"Borrow a scroll? I mean, are you out of your mind?"
Naruto scratched the back of his head and looked at Shikamaru as if he were an idiot.
"How can you copy something for an exam? That's cheating!"
Shikamaru: "..."
He looked at Naruto's righteous expression, then at the still-steaming barbecue grill and empty drink bottles beside him.
He felt like his intelligence had been insulted.
Who the hell was cheating here?!
Just as Naruto was about to give Shikamaru a proper lesson in "moral education."
The atmosphere inside the towering surveillance tower at the center of the Forest of Death suddenly turned tense.
"Wait! That image! Zoom in!"
The chief examiner, Anko Mitarashi, still had an unfinished dango in her mouth as she sprang from her chair.
She pointed at an inconspicuous corner in the lower left of the screen wall, her expression turning grim.
On the screen, a three-man team from Kusagakure was sneaking through a marsh.
One of them, a tall "female ninja" with long black hair, caught Anko's attention.
She would never forget that cold, clammy chakra fluctuation, like a venomous snake flicking its tongue!
"Orochimaru!"
The dango in Anko's hand fell to the floor with a slap.
Her usually carefree face was instantly filled with terror and overwhelming hatred!
That man who had ruined her life, Leaf Village's most dangerous S-rank rogue ninja, had actually... infiltrated the exam site!
"Quick! Sound the highest-level alarm!"
Anko's voice rose sharply, nearly cracking.
"Notify Lord Hokage! Orochimaru has infiltrated the Forest of Death! His target is most likely Second Pillar!"
She knew all too well about her former teacher's twisted obsessions.
He had an almost pathological fixation on the Sharingan and the bodies of the Uchiha.
Now that the purest bloodline of the Uchiha Clan was in this