Uchiha Yin passed through the crowd and stood at the very front.
"The first round of the Chunin Ninja Exams is about to begin. I'm Uchiha Yin, your chief examiner for this round."
At his words, the crowd finally fell silent.
"Before the exam begins, there's something I want to make clear."
"The true purpose of this exam."
"True purpose?" the crowd murmured in confusion.
"Why do allied nations hold the Chunin Ninja Exams?"
"To strengthen their ties? To improve their ninja?"
"I don't want any of you to mistake its true meaning."
"This exam is, you could say..."
"A small-scale war between allied nations."
That was how Uchiha Yin put it.
"Isn't this exam meant to select Chunin?" someone asked.
"Yes, it is. But it's also a battlefield where you fight at the risk of your lives for your nations' prestige."
"Once the first round is over, the second round will begin."
"Many of the Daimyo and prominent figures who regularly hire us will be invited here as guests."
"The Daimyo and prominent figures of nations with ninja villages, along with the heads of those villages, will come to watch you perform."
"If the gap in national strength is obvious, commissions will flood into the stronger nations, while the weaker ones will receive fewer."
"At the same time, the results put pressure on other nations by demonstrating each country's strength. They serve as a deterrent."
"This exam is a stage on which we show other nations the strength of our ninja."
No one had expected Uchiha Yin to lay out the truth about the Chunin Ninja Exams all at once.
It was the brutal reality. Most ninja could have guessed as much. Only those who still saw the world through the sheltered eyes of a student were surprised.
"So