20 Preliminaries

Its been three days since naruto completed the second part of the chunnin exams. The three days pasted pretty quickly for him, not to mention they were kind of boring. He had told jiraya about what had happened on the mountain side along with the fact that he beat the second test in record time, which he found out that it slightly annoyed the rest of the kumo shinobi he had seen. Maybe they were upset that a leaf nin beat their test the fastest instead of a kumo gennin? Eh he didn't really care.

Now though, naruto was standing in a very large concrete room with two teams from mizu, one iwa team and two kumo teams. Which was around fifteen people, not including himself. It seems as if suna didn't make the cut, and the rest of the gennin either died or were to injured to continue the test.

The room-naruto noticed- had a large viewing area above them and in the front of the room was a raised platform that had an almost throne like chair on it. Naruto just hummed silently to himself as a pair of doors to the right of the raised platform swung open.

Naruto watched as bee, mabui, darui, surprisingly Ay the Riakage, and a girl with neck length bright blond hair walk into the room. Naruto sweat dropped a bit. That blond girl was like thirteen! Theres no way that someone that young could have a chest that big!

" everyone quiet down and stand at attention!" Mabui called out. The gennins quickly stopped talking after seeing the raikage and lined up with their teams. After a few seconds of silence, mabui continued." Youre all here because you completed the second stage of the exams – but do not celebrate just yet." She stepped aside and motioned to Ay." Raikage-sama will explain."

To say that Ay was a large man was like saying it didn't hurt to be stabbed in the lung. The man was fucking huge in narutos honest opinion. He had to be about 6'5, dark skin and he had a... iron claw? On his left hand. His muscles alone could crush narutos head and he wore no shirt, a pair of dark pants and black shin high boots, along with his kage robes.

"Now that I've got all your attention, ill be explaining what you all have to do now. Now usually youd all be well on your way to the third and final exam, which is a one on one fight between you and another. Sadly we cant do that yet because to many of you passed the second exam. So were gonna hold a preliminary fight." Ay told them sternly. Some of the gennin complained but it was quickly silenced by Ay who continued speaking." Now, samui will explain the rest." With that Ay turned around and walked over to his little throne and sat down.

Naruto watched as the blond girl who had been named samui walk to the edge of the platform and look out at them. Samui wore dark grey sandals, black pants, a grey t-shirt that did nothing to hide her rather impressed bust and a chunnin vest over said shirt that looked a little to tight. If naruto was honest with himself, hed say she was pretty attractive. Granted he was only six and knew next to nothing about women but even he could tell that samui would grow up to be quite the looker.

After a few seconds of silence samui began speaking to the assembled gennin." My name is samui and ill be the judge of this part of the test." Her voice was emotionless and her face blank." Your names will be randomly generated by this machine-" she pointed behind her and naruto saw a massive electronically bored hung on the wall. How the hell did he miss seeing that?" When your names are called you will come down here and fight. Since im in charge of this test then my word is law. If I say the match is over its over. Now the ways to win are to either knock out or kill your opponent, though ill do my best to stop the match before one of you dies. Now if I say stop and you don't stop then youll be disqualified from the exams. Does everyone understand?" She asked plainly.

A chorus of 'yes' from the gennin made her nod.

"Now the first fight will be between.." everyone looked back at the board and saw it light up before the words seemed to spin for a few seconds before popping up two names." Will soji and okuma please stay down here while the rest of you make your way to the viewing area please." Samui motioned towards the area above them.

After a few minutes the group of gennin were looking down at the two fighters. Naruto hummed to himself.

' so the first round is between iwa and mizu huh?' He asked himself.' Who do you think will win kurama?' The fox raised his head a bit as he stared through his containers eyes.

"My moneys on the kid from iwa." Kurama answered, getting a small nod from naruto in agreement.

Soji was a big kid, possibly around the age of 14 or 15. He had short brown hair, brown eyes, lightly tanned skin and was thicker in the belly area. He wore a red long sleeve t-shirt, a dark brown scarf around his neck, black pants and black shinobi sandals.

Okuma was a pretty small girl that looked to be around thirteen. She had shaggy shoulder length dark green hair and dark brown eyes. She wore a long sleeved dark green shirt with the sleeves hanging about three inches past her hands. She wore brown shorts that stopped just above her knees and dark blue sandals.

Samui stood between the two as they readied themselves." Are you two ready?" She got a nod from both of them." Cool, it wouldn't be cool if you werent." Cue the sweat drop from all kumo shinobi in the room. " begin!" She said a little louder than her usually plain tone, before she jumped away from the two fighters.

Soji gave the smaller girl in front of him a sneer." You should just give up now kid, its only a matter of time before you lose." He told her haughtily.

" I may be small-" okuma spoke calmly."- but youd be wise to not underestimate me."

" whatever kid. Your funer-Ah!" Soji was barely able to pull a kunai out and block the incoming hail of about ten senbon needles that were shot at him by okuma who had one arm raised out towards him. He gave her a cocky grin." Senbon launchers huh?"

He jumped away from her and went through hand signs before shouting out his attack."earth style: rock spikes!" He slapped both hands to the ground. A second later a bunch of sharp pointy earth spikes sprouted out from the ground and grew rapidly towards okumas position.

Okuma quickly jumped to the right before landing with a roll and going through her own hand signs."water style: fish spit jutsu!" She put a hand to her mouth and shot out a thin jet of water that impacted the rock wall soji had put up a second before. The water cut a small hole through the wall but missed its target.

Soji rolled out from behind the wall and chucked a handful of kunai at the mist gennin." Itll take more than an academy jutsu to take me down kid!" He told her as he watched the girl deflect his kunai with a senbon. Much to his joy though, one got through her defenses and lodged itself into her left thigh.

Okuma dropped to her knee with a cry of pain. She quickly removed the kunai from her leg and covered the stab wound with a now green glowing hand. Everyone watched as the wound closed up before she stood back up with a shaky breath.

"So youre a medic huh?" Soji asked knowingly.

Okuma ignored his comment and shot twenty senbon at the iwa nin from her senbon holsters. Soji blocked them with his kunai and dodged out of the way of a few, missing one that lodged itself into his right shoulder. He quickly ripped it out of him and threw it on the ground.

"That stung brat." He growled out as he dashed towards her. He swiped at her throat but okuma managed to backflip away and also kicking him in the chin mid backflip. Soji stumbled back a bit and spat the blood from his mouth as he watched okuma flash through hand signs.

"Water release: water shuriken jutsu!" Five shuriken formed out of thin air and into water as they appeared in her right hand. No one but naruto and the older shinobi from the cloud village noticed the water shurikens color change to a darker blue color before she quickly chucked four of the now poisoned shurikens at soji.

'Where did the fifth shuriken go?' Naruto asked himself.

"Its in the fourth shurikens shadow kid." Kurama answered. Naruto looked closer and found that the fox was right.

Soji blocked all four shuriken with a kunai, getting the shuriken to revert back to its original form and fall to the ground with a splash. He never saw the fifth water shuriken that was hidden in the fourths shadow before it lodged itself into his arm.

He cried out in pain as he jumped backwards a couple feet before touching his now cut shoulder." Youre gonna pay for that, you bitch!" He growled out.

"No I wont." Okuma relaxed her stance, which confused most of the gennin except for naruto. Everyone watched her reach into her sleeve and pull out a broken glass vile." The water shuriken I hit you with were doused in paralyzing poison. Its already working, try to move your arm." She gave off a feral grin.

Soji tried to move his legs and arms but found that he couldn't. He could only move his eyes and mouth. He watched with not so hidden fear as the smaller mist gennin walked up to him and held a kunai to his throat.

"I win." She told him as samui appeared next to them.

"Winner of the first round is okuma from the mist." Samui told everyone. There was some clapping and cheers from okumas teammates before a medic team cane out to collect sojis paralyzed body. Okuma went up to the viewing area and met up with her team."now onto the next round.."

Naruto continued to watch the next few matches lazily. Yugito, karui, and omoi managed to knock out their opponents, kurotsuchi who is the tsuchikages granddaughter managed to burn a mist nin to death with her lava release and won a spot into the finals.

Finally after what felt like days- the board spun and stopped on two names." Will naruto and gomi please make their way down to the fighting area." Naruto perked up as samui called his name.

Naruto locked eyes with his opponent. Gomi was a 13 year old mist gennin. She had bright red eyes, waist length black hair and pale white skin. She wore a black t-shirt with dark blue pants and blue sandals. She had on black fingerless gloves and carried what looked to be a giant sewing needle on her back?

The both made their way down to the fighting arena and stood facing one another. Gomi already had her hand on the needles hilt and was looking at him with a glare. Naruto was standing there scratching his masked cheek.

"Nice..needle?" Naruto spoke awkwardly. Gomi gave him a nod.

"Thank you. Ill be using it to end your life." She spoke plainly as if she didn't just threaten to kill him with an oversized sewing needle.

"Uh..thanks for the heads up?" He replied weakly.

"Brat!" Kurama spoke up from within his mind." That's not just any sewing needle. Its one of the seven swords of the mist! Be very careful brat. If she has that, then she knows how to use it!" Kurama warned.

Naruto eyes widened. His opponent had one of the legendary seven swords of the mist? Those swords were said to be sentient and each of them had their own special abilities.

" by the look in your eyes you've figured out that yes, this is indeed the famed sewing needle of the legendary seven blades." Gomi spoke up, getting surprised gasps from the people in the room." My kage gave it to me personally when I was six. Ive trained with this blade for years. And it will be the blade that ends your life." She told him.

" well might as well get this over with." Naruto spoke up.

" if you're both ready then begin!" Samui jumped away from them.

Gomi drew her needle and dashed towards him. She was on him in the blink of an eyes, thrusting the tip of her blade towards his chest. Naruto brought his hand up and a black rod shot out of his palm, smacking the needle away as he jumped back. He held his rod up in a defensive stance.

"Odd, I couldve sworn that black rod came out of your hand." Gomi stated as she stood straight and looked directly at naruto.

"Mmm, maybe, maybe not." Naruto replied." But I must admit that you surprised me with how fast you are. It seems ill have to take my weights off to keep up." Naruto formed a handsign and everyone watched the bracelets on his wrists and elbows glow a faint blue before he got back down in his stance." I do hope youre ready."

Gomi put the needle out in front of her, its tip pointed at the boy." Prepare yourself." Gomi stated before both hers and narutos forms seemed to flicker before they vanished.

-with yugito-

Yugito watched narutos match with narrowed eyes. She too saw the black rod seemingly faze out of narutos hand. 'Matatabi, what was that?' She questioned the fire cat.

Matatabi let out a weary sigh before answering." They're chakra rods kitten. A rinnegan user can form those out of pure chakra from any part of their body if skilled enough. Judging by how fast he made it, id say hes skilled enough. They're virtually unbreakable too. If he manages to stab someone with one then it disrupts their chakra and paralyzes them. Even my chakra cant break them or protect you from them either." Matatabi explained.

Yugito let out a small frown as she and the rest of the gennin lost sight of both fighters, only being able to see small sparks from when the two would lock blades.

Finally after a few minutes the two appeared again, this time they were back to back.

-back with naruto-

Naruto and gomi were back to back, each of them had a multitude of scratches and scrapes along their entire bodies. Their clothes were ripped in a few places and a bit of blood was leaking from each scratch.

"Damn, youre strong." Naruto panted a bit. This girl was insane! She was able to keep up with him at his max speed, which was about high jonnin level speed too! The only reason he wasn't skewed yet was because she wasn't faster than him, they were equals in speed.

"You are too for one so young." Gomi replied before spinning around and stabbing her blade into narutos back. Said boy cried out before going up in smoke."shadow clone?" She wondered quietly.

She was surprised when two hands came out of the ground and grabbed onto her ankles, locking her in place. However, before she could stab the clone that was in the ground she felt both her arms flare up in pain. She cried out in both shock and pain as she looked over and saw two giant foxes gripping onto her wrists with their jaws.

There were gasps throughout the room as no one knew were the foxes came from.

The fox that was gripping onto her right hand which held her sword went up in smoke, blocking her view. She felt someone grab her hand and break her wrist before the weight of her needle left her hand. The smoke cloud cleared and everyone saw naruto standing right in front of gomi. His left hand was held up to her chest while his right hand held the needle sword behind him.

"Almighty push!" He shouted out and the clones holding gomi vanished just in time. Gomis body was lifted from the ground and thrown directly into the wall behind them. A crater formed on the wall were the girl hit and smoke filled the room.

The room fell into silence as the smoke cleared. Everyone watched gomi pull herself out of the wall before she fell to her knees. There was blood running down one side of her face as she looked at naruto with angered eyes.

"How dare you!" Gomi growled out as she stood up to her feet." You have no right to touch that blade.." her hair shadowed her eyes and naruto gulped a bit. She looked back up at him with all her feminine fury before dashing forward towards him. Naruto yelped and dropped the blade as he jumped back about ten feet. Gomi appeared and caught the needle by its handle before it hit the ground. She pointed the blade at naruto and growled." You will die, today!" And she charged.

Naruto stood in place as he brought out another black rod in order to defend himself. Gomi was three feet away from taking his head off when her sword went up in smoke.

Gomis eyes widened in shock when she found herself holding onto another naruto clone instead of her sword. Before she could react, the clone grabbed her arm and swung himself onto the mist gennins back, bringing the hilt of a kunai down onto the back of her head, gomi slumped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. She hit the ground and slid on her face until she came to a stop at the original narutos feet. The clone jumped off her back and high fived its maker before vanishing into smoke.

The room was silent and everyone had wide eyes. No one expected naruto to win like that. Thankfully samui appeared and called the match, breaking everyone out of their shock.

"Winner is naruto." Samui gave the boy a nod as the medic came onto the floor and loaded gomi up onto a stretcher. Before they could take her away naruto stopped them.

"Wait!" He unrolled a scroll and put chakra into it. A cloud of smoke later naruto was holding the original sewing needle. He laid the sword next to its owner on the stretcher and walked away with his hands in his pockets." When she wakes up tell her I enjoyed our match." The medics only nodded before taking off towards the medical room.

Naruto ignored everyone who was looking at him and leaned against the railing overlooking the fighting area. He barely listened to samui as she called the next and final match. He closed his eyes and let a bit of kuramas chakra go through his system in order to heal the many cuts he had all over his body, he didn't notice yugito walk up next to him until she spoke.

"That was a smart plan." Naruto opened his eyes and looked at yugito as she spoke." Replacing her sword with a henged clone like that. You knew she was gonna get angry once she saw you holding her sword and she played right into your hand." She added." But why didn't you just keep her sword for yourself?" She questioned the boy.

Naruto shrugged a bit." I had no use of her sword. If I did take it, itd just end up in storage or on my wall. Anyways, she seemed to have a connection with that blade and who am I to sever that connection?" He told her quietly. Yugito looked at him with slightly narrowed eyes.

"Or is it because you have your chakra rods?" Naruto looked up at her with amusement in his ringed eyes.

"It seems matatabi is rather forthcoming with information about my eyes." He teased the giant cat a bit.

Yugito just nodded." Though she didn't tell me about that last move you used though. The one that sent gomi across the room and into the wall. Almighty push was it?"  She questioned.

Naruto looked back at the fight below them and hummed softly." Gravity manipulation." He answered as he put his hands in his pockets.

"And youd just tell me that? Even though we'll be enemies in the third exam?" Yugito questioned skeptically.

Naruto shrugged a bit." It wouldn't matter if I did or didn't tell you. Matatabi would tell you anyways. If not matatabi then gyuki and bee. Either way you look at it you would still get your answer." He told her calmly.

"I could beat you with that information you know." Here naruto looked at the older blond with slightly narrowed eyes.

"If you believe my only abilities are those of the rinnegan, than it is you who will be beaten." Naruto replied calmly. Yugito only scoffed." Underestimating your opponent is second on the 'why most ninja die' list." Naruto told her sagely.

"Whats number one?" Yugito asked with a small grin.

"Skill. Going up against an enemy or opponent that is just simply more skilled than you." Naruto answered. Yugito just hummed in response.

" tama wins the last round, will all winning gennin please make there way down here?" Samuis voice spoke up.

The gennins quickly made there way down to the arena floor and stood next to one another and waited for samui to continue.

"Congratulations, you've all won a spot into the chunnin exams finals. You all have one month from today to either go home and train or stay here as we will have training fields set up for you. Come next month you will all report to the kumo chunnin exam stadium to battle and show your villages that you are ready to be chunnin." Samui unwrapped a sucker and put it in her mouth." Since we have an uneven number there will be a three on three battle come show time. Does everyone understand."

"What about who were fighting? How will we know what to prepare for if we don't know who were fighting?." Kurotsuchi spoke up.

"That's just it. You wont know who youre fight so prepare for anything. We will again randomly select names when the time comes." Samui scratched her cheek with a bored expression on her face." Now, your senseis will be waiting for you outside of this building. I don't want any fighting between you gennin until the finals, now go on and get." She shooed them away before she walked back over to the raikage and began to quietly chat with him.

After sweeping his eyes over everyone naruto locked eyes with the raikage. The man narrowed his eyes and naruto just gave him an eyesmile before turning around and leaving the room, his goal was to find his sensei and began his training. Maybe hed write a letter to hinata and hinabi? Who knew.