25 Preliminary Round 2 (1/2)

Sakura vs Ino.

The battle wasn't that suspenseful, it was basically a battle between two girls who used to be friends. Saito could only sight Akane would have had a bigger chance of winning if she fought against those one of those two.

The next battle was Tenten vs Temari, they both showed excellent ninja tools use but Temari won in the end using her wind release jutsus strengthened by her fan.

Shikamaru vs Kin from the sound village, was a great battle of strategies, but Shikamaru won in the end making use of his own enemy's weapons.

Naruto vs Kiba, Saito found it interesting how Kiba fought and coordinated with his dog. At first Naruto was losing and for some reason he wasn't using any jutsus. But in the end he managed to win against him in the weirdest way possible. After failing to raise his Chakra he farted at Kiba who was going to attack him, Kiba's senses where enhanced using his clans jutsu, which ended up with him almost blacking out from the stink. After that he used an interesting jutsu to create a perfect clone of himself and bombarded Kiba with kicks wining the combat with that.

Saito looked at Yamato.

Saito: ”Sensei, that jutsu that Naruto used it's similar to water clone right.”

Yamato nodded.

Saito: ”But he didn't change the nature of his chakra, I never heard of clone that could fight and is created using chakra with no Nature change.”

Yamato: ”That's actually a forbidden jutsu, Shadow clone Jutsu created by the 2nd Hokage. It has a limitless potential but it uses a great deal of Chakra so most ninja's need to have at least Chunin level Chakra reserves to create a clone otherwise they will suffer from chakra exhaustion, and the most interesting aspect of this jutsu and the reason why it's a forbidden jutsu is that the moment the clones are released the user receives all of the clone's experience including mental trauma.”

Saito's eyes opened in surprise. This jutsu really had limitless potential after some thinking he had an idea.

Saito: ”Yamato sensei, can you teach me this jutsu, I believe that if I use it I should be able to increase my trainings efficiency.”

Saito was in need of power and currently he needed to train his Taijutsu, Ninjutsu and Chakra control. He had only one body so it's hard for him to reach his current level if he didn't put every minute he had into training.

Yamato was in deep taught, he told Saito about this jutsu because he wanted to give him another way to increase his strength. As a teacher he was quite proud of his Team all of them where hardworking but he was most impressed by Saito, who put every second of his free time to increase his strength and help his teammates. Saito was the weakest of his teammates when they first started. But slowly and with hard work he slowly trained and now he was one of the strongest Genin in the village.

Yamato nodded.

Yamato: ”I will teach you later after asking for the hokage's permission, but remember that with your current chakra reserves you could at most create two clones without suffering from chakra exhaustion if you try to create a third one you might cripple yourself. For the moment concentrate on the exam.”

Saito was elated but he suddenly realized, Naruto could create more than five clones. He wondered how much chakra that guy had and that's without taking the kyuubi into account. He learned from some history books about the third ninja war that the Hachibi's host could use the tailed beast's chakra to increase his combat power to terrifying levels.

The next contenders where decided, Neji Huga vs Hinata Huga. Saito started watching with great interest, Hinata was a little stiff at first but after Naruto started cheering for her she became determined.

Saito looked at Naruto. Naruto was an idiot who has no awareness of his surroundings. Hinata showed all the signs of a girl in love but he was unaware of that. He had a crush on Sakura who on the other hand showed all the signs of being in love with Sasuke, not giving Naruto a single glance.

The battle began and Saito was amazed at the splendid display of taijutsu. To some of the spectators their power was equal. But to the more experienced ninja's or people with enough knowledge about taijutsu, Hinata didn't manage to land even a single hit while Neji slowly landed attacks at unexpected angles. Soon the battle ended, but Neji started talking about fate and destiny and how inevitable it is. Looking down on Hinata, that angered Saito quite a bit but he didn't act.

Saito could only laugh inside, he more than anyone present knew that Fate can be changed it's just that it took a huge amount of effort, preparation and luck.

Naruto suddenly jumped down and started confronting Neji just as he was about to attack. Both Lee and Saito jumped in front of him holding him from attacking. After that Lee and Saito told him to wait until the official match to fight. The situation was diffused without any battles.