Although the most serious kind of sudden incident had occurred, due to the restraint shown by both sides, the second stage of the Chūnin Exams was not affected very much. It still proceeded step by step as planned…
The previous situation could absolutely be considered one in which Hagoromo had been very restrained. After all, he had not bombarded the First Hokage.
The fact that the Chūnin Exams could pass through danger with alarm but no real peril was partly because of Hagoromo's "restraint," and partly thanks to the Konoha Anbu's maintenance work after the incident.
One had to say, whenever Konoha encountered a dangerous situation like this, the institution that truly supported the Hokage system's continued operation seemed to be only the Anbu. Although Anbu shinobi often looked rather fragile, there was no denying that they were Konoha's most elite force, as well as the Hokage's most reliable subordinates.
The first half of the Chūnin Exams' second stage could be simply called the "scroll battle." It lasted a total of seventy-two hours. Within those seventy-two hours, only by obtaining both the Heaven and Earth Scrolls and reaching the designated location could one be considered to have passed the exam. Otherwise, one would be eliminated.
In reality, whatever happened outside had little to do with these examinees. The battle between Hagoromo and the Edo Tensei First Hokage had lasted only a few minutes from beginning to end. After that wave of trouble ended, they took the exam as they were supposed to.
After three days passed, the genin who had passed the preliminary selection were freshly released.
After the previous exams, there were no longer many genin qualified to stand on the road to promotion to chūnin. With the number of people limited, the second half of the second exam and the third exam scheduled for one month later actually followed the same routine: "solo"…
This method of competition, which fully embodied the spirit of athletics, was commonly known as… cough, one-on-one dueling.
"Hagoromo, you're a little late."
There was no way Hagoromo could have stayed outside the exam venue for all three days. Moreover, Orochimaru's infiltration incident had also occurred. So by the time he came to the exam venue again, certain idle Konoha jōnin had already been waiting there for some time.
By this time, the exam had already begun.
"You all came quite early." Hagoromo greeted them, though what he really wanted to ask was whether they were all so bored their balls hurt…
To the genin, the first two exams had already been rather difficult. Even so, Konoha's Hagoromo Team, Kakashi Team, Asuma Team, Kurenai Team, and even last year's Guy Team had all, without exception, broken through to this point, though their processes differed.
For example, Mirai's three-man team had basically crushed their way through. Although they were not the first to complete the exam, that was because they simply disdained fighting for that sort of ranking.
By comparison, Asuma Team and Kurenai Team had encountered some twists and turns along the way. They seemed to have stumbled their way through the first two rounds with some danger.
"How did things go?"
The person who had first greeted Hagoromo just now was Asuma, while the one asking this question now was Kakashi. His question made several people nearby prick up their ears at the same time.
Clearly, they were also very concerned about what was happening. The jōnin had already heard some news about Orochimaru's invasion.
"It's already fine," Hagoromo said vaguely.
In this setting, it really was inconvenient for him to say much about such matters, because there were too many "foreigners" around. In a place like this, if something could be left unsaid, then it was best not to say it.
Look at those Sunagakure shinobi over there. If Hagoromo had not prepared in advance and suppressed his own chakra, maybe someone would already have started getting restless by now.
But now, three days later, there really would not be any more problems. When the First Hokage appeared, Hagoromo confronted him head-on, while the Third Hokage and Tsunade gave on-site direction from the perimeter, and Jiraiya kept the village under control. With this trinity in place, naturally, no major accident would occur unless a traitor appeared among the three sides.
The greatest impact this incident had on the Chūnin Exams was that the Hokage's speech originally planned before the second half of the second exam was canceled. In fact, with neither the Third Hokage nor the prospective Fifth Hokage present, the exam had already begun.
The genin's one-on-one arena was different from Hagoromo's one-on-one arena. The former did not require much space, so the exam was now being held in a not-too-large indoor area. The first floor of this space was the combat arena, while Hagoromo and the others stood in the ring-shaped corridor on the second floor, from which they could conveniently watch the battles below.
As for Mirai, Naruto, and the other Konoha genin, they were currently opposite their teachers. After seeing Hagoromo arrive, Mirai merely waved at him from afar and did not come over.
Hagoromo raised his head and glanced at the already arranged matchups. One had to say, several of the matches were rather interesting. Hagoromo even felt this arrangement was full of malicious amusement.
For example, the match currently underway was just like that. This was an internal fight within Konoha's current largest Ninshū sect… Hinata Hyūga versus Neji Hyūga.
Neji's strength was naturally greater than Hinata's, but this match still felt somewhat mocking.
At present, Neji's relationship to Hinata was somewhat similar to Haku and Kimimaro's relationship to Mirai. Since his old man had not died, Neji's "resentment toward the world" had been limited to a certain degree. At the very least, in this kind of match, there was no way something like violently beating up a girl would happen.
As for the clan's arrangements, Neji did not have much objection. And even if he had some small objections, he had no way to resist them.
Neji certainly had the name of a genius, but because of his status in the branch family, the way he would be used had already been fixed since childhood. He had been raised as Hinata's bodyguard. Although the two of them were extremely close by blood, within the stubborn and conservative Hyūga clan, their positions were as different as heaven and earth.
Under this reality, could he win against Hinata openly and honorably?
Fine, he still won. But he won rather gently. Although it was Gentle Fist against Gentle Fist, given the current gap between Hinata and Neji, he could not lose even if he wanted to. Besides, with his somewhat rigid personality, he was not the kind of person who would deliberately lose.
Thus, the battle between the two Hyūga ended in a fairly peaceful and friendly atmosphere.
After this battle finished, it was Naruto's turn to go on stage next. His opponent was Team Eight's Kiba Inuzuka… There was not much to see in this one. After all, in a certain sense, the Inuzuka clan's combat power depended on dogs, while Naruto's current strength depended on Hagoromo. Was there any comparison between Hagoromo and a dog?
So even if Naruto relied only on piling up shadow clones, he could still win this match. Thus, he first abused the dog, then abused the person, and then won.
By the time all three members of Team Eight had finished fighting, they sadly discovered that only Shino Aburame had entered the next round. By comparison, Team Ten's situation was much better. All three of them passed… This had little to do with the current combat strength of Ino-Shika-Chō. The main reason was that their opponents were all small-village small fry. There was also the destined battle between yellow hair and pink hair, and the result was that yellow hair won. What a joke. With that head of yellow hair plus that whole set of abilities, Ino Yamanaka was practically Konoha's version of Mental Out. If she could not beat the undeveloped Sakura, that would be strange.
In a battle between two girls, no matter how you looked at it, whoever had the bigger chest would win. Shokuhō Ino, of course she could do it.
Then Hagoromo finally waited for his own child to take the stage.
"Next match, Uzumaki Mirai versus Kankurō."
"…"
At this moment, all the little Konoha children probably felt a sense of pity toward a shinobi from another village for the first time. In any case, they hoped the other party's end would not be too miserable. Whether it was Kankurō or Kanjūrō, when facing Big Sister Mirai, what chance of winning could he possibly have?
As for a counter-kill? Based on this guy, that was probably impossible. Wipe off the face paint on his face, then toss him into a crowd, and fine, you would not be able to pick him out at all. How could he possibly win?
"Who is that?" At the same time, on the second floor, Hagoromo asked Kakashi beside him.
Of course, he was not asking about Kanjūrō… ptooey, Kankurō. He was asking about the identity of the chief examiner in the arena. That person had a pale complexion, but his eyes looked somewhat sharp. Hagoromo was not familiar with him.
"Him? Special jōnin Hayate Gekkō. A very capable young shinobi," Kakashi said.
But did he reach even one Kakashi-equivalent unit? And yet Kakashi called him capable?
"Is he all right? His physical condition doesn't look very good."
Hagoromo had already phrased this quite politely. To be more accurate, this person looked as if he might cough himself to death at any moment. So Hagoromo increasingly felt that Kakashi's statement was unreliable. Shinobi with poor health basically could not be classified as strength-type shinobi… bloodline shinobi excluded.
Hayate Gekkō, who was in the arena, did not know someone was looking down on his sickliness. Otherwise, he would definitely have looked down on Hagoromo in return. So what if his health was poor? He had a girlfriend, while Hagoromo was just a single dog… That would absolutely be a critical hit.
Fortunately, he had no chance to launch such a Talk no Jutsu ultimate move. Hayate Gekkō merely announced the start of the match very simply.
"A puppeteer?"
At this moment, Mirai saw the other party disassembling the equipment on his back, so she asked this.
"You can tell? I heard you're that Yellow Flash's daughter, and your strength is highly evaluated in today's Konoha. In that case, I'll have to take you seriously from the very beginning."
Kankurō did not find it strange that Mirai could tell he was a puppeteer. After all, who told him to carry a Barbie doll around on his back?
Very quickly, he had already taken out his puppet, Crow. It was said that this puppet had even been designed and created by Sasori of the Red Sand… Under the control of chakra threads, the puppet Crow moved forward while Kankurō himself retreated. For a moment, the clacking sounds unique to puppets spread throughout the entire venue.
Kankurō clearly had no intention of fighting at close range. Not every puppeteer had the heart of a melee fighter.
"Oh, are you ready now?"
Mirai's words made Kankurō feel that she was too naive. Or rather, was this the common problem of Konoha's new generation of shinobi?
For example, just imagine: if he injured or killed the Fourth Hokage's daughter here, how would Konoha react?
Of course, Kankurō would not be stupid enough to actually do that. But imagining Konoha's reaction would definitely be very interesting.
Although imagination was no crime, in reality, he was really overthinking it. Mirai had not said that because she was naive. She simply felt that this person had gone to all the trouble of coming all the way from Sunagakure to Konoha to take the exam. Surely she should at least let him show his face, right?
After all, showing his face was all he could do… Based on Mirai's estimation of the gap in strength between the two sides, if she moved even one step in the following battle, then she would count it as her loss.
Was there any use in hiding far away? There was. Some techniques had an attack range that could cover long, medium, and close distances at the same time. For example, the move Mirai was about to use.
The puppet Crow charged forward, and then… there was no "then."
Before Kankurō could react at all, four bright silver chakra chains stabbed straight toward him head-on. In an instant, they tore this puppet, which was filled with precise mechanisms, into complete wreckage. At the same time, another chain shot vertically upward from the ground beneath Kankurō's feet, directly tying him up tight. Then it decisively hoisted him into the air.
He was upside down, all four limbs pointing at the sky.
A full set of five chains, each with plenty of weight behind it. This was the technique Hagoromo had always envied but had never been able to learn: the Uzumaki Secret Technique: Adamantine Sealing Chains. Yet Mirai could already use it now.
Because she was originally an Uzumaki.
Kankurō was instantly flattened, and Mirai did indeed win, because her feet truly had not moved a single step.
The battle ended so quickly that most of the people present had not even reacted to what had happened. Certain jōnin who were in the middle of explaining puppet techniques grew awkward. I was just talking about how amazing puppet techniques are and what advantages they have in battle, and he already faceplanted? Give me some face, would you, Sunagakure friend?
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