"Everyone, shut up!"
A furious roar exploded through Classroom 301, making the windowpanes rattle.
A man built like an iron tower stood at the podium.
Ibiki Morino.
His face was covered in crisscrossing knife scars and burns, making him look like a demon that had just crawled out of an execution ground.
The examinees instantly fell silent, barely daring to breathe.
Amid that suffocating atmosphere...
"Creeeak-"
Someone pushed open the classroom's back door.
A boy in casual clothes sauntered in, his hands in his pockets.
Sen Senju.
He let out an enormous yawn, carrying a folding lounge chair.
Every examinee's gaze snapped toward him.
"What are you staring at? Never seen an examiner show up late?"
Sen rolled his eyes and walked straight over to the podium.
With a click, he unfolded the lounge chair.
He flopped onto it, then casually pulled out a sleep mask with a frog printed on it and put it on.
"You..."
Ibiki's eye twitched, veins pulsing on his forehead.
But under orders from the Third Hokage, he forced himself to swallow his curses.
"Ahem. Ignore him."
Ibiki turned back, sweeping the room with his piercing gaze.
"I am the chief examiner for the first test. I will now explain the rules!"
Over the next ten minutes, Ibiki laid out his twisted system of point deductions and collective punishment.
"Get caught cheating five times, and you're eliminated!"
"If one member of a squad is eliminated, the entire team gets kicked out!"
His icy words struck dread into every examinee's heart.
The test papers were handed out.
The only sound left in the classroom was the scratching of pencil tips against paper.
And breathing that grew heavier by the moment.
It was too difficult.
These were not questions a Genin could answer. They involved extremely advanced