𝙇𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍. | 𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗢

XXII

RIKI and her team finally passed the second phase of the Chunin exams. It was a long, tiring journey to the tower which took them nearly a whole day, but they made it nonetheless. The two days they spent in the tower recuperating went by quite quickly. It went by so quickly that Riki was wondering what on Earth she was doing standing in front of the Hokage, a line of Jonin teachers and proctors in a big hall where the preliminary exams for the third phase were going to be held.

Apparently too many people had passed and they wanted to slim down the numbers before the actual exams happened in front of a large audience. In a stadium. They would have to fight one-on-one in the last phase of the exams in front of Feudal Lords and random people. It didn't exactly seem like a thrilling idea, loosing in front of about three hundred or so people.

During her time in the tower Riki had spent majority of her time there sleeping, but she had come out once or twice to view the other applicants to measure her opponents strength visually, and after observing them Riki could easily say that they looked tough.

Her eye was on one of the Sand Ninja, the red head especially. He emitted a terrifying sort of aura that made her question how much strength he truly had, considering his body size. Contrary to his shortness, his aura and the menacing look about him reminded Riki too much of Zabuza (maybe it was the lack of eyebrows?) and that wasn't a good thing if her experiences with him at the bridge in the Land of Waves weren't proof enough.

All in all, she wasn't looking forward to fighting. At first she had (reluctantly) joined the Chunin exams to test her limits but she had never imagined she'd make it to the last phase.

Now the proctor, Hayate, had finished asking people of they wanted to drop out. No one had dropped out. The man coughed and cleared his throat.

"Now, we will start the preliminary matches. These will be individual battles." He coughed. "There are exactly 22 people left, so we will conduct 11 battles. You will fight until someone accepts defeat or is unable to fight, and this includes death, too. Of course, if I judge that a battle is over, I will intervene." He coughed again.

As he coughed, a large screen shone to life in the corner of the large room they were in. "This will decide your opponent. Now, let us determine the two names for the first match."

The screen buzzed and went through the names of the applicants. The screen finally lit up with Sasuke's name and another applicant by the name of Yoroi Akado. Riki couldn't help but feel a little worried for her teammate, especially with that bite on his neck.

"Everyone apart from the two who will fight should move up to the stands, now."

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Riki guessed she was worried for nothing because Sasuke had managed to win his match without using any ninjutsu at all. Being an Uchiha with a Sharingan must've been convenient as hell, seeing as he had literally copy and pasted Lee's technique.

Kakashi had taken Sasuke away for a bit to do something, and after Shino's brutal match against one of the Sound Ninja and Kankuro's match against a Konoha nin he managed to return without Sasuke. And just in time for Sakura's match which had ended in a tie. Not that it was unexpected, Ino and Saukra were practically matched in ability. They were both unconscious now, and had their backs rested against the wall.

"Sakura-chan deserved the win . . ." Naruto grumbled to himself.

"I'm proud of them," Riki said, smiling slightly.

"You should worry a little more about yourself, Riki," she heard Kakashi say from behind her.

"Huh?"