Chapter 294 290: Karin's Chuunin Exam 28

Before starting the first exam, Karin and her team had been in Konoha for a few days, which was just enough to allow them to explore it and see the important sights.

This gave them a surface-level experience of the village, which many civilians also got when they visited.

But now, following the second exam, they had a full month before the start of the final part.

A month was both long and short.

It was too short to return home, but long enough to feel that they had overstayed their welcome.

One couldn't forget that they were rival shinobi.

While they were welcomed into Konoha, they weren't truly welcome.

And they could feel that.

The eyes, they locked onto their hitai-ate and their attire, and they lingered with unfriendliness and wariness.

Well, Karin had it the worst by far, since she wasn't just an outsider, she was also an Uzumaki, and for many civilians, the only Uzumaki they knew was Naruto.

So, she was quickly connected with their least favorite person, and added to the fact that she was an outsider... well, Karin didn't really enjoy the looks she got.

Karin was noble; she might have been born in a small shack, but she had been raised in the Fire Daimyō's mansion; she had worn expensive silk since she was old enough to walk.

She was by no means unfamiliar with civilians staring at her, either for her noble nature or the fact that she was a shinobi.

But those looks had never felt this... cold and nasty.

She was used to respect, to awe... not whatever this was.

Konoha truly never stopped both surprising her and disgusting her.

She was a mighty shinobi, a true-blooded Uzumaki, and yet she was looked on with open disgust and hate? By mere civilians? Lowborn commoners.

Not that she had anything against them, but she still expected them to at least know their place.

And to accept that she was, in all ways, far above them.

She could kill them without blinking, and yet they seemed completely oblivious to this fact.

As someone who had traveled the world, she couldn't think of any other place like Konoha.

It was truly a unique place, and not in a good way.

Still, she had to remain here for a full month, so despite how much she disliked it, she had to stay.

"I can't believe we have to stay here for a full month without anything to do."

Tōji complained while lying on his back, clearly bored out of his mind.

"We know; you have said that every five minutes for the past few days now!"

Naho snapped back, though she was no doubt equally bored; she was just also annoyed at her teammate.

"Why can't we go out? Konoha has some decent entertainment; why are we trapped inside all day!?" he continued to complain.

"Because we just murdered a dozen Konoha ANBU, and while they were in the wrong, we are still within their village, and they are pissed off."

Karin explained with a sigh.

Tōji groaned, but didn't say anything else.

What could he say? That Karin was wrong?

Impossible; not only did he know she wasn't, but he also didn't have the balls to say something like that.

He might joke around a bit here and there, but he knew better than to invite a bored Uzumaki to beat him up to alleviate her boredom a little.

In the end, all three of them could only sigh and groan while they stayed inside, hiding behind walls and closed windows from the many eyes outside.

Because it was indeed not just the civilians who were eyeing them.

No, outside, Konoha's ANBU, whether Root or the normal ones, were eyeing them like hawks.

Karin didn't doubt that if she gave them the chance, they would gladly reduce the current finalist count from nine down to eight by ensuring that she failed to show up.

Not that she would go quietly, but this was still Konoha, and they still had plenty of people she couldn't confidently claim she could beat, more so if they teamed up against her.

Ambushes might be impossible thanks to her sensor abilities, but that didn't mean a group beatdown couldn't defeat her.

If nothing else, the Hokage and Might Guy were among those she didn't have any confidence about escaping from.

So, all she could do was not give them a chance to act.

Which was what led to the current situation of the three of them being stuck inside and bored out of their minds.

At least Karin could use her sensor abilities to monitor a large corner of Konoha village, which allowed her a bit of entertainment, or at least something to think about while trapped indoors.

For one, she had noticed another large chakra signature, another S-rank shinobi, one she assumed was none other than the Toad Sannin, Jiraiya.

It made total sense for him to appear after Orochimaru had shown up.

After all, anyone with a tiny bit of status in the shinobi world knew that Jiraiya spent half his time looking for his traitor teammate.

As for the other half? Well, everyone knew he spent that time being a total pervert; no one knew how many bastard children he had spread around the Elemental Nations.

But given how he slept around, well, it had to be quite a few by now.

After all, everyone knew that when it came to contraceptives, the most effective ones were in the hands of women, so they often had a big say in whether or not they had children.

And while Jiraiya's reputation wasn't exactly stellar, he was still a rare powerhouse, and countless people wanted his genes.

Hoping to give birth to a powerful shinobi.

So yeah, he was in town.

Which only made Karin feel all the more that she really couldn't afford to act recklessly.

Should Konoha decide they didn't want to play nicely, then she wouldn't be able to leave... she hated the feeling of living at someone else's mercy.

Even if she knew that if she was captured, Kaguya would come for her, she still wanted to avoid that situation above everything else.

Part of her almost regretted winning the second exam, since that meant going on to the third, and that... meant waiting around for a month.

Sure, she understood the reasoning behind the break.

For one, it took time for the important guests to make their way over, and they wouldn't start the trip before they knew if they wanted to watch the fun and games.

Which meant they needed a list of who was going to be put on display.

So, that was part of the reason: the sheer travel time of noble guests.

Another part was the fact that it was entirely possible for the contestants to be injured and need time to recover.

A month was enough for all but the worst injuries to heal; only Rock Lee wouldn't heal in time, and well, he wasn't taking part in the exam anyway.

Among those who were injured, yeah, they would be fine in time, no problem.

Then came the training.

A month wasn't exactly long, but it was enough to learn a new jutsu or two, or prepare a counter to someone.

And the second exam, the elimination round, had perfectly allowed everyone to know about their opponents' abilities, to give them a direction for this month of training.

Naturally, this truly only benefited Konoha, which had the most Genin in play and had the home-ground advantage to train and prepare.

Karin could hardly go out to train.

Yeah... her going off to a secluded training ground would just mean disappearing.

Not to mention, even without that threat, no sane Genin would train inside another village; that was just begging to be spied on.

So neither Karin nor the three Suna Genin could do much training, not without leaving Konoha at least, and they hadn't left.

Karin could clearly feel Gaara and the others; they weren't that far off, and well, Gaara wasn't dealing with the boredom all that well, given how unstable he felt.

Well, Kankurō might be able to tinker with his puppets, so he might not mind too much.

But even he no doubt had to be careful about some Hyūga with the Byakugan watching him through the walls, spying on his secret puppet techniques, learning all of Suna's secrets.

So... he too might be feeling rather shit.

It was all quite the mess.

Karin had no idea how all these people were able to just stay around, smiling at each other as if they didn't all want to kill one another.

Thankfully, she didn't need to train, so it wasn't like she was being sabotaged; she was just bored... and well, once the finals did begin, she would no doubt take her frustrations out on the unfortunate opponents she would be facing.

Though knowing Konoha, she would likely be matched against Gaara. No doubt they hoped the two strongest outsiders would eliminate one another, taking both out in a single stroke and allowing Konoha to dominate the finals.

Politics.

Disgusting stuff.