The way Ino saw it, raising the civilization level of a universe was like trying to stop jaywalking. A crowd of people completely ignores the traffic lights, and because there are so many of them they just surge forward together — and you can't exactly mow them all down, can you? Of course not. But that kind of behavior does change over time, as the broader environment shifts and education levels rise. When everyone around you is following the traffic laws, even the occasional hold-out stops throwing themselves headlong into oncoming cars.
The civilized universe Grand Zeno was trying to build worked the same way. It required every sapient being across the entire environment to work together, changing minds inch by inch across one generation, two generations, ten generations, eight generations.
An overnight transformation was simply not possible.
Erasing those eight universes now and building eight brand-new ones might produce universes better than before — or it might produce universes that were worse. Grand Zeno didn't care. New universes and old universes were all the same to him. It was like rolling the gacha eight times: hit something good, and you were up. Hit nothing, level everything, roll again.
When someone opens a blind box, does anyone stop to consider the feelings of the box?
Ino didn't answer Grand Zeno's question directly — saying yes or no were both equally unrealistic positions — and instead took a roundabout approach: "Your Majesty, I know someone very interesting. What he has done might be able to answer your question."
Grand Zeno's expression flickered with curiosity. "Show me right now!"
"Of course."
Ino waved her hand, and the scene from Konoha Village appeared before Grand Zeno and the Grand Minister like a projected screen of light.
"Say what you mean and mean what you say — that's my ninja way!" Standing at the center of the Chunin Exam arena, temples touched with gray that had not been there in younger days, Naruto raised his declaration of victory before a crowd of juniors who had gathered to watch.
Naruto had long since lost count of how many Chunin Exams he'd sat through. Every time was another lap around the same track, sending off wave after wave of talented Genin on their way. Times had changed; the title of "Konoha's Twelve Graduates" had long since faded into history. Nearly all of the shinobi from his generation were now dealing with aging parents and young children of their own. Ino, Sakura, and the others had retired from active duty entirely. Only he was still here, grinding away at the Chunin Exam with relentless, stubborn persistence.
The exam proctors had cycled through one after another — from Morino Ibiki in the early days, then Ino, Shikamaru, and Sai, and now the chief examiner's seat had passed to Shikadai, Shikamaru's son. Meanwhile, the son of the Fourth Hokage, disciple of the Fifth, had yet to be promoted to Chunin.
Grand Zeno recognized in Naruto the same quality he had seen in Son Goku. A flicker of warmth for this human stirred in him, and he settled in to watch with genuine patience.
Ino and the Grand Minister kept him company.
The Chunin Exam was held twice a year, and Naruto had been sitting it for nearly thirty years — sixty-odd attempts in total, give or take. The exam had a large pool of questions, but Naruto had attended so many times that those theoretical sections were less a matter of mastery and more a matter of being reasonably certain he could at least scrape a passing score.
By now, from the Eighth Hokage down to ordinary villagers, everyone in the village wanted Naruto to pass — to give the Fourth and Fifth a bit of face, to bring the whole saga to a satisfying close.
Shikadai didn't set any fiendish questions to make things difficult for his Uncle Naruto. The intent to smooth his path was obvious. Naruto's written exam passed without incident, and the only thing left was the combat portion — at Naruto's current level, even if every remaining candidate rushed him at once, he could breeze past the whole lot of half-grown kids without breaking a sweat.
And then... right there under Ino and the others' live observation, the inevitable accident happened.
Kinshiki Otsutsuki and Momoshiki Otsutsuki, absent for many years, descended on Konoha Village. Naruto and Sasuke joined forces to drive the two Otsutsuki off, but the Chunin Exam was ruined as a result — more than half the participants had been injured. Once again, it was over.
He could only recite his ninja way again in a loud voice, and then dejectedly pack up his things and head home, to wait for the next Chunin Exam in half a year's time.
Ino chose her moment and delivered her conclusion: "Your Majesty Grand Zeno, you see — wisdom, talent, even circumstance are not what matter most. What matters most is a heart that refuses to quit. One failure, two failures — that's unavoidable. But in truth, every failure is one step closer to success. With that kind of persistence, victory will come in the end. Please — give them a little more time?"
Grand Zeno asked her a very pointed question: "Xiao Ino — did this blond-haired ninja ever pass the exam in the end?"
Ino: "..."
Based on what she could observe of the main timeline, Naruto never did make Chunin in his lifetime.
This particular incident, she had interfered with — she had deliberately nudged Momoshiki Otsutsuki's and Kinshiki Otsutsuki's timeline so they crashed into the battlefield, just as she had done to Frieza before them, causing Naruto to fail yet again. But all the other times? She hadn't interfered at all. She could only say that Naruto and the Chunin Exam seemed to have some fundamental astrological incompatibility, and that his luck in this one particular matter was genuinely terrible.
She forced out two hollow laughs. "I've only been Supreme Kai of Time for a short while. Time is a profound and mysterious thing — all I can say is that anything is possible."
Grand Zeno thought about it with genuine seriousness, then said: "Mm. Anything is possible — then let's give them one more chance. I want to see their persistence in the face of adversity. So how do we do that?"
Ino glanced toward the Grand Minister. I've done my part of the soft-sell — your cue.
The Grand Minister smiled and said: "I've heard that on Earth there is a competition called the World Martial Arts Tournament. Quite interesting. Perhaps we might take some inspiration from it."
...
While Ino played the supporting role and carefully steered things toward the Tournament of Power — that pivotal event — back in the Time Nest, Sakura was still swimming through a sea of exam papers.
A person who fails to plan for the distant future will find trouble at their doorstep. For Ino, the challenge posed by Aeos seventy-five million years into the main timeline was admittedly a long way off — but she had no choice but to begin preparing now.
Since she was Supreme Kai of Time for the foreseeable future, she would have to keep the job — retirement was simply not on the table.
The current Supreme Kai of Time had enormous authority. Without the Demon Realm Supreme Kai sticking her fingers in, neither Ino nor Aeos could have defeated Kuronoa within the bounds of existing rules. Ino knew that Aeos was theoretically weak, so recently she had given Sakura a task: keep writing exam questions, as hard as you can make them, then throw them into the Time Vortex. Exactly what questions would appear 75 million years from now, Ino herself didn't know — that was for time itself to decide.
When time draws the questions, it draws from something like a question bank. Ino was simply having Sakura fill that bank as full as possible.
The harder the better.
Grind them into the dirt!
Sakura had no small number of objections to Ino planning to drag her back for another exam seventy-five million years from now. Seriously — by then, even her ashes wouldn't be left, and Ino still wanted her to show up and sit an exam? Let me rest in peace!
She was resting her chin in her hand, mulling it over, when Future Trunks and Future Gohan came hurrying in.
Future Trunks, who normally placed so much stock in courtesy, was visibly anxious: "Sakura — is Lord Supreme Kai here? Our timeline has a problem. A very big problem!"
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