Thanks to Kizaru's timely rescue and Tsunade's exceptional medical skills, when Onoki hurriedly arrived at the Konoha Hospital, Kitsuchi had already been out of life-threatening danger.
"Tsuchikage, don't worry. Kitsuchi is out of danger and is undergoing treatment."
Receiving the news first, the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, arrived at the hospital even before Onoki, and had already gathered all the information.
"Where's Kitsuchi?" Knowing that his son was no longer in danger, Onoki breathed a sigh of relief in his heart, and his expression calmed down.
"Follow me."
With those words, Hiruzen led Onoki into the treatment room where Kitsuchi was.
At this point, the wound on Kitsuchi's abdomen had already been sutured by Tsunade, and a medical Jonin was using medical ninjutsu to continue the follow-up treatment.
"Kitsuchi..." Seeing his son lying pale on the hospital bed due to excessive blood loss, Onoki felt a surge of anger in his heart.
Although he knew that casualties in the Chunin Exams were normal, when it happened to his only son, Onoki still felt angry.
Especially after hearing a more detailed report from his subordinates on the way to the hospital.
Those bastards from Sunagakure are just a bunch of despicable scoundrels!
"Tsuchikage-sama, your son is safe, but his internal organs are severely damaged and will require a long period of rest and recuperation."
In the treatment room, Tsunade, who was examining the medical records and test results, saw Hiruzen bringing Onoki into the room and approached to explain the situation.
"Are there any complications?" Onoki asked with concern as he looked at Tsunade.
"No, but he won't be able to engage in strenuous activities for at least six months." Tsunade replied directly.
Nodding, Onoki calmly looked back at Kitsuchi, his mind racing with thoughts.
Sunagakure was preparing to ally with him when such a thing happened. Was it an accident, or was someone playing tricks behind the scenes?
If someone was causing trouble in secret, the most likely suspects were either Kumogakure or Konoha. Only these two villages would not want to see Iwagakure and Sunagakure ally.
Thinking of this, Onoki turned to look at the Third Hokage, Hiruzen, who was not far away.
Feeling Onoki's gaze, Hiruzen also looked at him and gave a faint smile.
With the situation unclear, Onoki refrained from making a judgment for the time being. He planned to wait until Kitsuchi's treatment was over and then privately seek out another surviving Iwagakure ninja to learn more about the details of what happened.
The critical injury of the Tsuchikage's son did not affect the continuation of the second round of the Chunin Exams.
In the three days and three nights that followed, among the 24 teams of Genin who advanced to the second round, a total of six teams successfully collected both scrolls and reached the destination.
The Raikage's son, Ay's team, also made it among the teams that advanced.
Although they suffered broken ribs and serious injuries from the battle with Kitsuchi, with the help of Blue B, they still managed to advance.
On Konoha's side, it had the best results among all participating ninja villages, with a total of three teams advancing.
The teams of Minato, Duy, and Nawaki, the team of Inabi, Toda, and Yuki, team of genin who have graduated from the family's secret technique for a year.
The team of Genin led by Rasa also successfully advanced to the third round.
Apart from these five teams from the five major countries, there was also a team from Amegakure that successfully advanced to the third round.
Such results made Hanzo, who personally led the team to participate in the competition, very satisfied, feeling that his subordinates had given him enough face.
After the second round of the exam ended, there was not much time for the examinees to rest. In the afternoon of the same day, the first match of the third round exam, the main selection match, was held.
Among the six teams, one ninja from Kumogakure died in battle, causing the order to be disrupted. Names were randomly drawn for 1v1 battles, with the winners advancing to the main competition a week later, and the losers being eliminated directly.
As the chief examiner of the third round of the exam, Kizaru was wearing his yellow striped suit with a white coat draped over it, with the Shimura clan emblem on the back of the coat.
Wearing tea-colored sunglasses and with his hands in his pockets, Kizaru walked to the center of the arena under the gaze of all the examinees and the Jonin who led the teams.
Looking around, Kizaru showed his trademark smile and began to speak.
"You Genins, each one of you is as strong as a monster! It's really terrifying!"
A's voice sounded very clear in the enclosed arena, and everyone present could hear it clearly.
Having just ended the Second War by defeating three villages single-handedly, Kizaru was currently riding high on his reputation.
Combined with his iconic style of dressing, the ninja present recognized his identity, the golden flash of Konoha.
Being called a monster by a bona fide monster himself, the Genin who advanced to the third round had complex expressions.
"You, a real monster, dare to call us monsters? How shameless!"
While everyone was silently complaining about A in their hearts, the names of the first match opponents were displayed on the electronic screen in front of the arena.
Duy vs. Karura
"Ohoho! It's me in the first match! I feel myself burning up!"
Shouting excitedly, Duy leaped down from the second-floor platform and into the arena.
"Come on, Duy!" Standing beside Minato, Nawaki cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted loudly.
"Hmm!" Looking at Nawaki, Duy raised his right hand high and gave a thumbs-up.
"Konoha idiots!" Also staying on the second-floor platform, Rasa watched Duy and Nawaki's interaction, arms crossed, and started to mock.
After mocking, Rasa looked at Karura and encouraged her, "Karura, go defeat that idiot!"
"Okay!" With a gentle response, Karura showed a determined look and jumped down from the second-floor platform.
Standing in the center of the arena, watching Karura and Duy walk to his sides, A felt quite amused.
This match was simply a version of Rock Lee vs. Gaara from the anime, except with the strengths reversed.
Super-enhanced version of Duy vs. debuffed version of Gaara.
"Begin!" Announcing the start of the match, Kizaru jumped onto a stone statue at the edge of the arena.
Facing the twelve-year-old Karura without a tailed beast, Duy didn't use the Eight Gates.
Relying solely on Taijutsu, Duy fought against Karura.
Karura's manipulation of sand jutsu was very skilled, but facing Duy, who had been trained by Kizaru, she was still weaker.
With outstanding explosiveness, astonishing speed, and formidable strength, Duy quickly broke through the sand barrier controlled by Karura and directly hit him with Leaf Hurricane, sending Karura flying.
"This guy is so strong!"
Watching Duy's fight, Ay, who was receiving urgent treatment, made an evaluation in his mind.
As fellow experts in Taijutsu, Ay could more intuitively feel Duy's strength.
But, he's not my match!
Analyzing Duy's performance, Ay made a confident assessment in his mind.
After Duy won the first match, the second match immediately began.
The second match was an internal conflict of Konoha, Inabi vs. Nawaki.
The topic and attention were instantly maxed out with an Uchiha vs. a member of the Senju clan.
With two Sharingan, Inabi initially had the upper hand in the battle, relying on his excellent Fire Release and Genjutsu, firmly suppressing Nawaki.
But as the battle progressed, Nawaki also demonstrated the advantages of the Senju clan, which were excellent physical qualities and a vast chakra reserve.
Inabi could inflict damage on Nawaki, but lacking a decisive blow, as it was widely known, Fire Release could not kill.
And Nawaki, relying on his decent Earth Release ninjutsu and Taijutsu, gradually withstood Inabi's initial onslaught, dragging the battle into a war of attrition.
Once the battle entered this phase, it came into Nawaki's domain of expertise. After fighting for over ten minutes, the battle ended with Inabi's chakra depletion.
Gasping for breath, with many burns on his body, Nawaki, who managed to stay standing, watched Inabi fall and smiled.
"I... I won!"
After saying that, Nawaki couldn't hold on any longer and blacked out, falling forward.
As the chief examiner, Kizaru naturally couldn't watch his nephew fall. He appeared in front of Karura with a Body Flicker technique, reaching out to support him.
Letting the medical team prepared by the village come on stage, lift both of them off, Kizaru then used Earth Release ninjutsu to restore the arena's surface.
After doing all this, A began the third match, with Minato vs. Matsutani, a Puppet Master.
This match didn't need much explanation; Minato didn't even use Rasengan, just relying on several Wind Release ninjutsu taught to him by his foster father, Danzo, to defeat Matsutani.
Starting from Minato's match, the following matches were basically crushing victories with no suspense.
Rasa won vs. Kusano from Amegakure, Ay won vs. Yuki, Toda won vs. Morimoto from Amegakure...
In the end, after an afternoon of matches, the preliminary round of the third round ended perfectly, with a total of nine people advancing to the main competition a week later. Because there were 17 participants, one lucky person from Amegakure got a bye and advanced directly.
After drawing numbers, the opponents of these nine people for a week later were also randomly assigned.
Rasa vs. Ay, Blue B vs. Duy, Minato vs. Nawaki, Toda vs. Ichiro from Amegakure, and Aburame Shibi got a lucky bye.