The different teams were all housed in separate sections of the tower, most likely to prevent foul play between the second and third stages of the exams, so we didn't know how many other teams had arrived before us. After a quick meal (instant ramen, which there was plenty of, to Naruto's delight), I took a shower and retreated to one of the rooms to rest. There wasn't much else to do, but having two days to lay around in relative comfort before the preliminary rounds that would come later was a welcome break. Unfortunately, I was having difficulty sleeping. Every time I dropped off, I found myself back in that memory, watching the love of my life die before my eyes.
Orochimaru would pay for torturing me with that. He would have no Uchiha apprentice to try and body-jack in this timeline, that was for damn sure.
"Where did you hear about Orochimaru?" Kakashi questioned forcefully, having come in through the window without me noticing.
"Morning, Sensei," I greeted him with a yawn, turning away from my writing. "We met him on the first evening." I told him about the battle in the forest, though obviously avoided the details of the genjutsu that was used on me. "He didn't say what he was after, but he seemed interested in me and my Sharingan. If he hadn't been toying with us, or if I hadn't awoken the Mangekyou…" I shook my head. "We didn't know who it was at the time, but on the way to the tower, we ran into the team from Otogakure, and their leader said they were impressed we survived a fight with 'Orochimaru-sama'."
"This team is still in the forest?"
"One of them, maybe. I killed two and made the third retreat under a genjutsu. She's probably still alive if you want to go look for her." I gave Kakashi a description of Kin. "I didn't see much of what she could do, but she had a genjutsu that used the sound from small bells attached to throwing needles as a medium."
"I'll see if I can't track her down. You did well to protect your teammates, Makoto."
"Thank you, Sensei." He turned to leave, but I spoke up again. "One more thing – no one can know I have the Mangekyou. If word gets out…"
"I understand," he said reassuringly. "I'll keep it between us." With that, he leapt out of the window and into the forest beyond.
"Tch, he could at least close it behind him."
The two days passed quickly, and soon enough we were gathered together in the arena to listen to Anko's speech. Looking around at the other gathered shinobi, I saw that the lineup was almost the same as in canon, except that replacing the team from the Hidden Sound was the team from the Cloud. Notably, Darui was amongst the gathered jounin sensei. Seeing as the Kumo team had been trained by Bee, I figured the Raikage was being protective of him and had sent Darui in his place. A shame, having Bee around during the Sand/Sound invasion could have vastly mitigated the damage.
Assuming the Cloud didn't decide to join the Sand/Sound alliance, that is.
"Um, Makoto?" Sakura spoke to me for the first time since entering the tower, eyes downcast. "I talked to Kakashi-sensei about Orochimaru, and… I understand why you killed those two guys in the forest, even if I don't like it. I reacted too emotionally, and I'm sorry."
"That's alright, Sakura. Honestly, I was probably too quick to kill them. I wasn't acting rationally after what Orochimaru did to me. Are we good?"
"We're good."
"Alright, listen up!" Anko shouted, interrupting any further conversation and quieting the murmurs amongst the genin present. "Hokage-sama will now explain the third test!" She stepped aside, and Hiruzen took her place at centre-stage. He gave his speech about the nature of the exams and how they acted as a substitute for war, then Hayate Gekkou appeared and interrupted, introducing himself through a cough.
"Hello everyone, I'm Gekkou Hayate. Before the third test, there's something I'd like you all to do." He fell into a coughing fit, and people began murmuring about his sickness. "Umm… It's a preliminary for the third test, to decide who gets to participate in the main event." This sparked outrage among those present, who had just endured the painful trial of the second exam. "Unfortunately, the first two tests may have been too easy this year," Hayate explained apologetically. "We have a few too many people remaining. According to the exam rules, we must have a preliminary and reduce the number of people for the third test. As Hokage-sama indicated, there will be many distinguished guests watching the third stage and we're limited on time, so we can't let the fights drag on too long." He stopped again and seemed to almost hack up a lung. "So anyway, we'll be starting the preliminaries immediately, so those who aren't feeling up to it, please come forward now." Just as in canon, Kabuto raised his hand and quit, citing a damaged ear from his encounter with Dosu before the written test. His details were taken down, and he left, some of the jounin eyeing him with suspicion. Hayate then continued with his explanation. "Since we now have twenty entrants, we will conduct ten one-on-one matches and the winners will advance to the next round. There are basically no rules. The fight will continue until one of you dies, is knocked out, or admits defeat, or until I decide a clear winner has been established. If it looks like things have gone too far, I will jump in and end the fight so as to avoid unnecessary deaths. If you'll direct your attention to the panels on the wall…" One such wooden panel opened on the rear wall, revealing a blank screen. "...This screen will show the matchups for each battle. Now, let's begin with the first two names." Everyone looked up at the board in anticipation, and I readied myself for a fight with Yoroi.
Only to be surprised when my name was not selected.
"The first round: Rock Lee vs. Akado Yoroi. Are both of you ready?"
"I'm ready."
"Yosh! I am ready!"
What the hell? Did my presence change things somehow? Or are random events just able to differ from canon? I wondered about the implications this may have for the future as we made our way up to the balconies. Of course, I couldn't rely on things staying the same for long, I reminded myself. Things were going to start changing at some point anyway. This would make things difficult for me. Still, looking down at Lee eagerly stretching, I was glad that he wouldn't be getting crippled here. I should warn whoever gets put up against Gaara to quit, though.
"Round one: begin!" Hayate's announcement pulled me out of my thoughts, and I activated my Sharingan. The preliminaries would be an excellent place to pick up new techniques.
The first round was a short one. Lee easily dodged Yoroi's opening shuriken and moved in with a jumping kick that sent his opponent staggering. He followed up with a flurry of punches and kicks that left Yoroi reeling. A final right hook, and the poor bastard was out for the count. I would have felt sorry for him if he wasn't a spy for Orochimaru. Everyone except Team Guy and my own team looked on in awe, while his sensei loudly shouted praises about the power of youth.
"Exactly as expected," I commented, and Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Well, uh… The first round's winner is Rock Lee," announced Hayate as the unconscious loser was carried away on a stretcher. Lee returned to the balcony with a happy smile as the second set of names appeared on the board. "Round two: Omoi vs. Aburame Shino."
"That's interesting," I mused, noting that Shino's chakra seemed to shift and move oddly, most likely due to the motion of his bugs within him. Even before reaching the arena floor, tiny flickering lights were beginning to separate from the greater chakra cloud and make their way over to Omoi's side. Without the Sharingan, I could never have spotted Shino's trick. "It's already over."
"Huh? But they haven't even started yet!" Sakura protested.
"And Aburame has won without even fighting. Watch, you'll see."
"Round two: begin!"
"I suggest you surrender," Shino spoke in his usual monotone. "Why? Because you've already lost this fight." I could see the gears turning in Omoi's head as the Cloud genin wondered what his opponent could mean.
"Quit overthinking it, dumbass!" Karui shouted from the other balcony, where the Cloud and Sand stood together. "He's just trying to psyche you out!" Omoi nodded, his expression hardening, and drew his sword. His attack speed was impressive, but the swarm of bugs that spewed forth from Shino's sleeves was thick enough to stop his slash and force him to jump away, looking decidedly disturbed as the insects began to spread out.
"I'll say it again, you should surrender. These kikaichu feed on chakra – if they reach you, they will suck you dry, and that sword will not be enough to stop them." Omoi was silent for a few seconds, weighing his options, then sheathed his sword.
"Tch. A bad matchup. I surrender."
"Omoi has surrendered," Hayate called out. "The winner is Aburame Shino!"
"So creepy!" Sakura commented. "Did you know he could summon bugs from the start?"
"Yes, but that's not what tipped me off," I explained. "I told you I can see chakra with these eyes, right? That includes the chakra of those bugs. Before the battle even started, I saw Aburame sending some beetles over to start feeding on Omoi's chakra. He didn't need him to surrender, just to hesitate long enough for the drain to take its toll." She shuddered. "By the way, he didn't summon those insects. They live inside him."
"No way! I knew he was a bit weird, but…"
"Round three: Tsurugi Misumi vs. Temari!" My attention was immediately fixed back on the arena. I may not have gotten any sword techniques from Omoi's brief fight, but I would damn well be getting some wind release from this one.
"Round three: begin!"
"I'll end this quick, girl!" Misumi charged right at his foe, who casually swung her enormous fan like a baseball bat, catching him in the gut and causing him to fold over the fan.
"Hmph. Predictable." At that moment, Misumi's arm dislocated with a disturbing pop, extending and wrapping around Temari's right arm, immobilising her fan. Impressively, she didn't miss a beat, quickly drawing a kunai and stabbing his hand, forcing him to release her. She leaped back, partially unfolded her fan, and swung again. "Kamaitachi no Jutsu (Sickle Weasel Jutsu)!" Misumi was launched away, a sizeable gash opening across his chest. Grunting and holding his wound, he stood up.
"Not bad, but-"
"Kamaitachi no Jutsu!" This time her fan was fully opened, revealing the three purple moons painted onto it. Misumi never got to finish his thought, as the full power of the technique lifted him skyward, opening a multitude of wounds all over his body and then dropping him directly on his head. His chakra didn't fade, so I could tell he was still alive and could be treated before bleeding out, but he would have a severe concussion at the very least from that landing.
"Winner: Temari." Temari casually sauntered back up to stand with her siblings.
I need to get myself some fans, I thought, having copied her technique. Maybe I can steal Madara's gunbai from Obito?
"Round four: Uchiha Makoto vs. Kankuro."
"My turn already?" I turned to my teammates and gave a cheerful grin. "Wish me luck, guys!"
"That's an impressive Substitution," I commented casually down on the arena floor. "You switched places with the puppet on your back just as you were obscured passing behind your sensei, using the barest moment where none of us could see you."
"Well, that's kinda creepy," Kankuro said, emerging from the bandages to stand behind his puppet. "Guess there's no fooling those eyes of yours, huh?" With a twitch of his hand, the puppet's disguise cracked and fell away, revealing the wooden form beneath. "Shall we get started?" We both glanced over to Hayate, who coughed as he announced the fourth round.
"Begin!"
Immediately, Kankuro went on the offensive, firing off a barrage of needles and shuriken from hidden launchers in his puppet, though my Sharingan enabled me to dodge and deflect with my kunai easily. A quick Shunshin took me off to the right, allowing me time to form a hand seal.
"Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!" I normally wouldn't use this technique in battle, but I needed a second body to help me out and didn't have any water scrolls left after the second exam. My clone quickly drew two knives and rushed to engage the puppet in close quarters while I circled around the outside of the arena, tossing shuriken at Kankuro. He was avoiding my attacks with little difficulty, but that was the point – I was intentionally throwing slow and inaccurate shots to keep him busy and get him to drop his guard while I carefully watched his hands and chakra threads. Once I felt like I had learned enough, I began my attack in earnest. Ten shuriken, thrown as quickly and precisely as I could manage, not aimed at Kankuro but at the threads themselves. The moment the steel stars left my hands, my clone and I each performed a Body Flicker: mine to bring me closer to the puppet, my clone's to gain a little distance. When the shuriken severed the threads Kankuro was using to control the puppet, I immediately applied my own threads and brought it under my control, turning it to face Kankuro. "And that's game," I announced with a smile, using a twitch of my finger and an accompanying pulse of chakra to make its jaw flap in a mocking laugh. "Please surrender now." Kankuro scoffed.
"You think you can beat me with my own puppet? Please, I know everything about it. Every weapon, every mechanism – you can't even hit me with it."
"I don't need to. I know how you puppeteers work – without your puppet, even a common bandit could beat you."
"I'll just take it back. You may have copied my threads, but you don't have any experience in actually using them."
"True," I acknowledged, then turned to my clone. "Do it."
"Katon: Ryuuka no Jutsu!" The stream of blazing-hot flames she released quickly engulfed Kankuro's puppet in an inferno.
"No, wait!" Kankuro shouted, panicked. "I surrender! I surrender, damnit, just stop!" The flamethrower subsided, leaving a burnt-out husk that collapsed to the floor. It was heavily damaged, but would no doubt be repaired by the time of the invasion.
"Winner: Uchiha Makoto." My clone gave me a fist bump before dissipating, and I returned to my team while Kankuro worked to gather up the burning wreck of his favoured tool.
"Great job, Makoto-chan!" Naruto complemented upon my return. "You destroyed that guy!"
"Indeed! A most youthful performance!" Lee agreed. I just waved the two of them off.
"Nah, that was nothing special. There were only three people here I was worried about fighting, and he wasn't one of them."
"Oh? So who exactly where you worried about, then?" Sakura asked, and the other Konoha shinobi seemed equally interested in hearing my assessment.
"First, there's that guy Gaara from Suna, the red head with the gourd. Something's seriously wrong with him, his teammates look like they're about to piss themselves anytime he even glances at them. Even his sensei looks terrified of him." Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Kiba swallow nervously at the mention of Gaara, Akamaru burrowing further into his jacket as well. They had seen the Ichibi jinchuriki in action personally, and he had left an impression. "Second is Rock Lee, but he went first, so that wasn't going to happen anyway. And finally…" I turned to my other teammate. "Was you, Naruto."
"M-me? Not that Neji guy?"
"Him? Nah, the Hyuuga are one-trick ponies. Get around the Byakugan and Jyuuken, and they fold like rice paper." And I had a pretty good idea of how to do exactly that. "You, though? Well, in the interest of keeping your techniques secret before your match, I'll just say that if we fought, it's entirely possible I might run out of chakra trying to keep up with you." I would need to end such a fight early and quickly. The Mangekyou Sharingan would, of course, trivialise anyone here, but using that against a fellow Leaf shinobi was out of the question. Naruto seemed surprised, but pleased by my declaration, while Neji just huffed. Thankfully he deigned to keep whatever arrogance was running through his head to himself for now.
"The fifth match," Gekkou called from down below, "Tenten vs. Haruno Sakura."
"Well, looks like it's your turn, Sakura. You've got this down." She nodded and headed down to the arena, a determined expression on her face.
"Your teammate's pretty full of herself, dismissing Neji-san out of hand like that," Tenten commented to Sakura, both preparing for combat.
"Maybe, but she's usually right about other people's strength," the latter replied, thinking back to how Makoto had been the only one to correctly gauge Orochimaru's power in the Forest of Death before they fought. "She's not the one you need to be worried about right now, anyway." Both girls readied themselves, Tenten drawing a handful of shuriken and Sakura bringing her hands into a position from which to begin signing.
"Begin!"
On Hayate's call, Tenten tossed her shuriken, then quickly threw out a second set immediately afterwards. Sakura dodged the first set while running through hand seals, only to end up right in the path of the second.
"Suiton: Teppoudama!" The four shuriken were knocked out of the air by the liquid bullets, though Sakura's follow-up shots were quickly intercepted by yet more throwing stars. So ranged attacks won't work? Sakura grimaced. Thanks to Kakashi's training, her close combat skills had at least gone from 'acceptable' to 'slightly above average', which she had to hope would be enough against an opponent that seemed to specialise in long-range combat. The problem was closing the distance in the first place. She wracked her brain to come up with a plan, all while still firing off Gunshots to block Tenten's attacks. Then she realised something that could potentially create her opening. Determined, she redoubled her efforts.
"No way! Sakura can create water with chakra!?" Ino's jaw was practically hanging open in shock.
"That's a kage-level technique," Shikamaru commented, brow furrowed in thought. "There must be something else going on here."
"You're right." Team Ten's members, as well as the other Konoha genin, turned to me, interested in an explanation. "Sakura isn't creating water with chakra – that would be way beyond any of us. 'So where's the water coming from?' you ask?" I grinned. "The human body is more than two-thirds water. She's drawing water from her own flesh and using it as a weapon." We all turned back to the fight, and I could tell there was a new respect for Sakura in those that had been with her in the academy and remembered her as little more than a raving fangirl.
"Wait," Choji spoke after a moment. "If she's using water from her own body, isn't that dangerous? She's using that jutsu an awful lot."
"That jutsu does come with a risk of severe dehydration if she overuses it, yes," I acknowledged, "but it uses very little water, and even less chakra. You'd be surprised how long she can keep it up for."
"That's incredible!"
It is, I agreed internally, but at this rate she'll run dry long before Tenten runs out of weapons. I hope she's got a plan. As I watched, Sakura began moving, strafing to her right, dodging some shuriken while intercepting others.
Here, Sakura decided once she had fully reached the opposite side of the arena from where she started. Now here goes! This time she made a different series of seals. Instead of firing off another Teppoudama, she quickly performed a Kawarimi (Body Replacement) with one of the shuriken Tenten had thrown earlier, allowing her to quickly move to the other side of the arena, the projectiles that would have hit her instead passing harmlessly through a smoke cloud.
"What!?" Tenten hesitated just a moment before turning and throwing a brace of kunai at her. That hesitation was enough. Sakura had just enough time to grab one of the water-filled scrolls from her pouch, pull it open, and channel a tiny amount of chakra into the storage seal, unleashing a torrent of lake water into the arena that acted as a shield against the knives flying her way. A sharp cry of pain told her that Tenten had been unable to evade the stream. Before her opponent could recover, she threw her hands together in a tiger seal.
"Mizu Bunshin no Jutsu!"
"Using a storage seal to hold water for ninjutsu?" Shikamaru mused quietly as we watched a second Sakura form from the water covering the floor. "I never would have expected that."
"Looks like Tenten didn't either," Choji pointed out, the kunoichi in question struggling to her feet, having been taken completely off-guard. By the time she managed to stand up, the clone was already on her, kunai drawn, forcing her into a melee fight. Meanwhile, the original Sakura was running through a familiar series of hand seals, which drew a smile of anticipation from me.
"And that's the win."
"Suiton: Mizu Shuriken no Jutsu!" Sakura focused intently on producing as many shuriken as she could from the water around her opponent. She needed to end this quickly, as it was unlikely her clone could hold Tenten for long. She used most of her remaining chakra, and the result was more than fifty liquid stars floating around her target. Her clone dissipated with a splash, and Tenten reached into her own pouch, presumably for more weapons, only to freeze when she realised her predicament. With a grimace and a sigh, she leaned back against the wall.
"I surrender."
"Fifth match winner: Haruno Sakura."
"Yeah, go Sakura!" Naruto cheered from the balcony. Sakura was smiling as she headed back up to join her team, guzzling water from her canteen as she went.