Aoto didn't speak more after that and decided to concentrate on the preliminaries. After everyone left, there were only the friends of Aoto who had not gone out of the door. Among them were Kakashi and Guy too, as they were considered friends from Aoto's perspective and could be trusted.
"How many teams were able to pass?" Aoto asked.
"Seven teams. It is more than I expected," Kakashi said as he saw the list. Their teachers were incredibly competent to tutor their teams to be able to pass the forest in a safe manner.
"Given the circumstances? Yes. But Orochimaru wasn't targeting the others. He was targeting Sasuke," Aoto said.
"Sasuke? Why?" Kakashi was confused as he didn't understand what was so special about Sasuke. He was just one of the last Uchiha.
"No idea, but from his attack mode, I was able to perceive that he was coming after Sasuke," Aoto said.
"I will keep an eye on my student," Kakashi said.
"After the preliminaries, send him to my place. He will be protected. Protection right now is a very rare substance," Aoto suggested, to which Kakashi agreed. They talked about what they would need to do to ensure the security of the people and the genins.
It didn't take much for an hour to pass, and finally, the preliminaries were about to start. As the afternoon sun cast long shadows over the dense canopy of the forest, the genin who had passed through the perilous Forest of Death gathered in a large, enclosed arena. Inside the arena, the air was thick with anticipation.
At the center of the arena stood Aoto. As the last few whispers among the genin faded, Aoto raised his hand, signaling for silence. His voice, firm and clear, carried through the arena.
"Congratulations to all of you for making it this far," Aoto began, his gaze sweeping across the assembled genin. "Surviving the Forest of Death is no small feat. You have proven your skills, your resilience, and your teamwork. But the path to becoming a Chunin is far from over."
"These preliminaries," Aoto continued, "will determine who among you is ready to advance to the final stage of the Chunin Exams. This is a test of your individual abilities. Each match will be one-on-one, a battle of strength, strategy, and spirit."
He paused, allowing his words to sink in. "Remember, a true shinobi fights not for personal glory but for the honor of their village and the protection of their comrades. Show us the skills and values that make you worthy of the title of Chunin."
Aoto swept his hand as he slowly floated upwards. This surprised everyone present, as most of them had never seen a shinobi fly ever, and Aoto was able to do that easily with no support. He landed on the balcony that oversaw the whole arena and said.
"Let the preliminaries begin!"
The first pair of genin took the stage.
There wasn't Kabuto here as he just seemed to have vanished, but Aoto had sent Shikuro in search of him and to bring him back. The first one to officiate the match was Kisuke. He was a man of few words and thus just put his fan on his mouth and asked the two genin to just start.
The first match was between Sasuke and one guy from the Iwagakure team. He was a guy who was good with earth jutsu, and it gave Sasuke quite the headache, but Sasuke showed why he was able to use the Sharingan. He copied the jutsu of his opponent and used it against him, and that too perfectly.
This surprised everyone, as they had never seen Sasuke in that kind of avatar, but it did bring a smile to the faces of Kakashi and Aoto. Sasuke was growing fast; maybe it was time to teach him magic because he needed it.
Up next was a sound ninja vs. Shino Aburame. Zaku only had one functional arm, and he thought with one arm he would be able to defeat the other guy, but in the end, all he received was an attack from behind by a bunch of insects who fed on his chakra before he could use his other arm to attack Shino.
"Shino has progressed well," Aoto said after seeing the fight.
"I taught him a lot," Torune said with pride.
"He is your brother. If he can't do well, I would have come after your ass," Shikuro said, which made Torune a bit fearful. Thankfully, the next candidate to fight was Torune himself. Torune had never gotten the chance to be in the limelight since he had started his journey.
He had heard about how Naruto was a great shinobi and a sorcerer. His own father had praised Naruto for how much he had progressed. Torune had always been a bright student, so his trajectory was kind of balanced all his life. Also, he didn't get to perform feats that made him legendary.
At some points, he was also a bit jealous of Naruto for how he was treated by the family. He knew that there were reasons for that, as Naruto had lost his family and he was ostracized. But in the family, he was treated in the best way possible.
Torune didn't feel good that he had small envy against Naruto and thus would always try to help him and stick with him. It was more of his own guilt rather than friendship. He had never spoken about this with anyone as he knew that he would be judged. His father would probably be disappointed with him.
But that didn't mean he would stop feeling those emotions. And this Chunin exam was his card to be a legendary figure and make his family proud. In the forest, he wasn't able to show his value as most of the people they came across could be easily taken down. But here it was different.
Here was his stage to show both the shinobi and magical arts he had acquired in all these years.
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Read 50 chapters ahead on my [email protected]/thelightedghost