"So that was what happened? Manda really had it coming."
Tsunade slapped the table. It was not as if she knew nothing about Manda. The Sannin had fought side by side before, and they had also sparred against one another. Because of that, she was fairly familiar with Manda.
She was not completely unaware of Manda eating people either. It was just that Manda was Orochimaru's Summoned Beast, so it had not been her place to interfere too much.
Ninja themselves walked through darkness. As a top-tier ninja who had lived through war, how could she possibly know nothing about such things? It was even less likely that she would have some inexplicable saintly compassion about it.
But the fact that she could turn a blind eye to certain things did not mean she could stand Orochimaru and Manda's behavior.
Manda's death would not make her feel the slightest hint of sympathy. On the contrary, she only found it deeply satisfying.
"That Uchiha brat really is… hahahahaha." Tsunade could not help letting out a hearty laugh. Orochimaru was no good person, so naturally his Summoned Beast was not anything good either.
"Guess it takes a villain to grind down another villain." Jiraiya held his forehead and laughed.
He had seen the way Orochimaru and Manda interacted. Manda had never been polite to Orochimaru, either. He would threaten to swallow Orochimaru whole at every turn, and after every battle, he would demand some number of human sacrifices. Jiraiya had long since found all of that disgusting.
It was just that Manda, who could even make Orochimaru helpless, had met his natural enemy in Uchiha Sasuke. Sasuke had actually used him as a substitute for death without the slightest hesitation.
And Manda, who had run rampant and acted arrogant his entire life, had never imagined he would one day run into someone like Uchiha Sasuke.
During the Sannin battle, Manda had only suffered a small loss. Who would have thought that here, he would die outright?
"Well done. Good riddance."
Jiraiya burst into loud laughter.
Seeing that Uchiha Sasuke had ultimately escaped danger, Uchiha Itachi finally let out a breath of relief. He had not expected Sasuke to avoid it in such a way. Even without Susanoo, Sasuke still had his own methods.
At the same time, however, he became even more certain of one thing. Deidara's explosion definitely could not blow through his Susanoo, because the force of the blast had not even been able to blow Manda directly into a bloody mess.
"No, that isn't necessarily true. It's also possible Manda was reverse-summoned back to Ryuchi Cave, so he didn't take the full force of the explosion." Uchiha Itachi immediately thought of another possibility.
So underestimating Deidara was still very dangerous.
"So that's why, during the Fourth Great Ninja War later on, he didn't summon Orochimaru's Manda and instead summoned the much more obedient Aoda?"
In the future timeline, Seventh Hokage Naruto rubbed his chin, thinking about the later Fourth Great Ninja War. At that time, Sasuke had summoned Aoda, not Manda.
He had been curious about it before, but later he had forgotten, since it was not that important.
Back then, Seventh Hokage Naruto had only thought Sasuke disliked Manda. After all, there were plenty of giant snakes in Ryuchi Cave. There was no rule saying he had to summon Manda.
But now, he finally knew the real reason.
The real reason was that Manda was already dead.
"It's kind of impressive that he could even come up with something like that."
Seventh Hokage Naruto could not help smiling as he spoke.
"That brat was a true lump of hatred at that stage. He was way more sinister than me."
The Nine-Tails gave a haughty snort.
"If Deidara's weakness is Lightning Release, then he's actually easy to deal with." Hatake Kakashi narrowed his eyes. Lightning Release happened to be his specialty. What Uchiha Sasuke had done in the video, he could replicate as well.
Only that final self-destruction would not be easy to handle. Especially with someone like Deidara, who was so obsessive about his so-called art. Clearly, all Sasuke had done was ask for directions, more or less, but in the end, Deidara had still chosen to self-destruct just to kill him.
"Susanoo, huh?"
Hatake Kakashi thought for a moment. If it were him facing the same situation, he would not have a Manda to help him block the blast. The only comparatively reliable method would be to activate Susanoo, the third power of the Mangekyo Sharingan.
And according to Kaede Kitahara, he had actually already awakened the Mangekyo Sharingan. It was just that his current self still could not activate it yet. That was a trump card he could make use of.
But he only had one Sharingan. Could he still activate this third power?
"An explosion, huh?"
Namikaze Minato looked at everything in the video. For others, facing an enemy who might explode at any moment could be said to be extremely difficult to handle.
But for him, it was not a problem at all. He could simply use Flying Thunder God to evade it.
As long as the battlefield was not in Konoha, anyway.
He could even finish Deidara off in an instant, ending him before he had time to react.
That was exactly why he had been called the Yellow Flash.
When it came to dealing with all kinds of giant beasts, he truly did not have any particularly good methods.
But if it was a normal ninja who ran into him, they would probably be beaten badly enough to leave psychological trauma behind.
"But the one with the real problem is that Uchiha Kenji who calls himself Uchiha Madara." Namikaze Minato's gaze sharpened as he spoke. "Why is he pretending to be Uchiha Madara? Why did he pretend to be a newcomer when he joined the Akatsuki Organization? He called himself Tobi, right?"
What Namikaze Minato truly cared about was not Deidara. It was that man who, only a few years in the future, would take advantage of the moment his wife gave birth to kill both him and his wife, cause countless casualties in Konoha, turn his son into an orphan, and even directly lead to the later tragedy of the Uchiha Clan being wiped out.
He definitely had a scheme. And it was a massive one.
Morning sunlight spilled into the Central Tower. Over the course of the night, some examinees had arrived one after another.
When Kaede Kitahara woke up and went out, he heard the Chunin in charge of monitoring the place still discussing Gaara, who had been the first to arrive the previous night.
"It's incredible. He broke the fastest four-hour record in history and only took ninety-seven minutes!"
"That's not even all. He didn't have a single injury on him. He didn't even have any dirt on him. He basically cleared the whole thing without taking damage."
"Even we couldn't do that. No, not even any ordinary Chunin could do that."
The group of Chunin were all shocked. Even an Elite Chunin could not accomplish something like that.
It had even startled the Jonin who had stayed behind there the previous night.
Inside the break room, the gathered Jonin were all together.
"You heard about it, right? That kid from Sunagakure is something else." Sarutobi Asuma had a toothpick in his mouth as he spoke. "A brat like that should've been promoted to Chunin a long time ago. Hell, it wouldn't even be strange to make him a Jonin. But they suppressed him until now. They weren't just waiting for this moment, were they?"
"Maybe. After all, it's rare for Sunagakure to produce a good seedling, isn't it?"
Yuhi Kurenai spoke while eating a rice ball.
Hatake Kakashi glanced up at the two of them, because he knew very clearly what kind of situation Gaara was in. He was Sunagakure's Jinchuriki, and there was only one purpose behind sending him to Konoha: attacking Konoha.
But Sunagakure's goal had not been exposed yet, so saying anything now would be useless.
Kaede Kitahara was even clearer about it. Among these Genin were quite a few hidden experts. There were several who were at least at the level of Elite Chunin or even Jonin.
After Kaede Kitahara finished a simple breakfast, he headed to the temporary office the Third Hokage had set up here.
At this moment, Anko was already waiting inside, and she handed him a list of those who had passed.
Kaede Kitahara glanced over the list. This time, there were twenty-four people who had passed the second exam, three more than in the original work. Those extra people were none other than Kaede Kitahara's two teammates, Hyuga Keiko and Amakusa Ryuji, along with the new teammate they had found.
Kaede Kitahara checked their arrival time. It was recorded as three hours and fifty-nine minutes. That record had already broken the fastest record in history.
Only, compared to Gaara's record of ninety-seven minutes, it was not worth mentioning. Almost no one had noticed it at all. The two simply were not on the same level.
"There are still a bit more than expected," Kaede Kitahara said.
"We'll eliminate some first. The final goal is to cut the number in half!"
Anko Mitarashi said, "The final selection will take place one month later. When that time comes, the Daimyo of various nations, including the Kazekage, will attend."
"Understood."
Kaede Kitahara spoke.
"Let's go. The examinees are all still waiting."
The Third Hokage looked at Kaede Kitahara and Anko as he spoke.
Kaede Kitahara arrived in the enormous combat arena. When he had watched the original work, he had not thought the arena was particularly large. But now that he saw it in person, it was at least the size of a basketball arena. For battles at the Chunin and Genin level, it was completely sufficient.
The Genin who had passed the second exam had all gathered together. Kaede Kitahara immediately sensed several gazes falling on him. Besides his teammates Amakusa Ryuji and Hyuga Keiko, Uchiha Sasuke, Uzumaki Naruto, Sakura Haruno, Hyuga Neji, Gaara, Kankuro, and others were all watching him.
Some of them he knew. Some he did not know at all. For example, Hyuga Neji was someone he had only heard of. At least in this life, he had not had the chance to get to know him.
At this moment, the Third Hokage had already begun explaining the rules and principles related to the Chunin Exams to the Genin.
"Next, we will begin the Final Round. Before I introduce it, there is something I must first make clear to all of you. The true purpose of this exam. Why do we hold this exam together with our allied nations?
"It is for friendly coexistence between allied nations and to raise the level of ninja. That is the true purpose."
Listening to the Third Hokage's high-sounding explanation, Kaede Kitahara almost wanted to laugh. But these were the rules on the surface. In reality, it was nothing more than a miniature version of battles between allied nations.
And once the grand-sounding speech was finished, the Third Hokage finally stated the true goal of the Chunin Exams. They were a miniature version of battles between allied nations. The allied nations of today had once been neighboring nations that fought against one another. To avoid meaningless wars, they held joint Chunin selection exams.