BSWS CH-32 The Wolf among The Sheep

"Hello there!" Team 7 saw Kakashi leaning on the wall next to the entrance of the exam venue.

"Kakashi Sensei" Team 7 Trio called out.

"Hmm, though I expected this, it still makes me glad that all of you decided to take this exam. You see, while the voluntary part was not a lie, what I didn't mention was that Chunin exam are always taken in Three-Man-Squads."

"Even the solo Genin, who no longer have a team, have to register a temporary one with other Solo Genin to be allowed into the Chunin exams." Kakashi explained.

"So we would not have been able to take the exam if one of us had decided to back out?" Sasuke asked.

"Exactly." Kakashi said "But, on the other hand, I had full faith in abilities and self-confidence of you all. I knew that none of you will be dissuaded in front of the pressure of Chunin Exams, so I made you participate in a harmless test to see your teamwork without being forced by other two of your group."

"Anyway, it is all done now. Go on, the Chunin Exam awaits you." Kakashi said. Team 7 trio nodded and entered the exam hall for the Chunin Exams.

"Hey! Sasuke! Sakura!" Ino called out the moment she saw them enter. Reaching Sasuke she hugged his arm before glancing at Sakura.

Seeing that Sakura didn't show even the slightest of an envious expression, Ino felt as if she was being immature and Sakura was like an adult watching a little child traipse around on the playground.

Soon the rest of the Rookie 9 gathered too. Kiba, Shika, Shino and Choji gathered around Sakura to talk about various stuff related to their lives, the training they had undergone and missions they had done.

They had been surprised initially when at the end of their Academy days Sakura had completely transformed into her current persona. But now they had grown used to it and actually liked her new maturity, especially Shino and Shikamaru.

Shino liked Sakura as she was the only among the Rookie 9 who was not weirded out by his bugs. She had also discussed with him once or twice about various scenarios in which ninja of Aburame clan could use their bugs effectively.

Meanwhile, Shikamaru liked Sakura's mature thinking as he was tired of always being the 'smart' one of the group. He always felt like he was an adult in a kids race. Because of this, he appreciated greatly when Sakura started thinking maturely and displayed the Genius intellect of her own that was probably just a step or two behind his own.

Ino was stuck to Sasuke and chattered one-sided manner. Meanwhile Naruto approached Hinata and the two chatted happily in soft voices. The two 'couples' were off in their own worlds, making a lot of the frustrated males among the test takers curse Naruto and Sasuke to explode.

"You know, you guys are really relaxed despite being the only Rookies to take part in the Chunin exams." a tall bespectacled guy with a pale hair color came forward while addressing the Rookie 9.

"And who are you supposed to be?" Naruto asked with a cocked eyebrow.

"Your senior for starters." the guy said while fixing his spectacles with a finger "The name is Kabuto Yakushi and I have taken Chunin exams before, so I have loads of experience compared to you nine."

"Hah, you took the test and failed? What a wuss!! You are totally not worthy to lecture us you know!! We are the best squads in our year" Kiba said arrogantly.

"So what? Most of the participants have had good achievements to their name and they have a lot of field experience too." Kabuto said wit ha shrug.

"Compared to them, you all are only fresh inexperienced students who have just graduated, so you might want to cool off with that attitude unless you want to turn everyone into your enemy."

"Hmph, so what? We can still beat their asses!! Right pal?" Kiba said as he patted his partner ninja pup laying on top of his head, who barked in agreement.

Kiba's statement caused a lot of the participants to look at the direction of the Rookie 9 with killing intent. Sakura frowned at this and went up to Kiba and patted his shoulder.

"Kiba that is enough, don't antagonize people further. They have all worked hard to arrive here and deserve to be treated with the same amount of respect you want yourself to be treated with." Sakura said, making Kiba back down reluctantly.

Sakura's statement also mellowed out most of the participants and they stopped glaring at Rookie 9. Meanwhile Sakura looked at Kabuto with an annoyed glance.

"You on the other hand. Compared to us, you are the one making most of the trouble here. In case you are here only to make comments on us and say nonsense, I suggest you leave and mind your own business. We are fine by ourselves." Sakura told Kabuto.

She noticed a momentary fluctuation in Kabuto's chakra, as a slight indication of Chakra Scalpel formed on his finger. However, she noticed that he instantly went back to his cheerful mode and dispelled all indications of wanting to attack Sakura.

"I apologize if I created trouble for you. How about this.. I have made information cards on a lot of the famous participants of various villages. As a compensation, I will let you ask me information about any participant you have eyes on." Kabuto said while taking out a deck of cards.

"How did you gather that amount of information?" Ino asked with suspicion. Her father's work had rubbed off on her a bit, and since this time she was not fighting with Sakura she actually noticed minor flaws in Kabuto's character.

"Well I have given Chunin Exams Seven Times till now. Since the exams are conducted twice a year, it means that I have been taking them for Four Years now. When you give exams so many times, you get to know some stuff." Kabuto said dismissively.

However, Rookie 9 were not idiots. Sakura, Shikamaru, Shino and even Ino caught that slight flaw in his logic.

'He took the exam seven times, is intelligent enough to do intelligence gathering, and has decent skills based on his general physical outlook. Yet he failed each time? Yeah, something is fishy here..' the four who noticed thought.

Meanwhile, Naruto, Sasuke, and Kiba were more interested in finding out information from Kabuto's cards. Naruto inquired about Lee, Tenten and Kankuro. Sasuke inquired about Gaara and Neji. Kiba didn't really know any of the interesting participants, so he simply listened to the profiles of the ones Kabuto asked.

While Kabuto talked to Sasuke, Naruto and Kiba, Sakura thought about whether she should trying bringing further change to the Chunin Exams and get Kabuto in trouble. After all, If Kabuto gets into Leaf's radar earlier, she could probably save some lives.