While everyone was still immersed in an atmosphere of panic and anxiety, Kabuto bent down at the right moment and flipped over the top card of the stack on the ground. He pressed his finger lightly on the surface of the card, and it immediately glowed, revealing a detailed miniature map.
Then, he began to explain, "Konoha, Suna, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto... many ninja villages have sent many excellent ninjas to participate in the exam this year."
His voice was steady, successfully drawing everyone's attention back to himself.
He looked around at everyone in the classroom, his voice gradually rising. "However, regarding Otogakure, because it's a ninja village from a small country established only in recent years, there's almost no information about them."
He gathered all the cards from the ground, looked up, and added, "In short, they are all ninja villages with high capabilities."
After listening to Kabuto's grim explanation, everyone fell into silence.
Hinata instinctively whispered, "I feel like I'm losing a bit of confidence."
Ino looked at Hinata with a displeased expression, her tone growing heavier as she spoke, "Hinata, what are you saying? Aren't you in the same class as Mamoru? With him around, what is there to be afraid of?"
Immediately after, she raised her hand to cover her forehead, her face full of dejection as she lamented, "Unlike my group. What should we do next? Maybe we should just withdraw."
After saying that, she glanced at Shikamaru beside her, who was clicking his tongue with a look of disdain, while Choji was completely immersed in the world of snacks, crunching away without a care for anything else.
Tenten sighed and held out a hand, reminding her, "If you rely on him too much, you're going to suffer for it."
Hearing Tenten's words, Mamoru couldn't help but ask with a hint of playfulness in his voice, "When did you become so enlightened?"
Tenten crossed her arms over her chest and turned away huffily, replying with great dissatisfaction, "Just now."
"..."
Realizing he had misspoken, Mamoru gave his mouth a light slap.
Kabuto's gaze slowly swept over all the Genin in the classroom as he said in a low voice, "It's not just Lee and Gaara, everyone here is an elite Genin selected by their respective countries. None of them are that simple, you know."
As soon as Kabuto finished speaking, Naruto suddenly began to tremble slightly. It wasn't obvious at first, but gradually, the intensity of the shaking increased, making it look as if he were shivering with fear from Kabuto's words.
Standing behind him, Sakura witnessed this and looked at him with a worried expression, thinking, 'It's only natural to be afraid.'
She was feeling both uneasy and nervous herself. Since they were all rookie Genin, wasn't this reaction to be expected?
Seeing Naruto look like a completely different person from his usual boisterous self, Sakura felt a pang of sadness. She didn't hesitate any longer and stepped forward, trying to comfort him, "Hey, Naruto, there's no need to be so nervous..."
However, once she got close to Naruto, she noticed something unusual about him.
At that moment, as if he had been injected with adrenaline, Naruto suddenly let out a roar, straightened his body, and pointed his finger at all the Genin in the classroom.
Grinning, he shouted loudly, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! I won't lose to any of you! Do you hear me?"
Ino rushed in front of Sakura and pointed at Naruto, questioning loudly, "Hey, what's he doing? That guy... what is he trying to do by provoking everyone?"
Sakura yelled back, refusing to back down, "Don't yell at me! Didn't Mamoru provoke people too? Why didn't you say anything to him?"
She was also bewildered by Naruto's sudden move, feeling both embarrassed and annoyed.
Ino blurted out, "Can he be compared to Mamoru? Are the two of them even the same species?"
'Hey, how did this escalate to species discrimination?' Mamoru thought to himself as he listened from the side.
"Now I feel refreshed!" Naruto clasped his hands behind his head, a look of immense satisfaction on his face, as if he had just accomplished something great.
Because of his nonsensical action, the entire classroom suddenly fell into an eerie silence. The previously somewhat restrained tension now spread and solidified like a layer of ice, carrying a biting chill.
"Is he an idiot?" Tenten quietly leaned toward Mamoru and nudged him with her elbow, asking in a low voice.
"From the looks of it right now, he is an idiot." Mamoru nodded, responding with a smile that suggested he was enjoying the show.
"Mhm."
Tenten gave him a serious look, then playfully winked and said with certainty, "Then you're an idiot too."
"Eh?" The confident smile on Mamoru's face instantly froze.
Tenten extended a slender finger and poked his arm with moderate force. "Did you forget what you did? When you walked in, didn't you do the exact same thing?"
Mamoru replied, caught between laughter and tears, "How is that the same? I have the strength to back it up. Can I be compared to Naruto? He's not even afraid of being ganged up on by all these Genin."
Tenten spoke with a pout, her tone carrying a hint of wilfulness, "Hmph. It looks exactly the same to me."
Seeing Tenten's deliberately huffy expression, Mamoru couldn't help but want to tease her with some reverse psychology, "Tenten, you're not cute at all when you act like this."
"Shut up, you're annoying, idiot, dummy..."
As expected, the girl was like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. In a fit of embarrassment and anger, she clenched her soft fists and rained them down on Mamoru's arm like raindrops.
To Mamoru, punches of this strength were like being tickled. He stood his ground and let Tenten vent her emotions.
However, his gaze instinctively drifted toward another girl. He saw Hinata standing quietly not far away, looking at him timidly, her eyes a mix of unease and a trace of hard-to-detect concern.
While Mamoru was thinking about how to reassure Hinata, someone among the group of Genin in the middle of the classroom began to grow restless.
Three blurred shadows moved through the crowd like ghosts, their speed extremely great. Only a few Genin present could clearly track their movements.
In that split second, two shadows, one high and one low, launched a surprise attack on Kabuto simultaneously.
One figure leaped high from the crowd like a pouncing leopard, even performing a perfect split in mid-air.
In the air, Dosu did not hesitate for a second. With a flick of his wrist, two Kunai flew out, instantly turning into two streaks of cold light that shot straight toward Kabuto's face.
Almost at the same moment, another black shadow burst out from the crowd, moving so fast it created a peculiar whistling sound, like a gale passing through, as it prepared to strike the nearby Kabuto. The corner of his lips beneath the bandages curled up slightly, as if he had already foreseen the moment of success.
Faced with attacks from above and below, Kabuto simply performed a nimble back-jump, letting the two Kunai thud into the floor where he had previously been standing.
Just as he landed and was preparing to meet Dosu's follow-up attack, his pupils suddenly constricted.
A figure had appeared like a ghost between the two Kunai, standing right between him and Dosu.
That person was—Mamoru!