"The upcoming preliminaries will be one-on-one individual battles, conducted as actual combat. There are exactly twenty-six of you, so there will be thirteen matches. The winners may proceed to the third test. There are no rules; the match ends only when one side dies, falls, or surrenders. So if you do not want to die, surrender quickly. However, if I determine that the outcome has already been decided, I will intervene and stop you, to avoid needless deaths."
As he made the announcement, Gekko Hayate did not waste time or let anyone else waste it either. He straightforwardly added the rule he had omitted earlier.
"Tch! So they are still favoring their own side..."
This announcement, however, drew someone's dissatisfaction. From the Kusagakure formation came a complaint that only the Kusagakure people could hear.
The speaker was Hada Ryuhiko.
"If it is a fight to the death with no rules, then there should be no intervention to stop it!"
Hada Ryuhiko spoke with considerable indignation.
In his view, Gekko Hayate's final remark about intervening was undoubtedly favoritism toward Konoha.
First of all, such intervention would be decided entirely by Gekko Hayate's subjective judgment. There were no objective rules, no stipulated circumstances under which he would intervene. It all depended on Gekko Hayate's mood.
In other words, Gekko Hayate could intervene if he felt like it and refrain if he did not. And as a Konoha ninja, even if he was the referee, would he really not intervene if a Konoha ninja was in mortal danger? And given the position of Konoha ninja, would he necessarily intervene if ninjas from other villages were in danger? Clearly, that was favoritism.
If it were fair, there should not be an intervention clause at all. Or there should at least be rules defining under