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The first thing everyone noticed about Gaara was his dark, perpetually tired eyes. His constant struggle against Shukaku had robbed him of proper sleep, leading to his enduring dark circles.
Over a year ago, Naruto had put Shukaku to sleep. Logically, Gaara's dark circles should have disappeared. However, not only did they not vanish, but they seemed to grow even heavier.
In order to boost the Sand Village's reputation to the level of the Kazekage, Gaara, freed from Shukaku's burden, had been grinding missions day and night. The sheer volume of missions was daunting. This type of sleepless "boss," when grinding missions, made one wonder if his entire body, save for his brain, was made of liver.
After accompanying Gaara for over half a year of intense mission grinding, Temari and Kankuro were promoted to Chunin exceptionally due to their excessive mission completion.
Temari had repeatedly urged her brother to "stop his divine powers," warning that she and their brother would die from exhaustion if this continued. Unfortunately, her pleas had little effect. Gaara's jinchuriki physique was special; he could endure it, but his brother and sister collapsed from the fatigue.
Alas, what made him successful as a jinchuriki also limited him. Because of his jinchuriki status, Gaara wore out his teammates. And because of his jinchuriki status, without teammates,
the village wouldn't let him leave to do missions alone. However, this couldn't stop the mission-grinding saint, Gaara. No teammates? Then bring low-level accounts! Gaara took on a student! A girl named Matsuri had the honor of becoming Gaara's apprentice.
Initially, Matsuri was very scared of her master due to rumors, but after spending some time with him, she discovered he was simply a god. Gentle as water to his allies, ruthless to his enemies, it didn't take long for her to become his fanatical devotee.
Finally, accompanied by his student, sister, and brother in shifts, Gaara had accumulated enough reputation to be eligible to run for Kazekage. Although Gaara was a user of the "Face-Face Fruit" ability,
its development was clearly insufficient; some people in the Sand Village still didn't give him face. They dared not openly oppose Gaara's ascension, but they could engage in petty covert actions. Gaara knew about this group of people but wasn't sure who exactly they were.
To deal with these idle opportunists who only emerged when there was trouble, Gaara initiated a Chunin Exam. "You guys have nothing to do, right? Then grind this event!" Conveniently, he would be the chief examiner for the second stage, attracting these "idle fish" to actively attack him, then capture them all in one fell swoop.
Konoha, having restored its alliance with the Sand Village, was the first to respond to this grand eventâa competition between allied nations to showcase their powerâfollowed by some small nations just looking for excitement. The first stage of the exam was set in Konoha, with Shikamaru as the chief examiner, and the Sand Village dispatched Temari as the vice-examiner.
In the previous Chunin Exams, others had relied on head-on confrontations, but Shikamaru, with just a toothpick and an explosive tag, had skillfully toyed with his opponent, demonstrating powerful analytical abilities.
He received unanimous praise and passed with a perfect score, becoming a Chunin. There was also one other person who demonstrated a similar ability, though not as dazzling as Shikamaru, but enough to be promoted to Chunin. Unfortunately, everyone forgot who he was.
Early the next morning, Naruto woke up and sat on his bed, dazed. He was absorbing the memories sent back by the clone that had been watching anime with the Nine-Tails, and also checking what kind of silly stuff this goofy fox spirit of his had been watching.
The movies and TV shows of the ninja world were countless steps behind those of his previous life; their plots were even worse than Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf. Yet, the Nine-Tails watched them with relish, not just watching, but watching twenty-four hours a day because it didn't need to sleep.
The history of the ninja world's entertainment industry was too short, its reserves simply insufficient for the fox spirit to watch, and anything whose updates couldn't keep up with its viewing speed was considered "discontinued." Otherwise, it wouldn't have so many "discontinued" shows to complain about.
After sending out a second clone to the Land of Snow to watch anime with the fox, Naruto entered the sealing space as usual to add food for the Nine-Tails and eat his own breakfast.
Theoretically, a clone sustained by the Nine-Tails' chakra could watch anime forever, but if a clone lasted too long, the sheer volume of returning memories would risk mental breakdown for Naruto, so each was limited to a maximum of twelve hours.
After finishing breakfast with the fox spirit, Naruto called Jiraiya to eat a second breakfast. Everything was as usual, but today was different, because he was going to stir up trouble.
Several kilometers outside Konoha's gates, a clone with a pair of binoculars lay hidden in a treetop, waiting for the examinees to leave. Naruto knew the second stage of the Sand Village exam was in the Sand Village's Demonic Desert, but he didn't know where this place was.
It must be a special location of the Sand Village, not on any map. He also couldn't ask anyone, as it would expose him. So, Naruto planned to estimate the approximate location from the candidates' travel routes.
Around ten o'clock, a large group of people streamed out of Konoha. Leading the charge was his brother-in-law's team (Neji's team), who possessed both stamina and brains. After Shikamaru explained the rules, his brother-in-law instantly understood and immediately led his team towards the target location.
Next was the team led by the rich lady who supported Naruto (Hinata's team). Hinata, having grown up eating dragon meat, might not be inferior to Neji in strength and stamina, but her way of thinking and experience lagged far behind. She was two steps slower than Neji. Then came Sakura, Ino, and Choji, forming a temporary three-person team within the main group.
The clone observed the team's direction of travel, drawing dotted lines on the map. Picking up the binoculars again, the clone barely managed to stifle a curse. He saw the "Sublime Guy" Might Guy.
This wasn't shocking yet. What was shocking was that Guy actually glanced in his direction. Was this person that perceptive? Could he sense someone looking at him with binoculars from five kilometers away?
"What's wrong, Guy?" Asuma asked.
"Nothing, just felt like someone was watching me." Having fought Kakashi, who possessed the Sharingan, for years, he was very sensitive to gazes. This reaction was beyond brain control and could be attributed to muscle instinct.
After that clone self-destructed and disappeared, Naruto sent another clone to a second pre-set location, a high mountain with a wide field of view. Finally, by drawing and correcting the route based on these two points, he found the approximate direction of the Demonic Desert. That was enough.
In the desert, Moyie held a compass, checking the map. Tiezhu was at Mount MyĹboku, Naruko was at Orochimaru's base. Today, it was his turn to lead the team. Folding the map into a paper fan, dressed in white, looking like a graceful young master,
he addressed the hundred-plus clones behind him, "In about three days, they will reach the exam site. We need to ambush them before they arrive. Since they won't let us play, we'll give our distant friends a big surprise."
"Did you all hear that?" Moyie asked loudly, the desert wind blowing.
"Heard you!"
Moyie nodded in satisfaction, lightly fanning himself with the paper fan, and smiled, "We have friends from afar!"
"Though distant, they shall be exterminated!" The hundred-plus Shadow Clones, cloaked in white robes and hooded, raised their hidden blades and shouted in unison.
Moyie tapped his hand with the paper fan. "It's a bit too cruel to kill them all just for not letting us play. Let's change it. Again! We have friends from afar!"
"Whip them dozens of times, and drive them to a separate courtyard!!" The clones shouted in cooperation again.
"Very good, disperse!"
The clones instantly vanished, moving in a fan-shaped formation along the pre-set route towards the Demonic Desert.
As night fell in the vicinity of the Demonic Desert, a Sand Shinobi sensor reported via device, "Suspicious person detected in direction B2-5. Someone nearby, go check it out." The Demonic Desert was vast. As an exam venue, to prevent accidents, the Sand Village had already begun eliminating potential threats.
"Anomaly also found in direction A-2."
"..."
Four consecutive anomalies were detected, yet the people sent to check found no one. This was because the clones had all self-destructed, and even their footprints were covered up with sand by them.
Behind a sand dune two kilometers away, after receiving the reports and confirming the locations, a group of Shadow Clones quickly assembled, executing Plan B as planned.
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