The Preliminaries Pt. 1

In the blink of an eye, the remaining five days of the exams passed.

The difficulty of the exam this year had decreased, as there was an increaseing necessity for Chunin with war on the horizon.

As a result, there were a record number of canidates who passed the exam, with over thirty people passing the second phase.

However, even if the leaf still wanted a high quantity of chunin, they also still wanted them to have some level of quality, as an incompetent chunin could lead to the death of those underneath him.

As a result, it was decided that the herd needed to be thinned even further in order to have a proper final exam.

It was decided that there was going to be a preliminary match.

. . . . .

In the five days that had passed since Mizuki had arrived at the tower, he had done relatively little.

All of the teams that their friends were on passed relatively easily, with Guy and his teammates arriving two days and twelve hours into the exam, and Team Asuma arriving four hours later.

As he did not have the tools for it, such as parchment and ink, he could unfotunaetly not continue to experiment with new fuinjutsu.

However, this does not mean that the time was spent poorly, as Mizuki spent the next five days training his Taijutsu alongside Guy, trying to integrate his newfounf ability with his taijutsu.

The result, was that Mizuki began to develop a fighting style unique to him and him alone. A fighting style that would be known and feared across the shinobi world in the coming years.

However, for now, it was simply a slight deviation on the normal Strong Fist style.

Mizuki and his friends were all gathered in one of many large trainingrooms within the tower, where they were practicing various things.

Mizuki and Guy were sparring with one another, with one trying to implement his newfound jutsu and the other using it as an opportunity to try to train against short range ninjutsu.

Anko and Rin were also both training together, as they tried to combatively apply the chakra scalpel technique combined with some water style jutsu and projectiles.

Idate was a no show, as even if he was teammates with Anko and Mizuki, they were hardly aquintances, let alone friends.

Guy's teammates were also a no show, although this was because they did not know the others in the training group, and not because they were not familiar with Guy.

Obito was training alone, as he worked on using futon techniques, which he had learned in order to help enhance his katon, which he had already mastered under Minato's training.

Finally, Kakashi was there as well, also alone.

Although he was not the type to join these sorts of training excercises with other people, he was essentialy dragged there by Rin and Obito.

The fact that some of the strongest genin of their generation being there as well also served as incentive.

Kakashi was beginning to work on a jutsu taught to him by his sensei.

One which was stated to be the pinnacle of shape transformation.

The Rasengan.[1]

. . . . .

The five days finally ended, as Mizuki, alongside the other genin in the tower, awoke to the sound of the proctor's voice, which was clearly being amplified by chakra.

Shinku: "Attention to all genin!"

The voice was so loud, that it could be heard throughout the entire forest.

Shinku: "The second exam has officially ended."

Shinku: "Those of you who are still in the forest please report to the tower immediatly, otherwise wait for further instructions."

And so, the day proceeded as the previous five had for the first couple of hours, as the failed genin trickled into the tower where they were accounted for and then sent away.

After some time had passed, Shinku handed the profiles of those genin who were missing to trackers who would try to find, and hopefully, rescue them.

Shinku: "Now, onto the next order of buisness."

Shinku clapped his hands together, causing a sound which echoed throughout the entire building.

With the genin all stopping what they were doing and waiting for further instructions.

Instantly, the entire tower was emmersed in silence.

Shinku: "Gather in the commons area. You have five minutes."

Frantic scrambling could be heard, as the genin who were still eligable to be chunin all rushed towards the commons area in the centre of the tower.

Mizuki was among these genin, as he and his friends arrived at the location with just short of a minute to spair.

Looking around, Mizuki suddenly realized why the location felt familiar to him.

It was the place where the chunin exam preliminaries were held in the anime!

Mizuki nodded soundly to himself, confident that he knew what the next test would be.

Shinku: "Alright, thank you all for gathering here"

After pausing for a moment, the jonin continued.

Shinku: "I just wanted to briefly congratulate you all on passing the second exam"

Hearing that they officialy passed, the genin all allowed gentle smiles to blossom upon their faces, in a manner that was akin to a less extreme version of the first exam.

Shinku: "However! As there are too many of you here to progress to the third round, there will be a preliminary round held in order to cull the herd."

Hearing these words, an unpleasent grimace can be seen decorating the face of most of the genin, although they kept most of their anger to themselves.

Shinku: "Now then, here is your proctor"

Saying those words, Shinku took a slight bow before stepping away, into a line which also held many other jonin, namely Shikaku Nara, the other members of the Ino-Shika-Cho Combo, and a couple of other jonin that Mizuki vaguely remembered from filler and the like.

However, the one who stepped forward was a completely different member of the Akimichi Clan, one who was dressed in a Samurai like outfit with the Kanji for "food" prominently displayed on the front, which held his standard Akimichi Build.

His light brown hair hair was tied back in a black leaf Bandana, which happened to match his underarmour.

??: "Hello there, my name is Doto Akimichi, and I am the proctor for this exam."

The Akimichi had a slight smile on his face as he observed the future chunin, allthewhilst he was munching on a bag of chips, which he had brought with him as he stepped up to introduce himself.

. . . . .

[1] Kakashi is stated to have created the chidori to compensate for his lack of the ability to add nature transformation to the rasengan. However, as this is before the beggining of the war, it makes sense that he is only starting to learn the rasengan now.