The day passed quickly, and Kaito had already returned home, while Naruto had gone to his apartment.
Upon arrival, Kaito went straight to his room. He was preparing to study the seal he had removed from Sasuke, which was now in his scroll.
Sitting in his room's chair, he opened the scroll on his desk and began to examine the seal, which contained a bit of the curse mark.
'The seal has changed in a certain way. I used a mark with five points in a spiral shape, and now there's a sixth point centered in the middle of the seal. The chakra inside seems alive. It started modifying the seal to fit its form,' Kaito thought as he looked at the scroll.
"I will have to experiment on some living beings, perhaps animals would be a good choice. I'll also need to multiply these seals to gain more experience." After thinking about it, Kaito began forming more five-point seals and let them absorb some of the chakra from the other seal.
Kaito watched for any changes, and it didn't take long for another point to appear in the center in an opaque form. Clearly, it needed more time to complete. Upon closer inspection, he could see that the seal was attempting to consume the chakra, but the chakra was resisting, resulting in some kind of change in the seal.
After a few minutes, the seal was once again modified, and Kaito could see that the seal had finished its internal struggle. He then left his house and headed towards the nearby forest.
It didn't take long for him to return with a rabbit in his hands; this would be the first animal he would use for testing. Before that, he had considered using it on some meat, but he was now prepared to care for the rabbit until he felt confident.
Placing it in a cage and providing some food, Kaito took out his scroll to retrieve the meat he had stored from the snake and boar.
Upon thawing the meat, he placed it on the table and observed. The chakra particles were still very active, which was a good sign. He then began adding the new six-point seals to the boar's meat.
He watched closely, and there was no change for the time being. All he could see was the chakra of the meat being consumed, which was the main function of his seal. So, he decided to create several other six-point seals to experiment further.
Not long after, Kaito now had several new seals. Finally, he focused all his attention on the boar's meat. As he made the seal, he frequently observed for any changes, but all he noticed was that the chakra was slowly disappearing.
Now, finally, the meat was completely devoid of chakra, and Kaito was somewhat disappointed because there was no significant change. But just as he was about to remove the seal for further research, a change occurred. Various structures of the meat began to change visibly as the seal spread directly onto it.
Kaito infused his chakra into the seal and observed the changes. The chakra that had disappeared was now overflowing again, more than triple the original amount. However, the meat was trembling intensely.
'The seal absorbs a certain amount of chakra and returns triple, but this generates extreme muscle tension,' Kaito thought as he watched the meat slowly disintegrate in front of him because the chakra explosion had ended, depleting all the chakra from the meat again.
Kaito then recreated the seal and applied it to the snake meat. Changes occurred much faster this time, and it was clearly more stable. While the chakra visually appeared smaller, it was much stronger than before. This led Kaito to the conclusion that it was in this form because it would be more compatible with Orochimaru.
'Well, I'll have to research a lot to modify it to be able to use it properly. Even though it seems stable, I can sense madness and a high level of stress present in the meat,' Kaito sighed. After that, he tried several times in search of any difference, but all the results were the same. So, he decided to proceed with his experiments but switched the rabbit for a snake he found again in the forest. When he applied the seal, he noticed that the snake became strong enough to break the cage it was in while trying to escape. It managed to awaken its chakra, causing an increase in its body volume, but after a few minutes, its body succumbed, dying in agony.
This did not discourage Kaito because he knew it could happen. So, he spent the entire night researching and testing the 'curse mark.'
...
Two weeks later.
The sun had already risen, and all the ninjas of Konoha were in their routines, while the participants of the Chunin Exams were heading to the final location.
Kaito had returned to his routine during the two weeks, fighting with his mother and learning fuinjutsu with his father at night. He was gaining a lot of combat experience, which was something he needed the most. His mother also taught him various other ninjutsu, further complementing his growing power.
Naruto had not shown up as Kaito thought he would, leaving him disappointed because he couldn't subject Naruto to the same torture he had endured in the last few weeks.
Kaito woke up early, feeling his body bursting with energy, ready to fight his opponents in the Chunin Exams.
'I know this exam will be canceled because of Orochimaru, but I'm excited,' Kaito thought, smiling. He had finally developed an incredible taste for combat during the entire month of his mother's torture.
Kaito headed to the Chunin Exams final after waking up, eager for the upcoming battles.
...
"Today we'll have the Chunin Exams final. I hope everyone has trained and will show us some new tricks," the Hokage opened the Chunin Exams finals, and all the participants who had reached the finals prepared as the audience eagerly anticipated the battles.
"Naruto Uzumaki vs. Neji Hyuga," Hayate Gekko announced.
Naruto, upon hearing this, jumped into the field, gripping his staff tightly.
'I'll get revenge for you, Hinata,' Naruto thought.
Neji slowly made his way to the location. The two faced each other, Naruto staring into Neji's eyes, who, in turn, looked at Naruto without much reaction.
"Naruto, do you think you can defeat me after learning some ninjutsu? Pitiful," Neji commented, looking at Naruto.
"And that's what we'll see," Naruto prepared himself. As Hayate announced the start of the fight, Naruto attacked with his staff, reaching Neji's side in an instant with absurd speed.
Veins on Neji's face and eyes appeared, clearly indicating that he had activated his Byakugan, keeping up with Naruto's speed. Neji leaped, evading the attack.
He then threw some kunai that Naruto defended by swinging his staff, and in the next moment, he used his Shadow Clone Jutsu, with all of them attacking Neji at once.
Neji then used his Eight Trigrams: Rotation, creating a rotating sphere that destroyed Naruto's clones. But in the next moment, as he deactivated the ability, all he saw was a staff propelled with a wind jutsu, causing him to activate his ability again to defend.
The staff hit the sphere and was deflected in another direction, piercing directly into the wall.
Neji observed this and had to admit it was very powerful.
But in the next moment, his heart stopped because there were hundreds of Naruto clones, all using the same jutsu.
'What an absurd amount of chakra,' Neji thought as he used his technique again.
"I'm going to break your damn defense now."
.
Naruto shouted as he used his jutsu, but this time, he employed the same tornado he had used in the preliminaries. All the clones repeated the technique at different points around the rotating sphere.
Neji had an arrogant look as his technique blocked all the attacks, but soon his face turned pale. He realized that his technique was slowing down the rotation, and despite his desperate attempts to maintain the pace, more and more attacks were coming. After a few seconds, his technique was broken by the last of the attacks.
Neji finally sighed, thinking it was the last attack. However, as the barrier dissipated, a staff hit him directly in the chest at high speed, throwing him far, even after he activated his chakra emission to try to defend himself.
He fell heavily to the ground, breathing frantically in search of air.
Naruto approached his staff slowly, picking it up, and finally looked at Neji on the ground.
"You can have the best guidance and training, but it won't matter at all if your arrogance blinds you," Naruto said. After saying this, he looked at Hinata and smiled, making a victory sign with his hands.
Hinata's face turned completely red, and smoke could be seen coming from her head. Kaito, who was nearby, thought she might faint again, but this time he was completely surprised. Hinata was fine and even waved to Naruto with her head bowed.
'What a miracle. Maybe the mission to bring them together will be faster than expected.' Kaito felt more relieved seeing that.