"Good luck, Sasuke!"
The moment Naruto saw the drawing results, he turned to encourage Sasuke. Noah also nodded at him, signaling his support.
Sasuke looked very confident. Of course, he would not ignore his companions' encouragement. He nodded confidently, then leaped straight into the arena.
Noah rubbed his chin as he watched, finding it rather amusing.
"They're not even trying to hide it!"
Still, looking around, plenty of people had seen through it, yet no one thought it inappropriate. After all, this was Konoha, Konoha's home ground. It was perfectly normal to give their own people a little preferential treatment.
Besides, with a purely random drawing like this, it was hard to find any evidence. Anyone who stepped forward to question it would only be looked down on.
There might have been a deeper reason as well. Konoha may have realized that Yoroi Akado was a spy and intended to use Sasuke Uchiha's hands to eliminate him.
In the original story, Sasuke had been unable to use his full strength due to the Curse Mark's effects, yet he had still defeated Yoroi Akado in a very short time.
But Sasuke was completely different now. The kid had never encountered Orochimaru—Noah had intercepted him directly—so he had never been bitten or branded with a Curse Mark.
In other words, he could fight at full strength. Yoroi Akado stood no chance against Sasuke, and if Sasuke were ruthless enough, he could easily get rid of him.
Still, Noah did not remind Sasuke. Who knew what would happen if Sasuke "unnecessarily killed" a ninja from the same village during a preliminary match? Noah did not need to think too hard about the consequences.
Glancing at the Third Hokage and the others standing on the platform, Noah wondered whether he was overthinking things, or