Akira suddenly became nervous as she and her teammates approached room 301. Her outburst only moments ago had put everyone on edge, but they seemed even more determined to go through with the Chūnin Exams, and Sasuke wasn't sulking anymore. Despite the slow, bubbling rage deep inside her, it had taken a backseat to the excitement she was feeling. Akira was eager to start proving herself, eager to prove Naruto, Sasuke, and even her father wrong. However, she was also worried. If all the opponents were like Lee and Gaara, then she may have some trouble and fail to become a Chūnin. It wasn't that she didn't have faith in her abilities, it's that she didn't know what sort of tricks the proctors and contestants had up their sleeves. There was a strong possibility that some would resort to cheating, intimidation or outright violation of the rules to achieve their ends, and Akira wasn't sure she had the nerve to do the same. The biggest question was... would Akira have to kill again?
Akira came out of her thoughts when she saw Kakashi standing in front of door 301. A warm sensation rose within her and she smiled. Nothing mattered as long as Kakashi believed in her and the team. Akira, Sasuke, Naruto and Sakura walked up to Kakashi and stopped a few feet from him. He smiled.
"Glad you came, Sakura, for your sake and the others'."
"Huh?" the teammates chorused.
"Now you can all formally register for the Chūnin Exams."
"What do you mean?" Sakura asked.
"Well, only full groups are allowed to apply for and take the exam," Kakashi said. "That's the way it's always been."
"But Sensei, you said that the decision to take the exam was up to the individual."
"That's right, I did."
"Was that a lie?"
"Sort of," Kakashi said, landing sideways. "It is an individual decision, but it affects the entire team. I didn't tell you before, Sakura, because I didn't want the others pressuring you."
Akira, Sasuke and Naruto nodded in agreement. It was a thoughtful gesture.
"At the same time, I didn't want you to feel obliged to participate because of any feelings you might have for Sasuke, Naruto or Akira. I wanted you to come to a decision of your own free will."
"Wait a minute," Akira said, her eyebrows furrowed. "Do you mean, if everyone showed up except Sakura—"
"It would have been the end of the line. If Sakura hadn't come, I couldn't let you, Sasuke or Naruto in." Kakashi stuffed his hands in his pockets. "But it's a moot point. You're all here, and for the right reasons; Sakura, Naruto, Sasuke, and Akira—I'm proud of you. I couldn't have asked for a better team."
A little bit of pride rose within Akira and the others. Kakashi stepped aside and the four teammates went through the doors to room 301. Kakashi ruffled Akira's hair as she passed and she swatted his hand away, chuckling.
The doors had barely closed behind Akira when her eyes narrowed and scanned across the room. There were at least a few hundred ninja in the room, sitting at a seemingly disproportionately smaller number of seats, forcing some to sit on the ground, on top of tables, or to remain standing. What was sure enough to the team, however, was that every single one of their heads turned towards them as the door slammed shut. Akira subconsciously straightened her back and shoulders and lifted her chin a little. She needed to show that she wasn't intimidated by them. However, the defiant look in her eye was making them stare more. Confidence from a rookie? That was something to crush.
"Wha - What's this?" Naruto stuttered, scared and confused.
"Gee, I guess we're not alone," Sakura said, sounding quite worried.
Akira crossed her arms and gazed in contempt at those who dared to stare directly at her. There were some that didn't react. Akira looked calm to them, almost as if she belonged. There were others who looked upon her with smirks, proud to see a rookie with an abundance of confidence. Others, who saw this confidence, wanted to shrink away and crawl into a hole, terrified of what the rookie team could do if she was showing so much confidence. And there were some who, upon seeing this confidence, grew angry, believing that she should be crushed immediately. Tensions were high in the room, and Akira had just added to it.
Sasuke seemed to have the same idea as Akira. He was gazing coolly around the room, sizing up the competition. That was, of course, until their Academy classmates barged in.
"Sasuke, where've you been!?" Ino squealed, jumping onto Sasuke's back.
Sasuke glared at her and that was Akira's queue to move away from the group. There was no way she was going to be seen with them if they were going to act like schoolchildren. Akira moved to the back of the room and leaned against the wall, watching from a distance.
"Hey, you porker! Back off! He's mine!" Sakura shouted angrily.
"Miss Forehead! They let you in?" Ino said. "Still got those big frown lines on your billboard brow, I see."
"Leave my forehead out of it!"
"Oh, it's you guys," a voice said to Akira's right. She turned her head and suppressed a smile.
"Hey, Shikamaru," Akira greeted calmly. He looked at her and smirked.
"I knew this was gonna be a drag," Shikamaru said, walking over to her. "I guess it'll kind of be better with you around here."
"I'm not getting involved with..." Akira gestured dismissively at Ino and Sakura. "That."
"So, all three stooges are here," Naruto commented.
"Hey, you know what pipsqueak?" Shikamaru said, annoyed. However, he didn't follow through with his insult. "Ah, forget it. You're a waste of time."
Akira couldn't help but breathe out a small laugh. Leave it up to Shikamaru to be too lazy to tell someone off. Akira looked over to Shikamaru's right and spotted his teammate Choji Akimichi, munching away on a bag of chips. She went to greet him with a polite nod of the head, but he was too invested in his snacking to notice anything. But then Kiba, Kai, Hinata and Shino walked over, and Akira couldn't help but smile.
"Well, well, what do you know?" Kiba said. He was smirking, looking overconfident, as usual, with Akamaru lying down on his giant hood. "Looks like the whole gang is back together again."
"Hey, Kira," Kai said, smiling brightly at her. "Almost didn't see you back there."
"I'm trying to avoid being seen with these people," Akira groaned, nodding towards Ino and Sakura.
"Kira? Kira! I didn't even see you!" Kiba said loudly as he walked over to her. He swung an arm around her shoulders. "Admit it; you're only here to try and prove yourself to me, aren't you?"
"Self-centered as usual, aren't you?"
"Oh. Hi, Naruto," Hinata's soft voice said.
When Naruto looked at her, she blushed and turned away, making the yellow-haired ninja frown in confusion. Shikamaru sighed, slouching on the wall beside Akira.
"You guys too, huh?" he said, almost groaning. "Man, everyone's here for this stupid thing."
"Yup, all the rookies are here," Kiba laughed as he squeezed Akira's shoulders tighter. "This is gonna be fun. At least, for those of us good enough to make the cut. Right, Akira, Sasuke?"
"Kiba, careful you don't get overconfident," Sasuke said, after finally breaking away from Ino and Sakura.
"Just wait, we're gonna blow you guys away! We've been training like crazy."
"What do you think we've been doing? Sitting on our asses?" Akira said, looking up at her friend with a raised eyebrow. "You have no idea what training is, Kiba."
A set of approaching footsteps rang in Akira's ear and as they got closer, Akira turned in the direction of the sound. Her eyes gave the man a once-over out of curiosity; he was a few years older than them, at least, and he had a serious look on his face. The bandana he wore told her he was from the Leaf Village, but Akira didn't recall ever seeing him. Behind round glasses was a pair of black eyes, and his ash-grey hair was tied at the base of his head. There were no dead giveaways on this guy's techniques, but by the general air of calm, Akira guessed that he was at least a little experienced.
"Hey, you guys," he called to the rookies. "You might wanna try keeping it down a little. I mean, no offence, but you're the eleven rookies, right? Fresh outta the Academy? I wouldn't go making a spectacle out of yourselves. Just cool it. This isn't a class field trip."
"No, really?" Akira muttered sarcastically. Kiba and Shikamaru chuckled.
"Well, who asked you?" Ino complained. "Who are you?"
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But, really, look around you. You've made quite an impression."
Akira didn't need to look around to know that all eyes were on them. They were acting like a bunch of kids, like Gening fresh out of the Academy. It didn't really bother Akira. If anything, she felt it gave her an advantage. If people were going to underestimate her, they weren't going to be prepared for what she could do.
"See those guys?" Kabuto continued. "They're from the Rain Village. Very touchy. They all are. This exam makes everyone tense, and you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now."
"Nuh-uh," Sakura said, looking nervously to her left.
"You can't help it. I mean, how could you know how things work? You're just rookies."
"Means you've been here before," Akira said. "What does that say about you, I wonder?"
Kabuto chuckled and smiled a little.
"You remind me of myself a while back," he said.
"Kabuto, right? I'm assuming this isn't the first time you've taken the exam," Akira said, still staring at the man.
"Heh, no..." Kabuto said with a disparaging smile. "It's my seventh."
"Say what now?" Shikamaru said, looking at Kabuto with a dumbfounded expression.
"Well, they're held twice a year. So this'll be my fourth year."
"Wow, a veteran!" Sakura said, sounding impressed. "You must be an expert by now."
"Yeah... Sort of."
"Cool!" Naruto said, smiling. "You can give us all the inside tips!"
"Yeah, some expert," Shikamaru said sarcastically. "He's never passed."
"Well, seventh time's the charm," Kabuto said, smiling awkwardly while rubbing the back of his neck. "That's what they say, huh?"
"So, I guess all those rumours about the exam being tough are true, then." Shikamaru sighed. "Oh man, I knew this was gonna be a drag."
"Hang on. Don't give up just yet. Maybe I can help you kids out a little..." Kabuto retrieved a pack of orange cards from his pocket. "With my ninja info cards."
"What the heck are those?" Sakura asked.
"It's a little hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years," Kabuto said. He sat on the ground and placed the deck of cards before him. "I've got over two hundred of them. So, you see, I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much to the naked eye. In fact, they appear blank," Kabuto said flipping a card over. It was indeed paper-white. "Don't want just anyone seeing this stuff."
"What are you doing?" Sakura asked as Kabuto began spinning the flipped card with his forefinger.
"You see, I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets, like this for example."
Suddenly, upon the blank card appeared a map with green bars of various lengths on it. Akira frowned and leaned forward, curious. This use of chakra was interesting. Kabuto must be skilled at chakra control.
"A map?" she said, looking down at the card.
"Of what?" Ino asked.
"It shows the geographical distribution of all the candidates who have come to take the Chūnin exams," Kabuto said. "What villages they come from, and how many from each village." Kabuto looked up at the rookies. "Why do you think they all come here to take the exam together, at the same time?"
"Some weird friendship fostering scam, probably," Akira said, sounding bored. "International brotherhood and whatnot."
"The scam part isn't that far off," Kabuto admitted. "You see, the important thing is that this way, they can carefully regulate the total number of shinobi that end up in each village, thereby maintaining the balance of power."
"Way to go, conspiracy theorist," Kiba teased.
"Oh, yeah, the balance of power," Naruto commented, obviously pretending he understood what was going on.
"Balance of power. Big deal. It's all a drag," Shikamaru complained.
"No, he's got a point, Shikamaru," Akira said with a sigh. "If the balance of power isn't maintained throughout the villages, one nation could end up with far more shinobi than its neighbours. If that were to happen, they might be tempted to attack. So, we have to maintain the status quo or we'd end up with another war."
"Right," Kabuto agreed.
"Do those cards of yours have any info on the other candidates, individually?" Sasuke asked.
Akira's mind immediately went to Gaara. Ever since she'd met that boy, she knew he was going to be trouble. If there was a chance her team could get a leg up on him, then Akira would snatch it right up.
"They might," Kabuto said. "You have someone special in mind?"
"I might," Sasuke said, glaring at Kabuto.
"I can't promise my information is complete or perfect, but I've got something on just about everyone, including you guys of course. So, which one is it?"
"Gaara of the Desert," Akira said suddenly. "And Rock Lee of the Leaf Village, while you're at it."
"You know their names? Well, that makes it easier."
Kabuto ran a hand over his deck of cards and plucked two from it. He spun the first card.
"First is Rock Lee. Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Mission experience is eleven C-Ranks and 20 D-ranks. His squad leader is Guy. In the last twelve months, his taijutsu skills have radically improved, but his other skills are pretty shaky. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."
Akira clenched her jaw. She was right. He was a Hyuga. That meant trouble.
"Okay, now for Gaara of the Desert." Kabuto spun the second card. "Mission experience is eight C-Ranks and, get this, one B-Rank as a Genin. There's not a lot more information on this guy. He was a rookie from another land, originally, but there is this: he survived every single mission without getting a scratch on him."
Akira's eyebrows furrowed. The mission Team 7 had to the Land of Waves was probably a B-rank or even an A-rank mission. However, it was supposed to be a simple C-rank. What was this kid's excuse for doing a B-rank on purpose? Coming out of it without a scratch on him was also a feat in and of itself. There was something about this kid that Akira wasn't sure she liked.
"This dude's done a B-rank as a Genin and didn't even get hurt?" Shikamaru said in disbelief.
"Our mission to the Land of Waves turned out to be the same, even though it was meant to be a routine C-rank," Akira said. "It's amazing to think he came out of something like that unscathed."
"What's the deal with this guy?" Naruto asked, equally as shocked.
"Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Sound," Kabuto enumerated. He'd pulled out another card with another map. "From the looks of it, they've all sent exceptionally skilled candidates to the exam this time around. Of course, the Hidden Sound Village is small. It sprang up recently. No one knows anything about it. Those guys are a mystery."
A mystery. Akira put a hand over her mouth, pensive. She looked over to the other competitors in the room and examined their insignia. A few of them had a musical note on their headbands, which Akira assumed to be the Genin from the Sound Village. The colours of their uniforms were all too familiar.
"Well, you get the point. The competition is gonna be intense this year."
"So it would seem," Hinata said quietly. "It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence."
"It's a fine time to start talking like that!" Ino shouted.
"Shut up, Ino," Akira said dispassionately. She turned to look at Kabuto with a serious look on her face. "Do you honestly think it'll be harder this time?"
"Oh, yeah," Kabuto said without a beat. "In the four years I've been coming, I've never seen a crop of candidates with as much potential as this bunch. It seems we have our work cut out for us..."