The preliminary rounds ended.
The winners gathered in the hall, and the Third Hokage blabbered a bunch of congratulations and the rules for the third exam on the podium.
The third exam would be held in an arena a month later. At that time, Daimyos and ninja leaders from various countries would come to watch.
After speaking, they began drawing lots to choose opponents.
First match: Sakakura Jokichi vs. Hyuga Neji.
Second match: Kankuro vs. Aburame Shino.
Third match: Temari vs. Nara Shikamaru.
Fourth match: Gaara vs. Uzumaki Naruto.
Sakura got a bye and advanced directly.
After drawing lots, everyone looked at their respective opponents with different expressions.
Some sighed, some had solemn gazes, some looked indifferent, and some were eager to try.
In short, the second stage of the joint Chunin Exams ended.
Jokichi said goodbye to his teammates and went home.
Then, he took his clothes and went to the hot spring street to take a bath.
Having stayed in the Forest of Death for days, he was covered in blood and sweat stains, even though he had washed in the river.
However, without hot water, soap, or body wash, how could he wash clean?
Not to mention, in the physical brawl with Lee during the preliminaries, his body was once again covered in blood.
Soaking in warm water around 60 degrees was very refreshing. Jokichi soaked for a long time before getting up to get dressed.
Inside was a light, black samurai outfit, with the black-and-white Sage's Feather Robe over it, and the sheer Shedding the Golden Cicada's Shell over that.
His whole person looked...
"Why am I looking more and more like Aizen?"
Standing in front of the mirror, Jokichi looked himself up and down.
He found that he in the mirror looked 70% similar to Aizen after he took off his glasses and slicked back his hair.
However, Aizen without glasses looked cold and ruthless, while Jokichi was softer, always wearing a faint smile on his face.
Jokichi didn't dwell too much on his appearance. He scratched his head and headed home with his change of clothes.
However, upon leaving the hot spring shop and passing by an alley, he found someone peeping inside.
Red clothes, white hair.
Although he couldn't see the front, these characteristics were enough for Jokichi to guess the person's identity.
It was none other than Jiraiya.
He stopped in his tracks.
Jokichi pondered slightly.
He didn't know Jiraiya, so pretending to be familiar and casually pulling his hair wouldn't work.
This guy looked careless on the surface, but was actually a man with a fine attention to detail.
Such a deliberate action would definitely be discovered.
Then, he could only—
"You pervert, doing such shameless things in broad daylight!"
Standing outside the alley, Jokichi gave a righteous and stern reprimand, then charged in as a messenger of justice.
The commotion outside reached the bathhouse, and the ladies inside started screaming at the top of their lungs one by one.
"What a pain!"
Jiraiya sighed regretfully.
Then he looked back at Jokichi, gave a strong jump with his crouching legs, and leaped onto the roof nearby.
Jokichi pounced on thin air, his plan to seize the opportunity to grab a bit of his hair falling through.
"Kid, I'm no pervert, whatever you do, don't chase me."
Jiraiya seemed to encounter this situation often. After greeting Jokichi, he turned and ran.
That practiced appearance made Jokichi freeze for a moment.
A large group of ladies wrapped in towels and carrying washbasins and the like aggressively surrounded the alley.
Among them was an auntie weighing over 200 catties.
Jokichi shuddered in fear and hurriedly chased along the route Jiraiya fled, not forgetting to shout loudly while chasing, "Pervert, stop right there, don't run."
"I told you I'm not a pervert, don't chase me!" Jiraiya shouted back, his feet not stopping as he continued to run.
"If you're not a pervert, why are you running?"
"Then why are you chasing me?"
The two, one chasing and one fleeing, quickly left the bustling market and arrived at the waterfall hot spring in the back mountain.
Jiraiya dove headfirst into a cluster of bushes, then jumped out and continued running into the distance.
Jokichi didn't stop and chased straight after him.
After a moment, Jiraiya emerged from the bushes, laughing proudly in the direction Jokichi was chasing.
"Hmph, you're still too green to play with me!"
"Is that so?"
A question came from behind him. Jiraiya's body instantly stiffened, and he turned around blankly.
He saw Jokichi standing with his arms crossed over his chest, looking at him proudly.
"Phew!"
Jiraiya sighed deeply, then sat cross-legged on the ground as if accepting his fate. "Speak, what do you want?"
With Jiraiya saying this, he conversely didn't know what to do.
Jokichi originally planned to catch up to Jiraiya and fight him, pulling out a few strands of his hair in the process.
But Jiraiya directly admitting defeat now made his plan fall through.
You can't just beat someone up after they've surrendered.
He scratched his cheek.
Suddenly, from the corner of his eye, he caught a glimpse of a figure.
The person wore a green ninja flak jacket, walked with a straight back, and had a meticulous expression on his face. One look and you could tell he was a very serious person.
"Uncle Fugaku!"
Jokichi shouted loudly at the person.
That's right, the person was none other than Sasuke's father, Uchiha Fugaku.
During the joint Chunin Exams, a large number of foreigners came to Konoha for tourism and sightseeing, greatly increasing the workload of the Police Force.
As the captain of the Police Force, he also worked overtime patrolling every day.
Especially some remote places with few people, which were the main locations of his patrols, to prevent certain lawless elements from plotting something.
At this time, he was patrolling the back mountain.
Suddenly hearing someone call him, he hurriedly looked over.
It's him!
Seeing Jokichi, Fugaku frowned.
After all, as the leading figure of this batch of rookies, Fugaku had also heard a little about Jokichi, knowing that he had always suppressed his own son at the Ninja Academy.
However, he was a very modest and polite person.
Fugaku walked over and asked, "Is there something wrong?"
"I just caught a perver... Eh, where did he go!"
Jokichi turned around, just preparing to hand Jiraiya over to Fugaku, but unexpectedly, Jiraiya, who was just behind him, had vanished.
"What's wrong?" Fugaku asked with a frown. "Did you run into some trouble?"
"No, I just caught a pervert, but let him get away."
"I see!"
Fugaku nodded slightly. Then, his eyes widened, his black pupils instantly turning blood-red, with three tomoe slowly rotating inside.
He scanned the area and found traces of escape on a large tree by the edge of the cliff.
"That guy jumped down from here."
Fugaku arrived at the edge of the cliff and looked down the waterfall. A figure was waving at them proudly, then ran off without looking back.
"Such a rampant pervert, I absolutely cannot let him go just like this."
Fugaku's gaze sharpened, and with a leap, he jumped down, running all the way down along the steep cliff.
"A-amazing!"
Jokichi was tongue-tied.
"Yeah, very amazing."
Jiraiya appeared beside Jokichi, nodding in deep agreement.
"Eh!"