Watching the Chunin Exams I

With the pass of the week, the final 'arena' stage of the Chunin Exams were now just beginning with preliminaries and the four friends had formed the top four exam results among the ten classmates which would be attending. The four of them sat within the second row of seating on the west side - below the box of the Kages in attendance. Currently, a wind user from Sunagakure was facing against a weapon specialist from Konohagakure.

Sand swept into the stands of the stadium as oppressive winds cut through the air and resounded with a deep clang against the metal staff wielded by the Konoha shinobi. With the wind neatly bisected from whatever protected such a weapon from the B-Rank Ninjutsu being used, the weapon specialist withdrew nine shuriken with sleep bomb tags attached and let fly towards his opponent. The wind user released a wall of wind after performing handseals.

The shuriken bounded off the wind, and with the overdraft, the sleep powder was sent back into the face of the weapon specialist who instantly tried to cover his mouth and nose. Unknown perhap was the fact that such powder could work through the gap in the eyes as well, and so without much ado the weapon specialist was knocked out cold. The chunin proctor appeared in the center of the arena with a blur, to announce the wind user as the winner of this match.

"He should have used explosive tags" Kentsuru spoke, "Because poisons and powders are completely ineffective against the wind element, as are thrown weapons in general." Neji worked on writing down those words of wisdom within a small notepad while the two girls just smirked. This would be a lesson in the effectiveness of Utsukushi's fu (wind) chakra later when the girl developed that ability.

The next match prepared was one that could be considered fair, a match between a swordmaster from Konohagakure and a taijutsu user from Sunagakure with both started at long pace. The proctor announced commencement of the battle before vanishing in a haze of leaves as the two made towards the middle ground. Charging forth, the swordmaster ignited his blade with ka (fire) chakra and brought down a large flaming slash.

The taijutsu user revealed the two metal bracers worn on her forearms, raising the bracers while injecting them with her su (water) chakra to manifest forth a great barrier of water. The flaming sword pressed through the barrier, releasing steam rapidly as it landed against the bracer itself. The taijutsu user then brought her foot upwards in a high crescent, slamming into the chin of the swordsman and sending him flying back by three meters.

The swordmaster grunted as he pulled himself back to full height while the taijutsu user dashed towards the him, bringing his katana back to before himself before passing another large current of ka chakra through the blade. This time, the swordmaster released several lashes of flame that flew towards the approaching taijutsu user. The kunoichi dodged the first two flame lashes though was struck hard by the third.

The two girls grabbed tightly onto the arms of Kentsuru as they watched the kunoichi take a direct hit from the third flame lash, which Kentsuru took advantage of. He cuddles with the two, drawing iresome looks from some of the crowd. However, as smoke cleared it was revealed that the taijutsu user wasn't as badly damaged as the girls thought. While she had suffered some damage, she had managed to utilize her bracers to avoid most of the flames.

Pressing forward, the taijutsu user began to lay into the swordmaster with her heavy punches, which the swordmaster parried with his sword's blade and his own movements. The swordmaster then brought his sword from low stance into an exotic high slash that cut into the skin of the taijutsu user and pushed her down with a kick from his right. The swordmaster then brought his sword down to just above the taijutsu master's throat.

In the end, the kunoichi would admit defeat, resulting in the end of a long second fight of the preliminaries. Another five such would pass by each somewhat quicker than the one before. At this point, the arena was emptied for a short break between the seventh match and the eighth, and there would be at-least nine more such breaks in-between the preliminaries if they continued at this pace. Though, truth be told, the reason for the break was to repair the arena floor.