Preliminaries Part 1

On the upper area, Hiroki was arriving next to Kakashi, Naruto and Sakura and he saw Haku and her team next to them. He also saw Zabuza.

"You're a sensei now, Zabuza. It suits you." Hiroki said to the demon of the mist.

"Heh. Don't think I forgot the number you did on me, kid. I'll only let it slide because it was thanks to you that we could help Mei and the others." Zabuza said as he scoffed.

"Hehe. No hard feelings then." Hiroki said as he smiled at Zabuza.

"Oh, yeah. Is this Mei the one that became the new Mizukage?" Hiroki asked.

"Yeah. She was the one leading the rebels. She is the new Mizukage. She will be here in the finals. She wants to meet you. She wants to thank you for the indirect help." Zabuza said.

"There's no need for that, but I'll meet her, otherwise it'll be seen as rudeness of my part." Hiroki said.

"Anyways, shouldn't you have been promoted already? Haku told me about the special "privilege" you got in the second exam. With your skills, this is just a waste of time." Zabuza said.

"Well, it's not up to me to get promoted. It's either the test or the Hokage that can get me a promotion. I didn't get one from the Hokage, so the test it is." Hiroki said.

"Heh. Whatever. Kakashi, you should have indicated the brat to become a chunin to the old man." Zabuza said as he looked at Kakashi.

"Well, he's my genin, Zabuza. I believe it's up to me to recommend him or not since I'm his sensei." Kakashi said as he looked at Zabuza with a bored expression.

"Shut up." Zabuza said to Kakashi.

Hiroki, Naruto and Sakura only laughed as they watched the two sensei talking.

"Hey. How dare you laugh at Zabuza-sensei." One of Zabuza's student asked angrily at Kakashi's three genin. It was Kiri.

"Huh? So I can't laugh whenever I what and at whatever I want then? You're a funny one." Hiroki said with a laugh.

"Damn you." Kiri said as he grumbled.

"Kiri, shut up." Zabuza said to his genin.

"But Zabuza-sensei, he..." Kiri wanted to question, but was interrupted by Zabuza.

"I told you. Shut up. If I were you, I wouldn't want to anger him. If you end up making him angry and at the end, fight each other, there's nothing much I will be able to do for you." Zabuza said.

Next to Kakashi's and Zabuza's team, the other genin and their senseis were listening to their conversation. One of them was Gai and his genin.

"Gai-sensei, why did that kid get special task in the second test? And why does that other Jounin from Kirigakure have a high opinion of him?" Neji asked.

"Special task? I wouldn't call it that. It's more like a suicidal task. I don't know if you guys would be able to have completed it. The second test was already hard the way it is. Having almost everyone pitched against you and completing the task seems to be something that not only does a person need to be a genius, they have to be a hard worker. As for the other Jounin from Kiri, Kakashi told me that he hand his team ran up against him while on a mission. The Jounin struck Hiroki, but the boy wasn't hurt. Instead, he was able to land a hard strike on the Jounin." Gai said.

"Hmph. That Jounin must be weak then." Neji said.

"Haha. Neji, don't underestimate others. He's Momochi Zabuza, one of the seven swordsmen of the mist. If he's anything, it's not weak, it's just that Hiroki is strong." Gai said.

Neji hearing his sensei, could only grit his teeth. He sees himself as being a genius and his sensei never once said those words to him. Hearing Gai saying that about Hiroki, made him want to fight against him even more so he could prove himself.

"First battle between Yoroi and Sasuke. Begin!" Hayate said.

"Naruto, pay attention to this match and all others. We might learn a thing or two." Hiroki said as he looked at Naruto and activated his sharingan and the looked down at the match.

"Hiroki, your sharingan. When did you awaken it? And why is it already fully matured?" Kakashi asked.

"I've had it for some time." Hiroki's answer was short and definite.

———

"Let's go." Yoroi said as he made a hand seal.

"Hn!" Sasuke said as he activated his sharingan.

Yoroi was the first one to make his move as his hands were enveloped by chakra. He then threw three shurikens at Sasuke and the Uchiha used a kunai to deflect it. He saw that the shuriken were only a distraction as Yoroi was coming closer to him. Sasuke smirked and started weaving hand seals.

"Katon: goukakyuu no jutsu" Sasuke yelled as he blew out a large ball of fire that sped towards Yoroi.

"Shit." Yoroi said as he tried dodging the fire.

"Hehe." Sasuke smirked and threw a kunai with lightning chakra that enveloped it straight at the ball of fire. As the kunai came in contact with the ball of fire, it created an explosion.

With the force of the explosion, Yoroi was blasted towards the wall and hit it with some force.

"Aaaaagh." Yoroi said as he hit the wall. He then tried getting up with some difficulty and while holding his left arm that was now bleeding. He saw that Sasuke was coming his way and he leapt as he sent some kunai towards the Uchiha. Sasuke smirked once more and his speed increased as he ran even faster towards Yoroi.

"He's gotten faster." Haku said as she watched Sasuke's speed.

"Yeah. It seems he improved quite a bit since a few months ago." Zabuza said as he looked down.

Sasuke appeared in front of Yoroi and crouched down as he kicked Yoroi on the chin, sending him high in the air. He then jumped up and was airborne under Yoroi.

"This is over." Sasuke said. He then kicked Yoroi's right side, but Yoroi was still able to guard.

"Not enough." Sasuke said as he went around with a spin and hit Yoroi's face with a back handed left punch, sending him down. Sasuke punched once again with his right hand and finished with a kick right as Yoroi made contact with the ground, increasing the damage many times over. Sasuke stood up and only looked down as Yoroi was not able to move as he was knocked out.

Hayate walked up to Yoroi and checked his condition.

"Yoroi is knocked out. Therefore I'm stopping the match. The winner of the first battle, Sasuke Uchiha passes the preliminaries." Hayate said as he gestured towards Sasuke.

"Yataaaa!" Naruto yelled as he felt happy for Sasuke's win.

Sasuke looked over to his team and had a smile on his face. He then went to the upper area to stay with them.

"Congratulations, Sasuke. That was a very good match." Hiroki said as he fist bumped Sasuke.

"Congratulation, Sasuke-kun." Sakura said as she smiled brightly at Sasuke.

"You did very well, Sasuke. Good job." Kakashi said as he was reading his orange book.

"Hiroki, I learned one thing from this match. It was good to pay attention to it. How about you? Did you learn something?" Naruto asked as he looked at Hiroki.

"Yeah. I've learned plety." Hiroki said as he lifted his right hand and chakra started enveloping his hand.

"Is that...?" Naruto asked.

"Hn. I copied it. Hehe." Hiroki said.

'I knew it would be a good idea to copy this jutsu from Yoroi. I can now absorb chakra from others. I would be able to do it if my rinnegan was awakened, but even having Uchiha and Senju blood, I don't have the special chakra from Hagoromo or his two sons, Asura and Indra. Maybe one day I might absorb a little of it from Sasuke and Naruto.' Hiroki thought as he was planning ahead for the future.

'Wonderful. Sasuke-kun has such a high talent. If I'm not able to get Hiroki, I'll take him.' Orochimaru thought as he looked at Sasuke. He then felt someone staring at him and looked at the direction. He saw that it was Hiroki looking at him. The other Uchiha was smirking at him and this made Orochimaru angry as he remembered how useless he was against the boy and how he left him there for the anbu to chase after.

'Could he have found out?' Orochimaru asked.

"Let's move on to the next match." Hayate said. The screen brightened as the names were being displayed at random. It then stopped on two names.

"Shino Aburame versus Zaku Abumi. Could the two please come down." Hayate asked.

Shino and Zaku walked down and stood up in front of Hayate as they faced each other.

"Are you able to fight? Your arms are broken." Hayate asked Zaku, seeing that both of his arms were hanging on a shoulder immobilizer.

"You better withdraw. You can't fight me in the state you're in." Shino said as he looked at Zaku.

"Shut up. I might no be able to use both arms, but one is enough to take care of you." Zaku said as he freed his left arm and was able to move it.

"Let the second battle begin!" Hayate said.

Zaku ran at Shino and punched with his left hand, only to be blocked by Shino.

"You can't beat me with only one arm." Shino said.

"Stop pestering me! Zankuha!" Zaku screamed out as he let out a burst of compressed wind and sound waves in point blank at Shino. Shino was sent away from the power of the blast as he rolled a few times due to the impact. Some dust also rose up from the blast. Zaku looked at Shino and he smirked.

"Come on. Get up."

Shino rose up from the ground as only his shadow could be seen due to the dust. As Zaku saw Shino, he felt that something was wrong.

"What the hell." Zaku started hearing small noises from around the gymnasium and everyone in it also started hearing the same noise as they looked all over the place.

Zaku then spotted some bugs coming out of Shino's face and body.

'He has bugs coming out of his body. What a creepy guy!' Zaku thought to himself as he looked at Shino.

"Heh! What king of bluff are you trying to pull?" Zaku asked. He then noticed that the sound was coming from behind him. When he turned around, he saw that there were hundreds of thousands of small bugs coming at him as they crawled on the ground.

"These little things are called Parasitic Insects. They attack their pray in groups and eat chakra. If attacking in this amount, you're finished, no mistake." Shino said as one of the bugs hung on top of his index finger.

"If you don't like that, give up. That would be in your best interests. If you use your left arm technique on me, I'll simultaneously have the bugs exploit the opening from behind. On the other hand, if you use your technique on the bugs, I'll exploit the opening simultaneously. Either way, you won't be able to get through this. An ace in the hole is something you set aside." Shino said as he made a hand seal, ready for whatever Zaku would do.

Zaku feeling pressured in this situation, could only use his last resort.

"Don't underestimate me!" He yelled as he directed his left arm in front of Shino and also move his right arm towards the bugs.

"An ace in the whole is something you set aside, right?!" Zaku asked Shino, referring to the last words his opponent said.

The other genin from different teams saw Zaku moving his right arm and they were surprised.

"What? He could already use his right arm?" Kiba asked.

"Huhu. So the first half of the battle was a strategic move to make us think he couldn't use his right arm. Nice move, Zaku." Dosu said quietly.

Zaku started building up his chakra into his arms so he could blast both Shino and the bugs, but what caught almost everyone in surprise was to see that Zaku's arm was the one bursting from the middle.

"My arms!" Zaku yelled as he felt pain from them bursting because of the compressed wind and chakra he was about to use to attack.

"What's this?!" He said in surprised and saw many bugs coming out of the hole in his palm as they were clogging it.

Shino took the opportunity and appeared behind Zaku.

"Earlier when I recommended that you give up as a precautionary measure, I gave a suggestion to the bugs to block that troublesome wind pipe with their bodies and remain still. This is what a real ace in the hole is." Shino said.

"You bastard!" Zaku yelled as he still tried to fight. Shino then quickly punched Zaku's face with the back of his hand. Zaku flew from the punch for a small distance and didn't get up after that.

"I guess it's over." Hayate said as he crouched down and checked Zaku's condition.

"The winner is Shino Aburame." Hayate said as he declared Shino the winner.

On the upper area, Lee was asking Neji to check on Shino. Neji made some hand seals and activated his byakugan.

"He's something else." Neji said in surprised as he saw Shino's body.

"I can understand him calling bugs with a summoning jutsu, but he harbor the bugs all over his body." Neji said.

"What?" Lee asked surprised.

"He's from Konoha's Aburame clan. A clan specialized in bug taming." Gai said.

"I've heard of it. The story of a clan that as soon as they are born, they posses the secret technique of loaning their bodies to bugs as a nest and fight using bugs. They fully control the bugs and entrust most of the battle to them. I hear that they contract to keep giving the bugs their own chakra as food for compensation." Neji said.

Soon after the match, two medic shinobi came in with a stretcher and took Zaku out of the gymnasium. Shino walked slowly back to the upper area and stayed with his team."

"So Shino was that strong? Tsk." Naruto said.

"Well, you should never judge someone's abilities. If you judge them wrongly, you might have a surprise just like some of us had." Hiroki said to Naruto. He then looked at Sasuke and told him that that was meant for him as well.

"Um, now then, I would like to get right to the next match." Hayate said.

The names on the screen started flashing once more and stopped after some seconds.

"Tsurugi Misumi versus Kankuro. The two participants, please come down." Hayate said.

"Finally, it's my turn." Kankuro said with a confident grin on his face. He then started walking down the stair and stood in front of Hayate and Misumi.

"Unlike Yoroi, I don't get careless with kids. I'll say this first. Once I do my technique, give up no matter what. I'll bring it to an end swiftly." Misumi said.

"If so, I'll also bring it to and end swiftly!" Kankuro said as he took out the pack that he always keeps on his back an placed it up next to him.

"Now then, please begin the third battle!" Hayate said.

"You guys, pay attention to this match as well. It'll be quite surprising." Hiroki said as he looked at Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura.

"What do you mean?" Sasuke asked.

"Use your sharingan. You'll know what I mean once you see it." Hiroki said.

"That's..." Sasuke said once he activated his sharingan and saw what Hiroki meant.

"Hey, don't new things to yourselves." Naruto and Sakura said together.

"You'll know soon enough, Naruto. Just wait and see. Haha." Hiroki said.

Facing each other Misumi and Kabuto waited to see which one would be making the first move.

"Since you are going to stand still. I'll make the first move!" Misumi said as he ran an punched Kankuro, only to see it being blocked, but he didn't panic. Instead he thought it was good.

Kankuro saw Misumi's expression and found something was wrong and tried jumping away, but it was already too late as Misumi's limbs started to tie around Kankuro as if each was one snake. The Suna genin even dropped his pack as he was immobilized by Misumi.

"What's with his body? That's quite amazing." Naruto said as he looked at Misumi.

"I dislocate every joint and with chakra, I can control my softened body at will." Misumi explained.

"With chakra?" Sakura asked quietly as she heard Misumi's explanation.

"I can also squeeze until your bones break. I'll rapidly tighten as long as you don't give up. I don't know what kind of shinobi tool you'll use, but if I keep doing this to your body, it will make no difference. I can break your neck right now. So hurry up and give up." Misumi said.

"Hehe. No." Kankuro said as he smirked.

"Do you want to die?!" Misumi asked as he tightened Kankuro's neck and body even more.

"Idiot. You're the one who's going to die." Kankuro said.

*crunch*

Everyone in the gymnasium was able to hear the crunching sound and the saw Kankuro's neck breaking. The genin on the upper area couldn't believe what happened in front of them as they had shocked faces.

"Idiot. I went a little overboard and ended up killing you." Misumi said. As he finished his sentence, he heard cracking sounds and saw some pieces of what seemed to be wood on the floor. Kankuro's head moved and it turned 180 degrees as it looked backwards.

"W-What?" Misumi was startled as he saw Kankuro's disfigured face.

"Okay, now it's my turn." Kankuro said as his own arms came out of his clothes and tied around Misumi, a trapping him in a strangling hug that kept tightening each second.

"T-This is a puppet!" Misumi said as he saw that the Kankuro in front of him turned to a wooden puppet. On the ground, the pack that Kankuro always kept on his back, started to move and a hand came out. It pulled one of the bandages as they came off and revealed the real Kankuro inside.

"That's the real body? He's a puppet master."

"He's controlling the puppet with the chakra from his hand!" Sakura said.

Kankuro's puppet kept on tightening and tightening around Misumi's body until he decided to give up.

"If your bones get crushed, you'll be able to bend even more, huh?" Kankuro said in a mocking way as he puppet finally let go of Misumi and the two fell on the ground.

"The winner, by an inability to continue the match by the opponent, is Kankuro." Hayate said.

"Kakashi-sensei, isn't that unfair? It's two against one." Naruto asked.

"It not unfair really. It's a puppet, after all. It's considered a shinobi tool much like shuriken, kunai, katana, tanto, ninjato, wakizashi and all other weapons." Kakashi explained to Naruto.

"Hey, were you able to learn anything from this?" Hiroki asked his teammates.

"Hn. There are many ways of fighting. If you don't know your enemy's abilities, it's best to keep a distance from them. Not too far and neither too close." Sasuke said. Naruto and Sakura agreed to Sasuke's observation.

"Good. Always keep that in mind guys. Never underestimate your opponents abilities. They might have a ace in the hole. Or you could do just like me." Hiroki said.

"And what is that?" Naruto and Sakura asked.

"Go in at 100% right from the beginning and finish fast. But there might be moments where you won't be able to do that and that's where you study your opponent's moves and try to exploit any openings he gives you." Hiroki said.

"Let's move on to the next battle." Hayate said and then the screen started flashing names randomly until it stopped.

"Sakura Haruno and Yamanaka Ino, please come down." Hayate said.

The two kunoichi looked at each other as they felt a little troubled. They were very good friends ever since they were children. The only time they bickered was because of Sasuke, but once Ino started having feelings for Hiroki, the two went back to the way they were before, becoming best friends again.

"This is not going to be easy for the two." Hiroki said.

"Why do you say that?" Naruto asked.

"They are best friends, Naruto. They don't harbor any rivalry between them unlike you and Sasuke who are friends and rivals as well. It must not be easy to be facing someone you care about and know that you will hurt them." Hiroki said.

"Please begin." Hayate said as Sakura and Ino stood in front of each other.

"Ino, you're one of the last persons I wanted to fight against, but if I want to move forwards as a kunoichi, I can't back down from this." Sakura said.

"I understand you, Sakura. I make your words mine. Let's maintain our friendship when this is over." Ino said and Sakura nodded.

The two then dashed towards each other and their fight was becoming fiercer after every blow. The two also had a smile on their faces as they exchanged blows.

"You've become strong, Sakura." Ino said.

"You too, Ino, but I'm going to start getting more serious." Sakura said as she lifted the first level of the weight seals she had on her limbs.

"She's become faster. Since when was Sakura fast like that?" Shikamaru asked as he saw the pink haired girl move in such speed.

"She lifted the first level of her weight seal. She is going for the win straight away." Naruto said.

"That's pretty much it." Sasuke said.

"Sakura has made a lot of progress since we became a team." Hiroki said.

"Sakura has always seen herself distant from you guys regarding individual abilities and power, but she has been working hard to close that gap. It seems that the hard work is paying off." Kakashi said.

Sakura started making hand seals as she sped up and created two clones as they went together running at Ino.

'She's fast, but I'll find out which one is the real one.' Ino thought, but then she was surprised as Sakura used chakra to kick the ground, increasing her speed even more. Ino wasn't able to react in time and took a kick from Sakura. The blond kunoichi was sent rolling on the ground for three meters.

Ino got up from the ground and wiped off some blood from her face. She then started making hand seals as she was ready to release her Jutsu.

"Ninpo: shintenshin no Jutsu" Ino said as her hands made a circular shape directed at Sakura.

Sakura was startled at first, but then she felt that there was no problem in controlling her body. She knew exactly how Ino's jutsu worked and also knew that if the person missed, it would take some time for their consciousness to return. Sakura looked at Ino and saw her body drop as the blonde girl kneeled as of unconscious.

'Time to finish this.' Sakura thought as she ran towards Ino. As he was arriving in front of Ino, the blonde jumped at Sakura and punched her square on the face.

"Sorry, Sakura, but I'm going to fight to win." Ino said.

"I'm sorry as well. And I'm fighting to win as well." Sakura said as she cleaned the blood coming out of her mouth and started weaving hand seals.

'What will she do?' Ino thought. She then took out a couple of shuriken and threw them at Sakura. The pink haired grabbed a kunai and started deflecting the shuriken Ino threw at her. After deflecting all the shuriken, Sakura took the kunai and threw it at Ino. The blonde jumped away from the trajectory of the kunai, making it miss. She then looked at Sakura and saw a smirk on her face.

'Exactly what I wanted.' Sakura thought as she slammed her hands on the ground.

"Doton: Tsuchi Tou Tou." Sakura said. As soon as Ino's feet touched the ground, the floor under her started moving, making her lose balance and fall down. The ground moved until Ino stopped in front of Sakura. Sakura took out one kunai and placed it on Ino's neck.

"Give up?" Sakura asked.

"I give up." Ino said as she looked at Hiroki, disappointed at herself. But once she saw Hiroki's smile and his thumbs up at her, she had a bright smile.

"Due to the other contender giving up, I declare Sakura Haruno winner of the fourth battle of the preliminaries." Hayate said.

Sakura hearing the result, have Ino a hand and helped her get up.

"It was a good match, Ino. Thank you for fighting seriously." Sakura said.

"No." Ino said as she shook her head.

"Thank you for showing me that I can improve. I promise I'll get stronger as well." Ino said.

"I'm sure you will." Sakura said as she smiled at her friend. Let's head back up." Sakura said as she started going to the upper area and Ino followed.

The screen then brightened up and the next two names was shown.

"Next battle, Temari versus Tenten. Could the two candidates please come down for battle?" Hayate asked.