"Only half an hour and you're already like this, really useless!"
Yugao glanced sideways at Terumi Mei.
Terumi Mei didn't respond to her. She was currently in sage mode.
Temporarily had no desire to argue.
Aoba gave an awkward laugh and placed Terumi Mei on the armchair next to him.
They could finally have dinner now.
He'd almost drunk his fill of water.
Only, while eating, Yugao accidentally dropped her chopsticks onto the floor.
Spent several hours looking for them.
———
[The Next Day]
All the genin who participated in the Chunin Exam and passed the first round had gathered at Training Ground No. 44.
And this so-called Training Ground No. 44 was the Forest of Death.
Compared to the sparse numbers in the original story.
This time, the scene could be described as a sea of people.
Anko stood in front of everyone, explaining the exam rules.
It was worth mentioning that on her waist hung Aoba's Flying Thunder God kunai.
While speaking, she even gestured toward Aoba and playfully winked.
This caused him to receive a lot of dirty looks for no reason.
Truly a case of repaying kindness with enmity.
Anko had almost finished explaining the rules of the third exam.
In summary, it was a five-day wilderness survival.
And they also had to sign a waiver.
After all, the exam couldn't be interrupted midway, and injuries might occur.
The examiners took no responsibility for that.
Next was the requirement for passing the exam.
It was to gather both the Heaven and Earth scrolls and reach the central tower of the Forest of Death within the time limit.
Before entering the Forest of Death, each ninja team would randomly receive either a Heaven or Earth scroll.
The other scroll would need to be taken from other teams.
The rule of life or death made quite a few people excited.
But though everyone was excited, the reasons were different.
For example, that black-eyed little ghost carrying a gourd, his killing intent was so intense even Kankuro wished he could hide.
Whereas people like Sasuke and Naruto were purely excited to fight strong people from other villages.
Aoba, on the other hand, was scanning around, searching for Orochimaru.
According to the original plot, Orochimaru had already used the Vanishing Facial Copy Technique to sneak in by now.
Aoba looked around, but found nothing. Just relying on his eyes, it was naturally hard to identify.
'As expected of Orochimaru.'
'So...'
'Kagura Mind's Eye, activate!'
The chakra auras of everyone present became crystal clear to him.
Among the genin was one of the Sannin.
Orochimaru's cold chakra stood out like a star in the darkness.
After memorizing his chakra, he didn't speak out.
This Orochimaru, he still planned to make use of him.
After all, they currently had a common goal.
Once the rules were finished, Yakumo received a scroll from Anko.
The two of them had a decent relationship.
"Yakumo, be really careful in the exam. If something happens to you, Kurenai might beat me to death," Anko knocked Yakumo on the head as a reminder.
"With Aoba here, Teacher Anko, you don't need to worry," Yakumo responded with a smile, then returned to Aoba and Hinata.
"It's the Heaven scroll."
"Which means we have to go steal the Earth scroll," Aoba stated the obvious.
"Mm, I'll leave that to you," Yakumo directly shoved the Heaven scroll into his hands.
The Heaven and Earth scrolls were the core items of the second exam.
Letting Aoba carry them was more reliable.
"Alright, then let's head out too," Aoba put away the Heaven scroll.
With Yakumo and Hinata, he walked into the Forest of Death
———
Just after entering, the surrounding environment immediately darkened.
The tall trees blocked out most of the light, and the atmosphere around them turned eerie in an instant.
Hinata and Yakumo instinctively became alert, their faces showing fear.
One on each side, they clung to Aoba's arms, as if it made them feel safer.
"Aoba, this Forest of Death is so creepy. It feels so scary."
Aoba was speechless, 'Why does she sound so sweet even when speaking normally?'
"It's fine. It's just that there's not much sunlight here…"
"AH!", A sudden scream interrupted Aoba's explanation.
"Looks like someone's already fighting for a scroll."
Aoba looked toward the direction of the sound.
The Forest of Death had staggered entry batches. They had entered relatively late.
So this situation was normal. Probably a confident team camping near the entrance.
"Should we go take a look?", Yakumo asked for Aoba's opinion.
Aoba sensed for a moment, then shook his head.
"No need. They've already run far away."
Even though it wasn't hard to catch up, there was no need to.
They weren't lacking that one opportunity.
"Okay."
The two girls were very obedient.
"Then where are we going now?", Yakumo blinked and asked again.
"Let's go meet up with Sakura and the others first," Saying that, Aoba changed direction and headed toward where Sakura and the others' chakra was.
At this moment, Yakumo and Hinata exchanged glances, clearly seeing the meaning in each other's eyes.
They nodded. Then simultaneously tugged on Aoba's arms, halting his steps.
Caught off guard, Aoba staggered a bit.
He looked at the two girls in confusion, "What's wrong?"
"Aoba-kun, can we go find them a little later?", Hinata blinked her big snow-white eyes, looking pitiful.
It struck Aoba's heart directly, leaving him defenseless.
"Then… tomorrow?"
"Mm!"
Hinata and Yakumo both smiled happily at the same time.
"But we still need to ensure their safety," Aoba temporarily pulled his hands out from the two girls' arms.
After forming hand seals, more than ten Wood Clones appeared beside him.
Although with Sakura and the others' strength, there weren't many genin that could match them.
But there were still quite a few tricky guys in this Chunin Exam, it was better to be cautious.
The quality of Wood Clones was above Shadow Clones. These ten-plus Wood Clones were more than enough to protect Sakura and the others in secret.
If anything unusual happened, he'd be able to detect it immediately.
Sasuke and Naruto also needed a few arrangements.
Although Orochimaru didn't have malicious intent, he just wanted to give Sasuke a hickey.
He himself often got hickeys too.
But Orochimaru's hickey might actually grow another Orochimaru.
Once everything was properly arranged, Aoba took Hinata and Yakumo and began strolling through the Forest of Death.
What was to others a place full of stress and danger, was to the three of them just a sightseeing tour.
Aoba was already very familiar with the Forest of Death.
He simply became a tour guide.
This place, he, Sakura, and Ino had sneaked in at night more than a few times.
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