoichi's name turned out to be Kin and she was a genjutsu user, attaching bells and wires to her senbon to disorientate her opponents. She moved stiffly, though: Sakura's clawed gauntlets had clearly damaged her arm and shoulder quite badly.
Shikamaru used the shadows under her wires to reach and immobilise her, knocking her out against the arena wall by forcing her to bend over backwards and hit her head.
The next fight was Naruto versus Inuzuka Kiba. The boy with the fang-like markings on his face jumped straight down into the arena from where he had been leaning over the railings while his blond opponent carefully took the stairs, mindful of his rather restricting outfit.
As Kiba had been paying attention to the fights rather than his fellow genin, he hadn't really noticed what Naruto was wearing until the whisker-marked jinchuuriki stepped into the arena.
"Oi, dobe! What's with the kimono and fancy hair?" the boisterous Inuzuka shouted as Naruto walked calmly towards the proctor. "You look like a girl in that getup!"
Naruto narrowed his eyes at his loud-mouth opponent, chakra expanding and flexing threateningly. "Do you have something against girls, Kiba? My team-mate is an excellent kunoichi."
"You look like a prissy civilian!" the scruffy boy taunted him, the hasty correction of his bias -against civilians rather than girls in general- proving that Sakura had indeed made an impression. That did not however endear him to Naruto in the slightest. Kaa-san is civilian. Benihime, my other half, is civilian. Momo-chan and the others are civilian.
I'm going to destroy him.
Kiba failed to notice that Akamaru, his canine companion, was cringing behind his master's shins in an attempt to hide from the irate jinchuuriki.
"Hayate-san, start the match if you would," Naruto said coolly, retrieving a large pair of Tessen from the seals in his sleeves. Someone needs a lesson in respect.
Kiba was both strong and fast and his teamwork with Akamaru was exceptional, but Naruto was both stronger and faster and the nin-dog was deathly afraid of the youki-enhanced KI the blond was radiating. The Inuzuka attacked time and again, only for Naruto to dodge every blow and deflect every attack with his very sharp iron fans. Ten minutes into the fight Kiba was breathing heavily, had lost his shredded coat and was bleeding from a dozen wounds while Akamaru was out cold from a well-placed blow to the head. On the opposite side of the arena Naruto stood unruffled and serene, an open fan in each hand.
"Give up yet?" the elegantly dressed blond asked idly.
"What're you pissing about for? You haven't even used a jutsu yet!" Kiba exploded, wiping blood out of his eyes.
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "This is a combat style a prissy civilian girl taught me. A kimono is a rather restricting garment and this taijutsu style caters to that. Effective, isn't it? You haven't even managed to mark my clothes."
Kiba, pushed over the edge by the jinchuuriki's blatant mockery, charged the blond with claws out. Naruto swiftly closed and tucked away the right-hand fan, adjusted his stance and placed his hand on the hilt of his tanto. Just a little closer...
There was a clang, a shout and a short, wet, squelching sound. As the dust settled it revealed Kiba curled up on the ground with a knife hilt protruding from the underside of his ribcage.
"I missed his heart," Naruto said into the ringing silence, rising to his feet from his crouch, "but he needs medical attention right now since I definitely punctured his lung."
The medics swarmed the arena as soon as Hayate announced Naruto's victory, carefully carrying away the Inuzuka with the knife still in place.
"That was rather brutal of you, Naruto," Kakashi said lightly as the blond returned to the balcony.
"I like girls, Kakashi-sensei," the jinchuuriki said blandly, "civilian or otherwise. Anyone who puts down women like that deserves everything they get. Besides, I know half-a-dozen so-called civilians who could thrash Kiba in a fight any day of the week and many more who could take him out from behind before he noticed the threat. The kind of arrogant complacency he displayed will get him killed." Naruto paused. "Besides, Ame-kaa-san's no ninja and even you admit she's stronger than you are."
"Why do you dress that way anyway?" the copy-nin asked, changing the subject.
"I like wearing kimono," Naruto said cheerily. "You just think it's unnatural that I look so amazing in feminine clothing, Kakashi-sensei."
Much to the amusement of the eavesdroppers the jounin did not refute the blond genin's statement, instead whisking Sasuke away to get his seal looked at. Sakura snickered at her sensei's abrupt departure.
"It really does creep him out doesn't it? I never noticed before."
"I experimented: he doesn't do as well in our team spars when I wear girl's clothes," Naruto said smugly. "It messes with his mind. I think I'll have to do it more often."
Asuma made a choked sound in his throat and both Temari and Kankurou looked extremely disturbed.
The next two contestants called were Neji and Hinata, which promised to be interesting since they were both Hyuugas. The older boy brutally demolished his female cousin both verbally and physically, calling her a failure and a disgrace. Hinata ignored his bitter attitude and held out to the bitter end, infuriating Neji to the point that threw a lethal blow.
That blow never connected: suddenly Hayate was between the two genin and Ame was in the arena behind him, one hand over Hinata's heart. The intervention meant Neji won by forfeit and the young shinobi stomped off, complaining about favouritism for the Main House. Ame ignored the boy completely, easily cradling Hinata in her arms and carrying her out of the arena, leaving the inins to scurry about in her wake. The bitter cruelty and unnecessary violence of the encounter made Naruto promise himself that if he was up against Neji in the finals he would beat that arrogant, idiotic, fatalistic attitude out of the other boy.
Notes
daishou = 'long-short'; katana and wakizashi worn by samurai
kikaichuu = destruction bugs; used by Aburame in their secret clan techniques
Doton: Shinjuu Zanshu no jutsu = Earth: double decapitation suicide technique
A/N: YES! New update! Preliminary matches are underway with a few minor modifications. Thanks to everyone who's sent me reviews and encouragement f6r their kind words.