Reaching For A Dream by Noodlehammer

Chapter 9

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There was a palpable air of anticipation in the Chunin exam stadium. The village, along with many foreign visitors had been eagerly awaiting the tournament, mostly due to there being so many prodigiously skilled Genin participating this time.

Most had come to see what the last Uchiha and Hyuuga Neji, both of whom were said to be enourmously talented. Although word had been going around lately that Uzumaki Naruto was also someone to be watched out for.

There had been no grand announcement, but rumours had been going around that the blond Genin was the son of the Yondaime Hokage. Most people disregarded this as preposterous, but some had taken a good look at him and noticed a disturbing similarity of hair and eye colour. Not to mention that those who had been old enough to take note of it, recalled that Namikaze Minato had often been seen in the company of Uzumaki Kushina.

Naruto's graduating class along with team Gai, being made up mostly of clan heirs, the parents of which had been present when Naruto had revealed his heritage, were now aware of it as well. They'd all been pretty stunned at learning that little bit of information and had wanted to talk to Naruto about it, but the blond had been like a ghost the past month.

Those Konoha Genin who had not made it to the finals were sitting together, joined by their sensei's. Even Jiraiya was there, wanting to see what people thought of his godson and see him fight. Well, Kakashi was missing, but nobody was overly surprised by this, considering his reputation for being late. The Genin were slightly surprised to find the second phase proctor, Mitarashi Anko, sitting next to Kurenai, but reasoned that the two women were friends after seeing them standing together in the preliminaries.

Unknown to all of these people, Xanna was sitting just a couple of rows behind them, curiosity having gotten the better of her. She wouldn't usually bother watching a bunch of human children beat the snot out of each other, but she wanted to see Naruto beat the snot out of them.

Uchiha Sasuke and Kinuta Dosu were missing, but nobody was making a fuss out of it, giving them time to show up until their respective matches begin. Sasuke was on something of a tight schedule for showing up, being in the second match, but Dosu conceivably still had several hours, depending on how long the matches lasted, as he had a freebie for his first match, due to an odd number of contestants.

"This should be good." Kiba said with a grin, eagerly waiting for the first match to start. He hadn't been pleased at the way that Neji had hurt Hinata and was hoping that Naruto would kick his ass. After seeing the blond beat Kurenai-sensei in a spar, he had no doubt that he could do it.

He still felt a bit ashamed about forfeiting without even trying to fight, but the way that even his mother had assured him that he had done the right thing eased his mind on that. Her explanation on what an Ichibi Jinchuuriki was had also left him feeling as if he'd just barely dodged a kunai with that forfeit. He didn't know why she had been so uncomfortable explaining that topic though. A demon being sealed into someone was a damn freaky thing, but he didn't understand her reluctance to explain.

"Hell yeah, I can't wait to see blondie flatten that Hyuuga prick, not to mention that I also bet huge on him." Anko said with a bloodthirsty grin.

"You guys really think that he can win?" Tenten asked, bringing attention to herself. "I mean, I know that he's pretty strong, but Neji is a genius." She continued, with doubt clear in her tone.

Anko just laughed at her before answering. "Girl, that teammate of yours has no idea what he's in for. Naruto is going to eat him alive, even Nai-chan felt confident that betting on him was a sure thing. He's a monster to fight against." She should know, since she'd tried to spar against him. The only reason she'd won that spar was because she'd gotten tricky with her snake summons, but at the rate that Naruto was improving, that was likely going to be the only time that she'd win.