“Hello, guys.” Hinata greeted her and Ino’s teams when they came closer.

Ino threw her own, “Yo.” at them with a cheerful grin and a small hand wave, knowing full well that it would offend Kurenai’s sensibilities about propriety.

At first, she did these kinds of things because she heard Ren describe the woman as beautiful. It was plain jealousy. And she only intended to do it a few times.

Then she noticed Kurenai’s subtle reactions to it, and Ino just couldn’t help herself. She was a Yamanaka and mentally screwing with people was her entire thing.

It really did not help that she enjoyed it so much.

And Kurenai never reprimanded her because she believed it was not her place. To be fair, it really wasn’t. It was Asuma’s. Who never did it. That probably didn’t win him much favor with Kurenai, but then again, Ino doubted he even noticed something was happening.

Men… right?

But today, the woman barely twitched at Ino’s casual disrespect hidden behind the veil of childish innocence. Instead, Kurenai was preoccupied by giving Hinata a worried look when she noticed the Hyuga girl clutching a teddy bear, of all things, to her chest.

Right in the middle of the hostile, enemy teams, who were looking for a weak, easy target.

Even Asuma almost dropped his cigarette from his mouth when he spotted Hinata, having a hard time believing the balls of steel on the Hyuga girl.

He knew well how strong she was from all the Ino’s rants about her defeats in spars against her. And Ino? Asuma knew she was hiding her prowess, but she was no genin. He could tell that much.

He would guess her at an elite chunin level?

It was hard to gauge because he never really saw her go all out, and the girl was annoyingly good at suppressing her own chakra. But high chunin for her sounded reasonable in his mind. After all, she only graduated half a year ago.

Surely, she could not be much stronger than that, right?

“Hello, Hinata.” Kurenai said as her smile turned a bit strained. “Are you sure you want to bring that into the Forest of Death, Hinata?” She asked, gesturing at the teddy bear.

Hinata, however, only gave Kurenai a beaming, wide-eyed smile as she proudly and loudly announced while stretching out her hands that held the bear, “This is my teddy bear, Kurenai-sensei. I have problems falling asleep without him. His name is Doom!”

Kurenai’s eye twitched at that. Just as quite a few eyes from the surrounding genin teams turned toward them.

‘Yikes.’ Ino felt a shiver go down her spine, getting a worried glance from Shikamaru, the only one who noticed.

He probably misunderstood why she slightly shivered, though.

Doom was about right for that infernal stuffed creature. Ino had once gotten a lightning-clad paw to her cheek from it. It took Hinata one hour to heal her broken cheekbone, broken jaw, several cracked teeth, and…

Ino inwardly shook her head, chasing these memories away.

Nobody who was not punched at the speed of lightning with hardened chakra metal could sympathize.

But as Ino looked at their competitors, giving Hinata some subtle, gleeful, and considering looks, she reckoned quite a few people would be able to sympathize with her after today.

If they survive the experience.

Well, okay. Ino had to admit that despite her viciousness, Hinata was still a nice girl. She was most likely going to heal her victims enough to prevent them from dying.

Maybe with a few notable exceptions.

Ino glanced at the very reason why Hinata was making herself look like such an easy target. The few Kumo teams who were giving Hinata looks as if she were a nice piece of breedable flesh.

And then Ino looked at the few Kumo teams who were just giving her pitying and dismissive looks, etching their faces into her mind so she knew which Kumo ninjas she shouldn’t end in a permanent fashion in case she encountered them in the forest.

Hearing Hinata’s words, Kurenai’s strained smile became helpless. “You may lose it there.” She tried to reason with the girl, but Ino understood Kurenai’s plight.

It was hard to say no to that adorable, wide-eyed, innocent look Hinata currently sported.

Sage knew the girl used it on Ren or even her often enough, and it had always worked despite them knowing she was using it to get her way.

“Don’t worry. He is housebroken and well-trained! He is a ninja teddy bear!” Hinata exclaimed with a wide smile that made Kurenai let out a strangled sigh.

“I… see?” She concluded with a helpless expression before turning toward Kiba and Shino, who silently watched the conversation alongside Ino’s team.

Ino noticed that all of them were having dumbfounded looks, except Shikamaru, who was giving Hinata his Nara trademark deadpan look, probably realizing what she was doing and thinking something about troublesome Hyugas.

Ino did not even need to use her Yamanaka techniques on him to know that much just from his expression.

“Kiba, Shino,” Kurenai spoke, “I am counting on you to protect Hinata, alright?”

“But… shouldn’t it be the other way around, Kurenai-sensei? She wins every spar. Even when both of us fight against her.” Kiba sullenly and also loudly complained, not wanting to say he was going to protect somebody whom he saw as an alpha in their team.

That would be just insulting to Hinata, in his mind.

“Your request is illogical, Kurenai-sensei. Why? Because Kiba is speaking the truth. Hinata can defeat both of us, and therefore, trying to protect her despite that would just hinder us as a team.” Shina added his opinion, and while his voice was not overly loud, he did not try to be quiet either.

Ninjas with good hearing could still hear him well.

Ino almost let out a mirthful chuckle as Kurenai’s plan to showcase her team’s unity and lessen the target on their back backfired. Instead, the enemy teams likely misunderstood the boys’ statements and now thought that the wimpy, innocent-looking girl who could not even sleep without her teddy bear was the strongest person on their team, making them an even bigger target in the end.

“This is where you two brats were supposed to say a simple ‘Yes, Kurenai-sensei’.” Kurenai dryly said with a twitching eyebrow and a glare that made both Kiba and Shino freeze in their spots.

Fortunately for the boys, Asuma intervened and put his hand on Kurenai’s shoulder in a reassuring manner. “They will be fine, Kurenai. Have some confidence in your team.” He said with an easy-going smile, one that made it very hard for Kurenai to stay angry.

Slumping her shoulders, Kurenai reluctantly nodded, and Asuma’s eyes turned toward Ino.

“What about you, Ino? You two were not waiting for us long, were you?”

“No, Asuma-sensei.” Ino smiled in return. “We arrived here just five minutes earlier than you.”

Their teams were supposed to meet at their training grounds before coming here together, but both she and Hinata excused themselves from it, saying they would be spending their night at a friend’s place. That it was closer to the entrance to the Forest of Death than their usual training grounds. So, they would rather come and meet their teams here.

They were not lying. They just did not say the friend was their boyfriend or that there was not much sleeping included until very late in the night.

But despite Ren’s reluctance to tell them anything about the Chunin Exams, they at least managed to weasel out of him that they would be locked in the Forest of Death for several days, which meant no secret rendezvous with him for them. They wanted to enjoy their last night together for the next several days.

Oh, and what a night it was! Ino could still feel all tingly and-

“And are you ready for the Exams, Ino?” Asuma’s voice interrupted Ino’s daydreaming, making her owlishly blink and quickly cover the perverted grin that tried to appear on her face.

“Er…” Ino genuinely panicked in that moment, caught off guard. So, in her usual way, she decided that, ‘When in doubt, act brash’ was the way to go.

“Yes! Asuma-sensei! I am prepared.” She loudly exclaimed, using the fact that everybody was looking at them because of Hinata’s earlier stunt.

Turning around, Ino confidently stood with one hand on her hip and the other one sticking her pointing finger at the people around her as she proclaimed, “AND I AM GOING TO BEAT YOU ALL!”

She raised her nose up and donned the most arrogant grin in her repertoire. It wasn’t even hard, and almost everybody was riled up, causing the hostility in the air to increase tenfold as she heard Asuma utter a silent curse from behind her, followed by a sound that suspiciously reminded her of a palm meeting a face while Kurenai compassionately chuckled at his plight.

Ino’s grin started widening-

Her danger sense suddenly flared.

She sidestepped a kunai flying at her, about to graze her cheek, before she plucked it out of the air with a swift swiping motion of her hand.

A long tongue was coming toward her hand, or rather, the kunai, and Ino acted on reflex, swiping the kunai’s blade at the tongue, causing its owner to suddenly widen her eyes at Ino’s speed, before she threw herself back in order to not lose said tongue, her feet sliding a few feet on the ground.

Ino didn’t have the time to contemplate what the S-rank kunoichi from Kusa was playing at. That was barely mid-chunin level speed. They probably played along to keep their cover.

But more importantly… Ino continued her sweeping motion, letting its momentum carry her body into a spin until she ended up facing a completely opposite direction, her hand with the kunai ending pressing its blade’s edge on the neck of the proctor lady who appeared behind her just as she had thrown the kunai.

Anko’s brown eyes met Ino’s blue ones, and her pupils shrank into pinpricks as Ino could hear Anko’s breath slightly hitch from behind her frozen bloodthirsty grin as she registered the kunai pressed against her artery, and her body subconsciously stiffened.

Clearly, that wasn’t the result she expected.

It all happened within two seconds. It was so fast that some of the chunin-hopefuls still didn’t quite catch up with what happened and just dumbly stood around, watching the scene, but having problems properly registering it.

Ino’s grin finished widening as she slowly pulled the kunai away from Anko’s neck under the dumbfounded gazes of everybody but the disguised Kusa kunoichi, who was giving her a slightly impressed one.

“Here. You dropped this.” Ino casually threw the kunai to Anko with a smug smirk, causing the woman’s lips to twitch as she swiped it from the air and, with one smooth motion, put it back into her pouch.

“I like you, kid.” Anko eventually said with a small head shake as she noticed most teams now being too afraid to even look in Ino’s direction.

Ino was very pleased with that. Being a target was not her style. No. She was the hunter here, and she needed to let everybody know that!

Her eyes then challengingly met the ones belonging to the Kusa kunoichi, and after a bit of staring at each other, she received the most patronizing smile in her life, causing Ino’s elated mood to instantly drop as her smirk turned into a scowl.

The whole fun of winning the unspoken dick-measuring contest felt somewhat tarnished by it.

Ino could practically hear the amused and unsaid, ‘Well done, child’ from that smug bitch!

Seeing Ino’s scowl, the Kusa kunoichi’s smile widened, and she even let out a slow chuckle before she turned around, slowly walking back toward her team while showing Ino her back as if daring her to attack.

It basically screamed, ‘You can’t hope to hurt me.’ to Ino’s body language reading skills.

With a huff, Ino crossed her arms on her chest and looked back at the chuckling Asuma and Kurenai with a narrowed gaze, daring them to say something!

“Good luck with this mess, Ino.” Asuma light-heartedly offered before he turned around and started dragging Kurenai away with him.

“Troublesome blonde.” Shikamaru loudly groaned, completely dismissing Ino’s attempt to look cool.

“Did you bring any food, Hinata?” Choji wasn’t even paying attention.

‘This damned team.’ Ino thought in disbelief. ‘No respect at all!’

But before she could say something out loud, Anko’s voice interrupted her.

“Okay! Gather up! The Exams will be starting soon, and I need to explain things!”

Ino looked at Anko, noticing the small smirk rising in the corner of her lips, and Ino’s jaw almost dropped from the audacity of this bitch.

She had interrupted her on purpose!

This sucked! Her whole declaration of beating everybody up just flopped.

…

(Orochimaru wore the skin of a female Kusa ninja during the Exams. It’s why he is a ‘she’ here when I write it from Ino or Hinata’s perspective.)

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep