"We give up. Take this, and please let us go."
After recovering from his bewilderment and shock, Dosu realised that the three opponents before him were far too powerful to provoke.
He quickly surrendered, admitting defeat.
"Hmph. We'll let you off this time. But take a message back to Orochimaru: one day, I'm going to fight him!" Sasuke said seriously, accepting the Earth Scroll Dosu that Dosu handed over.
"What? Not just you, me too!" Naruto, unhappy that Sasuke had only mentioned himself, ran over to correct him.
He also wanted to have a proper battle with Orochimaru once he got stronger!
"Alright. I understand."
Dosu broke out in a cold sweat upon hearing their declarations.
Even if they were powerful, surely they would still be crushed by someone as terrifying as Lord Orochimaru.
Yet, they wanted him to deliver such a provocative message! He immediately decided that he would absolutely not mention this to Orochimaru.
What if Lord Orochimaru took his anger out on them?
With that thought, he struggled to his feet, picked up his two unconscious teammates, and quickly departed.
After they left, Kiba looked at Naruto's team with mixed emotions. "I didn't expect you guys to become so strong. Especially you, Naruto. You've changed so much, you feel like a stranger."
Back at the academy, Naruto had always been dead last, never winning a single spar. But now, his strength had undergone such a drastic transformation that it was hard to imagine. He had defeated the guy who hurt Hinata with a single move.
"Hehe, didn't I tell you? I'm going to take first place in this exam!" Naruto said with a grin, rubbing his head.
Being praised always put him in a good mood, and this was no exception.
"Hmph. Maybe you actually could," Kiba scoffed lightly, but then immediately changed his tone.
"But I won't just give up obediently. Until we have a real fight, I'll never admit you can beat me!"
Even though he felt Naruto might be stronger than him, he wasn't one to admit defeat easily.
"Alright! I'll be waiting!" Naruto replied cheerfully.
"So, we've got both scrolls now. Should we head straight for the tower?" Sakura asked Naruto and Sasuke.
Now that they had the Earth Scroll from Dosu, their mission to collect the scrolls was complete.
All they had to do was reach the tower together, and they would pass the second exam.
Kiba's team, who had originally come for the scroll, had no objections to them taking the Earth Scroll and didn't challenge them for it.
After all, apart from Shino, one of them was injured, and another had lost most of his fighting ability. There was no way they could win.
"Yeah, yeah! I've had enough of this place already!" Naruto agreed without hesitation.
"Agreed." Sasuke glanced at the sky and nodded. "At our speed, we should be able to make it by sunset." He also disliked this bug-infested place and was more than happy to leave early.
Having reached a consensus, the three of them waved goodbye to Kiba's team.
"We're off! Haha, Kiba, you'd better pass this exam, or you won't even get the chance to fight me! And Hinata, Shino, you guys do your best too!" Naruto flashed a toothy grin, saying goodbye to each of them.
"Hmph, of course!" Kiba smirked.
"Y-yes, Naruto," Hinata stammered, her face flushing red as Naruto addressed her directly.
As for Shino, he nodded coolly in response.
After Naruto and his team left, Shino watched Naruto's retreating figure, a sharp glint flashing behind his sunglasses.
'Naruto, you've changed a lot.'
During the first exam, when Naruto used the Solar Flare, Shino, thanks to his sunglasses, was unaffected, just like Sasuke and Sakura, who had prepared in advance.
He had seen Naruto's entire operation clearly. However, he was a man of few words, and seeing that Ibiki had also noticed but chosen to conceal it, he had never mentioned it to anyone.
Now, seeing Naruto's impressive strength and combining it with the earlier incident, a curiosity about Naruto began to rise in his heart: Just what has Naruto experienced to undergo such a change?
"Hehe, our luck has finally turned. We got an Earth Scroll so quickly," Naruto said cheerfully on the way to the tower.
Earlier, after figuring out why Goku hadn't shown himself, they had picked a random direction, hoping to find another team with an Earth Scroll nearby.
They hadn't expected to hear the sounds of battle so soon after setting off, which led them to the encounter they just had.
"Yeah, let's hope everything goes smoothly from here," Sakura agreed.
Although they had only been in the Forest of Death for a few hours, just like the other teams, their experiences had been far more dangerous and thrilling.
The encounter with Orochimaru alone would likely have wiped out most other teams in a single clash.
Yet they had managed to hold on for so long, and even had a chance to seriously injure him (or so they thought), only to be interrupted by Goku-sensei.
Of course, they didn't blame Goku, as they believed he must have had his reasons.
Besides, the fact that it took all three of them to hold their own against Orochimaru was frankly embarrassing.
Goku's intervention gave them the time they needed to improve their strength so that one day, they could face Orochimaru one-on-one!
Swoosh, swoosh, swoosh!
Just then, three whistling sounds approached from the distance.
"More blind fools coming our way," Sasuke said to Naruto after a glance. "I'll leave them to you. I can't be bothered."
In his perception, the newcomers weren't moving very fast, so they probably weren't opponents worth his time. He wanted to fight opponents who could help him improve.
"Tch, lazybones," Naruto grumbled, moving to intercept the three intruders who had just arrived.
He hadn't had enough fighting earlier, so he hoped these three would give him a satisfying brawl.
Thud, thud, thud!
Smack, smack, smack!
A short while later, Naruto and his team were long gone, leaving three fodder candidates with swollen, pig-like faces lying on the ground, questioning their very existence.
"He's so young... how can he be so strong!"
"...I don't know."
"Did he treat us like punching bags?"
"...Probably. Otherwise, with his strength, he would have knocked us out ages ago."
"Why would he do that? Doesn't he know a warrior can be killed but not humiliated!?"
"Yeah, exactly!"
"...Well, why don't you two go chase him and ask him to kill you then?"
"..."
"Forget it. I think being a genin is fine. I'm quitting this exam, and I'm never coming back."
"Mm. Agreed." x2
As Naruto left, he had no idea that his beatdown had inflicted such severe psychological trauma on three veteran exam-takers that they decided to remain genin for the rest of their lives.
At that moment, he was rushing towards the tower with Sasuke and Sakura.
After travelling for another half hour, the tower finally came into view.
"We made it!"