Chapter 36: The First Exam Begins
Why would she ask for her own information? She knows her own strength best! Everyone around them was stunned for a moment, then began to ponder the reason for Sakura's actions.
Is she trying to confirm the accuracy of Kabuto's information? And at the same time, see how much of her own intel has been leaked! Shikamaru quickly arrived at the answer. As expected of Sakura, who was first in her class at the academy. Her mind is truly meticulous!
What Shikamaru didn't know was that these were all secondary reasons. The real reason was simply for Sakura to give herself a suitable excuse for her earlier action of grabbing his hand. Of course, Sakura was also quite curious. How would Kabuto evaluate Naruto, Sasuke, and herself, who were now quite different from the original story? Orochimaru was very interested in Sasuke, so the information Kabuto had on Sasuke, as well as Naruto and herself, should be very complete...
The only one not pondering was Naruto. "Sakura-chan, why are you asking for our own information? We know our own strength best! Mmph—"
Smack! Without even looking, Sakura slapped a hand over Naruto's big mouth from behind. "Shuddup and listen!"
Kabuto pushed up his glasses. The reflection on the lenses concealed the momentary fluctuation in his eyes. He certainly had information on the three members of Team 7, especially Sasuke, and it was more detailed than these rookies could imagine. He had even sent people to the Land of Waves to collect information from the traces left on the battlefield and other side sources. What surprised him the most was that among the talented members of Team 7, the strongest seemed not to be the Sasuke that Lord Orochimaru favored, but the Sakura whom most people didn't think much of. According to his intelligence analysis, when faced with three reasonably skilled Chunin, Haruno Sakura had dealt with them cleanly and calmly in a short period of time. The intelligence assessment of her strength put her at least at the level of an Elite Chunin or a Special Jonin.
With Sasuke's current strength, he probably can't do that yet, can he? Kabuto thought secretly.
However, this was information that couldn't be shown to them now... Of course, his public info cards wouldn't record this kind of intelligence from unknown channels either.
"Sasuke... Naruto... and Haruno Sakura... Got them!"
Kabuto's hands fluttered like butterfly wings, and he quickly pulled out three cards. He arranged the three cards on the ground and was just about to read them when a hand suddenly covered them. Kabuto looked up and saw that the one who had interrupted him this time was again Sakura.
"Excuse me, Kabuto-senpai..." Sakura said with a grin, crouching down. "This is our information, after all. Please don't read it out loud!"
Sakura moved her hand away, picked up the three cards, and quickly scanned through them. The information on the three cards was not surprising.
Sasuke's stats in ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, Kekkei Genkai, and ninja tools were all high, with his Kekkei Genkai score being a perfect ten. The evaluation on it said that Sasuke was the Genin with the strongest comprehensive strength among this year's rookies. Then there was Naruto's. His taijutsu score was high, followed by ninja tools, and his ninjutsu score was not low either. As for genjutsu and Kekkei Genkai, his scores were zero. The evaluation of Naruto was that he was a Genin with outstanding strength and should not be underestimated. Finally, there was Sakura's information. A perfect score in ninjutsu, her taijutsu and ninja tools were not low, genjutsu was slightly lower, and her Kekkei Genkai score was zero. Her evaluation was that she was a Genin who had mastered powerful ninjutsu and was a ninja who needed to be dealt with cautiously.
Sakura glanced over the content with a blank expression, then passed the cards to Sasuke and Naruto for them to see as well. The three of them tacitly made no comment.
Sakura was noncommittal about the information. She was happy to be underestimated. At this time, being looked down upon was actually an advantage. Sakura knew that the content written on these cards was, in fact, the outside world's perception of the three members of Team 7. If not for someone who was familiar with them and knew the inside story, they would never understand the true strength of Team 7. Sakura really wanted to know if the information Kabuto gave to Orochimaru was the same. If it was, that would be for the best. She had no desire to be noticed by that pervert.
Sasuke returned the cards to Kabuto. "So, what about the information on Gaara, Lee, and Neji?"
Without Sakura's interruption, this time Kabuto read the information directly.
"First is Rock Lee... his taijutsu has improved greatly this year, but he is weak in other areas..."
"Then there's Neji Hyuga... with his Byakugan, he has a great advantage in observation. In addition, his taijutsu is even stronger than Lee's!"
"Finally, there's Gaara of the Sand Village... there's relatively little information on him, as he's a rookie from another country... All that's known is that his strength is formidable. He has completed one B-rank mission, and it's said that he has never been injured while on a mission!"
The rookies all took a sharp breath. Missions of B-rank and above already involved combat between ninja, and to be able to complete such a mission as a Genin without a single injury...
"The participants from the various villages in the Chunin Exams, every one of them is like Lee and Gaara, the elite among their country's Genin! So—"
BOOM!
Just as Kabuto was about to continue, a huge fluctuation of chakra interrupted him. A dozen ninja simultaneously appeared in the classroom with a Body Flicker. "Quiet, you bunch of bastards!"
"Put away your cards and get back to your seats! Now, the exam begins! I am Ibiki Morino, the proctor for the first exam!"
A burly man in a black trench coat roared at the crowd!
"Next, I will write the rules of this exam on the blackboard and explain them... No one is allowed to ask questions. Listen carefully!"
And so, the first test of the Chunin Exams, the written test, or rather, the cheating competition, began.
While Sakura and the others were beginning to cheat like crazy, outside the exam hall, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai, the three rookie team leaders, were leisurely eating snacks at a nearby coffee shop.
"Kakashi, did you know? The head proctor for the first exam this year... is Ibiki Morino!" Asuma said faintly, slowly exhaling a puff of smoke.
"No way, it's that sadist..." Kakashi was a little surprised. Ibiki Morino? Based on Kakashi's understanding of him, even for a simple written test, that guy could find ways to come up with mentally torturous tricks.
Seeing the somewhat confused Kurenai, Asuma explained, "Kurenai, you're a newly promoted Jonin, so you may not have heard. That guy, Ibiki Morino, is a specialist in torture and interrogation..."
Ibiki Morino, of the Konoha Anbu, captain of the Torture and Interrogation Force, particularly skilled at tormenting prisoners both physically and mentally...!
"Although there won't be any physical torture in the written test, that guy will definitely use interrogation techniques to mentally torment the candidates!" Asuma took a deep drag of his cigarette and frowned. "But given the personalities of my subordinates, they shouldn't be defeated by such small difficulties—"
"I wouldn't be so sure about that," Kakashi said suddenly. "With Shikamaru's personality and intelligence, he might just take the opportunity to withdraw from the exam! I heard you forced him to participate!"
"That actually seems possible!" Kurenai recalled the academy teachers' evaluation of Shikamaru. Thinking about it carefully, it was really possible that Shikamaru would drop the ball, and she couldn't help but laugh with delight.
Cough, cough! The coffee Asuma had just drunk was almost choked out by Kakashi's words. Wiping his mouth with the back of his hand, Asuma glared at Kakashi. "How is that possible! Don't joke around. He knows it would drag down Choji and Ino, so he definitely wouldn't withdraw! On the other hand, your problem subordinates are more likely to have issues, aren't they!"
"I doubt it. Sasuke and Haruno Sakura are both top students, and Naruto has a very thick-skinned personality. How could they fail here?" Although Kurenai didn't know much about Team 7, she couldn't agree with Asuma's statement based on common sense and retorted.
"Top students... doesn't mean their mental fortitude is necessarily good! They've encountered fewer setbacks, so sometimes it's harder for them to deal with them. For example, Team 7's Sakura is a girl. From the time she entered the academy until now, it's been smooth sailing for her without many setbacks. Who knows? And Sasuke has his own problems. It's actually Naruto I'm most at ease with."
Kakashi pulled down his mask, took a sip of coffee, and didn't rush to refute Asuma. Thinking about it carefully, what Asuma said was not without reason. It was just that, from the standpoint of Team 7's leader, Kakashi understood his subordinates better, knew their personalities, and was therefore more willing to trust them. So, realistically speaking, would Sakura and Sasuke be stumped by Ibiki's test?
The first thing that came to Kakashi's mind was Sasuke's calm face. This unsmiling child, who always had a cold expression, probably still couldn't let go of his hatred and couldn't open his heart, which was why he always looked so cold. As his team leader, Kakashi had no good way to untie the knot in Sasuke's heart. Fortunately, there were Naruto and Sakura on the team, who could bring Sasuke the bonds of companionship. Sakura, who was essentially a tomboy, really had to go out of her way to act cute for Sasuke's sake.
A man obsessed with revenge is both fragile and strong, so Sasuke wouldn't fall here.
Then what about Sakura? Haruno Sakura... the only girl on the team, and also the unspoken but de facto captain of the three. Her personality was carefree like a boy's, cheerful and sunny, a bit like Naruto, but her mind was sharp and sensitive, more like Sasuke. How did two completely opposite personalities merge so seamlessly in one person?
When Kakashi first came into contact with the information on the three of them, he had thought he had encountered a replica of Team Minato from back then: a genius who had lost his parents at a young age, and a dead-last with a thick-skinned, sunny smile. So he had naturally assumed that Sakura would become the lubricant between the genius and the dead-last, in love with the genius and loved by the dead-last. But later he discovered that while Sasuke was very much like him, and Naruto was very much like Obito, Sakura... was completely different from Rin. In Team 7, the role Sakura played was far more than just connecting Sasuke and Naruto. If he had to say who she was like, Kakashi actually saw the shadow of another person from Team Minato in Sakura.
Kakashi's sensei, Namikaze Minato.
The same humble background, the same brilliant talent, the same sunny and cheerful disposition, the same ruthlessness towards enemies. One could even say she was a girl version of the Fourth Hokage. Thinking of how Sakura acted silly and cute in front of her comrades, Kakashi sometimes even wondered if the Fourth Hokage had acted like that when he was young.
As an aside, Kakashi didn't know that when Namikaze Minato was a child, Uzumaki Kushina had evaluated him as being very effeminate.
Kakashi would sometimes look at the ninjutsu Sakura created with a sense of awe. For a moment, he even thought he was seeing Minato again...
How could such a Sakura be stumped by a test set by Ibiki Morino?
Kakashi smiled slightly.
"No, the three children of Team 7 are all very excellent ninja. They won't stop here either!"
However, just as Kakashi was leisurely expressing his confidence in his subordinates outside, he had no idea that one of his subordinates was already in a desperate situation, worried that she couldn't pass the written test.