Yakushi Kabuto barely dodged the punch, but his glasses still shattered from the impact.
But those two guys—how did they get sent flying!?
There was clearly no one else around. Could it have been that teacher?
Kabuto looked up toward the podium at the end of the classroom. The blindfolded teacher stood there, a faint smile on his face as he looked at them.
It didn't even seem like he had moved at all.
"That guy's the teacher!? He's been sitting there the whole time—I thought he was just another student."
"Never seen him before… For the written test, weren't there supposed to be a bunch of jonin around?"
"He definitely did something just now, right?! But I didn't even catch how he did it."
The students under the podium started whispering loudly. The two Otogakure ninja who had been knocked into the wall also climbed down in disbelief, giving Hatake Satoru a suspicious look.
It was rare to see a teacher strike a student directly.
And judging from everyone's reactions, this teacher seemed like a complete stranger.
Hatake Satoru took off the Konohagakure forehead protector that had been loosely tied to his arm and placed it on the podium.
He wasn't a fan of wearing something that announced his identity so openly, but the headband had been tied on him specifically to show who he was.
"Eh—?! It's him?!"
"Sure, I guess it makes sense for him to give the written test, but he's not even a real ninja… seriously?"
Ino and Shikamaru both looked shocked when they saw who was standing on the podium. A normal person shouldn't be involved in the Chunin Exams, right?!
What was going on with this guy?
They had seen him before on the road when he returned from traveling, but even then, a non-ninja being part of the Chunin Exams just seemed crazy.
"You guys know him too?"
Sakura caught on to something important and turned her head in surprise, blinking.
"Of course we do, Forehead."
"We're not as good at school stuff as you are, so our parents used to hire him to teach us when we were little."
Ino replied with a slight pout.
"…"
The moment Sasuke saw the written test teacher, he instantly understood what was going on and showed a faint, smug smile.
So Kakashi really had set up a little private help for them by getting his brother involved.
That's why Hatake Satoru had given them a crash course in academic subjects.
Sure, it was kind of cheating—but could you even call it cheating when it came to ninja stuff?
It was more like gathering intel ahead of time.
"I'm the worst at this kind of thing! Why did it have to be Satoru-nii giving the test?!"
Naruto clutched his head, his eyes wide with panic.
He really was bad at written stuff—like his brain just couldn't process it.
Sasuke didn't like studying either, but he learned fast no matter the subject, so he could at least keep up.
Even though Satoru had helped them before, he never actually gave them a proper test.
If Naruto couldn't do well on this exam, wouldn't that totally disappoint Satoru-nii?
Naruto held his head, nearly in tears.
"Well, originally it was supposed to be Morino Ibiki giving you this test, but he got injured during a mission and couldn't make it."
"So I'm filling in!"
"Explaining the rest would be too much trouble—just remember my name's Hatake Satoru and that's enough~"
"First, come up and draw your test number from the box, then go sit at the desk with that number."
Hatake Satoru, still sitting casually on the podium, picked up a huge box beside him and smiled brightly at the students below.
Over 190 cm tall, wearing a weird eye mask, and grinning like a goof.
No matter how you look at him, this teacher just seems off!!
Even though all the students felt a bit unsure, they didn't have a say in choosing the teacher, so they just walked up and drew a number, confused.
"Hmm—luck is actually pretty important too~"
"So the numbers you picked are totally random. If you're lucky, you might end up sitting with your teammates!"
Hatake Satoru sat on the desk, swinging his legs, speaking to the students who were slowly getting organized with their number cards.
Even though he said that, Naruto and Sasuke still ended up pretty far apart.
Kimimaro flipped over his number card and looked at it. Suigetsu, sitting in the second row, looked like he was about to pass out on the spot.
Haku was seated in the back near the aisle and was turning his head with interest, checking where everyone ended up.
Even if you're not sitting with your teammates, it's basic to always keep an eye on them.
And knowing Hatake Satoru's personality, there's no way this was going to be an easy test.
"If everyone's seated, let's pass out the papers."
Hatake Satoru smiled as he took out a stack of blank-looking papers, split them up, and had the students pass them around.
The room suddenly went quiet, with only the rustling sound of the papers being handed down.
Sasuke took the paper from the person in front of him and glanced at his own. It was just for a second—
But he clearly noticed the questions on his test looked different from the one the person in front of him had?!
He froze for a moment, then casually looked left and right to check the papers next to him.
Sure enough, only one of them had the same questions as his. The other was totally different.
What's going on…? With this many people, is he really planning to grade two different tests?
There won't be any time left to finish grading after the exam.
Sasuke felt unsure. He couldn't figure out what Hatake Satoru was up to. Honestly, he couldn't even guess what Kakashi's plan was half the time.
Let alone his older brother's.
"Good thing… with these questions, Naruto probably won't hand in a blank sheet."
Sakura glanced over the test quickly and let out a sigh of relief. Kakashi-sensei had told them before—just don't hand in a blank paper.
Even though some of the questions seemed hard enough that only she could solve them, there were also super easy ones.
So it shouldn't be too hard for Naruto to at least write something.
"What is this even supposed to be…"
Suigetsu looked at the paper, completely clueless.
Since he was sitting in the second row, there weren't many papers passed through his hands, so he didn't notice the test was actually two different versions. He just looked down and started reading the questions.
Compared to Kimimaro and the slightly older Haku, Suigetsu was the worst when it came to written tests.
In terms of battle knowledge, he wasn't as good as Haku. In terms of school subjects, he definitely couldn't beat Kimimaro, who had spent years living with Hatake Satoru and picked up stuff from him without even realizing.
There were ten questions on the whole test. Suigetsu could only answer three correctly at most.
He was probably going to fail!
Most of the students had thoughtful looks on their faces when they got their papers. The difficulty of the questions was all over the place, which made it feel like there was some kind of hidden trick behind it.
"Okay! Looks like you've all got your test papers now, right?"
"Now I'm going to tell you the rules for this written exam!"
Hatake Satoru jumped down from the teacher's desk, grabbed a piece of chalk, and stood in front of the blackboard.
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