The Final Stage.

Mizuki awakened bright and early, the boy let loose a deep yawn as he turned to look outside his window, only to be greeted with darkness.

The Sun had not risen yet.

Although he derived no joy from it, this was a sight that Mizuki quickly grew accustomed too over the past month, as he devoted his every waking moment to training himself in preperation for the finals.

Unfortunatly, with the oncoming war, Minato-Sensei became to busy to help him with his Fuinjutsu, which although dissapointing, simply motivated Mizuki further to train his new style of Ninjutsu.

The first two matches would be simple ordeals, defeating Genma would be a relatively easy task to complete, as would defeating Ibiki or Aoba depending on who won their match.

It was only starting in the semifinals that Mizuki was nervous about.

Mizuki's combat prowess was greatly reduced as he could not show off his primary attack, the rasengan, in public.

And whilst he felt he was overall stronger, the semifinals battle that would take place between him and Anko would certainly be a challenge.

Although they were still friendly with one another, they hardly hung out over the past month.

They were stll close, although that did not stop either of them from wanting to kick the other's ass in the chunin exam.

In a surprising move, Orochimaru was relatively lenient with their need to do experiments over this month, stating that he was looking forward to see the fruit of their labour in the final phase of the exam.

As for why he believed that Anko would face him in the round, it was a relatively obvious assumption to make.

She was more combat proficient compared to Rin, and there was even less of a chance of her losing to Idate, who was an average genin not six months prior.

Shaking his head as he dispelled his previous thoughts, Mizuki got out of bed and proceeded to get ready.

Besides the standard shinobi sandles, mesh undershirt and bandages around his leg, he wore a dark grey pants, and a black waistcoat that resembled that of some Anbu.

(A/N: His standard gear got destroyed in the first exam when he fought Samui, so ya)

For breakfast, he had a sandwich wich was made from sausage, cheese, and scrambled eggs.

(A/N 2: GOD DAMNIT I'M MAKING MYSELF HUNGRY)

Mizuki glanced at the clock after he had finished and cleaned up, which simply read "5:45"

Mizuki: "God Damnit, I swear to god, tommorow I am going to sleep in until like 2 in the afternoon."

The boy's thoughts were interupped by the sight of light starting to illuminate his window, the sun was starting to rise.

Dawn had arrived, and with it, Mizuki stood up and walked out the door, tightly shutting it behind him as he then went off to face the trials ahead.

. . . . .

As there was no audience for the exams this year, the proctors could decide to hold the exams whenever they wished, with no fear of public outcry.

As another way to attempt to make this chunin exams that much harder, it was decreed that this chunin exam would start early in the morning, with all canidates required to be in attendance at 6:15 for the first match, which was to start at 6:30.

No Sasuke BS of showing up hours late to the exam, if they were so much as one second late, there would be an immediate disqualification.

No exceptions.

Mizuki navigated through the village and forest alike, jumping first from rooftop to rooftop, then branch to branch, until he eventually arived at the entrance to the forest of death, where he was greeted by none other than his Fuinjutsu teacher, Minato Namikaze.

Mizuki: "Sensei!"

Minato: "Hey Mizuki, congrats on making it to the final round"

Mizuki: "Thanks, come to see me wipe the floor with everybody and claim first?

Mizuki flashed him a mischevious grin.

Minato let out a faint chuckle before shaking his head.

Minato: "I am here to teleport you to the testing site, as it would be unecessary and tiring to force you guys to travel through the Forest of Death to reach the location of the exam."

Mizuki: "Ok, lets get this show on the road."

And with that, Minato touched Mizuki's shoulded as they both vanished in a streak of yellow, as they teleported towards the exam site.

. . . . .

Upon reaching the site of the exam, which just so happened to be the site at which the preliminaries would occur to Naruto's generation years later, Mizuki immediatly began to look around for people.

So far, besides him, only a few other people had arrived, namely Kakashi, Guy, and Obito.

As there was some time before the exams would start, Mizuki decided to strike up a conversation with the latter two, which helped pass the time rather quickly, as they hadn't hung out since having Ramen the night the preliminaries ended.

After peomising to all hang out some time again, Mizuki departed as he walked down towards the other side of balcony and simply gave the ninja next to him a little poke.

Mizuki: "Been a whilst, huh?"

The purple haired kunoichi turned to face him, a slightly tired, yet mischevious smile decorating her face.

Anko: "Yah, but being sentimental doesn't change the fact that I am going to kick your ass when we meet in the semifinals"

Mizuki: "You wish"

Both of them then simply looked at one another before bursting into laughter.

God damn he missed this kind of thing over the past month.

Over the course of the month, Mizuki started to sort out his feelings, as he began to realize that he was starting to see Anko as more than just a friend.

Although it was kind of weird to think about his mental age though, it was something which Mizuki had made peace with as he sorted it out.

After all, limiting himself to people who were twenty odd years older than his physical body would just make it weird for the other party, and why go through the unnecesary steps when the person who he loved was in front of him.

Anko: "Hey Mizuki"

Mizuki: "Hm?"

Anko: "After the exam, lets go grab some Dango, there is something I want to talk to you about."

The month apart also appeared to have an effect on Anko, as she became increasingly bold and her conviction renewed, even going so far as to ask him on a sort of date.

Mizuki: "Sure, I would love too-"

Just as Mizuki was about to finish, a loud puff of smoke could be heard as the Hokage, alongside several jonin, all appeared in a straight line.

Hokage: "Congratulations on making it this far into the examination!"

The hokage then proceeded to give a small speach about the Will of Fire and how Chunin are leaders, one which, even if Mizuki did feign interest in, bored him.

Similarly, the proctor for the final exam was reintroduced to the group of genin.

Doto Akimichi.

The man who also happened to proctor their preliminary exams.

After giving a brief few words about rules, namely being no maiming or killing, the Akimichi then simply clapped his hands as a screen was revealed behind him, somebody was being theatrical.

The names then spun until they finally settled upon the predicieded first match.

Genma and Mizuki.

Doto: "May the two examinees come to the stage please?"

Whilst Genma leapt off the balcony and landed onto his spot with grace, Mizuki simply executed a slow, methodical walk, as he decended the stairs before appearing at his position.

Doto: "I will interfere once I believe a match has been won, at which point the battle has ended, do I make myself clear?"

Mizuki and Genma: "Yes sir"

Doto: "Ok, form the shinobi seal of confrontation."

The boys immediatly did so.

Doto then waved his hand down before anouncing the begining of the fight.

Doto: "Begin!"