"All right, I'm leaving now. Remember to keep an eye on Sasuke."
"Hey, wait a minute."
Seeing Orochimaru gradually sinking into the ground to depart, Furina quickly called out to stop him. After fighting for so long, she couldn't just let it end for nothing. At the very least, she could save herself some trouble.
"This chūnin exam today doesn't mean anything to you, Mr. Orochimaru. So why not just hand your scroll over to us? After all, it's inconvenient for me to go looking for another one while taking care of these two."
"I can't give it to you. If you want my scroll, you'll have to defeat me first."
Orochimaru hadn't expected Furina to stop him just for this reason and was momentarily speechless. But halfway through his refusal, he suddenly recalled Furina's earlier performance, and a hint of amusement appeared in his eyes.
"Hmph hmph. Since you want it so badly, then here you go."
With that, Orochimaru pulled a Heaven Scroll covered in saliva from his mouth and gave Furina a wicked, charming smile. Seeing this scene, Furina instantly regretted it.
"!" Watching the scroll flying toward her, Furina's eyes widened instinctively. She quickly dodged to avoid Orochimaru's "sneak attack." If this thing hit her, her clothes would probably be unwearable.
"Looks like you really like this gift." Seeing Furina's panicked evasion, Orochimaru smiled in satisfaction. Without giving her a chance to retort, he swiftly sank into the ground and fled.
"Damn it. One day I'll turn you into snake soup." Looking at Orochimaru who vanished in the blink of an eye, Furina felt somewhat exasperated. Commit the mischief and then run away, huh?
"Thud." After Orochimaru left, Sasuke, who had been holding on by sheer willpower, could no longer endure and fainted as well. Seeing the two of them lying neatly side by side on the ground, Furina lost all mood to keep thinking about Orochimaru.
She had no intention of taking the opponent's Heaven Scroll anyway. The main issue was how disgusting it felt. With her strength, she could easily find any random team and "borrow" a scroll. No need to make herself uncomfortable.
"Let's go." After glancing at the fallen scroll with disdain and curling her lip, Furina slung Sasuke over one shoulder and Naruto over the other, preparing to find a place to rest first.
...
After finding a cave and laying the two down neatly, Furina also took the opportunity to rest during this time. While recovering her stamina and chakra, she began checking the livestream situation in her mind. After fighting so hard for half a day, if the affection value didn't increase much, she would really feel like crying without tears.
"This Orochimaru must be the boss, right? Just his killing intent alone was enough to suppress both Sasuke and Furina. I remember that neither Zabuza nor Maki's killing intent had any effect on Furina, but he's different."
"It's mainly because this guy can use sealing techniques too. Now even Naruto can't go into berserk mode. Just now I saw red chakra appearing on Naruto and thought he was about to explode."
"Seal on top of a seal. It's like Russian nesting dolls. Naruto's really having it rough."
"I never noticed before that Fufu had this side to her. On the surface: 'So it's one of the legendary Sannin, Mr. Orochimaru. I've long heard of your great name.' But inside: 'This guy, one day I'll turn him into snake soup.' The gap is way too big, hahahahaha."
After seeing this, Furina couldn't help frowning. This thing actually broadcast her inner thoughts too. Wouldn't that mean from now on she even had to watch what she thought in her head? That would be way too torturous.
But soon after, Furina's furrowed brow relaxed again. She noticed that only a very small portion of her inner thoughts had been broadcast. Only the more interesting ones, like snake soup and such, got shown, and even when they did, the feedback was positive.
In that case, Furina simply stopped worrying about it. Since she couldn't turn off the function that broadcast her thoughts, she might as well lie back and enjoy it. The current reception wasn't bad anyway.
"Brothers, you all saw it. Fufu is going to turn Orochimaru into snake soup. When the time comes, this dish will be served at our wedding. Make sure you all come try it."
"The guy up there is daydreaming again. High on flying leaves or what? Fantasizing in broad daylight."
"Exactly. Everyone step aside, let me splash him awake. Still having daytime dreams here."
"I'll join in too."
"You guys don't just blindly go along. Anyone with diabetes better stay far away. Don't let this kid get a taste of sweetness."
...
[Affection Value +1 +1 +1 +1 ... +1 +1]
[Affection Value: 46593]
After resting a little while, Furina prepared to go out and find a lucky team to borrow a scroll from. After all, they couldn't afford to fail here.
Before leaving, Furina didn't forget to leave a shadow clone behind to take care of the two. This shadow clone was strong enough to handle most examinees in the entire exam. Only Gaara might pose some trouble, but even then, she could still run while carrying the two of them.
There were quite a few teams participating in this exam. Without needing to search deliberately, Furina soon noticed traces of one team.
"Yo, Sound ninja. And a 'familiar face' too. What a coincidence."
From the shadows, Furina clearly saw the headbands of the three people resting below. They were the same as the one Orochimaru had disguised himself with earlier: all Sound ninja. And in the middle was a red-haired girl. Wasn't that Karin?
"It's all because we brought along a burden like you. You were completely useless when fighting other teams. Otherwise we wouldn't have ended up in such a sorry state."
"Exactly. Just as useless as your mother. Being a burden is one thing, but you don't even know your own role? Hurry up and heal me and Ryōsuke."
The clothes of the two besides Karin were full of tears and damage, and both of them were covered in dirt. Clearly they hadn't gained any advantage in their recent fight with others and could only come back here to vent on Karin.
"O-okay." After being scolded by her "teammates," Karin could only tremble as she extended her arm toward the two "teammates." Even though this was extremely painful for her, just like her mother, she had no choice.
"Who wants your arm? Your healing ability is so weak. Offer your neck instead."
But the Sound ninja beside her was clearly dissatisfied with the arm she extended. With how much chakra they had consumed, just offering an arm was obviously trying to fool them.
"Hurry up." Seeing Karin dawdling, the Sound ninja beside her couldn't help urging again. Just as they waited, one of them suddenly sensed something off and stared fixedly at a large tree.
"I was wondering who it was. Turns out it's Sound ninja."
After observing the general situation, Furina no longer bothered to hide and slowly walked out from behind the concealing tree. This was also why the Sound ninja had noticed something. If she truly wanted to hide, they wouldn't have discovered her in their entire lifetime.