Rin froze. She was going to quickly turn back and slip away, but the moment she shifted her weight, her sandal crunched against the grass.
Kakashi heard it. He turned around, and the two locked eyes.
Rin stared at her former teammate. It was the same man she had once admired, the boy she had loved in her youth. It was also the exact same man who had literally pierced her heart so many years ago.
There was a heavy silence in the cemetery as the wind blew through the trees. No words were shared.
Kakashi's visible eye scanned her face. He didn't know who this was; he couldn't have. But something deep inside him—some buried instinct, or perhaps the ghost of his past—told him to look away.
"Excuse me," he said, turning his back to her.
Rin's breath hitched. This was her first time hearing his voice in what felt like decades. And it actually had been decades.
She wanted to talk to him; she had to talk to him.
"You're the Copy Ninja Kakashi, correct?"
"Hmm…" he murmured, slowly turning back around.
"I… I knew your father."
"Did you now?"
"Yeah… I may look young, but I knew of him. He was a killer, but I thought you should know that… that he did it for the sake of this village."
Kakashi stared at Rin for a long moment as the silence returned.
Had she said something suspicious? Why would a young Genin from the isolationist Rain Village care about the White Fang of the Leaf? Just who knows how many Anbu operatives were secretly watching them from the canopy right now.
To her absolute surprise, Kakashi closed his eye, and the fabric of his mask shifted upward.
He actually smiled.
Rin was lost for words. The sight of that genuine, warm expression broke through her mental defenses. She felt an ache in her chest. She had to leave immediately before the cracks in her composure completely shattered.
"I guess I'll be going," she abruptly said, turning on her heel.
The moment she turned her back, she heard him finally speak: "Glad to know he wasn't misunderstood…"
His voice was soft against the wind, making her pause mid-step.
Every fiber of her being wanted to face him again. She wanted to look at a smile she never thought possible on his historically grieving face. She wanted to tell him she forgave him.
But she couldn't.
She refused to show any signs of weakness. Now was simply not the time. Not while she was wearing a different face, operating under a different name, and serving the man who was dismantling the world order.
So she stayed quiet, kept her eyes forward, and walked away down the gravel path.
Hundreds of miles away, sitting in the throne room of Sun Stream Plaza, Arthur analyzed the entire exchange through her eyes.
He was genuinely impressed by her loyalty to his cause. The first time she had returned to the village after her resurrection, she had met the current generation of shinobi and almost broken down in tears.
Now, finally having gotten the chance to speak to someone from her own generation, someone she knew intimately, she maintained her cover. That alone showed her absolute devotion to making the right change in the world.
It wasn't long until Team Rin finally regrouped near the entrance of the exam hall. The massive building was buzzing with nervous energy as hundreds of young shinobi filed through the doors.
Shigeru and Kaiyo fell into step beside Rin. They had managed to gather much more information regarding the participating teams and the village's security layout.
For instance, through them, Arthur discovered that Temari was present without her brothers. That means she was likely acting as an ambassador or helping the Leaf host the logistics.
Regarding the teams, these specific ones piqued his interest the most: Team Fū, Team Shira, Team Komugi, Team Ameno, Team Matsuri, and the remnants of the Rookie Nine teams.
Team Komugi, Ameno, and Matsuri were all filler teams. Arthur knew they existed merely to flesh out the brackets for the second part of the exam. They held no narrative weight and posed zero threat to his plans.
As for the Rookie Nine teams, he found it amusing that the Leaf Village would let Asuma's team participate again. There must have been a lot of heavy deliberation among the village elders regarding the matter.
Either way, this team, and the exams as a whole, were most certainly being watched.
The Leaf leadership was likely using this gathering to lure out Arthur's forces or any remnants of Orochimaru's followers.
Although Arthur had not seen anything suspicious while monitoring Kaiyo or Shigeru's sweeps of the village, he by no means was going to teleport to them. Their every move was likely being watched. And although nothing was seen with normal eyes, that only meant the Leaf and the Sand were hiding their surveillance perfectly.
Nowhere in this village was safe enough to teleport to.
This didn't matter, though, since the exams were about to start.
Arthur watched as Team Rin entered the exam room. The auditorium was already packed. There were dozens of Genin sitting at long desks while whispering nervously to their teammates.
Rin, Shigeru, and Kaiyo found an empty row near the middle and sat down.
Arthur watched as Team 7 engaged loudly with Team 8. The scene felt almost too natural.
Naruto sat close to Hinata while laughing. They clearly looked like they were still dating. Jugo stood behind Hinata and Shino. He seemed to have conformed nicely to the Leaf Village thanks to his passive nature.
On the other side of the room, Team Guy was seen interacting with Team Shira from the Sand Village. It was evident that Shira had a mutual admiration for both Rock Lee and Neji. Considering that they were eager to test their growth against one another.
"I cannot wait to fight you myself, Shira!" Lee yelled.
"I'm looking forward to it, Lee," Shira calmly replied.
In just moments, the doors at the front of the room swung open as Margaret entered the room, flanked by a few elite Leaf shinobi. She then stepped up to the podium and explained the purpose of these exams.
The entire thing was about strengthening the alliances between the hidden villages, promoting peace, and fostering goodwill in a troubled world.
Arthur didn't buy a single word of that dragnet.
When she finished her introduction, the Leaf shinobi spread out down the aisles and began passing out single sheets of paper on the desks.
"Turn them over," Margaret commanded.
Everyone saw their sheets were filled with personality test questions: What is your favourite colour? What is your favourite animal?
"Try to answer as accurately as possible," Margaret explained. "Because those papers were made with chakra-induced parchment. They monitor the writer's micro-expressions, pulse, and chakra fluctuations. So, if you lie on any of these questions, they'll immediately combust, disqualifying you and your entire team from the exams on the spot."
Gasps flooded the room as Genin exchanged terrified glances with their squadmates. If just one person lied or tried to game this test, their whole team would lose their chance at promotion.
Arthur rested his chin on his knuckles. He found this setup only mildly interesting compared to how the first exams were normally held.
A personality test backed by a threat was psychological warfare. Surely there had to be more to it.
"You have exactly thirty minutes!" Margaret finished. "Begin!"
The moment the timer started, the room was filled with the frantic scratching of pencils. Everyone rushed to answer honestly, terrified of triggering the supposed chakra combustion.
Arthur watched as Rin calmly filled out her sheet.
Favourite food? Strawberries.
Least favourite food? Tsukudani.
Favourite word? Friendship.
Favourite hobby? Collecting shells.
Margaret was sitting cross-legged on top of the front desk as she watched most of the room sweat. Suddenly, she looked to the right.
FWOOSH!
A Genin's paper in the third row instantly combusted into bright orange flames. The boy leaped back from his desk, swatting at the smoke.
"You're out!" Margaret smiled, pointing at the panicked boy.
"Ah, man!" he groaned, dropping his pencil.
Two Leaf shinobi immediately escorted him and his devastated teammates from the room.
Now the rest of Genin became more anxious, terrified they would be next.
To Rin's surprise, she noticed Naruto sitting a few rows ahead. He was neither sweating nor panicking; he was oddly calm as his pencil moved steadily.
The timer soon ran out with a loud buzzer echoing through the hall.
"Pencils down!" Margaret commanded, hopping off the desk. "Wow," she claimed, looking over the crowd. "No surprise so many of you finished."
She then coughed into her hands to adopt a more serious posture.
"The true purpose of this first round was deception," she continued. "Those papers, you see, are just standard stock from the supply closet. They wouldn't have combusted at all if you lied."
Many Genin gave her furious or surprised looks.
"But what about that one Genin who failed?" someone asked.
The door at the front of the room opened on cue, revealing that exact same Genin. One puff of white smoke later, the Transformation jutsu dropped, revealing that the Genin was actually an adult Leaf Chūnin proctor in disguise.
"We staged that act to keep you lot on your toes," Margaret explained with a smirk.
Arthur was not the least bit surprised. Rather, he was beginning to understand why she had chosen this sort of exam.
"Ha!" yelled an exuberant voice. It was Naruto, leaning back on his chair with a triumphant smile. "I knew it all along!"
"Is that so?" Margaret wondered, arching an eyebrow with a knowing smirk.
"Yeah, that's why I lied on every single one of the questions."
The whole room fell dead silent before surprised murmurs rippled through the rows of desks.
"Ya mean ya weren't at all scared the paper would catch fire and fail us?" Sakura asked him.
"Not even close. If the paper was actually rigged to combust, I would've tried to control the chakra that made the seal work before it ignited. But since it didn't do anything after my first lie, I just kept lying until it was over."
This was a risky tactic, yet the entire room began to regard him as a collected, highly observant shinobi.
"He's a lot more interesting than we thought," Kaiyo whispered, leaning close to Shigeru.
"Whose we?!" Shigeru snapped back.
Both Rin and Arthur could see just how much smarter Naruto had become. And an adaptable, intelligent Jinchūriki was the most dangerous variable on the entire board.