"…The Nine-Tails' kid, huh?"
After getting a clear look at the blond boy's face on the surveillance feed, Mitarashi Anko exchanged a glance with the two ANBU beside her.
A lot of intelligence that was carefully hidden from the lower ranks was, to people like them, nothing more than paper-thin window covering—poke it once and it tore right open.
To shinobi who'd reached a certain level, the existence of jinchūriki was already an unspoken truth.
"I'll handle this matter for now," Anko said.
Honestly, her former teacher-student relationship with Orochimaru already made her position in Konoha awkward enough. As for the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki, she should avoid him whenever possible.
It would be better for everyone—for her and for the village leadership.
But some things weren't something you could avoid just because you wanted to.
Right now, she was the chief proctor. By duty and by reason, she had to take control of this situation—minimize exposure, keep the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki's details from leaking, and prevent ninja from other villages from catching on.
"Not just them. Please—watch to the end," the monitoring proctor said, shaking his head. He adjusted the machine, and the footage began playing at increased speed.
The digits in the top-right corner jumped rapidly.
A few seconds later, the ticking timestamp suddenly slowed.
Then three figures appeared on the screen—
The Sand Village's three-man squad.
The three of them exchanged a look.
"Now this is interesting…"
---
"Look—that's the three Sand ninja from that day," Izuno said, chin lifting slightly.
Naruto followed her gaze. The squad walking in was the very same team that had clashed with Team 7 not long ago.
Down below, the Sand siblings noticed them as well.
"The Konoha bastards didn't slip through the back door, did they?" Kankurō snorted.
He couldn't help thinking it. His and Temari's strength already surpassed the genin tier, and Gaara—that monster—was someone even ordinary jōnin didn't dare provoke.
For Konoha's team to finish the test before a squad like theirs…
"Kankurō. Shut up."
Gaara, walking at the front, snapped the words out coldly.
Like a mouse spotting a cat, Kankurō shivered and immediately went silent.
Temari followed Gaara's line of sight, and a boy in dark pants and a gray top—short blond hair—came into view.
'He's… pretty good-looking.' she thought, almost subconsciously.
Because of the Sand's constant wind and grit, pale, clean-cut "handsome guys" weren't impossible… but they were close to extinct.
'But if he can make Gaara look like that… who is he, really?'
Naruto quietly watched the gourd-backed boy below. After learning his identity from the Nine-Tails, Naruto understood why someone so young could already carry a wrath like an asura.
They were both jinchūriki—roughly the same age—treated much the same way.
No one understood each other better than they did.
Cold stares. Curses. People pretending you didn't exist…
Not for a day or two, but day after day—year after year.
And yet, there was still a difference between them.
Naruto had lived three lives. Especially his second life—hardship carved him into someone who'd learned how to endure and how to deal with that kind of world.
But the gourd boy was different.
He was just a blank page—untainted, untouched.
He wasn't different from any other child.
But his parents, his village, everyone around him—had soaked that page in the red of a demon.
"Ghh—!"
Gaara suddenly clutched his forehead, gasping for breath in deep, ragged pulls—his panting threaded with a faint, feral roar.
"What's happening—did it wake up?" Temari and Kankurō's faces changed as they hurried to support him.
'Damn it… why now, of all times?!'
Temari bit down hard, guilt washing over her as she watched her little brother drowning in pain.
As his sister… she really was a failure. She could only watch him sink, powerless to help.
"What's wrong with that guy?"
The commotion was impossible to miss.
Naruto let his mind sink into his inner world. He looked at the Nine-Tails, now rising from its crouch, and asked:
"What's going on?"
"Tch. That tanuki's still as violent as ever," the Nine-Tails scoffed.
"The One-Tail?" Naruto raised an eyebrow. "What does it look like?"
To be honest, he was curious about the other tailed beasts.
Because whenever someone said "One-Tail," his mind automatically pictured the Nine-Tails with eight tails chopped off.
"It looks like a tanuki," the Nine-Tails said, lowering its head. From the slight curve of its mouth, it seemed oddly pleased.
"…Huh?" Naruto tried imagining a tanuki scaled up to the Nine-Tails' size. A moment later, he pinched the bridge of his nose.
This was… a weird mental image.
"Can you let me say a few words to it?" Naruto asked. From what he'd just seen, there had to be some sort of communication between tailed beasts.
"He's disconnected," the Nine-Tails replied, as if it were obvious—like the One-Tail not being "disconnected" would be the strange thing.
"…???" Naruto stared at the fox in disbelief.
So the big furry bro here had a nasty streak, huh?
'Don't tell me tailed beasts bully each other too…'
'So the one living inside me is the boss…'
All at once, something clicked for Naruto. Staring at the massive fox, it suddenly didn't feel mysterious anymore.
From this angle, tailed beasts weren't all that different from humans.
"He won't drop out because of that, right? Heh," Raemon said, guessing—no real malice, just wishful thinking.
After all, that was the guy Naruto had warned them about. He'd been a source of pressure for days.
"No. He'll be fine after resting," Naruto said, calmly crushing Raemon's hopeful fantasy.
The gourd kid had probably been hit by the One-Tail's agitation.
"…Is that so?" Raemon smacked his lips in disappointment.
"Instead of daydreaming, get some rest," Naruto said, moving to an open patch of ground. He sat down slowly and closed his eyes.
The second stage lasted two full days.
And right now, less than two hours had passed since the start.
---
Forest of Death
BOOM!
"SAI!" Sakura's face went white as she watched her teammate vanish into a giant snake's jaws.
"Run!"
On a nearby tree trunk, Sasuke stared grimly at the man who looked like he'd shed his skin.
"But—" Sakura looked at Sasuke's back, wanting to argue, but the words caught in her throat.
"You'll only be dead weight here!" Sasuke roared, his voice turning harsh and twisted.
'Damn it… if that guy were here, would things be better?'
For some reason, with death closing in, Naruto's face flashed through Sasuke's mind.
"Heh… heh. So it's just you left, Sasuke."
The Rain ninja slowly peeled away the "skin" on his face, revealing an unnervingly delicate, serpentine visage. A long tongue slid out like a snake's as he spoke with unsettling amusement.
As for Sakura nearby, neither of them regarded her as combat power worth counting.
"Are you ready?"
The instant the words fell, a killing intent so thick it felt tangible burst from the man's body.
Killing intent had no shape, but people did.
Wrapped in that pressure, Sasuke felt like his heart had been seized in an icy hand. His body locked up—no matter how he tried to force himself to move, he could only stand there, frozen.
"Ah—!"
Sakura lunged forward to help Sasuke—
but the massive python that had just swallowed Sai abruptly swung its head around, its gaping maw crashing toward her with terrifying force.
"AHHH—!!"
Sakura only had time to scream once—
before she disappeared into the snake's mouth.