"Naruto's here? How come I didn't see him?"
Kiba scanned the group one by one. When his eyes finally landed on Naruto, he stared for a few seconds before suddenly shouting, "I get it! You must be Naruto's older brother!"
Naruto: "..."
This was getting more ridiculous by the second.
"Kiba, that's Naruto," Sakura said, clearly fed up.
"No way! How could this guy be Naruto? They're nothing alike!"
Kiba looked unconvinced and turned to Hinata. "Hinata, how did you recognize Naruto? Aside from kind of looking like him, nothing else is the same!"
"Well… I can just feel it's him," Hinata said quietly, her cheeks slightly red.
Even though Naruto's personality had changed a lot, Hinata trusted her instincts.
Actually, she had already noticed this change back during the graduation exam.
And then in their later classes… Hinata had always been watching Naruto closely.
That's why she was sure—the calm, cool guy standing in front of them really was Naruto.
"What? You just feel it?!"
Kiba couldn't make sense of what Hinata was saying.
How could you recognize someone just by a feeling?
"Enough. Instead of guessing, why don't we just ask Naruto directly?"
Ino stepped in to calm everyone down and asked Naruto, "Naruto, who was our teacher at the Ninja Academy?"
Naruto looked at her and answered flatly, "Idiot."
"..."
The whole place went quiet for a second. No one expected Naruto to straight-up insult her like that!
Sakura suddenly seemed to remember something she'd rather forget.
Had Naruto called her an idiot like that on their first day as a team too?
"You just called me an idiot?!!"
After a brief silence, Ino totally snapped!
She charged at Naruto, ready to beat him up, but Shikamaru and Chouji quickly held her back.
"Come on, don't sweat the small stuff right now!"
"Yeah, we're all classmates here. We've still got the exam coming up, so we should help each other out!"
"Who wants to help *him*? Out of the nine rookies who graduated, he had the worst grades! If anything, he's the one who needs help!"
"That's enough. All of you—calm down!"
Just as things were getting out of hand, a man with glasses walked over. "You must be this year's rookies, huh? So young, so loud. You'd think you were going on a field trip or something."
"Who are you? What's your problem?" Ino, already in a bad mood, snapped back at him right away.
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi."
Even though Ino came at him, Kabuto still kept a friendly smile. "But more importantly, take a look around you."
"Around us?"
Everyone glanced around and realized something shocking—every other examinee in the room was now staring at them.
Some of them even looked downright hostile.
It felt like a pack of hungry wolves had set their sights on them.
"The ones behind you are from the Rain Village. They're pretty short-tempered. Everyone's nervous before the test, and they're all looking for an excuse to start something. That's why I figured I'd give you a little heads-up."
As the group calmed down, clearly spooked, Kabuto gave a helpless smile. "Ah, can't help it. Seeing you rookies reminds me of how I used to be."
Kabuto had a gentle face and talked in a way that really looked out for the newbies. Everyone liked him instantly—except for Naruto.
"Um… are you Senpai Kabuto?" Sakura asked uncertainly.
"Yes," Kabuto answered with a small smile.
"Is this your second time taking the Chunin Exam?" she asked.
"No, it's my seventh," he said with a shake of his head.
"Seven?!"
Everyone except Naruto was shocked.
"There are two Chunin Exams every year. This is already my fourth year."
Kabuto spoke with a smile the whole time. You'd never guess he'd failed that many times—he didn't seem down about it at all.
If Naruto didn't already know that Kabuto was only taking the exam over and over to gather intel, he might've admired his determination.
"In that case, you must know a lot about the Chunin Exams, right?" Sakura said, excited.
"Yeah, you could say that," Kabuto replied with a smile.
"You know so much, but still can't pass?" Shikamaru teased.
"Ahaha, yeah, it's kind of embarrassing," Kabuto said, scratching his head with a sheepish grin. He didn't seem angry at all.
Seeing Kabuto take the joke so well, Shikamaru warmed up to him a little. "Is the Chunin Exam really that hard? What a pain…"
"It depends on the person. I'm just weak, that's all."
Kabuto tried to comfort them, then pulled out a stack of cards. "Since you're my cute little juniors, let me give you some help!"
"These are Ninja Info Cards."
"Ninja Info Cards?"
"Basically, they store chakra-charged data that's been burned into the cards."
As he explained, Kabuto knelt down and laid a small pile of cards on the ground. "Over the last four years, I've collected a lot of information to prepare for the exam. I've made around two hundred of these cards!"
He flipped over the top one, revealing a blank front.
"It looks blank, but if I add my chakra to it..."
Kabuto spun the card under his left index finger, then made a hand sign with his right. With a soft *poof*, some information appeared on the card.
"Wow! What's written in there?" Sakura asked, surprised.
"It shows the total number of people and countries joining this Chunin Exam, and also how many participants each village is sending."
As he spoke, Kabuto asked in return, "Do you guys know why all the nations send their ninja to take the Chunin Exam together?"
No one really knew. Even Naruto only had his own thoughts on it but wasn't sure if he was right.
Seeing this, Kabuto explained, "First, it helps build friendship between countries. Second, it's to train and improve the ninjas. But the real reason is..."
"The real reason?" Sasuke asked.
"The real reason is actually to get a read on the strength of ninja from other countries," Kabuto said. "This helps keep the balance of power, so everyone stays more or less equal."
"Equal power?" Shikamaru looked confused. "Why bother doing something that troublesome?"
"For survival! If they don't, weaker nations will get swallowed up by the stronger ones—or even become their slaves."
Kabuto added, "This whole idea of equal power is about keeping each other in check."
"Do you have a card with personal info on it?"
Just then, three people walked over. The one in front spoke to Kabuto.
"It's you three?" Sakura was a bit surprised to see Neji and the others.
"Nice to see you again, Sakura~"
Rock Lee waved and greeted her, but Sakura didn't respond and quietly hid behind Sasuke and Naruto.
Rock Lee: "..."
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