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The next scene caught the Third Hokage's attention almost immediately, as it once again featured his elderly counterpart.
[— Manga Scene —]
"Ugh…" Anko had her hand on her shoulder, over the curse mark that was clearly visible.
"Now, does the curse still hurt?" The Third Hokage asked.
"No… Thank you, it's much better now." Anko replied as she pulled her coat back on.
"By the way… Orochimaru is one of those three legendary sannin, right?"
"Isn't he the handbook class 5 missing ninja that even the anbu can't get close to. I had heard that he had already died…" One of the chunin examiners spoke up, eager to know the details.
"Why would he come to this village now?" Another chunin beside him asked.
'There's a child I want…'
'He's a young man that carries the Uchiha blood…' Anko recalled what Orochimaru had said at the time.
"He probably…"
"Sasuke, right?"
Before Anko could even say what she was thinking, the Hokage already had an idea of Orochimaru's target.
"Huh?" Anko was surprised to hear that, but they were quickly interrupted by a voice from the television nearby.
"Anko-sama!!"
"We have confirmed 21 have passed the second test. In accordance with the rules, for the first time in 5 years, we will start preparations for a preliminary test before the third test."
"The second test is now complete." It was the voice of another examiner, announcing that the second test had already concluded.
"Well.. let's continue the exam as planned."
"We will keep our eyes on Orochimaru's movements." The Third Hokage said calmly as he exhaled smoke from his pipe.
"Yes…" Anko nodded in agreement.
[— End Scene —]
"It seems my counterpart already has a clear idea of Orochimaru's target and the purpose behind his schemes."
The Third Hokage took a slow, deep breath as he studied the scene before him… a glimpse of the future, with no idea how Uzumaki Rubiro had managed to bring it, but it appeared to be entirely real.
He glanced sideways, toward where a certain man and his wife were reading the manga alongside the other civilians.
What was new today was that a little girl, no older than three, accompanied the couple.
She had purple hair and brown eyes and a slight build, wearing a shy and wary expression as she shrank from the large crowd inside the art store, especially those who occasionally pointed at her and looked her way with excitement.
This girl was Anko Mitarashi, the same name, and apparently the very same person who appeared in the manga page suffering under the curse mark.
Before the Hokage turned his gaze away, he caught someone looking in the girl's direction.
And that someone was Orochimaru.
'What is he planning to do?'
After a great deal of prolonged thought on the matter, Hiruzen had become convinced that something was deeply wrong with his student.
…
In another corner of the store, Jiraiya was reading at his usual speed, but he stopped suddenly at the same line that had made the Third Hokage pause.
"Missing nin… huh?"
He read it again.
"Orochimaru… Class 5 missing ninja…"
He looked up and glanced at Orochimaru, who was sitting only a few meters away, reading with an expression impossible to decipher, his gaze drifting into the distance from time to time.
He looked back down at the page, not quite registering where exactly Orochimaru's eyes had been wandering.
'What could push this guy to such extremes in the future?'
Jiraiya felt something heavy settle in his chest.
'Even the Anbu can't get close to him… this isn't just a man who broke from the village. This means he became a genuine threat to it.'
He looked at Orochimaru once more.
His friend. His comrade. The person who had trained under the same teacher as him.
'When does this happen? And why?'
The questions found no answers in his head… only a heavy silence.
…
As for Orochimaru, he was reading at an unusually slow pace.
He who had always devoured pages quickly had now stopped at the scene, eyes fixed on the curse mark on Mitarashi Anko's shoulder.
'Heh, can sensei really ease the pain of the mark? Interesting.'
'To think that this frail little girl has the physical constitution to be compatible with the curse mark? Well… it seems my counterpart abandoned her for not being capable enough…'
'Hmm… regardless, I now have a clear idea.'
Orochimaru was staring at the child Anko, who was unable to sense his gaze. But her parents, both shinobi, could feel it, and out of fear, they tried to shield her with their bodies.
The full background and story behind what had happened between Anko and Orochimaru in the past had not yet been revealed, but that didn't stop them from understanding that Orochimaru was a threat. He did not see people as companions or allies, only as tools to be used and discarded as needed.
And that, it seemed, was what had happened to Anko. It was clear from the previous chapter's dialogue that Orochimaru had abandoned her, despite the fact that Anko had managed to endure the curse mark.
He hadn't merely abandoned her. He had abandoned his entire village and turned against it.
The very thought alone was enough to make Anko's parents recoil from Orochimaru on pure instinct.
…
'Tsk… no need to worry, I'm not that villain yet… heheh~ I'm simply trying to understand my villainous counterpart.'
Orochimaru said to himself internally as he pulled his gaze away from Anko and her parents, then returned his focus to the manga's events and turned the page to the next chapter.
…
The next chapter was sequence number 65 of the manga… and before long, many readers found themselves fully absorbed in it, as the events had finally become far more exciting.
A breathtaking scene of a massive hall appeared on the manga's pages.
The title of the new chapter was: Life Risking Battles!
What surprised the readers was the grandeur of the battle arena depicted on the page, the Third Hokage standing before those who had passed the second exam, with the jonin standing behind him, and the enormous carving of two hands forming a specific jutsu seal visible in the background.
The scene felt alive.
The chapter opened with congratulations to those who had passed.
What came next was shocking. The Third Hokage began to explain the true purpose of the joint chunin exams held with the allied hidden villages.
…
Little Gai lit up, gripping the volume with a firm fist, eyes wide as he stared at the scene.
It was the first scene of its kind where both Gai and Kakashi stood side by side as jonin and as mentors.
In the scene, Gai told Kakashi that his team wasn't too bad, but that they might just be lucky.
"And that's exactly what happened! Hahaha!"
Dai slapped his son hard on the back, and Gai barely suppressed the urge to cry out from the pain.
"They really are lucky… well, even if they're also unlucky for being targeted by that villain Orochimaru… still —"
"What are you saying, Dai? Do you really think Kakashi's team is lucky?"
At that moment, Sakumo interrupted him, and Kakashi's expression beneath his mask seemed equally unamused.
"If Kabuto hadn't stopped them from opening the scroll at the last second, they would have lost right there, isn't that luck?" said Dai.
"Come on, luck is part of the game, everyone knows that. But that wasn't luck, we know Kabuto is Orochimaru's spy, and Orochimaru doesn't want to see Sasuke eliminated from the exam…"
"He hasn't tested him enough yet…"
Sakumo said with narrowed eyes, looking at a suspicious figure in the manga, the jonin leading the Otogakure team.
"This person… It's Orochimaru."
…
[— Manga Scene —]
"Why do we have all the allied countries taking the exam together?"
The Third Hokage wanted to clarify this for them first.
"To promote friendship among the countries to raise the level of shinobi. I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning…"
"This exam is a replacement for war among the allied countries."
[— End Scene —]
Like Rock Lee and the others who had wondered what this meant, most readers at that moment didn't fully grasp what the Third Hokage was getting at.
But to Tsunade, it was completely clear.
"It seems things are about to get a lot more interesting…"
Tsunade smiled after finishing chapter 65.
"More accurate to say the future will be interesting."
Kato Dan said with a gentle smile, one that made Tsunade's heart skip a beat.
Even if she was deeply curious about Rob, that didn't mean her feelings for Kato had changed or anything of the sort.
…
'How ironic…'
'It seems shinobi will lose their edge in the future… that would be tremendously useful for my counterpart… I wonder what heights he managed to reach…'
To Danzo, the sight of a world without war, where children were used to fight each other to maintain an artificial prestige, would produce shinobi weakened to an almost laughable degree.
In such a world, wouldn't someone cunning and ambitious like him thrive?
Danzo was eager to see his counterpart, and at the same time, deeply uneasy at the idea of his own true nature being exposed to the world.
It was a dilemma with almost no solution.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 158: Life-risking battles!
Chapter 159: Preliminary and Withdrawal!
Chapter 160: The First Fight!
Chapter 161: The Uchiha Blood!
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