Karin watched the whole exchange, and while others might not see anything wrong with it, she saw just how strange it all was.
Firstly, that Kabuto guy had clearly wanted their attention; his whole act of wanting to offer them help was nothing more than an excuse.
What was even more surprising was the fact that he had so much information about the other contestants.
It was one thing for a Konoha Genin to know information about other Konoha shinobi.
If it had been just that, it would have been suspicious, but it would have fit with the idea of him being a plant by Konoha to ensure they dominated the exam and that those they wanted to pass did.
And those they didn't want to pass never had a chance.
That idea, however, didn't seem to fit as well anymore.
Because when Sasuke asked about Gaara's information, something she could understand, he wanted it because Gaara did appear to be a dangerous opponent, and any information was valuable.
What she didn't understand was how he had that much information about him, which included his mission history.
Even knowing the information of a fellow villager wasn't something just anyone could do, but knowing something about other villages? That was something else entirely.
Most people would only know what was common knowledge, which meant what was recorded in the Bingo Book.
But detailed mission records? They were protected secrets of a village, and the Sand would never willingly share them with a Genin, at least not one who wasn't a member of their village.
No, they would never do that.
So, how did he have them?
There was no doubt Konoha had its fair share of spies inside Suna, and getting some information wasn't out of the realm of possibility.
But why would an apparent Genin have access to that kind of information?
And so happily share those secrets with others? In a place where plenty of people could hear?
More so, Gaara wasn't just a random Suna shinobi; he was the youngest child of the Kazekage, and their Jinchūriki, their war asset, and a very valuable one at that.
They might not like him, something that was true for most Jinchūriki, but despite disliking him, they still valued his status as a Jinchūriki.
Any information about a Jinchūriki was among the best-kept secrets in a village; even the identity wasn't always known unless something went wrong.
Many Jinchūriki's identities weren't known until they had matured and were combat-ready.
So, the likelihood of another village getting information about a Jinchūriki was tiny; more so, that some random Chūnin Exam participant had access to it and wasn't well-trained enough not to share it.
It just didn't make sense.
There was no way that Kabuto was just a regular Genin, not even one with a few years of experience under his belt.
There was something else going on.
And then, when he went to pull her information out, she had been curious.
But in the end, he had no real information about her, which honestly wasn't all that strange.
Her mission record was, in fact, blank; in truth, she wasn't even a properly registered shinobi of Amegakure.
So it was naturally impossible for anyone to have any information on her. Though that didn't mean that she didn't find Kabuto even more suspicious.
But she didn't get a chance to see what other information he had, as after talking about the new Otogakure, the three shinobi of that village made a move.
Karin cared little for the minor hidden villages. In fact, even among the greater ones, she didn't put a single person her age in her eyes.
She was simply far superior to any of them.
So, when the Otogakure shinobi attacked, she didn't expect much, and indeed, Kabuto dodged the attack beautifully.
Yet what happened next did surprise her.
Kabuto, who had dodged perfectly, staggered back two steps before he collapsed onto his knees, coughing hard as his glasses fell down; the lenses cracked as if he had just been hit.
But Karin was sure he hadn't been hit, not even by an invisible air strike, so what had happened?
Before she could figure it out, the examiners intervened, and the fight was broken up.
She wasn't the only one who was left with unanswered questions, but everyone was rushed to their seats as the examiner stood before them.
He was a large man, his face covered in scars, making him look extra dangerous, though from Karin's perspective, his appearance didn't mean anything.
His chakra was certainly around Tokubetsu Jōnin level, so she was certain he was one of the proctors of the exam, but that was about it.
He introduced himself as Morino Ibiki, but that name didn't mean anything to her, and while she was curious as to why he was part of the exam, she didn't let that distract her.
Once the exam began, she was surprised to find it wasn't some test of skill, but rather a test of intelligence.
While she had always been smart, and Kaguya had trained her mind, she had never really expected this.
The questions were far beyond simply tricky; they weren't something a Genin could answer, even a Tokubetsu Jōnin might struggle.
And Karin was no exception.
As a student of Kaguya, she had long since known that before true strength, all tricks were meaningless.
So this kind of overly technical question wasn't something she had overly focused on.
She would much rather spend the time learning an extra ninjutsu, something Kaguya fully agreed with, as she taught her plenty.
Not that a ninjutsu was overly useful right now, in a non-combat situation.
It made it all the more frustrating.
"I should have spent more time studying this kind of thing," Karin cursed to herself, looking over the questions and realizing that she couldn't answer a single one of them.
There were nine in total, and she didn't even know where to begin with any of them.
Though she wasn't the only one struggling.
All around her, others were just as frustrated, some even more so than her, as they hadn't even expected such a difficult exam to start with.
But while she was frustrated, she wasn't defeated.
She would find a way to pass this test, no matter what it took.
And so, she began to think.
The questions themselves were difficult, yes, but the overall test had to be passable; there had to be a way to solve it.
"Let's see, what are the rules? We aren't failed for getting caught cheating, only if we get caught three times, which means it's allowed. There has to be someone around with the answers, and we just have to find out who," Karin reasoned.
She was fairly confident in her reasoning.
More so since she had long since determined that a handful of the others weren't here to take the exam, and now, she realized what their purpose was.
They were here to be cheated off of.
For that to be possible, they had to know the answers to all of the questions.
The test wasn't about how much you knew, it was about how good you were at getting information out of others.
Now that she thought of it, it made perfect sense.
A Chūnin was someone who often led teams, which meant they had to have the skill to acquire information from all kinds of sources, and not just by fighting.
They needed to be able to get information without relying on violence.
Yes, it made perfect sense.
She didn't have to know the answers; she just had to get them from someone who did.
The question was how to go about it.
After all, their method had to be discreet enough.
As she sat there, she started to see others figuring it out as well, and took stock of their chosen methods.
Some were far harder to detect than others.
Like the Hyūga and Uchiha, who could rely on their dōjutsu to cheat.
Others, well... they weren't nearly as practical.
One was a guy with a dog, someone from Konoha's Inuzuka clan, who had the dog rest on top of his head, look around, and relay the answers to him through barking.
Yes, others indeed couldn't understand what the puppy was saying, but it wasn't exactly discreet.
Another Konoha kunoichi was using strings and mirrors on the ceiling to cheat, another solution that wasn't exactly elegant.
But whether it was favoritism toward Konoha shinobi or something else, Karin couldn't see the proctors note them down for cheating.
Others weren't that lucky.
"Number 212, disqualified!" Ibiki shouted, and just like that, another team was taken out.
Karin couldn't help but smile at that.
Konoha could cheat however they liked, but they had no intention of helping anyone else.
Well, not anyone outside her own team, because while she was sure she could handle it easily... the same couldn't be said for Tōji and Naho.
And if either of those two got caught three times, she too would be disqualified.
So not only did she have to cheat on her own, but she had to perform the far more difficult act of cheating on behalf of her teammates and getting them the answers.
Honestly, it was a bit too much to ask from a young girl like her, but there was nothing she could do but do her best.
So she spent the next few minutes trying to figure out just how she could cheat so that the proctors didn't notice it.
She had a dozen options that would work, because at worst, she would get one strike, which was no real problem.
But to also get the answers to the others? That risked getting three strikes.
She was quite troubled until one of the Suna shinobi asked to use the bathroom.
From what she could see, he was a puppet user, and his method of cheating wasn't overly special, but he did manage it, and passed a small note to his sister, giving her the answers as well.
At most, that was two strikes, so he was safe.
As for his final teammate, well, Gaara had a floating sand eye spy on the test papers with the correct answers for him, so he didn't need help.
She waited a few moments before raising a hand. "I need to go to the bathroom," she said calmly, and was soon escorted out by a proctor.
In the hall, she waited until the two proctors outside were distracted before making her move.
There were just the four of them: her, the proctor who followed her out, and the two standing guard outside; all three of them were Chūnin.
A challenge for a Genin, but for her? They were nothing at all.
So, in an instant, she moved, and in less than a second, all three were knocked out on the ground.
"Sorry, but this is a mission," she said, not wasting a second to pull all three of them into the bathroom before she made three shadow clones and had them transform into the three proctors.
When Karin and the proctor entered the room a few minutes later, there were no signs that anything was wrong, but much had changed; in fact, three people had changed.
And Karin now had the ability to manipulate the exam to some extent.
More than enough to ensure her entire team would pass.
(End of chapter)
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