This was Konoha's 60th year, during the period when Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke were taking part in the second stage of the Chūnin Exams.
Obito, young Kakashi, Rin, Minato, and the others from the parallel-world Kannabi Bridge mission were all staying at the Kakashi family's old residence. Living there as well were Zabuza and Haku from Kirigakure, along with Kisame and Itachi, whose chakra and dōjutsu had been sealed.
Adult Kakashi still spent most of his time at the jōnin apartments, while Jiraiya was usually out enjoying himself in the pleasure district night after night.
Orochimaru, who had crossed hands with the Fourth and Fifth Kazekage, was about to arrive in Konoha. The Fourth Kazekage, Rasa, and the future Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, had already crossed the border of the Land of Fire. They would arrive less than half a day later than Orochimaru and the others.
...
It wasn't even seven in the morning yet. After witnessing Naruto's bizarre sleeping posture, Sasuke couldn't help waking up the person beside him.
After washing up, Naruto looked refreshed and energized, while Sasuke pressed a hot towel down over his own unruly hair.
"Hey, you're not some popular idol. Why do you care so much about your image?"
"Who do you think messed it up in the first place?!" Sasuke shouted at Naruto.
Minato and Kakashi had been discussing the masked man until after two in the morning, yet the next day they were still full of energy. Minato made breakfast for the kids, urged Naruto and Sasuke to finish packing their ninja gear before eating, and then used the Flying Thunder God to send them straight to the second stage exam site.
By the time they arrived, plenty of people were already there. Seeing the three suddenly appear, Sakura hurried over to greet them.
The other genin glanced their way, eyes filled with envy.
Naturally, they couldn't recognize the certain Yellow Flash who had scoped out the location in advance, nor could they imagine that a man destined to become the Fourth Hokage would be so high-profile as to personally send his son and his son's friend to an exam using Flying Thunder God.
Even in the ninja world, family background mattered. Watching two Konoha genin arrive like that was enough to make people feel envy, jealousy, and frustration all at once.
As for Naruto and Sasuke, the feeling was… complicated.
Even Sakura ended up benefiting a little just by standing next to them.
After greeting Sakura, Naruto glanced sideways and spotted Gaara standing off by himself, in a place no one dared approach. Remembering that they had at least shared a bowl of ramen and a mission before, Naruto waved at Gaara from across the crowd.
Gaara shot him a cold look and pretended not to recognize him.
It seemed that Kotoamatsukami hadn't turned Naruto Uzumaki and Gaara into friends. All it had done was make Gaara eat one meal of ramen with Naruto, nothing more.
Naruto felt a bit down about it, but he had never intended to use mind control to make friends anyway.
Besides, this place felt strangely familiar, as if he had been here before.
Sasuke said, "Idiot. This is Konoha Training Ground 44. We came here in another parallel world."
Naruto suddenly remembered. This was the exact place where his dad had once explained to them how to carry out missions in the jungle.
"Our exam is here?!" He was already itching to get started.
Minato smiled and nodded. "I guess we predicted it right? Hahaha. But this time there are ninja from other villages too, so safety comes first. The results are secondary."
"Don't worry, Dad! Sasuke, Sakura, and I will definitely pass!"
Minato nodded, then left with a Body Flicker before the chief examiner arrived.
Anko Mitarashi showed up late, a string of three-colored dango hanging from her mouth. In a way, she was just as devoted a fan of dango shops as Itachi.
With their mission pay alone, the two of them could easily keep a dango shop in business.
"This is the place known as the Forest of Death, Konoha Training Ground Number 44!" Anko handed out the [Exam Consent Forms] to everyone. "Sign these. Once you enter the forest, whether you live or die depends entirely on your own abilities. In other words, if you die in there, don't blame anyone else. It just means you were too weak."
Her words made the genin examinees swallow nervously.
But they didn't faze the three members of Team 7 at all. After all, they had once roamed this place under the guidance of that Yellow Flash.
The chief examiner then pulled out a map, showing a scaled-down view of Training Ground 44.
"This area is a circle surrounded by forty-four locked entrances. There are natural dangers in both the rivers and the forest. Once inside, watch out not only for enemies, but also for the hazards of the environment itself."
"I know, I know!" Naruto raised his hand excitedly. "My dad said—mmph!"
Sasuke and Sakura covered his mouth at the same time.
Shikamaru, Hinata, Kiba, and the others all stared at Naruto in shock.
Ino asked, "What did Naruto just say?"
"I think I heard him mention his dad," Choji replied while chewing on potato chips.
Shikamaru looked in Naruto's direction. "Something about their team has felt off lately." Everyone in their year knew Naruto was a war orphan. A dad? Could that idiot have been tricked again?
Because of his background, Naruto had often been teased when he was younger. People would lure him with the promise of friendship, then trick him into forests where enemy ninja might appear.
It happened more than once. Every time, it was Shikamaru, who wasn't particularly close to Naruto, who discovered it first, reported it to the teacher, and had someone sent to rescue him.
Naruto probably didn't even realize it himself, but Shikamaru had saved him before.
Shikamaru kept muttering about how troublesome everything was, yet his gaze stayed fixed on Naruto's back. His clothes were clean now, his skin looked healthier than before, and he even seemed a little taller.
To avoid provoking the short-tempered examiner, Shikamaru waited until she finished explaining the Heaven Scrolls and Earth Scrolls before walking over to Naruto.
"Who was the ANBU who brought you here earlier?" he asked.
"Of course it was my d—"
The word "dad" almost slipped out, but Naruto remembered at the last second that casually exposing his father's identity probably wasn't a good idea. He swallowed the rest of the sentence and awkwardly steered the conversation back to the exam instead.
That only made Shikamaru more certain that something was off about Naruto.
He glanced at Sasuke Uchiha.
Sasuke shifted his gaze away.
Shikamaru was sure of it. Something had happened to Team 7, especially to Naruto, and they were keeping it from everyone else.
"What a pain," he muttered, scratching his head as he went to collect his team's scroll.
If he didn't trust Sasuke's character, and if someone else had been teamed up with Naruto, Shikamaru might have pressed the issue out of sheer goodwill.
But since it was Sasuke Uchiha, he felt reassured.
Team Kurenai Yūhi also received their scrolls. Hinata quietly watched Naruto's retreating figure. While worrying about him, she also hoped that his status as a war orphan might turn out to be wrong. Maybe his parents had been displaced to some remote area and only recently returned. Or maybe they had left the village on a top-secret mission.
Naruto didn't know this, but besides Shikamaru secretly looking out for him, there was also a quiet, easily overlooked girl who had been watching him and wishing him well all along.
After submitting three consent forms, Naruto's team exchanged them for their Heaven Scroll.
As Anko had explained earlier, this exam would last five days. It was meant to test the candidates' wilderness survival skills, as well as their ability to protect information and steal it from others.
"There are twenty-six teams total," Sasuke said as he analyzed the situation for Naruto and Sakura. "Thirteen teams have Heaven Scrolls, and thirteen have Earth Scrolls. We have a Heaven Scroll, which means that over these five days, we not only need to survive in this forest, but also avoid being hunted down and seize the opposite scroll. That means an Earth Scroll."
Naruto asked innocently, "Can't we just shout it out and trade directly?"
Sakura snapped at him, "Idiot! How could we expose ourselves like that? If others find out which scroll we're holding, they'll definitely come after us to steal it!"
"Exactly," Sasuke added. "Even if they don't know what we have, they'll still attack us just to try their luck. We're the rookie genin of this year, after all. Being targeted is only natural."
But still…
Sasuke snorted inwardly. Back in Konoha's early days, he'd been beaten badly by Madara, but after training with Obito and the others, his strength and combat instincts were on a completely different level now.
The Chūnin Exams? Bring it on.
In this exam, his only real opponent was Gaara.
No…
Remembering Naruto's transformation into the Nine-Tails, Sasuke's expression darkened slightly.
If that super idiot was included, then in a sense, Naruto was his only true rival.
Even now, thinking back on it all still felt unreal to Sasuke.
Naruto Uzumaki wasn't just someone with the Nine-Tails sealed inside him, not just the Nine-Tails' jinchūriki of Konohagakure. He was actually the son of the Fourth Hokage?!
His mind drifted back to that time-travel journey during the Nine-Tails incident, when he and Naruto fought side by side against the masked man, each calling out to steady the other in moments of desperation…
...
"Aren't you going in? Scared?"
Naruto's smug voice sounded right by his ear. Sasuke snapped back, "You're the one who should be scared, you super idiot."
Sakura followed behind them as the two entered the Forest of Death.
Compared to Sasuke and Naruto, she was more nervous, but ever since returning from the Land of Waves, she hadn't slacked off in her training. Between medical ninjutsu and brute strength practice, her overall strength had improved a lot.
[Entrance 12]
Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura stepped into the Forest of Death.
The other teams entered through their own designated entrances.
"For the next five days," Sasuke said, "everyone except our team is an enemy. Got it, Sakura?"
"Huh?! Ah! Yes, got it!" Sakura froze for a second before answering quickly.
Sasuke curled his lips into a mocking smirk and deliberately provoked Naruto. "Don't drag us down, dead last."
"What?!! Just you wait!" Naruto shouted back. "Anyone who dares come near us, I'll take them down one by one!!!"
They looked fired up at the entrance, but the moment they went inside, all three of them calmed down. Remembering Minato Namikaze's earlier warning, they focused first on finding a safe place to hide.
"Minato-sama did say we needed a password…"
Sasuke shot a sideways glance at Naruto Uzumaki beside him. "But there's no way your brain can remember something like that, right?"
"Ah, wait a second. Before we do the password thing…"
"What now, super idiot?"
"I gotta pee…"
"You…" Sasuke was left completely speechless.
Feeling embarrassed, Sakura asked Naruto to go a bit farther away.
"Don't go too far," Sasuke added. "This place is dangerous."
Naruto turned around, shifting his ninja gear pack and waistband. "Got it, got it. I'll be back in a sec, dattebayo."
But not long after, Sasuke and Sakura heard a scream coming from nearby.
"Naruto?!"
That voice was unmistakably Naruto Uzumaki's. Sasuke's heart jumped as he grabbed Sakura and rushed toward the source of the sound.
At the same time, the Amegakure ninja lying in ambush nearby were completely dumbfounded.
They hadn't even made a move yet, right?!
So why were those three Konoha brats screaming on their own already?!