Underneath the Underneath

The Tower

It ended up taking around 3 more hours to get to the tower, we even continued to run in the dark for a bit, knowing we were close and didn't want to stop for the night.

Once we had walked into the tower we opened our scrolls. Kakashi ended up coming out to talk.

"Congrats on finishing the task, you were the first ones to arrive, so you can spend the rest of the days here until the full five days end." He congratulated us.

He handed us a key and told us the room number, "Figure out sleeping arrangements, because I couldn't be bothered to." He disappeared in a cloud of smoke after that.

I held the key in my hand as we walked up the stairs, trying to find our room for the next couple of days. We ended up finding it on the 3rd floor.

The room itself only had 2 beds, and a desk in the corner, there was a bathroom attached in the corner as well.

"I'll sleep with Sasuke, and Sakura can have the other bed." I suggested. The others nodded to show that they agreed.

I retrieved a book from one of my sealing scrolls, and sat on the bed, planning to read for a while.

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I ended up reading until midnight. The others wisely decided not to interrupt me, and only when they were getting ready for sleep did they tell me that others had begun to arrive. And by others, I mean one other team.

"Really? Who are they?" I asked, curious.

"Some team from Suna, two males and one female, all related. The two males had red and brown hair and the female had blonde hair." Sakura answered for me.

She seemed to be getting better about berating me. I'm not sure what changed her mind, but I'm not complaining that's for sure.

"Thanks" I replied, finishing brushing my teeth and hair, then laying down in my bed, ready for sleep.

It didn't take long for sleep to consume me, one thing I had noticed though, was that it was a bit harder to sleep without snowfall sleeping on my chest with me.

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The next couple of days weren't very eventful, we mainly just read and practiced a bit with Kakashi-sensei.

Finally, the five days for the task had been completed, and everyone who had passed, had arrived.

Everyone was all gathered in a lobby of some sort, waiting for instructions from the Hokage.

"Too many people have passed this exam, we are going to need to do a plementary round to lessen the numbers." He spoke out once we had all quieted down, ''We are going to be randomly selecting people's names, and you will be dueling whoever it lands on." He continued.

We started not long ater, "First up is Sasuke Uchiha, and Haisuki Michikin!" He called out after the names had been picked.

Both contestants walked down to the arena and got in a fighting stance at either side of the battlefield. A man wobbled up to the perimeter of the arena, "Ready, 3 2 1, GO!" He spoke before breaking off in a fit of coughing.

Both opponents stared at each other for a little while, waiting for the other to make the first move. After what seemed like decades, Sasuke finally decided to make the first move.

Running head first at the other ninja, who was someone from another village, probably wasn't the smartest idea, but Sasuke wasn't known to be the sharpest tool in the shed.

I continuously watched as the ninja blocked Sasuke attacks, though he didn't manage to block all of them.

The other ninja wasn't even landing hits on Sasuke, too busy trying to keep himself from harm. It was a pretty quick match, after Sasuke had managed to break the other's defense.

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The other rounds passed in a blur, I wasn't really paying attention to them, they didn't matter to me.

Only when my name was called did I startle out of the trance I had put myself into, "Next we have Naruto Uzumaki and Kiba Inukuka!" The instructor called out from his perch.

I watched as Kiba ran down to the arena, clearly excited. I opted to slowly walk down instead of running, why waste the energy?

We stood on opposite sides, just as all the others had been doing, and waited for the instructor to start the match.

"Ready? 3 2 1 GO!!" He sliced his hand down through the air.

Kiba and Akumaru immediately rushed me, and I was still trying to decide what I was going to do. Was I going to be nice and end it quick and easy, or should I be mean and end it brutally?

In the end I decided to be nice and not humiliate him too much, but still a little. I blocked all of his attacks, trying to decide the best course of action on taking him down without hurting him too much.

I ended up deciding that I should just knock him out by hitting the nerve in his neck. Now the problem is getting close enough to do so.

I ran at him, and he waited for me at the other end of the arena.

I feigned a left swipe with a kunai, and instead attacked his knees, cutting them so he was forced to drop down.

I chopped the nerve in his neck. He went limp in my arms, unconscious. I carefully laid him down on the ground and backed up to show the others that the match was finished.

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The other matches were pretty boring, and I didn't really pay much attention until they had finished.

Multiple people had lost and were out of the Chunin exams, but they didn't kick everyone who had lost, only the people who had no hope.

"Alright, now that we have finished that, we will continue on with the normal chunin exam tasks. The final task of the Chunin Exams will be in 2 months, in a similar fashion to this." The Hokage announced.

He talked a little more, but I didn't really pay attention to that, instead zoning out, and trying to decide if I was going to train with my team or on my own for the 2 months we have before the final task for the exam.

Everyone had started to leave at this point, and I got up to join them. Or at least I tried, the Hokage stopped me before I could get out of the doors.

"Hey, Naruto, wait up for a minute please." He called out over the chatter of the crowd. I stopped walking and waited for everyone to leave the room.

"Yes Jiji-chan?" I questioned.

"You don't have to fight in the final task if you don't want to, since you're already ANBU rank." He informed me.

I smiled at him, "Alright, thanks for telling me." I left the room shortly after, opting to go and read or train with my time.

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1174 Words