Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 70: More Preliminaries
Ino was still unconscious when the medics took her away.
But she was in much better shape than her opponent, who had to be rushed to the hospital for intense care.
The next match was then announced...
"Yoroi Akado vs. Kankuro of the Sand!"
Yoroi was the last remaining member of Kabuto's team, and his specialty was stealing chakra through physical contact.
An ability that was promptly shown to be useless when the 'Kankuro' they had all seen, was revealed to be a wooden puppet, while the real one had remained hidden behind the puppet's back.
The match ended very quickly after that, leaving Kankuro as the clear winner.
"Sakura Haruno vs. Temari of the Sand!" Hayate announced next.
"It's my turn!" Sakura said, her voice tinged with evident nervousness.
"Wish me luck, Sasuke!" She exclaimed before rushing down the stairs.
"Hmph…." That was all Sasuke said to her.
"She has no chance," Naruto commented.
"Naruto…." Kakashi gave him a look of disapproval.
"You should be cheering for your teammate."
"Do you disagree?" Naruto glanced at his sensei. "That girl from the Sand Village looks very tough."
"I mean…" Kakashi also thought that Sakura had no chance, but as her sensei, he couldn't say that.
The truth was that Sakura was nowhere near ready to participate in this exam yet. She had only been a genin for less than two months, and her combat skills were average at best.
If Sasuke and Naruto were also at that level, Kakashi would never have suggested they participate in this exam, but… he couldn't let this opportunity pass.
His eye moved to his other two students.
Everyone knew that Sasuke was a genius, although not as much as his elder brother.
But Naruto had been a surprise to Kakashi. He had not been expecting much from his sensei's son... and he now felt a bit bad for even thinking like that.
However, his preliminary assessment of the boy, was promptly shattered after meeting him in person.
Naruto turned out to be a monster in more than one way.
"Begin!"
Kakashi's attention was brought back to the present when Hayate signaled the start of the match.
Sakura wasted no time starting her attack. She circled her opponent like Ino had before. And as soon as she spotted an opening, she began to throw her kunai.
Temari responded by using her iron fan.
She created a powerful gust of wind that blew away all of Sakura's weapons… along with Sakura herself.
"Ahh!" The girl screamed as she was sent flying.
Sakura ended up hitting the wall with tremendous force before falling to the ground, where she remained immobile.
Seeing this, Hayate hurried to stop the match and declare Temari as the winner before she had the chance to hurt the other girl any more.
"Winner, Temari of the Sand!" Hayate announced.
The blonde girl stared at Sakura's unconscious body as the medics rushed to take her away. There was a mixture of anger and disappointment in her eyes.
"Is this the best Konoha has to offer when it comes to female ninjas?... So weak…."
"Sigh...I should probably go check on her…" said Kakashi before walking away.
"At least it didn't seem like she got hurt too badly," Naruto commented. As far as he was concerned, it could have been much worse, given the difference in strength between her and her opponent.
Sasuke didn't say a word, but he was obviously not pleased to see his teammate lose so quickly.
He then gave Naruto a glare that seemed to convey a, 'You better not lose like that,' feeling.
Over the next hour, several more matches went by.
TenTen put up a good fight against Aburame Shino, but she was unable to stop the mass of insects with her weapons and lost.
Shikamaru had to deal with Tsuchi Kin, another member of the Sound Village.
She fought using senbons, which reminded Naruto of that ninja he met at Wave.
Although, she was nowhere near as strong.
Shikamaru still had to put in a lot of effort to defeat her. The match lasted for thirty minutes, making it the longest one so far.
It took a while until Shikamaru was finally able to trap Kin with his shadow jutsu, but once he did that… the fight was over.
Next was Choji vs. Kiba.
This was the most direct fight of the preliminaries since both ninjas were specialists in frontal assaults.
Choji used his large body and tremendous strength while Kiba relied more on speed and coordinated attacks with his dog companion.
Ultimately, Kiba won the match because Choji refused to make use of the Three Colored Pills. That secret medicine from his clan was only meant to be used in life-or-death situations.
Then came the match between Hyuga Hinata and her cousin Neji... this was a very one-sided fight.
Neji was clearly not just a genius in name, and his skills far surpassed those of Hinata.
As Naruto watched, he got the feeling that she was holding back for some reason.
He also got the feeling that the Hyuga house had some serious internal problems.
Neji showed his cousin no mercy, and in the end, he had to be stopped by the referee and several of the jonin present before he could cause irreparable damage to her.
'Something is going on between those two…' Naruto wondered if this was something he could use to his advantage.
Internal problems were not rare in big clans, but to show them so publicly… they must be very serious.
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