Zaku's arms were fully blown to pieces and he was covered in flames while crying and rolling on the ground.

"Uhmm, I guess Uchiha Sasuke is the winner..." - Scatterbrained Jonin

After she said that, medic-nins rushed towards Zaku and extinguished the flames.

Then they took him on a stretcher and left.

His burns were severe and his both arms were completely missing, but he would likely survive with the fast action of the medic-nin.

"Tch, this idiot Zaku got overconfident and underestimated him greatly, almost like he forgot how he was trashed by him before..." - Dosu

"WHAT?? HEY KAKASHI-SENSEI, WHAT HAPPENED?? WHAT DID SASUKE DO??" - Naruto

"Haaa...didn't you see the threads?" - Kakashi

"What? What threads? Hey Sakura, what is he talking about?" - Naruto

While Naruto was still talking, Kakashi appeared next to Sasuke and told the medic-nins, who wanted to treat Sasuke, that he would do it himself.

Meanwhile near Eiji: "Wow, I really didn't think Sasuke would win this..." - Kotaru

'Sasuke looked really beaten, but that makes his turnaround even more impressive. And the most fearsome thing is that he will continue to grow stronger!' - Lee

'Coming up with such a quick counter in mere seconds while being in danger, really reminds me of you Kakashi.' - Guy

"I mean, it would be kinda embarrassing for our village if someone from the legendary Uchiha clan lost to spaghetti-arms..." - Eiji

"Spaghetti arms? In my opinion, his arms were more like fart cannons." - Arina

"Eh, Arina! Girls aren't supposed to talk about farts and stuff!" - Kotaru

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

"I'm glad you enjoyed watching this fight Eiji, but I still need to talk to you..." - a Tenten with a scary smile reminded everyone that she was also here.

'Shit...I really forgot about her!'

Eiji looked towards his sensei for help, but Hayate instead told him that he would search for some clothes for him and disappeared.

'TRAITOR!!!'

Eiji was checkmated, so he could only ask for forgiveness now: "I know I kinda was a bad friend since the start of this chunin exam, but earlier I was just joking! Nothing happened between me and the chief examination officer, I swear!"

"..." - Tenten

This silence was really making him feel like he could die any second.

But he still had his ultimate trump card when it comes to Tenten, so he said: "Alright I get it, I will treat you to whatever you want after this exam."

"...I want sesame dumplings."

When Kakashi left with Sasuke to treat his curse-mark, the next fighter's names were displayed.

Haruno Sakura vs Yamanaka Ino!

The chance for the same matches as in the original timeline was actually much higher than getting new matches.

It's like having a deck of 20 cards and you always draw 2 cards.

Then without shuffling the deck, you add only 3 cards randomly into the same deck and start to draw 2 cards again.

But somehow, even though the opponents were the same, their match was earlier than in the original timeline.

Either way, Eiji knew that this match was boring as hell, so he just sat on the ground and leaned on the wall.

'This wall is really soft...I wonder if it was a bed before becoming a wall..."

Eiji slowly started to drift into sleep, until Lee who was near him started to cheer for Sakura loudly.

"Ah man, hey Tenten, can't you tell your teammate to stop being so loud? I can't sleep like that!" - Eiji

"WHAT??!! KID, BEING MOTIVATED AND SHOUTING WITH YOUR FULL SPIRIT IS ALL WHAT YOUTH IS ABOUT!!!"

"Yeah, you tell him, Guy-sensei!"

Tenten just shrugged her shoulders.

He then looked at Neji who finally accepted that his team would continue to stay next to Eiji's, so he joined them as well.

When Neji saw Eiji asking him with his gaze to do something about that loud Lee, he just ignored him.

'This damn arrogant fucker! Well, I will show you all, that this won't stop me from sleeping through this boring-ass match!'

He then tried to ignore all the noises around him and really managed to fall asleep.

Meanwhile on the duel stage.

Sakura thought back at the time in the academy, where she was bullied before Ino drove the bullies away and helped her collect flowers for the kunoichi class.

'Ino...that day, you helped me to believe in myself, and I've hung on to that ever since...' (the ribbon Ino gifted her)

Unfortunately, she also remembered suddenly how a certain boy vomited on all their flowers they collected the very same day.

"..."

Automatically her eyes looked towards Eiji, who was sleeping soundly while wearing only his underwear.