The Preliminaries

At last, the second exam had reached its conclusion after five long days, and those who had passed were made to assemble in a large room in the basement of the tower, where the Hokage, the proctors and the Genin teams' Jōnin-sensei were already waiting for them.

The Hokage began blathering on and on about some stuff. Completely uninterested by the Third's speech, Sakura craned her neck to sneak a look at Tenten, who was standing a few feet behind her in the crowd, next to her teammates. Sakura needed to make a good impression on her waifu, but that wouldn't be a problem, not with her opponent being…

'Hang on,' said Inner Sakura, shaking like a leaf. 'Ino's disqualified! Who the hell am I going to be facing!?'

In Sakura's opinion, there were five people she stood next to no chance of beating at her current level:

Aburame Shino, because of her phobia of insects; Neji, because she wouldn't be able to hit him from range, and getting into melee range without Naruto's Nine-Tails cheat was a death sentence; Rock Lee, because he could move faster than she could see; Kabuto, because he was actually a Jōnin-level shinobi; and Gaara, because he would just murder her.

Although, if she happened to face these specific people in the third and final exam, those matchups would certainly be winnable, since she would have one month to prepare and to design a special training plan for herself. But as she was right now? She wasn't feeling confident about her chances…

"That girl's staring at you," Sasuke muttered in Sakura's ear, tilting his head slightly in Karin's direction.

"Don't worry about it," Sakura silently mouthed back at him.

Meanwhile, the Third Hokage was currently in the middle of making his case about why sacrificing children for peace was actually a good idea; and in the process shattering to pieces the image of the kindly old man that he had carefully cultivated among them.

Basically, he was telling a bunch of teenagers to go die for the adults' honour, which went against everything he had preached to them about the Will of Fire; the younger generations endlessly inheriting the values, hopes and dreams of the generation that had preceded it…

'More like perpetuating the cycle of hatred,' Inner Sakura scoffed. 'Thank goodness Naruto's gonna put a stop to that, huh?'

"Ahem," a sickly-looking man coughed, interrupting the Third Hokage who was getting long-winded in his old age. "If you wouldn't mind, as the proctor for the third exam, I, Gekko Hayate, would like to explain the rest of the proceedings…"

"Fine," the Third Hokage mumbled. "Go ahead."

'Is the old man actually pouting?' Inner Sakura said, giggling to herself.

Gekko Hayate, coughing all the while, began to explain that too many teams had successfully passed the second exam. Therefore, the number of Chūnin candidates would have to be reduced before the third exam came along; the whole thing would be turned into a spectacle for the nobles' and the Daimyō's entertainment! One of the main goals of the Chūnin exams was to showcase the hidden villages' future strength in order to attract investors, so the organizers had to make the show interesting by eliminating the weaklings from the scheduled matches.

Just imagine if all the matches were boring low-level slugfests, like the original Sakura's and Ino's duel…

"Now that you're all caught up," said Hayate, "the preliminaries will be starting effectively… now. So, step forward if you don't feel up to the task."

"What, right now!?" Kiba cried out in shock.

The third exam's proctor waited for a few seconds, and when nobody stepped up, he continued on with his explanations.

'Kabuto's not quitting?' said Inner Sakura in surprise. 'Maybe he hasn't accumulated enough data on Sasuke yet, since I kicked him out of the party?'

"Right, I nearly forgot to mention," said Gekko Hayate, "the preliminaries will follow the same format as the third exam: one on one duels, so you don't need to worry about getting your team eliminated if you want to drop out. From here on out, you'll be judged on individual merit."

He waited some more for people to step forward and give up, but nobody did so.

"So, er… it looks like nobody's bowing out, huh?" said Gekko Hayate wearily. "Since there're 18 of you left, we'll be holding 9 matches, and er… those who win will move on to the third exam."

He exploded into a fit of coughs.

"Other than these being one-on-one matches, there are no other rules," he wheezed. "You fight until your opponent either admits defeat, falls unconscious or dies. Note that if a match is too one-sided, we might step in and end the match to avoid needless bloodshed, but I wouldn't count on that, if I were you… So, give up, if you feel like you can't win."

A retractable panel on the wall began rolling up into its housing, revealing an LCD screen behind it.

"The matchups will be displayed on the screen behind me," said Hayate, putting at the screen in question. "Just like with the third exam, the matchups will be randomized, so let's get going, I guess…"

Sakura stared anxiously at the LCD screen, waiting for the names to appear… which would hopefully not be hers and those of the five she had previously thought of…

ABURAME SHINO V.S. KARIKI

"Phew…" Sakura sighed in relief. "I really can't stand bugs…"

Despite the boulders weighing her down in front, Sakura's shoulders felt lighter than they had in months!

"Everyone but those two, move up to the viewing gallery now," Gekko Hayate ordered the exam takers.

Sakura happily climbed the stairs up to the balcony, and together with the rest of Team 7, she leaned against the railing and made herself comfortable to watch the upcoming match. From this distance, Shino's insects would look like a cloud of black smoke…

"Begin!"

…

And sure enough, it didn't take long for a named character like Shino to overpower the absolute nobody that was Kariki. After all, without Sakura giving her spare heaven scroll to Karin, his team would have never even made it past the second exam to the preliminaries…

"The winner is Aburame Shino!" Gekko Hayate called out. "He is the first to obtain the right to enter the third exam!"

'Damn it, he won,' said Inner Sakura, clicking her tongue in annoyance.