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

The emergency room set up inside the central tower in the center of the Death Forest training ground.

The medical ninja in white medical uniform withdrew his hand, which had been used to perform the Palm Magic Technique, from the wound on Naruto's abdomen.

Palm Senjutsu is a basic medical ninjutsu that can even cure physical illnesses, but it is particularly effective in healing external injuries.

But a faint scar could still be seen on the wound where Naruto was healed by the Palm Fairy Technique.

"Every time the Chunin Exam comes around, I've seen more Genin like you who just mess around and try to hold on than I can count!"

The medical ninja also noticed the scar left by Naruto: "Did you know that your wound is so deep that it is only a hair's breadth away from your internal organs in your abdomen? If the injury is really that serious, it can't be cured by palm magic alone!"

Although the ninja who treated Naruto had a bad temper, he was doing his job diligently and responsibly to treat Naruto's injuries.

Naruto really couldn't open his mouth to refute him, so he could only keep smiling with a hint of "I won't do it again next time".

"Your name is Uzumaki Naruto, right? According to the regulations, I will pass on the details of your injuries to your class jonin later - if there is nothing else, please leave immediately. It won't be long before the candidates who are still taking the exam will come here to receive treatment!"

The medical ninja waved at Naruto, indicating that Naruto, whose injuries had been controlled, should not take up any more medical resources.

From entering the emergency room to leaving the emergency room.

The medical ninja's unfriendly attitude prevented Naruto from saying a word from beginning to end.

As for what the medical ninja said about reporting the extent of his injuries, Naruto was very happy that the medical ninja would act in this way.

The wound was so deep that it was about to damage the internal organs - what a wonderful sentence, adding another piece of solid evidence that Naruto was "forced" to withdraw from the Chunin Exam.

"Naruto…are you okay with your injuries?"

Outside the emergency room, Sakura, who was sitting on a bench against the wall in the corridor, saw Naruto and hurriedly went up to him to ask about the treatment of his injuries.

"I only have a little scar on my stomach now... The medical ninja's palm technique is really powerful!"

Naruto said this and patted his stomach to show that his injuries were indeed healed.

Sakura finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Naruto watched as Sakura's expression changed from nervousness to relief.

"what happened?"

Sakura looked at Naruto curiously, wondering why Naruto suddenly stared at her so intently.

"Sakura, don't you need to go back and watch the competition? The information you gain from watching other people's preliminaries might give you an advantage in the third exam!"

What Naruto said made sense. Sakura followed Naruto to the emergency room because she was too worried about Naruto's injury. In addition, she had directly qualified for the third exam because of a bye and did not need to participate in the preliminaries.

However, she didn't help much.

The medical ninja in the emergency room asked Sakura to wait outside, saying "Anyone who is not a patient should not come over and get in the way."

"If it weren't for his physical condition, Sasuke probably wouldn't want to miss the opportunity to watch the battle."

The relief on Sakura's face turned into hesitation. Seeing Sakura's hesitation, Naruto continued, "So I think Sakura, you should go back and watch the game. The information you get from the preliminaries can not only help yourself, but also help Sasuke who is also going to take the third exam."

"I see. I'll be right back."

Sakura nodded heavily.

She turned around and prepared to go back to the tower hall where the competition was still going on, but suddenly noticed Naruto who did not leave with her: "Naruto, aren't you going back with me?"

Naruto shook his head and reached out to touch his ears which were red with shame.

He explained awkwardly, "I just gave up without a competition. I don't know how to face other people's strange looks... I kept saying I wanted to become Hokage or something..."

After hearing what Naruto said, Sakura looked at him in a daze and hurriedly defended him: "I, I won't look at you with strange eyes! And Naruto, the reason you got hurt was because you were protecting me..."

"Because we are companions! Isn't it my duty to protect Sakura? At that time, it was Sakura who wanted to protect me first."

Naruto smiled and spoke to Sakura. He continued to persuade Sakura: "And I am a little worried about Sasuke's situation. I want to find out where Sasuke was taken by Kakashi-sensei. Okay, Sakura. You go watch the game first, and tell me the result of the game after the preliminaries are over."

"……Um."

Sakura replied softly.

After successfully getting Sakura out of the way, Naruto left the Forest of Death under the guidance of one of the Chunin examiners.

Of course, the reason I told the examiner for leaving was the same one I used to deal with Sakura.

As for whether Naruto will really go looking for Sasuke who was taken away by Kakashi, the answer is of course no.

But Naruto still walked towards Konoha Hospital.

The companion who was injured while participating in the Chunin Exam is not in the emergency room of the tower where the exam is held. If you want to find your companion, the next destination that ordinary people would judge is of course the hospital.

As for whether Sasuke was in Konoha Hospital or not, it didn't matter to Naruto at all.

All he needed was a walking direction that matched his previous words and actions - or in other words - a route that ended at Konoha Hospital but passed by the Hokage's office.

Let me briefly review my plan to defect from Konoha...

Naruto was walking on the road, his mind immersed in thinking.

Because the original Naruto in this world died under the control of Uchiha Shisui's Kotoamatsukami by Danzo.

Let the time traveler himself, who had traveled through time more than two years ago, borrow Naruto's body to come back to this Naruto world, which has slight deviations from the original "Naruto" but is basically the same.

Danzo has already started to attack Naruto, the Nine-Tails Jinchuriki. Given his personality, even if his actions are suppressed by the Third Hokage, he will never stop.

Naruto knew very well that Danzo was just lying in wait, waiting for the right time to strike again.

As long as Danzo is still a high-ranking official in Konoha, Naruto will never be able to live peacefully in Konoha.

In addition, the villagers have been afraid and disgusted with Naruto's identity as the "Nine-Tails" for so many years - there is no real living space for Naruto among the high-ranking officials and the common people in Konoha.

Defecting from Konoha is the only option.

Although the Third Hokage Sarutobi Hiruzen saved Naruto who had traveled through time, his indecision was fully revealed in front of Naruto and he cannot be fully trusted.

But it was also thanks to the Third Generation's indecision that he did not obey Danzo's proposal to go all out and continue to control the Nine-Tails.

This gave Naruto some precious breathing time.

In order to accumulate strength for defection, Naruto not only continued to strengthen his own abilities during his two years at the Ninja School, but also continued to try to determine whether the general direction of the story in this world could match his memories of his past life.

Even without Umino Iruka, Mizuki, who was unwilling to be just a Chunin, still chose to use Naruto to steal the Book of Seales.

It was Mizuki's behavior that finally made Naruto officially launch the defection plan based on the direction of the original story.

That is to maximize the benefits of his defection. He officially defected when Sasuke was taken away by the Otogakure Four shortly after the Chunin Exam!

During the Chunin Exams, due to the invasion of Konoha by Orochimaru and Sunagakure - the death of the Third Hokage, the casualties of Konoha ninjas, and in order to eliminate the view of those who had ulterior motives in the Konoha destruction plan that "Konoha is no longer strong", a large number of Jonin were sent out on missions outside the village.

Under a series of influences, the weakness of Konoha's defense was the best time for Naruto to defect.

And Orochimaru, who sneaked into Konoha, will eventually attract Jiraiya, who was traveling outside the village and always wanted to bring his best friends back to the village.

Naruto will approach Jiraiya to prevent Danzo from doing anything behind the death of the Third Hokage.

And through Jiraiya, he contacts Tsunade, who will succeed as the fifth Hokage.

Leaving the impression of being the successor of the "Will of Fire" in Tsunade's mind.

Given Tsunade's personality, when Sasuke defected, Tsunade would have blocked the pressure from Konoha's advisors.

Let Naruto, who is also a member of Team 7, go out of the village to take back Sasuke when the Konoha ninja is not strong enough!

This is the most reliable and easiest to implement plan among Naruto's several plans for defection.

Although the mission was to recapture the defected Sasuke, Naruto also disappeared - the huge intelligence gap gave Naruto dozens of hours or even days to defect, and no one would hunt Naruto before Konoha reacted.

But after Naruto weighed the pros and cons and chose to kill Kabuto Yakushi, Orochimaru's behavioral logic during the Chunin Exam began to differ from the original.

Naruto could no longer guarantee that the follow-up of his defection plan regarding Tsunade would proceed smoothly.

Since the subsequent plan to use Sasuke's defection to defect himself has become uncontrollable——

——Maybe leaving Konoha now is also a good choice.

The Third Hokage, who usually lives in the Hokage's office, is currently watching the Chunin Exam in the Forest of Death.

There is no longer any Kage-level ninja blocking the Hokage's office.

Naruto only needs to activate the Flying Thunder God Seal that was previously left in the Book of Seals to take the Book of Seals away, and then use the Flying Thunder God Seal that was marked outside the village when he went to the Land of Waves to leave the village...

Whatever conspiracy or trick Orochimaru wants to use against Konoha next has nothing to do with Naruto.

Naruto no longer has to worry about Orochimaru's unknown movements after he killed Kabuto Yakushi.

While thinking about this, Naruto had already arrived near the Hokage's office.

He looked up as if he was looking at the Hokage Rock, secretly observing the Hokage's office below the Hokage Rock.

Originally this was to take into account Konoha's increased security during the Chunin Exams.

Naruto was worried that his perception ninjutsu would be detected by the Konoha ninja, so he activated the Wind-Care Dawn Technique again, which he had never used before except in the Forest of Death.

Spying on the current situation in the Hokage's office...

But before sensing the Hokage's office, Naruto suddenly discovered that a large amount of chakra surrounded him in multiple forms.

These chakras were not strangers to Naruto. They were members of the "Root" that Danzo had always arranged to monitor him. The number of them monitoring Naruto had increased to an unprecedented level.