"Hey, Shikamaru! Chōji! You guys came too!"
"Finally found you!"
Just then, another group of young shinobi arrived before the six of them—it was Team 8 from the rookie squads: Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuga Hinata. Having shaken off Ino, Sasuke saw Kiba's relaxed expression and teased him.
"Kiba! You look pretty relaxed!"
"Heh heh! We put quite a lot of effort into preparing for this day. Maybe you guys will even lose!"
Though Kiba's swaggering, big-brother act was rather irritating, Sasuke could tell that he was quite strong too—strong enough to cause him some trouble, at least.
"What are you even competing for? I'm definitely taking first place in this tournament. You people should start thinking about how to get second place instead!"
Ino looked speechlessly at Sakura and complained, "Hey, hey, hey! Why don't you keep that idiot under control? Does he even know who he is?"
"Don't look at me! I don't want people thinking I'm close to him right now!" Sakura covered her face, completely unwilling to deal with Ino, and quickly moved away from Naruto.
"What an idiot." Sasuke snorted softly, sweeping his gaze across the crowd that was glaring coldly at Naruto because of his bold declaration. A confident smile curled onto his lips. He would definitely take first place in the Chūnin Exams. Only then could he receive true instruction.
Hyuga Hinata looked at Naruto, her cheeks flushing red. "Naruto-kun..."
Nara Shikamaru covered his face, sighed, leaned against the wall, and promptly fell asleep. "What a pain..."
"This guy!"
A ninja flashed forward at high speed and darted in front of Naruto, throwing a punch at his cheek. Naruto seemed to have been ready for it, ducking low with his hands raised before his chest. At that moment, Rock Lee suddenly appeared