The Chūnin Exams.
Sunlight streamed down from the sky, bathing Hyuga Arin as he lounged sideways on a tree branch, looking down at the crowd below.
"So few people?" Nawaki muttered as he looked at the number of participants.
There were far fewer than he'd expected—barely even a hundred.
"Most of the genin are still on the front lines and haven't rotated back yet," Arin said listlessly.
With the war raging this intensely, Konoha wasn't about to pull large numbers of genin off the battlefield just for the exams.
The ones here were either temporarily recalled to the village or had yet to be deployed—simply lucky enough to catch this round of the Chūnin Exams.
There were two Chūnin Exams every year. As long as a genin survived long enough to return from the battlefield, qualifying for the exams was never a problem.
Konoha didn't lack genin.
Aside from fresh Academy graduates, there were plenty of career genin who'd failed to advance year after year.
The Chūnin Exams were held annually, but only a handful ever passed. Out of several hundred candidates, just a few would become chūnin.
Still, the turnout this time was comparable to the year Naruto took the exams.
That had been Konoha's weakest period.
After the Third Shinobi World War and the Nine-Tails' attack, the village had lost huge numbers of ninja.
The Sannin had gone their separate ways, and casualties had been staggering.
Naruto's generation had come along just as Konoha barely caught its breath, managing to scrape together close to a hundred genin.
Now, Konoha was at its peak—most of its forces were simply absent.
They stood in the Forest of Death, facing an abandoned building with its main doors tightly shut.
The candidates waited quietly for the examiner to appear.
Soon, a familiar figure stepped forward.
"It's Orochimaru-sensei!!" Nawaki exclaimed excitedly.
"Yeah," Arin yawned. "Looks like he got dragged in as emergency manpower."
It was obvious Konoha was short-handed—otherwise Orochimaru wouldn't be serving as an examiner this year.
And frankly, among the candidates present, not a single one interested Arin.
The only person who might've posed a threat—Might Dai—wasn't participating, likely deployed to the front lines.
The rest were uneven in strength, and none matched any familiar figures from the original storyline.
"Everyone," Orochimaru said with a gentle smile, "I am the chief examiner for this Chūnin Exam—Orochimaru."
"Orochimaru-sama!!"
A wave of shrill cheers erupted from the female ninja, eyes practically turning into hearts.
This was Orochimaru before Nawaki's death—still elegant and androgynous, not yet the dark figure of the future.
"Popular, huh," Arin muttered.
"Arin-sama, I only have eyes for you!"
Aburame Mushi-hime hurriedly declared her loyalty.
"…Thanks," Arin replied perfunctorily.
She was cute, sure—but he had absolutely no interest in lolis, especially ones who made insect cuisine.
Mushi-hime, meanwhile, blushed fiercely.
"I've been praised."
"She's broken," Nawaki said solemnly, shaking his head.
Orochimaru raised his voice, silencing the crowd.
"The rules are simple. You will enter the building behind me. Each room may contain a test paper, which you must complete."
"However—only one person may enter a room. Not every room contains a test. Some rooms will immediately disqualify whoever enters."
"If even one member is disqualified, the entire team is eliminated."
"The scores of the three members must all be passing, and the total difference between your scores must not exceed ten points."
"Failure on any condition means the whole team fails."
"Any questions? Anyone wish to withdraw?"
Murmurs spread through the crowd.
"Scouting. Cooperation. Trust," Arin said as he hopped down from the tree branch.
He'd already grasped the core of the test.
He swept his gaze across the candidates.
"And competition."
"Big Bro, how is this competitive?" Nawaki asked, confused.
"Keep listening," Arin said, nodding toward Orochimaru.
Orochimaru continued calmly,
"There will be no proctors monitoring you. You are free to act as you see fit."
Nawaki scratched his head, still baffled.
Arin slapped a hand to his face.
Mushi-hime explained,
"That means you can let others test the rooms for you. Orochimaru-sensei never said a room with a test can only be entered once."
"In other words, using other people is allowed."
No proctors also meant combat between candidates wasn't forbidden.
A clear sign Konoha was critically short on manpower.
"Begin," Orochimaru declared.
With a creak, the main doors slowly opened.
The candidates filed inside like a school of fish.
"Follow me," Arin said, activating his Byakugan as he moved ahead to scout.
He quickly selected three adjacent rooms on the second floor.
"Nawaki, left. Mushi-hime, right," Arin ordered.
"Mushi-hime, handle communications."
For their team, the first test posed no challenge at all.
Arin could survey every room with his Byakugan, while Mushi-hime's insects served as living communication devices.
"Hey. We saw these rooms first."
Three burly adult genin stepped forward, having been watching Arin from the start.
Everyone in Konoha knew what the Byakugan could do.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three heads slammed hard into the wall.
[Experience +456]
[Experience +784]
[Experience +556]
"So weak," Arin said dismissively. "Not even ten thousand EXP. Why bother picking a fight?"
The surrounding candidates were stunned.
"I couldn't even see how he moved."
"Too fast."
"That guy's dangerous."
Nawaki stared at Arin, eyes wide—he'd only caught a blur.
"It's started," Arin said calmly.
The written portion focused almost entirely on battlefield knowledge, with very little Academy theory.
It was a test designed purely for war.
For the three of them—fresh from the front lines—the questions were trivial.
"60."
"60."
"60."
Identical scores appeared the moment they finished.
Thump.
A scroll appeared in Arin's hand.
"My side says our mission is to deliver a key mission scroll to a designated location," Nawaki's voice came through the insect perched on Arin's shoulder.
"I've got the map," Mushi-hime added. "It shows the destination."
Arin looked at the sealed scroll in his hand.
So his scroll was the mission item.
"Now comes the real challenge," Arin said, a grin spreading across his face.
"There's more?" Nawaki and Mushi-hime asked in unison.
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