Preliminary Round

He sighed and continued,

"I may not be able to remove the seal on my own, but I can place a restrictive seal that will permanently lock it. You won't have to suffer constant pain anymore." After Naruto explained, Anko quickly sat down on the scroll.

"Alright, let's begin."

"It might hurt a little when I apply the seal."

"I'm used to it."

"Alright." Naruto walked over to Anko and placed his hand on her cursed mark. A few seconds later, Chinese characters burst from his hand and spread across Anko and the scroll.

"Ready?" Naruto asked. She nodded.

"Evil Sealing Method." As Naruto spoke, all the Chinese characters instantly surged toward the hand he had placed on her cursed mark. Anko bit her lip and endured the pain, but she could bear it. A few minutes later, all the characters gathered around the cursed seal, forming a ring around it as though locking it in place.

Naruto removed his hand, and Anko relaxed.

"It's done. How do you feel now?" Naruto asked.

A second later, Anko threw her arms around him excitedly.

"Even though it's still there, it doesn't hurt anymore. I can barely even feel it on my neck," Anko said happily.

"You're welcome." Naruto started to say, then added, "Hey, old man, can you bring Sasuke over? I can do the same thing for him." Naruto asked.

The Hokage nodded and summoned an ANBU member.

"Yes, Lord Hokage."

"Bring Sasuke Uchiha here," the Hokage ordered, and the ANBU member left.

Naruto turned to the Hokage.

"Do you think he'll agree?" Naruto asked.

"Why wouldn't he?" the Hokage raised an eyebrow.

"You know he plans to kill his older brother, right?" Naruto asked. The Hokage nodded.

"Do you think he'd willingly give up that kind of power?" Naruto pressed.

"I understand what you mean, but I believe he'll make the right choice," the old Hokage said.

They waited for a few minutes before the ANBU member appeared in the room with an angry-looking Sasuke, who looked as though he had just woken up from unconsciousness.

"What do you want?" Sasuke glared at Naruto and asked irritably.

"I need you to sit in the middle of the scroll so I can seal your cursed mark," Naruto answered.

"Why should I do that? I need this power," Sasuke said.

"Idiot. Are you willing to become a puppet just to kill your brother?" Naruto asked.

"Shut up. You don't understand anything. To kill him, I'd even give my life," Sasuke said. Naruto merely shook his head.

"Fine. Either way, sit on the scroll. It's currently impossible to safely remove a cursed mark without killing the host, so I placed a suppressive seal that will allow the host to control the cursed mark better," Naruto explained. Sasuke gave a mocking laugh.

"You shouldn't use it. I can tell the host can become addicted very easily," Naruto explained, but Sasuke merely shrugged.

"It's a gift. I'll make good use of it," Sasuke said. Naruto shook his head.

"This might hurt a little," Naruto said, though he did not seem to care much. He followed the same steps he had used on Anko and placed his hand on Sasuke's cursed mark.

"Evil Sealing Method." Naruto said.

Sasuke screamed in pain for several minutes. Once it was over, he collapsed unconscious onto the floor.

"Take him back to his room. He must be exhausted from what happened in the Forest of Death," the Hokage said.

On the fifth day, all the contestants were gathered in the arena.

"I am Moonlight Hayate, the referee for this Chunin Exam."

"Before we continue, we need to hold preliminary rounds," Hayate said, and the young ninjas began to protest.

"What do you mean, preliminary rounds?" Kiba Inuzuka asked.

"More people passed than we expected, so we need to eliminate some of them," Hayate explained.

He continued,

"A ninja's strength can only be improved through life-and-death battles."

"By passing the Chunin Exam, ninjas can display their strength, allowing the village to receive more missions and bring in more wealth," the Hokage concluded.

Hayate asked, "Before we begin, does anyone wish to withdraw?"

Silence filled the area. No one responded.

"Then we will begin now. Matches will continue until someone loses consciousness, dies, or is no longer able to fight."

Hayate continued,

"The names will appear randomly on that electronic display board. Since we have an odd number of participants, one person will advance directly."

"Kankuro advances directly," Hayate announced.

The display board continued spinning, names changing constantly until it finally stopped.

"Sasuke Uchiha and Aimi, step forward. Everyone else, go to the stands," Hayate instructed.

"Good luck, Sasuke!" Sakura cheered for her beloved Uchiha.

Let's see what I can learn, Naruto thought as he activated his Sharingan and began carefully observing every match.

Sasuke Uchiha VS Aimi

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked. They nodded.

"Begin!" Hayate shouted and quickly retreated.

The moment Hayate gave the signal, Sasuke charged at his opponent and swept low with his leg. Just as he expected, Aimi jumped. Sasuke used the opportunity to continue spinning and kicked Aimi in the stomach, sending her flying to the ground.

"Give up. You're no match for the Uchiha Clan," Sasuke said smugly. Aimi slowly climbed to her feet and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth.

Aimi rapidly formed hand seals and said, "Earth Release: Earth Spear!" She slapped both hands onto the ground. The ground in front of Aimi rose slightly, and several stone spears shot toward Sasuke.

Sasuke nimbly dodged them and shouted, "Fire Release: Phoenix Sage Fire Technique!" Several small fireballs shot toward his opponent. Aimi failed to dodge them all, and her left leg and shoulder were struck. She collapsed to the ground in pain.

"Sasuke Uchiha wins!" Hayate announced. Sasuke smirked proudly to himself and walked toward the stands to rejoin his teammates, while the medical staff rushed over to treat Aimi.

Sakura gazed at her beloved Sasuke with starry eyes.

"Congratulations, Sasuke."

Another set of names appeared on the display board.

"Gaara and Fujii Miwa, enter the arena for your match," Hayate announced. As always, Gaara used sand to teleport into the arena, while his opponent jumped down.

Gaara VS Fujii Miwa

"Are you ready?" Hayate asked. Miwa nodded, while on Gaara's side, sand had already flown from his gourd and danced around him.

"Sand Shuriken!" Gaara immediately manipulated the sand into ten darts and rapidly hurled them at his opponent. Miwa had not expected such a sudden attack and ducked to evade them.

Just as Miwa was about to stand up, she discovered that something had wrapped around her feet. Looking down, she saw that sand had entangled her feet and was rapidly climbing upward. Miwa tried to struggle free, but the sand only wrapped tighter. The more fiercely she struggled, the faster the sand enveloped her.

In less than five seconds, Miwa was completely wrapped in sand.