Sorry about the wait again I meant to update sooner but…. Yeah…

Here's the next chapter everyone, just a bit of a warning I plan to skip most of the fights (cough Lazy! cough)

Anyway I do not own Naruto nor do I own this plot, the plot belongs to Celestial Kitten16. Here we go!

WARNING:

I AM DOING SOME MAJOR PRELIMINARY FIGHT SKIPPINGS SO I CAN GET TO THE WHOLE NARUTO AND KUSHINA MEET UP SO DON'T COMPLAIN ABOUT HOW ITS CRAPPY!

Oh boy… Turns out Karin is an Uzumaki… I wonder how I'm gonna put her into the story…Wait! I have an idea but it won't be until later.

Chapter 20: Preliminary Rounds! Part 2

(A/N: Hooray for me being a lazy writer and skipping most of the battles!)

Naruto, for the most part, was amazed at how many strong fighters made it to these rounds and that only the strongest out of the two fighters won. She was a bit nervous to tell the truth that if she won her match, she would have to face one of the stronger opponents at the end of the Exams, and that was something she wasn't sure she was ready for.

So far Shino Aburame, one of Hinata's teammates and maybe the only one who knew her secret and kept it without being told, had won his match. He had used his bugs, which were an Aburame special talent from what Hinata told her during the match, to destroy the arms of Abumi Zaku, the Oto Shinobi who had his arms broken by Sasuke in the Forest of Death. It freaked Naruto out a bit at the fact that his little bugs could do so much damage but at the same time it was very cool and Naruto did swear to herself to ease up on the bug killing spray she used for her plants at home.

It was after this match did Kakashi return from whatever he had done with Sasuke who was now sleeping at the hospital.

The next match was between Misumi Tsurugi, the other teammate from Kabuto's team, and Kankuro, the jerk from a few days ago, the one that was traveling with the blonde haired girl with four hair ties and the redhead. That match was over in an instant, it would seem that Kankuro was a puppeteer but instead of normal strings he used Chakra. When Misumi had gotten Kankuro in a full body hold, using his Chakra to twist his own body into different areas, it turns out he was really holding onto Kankuro's puppet. And Kankuro was hiding in the large bandaged carrier he had dropped on the ground, because of the puppet had a hold on Misumi; it had squeezed him until he passed out.

The fourth match though was one Naruto didn't know who to cheer for. It had been between Sakura and Ino. Sakura was of course her teammate so Naruto should had cheered for her but then Ino was like an older sister to her, one she felt she could go to and tell certain secrets to. Naruto knew of the broken friendship the two had with each other, to make matters worse it was over Sasuke, and in truth didn't know what to do. In this match though it showed how strong the two girls had gotten, Sakura didn't give up not even when Ino took over her, even though it took some yelling at her from Naruto's part, and both of them fought hard. In the end though, both girls lost their match as they both had knocked each other out in the end. Oh and Ino cut her hair during the fight to.

The Fifth match was more… Brutal. It was between Tenten, the girl with the two buns Naruto had met in the Forest of Death, and Temari, the blonde haired girl who carried the big fan Naruto meet with the other Suna Shinobi. As the match began, Gai and Lee, who happened to be right next to her team, was screaming their heads off cheering for her. Naruto didn't know which one of them was screaming louder but she also noticed down below that the Suna Kunoichi and Tenten had yet to fight until Temari taunted Tenten. Tenten it would seem, was an inspiring Weapons Mistress, Naruto was amazed at how many weapons the girl had been able to seal away in a few scrolls and how Tenten was able to wield them gracefully. But in the end it seemed effortless when Temari used her giant fan, blocking each attack thrown at her with a strong gust of wind, and had blasted Tenten into a wind vortex, cutting her badly before Temari let her down and allowed Tenten's back to hit the end of her fan. Naruto had figured out from the way Kankuro fought that the Suna team was strong but she never thought they could be so ruthless. Temari even had the heartless attempt to throw Tenten onto the ground and she would had fallen on her own weapons if it hadn't been for Lee who jumped down to catch his knocked out teammate, but Temari didn't stop there, she mocked Tenten and called her trash causing Lee to attack her but blocked his moved with her. Gai went down quickly after and told Lee to stop, and then it was the redhead from Suna's turn to tell Temari to return to the stands.

Sakura, along with Ino, had woken up before the sixth match, and both Naruto and her talked over some things. Sakura, in Naruto's eyes, seemed different now. She seemed had grown up just a bit and seemed more… Kunoichi, a true Konoha Kunoichi than from before. Sakura even encouraged Naruto to win her own fight when it came up so she could fight Sasuke. Though they didn't talk long because Ino had hugged attacked Naruto and pouted at her saying "Sakura is so mean, Imouto!"

The Sixth match was interesting because it was between Shikamaru Nara, and Tsuhi Kin, the girl from Oto. It was interesting because Naruto finally got to see how Shikamaru really fights like. She knew him being lazy was a bit of an act, he does train when he had to but he would never let Naruto see. It was sort of a game between the two friends though, she would try to follow him to where he would train and he would catch her and then tell her to go home, so far the score was Naruto: 0 and Shikamaru: 59, Naruto lost every time because Shikamaru was smart when he would notice her following him. Anyway the match went something like this, Kin used two Senbon needles with bells on it, it would seem she was going to use another two with only one bell to mess with Shikamaru out but it turned out she didn't. The bells, from what Kin explained, messed with the enemies mind and made them see illusions. To others who didn't know Shikamaru it would seem he was going to lose but Naruto knew better, she watched with a grin when he was able to catch Kin's shadow using the long string she had been using to make the bell sound. He then had her under control and he forced her to take a Shuriken which they both threw at each other, for a moment everyone thought he was going to allow it hit it both of them but he did a very cool thing. He threw his head back and because Kin was standing right in front of a wall, she hit it with full force and knocked herself out, it was then he was declared the winner.

"Hey Shikamaru, that was really cool!" Naruto yelled out from her spot on the railing. She really had to admit it was she figured he was a pretty good fighter if he was able to find her each time she tried to watch him train but she never thought he'd make it so quickly.

"Tch, Naruto… Do you have to be so loud?… So troublesome." Shikamaru said as he walked back up to the upper areas after he was done. Though if anyone would looked closely they could see the faintest smile on his lips.

"Hey, I can't help it. You've never let me see you train so I don't know how you fight for real, Sloth-Boy!" Naruto said cheekily using the nickname she sometimes liked to give him.

"Hn." Was his reply but he knew that would set Naruto off. Those around them, who didn't have a stick up their asses, watched amused as the two spoke to each other.

"Oi! Stop trying to be a Sasuke-Teme copy! Speak words damn it!" Naruto yelled out as she pinched his cheek as if it would teach him a lesson. All Shikamaru did was wince at the pain and had muttered a "Troublesome loud blonde."

All Naruto did was scrunch her nose at him and "Humph" away but she did have a smile on her lips as did Shikamaru. Naruto was about to say something but stopped when she noticed the others turned to look at the screen as they waited for the new names to appear. Naruto gulped again as the names flashed across the screen and looked around the room to the ones that were still there.

'So there's me, Kiba, Hinata, Choji, Lee, Lee's teammate that jackass that called me weak, Tokugi, Harou, that other guy from Oto, and the redhead from Suna…' Naruto thought as she counted off who was left in the matches. Naruto was pulled out her thoughts when she noticed the screen had stopped flashing, her eyes widened a bit at who was going to fight.

Kiba Inuzuka

VS

Harou Kannagi

"Yes! It's my turn to show everyone I'm the best!" Kiba boasted out as he punched a fist in the air while Akamaru barked in excitement though on the inside he was even somehow happier he wasn't going to fight the redhead from Suna.

Naruto blinked a few times before she shot a look to Sakura. This would be the first time they would see how Taka's team fought, and judging how quickly the other team had gotten their scroll with little to no damage it would no doubt be interesting.

Naruto turned her head to stare at the other side of the railings in time to see Taka finishing up a speech to Harou, who was just grinning her head off as she quickly nodded her head, while Tokugi seemed to be smirking at Kiba as if he knew something he didn't.

When Taka noticed his sister was staring at him and his team, he stared back and blinked before waving a small hello and smile. Naruto smiled back a bit and ignored the questioning looks she gained from those who didn't know that her brother Taka was on the other side.

She watched as Kiba and Harou made their way down to the arena below, both fighters stood in front of Hayate and stared at each other.

"Good luck." Harou said cheerfully.

Kiba scoffed a bit and said with a grin as Akamaru barked "As if I'll need it.

Harou didn't seem to be affected by his cocky attitude, all she did was smile at him warmly her eyes did however slowly start to sink causing her to no longer look like she was just smiling happy but smirking.

"-Cough- Are you both ready?" Hayate asked as he looked at them both as they nodded, he nodded also and raised his hands up and said calmly "Seventh Match, Kiba Inuzuka VS Harou Kannagi... BEGIN!"

With the end being shouted, Hayate jumped away and everyone above watched as Kiba got into a fighting stance but Harou on the other hand just smiled at him as she placed her arms behind her back, she rocked back and forth on her heels as she watched him with a small glint in her eyes.

"Alright Akamaru, lets show them what we got! It's our time to shine!" Kiba yelled as Akamaru barked in agreement before he jumped off his head and landed on the floor.

"Aww… That's such a cute puppy!" Harou said happily as she clapped her hands together like a child would when it say something they liked.

Kiba gave an annoyed look and said with a scoff "Akamaru isn't a puppy, he's my Nin-Dog, breed to fight alongside me and is my partner."

Harou's smile faded again into a smirk as she said "I wasn't talking about him…"

That remark made Kiba look like a fish, with his mouth opening and closing, for a bit while Akamaru seemed to be snickering in a way only a dog could do. Above them, that remark did send a small set of snickers and giggling from those watching who didn't have a stick up their asses.

"I… You… What!" Kiba finally managed to say after a minute of trying to get his voice to work. Harou just chuckled lightly and that began to tick Kiba off badly, she wasn't taking him seriously, she was giggling like he was a clown or something.

"Argh! Stop laughing at me!" Kiba snapped out as he finally made his move and came rushing at the girl. As he threw a punch at her, Harou sidestepped him as she placed her hands behind her back and quickly brought up her right knee to hit his stomach, Kiba gasped in pain at the knee to his stomach before he started to cough trying to regain his lost breathe.

Harou quickly spun around on her spot as she lifted her right leg and let it land harshly on Kiba's back, causing him to fall onto to the ground in pain. Harou giggled lightly before she quickly dodged Akamaru, who came up behind her to bite her. She twisted on her toes and jumped a long jump backwards away from Akamaru and Kiba.

Akamaru growled at her as Kiba rose from the ground as he gave one last cough. Kiba scowled deeply at the girl before he yelled out "I am not going to be made a fool of by you!"

"Oh, don't worry. You don't need me to do that, you're doing it perfectly on your own." Harou said back with a grin plastered on her face. She giggled again when she saw his face turn a red shade and he began to sputter in both anger and surprise.

"Argh! That's it!" Kiba yelled out, allowing his anger to take more hold of him, he quickly got onto all fours and brought his hands up to perform a hand sign before he yelled out "Shikyaku no Jutsu!"

-x-x-

"Whoa, I've never seen Kiba this upset before…" Sakura said as she watched the battle from the stands her green eyes wide as she stared down at it.

"Me either and I've seen Mutt face get really mad at the Academy…" Ino said as she looked at the battle along with everyone else that was there some looked surprised while others seemed a bit bored about what was going down, Kurenai however didn't look happy that Kiba was getting so upset over the little brown haired girl's taunts.

"Harou doesn't look worried though… I wonder what Taka told her?…" Naruto commented as she stared down at the battle his hands on the railing as she leaned over it a bit. She couldn't help but wonder on both why Harou wasn't all too worried about fighting Kiba and what her brother told the brown haired girl from before their battle.

"Taka?... Isn't that one of your new brother's name? The one that Team Honryuu said is their Sensei?" Ino asked when her ears picked up on the last thing Naruto said and her mind raced with thought on where she had heard the name Taka before when it had clicked.

"Yeah, he's the redhead on the other side of here; he's next to Tokugi-Baka…" Naruto said as she looked from Ino to her older brother on the other side of the railings. Ino along with Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Lee, Neji, Hinata, Shino, Gai, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma all turned their attention to the man across at the other side, some to see who the man was, and some to get another look at him since their meeting with the Uzumaki brothers.

Everyone on their side stared, ignoring the fighting down below for a moment; Ino's eyes widened as she stared at the handsome young man across from them before she turned to Naruto and nearly screamed out with a blush on her cheeks and dead serious look on her face.

"Naruto! Your brother is smoking hot!"

"INO!" Naruto yelled out in shock, making her face turn pale and she nearly had a heart attack that her 'Big Sister' found her big brother 'hot'.

Naruto's yell caused everyone around to stare at her and had stopped the fighting from below, Harou looked up and blinked a few times confused and Kiba was annoyed his fight had been interpreted just when he was going to show the annoying girl just who she was messing with.

"What sorry but come on your brother is-" Ino tried to say but a grin was threating to appear when she had seen the look on Naruto's face, it was just too funny, even if she was telling the truth that Naruto's older brother was handsome.

"J-Just don't alright." Naruto stuttered out firmly wanting to stop the conversation in its tracks. "Let's just watch the match."

Naruto returned her gaze down and found an annoyed Kiba staring back up and a smiling Harou who just waved up to her, Naruto gave her a bit of a forced smile and did her best to ignore the questioning look her brother was giving her from across the sidelines.

-x-x-

"Shall we continue?" Harou asked nicely as she rocked back and forth on her heels again, showing that she really thought all of this was nothing more than a joke.

Kiba, forgetting his annoyance from Naruto's yelling, returned to glaring and being angry at the brown haired grinning girl, she was going to get it, no one made a fool of Kiba Inuzuka and gets away with it. Kiba snarled lightly, still in his Shikyaku Jutsu, he tensed up before he rushed at Harou at top speed.

Harou however didn't seem surprised, all she did was smile before she quickly moved out of the way right as he was about to hit her, Kiba slid across the ground at his sudden miss and thought 'How did she see me coming! It's supposed to be hard to see me when I'm in Shikyaku!'

"Not bad, you're fast but it seems like I'm faster!" Harou cheerfully said, again this ticked Kiba off.

Kiba growled before he almost snarled out to Akamaru who raced by his side "Come on Akamaru, lets show her whose she's messing with!"

Akamaru barked in agreement before the two raced at Harou, Kiba quickly reached to his back pouch on his pants and pulled out two smoke bombs, he then threw them at Harou as she raised her arms to shield herself from the oncoming attack, as soon as they hit the smoke bombs exploded creating smoke around her and soon Kiba along with Akamaru rushed into the cloud of smoke to attack.

Above no one knew what was going on for a moment until the smoke cleared, when it did most gasped in surprise.

Both Kiba and Akamaru were tangled in a long blue ribbon, the same ribbon Team Seven noticed they had seen after the Forest of Death the same one that had been hiding their storage scroll that hide their Heaven and Earth scrolls, strangely it was only the ribbon that was holding the two in place the other strange thing was the fact the ribbon wasn't sagging at all. Kiba had the ribbon tied around his hands putting him into a hold behind him, his feet were tied up so tightly that he could hardly move, and there was a piece of the ribbon tied around his neck, Akamaru was whimpering as he tried to escape but he too was tied up by the same ribbon. The duo was a bit apart from each other but not too far.

"Sorry Puppy but Taka-Sensei said to make my match quick…So I have to pull out one of my best trump cards…" Harou said sweetly from her spot, she was standing a few feet away behind Kiba and Akamaru in their tangled mess, in her hands were the ends of the ribbon that she had wrapped around both of them and she was also in a fighting stance.

"W-What the hell is this!" Kiba harshly yelled out, the ribbon piece around his neck was tight but not tight enough to stop him from breathing or talking. He struggled to remove the ribbon from his body but he still could not move at all.

"This? Oh… This is my Chakra Ribbon silly!" Harou smiled as she said this, upon hearing a small whisper of 'Chakra Ribbon?' from those above Harou explained "You see, this ribbon is made of very rare and special silk, the reason why it's rare is because it can only come from a single type of bugs that only makes this silk once every ten years, the silk from this bug allows Chakra to follow into it if one were to hold it from the bottoms of the ribbon, by adding my own Chakra I can change it and use it in my fights. I can do whatever I want to this silk and it will do it…"

Harou stopped for a moment before she said with a grin "If I want to make it tighter all I have to do is add Chakra…"

Harou clutched her hands hard on the ribbon as her hands glowed a soft blue, everyone watched as the ribbon somehow began to get tighter around both Kiba and Akamaru bodies, Kiba began to gasp for air as the one around his neck grew tighter and Akamaru gave a full yelp as the one around him got tighter too.

Harou ignored both her opponent's gasps for airs and the yells of "Kiba! Akamaru!" from the crowd above, she looked up lightly to her side, up to where her Sensei was with his arms crossed and his back to the wall behind him, once he met her eyes all he did was nod his head lightly. Harou smiled very lightly back before she returned her gaze to the two that were trapped in her ribbon.

"Or I could make it loose if I decrease my Chakra levels..." She said softly as she loosened her grip on the ribbon ends in her hands, she slowly decreased the Chakra going into the ribbon, at the same time stopping her hands from glowing blue anymore.

Just as Kiba was seeing black spots in his vision, the tightening around his neck and the tightening around his partner loosened, not enough to let him and Akamaru go but loose enough so they could breathe again. Kiba took deep breathes and could hear Akamaru near him was doing the same, Kiba coughed before he heard Harou say.

"Now… You have two choices, either give up your match, or I'll have to make you..."

Kiba growled and spat out "Never!"

For a moment Harou was quiet, she stared at Kiba before her smile faded and she sighed at him.

"Shame, I didn't want to do this but looks like I have to…" she said before once again she increased her Chakra going into the ribbon, causing it to tighten just like last time.

It didn't take long for Kiba to pass out from lack of air, mainly because Kiba began to struggle hard against his bonds, especially when Akamaru passed out from lack of air, thankfully Harou had noticed it and quickly let him out of the ribbon by decreasing one side of her ribbon with her control, allowing only one side to slack its hold on the dog and letting him fall out from his binds. She knew if she had kept Kiba's dog in her ribbon he would had died before she could knock Kiba out.

Once Kiba was fully passed out Harou quickly decreased her Chakra and let him fall to the ground in with a 'thump'.

After a moment Harou turned to Hayate and said with a small smile "He's not getting up now sir, my match is over."

Up on the railings above, everyone from Konoha waited with baited breath as they kept their eyes on Kiba waiting to see if he was going to somehow come back and fight, but after what seemed like an hour to the others but was really a few minutes, nothing happened. Not even when Hayate went over to the passed out duo and checked on them to see if they were still breathing.

An minute passed by before Hayate rose from his spot and raised his arm to Harou and said clearly "-Cough-Kiba Inuzuka and his partner Akamaru is unable to keep battling, -cough- the winner is Harou Kannagi of Maelstrom Village!"

Harou grinned widely and bounced around liked a hyped up child with candy, she then spotted Naruto up above and waved at her with a grin.

-x-x-

"Kiba you let yourself get too angry and then you blindly rushed into your fight…" Kurenai said to mostly to herself in disappointment and annoyance, she knew she was going to have to somehow break Kiba from his anger moments like that if he wanted to be a true Shinobi.

Naruto overheard those words but didn't comment, she had to agree with Team Eight's Sensei even though she knew she herself was a 'Fight-First, Ask Questions Later' type of fighter.

Naruto noticed Harou waving and she returned to gesture lightly, she couldn't believe how strong the smaller girl was, especially since she was her brother's student. If this was the power of a Maelstrom Genin what type of powers would the higher ups, especially her brothers, powers were like?

"Whoa… That was kind of awesome…" Ino said as they watched Harou start her way back to the staircase to head up and as the medic's came to take Kiba away who had begun to wake up lightly.

"Yeah it was…" Sakura said in awe herself, she turned to Naruto and asked "Did you know she could do that Naruto?"

Naruto shook her head no, after all she never knew her brother had a team of his own in these Exams until the Exam in the Forest of Death a few days ago, and she certainly didn't know anything about Maelstrom training because she didn't spend much time with her brothers.

She couldn't help but frown as a question popped up in her head 'Could I been that strong if I had been raised with my mother and brothers?'

Naruto didn't dwell on the question too long because she had noticed Hinata moving away from the spot next to her and went down to check on Kiba who was being carried away by the medic's, Naruto watched as her best friend made it just before the medic's left with Kiba and had handed Kiba a small healing ointment in her hands, Naruto smiled lightly at how kind her best friend was but she frowned again when she noticed Kiba speaking about something that caused Hinata to become nervous and stiffen at his words.

Naruto was about to head down there when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and then she heard Kakashi speak "Naruto.",

Naruto quickly turned to find Kakashi's hand on her shoulder, she was about to say something but Sakura's expression caught her attention and Naruto looked at Sakura before turning her attention to where Sakura was staring in the direction of the screen above the arena with surprise and shock on her face.

Naruto tore her gaze away from looking at Sakura and turned to look at the screen, her own eyes widening at the names that had appeared on the board.

Naruto Uzumaki

VS

Tokugi Kioi

Naruto blinked a few times, trying to make sure she was reading the damn thing correctly; when the wording didn't disappear, Naruto quickly turned her eyes across the railings to see her brother and his student staring at the board in surprise too.

Taka blinked his eyes away from the board to his sister, for a moment the two seemed to had been commutating with each other without words, after a bit Naruto gave Taka an angry 'Don't you dare tell your student to go easy on me Taka or I'll kick your ass!' look, and Taka understood it because he had nodded at her before he turned to his student and told him what Naruto wanted him to do.

Naruto still stared and didn't even turn when she heard Kakashi say behind her "You might want to get down there Naruto…"

Naruto nodded at his words and started her way down to the battle arena, as she passed by her friends who said "Good Luck" and "Kick some ass!" Naruto's hands clutched to her sides as she watched Tokugi make his way down in the stairs on the other side of the arena with both a determined and hopeless face.

When the two stood in front of Hayate the two stared at each other, both had a determined look on their faces as they kept staring, Naruto lightly gulped to herself and steadied her nerves, she couldn't lose now, she had to win this match, she came to far to just give up and call it quit.

"You better not go easy on me Tokugi, I fucking mean it. My brother may be your sensei but if you dare go easy on me I will beat you until you are black and blue." Naruto spat out in pure anger, sending shivers not only down everyone's spines but also her own, Naruto was surprised by the tone, she didn't even know she held a tone like that.

After he was done shivering, Tokugi gave Naruto strained smile before he said "I know I don't plan to Naruto-Sama, but no hard feelings when I win alright?"

"Tch, as if, if anyone's going to win this match it's going to be me." Naruto said back in annoyance at the idea of Tokugi winning this match. She would rather jump off the Hokage Mountain than let him win.

"-Cough- Are you both ready?" Hayate asked before Tokugi could respond to Naruto's words. The two Genin looked at each other before nodding.

"Alright -cough-… Eighth Match, Naruto Uzumaki VS Tokugi Kioi!..." Hayate announced as he raised his arm up before bringing it down while yelling out one word…

"BEGIN!"

Hey guys…. Err… Long time no update huh? Haha… –Laughs weakly but stops at angry looks-

Er… Right… Again sorry, I really, really am, for not updating quickly like I promised to do, I've been so busy and life has been kicking my ass…

I'm going to try something new though, I'm going to try it for a while and if it works than that's how I'm going to write from now on. I plan to write an entire chapter but I'm not going to update a story until a second chapter is done, I have this habit of wanting to update as soon as I'm done with a chapter, so the want of me updating the new chapter will drive me to complete the second one. Let's hope that works…

Sorry if the match between Kiba and Harou seem so out of place, it was the only thing that came to my mind and I wanted their match to end quickly to show that Maelstrom is strong. I mean really taking down Kiba without breaking a sweat seems impressive to me.

Anyways, review the story if you liked it, if you didn't like it and is just looking for something to flame please don't I can just remove those flames so it's pointless.

I'm going to try to make the next chapter better XD also I'm going to try to make Part 3 the last part but I hold no promises.