By rights the Chunin Exam would invite other villages, officially to deepen friendship between the countries.
In reality it was to show muscle, and to check the ninja strength between nations.
Only that the Uchiha rose so strongly that they beat up Cloud, Rock, and Sand.
Mist Village was too far; if you didn't specially invite them they simply wouldn't show.
So these past two years Konoha ran it on its own.
It just so happened it changed to once a year, and the numbers were about the same.
Most people coming to the exam were young; the classroom was noisy.
With a rustle the classroom door opened.
Hair already streaked black-and-white, Rengoku strode in, and a few Uchiha instructors followed behind him.
Also there were Konan and Kakashi and the others.
Rengoku, being the most prominent person in Konoha these two years, needs no introduction.
Besides his strength being quietly first in the ninja world, he was now the principal of the Konoha academy and the village's senior adviser.
When he stepped into the classroom, the whole room fell silent.
Rengoku scanned the room, ignored Karin waving at him as if she weren't there, and said, "I am Uchiha Rengoku, the chief examiner this time."
"First, the rules: without permission from an examiner, private fighting will disqualify you."
After all they were of the same village; fights would be less of a big deal, but such things must be warned against first.
"The exam has two parts: the first part is a written test, the second part is field combat."
"Those who pass the field combat will proceed to one-on-one battles, and final promotion to Chunin will be decided by the composite score."
After briefly stating the rules, Rengoku announced, "We will now begin the first stage of the Chunin selection exam."
"Turn in your application forms, receive your number tags, sit in the assigned seat by number, then the written papers will be distributed."
The candidates quickly finished the previous step and were then separated into different classrooms.
Uchiha team instructors, plus Kakashi, Konan and the others handed out the papers.
The exam questions and difficulty were similar to before, fairly hard.
"The written test has ten questions, one point each; wrong or blank answers deduct one point."
"Scores will be judged by group totals…"
Rengoku continued reading; it was similar to before.
There were rules about cheating and point deductions.
The Uchiha clan opened their Sharingan to watch for cheating, the pressure was obvious.
But except for the youngest batch of the elite class, the other genin were not first-time examinees.
They all knew this tested people's ability to gather information.
The elite class students reacted fast and began using various abilities to cheat.
Sasuke used his Sharingan, Hinata and Neji their Byakugan, needless to say.
Kiba put Akamaru on his head and openly barked; after all no one but him could understand dog-speech.
Gaara used sand sensing eyes, Ino used Mind Transfer Body Switch, Shino used insects.
Shikamaru used Shadow Imitation Technique, directly connected to other candidates' shadows and copied them.
Choji had no suitable cheating jutsu, but Shino's bugs still gave her a free ride.
Kimimaro, though strong in combat, lagged in academics.
Still, with hands folded, inside a mirror showed the white test paper.
That was using Haku's Ice Release help.
Tenten hadn't prepared cheating tools for her first Chunin exam and could only grit her teeth and write.
Naruto here wasn't illiterate, but these questions weren't the kind to be answered straight off.
Naruto didn't finish many, and neither did Hotaru, Karin and the others.
They finished only a few questions and wore worried looks.
"Number 45 loses exam privileges…"
"Number 23 loses exam privileges…"
"Number 17 loses exam privileges…"
A string of announcements, everyone felt the pressure.
Of course there wasn't the lazy kind of last-question-after-45-minutes nonsense here, the test time was one hour.
Most proctors were Uchiha; Konan and Kakashi were specially transferred by Rengoku.
Konan had been a bit beaten-down these past two years, her soft nature unable to accept Konoha's darker side, immersed in false peace.
Orochimaru was very busy every day and had no time to look after Konan.
Rengoku assigning Konan to help was basically giving her work, otherwise Konan would go cabin-crazy at home.
Now that the Third Hokage was preparing to act, Kakashi's mission had finished, so Rengoku had Kakashi help here.
When the test ended, the first stage had filtered out about thirty people, leaving seventy-plus.
All the elite class were still in, though a few of them hadn't done two questions; even if not caught cheating, some things were hard to say.
Rengoku didn't mind; while his clan collected the papers he announced the afternoon exam location.
Field 44, aka the Forest of Death.
———
[The Forest of Death]
Under a massive tree root there was a pit, camouflaged; no one knew there was a passage leading underground there.
Senku and Sarutobi Ishishu sat quietly waiting.
Soon, an ANBU leapt in from outside, "Lord Ishishu, the first stage is finished."
"This afternoon Naruto will enter the Forest of Death."
"The Hyuga clan members monitoring the Nine-Tails have been identified by our investigation."
"After Naruto enters the Forest of Death, we will ambush them and create an opportunity for you, my lord."
Ishishu would be lying if he said he wasn't nervous; the Uchiha clan was no joke, and this plan itself carried extreme risk.
A small slip and the Third Hokage and the Uchiha might erupt into conflict early.
But in the present situation, waiting was the same as waiting to die.
Hiruzen would never sit and wait to die; he would fight to the bitter end.
"Understood. Go on down; notify me as soon as you have information."
"Yes!", The ANBU vanished in a flash.
Senku spoke calmly, "Patron, your mind is disturbed."
Ishishu swallowed without realizing it. Seeing Senku so unflustered, his mood gradually steadied.
"Master Senku, this Nine-Tails demon, can I confine it?"
Senku twiddled his prayer beads, "After the first confinement into a body, the demon's consciousness is in a confused state, unable to communicate or interact."
"At that time, if the demon's power is abused, it will corrode the mind."
"As long as during this period you don't recklessly use the demon's power, confinement is entirely possible."
The Sarutobi clan also had no jinchuriki records; at this point they believed whatever Senku said.
Of course, with the Third Hokage's prudence, he had considered Senku possibly taking the Nine-Tails away.
Given the present situation, even if the Nine-Tails were taken away, it would be better than it obeying the Uchiha.
Ishishu suppressed his anxiety, "Then I leave it to you, master."
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