Naruto and Sasuke were soon led by Kakashi into the waiting rooms behind the inner walls on either side of the arena.
A long corridor stretched before them, with a door every few paces. The doors were numbered from 1 to 25, followed by each contestant's ranking.
Sasuke glanced at the room ranked first. The name "Uchiha Hikari" was written prominently on it.
Sasuke secretly prayed to himself.
Please don't match me against Sister Xiaoguang. If I get matched against her, I might as well surrender. Seven days of hellish training had made him realize the gap between them.
Even without using Chakra, Hikari could still utterly crush him with nothing but the Puppet Shuriken Technique and taijutsu.
Her monstrous physical abilities and tricky combat instincts made him wonder just how many life-or-death battles she had endured. How could someone be this absurd?
Kakashi stood at the entrance to the corridor and looked at Naruto and Sasuke.
"Naruto, Sasuke, these are the contestants' waiting rooms. You remember your rankings, right?"
"Go on. Good luck!"
Having rarely shown such enthusiasm, he gave the two of them a thumbs-up.
Naruto and Sasuke looked back at Kakashi's encouragement, then continued forward. Each raised a fist high into the air—Naruto with his right hand, Sasuke with his left.
"Osu!"
Only after watching Sasuke and Naruto enter waiting rooms No. 8 and No. 12 respectively did Kakashi turn to look beside him.
"Say, could you stop staring at me like that? Today isn't a day for sparring."
"You said we'd rest during the Chunin Exams. Don't forget that."
The man beside him stepped out from the shadows beneath the stairs. The first thing revealed was his neatly trimmed bowl cut and thick, bushy eyebrows. His determined gaze was like that of a beast, and beneath