Chapter 34: End of the Preliminaries
Soon, the preliminaries ended with 15 winners.
Sabaku Gaara, Hyuga Neji, Nara Shikamaru, Hyuga Hinata, Namikaze Azumi, Aburame Shino, Fuu, Higurashi Tenten, Akimichi Choji, Asahi Ren, Amanto Azura from Kumo, Kimino Kanon from Kumo, Sabaku Temari, Kiriya Muro from Ame, and Mihiha Lia from Ame.
Except for Ren, it is hard to determine who is the strongest out of all of them. Each Genin is a master of their techniques, some of them even nearing Jonin level. None of them are pushovers, and now, the competition is going to be far more tense than ever before because of one thing.
Minato stood in front of the Genins and their Jonin-sensei, with Hayate and Kakashi by his side. On his left is a table with a glass bowl on top of it. In it are strips of papers, possibly containing numbers.
As he looked at them, he started to announce something.
"Before we start choosing pairs to fight in the semi-finals, let me say something first. Previous Chunin Exams held no prizes for the winners, with only a potential promotion from the higher-ups. From now on, I plan to change this. There will be prizes for the top three genins in the upcoming finals."
When they heard that, the genins were surprised. This is definitely a first, and except for Ren, all of them were interested.
The jonins seem to have prior knowledge of this because of the poker faces they have.
"Let me start with the rewards. Third place will receive a hundred thousand ryo, second place will receive five boxes of kunai, one scroll of a B-Rank Jutsu, and unless it's a forbidden jutsu, you get to choose which one. And finally, first place will receive five-hundred-thousand ryo, a scroll for an A-Rank Jutsu, a crate full of exploding tags, boxes of shurikens and other ninja tools. Along with that, the first place winner will immediately be promoted to chunin. Any questions?"
He looked around for a moment, and seeing that no one was raising their hands, he continued.
"Alright then, let us start drawing from this bowl here. Each paper stripe has a number on them. After all of you have drawn a number, then from there we will decide who your opponent is going to be. Alright, for a line."
With that, one by one, they drew a stripe of paper. By the end of it, there was a single stripe left in the bowl, and that belonged to Gaara. He is currently being treated by medical experts, that's why he's not here.
Then, Minato nodded, and said, "All right, show me your numbers. And Kakashi, bring a pen and a paper."
The one-eyed jonin disappeared almost immediately, and as soon as the genins showed him the numbers they'd drawn, Kakashi came back with a pad and a pen, and gave them to his leader.
Looking at the strips of papers that the genins held, the Hokage then started to write something on the pad. After a moment, he stopped, and smiled.
Neji drew 1, Azura drew 2, Fuu drew 3, Shino drew 4, Shikamaru drew 5, Temari drew 6, Tenten drew 7, Choji drew 8, Kanon drew 9, Hinata drew 10, Muro drew 11, Lia drew 12, Azumi drew 13, and Ren drew 15.
Minato showed them the pad, which is where he drew a graph. There were 7 seven fights in total, with all of them connected. The winner of the first and second fight will fight, and so on.
First Fight: Neji vs Azura.
Second Fight: Fuu vs Shino.
Third Fight: Shikamaru vs Temari.
Fourth Fight: Tenten vs Choji.
Fifth Fight: Kanon vs Hinata.
Sixth Fight: Muro vs Lia.
Seventh Fight: Azumi vs Gaara.
Winner of First Fight vs Winner of Second Fight.
Winner of Third Fight vs Winner of Fourth Fight.
Winner of Fifth Fight vs Winner of Sixth Fight.
Ren is written to already advance in the semi-finals. That means that the winner of the seventh fight will be the one to fight Ren.
Azumi's face almost fell. It's bad enough that she has to fight Gaara but to also fight that tomato head after that? That's just overkill.
Ren, meanwhile, still has his eyes closed. Possibly meditating.
Seeing their reactions, the fourth Hokage chuckled again.
"I see that not all of you agree with this graph I made," and then said, "Well, let's wrap this all up. All of you will have a month to train before the semi-finals begin, and I know a lot of you are wondering why we even need that. It's so that we can properly prepare for the event. We have a lot of very important people coming here, after all."
Well, they're important until someone pays the proper amount for their head.
After saying a few more things, he dismissed the genins, telling them to train hard and stuff like that. He didn't let his jonins leave just yet.
When Helel opened his eyes, he was now alone with the Hokage, along with Kurenai, Asuma, Itachi, Ebisu, Kakashi, and Hayate. Gai wasn't here for personal reasons.
"I know I told you that we'd meet at the office earlier but since we're the only ones here, we might as well start with the questioning," Minato said to him with a very serious look on his face.
Helel nodded, and said, "Alright."
"Now, Kurenai said earlier that you used a very powerful healing jutsu that cured Sakura of all of her wounds instantly. What is it? And where did you learn it?" He asked, with curiosity in his eyes.
"It's called 'Ultimate Heal'. It's an S-Rank forbidden jutsu that I learned from a man who refused to tell me his name. Nonetheless, he took pity in me and taught me things secretly at a very young age," He answered with some vagueness.
Minato thought about it, and then said, "I see. How about that demonic form you took on earlier? Was that part of Kyuubi influencing you or was it from the same man that taught you?"
Ren chuckled, saying, "Well, you're spot-on with that one. The Kyuubi taught me that technique, saying that it doesn't want a weak jailer. Other than a few physical enhancements and the demonic features that I gained, it is nothing special."
That's a total lie. Demon's Brutality has 13 total special moves. Demonic Slash, Demon Claws, Brutal Stab, Demonic Comet Fist, Brutal Dual Chop, Demonic Whirlwind Kick, Red Aura Blast, Demonic Breath, Palm of the Fallen, Ruthless Decapitation, Demonic Move: A Thousand Strike, Balor's Heavy Smash.
Since each user of Demon's Brutality made their own special move, the 13th special move is his own making.
Lucifer's Sword.
When using Demon's Brutality, demonic energy will consume the physical body of the user, which shows when the user gains demonic attributes such as horns or red skin. That's why when practicing this, they say that the more demonic features you have, the more you've mastered this art. While that is true, they tend to forget to say the part when the user turns completely into a demon due to the demonic energy.
Balor didn't know this, and so, he became a demon. The changes are really not that important but if a person doesn't want to be discriminated against, then they better stay away from this martial art.
Anyway, using demonic energy, he was able to form a sword made completely out of it. And since he really had no use for this martial art, he didn't bother to completely master it in his past life. If he had, he would've had a pair of black feathery wings and longer, goat-like, horns. Along with deep red skin and hair just as red.
Well, he has red hair in this life, so that doesn't count.
Narrowing his eyes, Minato said, "So you've been having contact with the Kyuubi, and you didn't tell me?"
"I found no need to tell you about it, Hokage-sama. It was a completely harmless interaction with the beast, and the technique serves no other purpose but for my own safety. Nothing more, nothing less," he answered the village leader without any trouble lying through his teeth.
Minato nodded as he listened to every word Ren had said, and replied, "I see… Very well. For now, you will be dismissed. Now go with your teammates."
With that, his son left the gym, and he sighed.
Ren was lying. He had already seen through it. But he doesn't know what his son is hiding, and he can't just expose him in front of his Jonins.
He had seen the way Ren acts, and even though he would like to just say he's fine, there's no doubt that there's something wrong with him. Just the fact that he was willing to kill Lee just like that, for no apparent reason, is proof of that.
In any case, he'll keep an eye on him for a while until he determines he's good enough. He wants to trust his son and give him the benefit of the doubt, so he'll do just that.
As soon as Helel left the place, his eyes suddenly narrowed to a piercing gaze that left anyone seeing it immediately feel uncomfortable.
'He's on to me. He doesn't openly show it but, at the moment, he doesn't trust me that much. His next move is to probably send a few anbu to spy on me, and determine whether I'm dangerous or not,' he said in his thoughts.
As he walked into the marketplace, disappearing among the crowd, he muttered in a hushed but mocking voice.
"I'll play your game," he smirked, "Father."
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