"Bark!"
"No Akamaru, I'm not hungry" Fuyu sighed while she cupped her cheeks while pouting.
"You understand him??" Kiba asked surprised while Fuyu looked at Kiba.
"Of course I do dummy! You think I don't understand him?" Fuyu replied while she gigg...
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"The proctor told us to bring one of each Heaven and Earth scroll in a pair. She didn't say to take more than that. If we take more, that means some other teams will be left out" Kiba raised both of his arms while Fuyu made the big circle melt and come back into her own body. "Baka! We are risking our scrolls for this, Koinu!" Fuyu shouted while Kiba grinned.
"We'll see what's going on at first. If it looks too dangerous, we won't battle for no reason. Let's go!" Kiba launched forwards while Fuyu widened her eyes. "Koinu!" She yelled soon joining Kiba, jumping from tree to a tree.
Suddenly Akamaru, Kiba, and Fuyu stopped behind a bush making Hinata and Shino stop. Akamaru started trembling and shaking while Kiba start to comfort him by petting him. "What happened? You stop suddenly" Hinata asked while Akamaru crawled inside Kiba's jacket and hide there.
"Akamaru suddenly got frightened..." Kiba muttered while Fuyu's hands started trembling slowly too. "W-Why's that?" Hinata asked again. "Akamaru can sniff out the levels of the enemy's Chakra and tell his strength but this is the first time I've seen him this scared. The people going at it up ahead are ordinary guys" Kiba looked forwards to seeing two teams talking with each other.
'T-This chakra level... Could it be..? Shukaku, Ichibi (One-Tailed)...' Fuyu peaked her head up to see Gaara, Temari, Kankuro, and other ninjas from the village in the mist. When Fuyu's eyes met Gaara standing figure, her eyes went wide when she saw Shukaku's chakra flowing inside him making her stumble back in shock.
"Tora! Are you alright??" Kiba whisper-yelled while Fuyu nodded in heavy breaths. "Yes... It's just...his chakra seemed quite familiar to me..." Fuyu muttered while Kiba hold her hand to help her up a little instead of laying on the ground.
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Gaara killed three of the village hidden in the mist by crushing them with his sand. "This is no good! Let's go out from here or not he'll kill us all!" Kiba whispered while the four started to prepare to go. "No, it's still not enough for me..." Gaara said in a low tone making the four freeze in their place.
Kankuro started to say that they have already got both of the scrolls and they should quickly go to the tower. "Lame people don't give directions to me" Gaara put his hand out towards the direction of where the bush is making Kiba, Hinata, and Shino sweat. Sand started to charge towards the bush.
'We're dead' Kiba shut his eyes close while Fuyu accidentally leak a little bit of her aura out. "ARGH!" Gaara dropped to his knees making the sand stopped charging at the bush. "Gaara!" Temari said in concern while Gaara was grabbing his head in pain.
"DON'T YOU DARE ATTACK"
A loud demonic voice yelled out from inside Gaara making him scream more. Fuyu smiled a little when she heard the familiar voice of the One-Tailed beast. During Gaara's painful screams, Fuyu tugged on Kiba's jacket. "Let's go..." She said gaining a nod from Kiba.
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"Nobody's here?"
"Heh heh! We're the first!?"
"No, I sensed someone a little while ago"
"More importantly, is Akamaru okay? He's been scared ever since then" Hinata said while Akamaru goes outside of Kiba's jacket and jumped on Fuyu's arms. "Now that you mention it, what did Akamaru say before?" Shino asked while Fuyu pets Akamaru using her free hand.
"Oh... Akamaru said it was dangerous because that sand squirt will kill that big guy" Kiba replied before footsteps were heard gaining all the four attention.
"Sheesh! Just like I thought, there's no other place to go"
"They've already made us wait for half a day! How much longer do we have to wait?"
Kankuro, Temari, and Gaara walked inside before looking toward the four with a grin on their face. Fuyu ignored their presence and kept comforting Akamaru.
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"First of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam" Anko announced while Fuyu looked around the arranged rows of teams in awe. "Koinu! Koinu! Look! All the rookies are here!" Fuyu chirped while she keep poking the back of Kiba's head.
"Yeah yeah, I know! Stop poking my head~!" Kiba swats Fuyu's hands away making her smile. "It's so cool~!" Fuyu cooed while Kiba glanced at her, getting a faint pink color flushed across his cheek and ears.
"Now then, we will now have the explanation of the third exam from Master Hokage! Listen carefully, everybody!" Anko announced making Kiba stop looking towards Fuyu and change his view towards the Hokage.
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"Now then, we will begin the preliminaries. The preliminaries to come will be one on one individual battles. In other words, actual battle formats" Hayate started to talk making each team listen carefully.
"There are now exactly twenty peoples, so we will conduct ten battles. The winners will be able to advance to the third exam. There are no rules at all. You will fight until someone collapsed or admit defeat. And please admit defeat right away if you don't want to die
However, in case, I judge that a match is over. Err... I don't want to needlessly increase dead bodies, so I will intervene and stop the match or something to that effect. What holds the key to your destines is... This" Hayate explained while turning around slightly.
"The names of two foes will be randomly selected and displayed on this electronic sign board. Now then, let's get right down to it and announce the two names for the rest of the battle" Hayate added making the digital sign board pick out names in speed.
