The Strange Kabuto Yakushi! The Preliminaries Before the Finals

Ino's little scheme was practically written all over her face, and Tenten saw right through it, deliberately teasing, "What? Shinki isn't your boyfriend, so you can't even hold my hand? Besides, Shinki didn't refuse..."

Ino:(●･̆⍛･̆●)

"It just won't work, you're doing this... it's... it's..."

Ino blushed, but ultimately couldn't say anything.

Tenten then gave a mischievous look. "What? Are you jealous? ❛‿˂̵✧"

Ino immediately blushed bright red:(* /ω*)

"I didn't..."

The surrounding crowd. "..."

It's written all over your face, okay?!

Even the oblivious Naruto noticed Ino's unusual feelings for Shinki and nudged Shinki beside him. "Hey, you're pretty popular, aren't you?"

Shinki looked completely bewildered. "(⊙o⊙) Huh?"

Naruto: "..."

Hey! Do you have to be so slow?!

Shinki: "What's so slow? Ino didn't say anything either. (￢‸￢)?"

"Forget it, let's not talk about this anymore." Naruto covered his face.

Sasuke, standing beside him, pointed to the open space in front of the crowd. "Look, the Third Hokage is coming!"

With the appearance of the Third Hokage, all the Examinees ' attention was drawn to him.

"Cough cough!"

After the Third Hokage appeared, he coughed twice to signal everyone to be quiet, and then began to say, "Congratulations to everyone for successfully passing the second round of the Chunin Ninja Exams."

"As you all know, the Chunin Ninja Exams, organized by the various allied nations, are not merely assessments among yourselves; they also represent a contest between nations."

"Therefore, you must all work hard in the upcoming third exam."

"Because behind you stand your respective Ninja Villages, and the abilities you demonstrate will directly determine the missions assigned to each village..."

"Furthermore... the third exam is scheduled for one month from now, and the Daimyo of various countries and the 'Kage' of the Ninja Villages will all be present."

"The third match isn't until a month later, so why have we been called together today?"

Naruto was sitting in the audience, asked a question.

At this moment, the examiner for the third exam appeared. He first bowed to the Hokage, then began to introduce himself, "Hello everyone, I am the person in charge of the third exam of this Chunin Ninja Exams, Gekko Hayate... ahem..."

"The main reason I've gathered everyone here today is to hold the preliminary rounds for the third match."

"As you all just heard, the Lord Hokage said that many important figures will be attending the third exam, which will be held in a month, so we must strictly control the time."

"Because the first and second rounds of the Chunin Ninja Exams were too easy, too many people passed. Therefore, we need to hold a preliminary selection to choose half of you from these twenty-odd people to participate in the third round of the exam."

"The preliminary rounds are simple. We'll draw lots to pair you up for head-to-head matches, and the winners will advance to the next round."

"Because the standard for determining victory or defeat is the death or surrender of one side, there is a high possibility of injury or death during the exam. Anyone who wants to withdraw from the exam can raise their hand."

After listening to the words of the chief examiner for the third exam, Gekko Hayate, everyone looked at each other in bewilderment.

Finally, one of the Ninjas raised his hand. "I forfeit this exam!"

Shinki turned around and looked at where the person had been, and found that it was a Konoha Ninja.

His name was Kabuto Yakushi, I think. Before the first exam, Naruto and Sasuke learned about the composition of the Examinees from him.

Amidst the puzzled expressions of the other Examinees, Kabuto Yakushi his glasses and explained his withdrawal, "Having just gone through a difficult Second Exam, my Chakra supply won't be enough for the preliminary rounds now."

Everyone nodded in agreement.

Many of those taking this exam had just survived the arduous journey through the Forest of Death, leaving them with very little physical strength and Chakra.

Participating in the preliminaries under these circumstances and engaging in a life-or-death struggle with other Ninjas would be extremely unwise, so giving up is understandable.

However, Kabuto Yakushi, who has a keen sense of Shinki, noticed that something was wrong with Chakra Yakushi.

This person clearly has an abundance of Chakra!

Why withdraw from the competition for this reason?

Although he had doubts, Shinki did not ask.

Maybe this person was afraid of danger and chickened out.

After Kabuto Yakushi announced his withdrawal from the competition, the examiner for the third exam, Gekko Hayate, asked him twice more.

After confirming that no one else wanted to withdraw, Gekko Hayate took out a fortune-telling container.

"The qualifiers will no longer be fought in groups, meaning that each of you could potentially draw your own group members during the draw."

Before the draw, Gekko Hayate added a sentence.

After hearing Gekko Hayate's explanation, Naruto visibly became excited. "That means I can finally have a good match with Shinki or Sasuke! ୧⍢⃝୨"

"Idiot, why are you so agitated? You don't actually think you can win just because you're facing the two of us, do you?!"

Sasuke said, somewhat annoyed.

"No, I just want to have a good fight with you all."

Naruto swung his fist.

The draw begins.

Shinki lit a cigarette, glanced at the contents of his fortune slip, and saw two characters clearly written on it, "Tianyi" (天一).

Sasuke and Naruto, who were beside him, drew "Earth Five" and "Heaven Nine" respectively.

Shinki realized that there were two types of divination sticks in the bucket: Heaven and Earth. Heaven and Earth were paired up for a duel, and the numbers on them, such as one, two, three, etc., indicated the order of appearance.

After everyone had drawn their bamboo slips, Gekko Hayate began to introduce the exam content, which, as Shinki had predicted, was a duel between heaven and earth with the same number.

In other words, Shinki was the first to appear in the "Heaven" category, and his opponent was the person holding the "Earth" sign.

Shinki's gaze swept across the crowd, wondering who would be the 'lucky one' to fight against him.

"Everyone, follow me to the Konoha Training Ground 22."

Then, Gekko Hayate waved his hand, leading everyone to the Training Ground.

Konoha Training Ground 22.

This Training Ground is somewhat similar to the playground where Shinki went to elementary school, with spectator stands on both sides and the place in the middle where Ninjas fight.

Gekko Hayate stood in the center of the Training Ground and shouted, "Contestants wielding 'Heaven One' and 'Earth One', please come forward! Let the match begin!"

Upon hearing Gekko Hayate call his number, Shinki eagerly headed to the Training Ground.

"I wonder which unlucky soul ran into the Shinki."

In the stands, Naruto said to Sasuke beside him with a smug look on his face.

Sasuke's eyes swept across the entire arena. He also wanted to know who was so 'lucky' to be the first to appear and even encounter Shinki.

Just then, a man in black carrying a puppet slowly walked onto the Training Ground.

It's Kankuro, the Puppeteer from the Sand Ninja!

Kankuro stared coldly at the Shinki, declaring with unwavering resolve, "This time, I will absolutely not hold back!"