The Neighboring Seat

He had not expected to be suddenly attacked in the examination room.

Yakushi Kabuto was caught off guard, but at the last moment, he barely dodged the punch coming at him.

Yet despite avoiding the attack, Yakushi Kabuto suddenly dropped to his knees and spat out blood.

"A minor ninja village? Konoha's ninjas really are arrogant..."

The young Sound ninja with his head wrapped in bandages, who had attacked Yakushi Kabuto, voiced his displeasure at Yakushi Kabuto's assessment of the Hidden Sound Village.

Then, during the pause in his speech, his companions from the Hidden Sound Village arrived at his side as well.

They were a boy with a huge "Death" written on his clothes and a girl with long black hair.

"Kabuto-senpai!"

Naruto, who was closest to Yakushi Kabuto, hurried over to him as he knelt on the ground.

Among the blood Yakushi Kabuto had spat onto the floor were fragments of lens that had shattered from his glasses.

"Are you okay?"

Naruto grabbed Yakushi Kabuto's arm, helped him up, and asked after his condition.

"Cough, cough!"

Yakushi Kabuto coughed up another mouthful of clotted blood before finally recovering enough to answer Naruto. "It's nothing serious. Thank you, Naruto."

"Hmph, no wonder you're still a Genin after taking the Chunin Ninja Exams so many times. You're pathetically weak, yet you dared to badmouth the Hidden Sound Village just because you're a Konoha ninja."

The bandage-headed Sound ninja sneered. "Update that outdated intelligence of yours. Write this down: the Hidden Sound's three-man team—Dosu Kinata, Zaku Abumi, and Kin Tsuchi. In your doomed seventh Chunin Ninja Exams, all three of us will easily become Chunin!"

Dosu raised his hand again, revealing the perforated arm guard on his arm. From the look of it, he clearly had no intention of letting Yakushi Kabuto off.

Dosu's companions, the boy named Zaku and the girl named Kin, also sneered from the side.

"Damn it!"

Sasuke pulled out a kunai as well. He did not care whether Yakushi Kabuto lived or died, but he was worried that Dosu's next attack on Yakushi Kabuto would indiscriminately strike Naruto too.

Naruto's expression, however, remained calm.

The proctors hidden in the shadows would not allow a conflict between examinees to escalate.

Fighting and killing were part of the second exam.

"Enough! All of you, stop right now!"

With an angry roar, thick smoke suddenly appeared on the podium in Room 301.

As the smoke dispersed, a group of Konoha Chunin Ninja Exams proctors wearing cement-colored uniforms appeared before everyone.

And the ninja leading these Chunin proctors was the captain of the Konoha Interrogation Corps, a special Jōnin with vicious scars covering his face—

—"I am Ibiki Morino, chief proctor of the first stage of the Chunin Ninja Exams."

He briefly introduced himself to the examinees in the room.

Ibiki's gaze settled on the three Hidden Sound ninjas. "Do you want to be disqualified?"

"It was merely a normal exchange between ninjas. Isn't that the purpose of the Chunin Ninja Exams? To bring together ninjas from various countries and assess each nation's ninja strength."

Dosu answered. Though his words were barbed, his tone had already softened before Ibiki.

"Heh, you see things clearly enough."

Ibiki said no more and signaled for the Chunin beside him to step forward.

The Chunin proctor with a bandage wrapped around the bridge of his nose held a cardboard box in his arms.

"You have five minutes. Everyone, draw your seat numbers."

At Ibiki's command, all the examinees obediently lined up and began taking slips of paper marked with seat numbers from the box.

"That proctor with the bandage over his nose, and the proctor beside him... don't they look a little like the two people who blocked the door on the second floor earlier?"

In the line, Sakura, standing behind Naruto, quietly voiced her observation.

"Their chakra feels about the same. It should be them."

Naruto also glanced at Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, who had returned to their usual appearances, but did not pay them much attention.

He quickly withdrew his gaze and focused on Yakushi Kabuto farther up the line.

He considered whether helping Yakushi Kabuto up earlier would have seemed out of place under those circumstances.

The conclusion was that it had been perfectly reasonable.

Yakushi Kabuto had approached Naruto and the others under the guise of goodwill, and it was because Naruto had "carelessly" asked about the Hidden Sound Village's intelligence.

Yakushi Kabuto's own description of the Hidden Sound Village had displeased Dosu and the others, leading to the attack.

Both Naruto and Yakushi Kabuto had been acting.

Yakushi Kabuto's performance was meant to reinforce the image of his weak strength—the kind that had never allowed him to become a Chunin—and establish himself as a harmless Konoha ninja senior in others' eyes.

It was groundwork for Yakushi Kabuto to make deeper contact with Sasuke Uchiha in the Forest of Death.

Through that deeper contact, he sought an answer to the confusion within himself, one that might exist in Sasuke.

Naruto had merely added a scene of his own to Yakushi Kabuto's performance.

While helping Yakushi Kabuto up just now, Naruto had already prepared a contingency of his own.

The Flying Thunder God mark.

Konoha's Forest of Death, the second stage of the Chunin Ninja Exams where killing was legal... Naruto would "legally" eliminate Yakushi Kabuto, a massive future threat.

"Next."

Izumo, who was in charge of drawing the examinees' seat numbers, called out.

Naruto stepped forward to the podium and casually reached into the box, pulling out a slip of paper.

"Next."

Izumo repeated his call.

Naruto knowingly left the podium, glanced at the number on the slip, and headed toward the corresponding seat.

Until he passed Hinata, who was already seated.

Only then did Naruto show a hint of surprise.

His seat for this exam was not next to Hinata's?

Naruto walked farther toward the back of the classroom and finally stopped in front of Ino.

"W-what?"

Seeing Naruto appear before her, Ino froze as well.

"Hmph..."

Naruto found it amusing that Ino looked like a mouse seeing a cat whenever she saw him.

"Laugh? What are you laughing at?!"

Ino finally realized that she always instinctively lowered herself around Naruto.

She was not normally like this. She was supposed to be the one in control!

Thinking that, Ino shot Naruto a fierce glare.

But the presence Ino displayed was nothing like what she imagined. She was completely bluffing.

"You're pretty easy to tease."

After leaving Ino with that assessment, Naruto started walking again and passed her.

Only then did Ino realize that Naruto's seat was not next to hers at all!

She had been the one to speak first when she saw Naruto approach, exposing her nervousness, and Naruto had simply taken the opportunity to tease her.

Damn it!

Has this guy become even more annoying than before?

Ino grumbled inwardly...

But when she thought carefully about how cold Naruto used to be.

Though Naruto was a little "annoying" now, Ino preferred getting along with the current Naruto.

Naruto did not possess the Yamanaka Clan's secret techniques, so he could neither hear nor see what Ino was thinking.

He had stopped in front of Ino earlier only because he had been surprised by who was seated beside him.

To conceal that unusual surprise, he had teased Ino, making it seem as though the reason for his sudden stop had been her.

Naruto finally sat down in his seat.

And the person seated beside him was Temari.