Azumi regained the crowds attention, sharply whistling once so she could continue with her life.

"And now for the final matchup of the Chunin Exams first round!" Azumi exclaimed. "Naruto Uzumaki of Amegakure versus, Kankuro of Sunagakure!"

At the mention of Naruto's name there was a startling amount of cheers from many of the villagers. In the short time the boy had lived in Amegakure, the boy managed to become somewhat of a celebrity. He often times liked to wonder around the village and chat with the civilians, Shinobi, and children. Not to mention that after he and Kana visited the orphanage, many of the children sought him out for advice.

Naruto proudly faced the stands, waving enthusiastically at his supporters.

Kankuro stood across from him on the field, a single puppet wrapped up on his back. He smirked arrogantly at his opponent.

"Both opponents ready?" Azumi asked.

"Yep!" Naruto chirped, taking a low and crouched stance.

"Yes," Kankuro answered, removing his puppet from his back. "I'm ready to go."

"Then begin!"

Naruto firmly gripped onto his newest weapons, his tanto, which was secured to his back. He then drew the short blade from it's sheath. He may not have been as experienced with a sword, but as a member of the Akai Me ANBU unit of Ame, he would need to know how to use one. It was kind of an ANBU's thing to use a tanto.

"Oooh, scary," Kankuro taunted. "So you can use a sword now? Big deal."

"I'm not very good at using it yet," Naruto began, taking a low, animalistic stance. "But I'll still kick your ass!"

In a burst of speed, Naruto leapt at his opponent, slashing at his thigh in one quick motion. Kankuro stumbled, not expecting the sudden attack, but he quickly regained his composure.

Kankuro swiftly unraveled his puppet, taking the time to put distance between himself and Naruto. His opponent was quick to leap back, smirking in satisfaction as he flicked a small amount of blood off his blade.

"I got first blood," Naruto taunted, resisting his urge to lick his blade clean. "What're you going to do, puppet man?"

Kankuro replied with a barrage of senbon. The mouth of his puppet unhinged, shooting hundreds of senbon at Naruto. The boy quickly dodged right, reflecting the senbon that were coming at his face with his sword. A few senbon still managed to pierce through his clothes, making Naruto frown.

"I like this jacket," He huffed. "Dick."

Kankuro smirked, pulling his puppet back to his side. "How're you feeling over there? Those senbon were coated in my very own paralytic poison, it won't be long until you collapse. Surrender and maybe I'll give you the antidote."

Naruto yanked a few senbon out of his favorite orange jacket, tossing them towards Kankuro lazily.

"Here's your senbon back," Naruto said, shifting his weight around, seemingly bored. "And I feel just fine, thanks for asking."

The two stood across from each other in silence for a minute, neither making any move to attack the other. But as time ticked on, Kankuro began to seem nervous.

"How are you still standing?" Kankuro nervously asked. "My poison is extremely fast acting, you should be on the ground!"

"Hate to break it to you buddy," Naruto sighed. "But your poison never got into my system."

"T-that's impossible!" Kankuro exclaimed. "You were hit! Even just one coated senbon would be enough poison to paralyze you!"

"The senbon never broke skin," Naruto shrugged. "All you did was put a few holes in my favorite jacket."

"H-how?" Kankuro stuttered.

Naruto ignored his question. "Good try, your poison might've worked on me if I ingested some, but you won't be able to get past my skin."

Kankuro flinched, his puppet shuddered, reacting to the twitch of his fingers. Naruto unzipped his jacket, tying it around his waist by the sleeves, not wanting his precious jacket to suffer any more damage.

"Let's get this over with." Naruto huffed, taking off in a sprint.

Kankuro intercepted his attack with his puppet, a loud CLANG rang out when the two clashed.

"This puppet is annoying," Naruto huffed, then smirking. "I'll fix that."

His bright blue eye changed to red, the whites of his eye changing to pitch black. Nine burning orange tails appeared behind him, snaking towards Kankuro's puppet.

In one swift move, the puppet was wrapped up in the tails before being squeezed tightly. A loud CRACK rang out and Naruto released the puppet, which was now nothing more than splinters.

Kankuro's eyes widened, true fear making it's way throughout his entire body. Naruto smiled cheerfully, stepping past the pile of splinters towards Kankuro at a leisurely pace.

Naruto subtly turned his sword so that the full side faced out, then he lunged, attempting to knock Kankuro out in one hit. Kankuro, however, managed to duck, scrambling to pull a kunai out of his hip pouch. He quickly blocked a blow aimed at his temple, resulting in a show of strength.

Kunai against sword.

Naruto's strength flared, making the kunai go flying from Kankuro's hand. Kankuro stumbled, tripping over his own feet and landing on his ass.

A blade was pointed at his neck, daring him to move.

"Surrender," Naruto demanded, his tone then softening. "Please?"

"A-alright," Kankuro stammered, swallowing. "Proctor, I surrender."

Azumi nodded, raising her voice to the crowd. "Kankuro of Sunagakure surrenders! The winner is Naruto Uzumaki of Amegakure!"

Cheers erupted from the stands from civilians and shinobi alike. Even Pein clapped politely, beside him the Third Hokage and Kana also clapped, grinning from ear to ear. Naruto reveled in the attention, smiling and waving at the crowd as he sheathed his sword.

After enjoying the spotlight for another minute, Naruto and Kankuro headed back to the contestants booth so Azumi could announce what would happen next.

"That concludes the Chunin Exams first round!" Azumi exclaimed. "We will be back for the second round in an hour after all participate receive medical confirmation that they are fit to continue!"

~~~~~~~~~~

"What are your thoughts on those who will be moving on, Pein-sama?" Kana asked curiously.

Pein sighed, shutting his eyes for a moment. "I am simply glad that Naruto will be moving on, if he wasn't I would make him take D-ranks for a month."

Kana winced. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to catch stray pets in the puring rain? Cats are the worst! They do nothing but hiss and scratch at you!"

"That is the point," Pein idly answered, standing up from his seat. "Kana, keep an eye on things, I will be back before the next round starts."

"Got it!" Kana chirped.

Pein entered the dark hallway and rounded the corner, stopping to stand there.

"What do you want?" He seethed, seemingly at no one.

"What are you doing Nagato?" The voice replied. "You're straying too far from the plans, I told you to kill Naruto."

"He is useful," Pein replied. "He can provide the Akatsuki with strength."

"The Akatsuki is strong enough as is," The voice growled. "We don't need him, we need the Bijuu. I'll give you a month, if the boy isn't taken care of by then I'll do it myself, whether you help me extract the fox or I kill him and release it to wreak havoc on this precious little village of yours."

"We don't have much time," Konan sighed, walking into Pein's line of sight. "What will you do?"

"I don't know yet," Pein replied. "But at least Kana will be out of the village and Naruto and Kaneki will be with her. Then he won't know where they are."

"Will they be alright on their own?" Konan asked.

"I honestly don't know," Pein answered. "But what else can I do?"

"Send a team with them," Konan suggested. "One person at the very least."

"If we send a team he will know something is up," Pein replied. "We can't send Haku with them either, he isn't exactly the strongest of the group."

"What about Itachi then?" Konan asked. "They are going to look for Tsunade, another Konoha Shinobi, it makes sense that Itachi accompanies them, he knows the Land of Fire the best."

"It's possible," Pein nodded. "But we will discuss this more later."

Konan bowed her head to their leader and her friend. "Of course."

A/N

Okay so I had like a sudden surge of ideas suddenly come to me for this book and it's going to go in a drastically different direction than it was originally. So bear with me please! Also sorry about the inactivity, but I hope you guys enjoyed the chapter!