The Chunin Ninja Exams drew a motley crowd. Ninja from every nation, merchants, spies, rogue ninja, wandering samurai... countless people with ulterior motives converged on Konoha.
Those who hated Konoha, those who craved power, those dissatisfied with the status quo, those terrified of Las Noches who had turned to extreme measures...
So many dark emotions, like sweet, poisoned bait, waited for it to discover them, tempt them, and... bring them under its control.
Sunagakure was a promising point of entry. Under the iron-fisted rule of Fourth Kazekage Rasa, the ninja village was beset by troubles both within and without, driven by scarce resources and pressure from Las Noches.
Rasa's complicated feelings toward Konoha, the radical hardliners' dissatisfaction with the village's current state.
And... the boy who harbored a twisted resentment toward his father, with the One-Tail, Shukaku, sealed inside him-Gaara.
Then there was... Otogakure.
The force Orochimaru had founded after defecting from Konoha, though Orochimaru himself had already joined Las Noches.
But the remnants he had left in Otogakure, those who craved power, pursued forbidden techniques, and loathed Konoha and the existing order, were another blade that could be put to use.
In Konoha's underground spaces and shadows, the tendrils of darkness began weaving an invisible, deadly web, like the most patient of spiders.
The Chunin Ninja Exams, first round: the written examination hall.
Ibiki Morino stood like an iron tower before the podium.
His lone eye swept over the genin from various nations below him. Some scribbled furiously, some scratched their heads in frustration, and others dripped cold sweat. His face still wore that vicious expression that could frighten a child to tears.
This year's questions went beyond the usual tactics and intelligence analysis.
A large number of questions had been deliberately added on survival in extreme wilderness