After staying in Sunagakure for several days, the Chunin Exams finally began.
More than thirty candidates from Sunagakure participated in these Chunin Exams, while Konoha had nearly a hundred.
The remaining villages included over a dozen from Amegakure, over a dozen from Kusagakure, and three from Takigakure, which was participating in activities with other villages for the first time.
Although the Chunin Exams were originally led by Sunagakure, Konoha unexpectedly had the most candidates.
Many Sunagakure ninja felt rather awkward about it.
Didn't this mean that Konoha's strength surpassed Sunagakure's by a wide margin?
But that was the truth. There was nothing to be done about it.
The fact that Sunagakure could produce this many candidates now was already quite good.
Ever since the Third Ninja World War ended, Sunagakure's military budget had been very limited.
And it had been continuously cut.
It decreased year after year.
Now, it was only slightly higher than that of the mid-tier ninja villages.
The reason Sunagakure could still maintain the scale of one of the Five Great Ninja Villages was because of its former foundation.
Otherwise, Sunagakure would have already fallen out of the ranks of the Five Great Ninja Villages.
In comparison, Konoha now had ample military spending, a large new generation of ninja, and numerous top-tier experts.
What had originally been Sunagakure's Chunin Exams seemed to have become Konoha's home ground.
In the monitoring room outside the examination hall.
Gaara watched the candidates through the monitors. At a glance, most of them were ninja wearing Konoha forehead protectors.
"Your village has developed quite well over the years."
Kakashi, seated beside Gaara, merely smiled without saying anything.
Baki of Sunagakure did not mind it.
Before Orochimaru's Konoha Crush Plan, he would have wanted to weaken Konoha.
But after the Konoha Crush Plan,