Honto No Haisha (A Naruto Fanfiction)!

Chapter 11

Chapter 11: Preliminaries.

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The final hours of the second stage ended and Naruto along with all the Genin who passed the second stage stood in line in front of the Hokage and several Konoha's Shinobi.

Hiruzen explained to the students the importance of this exam as it was a substitute for wars during peaceful times. After answering all the answers asked by the genins, he allowed Hayate to take over the platform.

"Like the Hokage already informed, we'll have preliminaries for the final stage. Two fighters at random will be chosen, it'll be displayed on the screen above us. The winner will be eligible to continue in the finals. Any question?" Hayate explained as he eyed every student with a calm look. When he got no replies, he decided to continue.

"One more thing, since there's an odd number of genins, one member of the first genin team to pass the second stage will be allowed to qualify for the final stage." After Hayate said that, Gaara's team picked Gaara to be the member to qualify directly. Seeing as no one was objecting to the decision, Hayate decided to end his session.

"Okay, all the students, make your way to the balcony." Every genin walked up to the balcony and started waiting for their names to be called.

As the first names were called, Naruto ignored the fight and approached Hinata's team. "Hey Hinata, are you excited for your fight?" Naruto questions.

Hinata looked down with a sad look and said, "Yeah."

"You don't look too excited..." Naruto squinted his eyes as he edged towards her face making her blush red.

"Naruto... Stop harassing Hinata." Kiba teased with a knowing smirk only to get an oblivious look from Naruto. "I am not harassing Hinata." Naruto defended.

"I humbly ask all of you to focus on the fight." Shino requested without looking away from the battlefield. Naruto looked toward the ring to see Choji being taken away on a stretcher and Dosu walking back to his team. The screen displayed TenTen and Temari's names and both the genins made their way to the arena without a sound.

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"Damn... Temari owned TenTen." Naruto whistled and Hinata nodded her head. "TenTen-san's matchup was against her. A wind user is the worst kind of opponent for someone whose main arsenal includes projectiles." Hinata explains and Naruto looks at her surprised. "Ohhh... That means even I'll have an advantage against TenTen." He stated with a grin.

"Yeah... You will." Hinata smiled at Naruto. 'His innocence is cute.' Hinata thought and her thoughts were followed by a blush.

"You know, you look cute when you blush." But before Hinata reached the floor, Yūgao caught her. "That's not something you say to a girl randomly Naruto... Especially to someone shy like Hinata." Yūgao sighed as she laid Hinata on the floor.

All the nearby genins and jōnins looked at the scene with smirks and grins. A few minutes later, Hinata woke up and looked around and found Naruto leaning on the fence.

She walked up to him and saw Sakura and Ino being taken away on a stretcher and guessed what had happened. "Am I allowed to kill them?" Yūgao questioned out loud making several men sweatdrop. "Disgrace, how can they call themselves Kunoichis with such pitiful display of skills? How did they even pass the second stage?" Kurenai said as she scowled at both Kakashi and Asuma.

Kakashi simply gave her a peace sign while Asuma had a terrified look on his face. Suddenly, all their attention was drawn to the arena where Kankuro and Misumi were starting their fight.

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"A puppet user... Cool." Naruto said with an interested look on his face. "No, I can't teach you that..." Yūgao said with a look that left no room for argument. She knew Naruto would ask her to teach him that seeing his interested look. "Moreover, do you want to control some puppets and stand behind them or do you want to fight yourself?" Yūgao added.