After receiving the applications from Kakashi, the other two members of Team 7 and I began to make our way home, and then we saw it.
A square rock, inching along the floor behind us with two crude eye-holes cut into the front.
That shit is horrible, ain't no way, I thought, stopping in my tracks, and shaking my head.
"You know," I said loudly. "Rocks don't usually have eye-holes."
The rock froze. Then, with a poof of smoke, the disguise exploded.
"You saw right through my camouflage, Boss!"
Konohamaru, Moegi, and Udon struck a pose in the middle of the street, coughing slightly in the smoke.
Look at these lil bastards hitting their little 'Kids Next Door' poses, I mused internally. Ain't they cute?
"Konohamaru Corps, reporting for duty!" Konohamaru shouted, adjusting his goggles. He ran up to me, practically vibrating with energy. "Boss, you gotta train us! We heard you took down a whole army of snow ninjas by yourself! We want to be cool like you!"
"Yeah!" exclaimed Moegi and Udon in unison.
"Man, news travels fast," I muttered.
Sasuke scoffed, crossing his arms and looking away, completely uninterested in the youngins. Sakura, however, groaned and rubbed her temples. "Naruto, don't encourage them. You don't have time to play ninja with these kids."
Yea, she's kind of right, I thought. At the same time, I honestly could, but they don't need to know that.
"Hey, I'd like to, I really would, but she has a point, it's a no-go," I said, waving a hand. "The Chunin Exams are here, and I have to use all my time to prep if I wanna make Chunin."
Pfft, yea right, I thought. I could pass whatever they got cooking up in my sleep.
"Aww, come on, Boss!" Konohamaru said, bringing his hands together. "You just gotta! Please!"
"Yeah, we'll train hard," Moegi said.
"And we won't get in your way," Udon added in, wiping his nose.
I placed a hand to my chin, an idea formulating.
"Ight, tell you what," I said. "If y'all are serious about getting as strong as me, then you need to show me, cause talk is cheap. Give me 20 pushups, 20 situps, 20 squats, and a 2-kilometer run. Do all that by the end of the week without getting too tired, and I'll teach you a few things."
"Yes!" Konohamaru pumped his fist in the air. "You heard the Boss! Let's go!"
The three of them scrambled, taking off down the street to start their new exercises.
"Aye! Slow down, you speed demons," I called out as they took off in an excited frenzy. "Watch where you're—"
My warning was cut off when Konohamaru looked back to wave at me as he rounded the corner at full speed and slammed face-first into something solid. He bounced off and landed on his butt.
"Ouch..." he said, rubbing his head. "Hey, watch where you're going, you—"
His words died in his throat as he looked up at the figure he had run into.
The person wasn't a villager.
It was Kankuro, dressed in his all black, full-body suit adorned with the purple markings on his face, carrying the bandaged puppet—Crow—on his back.
"That hurt you little brat," he said, reaching down to grab Konohamaru by his long scarf, and hoisting him up into the air. "You think you can just run into me and get away with it? Have you no respect for your elders?"
Elders? Bastard ain't that much older than him, I thought, raising a brow. And he's funny as hell for messing with who he thought was just some random kid like this.
"Hey! Put him down!" Sakura yelled, stepping forward, her hands raised in a placating gesture. "It was just an accident. He's just a kid."
"Listen to them and put him down already, Kankuro," said Temari, sighing from behind him. "Or you know you're gonna pay for it later."
"I'm just teaching him a lesson," Kankuro said, raising a fist as Konohamaru squirmed in his grip.
Sasuke's hand clenched into fist, his eyes narrowing. "Let him go, before you embarrass yourself."
"Oh, yeah?" Kankuro questioned snidely. "Then why don't you come and make—"
"Scuse me, my guy. But that's my young bull you're holding," I said, appearing right next to him, seemingly out of nowhere, cutting him off. "You mind putting him down?"
Kankuro flinched at my sudden appearance, but he quickly regained his composure and tightened his grip on the scarf, making Konohamaru gasp for air.
"Or what?" he challenged. "You gonna cry to your mommy?"
I smiled. But it wasn't just any smile; it was one devoid of any warmth.
"Oh, that's a shame," I said softly. "Because I don't think the Hokage would like his precious grandson being bullied by foreign ninja. And especially ninjas from allied nations. Do you really want to start a diplomatic incident over such a simple accident? I'm sure the Kazekage would love to hear why his treaty was voided because you felt you deserved more respect from the Hokage's grandson."
Kankuro froze. "Grandson?"
Temari's eyes widened. "Kankuro, drop him! Now!"
Kankuro hesitated, then scowled and dropped Konohamaru. He hit the ground, coughing, and scrambled behind my legs.
"You're lucky, punk," Kankuro muttered.
"Kankuro," said a voice that was soft, yet raspy, and carried the weight of a grave.
We all looked up. Standing upside down on the underside of a tree branch was Gaara. Although, I knew he was already there, having sensed him much sooner than everyone else.
Oh, that's right he does have brown hair; it just looks red, I mused. Probably stained to the roots with all the blood of his victims.
He stared at me intensely with sea-green eyes that lacked any trace of humanity.
"You're an embarrassment to our village," he said. "Have you forgotten our purpose for coming all the way here?"
Kankuro stammered, "I-I know. I-I mean they challenged us, they started this whole thing really. H-here's what happened—"
"Shut up… or I'll kill you," he told him, and Kankuro instantly turned pale.
Goddamn, that was kind of awkward, I thought watching the scene unfold.
Then, Gaara turned his attention back to me. "And who might you be?" he asked. "My name is Gaara of the Desert. What is yours?"
I probably shouldn't give him my name and put a clear target on my back, I thought, taking in the unnerving look in his eyes. This bastard probably hasn't slept since he came out the womb. A smarter person would probably see all these signs of a habitual crashout and try to steer clear. But it's a shame I'm dumb as shit.
"My name," I said, keeping my face completely neutral, "is Kiba Inuzuka. I hail from the Inuzuka Clan."
Sasuke raised a questioning brow, while Sakura looked at me like I was insane.
Gaara tilted his head, processing the information. "Kiba... Inuzuka."
"What?! But Boss that ain't your name," Konohamaru announced, having gained his courage back. "Don't tell me you forgot."
Damn you child! What have you done! I exclaimed internally as I looked back over at Gaara.
He didn't look pleased at all. He let out a wave of killing intent that caused his siblings and Konohamaru to start shivering. But, I matched the pressure immediately.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: Bloodlust (Low Output)
"Alright, alright, relax," I said, sighing as a small amount of my [Presence] poured out. "My name's Naruto Uzumaki."
The temperature in the area dropped ten degrees instantly. The shadows stretching from the trees seemed to darken, writhing slightly at the edges of everyone's vision.
Kankuro, who had been sneering a second ago, looked like he had just swallowed a mouthful of ash. He took an involuntary step back, his puppet-wrapped bundle rattling against his back. Sweat beaded instantly on Temari's forehead. Her hand twitched toward her fan, not out of aggression, but out of pure, terrified instinct.
Sasuke's reaction was the most telling. He had frozen when Gaara exerted his pressure, but when I released mine, his knees actually buckled. He caught himself, one hand bracing against a wall, his knuckles white. His eyes were wide, darting between Gaara and me, his Sharingan threatening to activate. I could practically hear his teeth grinding.
Sakura didn't understand what was happening. To her, the air just suddenly became too heavy to breathe. She clutched her chest, gasping for air as her face turned pale.
I made sure to flare the intent around Konohamaru and his group, shielding them from the brunt of it. He looked up at me, eyes wide. He didn't feel the fear the others did, but he saw the effect I had on them.
The sand that had been swirling aggressively around Gaara's feet suddenly stalled. It didn't retreat, but it hesitated. His eyes, which were previously dead and bored, widened. The craze in them sharpened into focus. He didn't look scared. He looked… delighted.
"Naruto… Uzumaki," he murmured, testing the name out as the sand receded into his gourd. The bloodlust in the air vanished as he reeled it in, and I did the same. The atmosphere snapped back to normal so fast it left everyone else reeling.
"Mother is very interested in you now," Gaara said, a creepy, thin smile touching his lips. "Don't die before the exams."
He turned, and in a swirl of sand and leaves, the three Sand siblings vanished.
This ninja, what kinda farewell is that?! I thought, shaking my head.
I looked down at Konohamaru. "You good?"
He nodded dumbly, still staring at the spot where the Sand ninjas had been.
"Good," I said, patting his head. "Now, I believe y'all have some exercises to complete."
"Y-Yes, Boss!" he replied as the trio scrambled away, glad to escape the tension.
I turned to the other two members of Team 7. "Welp, that was a lot of things that happened all at one time." I said, stretching my arms over my head. "Everything starts tomorrow, so it's better to unwind and prep now before things get really chaotic. See y'all."
I didn't wait for a response. I left before they could even get a word out. And on my way out I was able to sense three distinct signatures hiding in the foliage of the same tree Gaara had occupied. The Sound ninja—Dosu, Kin, and Zaku. I didn't even bother looking at them. I just sent a wisp of my [Presence] towards their location—a silent warning—that instantly shook them to their core.
Amateurs, I thought, feeling their wills break with every stride I took. But they're of no importance, because it's time to upgrade my swag.
I headed back to the wealthy district boutique to collect my new outfit.
Because it was the start of a massive event like the Chunin Exams, I was going for a "new fit, new me" type of vibe that I'd feel good about wearing all the way until the two-year time skip. I designed it to look like everyday wear—harmless enough that people might underestimate me, but tactical enough to withstand high-level combat.
I slid on a Tiger Orange, form-fitting compression shirt, pairing it with dark blue, highly durable shinobi pants. I took the bottom of the pant legs and taped the ankles and shins tightly connecting to my new, lightweight, black [Shadow-Step Shin Guards]—a gift from one of my Loot Boxes.
[Item Equipped: Monarch's Silk Combat Attire]:
Buffs: +10 DEX, +10 CON
Passive: Complete scent and sweat suppression. Integrated with the [Shadow-Step Shin Guards] for permanently muffled footsteps.
The material felt practically weightless against my skin, and my footsteps made no noise whatsoever.
I looked in the mirror. The bright orange still made me look like a harmless idiot, but the compression fit subtly highlighted the dense, compact muscle I'd built up over the last few months of relentless grinding.
The next day, I met up with the other two members of Team 7 in my new attire. When I walked up to our meeting spot, Sakura did a double-take. The bright orange was the same, but the tactical fit and complete lack of jingling pouches made her swallow hard. Sasuke's eyes immediately darted to my feet. I could see the exact moment he realized my footsteps weren't making a single sound.
When we arrived at the Academy, we didn't see any of the other participants in sight. Instead, we were greeted by two Chunin—Izumo and Kotetsu—sitting behind a desk stacked with paperwork.
"Where's everyone else?" Sakura asked, her guard immediately going up as she scanned the empty room.
"The other participants have already received their scrolls and been dispatched," Kotetsu explained lazily, sliding a clipboard toward us. "You three are actually the last ones to arrive. Sign these consent waivers. They explicitly state Konoha isn't liable if you get yourselves killed out there."
"What?!" Sasuke said, quirking a brow. "What do you mean we're the last ones? We were told to get here at 2."
Izumo raised a brow. "Two? Who told you—" He got a good look at us then realized who our Jonin sensei was. "Oh, you're Kakashi's brats, no wonder. Yeah, we've been allocating these scrolls since 12, everyone else has gotten a head start on things."
"Ain't no way," I said, nearly laughing. This punctuality-inclined bastard is gonna be the end of us.
Sasuke's jaw clenched so hard I thought his teeth might shatter. A vein practically bulged out of Sakura's forehead as she muttered a string of curses that would've made a sailor blush.
We quickly signed the forms. Izumo tossed Sasuke a sealed scroll.
"This year is different," Izumo explained, his lazy demeanor dropping into something much more serious. "You have been given a cipher. There are six scroll types in play this year: Sun & Moon, Mountain & River, and Storm & Stillness. You need to decipher your scroll to find out which of the other five you need to advance."
Kotetsu pointed a thumb out the window. "Your destination is the newly constructed Replica Village—a massive urban perimeter built just outside the Forest of Death. You have three hours to decipher your scroll, hunt down a team carrying your matching scroll within the Replica Village, and make it to the safe zone bunker."
"You better hurry, 'cause time is already ticking," Izumo said, pointing at a clock.
We nodded and walked away, but we didn't leave the Academy immediately. We ducked into an empty classroom to strategize. Sakura quickly broke the seal and spread the scroll out on a desk, her eyes scanning the complex cryptographic text. It took her less than two minutes.
"We have the [Storm Scroll]," Sakura concluded, then pointed to a string of coordinates at the bottom. "To pass, we need to secure a [Stillness Scroll]. And these coordinates tell us what sectors of the Replica Village have the highest chance of teams with stillness scrolls."
"Then we go straight to the Forest perimeter," Sasuke stated immediately, his Sharingan already spinning to life in anticipation. "We rush towards the entrance of the bunker and ambush the teams we see. The chances of one having a [Stillness Scroll] will be high."
"No," Sakura argued. "That's exactly what everyone else might think of doing too. It'll be a massive bloodbath at the gates. We'll be fighting five teams at once."
"He has the right idea," I said, interjecting. "But we don't need to ambush blindly."
I placed a hand on the scroll and closed my eyes. I tapped into the sensory link of the Shadow Soldiers that were still discreetly monitoring the foreign teams. I sifted through the connections, until I found the closest team—a squad from Sound—holding a [Stillness Scroll] deep in the eastern sector of the Replica Village, as well as multiple other squads in other sectors of the structure.
"The closest team with the scroll hasn't gone too deep inside," I said, opening my eyes again. "If we hurry we can get them quickly and get to the bunker without any problems."
"How do you know that?" Sakura asked.
"Oh, I have a sensory ability," I said smoothly. "I developed it during our mission in the Land of Snow. It's how I found Koyuki in Doto's stronghold."
Sakura blinked, her mouth forming a small 'O' as the pieces clicked together. "So that's how you navigated the fortress so perfectly," she muttered.
Sasuke, on the other hand, clenched his fist. I could practically see his frustration mounting at the revelation of yet another hidden trick in my arsenal.
I rolled up the scroll. "Anyways, I'm picking up multiple chakra signatures with similar scrolls. We should move fast, hit them hard, and take their scrolls before they even know we're there."
Sasuke nodded, drawing a kunai. "Lead the way."
We made our way to the structure. From the outside, it looked like a massive, fifty-foot-tall concrete wall hastily erected in a clearing. It was eerily quiet, likely heavily warded with sound-dampening barrier seals to keep the civilians in the real Konoha from panicking.
But the moment we stepped through the massive iron gates and crossed the threshold, the illusion of peace shattered.
It was complete pandemonium. The perimeter was a massive, artificial urban environment built using architectural styles from all Five Great Nations. And it was being torn apart.
Paper bombs detonated inside fake storefronts, sending shattered wood and glass raining down into the streets. In the distance, I saw a Kumo squad and an Iwa squad locked in a brutal, building-destroying turf war, using heavy Lightning and Earth jutsu with lethal intent. Ame ninjas were flooding the alleyways with thick poison smoke to flush out hiding teams, while Kiri ninjas dropped from the rooftops, silently slitting throats in the confusion.
"Stay close," Sasuke ordered, leaping onto a rooftop that resembled a traditional Sand Village mud-brick house.
We bounded across the roofs, but we didn't make it far before we were intercepted. Three generic-looking duplicate Ame ninjas with rebreathers burst from a fake chimney, hurling a barrage of shuriken.
Sasuke didn't even flinch. He deflected the shuriken with minimal effort, stepping perfectly into the lead attacker's guard and delivering a bone-cracking knee to their ribs.
The second attacker tried to flank him, but Sakura was already moving. She threw a cluster of kunai attached to near-invisible ninja wire, rapidly wrapping the cord around a chimney stack and pulling it tight, successfully binding the Ame ninja's arms to his sides.
The captain of the squad roared, weaving hand signs for a water jutsu.
But I didn't give him the chance to complete it.
[SKILL ACTIVATED: Sprint]
I pushed off the roof tiles, soundlessly, and materialized in front of him. I bypassed his guard, and drove my palm into his sternal head with just enough force to disarm him. The impact lifted him entirely off his feet, sending him crashing through a wooden billboard and into the street below, completely unconscious.
I checked the scroll he dropped. It was a [Mountain Scroll].
Tch, all that work for nothing, I thought, shaking my head.
We didn't have time to catch our breaths. A barrage of boulders ripped through the air from an adjacent rooftop, courtesy of a desperate Kusa squad trying to third-party our fight.
"Keep moving!" I shouted over the sound of the shattering roof tiles, easily dodging the projectiles. "The Sound team is three blocks east!"
Just then, a massive fireball jutsu erupted a street over, and we used the distraction to take cover, and drop down into a narrow alleyway. We headed toward the bunker and my Soldiers confirmed that the Sound team was just around the corner, creeping toward a safe zone.
"Now," I ordered.
We struck like a synchronized unit. Sasuke came from above, his Sharingan predicting their defensive twitches, while Sakura laid down a covering volley of explosive tags to corral them into a corner. The Sound captain panicked, reaching into his pouch, but I was already there.
I swept his legs out from under him, pinned his arm with my sandal, and smoothly snatched the [Stillness Scroll] from his vest.
"Got it," I said, tossing it to Sakura. "We're done here. Let's go!"
We abandoned the groaning Sound ninjas and sprinted the final half-mile toward the designated safe zone. The streets only got more chaotic. A squad of Kiri ninjas tried to intercept us with a Water Clone ambush, but It didn't even slow us down. I bulldozed straight through the clones, shattering them into useless puddles, while Sasuke and Sakura covered our flanks with a volley of shuriken to force the real bodies back.
We broke through the final line of the Replica Village's chaotic streets and entered the heavily fortified bunker that acted as a precursor to the second phase of the Exams.
We stepped through the massive steel doors, and inside I was able to see that despite the massive culling, the explosions, and the bloodshed we had just witnessed in the streets, the bunker was still packed to the brim. The Kumo and Iwa ninjas were leaning against the walls, unbothered. The Kiri ninjas were silently wiping blood off their blades. Gaara was standing in a far corner, his arms crossed, his crazed eyes locking onto me the second I walked in.
And a lengthy figure in Grass ninja wear—who I knew was Orochimaru—was staring at Sasuke with intense fascination when we walked in.
The first stage had weeded out the weak, but the true predators had survived.
The real Exams were just beginning.