Chapter 74: Forfeiture
Kankuro resolutely forfeited, the reason being that he did not want to expose his puppet before the main battle.
The majority of a puppet master's combat power lies in their puppets, and the deterrent force of a puppet is reflected in its endless mechanisms. To expose the puppet's secrets under the enemy's nose before a major battle was truly unwise.
Kankuro would rather give up the Chunin Exams than reveal his puppet's secrets. It had to be said that this was a choice made with the bigger picture in mind.
In fact, the reason Temari had been so cleanly defeated by Hinata earlier might not have been without this factor as well.
She certainly had one or two ultimate moves hidden up her sleeve. If she had used them just now, she might not have been unable to secure a victory. However, she had kept them hidden and unused, presumably also not wanting to expose her combat strength here.
As a result, Sakura, Hinata, and a lucky Shikamaru advanced to the second round.
However, whether there would even be a second round was hard to say.
Sakura did not know when Orochimaru's original Konoha Crush plan was scheduled to be launched. In the original story, the unstable Gaara had accidentally exposed the truth of his Jinchuriki status, forcing Orochimaru and his group to launch the plan ahead of schedule. Perhaps the real plan was for Gaara to win first place, and when he got close to the Hokage, he would reveal the truth about Shukaku, thereby taking down the Third in one fell swoop and leaving Konoha without a leader?
In short, the Konoha Crush plan could be launched at any time. Perhaps in the next match, or perhaps at the end of the Chunin Exams.
Sakura could only be on high alert. Considering her own stamina problem, it was possible that Sakura herself would have to forfeit the upcoming matches.
The last spot in the semi-finals would be decided among Sasuke, Gaara, and Shino.
As for Dosu, who had originally emerged from the first round of preliminaries, he had courted death by seeking out Gaara last month and had died miserably in the wild, missing the exam.
The matches between these three would be Gaara versus Shino first, and then the winner would face Sasuke.
"Fourth match, Gaara versus Aburame Shino!"
Gaara, who had already grown impatient waiting, revealed a terrifying smile.
"Finally... it's my turn!"
Gaara said to himself, word by word.
Every word seemed to be soaked in fresh blood, exuding a thick, rusty smell.
He was even more unstable than he had been a few days ago. It seemed that the impending great battle had affected his mental state.
The thought of being able to go on a killing spree soon made him excited in advance.
A thick and crazed killing intent emanated from the slowly cracking corners of his mouth and spread throughout the entire waiting platform. For a moment, the few people present were as silent as cicadas in winter. Even Kankuro and Temari were so scared that they held their breath, not daring to make a sound.
Sakura frowned, her position subtly shielding the few people behind her, and looked at Gaara in silence.
Fortunately, this guy had only developed a murderous nature and had not yet become so insane as to make a move on the waiting platform.
But just by looking at his bloodthirsty, demonic appearance, which yearned for murder, the Sand ninja present couldn't help but feel their hearts skip a beat, wondering if their plan could still proceed smoothly.
Looking at him, it was likely that he wouldn't care at all about the so-called plan's implementation!
Only after Gaara had left the room did everyone breathe a sigh of relief.
Even the usually cold and aloof Shino couldn't help but wipe the cold sweat from his forehead.
He didn't dare to follow Gaara down the stairs, so he flipped over the railing, intending to jump down.
Sakura grabbed him and said to him solemnly, "Don't force yourself. If you're in danger, give up the match immediately. There's something not right with that person!"
Shino nodded gravely.
Surrendering sounded shameful and like a failure, but it was different against Gaara. If you didn't surrender in time, Gaara would absolutely deal a killing blow. It didn't matter if you lost the match; you could always try again next time. You only had one life.
Neither Shino nor Sakura were the type to let hot blood go to their heads and act recklessly. There was nothing wrong with surrendering if you couldn't win.
In fact, even the most hot-blooded Naruto didn't say anything, but instead had a hint of concern and approval in his eyes.
Shino nodded. "I'll be careful!" and jumped down to the floor.
In the end, he still nearly died at Gaara's hands.
The entire match lasted less than a minute. The moment Gaara entered the arena, he used a wide-range sand jutsu to crush all the insects that Shino had secretly placed to dust.
Having lost his backup plan, Shino was surrounded by Gaara's sand. A few seconds later, he was unsurprisingly caught by Gaara like a turtle in a jar. Shino decisively shouted his forfeit, but Gaara showed no sign of stopping. On the contrary, he increased his chakra, wanting to use the Sand Coffin to crush Shino into a bloody pulp.
Fortunately, Genma Shiranui reacted quickly, noticed something was wrong in time, and rescued Shino.
Even so, Shino was still crushed by the sand until his whole body was black and blue. His skin was broken in several places, revealing shocking bloody gashes.
The Konoha ninja present all glared at him angrily. Genma even sternly warned Gaara not to continue attacking after he had ordered the match to end, but Gaara paid him no heed.
His killing intent was surging.
He no longer cared at all what others thought of him or how they warned him.
He only yearned to kill!
Being interrupted while trying to kill, the bloodthirsty feeling in his chest became even more repressed. Gaara was on the verge of going insane, the only thought left in his mind was to kill, kill, kill!
The last bit of reason only told him that he couldn't beat the proctor in front of him, but someone would be coming to die soon!
Genma Shiranui looked on with cold eyes. Gaara had a ferocious expression, looking as if he wanted to eat someone!
The Sand Village actually sent such a ninja to participate... what are their intentions?
He said coldly:
"Will the contestant for the fifth match, Uchiha Sasuke, please come up!"
As soon as Genma's voice fell, a young boy's figure suddenly flashed onto the empty ice surface.
It was Uchiha Sasuke, who had appeared on the arena floor with a Body Flicker.
Tch! Sakura and Naruto expressed their disdain for Sasuke's stylish entrance in unison.
Sasuke's match was the last one, so he and Kakashi had breezily arrived an hour late. They had only just arrived as his match was about to begin.
Sakura had tried to sense their chakra on the field several times before but had come up with nothing. After Sasuke appeared, she carefully sensed again and soon noticed Kakashi's appearance as well.
She looked back and her gaze met Kakashi's. The latter smiled and waved at her.
The girl gave Kakashi a cold look with a straight face, then turned back.
She still hadn't settled the score with Kakashi for suddenly disappearing for a month and only giving Sasuke private lessons.
And knowing that her and Naruto's match was the first one, Kakashi had actually been late and hadn't come to watch. He was biased to the extreme.
The thought of this made Sakura feel that she couldn't give Kakashi a pleasant look.
Kakashi couldn't help but smile wryly when he saw his proud disciple giving him the cold shoulder. The reason he was focused on Sasuke was because Naruto had already been reserved by Jiraiya, and Sakura would soon have Tsunade as her master. He was only left with Sasuke, so of course, he would pay more attention to him.
Furthermore, Sasuke was also the most suitable person to inherit his ninjutsu system.
As for why he was late, it was because since the morning, he and Gai had each been leading an Anbu squad on patrol in Konoha. Konoha was simply too large. Even knowing that Orochimaru was very likely to cause trouble, it was very difficult to guard every place tightly. Konoha was very short-staffed now. Even the vital points were stretched thin, and they could only make up for it by increasing mobile patrols.
He had taken a moment of his time to bring Sasuke to the arena.
Before he had even settled down, he habitually began to observe the entire venue.
"One, two, ...eleven, twelve. There are only three Anbu squads..."
Kakashi frowned secretly. There were only three Anbu squads in such a large venue. Even including the Third Hokage, himself, Kurenai, and Asuma, it was far from enough in the event of an enemy attack.
What's more, the Third Hokage himself was very likely to be the main target of the enemy.
Oh right, she is also on the field... Kakashi looked behind the Third Hokage and felt a little relieved.
He then looked at the group of elite Genin on the waiting platform, especially the three members of Team 7 that he had personally led.
Two Kage-level combatants, I'm at the elite Jonin level, plus the three Jonin-level members of Sakura's group. Naruto, Sasuke, and the others together have about the combat power of an Anbu squad. Plus there are several Chunin among the audience... Hmm, Hiashi can't be counted. His first choice would definitely be to defend the Hyuga compound...
Kakashi secretly calculated.
Adding up all the miscellaneous forces, the combat power was still quite considerable.
Even if the Sand Village and Orochimaru had joined forces, with the combat power here, they could hold out until reinforcements arrived.
Only one last question remained in Kakashi's mind: when would Orochimaru launch his attack?
And Sakura, on the waiting platform, had already gotten the answer to that question at this moment—
The attack was about to begin!
Because on the floor below, the match had only just begun, and Gaara had already been pushed by Sasuke into a state of near-complete transformation.
By stimulating his body with lightning-natured chakra, Sasuke's speed had completely surpassed that of a Lee who had removed his weights, and was even in no way inferior to a Lee who had opened the third gate!
Sakura could actually achieve the same speed, or even faster. But at such a high speed, she would easily fall into the predicament of "the eyes can see, but the body can't react." That was because her kinetic vision and reaction speed couldn't keep up with this speed.
However, with the boost in kinetic vision and reaction speed brought by his two-tomoe Sharingan, Sasuke could easily handle this high-speed combat.
This was the power of the Sharingan.
Even Sakura sometimes felt a little envious of the Uchiha clan's bloodline. This kind of ability that could be obtained without training, this feeling of getting something for nothing was truly intoxicating!
While the girl was still sighing with emotion on the waiting platform, the battle below had already approached its climax.
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