Chapter 16: 16. The Preliminaries for The Third Stage (1)

In the end, seven teams managed to pass to the final stage of the Chunin Exams, which was more than twice as many as had been expected. As this was very unusual, to cut down the prevailing genin from the second exam, a preliminary round was staged before the third and final stage of it.

Several days passed already since Neji and his team safely passed through the Forest of Death and arrived at the Central Tower. Then they opened their scrolls, and a chunin came, introducing them to the next stage of the exam. When the time for it finally came, everyone gathered inside a large hall.

It was a hall where the preliminaries, like this one, were usually held inside the Konoha. The hall was massive with concrete hard floors, a podium above for a small group of people, and with a big statue of two hands knotted in some kind of hand seal. It was a perfect place for shinobi fights.

Shinobi teachers of every team that passed stood right in front of the big hand seal monument, behind Hokage, and the proctors of all of the previous stages. While genins that passes stood a little further than them. Neji and his team were also there, 'It's great, everything is the same as in the original!', Neji thought while looking at all the chunin candidates present here that passed by.

Sasuke was also there, and he grimaced hard while clenching his fists and shaking from anger a little after seeing Neji. He half-remembered their previous encounter and half-didn't. However, he sure knew that he lost against Neji. And, moreover, he did it in that enhanced and powerful state! He was angry mainly at himself and his weakness, especially after that dream made him re-live everything with his brother again!, 'Neji Hyuga, I promise, I will defeat you, I swear on my life!'

And just then he clenched his neck on one side lightly while remembering something else. Right after he woke up again, back there in the forest, that snake person came and attacked them all once again. Bitting him in the neck again strangely, and planting him with the same black curse mark.

And before the attacker left, he mentioned that it wasn't the curse mark's final stage, against Hyuga, and that there is more power in it for him to discover. He also mentioned that if he wanted power to defeat that "Hyuga boy" later and his elder brother next, he should seek him out. Then Sasuke collapsed into a coma once again, and his team barely passed the test thanks to that Kabuto's help.

Neji didn't mind Sasuke's weird movements, of course, he guessed that Orochimaru must've planted him with the curse mark once again. He was looking at the Gaara next, who also looked at him madly. Apparently, he conveyed murderous intent with his eyes, probably because previously he didn't find him there in the forest. Kabuto also secretly looked at him once and smiled strangely. Those three Otogakure ninjas that he put to sleep, now strangely avoided his gaze like a plague.

Oddly, just then, Neji and Orochimaru's gazes also strangely intertwined. Orochimaru was currently pretending to be the Otogakure's team jonin sensei. He wore a black uniform and a forehead protector, standing behind Hokage. His face was also changed to a different one. He looked at Neji with a hint of resentment and curiosity. Right after those three woke up, he learned who probably spoiled his curse mark on Sasuke. Fortunately, it wasn't completely destroyed so Sasuke's body received it easier than the first time, and it wasn't a ten percent chance again to succeed, but a much larger one. But still, embarrassing his technique in front of his future vessel, whom he wanted to come and seek him out for strength, on his own, certainly didn't stand well with Orochimaru. Therefore, this time around, Orochimaru also internally enforced his Curke Mark with many different protective fuinjutsu seals, so the chakra couldn't be drawn out easily by Neji again, like the last time.

'Wait, what the hell!?', But just then, while looking in Neji's direction, Orochimaru's whole being suddenly got surprised. Perplexingly he could sense a bit of his own senjutsu chakra from the boy! Only he could sense it, out of all the people present there, because that's his own senjutsu chakra! No matter how small it was, at such a close distance, it would be weird if he didn't sense it easily.

'He kept that part of my senjutsu chakra, he removed from Sasuke, inside of his body all this time? But why, what is the point?', Orochimaru, with his enormous experience in shinobi matters and techniques, suddenly couldn't find an answer for himself right now, 'It's simply... Useless... Why...?',

Orochimaru was an extremely curious person by design, and when he finds something that bothers or intrigues him, he won't stop until he finds an answer, even if it took decades. Keeping his senjutsu chakra inside of someone could theoretically give them the ability to draw on natural energy, once they desired, but what was the point of that? They would die in the second if they aren't careful. Not like the Hyuga had any connection with Ryuchi Cave or Mount Myoboku, nor a strong body, required for learning a Sage Mode, or knowledge for casting any senjutsu-enhanced jutsu like himself. Orochimaru spent many years developing his Curse Mark juinjutsu, which was the only technique he could now enhance with senjutsu, drawing a very little amount of natural energy, from the atmosphere, so it wasn't too dangerous, but still, it was an incredibly hard thing to master.

He was also amazed by the way Neji held and blocked that senjutsu chakra inside of himself at all times, 'It could be done way more efficiently with fuinjutsu, but perhaps he doesn't know that yet?',

However, it's not that he didn't know any better, it's just that Neji couldn't bother to research and create an appropriate fuinjutsu technique for sealing it, while he had that level of chakra control. It's on such a level that he could even subconsciously keep that senjutsu chakra always contained, therefore, the means to accomplish the same goal without wasting any of his precious time next.

'Either way, this boy is either an incredible genius, or he is incredibly stupid... I will find my answer later!', Orochimaru licked his lips a bit and moved his curious gaze away from Neji, pretending not to know him next, as Hiruzen coughed and started explaining something to the chunin candidates.

He was speaking mainly about the true purpose of the Chunin Exams. It was the basic knowledge Neji already knew so he wasn't paying too much attention. That they were the microorganism of the real battles between nations, that everyone wanted to win there for their villages, and similar stuff.

Hayate Gekko, a special jonin, was tasked with judging this exam. And he explained that because many feudal lords and important people will be watching the main thing later, they can't have pointless fights displayed there, so there would first be preliminary fights between the people here.

In the end, Kabuto withdrew from the competition, and after an intense argument with Anko, Hiruzen allowed Sasuke to participate, just like in the original, but without the use of the Curse Mark. Back in the field, Sasuke and Sakura argued about his condition, before he calmed her up.

After Kabut withdrew, twenty people were left, so there would be ten individual battles. The winner goes to the real third round. Fights are conducted until one of the opponents admits defeat, collapses, or is dead. However, Hayate still held the ultimate power to end it if he determines it.

Suddenly, they opened a large screen above, and it seemed that the matches would be randomly drawn out. The first match was surprisingly Sasuke against Yoroi, one of Orochimaru's minions.

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Everyone moved to the upper area to watch, including the genins and their teacher as well. Once Neji's team got there together with Might Guy, Tenten suddenly asked Neji, "Neji, didn't you fix his problem? Why is Sasuke acting so strange all of a sudden?", After all, everyone noticed Sasuke's odd behavior in the crowd. Might Guy also looked at Neji curiously at this time. Konoha's jonins around, and Hokage, already knew that Neji somehow managed to spoil Orochimaru's first seal. But, then he attacked and branded Sasuke once again, before swiftly fleeing, because the area was filled with ANBU at that time as a result of Anko already informing them of his presence by then.

"I guess he was branded once again after we left, as I predicted. But, I don't think he will lose here." Neji replied to Tenten, 'It's good that they didn't ask me to extract the chakra from his once again. Not like Sasuke would agree. I think, with this mindset, he would rather die than ask for my help!', And, they didn't ask Neji for help, because this time around, a great fuinjutsu master was required.

Before the fight started, Kakashi warned Sasuke that, if his cursed seal got out of control, he would have to intervene and stop the match to try and control the seal. This barred Sasuke from using any real technique, as the seal responded to flows of chakra. Orochimaru looked at them with interest.

The match started with Yoroi stealing Sasuke's chakra with his chakra absorption and beating him hard. The match seemed hopeless for Sasuke, until he heard Naruto's taunts. Alongside him, in the small crowd, was Rock Lee, which gave Sasuke an idea. He used the Lion Combo, a partial copy of Rock Lee's Front Lotus, which had been captured by Sasuke's Sharingan. Yoroi was knocked unconscious, and Sasuke advanced to the next round. After the fight, Kakashi took Sasuke away to try and seal his Curse Mark.

Up next were Zaku and Shino of the Team Kurenai. Zaku apparently only had one functional arm, but he bet that he could win regardless. Elsewhere, the cursed seal was sealed by Kakashi, but then Orochimaru showed up for Sasuke, asserting that all the genin he currently had at his command were disposable. As Kakashi readied his Lightning Cutter, Shino commanded a multitude of insects to attack Zaku from behind, leaving the one-armed Zaku unable to defend himself with his unidirectional technique. Zaku then revealed he could use both arms, but it was too late. The insects had blocked the tubes in Zaku's arms, building up the chakra he was trying to use and making the arms explode, thus ending the fight. Orochimaru left, saying that Sasuke would be his someday.

The next was a match between Misumi Tsurugi, of the Konohagakure, against Kankuro of the Sunagakure. Misumi quickly used his Soft Physique Modification to restrain Kankuro and threatened to snap his neck, until it was revealed that Kankuro Misumi was fighting was just a puppet. The real Kankuro was disguised, controlling the puppet with the Puppet Technique. He used the puppet, Karasu, to crush Misumi's bones, defeating him and proceeding to the real third stage of the exam.

The fourth match was Sakura versus Ino. It was a boring fight. The match dragged on for a very long time, since they seemed to be quite on par, until Ino tried to possess Sakura's body to force her to forfeit the match; however, Sakura's will expelled Ino from her mind. Exhausted and out of chakra, they both went for a final attack, hitting each other at the exact same time and rendering each other unconscious. Hayate declared that neither of them would move on to the next round.

The big screen above the avenue finally started working its thing again, and the next matchup was about to be announced. It finally stopped and showed Tenten versus Temari for the next fight.

"Yes!", Tenten was really excited about finally getting to fight, 'It seems it's time that I try out that jutsu in a real battle!', Rock Lee and Might Guy started also cheering for Tenten and pumping her up, while Neji looked at her curiously. He remember that she mentioned creating a jutsu before.

"Thanks, Guy-sensei, Lee. Neji look carefully, I think I will surprise you!", All of a sudden Tenten confidently winked toward Neji, but then blushed prettily and quickly jumped down to the ground.

'This girl... Well, let's see what have you got Tenten. I hope you will change your original fate of losing here. I'm rooting for you.', Rock Lee and Might Guy looked in shock as they saw Neji smirking.

On the other side, Temari already dropped to the fighting ground, 'This is the teammate of that guy, Gaara is the most excited about fighting? We'll see then, I'll have to get serious right from the start.'

Soon, they came in front of each other, exchanged a couple of tough words, and Hayate announced the match. At first, Tenten started by attacking with ordinary weapons, like in the original, but quickly she noticed that Temari was very strong as she easily deflated all of them, before sending a large wind wave toward her. Tenten immediately jumped back all the way to that giant monument.

Everyone in the crowd watched curiously to see what would happen next. Until now Temari clearly had an advantage, in this phase of testing out, as she didn't even fully open her large fan until now.

Rock Lee and Might Guy yelled in support, while Neji curiously watched guessing what her new move was. And just then, everyone heard Tenten say, "I prepared to leave this for later, but it doesn't matter now, you're very strong!", "I'm sorry if this is overkill, hope you'll be alright Suna's kunoichi!",

"Pressure Wave!", It was a fuinjutsu technique that seals a predefined large amount of chakra in a really small separate pocket space, inside her scroll, under tremendous pressure, far more than is normally possible, and the user then opens the seal on one side, focusing it in the direction of the opponent. The result is a huge energy chakra blast shot at the opponent. It can be used in a way of a large canon attack, or with many different small pocket dimensions, on a large scroll, like a barrage of smaller attacks, but that required more time to prepare, and now wasn't possible. So, Tenten started sweating as she quickly poured as much of her chakra, inside one seal, as possible.

"Damn, what is she preparing now!?", Temari saw Tenten sweating and panting, and quickly fully opened her giant iron fan to the maximum of three stars, and also prepared her strongest move.

"Great Sickle Weasel Technique!", Using her Giant Folding Fan, Temari causes many currents of wind to collide with each other, creating vacuum pockets. As the wind moves outward from her, it cuts up whatever it comes into contact with and deflects any attacks coming toward her, even sound-based genjutsu. Because of how far the winds travel, this technique is especially useful against opponents that attack from long ranges. This was currently the strongest technique in Temari's arsenal of jutsu.