The second round apparently had too many people make it as another round was created for one vs one fights at random to thin the number. alex nor the girls lost their matches despite the opponents they got. yang ended up matched with kankuro who used puppets which she smashed with her flaming rocks. blake got matched with a bug user named shino who lost when she trapped him in a genjutsu at the start of the battle. weiss had figured out how to use ice release as she froze the entire arena including her opponent who was the pink haired girl named sakura.
This surprised all of those watching the fights almost as much as when alex thawed the arena and girl out with a single fire jutsu without harming either. ruby got paired against rock lee who alex was personally a fan of with how hardworking he was. it was actually a pretty close fight once rock lee removed his weights and hit jonin level speeds. speed was rubies whole game though so he still lost in the end. alex got the most troublesome opponent however as he was put up against gaara the overly thick bloodlust positively oozing from the guy.
Alex had him figured out the moment the giant gourd on the guys back started spewing sand. alex ruined the guys method of attack when he used combustion release to turn every once of sand on the guy to glass sculptures. it was clear that gaara panicked after he ran out of sand to use as he looked at alex in terror , alex could see the signs of abuse in the guys eyes so he took pity on him and sent him to sleep with a peaceful genjutsu.
The easy way alex defeated suna's most powerful participant certainly caught the attention of everyone here. the blonde girl from suna kept giving alex flirtly winks after he defeated her brother which worked wonders for making the girls jealous. they had all collectively glared at the girl who dared to try and encroach on their territory which alex could only shrug and ignore. gaara himself personally asked alex if he could use that genjutsu on him again so he could have peace again. alex did so but also used an even stronger genjutsu on whatever that angry murderous voice was to get it to shut up since it seemed to be torturing the boy.
It was only after gaara woke up with a confused but joyful expression that the suna siblings learned that alex had put the one tails in a genjutsu. it turned out that without that irritating voice alex heard in gaaras head the guy was actually pretty friendly. his sister had also doubled down on her attempts at seduction as she had blatantly started flirting with him getting him odd looks from most of the other girls save ino who looked jealous. the girls decided to ignore all pretense at this point and openly stated that alex belonged to them.
Temari didn't care at all about who this alex person belonged to as he had been nice to gaara despite her brothers innate hostility. this alone earned her favor but when she learned that he had put the one tail into a genjutsu she became infatuated. how could she not when he was both powerful and kind. it certainly didn't hurt that he was also quite handsome , the only issue is that he didn't deny it when these four girls laid claim over him. temari didn't mind sharing such a fine man but these girls seemed very against any other women joining him.
Alex remained calm and chatted casually with gaara who seemed to take alex as his best friend after alex shut up the one tails. as it turned out gaara was a fan of flowers as he enjoyed the colors so alex said he'd get him a flowering plant that can survive in the desert. this seemed to make his day as he was practically giddy at the idea. temari and the girls kept arguing over alex who knew better than to interject.
The preliminaries ended after temari defeated her opponent who was the dog guy from the kiba clan. the finals were scheduled for a month later in order to give the participating individuals a chance to touch up on tactics for their opponents. alex had bought a large dragon fruit cactus tree for gaara who along with his siblings were entranced by the fact it was not only pretty but also bore delicious fruit. alex had plucked one of the fruits to show them how to eat it as well as plant it so they all tried some of the fruit and loved it. alex put it into a storage scroll made to keep plants alive before leaving to prepare.