After Kushina said "Rasengan," this chapter's content wrapped up once again.
Amid a chorus of "Gaia," "Arc," "Tiga" and other tokusatsu cries for help, the chapter ended.
And in the next chapter, there was another wave of seven-years-later danmaku.
This time, the picture cut over to other teams.
After Team 7's plotline concluded, the focus shifted mainly to Team 8, Team 10, and Neji's squad.
Hinata's group, having escaped from Gaara, was also making its way toward the central tower.
Team 10's Ino–Shika–Chō trio, with no highlight moments of their own, were doing a comedy routine in the meantime.
Meanwhile, Neji's squad had rushed all the way to the site of the earlier massive disturbance.
"This is awful." Tenten stared at the forest that had been flattened almost to nothing, unable to stop her gasp.
"Neji, do you think a Genin could have done this?" Lee considered himself top-ranked among Konoha's Genin, but even he didn't believe he could produce a ruin this large.
"There's a strange chakra residue." Neji had activated his Byakugan to observe.
"One side was an experienced shinobi. No Genin can reach this level—this was probably someone at Jonin tier. The other had massive chakra. Even now I can see the heavy residue of it. This person's combat experience was probably less than the other's, but their chakra output was extremely high, endless. So the two were evenly matched. But what happened after that, I can't tell."
"Not bad. Didn't think a Genin could make a read like that."
"Examiner-sama?" Tenten turned and saw Anko Mitarashi, her expression grim.
Anko glanced over the scene without a word, thinking to herself: Orochimaru was here, fighting someone. That person was strong too, but Orochimaru can't have used his full strength—Manda hasn't appeared…
Manda. One of Orochimaru's strongest summoned beasts.
If Manda hadn't come out, that meant Orochimaru hadn't gone all out.
But no matter what, she couldn't allow Orochimaru to keep running wild in the village.
At the very least…
She'd take him down with her!
"What happened here?" Neji asked.
"Don't ask. This isn't something you need to know." Anko stared at the battlefield, watching and searching for traces of where Orochimaru might still be or have retreated to.
"It won't affect our exam?" Neji asked.
"If the exam needs to be cancelled, someone will let you know. But before that, if you see a snakelike, dangerous man—run if you can. If you can't, surrender. That man wouldn't bother to kill you directly."
That said, Anko left.
"A snakelike man… could it be?"
In all of Konoha, there really was a man that dangerous.
That man was one of the legendary Sannin—Orochimaru.
"It seems I still have a long way to go." Neji felt his powerlessness deeply.
He too was a prodigy of the Hyuga clan.
Even—if not for Hanabi—he could be called the strongest Hyuga genius in history.
But even so, in a battle on this scale, Neji's presence would have been no greater than any ordinary Genin's.
And all these external scenes were being watched by Hanabi too.
"I see. Although I 'ended' the protagonist team's plotline early, the second round of the Chunin Exam itself hasn't ended. From that angle, there's still plenty about the Genin and the exam itself that hasn't been shown yet… so the Stage is showing it through other characters' perspectives?"
Hanabi wasn't in control of the whole set.
She was only an actor who'd joined this production.
So when the main plotline ended but the content that should be shown hadn't finished being shown, the camera cut over to other characters to "fill in the gaps."
It was also a way of telling the audience: this was what an ordinary Genin should actually look like.
After that sequence, the picture cut back to Naruto's side.
By this point, Naruto was alone in the tower's training hall.
Kushina was teaching Naruto the Rasengan.
"Mn, good. No one will come in." Kushina first confirmed that there was no surveillance around and no one else nearby, then revealed herself.
"Whoa, why do you keep just taking over my body!" Naruto yelped.
"Shut up. Pay attention—use your own body!"
Kushina was at her wit's end with Naruto.
Then she stretched out her hand, and a sphere began to form on her palm.
"Did you feel anything?" Kushina asked.
"Mn… ah, I felt it. My chest feels really heavy!"
The picture cut again, this time to the consciousness space.
Naruto had taken a few more hard slaps from Kushina.
He was completely dazed.
Then Kushina walked over to several stone pillars off to the side.
"Watch closely. Rasengan!"
Kushina pressed the sphere directly against a pillar. The solid stone material was simply ground away, its internal structure collapsing into a pile of dust.
"Ohhhh! That's amazing, I want to learn it!"
Naruto was fired up.
"Mn, good." Hanabi nodded.
She wanted to keep watching, but the picture cut to her side instead.
Turned out Sasuke had come over.
"Is Naruto all right?" Sasuke asked.
"Mn. There was an enemy, but thankfully it didn't cause too much trouble," Hanabi said.
"Did that person have a Sharingan?" Sasuke asked again.
"No. If I'm not mistaken, that person should be one of the Sannin—Orochimaru. And his target isn't Naruto. To be precise, his target should be reaching his teammate through Naruto… yes, you."
[Wait wait wait, hold on. Let me sort this out. That Uchiha Madara wanted Naruto and ran into Sasuke; this Orochimaru wanted Sasuke and ran into Naruto?]
[Where the hell did this swap game come from?!]
[You people are so filthy, I'm losing my innocence]
[Anyone who hears "swap" and goes straight to filthy filthy filthy has problems themselves]
[I'm cooked, I don't think I can come back from this, give me my eyes back!]
[Due to my reading speed being too fast, by the time I realized what I was looking at, it was already too late…]
[Hold on, I just spotted a plot hole—doesn't that make my wife the outsider here?]
[Outsider's not so bad? I don't think my wife really has room to wedge herself into this romance]
[But 嬲 (male-female-male) sounds pretty good too?]
[I feel like it might actually be 嫐 (female-male-female) though?]
[Actually it could be female-female-female (the character won't show up if I put them together, dammit)]
[Hmph, you're all so shallow. It could be male-male-male! The ultimate experience!]
The earlier parts were fine.
But what came after started burning eyes out.
When Hanabi, due to reading too quickly, realized what she'd just read—it was already too late…