Naruto: Naruto Hosted by the System

A massive amount of sand, obscuring the sky and blotting out the sun, swept in.

Faced with this terrifying scene, Naruto remained standing in the center of the field without moving, but a crimson hand extended from his body and collided with the sand, resulting in a stalemate.

At this moment, both the Nine-Tails inside Naruto and the One-Tail inside Gaara truly felt each other's presence.

Stinky raccoon!

stinky fox!

Roar! Roar! Roar! Roar!

【Quiet.】

Snapped!

The Nine-Tails' chakra suddenly seemed to come alive, entangling itself with the sand and annihilating each other.

After that single strike, Gaara gave Naruto a deep look before leaving the arena as well.

At almost the same time, Xiao Li also broke free from the scarlet hand.

At this moment, he had already opened the Eight Gates, his body was bursting with green energy, his aura had increased significantly, and even his hair was standing on end, no longer resembling his previous comical watermelon head.

He doesn't know ninjutsu or genjutsu; all he possesses is... his own physical body! His own physical body!

He used his strength to break through all techniques; he and Gaara were the only ones on the field who managed to break through the crimson hand, rather than struggling or dodging it!

However, after escaping, he did not attempt to attack Naruto like Sasuke and Gaara did. He simply deactivated the Eight Gates, gave Naruto a thumbs-up, and left the area.

It's not clear yet who among the remaining people is about to escape; on the contrary, some are nearing exhaustion.

Hinata kept using Gentle Fist against the Crimson Hand, but the Crimson Hand had no meridians, which was exactly what Gentle Fist could do, so her attacks were not very effective.

Nevertheless, she did not give up and kept trying until she was drenched in sweat, until she had exhausted all her strength, until she could no longer lift her hand, she still did not give up.

"Hinata, that's enough. You've done very well," Naruto suddenly said.

"I...I haven't..." Hinata gasped for breath. She used all her strength and tried several times before finally managing to raise her hand again.

But by then, she was too weak to continue. She only touched the scarlet hand lightly before falling backward uncontrollably.

Just as her back was about to hit the ground, a pair of hands caught her.

"Really, you have to take things one step at a time when you're trying to improve."

For the first time since the preliminary rounds began, Naruto moved his position.

Naruto, carrying Hinata, jumped onto the viewing platform, handed Hinata to his mentor, Jonin Kurenai Yuhi, and thanked her.

Kurenai Yuhi, who was being thanked, was taken aback for a moment, then muttered under her breath, "Why are you thanking me? This is my student. I should be the one thanking you."

Naruto nodded slightly, his gaze filled with nostalgia: "I didn't really have any impression of Hinata before, but today I saw my past self in her, so weak, so pitiful, so desperate."

After saying that, Naruto was about to turn around and return to the field when Hinata grabbed the corner of his clothes.

Naruto was unaware that, in Hinata's eyes, who was somewhat delirious at that moment, he was like the only ray of light.

However, this did not stop Naruto from taking off his headband and placing it in Hinata's palm, where he secretly stored a portion of his chakra to heal Hinata.

"This is proof that I became a ninja. I'm asking Hinata to keep it safe for me until I get it back."

After saying that, he turned and left.

Hinata, whose consciousness was not quite clear, instinctively held tightly to the warmth in her arms before fainting.

Chapter 30 Seven People Who Passed the Pre-Selection and the New Teacher

By the time Naruto returned to the field, there weren't many people left.

Kankuro bought himself some time to escape by damaging one of the puppets.

Temari created a relentless gust of wind within the crimson giant hand, using the wind to push the hand open slightly and escape.

Shino Aburame tried to get the parasitic insects to bite a hole in the crimson hand, but the Nine-Tails' chakra seemed inexhaustible, and he ultimately failed.

Although Kiba threw the smaller Akamaru away before being captured, the two of them were unable to break free of their restraints.

Even after throwing out all his ninja tools, he couldn't budge the crimson hand and had to give up.

Although Shikamaru was resourceful, he lacked the necessary qualifications, so he simply gave up and gave up.

Choji fiddled with it for a long time without success, and finally came up with a "brilliant plan" to make his body bigger in order to pry open the scarlet hand. However, not only did he fail, but he also couldn't breathe and was rescued by the Jonin Asuma.

Sakura Haruno and Ino Yamanaka, who were not good at physical attacks, were also helpless against the crimson hand. The two looked at each other helplessly.

"Hey, Ino, looking at your ugly appearance now, I'm losing interest in competing with you for Sasuke." Seeing Ino's look of giving up, Sakura Haruno suddenly provoked her.

"What did you say about a broad forehead!" Ino sat up abruptly, gritting her teeth.

"From the very beginning, it's clear that you're inferior to me!"

"Huh? I'm working so hard to catch up with those two geniuses that they're practically freaks, I can hardly believe it myself. I've even learned a lot of medical ninjutsu and genjutsu!"

"Then I also know family secret techniques."

"Hehe, someone like you, even I probably couldn't control you, don't make me laugh!"

In fact, both of them knew that Sakura Haruno was provoking Ino because she didn't want Ino to give up so easily.

It's just that both of them were somewhat resentful, which led to this situation.

The two exchanged trash talk, and if they weren't restrained by the crimson hand, they would have wanted to punch each other.

Seeing this scene, the Third Hokage thought of the Uzumaki clan girl from that morning, and then looked at Naruto who was concerned about Hinata. The corners of his mouth unconsciously turned up.

"It's so good to be young."

Naruto, however, was focused on treating Hinata from the viewing platform and didn't hear a word the two of them said.

Later on, since Sakura Haruno and Ino couldn't break free from the crimson hand, they simply chose to forfeit and continue hurling insults at each other in the next round.

Finally, there's Hyuga Neji.

He used the Reversal Technique the instant the scarlet hand grabbed at him, buying himself some time. He then frantically used the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms, but to little avail.

"Impossible, impossible, impossible! This must be a lie! I'm clearly the genius of the Hyuga clan, and Naruto Uzumaki is a loser, isn't he? Why, why, why!"

Neji's hands were covered in blood and gore when he finally found an opportunity to roll away from the grasping range of the crimson hand. He was overjoyed!

"See? I told you so! A genius is a genius, and a loser is a loser. It's all destiny!"

However, the people around him were looking at him with strange eyes.

Hyuga Neji suddenly realized: Yes, he had only escaped from one of his hands; he could easily summon more than a dozen hands like that...

Naruto, back on the field, looked thoughtfully at the extremely obsessive Neji.

In any case, the preliminary rounds are now over.

Therefore, the seven people who passed the preliminary selection are Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, Rock Lee, Kankuro, Temari, and Neji Hyuga.

The Third Hokage observed the reactions of the people below with satisfaction.

Everyone is working very hard and showing off their unique abilities... But it is precisely because of this that the culprit who caused all this—Naruto—is shown to be becoming increasingly unfathomable in strength.

The Third Hokage gathered those who had passed the preliminary selection before him and looked at them with satisfaction.

Did all three from Sunagakure pass the preliminary rounds? They're really not to be underestimated.

However, we also have many geniuses on our side, especially our ace, Naruto.

After coughing twice, the Third Hokage was about to speak again.

"First of all, congratulations to everyone for passing the preliminary rounds! Congratulations!"

"The official competition will be held in a month. I hope you can make greater progress in this month."

"Let's draw lots to determine your opponents in the official match."

Everyone stepped forward and took a fortune slip from the box in Mitarashi Anko's hand.

Therefore, the final result is—

Naruto Uzumaki VS Neji Hyuga!

Uchiha Sasuke VS Rock Lee!

Kankuro VS Temari!

Gaara gets a bye!

What's going on... it's all civil war...

Some people couldn't help but think this to themselves.

"Alright, dismissed. Naruto and Sasuke, stay behind."

Sasuke looked at Kakashi standing behind the Third Hokage and had a guess in his mind.

"For the next month, Sasuke, you will train with Kakashi," the Third Hokage said.

Sasuke nodded, unsurprised, and stood next to Kakashi.

"And then... I'm sorry, Naruto, Kakashi probably can't teach you anymore."

Kakashi scratched his cheek and said, "Naruto, you've basically learned all my ninjutsu. You're already stronger than me because you're so skilled at controlling the Nine-Tails' power."

As Naruto is the son of his teacher, Kakashi always felt somewhat guilty towards him, but precisely because of this, he couldn't let Naruto's training be delayed.

"It's alright, Kakashi-sensei," Naruto said softly.

When Naruto first met Kakashi, who was his father's student, he was honestly a little disappointed.

Because of the other person's beliefs, because the other person had never visited him even once before, because this older brother-like figure showed him no favoritism and instead always revolved around Sasuke.

However, after learning about Kakashi's experiences, Naruto realized that it was already a miracle that Kakashi hadn't gone mad.

It's actually quite good as it is now.

Although it was only a little bit, I did come to appreciate Class 7 to some extent, which was much better than the negative favorability rating I had on the first day.

"However, Naruto, I've found you an even better teacher. He knows some powerful techniques that only he knows in the entire Hidden Leaf Village. He can definitely help you," the Third Hokage said quickly, sensing the tense atmosphere.

Naruto didn't have high expectations for this, because the greater the hope, the greater the disappointment. Anyway, he could just figure it out with the system.

Seeing that Naruto seemed uninterested, the Third Hokage wasn't surprised. He smiled slightly and dropped an even bigger bombshell—