Naruto: Senju Resurrection

Chapter 23

Naruto was getting excited. Finally, could he let loose and fight. He would ask his Jiji if he could use his Mokuton in the main event later. Here he could probably manage without it. "And oh... It is induvidual battles from now on. So droping out now will not effect your teammmates in any way." Gekko Hayate, the proctor, adds. Kabuto raises his hand. "What...?" Kiba asks. "Excuse me... I'll quit," Kabuto excuses himself. "Let's see," The proctor says as he flips through some papers. "Yakushi Kabuto of the Leaf Village, correct?" He asks Kabuto. "Then you may step back," He orders. "Okay!" Kabuto responds. "Kabuto. why're you quitting?" Kiba asks. "I'm sorry, Kiba... But my body is worn out." Kabuto explains. Naruto sharpens his look on Kabuto. 'What is he taking about he looks fine. He even has most of his chakra left,' Naruto notes in his mind. 'Something's up,' He adds. Kabuto exchanged some more words with Kiba before leaving. "I think I remember that face. He has droped out of the final battle before. What is he thinking?" The Hokage remarks on the retreating Kabuto. "Anko!" Ibiki states, gaining the attention of the purple-haired proctor. She flips through her own stack of papers and reads out its information. The Hokage listens to her speak. Something was up, and he got a suspicion it had something to do with this Kabuto.

Kabuto seems to have a quiet word with his teammate. Unfortunately, Naruto couldn't make anything out, and Kiba focused on something else. "Tch, stupid dog breath," Naruto quietly lashes out childishly while pouting. "Huh, what did you say, you punk!?" Kiba did hear the insult directed at him. "You only hear what you want to hear," Naruto says as he pulls his tongue out at Kiba. "Oh, I am going to enjoy rearranging your face later!" Kiba counters while punching into his fist.

Kabuto had left a while ago now. But Naruto and Kiba were still exchanging childish insults back and forth. Hinata wants to step in the middle of them and break it up but can't summon the courage to tell her crush off. The proctor clears his throat in an attempt to gain back their attention. It succeeded after the third try. "So no one else wants to quit before we start?" He asks the now 20 participants. "Good, let's start," He finalises after a cough.

"The preliminaries to come will be one on one individual battles." The proctor says. "There are now exactly 20 people, so we will conduct ten battles. The winners will be able to advance to the third exam." He adds. "There are no rules. Except when I say you're done, you're done, and no fighting will be permitted afterwards. Otherwise, you fight until someone dies or admit defeat. I will also call the match if one of the combatants falls unconscious. Any questions?" He says finally. "This will show you who will fight and when..." He says as he coughs, and one of the tiles on the walls begin to pull upwards. A screen was now seen. "The match will be completely random." He clarifies. "Now to start, I'll announce the two names for the first battle." He says, and characters begin flashing on the screen. Finally, they stop, and the names Akado Yoroi and Uchiha Sasuke are shown. "The first match will be Akado Yoroi vs. Uchiha Sasuke. The rest can go up to the balcony and wait your turn," Hayate says, then he coughs.

Naruto is standing with the rest of the rookies looking down on the onslaught that was the first match. The guy seemed to have some sort of chakra absorption ability, but he was still no match for Sasuke's quick feet and Sharingan. The seal placed on the curse mark held. It would continue to hold until Sasuke lost the will for it too. "Talk about a boring match..." Naruto sighs as he places both of his hands behind to head.

"Winner Uchiha Sasuke!" Hayate confirms what everyone else already knew. Sasuke walks up to his teammates. "Beat that. Idiot." He says in a cocky voice to Naruto. "Just you wait. I'll beat your time by an hour," Naruto replies back just cockily. Sparks could almost be seen clashing in the middle of them. It was a lot more playful from Naruto's side, though. "Come on guys no need to turn everything into a competiton. Congratulation on your victory Sasuke," The ever calm Kakashi came up from behind them while placing a little smack on both of their necks. Both fell face-first into the ground. A small giggle could be heard from Ino (if you were close enough), who was absentmindedly watching Naruto. Something Shikamaru took notice of. "Troublesome..." a tired sigh left his mouth. Naruto and Sasuke grumbled over their rough treatment from their teacher. Still, they got up without voicing any of their thoughts aloud and walked back to Sakura and sat down.

"The next pairing will be Zaku Abumi vs. Aburame Shino, please come down from the balcony," Hayate spoke up after the screen had settled on the two names. Zaku and Shino began walking down the stairs. Shino was still in his camo-green trenchcoat and sunglasses. Naruto mused that he had probably never seen either his face or eyes. Now that he thought about it, he had never seen any of the Aburame-clan member's eyes.

The two combatants stood in front of each other. The only one with any visible marks on him was that Zaku guy. He still had his arms in slings after his team's run-in with Sasuke. "We will now begin the second match." Hayate proclaims.

The match was over before it even began. Shino was too good for the Oto-genin. As simple as it sounded. It still rang true. Naruto counted one strike that hit Shino, just the first strike of the match. Shino had complete control of the battle from the beginning. Shino strolled up the stairs to his team as soon as the proctor called the match.

"Now then, the third match, Tsurugi Misumi vs Kankuro, please come down," Hayate says as the screen stops at two new names. Kankuro was smiling cruelly, and you couldn't see the expression on Misumi's face since a purple cloth covered it. They soon found themself standing opposite each other with the proctor in between them. "Begin!" He says.

The third match was more of the same—an early attack from the loser then the complete twisting around for the winner to win easily. Kankuro played like a fiddle. But this time, that Misumi guy pulled his limbs out of their sockets made Naruto as a medic cringe so hard. You aren't really supposed to do that.

The fourth match was about to be seeded. Naruto had a bad feeling all of a sudden. This next match was going to be stupid. He just knew it.

"The fourth match will be Yamanaka Ino vs Haruno Sakura," Hayate says as the names are shown. There it is... "Troublesome..." He sighs out in tandem with Shikamaru. Kakashi smacked him pretty hard on his head with his book.