In the Hokage Office in Konoha, Hiruzen Sarutobi summoned the jonin leaders of the Konoha 12-no, the Konoha 11.
He asked about each of their teams and whether they were ready to take the Chunin Ninja Exams.
In the end, all of the Konoha 11 would participate in the Chunin Ninja Exams.
Only after confirming this did Hiruzen Sarutobi breathe a sigh of relief.
Although this seemed to be nothing more than an inconsequential Chunin Ninja Exams, it was actually a different kind of Shinobi World War.
It was a competition between the shinobi villages. Each village would send its most outstanding young ninja to these joint exams, and those young ninja offered a glimpse of their villages' futures.
But could Konoha's current younger generation shoulder that burden?
In the past, the ones he had held the highest hopes for might have been Naruto and Sasuke, the last of the Uchiha bloodline.
Now, however, that last Uchiha was no longer in Konoha. Naruto was still passable, but that alone was not enough.
Fortunately, the Hyuga Clan had produced a promising genius: Neji Hyuga, the top graduate of the previous year. With his abilities, he could easily have taken the chunin assessment last year.
"Neji Hyuga, it looks like we'll be counting on you in these joint chunin assessments. Good thing I held back your application last year."
Hiruzen Sarutobi congratulated himself on his cleverness.
"Now, then, next are the young ninja from the other villages we need to watch out for."
As the hosts of these Chunin Ninja Exams, they enjoyed a few privileges. For instance, he had received the registration forms for the participating ninja from each village ahead of time.
Hiruzen Sarutobi leafed through the information on the forms, his brow furrowing more deeply with every page.
"The