"Sakura, what do you think? You were probably the first to notice, right?" Sasuke had also noticed how down Sakura was. He needed to cheer her up, so he started with her skill at genjutsu.
Sakura was taken aback. "Your analytical skills and your understanding of genjutsu are the best in our class," Sasuke said.
"Sasuke... thanks..." Sakura realized he was trying to encourage her and murmured softly. Then she quickly pulled herself together. "Of course I noticed. This is the second floor, after all."
"Yeah!" Naruto nodded along. The 301 above the classroom had also changed to 201.
"Not bad. But just seeing through it..." The ninja by the door flipped around and attacked Sasuke. Sasuke wasn't about to back down, and kicked at him in return.
Just as their feet were about to collide, Rock Lee moved. In an instant, he grabbed both of their ankles.
"He's so fast! He's completely different from when he got hit just now!" Sakura thought, her eyes widening.
"He blocked my kick? What? There's chakra in his hand..." Sasuke was astonished. The guy in front of him clearly had no chakra in his hand, yet he'd still blocked the kick.
"Hey, this isn't what we agreed on," Neji said as he and Tenten walked over. "Didn't you say you didn't want to draw attention and make people wary of you?"
"But..." Lee looked at Sakura and clenched his fist. His face suddenly turned red.
"That guy..." Yin Xiang smiled and shook his head.
"Ah... not again..." Tenten shook her head too. Their plan had failed yet again.
Lee then walked step by step up to Sakura. "My name is Rock Lee. You're Sakura, right? Please go out with me! I'll protect you until the day I die!" Lee gave her a thumbs-up.
"Absolutely not..." Sakura said, each word dripping with exasperation.
"What?" Lee was devastated.
"Your eyebrows are too thick," Sakura continued.
"Devastated..." Lee lowered his head.
"Hahahaha! Lee, what are you doing? You won't even leave your junior alone!" Yin Xiang laughed as he emerged from the crowd. Only then did everyone notice the black-clad young man.
"Yin Xiang." Tenten spotted him and went over to his side. Neji followed.
"Hey, you over there. State your name," Neji said to Sasuke.
"Shouldn't you give your own name first when asking someone else's?" Sasuke said, his hands in his pockets as he looked back at Neji.
"Hey, hey, don't be so down." Yin Xiang patted the dejected Lee on the shoulder.
"You're a rookie. How old are you this year?" Neji asked, avoiding the question. His hands were in his pockets too.
"I have no obligation to answer you," Sasuke replied.
"What?" Neji had never been talked back to like that before. Sasuke then turned and walked away.
Naruto and Lee stood by the wall, hands braced against it, both looking dejected. "Are my eyebrows really too thick?" Lee said.
"Yeah, I'm not distinctive enough," Naruto replied. Someone had asked Sasuke's name again, and no one had asked his.
"You two..." Yin Xiang raised an eyebrow.
"All right, Sasuke, Naruto, let's go!" Sakura had perked up again. She spoke to Sasuke and Naruto, and they headed up to the third floor.
In Sasuke's mind, four figures appeared: Yin Xiang, Neji, Lee, and Gaara. They were the powerful opponents he had his eye on.
"Are you interested in that kid?" Tenten asked Neji, referring to Sasuke.
"Hmph." Neji snorted and walked ahead. Tenten took Yin Xiang by the hand and started toward the third floor. Though she was leading him along, Yin Xiang didn't resist at all.
"Lee, we're going. What are you doing?" Tenten looked back. Lee was still standing motionless.
"You go on ahead. There's something I still need to confirm," Lee told Tenten, then turned and left.
"What is it?" Tenten asked Yin Xiang curiously.
"He's probably going to challenge someone," Yin Xiang replied with a shrug. Then the three of them headed up to the third floor together.
"Hey, Yin Xiang, won't it be dangerous for you to be on a team by yourself? Why don't the four of us team up?" Tenten asked as they walked.
"I don't think so. If our teacher decided from the start that I'd be on a team by myself, it proves I'm strong enough to take on a whole team alone. Don't worry. I might even have to look after you guys," Yin Xiang said with a smile.
"Seriously, don't underestimate us," Neji said, rather annoyed. He was known as a genius, after all.
"Haha, I'm just joking." Yin Xiang waved his hand. "Lee must have gone to pick a fight with Sasuke."
"Huh?" Tenten didn't understand what he meant. "But if he does that, Guy will scold him."
"Lee has always wanted to challenge geniuses. If Yin Xiang says so, then he really did go challenge Sasuke," Neji said with a nod.
Just as Yin Xiang had said, Lee challenged Sasuke. Even with his Sharingan activated, Sasuke couldn't dodge Lee's attacks. He couldn't keep up with Lee's movements and got thoroughly beaten. In the end, Lee tried to finish Sasuke off with the Shadow Leaf Dance, but Guy stopped him.
Lee also told Sasuke that the strongest Genin in Konoha was Yin Xiang, and that he had come to challenge him. This made Sasuke dislike Yin Xiang even more—and Lee even more than that.
By the time Yin Xiang and the others reached the classroom, Guy and Lee were already waiting there. The rules of this exam were simple: the whole team had to arrive to qualify. After that, Yin Xiang and the others entered the classroom.
It was already packed with people. Yin Xiang found a seat by the window. The room was full of ninja from different villages. Naruto and the others arrived after him, and the nine rookies from Konoha gathered by the door.
"Where's Yin Xiang? Where's that Genin everyone says is so strong?" Kiba looked around as he approached, trying to find him.
"He's not with us," Naruto said, shaking his head. "Is Yin Xiang really that strong?" Sasuke asked Kiba.
"You don't know? Yin Xiang is a Genin who completed an S-rank mission. He's already famous in Konoha—the Third Hokage's student, the Fourth Hokage's son, Kakashi Hatake's younger brother, Konoha's number one genius: Namikaze Yin Xiang," Kiba told everyone.
Yin Xiang's record shocked them all. At last, they had learned a little about him.
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