The Sand Trio came earlier. Except for Gaara who still had no expression on his face, Kankuro and Temari seemed a little nervous. They were indeed guilty. But Maki dared to show up so blatantly. Should we say he was brave? Or did he feel that he was not exposed?

Most of the other candidates were accompanied by teachers or teammates, but it was unexpected that Haruno Sakura came alone. Considering that Kakashi and Sasuke were not there, and Naruto seemed to be late, it was not her fault. Sakura just greeted Mizuki and started looking for Sasuke; and the last one was Uzumaki Naruto, who arrived late just before the start of the exam.

"Is everyone here? Come in. Today is your stage to perform. Do your best~" The chief examiner Genjian Shiranui began to greet the candidates and explain some precautions to them.

"Wait a minute, it seems Sasuke hasn't arrived yet~" Uzumaki Naruto shouted anxiously.

Shiranui Genma replied, "We can't wait any longer. This isn't the first two exams. There are many important people watching your performance. We can't keep the daimyo waiting for too long, right?"

"But what if Sasuke can't catch up?" Sakura asked worriedly.

"If you are not there before Sasuke's match begins, Sasuke will be declared a forfeit and his opponent will win without a fight."

"How could this happen?" Sakura and Naruto looked worriedly in the direction they came from, but there was no sign of Sasuke at all.

"Okay, stop dawdling and go in." After Shiranui Genma finished his explanation, he was about to perform his duties as an examiner.

…

After most of the audience and candidates had entered the venue, a group of important figures and their entourage took their seats in the VIP stands. After everything was ready, the Third Hokage and the Fourth Kazekage finally arrived and sat down on the podium opposite.

"Why is there still only one guard? What is the third generation thinking?"

Did he not strengthen his defense as expected? Was it because of his confidence? Or was it to fulfill his duties as a Hokage and show his strength and tough attitude? Or was it to make up for his past mistakes and wait for Orochimaru to come to him?

Then Mizuki looked at Orochimaru who was disguised as the Kazekage, but he was a little far away and couldn't see clearly. The two Kages of the big ninja villages didn't have much protection around them, because they themselves were symbols of powerful military force.

No longer looking into the distance, Shuimu stood quietly in the aisle at the back, scanning the entire venue, hoping to find a few familiar figures based on his memory.

"Hasn't Yakushi Kabuto arrived yet?"

After searching for a long time and still not finding the deeply hidden spy, Shuimu had to give up.

And the match between Uzumaki Naruto and Hyuga Neji has also begun.

In fact, in terms of talent, Hyuga Neji is a rare true genius among the Twelve Ninjas. In terms of ninja ability, perhaps the only one stronger than him is Nara Shikamaru.

That's right, it's Nara Shikamaru, not the child of destiny Uzumaki Naruto, nor Uchiha Sasuke, the reincarnation of Indra. Nara Shikamaru has an IQ advantage that crushes everyone, but he has a lazy personality. If he had a little more enthusiasm for ninjutsu, his future achievements would definitely be limitless. The shadow imitation technique that has always been talked about is Shikamaru's own improvement based on the shadow binding technique inherited from his family.

At the same time, Nara Shikamaru is also a person that Mizuki feels very sorry for. His intelligence is not used where it is really needed, and due to his personality, he relies too much on his brain to solve problems. He always faces difficulties in the most labor-saving way, but neglects to exercise his strength. As a result, although Shikamaru's strength is not weak, he is indeed at a disadvantage among all the candidates. The competition with Temari, although showing Shikamaru's outstanding talent, also exposed the great defect of insufficient hard power. Sooner or later, he will find that if he does not have enough strength to play the advantages of his brain, he will definitely suffer a great loss.

And Hyuga Neji is another rare genius. The soft fist seems to be tailor-made for him. With the help of the Byakugan, he can control chakra in short and medium distances to perfection, and he can bring out the characteristics of the soft fist to the fullest.

It's just a pity that Hyuga Neji, who has not yet escaped the shackles of his family, has not yet become a strong man. However, even so, three years later, the amazingly talented Neji can become the first of the Twelve Ninjas of Konoha to be promoted to Jonin.

If he had not encountered Uzumaki Naruto, the human sacrifice who relied on the Nine-Tails' chakra to break through the blockade of his chakra with his acupoint-pressing ability and turned defeat into victory, Hyuga Neji might have become the other Genin to be promoted to Chunin in this Chunin Exam, in addition to Nara Shikamaru.

The game process on the field is similar to that in the original work. No matter how much advantage Neji has, in front of the Nine-Tails, even if it just leaks a little bit of power, it is difficult for Neji to resist. In the case that he cannot win the battle quickly, the effect of the gentle fist cannot take effect. If the battle with Uzumaki Naruto is dragged to the point where he needs to compete with physical strength, Neji's chances of winning are not very high.

As expected, the result did not change much. Uzumaki Naruto still won his first victory with great difficulty. The process was quite exciting and the victorious Naruto also won applause from the audience.

Maybe this was the first time that Naruto gained everyone's recognition. After defeating a powerful enemy, Naruto was overjoyed and wanted to show off in front of Sasuke as soon as possible, but found that Sasuke still didn't come.

Seeing the game was over, Shuimu looked around and found that there seemed to be more spectators than before.

"Hey, that strange ANBU, is it Kabuto Yakushi? When did he come?"

Suddenly, Mizuki saw a suspicious ANBU in the back corner of the stands. It must be Kabuto Yakushi. As expected of an experienced and multi-faceted spy, he was able to sneak in without anyone noticing even when he was looking for him.

However, it is not the time to start a major war yet. Kakashi has not returned yet, and we cannot act rashly until the main forces are gathered.

Thinking of this, Mizuki turned his attention back to the stadium below. It was finally Haruno Sakura's turn to appear. Sakura, who had always been low-key, must have given everyone a big surprise.

"However, your teammates and the team leader are not here yet, so it's difficult for me, a temporary teacher with a lot of tasks to do, to cheer you up. I wish you good luck~"

To Mizuki's surprise, there were still people cheering for Sakura. Looking at Yamanaka Ino who was shouting in her seat without caring about her image, and Rock Lee who had just arrived and was dancing with his crutches and blowing kisses, Mizuki sincerely felt that the level of the Konoha Ninja cheerleading team was too low.

"Gai, Jonin, Rock Lee's injuries haven't healed yet, is it okay for you to be so presumptuous?"

"It doesn't matter, this is youth." The familiar thumbs up, the familiar smiling face with shining teeth, made Shuimu suddenly feel that it would be better to just watch the game honestly.