"Sorry to keep you waiting. I am Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first round of the Chunin Selection Exam."
The suddenly exploding smoke rapidly spread and faded away. Soon, it revealed a middle-aged ninja with a face covered in scars, looking exceptionally fierce and terrifying, along with a large group of Konoha ninja in proctor uniforms behind him.
As the smoke dispersed, the middle-aged ninja introduced himself amid the lingering echoes of the scolding that had served as a show of force.
Combined with that vicious, scarred face, he successfully intimidated the vast majority of the Genin in the classroom.
They sure made quite a commotion! As he introduced himself, Ibiki Morino's gaze shifted toward the rear right, where the nine least experienced participants of this Chunin Exams had already gathered together.
Gone... he disappeared! At this moment, behind and to the right of the large group of proctors, Konoha's nine rookie Genin had instinctively clustered together because of what had just happened. Second Pillar and Shikamaru Nara were now sharply scanning their surroundings.
At the very center of their group, aside from Uzumaki Naruto, whose whole body was still stiff with indescribable terror, there was nothing.
In other words, during that instant when everyone's attention had inevitably been drawn to the proctors' entrance, the attacker had vanished without a trace.
If not for the crater before Uzumaki Naruto and the sword cut on his neck, slowly seeping blood, it would have been as if the attacker had never appeared at all.
At that moment, looks of shock slowly emerged on both Second Pillar's and Shikamaru Nara's faces.
They understood very well what it meant for someone to appear and disappear without a trace right before their eyes.
This attacker was probably far stronger than them.
Or rather, the attacker