A Trip To Past - Naruto

20. The preliminaries!

The days of pleminaries had arrived. Most of the foreign participants waited at the central tower as it was more comfortable and accommodating than the inns they have booked in leaf to stay. Many of the teams had completed the second round just a day ago. Some of exceptions being the sand siblings completing the round in hours, Team 8 from rookie 9 completing the round the same day and Team 7, who arrived few hours after team 8.

The proctor was same Gekko Hayate,Yugao Uzuki, the ANBU Cat's boyfriend. Naruto remembered that Baki had murdered him last time and Yugao had been too depressed. She had worn herself out doing suicidal missions and finally she was lost in just a day before war. Naruto remembered her as she was one of ANBU looking out for him last time around and doing the same currently. Discretly, Naruto put a location seal on Hayate, fully intending to follow him and save him from Yakushi Kabuto and Baki this time around.

Similar to last time, the first match was Yoroi Akado vs Uchiha Sasuke. It was so ridiculously boring, that Naruto had urge to bully Yoroi. Sasuke had put him in genjutsu and he kept draining his own chakra until he was exhausted.

Second match was Aburame Shino vs Zaku of the sound Team. Shino asked Zaku to give up as he will loose, but being cocky Zaku blasted his sound weapon towards Shino blowing his hand off. The idiot didn't learnt the lesson as he did the same with his second hand, blowing it away as well. He was taken by healers and Shino was declared winner.

In third match, Kankuro went against Tsurugi, the teammate of Kabuto and Akado. He seemed to be in trouble at the beginning of the fight when Tsurugi coiled around him like a snake, but he quickly turned the tables. It's revealed that he is a puppet master, and the body that Tsurugi had attacked was actually a puppet. This allows Kankuro to easily counter his opponent's moves and decisively win the match.

The 4th match was between Yamanka Ino and Haruno Sakura. Suffice to say it was disappointment. It may have been battle of wills and life turning point among both the girls but to everyone else it just seemed like they were little girls instead of Kunoichi fighting over a boy. Finally they both punched and knocked each other out. Naruto shook his head and Sasuke looked away in a bit of shame.

The 5th match salvaged the reputation of kunoichis that the previous match had almost tarnished. Tenten and Temari were both fearsome opponents. Alas Temari being a wind user had advantage and proceeded to blow all of Tenten's projectiles away. After toying with Tenten for a bit, Temari easily seized victory from her unconscious opponent.

Shikamaru and Kin Tsuchi were the next to fight. It was revealed just how intelligent Shikamaru was during their fight, with IQ being over 200 at such young age. Kin was very proficient with needles, and one of the first people in the show to use a genjutsu against her opponent by utilizing bells. It initially seemed that Shikamaru would lose this by a huge margin, but after noticing a string connected to a bell, it was all over for Kin. Shikamaru was able to extend his shadow along the bottom of the thread to trap her, effectively ending the fight.

The seventh match was between a cocky Kiba and equally confident Naruto. Kurenai would have said that Kiba would easily win but after hearing the report on Team 7 establishing Naruto as the strongest graduate, she knew better. Still she hoped her students wins.

Naruto dismantled every moves of Kiba's feral taijutsu. Though Tsume, who was sitting in stadium wasn't surprised at all, having already seen what Naruto was truly capable of. She cursed as her son had one of the worst matchup for preliminary.

Countering the Gatsuga with a wide range 'Fuuton: Ditopa (wind release: Great breakthrough)', Naruto went on to use his Uzumaki 2-k barrage on Kiba knocking him out and winning the match.

The 8th match was between two Hyugas participating in the chunnin exam. Unknown to Hinata, Naruto had uncounsiously trained her to fight against Neji the last day. While he wasn't sure of her win, he knew she would quit with a blast unlike last time around where Neji had sent her to hospital.