Chapter 45: Preliminary Matches
The second exam that followed was smooth sailing.
Or rather, even if there were any troublesome pebbles in their path, they were crushed by Sakura and Naruto, who had recovered most of their combat strength, making the journey to the central tower a smooth one.
On the morning of the third day, after dealing with two squads who tried to ambush them with genjutsu and traps near the tower, the six-person squad had gathered two sets of scrolls and successfully passed the second exam.
On the afternoon of the fifth day, the second exam was declared over. The seven teams that passed, a total of twenty-one people, gathered together in the main hall inside the tower.
Awaiting them were the preliminary matches for the third exam.
The Third Hokage, whom they hadn't seen for many days, greeted them in high spirits and explained the cruel truth of the Chunin Exams to the candidates.
This exam, nominally for selecting Chunin, was in reality a microcosm of the bloody competition between allied nations. Considering that a large-scale conflict would lead to mutual destruction, these so-called allied nations had tacitly chosen the Chunin Exams as a venue to compete for power. Because the final round of the Chunin Exams would invite the daimyo and important figures from various countries to watch, the ninja village that performed outstandingly in the exam would be deemed to have superior strength, thus receiving more mission orders!
Listening to Lord Hokage's speech, Sakura complained inwardly. The "one country, one village" system established by the First Hokage might have been a huge step forward for the Warring States period, but now, after only a hundred years, this system was already showing serious problems.
To put it in broad terms, there was a severe mismatch between the forces of production and the relations of production.
With the help of the education from her previous life, Sakura could view this issue from a very high perspective. But when it came to the specifics of how the forces and relations of production were mismatched and how they needed to be adjusted, these were things the inexperienced Sakura couldn't figure out.
If she had to give her own opinion, she felt that ninja, as the highest productive force, if they were willing to lower themselves to do productive work, then sustaining themselves, and even the world, was achievable.
In the Naruto world, the essence of war was to seize resources for survival. The irony was that the main participants in the war—the ninja—could actually obtain resources through ninjutsu. For example, by using ninjutsu to improve farmland and for farming, it was possible to meet their own survival needs without external warfare. Even more ironically, if a ninja village did obtain resources in this way, before it could use them to develop and grow stronger, it would have already been targeted and carved up by the envious neighboring villages.
Hmm, the more I talk about this example, the more it sounds like Konoha during its founding period.
In addition, the master-servant relationship between Konoha and the Land of Fire under this system was also a trigger for conflict.
In short, Sakura felt that the various chuunibyou aspects of this world were full of things to criticize.
Whether in her past life or this one, neither world had achieved true world peace, but the world of her past life was undoubtedly more peaceful than the Naruto world. At least in her past life, Sakura didn't have to worry about her home country suddenly breaking out into an all-out war, and then as a civilian, being killed by invading enemy forces.
And peace was also one of Sakura's ideals.
Although she hadn't seen much of the ending of Naruto, Sakura knew it was a happy reunion ending, and the various countries seemed to have achieved a certain degree of peace. However, given the level of understanding of politics by Japanese manga artists, Sakura seriously suspected whether the path to peace designed by Kishimoto in the manga could be realized in the real Naruto world.
In any case, she didn't believe that peace could be achieved through the protagonist's talk-no-jutsu.
However, those were matters for later. At least for now, the slender Sakura, no matter how much she disliked this foolish system, did not have enough wisdom or power to change it.
Since she couldn't change the world, she could only adapt to it first.
In short, after the Third Hokage had awed the candidates present, a sickly-looking Hayate Gekkō timely took over the task of hosting the exam.
"Alright then, before the third exam, all candidates will need to participate in a preliminary round to determine if you are qualified to participate in the third exam!" the proctor with heavy dark circles under his eyes said wearily.
"...The above are the rules for the preliminaries."
"Now, we will announce the names of the contestants for the first round!"
The monitor on the wall slowly turned on. Sakura looked up with a cold gaze.
"Uchiha Sasuke VS Akadō Yoroi!"
Knowing that Sasuke has a problem with his body, they deliberately arranged him for the first match so he can get treatment early? Sakura secretly glanced at Kakashi on the viewing platform. After being given the curse mark by Orochimaru, Sasuke's body would now experience bouts of intense pain and weakness from time to time. Even so, with Sasuke's current strength, even without using the Sharingan, dealing with a cannon fodder character wouldn't be a big problem.
"Go straight to the hospital with Kakashi-sensei after you're done. You don't need to wait for us!" Sakura didn't say any words of encouragement, because she had confidence in Sasuke!
"Don't be careless. I'm still waiting to fight you in the main tournament!" Naruto patted Sasuke's shoulder.
"Don't worry... Sakura, Naruto," Sasuke smiled confidently. "I'm off!"
Under Hayate Gekkō's direction, the candidates followed their Jonin leaders up to the viewing platforms, leaving the two opponents in the hall.
The battle below held no suspense.
Although Sasuke couldn't use his Sharingan and was constantly affected by the curse mark, his performance was much stronger than in the original story. Akadō Yoroi was suppressed by him from the start. If it weren't for the curse mark flaring up painfully every time Sasuke wanted to finish off his opponent, Yoroi would have had no way of holding on until now.
"Kakashi-sensei..." Seeing that the match was about to end, Sakura, who had been hesitating for a while, finally made up her mind.
"Hmm? Is something wrong, Sakura?"
"After the preliminary matches are over, I have something important I want to tell you."
"Something important..." Kakashi repeated Sakura's words meaninglessly, his mind completely focused on Sasuke below.
Just now, under a series of clean and sharp taijutsu strikes from Sasuke, Yoroi had suffered successive setbacks. Just as he was about to deliver the final blow, the curse mark suddenly flared up with unprecedented intensity. Sasuke instantly clutched his neck in pain and collapsed to the ground, losing his ability to fight. Strange, black, tadpole-like markings spread across half his body!
The situation was instantly reversed!
Sasuke, collapsed on the ground, was brutally beaten by the previously battered Yoroi. The curse mark had drained all his strength; at this moment, he was completely powerless to fight back!
This is it... Looking at Sasuke's pained expression, the same thought appeared in the minds of the proctor and Kakashi!
"Sasuke, do you still deserve to be called an Uchiha Sasuke like this?" Seeing the weak and powerless Sasuke below, Naruto shouted angrily. "Don't let us see you looking so pathetic!"
"Are you just going to submit to the power of the curse mark like that? Sasuke, we promised to fight in the main tournament!" Sakura also shouted!
Just like in a hot-blooded manga, the curse mark, which was about to spread over his entire body, was actually forcefully pushed back by Sasuke's willpower after he heard the voices of Naruto and Sakura! This wasn't unscientific; chakra itself was a combination of spiritual and physical energy, so the stronger a person's willpower, the greater the power their chakra could exert!
Power... has returned to my body! With an angry punch, Sasuke ended Yoroi's dream!
"First round, winner, Uchiha Sasuke!" the proctor said lazily, glancing at the unconscious Yoroi on the ground!
"Oh, right, the important thing!" Kakashi finally turned his attention back to Sakura. "Alright, I'll come find you after the matches are over!"
After speaking, Kakashi used a Body Flicker to appear behind Sasuke and left the hall with him.
Next was the second match.
"Zaku Abumi VS Aburame Shino!"
Basically the same as the original story.
These matches were not randomly arranged, but were scheduled after some consideration.
For example, Sasuke, because he had an injury that needed to be treated quickly, was arranged for the first match, and his opponent was also chosen to be a not-so-strong ninja from Konoha to accommodate him.
The other matches were also arranged as much as possible according to equal strength or other principles.
Apart from Sakura and the characters around her, the strength of the other side characters was not too different from the original story, so their match arrangements wouldn't deviate much from the original either.
Sakura was certain that she would not be matched against Ino again, because that would be too much bullying. Among the ninja present, her potential opponents were likely one of Neji, Lee, Gaara, or Naruto. The most likely was still Neji. After all, a confrontation between the genius ninja who graduated last year and the genius ninja who graduated this year was the most dramatic.
Second match. Zaku, on the floor below, was toyed with by Shino's... no, Shino's various insect secret jutsu. In the end, he blew off his own arms and was judged to have lost due to being unconscious.
The third match was Misumi Tsurugi VS Kankuro.
Kankuro's puppet disguise was very successful, even fooling the proctors who were watching the match. Misumi, with his flexible body, completely entangled Kankuro's... puppet, which was the key to his swift defeat.
To be honest, Sakura didn't quite understand why his instructor would teach him this fighting style. This special skill was completely unsuitable for combat. The closer a ninja gets, the greater the danger. How had he survived until now with such a suicidal taijutsu style?
"...Because Misumi Tsurugi is unable to continue the match, the winner of the third round is Kankuro! Next, we will proceed with the fourth round!"
New words appeared on the screen.
"Haruno Sakura VS Hyuga Neji!"
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