"Alert!"
Kamano yelled, and the three of them ignored Naruto's escape and formed a semicircle, protecting the scroll pile in the middle.
"Don't panic, it's not us they're after. At worst, we'll just keep what's ours and return the rest to them."
Morikawa shouted to his teammates.
After a while, no one showed up.
Kamano suddenly thought of something and shouted, "Wait!"
He rushed to the pile of scrolls and opened them with his hands.
"Don't!"
Morikawa broke into a cold sweat. The examiner had clearly said that opening the scroll directly would result in disqualification.
But it was too late.
After a puff of smoke dissipated, the scroll in Kamano's hand turned into a bamboo tube, and the remaining two scrolls were a log and a dead branch respectively.
"We were deceived."
"There was no pursuer at all. It was all that demon fox boy's scheme from the beginning."
Kamano said grimly.
"What?!" Morikawa stared at the fake scrolls in disbelief.
"When he bumped into me!" The female ninja Anri realized. "Right after Naruto crashed into me, he must have switched our real scroll with these fakes!"
"That little bastard!!" Morikawa punched the tree hard. "Damn demon fox! Next time I see him, he's dead!"
---
Time to head back.
The deceptive monkey carried the Earth Scroll and kept leaping among the treetops with his usual bored expression.
There they are.
After spotting Sasuke's trio below, Monkey Orange dropped down lightly.
"Wow! Uncle Monkey, you're back!"
Naruto bounced forward eagerly.
"Here's your Earth Scroll."
Orange tossed the scroll directly to Sasuke without ceremony.
It actually worked!
Sasuke caught the scroll, secretly thrilled. He'd just been experimenting, but hadn't expected such success.
"Amazing!!" Naruto shouted excitedly.
"So Uncle Orange, you pretended to be me to pull off some cool moves, right?"
"Why pick me though? Do I look super capable and handsome? Hehe." Naruto grinned shamelessly.
"Tell us everything! How'd you do it?" Sakura was equally excited.
She hadn't expected the second Chunin Exam to pass so smoothly.
"Please. Is there anything in this world that I, the deceptive monkey, can't handle? Just takes a little finesse."
Orange started off modest but grew prouder in their enthusiastic atmosphere.
"Those three idiots are probably still standing guard, hahahaha." As Orange got more animated, he suddenly noticed the mood had shifted.
All three kids now looked distinctly uncomfortable, especially Naruto, whose jaw was clenched tight.
"What? Got a problem with my methods?" Orange dropped his smile and spoke coldly.
"I can't stand underhanded tricks like that! A ninja should be straightforward and honest! Why pretend to be me for something so sleazy? I'm going to be Hokage someday—you can't trash my reputation like this!"
"Ha! What reputation?" Orange laughed harshly, then grew serious. "Besides, they already call you the Demon Fox Boy."
Sasuke and Sakura's faces darkened. They both felt Orange had crossed a line.
"Listen here, kid."
"When people are prejudiced against you, don't waste time trying to change their minds. Use that prejudice as a weapon!"
Orange waved his pipe dramatically.
Naruto was stunned. He'd never heard such twisted logic, and something felt deeply wrong about it.
"I'd rather die fighting honorably than use dirty tricks! Even if I stay a genin forever, at least I'd have my integrity!"
"You don't understand what it means to be a ninja!" Orange snapped, losing patience.
A young person's heart is like clear crystal—simple but with unwavering principles.
"A real ninja suppresses emotions, hides feelings, and accomplishes the mission above all else. No matter how hard it gets, the objective comes first."
"You exist to kill. You're a weapon that buries its humanity! Honor, glory, love, morality—that's all fairy tale nonsense. Strip it all away and only the mission matters. Completing it is your sole purpose."
Youth must eventually face harsh realities.
As tools of war, they'll all be tested eventually.
Those crystals will shatter in time.
"If your 'honor' means rivers of blood—yours or others'—then I'd rather work from the shadows!"
Orange leaped onto Sasuke's shoulder, turning his back on them all.
"Mission accomplished. If you can't handle reality, don't summon me again."
"Oh, and kid," Orange glanced back at Naruto's clenched fists, "welcome to the real ninja world."
After a puff of smoke, Monkey Orange vanished.
The trio stood in uncomfortable silence.
Sasuke felt guilty but also wondered if they'd had any better options.
After testing the curse seal earlier, his body had felt drained.
Attempting ninjutsu now sent sharp pain through his neck.
The deeper they went into the Forest of Death, the more dangerous it would become.
Honestly, Sasuke wasn't sure Sakura and Naruto were strong enough for all three of them to advance together.
Yet he couldn't bring himself to approve of Orange's methods either.
Until now, Sasuke's world had been simple.
Strong versus weak, good versus evil, ally versus enemy—clear-cut oppositions.
But Monkey Orange had painted that black-and-white world gray:
The same event contained contradictory truths—the goal succeeded, the results benefited them greatly, but the means were dishonorable.
This moral complexity left Sasuke confused.
"Maybe we should return the scroll."
Remembering Naruto's dream of becoming Hokage, Sasuke spoke quietly.
Nobody answered.
If asked beforehand to participate in such deception, Team 7 would have refused outright.
But now the scroll was already obtained and delivered.
Though the end result was identical, the psychological weight felt completely different.
It's much easier to avoid doing something wrong than to actively undo something already done.
"Ahhhhh!"
A piercing scream erupted nearby, followed by two more, shattering their contemplation.
All three immediately dove into the bushes, hiding instinctively.
After several tense minutes, a wild-haired boy with prominent fangs dropped from the canopy and kicked at the spot where they'd been standing.