A total of 153 Genin were participating in the first round of the Chunin Exams. In other words, that was the number of candidates currently inside this classroom. Konohagakure had the largest contingent, followed by Sunagakure, and only then the various smaller hidden villages. Otogakure (Hidden Sound Village), which Orochimaru had founded, had sent only three participants, namely the three minor characters from the original story.
"That's how it is. The Chunin Exams aren't merely a joint examination. They're also an excellent opportunity to evaluate the strength of the different hidden villages. Whichever village produces more successful candidates will naturally be regarded by the Daimyo and the outside world as the stronger village. That said..."
Still half-crouched on the floor, Kabuto glanced sideways with a trace of helplessness in his tone. "Takigakure (Hidden Waterfall Village) may already be about to lose one entire team of candidates this year..."
"Heh~! I already gave them a chance. Failing to recognize the difference in strength between themselves and an enemy is itself one reason they're unqualified for this exam."
Seated on top of a desk, Hinata gave a faint sneer. Apart from the Takigakure Genin lying at her feet, whom she had knocked down first, the other two were now sprawled in the aisles on either side. Without question, after seeing their companion attacked, the remaining two had failed to understand the gap between friend and foe and had rushed at her in anger. The result hardly needed to be explained.
"Well... if you put it that way, I suppose you're not wrong..."
Kabuto instinctively pushed his glasses up his nose, then immediately gave a slight start. That sort of answer obviously did not fit his current identity as the kind and helpful senior. Yet what he had just said was unquestionably the response that best matched his present state of mind, almost like... the instinctive answer he would give when facing that lord.
"Tch~~ They really are arrogant... Are those actually the nine rookies from this year?"
Among the many shinobi present was Team 3. Looking at the Byakugan girl sitting on the desk without the slightest concern for the hostility surrounding her, Tenten could not help feeling a little envious. "But... that really is satisfying to watch. Acting that cool~"
"Indeed. She has tremendous force of personality and presence. Judging from that punch just now, her actual strength is considerable as well."
Sitting beside Tenten was a boy who looked... like a watermelon. The comparison might not be especially proper, but it was difficult to deny. He wore a green bodysuit, his hair was a smooth, rounded bowl cut, and even his pupils were round like glass marbles. The key ideas were "green" and "round." Taken together... a watermelon was unquestionably the most fitting image. Without question, this was Might Guy's Direct Disciple, Rock Lee.
"Hmph~!"
Hyuga Neji responded to Tenten and Lee's evaluations with nothing more than a cold snort. Yet the depth of his frown made it easy to see that Hinata's behavior was putting pressure on him too, pressure he could not simply ignore.
The shinobi world certainly valued patience and disguise. Yet the people and things that drew attention were never those who silently followed every convention. They were the ones who stood out everywhere and refused to move with the crowd.
Besides, unusual behavior usually had a reason behind it. An arrogant person was not necessarily all show. It was just as possible that they truly possessed the strength that allowed them to be arrogant.
The three Takigakure Genin lying around Hinata had already provided compelling proof of that. So even though Hinata's behavior had provoked the hostility of the entire classroom, no one was willing to step forward at this moment and risk taking one of her punches.
"What are you doing?! You bastards!!"
At that moment, following a dark, low shout, a great cloud of smoke burst across the front platform. More than a dozen Konoha shinobi wearing Chunin vests appeared with it, and at their head stood a grim man in a black coat, several scars crossing his face.
Without question, he was the examiner for this test and also the Head of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force—Morino Ibiki.
"What's going on?!"
Ibiki swept his eyes over the three unconscious Takigakure Genin beside Hinata and raised an eyebrow. He had known from the beginning that this examination would not be peaceful, but seeing an entire team quietly put out of commission before anything even started still surprised him somewhat.
"Nothing much. These three suddenly fainted, so I was just about to ask someone to carry them out for emergency treatment. Since the teacher has arrived, I'll leave it to you."
Hinata smiled faintly without making the slightest effort to conceal her tone. The corner of Ibiki's mouth rose in response, and the grim Head of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force revealed a rather frightening smile of his own.
"For someone who only just became a Genin, you're adorably arrogant. I hope you can keep that arrogance all the way through. If these three are weak enough to faint in a place like this, they'd probably just die in the later stages anyway. Carry them out. The rest of you! Sit down! The first exam is about to begin!"
As a Konoha shinobi, Morino Ibiki clearly had no intention of wasting effort on the three Takigakure Genin. He was not wrong, either. If Hinata could knock them down this easily here, then even if they somehow lasted until the later stages, they would probably just become free points for someone else. Being carried out now at least spared them the dangers of the exam.
When the candidates saw the thick stacks of Exam Papers in the examiners' hands, their expressions became extremely interesting. They had long heard rumors about how strange and severe the Chunin Exams were, but the first stage being a written test was still genuinely surprising.
"Now for the rules. You will answer the questions within the allotted time. Each person begins with a maximum score of ten. Every time someone is caught using a crude method of cheating, two points will be deducted. If you lose all your points, you and the other two members of your team will be disqualified immediately! Begin!"
As expected, the important phrase was "crude method of cheating."
Hinata merely sneered. The Chunin Exams happened fairly early in the Naruto plot, so anyone who had watched the series would basically remember them. More importantly...
"Ah... Why did it have to be a written test...(;´༎ຶД༎ຶ`)..."
Naruto lay face-down across his desk with an expression of utter despair. As a dead-last student who had only managed to graduate through the Shadow Clone Technique, there was no possibility he possessed much theoretical knowledge. If anything, it would be more accurate to say he knew almost nothing about it.
Mm... a strangely relatable feeling. Almost like seeing a middle-school student's final mathematics exam...
Even though Hinata knew the plot, she had no intention of handing in a blank paper like Naruto. She was not going to entrust the outcome to someone else's successful route through the original story. There was always a chance something might change specifically because she was here, so it was better to use the Byakugan and cheat directly.
With that thought in mind, Hinata swept the classroom with her Byakugan and quickly located the planted agents hidden among the candidates whose purpose was to provide correct answers. She casually selected one of them near the front, saw straight through his body without effort, and simply copied until her own Exam Paper was filled.
After dealing with her own paper, Hinata did hesitate. Logically speaking, even if she ignored Naruto here, he should still be able to stumble through this stage by relying on his Talk no Jutsu and his talent for recklessly courting disaster. But...
Naruto looked genuinely pitiful right now. The blond idiot was sprawled over his desk, hugging his head with tears in his eyes. His expression of utter despair made the pressure he was feeling obvious. He could not answer a single question, which meant he was bound to submit a blank paper. But if he received zero points, both of his teammates would lose qualification with him. It would feel as though he alone had dragged Hinata and Sasuke down.
Forget it... I'll help this idiot... It won't affect the plot anyway...
Shaking her head, Hinata carefully took a spare sheet of paper from her Ninja Tool pouch, copied the answers onto it, crumpled it into a small ball, and tossed it to Naruto. The exam certainly rejected crude cheating, but there was clearly another hidden rule: teammates were permitted to help one another. After all, even if the test was meant to evaluate reconnaissance ability, not every shinobi specialized in reconnaissance. As long as one teammate's cheating method passed muster, any teammate aided by that person would not be treated as violating the rules.
That was why, in the original story, Choji and Shikamaru completed their papers with Ino's help, while Temari received assistance from Kankuro in the form of a Paper Note.
Without question, after receiving Hinata's Paper Note, the teary-eyed Naruto came within a hair of sobbing aloud. It felt as though someone had pulled him off the executioner's block. Hinata could only shake her head at the idiot. He was the Fourth Hokage's only son and the Jinchuriki of the strongest tailed beast, the Nine-Tails, yet he had somehow ended up this stupid. The setting really was strangely fair. Since his identity and background were already so absurdly impressive, had heaven simply taken away part of his intelligence to balance things out?
That thought aside, Hinata had not forgotten her earlier target. She remembered that in the original story, Uzumaki Karin had been saved by Sasuke in the Forest of Death, which meant Karin should have passed this written test too.
Nothing could hide within the vision of the Byakugan. Hinata quickly found Karin's position. What made Hinata raise an eyebrow slightly was that Karin was clearly not cheating at all. She was carefully working through her Exam Paper line by line. Without question, she was another top student capable of crushing this written test through sheer theoretical knowledge.
That really was... actually, it made sense. Karin's role was that of a sensory shinobi and medical shinobi. Like Genjutsu specialists, both types required extremely high chakra control. People born with good chakra control generally possessed unusually delicate thought processes and emotions, because it meant their mental aptitude was stronger than their raw physical aptitude.
Take Sasuke's absurdly talented older brother, Uchiha Itachi, for example. He was famous for his extraordinarily powerful Genjutsu, and there was no need to say much about his grades. The fact that he ranked first every year at the Academy already said enough. So Karin possessing top-student-level theoretical knowledge like Sakura was hardly surprising.
However, Hinata soon noticed something strange about Karin. In her sight, the red-haired girl had none of the fiery boldness she displayed when appearing in Shippuden. Instead, she looked like a frightened little animal, nervously glancing around every so often as though afraid she might be abused or beaten at any moment.
Could it be...
The discovery immediately drew Hinata's attention. After a brief period of thought and recollection, she did manage to remember scattered pieces of information about Karin.
As one of the surviving descendants of the Uzumaki Clan, Karin and her mother had once lived in the Land of Grass. But because members of the Uzumaki Clan could share their life force with others to produce rapid healing, the circumstances of Karin and her mother had been unimaginably miserable. Her mother had been treated as healing material and literally bitten to death by the wounded of Kusagakure (Hidden Grass Village), while Karin herself had already been used as a healing tool before she was even six years old.
Later, after Orochimaru discovered her, Karin escaped Kusagakure and began living under him. Yet her position as a tool never truly changed. Because her healing ability was so convenient and effective, her ordinary work essentially consisted of having her life force drained again and again to heal the injured people Orochimaru used as experimental subjects.
After Karin appeared in the original story, certain details revealed her body. The bite-mark scars covering almost her entire body were enough to show just how much pain and torment she had endured.
Having one's life force sucked away was obviously not comfortable. It was like having blood drawn, an experience that was unquestionably painful. In that case, Karin up to this point should have been living under constant abuse and coercion from the people around her. Her mother had died long ago as well. In other words...
What a pitiful little princess, and how desperately she needed a hero to save her from endless suffering...
The instant Hinata confirmed that thought in her mind, the corner of her mouth curved upward in an arc she could barely conceal.
Karin's own wishes did not make much difference to her, but... after what had happened with Haku last time, Hinata really had been left with a lingering sense of frustration and anger. She could have ordered Haku to remain alive beside her like a walking corpse, but that would merely have turned Haku into a pitiful person bound in chains.
That was precisely because Hinata cared for Haku that she had given him permission to die.
Therefore, if Karin truly refused, Hinata could not be certain she would be able to keep her close. But judging from the present circumstances, Karin could not possibly have any attachments left in the Land of Grass. If Hinata obtained her now, then this precious last female member of the Uzumaki Clan would unquestionably be able to remain with her in peace.
As for Karin's Kusagakure teacher and teammates... if Karin did not mind, Hinata felt she could give the girl a chance for revenge.
And if Hinata acquired Karin, there was no need to explain her usefulness. In the original story, even after Killer B inflicted a fatal wound on Sasuke severe enough to blast away part of his body, he could recover by biting Karin and absorbing her life force. Even depleted chakra could be restored in the same manner. In other words, keeping Karin nearby was basically equivalent to carrying an inexhaustible human recovery potion, one with exceptionally potent effects that even surpassed the medical ninjutsu of Tsunade and Sakura.
As for bloodline, as the last female member of the Uzumaki Clan, any descendants born from Karin would unquestionably be able to inherit the powerful Sage's Body. She was absolutely a globally unique, limited-edition SSSR-grade bloodline synthesis vessel.
Then this becomes even simpler...
"Hey, Naruto?"
Hinata raised her head slightly and looked at the blond idiot beside her, her tone carrying a trace of wicked ambiguity.
"If you wanted a wife, what kind of girl would you want?"
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