On the surface, the conflict between Sunagakure and Kirigakure was far greater than either village's conflict with Konoha.
After all, both Sunagakure and Kirigakure had been allied with Konoha for at least a year.
But Sunagakure and Kirigakure were not allies.
Most factions therefore believed that this alliance between the Three Great Shinobi Villages had chiefly come about through Konoha's mediation, with Konoha serving as its leading partner.
In other words, in a certain sense, the more hostile Kirigakure and Sunagakure were toward each other, the more important and influential Konoha appeared.
When two parties that normally had little contact—or even held grudges against each other—sat down at the same table, it could only mean that their host commanded enough respect to bring them together.
At that moment, the Third coughed a few times, stood up, and walked to the front of the Viewing Stand.
His voice was not loud, and even sounded aged and feeble, yet it rose above the noisy conversations and reached everyone's ears clearly. "Honored guests, as Hokage, I would like to extend Konoha's heartfelt thanks to you all for coming! As you know, these Three-Village Joint Chunin Exams..."
As the Third Hokage delivered his formal remarks above, the examiners for the third Exam approached the candidates: Gekko Hayate, already a familiar face to them, and another special jōnin, Genma Shiranui.
"All right, let me briefly explain the rules for the third Exam. First, these will be one-on-one matches..."
"...When Ninja fight, death is a possibility. But this is still an Exam, so it would be best to stop short of that. Those are the rules for this competition."
After finishing, Genma Shiranui told the candidates to take a look around and familiarize themselves with their surroundings.
The candidates also noticed something resembling a sealing barrier