As Konoha's messenger hawks delivered the news to every village, word that the Five Great Shinobi Villages would jointly hold the Chunin Exams quickly spread throughout the shinobi world.
In addition to the Five Great Shinobi Villages, the smaller villages that had received invitations—Kusagakure, Otogakure, and Takigakure—also announced that they would send their finest Genin to participate in these Chunin Exams.
Thus, Konoha once again became the focus of everyone's attention.
Inside the Hokage's Office.
"Tch..."
Hyuga Kagami flipped through the documents in his hands and curled his lip.
The document he held was Iwagakure's list of participants for the Chunin Exams, and among the names, he saw one that was all too familiar.
Kurotsuchi, the granddaughter of the Third Tsuchikage Ōnoki—the Fourth Tsuchikage from the original timeline!
Although Kurotsuchi was only a little older than Naruto and Sasuke at the moment, perhaps twelve or thirteen at most, Hyuga Kagami simply could not believe that Ōnoki's granddaughter was still merely a Genin.
When he turned to the second page, Hyuga Kagami suddenly froze. He then looked at the elder advisors before him. "Is this really the participant list sent by Iwagakure? Could this be some kind of prank?"
The Third Hokage shook his head with a gloomy expression, confirming that the list was genuine.
Tsunade, standing beside him, gritted her teeth. "I never thought Ōnoki could be this shameless!"
Hyuga Kagami lowered his gaze to the list again, staring at Deidara's punchable photo as he said, "Are they such sore losers that they have to pull this?"
Utatane Koharu's face darkened. "I already had the Intelligence Division verify it. Deidara ran away on his own when he was nine, missing several of Iwagakure's Chunin selection exams. His current status truly is Genin. In fact... he might not even officially count