The Helplessness of a Married Man (Seeking Collection, Recommendations, and Monthly Votes)

Seeing everyone looking at him like he was a ghost, Qifeng's small sense of vanity got a bit of satisfaction.

The first experience as a Chunin Exams examiner wasn't too bad.

He patted Odasuke on the shoulder, who stood there with a blank expression. "Go back and rest early. Whatever they said, settle it in the exam hall. Don't waste your breath here."

Then he looked toward the Mist Ninja, his gaze skipping past the one who had been spouting nonsense and landing on Kisame Hoshigaki.

Kisame Hoshigaki gave Qifeng a long, hard look, said nothing, turned, and walked deeper into the alley.

The other Mist Ninja snapped out of it too, shot a glare at the Konoha side, and followed Kisame Hoshigaki away in frustration.

A potential incident was defused by Qifeng in time. He didn't linger either, waved a hand behind him, and headed toward his quarters.

The Konoha Genin behind him exchanged glances.

In the end, all eyes landed on Odasuke.

They had thought Qifeng, being around their age, was also a Genin taking the Chunin Exams. They never expected him to suddenly turn into an examiner.

Noticing their stares, Odasuke gave a helpless smile. "Don't look at me. I have no idea what's going on either."

If anyone was the most shocked, it was him.

Watching the direction Qifeng had disappeared, he really couldn't figure out how things had changed so drastically.

Qifeng returned to the Morgue.

He took off the headband on his forehead with some irritation.

This "Inherited Headband" had more influence than he'd imagined. Even without it, he would have done the same thing.

But the starting point would have been completely different.

"Forget it. I'll find a chance to pass it on. That guy Obito should be a decent choice."

Taking off the headband would change the system's rating. Qifeng thought it over, decided he could react in time and it should be fine, then put it back on.

Today's corpse-looting attempts hadn't been used yet.

But there weren't many bodies left in the Morgue.

Over the past week, the families of the various ninja had come to claim their dead—some Qifeng had looted, some he hadn't.

Still, his haul this time wasn't bad.

Aside from a steady boost to his stats and acquiring the upgradeable "Inherited Headband," he had also gained quite a few jutsu.

The one that caught his attention most was a medical ninjutsu called "Healing Technique."

Healing Technique was a basic medical ninja skill. It could treat some external injuries. Though not as powerful as the Mystical Palm Technique, it was still decent.

After all, as a Corpse Collector, Qifeng was technically a branch under the Medical Department.

As half a Medical Ninja, how could he not know any medical ninjutsu?

He used up his attempts without any fuss.

The next day.

Qifeng arrived at the exam hall, at the office next door.

The proctors for the first round of the Chunin Exams were gathered here.

"Qifeng's here." Nara Chuichi spotted him and greeted him with a smile.

"Not late, am I?" Qifeng nodded to everyone one by one.

He was a newcomer, so he had to show enough respect to his seniors.

This behavior earned him unanimous approval from the seniors in the office.

At the very least, his first impression was good.

Nara Chuichi clapped his hands to get everyone's attention.

Qifeng stood off to the side with a slightly reserved posture, perfectly fitting the image of a newbie.

"The first round of the Chunin Exams, as usual, is a written test. Cheating is allowed, but limited to five times. Anyone caught exceeding that will be disqualified."

No one was surprised by this.

The Chunin Exams held in Konoha had always followed this process. Other villages might be different—Kirigakure, for example, started straight with combat and bloodshed—but Konoha valued academic ability, so the tradition wouldn't change.

The ninja from various villages taking the Chunin Exams had already learned about the exam format from their respective instructors.

Nara Chuichi looked around the room, thought for a moment, and said, "This time, we'll leave Maruyama Qifeng, Yamanaka Akikaze, and Akimichi Chouba here in the exam hall to proctor. The rest of you wait outside and escort any rule-breakers or Genin who've reached their limit out."

"Yes, sir!" everyone replied.

Qifeng was a bit surprised.

A newcomer like him, proctoring?

He thought he'd just be coasting through.

What he didn't know was that it wasn't just him—Yamanaka Akikaze and Akimichi Chouba were also examiners who had only proctored a few times.

The reason they chose these newcomers was just to go through the motions.

Konoha valued academic performance, but that didn't mean other villages did too.

If the invigilation was too strict and caused heavy losses among other hidden villages' Genin, it would give the impression that Konoha was overly suppressing them. Plus, if the numbers dropped too low, the later rounds of the exam wouldn't go smoothly either.

So having them—Chunin with little experience—invigilate was basically a deliberate leniency.

After a brief rundown of the task, the exam hadn't started yet, so everyone just sat in the office chatting.

Every time he took an exam in his past life, Qifeng would get at least a little nervous, and he'd always envied those calm, carefree invigilators.

He never thought he'd be one himself one day.

No pressure at all, and even a bit of schadenfreude.

He cheerfully pulled out a cigarette, snapped his fingers to light it, took a deep drag, and slowly blew out a smoke ring.

Bliss.

But soon, he noticed the chatter in the office had stopped. All eyes were on him.

His hand holding the cigarette froze, and he put on an awkward smile. "Uh, sorry, sorry. Habit."

Just as he was about to put it out, he saw Nara Chuichi's hand appear in front of him.

He looked up to see Nara Chuichi's "you know what I mean" expression.

".?"

After a slight hesitation, he tentatively pulled out the pack, took out a cigarette, and handed it to Nara Chuichi.

The cigarette was quickly "snatched" away.

Qifeng instinctively snapped his fingers, a flame flickering to life at his fingertips, and brought it to him.

Soon, there was another cloud-puffing presence in the office.

But when it came to handing out cigarettes, the rule was that with so many people in the room, how could you only give one?

And then.

Qifeng's cigarette pack was empty.

The office was instantly filled with swirling smoke. Anyone who didn't know better would think they'd stepped into some kind of fairyland.

Watching this scene, Qifeng was speechless.

He couldn't help asking, "Mr. Chuichi, you guys..."

Nara Chuichi sat down beside him, looking forlorn, and patted his shoulder. "Qifeng, you don't get it. The plight of a married man—you just don't get it."

Words couldn't capture the tears.

But Qifeng got it. It all clicked.

So, every single person in this office was henpecked?

People in the ninja world matured early, so they generally married young, ensuring the population stayed high enough despite the notoriously low average lifespan.

"Marriage is a man's grave, Qifeng," Nara Chuichi said with a sigh.

He patted his shoulder meaningfully.

Wait, he'd heard the Nara Clan was known for being henpecked, but the whole office being like that? That was a bit much.

He didn't believe it.

He'd rather believe these guys were just scamming him for his cigarettes.

Though he had no proof.

Staring at the empty cigarette pack, he felt like crying but had no tears.

Still, because of this incident, he'd clearly closed the distance with all the examiners in the office.

Before, they'd been chatting while he just listened.

Now he could finally join in.

All in all, not bad.

Half an hour later.

Nara Chuichi stood up. "The exam's about to start."

This is a new book from a new author, so the editing might not be thorough. If there are any typos, I hope everyone can point them out, and I'll do my best to fix them! Thank you all!