A Mother's Knight

Part 15

The Sandaime Hokage looked down at the teams that had made it through the second round. The record for being the first person to come here had been broken by the sand siblings, and even though Naruto's team was overpowered, it hadn't been the second team to make it here. Perhaps it was because the blond was making an effort to weed out competition.

The teams to have made it were still too many for him to take them all to the finals. It wouldn't be good if he bored people by allowing weak genins to make it to the finals. People would be expecting some good fights.

"Congratulations for passing the second exam," the Sandaime Hokage said to the gathered genins. "Normally, having passed the survival challenge, you should be heading towards the finals of the exams, but there are still too many of you. It is not by a big margin. We will have to cut some of you so that we can accommodate a small number in the finals."

As the Sandaime spoke, the Shikamaru looked around, seeing who had made it. All the suspects had passed the second exam. He had come across a team who'd been complaining about Konoha shinobi hitting them at night. It was not hard to figure out that it was Naruto's team. The blond had a way of doing things after all.

If he had the energy and actually trusted in his abilities to fight against stronger opponents, he would have taken that route as it was the easiest way of getting the scroll. Some teams would have been sleeping; tired from the exertions of the day, and that meant taking their scrolls would require minimum effort.

"Before I say how we will proceed, is there anyone who thinks they can't make the fighting that will occur in the next minutes? If you can't proceed, you can raise your hand..." The Sandaime stated.

Kabuto was quick to raise his hand, saying he didn't have enough chakra to go through and that his teammates were in no shape to fight. Kankuro also raised his hand to the surprise of his siblings.

Naruto looked at the 'genin' for a moment and then looked away. Was it really easy to lie like that? He may not be that much of a great sensor, but he was certain that Kabuto was not tired, even though he was making it look as if he was tired. The Sandaime Hokage wasn't someone who could be fooled that easily and yet he seemed to just accept Kabuto's reasoning without question.

He didn't forget that the man possessed information that should not be known. It was a strange thing that he didn't really feel there was a need to care if the man was a spy or not. Being a former Anbu, he knew how spies worked. It wasn't out of the question for a spy to infiltrate the exams to have better access to certain facilities and being able to move without being flagged.

"Are we going to fight?" Sasuke asked Naruto in a quiet tone.

He was happy to fight anyway. He wouldn't lose here. Not when he was just a step away from making it to the finals and he was certain that in the finals, if things went according to plan, he would get the chance to really fight Naruto. He would also get the chance to fight other strong genins. That was something he was really looking forward to.

So far there hadn't been anyone who provided anything that would make him feel pressured. Sure the raids he did with Naruto were fun, but there had been nothing that made him feel pressed against the wall. He needed to experience that in order to see how strong he has become. Measuring himself against Naruto wasn't really fair; even though he was loath to admit that.

"Likely," Naruto responded in one simple word. He didn't say anything further as the Sandaime spoke once more.

"We are going to proceed in this way," the old man started. "The teams with the most scrolls will be exempted from this round and will head straight to the drawing board for the finals. And the remaining teams will have to fight to secure a spot to the finals."