Chapter 8

And so, a full month had now passed. Konohagakure's Chunin Exam was about to begin its finals.

Over the course of this month, some things had occurred behind the scenes of the peaceful village. One of the Otogakure Shinobi had been murdered, attempting to kill Gaara of the Sand before the finals.

Then a Konohagakure Jōnin, Hayate Gekkō, was murdered the same night. The reason is thought to be that he had discovered something about Orochimaru's plans inside Konohagakure but was found out and killed before being able to tell anyone.

Yet, the Konohagakure Chunin Exams were still underway. The arena was full of people, some civilians and others shinobi. Konohagakure Anbu could be seen guarding the area as well, though not many considering the circumstances. They were spread thin, searching for more clues about Orochimaru's plans.

Up in the highest seats were the two most prominent figures: Konohagakure's Third Generation Hokage and Sunagakure's Fourth Generation Kazekage. Yet even that high up, there was someone hidden in plain sight. Sunagakure's Kazekage was killed and replaced by Orochimaru before even arriving at Konohagakure.

Underneath the surface of the Chunin Exam Finals, a plan to invade and crush Konohagakure was secretly in place. For now, however, things would continue as normal. When the time was right, everything would begin.

Naruto vs Neji, Victor - Naruto. Though most of the fight was a philosophical debate and Naruto getting his ass whipped, it only took him one attack to somehow completely disable Neji from fighting further.

The next match was pushed back because Sasuke had not arrived yet. Normally it would be an automatic forfeit for the late party, but this being a highly anticipated match, the rules were tossed out the window for convenience.

Kankuro forfeited his match before it even began. He was worried that showing off Sunagakure puppetry techniques would be bad for the upcoming invasion.

Shikamaru loses to Temari via surrender. Temari continuously goaded Shikamaru while revealing that she knows his clan's shadow possession technique's weakness, using it to her advantage.

Shikamaru, being the smart guy he was, did everything he could to take Temari by surprise with many ways of overcoming this weakness again and again. Sadly, it was to a point where when he finally trapped her, he was exhausted and surrendered, though he showed a good fight.

Then finally, the last fight came up. But moments before the automatic forfeit yet again, Kakashi and Sasuke made their over-the-top entrance. Gaara was looking forward to this battle against Sasuke, a manic grin appearing when Sasuke showed up. On his way down to the arena floor, he was stopped by two people who threatened him to forfeit the match. Many people had bet on Sasuke's victory.

The two of them were killed.

The battle took place with everything happening as normal. Gaara was getting too into his match, already uncaring for his part in the upcoming invasion. The fight escalated to the point where Sasuke used his new technique to try and achieve victory.

The technique Sasuke employed was surprisingly effective. Gaara had a seemingly unbreakable defense, yet this move had pierced through it and injured Gaara to where he bled for the first time in his life. Everyone's eyes were glued to this match.

In the meantime, Kabuto, hidden as a Konohagakure Anbu, had been preparing to begin the operation. He had just taken out the final Hyuga member present, Hinata, by knocking her unconscious. Though he saw how Gaara's fight had progressed, and decided that he would need to signal the start himself.

Nehan Shōja no Jutsu (Nirvana Temple Jutsu)

Beautiful white feathers began to fall from the sky. Those who saw them suddenly felt drowsy and began to fall asleep. The more experienced shinobi had realized what was happening, able to cancel this Genjutsu before it took hold of them.

Over where the Hokage and Kazekage were, once they both saw this, they turned towards each other.

"Shall we begin?" The two Sunagakure shinobi beside the Kazekage suddenly sprang forward and unleashed smoke bombs.

Under the concealment, the Kazekage grabbed the Hokage before jumping up towards the roof, bringing up a kunai to Hiruzen's throat.

Konohagakure Anbu immediately took action to protect the Hokage, managing to easily defeat the two Sunagakure shinobi who had used the smoke bombs. However, from those two corpses, four people suddenly jumped up onto the roof before the Anbu, standing in specific spots. The four of them then formed hand seals.

Shishienjin (Ninja Art: Four Flames Formation)

A purple barrier was erected around the Hokage and Kazekage. The four casters were also inside this barrier to ensure no one from the outside could take them out. Outside, an unfortunate Konohagakure Anbu had no time to stop his movements before colliding with the barrier. Their body suddenly burst into flames and they died miserably screaming in pain.

"I never imagined the sand would betray Konohagakure." The Hokage calmly stated, seemingly unfazed by what was happening.

"Treaties are merely smokescreens to lull the other party into relaxing their guard. This pitiful pretend competition is now over. From here on out, history will be made."

"Are you inciting war?"

"Indeed."

"Let us avoid violence and instead reach a settlement through negotiations. There is still time for that."

The Kazekage's eyes narrowed. "Ho ho, old age has made you feeble-minded, Master Sarutobi!"

Hiruzen's eyes widened at that, looking at who he had thought was the Kazekage. "You…"

—

In the stands below, a civilian had watched the feathers falling from the sky. His eyes flashed red for a moment and the technique's hold over him was severed. He then watched as the Genin Sunagakure team fled while their Sensei stayed back. Many Sunagakure and Otogakure shinobi revealed themselves and in the distance, giant snake summons had been unleashed to wreak havoc.

Looking at where the purple barrier was erected, he saw as Orochimaru summon the souls of the First Hokage, Hashirama, and the Second Hokage, Tobirama, to fight.

He stood up and began to walk towards where the Konohagakure shinobi were starting to engage with the invading foreign shinobi. Suddenly, he saw that a Sunagakure shinobi was about to attack him. It was easy to see coming and he was going to just dodge it to continue on his way, but someone else yanked on his collar to pull him away.

"Kid, you need to evacuate." A white-haired shinobi said while blocking the incoming attack.

"How did you avoid that Genjutsu?" A bowl-cut shinobi asked curiously while pulling him back to his feet.

"Guy, now's not the time to ask questions, just send the kid to safety." Kakashi sighed as he easily took down the Sunagakure shinobi.

"No need." The kid suddenly said, swiping away Guy's hand. "Well, it was nice to meet you for the first time, Kakashi, Guy." He finished saying before dissipating into smoke

"A shadow clone?" Guy asked in surprise.

Both were a little confused at what had just happened, but just got back to defending their home and protecting the unconscious civilians. Before that, Guy raised his hand to look at a crumpled piece of paper. The kid shoved it in his hand when swiping his hand away.

Curious he was about it, he had more important things to do. So putting it into one of the many pockets on his vest, he swiftly got back to work.