Chapter 73 - Start of the finals

"Hey you there, stop! I haven't seen you around! Identify yourself!" - one of the two shinobis guarding the front gate stopped Eiji when he wanted to enter.

"What are you talking about? Can't you see my headband?"

"I see it, but as I said, I haven't seen you around. And more importantly, you look really suspicious!"

"Are you for real? Listen, I don't have time to argue with you here, or else I will be late for the chunin finals."

"Many people come here to watch, but you don't look like a civilian so I can't let you just pass..."

"I'm not here to watch, I'm one of the participants."

"Ha! Who would believe such an obvious lie!"

"You are really starting to piss me off..."

"Well, what you gonna do about it? Hey, Satoshi stop daydreaming and help me with this suspicious brat!"

"Come one, don't be so loud. Let a man survive his hangover peacef-..." "- Jo, Dad. How have you been?"

"...who the hell are you?" - Satoshi

"Sasuke's not here yet, so what's gonna happen?" - Naruto

"If he doesn't arrive by the start of his own match, he'll lose by forfeit!" - Genma

'Sasuke isn't the only one who's missing...' - Shikamaru

'This is weird...knowing Sasuke, I figured he'd be here even if he had to crawl...' - while Naruto was lost in thoughts, someone suddenly appeared where all participants stood.

"Whew, looks like I made it in time..."

"I thought for a second it was Sasuke...by the way who are you?" - Naruto

"Ehm, are you one of the participants? If so, what's your name?" - Genma

"Nakamura Eiji."

Genma looked at him suspiciously before deciding to take some documents out.

There were the details of all the participating Genin, so he looked at Eiji's profile.

Next, he looked at his photo and then at Eiji standing there.

"Are you sure? You look quite...different..." - Genma

"That's because of my training."

"What kind of training would change you so much?" - Genma was in a predicament and was unsure what to do.

Meanwhile, at the Hokage seat, Orochimaru was hiding his shock: 'This kid, I sense some traces of the White Snake Sage in him...how can this be?....HAHAHA!!! Interesting. I'm really looking forward to his performance!'

Orochimaru wasn't present when Eiji fought Dosu, so he didn't know how strong he was.

As Orochimaru was thinking about Orochimaru stuff, Hiruzen recalled how not long ago, a worried Jiraiya told him about a giant snake being summoned by Eiji.

After some investigation, Anko confessed that she taught him the Snake Summoning Jutsu.

And after Eiji disappearing for quite some time and Jiraiya describing the way he disappeared, Hiruzen was sure that Eiji was in Ryuchi Cave.

Of course, Hiruzen only thought that it was an accident that he landed there with his summon.

But this made him worry even more so about Eiji's safety.

Unfortunately, there was nothing which he could do to help him, so seeing that he was still alive, Hiruzen was glad.

'It looks like he is fine...except for his appearance...well, there is no doubt that it's him.' - he signaled Genma who was looking at him to proceed.

'If Lord Hokage means so, I guess it's fine...' - Genma

"Alright, your identity was confirmed, so let's continue." - next Genma started to explain that the rules are pretty much the same as in the preliminaries.

Then he signaled the start of the first match: Naruto vs Neji!

There wasn't much of a difference compared to the original timeline.

The only one was that Neji didn't underestimate Naruto as much, which funnily enough was more advantageous for Naruto, since losing by such a lame move with Naruto jumping out of the ground with his fist, was even more surprising for Neji.

After the applause for Naruto subsided, the crowd's anticipation for the next fight grew stronger.

Most people came here to see Sasuke Uchiha!

But the problem was, he wasn't here yet...

"What could he be doing?! Is he not coming at all?" - Shikamaru

Meanwhile, Choji ate his potato chips more aggressively than usual: 'Please don't come! Please don't come...'

The next fight is supposed to be Sasuke vs Choji!