The chunin Exams! - Part 2

'Alright, hopefully, we arrived at the tower after Gaara's team, they did finish the second part of the exams in under 2 hours in canon, I don't want to deal with Gaara and his obsession to prove his existence... Kishimoto did fuck up some of his characters...'

[Day 87: Only two teams arrived early on the first day, your team and the Kazekage's kids who broke the record for the second part of Konoha's chunin exam. Knowing Gaara's psychopathic tendencies you decided to stay in your room and work on improving your chakra control.]

[Day 89: You spent the last 3 days resting and doing light recon on the teams that arrived, the third team that passed the second part of the exams was Team 8, you looked at Shino and noticed that he didn't seem to be aware of who you were, or at least so it seemed, there was no telling what he was thinking with his eyes hidden by goggles and the high collared jacket hiding his facial expressions. After Team 8 came on the second day, there was a brief period of inactivity before a team was rushed to the medical room on the 4th day.]

'I wonder which team won't make it, Team 7 would probably make it, because they have Kabuto helping them as instructed by Orochimaru. Team 8 followed the destructive wake left by Gaara, plus all three of them are proficient in tracking so their passing was a given. Now, the case of team 9 and 10 was a little trickier, anything could happen actually as my team wasn't there in canon, maybe the scrolls we took would have been the final puzzle one of them needed to pass and now maybe one of them would fail, although chances of team 10 failing are higher because team 9 has Neji...'

[Day 90: The final deadline of the second part of the chunin exams drew close and your team followed a chunin instructor to a hall where the remaining teams were assembled. While the Third Hokage explained the reason for the existence of a joint chunin exam, you scanned the 3 new teams that looked like they arrived just minutes before the deadline. Team 7, Team Kabuto, and Team 10. In the end, team 9 failed to make the deadline and failed the chunin exams.]

'Wow... what the fuck happened, so what now the timeline seems a little fucked...'

[Day 90: Hayate Gekko introduced himself to the remaining 21 genins, Kabuto quickly excused himself leading to Naruto getting into an argument with him, leaving exactly 20 genins on the floor, as the electronic lots drawing machine was introduced you look around to take stock of the genins left in the competition. Team 7, Team 8, Team 10, Team Kabuto sans Kabuto, Team Gaara, Team Sound and your Team member's names started flashing on the big screen before they stopped at Uchiha Sasuke vs Yoroi.]

'So the matching isn't random... that makes sense otherwise why would the match between Neji vs Hinata take place Konoha surely wanted the strongest Hyuga or maybe even just Neji to showcase the strongest clan in Konoha. Similarly Sasuke's match was first because they needed to deal with the curse seal quickly... but still why did Lee have to face up with Gaara in Canon and now that Lee isn't here in this exam who would end up facing him.'

[Day 90: The matchup between Sasuke and Yoroi was very close, every time they fought Sasuke's movement slowed down before they were on equal footing, thought it did irk you that the heir to the Uchiha clan didn't use any fire jutsu it was covered up by the surprise as Sasuke's body started excluding a dark chakra, you could see black spots covering his entire left side as his movement started speeding up and you couldn't keep up with the final kick that ended up blasting Yoroi through the tiger seal into the wall. The one thing you did notice was Sasuke's crazy expression and his red eyes glaring at Yoroi's fallen form as Kakashi grabbed him in a headlock before shushin'ng away. Sasuke was declared the winner of the duel as Yoroi was taken away in a stretcher.]

'...'

[Day 90: The next fight between Dosu Vs Choji was much more tamer as a human wrecking ball and a shield made of sound collided a few times before Chouji lost his sense of hearing and balance before he slammed into a wall, the battle between Temari and Ren was a clear example that just having an advantage in elemental affinity doesn't mean anything in an actual fight. Temari's fan was capable of producing large gusts of wind chakra-powered jutsus that blew away the three Giant Fireballs that Ren was able to produce with his chakra capacity. His inability to close the distance without being chopped to pieces by her wind blades was another point that pushed the fight against him.]

'...So Sasuke went mad as he was affected by the cursed seal and this time gave in to the power in order to win the fight, does Lee not being in the audience cause this much change or did something different happen in the forest leading to his darker choice...'

[Day 90: The rest of the fights slowly progressed with Hinata edging a victory against Ino, Mitsuru coming out on top against Sakura, Kankurō winning against Misumi, Shino forcing Zaku to blow up his hand, Shikamaru bested Kin again with his shadow travelling along her ninja wires, and Naruto beat Kiba with an unconventional tactic of blowing his senses of then dogpiling him with clones. And as the battles drew to a close there were only two names remaining that never came out.]

'... fucking Gaara? Are you kidding me, of all the cute little monsters I have to go against Gaara of the fucking Ichibi... surrender, surrender, surrender.'

[Day 90: Knowing the danger you were facing you were hesitant to continue and under Ren's encouraging pats you walked down the stairs to face Gaara. Hayate asked both of you if you were ready and you hesitantly nodded, you notice the deadpan look on Gaara's face so at least you were sure that he won't attack first, he hadn't lost himself to the bloodlust yet. As soon as the fight starts you raise your hand and surrender in an anti-climatic manner causing a lot of murmuring to go around among the genins.]

'Okay maybe I panicked a little too much, I could have tried a few attacks and probed his defence before giving up... but still if the matches are fixed by Konoha, then there is a high probability that I would have to fight Gaara in the prelims if I take part in the upcoming chunin exams...'

Now Hiroshi wasn't a coward, he just liked to pick his battles, and fighting against the absolute defence of Gaara with low chunin level speed was just a planned suicide and nothing more. Still something had changed from the last simulation, the last time he was assassinated by someone at the start of the chunin exams, this time though he was put up against the one-tailed Jinchuriki as if it was a public execution. He wasn't sure what he did to change the timeline but something strange was going on. Still, the log kept updating as the simulation continued.

[Day 91 : You and Ren congratulate Mitsuru on getting a chance to be promoted before you all decide to break of the team temporarily, Ren asked if you wanted to find a team to continue doing missions but you shook your head planning to once again go back to grinding skills.]

[Day 95: You are back to your daily routine of practicing but quickly notice that your physical stats aren't budging at all you could only try to level up some skills but felt almost no progress throughout the days.]

[Day 96: Another day of fruitless grinding, you felt as though you have exhausted your potential.]

[Day 98: Another day of fruitless grinding, you felt as though you have exhausted your potential.]

[Day 100: Another day of fruitless grinding, you felt as though you have exhausted your potential.]

[Day 101: Another day of fruitless grinding, you felt as though you have exhausted your potential.]

[Day 102: Another day of fruitless grinding, you felt as though you have exhausted your potential.]

'Alright that's a passive aggressive way to tell me to change instructions, let's see, I don't think I could gain much from this tutorial, except for staying alive and to try to get a higher rating? How would that even happen, what makes the rating change, is it time survived in the world or how much you affect the world, or maybe it is related to strength gained? First things first though, let's stop this meaningless grind and maybe try and take D-rank mission around Konoha.'

[Day 103: You go to the mission office early in the morning to take up an independent courier mission from the administrative department. You spent the rest of the day delivering letters and scrolls between different departments of Konoha.]

'Okay so let's continue doing D-rank missions till the 3rd part of the chunin exams and then we can see what we can do to get a better rati-'

!!!

-----------------------------------------

AN- We Back?