44 The End of the Preliminaries! (1/2)

Temari and Chouji stood face to face. Temari had a victorious looking smirk on her face.

”I hope you fight as well as you eat.” Temari said before Hayate started the match.

”Just watch and see!” Chouji said in response before making a hand sign and shouting, ”Expansion Jutsu!”

Chouji's body puffed up into the shape of a water balloon and gained some height to where he easily was taller than most of the genin in the arena. He left his limbs the same size before he stuck them inside his puffed-up shirt. He then rose in the air by blasting chakra from his feet and starting to roll like a bowling ball in the air. Chouji landed on the ground and started to roll at Temari at a pretty mediocre speed.

Temari opened her fan and revealed two purple circles that were etched on it. She then swung her opened fan towards the rolling Akimichi. A fast gust of wind blasted into Chouji, slowing his assault greatly before eventually blasting him back into the wall. Chouji got lodged into the wall from the impact of his own rolling and the wind!

Chouji struggled to get himself free. Temari just stood and watched with a look of absolute disbelief. 'This is my opponent? He can barely fight!' Temari sighed before pulling her fan back launching another wind blast at Chouji who had finally gotten himself free. His eyes widened in terror before he quickly hid back inside himself with his clan's jutsu and was launched into the wall even further.

Seconds go by before any sort of noise is heard from the large boy. But all of a sudden, rumbling was heard from the hole where Chouji was forced into. A dizzy, off-balanced chubby boy in his regular form came walking out. He was walking all over the place with his eyes in spirals.

”I won't. I won't lose. I won't lose just yet…” Chouji managed to say before falling over and snoring.

”Is this match over or what?” Temari said in an upset manner.

”The winner of this match is Temari from the Village Hidden in the Sand!” Hayate announced before Temari returned back to her position next to her brother.

”Well that was disappointing.” Jabie said.

”That match was totally useless! He hasn't learned anything as a genin, since his time from the academy!” Esumi said. ”She didn't even beat the fat idiot's head in and make fun of him for being so pathetic!”

”Worthless.” Aomatsuna also replied.

”At least his fires of youth shone as brightly as they could for him.” Lee said.

”It was simply his fate.” Neji added.

[Sasuke vs Zaku]

”Finally. I get to fight.” Sasuke said before clutching his neck where the curse mark seal was at. He was hoping it didn't interfere with his fight, but it seemed to activate whenever he used chakra. So it seemed he had to deal with this guy whose arms he had broken during the second exam. Should be easy enough right?

”I will get my revenge for my arms!” Zaku yelled as he hopped down from the balcony. Sasuke leapt over the railings and stood face to face with the sound ninja whose arms he broke.

”Don't blame me for what happens if you go through with this match.” Sasuke warned before having Kakashi whisper something into his ear. His face took on a look of shock, before quickly turning into a contemplative one.

”Begin.” Hayate said when Kakashi left the match area.

Zaku pulled out his good arm from his cast and aimed it at Sasuke.

”It turns out I didn't get them both.” He said with a smirk. This pissed Zaku off. He immediately shouted, ”Sound Wave!” and a fast-moving flurry of wind traveled towards Sasuke. Sasuke dodged before running towards Zaku. Zaku attacked the incoming Sasuke with his good arm. Sasuke blocked with his own arm and punched with his other towards Zaku's face. Zaku moved his head to dodge Sasuke's fist but missed the fact that Sasuke has now ducked and did a sweeping kick.

Zaku fell from the sweeping kick and landed on his back. He groaned in pain before noticing Sasuke's bottom heel heading straight towards his face! He quickly rolled over before hearing multiple sounds of impact coming for him. He decided to roll over one last time before blasting at Sasuke with his sound wave attack. Unfortunately for Sasuke, his curse mark decided to act up at this time and force him to take the attack head on.

Sasuke was launched off his feet towards the opposite wall of Zaku. Zaku slowly stood up while taking heavy breathes. He had a satisfied smirk on his face before slowly walking over towards Sasuke. Sasuke was struggling to fight against the curse mark that was spreading over his body somewhat. It was receding and advancing. Sasuke knew he couldn't let this thing take over him or Kakashi would take him out of the match and prevent him from furthering in the chunin exams. He summoned all the willpower he could from his very being to clash against this thing.

The jonin were watching Sasuke's skirmish against the dreaded seal. Kakashi was watching him like a hawk, ready to dive in and interrupt the match for his student's safety and future. They all saw how the seal slowly receded back and turn back in to the original 3 black tomoe form. Kakashi sighed in relief, while the rest of the jonin showed expressions of amazement.

Sasuke stood up with difficulty. He saw his opponent aiming towards him with one of his palms aimed directly at Sasuke. He then saw the sound genin smirk before blasting another sound wave attack at him. Sasuke swiftly dropped to the ground and rolled out of the way, causing his body to ache even more. Zaku appeared over the Uchiha with his foot raised above his face and a devious smirk. He dropped his foot to stomp the genius's face in the ground. Sasuke grabbed his foot to stop him from stomping him. Zaku increased the pressure. Sasuke's arms started to shake.

”Hey Sasuke! What are you doing out there looking like a chump! Hurry up and show this guy the power of someone from Team 7!” Naruto shouted.

This seemed to give the last Uchiha boy some form of energy as his face took on a look of determination and his arms stopped shaking. He let go one of his arms holding up Zaku's foot, but punching him in the leg. Zaku quickly shook him off, but once he looked towards Sasuke's position he couldn't find him! He was about to start looking around until he noticed he appeared right under him!

But for this sound genin he didn't react fast enough. Sasuke kicked Zaku in the chin from right below him. The kick from the tired Uchiha launched the slightly crippled genin high in the air. Zaku looked around for Sasuke to prepare for any attack, but didn't notice where he was until it was too late.

”Hey isn't that my move!?” Lee shouted.

”Wow, how impressive. Being able to do a move from only seeing it once! Sasuke's so cool!” Sakura shouted.

”He's just a lame ole thief. Nothing special about stealing.” Naruto dismissed.

Sasuke appeared under Zaku. ”Shadow of the Dancing Leaf.” Sasuke kicked Zaku in the ribs on the side where his arm was broken, causing him to groan. He then elbowed him in the chest, causing their mid-air time to decrease faster. As they were about to land, Sasuke landed a brutal heel kick on Zaku's stomach before sliding away painfully from the impact of his attack. Zaku spat out blood and stopped moving.

Sasuke held his head up slightly to show that he wasn't out of this fight quite yet. Hayate went over to Zaku's body to check him.

”He's done for this match. I am declaring Sasuke Uchiha as the winner. And since we had one fighter who has not fought yet, he will be automatedly moving into the third exam.” Hayate stated.

”HEY HOW IS THAT FAIR!?!?” A familiar blonde shouted.

”It isn't. We had too many people past the second exam, and since you guys went too easy on each other or something this is your punishment.” Hayate responded.

”This isn't so troublesome.” Shikamaru said with a smile in response to getting a free pass to the final test.

”You're so lucky Shikamaru! We had to put our lives on the line and all you had to do was sit here. Totally unfair.” Ino whined.

”I think it's because we didn't take so many people's scrolls…” Esumi said.

”I wanted to fight strong fighters. I didn't expect this to be the outcome of my actions.” Aomatsuna admitted.

”You might still get the chance to Aomatsuna. We don't know how the final exam is gonna turn out yet.” Jabie said.

And as soon as he stated that Hayate started to talk.

”And this concludes the preliminaries for the third exam. To all of you who have won, congratulations! The Lord Hokage will now say a few words.” Hayate coughed slightly.

”As I told you before, your matches will be seen by everybody. Each of you will fight to represent the strength of your countries. I want you to do that by showing every inch of your power. This is also the reason why the finals will be held one month from now.” Hiruzen said.

”Wait, so its not happening right now? Right here?” Rock Lee said a little upset at not being able to show his flames of youth more.

”No. You could say, it's a break for preparations. In additions to informing all the various country lords and shinobi leaders, this is the time needed to arrange for the gathering of the event. And this is also preparation time for you examination students.” Hiruzen says as he takes a small break to smoke his small pipe.

”What are we preparing for?” Ino asked.

”We're preparing to fight our future opponents ya blonde bimbo! Its so simple to understand, but its taking forever to get through!” Esumi yelled irritated that this is taking so long.

”But we don't know who our opponents are.” Shino said calmly.

”We're getting to that! Just shut up and let him finish!!!” Esumi shouted.

Hiruzen coughed at the temper of this small gifted kunoichi before starting again.

”The one month period should be used by you all to advance and improve yourselves. And to rest your wearily bodies. But before you all leave. Please grab a piece of paper from the box Anko is handing out.”

Each genin grabbed a piece of paper from Anko.

”Now tell us the number on that piece of paper in order starting from left to right.” Hiruzen said.

12– Miyahara Otsune

11 – Temari

3– Yada Esumi

13– Aomatsuna Hakuseki

4– Rock Lee

2 – Ino Yamanaka