Team Fights

The Preliminary exams continued, as team after team engaged one another in combat to prove their worth, and to advance in the next round of exams.

However, these team fights were far from even, as it was incredibly noticible that there was a large gap between those of the genin corps, and those who were assigned jonin senseis.

Whilst the former group mainly consisted of fairly average genin, who knew little outside of the basic three jutsu taught in the academy, the latter was a whole new beast.

Several of them were members of powerful clans, giving them access to unique jutsu and training which they recieved from birth.

Those who weren't also were forces to be reckoned with, as they mosly had shinobi parents who guided them.

Even if they did not, the presense of a Jonin Sensei boosted their capabilities to knew heights as the genin learned under them.

This gap was on full display in the exam, as whilst those in the genin corps were able to contend relatively well against one another, they could not even hold a candle to their counterparts.

Where the Corps Genin threw Shuriken, the Trained Genin flung fireballs.

Where the Corps Genin threw fists, the Trained Genin used unique disciples of Taijutsu.

There was hardly a competition between the two groups, as it was becoming abundantly clear at how large the difference between them truly was.

Eventualy, the sixteen canidates of the third exam were decided upon by the proctors after deliberating.

Team Kakashi, consisting of Kakashi, Rin, and Obito.

Team Mizuki, consisting of Mizuki, Anko, and Idate.

Team Asuma, consisting of Asuma, Kurenai, and Raido.

Team Guy, consisting of Guy, Ebisu, and Genma

And Finally, Team Hayate, which consisted of Hayate, Tokara, and Ibiki.

The Wildcard was decided to be Aoba, A boy with a pair of tinted goggles and black hair, who would later go on to be a jonin and briefly travel with Naruto in the buildup to the war.

After anouncing those who would pass the exam, and congratulating them on their achievements, Doto procededed to offer them his condolences.

He then went on in a speach about the Will of Fire, and how those who lost are sure to be splendid shinobi in the future.

Mizuki soundly ignored the speach, as he tried to descretly rest his eyes.

To Mizuki, the whole philosophy sounded a lot like horse shit. Whilst compassion towards one's enemies and diplomacy are valid tactics, sometimes one needs to be ruthless as well.

And whilst the Will of Fire on paper is an amazing philosphy, characters in the series all manipulate the "Will of Fire" in order to justify themselves *cough*Danzo*cough*.

Even when it was abundantly clear that it was not the case.

And that doesn't even bring up how hypoctrytical those carrying it are sometimes, *cough*Danzo*cough*.

However, luckily for Mizuki, the speach soon concluded and those who failed the test were escorted out of the area to return home.

Doto: "Now then, as for those of you remaining. . ."

The Akimichi faced them, his lips pursed in a slight smirk.

Doto: "The Final Exam will be a simple tournament."

Doto then went on to explain the style of the exam, and how despite being a tournement, there was as much of a chance for all of them to pass as there is for none of them, or any other slew of possibilities.

The exam would take place in one month.

Long enough for them to begin to develop some new techniques, or at least improve off of their existing ones.

However, there were some differences in this exam compared to the one undertaken by Naruto and his generation.

As the village wanted to mininimize the amount of information that is passed on about their shinobi to the enemy villages, the exams are not a large festival for this year.

Much to the general public's sadness, the exam would take place behind closed doors in order to ensure security of information.

The exam itself would take place in the arena which would house the preliminaries of Naruto's generation, much to Mizuki's satisfaction.

It was just such an iconic place to him after all, with it being the place of the legendary "Gaara vs Lee" fight, among many other.

Which was why Mizuki was ecstatic when he realized that he would be able to fight there as well.

With everything out of the way, Doto pulled out a box with sixteen seemingly identical slips of paper, all folded and mixed around.

Doto: "Alright Kids."

Doto: "Get in a line and when you get here, take a slip of paper out of the box and then get out of the way until everybody has theirs.

Doto: "Also, you are not allowed to unfold it until everybody has it, Understood?"

Genin: "Yes"

Doto: "Excellent, now, get in line."

The line went by quickly and efficiently, as all of the genin quickly reached into the box and pulled out a slip of paper before getting out of the way.

In just under a couple of minutes, all of the paper slips were distributed, being held by the anxious genin who were waiting to see what the tournament bracket would look like.

Doto: "Now, now, I believe that I have torchered you all long enough, open the papers and read your numbers aloud, one at a time please"

Raido: "Ten"

Anko: "Six"

Tokara: "Fourteen"

Genma: "Two"

Obito: "Thirteen"

Kurenai: "Fifteen"

Asuma: "Sixteen"

Aoba: "Four"

Kakashi: "Nine"

Guy: "Eleven"

Ibiki: "Three"

Idate: "Eight"

Hayate: "Twelve"

Rin: "Five"

Ebisu: "Seven"

Mizuki
: "Number One."

Doto noted down each number as it was said with a sly smirk decorating his face.

(A/N: So in case this is confusing, i quickly drew a crude version of it. here: https://imgur.com/a/EJ35gkG)

Doto: "Alright, I got it all. Here"

The Akimichi then handed out a slip of paper to each genin which showed what the brackets of the tournament would look like, and who is facing who.

Turning around, the Akimichi's smirk slipped off his face as he turned relatively neutral.

Doto: "Good Luck to you all, and may you all become fine Chunin. Dissmissed."

Hearing those words, the remaining genin all began to get up to leave. With Idate being the first to do so, as he unceremoniasly body flickered away, leaving the remaining fifteen genin behind.

The rest of the Genin were all lying down on the grass, exhausted after being forced to take three highly streneous exams consecutively. Over the course of an entire week nonetheless.

Seeing as they had all finished the exam and were in desperate need of some good food after a week of living off of nothing but wild animals that they caught and food pills, Obito suggested that all fifteen of them head over to Ichiraku for dinner.

Perfect timing too, as the sun was starting to come down as the day transitioned to night.

This suggestion was taken almost immediatly, as all of the genin salviated as they imm\agined what their dinner would taste like.

After being forced to do these exams without any proper food for over a week, the already amazing Ramen would taste like the Food of the Gods to them.

And so, whilst they all might be each other's opponents in the coming month, today they were all simply comrades and friends, who were all enjoying one another's company as they all walked towards Ichiraku.