A month passed in relative calm.
While awaiting the final round of the exam and with more people arriving in Konoha, the Uchiha Police Force became so busy that they had to swallow their pride and ask the Hyūga clan for reinforcements.
And by asking, it meant they went over and told the Hyūga to stop drinking tea and help with surveillance—something that sparked a clash of pride so intense that the Third Hokage ultimately had to mediate.
Isaribi and Guren treated the waiting period like a vacation, shopping and spending their free time however they pleased. This frustrated every attempt to gather information about their fighting styles, talents, or specialties. Even personnel disguised as civilians who listened in on their conversations failed to learn anything useful.
As Chad's students, both girls were under scrutiny, since Konoha had little—if any—information about them. The only confirmed detail was that, whether it was the teacher or the students, their appetites were comparable to the Akimichi clan's.
As for Ororomoi, he felt that training under Chad was no different from going through hell and being reborn afterward. His lean physique gained muscle, and while he didn't learn any new techniques, his reinforcement of the fundamentals increased significantly, and several deficiencies were thoroughly addressed.
It might seem like a small improvement for just one month, but only Ororomoi knew how important those changes were to him. He was confident that in less than two years, he would truly be worthy of advancing to chūnin by his own merits.
As for Chad himself, he proceeded at his own pace.
He strolled through the village seemingly at random and ate at different places, taking advantage of the fact that the local cuisine differed from Kumo's—though he did miss his izakaya.
Good thing he had brought enough alcohol with him.
He visited the gaming houses for shogi rematches with Shikaku and beat him every single time while continuing to drink, to the immense frustration of the Nara clan patriarch.
And yet, Shikaku kept coming back for more!
No wonder he married such a dominant woman—it was clear Shikaku was that kind of person…
In any case, the day of the exam finally arrived, and people flocked to the stadium to see the spectacle.
The Hokage and the Kazekage sat in a private box above the crowd.
Several lesser nobles occupied the remaining elevated seats, while civilians and ninja clans shared the stands below.
As for Chad and Ororomoi, who had come to watch Isaribi and Guren compete in the exam, they were naturally seated in a nobles' box—specifically, the private box originally reserved for Princess Kayo. Not that she had come, but she had pretended she would just to secure the spot. Then, the day before the third test began, a written excuse arrived in which she ceded her seat to Chad and his team.
"Is it really okay to do this?" Ororomoi whispered. He could feel the displeased stares of the Land of Fire nobles present.
"What are you worried about?" Chad gave him a light smack on the back of the neck. Even after a month, he hadn't managed to change the boy's mindset. "They're not even nobles from our land. They can puff themselves up like hissing cats all they want if it makes them happy, as long as they don't bother us."
Later, when Orochimaru and Suna made their move, he would simply pretend not to see or hear them. Let's see how many survive with those samurai guards they brought along.
Hell, he might even kill a few during the chaos if it caused more trouble here!
"Alright…" Ororomoi took a deep breath, trying to adapt to the situation—or numb himself, whichever came first. "Oh, how's the genin of that Konoha jōnin?"
"That guy's fine," Chad waved dismissively. "I just had to restrain him a bit—he wouldn't stay still during recovery. Who doesn't know that a doctor's orders are sacred?"
After the first week, a man in green spandex who constantly shouted about youth came looking for him, hoping Chad could operate on his student. Chad had flatly refused at first, until Guy remembered to offer payment instead of expecting him to do it for free out of the kindness of his heart.
Even then, Chad kicked all the other doctors out of the assigned operating room so that he would be the only one present during the surgery. In three hours—much to the doctors' complete frustration—Lee's spine was as good as new.
As for why they were frustrated, it was obvious: they wanted to see how he did it and learn!
They even morally questioned Chad for not being more selfless or brought up countless scenarios that could have gone wrong with a single person handling the entire surgery—only to be sent flying into the wall after receiving a slap to the face and falling silently unconscious.
Just like the two ANBU who decided he was in the wrong, which prompted the Hokage's appearance.
But since Chad was more interested in a living Third Hokage, he merely offered "constructive criticism" and left, leaving Hiruzen red as a beet and unable to do anything about it.
After all, Chad had just saved a village genin's ninja career and then been criticized for it—"justice" was on his side.
Of course, when Chad went to check on Lee two days later and saw him doing one-finger push-ups despite being told not to move, he rolled up his sleeves and cleanly broke and dislocated several bones and joints. From then on, Lee couldn't even turn his head and had to remain still for two months like a mummy encased in plaster from head to toe.
And this time, no doctor dared to question his methods.
Chad could have sworn that some nurses even applauded—probably the ones who had been assigned to watch Lee and had unsuccessfully tried to keep him still.
As for payment, asking for the Eight Gates wasn't realistic, but since the Hokage decided to foot the bill for Guy after he made a public display of the Will of Fire, Chad extracted several D-rank ninjutsu, six C-rank, and one B-rank technique for Kumo—covering areas where they had very little material.
For example, the village might be the greatest expert in lightning ninjutsu, but it barely had any fire techniques in its library. The worst part was the lack of wind ninjutsu for genin and chūnin. Now, after Chad's intervention, the situation was much improved.
Ask for money? That was useless to him.
And anything else worthwhile would likely be rejected, so he might as well obtain something beneficial for others.
"But sir, coming here like this is a bit—"
"Shh!" Chad ordered him to be quiet. "Just watch how my students perform."
"Shouldn't I go down and wait with the other participants?"
"As long as you enter the arena when you're called, it's fine," Chad dismissed him. "Do you see the Uchiha here?"
"Now that you mention it…"
Indeed, Sasuke had not arrived yet—and he hadn't been disqualified for it.
"He won't even make it to your turn to fight," Chad thought as he leaned back.
The first match was Kankurō versus Guren.
"Bad matchup… for him."
Kankurō would probably stall for a while before surrendering, preserving himself for the later plan. Unfortunately for him, Guren had no intention of taking her time.
As Kankurō tried to use his puppet Karasu to probe Guren—
"Shōton: Kesshō Uni!" ("Crystal Release: Crystal Sea Urchins!")
Guren used the equivalent of crystal fragmentation grenades to bombard the puppet, riddling it with holes. Not only that—the spikes embedded in the wood partially crystallized the puppet itself, and under the densely concentrated projectile assault, it crumbled into tiny pieces.
Kankurō turned pale—not just because of the obvious gap in strength, but because that puppet was practically half his savings!
Gone. Completely gone!
He couldn't salvage even a fragment—he would have to build a new puppet from scratch…
Worse still, he was a puppeteer, and now he had no puppets for the later plan!
He had to restrain himself. Drawing attention now was not ideal.
He needed to take a deep breath.
"Looks like your toy broke—just like your self-esteem."
"You son of—!"
BAM!
Kankurō turned into a radish planted in the sand thanks to Guren's descending heel strike. Half of his upper body was perfectly buried underground, with his legs sticking out like leaves, even swaying gently with the wind.
"Enough!" the referee confirmed that Kankurō had lost consciousness. "Winner: the Kumo genin, Guren!"
Guren merely rolled her eyes. She felt like she was lowering herself by fighting opponents of such inferior capability.
The stands applauded in a disjointed rhythm. Where was the action? Where were the fireballs?
Judging by today alone, Suna truly deserved its reputation as the weakest of the Five Great Villages.
"It seems Kumo has a promising generation," Hiruzen said diplomatically. "Don't worry about your son, Kazekage—the age difference between the opponents is—"
"Weakness is weakness," the Kazekage replied, seemingly unconcerned by the humiliating beating his middle son had just received or by the poor image of Suna it projected. "I'll have to intensify his training when we return."
"A wise choice," the Hokage nodded.
His gaze lingered on Guren as she exited the arena.
"Does Kumo really expect us to believe she's a genin?" he thought, half amused and half indignant. "Just from the control displayed in that technique, she's at least an elite chūnin—and I doubt that's her true strength! As for that Crystal Release lineage, it's intriguing." He had never heard of a clan with such an ability, so Kumo had likely kidnapped her from somewhere. As for it being a legitimate creation, he simply couldn't see Kumo achieving something like that. "What a shame her loyalty to her sensei is so absolute. The village always welcomes more promising bloodlines."
Thinking of loyalty, he couldn't help but think of his former favorite student who had gone rogue.
If Orochimaru had possessed that level of strength, would he have fallen down such a dark path?
"I'm getting old…" the Hokage sighed inwardly. "I can almost feel as if he were still by my side…"
Meanwhile, the "Kazekage" glanced sideways at the Third Hokage.
"What could this old man possibly be planning now?"