Hinata and Ino came to the entrance of the Forest of Death, seeing that some teams were already gathered and waiting for the Exams to start.
The teams did not seem to interact much. Everybody was more or less in their own claimed place with their teammates, away from other teams.
Hinata smiled to herself at that. Clearly, they all recognized that the next task would make each other enemies, so everybody was already wary. She would not put it past certain participants to use subtle techniques on others before the thing even started.
Speaking of which... Hinata gave Ino a small exasperated look as she swatted her Yin chakra away, preventing Ino's subtle attempt to slip one of her Yin Clones into her mind.
Ino playfully stuck out her tongue for a moment before giving her an unapologetic smile. "I am just trying your vigilance."
"I am sure that's it." Hinata rolled her eyes with a clear sarcasm written in her tone.
That said, Hinata did believe Ino. She knew the Yamanaka could not keep her mental clone in her victim's mind for long periods of time. Ino has tried to fix that issue for months now to no avail. It gave her so much frustration that Hinata once caught her punching her own pillow in anger.
Much to Ino's mortification.
But while the Yin clones were quite useless as a preemptive strike before the battle even began... "And I am sure the little bit of your hidden yin chakra you are sneaking into people's systems around us is also just testing their vigilance, isn't it?" Hinata amusedly remarked with a small giggle that she quickly covered with her hand.
"Of course." Ino gave her a mischievous wink and replied with a grin. "It's just a little something that would make it easier for me to use my techniques on them later on if my chakra stays in their system. It's completely harmless."
But then her grin quickly fell off her face.
"Though, there are some people who actually noticed my little intrusion and flushed my chakra out of their systems." She said with a small inkling of seriousness, and Hinata's eyebrows furrowed as Ino frowned.
Hinata quickly activated her Byakugan and looked around at their future competition, especially the ones Ino quickly pointed out through their telepathy seal.
"Yes. Some of these people look like they have no business being in the Chunin Exams." Hinata muttered back to Ino in a whisper, covering her speech with a quite clever application of chakra that would prevent anybody from overhearing it or reading her lips.
Dispelling Ino's intrusions did not require a lot of power. It was something that required skill and awareness of one's chakra that genin-level chunin-wannabes usually should not possess.
Mid to Elite level chunin in their mid twenties? Alright, Hinata could see them having the skill and awareness of their chakra system to notice.
Jonins? Indubitably. They wouldn't get the rank without it.
Then there were people with special bloodlines like her. Neji was already giving Ino a very annoyed glare, which quickly switched to her. Then back to Ino. And to her.
And now he was glaring again at her.
That boy...
Hinata inwardly sighed in dejection.
But many of the participants who shook off Ino's attempt did not have any visible bloodline, and clearly, they should not be chunin or jonin if they were participating in the Chunin Exams.
There were people from Kumo, Iwa, Kusa, the red-haired jinchuuriki kid from Suna that Ren warned them about, and a few more. Even one Konoha ninja who had round glasses and looked like a complete wimp glanced at them with a small frown.
What the hell? She thought they were going to compete with kiddies for an insignificant rank up they could have gotten anytime by just revealing their true abilities.
But clearly, there were some skilled people gathered in these Exams. She wondered if Ren had known this in advance and planned for it. It would certainly explain his desire for them to keep their prowess secret until the Exams' third phase.
"That one especially." Hinata sent a mental image to Ino through their telepathy seal, showing one of the Kusagakure Ninjas that looked sketchy as hell, "She has enough chakra to compete with the Hokage." Hinata's frown deepened as she said that, and even the last vestige of playfulness left Ino's expression upon hearing that. "It's not just the quantity of it either. Naruto and that red-haired boy have them both beat in that department." Hinata muttered. "It's the quality that is concerning. She should not be in the Chunin Exams."
"Jonin?" Ino asked with a bit of hope that a lesser village simply sent a senior ninja disguised as a genin to show off for the masses and get some clients.
It would have been a very stupid thing to do. But some villages actually did do that in the past, so it is not as if there was no precedent for it.
But her hopes were dashed when Hinata shook her head. "More. S-rank."
"Ah." Ino closed her eyes and let out a small sigh. "Well, shit."
Because that obviously meant there was something more sinister at work than just the stupidity and desperation of a minor village throwing caution to the wind and scheming to earn more clients.
No S-rank would ever participate in the Chunin Exams without a good reason. Usually not-entirely-ethical reason, at that.
It was an ego thing.
A wolf does not go and try to compete with chickens. That's beneath him, unless he feels peckish. His presence usually spells nothing good for the chickens.
The same logic applied here.
"We probably should not report them." Hinata wryly said, and Ino reluctantly nodded. It was a tad bit too late for that.
"In the middle of all these juicy, talented genin hostages from every village?" Ino huffed with an eye roll.
Of course, reporting them was not an option. If it went wrong and they were hostile, it would be a blood bath. One that could easily start the next Great Ninja War if too many valuable genin died here.
The villages did not send their bottom-feeders to the Chunin Exams. Every village wanted to get their kids to the last phase, where they could show off their village's prowess.
It was basically a 'Look! Our genin are already this strong. Imagine what our chunin and jonin can do!' kind of statement to the civilian masses.
These kids were the future of their villages. It's why she and Hinata were here, Ino mused. Neither of them was 'asked' if they wanted to participate by their clans. No. They were told that they would be competing.
Their desires were not considered in the equation.
Not that they could be mad at their parents too much. Their parents did not have much choice in the matter either. It was most likely the Hokage who ordered the clans to send their kids.
It wasn't even a bad order, either. It was actually pretty smart and completely sensible. With the Exams in Konoha, their safety was assured. Ino would eat Hinata's teddy bear and face the consequences if Konoha did not have several ANBU teams all around the Forest of Death today.
It was very likely that no Konoha clan heir would be dying this day.
Well. Unless... Ino's eyes briefly flickered toward the hidden S-rank ninja, but she quickly averted her gaze to not alert them.
Such a thing is expected from Konoha. Every village did things like this. The ANBU would not be helping any participant. There were lines that the village could not overstep.
But saving a clan heir on the verge of death? That much was easily allowed and wholly expected. The other villages were okay with it because, well, then they could do this shit too, when they hosted the Exams and face no reprisal.
'And would you look at that?' Ino inwardly chuckled. 'All those political lessons with Ren paid off. I don't think I could think of half this crap without them.' She hummed to herself, her eyes idly scanning the crowd until she noticed Asuma and Kurenai coming, with the rest of their teams following them like lost ducklings.
Ino weakly elbowed Hinata's side to get her attention before nodding with her head toward their approaching teams. "We should go and join them."
"Yeah." Hinata nodded, "I am done sending an alert to Ren about the S-rank here."
'Wooo! Telepathy seals for the win.' Ino grinned and sent a telepathic message to Hinata, making her giggle as Ino linked her arm with hers before they started walking toward their teams.
If they could not report him or her to the nearby Jonin without risking a bloodbath, then they could at least do this much. What Ren did with that knowledge, or what the higher-ups did with it if Ren reported it?
That was not their problem.
Besides... there should be some fancy detection barrier all around Konoha. What were the chances that the village did not know about the S-rank ninja participating in the Chunin Exams?
And who knows? Maybe the disguised ninja was somebody hailing from Konoha all along.