Blood Naruto

by Zagger the Bloody Angel

After being beaten at 5 years old, a dhampir named Rayne rescued him from death's door along with Kyuubi turning him into the first-ever dual half-breed. Years later, a new threat emerges beyond all others. Beliar. NaruYugitoGobi KyuuRayne ItaiNibiYonbi

14. Chapter 14

A/N: Sorry for the late update, I haven't been writing well the last month. I was and had been planning on updating WotJ (Way of the Jinchuuriki) but even more inspiration came to me for this. This story actually might be longer then I even planned and as of right now the third part is going to be the shortest. Now for those that have asked or have wondered about what Hana did to Naruto, your questions will be answered in a few chapters, most likely chapter sixteen but it might be eighteen if I get too carried away on fifteen. This chapter is quite long for Blood Naruto standards, but I refused to split the prelims into two chapters. Other then that I guess there is nothing to say other then my next updates will either be this, WotJ, RoC (Rocks of Change), The Youkai or RaS (Rarity and Shadows, Reaverstar Pokemon story). Also both Silver-Death-Kitsune will be working on a Halloween Reaverstar story that will be pretty damn funny, so I'll alert anyone that wants to read it when it comes out as it will probably come out before Halloween.

I Do Not Own Naruto or BloodRayne.

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Naruto sighed deeply as he looked towards Dosu, Kin and Zaku. Both Gaara and Yugito could only shake their heads as they knew something like this could happen. Leaning up against the wall as he vacantly gazed over the arena; Naruto shook his head as he returned his vision towards the sound three. "So, Orochimaru had told you to test Sasuke to see if he was going to need the seal or if he would come over to us willingly?"

Seeing all three nod, he sighed lightly but understood the reasoning. No one was sure if Sasuke had been swayed by the council or if he was still acting on his free will. If it was the latter, it would be easier to convince them, but it wasn't all that comforting either. Pulling himself off the wall after he dismissed the three with a wave of his hand, he stood up as he heard the door below to the arena open to see Hinata's and Neji's teams enter.

He nodded lightly to Hinata as she looked over towards him and smirked lightly. Seeing Neji's strange look at him, he had figured she told him the plan and now was having a internal conflict with himself, probably due to the fact that he hated the seal on his forehead and that Naruto had soundly defeated him along with eight others a little more then three days ago.

Turning away from them, he looked back over at the sound three. "Hm, seems like we need to start getting ready for the next part of the test. There is only about a few hours left till the deadline." Just as he finished his sentence, the doors opened once more to reveal the Kusa team followed shortly after by Kabuto's team.

Naruto absently wondered what had taken Kabuto so long to get here, but he pushed it aside having a slight idea to what it was. Putting that thought aside, he stretched out before taking a look over at both Gaara and Yugito to see the former standing passively while the latter laid her chest against the bars, waiting for the deadline to arrive as she was getting anxious for a fight. Though she knew that practically no one here could keep up with her in skills, she just wanted to fight someone new as she had only been sparing against Gaara, Itachi and Naruto over the past year.

Quickly catching himself staring at her, Naruto looked away and hid his slight blush, which didn't go unnoticed by Gaara or Itachi as he walked over to them, still in disguise. The said weasel smirked lightly at Naruto glad that he was finally taking interest in girls as he walked besides him as he looked down at the others that had just came in. He noticed Naruto refrain from growling as he noticed Hana next to Kiba, looking extremely unhappy about something. Already figuring what she was pissed about, he turned to Naruto. "So how'd it go in the forest?"

"Alright I guess. I have Hinata on board and we'll have the Hyuuga's branch house with us without a doubt as life without the seal will be too much for them to resist. I also hope I put some doubt into both the Aburame and the Inuzuka heirs. If not, it isn't a huge loss as I'm sure a few will side with us once they learn what's going on. I also had a mini brawl against the rest of the Konoha gennin. It wasn't much of a match, but I was surprised by the pink haired girl's strength. Sasuke is how I suspected him to be, but I doubt if he's as strong as Orochimaru's intelligence said. I put him around an experienced chunin's level maybe a rookie jounin. And guess what."

Itachi looked over at Naruto in questioning as he rarely made him guess, so he was wondering what was up when he noticed the smile on Naruto's face as Sasuke, Sai and Sakura walked into the room. "He already has a fully developed Sharingan, so I doubt they have used any mind control on him as it would shine through his eyes with it activated."

A look of surprise graced Itachi's face before he smiled lightly down towards his brother before covering it up quickly, not wanting to alert Sasuke to his presence. Turning back to Naruto, he nodded lightly. "That's good to hear, but what of the others? Did you have enough time with them or was too quick to get anything in?"

Naruto shook his head as he leaned over the railing as he looked over each of them as they walked into lines as the deadline was approaching. "No, there wasn't enough time during the brawl. But there is no doubt I put doubt in them about there skills and placed another seed into Sasuke. So now we just have to wait and see what he does. As for the others, I'll work on them during the month before the final exam. Besides, I think we're about to have an elimination round for the amount of people we have here." At the end, Naruto was smiling psychotically, oddly enough looking like Rayne.

Itachi shivered, not liking that grin one bit and was glad Orochimaru was walking over to them as Naruto jumped down along with Gaara and Yugito to form their team's line. As they did so, Orochimaru had reached Itachi and was looking down at the eight teams that had made it. "So I take it Naruto is handling Sasuke along with the others." Seeing Itachi nod, Orochimaru smirked lightly as he leaned slipped his hand into his vest pockets. "Good. I have no doubt he can get mostly all of them to convert to our cause, if he hasn't done so already. But for now, I got some interesting information for you."

Looking over towards the snake sannin, Itachi was somewhat interested before he returned his gaze down towards the twenty-four gennin that had passed the second exam so it looked like they were talking about them. Seeing him look back, Orochimaru continued. "I know for a fact that one of the grass gennin contains at least two pieces of Beliar, if not more. While I'm unsure about the others, I know his off colored eye is Beliar's. And to make matters worse, the Kusakage has made sure to keep him from the spot light so I have no clue of his abilities so he could be extremely dangerous, or just an average shinobi with enhanced powers."

Nodding in understanding, he narrowed his eyes at the said grass gennin wondering the same thing Orochimaru was. "If that's the case, we might just get to see a show case of what he can do in a few moments. If he is dangerous, either Naruto or I will take care of him. If he's just another gennin, we'll take the pieces from him later unless Akatsuki decides to pounce on him here. Now, I think we better stop since it look like they're about to start."

Orochimaru nodded in agreement as his gaze landed on Hana, who was refraining from glaring at Naruto as she had expected him to be eliminated by the second exam. Putting that thought aside for now having digested Kiba's information on what he did to Shino and himself, she began in her usual manner. "Congratulations to all those that have made it here. You have passed the second exam. Now normally we would be telling you about the third exam..."

"Excuse me. Seeing that I'm the third examiner, shouldn't I be explaining this to them Hana?" The dog mistress refrained from growling at the voice as she turned around to see Genma looking at her passively. Seeing that her duties were technically over, she nodded lightly as she moved out of his way as he walked up. Naruto smirked lightly seeing this, glad that she wasn't talking anymore and turned his attention to Genma as he chewed on his senbon. "Alright, as Hana began explaining, we would normally be telling you about the third exam. But seeing the amount of you that made it here, there isn't a way we can move on to the next exam as it is a tournament."

Genma frowned slightly when he heard no outburst as he was hoping for one. Sighing lightly, hating what the council had done to their youth, Genma continued. "As you are all probably wondering, there are too many of you to continue onto the next stage. Therefore we have to hold a preliminary tournament to half your numbers as we do not wish to bore the daimyos with pointless battles. They came to see the best of the best and that is what we will give them. These preliminary battles will be set the same just as if they were in the tournament. Do not hold back against your opponent as these are real shinobi battles and you can kill your opponent if it is necessary, but I will step in if I see fit."

"If someone jumps in for your behalf, you are automatically disqualified. Same goes if you continue attacking after I've already called the match and I am authorized to use deadly force to stop you. If neither you nor your opponent can continue, it is a draw and you are both disqualified. And finally, if you are to leave the arena during the battle you instantly forfeit your chance to compete and are eliminated from preliminaries. If you are to win, you will be in the tournament. Now if there are no questions, anyone that wants to forfeit may do so now. Your team will not be penalized if you do so."

As Genma finished, Kabuto looked like he was going to raise his hand, but looking at everyone that had passed it would make the number uneven and would likely allow someone to get to the next round without having to fight. Also he was curious to how strong Naruto, Gaara and Yugito really were so he wanted to stay and watch especially after hearing that they beat the Sound Four with surprising ease. Not seeing anyone else raising there hand, he kept his down as he looked over towards the disguised Orochimaru, who nodded lightly at him.

Seeing that no one was going to quit, Genma nodded as he handed a list to Hana, who in turn put on a head set and began giving the person on the other end the names of the gennin. Turning back to the awaited gennin, Genma spoke up once more. "We'll, seeing that none of you wish to forfeit and that we have and even number we'll begin the preliminaries. Your names will be randomly selected from the screen over the statue behind me. If you don't feel like fighting the person you selected to fight against, you are allowed to forfeit. Now let the preliminaries begin."

Soon as he said that, the electronic screen began flashing through names faster then mostly everyone could keep up. Naruto with his enhanced vision could see that the names were randomized as no ones name really was coming up more then the others. As the names began to slow down, mostly everyone was either tensing up or becoming slightly jittery wanting there chance to fight as the board finally stopped.

Yamanaka Ino vs. Kinta Dosu

Dosu smirked at the match up as from what he remembered, the blonde hair girl didn't really do much accept for hitting Kin a few times and temporarily taking over Zaku when he was restrained. Ino was slightly annoyed by who she was facing as she knew that on her own, she would have trouble against him. Luckily she was almost at peek condition, though she was a little tired as she hadn't fell asleep in the last seventeen hours. But she had figured out his special ability with the help of Shikamaru, so she dug into her pouch and smirked as she had them.

Genma nodded at the two names before turning back around towards the group of gennin. "Will everyone but Yamanaka Ino and Kinta Dosu clear the arena. There are balconies on both sides so choose which you want to be on. Once a battle starts, you are not to move or change balconies or you will be disqualified and then thrown out of the tower. This includes those of you that know shushin or any other jutsu that can transport you over to the other balcony. All jounin, unless there is an emergency you are not to leave the balconies during the battle either otherwise you will be thrown out of here and put on probation for at least a month by your respective Kage."

Everyone nodded in understanding, not wanting to interrupt the battles anyways. Almost all the Konoha gennin had taken the right balcony except for Kabuto's team, but they weren't really part of the leaf anyways. The only none leaf team that took that side was the grass team. Naruto along with the other sound team took the other side. Mostly because Naruto didn't want to be on that side as he had beaten almost everyone down on that side and there was sure to be anger and resentment aimed towards him for doing just that.

Looking down at the two in the arena, Naruto activated his aura vision before pushing it further and activating a unique ability that Rayne couldn't emulate. He could see their chakra pathways or in the case of vampires and/or demons, their banpaia ryoku and youki. Not only that, he could see the amount of chakra the person had even if they were suppressing it, how they were flowing it and what effects it was bringing out on the users body in battle. He personally called it Energy Sight, which wasn't too far from the truth. True in Aura Vision one could see the amount of chakra in their body as it radiated off the said person, but it was possible to actually see the pathways. He had a slight suspicion that his Energy Sight was like the Byukugan, but he couldn't prove anything yet.

Using this ability, he began evaluating the two fighters in the arena. He could tell that Dosu definitely had the edge in chakra, but Ino had a much more fluid flow then he did. He would have to wait for the battle to begin to see how it was going to affect them, but for now he decided to look at everyone else. Obviously both Itachi and Orochimaru had the largest concentrations of youki/chakra in the room seeing that he couldn't see himself with it. Everyone else what he had figured until his eyes landed on the grass gennin he had figured to hold Beliar's right eye. He was quite surprised to find traces of banpaia ryoku flowing through him with an abnormal amount of chakra that rivaled Gaara's. Narrowing his eyes at this development, he put it aside for now as the first fight was about to begin.

Seeing that everyone was up on the balconies, Genma looked over at the two gennin making sure they were ready. As he was about to start the match, the doors opened much to his annoyance and he was ready to throw them out when his eyes widened slightly seeing who it was. Each council member with a child in the exam had entered much to Genma's along with mostly everyone else's surprise. Leading the group, Hiashi noticed that Genma was about to start the fight. "My apologizes for interrupting examiner, but we wish to see our children fight. You may continue once we are in the stands."

Genma mentally scoffed at his words, but didn't show it visually as he knew Hiashi would pick it up. He knew that wasn't the reason he was there as he had no love for Hinata and vice a versa. The true reason he showed up along with the rest of the council was to gage how much of a threat Naruto was especially after he had dispatched one of the Root Anbu Danzo sent after Naruto with extreme ease. And not to mention the fact that he was at the meeting with Itachi and Orochimaru when the latter admitted that Naruto was quite possibly stronger than he was.

Sighing lightly, he nodded and motioned for the council members to move to the stairs. Once they were standing besides there children, he shook his head as he looked back towards the two combatants, looking eager to start the fight. He absently noticed Inoishi smirking believing his daughter would win this battle. Secretly he was rooting for Dosu just to knock the man down a peg, which wasn't too hard seeing that he could beat him, though it would take some work. Shaking his head of that thought, he looked over the two and raised both of his hands. "Are both of you ready?" Getting a nod from Dosu and a grin from Ino, Genma swung his arms down. "Then let the first match of the preliminaries begin!"

Ino didn't waste any time as she pulled out a few shuriken and threw them towards Dosu and quickly pulled out a kunai and charged the bandaged gennin. Dosu lazy put up his metallic arm to block the shuriken before concentrating his chakra to the clang and amplified his melody arm and moved his arm forward slightly so he could send the sound wave towards the charging Ino. To his surprise, Ino dodged his arm along with his wave and threw her kunai at his ankle. Being slowed down with the haystack on his back along with his melody arm, Dosu knew he couldn't block the kunai fast enough and jumped back just enough to dodge it.

Looking towards Ino, he was quite surprised to see that she was moving faster then she was during their fight in the forest. He cursed mentally as he had underestimated her and was forced to block her strikes with another kunai she pulled out. It was difficult as he was weighed down by his weights, but he had quickly caught on to her attack style and was blocking her strikes with his melody arm with ease. As it was beginning to become easier to block her strikes, he began focusing his chakra to his arm and sent the sound wave towards Ino's ear.

From the sidelines, Naruto was quite impressed by the Yamanaka girl not thinking she would have provided Dosu with much of a challenge. He had noted with his Energy Sight that she definitely had the better usage of chakra, but Dosu had finally turned the table with his sound wave. But something was off with the Ino as she didn't seem to be effected by it as it neared. Taking a closer look, he was slightly surprised at what he saw.

Dosu was in shock as his sound wave hadn't even affected the girl who now was smirking at him before delivering a kick to his stomach before slashing him across the chest with both her kunai. Dosu managed to jump back and only took a light X shape cut on his chest. His eyes narrowed as Ino smirked as she slid into her stance. "You technique won't work on me thanks to these ear plugs. Shikamaru analyze your fighting style when you attempted to ambush Sasuke's team, so we know all about your sound waves."

Dosu narrowed his eyes at his before a small smirk developed on his face even though she couldn't see it. From above Orochimaru was smirking as well knowing the foolish girl had just given Dosu the key he needed to win and he would capitalize on that for sure. As he suspected, Dosu reached behind him and grabbed the haystack on his back and threw it off him. "I'll admit that was a smart plan, even if it wasn't your own. But I'm through playing around little girl."

Before Ino could react, Dosu raced towards and was on her. With one strike of his melody arm, he had slammed her to the wall causing a high pitch ringing noise as his melody arm activated its full power. Ino screamed in agony as the sound vibrated through her entire body viciously before she fell unconscious as her body had never taken such a blow before. Pulling his arm back and stopping his vibrations as Naruto had told him the day before not to kill any Konoha gennin unless he gave the word, he looked down at Ino and visually spat in disguised at her. "Never reveal your secrets to an enemy."

Genma could only nod as the medics rushed towards Ino as Inoishi looked down in shock that his girl had lost. It was a bad move on her part to reveal what she was doing to counter him and it alerted him to use a different approach. Shaking his head, Genma raised his right hand seeing that the left hand balcony was on his right. "Winner, Kinta Dosu."

Dosu smirked as he was quite pleased with himself while he picked up his stack of hay and placed it on his back before walking up the steps. As the medics checked up on Ino and had determined she was only out cold, much to the relief of Inoishi, Naruto turned over to Dosu as he stood besides them. "Not a bad fight, but you did underestimate her severely."

Naruto smirked as he noticed Dosu gritting his teeth lightly, not liking the fact that someone other then Orochimaru had pointed out the obvious, but didn't respond seeing that Naruto was far superior then he was. Shaking his head lightly, the dual breed turned towards the screen as the names began to cycle once more. "I'll see what I can do about helping you training for the next month so you'll be able to win much easier next time."

Dosu looked surprised at this while Orochimaru smirked in his disguise and nodded at his gennin to accept his offer, which he obviously did, before turning to Naruto. "That would be a wonderful idea Naruto-kun. Just make sure it won't affect your training my boy."

Naruto nodded back as he smirked lightly at him. "No worry about that. I have the perfect person to train him, though I doubt she'll like it but she will go along with it."

Both Itachi and Yugito looked at Naruto in confusion not knowing that neither Gobi, Nibi or Rayne would train the sound boy. They mentally made a note to ask about who it was later, not knowing any other females that would train him seeing that Yonbi wasn't a fighter. Before they could think on it further and figure out whom it could be, two names flashed upon the board.

Akimichi Chouji vs. Yakushi Kabuto

Chouji was a little surprised that he was called this early and was shock at what happened to Ino, but quickly overcame it remembering that Kabuto had not been able to pass any of his other six Chunin Exams. Unfortunately for him, Kabuto wasn't about to make this his seventh failed trip though it mattered not as he was far stronger then every true gennin in the exam. The only ones he wasn't sure about were Naruto and the grass kid. He knew it could go either way against Gaara, but he was pretty sure he could beat Yugito. But then again, none of them were real gennins anyways and were at least jounin, though he was pretty sure Naruto was stronger then most Kages.

Shaking that thought off, his eyes glanced over at Orochimaru seeing if he wanted him to continue. No one was able to notice this as he had used Itachi as a meat shield, so no one knew what the disguised Orochimaru was nodding at. Kabuto smirked lightly as he reached the bottom the same time as Chouji was receiving a pep talk from Chouza. "Alright now Chouji, remember everything I taught you and don't make the same mistake Ino did. Now go out there and do your best."

From the sidelines, Naruto smiled lightly seeing that at least one of the council members that had came cared for their child and wasn't there to keep an eye on him. He made a mental note to see if he could talk to the large Akimichi as he seemed to possess what was needed to live in the new Konoha. The Will of the Fire. Taking a look down at the arena, he deactivated his Energy sight knowing there was no need to as he already knew the victor, though he was hoping that Kabuto would let Chouji put on a good show for his father to see what his reaction would be.

As they took their place, Genma looked over the two and mentally sighed as he knew the result of this match as well seeing that Kabuto had graduated in the same class as he did even though he was a few years younger. Seeing that they were both ready, he raised his hands once more before bringing them down to initiate the fight.

Kabuto stood passively as he looked over at Chouji, waiting for him to make the first move. Noticing this, Chouji smirked lightly as he pulled out four chains with spikes attached to them. Kabuto raised his eyebrow at this, wondering what the large boy was up to when he suddenly wrapped the spikes around him so they wouldn't hurt him. Knowing what he was going to do, Kabuto began formulating a plan to defeat him while not wasting any chakra. Sure he could rush over and end the fight in one punch, but he didn't want to show that he was that much stronger then Chouji so he would have to win subtly.

As Kabuto was going over how to win without revealing a thing, Chouji had performed Baika no Jutsu and expanded into a giant ball like he had done against Naruto. Seeing that he had done just as Kabuto had planned, he rolled over towards the medical spy quicker then he could have rushed towards him on his own two legs. Kabuto side stepped the rolling Chouji and barely avoided being nicked by the spikes covering the large boy. He jumped back as Chouji made a U-turn and barreled towards him. Seeing how hard of a time he had turning, Kabuto figured it to be lack of experience and that the arena was much smaller then he was used to.

Using this advantage, Kabuto placed himself near the corner as the rolling Akimichi neared him. Just as he was about to make contact, Kabuto dived out of the way forcing the Chouji to ram the wall. He was mildly surprised; he had recovered quickly and had decided to roll backwards in an attempt to catch him off guard. Unfortunately he hadn't and Kabuto once again side stepped him, but this time the medic nin counter attacked and landed a blow in the shirt opening, striking Chouji's collar bone. Unfortunately his hand got caught up in one of the chains and had cut his arm pretty decently, but he had managed to pull it out before more damage could be done.

Chouji continued rolling, but in a straight line till he crashed into the wall before he began to deflate. Kabuto knew the fight was over as he landed a powerful enough blow on a pressure point on his collar. Sure enough, Chouji had completely deflated and was out cold. Genma nodded as he raised his right hand once more. "Winner, Yakushi Kabuto."

Chouza was the first down as he picked up his son, already knowing what Kabuto had done to his son. He was slightly disappointed that his son was beaten so easily, but at the same time Kabuto was an experienced gennin so it wasn't really that fair of a fight. He looked over towards Kabuto to ask what he did just to make sure when Kabuto pointed to his collar bone. Chouza nodded as he suspected so and picked Chouji up before shushining up onto the balcony as he laid his son down while Kabuto walked up the steps of the other balcony.

Naruto smiled lightly at the affection that Chouza showed for his own son. A pang of sorrow washed over him as he never knew how a father's love felt. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath before shaking that feeling off as it was something he didn't want to dwell on. Feeling a hand on his shoulder, his eyes opened to see Yugito looking at him worriedly. A small smile graced Naruto's lips before he waved her off. "It's nothing Yugito."

Yugito frowned at this knowing it wasn't the truth, but seeing the look on Naruto she left it alone knowing that it was something he didn't want to talk about. She sighed lightly at this wishing that he would allow someone to know what he was feeling. Not even Gobi, Itachi, Kyuubi or Rayne knew what Naruto truly felt, only what he showed to them. While he didn't hide that he was happy around them, he made sure no one could see his pain and sorrow. She looked down slightly and sighed deeply, wishing there was something she could do to help him at least ease the pain. As she looked up once again, she noted the electronic board had stopped on two names.

Sabaku no Gaara vs. Sai

In an instant, Gaara had used his sand to shushin himself down to the arena. He was itching for another battle, but this time to prove a point. He didn't want to lose control of himself and allow the years that Shukaku had driven him insane to show. And for one other reason. He wanted to prove that he was just as much of a threat as Naruto and Yugito was. He was tired being thought of the lower of the team as his abilities were mostly unknown while the others openly showed theirs.

Sai on the other hand was not looking forward to this battle. He knew absolutely nothing about this red head or his abilities. The only thing he could come up with was that he used sand for his jutsu, explaining why he carried a gourd of it around. He wasn't too worried as he was a match for their new jounin sensei if he choose to be, but then again Ling-sensei wasn't all that good seeing that he was just promoted a month ago. Not wanting to look bad in front of his assigned ward, Sai calmly walked down the steps and into the arena. Unfortunately he didn't notice both Kiba and Shino tense up as he went down to the arena. Sasuke did on the other hand and walked towards both of them. "Hey, what's wrong with you two?"

Kiba looked towards Sasuke as Shino kept his eye on Gaara, ready to intervene for Sai's well being if he had to. Taking a deep breath, Kiba spoke as everyone's attention on their side was drawn to him. "We had an encounter with his team in the forest. While we watched from the sidelines, the red head completely destroyed a team from Amegakure and even killed one viciously before both his teammates step in and spared the other two's lives. He used his sand like a weapon, but the worse part is that he didn't even have to lift a finger for it to defend him against a three hundred and sixty degree attack. It was like as if his sand had a mind of it's own that coexists with his."

Hearing this, most of the council members' eyes narrowed as they began putting things together. They each knew that Sabaku was the Kazekage's last name and they also knew the powers of the one tailed jinchuuriki as Suna never attempted to hind any of the bijuu's vessels. So hearing of his ability and the fact that Suna no longer had their jinchuuriki, most realized that he was their jinchuuriki.

From below, only Genma had heard this but he wasn't too surprised. While he hadn't known that Gaara was a demon vessel, it really didn't matter to him as Naruto was the same, or at least he thought as he wasn't told that he wasn't human any longer. Looking between the two gennins, he raised his arms slowly while being ready to move knowing that both could cause him bodily harm if they struck quickly. Noticing the tension in Sai's body, he dropped his arms quickly as he jumped back slightly.

Sai pulled out a kunai and threw it towards Gaara as his other hand itched towards his ink bottle and sketch pad. He came prepared with a few pre-drawn pictures so it would only need chakra sent into them to make his paints to come to life. To his surprise, his kunai was blocked before it even touched Gaara as sand poured out of his gourd and onto the ground after it threw the kunai towards him. He easily side stepped the kunai, but was still slightly surprised seeing what just happened. Seeing that he had far more control over the sand then he thought, Sai opened his notepad and focused his chakra to his sketches creating two ink clones.

Gaara was unimpressed. Having that much time during the exam and to know, he figured he would have had more prepared in case of just this. Sighing mentally, he kept his sand near him as he began to funnel it into the ground as he didn't want to make the same mistake or underestimate his opponent as he was at least as strong as a jounin. Seeing the three Sai's surround him, Gaara evened his sand around him so it kept them from making contact with him.

The three Sai's charged towards the sand jinchuuriki. The two clones drew their kunais and slashed at him only for the sand to block each of their strikes. The real Sai jumped back and pulled a hand full of shuriken and threw them at Gaara's back. He was caught of guard once more seeing that the sand had blocked them without him even seeing the attack. Sai narrowed his eyes at this and began wondering on how to get through Gaara's sand shield. His clones continued to attack as he ordered them to, but neither seemed to be making any progress. He knew the clones were about a fourth of his true speed, but seeing that the sand had no problem blocking them, it would most likely block his strikes easily.

Getting annoyed at the constant attacks of the clones and seeing that his opponent was trying to analyze his sand, Gaara struck. Pulling his arms in front of him, he lashed his sand at the two clones, who attempted to jump back. Neither had a chance as the sand wrapped around the quickly and kept their arms and legs pinned. With the two clones at his mercy, he clenched his fist making the two explode into a shower of ink as their bodies were crushed with amazing pressure. Gaara narrowed his eyes as he noticed some of his sand become useless before realizing that the clones were made of ink and ink was a heavy liquid meaning that his sand had become wet.

While Sai was surprised to see his clones destroyed with suck ease he didn't forget this was a fight so he had noticed that some of the sand had become useless. It wasn't enough to affect Gaara, but it had gave him and idea. Checking the amount of ink he had, he refrained from growling as he was running short so he would have only enough for one and if it failed, he would have to surrender as he couldn't win with his lacking taijutsu. Taking a deep breath, he began to go through the seals while focusing his chakra to his pad and his remanding ink.

Getting slightly annoyed and wanting to end this fight quickly, Gaara waved his left arm towards Sai and his sand responded and flew towards the ink shinobi. Sai cursed lightly as he jumped back and onto the tora seal statue to by himself some time as he continued going through his hand seals. Seeing this Gaara began sending his sand into the air forming a cloud of sand forming around Sai and closing in quickly. But it wasn't fast enough as Sai finished his seals and a clone formed besides him and jumped into the cloud of sand.

"Sumi Bunshin Daibakuha!"

The clone erupted into a torrent of ink spraying the lower half of the arena in ink. Gaara looked mildly surprised, but retained some of his sand from the blast seeing that the rest fell uselessly to the ground having the ink stick to it. Sai jumped from his perch on the tora seal statue covered in ink as he wasn't able to escape his own blast and headed straight for Gaara with his kunai drawn. As he reached him, he slashed at Gaara's throat in an attempt to end the fight, but to his extreme surprise his entire body was wrapped in sand as Gaara looked at him coldly. "Surrender or end up like your clones."

Sai looked at Gaara in shock as he tried to figure out where his extra sand came from. Looking around, he noticed sand escaping from a small hole in the ground and forming around Gaara and him. Sai cursed lightly for not seeing this earlier and putting it into his calculations and seeing that he had no way out of his predicament, he sighed out loud. "I surrender."

"Winner, Sabaku no Gaara." Genma quickly announced just as Gaara let go of Sai before using his sand to teleport him besides Naruto and Yugito.

As he teleported besides him, Naruto couldn't help but look slightly amused at the remaining twelve true Konoha gennin. Each of them were in some sort of state of shock seeing that in three straight matches one of them had lost. Sasuke hid his the best, but with a look of his eyes he was surprised that at least one of them hadn't one. Even Hinata looked mildly surprised thinking that at least Chouji should have won seeing that he had the best match up. Naruto shook his head slightly at all of them before turning to Gaara with the same amused smile. "Much better, though I had a feeling you would be."

Gaara nodded though he was slightly annoyed that he hadn't won his fight as fast as he wanted to. Yugito shook her head at the two as she moved to stand at Naruto's other side, catching Gaara's attention along with Itachi's. Of course the latter was first to speak as this gave him some ammunition on her at least. "Well, well Yugito-chan. Moving closer to your crush are we?"

Yugito blushed lightly at the truth of the statement, though she would deny it without hesitation. So quickly covering up her blush, she responded louder then she intended to. "No I'm not! I'm just getting impatient waiting for a decent fight. Besides..." She quietly trailed off at the end as an image of Gobi with Naruto went through her mind.

Itachi looked surprised at her sudden mood swing as he was only teasing her. A light bulb lit up when he remembered that Yugito never had a menstrual cycle when she was human so it had taken her longer for her body to mature. He smirked lightly knowing what was happening before his eyes widened remembering Nibi would be arriving soon and then... He shuddered lightly, making sure to prepare himself for her arrival.

Seeing Itachi stopping his teasing, Yugito looked at him in wonder as he normally didn't relent that easy so she didn't even know she was out of her normal character. Naruto shook his head as he placed his hand on her shoulder, making the cat hanyou jump lightly before she glared at him. Refraining from laughing, Naruto turned to the screen seeing that the names that it had landed on.

Rock Lee vs. Hyuuga Neji

"Yosh! Now is my time to shine and show the power of youth to everyone here! And who better then my rival to fight against!" Lee yelled as he pumped his fist into the air.

Gai was slightly torn as it would be showing favoritism if he went to join Lee in his ranting of youth, but then again Neji was use to it. But to keep it fair, he encouraged both of them. "Yosh my students! Neji, Lee. You two are both of my students and no matter the victory, I will be proud of both of you! Go out there and give it your all and don't hold back!"

Neji was slightly surprised at this as he expected Gai and Lee to rant about the flames of youth and end up in a hug, but he was slightly glad they didn't. Though he was slightly pissed that Gai hadn't just came out and say that he would win. There was no way Lee could beat him, but then again he had been training with Gai after they're assigned team practice. So he knew the green clad gennin would be a decent challenge, but he wasn't the one he wanted. He wanted either the Uchiha or Naruto, especially after being embarrassed in the forest like he was. Though he also heard what Hinata said about him making him question his motives, but he put that aside for now.

Shaking that thought off, he simply walked down to the arena as Lee jumped down barely able to contain his excitement. From the other side, Naruto was comparing the two from what he had seen of them in the brawl. After taking a look at Lee with his Energy Sight, he knew he had no chakra whatsoever to use, but his taijutsu skills were incredible. And it also seemed that he was wearing weights as well meaning he could be even faster then what he was. Neji on the other hand was well versed in the jyuken and was quick with his strikes. The Byukugan would allow him to see Lee's speed if he took of the weights on him as he remembered putting a little effort when he threw the azure beast.

Genma looked at the two as they looked at the other as if they sizing the other up. Even though they were on the same team, they had no clue of the others full abilities as they were a pretty distant team with only Tenten being their only lines of communications. Seeing them both slip into their respective taijutsu stances, Genma raised his hands to his sides before swinging them down. "Let the fourth match commence!"

Both stared each other down as they waited for the other to make a move. Lee knew he would have to make it, but he wanted to see how long it would take for the branch house prodigy to get frustrated with his new found patience. After a full minute of waiting and seeing no change in his face, Lee figured he would start it off seeing that Neji wasn't. In a blurry second, the green beast was on Neji who activated his Byukugan just in time. Lee threw a furious amount of punches and kicks at the prodigy who was able to evade and push them off while getting in a few strikes of his own. Seeing that his frontal assault was back firing on him, Lee jumped back in an attempt to create some distance.

Neji wasn't having any of that as he moved with him and began hitting Lee with numerous palm strikes. The green beast was having trouble now. While he could take the damage, it was beginning to cost him as Neji was now aiming for organs to disable seeing that there was no point to shut off his tenketsu seeing that Lee didn't need his chakra system. Of course now Lee was landing blows on him seeing that he was going to get hit, so purposely left openings but struck him with each hit. While he was use to internal pain, the physical pain of being hit by Lee was stinging.

Suddenly he found himself stumbling forward as Lee vanished into thin air, or so it would seem. With his Byukugan he was able to keep up but wasn't able catch him knowing Gai's apprentice was much faster then he was. Regaining his balance, he slid into the jyuken stance as he looked over towards Lee who was now on the other side of the room. He narrowed his eyes seeing Lee dusting himself off and was about to slide into his taijutsu stance when he remembered what Gai had said to him before the fight began. A small smirk crossed Lee's lips as he looked over to Gai for permission.

Seeing his student looking up at him with the look he was giving him, Gai could only smile and give him a thumbs up. He wanted to see his students to do the best they could and Lee was attempting to achieve one of his goals. And to him, his students goals were more precious then his own. If they wanted something, he would go over and beyond to make sure they got it.

Neji frowned seeing Gai give Lee the good guy pose before his attention turned back to Lee as he sat down and pulled off his orange warmers to see weights. While this didn't surprise him initially, the small craters they made as Lee dropped them to the ground did. In fact everyone was somewhat shocked seeing the amount the weight that was on the kid except for Naruto seeing that he had thrown the green beast. Itachi was the first to voice what everyone was thinking as Lee stood up. "Okay, that is complete overkill. How in the world was he wearing so much weight?"

Everyone else could only nod as Lee as he slid back into his stance while he beckoned Neji to come. The Hyuuga prodigy snapped out of his daze as he looked over at Lee and noticed the beckoning. His anger flared seeing this and charged his teammate quickly. To his surprise as he was on him, Lee was able to block most of his strikes while delivering more hits on him then he could count. While he expected Lee to be faster, he hadn't expected the speed of his attacks to be so much faster. Before he could think what this could mean, Lee appeared besides him with his leg extended.

He felt the air leave his lungs as his heel hit his stomach, but quickly regained control of himself as he stumbled back. Swiveling his head around, Neji was mentally cursing as all he could see was a green blur before seeing Lee for a brief second as he landed another blow on him. It was annoying him to no end seeing that he was trying to stop his teammate so that he could stand a chance. He briefly thought for a moment that Lee had drank some sort of alcohol and went berserk again. A thought hit him as soon as he thought off that, but before he could execute his plan he felt Lee kick him in the chin, sending him into the air.

Seeing Neji being knocked into the air, a few shinobi knew what was about to happen having seen the technique executed by Gai many times. Lee appeared behind him much to the young Hyuuga's surprise not having seen him move. Seeing him unravel his bandages and wrap them around him, Neji gritted his teeth as he had no choice but to use this technique even if it was incomplete. As Lee began spinning the around in the air like a human cyclone, Neji began exerting chakra from each of his tenketsu points evenly. Chakra began to form around him and started to spin as Lee began plummeting with them to the ground. As they neared the ground, Neji let his newest technique loose before Lee could push him in front.

"Kaiten!"

The blue chakra surrounding Neji exploded in a cyclone itself and pushed Lee off him as they hit the ground forming a crater. Once again everyone had looked surprised in the balconies, no more so then Hyuuga Hiashi himself. He was in shock that someone else had used his technique but even more so that a lowly branch member had done it. While it wasn't perfect, it was still the Kaiten. What was more alarming to him was that he managed to use it without swirling himself without it meaning that he would have more control over it then he did. His eyes narrowed at this and made a mental note to pay Neji a visit later.

The two shakily stood up from their crater caused by the Omote Renge and the Kaiten. Both were feeling the after effects of their respective techniques and were taking their time to recover. Fortunately for Neji the Kaiten took less time to recover then the Lotus. Taking advantage of this, Neji decided to end the battle here and now as he slid into another stance Hiashi instantly recognized, the Hakke Rokujuyon Sho. "Lee, this fight is over. You're in my field of divination."

As he finished, Neji quickly moved out of his stance and quickly began striking Lee where his tenketsu would be. It started off with two hits, then doubled to four then eight and finally ended with sixty-four. As the last strike hit Lee, he stumbled before falling to one knee as he began panting heavily. Taking a look at his teammate, Neji was beginning to understand why Gai trained him after their scheduled time. Lee had asked for so he could become stronger and against his nature, he had to agree he had become much stronger. But this fight was over even if Lee was trying to get up. "Lee surrender and save your energy. I don't wish to hurt you any further."

His face dropped as he noticed Lee standing up once more with a smile on his face. He began wondering why he was smiling before he noticed the massive amount of chakra coming from his teammate. Knowing this wasn't normal seeing that he couldn't use chakra, he looked at his Byukugan only to see that Lee had done something he hadn't counted on. He had opened a gate when he hit him with Hakke Rokujuyon Sho meaning that not all of his tenketsu were shut off. And now he had opened another gate, forcing the rest opened. Taking a step back in surprise as he noticed his teammate's skin becoming red, Neji looked shocked as Lee looked at him with his smile. "No Neji, I will not surrender. I will prove right here and now that hard work can overcome natural talent."

Hearing this Neji began preparing for another Kaiten. While he knew it was incomplete it would still be able to reflect whatever he was planning. But to his surprise, Lee just disappeared. No blur. He was just gone. That's all he knew when he felt a fist connect to his chin. After that, he knew the true meaning of pain as he was rocketed towards the wall, only to see the red Lee appear in front of him a kick him into the air. What happened next was Neji becoming a pinball as Lee kept appearing in front of him before he could collide with the wall, floor or ceiling.

Lee was considering using the Ura Renge, but there was no need. Neji was at his limit and so was he. Letting the young Hyuuga collide with the ground, Lee landed besides him as his skin color reverted back only for him to drop to his knees and begin panting heavily. While he could have opened two more gates, it would have done for more damage then it would have been worth. Looking over at his teammate, he was beginning to believe he over did it when Neji began moaned in pain and began twitching as he tried to move only to find he hurt way too much to do so.

Seeing this, Genma stepped forward and checked on both of them and was about to call the match when Lee fell to the ground, out cold. Genma frowned lightly at this as he wanted to give the victory to Lee, but he had passed out due to the damage Neji had caused on him and the gates. Sighing lightly to himself, he raised both his hands. "Due to a double knockout, neither will advance to the finals."

From the sidelines, everyone was slightly surprised at the result other then Tenten. While Gai had believed that Lee could win, she knew both well as she trained with both Lee and Neji outside of their designated time as a team. She knew there skills inside and out and knew that the fight would end in a draw soon as the two names were called. While she actually thought Neji would have been closer to winning, it was the same result none the less. Now the two had to come to turns that they were even, not better then the other.

As the medics checked both Gai's male students out, Naruto was mildly impressed. While Neji was never in position to use the Kaiten on him, it would have helped him decently as it was a good attack to repel attacks from all angles along with speedy opponents. Lee's speed was quite surprising and his ability to open the gates left him a little peeved as he didn't get to fight him as it sure would have been a good work out. Sighing lightly to himself and grumbling about not ever fighting the good ones, he looked up at the board not noticing Itachi grinning at him.

Inuzuka Kiba vs. Youma Akina

Kiba took a deep breath hearing who he was going up against. He was slightly afraid of having to take on some of the others still up there. Of course he wanted to fight Naruto, but at the same time he wasn't looking forward to it seeing that he was on top of Kabuto card list and so far, he hadn't been wrong about it seeing that the card underneath Naruto's was Gaara's. And hearing what Yugito said in the forest, she was actually above Gaara. So he wasn't really interested in facing that team. He also really didn't want to have to go up against someone from his class as everyone had at least on some idea on what the others could do.

As he jumped into the arena and the black haired grass ninja with yellow eyes walked down the arena with an aura of murder around him, Naruto took a look at the two with his Energy Sight before shaking his head. Kiba had the advantage on both chakra size and control on the grass ninja. His only redeeming factor was that it looked like he was a sword user seeing that he had a small version of a claymore, though it still was 5 feet long, attached to his back and had to be at least moderately strong to wield the weapon effectively. Sighing lightly having a feeling who was going to win the battle, Naruto laid on the railing lazily.

Shaking her head besides him, Yugito smiled lightly knowing he was getting bored as she was honestly getting bored herself. Leaning on the railing besides him, looked down to the arena to see the match getting ready to start. From behind them, Gaara was mouthing a prayer while Itachi shook his head while smiling.

As soon as Genma started the fight, Kiba threw two smoke bombs at the Kusagakure gennin before feeding Akamaru a soldier pill. Before he could even use his signature jutsu with Akamaru, the Kusa gennin broke through the smoke with his claymore drawn, charging the Inuzuka. Jumping out of his way as he brought his blade down, his eyes widened in surprise as the claymore sliced into the ground with ease. Not wasting another second as he pulled the blade out, he used Shikyaku no Jutsu as his feature became more feral. Using his accelerated speed, he dodged the wide arc of the blade before clawing the grass gennin's face before delivering a knee to his stomach.

Seeing him stumble, the larger and red Akamaru jumped into his legs tripping the gennin up before standing next to Kiba as he went through the necessary hand seals to transform Akamaru into a clone of himself. As he finished, the grass ninja was up holding his sword tightly as he gritted his teeth before he went through one handed hand seals. The ground besides the grass shinobi rose up till it was the same size of his sword before molding into exactly that.

Kiba looked slightly surprised seeing this before settling himself into a defensive position as the grass gennin began spinning his two claymores wildly in separate hands. Gripping one of his kunai, he threw it quickly at the Kusa gennin to see him easily deflect it. Seeing this, Kiba threw another smoke bomb as both he and Akamaru jumped in two different directions. The smoke quickly fanned out with the swords, but the gennin was confused as he was trying to tell which Kiba was which. Kiba on the other hand was trying to figure out how to get past the spinning blades without losing a limb as close ranged combat was his specialty.

A small smirk crossed his lips as he came up with a plan, but it was rather risky. Dashing towards his opponent, he was about to pounce him when the spinning blade was faced in his direction. Planning on this, Kiba jumped behind him and threw a kunai at his back. He was slightly hoping it would have hit him, but he wasn't surprised to see him block the kunai, but he had to stop spinning his claymores to do it. Akamaru seeing this took his opportunity and slashed the grass gennin's back, only to take the hilt of the sword to his face. He turned around and was about to bring the blades down onto the human shaped dog when Kiba using Tsuga slammed into his back, hurling the grass gennin into the wall but more importantly disarming him.

Jumping back from the cratered wall where the grass gennin stood, Kiba kicked him to the other side of the arena as both he and Akamaru prepared to end the battle. As soon as the grass ninja had left the safety of his crater, he was hit by another Tsuga, but this time followed by another and another as both Akamaru and Kiba were using it. After a few more blows, the grass shinobi was down for the count as Kiba and Akamaru stopped spinning. Genma could only shake his head as he raised his hand. "Winner, Inuzuka Kiba."

Kiba smirked as Akamaru reverted back to normal before he walked back up the stairs to a smiling Hana and Tsume, congratulating him while wishing it was Naruto it was he humiliated. When they heard Shikamaru snort, all attention was on him. Muttering troublesome under his breath while berating himself for letting that escape, he sighed lightly. "You'll learn soon enough. He hasn't fought yet, but whoever it is I pity them."

From the other side, Naruto smirked in the general direction of Shikamaru as the rest of the adults were wondering what he meant while all the gennin agreed even if it was half heartedly. Even Sasuke was nodding as he didn't want to face Naruto yet. Seeing what he did to them in the forest was enough of a deterrent in that regard. Now all he cared for was how he knew of his brother and what he was after. Seeing the look on Sasuke's face, Naruto instantly looked away and to the board as the names flashed onto the next two.

Akado Yoroi vs. Hyuuga Hinata

Hinata sighed in relief seeing her name called knowing that she wouldn't have to be fighting someone she knew she couldn't beat. With her father here, she couldn't afford to lose as it would mean she would be disowned by him and made part of the branch house. It wasn't all that different then her situation now, but she would rather not have her own sister using the seal on her as she and Hanabi hadn't gotten along in recent years. As she was about to walk down the steps, Hiashi interrupted her. "Hinata, do not disappoint me. You are still a main branch member, so you will fight accordingly."

She coldly glanced at him before turning back without a word as she was doing her best to contain her rage. Her father was the reason the clan was so screwed up. If anyone else was leading the clan, not counting the elders, the clan wouldn't be as bad as it was. Now that she knew of the invasion of Konoha though, her time to overthrow her father was at time. She would free her clan from his clutch and bring it back to its glory. But for now, she had this battle to win.

As she walked down, Naruto noticed her chakra flaring silently around her and knew what she had to be thinking about. Then again, maybe her father could piss her off that much. He had to admit, if he would have stayed in Konoha she would probably been someone important to him. Shaking that thought from his head of that thought, he smiled lightly and nodded at her as her eyes briefly met his. Yugito noticed this and mentally growled but forced it down knowing that Naruto wasn't interested in her. And if he was, she was pretty sure Gobi would do something about it.

Down in the pretty beaten down arena, Genma looked over at Yoroi before turning to Hyuuga. He absently wondered if Hinata would let her anger at her father show itself during the fight as she wasn't restraining her emotions as well as she normally did. Sighing lightly to himself, an act that almost went unnoticed, Genma raised his hands before starting the fight.

Hinata acted first as she activated her Byukugan silently as Yoroi went through the hand seals before his hands began to glow and odd color. She narrowed her eyes at this as she looked at the odd chakra before she realized what it could do from just seeing the flow. Yoroi quickly rushed her, wanting for once to pass the exam, but Hinata was prepared form him as she slid into the jyuken stance. As he was on her, he attempted to grab her only for her to gently brush his hand away with a tap to his wrist.

He mentally noticed his chakra fluctuate, but he was in too much of a hurry to end the fight to truly notice it as he continued attacking her. Hinata easily parried each strike with gentle taps making Yoroi pick up the furry of his blows. It didn't matter as she continued easily countering him and began to strike the tenketsu in his arm keeping him from using any ninjutsu for the rest of the battle. She smirked lightly as he hadn't even realized that she had cut off his chakra to his arms as he kept trying to grab her.

Getting board of blocking him, she let him grab her shoulder. To his surprise, he wasn't absorbing her chakra and looked at her strangely only to see the young Hyuuga stifling a laugh as she looked up to him with her Byukugan flaring. "Did you honestly think I would let you absorb my chakra?" Seeing Yoroi's confusion, she smirked viciously at him. "Take a look at your arms idiot." Before he could do so, she landed a palm strike to his stomach, sending the older gennin to the ground. Looking towards Genma, Hinata spoke in the same cold tone. "Proctor, this fight is over. I hit a nerve on his stomach so he won't be moving from that position for a while."

Genma could only shake his head as he could see that as Yoroi hadn't moved a single inch other then the occasional twitching from him attempting to move. Though before he could officially give her the victory since her opponent wasn't knocked out or dead he mentally counted to ten. Once he reached the said number, he raised his hand in Hinata's favor. "Winner, Hyuuga Hinata."

Hinata nodded as she already knew she had one and headed up the stairs with a stoic expression. Her father nodded in approval of her victory, though he was far from proud. Figuring this, Hinata refrained from sticking him in the heart with a well aimed palm strike as she would be immediately executed for killing a council member. Taking a breath to calm himself down, she leaned against the wall and over to where Naruto was only to see him besides the blonde hair girl. She was slightly jealous of her, but she pushed that thought back as she barely knew the blonde hair boy.

Naruto noticed the slight peeved look that was sent towards his general direction by Hinata. He absently wondered why she gave him that look before realizing it wasn't directed at him, but to Yugito. He could only shake his head as he smiled lightly as he looked over at the said blonde's direction, only to see her cracking her knuckles. Wondering why, he looked up to the screen and noticed it had landed on two names.

Nii Yugito vs. Haruno Sakura

"Dammit. I have to fight last of us again. Man, I think some bad gambler has taken my luck." Unknown to Naruto at that very second Tsunade had just won ten thousand dollars. Having a feeling something like that happened, he shook his head and looked over towards his fellow blonde. "Good luck Yugito-chan and watch out for that super strength of hers. I think it might be a match for yours."

Yugito nodded with a wicked smile on her face as she jumped down to the arena and landed in a crouch. Naruto could only shake his head at the girl, seemingly too eager to fight. Of course on the other side, Sakura was slightly nervous as she looked down at her opponent. While she knew Naruto couldn't interfere with the battle, something about her was off. Now that she noticed it, the girl had far more chakra then she had noticed when she rudely insulted her. Either that meant she was holding back then or she had rapidly increased her reserves within six days.

Shaking that thought from her head, she was about to head down when her mother grabbed her shoulder. Looking up to her mother, she wondered what she wanted when the woman knelt down and whispered into her ear. "Sakura my baby. I know this is asking a lot of you, but I want you to try and kill that girl." Noticing Sakura's shock, she quickly went on. "I know hunny, but you see the boy she was with. He is the same creature that attempted to destroy our village twelve years ago. While she may be a lost soul caught up in his lies, we cannot chance it."

Overhearing what she had said, both Sasuke and Shino frowned deeply. Sasuke wasn't a fool and knew enough about seals to have figured out that the woman was lying about Naruto being Kyuubi, but why did she want to kill the girl? Wouldn't that just give him a reason to use the demon? Shino was much the same, but with what he was told from his family he decided not to dive to deep into what was going on.

Sakura bit her lip, not because she hadn't killed but for the fact she didn't like causing death. Her mother was asking, no telling her to kill this girl. A girl that she was quite sure that was strong enough to beat her. Not wanting to disappoint her mother seeing that she took care of her since she was born; she nodded as she headed down the stairs. Her mother smiled lightly seeing this as she stood up; ignoring the look she was getting from Sasuke.

As Sakura made it to the center of the arena, Genma looked over the two while eyeing Mrs. Haruno suspiciously, knowing she was up to something. Not having any proof though, he couldn't say anything. Taking a moment to make sure both were ready, he slowly began lifting his hands to start the battle when Yugito spoke. "Pinky. I wouldn't try what your mother asked of you. If you somehow succeeded, this entire village would be facing a threat far more dangerous then Kyuubi ever could be."

Sakura's face paled as she looked at Yugito as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at the younger girl. She didn't understand how the girl could hear from that far away. Not even those around her noticed what he mother had said, but she managed to pick up on it perfectly. Her eyes widened as she noticed one of the cat ears twitch and instantly understood how she heard her mother. Looking over to her mother, Sakura turned back to Yugito before nodding in agreement as she knew it wasn't an empty threat.

From above, her mother frowned at how quickly she backed down. She would have to correct her daughter for that as he believed it to be an empty threat. Genma looked at all three suspiciously, wondering what the hell was going on before shrugging his shoulders, not really wanting to know. Making sure that both were ready again, he raised his arms. "Let the seventh match, Nii Yugito v Haruno Sakura begin!"

Sakura wasted no time as she rushed towards Yugito as she began to pump chakra into her body at an even and steady flow. Rearing her fist back as she reached the neko hanyou, she focused the chakra to her fist before releasing it. To her surprise, Yugito easily caught her fist without so much as flinching.

Yugito quickly counter attack with a punch to the girl's ribs but Sakura anticipated the exact move and caught her fist, only to wince but held firm. A small smirk crossed the blondes face seeing this as she finally would have a decent match. With a jerk of her hands, Sakura stumbled forward only to take a knee to the stomach before taking a backhand to her face and flew backwards into the wall. Yugito clenched her fist effectively cracking her knuckles as the pink hair gennin slowly pulled herself out of the newest crater in the arena. The hanyou didn't wait for her to completely get out as she blurred out of existence and appeared in front of Sakura, only to duck below a hand full of shuriken from point blank range.

Taking advantage of this, Sakura used her super strength and pushed herself out of the crater as she landed a kick to Yugito's chin. The cat hanyou skidded across the ground creating small trench marks before coming to a halt. Rushing towards her, Sakura engaged her in a flurry of hyper power blows that sent the other skidding each time they were hit. After a moment of punches, it was becoming obvious who was the superior. Sakura was having a hard time landing near the amount of blows she was taking as Yugito was weaving in and out of her barrage with ease. In fact, if she was landing a hit every ten she received she was doing well.

From above, everyone knew the fight was coming to a close seeing Sakura being worn out by Yugito's assault. Naruto could only shake his head knowing the fight wasn't really fair. While Sakura might have somehow learned Tsunade's super strength technique, it just didn't match up well against pure strength that was at least equal if not above hers. It also seemed that she wasn't use to being hit by her own strength so her stamina was draining fast and add to the fact that Yugito had freakish stamina along with superior speed, she never stood a chance.

After a few more blows, Sakura skid into the wall and fell to her knees panting heavily. Yugito stopped her attack as she looked down at the pink haired girl before placing one hand on her hips. She was actually hoping for a better fight then what she got. Sure, she knew she was going to win seeing she was trained by the strongest demons alive along with the strongest vampire around. But part of her hoped that she didn't completely out match the girl. She would have sighed to herself when she noticed Sakura getting back to her feet once more.

Knowing her chances were slim to win this battle, Sakura would have to go all or nothing now. Focusing the remainder of her chakra to her right arm, she looked towards Yugito before rushing her one last time. Seeing this, Yugito did the same not wanting to disappoint. As the two reached each other, they brought back their fist and attempted to hit the other. Yugito noticing that Sakura was using all of her chakra in this last attack altered her strike so that their fists collided.

A small shock wave filled the room from the collision before the two girls flew back. Sakura rocketed into the wall behind her creating the largest crater in the arena yet as Yugito skidded till she slammed into the wall causing it to crack from the pressure. Slowly pushing herself off the wall, Yugito noticed the dust cloud settle were Sakura had collided to see the young girl lying limply in the crater. From his vantage, and safety, point Genma instantly knew she wasn't getting up as he jumped down. "Winner, Nii Yugito."

Mrs. Haruno looked down in shock as the medics rushed to her daughter. She was sure she could win the entire fight as she had stolen the Tsunade's technique from Shizune and taught her daughter knowing it would give her the edge. And it did, she was the top kunoichi of her class and was even thought to be the next coming of Tsunade. Yet she was defeated with ease by this girl, the demon's companion, with the utmost ease. She growled lightly at the girl as she jumped back into the balcony besides Naruto and Gaara.

Naruto smiled as Yugito jumped between both Gaara and him. Gaara simply nodded to her as it was his way of saying good job. Yugito smiled lightly at him before turning to Naruto noticing his smile turning into a frown. She mentally groaned knowing exactly the reason it did. "No Naruto, I will not tell you what she said. You can figure it out for yourself."

He narrowed his eyes, but said nothing as he knew Yugito wasn't going to tell him. So he made a mental note to talk to Sakura to see exactly what her mother had said. Putting that aside for now, he stretched out as he looked over the arena and shook his head. 'At this rate, by the time I get to fight the arena will be a pile of rubble.'

Looking towards the board, he was beginning to hope his name would be called as he was getting quite anxious for a fight. Though he wasn't interested in fight Sasuke at the moment as he wanted to see how the Uchiha would improve over the month seeing the skill of everyone here. Thinking of him, he noticed the board had stopped.

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Hikiri Paine

Sasuke mentally frowned as he was hoping to fight Naruto, but seeing what happened in the forest he wasn't sure he could stand a chance in a one on one fight against him. Even then, he still wanted to know what Naruto knew of his brother and further more wanted to know what he wanted of him. Ignoring whatever his sensei was saying to him, Sasuke walked down the steps and looked down into the arena to see another grass shinobi. This one had silver eyes with dark blue hair, two daggers at his... her side? He wasn't sure if he was fighting a guy or girl as the face made it difficult to tell.

Naruto had activated his Energy Sight to check the two as Itachi was twitching just as much as the grass gennin was from Sasuke's staring. Naruto refrained laughing as he could see what gender the grass gennin was. Of course he wasn't going to mention this as it was quite humorous to see who was going to break first. As Itachi gritted his teeth from keeping himself from yelling at his younger brother to stop staring at the guy, the grass gennin beat him to the punch. "WILL YOU STOP LOOKING AT ME PIG OR DO I HAVE TO CASTRATE YOU?!"

As soon as everyone heard the voice, Itachi nearly face faulted believe it to be a guy while Sasuke looked completely shocked not believing his eyes. Naruto refrained from laughing at both him and Sasuke and even still he was chuckling. Yugito of course had to join him as she was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Itachi glared at both of them as he couldn't call on his Mangekyou in here. He would have to wait for later to get his revenge.

Regaining his composure, Sasuke shook his head as he turned back into his brooding self. Well that at least answered one question, so he was fighting a girl. Now having no more reason to stare at her, he began slowly sending chakra to his eyes as Genma raised his hands. As soon as he lowered them and started the match, Sasuke's eyes bleed crimson as he activated his Sharingan and slid into a basic academy stance.

The grass girl unlatched her daggers and held one each hand, one reversed while the other held like a knife. Seeing this, Sasuke pulled out two kunai and did the same not wanting to get hit by her blades as she rushed towards him. Sasuke easily read her as she wasn't quite as fast as Kiba's opponent. Multiple clangs were heard as Sasuke parried her strikes easily as he tried to find an opening to attack. While the girl wasn't as fast as her teammate that lost, she definitely had faster movements and more fluid strokes. Sasuke knew the reason being that her type of weapon allowed her quicker movement and that she would have to be better adapt with them to cause serious damage.

Even still, he was struggling as with each slash she became more erratic and even faster then before. While he could see her movements with the Sharingan, he was beginning to have a hard time keeping up with them. Not wanting to be forced into revealing he had something in common with Lee, Sasuke threw one of his kunai towards her face making her duck and roll to avoid a kick. This gave Sasuke enough time to jump as he threw his other kunai towards her before pulling out what seemed to be a fuuma shuriken. Unfolding them, he threw three towards her forcing her to move once more before she raced towards the Uchiha.

Not wanting to allow her on the offensive again, Sasuke went through a few hand seals before ending in a tora. The girl's eyes widened as a large number of small fireballs rushed towards her and she could only barely roll out of the way. Even still some of her hairs were burnt from the heat of the fireballs. Looking up towards the Uchiha, she noticed something off about him as if he was pulling something. Her eyes widened in realization as she picked up the faint glimmer of wires that suddenly surrounded her. Having a brief moment to escape them, she took it and jump into the air.

Unknown to her, Sasuke smirked seeing this as he went through a few more hand seals and breathed deeply. A burst of flames erupted from his mouth as he exhaled, heading straight for the airborne girl. Having no way to dodge and being too high in the air for Kawarimi, she had no choice but to take the flames on as she placed her arms in front of her for defense. It didn't matter as the flames the engulfed her were far hotter then she believed them to be. As the flames hit died down, her body hit the ground with third degree burns covering her body. Genma seeing this called the fight quickly. "Winner, Uchiha Sasuke!"

While most of the Konoha gennin cheered, both Itachi and Naruto narrowed their eyes at what they witnessed. They both could understand using more force then necessary against an unknown factor and knew that killing was allowed it necessary. Obviously Genma believed he went a little too far as well as he called the match right when the girl hit the ground. But Sasuke didn't seemed fazed at what he did in the least. Instead he walked back up the balcony acting like nothing even happened. Now both knew there was a time and place for remorseless killing, but now wasn't it. A gennin was still supposed to be innocent even with the tragedies that had occurred in Sasuke's life.

Both clenched their fists tightly as they calmed themselves down, knowing they couldn't do anything as of now. But they knew it wasn't entirely his fault as he could only become the way the people around him wished as he was still malleable. Both Itachi and Naruto made a promise to themselves to make the council pay dearly for doing this to their youth. As they vowed their vengeance, neither noticed the board land on two more names.

Abumi Zaku vs. Tsurigi Misumi

Both frowned as their names appeared. They weren't particularly interested in fighting the other as they didn't know a thing about them. While they knew each other as casual acquaintances they didn't know about the other's abilities. Both knew their skills were about the same, which Zaku had to laugh at as Misumi was around eighteen years old and he was only twelve. The two walked down the stairs, glaring at each other the entire way as both wanted to win. As they both reached the cratered arena, Genma waited till the girl was taken out of the arena before he could start the fight. Once she was, he made sure both were ready before beginning the fight.

"Zankuha."

Misumi quickly rolled to the left as a concentrated blast of air passed him and slam into the wall, creating another crater in the now crumbling wall. Zaku continued his assault and shot more blasts of air towards Misumi forcing him into behind the statue of the Tora seal. Seeing this, Zaku began blasting the statue as he walked around it to flush Misumi out. Unknown to him, Misumi was climbing the statue and preparing for his attack.

As Zaku moved to the statue, Misumi struck as he jumped down on top of Zaku. In an instant, all the joints in his body dislocated while his body softened before wrapping tightly around the sound gennin and began to constrict. "Too cocky kid. Now surrender or I'll chock the life out of you."

To his surprise, Zaku just smirked at him. "Actually, you couldn't have made it easier for me to hit you."

Misumi's face fell hearing this as he began to constrict around Zaku even tighter then, ready to crush him while keeping his arms pin. Seeing this, Zaku smirk increased as he concentrated chakra to his arms before he used another Zankuha. The result was Zaku rocketing up into the air with Misumi gripping him before hitting the ceiling. Misumi had no choice to let go as he took most of the blow as Zaku turned in mid air using his Zankuha once more. The two hit the ground with a thud causing the ground to crack were they landed.

Zaku slowly got up as Misumi was on his hands and knees coughing. Seeing his opportunity to end the battle here and now, Zaku held both his hands out to execute his higher form of Zankuha, Zankukyokuha. Putting most of his chakra into the attack, he was prepared to fire the blast when Misumi realized what he was doing. Using his unhinged body, he stretched his arm out towards Zaku just as he fired the highly concentrated blast of air at him and gripped his ankle. He flung back into the wall from the force of the air waves, but Zaku went with him and slammed into the wall besides him.

Looking at two more craters, Genma checked both of them and began the count down to see if either would get up. Once he reached ten, he could only shake his head and raise his hands. "Due to double knockout, neither Misumi nor Zaku will be heading to the finals."

In his disguise, Orochimaru could only shake his head. While he knew neither had much skill as he had to experiment on them, but he was slightly upset that neither of his experimental shinobi made it to the next room. Sighing lightly, he leaned against the wall as he looked towards Kin. Maybe she would advance proving the sound was far better then the leaf. Then again, he knew four were going and four out of ten was good, but five out ten was much better.

Naruto had jumped down and brought Zaku back up to the stands as he was coming to and shook his head at him. When Zaku came to, he cursed out loud seeing the look of his fellow sound teammates. "Damn, I lost didn't I?"

"No, it ended in a draw." Dosu answered in his normal voice while voicing his disproval of his teammates defeat.

Zaku shook his head lightly and sighed deeply as he shakily stood up. Once more he had failed Orochimaru and hearing from the others about what happened when they failed, he shuddered lightly. Before he could dive too deeply into his thoughts, he felt two hands on his shoulders. Looking back, he saw both Kin and Naruto as they smiled lightly at him. Kin knowing him the longest spoke. "Don't worry Zaku. You forget; things are going to change over the next month."

Naruto nodded in agreement knowing that after the invasion, both Konoha and Oto would be united into one. While he was unsure who would become the Hokage he knew it would either be Jiraiya, Orochimaru or Tsunade. And from what he heard from the former and the latter, neither wanted the job for their own personal reasons. Seeing Zaku smirk, Naruto took his hand off as he left both alone as he walked over to Gaara and Yugito. He would have leaned on the railing and looked up at the screen if Yugito hadn't interrupted him. "Hm, playing match maker are we?"

Blushing lightly for a moment, Naruto quickly regained his composure and waved her off. "No, but if works that's all well and good for me. Besides, why are you interested? You want me to set you up with someone?"

Seeing her huff blush heavily at his hinting he bit his lip as she turned around and huffed indignantly. Both Gaara and Itachi looked mildly amused at her reaction knowing what exactly she was thinking when Naruto hinted at. Shaking their heads, they noticed the screen had stopped and looked up to see who was fighting next as the group was slimming down.

Nara Shikamaru vs. Aburame Shino

A loud groan was heard as Shikamaru noticed his name on the board. And it was worse as he knew he was facing someone he could not defeat on his own. In fact, the clans of Konoha until the Uchiha were wiped out had a balance to it. An Aburame could beat a Nara of similar skill, a Nara could defeat a Hyuuga, a Hyuuga could defeat an Akimichi, an Akimichi could defeat a Yamanaka, a Yamanaka could defeat an Uchiha, mostly because of their over inflated egos and most Yamanaka's ability to exploit the mind, and an Uchiha could defeat an Aburame. To make it worse, Shikamaru knew Shino was the only one in their class that could rival him in raw intelligence.

Shino was thinking along the same lines as he walked down to the eroding arena while Shikamaru continued leaning against the railing, thinking about quitting. Shikato noticed this, but knew what his son was thinking and just like his son; he believed the fight was troublesome. Though that didn't mean he wasn't going to let his son forfeit as he raised his hand. So with a quick kick to his rear, he sent Shikamaru tumbling into the arena.

Lying on the ground, Shikamaru muttered troublesome and was thinking about staying put until he was counted out. Of course he was going to get away with this when Genma stamped on his foot making the young genius jump up in pain. Walking between the two as Shikamaru hoped on one foot, Genma raised both his hands. "Since both combatants are ready, let the next match begin."

Shikamaru cursed lightly hearing this as he really didn't want to fight, but seeing that he had no choice to now he was going to. As he suspected, Shino had let his kikai surround him as he waited for Shikamaru to make the first move. Knowing that he was waiting for him to do, Shikamaru threw a kunai towards him before using his Kage Mane to do just that. Shino knowing what Shikamaru was planning jumped to the middle of the arena to stay away from the shadows. Not backing down for a second, he created a clone of himself with his kikai and used them to attack him to allow him to find and opening to attack him with.

Just as he figured, Shikamaru caught his Mushi Bunshin with his Kage Mane, but he also noticed him slowly beginning to back towards the shadows near the walls knowing that his best bet was to stick to them. Seeing this, Shino commanded his bugs to swarm towards him from all sides just as a kunai thrown at his clone was caught before both Shikamaru and his clone threw their kunai at him. Jumping to the side, he avoided the kunai when he noticed all his kikai being stopped by hundreds of shadow lines spreading from Shikamaru. Knowing this was draining him quickly, he was about to rush in and end the battle when he noticed he couldn't move. His eyes widened in surprise seeing a shadow connecting to him from behind.

Shikamaru smirked lightly as his chakra drained from him quickly as he was using far too much to stop the majority of the kikai from reaching him while the ones that did had begun draining his chakra. He knew he wouldn't last very much longer, but he also knew that he couldn't end this battle with anything he had. Turning to Genma, Shikamaru raised his hand. "I forfeit the match."

Genma and everyone on the sidelines looked stunned. Shikamaru had trapped Shino even at the cost of letting some of his kikai through. Then he just gave up and let Shino win. Wanting to know this, Shino asked just that. "Why do you forfeit?"

"Because I'm almost out of chakra. Sure, I have a move or two that probably would hurt you, but not take you out of the fight. And after doing them, I would be drained of my chakra ending the fight anyways as you and your kikai would be free. No matter which way you look at it, I would lose this fight. If I had someone with me, I wouldn't have had to but this is a one on one battle so I'm just out of luck. That's why I forfeit." Shikamaru answered as he released his Kage Mane as Shino called back his kikai, slightly humbled hearing his reasoning. Genma agreeing with his reasoning as well and gave the fight to Shino as both headed up to the balcony.

From the other side, Naruto was once more impressed by another leaf shinobi. Shikamaru's intelligence was far beyond what he had thought and his tactic were quite good for who he was up against. Then again, that could be a down side when he tried to convince him to join their cause. Remembering that Chouji was his best friend, he made a mental note to gain the young Akimichi's trust before going after the Nara. He noticed the others looking at him oddly. Trying to figure out why, he spoke up. "Hey, why are you guys looking at me?"

Seeing them point to the screen, he noticed whose name was on the board.

Namikaze Ryuu Naruto vs. Urufu Daisuke

Not knowing who he was fighting, he looked over everyone and recalled their names before realizing that the only one left that could fight and was male was the grass shinobi with the two off colored eyes. His left was eye was yellow in color while his right was blood red, just like Rayne's. Strapped to his waist was a katana on each side. He wore a shirt with black on the right half and yellow on the left while his pants were just plain black. His hair was a calm and straight and was a deep green in color. A small smirk graced Naruto's lips seeing how he was fighting. Now he could have a decent challenge and be able to recover the other eye of Beliar.

Not waiting to hear what Itachi was about to say, Naruto jumped into the arena with a grin on his face as Daisuke leapt into the arena immediately after he did. Itachi cursed mentally knowing that Naruto had already learned that his red eye was Beliar, but didn't know that he had at least one more piece inside him, if not more. And if he had one in each of his limbs, Naruto couldn't hold back at the limit he was at. 'Dammit Naruto! I just hope it is only one piece within him. I know we haven't found any of the limbs bones yet, so I'm very sure either he has more then two or the Akatsuki could have the rest of them.'

Noticing Itachi's tension, Yugito looked over towards the kid she knew had Beliar's eye. If he had just the eye, he wouldn't be a problem and Naruto could easily pick him off as it would be like an Uchiha not used to fighting someone with speed. But from seeing Itachi's face, she knew that wasn't all he had. Not wanting to be left in the dark, she was about to ask him but was beat to the punch by Gaara. "Why do you seem worried?"

Itachi sighed as he knew he was putting of bad vibes at the moment and figured they would be able to pick up on them. "I'm not worried that Naruto can't win, I'm just worried that Naruto might have to break his limit. I know this kid has the other eye of Beliar, but I know he has at least one other and possibly more."

Both remembering the limit that was put on Naruto for the Chunin Exams nodded in understanding. While he could break it, it would require some concentration and a hell of a lot of energy. Overhearing them, Orochimaru nodded as it made sense to limit Naruto's power for the exams as he would have been overly strong. Not that he already wasn't, just he wouldn't be beatable if he was going all out.

Over on the other balcony, many of the council members were waiting for this battle, hoping the demon would finally be exterminated. While they weren't happy that one of their own wasn't going to do the job, it made little difference in the end. The only few that were indifferent were Chouza, Shibi and Shikato and the former and the latter were the only ones that were silently rooting for Naruto. Tsume was the first to break the silence among all of them. "About time that demon gets what he deserves."

All of their attention was brought to their children as almost each one of them huffed and/or shook their head. The only ones that didn't were Kiba, Sai and Shino. Ino, Lee and Neji didn't count as they were the only among the rookies not back up from their fight. Each of the council members looked at the other six to explain. Muttering troublesome once more, Shikamaru spoke for the group. "I highly doubt that Naruto will lose this fight. In the forest, he managed to beat Gai's team, Team Seven and my team at the same time. I also heard from Hinata that he had single handily took them down as well with the utmost ease."

Most of the council paled hearing this except for those that had asked their children what had happened in the forest. Sasuke shook his head lightly looking at each of them before continuing on for the lazy genius. "Not only that, it was quite clear that he wasn't going all out on us. Against all nine of us, he didn't even us his blades but never once did we lay a hit on him. The closest thing to hitting him was when Shikamaru caught him in the Kage Mane only for him to break out a second later."

As he finished, all but Chouza was extremely surprised. Shikato was only surprised to hear that he broke out of the Kage Mane with tremendous ease while Chouza wasn't surprise as he heard his son talk about what he knew of the fight. The rest after regaining their composure were gritting their teeth in rage wanting to know how the demon had become so powerful. They were going to have to keep a close eye on him during the one month break if what their children were saying was true.

On the arena floor, Genma was looking forward to this fight as he heard both stories of what happened in the forest and was interested to see how good Naruto actually was. While he knew nothing of the skills that the grass gennin possessed, he had put him near the card deck before giving it to Kabuto. Shaking that thought out of his head for now, not trusting Inoishi not to scanning his mind at the moment, he looked over the two gennin. Seeing that they were ready, he raised his hands. "Let the eleventh match of the preliminaries, Namikaze Ryuu Naruto vs. Urufu Daisuke begin!"

Naruto's blade sprang into place as he slid into stance as he waited for Daisuke to make the first move. He wasn't surprised when Daisuke had pulled his katanas out of their sheaves as the only way to block his blade was with another blade. Just as he was about to move to begin the battle, Daisuke lunged forward with far more speed then he believed he possessed. He barely was able to parry the blow before he began his onslaught and began slashing at him while shuffling his feet seeing that his opponent was trying to gain position on him.

He was slightly surprised seeing that Daisuke was able to keep up with his movements. He knew that with Beliar's eye he would be able to see his attacks, but being able to keep up with them was surprising him. Honestly he thought the battle be over quickly as the eye wouldn't have been able to hold it's own against him as the container wouldn't, but apparently he was. And that meant that he either had trained to the extreme, which for his age he still would only be a jounin in ability and he could kill jounin in an instant, or he had more pieces of Beliar within him. He instantly picked the second option knowing that only Gaara and Yugito could keep up with him while he was limited.

To the onlookers, the battle was nothing but a blur of movements with clangs be heard some many times that it seemed to be one ongoing clang. Even the more experienced could only see their bodies as the blades moved so quickly that they only got a flash of silver before another clang was heard. To each of the gennin besides Gaara and Yugito moving on were shocked as they couldn't believe that two at this level were only gennin. Even Sasuke had to activate his Sharingan to keep up.

Orochimaru was smirking seeing that he was one of the few in the room that could keep up with ease. While he didn't know the limit was at, he still could tell that he was easily an S-class shinobi from his abilities. While he knew that truthfully if Naruto was going all out that he was a SS-rank shinobi but only a low S-class vampire/demon. In that regard he was jealous of Naruto as he had gain so much power within such a short time frame, but he knew the reason so there was nothing that could be done. Now he could only watch the only existing dual half breed fight a well match opponent.

Ducking under a slash from Daisuke, Naruto quickly spun around and kicked him in the gut before he could counter. Using his moment form his spin, he slashed the knuckles on his right hand as he skidded back. Not giving him a second, he activated his Super Speed and was about to rush in and finish the battle when Daisuke regained his balanced and to his surprise threw the sword at him. Once again being caught off guard as only Itachi, Gob, Kyuubi and Rayne had ever been able to move normally when using his Super Speed; he was barely able to reflect the sword before catching the hilt. Gritting his teeth in frustration, he flashed over next to him and slashed at him with a frenzy assault with both his blades and the katana.

Cut marks were quickly racking up on Daisuke as only due to his eye was he able to keep up with Naruto's pace as it increased even further. But every time he slashed with the katana, there was an opening to strike. It was a very small window, but it was there so he had to time it perfectly. Closing his real eye, he focused on the eye given to him in the ritual before lashing out. This strike caught Naruto off guard, but in a flash he was behind Daisuke and slashed the back of his shoulder and his lower back.

Daisuke stumbled forward as Naruto threw his katana at his mid section as he turned in mid fall. Daisuke barely managed to deflect it with his katana before flipping in mid air and landing on his feet before catching his deflected katana. Naruto smirked seeing this as he slid back into his stance and beckoned him to come as he was enjoying this fight. He was planning on extracting at least his eye, but as for now he couldn't do it as he left his pack up on the balcony.

Growling lightly in his throat, Daisuke had no clue what was going on. He had trained since he was able to walk to receive the power the ritual had gave him, yet he was still losing to this kid. He was as strong, if not stronger then their kage yet his opponent was easily over powering him. Not only that, but he was using this weird speed jutsu that was nothing but a flash to his normal eye. Only hearing of a jutsu like in tails he heard of the Yondaime Hokage and hearing that this boy was his son, he put two and two together and realized he knew his father technique. 'There is only one thing I can do then. I must release all the power these implants gave me.'

The chakra around him began to spike and became visible around him as purple and black streaks began to flow through it and quickly doubled in size almost surpassing everyone in the room chakra reserve. Naruto looked on wasn't fazed as he looked Daisuke dead in the eye having felt much greater before and knowing that his full power completely outmatched it. As the aura around him began to fade, Naruto smirked as he began flaring his youki and a green aura flared around him that was equal to Daisuke before it grew larger till it was obviously out larger then his own.

From the side lines, every dog on the balcony had begun trembling as the energy was extremely familiar to them as it was like their own. Akamaru was bowing lightly as he growled to the other dogs whose eyes widened. Only Tsume managed to catch what he had said as both Hana and Kiba were too shocked to notice. Hearing what the small dog said had made her face ghostly pale as she knew her clan roots and if the boy had indeed become what Akamaru had said, he was a superior to their clan. And adding the fact that all five dogs there would bowing, she was extremely sure it was.

Daisuke's eyes shone with shock and anger as the aura around Naruto died away yet still lingered. He was shocked that the blonde had that much more chakra then he had, but angered due to that even with his enhanced power after the ritual, he still wasn't the strongest around. Letting his rage get the best of him, he fazed out of existence before appearing in front of Naruto with both his katana ready to strike. To everyone's surprise, he made no attempt to dodge as the blades cut into his flesh. Not seeing him flinch made Daisuke's rage increased further as he began slashing him erratically. Still Naruto made no attempt to block as he allowed him to cut into his flesh.

"What is Naruto doing?! Is he trying to get himself killed?!" Yugito yelled as she watched on in fright as Naruto took ever strike without wincing in pain.

No one else could blame her as they didn't know the point of taking each strike. Only Gaara seemed unfazed as he watched as he had a slight idea of what he was doing. Itachi quickly noticed this and flat out asked Gaara. "Do you know what he's up to?"

Gaara seeing that he was being asked nodded as he did, but really didn't want to explain. So using as few words as possible to answer him, he spoke. "He's testing out a new technique."

Itachi narrowed his eyes hearing this along with Yugito not liking the idea that Naruto was testing a new technique in the mid of battle. Yugito was the first one to speak her concerns. "That idiot! Doesn't he know if it fails it could cost him his life?!"

Shrugging lightly, Gaara continued watching the battle as he knew the repercussions as well, but didn't doubt Naruto for a moment.

Getting annoyed and pissed at the lack of reaction from all the slash he had hit Naruto with, Daisuke slammed his fist into his face before delivering a kick to his stomach, sending him into the wall. Not even allowing him to slide down, he threw both his katana towards Naruto and drove through the middle of his stomach and chest. Not seeing Naruto move as his eyes were closed, Daisuke began panting beginning to believe he had one.

Everyone above looked on in excite, for the council members, or in horror, everyone else, at what had just happened. The only thing keeping Yugito from jumping into the arena was Gaara's sand. Itachi wasn't doing much better but he could tell that Naruto was still alive meaning that he was executing this new technique. Whatever it was, it better have work or when he went to heaven or hell he would beat Naruto senseless then kill him again. Seeing that Naruto hadn't moved, Genma bit his lip as he was about to call the battle. He hadn't expected Naruto to display his chakra like that then not even attack, but now there wasn't much difference.

As soon as he begun to raise his hand to call the match Naruto's eyes opened as he looked at Daisuke with his Inu eyes, chilling the grass gennin to the bone. His hands quickly reached to the swords and everyone's surprise he ripped them out without some much a wound on him. In fact, none of the cut and gashes that Daisuke had inflicted upon him were visible. It was as if none of it had happened. The only thing that showed it did was the cuts to his clothes. Looking directly at Daisuke, Naruto spoke in a soft tone but one that could be heard by all.

"You are nothing. Your power is artificial. Each piece of him within you proves that. Each piece taints you further each day. As long as you keep them within you, you will turn into something you'll despise. Sooner or later will come a time where you will be called on. But will it be you or the demi-god within you. If it him, you'll never be able to defeat me. I am Naruto, the prayer to the light and destroyer of the darkness."

As his words echoed through the room, everyone had different emotions flowing through him. Itachi was pride and respect while Yugito was relief and slight anger. Most of the council was confused as to why he would say something like he did while the very few that understood he wasn't the demon knew his words came from his heart. The rest of the gennin were still too shocked to have understood the full meaning of what he said, but still knew something was off.

Daisuke backed up in horror knowing what Naruto had meant. He knew about the ritual and somehow knew the downside for their power. He was slowly being overcome by a will that wasn't his own and he no longer cared. In fact, he hadn't even cared when the Uchiha had killed his ex-girlfriend and teammate. But know that he did, his anger grew but not at him. It was at himself for not jumping into the battle and trying to save her. Dropping to the ground, tears began to slide down his cheeks.

Naruto sighed lightly, but he knew his words did just what he knew they would. He could tell the girl before had a bound with him, but something was shrouding it, keeping it from showing on his end. The pieces of Beliar were influencing him. A human mind could only take so much pressure that was exerted by the pieces of Beliar. Three was the max someone could have with cracking. Any more and they would eventually lose control of themselves. He knew he had four as his Energy Sight could see clearly the resonance of Beliar's power.

Sighing lightly, he was about to turn to Genma to call the match when he heard Daisuke cry in pain. Turning around, he noticed that blood was covering his entire hand and not having seen what just happened, he was about to move to help.

"NARUTO DON'T!"

Itachi's cry fell on deaf ears as Naruto grabbed his hand thinking he had slit his wrist and took the item he was holding out only to see his wrist wasn't slit. Looking somewhat confused, he looked at what he took before his eyes widened in horror as he saw Beliar's right eye.

Before he could drop it, his hand began trembling as he gripped his wrist as he try to keep the eye from enforcing it's will upon him. He gritted his teeth as the eye was over powering him to the point that he had just about released the limit when his hand was suddenly on his eye. Naruto's scream of pain sounded through the building as he fell to his knees as blood began seeping from his right eye that was destroyed before being replaced by his new and unwanted eye. The other eye of Beliar.

Genma looked on, not sure what was going on but he had noticed that Daisuke had passed out from blood lose from pulling out his own eye. Not sparing another second, he called the match. "Winner, Namikaze Ryuu Naruto! Now get some medics down here!"

Itachi and Orochimaru were down besides Naruto in an instant as medics rushed to Daisuke and began to calm the bleeding down. The few that were completely unbiased in their job and were slightly glad to see the son of the Yondaime back were besides Itachi and Orochimaru. "Is there anything we can do?"

Seeing the look from Itachi, Orochimaru went through a few of his own personal hand seals as he formed a high powered genjutsu around Itachi's eyes to keep anyone from seeing, even Hiashi if he tried to look. Naruto was still twitching and whimpering in pain and neither could blame him, his eye had just imploded before another forcefully took its place. Having heard the story from Rayne when her left eye was replaced, Itachi knew that he had to numb the pain Naruto was in as Rayne said herself the pain was horrible beyond words. Knowing the genjutsu was over his eyes, he activated his Sharingan before using one of his clan's jutsu to put Naruto into a genjutsu induced sleep.

Sighing lightly, Itachi lifted Naruto bridal style before turning to Orochimaru. "When the matches are decided, tell me who Naruto's opponent is."

Orochimaru nodded lightly as Itachi disappeared in a plum of smoke as the rest of the medics had rushed Daisuke off the arena. Jumping back onto the balcony, he noticed that Yugito was extremely pale after witnessing what had just happened. Not only that, he was very sure that the girl was worried over Naruto well being and wanted to leave and check up on him. He had half a mind to tell her to do just that saying he could handle it here, but noticing the girl's posture and balled fist he didn't want to be the one to tell her that. He rather liked the ability to talk normally.

Once everyone had vacated the arena, Genma still looking confused looked up at the two balconies before speaking. "Will Tsuchi Kin and Juli Tenten come down?"

Kin was still in shell shock after what had happened. Seeing Naruto being cut shreds like that had set hers off and everything that happened afterwards was beyond her. But add in that he was screaming at the end, she was quite worried that her nerves would get in the way of her fighting. Tenten was in the same boat as that was something that was unheard of and bone chilling.

As the two girls made it to the center of the ring, the only sounds were coming from the murmuring council members, not knowing what just happened but were planning on asking the grass gennin what he had done. Genma growled lightly as he could hear them and didn't care right now that they noticed him. He was getting sick and tired of them and wanted to show them how badly they were going to get their asses kicked. But reigning in his emotions, he looked over the two girls before sighing out loud. He really didn't want to start this fight, but he had no choice as he raised both his arms and started the final match of the preliminaries.

Once his hands had moved, both Kin's and Tenten's hands were on their pouches and pulling out senbon to counter one another. In truth, Tenten was countering each thrown Kin made knowing that there were strings attached to the senbon. Not only that, but she was beginning to throw kunai and shuriken at the girl trying to get her out of the funk she was in. While she could understand as she had just witnessed their strongest gennin go done from something no one understood, she wanted a decent fight.

Unfortunately Kin was too out of it to notice the weapons till the last second as they scraped her. Realizing she was in battle, Kin grabbed a hand full of senbon before throwing them in Tenten's general direction. The weapon's mistress pulled out a sword from a scroll before spinning it around her, blocking each of the senbon successfully. Cutting the strings to the ones that had embedded themselves into the ground, the weapon mistress charged Kin as she attempted to jump back, only to run into the wall. Tenten was on her in an instant and held her sword to her throat. "You've lost. You let what just happen affect you."

Kin gulped lightly but she knew it was the truth. She honestly was freaked out by the last half of Naruto's fight that she was still shaking from it. From his position, Genma nodded as well as he gave the match to Tenten as she pulled her sword away from Kin's throat. Once she put the blade down and after all the finalist besides Naruto were called down, Genma spoke once more. "The preliminaries are over. Everyone that had one today will be moving on to the finals in one month."

"The reason we are holding it in a month is that you have each seen the others abilities, so now you are given the time to prepare and come up with next jutsu and strategies. Not only this, but this gives us time to prepare for the daimyos that will be watching and judging your performances. Based on their and your village's leader or leaders' decision, you may or may not get promoted. But before you can begin to train for the upcoming month, your matches will be decided. Now do to pass complaints about how we chose the finals matches, we will be doing it electronically with the electric board."

Seeing no one question what he had said, Genma sighed before turning to Hana and nodding. Hana nodded back, quite pleased that she got to see Naruto in pain once more, gave the order to operate the board. It once again began to randomly go through the names until it landed on a set of names before changing. Once it was finished, the order was written on a board behind them.

Namikaze Ryuu Naruto vs. Inuzuka Kiba

Uchiha Sasuke vs. Yakushi Kabuto

Aburame Shino vs. Kinta Dosu

Hyuuga Hinata vs. Nii Yugito

Sabaku no Gaara vs. Tenten

Genma nodded at the names, refraining fro smirking seeing the first match as he looked over to see Hana's dismay. Shaking that thought from his head, he turned to the gennin. "Alright, remember the order you are fighting in. One month from now, you will go to the Konoha Coliseum at exactly ten o'clock. If you are late for you match, you will be automatically disqualified. Remember who you are fight and remember how they fought today as it might help you to know how you will have to fight. With that said, you are dismissed."

As soon as he said the word dismissed, Yugito was gone in a swirl of lighting while Gaara disappeared into a swirl of sand. Orochimaru could only sigh at the two. Naruto was their friend and brother. And from what he saw from the two blondes, maybe even more. But then again, he wasn't the best judge of love. After all, he still was single.

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A/N2: Well, there is the latest chapter. My next update with be Way of the Jinchuuriki then followed by either the next update of this or Devil Fox. So anyways, read and review.