Namikaze Naruto- The Unpredictable Shinobi

Chapter 27: The Preliminary Round

Naruto was scanning the genin for chickens when Kabuto raised his hand. "I quit." He announced. 'Should I be surprised? Why am I not?' she thought. "Very well, you may step out now." Hayate said and Kabuto left the ground. "Strange. He is a spy and prefers to retake the exam. No surprise since this must've been his strategy in the past few exams. But if he leaves, who will be spying on the candidates and also Sasuke? There must be other spies.' Naruto scanned the crowd. 'Kabuto's teammates? Nah, according to Kai Kitsune, they are just his cronies. The sound genin? Could be, could be not. They were following simple orders when they attacked Sasuke.' She looked at the Chunin and Jounin. 'Baki? Perhaps. But Suna is collaborating with Oto only in this exam. But it is a possibility. The Jounin sensei of Otogakure? Seems shady enough. Very pale, weird eye pupils. Could it be the Snake Master himself? Kai did say that Kabuto addressed an Oto Jounin as Orochimaru-sama. If he is, he is doing a very good job suppressing his Chakra. I need to keep an eye on him.'

"Alright, there seem to be even number of participants. The digital board here will here shall randomly choose the opponents. The first pairing will be shown shortly. Those whose names are shown shall stay back while the rest go to the balcony stands above and watch the matches from there." Hayate said.

1. Konoha: Uchiha Sasuke vs Konoha: Akado Yoroi (From Kabuto's team)
Sasuke started the fight with a fireball jutsu, Yoroi responded with an Earth wall. There were exchanges of Jutsus with occasional Taijutsu spars. Sasuke found his chakra draining faster than it should. After some time, he was too slow and was caught in Yoroi's grip as he began to drain his chakra. He revealed that each time they had come in contact, he had been draining his chakra. Sasuke kicked him and escaped from his clutches. He decided to finish the battle with a combination of a fire jutsu and the taijutsu moved he saw Lee use on him. After a series of rapid kicks, he threw Yoroi in the air and proceeded to shoot a fireball. However, he was running low on chakra and he tried desperatly for more, activating the curse seal in the process. He willed the tattoos to recede back into the seal and gained control of the seal, deactivating it. Instead of using the planned fireball, he kicked down Yoroi in the stomach, sending him crashing to the ground. Sasuke was declared the winner and soon, he fainted from exhaustion of chakra. Kakshi took him away to get some rest.

What no one suspected was that a certain big snake had tampered with the digital board, pitting Sasuke against his minion who could absorb chakra, in the first match itself, so that he could see how Sasuke would use the power of the Curse Seal. However, Sasuke proved that his will was strong enough to control it and he had other ways to win. The perpetrator, however, was far from disappointed. He was, in fact, more intrigued with Sasuke.

2. Konoha: Aburame Shino vs Oto: Abumi Zaku
Zaku had wierd metal structures covering his arms, that had holes to perform wind and sound attacks. His broken arms were healed already. Shino subtly used his bugs to drain chakra of the opponent. When Zaku used pressure in his arm weapons to finish the battle with a final move, his arms had burst and created the opposite effect, damaging his arms forever. Shino explained that his bugs had blocked the outlets of the weapons, thus, the pressure had backfired on him. Shino was declared the victor. 

3. Konoha: Tsurugi Misumi (Kabuto's team) vs Suna: Kankuro
Kankuro attacked Misumi, who had used a jutsu to make his body more flexible and wrapped his limbs around Kankuro. One move and the Suna nin could be decapitated. And he had done just that with a deafening crack. However, the wrapped baggage Kankuro always carried had unwrapped itself, revealing Kankuro. The one in Misumi's clutches was his puppet-a substitution. Sunagakure was known for Sand manipulators, Puppet masters and Wind style users. Kankuro was a puppet user. The puppet released poison, poisoning Misumi and making Kankuro the victor.

4. Konoha: Haruno Sakura vs Konoha: Yamanaka Ino
Ino and Sakura were once the best of friends, but once Sakura realised her crush was the same as Ino's she broke their friendship and declared them rivals. Ino, though occasionally annoyed, mostly took part in the rivalry to help Sakura grow out of her incompetency. The two of them riled up each other up, and Ino cut off her long hair in apparent frustration in this process. Ino settled, ready to apply her Mind-Transfer technique, while Sakura ran in circles around her to throw off her aim. When the technique was used, Sakura pretended to be under Ino's control, before revealing that she was not. This was the perfect time to make sure Ino loses, since the mind, once out of the body, take 5 minutes for an amateur user to come back. However, she found herself unable to move. Ino, who had pretended to have used her jutsu, revealed that the hair strands she had thrown were not cut out of frustration, but to create a medium for the flow of chakra, that now connected Sakura with Ino's chakra, immobilizing the pink haired girl, and this time, the Mind-Transfer Jutsu was a success for real. The loudmouth Naruto decided 'for fun's sake and also to help improve teamwork of sorts' to take the side of 'his' teammate and snap her out of it. Sakura was free from the Jutsu before Ino could force her to surrender. Both running low on chakra, decided to finish the battle with a single punch, resulting in a double K.O.. Both were disqualified.