Naruto: The Uchiha Chronicles Re-Version:

Hey everyone, hope you're having good days! Welcome to the second chapter of the month, Chapter 41! I hope you enjoy, there's a couple new things I'm trying out to try and make the story seem faster and take up less words.

Chunin Exams Arc Part 1:

Chapter 41: The Prelims Begin

-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-

Three days passed swiftly for Sasuki. At first, she'd thought perhaps there would be a follow-up with the Hokage from the attack, but nothing had come of it. The remaining members of the sound team were allowed to continue.

Near dusk that second day teams had begun arriving with both scrolls. Lee's team had arrived the same day Zaku had tried to attack her, that made five passing teams already when you included Team 8, who had arrived sometime in the late afternoon on their first day. On the Third day the Cloud Team had shown up. Finally, Team 10 and Kabuto's team showed up on the Fourth night. Nobody else had shown up since. She somewhat doubted anyone else would, based on the stories she'd heard in the cafeteria. Apparently, there were teams out there intentionally thinning down the competition by taking more scrolls than needed.

The tower was now felt crowded, you could hardly go anywhere without hearing someone around the corner. Even though there were rooms for them, Sasuki got the distinct impression not this many teams were meant to pass. The cafeteria where they served food was now staffed with several workers instead of just the one, and the three training rooms were almost constantly in use.

She tried her best to avoid everybody. Easier to avoid any questions about what had happened between Naruto and her. Their classmates had been quick to pick up the tension, and frankly she had no interest talking with them about it.

With the deadline for the exam almost arriving, all the teams had been called to gather in an arena on the first floor. It was a massive room, probably the reason the first floor was at least twice the height and width of any other floor. Thick slabs of concrete formed the floor, with concrete walls soaring to the ceiling. On either side was a balcony with waist height metal railing and sturdy metal stairs on either end. At the head of the room was a shallow dais. Emerging from the wall behind the dais was a massive set of statue arms carved to look like they were wearing mesh, it's hands held into the Ram seal. On the wall were several raised rectangular brown panels. The Hokage stood on the dais, smoking his pipe, the Jonin sensei for all the teams surrounding him along with the exam proctors and pale, sickly-looking man in a bandana-style Leaf headband.

The teams were lined up in single file lines. Sasuki stood in the middle of their line, trying not to look at the back of Naruto's head.

All the teams she'd noticed were there, with Team 10 and Kabuto's team lookED roughed up and tired. Ino had a scrape on her chin, ruining the meticulously perfect façade she always tried to maintain. They clearly hadn't had much time to rest and recover.

"Alright, the Second Exam has officially ended. Listen closely because Lord Hokage will be explaining the Third Exam!" Anko said. She turned and bowed to the old man. "Lord Hokage, they're all yours."

The Hokage stepped forward and cleared his throat. "Before I tell you what the third exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these exams. Why do you suppose our country holds these exams in conjunction with our allies?"

Several rows away, Choji made a sound of confusion. His sentiments were shared by several others. Sasuki herself hadn't put much thought into it. Though, her mind wandered to what Kabuto had said in the first exam. 'Is he referring to that idea this is a way of maintaining balance?'

"To raise the ability levels of the shinobi, and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand it's true meaning. The exams are, so to speak …" The Hokage took a puff of smoke, pondering how to continue. "They're a representation of the battle between allied nations, as well as those with somewhat … strained relations." He said, casting a meaningful glance at the Cloud team.

Karui and Omoi scowled. The redhead looked like she wanted to say something. But their leader Samui was cool as a cucumber. It was a curious statement, what had happened between the Leaf and Cloud? Sasuki was just a little girl back then. All she knew was that for some reason after they'd signed a treaty with the Hidden Cloud, all diplomatic relations had suddenly ceased.

"And what's that supposed to mean?" Temari asked harshly.

Hiruzen puffed on his pipe thoughtfully. "If we look at our history. All the countries that we're currently allied with were once neighboring nations that continuously fought with each other for power. To avoid destroying each other's military strength meaninglessly, those nations chose champions to do battle on behalf of their countries in a mutually selected location. That was how the Chunin Selection Exams originally began."

"Well, that's great, but why do we have to go through these exams then? I mean it's not like we're doing this to pick chunin to go fight." Karui asked.

"There's no question that part of these exams is to select shinobi that are worthy of becoming chunin, that's just not the whole story. These exams also allow for a place where shinobi can carry the pride of their nations on their backs and fight for their very lives." Hiruzen answered.

"The pride of their nation?" Sakura asked in a quiet mutter.

"Many leaders and people of prominence from various countries are invited to attend this exam as guests, and possibly to seek shinobi to hire. This exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. More importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the strengths that each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between the countries the strong nations are inundated with requests, conversely the countries that are deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when negotiating with neighboring countries, so it's important to show how much military strength your village has."

"Okay, but even so, why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?" Kiba asked. The Hokage's brow furrowed.

"The countries strength is the villages strength, the villages strength is the shinobi's strength, and the true strength of the shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to its limits such as in a life and death battle." Hiruzen took a moment to sweep them all with his gaze, lingering on each participant for but a moment. "This exam is a chance for each village to display the strength of its shinobi, and hence, the strength of the nation itself. It's because this is an exam with your life on the line, that it has meaning. And it's for this very reason that, for the strength of the nation, that your forebearers fought in this exam. It's truly a dream worth striving for."

"But then why … did you use the expression friendship before?" Tenten asked.

"You've only remembered half of what I said." Hiruzen said with a frown. "You also mustn't have the wrong idea of the exams meaning. This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of shinobi, that is friendship. The third exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"Well, I'm convinced. Let's do this!" Naruto exclaimed.

Gaara, who'd remained mostly silent for as long as she'd seen him, nodded. "Any test is fine, just tell me what the details of the exam are already, I can handle anything you throw at me.

"Hmm, very well then, now listen closely, I'm going to tell you exactly what you'll be doing on the third exam." The Hokage replied.

Before the Hokage could even think of continuing, the sickly looking Jonin stepped out of line and went down on a knee before the Hokage. "Before you begin, please allow me, Hayate Gekko, appointed proctor of the Third Exam, to speak."

"So be it." The Hokage said curtly.

The sickly man stood to his feet and turned to face the contestants. "It's nice to meet you all." A bout of rough, hacking coughs interrupted the man. Once he recovered, he continued, occasionally pausing to cough more. "There's something I would like all of you to do before the Third Exam." His roughest bought of coughs yet interrupted the man's speech. Sasuki wondered how such a sickly person could be a Jonin. "Uh, we have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one."

Confusion rippled through the participants. Several gave exclamations of surprise.

"What?"

"That's ridiculous!"

She heard Shikamaru muttering "Preliminary? Just what do you mean by that?".

In front of her, Sakura rose her hand wearily "Um, I'm sorry, sensei, excuse me, but I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary all about, why can't we just move on to the Third Exam?"

"Uh, well you see, the First and Second exams might have been too easy. The fact is we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary exam can be held at any stage to reduce the number of candidates remaining." He answered. Sasuki was impressed the man managed to string so many words together without coughing.

"That sounds like a you problem. Maybe we're just a lot better than the usual crop." Naruto said. Though she couldn't see his laid-back smirk mocking the Jonin, she could hear it in his voice. Sasuki's lips twitched, against her will she wanted to smile at the jab, though she shoved it down.

"It's just at this stage we must speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, many important guests will be watching. We can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best, so if there are any of you who feel you're not in top physical condition, now's your chance to–" Hayate descended into a particularly bad fit of coughs. She smirked at the irony. He wasn't really one to be talking about physical condition. "Sorry bout' that. As I was saying, if any of you aren't feeling up to this, now is the time to bow out. The Preliminaries will be starting immediately."

"Come on, ya mean right now?" Kiba crossed his arms, glaring at the proctor.

"We just finished barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break?" Ino said.

Shikamaru muttered under his breath. "What a drag."

Despite the protests, the gathered genin descended into It was like the end of the first exam all over again. Everyone muttered amongst each other, secretly eyeing the other contestants, and waiting for someone to give up. Sasuki was shocked when Kabuto raised his hand.

The boy chuckled nervously. "That's it, I give up. I'm just too tired from the forest."

"You can't be serious; you're just giving up?" Naruto exclaimed.

Kabuto shrugged helplessly. "To tell the truth, I haven't felt the same since the Sound ninja attacked me. And after the forest I'm low on chakra." He explained.

As Kabuto turned and started to walk away, Sasuki noticed his decision seemed to get a reaction from the Jonin. Anko and the Hokage were muttering back and forth. Whatever it was, they spoke so quietly there was no way to make out the conversation. What could it be about, she wondered.

After a minute, when it was clear nobody else would be backing out, Hayate cleared his throat. "Alright then, we'll now begin the preliminaries. This round will consist of one-on-one individual combat, at full battle intensity. This is not an exercise, there are twenty-two of you remaining, so that means there will be eleven matches. The surviving contestants will advance to the Third Exam. As for the rules, there are none. You'll fight until one dies, concedes defeat, or is rendered physically unable to continue. Naturally, those who are losing are urged to concede to avoid a fatal outcome. However, I'm given a certain amount of leeway in matches. I might occasionally intervene if a match seems hopeless, to save as many lives as possible. Now, it's time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you." The man explained amidst coughing attacks.

Anko placed a hand onto her microphone, muttering something. Moments later, one of the large brown panels on the wall slid up to reveal a massive monitor. It was almost the size of her living room wall.

"The names of each opponent are chosen at random. For each match, these names will appear on the display behind me. As there's nothing more to say, let's begin. In a moment the names of the first two opponents will appear." Hayate told them.

The display flashed a dark green, and a yellow 'versus' symbol appeared in the center. On either side names started flashing by, cycling through the participants at rapid fire pace. Finally, with one last beep, it landed on two names. Sasuki's breath halted for just a moment.

Sasuki Uchiha vs. Dosu Kinuta.

-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-

Once the names were revealed, the rest of the participants were ushered up the stairs to the two platforms that stood above the fighting area. Only Sasuki, her opponent, and the proctor remained. Dosu looked like a hunchbacked mummy, swathed in bandages head to toe save for his left eye. His upper body was swathed in a long grey poncho with sleeves that dangled to his knees. Wound around his neck was a snake patterned scarf, with an old-fashioned straw raincoat fanned out behind him. A snake, just like Orochimaru. Sasuki clenched her fist, knuckles cracking and turning white from the force.

"Are both fighters ready?" He asked. Sasuki nodded without taking her eyes off her opponent, she didn't trust these Sound ninja at all. Hayate looked to Dosu.

"Sure."

"Then begin!"

Despite the call to start, they stood silent and still, trapped in a game of waiting for the other to strike first. She didn't care how long it took, Sasuki wouldn't rush in. She'd already seen the damage the Sound shinobi could do if you weren't careful.

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to kill you, Sasuki, what with you killing Zaku." Said Dosu abruptly.

Sasuki rose an eyebrow and scoffed. "Don't tell me you want revenge? That dumbass attacked me."

"It's nothing sentimental. Zaku and I weren't friends, I didn't even particularly like him. But he was a member of the Hidden Sound. His death at your hands makes us look weak, and that's not acceptable. Like your leader said, we're fighting for the pride of our village. The pride of my village demands I kill you to disprove any notions of weakness."

She only had a split second of warning. A rustle of cloth, then she threw herself backwards and activated her sharingan. Grey chakra swirled around Dosu's arm. Her mind went back to when he'd attacked Kabuto. He'd brought the man down without even hitting him, somehow making him lose his lunch. Given the way Zaku had attacked her, the mummy probably used some sort of sound-based attack. She'd have to take things cautiously and keep her distance, Sasuki concluded.

Dosu started to pursue immediately. Reaching into her equipment pouch, Sasuki grasped several shuriken. She threw them at Dosu, who dodged. The stars soared wide, clattering uselessly against the cement.

Ping-ping-ping

Sasuki frowned as he continued to try and get close. She danced backwards. Reaching into the holster strapped to her thigh, she pulled out several kunai, as well as a handful of shuriken from her hip pouch. She leapt into the air, spinning acrobatically and throwing the shuriken in Dosu's direction, though all three sailed wide.

"What kind of aim is th–"

Dosu's taunt was cut short as Sasuki threw the kunai. They collided with the shuriken with a ring of steel, sending them flying towards Dosu's unprotected back. The boy's single eye widened, and he spun just in time to deflect the shuriken with his gauntlet.

A high-pitched, piercing noise reverberated through the air. Sasuki yelped as the sound tore at her ear drums, the throbbing pain was unimaginable. Her vision blurred and the world seemed to tilt on its head as she fought the urge to throw up. She wasn't even aware of collapsing to her knees, though she certainly saw Dosu approaching her slowly.

"That was clever, trying to keep the distance. Unfortunately, that strategy doesn't work against me. I can produce these sound waves simply by hitting something against my gauntlet." He said, his voice warbling and distorted as though coming through a veil of water.

Sasuki fought through her nausea and got to her feet. She panted from the effort, but she couldn't stand still. Weapons were useless, and even worse, almost all her lightning jutsu were useless if she couldn't use weapons. That left fire.

Molding her chakra, she inhaled a breath of air, her chest bulging as fire chakra pooled in her lungs. It snapped forward, unleashing a barrage of small fireballs.

WHOOSH! HSSSS!

He dove between the balls of fire, leaving them to sputter harmlessly against the concrete. The Sound ninja closed on her swiftly. Her head still swimming from the assault on her inner ear, Sasuki cursed mentally. She could hardly aim. Even as she dodged away from Dosu's punch, she knew what was coming. The piercing ripple of sound invaded her inner ear again.

Rnnnnnnnngggggg!

"This is check mate, Uchiha." Dosu growled.

Sasuki winced as her vision blurred even worse. She started to see double. The Sharingan only made it worse, reacting to the twitches of both the real Dosu and the double's. It was so confusing she had to deactivate it. A heavy kick landed into her gut, driving the breath from her lungs. She blocked the follow up punch, which managed to reduce the following wave of sound.

'I have to find some sort of way to counter this sound jutsu, or I'm finished.' She cursed. Wracking her brain, she tried to remember everything she'd learned about sound in their science classes. Sound was perceived by traveling through the ear canals into the eardrums, which turned it into recognizable noises. Theoretically she could block the sound by forming a chakra barrier in her ears, but it would require constant concentration. And then there was the possibility of if he could still conduct the sound through her body. Still, it was a better option than doing nothing. Closing her eyes for a brief second, Sasuki concentrated on forming the chakra barrier.

Opening her eyes, Sasuki moved forward for the first time. Ducking under a punch, she was pleased when no piercing sound reached her ears. With a savage grin, she caught Dosu's follow up kick.

"What the–" Her opponent's words devolved into a scream of pain as Sasuki as blue electricity arched from her hands into his body. It wasn't even close to as powerful of a shock as an actual jutsu, but it was more than enough to stun Dosu and immobilize him. Shoving her opponent away, Sasuki shook her head like a dog.

Sweat dripped from her brow. She could barely hear out of her right ear, and her vision was terribly unsound. If she didn't end this soon it would be bad. Gathering her wits, Sasuki activated her Sharingan one last time for just an instant. In the blink of an eye, she blitzed into Dosu's guard. Crouching down, she placed her palms on the ground and threw a kick directly under the Sound ninja's chin that snapped his head back and launched him into the air. Her leg muscles coiled, releasing as she sprung into the air and reappeared at her opponents back.

"That first bit was something I borrowed, but the rest of this is all original. I call it, Tiger's Barrage!"

Gripping Dosu by the shoulder, Sasuki spun around and slammed a fist into his chest. The breath was driven from the Sound shinobi's lungs. She spun, slamming a crushing elbow into his ribs, followed by a bicycle kick that sent Dosu rocketing towards the concrete ground. His body smashed into the ground with a meaty thud.

With three quick hand seals, the combo was complete. 'Lightning Style: False Darkness!'

BKKRAAM!

Blue spears of lightning erupted from her mouth and raced towards Dosu, two piercing his shoulders straight through, eliciting screams of pain. A third slammed into his precious gauntlet and blew it to pieces. White-hot shrapnel flew everywhere, leaving the boys arm a mess of shredded and burned flesh with chunks of metal and bone sticking out. The sickly-sweet smell of burnt meat was gag-inducing.

Sasuki landed in an unsteady crouch. Her knees rattled and groaned from the impact, but she refused to drop. Chest heaving for breath, she glanced to the proctor.

"You … going to call it?"

Hayate surveyed Dosu carefully His one eye was closed, and his chest just barely moved with shallow breaths. "Winner, Sasuki Uchiha!" He declared, raising his arm up. Immediately after the man called for medics.

Sasuki swayed unsteadily. Her eyelids felt heavy, and with the fight finished, it was hard to fight off the way the world was tilting and moving even as she was being still. Her hearing was muffled with only one ear working decently. The faint sounds of footsteps reached her as several medics rushed in to place Dosu on a stretcher and carry him away.

She jumped as a pair of hands gripped her shoulders. She jerked her head around, meeting the kindly gaze of a middle-aged blonde woman wearing a nurses uniform.

"Easy there, I'm going to take you to the regular infirmary to get checked over and patch you up." The nurse said.

Sasuki nodded numbly, allowing the older woman to guide her away. It hadn't quite set in yet that she'd won, but soon it would.

-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-

She'd never been particularly fond of hospitals, or doctors for that matter. One whiff of the scent of antiseptic took her back to the worst day of her life. Waking up in that stiff bed, Naruto at her bedside. Strangers coming in and poking and prodding her for hours, just sitting there as the reality of what had happened set in. Yes, she despised hospitals.

The experience in this small examination room, one of two in the tower, hadn't done anything to change her opinion. Almost as soon as she'd shoved Sasuki down on the hospital cot, the nurse started tutting at her as she healed Sasuki's ear.

Her ear tickled and itched unbearably under the medical jutsu. The injury to her ear drum was pieced back together by the glowing green aura of the Mystic Palm, muffled reverberations slowly resolved back into actual sound.

"You need to be more careful; this is the second major ear injury you've had in a few days. Medical ninjutsu can only do so much, you need to give the body time to heal your ear properly. One more injury like this before you're properly healed, and you can kiss full hearing goodbye. That means no sound jutsu, no explosions, and you'll be wearing a protective earpiece for the next week. It wouldn't hurt to protect it with chakra." The nurse lectured her.

"Fine, watch my ear, I get it." Sasuki replied grumpily. It wasn't as if she asked Dosu to burst her eardrum again, she thought rebelliously. "Now can I go?"

Sasuki was anxious to get back and see who else had won, she had no way of knowing how many matches had gone by while she was stuck in the treatment room.

The nurse, Hiyori, gave Sasuki a dirty look, but gave a nod, nonetheless. Getting up and heading across the room to the supply cupboards, the nurse fished around for a moment. When she came back, she held an oddly shaped earpiece, along with a protective case. It reminded Sasuki a bit of the hearing aids the elderly would wear.

"Wear this at all times for the next week unless you're sleeping and remember to protect your ear with chakra as much as possible. I'd order you not to watch the rest of the fights, but I doubt that would work." Sasuki snatched the earpiece from the nurse's hand and put it in quickly. It fit tightly, though not uncomfortably.

Before the nurse could think to keep her there, Sasuki hurried out of the room. She followed the curved corridor back to the antechamber to the fighting arena. Peering through the doorway, she noticed that a fight had seemingly just wrapped up. The floor was littered with dozens of silver Senbon needles. A couple medics were stretchering away the last member, and sole girl, of the Hidden Sound team. Her clothing was cut to ribbons by cuts. Thin red slashes crisscrossed her body, like crimson threads leaking blood. Sasuki recognized them as the surefire sign of a wind jutsu.

Her eyes followed the retreating form of Temari, who was making her way up the set of stairs directly across from where most of the Leaf teams had positioned themselves. 'I guess that fans not just for show.'

With everybody distracted by the aftermath of the fight, it was easy enough for Sasuki to slip up the stairs and make her way towards her team. Kakashi glanced her way, but only gave a nod of acknowledgement. Ignoring the glance from Naruto, Sasuki sidled up to Sakura, who was leaning over the railing. She nudged the pink haired girl to get her attention.

Sakura turned, giving her a smile of relief. "Sasuki, I'm glad you're okay! I was a little worried when that nurse dragged you off. How's the ear?"

"It's well enough, it'll be fine in a week. So, what did I miss?" Sasuki replied.

"Not much, Shino beat one of Kabuto's teammates pretty easy. He could stretch his limbs but it didn't do much against Shino's bugs. As for the third match, well, it wasn't really a match. That Kin girl couldn't do anything against Temari, it was just a bad matchup." Said Sakura.

Sasuki was about to reply, but they were interrupted by the electronic trill of the selection board as it began to cycle through names for the fourth match. Her eyebrows shot up as the board landed on two particular names.

-x-x-x-x-x-x- NTUC -x-x-x-x-x-x-

Well, there you have it! Sasuki has gotten past Dosu, and is moving on to the finals. Now two more people are set to fight. Who could it be? We'll find out in the next chapter.

Side note, but I'm now understanding why so many stories sputter in this arc. It's ridiculously long to write and trying to decide on what to and what not to change, especially regarding fights and how you approach them, is maddening.

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