Naruto was currently in his mindscape.

"hey, Naruto."

Naruto looked towards Shukaku, surprised that the tanuki called out to him. "yes Shukaku?"

with a heavy sigh, Shukaku spoke. "after much consideration, I've decided that I would like to become your friend."

the blonde gasped "really?"

"yeah, I've decided to go ahead with your offer."

"it's mostly because his ego has been harmed." Isobu said.

"SHUT UP!"

Naruto then walked up and unlocked Shukaku's cage.

"come on, come on." Tsunade said while healing the blonde.

"ano, Tsunade, you should-" Shizune was cut off.

"shut up and help me!"

Shizune complied.

eventually the blonde had woken up "ugh, Tsunade-chan?"

the slug sannin hugged the jinchūriki "OH THANK KAMI YOU'RE OKAY! when I heard that you were attacked by that snake bastard, I rushed here."

the blonde boy smiled "thank you, but you really didn't need to come here, I heal quickly ya know?"

Tsunade sighed, letting go of the boy "well you should probably know a few things."

the blonde looked at the medic nin

"firstly, your teammates are okay, except for Sasuke."

the blonde instantly became worried "what's-"

"I can't go into that, due to various reasons. I know that he is your friend and teammate, so it's natural that you worry about him, but you simply must accept that this is a matter, you're not allowed to know."

the blonde sighed, accepting what the slug sannin said.

"secondly, we know that you went berserk in the forest."

Naruto froze

Tsunade was quick to reassure him "don't worry, you're not in trouble, the seal has already been checked. it's fine."

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief.

"thirdly, you should prepare yourself."

Naruto raised an eyebrow "why?"

"cause the next part of the chunin exams are next. the preliminaries. you will be facing other shinobi in a sparring match. that is unless, you want to back down."

the blonde scoffed "never."

Tsunade giggled "thought so, anyways you have until tomorrow to get some training done."

the blonde nodded and got off the bed he was on "thanks, Tsunade-chan."

"one more thing before you go."

the blonde looked back at the medic nin.

"after the chunin exams, I'm becoming hokage." she said with a smile.

the young jinchūriki pouted "lucky."

Tsunade lightly chuckled and went up to the blonde "don't worry gaki, you'll become the next hokage someday, just not soon." she said while rubbing his sun kissed blonde hair.

"okay then, well. bye Tsunade-chan, bye Shizune-san."

Orochimaru had met up at the meeting spot.

"so have you successfully gotten him?"

Orochimaru looked over to see a heavily bandaged man.

"sorry, but it appears that the brat has more control over the bijūs than I thought."

Danzo walked out of the shadows "how so?"

"it appears that he has control over the yonbi, as he was able to use lava armor. I tried and successfully knocked him out, but then my former student arrived." Orochimaru said with disdain.

Danzo scoffed "well no matter. the second part of the preliminaries will come soon enough, there, we will have the best opportunity to grab both of our targets."

"yes, you will get your weapon, and I will get Sasuke."

"remember, I'll handle Hiruzen and you'll-" Orochimaru cut him off.

"yes, yes. I know, I didn't become a scientist by being a moron."

Danzo scowled at the snake sannin "whatever."

the first preliminaries had finally arrived.

the blonde jinchūriki had met up with his team.

"hey guys!" he said while waving.

Kakashi looked at his student "ah, nice to see that you showed up, Naruto. you feeling okay?"

"yep, I'm all healed up and ready to go."

"hn, when are you not?"

the blonde rolled his eyes "but today is extra special."

"why is that Naruto-kun?"

Naruto gave his traditional foxy grin "because yesterday, I finally befriended Shukaku."

"ah, so you have full access to his abilities?" Hinata said, happy for her crush.

he nodded.

"speaking of abilities, Naruto."

Naruto looked up at his sensei.

"look Naruto, I know you take a lot of pride in your jinchūriki abilities, but for the preliminaries, I want you to go easy on your opponents, even if they're not fellow leaf shinobis. infact, make that a challenge for yourself. during the match against whoever your opponent is, you're only allowed to use one of the bijūs abilities. can you do that?"

Naruto gave another foxy grin and a thumbs up "you bet, Kakashi-sensei. I accept the challenge, cause I will overcome any challenge thrown my way."

Kakashi chuckled "okay then, let's stop wasting time."

team 7 then made their way into the building.

as they walked in, Naruto noticed something.

"hey Hinata, did you get a new bow?"

Hinata nodded "yes, this one is purple."

"it looks great."

Hinata blushed a little "thank you, Naruto-kun."

"alright everyone" the proctor coughed "I'm Gekkō Hayate, the proctor for this part of the exam." he coughed again "here are the rules."

as Hayate listed the rules, the crowd spoke amongst itself. especially one medic nin and her apprentice.

"so who did you bet on making it past this part?"

"SHIZUNE! do you really think that I would bet on such on thing?" Tsunade said offended.

Shizune sweat dropped "ehhhhhh"

Tsunade grew a tick mark "well if you must know, Naruto and that Lee kid."

"really? I heard that few had bet on them passing, and everyone else had bet against them."

"everyone else are morons."

"okay, with all that out of the way." the proctor coughed "let the preliminaries begin, up first is Rock Lee and Gaara."

"YOSH, I'M FIRST!" Lee then quickly ran up to his position.

Gaara, using his sand, also got into position.

"Gaara, I hope you are ready to see my burning youth in action!"

Gaara stood there in silence "you're a freaking weirdo."

"Hajime"

Lee quickly ran up.

Gaara was caught off guard by the leaf nin's speed and his sand barely blocked the punch.

Gaara quickly encased the bowl cut boy and tossed him into the nearby wall.

Lee got up and recomposed himself and then ran circles around the red haired boy.

'this guy is fast.'

Lee then appeared behind Gaara and punched him.

unlike the previous punches, Gaara's sand couldn't react in time.

Gaara was launched into the nearby wall.

his siblings, as well as his sensei, were surprised. Gaara's sand defense protected him from everything.

Gaara got up and saw something that made him go wide-eyed.

blood, but not just any blood, HIS BLOOD.

Gaara had seen plenty of blood before, but never his owns.

"PROCTOR! I FOREFEIT!"

"the winner, by forefeit, is Rock Lee!"

"yosh, take that Uzumaki Naruto, let's see you top that."

Naruto stood silent "you say something Lee?"

"GAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!"

"CURSE YOU KAKASHI!"

"up next, is Hyūga Neji and Hyūga Hinata."

the two Hyūgas then got in to position.

"kick his butt, Hinata!" Naruto yelled.

"you should give up, Hinata."

"huh?"

"you should give up now, it is fate that you-"

"Neji, whatever you are going to say. I don't believe it."

"Hajime."

Neji ran up to the Hyūga heiress, who quickly dodged the oncoming and retaliated with her own.

Neji was thrown into a wall.

gritting his teeth, he ran up to the byakugan princess.

it was then, Neji did something that surprised everyone.

"kaiten"

Hinata got up and smiled at the Hyūga branch member "Neji, I'm proud of you."

"huh?"

"you've defied your fate."

Neji gritted his teeth "what are you talking about? no one can defy fate."

"you just did, you learned the heavenly rotation, you are a branch member that learned a main branch technique. if fate was true, you would have never been able to learn this technique."

Neji gritted his teeth harder and ran up to the Hyūga heiress.

Hinata channeled lightning through her body "kaiten"

Neji's body was hit with lightning and he was sent into a nearby wall.

Neji attempted to get up, but his injuries were too much for him and he fell unconscious.

"the winner, by knockout is Hyūga Hinata."

"GREAT JOB, HINATA!" Naruto cheered.

"hn, you did great." Sasuke added.

"up next, Uzumaki Naruto and Yamanaka Ino."

the Yamanaka heiress and the blonde jinchūriki got into position.

"hey Ino, before we begin, pick a number between 1 and 9." the blonde said while smirking.

"huh?"

'hmm, it appears that he is going to let his opponents pick for him.' Kakashi thought to himself.

"just pick."

"uhh. I guess 1?"

the blonde chuckled 'you're up Shukaku.'

"if you have nothing else to say, Hajime!"

the Yamanaka heiress ran up to punch Naruto.

the blonde jinchūriki used his sand to quickly block the attack, and quickly backed away "sand storm"

it was then that the entire arena was then encased by swirling sand.

Ino could barely see anything.

'dammit, I can't see him'

it was then, Ino saw Naruto.

smirking, she ran up to the blonde boy.

as soon as she was in range, she punched him.

she watched as 'Naruto' dissolved into sand.

'a sand clone.'

"sand entrapment"

Ino was then entrapped by sand.

the sandstorm slowly ended and everyone saw the scene.

"forefeit." Naruto said.

Ino smirked and quickly freed her arms "mind transfer jutsu"

Ino found herself in a lush beautiful forest.

"the hell, I should be in the arena, how the hell did-" it was then Ino realized.

"oh." she turned around to see the nine bijūs "oh shit."

the nine bijūs looked down at the blonde who has invaded their jinchūriki's mind.

"I... I didn't think this through did I?" she said nervously.

"no. you didn't." the blue cat said.

"now, kindly, get out." the octopus looking creature said.

Ino found herself back in the real world "PROCTOR! I forefeit." she said scared.

"the winner" the proctor coughed "by forefeit, is Uzumaki Naruto."

Naruto used his sand to get back with his team.

"good job, Naruto." Kakashi said happily.

"hn. not bad."

"you did amazing Naruto-kun."

the blonde smiled "thanks guys."

"up next" the proctor coughed "is Inuzuka Kiba and Haruno Sakura."

the blonde yawned and shut his eyes.

"Naruto."

Naruto woke up "huh?"

"the preliminaries are over, the hokage is speaking." Kakashi said.

"and so, the next part of the preliminaries shall be shown." Hiruzen said.

the billboard then lit up the following.

'Round 1: Rock Lee vs Uchiha Sasuke'

'Round 2: Kankuro vs Hyūga Hinata'

'Round 3: Temari vs Nara Shikamaru'

'Round 4: Uzumaki Naruto vs Kin'

'Round 5: Inuzuka Kiba vs Aburame Shino'

'Round 6: Zaku vs Akimichi Choji'

'Round 7: the winner of Round 2 vs the winner of Round 3'

'Round 8: the winner of Round 6 vs the winner of Round 5'

'Round 9: the winner of Round 1 vs the winner of Round 3'

'Round 10: the winner of Round 7 vs the winner of Round 8 vs the winner of Round 9'

"now," the hokage spoke "it is important to remember that the winner of the preliminaries doesn't mean that you will become a chunin, that is up to the judges. with that, I leave you all to prepare in the next 2 months."

"Naruto." Kakashi yelled out to his student.

"yes, Kakashi-sensei?"

"look, I'm going to be training Sasuke for the 2 months, is that okay?" Kakashi asked, not wanting his sensei's legacy to hate him.

Naruto shrugged "sure, why wouldn't it be?"

Kakashi eye smiled "good, now I did get Ebusi to train you."

the blonde smiled "thank you Kakashi-sensei."

in a dark and damp cave, ten holographic figures gather in a cave.

"so it's decided." the orange haired figure said "we shall invade Konoha during the second part of the preliminaries, there the jinchūriki will be at his weakest."

"excited to go home, Itachi?" the tall blue figure asked.

Itachi said nothing.

"leader-sama" a black and white figure spoke "we think you should know that Orochimaru is planning on invading Konoha at roughly the same time."

"it matters not, if Orochimaru decides to interfere, we'll deal with him, until then ignore what he does."

"can't wait to get my hands on him." the short hunched figure said.

"Konoha will see true art." the blonde ponytail figure said.

"prepare yourselves, everyone. cause soon, Konoha will know only pain."

That's right, we're combining the Konoha crush arc with the Pein invasion arc.

MwhahahahahahaHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!

hope you all enjoyed, merry Christmas, happy holidays, and all that crap.