Chapter 310: The Chūnin Exams of the Kumogakure Village
Sasuke stayed holed up in his house like that, agonizing over his dilemma for a long time.
Sakura heard that Sasuke had returned and came to see him, but he refused to open the door.
Until one day, Kakashi appeared squatting on the windowsill and handed Sasuke a new Chūnin Exam registration form.
"The Kumogakure Village is holding a Chūnin Exam. I signed you up. Go take a look over there."
"If you feel like it, you can bring Naruto back."
"…"
Sasuke looked at the registration form in front of him. His heart felt completely calm.
He didn't care whether he was a genin, chūnin, or jōnin.
He didn't want to ruin Naruto's current happy life…
Just as Sasuke was about to refuse, Kakashi spoke again.
"Sasuke, you don't actually think Naruto is living well over there, do you?"
"Hm?"
Sasuke frowned.
Wasn't that the case?
"Of course not. Naruto…"
Kakashi began explaining the situation gathered from "intelligence reports."
In reality, Kakashi had reported Sasuke's condition to the Amegakure Village so they could adjust their plan based on Sasuke's current mindset.
Before being "redeemed" Sasuke was the type who could get himself brutally beaten whenever he got a sudden urge.
But after being "redeemed" he didn't even need a sudden urge anymore. He got beaten constantly, completely lacking the dignity of someone who should be tied for the strongest in the shinobi world.
One moment he'd be beaten by prison guards, the next by a small dinosaur. Getting elbowed by an Ōtsutsuki actually counted as one of his more prestigious beatings.
For most people, redemption reduces their strength by thirty percent.
But Sasuke didn't really need redemption in the first place, so he was already getting beaten constantly. After "redeeming" himself, he still kept getting beaten.
As the saying goes: if I get beaten before redemption and still get beaten after redemption, then what was the point of redeeming myself?
So Sasuke absolutely must not become a good guy like Naruto.
"That's basically the situation. Although the Kumogakure Village treats Naruto quite well on the surface, in essence they see him as a slightly higher-grade breeding animal. They've even arranged quite a few female ninja with excellent physical qualities to start building relationships with him in advance."
When Kakashi finished speaking, he let out a long sigh.
"Isn't that a good thing? Naruto likes using that kind of silly Technique anyway. If more girls gather around him, he'll probably be very happy."
Sasuke said expressionlessly.
"That's true, but Sasuke, do you know who has the best physical constitution in the Kumogakure Village?"
Kakashi asked in return.
"The Raikage?"
"That's a male ninja. As for female ninja…"
Kakashi pulled out several photos and tossed them onto the ground.
"These were collected by the ANBU."
"It seems the Kumogakure Village has three things they openly do, but who knows how many times they've done similar things in secret."
"Sasuke, you've probably heard the saying that the most beautiful woman is one who can't see her toes when she looks down. This one qualifies too…"
Kakashi's eerie tone aroused Sasuke's curiosity. He picked up the photos from the floor and looked at them.
Whoa.
What an enormous belly.
Yeah, if she looked down, she definitely wouldn't see her toes.
"Is she from the Akimichi clan?"
Sasuke's mouth twitched.
"You guessed it."
Kakashi snapped his fingers.
"She really is from the Akimichi clan. See the older woman in the photo? She's a kunoichi from the Akimichi clan who disappeared during the Third Great Ninja War. She's Akimichi Ryoko's younger sister, Akimichi Rianko."
"…"
Sasuke fell silent.
He had thought Naruto went to the Kumogakure Village to enjoy a comfortable life.
But he hadn't expected Naruto to face such a massive "blessing."
No wonder after discovering Naruto had some mild kidney deficiency during their medical examination, the Kumogakure Village kept letting him rest and recuperating to rebuild his vitality.
If Naruto went in without recovering properly, even the Uzumaki clan's physique might not be able to handle it.
And if someone used something like the Expansion Technique on top of that…
Naruto would be in serious danger.
"This Chūnin Exam is also part of the Kumogakure Village's method for testing Naruto's physical condition. Once Naruto's medical report shows he has mostly recovered and he performs well in combat, then they will…"
Kakashi pushed the registration form toward Sasuke again.
"…Naruto isn't an idiot. If he didn't want this, couldn't he just keep entering that Sage Mode of his every day? What could the Kumogakure Village even do to him?"
Sasuke raised a doubt.
Since the Kumogakure Village needed Naruto to recover physically, resisting shouldn't be difficult.
If Naruto simply entered Sage Mode once every day as a baseline to preserve his condition, couldn't he easily stall for time?
"Sasuke, you're still too naïve."
Kakashi shook his head and sighed.
"The Kumogakure Village has organized so many operations to seize bloodline limits and jinchūriki from other villages. Do you really think they're kind people?"
As he spoke, Kakashi took out another stack of photos.
These were pictures of Naruto going to the bathroom.
In the photos, Naruto was pitifully fitted with a metal device.
"This is the shackle the Kumogakure Village uses to stop Naruto from continuing to damage his body."
"It was specially made by the new warden of Hōzuki Castle and includes the Fire Release technique Heavenly Prison."
"If someone tries to break it by force, the fire technique will burn that entire area along with it."
"Naruto… can't enter Sage Mode anymore."
"…"
Sasuke hesitated for a long time.
When he finally looked up again, Kakashi had already disappeared.
Damn it.
He had spent so long isolating himself and finally finished his internal struggle, deciding to let Naruto live peacefully in the Kumogakure Village.
And now this happened.
Why didn't Kakashi tell him earlier?
If he had told him earlier, Sasuke wouldn't have had to struggle so much.
"Sigh."
Sasuke picked up the registration form.
The Kumogakure Village's Chūnin Exam had three types of matches.
1v1 single combat.
2v2 duo combat.
3v3 team combat.
Each ninja could choose whichever they wanted.
The 1v1 format required no explanation. The final stage of Konoha's Chūnin Exams also usually ended in 1v1 battles.
The 2v2 format was a special feature of the Kumogakure Village.
The famous AB combination of the Raikage and the jinchūriki had become well known inside and outside the village, so many people began imitating that style, leading to numerous two-person teams.
The 3v3 team format was the traditional shinobi system, where squads of three fought together.
However, unless the three teammates had extremely perfect coordination, most people wouldn't choose this format.
After all, the Chūnin Exam wasn't some martial arts tournament where simply winning was enough.
There was a comprehensive evaluation, and the examiners would judge based on overall performance.
For example, during the Chūnin Exam when Konoha was attacked, Shikamaru surrendered early, yet his overall performance was outstanding. He stayed calm, analyzed the situation, and even directed tactics during the chaos.
As a result, even though others had better win records, none of them passed.
Shikamaru was the only one in Konoha who became a chūnin.
"Alright. I'll go."
Sasuke grabbed the registration form and made his decision.
As for which category he would enter, it was obviously 1v1.
Where would he even get teammates?
In the original story, Sasuke once declared that they were no longer Team Snake (Hebi) but Team Hawk (Taka).
But afterward it was never mentioned again.
It was always just "I am Uchiha Sasuke."
And so Sasuke set out on the road toward the Kumogakure Village to participate in the Chūnin Exam.
Meanwhile.
Sakura learned that Sasuke had registered for the solo category and felt a bit sad.
Over on Ino's side, things were awkward as well. Shikamaru was already a chūnin, and Choji didn't want to travel all the way to the Kumogakure Village just to participate.
So the two of them discussed it and registered together as a two-person team.
After all, the two of them had learned a combined secret technique from the Kumogakure Village. Maybe they would even get the chance to use it there.
(End of this chapter)