Once Sasuke won the first match, Gekko Hayate immediately announced, "The random draw for the second match begins now!"
As he finished speaking, the electronic screen below began cycling through names again.
When Shino Aburame VS Zaku appeared, most of the rookie Genin, aside from Hinata and Kiba Inuzuka, looked around the crowd below in confusion.
"Which one is Shino Aburame? How come we don't know him?" Sakura asked blithely, looking around.
"Shino Aburame... that sounds familiar, but I can't remember where I've heard it." Ino frowned in thought as well.
Hearing Ino's confusion, Shikamaru was utterly exasperated. "What a drag. Did those five years at the Ninja Academy teach you nothing? Shino Aburame is Shino! He was our classmate for five years."
"Huh? Was there really someone like that in our class?"
Their discussion was loud enough to leave Shino speechless. Do I really have that little presence? Damn it...
Who would you overlook?
As Shino entered the arena, Zaku from Otogakure stepped down as well.
Naruto already knew the outcome of this match, so he had little interest in their fight.
Meanwhile, ever since he had brought Sasuke back, Kakashi had pulled Sasuke aside and been whispering something to him.
Sure enough, before long, Sasuke nodded reluctantly and then walked over to Naruto.
"Um, Naruto, Kakashi-sensei said he'd help me deal with the Cursed Seal. Wait here for a bit. I'll be right back."
Naruto glanced at Kakashi, then smiled and nodded. "Sorry for the trouble, Kakashi-sensei."
Seeing that Naruto had not asked to come along, Kakashi secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
"Don't worry. Sasuke will definitely be doing better when he comes back."
With that, Kakashi headed toward the spectator stands' stairs. Sasuke gave Naruto another reassuring look, then walked after Kakashi.
Naturally, Naruto knew what