Chapter 434: The Preliminaries
12:30 PM.
The three members of Team 7 hurriedly rushed to the Ninja Academy.
"Why was the 3:00 PM exam suddenly changed to 1:00 PM?" Naruto complained in dissatisfaction.
"Naruto, stop whining."
Naruto propped his hands behind his head: "The academy is so quiet. Don't tell me we're the earliest ones here!"
"Huh!"
Sakura suddenly gasped, startling Naruto and Sasuke. Following her gaze, they both froze in their tracks.
On either side of the Ninja Academy's main entrance, a couplet had unexpectedly been put up.
The first line: Konoha Chunin Exams
The second line: Creating happiness with your heart.
"Happiness?" The three looked at each other in sheer bewilderment.
"Tch! Just cheap parlor tricks." A moment later, Sasuke knit his brows, stepped forward, and pushed the door open.
The moment the academy doors swung open, the scene in front of them completely warped. As if stepping into a brand-new world, a hundred-meter-long corridor materialized before their eyes. The floor was completely paved with a dense matrix of black, red, blue, and green grids, making one's head spin at a glance.
"Is this... a Genjutsu?" Sakura muttered. She instantly formed the Tiger hand seal: "Genjutsu: Release!"
"It's useless, Sakura," Sasuke said calmly. "This is probably the first stage of the exam. A Genjutsu like this won't be broken so easily..."
"This is the first exam?" A grin curled onto Naruto's lips as he took a massive stride forward. "Awesome, it's actually not a written test!"
"Wait, Naruto—" Sasuke wasn't fast enough to stop him. Naruto's foot landed squarely on a red grid, and the surrounding walls instantly flashed with a brilliant red light symbolizing danger.
"W-What happened?"
"You absolute idiot, Naruto. These grids definitely have some kind of mechanism to them..."
The flashing walls went still, and a line of black text suddenly manifested: You have encountered a swarm of Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals. Danger Level: 1. Crush them!
"Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals?"
The scene shifted once more, and the three found themselves standing inside a completely sealed, enclosed space.
There was no one else in the room except for two... pieces of seafood. A giant lobster and a massive crab waddled forward to launch their attack.
"So we have to beat these two monsters to keep moving forward?" Naruto nimbly dodged a swipe from a lobster claw, flashing a radiant grin. "This is so much fun!"
...
Meanwhile, the other candidates were experiencing their own unique trials.
Rock Lee had stepped on a green grid that perfectly matched his attire. The three members of Team 9 were penalized by having to hold their noses and spin a hundred times on the spot... Tenten and Neji seriously contemplated beating Lee up first before trying to see if they could escape the punishment.
"Meow~ This cat advises you not to. This is the old scoundrel's Genjutsu; a bad egg like him is probably begging for you to resist..."
The three looked at each other. Lee twitched his thick eyebrows: "Tenten! Neji! Let us compete to see who can finish a hundred spins first!"
Tenten's face warped in profound misery: "Fat Cat, is there really no other way?"
...
Toneri stepped on a black grid. The three members of Team 11 had to loudly confess the truest desire of their hearts before they could continue moving forward.
The three looked at one another, the atmosphere growing exceptionally awkward.
They had to do a 'heart-to-heart'?
Toneri didn't mind much; his feelings for Hinata were common knowledge anyway. Sai scratched his head, not particularly caring either. As for Hoshino... the tiptoes she was standing on flatly touched the ground.
...
Kankuro stepped on a blue grid. The Sand trio received a reward: Leap forward fifty meters.
However, when Kankuro tentatively stepped on the next blue grid, the three were sent right back to the starting point.
...
In a certain secluded corner of the Ninja Academy, Masahiko sat with his eyes tightly shut, his face full of grins.
"How interesting. The deepest desire in Hoshino's heart is actually that? No wonder..."
"Neji can actually use Section Rotation while holding his nose. Impressive, truly impressive."
"That absolute dimwit Naruto actually thinks the Shrimp Soldiers and Crab Generals are fun? And he's still stepping on red grids? Come on out then! Third Prince of the Eastern Sea Dragon King!"
...
Outside the school building, a heavy contingent of Anbu and various Jonin instructors completely surrounded the Ninja Academy's training grounds. Hundreds of exam candidates stood entirely rigid on the spot, deeply trapped within the Genjutsu.
The space distorted, and Obito's figure materialized beside Kakashi. "I didn't expect Master's Genjutsu to be this powerful, to be able to test so many people simultaneously."
Kakashi turned his head to speak: "Why was this sudden preliminary round added, and why is Senior acting as the examiner?"
Obito blinked: "Master said the number of candidates participating in the Chunin Exams is too high, and some genin lack sufficient strength, making it easy for them to lose their lives. So, he wanted to weed out a batch beforehand."
Kakashi instantly recalled the 'Chunim Exam Prediction Betting' from the past couple of days and fell silent, deep in thought. This was highly beneficial to Team 7, and besides... he had also placed a bet.
The foreign Jonin instructors standing nearby actually harbored quite a few grievances regarding this, but no one dared to step forward and voice an objection. The principle of 'Masahiko shooting the bird that sticks its head out' was something they all deeply understood.
...
Within the Genjutsu.
After expending quite a bit of effort, the three members of Team 7 finally defeated the Third Prince of the Dragon King.
Just as Sasuke and Sakura let out a sigh of relief, their faces simultaneously turned pitch black. Naruto had stepped on yet another red grid: "Hey! Hey! What's the next monster?"
Black text manifested: You have encountered the Eastern Sea Dragon King. Danger Level: 3. Crush him!
"The Dragon King? Is that the father of the Third Prince from just now?" Naruto muttered.
Sasuke looked at the colossal sea dragon in front of them that clearly looked exceptionally ferocious, the corner of his mouth twitching violently: "Naruto, you absolute moron!"
Sakura nodded in vehement agreement: "Total moron!"
The two had already made up their minds: the moment they beat the Dragon King, they were going to pin Naruto to the ground and hold him there.
...
As time ticked away, half an hour passed, and the first group to clear the stage finally emerged—Tenten's team.
Their method of clearing the stage was simply 'smashing through'. They designated red grids and stomped their way through them line by line. After the Fat Cat shredded the Nezha Third Prince into pieces with a single swipe of its paw, the three finally stepped out of the Genjutsu.
Led by a Guy who was shedding tears of hot-blooded emotion, the three children and one cat marched directly into the written exam room.
"We are the very first ones, Fat Cat!"
"Meow~ You have this cat to thank for that. You guys might not have necessarily beaten that Nezha Third Prince just now. Based on this cat's understanding of the old scoundrel, those who lose would probably be sent straight back to the starting point..."
The Fat Cat knew Masahiko incredibly well. Team 7, along with numerous other squads, had indeed been sent back to the starting point multiple times...
After Naruto was thoroughly thrashed by Sasuke and Sakura, the three restarted their journey.
Gradually, a good portion of the candidates managed to figure out the underlying pattern and successfully passed the test.
In particular, Shikamaru, with his 200+ IQ, had completely analyzed the rules.
"Red tests combat, blue tests luck, green tests physical endurance, and black tests team trust! Every time you step on the same color consecutively, the difficulty for the next one scales up, so we can't step on the same color too many times... But there must be a ceiling to the difficulty; beating the maximum difficulty can likely get us out too!"
Choji continuously munched on his potato chips, bearing an expression that clearly said 'I have no idea what you're saying, but Shikamaru is amazing'.
Ino blinked and let out a sigh: "So what should we do now?"
Shikamaru hesitated for a brief moment. Their team's mutual trust should be more than sufficient, but having to loudly speak one's inner thoughts was incredibly troublesome.
"Let's do it this way: red three times, green three times, black twice. For the remaining distance, if our luck is good enough, a single blue should do it!"
...
Time flowed, and it reached 2:58 PM.
On the training grounds of the academy, the remaining two hundred or so candidates simultaneously snapped awake from the Genjutsu.
"Regrettably, you failed to break out of the Genjutsu. You have been eliminated!" Obito announced loudly.
A heavy silence fell over the grounds.
Before these failed candidates were kicked out of the Genjutsu, they had caught sight of a final line of black text: The right of final interpretation for this preliminary round belongs solely to Masahiko Uzumaki, Great Elder of the Land of Whirlpools. If you have any objections, crush them!
The meaning behind it was something they all understood perfectly.
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