Returning to the central tower of the Forest of Death, Natsuro stood at the top, gazing at the bright moon, his thoughts racing.
From an emotional perspective, he definitely wanted to save the Third Hokage.
Natsuro didn't care about the Third Hokage's reputation in his past life; all he knew was that the Third Hokage had treated him well and genuinely cared for him, giving him the Flying Thunder God technique and numerous resources to enhance his strength.
Although the cost was to become Jiraiya's disciple, could that even be considered a cost?
Moreover, he often said that Sasuke's brother was an ingrate; now, if he chose to stand by and do nothing when he had the ability to help, what right would he have to say that? It would be like the pot calling the kettle black.
From a rational perspective, was standing by really a good thing? Not necessarily.
After all, considering his own interests, it was best for the Third Hokage to survive. Natsuro was still young and had no real conflicts of interest with the Third Hokage. In fact, the Third Hokage could help safeguard his own interests.
Furthermore, the Third Hokage clearly wanted to wait for him to grow stronger. The only downside was that if he really became Hokage, the Third Hokage would probably become an advisor, and at that point, his indecisive nature could indeed be troublesome.
But overall, the Third Hokage living was undoubtedly more beneficial for Natsuro than his death.
Perhaps not changing the plot could also be seen as an advantage?
However, Natsuro couldn't remember much; he only recalled certain key moments and had already altered the plot significantly.
If he were afraid of changing the plot, he wouldn't have been able to kill so decisively in the Anbu. Didn't what he did in the Anbu have an impact? No, it just hadn't become apparent yet.
Moreover, Sasuke currently had no intention of siding with Orochimaru, and Natsuro didn't plan to let Sasuke go to Orochimaru in the future.
Since he had already changed so much, how could he still think about not altering the plot? Was he out of his mind?
Although it seemed like not much had changed at the moment, this world had undoubtedly started down a different path.
All these factors made Natsuro's resolve even stronger: he would follow his heart and do his utmost to save the Third Hokage.
As for Konoha...
Natsuro fell silent. His initial thoughts didn't include the interests of Konoha, after all, he was a 'selfish' person, only caring about himself and those around him. That was why he had remained silent after the Third Hokage mentioned that principle.
Natsuro genuinely didn't expect the Third Hokage to care about such rules and to pay with his life for them. Otherwise, could Orochimaru really trap the Third Hokage in the Four Violet Flames Formation?
Could the Third Hokage be killed by that incomplete Edo Tensei? Not to mention, the recent Might Guy could give Orochimaru a run for his money!
So, Natsuro stretched out his hand, looking at the moon through his fingers. Was he truly suitable for the position of Hokage with such selfishness?
Not necessarily. Natsuro's gaze flickered. If he were Hokage at that time, Konoha would become his private property. How could a private property allow others to encroach?
No, wait. Natsuro frowned. If that's the case, he should work hard for it now, trying to ensure that Konoha's living forces suffered minimal losses. Wouldn't it be better to take over a well-preserved Konoha later?
That seemed to make some sense, but...
Forget it. Natsuro nodded to himself, realizing he had this old habit of overthinking. There was still a long way to go.
Moreover, his current strength wasn't sufficient, so he needed to work harder to become stronger. He didn't want to be a Hokage stuck in that position.
What could support his aspirations was strength.
But it would be soon; once this matter was resolved, he should be able to start learning Sage Techniques, which was the last opportunity for a significant leap forward he could foresee.
His chakra levels should be barely sufficient now, and his sensory abilities had long since met the requirements. He was only one step away.
Natsuro estimated that even if his Sage Mode wasn't as perfect as Naruto's, it shouldn't be as incomplete as Jiraiya's.
He was somewhat looking forward to his Sage Mode; what would it be like?
After contemplating everything, Natsuro returned to the tower, quietly waiting for the second round of the exam to conclude.
...
"Finally here; it was such a hassle on the way." Shikamaru said lazily as he looked at the central tower in front of him.
"With that said, our second round of exams should be a pass, right?" Ino said, somewhat happily, as it brought her closer to Natsuro.
"Yeah, yeah!" Choji nodded happily, munching on snacks, especially since these snacks were given to him by Ino, making them taste even better.
"Well, we should successfully open the Heaven and Earth scrolls at the same time," Shikamaru said.
"Alright, Shikamaru, let's open them together." Saying this, Ino took out a scroll marked with the character for "Heaven," while Shikamaru pulled out the scroll marked with "Earth."
Soon, both scrolls were opened simultaneously and placed on the ground.
"What is this…" Shikamaru looked at the writing on the scrolls, a look of realization appearing on his face.
In the next moment, a puff of white smoke rose, and at the same time, a figure appeared at the intersection of the Heaven and Earth scrolls.
"Well done, Ino. Of course, Shikamaru and Choji too," Natsuro smiled as he looked at the three.
"You can tell from the tone that it's extremely perfunctory towards me and Choji." Shikamaru pouted, then watched Ino joyfully rush over, unable to help but sigh; it felt quite difficult.
After all the hard work, was the result just letting Ino meet her boyfriend? A bit frustrating!
"How was the journey?" Natsuro asked, holding Ino's small hand with concern.
"Um, it was fine. We didn't encounter any danger. Shikamaru had already avoided most of the dangerous situations in advance," Ino said, glancing at Shikamaru. With him around, even the Chūnin Exams felt like playing on easy mode.
"Yeah, Shikamaru is indeed very clever," Natsuro nodded, acknowledging Shikamaru's intelligence.
"No matter how clever you are, without the corresponding means, it's useless. The reason it was so easy was that Ino and Choji themselves are quite strong," Shikamaru said.
Although Ino and Choji didn't say anything in response, they both smiled.
Natsuro looked at Shikamaru and smiled as well. Indeed, he was the only ninja in the original story who became a Chūnin after this interrupted exam; Shikamaru certainly deserved this qualification.
"Alright, take a good rest; the second round of exams probably isn't over yet," Natsuro said, scanning the number of people in the tower.
"Are there too many people?" Shikamaru noticed the crowd in the tower.
"Yeah, after all, the third exam has daimyo and some high-ranking officials watching, so all participating personnel must be elite. Otherwise, if two ninjas with subpar skills were to fight in front of the daimyo, it would be embarrassing for whichever village," Natsuro explained.
"Ugh, what a hassle..." Shikamaru sighed again after hearing this, wondering why so many things had to happen during his exam.
Ino and Choji also looked serious and began to focus on resting, though Shikamaru couldn't help but twitch at their choice of rest.
Choji was relatively normal, munching on snacks, but was Ino really resting while flirting with Natsuro?
Well, soon enough, Shikamaru noticed the arcs of electricity around Ino, and he knew she didn't possess Lightning Release, so it had to be Natsuro's doing—he couldn't compete with that at all.
Shikamaru looked elsewhere and started his own recovery process. Even though he kept saying it was a hassle, he was still working hard.
He didn't want to fall too far behind his former teammates, even if back then he was mostly interacting with their shadow clones.
After a while, many more people entered the tower, including Team Seven, led by Naruto.
"Natsuro! You're here too!" Naruto shouted excitedly from a distance upon spotting Natsuro, completely disregarding the other ninjas from different villages around them.
"Hey, did you see Iruka-sensei?" Natsuro greeted Naruto back.
"I did! Iruka-sensei said he would treat me to Ichiraku Ramen later, hehehe!" Naruto chuckled, scratching his head.
Sasuke and Sakura followed closely behind, nodding at Natsuro to indicate they hadn't run into any major problems along the way.
"Alright, you guys should take a break too; there are more assessments ahead," Natsuro said, then temporarily said goodbye to Ino. After all, he wasn't a candidate and it wasn't appropriate to stay among them.
At this point, Shikamaru also approached Team Seven to share his speculation, leaving them all stunned. Were there really too many people who had passed through the Death Forest?
The one to blame for all this, Shikamaru couldn't help but glance at Naruto. If Naruto hadn't given that inspiring speech during the first exam, far fewer people would have passed.
With fewer people in the first round, the competition in the second round would have been even more brutal, and the number of eliminations would have increased significantly—perhaps there wouldn't even be a third round.
However, because of Naruto, the number of participants in the second round had increased, which also reduced the difficulty of the assessments.
It was just a matter of cause and effect.
When the second round of exams ended, sure enough, just as Natsuro had said, a make-up exam was conducted to filter out more participants, using a random matching method.
After the seemingly ailing special Jonin, Hayate Gekkō, introduced the rules, the second round of the supplementary match officially began.
At that moment, Natsuro also arrived at the audience seats, watching the names on the big screen.
The first match was between Sasuke and a ninja named Iō Dō.
Natsuro didn't remember this match at all, so the ninja was likely a minor character.
Nevertheless, Sasuke was caught off guard by his opponent's abilities for a moment, but it wasn't for long.
Quickly, Sasuke used his new taijutsu technique, the Lion's Barrage, to claim victory.
"Lion's Barrage? Looks like he faced Lee before," Natsuro raised an eyebrow, glancing at Lee, who was watching Sasuke with a serious expression, seemingly surprised that his taijutsu had been learned so quickly.
Natsuro recalled the outcome of Lee's battle with Gaara in the original story. Although Lee was slightly stronger than in the original, his growth was limited since the accumulation of taijutsu skills took time.
Currently, Lee could probably open the Fifth Gate more easily, but that wouldn't help him much; Gaara's absolute defense was too effective against a pure taijutsu ninja like Lee, as most of his attacks would be worn down by sand.
Unless Lee could open the Sixth Gate and unleash the Morning Peacock, but it was nearly impossible for him to open the Sixth Gate right now, and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to use the Morning Peacock, so...
Natsuro pondered while looking over at Might Guy, thinking that when they met, he should inform Guy about Gaara's unique attack.
If the Might Guy from the original story had known what would happen to Lee after being attacked by Gaara, he definitely wouldn't have waited until the last moment to intervene.
Similarly, the other Jonin would have a hard time stopping Lee when he hadn't surrendered. They would only think that being trapped in sand would result in a broken leg at most, and recovery would only take a few days.
Their lack of understanding about Gaara made it impossible for them to anticipate the horrifying effects of the Sand Coffin, it was an attack that would crush all bones.
However, Lee's condition at that time was also due to not receiving timely treatment. If Natsuro could have treated him immediately, it would have made things much easier for Tsunade when she returned to take over.
But it was better not to suffer such hardships if it could be avoided.
As Natsuro reflected, two more matches passed below, with Shino and Kankuro both achieving victories. At that moment, two names appeared on the screen once more.
"Ino Yamanaka vs. Sakura Haruno!"
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