The world I hear is completely different from yours.

In the original story, Akado Guy was teamed up with Kabuto and Tsubasa Misumi, two of Orochimaru's subordinates, to take the exam. However, this time, due to Ame-no-Kaze's last-minute order for Kabuto to spread the Shadow Virus in the Land of Wind and thus be unable to take the exam, Akado Guy had no choice but to use some means on a Konoha Jonin instructor to "borrow" a newly graduated Konoha Genin named Pakura as his temporary teammate.

"I remember this genin named Yekura was the top student at the Ninja Academy! I hope to see how much potential she has in this exam. If she has good potential, I'll recommend her to Lord Orochimaru! Lord Orochimaru will definitely reward me handsomely!" Akado Guy thought to himself.

Chapter Fifty-One: Baijiu and Hints

As Orochimaru's high-ranking spy in Konoha, Akado Guy has always harbored resentment towards Kabuto Yakushi and has always wanted to seize the opportunity to replace Kabuto as Orochimaru's number one henchman. In addition, Orochimaru's suspicious nature led him to secretly instruct Akado Guy to monitor Kabuto in order to ensure Kabuto's loyalty.

In fact, many renowned warlords have used similar methods to secretly instruct their subordinates to check and balance each other, in order to prevent any one of their subordinates from becoming too powerful. Orochimaru was no exception! Especially since Kabuto Yakushi already knew many of Orochimaru's secret experiments and top-secret information, Orochimaru naturally had to prepare countermeasures in advance, and this ambitious Akado Guy was merely one pawn in Orochimaru's many schemes.

"Since Kabuto isn't here for this mission, it's the perfect opportunity for me to show off!" Akado Guy thought to himself, imagining how he could win Orochimaru's favor with his achievements and surpass Kabuto to rise to the top. He couldn't help but feel overjoyed!

During this Chunin Exams, Orochimaru not only participated himself but also specifically arranged for Guy Akado and his group to secretly approach Sasuke as Konoha seniors, observing Sasuke's potential and performance up close. This is the real reason why Kabuto appeared before Sasuke repeatedly in the original story! However, this time, Kabuto was assigned to work outside the village by Tensei, so this task naturally fell to Guy Akado.

"Besides observing Sasuke's situation, I also need to check out Pakura's strength. After all, she was the top student who always surpassed Sasuke in the Ninja Academy. Although she doesn't have any outstanding bloodline, she might have some special talent! If I can discover some exceptional talent and recommend her to Lord Orochimaru, he will surely be even happier!" Akado Guy thought to himself with a smile as he looked at Pakura beside him.

In the ninja world that values ​​strength, superior bloodlines often determine a ninja's future potential, while ordinary ninjas without superior bloodlines, no matter how hard they try, will find it difficult to surpass those with high-level bloodlines. Therefore, even though Pakura was the top student in her grade at the ninja academy, while Sasuke was always second, the two received drastically different treatment after graduating from the academy.

Under the village's arrangement, Sasuke's instructor was Kakashi Hatake, a direct disciple of the Hokage lineage and a renowned elite Jonin in Konoha. His teammate Naruto was also the village's most important Jinchuriki. In contrast, Pakura's instructor was just an ordinary Jonin, and her teammates were all just background characters. Furthermore, this instructor had a past ambiguous relationship with Orochimaru, which gave Guy Akado leverage, forcing Guy to "lend" Pakura to him as a temporary teammate. The difference in their treatment is stark.

"Given this difference, I believe Yekura herself is also dissatisfied with the village, so persuading her to join Lord Orochimaru shouldn't be too difficult! Of course, the premise is that she herself is indeed worthy of being bribed!" Akado Kai thought to himself, then turned to look at Yekura in surprise. Amidst everyone's astonished gazes, Yekura silently pulled out a large bottle of fragrant, aromatic white liquor, tilted her head back, and took a large gulp!

"Ah (^o^)/~! Having a bottle of baijiu before a mission is definitely the best thing ever! It makes me feel so much less nervous!" Yekura, her cheeks slightly flushed as she gulped down the liquor, explained apologetically to the others, "Having a bottle of liquor before an important mission is my ninja way!"

Seeing Yekura reeking of alcohol, everyone around frowned, and the examiner who was about to open the exam hall door shook his head in disapproval. Clearly, he was very unhappy with Yekura's actions! After all, for any ninja about to embark on a mission, a clear mind is essential for completing the mission and returning alive. Therefore, no ninja who wants to return alive would drink before setting off! Doing so is not only irresponsible towards their own lives but also towards their teammates!

"I take back what I said earlier! This Yekura has absolutely no value in recommending to Lord Orochimaru! It seems that due to the village's previous differential treatment, coupled with the lack of effort in guiding the Jonin, she has completely lost confidence and fallen into depravity! After this mission is over, I'll get rid of her as soon as possible!" Akado Kai secretly decided in his heart, setting the tone for Yekura's future fate.

However, these people were completely unaware that after drinking the liquor, Ye Cang's chakra levels began to surge rapidly, and the scar on his forehead that resembled a closed eye began to tremble slightly. Soon, it would open again, staring at everyone until they bled profusely!

"According to what the Akatsuki said before, after taking the shrinking drug, my strength would regress to my childhood level. But as long as I keep drinking enough baijiu, I can unleash my original power for a period of time!" Yecang thought to himself with a satisfied burp. Seeing Yecang burping and smiling contentedly, the people around him couldn't help but shake their heads, lamenting the fall of the former number one ninja academy student.

..............

Meanwhile, at one of the entrances to the training grounds, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were quietly waiting for the examiners to open the gates.

"Uncle, why isn't the door open yet? We've been waiting for so long, have all the others already started?" Naruto, getting a little impatient, asked the examiner.

The examiner glanced at Naruto's Konoha headband before speaking, "The examiners will open the gates at the same time, so everyone's departure time is the same. There are about ten minutes left before the gates open, so you have a little time to warm up."

"Thank you, Uncle!" Naruto ran off happily, and together with Sasuke, Sakura, and the others, they began doing warm-up exercises before their workout.

This is what's called home-field advantage! Since Konoha is the host country of the Chunin Exams, all the examiners and staff are from Konoha. They can naturally provide Konoha's examinees with certain assistance and hints within their authority. If it hadn't been a Konoha genin like Naruto who went up to ask the examiners, but a genin from another village, he would probably have been warned on the spot, and wouldn't have received any hints at all!

Chapter 52 Target and Infiltration

Tick-tock, tick-tock!

The second hand on the clock ticked away, and just as it pointed to the same moment, the examiners at each of the training ground's gates unlocked the iron locks and pushed open the heavy iron doors at almost the same time!

Whoosh! In that instant, the already prepared genin rushed into the training ground, heading towards the tower in the center! They hoped to reach the finish line first and set up an ambush to snipe the other teams!

Of course, there are exceptions, because for these people, passing the Chunin Exams is not their goal at all; their real target is someone else!

The moment Orochimaru, disguised as a Grass Ninja, burst into the training ground, he and his two teammates separated and rushed toward the nearby entrance: "Find Sasuke immediately, and then report his location to me right away!"

"Understood!!" the other two Sound Ninja disguised as Grass Ninja responded, then sped up and rushed into the distance!

..................... ..

Meanwhile, Akado Kai, along with Yekura and Kenmi Sumi, made a large circle and ran directly towards a nearby area: "I investigated that area before the exam and confirmed that it's a route that several teams will inevitably take. Now we'll go there immediately to set up traps and try to collect both types of scrolls today!"

Then, Akado Guy turned around, his previous gentle tone completely gone, and roared fiercely at the drunken Yekura, "And you, you're dragging me down! Don't you dare let me down later, or I'll kill you right here! Got it?! Nobody cares about the genin who dies in the Chunin Exams!!"

Akado Kai has always treated those who are no longer of any use as trash, showing no regard for past relationships whatsoever! Therefore, he showed no mercy to Yekura, whom he had already determined to be of no value!

Yekura didn't seem to mind Akado Kai's rudeness at all. Instead, she gave him a shy smile, indicating that she understood. It wasn't that Yekura was magnanimous enough to ignore insults, but rather that one should still show some courtesy to those who are about to die, shouldn't one?

........................... ..

Swish!Swish!Swish!

Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura ran quickly ahead without stopping. According to their plan, they intended to maintain a high speed throughout the day. While other teams were busy fighting each other for scrolls, they would be the first to enter the core area of ​​the training ground, calmly set up an ambush, and wait for the other teams to come to them.

"What an interesting exam! This time, I can finally test my strength properly!" Sasuke Uchiha thought excitedly. His previous memories only contained a few simple fragments about Naruto, Itachi, and the Uchiha clan; they didn't include anything related to the Chunin Exams.

Therefore, Sasuke only knows that after the Chunin Exams, he will fall out with Naruto and defect from Konoha, but he is completely unaware of everything that happens during the Chunin Exams.

"But what does it matter? It is precisely because it is unknown that it has infinite possibilities! If I had already foreseen all the futures and everything had progressed according to the path of the future, then what difference would there be between me now and that seemingly arrogant young man I was?" Sasuke thought firmly to himself, with sparks of electricity flickering between his fingers!

Meanwhile, Naruto Uzumaki, after secretly glancing at Sasuke, made a firm resolution: this time, he must surpass Sasuke and prove his ninja way to everyone!

"I've been training hard for this day, and now is the perfect time for me to show my ninja way!" Naruto thought to himself.

Since the weather cleared up and reinforced the loosened Nine-Tails seal on Naruto, preventing the Nine-Tails' chakra from interfering with Naruto's own chakra, Naruto's training progressed by leaps and bounds. In a short period of time, he mastered a fairly good ability to control his chakra. In addition, with the training method with a very cool and awesome name that Sasuke kindly provided, Naruto is now full of confidence!

Just as the three were rushing forward, a sudden scream shattered the silence of the forest! The brutal battle of the Chunin Exams had begun!!

"The battle has already started, let's go!" Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura exchanged glances and immediately understood each other's meaning. They then gathered even more chakra in their feet and dashed off like arrows!

.........................

At the outer gate of the training ground, Mitarashi Anko was leisurely eating sweets, ignoring the screams that occasionally rang out from the training ground behind her. After all, the examinees had already signed the death waiver, so even if they all died, it wouldn't be her fault.

Suddenly, an examiner rushed over, leaned close to Hongdou's ear, and said in a barely suppressed, panicked voice, "Examiner! Please come here immediately!! An emergency has been discovered!!"

"So trouble has finally arisen? Of all times, it had to come now!" Anko frowned. Before the Chunin Exams even started, Hiruzen Sarutobi had specifically summoned the examiners again to emphasize the special nature of this Chunin Exams and to instruct them to pay close attention to any unusual behavior from the examinees during the exams to prevent other villages from taking advantage of the situation and causing any unnecessary trouble.

Soon, Anko saw the so-called emergency: the bodies of three examinees lying in a secluded corner outside Konoha Village. If it were just bodies, Konoha could easily find a hundred excuses to cover it up. But Anko had personally witnessed those three Grass Ninja examinees with the same name among the examinees she had just seen!

"Did someone impersonate a candidate to enter Konoha and participate in the Chunin Exams?" Anko squinted as she looked at the faces of the unfortunate candidates. The blurry flesh and blood from which their skin had been peeled off immediately reminded Anko of the terrifying figure that appeared in her memories from that time in the past.

"Damn it!! It's that bastard Orochimaru!!" Anko suddenly woke up with a start, then hurriedly ordered the examiner beside her, "Send a signal to the village immediately, send one, no, three groups of ANBU over! Orochimaru has probably already returned!!"

Chapter 54 Revenge and Wood Release

As Naruto returned to camp with the scroll he had taken from the bruised and battered Rain Ninja and a large bag of fish, on the other side of the Forest of Death, Kai emerged from his underground hideout with two other men to inspect the spoils from the traps he had set.

"Damn it! We haven't gotten anything all day!" Akado Kai cursed angrily at the empty trap in front of him, then turned to Yekura behind him and yelled, "It's all your fault! If it weren't for you slowing us down, we probably would have set up the traps by now! We might have already made some progress!"

Then, Akado Guy grabbed at Pakura: "Why don't I just drain your chakra and throw you into a trap as bait? That way you won't get in my way later!"

As one of Orochimaru's first experimental subjects, Akado Guy gained the ability to absorb chakra. Relying on this fighting style that can instantly drain an opponent's chakra, thereby rendering the ninja unable to fight, Akado Guy has successfully ambushed and killed many unsuspecting ninjas.

However, the moment Akado Guy grabbed Yekura, Yekura's calm expression gave Akado Guy a bad feeling. When he felt the surging chakra in Yekura's body, his expression changed drastically, and even the mask on his face twitched violently!

The next moment, Yecang's hands gently swept past Akado Kai and Kenmei Sumi, instantly dehydrating the two people who had no time to react, turning them into two shriveled corpses that fell to the ground!

Meanwhile, in the distant village of Konoha, the body of Pakura's team leader, a Jonin, lay stiffly on his bed. It had clearly been cold for several hours, with signs of livor mortis and insects already appearing on his corpse. However, because of his past secret dealings with Orochimaru, this Jonin, fearing the discovery of this dark history, usually lived alone and rarely interacted with others, thus his death remained undiscovered.

Just as Yekura realized that she had been betrayed by the Jonin who was in charge and was forced to participate in the Chunin Exams no matter what, Yekura realized that she had unknowingly been involved in a conspiracy and it would be difficult to continue to hide her true strength. Her mission to infiltrate Konoha Village would also likely be interrupted.

Enraged, Yekura decided to go all the way and killed the unsuspecting Jonin instructor to silence him, then planned to take advantage of the situation to infiltrate the Chunin Exams and cause a ruckus.

"I remember that among the team sent by Sunagakure this time were Gaara, the son of the Fourth Kazekage, Kankuro, and Temari, his daughter!" Yekura recalled the names of the examinees she had secretly seen before, her heart filled with joy: "I remember in my previous life, it was that bastard Fourth Kazekage who sent me to Kirigakure to die. Now I finally have a chance to get revenge! And along the way, I can also personally test Sasuke's strength one last time, which can be considered as giving an explanation to the organization's higher-ups!"

The joy of avenging his enemies, coupled with the joy of barely completing his mission and leaving Konoha, combined to create an even greater joy, making Yekura feel an urge to grin from ear to ear!

.......................................

Deep within the Death Forest, Tian Qing stared with a troubled expression at the miniature monitor in her hand. Countless tiny dots flickered on the screen, signals transmitted from the numerous miniature puppets scattered throughout the forest.

"This training ground is so large that only a portion of the area can be monitored. We can only vaguely determine whether large-scale battles have occurred in a certain area." Tian Qing carefully looked at the small monitor, judging the battle situation in those areas from the signals.

"Given Orochimaru's personality, in order to leave a deep impression on Sasuke at this moment, he will definitely try his best to amplify the splendor and intensity of the battle, so as to fully demonstrate his formidable power to Sasuke! Only in this way will Sasuke think of joining Orochimaru the moment he craves power!"

In other words, if the weather is clear enough to detect large-scale battles that far exceed the capabilities of genin, it is very likely that Orochimaru is making his grand entrance! After all, throughout the entire Chunin Exams, only a handful of people are capable of engaging in large-scale battles as genin, and they only need to fight at full strength in the later stages of the competition.

Therefore, as soon as the weather clears up and a signal for a large-scale battle is detected, one can rush over immediately and should be able to properly entertain Orochimaru, an old friend whom one has not seen for a long time!

"But we haven't detected any strong signals yet! Could it be that Orochimaru hasn't found Sasuke and the others by now?" Tianqing thought to herself. "I was originally planning to let Orochimaru be the first to experience the power of Wood Release!"

After so much deduction and analysis, the God Rune finally succeeded in deciphering Yamato's degraded Wood Release bloodline limit, allowing Tensei to temporarily use Wood Release in battle by consuming a certain amount of reputation energy. Although its power is not as great as that of the former First Hokage, it is at least much stronger than Yamato's Wood Release.

"It's a pity that the deduction of the bloodline limits of the Byakugan and Sharingan is not yet complete. Otherwise, I could use the Hyuga Byakugan to scan and immediately find the various battle sites in this forest. Why would I need to use these inaccurate miniature puppets?" Tianqing thought helplessly, and then observed the main god runes in his mind again.

The powers of the main god runes that have been fully analyzed so far are: Rong Momo's small steel needles, Obelisk the Titan, and degraded wood escaping.

The powers and items being analyzed are: the bloodline of the Otsutsuki clan, the bloodlines of the Uchiha, Hyuga, and Uzumaki clans, and various masks of the Uzumaki clan.

...............................

Meanwhile, at the other end of the Death Forest, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura had finished dinner and began setting traps around a relatively large tree hole. They also repaired the environment inside the tree hole, preparing to use it as their resting place for the night.

"Hehe! Now all we have to do is reach the tower at the end and we'll be all done!" Naruto said happily, a smug look on his face. He had found another scroll on the Rain Ninja who attacked him during the day, completing the team's collection of two different scrolls. Therefore, Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura only needed to escort these two scrolls to the tower to pass the test. Feeling he had accomplished a great feat, Naruto was filled with pride.

Chapter Fifty-Five: March in the Dark

As night fell, the entire Death Forest was plunged into darkness. The enormous insects and vampires that had slumbered during the day began to emerge, hunting for food, making the dark forest unusually lively. Therefore, for the lower-ranking ninjas who entered this forest, the Death Forest was now fraught with danger.

Furthermore, most genin do not possess advanced sensory abilities like the Byakugan, so at night they can only cower in the shelters they found during the day, quietly waiting for the next morning to arrive.

Of course, this only applies to genin, but for jonin with greater power, the Forest of Death at night is just a park with a few more minor troubles.

Swish!Swish!

Red Bean darted swiftly among the tall trees. Although she was not a sensory ninja and could not use any secret techniques to determine Orochimaru's location, she still managed to roughly locate him by relying on the cursed seal that Orochimaru himself had planted on her body. She sped off in that direction, carefully leaving coded messages on the trees along the way to facilitate the search by other ANBU members.

This is one of the reasons why, after Orochimaru defected from Konoha, the village didn't send anyone to seal Anko's cursed seal. Konoha hoped to use the seal to pinpoint Orochimaru's location. In other words, the Konoha leadership essentially used Anko as a human surveillance device to monitor Orochimaru!

It is precisely for this reason that, in the original work, when Anko made the judgment that Orochimaru had arrived in Konoha and requested that the village send more Anbu to support him, all the Konoha leaders not only did not suspect anything, but also immediately mobilized the already strained manpower to send reinforcements to the Anbu according to Anko's request, without sending anyone to conduct further investigation and confirmation!

Furthermore, after the Chunin Exams, if Jiraiya hadn't insisted on taking Naruto with him to find Tsunade, those two Konoha advisors would probably have insisted that Anko, the human surveillance device used against Orochimaru, accompany Jiraiya to find Tsunade, in order to ensure that Jiraiya could deal with any possible attacks from Orochimaru!

Swish!Swish!

Red Bean nimbly dodged a giant centipede that suddenly pounced from the side, and casually threw a kunai to pin the giant centipede to the tree trunk. Her momentum did not diminish. She swiftly stepped onto the tree trunk and then quickly changed direction, continuing to run in the other direction!

However, Anko's expression grew increasingly grave: "What's going on? Why did the direction the cursed seal sensed suddenly change? Did Orochimaru discover something and change his location? Damn it, what exactly is Orochimaru planning to do to Konoha this time?!"

...............................

In a corner of the Forest of Death, amidst the pitch-black darkness, three Konoha genin were still hurrying along. And although they used no lighting tools, they moved through the darkness as if it were nothing, showing no sign of being hindered by it.

Moreover, along their journey, the enormous insects and vampires seemed completely oblivious to their presence, showing no intention of attacking them whatsoever.

"Hahaha! Thanks to the invisibility bug on you, Shino, we were able to mask our scent with the bug's smell, which allowed us to move forward brazenly in the dark!" Kiba Inuzuka said happily, nimbly leaping over a boulder. "But on the other hand, it's also because all three of us in the team are sensory ninjas that we were able to ignore the darkness and run towards the finish line on our own with virtually no one blocking our way!"

Shino Aburame and Hinata Hyuga remained silent. Both of them were rather introverted and rarely spoke. So, usually, they were the ones listening to Kiba Inuzuka excitedly shouting and yelling.

"We've got it! We've got it this time! We've already got two kinds of scrolls, and with our unparalleled speed, we're definitely going to be number one in this exam!!" Kiba Inuzuka exclaimed excitedly, already imagining himself becoming a Chunin, then the head of the Inuzuka clan, then the Hokage of Konoha, and finally marrying a beautiful and wealthy woman and reaching the pinnacle of life. Just thinking about it was quite exciting!

Just as Kiba Inuzuka was lost in thought, Hinata Hyuga, who was leading the way with her Byakugan, suddenly stopped and let out a low scream as if she had seen something unbelievable!

"What happened? What did you see, Chida?" Kiba Inuzuka asked hurriedly.

"Ahead, about a kilometer ahead, a small team has stumbled into another team's camp trap, and the two sides are locked in a standoff!" Hinata Hyuga said hurriedly. As the head of the Hyuga clan, her Byakugan not only has no blind spots but also extremely strong penetrating power, allowing her to see extremely far through darkness and obstacles!

"Tsk tsk! This is a great opportunity!" Kiba Inuzuka chuckled smugly, then suggested, "Why don't we go take a look? In this darkness, we can sense them, but they can't detect us! We can watch them fight to the death and reap the benefits!"