Tender Sea

Chapter 32

She commanded the room. Whether she knew it or not, in her presence others stood straighter, either voluntarily or subconsciously. He for one took great care in his actions, never doing anything that could harm her reputation, if anything striving to become her pride. His how recently their team was formed, fell under his lead and followed her with ease. Such was their natures.

"First of all, concerning the second test, congratulations on passing!" Anko's voice was loud, her voice carrying over to everyone gathered, less than a they had begun with. The rest of her opening went by him ignored, his attention focused elsewhere. Their Hokage was speaking now, but he was focused on th impressive man.

Blue eyes caught his own and immediately he turned his attention back on the speech, chiding himself for already letting any potentially impo unheeded.

"...This is a replacement for war," He heard their leader explain, "While it is nice to advertise friendship among countries, the Chuunin Exams is merely a way for the allied nations to scout one another. Those watching the Third Exam will be your leaders, officials, and other individuals of influence. It is where you shinobi will risk your lives, for the prestige of your village. Through you, they will determine the strength of your nation. It is a fact that the strength of a country is the strength of its village, and the strength of its village is the strength of its ninja. And that can only be determined when you fight with your lives on the line." Minato smiled, his serious expression dropping in place of a friendlier one.

"That being said, you still have a choice in deciding your future, and may drop out whenever you wish." He liked the looks he saw in the participan them determined and undeterred by his speech. With a wave of his hand the village leader stepped back, in his place the next rounds referee stepped forward the next set of rules.

"Hello everyone," the pale jounin started with a slight cough, "I am Gekko Hayate." Unusually, one of Konoha's renowned tokubetsu jounin, seemed nothi rather sickly man. "I'm sorry to say, but before the actual test there is something I must ask all of you to do," He paused, clearing his throat loudly, test to decide who will get to participate in the third round."

"Preliminary? What do you mean!" There were small shouts of outrage from the students who had been through too much to be denied the opportunity.

"Sensei...I'm a bit confused about this preliminary," Sakura voice rose out of the mumble as she voice her concerns, "Why aren't we all allowed to p next test?"

"Uh...It seems that the first and second test may have been a bit too easy, and thus we have too many people remaining," Indeed they should have prepared something tougher for the extraordinary genins they had been testing, "According to the chuunin exam rules, we must have a preliminary round to reduce the amount of participants for the third test. As the Hokage said earlier, there will be many important guest and the fights may go for quite long. We are pressed for time."

He let out a shaky breath, his tired eyes raking over the potential candidates, "So anyway...those who aren't feeling well...those who feel like quitting after the explanations, come forward now. We will be starting the preliminaries immediately."

It wasn't Akado Yoroi that faced Sasuke, due to his untimely demise, but instead Abumi Zaku. And this time whilst his arms weren't blown up by Shino's bugs, they had been broken brutally by an enraged Sasuke. Whatever the oto-nin had said in that arena had riled the Uchiha up to the point where Orochimaru's taint had begun to leak from her seal.

It was barely noticeable, but still enough for her to pull him aside after the match.

"Sasuke," He stood proud after his victory, walking back steadily without another look at the loser, "You're going to have to miss the rest of the fights."