81 Chapter 81: The appearance of the snake
The Central tower in the middle of the Forest of Death.
The proctor for the final exam was going to be Hayate Gekko.
"Cough...Cough... Finally, here...Cough... I should have took it slower. The genin haven't arrived yet."
He muttered as he looked off a balcony on the massive tower.
However, he looked down in amazement upon noticing the presence of three genin on the ground.
He squinted his eyes and picked out the Forehead protectors hanging around them.
"Cloud Shinobi?"
...
...
Haku smiled
"We got here, so fast. Your Byakugan is like a cheat in this forest."
"Umu."
Hinata shyly nodded before looking around once again.
"What's wrong?"
Haku wondered curiously,
He thought of a possibility and joked.
"Hinata-chan~ don't tell me your missing your parents? Want me to send a secret to message to Hachiro-sama to come pick you up?"
"No, of course, not!"
Hinata retorted with a flushed face.
She knit her eyebrows in worry and said, "It's just, I feel like someone is watching me, but I can't sense them."
Kimimaro raised an eyebrow at that,
"I thought you and Samui-sama, trained in sensing?"
Mabui and Samui had personally trained Hinata, even without the byakugan, her perception rivalled an elite Jonin. With her special dojutsu though, she was one of the best sensors in Kumogakure.
"Nev-nevermind, lets just wait and see. I might be imagining it."
Hinata stuttered slightly, as the other two nodded and pulled out some water from their storage scrolls.
...
...
A few hours later, a group of Genin moved towards the central tower.
Hinata notified her team of an group enemies, and among them was one with malevolent chakra.
As they approached, Kimimaro didn't hesitate to pull out a bone from his shoulder and said,
"Who are you?"
They closely observed this the trio in front of them.
They consisted of two men and a single woman, their leader was a teenager with red hair, and dark circles under his eyes.
Their forehead protectors told them of their opponents of their native villages.
Sunagakure!
Kimimaro kept the knife out but lowered it slightly.
Hachiro had told them to avoid fighting against the Shinobi of Sunagakure, and although they weren't certain why, it was an order.
The six of them looked at each other.
Even the bloodthirsty Gaara restrained himself slightly as he observed his potential 'prey'.
Likewise, they had received similar orders.
Avoid conflict with the Cloud as they would do the same with the Sand.
Temari tried to break the ice and greeted them.
"Hello. Will you be going in first?"
Kimimaro replied emotionlessly.
"No, we are waiting for our delivery."
Kankuro grinned guessing what he meant and got a positive impression of the bony guy and his team.
"Well, good luck. We'll go on ahead then."
They watched on as the three siblings entered the tower.
They continued to guard without much conversation for the next period of time.
...
...
A few hours later, another team of genin arrived.
More specifically, a team was made up of promising rookies from the Konoha 11(12?).
Kurenai's team consisting of Shino Aburame, Kiba Inazuka and Yakumo Kurama.
Kimimaro repeated his earlier actions and pulled out a shorter bone this time, he pointed it at them and said.
"Hand over your scroll."
Kiba being a young hot-blooded youth, meant he said things in the heat of the moment, without considering it.
"Huh? What was that you, white-haired bastard!"
He totally ignored Akamaru pulling on his hair trying to get his attention.
Shino made good use of his brains and the information gifted to him by Kabuto, and lied flawlessly,
"We don't have any scrolls. We were attacked at the beginning and lost ours, we figured the tower had more."
Yakumo praised him in her mind as she thought they might have avoided a fight.
Pity, they didn't take into account that a byakugan user had thoroughly scanned them.
"We don't want to fight. Could you hand your over your scroll before we are forced to become violent."
Haku gave a harmless smile and tried to convince them, lest Kimimaro kills them.
The Inazuka didn't take too kindly to his good will and formed a hand seal.
"Are you joking! We're not handing over what belongs to us, simply because you say so!"
He looked behind him and shouted to his teammates.
"Yakumo back me up!"
"Bone rush..."
However, the second he closed in Kimimaro appeared in front of him and clasped his hand around his throat.
He lifted him and slowly said,
"...You're courting death, I see..."
The expressions of the Leaf genin changed drastically.
They were freaking out at the ridiculous speed, he displayed.
"Kimimaro, don't kill him!"
Haku shouted, hoping he would listen.
...
...
"Orochimaru appeared!?"
The meeting room in the Hokage's building.
After listening to the report of Anko, Hiruzen and the other three elders and the present consultants were shocked.
Anko was covering her neck with a pained look on her face.
"Yes, I met him in the Forest of Death. I tried to take us both out but unfortunately, I failed."
Despite his calm expression, Koharu's voice trembled as he spoke,
"Did you find out his purpose for interrupting the exams?"
It wasn't entirely because he was afraid of the snakes strength, but more so as a result from his understanding of how cunning and smart the rebel was.
"At present, we believe he showed up in the exams, is thanks to an interest in the last descendant of the Uchiha."
Anko informed them of what she thought from her encounter.
"Sasuke Uchiha?"
Hiruzen said with a deep tone to his voice.
He was more worried about whether this would implicate the young Uchiha's brother, Itachi Uchiha.
The meeting room fell silent for a moment.
Homaru opened his mouth and said,
"It's good, we made the decision to call Jiraiya back. He should be able to repel Orochimaru."
Koharu reminded him
"How will watch the Kumogakure ninja?"
He then looked towards the Anbu in the room and questioned.
"Where is he right now? Still in the Hyuga clan?"
A female ninja jumped down and bowed.
She had purple hair and a cat mask, she reported.
"Hachiro Raiden, has left the Hyuga's compound and is currently heading towards the Forest of Death."
Has the genin from the Cloud already made it to the central tower?
Homura thought to himself and looked towards the clock on the wall.
Its been less than 36 hours, they couldn't be that fast right?
The purple haired, Anbu also said,
"Team Kurenai was defeated by the Cloud's team, they were made up of three children from the Inazuka, Aburame and Kurama clan respectively."
Hiruzen bit his pipe.
Koharu looked at the Hokage anxiously
Hiruzen, now that Orochimaru has showed up, should we terminate this Chunin exam? We can postpone it for another few months if we try."
Homura rejected the notion without much thought.
"No, we need to win this chunin exam, more than ever. If we cancel it because of a single rebel then it would make us seem even weaker."
Hiruzen, on the other hand considered it before dropping it.
The Chūnin exam could not be stopped!
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Even though exams are over, I can't muster the motivation to post another chapter... 😐
