Escape From Konoha

Stopping in front of the huge building standing on the sand dunes, people who saw this kind of building for the first time began to look at this huge building that was incompatible with the desert environment.

From the outside, it looks like an extremely huge square ‘box’.

But in terms of scale, it is much grander than the fortress buildings in the Demonic Desert.

The exterior wall is cast from an opaque stone material and painted a snow-white color. The stones are perfectly connected and there are no so-called gaps. The height of the wall makes it impossible for even a ninja to jump up in one go. In the eyes of Konoha candidates, the high white wall in front of them is not much higher than the height of their Konoha village wall.

This white building stood tall and unmoving despite being blown by the wind and sand in the desert.

After Yi Ji communicated with the person in charge inside, in front of the main entrance of the white building, a tall white stone door began to move smoothly upward, opening a spacious entrance passage.

When everyone walked into the entrance passage, they were surprised to find that the entrance passage was about seven or eight meters long, and this length was almost equal to the thickness of the wall.

A wall of this thickness would be difficult to break through from the front even if it was bombarded with powerful ninjutsu.

Walking out of the passage, a group of ninjas from the Kingdom of Ghosts came up to greet them.

The leader is a Jonin from the Kingdom of Demons who is nearly thirty years old and is one of the responsible personnel here.

Behind him followed twenty heavily armored ninjas.

The whole body is covered with thick silver-white armor, and every part is tightly fitted and perfectly connected together, without any redundancy or waste.

Wearing silver-white metal helmets that look like gas masks, their facial expressions cannot be seen.

These heavily armored ninjas from the Kingdom of Ghosts had nothing in their hands, only a heavy firearm capable of long-range attacks placed behind their backs. They stood there uniformly, giving people a cold and murderous sense of oppression.

In addition, the atmosphere inside the building is also very serious.

Above the tall spire, there are not only reconnaissance ninjas, but also a large number of searchlights, patrolling the territory and exploring no corner.

Under such careful and rigorous surveillance, even if a fly flies in, it will be known immediately, let alone a living person.

After handing over the task to the person in charge here, Yi Ji turned around and said: "Please follow my footsteps and don't walk around in this place. This is a military area, and I am not responsible for any accidents." "

After explaining the rules here in advance, Yiji didn't care whether these people heard clearly or not, and just stepped forward.

The people behind quickly followed up without falling behind.

Soon, under the leadership of Yiji, they arrived at the dormitory area of ​​​​the military district.

Before arriving, Yiji had already communicated with the person in charge of the military region and negotiated in advance. Therefore, after entering the dormitory area, she easily solved the accommodation problem of thirty candidates.

"You can allocate the rest of your time freely, as long as you gather at the North Gate at five o'clock tomorrow morning. In addition, dinner will be delivered to your dormitory on time at seven o'clock. Of course, the most important thing is that, The scope of your activities can only be in the dormitory area. If anything goes beyond this area, I will not be responsible here."

Ichiki reminded the candidates again, and then left the place with the Jonin from the Kingdom of Ghosts, leaving the remaining time to the candidates to allocate themselves.

"What? It's like being in jail."

Naruto muttered dissatisfiedly.

"Hey, Naruto, are you planning on doing anything tonight?"

Shikamaru was shocked when he heard what Naruto said.

With Naruto's fearless character, if he is not restrained, problems will really arise.

If this was Konoha, no matter what, there would be someone above to take care of Naruto.

But this is the territory of the Demon Country, and Konoha's rules must not be followed.

"Because the less people touch something, the more valuable it is to explore."

Naruto put his hands behind his head, with an indifferent attitude.

Shikamaru broke out in a cold sweat.

"Don't mess around. Those guys in armor look very difficult to mess with. You don't want to be disqualified from the third exam, right?"

Seeing that Naruto still ignored him, Shikamaru had no choice but to bring up the matter of qualifying for the third exam to remind Naruto.

Sure enough, after hearing this, Naruto reluctantly gave up his inner thoughts of exploring here.

"Then, let's disband here. When the third exam comes, we will compete again."

Asuka spoke and left the team with the ninjas from the Kingdom of Ghosts.

"We're going to rest too."

Toss Anvil of Otogakure Village glanced at the direction in which the Demon Kingdom team was leaving, then glanced at Sasuke casually, and turned around to leave with his two teammates.

After the team from Otogakure Village left, the genin from Kirigakure Village and Sunagakure Village also left here, and they didn't have much idea of ​​communicating with each other.

"Let's go back too, we've been tired for several days."

Shikamaru stretched and headed to his dormitory.

"Naruto...Naruto-kun, goodbye."

Saying this quietly, Hinata also left with the team.

"Huh? Okay, bye."

After being stunned for a moment, Naruto also said goodbye to Hinata.

Sakura was curious about the interaction between Naruto and Hinata, and asked curiously: "Naruto, do you have a good relationship with Hinata?"

In Sakura's memory, she has never seen a girl take the initiative to talk to Naruto.

Even when Team 7 was first established, Sakura was like this, but she later made some changes to Naruto.

As far as Sakura knows, Naruto and Hinata didn't seem to have much communication during the ninja school period.

He felt that the current interaction between Naruto and Hinata was a bit suspicious.

Hinata's personality tends to be introverted, and she is extremely shy, so she doesn't feel like a girl who takes the initiative to talk to people.

"Of course it's good, because we're friends. Why do you ask that, Sakura?"

Naruto asked in confusion.

"It's nothing, maybe I'm overthinking it."

Sakura shook her head.

friend?

Although this is indeed a reason, even as a girl, I have not established a very good friendship with Hinata. How did Naruto do it?

Therefore, it is still a bit weird for Sakura to be just friends.

But where is the specific weirdness, Sakura can't think of any answer for a while.

"Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura, we are leaving too, you should rest earlier."

At this moment, a voice came into the ears of the three Narutos.

Kabuto stood in front of the three people with a smile on his face.

"You too, Senior Dou. I hope you can pass the Chunin exam this time."

Sakura glanced at Kabuto sympathetically.

He has failed the Chuunin exams for several years in a row and looks to be around twenty years old. This shows how poor Kabuto-senpai is in terms of ninja talent.

"Haha, good luck to you, Xiaoying."

After Dou finished speaking, he suddenly coughed a few times and his face turned pale.

"Kabuto-senpai, what's wrong with you?"

Looking at Tou whose face suddenly turned pale, Naruto was surprised.

"It's nothing. In the second exam, I was slightly injured when I was fighting other countries' ninjutsu. I guess it will recover soon."

Kabuto smiled bitterly, looking very lonely.

Sakura felt that there was something wrong with Kabuto's words. The way he looked, it didn't seem like a minor injury.

So, the look he looked at Kabuto was almost pity.

If he still takes part in the third exam in this state, Sakura feels that Kabuto may not be able to be a chuunin this year.

"Well, Kabuto-senpai, if you don't mind, I can help you take a look..."

Sakura volunteered, hoping to heal Kabuto's injuries.

However, before Sakura could take action, Sasuke reached out to intercept Sakura.

"Sasuke?"

"Sakura, don't help him treat him. When the third exam begins, he may also be one of the enemies."

Sasuke said indifferently.

"Sasuke, what are you doing? Kabuto-senpai is a Konoha ninja just like us—"

Naruto couldn't stand Sasuke's behavior and scolded him loudly.

Before he finished speaking, Sasuke interrupted and said, "Didn't you listen to the information revealed in advance by the examiner of the second exam? Even members of the same group will become enemies in the third exam, and even more Don’t talk about the rest of the group. So, from now on, until the end of the third exam, I, you, and Sakura are all enemies."

Sasuke's words shocked Naruto and Sakura, but the expressions on their faces still looked complicated.

Especially Naruto, even though he knew what Sasuke said was right, he still couldn't agree with it.

"There is only one way to become a chuunin, and that is to defeat all enemies in front of you. The battle of teamwork ended with the end of the second exam. If you and Sakura still have this naive idea, Even if you successfully defeat your opponent, you cannot become a chuunin."

"But……"

Naruto was about to say something else, but Kabuto interrupted and said:

"Naruto-kun, Sasuke-kun is right. From now on, I am your enemy, not your senior. You must keep this in mind. I will deal with my injuries by myself."

With that said, Kabuto led Red Copper Armor and Kenmeicheng away, leaving Naruto and the other three still staying there.

"Sasuke, are you going too far?"

After walking away, Naruto said dissatisfiedly.

"I'm just speaking according to the rules of the third test. If you still want to become a Chunin, and then have the idea of ​​becoming a Hokage, then you can only do so."

Seeing that there was still dissatisfaction on Naruto's face, Sasuke sighed, looked at the direction Kabuto and others left, and said something with unknown meaning:

"Besides, this guy is a bit weird, so it's better not to get too close to him."

◎

At five o'clock in the morning the next day, it was just getting dark.

Most of the vast desert is still in darkness.

At the north gate exit of the military area, all the candidates taking the third exam and their instructors gathered here, and no one was left behind.

In the north gate exit area, a railway track is laid on the desert, extending to the sky with no visible edge.

A train with twenty carriages had already stopped in front of the platform at the north gate of the military zone and was ready.

"what is this?"

Naruto, who had never seen a train before, was shocked and incredulous at the steel worm in front of him.

After all, he had never seen such a strange thing in Konoha Village.

"This is a train... Well, if we compare it to the Fire Country's horse-drawn carriage, it is a relatively advanced means of transportation. Whether it is transporting goods or carrying people, its functionality far exceeds that of a horse-drawn carriage."

Kakashi explained.

"Transportation? But you didn't see the horses coming to pull it?"

Naruto hugged his chest and looked puzzled.

"That's because the energy that drives the train is chakra, and it doesn't need lagging horses to pull it."

"Chakra?"

Naruto's mind became even more confused.

He knew that chakra was an important energy used by ninjas to perform ninjutsu, but why was chakra needed to drive a train?

"It's really interesting. This is also a symbol of strong industrial capabilities."

Sasuke put his hands in his pockets and commented on the train in front of him.

While other countries are still using primitive horse-drawn carriages, the Kingdom of Ghosts has obviously updated and iterated on the means of transportation, using the country's strong industrial and creative capabilities to create a means of transportation that is more powerful and convenient than horses.

This means that once a war breaks out, the Kingdom of Ghosts can mobilize domestic forces more quickly and effectively than other countries and seize various opportunities.

Thinking of the many Demon Country ninjas wearing heavy armor in the military area, Sasuke felt like he had seen a corner of the future.

The fighting style of ninjas is likely to no longer be limited to battles between ninjutsu, taijutsu, and illusions. The weapons and equipment equipped with them may also become a standard for evaluating the strength of ninjas.

But for now, the way ninjas fight is still more traditional.

Under Yiji's arrangement, the candidates boarded the train in order. There were three single-person boxes in each car, and one car was allocated to each group.

The candidates are not dissatisfied with this arrangement. They can take convenient transportation to the Kingdom of Ghosts, and no one wants to walk such a long distance on foot.

After all the candidates were arranged, the train made a whining sound and its wheels began to roll, heading north.

"Isn't this too awesome? Kakashi-sensei, when will Konoha also build a train?"

The scenery on both sides of the outside panned back. In Sasuke's room, the guiding jonin and members of Team 7 gathered together.

Naruto saw the scenery outside the car window moving backwards. Even though the train was getting faster and faster, they felt no bumps in the car and it was very stable. So he sat on the single bed in the carriage and let out a cheerful cry. sound.

Obviously he was very satisfied with the train as a means of transportation, and even imagined that it would be great if Konoha had such a convenient means of transportation.

In this way, it seems that no matter where you go, you can go without any effort, and you can still enjoy the various scenery along the journey.

"Well, with the financial resources of the village alone, it is probably difficult to sustain such an expense."

Kakashi told the truth.

Not to mention the cost of construction and laying of railway tracks, the value of the train itself and the annual maintenance costs are astronomical.

Most of Konoha's reserve funds are now invested in the military and medical fields, and there is no extra money to improve the village's transportation problems.

But this also involves various issues of interest distribution. It is not that the Fire Nation does not want to improve domestic transportation, but that the nobles have always been unable to form a unity in the distribution of interests. We can only continue to hold meetings, put it on hold, hold meetings, put it on hold again... and cycle this process. Moreover, in the view of the nobles, improving domestic transportation is not very necessary in the first place.

"What, if I become Hokage in the future, I must build a train in the village so that everyone can enjoy it!"

Naruto was not very satisfied with Kakashi's answer, so he spoke his innermost thoughts.

Looking at Naruto, who was thinking about the future and looking confident, Kakashi's eyes were in a trance for a moment, as if he saw a familiar figure who had passed away long ago.

However, this trance did not last long, and Kakashi came back to his senses and said: "Before that, Naruto, you should become a chuunin first. Wanting to become Hokage is not as simple as just talking."

Even if he becomes Hokage, it would be extremely difficult to change this problem in Kakashi's opinion.

This policy of 'compromise' has already set the tone since the time of the first Hokage.

In a sense, Ninja Village also belongs to the 'upper' class.

A class that wants to break its own existence means many contradictions in itself.

Going against the inherent tradition, not everyone can or dares to do it.

"Speaking of which, Sasuke, how's the situation with the curse mark on your body?"

Kakashi changed the topic to Sasuke.

Sasuke subconsciously touched the curse mark on the side of his neck with his hand, as if he was starting to feel pain again. He frowned and said, "I have initially been able to use the power in it, but if I use it too much, it will still cause harm to my spirit and body. It’s a big burden. Cursed Seal is good as a final trump card, but it can’t be used regularly for the time being.”

I don't know why, but since this curse mark appeared on my body, my perception of natural energy has become more acute.

Sasuke suspected that the curse seal Orochimaru left him had a lot to do with natural energy.

"In this case, Sasuke, don't use this kind of power. You are already very strong now anyway. That Orochimaru must have had ulterior motives for leaving the curse seal to you."

Sakura said dissuadingly.

"I will think about it."

Sakura's words made sense, but Sasuke wasn't going to do that.

The curse seal is a double-edged sword. If you use it incorrectly, it will harm you, but if you use it well, it can become a powerful aid to you.

For him who was in desperate need of strength, this was undoubtedly a huge windfall.

The most important thing is that he has the confidence to control the power of the curse seal. In this way, there is no so-called risk in the curse seal Orochimaru left for him.

No matter what Orochimaru plans to do to him, he will be the ultimate beneficiary.

"If you really can't control the curse seal, remember to tell me. Orochimaru has been away from Konoha for ten years. No one knows what his purpose is when he shows up at this time. Please be careful."

Kakashi said to Sasuke.

Sasuke didn't know whether he heard it or not, so he just nodded.

"Okay, now you can have a good rest, I won't disturb you anymore."

Kakashi stood up to say goodbye and walked out of the room.

◎

"Ten groups, thirty people...this number is a bit too many."

In the office, Shiraishi frowned slightly after receiving the information of the thirty candidates who participated in the third exam.

According to his original intention, the number of participants for the third exam was best kept below twenty and above ten.

The thirty participants were a bit beyond Shiraishi's expectations.

He had some doubts that the difficulty of the first and second exams was because Konoha and Sunagakure's arrangements were too simple, which led to so many people slipping through the net and qualifying for the third exam.

"There are nearly three hundred genin participating in the Chuunin Exam. One-tenth of the candidates have qualified for the final exam. Strictly speaking, it is not too many."

Ayane laughed while sitting on the sofa.

"It would be more appropriate to reduce the number of people. Thirty people is too many. I think fifteen people are just right."

Shiraishi said.

"What, do you want to conduct the assessment in two batches?"

Ayane asked.

"I have this idea. According to the plan, the Open will be held in a week. Businessmen, officials and ninjas from various countries will be invited to watch the game. Before that, let's conduct an internal elimination match and kick out fifteen people. , leaving fifteen people to participate in the final open competition.”

Shiraishi thought for a while and made this decision.

"You were really merciless, and you casually deprived fifteen candidates of their qualifications to participate in the open competition."

"There is no way. We said at the beginning that the open competition will only be held for one day. With a total of thirty candidates in one day, there is definitely no way to complete the assessment at once."

If the open competition was held for two days, Shiraishi wouldn't mind letting thirty candidates play together. However, inviting high-ranking officials from so many countries, as well as big businessmen from all over the world, to gather in the Kingdom of Ghosts for one day is a very tight schedule. If the duration of the Open is changed at will, it is likely to cause unnecessary controversy.

"So, what about the venue issue? Do you want to find one temporarily?"

Ayane continued to ask.

"No, just use the official venue of the Open. Not only that, the rules used in the preliminaries will be the same as the official Open. This will allow the candidates to adapt to the environment and rules of the Open in advance."

Shiraishi thought for a moment and said.

Different from the free battle under the rules of the second exam, the individual elimination system of the third exam has a bottom line rule - that is, all candidates must abide by the premise that they cannot kill their opponents.

Because the two exams target different groups, the rules will be modified to a certain extent.

"As for the time... the group of candidates will arrive at around three o'clock tomorrow afternoon, and they will be given a night to rest. The time for the preliminaries and knockouts will be held at nine o'clock the day after tomorrow."

Shiraishi quickly finalized the time for the qualifiers.

"In that case, I'll take people to decorate the venue first."

Ayane stood up from the sofa.

"Then please."

Shiraishi nodded, trusting to leave this matter to Ayane.

He continued to pick up the information of thirty candidates and looked at it, and finally his eyes locked on the information of one of the candidates.

"Kabuto Yakushi... Yakushi... this last name is really special."

If I remember correctly, in the intelligence department he established, there was a senior intelligence officer with the surname of ‘Yakushi’.

——Yakushi Nonoyu.