The two weeks went by faster than expected, which wasn't surprising because most of my days were the same: Wake up. Train. Eat. Train again. Collapse. Repeat.
It wasn't just my training with Minato and Jiraiya-sensei; Fugaku drilled me so hard I was pretty sure my bones had started memorizing his fighting patterns even when I slept, without using my Sharingan. As for Minato, he had practically moved into Jiraiya's personal training field, working on refining the Flying Thunder God until he could perform it without fully exhausting himself or overshooting his target.
"Son," Father stopped me before leaving our home on the day of the first exam, "You will crush it." He patted my shoulders, squeezing them, and I was about to answer when Mom came up, hugged me as tightly as possible, kissing my forehead.
"Make sure to keep Minato safe, too! When you are done, come home, and I will make a grand feast for you both!"
"T-thanks," I grinned, holding back a laugh, "But I don't think I need to keep him safe. Plus... today is all about the writing tests only... no?"
"It is still the Chūnin Exams." Father added, pulling Mom off me, "Don't take it lightly... Now go! Make us proud."
I only nodded at them, flashing a thumbs up, and then left, feeling fired up. The early morning air in Konoha was crisp, but no longer chilly as spring was finally in its full swing. The sun had barely begun its climb over the Hokages' heads on the mountain when I met up with Minato, and then we arrived at the designated exam grounds.
To my surprise, the location itself was not the Academy building; instead, the Hokage had chosen one of the larger military training complexes near the eastern side of the village to host the exams, which made sense, especially with guests arriving. It was best to have it in a well-separated section, and not in the heart of the village. Maybe that was why it looked and felt so much more decorated, prepared to welcome the foreign shinobi, who are sending their Genins here to raise their ranks.
"Isn't this a bit too much?" I asked, elbowing Minato, who just shrugged, shaking his head.
There were dozens of Konoha banners hanging from tall wooden poles around the building's courtyard, their red leaf symbols visible on white backgrounds even from afar. As we walked inside, a few Chūnin instructors were already stationed around the perimeter, talking to each other, not stopping us at all, recognizing us as people from the village. Or because Jiraiya-sensei already dealt with all the necessary papers and such.
"Are we early?" Minato asked as we were the first to come, and I just shrugged, looking towards the rising sun.
"Jiraiya-sensei said to arrive early, so no, we are on time. But then again, knowing Sensei's sense of time, yes, we are very early. However, it also gives us front-row seats!"
"True. What do you think, how many participants will be present?" He asked as we stopped where we could watch the entrance and see who would arrive next.
"Let's go with a round number..." I grinned, "Fifty?"
"I wish there were more," Minato whispered, his eyes drawing towards the gate, "We could see more interesting jutsus then and refine our own."
In the end, the first team to enter the courtyard after us was also from Konoha, and to my surprise, I knew them. Not personally, we never talked before, but I recognized them at a glance... especially because two of them were identical. They were twin boys with long dark hair tied neatly behind their backs, their pale eyes scanning the place, landing on us at once... The feeling the Byakugan gave off was unmistakable.
"Hyūga, huh? I should have guessed they would be punctual." Minato joked, as in the past years, I seemed to rub off on him a lot.
"I think I know them," I whispered to him, making sure to cover my mouth so they couldn't read my lips, "It has to be Hiashi Hyūga and Hizashi Hyūga, the future heads of the main and branch family."
As for the third person, walking right behind the two, I also had a guess who that was. He looked like a boy, hiding behind dark glasses and a high-collared jacket that nearly hid the lower half of his face. The spitting image of his future son... so he had to be Shibi Aburame.
"Do you know the third?" Minato asked, and I answered after a momentary pause.
"Seeing how he feels like Naoto, I say he is from the Aburame clan."
"I think so too." He nodded as we saw how Hiashi's gaze swept across the empty courtyard until it landed on us.
Then, for a moment, his eyes changed as his Byakugan activated, looking at us, and I answered by flashing my Sharingan at the two, but... There was not much reaction on their faces, not until Hiashi deactivated his eyes, and the twins moved to the far side of the courtyard without saying a word.
"Are you already making enemies?" Minato asked with a joking voice.
"Me?" I played the innocent, my eyes already back to normal, "No. Why would I? I'm the friendliest of friendlies in here!"
"As Kushina would say: dattebane." He said with a soft sigh, making me pat his shoulders.
"We will visit her after this test is done, and fill her in.
The next group arrived just then, with significantly more noise than the twins, because I heard their laughter before they even stepped through the gate. Another Konoha trio of three boys. As I watched them, I couldn't help but smile, because I knew them too. It was hard not to recognize them, and not because one of them was enormous, even for a kid. Naturally, he had to be Chōza Akimichi, snacking on... dumplings? Why am I not surprised? Well, next to him walked a tall boy with a sharp gaze, his dark hair tied in a high ponytail. Unlike Shikamaru, Shikaku Nara didn't look like he was as lazy as his son turned out to be in the show. As for the boy on the other side of Chōji, I mean, Chōza, the blond hair was already enough to tell me it had to be Inoichi Yamanaka.
The legendary Ino–Shika–Chō formation in its early variant, eh? Naturally, Shikaku noticed us immediately, catching me smiling... luckily, he didn't take it as an offense as they got closer and struck up a conversation.
"Looks like we're not the first ones. My name is Shikaku, he is Chōza, and he is Inoichi."
"I'm Minato," He started, then pointing at me, "And he is––"
"Renjiro," Inoichi cut in, "I know him."
"You do?" I asked, surprised a bit. We never met, as far as I know...
"You are the one courting Sayuri, no?" He continued, and now everyone was looking at me.
"Ooooh, it's this guy? The Uchiha one?" Chōza asked, stuffing his mouth full, suddenly looking really excited.
"Is there a problem?" I asked, keeping up my smile, seeing Shikaku shrug, patting Inoichi's back, and taking over the conversation again.
"He is her cousin, don't mind him. Let's go," He began pushing the two, nodding at me, "we should catch up after the written tests are over, I heard you two graduated earlier than anyone else, so... I'd like to know you two!"
"Sure," I agreed, still smiling, watching them find a spot, somewhere between the Hyūga twins and us.
"We are not popular... are we?" Minato groaned a little, crossing his arms.
"Good thing is, this is not a popularity contest," I nudged him, unbothered by the feeling of Inoichi's gaze flicking to me here and there.
"So... Are you courting her? Finally?"
"I don't know," I answered honestly, "I let it happen..." I shrugged, shaking my head, "And we will see where it leads us. I like her, yes... But our lives will get way too chaotic soon enough..."
...
....
...
As time went on, several more Konoha teams arrived over the next twenty minutes. Among them, I spotted only one or two other familiar faces, putting ther names to their younger looks, like Ibiki Morino, who was already bald at this age... huh. Then I may have seen Hayate Gekkō... And probably Anko. Haaah... Should I be surprised? Probably not. Then, as I was trying to match the faces to people I knew, the first group of foreign shinobi arrived under Konoha escort. The first of their batch wore headbands bearing the symbol of Kusagakure, the Hidden Grass.
"Do you know any of them?" I whispered, but Minato just shrugged his shoulders.
"Of course not."
"I do," Shikaku spoke up, suddenly standing with us, "I made sure to prepare for today."
"I'm not surprised," I said with a smile, making him glance at me. Then he began sharing the information, which stunned me, if I'm being honest.
"The one in the middle is called Rei Kuragi." Looking at him, he was a tall, lean boy with spiky green hair and black eyes, with a short blade resting at his waist.
"Kenjutsu user, huh?" Minato muttered, while Shikaku simply continued.
"Next to his left is Mika Narae, she is a trap specialist, while on his right is Tatsu Yoru, an earth-style user."
"I'm a bit unsure how you gathered this much information," I whispered, watching them walk in, find a spot, and talk between themselves.
"We are a very good team," Shikaku said simply, "And experienced. Why else would we attend the exams?"
"Don't worry, we are experienced too," I answered nonchalantly, "So... what do you want in exchange for telling us all these nuggets of information?"
"To avoid each other," He said simply, smiling and visibly satisfied that we weren't so simple as not to see he wasn't here to share freely. "At least, until the tournament phase."
"Deal," I stated, after glancing at Minato, who also nodded.
"Good," Shikaku shook my hand at once and continued explaining when the next team entered, wearing headbands with a waterfall symbol.
"Takigakure." He began, "From left to right, there is Daigo Suiren, the one with the blue, wavy hair, a water-style specialist. Then, Kenta Aoki, the loud, energetic kid, is also a water user. Lastly, the girl is Yuri Shizuka, a water-barrier and support type. I think she is the sole medical ninja amongst us all."
"Then she is the first to be targeted if we run into them," I muttered, biting my lip, while another batch came in, making my eyes twitch.
Amegakure shinobis... Sadly, they weren't Nagato and the rest, and I guess, if anything, they would be people under Hanzō, who, at this time, still ruled the Hidden Rain.
"Watch out for them," Shikaku warned us, "The one in the middle is Raiga Amehara, and he led this group to kill rogue shinobi who tried to stir up trouble within their land... On his right is Sora Kagemori, and on his left is Kiyomi Aika, and as far as we know, the trio uses water, lightning, and wind jutsus, combining them well. It is a strong team and highly... dangerous."
"Yeah," Minato leaned toward me slightly. "They feel… different."
"Because they already killed a lot," I replied, keeping my face straight, "Amegakure had been at war for years, and I guess, even if that ended, under Hanzō's rule, things are not really that nice."
"You can say that again." Shikaku agreed, while we watched a completely different group enter, and I mean, their vibes were polar opposite to the Rain ninjas.
Looking at their headbands, they were marked as shinobi of Yugakure, the Hidden Hot Water Village.
"Don't let their cheery attitude fool you." Shikaku said, warningly, "The one on the right, Haru Kazenami, the messy-haired boy with a wide grin, is one of the fastest participants as far as we could gather." He explained, throwing a look at Minato while continuing, "In the middle is Ayame Hotori, genjutsu specialist, while lastly, there is Daichi Murasaki, taijutsu specialist. I would say their team is pretty well balanced."
"Thanks," I said, seeing that he was apparently done talking, introducing us to those whom he deemed worthy to mention, and the ones that his team paid attention to, "And good luck."
"To you too," He smiled at us, returning to the others of his group, while I just stood next to Minato, watching people keep filling the courtyard.
Within an hour, the once-empty space had transformed completely as a surprisingly massive group managed to gather together... almost a hundred genins! Damn.
That was when the large doors of the building behind us suddenly opened, and several Chūnin exam proctors stepped out, and to my surprise... The leading figure wasn't a Chūnin. I knew he wasn't because he was already a famous Jōnin...
"Holy shit..." I exhaled, elbowing Minato, "Am I dreaming?"
"No." He said, finally blinking his eyes, "I guess the Hokage is taking this very seriously, to put him into the spotlight."
"All candidates for the Chūnin Exams gather in the courtyard, right before me!" The man in the front shouted as we all turned to face him, automatically forming a line... And stand right before Sakumo Hatake... the White Fang.