"Now, each participant will be assigned a number based on their registration order. We'll randomly arrange the numbers to form teams. The names and numbers of each team's members will be displayed on this screen. Please line up with your team in order..."
Dan Katō stood on the platform and turned to point at a large black electronic display mounted on the wall behind him. He spoke loudly.
On the screen, the red team numbers and names jumped around like garbled text for nearly ten seconds before finally settling into place. The members of all ten teams had been assigned.
There were 267 applicants this time, enough to form 89 teams. Of the names on the first ten teams' list, only Sarutobi Asuma was familiar: Akado Taku, Gekko Kazuhiko, and Sarutobi Asuma. Seeing Asuma clench his fists, his face brimming with excitement, it was clear he knew both teammates well—and that they were no slouches.
Next, Uchiha Obito, Anko, Ibiki, Shiranui Genma, Might Guy, Uchiha Obito, Hyuga Xiangning, Sato Hideaka, and the others were assigned to their teams. Unfortunately, apart from Uchiha Obito and Might Guy being on one team, and Anko and Shiranui Genma being on another, all their other classmates had been separated. Their teammates were all strangers.
Having unfamiliar teammates made Yuhi Kurenai extremely nervous. She wanted to be as brave as Uzumaki Kushina, but for a seven-year-old girl, deciding to face a situation like this alone was already no small feat.
After all, among the applicants were not only older students around twelve, but also former graduates who had never become Genin. They were generally between fourteen and eighteen years old. Their experience, physical strength, and imposing height were all "impressive"!
"Asuma, are there any contestants in this year's competition who are around Chunin level?" Sato Hideaka asked, walking over to Sarutobi Asuma while the teams were still being arranged on the screen.
There were always a few geniuses in the world, especially in a place like Konoha, which produced talented shinobi in droves. Kakashi, for instance, became a Chunin at six, created the Chidori at around eight, and became a Jonin at twelve. Uchiha Itachi became a Genin at seven, advanced to Chunin at ten, and became an Anbu squad captain at thirteen. At fourteen, he annihilated the Uchiha Clan...
Those were undeniably illustrious records, but surely there were other geniuses in a village as large as Konoha. Sato Hideaka didn't believe otherwise. He was confident in his own Genin-level abilities, but he didn't want to be arrogantly blind. The more he knew about his opponents, the better his chances!
"Hmph. Why should I tell you? We're competitors, after all..."
Sarutobi Asuma turned his head aside and gave an arrogant snort.
Sato Hideaka shook his head and said, "But we're classmates. And if we find out about our opponents in advance, we can make a point of avoiding them once we enter the Forest of Death. That'll improve our overall chances of passing. You don't want our classmates to be eliminated right at the start, do you?"
When the classmates gathered around them heard that some of the contestants might be as strong as Chunins, they hurried over to ask Asuma about it. Chunin-level strength was far beyond them, and none of them wanted to be eliminated quickly after running into a powerful opponent.
"Why would anyone in the Genin Exam be as strong as a Chunin? We definitely can't beat one! Asuma, just tell us. Then we can avoid them... Maybe we'll still make it through in the end."
"Yeah, exactly. If we run into them as soon as we enter, we won't know how strong they are. If we rush in blindly, we'll be eliminated right away."
"..."
"Okay, okay. I'll tell you!"
Asuma was fed up with his classmates crowding around him. They were in the same class, and their opponents were all strangers, so naturally they would form a group. He felt awkward keeping his information to himself in front of them.
"Look at that girl..."
Asuma pointed to a girl with long, straight black hair and a fan crest on her back. She looked like a porcelain doll. His expression grew serious as he said, "Her name is Uchiha Kaoru. She's twelve this year and the second elder of the Uchiha Clan's most beloved granddaughter. She awakened a single-tomoe Sharingan at eight, then a two-tomoe one at ten. She's skilled in Fire Release and Shurikenjutsu, and she's a genius with strength comparable to a Chunin..."
Everyone followed his finger. The girl looked as delicate as a porcelain doll, her eyes like deep pools. With a slight furrow to her brow and a calm expression, she stood alone among the Uchiha Clan. She was like a black tulip, radiating a cool, aloof air.
Perhaps she disliked the noisy surroundings. The girl's faint frown had prompted the people around her from the Uchiha Clan to give her a little space, making it clear that she commanded respect.
"She doesn't look very strong. Is she really as impressive as you say?"
"Yeah. She looks cute to me. I think that big guy covered in muscles next to her looks stronger."
Asuma rolled his eyes at the boys' clueless remarks and continued, "Believe it or not, among people our age, she's a genius second only to Kakashi Hatake. As for why she never took the Genin Exam before, it might have something to do with her grandfather..."
"Then there's Hyuga Ningbo, from the Main Family of the Hyuga Clan. He's eleven this year, awakened his Byakugan at eight, and is an expert in Gentle Fist. He's already mastered the Eight Trigrams Sixty-Four Palms. I've heard he's even learned the secret technique 'Rotation,' passed down orally through generations of the Hyuga Main Family!"
"Besides him, there's Uchiha Kenichi, grandson of the Uchiha Clan's Third Elder. He's an extremely cold and arrogant guy who just awakened his two-tomoe Sharingan. He's skilled in Fire Release Ninjutsu and the Kunai Throwing Technique of the Uchiha Clan. There's also Inuzuka Jin of the Inuzuka Clan, Shimura Masao of the Shimura Clan, Akimichi Shinichi of the Akimichi Clan, Yamanaka Sanae of the Yamanaka Clan, Nara Kinji of the Nara Clan..."
"Everyone I've mentioned is skilled not only in the basic Three Body Technique, scouting and counter-surveillance, traps, and kunai throwing, but also in their clans' secret techniques. They're all formidable, and none of them should be underestimated..."
Asuma slowly listed the top contenders in this year's Genin Exam. Sato Hideaka was startled to realize that nearly all the slightly stronger, genius-level contestants were descendants of Konoha's major clans. It seemed they had a near-monopoly on talent.
The electronic display had finished assigning all the teams. Sato Hideaka quietly whispered his plan to Yuhi Kurenai, then handed a note he had just written to Hyuga Ningxiang in the crowd. When she looked at him with a delighted expression, clearly misunderstanding his intentions, he could only wordlessly point at the note in her hand before heading toward his own team.
When he reached the spot assigned to his team, Sato Hideaka found that his two teammates had already gathered. One was a fierce-looking, muscular man, and the other was a gloomy man with a scar on his face.
Looking down at Sato Hideaka, who didn't even reach his waist, the burly man cursed, "Kid... You're Sato Hideaka, number 137? Damn it, my teammate's a little brat. I came here to take the Genin Exam, not to look after you! What a waste of a team slot for me."
"Koji, don't you think this kid will slow us down?" the gloomy man said in a sinister voice.
"Once we're inside, we'll just ditch him. Tch, we're not babysitters..."
Seeing their attitude toward him, Sato Hideaka shrugged and smiled without a care. He had never planned to team up with these two people he couldn't trust in the first place... Teaming up with people who distrusted and rejected one another, with no trust between them, was worse than not having these useless teammates at all!