The Preliminaries Pt. 2

Doto Akimichi had a sly grin on his face as he observed the potential future Chunin of Konoha.

All the whilst he enjoyed his snack of choice, barbeque chips, which he ate in such a manner that would make even Choji proud.

Doto: "As I stated previously, I am the proctor of this exam."

After taking a brief pause, the Jonin continued.

Doto: "For this exam, the remaining thirty of you will be roughly halved once again, with there being sixteen participants of the final exam."

(A/N I know that 16 is not half of thirty, but this tourny needs an even number, bite me)

Hearing that their numbers would be halved once again, several of the genin were visibly nervous, as they doubted their abilities to join those ranks.

Doto: Alright, now, before I begin explaining this exam, I am now offering the chance for you to forfeit, for those of you who cannot continue"

Hearing this, three different genin raised their hands, all of whom were from the corps.

Doto nodded his head at the chunin beside him, as they then approached those who forefeit and noted them down.

Seeing that all of his prep work was gone, Doto gave himself a self appreciating nod before begining to explain the rules of this exam.

Mizuki had a sly smirk on his face, as he expected the chunin exam to be the same as the one that Naruto's group would take when they were genin.

Doto: "Now then, onto explaining this exam"

Doto: "So, the general format for this exam is.... teamfights!"

Hearing this, most of the genin nodded in acknowledgement, as it was a relatively logical choice of exam.

That is, except for Mizuki.

Mizuki: {Eh? Teamfight? What?}

However, Mizuki quickly got over his surprise, as he thought of what would come in the finals.

Regardless of what the exam was, Mizuki was 100% confident that he would pass.

After all, he was among some of the strongest people to attend this exam in recent years, in addition to being the student of the sanin.

(A/N: *cough*But most importantly, he is the main character*cough*)

After getting over his internal monologue, Mizuki continued to listen to the Proctor.

Doto: "The first fifteen people, or five teams, that can best showcase their skills will pass."

Doto: "The final canidate will be decided by taking the person with the most potential from the runner up team"

Doto: "Finally, the teams will fight each other round robin style, with teams being pulled out if they pass"

Finishing his explanation, Doto scanned the audience for questions, being met with only one.

Random Genin: "What about those teams who lost a genin due to them not passing the first round or forfeiting"

Doto simply shrugged his shoulders as he replied.

Doto: "Sucks to be you then."

With his relatively blunt awnser, Doto then scanned the audience for any more questions, being sattisfied upon realizing that there were none.

Satisfied, he then pulled out a box with some numbers in it.

Doto: "Alright, get into your teams and then have one member of each team come up and grab your number"

Anko was the one who they decided should go grab their number, much to her disspleasure.

Soon enough, she came back with it, and also with the information about who they would be facing thanks to looking around, a seemingly average team for the genin corps.

As they had some extra time before the match started, the team felt like their best move would be to strategise, after all, they couldnt send out one person like they did last time, its a team fight after all.

After briefly sitting on the though for a whilst, it was Mizuki who first came up with an idea about what they should do in order to showcase a mixture of teamwork and skill.

Mizuki: "What if we were all to use a combination Ninjutsu?"

Mizuki quickly came to the idea, as it is a tactic which he had commonly employed with his summon, Hime, who quickly grew on him after getting to know her more.

Anko: "A combo, huh?"

Anko pondered the thought briefly.

Anko: "I can't think of anything better"

Idate, seemingly unintrested, also piped in.

Idate: "Sure."

. . . . .

Soon, their booked time arrived as they calmly walked towards the area in which they were fighting, a section of the forest which had been cleared just for this.

The preliminary stage inside the tower was too small to accomidate team battles after all.

Doto: "Alright, you have heard the rules several times already, no going out of bounds, no killing or maiming your opponents. Am I clear?"

All: "Yes Proctor."

Doto was right, despite their match only being now, several had taken place before theirs, all of which had the same rules.

They had all also been pretty boring, with most matches being people that Mizuki either hardly knew or didn't care for.

Even those featuring his friends and those he actually did care about were boring, as the results were all be sealed in stone once it was decided who their opponents were.

So far, Guy's group had displayed a relatively impressive display of a Taijutsu combination featuring all three team members.

There was also Kakashi's team, who were able to put aside their internal differences temporarily in order to show how they were able to use each other in order to create oppenings for their teamates attacks.

There were also a few other matches, but they were hardly important, all being boring and pretty much the same.

Mizuki's thoughts quickly shifted from his previous recounting of the preliminary round, to the "threat" in front of them as the proctor gave them the signal to start.

Doto: "Begin!"

Wasting no time at all, the team that they were facing all began to rush them at once, trying to close the distance between them as they rushed forward.

Whilst, two of them pulled out their kunai as they rushed forward, the third pulled out shuriken before throwing them all at their opponents.

A gaze of naked disdain could be seen on Idate's face, as he hated the fact that he had to compete with them for this.

However, he put his disdain aside as he began to cast his jutsu.

Idate: "Futon: Breakthrough"

The boy then took a deep breath before expelling a large gust of wind.

This gust alone caused the shuriken which were thrown to reverse their course and for the genin to feel that their approach was significatly slowed down.

However, this was far from the end as Mizuki had a sky smirk on his face as he quikcly weaved a series of hand seals before cupping his right hand around his mouth and blowing a steady stream of flames.

Mizuki: "Katon: Fire Dragon Bombs!"

The stream of flame quickly caught the gusts of wind that were previously generated, as a blanket of flames began to engulf the genin.

However, things were still bound to get worse for them, as Anko cast her section of the jutsu.

Anko: "Raiton: False Darkness!"

A spear of lightning could be seen gathering in her palms which she then shot out as it connected with the enhanced flames.

The flames quickly grew more destructive, as the lightning then electrified the flames, making a truly impressive display for genin.

Needless to say, they won after the opposing team was able to evade the jutsu, although just barely, and ended up going out of bounds as a result.

Mizuki's light smirk never left his face, as upon winning this match, he went on to think about who he may be facing in the finals.