While Eiji was fighting in the arena, a shinobi rushed home as fast as he could.

Kimiko looked at a picture of her son Eiji and sighed.

The Hokage told her what happened, and that they should be prepared for the worst.

But suddenly Satoshi slammed the door open and rushed in.

"Dear, what's wrong, don't you have guard duty right now?"

He tried to say something, but he couldn't since he was out of breath from rushing home as fast as he could.

After a few tries, he managed to say those 3 words: "Eiji.....he....returned!!"

Out of shock, she let the picture fall on the ground, where it broke.

"WHERE IS HE?!" - she recovered from her shock and shouted with a panicked voice.

"He...he...didn't want...to be late...for his chunin exam...so he" - without letting him finish, she grabbed her husband by the arm and rushed with him towards the arena.

'I'm gonna die from running...and my hangover is killing me as well...' - the poor Satoshi was sure he would collapse.

"Oh my..." - Sakura couldn't believe her eyes.

The arena looked completely different now.

The ground was a huge deep hole with a dozen huge large spikes coming out of this deep hole.

She was sure, that they were hole so deep, that if you fell into it, you would end up as meat paste!

But the place where Eiji was standing, was like an "island" in this vast hole with spikes.

The same was for Genma, Eiji left for him a small "island" as well.

Genma looked at the arena and thought: 'I really wanna go home...'

Gaara saved himself from turning into meat paste through falling, by flying on his sand.

'Hmm, when the old Snake Sage, told me about this, I kinda was uninterested to be honest, since I originally wanted to learn Sage Mode only to buff my kenjutsu. But it looks like to be quite useful...'

Orochimaru couldn't believe it!

Not because of Eiji's move, in fact, Orochimaru can do more damage without less effort in various ways, but because it is genuine Sage Mode!

Back then, when he discovered Ryuchi Cave, even though he gained the ability to mold natural Senjutsu chakra, because of all his body modifications, his body was too weak to use Sage Transformation to enter Sage Mode.

This was what Kakashi, meant when he said in one aspect Eiji was ahead of Orochimaru.

Anyway, Orochimaru knew, that since Gaara was a crucial part of his plan, he needed to act now or else his plan might fail!

"WHAT THE HELL, KAKASHI SENSEI?! WHAT DID HE DO?!" - Naruto

"I can't really tell you, since not much is known about Sage Mode..."

Naruto tightened his fist, while Sasuke had a dark expression: 'So this is the power of this Sage Mode?'

"This guy...this guy is a monster like Gaara, except for the fact that he is somewhat mentally stable..." - Kankuro

"He is really like an entirely different person when he fights..." - Temari

'What about our plan? What should I do now? ' - Baki

"Akamaru, calm down. Even though he looks creepy and is super strong, he is on our side...I hope..." - Kiba

'Scary...' - Hinata

'Hmm, with this strength, shouldn't he already easily finished his opponent? Isn't he just trying to show off? Really...this guy is so shameless.' - Shino

'Hmm, I had 2 more things I wanted to try...but looks like I'm about to run out of natural energy...but isn't it about time for them to make a move anyway?' - Eiji

Meanwhile, Gaara was flying in the air.

His situation was, to put it mildly, pretty fucked.

He needed his sand to fly, so he couldn't attack.

Also, his defense was way weaker now, since a portion of the sand he could use to defend, was needed to fly.

So he was in a complete passive state, where he can only fly around and wait for his opponent to attack.

Fortunately or unfortunately, Gaara started to lose it, and his transformation began.

"Coincidentally", right at the same time Gaara's transformation started, some shadowy figures in the spectator seats started to take action and used Genjutsu.

CrusadeAgainstFurries

I noticed I made a mistake when it came to Snake Sage Mode. The people who got bitten by the snake sage, have their bodies changed to be able to use Sage Transformation. Through that they are able to enter Sage Mode, meaning that Snake Sages always will look snake-like when using Sage Mode, no matter how much they mastered it. This is also why the origin of Jugo's kekkei genkai was found by Orochimaru in Ryuchi Cave.

Not a huge mistake, but a mistake nonetheless. I'm sorry about that and will change it in the previous chapters.