The inspection of Otogakure's team did not go especially smoothly.
Ukon, who had fallen asleep on Sakon's back, was immediately discovered by the Konoha shinobi. The kunoichi handling the inspection thought Ukon was some kind of puppet and started smacking his head with loud thumps.
Hot-tempered Ukon held it in for a long time, but in the end he could not resist trying to curse them out. The moment he lifted his head, though, he saw a whole crowd of Konoha ninja closing in and instantly shrank back down again.
Kidomaru's extra hidden arms also failed to escape Raido Namiashi's body search. The strange physique of the two brothers immediately attracted the attention of many foreign shinobi.
That information spread at once through the major village groups. The three from Hoshigakure quietly memorized Otogakure's intel, privately feeling lucky. If they ran into them during the exam later, a single careless mistake would probably cost them dearly.
Naturally, the Sound ninja were even more displeased by this, but displeasure was all they could afford. Orochimaru's main force had not yet arrived, and facing hundreds of Konoha shinobi at the village gate, none of them dared to make trouble.
Kimimaro, worried that they might affect the Konoha Crush plan, could only suppress their emotions for now and wait until they entered Konoha and reunited with Orochimaru before making any further plans.
Jugo stepped forward to negotiate with the Konoha shinobi.
Without activating his curse seal, Jugo's personality was gentle enough that even small animals could not help drawing near him. He was one of the rare genuinely kind people in Otogakure.
Very soon, thanks to his overwhelming affinity with people, Otogakure received a compromise.
Under Yama-shiro Aoba's firm insistence, the Otogakure Nine had to become the Otogakure Ten. However, given Sakon and Ukon's special physiology, they would be counted as one person, so the three Sound genin teams did not have to be broken apart.
As Otogakure and Hoshigakure passed inspection, Rain, Waterfall, and many other obscure minor villages also arrived one after another. A dark mass of shinobi continued flowing into the village along the broad road.
Countless heads, guided by Konoha's shinobi, formed a long dragon-like line as they entered the newly built rows of lodging. The endless crowds, streets, buildings, even the land and sky, all shrank into a single shadow in the eye, only to be swallowed by chaotic deathly gray.
A brush of motion.
Konome Taketori, sitting cross-legged in the secret chamber, suddenly opened her eyes. Tiny ant-like silhouettes could even be seen moving inside her pupils.
Kimimaro and Jugo had come too.
She was pleasantly surprised.
Not because of Kimimaro.
Kimimaro's Shikotsumyaku had awakened directly to the second stage when he was five. After that, the Kaguya clan head had kept him locked in prison as a strategic weapon, only bringing him out whenever battle was needed. At that time, she herself had been only two years old. She had not yet awakened either chakra or the Byakugan, so she had never even met Kimimaro.
In a way, she had actually been rather lucky.
Because of Hyuga Amaki's existence, the Kaguya clan elders had placed enormous hopes on her. But when she was born, her eyes had been a murky gray, so everyone believed she had failed to inherit the Hyuga clan's Byakugan.
By the time she extracted chakra at age five, her dojutsu had awakened, and under her mother's guidance she spent nearly a full year learning to control it. Only when she was almost six could she finally use it properly.
Then relations between the Kaguya clan and Kirigakure worsened, the clan was exterminated, and her past-life memories awakened alongside her Shikotsumyaku. In the end, she had unexpectedly gained a complete childhood.
So she and Kimimaro had neither known each other nor shared any connection at all. Even their positions and life experiences inside the clan had been completely different. Even if they met face to face now, he would not recognize her.
Compared to Kimimaro, her former clansman, she valued Jugo far more.
Jugo was the original source of the Heaven and Earth curse seals. He was born with the ability to absorb natural energy and enter a pseudo-Sage Mode, making him the perfect research specimen for her future development of her own Sage Mode.
Since he had entered Takamagahara of his own accord, then none of them would be leaving.
Konome Taketori smiled brightly, like an old hunter watching fat prey step into a trap.
This bizarre Chunin Exam was practically a gift from the heavens. All kinds of resources she had once desperately wanted were now walking into her snare of their own accord. Once Onoki and Mei Terumi arrived, most of the shinobi world's bloodline limits would be swallowed by her in one bite.
The only thing slightly unexpected was that she had not seen Haku anywhere among Otogakure's people. The Ice Release bloodline she longed for would have to wait a little longer.
Maybe Haku was with Otogakure's main force.
Konome Taketori did not dwell on it. On the path of gathering bloodline limits to become a Bloodline Snare, she had found two cyclical routes.
The first route used Water and Earth combining into Wood as its foundation, then started from Earth Release and moved through Earth and Fire forming Lava, Fire and Lightning forming Explosion, Lightning and Wind forming Magnet, and Wind and Water forming Ice.
Later, she had developed a second route as well.
It still took Water and Earth forming Wood as the root, but began from Water Release instead: Water and Lightning formed Storm, Lightning and Wind formed Magnet, Wind and Fire formed Scorch, Fire and Water formed Boil, and then returned again to Water and Earth forming Wood, completing a full cycle.
The first route involved powerful bloodline limits like Lava, Explosion, Magnet, and Ice, and it also matched well with her taijutsu style. Even if she failed to form a Bloodline Snare, it would still not be a loss. So in truth she preferred that route.
Originally, she had thought the Wave Country mission would solve the problem of Ice Release, while this Chunin Exam would get her Magnet Release, giving her three of the missing pieces in one stroke. But because Haku's whereabouts remained unclear, her plans had been disrupted.
Then, after learning from Hiruzen that the Chunin Exam had turned into a full shinobi-world free-for-all, the second route had suddenly become much easier.
Darui with Storm Release, Gaara with Magnet Release, and Han with Boil Release were all already in place. The only troublesome part, Scorch Release, could be handled later by trading with Orochimaru and Kabuto for Pakura's corpse. The second route was on the verge of being fully assembled, so she no longer cared that much about Haku's absence.
At that moment, another stream of information suddenly entered her mind.
"The registration for the Chunin Exam is about to begin. Sarutobi-sensei wants you there."
The cool voice of the Yang Release split body flowed softly in her ear.
Though flesh clones and shadow clones looked similar on the surface, they were completely different in essence, and the way they transmitted information was also entirely unlike the memory transfer of shadow clones.
A shadow clone was merely a shadow copied out using her chakra. Its so-called information transfer was, in truth, just chakra transmission.
A flesh clone, on the other hand, was literally part of her own body. It possessed the same brain, chakra core, and even a portion of her soul. The transmission of information between them resembled some sort of neural network.
Ever since all three of her powers had evolved, her life-form had shifted from a carbon-based organism toward something closer to a semi-inorganic being. As a result, her existence had begun changing from that of a single individual into something more like a collective life-form.
Even if her original body were killed now, as long as one of these clones survived, she could rise again. In some ways, she was now even harder to kill than Orochimaru.
"You go. From now on, the identity of Yato belongs to you."
"And what about you?"
"As a genin, of course I'm participating in the Chunin Exam."
The moment she said it, Konome Taketori laughed at herself.
It was not that she insisted on entering a beginner's tournament just to bully children. The split bodies could not inherit the Byakugan, so for this Chunin Exam, only the original body could participate.
It was time for her to step from the shadows into the light.
The savior who rescued Konoha could not be Root's leader Yato. It could only be Konoha's Number One Genius, Konome Taketori.
"...Then good luck on the exam."
Replying with a smile, the Yang Release split body slowly opened its eyes. Before it stood Suzaku in a red-striped mask, waiting silently with lowered head for its answer.
"Let's go."
"Yes."
Suzaku lowered his head deeply, strange light flickering in his eyes. This was the first time he had ever heard an order from Hiruzen that was not "summon," but "invite."
That difference alone was enough to make him correct his attitude.
At the same time, on the second-floor conference hall of the Hokage Tower:
The broad chamber's upper dais was empty. Hiruzen, as Hokage, had not yet arrived. Countless shinobi in green flak jackets stood around in small groups, chatting among themselves.
"Hey, do any of you know what that gray light was yesterday?"
A thin, gaunt-looking chunin spoke with lingering fear on his face. At the time, he had truly thought Konoha was about to be destroyed. Who would have guessed nothing would happen in the end?
Another chunin standing with him replied hesitantly in a low voice, "My nephew works in the Hokage Tower. I heard... it was a gas leak?"
"Get lost. Since when does your family's gas leak look like the sun?"
The gaunt chunin, who had actually been hoping for some insight, waved him off in disgust.
The chunin claiming to have a nephew in the tower blushed bright red, clearly aware of just how absurd that rumor sounded.
"Did you see the examinees this time? My god. There must be at least five hundred of them."
Seeing the mood growing awkward, a middle-aged shinobi with a scar across his face quickly changed the subject.
"Sounds about right. After all, the most elite genin from the entire shinobi world are here."
"Yeah... I just wonder if my boy can pass this year..."
The moment the topic turned to the Chunin Exam, the shinobi all began talking at once.
Listening to them, Iruka lowered his head. The scar across his nose looked especially deep, and his expression was heavy with worry.
"What's wrong, Iruka? Feeling sick?"
A hand lightly patted his shoulder. Turning, Iruka saw Mizuki looking at him with concern.
Facing his friend's concern, Iruka forced out a smile and shook his head. "It's nothing. I'm just worried this exam is going to be too difficult. I don't know if Konoha's shinobi can make it through."
"Ha. I thought it was something serious."
Hearing that, Mizuki smiled dismissively.
"Your elite class's Konome Taketori graduated this year too, right? I heard she's entering the Chunin Exam as well. No matter how strong those foreign shinobi are, can they really be stronger than her?
You're just worrying over nothing."
At Mizuki's words, Iruka immediately thought of that girl with her eyes covered, always wearing the attitude that nothing in the world mattered much to her.
If even she could not pass the Chunin Exam, then no one in the world could.
The one he was worried about had never been Konome Taketori. It was the other students.
When he himself had reached the limit of his chakra, he had truly felt the disparity of the world.
Everyone only ever paid attention to geniuses.
Who noticed the ordinary shinobi with poor talent?
No matter how strong Konome Taketori was, she still could not guarantee the safety of all the ordinary shinobi.
Seeing that Iruka still seemed down, irritation flashed through Mizuki's eyes. He kept his patience anyway and offered a few more words of comfort before casually asking, as if it had just occurred to him:
"By the way, do you know where all the ANBU in the building went? When I came in earlier, I didn't see a single one."
ANBU?
Iruka thought about it for a moment. It was true he had not seen the usual guards standing outside.
"I heard those foreign shinobi have been acting up a bit. They're probably all out monitoring them."
"Oh."
Mizuki's mouth curled up, and he could not help smiling.
Not far away, Kakashi stood half-leaning against a wall with both hands in his pockets. His dead-fish eyes were fixed on Mizuki in the distance, his expression slightly puzzled.
"What are you looking at?"
A figure in a green bodysuit walked over. Following Kakashi's gaze, he immediately spotted the blue-haired shinobi chatting with others after leaving Iruka.
That man seemed to be called Mizuki.
"There's something wrong with him."
Might Guy widened his eyes, but no matter how he looked, he could not see anything unusual about Mizuki. He looked like an utterly ordinary academy teacher.
"What's wrong with him?"
The air suddenly filled with the sharp smell of tobacco. Sarutobi Asuma walked over with a half-smoked cigarette in his mouth. Beside him was a woman with a graceful figure, dressed in a sexy outfit, black hair and crimson eyes, her beauty like a blooming red rose.
"Red... Asuma."
Like Guy, Asuma had been in the same class with them years ago. He was not as close to Kakashi as Guy was, but they were still old acquaintances.
Kakashi's sharp eyes shifted back and forth between Asuma and Kurenai, noticing that they were standing just a little too close.
Caught under Kakashi's probing stare, Kurenai and Asuma quietly put a bit more distance between themselves.
"You're saying Mizuki has a problem?"
Kurenai, thin-skinned as ever, hurriedly changed the subject.
"Yeah..."
Kakashi rubbed his chin and looked back toward Mizuki.
When he had come upstairs earlier, he had caught the man acting suspiciously around the building, and now he was asking about ANBU...
"I'll report it to the Third in a bit."
Just like Guy, Asuma saw nothing obviously wrong, but he trusted Kakashi's judgment. Crushing out his cigarette, he said seriously.
The other three nodded together and stopped paying attention to Mizuki.
He was only a chunin. Even if there really was something wrong with him, he could not stir up much trouble. Reporting him to Hiruzen did not mean he was important. It was simply that they themselves had no time to watch small fry like him. A few ANBU would be enough to handle the matter.
As they spoke, the murmuring in the hall slowly faded.
As if sensing something, Guy and the others looked up.
At some point, Hiruzen had entered the room in his Hokage robes and hat. Beside him was a tall ANBU figure in a crow mask.
Asuma's brows immediately jumped, and an indescribable caution appeared in his eyes.
"You know that ANBU?"
Seeing the change in Asuma's expression, Kurenai immediately asked in confusion. Guy and Kakashi were also drawn to his unusually heavy expression.
It was their first time seeing Asuma look this grim.
"She is..."
Asuma only got halfway through the sentence. He noticed that the mysterious ANBU standing beside Hiruzen on the dais had turned its head, as if looking directly at him, and at once his scalp went numb.
Kakashi and the other two waited but never got the rest of the explanation. Seeing sweat appear on Asuma's forehead, they all felt a chill in their hearts.
The four of them immediately adjusted their posture, straightened their expressions, and together with the rest of the shinobi looked toward Hiruzen and the mysterious ANBU as they stood side by side atop the dais.
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