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Chapter 9: Preliminaries - Part 2
After Sasuke's fight, few of the Konoha 12's fights were interesting enough to pay any mind. Shino used his bugs to block Zaku's sound cannons, causing his arms to break when he tried to use his sound waves. Shikamaru knocked Kim out using his Shadow Paralysis Jutsu. Choji lost to Dosu when the bandaged boy send a sound wave into the inflated boy, causing internal damage.
Ino took over Sakura's body and made it look like the pink haired girl gave up. Tenten lost when Temari used her fan to block the bun haired girls' attacks and created a tornado that launched Tenten in the air and fall on Temari's fan knocking her out.
After a few more fights, Rock Lee and Gaara of the sand were called down to fight. After shouting something about the power of youth, Rock Lee jumped down to face the already waiting redhead.
"Do you think he stands a chance against Gaara?" Naruto asked while turning to face Sasuke.
"If what you said about the guy is true, he'd be lucky to get in a single hit." Sasuke answered, unease making its way into his voice as he stared down at the impending fight.
[Flashback Jutsu – 2 months earlier]
Naruto and his team were on their way home from Ichiraku's when they ran into Konohamaru and his friends, or the Konohamaru Core as they liked to call themselves.
"Hey boss. Want to play ninja with us?" Konohamaru asked, his smile radiating mirth that could rival Naruto's own.
"Maybe later Konohamaru, I have some new ideas I want to start making." Naruto answered, a malicious grin finding its way onto his face and sending a shiver down everybody presents' spine.
"Anything I can help with boss? Or would you rather just spend time with your boyfriend?" Konohamaru asked while wriggling his eyebrows at the blond, his friends snickering behind him.
"What are you talking about, Konohamaru?" The blond asked, cocking his head to the side at the implication of him swinging the OTHER way.
"Are you kidding boss. Everybody at the academy is taking about the team selection accident." Konohamaru answered while laughing, not noticing both the male members of Team 7 paling and Hinata finding a new shade of red to add to her blush.
'The kiss. But I thought I made sure that nobody will say anything by threat of a month's worth nonstop pranks.' Naruto mused to himself before pulling out his sword.
"Hey Konohamaru, who told you?" Naruto asked in a quiet toneless voice. Once Konohamaru noticed the sword, he stopped laughing and quickly paled before sprinting away with his friends.
:-:
Chasing the 4 year olds around a corner, Team 7 saw two sand shinobi, one being a kunoichi with teal eyes and sandy blonde hair, which is gathered into four consecutive pigtails, her outfit consists of a single light purple-coloured, off-the-shoulders garment that extended to halfway down her thighs, with a scarlet sash tied around her waist. In addition to incorporating fishnet worn over her shoulders and legs, specifically on her right calf and her left thigh, she also wore her black forehead protector around her neck and on her back was a large battle fan notifying Naruto that she might be a wind user.
The other shinobi wore a Bunraku puppeteer's costume; a black, baggy, full body suit with a red and yellow circle on the front, he also had on a black hood which covered his head completely, and had cat-like ears and his forehead protector on his forehead. On his back was a big wrapped up package that looked like a human body, and in his hands was the brown haired Konohamaru.
Going into his Kenjutsu stance, Naruto looked the male shinobi in the straight in the eyes before starting to talk.
"I'll appreciate it if you would kindly put my friend down. We don't want to start the Fourth Great Shinobi World War, now do we?" he spoke in a cold tone, his eyes holding no emotion and his body holding no sign of backing down. Next to him Hinata pulled out some Senbon and hidden in a nearby tree, Sasuke pulled an arrow back in his bow ready to attack if necessary.
"Kankurō, just put the boy down and let's go. It's not a good idea to cause trouble in another village." Temari said while putting a hand on the boy's shoulder.
"Not now Temari, this brat needs to learn some manners. Besides these guys don't have the guts to attack the kids of the Kazekage." The now named Kankurō replied with a smug grin, shrugging off his sister's hand.
"But you'll attack the grandson of the Sandaime Hokage?" Hinata asked, stopping the face painted boy in his tracks and causing him to sweat bullets. "I believe we'll be right in our actions if we were to attack you in order to save the Honorable Grandson, don't you?" She continued.
"I think we have a misunderstanding, here. I was only picking the kid up from the ground after he ran into me and fell down. There's no need to-" The Suna boy explained, but was cut off by a voice in the same tree Sasuke was in.
"Kankurō, Shut up. You're an embarrassment to our village." Came a monotoneless voice that send shivers down everybody save Naruto's spines. It was a voice of someone that has experienced pain and death, both the cause and subject of it. It was a voice Naruto heard many times while growing up, from the Hokage, Kakashi-sensei, Jiraiya and recently from himself too.
Turning around, Sasuke saw a red headed, eyebrowless boy with the Kanji for 'love' on the left side of his forehead. He was standing upside-down on floating sand that connected to a gourd on his back.
The boy floated down to his teammates, before telling them that they should go. Taking Konohamaru onto his back, Naruto and Hinata made ready to depart when the red head called for them.
"Mother says to keep an eye on you. What's your name?" He asked the blond, curiosity filling his usual toneless voice much to the shock of his teammates.
"Naruto Uzumaki. And you are?" Naruto answered, raising an eyebrow at the boy.
"Sabaku no Gaara. You interest me Naruto, I feel a power stronger than my own inside you. I hope we can get a chance to fight in the Exams." Gaara replied before turning his back and walking away, soon followed by his scared siblings.
The departing Naruto and Hinata were soon joined by Sasuke and they made their way too the Hokage Tower to drop off Konohamaru.
"We're gonna have to keep an eye on them." Naruto said while on their way. "I think that Gaara guy might be a Jinchuriki too. Which one he holds though, I have no idea but I do know he's killed before."
[End Flashback]
Rock Lee went into his Taijutsu stance as soon as his feet hit the ground. Gaara on the other hand just faced Lee with his arms crossed infront of him. Hayate seeing that both fighters were ready called the beginning of the match.
Once the match started, Lee moved so fast he completely momentarily disappeared from most of the gennin's sight and only appeared when he went for a horizontal kick to his opponent's waist but was blocked by Gaara's sand and received a hard knock in the stomach sending the bowl cut boy rocketing into a distant wall.
Lee then got up before charging at his opponent again, cocking his arm back and when he was in the right position he send a punch towards the sand users' face but was once again stopped when his fist hit condensed sand.
This went on for another few minutes until Lee's sensei, Might Guy, felt like the fires of youth were dwindling. Calling out to his student he gave Lee permission to take something off, which the spandex wearing boy was hesitant to do at first but soon a smile spread across his face.
Jumping onto the statue of two fingers forming a ram seal, Lee pulled down his leg and arm warmers revealing a set of weight on each limb and took them off. Dropping the weights he heard Temari from the stands talking.
"He can't honestly believe that taking off a few weights will accomplish anything right?" She asked with a confused look on her face making Lee's grin widen before he crossed his arms in an X-form infront of him and launched them to his sides, at the same time his skin gained a red tint and his veins started to buldge. This went on for a few seconds and his skin kept getting redder, his veins bigger, steam started rising out of his mouth and his eyes turned completely white.
On the other set of balconies Naruto was looking at Guy from the corner of his eye and saw the enthusiastic man waiting with anticipation, making the blue eyed boy wonder what was going on.
When the weight hit the ground two large craters appeared and dust began rising blocking everyone's, who also had their jaw's on the floor, view of the arena. When the dust cleared nobody could spot Lee, but they could see Gaara spinning around with a confused look on his face while his sand was spiking at random places around the red head.
After a minute of spinning around Gaara stopped dead in his tracks, eyes wide, when he spotted the green clad boy appearing infront of him, his white eyes glaring at the Jinchuriki and the steam rolling off his body creating an image that scared even the usual stoic Gaara.
When Lee finally got tired, Gaara used the opening to attack the defenseless Taijutsu user, wrapping his sand around the boys' lest leg, left arm and back before closing his fist and crushing the entrapped body parts. When Lee was released by the sand he fell to the ground and Gaara seeing the boy as a possible threat to his 'existence' sent another rush of sand towards his opponent but was blocked by a sudden blur of green and saw an older version of the bowl cut boy.
"Why would you save him if he failed?" Gaara asked, his stoic front returned to its place.
"Because he is my student and I care for him like my own son." Was Guy's reply
Replaying the words in his head he started to walk away but was stopped when he heard a gasp. Looking back at Lee he saw the boy rising to his feet, but what surprised him was when the boy's sensei called that he was unconscious. Gaara might be stoic to most but those who knew him well was surprised to see both fear and respect in the red head's eyes.
:-:
"That was… intense." Naruto said, breaking the silence that blanketed the viewing stands and everybody just nodded dumbly as they watched Lee being carried away by the medics and the procter stepping forward to call the match.
"Winner: Sabaku no Gaara"
Well I hope that's enough for now. At least I finished this before 2 weeks, so technically you do have a new chapter in a weeks' time.
Anyway if you have any questions about the story, ask ahead.
This is The_Dovabean signing off.