Prey

"Hey, Naruto, Sasuke, long time no see! How have you been?"

Seeing the two boys walking quickly towards him, he raised his hands and greeted them with a smile.

"... It hasn't been that long, has it? Didn't you just come last week?"

Sasuke said this, his body naturally stopped in front of Kokoro.

"Hey, Brother Kou, you must have come all this way to see me show off my skills in the Chunin Ninja Exams, right?!"

Naruto wiped his nose, patted the muscular shoulder forcefully, and said with a confident smile:

"Don't worry! I'll easily defeat all my opponents, including that Sasuke, and Chunin one fell swoop!!"

"Hmph, what a pretentious fellow."

Sasuke looked disdainfully at Naruto, whose demeanor had suddenly changed, and mercilessly exposed him:

"What's wrong? You're not looking as worried and anxious as before, wondering how you're going to face the upcoming written test?"

Don't get so anxious and cry when you get to the exam hall because you can't answer a single question. You're such a spineless coward.

"You!!"

Naruto instinctively wanted to retort, but he glanced at Koko beside him, who was watching him with a smile, and swallowed his anger.

"Hahaha, Sasuke, you're really joking. It's just a written test. As for failing previous exams, it's just because I didn't study hard enough."

This time, I really put in a lot of hard work!

As he spoke, Naruto patted his muscular chest forcefully and shouted:

"We will win!!"

Looking at Naruto, Naruto was clearly still feeling nervous but was trying to maintain his composure, I couldn't help but feel a pang of sympathy for him.

This kid probably still doesn't know... Actually, the core of the first test in the Chunin Ninja Exams wasn't theoretical knowledge at all, but rather information gathering ability and mental resilience.

And Minato and Kushina inside him were naturally well aware of this.

They didn't tell Naruto the truth for two reasons: first, to avoid leaking the exam questions and ensuring its fairness; and second...

Naturally, we'll take advantage of Naruto's unusually focused Chunin Ninja Exams to give him a good crash course in his academic subjects!

Thinking about how Kakashi and Jiraiya, those unscrupulous guys, laughed so hard when they talked about this with me not long ago, I couldn't help but smile.

He made no attempt to expose Minato and Kushina's "white lie," gently patting Naruto's head and encouraging him with a smile:

"Go for it, Naruto! I believe you can definitely surprise everyone!"

Naruto nodded vigorously, giving Sasuke a defiant look.

"Tch, you childish idiot."

Sasuke muttered something under his breath, then ignored the blond idiot who was still winking at him.

He leaned slightly closer to the direction of the knock and asked in a low voice:

"Hey, what's wrong with you today? Why did you show up in Konoha without any disguise? What if someone recognizes you!"

Hearing Sasuke's worried words, he adjusted his sunglasses and answered matter-of-factly:

"Look at what you're saying, haven't I already pretended?"

Haven't you heard that famous saying? As long as you wear glasses, your identity will never be exposed!

"What kind of pretense is this? Besides, you obviously just made that up on the spot!"

Sasuke muttered under his breath, but seeing Koko's relaxed and composed demeanor, he ultimately swallowed back all the worries that he couldn't voice.

After all, this man, who could almost be considered half his mentor, never did anything meaningless.

He must have his own reasons for doing this.

Sasuke thought this, he slowly shifted his gaze from Kotori's handsome face, which was mostly hidden by sunglasses, and scanned the almost deserted street, letting out a sigh of relief.

Fortunately, as long as Naruto is still around, the villagers of Konoha basically won't be around in this area, so naturally no one will notice Kou.

"Heh, I didn't expect Naruto to be so useful."

Sasuke murmured to himself, a faint smile curving his lips. He opened his mouth, intending to take this opportunity to ask Kou for advice on a few more problems he had encountered in his recent training.

However, just as he was about to speak, he seemed to suddenly realize something, and the light in his eyes abruptly turned cold.

Sasuke suddenly turned around, his crimson Two-Tomoe Sharingan suddenly appearing as he stared at the empty street ahead.

Almost at the same time, Naruto's figure, wearing an orange jacket, appeared beside Sasuke.

That face, which had just been full of smugness and naivety, was now filled with deep seriousness and vigilance.

Sakura watched as her two teammates, who had switched from their usual banter to a state of impending battle in the blink of an eye, were still in a state of confusion and had no idea what had happened.

After all, they're in Konoha now! Shouldn't this be the safest place in the entire Ninja World?

Why did Naruto and Sasuke suddenly show such expressions, as if they had encountered an extremely powerful enemy...?

Just as Sakura was about to be swallowed by this unknown fear, a gentle and steady voice entered her ears:

"You are... Sakura Haruno, right?"

"... Huh? Ah, um."

Sakura suddenly snapped out of her daze, looking at Koko beside her with a puzzled expression. After hesitating for a while, she cautiously asked:

"Excuse me, do you know me?"

"Yes, I do know you. Kakashi, Naruto, and Sasuke have all mentioned you to me quite often."

He nodded to her with a smile, and in that gentle smile on his handsome face, half of which was hidden by sunglasses, there was a strange power that gradually calmed Sakura's still wildly beating heart.

Sakura stared blankly at the handsome young man in front of her. Instead of dissipating, her confusion only intensified.

She opened her mouth, about to ask something more, when she suddenly felt a terrifying killing intent that almost froze her in place, surging towards her like a tidal wave from directly in front of her!

Sakura froze completely.

She forced back the fear that was rising in her heart, and turned around with trembling hands to look at the boy's figure that had appeared in front of them at some point.

He was a boy who looked to be about the same age as them.

He had short red hair and carried a huge gourd on his back that was almost as tall as him.

He had no eyebrows, and his indifferent eyes, surrounded by heavy dark circles, were now surging with almost frenzied excitement and murderous intent!

"As expected, as expected!!"

Gaara stared intently at Sasuke and Naruto ahead, a wildly gleeful and ferocious smile spreading across his pale face:

"I found it, Mom..."

"Prey that can bring you satisfaction!!"

--

I'd like to ask everyone's thoughts.

Aside from the necessary battle between Gaara and Sasuke in the Chunin Ninja Exams, could you please just glossed over all the other battles except for Naruto's?

After all, this way the process is faster.

Of course, if you have any other ideas, please feel free to share them. We will try our best to adopt them without affecting the plot.

Thank you so much to Wangyou Wuren for the gift! Thank you to Yamato and all the readers who have given me generous donations!!

I'll be adding extra updates every week for the next week, thank you all for your support!!