"S-Such youthful energy, a-ahaha..."
Even Guy's laughter was slightly stifled as he tried to ease the tension.
"...Your brother from another mother, huh, Guy..."
Kurenai smiled gently, which didn't reassure Guy at all as he felt sweat trickling down his forehead.
"Ah, sensei... hello..."
Hinata was oblivious to the tension as she greeted them with a shy bow.
Her complexion seemed slightly pale, so Kurenai put her hand on Hinata's forehead and asked, "Hinata, are you okay?"
"...Ah, yes, sensei."
Hinata looked flustered, fiddling with her fingers in shyness before Kurenai shook her head.
"You're totally not okay. You should be resting, but I know you wouldn't listen. Just make sure to notify a medic if you feel sick..."
Kurenai reminded her to be mindful of her health.
"Hn!"
Hinata nodded shyly before leaving to join her friends in the crowd.
"Tsuna! Over here!"
A voice called out, and Tsuna turned to see Ayame waving at him with Teuchi sitting beside her.
They seemed to have prepared a seat for him as Tsuna turned to Guy, "Guy-san, since your rival isn't here, I think I'll go and join them for now..."
Guy sighed in pity, "I'll let you know if my rival shows up later..."
"Alright then..."
Tsuna nodded and bid farewell to Asuma and Kurenai with a nod before heading to join Ayame and Teuchi to watch the exam.
"...Rival, huh?"
Asuma mumbled.
Guy flashed him his signature smile, nodding enthusiastically, "Yes, Kakashi should be happy to meet him. He's just like me in my younger days..."
"..."
Kurenai twitched her lips slightly, recalling Tsuna's rude comment about her.
She could tell Tsuna noticed what he had done, but he didn't bother to apologize, which made her feel even more annoyed.
"...Just like you?"
She narrowed her eyes at Guy.
This made Guy slightly flustered as he flashed his signature smile, albeit slightly stiff, "Ah, yes. He's just like me in some aspects, hahaha..."
After some time, the participants slowly made their way into the arena and lined up with Naruto arriving a bit late, while Sasuke was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmm? Ah, you're finally here, Kazekage-dono. Please, take a seat..."
Hiruzen stood up to greet the Fourth Kazekage of the Sand Village. The Kazekage slowly made his way toward his seat, nodding before turning to the participants below who were lining up.
All the participants saw that the guest had finally arrived, and they felt a mix of emotions since their exam was about to start.
"..."
However, it was different for Gaara. He narrowed his eyes at his father but then noticed someone he had recently become familiar with.
His killing intent suddenly flared!
"...!"
Everyone was startled by the sudden pressure coming from Gaara, and Temari and Kankuro looked worriedly at him.
Gaara didn't seem to care about any of this as his eyes locked venomously onto Tsuna's figure in the audience.
He mumbled angrily, "...I'll fucking kill you later!"
"Hmm?"
Temari also spotted Tsuna among the crowd and realized that Gaara seemed to have a personal grievance against him.
"...This is not good."
She understood that Gaara was the one who first initiated conflict with Tsuna and felt slightly guilty about it since they had escalated the situation a while back.
Since she had already apologized, Temari didn't want anything to happen to Tsuna.
Not for his sake, but for her own!
"It'd be embarrassing for me to meet him again... Huh?"
She then blinked in confusion before her expression turned red.
Temari silently added, "Why do I care about that rude bastard anyway... Hmph! He could die, and I wouldn't care less anyway..."
"..."
Tsuna scratched his head awkwardly, realizing that Gaara had likely put him on some sort of hit list.
"Sigh... I guess I should've run away back then..."
He mumbled to himself as he heard Hokage's voice reverberating across the Konoha Arena, starting his opening speech.
Tsuna looked around, noticing some people moving through the crowd.
"Hmm? Their steps are so weird..."
Their movements were nearly silent, with close to zero vibration, which he could sense now thanks to his Earth-bending abilities.
"These people..."
They're definitely Orochimaru's goons!
"I wasn't planning to get involved in the first place, but..."
His mouth curled into a smirk as he looked at Gaara, whose eyes were locked on him. "I guess it's thanks to you I have this kind of opportunity, don't you think, kiddo?"
Tsuna now felt glad he had confronted Gaara head-on.
He knew that in the original story, Gaara wouldn't follow whatever plan Orochimaru had in mind and would use his Feigning Sleep Technique to unleash the Ichibi.
However, it seemed like somehow, either his existence or his encounter with Gaara had changed things.
He stared at the transparent screen only he could see.
[Mission: Suppress the Ichibi from Wreaking Havoc!]
[Reward: Seed of Chakra!]
[Description: You are not a resident of the Naruto world, hence you don't have any chakra. However, with this seed, you shall start your own path as a ninja!]
[Accept? Y/N]
"Who would've thought of this?"
Tsuna felt a thrill of excitement he had never experienced before. His gaze returned to Gaara, who was still glaring at him with intense hostility.
"Well, looks like I'll be joining the fray after all."
With that, he mentally selected 'Yes' on the transparent screen.
As someone from a different world, it was obvious that Tsuna didn't possess chakra.
In fact, in the Naruto world, their ancestors originally lacked chakra altogether.
It wasn't until Hamura and Hagoromo Otsutsuki were born with it as result of Kaguya Otsutsuki consuming the chakra fruit from the God Tree.
Hagoromo aimed to create peace using chakra and thus spread it among all human beings in his own way. However, to his dismay, humans weaponized it, leading to an unprecedented escalation of war.
Tsuna may not have known the history, but he had some ideas of what this seed of chakra would grant him.
"...I'll get stronger!"
That's all that mattered to him.
The stronger he became, the more missions he could undertake, and the more adventures awaited him.
"...It was a new ingredient back in One Punch Man, it's ramen this time..."
Tsuna was excited to see just how far he could elevate his cooking level as he grew stronger. He glanced at Gaara's venomous eyes with an amused expression, seemingly igniting a spark between them as Gaara gritted his teeth in anger.
"...Motherfucker!"
Gaara was on the verge of losing it, ready to charge into the audience and attack Tsuna.
However, Hokage's next words snapped him back to reality, "We ask that no one leaves until the final match of the Chunin Exam. So now, please... Enjoy the match!"
---
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