Act I: Chapter 9

Hello everyone,

A lot of people caught on to the fact that Sasuke and Neji should be disqualified since teams were supposed to show up as a full unit to advance. You all would be correct, and I thought about addressing that last chapter. Instead, I'll do it this chapter, just to get it out there and satisfy that aspect of the story.

Anyway, I see a lot of people giving Kiba the RIP before it's even happened. But I suppose it's inevitable huh?

Follow me on instagram at wtmcdonaldauthor! If you are feeling generous, and wish to donate to my writing career, you can find me at Patreon under the same name for early access to chapters of The Ladder, Defiant, and Tsunami of the South!

Disclaimer: I own nothing.

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"We'll start immediately. Uchiha Sasuke and Akado Yoroi step up to the arena. The rest, wait on the balcony." Asuma said with a false cheerfulness, while pointing towards the second story of the tower.

I primed my chakra, and jumped. There were brief flares of chakra all around me as genin and jounin alike followed me. Already my eyes were looking around the second story. I found my teammate before I found Kiba.

"Lee." I said as I approached him and our sensei. "Gai-sensei." I added with a nod towards the man.

"Naruto-kun." Gai said with a nod in return.

"I wanted to talk to you about your opponent." I muttered, while signaling for him to lean in closer.

Lee did as I asked, and I whispered as quietly as possible. "Medic nin, creates scalpels on his hands for taijutsu. Use extreme caution." I said, supremely serious. I even reached out and grabbed Lee on the arm to warn him just how serious I was, and how dangerous Kabuto could be if he tried.

"He's a fellow Konoha-nin Naruto." Lee hissed back, offended that I would imply a comrade would harm him in such a matter.

"These aren't friendly spars Lee!" I retorted with just as much fervor.

"Enough." Gai cut in.

Lee and I looked to our sensei to see that he wasn't even looking in our direction, but instead at the field. I followed his gaze to see Sasuke was currently fighting his opponent in an almost exact copy of the anime. In fact, he looked like he was about to finish it with his copied taijutsu move.

I turned back to Lee, unconcerned with anything but his well being, but stopped. Gai had turned his gaze to me and was giving me a look that mirrored Lee's. He didn't like my implications about Kabuto. Who could blame him? I was all but telling him not to trust a comrade, the opposite of what Konoha preaches.

'I've done all I can do without telling them of my transmigration.' I thought to myself as I turned away from them and looked around the balcony.

Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, and Sakura were all standing near each other about twenty feet around the stands. My feet began moving that direction immediately. I should have paid attention to my surroundings, and the path to my destination.

Unfortunately, I didn't realize I was passing by Gaara until I was right beside him.

In the stadium, near so many powerhouses of chakra, it was hard to distinguish individual chakra sources. The Hokage, Kakashi, Neji, Gai, and Gaara just existing in my general area was a surefire way to get an overloaded chakra sense.

The Sand Siblings all turned my direction at the same time. It was like a choreographed dance move the way they were in sync with each other. All three eyes stared at my own.

Temari wore the same thing she did in the anime. A fishnet underlayer of clothing that covered everything below her neck and stopped at her knee was covered by a lilac dress that stopped mid thigh. I saw the black tights peeking out underneath the bottom of her skirt that most kunoichi wore.

Kankuro was still the creepy outfit, make-up wearing boy he was in the anime also. He really played the puppeteer role too well.

But Gaara caught my attention. His gaze wasn't that of a deranged killer. It was a contemplative stare, with an edge behind it. Almost as if the psychopath was just waiting to come out and play.

I kept my feet moving, while locking eyes with Gaara.

I primed my chakra out of habit. There was no way in hell I would allow myself to be caught off guard by this version of Gaara, even if he looked slightly more stable than his anime counterpart.

We held the stare, even as I pulled away from the Sand Siblings and got closer to the remaining Konoha Twelve. Eventually though, I was the one to break the stare, and that was out of necessity more than anything.

Saskue's opponent was in the air, and about to be KO'd. Kiba and Gaara would be next, if Asuma was to be believed.

"Yea, apparently there was outside interference." I heard Ino say to Sakura just as I walked up to the group. "That's why the Hokage allowed Sasuke and Neji to continue. The Kazekage even agreed to it."

"Oh shit, what a knockout." I heard Kiba say behind the gossiping Ino and Sakura. as he watched Sasuke's opponent crash into the ground.

'Shit that's right, we were supposed to be disqualified if all three team members didn't make it to the tower…' I thought as I put the pieces together. I hadn't even considered how Tenten's death should have impacted the Chunin exams.

"Hey Naruto." The lazy voice of Shikamaru greeted from the back of the group, while also announcing to everyone present that I had arrived.

All of their faces turned to me. I did my best to meet everyone's gaze, but it was hard. The only people I succeeded with were Hinata, Shikamaru, and Choji. Hinata's look was surprised, before it morphed into something I didn't recognize, although it wasn't exactly nervousness like it should have been.

Shikamaru's look was a knowing one and had an aspect of laziness that seemed …forced. I became slightly more suspicious of the lazy genius. I knew I would not, under any circumstance, want to fight this version of Shikamaru.

Choji didn't even hide how he sized me up. We were to fight in the next few rounds, and there was no doubt that he was looking for an edge. I almost felt bad for him, because he would find no weaknesses that he could capitalize on. That wasn't to say that they didn't exist, but rather he didn't have the capabilities to take advantage of them.

Although I was still pondering out how to take on his human bowling ball technique or whatever the fuck it was.

"Kiba." I called out, getting the boys attention. "Can I talk to you for a moment?" I asked while nodding my head, telling him to meet me away from the group.

"Secrets don't make friends, Naruto." Ino said in a sing song voice, almost flirtatious voice.

I smirked towards her. "Friends make secrets." I retorted.

I, of course, knew the real saying went something like 'Secrets don't make friends, they make best friends' but I was not Kiba's best friend. Hell I was barely acquaintances with the boy.

"What's up Sunshine?" Kiba asked as he walked over to where I stood on the railing. "I've got a match to win."

Kiba didn't look any different than he should have. He still had an overly baggy jacket on him that had fur lining the hood. And his faithful companion Akamaru still sat on his head as he walked over to me.

'Please just listen to me, and don't get yourself killed. Or worse, get Akamaru killed.'

I shook my head at him, and got to the point. "You have to forfeit Kiba." I said bluntly. I didn't have the time to mince my words. There were already a couple of chunin tending to Sasuke's opponent in the arena and Kiba would be called to fight soon.

Kiba's whole demeanor changed and he looked at me like I had grown a third head.

"No fucking way." Kiba spat towards me. The tiny ball of white fur on his head even growled at me for a second. Shouldn't Akamaru sense that I was trying to help. Dogs were supposed to be good with that shit.

"Listen, I know how it sounds. I'm not knocking your skills." I quickly tried to calm him down. The last thing I wanted was to make him mad and interfere with his ability to survive even more. "I saw this guy in the forest, and he massacred the entire team. His sand surrounded them, and he stood there smiling as they screamed for mercy before crushing them to death."

"Don't compare me to some losers from bum-fuck nowhere Naruto!" Kiba nearly screamed towards me.

He acted like he hadn't even heard the words I said.

A spark of anger shot through the center of my chest and I frowned involuntarily. "I'm not calling you weak Kiba! I would forfeit if I had to fight him too! I just don't want to see you get killed by a maniac!" I snarled back to him.

"That's because you're a fucking weakling with no pride. I'm an Inuzuka with a name to live up to, not some orphan with no…"

The spark inside my chest lit into an inferno as I heard his words. My chakra reacted, and so did my hands. The world slowed as chakra increased my awareness and reflexes. I lashed out with my left hand, intent on hitting him in the neck before following up with a barrage that would leave him choking for air and crying for his mother.

I suppose it was still a bit of a sore spot for me, being called a weakling, and the implication that I was indeed an orphan.

"Enough."

A hand grabbed my wrist before I could even extend my left arm to strike him. Even through my anger, I knew it was Gai-sensei so I didn't fight the arm that grabbed me.

Gai pulled me away from Kiba, and stepped between the two of us. Behind him, I saw a flash of red and white grab Kiba and pull him away in the opposite direction. It was the first time I had caught a glimpse of one of the most beautiful women in this universe, Kurenai.

If I hadn't been so angry, I would have definitely been memorizing the contours of her ass.

Gai continued shoving me away from my comrades for a couple of steps. I didn't fight him at all, as it would have done no good, and then I would have had a case of insubordination on my hand, although nobody would have gone through with it.

"Next match: Kiba Inuzuka vs. Garza of the Sand."

"I thought you were smarter than that, Naruto." Gai said, in the voice he normally reserved for Lee.

I felt his disappointment, even through my anger. "I was just trying to protect him." I hissed back at him.

"Instead, you pissed him off right before a match with, as you already know, an extremely dangerous opponent." Gai responded as he shoved me towards where Lee was standing.

"Now stand there and watch the matches, you might have to fight one of them soon." Gai told me, ending the conversation.

My chakra rolled under my skin, wanting to be released into the world. It was amplifying my anger and making it extremely hard to let go of the situation.

I tried to focus on how I approached the argument. Immediately I realized that I shouldn't have just outright told him to forfeit. I wouldn't have listened to anyone if they walked up and said that to me. In fact, I would have done it just to prove them wrong.

I cursed under my breath, berating myself. All I wanted to do was to help him.

"Begin!"

My attention was drawn below me, where Kiba and Gaara stood opposite of each other. Akamaru was off of Kiba's head and on the ground.

Surprisingly, Kiba hadn't rushed Gaara right off of the bat. I would have expected a taijutsu assault. Maybe he was listening to my advice and approaching the battle with caution.

It wouldn't matter.

I did my best to focus my chakra senses on the battle beneath me. But still, the monsters in the room with me were throwing it off. I wasn't good enough to focus on a specific point yet. That was something I needed to work on.

The one thing I did feel was Gaara's presence became even greater. But his body hadn't moved an inch, nor had the look on his face changed. It was a simple deduction that he was either moving sand underground, or taking control of the existing sand beneath the stadium. I couldn't see any streams of sand moving out of his gourd, that meant that it was underground.

Had Kiba continued to stand still, I would have worried for his safety.

Without warning, Kiba exploded into action. His hands blurred through four hand signs that I couldn't make sense of. Soon enough, Akamaru's form changed, hidden behind a veil of smoke.

That was a bit different than what I was used to. Hadn't Akamaru done the transformation himself in the anime, after eating a soldier pill or something?

They sprinted forward, mirroring each other, at Gaara. They were faster than what I expected, but still disappointing. Sakura was faster than the two of them, after the intense training we had with Gai. I would wager she packed more of a punch too.

They reached Gaara quickly, who still hadn't moved an inch. His prey was coming straight at him, falling into his trap, why would he?

It was like watching a movie I had already seen, I knew what was going to happen. Kiba and Akamaru would attack from two angles, get stopped by Gaara's sand, which would latch on to them before crushing them and ridding Konoha of an heir to a powerful clan.

It was so obvious. Against a normal Genin, then yea it's a good start to a taijutsu battle. Test them, just to see how they react to two attacks at the same time, and then slowly turn up the pressure using more advanced tactics and even weapons.

This would also be a fantastic way to show off one's skills.

Too bad his opponent was Gaara.

Kiba went high, and Akamaru went low.

Then it was like Akamaru and Kiba slowed down, as my enhanced perception kicked in. Gaara's chakra flared, and out of the gourd on his back, two streams of sand sped out.

The sand was faster than I had expected. I was probably slightly faster than it, but I didn't know if Gaara was even trying. Could he make his sand faster than it currently was? Or was this his max?

Either way, when Kiba's foot got within two feet of Gaara's face, the sand had been waiting there for it. The same could be said for Akamaru.

As I expected, the sand didn't just stop the kicks, but it also latched on to them. Before they could react, Gaara's chakra flexed and more sand poured out of his gourd.

I could tell that Kiba knew what was happening, because his eyes widened, and he tried to push off of the sand that was grabbing him. Gaara smirked as he, and everyone else fast enough to perceive it, knew it was futile.

Akamaru was the first one to be submerged in the sand.

It was so fast I could hardly believe it. Gaara did not boast, or rub it in Kiba's face, he was clinical and uncaring about it. It was different from what the anime portrayed. I expected Gaara to begin laughing, and almost get off on killing. This one was so …unaffected.

"I for.."

*CRUNCH*

Akamaru's whines and cries will haunt me for a long time, as he was being crushed. I felt bad that Kiba had to watch his companion die right before his own life was taken.

"…feit."

I did have respect for him, at least trying to save Akamaru, as that seemed to be the catalyst for Kiba to give up.

Gaara's sand did not stop covering Kiba when the Inuzuka gave up the match. The amount of individual chakra signatures that flared up was intimidating.

Asuma, the proctor, appeared within Gaara's personal space with his signature knives at the jinchurriki's throat.

Gai was more aggressive and had a thumb pressed into the bottom of Gaara's neck, with the obvious threat of piercing it with his bare hands.

Kakashi decided to show out, and a weapon that few had ever seen before appeared in his hand. It was his fathers white chakra saber. The very weapon that Sakumo had used to strike fear into all of Suna during his reign. He swung the saber and pierced the sand hanging in mid air.

I felt Kakashi's chakra flicker for the briefest of moments.

The sand fell apart. It flowed off of Kiba's body, where it had already been almost covering him. Kiba himself began to fall with the sand, now that Gaara wasn't holding him in mid air anymore.

My eyebrows furrowed deep into my forehead. Had Kakashi just channeled chakra through his fathers chakra saber, and somehow disrupted the control that Gaara had over the sand.

"What the…" I muttered, accidentally letting my surprise show.

"The match is over, Gaara of the Sand wins."

I couldn't even comprehend the technique that Kakashi had just displayed. How had he done that? Was it lightning chakra? Was it a Yin and Yang application? Or was it just something that his father had come up with?

That implied that Sakumo had actually gone against the jinchuuriki of Shukaku at some point… or someone with the Magnet Release kekkei genkai.

My brain hurt just thinking of the raw knowledge and control one had to have of chakra to pull something like that off.

Once again, this world was proving that my preconceptions of ninja and how strong they might be is off. Kakashi could very well be the monster he was destined to be. The stand off in the middle of the arena dispersed as I was consumed with my thoughts.

Once Gaara left, and the sand had retreated, Akamaru's broken and dead body lay lifeless on the ground. Kiba wailed when he saw his companion's body laying there.

"He should have listened to you."

Sasuke's dry voice came from my right.

"I should have been more tactful in my approach." I retorted, making conversation. I really am not sure why I said it.

"Probably." Sasuke agreed. "I wouldn't have listened to you either." Sasuke said as he leaned on the rail in front of us.

"Up next. Hyuuga Hinata versus…"

"I forfeit."

My head whipped to the source. Hinata was standing on the railing with her arms crossed looking down towards the arena. Neji was nowhere to be found, and it became obvious as to why. Hinata and Neji had apparently never planned on fighting in this little preliminary. So he was probably off being treated for his wounds, already knowing that he was going to advance to the finals.

Konoha will always want to show off their advanced genin in the finals apparently. This way they could say that Hinata didn't want to fight her family, and so she forfeited. When in reality, I would be willing to bet a months worth of mission pay that the prelims were rigged in Konoha's favor, to allow her to forfeit.

It was shameless really, and everyone could see through it.

"Neji Hyuuga is the winner then." Asuma said, barely missing a beat. "Akamichi Choi versus Uzumaki Naruto. Take your place on the field."

I dove over the railing in front of me, allowing myself to slowly fall to the arena. At the last moment I tucked my legs and did a simple front flip to land on my feet. I loved this world, where one could fall thirty feet and not have any problems whatsoever.

I turned to the other side of the field. Asuma was standing in between us, waiting on Choji to continue his fall and take his place onto the field.

Where my feet were quiet when I hit the ground, I could feel the ground tremble when Choji touched down. He had already put up his bag of chips, and his face had changed into an intense look.

"No hard feelings Choji." I called out to a kid that had always been nice to me growing up. Most people were nice to me growing up actually. It was hard to differentiate what happened to anime Naruto and me growing up. It was a night and day difference.

"I was about to say the same, Naruto." Choji retorted as he shot me a grin.

Asuma disappeared, without any warning. "Begin." He said before leaving.

Choji tensed up, expecting an attack right off of the rip. Instead I stood there, waiting to see what he had in him. I was worried this world might be extremely different, with Choji being some unseen monster. Maybe Shikamaru had worn off on him?

"Fine, I'll begin then." Choji said confidently as I didn't attack.

I ran through some options in battle plans in my head. On one hand, I could get up close and personal and use taijutsu to knock him unconscious. But that wouldn't be a good showing.

I had already revealed some ninjutsu in the forest, so I could do that again to prove that I have the reserves of a chunin. I filed that in the back of my head as something to use.

I won't bring my sword out, or the monkey summons yet. I might need that for the finals…but I could use kunai with wind chakra, I already revealed that during the first test.

Choji sped through some hand seals. I knew everyone of them, but the sequence they were used in made me think I was missing something internally with his chakra network. And my senses didn't provide any hints to the technique either.

Next thing I knew, Choji's body had transformed to be slightly bigger, and he curled in on himself. He was really going to use that cannon ball jutsu or whatever the fuck it was called, that he used in the anime.

I made sure to be cautious and through my idea about wind coated kunai out of the window. I wasn't skilled enough to know if I would accidentally hit him in the head while he was rolling through the air…

Stay away from the cannon ball then.

Choji barreled towards me, spinning all the way.

I flexed my chakra and jumped away. A clone appeared where I used to stand as I moved off to the side. I wanted to test how durable that technique was. For example, could I just kick it around?

My clone primed his chakra and kicked the spinning ball that was hurling right towards him. Choji's momentum didn't even falter and the clone dispelled as his leg broke.

I pushed away the memory as I threw that plan out.

What if I proved I could kill him? Would Asuma stop the fight then? But I would have to use my sword to do that.

Fine, ninjutsu it is.

Choji hit the wall behind where I previously stood. He rocketed off of it towards my new position. How had he known where I was during his spin? How had he pushed off the wall perfectly?

I ignored the internal questions and two more shadow clones appeared next to me. A third quickly melted into the ground. Choji might have seen it, might not have.

My two shadow clones flashed through some identical hand seals before bringing their hands to their lips. Two streams of fire poured out and into the world.

Choji barreled right into the fire. And came out on the other side without a single black spot on his body.

He was about twenty feet from me when he exited the flames, still headed straight towards me. Although his body and armor had been contorted for his new frame, I saw the tell tale sign of black ink on his armor.

Fucking clan heirs and their access to fuinjutsu enhanced armor. I thought as the human cannon ball crossed the rest of the distance.

I waited till the last minute and drew a kunai. Wind chakra coated it as my perception sped up instinctively. Choji's body began to spin less and less frequently as I moved slightly to the side and brought the kunai up.

I sliced through his side, not very deeply, to prove that I could kill him at any moment. Hopefully that would give me the win.

Unfortunately, I didn't expect the massive arm to reach out of the spin and smack me. I finished my cut, and managed to bring a leg up to absorb most of Choji's blow. Luckily I was enhanced with chakra because it would have done some damage otherwise.

Instead, I was launched into the air, with my perception still enhanced. My eyes met Asuma's. He was standing on a platform above the battlefield, disconnected from the balcony. I signed him a question.

It wasn't exact, because the signs weren't intended to be another language, just an easy way to communicate.

'I can kill.' Is what my signs read.

Asuma's hand blurred through his own signs before he finished with his middle finger pointed into the air at me.

'Do it then, bitch.'

I would have laughed, had I not been so surprised and incredulous at the situation. My chakra senses told me that Choji had rocketed off of the wall again and was heading towards my position.

'Fuck it. Let's step it up a notch.'

Five clones appeared next to me in the air, and another appeared near the floor. My five clones all went through more identical hand signs as Choji got halfway to me. I executed a replacement technique with the clone on the floor and immediately grabbed a kunai out of the pouch on my leg.

5 overpowered Great Breakthrough's slammed into Choji, and for the first time since the start of the match, his momentum began slowing, as did the frequency of his turns. My clones kept up the chakra, as they could see they hadn't succeeded yet.

When Choji stopped spinning, he also stopped ascending at about the same height as my clones. I had to give it to him, he was much more dedicated, and adaptive than in the anime.

He cancelled his jutsu, and when he unrolled himself, he had kunai and shruiken in his hands. When Choji threw them, every one of my clones cancelled their jutsu and deflected the thrown weapons.

'Boom!'

I continued to look up as the explosive tags on Choji's weapons detonated.

'Custom tags, instant explosion.' I noted as smoke and fire filled the air, dispelling my clones.

And yet, for all his strategy, Choji hadn't noticed me standing beneath him with my kunai in my hand, waiting for him to fall. I made no noise as he fell toward me.

"Beneath you!"

Ino's voice cut across the field. Unfortunately, Choji was still high enough that he could react in time. So as soon as I heard the voice myself, I crouched and jumped.

In a fit of anger, and immaturaty I turned to Ino and launched the kunai in my hands at her. I am not sure why I did it, as she is a comrade, but I did. I didn't even look to see if it connected, as I was too busy turning my attention to Choji.

He had managed to turn his body in response to Ino. If he was smart he would have activated his jutsu again for the protection. But instead, all he had was a chakra enhanced body, that could not compare to my own.

My knee connected with his ribs, and I lashed out with a punch to his throat that also connected. He did his best to counterattack with a punch, but all it allowed me to do was grab his wrist and use it to pummel him.

Five punches to the face later, and we were hitting the ground with my knee in his sternum. Once again, black ink ran across his armor, and absorbed most of the blow of hitting the ground.

But it did nothing to stop me from resting my kunai on his throat.

There was a pause throughout the entire stadium. Choji was only just realizing that he could breathe again, and that he also had a kunai at his throat. Asuma had yet to call it even though I knew he could. He was either waiting for a forfeit, or for dramatic purposes.

Eventually, I heard his voice announce the match.

"Winner Naruto Uzumaki!"

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A/N: Boom!

I hope that clears up the Tenten thing guys. I really just forgot to mention that in the last chapter. I had plans of writing it up completely different…

Anyway!

Naruto tried to warn Kiba, but the kid just wouldn't listen. Of course, Naruto was a bit of an idiot when he tried to help him. But alas, Kiba's negligence got his companion killed. Akamaru has perished!

Sasuke dominated, of course. Hinata forfeited, and we obviously have a different dynamic between Neji and Hinata. That will be explored later, hopefully.

Naruto had little troubles with Choji, who was a lot more advanced than his anime counterpart. He would have kicked Kiba's ass, and probably Sakura's too, but Naruto just had the kit to manage him.

What does everyone think about Naruto tossing his Kunai at Ino? Will there be consequences? Would the Jonin have a problem with it?

What about the match and how it went?

Let's talk in the reviews!