Sunagakure Chunin Exams

Although Natsuki and the others had gone to Cloud Village, the outside world did not know about it.

They thought Cloud Village and Mist Village were about to clash.

Every shinobi village had sent out quite a few spies and was actively preparing for war.

However, the Sunagakure Chunin Exams, which had long since been decided upon, were still held on schedule.

Konoha also had several genin who needed to qualify as chunin, including the familiar Kiba, Sakura, Choji, and Ino.

But Kiba had suffered an accident while out on a mission and was now lying at home, covered in casts.

That left Sakura, Ino, and Choji as one team.

Shikamaru and Shino were already chunin, so not only did they not need to take the exam—

Shikamaru was even serving as one of Konoha's assistant examiners for this exam.

However, as Sakura and the others prepared for the exam, they discovered a very awkward problem.

Their jonin instructor was gone.

To be precise, the instructors of both teams were gone.

Asuma and Kurenai had both run off. After going to the Daimyo's Mansion, they had shown no intention of returning.

Minato had not issued an order to recall Asuma, seemingly tacitly accepting that Asuma would remain at the Daimyo's Mansion.

The names of the Sarutobi Clan practically filled Konoha's wanted notices.

However, those who had left with Asuma, as well as those who had changed their names in Konoha, were not pursued.

It only meant that these two teams would no longer have instructor shinobi.

And taking the Chunin Exams required a jonin's recommendation.

It was only after Naruto's assistant Shikaku arranged for Tenzo to recommend them that they obtained slots for the Chunin Exams.

The members of the other Naruto-Hinata and Guy teams were already chunin, so they