Friend Of The Monster

Final Round Preliminaries

When the five days were up, Xavyn, and Baki were in the middle of a fierce spar session, when his teacher suddenly stopped, and said he had to leave for a short time, just before he disappeared. Xavyn blinked confusedly before shrugging, and throwing his kunai, working on his aim. By the time Baki came back, Xavyn was worried that something happened to him, and he barely stopped himself from running to his teacher to check on him. "The third round is gonna start with a preliminary exam, you won't be allowed to be with them for it. Seven teams passed, that's more than we were expecting. And don't worry, they're perfectly safe, and unharmed." He could see fear begin to creep up in Xavyn's eyes, and put him at ease before it could take control. "They should be done well before nightfall, do you wanna keep training or get some rest?" Xavyn gave him a smirk, and took a defensive stance. "Pff, I can sleep when I'm dead, Sensei." Baki chuckled, and used full power to attack Xavyn but they still only used Taijutsu. The student felt excitement bubble in his chest, and he pretended Baki was his enemy to draw up more power.

"Whoa, very nice! Alright, let's take it up a notch. Use whatever jutsu you want, and defeat me." Before he finished his order, Xavyn produced a clone, and silently attacked his teacher; fire burning in his eyes, and his chest, anger fueling his every move, and he had only one thought on his mind. Baki couldn't believe his eyes, Xavyn produced two more clones, and they all attacked at full speed, the real one getting even faster until the five of them were nothing but blurs of tan, grey, and blue. Kunai clanked together, and created a screeching sound when the material dragged against each other. Baki felt somewhat cheated, his student had been holding back more than he originally thought. The clones suddenly disappeared, along with the real Xavyn, and Baki looked all around him, only to be knocked face down onto the ground, Xavyn had jumped up in the air, and landed on Baki's back, bending down to hold his hand full of chakra beside his teacher's eye. "Well? Do I pass your test now?" "Yes, you did very well." Xavyn backed off, and his teacher rubbed his shoulder blade where Xavyn landed. "I'm really impressed, you've come a long way in such a short amount of time. Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro will be proud of you."

At the arena for the preliminary battle, Temari was surprised at how many teams passed, and Baki was noting that there wasn't even a mark on Gaara, the Hokage stepped forward to address the Genin, and explain the point of the Exams again, in more depth. "Any test is fine, just give me the details of the exam already, I can handle anything you throw at me." Gaara wanted the exams over as much as the others did. The third round proctor, Hayate, showed up, and told them to leave, drop out, if they weren't feeling their absolute best. He said they needed a preliminary before the real third round. Kabuto dropped out, and it got started. The winners of each match, one-on-one, would continue to the real third round, the losers would have to try their luck the next time. The matches were chosen at complete random, each name showing up on a screen behind Hayate. Sasuke, and his opponent stepped forward while everyone else moved up to the upper level. Orochimaru had disguised himself as a Sound Ninja Jonin, and watched with the others while Baki stood with his students.

Sasuke's opponent was stealing his chakra through physical contact. Gaara was unimpressed with Sasuke's ducking, and dodging, when Sasuke copied Lee's attack against him, then kicked him into the ground. Sasuke won the match, and Orochimaru could barely contain his excitement. Baki hid a smirk, having no doubt that Xavyn could keep up with Sasuke in the Leaf Genin's current state. Gaara was thinking something similar, Temari was impressed with Sasuke, Kankuro didn't have solid opinions on any of it; he just wanted the whole thing to be over. The second round saw Shino Aburame vs Zaku, Shino sent bugs to plug the holes in Zaku's body that allowed his jutus to work, as a result his arms exploded; holes littered his arms where the bugs tunneled out of. He was unable to continue, and Shino won. Kankuro was next, and he went up against a man who could dislocate each of his joints, and use his chakra to control his contorted body; he wrapped his body around Kankuro's, and use his chakra to tighten the grip he had on Kankuro's body. Misumi threatened to break the Puppeteer's neck if he didn't surrender, and the threat was carried out.