IV

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Arc IV Chapter 1

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“And this is my little sister. Look, Asami, how cute she is. A little angel”, Hisaaki rambled on and on since already untold hours, presenting her proudly another picture of his sister.

Asami face palmed. They were indeed the first team to pass second part of the exam, but now they were stuck here in the tower for five whole days, condemned to doing nothing.

Before Hisaaki could start anther eulogy about his cute little sister, Hatsu entered the room and saved her from such a tragic fate. Asami had enough of the siscon Hisaaki and his incredible older brother Tatsuya. Asami had enough of his entire family.

Hatsu approached them, glaring at her.

But Asami didn't care and spoke her mind, “Can we finally leave this shitty tower? I can’t take it anymore.”

Hatsu looked annoyed. ” No, Asami, we won’t leave. I am here to take you with me.”

“And where do we go then, Hatsu-sensei?”

“That's a secret.” Hatsu grinned.

“You know, Hatsu-sensei, I don’t like secrets. In my personal experience, secrets often tend to be very unpleasant surprises.” Hatsu halted her steps, staring at Asami again. It was a hunch, but the words “personal” and “experience” carried far more weight than they were supposed to.

“Well, Asami, I don't care if you like secrets, or not. You still have to follow me.”

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Asami and her team entered a wide room that resembled an arena. In fact, it was an arena. They were the last ones and placed themselves among the already standing Genin, which didn’t go unnoticed.

A few Genin glared at them with the expected degree of animosity. Especially, the Suna trio loved her.

Asami wore her best smile and winked back. Unfriendly people, they had no sense of humour at all.

Hiruzen cleared his throat and started one of his typical sermons.

Bla - third exam - bla - true reason for the Chunin exams - bla - promoting friendship among countries - bla - raise the level of shinobi - bla - comparing the power of the villages - bla – a matter of prestige and influence - bla. Nothing that was surprising if you had just a tiny bit of political acumen.

Another shinobi soon took over and ended this farce. His name was Hayate.

Hayate introduced them to the concept of preliminaries as more teams had passed the exams than predicted. They needed to cut down numbers.

Hayate was met by a sea of blank disbelieving stares. Some of the Genin just couldn’t shut up and didn’t stop complaining. Nah, this wasn’t right, this wasn’t fair. Sakura didn't stop whining. Sasuke here, Sasuke there, curse mark dangerous, you can’t participate. Terribly annoying.

Asami rolled her eyes. She was annoyed. And an annoyed Asami was an exceedingly dangerous Asami. She was bored. Everything was so bothersome and time consuming. Couldn’t she just massacre all of them and be done with it. No, of course, not.

Asami clicked her tongue. She seriously needed some form of stress relieve.

Hayate continued. ”*cough*, *cough* Does anybody else want to follow his example, *cough*, *cough*, and withdraw?”

” Nobody? *cough* Then we have, *cough*, *cough*, a little problem.”

“*cough*, *cough* We planned 12 match-ups. But with 23 candidates, we have now an uneven number of participants. That means that someone of you will get a wild card, *cough*, *cough*. Anyway, we will begin the preliminaries, *cough*, *cough*.”

”The preliminaries consist of 1 vs 1 fights and the winners will receive the right to advance into the final exam. Otherwise, there are no rules at all.”

Asami’s eyes grew wide. Hayate gained her undivided attention. No rules at all? That was interesting, very interesting.

Hayate clarified further,” *cough*, *cough* You will fight until someone dies, collapses, or admits defeat. And please give up right away. We don't want to see any unnecessary corpses.”

“Any questions?“

Asami raised her hand with an innocent smile. She was just a harmless girl.

Hayate turned his head. ”Yes?”

“So does that mean I am allowed to kill my opponent?” Asami was curious.

“From a technical point, yes, you are indeed allowed to kill, albeit I still retain the right to intervene when I judge that unnecessary force is applied. But otherwise, it is up to your abilities.”

Asami nodded.

Hayate looked around. ”Any further questions? No? Then the preliminaries begin.”

Following his command, Anko announced the first prearranged pairing.

Asami yawned, nearly falling asleep. The entire procedure bored, but Anko thankfully ended her agony.

Anko gripped her clipboard. ”The first match will be between Rock Lee and Minami Asami. The candidates shall step forwards.”

“This ... is …. unexpected”, Asami mumbled. Hisaaki overheard her.

“Don’t worry, Asami, I am sure you will make it. I believe in you.“ Hisaaki clenched his fists.

Asami furrowed her eyebrow. ”Really?“

“Thank you, Hisaaki, for your encouragement. Your encouragement is not needed, but still.“ Asami chuckled amused before marching forward.

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