Konoha, Three Days Ago:

Here it was. The big day. The last part of the Chunin exams. Invasion day. After triple checking that he had every last piece of gear he thought he would need Naruto headed to the arena the tournament was to be held in.

Surprisingly he wasn't the first person there, Sabaku no Gaara and his siblings had arrived first. Kankuro and Temari were huddled off to one side, giving their youngest sibling a wide berth. Naruto gave them a friendly wave, before picking a spot to wait in. It wasn't long before the other contestants made their way into the arena. Shino gave him a polite wave when he entered, before settling in a quiet corner. Next were Zabuza and Haku. Haku made a beeline for Naruto, and plopped down next to him, after giving him a bone crushing hug. Choji and Shikamaru entered together, waved, and took one look at Zabuza's looming presence before deciding to sit down somewhere else. Kabuto arrived next, looking incredibly nervous. He took a seat a few chairs away from Naruto, and seemed to shut off the outside world. Neji and Lee entered together as well, both shooting him unpleasant death glares from across the competitors box. When Fu entered, she went to run over to Naruto, but a subtle flash of senbon from Haku's sleeve changed her mind. Soon the only contestants who hadn't arrived were Dosu and Sasuke.

"I swear," Naruto grumbled, "If that duck headed asshole is picking up Kakashi-sensei's bad habits…"

Eventually Sasuke sauntered into the arena looking minorly disheveled, but entirely smug. "Wait till you see what I've got, Fishcake."

Less than thirty seconds after Sasuke arrived, The Hokage called everyone in the stadium to attention, "Today is a day of great significance, for I am not only joined by our ally the Kazekage, but the Raikage himself has joined us for this year's Chunin exams, for the first time since before the last Great Shinobi War. But I'm sure you're not here to hear an old man ramble." the hokage clapped his hands together, "You want to see how the next generation of shinobi is coming along, very well. Allow me to announce the matches chosen completely at random, to ensure maximum fairness."

Bracket A

Uzumaki Naruto vs Fu of Takigakure

Hyuuga Neji vs Akimichi Choji

Kinuta Dosu vs Aburame Shino

Rock Lee, pass

Bracket B

Temari of Sunagakure vs Nara Shikamaru

Momochi Zabuza vs Momochi Haku

Kankuro of Sunagakure vs Sabaku no Gaara

Uchiha Sasuke vs Yakushi Kabuto

Hayate strolled into the center of the arena, Naruto noticed the Kazekage and the sand siblings teacher stiffen in shock at his appearance, "Allow me to introduce myself," he coughed, "My name is Gekko Hayate, and I will be the proctor for this last portion of the exam." Hayate cast a withering glare at the participants, "The rules are simple, fight until you win, or are incapacitated. This is not a fight to the death, if I feel a fight is over, and call it, then it's over. Continuing to fight afterwards will disqualify you. Intentionally killing an opponent, will disqualify you. Accidents do happen, but we're watching you very closely. Don't think you can pull a fast one.'' His speech was still peppered with coughs, but they were nowhere near as bad as before he'd been killed. "First up, Uzumaki Naruto, and Fu."

Naruto hopped over the railing while Fu took a few moments to choose her gear from her chest. When she joined Naruto in the ring she was wearing both claws,had her whip wrapped around her waist, and her blow gun hung around her neck like a necklace.

"Ready, blondie? I won't go easy on you!"

"Beat I can beat you without breaking a sweat."

"Fat chance. How about a bet, loser takes the winner out for all you can eat?" Fu smirked before bringing a hand up to her mouth.

"You're gonna regret that."

"You two done?" coughed Hayate, "alright, let's get this show on the road." he raised an arm, and swung it down with a, "Match start!"

Fu took a step backward, uncoiled her whip and launched a barrage of strikes at Naruto. Naruto, on the other hand, just bullrushed through Fu's flurry of blows. "You should know that I'm immune to poisons by now."

Fu continued to back pedal, trying to keep naruto at the optimal range for her whip. With her free hand she brought the blowgun to her lips and fired envenomed darts through the maelstrom of attacks. Once she was out of darts she smirked, "Not poison this time. Heard you had a bit of a scare with acid."

And in fact the wounds inflicted by her whip and darts hadn't closed yet, and were actually slowly widening. "You think this is enough?" Naruto borrowed a drop of Kurama's chakra and the wounds began to slowly close. With a burst of speed he barreled past her whip and sunk a fist wrist deep into her stomach. For a moment everything seemed to stop, then Fu went flying across the arena and impacted the wall. Naruto leapt after her, but before he could fully close the distance she fired another barrage of incredibly accurate darts, forcing Naruto to borrow another drop of chakra to speed his regeneration back up.

Fu met his own leap with one of her own, claws first. Naruto ducked under her slashes, his small size working in his favor for once. He countered with an uppercut Fu leaned out of the way of, but the sweeping kick he followed with sent her face first into the dirt.

Fu bounced back before he could take advantage and she pressed forward with another flurry of claw strikes. She was clearly taking small drops of her Bijuu's chakra to enhance her attacks.

The match momentarily devolved into a pure slugfest, neither landing any clean hits, but the air rippling with the force of their blows.

The Kazekage leaned forward in his seat, "clever boy, that one."

The Raikage snorted, "You saw it too? How many clones does he have hidden in the field?"

The Hokage smirked, "I'm told he prefers to work with six clones, unless he's bored and decides to literally bury his opponents in bodies."

Fu was so focused on her fight with Naruto she didn't notice the clones burrowing through the earth behind her. "NOW!" the three clones that popped out of the ground behind her, one for each leg, and a third that grabbed both of her arms. "RASENGAN!" the swirling sphere of destruction caught Fu in the gut launching her into the center of the field.

"Oh, ho!" the Kazekage laughed, "I see, I see. That's a true monster you have trained up Sarutobi."

"The Raikage groaned, and rubbed his forehead, "those nightmares managed to reproduce didn't they?" he shot Hiruzen a withering glare, "Did you bring me here just to show off your favorite genin?"

"Amongst other things," the Hokage said with a smirk.

"I'm not done yet." she growled. Naruto felt the spike of power as she began borrowing enough chakra from her Bijuu that bubbles of green chakra were beginning to form. "raaaAAAAAH…"

Her cry was cut off as naruto slammed into her back before it was clear that she was forming a bijuu shroud. "Sorry Fu. Can't let you do that." with one hand he put her into a painful arm lock, and with the other he grabbed the Bijuu chakra straight out of her, and into himself. "You should tap out."

"Never!"

"Sorry." Naruto shrugged and pulled on the Nanabi's chakra as hard as he dared.

"GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Kurama howled in pain, when the Nanabi's chakra flooded their system.

'Kurama! What's wrong?'

"Don't worry about it, Naruto, I'll be fine… Just, Just don't absorb nearly half a Bijuu's worth of chakra in one go anytime soon." the Kyuubi groaned through grit teeth.

Fu suddenly started spasming, and with a sharp crack her arm broke in Naruto's grasp. "Fu! I didn't mean to!"

"S'alright," She slurred, "I surrender…"

"Winner of match one, Uzumaki Naruto!" Hayate announced, while medics dragged the still woozy Fu out of the arena. Naruto on the other hand did a little happy dance, that made some of the crowd laugh, (the foreign parts mostly, and the shinobi who knew him personally.) Once Naruto had returned to the competitor's box, Hayate called the next two contestants.

As much as Naruto would have liked to see Choji roll over Neji, Neji was just too good. Inside of two minutes, Choji was sprawled out on his back in the center of the ring.

"Pathetic." Neji spat, when the match was called in his favor. "Your teacher should be ashamed of even thinking to allow you into the chunin exams."

There was nothing Naruto wanted more then to punch that smug smile off Neji's face, and as their fight would be the first one of round two, he was going to relish it.

The next match was delayed five more minutes to give Dosu a chance to show up, when he never did, Shino was given a pass to the second round, where he would be fighting Rock Lee.

The next match, Temari vs Shikamaru, turned into a nearly hour long battle of strategy and positioning. Temari trying to stay one step ahead of Shikamaru's shadow. Until finally he caught her.

"I surr…" Temari's growl was cut off by Shikamaru's own disinterested, "I give up."

"WHAT!"

"Yeah, I'm out of chakra, I can only hold you for about another thirty seconds." Shikamaru said with a shrug, "Besides, one match was more than enough for me."

"What a clever boy." the Kazekage purred, "He's definitely getting my vote for Chunin. He made his point and proved how intelligent he is, and then didn't have to engage in fights he had no interest, or reason for afterwards."

"I hate fighting assholes like that," the Raikage growled, "Even when you win, you lose. Little bastard will make a good chunin."

"Well… that was an interesting match." Hayate stated, before calling out for the next match, "Next we have the former Demon of the Bloody Mist, Momochi Zabuza, Versus his daughter, Haku!"

The announcement causes waves of whispering to break out in the audience, some calling it biased, others surprised to see that the actual demon of the bloody mist had defected,eventually, it quieted down, and the match began.

There were no words exchanged, no threats, no boasts. The fight was above and beyond any of the previous matches. Haku ricoheted around the arena on her mirrors trying to create an opening in Zabuza's defense. Eventually she found one, and a senbon made of ice struck Zabuza's thigh. From that point onward it was a war of attrition. Zabuza pulled almost every trick out of the book he could, but Haku's speed kept her one step ahead of him the whole fight. Eventually Zabuza resembled a pincushion more than a shinobi.

When it came to the next match there was another surprise, "I forfeit. I know my limits. And Garra can, and will kill me with one hit."

"Pff, coward." the Kazekage grumbled, "He's not wrong, but I thought I raised him to have more of a back bone than that."

The Hokage raised an eyebrow, "You'd rather your sons kill each other than surrender?"

The kazekage sighed, "No, not really. I'm just disappointed that none of my shinobi are getting the chance to show off."

"Tell me about it," the Raikage grumbled, "none of my team even made it to the last round. Your Leaf nin are terrifying this year Hiruzen."

There was some booing, but Hayate called the next match.

"Ready for a beating Kabuto?" Sasuke asked with a bloodthirsty smirk.

"Don't worry, Sasuke, I'll patch you up before my next match."

Much like the first few matches the fight started with a flurry of taijutsu, both combatants showing off blinding speed, second only to Haku. Sasuke was the first one to switch methods, drawing his chokuto, and lashing out with his Ninja wires. Kabuto countered with a set of kunai and the fight continued for a little while longer. Once again Sasuke was the one to switch styles, as his wires suddenly became coated in lightning.

"I have a surprise for you, Sasuke!" Kabuto crowed, "RASENGAN!" Kabuto's swirling sphere of chakra nearly took Sasuke's head off.

The Kazekage sat bolt upright, "Two of your shinobi know the Rasengan now!?"

"Damn." the raikage growled, having been on the receiving end of those more often than he'd have liked during the last war.

"Two can play that game!" Sasuke formed his own rasengan, and thrust it forward. The two attacks collided and sent the combatants flying. The crowd burst into bloodthirsty cheers at the explosion.

"Can either participants still stand?" Hayate asked, and when Sasuke was able to stand, if only barely, but Kabuto wasn't he called the match in Sasuke's favor. "That was very exciting. But, we will be taking a half hour's break before the start of the second round."

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