Naruto: The Toad Sages Apprentice

The Preliminary's

Chapter 9 preliminary's

In the days since Naruto arrived from the tower things had been rather peaceful for the blond, he gave a full report to the Hokage with Anko the day she had left the hospital and after that the only time he had been put on edge was when he felt a large chakra spike from the forest on the third day of the exam.

Other teams started arriving after that and Naruto was happy to see the team 10 and team Gai arrive, for the most part, unharmed.

The days past for the blond relaxing until the final day came and he was asked to come to the ground level for the conclusion of the second round.

Upon entering the hall Naruto was able to discover that all of the other teams had made it from the rookie year with teams 8 and 7 arriving earlier that day but still not showing much in the way of fatigue this was when he became aware of the other people in the room.

On a platform surrounding the hall were the jonnin sensei's of what he assumed were the passing teams while at the front of the hall the Hokage sat with Jiraiya standing beside him, Anko and another sickly looking jonnin were standing in front of the genin awaiting the Hokage to speak

"Well done everyone for making it through the forest of death, but before we continue I would like to tell you about the third exam," the old Hokage said

"In years past the chunin exams was a contest and a fight to the death between the best of the rising talent of every nation and was often used to help settle disputes with other villages, this custom has not changed and the final exam is a tournament that is observed by potential clients and dynamo's from all over the elemental countries" Hiruzen continued

"um I think I can take over from here Hokage-sama," the sickly jonnin said and he stepped forward

"my name is Gekko Hayate and I will be your proctor for the preliminary's" Hayate was cut off by loud complaints from the group of competitors

"what do you mean preliminary's we just got out of the forest" Kiba yelled

"we have far to many competitors at the moment and the preliminary rounds are designed to weed out those who are not worthy of being here or coasted through on your team's strength because whilst strength in a team is important individual skills are needed to become a chunin and to lead missions" the sick jonnin ended with a cough

"now is there anyone who would like to give up for any reason" the proctor stated before once again entering into a coughing fit

Kabuto and Sai both pulled out at this stage "what Sai what give's you can't be in that bad shape right" Sakura asked loudly

"im exhausted Sakura five days in the forest were stressful and im low on chakra it would be unwise for me to compete in any fight's we simply didn't make it here on time I will do better next exam" Sai stated giving the pinkette a blank look

"anybody else" Hayate waited "ok good now the matches will be shown up on the screen everyone else will move up to the viewing area ... now the first match will be... ... Uchiha Sasuke Vs Akado Yoroi" the remaining combatants left the floor to the observation level with only Sasuke and an older leaf genin remaining with Hayate while Anko moved to stand next to the hokage as Jiraiya made his way up to talk to his student and the other jonnin

"so gaki I heard you ran into my snake of a teammate in the forest" the toad sage whispered fo the blond

"yeah he's really creepy I mean I actually thought I killed him as well but he just shed his body for another like he was unaffected I guess I was totally outclassed," Naruto said hanging his head