Chapter 68: Exams Part 8

My Life as Naruto Uzumaki - Harem Version

Chapter 68: Exams Part 8

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[Third Person POV]

Jiraiya, the 200 ANBU accompanying him (root included in the number), Sakura, Haku, Shikamaru, Ino, Choji, Tenten, Lee, Neji, Tsunade, Kakashi, Guy, Asuma, Anko, Hinata, Shino, Kurenai, Kin, and Tayuya, watched in awe as Naruto went toe-to-toe in kenjutsu against Orochimaru. Matching him blow for blow in ninjutsu and putting the pressure on the Legendary Rogue Ninja.

They had no words to describe the absolute sense of amazement that they were experiencing throughout the entire confrontation. Then this became impossible to do when they saw Naruto unleash the power of his bijū with nary a thought and completely overpower the shinobi with minimal effort.

When the battle was over and Naruto sat on the ground after undoing his transformation, everyone spectating the battle in the forest or the Hokage Office felt their hearts returning to their normal beating velocity.

"Phew... that honestly wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be... Dude certainly packs a punch. Holy shit, I nearly had to use my strongest jutsu there... Lucky for the forest I didn't hahaha", Naruto laughed to himself while completely oblivious to the slacked jaws of those watching him.

"Kakashi...", Asuma began.

"... Yes, Asuma?", He responded, still shocked.

"... just what are you feeding your genin?", He asked his question, expecting an answer.

"... ramen and tomatoes last I checked... I believe dumplings with syrup were also on the menu occasionally...", Kakashi replied.

Asuma had a slack jaw and decided to leave his questions for later.

Kurenai was just as speechless. Naruto had been out of the fight for almost 5 months, having to recover and start over completely from scratch, and he was this strong. She understood now that her Kiba wasn't poorly trained by his friends, he was just not on the level they were.

She'd held a bit of resentment toward Naruto since Kiba died, thinking he'd shown favoritism in some way. But after this display, she couldn't help but feel stupid. Naruto trained the same way as everyone else and his results were simply better. He was just built different from his comrades. Only Sasuke could realistically come close to fighting Naruto back then, but what about now?

She doubted there was anyone in the village, save for the Hokage and Jiraiya, perhaps also Kakashi and Guy, that could match him in any regard. That was without the power of his bijū as well. There would be no competition if he used any of its power. She was starting to think that maybe now was a good time to start settling down with her not-so-secret partner.

Kakashi was staring at the image of his former sensei smiling happily at his son as he relaxed after a hard-won battle. He felt a sense of pride for having taken the young man's training seriously in the beginning. He also couldn't wait to see what else Naruto had in store. The amount of promise and potential he showed was incredible, and those weren't even his best techniques if he's to be believed. 

Jiraiya couldn't help but be proud. He had the biggest smile he'd ever had on his face at this exact moment in time. The joy he felt at watching his pupil defeat his former rival and show control and restraint even in such a high-level battle gave him hope. Hope that someday, Naruto would be able to defeat the enemies lying in the shadows, seeking to bring ruin and destruction to the world. 

He'd be teaching him some new tricks later.

These kinds of thoughts were circling in everyone's heads as they watched Naruto get up and start walking toward his dumbfounded teammates. 

[MC POV]

I stretched my body as I walked over to Sakura and Haku who were standing next to all of the other Leaf teams, "Heya, cool fight, huh? I thought it was going to be much harder. Maybe he just wasn't prepared or something."

Their mouths dug into the ground somehow. Looked kind of funny, actually. I grinned, "So, uh... did you girls get any scrolls? Can't move forward with the test if we don't have a pair, ya'know?"

"Uh... y-yeah... we've got two pairs each, actually", Haku came out of her stupor and responded.

I nodded in satisfaction and kissed her, grabbing the scrolls, "Excellent. Let's make haste to the goal, then." 

I used my Area Scanning and found the direction of the Tower, before taking a marked kunai and throwing it with as much force as possible, infusing it with wind chakra so that it would more easily cut through the air in its direction. I grabbed Haku and Sakura by their waist and waited for the kunai to strike its mark.

"Well, guys, I'll see you all inside the tower", I grinned and teleported to the forest tower.

Gaara's team beat me to it, sadly but we were the second team to make it. It took us about three hours and some change to make it to the tower. Considering most of that was me fighting Orochimaru, I think we made good time.

The rest of my friends made it in short order, and except for Hinata, Kin, and Kabuto's teams, all of the original teams from the preliminaries were here. I was surprised to see that Team Oboro didn't make it, but it is what it is.

 In total, we had only twelve participants make it to the tower, so there weren't any preliminaries. The matchups were as follows:

Tenten vs. Kankurō

Shikamaru vs. Temari

Haku vs. Sakura

Choji vs. Ino

Rock Lee vs. Neji

Naruto(me) vs. Gaara

I grinned. It's almost like these matchups were stacked in my favor.