The Enlightened One Ch.57

— Shikamaru —

Shikamaru leaned against the wall, waiting for the proctor to call them into the nearby room and start the first portion of the exam. He didn’t know what to prepare for, and his father had kept an extra tight lip on any information regarding the exam.

It was just like his old man to do something like that. Keeping information from Shikamaru had been a daily occurrence for his father, Shikaku Nara, but when it came to the chunin exams, he ensured Shikamaru wouldn’t know anything about it.

Even when Shikamaru had attempted to ask Asuma, his sensei, about what to expect, Asuma had told him that Shikaku forbade any information from being given to Shikamaru.

This means this entire exam was a test not only for the title of chunin but also for whatever his father was scheming, which sounded like a huge drag.

Shikamaru considered failing on purpose whenever they began the first exam, whatever that was. It’d keep him away from doing whatever horrid things his father had planned for him.

“Lighten up, Shikamaru.” Ino said beside him. Shikamaru opened an eye, and honestly, the way she was practically shivering within this room where trained killers were waiting, it seemed she was just trying to deflect her fear.

“Want some?” Choji asked, offering his bag of chips to Ino. The blonde-haired girl looked offended.

“Choji, we both know I can’t eat that! I’m on a diet!”

“That whole diet thing really makes no sense to me.” Shikamaru frowned. They work out daily, doing intense exercises that ordinary civilians would die even trying to emulate; why does she need to diet? She’s skinny enough as is.

“It’s because she wants Lei’s attention; you already know that, though, Shika.” Choji continued munching the chips, leaning against the wall beside his best friend.

“I suppose you’re right.” Shikamaru shrugged.

“I don’t get it!” Kiba shouted. “Lei this, Lei that, what’s so good about him?!”

“He’s the Head of the Senju Clan.” Sakura blinked as if Kiba was an idiot. Shikamaru was surprised that she didn’t mention- “And he’s hot~!”

Ah, there it is.

“You get the hell out of the way, you pink-haired banshee; he’s mine!” Ino declared, getting closer to Sakura. Sakura didn’t back down, pushing against Ino with her massive forehead.

“You wanna bet, eh?!”

“Enough.” A soft voice rang out beside them. The black-haired girl was leaning against the wall, looking clearly irritated. “Everyone, just wait quietly.”

“Yeah, you heard Hinata; wait quietly.” Kiba grinned.

Hinata sent the Inuzuka boy a glare that firmly wiped the grin off his face before closing her eyes and waiting in solitude.

Suddenly, the door to the room opened and all eyes turned over to the door. In walked Naruko Uzumaki, Satsuki Uchiha, and Tenten Higurashi.

Hinata’s eyes snapped open, and a warm smile lifted her cheeks as Naruko and Satsuki walked toward them.

“Hey, Hinata!” Naruko grinned and gave Hinata a peace sign.

“Naruko.” Hinata’s smile grew a bit wider as she hugged the blonde-haired Uzumaki. Then Hinata looked at the black-haired girl. “Satsuki.”

“Guess you beat us here.” Satsuki huffed, although the smile on her face showed just how happy she was to see Hinata.

“Of course, the other two followers are here,” Kiba said under his breath, and he was promptly ignored. It almost made Shikamaru chuckle. Kiba was his friend, but the guy had a bit of an ego that needed to be checked- before someone in the shinobi world checked it for him.

“Where’s Lei?” Hinata asked, tilting her head and looking between the two girls.

“He’s… watching two bushy-eyebrowed people hug and cry,” Naruko said slowly as if to ensure that the words that just came out of her mouth were real. “Please… don’t ask.”

“I won’t.” Hinata shook her head. “He’ll be here soon, that’s all that matters.”

“Mhm!”

“So, these are all the people competing?” Satsuki asked, eyeing the many people sitting at the tables.

“Looks like it; this is going to be such a drag.” Shikamaru sighed.

“I disagree,” Satsuki smirked. “I look forward to showing just how far I’ve come.”

“Good for you.” Shikamaru rolled his eyes. In his head, though, he already knew how much of a threat Satsuki was. That was without including Naruko or Lei. Team 7 was a huge no-go regarding any form of confrontation. Team 8 was close behind, with Hinata, Kiba, and Shino being such a good team. Then there was the Stone team, the Sand team, and the Cloud team. Those three weren’t people Shikamaru would dream of messing with.

The three girls talked for a bit, but Shikamaru tuned them out, even if he was listening just a bit for any keywords that could maybe give his team an edge in this upcoming exam. Ultimately, they didn’t say much interesting. A few minutes passed, and the door to the room opened once more, and perhaps for the last time.

In walked two boys. Shikamaru immediately recognized both. Lei Senju, and Rock Lee.

— Lei —

“We will have to do that again sometime!”

“Yes, Lee. I look forward to it.

“Youth!” Lee pumped his fist into the air and walked his way over to his team, who were sitting down at one of the tables.

I looked at the many participants in the room; all of them had been looking at Lee, but now their eyes were firmly on me. Their eyes lingered, sizing me up; I even felt a few sensors emitting pings of chakra.

That’s a very unusual reaction to a random genin entering the room, so I assume they know who I am.

It is what it is.

“Lei!” I felt a body impact mine and looked down to see locks of black hair.

“Hinata, what’d I miss?” I asked curiously, looking at the other people around whom I once called classmates.

“Nothing much. The exam hasn’t started yet, obviously.” Kiba huffed, and I sent the guy a grin.

“Yeah, I knew that much.” I looked over at Sakura and Ino, who were practically swooning at seeing me. Seriously, these girls needed to either get over their fangirl stage or just straight-up confess. The Sage above knows I’m not about to make a move knowing I have three girls that are fully capable of kicking my ass if they team up.

I let out a ping of my sensory chakra to examine both Ino and Sakura’s chakra pools and blinked.

“Ino, Sakura, your control has grown a lot.”

Both of the girls looked surprised by the sudden praise, but they recovered quickly.

““Thank you, Lei!”” They both said simultaneously before looking at each other and glaring.

“You look like you’ve grown yourself,” Shikamaru said, one eye open and looking at me. “Your body at least looks stronger.”

I hummed and looked down, patting my chest a few times. “Yeah, I suppose you’re correct. I’m just glad my work has paid off.”

“It sure has~” Hinata cooed while clinging tightly to me. Then, she blinked and pulled away really fast. “I d-didn’t say that out loud, did I?”

“You did.” I nodded, more amused than anything. A red blush consumed Hinata’s face as she hid her body behind Naruko. It was refreshing whenever Hinata acted shy. It was rare nowadays, but when it happened, it just gave you the urge to pat her head.

“You all look like a strong bunch!”

All of us turned to the gray-haired man who was approaching us. I fought the urge to narrow my eyes as we made eye contact.

Kabuto.

I didn’t know if this Alternate Universe still had him as a traitor to Konoha and an Orochimaru spy, but either way, showing any animosity toward him from the start would be a bad idea.

“Who’s asking?” Kiba raised an eyebrow, and Akamaru barked to back up his pet (Yes, Kiba is the pet).

“Kabuto Yakushi.” Kabuto smiled warmly at us and adjusted his Konoha headband. I tried to get a read on him with my sensory chakra, but his intentions seemed genuine. I had advanced a great deal with my sensory chakra, enough to determine the emotions of the person I was sensing, but I couldn’t sense any differences between the feelings he was projecting and the ones he felt on the inside.

Which didn’t mean shit; for all I knew, he could just be really good at hiding his intentions, which was a trained art, but not one impossible to master.

“Do you need something?” I asked curiously. I wanted to learn as much about him as possible while keeping the guy at arm's length.

“No, but I assume you all do.” Kabuto smiled a bit wider before reaching into his pouch. Everyone got on edge until he pulled out a deck of cards. “Care to know a few things?”

Everyone blinked at the offer beside me. The fact that he had those cards didn’t really help his case with the whole traitor thing, but we’ll see where this goes.

“What can your cards do?”

“Pick someone, and I can find a lot of information on these cards.” He explained, doing a few card tricks, which caused Naruko to go all glowy-eyed.

It was honestly a pain how easy it was to please Naruko. It could come back to bite her in the ass later. I’ll have to handle that later.

“Got anything on me?” Kiba asked, stepping forward.

“Let’s see.” Kabuto hummed, placing a card on the ground and putting his index finger on it. He let his chakra flow out of his finger, and the card began to spin before a puff of smoke appeared around it. When the smoke cleared, the card contained information and a picture of Kiba.

Kiba Inuzuka

Ninjutsu: D

Taijutsu: C+

Genjutsu: D-

Other: ?

Missions

D Rank: 57

C Rank: 4

B Rank: 0

A Rank: 0

S Rank: 0

Honestly, Kiba’s stats were better than I thought they’d be. D means Genin level, and C means Genin/Chunin, which means, from what he’s shown thus far, his taijutsu is on the border between both ranks.

I looked at Kiba, and it was clear how smug he was.

“4 C Rank missions.” Kiba rubbed the bottom of his nose and looked away from me. “Last I checked, you’ve only completed one.”

“You sure?” I asked, placing a hand on my chin in thought. “Last I checked, I haven’t completed any C Ranks.”

Kiba blinked at that for a moment before laughing. “Wow, then what have you guys been doing this whole time!”

“Training,” Satsuki answered, smirking at the Inuzuka. Kiba eyed her for a moment as she stepped toward Kabuto. “Me next.”

“Alrighty then!” Kabuto smiled, repeating the process, and a moment later, Satsuki’s stats were displayed.

Satsuki Uchiha

Ninjutsu: A-

Taijutsu: B+

Genjutsu: B

Other: B+ (Dojutsu) B (Fuinjutsu)

Missions

D Rank: 42

C Rank: 0

B Rank: 0

A Rank: 0

S Rank: 1

“An S Rank?!” Kabuto gasped, and silence permeated through the room. Quickly, the gray-haired man looked up at Satsuki in shock. I couldn’t tell whether he was acting or not, but it looked believable. “You’ve completed an S Rank mission?!”

Satsuki nodded while keeping her face tame. She wasn’t very proud of the Waves' mission with how little action she saw, so she didn’t like being praised too much.

I narrowed my eyes, though. The fact that Kabuto knew about Satsuki’s stats meant that she was being watched. We hadn’t gone on missions for us to have exposed our strength level, and Satsuki certainly wasn’t that strong before the Waves mission.

Most of the room was watching us, even if they were discreet about it, and it was clear that Satsuki had just marked herself as a Run On Sight shinobi during these exams.

“Oh, me next!” Naruko bounced.

“Y-Yeah, alright.” Kabuto wiped the sweat off of his forehead and repeated the process.

Naruko Uzumaki

Ninjutsu: B+

Taijutsu: B

Genjutsu: D

Other: A (Fuinjutsu)

Missions

D Rank: 42

C Rank: 0

B Rank: 0

A Rank: 0

S Rank: 1

“Oh, your stats are pretty high, Naruko.” I commented, proud of her. She giggled and bounced around more before giving me a peace sign.

“That’s to be expected, I’m Naruko Uzumaki, believe it!”

Naruko’s stats were up to date as well. Kabuto was most definitely a spy-like canon, which was good to know. Now, I could deal with him before he became a threat.

“You guys wanna get in on this?” I offered, looking at the others.

“And give away any bit of secrecy we have? No thanks.” Shikamaru mumbled.

“I’ll take a go.” Hinata walked forward with a little pep in her step.

Good, I wanted to see her stats. I knew she had been training a lot, but she had kept her training tight-lipped, and I wasn’t stupid or annoying enough to pry.

Hinata Hyuga

Ninjutsu: B-

Taijutsu: A

Genjutsu: C+

Other: A (Dojutsu) B (Fuinjutsu)

Missions

D Rank: 57

C Rank: 4

B Rank: 0

A Rank: 0

S Rank: 0

“Wow, you may be the strongest person I’ve seen.” Kabuto laughed nervously. Hinata gave the guy a dismissive look before latching onto my arm.

“What do you think?” Hinata asked me; her eyes were shining with anticipation.

“You’ve worked hard, Hinata.” I grinned, and she pressed her head against my arm, closing her eyes and humming softly.

“Lei Senju,” Satsuki said, looking at Kabuto. She gave me a quick sideways glance before returning her attention to the traitor. “Do you have anything on him?”

Kabuto smiled again and pulled out a card. “Let’s see.” As he began his process, my eyes narrowed. There was no way he had perfected information on me… unless he had been eyeing me while being disguised as an ANBU guard- Which, while unlikely, isn’t impossible.

“Here we are,” Kabuto announced, and the card stopped spinning.

Lei Senju

Ninjutsu: A+

Taijutsu: A

Genjutsu: C+

Other: A- (Fuinjutsu)

Missions

D Rank: 42

C Rank: 0

B Rank: 0

A Rank: 0

S Rank: 1

“Oh my, you’re quite powerful.” Kabuto laughed nervously, but I openly glared at the man. His laughing slowed as we made eye contact. Our eyes stayed locked for a while until the door to the room opened suddenly.

“Let’s get this going, in the room, maggots!”

— Chapter End —