Orochimaru had only two goals in returning to his 'hometown': to send someone off and to pick someone up. Sending someone off meant seeing his beloved Master Sarutobi off, and picking someone up meant tricking Uchiha Sasuke away. The former represented the past, and the latter represented the future. For a pragmatist like Orochimaru, the latter's importance even surpassed the former.
This 'picking up' also required careful methods, and the 'chance encounter' in the Forest of Death was spoiled by Ino.
He could only think of another way.
This delay dragged on until today.
Even though Orochimaru had profound Ninjutsu mastery and many Secret Techniques, he was currently under the guise of being protected by numerous Konoha Ninja, but in reality, he was being monitored, so he couldn't get away.
To openly use Clone Technique? Use Shadow Clone Technique? What a joke, is he the only one in the world who knows Ninjutsu?
Orochimaru couldn't come himself, so he could only send Kabuto, who had just risen from his coffin, to persuade Sasuke.
Sasuke's personality was always reclusive; he liked to go to deserted places, so Kabuto naturally took the opportunity to approach him.
"Who are you?" Sasuke was very wary. He didn't recognize this masked man. At first, he thought he was an ANBU Ninja from the Village, but then he realized he wasn't.
"Uchiha Sasuke." Kabuto called out his name: "Are you confident you can win this afternoon's match?"
Sasuke was very impatient: "Get lost, don't make me say it a second time."
Kabuto sneered inwardly, this brat, what are you trying to pull with me!
"That Miss Yamanaka has mastered her clan's Secret Technique, possesses the Ninjutsu heritage of the Second Hokage and the Second Mizukage, and recently became a disciple of Tsunade, one of the Sannin. Can you defeat her with just your Sharingan and a little guidance from Kakashi? You should know that in this morning's match, she easily defeated the Jinchuriki from Hidden Sand Village without even using half of her true strength. How long do you think you would last if you went up against her?"
Kabuto completely revealed his vice-president's background. Sasuke was still too naive; everything he wanted to say was clearly written on his face.
In fact, Sasuke was also unsure, even worse than Kabuto described. He didn't dare to use his Sharingan on Ino, precisely because he was worried about unpredictable situations.
Even if he could use it, his current Sharingan was only two-tomoe, and its power was truly limited.
His intense training of Chidori during this time was not without the intention of finding an alternative approach through Ninjutsu.
Many clan heads and Jonin knew about Ino becoming Tsunade's disciple, but he truly didn't know, and no one had told him this information.
Kabuto said with a smile: "Have you already guessed? I am a subordinate of Lord Orochimaru. Lord Orochimaru, also one of the Sannin, greatly admires you. During our chance encounter in the Forest of Death, your performance was very impressive. Lord Orochimaru wants to recruit you as his subordinate. Sasuke, don't be so quick to refuse. I heard that your Uchiha Clan is very skilled at using Shuriken, and this is Lord Orochimaru's gift to you as a first meeting present."
He tossed a scroll to Sasuke, then said nothing more, just nodded, formed a hand seal with one hand, and vanished in a puff of white smoke.
Sasuke hesitated for a moment, then opened the scroll to examine it.
This was an A-rank Ninjutsu, the Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique.
This technique required extremely refined Shuriken throwing skills, strong insight into factors like timing, light, and environment, and a decent level of Chakra.
Sasuke possessed all these conditions. After understanding the purpose of this technique, the first person who came to his mind was not Orochimaru, not Ino, but Naruto!
Indra Chakra was influencing him in a subtle way.
He let his imagination run wild.
Next time Naruto used the Shadow Clone Technique, he wouldn't need to painstakingly deal with each Shadow Clone one by one; he could completely use this Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique to mess with him!
Thinking of this triumphant moment, he finally showed the smile appropriate for his age.
Since Orochimaru gave him Ninjutsu, he would take it. Become his subordinate? Don't be ridiculous!
For Sasuke, defeating Naruto and steadily improving was enough; he truly had no other thoughts for the time being.
He had no idea that Orochimaru's plan was full of tricks. The Shuriken Shadow Clone Technique was the Third Hokage's specialty. If he used this Ninjutsu in front of everyone, it would definitely lead to accusations of an unknown A-rank Ninjutsu source, and then it would be impossible to explain.
To learn an A-rank Ninjutsu in just one afternoon? Not to mention him, even Uchiha Itachi couldn't do it.
Facing Ino's'Sea Release,' Shuriken wouldn't be of much use either; he still needed to find a way with Lightning Release.
Sasuke used the last bit of time to practice more Lightning Release Chakra nature transformation, skipping his meal.
Naruto also skipped his meal.
During the school's lunch break, Iruka came to the Chunin Exams venue to invite Naruto to eat his bento with him, but Naruto, very uncharacteristically, refused.
Losing to Sasuke made him very uncomfortable.
He didn't know why, even though he had always been a dead-last and it seemed fine to lose to anyone, he never felt there was a problem, but he just didn't want to lose to Sasuke. He couldn't explain why, he just felt uncomfortable!
It was an opportunity to be in the spotlight and gain everyone's recognition, but he fought so haphazardly. The thought of it made him feel unwilling.
Jiraiya watched from afar but didn't go to comfort him. For boys, experiencing a little setback wasn't a bad thing. He himself had been defeated countless times by Orochimaru back in the day, so what's the big deal? He should go find pretty young ladies for research. A girl named Pink Skin had recently arrived at the hot springs, and she truly lived up to her name.
Meanwhile, Hidden Sand Village was treating Gaara. Several Ninja skilled in Sealing Technique studied it for a long time but didn't know how to undo the Five Elements Seal.
The five Chakra natures cycled endlessly, making it very difficult to break this Sealing Technique with brute force.
The Third Hokage started playing dumb as soon as the match ended. Undo the seal? Did I say that?
The Fourth Kazekage could indeed undo it, but there were too many Konoha Ninja around him, so he couldn't give himself away and also claimed he wasn't skilled in Sealing Technique.
Temari looked at Gaara's peaceful face and gave up the idea of confronting Ino again. Let her brother sleep a little longer.
Lee's loss to Naruto, although partly due to not using many of his big moves against a fellow Village Ninja, he believed that if he held back, Naruto surely did too, so it was fair in that regard.
He stubbornly believed his training intensity wasn't enough, and he also skipped his meal, passionately shouting, "Run two laps around the Land of Fire, and if you can't do that, jump rope two thousand times!"
Teacher Guy delivered a declaration that "youth and passion will never fade," and then went running with his beloved disciple.
Neji and Tenten weren't so crazy, but both still wore their rather Chinese-style clothes and went to the training ground to train together.
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