"If you eat that, I swear you won't fit in your seat, Naruto. And if you don't fit, I definitely don't want you sitting next to me."
Sakura's voice, with that sharp yet amused tone she reserved for him, cut through the morning chatter at the noodle stand. The place was packed, a chaos of people trying to grab a quick breakfast before heading to the stadium. Naruto, who had already devoured half of a huge bowl of ramen, ignored her completely. He slurped a piece of pork with a noise that made several people at nearby tables turn around.
"It's not food, Sakura-chan," he exclaimed, his mouth half full. "It's fuel for my muscles. I have to be extra alert today, you know? This is the breakfast of champions!"
Sakura sighed, but a smile tugged at the corner of her lips. "Naruto, you're not a champion. You're not even competing."
"Exactly," Ino chimed in. She had joined the group moments before and was now fanning herself with one hand, looking flustered just from being near Naruto. "You're just going to be a loud spectator. Like always."
"A loud and supportive spectator!" he corrected, finally swallowing with visible effort. He pounded his chest with a fist. "Moral support is the most important part of any battle. If you don't believe me, ask anyone! It's a proven tactic."
The day of the Chūnin Exam finals had arrived, and Konoha was a hive of activity. The streets leading to the grand stadium were packed with people. Ninjas from other villages with their different forehead protectors mingled with dignitaries in elegant robes who looked uncomfortable in the crowd, and merchants shouting out deals on dango, masks, and souvenirs with the Third Hokage's face on them. Entire families from Konoha, dressed in their best clothes, walked with the excitement of people attending a festival. And in a way, it was. The air was charged with the kind of excitement only an expectant crowd can generate.
Sitting at the same table, Hinata and Karin watched the chaos with very different expressions. Hinata, though maintaining her usual reserve, seemed calm. A small, genuine smile graced her face as she enjoyed the atmosphere. Karin, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck. She was hunched over her own bowl of noodles, having barely touched them. Her eyes darted behind her glasses, jumping from one face to another, from one stand to another, trying to catalog thousands of potential threats at once.
"Are you all right, Karin-san?" Hinata asked in a low voice.
Karin flinched as if pulled from a trance. "Y-yeah, of course," she lied, nervously adjusting her glasses. "It's just... there are a lot of people. And a lot of noise."
"It is a bit intense," Hinata admitted, looking at the crowd with understanding. "You can stay close to us, if you want. Naruto-kun is very good at scaring away crowds." She paused and added with a hint of humor, "Mostly because he's louder than all of them put together."
Naruto, who had a selective hearing for his own name, turned with a wide grin, noodles dangling from his chin. "You heard that! I'm a natural bodyguard! The best in Konoha!"
"What you are is a natural disaster," Sakura retorted, handing him a napkin. "Clean yourself up, for God's sake."
Just as they were finishing, Kiba appeared beside them, Akamaru trotting at his feet and sniffing the ground with interest.
"Well, well, filling up the tank so you can shout louder, Naruto?" Kiba said as a greeting, a smug grin on his face. Akamaru barked softly, as if in agreement.
"I was recharging my chakra reserves to give the best moral support in history!" Naruto defended himself.
"Sure, 'moral support'," Kiba scoffed. "You know, Akamaru and I were training this morning. A true ninja is always ready, even if he's just going to watch. You should learn a thing or two."
"Hey! I've been training too! Really hard!" Naruto protested.
"Yeah, your jaw muscle," Ino cut in, making Sakura laugh.
The group finally stood up and joined the human current flowing towards the stadium's imposing gates. For Ino, Sakura, and Hinata, it was an exciting walk, filled with gossip about the matches and greetings to acquaintances they met along the way. For Naruto and Karin, it was something else entirely. It wasn't a festive stroll, but an infiltration into enemy territory.
Naruto was no longer the clueless kid just looking for attention. The last five days with Tsunade had been an intensive lesson. Not only had she taught him the basics of the Rasengan, but she had drilled into him the importance of battle awareness. "A leader doesn't just fight, brat," she had told him with her usual harshness. "A leader sees the entire battlefield, every shadow, every exit, even when everything seems calm. Peace is just the moment the enemy reloads."
So, while he smiled and joked with his friends, his blue eyes never stopped moving. They scanned the faces in the crowd, the rooftops of the stalls, the shadows of the alleys that opened between buildings. He looked for anything that broke the pattern: a civilian with the calloused hands and posture of a shinobi, a gaze that lingered on a strategic point for too long, a street vendor whose cart was positioned to block an emergency exit.
Karin, beside him, did the same, but her method was invisible. She focused on the currents of chakra surrounding them.
"There are so many different chakras," she whispered to Naruto, her voice barely a thread of sound in the commotion. She had to get very close for him to hear her. "So many colors will give me a headache again. It's a mess."
"Don't try to sort them all out," he replied in the same low tone, waving at a child who had recognized him. "Just look for anomalies. Do you feel anything... out of place?"
"Yes," she confirmed, frowning. "There are... threads of chakra that don't feel right. They're like static on a radio. Aggressive, tense. Most are coming from the direction of the seats reserved for Suna and the guest villages."
"Good," Naruto murmured back, his face serious for an instant before smiling again to respond to one of Ino's jokes. "Don't focus on them directly. If they're good, they might sense you watching. Just stay alert for any sudden changes. Look for anything that suddenly feels... weird."
As they passed a mask stand selling replicas of those worn by the ANBU, they ran into Choji and Shikamaru. Choji, as expected, was deep in an existential dilemma.
"I don't know, Shikamaru..." he was saying, holding a bag of barbecue-flavored chips in one hand and another with consommé flavor in the other. "The consommé ones have a more complex and sophisticated aftertaste, but the barbecue ones have a much more satisfying crunch. It's an impossible decision."
Shikamaru yawned, a yawn so deep it looked like he might dislocate his jaw. "How troublesome. Choji, the answer is obvious. Get both. One for the beginning of the exams and one for the end. No need to suffer."
Choji's face lit up with pure revelation. "Shikamaru, you're a genius! That's why you're the team leader!"
"There they are!" Ino exclaimed, pushing through the crowd to reach them. She gave her teammate a playful nudge. "Shikamaru, you better not lose in the first five seconds! I bet twenty ryō that you'll at least bother to dodge the first attack!"
Shikamaru sighed, a sound that conveyed absolute resignation. "What a drag. Now I'm under pressure to make you money. Couldn't you have bet against me? It would have been easier for everyone. I'm already getting tired just thinking about it."
The meeting was brief, loud, and perfectly normal. But while the others laughed at Shikamaru's complaints, Naruto watched him closely. For a second, the lazy genius looked up from the clouds, and their eyes met. No words were spoken, but in Shikamaru's eyes, there was a flash of understanding. He didn't know the details, didn't know who or how, but he knew something was wrong. He had felt it in the air for weeks. And he nodded. It was an almost imperceptible gesture, a slight dip of his chin, but the message was unmistakable: I'll be watching.
Naruto nodded back. It was enough.
Finally, the group reached their seats. They climbed the stone stairs to a section that offered them a perfect view of the arena. They were high enough to see all the action without missing any details, but close enough to feel the energy emanating from the center of the coliseum. The stadium was an impressive feat of engineering, a massive circle of stone and wood that now held tens of thousands of expectant souls, all united by the anticipation of the fights.
"Wow, after a week's break, you can see they've really put some effort into promoting these matches," Sakura said, her green eyes shining with excitement as she leaned over the railing.
"Shikamaru will probably give up as soon as he gets bored," Ino added, sitting down and crossing her legs. "But at least he'll do it in an entertaining way."
"Don't underestimate Shikamaru," Choji said between bites of chips. "He's smarter than he looks."
"We know, Choji. The problem is he's also lazier than he looks," Ino replied.
While they chatted and discussed their bets, Naruto sat down. His facade of excitement and energy finally vanished, replaced by an absolute focus. His eyes weren't on the arena, but sweeping across the stands, the Kage's box, the entrances and exits. Karin sat beside him, completely tense. She closed her eyes to filter out the overwhelming visual noise and focus solely on what she could feel, on those chakra currents that didn't belong.
Hinata, sitting on Naruto's other side, noticed the change in both of them. She straightened up subtly, her shoulders squared. She was no longer an excited spectator but a silent guardian. Her gaze, though calm, became watchful.
Suddenly, a roar erupted from one of the more opulent sections of the stadium, and the wave of sound spread through the stands. The Feudal Lord and his court had arrived, greeting the crowd with measured gestures. Shortly after, another roar, this one deeper, more respectful, greeted the arrival of the most important figures of the day: the Kage.
Hiruzen Sarutobi, the Third Hokage, walked with a dignified calm that betrayed his age. He greeted the crowd with a kind smile, the same one that had reassured the village for decades. Beside him walked the imposing figure of the Fourth Kazekage, his face hidden beneath the traditional hat, his presence emanating a cold authority.
Naruto said nothing. His hands, resting on his knees, clenched into fists so tight his knuckles turned white. He fixed his gaze on the figure of the Kazekage, ignoring the Hokage and everyone else. He couldn't see through the disguise, but he could feel it. It was a coldness that had nothing to do with the air temperature. A discordant presence, something that simply shouldn't be there.
Beside him, Karin shivered. It was a visible, violent shudder that ran through her entire body. She hugged herself as if she had suddenly frozen.
"It's him," she whispered, her voice trembling and only audible to Naruto. "That chakra. It's right there."
Naruto nodded slightly, not taking his eyes off the box for a second. "I know."
He knew that Orochimaru, at that very moment, was probably looking at the crowd, at the thousands of people cheering and laughing. To him, they weren't people. They were cattle. Pawns in his game.
Suddenly, the crowd's attention shifted sharply to the arena. The exam proctor, Genma Shiranui, had appeared in the center with a quick flicker of speed. He stood there, his signature senbon dangling from his lips and an expression of professional boredom. At his signal, the finalists emerged from the dark competitors' entrance, walking together into the bright sunlight.
First was Temari of the Sand, her war fan folded on her back and a look of confidence as sharp as the wind she commanded. Then Shikamaru, who looked like he'd rather be anywhere else in the world, probably at home watching the clouds. Gaara was next, and his mere presence caused an uncomfortable silence to fall over the nearest stands. His chakra swirled around him, a visible distortion in the air that boiled with fury.
And then, the last one entered. Sasuke.
His stride was confident, his face a mask of cold indifference.
Naruto watched his teammate, his rival. He saw the result of Kakashi's hellish training in every tense muscle, in the way he moved, faster, more efficient, more lethal.
For a fraction of a second, across the distance that separated them, their eyes met.
Genma stepped forward, his voice amplified by a wind jutsu so everyone in the vast stadium could hear him clearly.
"Welcome, everyone, to the final round of the Chūnin Selection Exams!" he proclaimed, his voice echoing off the stone. "The rules are simple: the fight continues until one of the combatants gives up, is knocked unconscious, or dies. As proctor, I reserve the right to stop the match at any time if I deem it necessary. Now, the combatants for the first battle, step forward!"
A giant screen on one of the stadium walls flickered with a burst of seals and smoke, then displayed two names in large characters.
Shikamaru Nara vs. Temari
"No way! I knew he'd be first! What a drag for him!" Ino exclaimed, half amused, half frustrated.
"He definitely has bad luck with women," Sakura laughed.
In the arena, Shikamaru sighed audibly. It was a sound so full of resignation it almost seemed to carry the wind with it. He shoved his hands even deeper into his pockets, as if he wanted to hide inside them. Temari, on the other hand, smirked. It was a sharp, predatory smile. With a fluid motion, she drew her massive fan and snapped it open with a crack that echoed in the expectant silence.
"I hope this will at least be a challenge, Konoha boy," she said, her voice full of a confidence that bordered on disdain. "Don't waste my time."
"Believe me," Shikamaru muttered to himself, though his voice was heard in the front rows, "wasting time is my specialty."
From the Kage's box, a disguised Orochimaru watched with a vague, condescending interest. This match was a mere appetizer. Unimportant entertainment before the real show began. Hiruzen, beside him, watched with total concentration, his fingers tapping a silent, almost imperceptible rhythm on the armrest. It was a coded signal for the ANBU hidden throughout the stadium, one that meant: Hold your positions. Not yet.
Naruto leaned forward in his seat, his body tense, ready to spring. The calm was over. The curtain had risen. He knew they weren't watching a tournament.
They were watching the prologue to a war.
"Now..." Genma said, raising his hand and then sweeping it down.
"Begin!"