Re: Akimichi

Chouji stayed for a while and watched Lee and Sasuke spared for a bit. But, even until Guy stopped Lee, there's nothing that piqued his interest. It's only when Lee winked his eyes to Sakura and blow her a kiss that Chouji got amused for a moment.

'I guess they're merely so so...'

He explored the place for a few more minutes then went back into the meeting room 301. He sat beside Shikamaru and took a box of dried mushrooms and started to gobbled them up. It was only until moments later that team seven -Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura- came in followed by team eight -Kiba, Hinata, and Shino-.

Like the loud person he was, Naruto began to ridicule Sasuke loss to Lee regardless of his own loss, followed by Sakura admonishing Naruto then joined by others. The calm environment inside the room was broken and was replaced by a tense atmosphere, both peoples from Konoha and other villages were either irritatingly glanced at their direction or silently glared toward them with subtle killing intent.

"Stop screaming like a cheerleader, will you?" A white-haired man wearing a dark purple shirt with a high collar and a white under-shirt coupled with dark purple pants with a white cloth waistband on him was approaching them with a stern gaze. "This is NOT a picnic, you're rookies just out of the academy, aren't you?"

Naruto, who was still irritated with Sasuke for some reason, lashed it out on that man. He raised his hand and point his index finger onto that man's face. "Listen here, tough guy. Who the hell do you think you are?"

The white-haired man sighed and fixed his glasses position before snickered at Naruto. "I'm Kabuto, a Konoha-nin just like you. I'm saying this out of my goodwill, just look at behind you..."

Naruto and the rest of team seven and eight warily turned their head and shift their gaze. There, they saw various unfriendly gazes from myriad genins from many places. But, the ones that made them sweated a bit were the gazes from the guys with hidden rain village's genins.

"Those guys behind you are genins from the hidden rain villages, and they really have a short fuse..." Kabuto shook his head with a helpless expression. "Everyone here is nervous about the exam one way or another, you all should quiet down before you cause a scene."

"Well, I can't blame you all as you're all just clueless rookies. And I too used to be that reckless once." With a shrug of his shoulder, Kabuto helplessly stared at both team seven and team eight.

The conversation continues with Kabuto showed them a stack of cards filled with information of the exam participants, which Sasuke asked the information of Gaara and Lee from him.

Meanwhile, team ten was as silent as they can be, at least that was what could be seen from the outside. But, they're currently having their own discussion regarding the ongoing event through the combination of Shikamaru's and Ino's technique. While at it, they too eavesdropping the conversation of their fellow Konoha rookies with Kabuto.

'Is that real? how can he have that kind of information?' Ino suspiciously glanced at Kabuto from the corner of her eyes.

'I suppose that they're real, I don't know about their sources though.' Chouji answered briefly, he still put most of his attention on Kabuto's explanation.

"-and just like Lee and Gaara, everyone here is the top elite genins of their own villages! This exam isn't going to be easy!" Kabuto ended his explanation with a small smile hung on his lips.

'That's what I hope...' Chouji grinned silently, Shikamaru lazily glanced at him, while Ino stared at him with a faint blush on her cheeks.

---

A few days ago,

"Have you healed already, Asuma?" A man with thick eyebrows and bowl-shaped hair-style, Might Guy, cheerfully greeted Asuma with his own trademark 'Youthfull' grin.

"I'm fine and dandy already, don't worry." Asuma shrugged his shoulder and waved Guy's worry dismissively. "But, can I ask you a favor later, Eyebrows?"

"Ask anything! As long as I can do it, I will try to help you!" Guy shouted excitedly, he raised his thumb up and laughed merrily. "Buhahaha!"

"What are you two talking about? Me? Why are you laughing like that?" A spiky white-haired man with a mask on his face and a slanted Konoha headband on his head was approaching them from behind. He raised his hand and greeted them. "Yo! How do you do, Asuma? Guy?"

"Kakashi! What are you doing here? Are you here to assign your team to the chunin exam?" Might Guy was mildly surprised to see Kakashi there. "Although you're my eternal rival, this is not going to be easy. You're rushing things!"

Kakashi answered with his silence and just glanced at Asuma.

"Don't look at me like that, Kakashi. My team is full of monsters, you know. Although it's true that the Jinchuriki boy and the Uchiha boy are there, there are yet to be m.a.t.u.r.e, unlike mine." Asuma shooked his head helplessly. "I know you know..."

Both Kakashi and Guy sighed, they were among the few that rushed to be the reinforcement for Asuma and his team in the previous mission. And they're beyond surprised after both hearings their exploit and seeing their mad training attitude during their journey back to Konoha. Yes, they were not training as hard as Might Guy, but he was a wonder of nature, they were way above their peers.

They then proceed to the Hokage office to fulfill his summon and start their meeting regarding the Chunin exam.

---

"He's shaking..."

"He is..."

"Wanna bet why he's shaking so much?"

Ino, Chouji, and Shikamaru were looking at Naruto's figure, he was currently shaking on his boots after he heard Kabuto's explanation.

"A thousand Ryo, he's scared senseless!' Ino smirked as she threw her bet, unaware that his two team-mates" eyes were shining.

"Deal!" "I'm in!"

Both Chouji and Shikamaru immediately agreed on her bet and took a thousand Ryo from their pocket each.

'Did I just shoot my own feet just now?' Ino regretted her decision as soon as she made it.

"MY NAME IS UZUMAKI NARUTO! I WON'T LOSE TO ANY OF YOU, BASTARD!"

Just then, Naruto suddenly shouted on top of his lungs and surprised everyone in the room.

"HEY! What is he? A moron?!" Ino snapped, she just lost two thousand Ryo just like that! All because of that idiot!

"Aah... That felt great!" Naruto grinned foolishly, he scratched the back of his head and laughed.

Meanwhile, amongst the participant in the room, Orochimaru smiled creepily while he eyeing a few persons of his interest. "Better than I anticipated! Kekekeke~"