Brother-in-law fell, face down. Fearing he might suffocate, Naruto flipped him over.
From start to finish, he hadn't even broken Naruto's Transformation Jutsu.
Neji wasn't actually weak; at the very least, he could handle five or six Irukas without breaking a sweat.
Unfortunately, he ran into someone who cheated without getting banned.
Walking over to Tenten, Naruto extended a hand.
With the Tyrant Gold Dragon-Slaying Blade in one hand and the rich girl Tenten in the other, he carried them over and set them down beside Neji.
The Unlucky Player once again happily became the Lucky Player, and weapons in the shop started leaping out wildly.
Mystical things are truly hard to explain.
Most of the Temple's stone bricks were covered in sand. On the sand, the unconscious Neji and Tenten lay side by side.
Naruto sat nearby, stroking the Tyrant Gold Dragon-Slaying Blade.
He was waiting for Rock Lee to return.
This was the Chunin Exams; leaving two unconscious people here wasn't safe.
Tenten's eyelids twitched slightly, a sign she was waking up.
On the other side, Rock Lee sprinted back, clutching a water bottle. He had encountered Ziluo and indeed been held up for a while.
Ziluo had received guidance from Gaara, and Gaara held Rock Lee, who treated him like a punching bag, in high regard. Thus, Ziluo wanted to spar with Rock Lee.
Ziluo was an upright person. After Rock Lee explained the situation, he and Rock Lee agreed to spar next time they met. However, since it was still the Chunin Exams, sparring could be postponed, but offering help was out of the question. So, only Rock Lee returned.
Calculating the distance, Rock Lee covered the bottle's mouth with his hand, veins bulging on his forehead. "Eight Inner Gates: Third Gate, Open!"
Only the Third Gate, no more. The situation there was unknown, and if he encountered an enemy soon, he needed to conserve some stamina for battle.
Tenten opened her eyes, first letting out a weak gasp. "Neji."
Then she turned her head, saw Neji lying beside her, his chest still rising and falling, and finally relaxed.
Naruto stood up, raising his blade. "I originally planned to let you go painlessly, but since you're awake, I apologize."
"You actually…" Tenten's expression remained unchanged as she looked at the blade before her.
Because her face was pale.
"Different angle." Naruto raised his blade and walked to the other side.
"You're tricking me, aren't you?" Tenten guessed.
"You guess."
"From our first meeting, to you confessing to me, then kidnapping me... the story you told Neji, even now, wanting to kill us, you're still lying."
Tenten just liked to complain, but she wasn't a naive airhead. Seeing Neji still alive, she realized Naruto wasn't truly trying to kill Neji.
"You guess."
"Even this appearance of yours, it's probably fake, right?"
"You guess."
The essence of humanity is repetition.
"How am I supposed to guess that?" Tenten retorted.
Seeing the green streak running in the distance, Naruto mentally calculated the distance, tossed the Tyrant Gold Dragon-Slaying Blade into the air, and leaned down to whisper in Tenten's ear, "Remember, the prettier the man, the more he lies."
He waved at the approaching Rock Lee, then... bolted.
Show off and run, it's truly exhilarating.
It wasn't that he couldn't beat Rock Lee; he just didn't want to fight. Neji was fine to fight, but Rock Lee wasn't. He'd self-harm. If he burst through and forcibly opened the Seventh Gate, his life would be ruined. His physique wasn't strong enough yet.
Tenten: "..."
There were too many things to complain about in that sentence; she didn't even know where to begin.
Watching the blade falling from the sky in the distance, and his two teammates lying beneath it, Rock Lee threw away his water bottle and channeled chakra. "Eight Inner Gates: Fourth Gate, Fifth Gate, Open!"
The blade spun as it descended, and Rock Lee approached at extreme speed.
Finally, when the blade was still eight meters from the people lying on the ground, Rock Lee snatched it.
To catch the blade, Rock Lee also missed the best window for pursuit.
Yes, eight meters, not eight centimeters.
Fearing that Rock Lee might not catch it if he played with extreme distances and ended up slicing them both, Naruto tossed it very high.
"Lee, it's alright. Release it," Tenten said.
Sticking the blade into the ground, Rock Lee released the Eight Inner Gates and walked over to Tenten and Neji, falling into contemplation as he looked at the two lying side by side.
Should he help him or her up...?
Then, based on Konoha-style friendship, he decisively chose to help him.
Helping Neji up and checking his injuries, Rock Lee asked, "What happened?"
Tenten: "..."
Get lost, I don't want to talk to you.
While their little boat of friendship capsized instantly, Naruto, on his end, went to the Fire Capital to change his attire.
His clothes were custom-made in the Fire Capital, primarily red with black accents. His hair and face were covered by a hood.
Of the only two people in the entire exam site who had X-ray vision, one was his wife, and the other had already been knocked out. So, he didn't need to use Transformation Jutsu anymore.
Gripping two no-name blades stolen from Orochimaru's Hideout, he twirled them a few times before sheathing them behind his back. Grabbing his belt buckle and twisting it once, Naruto opened a portal.
In the arena, Naruto, clad in a red bodysuit, ran laps around the Demon Desert.
A thousand years ago, the Sage of Six Paths separated the Nine Tailed Beasts and then distributed chakra to humans to connect them, aiming for mutual understanding and peace. Unfortunately, things went awry. As the world changed, humans severed this connection, turning chakra into a weapon, transforming mutual understanding into mutual head-bashing.
And the Tailed Beasts, as chakra conglomerations, remained on the fringes of the human world.
Then, a clown whose head got stuck between doorposts, in an attempt at balance, captured them and distributed them to several other countries. From then on, humans gradually gained control over the power of the Tailed Beasts.
Subsequently, humans utilized chakra and the Tailed Beasts to launch three Shinobi World Wars. The Tailed Beasts, due to their immense power, became coveted by more and more people. This phenomenon, where a slight change caused by the Nine-Tails' old father, the Sage of Six Paths—who had been dead for years but could still jump around—led to a long-term, massive chain reaction throughout the entire shinobi world, was named the "Fox Dad Effect" by Edward Norton Lorenz.
And Naruto, currently running in circles, was trying to stop this effect.
He vaguely remembered the plot of this exam.
Gaara had a hostile faction. The leader of this faction first caused a large sandstorm to draw out Gaara, then sent a monk to assassinate him. The monk possessed a sealing jutsu that could manifest as chains, piercing into a Jinchuriki's body to extract their Tailed Beast.
The ability was very bizarre and greatly suppressed Jinchuriki. This monk's chain sealing jutsu was so powerful that it pulled out Shukaku's head from Gaara's body in less than three minutes. Then, Fuu, the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, came to rescue him and was also almost dragged out of her Seven-Tails.
Just imagine how strong this sealing jutsu was: the Akatsuki took three days to extract the One-Tail, but this monk could extract it in less than half an hour, and two at once! He alone was equivalent to a division of the Akatsuki.
In the end, it was Fuu who created a cocoon to envelop herself and Gaara, weakening the chains' power, which bought enough time for Neji to arrive and help them block their chakra points, saving their Tailed Beasts.
But now, Naruto had triggered the Fox Dad Effect.
His Brother-in-law had been knocked out by him.
So, who would save Gaara?
If Gaara died because he impulsively beat up his Brother-in-law, Naruto would cry himself to death.
Similar to the ambush of the old man in Lockfront Village last time, he still didn't know the exact location this time. So Naruto had to run as much as possible and directly teleport there if he found any abnormalities.
At the same time, he also wanted to conveniently wipe out his "friends" list.
For over a year, this group of friends hadn't updated a single status, except for Hinata asking him to buy food from various countries. They finally had an offline gathering, and they didn't even bring him along.
What kind of friends were these? Why keep them around for the New Year?
Of course, time was limited, and he didn't have excellent sensory abilities, so whoever he bumped into was just unlucky.
The rest would be noted down in his little book.
As night fell, Naruto released a clone to check in at Orochimaru's Hideout.
As soon as the clone appeared, it said, "First, send me to the ant hill."
"What's wrong?"
"I'm going to catch a few to roast for Sweet Potato No. 2."
Naruto knew who this was. Only one person would constantly think about bringing food to Anko: "It's you, Naruko!"
"It's me."
"Don't dally, hurry up," Naruko scoffed. "Don't you want to eat?"
"Alright." Naruto lit a bonfire and bought seasonings from the Fire Capital.
He had never actually eaten roasted ants before.
Half an hour later, Naruto sat by the bonfire, roasting ants.
Although the ants had cooperated with him in his act before, Naruto felt no emotional burden eating them.
His ancestors, both domestic and foreign, had told him in his previous life: eat when you should eat.
In China, there was "Food is the paramount need of the people."
Abroad, there was Darwin's Cumin's Law of the Jungle, survival of the fittest.
Not to mention the Star Anise Theorem and the Fennel Formula—they all had to be added.
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