Ch17- Chunin exams Part 2

"Do you have the scroll?"

"Yeah," answered Namaki who was currently busy skinning a wild boar for dinner, while Semaru was looking for vegetables and fruits.

They had already been here for four days. And to be honest, enemy teams were the smallest of their worries. They had easily gotten their second scroll after finding the remains of a team of participants.

The hardest part of this stage was to survive the huge amount of wild beasts which inhabited this place. They had already seen the corpses of 6 people, only one being a full team, and a single one of the Genin being probably used as bait or distraction.

*** (Time skip cause nothing interesting happens) ***

"Congratulations to all of you! All of you will have the opportunity to showcase your abilities for many important people in two weeks, seeing as none of you have any fatal injuries.

Indeed, those that had passed had not been wounded much as the blood would have surely attracted predators, while the injuries would have prevented the use of their maximal potential. All those that had been wounded severely were already in a beast's stomach or with huge amounts of luck in the hospital.

With a fatality rate of 50% and a success rate of merely 32%, most had lost their lives, and even more had gotten mental health issues after the previous round. Unfortunately for the other villages, Kirigakure had made everyone sign a non-liability contract in case of any damage."

(28 participants, 14 survivors, 9 passed)

***

"Round Number one! Mibu of the sounds vs. Semaru Hyuuga of the leaf!"

As the match started, Semaru immediately went on the defensive as he knew nothing about his enemy. However, before he could finish his thought process, Mibu suddenly appeared behind him, blowing wind into his ear and rubbing her boobs against his back.

Although he was surprised by the fast movement, he quickly ignored the strange smell, and wind movement and started attacking the enemy's chakra points.

As he continued fighting, he felt increasingly comfortable until his punches stopped having any real strength behind them.

To the observer, it looked like Mibu would just appear behind him from time to time without doing anything while tanking all the incoming hits.

"Come, darling, relax. I'll wake you when you have to go to work tomorrow. Until then sleep."

Semaru had now completely relaxed and had put his head down onto Mibu's lap, who continued talking with him, even going as far as singing a lullaby.

"The winner of the match i-"

Before the proctor could finish his words, Semaru's eyes suddenly sprang open as he headbutted Mibu from below.

As everyone was deciding whether to boo or cheer, Semaru immediately attacked before his enemy could recover, sealing all her chakra.

Naturally, this 180° turn exited the crowd as Semaru had basically won the match since his enemy was unable to move.

"I surrender."

"The winner is Mibu of the sound. Next is Gojou of the mist vs. Ukita Kinu of the sound!"

It seemed that although Semaru had largely escaped from the effects, he was still unable to completely get control back as Mibu was still able to manipulate him into letting her win.

"Begin!"

The battle was rather boring, as Gojou easily countered the Jutsus of his enemy. It didn't even take five minutes until the battle was over with the Kiri-nin being the winner.

"Fujioko of the Mist against Namiko of the leaf. Begin!"

"[Water Style: Hidden Mist Jutsu]"

She wasn't very surprised seeing this Jutsu, as most Kiri-nins were able to use it. As such, she had already prepared a counter beforehand.

"[Fire Release: Big Flame Bullet]"

As the immense heat dispersed the mist, Nazami noticed a chakra signature coming right at her. Holding up her kunai, she barely blocked the blow from the enemy's sword.

Having defended the attack she quickly disappeared behind an Earth wall before throwing a barrage of kunai at her enemy.

Since Fujioko used his sword to block most of them, he only sustained minor injuries.

However black lines slowly started to spread out from his wounds, forming a seal that temporarily stopped his movements.

"[Water Release: High-Pressure slicer]"

Using the nearby Water as fuel, Namiko's chakra cost was highly reduced as the still paralyzed Kiri-nin was almost sliced in half.

"I surrender."

Noticing that he had just almost died, Fujioko quickly decided to surrender. He had been injured by the previous attack after he had underestimated his opponent quite a bit.

Although he knew now to be careful, his sword had been destroyed and he had a deep wound on his arm and abdomen.

For his safety, he decided that it would be better to surrender now instead of struggling to win in exchange for something that would most likely be his death.

"The last match will be Konoe Yasu of the mist vs. Namaki Uzumaki of the leaf."

Namaki knew better than to go all out and show her strength since many of the attending shinobi could be able to connect her with Iwa's scale of death. Many veterans were currently in the stands, with some having seen her fight in some large-scale battles.

"Begin!"

Since Namaki specialized in stealth, she quickly hid her chakra and hid behind a wall of earth.

But as her enemy came bursting through the wall, Namaki had long since disappeared making it impossible for anyone weaker than a Jonin to find her. If her enemy would be a highly talented sensor kunoichi, she would still be able to sense her since she limited her skills. But she was not and was unable to properly react when she was engulfed in stone from the neck down while a kunai was held against her neck.

While most had figured out it was a bad matchup, Namaki knew otherwise. In her eyes, her enemy was similar to a toddler who had just barely mastered the art of walking while she was already an adult, participating in running competitions against Might Guy.

"The winner is Namaki Uzumaki of the hidden leaf!"

While her battle was not nearly as flashy as all the others, cheers still erupted due to the nature of how she won.

As the normal spectators cheered at the speed she won, the shinobi analyzed her ability as an assassin and were highly impressed by her abilities.

***

The rest of the tournament was rather dull. The sound kunoichi lost against the Kiri shinobi since her tricks had been shown in the previous battle.

Although Namaki and Namiko had an epic battle, both held back and in the end, Namaki surrendered. Not only because Namiko countered her because of the usage of seals, but also because she wanted her to get more combat experience since that was something she wasn't really in need of.

As such, they made their way back towards Konoha.

***

Good job all of you, although your year isn't the best you still sat at the top of it and all made it into the finals and did your best.

"Namiko and Namaki you are hereby promoted to Chunin. Semaru, you will be assigned a solo mission where we will further check if you are ready to be promoted. Be ready, tomorrow morning in my office."

"You are dismissed, except Namaki. Stay here for a minute."

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

As her team left, only Namaki was left in the office. Although she already knew what his question was, she still waited for him to start.

"Namaki Uzumaki, I want you to join the ANBU."

"No thanks, I have no interest in being separated from my sister and she is quite unsuited for ANBU." There was no way she could join Konoha's Anbu. It would just let her secret be exposed and as such, she used the convenient excuse of Namiko. Though what she said was also true, she wanted to stay with her to ensure her safety and train her. Additionally, Namiko was not suitable to join the Anbu, most Uzumaki weren't.

Though in secret Namiko was more suited than most people thought.

"Alright, I still hope you are alright with receiving necessary training if you ever change your mind or an emergency comes up."

"That's alright." She knew that it was risky, but it would help her since she would be able to increase the threshold at which she could reveal her abilities. Naturally, she would never be able to reveal everything since that would almost certainly reveal her Identity.

***

"So what did he say?"

"The Hokage asked me to join the Anbu and I declined." Widening his eyes, Semaru almost fell off his chair. "Never mind, you're strange enough that it makes sense for you to do that."

Kakashi, having already anticipated this wasn't surprised and instead invited his team for food in Yakiniku Q for BBQ.

Since he was paying, his team went completely ham and almost cost him his entire monthly salary with the main perpetrator being a certain Uzumaki who mumbled about wanting to eat some ramen instead.

The next morning all of them would curse Namaki because she encouraged all of them to drink, causing the whole team to get a hangover.

Even Kakashi had drunk way too much and was trying his best not to bring his student over to the T&I department for revenge.