Just after Akira announced the end of the three hours, Gaara, Rock Lee, and Yugito found themselves seated on the stage of the auditorium.
Though they had been pushed to exhaustion inside the Genjutsu world, their bodies here were refreshed—only a faint mental fatigue lingered. None of them minded.
Even without defeating each other, all three still carried the lingering thrill of battle.
Akira opened his eyes as well, exhaled deeply, and rose to his feet. The other three participants beside him also stood one by one.
As for the rest of the participants—those who had already been eliminated in the Genjutsu world were no longer on stage, unable to endure the full three-hour period.
Akira took the microphone from the Jonin instructor and addressed the crowd.
"Hello, everyone. I hope the three-hour Genjutsu was a wonderful experience for you all—and for me as well.
Now, we have our final three contestants who passed the fourth round. We'll conclude this round by announcing their scores."
He raised his hand slightly as the screen shifted behind him.
"First place goes once again to Yugito, who scored a total of 320 points. She defeated six people in this round, so that becomes a six-time multiplier. 320×6 is 1,920 points. Everyone, please give Yugito a round of applause."
The crowd roared in approval. Yugito merely smiled, a quiet, self-assured one, and ignored the noise around her.
Akira continued.
"Second place for this round goes to Gaara, who scored 270 points and eliminated four people. 270× 4 is 1080 points. Give Gaara a round of applause."
The audience cheered again.
"And third place goes to Rock Lee," Akira said, glancing at the screen. "He scored the highest raw points individually—620 points. However, Rock Lee did not eliminate anyone. So his final score of this round is 620 points.
A wave of disappointment passed through the Konoha section, but Lee simply lifted a thumb and declared proudly, "This is youth!"
A few quiet laughs spread through the hall.
Akira smiled and resumed. "Now, for the final standings. To determine the overall victor of this exam, we add all previous round scores."
The screen brightened.
"Yugito had previously scored 1,800 points. Adding her 1,920 from this round, she firmly holds first place with a staggering 3720 points."
A new applause erupted.
"Second place goes to Gaara. He previously held 850 points, and after adding today's results, he secures the second position with 1930 points."
"And third place goes to Rock Lee. Although he was second in the third round, his score this round brought him down to third with 1920 points."
Akira lowered the mic slightly.
"And with this… the fourth round and The Joint Chunin Exam ends."
---
As soon as Akira finished speaking, the entire auditorium erupted into applause.
But unlike before, this applause didn't last for a few seconds—it continued for three full minutes.
Those three minutes were respect.
Respect for the children who fought bravely.
Respect for Konoha for hosting such a grand and flawless event.
And respect for Akira—who had organized and conducted the entire Chunin Exam with almost no help, despite being at the age where he himself could have participated.
Two minutes into the applause, a loud shout echoed from somewhere in the hall.
"AKIRA!
AKIRA!
AKIRA, THE PHANTOM OF KONOHA!
AKIRA, THE PHANTOM OF KONOHA!
AKIRA, THE PHANTOM OF KONOHA! "
And then another.
And another.
Within seconds, the entire audience was chanting his name.
Everyone knew Akira hadn't participated because he was too strong—strong enough that his presence would have ruined the fairness of the exam. Naturally, the ninja from every village admired him.
Akira smiled at the roaring crowd.
Slowly, the applause and chanting died down.
Akira lifted the mic and spoke gently, "I thank everyone for participating in this exam and making it a success. We will now end today's event… with a special performance from one of our nation's most beloved actresses—Ayame Kisaragi."
The crowd exploded into cheers again.
Akira bowed to everyone, then stepped off the stage. Behind him, the top three—Yugito, Gaara, and Rock Lee—waved to the audience, earning yet another round of applause.
A few minutes later, Ayame Kisaragi and her performance group arrived on stage, giving a show so spectacular that the audience demanded encore after encore. They performed twice more before Akira finally had to escort the actress and the performers away so the program could conclude.
Only then did Akira officially announce:
"Thus ends this year's Joint Chunin Exam."
One by one, the thousands in the auditorium began to leave, until only the Kage and high-ranking delegates remained. Akira stepped forward once again.
"Well, respected Kage and honored representatives… the Five Kage Summit—or, if you prefer, the diplomatic council—will be held in three days, at the Hokage's office. I invite you all to attend."
With that, Akira gave a final bow and left the auditorium.
---
Outside, he found all his old Ninja Academy friends waiting—Naruto, Sasuke, Sakura, Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Kiba, Shino. Beside them were Neji, Tenten, and Rock Lee, who was still surrounded by congratulations.
Lee had been the only student from Konoha to pass this Chunin Exam, even if he finished third. No one minded. Everyone knew that if Lee wanted to win, he could have easily eliminated several contestants in the Genjutsu world.
But he didn't.
That wasn't who Rock Lee was.
He let defeated opponents go in the name of youth.
Seeing Akira approach, everyone turned toward him with bright smiles, congratulating him for hosting such an incredible event.
Naruto and Sasuke were still disappointed by their own results, and the fact that they hadn't reached the finals. But seeing their teammate Lee being cheered for five to six straight minutes, hearing the entire Konoha personally chant his name… they couldn't stay sad.
They had seen Lee's effort—every day in the Academy, during missions, during training.
Even at fourteen, Rock Lee already had the strength of a Jōnin.
And if he opened the Sixth and Seventh Gates with killing intent… he could momentarily reach the strength of an Elite Jōnin.
After celebrating together, they all went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant. Akira ate with them happily, but when he finally returned home, he found his mother waiting with another freshly prepared dinner.
So Akira sat down once more, eating with his mother and father, talking about the exam and the applause and the chaos of the day. Only after everything quieted did he return to his room, close the door, and sit on his bed.
For a moment, he remained silent.
Then he whispered:
"System…
Start Enhanced Daily Simulation…
World Naruto."
---
AUTHOR'S NOTE
Hello everyone!
With this chapter, the Chūnin Exam arc finally comes to an end. I genuinely tried my best to make this version of the exam livelier and different from the original work—and I feel that I managed to do that fairly well.
I know I skipped the perspectives of several important characters among the Konoha 12. For example, I didn't write about Yamanaka Ino's elimination in the fourth round, or Inuzuka Kiba's scene, and many others. If I included all of those, this arc would have stretched on for 3–4 more chapters, and I didn't want to bore anyone by dragging it out unnecessarily.
Another reason is that I'm still not confident enough to handle a massive arc where I show everyone fighting at the same time. Maybe in the future I'll be able to write something on that scale, but for now, I can only manage smaller arcs without disrupting the main plot. In that sense, I consider myself a bit inferior to those fan-fic writers who can write something like the Marineford War or the Fourth Great Ninja War across 50–60 chapters while keeping the flow tight and the hype consistent.
The main reason for writing this author's note is to let you all know that I have exams on the coming Sunday and the next one—on the 7th and 14th. So I'll be preparing for them, meaning the chapter release frequency will drop for a bit. I think that's fair, considering I posted 40–50 chapters just last week, and that amount of writing takes about 3–4 hours every day. I need a short break now.
So for the upcoming days, I might post only one chapter a day, or sometimes I might not be able to post at all. I hope you can keep up with the slower pace for a while.
Thank you all once again for reading up to this point—and please wish me good luck for the exams!
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