Chapter 66: Preliminary

Chapter 66: Preliminary

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: PreliminaryFindd new stories at novelhall.com

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.

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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