Genin Takedown! All Nine Rookies Face Off!

is episode 23 of the original Naruto anime.

Synopsis
Kakashi explained that the Chūnin Exams could only be taken in teams of three. Sakura was shocked that Kakashi lied to them about their free will to choose whether or not they wanted to participate. Kakashi explained that, if he didn't say that, Naruto and Sasuke would have forced her to participate. However, he was very proud that each member of his team agreed to participate. Then Naruto, Sasuke and Sakura entered the Chūnin Exam room.

Inside, Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura found themselves among many other Chūnin Exam participants. Seeing the rookie Genin, Ino ran up to Sasuke and threw herself at him, much to the dismay of Sakura. Shikamaru and Chōji arrived just after Ino, and they started to complain. Naruto then started his round of introductions. First up was Asuma Sarutobi's team, made up of Shikamaru Nara, who always complained, and was lazy, Chōji Akimichi, who was always eating, and Ino Yamanaka, who was annoying because she was always fighting with Sakura over Sasuke.

Then three more rookies arrived. It was Kurenai Yūhi's team, comprised of Hinata Hyūga, a shy girl who always blushed when Naruto was around, Kiba Inuzuka, along with his puppy Akamaru, who acted like the boss of the team, and Shino Aburame, who Naruto didn't know very well, but Naruto considered him to be weird and mysterious. The three rookie Genin teams began insulting each other. Chōji headed towards Akamaru with the intent of trying to eat him, but he was stopped by Shino, who said that he was about to step on a bug. They continued arguing, until another Genin approached them: Kabuto Yakushi, who was participating in the exam for the seventh time. He warned the rookies to be careful.

Thus began his explanation of the Chūnin Exam. The exam took place twice every year, and Kabuto admitted that this was his fourth year participating. That statistic caused the rookies some angst over how difficult the exam might actually be. Kabuto then pulled out his deck of ninja information cards, and started explaining about the information he'd collected over the past 4 years. To extract the information from the blank cards, Kabuto tuned them into his chakra. After this, an image of the exam's total number of examinees and countries participating appeared.

Kabuto explained that they took the exam in teams to deepen their friendships with other villages, and to heighten the levels of the ninja. However, he thought the real purpose was to confirm the levels of the ninja in each adjacent country, and to try to balance out the power. They did this to check and restrain each country's powers. Sasuke asked him if he had information on the other candidates, and Kabuto said that he does. Sasuke asked for information on Gaara of the Hidden Village of Sand and Rock Lee from Konoha. Rock Lee was a year older than Sasuke. He'd done 20 D-rank missions and 11 C-rank missions. The squad leader was Guy-sensei, and his team-mates were Tenten and Neji Hyūga. His taijutsu skills had increased dramatically that past year, but his other skills were terrible. This was his first time taking the Chūnin Exam.

Gaara of the Sand had completed 8 C-rank and 1 B-rank mission, and had returned from all his missions unharmed. This was his first time taking the exam. Kabuto then started talking about the participants from the different villages for this bi-annual Chūnin Exam. This included:


 * Konohagakure - 72 participants - (24 teams)
 * Sunagakure - 30 participants - (10 teams)
 * Kusagakure - 15 participants - (5 teams)
 * Takigakure - 12 participants - (4 teams)
 * Amegakure - 21 participants - (7 teams)
 * Otogakure - 3 participants - (1 team)

Meanwhile, Kakashi stood outside the main room reconsidering his prior actions, in which he demanded that Guy and Iruka respect his decision to allow his Genin into the exams. He wondered now if he was too curt.

Back inside, Kabuto warned the rookies to keep a low profile. Not being one to remain quiet, Naruto immediately grabbed the room's attention to introduce himself, and vow that he would not lose to any one of them. Ino ran up to Sakura and accused her of provoking him. Meanwhile, the rest of the ninjas stared at them with anger and annoyance. The Sound team, already annoyed with Kabuto's description of their small country, took immediate action. They stealthily crept up to Kabuto and took a swing at him. One of them threw some kunai to distract Kabuto, while the other got up close to him and tried to punch him. At first, it seemed as though he dodged the attack, but soon his glasses broke and he knelt down to vomit.

Not long after, Ibiki Morino, the examiner of the first test of the Chūnin Exam, showed up.

Trivia
If you look closely in this episode, you can see candidates who are wearing at least one headband from Kumogakure and what appears to be one from Kirigakure -- despite apparently these villages not having any candidates participating. These headbands occur when Neji is talking with Lee about Naruto (the far middle-left), and when Sakura is strangling Naruto.