24 Meet the Competition!

"What Kind of Chances Do We Have?"

"So this is it, huh?" Taiki held the door open for his two teammates before passing through himself and shutting it again. "We're going to do great, I know it."

The two girls did not respond immediately, Naeko giving him a distracted nod as she surveyed the room. "There must be over a hundred people here! What kind of chances do we have against that many?"

"It means we'll just have to work a little bit harder," Kotori grumbled as she too glanced around, mentally profiling the more prominent individuals for future reference. "It looks like we have people here not only from Konoha but from Suna, Ame, Taki, and Kusa as well... and one that I've never seen before." She gave a pointed glance to the foreign trio, then looked back to Taiki and Naeko to see their reaction. "Any ideas?"

"Not a clue," Naeko replied, shrugging. "But I'm sure we'll find out sooner or later."

A commotion now arose from the rear of the classroom, near the door through which Taiki, Naeko and Kotori had passed earlier. Taiki turned his attention to the dominant voice, coming from a pale-haired youth wearing round glasses and a smirk. "Hey, Naeko, who's that guy? He's acting like he knows it all."

Naeko glanced back to identify the young man and gave a disdainful snort. "Oh, that's just Kabuto. He's applied for this exam seven times, and failed each time."

"Then he's hardly one to be lecturing the newer genin, is he?" Taiki asked with a frown as he half-listened to Kabuto's words.

"There is much to be learned from failure," Kotori mused, studying Kabuto carefully. "Besides, I think there's more to him than he's letting on. Just a hunch, so don't count on it..."

"Yeah, Tori-chan. We all know that paranoia is your sixth sense - " Naeko would have continued in this vein had she not been silenced by a shushing sound from Taiki.

"Take a look at those cards!" Taiki peered through the gathering crowd to where Kabuto had placed a card on the floor, outlining the origins of the candidates on a map. "You were right, Kotori – Sand, Rain, Waterfall, and Grass are all here, and that other one is the Sound Village, Oto. Must be new, because this is the first I've heard of it." He chuckled. "I guess he's counting me as a Leaf-nin for this exam, but I'll correct him later." Then Taiki fell silent again, listening as Kabuto answered a question posed by the genin Naeko had identified earlier as Sasuke.

"Why? Someone here you have a particular interest in?" Once again the pile of cards was brought forth, Kabuto shuffling the map card back into the deck and picking another out with a gloved hand. "I'll admit these are far from complete, but I've burned a complete set of dossier cards for the current pool of applicants..." His eyes flicked up from their examination of the card in his hand and rested on Kotori for a moment, the smirk returning for a fraction of a second before he resumed his answer. "... Including your team. If you share any data you have on this person that interests you, I'll be happy to look him up and let you know what I have so far."

The rest of the exchange was lost on Kotori, her eyes fixed on the deck of cards and her mind ticking through the shades of meaning in that dark glance. "Did you see that?" she asked Taiki, pitching her whisper for his ears alone. "He was looking right at me as he said that. I wonder what he knows."

"I did see it," Taiki answered, likewise speaking so that the surrounding people couldn't hear. "And your guess is as good as mine. I wouldn't worry too much, though – you haven't let people see what you're truly capable of, so all he's working with is unsubstantiated rumor. Let it rest, and only worry if he actually does know something."

"If you say so." Kotori seemed unconvinced as she tuned her ears to the conversation between Sasuke and Kabuto, the latter of which had pulled two more cards from the deck and laid them out to see. "Rock Lee of Konoha... and Gaara of Suna? The first I can understand, but the other..." These two examples were given careful study by the Uchiha before being replaced.

"So, any others? Or was that all you wanted to see?" Kabuto prompted, resting his hand on the top card to draw it out if wanted.

Sasuke was silent for a moment, processing this new information and considering if he needed anything else. He opened his mouth as if to say something, then stopped as another idea occurred to him. "Three more, if you don't mind." Giving Kotori a dark glower, Sasuke added, "Her... and her two teammates."

Kabuto raised an eyebrow at the thinly veiled venom behind the request but said nothing as he brought out the requested dossier cards. "Ah, this is going to be interesting. You see, I've only had a year to gather information on two of them, but I'll tell you what I know. First up - " he held up the first of the three for Sasuke to see " - Kurogata Naeko. I have the most complete information on her because she, unlike the other two, is a native inhabitant of Konoha. Let's see: her talents lie in genjutsu, with moderate skills in ninjutsu and highly-developed stealth abilities for her level of training. Her fighting tool of choice is a special type of thread created for combat use by her clan, a thread that can be manipulated into many uses by chakra application. Weak point? Taijutsu." The smirk made yet another appearance as Kabuto added, "She's also a bit of an airhead at times, and easily distracted. If you want to know about physical attributes, her measurements are - "

This brought an alarmed squeak from Naeko as well as an embarrassed flush rising in her face. "Hey, that's kinda personal!"

"Not to a medic who might need to know it to save your life," was the cool response as Kabuto switched out Naeko's dossier for the next card. "And now we get into more interesting territory with... Yamataki Kotori." Again the unnerving glance, and Kotori shivered. "I can see why you might want to know more. Though she was born here, she was raised in the Mist Village with extensive training in taijutsu as well as in the use of the zanbatou." Sasuke blinked at this but let Kabuto continue. "Most of the ninjutsu she uses will involve water, as you may have guessed. Other than that, I don't know much about her."

The last card came up for examination, and Taiki suddenly found himself empathizing with Kotori's concern as the dark eyes focused studyingly on him. "Last, but certainly not least, we have Yamada Taiki. I don't know if that's his real name, considering he was adopted by the Raikage at a very young age. He practices a very unique fighting style unknown to anyone here in the Fire Country, and his jutsu will be primarily lightning-based. That's all I know about him." A quiet snicker. "Yes, Taiki, I know that you're from Kumogakure. The only reason I didn't note that on my map is because you're training in a Konoha cell... but trust me, your real home is stated correctly here." Kabuto idly turned the card over in his fingers a few times before sliding it and its fellows back into the deck. "I look forward to expanding my knowledge."

"We'll just see about that," Taiki grumbled, whispering to Kotori in the hushed tones of earlier, "I can see why you were nervous. He's a total creep..."

"You saw the way he was looking at Naeko while talking about her. It's like he had all of the facts memorized... and are you as skeeved out about that as I am?"

Taiki nodded once silently and shivered. Kabuto resumed his lecture to the rest of the Konoha genin, satisfied that he had driven his point home. Giving the young man one last foul glare, Kotori found an empty seat amongst the crowd and did her best to tune out the noise of the rest of the applicants, flinching visibly when a voice cut through all of the rest: "My name is Uzumaki Naruto, and none of you are gonna beat me! You got that?" I thought my cell was made up of special cases, she mentally griped, noting the sudden silence in the room that followed this announcement. Grumbles of derision and discontent sprang up here and there like errant breezes, bringing snatches of teasing, complaints, and a half-baked scheme to Kotori's ears. And now some idiot is going to start a fight. Wonderful.

Rustles of fabric and the faint tap of footsteps indicated movement in the crowd, followed by the sudden whoosh of thrown kunai and a dodged attack. There was a crack as what she could only guess to be the lenses of Kabuto's glasses shattered and fell to the floor, and a violent retching sound that made Kotori wince in disgust. Seems like the Otonin got their panties in a knot over something. I wonder if anyone's going to step in... Concerned interjections from the gathered students raised the noise to another level, rising to frantic pitch until another voice scolded them into silence:

"Would everybody please just shut up?"

All eyes turned to the front of the classroom, where a large group of grey-uniformed shinobi stood waiting. At the front of the pack stood a scarred man who wore a long black coat over his uniform and looked out assessingly over the gaggle of students. Finally, someone to bring order to this zoo, Kotori thought as she listened to the man introduce himself as Morino Ibiki, the chief examiner for the first test, as well as reprimanding the Sound trio for their misconduct. Once he'd concluded this bit of business, he continued. "The first part of the selection exam is about to commence..."