Preliminaries

"I had a bit of an altercation with Orochimaru. Nothing major." He said in a dismissive tone but still shocking everyone in the room.

"O-Orochimaru!?" Shouted Anko breaking the silence left by the shocking information.

"Yeah! He appeared out of the ground complimenting me after I kicked him in the face while moving his tongue in creepy ways." Shiki added making everyone personally acquainted with the snake think.

'Sounds exactly like him!'

After a couple more explanations were given, Shiki was allowed to return to the venue where the preliminaries were being held. His previous warning that something might occur during the exams suddenly seeming more credible in the Hokage's mind.

Back at the venue, the matches were about to start. Like in canon, Sasuke vs disposable character from Kabuto's team whose name Shiki didn't even bother to remember. Just as Sasuke was about to go down, Shiki transmitted some info into his mind.

'This idiot is a spy from another village. No Mercy!'

Sasuke nodded to signal he understood and jumped down onto the arena.

As soon as the proctor for the preliminaries gave the signal to start, Sasuke activated an enhanced version of Lightning Style: Overdrive that was the result of trying to learn Shiki's Lightning Style: Goodspeed. Although it didn't enhance his speed and reaction time as much, nor did it allow for ranged attacks but Sasuke could focus the lightning onto a body part for an attack similar but not as powerful as something like the chidori.

Still, for the idiot in front of him, it was more than enough as he charged with a body flicker, dodging a surprised counter from the guy as he moved in and driving his hand clean through his opponent's heart.

'Looks like teaching you wasn't a waste of time . . .' Not only had Sasuke unhesitantly followed his instructions, his execution was pretty much flawless as well, making Shiki praise him.

'Well done!' Was all he transmitted into the Uchiha's mind but it was more than enough to make him adopt a proud smile, taunting Naruto who had realised his rival had just been praised by Shiki.

The next match in the original would be Shino vs one of those guys from Otogakure but since they were all dead Shiki was seeing who would face him this time.

The answer was Choji who got pwned pretty easily as he tried to charge Shino but was immediately set upon by his Kikaichu leading to Choji just rolling around on the floor trying to get rid of them until he was declared the loser.

In the following match Kankuro used his pupett Karasu to end the remaining member of Kabuto's team pretty quickly as things moved on. With Sakura and Ino's infamous fight that was widely considered the most boring in the entire arc.

Since the two girls had been training with Tsunade for a little while with some help from Shiki at times, their showing was not quite as poor as in canon but, since they hadn't been training with her for that long yet, they were still pretty poor when it came to actual skills.

Despite them being more agile, stronger and more skilled with their jutsu, the fight itself went a lot like in canon which lowered Shiki's expectations for their future usefulness but he decided to withhold judgement since they had only received serious training for a short period of time.

Next was Temari's match with Tenten. It went exactly as it did in the original with the exception of the former going a little easier, perhaps due to not wanting to show her more cruel side to a certain someone in the stands but to earn a few points with the latter, Shiki treated her after the match.

With his skills, she was up and running almost instantly and profusely thanking Shiki for his care while blushing which was a signal to Shiki of a job well done.

'Haaaah . . . There's a really nice feeling of accomplishment when a guy makes a beauty all deredere over him!' He thought smugly.

Moving on and very unfortunately for Shikamaru, he was paired up with Shiki which resulted in an immediate forfeiture on his part.

'Like hell I'm facing that monster!' Were the thoughts behind his decision.

Naruto vs Kiba was up next and knowing the former was trained by Shiki, Kurenai didn't like the chances of her genin winning although Kiba who had not seen Naruto's true skills in person didn't quite understand how outmatched he was.

The worst part was that due to Shiki's earlier praise to Sasuke which was caught by Naruto, the blonde was determined to win this match quickly and decisively, just like Shiki prefered. There would be no useless talk or showing off.

As soon as the match started, Naruto immediately called upon his Nine Tails chakra and dashed towards Kiba with body flicker. Naruto's instantaneous and efficient action allowed him to take the initiative surprising Kiba who could only block the oncoming strike.

But the blonde had covered his fist in a weak version of Shiki's Wind Style Whirlwind Cloak so despite the relatively solid guard, he was still sent flying with great force and slashes appearing all over his body at the same time.

Knowing his opponent was still conscious since he had to hold back so as not to cripple or kill a former classmate, Naruto quickly caught up with flying Kiba and kicked him onto the ground knocking him out. It was a very poor showing for the Inuzuka since he could literally do nothing, being two-shot right after the match begun.

Seeing the excellent result, Shiki gave Naruto a nod of approval while thinking to himself.

'The feeling of seeing the changes you make to canon take effect . . . How you get the impression that you can change the flow of history with your actions . . . It's a truly phenomenal feeling!'

The next match in the cad was one Shiki was greatly looking forward to, Hinata vs Neji. He couldn't wait for his cute whiteyed princess to give a royal thrashing to the pompous bastard that dared to look down on he Uzumaki Shiki on their very first meeting.

Neji began by spouting his nonsense in an attempt to attack Hinata psychologically but she was having none of it. In fact, with every word out of Neji's mouth, shiki could see Hinata's unwillingness to seriously hurt her cousin diminish. Despite all, Neji was no idiot and seeing his words were having the opposite effect he stopped talking and got ready for battle.

Hinata did the very same and they both took the same stance. Hinata's technique had been polished by Shiki so even without using things like his Chakra Burst, she was still the superior fighter, If she did use it, the fight would end in an instant but since it's a technique that can very easily cripple and even kill the opponent, she probably wouldn't use it.

She only tested it against her father because she was confident that with his superior ability, it would not hurt him too much and her desire to prove herself before him. Still, the most important part was that she wanted to show off what Shiki had taught her like a badge of honor.

The battle started and to Neji and his teammates and sensei's surprise, he was immediately suppressed. As the two Hyuga exchanged more and more gentle fist strikes, any shinobi could see that Hinata had the edge in almost every way. Power, speed, flexibility, agility, precision, technique, she was superior in every way and internal damage was accumulating inside her opponent.

Observing his obvious disadvantage, Neji changed his strategy. The next time they charged in for an exchange, he would use his Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation to knock her back and deal damage and move in to finish her with his Eight Trigrams: 64 Palms while she was off balance.

His plan was solid but reality was disappointing when Neji tried to use Rotation, Hinata's instincts trained in realistic spars with shiki kicked in regardless of her intentions.

'When you're about to get countered, forcefully increase the power and speed of your attack to overwhelm the opponent!'

And so, Hinata activated Chakra Burst by reflex, tearing through the defense of Neji's rotation while losing some power but still having more than enough to knock him out with not so light injuries. After this, the proctor unceremoniously declared her the victor. Shiki then didn't spare any praise as he made the young beauty blush to the jealousy of some of the audience.

Now, only one match was left, the match that took the top spot of best fight in the arc and was even one of the most iconic fights in all of Naruto, Gaara vs Rock Lee.

Shiki activated his sharingan and told Sasuke to do the same as well as Hinata to watch closely with her byakugan. Everyone else was a bit surprised at Shiki's emphasis on paying closer attention to this match in particular including Guy even if for different reasons.

It went exactly like in canon and after Lee started opening more and more of the Eight Inner Gates, everyone realised why Shiki wanted them to pay such close attention to the match. The result was the same as in the original series except, Shiki stepped in before Gaara could crush Lee's leg and arm in order to earn so good guy points with everyone.

Gaara then tried to attack him but a single glare of Shiki's sharingan put him right back in his place. Guy wanted to argue that Lee hadn't lost yet so Shiki took the opportunity to berate him that should he have let the match continue, Lee's life as a shinobi might have ended and even cited his own medical experience and what that sand could do.

Guy-sensei, being the great guy he was, immediately apologised and thanked Shiki profusely for his help and insight as well as telling him that if he had anything he needed help with in the future, he could always ask him. His insight into the matter also deeply impressed the surrounding people earning Shiki some extra awesomeness points.

And just like that, the Preliminaries were over.