Chapter 137: The Preliminaries Conclude

After the referee declared Ino the victor, the medical team immediately rushed to Neji's side. The medical ninja quickly assessed his injuries and carefully carried him off on a stretcher. Tenten was also sent to the hospital; she'd been brutally beaten by a certain "anonymous strongman" but had stubbornly stayed to watch Neji's match. Now that it was over, it was her turn to receive treatment.

First Hinata, and now Neji the two prodigies of the Hyuga clan had both ended up in the hospital, one after the other.

There were still two matches left.

The air hung thick with the scent of blood. Ino's ninjutsu had ignited Gaara's bloodlust, and he'd mercilessly crushed Dosu from the Sound Village with his "Sand Coffin." It took constant reassurance from Temari, Kankuro, and their Jonin instructor, Baki, to finally quell the murderous rage within him.

The final match was between Lee and Kiba. Both were incredibly fast ninjas, but ultimately, Lee emerged victorious, securing the last spot in the main tournament. He was the only one from Team Guy's squad to advance, while Team 7 had two, Team 8 had two, and Team 10 also had two. It was a fair distribution overall.

The ten who advanced to the main tournament were Sasuke, Shino, Kankuro, Hinata, Temari, Shikamaru, Naruto, Ino, Gaara, and Lee. Of these, seven were from Konoha, and three were from Sunagakure. All the participants from smaller villages had been eliminated, which also seemed reasonable.

Next came the drawing of lots.

Ino drew the first slot.

The final matchups were set: Ino vs. Temari, Gaara vs. Shino, Naruto vs. Lee, Shikamaru vs. Hinata, and Kankuro vs. Sasuke.

Due to the tournament format, it was impossible to determine the top four with just ten participants. After a brief discussion between the Third Hokage and Suna's Jonin instructor, Baki, it was decided that the winners of the Shikamaru vs. Hinata and Kankuro vs. Sasuke matches would face off in an additional round on the day of the tournament to determine the final four.

Baki nodded in agreement. "Sure, whatever you say. We'll go along with it."

The main tournament was scheduled to take place a month later.

The Third Hokage began his lengthy speech with the opening line, "Make good use of this month to prepare yourselves and showcase your strongest abilities during the tournament."

A month later, the ten participants would compete in front of daimyos, wealthy merchants, and political figures from various nations, all vying to become the ultimate victor.

"How boring," Ino thought.

She didn't mind fighting against her fellow villagers, nor did she mind life-and-death battles against enemy ninjas. But she absolutely despised this kind of spectacle, where they were put on display like monkeys for others to gawk at. As someone who wielded immense power, she believed that ninjas deserved at least a basic level of respect. Why should they have to perform in front of weak, clueless politicians? Ninjutsu wasn't some form of entertainment for the masses it was a tool for killing. If the goal was to demonstrate their power, wouldn't it be more effective for a Jonin to unleash a couple of large-scale ninjutsu?

The idea of fighting bloody battles while a crowd of onlookers sat above, casually commenting on their performance, made her feel like some kind of exhibit. It was deeply uncomfortable.

Shikamaru glanced at her and whispered, "Hey, hey, I'm the lazy guy with a bad reputation. I can say stuff like that, but you, the genius, shouldn't."

"I'm just venting," Ino replied.

The Third Hokage's speech dragged on for an hour and a half before he finally dismissed everyone, telling them to go home and prepare.

Naruto was already shouting and running off. After watching Ino's wind-style ninjutsu, he had a sudden epiphany and finally completed his wind-nature chakra training. He rushed off to find Kakashi, hoping to learn a couple of wind-style techniques. Even if he couldn't master them right away, he could always use his Shadow Clone Jutsu to speed up the process!

Team 10 walked out of the central tower together and ran into Asuma.

Both Ino and Shikamaru had made it to the main tournament, while Choji had been eliminated by Naruto. This was a testament to Asuma's teaching skills.

With a hearty laugh, Asuma said, "You all did great. My treat let's go get some ramen."

Choji, still a bit down after losing to Naruto, perked up. "Ramen? I thought we were having barbecue!"

Asuma chuckled awkwardly. The Exploding Tags incident had really done a number on his wallet. Barbecue? He had to borrow money from his monk friend, Chiriku, just to afford ramen! How pitiful was that?

"Eating too much barbecue isn't good for your blood vessels. Let's switch it up. Ramen is delicious too!" he said, trying to justify the change.

In the end, Team 10 enjoyed a meal at Ichiraku Ramen. It was actually pretty good.

After finishing the ramen, Ino bid farewell to Asuma and her teammates and headed home.

Due to Orochimaru's appearance at the Chunin Exams, the village's Jonin were swamped with work, and the intelligence division was even busier. Ino's father, Inoichi, hadn't even attended her match. He only asked about it briefly after dinner.

Ino didn't elaborate much. Neji was a member of the Hyuga branch family, and defeating him didn't carry as much prestige as defeating someone like Chojuro would have.

Inoichi simply asked about her plans for the next month. The village wouldn't assign any missions to the participating genin during this time, so Ino planned to leave the village and continue her training with Tsunade.

Tsunade's whereabouts were notoriously unpredictable, and without the support of the entire intelligence network, finding her would be nearly impossible.

The next day, Ino picked a couple of flowers on her way to the hospital to visit the two Hyuga prodigies.

Hinata was mainly suffering from exhaustion and had recovered after a night's rest.

Neji's injuries were mostly superficial. As a taijutsu expert, such wounds were nothing serious.

Tenten was in the room chatting with Neji, while Lee and his sensei, Might Guy, were outside in the hospital courtyard, jumping rope.

"Hey, you doing okay?" Ino asked, her expression so casual that no one would guess she was the one who had inflicted Neji's injuries. She looked like a concerned passerby.

Both Neji and Tenten looked at her calmly, without any trace of resentment. Regardless of what others thought, Ino had held back during their fight. If it had been a life-or-death battle, Neji would have been done for.

The distance of the fight had been a limitation for her, as was the rule against killing in a match against a fellow villager. Of course, there were also certain areas she couldn't attack when facing a female opponent, which had been a minor restriction for Neji as well. Overall, the match had been fair, and both had fought with restraint.

"You have to defeat that strongman from Suna and avenge me!" Tenten said, puffing out her cheeks in frustration.

By now, the title of "strongman" had spread like wildfire among the genin of Konoha.

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