[Wednesday's Chapter]
The following day arrived, marking the end of the first phase of the Chunin Exams. All the thirty genin teams, along with the additional four teams that joined them, gathered in the central area of the tower.
The atmosphere was a mix of relief, anticipation, and the lingering tension of the upcoming phases.
Hiro glanced around, sizing up the other teams that had successfully completed the First phase of the exam.
"Over thirty teams finished the first phase. The fact that we are that many means that they are strong genins taking the exam," he commented, his eyes scanning the group.
'Us coming last might actually be a good thing, people may see us as pushovers in the next phase.' Renjiro thought.
Aiko nodded, acknowledging the feat of the other genins. "Surviving that forest is no small achievement but it's still good to see more teams make it through."
Renjiro chimed in, "I wonder what the next phase is going to be. How are these exams usually held?"
Renjiro asked because he realised that leaving things to his assumptions might not be the best thing to do. There was already one change that he did not anticipate, so there was bound to be more.
"Don't you live in the Uchiha clan? How do you not know about this?"
"I only came to the village around four years ago Hiro, knowing this was not one of my priorities when I arrived here."
'I almost forgot.' Hiro lamented and he tried his best not to make the situation more awkward.
"Uhm... They usually have two phases, the first one in the forest of death, and the other one in front of the village."
They were all fully aware of the circumstances that led to Renjiro coming to Konoha, but the way Renjiro carried himself made them forget he had such a past.
Hiro, Aiko and a majority of their former academy classmates empathized with Renjiro since a majority of them had either lost a parent or two due to the wars that happened between the major shinobi villages.
"So after this, we will have to fight in front of the village?" Aiko asked, this was also her first exposure to the competition besides watching from the stands.
"Yes, then most of the winners will be promoted to the chunin rank," Hiro answered.
'I probably should have researched on this. Right now nothing is assured because the future could also change because of my involvement. But with that said, I should have a week before participating in the fights. This should be enough for my training arc... right?'
As they exchanged thoughts and speculations, other teams also engaged in similar conversations, sharing stories of their experiences for the next phase of the exam.
In the midst of these discussions, Taki appeared, garnering the attention of the gathered genins. The man's authoritative presence hushed all the present genins.
"Listen up, everyone," Taki's voice resonated through the grounds.
"Congratulations on making it through the Forest of Death. However, the journey doesn't end here. The next phase awaits, but we need to narrow down our participants."
The eyes focused on him, with the genins awaiting further instructions.
"In three days, the preliminaries for the next phase will be held at ground 7," Taki announced.
"Given the number of teams, which is thirty-four, we have about a hundred participants. The preliminaries are mandatory; they serve to sift through the candidates and select the top 32 genins who will advance to the next phase."
'Now this is more familiar, maybe it might not exactly be as Hiro mentioned.'
Renjiro thought as murmurs rippled through the genins. It was clear that they were surprised by the change in the normal schedule of the exams.
Some were displeased because the 'sifting' that Taki mentioned only meant one thing. More battles. On the other hand, a particular group, Renjiro included, was ecstatic because of this development.
The competition was about to intensify, and they needed to do their best to secure a spot among the top contenders. Taki's stern gaze swept across the assembly,
"Be prepared. The preliminaries will test not only your combat skills but also your strategy, adaptability, and decision-making under pressure. It's your chance to prove that you have what it takes to advance further."
With those words, Taki Shimura signalled the end of their current respite and the genin dispersed, all of them heading to their homes. Yes, meditation was great, but Renjiro craved sleep more than anything after the week he had had.
"What should I do? Three days is actually a lot of time when you think about it, actually make that two and half days since I almost slept for half a day."
After racking his head for a while, Renjiro finally got a light bulb moment.
"I could actually try that," He nodded.
His plan for the next few days majorly involved one thing. It was watching. Renjiro planned on visiting the clan training grounds and just watching people who trained there, but more on that later.
Similarly, countless genins who were participating in the exams put the final touches to their preparations as time matched onward unforgivingly. Soon, it was the day when the Preliminaries would start.
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"Uzumaki Renjiro!"
Renjiro stepped forward as soon as he had his name being called. He had been waiting for far too long. The chunins overseeing this phase of the exam had been calling everyone upfront in alphabetic order.
With both his initials being on the latter end of the scale, it was understandable they would take a long time to get to him.
"You know the instruction, pick three numbers from the bag and return to your position." said a chunin.
Renjiro rightfully did so, and after a mild shuffle of the said bag, he got three papers from the bag.
"You may return," the chuunin handling things ordered.
This was the first thing they did after arriving in Training Ground Seven. The genins were informed that they would participate in three battles and their results would determine whether they make it to the next stage.
To even qualify in the run for the top thirty-two Candidates, they had to at least win two of their three matches.
Afterwards, both their performances from the Forest of Death and the preliminaries would be considered in ranking them.
This meant that for any of the genins from team 15 to even have a shot at becoming chunins, they had to have a stellar performance during the preliminaries.
Their result in the forest of death was not that bad, but it was not to the standards Riku had set for his team.
Renjiro checked the papers he had got, and the numbers on them were 99, 45 and 27. The papers were clearly labelled, so Renjiro had no problems in knowing the order of the numbers.
'99 is first, so that means that I'll be in the first batch of people fighting. The other numbers are 45 and 27, so I'll have a relative break to rest, not that I am planning on breaking any sweat.'
Since there were thirty-four teams, that meant that they were a hundred and two genins fighting today. The numbers they fought not only decided when they would fight but also who they would fight.
The genin who picked number 1 would fight number 102 and so on. This meant that Renjiro would fight numbers 4, 58 and 76 for the first, second and third rounds respectively.
With a total of a hundred and fifty-three battles scheduled to happen, they prepared seventeen fighting spaces for the genins meaning that each round had three batches fighting.
Renjiro quickly located his fighting space and was surprised by who he was fighting.
'Hmm?... Her again?'
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