The third stage of the Chunin Ninja Exams included a preliminary round.
Ten of the twenty-one contestants would be selected to compete in the actual tournament.
Reaching this stage meant they could no longer rely on teammates. Becoming a Chunin depended entirely on their own performance.
Before the matches began, the examiner, Gekko Hayate, announced that one Rain Ninja had yet to recover from serious injuries, so only twenty people would participate in the preliminaries.
Naruto's opponent was that Rain Ninja's teammate.
Naruto and the others had practically forced a Heaven Scroll into their hands and dumped them inside the Tower.
Their individual abilities were nothing special, though the three of them could work together to cast a wide-area Cursed Rain Technique that weakened their enemies. That, at least, had some merit.
Whether it had been arranged deliberately was anyone's guess.
Hinata's opponent was still Neji.
Neji clenched his fists, then relaxed them.
To think I'd be facing Hinata already, in the Chunin Ninja Exams preliminaries.
Walking into the arena and watching Hinata approach him, Neji felt a jumble of emotions.
He remembered how genuinely happy he had been as a little boy when his father, Hizashi, had told him in a rare, lighthearted tone that a daughter had been born to the Main Family, and he now had a younger cousin.
Even later, when the "Caged Bird Seal," the Cursed Seal symbolizing the Branch Family's shackles and sacrifice, had been branded onto his forehead, that happiness had never completely faded.
His father had stroked his head, his voice heavy but firm. "Neji, this mark also means responsibility. You must become strong and protect the Main Family. Protect... Hinata."
Back then, he had thought it made no difference whether he had the Caged Bird Seal.
Even without it, he would