Reincarnated: A Bunny to A Lion

Fight Club part 1

If you like BNHA check out my ongoing x various reader insert story called Fight or Flight

All of the survivors of the forest of death were standing in lines with their teammates, below where the Hokage and most of the Leaf Village Jonin were stationed. My team, Shika's team, Kiba's team, Neji's team, Gaara's team, Dosu's team, Kabuto's team, and a Hoshigakure team were all in the finals. 

I know about the Hoshigakure team, but only one of the teammates looks relatively strong. He was wild looking and built like a bear. Naruto, Sasuke, and I were holding hands, Sasuke gripping mine in a death grip to ease the pain of his throbbing cruse mark.

 I watched Anko as she eyed Sasuke warily, pouting a bit because nobody listened to taking Sasuke out of the preliminaries. I can't imagine all of the unwanted thoughts and memories of Orochimaru that this situation is bringing back for her. A few of the Genin were fidgeting nervously, others looked eager. 

I didn't miss the fearful glances Ino was giving Naruto, Choji just looked worried. Them being best friends, Shikamaru must have informed Choji, but Choji's heart is so big and loving, I know he harbors no ill feeling towards Naruto, he just doesn't want to fight him.

The Hokage finally stood up, clearing his throat to grab all of our attention. The room went deathly silent and the Hokage gave us all a small smile, congratulating all of us on making it past the second part of the exams. He explained how the point of the exams is to foster friendship between the nations, to balance power by having exams so not everyone can just become Chunin in each village, and to show off the skills of each village by showcasing the talent of the hopeful future Chunin with a Battle Royale. 

In my opinion, its more like a fight club or non-population control version of Hunger Games, presenting the village's best Genin on a silver platte as they fight and eliminate their competition. Finally the master swordsman, Hayate, stepped forward, his eyes sunken in and darkened with sickness. After a coughing fit, he spoke up.

"Uh... We have to have a preliminary exam before we move onto the real one." He scratched his cheek, and coughed again, letting the information sink in. A few of the Genin went pale, Ino especially when she took a glance at Naruto. Gaara let out an intense KI, smirking in excitement, making one of the Hoshigakure Genin blanch and pale significantly.

"What? What do you mean by that?" Shikamaru called out, thoroughly annoyed. Most of the Genin nodded along in agreement, save for my team, the sand team, and the sound team. Zaku was looking a little worse for wear, he was sitting in some kind of wheelchair thingie, it was floating, little sound waves seemed to propel it off the ground. He'd be like Professor X if he was bald and less of a hotheaded douche bag.

"I'm sorry, I just don't understand the point of a preliminary round. Why cant we just move on to the third round?" Sakura said while looking at Sasuke, probably wanting his approval for her success and eagerness to move on. He didn't even spare her a glance. Hayate coughed again, looking slightly annoyed at the questioning.

"Well... you see. The first and second exams might have been too easy. The fact is, we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the Chunin Exams, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining. At this stage, we need to speed things up a bit, as Lord Hokage mentioned, the final round, a lot of important guests will be in attendance. We cant afford to waste their time, they come to only watch the best. Soo" Hayate drawled out. "If any of you feel you're not in top physical condition, now's your chance to leave." He coughed into his sleeve, then looked back, eyes trailing over every one of us. His eyes stopped by Kabuto and the Hoshigakure trio. To my surprise, instead of Kabuto raising his hand, 2 of the Hoshigakure ninjas had their hands raised.