Chapter 51

The two groups make their way to the classroom. Kakashi was standing in front of the door.

"Glad you came Sakura" said Kakashi. "For your sake and the others; now you can all formally register for the Chunin exams."

"What do you mean?" said Sakura.

"You see, only groups of three are allowed to apply for and take the exams. That's the way it's always been."

"But sensei, you said the decision to take the exams was up to the individual."

"That's right I did."

"Was that a lie?"

"Sort of, it is an individual decision but it affects all of you. I didn't tell you before because I didn't want the other guys pressuring you at the same time I didn't want you feeling obliged to participate because of any feelings you might have. I wanted you to come to a decision of your own free will."

"Wait so if the other showed up but I didn't—"

"It would have been the end of the line. If you hadn't come, I couldn't let the others in."

"But it's a mote point. You're all here and for the right reasons. Naruto, Sakura, Sasuke, I'm proud of you all. I couldn't ask for a better team. Good luck."

"That was kind of sweet" whispered Aylana. The six of them entered the room and see it's packed with ninja of different kinds from different villages.

"Well we went from eleven to a hundred" said Menma.

"I had no idea there would be so much competition" said Sakura.

"Sasuke where've you been" said Ino and she hugs him from behind. Menma face palms.

"Not this again" said Menma. Sairana looks over at Aylana. She's not even reacting.

"Hey you porker back off he's mine" said Sakura.

"Miss Forehead then let you in?" said Ino. "Still got those frown lines on that billboard brow I see."

"Leave my forehead out of it."

"It's you guys" said Shikamaru as he walks up. "I knew this was going to be a drag but I didn't know it was going to be this lame."

"Nice to see you too Shikamaru" said Menma. "I'm surprised you said yes to being here considering how lazy you are."

"It's whatever"

"Well well what do you know" said a man in a thick hoody. He had a small dog on top of his head. He along with a man with sunglasses and a girl with white eyes walks up.

"Good to see you again Kiba" said Menma to the man in the hoody.

"Shino" said Sairana to the man in sunglasses. "I should have known you'd be here."

"I guess the whole gang's back together again" said Kiba.

Menma's gaze shifts to the girl with white eyes. "Hinata" he says with a worried look in his eyes. "Are you okay?" She turns away from him blushing. Menma turns to Kiba. "How's Hinata been doing?"

Kiba's expression changes. "She's her usual self. Why?"

"Well…I ran into a problem with a certain guy"

"Guy?"

Menma leans over to Kiba. "Have you heard of Neji Hyuuga?" whispered Menma.

Kiba gets a shocked expression in his eye. "You ran into Neji?"

"So that's a yes."

"He's here?"

Menma nods.

Kiba looks and Hinata with a worried look then looks back at Menma. "This could be bad" said Kiba.

"Make sure you keep an eye on her and look out for Neji" said Menma.

"Of course"

"Well how's your training these days Shino?" said Sairana.

"The usual" said Shino "How've you been doing these days? With you being on the same team as Menma, you must have had some complications."

"Nothing I can't handle." Sairana glances over at Aylana.

"Something wrong?"

"I don't know yet." She turns back to Shino. "I kind of slipped up and told Aylana about Menma's past."

"So she knows?" said Shino in a worried voice.

"No, but she suspects. I can't have her finding out about Rosera."

"Do we need to erase?"

"No not yet, we can wait…for now."

Shino shifts his gaze to Naruto and Sasuke. "At the very least warn those two. If she does find out, then she'll try and confront Sakura."

"It won't come to that."

"Won't she? You forget, that the six of us swore to keep Rosera a secret. If even one piece of information is leaked out—"

"I know Shino. Trust me, I got this."

"Hey you guys" said a man dressed in purple with glasses. "You might want to try and keep it down a little." He walks up to the twelve of them. "I mean no offense but you're the twelve rookies right? Fresh out the academy, I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it this isn't a class field trip."

"Well who asked you" said Ino. "Who are you?"

"I'm Kabuto Yakushi but really look around you, you made quite the impression." Everyone looks around and sees that all the ninja are looking at them. "Everyone here is very touchy. This exam makes them tense and you don't want to rub anyone the wrong way right now." Kabuto's expression changes. "You can't help it. After all, how could you possibly know how things work, you're just rookies. You remind me of myself a while back."

"Kabuto is that your name?" said Sakura

"Yeah"

"This isn't your first time taking the exam?"

"No it's my seventh" Shikamaru looks at him in confusion. "Well they're held twice a year so this will be my fourth year."

"Wow a veteran; you must really be an expert."

"Some expert, he's never passed" said Shikamaru

"Well seventh time's the charm right?" said Kabuto.

"So I guess all those rumors about the exam being tough are true huh?"

"Hang on don't give up hope yet. Maybe I can help you kids out a little." Kabuto reaches into his shuriken sack. "With my ninja info cards"

"What are those?" said Sairana

"It's hard to explain" said Kabuto. "These cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years." He kneels down on the floor placing the cards on the ground. "I've got over 200 of them. So you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye." He pulls a card form the top. "In fact they appear completely blank." He places the card down face up and it's completely white. "Don't just want anyone seeing them." He starts spinning the card on the ground with his finger.

"What are you doing?" said Sakura

"I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets" said Kabuto. The card stops and a map of the ninja world appears on it. "This map shows the geographic list of all the candidates taking the exam. What villages they come from and how many from each village." He looks up at the group. "Why do you think they all come here to take the exam together at the same time? It's to foster friendship between nations of course; international brother hood and all that."

"But there's another reason" said Sasuke.

"Yeah you see this way they can carefully regulate the total number of shinobi in each village thereby maintaining the balance of power. If the balance isn't maintained, one nation can end up with many more shinobi than the others and it might be tempted to attack them."

"Do those cards of yours have information on the other candidates" said Sasuke

"They might, you have someone special in mind?"

"I might"

"Same here" said Menma walking up. "Two teams in particular"

"Well, I can't promise my information is complete or perfect" said Kabuto "But I have something on just about everyone including you guys of course. So which one is it? Tell me anything you know about them. A description, where they're from, whatever anything at all."

"Gaara of the desert, Rock lee of the leaf village" said Sasuke.

"Aw you know their names this will be easy" said Kabuto. He turns to Menma. "And you?"

Menma thinks for a second. "Ojin and his team" said Menma "As well as the all female team from the sound village"

Kabuto's smile goes away. "What's your interest in those two? They aren't what you would call normal"

"All the more reason" said Sairana "Is there something about them we should be worried about?"

Kabuto looks down at the ground. "A lot especially the female sound ninja." He takes a deep breath. "Okay" He pulls out four cards. "Here they are"

Sasuke, Menma, and Sairana look at Kabuto intensely. "Show them to us" they said