*Author Note*
My Pat-reons can now read four chapters ahead: https://www.pat-reon.com/Maerry (remove the “-“)
*End of Author Note*
“By the way, you still haven’t answered whether you helped out your genin or not, Yuna.”
“I haven’t? Pretty sure I have. I didn’t help them. Karin has reached a high enough level in seals to create a communication seal by herself. Pretty sure she just made three of them when she realized that they would be separated.”
Temari’s eyes widened in surprise when she heard that Karin created not one but three communication seals in such a short time period.
“I-Is it really possible to create a seal that fast? Didn’t she simply prepare them before the start of the first round?”
“Mhh~ maybe? Maybe she already had them with her, or perhaps she created them, I have no idea. As for whether it is feasible or not to create them that fast…”
Yuna’s right hand blurred, and moments later, a complex seal was drawn into the air.
“…it is possible. There is a reason why the Uzumaki are the only clan capable of creating seals mid-combat, after all.”
Temari could only look at the freshly created seal in a daze. As far as she knew, seals are not something that is supposed to be made so casually. When she thinks about people who create seals, she thinks of old men, sitting in a dusty room while slowly and meticulously drawing the seals and not about young women casually drawing them instantly.
When Yuna previously used a seal to stop Gaara’s sand, she thought that she had prepared it beforehand, but maybe that wasn’t the case?
While Temari was sinking deeper and deeper into contemplation, Shikamaru realized something else.
“Why are you even here? I don’t think it would be very interesting for you to watch this round.”
Yuna couldn’t help but chuckle when she heard Shikamaru’s words. She let her gaze wander over the monitors in the room before stopping at one of them. Yuna moved her hand and pointed at the monitor. Or, more precisely, she pointed at one of the people visible on the monitor. It was a young woman with brown skin and green hair.
“I am here because of her.”
Shikamaru looked at the young woman and then back at Yuna and back at the woman again.
“*Sigh* Do you really need to hunt for new members for your harem during the chunin exams?”
Yuna laughed out loud when she heard Shikamaru’s words.
“Hahaha, that is not what I am talking about. She is a Jinchuuriki, so I decided to keep an eye on her.”
“…E-Excuse me, could you repeat that? I must have misheard you.”
Temari also woke up from her contemplations when she heard Yuna’s words and was now looking at her with wide-open eyes.
“Hehe, you heard correctly. She is a Jinchuuriki. The one of the Nanabi, to be precise.”
Shikamaru and Temari both paled when they heard Yuna’s words.
“I-Isn’t that bad? Shouldn’t we inform Tsunade-sama?”
Yuna only shrugged her shoulders when she heard Shikamaru’s words.
“Considering my…gift to her was alcohol, I doubt she is currently in a state where she can give qualified orders. Hehe, oops.”
Shikamaru groaned yet again when he heard Yuna’s words.
“What in the world are you planning, Yuna?”
“Hehe, no clue yet. For now, I will wait and see if anything interesting happens. You don’t need to worry about her too much. Unlike a certain village, I don’t think Takigakure sent their Jinchuuriki here with bad intentions, and even if she starts something, I can seal her easily.”
While Temari scowled in annoyance at Yuna’s jab, Shikamaru relaxed a little.
‘Right, she and Naruto already got rid of a rampaging Bijuu once each. Using the [Flying Thunder God Seal], Naruto can be here instantly, and Yuna already has her eyes on the girl, so there should be no problem.’
“*Sigh* So troublesome. Whatever, it is not like I can stop you anyway.”
“S-Shikamaru, is that really alright!?”
“*Sigh* Yeah. Yuna might be the most troublesome person in the village, but she certainly is reliable. Ah, you might want to inform your Kazekage, though.”
Temari didn’t understand how Shikamaru could trust Yuna enough to allow something like this, but since it was currently Konoha’s problem, she wouldn’t care about it either. She would have to inform Gaara about this as soon as the first test was over. It takes about three days to travel from here to the next test site, so Gaara would have plenty of time to make preparations.
While Shikamaru and Temari were talking with each other, Yuna looked over the rules of the first test and couldn’t help but chuckle a little.
“What an interesting test. You accuse me of helping my genin, but aren’t you setting things up, so everyone passes, Shikamaru?”
While Temari wasn’t sure what Yuna was talking about, Shikamaru nodded his head.
“As expected, you saw through it, huh. Well, it’s just a little test to see who has the capabilities to become a leader of a bigger group of people instead of just a small shinobi squad. I have prepared another test after this one and a third one to reduce the number of teams to 10 before the official second test starts.”
Yuna nodded her head in understanding, while Temari had a frown on her face. She frowned not only because she couldn’t read Shikamaru’s true intention but also because Yuna saw through them, while she couldn’t.
“What do you mean by “everyone passes”? As I see it, only very few people have the capability to communicate with each other while they are in different rooms.”
“You are correct, but that wasn’t what this test was about in the first place. Despite being a lazy bum, Shikamaru seems to have put quite a lot of thought into this test. At first, it appears that this test is about communicating with your teammates despite them being in different rooms, but that is a rather specialized skill, so it would be incredibly unfair to test people in that regard. This is just a chunin exam and not some kind of specialized communication-sensor-shinobi test.
Considering how there are only three options to choose from, it is enough to communicate only a minuscule amount of information to your team. For example, if we three were part of this exam and I would somehow manage to communicate the number 40 to you, nothing else, what would you do?”
Temari’s eyes shone in understanding when she heard Yuna’s explanation.
“I see. Due to your message, I would know that you will answer the question that will give 40 points, so the only option Shikamaru and I have left would be to answer the questions that would get us 30 points each to reach the 100 point mark.”
“Correct. Although there will still be some trouble communicating with people in different rooms, I don’t think it will be that hard to do. Although I am pretty sure the rooms are more or less sound isolated, there should be plenty of methods to send such a basic message into another room.
For example, one could hit the wall four times to send the message or raise four earth pillars in front of the building. The real problem is controlling the crowd, so they don’t mess up your plan. Since every person in the other rooms would get the signal, it should benefit everyone, making it relatively easy to convince the crowd.”
