4 Talking and Preliminaries

We made our way to the Hokage's office as a group. Along the way, everyone was mostly silent, although I could see Naruto itching to ask questions.

Once we arrived, we entered and found the Third Hokage sitting at the desk.

"What is it that you need to talk about Sasuke?" Hiruzen asked.

I had thought about how I wanted to explain this on the way, and came to the conclusion that I couldn't really omit a whole lot since Hinata was there for most of the fight. She was the only one who had seen the curse mark, so I'd have to see what she said.

"While we were in the Forest of Death, I split off from Naruto and Sakura to use the restroom. Some stuff happened that led to me being together with Team 8 when we were attacked by a Genin from Kusagakure. Her killing intent was so strong it paralyzed Kiba and Shino for a while, which led to Hinata and I getting into a fight with the Genin, who ended up shedding her skin to reveal Orochimaru of the Sannin."

When I said Orochimaru Hiruzen and Kakashi's eyes widened.

"Did he mark you anywhere?" Hiruzen asked with a worried look on his face.

Before I could answer, Hinata spoke up saying "He tried to do it, but he wasn't able to pierce Sasuke's skin, so he gave up."

Keeping my reaction carefully controlled to not give away my surprise, I nodded and said "Yeah, he wasn't able to break my skin so he gave up marking me and tried to keep attacking, but Kiba and Shino arrived and helped us drive him off."

"Why is your skin that tough?" Hiruzen asked.

"It's a clan secret." Was what I responded.

Hiruzen hesitated for a second before nodding his head.

"You all did well in surviving against Orochimaru. Go get some rest and prepare for the next stage of the Chunin Exams." Hiruzen said.

We all nodded before walking out of the Hokage office and back towards the tower. As we did, Naruto said "Wow, so you guys got to fight a really strong guy. That's awesome."

"It's not awesome Naruto. We all almost died." I said.

Naruto looked down at that and said "Well you didn't so that counts as a win."

Shrugging my shoulders, the rest of the walk back was littered with small conversation, but I mostly ignored it. Glancing at Hinata, I knew I'd need to talk to her in as soon as possible.

Once we made it back, we all split off to go to our individual rooms for the next day until the exam finishes. Once we separated, I saw where Hinata went and made an excuse that I wanted to explore before walking towards her room. Reaching it, I knocked and she opened the door, letting me in.

Getting straight to the point, I asked "Why didn't you say anything."

Hinata hesitated for a moment and said "You saved us, I was just returning the favor."

I didn't really believe that, but I nodded my head.

"Do you have whatever that was under control?" Hinata asked.

"It didn't take, it disappeared soon after he put it there." I said while showing my neck where there was no mark.

In actuality I had used my control of my body to move the mark down to my foot. Even if Hinata had covered for me, I didn't want her to know I still had the mark. I wouldn't have it for long anyway.

"Anyways, thanks Hinata, I appreciate it." She nodded her head and I left and made my way back to my room. Once I entered, I locked the door and sat down. Focusing inward on my body, I felt where I had separated the curse mark to. I could feel Orochimaru's chakra contained within it.

Using my control, I allowed the chakra to enter my body. As soon as it entered, I gained complete control of the Chakra, combining it with my own reserves. I continued to drain the chakra from the mark until nothing was left, with my reserves greatly increasing from absorbing the Sannin's chakra.

Orochimaru's chakra wasn't the only thing contained within the seal though, along with it there was also some senjutsu chakra. I wasn't a sage and while I was somewhat tempted to attempt to manipulate it, I didn't want to take the risk so I released the chakra from body, allowing it to dissipate back into nature.

With that finished, I went to sleep after how draining the day had been.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------The next day passed without much happening, with the day after that being the day for the preliminaries. We all headed towards the arena for the preliminaries, where we all lined up.

"Congratulations on passing the second stage of the Chunin Exams. Some of you arrived early, while others have just arrived now." Hiruzen said. After that, he went on to explain the history of the Chunin exams.

Once he finished, he said "Now, there were more participants who passed the second part of the exam than expected, so we will be having a preliminary match to determine who makes it into the final tournament for the Chunin Exam. Does anyone wish to drop out now and not participate in the preliminaries."

Kabuto walked forward, raising his hand. "I'm almost out of chakra, so I think I'll sit this one out. Good luck guys."

Once he left, Hayate Gekko stepped forward. "I will be the proctor for the preliminaries, Hayate Gekko. It will be an elimination round, with two names being randomly selected on the board right there. Those two will fight, and the winner will take part in the finals in a month."

With that said he stepped back and allowed the board to roll the first match of the preliminaries. It eventually finished rolling and landed on Sakura vs Ino.

'They've got to be controlling the board, there's no way the two most useless people in the exams would get matched up.'

From there it was the same fight as canon with everyone left disappointed at this being the first fight of the preliminaries. All the Jonin were looking at Kakashi and Asuma, while Kakashi was looking down at his book trying not to blush at how poor of a showing that was. Asuma, on the other hand, was making eyes at Kurenai and trying to ignore the terrible fight below.

Once that disappointment was over, the next fight was rolled. The board spun before landing on Naruto and Choji.

'So the fights aren't all canon.'

Naruto and Choji both jumped into the arena.

"Begin" Hayate said.

As soon as he said that, Naruto formed a couple clones and had them run at Choji. Choji used his Human Bullet Tank jutsu to turn into a ball and bulldozed over Naruto's clones, continuing on towards Naruto.

Naruto jumped out of the way, avoiding Choji who couldn't turn and rammed into the wall digging into it. Naruto took that opportunity to form a bunch of clones and have the dog pile on Choji, leading him to forfeit.

"Winner Naruto Uzumaki."

'You know, now that I think about it, Naruto has literally one jutsu. He only can use the shadow clone jutsu right now, so until he learns the rasengan he's got one move. He's lucky with his absurd chakra reserves, it's a really good move.'

Naruto cheered as he walked back to where we were. Sakura looked down at her loss, but nobody felt like comforting her when he fight was that underwhelming.

The board spun again until it landed on my name and Rock Lee.

'Well this should be fun.'

Jumping down into the arena, I looked across at Lee.

"Yosh, let's have a good fight." Lee said.

"Yeah" I said.

"Begin" Hayate said. As soon as the words left his mouth, Lee sprinted at me. I didn't need my Sharingan to see him at this speed, so I didn't activate it and dodged his punches. Lee continued to throw punches, speeding up slowly.

Deciding to change things up, when Lee threw another punch I met it with one of my own. When our fists met, we were pretty evenly matched in strength surprisingly. Lee jumped back and looked at me in surprise.

"Wow Sasuke, you must train your body very extensively like I do." Lee exclaimed.

"Lee, take them off." Guy said while holding a thumb's up.

"Yosh, alright Sasuke I will stop holding back now." Lee said before jumping up towards the statue. He then slid his leg warmers off and removed the weights.

"What's removing some weight going to do?" Temari asked.

Lee dropped the weights and they slammed into the ground, letting up a huge amount of dust as they broke the ground beneath.

"I feel much lighter now." Lee said before he vanished from most of the room's perspective and appeared in front of me, throwing a punch that connected directly with my gut, sending me skidding back. I wasn't injured due to how strong my skin is, but the force of his acceleration and strength sent me flying back.

I activated my Sharingan quickly. Lee was too fast for me to see in my base state at the moment. With my Sharingan active, when Lee blitzed forward again I was easily able to see his movements. I waited until he got near and dodged at the last moment, moving to the side and throwing a jab at Lee's exposed side. This was the Uchiha taijutsu style, one focused on using the Sharingan's enhanced perception to react and anticipate attacks.

Lee was able to react, however, and use my punch to launch himself out of my range, reducing the damage my punch would've done in the process.

"The sharingan is a magnificent thing to be able to react to my speed. I must complement you, but I will have to take it even further."

A green aura surrounded Lee as he said "Gate of Opening, Open."

The aura continued to grow stronger as he continued, "Gate of Healing, Open."

"Gate of Life, Open."

With the third gate opened, Lee was surrounded by a strong green aura as his veins popped out.

I let a smile cross my face. In all my other fights, I was either hopelessly outmatched like with Orochimaru, or wasn't going to have much difficulty. This was a fight I could enjoy. I had spent almost all of my time since the graduation exam training to be stronger, not really enjoying much. This was a chance to really cut loose.

"Alright Lee, you showed your card, let me show you mine."

With a thought I was surrounded by my Lightning Chakra Mode.

"Yosh let us have a good fight Sasuke."

"Alright Lee, let's go."

With that, we both took off. We were a blur to all of the Genin, and even the Jonin had trouble keeping up with us. Kakashi had his Sharingan out, watching the fight.

We clashed, punch meeting punch, kick meeting kick, as we blurred around the area. Every step we took was shattering the ground of the arena with each exchange. It started off seeming somewhat even, but I continued to amp up the chakra I was poring into the Lightning Chakra Mode, increasing my speed and durability. Lee was beginning to lose more and more of the exchanges we had. After one more clash, Lee jumped back again.

"I will give this fight my all Sasuke." Lee said.

"Gate of Pain, Open."

"Gate of Limit, Open."

Lee's face was deep red, covered in veins. He took a step and was even faster as he appeared in front of me, bending and kicking me into the air. I flipped onto my back, knowing where Lee was going to appear from.

With my increased chakra reserves from absorbing Orochimaru's cursed mark, I could manage to pour even more chakra to increase my speed.

Lee appeared above me as his bandages wrapped around me, only to be unable to make contact due to the lightning surrounding me. Lee gave up on using the reverse lotus and instead threw a punch with all of his might forward. Meeting his punch with one of my own, we both put our strength into a final clash.

As Lee's fist met mine, I could already tell I had won the exchange. Lee's bones gave out as the fifth gate put too much strain on his body. My punch was stronger than his as well, so he was thrown back into the wall of the arena, collapsing to the ground.

I landed on the ground, deactivating my Lightning Chakra Mode. Looking over at Lee, I could see him trying to struggle back up.

"Lee, this was a good fight. Let's call it here." I said.

Lee seemed to still try to get up for a second before nodding his head with a smile and collapsing to the ground unconscious.

"Winner Sasuke Uchiha."

As I moved to go back to where Team 7 was, I heard a call of "Sasuke." Turning around, I found Guy with Lee in his arms. He gave me a smile and held his thumb up. "That was a hell of a fight. I'm sure Lee will want a rematch sometime."

Returning his smile with one of my own, I responded "Sure, let Lee know that was the most fun I've had in a long time."

Guy then left with Lee to get him some medical help, while I jumped out of the arena to where Team 7 was waiting.

"Wow Sasuke, that was awesome. You and Lee were blurs, Bushy brows was actually really strong." Naruto said.

"Yeah Sasuke, that fight was amazing." Sakura said.

"Thanks." I responded.

"Sasuke, I'm surprised you're able to use a jutsu so similar to the Raikage's." Kakashi said.

"That's the Raikage's jutsu? I just thought lightning would make me faster and went from there. That's interesting to know." I responded, feigning ignorance.

Kakashi just eye smiled and went back to reading his book.

Looking around at the stadium, I only payed attention to a few reactions. I could see Gaara giving me a blood thirsty look. His siblings both looks a little scared, although I wasn't sure if it was for me or of me. I could see Shikamaru whisper troublesome under his breath as well. When I looked towards Hinata, I could see her looking towards me as well. She gave me a thumbs up, and when the next match was read out I mouthed good luck to her.

The board had rolled the names Hinata Hyuga and Neji Hyuga.

'The odds of them getting each other is ridiculous and what the hell is going on. All of the Leaf Genin have fought each other. They're definitely manipulating the results, but why would they want the Hyuga to fight each other I wonder.' I thought.

Hinata and Neji jumped down into the arena. Neji went on his spiel about fate, but Hinata looked determined.

"Begin."

They both ran at each other, each throwing palms at the other. Neji tried to use words to get into Hinata's head, but she seemed to ignore him completely and focus entirely on the fight without holding back.

Palm after palm was thrown, with both sides seeming evenly match.

"Wow, who knew Hinata was so strong." Sakura said next to me.

Kiba took this opportunity to speak up, "Yeah the Hyuga specialize in taijutsu, if she was fighting anyone else the fight would be over already."

"The gentle fist taijutsu is focused on closing the opponenets chakra points. This fight will come down to who can get the edge first." Kakashi said.

Eventually, Neji managed to get a hit on Hinata's arm, closing on of her chakra points. He was quick to press the advantage, continuing to close her chakra points in her arms until she was unable to use the gentle fist.

"You see Lady Hinata, fate degreed that you would lose today."

He continued to throw palms, damaging her organs and leading to Hinata struggling to stand up as she swayed.

"Neji, you talk so much about fate, but is the only reason you talk about fate so much because fate itself made you a branch member?" Hinata said while spitting blood out of her mouth.

Neji took on an enraged look as he pullde his hand back and threw a palm towards Hinata's heart, which woudl be a killing blow. Before his palm could reach her, though, he was surrounded by all of the Konoha jonin in the room and, to the surprise of everyone including myself, me.

'Why did I react, I knew the jonin would stop him.'

Hinata took that moment to fall down, with me moving to catch her. As she closed her eyes, she said "I tried my best."

"Yeah, yeah you did." I muttered.

As Hinata was taken away on a stretcher, I returned to my original position while thinking about what had happened.

'I was just paying her back for covering for the curse mark, that's it.'

After that match the rest of the matches were much less entertaining. Gaara got matched up with Yoroi, killing him within seconds of the match beginning. Temari and Tenten got matched up and the fight went the same as canon. Kiba fought Zaku and lost due to Zaku creating the equivalent of a dog whistle with his arms, disorienting Kiba long enough for him to be knocked out.

Shikamaru fought with Kin and it went the same as canon, although he didn't throw the Kunai for no reason. She was caught in his shadow imitation technique, so he just leaned back and had her head slam into the wall.

Dosu and Misumi fought, with Dosu coming out victorious after Misumi wrapped around his body and was hit with the full force of his sound attack, falling unconscious. The last fight was between Kankuro and Shino, with Shino winning the fight because Kankuro had a really bad match up.

Kankuro used chakra strings to control his puppets, so Shino could sense the chakra and knew it was a puppet right away. His bugs ate the chakra strings, meaning Kankuro had no way to use his puppet and was forced to surrender.

With all of the matches ended, the winners left were me, Gaara, Shino, Naruto, Dosu, Temari, Neji, Shikamaru, and Zaku. We all drew lots for what that match ups would be for the finals.

The match ups were:

Naruto vs. Neji.

Me vs. Gaara.

Zaku vs. Dosu.

Shikamaru vs. Shino.

Temari would be automatically moved to the next bracket.

With those decided, we all made our way out of the arena and headed back to our homes. On the way out, I moved towards Kakashi and said "Kakashi-sensei, can you train me for my fight with Gaara?"

Kakashi hesitated for a second, before saying "Alright Sasuke."

With that done, I left and made my way back to the Uchiha compound.

'Naruto can go find Jiraiya and get that training. Actually, now that I think about it, Jiraiya was a pretty useless teacher too to Naruto. He only taught him to summon and the rasengan. Then again, the rasengan was all Naruto used, so maybe he was a good teacher.'

Once I got back to my house, I went straight to bed, exhausted and happy from my fight with Lee.