Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ Crimson Rogue ❯ Chapter 3

[ T - Teen: Not suitable for readers under 13 ]

I Do Not Own Naruto

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"Yes sir, that is correct." A Konoha chunin stated to Kirabi at the entrance of the hotel room their way staying at.

Kirabi simply nodded before smiling as he had a feeling his team would have nearly set a record. The only reason they hadn't was that another team beat them by less then a minute, which meant that team happened to be pretty damn good to.

"Thank you. I'll be there tomorrow then. You said there would be preliminaries, correct? So that means there is over five teams already." As the chunin nodded, Kirabi couldn't help but shake his head. "Damn, that is impressive. We might have a good bunch here for the finals."

"Seems like it. It is very possible that every village that entered this exam might have someone in the finals. All but the two Rain teams are unaccounted for, at least in the tower." The chunin responded, excited as the exams might be pretty fun to watch this year as he would be the first to admit they were boring from time to time.

Nodding again, Kirabi patted the man on the back before beckoning him away as Yugito walked out of her room. Closing the door, he sighed as she seemed to be in the middle of self destructing. "You look like shit."

"I feel like shit." She responded before she started making a cup of coffee. "So I assume they're already waiting for the third portion?"

Kirabi yet again nodded before he walked over to Yugito before placing a hand on her shoulder. "They are, and there will be prelims as they already have too many and it is only halfway done. ...But when I leave to support them tomorrow, I want you to stay here."

Yugito growled as she nearly shattered the cup in her hand. Looking up into Kirabi's eyes, she point-blank asked him. "Why the hell not? I'm hearing because E wanted me to be and I have nothing better to do! What the hell am I suppose to do, piss my time away and go out looking for some random guy to fuck!"

Figuring he would get such a response from her, Kirabi sighed before he told her the truth. "I want you to stay away from Naruto. You've become too erratic to deal with when he is around, or even mentioned. Not only that, but you are causing him severe harm now. If you hadn't noticed, you snapped his wrist a few days ago."

Glowering at Kirabi, she refused to back off an inch. "Fine, I'll just go with the Hokage as an entourage due to my position. I'm sure he wouldn't say no knowing he could hurt future relations with us."

Getting ticked at her attitude, which normally was anything but this, he was ready to give her a warning punch again. She was seriously getting more and more difficult to cope with. "If you do, I will go straight to my brother. This is becoming too much of a problem and I will make damn sure you are dealt with properly. You can't keep doing this to him just because you don't know how to handle it!"

Jumping back, startled by Kirabi's sudden surge of both chakra and dominances, as he normally rather placid, Yugito wasn't sure how to respond. However, how he ended it hit her hard. Shaking slightly, she slumped down on the pillow near the table. "I know that... but I can't seem to stop myself. Nibi has been getting extraordinarily violent and she is passing it through me."

Knowing that much already, having noticed the influxes of the two tailed monster-cat's chakra, he sat down at her left before placing her coffee before her. "I've known for a while and that's why I asked for you not to come, but brother thought it was for the best. You haven't been handling letting him going off on his own very well. Hell, you've been frankly horrible at it."

"What the hell am I suppose to do?" Yugito snapped back at him, nearly knocking over her coffee in the process. "I can't coddle him any more as he is a ninja. Just because we aren't at war doesn't mean he should get any slack by that..."

"That isn't the point, Yugito. You weren't his tutor, you were his sister, hell a mother. You aren't suppose to cut off your love for him just because he is a ninja now. He knows what he is getting into and he needs someone to be there for him when he has a hard time." Kirabi told her off as he took of his sun glasses and looked her dead in the eyes.

Flinching as it was near impossible to look Kirabi in the eyes for anyone much less when he was angry, Yugito looked down and stayed quiet for a while before finally speaking. "What can I do? I don't want to fuck things up with him any further then they already are, but I might as we both know Nibi does have some influence over me just as I have some on her."

Thinking for a moment, Kirabi interlocked his fingers before closing his eyes. "Start acting like you did with him from the start. That will go a long way with mending the wounds you have caused not only him, but to you and your image. ...You might not be able to repair your relationship to the way it was, but it is worth it to try."

Nodding, refusing to cry, Yugito was about to walk back into her room when Kirabi spoke again. "Just remember, it will be a long time before he will be anywhere to what he was if ever... In these two years, I saw him turn from a rambunctious kid with a fiery spirit that would do anything to learn into a cold, calculating machine that shows sparks of his former being. ...I want to see that kid back, the one that wanted to become Raikage."

After Kirabi's short speech, she couldn't stop herself. She began crying as she ran into her room.

Sighing as he listened to her crying, Kirabi went to get a towel and clean up the coffee she had spilt on the way to her room. At least she was beginning to see what she had been doing wrong. "One step at a time Yugito and you'll have your brother back."

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"God dammit Naruto!" Karui yelled out as Naruto yawned as he closed his eyes before turning away in his bed. "Would you say something every now and then?! I almost undressed in front of you!"

"Not my fault. Be more aware of your surroundings. Now please, let me sleep. I'm bored as hell." Naruto responded as he pulled the covers over his head, not caring in the least that Karui had nearly bared her breasts to him just moments before. He had seen them before so he wasn't too interested.

At that exact moment, Omoi walked in with a handful of lollipops that neither could figure out where he got them. The next moment, he plopped into his bed before he started on a sour apple flavored pop. "So what I'd miss? Karui looks a little flushed and Naruto is trying to become a hermit... Ah dammit! Did she nearly strip in front of you again?!"

As Karui's blush became full blown, Naruto's head peaked out of the covers before it nodded and slithered back into them like snake. Omoi simply cursed. "Oh come on! How come I can't get that kind of luck? I mean I have girls flocking to me left and right but they just don't come up to me and take their clothes off!"

"Omoi... Do you know why I never get beatings and you do?" Naruto asked, his head still firmly surrounded by the warmth of the blankets. "It is because you are a dumbass and say things like that in front of the girls."

Feeling the aura of dread descending upon him, Omoi was about bolt out of the room when the door opened revealing Kirabi with Yugito slightly on his tail. Smirking as he knew exactly what had just transpired without even seeing it, he simply laughed. "You three don't change!"

Wincing at the change remark, Yugito slowly stood besides Kirabi and attempted to look over at Naruto. After a few attempts, she could as she felt she didn't have the right to do so. She just couldn't face what she had done to him. Not yet.

"As you've probably noticed, there are a lot of people here. Too many for a normal tournament... So there is going to be a preliminary round, probably a single round of eliminations." Yugito softly spoke with a small smile on her face as she gazed over Karui and Omoi and tried to glance over Naruto, but failed and look towards the ground.

Raising his eyebrow at her reaction towards him, not sure what to say of it, Naruto shrugged as he pulled himself out of the covers. "So does that mean they are about to start them then?"

Kirabi nodded as he softly patted Yugito on the back, noticing her difficulty. "Sure does. We came to get you as they are about to start as the deadline is almost up."

"Well, let's get to it. Don't want to give any reason for them to not let us participate." Naruto commented as he stood up from his bed and stretched, making sure everything was in place.

Following Kirabi out the door, they took their places among the other gennin in front of Anko. So far there was only eight teams but to Naruto surprise, Konohamaru's team wasn't among them. But just before time was called, two teams suddenly burst through the door. It was Konohamaru's team and to his team's surprise, the Rain gennin they beat down early in the exam.

Looking down at her watch, Anko nodded before she boisterously yelled. "You guys just barely made it! Time is now up."

Both teams looked slightly relieved before nodding to one another before joining the rest of the gennin. This made Naruto wonder what happen, but it was completely possible they joined forces as they had the same scroll and ran into someone that had two of the scrolls they were looking for.

As it was unimportant, Naruto turned his attention to the Hokage as he appeared in a plum of smoke with a few other jounin. He was slightly unnerved by the caring gaze he gave him, he was about to turn away when the Hokage's gaze turned to all the gennin that had made. "I congratulate everyone that his made it this far. This is the most that have every reached this point ever in the history of our exams."

"However... There are too many to begin the final portion of the exam. You see, we have the chunin exams take the place of war. Before, our strength was determined by how well a village did in combat and the one that did the best gathered more attention and therefore more missions..." The Hokage stated before one of the jounin stepped forward.

"Seeing as I am the proctor of the next exam, it would be best I would explain." The sickly jounin stated before coughing a few times.

Nodding and letting him take over for him, Gekkou stepped forward before coughing slightly harsher then before. "As the Hokage stated, these exams are take to the place of war. As such, we cannot waste the time of potential clients with numerous battles as they came to see the best each village can offer."

"So we are going to reduce your number with a preliminary bout. If you do not want to participate, you may raise your hand and you will be allowed to leave and I will check your name off. Also, your team will not be penalized if you decide to leave now as from now on it is about individual skills." Hayate asked as he refrained from coughing as he gazed over the gennin.

After a few moments, no one raised there hand so he gave his clip board to one of the other jounin as they disappeared. "Alright then, please choose a balcony. The preliminaries will start shortly after your names have been registered into the system."

Doing as told, everyone walked towards the balcony their jounin sensei had taken all the Konoha gennin except for the elder group on one side while the rest took the other.

Leaning against the railing next to where Kirabi and Yugito had station themselves, Naruto yawned out loud as he noticed a small screen appear above the statue of the tiger seal. Seeing that it began flashing through names, he figured that it would generate the matches so he yawned again till the names were called out by the proctor.

"Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi, you will open the prelims." Hayate stated before both gennin walked into the arena below. Once he knew both were ready to go, he started the match.

Yoroi quickly went on the offense, activated a known chakra absorption technique to drain Sasuke of his chakra. As it seemed Sasuke chakra was very low and it hurt him to use, Sasuke was quickly in trouble. Unable to really put up a defense, it looked like the fight was about to be finished when a pulse of malevolent chakra spewed from him.

While it wasn't demonic, there was no doubt it was not natural chakra. This made Naruto frown but he noticed Sasuke seemed to reel in the chakra that tried to force its way out. He wasn't the only one frowning as neither Kirabi or Yugito liked what they had seen either along with a few of the Konoha jounin.

But it seemed that burst of chakra allowed Sasuke to gain the upper hand as he briefly activated his Sharingan before kicking Yoroi into the air and using a technique to get behind him in mid air. Before the elder Konoha gennin could react, the fight was over as Sasuke delivered a powerful mid air combo ending with a kid to the gut as soon they reached to ground.

"Seeing Akado Yoroi is unable to continue, Uchiha Sasuke is the victor!" Gekkou announced, not that anyone didn't know that was how it finished. Sasuke's sensei quickly body flickered away with him, probably to take care of what the malevolent chakra.

Watching the board, he quickly got his next to names before calling them down. "Oboro and Yamanaka Ino, your fight is next."

Knowing the Rain gennin was grinning as he liked his opponent, Naruto couldn't blame him as he watched the blonde haired girl enter the arena. This girl obviously wasn't a big threat and even though he had pummeled then Rain gennin into submission, he could easily take her own. Or that was what he thought but the fight completely surprised him.

He was right as Oboro started the fight dominating Ino using a mixture of his Haze Clones and hand-to-hand combat. It didn't look like the girl would last long especially when he started bringing senbon into the fight. The girl was on the ropes and had no option, so she used her family jutsu.

Of all the rotten luck, it actually succeeded as Oboro apparently didn’t know of the Yamanaka’s Mind Jutsus so she was in control of his body. She had him at her will, and she nearly screwed herself over as she took too long to surrender the fight. Any longer and Oboro would have regained control and probably put a senbon into her skull.

"Due to forfeit, Yamanaka Ino is the victor." Gekkou announced the winner once more as he sighed as there hadn't been a good fight yet. Looking at the names on the board, he hoped the next fight would change the trend. "Inuzuka Kiba and Omoi, please come down if you wish to compete."

Glowing at his chance to fight after almost five days of waiting, Omoi simply jumped the railing and landed in the arena. Not being one to be outdone, Kiba did the same but almost fell on his face as he nearly lost his balance.

Rolling his eyes, Naruto sighed as he knew this fight was over. While Omoi could be very stupid at times, he actually quite intelligent and extraordinarily observant of his opponent. He almost refused to act without knowing what his opponent could do or if he saw an opening to end the fight.

Soon as Gekkou gave the command to start the fight, Kiba was the first on the attack and tried to engage Omoi into hand-to-hand. While Omoi had no problem with this, he was purely acting on defense as he wanted to see what Kiba could do before making a move that could cost him.

Yet, Kiba was fast and it was hard to block and avoid each of his strikes. So Omoi had to react otherwise he would take unnecessary damage. So aiming for a leg sweep, Omoi watched Kiba lunge over it and try to, well for lose of better words, tackle him. So he simply rolled underneath him letting his forward momentum take him further way while creating some distance.

'Okay, this kid is pretty damn good in close range. If I use my katana, that will negate that however. But if he has any long range attacks, I might need to watch out for those. They might catch me off guard and give him the edge.' Omoi thought to himself as he went to draw his katana.

Seeing this, Kiba knew better then to get close now. While he was efficient in close range, it was one of the cardinal rules his sister and mother beat into his head. Avoid fight close range if his opponent was proficient with a sword and stick with his long range arsenal, only getting close if he managed to disarm him.

Reaching into his pouch, he threw a few kunai towards Omoi, which he easily deflected. However, connected to one at the end happened to be a smoke bomb and when he deflected it the bomb activated. Cursing, he knew he had to get out of the smoke, he was almost out of it when he caught the sound of what seemed to be something swirling at a high velocity.

On instinct alone, Omoi ducked to see a giant spiral of grey before he suddenly was forced out of the smoke as another slammed into his back. Gritting his teeth as he rolled forward, he noted there was two spiraling vortexes that stopped by one another, revealing there to be two Kibas.

'No, only one is the real one. His dog is missing so he must have quickly used the Beast Human Clone. I have to figure out which one is him as knocking out his dog will do nothing for me.' Omoi thought to himself before readying his katana and preparing for yet another spiraling assault.

He wasn't disappointed as both spiraled towards him, splitting apart and preparing to use a pincer maneuver against him. To avoid this, he simply jumped over the first piercing fang but the second quickly ascended towards him, giving him almost no time to recover as it ran into him.

Cushioning the blow with his chakra, Omoi hit the ground before quickly getting up and sheathing his katana. It had no use at the moment, so he could safely say he wasn't going to need it. This kid was getting on his nerves. Sure, his abilities weren't a complete mystery as he knew a little of his clan, but seeing it in action was a whole different thing.

Seeing them prepare for yet another pincer maneuver, Omoi was ready this time as he jumped over the first. Just as the first began to ascend towards him, he had finished the seals he had been going through before pushing his hands forward and a ball of lighting shot forward and collided with its target.

Once the Kiba hit the ground it turned into a plum of smoke revealing it had been indeed the clone. Cursing as he still had the gennin to deal with, Omoi used a quick replacement with the said dog as Kiba attempted to attack him from behind.

It easily halted the boy’s attack and allowed him to unsheathe his katana once more and with a quick slash, he cut into the quads. Hearing the boy yell as he fell to all fours, Omoi quickly followed with the katana pointed towards the back of his neck.

He didn't have to say anything as Gekkou ended the battle immediately as he knew there was no way Kiba could get out of this. "Due to TKO, Omoi is the winner!"

Without hesitation, Omoi sheathed his katana before heading up the stairs as the medics watching the fight rushed in to take care of Kiba and get him to the hospital to recover. Smirking as he walked back to his team, he leaned back against the wall feeling pretty good. "Piece of cake."

"Didn't look like it." Karui commented as she couldn't help but make fun of her team mate's performance. "It looked like the kid gave you some trouble before you decided to get serious."

"I agree." Naruto added as he was quite content on watching the fights and analyzing what everyone was capable of. "You analyzed far more then what you needed instead of testing what he was capable of. You sustained unnecessary damage because of that."

As both Kirabi and Yugito nodded their heads in agreement, Omoi was grabbing his head in frustration and nearly yelled out at them. "Come on! Give me a break, I won!"

Chuckling, Naruto couldn't keep a straight face nor could the others. Of course this made Omoi even more frustrated and ready to give each of them a beat down when Gekkou's voice brought them back to earth. "Abumi Zaku and Ookami Kuro, will you come down for your fight?"

As Zaku simply jumped down ready to fight, Yoru, the only girl part of the mist team, simply walked down the stairs. However, when Naruto saw her he had to stop for a moment as she looked extremely familiar as she looked a lot like the new Mizukage, Mei. The only difference was that she had straight blonde hair and wore purple instead. There was the daggers she had strapped to her side too... But his attention else were.

"Damn, she has a nice bust." Omoi commented, almost drooling as she was right around his age so he wouldn't mind taking a shot at her.

Groaning as Karui smacked him upside the head, Naruto sighed. Why couldn't he keep his mouth shut about things like that? Sure, he looked to as he was very interested but he didn't say it out loud because he feared retaliation. Now if they were with a group of guys that was a different thing, but they weren't so he couldn't mouth of and say the first words that came to his mind.

Turning his attention back to the arena and more to the fight about to start, Naruto watched interestedly as Zaku started first with an enormous burst of wind. His attack caught his attention as while there was chakra being used, the fact that he required no hand seals was amazing. Could it have been some sort of adjustment?

Koru wasn't very bothered by his attack as she managed to keep herself from moving too much, but a lot of her techniques were instantly taken away. Still, she kept her stoic face and quickly charged her opponent, her hands reaching for her daggers.

Zaku slowed her down with another Slicing Sound Wave and wounding her in the process, leaving small gashes across her skin. However, to his surprise she simply dissolved into a puddle of water. On instinct, he turned around to see Koru right behind him with her daggers ready to strike. As quickly as he saw this, he attempted to use his technique once more but she had caught on.

She noticed the small openings in his hands and could tell those were tunnels that generated the wind. Without hesitation, she stabbed her daggers into the said tunnels knowing he was about to blast her away before jumping back and taking cover as Zaku indeed using his Slicing Sound Wave once more.

The results were splattered onto the pavement as Zaku's arms couldn't handle the amount of pressure that had built up. The bones in his arms snapped and his arms almost literally exploded as blood spewed from the points were the wind was releasing itself.

Hayate quickly intervened and called the fight, wanting to get the medics out quickly to take care of the now downed Sound gennin. "Due to TKO, the victor is Ookami Kuro!"

Waiting till the medics arrived, Kuro spoke in a low tone that was barely heard by them. "I would like my daggers back as soon as possible, so please take care of him quickly."

With that, Kuro walked up the stairs and just as she passed Naruto she suddenly stopped before taking out a picture and looking back at him. Nodding to herself, she pulled out a scroll before handing it to him. "Lady Mizukage wanted you to have this. She didn't say what it was about, but it was for your eyes only."

Raising his eyebrow for a moment, Naruto carefully took the scroll before sliding it into his coat. "Thank you and tell Lady Mei that I hope to see her before the final exams begin."

"I will do so, Sir Uzumaki." Kuro responded before rejoining her team, both her team mates wondering what she had to say to the blonde. Only the jounin didn't seem too to care, probably because he knew.

Everyone outside of Yugito also was wondering what was with that exchange, she having been present with E when he took Naruto to his meeting with the newly instated Mizukage last month.

Karui being the most curious waited for a moment before asking seeing as no one else was. "Naruto, what was with that? And why in the world did she call you Sir Naruto?"

"My mother was daughter to a lord of the Whirlpool before it was annexed by the Mist. As such, even though my mother moved to Konoha and I now am a part of the Cloud, I am minor nobility of the Mist." Naruto responded as he turned his attention onto board, waiting for the next to two fights.

Seeing he wasn't in the next fight, he sighed as Gekkou called out the two fighters, Hyuuga Hinata and Kagari, one of the Rain gennin. However, he didn't have to continue as Yugito did for him. "And being a noble, even if minor, the Mist respects that he is now a Cloud shinobi but wishes for Naruto to perform some of his lordly duties in the Land of the Whirlpool as the old man is about to pass away."

Catching onto Yugito's disgust in the sentence, Kirabi immediately understood what the Mist wanted of Naruto. "Well, in order for that to happen we would have to benefit from it and if not there isn't anything that can be done. I doubt the Mist raise hell for such a trivial thing and just place someone there as the Lord."

Ignoring the conversation, Naruto turned his attention to the fight that had just started. Well, he really couldn't call it a fight. The Hyuuga was tearing apart Kagari. Not literally, but she was disarming everything he attempted to do.

Her Byukugan simply saw through all of his haze clones making them utterly useless. He was smart enough to stop using them after the first few tries, but even his missile weapons were pretty much useless as Hinata could see them a mile away and batted them away from her. But the important factor was, the few seconds they engaged in hand-to-hand.

The fight was basically decided by that as a few blows and Kagari was easily on the wrong end of the assault and backed off. However, everything was practically useless against her. Nothing he did could trick her, he didn't have any big jutsu that could put the girl out and worse of all he couldn't get in close range.

A few minutes later, the fight was over as Hinata finally closed the distance and had knocked out the Rain gennin. "Victory goes to Hyuuga Hinata by way of knock out!"

Yawning as the fight was extraordinarily boring, Naruto was ready to go asleep when the name the board flash caught his attention. Gaara. That was someone he wanted to see fight but the other name that was going against him made him worry. Could the young boy handle this guy?

"Will Sarutobi Konohamaru and Sabaku Gaara please come down?" Gekkou asked as he really couldn't force either to come down. However, in this case he hoped one would forfeit. He had seen the surveillance video of what Gaara did to the other team from the rain and didn't want the Hokage himself to worry his grandson was in danger.

Almost immediately sand began to swirl around the arena before Gaara appeared in the middle, simply waiting for his opponent. The bloodlust rolling off of him was apparent to all of those that could sense it and Naruto began to regret getting him started as he didn't want anything to happen to the young Sarutobi.

However, against the advice of his jounin sensei, the famous copy-cat Hatake Kakashi, Konohamaru eagerly jumped down and was ready to fight. He obvious couldn't sense the fear inducing rage that was coming off the red head, but there was nothing that could be done now as he wanted to fight.

The fight almost didn't begin as Hayate wanted to call the fight right away. While Konohamaru was good, he was still very young and had a lot of room to grow. The fact that he and his team made it this far was just probably from sheer determination and will. And he knew they still had to be weak from dealing with Orochimaru...

However, despite his better judgment, he started the fight as he could see the Hokage himself was ready to stop the battle. It wasn't a matter if it needed to be, just when.

Before Konohamaru could even move, sand poured out of the gourd on Gaara back and leapt towards him knocking him into the wall. However, the boy was resilient and bounced back immediately and dodged the second wave of sand and headed straight for Gaara. This move proved to be fool hearty as the sand wrapped around his ankles and lifted him off the ground and threw him back into the wall.

Gritting his teeth, Konohamaru quickly got back up before going through a series of seals before breathing out a stream of flame towards the sand coming towards him. The sand halted from the blow and Konohamaru quickly sprinted to Gaara and jumped towards him, planning on giving him a firm knee to the face.

But it never reached and his knee felt like it hit a brick wall. Landing on his butt, he rubbed his knee for a second before seeing it happened to be sand that had blocked his attack. Quickly getting back up, he tried to punch and kick him a few times but just like the knee the sand had responded and blocked his kicks without Gaara so much looking at him.

Getting unnerved by this, Konohamaru was about to attack when a wave of sand knocked him back and skidded him across the ground. However, as he stood up Gaara's attention turned to him before he spoke with a flat voice. "Is that all?"

At his words, Konohamaru froze. Was the guy in front of him even trying? Was this why everyone was telling him not to fight this guy?

"Someone has to stop this fight... It will be a slaughter if they don't. The kid doesn't stand a chance!" Naruto yelled out as he was ready to jump in himself, knowing Gaara was too much of a match for him. Hell, he had warned both Karui and Omoi not to fight him and they could beat Konohamaru easily.

Kirabi simply put a hand on Naruto's shoulder before looking down at the fight. "Not yet... He still has some belief he can win left."

"So what, we are going to wait until he has none left?!" Naruto yelled back as he tried to break his sensei's grip.

Things weren't so much different on the other side of the balcony as Lee and Shino were ready to jump down and defend their fellow Konoha ninja. "Neji, let go me! We must help him before his flames of youth are diminished!"

While Shino said nothing, not wanting to even agree with that statement, he struggled in his sensei's grip before Kakashi suddenly spoke. "Just wait... I won't let anything happen to him. This was his choice, let him see it out for a little longer."

Back in the ring side, Konohamaru gathered his courage as he stood up once more before pulling a lone kunai out of his pouch. "Just you wait, this fight hasn't even started!"

Suddenly, Konohamaru suddenly left a gash in his other hand as his kunai sliced into it. Gaara simply raised his eyebrow, unsure of why the boy did that before he recognized the hand seals as a summoning. But he was expecting a... Well bigger one instead of the pint sized one that was summoned instead.

"Oh come on! I was trying to summon Enma and I got you again Riki!" Konohamaru yelled as he looked at the small primate he had summoned. Well, it wasn't too small as it reached his hip, but to Konohamaru he was small compared to the other summons he had seen.

"Don't blame me! You're the one that doesn't use the right amount of chakra!" Riki yelled back at Konohamaru, angered that the young boy was yelling at him for no reason once more.

Getting annoyed at the sight, Gaara simply batted them away from his sight. These two, weren't even worth his time. He would let mother do the work and take care of them.

Recovering from their daze, Riki looked over towards the origin of the sand before he started barking and screaming at him. However, another wave of sand shut him up as he jumped over it and landed beside Konohamaru. "Alright, this guy has it coming! Transform!"

Suddenly, Riki turned into a long bo-staff and Konohamaru caught him on instinct. While it was long for Konohamaru, it actually was much smaller then Enma's staff that his grandfather used. Still, he wasn't going to complain as he needed all the help he could get.

Seeing another burst of sand heading towards them, Konohamaru headed straight for instead of trying to dodge and swung his new staff into the sand. To his surprise, among others, the sand dispersed from the blow. Not letting this stop him, he continued straight forward to Gaara hoping this could get through his and barrier.

As he arrived, the sand attempted to swallow his feet but Konohamaru jumped over and brought his staff down. However, due to pour aiming he missed Gaara completely making the red head simply look at him as if he was a fool. Konohamaru only seemed to smirk as he wasn't aiming to see if he could hit Gaara, but the barrier.

Landing, Konohamaru suddenly turned on his heals with agility much greater then most possessed and swung his staff straight towards Gaara's face. The sand reacted and guarded, but Konohamaru had anticipated this with his previous stricken and sent more force then before. The staff broke from the sand barely hindered before smashing across Gaara's face, making the red head feel a slight amount of pain and surprise.

Gaara twitched at the feeling. This boy... had hit him? That shouldn't be possible. Not even a lot of the jounin he knew couldn't touch him. How was this brat of all people able to pull such a thing off? Turning to his opponent, Gaara snarled. No, he would not stand for this.

When Gaara turned to face him, Konohamaru's eyes widen in shock as he saw sand crumble from his cheek. There was a second barrier of sand that he was outside of his skin. So even if he got through the first wave, he still had to get through the second? He wasn't so sure he could pull that off.

"You... You hit me." Gaara stated, his bloodlust beginning to seep into his voice. "I shall... Kill you for that."

Now fully exposed to the bloodlust he couldn't feel before, Konohamaru froze as fear coursed through his body. Not even when they fought that man in the forest of death or his snake had he felt this much fear. He could feel it in his bones. This guy wanted to kill him and nothing would stop him.

Being frozen, Konohamaru was knocked back into the wall while Riki had turned into a plum of smoke, being hit hard enough to return him to his world. Gaara didn't stop there as his sand began to wrap around Konohamaru and raise him into the air. "Sabaku Kyu."

His siblings and teacher knew this fight was over. Baki was trying to tell Gaara to stop, but the boy wouldn't listen to him like he was now. There was nothing he could do as he saw his hand begin to clench.

"Sabaku Soso!"

Seconds after he had closed his fist, everyone looked down at the arena to see what had happened. There was no blood nor was there any trace of were Konohamaru had gone. All that was left was the sand that fell to the ground harmlessly.

Frowning as his mother had not been satisfied Gaara looked for the culprit that kept him from pleasing his mother. He found him along with the boy standing on top of the tiger seal, his sword drawn and pointed towards Gaara. "Hey, how about not picking those weaker then you when your true target is right here?"

Naruto stood confidently on top of the statue, his sword held in his left hand in attempt to deceive others in thinking his right was still injured. He didn't buckle at the look of murder in Gaara's eyes nor his aura of malice. All it did was excite him, hoping there would be someone that could challenge him.

"Why save him? He is weak." Gaara spoke, commanding Naruto to tell him more then asking. Why would he risk his skin to protect someone that couldn't stand on his own?

Shaking his head, Naruto simply looked back at Konohamaru before giving him a confident grin as he turned back to Gaara. "Because that is the other thing the strong must do. While we are to crush those before us, we are to protect the weak as that was the job we were given. And, just because they are weak doesn't mean they won't become strong. All it takes is the right motivation and even the weakest can become stronger then anyone."

Narrowing his eyes, Gaara still didn't understand. Was he suppose to do more then kill those weaker then he was? His mother said otherwise, but obviously this one before him was strong yet believed differently which his mother told him was weakness. So was he weak then?

"What is he to you? He is nothing more then an enemy ninja." Gaara stated, trying to solve why he would protect the fool he had saved from his wrath and to sate his curiosity.

Naruto sadly smiled as he closed his eyes. "Because my life was given to protect this village at birth from my village, twice. Even if I'm not a ninja of this village, it is my birth home and I will do what I can to help it. I feel I owe that much."

Confused at his words, Gaara tried to make sense of them but he couldn't. What did he owe them if he was given for their protection? Nothing... So why did he feel he owed them?

Saying nothing more, Gaara turned from Naruto before appearing besides his siblings and teacher.

Seeing this, Naruto sheathed his blade before turning to Konohamaru before crossing his arms. "And you are a fool. I told you when we first met you weren't ready for this and now... You know why. There are those that will kill you without provocation, without reason. You must become stronger, because next time... There might not be someone looking after you."

Without waiting for a response, Naruto leapt over to his team and landed on the rail by sticking chakra to his feet. Sliding back on the platform, Gekkou called the fight in Gaara's favor before Kakashi took Konohamaru and brought him over to his worried friends.

Feeling a hand placed on his back, Naruto froze as it obviously wasn't Kirabi's but strong enough to make him worry. Looking back, he was surprised to see it was Yugito and she was smiling at him. While that was odd, she only nodded before returning back to were she stood moments before.

Confused by that alone, Naruto slowly turned around further unsure what was going on with Yugito and her mood swings. Deciding to let that go for now and pretend it never happened, he noticed that the board had stopped on two names. "Rock Lee and Yakushi Kabuto, you are next."

Raising his hand, Kabuto shook his head before he readjusted his glasses. "I don't feel like fight now."

Nodding, Gekkou rewarded Lee with the victory. Strangely enough, Lee looked frustrated that he would get a chance to fight to prove he deserved to be in the next round. As the board went through the remaining names once more, it landed on two. "Haruno Sakura, will you come down. Your opponent will be Karui."

Karui only grinned but before she could even jump down as she was ready to fight, Sakura did something that surprised her. "I don't wish to fight... I know I will lose."

Frowning, denied of a fight, Karui began to rant and rave. "Oh come on! I want to fight! Put me up against that kid with the bowl hair cut and don't count it! We both want a fight!"

"Sorry, rules are rules. Karui is the winner." Hayate responded, somewhat disappointed that the last two fights had been forfeited before it they had even begun. Seeing the names on the board, he nodded to himself before announcing it. "Sabaku no Temari, you are to fight Suyusuke Talmor."

Temari jumped down, ready to fight and prove that she was worthy of becoming a chunin. She had been held back for the sake of her brothers, to be on their team. They never held her back in combat. In fact, they almost made her useless in combat as Gaara crushed everything before him and Kankuro caught those sneaking off.

Talmor jumped down as well and opposed her. With a simple sword on his back, it was a sure thing that he was probably trained in swordplay. The fact that he dressed like a certain missing ninja named Zabuza helped enforce that truth.

Soon as the fight started, both pulled out their respective weapon and gagged the other for a moment. Talmor was the first to strike and he quickly rushed her and attack with a high stroke, aimed for her collar bone.

She blocked with her choice of weapon, sparks flying off as the bladed dragged down the metal as Temari reflected the force of the blow away from her. Using her speed, she pulled a few shuriken from a pocket in her outfit and threw them to his stomach.

Jumping to the side, his next sword stroke was blocked yet again by her weapon of choice causing more sparks. Getting annoyed of her continuing to block his attack, he went to disarm her by knocking it away with a violent flick. However, instead of being knocked away it simply opened to reveal it was a giant battle fan.

The look on Temari's face couldn't have gotten wide as he had fallen right into her trap. With a snap of her wrists, a great burst of wind caught Talmor and picked him off his feet and drove him into the wall. However, she didn't stop there as she continued swinging a few more times, adding to the burst of power of wind.

As the dust settled, Talmor was out cold and not even with a ten second count would he have gotten up so the decision was easily made be Hayate. "Sabaku Temari is the winner!"

Smirking at her victory, Temari sat on her fan as it began to float before she was once again beside her siblings and put it away. She had always wanted to fight a sword user, just to see why wind mistresses feared them so. Her confidence only grew as if that was a swordsman she had no fear for any of these sword wielders... Except for the guy that kept getting in Gaara's way. She was becoming afraid of him as he stood up to Gaara.

After the medics removed Talmor from the wall, the next fight was called between Tsuchi Kin and Mubi of the Rain. The battle between the two illusionists was no contest.

While Kin was probably the better equipped of the two, she couldn't use her illusions on what she couldn't see. From the first second, Mubi had literally disappeared and his clones appeared all over the place. Knowing their weren't solid, she tried listening for him but there was too much noise being made to accurately figure out where he was.

In moments, Mubi's haze clone overwhelmed her. She was forced to throw her senbon with illusion bells equipped over the entire arena in hope to catch him. However, it was meaningless as he had her trapped in her own web and the genjutsu was affecting her instead of him. He had simply had went underground to avoid her bells.

Seeing that Kin really couldn't do anything, Gekkou called the battle as it just was never a fight. "Winner is Mubi!"

Sighing at yet another battle that wasn't very exciting, Naruto scratched his hair underneath his bandana as it was itching. He would have itched other parts, but he currently among female presence so it was best not to. "This is boring... Can't I get a fight yet?"

"Don't worry Sir Naruto, I bet you'll be coming up soon. I am quite interested to see you fight especially after saving that boy." Koru stated as she walked over besides him, getting quite bored as well. She had kind of wishing she didn’t go so early as most of the interesting people had already gone. "Have you read the scroll yet, seeing as you have bountiful time?"

Nodding as that was true, Naruto ignored Hayate calling for Akimichi Chouji and Tsurigi Misumi as he could read the names just fine and pulled out the scroll and unraveled. Punching Omoi in the face to keep him from reading it, Naruto scanned over it before looking confused. "What the? She honestly doesn't expect me to agree with this, does she?"

"I am unsure what Lady Mizukage means as well. I know she will arrive her before the other Kages once word gets out that at least one of her team has made it. She also said she wanted to talk to you to explain it." Koru stated as if she knew what was on the scroll the entire time, which was likely.

"Oh, so you are here team? That explains why you dress like her. Let me guess, she's your hero or something like that?" Naruto asked as he ignored the start of the fight. It didn't look very intriguing except for the pudgy boy growing triple his size and become a bowling ball and making Misumi the pin.

Blushing, Koru simply nodded as straightened her outer dress as it was falling off and her mesh undershirt didn't really do anything to hide her bare essentials. "Yes, she has inspired our nation after overthrowing the Forth. She has invited many of the missing ninja back as they only left because of him and has gotten us back onto the right track after a year in office."

"Sounds good... OH!" Naruto attention suddenly turned to the fight as Chouji barreled over Misumi and flattened him in the process. "Man, I would not want be in that position. That looked painful."

Koru simply nodded, seeing the hit and wincing as that really looked painful. He had literally flown into the air from the force of the hit then as he was falling back was hit again and into a wall before the spinning ball known as Chouji slammed him into the wall. "If he gets up from that, he has to be one tough son of a bitch."

Everyone in ear shot nodded in agreement. Not only was that one of the most painful hits they had seen before, they were all pretty sure that would have hurt them and a lot of them were jounin.

With a ten count, not that it was needed, Chouji was declared the winner and hurriedly ran up to his teacher before grunting in victory. "Oh yeah! You owe me dinner tonight, Asuma-sensei!"

Watching one of Sarutobi's son's grumble gave Naruto great amusement as he had a good feeling the Akimichi had one hell of an appetite. Shaking that out of his head, he watched to bored while silently chanting and hoping it would be him before cursing once. "Dammit... Am I going to be last?"

"Yeah, they wanted you to suffer." Karui hummed as she loved watching the blonde get frustrated and watching his patience wear thin. He never liked to be last in anything and if he happened to be the last one called here she wouldn't be able to keep in the 'HA' that was growing inside.

Grumbling after flicking her off, Naruto thumped his head against the railing of the balcony as he watched Kinta Dosu and Tenten get ready to fight. "This one better not be boring..."

"All of these have been boring." Yugito added, not meaning to add to Naruto's misery but did anyways. "I mean outside of some of the miraculous comebacks, girly's fight here and the watching the red head fight, they all have been lopsided. I will have to admit though, seeing that bowling ball match was pretty humorous."

Kuro smiled at the compliment she was given before turning to the arena to watch the fight, trying to ignore the constant banging of Naruto's head on the railing.

The fight started off quickly as Tenten was using missile weaponry with pin point accuracy. Not one time could Dosu dodge with being hit by another missile. In fact, he stuck to blocking after the first few hits were too close for comfort. However, she also didn't know of his secret weapon so he was quite comfortable with simply blocking.

This made Tenten stop as she wondered what was happening. While she couldn't see it, there was a smile on his face. Did he know something she didn't? Not wanting to find out, she simply moved from her spot as she began throwing missile weaponry at him on the run.

She did this as she had seen the extent of damage caused to her team mate’s ear. She knew one of the sound gennin had used a sound based attack that ruptured that ear and until he got to the medics here at the tower the ear was practically useless. Going on gut instinct that this was the guy that used it, she decided that moving as much as she could would keep her from harms way.

Now Dosu was annoyed. The girl did know about his attack and was making sure to stay away from it as hitting a moving targets was a very difficult thing for him to do as it had to be an exact hit. The only other way was if he could use it was if he made contact with her...

Smirking as he had a new goal, Dosu began knocking the missile weaponry away while making a cut straight for her, weaving out of the way of her attacks.

"No you don't!" Tenten yelled as she knew he wanted to get in close and like it or not, she had difficulties fighting guys in close range as they were simply just stronger then she was.

Jumping away, she managed to get extraordinarily high altitude from it before two scrolls appeared followed by what seemed to be thousands of different kind of weapons. To the normal eye, it would have been if they were hanging in mid air but to the train it was easily seen that each one was connected by a thin wire.

Seeing this new attack he was running straight into, Dosu had two options. Stop and shield himself or run straight for her. Both ways he would end up with injury, but only with the last could he insure victory.

Passing by the weapons thrown at him, ignoring those that cut into his flesh and reflecting those that would have caused more severe injuries, Dosu threw his arm back before extending it and hitting Tenten square in the face before a loud ring was heard through the arena.

Those with acute hearing were in pain enough as it was, however, Tenten short but painful cry pierced through as they watched the girl plummet to the ground and hit with a dull thud, her face blank.

"This fight is over! Winner is Kinta Dosu!" Hayate yelled as the medics rushed to the down gennin, hoping there was something they could do. Her team mates were immediately besides her trying to get her to come to but nothing seemed to be working. The only good news was that her heart was still pumping.

Wincing at the scene, Naruto knew that it was a very traumatic experience to watch a friend die even more so if they lived and became brain dead. From that attack and where it had hit, it was amazing that her heart was still going. To his utter amazement, she was slowly coming to and even began to try and talk.

As they carted her off, only the bowl haired gennin followed as the last person of their team hadn't fought and the jounin would stay behind to help him if needed.

Once the ring was cleared and everyone was calmer, the board flickered into life once more and the next battle was announced. Feeling it would be impolite to groan after what had just happened, Naruto instead settled for a simply plop of his head to his forearms. He was getting so bored.

However, before the fight began Shikamaru simply raised his hand and quit. "I don't want to fight. If it was against anyone else, I would at least try but Shino has the complete edge over me thanks to his blood gift."

Not being able to argue with him, as it was a known fact that the Nara clan respected the Aburame clan as one of the few that could easily defeat them almost every single time. Watching the board flicker again, the next battle was finally set. "Will Hyuuga Neji and Uzumaki Naruto report to the arena?"

"Finally! If I had been dead last there would have been heads rolling!" Naruto yelled, finally glad to get into the ring and prove his worth. Also, he wanted to give everyone left a show as it had been quite boring up to now.

In a blur of crimson, he appeared before Hayate just as Neji walked down from his balcony and turned to face him. "I just want you to know before we start, you have my condolence for what happened to Tenten and I hope she will be alright."

Almost breaking his indifference, Neji simply nodded before offering a small acknowledgment. "Thank you, but now we must fight so I hope you can put your concern behind you for this fight."

"Naturally." Naruto responded as his left hand reached to his sword's handle. "Now, may we begin proctor?"

With a simple gesture, Gekkou did so. "Let the match begin!"

Neji quickly activated his Byukugan as he charged straight for Naruto, not wanting to give him the time to pull his blade out. However, Naruto suddenly appeared to his right side and with his knee coming up to his gut while he held him in place with his other arm. Bursting around him, Neji twirled out of his grip before trying to sweep Naruto off his feet.

Naruto jumped into the air and with a quick snap of his wrist, he unsheathed his sword and brought it down onto Neji. The Hyuuga simply turned into a log before trying to strike Naruto from behind. Not even trying to dislodge his sword from the log, he used it look a hammer and swung it toward Neji.

Seeing the arc, Neji could tell it was coming for his head so he simply duck below and continued his charge. However, just as he tried to land a blow with his finger tips, Naruto turned his entire body and refused to allow the jyuken to have its full effect before slamming the log his sword was jammed into his stomach.

Gasping as it split apart, Neji rolled away from the blow and cursed seeing the blade was now free. He wouldn't admit it out loud as many Hyuuga wouldn't, their clan hated swordsman. Outside of those who could use the Heavenly Whirl, they happened to make it very difficult for them to get in close and if they did they had to end the fight quickly.

Smirking as he knew just how to do that, he shifted his stance as he began to locate his chakra points, tenketsu as his clan called them. However, he noticed something odd as he tried to locate them. Every time he would spot one a dark aura of crimson chakra would wash over it and make invisible to his eyes for a brief moment.

This he didn't like, but he managed to find all the locations in very quick amount of time, especially for a ninja in the middle of combat. "You are in my range of divination!"

Naruto was about to launch attack when he heard this. He was in range for an attack? With his sword he should have the range advantage unless he meant something else. Wanting to see what the Hyuuga was planning, Naruto simply held his sword across his chest in a guard and waited to see what he would do.

Neji didn't hesitate as he rushed towards Naruto, noticing the guard but was confident that he could get around it. In fact he did as the blade harmlessly passed by his head as he moved just enough to avoid it. It did cut into his shoulder, but that wouldn't affect him for he would end this.

As soon as he started, he hit the first two points he could see and quick followed by hitting the next two and doubled it getting faster and faster until he reached sixty-four.

Deactivating his Byukugan, Neji sighed as he was hoping for more of a challenge as he turned to look at his opponent. "This fight is over as I'm sure you can sense it. I've closed all of your chakra points off, so you can't use chakra."

Naruto looked at his arm, noting each of the spots he hit were slightly bruised. But he said chakra follow was reduced? That wasn't right as he could feel it flowing just fine. "You sure, I didn't feel a thing. Maybe your eyes or broken or something."

He punctuated his statement with a flare of chakra and forcing Neji to quickly activate his Byukugan to see that somehow each of his tenketsu were still open. He wasn't sure how, but they had opened and that left him stun as he saw each of them close. Snarling, he snapped back into defense as there was something different about this guy if he could negate that jutsu. All he had left was his secret weapon and that wasn't complete.

Naruto was lying a little, he did feel his chakra get cut off however his chakra points were instantly opened by small pulses of Kyuubi's chakra that were almost completely unnoticeable. However, if he was to get hit by that again he would be forced to rely on his demon and he didn't want that so he had to end this fight.

Flashing through a set of hand seals despite still maintaining his grip of his sword, the yellow orb began glowing dangerously before the blade suddenly erupted in lighting as Naruto lightly muttered the name. "Raitingu kirite(Lighting Cutter)."

Neji was instantly on guard, knowing this would be extraordinarily dangerous. A blade that was covered in lighting would be very hard to deal with so he had not choice and hope this would cancel it as he began to swirl his chakra around, seeing Naruto swing the blade towards him.

But faster then he could see, pain ripped through his left shoulder as he felt volts of electricity fill his body. He saw the wave of the electricity rip through his arm, but he didn't feel the blade. It was only a shallow cut, but still enough to break his concentration and keep him from attempting the heavenly whirl.

Seeing yet another slash coming to the right of his stomach, Neji tried to jump back and prepare himself for the whirl when the blade suddenly and seemingly lengthened and slashed through his stomach. His eyes widened from the pain and he couldn't help but yell as the electricity shocked through his body.

Falling to one knee, trying to keep himself off he looked up to see Naruto holding his blade straight to his face. "Admit your defeat. I could easily make this blade much more dangerous then what I am. ...I am sure you can sense that."

Growling in his throat, Neji had a dilemma. While he indeed could feel that his opponent was holding back the power of his blade, which was quite humiliating, he also had his pride and it would be crushed if he gave up so easily. He could always take this opportunity to use the whirl, but he doubted the blonde wouldn't be able to see that coming.

So no matter how he looked at this, surrender was the best option as Neji's eyes returned to normal. "Proctor, I admit my defeat."

"Winner by way of surrender, Uzumaki Naruto." Hayate announced, slightly impressed from what he saw from both gennin and admitting to himself that he wished both could go to the finals.

Releasing his lighting cutter, Naruto sheathed before shaking his right wrist a little. "I guess my deception wasn't need as I bet you saw that from the start."

Picking himself up, Neji nodded as the cuts would heal though he rather wanted medical help and to see how Tenten was doing. "Yes, I can clearly see your wrist was completely fine. However, I did notice your swing seemed to be slower then what it was when you rescued Konohamaru."

"Man... It is going to be hard to keep anything hidden with you Hyuuga around. Your family sees everything!" Naruto mock complained as he honestly didn't care if he was able to notice that. He worked hard to be able to keep his swing speed with both hands about equal as he never knew if something would happen to one of his arms.

Not caring in the least, Neji went with the medics that came to treat him before Naruto ran up the balcony wall and joined his team. "Ah, that feels better!"

"You complain about me analyzing too much yet you do the same thing." Omoi growled as he glared at Naruto, wanting to get back at him for earlier and the fact he nearly knocked a tooth out when he punched him not to long ago.

Naruto simply shrugged in response. "Yes, but the difference is that I can recover from damage at a much faster rate and able to take such damage as I have a fall back option with nine furry tails."

Omoi tried to find a come back to that, but he kept his mouth shut and grumbled in his mind. He didn't want to admit that Naruto did have that kind of advantage.

Kirabi simply shook his head, before taking a firmer stance. "Still, you were rather reckless. You allowed him to hit you with that one assault. If he had been any more experienced he could have wiped you out with it."

"Meh, I now know that. However at the time I didn't know his abilities so it was worth the risk. If I have to face another Hyuuga in the future, I will be ready for it and not take such unnecessary damage. Isn't that what these test are for?" Naruto finished with a question, which he knew would silence his sensei as it was the truth.

Yugito, on the other hand was a different story as she simply glowered at him. "That doesn't matter, Naruto. If you have a chance to avoid it all together and you opted not to which could have been a fatal mistake."

While he felt a little more comfortable with her being angry at him, he was still wondering what was with the sudden care as she hadn't been like that since he passed the gennin exam and became a ninja of the Cloud. It also made him feel out of place as he could tell there was worry laced in her words.

Not going to answer her, Naruto simply turned away as the final two that had not been called by the screen walked to the arena. "Alright, this is the final fight of the preliminaries! Sabaku Kankuro versus Ten Ryuu, begin!"

No faster then the fight began, Ryuu pulled the large sword off his back. He wore nothing but a pair of blue pants and a white shirt, looking like he was nothing more then a common street thug however from the stance he took it was obvious he had been trained.

Kankuro simply smirked as he yawned as he pocketed his hands. "What a drag. I'm stuck in the final fight and against a wannabee swordsman."

Ryuu didn't like the comment at all. However, he channeled his rage to his blade and with one fell swoop, he was behind Kankuro. The next moment Kankuro suddenly exploded, showering wooden shards over the arena as the real Kankuro jumped out of the bundle from behind, panting and slightly singed from the explosion. "What the hell was that?!"

Smirking at Kankuro's response, Ryuu simply pointed the blade towards him. The air around it seemed to be wavering and the heat that began to build up gave everyone a clue to what happened, especially Kankuro. "I'm glad you noticed. This blade was specially crafted for me by the same man that created the blades for the seven swordsman as he saw something in me. All I'll tell you, it is a blast to use."

Having his main puppet destroyed just from one swing due to his overconfidence, Kankuro was put between a rock and a hard space. If he surrendered Gaara would beat him till an inch of his life. But if he stayed to fight he could end up become like crow and fragments all across the arena.

"Um, I would like to surrender. My other puppets are under maintenance at the moment and not combat worthy." Kankuro stated slowly, trying to get across to his brother in the stands a message for future reference. He just hope he understood it and didn't beat him an inch to his life once they got back to the hotel.

Ryuu simply grinned at his victory as it was given to him before he sheathed his blade before the Hokage flickered into the arena. "Would everyone that won their preliminary match, please make your way down. I want to explain the final round to all of you."

Moments later, everyone that had won in the prelims, besides Sasuke as he hadn't returned when Kakashi did, the Hokage paused for a moment before starting. "Now, after seeing all of you fight I am quite sure all of you have figured out each other abilities therefore there is no element of surprise. So, the next round will begin one month from now."

"Now there are other reasons for this, mainly to allow the necessary time for our potential clients to get here, the main one for all of use is to give you time to train and learn new techniques to prepare for your potential opponents and to surprise them. Now Anko here will be walking by with a box. Inside the box there are sixteen numbers. Only one shall remain as that person will get the first part of the tournament off." The Hokage explained.

Anko walked by, everyone pulling a number out of the box until she had reached the last number and pulling out one herself for Sasuke. "Sasuke will be number seven."

Writing it down, Gekkou began to get the numbers from everyone until all the matches except one had been settled.

Scanning over the match list, Naruto quickly found his opponent. Oh, that would not be a fun opening match. The only move Ryuu had shown was his blade could make things blow up! The only good thing was he was in the fifth, well technically forth match up.

In the first match was Omoi and he was going up again Shino, whose abilities were not on display today due to the Nara's cowardice. In the next round, if he didn't screw up against Shino, he would go up against Lee as there was no way the bowl cut kid was going to not knock around Dosu for what he did to his team mate.

Looking further down on the bracket, he found Karui and she was going up against Gaara sister in the first round. A good match as she seemed to be a wind mistress and around her age, however what startled him was who she would face in the next round. It would be Gaara as he didn't kid himself, that Rain gennin would get murdered by him.

The only good thing was that she would get to display her skills in the first round. Because if she even tried to fight Gaara... He shivered at the thought. From what he saw against his fight with Konohamaru, Gaara was a beast in battle.

Overall, after that he noted the matches were pretty intriguing. Kuro would obviously wipe the floor with the Yamanaka girl as she had gotten very lucky in her fight in the first place. Sasuke got a first round bye, somehow, and would face the winner of that fight while Hinata would face off against the bowling ball kid and he would face the winner of that, if Ryuu didn't blow off an arm and make him use Kyuubi.

Seeing each of the fights and nodding to himself, the Hokage turned back to the group of gennin before making one last speech. "Train hard now as he know who your first opponent is. Remember, you are not only being judge on whether or not you are chunin material but you are representing you village. You are dismissed."

As everyone began to disperse, most heading to their sensei, Naruto stopped Karui and pulled her aside just before she reached Kirabi and Yugito. "You are not to fight Gaara if you get by the wind mistress."

While he had told this to her earlier, Karui is getting pissed by. He was telling her not to go out and show what she could do so she could have a chance to make it and become chunin. There was no way in hell she was going to allow that. "Now listen here..."

"No Karui, he is right." Yugito suddenly cut in knowing exactly why Naruto had pulled her aside as did Kirabi. "Even though I will be training you over this next month, both Kirabi and I forbid you to fight him. You may fight his sister, but he is far too dangerous."

Dropping her jaw, not believing that both her sensei and the Head Ninja of their village was commanding her not to fight him. How in the world was she suppose to show her skills off to advance in rank? "What, but why can't I?"

"Because he is the demon vessel for the one tailed beast, Ichibi better known as Shukaku of the Sand." Naruto answered, his suspicions confirmed seeing the way he fought as it was exactly the same as the record held of the past one tail vessels.

Nodding in agreement, Kirabi finally added what he had to say. "I normally wouldn't tell you to quit after the first round, however there is no chance that you can avoid him... The only two people that I can see that have a chance to defeat him... Are unfortunately facing each other in the first round."

Groaning, knowing Kirabi was talking about him and obviously Ryuu as that was his opponent, Naruto knew he had to train hard over this next month. Not only was he going to have to be strong enough to beat Ryuu, but he had to beat another before he got a chance to fight Gaara, who was going to be rested going in to his fight.

"Perfect, just perfect. Let me guess sensei, you'll be training Omoi." Naruto spoke flatly, already knowing that to be true as Kirabi said he would if they made it to this point.

A nod was his only answer before he was poked in his shoulder. Turning to see who poked him, he saw Kuro smiling softly. "I'll be talking to you later, Sir Naruto. I'll come and get you at your hotel when Lady Mizukage arrives. Oh, and good luck against Ryuu... You're going to need it."

Slumping his head further, Naruto simply nodded as she walked off, joining Ryuu and the jounin looking after them as they headed to the medic wing to check up on their other team mate. "Dammit... This is going to be one hell of a month."

"Well," Kirabi started as he patted his student on the back, trying to comfort him as he had the toughest road of all the contenders, "At least you have your fall back plan with nine furry tails."

"...And I'll see if I can make some arrangements for a trainer." He added on, seeing the dark look Naruto gave him that promised swift death... Or castration. He wasn't sure which and he didn't want to figure that out.

Feeling a little better, Naruto stood up straight before rubbing his temples before Omoi finally made his way over to him. "Damn, I failed to get a date with the Kuro girl... Naruto, why do all the girls I want flock to you?"

Rolling his eyes, Naruto just glared at Omoi before shaking his head. "She's not... She is a servant to the house of Uzumaki. And I am the last of the Uzumaki now, meaning I am her lord to serve."

Seeing the way Naruto began to distance himself after he had spoke, no one walked after him as they knew he needed to be alone. Even though he didn't know the old guy that much, he was still his grand father.

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