"These footprints..."
Sasuke approached a set of footprints, activating his Sharingan to examine them closely.
At first glance, they seemed normal, but after a few seconds, he realised there was something different about them.
Ninja footwear was fairly standardised, so the footprints they left were all very similar. But these footprints were different, and yet, somehow familiar.
A moment later, a smirk appeared on his face. "I know who made Orochimaru retreat."
Hearing this, Naruto and Sakura looked at him curiously. "Who? Who was it?"
"Goku-sensei," Sasuke answered with absolute certainty.
"What? Goku-sensei? How do you know, Sasuke?" Naruto yelled in surprise.
"Just look at the footprints. The shoes Goku-sensei wears are completely different from ours, so the prints he leaves are very distinct. Only he could leave footprints like this!"
"Now that you mention it, they do look a bit different, but I still can't tell that they're Goku-sensei's," Naruto said, leaning in close to examine the prints.
"Hehe, don't forget I have the Sharingan. My powers of observation are far beyond yours," Sasuke said dismissively, crossing his arms.
"Tch, big deal, you have the Sharingan!" Naruto retorted with a deadpan expression.
"Alright, stop arguing, you two," Sakura interjected. "If it really was Goku-sensei, why did he leave without seeing us?"
There were only traces of one person leaving the area. That meant after Goku drove Orochimaru away, he had left immediately, presumably using Instant Transmission.
The three of them fell into thought.
A moment later, Naruto's eyes lit up, as if he had an idea. "I know! Goku-sensei must have been hungry, so he rushed off to eat!"
"..."
Hearing this utterly ridiculous answer, Sasuke and Sakura's eyes twitched, and their first instinct was to refute it.
But in the next second, they realised something, and unnatural smiles appeared on their faces.
"Heh, heh... knowing Goku-sensei, that's actually possible."
They all knew Goku was a pure glutton, and when he was hungry, his hunger was unlike anything a normal person could experience.
During their training, they had seen him regularly picking fruit from the surrounding area and roasting large animals he had hunted, practically stripping the area clean of edible fruit and game!
"But there's another possibility," Sasuke said, coming up with a more reasonable explanation, though he still partially agreed with Naruto's theory. "Maybe Goku-sensei didn't want us to become dependent on him."
"If we knew he stepped in to deal with a strong enemy for us, the next time we faced a tough opponent, our first thought might be to rely on him for help. Over time, we would develop a dependency... which is..." Sasuke looked at Naruto and Sakura.
Sakura already knew what he was going to say and finished the thought. "Which is that whenever we encounter a strong enemy, we'll want to retreat and let Goku-sensei handle it for us!"
Meanwhile, not far away, two teams had just crossed paths.
"Hey, what scroll do you have?" Kiba Inuzuka asked with a cocky grin, his hands in his pockets as he faced three Sound ninja.
Behind him stood a stoic Shino Aburame and a slightly nervous Hinata Hyuga.
"Konoha genin. We don't want to fight you. Move aside," said a menacing man with bandages covering most of his face, leaving only one eye visible.
He was Dosu Kinuta, and along with his teammates Zaku Abumi and Kin Tsuchi, he was a subordinate of Orochimaru.
Orochimaru had sent them to participate in the Chunin Exams with a single mission: to kill Sasuke Uchiha during the exam!
What they didn't know was that Orochimaru had only given them this mission to use them as bait, to test Sasuke's strength after he had been implanted with the Cursed Seal of Heaven.
Now, although Orochimaru had failed to implant the seal, he hadn't bothered to inform them, because they were merely disposable pawns whose fate he couldn't care less about.
For insignificant figures like them, this was truly a tragedy.
"Can't do that! Unless you have a scroll we don't need, we're not moving," Kiba replied toughly.
"What are you afraid of? Let's fight them! I can take these guys out in a few minutes!" Zaku, who was always eager for a fight, couldn't stand Kiba's arrogance and wanted to teach him a lesson.
However, Dosu raised a hand to stop him. "Don't jeopardise the mission." With that, he pulled a scroll from his pocket and showed it to Kiba's team.
"Oh? An Earth Scroll! What a coincidence, that's exactly what we need!" Kiba's eyes lit up upon seeing the scroll in Dosu's hand.
His team had a Heaven Scroll, so they needed an Earth Scroll to complete the set.
"It seems a fight is unavoidable then?" Dosu narrowed his eye upon hearing Kiba's words.
"Heh, we don't have to fight. Just hand over the scroll obediently, and we'll let you go," Kiba said with a smirk.
"Heh."
With Dosu's cold laugh, the atmosphere instantly froze, and a murderous aura began to spread.
Plop!
A squirrel in a tree accidentally dropped the acorn it was holding, making a soft sound as it hit the ground.
But instead of going down to retrieve it, the squirrel scurried away in terror.
"Ninja Art: Beast Mimicry, Four Legs Technique!"
Dropping to all fours and mimicking the form of a beast, Kiba lunged ferociously at Dosu. Dosu showed no fear, moving to meet the attack head-on.
THUD!!
After the clash, Kiba suddenly felt his head grow heavy, and then he realised he had gone deaf in his right ear.
"Y-you... what did you do to me?"
He felt his balance failing him and dropped to one knee.
"Hehe, take a guess," Dosu sneered, then moved to attack. Since they insisted on fighting, they could leave their lives here!
"Woof!!"
Seeing Kiba in danger, Akamaru roared and leapt to his defence. But in the next second, he was swatted away.
"Whimper!"
"Akamaru!!"
Kiba's eyes nearly popped out of his head seeing his beloved dog hurt. He struggled to stand, wanting to continue fighting Dosu, but a hand landed on his shoulder, stopping him.
"Let me handle this," Shino said, adjusting his sunglasses.
Then, Hinata also stepped forward, her expression determined. "Me too!"
"You guys... be careful. There's something weird about that guy. After fighting him, I lost hearing in one ear," Kiba warned reluctantly after a moment of struggle.
He knew perfectly well that in his current state, he wouldn't be much help, so he could only warn his teammates.
"Heh, although Dosu could easily handle two on one, I don't feel like just watching from the sidelines!"
Seeing the remaining two opponents step up, Zaku couldn't sit still. He walked forward, pointed at Hinata, and shouted, "Hey! I'll be your opponent!"