424. The Written Exam

The day after the commotion, the long-awaited Chunin Exams officially began.

After a passionate speech by the Hokage, Namikaze Minato, the first phase of the exam—the written test—commenced.

This was the largest Chunin Exam in the history of the shinobi world, with all five great nations participating for the first time.

As the host, Konoha alone sent 18 teams, totaling 54 participants. Iwagakure sent 12 teams, while Sunagakure and Kirigakure each sent 10 teams.

Kumogakure, aiming to win their bet against Konoha, sent a whopping 15 teams, nearly matching the host nation's numbers.

Smaller nations outside the five great powers mostly sent two or three teams, with limited strength. Surprisingly, Amegakure sent five teams.

In total, the number of participants reached a staggering 200. To manage this, Konoha dispatched a large number of jōnin as proctors to oversee the written exam. This, however, caused significant trouble for many candidates, even accidentally affecting their own allies.

"Why does the Chunin Exam have to test this stuff?!"

Inside the exam hall, Chinō was pulling her hair out in frustration.

As the youngest disciple of the "Darkness of the Shinobi," Chinō was a prodigy in combat and possessed the powerful Blood Dragon Eye bloodline limit.

However, when it came to academics, she was an absolute disaster.

Faced with the written test, she was completely lost.

In contrast, the other two members of her team, Uchiha Itachi and Shimura Kabuto, had already breezed through the exam.

Kabuto even had time to leisurely clean his glasses with a handkerchief.

Seeing this, Chinō gave them a pleading look.

The next moment, she saw Itachi slightly tilt his head.

Then, a pair of crimson three-tomoe Sharingan eyes came into view.

With her cooperation, a surge of ocular power flooded her mind, and Itachi successfully used a genjutsu to take control of Chinō's body.

What followed was simple.

Itachi covertly controlled Chinō through the genjutsu, and within five minutes, the entire exam was completed.

The entire process was flawless, with no evidence of cheating other than a brief exchange of glances.

Of course, Itachi wasn't naive enough to think his cheating would go unnoticed by the proctors.

However, allowing cheating was one of the unwritten rules of the written exam.

The essence of the Chunin Exam was to select the strongest.

If you were powerful enough, you could even knock out all the proctors and force others to provide you with answers...

Of course, that required at least jōnin-level strength. If not, it was better to cheat discreetly.

However, among the two seed teams sent by Danzo, the one facing the most difficulty wasn't Chinō's team, but the team led by Kimimaro.

After all, Kimimaro had been imprisoned in a dungeon since childhood and had barely learned to speak, let alone read or write.

Jūgo's situation was similar.

To avoid harming others, he had secluded himself in a cave since childhood and knew nothing about the exam content.

Only Haku was slightly better off, having received some education, but it was still limited.

Despite their intense studying after arriving in Konoha, they had only managed to learn basic literacy and writing.

Expecting to pass the Chunin Exam with just six months of effort was a bit too ambitious.

As a result, their senior, Shimura Kabuto, had no choice but to step in and help.

After Chinō finished her exam, Kabuto lazily raised his hand and chose to submit his paper early.

After a strict inspection, he left the exam hall.

Soon, Kimimaro and his team noticed a small bug crawling toward them.

Prepared, they quickly covered the bug with their hands and, under the guise of scratching their ears, placed the bug inside.

The next moment, the bug in their ears emitted vibrations that only Kimimaro and his team could hear.

"Listen, the answer to the first question is..."

Under the watchful eyes of the proctors, the three kids, who had been standing still until now, suddenly picked up their pens.

With a burst of inspiration, they completed the exam in just 30 minutes.

Most of the time was spent guiding them on how to write...

And so, the two teams Konoha had high hopes for managed to pass the first phase.

Just as Kimimaro and his team breathed a sigh of relief, a loud explosion echoed from outside the exam hall.

All the proctors immediately tensed up, thinking an enemy had launched an attack.

Their eyes turned toward the rising black smoke outside.

In that instant, Deidara, who had been smirking earlier, swiftly snatched the exam paper from the Iwagakure ninja sitting next to him.

He then proudly wrote his name on the name section.

This was also part of Onoki's plan.

The old man, known as the "Fence-Sitter," knew full well that Deidara's personality made it impossible for him to pass the written exam.

So, he sacrificed the Iwagakure candidates sitting near Deidara, using their papers to ensure Deidara, their trump card, could advance to the second round.

The clay explosion was used to distract the proctors, creating an opportunity to swap papers.

As it turned out, Konoha did allow a certain degree of cheating.

Although they knew the explosion outside was Deidara's doing, they chose not to investigate further, merely glaring at him.

After all, their orders were to ensure that all the seed candidates from the other villages advanced to the second round.

While they didn't understand the reasoning, the moment they heard it was Lord Danzo's command, they immediately vowed to complete the task.

Thus, under Deidara's contemptuous gaze, he successfully completed the written exam.

Additionally, other notable candidates also passed the written exam without incident.

Whether it was Temari, the daughter of the Kazekage, or the seed candidates from Kumogakure, they all made it through.

Overall, the elimination rate for the written exam wasn't high.

Rather than testing the candidates' knowledge, it was more about assessing their ability to gather intelligence.

As long as the cheating wasn't blatant, the Konoha proctors generally turned a blind eye.

Seeing this, Danzo, who had been observing the entire situation with his Byakugan, finally smiled.

He clapped his hands and addressed the candidates who had successfully advanced to the second round:

"Congratulations. What awaits you next is—"

"The Forest of Death!"