Disclaimer: Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I created.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 54: Info Cards
"Ehmmn… Mister Kabuto?" Sakura was feeling the pressure from everyone around her and felt the need to say something to distract herself from that.
"Is this your second time taking the exam?"
"No, this is actually my seventh attempt. This exam is held twice a year, and this is my fourth year."
"Seventh time?" Ino exclaimed in shock.
"What a loser," Kiba said with a smirk.
"Is it so difficult?... Maybe I shouldn't have come..." Chouji looked worried.
Naruto had been suspicious of this man since he first saw him, but after hearing him claim to have failed the exam six times, he knew for sure that something was wrong there.
Even if he was unable to feel his chakra, Naruto's instincts were sharp enough to recognize strong individuals when he saw them, even if they were trying to hide it.
'This man is at least as strong as a jonin. There is no chance he failed the exam so many times… unless he wanted to fail for some reason.'
The best-case scenario was that he was one of the examiners, blended with the crowd to keep an eye on them from up close. But something told him that this person had more sinister intentions.
There was something about Kabuto that put him on edge.
"Oh wow, seven times. You must know a lot about this exam then." Sakura was smiling, completely oblivious to Naruto's thoughts. She was just happy to find a friendly person in this hostile room.
When she made a motion to get closer to Kabuto, she was stopped by Naruto grabbing her shoulder.
Sakura turned her head to face him, angry at the sudden touch. But when she saw the serious look on Naruto's face, she became unable to voice a word of complaint.
Naruto shook his head slightly while pointing his eyes at Kabuto in a discreet manner. Sakura understood what her teammate was trying to tell her, even though she did not know the reason behind it.
Kabuto, for his part, did not miss this gesture of distrust but did a good job of pretending not to be offended by it. He instead offered Naruto a gentle smile that hid something behind it and pointed at the protector on his head.
"We are all from the same village, there is no need for that."
Kabuto then took a pack of cards from his jacket and placed them on the floor.
"I'll show you these as proof of good faith."
"Cards?" Sakura wondered what this was about.
He picked up the first card and showed it to them. It was completely blank.
"These are nin-info cards. The information has been burned in by using my chakra."
"Chakra signatures are very unique, so that means only I can reveal the information hidden in them." As he said this, a detailed drawing appeared on the card.
"That sounds very handy." Ino and the other rookies were listening to their conversation with attention.
"What is that? A map?" Sakura asked while staring at the card.
Kabuto held it up so they could see it better.
"And more. This one shows the number of participants from each nearby village."
"What about information on specific individuals? Do you have that too?" Sasuke had become more interested now.
Kabuto seemed pleased by the attention.
"Of course! It's not perfect, but I have information on all the participants… including the three of you." Kabuto said.
"Then… tell me about Gaara of the Desert and Rock Lee."
"Oh, you know the names… that makes things easier." Kabuto pulled two cards from the stack at incredible speed.
"Let's see…"
"Show me." Sasuke looked impatient.
"Rock Lee, member of Team Nine. One year older than you, but it is his first time participating in the exam. He has completed twenty D-rank missions and nineteen C-rank ones. His taijutsu skills appear to be the only impressive thing about him."
He then moved to the other card.
"Gaara of the Desert. Has completed eight D-rank and one B-rank. Since he is a foreigner from the Sand village, I don't have much information on him… other than he always returned from his missions completely uninjured."
Sasuke gave Naruto a glance.
"If you want to know something, you can just ask," Naruto told him.
Kabuto produced one more card.
"Uzumaki Naruto… to be honest, I don't have much information on him either."
"How can that be? He is from the same village." Sakura asked.
"Most of my information about new genins comes from the academy records. But after some analysis, I have determined that the academy information about Naruto is false, or at least unreliable." Kabuto explained.
"False?... Well, he has changed a lot, that's true." Ino commented.
"Tsk, changed? He looks like the same loser to me." Kiba frowned. He always saw himself as superior compared to Naruto and did not like to think otherwise.
"He is not a loser!" Hinata exclaimed loudly.
That reaction took Kiba so much by surprise that he almost dropped his dog.
"They are not wrong, Kiba. He is very different." Shino finally decided to speak, but he used a low tone so he could only be heard by his teammates.
"My bugs don't want to approach him too much. They seem to be afraid of something."
"Don't be ridiculous. What is there to be afraid of?" Kiba was getting annoyed by all this talk about Naruto.
"My bugs are very sensitive, they must be feeling something that I am missing. In any case, I would advise staying away from Team 7. Even if you don't care for Naruto, the Uchiha is also there."
Kabuto moved his eyes away from Naruto and looked at his card. There was barely anything written on it. But it did have his record of missions, including a certain C-rank mission that ended up being changed to an A-rank.
Of course, he could not reveal this to the genins since this information was not widely spread, and he would definitely be questioned for even having it.
'Uzumaki Naruto is turning out to be more of a mystery than I thought… I can use this exam to collect more information about him too. I'm sure that Master Orochimaru will be interested.' Kabuto thought.
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