CH 27
At 10:24 on the dot guess who managed to find his way into the arena. Being dragged by Sasuke, Kakashi let out a nervous eye-smile, "Sorry we were almost late. I accidentally covered both my eyes with my headband this morning and by the time I thought about it I was on top of the Hokage Monument."
Sasuke growled at the excuse while Sakura shook her head, "Then you should have seen the massive banner up there telling everyone about this."
Kakashi smiled at her, "Ah, but I did, that's why I found you two remember?"
Tsunade, with Shizune behind her arrived with a dead-pan expression on her face, "This isn't the kind of thing that I'm going to have to get used to with you Kakashi is it?"
Kakashi smiled at her, "No, no… I'm usually much later."
After a round of face-faults all around Tsunade straightened up and faced the audience, projecting her voice to be easily heard, "Ladies and gentlemen of Konohagakure no Sato, today we have a special attraction for all of you. You will get to see some of the most prominent genin in this village pitted against one lone genin in today's battles."
She pointed out to the tree where Naruto had long since stood up and begun loosening up, "The sole genin in question is Naruto Uzumaki!"
A chorus of boos rang out among the audience until Naruto used the technique Tsunade had used to project her voice, "Aww shut the hell up! You miserable bastards…"
Tsunade sweat-dropped at Naruto's dismissal of the crowd, "Right… Well then, the rules will be as follows. A one-on-one bout between Naruto and one of the genin to be selected by their sensei. If Naruto can defeat the opponent he is matched with he will be matched up with the next, and so on, and so forth until he is either defeated or runs through them all." She finished with a smirk.
She motioned for someone to walk over, "The proctor for the bouts will be Anko Mitarashi." Anko came from the back smirking at the genin whose fights she would be refereeing. She turned to look out at Naruto, who was still stretching, 'Alright gaki, you've talked a big game and Ibiki seems convinced, let's see what you've got.'
Tsunade turned to the jounin who were conferencing amongst themselves, "So have you decided who is first?"
They all nodded as Asuma stepped and whispered their decision in her ear. Tsunade nodded and re-projected her voice, "The first bout will be Naruto Uzumaki vs. Sakura Haruno! All others clear the arena immediately!"
All of the other genin and their sensei's made their way to the waiting area to watch the proceedings along with Tsunade.
As they cleared out it left Naruto standing out with Sakura and Anko. Naruto sighed and looked at Sakura, "Do you really want to do this? You can always just quit now."
Sakura glared at him, "Are you saying that I'm too weak to fight you? I'm the same ranking as you, and I graduated at the top of the class, you were dead-last."
Naruto's eyes didn't leave her, "I didn't say you were weak, you did, you're just weaker than me. And about the academy… I guess I could say, that everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarden."
Anko looked between them, "First match, Naruto Uzumaki vs. Sakura Haruno. Hajime!"
XxX
Tsunade looked at the jounin as Naruto and Sakura moved close to Anko to begin, "Why did you choose Sakura to lead off?"
Kakashi looked at her lazily, "Well we figured that while Naruto probably would more than likely win against her we were banking on him taking it somewhat easy on her due to her being on his team and all."
Asuma nodded, "It's common knowledge that he had a massive crush on her in the academy and even when they were assigned teams. We thought that this would force him to take some damage before kicking it in high gear to actively finish her."
FWAP!
"Shousa, Naruto Uzumaki!"
"WHAT!"
XxX
Naruto looked down at the unconscious Sakura at his feet and then at Anko who was poking her with a stick. Anko looked up at Naruto and grinned widely, "Damn gaki, what was that for?"
Naruto shrugged, "What? That was a love-tap! She just came rushing in with that academy cookie-cutter style of taijutsu, and she had her guard so wide open. It was a jab! Who knew she had the chin of a 5 year old narcolepsy patient?" Anko burst out in laughter at the casual way he handled that.
Medics came out and carried her off quickly, clearing the arena once more.
Naruto shook his head at the results of his first match. He looked up to the jounin with a dead-pan expression, "What the hell was that? I really hope you've got more for me than that or you can just mark me down as winning this whole thing right now!"
Anko tried to calm herself down from her laughing fit, "Kakashi, that was pathetic. Was she supposed to actually do something out here against him? I don't think she could beat an academy student fighting like that."
XxX
Tsunade had to laugh at how easily Naruto dealt with his 'crush' as she saw the jounin looking on in surprise. Kakashi rubbed his visible eye, "I… didn't think it would be that fast."
Asuma chuckled at Kakashi's expression, "Why, what happened? I blinked and I missed it."
Kurenai looked at Kakashi suspiciously, "Kakashi… That looked like a strictly academy attack. Have you taught her anything since she was on your team?"
Kakashi thought about it, "Define 'anything'."
Tsunade sighed, "Alright that was a waste of an introduction… Who's next?" Shizune handed Tsunade the order that the jounin had written out, "Okay, Ino Yamanaka! Get down there."
XxX
Naruto squinted to see Ino coming out to face him next. Naruto grumbled under his breath, "So I'm getting all of the weak ones first? Okay, let's deal with that." Naruto hadn't moved an inch from his first fight so he simply stood and waited for Ino to take her position.
Ino looked at Naruto smirking at him, "I'm not as pathetic as Forehead Naruto. Just give up, you won't beat me." At a glance Ino realized that Naruto's blue eyes were boring into her own without a hint of response.
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