Chapter 111: Chunin ExamsThe more Orochimaru spoke, the more excited he became; his expression gradually grew increasingly crazed, and looking at him now, he seemed just like a pervert.Eventually, fearing he would lose control, Narutocouldn't help but interrupt him, saying: "Uh, Uncle Snake, could you please say something useful regarding my situation? Does this discovery of yours help my vision at all?""I'm not questioning your research results, but the current situation is very special. Our plan is about to be implemented, and if my Sharingan isn't resolved like this, it will cause a lot of trouble."At Naruto's words, Orochimaru seemed to snap back to reality. He chuckled and said: "I'm truly sorry, I didn't consider your feelings. I just get a bit carried away whenever I talk about my research.""It's like this: I don't recommend that you and Shisui perform the Sharingan transplant right now, because my research is nearing its end.""If my line of research is correct, then by that time, there will be a high probability that I can directly evolve your Sharingan into the Rinnegan.""So, give me some more time. During this period, if you trust me, you just need to use your Sharinganuntil it goes blind. I will give you a surprise."Since Orochimaru had already said such things, Naruto naturally had no reason to refute him, no matter which angle he looked at it from.Thus, he decided to trust Orochimaru. Regardless of the outcome, he would just consider it sacrificing himself for science; at worst, he could just transplant any random eye when the time came.However, as the saying goes, if there are no surprises, a surprise will inevitably appear. By the time the Chunin Exams were approaching, Naruto's eyes were already completely blind, yet there were still no results from Orochimaru's side.Although Shisui expressed his willingness to exchange Sharingan with Naruto, in order not to affect his strength, Naruto eventually gave up this opportunity.He found Tsunade, because she was the one who performed his original Sharingan transplant, and Naruto's original eyes had also been kept intact by her all along.After so many years, Naruto had instead lost his Sharingan and had his own eyes transplanted back in. This still had a significant impact on his strength; after all, until Orochimaru came up with a solution, he could no longer use the Susanoo-clad Nine-Tailed form.But to Naruto's surprise, although he had switched to ordinary eyes, his Sharingan abilities had not disappeared. This meant that he could still use Kotoamatsukami at this time, and it even seemed... to have no side effects, though he could no longer use Susanoo.As for Orochimaru, who had originally said he would finish the research immediately, there was suddenly no news. After pressing for answers, Naruto learned that it was because his research had hit a bottleneck at the final moment.Regardless, the Chunin Exams had already begun. Although Naruto's strength had weakened, they still had to execute the plan as intended.The Chunin Exams are a Ninja selection system founded by the Second Hokage, Tobirama, which is now adopted and used by all major nations. Furthermore, it is divided into three parts: the written exam, the Forest of Death, the Chunin Exams preliminaries, and the Chunin Exams finals.In reality, the pass rate for every Chunin Exam is extremely low.Moreover, there was a very rare situation this time: both the Hokage and the Kazekage would be in attendance for the Chunin Exams finals.In fact, besides being a way for Genin to be promoted to Chunin, the Chunin Exams are also an important occasion to observe the strength of various nations.Although the main backbone of each Village is still the Jonin, Genin and Chunin represent the future and reserve combat power of the Village, which better reflects the development status of the Village. Therefore, every time the Chunin Examsare held, the various Villages secretly compete and compare themselves against each other.This year, the number of participants from various Villages is quite large, totaling 153 people, divided as follows: Hidden Sand Village: 30, Hidden Rain Village: 21, Hidden Grass Village: 6, Hidden Waterfall Village: 6, Konoha Village: 87, Otogakure: 3.Naruto also saw his good friend Gaara after many years, but to avoid alerting the enemy, the two did not acknowledge each other directly. Instead, Shukaku greeted him from afar within Naruto's mental world.Gaara's dark circles had disappeared; it seemed that ever since he convinced Shukaku, Gaara had been getting along quite well with it. Over these years, he had no longer been troubled by insomnia, and he seemed much more cheerful overall.However, judging from the attitude of Temari and Kankuro toward Gaara, Gaara's status in the Hidden Sand Village had greatly improved.Although one could still sense that they were somewhat fearful of Gaara, they would also occasionally reveal the affection between siblings.Soon, the written exam arrived as scheduled. The proctor was a Special Jonin from the Land of Fire's Konoha Village, the captain of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force, Ibiki.First, Ibiki gave the examinees a set of questions that Ninjas relying solely on their own level of ability could not answer, and he implied that conventional methods of cheating could not be used.If one was caught 5 times by the proctors nearby, they would be disqualified; this was actually testing their investigative skills, or their foundational abilities.Originally, apart from Naruto, his friends had understood Ibiki's intent, but now Naruto naturally understood it as well, and to him now, these questions were simply a piece of cake.Next, everyone began to show off their unique skills: Kiba had Akamaru sneak a peek at others' answer sheets, Gaara used his Sand Eye, Shino Aburame used his little bugs to peek, Sasuke used his Sharingan to mimic others' writing movements, and Neji used his Byakugan to copy directly through others' bodies.Dosu, Kin, and Zaku from Otogakure judged the content by the sound of others writing.These were all god-tier cheating methods. Besides these, there were also team-based ones; for example, Ino–Shika–Chō had Ino bear the burden for everyone. She first projected her consciousness into Sakura Haruno's body to look directly at her answer sheet.Then, after she finished answering, she possessed Shikamaru and Choji to finish their answer sheets as well.Tenten used her pen to manipulate a mirror on the ceiling, reflecting it onto others' answer sheets. At the same time, she kept the mirror over Rock Lee's head for a while, and he used his forehead protector to complete his answer sheet.As for Kankuro and Temari's method, it was somewhat shocking: Kankuro used his puppet to disguise it as a proctor, then took it to the restroom to slowly finish the answer sheet. After he returned, he manipulated the puppet to give Temari a copy of the answers.And in Konoha Village, there were two top-tier students, Sakura Haruno and Hinata, who were the only ones truly answering the questions based on their own abilities.However, the one thing the world never lacks is those unlucky ones. Because their cheating methods were too obvious and crude, many Geninwere caught cheating five times and were directly cleared from the exam hall.As for Naruto, although these questions were not a problem for him, he knew that they were just smoke and mirrors. The key to passing this test was the last question, so he just lay on his desk resting, without writing a single word.
