Written Exam (3)

"Sheesh, talk about troublesome." Shikamaru immediately commented out loud before yawning and digging his ear with his pinky, easing the tension between the rookie genin.

Kiba chuckled at that, "You find everything troublesome, Shika."

In Shinji's opinion, that was an early indicator of the Nara's leadership abilities. Subtly preventing what might have led to an unproductive and frankly foolish argument by interjecting with a bit of humour and without harming the pride of either parties.

The Nara was still young and inexperienced, but Shinji could understand why the village leaders saw Shikamaru as being the only person of the original Rookie 9 suitable to receive a promotion on his first attempt at the chuunin exams. Not just an overwhelming display of intelligence during the chuunin exam finals or his great performance during the war itself. Rather, it was the small but notable moments that would have been noticed accumulating into a conclusively impressive profile for the young genin.

Shinji himself, being a fully grown man mentally, would likely have done something similar to Shikamaru since he had the maturity and forethought to think so far ahead. But right now, he didn't want to bring too much attention to himself, especially with Orochimaru present in the same room who was now paying close attention to their little gathering – mainly due to Sasuke being part of their group, but still.

He already realized his mistake when he noticed the Snake Sannin evaluating him during his little moment of open defiance against the pressure of the room when he first entered. Stupid, stupid, stupid, he had cursed at himself. It was utterly foolish in trying to attract even more attention to himself after what his doppelganger had seen using the [Clairvoyance] ability from Glass Eye of the Prophet.

The other members of the Rookie 9 carried on conversing and exchanging greetings with one another, with Shinji remaining quieter than he usually was, until a certain individual called out to them.

"Hey you guys!"

The curious genin turned to see just who was it who called out to them, including Shinji though he already knew this would happen in advance as well as who that person was. Not the false disguise that person donned, but the true identity of that man. He turned to glance at him, casting [Observe] at the same time.

[Yakushi Kabuto Lv 28/45/61/93]

HP: 54270/54270

CP: 41580/41580

Kabuto has spent most of his life as a spy working for many different individuals and organizations and has taken on so many different identities that he suffers an ongoing identity crisis. To the extent that he has many contradictions in his personality and often shifts between different personalities and identities. After putting on layers after layers of false personas, he has already forgotten who he originally used to be. Currently, he is working as Orochimaru's trusted lieutenant, though for how long is uncertain.

He is slightly interested in you.

Kabuto is weaker/stronger than you.

Yakushi Kabuto – the man who would eventually become one of the major players in the Fourth Shinobi World War, who right now at least, took up more than a few different identities with allegiances or false allegiances to more than a few masters.

And as if corresponding to his history, his status screen changed repeatedly, shifting from one level to another. It went from level 28 to level 45 and then occasionally his true skill level would appear as well. On the surface, Shinji initially didn't understand what was causing this phenomenon. Until he read Kabuto's description, realizing that his apparent identity crisis was the cause of his constantly shifting level.

But his HP and CP could not avoid [Observe]'s detection abilities. It was a true reflection of how strong he really was. And even then it was only a surface level analysis. What made Kabuto truly dangerous was the myriad number of skills he had picked up over the course of his extensive espionage career. He had the foundation of a genuine elite jounin-level shinobi, as well as medical ninjutsu that was acknowledged even by Tsunade herself.

It was no exaggeration to compare him with Hatake Kakashi, one of the strongest members of Konoha. And that was before his extensive body modifications in the future where his strength would rise up to S-ranked levels, even going up to Kage level when he mastered Senjutsu and could even enter Sage Mode indefinitely.

Immediately, Shinji raised his guard up, taking on an extremely vigilant mentality at the approaching man. However, he also relaxed right away as well. Kabuto was an experienced spy, nay, a very experienced spy. An expert in the subtleties of the human body language. Shinji's current vigilance was the result of his knowledge of the future, and definitely would not be perceived by Kabuto as a normal, cautious reaction to an apparently friendly stranger.

Thus, to avoid raising any suspicions, Shinji violently suppressed his gut reaction at Kabuto's appearance, utilizing every shred of acting talent he had in his body to play the role of the wary but still unguarded genin he was supposed to be.

"You should be a little quieter." Kabuto cautioned as he approached the Rookie 9. His Konoha forehead protector glinted against the artificial lighting in the room, significantly lowering the guards of the gathered genin. "You guys are the 'Rookie 9'… fresh out of the academy, right? Carrying on with cute faces like that, sheesh. This isn't a field trip."

Ino furrowed her brows, "Who do you think you are, acting so haughty!"

"I'm Yakushi Kabuto. And take a good look around you."

The Rookie 9 followed his direction and glanced around the room, only to be met with hostile glares from a majority of the genin, both local and foreign.

"Everyone's tense before the exams. I thought I'd warn you guys before you get your ass kicked for offending the wrong people." He continued, "I guess it can't be helped. You're rookie who don't know left from right. You remind me of my old self."

Shinji kept his composure. When everyone was looking around the room, he was instead looking at his fellow Rookie 9 genin. Taking in how they were behaving, what their facial expressions were like. All so that he could imitate to the best of his abilities how a rookie genin like himself was supposed to act like.

"Kabuto-san, is that right? Then, is this your second time taking the chuunin exam?" Shinji spoke up, putting on the façade of a curious genin.

"Nope. It's my seventh." The silver-haired 'genin' responded nonchalantly to the surprise of all those who heard him. Well, not all of them.

"That right? Wow, that must mean you're a real veteran huh, Kabuto-san. You must know a lot about these exams too, right?" Shinji praised, though inwardly he was slightly cringing at acting like his age for the first time in awhile.

"Kind of."

"Seven times? Is the chuunin exams the high of a hurdle? Man, this is getting seriously troublesome." Shikamaru commented, rolling his eyes at the thought of putting in so much effort.

"Then maybe I'll give a little help to my cute kouhai." Kabuto fished out a deck of cards from his pockets, "With these Ninja Info Cards."

"Ninja Info Cards?" Naruto repeated in confusion.

"Simply put, they're cards that have information burned into them and coded with chakra. I spent four whole years gathering information for this exam." He placed them on the floor and flipped one face up, "They are pure white to the eye, but once I inject some of my chakra into them… then the information within them is revealed."

The other members of the Rookie 9 began asking Kabuto questions about his Ninja Info Cards, while off to the back, Shinji took the opportunity to pull Hinata aside.

Putting his arm around her shoulder, he turned the both of them away from the group before lowering his head to whisper in her ear, "Hinata, use your Byakuugan to check out his chakra reserves."

The Hyuuga princess, who had already reddened from the physical contact, nearly fainted when she felt Shinji's warm breath and almost titillating whisper in her ear.

"S-sorry, can you repeat that?" She drawled, blankly looking at Shinji, having not absorbed a single thing he said.

He nearly rolled his eyes, slightly annoyed but also chiding himself for not expecting something like this, "Use your Byakuugan to check out his chakra reserves."

Instead of questioning why, Hinata just did as he said. A part of her obedience stemmed from the massive crush she had on the boy, but there was also a certain deference established within their team in regard to Shinji's authority. He was the de facto leader of their trio, the one who usually made the decisions. At a certain point, both Hinata and Shino had learned to follow his orders without asking too many questions because Shinji didn't often make illogical requests.

She activated her Byakuugan silently and covertly and took a moment to scan Kabuto's chakra system.

"There's… nothing special. He has an average chakra capacity, maybe even slightly lower than average for a genin. Those Oto genin on the other hand, two of them have odd implants in their arms. They look dangerous." Hinata whispered back, slightly confused as to why Shinji asked about Kabuto specifically when he was about as average as they came.

'Just as I suspected. An expert spy like Kabuto would definitely have their methods to conceal the true size of their chakra capacity. It may not be enough to fool my [Observe] skill but it was enough to fool a Hyuuga. Is it just chakra control or a secret technique? Whatever it is, I have to learn it. It will undoubtedly be useful in tricking enemies.' Shinji thought to himself before nodding in satisfaction at Hinata.

"I see. Thanks, I just wanted to confirm something."

"N-no problem, Shinji-kun! I would do anything for-"

Before she finished speaking, Shinji was already walking back to the group. Just in time for Kiba to turn around and grin, "What about this guy here. What do you have on Shinji?"

Shinji realized that Kabuto had been showing off his Ninja Info Cards, revealing information on certain individuals who the group had asked him about. And now, for some reason, Kiba was asking about him. To which Shinji thought was kind of a dick move.

Sasuke's eyes shifted to Shinji. He was confident that amongst everyone here, he was the person who knew Shinji the best. After all, he was the only person who knew Shinji was actually an Uchiha. But even then, he also occasionally had the nagging feeling that despite that, he still didn't know Shinji that well. He felt like his cousin still had some secrets left unspoken between them, which he didn't really mind since all ninjas had their own secrets. But he would be lying if he claimed he wasn't curious about it too.

Kabuto glanced up, as though having not noticed Shinji's absence in their earlier exchange, "Hmm, let me see…"

The elite jounin in disguise flipped open a card face up and injected his chakra into it, revealing the information hidden on it. On it was his picture as well as a radar chart that displayed an estimation of his strengths and weaknesses.

"Shinji Ikari – graduated the academy the same year as you guys, Rookie of the Year. His mission experience, twenty eight D-ranks and three C-ranks. Jounin squad leader is Sarutobi Asuma, teammates are Hyuuga Hinata and Aburame Shino. His skills are… impressively balanced. Ninjutsu, taijutsu, genjutsu, kenjutsu, and even medical ninjutsu, wow! He has consistently received high praise from his squad leader, and even his mission reports record impressive achievements. For example, he even took down an elite chuunin rogue shinobi from Tanigakure in single combat during a C-ranked mission."

Kabuto looked up, staring at Shinji with an expression of awe, "Looks like you're someone we definitely need to look out for."