On the other side of the arena, two Shiras squared off.
"I'll get stronger to be alongside the Kazekage no matter what," the first Shira declared.
"Funny," the second Shira smirked, crossing his arms. "There's only one reason I've been training. It's to get stronger than the one man I respect the most: Hoshikaze."
Before the second Shira could even drop his arms, one of his teammates lunged forward and slapped the sealing tag squarely on the chest of the first Shira. A puff of white smoke then erupted as the disguise dissolved, revealing the bound Leaf proctor.
Interestingly, the psychological profile explicitly stated Shira revered Gaara. So when the proctor was released, he asked, "How could you say such a thing when that's not what you wrote on your test?"
"I admit," the real Shira explained. "There was a question that asked who I respected the most. I was torn between him and our new Kazekage." He then looked up at the stadium wall. "I was surprised myself when I wrote his name down instead."
"You do know he lied to the world, and that there truly was no Hoshikaze, right?"
"I do…" A memory surfaced in Shira's eyes—the clash he had with Arthur when the latter visited the Sand Village. "But my heart speaks just as loud as my fists."
The Leaf proctor snickered as he walked away to join the disqualified proctors.
Margaret stood on the high wall, having listened to that exchange. A deep frown settled on her face as well due to how highly disturbing their interaction was.
Her exams were designed to root out Arthur's lingering influence over the world. Yet here was a dedicated Sand shinobi passing her test specifically because his devotion to the man who broke the world outweighed his loyalty to his own Kage.
Arthur had also bore witness to the whole event through Rin's team. He found a dark irony in the situation.
Later.
The stadium slowly cleared as teams finalized their interrogations. The round ended with a specific roster passing the test. Team Fu, Team Shira, Team Kazami, Team Komugi, Team Ameno, Team Matsuri, Team Rin, and all the Rookie Nine variants managed to secure their spots.
The methods each one of them had used varied.
Team Fu figured out their imposter when the real Fu released a fraction of her Tailed Beast chakra that the Leaf proctor had zero means of mimicking.
Team Guy identified the real Neji after he delivered a bitter speech regarding the heavy burden of the Branch clan. The imposter, having grown up in the Main branch of the Hyūga, simply couldn't replicate the genuine resentment in Neji's tone.
Team 10 isolated the real Ino by bringing up a deeply embarrassing shared memory from their academy days that only the three of them knew.
Hinata and Shino secured Jugo when he casually displayed his passive skill of speaking to a stray cat that happened to sneak into the arena.
As for Rin's team, Kaiyo had asked a simple trivia question: Who is the leader of the Rain Village?
The imposter answered Nagato Uzumaki, relying on high-level intelligence regarding the Akatsuki's true hierarchy. But a regular, low-ranking foot Genin from the Rain wouldn't know that name.
To the general populace, Hanzo the Salamander was still the figurehead. So when the real Rin gave the civilian answer, the fake was tagged.
Arthur commended Kaiyo. It was a clean deduction that made the team look like uninformed grunts, drawing less suspicion to their cover.
With the second part of the exams officially concluded, the surviving teams gathered in the center of the dirt. A sudden gust of wind kicked up the dust as a newcomer dropped from the sky and landed right next to Margaret.
It was Temari.
"You were right to have called me early," she commented.
"What can I say?" Margaret shrugged, gesturing to the crowd below. "They're all yours now."
All eyes locked on the Sand kunoichi as she stepped up to the ledge.
"I'm Temari of the Sand Village," she announced. "Too many teams have passed the first exams. We're going to narrow it down some more."
Exactly as Arthur remembered from the filler arc, this next round bypassed arenas and focused on pure endurance. Afterwards would come the more serious test.
Temari explained that the entire roster was to race to the Devil's Desert, a harsh wasteland located exactly between the Land of Fire and the Land of Wind. It took roughly three days of continuous travel for an average shinobi to cross the distance.
Only the first thirty teams to arrive at the designated checkpoint would be allowed to advance to the next stage. Fighting other teams on the road was also strictly prohibited.
And the twisted part, Arthur knew, it started now.
The arena quickly erupted as teams dashed for the exits while scrambling over each other to hit the village gates first.
Now Arthur had some time to think things through.
Margaret had proctored the exam fairly by maintaining the structure of the event. Yet there were zero signs of William, Alex, or Alice. Jada had to have been out of the village due to her recent mental trauma and training. The others, however, had no real excuse to be missing.
If they weren't in the stadium, they were preparing the board somewhere else.
Regardless, the foot race offered a lull in the action.
Arthur severed the active sensory link with Rin's team. He had been watching her non-stop, neglecting his own physical territory.
The three-day transit gave him the perfect window to handle his own business.
So he stood up from his throne and spent the next seventy-two hours governing his country.
Trade routes were reviewed with Toki, authorized supply shipments were approved with Diana, and reinforcements to the village's barrier codes were amplified.
Three days later, the sun was seen dropping below the horizon as the desert air in the Land of Waves turned chilly.
Team Rin had managed to be one of the first thirty teams to make it to the checkpoint. The towering stone walls of the Sand Village loomed in front of them. To no surprise, the other notable teams had also crossed the finish line on time.
Right now, all thirty squads were gathered by the village entrance just as night fell.
Standing in front of the exhausted Genin were four figures: Margaret, Temari, Gaara (now Kazekage), and one surprising newcomer, Fugi.
Arthur narrowed his eyes in the throne room.
Fugi was the Sand Council member orchestrating the coup to extract the One-Tail. For him to be standing out here in the open, welcoming the genin alongside the Kazekage, meant his treason hadn't festered (yet).
It also confirmed Arthur's suspicion. Margaret and her friends knew exactly what Fugi was planning, so they were likely letting the villain act so they could strike at the most optimal moment.
"Congratulations, everyone," Gaara announced.
He soon informed the genie that the next round would officially start in three days. Until then, everyone would be staying at the Sand Hotel to recover.
The teams were then dismissed after another speech.
Arthur watched as the crowd filtered through the gates and separated into their respective rooms at the designated lodging. The lobby was noisy, with most of the Leaf Genin gathered in the center of the room.
To avoid arousing any suspicion or getting dragged into a conversation, Rin's team walked straight to their assigned room on the second floor and locked the door behind them.
Kaiyo dropped her pack on one of the beds and stretched her arms. "We're not going anywhere in these exams!"
Only the three of them understood their situation. Arthur didn't care if they made Chūnin; he required actionable information on the timeline. And so far, they had only gathered minor details.
Shigeru stood by the window, peering out at the dark streets. "I have an idea." Rin and Kaiyo looked confused as he walked toward the door. "Just wait here."
A few minutes later, Arthur watched as Shigeru calmly exited the hotel. The village streets were mostly empty, so Shigeru walked with a casual pace toward the Kazekage's central manor.
It was late at night, but the lights in the administrative offices were still on.
Shigeru stopped a block away, found an empty wooden bench facing the manor, and sat down. He then closed his eyes, rested his hands on his knees, and seemingly minded his own business like a tired traveler.
Arthur knew full well what Shigeru was doing.
Shigeru was a well-trained Uzumaki, heavily modified by Arthur's science and skilled at many obscure shinobi arts. Of those things, he was dominant in sound-based sensory techniques.
Sitting on the bench, Shigeru tuned his hearing to the precise frequency of the manor's walls. He filtered out the wind, the shifting sand, and the distant chatter as he listened to the micro-vibrations traveling through the stone.
Half an hour passed before he finally opened his eyes to return to the hotel.
"Where were you?" Kaiyo asked upon his return.
"Busy," he answered, walking over to the center of the room. "There's a few things you two should know."
His hands suddenly glowed with a faint, blue chakra as he placed it on Kaiyo's forehead. When he did the same to Rin, the two were surprised.
What Shigeru had done was share the intercepted audio and mental information directly into their minds via chakra transfer.
"But how're we gonna—" Kaiyo started.
Shigeru instantly clamped his hand over her mouth. It was clear to him that she was going to ask how they were going to relay this information back to Arthur. Even if she wasn't going to say his name, Shigeru didn't want to take the chance.
Rin understood the danger just as much. So without saying a word, she walked over to the small wooden desk in the corner of the room and picked up a pen. She then tapped the metal tip against the hard wood multiple times.
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick-tick.
"What're ya doin' there?" Kaiyo asked.
"Just bored…"
Tick-tick.
Tick-tick-tick.
Arthur slowly opened his eyes from the comfort of his chair.
'Morse code…' he knew.
It required no chakra, no hand seals, and generated no suspicious visual phenomena. To anyone listening in the hallway, it just sounded like an anxious Genin drumming a pen against a desk.
But to Arthur, it was a direct translation of what Shigeru had heard.