One Month

"And with that, the preliminaries are over" Hayate announced, "to everyone who passed to the final round, I congratulate you" he added; Gaara, Kankuro, Rock Lee, Neji Hyuga, Shikamaru Nara, Naruto Uzumaki, Shino Aburame and me, we stood next to each other, in front of the small platform where the Hokage was taking drags of his pipe, behind him the hand seal statue, the only one missing was Saske that was taken to receive medical assistance after his combat.

"I will begin the explanation of the final round, the final round is where each one of you will show your battle skills in front of everyone, I want you to demonstrate what are you capable of as a battle force representative of your respective Lands, accordingly the final round will commence one month from now" the Hokage said.

"We're not doing it now?" Naruto asked.

"This is for us to have time to prepare, along with the invitation to the Feudal Lords and every major Shinobi representative, you need time to prepare for your next combat" the Hokage answered with calm.

"I don't understand, what do you mean?" Kankuro asked annoyed.

"In other words, to prepare yourself for your next combat, time is necessary, time to analyze what you learned from your adversaries in the preliminaries, the battles until now simulated actual combat situation where you can't know your enemy beforehand, this is not the case for the final round, some already reveled everything about themselves, due to that in the spirit of fairness you have a month to train your skills further" the Hokage explained, dismissing Kankuro's antics as teenager tantrum.

"Before we leave, there is one final matter to attend in preparation to the final round, I want you to take one paper from the box Anko is holding" the Hokage said.

"I'll go in order, please just take one" Anko said advancing towards Naruto, she made sure no one took more than one piece of paper.

"From left to right, tell me the number on your paper" Ibiki instructed.

All the present gave their numbers, the final round combats were the following, Naruto Uzumaki VS Neji Hyuga, Kankuro VS Shino Aburame, Saske Uchiha VS Rock Lee, Shikamaru Nara VS Kenji Yūhi and the winner from that fight, will face a second combat against Gaara.

"Does this means, there's only one winner? Only one of us will become a Chunin?" Shikamaru asked, finally someone does smart questions.

"On the contrary, the judges of the final round, of which I am one, will be made of the Kazekage, and the Feudal Lords from various countries, and the Shinobi leaders, we'll evaluate your performance and decide who qualifies as a Chunin, even if you lose at the first round you can become a Chunin" the Hokage replied, before taking a drag from his pipe.

After answered most of the doubts, the Hokage asked us to leave the premises, starting once and for all the training period, I had new abilities that needed time to be developed, specially with the whole Konoha Crush situation, and Shukaku's attack that I need to develop my own version of the Magnet Style to counter with a denser material, this month I can't count on Guy-Sensei nor my usual sparring partners, Lee will spend his time training with Guy-Sensei, Neji will develop his abilities on his own, neither of us want to show our improvement until the tournament.

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{Next Day}

"What are you going to do for training?" aunt Kurenai asked me, during our family breakfast.

"I have a few ideas after watching yesterday combats, they provided me with some insights about my own skills and how to develop something interesting, why? Didn't you said I was such a genius that you can't teach me anything else?" I teased her, earning a hit on the head.

"I can't teach you anything regarding Genjutsu, but it seems that I neglected my duties as your aunt, you still have to learn manners" she said.

"Believe me, that is something impossible, I've been trying for the last thirteen years, but he refuses to learn anything useful" Mom said.

"Can you stop talking like if I wasn't here?" I asked.

"NO" they replied in unison, filling the house with laughter, it has been a while since the three of us were together, chilling, between missions and training, we neglected that part a bit.

"Then I better take my leave, before I hear something unpleasant" I said, standing up from the table, towards the bathroom to wash my teeth before leaving the house, I had a month to prepare and the first thing I want to do is to find a Titanium deposit, it shouldn't be too difficult, we have hot springs in Konoha, meaning there is some kind of volcanic activity in the area, and Titanium is common in that kind of places.

I spent the rest of the day in the library, reading Geography books, historic maps of the region, and old reports that can be consulted by the public, but at least my search was successful, there is one place near the Village that could contain Titanium, an old abandoned mine, half a day from here, they extracted iron and precious metals from it, but never went past a certain point after exhausting the metals they wanted, the mountain used to be an active volcano, the ideal condition to try and extract it.

The sun was about to set, but instead of going home, I went to the ninja tool shop that I frequented.

"Kenji! You come here for more materials to your clothing?" the owner asked.

"Not this time, I actually came for other things, I need your most potent flashlight, and a gas mask with various filters" I said.

"I heard you are in the final round, does this have anything to do with your preparations?" he asked, handing over the goods.

"Yes, but this is to look for something I need to train, not the actual training" I replied, giving him the money and leaving the store, ending my day.