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As they were speaking about tales of Orochimaru, at the other side, Tatsumo explained why there are preliminaries before the third round.
Tatsumo: "As there are many participants, I need to make sure you people are around 10 for the main round. So there are gonna be one-on-one matches before I get 10 participants. Is there anyone who wants to give up on the Chunin Exam? I promise no one will judge you. Life is more precious than some stupid exam."
Sandaime, hearing this, coughed. But as he coughed, he saw Ikki wanting to raise his hand before he could speak.
Tatsumo: "Every one of you can give up if you don't have confidence — of course, except Ikki. I won't allow him."
Hearing this, Sandaime took a sigh of relief. Ikki looked downcast.
Chikako: "Give up."
Hinari: "Yeah, seriously."
Ikki: "But I always only wanted to be Genin."
Everyone looked at him like he was crazy.
Ikki: "Heh, you all don't know how crazy Konoha Genins are!"
Hearing this, Sandaime and Guy smiled. Guy knowing his father, and Sandaime knowing Eternal Genin Yusuke-san. [I respect the guy].
Tatsumo: "Any takers of the offer?"
As soon as Tatsumo completed this sentence, Kabuto raised his hand. After this, banter between Naruto and Kabuto happened. As soon as Kabuto raised his hand, more people raised their hands. After 5 minutes, only 25 people remained. Tatsumo looked at Sandaime, and Sandaime nodded.
Tatsumo: "Okay, I will now explain the rules of the preliminaries. There are gonna be one-on-one matches. You will be paired up with other participants. You can use any jutsu you want. Go with the intent of killing. Go full force, but as soon as I see a difficult situation, I will intervene. I guarantee you, I won't allow you to get killed or maimed."
Everyone nodded hearing this.
Tatsumo: "Ikki will have one extra match than others, as we have an odd number."
Ikki: "Ehh, why are you targeting me?"
Tatsumo: "It's Sandaime's decision."
Sandaime: [When did I say this?] Still, he nodded at this.
Tatsumo: "Okay, first match between Ikki of Konoha vs. Santetsu Aoki of Sound. Participants stay, others in balcony."
Ikki: [Are they weeding out other villages?]
After 5 minutes, all the participants except Ikki and Aoki took the podium. All Jonins also. In the arena, only Ikki and Aoki stayed.
Aoki: "You are quite a big shot, aren't you? But I will make sure I will grovel you under my feet."
Ikki: "Okay, best of luck." Ikki said this with a smile.
Aoki, seeing Ikki's nonchalant attitude, got angry. He started to weave hand signs.
Aoki: "Fire Style: Fireball Jutsu."
Ikki brought out Bokuto from his ring and slashed the fireball in half.
Ikki: "You know, our proctor didn't say 'start' yet, and I thought you were from the Sound Village — at least start with sound-related attacks."
Aoki got angrier and started throwing shuriken's at Ikki's vital points. But having Bokuto in his hand, he didn't even need to dodge — just 3 strikes and all shuriken's were down. But this was a feint — the original attack was coming from Ikki's left side. Kunai in hand, Aoki proceeded to strike at Ikki's head like a jab.
Ikki: "Okay, this is getting boring." Saying this, Ikki used Silent Steps and moved to the right side of Aoki. Ikki put away the Bokuto and started an uppercut at Aoki's jaw — and game over.
Seeing the knocked-out Aoki:
Tatsumo: "Winner: Ikki. Now we will start preliminaries. First match of preliminaries: Yoroi Akadou and Sasuke Uchiha."
Ikki: "Ehh, didn't I move to the next round?"
Tatsumo: "Your match was the preliminary of preliminaries. If you didn't win, you would have been banned from participating eternally from the Chunin Exam."
Ikki: "Why do I feel like I'm being treated like trash?"
Chikako: [Loudly from stands] "Give up, trash. Come to the stands already."
Ikki started to go up to the stands with dejected shoulders. Even this comedic banter didn't faze the Jonins. They knew what the true message hidden behind this first match was:
"Tell your Genins to give up if they face Ikki."
The whole battle didn't even take a minute.
Next matches happened normally.
First match: Sasuke Uchiha vs. Yoroi Akadou. Even if I say it's normal, there was nothing normal about it. Sasuke Uchiha, who was infected with the curse mark, was able to defeat Yoroi Akadou even though he couldn't use any chakra. Yoroi Akadou, being a Konoha Ninja, still listened to Orochimaru's order and tried to force Sasuke Uchiha to use chakra. But Sasuke Uchiha, even though Yoroi was draining his chakra with touch, was inspired by Rock Lee's moves and defeated him. After the whole match, Tatsumo announced Sasuke as the winner. But as the medic ninja came to heal Sasuke, Kakashi entered and took Sasuke away for the curse mark seal.
Seeing this whole ordeal, Ikki turned to Hinari and Chikako. Seeing Ikki's expression, they thought he was going to say something sensible for the first time.
Ikki: "You two, wake me up when my match comes. I am going to sleep."
Saying this, Ikki found a corner, brought out a sleeping bag from his ring, and started to sleep. Chikako and Hinari gave up after 10 seconds — in which they just registered what happened. Around them, all ninjas watching got stunned. What kind of attitude is this?
Hinari: "He is starting to get arrogant."
Chikako: "I don't think so. This is all getting too normal for him. Ikki is all things, but arrogant he is not. I think he basically knows what his limits are. The way he trains — that is not an arrogant person."
Next match: Shino Aburame vs. Zaku Abumi of Sound.
Nothing new. For the first time, everyone knew — silent people can be scary.
Third match: Kankuro vs. Misumi Tsurugi. Puppet master vs. water-style ninja. Of course, Kankuro won. Puppet masters have quite a big advantage until they are found.
Fourth match: Sakura Haruno vs. Ino Yamanaka (Cat fight for getting male).
The match should have been a draw, as per the original timeline. In the original timeline, Sakura was just cannon fodder until she got trained by Tsunade. But in this timeline, Sakura Haruno was inspired by Ikki himself in chakra control. To gain an advantage, she trained like crazy in chakra control — of course, playing with chakra screws. In this duration, since Ikki met Team 7 in the training ground, Sakura had reached level 5 in chakra control. Sakura won this match.
Chikako: "She is already at my level in chakra control."
Hinari: "You should practice hard."
Chikako: "Yes."
Fifth match: Temari vs. Tenten. Tenten won. One-sided defeat of Temari. Chinese girl clobbered.
Sixth match: Shikamaru Nara vs. Kin Tsuchi. Shikamaru won. As per IQ, he better should.
Hinari: "He is lazier than you."
Chikako: "That is the problem in Nara. The higher the IQ, the lazier we are."
Hinari: "You should bring him in our practice. I will personally train him."
Shikamaru, who just returned to the position where his team was, shuddered.
Shikamaru: "I have a bad feeling."
Seventh match: Naruto Uzumaki vs. Kiba Inuzuka.
As per the original timeline, Naruto won. Naruto, being the same Naruto as the original timeline, won with a fart. How crazy the world is, isn't it? For one person's fart, another person's nose got injured.
Ikki: "Naruto is such a fool."
Chikako: "You woke up."
Ikki: "Couldn't sleep with this much noise. When he faced me, he applied the strategy of keep on sending shadow clones — but now he is brawling. How dumb one can be?"
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