Chapter 24.Second round

Team 7 passed the first round. They went to the second round with an earth scroll in their hand. They have to survive inside the forest of death and get the heaven scroll. Once they got both of the scroll they must get to the tower to finish the second round. When they were running inside the forest, team 7 met up with a team.

"Their headbands, they're from Otogakure", said Sakura. "Otogakure?", asked Naruto.

"It's a new village led by a mysterious shinobi"

"Mysterious shinobi huh? Like Saruto-san?", said Naruto.

"Who?", asked Naruko. "You don't know Saruto-san? He used to live with us. He's the one who taught me multi shadow clone jutsu, ya know"

"I don't know who he is, Oni-chan"

"You two stop talking and concentrate on our potential enemies in front of us!", Sakura yelled at them.

"You three there, we have heaven scroll. What do you have?", one of the shinobi from the opposite side spoke.

"We have earth scroll. Let's fight for the scrolls, ya know!", said Naruko.

"We're the sound four, the big one here in Jirobo, she's Tayuya and I am Kido…"

"..two, three" Naruto was counting them. "What are you doing?", asked Sakura.

"He said four but there are only three of them, ya know"

Sakura slapped her forehead. Naruko said, "Oni-chan, the fourth one is their jonin leader, like Kakashi sensei"

"Huh, I get it now"

"If you are done talking let's fight", Kidamaru said as he jumped from the branch with his teammates.

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Anko was monitoring the second stage of the exam. Saruto entered the room, "Hey, Anko sensei"

Anko turned her gaze to Saruto with a dumpling in her mouth. "Don't get addicted to those!", said Saruto as he was pointing at her dumpling.

"Come on Saruto! You too!"

Saruto scratched his head and sat next to Anko. She was looking at the footage brought by the proctors. She played a footage and said, "You see this team Saruto?"

"This team? Suna's sand siblings I know them. They're Kazekage's kids"

"How did you know that they're Kazekage's kids?"

"Does it matter? What about them?"

"They finished the second stage in 97 minutes"

Saruto yawned, "As expected from them. I didn't take that long finush the second round, didn't I?"

Anko took a note pad with documents and said, "Actually you did took your time. I read your exam reports from the last exam. It says you slept for hours after your fight between a certain Yamamaru"

Saruto was shocked and yelled, "Why didn't anyone tell me about it?"

She flippedsome pages and said, "It also says, participant Saruto was hanging on a tree while sleeping like a monkey and his teammates were watchingover him"

Saruto's eyebrows twitched until he saw something interesting and horrible on the monitor. "What are they doing? Isn't she their teammate?"

Ano looked at what he was talking about, "Unfortunately, it seems they took her on their team just to feed off her chakra"

[Saruto!]

'I know, red hair and glasses, that's definitely thirty-year-old Uzumaki Karin'

[What are you going to do?]

'She has potential to become a strong kunoichi. If I leave her under Kushina-nee's training, she can do more than just healing'

"Anko sensei, I can't accept what they're doing to her!"

"Saruto, it's her choice. She must have agreed to do this"

"Does it look like they gave her any other choices? I can help her. I am sorry but I am interfering with this round"

"But that would ruin the peace accord between Kusagakure and Konohagakure"

Saruto's eyebrows frowned as he said, "Tell them that one of their team died during the exam!"

"Are you going to kill them?", Anko asked Saruto. "A Shinobi who doesn't care about their teammate's wellbeing doesn't deserve to be a shinobi"

He stormed off the room.

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Karin was standing in front of a giant bear. She started running away but tripped by a root and fell on the ground. The bear charged toward her. Roots started binding the bear and restricted its movements. Karin watched what happened with surprise. For the first time in her life, she was saved instead of being used. She looked for the person responsible for this but she couldn't see him even though she could sense his presence. A warm chakra enveloping sadness and sorrow, she could feel that chakra in the environment.

"What are you doing there?" She heard a voice from behind. Naruko was standing there. "Did you do that?" Naruko was pointing at the bear which went unconscious after struggling to get out. Karin said, "No, it wasn't me. It was someone else"

Naruko was staring at Karin's hair. Then she said, "Your teammates are two boys, right?"

"Yes"

"They're dead. I saw their headbands. I thought they'd be your teammates. Someone must have killed them, ya know"

Karin wasn't sad at all. She bit her lip and wiped her tears. "I don't want to go back to my village. Please help me! I want to stay in this village"

Naruko sighed and said, "We'll meet after the second round! Try to survive until then, ya know", after saying that she left the place.

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Naruko returned to see her teammates. "The path is clear. We can go to the tower, ya know"

"Let's go then!", said Sakura as they started hopping over the trees. Once they approached the tower, they were expecting some traps but there weren't any. Sakura spoke, "There should be some traps! Maybe no other teams have really thought about it yet"

"It's possible! The second stage started just two hours ago. I don't think there was enough time for other teams to set traps"

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At the Hokage's bureau, Shikaku entered with some documents. "How is the second stage going?", asked Fugaku.

"Our rookies passed the second stage. Two teams from Otogakure and one team from Sunagakure passed too"

"That's good to know but there are too many of them"

"So, we should go there to carry out the preliminary round for the last round"

"If Sasuke were here, he'd be one of the participants". Fugaku went sad all of a sudden. Shikaku could feel the Hokage's regret. He didn't spend much time with his sons to understand them. Now he had failed one of them.

"Speaking of Sasuke, Saruto was supposed to handle his retrieval, right? It seems he was at the forest of death during the second round", said Shikaku.

Wind drifted inside the bureau. Both Fugaku and Shikaku looked at the window. "Seriously, Saruto stop using the windows to enter!" Shikaku yelled at Saruto. Saruto jumped inside from the window and spoke, "I managed to postpone Sasuke's regeneration process. Orochimaru will be force to take someone else and wait for Sasuke three more years"

"Is it the right choice? You are sacrificing someone else to protect", asked Shikaku. "I don't know but I chose only way possible to keep Orochimaru from taking over Sasuke's body"

[Saruto, you did nothing!"]

'Shut up voice guy! They don't know that'

"Let's go see the preliminary round. It's getting late", said Shikaku. Fugaku got up from his chair and they left the bureau.

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Inside one of Akatsuki's hideout, Orochimaru was screaming in pain. "Aah! This body is weak. Kabuto where is Sasuke?"

Kabuto opened the door and spoke, "He's nowhere to be found, Orochimaru-sama!"

"Aah I can't take it anymore! I've been waiting for Sasuke for a day. Find someone else! I'll take Sasuke's body next time and it will be more stronger in three years" Orochimaru flicked his tongue just to bite it accidentally. "AAAAAH IT HURTS KABUTOOOOO!"

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