An Itachi Fanfiction [EDITING]

Preliminary Rounds - Part 1

We stepped through the doorway into a massive arena-like room already filled with the remaining candidates from the Chūnin Exams.

The rookie nine.

The Sound ninja.

Kabuto's teammates.

Rock Lee's team.

The Sand siblings.

Everyone looked exhausted from the Forest of Death.

Bruised.

Dirty.

On edge.

The atmosphere felt suffocating.

At the front of the room stood the Hokage, preparing to explain the next stage of the exams.

But before he could finish—

A coughing fit echoed through the room.

A pale-looking shinobi with dark circles under his eyes appeared before us.

"This is Hayate Gekkō," the Hokage explained calmly. "He will be overseeing the preliminary matches."

Hayate coughed into his hand before speaking.

"There's something all of you should understand before we continue."

His tired eyes swept across the room.

"There are too many remaining candidates."

A murmur spread through the crowd instantly.

"So before the final stage..."

He coughed again.

"...we'll be holding preliminary one-on-one elimination matches."

Naruto immediately panicked.

"One-on-one?!"

"The matches are sudden death," Hayate continued flatly. "If any of you are unable to continue physically, now is your opportunity to withdraw."

As everyone processed the announcement, movement beside me caught my attention.

Sasuke suddenly grabbed his neck sharply.

Pain twisted across his face.

Instinctively, my own hand flew toward my curse mark.

The exact same burning sensation pulsed faintly beneath my skin.

Then slowly—

I looked up.

Toward the Sound instructor standing near the wall.

Toward my father.

Even disguised, I recognised him instantly now.

And he was smiling.

Watching us suffer.

Enjoying it.

Sakura noticed Sasuke trembling immediately.

"Sasuke," she whispered fearfully, "you need to withdraw."

He ignored her.

"It's getting worse," she continued desperately. "Ever since Orochimaru attacked us—"

At the sound of his name, several nearby Genin stiffened.

"It's the curse mark, isn't it?"

Sakura's voice cracked slightly.

"You can barely stand."

"She's right," I said quietly.

Sasuke looked toward me sharply.