CHAPTER 161: CHAPTER 161

Three weeks later, at night.

The date of the official Chunin Exam selection was getting closer, and things inside the Sunagakure were starting to feel tense.

Both the Sand ninja and the students who came to take the exam could sense that something was off.

Under the full moon, Gaara sat on top of a large fish on a rooftop, lazily swinging its tail.

Beneath the fish’s tail, a row of wind chimes swayed in the evening breeze, ringing softly.

"You’ve gotta be kidding me. Don’t you sleep at night?"

In the still of the night, a voice suddenly broke the silence.

Gaara frowned slightly and looked down.

A ninja headband from the Sound Village, face wrapped in bandages, both arms hidden inside oversized sleeves.

He walked hunched over, slowly moving across the rooftop.

"Do you need something?"

Gaara didn’t recognize the guy. In fact, he didn’t remember most people at all.

He usually didn’t bother asking the names of the weak. But then again, people stronger than him could be counted on one hand.

Kimimaro and Sasuke were among the few names he remembered. Outside of that, he had little to no impression of anyone.

This guy in front of him? No idea where he popped out from trying to stir up drama.

"I want to defeat you here."

"If that happens, I’ll have a better chance of facing Sasuke in the next round."

"I know all about how you attack with sand. But which is faster—your sand or my voice?"

Kinuta said this while pulling up his sleeve.

On his right arm was a multi-holed arm guard. He crouched slightly, raised his only visible eye, and locked onto Gaara, clearly ready to strike.

"Whenever the full moon comes, that thing’s blood starts surging again."

Gaara muttered quietly.

"...Huh?"

Kinuta frowned slightly. Suddenly, he felt something wasn’t right.

Before he could attack, half of Gaara’s face twisted into something terrifying under the moonlight.

One of his arms was now covered in sand, engraved with a complicated pattern.

"W-what the hell is that!?"

*BOOM—!!*

With a deafening blast, the wooden rooftop split apart and exploded outward. Dust and debris flew everywhere as the area around them was completely wrecked.

Kinuta vanished along with the flying splinters and cloud of dust.

"Incredible. So that’s his true form?"

Kabuto and Baki stood on a balcony, looking straight toward Gaara.

Kabuto seemed genuinely impressed and said to Baki beside him,

"Is this okay? That Sound ninja?"

Baki could only watch as Gaara’s Shukaku crushed the Sound ninja instantly.

They were supposed to be working with the Sound Village right now, and that guy was technically their ally—so could Gaara just kill him like that?

"It’s fine. He’s no longer useful anyway."

Kabuto’s glasses reflected a white glare, making it impossible to read his expression.

"There’ve been too many changes around Sasuke. That guy was supposed to help test Sasuke’s strength, but we don’t need him anymore."

To test Sasuke, the best way is to leave a curse mark on him.

That part was Orochimaru’s slip-up—it had nothing to do with Kabuto.

"My original mission was to grab Sasuke directly, but I failed. And now it’s no secret that I was a mole from the Sound Village."

Kabuto scratched his head and smiled with squinting eyes.

Since Sasuke had been training outside the village with Kakashi, it was much easier to go after them out there than trying anything inside the village where the Anbu were everywhere.

But he had underestimated Kakashi’s power. Even though he knocked out Sasuke first, he still couldn’t take him away in the end.

Part of it was him intentionally blowing his cover, and part of it was that he really just couldn’t beat Kakashi.

Orochimaru had originally thought Kabuto and Kakashi were about on the same level.

Unfortunately, Orochimaru didn’t count on the fact that Kakashi has that "50-50 against anyone" kind of aura around him.

Yakushi Kabuto basically came out of it with nothing—he didn’t accomplish a thing and ended up exposing himself before running off.

"If you get exposed, and what we’re secretly talking about here gets discovered, then the plan to destroy Konohagakure will be ruined," Baki said as he glanced toward the corner behind Yakushi Kabuto.

Someone was standing there. They had stopped to eavesdrop not long after the two began talking.

Judging from what Yakushi Kabuto said, that person probably followed him after his identity got blown.

"I revealed myself on purpose. I just wanted to see how Konohagakure would react."

"This is a written order from the Sound Village. I think it’s about time we let them in on the plan."

Yakushi Kabuto looked at Gaara across from him and handed the scroll to Baki.

"I understand."

"But there’s something else going on here. Since we’re temporary allies, let me take care of it."

Baki took the scroll and tucked it into his cloak.

He’s been found!

Gekkō Hayate, who had just finished eavesdropping and was about to head back to report to the Third Hokage, suddenly narrowed his eyes—and vanished in an instant.

Baki’s figure disappeared right after him.

Yakushi Kabuto looked thoughtfully at Gaara, then jumped off the balcony. His figure quickly melted into the night.

...

Land of Wind.

Around noon, the temperature in the Land of Wind was rising, and the strong winds were finally starting to die down.

The swirling sandstorms had mostly calmed, with only light gusts brushing grains of sand past Hatake Satoru’s feet.

Ever since he got close to this place, there’d been a strong, foul smell in the air.

It was the stink of rotting flesh—or more specifically, the smell of human corpses.

The crows circling around Hatake Satoru kept leading him forward, helping him locate the bodies.

He stepped onto a rock and lowered his head slightly.

The crows had cleared away some of the sand around the bodies with their wings.

The corpses had clearly been there a while.

You couldn’t even tell what their faces looked like—there might not even be a patch of good skin left on them.

The only clue to their identities was their clothing.

They wore the uniforms of Sunagakure jonin and one of them had a very noticeable Kazekage hat.

Bugs were crawling out from beneath the thick clothes. Because of the midday heat, you could even see maggots wriggling inside the bodies.

Hatake Satoru’s stomach churned a bit. He pinched the bridge of his nose and looked around the area.

Whoever dumped the bodies picked a pretty remote spot.

There were no signs of people nearby, just rocks all around.

It was far from any place people lived, and with how the Land of Wind is, it’s not surprising the corpses weren’t found quickly.

"Well, I didn’t expect it to take this long to find them."

"But at least we found them."

Hatake Satoru gave a small smile. A few crows, their feathers all messy from the wind and sand, landed on him.

In the blink of an eye, Hatake Satoru and the crows disappeared, leaving behind just a few scattered feathers.

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