Opening (Part One)

Early the next morning, Konoha officially began this year's Chunin Ninja Exams.

The format of the exams was fairly conventional, with nothing particularly special about it. It was much the same as the story from Qi Shuang's previous life.

The first stage was a written test, examining the Genin's basic knowledge and experience, as well as various fundamentals related to ninja theory.

Nearly ninety percent of the participants passed this stage. Only a handful of newly graduated Genin, along with those whose brains simply did not work, were eliminated.

The second stage was a survival challenge. Konoha had the candidates compete for scrolls, sending them into the Forest of Death to fight over them.

Teams carrying different scrolls were matched against each other in deadly combat. This meant that at least half the candidates would be eliminated in the second stage.

In the end, of the nearly three hundred candidates, only around a hundred successfully advanced to the next stage. The rest were either dead, injured, or eliminated for failing to collect all the scrolls.

The fierce competition in the second stage also resulted in fifteen of the thirty participants from the Hidden Mist being eliminated.

Fortunately, Qi Shuang had split up the seven new-generation Ninja Sword Wielders, putting each in command of a separate team. This had indirectly helped the Genin on their teams; otherwise, even more of them would have been eliminated.

Unfortunately, all Five Great Villages had participated in this year's Chunin Ninja Exams, making the competition in the Forest of Death exceptionally fierce.

Among the fifteen eliminated from the Hidden Mist was the successor to Samehada, a young Ninja Sword Wielder of the new generation.

However, this could hardly be blamed on him.

Samehada had been left by Qi Shuang for Kisame Hoshigaki. The new generation