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[— Manga Scene —]
The Forest of Death was growing darker as night approached, but the true horror for Sakura stood directly in front of her, three Genin from Otogakure, surrounded by an aura of lethal confidence.
"Frankly speaking, you have no talent," Dosu spoke with a hollow voice from behind his bandages, while Zaku and Kin smiled mockingly.
"People like you have to work harder. A weakling like you shouldn't mess with guys like us."
Seeing that the traps she had meticulously set, the hidden kunai, the tripwires, the falling logs, were completely useless against these Genin, tears of fear began to well up in Sakura's eyes. She was alone, her chakra was draining, and her two teammates lay unconscious behind her.
"Kin!! Get the scroll while Zaku and I handle this girl," Dosu commanded.
Kin moved swiftly, but Sakura let out a weak cry and lunged forward, trying to stop her with a trembling kunai in her hand.
"Too slow, trash!" Zaku shouted, pointing one of his hands toward her, ready to release a sonic wave capable of crushing her bones.
Sakura closed her eyes, bracing for the pain...
"Leaf Spinning Wind!!!" But at the exact moment she was about to be struck, a sudden green gale erupted.
Someone arrived in a fraction of a second, and a cyclone of powerful spinning kicks sent the three enemies flying back, forcing them to retreat several paces. "Then you guys should also work harder."
Rock Lee stood tall in front of the stunned Sakura. He wore a tight green jumpsuit, had a peculiar bowl-cut hairstyle, and incredibly thick eyebrows, but his presence in this moment was undeniable.
On his left shoulder sat a small, trembling squirrel; Lee had just removed an explosive note that the Sound ninja had attached to it as a trap.
'Huh? He is…' Sakura was surprised, remembering the strange boy who had challenged Sasuke just before the exam.
"Who are you?" Dosu asked in a cautious tone, feeling the weight of the kick he had just received.
Lee placed his hand in a perfect combat stance and answered with a calm yet confident voice: "The beautiful green beast of Konohagakure… Rock Lee!!!"
[— End Scene —]
...
..
Konohagakure:
Inside the Art Store, the heavy silence left behind by Orochimaru's terror had just been broken, but in a way no one expected.
"AAAAAALLLL RIIIGHT!!! That's my boy!!! THAT IS YOUTH!!!"
The scream erupted from a seating corner where Maito Dai, a middle-aged man wearing a tight green jumpsuit identical to the one in the manga, with an unshaven mustache that was beginning to grow thicker, was jumping in place, tears of joy streaming from his eyes.
Beside him, as usual, was his young son, Gai. No older than five, Gai wore a miniature version of the same suit, having been inspired by his future counterpart and also by Rock Lee.
At this moment, little Gai was imitating his father, jumping with frantic excitement, his eyes shining with starlight.
"Amazing! Lee arrived exactly at the right time!"
"He kicked them! He did the Leaf Spinning Wind! He's the best! He's the most beautiful! He's the Green Beast of Konoha!!!" little Gai shouted, his face flushed red with such intensity that it looked as if he were the one who had delivered the kick.
Dai wiped his tears with his sleeve and placed his hand on little Gai's shoulder with touching tenderness.
"Yes, my son, I saw it. This is the fruit of Herculean effort! Lee in the manga is proving to the world that talent isn't everything, and that hard work can perform miracles! This is the spirit of youth you must emulate!"
"I'm sure now that he will teach those scoundrels from Otogakure a lesson and protect Team 7! Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura will owe him so much after this!"
The father and son indulged in a bout of tearful hugging and mutual excitement, completely ignoring the bewildered and stunned looks directed at them by the rest of the readers.
...
Not far from them, Sakumo, the White Fang of Konoha, whose reputation had begun to stabilize, sat with his young son, Kakashi.
Sakumo looked at Dai and Gai with a warm smile and a bit of amusement, while little Kakashi, with his usual intelligence and a hint of annoyance at the noise, narrowed his eyes behind his mask.
"Dai-san never changes..." Sakumo whispered in a low voice.
"But he has every right to be proud. Lee's intervention in the manga was truly heroic, and more importantly, he showed incredible maturity."
Little Kakashi looked at Lee in the manga, then at his father, and asked curiously, "Dad, do you think an immense effort like the one Rock Lee puts in can truly surpass innate talent? Is Maito Gai really stronger than my counterpart just because of hard work?"
Hearing this, Sakumo gently placed his hand on Kakashi's head.
"Talent gives you a head start, Kakashi, but effort determines how far you will go. Never underestimate a man who trains seriously every single day. Gai and Lee, master and student, in the manga might be much stronger than you expect."
"Lee is just a Genin, but his resolve at this moment, protecting the three behind him, makes him look like a Jonin."
...
Meanwhile, in the Uchiha corner, silence had fallen once again after everyone realized Orochimaru's true identity, what he had done to Sasuke, and the truth Sasuke had uttered, that he wished to kill his brother...
But in another corner dedicated to the Hyuga clan, pride was the prevailing emotion.
Hyuga Masanori, the head of the Hyuga clan and one of the strictest Jonin, stared at the manga page with a satisfied expression.
He wasn't looking at Lee or Sakura, but at the scene preceding this one, where the exam was still proceeding normally; he was looking at Hyuga Neji.
In the manga, Neji stood to the side, looking with utter disdain at the future Team Ino-Chika-Cho, Chōji, Shikamaru, and Ino, who were trying to hide from them.
"Trying to hide behind grass from someone with the Byakugan?" the Hyuga leader scoffed.
But what pleased him afterward was that Neji didn't give them a second glance, turning and walking away as if he saw no one worth his attention except true enemies.
"This boy… he resembles me in my youth… he has a sharp tongue; I hope he has the strength to back it up, as I once did."
Besides Hyuga Masanori, his sons Hiashi and Hizashi exchanged complex looks.
Hiashi, the young heir, felt a mix of pride in Neji's skill but a slight fear of the consequences of his excessive pride.
"Dad, the manga also shows that Neji is the number one genius Genin in the village at that time," Hiashi said hesitantly.
"He possesses the Byakugan, and his strength is staggering. Perhaps... perhaps his pride is justified?"
Masanori shook his head with regret. "No, Hiashi. Talent is no excuse for disdain. But Neji... he seems to carry a heavy burden in the manga. The desire to prove oneself, the sense of injustice... these things can lead to dark paths."
"I wonder how the clan is faring in the manga... seeing what is happening with the Uchiha makes me worried about our clan's state as well... it might not be much better."
Masanori agreed with Hiashi, but he felt the Hyuga clan was facing an unconventional crisis in reality; he could sense it from how Hinata and Neji seemed like opposite poles despite being from the same clan.
...
Kusagakure:
Only a few days had passed since Rob had departed, leaving behind a store shining with futuristic beauty amidst the dense greenery.
But the atmosphere inside the store was far from beautiful.
A silence mixed with panic and rage hung heavy at this moment. The shinobi of the Grass Village, who had come to read the manga out of curiosity, gathered around Volume 6, their faces flushed with anger or pale with horror.
At the beginning of the chapter, the manga had shown a quick but gruesome scene where Konoha shinobi found the corpses of the three Kusagakure shinobi who had been exploited by Orochimaru.
The bodies were faceless, cruelly flayed; it was clear that Orochimaru had stolen their identities and faces to enter the Chunin Exams.
"To think... to think that Orochimaru, one of the Legendary Sannin, would kill shinobi from our village with such cruelty and use their faces!" one Grass shinobi shouted, slamming his fist on the table.
"This isn't just exploitation, it's an insult! It's an implicit declaration of war!" another cried.
"I wonder how Konoha will react to this bastard, and how our village in the manga will handle this incident."
"I believe in the manga we will surely hold Konoha responsible."
"Does anyone feel that the face Orochimaru stole looks familiar? Someone's son in the future might be a victim of that snake bastard!"
"There are three victims; they must all be talented Genin from our village... sigh."
Everyone felt terrified of Orochimaru's described power, yet at the same time felt ashamed that shinobi from their village were disposed of so easily, like insects.
In the area where Mouso, the leader of Kusagakure and master of Hōzuki Castle, sat alone, the situation was much worse.
"..." Mouso, the man with dark green hair and boundless ambition, stared at the manga with a cold expression.
He saw the corpses in the manga and knew immediately that they were among the top talents; otherwise, they wouldn't have been sent to participate in the Chunin Exams in the first place.
"Orochimaru..."
"You used my village, killed my men, and used their faces to serve your vile purposes in Konoha?!"
"Do you consider the men of my village easy targets compared to other villages...?"
He felt a surge of rage not only toward Orochimaru but toward Konoha for allowing such a man to operate freely, and toward Rob for revealing this truth to the world.
The fact that his village was an easy target for bullying and was used as a pawn between great powers.
This was just the beginning, but the future described in the manga already made him feel a sense of shame.
Mouso didn't know yet what his future counterpart was planning, or if he was even alive, but he was determined to get ahead of events and make Orochimaru pay for his contempt.
The Box of Ultimate Bliss in Hōzuki Castle seemed more important now than ever, and Mouso was ready to use it to achieve his revenge.
'But I should wait a little and observe more...' Mouso thought coldly.
...
Iwagakure:
The atmosphere was stricter and more disciplined, much like the Stone Village itself. Shinobi were reading the manga with intense focus, their faces not reflecting much emotion, but their reactions were entirely different.
Onoki, the Third Tsuchikage, was enjoying his drink and the excitement of the manga events together, staring at the pages with an expression of intellectual curiosity.
"The Curse Mark...? A bite in the neck that grants a seal with three tomoe, in other words, a shortcut to death..." Onoki whispered, scratching his chin with his small fingers.
"This villain Orochimaru... to think he would invent such a technique and use it on a Uchiha child... is he researching immortality?"
Onoki admired Orochimaru's innate abilities and his distinction as one of the Legendary Sannin, but seeing his rebellion in the manga, the idea of founding a new village, and his desire to assassinate the Third Hokage, Hiruzen... this was beyond expectation.
"Rebellion...? Assassinating the Hokage...?" Onoki muttered, shaking his head.
"Orochimaru has no loyalty to Konoha, does he? Founding the Hidden Sound Village... this means he will become a third power in the world, an unpredictable one."
Onoki remembered his past discussions with Hiruzen and how the Hokage always defended his students. Now, seeing Orochimaru in the manga threatening to end Konoha made him feel pity for Hiruzen, and at the same time, a sense of danger.
"If Orochimaru is going to do this in the future..." Onoki thought, "The shinobi world will face a major crisis. Konoha will be torn apart by civil war, and Orochimaru will become a threat to everyone."
But at the same time, Onoki saw an opportunity. If Iwagakure could exploit this chaos, they might be able to impose their control over the shinobi world.
"Orochimaru... you create chaos, but chaos is exactly what I need..." Onoki said in a deep voice, a mysterious smile playing on his lips.
"Let's see what my counterpart does in the manga. Let's see how I will use this situation for the benefit of the Stone Village."
"I wonder how the Stone Village is currently faring in the manga..."
At that moment, everyone in the store was reacting to the manga in different ways, but one thing was clear: Volume 6 of Naruto was changing the shinobi world, and Rob was the mastermind behind this change.
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Upcoming chapter titles (spoilers):
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Chapter 138: Reactions of the Konoha Clans… One Against Three.
Chapter 139: The Moment a True Ninja is Born.
Chapter 140: Reactions from the Great Villages. The End of Volume Six.
Chapter 141: The Sixth Level of the System! Another Art Store opened!
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