𝙇𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙉𝘿𝙀𝙍. | 𝗡𝗔𝗥𝗨𝗧𝗢

XXIV

"TO all of you who have passed the preliminary round of the third phase of the Chunin exams, congratulations." All three proctors each phase of the exams and the Hokage were standing in front of the genin who had passed. From left to right, the genin were Dosu, Naruto, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara, Shikamaru, Neji, Riki and Shino. Sasuke wasn't present.

The Hokage cleared his throat. "Well, I will begin the explanation of the Final Round. The Final Round will show off you battle skills in front of everyone. I want you to satisfactorily demonstrate and show off your ability as representative battle forces of your respective lands. Accordingly, the Final Round will commence one month from now."

"We won't be doin' it here, now?" Naruto asked.

"No, you won't. To know your adversary you need time in order to prepare yourself. Time to analyse what you've learnt about your adversaries in the preliminaries, time to take stock of your successes. The battles until now were like actual battles, it presupposed situations in which you can't know your adversary. But now you do. Some of you may have shown all your skills to your opponents, we're being considerate of that."

The Hokage took a large inhale of his smoking pipe. "Now that that's done, I'd like to let you take your leave . . . But first, for the Final Round, there is one more important affair to take care of."

"What?" Naruto shouted. "Let's get on with it so we can get to training!"

The Hokage ignored Naruto. "In a calm, orderly fashion, all of you take a paper from withing the box Anko is holding in order."

"Take only one each," Anko said as she walked by each applicant. They all took on paper from out of the box each and Anko retired back to her fellow proctors' side. Riki opened up her slip of paper and looked at the number on it. Six.

"Good, now everyone has one. Now, from left to right, tell me the number written on your paper," Ibiki told them

"Nine."

"One, of course."

"Eight."

"Five."

"Three."

"Ten."

"Two."

"Six."

"Seven."

"So that means Sasuke will be number four," Ibiki mumbled as he wrote on a paper.

"Now, I'll explain how the final selection tournament is going to work."

"Huh?" Naruto blinked at the Hokage.

"So that's what the numbers were for, to draw lots," Shikamaru grumbled.

"Ibiki, you may show them which applicant they have been matched up with." Ibiki lifted up the paper he had been writing on per the Hokage's request and showed the genin.

The first bracket was Naruto and Neji, the second bracket was Gaara and Sasuke. The third bracket was—Riki was sure she didn't like the look of that one—Riki and Kankuro, the fifth bracket was Temari and Shino, leaving the Shikamaru and Dosu last.

Fighting Kankuro didn't sound especially nice to the black haired girl, that puppet thing on his back was scary enough. But to be fair, Sasuke and Naruto had it far worse than her. They had to fight Gaara or Neji for their first round, Riki couldn't help but feel bad for them. Maybe she'd send a prayer for Sasuke, he'd need it. Gaara was a certified menace.

"I have a question."

"Go ahead, Shikamaru."

"We're all competing in a tournament with only one winner, right? Does that mean only one of us can become a Chunin?" Shikamaru asked.