A/N: So … after thinking about it a bit more, I decided that after Kabuto left, some random dude left too, so now we have 20 people, which helps me. I’ll probably change it in the chapter before this later on, just in case someone is wondering.

 

“Alright. We have decided for the first fight to be between Sasuke Uchiha and Yoroi Akado.” Hayate said.

Team 7 flinched. They had not expected for Sasuke to need to fight this early on.

“Again, I’ll have you know that you can surrender at any point in time and then the fight will stop. However, if you choose to fight towards death … then that’s your decision. We will, however, move in to prevent any unnecessary deaths if possible.” Hayate said, facing the Genin on the spectator seats.

“Sasuke …” Naru said, slightly worried.

Sasuke looked back at her and gave her a small smile. After that, he jumped towards the middle of the arena.

Yoroi Akado soon joined him and they faced each other warily.

Yoroi Akado was one of Orochomaru’s spies in Konoha, he knew that he needed to complete his mission of making Sasuke use his seal.

He wanted to prove his worth to Orochimaru, as he knew that he would be watching these fights.

A few seconds later, Hayate finally spoke: “Alright, start fighting!”

Instantly, both grabbed a kunai and rushed at each other.

It didn’t take long for blood to flow.

Soon, both had several wounds on their bodies and both of them were panting heavily.

Sasuke could only barely activate his Sharingan for a little bit after Naru left some of her chakra around the seal. But … as it was foreign chakra and the cursed chakra was vicious, it slowly ate away at the protective layer that Naru had given him.

He knew that he did not have much time and … when he noticed that his enemy was stealing his little bit of chakra that he had left … it did not exactly make things easier either.

Actually, he was about to lose when he heard Naruto shout: “Sasuke. If you are an Uchiha and if you love my sister … then you need to win!”

(A/N: OwO)

That gave Sasuke the push he needed, and he was able to overpower his opponent after dodging several of his strikes with the Sharingan’s superior vision.

After the fight, Sasuke was taken away by medical-nin and Kakashi, who told his team that he’d seal the curse.

Naru’s eyes lit up, maybe … after that she’d have a chance to remove it.

 

…

 

The next fight between Shino Aburame and a random ninja no one had ever seen before. It ended in Shino’s victory.

Kankuro won against Mitsumi Tsurugi.

After that … was Sakura vs. Ino. These two old friends had some things left to settle and they viciously beat each other. Though, not once endangering each other’s life.

That fight ended in Sakura’s victory, as she had simply trained harder and longer than Ino. She had also dodged Ino’s attempt at taking over her body.

Both had, however, fainted after their fight.

 

…

 

In the fight of Tenten against Temari, Tenten’s weapons were totally swept away by Temari. She had no chance at all … perhaps, this was simply unlucky?

…

 

Shikamaru easily won against a random Genin not worth mentioning(:3).

 

…

 

The fight after that, however, was highly interesting.

Kiba Inuzuka vs. Naruto Uzumaki

They both stepped onto the arena and looked at each other.

Kiba shouted: “I won’t lose against you! Let’s go Akamaru!”

Naruto just smiled at him and took out a kunai.

Naruto did not necessarily want to fight Kiba, as he considered him a friend … but … if what he needed to do to become Chunin was fight him, then he would.

He would, however, never truly injure him. He had confidence in his skills that he would be able to do that.

Naruto moved at lighting speed and appeared behind Kiba.

Akamaru barked loudly, alerting Kiba to what had happened.

Kiba turned around, barely blocking Naruto’s kunai with his own.

Kiba growled: “How are you this fast?!”

“I’ve been training all these years … of course I’d be this fast?” Naruto said in a slightly questioning tone.

“And if I could finally break my body’s limits …” Naruto thought, before being attacked by Kiba who had gotten on all-fours with Akamaru on his back.

“I may be underestimating him a bit much … that was careless!” Naruto screamed in his mind.

He had gotten cut by Kiba’s claws.

Blood oozed out of the wound on his chest.

Kiba continued attacking him, getting faster and faster.

It was not only Naruto that had trained all his life … the rest of the kids more or less did the same. There was only so much strength that a normal twelve-year-old boy could hold, which became evident, as Naruto created tens of clones to surround Kiba.

Kiba fought back many of them, however, at some point, while he was inattentive, the real Naruto appeared behind him and hit the back of his neck, making Kiba fall into unconsciousness.

“The winner is Naruto Uzumaki!” Hayate shouted.

Naruto quickly dispersed the rest of his clones and jumped back to his sister and Sakura. His wounds were already slowly healing through Kurama’s influence on his body.

“You did well, Nii-chan!” Naru shouted as she hugged him tightly, also infusing some of her chakra into him to heal him.

Naru let go of him and moved to make way for Sakura who had also wanted to hug Naruto and congratulate him on his victory.

After hugging Sakura, Naruto looked around … searching for Hinata.

When he finally saw her, he noticed that she was looking at him too and their eyes met.

“Eh, eh, eh~?” Naru said aloud, noticing their interaction.

“W-What ….” Naruto mumbled, looking at Naru for a second before turning towards Hinata again.

“Go to her already, Kit. She clearly wants to talk to you but doesn’t have the courage to do so …” Kurama said.

Kurama was actually very satisfied with the way that Naruto had fought against Kiba … Naruto had not revealed his full capabilities, but that was okay. There was no need to injure his fellow Genin too much.

Upon Kurama’s encouragement, Naruto slowly moved towards Hinata. Naru giggled, seeing him move and fidgeting from time to time.

To think that her brother could be that nervous about something~.

Soon, Naruto was by Hinata’s side and sat down next to her.

Kiba had been taken to the infirmary and Shino had followed, making her stay alone.

She would need to fight after all … though, it hadn’t been nice from Shino to leave her alone.

She had wanted to go over to hug Naruto too, but … they weren’t even that close … and she … she ….

Her face was clearly overheating, that much Naruto noticed.

“N-N-N-Naruto-kun … y-you did w-w-well!” She quietly shouted, not looking at him.

“T-Thank you.” He mumbled, also feeling a blush rising on his cheeks. Who had asked Hinata to be this cute anyway?!

He glanced at the hand that she had laid on the bench … and, he didn’t know what led him to gather this much courage at that moment … but he moved to put his hand above hers.

He felt how her whole body froze … but, her shivering stopped.

She turned to look at him in surprise, but after seeing the gentle, blushing smile he was giving her, she smiled right back at him. Her face showed how happy she was right now and Naruto intertwined his fingers with hers, causing a small giggle to escape Hinata’s mouth.

They just sat there, not talking while waiting for the next fight to be announced.

But, alas … good things like this were not supposed to last long, or were they?

Hinata was soon asked to fight against Neji.

 

…

 

It was a … painful fight. Not only for the participants, but also for the people watching.

Naruto felt his heart hurt at the sight of Hinata crying out in pain.

Neji had played with her timid mind and used her fears against her.

They had seemed to be evenly matched at first, both using their Byakugan and the Tai-Jutsu their clan used, the gentle fist.

But … Neji had proven to be stronger in the end, disabling the chakra flow in her arms, which caused her to be unable to use her fighting style anymore.

Neji had just moved towards her, preparing another attack which would mean certain death for Hinata, when he suddenly felt as if the weight of the world was on his shoulders.

He stiffened, not daring to move a single muscle. No one else was feeling this, which was evident when he looked around.

“This  … this is killing intent?! Who?!” He screamed out in his mind, before noticing the eyes stuck to the back of his head.

He turned around and … he knew … he would never be able to forget this haunting pair of eyes that looked at him.

This was a sight that would haunt him in his dreams.

At the same time, Naruto had appeared next to Hinata and held her in his arms.

“Hinata, it’s okay now … it’s over. You did well, I’m proud of you. You showed them your resolve … that you can be brave when needed, I’m truly proud of you. Rest now.” Naruto said, gently looking at the small girl in his arms and stroking her hair.

Her eyes closed almost instantly and Hayate announced the results of the fight: “Neji Hyuga wins!”

Naruto carried Hinata towards the medical-nin, who then took her away to be healed in Konoha’s hospital.

He looked at the girl’s sleeping form and cursed himself for not interfering sooner … she did not need to prove herself. She was perfect in the way she was … she had no need to prove herself to others.

He glared at Neji, vowing to make him pay in the finals.

Naruto then returned to Naru and whispered: “Thanks for stopping him, little sister.”

“Don’t worry about it. I quite like her as well, it was only right to stop that rude boy from hurting her any further.” Naru said with a small smile on her face. However, her earlier anger at the Hyuga boy had still not faded completely.

If she were the one to face him in the finals, he would never use chakra again.

 

…

 

The next fight, the fight between Gaara and Rock Lee, was rather surprising.

Naru knew that Gaara held the one-tails … Lee, however strong he was, should not be able to fight against him.

However, using a miraculous technique making use of the inner chakra gates … he was able to nearly beat Gaara.

(The technique seemed interesting, but Naru would never be able to use them, as her body was not human.)

After destroying Gaara’s armor of sand and continuously beating Gaara with his technique, the Reverse Lotus, Lee had at some point reached the end of his energy.

Gaara used his sand to viciously crush Lee’s left arm and leg … and if Guy-sensei hadn’t interfered … Lee would have died.

It wasn’t clear whether Lee would ever recover from this fight. He had simply received too many severe injuries and used too much strength in this fight. But … how else could he have even tried beating Gaara, the Jinchuuriki of Shukaku.

 

…

 

The tenth and last fight was unsurprisingly, Choji Akimichi against Naru. They were the last two people that had yet to fight in the preliminaries.

Choji had wanted to give up right away, not seeing a point in fighting at all, but after being promised a mountain of food by his sensei if he were to win, he decided to try.

After confirming that both of them were ready, Hayate said: “Okay, start the fight!”

In not even a second, the fight was over.

Naru had instantly reappeared behind Choji and held her sword against his throat. A sudden move of his would cut his throat and he would probably die.

No one had truly expected the fight to go like this and there was silence in the arena for a while.

The Hokage just thought: “Hahaha, she is nearly as fast her father … and she is not even using the Hiraishin! Why didn’t Kakashi tell me that she was this excellent! This is Anbu material! And her brother is too, actually. But … alas, they are Jinchuuriki and I’d rather not have them go berserk in the Anbu. They are more efficiently used as hidden forces … and for that, they need to remain hidden.”

A few seconds later, Hayate finally regained his composure and announced the results.

 

…

 

So, the Genin advancing into the finals were: Sasuke, Shino, Kankuro, Sakura, Temari, Shikamaru, Naruto, Neji, Gaara and Naru.

The Genin were told that the finals would be held in one-months’ time. Mainly for the important figures of the different nations to be able to arrive in Konoha, but also for the Genin adequately prepare for the finals.

 

…

 

A/N: UwU … let me know what you think about this chapter! :3