It's now the end of the five day deadline and compared to the 26 teams that entered the forest, only 8 teams remained which meant a lot of them survived or made it through the forest of death to the tower.

Over the last five days, Naruto ended up gaining a fear of hospitals and doctors after Tsunade, Shizune and Akane basically strapped him to the medical bed for the first two and made sure every part of him was ok. Both him and Kurama tried to convince them that he was fine but one glare from both Tsunade and Akane immediately shut them both up.

"Why did Kami have to make Uzumaki woman so terrifying?" grumbled Kurama.

Little did Kurama know, it wasn't Kami who made them terrifying, it was her boss who did to just annoy her for his own entertainment and everyone else's.

Another thing that happened during these four days was that he talked with some of his other friends that did manage to arrive. Though he did have to avoid Lee since he kept trying to challenge him to a fight to show off the power of youth.

Naruto never ran so fast before in his life with Kurama all but screaming to run faster.

After that whole nightmare he ended up meeting Temari of the Sand again and they both talked for a little while; while also throwing a slight compliment or flirt to try and gain information from one another. Though Temari had zero luck since Jiraiya all but beat into his skull how to avoid slipping up and revealing anything.

He also got to meet Yugito and they did have some tension between one another, given the two villages histories with one another, especially for Naruto's part giving his clan was butchered by Kumo.

Despite the tension between one another, they did talk a little bit giving they were both Jinchuriki's and lived both similar and different lives. He learned that Kumo was a heavily militaristic village that had the largest ninja to civilian ratio of any other village. It was known knowledge that Kumo has the largest army of any other village, with well over 20 thousand ninja, compared to Konoha's 12, almost 13 thousand Ninja.

The only reason why Kumo had such a large army even after the last two Shinobi wars, was because they implemented conscription which allowed them to bolster their numbers. Though it did come to a cost, quantity over quality.

Kumo preferred to sit in between both categories, unlike Iwa or Konoha, Suna and Kiri. The former preferres quantity to overwhelm enemy ninja with sheer numbers, because of this Iwa has very low quality ninja and are quickly catchingup with Kumo in numbers. The other three prefer quality over anything else, with Suna being the best example of this even though Konoha makes better ninja on average than them.

___

It was the fifth day and everyone was called to the arena for a speech from the Hokage. Near him was Jiraya and Tsunade while around them was the clan heads, Elders of the village and a couple members of the civilian council to all watch this.

On the arena floor all 8 teams were standing in a line waiting for the Hokage to begin speaking, which didn't take long as he stepped forward. "Hello everyone, I'm glad to see just how many of you made it through the forest during the last five days, I know that some of you are tired since you just arrived but sadly you don't get to rest and have to fight".

Some grumbles were heard but no said anything out loud since it'd be a huge sign of disrespect to a Kage.

"Now, all of you will participate in a single preliminary round to help weed you out enough for the nobles and customers to not have to sit in the arena all day, giving we have 24 of you, we need you to go down to 12 since some ninja fights are long or short" said Hiruzen. "Now before the fights begin, does anyone wish to leave the competition?".

At first no one raised their arms until two of the cloaked Ame ninja did, with both saying they ran out of chakra and couldn't participate in the fights.

"Very well, you two may leave" said Hiruzen watching them walk away. He was about to continue talking when a ninja body flickered down to the arena.

"I will finish this Hokage-sama if you don't mind" said Hayate before he let out a cough.

Hiruzen nodded his head and stepped back, talking to Tsunade and Jiraiya about something.

"Now as the Hokage said, we need to lower your numbers down to 12, where during the chunin finals, we shall have 1v1 until the finals *cough*, we shall have a 3 way duel *cough*" said Hayate.

Shikamaru raised his hand and Hayate nodded to him to speak. "Why do 12? Why not 8 like normal or 16 so the rounds are even".

"Hokage-Sama wanted to give the finalists a extra *cough* challenge to in a way simulate live combat, because in the field something like this could *cough* happen" said Hayate before he coughed a couple more times.

"Troublesome.." he muttered "its gonna be a drag to do that.. maybe I should quit" he groaned out in annoyance.

"Shika if you don't at least do one round in the finals then I will personally prank you until your old and gray" said Naruto making Shikamaru shiver. He knew for a fact that Naruto would do that with no hesitation.

He was then smacked in the back of the head by Ino "yeah baka you better do as Naruto-kun says or else!" She snapped.

Naruto shivered and took a step away from Ino while both Fuu and Akane got in between them just incase.

"Ok I'm going to spin the board and when your names are called, stay here while everyone else go to the viewing stands and watch.

All eyes went to the board as it started to scroll through the names and after a couple of seconds it stopped on two names.

Yugito Nee vs Sakura Haruno.

Team 11 winced, not for Sakura, but because Yugito will have to fight a banshee.

"Yugtio-san I apologize for asking this, but if it's possible could you beat the ugly out of her so I'm not reminded of a howler monekys rear end every time I look at her" said Sai with a straight face.

People began snickering while Sakura Screamed at Sai for that comment.

"All of you leave or you'll all be disqualified from participating in the finals" said Hayate trying to regain his composure.

Yugito got in her fighting stance, with her legs being far apart and standing on the balls of her feet, bouncing slightly. She also had her arms out with her hands opened, looking like she was ready to grapple or scratch someone.

For Sakura.. she was in the basic academy style that had so many holes that academy students could see it.

Kakashi hid his face in his book at this, he tried everything but outright beat her to try fix her physical problems, but nothing he did seemed to work. She was way to obsessed with dieting and make up to impress her Sasuke-kun.

When Hayate called match start , Sakura pulled put a kunai and pointed it at Yugito while yelling about her love for him. She then did something that made everyone, especially Kunochi cringe in pain.

She pointed the kunai out with both arms and closed her eyes before running at Yugito hoping to stab her.

Yugito couldn't believe her eyes, she stared dumbstruck and once Sakura got close, she side stepped her and tripped her, making her slam into the ground forehead first and knocking herself out.

"Winner Yugito Nee" said Hayate.

"Please tell me all your Kunochi aren't like this..." Yugito almost begged.

The Konoha shinobi Shook their heads saying no, though a good number of them looked at Ino. She was the only other one here like that.

"Now for the next round" said Hayate, waiting for Yugito to leave.

Sasuke Uchiha vs Kiba Inuzuka.

The fight between them was a complete beat down, at first Kiba was dominating the entire fight, but Sasuke ended up getting the upperhand, halfway through and he began to brutally beat him to a bloody pulp.

Once the fight was over, Sasuke was covered in cuts and bruises, along with a broken arm. Kiba was even worse and had to be rushed to the medical room immediately, while Sasuke was taking away by Kakashi.

The board began to spin and then the next two names popped up.

Temari vs Tenten.

That fight was just depressing, Temari didn't even try to fight her, she just used her giant fan and threw her around before knocking her out and leaving.

"This is so boring... can't we get something fun to watch?" Said Akane bored out of her mind since the fights so far haven't even lasted longer than two minutes max.

"Hopefully next match will be more entertaining" said Naruto ignoring that Fuu was playing with his hair.

Akane Uzumaki vs Karui.

Akane perked up at hearing this and jumped off the railing, landing on the ground with a large grin as she walked towards Karui who was walking down the steps.

Both of them were now standing infront of each other and the tension was thick.

Hayate looked at both of them before he called the start of the match and jumped away.

Karui quickly went through hand signs and called out her jutsu "Lightning Style: Electromagnetic Murder!!"

A large amount of lightning shot out of her hands towards Akane who pulled out a seal and slammed it on the ground and a wave of water shot out of said seal towards her.

"Shit" Karui said jumping back and landing aways; away before charging in and throwing a couple of kunai which were easily blocked. Though they were just a distraction so Karui could get in and try and slash her sword at Akane.

Seeing this, Akane ducked under it and drove her fist right into her exposed stomach making her go flying back and hold her stomach in pain.

"Damn you sure do punch hard" said Karui holding her stomach and glaring at her.

"Well I was trained by Tsunade to be a medic and I have perfect chakra control on par with her" said Akane "though I perfer to not use her super human strength".

"Oh then in that case, what do you do?" said Karui.

"Well why would I tell you that, that wouldn't be very ninja like, now would it" said Akane.

They both charged in and engaged in Tai Jutsu, as they both started to fight, Akane created a chakra scalpel to try and cut her. She managed to get her shoulder but was struck in the stomach at the same moment.

"Uzumaki Style: Ocean's Serpent!!" Said Akane as the left over water in the field and the water she spat out transformed into a large serpent that charged straight towards Karui.

"Oh fuck me sideways!" She yelled before getting hit by said jutsu sending her flying into the wall with a massive amount of force.

The water soon died down and when it did, all that was present was a broken wall but no Karui.

A hand shot out of the ground and grabbed Akane's ankle before a large current of lightning went through her system making her scream in pain.

"That was actually a very good strategy.. if you opponent uses a large powerful jutsu, then wait until they can't see and create a clone to escape the attack" said Naruto.

"Wait but how did she get under the ground, she uses lightning, she shouldn't be able to use earth" said Ino.

Everyone turned and looked at her with a certain look, they couldn't believe she was like this and a clan heiress.

"People can use different elements, even if they have a different affinity for that element" said Asuma "for example, my affinity is wind and yet I also use fire jutsus".

"Oh.. well I knew that, since I'm sure Naruto-kun can do it" said Ino looking at him and fluttering her eyes.

Fuu grabbed Naruto and hid him behind her while Shikamaru mentally got ready to restrain Ino if she tried to jump Naruto again.

Back with the fight, both fighters jumped back and Karui pulled out her katana while glaring at Akane, being covered in cuts and bruises from fighting the Uzumaki.

Akane saw this and pulled out her father's Odachi which was as long as she was tall. The blade gleamed in the light and anyone here that knew swords, could tell that this one has been through many battles.

They both shot forwards with Akane using her longer blade to have more distance as she swung it. It was going straight for the neck but Karui blocked it with her own sword, the force of the swing made her feet drag against the ground even using chakra to hold her in place.

Being sent backwards, she tried to pull out some shuriken, but was stopped when the Odachi came towards her again with low chunin level of speed. The force of the blow sent her flying back again, from trying to block it and it even chipped snd cracked the sword.

Also whenever they would get close enough, Akane would use her medical knowledge to either punch her somewhere vital or strike her with a senbon or chakra blades.

"I don't know if your village remembers this, But there is a reason why the Uzumaki clan were as feared for Kenjutsu as our seals" said Akane with a smile. "I mean after all, it's because of us that the Seven Deadly Swordsman exist".

Yugito looked surprised and turned towards her sensei who was being extremely quiet and had yet to remove his eyes from the battle before him. "Sensei is what she said true?".

"Yes, the Uzumaki are the reason why they exist" said Bee, who didn't rap, showing how serious he was.

"Who was it?" Said Yugito.

"That I don't know, ya gotta ask that Naruto boy, ya know what I'm saying" he said going back into his usual rap mode.

A vein appeared on her forehead and she really wanted to punch him, but decided against it, since it might embarrass her village.

Back with the fight, Karuis blade was broken and she had a blade to her throat. Her body was covered in senbon and some parts of her weren't responding since Akane cut the tendons or muscles to that part of the body, along with slashing her with her sword.

"Winner Akane Uzumaki" said Hayate.

Akane smiled and sheathed her blade before turning and leaving the arena for the stands where everyone else was while medical ninja came in and took Karui away.

Garra vs Shino.

Before either of them moved, Shino raised his hand "I forfeit proctor, why? Because it'd be illogical for me to fight a opponent that could quickly defeat me and has such vial chakra that my bugs don't want to be near it".

Hayate sighed and declared Garra the winner, which greatly angered him since he wanted to feed his mother more blood.

The names started to spin again and after a little it stopped again.

Hinata vs Fuu.

Both of them walked down, with Fuu being her usual cheerful self while Hinta was slightly nervous since she heard about Fuu's super human strength which is quickly catching up to Tsunades own.

"A-ano.. let's have a g-good fight Fuu-san..." said Hinata.

"Right on Hinata, let's do this" said Fuu with a large grin.

"Hinata has this in the bag, when it comes to close quarters combat a Hyuga never looses" said Kurenai confidently.

"In normal circumstances I'd agree but your forgetting a couple things" said Yamato. "She has natural super human strength, but then Tsunade-sama taught her how to use her own version of it, which almost doubled her strength. Also she's a Jinchuriki, so she can simply keep opening her Tenketsu points just as fast as Hinata closes them".

Kurenai looked at him with a slight scowl "that may be true but Hinata is very strong, especially for her age, so she has a very good chance at winning this".

Yamato decided to not comment and just watched as the match started.

Hinata immediately activated her Byakugan and got into the traditional Hyuga stance, she could now see everything and tried her best to ignore that her father, uncle and the elders of her clan were watching her.

Fuu saw this and whipped out a kunai and sent it right at her cheek, which almost grazed it, if she didn't move in time.

"Hey your fight is with me, ignore everyone else" she said flexing her hands, which also cracked her knuckles at the same time "or else I'll end this with one punch".

"R-right!" Said Hinata as she charged right at Fuu but then saw a large amount of chakra go into her right arm before it was sent straight towards the ground.

The force of the punch, shattered the ground, lifting massive Boulder sized chunks of rock from the ground, making them airborne.

One of these pieces, Fuu punched which shattered it and made it act like shotgun spray with the Boulder being shattered into tiny pieces.

Hinata quickly hid behind one of the boulders that almost got shredded from the speed and force of the rocks flying at it. It was only thanks to how thick the Boulder was that Hinata wasn't hit.

"Come on Hinata let's have some fun" said Fuu running in and punching the one she was hiding behind.

Seeing her coming, Hinata jumped put of the way and watched the Boulder get destroyed. She then landed on the ground and sprinted forward and parried a strike from Fuu while tagging two of her Tenketsu points.

A kick met her and she was sent flying right into the wall where she smashed into it painfully.

Neji narrowed his eyes a bit as he watched this fight, he was confused how Fuu didn't even seemed to have noticed two Tenketsu points on her elbow being closed.

Activating his Byakugan he was beyond confused "how are her points open? I know Hinata-sama closed them".

"She's a Jinchuriki" said Gai watching Hinata get up and close chakra points, only to get punched or kicked away. "She has a tailed beast and it's most likely constantly flooding her system each time she's hit, so her points keep getting opened, this also makes her next to invulnerable to Genjutsu".

Neji narrowed his eyes more and watched the match continue.

Hinata was panting in exhaustion from this fight, she was a close range fighter, she was never taught to fight at medium or long range, which was now costing her a lot. Any time she'd get close, she would get punched or kicked which would either leave a nasty bruise or also break a bone or two. Not only that but when she closed a chakra point, red chakra would just reopen it like it never happened.

Painfully she stood up, with blood dripping down her chin.

"I mean no offense when I say this Hinata but you should give up, this was a bad match up for you and your gentle fist isn't a match for me" said Fuu.

"N-no... I can't give up... that's not my ninja way..." said Hinata standing to her full height and had shakey arms out infront of her.

Fuu looked at her for a moment before looking at Hayate who shook his head saying he can't intervene if she says she can still fight.

"Very well" said Fuu before she shot forward getting right into Hinatas guard and punching her in the gut. The punch lifted her off the ground, Fuu then used her fist to grab her large coat before swinging her over her own body right into the ground with a large crash.

Hinata was barely conscious when she saw Fuu lift her leg high up in the air and brought it down.

Seeing it come, she closed her eyes since she knew she couldn't do anything. Waiting for the strike she noticed that it never came and she opened her eyes to see that it stopped a foot away from her head.

"Proctor she's done" said Fuu taking her foot away and standing to the side.

Hayate walked up to Hinata and looked her over before nodding his head "Winner Fuu".

Fuu went to walk away before she stopped and decided to cheer Hinata up "that was a decent fight Hinata, I hope we can fight again once you get stronger and learn new things so It isn't so one sided".

She was placed on a stretcher and was barely conscious, but she smiled "I... hope so... too".

She was taken away by the medical ninja to get healed, while up in the stands, Hiashi said he was going to check on her and asked Hizashi to watch the matches for him.

As he left, the elders looked In disgust, and they all agreed on one thing. They needed to talk to Danzo after this, the Hyuga were getting too weak because of Hiashi and Hizashi along with Hinata. It was time they did something to save the Hyuga.

It took about twenty minutes before the arena was cleaned up and the matches continued.

First was Lee vs Sai and Lee wiped the floor against him, though he didn't leave unscathed and had two broken bones and a bunch of cuts.

Next was Shikamaru vs Kankuro, that fight only lasted a minute as Shikamaru used his shadow to force him to surrender or have his throat slit but his own hand.

Third was Choji vs Neji, this fight lasted a couple minutes, but Choji never got a real hit on the Hyuga prodigy. While Neji just dodged and struck until Choji finally collapsed on the ground.

The final fight was called and it was quite surprising.

Naruto vs Ino

"My money is on Naruto-sama" said Neko appearing out of nowhere and scaring some of the genin near her, while getting some raised eyebrows from the Jonin.

All eyes were on Naruto as he jumped down to the arena and Ino slowly walked down.

"Oh no.. what do I do? I don't want to fight and hurt Naruto-kun... oh I know, I'll enter his mind and tell him I'll throw the match if he kisses me and we get married" Thought Ino in happiness.

Both of them looked at each other, while Naruto saw that almost every single eye in the entire arena was staring at him.

"Match start!!" Said Hayate jumping backwards letting them start thr match.

Naruto pulled out a kunai and was going to throw it, when Ino did something that made him freeze in sheer stupidity of her move.

Ino brought her hands together making a circle with her thumbs, pointer and middle fingers pressed together "Mind Transfer Jutsu!!" She said before collapsing on the ground.

Up in the stands Inochi was having a panic attack, it was a written law In the clan since Mito Uzumaki, to never enter the mind of a Jinchuriki, especially Naruto giving how hostile and defensive the Kyuubi is. He remembered the last time he did it when Naruto was 3 and Hiruzen had to make sure the boy was alright giving the Injury to his head.

He still had nightmares of that day for how pissed the Kyuubi was and it was only because he explained it fast enough that he even survived.

Naruto was pulled out of his thoughts when he heard Kurama screaming in pure rage and he's never heard him this angry before in his life. He quickly sat down in a meditative position and entered his own mind.

___

He entered his mind and saw that he was back in the sewer since him and Jiraiya haven't loosened the seal enough for Naruto to change the mindscape for Kurama. He quickly followed the pipes and found the cell.

Kurama was standing at his full height and was all but oozing sheer hatred and malice for how angry he was that someone would enter Narutos mind and his own territory.

Steam exited his large maw as red chakra began to leak from the bars, oozing even more killing intent.

"Kurama calm down!" Said Naruto running towards him and standing before the cage to try and calm his friend down.

"WHY?" He seethed "give me one reason why I shouldn't rip this disgusting humans soul apart into a million pieces!".

If Ino was In her real body, she would've pissed her pants.

"Because she made a mistake and you made your point, now let her go and she'll never bother you again" said Naruto hoping to calm him down. He was aware that a couple days ago with him almost dying as well, probably didn't help Kuramas anger, now that someone entered Narutos mind in a way that could control him.

Kurama growled before turning towards Ino and letting out another spike of killing intent "Listen hear human, if you or a member or your clan ever enter Narutos mind again I shall rip your soul to a million pieces"

Ino nodded her head in sheer fear.

"THEN LEAVE!!!!" He Screamed kicking her out.

___

In the outside world, only two seconds have passed and once Naruto opened his eyes, he saw Ino stand up and running away screaming and crying in fear.

Naruto didn't even have it in him to gripe at Kurama for being that aggressive, after this week, he had every right to downright be murderous.

"Naruto wins, ok all the winners come down here" said Hayate.

Soon everyone was standing in line before him.

Naruto
Kurayami
Lee
Sasuke
Yugito
Fuu
Temari
Garra
Neji
Akane
Omoi
Shikamaru

"Now normally we would do this by number but giving we are pressed for time, I'll just tell you the matches right now" said Hayate before looking at the paper he was giving that was written in random.

"First match Lee vs Naruto.

Second match Sasuke vs Omoi

Third match Kurayami vs Temari.

Fourth match Fuu vs Neji.

Fifth match Shikamaru vs Yugito.

Sixth match Garra vs Akane.

"You all have one month to prepare for your matches and remember, the final round shall be a three way battle where only one can win" said Hayate before leaving.

Everyone else began to leave, with Naruto and his team heading towards his sensei and Jiraiya.

___

(The next day).

In a dark underground base which was larger than his others, was Danzo who was leading the Hyuga elders. He was leading them through his HQ and as the elders walked followed him, they saw lots of Root ninja walking around along with hundreds of kids who were currently being brainwashed to follow Danzos every command.

They also noticed something else, some of the Root had the symbol of the organization and they also had a different symbol On their masks, it looked like two S's in the shape of lightning bolts.

These were Danzos elite soldiers that were pure, they weren't tainted in the blood of people from other villages, they could be traced all the way back to the founding of the village and only had ninja blood flowing through their veins.

They were his strongest and most fanatical followers.

Soon they entered a large chamber where the elders saw at least 200 of these Ninja and 500 regular Root standing.

"HAIL DANZO-SAMA!!!" They Screamed while Raising their right arm up in the air at a angle. Then on the wall where a large thrown was, flags dropped down from the ceiling, red in color with a large white circle in the center and the Konoha symbol but it was now black.

The elders were beyond amazed seeing this and they watched as Danzo stood infront of his thrown and raised his left arm in a similar way making the Root do it again before they stopped.

"This is the future of Konoha, order and peace once we rule the elemental nations and make a pure society, my empire shall last for a thousand years or even longer" said Danzo. "Now tell me, will you join me?".

The elders raised their arms and scremed Hail Danzo making said man smile darkly.

Soon he shall rule everything.