Naruto woke up a few hours later. He was a little groggy, but otherwise perfectly fine. Iruka still fussed over the blond and didn't even leave the room until the next morning. Haruka only looked in on her teammate for a moment to make sure he was okay. At the time the blond had told some story about exploding a snake that had eaten him by making multiple Shadow Clones. She wondered if that was what had happened to him while he was separated from her and Sasuke during the fight with Orochimaru and stayed to listened for a while, making sure the ANBU was the only occupant of the room that noticed her presence. It wasn't one of the ones she knew, but she signed to him anyway. Worst case scenario he'd ignore her.
'He—say—anything—about—O—ro— chi—ma—ru.'
The ANBU merely stared at her for a moment, but then gave a shake of his head. Haruka signed a thank you back and then asked him to make sure it stayed that way, which he acknowledged with a nod. She didn't know how much Naruto trusted the teacher, but Iruka was clearly biased and blinded by concern when it came to the blond. Apparently the ANBU was of the same opinion or had already been given orders to that respect, otherwise he wouldn't have agreed to her request.
After that Haruka left as silently as she had come. Naruto seemed happy enough with the company and she'd rather avoid the teacher for now. She didn't like the way he'd tried to blame Kakashi without even knowing what had happened and she wasn't entirely certain she wouldn't hit the man again given a chance.
Instead she spent her time next to Sasuke's bed until the Uchiha woke up. Kakashi had put a containment seal around the mark Orochimaru had left on his shoulder. Nobody really knew if it would hold though, so Sasuke had been cautioned not to draw on the Cursed Seal in any way. Apparently Konoha's seal master would be called in at some point, but until then that was all that could be done. For now Haruka was just happy the stupid Uchiha hadn't died. He'd called her a fangirl and thrown a pillow at her when she'd told him as much, but there had been a smile on his face.
She didn't thank him for protecting her from the kunai back in the forest and he didn't thank her for stopping the snake summon. There were a lot of things neither of them said, but their silences weren't wary or filled with suspicion anymore.
The next few days were mostly spent recovering and waiting for the second stage to be over. Gaara's and Kiba's teams had apparently arrived at the tower on the first day, a few hours apart. Rumor was the Suna shinobi had broken some kind of record, but nobody really wanted to talk about them. In fact, the Inuzuka made a point to stay away from them as far as possible and so did his teammates. Haruka wondered what they had seen in the forest, but didn't ask.
Sai's team, as well as one other team from Konoha she didn't know and one from Ame arrived on the third day. Sai immediately sought Haruka out, abandoning his teammates, and didn't leave her side afterwards. Apparently Subaru had almost gotten them disqualified by trying to open their scroll prematurely and Sakura, while smart, was a liability in combat.
Neither Naruto nor Sasuke were particularly happy with her shadow, but Haruka didn't care. Sai was pack at this point and she wouldn't abandon him just because he made a few people uncomfortable. She did however acquiesce when Naruto asked for a private conversation with her and Sasuke.
The blond very clumsily tried to bring up what had happened to him in the forest, but he was mostly stuttering incoherently. Haruka waited for a while to see if he would manage himself. When it seemed like that wouldn't be anytime soon though she cut him off.
"I've known what you are for a while," she told him with a friendly smile. "And I don't care. Unlike Panda Eyes it's clearly not affecting your mental state, so as long as you promise not to eat me we're good."
"You—you know? But—how? And what does that redhead have to do with anything?" Naruto stared at her wide eyed, as did Sasuke. Haruka gave the blond a significant look and then nodded at their other teammate. It wasn't her secret to share and she wouldn't unless asked to. Naruto's gaze followed hers. Sasuke clearly felt left out. He was a little angry, but mostly hurt and that finally gave Naruto the motivation to string a full sentence together.
He explained what a jinchuriki was and that he hadn't known he was one until graduation. Sasuke was wary at first, but when Naruto told them of the Academy teacher that had tried to use him to steal a scroll, that quickly changed into anger.
"You're not a monster idiot," the Uchiha declared and that was that.
No team arrived on the fourth day, but on the fifth both the one from Sound as well as Kabuto's made it to the tower. The latter seemed surprised and somewhat angry when he saw Team 7, but quickly hid it. Haruka wondered at that for a moment, but then dismissed it when her turn came up. Playing shogi with Shikamaru was odd. She never even stood a chance of winning, but the Nara liked to draw the games out instead of ending them as fast as possible. She learned that he was very observant behind his lazy and disinterested facade, and that he would do anything to protect his team. They didn't exactly become friends, never even had an actual conversation, but they weren't just acquaintances either.
***
On the morning of the sixth day things finally changed. The Hokage called everyone into what looked like an arena. A third of the stone floor, at the far wall, was slightly raised. Behind that section was a statue of two hands forming the Ram seal, and to either side of the room was a balcony.
The Hokage stood on the raised section, behind him the jonin sensei, to his sides the proctors and a few of their helpers and in front of him all the genin teams that had passed the second stage. There were a few happy murmurs while the Sandaime congratulated them, but those quickly turned into groans when he announced that there would be preliminary fights because more teams than expected had passed. He also said that the matches would be chosen at random, but Haruka didn't believe that for a second. The third stage tournament would be public and served as advertisement. They wouldn't risk loosing strong genin during the preliminaries because of bad luck. Not when the kind of impression Konoha made would impact how many and what kind of contracts the village got. She felt rather vindicated in her assumption when the Hokage began to explain that the exams were a stand in for war.
Naruto seemed a little miffed by that explanation, having once again forgotten—or maybe willfully ignored—that shinobi were tools. Kiba was furious though, apparently not able to understand why they had to put their lives on the line for what amounted to entertainment for some rich civilians. It, again, made Haruka wonder at what he'd encountered in the forest. Whatever it was had somehow disillusioned him because he hadn't been nearly this grim after the first stage.
The referee for the preliminaries, an ill looking tokubetsu jonin by the name of Gekko Hayate, explained that the reason they had to have the preliminaries was to cut down the number of fights during the third stage so the audience wouldn't get bored. The genin weren't particularly happy with that reasoning, but most of the protests had already been made and shut down. There was however some more outrage when Hayate told them that the preliminary fights would start immediately because most people were still wounded. The only person that actually gave up though was Kabuto.
He made some weak excuse about being all beat up and exhausted, and not wanting to risk his life again. It was ridiculous. This guy had been to multiple exams, he'd known what they entailed from the get go and while preliminaries certainly weren't common the fighting and danger weren't something he hadn't expected. Not to mention that he didn't seem all that hurt. A few scratches and bruises here and there, but nothing major and his chakra levels weren't even low. Haruka didn't like him and everything he did just made him seem more suspicious because it didn't make any sense, and that meant she was missing important information.
Then the chakra in Sasuke's seal twitched and she spun around to face her teammate. He had his teeth clenched and was gripping his shoulder.
"You sure you want to keep going?" She asked him in a whisper and received a glare for her concern. Of course he wouldn't give up, stupid Uchiha pride. Haruka sighed, shaking her head, but didn't say anything else. Instead she listened while the referee explained the rules for the preliminaries.
Since ten teams had passed there would have been exactly thirty fighters, but because Kabuto had given up one of them would advance to the third stage without having to fight. For everyone else it would be one on one matches. The only rule was that they had to stay in the arena. Fights would continue until one of the combatants died, got knocked out or gave up. Hayate himself could also declare a match over at any point. Other than that they were to fight as if in a real battle with enemy shinobi.
An electronic score board was revealed on one side of the room and after a few seconds delay the names of the genin that would fight the first match appeared on it: Uchiha Sasuke vs Akado Yoroi.
While the two of them took their places inside of the arena everyone else left for the balconies on either side of the room. Haruka chose to stand with Shikamaru's team and Sai followed her as he'd done since arriving at the tower. Kakashi said something to Sasuke before he too made his way to the upper level. She was too far away to hear him, but she could guess easily enough. According to Orochimaru's notes the curse seal reacted to chakra. It could be controlled by the user after it was fully formed and integrated into the charka pathways, but before that point it would latch onto any stream of chakra. The containment seal Kakashi had put around the curse seal was supposed to avoid this effect and ensure that it couldn't fuse with Sasuke's chakra system, but there was no guarantee that it would work. It was rather likely that their sensei had forbidden the Uchiha from using any chakra if he could at all avoid it.
Sasuke didn't seem to mind overly much. He'd wanted to fight some of the stronger genin since meeting Gaara. They hadn't seen this Yoroi guy in action before, but at this point Sasuke would probably be happy with any opponent that wasn't Orochimaru.
Both opponents sprang backwards and into a half crouch the second the match started. Yoroi immediately threw three shuriken, but Sasuke countered by pulling a kunai and deflecting them in such a way, that they flew back towards the other shinobi. Then he stumbled and fell as another wave of pain pulsed through the curse seal. He barely managed to dodge the fist Yoroi aimed at him. Instead of Sasuke's head a part of the stone floor got pulverized by the chakra fueled punch, and the Uchiha kicked his opponents feet out from under him.
It looked good for a while. With both of them on the ground Sasuke had the advantage because he managed to get Yoroi into a choke hold, but then Yoroi suddenly griped Sasuke's arm and the Uchiha gasped. Haruka cursed. That bastard was pulling on Sasuke's chakra and if he kept it up it wouldn't matter whether or not Sasuke himself use any.
"Remember Wave!" She shouted at him, hoping that he got her meaning. Wave had been about eliminating the cause of a threat, instead of just avoiding it's symptoms. Granted, she had abandoned plan A at the time, but without a helpful tanuki and reasonably friendly nukenin around Sasuke wouldn't have much of a choice. It certainly beat getting drained dry or the curse seal being forcefully activated against his will.
Sasuke apparently agreed because he quickly disengaged, putting distance between himself and his opponent. When Yoroi ran at him the next time the Uchiha copied the move Lee had used on him before the first exam, kicking his opponent's yaw from below and sending him flying. He didn't follow it up in the same manner though. Instead he kept his distance and threw two kunai that were trailed by paper tags at Yoroi's back. There was no way for the other shinobi to dodge mid air, and Sasuke didn't take any chances. The second the kunai struck he used the Snake seal, detonating the explosive tags.
Haruka quickly formed a chakra barrier in front of her little group to shield them from the resulting spray of blood and gore. She could hear the Inuzuka's dog whimpering from somewhere to her right, but was too busy concentrating on the way Sasuke's seal felt to care. Naruto as well as a few other people looked disgusted at the way the Uchiha had won his fight, the referee however merely declared him the victor without further comment. Kakashi appeared down in the arena a moment later and took Sasuke away, presumably to see a medic. Before their sensei left he glanced at Haruka and she signed a confirmation that the seal hadn't activated.
"I didn't know you used explosives in Wave," Sai suddenly said from her side. He was apparently completely unconcerned by all the blood and simply confused because he hadn't understood the reference. Haruka burst out laughing.
"We didn't, I just meant for him to end the fight as fast as possible by whatever means necessary," she explained. She hadn't quite expected Sasuke to outright kill his opponent, but it had probably been the right call. The Uchiha wasn't a ranged fighter, even when he could use his chakra, and he couldn't have risked close combat against an opponent like Yoroi.
"How can you laugh right now?" Ino demanded with wide horrified eyes. "Sasuke-kun he… he—"
"Won, and he was smart about it too," Haruka cut her off. "You are a shinobi Yamanaka, so get used to the blood. What exactly do you think someone like Panda Eyes over there is going to do to you if you land in the arena with him?" Said Panda Eyes gave her a curious look at that. It wasn't much different from his usual dead stare, but it seemed pleased somehow. As if she'd praised him instead of warning someone away, but then maybe he was like Naruto in more than one respect. Considering the fact that he was a jinchuriki and the way his teammates reacted to him he might have grown up as an unwanted outcast as well, and desperately wanted to be acknowledged. Unlike the blond, who was hoping for love and friendship, though Gaara seemed to be perfectly happy if he could strike fear into the hearts of others.
Shikamaru moved slightly, to get between her and Ino, but Haruka didn't pay him any mind. She wasn't about to attack the other girl, so he posed no danger to her.
"Not all of us are as numb to death as you are," he said softly. There was a note of concern in his voice, but no reprimand.
"I'm not numb, I'm just not afraid to kill when necessary," she answered just as quietly. "Besides a situation like this, when you're surrounded by enemies, is not the time to fall apart. Predators always go for the weak first."
The Nara didn't say anything else afterwards, but he did take Ino aside to calm her down. It was too late now, but it would bee a good lesson if she did survive. She was a clan heir, so it was unlikely that the referee wouldn't call the fight if it looked too bad for her. An invisible safety net she didn't even know existed. Also one that clearly not all of them had, considering that Hayate could have called Sasuke's match before the tags had exploded.