Being a rogue ninja is worse than being Hokage.

However, as a member of the Hyuga branch family, he had long since learned to be cautious and avoid suspicion to prevent unnecessary trouble.

Neji turned to the side, letting Tenten and Lee, who were in the same ninja class behind him, choose their paper slips first.

Witnessing Neji's actions, Hinata Hyuga, who was not far away, silently lowered her head.

"Wang!"

Reminded by Akamaru on his head, Kiba Inuzuka noticed Hinata's low spirits: "Hinata, if you're also worried about being questioned because of your Byakugan, Akamaru can help you choose."

"Thank you, Akamaru."

"No need for thanks between companions."

Aburame Shino suddenly squeezed into the conversation.

"Shino, do you feel like you're being isolated?"

A tooth's intuition can sometimes become as sharp as its sense of smell.

"……I don't."

The conversation between the three members of Team 8 was not deliberately concealed, and Naruto, standing next to them, clearly heard their conversation.

During the conversation between Team 8, Hayate Gekko arrived in front of Team 7, and Naruto simply took a piece of paper.

"Now open your slips of paper, and those who are on a bye, step forward from the line."

After distributing all the paper slips, Moonlight Gale, standing before the examinees once more, gave the instructions.

Naruto and the others opened the slips of paper, and unsurprisingly, the word on his slip was the character "war".

But Naruto suddenly sensed Sakura's unusual movement behind him.

"I……"

Sakura stared blankly at her paper slip, which read "empty".

Unexpectedly, Sakura received a bye and qualified directly for the third match.

Sakura wasn't happy about her good luck. She looked blankly at Sasuke and Naruto, clearly still unable to believe that she was the one who got a bye.

"Sakura, you got a bye."

Naruto made way for Sakura so she could walk out of the line of test takers.

Sakura then belatedly realized that she had moved from the spot Naruto had given up to stand in front of Hayate Gekko.

"Konoha, Sakura Haruno, bye!"

After confirming Sakura's signature, Hayate Gekko announced, "The remaining 14 people will enter the preliminary rounds to compete for a spot in the third exam!"

"Next, we'll explain the rules for the preliminary rounds, ahem!"

Gekko Hayate coughed again; he was so weak that he didn't look like a ninja at all.

"The qualifiers are one-on-one single combat battles, with no restrictions on any fighting methods."

"Just like the exam in the Forest of Death, killing your opponent is allowed during the fight, but if the opponent surrenders, the winner is not allowed to continue to kill the loser. As the referee, I have the right to determine the outcome of the battle in advance. If a teammate or the Jonin in charge intervenes in the match, the intervening party will be directly judged as the loser."

"The preliminary rounds use a random match format, and your opponents will not be determined by their strength. Therefore, there will be situations where the two players are vastly different in strength. For the sake of your own life, it is not shameful to admit defeat."

Moonlight Gale looked at the examinee in front of him and suddenly stopped speaking.

After giving the candidates enough time to think, he spoke again: "Everyone, go to the high stands in the hall and wait for your competition to begin... Now, let's begin the first preliminary round—Red Bean Examiner."

"Turn on the screen!"

Upon hearing Moonlight Gale's signal, Red Bean gave the order into the walkie-talkie clipped to her ear.

The huge screen embedded in the lobby wall lit up.

The names of 14 candidates flashed on the screen for a few seconds.

The names of the two candidates were frozen on the screen.

First qualifying round —

—Uchiha Sasuke VS Rock Lee!

Chapter 47 Sasuke VS Rock Lee

Apart from Sasuke and Lee, who were about to compete, everyone else came to the stands, leaving the lobby open.

After Naruto and Sakura chose their viewing spots, they noticed that Kakashi was still lingering in the lobby.

At that moment, Kakashi was whispering something to Sasuke.

Sasuke's expression shifted between light and dark as Kakashi spoke.

"Kakashi-sensei... what are you saying to Sasuke?"

Sakura looked down at the two curiously from the high stands.

Before Naruto could answer Sakura, Kakashi had already finished his conversation with Sasuke and used the Body Flicker Technique to appear beside them.

"Sakura, you're really lucky. You actually got a bye."

Kakashi first expressed his congratulations to Sakura.

Immediately afterward, Kakashi, who had just left Sasuke's side, turned his attention to Sasuke in the hall, where Sasuke was taking his place as instructed by Hayate Gekko.

How is Sasuke doing?

Kakashi suddenly asked.

Kakashi lowered his voice so much that only he and the two members of Team 7 could hear him.

Sakura didn't realize what Kakashi's question was referring to.

Naruto knew exactly what Kakashi was asking. Sure enough, Anko had already informed the higher-ups in Konoha about Sasuke having been cursed by Orochimaru.

"On the night of the first exam in the Forest of Death, we were scattered by a hurricane..."

Naruto recounted Team 7's experiences over the past two days to Kakashi.

They even briefly mentioned korin, which is nothing to hide.

Without digging into Naruto's mind, who could know that the meeting between Team 7 and Karin was absolutely inevitable rather than accidental?

"Use shadow clones to scout ahead and avoid the enemy..."

Kakashi didn't seem to care much about Karin's presence; it wouldn't be surprising if he encountered any examinee in the Forest of Death exam.

Kakashi was pleased that Naruto made the right choice amidst the crisis: "Naruto, your judgment was correct. With you injured and Sasuke unable to use chakra freely, it is indeed necessary to avoid fighting other ninjas as much as possible."

Kakashi had already roughly confirmed the situation of the cursed seal in Sasuke's body based on Naruto's explanation. Sasuke, who had only shown the cursed seal once so far, was not in a very serious condition yet.

But Kakashi wasn't completely at ease yet.

In the preliminary rounds for the third exam, Sasuke's opponent happens to be none other than Rock Lee, the disciple that Guy always boasts about to him!

Naruto, however, didn't intend for Kakashi to end the conversation so unilaterally: "Kakashi-sensei, Sasuke said that Orochimaru claims to be the founder of Sound Village, and those Sound ninja did indeed attack us... They've been trying to harm Sasuke, yet they haven't passed the second exam... Is there some other conspiracy involved?"

Kakashi looked at Naruto and shook his head: "I don't know either—actually, after confirming that Orochimaru had infiltrated Konoha and contacted Sasuke, the Hokage immediately arranged for ANBU ninjas to search the Forest of Death, and the Sound Ninja also had ANBU ninjas specifically monitoring them—but not long ago, the Sound Ninja and the Konoha ANBU responsible for monitoring them all disappeared without a trace."

Naruto looked doubtful and worried, and didn't ask any further questions.

On his first question, he could use the excuse of worrying about Sasuke, who was his comrade, to ask a perfectly reasonable question.

However, Kakashi had already explained his answer in detail, and if Naruto said anything more, he would easily give Kakashi away.

Naruto had hoped to extract some useful information from Kakashi.

Unfortunately, the information Kakashi provided was essentially useless.

The disappearance of the Sound Ninja can only be related to Orochimaru.

Naruto wanted to know why the Sound Three had disappeared.

After Kabuto Yakushi's death, Orochimaru's actions could no longer be predicted using the original storyline.

However, Naruto is not worried that Orochimaru will interrupt his plan to destroy Konoha, thus causing Naruto's defection plan, which is based on the destruction of Konoha, to fail.

This is also why, after weighing the pros and cons, Naruto, knowing that killing Kabuto would bring him great unpredictability, still decided to deal with Kabuto for long-term benefit.

Orochimaru has already exposed himself in the Forest of Death and has also drawn Sunagakure into the game—at most, he will plan ahead, but he will never stop—as long as the plan to destroy Konoha succeeds, the variables at this moment will no longer matter.

However, if Orochimaru backs down, he will not only face the pursuit of Konoha, but also the attack of Sunagakure. Stopping the plan to destroy Konoha will not only prevent Orochimaru from gaining any benefit, but will also bring him a lot of trouble.

While Naruto was pondering, the match between Sasuke Uchiha and Rock Lee officially began.

Because of the cursed seal, Sasuke, who cannot freely use chakra, chooses to use ninja tools to deal with Rock Lee first.

However, Sasuke's use of this tactic did not yield ideal results.

How could Rock Lee, who specializes in taijutsu and has already opened the Eight Gates to the fifth gate, be hit by a ninja tool?

Naruto looked at Sasuke, who was already panting heavily after just one battle.

Sasuke's suppression of the cursed seal is extremely taxing on his stamina, and his battle with Rock Lee will accelerate this stamina depletion.

In this vicious cycle, it won't be long before Sasuke is controlled by the cursed seal again.

To outsiders, the outcome of this match was already self-evident.

Sasuke's desperate efforts were futile, like a mantis trying to stop a chariot.

Right now, Xiao Li is definitely the strongest among the 15 candidates present, in terms of physical skills alone.

Naruto would never allow himself to engage in a physical duel with Rock Lee.

However, Lee's weakness is that he cannot use ninjutsu or genjutsu.

Knowing this information will give us many more ways to deal with him.

However, it is extremely difficult to resist Xiao Li's terrifying physical attacks.

Not to mention, they also need to find a way to defeat Xiao Li.

Sasuke made his choice...

"Fire Release: Great Fireball Technique!"

Facing the rapidly moving Lee, Sasuke used the first ninjutsu of the match.

The massive flames Sasuke spewed from his mouth weren't aimed at the elusive Rock Lee, but at the ground in front of him!