Preliminaries Pt. 2

"..start!" Hayate called out before he vanished, leaving ino and murai standing across from one another. Both female genin had narrowed eyes as they seemingly sized each other up.

'If i wanna win this then i need to be careful. Im not as smart as shika and i dont have the brute strength that choji has.' Ino thought to herself.' I need to find a way to trap her without using up to much chakra. If i can trap her then i can use my mind transfer jutsu on her and force her to surrender.' She thought out her plan.

'Hmmmmm...' murai mentally hummed.' I need a bath..' she didnt really have a plan to beat ino, she was just gonna have to hope for the best. She was the close quarter fighter on her team with maki being the ninjutsu specialist and asano being the brains.

Seemingly getting tired of just standing in place, murai made the first move. She lunged forward and sent a right hook towards inos chin. Ino, who was a bit shocked at the girls speed, barely managed to lean he upper body backwards, both dodging the punch and using her flexibility to backflip away.

The blond landed and began to throw a few kunai and senbon at the iwa genin. Murai merely dodged the sharp objects with the same disinterested look on her face as she steadily made her way closer to ino.

Ino huffed and created two regular academy clones before running towards her opponent. She and her clones began to zigzag between and around each other in order to confuse the iwa nin.

Murai readied herself and merely closed her eyes just as the first ino lunged towards her. Everyone watched with baited breaths as the iwa genin didnt even try to defend herself as the first ino shot forward. But instead of ino landing a punch on the girl, the blond genin merely fazed through the iwa nin before vanishing.

Murai ignored the second ino that lunged at her from the side and dashed right at the third one with her eyes closed. The third inos eyes widened but failed to react in time for the punch murai threw into her gut. Ino gasped as the air left her lungs and she was thrown back by the force of the strike. The second ino merely vanished into nothing.

Murai finally opened her eyes and looked at ino with an unreadable expression on her face. Ino picked herself up off the ground and furrowed her brows at the iwa genin.

"How did you know i was the real one?" Ino asked curiously." You had your eyes closed the whole-" ino cut herself off as a look of realization came upon her face." Youre a sensor." She stated mater of factly.

"Correct." Murai answered with a nod. She saw no reason to hide that fact about herself.

Ino frowned. Knowing that her opponent was a sensor changed the game completely. Real natural sensors were extremely rare in the ninja world and they were also invaluable to both their village and their teams. Unlike trained chunnin or experienced jonin who could simply feel chakra and locate the general direction the chakra was coming from, sensors had the ability to feel, memorize and pinpoint the exact location of any chakra user that was within their sensory range. And while it was possible to suppress ones chakra enough to seemingly 'disappear' from jonin and chunnin, you couldnt do that with a sensor.

Sensors also didnt fall for genjutsu, unless it was a seriously powerful genjutsu that is, or mere illusions such as the academy grade clone which pissed ino off because she mostly used genjutsu! She just wasnt built for close quarters combat and she didnt have the chakra reserves to throw ninjutsu out one after the other.

"Have you decided to simply give up?" Murai asked the blond." Its clear to see that i am possibly the worst opponent for you to face. Judging by how you wished to keep distance from me and you havent thrown out any ninjutsu yet, im guessing youre more of a genjutsu type ninja. But with me being a sensor theres nothing you could possibly have that i wouldnt be able to simply brush off." Ino glared at the girl, seemingly put off by the fact that murai was expecting her to just give up. She was a genin of konoha damnit! Not to mention that shes also the clan heir to one of the most revered clans within konohas walls! 

'Ill show this hussy!' Ino growled as she dashed forward.

• up on the balcony•

"I wonder how inos gonna beat murai?" naruto questioned as he watched the two genin simply go at it with their fists and feet. It was clear to see that while ino was decent at taijutsu, it was obviously murai who had the upper hand. The iwa genin was getting in more hits than ino was.

Asuma, who had just lit up a new cigarette much to kurenais obvious displeasure, shrugged at the younger jonins question." Truth be told i dont know if she'll be able to win." He stated with a small frown." I mean, i have faith in her but you gotta face the facts. She was just paired up against the worst person possible." He explained calmly. 

"Thats just the way it is sometimes." Came kakashis lazy toned input as he turned the page in his book.

"And i have no doubt she'd be better suited to face this opponent if you wouldve helped train the other genin, besides team seven and hinata, like you were supposed too." Asuma stated with a small snicker.

Naruto looked stunned. He had totally forgot that he was supposed to do that. With everything thats happened since their graduation, that whole order had simply been forgotten and no one even tried to remind him about it! " well maybe hinatas my favorite?" He stated calmly.

"Its frowned upon for a jonin sensei to pick favorites you know." Kurenai stated with a frown.

Naruto eye smiled up at the older women." Im strong enough to pick favorites~" he stated in a sing song tone before he let out a mad cackle." Ive become all powerful! Bow peasant for it is i! Your god- OOF!" The blond was shut up when an annoyed kurenai punched him in the back of the head.

Naruto groaned as he nursed the large lump that had grown on his head while hinata, being the cute loving girlfriend that she was, doted over his injury. But none of that mattered as narutos distraction worked! No one brought up the fact that he didnt train any of the other genin again.

•back to the match•

Ino huffed tiredly as she disengaged her taijutsu battle with murai. The blond was sporting bruises and a few welts across her entire body and there was even a few on her face.

"Im surprised youve held out this long." Murai stated calmly as she spit out a wad of blood. Ino had managed to scuff the girl up a bit, cracking her lip and leaving the girl with a new bruised eye.

Ino frowned and huffed tiredly." How are you not even remotely tired yet?" She complained.

"I specialize in taijutsu so i have to have a large amount of stamina." Murai answered.

Ino groaned." Whatever, lets finish this stupid fight already." She mentally cursed the unfair gods that gave murai more stamina than her.

"Gladly."

With that, ino sent chakra to her feet and legs before dashing forward. Murai charge at her as well and got ready to knock ino out with a punch. Just as the two were about to collide, murai was thrown off guard when ino dropped to the ground and slid between her legs!

Spinning around, murai only had enough time to see ino bring up a kunai and cut her own hair off at the shoulders.' Wha- UGh!' Murai was shocked when ino threw her cut hair into her face and she instinctively blinked and tried to move backwards.

"Hidden jutsu: mind transfer!"

"Damn it-"

Everyone watched as inos body slumped lifelessly to the floor while murai hunched over.

"Huh?" Maki tilted her head in confusion as she watched her twin slump forward." What the hell was that sensei?!?" She cried out as she looked up to her sensei for answers.

Kurotsuchi frowned at her slumped student before looking at her most ..lively genin." The mind transfer jutsu is a jutsu that allows the caster to send their consciousness into another person. In doing so, the caster is able to control their opponents body. It also allows the caster to access his or her enemies memories. Its a yamanaka secret clan jutsu." She explained calmly, though her frown never went away. This genin could possibly get important information about iwa from murais memories.

Murai glared at inos unconscious body." I see.." she began calmly before she exploded." This is obviously a set up to allow the leaf village to get information on iwa! Sensei we have to kill everybody here in order to prevent village secrets from getting taken!" She declared boldly and rather loudly. Everyone gave the iwa genin amused looks while Kurotsuchi just gave maki a dry look.

"You do realize that in order to kill everybody here youd have to go through countless jonin level ninja, not to mention the third hokage and dont even get me started on naruto." Kurotsuchi let out a small sigh.

"We could take them!" Maki boasted." Everyone here looks way weaker than me. Plus the third ho-whatever is all old and frail and whats so special about naruto? The beads in his hair makes him look like a girl." Maki ranted and naruto pouted at the obvious insult.

"Do they really make me look like a girl?" Naruto asked in a sad tone.

"Of course not naruto-kun." Hinata replied with an absolute nod. Her boyfriend didnt look like a girl! He looked cute!

Meanwhile, Kurotsuchi locked eyes with everyone in the room, including the third hokage who had obviously heard makis rant and was thoroughly amused! Kurotsuchi laid her face on her arms and leaned onto the guard rail in order to hide her embarrassment.

Everyones attention was drawn to murai as the girl slowly stood straight and raised her hand." I..." she seemed to be struggling to talk." I-i...g-give...u-u- GET OUT OF MY BODY!" she suddenly roared out, making everyone in the room almost jump out of there skin.

" holy shit!" Naruto cried out as he latched onto hinata. He was totally not prepared for murai, the emotionless girl hed come to know, to suddenly shout like that. Seriously! The girls voice seemed to rattle his bones!

As inos consciousness was forcibly rejected back into her body, murai stomped over to the downed girl and held a kunai to her throat. Ino slowly opened her eyes and let out a disappointed sigh as she locked eyes with a glaring murai.

"I give up." Ino called out. She wasnt scared of murai or anything, she just knew when she had lost.

Murai put her kunai away and stomped away, ignoring the medical ninja that tried to help her with her bruises.

"She seemed angry." Tenten stayed with a small whistle as everyone watched the iwa genin storm off.

"Id be pretty pissed too if someone tried to break into my head like that." Was sasukes bored comment. Tenten looked over at the uchiha before shrugging and looking back towards ino who was being carried out of the room.

After hayate called out murai as the obvious winner, he aloud the board to spit out two more names.

"Will choji and maki make there way down here please."

Choji looked hesitant while maki happily jumped over the guard rail. Asuma patted his big boned student on the back." You win this choji and ill take you to an all you can eat bbq restaurant." Suddenly chojis eyes filled with fire.

"Alright!" The genin cried out as he seemingly appeared besides hayate and across from maki. Everyone looked baffled by chojis sudden speed.

"You both ready?"

"Ye-"

Choji cut maki off with a loud " lets do this!" Before hayate sighed and started the match.

Asuma and shikamaru had a bit of hope for choji. But that hope was quickly dashed when the iwa genin, maki, flashed through handsigns faster than most could keep up with.

" earth style: Mud weights!" Maki cried out.

"Huh?" Choji looked like a dear caught in the headlights before everything below his beck was covered in rapidly hardening mud. He panicked and tried to move but failed to free himself in time. Not a second later he was standing stock still as if he were a mud statue.

Maki looked rather smug." Thats what you get you stupid leaf ninja!" Maki looked rather pleased with herself.

Asuma looked devastated as his strongest - physically that is- genin was completely shut down before he could even begin. It was quite possibly the fasted match in the history of the chunnin exams and its preliminaries.

"Its alright asuma." Kakashi stated in a sincere tone as he patted his friend on the back." Not everyone can have badass genin like me." A storm cloud appeared above asumas head while naruto snickered and bumped fists with the one eyed jonin.

"Winner-" hayate began as he appeared between the two genin with a bored look on his face." -is maki." Said genin cheered happily as she made her way up to her sensei and her twin sister who looked way calmer than before.

And about twenty minutes later and a few water jutsu, choji joined his jonin sensei and best friend back up on the balcony before quietly sulking to himself, mumbling about how unfair that match was and about how he wouldnt be getting any free food.

Hayate and many others looked up at the board as it brung up two more names. " will hinata and neji please make their way down here?"

Kurenai looked at hinatas back with worried eyes. She knew that hinata was strong and she was proud of the girl for how far she had come. But she also knew that neji was declared a prodigy by his clan. Now she didnt know the boy personally but she'd also heard gai bragging about how strong he was in his clans taijutsu style.

"You okay?" Naruto asked softly as he looked at his girlfriend who was clearly nervous if her fidgeting was anything to go by.

"Y-yes." Hinata stuttered softly." What if my style isnt enough to beat neji?" She asked softly, looking up into the blond ringed eyes.

Naruto lowered his mask a bit, after making sure no one would see his face of course, and kissed hinata on the cheek, causing the girl to blush." Youll be fine. I promise." He told her with a confidant nod after pulling his mask back up." Now get down there and show him what you've learned." He ordered but hinata could practically feel the boys smile.

"R-right!" She nodded with a bright smile before making her way down into the arena. She came to a stop in front of neji and took a calming breath.

"Are you prepared hinata-sama?" Neji asked as he got into his gentle fist stance.

"Yes, but i have a request aniki.." hinata began, getting confused looks from everyone and a raised eyebrow from neji." Go all out against me." She stated as she readied herself.

Neji looked momentarily stunned." Are you sure?" He asked calmly.

"Yes." Hinata nodded." As you know, i cant use the gentle fist thanks to my elemental affinity." Hinata began softly and those that didnt know that looked surprised." B-but naruto-kuns been helping me create my own style and i need to see how far ive come with it. So come at me with everything you have. O-okay?" Hinata asked as her byakugan flared to life.

Nejis brow furrowed as he activated his own eyes. He knew that hinata couldnt use the gentle fist properly and when he caught wind of the fact that she was creating her own style, he offered to help her but she refused. Now here she was, about to use her knew style against the gentle fist and if neji was being honest with himself, he felt excited to see exactly what that style was.

"Very well hinata-sama." He replied with a nod.

"Hinata!" Everyone looked at naruto who was the one that shouted. He suddenly gave the hyuga girl an eye smile." If you dont win this match then im cutting your cinnamon bun intake down to one bun.. per month." The amusement that was dancing within the boys eyes wasnt missed by anyone.  

Hinatas head snapped back to neji and the boy gulped as he saw the sheer determination within the girls eyes." I apologize neji. But the stakes have just been raised and i cannot afford lose." Her tone was cold, so cold in fact that many in the room felt a shiver run down their spines.

"If youre both ready." Hayate began." Begin!"

•cliffhanger•