Seven days later.
Naruto walks down the street. His destination is the familiar Ninja Academy that other Genin spent most of their childhood life at to become official ninjas for the village.
Naruto is currently wearing his usual black high-collar jacket matching with black slim pants and black shoes. The most eye-catching will definitely be the dark sunglasses that cover his eyes.
While walking towards the academy, he noticed the three 12-year-old children being cornered by a much older teenager who had strange makeup on his face.
What really caught his attention was the headband of this person symbolizing where he comes from. It was the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Sand.
'He was one of the participants, huh? 'Naruto thought for a moment.
Naruto did sense another presence from the tree nearby, but this wasn't his business in the first place, and he was currently running late, so he chose to ignore it.
After a few minutes of walking, Naruto finally arrives at the entrance of the Leaf Ninja Academy, where Satsuki and Hinata were waiting.
"Naruto!" Satsuki screams, attracting everyone's attention.
Naruto slowly walks towards the two, and the moment he gets closer, he speaks in an indifferent tone: "You don't have to be loud."
"Don't blame her, Naruto. I thought you wouldn't notice us; after all, there are many ninja going inside the academy," Hinata chimed in with a small smile on her face.
"Let's go," Satsuki said before walking towards the academy. Naruto and Hinata follow her as they slowly make their way towards the building.
After entering the building, Team 13 comes to a stop as they come across a large commotion that they couldn't ignore for the time being.
A large group of genin stands before the two Chunin who have been guarding the door of a room, and this Chunin wasn't unfamiliar to Team 13.
"Hey, let us in! We are here to compete!" A female Genin dressed in a pink sleeveless qipao top and navy pants, sporting two buns of hair on top of her head, said as she stepped forward.
The Chunin, seeing her get closer, swiftly hit her cheeks with the backs of his hands, sending the girl backwards.
"Tenten!" Another Leaf Genin, this one a male with a bowl-style haircut and bushy pair of eyebrows wearing a green jumpsuit, orange leg warmers, and plenty of combat tape around his arms, rushes towards the female named Tenten with great concern.
"Pathetic," Kotetsu said with great disdain in his voice. "If you can't even take that, then you don't stand a chance in these exams!" He declared loudly, causing the other Genin in the area to stiffen in discomfort and whisper among each other with voices filled with nervousness.
Naruto stared at Satsuki and Hinata, whose eyes were staring at the sign above the door the Chunin were blocking.
Satsuki and Hinata exchange glances at each other before staring at Naruto and notice the fact that the latter has been staring at them the entire time.
Without even speaking, the three quickly understand each other, and the three proceed to make their way around the ground and towards the stairs, as their destination is the real exam venue.
Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy: Chunnin exam venue.
"So you guys are here too," a voice utters from behind Menma.
The boy turns away from his sisters to see his best friend and his partner atop his head with his teammates on either side of him.
"Bro," Menma happily greets as the two fist bump one another. "Hey, Akamaru," he said, greeting the Inuzuka's partner, who barks back in acknowledgment.
"Good to see you guys here," Yayoi happily greets Team 8.
"It's no surprise to see you three here, I suppose," Shino said calmly, staring at Mito, Menma, and Yayoi.
"You are, after all, the strongest rookie team the village has to offer," Shino added.
"Geez, Shino, way to kiss the opposition's ass!" Kiba scoffs, shaking his head, Shino's only visible response being a twitch of the eyebrow. He's telling the truth, isn't he?
"No doubt about it. We're here to win! Nothing else," Menma assures.
As the pair of friends begin to competitively bicker with one another, they suddenly hear the door open to see Team 10 entering the room.
"What a drag. You guys are here too," Shikamaru said to the group as Team 10 joined them.
"Menma! I missed you so much!" Ino said happily, clinging to him.
"Hey, Ino," Menma responds casually, returning the hug for only a few seconds before letting go while looking around.
Ino didn't have to think too hard about the reason behind Menma's action. Anyone in their batch knows about it anyway, and it wouldn't be surprising for all of them.
Moments later the door once again opens, but this time much more quietly, and the rookie Leaf genin happens to be near the door, attracting their attention.
They saw Team 13 entering the room and looking at the surroundings. The door behind them closes down on its own, and this causes the various genin inside the room to stare at Team 13, attempting to intimidate them.
Naruto ignores it and slowly walks towards the corner of the room.
Satsuki and Hinata didn't back down and scanned the area with their own eyes.
"Hi Menma, Mito, and Yayoi," Hinata greets with a smile on her face while secretly looking at Menma, who has been staring at Satsuki all this time.
"It's been a while, Hinata. How have you been?" Yayoi asks in a cheerful tone. Mito stared at Hinata, and a smile appeared on her face as she nodded in acknowledgement.
Hinata and Yayoi started to talk to each other and tried to catch up on what happened to them.
While walking towards the corner of the room, they saw someone already there. Satsuki's eyes widen slightly before returning back to normal.
"It's been a while, Satsuki," Keimei said calmly.
"It's been alright," Satsuki responds while glaring at Keimei.
Keimei understands the reason behind it. It was clear to her that Satsuki hadn't yet forgiven her for the prank she pulled off back then.
Naruto ignores the two girls and closes his own eyes to meditate for a moment before the exam officially starts.
"Is Team Ele—" Shikamaru is cut off from finishing his sentence as all heads turn to the door, another team belonging to the Leaf entering.
"Sasuke!" Sakura happily exclaims, jumping for joy.
With Team 11
Hisateru once again chuckles to himself, still not over the ass-kicking the Uchiha has just taken at the hands of that other weird-looking leaf genin. He inwardly sighs to himself. This is the less fun part about being undercover. Not being able to have fun and go all out all the time. He would have loved to take that guy on for himself.
Sasuke inwardly curses to himself as Team 11 enters the exam venue. He had been beaten. Humiliated. Again. First Keimei, now that weird-looking Lee guy. To think there were such incredible fighters in his own village, capable of dispatching even him easily. It makes him wonder how many other ninja like that there are from other villages in this very room.
The three spot the rest of the Leaf rookie Genin as soon as they walk in and walk towards them.
With the Rookie Genin group.
"Sasuke!" Sakura exclaims, walking up to the Uchiha boy as Team 7 steps up to the group.
"I just knew you were going to be here. There's no way the strongest genin in the village wasn't going to compete in the exams," she said, looking at him adoringly, with the boy saying nothing in response, staring back at her blankly. Hisateru chuckles again, Sasuke turning and frowning at him in response.
"Yeah, the strongest genin in the village. Sasuke here is in a class of his own." Hisateru chuckles while Kaori rolls her eyes. Hisateru just loves winding Sasuke up. Is she really going to have to separate these two in front of all these people?
"Sasuke's not the strongest Billboard brow," Ino said to the pink-haired kunoichi.
"Oh boy, here we go," Shikamaru says, shaking his head as all the rookies present heave a collective sigh, knowing what's to come.
"Yes, he is, Ino, you pig!" Sakura shouts angrily, turning to the Yamanaka, who finally lets go of Menma.
"No, he's not," she denies.
"Ugh, we get it. Menma and Sasuke are 'really cool.' Can you two pipe down?" Kiba interjects.
Before Ino and Sakura could even speak to Kiba, everyone suddenly heard a voice attracting their attention.
"Hey, you know you really shouldn't be attracting so much attention to yourselves," a voice says, interrupting the discussion. All heads in the group turn to see a newcomer.
His headband identifies him as a citizen of the Leaf like them. He bears ash-grey hair tied in a ponytail and onyx-colored eyes with black-rimmed circular glasses over them.
He wears a dark purple shirt with a high collar, a white undershirt, and dark purple pants with a white cloth waistband. On his hands are fingerless gloves the same color as his pants with armored plates on the back of his hands.