The others had no idea what Sasuke and Sakura were reacting to. They focused instead on Ibiki Morino as he explained interrogation psychology.
"For ninja and for a village, a single useful piece of intelligence can decide the life and death of countless comrades. It can even determine the future direction of a shinobi village," Ibiki Morino said. "That's why this exam requires you to gather information using ninja methods. What we're testing is your ability in that area."
Ibiki Morino even showed the scars left on his body from past torture. Drill holes, burn marks, and reversed wounds covered him, a sight that made everyone's scalp tingle.
"The tenth question tests whether you have the resolve, as future chūnin, to carry a mission through to the very end. Those who don't dare to stake everything, who pin their hopes on next year or some vague future, whose hearts waver and who abandon the opportunity right in front of them, are not qualified to become chūnin!"
Although it was called an exam, the chief proctor was also passing down the core philosophy of being a ninja to these genin.
Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura were still immersed in the joy of having completed an S-rank mission. Their eyes practically sparkled as they looked at the examiner, which only made Ibiki Morino even more interested in that kid named Naruto Uzumaki.
...
Then Anko Mitarashi made a dramatic entrance, boldly declaring that in her second exam, she would eliminate more than half of the remaining candidates.
"Ask your jōnin sensei about tomorrow's meeting time and location! That's all. Dismissed!"
Gaara, already bored to death, was the first to stand up. Temari and Kankurō followed right after him.
Thinking of his C-rank mission, Naruto didn't hesitate for even a second. "Hey!! Wait, Gaara!"
Gaara stopped and turned around, his gaze cold and murderous.
Sasuke and Sakura immediately went on guard.
"What is it?"
Because of what had just happened, Gaara at least remembered the name Naruto Uzumaki.
He glanced around and asked, "That guy named Kakashi Hatake didn't come to take the exam?"
Kakashi?
Take the exam?!
Anko Mitarashi and Ibiki Morino froze, images of the adult Kakashi Hatake flashing through their minds.
What kind of misunderstanding would make this red-haired Suna kid think that Konoha's elite jōnin, Kakashi Hatake, needed to participate in the Chūnin Exams? As a candidate? Or an examiner?
What Gaara considered worthy as an opponent was Kakashi from fourteen years ago, the arrogant, cocky, and sharp-tongued prodigy ninja.
Naruto said, "Kakashi-sensei isn't here. I'm the one who needs to talk to you."
"Kakashi-sensei?!" Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi exchanged looks.
Gaara: "....."
"Well… it's just…" Naruto had called him over in a rush, but no matter how outgoing he was, asking someone he'd only spoken to once to go eat ramen was still hard to say out loud.
"What is it?" Gaara grew impatient, and fine grains of sand began to flow around him.
Kankurō and Temari wanted to stop things, but neither of them dared.
Even the proctors present were ready to step in at any moment.
Finally, Naruto blurted it out. "Let's be friends! I'll treat you to ramen!!"
Thud.
Everyone nearly collapsed.
You just finished the exam and you're already striking up a conversation with someone from another village?! Making friends and offering ramen?! Are you trying to defect?! People had seen extroverts before, but never someone this extreme!
Sasuke roared internally: Just finish the mission! Just treat him to a bowl of Ramen Ichiraku and be done with it! Why are you trying to make friends?! Everyone under the sun is your friend, huh?! Is that it?!
Kankurō and Temari were shaking. The word "friend" was Gaara's absolute taboo.
"........"
After several seconds of silence, Gaara's stare at Naruto grew deeper and more vicious.
"You want me to kill you?"
That bloodthirsty, crazed killing intent made Sasuke unconsciously slide his hand into his ninja pouch behind his back, gripping a kunai tightly.
Naruto did the same. He was the one who suggested ramen and friendship, but he wasn't blind to the danger in front of him.
But the moment Naruto's hand went into his pouch, his fingers brushed against something small and strange, like a little bottle.
Curiosity instantly took over. What was that? Could it be the reward from the S-rank mission?
While his thoughts were stuck on the bottle, Naruto tried to calm Gaara with words. "Why are you so scary? I'm treating you to ramen and you're still mad? If it were me, I'd be so happy I'd jump around, dattebayo!"
He was so distracted by the small bottle that he didn't even notice what he'd just said.
Then the sensation in his hand vanished.
The next moment, a transparent glass vial appeared right in front of his eyes, making Naruto flinch.
Inside the vial was liquid, and suspended within it was a—
No, not a "something."
It was a single eye.
A Sharingan.
Sasuke's two-tomoe Sharingan flared to life in an instant!
He saw the label stuck to the bottle clearly written with—
[Shisui Uchiha – Kotoamatsukami]
This was Shisui Uchiha's Mangekyō Sharingan?!!!
[Kotoamatsukami Activated]
"......."
Gaara's Absolute Defense could block any physical attack, but it was completely helpless against a genjutsu of Kotoamatsukami's level.
The used "tool" dropped straight down, and Naruto instinctively caught it.
Looking again at the eye inside the bottle, it had already turned a dull gray, just like a blind eye.
There was also something attached behind the label, similar to instructions for medicine or ninja tools.
After Naruto and the rushing Sasuke read it carefully, both of them froze.
"Hey! What did you do?!" Temari pointed angrily at Naruto. Even if she was afraid of Gaara, he was still her younger brother.
Whoosh—
A hand suddenly blocked her.
It was Gaara's hand.
"Gaara..." Temari stared at him in shock.
Gaara didn't respond. Instead, he walked straight toward Naruto.
"Let's go. You lead the way."
Naruto blinked. "Huh? Go where?"
"You said ramen."
"...Huh?"
Sasuke clenched the bottle tightly in his hand. He had activated his Sharingan just now. He had seen it clearly, the pattern of that eye inside the bottle.
It was a Mangekyō completely different from both Itachi Uchiha's and Madara Uchiha's.
Shisui Uchiha...
'Sorry about that, Sasuke.'
That man who always stood at the gate of his house waiting to pick up his brother.
'I'll be borrowing your brother for a bit~'
The Mangekyō Sharingan.
Kotoamatsukami!!
According to the label attached to the bottle, Kotoamatsukami could alter anyone's will and thoughts, forcing them to do anything for the user.
A terrifying possibility roared in Sasuke's mind.
Anger surged through him. He couldn't stay here any longer. He had to go find Itachi and get answers.
What happened back then...
Was it Shisui Uchiha who had used Kotoamatsukami to control him?!
"Sasuke?!"
"Sasuke-kun?!"
Naruto and Sakura called out after him in quick succession.
Without saying a word, Sasuke shoved aside the proctoring chūnin sitting by the window and jumped straight out.
The atmosphere in the proctoring room instantly became strange.
Anko Mitarashi covered her mouth and whispered to Ibiki Morino behind the banner, "Hey, hey, what's going on here? A love triangle scene?"
"......."
Ibiki Morino's tough-guy expression stiffened slightly.
How on earth did you get 'love triangle' out of this?!
Wait...
After she said that, Ibiki Morino suddenly started looking at things from a different angle.
Watching Naruto trying to chase after Sasuke, while Gaara grabbed Naruto's wrist and insisted on going to eat ramen, and that girl from their team, Sakura, standing there completely torn...
Tch— hiss—
Could it be? No, no, no!
Ibiki Morino shook his head hard.
In the end, Sakura had no choice but to go after Sasuke.
Naruto was worried too, but thinking about how many people were around Kakashi-sensei's place, even if Sasuke went to look for his brother, someone would probably stop him.
So he decided to finish the C-rank mission first and take Gaara to eat ramen.
Damn it.
The reward money from an S-rank mission getting used to complete a C-rank mission by accident...
What a miscalculation. A huge loss!!!
Temari and Kankurō followed far behind Naruto and Gaara, utterly unable to understand what kind of spell this seemingly ordinary blond kid had cast on their terrifying younger brother.
"Hey, old man! Two bowls of ramen!!"
Naruto's energetic shout reached Teuchi's ears at Ramen Ichiraku. A moment later, he saw Naruto walk in with a red-haired boy he didn't recognize.
"Naruto, that's rare. You brought a friend?"
Neither of them was very tall. They didn't even need to lift the short fabric curtain to step inside.
That word again. Friend.
Gaara's cold eyes flicked to the side, taking in the profile of the person next to him. Dopey-looking. Those whisker-like marks, were they cat whiskers? Or fox whiskers?
Clumsy. And weak.
So why had he agreed to come eat ramen with him?
What Gaara didn't realize was that this was precisely the effect of a certain deceased Uchiha's powerful Mangekyō Sharingan technique, Kotoamatsukami. He couldn't make sense of it himself.
"Hey, old man! One bowl of chashu ramen!" Naruto rubbed his completely flat stomach. "I studied all night yesterday, overslept this morning, and skipped both breakfast and lunch to take the exam! I'm starving to death!!"
"Got it. I'll give you extra noodles and some extra fish cake," Teuchi said with a grin.
"Yes! Pile it on, old man!"
Naruto turned and tried to poke Gaara, about to ask what he wanted.
But just as his finger got close, a thin layer of sand suddenly rose, blocking the space between his finger and Gaara's body.
"Don't touch me," Gaara said flatly.
Whenever someone showed hostility toward him, the sand would move as if it had a will of its own, automatically protecting him.
"That's awesome!" Naruto found it fascinating. Unlike the ninja from Sunagakure who feared Gaara, he kept prodding at the sand with his finger, curious rather than afraid.
Teuchi watched the two of them with a smile. "How about you order first and play later?" Seeing that Gaara was unfamiliar, he added, "We've got tonkotsu soy sauce, chashu, tomato, seafood. I personally recommend the chashu."
Gaara ignored Naruto and said calmly, "Grilled beef tongue… flavor."
Teuchi: "....."
Are you picking a fight with me?
"If you don't have that, then the same as him," Gaara said, gesturing toward Naruto with his eyes. Despite his bloodthirsty reputation, he wasn't someone who picked fights for no reason.
"Alright then, two large bowls of tonkotsu ramen!"
Teuchi worked methodically, dropping the noodles into the pot. Naruto waited eagerly, swallowing as he watched. Before Gaara could even ask what he'd called him over for, Naruto had already started rambling about how good this place was and how he could eat this ramen for the rest of his life.
Gaara had never met anyone like this in his entire life.
Anyone who approached him before always had ulterior motives, and most of them didn't live long enough to regret it, swallowed by his sand.
But this Naruto Uzumaki was different. All that nonstop chatter didn't seem to have any purpose beyond treating him to a bowl of ramen.
The last person who had spoken to him this naturally was Yashamaru…
Thinking of Yashamaru made Gaara's head ache again.
As the restlessness inside him slowly rose and those unpleasant memories threatened to surface, a clear male voice suddenly interrupted.
"Dad?!"
Naruto stared in shock at Minato Namikaze, who was dressed in ANBU gear.
That single word nearly made Teuchi and Ayame drop the ladle straight into the pot.
Both of them had vaguely guessed Naruto's background before. Seeing this ANBU show up made their minds go blank.
Ayame opened her mouth to speak, but Minato raised a finger in a quiet "shh" gesture, and she swallowed her words.
Gaara remembered him. "You're… that ANBU from before."
Minato's voice was gentle. "Thank you for coming to eat ramen with Naruto."
Being thanked like this caught Gaara off guard. He didn't know how to respond. He glanced again at the ANBU mask. Through the eye holes, he could see blue eyes. Just like Naruto. Blond hair, blue eyes.
So this ANBU was his father.
Remembering how his own father had repeatedly tried to assassinate him, irritation surged again. Why was it always him? Why was he the only one who had a father like that?
What Gaara didn't know was that precisely because his father had done that, he desperately hoped Gaara and Naruto could become friends, hoping the two children could heal each other's wounds.
Even if…
He might never be able to forgive his father.
Having skipped lunch as well, and after nonstop high-intensity processing of fourteen years' worth of intelligence on the masked man and the Akatsuki, Minato also ordered a bowl of chashu ramen, paying extra for double portions of pork.
Even though it wasn't the first time, being able to eat his favorite Ichiraku Ramen with his dad still doubled Naruto's sense of happiness.
He enthusiastically tried to sell Gaara on everything, from Konoha's local customs to random jokes and gossip about the First and Second Hokage. He talked so vividly that even the Konoha ninja who came in later for ramen were left staring in confusion.
Unlike the Konoha ninja, Gaara wasn't particularly interested in the legendary co-founders of the village. Instead, he noticed something strange in Naruto's stories.
Whenever Naruto talked about where Konoha was fun or what food tasted good, he always described it from a third-person perspective.
As if he himself had never truly been part of the village.
Minato Namikaze, who knew exactly why that was, couldn't hide the sorrow and quiet pain beneath his mask.
When Teuchi brought over the three bowls of ramen, Gaara, whether still affected by Kotoamatsukami or not, continued listening without any sign of impatience. He stayed silent until the ramen was set down. Then he saw the masked ANBU remove his mask, revealing an ordinary-looking face, and calmly pick up the extra chashu from his own bowl, placing half into Naruto's bowl and the other half into Gaara's.
Naruto wasn't greedy for those two slices of chashu, but he deeply enjoyed the feeling.
Just like he'd mentioned earlier, he had once seen classmates from the same academy being brought into newly opened shops by their parents. Those parents would always pick the tastiest bite from their own bowls and place it into their children's.
He didn't know whether the food in that shop was actually good, because the owner wouldn't let him in, calling him the disaster who had killed the Fourth Hokage.
But seeing "others" eat so happily, the food there…
It was probably delicious, right?
And it was precisely this habit of placing himself in other people's shoes from a young age that gave Naruto Uzumaki an almost natural gift for empathy.
That was why, after Gaara finished his bowl of ramen with faint surprise, the completed C-rank mission produced that kind of reward…
...
Twenty years later, in a parallel world—
As the Fifth Kazekage prepared to take a train to Konoha to attend the Chūnin Exams hosted by the Seventh Hokage, a sudden tremor caused the lights inside the train to flicker violently.
Then came a harsh, piercing screech.
"Zzzzz—!"
The train slammed to a stop in the middle of the endless desert.
Broken train doors burst open, and from far away came booming sounds, "Boom—!" "Boom—!" as massive ninjutsu collided.
Using sand to lift himself into the air, the Fifth Kazekage, Gaara, saw a sky filled with golden sand in the distance.
And clashing head-on with that sea of sand was—
Gaara's expression changed drastically.
Back when he had first participated in Konoha's Chūnin Exams, while supporting the village, he had nearly died to that Kekkei Genkai ability.
That was—
Shikotsumyaku!!
"!!!!"
...
For more chapters, feel free to follow me on [email protected]/PinkSnake (100 Chapters Ahead).
You can also follow as a free member to read few advanced chapters.