The Wizard Ninja |BOOK 1|

Chapter 21

Once in the preliminary area, I noticed something off about the teams. There was one extra. What the hell? Why is there another team?

There was one girl and two boys. The girl had wavy blonde hair tied back into a high pony tail and she wore a mask that covered her whole face. It was a fox mask, similar to what the anbu wear. Her outfit was simple, but the thing that caught my eye was the hidden sound village headband worn loosely around her neck. She's from the hidden sound? But, that would make her...

"JENNIE!!!JENNIE!!JENNIE!...Jennie?" My thoughts were halted at the sound of Nao shouting my name. "Oh, Nao!" I greeted as he dove straight into my neck, giving me a cute exceed hug. "Oh, it's that weird cat thing," Naruto commented. "What is that thing? It's weird but cute..." Pinky said. "He's an exceed. His name is Nao," I responded. "What's an exceed?" Eboy wondered. "Um, somewhat of a cat I guess. Except it can fly and talk, as you can see."

"I missed you!" Nao said cutely. "Awww, I missed you too buddy!" I gave him a smile. "Kaka didn't sing to me like Hiro did...I wanted to hear a song. Will you sing for me?" He asked. "Uhh, not now. I'm kind of busy." Nao started to tear up. "Oh-don't cry! I promise I'll sing for you later, okay?" Nao's expression immediately brightened and he nodded with a cute 'ok!'

I then realized just about everyone had their attention on me and Nao. I just blushed awkwardly and rubbed the back of my neck. "Well that happened...Anyways, congratulations for finishing the second exam!" Anko praised.

"Hey look! All of the leaf village rookies are here too!" Pinky exclaimed. "Woah everybody's here! Old man Hokage, Iruka sensei and even bushy brow. It looks like absolutely nobody got left out this time!"

"I don't have a very good feeling about this..." Eboy said, placing a hand over the curse mark.

"Alright now pay attention! Lord Hokage is going to explain the third exam to you. You'd better listen carefully, maggots! Lord Hokage, they're all yours." Anko passed the figurative mic over to grandpa.

I decided to tune out his battle bullshit until Hayate took over. "Lord Hokage, before you explain the third exam, please allow me, Hayate Gekkou, appointed as proctor of the third exam to speak first."

"So be it."

"It's nice to meet you all. *cough cough cough* There's something I would like all of you *cough cough cough* to do before the third exam. *cough cough cough cough* Uhh, we have to have a preliminary exam before we can move on to the real one." People looked confused.

"Preliminary?! Just what do you mean by that?!" Shikamaru yelled. "I'm sorry, sensei excuse me, but I really don't see the point. What's this preliminary all about? Why can't we just move on to the third exam?" Pinky asked.

"Uhhh, well you see, the first and second exams might've been too easy. The fact is we never expected so many of you to still be here. According to the rules of the chunin exams, a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining," Hayate explained.

"But-! Is that fair?" Pinky questioned. "It's just that at this stage we have to speed things up a bit. As lord Hokage said, a lot of important guests will be watching. We can't afford to waste their time. They've come to see only the best. So if there are any of you who feel you're not in top physical condition, now's your chance to-*cough cough cough cough cough* Sorry about that. As I was saying, any of you who don't feel up to this, now's the time for you to quit. The preliminaries will be starting immediately."

"You mean right now?!" Kiba yelled. "We just finished barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break??" Ino complained. "Man what a drag..."

"Oh yeah, the winners will be determined by one-on-one combat sudden death. So like I said, if there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it now's the time to raise your hand."