Before the Exams

Naruto and the others made their way to the third floor in a grand procession.

They arrived at the real Room 301 and pushed the door open.

The classroom was packed with dozens of people.

Konoha had the most ninja present. Naturally, everyone from their batch was here.

When Ino and Sakura saw Sasuke appear, their eyes lit up.

"Ah! It's Sasuke!"

The two girls ran over and lunged at him. Sasuke frowned slightly and lightly dodged aside.

Sakura and Ino crashed straight into each other.

"Honestly, Sasuke-kun is so heartless. You didn't even catch me."

Knocked to the floor by Sakura, Ino rubbed her forehead and complained.

Beside her, Sakura rubbed her painfully bruised shoulder and snapped angrily:

"Ino-pig! What are you acting all flirtatious for? Stay away from Sasuke!"

"Oh my, isn't this Big Forehead Sakura..."

Watching Ino and Sakura's childish squabble, Sasuke suddenly felt that he was no longer one of them.

After all, he had taken on difficult missions, killed many people, and been through so much.

Without realizing it, his mindset had already grown distant from those former classmates.

Ignoring the still-bickering Ino and Sakura, Sasuke silently walked to the side.

The moment Uchiha Hideki saw Haruno Sakura, a sudden ding rang out in his mind...

Uchiha Hideki was Shamu's Shadow Clone in disguise.

Kimimaro's illness could flare up at any moment, and Shamu did not want to be absent at a critical time.

Shamu had not expected there to be a reward to collect from Sakura as well.

He glanced at it. It was the same Strength of a Hundred Sealings Technique as Tsunade's.

Shamu could now use the Strength of a Hundred Sealings Technique twice.

It was somewhat useful.

At that moment, Choji and Shikamaru, who had been close to Naruto since their academy days, walked over.

Choji was still holding his beloved chips, stuffing them into his mouth as he ate heartily.

With his hands in his pockets, Shikamaru wore an impatient expression.

"Hey, Naruto. You guys came to take this troublesome exam too?"

Naruto waved in greeting.

"There are a lot of people taking this exam. You guys should do your best."

"Choji, I have something for you."

As he spoke, Naruto pulled out a huge bag of chips and handed it to Choji.

"Choji, I brought this especially for you from the Land of Tea."

Choji's eyes gleamed as he snatched the chips from Naruto's hand.

"It's the limited-edition pork matcha-flavored chips! Naruto, how did you know I wanted to try these?"

Naruto laughed awkwardly.

"We were on a mission in the Land of Tea, and when we saw the limited-edition chips, we bought them for you."

"Thank you, Naruto!"

Choji gave Naruto a fierce hug, then eagerly tore open the bag and started eating.

"My, my, my. Naruto only went out of his way to bring food for Choji? That really hurts."

Kiba, with Akamaru lying on his head, came over with Shino, sounding a little roguish. "This is rare. Everyone's here."

Although Naruto knew Kiba was joking, he still explained:

"How could I have only brought food for Choji? We specially brought these back for you from our mission in the Land of Tea."

As he spoke, Naruto took out a Storage Scroll and opened it.

There were insect specimens for Shino, snacks for Akamaru, and hairpins for Ino and Sakura.

Naruto had never bought things for others before, so he naturally could not have been this considerate. Hinata had helped choose many of the gifts.

Of course, Naruto had also bought Hinata a human-shaped doll.

"Ever since we returned from the Land of Tea, we never had a chance to give these to you. Now that everyone's finally here..."

Kiba had not expected that his casual joke would actually result in gifts.

"Naruto, you've changed a lot."

Sakura and Ino stopped arguing too. Seeing that Naruto had prepared gifts for both of them, they thanked him as well.

Kiba looked around.

"It looks like all the genin from our batch are taking these Chunin Exams."

"Your families dragged you back for extra training too, right?"

Shikamaru and Choji agreed.

"That's right. Our families told us that we had to get good results."

Looking at Sasuke, Kiba felt that he had become much stranger.

"What about you, Sasuke?"

Sasuke gave a soft snort. "We haven't done any special training lately. Most of our time has been spent on missions."

Kiba did not know what kind of missions Sasuke had been taking, but he still declared confidently:

"We've done plenty of training. During the exam, you'd better hope you don't run into us. We won't go easy on you."

Sasuke shook his head arrogantly.

"I'm different from you now."

Kiba snorted and did not argue with Sasuke, simply assuming it was Sasuke's usual arrogant attitude.

Standing among the crowd, Gaara kept recalling Baki's words:

"Gaara, we may break with Konoha tomorrow. Don't be in such a hurry to get acquainted with these people, or it may hold you back when it comes time to act."

Gaara did not want that, but he knew he still had to consider the Hidden Sand Village.

Hopefully, it would be best if they did not have to fight. After all, he rather liked Naruto.

When Naruto noticed him and waved, Gaara merely nodded. Compared to yesterday, he was not as warm.

However, Naruto simply assumed that Gaara was worried about the Chunin Exams.

So he did not pay it any mind at all.

Naruto had been through quite a lot himself. He no longer shouted and yelled like an idiot.

Yet within the crowd, several pairs of eyes remained fixed on Naruto.

In the entire team, only his two teammates knew Shamu's identity.

No one else knew.

Shamu stood unnoticed in a corner.

As he swept his gaze across the crowd, he noticed that both the Hidden Sand Village ninja and the Grass ninja were focused on Naruto.

He had not seen Gaara for seven or eight years, and Gaara had grown up as well.

Shamu's senses were sharp, and he could clearly feel Gaara's hesitation and uncertainty.

Seeing that Gaara had come, Shamu felt that the Hidden Sand Village might also be planning to get involved.

The Hidden Sand Village had brought quite a few experts. It did not look like they had come to Konoha merely to take the exams.

Besides, Shamu had already interfered with Gaara's life. How could Gaara still only be a genin by now?

Even Temari might no longer be a genin.

Shamu had followed along and spent the whole time watching the show.

He truly had not expected the test's setup to be as idiotic as ever.

They changed the room number on the second floor to make it look like the third, then had two people stand around saying how terrifying and dangerous the Chunin Exams were.

Trying to make others retreat in the face of difficulty had actually happened.

The key was that there really were examinees who could not tell whether they were on the second or third floor.

Shamu could only find it funny from the back. If they could not remember how many flights of stairs they had climbed, could they not just look out the window?

This was not a matter of whether they could take the exam. It was a matter of having a problem with their intelligence.

He truly did not know what they taught at the ninja academy, or how these people had graduated.