"There are teams near the building, all of them have both scrolls but they still remain there to reduce the competition for the next stages." Naruto abruptly stopped. He had already felt 7 of his shadow clones die and bring him the information.

"How mean of them. Why can't they just finish the test." Sakura cursed them.

Sasuke scoffed, "Because they know the tests will only continue to become hard. This time we were told we could die, next time it might become a much higher possibility that we would either die or lose a limb."

Sakura's face paled. But Naruto ignored them, "We... We have no way but to go through them."

"But... What if they gang up on us?" Sasuke said. He was actually trying to participate in the whole mission now.

"Well, let's gang up on them first then. You two know the cloning Jutsu, right? We will create multiple identical teams of ourselves and let them distract them, while we will be sneaking into the building from underground." he suggested.

And so they went ahead with this idea. First, they started to dig a tunnel, not too big, just enough for them to crawl through it. When they were halfway there, they signalled their clones to move and distract the teams. The 3 teams they had created ran towards the building at full speed. Naruto himself, who had 50 clones remaining, divided them into teams of 3 and changed their clothes to look different.

All the teams in the vicinity started to get diverted by them. And during all this chaos, the real Team Seven arrived at the door of the building. Still being sneaky and keeping a cover, they entered and opened the scroll.

The Genins were forbidden from opening either scroll until they reached the central building. It turned out that opening the scroll would summon a higher-ranked ninja to grant them advancement to the next stage. But, they found out that if they had not followed this instruction, the summoned ninja was supposed to render them and everyone else in the area unconscious for the duration of the second stage.

Naruto and the rest were brought outside the forest of death as they had already completed the test. Naruto was pretty excited, "Hey, did we come first? We did it in under 4 hours."

The ninja smiled wryly, "No, another team came before you, and they did it in just one and a half hours. They're from Sunagakure."

Naruto stomped on the ground in anger, "We worked so hard."

"It's okay, Naruto. We at least won." Sakura consoled him.

"NO! I need to excel at it, how else would I become the Hokage if I am just average. Hmph... I need to go and train." He ran away to find a quiet place.

A few days later, the preliminaries took place, it was mainly because too many genins ended up passing the second stage. So, a single round of randomly selected one-on-one matches was held where only the victor will get to continue on.

Naruto was to fight Kiba Inuzuka. Naruto easily won as he had trained too much for fighting. Also, if he were to lose these low-level matches even after getting trained by Kurama himself then it was better to just drown himself in a puddle.

The last stage came soon. Naruto was excited for this day because he would finally get to become a Chunin. This meant he could take on even more dangerous missions and make more money. But he also felt sad since this would mean he can't eat at Ichiraku for free anymore.

The finals were held a month after the completion of the preliminaries so that finalists can have a chance to recuperate and prepare. This also allowed news of the exam/tournament to get around and attract greater publicity for the event, generating money for Konoha in return. The finals also consists of one-on-one tournament battles.

The arena was full and the Hokage, as well as Kazekage, had taken their places. There was a sense of mystery and uneasiness among the higher ranking ninjas of the village. Kakashi as well as some other Jonin had already understood that something big was going to happen, most likely an attack from Sunagakure. So everyone was on edge.

The guards at the gates however were still oblivious of everything and were goofing with each other, not knowing that the army of Sunagakure was already hiding behind the trees there.

Back in the arena, Naruto was supposed to fight Neji Hyuga. A really talented and strong ninja of Konoha. If it was old Naruto, he would surely have a problem defeating him, but today Naruto had something special that nobody had expected.

*WOOSH*

Naruto threw a kunai towards Neji from the side. There were 3 in total, however, the last one was different from the rest, as it had a white handle and some words written on it.

Neji had never seen it and deduced it was normal too. But to his shock, the next moment Naruto vanished from his spot and the next thing he knew... *BOOM*

Out of nowhere, Naruto appeared in front of him and his kick slammed at Neji's head. It was a full-powered kick, meant to end the match. And that it did. Neji fell down towards his left like a ragdoll, the kick was just too strong for a human to face and go unfazed.

"AA... My leg hurts," Even Naruto was complaining. But he stayed prepared, focusing on Neji's body on the ground. The referee Hayate Gekkō came and checked on him and found unmoving eyeballs. Realising the result was clear, he quickly waved his hands.

"YEAAAAS!..." Naruto jumped in excitement.

The people were in shock though. No one had expected the nobody Naruto, who's hated by all and known to be weak, to win all of a sudden.

An excited Naruto returned to the sitting area. Another round was going to take place next so he hadn't become a Chunin yet. But he was not afraid of anybody now.

Meanwhile, Kakashi, Hiruzen, and the Kazekage( Orochimaru) as well as most jonins and elders were left in shock. Because the jutsu Naruto had performed was such a legend in Konoha.

Hiruzen chuckled from his seat, "Like father, like son."

...

In the sky over Konoha.

When the people of Konoha, strong or weak, were watching the children fight each other, a figure arrived in the sky, looking down at the village. To this being, nothing mattered, no plans or plots that were going on in the village could make him move, because to him, solving them was as easy as moving his hand.

The world was truly a playground for him, and even in that playground, everyone was a kid while he was an adult.

"Good lad, it seems Kurama has found a new friend," Shiroken said laughingly. He had noticed the red aura around the kunai Naruto was throwing.

"So this is the Jinchuriki of saint Kurama. He looks dumb. Let's go and meet him." Monari added.

Shiroken sighed, "He sadly is probably. And stop trying to make me do things. You were not invited today if you remember. Sheesh... Can't believe you really ran all the way back to Dama Country to hand over Shirajin to Jin, just to come with me"

"Well, I'm a shinobi, I just ran over the Genzai Gulf. It was a much shorter route, it only took me 2 days." She shrugged and continued to look around.

Shiroken sighed, "I shouldn't have told you so early about my visit here. Now, don't move, follow my lead."

"Aren't we going to stop the war, Lord Dama?" Shisui asked with conflicted eyes. He was back in Konoha for the first time after that day when he 'killed' himself and officially 'died'.

"No, why would I meddle in their fight? It's good that they deplete their forces and weaken themselves. It will make their country weak and easier for me to control." Shiroken replied without any care. They were currently hovering in the air. Shisui and Monari were standing on a small metal sheet that he was controlling to hover beside him.

"AH, LOOK! It's starting." Tenken, the sword spoke. He just loved his life these days, no training, no fighting, he had fun the whole time by sitting near Shiroken's chair and looking at various people getting face-slapped by his master.

They looked at the arena. Some activities were happening there, the Hokage and Kazekage were acting strange.

*BOOM*

A loud destructive noise came, people panicked and looked left and right. Shiroken saw it first, the boundary wall of the village was breached by three giant snakes.

"Tenken, look. Your relatives are fooling around." Shiroken pointed.

Tenken angrily fumed, "For the last time, my lord. Not all snakes are my relatives. Stop calling each snake you see my relative."

"Fine fine... Ah, look, Orochimaru has shown his true self. Hiruzen is fighting him now... To think he was Orochimaru's teacher, he must've been blind to not see the darkness in that man." Shiroken disdainfully looked at the scenes unfolding.

"Is he even a man? I'm confused." Monari wondered.

Shisui coughed and corrected, "He is indeed a man, Lady Monari. Or maybe he was..."

"OH! Look, he's like a snake. Tenken, another family member, this time a human." Shiroken exclaimed seeing Orochimaru elongate his neck.

Tenken sighed, "My lord, I was a mighty respected sage before becoming your slave, please show some respect."

Shiroken laughed as if he heard the most outrageous thing, "Pfft... You were locked in a box under the ass of the White Snake Sage."

"SHIRO! LOOK!" Monari shouted all of a sudden.

Shiroken looked down with a smile. But... In a split second, it was as if the air stopped moving and the world became colder. The clouds became darker and thunder started to strike here and there. Nature had become very angry all of a sudden.

The people in the arena were scared and ran for their lives. First, the attack and now the sky was also punishing them.

Hiruzen and Orochimaru instinctively looked up, but instead of seeing the lightning, they saw something else which made their hearts shiver in fear and their feet turn cold.

Orochimaru quickly looked at the two coffins he had summoned. The two beings who came out of those coffins were his personal insurance in today's fight, but just now he realised that... HE F*CKED UP!

~H-He... He can't be that angry after so many decades.~ Orochimaru tried to assure himself.

Hiruzen was pale, it was as if life had left his body and now there was just an empty husk left. ~HE... HE CAME! AT THE WORST TIME!~

...

"HASHIRAMA!" Monari angrily roared, seeing the familiar figure in the same red armour.

Shiroken's face looked devoid of emotions, but his eyes told a thousand stories, sparkling in crimson colour, radiating a dangerous aura that even made the nearby 3 rampaging giant snakes cower in fear and run away.

"Monari, go and evacuate the whole village. I didn't know such a jutsu existed, but now that they are here, I shall welcome them wholeheartedly." He ordered firmly. This time he was not speaking as her sweet brother, but rather as the Lord of the Nidama Clan.

"I will, Lord Dama." She dutifully nodded and vanished from the spot.

Shisui's legs were shaking at that moment. He had never seen Shiroken like this in all his journey. He had never expected a kind and sweet person to also look so terrifying.

"L-Lord... Dama. May I go and help Lady Monari?" He asked in stutters.

Shiroken's eyes moved. Shisui felt as if his body and his soul was shredded apart and left naked to be seen and read. "Yes, but if you try to act smart and do something against me, I will forget our good friendship."

"Y-Yes... Lord Dama." Shisui jumped away. He honestly had no guts to betray him, he just wanted to help to evacuate, because he knew the sky was falling on Konoha today.

Shiroken slowly descended from the sky towards the terrace of the arena, where the fight was taking place. All the people in the whole arena, all ninjas be it young or old had stopped and now looked at him. The strange man coming from the sky. They had never seen him before. Most who were smart felt deep fear rise in their hearts all of a sudden and ran away. Some felt the air they breathe started to feel heavier for some reason.

Kakashi had no idea who this person was, nobody in the village had. But a few old folks knew it, this was their worst nightmare incarnated.

"HASHIRAMA!... REMEMBER ME?"

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[You can see the arena, Naruto and Neji, coffins and old faces on my Discord - https://discord.gg/DgHkrAn OR see them on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/mister_immortal_novel]

RANK TOO LOW! GIB STONES! MONKE SAD!

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(Advised you don't join right now as there are only 25 chapters. I Will be uploading more soon.) You can read 30 Advanced chapters at -patreon.com/misterimmortal.

Special thanks to *Douglas Flower* *Umar Latif* *Julian Rocamora* *Darrien Steely* *Franklin Walley*

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