Chapter 9: Prelims

                                    

                                          


                          
The Sandaime Hokage had rushed to see Team 7 when he became  knowledgeable of the events that occurred in the Forest of Death. After a  telling of the story from Naruto and Sasuke's perspective, Hiruzen made  sure it was all correct.
                          
"So you were found by Orochimaru in the  forest?" asked Hiruzen to which Team 7 nodded. "He defeated you all,  placed a cursed seal on Sasuke, and just left with orders to his team to  kill you both?" after another nod, Hiruzen blew out a sigh.
                          
"Well,  at least you all are still alive. Sasuke-kun, Kakashi has a plan to  deal with your seal." said Hiruzen as Kakashi walked in with a Yo. "He's  going to place a Fuja Hoin (Evil Sealing Method) on  you to suppress the influence of the seal. However, due to the power of  the cursed seal, it'll take your willpower to control how effective the  Fuja Hoin is." finished Hiruzen as he saw Naruto smirk.
                          
"So  basically, Sasuke got a hickey from a pedophile. That hickey is imbued  with the pedophile's power. Kakashi is going to suppress the hickey's  power to keep Sasuke from using said hickey. Got it." said Naruto as  Sasuke turned toward him with a glare.
                          
"I'm not gonna use this  Curse Seal. But it's nice to have an addition safeguard to keep the  influence down. I don't need somebody else's power. I am an Uchiha" said  Sasuke, turning toward Kakashi while also showing Naruto the Uchiha  Crest on his back.
                          
After Kakashi finished snickering at Naruto's  hickey remark, he and Sasuke both exited the room to take care of his  cursed seal. Sakura had left Naruto and Sasuke earlier to get some rest  from staying up while they were incapacitated. It was just Naruto and  Hiruzen left in the room.
                          
"Jiji." said Naruto as he lifted his  mesh shirt and channeled some chakra to show off his seal. "Can you  remove this seal. I didn't want to bring it up in front of my teammates  because they don't know about my status yet, but Orochimaru placed it on me during our fight." finished Naruto as he was struck in the gut sharply by Hiruzen.
                          
"Gogyo Kaiin (Five Elements Unseal)"  said Hirzuen as Naruto fell asleep again. "Of course I can Naruto-kun.  Now get some rest before the finals, I want to see you impress me my  dear boy."
                          
Hiruzen then picked up Naruto and took him to his room.  After laying him down in his bed, The Sandaime disappeared back to his  office to prep for the third exam.
                          
(Two Days Later)
                          
The two days since Team 7 finished  the test were relatively uneventful for Kakashi's genins. Sasuke had his  seal suppressed and Naruto finally had control over his chakra again.  Nothing else really happened besides that until today. Team 7 had been  given instructions to go to an arena, where they were met by 5 other  teams. The two other rookie teams from Konoha, Team Guy, the sand  siblings, and Kabuto with his team. Seems there were only 18 genin left  including them and 15 were from Konoha.
                          
They were all situated in a  huge arena with platforms on either side. On the platform directly  facing them was the Hokage. Upon all of the genin arriving, Hiruzen  addressed them with kindness.
                          
"Congratulations to all the genin  who have passed the second exam. Before you can continue to the third  exam, I will now inform you on a few things." said Hiruzen. " In years  past, the Chunin exams were and still are a contest. A contest that  pitted each nation's aspiring Chunin in a duel between each other to  show their village's strength outside of wars. This final exam is  observed by many people, including potential clients and daimyos all  across the elemental nations. One does not have to win the tournament to  be promoted to Chunin. Just display skills that may qualify them for  promotion."
                          
Hiruzen was about to continue until he was interrupted by a sickly ninja with a prevalent cough.
                          
"Excuse me Hokage-sama, if I may interject, I would like to take over from here." asked the ninja as Hiruzen nodded.