Sasuke quickly dove into the nearby bushes, gripping a kunai tightly as he kept watch outside.
Where the wind blades had passed, a long and deep crack had been carved into the ground.
Sasuke took a deep breath and looked to both sides.
That kind of attack was definitely meant to kill them.
Luckily, they had enough time to dodge.
As Sasuke paused to think, something suddenly clicked in his mind. He quickly turned to look behind him.
"Ah…!"
Sakura had some scrapes and dirt on her body and was holding her hands to her chest, looking around nervously.
Sasuke suddenly jumping out had scared her.
But when she saw it was him, her eyes lit up a little, and she started walking toward him.
"Wait, the signal."
Sasuke raised his kunai to stop her from coming any closer.
"When the enemy is in chaos, that's the best time to hide. You can't stay hidden where it's quiet. The most important thing for a ninja is timing — strike when the enemy is tired and off guard."
Sakura answered almost without thinking.
She was the best at stuff like quick memorization out of the three of them.
Right after she spoke, Naruto walked over from the side toward the two of them.
As usual, Sasuke asked him for the code. Naruto scratched his head with a grin and recited it smoothly.
Without a second of doubt, Sasuke threw his kunai right at him. Naruto wasn't ready for it and got knocked flat, landing hard on his butt.
Sasuke still had that same cold, superior look on his face.
"There's no way that guy could remember something like this. You were eavesdropping, weren't you? You can't fool me. It's about time you showed your true face."
"..."
Sakura glanced at Naruto, clearly unsure what to say.
Whether it was that the code was way too long for Naruto to ever memorize, or the fact that he's been impersonated not once but twice now, it all seemed unfairly aimed at him.
Also, if they knew Naruto couldn't remember it, why design such a long code in the first place!?
Naruto, now exposed, didn't even try to hide anymore. His eyes narrowed, and he stuck out a long tongue to lick the corner of his mouth.
"So that's how it is? You're really sharp—and never let your guard down, huh?"
A puff of smoke faded, revealing a tall, skinny figure.
A straw hat, a strip of cloth with the word "evil" written on it hanging to the side, and long, straight black hair.
It was the creepy guy from the Hidden Grass Village—the one who earlier picked up Anko Mitarashi's kunai with his tongue!
He seriously looked disgusting.
Even before the exam, Sakura had already ranked him as the number one person she didn't want to run into.
And now, just her luck—he showed up, and he was just as gross as she expected.
Speaking of which, where was Naruto? He'd been impersonated and separated from them. That couldn't be good.
But before they could worry too much, the ninja from the Hidden Grass Village slowly pulled out a scroll from behind his back—the one marked "Earth."
"You're holding the Heaven scroll, right? I've got the Earth scroll right here."
Sasuke's expression instantly darkened. That wasn't something outsiders were supposed to know.
What type of scroll each person held should've been a secret until they actually met and revealed them.
But this guy said it right away, as if he already knew what they had... what was going on?
He smirked while wrapping the scroll with his tongue and then swallowed it whole.
"Heh heh... the real fight for the scrolls—where your life's on the line—starts now."
He licked the corner of his mouth again with that long tongue, then suddenly looked up at the two of them.
A wave of killing intent burst out from him, thick and overwhelming.
In just a blink, as they locked eyes with him, Sasuke and Sakura both saw a vision of their own deaths—blood splattering everywhere, kunai stabbing straight into their heads.
A terrifying, dark future.
Their legs gave out immediately, and they collapsed to the ground in fear.
Even Sasuke, who'd always been confident in his abilities, was frozen with shock.
The last time he felt anything like this was when Itachi used Genjutsu on him.
"Urgh!"
Sasuke doubled over and threw up, his stomach churning uncontrollably.
But even though it felt similar, the guy's eyes weren't Sharingan, and what he used wasn't Genjutsu.
It was just pure, overwhelming killing intent—so strong it was hard to believe it was real.
Forcing himself to take a shaky breath, Sasuke half-raised himself and looked over at Sakura.
She was still sitting on the ground, crying from sheer terror. There was no way she could help right now.
Sasuke clenched his teeth and tried to lift a leg to stand—but they felt like they were made of lead. He couldn't move at all.
The fear of the person in front of them made their bodies freeze up instinctively.
It was like a baby bird facing a snake — knowing there's no way to escape death, they couldn't move at all!
The Grass Village ninja let out a low laugh from his throat, like he was mocking how weak they were.
Sasuke's eyes turned red in an instant, and he suddenly stabbed his own leg hard with a kunai, dragging Sakura off to the side with him.
"Whoosh, whoosh—!"
Two sharp sounds followed, and two kunai stuck into the ground where Sasuke and Sakura had just been standing.
The Grass Village ninja watched them disappear with interest, his eyes narrowing like a snake's, the slit pupils locked onto their direction.
Using pain to snap out of fear? Interesting.
...
On the other side, Naruto didn't dodge the wind blades at all — he was slammed straight into a tree at the edge of the field.
Just as he got up from the ground and turned around, he came face to face with a giant snake that was at least ten times his size.
The snake flicked its tongue and slithered toward him. Even though Naruto fought back, he was still swallowed whole in one gulp.
"Getting eaten by a snake… that's just way too embarrassing."
He'd made it this far, and now he wasn't taken out by the enemy, but digested by a snake? What the heck was that?
But this place was slippery, and it didn't look like he could just run out. So he had to try something else.
"Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"
Naruto paused to think for a second inside the snake's belly, then immediately used his clone jutsu and made a huge number of copies of himself.
The snake's belly was soon packed with Narutos. Even though it was stretchy, it couldn't handle that many bodies pushing out from the inside.
The snake couldn't take it anymore and was blown open from the inside. A bunch of Narutos jumped out of the torn belly.
"Ugh… I'm covered in all this slimy stuff!"
"I need to find Sasuke and the others, quick."
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