Another Year, Another Chunin Ninja Exams

"A rather retro exam format."

Kakashi Hatake leaned against the railing, watching the ninjas below the field either writing furiously or scratching their heads, and leisurely remarked.

The Chunin Ninja Exams are revised every year, but usually only the format of the first round is changed, since some tricks only work once. As for the second round, the forest scroll battle, and the third round, the individual battle, they are classic and don't involve any tricks to fool the examinees, so they generally remain unchanged.

However, this year's Chunin Ninja Exams are slightly different--

"Hmm? Was it like this before the Chunin Ninja Exams, Kakashi-sensei?"

The slender girl standing next to Kakashi leaned closer and asked curiously.

She was a girl with exquisite and charming features. Although her forehead was a bit broad, her bright and expressive eyes made her delicate features appear heroic and extraordinary. Standing next to Kakashi, her aura was in no way inferior to that of this elite ninja known as the Konoha's Technician, and even slightly stronger, making people unable to help but turn their attention to her.

It's Sakura Haruno.

After a whole week of leisure, she was finally summoned by Tsunade and given a new mission: to patrol the exam venue with Kakashi, eliminate any unsafe factors, ensure the smooth conduct of the Chunin Ninja Exams, and protect the safety of all the important figures.

"Yeah, that's pretty much how the Chunin." Kakashi pulled out an exam schedule from his pocket and said to the girl beside him as he looked at it, "The first exam is a written test, the second is a team battle, and the third is an individual battle."

He rubbed the papers in his hands, his expression one of deep reminiscence.

Whom are you thinking of?

Sakura Haruno secretly glanced at him. Kakashi's expression was hidden by his mask, and only one eye was visible on his face, making it difficult to fathom his thoughts.

After a long pause, Kakashi finally said, "Each round doesn't eliminate anyone; only scores are calculated. After the candidates complete three rounds of exams, their total scores are calculated to assess whether they can be promoted to Chunin. That was the exam format back then."

Perhaps she was thinking of the two people on the Memorial Stone. Sakura remained silent, keeping her guesses to herself.

Let's refocus on the exam room.

This year's Chunin Ninja Exams were quite interesting.

Except for the third round, which remains an individual competition, the first and second rounds of the exam have been changed.

The first exam required candidates to answer questions in groups.

On the surface, it's just a general academic exam, but the rules are quite interesting. Besides the standard questions, there are several questions that are clearly designed to be difficult, and even Genin- level ninja) would definitely not be able to answer them.

Then, each team of Genin was assigned to a seemingly enclosed cubicle to answer questions. The examiners were not very strict in their supervision, only patrolling every now and then, which was practically encouraging cheating. So the candidates used all sorts of tricks to cheat and prevent cheating—the focus of this exam was actually on the Genin's ability to gather and protect intelligence.

The three children in Sakura Haruno's Team didn't have any particularly discreet ability to peek at the answers, because unlike Sakura Haruno's cohort of examinees, they weren't all equipped with any mysterious or bizarre family Secret Technique —something even Konohamaru didn't possess. They could only rely on ordinary Ninjutsu and covert techniques to spy on cheaters, which wasn't very efficient; in fact, this was the predicament faced by most examinees.

"Those were probably planted on purpose, right?" Sakura Haruno pointed at the ninjas who suddenly withdrew from the exam and smirked.

Those guys started answering questions as soon as they entered the cubicle. After each of them took an answer sheet, wrote down their answers, and then withdrew from the competition. Their acting skills were truly touching.

Kakashi smiled but remained silent.

From their perspective, they could see that after several test takers left, the restless candidates began what they thought were discreet actions. Test papers filled with answers were left on the tables in the cubicles, and candidates from different groups fought fiercely over those few sheets of paper. The seemingly calm examination room quickly became a scene of turmoil and undercurrents.

Konohamaru and his group performed very well. They managed to snatch part of the exam paper from the other groups with their outstanding combat skills and also repelled several groups of Genin spying on them. In addition, the three of them have always been good at academic subjects, so they should be able to get a high score in this exam.

Sakura Haruno looked around.

Several groups of test takers went too far and made too much noise, getting caught. They'll probably only get a zero in this round. These people are mostly ninjas from the national village; they don't understand the rules, their skills aren't great, and they're rough around the edges. People generally don't like to assign them missions.

The exam was only halfway through, but the situation was already quite clear.

The strong teams have already secured the answers and points they deserve, so they're no longer risking cheating and are focusing solely on defense; only the weak teams are still cautiously peeking around, attacking from all sides, looking for opportunities.

"The second team battle is a round-robin tournament, right?" Sakura Haruno started to worry about the next exam. "The following exams are all practical battles!"

The second exam saw the most significant changes.

However, no matter how the Chunin Ninja Exams change, they remain fundamentally the same. For Genin to be promoted to Chunin, the exams assess an individual's overall qualities, combat abilities, and teamwork skills. The only difference is that the difficulty and emphasis of each exam may vary slightly.

"So this year's assessment..." Sakura Haruno pondered for a moment, blinked, and said meaningfully, "... seems to focus on combat ability?"

Kakashi nodded.

"Still so perceptive, Sakura." He turned to look at the girl beside him and said calmly, "You should know why."

The two exchanged a glance.

"War."

Sakura Haruno uttered the word expressionlessly.

"Hmm," Kakashi adjusted his Forehead Protector, his tone somewhat grave, "This is a harbinger of impending war."

This year's Chunin Ninja Exams are very similar in format to those Chunin Ninja Exams during wartime.

Chunin Ninja Exams would place more emphasis on the Genin (lower-ranking ninja) than on their overall competence in handling complex situations.

Interestingly, the Chunin Ninja Exams, which used a total score system during wartime, actually had a higher pass rate compared to the elimination system used in peacetime. If the headstrong Naruto from the original story had participated in this exam, he probably would have easily become Chunin —because a high score in the practical exam would have made up for everything.

The reason behind this is quite harsh: in peacetime, only the best are selected, and resources are concentrated on training them; in times of war, more people are selected because the village needs them...

More cannon fodder.

Chunin are often just high-level cannon fodder.

Of course, Konoha is not going to war with any country, and it is not a time of war.

All of this was merely preparation for dealing with the impending threat of Akatsuki.

But how other countries would view it was anyone's guess. Sakura Haruno turned her gaze to the viewing platform, where Tsunade was exchanging pleasantries with Gaara and Mei Terumi, commenting on the examinees below; and not far away stood several observers sent by the Cloud Ninja and the Stone Ninja. Looking at their gloomy faces, Sakura Haruno seriously doubted whether they could sense the goodwill emanating from Konoha.

This year 'Chunin Ninja Exams, in particular, included members from the Sand shinobi and Mist Ninja, making it an unprecedentedly large-scale event.

Three years after Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan, Konoha held another large-scale Chunin Ninja Exams, far exceeding the scale of previous ones. This indicated that Konoha had not only completely recovered from the disaster of three years ago, but was also stronger than before!

In their eyes, Konoha posed a far greater threat than the Akatsuki, whose background was unknown...

In fact, Sakura Haruno missed one major reason.

What the Cloud Ninja and Stone Ninja fear most isn't Konoha's increased strength— Konoha in the past had the Third at its peak, the Sannin all together, as well as White Fang, the Yellow Flash, and even further back, Konoha possessed both Hashirama Senju and Madara Uchiha. Back then, Konoha was so strong, yet the Cloud Ninja Village and Iwagakure weren't destroyed. How much more so now, with Konoha just beginning its revival?

The fact that Tsunade suddenly pulled the Kazekage and Mizukage together for a pleasant conversation has made the Cloud Ninja and Stone Ninja very nervous.

Konoha has been trying to unite the Five Great Shinobi Villages to fight against Akatsuki; however, so far, it seems that they have only gained negative effects from some of the villages.

"Let's go." Sakura Haruno suddenly seemed a little listless, tugged at Kakashi's sleeve, and said indifferently, "Let's patrol somewhere else."

[I drove a long way back to my hometown today, so I didn't have time to write anything, hence this is the only update.]