Chapter 65: Chapter no.64
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Naruto was brought out of his memories when the Yondaime Hokage walked onto the stage in front of them.
Naruto and the other twenty four genin that had passed the second stage were currently waiting in a large arena with balconies on both sides to watch from. It was obvious that this is where the preliminaries would be held.
Naruto had long since gotten over his hatred of Minato, but that did not mean he cared for the man. Hatred and jealousy is what drove Otsutsuki Kaguya to try and subjugate the human race. This cycle of hatred ultimately led to her defeat and imprisonment on the moon. Naruto would be damned if he was sealed on the moon. No, he wouldn't come to the same fate as her, so he broke that cycle. As of now he was completely apathetic to the Hokage.
The genin were lined up into eight rows, each row being made of of each particular team. Each of their respective senseis stood on the stage behind the Hokage. Hatake Kakashi, Uzumaki-Namikaze Kushina, Uchiha Obito, Sarutobi Asuma, Yuhi Kurenai, Maito Gai, Baki, Momochi Zabuza, and the Oto jonin who was really Orochimaru in disguise. Each of them there to represent their village and their genin team.
Anko stepped forward to start the proceedings, "Congratulations to all of the teams who have made it passed the second stage of the exams. Though all of you are still far from finished. I suggest that you pay attention to what Hokage-sama is about to say because he will be explaining the beginning of the next test!"
Everyone in the room stood at attention as the Hokage began to walk forward. "Before I start the explanation for the third test there is something that I would like to explain to all of you." The genin were paying close attention to the Hokage's words, partially confused as to what he meant. "Many people believe that these chunin exams are meant to promote friendship between the shinobi nations. Others think that it is meant to showcase our strongest genin. These answers couldn't be farther from the truth."
Many of the genin's eyes widened at the young Hokage's words.
"Many of you don't quite understand what I mean yet, that is understandable. A village's strength is reflected by the strength of its shinobi. These chunin exams are meant to show the other villages and the daimyos how strong the village truly is, to show that your village is stronger than the others. These chunin exams are essentially a replacement for war."
Minato watched as several of the shinobi in front of him began to understand what he meant. He was about to introduce the next part of the exams, but a jonin who was once a part of his personal guard appeared before him. The man wore the standard attire for a jonin, but wore his hitai-ate backwards and in a bandanna-like fashion. His most noticeable trait was the senbon sticking out of his mouth.
"Hokage-sama, as I am the proctor for this stage of the exams would you mind if I explained this part to the genin?"
Minato nodded and stepped back to stand along side the jonin-senseis. The jonin stood up and turned around to face the examinees. "Welcome to the first part of the third stage of the chunin exams. My name is Shiranui Genma and I will be the proctor for this stage." The now named Genma spoke. "Usually we would move straight onto the third stage, but it seems that either this batch of genin is quite skilled or the first and second stages of the exam were too easy. As of now there are too many chunin candidates and having all of you in the third stage would take far too long. Therefore we will be holding preliminary matches right now."
This seemed to get reactions out of several genin in the crowd. "Wait! Why do we have to have preliminaries? Why can't we all just participate in the third exam!" Ino yelled at the proctor.
"The exams this year were too easy, and I can tell that some of you only survived because of the rest of your team. There will be many Daimyos and important clients coming to watch the final stage and if everyone was in it then it would just take far too long. These people only want to see the best and these preliminaries will make sure that only the best make it." Genma responded to the genin.
The proctor was greeted with silence, signaling that there would be no other questions so he continued his speech.
"I will explain the rules before we begin any of the matches. I am the proctor and referee therefore you will listen to everything I say. If I command for the match to stop, then you will do so. Failure to follow my orders will result in your immediate disqualification from these exams."
"These fights will be done one on one, so any of you who have been relying on your team get it through your head that they will not come to your rescue. The winner of each fight will progress to the final round. Your opponents will be chosen at random. The match will end when one of you dies, cannot continue, or gives up. If I see that someone is unable to continue I will call the match. Also there is an odd number of you, so the board that makes the selections will either choose that one of you fights twice or that there is a three-way match. Any questions?"
The proctor was met with silence once again, so he took that as everyone understanding the rules and procedures. "If any of you want to withdraw from these exams, this will be your best chance."
Genma saw that none of the genin planned planned to quit decided to begin the preliminaries.
"If you would all look up at the screen on the wall we will see who will be in the first match."
Everyone's heads looked up at the electronic screen as it began randomly running through stared on blankly. He did not care whether he went first or last, he just hoped that he would get someone who wouldn't completely waste his time. If he fought a Konoha genin then he would let them live, if he fought a foreign genin then he would kill them. The screen would decide whether a genin would live or survive. Finally the screen stopped on two names. "Uchiha Satsuki vs. Abumi Zaku"
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