Examiner: Shimura Danzō

The continuous sound of fireworks mingled with the clamor of the crowd.

This was the Chunin Selection Exam hosted by Konohagakure.

Although the event invited many people from other villages, it also had a side that made it a "small-scale war" of sorts, with each village probing the others' strength.

Only the village's upper echelons needed to nervously keep watch over all that.

For ordinary villagers, all they had to do was enjoy this peaceful "festival."

"Senju Diejian, of the Land of Fire's Konohagakure. First-year student at the Konoha Ninja Training Facility, Genin of Team 6, Ninja Registration Number 1854."

After receiving their invitations to the Chunin Selection Exam, complete with their personal information, the members of Team 6 straightened their backs, thinking, It's finally here.

The preliminary venue for the Chunin Selection Exam was located some distance from the center of Konohagakure.

Surrounded by the residences of the Uchiha, Sarutobi, and Aburame Clans, the location felt a little odd and unsettling, even to ninjas from Konohagakure.

It was probably meant to prepare for any situation that might arise, but the precautions seemed excessive.

"Oh, there you are. You've already arrived."

"We thought we were early."

Team 6 entered the exam venue and exchanged greetings with their classmates, who had arrived ahead of them.

Juri kept her distance from the noisy crowd of classmates and let out a bored snort.

Leaning against the wall with her arms crossed, she looked every bit the cool young lady.

Some ninjas from other villages approached Juri, who was standing alone.

What would become of these poor fools, drawn in by the moth-attracting lamp of her "beauty"?

They were simply too caught up in the festival atmosphere.

Just as expected, the other-village ninjas who had been drawn to her pretty face were being thoroughly trounced by Juri's sharp tongue.

"Hey, fatty. Know your place."

"What did you say, you little brat!"

Insulted by Juri, a plump man with face paint twisted his face in humiliation.

Judging by his Forehead Protector, he was probably a Kirigakure Genin.

His Chakra grew chaotic, and his brown hair trembled slightly.

An enormous amount of Chakra, enough to fill the space around him, seeped from the plump man's body.

Though it wasn't as much as Diejian's, his Chakra came close to that level. Sakumo reached for the short sword at his waist, ready to react at any moment.

"What's going on... Oh, it's Juri."

One of the people responsible for creating this tense standoff was a familiar face.

Diejian hurriedly wrapped up his conversation and stepped between the plump man and Juri.

With a stiff smile, Diejian held back the Kirigakure Genin, then firmly pulled Juri away.

Turning his back to the Kirigakure ninja, Diejian put an arm around Juri's shoulder and brought his angry face close to her haughty one.

"Didn't Teacher Kagami tell you to behave?"

He lowered his voice to a growl, pulling off the difficult maneuver.

Juri gave an annoyed snort.

"That pig over there had the nerve to hit on me. I can only assume he looks down on us Uchiha."

"How could that be? You know, when a man sees a beautiful, sexy lady, it's only natural to want to talk to her."

"Senju..."

It was flattery.

But when Diejian saw Juri's displeased, narrowed eyes slowly widen, he thought his plan had worked—

"You... You're lusting after me? Disgusting. Don't touch me. Don't talk to me for a while, you lecher."

Juri snorted, shoved Diejian away, and strode off with quick steps.

After complimenting her, he'd been insulted and called disgusting. Diejian indignantly protested that she'd gone too far.

He grumbled as he stood up and dusted the dirt off his backside. Then his eyes met those of the Kirigakure Genin, who had been staring at him the whole time.

"...Sorry about that, my Kirigakure friend. She acts that way with everyone. I don't think she means any harm... At least, I hope not."

"You look like you've got it rough."

Diejian apologized for his teammate's rudeness, and the Kirigakure Genin seemed to understand well enough.

"It's fine."

He reined in his restless Chakra and grinned.

His exposed teeth were as sharp and pointed as a shark's.

"I'm Senju Diejian of Konoha. And you?"

"I'm Suikazan Fuguki of Kirigakure."

The long sword hidden beneath his hair gave a metallic click.

★

Despite the minor scuffle, the group made it safely to the exam venue's waiting room and sat down in whatever seats they found.

Because of what had just happened, Diejian and Juri seemed to have attracted the attention of Genin from other villages.

The only saving grace was that the seats were divided by village.

The "Senju," who had openly announced his name, was regarded with considerable wariness.

Diejian felt as if he were sitting on pins and needles under everyone's watchful eyes.

His Konoha classmates mercilessly kept their distance, as if to say they couldn't be seen sitting beside someone like him.

Even Juri, the one who had started it all, sat a little way away.

Seeing how she didn't even look his way, Diejian felt a little dejected. She really does think I'm disgusting.

Sakumo sat behind Diejian, but he was staring at the Silver Short Sword he'd bought for the Chunin Selection Exam and showed no intention of backing him up.

Sakumo had reportedly spent all the mission rewards he'd earned over the two years since becoming a Genin on the ninja sword, and lately he'd been obsessed with it.

"Ah, there you are. You're all so early."

"Ina, you'd better not come over here..."

"Huh? Why?"

Ina and the others appeared just a few minutes before the Chunin Selection Exam began. Ignoring the atmosphere around them, they sat beside Diejian.

Ina paid no heed to Diejian's somewhat flustered attempt to stop her. "Has it started yet? I'm so nervous," she said with a smile, though she didn't look nervous at all.

When had she gotten so bold? Diejian shuddered at Ina's nerves of steel.

While Ina and Diejian were talking, Juri hurried over and sat beside Ina.

"Oh, it's been a while. How have you been?"

"Um, good. You look well, too."

Juri nodded, her ears turning red, as Ina greeted her with a smile.

Watching Ina and Juri cheerfully begin to chat, even thanking each other for last time and asking about skincare routines, Diejian stared in astonishment, like a pigeon struck by a bean.

"What's this? You two are so close? I had no idea."

"Shut up, pervert. I'm talking to Ina right now. Keep that stinking mouth of yours shut."

"That's a bit harsh..."

Diejian bowed his head, dejected.

Juri gave a satisfied snort, and Ina chided her. "Don't be like that."

Juri puffed up, ready to argue, but Sakumo stopped her from behind.

"Everyone, it's starting."

A Konoha Jonin walked into the room.

His name was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

As Tobirama's trusted aide, and someone who had yet to lead a team, he had been appointed Examiner for the Chunin Selection Exam.

Just like the grandiose name "First Joint Chunin Selection Exam," the opening speech was long and boring.

After Hiruzen's lengthy, self-important speech, the exam content was finally announced.

—Answer sheets are being distributed now.

Answer the questions above.

Answer sheets will be collected by village.

To prevent misconduct by any village, Jonin from other hidden villages will collect and grade the answer sheets.

There are a great many questions.

Do not make any mistakes in your judgment. Continue answering.

Diejian and the others had been braced for anything, but it turned out to be nothing more than an ordinary written exam.

The Genin each took their answer sheets from Jonin representing different villages, and the first exam began.

Question One—Write down one hundred ninjutsu, along with written descriptions of their Hand Seal sequences.

There were many different seals, such as Rooster, Monkey, and Ram, and ninjutsu were activated by combining them in sequence.

For an "effortful genius" who memorized techniques by their finger movements and sequences rather than by the names of the seals, this was a cruel test.

Diejian struggled to recall the sequences and names of the seals, forming them one by one under the desk.

Question Two—Write down the Hand Seal sequence for a "high-level ninjutsu" or higher from your village. This question is worth many points.

Some high-level ninjutsu were included among the one hundred techniques in Question One. And now this, right after that.

What's more, it had to be a high-level technique from "your village."

I see. This exam is testing the range of techniques we know.

Someone laughed.

Could it be... Someone realized what might be hidden behind it.

Question Three—Explain the mindset of a ninja.

This was a psychological test about the mindset required to become a Chunin.

At first glance, it looked like a simple true-or-false test, but it was actually difficult, with traps designed to test a ninja's powers of observation: deliberate misdirection, typos, grammatical changes, and passages that could be interpreted in different ways.

"Five minutes remaining. The exam is over. Answer sheets will now be collected."

Hiruzen's words, as he appeared in front of the partitions, struck Diejian as odd.

He glanced at the other villages' partitions. Jonin from Sunagakure had appeared in front of the Sunagakure section, and Jonin from Kumogakure in front of the Kumogakure section. They all seemed to be there to collect the answer sheets.

What was this strange feeling? His thoughts raced.

Then Diejian realized the truth behind the exam.

His eyes widened. He stopped writing and began erasing his answers.

Looking two seats to the side, he saw Juri doing the same thing.

"Stop!"

The signal that the first exam was over.

The Jonin from each village began collecting answer sheets from their own Genin.

"Hey, are you all right? Hang in there."

"I'm exhausted..."

"Damn Second..."

"Looks like we didn't make it."

During the brief break, the classroom grew noisy. Diejian and Juri were slumped over, utterly spent.

"We will now announce the passers of the first exam. Quiet."

The Second, Senju Tobirama, made a striking entrance.

When it came to Senju Tobirama, there was no one in the vast Shinobi World who could surpass him as the "fastest" man.

It was said that his ninjas were hardly different from "amateurs."

As a living legend, Tobirama had no equal. The only ones who might stand alongside him were the Gold and Silver Brothers of Kumogakure.

Known as the "Twin Lights of the Clouds," the brothers Kinkaku and Ginkaku had taken the Nine-Tails' Chakra and made it their own before Uchiha Madara manipulated them and Senju Hashirama sealed them away.

The Gold and Silver Brothers had gained power equal to that of Jinchuriki without sealing the Nine-Tails inside their bodies. They were revered as living legends.

And now, this famous man had appeared in person.

The Genin felt suffocated by the sheer speed with which he graded their papers.

The names of the passers were announced one after another. When Diejian, Juri, Ina, and Sakumo heard their names, they breathed a sigh of relief.

Tobirama concluded the announcement with, "That is all."

But—

"What a joke! I got every question right! I checked them all, too! There's no way I made a mistake!"

It was a Genin whose name hadn't been called.

He seemed convinced he'd passed, and the other Genin noisily echoed him. "Yeah, that's right!"

They really had a death wish. Diejian lowered his head, as if to avoid looking at them.

This was the sort of foolish thing only someone who knew Tobirama by reputation, but not by experience, would do.

Diejian sighed for their misfortune and prayed to the Sage of Six Paths.

"Shut up."

It was a calm, simple remark—and yet, the atmosphere in the room changed completely.

Tobirama's heavy Chakra instantly filled the entire room.

The sheer force of it made even Konoha's Jonin break out in a cold sweat.

Diejian could withstand it because he was used to it, but Sakumo and Juri remembered the demonic face they'd seen during the Genin advancement exam, and their backs began to tremble.

Did Tobirama realize he'd left his young people with psychological scars?

The Genin who'd been shouting moments ago clamped their mouths shut under Tobirama's pressure. Some hugged themselves, trying to stop their bodies from shaking.

Tobirama eased the pressure slightly and turned his gaze toward the Genin who had shouted so arrogantly.

"This exam wasn't testing your academic knowledge. It was testing your 'judgment.'"

At that point, the quick-witted ninjas furrowed their brows.

The Genin who had sensed it from the beginning nodded, thinking, Just as I thought—their suspicions had been confirmed.

This first exam concealed a deeper meaning; it wasn't merely a test of academic ability.

Just like that Genin promotion exam long ago, which had caused discord but was actually a test of teamwork.

Sarutobi Hiruzen's words before the exam began.

—Now, hand out the answer sheets.

Please answer the questions above.

The answer sheets will be collected by village.

Also, to prevent any village from cheating, the answer sheets will be collected and graded by Jonin from "other hidden villages."

There are many questions.

Do not assume your answers are wrong. Continue answering.

One of the questions read:

—Write down a set of Hand Seals for a high-level ninjutsu or above from "your village."

Furthermore, both Hiruzen's speech and the questions contained keywords that could lead them to "that answer."

Having Jonin from other villages hand out the answer sheets also made the claim that "other villages will collect your answers" seem more convincing.

That was right.

The truth hidden behind this exam was that they needed to "realize their carelessness in leaking information about their own village."

Ninjas who failed to grasp the deeper meaning weren't ready to become Chunin.

Those who leaked classified information just to become Chunin were even more unqualified.

Therefore, answering "every question" meant failing.

The condition for passing was to answer only with common ninjutsu known in every village, such as the Clone Technique and Transformation Technique, and leave the high-scoring second question blank, earning points without harming their village's interests.

That was exactly why the true collectors were revealed in the final five minutes.

It was to make it clear that the claim at the beginning—"other villages will collect your answers"—had been a lie.

Then why had they needed to lie? They only had to think about the answer, and it would come to them.

If they still couldn't figure it out, they needed to go back and reread the Genin handbook.

Since the Konoha Genin knew Tobirama's personality, many of them had figured it out early on.

Ina and Sakumo were among them.

But expecting Genin from other villages to guess Tobirama's personality was asking too much.

They were bound to start behind Konoha.

This seemingly fair rule actually gave Konoha's ninjas a much greater advantage.

What a formidable man. The Konoha Genin who had grasped the deeper meaning trembled.

For the sake of a Hokage's dependability and strength—and his mercilessness toward outsiders.

The disqualified candidates who had been thoroughly refuted stood up and left the hall.

After this, their village's Jonin would probably give them a thorough scolding.

Leaking high-level ninjutsu was like Diejian teaching the Shadow Clone Technique to an outsider.

"What a terrifying exam..."

Now, the Genin from the other villages who remained were all survivors of the extremely unfavorable information war that had just taken place.

They didn't know what the next exam would be like, but they absolutely couldn't let their guard down.

Diejian lifted his body from where he had been lying face-down and surveyed the scattered Genin who remained.

★

"Why am I stuck with you, Senju?"

"Oh, you should be glad we're from the same village and in the same class... Sakumo was forced to team up with a ninja from Iwagakure."

Worried about his absent teammate, Diejian kicked aside the layer of rotting leaves as he ran.

The second exam was a survival battle to seize scrolls from other teams.

"Collect the three scrolls assigned to your respective teams and deliver them to the tower at the center of the forest."

Those were the words of Shimura Danzō, the Examiner in charge of the second exam.

It was a survival match with extremely simple rules—but the team assignments were a problem.

The candidates' faint hope of competing purely on strength was crushed when the rules were announced.

The partners they would challenge the exam alongside weren't familiar teammates from their own villages.

Instead, temporary pairs of two had been formed by randomly selecting candidates from every village. The survival battle tested the fundamentals of being a ninja, but now also demanded tactics for seizing and defending objectives, as well as the ability to work together on the fly.

Besides, considering the first exam, they probably couldn't reveal too much of their hand to a teammate from another village.

To make matters worse, the second exam would take place in that forest—the Tree Sea.

It was home to countless poisonous insects and ferocious beasts. Even seasoned ninjas knew it as a notorious forest where death was always close at hand.

The Genin's abilities would be tested under extreme conditions.

As Diejian had said, Sakumo had been paired with a ninja from Iwagakure, while Ina had been paired with one from Kirigakure.

So Diejian, who had miraculously been paired with Juri, was deeply grateful for his good fortune.

"If you want a scroll, you'd better write your will first. Who could put up with that?"

"Oh? Afraid to die, Senju?"

"Of course I am. There's still a ton of stuff I want to do."

Naturally, he didn't say that he had already died once.

Juri seemed momentarily confused by his unexpected answer.

She soon began her sharp-tongued remarks again, but her expression was a little different from before.

"Juri, stop."

At Diejian's words, Juri came to a halt.

Her twin tails swayed back and forth with the momentum.

Diejian crouched and threw several kunai.

His targets were a patch of discolored ground a few steps ahead and a taut tripwire hanging in the air.

There was a sharp sound as the wire snapped, followed by the metallic crack of something breaking.

Then came an explosion. Amid the blasts of the Explosive Tags they had set, a heavy metallic scraping sound rang out, and countless kunai flew through the empty air.

Several iron traps painted the color of dirt emerged from beneath the rotting soil, their jaws snapping shut.

Animal traps—these devices tore into the flesh of anyone who stepped on them, and once they caught their prey, they didn't let go.

Though limited in what they could do, they were effective traps for slowing someone down.

Smoke billowed up, surrounding the traps.

The traps had been laid in two, even three layers.

But that wasn't all.

"One, two, three... eight of them. Hmph. What a clumsy ambush. You've given yourselves away completely."

"Wait, Juri. Come over here."

The ability to sense Chakra was difficult to learn after birth.

Juri and Diejian were both poor at sensing, but they had honed their ability to detect enemies without Chakra, relying instead on their five senses—footsteps, the wind, and so on.

Even so, their perception still fell short of that of naturally gifted sensory ninjas.

Besides, the forest where they were fighting was a Tree Sea of towering giants that blocked out the sunlight.

Even in these ideal hiding conditions, where the perpetual gloom obstructed a ninja's vision, the enemy had not only laid the traps but had also been detected by Juri.

Thinking they were no big deal, Juri rested her staff against her hip.

"I'm going to charge in with a shout. Follow me, Senju!"

"No, I told you to wait."

Just as she was about to rush forward, Diejian grabbed the back of her collar and pulled her off balance.

Juri choked and glared furiously at Diejian's fingers, which were already moving toward her.

A sharp pain and an impact that seemed to strike bone—it was a forehead flick.

Juri glared at Diejian, who looked exasperated, tears in her eyes, while holding her forehead.

Just as the mood was about to turn ugly, Diejian gestured around them with his head.

The enemy's presence had vanished.

"Where did those guys go...?"

"It's a genjutsu. In a team formed on the fly with members from other villages, an alliance is basically impossible. How could eight people suddenly surround us all at once? Calm down."

The enemy had probably prepared carefully, even carving the genjutsu formula in advance, then waited for their prey to take the bait.

As a member of the Senju Clan, Diejian had been thoroughly taught the fundamentals of genjutsu, ninjutsu, and taijutsu by Tobirama.

A Genin-level genjutsu was something he could dispel on his own "with ease."

"What a disgrace... I can't believe I..."

Rather than blaming herself for falling so easily for a genjutsu despite being a member of the Uchiha Clan, Juri was brimming with murderous intent toward the one who had cast it. Her pupils narrowed with a reptilian sharpness.

"Juri, which direction were you going to charge in just now?"

Diejian lowered his voice. Juri pointed in that direction with her eyes.

"Why?"

"Because there were fewer people that way... What about it?"

"If they're opponents who took such care setting up those traps, then the scene shown by the genjutsu probably meant something too."

Most likely, there were more traps in the direction Juri had wanted to go.

That meant the safest direction was the one Juri had avoided in the genjutsu.

Diejian threw a kunai.

"Juri, Dragon Fire Technique."

"Fine."

A thin steel wire was attached to the kunai Diejian had thrown.

Understanding what he intended, Juri ran to the side and quickly formed Hand Seals.

Diejian's kunai sank deep into the grass and disappeared from sight, but the wire remained intact.

Juri brought her fingers together near her mouth and took a deep breath.

"Tiger! Fire Release: Dragon Fire Technique!"

But what she exhaled wasn't air—it was a torrent of fire.

The flames consumed the wire as they shot forward at an astonishing speed.

"Are you okay, Juri?"

Clatter—the kunai landed at Juri's feet.

Juri gave a slight nod.

Diejian had knocked away a kunai thrown at Juri while she was defenseless after using her jutsu.

"You suddenly took aim at a woman. You're not exactly a gentleman, are you?"

"I should be the one saying that. You suddenly used Fire Release. Were you trying to start a forest fire?"

Diejian's voice carried a warning.

Ahead of his dangerous, sharp gaze stood two Genin.

The symbols on their Forehead Protectors were from Kirigakure and Kumogakure.

The man from Kumogakure met Diejian's gaze head-on.

Sparks flew between them.

Before either could finish speaking, they threw kunai at each other.

Their kunai flew straight for each other's throats—then collided, their momentum canceled out, and clattered to the ground.

And so, the first battle of the inaugural Chunin Selection's second exam began.