Naruto: The Honored One

4

Once Zaku was cleared out of the way, Hayate kept things moving among.

Hmm." Naruto hummed, eager to see who was fighting next and hopefully himself when he noticed something.

In a puff of smoke, Kakashi returned.

"Kakashi-sensei." Naruto

"Hi." Kakashi greeted them.

"What do you mean, hi?" Sakura demanded as she got worked up. "Is that all you can say? Wh-what about- what about Sasuke? How is he?" She badgered her sensei, worried for her teammate and crush.

"Oh, he's fine. Sleeping soundly in the infirmary." Kakashi assured her, the girl sighing in relief.

Though he left out an important titbit. 'But he's been put under guard by the Anbu Black Ops.'

Here we go again. Moving on to the next match, everyone." Hayate called out to everyone.

Once again the screen flashed as it did it's job, those still lingering were waiting once again for the names for the next match up to appear.

Once the characters had settled, the two names appeared before them as 'Misumi Tsurugi VS Kankuro'.

Heh. Finally, my turn.' Kankuro thought..

Behind his students, Baki's eyes narrowed as he looked at the war-painted boy. 'Careful, Kankuro. You'll underestimate your opponent one time too many.' He warned in his head, but said nothing to his student.

Gaara glanced at his brother from the corner of his eye, filled with nothing but contempt and annoyance. 'Hmf. Idiot.'

As for Hinata and her team, they were still slightly unsettled from the last match. They all watched with serious expressions as another foreign ninja was about to fight. Kiba frowned as he leaned against the rail with Akumaru's head poking out of his jacket. Hinata clutched the rail before her, having calmed down, but was still nervous about the fight. Shino's glasses and coat revealed nothing about his personal feelings towards the match and their sensei looked grim.

Team Guy wore the same expressions as they sized up the two ninja. Wondering who would win in this round. Guy being the most serious of the four with his arms crossed. Lee stood beside him with a similar expression. Like Hinata, Tenten held onto the railing, but not in nervousness. Neji simply watched. As if the match was beneath him.

As for Naruto and his sensei and teammate, Kakashi looked interested from what little she could see of his face. Sakura was interested and Naruto looked a bit agitated. He wanted to show off.

Stepping forward, Misumi's appearance was greatly concealed by the mask he wore around his mouth that hung to around his neck and forehead protector which he wore like a bandanna. He wore what appeared to be the standard attire of his team consisting of a high-collared, sleeveless, purple shirt with a short-sleeved, white one underneath, a simple obi around his waist, purple pants, blue sandals and purple fingerless gloves, along with a pair of round framed glasses similar to the ones Kabuto had worn.

"I'm not like Yoroi. I don't get careless, not even against kids." Misumi warned Kankuro, the Leaf ninja being older than most of the genin in the room.

"Heh." Kankuro huffed confidently.

"A piece of advice. Once I go into my jutsu, give up quick. If you do, I promise to make it short and painless." Misumi promised.

"Funny, I was about to say the same thing." Kankuro spoke as he took off his left shoulder strap holding the mummy like object with hair poking out on him back fall to the ground with a 'thunk' beside him. The wrapping slightly becoming lose. "Though I can't promise it will be painless."