Under Jiraiya and Tsunade's leadership, the cleanup work quickly got underway.
No matter what, these attackers were shinobi of the Hidden Leaf Village. Even if they faced trial and punishment upon returning to the village, for now, they needed to be treated and tended to.
Additionally, making a big deal out of this incident might force Danzō out of the advisory council more easily, but it would also weaken the authority of the village's leadership.
So, after an urgent discussion, Jiraiya and Tsunade decided to cover things up as much as possible to avoid making the situation too embarrassing and letting other villages mock them.
While Jiraiya and Tsunade were busy handling the aftermath, Shinji and the other students were safely escorted back to the command post by numerous jōnin.
Once at the camp, everyone visibly relaxed, and a flurry of questions erupted.
"Shinji, what exactly happened? Who were those attackers?"
"Yeah! How did you defeat them?"
"I heard there were dozens of them!"
Those who had been at the scene and those who hadn't all gathered around, their faces brimming with curiosity.
Yakumo, Neji, and a few others were also intrigued. Even Sasuke, who usually acted indifferent, subtly edged closer to the crowd, ears perked.
After the initial shock, the ninja academy's geniuses mentally replayed the battle where Shinji's squad was attacked.
They realized that even if they could have won in Shinji's place, the battlefield would likely have been a chaotic mess.
Yet, on Shinji's battlefield, only ninja tools were scattered about, the smell of gunpowder in the air was faint, and it seemed like few, if any, explosive tags had been used. The terrain showed minimal damage, as if Shinji had effortlessly taken down all the attackers with ease.
Seeing everyone's curiosity, Shinji smiled. "It's not as exaggerated as you think. Those guys looked intimidating, but they were weak. Don't believe me? Ask Haku and Karin!"
"Mm-hmm!"
Haku and Karin nodded repeatedly.
Yakumo looked skeptical. "Really that weak?"
"Really!"
Shinji's face was full of sincerity.
When the Root shinobi attacked, Karin, with her Kagura Mind's Eye, had sensed them early on. She deliberately used scouting as an excuse to disrupt the carefully planned ambush by the Root shinobi.
Once the battle began, the Root shinobi focused all their attention on Shinji, their primary target, ignoring Haku and Karin—a mistake that set the stage for their crushing defeat.
With the aid of her Kagura Mind's Eye, Karin could roughly distinguish between jōnin and chūnin based on the amount of chakra they possessed, which often correlated with a shinobi's strength.
So, taking advantage of the Root shinobi's underestimation, Karin and Haku ambushed several of the leading jōnin. Though it appeared they only took down two or three, this significantly weakened the Root shinobi's overall combat strength.
Of course, this was with Haku and Karin deliberately holding back to avoid Shinji noticing their true capabilities. If they had gone all out, Shinji wouldn't even have needed to lift a finger.
Playing along with Haku and Karin's act, Shinji naturally pretended to notice nothing.
Of the five jōnin among the Root shinobi, Haku and Karin each knocked out one in a surprise attack and then each restrained another, leaving the final one for Shinji to handle decisively.
The remaining chūnin posed little threat to Shinji, so with the help of his ninja cat Fūhime, he made quick work of them. Together with Haku and Karin, he also took care of the two jōnin they were restraining.
In the end, it looked like Shinji had defeated the vast majority of the enemies, with Haku and Karin each taking down only one. But without their clever coordination, Shinji might not have been able to take down all the Root shinobi as effortlessly as Yakumo, Sasuke, and Neji had witnessed.
To conceal their contributions, Haku and Karin credited all the success to Shinji, joining him in downplaying the Root shinobi as utterly incompetent.
Even though Shinji described the enemies as weak, the students knew that an attack serious enough to halt the exam couldn't be as simple as he made it sound.
Strength and weakness are relative—perhaps it wasn't that the attackers were too weak, but that Shinji was just too strong!
Since the attack was still under investigation and the attackers' identities were sensitive, it wasn't appropriate to say much more. So, the conversation shifted to exam points.
Though the exam had been halted, it was only a few days from ending anyway, so each team's points were essentially their final scores.
Neji took the initiative to ask, "Yakumo, how many points does your team have?"
Yakumo replied, "488 points!"
Neji's expression darkened.
According to the intel he'd gathered, Yakumo's team had only 473 points as of yesterday, yet they'd gained another 15 points today.
Yakumo asked in return, "What about you?"
Neji shook his head. "Only 440 points."
"Hey, hey, hey, what do you mean 'only' 440 points? We've only got a bit over 100!" one student shouted as soon as Neji finished speaking.
Other students joined in the teasing. "Yeah, our teams are averaging just over 100 points, and you guys have over 400! What's there to complain about?"
Shikamaru sighed. "What a pity. If we could've caught that rogue ninja from the Hidden Waterfall Village today, our team could've hit 400 points too!"
"Yeah!"
Chōji and Kiba sighed along with him.
For them, this was a rare chance to surpass the geniuses!
Hinata, on the other hand, was quite satisfied. Her team's score was slightly lower than Shikamaru's, just 300 points, but she was already content with that. It was enough to report back to her clan.
After all, even brilliant geniuses like Yakumo and Neji only had a bit over 400 points!
At that moment, Shion curiously asked Sakura, "Sakura, how many points does your team have?"
All eyes turned to her. Sasuke's team was one of the star squads, so naturally, everyone was curious about their score.
Feeling the weight of everyone's gazes, Sakura stammered, "J-just a bit over 300 points…"
Sasuke's face darkened, and he turned to leave, clearly frustrated that their score was lower than Yakumo's and Neji's.
The students didn't mock them, though.
Everyone knew Sasuke had been injured during an attack. For his team to still score over 300 points under those circumstances was already impressive.
Shion then sidled up to Shinji, asking like a curious child, "Shinji, Shinji, how many points did you guys get?"
This time, not only the other students but even Yakumo and Neji turned to look, their eyes filled with intrigue.
Shinji casually replied, "Didn't really keep track, but probably one or two thousand points."
"What!?"
Including Yakumo and Neji, every student was stunned.
Even Sasuke, who had been walking away, stopped in his tracks and turned back, staring at Shinji in astonishment.