Chapter 135 Battle List

The memory soon ended as the eighth and tenth classes joined in, and the room fell into darkness again, leaving only a suffocating silence.

It was a long time before Sarutobi began to issue orders, raising the village's alert level to level three and activating the tracking protocol to track down whether Orochimaru was still in the village, and if he had left, to eradicate the influence he left behind.

Shikaku nodded his agreement and disappeared into the shadows, gone in the blink of an eye.

In the silence that followed, the chairperson of the examination committee - Kurenai Yuhi - proposed that Team 7 be awarded the rank of Chuunin immediately.

No one objected.

******

"But, Kakashi-sensei, what about your test?" Sakura asked, jumping off his shoulders and turning to face him.

Kakashi blinked and looked at the three of them, at the stubbornness that flashed in their bright eyes.

"what?"

"We don't care about the village exam," Sasuke said flatly, as if it was obvious.

"We still have to pass your test, remember?" Naruto stressed. "That's the point."

Kakashi's brain suddenly short-circuited.

Deep in his mind, he remembered Iruka once saying that the Uchiha clan was very respectful to others. He also remembered that Ryouta and Anko had said separately that his students were a group of fearless little monsters who didn't care what others thought, no matter what their status was.

At the time he thought they were exaggerating; he knew his students were stubborn, willful, and independent, and he thought they were just being disgruntled.

But it was true, Kakashi could see it in their determined expressions - it was self-evident to them, a matter of course.

They have been granted the rank of Chunin, but they do not care about the village's judgment of their strength.

What they cared about was Kakashi's approval.

He came back to reality when Naruto waved his hands in front of him.

"Kakashi-sensei?"

How horrible, he thought.

Terrible, stubborn, incredible, and his student.

******

"Mr. Aoba looks a little nervous," Ino giggled.

Shikamaru snorted, trying hard to suppress the curve of his lips.

He should be nervous, Shikamaru thought. The last time he interfered in the affairs of our "Nine Newbies," it didn't end well.

"Maybe just hope this farce starts soon before any more property damage is caused," he said loudly.

Shikada smiled, leaning against the railing, biting the energy bar between his teeth and eating it with gusto.

The battle list was circulated among the contestants, and one of the two Konoha ninjas was finally chosen to face off against a female ninja from the Sand Village. Shikamaru watched the contestants square off in the arena, observing their body language and chakra levels, and noticing the way the female ninja from the Sand Village swung her giant fan with ease, he had anticipated the outcome.

"Oh, this looks like it's going to be fun."

Shikamaru glanced at Ya who was walking over and sat down cross-legged beside him.

"The battle will be over before you even think of the outcome," Shikamaru muttered lazily, closing his eyes.

He extended his other senses, feeling Kiba's shadow touching his knees, Choji's shadow overlapping his own, Ino's shadow creeping up the wall beside his arm.

Hinata's figure walked towards them, kneeling next to her teammate, while Shino's figure leaned next to his body leaning against the railing.

"The people of Sunagakure seem to be quite skilled." Shino mused, adjusting his hood as he felt a gust of chakra blow through the stadium. "Look at the interesting differences in style between the different villages, even in small things like this."

Hinata snorted and tilted her head.

"The chakra composition is... rougher? More corrosive?" she judged.

"A reflection of where they grew up." Shikamaru whispered, opening one eye to observe. "The desert is a cruel place."

Ya said angrily:

"The arrogance emanating from these so-called geniuses is so strong that I can smell it from here."

Shikamaru glanced at him sideways, assessing the team from the Hidden Cloud Village.

The closest to him was a female ninja with platinum blonde hair tied into a high ponytail, and pale blue eyes looking down at the battle below with contempt. The boy sitting at her feet might be her twin brother - he had the same short silver hair, shaved short on one side and left long on the other, and the same impatience and indifference in his eyes. Their captain leaned against the railing with one arm draped over it, his chestnut hair braided over his shoulders, his mouth curved with a hint of contempt, his chin raised arrogantly.

This arrogance will not last long.

“I hope to play against them.”

It was unexpected that this sentence was said by Choji. He was still leaning on the railing, obviously not looking in the direction of the three people from the Hidden Cloud Village.

"Oh?" Shikamaru asked softly, a hint of seriousness in his tone. Choji nodded and took another bite of the energy bar.

"Yeah," he said lightly. "When we first came in, they laughed at Class 7 for 'running to the teacher'."

He spoke casually, as if he were talking about what he had for breakfast, but Shino stiffened beside him and Kiba's eyes gleamed with anger so brightly that Hinata had to put a hand on his arm to stop him from jumping, while Ino's nails tapped sharply on the metal blade of her long scroll.

Shikamaru's anger, on the other hand, was a softer, quieter emotion, with no outward expression except for the way the skin around his eyes tightened slightly and the shadow behind him seemed to hum.

The next candidates for the battle were revealed, it was Choji versus the female ninja from the Hidden Cloud Village.

As Choji jumped over the railing with a happy and calm smile, Team 7 appeared.

Sakura breathed a sigh of relief.

"Oh, just in time. Did we miss everyone else's game?" she asked, leaning against the wall next to Ino.

"Not yet." Ino replied, looking her friend up and down. "Has your sensei calmed down?"

"Kakashi-sensei was actually pretty calm when we arrived," Naruto said as he sat down by Ino's legs, close to Shikamaru, forming a semi-circle with him, Kiba, and Hinata on the balcony.

Sasuke slumped exhaustedly into Naruto's lap, resting his head on his knees and grumbling as he closed his eyes.

"Is he okay?" Hinata asked softly.

"Headache." Naruto whispered. "His chakra is fighting against the remaining chakra from the basilisk seal."

"Like an allergic reaction," said Ya, hitting the nail on the head.

"It does look alike." Naruto agreed.

There was a piece of medical tape on Sasuke's neck, and underneath it was a talisman with the word "seal" written on it.

Naruto stretched out two fingers and pressed on it, and the seal responded, flickering with thin threads of chakra that penetrated Naruto's skin.

"Diagnostic seal?" Shikamaru asked.

"Pretty much. I'm trying to figure out how to get this thing off without hurting him further."

"Don't be so nervous, idiot." Sasuke unexpectedly growled, eyes still closed. "You'll figure it out."

"If it was a normal seal, I would have broken it long ago." Naruto muttered in annoyance. "But this damn thing is so stubborn and complicated that it dazzles me."