Beetle In The Shadow (A Shino Aburame love story)

Fight!

"This is a custom in which balance is preserved by fighting and dying. In the world of the Shinobi, that it is friendship. The third exam is a fight for the life with the pride of your village and your own dreams are at stake." The Third explained.

"Hm, he sure sold me!" Naruto said, nodding his head slowly.

"Any test is fine, just tell me what the details of the exams are already. I can handle anything you throw at me." I heard one of the Sand shinobi, Gaara, say.

"Well then listen up because I am going to explain to you extactly what you will be doing in the third exam." He paused, and coughed into his hand.

"Lord Hokage, before you do, please allow me, Hayate Gekko to speak first." A man said as he bowed down in front of the Hokage. I tilted my head to the side in confusion, not aware of who he was.

"So be it." Sarutobi said, and the strange man turned towards us.

"There is something that I would like all you-" He coughed loudly, making me wonder if he was sick. "-To do before the third exam. Uh, we have to have preliminary before we can move on to the first one." Hayate explained.

My eyes widened in shock, but I didn't yell out, unlike my usually calm brother."Preliminary?! What do you mean by that?" He shouted. He wasn't next to me, but I couldn't help but feel the urge to comfort him. Shikamaru hardly ever shouted out like that, so the worry I felt for my brother was huge.

"Um, excuse me, Sensei, but I really don't see the point, what is this preliminary all about? Why can't we just go on to the third exam?" Sakura asked, and a few people nodded in agreement from around us. I bit my lip, wondering the same thing before I looked around at all the contestants left. 'There must be too many of us...' I thought to myself.

"Well, uh, you see, the first and second exams might have been too easy, the fact is that we never expected this many of you to pass, the rules of the Chunin Exams states that a preliminary round can be held at any point to cut back the number of candidates remaining." Hayate looked slightly uncomfortable, clearing his throat slightly.

"But, uh! Is that fair?" Sakura asked, and I glanced over at her. I shook my head, no, it wasn't exactly fair, but it was necessary. I glanced over at my teammates. We weren't in terrible condition because we had gotten the scroll right away. It was pure luck really, that the fool had decided to fight us alone.

"It's just that at this stage, we have to speed things up a bit. As Lord Hokage said, a lot of important people will be watching, and we cannot afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best, so if any of who feel that you are not in top physical condition." Hayate coughed, and even though he was a stranger, I felt a twinge of concern for him. "Sorry about that, as I was saying, any of you who do not feel up to this, now is your time to bow out." He finished his speech and a sense of determination came over me.I wouldn't bow out. I would fight and make my father proud. I would make it past the preliminaries.

My mind was focused on winning. I just wanted to make my father proud. Proud of the little girl who would run in her room and cry when he yelled at her. Proud of the Genin who had stopped crying. Proud of his daughter, the girl who he had always pushed to the side. I looked over at my teammates and smiled reassuringly at them. I knew that logically, the chances of all of us passing are slim, but that didn't stop me from believing. "The prelimaries will begin right now." The proctor said, and I looked at Kiba, seeing him stare ahead with a look that could only be defined as pure determination.

"We just got done barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break?" I heard Ino say. We used to be childhood friends. Well, really, I used to do whatever Shikamaru did, convinced that maybe it would make my dad happy. I tried to hang out with her, but even though she wasn't really that bad, the fact that she constantly would gush about Sasuke made us grow apart.