Elias was discharged from the hospital after two additional days of tests and observation. Now he had four days to prepare for the final stage of the Chunin exam.
When he walked back home, he wasn't wearing his ninja forehead protector—he had been informed a new one awaited him there, as his previous one didn't survive the impact. He wore only a plain shirt and shorts, and no one recognized him, no one looked at him as at the terrible and scary fox demon. The world seemed to shine for him, welcoming him, as he tasted true freedom for the first time in thirty-six years of imprisonment—twenty-three in his previous world and thirteen in this one.
Upon arriving home, he found the new piece of junk with the Hidden Leaf symbol on it, but he left it on the table. Elias had to clean up the mess the previous occupant of the house had left behind. All the food? Into the bin. Tasteless clothes? Into the bin. He didn't need to eat, even in his human form—his body drew unlimited energy from his boundless chakra to sustain itself. Once everything was cleaned up, the old bedsheets joined the trash. In fact, all the bedding did. Once that was done, he went out to get a new mattress, bedspread, duvet, duvet cover, pillows, pillowcases… basically everything. Finally, once it was done, he considered the place somewhat acceptable, even though it still didn't meet his usual standards. Well, one couldn't have everything at once, could they?
As the day came to an end, he sat cross-legged on his newly furnished bed and closed his eyes. He once again sensed, in detail, all his organs, cells, particles—everything functioned splendidly! He also inspected a new organ he had created, basing it on all the data he'd collected during his previous life from Rose+Croix and the Silver Dawn. He had also used teachings from his masters at the Hidden Temple of Slaughter, where he had trained while still active in China, to make it work, to make it real!
This organ, which no one else in this world possessed, an organ essential in Chinese folklore for cultivation: the Dantian. In reality, it was necessary for cultivating chi and sealing all 108 apertures to achieve an invulnerable body. It was something out of fantasy and legend—but Elias had thirteen years to make it work. It was a tiny organ, barely discernible, situated between the intestines and the spine.
When he tried to circulate chi, as he had done for years in his previous life, it flowed more easily than ever. In just a few hours, he sealed all the apertures and optimized the use of his internal energy, organs, nervous system, and motor muscles. And as expected, his control over both his chakra and Cosmos—already beyond human—approached even closer to perfection.
And what was the point of perfection? Only God knew for now.
Over the next few days, he rented a training ground—pushing himself closer to bankruptcy than ever—as he needed to justify the massive improvement people would soon witness in the arena.
Eventually, a grand festival was held to celebrate the arrival of the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, who came accompanied by the Daimyo of the Land of Wind. Countless retainers and nobles followed them, and the festivities were nothing short of spectacular. During these days, Elias passed Naruto's former classmates in the streets—even Sakura—but no one recognized him. His body had changed just enough to make him look like a completely different person. Additionally, he no longer dressed in orange but wore casual clothing, and not once did he put on his forehead protector.
Now that he was incarnated, he used his Cosmos to scan for any remaining parasitic chakra entities. And during the celebrations, he found one. How surprised he was when he discovered the host—it was none other than Hinata Hyuga, recently back from convalescence. But perhaps fortune was on his side—or maybe on hers—the entity did not begin fusing with her DNA.
Quickly and discreetly, he placed a hand on her back while passing by, taking advantage of the crowd's focus on the parade of newly arriving nobles. He extracted the parasite using his Cosmos. His mastery had reached a level high enough to avoid drawing any unwanted attention that a botched removal might have caused.
However, it wasn't time to use the parasite yet—even though he found no signs of any others lurking within the village.
Since the three chakra strands were designed to work together as a unified system, he ruled out the possibility of finding any more and returned home for additional meditative practice.
The next day marked the start of Chunin Exams final stage. Rather than dressing like a traditional ninja from the village, he used his Cosmos to create an outfit that also served as armor. As long as his Cosmos wasn't disrupted by a superior force or entirely depleted, the clothes would remain intact—otherwise, they would either disappear or gradually become damaged. But at this point, he considered his reserves to be virtually limitless.
His new outfit consisted of a dark indigo silk, long-sleeved Taoist martial robe with broad shoulders. It was embroidered with golden cloud motifs. Around his waist, he wore a corded martial belt bearing the characters 浴火 in gold, meaning rebirth, symbolizing both his rank and his martial lineage. His loose-fitting kung fu pants matched the robe in color and embroidery, and he was wearing black martial boots. For formality, he materialized a headband with the Konoha symbol—after all, he still had to maintain a semblance of decorum.
Needless to say, he drew attention as people flocked toward the arena.
When the time came to descend and be presented alongside the other participants, the contrast was stark. No ninja weapons, no accessories or gear pouches—he stood out like an oddity. His former classmates couldn't help but stare, certain now that he was no longer Naruto, but someone else entirely. The Suna ninjas, on the other hand, barely reacted—they had never interacted much with Naruto to begin and had little reason to care.
Finally, once all the Daimyos, lords, and the Kazekage were seated, Hiruzen began the introductions:
"Thank you for coming to Konoha for the Chunin Selection Exams! Here we have the eight participants who have successfully conquered the previous challenges! I am honored to announce the beginning of the final stage of the trials! Enjoy the show and stay until the end!"
The candidates were handed a shabby-looking piece of paper listing the match order. They also received confirmation that the rules remained exactly the same as during the preliminary rounds: the referee would decide the winner and could stop the fight at any moment.
And for the first match, it would be Naruto Uzumaki versus Neji Hyuga.
The two stayed in the arena while the others made their way to the spectator stands. A wave of disbelief erupted among the former Konoha classmates. They simply couldn't believe that their Naruto was already standing in the arena. The teenager looked nothing like him—except for the color of his eyes and his hair!
"Anything to say?" Neji asked with a smirk, looking at Elias.
But the martial artist remained silent, completely ignoring his opponent. He held a confident, almost arrogant, upright posture, casually flipping a golden coin between the fingers of his left hand.
Neji seemed provoked. After a few more tense moments of silence, the first match began!