There were twenty-one teams, sixty-three candidates in total. Including the examiners and proctors, the number of people gathered outside the Forest of Death exceeded eighty. Yet, before this imnse and eerie expanse, they seed as insignificant as insects at the edge of a great beast's domain.
nma and his team arrived earlier than most, but by the designated ti, nearly every squad had assembled. As he scanned the gathered shinobi, his gaze froze upon a figure with long, fiery red hair among the participants.
Her face was youthful—childish even—but there was sothing unmistakably familiar about it.
nma's breath caught for an instant.
"That's right… she wasn't always under Orochimaru. Back then, she lived in Kusagakure… and t Sasuke once during the Chūnin Exams."
mories buried deep within his fragnted recollections began surfacing.
—Karin Uzumaki.
In the original tiline, she was never introduced by her surna at first. But nma knew the truth: her lineage traced directly to the Uzumaki Clan. Red hair alone wasn't proof, but her chakra-sensing ability—the Mind's Eye of Kagura—and the Adamantine Sealing Chains were irrefutable marks of Uzumaki blood.
The sa blood flowed in nma's veins.
He too possessed the potential of the Kagura Eye… though his mastery over the sealing arts was still incomplete.
Karin seed to sense his gaze. Her eyes flickered briefly toward nma, then quickly dropped. Within that glance was a mixture of hope and apprehension, a strange yearning buried beneath years of fear.
nma's expression stayed neutral, the mont of softness fading as quickly as it ca. He reminded himself—he was still trapped in his own cage. He had no right, nor the luxury, to care about others.
Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke stood beside him, unaware of nma's brief distraction. Their attention was fixed on the massive gates ahead and the trials that awaited inside.
The Forest of Death—Training Ground Forty-Four—was infamous even among Konoha shinobi. It wasn't just the largest training field in the village; it was a living ecosystem of predators, poisons, and ancient traps. The re thought of surviving within it was enough to make even skilled genin uneasy.
nma steadied his breath and focused. Yet just as his mind cleared, a sudden flicker of movent caught his eye.
A trio of Grass-nin erged from the crowd.
The instant nma saw the lead figure, his heart clenched.
His pupils narrowed sharply.
It took him less than a second to look away—but it was enough.
"Orochimaru…"
Even without the reference of his inherited mories, nma could feel it. That imnse, suffocating chakra radiating from the Grass-nin—it was darker, heavier, and far more potent than Kakashi's.
There was no doubt. Orochimaru had infiltrated the Chūnin Exams in disguise.
"So you've finally co, Orochimaru-sensei… I've been waiting for you."
nma clenched his right hand, the faint tremor of excitent hidden beneath his calm exterior. Now that the target had appeared, he needed only the right opportunity to approach. It would be risky—but worth it.
Of the more than eighty shinobi assembled, none realized that one of the Legendary Sannin stood among them. Not even Mitarashi Anko, the proctor of the second exam, recognized that her forr master was lurking only ters away.
As she addressed the crowd, explaining the details and rules of the next test, Orochimaru's presence went unnoticed by all—except nma.
"The farthest distance in the world," nma thought grimly, "is standing before soone who once taught you everything… and they no longer recognize you."
He wondered how Orochimaru would react if he knew his "forr experint" was standing before him now.
Anko's voice carried through the clearing:
"The rules are simple! Survive five days inside the Forest of Death and collect both Heaven and Earth Scrolls. Failure to do so—or dying in the process—ans imdiate disqualification. If any of you wish to forfeit, do it now. Once you enter, there's no turning back!"
Her smirk was sharp, her tone mocking, her eyes gleaming with a dangerous thrill. Seeing the fear in the eyes of the younger genin only made her amusent grow.
"I have a question, Examiner!"
Anko blinked in surprise, then smiled thinly. "Oh? Let's hear it."
A Takigakure-nin stepped forward. "According to the rules, this is a team-based survival test. Every squad here has three mbers—but one team," he gestured toward Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, and nma, "has four. Isn't that unfair?"
The murmur that rippled through the crowd was imdiate. Dozens of eyes turned toward Team 7.
In the written test before, team size hadn't mattered. But now, in a direct survival and combat assessnt, having a fourth mber could easily tip the balance. Even Naruto and Sakura looked uneasy.
Sasuke, however, remained impassive, his expression unreadable.
Anko raised an eyebrow and smirked. "You an them?" She nodded toward Team 7. "Don't worry. Konoha doesn't play favorites. This exam will be fair to all participants. The four of them won't act as one team. I, Mitarashi Anko, personally guarantee that."
Her tone was confident, her smile sharp.
The Taki-nin paused, then nodded. "If that's the case, I trust Konoha's fairness."
Anko laughed, clearly entertained by his boldness. "Good answer. I like candidates with guts—it makes things more interesting."
Her amusent faded, replaced by the cold professionalism of an experienced shinobi. "If there are no further questions, proceed to the tent and collect your scrolls. Once you enter the forest, rember—the mont you open your scroll outside the tower, you die."
The candidates exchanged wary glances as they began filing into the tent, the oppressive silence broken only by the rustling of the wind through the trees.
nma's eyes lingered on the disguised Orochimaru one last ti.
The exam had not yet begun…
But the real battle was already in motion.
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