End of preliminaries

Naruto vs. Kiba

The fight began, and Naruto stood still, looking at Kiba with no intention of advancing. This surprised Kiba because, knowing Naruto, he would clearly charge in without worrying about strategizing.

"You're not going to attack me, Naruto. Aren't you scared?" Kiba spoke, with his companion Akamaru lying under his hood.

"Hahaha, I just think that you won't be able to defeat me, so I'll let you make your move first," Naruto retorted, smiling.

Upon hearing this, Kiba became irritated and activated his ability, making a sign with his fingers to gather his chakra, which started to release through his body and hands. His nails grew as he crouched in a posture resembling that of a dog. He then swiftly advanced towards Naruto at an alarming speed, using his elbow to strike.

Naruto obviously saw it coming and defended with his elbow, generating a sound of impact. Naruto didn't budge, leaving Kiba surprised. He felt that Naruto's strength was superior to his own. He then attacked with his nails at Naruto's face, who jumped back, successfully dodging the attack.

Kiba followed, attacking Naruto with his nails, but soon realized that Naruto had drawn the staff he always carried, defending against all his attacks. Naruto then used the staff to push Kiba back, who jumped away, afraid of being hit.

Naruto smiled and advanced towards Kiba, unleashing several blows with his staff, managing to dodge some strikes, but was hit in the stomach by Naruto's thrust.

Kiba stepped back, placing his hand on his stomach. That blow had significantly hurt him.

"Darn, since when did Naruto become so strong?" Kiba wondered to himself.

He briefly glanced at Naruto and took out two pills, one of which he ate, and the other he passed to Akamaru.

Akamaru grew in size, and his teeth grew, his fur changing color.

"Man Beast Clone," as Kiba finished speaking, Akamaru jumped on his back and transformed into another Kiba.

Not stopping there, Kiba took out smoke bombs from his pouch and threw them at Naruto.

The smoke filled the area where Naruto was, and soon after, Kiba attacked along with his clone. Naruto couldn't see anything when an attack almost hit him, but he managed to dodge in time. However, several other attacks followed, which Naruto easily dodged.

' I have to get rid of this smoke.'Naruto began forming some hand seals, and then a strong gust of wind blew out of his mouth, dissipating all the smoke and pushing Kiba and his clone back.

Kiba slid a little with his clone and then returned to his initial position with his clone on his back.

"Good, Naruto, I admit you've gotten stronger, but you're still no match for me."

"Fang over Fang."

After finishing speaking, Kiba and his clone began to spin, transforming into what looked like a tornado as they advanced towards Naruto.

Upon seeing this, Naruto remained calm. He created a shadow clone jutsu beside him, and both started spinning the staff at high speed while waiting for Kiba and his clone.

Just as they got close, Naruto and his clone stopped spinning the staff and thrust it forward, creating a powerful concentrated tornado from the tip of his staff. The attacks from Kiba and Naruto collided.

For a few minutes, there was a struggle between the attacks, but soon Naruto's tornado proved to be much stronger, dragging Kiba and his clone, causing them to crash violently into the arena wall. Both of them passed out instantly, while Akamaru returned to his normal form.

Hayate Gekko signaled at that moment that Naruto was the winner, while the others checked on the condition of Kiba and Akamaru, but it wasn't anything serious.

Everyone watching was surprised by Naruto's power. They hadn't expected Naruto to be that strong.

Kaito was also surprised, but for another reason. The technique Naruto used wasn't something Hana or Haruki had taught him. He had learned that technique on his own, and it was quite powerful.

Naruto looked at Kaito, clearly surprised, and smiled, raising his hand and making a victory sign.

Sasuke was also looking at Naruto, wondering when Naruto had become so strong. He then thought about the missions they had undertaken.

...

Flashback

"Naruto, be careful," Sasuke shouted as Haku appeared in the mirror right behind him, throwing several needles. Sasuke thought Naruto would be seriously injured, but what he didn't expect was that the next moment Naruto exhaled a large amount of air from his mouth, sending the needles flying away. Not stopping there, Naruto took his staff and shot several wind blades by swinging it, cutting the mirrors.

Sasuke was distracted and almost got hit by a few needles. He then approached Naruto, leaning on his back.

"You don't let those needles get close, while I burn these mirrors..." Sasuke suggested, obviously doing it reluctantly but seeing no other alternative. So he joined Naruto, who could disrupt the attacks from the ninja in the mirror.

End of flashback.

...

And now, once again, Naruto had appeared with a new jutsu that was quite powerful. He was clearly getting stronger, which made Sasuke clench his hand in irritation.

On the other hand, Sakura was very surprised by Naruto's power but was happy about his victory.

Hinata was looking at Naruto with her eyes shining.

"That was so cool, Naruto-kun," Hinata whispered, her eyes gleaming. If she weren't so shy, she would surely be shouting Naruto's name and clapping for him.

After a few moments, another name appeared on the board.

Hinata vs. Neji.

Hinata was clearly surprised.

"Go, Hinata, you can do it," Naruto shouted as soon as he saw Hinata's name, which made her completely red but increased her confidence. She nodded at Naruto as she descended into the arena.

A few minutes later.

The fight ended just like in the anime, with Hinata losing and Neji having to be stopped. Naruto was very angry with Neji at that moment. Kaito swore he had seen Naruto's eyes change for a few seconds, but he believed it must have been a mistake.

Soon, the matches continued. The next fight was the epic Rock Lee vs. Gaara, and watching the fight in person brought much more excitement, especially when Rock Lee removed his weights. Kaito was very excited watching all those battles. Finally, their sensei had to intervene in the fight.

And the last match of the preliminaries had arrived, Choji vs. Ryuji.

"Haha, thanks for that wild boar meat, it was really delicious," Choji said to Ryuji.

"Hehehe, I agree, the meat was delicious. Let's eat together again sometime," Ryuji replied, preparing for the fight.

Choji agreed and then used his jutsu to turn into a large ball. He wanted to finish his fight quickly.

Ryuji then used some hand signs and placed his hand on the arena floor, and large stone gloves appeared on his hands. He charged toward Choji without worrying about dodging, which surprised everyone around, but then they were shocked. Ryuji punched Choji directly, and surprisingly, his punch did a lot of damage, causing Choji to recoil. Not wanting to give Choji a chance, he quickly formed hand signs, and several stone barriers emerged, trapping Choji in a stone box with no room to maneuver.

This astonished everyone as the fight ended quickly since Choji couldn't get out in any way; after all, the box was constructed in a way that it couldn't be broken.

Hayate declared Ryuji the winner, thus concluding the preliminary matches.

After that, all the qualifiers were gathered, and the Hokage explained the next stage.

"You will have a month to train and learn new tricks because using old and repeated tricks will bring defeat to you in the next battles," the Hokage finished speaking, leaving everyone pondering his words.

Kaito was thinking about how things would proceed now, especially the potential butterfly effects that could follow. After all, Sasuke was in perfect condition, and his seal had not been activated at all, so Orochimaru would probably try to figure out the cause of this.

'I'll have to be careful with Kabuto. Orochimaru may or may not be a problem, but it all comes down to whether he'll find out about my seal or not.' Kaito sighed. Since the moment he decided to put the seal on Sasuke, he could have been in Orochimaru's sights, but Kaito didn't regret it because his seal was absorbing some of the properties of the Curse Mark, and after removing that seal, he could study it carefully.