Chapter 36
The second part of the Chunin exam soon ended and the number of ninjas was cleared it was around the same as the one in the original story with a few new faces here and there. A few hours after the second exam ended all of the ninjas were called to a large hall. When one entered the hall the first thing they would be welcomed with was the sight of the statue of two huge arms protruding out of the walls making a hand seal.
Seeing this familiar place Naruto felt quite nostalgic because he had watched this place several times during his rewatching and re-reading sessions. The Hokage who was waiting for them just below the hand seal soon started explaining to them how to Chunin exams serve as a replacement for war among the allied countries which was followed by Gekkou Hayate making an appearance and telling them all about the preliminary match they would be having to weed out the select few who would be participating in the main event.
Hayate then went somewhere to make some arrangements for the matches giving all the participants the chance to interact with each other freely. Tenten who had been holding herself back for a while now finally catapulted towards Naruto aiming for a hug. Naruto who had already seen her approaching him didn't sidestep and received her with open arms.
"You seem to be in good shape. I'm glad." Naruto said as he observed Tenten after getting separated. "What would happen to me?...Oh wait a minute, were you worried about me?" Tenten said teasingly. "Of course I was. Is there even a need to ask?" Naruto said plainly.
Tenten who was not expecting him to be so direct blushed a bit. Naruto didn't mind it and instead continued "Be careful in the next exam. Don't push yourself too hard and if you know that you're no match for the opponent quickly admit defeat. It won't make you less of a person."
"How would I know that I'm weaker than my opponent without even trying." Tenten said not liking what Naruto said about admitting defeat. Hearing this Naruto couldn't help but chuckle to himself inwardly 'yea, considering how Tenten is she wouldn't admit defeat even if I told her to do so.'
Unware to the two of them, their interactions were being observed quite closely by three people in particular. Sakura felt like she needed to hurry up in confessing her feelings for Naruto whereas Hinata became afraid seeing this. She felt as if she was gonna lose Naruto forever when she saw him interacting with Tenten like that and went into a confused state of mind having no idea what she should do to prevent the situation from heading in the direction it appeared to be going.
As for the third person, that was Temari. She knew that she would not be able to end up with Naruto because of what she was going to do to his village but seeing Tenten flirting with Naruto so blatantly made her feel pissed.'This Bitch....tch' Temari thought to herself.
Tenten chatted with Naruto about a few random stuff before joining back to her team as Hayate came back and was ready to announce the start of the preliminary matches. The board were the match-ups would be made randomly soon lit and the participants of the first match were soon visible to everyone.
"Haruno Sakura vs Temari"
Soon both of them entered the fighting arena while glaring at each other. Sakura was internally relieved at first seeing that her opponent was a woman just like her she felt that she won't be much stronger than her. Temari on the other hand was already in a bad mood from seeing Tenten flirting with Naruto earlier and wanted to vent her anger. She was a bit disappointed when she saw that her opponent was a woman because she would have to restrain her blows to enjoy smashing her for a bit longer otherwise she would die easily.
The match soon started as the two ninjas soon took up their fighting stances. Sakura took the initiative by throwing shurikens toward Temari which she deflected easily with the help of the metal surface of the fan behind her back. Seeing that her diversion tactic failed so easily Sakura who had been advancing toward Temari from the side lost her morale and suddenly stopped in her track. Temari didn't let this opportunity go and punched Sakura right in the face.
Sakura took the full brunt of Temari's fist directed right towards her face. The impact of the fist lifted Sakura's body a bit in the air as she coughed up blood which was followed by her slamming to the ground on her back. Sakura who was already felt breathless because of the punch felt that she was about to die from suffocation because of the force with which her body slammed into the ground.
Before Sakura could stabilize her breathing Temari launched a kick directed at Sakura's stomach. The impact made Sakura puke out blood thereby leading to her curled-up body slamming on the walls of the arena producing a large impact. Sakura's frail body was unable to resist so much torment and after coughing up blood again she lost consciousness leading to Hayate directly stopping the match as according to him Sakura was no longer able to continue the fight.
"Tch, so weak" Temari said dissatisfied with her opponent.
'I'm sorry Sakura for not helping you, I think it's best that you learn an early lesson on how weak you really are.' Naruto thought to himself as he saw the bruised-up Sakura being taken on a stretcher to be treated.