"Sakura…" Ino cautiously glanced at Satsuki, who was not far away, and asked in a low voice, "Did Satsuki… do anything to you? Are you and your teammates getting along… smoothly?"
Having accidentally witnessed the proud Uchiha young lady preparing such an ambiguous gift for someone else, and then being warned, left an indelible psychological shadow on Ino; at this moment, her tone still carried a hint of lingering fear.
Sakura was a little surprised why her usually cheerful and confident friend seemed so timid. Was the Chunin Exams too stressful? But she still answered seriously.
"Yes! Naruto and Satsuki both take great care of me, and I'm really grateful to them. I feel so lucky to be in the same group as Satsuki! We're friends now."
"Ino, you know, even though Satsuki seems a bit cold usually, she's actually very gentle and considerate."
Sakura excitedly shared her joy with Ino, her cheeks slightly flushed with excitement.
Ino, however, was completely bewildered after hearing this. Gentle? Considerate? How could these two words possibly be combined to describe that Uchiha?
Could it be… that Sakura was put under some strange genjutsu before every mission? No, a Jonin instructor wouldn't allow such a thing to happen… "How rare, everyone's here! Naruto! How have you been lately, you rascal?"
On the other side, Inuzuka Kiba, Hinata, and Shino also found their former classmates. Kiba, with a hearty laugh, enthusiastically slung his arm around Naruto's shoulder, looking like close brothers.
Kiba and Naruto had a very good relationship now.
"Woof!"
Akamaru, on his head, also barked excitedly, rubbing affectionately against Naruto's hair. The little Ninja dog had always liked this young man who often gently petted him and fed him delicious food.
"Kiba, long time no see." Naruto smiled, returning the enthusiasm.
However, the next second, Satsuki expressionlessly intervened between the two, pulling Kiba away from Naruto.
"Don't be so chummy," Satsuki's voice was calm. "Naruto will be bothered."
Satsuki felt quite helpless with this oblivious guy. The implicit warnings she had given before seemed to have been completely misunderstood by him.
"Ah, here we go again," Kiba, used to it, scratched his head. "You're still the same, Satsuki."
Naruto looked around at his excitedly chatting classmates, and the familiar scene filled him with emotion. Just like in the original story, the new generation of Konoha elites—the "Nine Rookies" and their peers, plus Hyuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten from Might Guy's team, the "Konoha Twelve Rookies"—were finally gathered here.
The only difference from the original timeline was that, since Satsuki was female, Sakura and Ino were now intimately arm-in-arm, looking like good sisters.
It's just… Naruto was puzzled, why did Ino still seem so timid? Even now, Naruto still didn't understand why Ino would inexplicably get nervous whenever he was nearby.
Oh right, according to the original plot, wasn't Rock Lee supposed to block the way and challenge Sasuke before entering the classroom? Why hadn't he made a move this time?
At the same time, Naruto's gaze locked onto a seemingly gentle but actually dangerous figure in the crowd—silver-gray hair, round-rimmed glasses, and a harmless smile on his face. This was Orochimaru's capable assistant, Yakushi Kabuto.
But Naruto felt this guy was quite pathetic… It seemed Orochimaru was indeed preparing to act.
"Everyone, quiet down! You bunch of failures!"
A furious roar suddenly exploded from the direction of the podium, instantly quelling the entire room's chatter. Everyone's eyes uniformly turned to the source of the sound. Accompanied by smoke, Ibiki Morino, dressed in a black trench coat and with a stern face, led a group of examiners including Izumo Kamizuki and Kotetsu Hagane, making a dignified entrance with an intimidating aura.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Ibiki's icy gaze swept across the room. "I am Ibiki Morino, the chief examiner for the first stage of the Chunin Selection Exams."
"The first stage of the Chunin Selection Exams will now begin immediately. After submitting your application forms, collect your numbered tags and take your designated seats. Next, the written exam papers will be distributed."
— — — — — —
"Everyone's separated…"
After Naruto found his seat according to his number, he noticed that Satsuki and Sakura were both assigned to distant locations. Seeing Hinata, who was sitting next to him and smiling shyly as she nodded, Naruto returned a gentle smile. At the same time, he found this exam a bit boring.
Once all the examinees were seated, Ibiki tapped the blackboard heavily with chalk and began to read out the exam rules.
"In this first selection stage, there are a few crucial rules. I will not accept any questions, so listen carefully."
"First, each examinee starts with 10 points. The written exam has 10 questions, each worth 1 point. This exam uses a deduction system—one point will be deducted for each incorrect answer."
"Second, exam scores will be judged by the total score of each three-member team."
"Most importantly, if an examinee is deemed by a proctor to be cheating, or is suspected of cheating—2 points will be deducted on the spot for each instance discovered!"
"If you want to become a Chunin, you should act like an excellent Ninja."
"Furthermore, if any one of the three members scores zero, the entire team will be immediately disqualified. Finally—the tenth question will be revealed 45 minutes after the exam begins."
"The exam duration is one hour. Now—begin!"
With Ibiki's command, the examinees eagerly opened their test papers. Naruto looked down at the questions, and what met his eyes was a typical Ninja theory question combining projectile trajectory and combat analysis.
Parabola B in the diagram represents the maximum range trajectory of a shuriken thrown by an enemy Ninja A standing on a seven-meter-high tree. Please describe the characteristics of an enemy Ninja likely to be within this shuriken's range, as well as the maximum range in a flat ground battle, and provide the calculation basis.
Naruto decided to think before cheating.
Hmm… Naruto first focused on the characteristics of enemy Ninja within the parabolic range.
When enemy Ninja A throws a shuriken from a seven-meter-high tree at maximum range, the trajectory of parabola B determines the characteristics of targets that can be hit.
At the end of the range, the shuriken's height will approach zero, almost skimming the ground. This means that for an enemy to be hit at this position, their vital body parts—such as the head or chest—must have a height that precisely falls within the effective lethal range of the parabolic trajectory.
Naruto lightly traced the parabolic diagram on the test paper with his fingertip, rapidly constructing a three-dimensional spatial model in his mind.
More precisely, across the entire horizontal distance covered by the parabolic trajectory, the y-coordinate defines the shuriken's flight height. For an enemy to be hit, their vital parts must be located within the "danger cross-section" defined by this continuously changing y-value.
This means the target's height cannot deviate too much from a certain specific range—neither too tall, causing vital points to exceed the trajectory's highest point, nor too short, causing vital points to always be below the trajectory's lowest effective hit height.
After a brief mental calculation and spatial visualization, he reached his first conclusion.
So, the most reasonable answer should be "an enemy about 1.7 meters tall." Because for a Ninja of this height, their chest or head vital points, when standing, have a high probability of being within the y-coordinate coverage of parabola B at various points within its effective range.
Next is the second part—the maximum range in a flat ground battle.
When both sides are on flat ground, losing the height advantage, the maximum range needs to be recalculated. According to the laws of projectile motion, with constant initial velocity, the range is maximized when the projection angle is 45 degrees.
Given that with a height advantage, the tree height is 7 meters, and the maximum range is 30 meters as shown in the diagram, then by reverse-deriving using the projectile motion formula… He quickly jotted down a few formulas on his scratch paper.
Range R with height h = (v² sin2θ) / g + (v cosθ) √((v sinθ)² + 2gh) / g
Maximum range R_max on flat ground (h = 0) = v² / g
By using the known h = 7m and R = 30m, one can solve for the initial velocity v, and then substitute it into the flat ground formula… Hmm, the calculation result is approximately 24 meters.
After arriving at the final answer, Naruto was somewhat surprised; the question was unexpectedly simple.
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