Hidden Leaf Village, Hokage Building.
The sun had long since set. It was past working hours, and Hiruzen Sarutobi was preparing to head home for a quiet dinner and some much-needed rest; he had a mountain of problems waiting for him tomorrow.
Suddenly, an Anbu operative materialized in the center of the office.
"Lord Hokage, there has been an incident!"
Instantly alert, Hiruzen's weariness vanished. His eyes sharpened with gravity. "Report."
"Intelligence from the Chunin Exams: in just one afternoon, twenty squads have been eliminated. In Area 16, ten distinct Jonin-level chakra signatures were detected. An Elite Sand Jonin, who was disguised as a Genin, has been confirmed dead."
Hearing this, Hiruzen stood up immediately, grabbed his hat, and made a beeline for the exam monitoring room. His Anbu escort followed closely, briefing him on the details as they ran.
Hiruzen's expression remained stony, but his pace quickened.
Twenty squads eliminated in a single afternoon—and twelve of them were from Konoha.
There had only been twenty-two Konoha squads in the second stage. More than half the village's candidates had been wiped out in a few hours.
Hiruzen and the elders were cold-blooded enough to draft the students into this meat-grinder without their consent, but even they hadn't expected this level of slaughter.
Natural selection was one thing, but this was a total culling.
More importantly, the Sand sending an Elite Jonin into the Genin exams was an overt act of aggression. Their intentions were blatantly obvious.
Inside the monitoring room, the screens showed almost nothing.
The Forest of Death was massive, and Konoha's current technology lacked the resolution and coverage for total surveillance; only the major paths had active cameras. The real intel came from Anbu units operating covertly within the trees.
"Lord Hokage!" The ninja in the room bowed as Hiruzen entered.
Hiruzen nodded curtly and scanned the foreign Jonin instructors. He noticed the Sand instructor was missing.
"Where is the representative from the Hidden Sand?"
A Jonin stepped forward. "Lord Hokage, we lost his trail shortly after the second stage commenced."
Hiruzen's face darkened into a grim mask. He understood the situation perfectly.
"Issue the order: find him. Dead or alive." Hiruzen's voice was like ice, spoken directly in front of the other foreign instructors.
"As you command!"
While Hiruzen didn't look at them, several of the visiting Jonin felt a shiver run down their spines. This was a naked, lethal threat.
He was telling them: if anyone else had "plans," they weren't leaving this village alive.
In the back of the room, the Mist representative, Fuguki Suikazan, let out a low, intrigued chuckle.
Back in the Forest of Death, under the fading orange light of the sun.
As Saiki's ten clones began focusing their chakra, the moisture in the air began to crystallize and expand. A titanic volume of water erupted, mimicking the crashing of oceanic waves as it fused with the ambient humidity.
Sabaku's Sand Manipulation had turned the forest floor into a parched desert.
But a moment later, a cataclysmic deluge of water surged forth, transforming the desert into a vast, deep sea. The sand was instantly smothered and rendered useless by the weight of the ocean.
Sabaku managed to leap to safety, but the two Genin at his side were instantly dragged into the crushing depths.
Elsewhere, Saiki's shadow clone sensed the sudden shift in the atmosphere.
"Into the trees! Climb as high as you can!"
Shizune and Kurenai didn't understand what was happening hundreds of meters away, but they followed the clone's order without question, sprinting up the tallest trunks until they reached the canopy.
RUMBLE!
The moment they reached the top, the sound of a thousand thundering horses filled the forest. A terrifying wall of water slammed through the trees, swallowing everything below.
The water battered the trunks; trees that were decades old and wide enough for ten men to hold hands were shaken to their roots by the impact.
As far as the eye could see, the forest floor had vanished. Only the tops of the tallest trees poked out from a vast, artificial lake.
As the water level stabilized, the trio spotted Saiki standing calmly on the surface in the distance, facing down Sabaku.
Sabaku stared at Saiki and the massive, kilometer-wide water sphere he had manifested. He couldn't believe his eyes.
"H-how... how is this possible?!"
To Saiki, this was child's play compared to what the adult Kisame Hoshigaki could do, but it had required the full reserves of ten Flower Clones to pull off.
The clones were at their limit. Once they vanished, the water—which was sustained by their chakra—would dissipate. Saiki had a limited window to finish the job while the sand was neutralized.
"Lightning Style: Thunder Blade!"
A single trick, perfected to lethality.
The water surface didn't offer the same traction as solid ground, but it was infinitely better than shifting sand. The water beneath Saiki's feet exploded as he transformed into a bolt of lightning, hurtling toward Sabaku.
Faced with the incoming strike, Sabaku felt the cold touch of the Reaper on his shoulder.
But Sabaku lacked Gaara's specialized sand gourd. He could only desperately mold the remaining wet sludge around him into a makeshift barrier.
"Shield of Sand!"
In his panic and haste, Sabaku only managed to manifest a single, thin shield of sand in front of him before Saiki arrived.
BOOM!
The bolt of lightning slammed into the shield. The sand barrier disintegrated into dust, and Saiki phased cleanly through Sabaku's body.
When Saiki reappeared on the other side, Sabaku's pupils had already lost their focus. He toppled backward onto the water's surface, a massive, cauterized hole charred completely through his chest. He slowly began to sink into the dark depths.
To maximize the lethality of the strike, Saiki hadn't used a slashing motion. He had focused purely on piercing power, exactly like the Raikiri.
The water began to dissipate, vanishing so completely that not a single drop of chakra remained. Aside from the landscape being absolutely ravaged and the ambient moisture leaving the trees dripping, the Great Exploding Water Colliding Wave might as well have never happened.
Saiki walked over to the corpse and performed a diligent search, eventually securing a full set of Heaven, Earth, and Man scrolls.
"Saiki!"
Shizune and the others rushed over as he finished looting.
They had seen the entire battle. Looking at Saiki, Shizune and Kurenai's eyes were practically overflowing with adoration. Genhai looked at him as if he were a literal god.
"We need to move. Now."
Saiki sensed people approaching—likely Anbu.
He hadn't expected the Sand Jonin to be this formidable. While he had won, the chakra consumption had been significant. In his current state, Saiki had no desire to deal with the Anbu clean-up crews, even if they were nominally on his side.
Saiki had actually misjudged Sabaku. The man wasn't just a Jonin; he was a hidden elite operative of the Sand. Anyone capable of mastering Sand Manipulation was, by definition, a monster.
In the original series, only the Second, Third, and Fourth Kazekages and Gaara were ever shown using the technique.
Minutes after Saiki's group departed...
Swish! Swish!
Two Anbu wearing animal masks landed next to Sabaku's body. One crouched down to inspect the wound.
He looked up at his partner, who was scanning the perimeter. His voice was heavy. "It's the Sand Jonin. We need to notify the Hokage immediately."
On the outskirts of Area 17.
"Saiki... are you okay?"
Having been by his side for years, this was the first time Shizune had ever seen Saiki looking winded. She asked with deep concern.
"I'm fine. Just used a bit too much chakra," Saiki replied with a tired shake of his head.
Night fell quickly after that.
Crackle!
An ember popped as the campfire roared to life, driving back the biting chill and dampness of the forest.
Sizzle! Sizzle!
The sound of fat dripping into the flames filled the air. Spitted over the intense heat was a massive wild boar, weighing several hundred pounds.
Saiki sat to the side, systematically sprinkling various spices and salt over the roasting meat.
Catching the intoxicating aroma of the cooking pork, Kurenai swallowed hard. She whispered nervously, "Saiki... will this attract more trouble?"
"Relax. It's fine. If anything else shows up, it just means more food for the menu."
Saiki chuckled to reassure her. He glanced over at a dead black bear lying nearby—one that was even fatter than the boar.
"Alright, it's done. Tell me which part you want, I'll carve it for you."
The boar was nearly a thousand pounds. Shizune and the others only managed to eat a few pounds between them. Then, Saiki gave them a front-row seat to the "Art of Disappearing Food."
He devoured half the boar single-handedly, leaving the other half for breakfast tomorrow.
As for the black bear, Saiki planned to save it. Once the exams were over, he'd invite Kushina and Tsume over for a celebratory bear barbecue.
Late into the night, Shizune and the others had spread out their bedrolls and fallen asleep. Only Saiki remained awake, staring into the flickering flames and occasionally adding more wood to the fire.
Suddenly, Kurenai's eyes snapped open. She threw off her blanket and sat up. Saiki looked over.
"Something wrong?" he asked quietly.
He knew Shizune was also awake, though she was pretending to sleep. Only Genhai was out cold, snoring like a dead pig.
Kurenai stood up, put on her shoes, and walked over to sit next to Saiki. She whispered shyly, "Um... I need to go out for a bit."
"Go ahead," Saiki replied, knowing exactly what she meant.
Whether it was the heat of the fire or her own nerves, Kurenai's face flushed a deep pink. "Saiki... I'm scared!"
"Scared? There aren't any beasts nearby." Saiki was genuinely confused by the girl. While there were animal cries in the distance, their immediate area was perfectly secure.
Before he could process her meaning, Shizune—who had given up the act—sat up as well.
Seeing Shizune awake, Kurenai's face turned even redder. She stammered, "Shizune? Did I wake you?"
Having listened to the exchange, Shizune was relieved she hadn't fallen asleep. She cursed Kurenai's cunning in her head.
"You sly vixen!"
But aloud, Shizune said sweetly, "Mm, I just woke up. Since you're awake too, Kurenai, why don't you come with me? I need to go, too."
Kurenai looked at Saiki, then back at Shizune, and could only nod defeat. "Fine."
As the two girls walked off into the darkness together, the realization finally dawned on Saiki. He understood exactly what Kurenai had been trying to do. He shook his head with a sigh.
These girls... they're so young, yet they're already masters of creating "alone time."
Thanks to sealing scrolls, ninja could carry almost anything they needed into the field, making life on a mission significantly more convenient. Ninja were also notoriously informal when it came to etiquette while operating in the wild.
A few minutes later, Shizune and Kurenai returned to the fire.