"You're our what?!"
Ryuu asked, as his eyes widened.
He nodded.
"Before we start this exam, there's something that has to happen first, because too many people passed this course. Some preliminaries have to happen before we continue."
Ryuu slapped himself.
"This is so stupid." He said to himself.
"I can see that some of you aren't happy with this but no one is forcing you, if you want to quit because you don't feel mentally or physically ready for this just walk away, but you should know that this is just part of the traditional rules to be used just in case there are too many people who passed the previous test."
No one answered…
"Very well then-" someone raised their hand.
"Are you sure you want to quit?" He asked.
He nodded.
"I can't do this, my teammates died in the previous test I can't do this anymore."
He said as he left the arena.
"Is that it? Because the preliminaries begin now." Those words shook everyone there.
"Now?!" someone asked.
He nodded.
"I'm out, I haven't eaten in days and I have an injury." He said as he walked out.
"Well, that certainly makes things slightly easier, there are five teams left, and in case I forgot, you fight alone here, so don't worry about your decision affecting your teammates, are you ready?"
We all nodded.
"Wait, I also want to withdraw from the preliminary exam!"
Shikaku facepalmed, "Sigh, are all of you done? I just want this entire event to finish, it's such a drag." Shikaku said.
"Seeing that nobody else wants to give up, let me start before anyone else gets an idea.
We'll now begin the preliminaries… which comprise individual combat matches in the format of a tournament, because we're only left with 14 combatants, we'll go with 7 matches and the Victor of those matches will go through, similar to the forest of death, this is a no holds barred match, you will fight until one of you is unconscious, dead or admits defeat.
As soon as you sense your opponent is overpowering you quit immediately, value your life. Although we don't want a bloodbath, sometimes when the winner is obvious we will step in, but don't count on it.
Anyway, if you look above you, there is an electronic scoreboard and at the start of every round, we will display the names of the two combatants competing in that match. So let's begin, ill announce the first two names."
Everyone nodded.
Ryuu was shivering and sweating a little,
"Huh?" it spooked him as he felt Kakashi's arm touch his shoulder.
"Hey, are you ok? You're shivering," Ryuu nodded.
"Yeah, I'm fine, I just got excited that's all," he said as he scratched the back of his head.
We looked at the scoreboard
"Obito Uchiha Vs Haruki Hyuga"
"Hyuga?" Ryuu said.
"Hyuga, Uchiha, It doesn't matter what clan they're from, I'm going to beat the life out of them then ill beat you too, Kakashi!" he said as he pumped his fist in the air.
"Do your best, Obito!" I said as I went, Ryuu opened his Sharingan.
He nodded.
"Haruki Hyuga, Obito Uchiha, you two have been chosen to compete in the first fight, any objections?" they both shook their heads.
"It's time for the first battle to begin, everyone other than the participants should be up there watching."
"Sensei!"
Minato was also here and so was some other Jonins.
"Alright, you may begin!"
Obito weaved hand signs.
"Fire style: Fireball jutsu!" he shot out a large fireball.
"What an idiot, that basic move won't work against Haruki, you might as well say goodbye to your teammate," Tazumi said.
Ryuu nodded.
"I know, but you should also know that Obito is just testing out his abilities, do you think he would just attack like that? To me, it sounds like you're the idiot here, Tazumi."
"..." he was speechless.
"Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation!" he started spinning, and it blocked the fireball.
Ryuu widened his eyes.
"That's the-"
"Yup, even though he's not from the main branch of the Hyuga Haruki learned their secret jutsu by watching them, and he has almost perfected it, he can only use it 3 times but unlike your teammate, Haruki is a genius he'll make a plan.
I remember Obito, the useless Uchiha from the academy, he isn't nearly strong enough to beat Haruki."
Ryuu clenched his fist
"If you judge Obitos' ability based on what you saw in the academy, you're in for a surprise."
Obito was in a taijutsu fight with Haruki he used basic gentle fist
"I can't get into a close fight with him, he's doing something weird to my chakra, I can feel it." Obito backed away.
"You're not as bad as they say you are, you even sensed what I'm doing to your chakra points by pure instinct, but now what are you going to do? You have no ranged attacks and if you move any closer ill just end this fight quickly with my gentle fist."
Obito was panting and had blood in his mouth.
"Huugh!" he threw up all the blood then he wiped it off.
"As long as I have air in my lungs and a beating heart, I won't give up, especially now! I've come too far."
"Fire style: dragon flame jutsu!" he shot out two dragons from his mouth.
Haruki entered the gentle fist stance.
"Eight Trigrams: Palm Rotation!" he deflected the dragons
"What's the point of shooting another jutsu at me? It was only going to fail like your previous attempts, just give up!"
Ryuu smiled.
"This match is over," Ryuu said with a smile on his face.
"What do you mean?" Tazumi asked.
Ryuu pointed at Obito
*Poof*
Obito appeared behind Hiroku, he threw multiple shurikens at him.
"Shuriken Shadow clone jutsu!"
"Shadow clone jutsu!"
Obito made two clones.
Hiroku tried turning but got stopped, the other Obito grabbed his legs and arms.
"Arghh!"
He got hit with multiple shurikens.
"But how?"
He asked as he fell.
Obito smiled and said, "You shouldn't have underestimated me! I'm far more powerful than how I was back then."
They carried away Hiroku on a stretcher
"It's obvious who the winner is in this match, Obito Uchiha!"
"Good job Obito!"
Ryuu welcomed him back, he was so exhausted that he could barely walk properly.
"Thanks, I told you I won't stop until I beat Kakashi, no, until I beat both of you and prove that I'm the greatest between us!"
Ryuu widened his eyes but started smiling.
"I don't expect any less, but the best from you two, so don't disappoint me at all!"
They both nodded.
Inside the arena, there were some medics.
"Obito Uchiha, we have to take you and check to see if you've suffered any severe injuries."
Ryuu shook his head.
"No need, ill take care of him."
They looked at Shikaku, and he nodded, so they left the arena.
The scoreboard started shuffling again.
"Kakashi Hatake Vs Hitoshi Sarutobi!"
"Sarutobi?"
Ryuu looked around.
"That's me!" He jumped from the stands and onto the arena, Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Let's just get this over with." From a cloud of smoke, he appeared in the middle of the arena with his hands in his pocket.
"Show off." Ryuu and Obito glared at him.
"Come on Hitoshi! You can do it!"
Tazumi yelled from the stands.
"Sit down and shut up, there's no way that Hitoshi can defeat Kakashi, he's by far the strongest among us, only second to me, you know."
A tick appeared in his head.
"You aren't that powerful I bet I could beat you with one hand tied behind my back, you bastard!"
Ryuu had a wicked smile.
"Which hand?"
He tilted his head in confusion.
"I mean, which hand should I break when we fight?
His eyes widened.
He folded his fist and glared at me.
"Honestly, it doesn't matter to me, ill break them both when we fight."
The entire room started heating up and not a spark came from Ryuu
"Hmph!" steam came from his nose as he looked back at Kakashi's fight.
"So it's true what they say about him, he's a demon in disguise," Tazumi said to himself, Ryuu could feel his fear and started smiling.
Meanwhile, Kakashi and Hitoshi had begun their fight.
"Fire style Fireball jutsu!"
They both shot out a fireball, it collided in the middle and caused a small explosion.
"Fire affinity, huh? In that case!"
Kakashi rushed forward and engaged in a taijutsu battle
"White light chakra blade!"
He cut his chest and left a big wound.
"Hurgh!" He coughed out blood and held his chest.
"I don't need to go all out here, he might be from the same clan as Hokage-sama but that's it, other than that, he's not on my level, so I just have to finish the fight here."
Hitoshi charged at Kakashi, but that was a bad idea.
"Multi-shadow clone jutsu!" he made four other clones, and they charged back at him.
Kakashi put him in a Genjutsu and his clones held his arms after he dispelled the genjutsu he opened his eyes and Kakashi disappeared into lightning stunning him and causing him to fall on his head, he tried to get up but Kakashi went for the killing blow with his blade.
"Enough!" Shikaku stopped Kakashi by appearing between them.
"You've already won this fight, he can't fight back."
He walked back to us, this fight didn't even faze him in the slightest, but it left Tazumi worried and shocked.
"You don't even have a scratch on you!" Tazumi said.
Kakashi nodded.
"It's what happens when you train with Ryuu, ill be the first to admit that from what I've seen none of us stand a chance against him, he would've dealt with that guy easily, it wouldn't be fair, the best either of us can do is make Ryuu hit the ground."
Tazumi's eyes widened.
"Could he be that powerful?"