It's better to be a rebel ninja than to be a Hokage

The towering trees of the Death Forest grow densely together.

In order to compete for as many resources as possible to sustain themselves, the huge roots of these big trees even grow above the ground.

These tree roots that broke through the ground are intertwined and have actually formed a natural tree hole in the ground.

Outside the exit of the tree hole is a short grassy field with a wide view, where the enemy can be spotted immediately.

Naruto looked up in the tree hole and saw a hint of gray through the dense leaves above his head.

This is the color of the sky at dawn. Class 7 has spent the first night in the Forest of Death and is now about to welcome the second day.

Naruto retracted his head and tilted his head to look at Sasuke who was lying next to him.

As the night faded, Sasuke finally ended his sleep mumbling that had lasted all night.

This means that Sasuke suppressed the power of the curse seal.

Naruto looked curiously at the three black magatama-shaped curse seals on Sasuke's right shoulder.

The round head of the magatama is inside and the tail is outside, forming a non-standard circle without an outer circle on Sasuke's shoulder.

Feel the natural power slightly spreading from the seal.

Even though Naruto already knew that Sasuke could control the curse seal.

But Naruto was still surprised at Sasuke's talent after witnessing with his own eyes that Sasuke was able to initially master the power of nature in just one night without any foundation or teaching.

Then Naruto raised his eyes again and met the gaze of Sakura who was lying next to Sasuke.

"Naruto?"

Sakura, who had woken up from her coma, subconsciously called out Naruto's name.

She looked confused, not knowing where she was or what had happened before...

He just stared blankly at the dusty Naruto.

"You finally woke up."

Naruto breathed a sigh of relief, feeling fortunate that Sakura had woken up, and he also cared about her physical condition: "Do you feel nauseous or uncomfortable, or anything else?"

Sakura shook her head, propped herself up with her hands and sat up, suddenly feeling a splitting headache.

"Well!"

Sakura couldn't help but let out a soft groan as she felt a headache coming on.

"My head hurts..."

As she said this, Sakura reached out and gently pressed the back of her head to find the source of the pain.

"…The sudden gust of wind blew me away…I seemed to hit my head, and then I lost consciousness."

Sakura recalled the fragmented fragments of memory and found the reason.

"Are there any other injuries?"

At Naruto's reminder, Sakura explored her body for a while.

"Nothing."

"That's good. The fact that you woke up means that you are fine...but Sasuke..."

Naruto stared down at Sasuke who was still sleeping, and avoided looking at Sakura.

It seems that Sakura didn't realize that she was under a genjutsu.

Naruto wanted to ensure that Sakura would not notice that he had used Flying Thunder God, and also to allow Sakura to avoid Orochimaru.

Before Orochimaru attacked Team 7, Naruto cast an illusion on Sakura in advance.

It causes her to fall into a dream under certain circumstances, making it difficult for her to distinguish between reality and illusion.

This is the real reason why Sakura's memory is intermittent.

Judging from Sakura's reaction now, she probably really thought that she was hit on the head after being blown away by the hurricane, causing her to lose her memory.

"Sasuke?" Sakura looked at Sasuke, who was covered in wounds. "Naruto, what happened?"

Sakura tried hard to search her memory, but her clear memory only reached the point when a sudden hurricane blew away the three members of Team 7.

"I do not know either……"

In response to Sakura's question, Naruto's answer was slightly bitter.

"Let's sort out the existing information first."

Naruto suggested.

Sakura nodded. There was no other way now.

"Let me tell you the current time first. We have already spent the first night in the Forest of Death. Now it is the dawn of the second day, and it will be daybreak soon."

Naruto's words left Sakura speechless.

She was unconscious for such a long time...

"Not long after we entered the Death Forest last night, we were hit by a violent hurricane that blew us away."

Naruto looked at Sakura, "Sakura you were blown away by the wind and hit something and then you lost consciousness."

"Ah."

Sakura affirmed Naruto's conclusion.

"Then I...like you, I was blown far away by the hurricane—"

As he said this, Naruto suddenly reached for his ninja tool bag.

Sakura's eyes followed Naruto's hand, and when Naruto's hand appeared in Sakura's sight again.

There was a black scroll of "Earth" in Naruto's hand.

Sakura never expected Naruto to take out the Scroll of Earth.

She stared at the scroll in front of her, dumbfounded.

"The scroll of 'Earth'...we..."

Sakura was still a little incredulous.

The passing standard for the second exam is that all members of the ninja class collect the "Heaven" and "Earth" scrolls and enter the high tower in the center of the Death Forest within the exam time.

It was only the next morning, and Class 7 had already completed its first exam goal.

"——That's what I'm saying. I was blown away by the hurricane and encountered the enemy."

Naruto put the scroll away again and continued, "It's the complete three-man team of Amegakure. Sakura, you should have an impression of those three people as well - they all wore oxygen masks."

"I remember them. Their names should be Oboro, Kagome and Menghuo!"

At Naruto's reminder, Sakura also remembered the three Amegakure Genin who were wearing conspicuous masks.

Among the three, Oboro sat in front of Sakura during the first exam.

Then, Sakura suddenly reacted. She looked at Naruto and asked, "Naruto, you met the three of them alone?"

"Yes."

Naruto replied, his tone completely unfaithful.

This... is of course a lie.

But it's not a complete lie.

Naruto did meet the Rain Village trio he mentioned.

Among them, Oboro is the enemy that Team 7 encounters at the very beginning in the original work. He disguises himself as Naruto to approach Sasuke and Sakura.

However, Naruto's encounter with the three people from Amegakure was not the "passive" thing he had just described to Sakura.

But be proactive.

It would be more accurate to say that the tree hole where Team 7 is hiding now was found by Naruto.

It would be more accurate to say that under the perception of the Wind Caress Dawn Technique, Naruto snatched it from Oboro, Kagome, and Yumehuo.

Naruto simply changed the order in which he met these three people.

After all, Naruto was blown away from Sasuke and Sakura by a hurricane.

He always encounters some "accidents" and is delayed.

Only then can it be reasonable to "come late", and when I return to Class 7, everything has been settled.

“It took me a long time to barely beat all three of them.”

"When I found Sasuke, he was already wounded and in a coma. There was also a large-scale environmental damage nearby - traces of fire jutsu burning trees and land, and a giant python killed by a shuriken."

Naruto added some details after the battle in his explanation: "My shadow clone found you, and what happened next was that my shadow clone and I found this tree hole with you who were unconscious, and stayed there until dawn the next day."

Listening to Naruto's account of the whole incident, Sakura's eyes swung between Naruto and Sasuke.

She lowered her eyes, hiding the look in her eyes from Naruto.

I was useless... I was lying unconscious when Naruto and Sasuke were in danger...