Chapter 98

I chatted with Hiroko and her brother for a while before leaving them. They intended attending the second round of the third exam but apparently, they intended on not showing up as the Fire Daimyo and his children. From what Hiroko said, their father had no intention of stealing the spotlight from the children that everyone came to see. That confirmed it for me. I knew the Fire Daimyo was an indecisive person. That meant this Fire Daimyo, just like Might Guy had an altered personality. I rubbed the bridge of my nose in frustration. Hopefully it did not bring me problems. With the look he gave me earlier, I had a bad feeling.

I had to put it at the back of my mind. It was almost afternoon, and that meant the first stage was almost over. I quickly made my way to the forest of death without stopping. When I arrived, a booth had been set up with three attendants waiting. I walked to one of them before asking, "Have the participants arrived yet?" She looked at me with a questioning, 'Are you not one of them?' kind of look, but still answered me with a shake of her head.

Anko was nowhere to be found. That meant she was going to pull her crash through the window stunt. I sat on one of the tree branches and decided to wait. It was not long until I felt a large group of chakra signatures. Looking at the direction, I saw Anko, the proctor for the second stage of the exam leading a group towards our direction. It was not long before she reached our location, one of the entrances to the forest of death. Anko began issuing out orders. Each team of three would be given either a heaven or an earth scroll. Their objective would be to get the opposite scroll they received and make their way to the center of forest withing the five-day period.

I saw this exam firstly as a retrieval mission kind of test. How would you get the opposite scroll? Next was survivability. This was where a genin was to use every trick they had been thought at their disposal in order to survive not just the forest itself, which was filled with all types of man-eating chakra beasts and poisonous insects, but other examinees as well.

This time there was no childish Naruto to make fun of Anko which resulted in the Kunai scene. I searched for my targets while Anko gave out the consent forms. Konoha was not going to be held accountable for any deaths. That was when I found my first target. There he was, or more specifically, there she was. Shiore. That was the name of the ninja he killed and assumed her identity. Orochimaru. I had been wanting to meet him for so long. Some might say it was almost an obsession. Almost.

I could see him staring at Anko with an amused expression, although it was hidden under the hat she wore. It was as if finding an old toy, one used to play. Except, Anko was more of a failed experiment. Or was it both?

As I was contemplating, I saw Orochimari turn to me. It was understandable. I was standing a little distance away, shrouded in yin cloak, enough to hide my presence, but not enough to completely erase it. He stared for a short while before his eyes changed to what looked like hate. I was stunned. I had never met the man, and yet, where was the hate in his eyes coming from? I may have misread, but it definitely did not look like a 'pleasure to meet you' kind of look. He looked away almost immediately after and proceeded to move with his team to get their scroll.

I could only shake my head and leave the matter alone for now. What was I going to do, ask him what was wrong? I decided to search for my other target instead. It did not take long for me to find her. Standing timidly behind two other teammates with her glaring long red hair. Uzumaki Karin. With the way she stood, one could easily tell her position among the three I the team.

I slowly made my way towards her. With my yin cloak on, it was easy to weave my way through. I reached her before lightly tapping her on her shoulder. She turned around startled, but I was long gone. She looked around confused before turning back towards her teammates. I had tagged her to make it easier to find her once the second stage officially started.

I looked around once more and saw Team Asuma, Team Kurenai and the new Team Kakashi. I probably should stop calling them 'the new team'. Just because I was not part as I originally should have, did not make them a new team. The group was somewhat huddled together, with Naruto and Hinata much closer to each other. Who would have thought? In the original both were so far apart, and now look at them. Each team had already received and hidden their scrolls. I gradually released my yin cloak to make myself 'visible' once more. My presence attracted their attention as I wanted and mouthed the words 'Good Luck' to them. They seemed surprised at first but nodded in answer.

Looking at my watch, it was almost 2pm. The exam should officially begin soon. "Listen up. All the teams have received their scrolls. So everybody go to your gates and wait there. When the gates open the test is on." Right on cue, Anko barked out the instructions and the participants dispersed to one of the 44 gates right after.

Soon after, the gates were open, which marked the beginning of the second stage of the exam. The participants all dashed in, leaving just me and Anko. A few of the chunin ninjas had gone in not long after the exam officially began.

Anko looked at me for a bit before she spoke, "you must be the new Jounin prodigy the others were talking about." She jumped onto a branch and made herself comfortable. "I wouldn't say prodigy, but yeah, I suppose." She gave me one last look before leaning against the tree. I took my eyes off her as well and concentrated. I could feel the seal I placed on Karin. It was moving towards the eastern direction of my location. It was time for me to make my move as well.

I looked back at Anko and saw she had pulled out Dango from out of nowhere. I had almost forgotten. She loved those sweets to a fault. It was understandable. As a ninja, she burned all that fat through training and missions. But when the war ended, she probably did not have any reason to train anymore or go on missions and ended up growing fat.

I looked at her, "You know, if you keep eating all those you just going to grow fat." What a taboo word. A dango stick whizzed past my head. Of course, I knew the direction it was going so I tilted slightly to not draw any blood from me. "What did you just say brat?!" I saw her raging face as she looked to want to attack once more.

"It's not like I'm wrong. Just keep eating and you will probably end up alone." I saw her pull out a kunai, but I disappeared with the flicker. I said that out of the goodness of my heart. It was time to get the red head Karin before she was eaten by a bear. I did not know if Sasuke would save her like in canon, but it was best to not leave it to chance. What I was most looking forward to was meeting Orochimaru, But for some reason I was having a bad feeling. 'Did I just jinx myself again? I hope not.'