章 102: Written Exam (2)
Shinji abashedly scratched the back of his head, "My bad, it wasn't personal or anything. It's just that I always used to train with Sasuke when we were academy students, so when we became genin it just became more convenient for our teams to train together instead. Y'know, since we both had rather different schedules. And we thought having to arrange two teams schedule for inter team training was already tough enough, adding a third would have been too complicated. Sorry!"
Kiba harrumphed and folded his arms, "Well, I guess that makes sense… but next time invite us first, damn it!"
Shinji stuck out his tongue mischievously, before laughing and agreed.
The Inuzuka continued, "And my sister told me that if I saw you during the chuunin exams to tell you, 'You think your training's over? You're ten years too early to graduate from my training'... is what she said."
"Eh? Did she sound pissed?" Shinji asked, not wanting to spoil his relationship with who he considered to be his first real sensei.
Kiba shrugged, "More annoyed maybe. I think she misses you or something. Not that she would ever tell me about it. But if I were you, I'd go find her after the exams are over. You don't know this because she usually acts different when you're around, but she can get real scary. And trust me, you won't want to get on her bad side."
Shinji laughed it off, though inwardly wondering if there were some truth to what his friend was saying. Hana was the equivalent of a sexual awakening for his young body in this new world. He had his first arousal in her presence, after all. So there was definitely some lingering affection within him for the Inuzuka girl.
Just then, the door to the room swung open once more and Team Seven appeared, consisting of Naruto, Sasuke and Shikamaru. And just like the other members of their rookie generation, they were also slammed with the immense pressure from an entire room of high strung genin glaring and appraising them. An overwhelming majority of them being older and by extension more familiar with the dangerous lifestyle of being a shinobi.
Unlike in the original canon, Kakashi did not appear in right before they entered to reveal that in order for any genin team to formally register in the chuunin exams, they had to register together as a team. In other words, he had chosen not to test them – instead casually revealing the 'secret' from the get-go as if it was no big deal. That was because the current Team Seven and the original Team Seven was vastly different!
The original Team Seven was extremely problematic. Naruto and Sasuke had a rivalry, but even so, to call it a rivalry would also be misleading. Naruto had a one sided fondness for the Uchiha, looking at him like the brother he never had. One could even go so far as to label it an unhealthy fixation on a brotherhood that never truly existed between them. But even then, there were also specks of envy when he compared himself to the more famous, popular and talented Uchiha.
On the other hand, Sasuke also fiercely competed with Naruto, but his motivations were completely divorced from a sincere friendship. Naruto had always been a reminder to himself that his talent was too inferior to catch up to Itachi. Because if the supposed deadlast could grow stronger so quickly before his very eyes, then his own growth which had stagnated deeply for so long was something to curse at.
As a result, while on the surface Sasuke and Naruto had a friendly rivalry that occasionally got too intense, in reality this relationship was far from healthy even if there were genuine moments of friendship that were few and far between.
And the final member of the original Team Seven was even worse. Putting aside Sakura's obvious bias towards the Uchiha and blatant distant for the Uzumaki which resulted in screwed up team dynamics, the sole kunoichi of their team had a shaky foundation in the shinobi arts, to the point of being a heavy burden on the team.
With such a team, canon Kakashi had no choice but to test their teamwork, resolve and commitment to the chuunin exams by omitting the crucial criteria for their participation in the chuunin exams.
The current Team Seven had no such issues. The deadweight had been replaced with a genius strategist who could hold his own even in a one on one combat situation. Sasuke's psyche was way healthier than in the original series, and Naruto's relationship with the aforementioned Uchiha was also less obsessive since he had bonded with the other genin of their generation as well. Theirs was a more professional and truth be told a more sincere friendship and rivalry in comparison.
All of them were also more confident in their own skills. One had to remember that Sasuke and Naruto had defeated Gozu and Mezu in single combat respectively. That is to say, they both faced and won against chuunin level opponents. Even if the Demon Brothers had lower than average combat ability, they were still full fledged chuunin with the cunning and experienced that came with the titled. So taking them down was a feat that did not go unnoticed by neither Kakashi nor the village leaders, much less they themselves.
As for Shikamaru, well, he was never a shinobi that relied on strength to overcome challenges in the first place. For someone like him, participating in the chuunin exams hosted by Konoha was absolutely perfect.
When the various jounin instructors of the Rookie 9 entered their respective teams into the chuunin exams this year, a major factor that influenced their decision to do so was the fact that Konoha was the hosting village for the exam.
Largely because a) Konoha was their territory. No matter what happened, the Konoha genin who entered the chuunin exams would at least have the home field advantage as well as relative safety within the familiar walls of their village. And also b) compared to other hidden villages and how they ran their chuunin exams, Konoha actually placed less of an emphasis on combat ability!
Previous chuunin exams held by other villages would almost always feature stages that placed a heavy emphasis on fighting ability in one form or another. Whereas Konoha usually took a more holistic view towards what they considered to be important criteria for chuunin ranked shinobi.
Thus, jounin squad instructors were fully aware that not only would their genin have a relatively safer experience in the exams hosted by Konoha, their fighting ability which they would usually have a disadvantage against more experienced genin from foreign villages would be mitigated to a certain extent. Furthermore, their genin would also have the opportunity to gain exposure towards these particular traits Konoha, and by extension themselves, found valuable in shinobi from their village.
For Team Seven, their teamwork had already been tested time and again, be it against Team Ten in their regular inter team trainings or during the Wave mission. As a result, Kakashi's confidence in his team were multitudes higher than in the original series.
"Ohhoh, even Naruto could join the chuunin exam? If that's the case then I have nothing to worry about since I've obviously greatly underestimated the difficulty of this event." Kiba immediately mockingly remarked upon seeing Team Seven's entrance.
"What did you say, dog breath!? Just you wait, I'll show you how super strong I've become!" Naruto predictably responded right away to the provocation.
Shinji glanced at Kiba, having already figured out what the Inuzuka was trying to do. Team Eight and Team Seven have had little contact in the months that followed after their graduation. Only Shikamaru was close to Ino and Choji, and that was because of their clan relationships as well as his close personal friendship with the Akimichi.
Kiba's provocation was meant as a probe, to test how much Naruto and by extension Team Seven had changed since they last met. Meaning that he was already thinking of Naruto and his team as competition rather than comrades. Though brash and loud, Kiba was still a scion of a famed shinobi clan and had been raised with certain lessons in mind. Shinji mused that it seemed Inuzuka Tsume, the matriarch of the Inuzuka clan had indeed taught her son well.
The only problem was that he was doing it too early and too openly, infront of potentially hostile foreign shinobi and towards a fellow Konoha genin. It was clever to be cautious towards your competitors, even if they were from the same village. But it was even more important to keep in the mind the reputation of your village, as well as the fact that they should first defeat the foreign shinobi before fighting amongst themselves.
Something like that was a necessary common sense for chuunin ranked shinobi, and something the village would be looking out for as well. That was because the status of a chuunin was very different from the lowly rank of genin. Being a chuunin meant taking on certain responsibilities. Being a proper representative of the village's will as well as having to lead lower ranked shinobi was just a few of them. This also meant that chuunin had greater restrictions on what they could say and do in front of foreign eyes and ears.
Calling out and antagonizing a fellow Konoha shinobi for no good reason simultaneously revealed information about both himself and Naruto, something a good ninja tended to avoid doing in front of foreign agents. So although Shinji could understand where Kiba was coming from, by showing off to himself his ability to probe who he assumed to be an easy target, his actions would have been a minus had any village higher-ups been watching their interaction.
Kiba laughed in response to Naruto's proclamation, "Don't make me laugh. I don't know about you, but we have gotten really strong. Even if you have been training with Shinji, it's nothing compared to what we've been through."
Shinji had to quirk an eyebrow at those claims. Comparing Naruto to when he was in the academy, those two versions were worlds apart. Not only did the boisterous blonde now have the Kage Bunshin in his repertoire, but he had also been exposed to the shadow clone training method a lot earlier than in canon. This allowed the Jinchuuriki to greatly solidify his foundations tremendously and rapidly increased his battle strength to boot.
He could only conclude that if Kiba foolishly assumed Naruto was still the same person as he was six months before, the Inuzuka was going to be in for a rude awakening.
"Sheesh, talk about troublesome." Shikamaru immediately commented out loud before yawning and digging his ear with his pinky, easing the tension between the rookie genin.
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