Entering the Exam Hall

As the strongest utility person in the shinobi world, Orochimaru was actually very busy.

The Konoha Crush Plan was a quite important plot node in the original work, and countless transmigrators would not let go of this opportunity to pluck wool.

This plan was formulated by Orochimaru in a joint alliance with Sunagakure to launch a blitzkrieg targeting Konoha. Yet strangely, before making a move, Orochimaru actually assassinated the Fourth Kazekage Rasa!

This behavior ran completely counter to the original intention of the Konoha Crush Plan, but if one carefully considered Orochimaru's identity, everything appeared reasonable again.

Konoha was Konoha, after all, and his hometown; deep down, he might not actually want to destroy Konoha.

The Fourth Kazekage possessed immense strength; if he participated in the Konoha Crush Plan, the damage sustained by Konoha would have been even greater. By proactively weakening Sunagakure's combat strength in advance, the harm inflicted on Konoha would remain within a controllable range.

If Konoha were battered too severely, the Fourth Shinobi World War would probably break out immediately, and just like the previous wars, it would still consist of all the ninja villages laying siege to Konoha.

With Konoha's current strength, it would definitely end up as the losing side of the Fourth Great Ninja War. After all, many experts in the village had died in internal struggles, the Uchiha clan had been massacred, and Konoha's comprehensive strength had plummeted too much.

Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan felt more like an effort to propel Konoha's decayed windmill into motion once again, using a unique method to purge Konoha's diseased tissues, allowing the Third Hokage to make a magnificent exit, and solidifying his moniker of the "Strongest Hokage".

On the day of the Chunin Ninja Exams, the first stage was a written test.

At the entrance of the exam hall, the two door gods Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki were blocking the door, and a boy wearing a green tight-fitting suit and sporting a bowl cut seemed to have collapsed covered in bruises.

Merciless taunts immediately followed: "So weak and you still dare to come take the Chunin Ninja Exams?"

Tenten, with her hair tied into two buns, wore a troubled expression and pressed her palms together: "Please, let us in."

Sasuke walked past Tenten's front with a blank expression. The moment she saw Sasuke, Tenten suddenly felt extremely awkward. Their Team 5 had wanted to play the pig to eat the tiger, but now it seemed they were genuinely being treated as pigs.

Neji saw Sasuke and walked forward to greet him. Sasuke slightly raised his chin: "What boring game are you guys playing?"

Neji waved his hand: "Rock Lee and Tenten insisted on doing this, and there was nothing I could do. Just treat it as pre-exam relaxation."

The two of them began chatting as if they were in a realm of their own, acting as though they completely ignored the two Chunin guards at the door.

"Hey, hey, hey, you two brats who don't know the immensity of heaven and earth, do you treat us like we don't exist!" Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki launched a taijutsu attack against Neji and Sasuke, but in the blink of an eye, Rock Lee effortlessly blocked them.

Afterward, amid everyone's incredulous gazes, Rock Lee smiled at Sakura, who was watching the commotion, revealing his pearly white teeth: "Hello! You must be Sakura. My name is Rock Lee. Please try going out with me! I will use my life to protect you well!"

"..." Sakura felt awkward and stole a glance at Sasuke. Could it be that the boys who liked her were all this kind of brainless, thick-skinned type?

"I refuse!"

"Why?"

"Because... your eyebrows are too thick."

Lee, having suffered rejection, instantly slumped into depression. Kotetsu Hagane and Izumo Kamizuki seized the opportunity and vanished from sight. Ino, however, cast a surprised look at Sakura. She remembered when they had first met years ago, many people had mocked Sakura's broad forehead, and Ino had stood up for her, leading the two to become best friends ever since.

In the past, Sakura had been mocked by others for her physical flaws; now, Sakura had actually begun targeting someone else's looks. Fortunately, Lee was thick-skinned and wouldn't toss and turn over his own eyebrows because of Sakura's words.

With the door gods gone, the group smoothly walked into the exam hall. After entering, Lee suddenly challenged Sasuke: "Let's settle this with a match! Sasuke Uchiha!"

"Reason?" Sasuke responded indifferently.

Lee paused for a moment, seemingly pondering a reason: "I want to test whether my moves are useful against the Uchiha who is hailed as a genius."

"Understood," Sasuke remained indifferent. "Challenging a genius and defeating a genius will bring you pleasure and intensely satisfy your vanity."

Lee froze on the spot. A trace of disagreement flashed across Neji's gaze as he looked at Sasuke, as if he had instantly unlocked the skill of eye communication: What blind truths are you blurting out? Don't you know the truth hurts the most?

Sasuke looked back at Neji: Today is my first time meeting Rock Lee, and the moment he comes up he provokes me. Shouldn't I say something like this? If he wants to step on the Uchiha to build up his own momentum, he better see first if I agree!

Neji: You're overthinking it. Rock Lee probably doesn't have that many hidden agendas.

Sasuke: Judge by actions, not intentions. His thoughts don't matter; what matters is what he did! As a stranger, I have no need to delve deep into his inner self through his behavior.

Rock Lee collapsed to the ground without any warning.

"Lee!" Tenten hurriedly rushed forward to support him. Neji calmly explained: "It's a genjutsu. Rest for a bit and there won't be any problem; it won't cause him any lasting effects."

The ease of this battle far exceeded everyone present's imagination. They hadn't even noticed when Sasuke had made his move.

Simply terrifying to this degree!

Rock Lee quickly regained consciousness, and the moment he opened his eyes, he saw Might Guy, Neji, and Tenten all guarding by his side.

"Guy-sensei!" Lee's eyes instantly welled up with tears: "Can hard work really surpass genius?"

To be defeated in a single move by Sasuke's genjutsu—no matter how thick-skinned he was, Lee inevitably experienced negative emotions.

Hearing this, Might Guy immediately revealed his signature blinding white teeth: "It can certainly be done! This is youth!"

"Guy-sensei!" Lee emotionally hugged Might Guy, and the two of them wept bitterly together while hugging each other's heads.

Tenten wanted to say something from the side. In truth, she really wanted to shout: Did you guys get something wrong! It's true that you work very hard, but other people are working hard too!

Tenten didn't know how Sasuke usually trained, but she had witnessed Neji's desperation with her own eyes. Neji bore the fate of the Hyuga Branch House, and Sasuke carried a sea of blood and deep grudges. Both of them had massive mountains pressing down on their backs; what was Lee doing provoking them for no reason?

Neji as a teammate would hold back, but Sasuke certainly wouldn't. After all, Rock Lee was just an inexplicable challenger who provoked people regardless of the occasion right as the Chunin Exams were about to begin. Did he really expect Sasuke to give him a nice expression?

This little interlude did not delay the progress of the Chunin Ninja Exams. After entering the classroom, Sasuke casually found a spot to sit down and quietly observed the others present.

Ninjas from minor villages generally had poor mental states. Their risk-resistance capacity was far inferior to those from major ninja villages, and economic turbulence and environmental changes had a much greater impact on them.

At that moment, a white-haired man wearing round-framed glasses caught Sasuke's attention...