Chapter 23

"Yo! It looks like you had it easy, Ka-chan, Ai-chan, Kushina?" Yoruichi joked as she popped out of the combined Heaven and Earth Scrolls. "And Ka-chan, you have some money, right?"

"Oh crap, run for it!" Karma shouted, attempting to escape.

"Ka-chan, what's wrong? Aren't you happy to see me?" Yoruichi smiled as she grabbed him by the back of the collar.

"Karma!" Kushina yelled as she began to move towards the two.

"Kushina, he's dead. We have to move on." Ailane sighed, pulling Kushina back. Kushina looked at Ailane, then back at Karma and nodded solemnly as they began to walk back the way the came.

"Not so fast, you two!" Yoruichi said. "Chunin are supposed to welcome you, but I was given special permission. Since you three are a team, you will all be paying me back together after this. Also, Ka-chan, I will punish you later." With that said, she threw Karma to the others.

"What are we paying for?!" Kushina exclaimed, looking at her teammates.

""Nothing."" The two looked away.

"Ka-chan is having two very expensive weapons made for himself." Yoruichi explained.

"You don't need a weapon..." Kushina sighed.

"Anyway, you have passed the exam, congratulations!" Yoruichi moved on. "I know about the stupid snake, but I think the exams will still continue normally. Preliminaries for the third exam are next since so many will pass thanks to you!" Yoruichi sighed. "Follow me, at the center of the tower, there's an arena that will be used for the preliminaries. For now, though, we'll just wait there for everyone else to finish the exam. By the way, Ibaraki completed the exam in 2 hours."

Two days later, the exams finished and everyone waited in the arena. The Genin were lined up in front of the Hokage while their Jonin instructors were behind him. On either side of the Hokage several Chunin, Anko and Yoruichi stood.

"First of all, congratulations on passing the exams. 8 Teams managed to pass, a total of 24 people." Anko announced.

"At least those Sound ninja didn't pass." Choji replied to Shikamaru complaining about the amount of people. Most of the Genin seemed satisfied with passing so far.

While Guy was making noise with Kakashi, Himari was staring intently at Karma. Kurenai also kept glancing at him. Karma had to admit, even if it was natural, it was a little embarrassing being the center of attention. Especially when he knew that everyone was having an inner dialogue at the moment. While everyone was having their own inner dialogue he was wondering who his opponent would be.

'To think there are this many left.' The Third Hokage thought. 'Moreover, of those left, almost all are rookies. So they really were worthy of recommendations.'

"Now the Third Hokage will explain the third exam." Anko took everyone out of their thoughts.

He took a step forward and spoke. "Before I tell you what the third exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself. I have just one thing I want to tell everyone bluntly. The true purpose of the exams is a proxy war between allied nations, so to speak. In order to prevent full scale conflict to occur and the needless destruction of each others military strength, the allied nations created a grounds for their battle. That is how the Chunin Exams began.

There is no doubt these exams are to select those worthy of becoming Chunin. However, they also serve as a place for shinobi carrying their nation's pride to fight it out. Many feudal lords and rich will come to watch the third exam. This may determine the future of your ninja work. They also watch to take note of how well a nation is raising their ninja. Those that fall behind get less requests. The nation's strength is the village's strength. The village's strength is the Shinobi'-"

"Old man, get on with it. I'm growing as old as you listening." Yoruichi interrupted.

"Ahem. Then this is where I explain the third part of the exam." the Hokage coughed embarrassingly. Then one of the Chunin jumped out of line and kneeled before the Hokage.

"Please allow me, Hayate Gekko, who was given the task of being the judge for this part of the exam, to speak first, sir." He said.

"Go ahead." Yoruichi said even before the Hokage causing the latter to sigh and wave his hand.

Getting approval Hayate turned back to the Genin. "Now then, I'll begin the introduction. The third exam preliminaries will be one-on-one individual battles. In other words, actual battle format. There are now 24 people, so we will conduct 12 battles. The winners will move on to the third exam. There are no rules at all. You will fight until someone dies, collapses or admits defeat. Please admit defeat right away if you don't want to die. I don't want to needlessly increase dead bodies, so if I judge that a match is over, I will intervene."

Behind him, a panel on the wall opened, revealing an electronic signboard. "Two opponents will be randomly chosen and displayed on this electronic signboard. Now then, let's get right down to it, and announce the names for the first battle." Hayate said. Behind him, the signboard displayed the names Karma Nekotsume and Kankuro.

"Karma! You're not allowed to sleep after you're done, by the way. You have to watch the matches." Yoruichi called out preemptively.

Authors Note: I'm having surgery tomorrow so idk if I'll be able to update. That's why I'm doing two chap today.