Sharingan No Naruto

Chapter 8: Battleground

"Are you sure about this?"

"Yes Hokage-sama, 18 participants made it to the tower in time. A preliminary round is advisable."

The Hokage slumped his shoulders in defeat and nodded his head. 5 days had passed since the beginning of this part of the Chunin exams and every team possible had already made its way to the tower, he just wishes not as many would've made it. Holding a preliminary round isn't something he sought to do, especially after what happened in the forest.

On the bright side - for him at least - the feeling of pride he felt for the amount of Konoha Shinobi that had made it to the tower was very rewarding, even more was that three out of the five konoha squads were rookie teams.

"Very well then, have a squad of ANBU collect those who were less fortunate and escort them out of the forest." He looked at his assistant with a stern face and added. "You know what to do about those who didn't make it."

Hiruzen isn't a fan of death, the mere thought of mostly young children - there were some old genins out there, Kami knows Kosuke is still alive only because he's too stubborn to kick the bucket - dying in such an undignified way was sickening to the very least. No matter how hard he tried to preach the use of lethal force only when necessary, there were always those who wouldn't listen and rejoiced in unnecessary bloodshed.

Such is the life of a Shinobi, he supposes.

—

Every arriving team had gathered around the arena in the middle of the tower, the eyes of Teams 7 and 10 set on Team 9 and their as of yet, absent member. None of them had been informed of what had happened with him after their encounter, they actually hadn't been informed about what had happened at all. The secrecy was so great they almost felt like Orochimaru was only a figment of their imaginations.

It definitely wasn't.

When Naruto had approached Kakashi to inquire about Neji's status the only answer he had gotten was 'We dealt with it', not that he knew what dealing with it implied, he guessed it most likely meant Neji's curse mark had been removed in some way. His sensei wasn't very sharing about the details though, the only thing he had gotten out of it was the name of what the treacherous Sannin had done to Neji.

Ten no Juin he called it, Orochimaru's very own Cursed Mark.

Sick bastard.

The Sandaime Hokage made his way to the front of the crowd with the Jounin sensei and a big statue of a hand holding a ram-seal behind. He stood there in front of the gathered Genin looking every bit as powerful as you would expect from a man of his reputation despite his age.

"It is with great honor that I congratulate you all for getting this far in the exams, you have made both your senseis and villages proud." Even though the majority of the Genin were Konoha Shinobi, there were two foreign teams and despite not holding any respect for the powerful man they couldn't help but feel smug at his words.

"I shall now tell you all about what's next to come in the following test but first, I must tell you what the real purpose of the Chunin exams is." Surprised looks could be seen in the faces of most of the gathered Genin, no doubt the ones who didn't look that way had already heard this little speech before.

"Isn't the point of the exams finding who deserves to be promoted, Hokage-sama?" Asked Shikamaru in his ever lazy tone.

"That is true..." The Hokage looked at him and nodded before turning his gaze back to the public, "but there's more to it than just that, the whole truth is that these exams started as a substitute for war."