After the Heaven and Earth scrolls were gathered and opened, the person who appeared was not the Iruka from his memories, but an ordinary Konoha chunin he did not recognize.
He briefly explained to the three members of Team 7 the Third Hokage's annotations regarding the characters "Heaven" and "Earth" given to Konoha chunin, then vanished with the Body Flicker Technique.
Although Naruto's relationship with Iruka-sensei was not as close and intimate as it had been in his memories, he did not dwell on it. After all, that Naruto was that Naruto, and he was simply himself. Why force it?
"Let's go." Sasuke was the first to turn around and head toward another passage in the room.
Since his original opponent had failed to pass the second exam... Sasuke wanted to fight the one carrying a gourd, Rock Lee who used taijutsu, Hyuga Neji with the Byakugan that Rock Lee had mentioned, and that... Shikamaru, whose intelligence was astonishing.
As for Naruto, there was no need to consider him. None of the genin in this tower could possibly be his opponent... Even the chunin and jonin from those villages would find it difficult to defeat Naruto as he was now.
Sasuke firmly believed that.
"Ah... Hinata, let's go." Naruto spoke easily, without the slightest pressure.
"Mm." Hinata jogged after him.
After resting for roughly ten minutes, the notice to assemble came through.
The three members of Team 7 arrived at the entrance to the next exam site and happened to run into Rock Lee, Tenten, and Neji's group.
"Yo, Sasuke!" Since Rock Lee had teamed up with Sasuke for missions before, he took the initiative to greet him.
Sasuke nodded in response.
"Lady Hinata..." The moment Neji saw Hinata, it was as though he had seen a natural enemy. He narrowed his eyes slightly and said coldly, "I never expected you to make it here. You probably only got this far by riding Naruto and Sasuke's coattails... With your weak personality, you are completely unfit to be a ninja! All of this, before these eyes of mine..."
"Enough!" Naruto cut Neji off, anger in his eyes. "You keep saying your Byakugan has already seen through everything, but in truth, those eyes of yours... are only staring at your own circumstances! You haven't seen Hinata's efforts at all! Hinata, she..."
A hand tugged at Naruto's sleeve. He turned and saw the pleading look in Hinata's eyes, and his heart softened.
"Don't be like this, Naruto-kun. Neji-niisan has his own hardships too..."
Her tone was as soft and timid as ever, and as always, she was thinking of others.
Hinata was... far too kind. Rock Lee, Tenten, and Sasuke all thought so, more or less.
Seeing the two of them looking at each other as though they were exchanging tender glances, Neji's frown deepened, and he could not help sneering, "You two..."
He could not help recalling his childhood, before the cage had been placed on his forehead, when he had once held a faint admiration for this young lady of the Main Family. In the end, he could not bring himself to say what came next.
So he stopped, merely shaking his head and sighing. "Heh heh, how ridiculous." With that, he entered the passage without looking back.
"Hey, Neji, wait up!" Tenten hurried after him.
"Let's go together. I've really wanted to fight you, Sasuke." Fire burned in Rock Lee's eyes, and his gaze toward Naruto was equally filled with eagerness. "And you, Naruto, the super-genius Sasuke keeps praising—I want to defeat you!"
No, that was impossible...
Sasuke and Hinata silently thought the same thing.
"Let's go." Naruto merely smiled and led the way into the entrance.
After passing through the corridor, the view suddenly opened up. The first thing that came into sight was a stone sculpture of two enormous hands forming seals, followed by the gathered examinees and the jonin in charge from the various shinobi villages participating in these Chunin Exams... Naturally, this did not include the Sound Ninja Village.
The Third Hokage and Tsunade were already there as well.
"Looks like we were the last ones to arrive." Rock Lee, Sasuke, and Hinata stepped up from behind Naruto.
"Rock Lee! Hurry up!" Tenten waved at them from the crowd gathered over there.
"I'll be going, then." Rock Lee walked over to his teammates.
Team 7 also silently joined the line of examinees, waiting for the Third Hokage to speak.
Seeing that everyone had arrived, the Third Hokage wore the Hokage's hat, a pipe clenched between his teeth and his hands behind his back. He swept his gaze over the examinees' faces—some nervous, some calm, some expressionless—and said hoarsely:
"First, congratulations on passing the second exam."
"However, before the next exam begins, there is something I must make clear to all of you—the true purpose of these Chunin Exams..."
Before the astonished eyes of all the examinees, the Third Hokage explained why the allied nations held the Chunin Exams... The general meaning was that the Chunin Exams were a miniature reflection of war between allied nations.
What followed was a speech about shinobi, nations, villages, convictions, and so on... blah blah blah.
The old man was as long-winded as ever... Tsunade stood off to the side and could not help grumbling inwardly.
Once the Chunin Exams were over, she would begin preparing to take over the position of Fifth Hokage.
Just as the Third Hokage's speech was nearing its end, Gekko Hayate, the chief examiner for this round, appeared and interrupted the Third Hokage's remaining remarks. "Forgive my rudeness, but please leave what comes next to me, the referee for this exam..."
After seeing the Hokage nod in agreement, Gekko Hayate, who looked terminally ill with his dark circles, turned to the examinees and said, "Before you proceed to the third exam, there is something else you need to know... What comes next is the 'third exam preliminary selection,' where you will risk your lives for the chance to participate in the third exam..."
The moment he finished speaking, the examinees erupted into commotion.
"Who is this guy?"
"He looks terribly unhealthy. Is he really an examiner?"
"What's this supposed to mean, a preliminary selection?"
"Isn't this the third exam?"
But since ancient times, examiners had never cared about the words, reactions, or thoughts of examinees. After Gekko Hayate followed the established procedure and announced that the preliminaries would begin immediately, he asked whether anyone wished to withdraw.
No one raised a hand.
Gekko Hayate stared with his dark-circled, dead-fish eyes and said flatly, "No one is withdrawing... Then we will now begin the one-on-one preliminary matches... And every match will be a real battle!" The implication was clear: in the upcoming exam, whether they lived or died would depend on their own abilities.
Among the examinees—
"Hey, hey, hey... Did it have to be this troublesome? I only wanted to casually take the exam..." Shikamaru muttered, somewhat speechless.
Choji took the opportunity to stuff himself with chips.
Ino quietly looked toward Sasuke in Team 7's group.
Shino wore round sunglasses, with the lower half of his face hidden behind his high collar...
Kiba cracked his knuckles, while Akamaru on his head barked a few times.
Sakura took deep breaths, rapidly reviewing everything she had learned in her mind. She silently vowed that she would seize this chance and make Sasuke see her in a new light.
Rock Lee stood tall and ramrod straight.
Tenten touched the scroll inside the ninja tool pouch on her back.
Neji stood with his arms folded, making it impossible to discern his thoughts.
Gaara stood expressionlessly in place, but killing intent churned within him. He desperately wanted to face that fox bastard... Kill him, kill him. I really want to see what that guy will look like when he becomes just like me...
Kankuro and Temari sensed that Gaara's emotions were somewhat unstable and were extremely wary.
The three Sound ninja, meanwhile, still resented not finding Sasuke during the second exam. They intensely wanted to face him and then kill him...
"Since that is the case... we will now announce the names of the two examinees participating in the first round." As Gekko Hayate spoke, a rectangular screen slowly appeared in one corner of the wall behind him. The names of fifteen examinees flashed rapidly across it.
Beep. The display froze.
Neji vs. Kankuro
Seeing this result, Naruto, Hinata, and Sasuke all looked at one another in surprise.
Tch, I ran into the eyes I least wanted to face...
Kankuro was unhappy inside, but there was nothing he could do. During the Shinobi World War, the people Sunagakure's puppet masters least wanted to encounter were Konoha's Hyuga and their Byakugan... Because before those eyes, neither their puppet mechanisms nor the Chakra threads used to control their puppets held any secrets.
It was not that he lacked confidence in defeating that irritating Hyuga brat, but to preserve Crow Puppet's secret, Kankuro slowly raised his hand.
"Sorry... I choose to forfeit."
.
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P.S. After carefully reviewing the manga, I realized the Chunin Exams were an activity held among allied nations. Therefore, there probably should not have been any ninja from Kumogakure, Stone Village, or even Kirigakure participating in this exam... Most likely, there were only ninja from Konoha, Sunagakure, and many smaller shinobi villages.
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