That very afternoon, Makoto handed the Chūnin Exam application forms to the three members of Team 7.
When teaching students, he always emphasized gathering the necessary information first, so the three little brats had already learned about the Chūnin Exam process in advance.
They knew this was a team-based exam. If even one person withdrew, the entire squad would lose its qualification.
Neither Sasuke nor Naruto would ever back out. They had just seen so many opponents worth fighting—there was no way they would refuse to participate.
Even Sakura wasn't thinking about dragging down her teammates. She wanted to overcome the insecurity in her heart. Only then could she fully bring out her own strength and truly earn the right to stand beside her teammates.
Even if she lost the competition, it was still better than shrinking away at the last second.
On July 1st, the day of the Chūnin Exam, the three of them arrived at the test site early in the morning. But the moment they pushed open the classroom doors, they saw the room already packed with examinees.
There were all kinds of strangely dressed people, every one of them wearing hostile expressions, and a faint killing intent filled the classroom.
Sasuke and Naruto walked in completely fearless. Following behind them, Sakura felt somewhat uneasy. Everyone inside looked like trouble.
But very quickly, she threw those feelings straight out the window as flames of fury burst into her eyes.
Ino descended out of nowhere like a yellow-haired missile and pounced onto Sasuke's back.
"Ahh, you guys finally made it!"
Sakura immediately yanked her plastic sister off him.
"You damn Ino-pig, get away from my Sasuke!"
"You idiot billboard brow, what do you mean your Sasuke? Does he have your name written on him?!"
Sasuke: "..."
He was already used to it.
The surrounding weirdos: 'The hell, being handsome makes you that amazing? Being handsome means you get to enjoy girls on both sides? We've decided it. During the exam later, we're definitely beating that pretty-boy face into a pig head.'
The killing intent in the classroom instantly grew heavier.
That was the rage of countless single dogs.
Hinata poked her fingers together nervously.
"N-Naruto-kun..."
"Hm? Oh, Hinata."
Naruto was a polite and well-mannered kid. Even though he had no idea why this classmate blushed every time she saw him and never continued the conversation after greeting him, he still responded seriously every time.
Kiba still carried himself like the boss.
"Looks like all this year's graduates are here. I'm really looking forward to this. You guys better not get eliminated."
Sasuke snorted.
"You should worry about yourself instead. Out of all of us here, you're probably the weakest one."
The dog boy was instantly mentally shattered.
"Damn it, Sasuke! Stop looking down on people!"
Right then, a figure with a voice even louder and more hot-blooded than Kiba's charged into the middle of Konoha's rookies.
"Naruto, these are your classmates too, right? Then they're my friends as well! Don't worry, I'll protect you guys. No need to worry about getting eliminated."
The Konoha rookies: "..."
All the examinees: "..."
Fū's two teammates: 'This idiot is completely dragging Takigakure's team straight into a death pit.'
This world might not have the classic hot-blooded idiot version of Naruto, but it would never lack people with that kind of personality.
This one was even a girl dressed in revealing clothes.
The next instant, a group of uniformed Konoha shinobi appeared at the front podium.
"Thank you for waiting, everyone. I am the chief examiner for the first round of this Chūnin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki."
Very quickly, after Ibiki announced the rules of the first exam, all the genin immediately threw themselves into the written test.
Each displaying their own abilities.
Those without any special tricks—or whose cheating methods were too crude—were immediately kicked out of the exam.
And if they refused to accept it, a blindfolded big brother would step forward and give them a loving wall slam.
...
Inside a classroom outside the exam hall, Makoto, Tokuma, Guy, Asuma, and Kurenai were casually chatting while waiting for the exam results.
Asuma took a satisfying drag from his cigarette.
"Haaah~ Time without having to babysit disciples really is relaxing."
Kurenai smiled.
"I heard the rules for the first exam were specially designed by the Torture and Interrogation Force."
Tokuma looked somewhat worried about his clan's young lady.
"And the chief examiner is that lunatic Ibiki too. Hopefully the cute little subordinates don't get scared too badly."
Guy gave a gleaming thumbs-up.
"The youth that blooms shall not wither so easily!"
Makoto said, "Kurenai-senpai, there's no need to worry. The little guys all have very solid fundamentals. Even if Ibiki uses psychological torture tactics, when it comes to strength of conviction, who among them could possibly be more resolute than your disciples?"
Kurenai smiled.
"That's true enough. Thanks to all the tempering they went through under you since childhood."
Shin and Sai both came from Root, while Yakumo Kurama had been physically weak ever since she was little. Makoto had changed Konoha, and he had also changed the fates of these people, so they treasured their current lives dearly.
And besides training, his dojo also placed great importance on mastering knowledge about the shinobi world.
So this time, there would probably be no one handing in a blank paper.
Not much time passed before the classroom door cracked open and Kakashi poked his head in, wearing his usual half-dead stare.
"You guys sure are relaxed. Honestly makes me jealous."
Makoto grinned.
"Well, if it isn't our esteemed ANBU Chief."
Kakashi rolled his eyes.
"Chief Kumomi hasn't retired yet, you know. Saying that in front of him—have you no respect for your former sensei?"
"He probably wishes he could retire and go home tomorrow."
Guy immediately lit up.
"My eternal rival! Finished with your work yet? How about a youthful showdown?!"
"Sorry, Guy. I really don't have the time right now."
Asuma frowned slightly.
"Found some kind of trouble?"
"We found a few leads, but Itachi already went to handle it, so it's not a big issue. I just came over to check on the examinees."
Makoto: "..."
He carefully spread out his perception and quickly discovered that Orochimaru really had infiltrated the examinees.
But what exactly was he trying to accomplish?
Back in the original timeline, his so-called Konoha Crush Plan had always been rather thought-provoking.
He claimed he wanted to destroy Konoha, but with only himself and Sunagakure in the miserable state it was in back then? That had practically been impossible.
It felt more like he had been arranging a respectable funeral for his senile old teacher while also showing off the immortality technique he had mastered.
The whole thing had basically been the act of a disappointing student returning after becoming successful just to show off and slap his teacher in the face.
But in this world, the Third Hokage had already retired long ago. This was the era of Minato.
And Konoha had become unimaginably powerful.
If Orochimaru still wanted to attempt something like the Konoha Crush Plan now, it would be no different from courting death.
As for setting his sights on Sasuke? He shouldn't even dream about it.
Orochimaru wasn't stupid enough to do something like that.
...
The first written exam of the Chūnin Exams ended very quickly.
Because a certain female-version Naruto had caused trouble, Ibiki failed to eliminate enough participants, which left the second examiner, Anko, extremely dissatisfied.
So she threw all the remaining examinees into the Forest of Death and began the brutal Heaven and Earth Scroll survival battle.
Only those who gathered both types of scrolls could pass the second exam. In theory, it would eliminate half the participants.
In reality, even more would be eliminated.
After all, this time it was a joint exam between the Five Great Shinobi Villages. Every examinee only had one goal: collect scrolls and reduce everyone else's chances of passing.
If they could wipe out all of Konoha's candidates, that would make for one hell of a joke.
But that was obviously impossible.
The moment the examinees entered the forest, battles immediately erupted everywhere, while Konoha's proctors closely monitored the fighting within the forest.
The Chūnin Exams had an accepted death quota.
But Konoha's philosophy was no longer the same as before. The village no longer needed to prove its strength through the desperate sacrifices of underage shinobi.
Those meaningless deaths only demonstrated the incompetence of adults.
Makoto was also keeping watch through his perception, and then he discovered something interesting.
Disguised as a Grass shinobi, Orochimaru had indeed gone after Team 7.
Unfortunately for him, Naruto and Sasuke's current strength was no longer something he could casually suppress.
Orochimaru only managed to inflict a few injuries on the two before tossing away a scroll and retreating.
As expected, he didn't dare place the Cursed Seal of Heaven on Sasuke.
Outside the forest, Orochimaru reverted to his original appearance and let out a sinister chuckle.
"Makoto-kun, long time no see. I knew I'd run into you."
"Even though you changed bodies, the nature of your chakra hasn't changed."
"As expected, you were able to easily sense the changes in me."
"Not only that," Makoto said calmly, "I can also tell your soul's become somewhat weakened. Who did you run into? Shisui or Itachi?"
"It was that child Itachi. The Mangekyō Sharingan really does possess eye techniques powerful enough to make people jealous."
"And it's not just the Mangekyō. Your reincarnation technique seems to come with quite a heavy price."
Orochimaru did not deny it.
"That's true. Which is why I've decided to reduce the number of reincarnations and cultivate my own perfect vessel."
"So that's why you set your sights on my disciples? That's a very dangerous thing to do."
"No, please don't misunderstand." Orochimaru smiled faintly. "I merely need some of their cells for research. Makoto-kun, surely you wouldn't mind something like that, would you?"
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