8 Phase 3
Team 8 enters the tower and lines up with the other teams. Due to there being too many surviving teams, a preliminary round is held. The matchups are:
1) Sasuke Uchiha vs Yoroi Akadō
2) Zaku Abumi vs Shino Aburame
3) Misumi Tsurugi vs Kankurō
4) Sakura Haruno vs Ino Yamanaka
5) Tenten vs Temari
6) Shikamaru Nara vs Kin Tsuchi
7) Naruto Uzumaki vs Takahashi Shigaru
8) Hinata Hyūga vs Neji Hyūga
9) Rock Lee vs Gaara
10) Chōji Akimichi vs Dosu Kinuta
11) Kiba Inuzuka vs Kabuto Yakushi
At the start of the first matchup, Yoroi runs to Sasuke with hands extended and Sasuke throws shuriken at him. Yoroi dodges the shuriken with minor cuts and continues to rush to Sasuke. Once he reaches Sasuke, he grabs his head and absorbs his chakra. Sasuke tries to fight back but continuously has his chakra absorbed. When the match seems to be coming to an end, Naruto taunts a beaten Sasuke. After being taunted, Sasuke gets off the floor and runs to Yoroi. As they reach each other Yoroi tries grabbing Sasuke but is kicked in the air instead. Sasuke follows Yoroi into the air.
In the air, Yoroi blocks Sasuke's next attack just to get backhanded. Sasuke follows it up with a punch to the gut and finishes with a kick that sends Yoroi to the floor. Sasuke is announced as the winner and the next match begins.
For the next match, Zaku unsuccessfully attacks Shino several times before he realizes that Shino's bugs are behind him. Confident in his ability, Zaku tries to fire airwaves at Shino and his bugs. When the airwaves build-up in his arms and blows his arms off, Shino reveals that his bugs have clogged the tubes in Zaku's arms. Shino secures the victory and Zaku is carried away on a stretcher.
Misumi and Kankurō's match ended rather quickly. As soon as the match began, Misumi uses his Soft Physique Modification to coil around Kankurō's body. He threatens to break Kankurō's neck if he doesn't forfeit. Kankurō refused to forfeit so Misumi breaks his neck only to discover that he was coiling around Kankurō's puppet. Before Misumi can respond, the puppet wraps its arms around Misumi and breaks his bones via constricting him.
The fourth match is Sakura versus Ino. The two are on par with one another at the beginning of the match until Ino restains Sakura with a chakra rope made from her hair. She possesses Sakura's body with the Mind-Body Switch Technique and tries to force her to forfeit. Just when she is going to succeed, she's forced out of Sakura's body. They end the match with a double knockout.
The match between Tenten and Temari was one-sided. Tenten repeatedly threw weapons at Temari that we're blown away by Temari's fan. Seeing that none of her weapons can reach Temari, Tenten places two scrolls on either side of her and weave hand signs. After completing the hand signs, the scrolls rise and spin around each other while covered in smoke. When the dragon-shaped smoke disperses, Tenten jumps in between the scrolls, unseals the weapons in the scrolls, and throw the weapons in rapid succession.
"Ninja Art: Twin Rising Dragons," Tenten says.
Temari deflects the weapons and Tenten uses the wires connected to the weapons to try to attack Temari. Before the can reach her, Temari uses her fan to propel Tenten and her weapons into the air. She then traps Tenten in a cyclone. The cyclone disappears and Tenten lands on Temari's folded fan.
Match 5 is a match between an overconfident Kin Tsuchi and an unenthusiastic Shikamaru Nara. Kin starts the match by throwing senbon with and without bells at Shikamaru and boasting about her ability after he is confused by her attack. This proved to be her undoing since Shikamaru takes advantage of her overconfidence to use his Shadow Imitation Technique and secure his victory.
As soon as the participants of the next matchup are announced, Naruto eagerly makes his way to the arena while yelling about how he's going to shine. Unlike Naruto, Takahashi takes his time getting to the arena. When the audience sees that Takahashi's eyes are bandaged they whisper their doubts to each other. Naruto continues to ramble even after the start of the match, prompting Takahashi to interrupt him.
"Naruto, it will be in your best interest to forfeit," Takahashi persuades.
Naruto responds with his usual statement about never giving up because he's going to be Hokage and get everyone's acknowledgment and how he will win now that he's gotten stronger.
"I admire your determination but you seem to think that you're the only one improving. What makes you think that you're going to win before ever starting the match; do you think everyone's been slacking off while you were training? You would probably have a chance at winning if I was someone who looked down upon those I think are weaker than myself like most people here, but I treat the weak and the strong the same."
Takahashi suddenly uses the Body Flicker Technique but miscalculates the distance and appears to the left of Naruto.
"Now this is a little embarrassing," Takahashi says as he shakes his head in disappointment.
Naruto recovers from the dazed state he was in due to Takahashi's speed and proceeds to attack Takahashi. Takahashi dodges the attacks and counters with a kick in the ribs. He follows it up by pulling the staggering Naruto to him and kneeing him in the face, onto the floor. Naruto slowly gets off the ground. Takahashi repeatedly knocks Naruto to the ground but Naruto keeps getting back up.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu," Naruto says, making forty-seven clones and surprising quite a few spectators. Naruto and his clones surround Takahashi and bombard him with attacks.
"Shadow Clone Jutsu."
Takahashi and his three clones respond to Naruto's bombardment with kunai and shuriken before exchanging blows via taijutsu. Naruto's clones decline but the sheer number of clones overwhelm Takahashi and his clones. This doesn't stop Takahashi, however. By the time Takahashi's last clone is defeated, the number of Naruto's clones is reduced to four. One clone kicks Takahashi which is followed by a second clone punching him. The last two clones kick Takahashi into the air, allowing Naruto to send him back to the floor with a spinning heel drop.
"Naruto Uzumaki Barrage."
When Takahashi crashes into the floor he is knocked unconscious as everyone expects but becomes smoke, indicating that he was a clone. Before the happy Naruto could refocus, Takahashi uses a palm strike to send Naruto crashing into the wall. This time Naruto stays down long enough for Takahashi to be announced the victor.
[User has gained a new perk.]
Upon Naruto and Takahashi returning to their seats, Hinata offers Naruto some ointment. Naruto refuses at first but happily accepts after Kurenai convinces him to.
"Hinata, how could you be concerned for Naruto than happy for your teammate? I guess it's understandable since anyone would be concerned about their crush," Takahashi says with fake tears coming from his eyes.
Hinata, who originally wanted to explain to Takahashi, turns red after hearing the latter part of Takahashi's statement. It doesn't take long for the participants of the next matchup to be announced and they are Hinata and Neji Hyūga.
"Hinata, all you need to do is be confident in yourself and fight like when we train together. Doing that might not guarantee a victory but you will be able to injure him a little bit," Takahashi coaches.
When the match starts, Neji tries to convince Hinata to forfeit. Hinata refuses to forfeit after Naruto cheers her on. A now confident Hinata exchange blows with Neji. It takes a little time before anyone notices that only Neji's attacks are effective. This doesn't stop Hinata from fighting, however. On the contrary, Hinata continues to refuse to forfeit even with internal trauma. Even after Neji attacks her heart, Hinata gets back on her feet. Neji tries one more time to convince Hinata to give up. Her reply angers Neji and he attempts to kill her. Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Kurenai, and the proctor stops Neji before he could succeed. Hinata is taken to the hospital.
The next match is Lee versus Gaara. Despite Lee's speed, Gaara's sand blocks his attacks. With Guy's encouragement, Lee removes the weights on his ankles. Without the ankle weights, Lee becomes faster than Gaara's Shield of Sand. Lee lands several blows on Gaara which causes his Armour of Sand to chip. Lee then opens the first gate of the Eight Inner Gates, the Gate of Opening.
After opening the Gate of Opening, Lee performs the Front Lotus. Lee delivers multiple upward kicks to Gaara and sends him into the air. He then uses Shadow of the Dancing Leaf to follow Gaara and match his movements. Next, Lee wraps Gaara with his bandages to prevent him from escaping and spins headfirst towards the floor. Lee releases Gaara before impact, leaving Gaara alone to collide with the floor. Lee believes that he has won until Gaara becomes sand.
Lee defends against Gaara's onslaught and opens the fourth gate of the Eight Inner Gates. With the fourth gate opened, Lee continuously strikes Gaara from multiple directions. Lee wraps Gaara with his bandages once again before opening the fifth inner gate and delivering a finishing blow. Gaara uses his sand gourd as a cushion. He then uses Sand Waterfall Funeral on a defenseless Lee, crushing his left arm and leg.
The last two matches were determined quickly. Chōji is defeat by Dosu's sound-based attacks and Kabuto forfeits directly after his match begins. The preliminaries conclude and the starting matchups for the finals are announced.