The approaching Chunin Ninja Exams

In the days after completing the mission, Chiba remained immersed in training.

But to his surprise, while he was doing his physical conditioning,

another figure joined him.

"I never thought I'd find someone else who liked training with weights!"

"Sweat is what youth is all about!"

Chiba looked at Rock Lee's thumbs-up and the bizarre sparkle at the corner of his mouth.

His mouth twitched. He had never expected to run into him here.

"Let's stake our youth on this together!"

"If we can't run fifty laps around the village before lunch today,"

"then we'll do five thousand weighted squats this afternoon!"

Rock Lee's enthusiastic invitation seemed so warm and earnest.

Yet Chiba wore an odd expression, unable to accept it.

Honestly, against Rock Lee with his Eight Gates Released Formation activated,

Chiba wasn't very confident he could easily defeat him in his normal state.

Once he opened the Gate of Limit, Rock Lee was practically a beast in human form.

Even among the Konoha 12, he was an exceptionally powerful fighter.

If he hadn't been banned for cheating, perhaps on the battlefield of the Fourth Shinobi World War,

there would have been a Night Guy and a Night Lee...

Just imagining it sent shivers down Chiba's spine.

An all-out, one-for-one trade passed down through bushy eyebrows and bowl cuts was genuinely a little too much to bear.

"No, I've already finished my morning workout."

Chiba tossed the barbell onto the ground with a dull thud.

That wasn't just an excuse he'd made up.

Because he was used to rising early, his physical training session really was already over.

"That's such a shame!"

Rock Lee was still brimming with excitement.

Finding someone in Konoha who put himself through equally brutal training wasn't easy.

All these years, aside from Might Guy,

Rock Lee had never seen anyone else train like this.

"My name is Lee, but you can call me Rock Lee. I'm Teacher Kaido's student!"

"Chiba. I'm currently in Team 7 under Kakashi-sensei."

Apart from his neurotic habit of getting fired up about hard work at the drop of a hat, Rock Lee was a decent guy.

"I still have a few things to do, so I'll be going."

Today was the day he would give Nekomata the ninjutsu scroll.

After several days of work, Chiba had successfully compiled the ninjutsu he knew into a scroll.

If Nekomata had enough talent, he would surely gain something from it.

As for Sage Mode and the like, it wasn't time yet.

Meals had to be eaten one bite at a time, and roads traveled one step at a time.

Chiba planned to report to Kakashi Hatake first.

Ninja needed to have their departures from the village recorded. Otherwise, one careless mistake could get them branded as deserters.

On his way to find Kakashi, however, he noticed something.

"Sakura, look! I've gotten a lot stronger after this mission!"

Naruto Uzumaki was still infatuated with Sakura.

What Chiba had told him last time had fallen on completely deaf ears.

"Tsk, looks like this kid still needs some straightening out!"

Chiba stood atop a streetlamp, looking down at them.

However, the arrival of the Konohamaru Corps made him sense that something was off.

Soon, thanks to Konohamaru's loose tongue,

he and Naruto Uzumaki both received a thorough beating.

But that was entirely because Naruto Uzumaki didn't want to fight back.

Since Sakura wasn't in Team 7 now, her strength had only improved a little.

At this rate, she would easily fall behind.

Thud!

The fleeing Konohamaru collided with a boy dressed in black.

The face paint made him look rather ugly.

That was Chiba's first impression.

"To be fair, Kankuro really does fall well short of the others in the looks department."

As the conflict erupted,

Naruto Uzumaki found himself restrained by the other's chilling, terrifying killing intent.

But he wasn't as helpless now as one might have expected.

Thwack!

Konohamaru was his little brother's little brother, after all. How could he let someone bully him?

The flying pebble caught everyone by surprise.

Even Sasuke Uchiha, perched in the tree, hadn't noticed where it had come from.

"If you Sand Ninja won't follow the rules, I don't mind teaching you."

"Kankuro, if you want to start a war between our villages, go ahead and keep fighting."

Chiba's next words made Kankuro, who had been about to attack, freeze in place.

"Who are you?"

"Big Brother Chiba!"

Naruto Uzumaki waved excitedly.

"Big Brother's Big Brother Chiba!"

Konohamaru's bizarre form of address caught Chiba completely off guard.

He leaped down from the streetlamp.

His handsome appearance immediately caught Temari's attention.

"S-so handsome!"

In the Land of Wind, boys with looks like Chiba's were practically extinct.

"Chiba, a Konoha ninja!"

His somewhat icy gaze instantly rooted Kankuro to the spot.

That familiar killing intent reminded him of Gaara.

No, it felt even more terrifying than Gaara's.

Meanwhile, in the office of the Hokage Building,

many team leaders had gathered, waiting for Third Hokage Hiruzen Sarutobi to speak.

"I imagine you all know what this is about?"

Hiruzen Sarutobi rested his clasped hands on the desk.

Smoke drifted slowly upward, lending him an air of authority.

"I never thought time would pass so quickly."

Kakashi Hatake looked as listless as ever.

"Team 7: Chiba, Naruto Uzumaki, and Sasuke Uchiha."

"In my name as Kakashi Hatake, I recommend them for the Chunin Ninja Exams!"