I Don't

"Mm."

In the early morning, Shinna nodded, and that was their greeting.

This was how they had been spending their days lately, with barely any chance to meet, and nothing to say when they did.

Summoning a shadow clone, they both left the house.

The examination hall was covered in crude genjutsu, which was naturally useless against him.

Up to the third floor!

The moment the door was pushed open, all eyes turned to them, everyone looking fierce.

The atmosphere wasn't good.

"Hi~" Tenten tilted her head and greeted them.

"Shhh—"

As he walked over, Shinmoku pulled down his hood, but everyone's gaze followed him closely, as if they wanted to burn through his hood.

"What's going on? Why is everyone so hostile towards me?"

"You don't know?"

"What?"

"Just these past few days, Cloud Village released news," Tenten explained, "saying they had a traitor among them who escaped from a pursuit by Jonin including the Raikage. They've issued a bounty and posted a picture... Guess who it is?"

"..."

Shinmoku froze, his eyes full of confusion.

After a long while.

"First, I'm a spy, not a rogue ninja.

"Second, I wasn't 'caught'."

"Oh~ Hmm?"

Tenten's cheeks instantly flushed red as she realized what he meant, while those around them wore expressions of "What are you talking about?"

Shinmoku thought further.

It must have been Yugito's idea. Such matters were usually not publicized by ninja villages, as it would damage their prestige. Only the Raikage would agree, he was confident enough.

Fine, fine, they're going this far?

"Actually," Shinmoku spoke again, "only Yugito is chasing me. We have a pretty good relationship..." He stopped himself in time.

The surrounding ears all nodded in tacit understanding after hearing this.

So that's how it is.

"I am Uzumaki Naruto! I won't lose to any of you! Understand!!!"

A roar from the doorway attracted everyone's attention.

He had seen this scene before: nine new genin gathered, Kabuto providing the ninja registration cards, Naruto making a sweeping statement...

Next, some random character should make a move.

However, the expected scene didn't happen; a person he didn't recognize walked past.

"Hey!" he asked Kabuto, "Among your cards, do you have Uchiha Shinmoku?"

"Uchiha?"

Second Pillar exclaimed in surprise, then scanned the crowd and spotted two people with unique auras in the corner. They smiled and nodded at him.

At this moment, the card player drew one from his deck, joined two fingers, and infused chakra into it. The card displayed a bounty photo.

"Uchiha Shinmoku. Specializes in Fire Style, possesses Sharingan. Completed 10 D-rank missions, 3 C-rank missions, 1 B-rank mission. A-rank unknown, S-rank unknown. Information is incomplete as he has been missing for a long time."

"..."

Are they really discussing this openly?

The sound of the door opening again interrupted their conversation. Morino Ibiki, along with his team of examiners, walked onto the stage.

Submit application forms, distribute number tags, assign seats.

Scanning the surroundings, Hinata was in the front, and her deskmate was Naruto.

Rules:

Each person starts with ten points. One point deducted for each incorrect answer. Cheaters will have two points deducted upon discovery.

Nine questions will be distributed first. The last question will be given with fifteen minutes remaining. Those whose average score is below passing will be eliminated. If anyone scores zero, their entire team will be eliminated.

As for the questions, Shinmoku only knew one: coded messages.

Shinmoku rested his left fist against his cheek and began to spin a pen with his right hand.

Morino Ibiki began to observe him.

They had never met, but he had received intelligence from the other party before, and it was always accurate. He was curious about Shinmoku's methods of gathering information.

"So, being an internet celebrity in the ninja world really isn't easy!" Shinmoku sighed inwardly.

He exchanged a glance with Ibiki, then set down his pen.

He wasn't skilled at this kind of intelligence gathering; the only methods he could think of were using the Sharingan to copy or using Water Release to condense a mirror-like object for reflection.

He could try, but it wasn't necessary.

The goal was to test intelligence-gathering capabilities; the exam itself didn't matter, and neither did the score, as long as he didn't get caught—someone would eventually deliver the answers.

Suddenly, a faint reflection flashed by. Shinmoku looked up, his gaze meeting Tenten's embarrassed eyes in the mirror.

Ibiki followed his gaze upward, and the three pairs of eyes converged in the reflection.

Tenten's body jolted, her expression turning to one of panic.

"..."

"Mr. Ibiki," Shinmoku spoke up, "even though you don't have a scorecard in your hand, staring at us like that is still quite nerve-wracking!"

The sudden voice drew the attention of all the proctors in the room.

"Continue monitoring!" Ibiki barked coldly.

He stopped observing Shinmoku and instead followed the thin wire to lock onto Tenten.

Mentally thanking Shinmoku for the reminder, Tenten brazenly manipulated her reflective mirror, but while searching for the correct answers, she suddenly noticed a seat was empty.

She looked up, and wasn't Kanna sitting right there, perfectly fine?

"Where did she go?"

"No! I can't act suspicious!"

Sweat beaded on her forehead as she continued her work.

However, Ibiki had already noticed the anomaly.

"Release!"

The girl in the seat dissipated like a phantom, replaced by a figure behind Hinata who, after copying the answers, swapped test papers with Shinmoku and sat back down.

"So that's how it is."

While he was observing Shinmoku, Shinmoku was also observing him, deducing that he wasn't participating in the proctoring and passing that information along, even making him believe it was to help someone else out.

Uchiha Kanna had taken advantage of the moment the proctor was distracted to cast a genjutsu... did she confuse ten chunin? No, that would also include him, a special genin.

Good grief, she could have just activated her Sharingan to copy the movements; was she trying to save ocular power? Or was she just too lazy to put in the effort? The Uchiha thought process really was strange.

And truly powerful.

There was no point in monitoring them any further; they were clearly just here to put on a show.

The events that followed were much like the picture in Shinmoku's mind: Naruto's loud shout ended the exam, and Anko Mitarashi flew in to announce that they were to gather at the Forest of Death the next morning.

As they walked out of the exam hall, Tenten hurried over to catch up.

"Kanna—" She ran up to Kanna, hands on her knees, and asked breathlessly, "Do you have time? Let's go shopping together."

Kanna looked at Shinmoku.

"Don't bring him, it's a girls' date."

"She wants to apologize to you," Shinmoku said, spreading his hands. "Go and come back early, stay safe."

Through their time together, he felt that Kanna's heart was extremely closed off, and the Uchiha were prone to extremes; he, for one, was out of ideas.

Tenten was alright—lively and cheerful—so if she could be of any help, that would be for the best.

"I... alright."

Kanna finally accepted Tenten's proposal.