The LCD screen blinked once more, and the next two combatants' names appeared:
UCHIHA SASUKE V.S. YAKUSHI KABUTO
"Be careful, Sasuke," said Sakura worriedly. "He's a lot stronger than he looks."
"I've noticed," said Sasuke shortly.
Sasuke and Kabuto vaulted off the railing, jumping down into the arena below. Once they had taken their places, Kabuto took off his glasses and gave them a quick wipe with the hem of his shirt, before putting them back on, smiling mildly at Sasuke as he did so.
"Let's have a good match, shall we?" he said pleasantly.
"That remains to be seen," said Sasuke coldly.
"The third match…" Hayate announced, "…begins now!"
Immediately, Sasuke retrieved a handful of shuriken from his pouch, flicking them into position between his fingers, before throwing them at Kabuto. He didn't have many ninja tools left, so these would have to do…
"Shuriken Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
The handful of shuriken flying through the air turned into a veritable cloud of whirling death; their sheer numbers making the attack impossible to dodge! In response, Kabuto pulled out a strangely shaped kunai, almost like a knife equivalent of a scimitar, and he began swatting away the shuriken as they came his way.
However, with the level of strength that he was willing to display, the most he could do was deflect those heading towards his vitals, so after weathering Sasuke's attack, he still ended up bleeding all over the place. The blood loss would weaken him over time, but in reality, the damage was more cosmetic than anything; he was still pretty much at full power.
But the question still remained: how much of that power would the eternal Genin be willing to display?
"Yo!" came Kakashi's voice from behind Sakura, giving her quite a start. "Nervous?"
Without her noticing, he had left his spot among the other Jōnin and Chūnin and reappeared behind her and Naruto.
"Nervous? I'm not nervous! Naruto proclaimed. "How could the future Hokage be scared of anyone, ya know?"
"Kakashi-sensei," said Sakura hesitatingly. "About this Kabuto guy…"
"Fire Style: Phoenix Sage Fire Jutsu!"
It turned out that the shuriken Sasuke had thrown had been attached to wires, allowing him to manipulate their flight patterns. Furthermore, those wires, many of which had embedded themselves into Kabuto's flesh, were now allowing Sasuke to efficiently guide his Jutsu's flames to his target!
"I give up!" came Kabuto's voice from down in the arena.
Just as Sakura had been about to tell Kakashi about her suspicions, Kabuto had decided to surrender. If he had waited even one more second, he would have ended up burned to a crisp before the proctor could have had the chance to cut the wires that were leading the flames to him!
"Something wrong?" Kakashi asked impassively.
"It's nothing…" Sakura could only say helplessly.
Elite, battle-hardened veterans were watching the fight attentively, so if they hadn't noticed anything out of the ordinary, it was unlikely that anyone would take her words seriously. After having watched the bloke lose so badly, how exactly was she supposed to convince anyone that Kabuto was actually a Jōnin-level shinobi?
"Congrats, Sasuke!" Naruto shouted down at him. "He couldn't even do anything against you!"
Sasuke leapt up to the balcony in one bound.
"That guy lost on purpose," Sasuke said darkly, as he landed next to his teammates.
Kabuto's Genin act could fool even the Hokage, but it couldn't fool the Sharingan. The micro-expressions on Kabuto's face, the flicker of his eyes, the tension in his muscles; Sasuke had very plainly seen that Kabuto could have reacted to his attacks, but for some reason, had actively chosen not to…
"Is that so…" said Kakashi with the merest hint of curiosity in his voice; he hadn't bothered to unseal his own Sharingan for such a low-level fight.
At that moment, the display on the LCD screen shifted again.
UZUMAKI NARUTO V.S. UZUMAKI KARIN
The instant that those words appeared on the screen, barely hushed whispers began filling the viewing balcony. Very few people in attendance knew the truth about Naruto's true parentage, but most of the adults among them had known the Fourth Hokage's wife, who'd become a very public figure once her husband had freed her from the metaphorical shackles that the village's elders had imposed on her.
"That hair colour," Sakura could hear some of the Jōnin whispering. "Isn't it just like Lady Kushina's?"
"The Uzumaki clan? But she's from the Grass…"
The telltale Uzumaki red hair was distinctive enough that to this day, people still remembered the Red Hot-Blooded Habanero, Namikaze Kushina… However, what they didn't know was that Kushina, Naruto's mother, had once been the Nine-Tailed Fox's previous Jinchūriki; it had been a much better-kept secret for her than it had been for Naruto.
As far as most villagers knew, it had been Naruto's fault that the beloved Fourth Hokage and his wife had died. They imagined it was probably why the fox had been sealed into him as a baby, as a form of punishment; making it justifiable for them to take out their anger on him over the misery and trauma caused by the Demon Fox's rampage.
Of course, Naruto would have been treated a lot better if the villagers had known the truth about his parentage. Even though Naruto had blonde hair and blue eyes just like his father Minato, the trait was just common enough that nobody had ever suspected that he might be Minato's son, especially since his wife Kushina's pregnancy had been hidden from the public.
After all, it was a somewhat well-known fact that a female Jinchūriki's seal would weaken during pregnancy, and even though nobody was supposed to know that Kushina was the Nine-Tails' Jinchūriki, to the village's top brass, it didn't hurt to err on the side of caution and keep under wraps what should have normally been a cause for celebration for the entire village.
But now that a second red-haired Uzumaki had popped out of nowhere, some of the smarter adults in the audience were now beginning to wonder why they had never asked themselves where this blonde-haired Uzumaki Naruto had come from in the first place, all those years ago.
After all, Uzumaki clan members were widely known for their mighty chakra, which was so potent that their bodies could perfectly accommodate even the strongest Tailed Beasts; at least when paired with their powerful seals.
So, wasn't it awfully convenient that a baby Uzumaki had just happened to be nearby when the Fourth had needed to reseal the Nine-Tails? Oh, and hadn't the Fourth and his wife, a red-haired Uzumaki, died side by side, right next to this baby Uzumaki of unknown parentage…?
MY, WHAT A COINCIDENCE! WHAT A STROKE OF GOOD LUCK!!
But no, the adults in the audience told themselves, Naruto couldn't be the Fourth Hokage's child; surely the Lord Third would have said something on the subject, if Naruto had actually been their son?
…
"ALRIGHT!" Naruto shouted, when he finally recovered from the shock of discovering that Sakura had been right about Karin being an Uzumaki. "It's finally my turn to fight! Don't look away for even a single second, Sakura!"
"I won't," Sakura assured him.
"Don't lose, idiot," said Sasuke nonchalantly. "You'll make us look bad."
Naruto and Karin jumped off the balcony at the same time, and they each took their starting positions in front of the proctor. Meanwhile, Sakura sneaked a look at Karin's other teammate Shigeri, and their Jōnin-sensei; they were both looking quite confused as to why the Konoha-nin were all suddenly whispering among themselves…
"For the sake of my onee-sama, I cannot lose," Karin told Naruto coldly. "Fellow clan member or not, I will not go easy on you."
"Sakura's watching me," said Naruto shot back. "So I won't lose either, ya know!"