Chapter 124 Increase the difficulty

"What are we supposed to do next? Just wait?" Sakura complained, twisting her shoulders and tapping her feet in annoyance.

"I don't think they expect us to be able to prepare for the next five days of the Death Forest journey in this one hour," Naruto speculated.

"We don't need five days at all," Sasuke retorted.

"Right, it definitely won't take us five days." Naruto agreed and sat down in the shade of a nearby elm tree. The sunlight shone on his body through the gaps in the leaves. He lazily put his hands behind his head. The seals intertwined on the black bandages sparkled like gold and sapphire in the sunlight, with chakra flowing through them and twinkling stars.

"I think we might be a little overprepared," Sakura said, sitting down to Naruto's right, stretching her legs in the opposite direction from him and resting her hands behind her back.

Sasuke found a comfortable position to Naruto's left and sat down, leaning his back against the trunk of the elm tree, enjoying the coolness brought by the shade.

Sasuke knew that this exam was very important, that it would determine their future, and that he should take it seriously, but whenever he was with Naruto and Sakura like he was now, he felt as if the whole world had gone quiet and time had slowed down.

Even if it was just for a moment, he could still feel a peace that went deep into his bones.

He had been confused all his life, not knowing what he wanted or what he should do, but now, he was more certain than ever that he belonged here, to Class 7.

Naruto and Sakura were discussing strategic deployment and how to avoid the giant centipede, but Sasuke was content to just listen, closing his eyes and listening to their familiar voices and the waves of chakra that soothed him.

There is no suspense in this exam. He thought to himself, anyone who dares to stand in our way will be completely destroyed.

At this moment, an unpleasant sound of footsteps and the fluctuations of an underdeveloped chakra system interrupted his thoughts. Sasuke groaned in displeasure, turned around, and glared at Naruto impatiently.

"Your fan club is here." He lowered his voice, almost squeezing out these words from between his teeth, his tone full of annoyance.

Naruto turned around and glanced at him sideways, which showed that he had noticed the brats.

"I don't understand why you hate them so much?" he complained in a low voice.

"They're annoying." This time, Sasuke yelled directly. "Especially that slug."

"What happened to Konohamaru?"

"I refuse to answer that question."

As expected, about a minute later, Sasuke saw the three little ghosts walking towards them stealthily. There was a piece of chakra cloth under their feet, disguised as a granite boulder - which was out of place with the surrounding sandstone gravel.

As soon as they walked in, Sakura pulled off the cloth on their heads, revealing Moegi, Udon, and Konohamaru's messy head and the snot scarf he was so proud of.

"Ouch!" Konohamaru complained, stamping his foot angrily. "How did you find us?"

"Are you kidding me?" Sasuke muttered dismissively.

Naruto looked at him helplessly, with a hint of pleading and reproach in his eyes.

Sasuke rolled his eyes.

"Teacher Iruka said that you will take an exam today!" Meng Huang said excitedly. "We want to give you a surprise. Wish you good luck!"

"It looks like we didn't scare anyone," Udon added.

"Thank you, guys." Naruto said kindly. "But you know what? You shouldn't go near the Forest of Death, especially during exams."

"Especially you, Konohamaru," Sakura added. "Where did you three leave poor Ebisu-sensei?"

Konohamaru grinned and scratched the back of his head. Sasuke thought sourly that this kid must have learned this bad habit from Naruto.

The three brats chattered around Sakura and Naruto, who was sometimes amused by them and sometimes encouraged them. For a while, Konohamaru was kept at bay by Sasuke's cold gaze until he finally mustered up the courage to ignore Sasuke's bad temper and focused on getting Naruto's attention.

"Hey, brother, why are you bandaged?" He moved as close to Sasuke as possible, hoping to get an answer, his scarf trailing behind him.

"This has nothing to do with you, brat." Sasuke yelled unhappily, glaring at the brat while leaning closer to Naruto, creating a tense atmosphere. He would never let the brat ruin his good mood.

Konohamaru was about to speak, perhaps to say something angry, but at this moment, Naruto interrupted:

"This is a tactical secret. I can't tell you."

Sasuke wasn't sure what the difference was between this sentence and what he had said before, but the brat believed it and actually shut up obediently.

"What are you three doing here?!" A woman's voice suddenly came from behind Team 7. Hongdou walked over from the other side of the woods, bent down, crawled under the branches of a maple tree, and pointed at Konohamaru and the other three.

"Students of the academy are prohibited from entering any areas related to exams." She continued. "I know Iruka-sensei must have told you."

At the mention of Iruka's name, the three brats jumped up, with Naruto snickering on the side.

"Oh no, I've been discovered..."

Anko threatened to tell Iruka-sensei about this, which made the three brats go away, and then she turned around and faced Team 7.

"Hey, you kids, I got some instructions from your teacher," she said loudly, with her hands on her hips, looking very reluctant to pass on the message.

Naruto immediately sat up straight, Sasuke opened his eyes, and Sakura pulled her legs back and straightened her back.

"What's wrong, Kakashi-sensei?" Sakura asked. "Is there something wrong?"

"Apparently, it's about the additional rules for your exam." Anko waved her hand impatiently. "He said, you should be able to guess what he wants to say?"

"He hopes that we will find this exam challenging," Sasuke explained, and Anko let out a shrill laugh at that.

"Yeah, good luck to you guys," she said seriously, holding up her hand with glossy black nail polish. "Anyway, that Kakashi guy is a mysterious bastard, I might as well just tell you what he said: 'The three of them can compete as a team, but they have to pass the exam as individuals,' whatever that means."

Sakura blinked and looked at the two boys. "As an individual? You mean..." As she spoke, she made an ambiguous gesture, as if she was weighing an object in each hand. This action confused Sasuke, but Naruto understood what she meant.

"You mean, we have to get both scrolls?" he asked.

Sakura nodded.

Sasuke quickly realized what they were talking about and shrugged.

"It does take a little longer but it shouldn't be too difficult and it means we can expand our search area."

Anko blinked and looked at the three children in front of her suspiciously.

The three children seemed to have reached some kind of consensus. They nodded in unison and turned to look at her.

"Thank you for telling us this, Sister Red Bean." Naruto added, his tone was enthusiastic. Red Bean blinked again. She was obviously frightened by the title of "sister", and she was still upset about the last time all her chakra was sealed by this brat.

Finally, she reluctantly said "I know, I know", then turned and left, continuing to supervise candidates from other countries.

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