After leaving the Land of Waves, Houka returned straight to Takigakure to prepare for the Chunin Exams.
Konoha's Chunin Exams began with the preliminaries. There were three rounds of assessment, filtering through layers of selection to find Genin who were fully developed in morality, intelligence, physical ability, and aesthetics. They would then enter the selection matches, fighting one-on-one to choose the most elite Genin, who would then be promoted to Chunin!
Houka had made his way through the exams like that back then as well. However, the situation in the Ninja World had been unstable at the time, so those Chunin Exams could only be called extremely bare-bones. How could they compare to this time? Not only would the Daimyo of the Land of Fire and a host of high-ranking officials attend as spectators, but even Rasa, the Fourth Kazekage from next door, was coming to join the excitement—not to mention the countless civilians.
The scale was practically the Ninja World's version of the Asian Games!
Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan was meant to be launched during the final stage of the Chunin Exams—the selection matches. Yet strangely, Orochimaru had entered Konoha during the very first round of preliminaries!
What was his goal?
To assess Uchiha Sasuke's potential?
To examine the Third Hokage's physical condition?
Or was he merely scouting the area?
Houka could not guess, nor could he be bothered to. He only needed to tag along and take a look.
Thus, he decided to enter Konoha under the identity of a Genin from Takigakure!
"Mm, I'll treat it as reliving the thrill of the Chunin Exams," Houka told Shibuki, Takigakure's current leader.
Shibuki was somewhat panicked. "Lord Houka, that would be too dangerous!"
"Not dangerous. Not dangerous at all!" Houka patted his chest, laying out the facts and reasoning.