So It Was You

Second floor, lounge.

Shadow Clone Naruto stared at the sand sphere below. Unlike the bewildered audience, he could clearly sense the inhuman aura inside it.

"What is it?" Shikamaru walked over to his side and asked, tilting his head.

"Nothing. I'm just curious about his ninjutsu." Naruto shook his head slightly. "His technique comes before the person."

Gaara's sand defense was fundamentally different from the defensive ninjutsu Naruto knew.

With the defensive ninjutsu used by other shinobi, the person came before the technique. Usually, a shinobi noticed an attack first, then actively released a defensive technique.

But Gaara's sand seemed to possess a will of its own. It was not Gaara controlling the sand; the sand was automatically protecting Gaara.

That much was clear from Gaara's stunned expression when Sasuke attacked at incredible speed. Gaara had not even noticed where Sasuke had appeared.

Yet his sand had steadily blocked Sasuke's attack.

Chirp! Chirp! Chirp!

Suddenly, a piercing birdsong erupted from Sasuke's left hand and rang through the entire arena.

"What kind of ninjutsu is that?" Kiba nearly shattered his teeth from gritting them.

Even before the technique was unleashed, its immense spectacle was already loudly proclaiming—my ninjutsu is no ordinary technique!

They had all graduated from the same class, yet Kiba increasingly felt that he did not belong among these freaks.

Less than ten percent of the audience were shinobi. Most were ordinary people who knew little about ninjutsu.

For people from different walks of life, their standard for judging whether a ninjutsu was powerful was simple: dazzling and grand.

And the technique in Sasuke's hand perfectly fit their understanding of a powerful ninjutsu.

"This was worth it, worth it! Who would've thought the morning matches would be this exciting!"

"A technique like that has to be at least B-rank, right?"

"You don't know a damn thing. I'd say that technique is definitely S-rank."

One "expert" spoke with the air of someone who had seen through everything.

"S-rank?" Kotetsu Hagane's expression turned strange. If he remembered correctly, there did not seem to be many people in Konoha who had mastered ninjutsu of that level.

Although Chidori was also an advanced technique, it was only A-rank—still far from S-rank.

"He moved!" someone cried out.

Everyone focused their eyes. Sasuke held Chidori and carved a clearly visible trench through the ground as he viciously thrust toward Gaara, who was hidden inside the sand sphere.

Thud!

Hitting a stationary target was always easy, especially one that stood there waiting for you.

Feeling the warm wetness against his hand, Sasuke knew he had struck the "bullseye."

"Blood! It's blood!!"

In an instant, Sasuke felt a threat to his life and abruptly leaped backward.

A ferocious beast claw made of sand slammed down hard where he had just been standing.

"What is that thing?!"

Sasuke stared in shock at Gaara, whose appearance had become utterly unrecognizable.

"Oh my, Sunagakure's Sealing Jutsu really is especially unreliable." At the back of Section B's stands, a shinobi dressed as an ANBU muttered at the sight.

Temple of Nirvana Technique!

Countless dreamlike white feathers drifted down from above the stands. The audience members who had just been shouting excitedly over Chidori fell unconscious one after another.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Several shuriken came flying over, and the shinobi hurriedly dodged aside.

"Seems there are a few too many big fish." Looking at Kurenai and Asuma Sarutobi, who had him pinned from both sides, the shinobi chuckled.

Clearly, he was not confident in fighting two jonin at once.

"Farewell!"

Bang!

A smoke bomb smashed heavily against the ground.

"Kurenai, don't chase him." Asuma hurriedly stopped her. "Deal with the small fry around us first. The kids might not be able to handle them."

Several shinobi tightly surrounded the two of them.

"Sunagakure and Otogakure together..." Asuma frowned slightly as he looked at their differently styled headbands.

Clang!

Asuma knocked away a kunai, and the horn of battle sounded in an instant.

"That was close." Hidden among the leaves, the shinobi dressed as an ANBU relaxed slightly.

Slash!

Suddenly, a long blade erupted from below.

As expected, he still was not used to something he had picked up.

Naruto, also dressed as an ANBU, looked dissatisfied at the standard ANBU blade in his hand, which he had also picked up.

If the blade in his hand had been Kusabimaru just now, that man would definitely already be lying on the ground.

"Pfft..." The ANBU shinobi struggled to prop himself up. A bone-deep slash ran from his chest all the way to his cheek.

So it was him. Naruto was slightly surprised. This man was the white-haired man who had kept watching Uchiha Sasuke during the first exam.

If Naruto remembered correctly, his name was Kabuto Yakushi.

One of the two people who had withdrawn during the Preliminary Round had been him.

There really are bad guys in the crowd...

Naruto silently thought this. This man had entered the Chunin Exams under the identity of a Konoha genin.

"I know Konoha very well!" Seeing the enemy raise his blade to cut him down, Kabuto Yakushi hurriedly demonstrated his value.

Rather than joining Asuma Sarutobi and Kurenai in surrounding him earlier, this person had chosen to ambush him here. He was most likely some bastard trying to fish in troubled waters.

But as long as he was not a Konoha shinobi, there was no fundamental conflict of interest between them, which meant there was room for negotiation.

"For example?" Naruto's sword swing paused slightly.

"Konoha's intelligence room is on the first basement floor of the Hokage Office. It is guarded by five ANBU and several Intelligence Division shinobi, though they are relatively weak."

"Strategic supplies are stored in the northwest, inside the second mountain from the left."

Naruto swung his blade.

There was no point in obtaining intelligence like that. Not a single one of those places could be taken easily.

Not to mention the multiple sealing barriers.

"The seal-release sequence for the intelligence room is Rat-Boar-Rooster-Ox-Horse-Rooster-Rat-Tiger-Dog-Tiger-Snake-Ox-Rooster-Snake-Boar-Tiger-Rat-Rooster." Watching the blade slash toward his neck, Kabuto Yakushi's expression remained unchanged, but his speaking speed surged to the limit of human capability.

"Repeat that?" Naruto's thoughts stirred, and the blade in his hand swung aside.

"Rat-Boar-Rooster-Ox-Horse-Rooster-Rat-Tiger-Dog-Tiger-Snake-Ox-Rooster-Snake-Boar-Tiger-Rat-Rooster!" Feeling the life constantly draining from his body, Kabuto Yakushi quickly emphasized the important part.

"Say it again." Naruto nodded slightly.

"Rat-Boar-Rooster-Ox-Horse-Rooster-Rat-Tiger-Dog-Tiger-Snake-Ox-Rooster-Snake-Boar-Tiger-Rat-Rooster."

Naruto nodded faintly, then thrust the blade in his hand straight into Kabuto Yakushi's heart.

Thud!

Kabuto Yakushi's eyes filled with shock and disbelief.

Naruto flicked the blade, shaking the blood from it, then looked toward the Hokage Office.

It might have been false the first time, but if he could repeat it perfectly three times, then it had some credibility.

But only some. Naruto had no way to guarantee that this man was not the kind of freak who never forgot anything he saw.

There were many things he needed to understand more deeply.

Perhaps this was an opportunity...

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