Ino and Choji was kinda surprised that a common girl manage to beat Shikamaru in battle and it was in tactics.

He would always lure his opponents into his traps and always leads them right through his nose. Maybe he just tired or didn't have any will to continue but him having to surrender like that, it was unlikely and it demotivates Choji when he has to battle.

As Shikamaru slowly climb up, he can only sighed at the ingenuity Kizuna made as he felt like he lost something he was good at. Not only that, he knew that even if me manage to not only caught Kizuna's clone and the real one, there was already a third clone waiting for him which he was surprised by.

Unlike him who he would made do with his creativity, Kizuna was most likely planning more ahead and set uo many ideas before starting the match.

He even noticed one of the Kunais she threw had a symbol on it which kinda surprises him but he understands that it might had been well-hidden apart from the multiple weapons being thrown apart. Plus, he saw after the match that she picked up the kunais with symbols and knew that it might be a back-up plan that she had.

'Either way, i still lose...'

Shikamaru might had more ideas but he doesn't have the versatility of Kizuna.

After their match was over, it was Naruto Vs. Kiba.

At first glance, Naruto had the disadvantage even with his shadow clones but he was more durable to take a beating and manage to caught Kiba off guard and hit him. Ended up winning.

He really took a beating as he was being healed by Kizuna whom was happy that her friend had manage to win.

After his match was over, it was now a match against the Hyuuga Siblings.

Neji was purely hating on Hinata due to a certain incident and he wanted to beat her badly but after he saw her determination to win, he was shaken.

He wouldn't be this shaken on the resolve to beat up a Main member of the clan but once he saw Kizuna's relentless improvements and the dead-last Naruto's persistent attitude, he was quite impressed that he only beat her up and didn't beat into her psyche but he was still arrogant which pisses Naruto and Kizuna off.

The matches resume and it was Lee Vs Gaara.

This was the first time she saw pure bloodlust that seep through Gaara. This quite shocks her due to him being reminded of Naruto who was also like this in the past.

Their battle continues to gain tension as Lee began dropping weights and going faster. He even started using the gates which Kizuna also learned it but not as much as Lee had only like 2-gates unlocked due to not training as hard as Lee did.

Even with all that, he still couldn't win against him and started to spread the sand all over Lee, with the intent to kill. Guy was about to rush in when Kizuna threw a Kunai right at Gaara which the sand quickly shifted to defend him and she lowly glares at him but just told him off.

"Lee can't even fight no more.... You've one already."

Kizuna would have thrown a seal Kunai to rush into him but decided to throw a normal kunai which she knew he can block that. This was only a sigh that people knew that Gaara had already won when he broke Lee's legs and she got scolded from Anko due to interfering with the match. Lee was then carried by a strecher which Gaara would had attacked Lee but he shifted his gaze towards Kizuna who was only staring at him with.... Sadness...

This kinda surprises him since there wasn't anyone who would look into him who even had hurt her friend but Kizuna was mostly staring at Gaara with sadness.

She felt like Gaara was like Naruto and herself and ended up going to a dark path due to an incident. There was something in Gaara which resonates with Naruto and knew that only he can understand him better than herself.

She hated Gaara but this was a match, even with the resolve to protect her friends, she can only grit her teeth due to the exam regulations and continue the match.

The final Battle was with Kido Vs. Choji.

Their match was kinda tied due to Kido dodging Choji when he turns into a ball and rolls. It seems that Kido manages to guess that Choji can barely see when he turns into a ball and uses it to his advantage and manages to deal blows.

Yet, they were in a deadlock state due to Kido barely dealing with any damage and Choji can't hit him which locks the two together until there was an advantage between them.

Then, Kido decides to risk it when he bolts right towards choji and breaking his body in that impact but he uses a technique cause vibrations in his kicks and cause Choji to be daze before getting socked in the face.

Kido won the match but ended up losing consciousness, but regardless of that, he manage to stay conscious after being declared before knocking out. 

Once he woke up, he was laying his head on Kizuna's thigh while being healed by her. She can only gave him a proud smile since she wasn't the only person in their team who won.

This was the end of the preliminary rounds.