Ch 35 : End of the Second stage Chunin Exam

When the group arrived at the Central Tower, they all sighed in relief.

At least now their safety would be guaranteed by the village, they thought.

The two groups opened their scrolls at the same time and the rest continued like in the anime.

Iruka appeared, telling them the true meaning of the exam, while Karin, on the other hand, was brought away by Sanada, who arrived later.

The curtains of the second stage of the Chūnin Exams had been closed, but it also brought worry to Sanada's heart.

Because of his intervention, Orochimaru had failed to implant the curse seal on Sasuke. But that didn't mean that he would give up.

Based on Orochimaru's personality that Sanada knew from the anime, it would be strange if Orochimaru didn't make a move during the one-month period break before the third part of the Chūnin Exams.

Sanada believed that if it was on a one-on-one situation, he would be able to contain Orochimaru. But Orochimaru was just way too strange.

His brain was unrivalled in the ninja world and it wouldn't be weird if he had developed some strange way to sneak around applying the curse mark when none paid attention.

Nonetheless, Sanada was not Sasuke's personal guard. He had done all he could and now Sanada would just make a report to the Hokage. He hoped that their Hokage could put up sufficient countermeasures for Orochimaru.

----

- A few days later, in the highest room of the tower -

A man on a TV screen was talking.

"Anko-Sama, we have confirmed that twenty-four people have passed the second test. In accordance with the rules, for the first time in five years, we will start preparations for preliminaries before the third test."

The man finished his report as the message came to an end.

In the room, the Third Hokage had also watched the message along with Anko, but next to her was someone that we aren't unfamiliar with.

"For the time being, continue the exam as planned while we keep our eyes on Orochimaru's movements." The Third Hokage said, which Anko only replied with a yes.

He then turned his head to the side where the other man was standing.

"What do you think, Sanada? You are the first one to discover Orochimaru and repel him. What do you think about this?"

Standing with the Hokage and Anko was none other than Sanada. He had finished reporting about the matter in the forest of death. He also explained how he was able to react in time for the emergence of Orochimaru.

Of course, some of the things that Sanada told them were fabricated. None of the people here could find any holes in his story so they chose to believe Sanada's words.

"I don't have any complaints Hokage-Sama. But.. I think we should increase our surveillance of Uchiha Sasuke. Orochimaru's target when sneaking into the Forest of Death before should probably have been him."

"Hmm, we'll do as you say then.."

----

- Back to the Exams -

A huge hall with two humongous hands depicting a tiger hand seal could be seen.

The Third Hokage now had the eight Jonin leaders standing behind him, with the four examiners on both his sides.

Just like in the anime, Anko began to speak and congratulated the Genin.

While Anko was speaking, the Jonin, on the other hand, were currently having their own discussion.

"Your team isn't too bad. Maybe they were lucky. But as long as-"

Guy wasn't able to finish his words as was interrupted by Kakashi.

"I'm sorry, Guy, but this time, the focus is no longer on my or your disciples," Kakashi spoke as his head turned to Sanada.

'This guy .. I never thought that he would be able to hold back Orochimaru. Just what secrets are you hiding from us, Sanada..'

----

As time passed, the Third Hokage eventually finished explaining the true purpose of the exams. The stage was now set up and they were ready to begin the preliminaries of the third exam.

At this moment, Hayate Gekko appeared."Hokage-Sama, from here on, as the referee, will you please allow me Gekkō Hayate."

Gekkō Hayate appeared and assumed the role of the referee for the preliminary exam.

He explained everything about the point of the contest and after he finished explaining, just like in the original plot, Kabuto decided to withdraw from the contest.

But this time, Kabuto wasn't the only one to withdraw. All the members of Kabuto's team plus Kin (Tsuchi) decided to withdraw, bringing the number of participants in the preliminaries to 20.

Maybe because of Sanada's interference, Naruto and the rest of team 7 didn't have many interactions with Kabuto, so there wasn't that much drama going on here.

Of course, this created some suspicion on Anko's side since it was a bit strange to see so many candidates giving up before the fight.

Nonetheless, a suspicion would only remain a suspicion and since they didn't have any way to prove anything right now the Third Hokage could only dismiss it for the time being.

Gekkō Hayate finished noting the withdrawing participants and soon he opened his mouth to speak once more.

"Now, let's begin the preliminaries."

"The preliminaries will consist of one-on-one fighting. You will fight like in a real-life confrontation."

"Since we now have exactly 20 participants, we will conduct ten matches and the winners will advance to the third test."

"There are basically no rules. The fight continues until one of you dies or is knocked out or admits defeat. If you don't want to die, then quickly admit defeat."

"When I have decided that a winner has clearly been established, I'll jump in and stop things as to not pointlessly increase the number of casualties."

"And now we will reveal the object that controls your destiny."

"This electric scoreboard will show the match-ups for each battle, and now we will announce the two names of the first fight."

When Gekkō Hayate's words fell, the electric scoreboard started to shuffle the names before it eventually stopped.

"For the first battle, we have Uchiha Sasuke Vs. Hibachi."