*Chapter 128: Sakura Got a Beating*

"Alright, scram. Stop embarrassing yourselves here. If I see you in the upcoming exams, if no one else kills you, I will," Aizen dismissed the three Rain Ninja.

"Yes, yes. Thank you for saving us," the three Rain Ninja hurriedly thanked him, not knowing who Aizen was but assuming he was some big shot from the Hidden Rain Village. Hearing they were free to go, they wasted no time, wishing they had more legs to escape faster.

Just then, a voice came from behind Aizen. "Hey, bandage guy, what's your name?" It was Gaara.

Aizen paused for a moment, thinking before responding, "Third Generation Ai Danzo."

"Alright, Third Generation Ai Danzo. I'll remember you. We'll meet again soon," Gaara said, tossing the scroll to Kankuro before vanishing from sight, leaving behind a warning.

Temari and Kankuro gave Aizen a wary glance before quickly following Gaara.

Once they left, Itachi Uchiha and Pakura jumped down from the tree.

"Didn't you claim to be Doyu's stepfather?" Itachi asked, his lips twitching beneath his mask. While others might not understand what "Third Generation Ai Danzo" meant, Itachi knew all too well.

That guy was clearly making a sarcastic reference to the Third Hokage and Danzo.

"The two old men have a bromance," he thought to himself.

"Gaara doesn’t know anyway, so who cares," Aizen shrugged.

Pakura glanced toward the haystack and hesitated before asking, "Lord Doyu, should we do something about those kids?"

"Let's go. Let them be," Aizen replied, looking toward the haystack. Coincidentally, Hinata was looking back at him. Their eyes met, and Aizen gave her a warm smile and a nod before disappearing in a flash.

In the blink of an eye, he reappeared on a tree branch a hundred meters away. A few flickers later, he was gone.

Pakura took one last deep look at the haystack and followed after him.

As for Itachi, who cared more about Konoha than his own parents' lives, he naturally wouldn’t bother the three Konoha genin, including Hinata. He didn’t even glance at them, instead using his body-flicker technique to follow the others.

Once Aizen and his group had left, Shino and Kiba both collapsed backward, sitting on the ground, panting heavily.

Only Hinata remained, staring blankly in the direction Aizen had gone, mumbling to herself, Why does he feel so familiar? Could it be you, big brother?

“That was terrifying. Who is that bandage guy? Even that Sand Ninja with the gourd was no match for him,” Kiba said, stroking Akamaru with a trembling voice.

“No idea,” Shino shook his head. After a moment, one of his insects crawled out from his hand, and he added, “But my insects tell me there’s something unusual about his scent.”

“Unusual scent?” Kiba was stunned. He had been so scared earlier that he hadn’t even had time to use his secret technique to heighten his senses.

As if to confirm Shino’s words, Akamaru barked a few times from Kiba’s arms.

Kiba’s eyes widened. “Are you saying... Kurenai-sensei?”

“Kurenai-sensei was wearing a rare perfume today. There’s no mistake. While the scent on him was faint, it was definitely Kurenai-sensei’s perfume,” Shino nodded.

“Does that mean he spared us because of Kurenai-sensei?” Kiba asked in disbelief.

“There’s no way to confirm that,” Shino sighed, glancing at the absent-minded Hinata. Does he know Hinata? Or am I imagining things?

“You’re no help at all! We’ll just ask Kurenai-sensei directly when we get back,” Kiba grumbled, then turned to Hinata. “Hey, Hinata, let’s go.”

“Oh, right,” Hinata snapped out of her daze, exhaling deeply as she silently wondered, Could it really be him?

Five days passed in a blur.

After Aizen’s team and Gaara’s team gathered two scrolls and reached the central tower, the other teams started arriving as well. Teams like Kabuto’s Sound Ninja squad, and the remaining six teams from Konoha, who passed the exam in the original story, also made it to the central tower with their scrolls.

The first to arrive at the tower were naturally Aizen’s and Gaara’s teams, who gathered their scrolls the fastest.

The last team to arrive, without a doubt, was Sasuke’s team, who had faced countless hardships along the way.

And of the three members, the most unfortunate was Sakura.

Although her life wasn’t in danger and she hadn’t been left disabled, she had taken quite a beating, thanks to Aizen’s special "attention."

Perhaps noticing Aizen’s dislike for Sakura, Dōsu and his team, wanting to curry favor, took full advantage when Naruto and Sasuke lost consciousness. They followed Aizen’s orders to avoid killing her, but otherwise gave her a brutal beating.

It was a beating so bad it was painful to watch.

Sakura lost a tooth, had a chunk of her hair ripped out, exposing her large forehead, and her face was still covered in red handprints. She was nearly disfigured.

Now, with her head wrapped in a scarf and bandages covering her face, she looked as miserable as one could imagine.

It could be said that until her hair grew back, her tooth was fixed, and the handprints faded, Sakura had become an outright ugly mess.

Aside from Lee, who remained unwaveringly devoted to her, and her rival Ino, who mercilessly mocked her, no one wanted to be near her.

Even Naruto tried to comfort her but got punched in the face for his trouble.

And when Sakura tried to approach Sasuke, he rejected her, giving her a taste of her own medicine.

However, compared to Sakura’s injuries, Dōsu’s team had it much worse.

Since Sakura had been beaten unconscious, her usual compassion didn’t kick in. As a result, when Sasuke’s curse mark flared up, Sakon’s arm, which had only been disabled at first, was completely ripped off, leaving him with one arm.

Kin was slightly better off, though she ended up in the same pitiful state as Sakura.

As for Dōsu, known among Naruto fans as the "Six Paths of Dōsu," even though he begged Sasuke for mercy like in the original story, he still couldn’t escape with all his limbs intact. He lost a leg and was left with a body full of scars, hobbling around with a cane ever since.

At this point, they had been completely abandoned by Orochimaru.

Their only remaining use was to serve as sacrifices for the Reanimation Jutsu, giving Orochimaru the chance to personally observe Sasuke’s development inside the central tower.

This was because the Jonin leading each team that passed the second round of exams would head to the central tower to watch the third round’s preliminaries.

None of this escaped Aizen’s Observation Haki.

However, none of it mattered to Aizen anymore.

The central tower.

Inside was a massive arena with no partitions.

It was the venue for the third round’s preliminary matches.

High up along the walls, there were corridors for spectators.

At this moment, eight teams, including Aizen’s, stood in the center of the arena, 24 people in total, lined up neatly.