Naruto Namikaze: Konoha's Legacy

Chapter 12: Chunin Exams - Opening Preliminaries!

Chapter 12: Chunin Exams - Opening Preliminaries!

Iruka lead the genin to a large room. Two groups of Suna genin were already there. One group consisted of Gaara, along with his siblings Temari and Kankuro. Naruto remembered them from Kabuto's data cards. He made eye contact with Gaara, who glared at him. Naruto glared right back.

The other Suna group consisted of a teen with spiky black hair wearing a red long sleeved shirt with black pants along with a golden scarf that had deep red ember designs. Beside him was a girl with long black hair wearing a green one piece suit. The last member was a tall boy with sandy brown hair and bandages across his torso. He wore a pair of pants that matched his hair.

"You'll have to wait here until the exams are over, there are rooms down the hall for anyone who needs to sleep." Iruka said before walking off.

The group didn't do much until the second phase of the exams were over. Sasuke and Ino made full recoveries as did the others, but Naruto still had a majority of his chakra sealed.

ALL PARTICIPANTS PLEASE MAKE YOUR WAY TO THE STADIUM! an announcement boomed throughout the tower.

The genin gathered in front of Sarutobi and two jonin. One was sickly and pale while the other had a senbon in his mouth and a cocky grin.

"Congratulations are in order. All of you have passed the second exam." Sarutobi started, "However, not all of you will proceed to the final exam. At least half of you will fail here."

What how come?" Naruto shouted, "We all tried our hardest to get here Jiji!"

"The final exam is a one-on-one tournament in front of the entire village. The rules limit the final tournament to at most 20 competitors and with 33 of you here, we have to cut the numbers down by nearly half. Starting now we will randomly generate matches until each of you has fought once. If you would like to withdraw do it now."

Kabuto raised his hand, "I will withdraw."

"Noted." the Hokage said, waiting a few more seconds before nodding to the sickly looking jonin, "Hayate Gekko will be your proctor."

The jonin nodded, stepping forwards, "I'll ask all of you to step out of the battle ground except those who I call." he said. He clapped his hands and a box appeared. He reached a hand in and pulled out two slips of paper. "First match, Neji Hyuga vs Hinata Hyuga!"

Everyone else left the field to stand on a balcony above the battle ground.

"Hinata you got this!" Naruto shouted.

"Ya go Hina!" Ino shouted.

"Ya Hinata!" Choji shouted, holding his free hand up.

Hinata smiled as her friends cheered for her. She looked towards her cousin and readied herself.

"Lady Hinata, you are destined to lose here." Neji said.

BEGIN

Neji dashed at Hinata, jabbing at her with incredible speed. Hinata smacked away or dodged every blow.

"You've improved." Neji said with distaste as he batted away a jab from Hinata, "BYAKUGAN!" He shouted. Veins popped around his eyes as the color shifted from dull lavender to pure white.

"By.. Byakugan!" Hinata's eyes shifted to the same white as Neji's.

They charged each other again, the speed of their strikes nearly tripled. The sounds of slaps reverberated throughout the arena. Sweat was visible along Hinata's forehead as she blocked or dodged Neji's hits, occasionally retaliating with one of her own.