(PS)
"That is concerning," Ino gulped.
Why would they come together? Aren't S-ranks supposed to be egotistical and mostly rogue? So their coming together in an organization is definitely not a good sign.
"Indeed it is. Anyway, don't share this information with anybody else. This is confidential and will cause problems which I can't predict," Shikamaru said seriously.
He recognizes when he can't take into consideration unknown factors, so he would like to step back beforehand.
"I see, don't worry, we won't have shared anyway," Ino said.
She is not the type of person who will just declare information to random strangers on the street.
She likes to gossip, but she is a secret keeper and she keeps secrets of many people.
She is a girl of secrets.
"Yeah, but we should at least inform the Hokage, right?" Asuma asked.
His father is not Hokage anymore, but every time he says that word, his father's face appears in his mind.
The face of an old man who had not only lost one hand but also looked frail.
Well, then again, Asuma won't underestimate the old man.
He isn't even sure that he could win against the man even without one hand.
Who knows if he had learned one-handed seals in the meantime for his main jutsus.
"She already knows this," Shikamaru briefly replied, marking the end of the conversation.
Asuma was really curious about how Shikamaru came by this piece of information, but his suspicions about why Itachi and Kisame were wearing similar cloaks were now confirmed.
It seems the world is really going to see some change in the upcoming time.
"Anyway, you guys should get going now. You have to prepare for tomorrow's exam, and I would even give you a tip," Shikamaru looked at the starless sky and then at the other two.
They had just completed their meal and were a bit of distance from the shop.
"Tomorrow's exam is gonna be tough. If I were in your position, I would get as much rest as possible and try to be at my peak performance before tomorrow evening."
"Well, if you say so."
"Do tell Sora that I have accepted his challenge."
With that, the Ino-Shika-Cho parted.
The sky was covered by clouds, blocking the moonlight and making it dark.
It seems today it's gonna rain.
Then again, rain and Suna weren't words that should come in the same statement.
And time moved forward...
"Are you guys not nervous?" Kiba looked at the other three who were very calm.
"Not really," Ino shrugged.
She wasn't expecting much, and she has seen a lot of things, so nothing absurd could surprise her at this point.
At least that's what she thinks.
"But we are only going to have one exam with so many teams participating," Kiba waved his hands around and pointed to the many Suna teams.
Heck, if we look at the percentage of Konoha genins in the exams, it would be 20 per cent only.
They have 4 times their amount as competitors.
"It's fine, we have to pass this exam, not fight them," Hanabi said while using her byakugan to gauge people's chakra reserves.
It wasn't against the rules, so she would like every advantage she could get.
Plus, just seeing others' chakra reserves is good enough to estimate their combat prowess at genin stage.
Obviously, there are exceptions, but it works for most.
One exception would be her red-headed friend who had so much chakra.
And that's also increasing with time.
Even when Sora was not a ninja, his chakra reserves could put most ninjas to shame, still that doesn't mean his combat prowess was high from the beginning.
A Sand Jounin came and instructed them to start following him as they were going to change locations.
They went into a training ground with sand.
This was kind of equivalent to Forest of Death as this was first on the outer part of Suna, and second maintained for taking chunin exams only.
They were told to be near a big stone pillar at the centre of the whole training ground.
Mind you, this training ground is very huge, and for genins traversing from one corner to the opposite corner will take them hours at their maximum speed, so it took a decent amount of time just to reach the centre.
Somebody even complained, but the Suna proctors just glared at them and said that if they can't even handle this much movement, then they may as well drop out of the exams.
Well, after that nobody complained.
Talk about shame.
We need more shameless people in the area.
"You guys are given 5 5-minute breaks, after that the exam will start," the Suna jounin said and then disappeared.
Some people really wanted to complain as they had been running at a decent speed, so they were naturally tired, and now they had to deal with this.
"Are you guys already tired?" Kiba asked. Ino and Choji were breathing fast.
Hanabi was breathing a bit fast, but not that obvious until you were specifically focusing on her breathing.
She was a taijutsu specialist and also knew a bit of chakra enhancement, so it would be embarrassing otherwise.
Shino was breathing lightly; it seemed his insects had done something... he was sus.
Kiba was in the same boat, as Hinata; they weren't affected much.
"I- I don't specialize in physical-related things, so I am excluded," Ino raised her hands up like making the sign of surrendering.
Choji opened a bag of chips and ate—no, inhaled it in one go, others looking at him.
"I am good," Choji did a thumbs up.
To everyone's horror, he wasn't breathing hard anymore; heck, the signs of tiredness had vanished like they never existed.
Some Suna genins who were looking in their direction were also shocked and wondering what kind of trickery this was.
They first checked if genjutsu was used on them or not.
Being a Ninja is all about being paranoid.
You can't just trust anybody lightly.
Heck, somebody who says that they trust you can't be trusted.
That much paranoid you have to be, or you will die in a ditch with none the wiser.
"Anyway, will you guys be with us only? As there are too many Suna genins and they would definitely target us, so it's better to stick together," Ino said.
"Well, I don't know, it's not like our team needs to stick together with you guys."
"That indeed seems the most rational choice."
"Yes."
Kiba looked at the other two with a betrayed facial expression.
They were supposed to support him.
"Hehe, it's okay, we get you," Ino patted Kiba.
The guy didn't let it show on his face and maintained the stoic facade.
Akamaru came out of Kiba's jacket and shook his head.
Kiba was insufferable.
"The rules of this exam are simple—there are 10 scrolls spread throughout the desert. You guys have 10 days to find them and keep them with you till that time ends. If any one of your teammates dies, you will not be eligible for the next round," a voice suddenly said, making everyone look around.
Finding the source of the voice as it seemed like it was coming from all directions.
Hanabi and Hinata opened their byakugan instinctively.
They looked at the top of the stone pillar around which all teams were gathered.
The person was not really hiding their chakra, so chakra sensors who had activated their sensing fields just now, like Ino, found that person very easily despite so many people around them.
The answer was simple: they had large chakra reserves.
"So, this was his mission huh," Hanabi looked at Sora who was sitting cross-legged on top of the stone pillar.
"Everything else is allowed. Your exam starts now," Sora weaved hand-seals.
The people who were sensing him at the moment, and even those who weren't—both parties' eyes widened.
A large waterfall could be seen falling down as Sora had targeted that jutsu at the spot where he was standing such that he was launched upwards.
The water spread in all directions.
Now, that wouldn't really make everyone surprised, but what surprised them was the amount of water.
It was too big.
Everyone was swept away by the water and was taken by the stream to a large distance away from the centre.
This tactic effectively made people spread out without the need for individual chunins to take them to their spots.
"I will kill him!" Ino cursed while spitting out water that had gotten inside her mouth.
She wasn't expecting to get soaked in the desert of all places.
Luckily for them, Choji acted quickly when the water came crashing down and used partial expansion jutsu to grab everyone with his enlarged hands.
At least they were not separated.
It was an unexpected feat for Choji, but it seems he is growing too.
***
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