Boom! Boom! Boom!
The continuous explosions and flickering flames in the distance made it clear that a fierce battle was raging, filling Naruto and Sakura with anxiety over Sasuke's safety.
"Worried about your teammate?"
Tayuya sneered. "Relax. Surrounded by Sakon and Ukon and Kidōmaru, that brat Uchiha Sasuke is guaranteed to die a miserable death!"
Sakura shot back immediately,
"Don't be ridiculous! Sasuke is the top student of our class! There's no way he'd lose to you Sound ninja!"
Naruto added loudly,
"Yeah! Sasuke's as strong as I am!"
Tayuya raised her flute to her lips and laughed mockingly.
"You ignorant Konoha ninja. You don't understand what real power is. Being surrounded by Sakon and Ukon and Kidōmaru—even your Konoha jōnin would die, let alone genin like you!"
Naruto froze.
"Those two freaks with six arms and two heads… are they really that strong?"
"I'll be honest with you," Tayuya said coldly. "From the moment this exam began, Uchiha Sasuke was already a dead man. The only question was whose hands he'd die by."
She glanced toward the nearby battlefield.
"Dying at Sakon and Ukon and Kidōmaru's hands isn't such a bad ending. If that person shows up, his death will be far more miserable."
Sakura hurriedly asked,
"That person?! Someone else is after Sasuke? Why—why are you so determined to kill him?"
Placing the flute to her lips, Tayuya laughed cruelly.
"Since you care so much about Uchiha Sasuke, I'll do you a favor and send all of you to Hell together!"
A clear, eerie flute melody echoed through the forest.
The moment they heard it, Naruto and Sakura felt dizzy—and then the world around them changed completely.
The sky turned blood-red. Their arms were raised high, bound in place, their bodies unable to move.
"G-Genjutsu?!"
Sakura was stunned. Before she could even think of breaking it, she felt her body beginning to melt and screamed in terror.
Naruto, also trapped in the illusion, stared around in confusion.
Suddenly—
The blood-red sky, the ropes, and every image created by the genjutsu were violently torn apart!
"Huh?"
Naruto blinked as the world snapped back to normal.
Just as he was about to counterattack, a voice echoed deep within his mind.
"Don't rush."
"Big Fox?"
Naruto immediately understood. The Nine-Tails inside him had broken the genjutsu. Realizing its intent, Naruto suppressed his impatience and pretended to remain trapped.
Seeing Naruto and Sakura standing there with their arms raised, seemingly unconscious, Tayuya stopped playing her flute. She walked over with a grin, muttering,
"Now then… which one of you has the scroll?"
Passing the Chūnin Exams wasn't her main objective, but Tayuya enjoyed watching elite genin from other villages cry and beg. After subduing Naruto and Sakura, she stepped closer, intending to search them for their mission scrolls.
Just as she reached for the ninja pouch at Naruto's waist—
Naruto suddenly attacked!
"You—?!"
Tayuya recoiled in shock, leaning back just in time to narrowly dodge his punch.
Having fought countless real battles under Orochimaru's command, her combat experience far surpassed Naruto's. Watching his fist brush past her nose, a mocking smile curled on her lips.
But before that smile could fully form—
An orange-red chakra claw burst from Naruto's fist and slashed at her!
Slash!
Blood sprayed into the air.
Caught completely off guard, Tayuya barely managed to raise her arms to protect her chest. Deep, bone-revealing claw marks instantly tore across her forearms!
She leapt back nearly ten meters, staring at Naruto in shock.
"What… what was that?!"
Though it lasted only an instant, the orange-red chakra had shaken her to the core. For that brief moment, she felt overwhelmingly small before him.
Naruto ignored her and quickly released Sakura from the genjutsu.
Being ignored sent Tayuya into a rage.
"No one ignores me!"
In her fury, she activated her Cursed Seal, skipping the first stage entirely and forcing herself straight into Cursed Seal Stage Two—a move extremely dangerous for her body.
---
On the other battlefield
Bang!
Sasuke kicked Sakon and Ukon away and sneered,
"You want to kill me? Big talk—but is this really all you've got?"
Sakon and Ukon slammed into a massive tree and barely regained their footing, their expressions dark.
Damn it…
They hadn't expected Sasuke to be this strong. No wonder Lord Orochimaru valued him so highly.
From their exchange, it was clear—Sasuke surpassed them in speed, perception, and technique by more than a single level. Killing him quickly on their own was unlikely.
Sakon's gaze shifted upward toward the treetops.
Suddenly, countless fist-sized spiders rained down from above, connected by threads from their abdomens, cascading like a curtain of death toward Sasuke.
It was Kidōmaru's attack, launched from the canopy!
"Hmph."
Sasuke snorted and rapidly formed hand seals.
"Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"
A massive torrent of flames roared skyward, incinerating the spider swarm and their webs. The enormous mother spider Kidōmaru had secretly summoned and hidden among the branches was also engulfed, shrieking as it burned before vanishing in a puff of white smoke as the summoning was dispelled.
"S-So powerful… Fire Release…!"
Sakon and Ukon exclaimed in disbelief.
Whoosh!
Covered in ash, Kidōmaru burst out from the burning canopy and crashed to the ground in a sorry state.
Sasuke placed one hand on his hip and looked down at them coolly.
"Hand over your scrolls. I'll spare your lives."
The three exchanged glances.
Then, without hesitation—
Sakon and Ukon, and Kidōmaru, activated their Cursed Seals simultaneously.