One Week Later, Konohagakure: The Day of the in Exam Finals
"Ladies alemen, thank you fatherio attend the event hosted by our Konohagakure—"
A booming voice echoed through the speakers.
"It's so lively here."
In the audience, Iris restlessly gnced around before pointing to the ter of the arena. "Look, it's the Kazekage!"
"Stop overreag!" Ami pined, but then her gaze nded on Link, standing at the edge of the arena. She immediately stood up, waved enthusiastically, and cupped her hands around her mouth to shout, "Boss!"
"BOSS!!"
"Two noisy idiots..." Inuzuka Kiba, sitting nearby, made a disgusted face, while Akamaru, perched on his head, nodded in agreement.
Is someone calling me?
Dressed in his medical corps uniform, Link looked up and saw his two former teammates practically jumping with excitement.
"Those are your old teammates, aren't they? They're pretty lively," Kunshi teased, nudging his arm with a smile.
"No helping it," Link replied with a smile, though his gaze involuntarily drifted to the tral stands where the Third Hokage and Fourth Kazekage were seated.
Approving all my pending jutsu applicatiht before the Konoha Crush...
How sly, Third Hokage.
Though he had once sidered saving the Third Hokage, logic told him that recklessly intervening in the core battlefield involving three Kage and Orochimaru might just lead to his own untimely death.
The smartest pn would be to team up with Sasuke, now wielding the Three-Tomoe Sharingan, and ambush Orochimaru after he lost his arms. Even if they couldn't kill him, they could at least severely weaken him. Alternatively, he could target the Jonin from the Otogakure and Sunagakure during the battle, seg his reputation for future promotions.
But—
No helping it.
Link smiled, feeling surprisingly light without his usual weights hiddeh the medical uniform, almost as if he could leap into the air at any moment.
He waved back at Naruto Uzumaki, who was enthusiastically greeting him from the field, then exged a gh the perpetually zy Shikamaru Nara.
Wait... Is that Hayate Gekkō?
The proctor standing before the testants was Hayate Gekkō, who was supposed to have been killed in the manga.
The ges to the story are piling up. My presence, like a gust of wind, has already started to turn the wheels of fate...
Link tilted his head, estimating how long it would take him to reach the Third Hokage from his current position. When his eyes met those of the Fourth Kazekage, his smile deepened.
Well then, why not let the winds blow even harder?
"Alright!" Naruto Uzumaki, battered and bruised, had barely defeated Temari, who hadn't even used summoning jutsu one all out. Despite his victory, it was hard to imagine him being promoted to in with his reckless shadow e strategy.
The match was Rock Lee versus Gaara.
The moment the match began, the tension in the air alpable. A high-speed taijutsu specialist versus a le ninjutsu user—it was like a repy of Neji Hyūga's earlier battle with Gaara.
But this time, Lee was much faster.
Having seen Gaara's teiques before, Lee wasted no time. After a brief exge, he unleashed the Primary Lotus, theed to the Hidden Lotus by opening the Eight Gates.
The iy of the battle soared, with Lee seemingly overwhelming Gaara. However, an eerie chakra began to emanate from Gaara.
What is this...?
The Third Hokage's previously cheerful expression turned grave.
Feathers began to fall from the sky, and a kunai silently pressed against his neck. Calmly, the Hokage goward the Fourth Kazekage nearby.
"Is the Sunagakure betraying Konoha to start a war?"
Before he could finish his sentence, a chilling voice sounded behind him. "Sensei, ohe wind begins to blow, it ot be stopped by your trivial words—"
"A!" The Fourth Kazekage anded.
Swish! Ssh!
A bde of wind swept through the air, instantly slig through the nearby Anbu. Baki and the other Sunagakure escorts quickly elimihe remaining guards a into the arena as a barrier began to rise, enclosing the area around the stands.
"I see..." The Third Hokage muttered as Orochimaru, disguised as an Anbu, seized him and moved to the rooftop. There, Orochimaru shed his mask and robes, revealing his pale fad sinister smile.
"Orochimaru, so you’ve allied with the Sunagakure—"
The Fourth Kazekage discarded his robes and hat, rising into the air on a wave of golden sand. His eyes, dark-ringed like Gaara’s, brimmed with murderous i. Unlike Orochimaru, who seemed to enjoy his theatrics, the Kazekage wasted no time, unleashing a torrent of sand to crush his enemies.
"Such a bore," Orochimaru remarked as he tore away his disguise, his pale skin gleaming. He smirked faintly. "Oh well, the target is—"
The Third Hokage quickly formed seals, spitting out a mass of dark earth to block the advang sand while keeping a wary eye on his most dangerous former student.
Orochimaru began f seals as well, and two coffins slowly rose from the ground.
Not good. I ’t let the third one—
The Hokage csped his hands together, stopping the summoning of the third coffin.
"In a battle between Kage," Orochimaru taunted, "how you afford to be distracted, sensei?"
"Whoosh!" The sand broke through the earthen wall, enveloping the Hokage.
Snap!
The eng sand was shattered by the Hokage’s staff.
Creak!
The lids of the coffins began to slide open.
Crash!
Before the resurrected warriors could emerge, a figure suddenly leapt into the arena, sshing through the barrier with a massive chakra scalpel. The barrier shattered like gss, its fragments disiing mid-air.
The Four Violet Fmes Formation dissipated into tless light particles.
"Third Hokage, I hope I’m not too te—"
Link nded gracefully, wielding a chakra scalpel with a bde over a meter long. His imposing, muscur frame—encased in a tight medical uniform—was ically mismatched with his childlike ten-year-old face.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
The Anbu quickly regrouped on the rooftop.
Baki and the other Kazekage guards were forced to retreat. Even a Kage would struggle against a coordinated assault from elite shinobi.
"Orochimaru, it seems your pn—" the Fourth Kazekage stated expressionlessly, "—has been fwed from the start."
Bleam
