Naruto (Reader x Various)

Chapter 18: Preliminaries

        Everyone looked around, confused by what he had said. "And what would that be?" You question, meeting Hayate's eyes. He stares at you, almost as if he was lost in thought. But you knew he was paying attention. "We have to have a preliminary exam before the actual third exam." He explains, causing Naruto to look confused. 'He's hopeless. He must not have ever paid attention in school.' You sigh, listening to everyone shout in anger. Hayate  coughs, then says,"The first and second exams might have been too easy. The fact is, we never expected so many of you to make it this far. According to the rules of the Chuninn Exams, a preliminary round can be held at any round if there are too many candidates left." Sakura looks a little desperate, and looks like she wants to say something. Hayate explains that if any of the candidates were not in good physical condition, then now would be the time to back out. No one moves to leave. You hear a small gasp of pain in front of you, and you move your head to see who made it. Sasuke was rubbing the spot on his neck where Orochimaru had  bitten him. Sakura was whispering urgently to him, but Sasuke appeared to be ignoring her. You inch closer so that you could hear what they were saying. "You have got to quit, Sasuke. You've been like this ever since Orochimaru, and you are getting worse. I know that it's that mark. Please, Sasuke... quit now... I don't know.. I'm scared.." Sasuke looks shaken, while Naruto just looks confused. 'Naruto must not know about the mark yet. I wonder when he'll find out.'

        You inch back towards your spot, hoping your teammates wouldn't know that you were eavesdropping. You notice that Kakashi and some of the other Jounin, including Anko, were in a heated discussion. You wondered if they knew about Sasuke's curse mark. You strain your ears to try to hear what they were talking about, but they were too far away. A flash of movement catches your eyes, and you watch in shock as Sakura starts to raise her hand then stops. She is staring at someone just pass you. You turn around, only to see Kabuto raising his hand. 'That's the kid who I met at the first exam. I've had a bad vibe about him since I first saw him. He makes me feel... strange.' You shake your head, and see that Sasuke was watching you. When he notices that you were staring back at him, he quickly turns around.

        "Does anyone else," Hayate asks,"want to quit?" Sakura starts to raise her hand once more, and you quickly pull it back down. "Can't you tell that Sasuke isn't going to quit? It isn't like you to not see something that obvious. Sasuke doesn't need you to do that for him. He can make his own decisions." You glare at her, then soften up, as to seeing that she had tears about to spill over in her eyes. "The best you can do for him is to hope." You finish, feeling bad for her. After all, she just wanted to help. But you knew Sasuke didn't want to quit. You dart to your place quickly, not wanting to look out of place. You smile, just a little bit excited. You wondered who you would be up against.

        "We will now start the next round. Each match will be one on one battles. This is not an exercise, so teach it as a real mission. The surviving candidates will move on to the next round. As for the rules, there are none. Although, if a match seems hopeless, I will step in and stop the match, so that we can save as many lives as possible." He coughs, finishing. You watch as the panel opens up, revealing the names: (y/n) v.s. Asuna Yuuki.

        You smile, then wait for everyone to go up to the stands. A slender girl stands, facing you. She has long, orange brown hair. She also has a sword hanging in it's sheath. 'A sword user? This should be interesting. Not many people use swords.' Hayate stands in between the two of you. He coughs, then yells,"You may begin!" Immediately, you watch, a little overwhelmed, as Asuna charges you with her sword out. The move seemed so obvious, you just stood there, watching. Just as she gets to you, you move with lightning speed out of the way. But Asuna isn't phased. In fact, it seemed to be that she had expected you to do that. While you were in the air, she moves quickly towards were you would land. Her sword starts glowing, and you knew that if you didn't do something, then you would be impaled by her sword. Her sword glows blue, with chakra. Although, instead of waiting for you where you would land, she waits where she was already. You finally land, then roll onto your feet. The second you got up, she was there. She swings the sword, and you barely manage to avoid it. You feel a sharp sting on your cheek, and feel blood roll down it. 'I've got to do something, but she's much faster than I expected. If I could slow her down somehow..' You get an idea. "Wind Style, Gale Winds Jutsu!" You yell, your voice echoing in the room you were in.

        The wind starts to pick up, even though you were inside.  It picks up until it had more like a hurricane than regular wind. "Time to wrap this up. Wind Style, Razor Breeze Jutsu!" The wind picks up even more, although this time it turns into a slicing force. The wind causes cuts to appear all over Asuna's body. She collapses to her knees, gasping in pain. Not wanting to waste your chakra, you stop the jutsu. You feel weak all over, and have to fight hard, so as to not fall to your knees. 'Why am I so weak? I only took one hit... Maybe I'm tired from something different.' You watch Asuna, not really up to knocking her out. You ball up your hands, then walk over to where she was kneeling. She starts crawling towards her sword, but you punch her on the head, causing her to fall down and black out. Naruto starts cheering, as well as a couple of others. Except instead of rejoicing, the world starts spinning, faster and faster until everything was a blur. You collapse on the ground, only to have Kakashi appear behind you to catch you. Looking anxious, he asks,"(y/n), what happened? It looked like you barely took a hit. The only explanation is..." His voice trails off, although you couldn't really understand what he was saying anyway. The last thing you remember was fainting into Kakashi's arms.

There ya go. Another chapter! Gotta love Asuna from SAO! Anyways, see you later. Also..... 100 VOTES YOU GUYS ARE AMAZING!!!! Thanks so much! Stay ritzy, my friends!

Ziggy