Trunks wore a far more serious expression than usual. If looks could kill, Kabuto would have exploded into a thousand pieces. He couldn't understand what a boy with such twisted chakra was doing in the same room.
Although the presence of many others inside the small classroom left him feeling almost dizzy, the aura of the bespectacled boy before him was possibly one of the worst.
But without a doubt, none was more abominable than that of the red-haired genin with a gourd strapped to his back. The immense dark rings beneath his eyes gave the impression that he had never in his life slept more than two hours in a row. His energy was, at the very least, demonic—radiating an incredible thirst for blood.
The question running through Trunks's mind was: how many people had that scrawny, haggard boy killed by now? Only a fool would believe that someone with such a filthy, impure energy could possibly have clean hands.
Of course, the Saiyan remained silent, trying to ignore the boy and keeping his focus on Kabuto. Arms crossed, standing a little apart from the rest, he watched the hypocrite attempt to befriend the newcomers, who surrounded him curiously as he displayed strange cards that revealed information about anyone.
Trunks only turned his head when he sensed his friend's ki, as Goten and his teammates entered the room as if nothing were out of the ordinary.
The first one he saw walk in was Sasuke. The Uchiha stared at him defiantly, as though wanting to fight. But he wasn't nearly foolish enough to challenge him, not yet. The only ones who came over to greet him kindly were Naruto and Sakura, since they hadn't seen much of each other since returning from the Land of Waves.
"I heard you've been training really hard," said the pink-haired girl, noticing the slight increase in volume of the Saiyan's exposed, crossed arms—now more defined and muscular than before. In Goten's case, it was harder to tell, since the long sleeves of his navy-blue shirt didn't reveal much.
"Yeah, Goten and I have been keeping busy," he replied with a faint smile, though the gesture felt forced. His attention was fixed on Kabuto, who was behind him explaining something about the number of applicants for the exam by village of origin. Trunks was trying to figure out what the boy in purple was really after with that false, friendly behavior.
And just when it seemed things couldn't get worse, Ino arrived—screaming hysterically at the sight of Sasuke, practically throwing herself at him. Young Brief couldn't understand why, after the attitude Sasuke had shown in the training field, he could still attract that blonde's attention. What Trunks failed to notice was that the main reason lay in the rivalry between the two kunoichi.
"Get your filthy, greasy hands off Sasuke right now, Ino-pig!!" Sakura yelled, pointing at her threateningly. At that moment, nothing would've pleased her more than smashing her fist right into that horrible face.
"Oh, look at that! Billboard Brow finally showed up!" Ino mocked, tightening her grip around Sasuke's neck, who, for his part, looked at her with obvious irritation. "I'm honestly surprised they even let a failure like you come here! Oh, and by the way—your hair looks awful! It's way too dry! Don't you think so, Sasuke?"
Uchiha didn't answer. But he did notice two things. One was the unfamiliar boy with glasses, challenging Kiba to ask him about any genin, and he would provide all the information possible with his cards. The other was Trunks' face.
That's when he realized that the boy, judging by the complete loss of his stern expression and piercing gaze, felt something for Ino. He stared at her, absorbed, almost dumbfounded.
"Look who's talking about awful hair, you bottle-blonde!" Sakura snapped back, her head practically ballooning from all the shouting.
"For your information, my hair color is one hundred percent natural, billboard-forehead!"
"Ino, that's enough," Shikamaru's lazy voice cut in from behind. "You're drawing everyone's attention, in case you haven't noticed."
And he was right. The eyes of nearly two hundred genin packed into classroom 301 were fixed on the group of rookies at the front. They were practically being devoured by the stares. When Sakura realized it, she couldn't stop the nervousness from rushing back over her, making her swallow hard. Her stomach twisted uncomfortably, and her heart began to pound furiously, begging to burst out of her chest.
It wasn't just the unbearable feeling of being watched by everyone at once—the appearance of the other candidates was, at the very least, terrifying. As her green eyes swept left to right, she saw one grotesque-looking ninja after another. And they were all older.
The scars carved into their faces spoke of how battle-hardened they must be. If there were 150 genin in the room, far fewer than 300 eyes were watching them, since many were one-eyed. Kakashi, no doubt, would've felt right at home among them.
Goten noticed her unease, so he rested a hand on her shoulder and flashed one of his trademark grins.
"Remember what I promised you yesterday."
Those simple words, combined with his smile, filled the kunoichi with warmth. She felt powerful again, ready for anything, because she had her friend's support. She trusted him. But Naruto managed to shatter that feeling in an instant.
Sakura thought she might faint when Konoha's number one knuckleheaded genin turned toward the room full of candidates, threw his arms wide, and opened his big mouth, shouting defiantly.
"AAAARRRRGHH! MY NAME IS NARUTO UZUMAKI! AND I'M GONNA BEAT EVERY LAST ONE OF YOU! BELIEVE IT!"
"DAMMIT, NARUTO! WHAT ARE YOU TRYING TO DO? GET US KILLED?!" screamed Sakura, praying the ground would swallow her whole that very moment, anything to escape the piercing, dangerous glares of the hostile genin.
The one who prevented the attempted murder was Goten, who had both arms wrapped around Sakura to restrain the hysterical kunoichi. Even so, she thrashed with such wild fury that the tailed boy could barely hold her back. It was hard to explain how someone so delicate could possess such strength. Goten felt that if he didn't transform into a Super Saiyan soon, he'd be sent flying like nothing. And sure enough, in her frenzy, Sakura slammed her head backward in a brutal headbutt, catching poor Son square in the face and knocking him several meters away, flat on his back.
"Go–Goten! Are you all right?" Hinata asked in a worried tone, rushing over to the nearly unconscious Saiyan, whose eyes were spinning like a fainted Pokémon.
The timid Hyuga girl knelt beside him, sliding a hand under his head to help him up while fanning him gently with the other.
"Do you actually know this loser, Hinata?" Kiba asked as he walked up to the scene. "If he's with Naruto, he's gotta be pathetic. What, did they force you guys to take an extra member just so you wouldn't get yourselves killed?" He finished with a smug smile, hands buried in his jacket pockets, glaring at the blond genin to provoke him.
Meanwhile, Akamaru couldn't stop sniffing frantically in Goten's direction, thick drool dripping from his little jaws. Pavlov's reflex was doing its job—though the pup wasn't tracking an animal, the boy before him gave off the same stimulus. For Akamaru, Goten smelled just like a monkey.
"Damn it, Kiba, shut up with your nonsense!" Naruto snapped, pointing furiously. "Why don't you and that little flea-bag stick your noses somewhere else?! At least my team isn't down to two people 'cause nobody cares about Shino! He's like he doesn't even exist!"
The Aburame genin stayed silent, though a large bead of sweat slid down his forehead. Naruto's idiocy was beyond belief—he had no intention of wasting words on an airhead like him.
"But I don't dislike you, Hinata! You're fine by me!" Naruto suddenly added, gripping the girl by both shoulders with a wide grin.
Hinata instantly went dizzy, her face beet red and threatening a full-on nosebleed. Unable to take it anymore, she fainted right into Goten's arms, who had just gotten back on his feet and happened to be standing behind her.
Sasuke pressed a hand over his face, embarrassed to the point of pain. The rookies were putting on a pitiful spectacle in front of everyone. He took the chance to slip away from the mess, heading straight toward Kabuto, who was still alone.
"Tell me—do those cards really have info on every candidate in this room?" the stoic Uchiha asked coolly, scanning the area to ensure no one was eavesdropping.
"I can't promise the info is perfect or complete, but basically, yes," replied the silver-haired boy with a proud smirk. His glasses flashed with a faint gleam. "Got someone in mind? Just give me a description—anything will help."
Sasuke allowed himself a faint, cynical smile. His lips formed the first name that crossed his mind."Gaara of the Sand."
"That's not even fun!" Kabuto chuckled. "You even know their names already. That makes it too easy." He drew a random card from his deck, placed it on the floor, and spun it beneath his finger. A puff of smoke rose from the blank card as information appeared.
"Let's see… mission experience: eight C-ranks and… well, look at that! One B-rank mission as a genin!" Kabuto's brows lifted as he adjusted his glasses. "Not much more here, but—oh, interesting. Says he's completed every single mission without a scratch."
The words hit Sasuke like a kick in the gut, like an icy bucket of water dumped in the dead of winter. It was hard to believe. Madness, even. But a quick glance at the wall clock showed three sharp—the exam would start any moment. He needed to hurry.
He buried his surprise and asked one last question. "There are two more. Trunks and Goten. Easy enough—they're the two idiots over there." He gestured casually toward them, unaware that Trunks, though facing forward, was listening in with sharp ears.
Kabuto repeated the process, but this time his round glasses nearly popped off his face. No matter how reliable his info normally was, he had nothing. Not a shred on either of the two boys. His eyes widened further when he caught sight of the monkey tail hanging from the boy in the orange gi.
Before he could speak, a huge cloud of smoke erupted near the chalkboard. A group of chunin appeared, led by a towering jounin with a bandana and a scarred face.
"All right, you baby-faced degenerates! Shut up and listen!" boomed the man's deep, rough voice. He was over six feet three, clad in a long, high-collared black trench coat. "The exam has begun. I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor—and from now on, your worst nightmare."
Still facing the front, Goten and Trunks froze, their faces turning blue. Their blood ran cold as they exchanged terrified looks.
"Th-th-that's LORD PICCOLO!" they shouted in unison.
The shock of hearing his voice alone had thrown them off completely—they hadn't even registered the man's name. When they finally turned around, relief washed over them. It wasn't the Namek warrior towering over two meters tall who had come to half-kill them for their stupidity.
"He sounds exactly like him… You noticed, right?" Goten whispered, still pale.
"Of course I noticed, idiot! Why do you think I freaked out?!" Trunks barked, far more agitated than usual—something Ino caught immediately. Trunks was strong, terrifyingly so. So who the hell was this "Piccolo" to rattle a Saiyan just by speaking?
Before she could even ask, Ibiki's voice boomed again, sending another shiver down the spines of both Saiyans.
"Enough wasting time. The first part of the Chunin Exam starts now. Hand in your application forms—you'll receive a number in exchange." He held up a small slip with the number 1 on it. "That number marks your assigned seat. Once everyone is seated, we begin the written exam."
"W-w-written?" Naruto stammered, his eyes narrowing into two tiny slits.
Among the chunin stood Kotetsu Hagane, the wild-haired gate guard from Konoha's entrance, hefting a massive stack of papers with a wicked grin.
Naruto's heart stopped cold. Goten's very soul tried to flee his body—only for King Yemma himself to punt it right back to Earth.
"NOOOOO! NOT WRITTEN! ANYTHING BUT WRITTEN!!!" Naruto wailed, eyes flaring white like a Hyuga's activated Byakugan, veins bulging around them.
Goten, trembling, staggered backward like a sheet of paper in the wind. "Th-th-they never t-t-told me it was gonna be a wr-wr-written exam…" he stuttered, inching toward the door, hand reaching desperately for the handle. But Sakura caught him by the collar of his gi, yanking him back.
"Where do you think you're going?" she hissed, half her face shrouded in shadow, hiding everything above her nose.
When Goten turned his head, the sight of Sakura's dark, twisted expression made his blood run colder still. But the towering stack of papers in Kotetsu's hands terrified him just as much. Exam… or kunoichi? His brain split in two. Faced with such an impossible choice, he preferred death itself. He fainted on the spot, collapsing in Sakura's arms.
Ibiki noticed, practically savoring the moment. Already, a few kids had broken under nothing more than the psychological torture—and the true exam hadn't even started.
Sakura thought it was just another of Goten's stupid antics, but when he collapsed nearly unconscious into her arms, she realized just how terrified he really was. Both of them fell to the floor with a loud thud, drawing the attention of the examiners and, of course, the massive crowd of applicants—many of whom were already seriously considering standing up and killing one of the idiotic rookies once and for all.
"Goten! Get off me, you idiot!" Sakura shrieked, pinned beneath the boy's limp weight as he literally crushed her.
She kicked and squirmed with all her strength, trying to shove off Goten's inexplicably heavy body. He was just lying there on top of her, but no one could understand why she was making such a fuss over something that looked so dumb.
Of course, Trunks understood right away. The Saiyan bolted over, grabbed Goten under the arms, and hoisted him up as if he were a four-year-old, shaking him vigorously in the air until he came to. Meanwhile, Sakura got to her feet, wide-eyed and gasping for breath, bracing herself on her knees as she bent forward to let precious oxygen fill her lungs—despite having been pinned for only a few seconds.
"Trunks, I just had a terrible nightmare," Goten muttered, rubbing his forehead and shaking his head once he could stand on his own again. "It was about me going back to school…"
"YOU MORON! WERE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME OR WHAT?!" Sakura roared, grabbing him by the collar of his gi and thrashing him back and forth so hard he blurred into nothing but an orange smear in midair. Once again, anime physics had its fun: if she'd nearly suffocated under his weight a moment ago, how the hell was she tossing him around so easily now? "STOP ACTING LIKE A CHILD AND GO PICK UP A NUMBER RIGHT NOW!"
Only then did it sink in for Goten: this wasn't a nightmare at all, but a grim and horrible reality—the dreaded written exam. Like a meek little lamb heading to the slaughterhouse, he shuffled toward Ibiki with his head hung low, more afraid of Sakura than of anything else. A chunin handed him his seat number as he submitted his application.
"Hey, kid! Make sure your forehead protector is visible—it's mandatory for the exam!" barked the jonin, whose voice sounded suspiciously like a certain Namekian warrior. The man glared at Goten, wondering what useless excuse for a sensei had trained this disaster of a genin. If he'd known it was lazy old Kakashi, it would've made a lot more sense.
Reluctantly, Goten shoved his hand inside his ridiculously heavy blue shirt and pulled out the shiny metal headband he'd refused to wear until now. With clumsy, almost shaky movements—probably because it was his first time—he strapped it across his forehead, his face twisted in mild annoyance.
This time it was Sakura who brought a hand to her mouth to stifle a giggle. She found his pouty expression oddly cute. With his gi neatly tucked into his pants, his blue belt snug around his waist, and the headband properly tied on, he suddenly looked like a well-behaved little boy instead of the chaotic mess she was used to.
Not wanting to look like a fool himself, Trunks also pulled out his forehead protector and tied it firmly around his left arm, the same way Shikamaru wore his.
One way or another, Goten had been the first to follow protocol. His reluctant shuffle set off a chain reaction, and soon a long, orderly line formed as everyone submitted their forms and got their seat numbers. After what felt like an eternity, every applicant was seated, each little number not only designating their place, but also serving as their official ID—for use if they got caught cheating and disqualified.
Goten glanced around nervously. No one he knew was sitting nearby. Worse still, Gaara took the seat to his right, nearly making him faint from the suffocating, almost poisonous aura that seemed to seep from him. Goten didn't even dare tilt his head a millimeter, terrified of meeting the icy turquoise eyes of the boy with "Love" carved into his pale forehead.
Sakura, on the other hand, felt confident. Written tests were her comfort zone. She was the brains of her class, after all. Ino liked to say that with a forehead that big, it would've been impossible not to be, but Sakura usually ignored her jealousy.
She couldn't help but smirk at Naruto, who was clutching his head in desperation a few seats away. She wanted to laugh at Goten, too—oh, she really wanted to—but she froze when she saw his terrified, pale face. The same boy who had promised to protect her with his life the night before. She felt a little pity for him… but just a little. Her eyes were still only for Sasuke.
Not so with Ino. Her feelings were more complicated after what had happened the week before at training. She still wasn't about to let that awful pink-haired rival beat her to Uchiha's heart. But that petty rivalry blinded her to something else. The chuunin exams would soon force her to see things differently.
The sharp clack of chalk on the board drew everyone's attention. Ibiki began explaining the rules, warning that he wouldn't answer any questions during the test.
"…and the teams will pass or fail based on the combined score of all three members…"
The loud thud of Sakura's forehead hitting her desk echoed through the room as she protested the injustice of such a cruel system. The red mark on her forehead said it all.
"What?! Wait just a second! You mean we're being graded as a team?!" Sakura snapped, slamming her fist down on her desk.
Ibiki's glare was deadly, a vein throbbing in his neck. "SILENCE! I MAKE THE RULES HERE. SHUT UP AND LISTEN!"
Goten was so rattled he didn't even register the third rule: that the proctors would deduct two points every time they caught someone cheating, and that five strikes meant disqualification for the entire team.
"I'll be watching you, kids…" Kotetsu warned with a cruel smirk, weaponizing the same psychological torture that had once been used on him.
"Stay calm, Sakura… breathe… I can do this! I'll ace the test, Sasuke too! Even if Naruto and Goten both get zeroes, we could still scrape by…" she thought, gnawing nervously at her tongue and fidgeting her bare toes against the floor. If it were only Naruto, she and Sasuke could easily cover the gap with a score above fifteen. But with Goten in the mix, the only way forward was perfection.
Then the sadistic examiner's next words turned her blood to ice.
"If even one member of a team scores zero, the entire team fails."
Gasps echoed across the classroom. Naruto's face turned blue, imagining Sakura and Sasuke stabbing him with their eyes. He wasn't wrong. But the truth was, his teammates were more worried about Goten. Naruto might be a fool, but the Saiyan boy wasn't even familiar with basic shinobi concepts. If someone asked him what a genjutsu was, he'd probably wonder if it was something you ate.
"The final question will be given fifteen minutes before the exam ends," Ibiki continued, arms crossed and scowling. "You have one hour total. Begin!"
At once, the sound of pencils filled the room.
When Sasuke flipped over his paper and scanned the questions, his eyes narrowed. They were impossibly difficult—far beyond the level of any genin. Yet somehow, candidates around him were scribbling away without hesitation. "Impossible… unless…" The realization hit him
The test was designed to make you cheat.
"Damn it, Naruto! Just copy a couple of answers, that'll be enough!" he thought, activating his Sharingan. His eyes burned in that familiar, almost blissful way as he traced the movements of the candidate two rows ahead—likely a planted chuunin meant to feed them information.
Ino, meanwhile, was grinning ear to ear. Did she know the answers? Not a chance. But with so many little, unsuspecting minds to slip into, she could steal all the knowledge she wanted. It was like standing inside a candy store, and she was Willy Wonka—the undisputed mistress of all those delicious treats. She could pick anyone she wanted… but humiliating Sakura would taste sweeter.
Another furious scribbler was Trunks. "Thanks, Mom!" He had inherited more from Bulma than anyone guessed. His brain, his logic, even his knack for science—all of it came through now. He breezed through every problem, especially the one about a shuriken's trajectory. His mother would have killed him if he'd failed a simple physics question.
Goten, on the other hand, was a genius in battle… but this? This was torture. The words on the paper began to swirl into an incomprehensible spiral, and soon the black ink morphed into the furious face of Sakura screaming at him: "IF YOU DON'T ANSWER AT LEAST ONE QUESTION, I'LL KILL YOU!"
He clamped both hands over his mouth to stifle a scream.
Looking at Gaara's paper was out of the question; the sand-wielder loomed protectively over his exam, those dark-ringed eyes glaring straight into Goten's soul. He was doomed.
Elsewhere, everyone was unleashing their tricks—Shino's insect spies, Tenten's hidden mirrors, Neji's Byakugan, Dosu deciphering rhythms of pencils, and even Akamaru quietly barking answers to Kiba. (Though the dog couldn't stop drooling at Goten's strange, animal-like scent.)
Naruto, meanwhile, was completely lost, staring at nonsense questions that made no sense no matter how many times he read them. Sakura, already done with her test, resolved to help him. She tore a corner from her paper, planning to scribble tiny answers and toss it. Losing two points was worth it if it could save her teammate.
But just as she began writing, a strange sound pierced her ears—like a strangled wolf's howl. Her green eyes went wide. Then her consciousness blinked out like a switch, and she collapsed face-first onto her desk.
Ino had hijacked her with the Mind Transfer Jutsu.
"Perfect. Put that little brainiac to work for us," Choji thought with a grin, watching Sakura's possessed body scribble furiously, memorizing everything before Ino returned.
Within minutes, Ino was back in her own body, laughing quietly as she filled out her own exam with ease. Her team was probably the most relaxed group in the room. Then she set her sights on spreading the answers further. After hopping into Shikamaru, then Choji, she prepared her last leap—straight at the unsuspecting Saiyan.
Trunks sensed the strange wave of chakra coming, but instead of dodging, he let it hit him. He was curious what she was up to. His head dropped as Ino slipped inside.
Only, once there, she realized with shock that his test was already complete—every answer correct. She smiled, impressed. "You're not just a brute fighter, Trunks…"
But when she tried to leave his body, something went wrong. She couldn't move. An overwhelming force held her in place, freezing her in terror as Trunks's eyes rolled white.
Suddenly, she was in a vast, endless void—dark, yet tinted purple. Alone. No sign of Trunks, no sign of anything… except for footsteps echoing closer and closer. A suffocating presence loomed over her, crushing her chest, stealing her breath.
"T-Trunks, this isn't funny! I-I just wanted to help you on the exam!" she stammered, trembling.
Then the voice spoke.
"I'll kill you," it hissed from the shadows, dripping with madness. "Or maybe… I'll eat you. That's it—I'll kill you and then eat you!"
A deranged laugh rang out, endless and horrific.
At last, she saw it. The monster.
Pink-skinned, riddled with holes across its arms, chest, and skull. Eyes black with blood-red pupils, a crooked, crazed grin lined with sharp teeth. Nearly three meters tall, with grotesque muscles and veins bulging across its body. Its head tilted unnaturally, like a deranged doll.
It was no man. No ninja. No human.
It was a demon.
And as the aura of pure violence flared around it, Ino fell to her knees, sobbing uncontrollably. Tears streamed down her cheeks, splattering against the void's floor as she shook in terror before the abomination.
Walking slowly, the pink demon stopped less than a meter from her. Ino wanted to crawl backward, to get away from the danger in front of her, but her body refused to respond. She was petrified. At its complete mercy, the monstrous being crouched down, resting its muscular forearms on its knees until its grotesque face was only inches from hers, displaying a wide grin full of razor-sharp fangs that made it unimaginably terrifying.
Indeed, even the lord of darkness himself would tremble in fear and horror at the mere sound of this soulless creature's name—worse than any beast, no matter how savage.
Stretching out his enormous hand—large enough to crush the girl's skull without effort—he gripped her delicate neck between short, chubby fingers tipped with black nails. It rose to its full height, lifting her into the air like a defenseless doll. Ino simply shut her eyes.
She knew it wasn't real, but she was so deathly afraid she couldn't escape from Trunks' mind. Why did this horrible being dwell in his thoughts? Where had he seen it before? It was impossible to believe such a demon was mere imagination.
"I'll kill you, then eat you," it repeated in that voice that froze the blood in her chest.
He was about to snap her neck like a fragile twig. It would have been so easy. Just as he was about to do it, an immense explosion roared through the void.
BAAAAAAAMMMMM!
Fueled by rage, the furious Saiyan drove his fist forward with every ounce of power in his body, channeling a brutal surge of ki into his hand. In an instant, the pink demon's skull shattered into microscopic fragments amid a crackling burst of golden electricity—the tangible proof of the young warrior's overwhelming might.
The impact hurled the creature away at imperceptible speed, ripping through the air with a shrill whistle before vanishing into the shadows of Trunks' mind.
The sound that followed—when the monster's body finally struck something unseen—was like ten mountains exploding into a thousand pieces. Deafening.
It all happened so fast that Ino's body was still suspended helplessly in midair, even after the earth-shaking detonation. Her savior caught her in time, safe and sound. She didn't understand why, but the warmth radiating from the boy's strong arms made her feel secure—different.
His pure, clean energy filled her lungs, soothing the suffocating terror. He had given her back her life. Struggling, she opened her eyes, momentarily blinded by the dazzling golden light that bathed her in the darkness.
When her vision finally cleared, she could hardly believe the sight before her. There, face-to-face, was Trunks holding her—but he looked different.
His hair stood upright in golden spikes, defying gravity, and his eyes now glowed emerald green. His body blazed with a fierce golden aura, alive and blazing, bringing light into that oppressive world of shadows. Yet instead of the hard, confident expression that usually came with the Super Saiyan form, his eyes were wide with worry, with fear. Rarely had the brave boy ever felt such a thing.
With utmost care, he lowered her to the ground. She was still weak, her legs barely able to hold her. She felt she might faint, but Trunks pulled her into a protective embrace—his arms like marble carved by a master's hand.
"Ino! Please, snap out of it! I can't hold him off for long…!" he begged into her ear. His voice tickled, yet more than that, it filled her with a rushing warmth that coursed through every frozen fiber of her being—from the tips of her golden hair to the soles of her feet. It was his ki, flooding her like fire, reviving her. "You have to get out of here," he continued, "I can't do it. Only you can escape…"
He pulled back to look her in the eye, holding her by her delicate arms. His face still carried that look of desperation. If Trunks were afraid, nothing good could follow. After all, the monstrous power of that creature could erase galaxies—and worse, if it absorbed just a few warriors, it could twist reality itself and destroy entire universes.
The diabolical laughter of Bibidi's abominable creation once again echoed, flooding Ino's body with raw panic.
Seeing this, Trunks gripped her arms more firmly, even shaking her lightly. When it didn't work, he tried another approach.
He lifted one hand and, almost tenderly, tilted Ino's chin up so she had to meet his eyes. She reacted at once. Staring into them, she saw him smile—calm, fearless. Somehow, that feeling seeped into her own consciousness, clearing her mind of fear. For a moment, she was lost in his striking features, softened now by that masculine, confident expression.
"Hey," he said gently, "the exam should be ending soon… they'll start to worry, so you should go, okay? Nothing's going to happen to you." His tone was softer than she had ever heard—delicate, almost melodic.
"W-what about you?" she stammered, suddenly more afraid for him than for herself.
Lying, he pointed at himself with his thumb and flashed a cocky smile. "I'm way too strong! I'll crush that clown in a second, seriously! But please, just go. Right now, you're all that matters."
The slow, heavy footsteps of the pink demon grew closer, snapping her back to reality. She nodded firmly and ran, leaving Trunks behind despite her every instinct screaming otherwise.
She wanted to look back, but his roar stopped her—his voice transformed, booming like the roar of a lion. She wanted to turn, but she wouldn't. She would obey.
The entire dimension trembled under the sheer surge of the Saiyan's power, rising higher and higher. Golden light crackled violently between his palms as he spread his arms wide, perfectly recreating his father's devastating technique.
Ino stumbled under the quaking ground, eyes squeezed shut, her fingers interlaced tightly as she shouted into the brilliance: "Release!"
From Trunks' bowed body, a blue flame of living chakra erupted, passing from him into Ino, slumped over her desk in reality.
She gasped awake, drenched in sweat, breathing hard, her face pale as paper. Shikamaru and Choji nearly fainted themselves—she had been trapped in Trunks' mind for over fifteen minutes. So long that Ibiki was already explaining the final rules of the tenth question: withdraw now and try again next year, or answer and risk being demoted to genin forever.
But Ino hardly cared. Still trembling, she found Trunks' eyes across the room. She had questions—many questions—but he wasn't about to give her answers. What she had just experienced was, by far, the most terrifying thing in her life.
The classroom was emptier now—half the candidates gone. Ino barely registered Sakura's hesitant attempt to raise her hand… until Naruto beat her to it.
PAAAMMM!
"Listen up, you bunch of idiots!" he yelled at the top of his lungs. "If you think you can scare me with some dumb question, you're wasting your time! I don't quit, and I don't give up! I don't care if I'm stuck as a genin forever! Someday, I'll be Hokage! Believe it!"
His little outburst filled the room with renewed courage. Smiles spread across the faces of the remaining candidates, bolstered by Naruto's fiery resolve.
Even Goten felt re-energized. For him, exams were a nightmare, but Naruto's words lit a fire in his chest. Mimicking his friend, he thrust his hand in the air.
"I'll never give up either!"
CRAAACK!
Unlike Naruto, though, Goten's enthusiastic gesture smashed the desk in front of Gaara and himself into pieces. Instead of admiration, the room fell silent, eyes wide at the boy's monstrous strength. Clearly, orange clothes had strange effects on sanity.
If killing had been allowed, Gaara would have buried him in sand long ago. He was already sick of the boy.
Ibiki, surprisingly, wasn't angry. He was impressed—bemused, even. Giving the group a few more minutes, he finally sighed and accepted it. Naruto had ruined his plan; far more candidates remained than he expected. Around eighty, in fact.
At last, Ibiki declared the test over.
"Well, well. I have to admire your determination," he said with a thin smile, hands buried in the pockets of his long black coat. "For all those who lasted until the end, there's only one thing left to say… Congratulations. You've passed."
Dead silence. Total shock.
The only sounds were the snap of Naruto's pencil falling to the floor, and Goten's joyful scream at having passed an exam without studying. Overjoyed, he smacked another desk in celebration—breaking that one too.
"Damn it, are you trying to destroy the whole classroom!?" Sakura shrieked, chasing the terrified boy as he darted between desks.
Ibiki couldn't help but laugh softly. Disaster or not, the kid had real strength. But strength alone wouldn't be enough for the next stage.
As if summoned by his thoughts, the window shattered, glass raining down as kunai pinned a massive black banner to the ceiling. White letters announced the second phase of the exam.
"Alright, you little brats! No time to celebrate!" roared a violet-haired kunoichi in a cream trench coat, her mesh bodysuit leaving little to the imagination. "I'm your next examiner! Anko Mitarashi! Ready for phase two? Then follow me!"
Once again, silence. Naruto's jaw nearly hit the floor. Sakura froze mid-punch, clutching Goten by the collar, leaving him dangling in terror. He had just narrowly escaped certain death.
"…Crazy woman," Trunks muttered from his seat, arms folded behind his head, legs on the desk, looking bored.
"Well, Ibiki, you've gone soft," Anko teased, turning toward him. "That exam was way too easy this year!"
Facepalming, Ibiki sighed. "Or maybe the candidates are just a little better?"
"Hmm… let me think… Nope!" she replied with a mocking grin. Turning back, she pointed at the bewildered genins. "As far as I'm concerned, more than half of you will be eliminated in this stage! Got it, worms? I'll speak with your team leaders about tomorrow. That's all!"
With a puff of smoke, the unhinged kunoichi vanished as suddenly as she appeared.
It was nearly six in the evening. The orange sky promised nightfall soon. One by one, the candidates left the classroom, still buzzing with excitement at having survived Ibiki's cruel test.
Only Ibiki remained, going desk by desk to collect the exams. When he reached Naruto's, he crumpled it slightly in frustration—then chuckled, shaking his head.
"Uzumaki Naruto… to think I let someone pass who didn't answer a single question. The little brat pulled it off."
He kept collecting, noting that some really had gathered the answers well. Sakura, for example, her work was flawless, with no signs of cheating. He'd seen Ino use her technique on her, but that wasn't his concern. The Haruno girl was undeniably intelligent.
At last, he reached the row of broken desks. Smirking at the memory of the boy in orange, he bent down to pick up his paper. But when he looked, he was actually shocked. The kid hadn't just left it blank—he'd forgotten to even write his name.
Everyone was already at home, resting or celebrating with their families and friends, happy to be one step closer to becoming chunin. Everyone… except Trunks, who walked irritably through a dark and lonely street in Konoha.
Of course. He had just found out that earlier that same morning, Goten had been doing some warm-ups in the gravity chamber and then left it at Team 7's training grounds. Just like forgetting to put his name on the exam, he forgot to put it away.
"If I don't take care of things myself, Goten screws everything up," Trunks muttered, his steps heavy with frustration. He didn't even want to imagine what his father would say if he came home without it. He was buried in his thoughts when he suddenly sensed someone trailing close behind him. He already knew who it was.
"What do you want, Ino?" he asked aloud, stopping in his tracks and slowly turning around to meet the girl's wide eyes, just two steps away from him.
"I think you know exactly what I want to talk about," the blonde began, her gaze flickering away as she nervously clasped her hands behind her back. It was unusual to see her acting so evasive; her strong character usually made her bold and confident. But it only lasted a moment. "What the hell was that I saw in your mind? Where did you meet that demon? Where are you really from, Trunks?"
She blurted it all out in a rush, abandoning her timid demeanor for one of urgency and desperation, her fists clenched tight in front of her. Her eyes pleaded for an answer—an honest one, more than anything else.
It was inevitable. Sooner or later, she was going to ask. But it was always harder when "sooner" came instead of "later." Trunks let out a deep sigh before answering.
"When Goten and I were kids, about five years ago, we were forced to fight that thing to save the world. Let's just say it's a bad memory that's still stuck in my head. Something impossible to forget, don't you think?"
What did Ino feel? Hard to describe. His words struck her to the core, chilling her bones, her mind, her very soul. The horror of that grotesque monster, combined with Trunks' casual yet haunting explanation, painted a scene in her imagination that was nothing short of nightmarish.
Unbelievably, silence stretched between them for several endless minutes. That long. Trunks wasn't going to say more than what was strictly necessary. And Ino—paralyzed by the shock—couldn't bring herself to speak at all. The uncomfortable silence was entirely her doing.
Finally, analyzing it all with a cold, careful mind, she dared to ask another question, though she dreaded the answer. "Wh-when you say 'save the world'… you mean your world… right?"
He simply nodded, impressed by her sharp intelligence, almost Kakashi-level sharp. That confirmed it: Trunks wasn't from here. He didn't belong to this universe—or at the very least, not to this planet. Either way, it explained a lot. His extraordinary powers, his inhuman strength and endurance, his sudden appearance out of nowhere with Kakashi, and how—somehow—with nothing more than a strange scroll handed to the Hokage, he and Goten had become shinobi of Konoha.
"I suppose you can't tell me anything more…"
Her voice cracked, her expression softened into something almost tearful, but Trunks only gave a firm nod. He couldn't. That was the deal. At least, not yet.
He just looked at her with that usual stern, piercing gaze, trying to be strong and unmoved by the fragile gestures of the beautiful kunoichi before him. But it was difficult. Slowly, he turned, about to walk away into the night. Better to disappear before he broke. He couldn't let himself say more.
But he couldn't.
A cold, delicate hand suddenly caught his wrist, freezing him in place and making his eyes widen at the unexpected touch.
When he turned back, he saw Ino crying—silent but bitter tears rolling down her soft cheeks. No sobs, no gasps, no shaky breaths. Just the raw, stifling ache in her throat, like it was about to tear in two, the primitive, animal reaction of a body under crushing anxiety and fear.
"Can I ask you one last question?" she said, her voice broken, seconds away from collapsing into sobs.
Trunks stood firm, serious. He couldn't allow even a hint of weakness to show, not when such a storm of emotions churned inside him just from seeing this girl in pain, and not even knowing why. If he gave in, if he let himself falter, he might end up telling her everything—just to ease her suffering. But that would mean breaking his word.
"That depends on the question."
The girl let out a bitter smile, tears still pouring silently down her face.
"Can you forgive me?"
That was it. Trunks' hard expression cracked. His blue eyes widened in shock, and the sharp edge of his brows softened into something far gentler, more human. He had been expecting another question about his origins, his powers, his identity. Not this. Not an apology.
"W-what are you saying?"
"I asked if you can forgive me… because… I've treated you horribly, Trunks. You're not a freak. I actually think you're… a wonderful boy." Her trembling words, rushed and nervous, ended as she suddenly flung herself into his arms, wrapping him in a warm embrace, her arms locked around his neck.
He didn't know how to respond. He froze, red-faced, stunned. But slowly, clumsily, almost childishly, he slid his arms around her slender waist in return. Awkward as it was, there was real warmth in the gesture.
"I-it's l-la-late," he stammered into her ear after a few moments, still locked in her embrace, his heart pounding harder than it ever had in his life. "If you w-want, I c-can w-walk you h-home."
"Don't worry." She pulled back with a gentle smile, wiping her tears with the strange white warmers on his forearms. "If my dad sees me coming home with you, he'd lose it. Trust me, I'd rather arrive alone."
The thought of her father being anything like his own made Trunks shiver. Ino felt it, her hands still on his shoulders, and she found it funny inside—that someone as strong as him could be intimidated by something so trivial. But then again, she didn't know Vegeta.
"O-okay then… s-see you t-tomorrow," Trunks stuttered helplessly, still spellbound by the girl's beauty.
Ino couldn't help feeling flattered by the way the powerful Saiyan stumbled over his words just because of her.
Unable to say more, Trunks gave her a shy smile as he gently took her hands off his shoulders. He started walking backward, waving at her as he went, just to keep looking at her a little longer.
That's when he tripped over a trash bin, almost falling, sending a startled cat flying out of it. He quickly tried to recover his dignity, pretending nothing had happened.
That night, the gravity chamber would remain abandoned out in Team 7's training grounds. The flustered, distracted young Brief had forgotten it again.
Ino laughed to herself, watching his clumsy exit, amused that it was all thanks to her. But the moment he disappeared from sight, a crushing sadness washed over her. She broke into uncontrollable sobs, her chest heaving erratically.
Why? Because she knew Trunks had already forgiven her… but she couldn't forgive herself. In her mind, one image refused to fade.
Trunks, only eight years old, standing in front of the towering silhouette of a monstrous being nearly three meters tall. Just a child, fists clenched, ready to fight that brutal demon with nothing but courage—his innocent will to protect his loved ones and the planet he was born on.
At that same time in her own life, Ino had been gossiping about boys with her friends, picking daffodils in the fields, and playing ninja with paper shuriken.