We were standing in front of the Hokage. Behind him were the team senseis, and around the old man were proctors, all with a serious look on their face and looking at us. We, the genin, were standing straight, with our heads raised and with impassive faces. Hinata stood in the front row, on her right stood Naruto, and on her left stood Ino, I was in the second row, on my right being Sasuke and on my left being my brother, behind me was Shino. I looked around and saw Kabuto's team, Neji's team, Gaara's team, and a team from sound, recognizing them from the anime.

"First of all, congratulations on finishing the second exam." Anko addressed us loudly, so that we all stood even more straighter.

"I'm hungry." Choji whined.

"What a drag, there are so many left, this is such a pain." Shikamaru complained.

"Sasuke and his team passed too!" Ino beamed, earning a look from both my brother and Choji.

"Well of course they did. After all the trouble we went to keep them safe, they'd better have passed." My brother commented, rolling his eyes, and slouching.

"Shino. Hinata." I began fully aware that the proctors, senseis, and the Hokage could hear what we were saying. "I'm taking back the leadership role if that's okay with you." Hinata turned to me and nodded.

"Right." She spoke with utter seriousness, but I could hear the undertone of relief in her voice.

"You feeling better then?" Shino asked and I nodded, feeling Kurenai-sensei's gaze on me, knowing full well that she was thinking about what had happened so that Shino and Hinata were acting concerned about me.

Kakashi was talking with Gai-sensei and I had to forcingly keep my face blank, I knew very well what they were talking about then - Gai-sensei appeared shocked for a moment, then practically burst to fire. Then Lee began talking and his eyes began having a fire in them… Gosh, better to avoid those two. I looked at Neji, and he turned to me, our gazes locking for a moment. The interesting part about Neji was, that while his face and posture screamed power and proudness, his eyes were lone and lost, hurting, showing his internal pain every single time he looked at anybody, but those, who didn't know what was going on with him, the fact that he blamed the Main Branch House for his father's death, would never notice the pain he was showing.

"You have a weird team." I spoke, but he didn't comment. "Hope, we'll face off against each other." I said proudly. "Genius vs genius." He smirked and I smiled, turning back to watch the Hokage, head raised high, back straight, muting everyone out.

"Alright now pay attention, Lord Hokage is going to explain the Third Exam to you." Anko spoke up. "You better listen carefully, maggots." Then she turned with head bowed to the eldest man in the building. "Lord Hokage. They're all yours." The old man stepped closer to us and cleared his throat.

"First before I tell you what the Third Exam entails, I want to explain something about the test itself. Listen closely now, it's something that all of you need to understand. I'm going to tell you the true purpose of these Exams. Why do you suppose our country holds these Exams in conjunction with our allies? To raise the ability levels of the shinobi and increase friendship between allied nations to be sure, but it's important that you understand its true meaning. The Exams are so to speak…" he trailed off and closed his eyes, puffing out smoke from his pipe.

"They represent the battles fought between nations." I said, drawing everyone's attention. Looking at the Hokage he nodded and smiled, letting me continue.

"There had been wars between the currently allied nations." My brother said. "Battles fought on battlefields, troublesome if you ask me." He yawned.

"What do you two mean? What does that have to do with the Chuunin Exams?" Tenten asked. Gosh. Were Shikamaru and I the only ones learning history properly?

"It was logical for them to pick certain places, neutral places, where they battled, one nation represented by a group of ninjas, the other nation represented by the other group." I shrugged and slouched, mimicking my brother's posture. "I think it's obvious how the Chuunin Exams started, eh?" I looked at Tenten's puzzled look.

"They selected Chuunin during Exams so that they went to fight against the other nation on those selected places." Shikamaru explained.

"Well, that's great, but why do we have to go through these Exams then?" Naruto asked. "It's not like we do these to pick Chuunin to go fight."

"Well, actually, there's no question that part of the point of these Exams is to select shinobi worthy of becoming Chuunin." The Hokage answered. "That's just not the whole story." He looked challengingly up to us. "But perhaps the Nara twins know the answer to this question as well?" was this another test? I looked at Shikamaru and he looked at me.

"Given the fact that we get to fight against other nations, showing our clans' jutsu in the process…" I started, watching Shikamaru put the pieces together.

"It's showing off our skills, representing our nation in doing so. We show what we can do, so the other nations would be aware. It shows that we trust them to know what we're capable of, but also keep them in fear, them knowing what power we have. A game of power and proudness." He crossed his arms. "Isn't it?" the Hokage puffed out smoke and smiled.

"Many leaders and people of the prominence of various countries are invited to attend this Exam as guests and also possibly to seek shinobi to work for them." The Hokage continued. "This Exam could determine the course of your ninja work from here on out. And more importantly, those rulers will watch your battles and take note of the strength each ninja and each nation is developing. If there is a gap in power between countries, the strong nations are inundated with job requests for their ninja and conversely, the countries deemed weak decline. Therefore, the stronger our nation is, the better our position when it comes to negotiating with neighboring countries. So, it is important to show how much military strength our village has."

I sharply looked at the side and fisted my hands. We were only tools for them.

"But why is it necessary for us to risk our lives?" I heard Sakura's voice.

Because we're only tools for them. Some wrecked things, not meaning a gram. Shikamaru looked at me and sighed shaking slowly his head.

"The country's strength is the village's strength. The village's strength is the shinobi's strength. And the true strength of the shinobi is only achieved when it's pushed to its limits, such as in a life and death battle." the Hokage explained.

Slowly I looked back up, face blank, head high, fists shaking.

"This Exam is a chance for each nation to display the strength of its shinobi and hence the strength of the nation in itself. It's because this is an Exam, where your life is on the line, that it has meaning…"

I didn't listen anymore, being aware of sharp pain in my left hand, looking down seeing that my nails tore off the skin and it was slowly bleeding.

"But then why did you use the expression friendship before?" I heard Tenten asking, but I kept staring at my blood.

"…fighting and dying, in the world of shinobi that is friendship." I looked back up, focusing on the old man once again. "The Third Exam is a fight for life with the pride of your village and your own dreams at stake."

"Well, he sure convinced me." Naruto said proudly.

"Any test is fine, just tell me what the details of the Exam are already, I can handle anything you throw at me." Gaara spoke up and I turned to look at him, he looked… Murderous. Bloodthirsty. I looked down at my bleeding hand and I smiled internally. Finally, somebody like me. I shook my head. What was that thought? I stared at my blood, fear engulfing me on the inside, trying to understand what was going on with my mind.

"Very well then." The Hokage began. "Now listen closely I'm going to tell you exactly what you're going to be doing on the Third Exam." A ninja dropped in front of him and bowed. I immediately knew who he was. Hayate, the coughing guy.

"Lord Hokage. Before you do, please allow me, Geko Hayate, appointed as proctor of the Third Exam to speak first." The elder considered it and let the man speak. That was when Hayate turned to us and man did he look sick. "There's something I would like all of you." He began coughing. "To do before the Third Exam." Was he contagious? He began coughing again. "Ah, we have to have a preliminary Exam before we move on to the real one."

"Huh?" Naruto tilted his head.

"A what?" Sakura questioned.

"PRELIMINARY? JUST WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT?" Shikamaru erupted and I sighed touching my forehead with my good hand.

"Troublesome." I sighed then looked at Hayate. "You really expect Nara clan members to work more than what was expected?" Asuma snorted in the background, I turned to my fuming brother, pointing at him. "Is it wise to anger a Nara?" I asked, then Sakura asked what was the point of the preliminary.

"Ah, you see, the First and Second Exam might have been too easy. The fact is we never expected so many of you to be still here." Hayate admitted. "According to the rules of the Chuunin Exams a preliminary round can be held at any stage in order to reduce the number of candidates remaining." Both Shikamaru and I groaned, earning a look from both our senseis.

"But… Is that fair?" Sakura inquired and I rolled my eyes. Seriously Sakura?

"It's just that at this stage we have to speed up things a bit. As Lord Hokage said a lot of important guests will be watching, we can't afford to waste their time." Hayate went on and I felt my anger building up. "They've come to see only the best." Oh, I can't wait then to show them what I feel about that. "So, if there are any of you who feel not in top of physical condition, now's your chance to" he began coughing. "Sorry about that, as I was saying, any of you, who don't feel up to this now is the time for you to bow out. The preliminaries will be starting immediately."

"We just finished barely surviving the last exam, don't we get a break?" Ino wailed, sounding so broken.

"Man, what a drag." My brother grumbled.

"When do we eat?" Choji whined. I brought up my bloodied hand and licked the wound, tasting the irony blood.

"Oh yeah, ah." Hayate began. " he winners will be determined by one-on-one combat sudden death." I grinned behind my hand. "So, like I said if there's anyone who doesn't feel up to it, now is the time to raise your hand."

I heard Sasuke grunting, knowing very well what was going on, I didn't turn to him. Letting the little drama unfold between the Team 7 members. The proctors began talking, having a jutsu to stop us from hearing their voices clearly. Then Kabuto rose his hand.

"Okay, you got me, I'm out." He said and I turned to him.

"But... Kabuto." Naruto looked at him.

"Yakushi Kabuto of the Leaf Village, right?" Hayate asked. "Okay, you can go on and step back."

"Gotcha." Kabuto began moving.

"Kabuto." Naruto called after him. "Hold on a second! You can't quit!"

"Let him." I growled and Naruto turned to me with a bewildered look.

"But Shikanai!" he whined and I looked at him with a serious look.

"Shut it!" I shouted. "You can't choose for others, Naruto." Just like how we can't choose not to be tools used for power gathering. "It's his choice, let him bear the consequences." Naruto gritted his teeth and fisted his hands. I turned to Kabuto. "What wouldn't you advise me to do this time?" I asked and smirked.

"Would not advise you to die." He began walking away and I turned back to face the proctors and the Hokage, fully aware that Orochimaru was watching me with an unnerving smirk on his fake face.

"Now then, does anybody else wanna quit?" Hayate asked and Team 7 erupted between themselves, but nobody backed out. "Alright then." Hayate straightened. "We will now begin the preliminary round." Then he began explaining how the round will go down, my attention fully reserved for the blood dripping from my hand. "As for the rules there are none." I smirked, looking at the ground. "…time to reveal what fate has been chosen for you." He looked to his right, where a panel appeared. I smiled, knowing exactly what was going to happen, urging to kill somebody.

Two names appeared, one belonging to Dosu, the other to Shino. They were both called in front of us and so they began walking ahead, but when Shino walked past me, he stopped and Hinata turned to us, looking at each other, time seemed to stop, and for a moment we were just Team 8, training on a deserted training ground, late at night, throwing shurikens and jokes at each other, while Kurenai-sensei was watching us with a fond smile.

"Meet us at the Final Exam, Bug-boy." I said, looking ahead, at Hinata. Hinata watched me and smiled, then she encouraged Shino as well.

"Count on me." Shino walked past us, with determined steps.


So, the preliminaries are starting and the matches are not the same as in the anime. I wonder who will end up facing Shikanai...

I don't own Naruto.

By the way, I began reading the manga, I've never read any manga in my life. I must say there are some minor differences between the anime and the manga and I just love to pinpoint them. Anyway, from this week on I'll have exams coming up, so there's a chance I won't upload in a week or two.

Have a nice read!

Emu: Thank you! Hope you like it!