The third round of the Chunin Exams!
Or rather, the first two rounds of the Chunin Exams had merely been qualifiers and preliminaries. Only now had the main event begun. Only genin who made it this far were eligible for promotion to chunin.
Of course, being eligible was one thing. Whether they actually earned it was another.
Just think about it—Naruto had fought with everything he had to defeat Neji Hyuga, yet he was still a genin in the end. Meanwhile, Shikamaru had become the winner of these exams through his brains and judgment.
Though that kid seemed completely indifferent to becoming a chunin. He even found it exceptionally troublesome.
Noah did not care about being promoted to chunin. Once he got what he wanted, he planned to leave anyway. So after arriving at the arena, he simply stood there quietly and waited for the plot to unfold.
However, Noah also thought of something. According to the original plot, Sasuke and Gaara's match should have been the second one. Then, because Sasuke had caught Kakashi's habit of being late, he had failed to arrive at the arena in time.
After some adjustments, Sasuke's match had been postponed, and the later matches had gone first. Kankuro then forfeited, giving Shikamaru a chance to take the stage.
But Sasuke's opponent was no longer Gaara. His opponent had become Kankuro.
And Noah had taken Sasuke's place. Did that mean this match would not be delayed either?
Moreover, Noah had originally intended to have some fun. The likely consequence was that Gaara would be beaten into a crazed state by Noah, which happened to fit Orochimaru's plan.
Orochimaru had chosen Gaara's match as the time to launch the Konoha Crush Plan—presumably because he wanted Gaara to release Shukaku's power and cause enormous destruction.
"If