Konoha's Maelstrom

18

Genma looked along the line of competitors. Seven were there, except for a certain Uchiha.

He turned around and faced the stands, looking over the civilians, foreign people, and other Shinobi in the crowds.

"Show your faces to the crowd. You are the stars of the final round," he muttered just loud enough for the competitors to hear.

And then the Kazekage arrived. After a moment of both the Kazekage and Hokage speaking to each other in their seats, the Hokage stood and walked forward, standing at the railing of his box.

"Everyone, thank you very much for coming to the Konohagakure Chunin Exam," Hiruzen started. "We will now begin the final round matches for the eight who made it through the preliminaries! Please watch until the end!"

Hm, eight for sure, Genma thought tiredly. Kakashi, if your kid is late, he's out, no exceptions.

Genma turned around and addressed the seven genin before him. "I have something to tell you before the match." He reached into his vest and pulled out the revised sheet for the matches, unfolding it and showing it to the kids before him. "Look at this. There was a slight change to the tournament. Check who you'll be facing one more time."

The Nara kid, Shikamaru, looked confused, since he was the one with an extra match. The rest of them also looked a little confused as to why that match was gone, except for the redhead and Meiko. To be honest, Meiko was a bit unexpected to say the least. He'd have expected a small reaction out of her, but no, this kid looked at the sheet, shrugged, and went back to just watching the stands disinterestedly.

After putting it away, Meiko finally spoke. "Say, since Sasuke hasn;t arrived yet, what will happen?"

"In case a competitor does not arrive by the start time of their match, he or she will by default," Genma informed her.

Meiko nodded absentmindedly, casting another glance around, and then she faced Genma again.

"Listen up, you guys," Genma continued. "The terrain is different, but the rule is that there are no rules, the same as the preliminaries. The matches will continue until one or the other dies, or acknowledges defeat. However, if I judge that it has been settled, I'll stop the match there. Arguments will not be allowed. Understand?" Genma glanced at Meiko again. He remembered her preliminary match against the Inuzuka kid, he'd watched in the background as pretty much every Konoha jonin there got ready to jump in and stop her from killing the boy, as if that was all she'd ever done. And he remembered as she stopped, knocked the kid out, and made eye contact with every single Konoha jonin as if to say, "see, unconscious, not dead," like she'd known they had such little faith in her.

Meiko met his glance head-on, a tilt of her head and a challenge in her eyes.

"So the first match is... Meiko Uzumaki... Neji Hyuga. Just those two remain and the rest of you go to the waiting room." After his order, the five whose names weren't said left to the staircase in the wall of the stadium.

Meiko and Neji stayed where they stood.

鳴戸

The crowds were, naturally, excited. There were dozens of whispers running through, all probably expecting the Hyuga prodigy to win.

Hinata and Kiba were sitting beside two Konoha jonin, and Hinata couldn't help but overhear their conversation.

Izumo and Kotetsu were sitting in the crowd, both smirking.

"But to think that brat would survive until this point," Kotetsu murmured, his mind returning to the report of what happened in the preliminaries. It sounded like Meiko had played the Inuzuka kid easily.