Since Moriyue and the others had arrived in Sunagakure early, the ninjas from the other villages had not all arrived yet. Gaara arranged for them to stay temporarily at an inn. They could move about freely while they waited, but they were not allowed to get into physical conflicts with anyone, or they would be disqualified from the exam.
"That's the situation. I hadn't expected the Raikage to accept our invitation, so there were some oversights. I hope you don't mind." Gaara understood the temperaments of every village's Kage. This time, Konoha had been his main target for invitation. As for the other villages? He had not actually considered them very important.
Moriyue and Gaara shook hands. When they parted, neither of their expressions had changed. Gaara had plenty to deal with, so he soon left as well.
After all, he was the newly appointed Kazekage. Not to mention Sunagakure—among all the ninja villages, he counted as an exceptionally young Kage. As a newcomer, he would certainly be targeted by the old fossils within the village.
Besides, Gaara's father could manipulate Gold Dust. During his tenure, he had eased Sunagakure's economic crisis. Even Rasa had regarded his own son as a monster. Now that they were asking a monster to become the master of their village, the villagers' reactions were easy to imagine.
Moriyue, who knew all the details, naturally understood what Gaara valued most right now—uniting with Konoha, proving his own strength, and earning the recognition of the other villagers.
"But Sunagakure's forbidden techniques..." Moriyue felt somewhat troubled. While every village researched forbidden techniques openly and secretly, each ninja village had its own style. Kumogakure focused mainly on Nintaijutsu that strengthened the body, while Sunagakure specialized in Puppet Technique.
"The technique for turning living people into puppets?" Moriyue thought it over. Its efficiency in dealing with enemies was a little low. It would be easier for him to just smash them apart with one punch.
Rather than being used for battle, this technique seemed more suited to tormenting opponents. It was not like he could turn himself into a puppet like Sasori, right? That would not be worth the cost.
"What are you thinking about?" After bidding Gaara farewell, the group walked back. Kazeki had her hands behind her back. She had noticed Moriyue's expression had been extremely complicated just now, as if he were thinking about something again. She had seen him make that expression many times along the way and could not help asking.
"Huh? Me? Nothing. I was just thinking that only the three of us came from Kumogakure this time. We can't disgrace Kumogakure."
Ando nodded upon hearing that. That was indeed true. Generally speaking, a ninja village would send more than one team to participate in the Chunin Exams. Sending more people could also increase the number of Chunin in their village.
There were only two possibilities for sending a single team: either they were overly confident and believed that team alone could become Chunin, or they had no hope of winning at all and had merely come to probe the other villages.
Ando clearly believed they were the latter. Even Gaara thought so. He had deliberately taken the opportunity to sense Moriyue's Chakra during their handshake. The Chakra within Moriyue's body was utterly chaotic. He could not even discern the pathways of Moriyue's Chakra. Rather than a ninja, this guy seemed more like a cripple whose chakra pathways had been destroyed.
Through that handshake, however, Moriyue had sensed the restless tailed beast within Gaara.
"One-Tails Shukaku, the tailed beast Deidara captured... That monk who mastered the forbidden technique for absorbing tailed beast Chakra should appear in this battle. The Seven-Tails will come too..." Moriyue's thoughts stirred. The power of the tailed beasts was extremely formidable. If he could absorb that power...
Suppressing the little thought in his heart, Moriyue stopped thinking about such things. Before reaching that point, he still had a major hurdle to overcome.
"If I remember correctly, the first exam is a Written Exam, right? Should we try predicting the questions?" Moriyue was extremely familiar with the original exam process and remembered some details about this one as well. If he was not mistaken, Shikamaru should be the chief examiner.
"Predicting the questions? Captain, you really know how to joke. How could anyone possibly guess that? If they could, wouldn't everyone pass the Written Exam?"
"Heaven rewards diligence. Only through constant practice and memorization, building a solid foundation, can one increase the chances of passing the Written Exam..." The moment Ando brought up his field of expertise, he was no longer sleepy.
Who was he? Though he was still a Genin, he had read quite a few books in his usual days. What? Ninja's Code, On the Falsehood of the Will of Fire, Killer B's Rap Tutorial, Manual of Musclehead Cultivation—he had read plenty of them.
Although he did not know what the Chunin Exams' Written Exam would test, he knew that the exam questions absolutely could not be leaked.
Moriyue chuckled and patted Ando on the shoulder.
"There's no harm in trying. What if we guess right?"
Kazeki nodded gently as well. Moriyue was the captain, so his word went. No matter how unlikely the plan was, they had to do their best to carry out the captain's assignment.
"Fine, but I don't think it'll be useful. Zero, you should read more books. Captain, it's up to you now." Ando shook his head helplessly. It seemed these two would not give up until they hit a wall. Fine, let him predict the questions and see what he could possibly predict.
Though he was already very familiar with the plot, Moriyue did not directly tell them the correct answers. He deliberately mixed in several wrong questions to confuse them. It would not be good to act like a prophet outright. Those Kumogakure scientists were watching him constantly. If he showed anything unusual, would they not resort to underhanded tricks against him?
Listening to the questions Moriyue listed, Ando could not suppress his smile. What was this? The predicted questions were so simple? Although he had never actually taken the Chunin Exams, surely they would not be this easy.
The scores of three people added together equaled one hundred? They would jointly eliminate one ninja? Was that not a little too simple? If the exam really could be that easy, he, Ando, would eat a pound of sand today!
Unlike Ando, Kazeki carefully wrote down the questions Moriyue had predicted. What if he was right?
"Mm, that's about it." After predicting the questions, Moriyue noticed the growing crowd around them. Ninjas from other villages were arriving one after another, and there were quite a few familiar faces among them.
"Oh! So this is Sunagakure! The swirling wind and sand are just like my fiercely burning youth! Looks like we're the first to arrive! A great victory!"
"Hey, hey, Rock Lee, do you have to make such a fuss? Huh? That's... Sunagakure-exclusive ninja tools? Ah! I'm buying them!"
"I'm telling you two, get serious. We came here for an exam. Be more solemn, and I hope we can pass this time."
Familiar voices came from behind Moriyue. There was no need to look. Just from listening, he knew it was the members of Team Three.
"Familiar faces have arrived..."
Before you continue