Konoha: Starting the Game as Yoriichi

He... he ran away?

Orochimaru actually ran away?

Watching this scene, Hinata and Naruto were still in a daze. Kusuo pinched Hinata's snow-white cheek. "Don't just stand there stunned. The guy's already gone. What are you still standing around foolishly for?" Then, he took her hand and started back on the path.

After a long moment, Naruto, having finally recovered, shouted from behind, "Hey! You two, wait for me!"

Sizzle! Sizzle!

In the dark pit, even after Kusuo and his team had left, the area remained at a high temperature. The power of that one slash had been too astonishing, carrying a terrifying energy that had turned the crater into a natural fire pit.

Swish!

A short while later, an agile figure landed. Anko Mitarashi, with her hair tied up and wearing her mesh undershirt, quietly appeared at the scene. Her face was still filled with shock. She had sensed the commotion from the battle far away. Arriving at top speed and seeing the extent of the destruction with her own eyes, she realized she had still underestimated the level of this battle.

She raised an eyebrow. Anko picked up a pinch of dirt from beside her feet, smelled it, and her expression suddenly became incredibly ugly, as if she had discovered something. A hint of indescribable gravity appeared on her face.

"Orochimaru... Sensei, was that you?"

She looked again at the crater in front of her. Even with her current strength as a Special Jonin and her experience, she couldn't think of any person or ninjutsu in Konoha that could cause this level of destruction.

Shaking her head, Anko first ruled out the possibility that the attack was Orochimaru's doing. She knew her former teacher's methods very well. This unfathomably deep black hole could only have been created by an attack of extreme power, not to mention the high temperature still radiating from within. Just standing at the edge of the crater, she could feel the scorching heat.

This person must be a powerful ninja with extremely strong attack power and a fire-nature transformation. Anko's sharp eyebrows furrowed even deeper.

"This matter must be reported to Lord Hokage as soon as possible. The missing-nin Orochimaru has intruded, and—"

"There is an unidentified, mysterious ninja!"

Swoosh!

With a Body Flicker, Anko vanished from the spot.

The Forest of Death was now playing out a game of cat and mouse. The powerful teams from the great hidden villages, such as Neji, Tenten, and Lee's squad, were hunting down other teams everywhere, hoping to gather the required scrolls as quickly as possible. The ninja from the other, smaller villages were mostly just there to make up the numbers. Many were easily defeated, their value extremely low.

"Sasuke! You're so cool!" At the base of a towering tree, Sakura praised Sasuke with a love-struck expression.

On the other side, the cool and aloof Sasuke had one foot on a ninja with an umbrella insignia on his back. "Hand it over. Your scroll." The other "salted fish" member of Team 7 was helping Sakura restrain the other two defeated Rain ninja.

The Rain ninja under Sasuke's foot, with extreme reluctance, finally handed their scroll over to Sasuke.

"Alright! We finally got them all!"

"That took less than half a day! Do you think we're the first team to gather both the Heaven and Earth scrolls?" Sakura looked happily at the two scrolls in her hand, her gaze towards Sasuke shining even brighter.

"Hmph! Who knows," Sasuke said, turning his head away smugly. Although his words were uncertain, his face was already written all over with arrogant pride.

Suddenly, an untimely hissing sound surrounded them.

"Hoh hoh~, what a coincidence. I just happened to run into a team that gathered the Heaven and Earth scrolls much earlier than you!"

From the base of the surrounding great trees, countless white snakes appeared out of thin air and coiled together. Gradually... they formed into a young girl with deathly pale skin. Her sinister smile made the members of Team 7's hearts pound with fear.

"Wh-who are you?!" The other "salted fish" teammate was so scared by the pale girl—that is, Orochimaru—that he wet himself, unable to speak properly.

Sasuke stared at Orochimaru with wary eyes. A needle-like sense of pressure emanated from the person before him, giving him the illusion of facing that man again. Without a doubt, the person before him was very strong.

Sakura was also trembling, standing frozen on the spot. The pressure Orochimaru gave them was like an invisible fear of death shrouding their hearts. They didn't dare to even think of resisting.

"Hoh hoh~, compared to that little brat, you all are truly a long way off!" Orochimaru laughed sinisterly, his final gaze at Sasuke filled with desire.

"Uchiha Sasuke, I can help you increase your strength. Don't you want to get revenge on your clan? Don't you want to kill that man with your own hands? Come! Only I can help you!"

Faced with Orochimaru's tempting and persuasive words, Sasuke was stunned. For a moment, his brow showed a hint of being moved, but in the blink of an eye, his expression returned to one of seriousness.

"I'm not an idiot. Why would I listen to the nonsense of a stranger like you?"

"If you've got any skills, let's see them!"

"Lion's Barrage!"

Sasuke didn't believe him for a second. He shot forward like an arrow and, under Orochimaru's playful smile, used his current signature taijutsu. But the pale girl didn't move an inch, just standing there and letting him attack.

Strange. Too strange.

Before Sasuke could think too much, under his incredulous gaze, Orochimaru's neck suddenly elongated, coiling around several times to accurately find Sasuke's own neck. With a forceful bite...

"Ah!" Sasuke let out a pained scream and fell to the ground.

"Sasuke!" Sakura cried out in alarm, but she didn't dare to approach Orochimaru. But for some reason, the eerie pale girl just gave them a mocking smile, then, satisfied, transformed back into a white snake and left.

"Hah..." When the white snake had completely vanished, Sakura's legs went soft. She let out a long breath, nearly collapsing to the ground. Then, "Sasuke, are you okay? Are you hurt?" Looking at Sasuke in her arms, who was burning up with a high fever, Sakura's heart was filled with anxiety.

...

After planting the Cursed Seal on Sasuke, Orochimaru left the Forest of Death from another direction. On the way, his golden, vertical pupils narrowed slightly, his expression not looking good. Although his established plan had been successfully completed, the red-haired brat he had encountered before was strong beyond his imagination. A monster on par with the White Fang of Konoha. He was worried. He worried that this little brat might cause some unforeseen changes to his upcoming plans. A deep sense of apprehension was written all over Orochimaru's face.

...

After successively encountering Gaara and Orochimaru, Team 10's remaining journey was much more stable. After a long trek, they arrived at the central tower, where a proctor was already waiting.

At this moment, Hayate Gekko, with a toothpick in his mouth, was lazily gazing at the setting sun.

"Hm?" The three members of Team 10 appeared before him, and the Heaven and Earth scrolls were taken out.

So fast? Hayate was shocked. They had received their mission scroll in the morning and were only allowed to enter after noon. Now, it was just dusk, and a team had already completed the mission and arrived. It had only taken a few hours!

"Alright." Composing himself, Hayate steadied his beating heart, checked the scrolls they had submitted, and after confirming there were no problems, he finally confirmed: Team 10 had passed the second exam in first place!

In the end, this test eliminated more than half of the teams, but there were still quite a few gathered in the main hall. Looking at the dense crowd below, Hayate Gekko, with a toothpick still in his mouth, announced the new round of testing.

"Next, you will all participate in a preliminary round. Just like the second exam, there are no restrictions on methods, but there are location and time requirements. Your opponents will be decided by drawing lots."

The moment Hayate's lazy words fell, the crowd below became noisy.

"What's this?! I thought the third exam came after the second one! Why is there a sudden preliminary round? Are they messing with us?" someone immediately complained.

"Who knows? Maybe they saw there are still a lot of losers in the crowd and want to kick them out," someone else said sarcastically.

But no matter what they said, Hayate maintained a nonchalant expression. As a Special Jonin, he wouldn't bicker with a bunch of genin. Besides, the rules were set by the higher-ups; he was only responsible for executing them.

The preliminary round was arranged in the arena. The venue was in the center of a three-story building, with plenty of space. On the upper floors, many of the jonin instructors were watching.

Gaara stared at Kusuo with a cold glint in his eyes, his savage gaze looking like he wanted to devour him whole. Ignoring Gaara, Kusuo focused his attention on the people on the second floor. Kakashi, Guy, and Kurenai were all there, as was his own jonin instructor, Asuma.

However, what truly caught his attention was a jonin from the Sound Village. He was Orochimaru in disguise, mixed in with the crowd, undetected by anyone. Sensing Kusuo's gaze, the disguised Orochimaru's lips curled up slightly, and a sinister glint flashed in his eyes. This brat... I must keep an eye on him before the operation begins. He immediately made a plan on how to restrain him. The Sound Village was short on manpower, but on the Konoha side, he still had allies.

Kusuo didn't know what Orochimaru was thinking. At this moment, the drawing of lots for the preliminary round had already begun. The first names to be called were Sasuke and Yoroi Akado.

Sasuke crossed his arms, walking confidently to the center of the arena. At the same time, a ninja with a black face mask and a Sound Village headband also entered the field. With the proctor's command, the two immediately clashed.

"Go, Sasuke!" Sakura cheered for him from the sidelines.

Sasuke, on the field, was also full of confidence. Over the years, aside from a few select opponents, there was no one he took seriously. Even if the man he was fighting now looked much older than him, it didn't matter.

"Lion's Barrage!"

In the end, Sasuke defeated Yoroi Akado without breaking a sweat. Unlike the original story, with the influence of the butterfly that was Kusuo, Sasuke's desire to improve his strength was even more urgent, and his training was even more rigorous. The Lion's Barrage, a technique he was supposed to have figured out at the end of this match in the original story, had already been used during his fight with Orochimaru in the Forest of Death.

"Nice taijutsu, and his insight is very sharp. If I'm not mistaken, Sasuke didn't even use his Sharingan, right?" a group of jonin instructors commented as they watched their students fight from the second floor. Kurenai praised Sasuke's brilliant performance.

Kakashi nodded. He was clear about his student's strength. Among those present, he was definitely in the top tier. As for his cousin, Kusuo, he didn't count. That guy was a monster, an existence beyond the standard scale. Even he himself might not be his opponent.

"Sasuke always trains very hard. It's only natural that he would perform like this," Kakashi said, nodding in approval as he watched Sasuke return to the crowd with his hands in his pockets.

"It seems that among this year's students, Sasuke should be able to take the top spot," Kurenai said, looking at Sasuke's figure with some envy. Sakura was fawning over him with concern. In comparison, the genin assigned to her own team were not so outstanding.

"That's not necessarily so," Asuma suddenly said from the side.

Kurenai gave him a look, and was about to retort when she was surprised to see Kakashi nod in agreement.

"Sasuke's performance on the field just now was perfect, already surpassing the level of a genin. Could there possibly be a student even more outstanding than him?" Kurenai was incredulous.

"Have you forgotten the five-time consecutive top student of their year? The boy in red who was holding that girl's hand during the team assignments."

With Asuma's reminder, Kurenai immediately focused her gaze on Kusuo. With his transcendent and outstanding temperament, he was easy to spot at a glance. Noticing the jonin instructors' gazes, Kusuo also looked up and gave a nod as a sign of respect.

"He's certainly very handsome, and his temperament is outstanding. He's definitely very good at attracting girls. I just don't know how strong he is," Kurenai gave a fair assessment. To be honest, when she had seen Kusuo turn his face just now, even her own heart had skipped a beat.

"Hehe, just watch," Asuma chuckled, deliberately keeping her in suspense.

"Next match: Hatake Kusuo versus Zaku Abumi!" the proctor's high-pitched voice called out.

Immediately, the entire venue fell silent.

Hatake Kusuo. Through Yakushi Kabuto's tireless promotion, combined with his first-place result in the second exam, he had attracted the attention of everyone present.

Zaku's heart jumped. Realizing his opponent's strength, he instinctively resisted. But an icy gaze from the second floor shot towards him, making him shiver. "For Lord Orochimaru! I must defeat this guy!" He frantically pumped himself up in his mind and walked with difficulty onto the stage.

Kusuo looked at the opponent before him with an expressionless face, his heart unstirred. Seeing the headband on his head, he knew it was just another spy sent by Orochimaru. Nothing interesting.

"Begin!"

With the proctor's command, Zaku immediately entered a tense fighting stance. He had just raised his right hand, preparing to fire an air cannon from his palm, when—

Schlick!

A light slash passed by.

Fast.

Precise.

Ruthless.

Without any wasted motion.

Disbelief filled Zaku's eyes as his entire head was lopped off.

A one-slash kill.

Hiss!

At that moment, the entire venue was horrified.

Quiet.

An insane quiet.

A deathly silence.

Everyone held their breath, staring at the only one left standing on the stage, the boy in red, who was now calmly wiping the blood from his blade.

"Er..." The proctor was also stunned. He froze for several seconds before he could react.

"Hatake Kusuo... wins!"

-------

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