Naruto's Different Path

Chapter 22: Preliminaries

Chapter 22: Preliminaries

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The first day of the second exam...

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Anko was frantically searching for her old sensei to kill the bastard. After all the pain she had been put through thanks to his twisted and sick goals, he had the gall to come back during her stage of the exams in her village. Konoha may have once been the sannin's life, but he had abandoned and betrayed the village years ago.

'Why would he want to come back to the village? What does Orochimaru want?'

After she finished that train of thought, Anko spotted something out of the corner of her eye. A pale man was sinking into a tree and Anko instinctively knew it was Orochimaru. She quickly pulled out three kunai with explosive tags tied to the end of them and threw them at her former sensei. The spot where Orochimaru had been was blown up by the explosive tags and sent Orochimaru flying. He had a scowl on his face as he eyed his opponent and fully stood up when he saw Anko.

"You bastard! You'll pay for what you-"

She was cut off by Orochimaru appearing in front of her and grabbing her by the throat with a snarl on his face. "I'm sorry Anko-chan, but as you can see I'm not exactly in the mood to toy with you today."

With that, he dropped her to the ground and she was left coughing and gasping on the ground from the force he choked her with. After a couple of seconds of the sannin just watching her with amusement, his smirk suddenly disappeared after she spoke. "What the hell were you doing in here?"

His smirk turned into a sneer as he turned away from the woman. "I wanted to give the Uchiha my curse mark to eventually bring him to me... that little brat." He spoke the last three words with complete hate in his voice, making Anko believe that the kid was better than Orochimaru expected and managed to hurt him, or that he did something the snake sannin didn't like. However, before she could inquire further, he body flickered away and left her there with her seal causing her a great amount of pain before she passed out.

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The genin teams that managed to make it to the tower with both scrolls in time were now standing in the center of the arena that they were brought to. Teams Kakashi, Asuma, Kurenai, Hansuke, Gai, Baki, and Kyua were being given a lecture about the chunin exam's real purpose and the rules of the preliminaries that were about to take place. While they were speaking, Naruto's mind was preoccupied with something else.

'We'll have to fight again? I can hardly use my chakra without the damn mark trying to act up. Hell, if I get too angry the mark will act up too! This is complete bullshi-'

"Are there any participants that wish to forfeit, now is the time to raise your hand." After a moment of silent waiting, Hayate continued speaking as no one had raised their hand.

While Hayate was telling the genin the rules of preliminaries again, Anko walked over to the Hokage and spoke to him. "Lord Hokage. We should pull out Sasuke Uchiha. If what Orochimaru said when he fought me was true, then that boy could be a danger to everyone here."

The Hokage looked at Anko before he pondered on what she suggested. "Let the boy continue participating in the exams. However, at the first sign of the curse mark growing or his power getting out of control, we will step in and stop it. "

Kakashi walked up to Anko after she nodded and stepped away from the Hokage. "If the curse mark begins to act up, I'll be the one who'll stop Sasuke."

"Alright, now two names will be randomly chosen and displayed on the board and they will be the first to fight." Ibiki stated as a stone panel rotated around to show a giant LED board. The screen turned on and sped through names until landing on two. "Alright, will Sasuke Uchiha and Sakura Haruno stay on the arena floor and the rest of you, make your way up to the balcony."