"These are my info cards. Look here, as you can see Konoha has the most teams participating. Of course that's a given since we're on home turf. But just about every shinobi village has brought genin here to participate. We've even got a team from Kumo this year, a rarity considering we're not on good terms with them."
Naruto lifted his head up and searched for the team from Kumo, figuring they must be powerful in order to be in the exams while in a somewhat hostile village. As he did his eyes made contact with the blond Kumo kunoichi who had watched him earlier. He took a brief moment to notice her features. She was slightly older than he was by maybe a few years, with long blond hair several shades lighter than his and bound in bandages that went down to mid-back. She had a black sleeveless shirt with a purple armor piece that covered her stomach up to the middle of her sizable chest. She also wore matching pants and sandals with a violet sash around her waist. Spending time with Anko as much as he had, the small pervert in him that she had created could not help but notice the woman's beauty.
However he also sensed some kind of strange connection to her. Not that she was familiar in anyway, but that she felt…similar would be the best way he could put it. Like Gaara but different. Both of them soon noticed they were staring at each other and blushed a bit as they looked away.
"Do your cards hold individual information?" asked Sasuke, bringing Naruto's attention back to the rookie group.
Kabuto smirked, "Of course, all I need is a name, or even initials and I can find them for you."
"Give me everything you have on Rock Lee of Konoha, Sabaku No Gaara of Suna…and Uzumaki Naruto."
Everyone looked at Sasuke, wondering why he wanted information on the dead last and his teammate, or any of the other people here.
"Man Sasuke, all this time we've been a team and you don't even know my skill set." Naruto gave a mock pout, "You really don't know how much that hurts, I almost feel like crying."
Sasuke scowled at the dobe's act, but did his best to ignore him.
"Man, you know their names and where they come from, that's no fun," Kabuto said as he held up three cards. One of them went up in smoke to reveal Rock Lee's card, "Let's see, Rock Lee has 246 D-rank missions and 22 C-rank missions, his teammates are Higarashi Tenten and Hyuuga Neji, last year's Rookie of the Year. Says here that in the academy he had no skills to speak of, but in the last year his taijutsu made a phenomenal jump. Last year he could have entered the Chunin Exams, but his sensei held the team back a year to gain more experience."
"Next we have Sabaku No Gaara. It says here he's done 8 C-rank missions, 27 B-rank missions and get this, 1 A-rank mission. His teammates are Sabaku No Temari, and Sabaku No Kankurou, his older siblings. Apparently they're the children of the Kazekage. Also this is just a rumor but apparently he's come out of every single mission without even getting a scratch."
Naruto eyed the red-haired Genin curiously, So he's pretty strong then, I bet it will be a blast to fight him.
"And finally we have Uzumaki Naruto. Let's see, his stats show 65 D-rank missions, 1 C-turned-A rank mission and…huh, that's odd. It says he also has one B-rank mission that was not given to his other two teammates. Said teammates are Uchiha Sasuke and Haruno Sakura. He's average at both ninjutsu and taijutsu but has no skills to speak of in genjutsu."
"Dobe, how do you have a B-rank mission when I don't?" asked Sasuke, his scowl back in place.
Naruto gave his raven-haired teammate an indifferent shrug, "Sorry, but its classified information, if you don't know, I can't tell you." The Sandaime had told him that he could not tell anyone of Mizuki's betrayal as it was a matter of village security.
Of course I think the whole thing was off the record wasn't it? Naruto looked at Kabuto with a frown. So how did he know about it? The blond shook his head; he was starting to get paranoid. Damn Anko and her frickin paranoia, next thing you know I'm gonna start watching for shadows creeping up on me when I'm sitting on the john.
"So as you can see there's a big turn out this year. All of these teams are the cream of the crop, the best of their villages." Kabuto paused for a moment before adding, "Well, I'm not sure about Oto, since they just started up last year they're pretty small time and only managed to send one team."
"You hear that?" asked a teen with bandages covering his entire head except for the right eye. "He called us small time."
"Why don't give him a piece of our mind Dosu?" suggested their female raven-haired teammate.
"I say we do more than just give them a piece of our minds," Suggested the shinobi with spiky black hair.
"Yeah…let's show them what Oto shinobi are capable of," Dosu said right before all three disappeared.
Only a few of the genin within the room could see them; those being the team of Kumo ninja, the Sabaku trio, Team Nine, Kabuto and Naruto.