Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 66: Preliminary
When they descended the stairs, the group spotted several of their Jonin senseis and examiners, all standing at the back of the room.
In front of them was none other than the Hokage himself.
In the middle of the room were all the genins who passed the Forest of Death test.
Naruto spotted Sasuke standing at the back and walked toward him.
The black-haired boy gave him a long glance before saying anything.
"So you finally woke up."
"Yes, aren't you glad to see me?" Naruto answered him.
"Hmph…" Sasuke turned around.
Sakura hurried to stand at his side, and the other genins also went to find their teams.
Naruto noticed how damaged Sasuke's clothes were.
Sakura didn't have time to give him all the details about the struggles they had during the past four days, but it was definitely tough for them.
"First off…for the second exam, congratulations on passing!" The Hokage proclaimed loudly.
While their village leader went on with his speech, Naruto took the chance to examine the remaining genins.
All of his academy classmates were here. Plus, Team Nine with TenTen and Rock Lee were present.
He was not surprised to see the three genins from the Sand Village. That redhead boy appeared to be very strong.
There were also three ninjas from the Sound Village, but the one who caught his attention was Kabuto with his two strange teammates.
This person gave him a similar feeling of unease as when he saw that female ninja that turned out to be Orochimaru.
'Could he also be an impostor?...' If there was one, there could be two.
However, this was not a foreign ninja. This one was from his own village and was said to have participated in the exam six other times.
If he was some impostor, he would have been caught already.
"Lord Hokage will now explain the third test! Pay attention!" The examiner called Anko announced loudly.
"Yes, thank you. Now…as many of you may already know, the third part of the Chunin exams is always an individual tournament. You have already proven your ability to gather information and to work as a team. All that is left is to showcase what you can do in a fight."
"Yeah! Let's go!" Kiba looked very eager.
"Shhhh! Kiba, please…" Hinata looked around nervously.
"But…" The Hokage continued. "Before we get to that, I'm afraid there is something else you must accomplish."
"Wait, I thought we already passed," Sakura said.
"Allow me to explain…you have passed the second part, but the final test will take place in front of a large audience. Among these spectators, there will be many important and influential figures like the Imperial Family, as well as Kages from other villages. If we allowed all twenty-one of you to participate together, it would take too much time. So we will be reducing the numbers with a preliminary test, which will take place right here, right now."
"Now?"
"A preliminary?..."
One of the jonins approached the Hokage to whisper something, and the Hokage nodded.
"This person here is Gekkou Hayate… he will be the referee for this test. I will leave him to explain the rest." The old Hokage took a step back and let the Jonin take over.
"Thank you, cough cough…Lord Hokage." Hayate turned to look at the genins after coughing a few times.
The jonin had dark circles around his eyes and appeared to be in terrible condition.
"As you have heard, we are…cough…we are going to have a quick preliminary. Like the final test, this will be an individual tournament where you…cough…you will have to fight an opponent chosen at random. If you are not feeling well enough for the task, this is the moment to say something or raise your hand…cough."
"Is he okay?" Ino asked.
"He looks like he is going to drop dead at any minute…" Kiba commented.
No one expected to see one of them give up after getting this far.
But much to their surprise, Kabuto raised his hand.
"Excuse me, but I think I'm going to quit," he said while scratching his head.
Naruto narrowed his eyes.
'He's quitting now?...' He didn't seem injured, and even if he was a bit tired, that was no reason to quit. After all, everyone was in the same condition.
This was very suspicious. It was like he didn't want to show his true skills in public.
"Mmm….let's see…" The referee, Hayate, glanced at the papers in his hand.
"You are…cough…Yakushi Kabuto from the Leaf, right?...very well, you may leave."
After writing something, he glanced back at the group.
"Anyone else?..."
He waited for a few more seconds, but no one else was willing to quit.
"Fine then….I cough…I guess this is good. Now you are exactly twenty. One round should be enough." Hayate glanced up at a wall. A wooden board moved aside, revealing a screen.
"As I said already, we are going to do a series of one-on-one fights. When you see your name up there on the screen, you will walk to the center of this room. The rest will wait upstairs. As for the….cough…cough…cough…"
"Ehm…Sensei? Are you okay?" Sakura asked with a worried expression on her face.
Hayate brushed her off. "I'm fine…now, as for the rules…there are basically none. The fight will continue until one of you gets knocked out, surrenders, or dies…whatever happens first. However…cough…if I decide that the winner is clear, I will stop the fight, since we want to avoid pointless deaths when possible."
He glanced at the screen. "Now…cough…let's see the first match."
As he said that, the screen began to go through all the names one after another until it finally stopped. One name was shown on each side.
"Uchiha Sasuke vs. Misumi Tsurugi!"
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