The first round's test

"Teacher Kazuhiko, why can the people from Kumogakure wander all over Sunagakure while we from Konoha have to stay cooped up here? Aren't we allies with Sunagakure? If they give their enemies that much freedom, why are they so wary of their allies?"

Sunagakure had housed all the visiting ninja in the same area, so the Konoha Genin had naturally witnessed the argument between the Kumogakure ninja and the Sand Ninja. Seeing the Kumogakure ninja act without restraint in Sunagakure gave these restless young Genin ideas of their own.

They were already unhappy about being lodged somewhere so shabby, and then their freedom of movement had been restricted as well. Now Sunagakure was even treating them differently. How could these youngsters put up with that?

"Quiet!"

Watching the Konoha Genin grow restless gave Kazuhiko a splitting headache.

Kazuhiko had once been a hot-blooded teenager himself. How could he not understand what these children were thinking? But reality was cruel. Kumogakure could act without restraint because of its village's formidable strength. Moreover, Sunagakure and Kumogakure truly had no shared interests; they had even been sworn enemies during the Third Shinobi World War. Konoha, however, was different.

In terms of strength, Konoha had lost powerful fighters such as Orochimaru and Minato Namikaze since the Third Shinobi World War. As for relations between the villages, the alliance between Konoha and Sunagakure had played a major role in Iwagakure's eventual decision to stop fighting.

If relations between Konoha and Sunagakure soured, Sunagakure would come under attack from Kumogakure. And how would Konoha withstand an attack from Iwagakure?

With these political considerations at play, Konoha's people could not afford to offend Sunagakure the way Kumogakure did. That was why they had obediently stayed here for two days.

"Calm down, all of you. Allowing Kumogakure's people to move freely while forbidding ours from doing so is indeed unreasonable. I'll bring this up with Lord Kazekage. But if any of you leave our camp without permission or say anything you shouldn't, you needn't bother returning to Konoha."

Seeing the youngsters grow agitated, Kazuhiko Sarutobi took a hard line. Under his threat, the Konoha Genin who had been arguing among themselves fell silent.

"Those Kumogakure ninja really are arrogant. They're only getting away with it because Sunagakure lets them. If they were in Konoha, our Hyuga Clan would beat them until they begged for mercy."

The hot-blooded Hayato Hyuga was naturally furious at Kumogakure's arrogant behavior, but he was sensible enough not to put pressure on Kazuhiko in public. Instead, he vented privately to Madara Uchiha and Sōsuke Aburame. Madara Uchiha said nothing in response to Hayato's complaints.

As Madara Uchiha saw it, Kumogakure could probably throw its weight around even in Konoha. After all, under the Third Hokage and Danzo's "wise leadership," Konoha had become so weak that even Madara Uchiha felt like swearing.

In the ninja world, the strong preyed on the weak. If you were that weak, you had to take it when others bullied you.

Not long after Kumogakure arrived, the people from Iwagakure also reached Sunagakure. Upon hearing that Kumogakure could roam freely without restrictions, Iwagakure, whose strength rivaled Kumogakure's, naturally treated Sunagakure's rules as so much hot air. With both Kumogakure and Iwagakure breaking the rules, the Kazekage realized that continuing to restrict the other villages' ninja would not only be unfair to them but would also make his humiliation worse. Sunagakure therefore lifted the restrictions on the other ninja villages as well.

Another day passed, and everyone from the major Ninja Villages had arrived. The Chunin Ninja Exams officially began, with Arakawa Kiba, captain of Sunagakure's guard unit, overseeing the first round.

At the start of the exam, Sunagakure's ninja handed yellowish-brown maps to the Genin candidates from each Ninja Village. Madara Uchiha and his teammates received one as well. Madara Uchiha examined it and saw that Sunagakure had marked a route in yellow.

"For the first round, follow the map to your destination. Reaching it counts as passing. Along the way, you must find your own food and drinking water. That is the entirety of your test. If you wish to give up partway through, you may return along the same route. But be aware that we will only have people available to assist you in the first half of the route. Once you enter the second half, you will have to make your own way back to the first half."

Facing the Genin from the various countries, Arakawa Kiba explained the test in detail. Then Sunagakure's gates swung open, and the exam officially began.

"The Chunin Ninja Exams are just a race to get somewhere? No wonder Sunagakure produces nothing but trash."

The Kumogakure ninja smiled confidently after hearing the test's requirements. Then chakra began surging through some of their bodies. With the crackle of lightning, the Kumogakure ninja charged out ahead of everyone else. Following their lead, the ninja from the other villages rushed out as well.

"What are you standing around for? Come on!"

Among Konoha's ninja, Naoto Hyuga and the others had also charged out. Hayato Hyuga wanted to follow, but behind him, Madara Uchiha and Sōsuke Aburame remained rooted to the spot. He could only watch as the people around him left him behind one after another.

"Hayato, the test only asks whether we can complete the route. It doesn't require us to finish among the first few, so don't rush. Since we don't know the map's scale, it's hard to judge how far we have to travel. But one thing is certain: the route for this first round definitely won't take just a day or two."

Though they were teammates, Sōsuke Aburame knew Madara Uchiha would never explain his reasoning to Hayato Hyuga. So the normally quiet Sosuke had to take on the role of explaining things. After all, he had also discerned what this test was really about, and he was precisely the sort of person who dreaded it most.

"The focus of this test is how we secure drinking water and food in a harsh environment. Without food and water, you'll struggle to reach the end unless your constitution is different from an ordinary person's. Perhaps you and Itachi can endure hunger and thirst all the way to the finish, but we of the Aburame Clan feed our insects with our bodies, so we need more food and water than most people. Without those two things, I definitely won't last until the end. That's why we can't just keep sprinting. Finding food and drinking water in the desert is the key to passing."