Preliminaries Concluded

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For a long while afterward, no one watching this final preliminary match could calm their hearts.

As for why...

Whoosh—the Gentle Fist palm strike came at him, but Naruto easily dodged it.

"Hinata, you're too nervous!" Naruto said unhappily.

"But there are so many people watching..." Hinata withdrew her palm, looking aggrieved.

How could that be her fault? If it had been any other opponent—even her cousin Neji, whom she was somewhat afraid of—she would not have been this nervous...

With her Byakugan activated and its 360-degree vision, she could instead see the speechless looks on everyone's faces all around her even more clearly.

Anyone could already tell that Hinata was absolutely no match for Naruto. Yet these two... both looked terribly serious about it.

Naruto lectured her, "This is a match. So what if people are watching—" He paused, scratched his cheek, then simply gave up. "So what if people are watching! Can't you just treat it like your usual training?"

So this was how you trained normally... The older bachelors with sharper hearing in the audience—Kakashi, Asuma, Might Guy, Tsunade, this guy, that guy—all felt waves of resentment rising within them.

The sickly-looking referee, Gekko Hayate, wore a faint smile instead. Seeing Naruto and Hinata exchanging lovey-dovey glances made him involuntarily think of his former close friend, Uzuki Yugao, who was now an ANBU directly under the Hokage...

He wondered how she was doing...

"Hey, Hayate, know when to stop. You're the referee. Focus on your job and stop getting distracted. What you're thinking with that lovesick look is painfully obvious..."

The Konoha jonin familiar with Gekko Hayate all grumbled inwardly. They felt that staying to watch this final match today had truly been a mistake.

Sasuke, meanwhile, merely wore his habitual speechless expression in the stands, because... he was already used to it.

Over there, Hinata and Naruto's "duel" continued...

Naruto was no slouch at taijutsu. Since he often used the Nine-Tails' Chakra, his physical abilities had been gradually strengthened without him even noticing—his strength, neural reactions, bodily coordination, and more.

As a result, Naruto weaved through the palm winds of Hinata's Gentle Fist with ease.

Still, he did not counterattack, naturally because he could not really bring himself to do so... Normally it would have been fine, but with everyone watching, Naruto felt a little awkward...

Of course, that did not stop him from verbally pointing out Hinata's mistakes as she attacked.

He possessed all the memories, training, and combat experience of his seventeen-year-old Future Self. Combined with his own tireless efforts over the years, he absolutely had the confidence and ability to instruct Hinata here.

Hinata was not dissatisfied either. She simply still felt as though thorns were pressing against her back... and so her attacks inevitably became somewhat flustered.

"Ah...!" Hinata cried out. Naruto caught her swinging arm and pulled her along with the motion... Of course, he did not pull her into his arms. Naruto's emotional intelligence was not that high...

Using just the right amount of force, he sent Hinata stumbling past him without making her fall flat on her face. Behind her, Naruto formed hand seals.

Multiple Shadow Clone Technique!

Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof! Poof...

Several dozen Narutos appeared in the arena, surrounding Hinata on all sides.

Hinata jumped in fright and nervously looked at Naruto...s. Even her Byakugan could not distinguish which one was the original.

All the Narutos scratched their heads at once...

"Hinata, let's settle the winner already..." Naruto seemed to have vaguely heard Kiba muttering something in the stands just now.

You should have done that ages ago! The spectators all wanted to bang their heads against the wall.

"Mm... mm!" Hinata nodded nervously.

"Here I come! Aren't you practicing the Protecting Eight Trigrams Palm? Use it!"

The Narutos rushed forward together.

Hinata instinctively did as Naruto said. Chakra automatically flowed through her palms to form the Protecting Eight Trigrams as she struck at the Shadow Clones charging toward her from all directions.

This was a type of Eight Trigrams Palms recorded by the Hyuga Main Family, one that leaned toward defense. There was another offensive palm technique of the Eight Trigrams Domain, but it did not suit Hinata's personality, so she had not learned it.

Naruto's Shadow Clones had no intention of deliberately avoiding Hinata's Protecting Eight Trigrams. Thus, countless clones above, below, left, right, before, and behind her were struck apart, turning into white smoke with a series of poofs.

"Eight Trigrams Palms..." Neji was astonished in the stands. He had not expected a pampered young lady like Hinata to have learned this palm technique as well.

But that only made him more uncomfortable. He had painstakingly researched and developed a set of Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, while Hinata, a young lady with no talent whatsoever, could effortlessly obtain the Eight Trigrams Palms manual simply because she belonged to the Main Family.

It enraged him and reminded him of his father, who had died unjustly.

"What's wrong? Can't keep it up?" Naruto's Shadow Clones were being "fearlessly" beaten into dust while continuing to provoke Hinata. "Your Protecting Eight Trigrams is getting sloppy, Hinata!"

Hinata was embarrassed, angry, and anxious all at once. Gritting her teeth, she desperately pushed the Byakugan's blind-spot-free vision to its limit. The speed and frequency of her palms rose again, almost becoming several afterimages!

"Oh, you've improved, Hinata!"

A chorus of praise rose from the Shadow Clones.

Hinata forcibly stopped herself from narrowing her eyes in a delighted smile. No, no, the little girl warned herself. Naruto-kun is my opponent right now... Be serious. Don't pay attention to him...

Naruto's Shadow Clones charged forward one after another, and before long, only a handful remained... But just then, when Hinata's concentration slackened for a moment, one Naruto held a blue ball of Chakra in his hand and directly saw through the flaw in her Protecting Eight Trigrams at that instant!

The Rasengan stopped before Hinata's chest—no, more than a foot before her chin.

Hinata's pure white eyes looked at Naruto. Her Eight Trigrams Palms had already stopped, and with a series of poofs, all the remaining Naruto Shadow Clones vanished.

"Even when you think it's about to end, you can't let your guard down!" Naruto said with a grin, holding up the Rasengan.

Hinata blushed and nodded sheepishly. "Mm."

The Chakra sphere dispersed, and Naruto lightly tapped Hinata on the head with a hand chop.

"Ah..." Hinata shrank back, covering her head in grievance.

"All right, I win." In high spirits, Naruto turned toward the referee, Gekko Hayate, only to find him looking back with a speechless expression.

"Why isn't anyone saying anything?" Naruto looked around in confusion and found everyone staring at him and Hinata with complicated expressions...

Hinata's face was very red, but under these circumstances, she instead did not dare hide beside Naruto...

With that, all the preliminary matches had concluded.

"Now, we will draw lots for the third stage of the formal exam."

A Konoha chunin carried over a wooden box.

The examinees stepped forward one by one to draw lots and determine their opponents.

The results were quickly compiled on a whiteboard.

First match: Naruto vs. Gaara;

Second match: Sasuke vs. Neji;

Third match: Sakura vs. Kiba;

Fourth match: Shikamaru vs. Temari;

Fifth match: the winner of the fourth match vs. Tenten.

Naruto and Gaara stared at each other from afar, sparks seeming to fly from their gazes.