REVIEWS AND POWERSTONES PLSSS!!!!!Chapter 209: Unsettling Companions
This day had finally arrived. Team Seven, following Kakashi's instructions, came before that familiar Ninja Academy building. They quickly found their target—the classroom with "301" displayed at its entrance.
However, the scene before them was somewhat unexpected. At the classroom door, a youth wearing full-body green spandex with a bowl-cut hairstyle was being shoved around by two shinobi, seemingly getting beaten up.
It was Rock Lee. Though Naruto knew he was probably executing a "low-profile" operation, actively going to get beaten—wasn't this method a bit too realistic?
Those two shinobi blocking the door had extremely arrogant attitudes, constantly mocking examinees attempting to enter the classroom.
"With just your level of skill, you think you're qualified to participate in the Chunin Exam?"
"I suggest everyone just go back! You wet-behind-the-ears brats can't even get through this door!"
At this moment, a girl with twin buns and extremely cute appearance—Tenten—hurriedly stepped forward to support the somewhat disheveled Lee, pleading in a tearful, pitiful tone. "Please, let us through..."
While the white-eyed youth standing aside—Hyuga Neji—silently turned his face away.
Naturally not because he felt ashamed of his teammates being humiliated while he stood powerless. He simply couldn't bear watching these two playing weak with such crude performances, plus his teammate's overly committed "acting"... Too embarrassing.
Though those two at the door used rather exquisite transformation jutsu, in Naruto's eyes their true identities were plainly visible—precisely Konoha's two "gate gods," Kamizuki Izumo and Hagane Kotetsu.
Come to think of it, ten years ago when Naruto was three, the second time he'd pretended to attack Konoha under the 'Menma' identity, hadn't he directly blown up the main gate?
Thinking this way, hadn't he accomplished what even Pain couldn't do? Though at that time these two had been knocked down in the first round by the 'Nine-Masked Beast'...
Naruto silently apologized in his heart for events from ten years ago.
Beside him, Sakura watched this infuriating scene, temporarily halting her nervous action of constantly pretending to write in her palm. She keenly sensed the surrounding atmosphere felt somewhat wrong. A genjutsu barrier?
For the Uchiha clan skilled in genjutsu, seeing through this level of genjutsu barrier was as simple as having Satsuki solve one-plus-one math problems. Satsuki merely swept a cool glance, the corners of her mouth hooking with barely noticeable disdain.
Naruto naturally knew this was the Chunin Exam's first hidden checkpoint—testing whether examinees possessed basic perception to see through genjutsu. Even without anyone reminding him, he'd already detected the abnormally twisted chakra flow in this space, his perception exceptionally clear.
Strange, why does this energy fluctuation feel particularly sensitive... Could I actually have talent for cultivating perception ninjutsu like 'Mind's Eye of the Kagura'?
"Yo! Isn't this Uncle Izumo and Uncle Kotetsu?" Naruto's face bloomed with a sunshine-bright enthusiastic smile as he waved toward the two still performing earnestly. "Why aren't you guarding Konoha's main gate today, but instead managing the exam hall entrance? Though, the real exam hall should be up one more floor, right?"
Having executed several short-distance missions outside the village after the Wave Country mission, Naruto had long become familiar with these two Konoha "gate gods."
Izumo and Kotetsu, who'd been energetically mocking examinees, instantly froze in place, their movements and expressions solidifying. This kid... actually directly announced the answer publicly?!
"What? We know each other? You... what are you saying? I don't understand at all?" The two tried forcibly playing dumb, covering the embarrassment on their faces.
Just then, Satsuki keenly detected an unusual line of sight. She whipped her head around, discovering a youth with pure white pupils not far away, staring directly and unabashedly at Naruto.
Neji's heart at this moment filled with surprise and incomprehension. Why? This was clearly the first time seeing this blonde kid—why would such an indescribable sense of familiarity surge in his heart?
On the other side, under Naruto's series of confident identifications and bright smile offensive, Izumo and Kotetsu finally abandoned their struggle, helplessly admitting defeat.
They naturally also knew this youth before them was a genin greatly valued by both Kakashi and the Third Hokage, could only smile bitterly in release. Under surrounding examinees' shocked gazes, their forms shifted, restoring their original appearances as shinobi approaching thirty years old, frankly admitting their examiner identities, then removed the genjutsu barrier and hurriedly left the scene.
"Let's go, Satsuki, Sakura."
Watching the door number change from "301" back to the original "201," Naruto was about to call his two teammates upstairs when he unexpectedly discovered Satsuki was vigilantly glaring at Neji like a kitten protecting food. While Neji was staring intensely at him with eyes containing suppressed fervor, that gaze making Naruto's heart somewhat unsettled.
Strange... why is he looking at me like that? According to the setup, his 'maxed-out affection' target should be Menma, right?
Neji at this moment was rapidly analyzing in his mind. He'd finally figured out where this inexplicable familiarity originated—that bone-deep sense of security!
Only on that night ten years ago that changed his and his father's fate, beside that man who accompanied him and granted him salvation—Lord Menma—had he felt this same aura!
Could it be... this person before him had some connection with Lord Menma?
For the current Neji, his greatest dream was repaying that benefactor Menma who'd saved his father, earning his recognition, becoming his subordinate strength. And his second dream was meeting once more with that existence who made the entire shinobi world fear yet uniquely granted him light. In his heart, Menma wasn't calamity, but the beauty he most yearned to reunite with.
Beside him, Tenten finally noticed the atmosphere felt wrong. She looked at her usually aloof teammate Neji, who was currently using such... indescribable eyes to stare fixedly at a boy from another team? While on the other side, teammate Lee was using those accelerated-heartbeat sparkling eyes firmly locked on that pink-haired girl from the opposing team...
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