"First off, for the second test! Congratulations on passing!"
At this moment, Anko's eyes fell on the twenty-one remaining candidates as she thought.
'Among the 78 participants, 21 have gotten this far! When I said I'd cut them in half, I was expecting single digits.'
At this moment, Naruto, Kiba, Hinata, Shino, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Sasuke, Sakura, Neji, Tenten, Lee, Kabuto, Sound Trio, Sand Trio, and Kabuto's teammates stood in front of Konoha Jonins, Chunis, and Hokage.
While everyone was staring at each other, Might Guy, standing next to Kakashi, spoke.
"Your team isn't too bad. Maybe they were lucky. But as long as my team is around, getting any farther is impossible!"
"Since now it's all about reality. Well, with Youth there are sweet times and sour times, eh Kakashi!"
But after he finished speaking, Kakashi turned towards him and said.
"Huh? You say something?"
Guy's expression changed drastically as he clenched his fist and thought.
'Heh… Not bad, my Rival Kakashi! You're cool in that way, and it really gets on my nerves.'
At this moment, the Third Hokage stared at the group of Genin in front of him and thought.
'For so many of them to get this far. No wonder they nominated them!'
He looked back at Guy, Kakashi, Asuma, and Kurenai as he thought to himself.
"Hokage-sama will now explain the Third Test. Listen carefully!"
Anko shouted into her microphone.
"Now, Hokage-sama, Please!"
Third Hokage smoked as he spoke.
"Before we talk about the third test, I would like to talk about something else. It concerns the true reason for this exam."
"Why do we have all the alliance countries taking the exam together?"
This question surprised Naruto for a split second before his brain started sending him new piece information about the Chunin Exam.
What stunned him was seeing his son cheat in the finals of his Chunin Exam. The thought of having children with Hinata instantly burned his nerves.
His head started smoking red.
But before anyone could notice, he quickly shook his head. But one certain individual who was keeping her eyes on him did notice.
This perplexed her, but she didn't say anything. Not like she could.
"To promote friendship among countries." "To raise the level of shinobi."
"I don't want you to be confused about the true meaning. This exam is a replacement for war among the allied countries."
This stunned almost everyone, but few understood it or just ignored it.
"What does that mean?" Tenten asked with sweat dropping from her cheeks.
"If you go back in time, the current allies were enemies who fought each other over who would rule."
"To prevent wasteful fighting, the stage that these countries chose for battle is the stage for the Chunin Selection Exam."
At this moment, a question popped up in Naruto's head. This wasn't just his curiosity but the curiosity of the memories he received.
"Then, why didn't the First Hokage just make it mandatory for All Five Great Ninja Villages to have Chunin Exams together?"
"Wouldn't that have solved all wars?"
This question suddenly brought silence to the room. Even the Third Hokage didn't expect Naruto to ask a question like that.
Kakashi looked at his student in surprise while Third Hokage thought about it from the perspective of Naruto's question.
He didn't care why Naruto asked this question; instead, he answered it.
"Because when he was Hokage, the Chunin Selection Exam hadn't been introduced. It was only established during the regime of the Second Hokage."
Naruto blinked his eyes.
He couldn't help but feel ashamed of not knowing that.
'Damn it! Who the hell passed this information to my dream? Don't you even know the basic history?'
What he didn't realize was that everyone thought of this question from a different perspective, which was why this brought so much silence in the room.
After all, the First Hokage was the one who ended the Waring State Period. Because of this, if he had made such a rule, it might have been possible.
But many of them shook their heads immediately, as this wouldn't stop countries from fighting each other.
"It is a fact that this exam decides which shinobi have what it takes to become a Chunin."
The Third Hokage spoke.
His voice brought a deafening silence as he continued.
"But at the same time, this exam has another side where each country's shinobi risks their own lives to protect their land's prestige."
"Prestige?"
"Watching the third exam will be leaders and influential individuals from many countries who make up the client of the shinobi."
"And the leaders of the countries will also be there to watch each of your battles."
"If the strength of a country is clear, that country will receive more clients. And conversely, if seen as weak, they will lose clients."
"And this will signal to potential enemy countries that our village has this much power. So, it will send a political message to the outsiders."
Hearing that, Kiba shouted, especially feeling bad about facing someone like Gaara in this exam.
"Yeah, but why? Why do we have to risk our lives in battle?"
Iruka watched his student shout in silence as the Third Hokage explained.
"The strength of the country is the strength of the village. The strength of the village is the strength of the shinobi."
"And a shinobi's true strength is born only through life-risking battles."
When Naruto heard about that, he couldn't help but widen his eyes.
Whether it was his battle with Haku or Orochimaru, he had felt that he had grown significantly.
But now, he began to falter over whether those memories were just dreams.
Because dreams couldn't affect reality, but those experiences had made him stronger.
Sasuke and Sakura's doubts weren't wrong.
Those experiences, although not complete, had given him far more control over his Chakra.
Even if his physical body was the same, his spiritual energy had exponentially grown without losing much control over the Chakra.
This was weird.
At this moment, a voice rang in his head.
"Boy, do you really think that was just a dream?"