"Now I see. If we had opened the scroll midway through, what would you have done, Iruka-sensei?" Sasuke asked.
Iruka picked up the scroll from the ground and said, "Sasuke, you're as sharp as ever. You guessed correctly. The rules of this exam were designed to test whether you can actually complete a mission. In other words, if any of you violated the rules and opened the scroll midway, the command sealed inside would cause any examinee who saw its contents to lose consciousness on the spot, until the second exam ended."
After hearing that, Sasuke let out a breath. "Good thing Shikamaru stopped Naruto. Otherwise, Naruto, do you think you could have withstood the technique sealed in that scroll?"
Cold sweat immediately broke out on Naruto's forehead. "Shikamaru, you're dea—no, wait, thank you so much! Otherwise, I'd have been screwed!"
Sakura's face darkened. "Were you about to say, 'Shikamaru died such a miserable death'? Hmph. Shikamaru stopped you from opening the scroll, and you're cursing him to death?"
Naruto jolted and stiffly turned toward Sakura. "That's not it! I just misspoke—ptui, I mean, it just slipped out!"
Iruka said nothing more after his explanation. Only after they had finished making a fuss did he say, "All right. Since you've all passed, you only need to wait for the third exam. Also, Ryo Senju will be joining you for the third exam."
Elsewhere, after Anko reported Orochimaru's information, the Third Hokage smoked in silence. "He appeared here because of Sasuke, didn't he?"
Anko stared at the Third Hokage in shock, as though she wanted to ask how he knew. But on the monitor, the examiner in charge of registration reported, "Lady Anko, twenty-one people have been confirmed to have passed the second exam. According to the Chunin Exam regulations, the