"I'm sure whoever has caught your interest is worthy of it. The matches will be very interesting this year."

One of his cousins had made it to the finals this time, which probably made the trip to the desert worth it. She knew how the desert could sap her chakra now, in the subtlest of ways. But Kisame wasn't going to play favorites. As far as he was concerned, very few of the ninja were really worthy of chuunin. Many of them would make it, of course, but he had to remember to talk to Nanako about more stringent preparations for genin.