Chapter 57 - Chuunin Exams Second Phase [4]

Time passed as more and more teams entered the Tower, the fastest being the Sand Trio, that came after just an hour passed, the rest took a long time and quickly, the time limit came.

'Finally, I was dying form boredness...' The Teams that first arrived thought in sync.

Suddenly, a voice reverberated through the entire floor they were ''Everyone, gather in the Main Field, more instructions will be given there.''

Nodding, they all went to the Main Field, a place that was surrounded by a small floor, probably a place where they could spectate, some of them guessed it would be something related to battle or maybe nothing would happen.

In front of them stood a few Jounins and Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage. One of the Jounins said ''Hokage-sama, if possible, let me... cough... explain.''

'Is he okay?' Sakura thought strangely as the Jounin received permission, then, he said while coughing at some parts ''Hello, everyone. Originally, we... cough... wouldn't do this, however, there are still 25 left, this is too much, cough, as such, we will do an extra phase, the Preliminary Phase, there will have one battle to halve the numbers.''

Without waiting, he continued ''If any of you... cough... feel like giving up, this is the time, the Second Phase was... cough... exhausting so you'll be allowed to give up, I'm Hayate Gekko, your proctor for this phase.''

''We won't be allowed to rest?'' A member from Hensuke's team as they passed the second round, said with some doubt, Hayate nodded ''You won't.''

A few moments of silence passed before someone raised his hands, it was Kabuto, that said before slowly walking away ''I don't think I'll be able to participate anymore, I'm giving up.''

With Kabuto giving up, the original number of 25 Genins went to 24 Genins, meaning the third and last Phase will have 12 members.

''Since no one is giving up too, we will start the first round without delay, everyone, go upstairs to observe it and only come down if your name is called.'' Hayate Gekko said as all of them went upstairs, observing the field from above.

''Uchiha Hensuke versus Shino Aburame!'' Hayate said as the duo went down, Naruto didn't really pay attention to this battle but felt slightly amazed by both Shino and Hensuke strength, in the end, the Uchiha won after activating the Sharingan and easily dodging all of the insects sent towards him, Shino fell after being put in a Genjutsu.

Hensuke was announced as the winner and sent a glare towards both Sasuke and Naruto ''It seems Shisui-san cousins are doing well too, Sasuke.'' the blonde teenager commented, Hensuke speed was high just like Shisui, apparently, the latter taught his way of using the Body Flicker Technique to Hensuke 'I wonder if Kinsuke-san improved over these 6 months? It has been some time since we ''practiced' Naruto thought as somewhere, a certain Uchiha suddenly shuddered.

Hayate wasn't one to drag things so he drew the next opponents ''Naruto Uzumaki versus Tenten!'' as he said that, the brown-haired girl sighed and without even going down the stage, she said ''I give up, I'm not his opponent.''

'Why must I go against him? He's just a monster regarding strength!' Tenten thought in annoyance, Naruto also sighed 'I thought I would have a good opponent to ''practice'', how boring...' he thought.

Then, the next few fights were Sakura Haruno versus Ino Yamanaka, which Sakura won easily by flickering behind the blondie and knocking her out, she came out of it with a wide, victorious smile.

After that, it was Zaku Abumi versus Neji Hyuuga, the long-haired Hyuuga won it easily by effectively avoiding all Sound attacks coming towards his direction and then leaving his opponent at near-death by sealing his Chakra Points.

''Nii-san, I'll sleep here, wake me up for any interesting fight, I'm too bored, this level is too low for me to even watch...'' Naruto said lazily before simply laying on the ground and starting to sleep, receiving strange stares from his fellow participants, as for Sasuke and Sakura, they were long accustomed to Naruto's antics.

The next few rounds weren't anything exciting, the ones that passed up to the current time were Uchiha Hensuke, Sakura Haruno, Naruto Uzumaki, Sasuke Uchiha, Haku, Neji Hyuuga, Shikamaru Nara, Temari, Kankuro and Dosu Kinuta, the last fight was going to happen now - Gaara versus Rock Lee.

Without Kakashi needing to wake him up, Naruto woke up by his own and saw who was going to fight and suddenly, he felt something bad was going to happen because Lee was going to fight something like him, a Jinchuuriki, one that was going to kill at any given opportunity, this had a high probability of happening because of Lee's personality that doesn't allow him to give up.

Even if he felt annoyed by Lee some times, in the end, he was still Naruto's friend, as such, the blonde teenager appeared in front of the green-clothed youngster before saying ''Lee, I know of your strength but be warned that if something goes wrong, if you happen to lose, give up immediately. You don't have to prove anything because you've already proven everything, don't forget that you're my eternal rival.''

Lee was moved by Naruto's words ''Don't forget that the youthfulness within your strength isn't just to win or to prove something, you can give up on the fight, get stronger and then beat the hell out of him.''

''UOOOH! Naruto, my eternal rival, you acknowledged me as your eternal rival too!'' Lee shouted as an unnatural amount of tears dripped down his cheeks, however, his face soon became serious as he nodded ''If things go wrong, I'll do as you say, thanks for the warning, my eternal rival! Now, let's beat the opponent with my power of YOUUUUTH!'' he said before going downstairs.

A fight regarding his honor was going to happen, where he was going to prove that someone hard-working could win against a genius, Lee originally didn't plan to give up no matter what, however, the words from his eternal rival reverberated through his mind, shaking his head, Lee's own eyes met Gaara eyes as the fight started!

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