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Most of the readers had been so absorbed in the events that they had forgotten the passage of time entirely. Among those readers was Shikaku Nara, who was currently horrified by Naruto's level of intelligence.
"Now I understand why Shikamaru dislikes this guy and always looks so irritated around him… Stupidity and intelligence are opposite ends of the spectrum…"
Seeing Naruto suggest that they simply forge the scroll to pass the exam, Shikaku pressed a hand to his forehead.
"Naruto is a complete lost cause…"
"There are limits to stupidity!"
"What? Does he actually want to open the scroll to see what's inside?"
...
Shikaku wasn't the only one in shock. Not far from him, the Umino couple was equally stunned.
Given that Naruto was Iruka's favorite student, they naturally had no desire to watch him fail the exam, even if they had been dragged into participating in it against Iruka's wishes in the first place.
"He's actually going to open it?"
Ikkaku Umino's eyes trembled in that moment. Like Shikaku, he couldn't make sense of how Naruto's mind worked.
"It's obviously not a good idea, you fool… Why isn't Sakura trying to stop him?"
His wife, Kohari, on the other hand, was optimistic that Sakura would intervene at the last second.
But to their shock, it was not Sakura who stopped Naruto from opening the Earth scroll; it was someone else entirely.
In that moment, a familiar face appeared once again.
…
[— Manga Scene —]
"You shouldn't do that… Did you forget the rules?" At the last possible moment, Kabuto appeared and stopped Naruto from unfurling the scroll, sparing him and Sakura from the fate of those who had opened one before.
"An enemy?!!" Sasuke came rushing back at that moment, thinking an enemy had appeared.
"Geez… What were you thinking?" exclaimed Sasuke.
"That was close…" said Kabuto.
"So… Sorry…" Sakura apologized with an embarrassed expression.
"Those who ignore the rules are put in a condition that forces retirement." Kabuto began explaining what would have happened to them, drawing on his own experience.
"In a previous exam, within the scroll was set up a hypnotism-type jutsu. Those who saw it would be knocked out here until the end of the exam."
Sasuke looked at him and asked: "By the way, you're Kabuto, right? What are you doing all alone out here?"
"It's not like I'm after your scroll…" said Kabuto, smiling.
"Yeah… If you were, you could have just taken it from Naruto just then. So you're also after the heaven scroll…" Sasuke probed with quiet intelligence.
"No… I already have both." Kabuto produced both of his scrolls and clarified.
"Something's happened, and I'm on my way to the tower to meet up with my teammates."
'What!!?' Sasuke was taken aback.
"Well, I'm off…"
"Wait!!!" When Kabuto moved to leave, Sasuke stopped him with two words: "Fight me…"
[— End Scene —]
…
"Kabuto… hah? He seems sharper than he ought to be."
Hiruzen noted the character of Kabuto. This was not his first appearance, nor the first time he had drawn the Hokage's attention.
By now, the Third Hokage had already formed a clear picture of Kabuto's purpose and the reason he had shown himself to Team Seven.
"As expected, Sasuke is very direct… Kabuto is lucky he was courteous about it and asked for a challenge rather than simply taking the scroll from him outright."
Mito smiled as she turned toward the next page.
"Oh, enemies are already lurking… Are they from the Rain again?"
"It seems Kabuto wants to use Sasuke and the others as a gamble to reach the tower safely…"
"But for some reason, I find that unconvincing. Perhaps it's Sasuke and the others who are actually receiving help from Kabuto…"
Danzo's eyes narrowed as he stared seriously at Kabuto's face on the page of Chapter 61.
"And why would he help them?" Koharu Utatane asked in confusion.
Danzo didn't bother answering her question, quickly plunging back into reading the events and turning to the next chapter.
"He has already helped them by stopping Naruto from opening the scroll and getting them eliminated from the exam early. He also guided them toward a better way to obtain the Heaven scroll they needed… He must be helping them because someone else asked him to."
Since Danzo had ignored them, Hamura answered his colleague's question with an inward sigh.
…
"Who could that someone else be, I wonder…"
Mito murmured to herself as she studied Kabuto's face on the manga page.
A face that always smiled. But never showed you what lay behind the smile.
"A fascinating young man."
She said it in a tone that didn't quite reveal whether she meant it as a compliment or a warning. If Hamura had been able to conclude that Kabuto was helping the trio at someone's request, what was to stop others from reaching the very same conclusion?
…
Elsewhere, Uchiha Fugaku was staring at the scene with the expression of someone who had just realized that the problem he thought had passed had not passed at all.
"So Kabuto saved them from losing the exam." He said in a flat tone.
"Naruto nearly caused Sasuke-kun and all of them to lose… Why has his performance gotten so much worse compared to the Land of Waves arc?"
Another Uchiha spoke up, none other than Uchiha Minoru, Obito's father.
There was no admiration in his voice. There was something closer to intellectual exhaustion.
"But Kabuto appeared at precisely the right moment… stopped Naruto with exact timing… gave them information about the scroll… and guided them toward the correct objective."
Hugaku narrowed his eyes. The clan head of the Uchiha could not help but feel that this was no coincidence.
Because coincidences don't usually operate with this kind of precision.
He looked at Kabuto's face on the page. That face always wears the same smile, always keeping the same fixed distance from the world.
'Who sent you, Kabuto…'
He didn't finish the thought because the answer wasn't on the page in front of him yet.
But he added Kabuto's name to the list in his mind of things that deserved attention.
That list of his carried many names, but the one surrounded by the most circles and exclamation marks was: Uchiha Itachi.
Only the Naruto manga could lift the veil of mystery from all those names on his list, Itachi included.
…
Back where Sakumo and his son sat, young Kakashi had already grown accustomed to wearing his mask, which had become almost a part of him.
Young Kakashi turned the page with the expression of someone trying to read between the lines.
"Sasuke asked him to fight," Kakashi said quietly.
"He wants to test his strength after the curse seal."
"Or he wants to prove to himself that what happened was real," Sakumo replied without looking at him.
Kakashi was silent for a brief moment before saying, "Is that an important difference?"
"Every difference matters." His father replied simply.
"You should understand, boy, that Sasuke before the curse seal and Sasuke after it are two entirely different people… He has fallen into Orochimaru's grasp, and he must already be under surveillance."
Sakumo's eyes narrowed as he looked at Kabuto's smiling face.
…
In another part of the store, Orochimaru was turning the page with a single finger, at a measured pace.
His expression was no different from what it usually was.
But in his eyes, there was something resembling quiet satisfaction.
'Kabuto-kun… I don't know why, but I feel a certain kinship with this character…'
Orochimaru thought to himself. He had no knowledge yet of the bond between his counterpart and Kabuto, but he could feel a positive resonance when looking at a character as calculating as himself.
'Sasuke will reach the tower.'
'And when he arrives, he will have tested himself once or more along the way.'
'Every test roots the curse seal deeper.'
'Is that what Kabuto-kun intends to accomplish? What is his connection to my counterpart… I wonder…'
"Are you thinking about something, Orochimaru?" Jiraiya asked from beside him in a cautious tone.
"I am always thinking, Jiraiya," Orochimaru replied calmly without lifting his eyes from the page.
"That's what worries me," Jiraiya said wryly.
Orochimaru did not respond to Jiraiya's sarcasm, turning the page instead.
"Don't you find that events are growing more exciting? The appearance of my counterpart means that yours is approaching as well, closer than ever before…" After a few moments, Orochimaru spoke.
"My appearance would mean the end of your little game, Orochimaru…"
"Heh~ Why don't we make a wager…"
"On what?"
"On whether someone like you could stop my counterpart's plans."
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 150: Naruto Hates Having the Spotlight Stolen From Him.
Chapter 151: End of the Seventh Volume! A Nervous Orochimaru?
Chapter 152: A Real Threat to the World's Plot.
Chapter 153: System Level 7! The Age of Anime Begins.
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