THIS IS REWRITTEN FOR I HATED IT AS IT WAS SO HELLO THIS IS A LOT BETTER I AM SO SORRY.

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Shikamaru's Pov

I held Kruno in my arms, finally noticing just how beaten and bruised she was. Her pale white skin was littered with cuts, scraps, and blood. It was a horrific sight, to see her like that. I didn't know how to react, so I just picked her up in my arms and waited until the Sound Nin left the area. I held Kruno close, and we walked out to where Sasuke and Sakura were, Sasukes eyes landed on Kruno and he hit the ground weakly. I would say whatever just happened to him caused him to feel really weak.

"Is she alive?" Sakura asked, and I looked down at Kruno. Her breathing was slow, and faint, but still there. I looked back at Sakura, and nodded my head.

"Yeah, she's alive. Probably just passed out from the pain, what a drag." I said, and I looked at scroll the Sound Nin had placed on the ground, then back at Sasuke and Sakura. "Looks like you guys are set now, better head that way soon. Doesn't look like Sasuke's in the shape to fight again, and Naruto isn't going to be much help at the moment."

"Yeah, I think you're right." Sakura said, and she looked at Kruno sadly. "What are you going to do with her?"

"Carry the troublesome woman." I sighed, looking up at the clouds. "What a troublesome woman."

Her dog Watamote was standing at my feet, looking up at Kruno and whining. I looked down at the dog, and sighed, crouching down to the allow the dog to jump on her body. Watamote laid down, and whined slightly at her. I looked back at my team, and nodded my head slightly.

"Wait!" Sakura screamed out as she walked over to us and handed the Earth to Ino. "You guys fought for this, take it. Kruno would kill me if I was the reason you guys didn't pass through." She said quietly, and I nodded my head.

"Are you sure, Sakura?" Ino asked, and Sakura nodded quickly. "You guys better get going to the tower to get Kruno some help."

We all nodded and took of running towards the tower. I was cradling Kruno in my arms, and I would look down at her every once in a while. I felt like this was all my fault, and if I had been there to protect her, maybe she wouldn't be a beaten up.

I looked back up as we jumped through the trees, and smiled slightly as we got closer to the tower. I looked back at Choji and Ino, who were both panting to themselves. I sighed heavily, oh what a drag, we were going to have to stop for the night.

"Alright guys, go down, we'll start a camp." I said, and they all nodded, and we dropped down carefully to the ground so that we could set up camp. Quickly, Choji and Ino set three tents, and I nodded at them. I went into mine, with Kruno still in my arms, laying her down on the bottom of the tent.

I sat down beside her, and gently pushed her bangs back out of her face. She was so beautiful, and the cuts all over her body didn't make my idea of her change at all. I was actually scared for the first time since she got back, that she could slip out of my grasps again... I shook my head. No, I can't think like that. I just can't.

I laid down beside Kruno, and wrapped an arm around her waist, pulling her closer to me. I rested my head on top of hers, and slowly began to drift to sleep, hoping and praying that she would wake up in the morning, and that we could continue to the tower.

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When I woke up in the morning, I glanced down and saw Kruno was still in my arms, but her eyes were staring up at me. I pulled her closer to me, and hugged her tightly. She awkwardly coughed, and mumbled an ow. I felt my cheeks turn red as I released my grasp on her, and scratched my head slightly with my hand.

"Sorry, Kruno. I was just excited to see that you were okay, because it's been a drag having to carry you everywhere." I said, and she sat up, huffing slightly. She winced as she did, but she crossed her arms.

I chuckled slightly before we both crawled out of the tent, and looked over at Choji and Ino who were sitting awake, chatting among themselves, which was odd because Ino used to say she hated talking to Choji, but surely that was before the exams. "You two, let's pack up and get going before Kruno passes out again." I said, both of them nodded and all four of us began to pack up our camp, and walk together towards the tower.

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Kruno's POV

Pain was an understatement of how my body felt right now. It ached, everywhere. Every time I move, it felt like my body was on fire, but I could not let it get the best of me. I had to keep going for my team, myself, and my brother. I think Kiba would bring me back to life just to kill me again if I died during these exams. I think that I'll need to hide the fact that I was so hurt from him, but that was going to be hard.

I sighed quietly, and placed Watamote on the ground beside me so that she could walk around and stretch her legs, but made sure that she stayed near me, I didn't want her to get lost. I glanced up at my team mates with a small tilt of the head, they were all quiet, which is very unusual for them.

"Guys, we're here." Shikamaru said, knocking me out of my trance. I looked up at the tower in front of us, and smiled to myself as we all walked in together. We looked up in front of us, and read the sign that hung above us. I gulped quietly before Shikamaru pulled both of the scrolls out, tossing on to me.

"We open it on three, okay, Kruno?" Shika said, and I nodded my head as I placed my thumb against the edge of the seal.

"One." Shikamaru said.

"Two." I replied, both of us peeling back the paper slightly.

"Three!" We screamed together, and we ripped open the scrolls. I quickly went over it before looking at Shikamaru. "It's a summoning Jutsu, throw it!" I said, and both shikamaru and I threw the scrolls. They crossed over each other, and erupted in a cloud of smoke. Once the smoke cleared out of the room, it revealed Asuma-Sensei, who was smiling at us with his cigar hanging half way out of his mouth.

"Hey guys!" he said with a closed eye grin, and we all cocked our heads to the side as we look at him.

"What are you doing here, Asuma-Sensei? Not that I'm not happy to see you, but I'm just curious." My voice was the first to slip out from all of us. Asuma's eyes opened, and he looked over at me, his eyes widening slightly before he shook his head, and started smiling again.

"I am here to tell you that you guys passed, and will be heading onto the next part of the exam!" He said, before he took a drag off of his cigar. I squished my face up as he blew out the smoke. If there was one thing I hated, it was smoking.

"Kruno, it looks like you took one hell of a beating!" Asuma said, and I nodded my head slightly, rubbing my hand over my arm slowly.

"Yeah, I guess I did." I said, sighing as Watamote yapped from beside me. I looked down at her, and chuckled slightly.

"Well, I'll take you to get bandaged up real quick, why you three go ahead and head into the room through those doors. Kruno will join you momentarily." Asuma-Sensei explained, the other three nodded, and I looked up at Asuma, before walking over to him. I waved bye to my team as Asuma and I walked away, before I finally let myself begin to show that I was in pain again.

"You look like hell, Kruno."

"Jeez, thanks Sensei." I said with a huff, crossing my arms over my chest before realizing how bad it hurt. I dropped my arms and continued to walk with him until we ended up in the infirmary. The medical nin looked at me for a moment before he grabbed a thing of bandages, and wrapped them around all the spots he could get. He nodded at Asuma, who nodded back and we left.

We arrived back with the rest of squad 10, and I smiled slightly at them. This is when I noticed my brother looked like he had been about to cry, until he saw me.

"Kruno!" he screamed and took off running towards me. I giggled quietly, and had to hold back the yelp from pain that shot through my body when Kiba wrapped his arms around me tightly.

"Kiba-a... Your-re crushing me..." I managed to gasp out, and Kiba stepped back from me only slightly with a triumphant smile.

"Isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" he asked as we walked back over and go in line, just in time for the Hokage to begin speaking to us.

"This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of the Shinobi, that it is friendship. The third exam is a fight for the life with the pride of your village and your own dreams are at stake." The Third explained.

"Hm, he sure sold me!" Naruto said, nodding his head slowly.

"Any test is fine, just tell me what the details of the exams are already. I can handle anything you throw at me." Gaara said, and this caused me to turn my head towards him slightly. I hadn't heard him talk since the first exam, but that was normal. He never was a talker.

"Well then listen up because I am going to explain to you extactly what you will be doing in the third exam." He paused, and coughed into his hand.

"Lord Hokage, before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko to speak first." A guy said, as he bowed down in front of the Hokage. This caused me to tilt my head slightly and look at him, because I was unaware as to who he was.

"So be it." Sarutobi said, and the strange man turned towards us.

"There is something that I would like all you-" He broke his sentence with a cough. "-To do before the third exam. Uh, we have to have preliminary before we can move on to the first one." Hayate explained, and I jumped slightly as Shikamaru yelled out.

"Preliminary?! What do you mean by that?" He shouted, and I placed my hand gently on his arm, rubbing up and down slightly in an attempt to calm him down.

"Um, excuse me, Sensei, but I really don't see the point, what is this preliminary all about? Why can't we just go on to the third exam?" Sakura asked, and a few people nodded in agreement from around us.

"Well, uh, you see, the first and second exams might have been too easy, the fact is that we never expected this many of you to pass, the rules of the Chunin Exams states that a preliminary round can be held at any point to cut back the number of candidates remaining."

"But, uh! Is that fair?" Sakura asked, and I glanced over at her. I shook my head, no, it was not fair. It wasn't fair at all. I winced slightly as my side began to hurt, and I placed my hand on the spot it was hurting. That was one of the places that Zaku had gotten me during the exams, so it was a major disturbances and extremely annoying.

"It's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important people will be watching, and we cannot afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best, so if any of who feel that you are not in top physical condition." Once again, this man had to stop to cough again, and I was starting to get annoyed. He wasn't even in top physical condition, so why pester us about it? "Sorry about that, as I was saying, any of you who do not feel up to this, now is your time to bow out." Hayate said, and I sighed slightly.

"You need to bow out." Shikamaru whispered in my ear, and I shook my head. "You need to, Kruno. You are in no shape to fight through this, so don't pretend you are." Shikamaru said, and I looked back at him.

"Shika, please, I am fine. Please, don't make me back out of this." I begged, and he sighed loudly, placing his hands on my side before he nodded.

"Fine." Was all he said to me, but he held me close against him as if I was going to fall over and die at any moment. Honestly, I felt like I could.

"The prelimaries will begin right now." The proctor said, and Kiba threw his two cents in.

"Oh come on! He shouted.

"We just got done barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break?" Ino asked, and Shikamaru looked up at the ceiling with a small sigh.

"Man, what a drag..."

"Man, when do we eat?" Choji asked, and I had to bit on my lip so that I would not laugh. Sometimes, I really loved my squad.

"Oh and one more thing, the winner will be determined by one on one combat, and sudden death. So like I said, if someone is not feeling up to it, not is the time to raise your hand."

I looked at my squad who were all nodding at me, as if to tell me that it was okay if I gave up, if I quit. I glanced up at my brother, who had no idea that I was even this hurt, and I shook my head. I couldn't give up. I would let Kiba down, and I would let my squad down. I would let everyone I had ever promised down. I sighed softly and I looked up at the Jonin who were at the front, and my eyes stopped as I met eyes with him.

I sucked in a deep breath, and tried not to freak out. I had to calm down my breathing, because if I let my squad know that I was scared, they would make me quit the exams. I couldn't do that. So even as I was freaking out, I looked him straight in the eyes and nodded my head. I saw that awful fucking smirk of his cross his lips, and I bit down roughly on my lip.

I watched as certain ninja began to opt out of doing the exam, none of them having any importance to me, but I was slightly shocked when I saw Kabuto raise his hand.

"Okay, you got me, I'm out." Kabuto said, and he had a sickening smile on his lips, which caused me to scoff slightly.

"But... Kabuto..." Naruto trailed off, as he turned his whole body to stare at him. I was slightly confused as to why Naruto cared so much, but I wasn't going to question in. Maybe he had gotten strangely close to Kabuto in the last part of the exam. Hayate looked at his clipboard and flipped through the names until I assume he landed on Kabuto, because he stopped flipping and coughed slightly before he spoke.

"Kabuto Yakushi, of the lead village, right? Okay, you can go ahead and step back."

"Gotcha." Kabuto said, and we all watched him walk away. But apparently Naruto didn't agree that he was dropping out.

"Kabuto! Wait! You can't stop, you can't give up! What is this, what happened?!" The blonde yelled at him, and Kabuto turned towards Naruto.

"Naruto, I'm sorry. My body is too beat up." I scoffed aloud at this comment, and I was sure that everyone heard me, but I didn't care. "Fact is, ever since orientation, and my mess up with the sound ninja, I've had no hearing at all in my left ear. And now to have to put my life on the line, to fight again right away with a break, I can't do it."

I let out a small laugh, and scoffed again. I was tired of hearing what he had to say, because I didn't believe that he was that out of shape. I knew he wasn't, honestly. Kabuto gave a wave, and I sighed loudly. "Pathetic..." I mumbled under my breath.

"Now then, does anybody else want to quit?" Hayate asked, and I glanced around until I saw Sasuke throw Sakura's arm down, and I turned my body slightly. That is when I saw the mark on the back of his neck, and I gasped slightly. I turned towards the front of the room, where all the Jonin were and I locked eyes with his. For the first time ever, I looked at him with the look in my eyes that told him "I will kill you."

"Alright, we will now start the preliminaries rounds. These are all out, no rules battle. This is NOT an exercise. There are twenty two of you, which means that there will be eleven matches. The surviving competitor will continue on to the third round of the exams. You will fight until one dies, or one admits defeat. Those who are losing, are urged to admit it and stop the fight to minimize the casualties. Furthermore, as proctor, I am given a little leeway, and I can stop the match if I feel as if it is hopeless, and no one is going to win. Now, it is time to show you what fate has decided for you." I watched the proctor as he looked back at Anko, and she nodded.

"Open the panel." Is what she said into the microphone, and all of us looked up in some sort of awe as part of the wall opened, and showed us a black screen at first.

"The name of both of the opponents are chosen complete at random, and will be shown on the screen up there. As there is nothing else to say, let's begin. In a moment, the name of the first to opponents will appear on the board.

The board flashed a yellow, and I looked at it with intensity, I was ready to get my match over with so I was somewhat hoping that my name would be called first. I looked away for a second, and I heard gasps. I looked back up at the board, and smiled softly.

"Alright, those whose names were selected, come forward." Hayate said, and I smirked softly as I pushed past everyone around me, and I began to walk past Kiba, but he grabbed my wrist and turned me around slightly.

"You be careful, you understand?" Kiba asked, and I nodded my head before I moved to where the proctor was, and I glanced over at my opponent, and I instantly recognized him. He was the first guy that I had fought in the forest of death, and this caused me to laugh loudly. He looked at me annoyed, and then it came to him.

"You're the mutt who nearly killed me!" He shouted, and pointed his finger at me. This caused me to get an anime vein on my forehead as I looked at the proctor.

"This is a no rules battle right, like, I can kill him if I want?"

"Well, I mean, we don't want you to kill anyone." He stopped for a cough. "But yes, this is a fight to the death."

I looked over at my opponent with a smile, showing all of my teeth, even my overly sharp canine teeth. My opponent, whose name is Yamo, looked at me and I could see just a hint of fear in his eyes.

"You have been chosen for the first match, Yamo Crasta and Kruno Inuzuka. Are there any objections?" The proctor asked, and I smirked very largely at him. We both shook our heads.

"Uh, alright then, let's begin the first match. Everyone other than the two opposing contestants, move to top level."

I watched as everyone moved up the stairs, mostly keeping my eyes on my team, even more so on Shikamaru. I watched as I saw where they were, and nodded my head to myself.

"Then if you're ready, let the match begin!   

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OKAY SO I AM GOING TO WRITE THE FIGHT NEXT BUT IT WILL BE IN THIRD PERSON SO I AM SORRY FOR THAT IT WILL BE UPDATED WITHIN THE NEXT TWO HOURS I LOVE YOU SUNFLOWERS.

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