"Thank you."
Neji, having released his emotions, walked up to Anya Kurotsuchi and respectfully bowed in gratitude.
Anya brushed the dust off his clothes and stood up. "It was nothing. Your team has three members, right? Where's the other one?"
Tenten, standing beside them, replied, "We don't know. Lee didn't meet us at the designated location."
"Let's go find him. There's strength in numbers. We should gather the scrolls quickly and finish this exam."
Neji hesitated, opening his mouth as if to say something but then falling silent. These two were clearly extremely powerful—why did they need to ally with his team? And why help him break free from the cage? Was it really just because of Tenten?
As they moved forward, Sasori asked curiously, "Big Brother Kurotsuchi, your body can't freely use Sage Techniques. Why make an exception for an outsider?"
"I'm just curious about the function of that cursed seal, and I also want to study the Byakugan a bit," Anya Kurotsuchi mused. "The Byakugan is one of the Three Great Dojutsu. Its abilities shouldn't be limited to merely enhancing perception."
"Did you gain anything just now?"
"Some, but not much." Anya pointed at his eyes and explained, "It seems the Byakugan works best when combined with Taijutsu—it's designed that way from the beginning. It's fundamentally different from my Sharingan. However, this probably isn't the Byakugan's ultimate potential."
Sasori suggested, "I can go to the Hyuga Clan and capture some members for you to research."
"A great suggestion," Anya joked. "After the research, I could even give them to Kakuzu for ransom money."
"Then I'll leave tomorrow."
"Never mind, no rush." Anya had already made plans in his mind: "It's been many years, yet the Hyuga Clan has never produced a formidable ninja, indicating how difficult it is for the Byakugan to exceed its limits. This level of Byakugan simply isn't worth researching—it'd be better to cultivate someone directly."
Sasori finally understood Anya's intentions and nodded knowingly, "So he's the lucky guy you've chosen."
"Whether he's lucky or not remains to be seen. But he's a genius worth cultivating."
Neji, running ahead of them all, had no idea his fate had just been decided in the conversation behind him—it seemed he had merely switched cages.
"Huh, found him." Neji located Lee's position using his Byakugan.
They arrived next to a large tree hollow where they saw Lee lying on the ground injured, while Sasuke and Naruto were unconscious inside the hole. Three Sound Genin were charging toward where Sasuke lay.
Sakura, the only uninjured one among them, was caught by the Sound ninja, her hair being pulled.
"What happened? Did Lee lose to those three?" Tenten was about to step forward.
Neji blocked her path: "Right now, we're opponents. What the Sound ninja are doing isn't wrong."
"But..."
"Tenten, Neji's right. This is their Chunin Exam. If we intervene, it would disturb the exam dynamics." Anya also stopped Tenten. Those three Sound Genin were disposable tools sent by Orochimaru to test Sasuke. Orochimaru himself was hiding somewhere observing everything. If their performance was disrupted, he might decide to step in himself.
In that case, even the normally stoic Sasori would get involved. What began as a conflict between genin would escalate directly into a Kage-level battle, dragging everyone nearby into the chaos and causing the situation to spiral out of control.
As they were speaking, Sakura—who had constantly been bullied—steeled her resolve. Gathering her courage, she used a shuriken to cut off her long hair and launched a counterattack.
However, courage alone could not bridge the gap in strength. All of her Substitution Jutsu were easily seen through, having no effect at all. The Sound Ninja, adopting a cruel "whack-a-mole" mindset, played with her mercilessly, idly tossing a few shuriken before stepping back to observe.
"Now, where did you hide?"
The thrown shuriken successfully pierced Sakura. Assuming it was another Substitution Jutsu, the Sound Ninja gave it no thought—until Sakura's shuriken struck flesh and drew blood. Only then did he realize this wasn't a clone. This time, it was her real self, daring enough to risk everything for a life-or-death strike. "What a ruthless girl."
At the critical moment, the Sound Ninja blocked the fatal strike with his arm, then furiously launched a relentless assault against Sakura. Soon, blood flowed from her head wound.
"Are you really going to just stand there?" Tenten couldn't bear to watch anymore and prepared to rush forward and help.
Before Tenten could act, the next-generation Ino–Shika–Cho trio burst from the shadows, rescuing Sakura and positioning themselves in front of the Sound Ninjas Trio.
"Hmm?" Sasori, who had remained silent until now, expressed surprise.
Inside the tree hollow, Sasuke suddenly stood up, his entire body radiating purple chakra. A strange cursed seal spread across him, emitting terrifying killing intent unlike anything he had shown before—truly like a different person.
"This chakra… Why does it resemble Sage Chakra?"
Sasori, who had successfully mastered Sage Art at Ryuchi Cave, was especially sensitive to this kind of energy.
Anya responded, "No need to doubt—it's a low-grade form of Sage Art, activated through the Cursed Seal Jutsu. Additionally, Orochimaru's own cells were incorporated into it, granting users certain abilities of his own. To pass on Sage Art via such means shows remarkable ingenuity."
Though impressed, Sasori scoffed coldly, "To complete such a Cursed Seal Jutsu probably required countless lives."
Natural energy was extremely volatile, and even this inferior version wouldn't be tolerable for just anyone.
With his newfound power, defeating an ordinary genin was naturally effortless for Sasuke. While the two were talking, Sasuke had already disabled both of the Sound Ninja's arms. Worse still, Sasuke planned to kill them all without mercy.
"It seems the Cursed Seal Jutsu also corrupts the soul. The Cursed Seal Jutsu has serious flaws."
This scene revealed the weakness of the technique to Sasori.
Sakura rushed up from behind and wrapped her arms around Sasuke, halting his attack. As reason returned, the cursed seal energy faded from within Sasuke, restoring him to normal.
At that moment, Minato appeared out of nowhere, standing beside Anya with an Earth Scroll in his hand.
Anya took the scroll and communicated through soul force, saying, "You didn't lift a finger to help Naruto, yet still found time to snatch a scroll and finish the exam. Now that's impressive."
Minato said with a smile, "Orochimaru didn't really intend to take his life. Besides, this is Naruto's own exam. I shouldn't interfere unless he's in mortal danger. As a father, I should of course believe in my son unconditionally. However..."
"Hold on—'however'?"
Minato gave a bitter smile and said, "Orochimaru layered the Five Elements Seal over my original Eight Trigrams Sealing Style to suppress the Nine-Tails' chakra within Naruto. Because of this, it's become extremely difficult and unstable for Naruto to channel chakra."
"Oh, no big deal. I'll just go help him undo it later. Or maybe I'll talk with the Nine-Tails and have Naruto collect rent from it."
After considering Anya's suggestion carefully, Minato shook his head and said, "No need. It's still too soon for him to master this kind of power. Also, haven't you noticed that this generation of Konoha kids is generally weaker in strength compared to our time? However, they have something we didn't have back then."
Anya asked curiously, "What's that?"
"Friendship and ties."
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