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Hinata didn't ponder how Naruto knew about the Chunin Exams, nor did she care how someone without sensory abilities could locate her. She only knew that he had dug a tunnel so long her Byakugan couldn't see its end, and then he appeared before her.
Since childhood, he had appeared before her unexpectedly again and again: her deskmate in elementary school, her opponent in the last exam, the ferret mission, and now this chance encounter. This kind of love felt like destiny. It wasn't Hinata overthinking; this encounter was simply too astonishing for her.
Underground, just as Naruto emerged from the portal, the fox spirit made a move. Nine-Tails stared to the left, a slightly excited expression on its fox-like face:
"As expected, I sense the presence of that tanuki." Clones, after all, were just clones. They could borrow Nine-Tails' Chakra, but they didn't have Nine-Tails within them.
Moreover, the clone was working underground, its senses blocked by the earth, which was why Nine-Tails hadn't sensed Shukaku before.
Now that the main body was here, it immediately felt the tanuki nearby. After all, all nine children born from the same mother, though different, were essentially the same, so some special sensory connection was normal. It couldn't work over long distances, but a few kilometers was fine.
Naruto: "..."
Why do you make that face every time you see Shukaku? Are you going to fight it again? Don't you have any other pursuits in life besides eating meat, watching dramas, and fighting Shukaku?!
"And the presence of the Seventh," Nine-Tails' eyes shifted to a different direction.
"Were we not exposed?" Naruto asked. He still remembered that the Seven-Tails Jinchuriki, FĹ«, had come to participate in this Chunin Exam with her two suspected Jonin teammates.
"Just those two, hmph." Nine-Tails scoffed. This fox was always like this; besides itself, it considered all other eight tailed beasts weaklings. Naruto had told it about the possibility of Gaara being in this exam, so he discussed the issue of tailed beasts sensing each other with Nine-Tails.
Nine-Tails then activated a one-way cloaking. Perhaps it was impossible before, but now it was different; Nine-Tails was already half a sage beast and could use natural energy to change its aura.
So the situation now was that Nine-Tails could sense the other two, but the other two couldn't sense Nine-Tails. In simple terms, the rookies couldn't even detect the shadow of the great one.
"Good that we weren't exposed," Naruto said, relieved. Beating up Shukaku for the fox spirit wasn't urgent; that could wait until after the exam. Naruto still intended to proceed with his plan. Although an unexpected event occurred at the beginning, it wasn't a major problem.
"Transformation Jutsu." Using Transformation Jutsu to become another person, Naruto then took out a spray to cover his entire body.
Naruto then jumped out of the tunnel through the hole that had been smashed open, sword in hand. This time, it really was a sword. To avoid exposing himself, he had specifically 'borrowed' a sword from Orochimaru's base earlier. It wasn't a famous blade, but its quality was decent.
"Eh??" Hinata lowered her hand from her mouth. He... wasn't here to see her?
"Swoosh..." Naruto shot out of the dust cloud from the hole like a sharp sword, landing steadily on the ground.
Kiba looked at the person with silver hair tinged with blue and asked, "Who are you!?"
Naruto held his sword in one hand and kept the other behind his back as he walked in front of them: "Sakata Gintoki!" At the same time, his ring finger of the hand behind his back subtly moved. This was the finger she always bit, a secret signal to tell Hinata that he wasn't a heartless scoundrel.
Others couldn't see it, but his wife definitely could. She could even see through the earth, let alone his small frame. An assassin encountering an anti-stealth unit was truly a pain.
Hinata did indeed see it. Although the story evolving from "love by destiny" to "meeting but not recognizing" was hard for her to accept, she still chose to forgive Naruto and cooperate with his act.
She spoke up, asking, "What are you doing hiding underground by yourself?" Her single sentence carried multiple meanings: telling her teammates that the person was alone, and also asking Naruto the purpose of his presence.
Only her tone was a bit unnatural. He went to all this trouble, not to find her, so who was he looking for?
Naruto praised Hinata in his heart. His wife was truly good, virtuous, intelligent, and sensible, practically the perfect choice for a wife. She just ate a bit too much... Looking at his wife, who had already started taking classes in "ball-carrying ramming," Naruto said, "I was just passing through this area and meant no offense.
Please allow me to pass; I will surely repay your kindness in the future." He conveyed a message to Hinata: "Wife, I was just passing by, had no intention of coming out, and don't want to fight, so please hold back your dog-like teammate, don't let him be foolish and ask for a beating. I'll explain this to you later."
From the result, Hinata understood. She cooperated, saying, "He doesn't have a scroll on him, and he doesn't seem like he wants to attack us. Let him go first." Naruto, with his maxed-out hearing, emphasized "let him go first."
"So that means my scroll is still with those three... achoo..." Kiba was about to ask where those three people were, but a gust of wind blew by, sending a sour smell straight to his nose, making him sneeze. It was vinegar. Naruto had sprayed vinegar. Transformation Jutsu could change a person, but not their scent.
His own scent would definitely not escape Kiba's nose. The scent-masking medicine Kiba had given him was also made by Kiba's sister, and he feared it might fail, so Naruto sprayed himself with vinegar.
Vinegar was definitely the best way to mask a scent; no matter what smell, when it met vinegar, it had to kneel and call it 'daddy'.
No one but Naruto would use this method, because it would reveal their location. The scent was masked, but that vinegar smell—you wouldn't even need a dog; a three-year-old child could follow the scent and find the person.
Kiba was eager to find his scroll, Naruto didn't want to fight, and Hinata was cooperating with Naruto's act, so both sides moved horizontally to the left, creating distance.
After reaching a safe distance, Hinata led her teammates to find the scroll, but her gaze never left Naruto. She had finished her part of the performance, but her Byakugan ability was special; she couldn't pretend not to see.
Naruto also knew that Hinata's gaze must be on him. With his back to the direction the three had left, he took out an apple and smacked a kiss on it. Wait... three people?! Naruto turned around in shock. I didn't see that person just now?!
"Yuno's ability is truly terrifying." Amidst the swirling yellow sand, the blonde figure exclaimed, then bolted.
Hinata was first happy, then puzzled. Naruto-kun... who was he going to find?
"Eh?"
"What's wrong, Kiba?"
"Nothing." Kiba blinked. Was it his imagination, or did he just see a flash of green light in Hinata's eyes?
"If it's nothing, don't be so jumpy. If you want to ask why..."
"Oh, come on, are you ever going to stop? You always go on and on, aren't you just wasting time not looking for it..."
"I..."
"We're almost there," Hinata interrupted him again.
Meanwhile, Naruto looked at his clone, who was undergoing frog-like petrification, and asked, "Did you sense it?"
"No," the clone shook his head, then... shattered. The fake Sage Mode's sensory range was still too small. Naruto had to find another place.
The unexpected situation that occurred in the first step of his plan had been forcibly brought back under control, and everything was progressing smoothly.
The second step of his plan was to find his older brother-in-law. When the Crown Prince returned to the village, Neji was already a Jonin.
That probably meant he obtained his Chunin qualification in this exam, and then was promoted to Jonin by Tsunade upon returning to the village. So Naruto wanted to interrupt his brother-in-law's progress in this exam.
This was also for his brother-in-law's own good; Konoha Jonin were too easily sacrificed. You should just stay a Genin with me. Moreover, the taijutsu unit's data was still stuck at the last Chunin Exam; it was time to update it in real-time, otherwise, the data would be inaccurate.
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