Seven days passed quickly, and the final stage of the Chunin Exam officially began.
In fact, usually, there is a gap of one month between the Death Forest and the start of the third stage.
The reason why it was extended to a week this time was because the Death Forest stage of the Chunin Exams was not open to outsiders in the past, and only in the third stage would the daimyo and the powerful and wealthy businessmen in the ninja world be required to participate.
That one month is used to invite people, and this time people are invited in advance, so naturally there is no need to give the candidates a one-month rest time.
There is another problem. We can't let the Daimyo and those Kage stay in Konoha and do nothing for a month.
There are sixty-six candidates, two people in one match, for a total of thirty-three matches.
Fortunately, ninja battles are generally quick and the results can be decided soon, otherwise with so many games, I'm afraid we wouldn't even be able to finish the first round on the first day.
The choice of venue for the Chunin Exam was the same as before, an arena that Konoha had built long ago. The audience seats were composed of a circle that decreased from top to bottom, and this venue had always been used for the Chunin Exam.
The newly built circular viewing venue was modeled after this arena.
Just like before, Nagase sat on the top floor and watched the game with the Kages. Although he was the examiner, he was not a referee, so he just had to watch the game. Nagase arranged for Kakashi to be the referee.
The drawing of lots was completed in the Death Forest. The players were ranked from one to sixty-six, with number one playing against number two, number three playing against number four, number five playing against number six, and so on.
Because there are a total of thirty-three games, and the number of qualifiers is an odd number, in order to ensure the smooth progress of subsequent games, two unlucky people will be randomly selected to play another game, so that the final number of qualifiers will become an even number.
There is no such thing as a bye. This is the Chunin Exam. There is no reward no matter what place you place. It all depends on your performance in battle to determine whether you are qualified to become a Chunin.
The first match was between an Iwagakure and a Sunagakure whom Nagase didn't know, so Nagase didn't pay much attention to it.
Among the sixty-six candidates, there were twenty-seven ninjas from Konoha, eighteen from Sunagakure, nine from Iwagakure, twelve from Kumogakure, and all the ninjas from the small ninja villages were eliminated in the Death Forest stage.
More than half of the candidates are not from Konoha, so it is normal to encounter a battle that no Konoha ninja has.
It was during the third battle that Nagase saw the fight between Konoha ninjas. It was Konoha ninjas vs. Sand Village ninjas, and that person happened to be a member of Nagase's special warfare squad.
"The third battle, number five Umino Yinluka versus..." Kakashi read out the names of the candidates indifferently.
"Yin Luka..." Nagase touched his chin and thought of this Chunin teacher who had a profound influence on Naruto.
In the original history, Yin Luka's Jonin parents died in the night of the Nine-Tails, and he became an orphan.
Since then, Yin Luka's personality has changed drastically. Although he still appears to be as optimistic as before in front of his friends, when he is waiting for someone, he will cry alone.
Maybe it was because of his parents' good education, or maybe it was because he was a strong person to begin with. Although he suffered a great disaster, Yin Luka did not become a twisted person.
Finally he entered the Ninja School, chose to teach and educate, and cultivate the next generation of Konoha.
Logically speaking, he, whose parents were killed by the Nine-Tails, should hate Naruto, and hate this child who was rumored to be a fox demon.
However, facing this child who was also an orphan, Yin Luka could not feel any hatred towards him. In the end, he chose to teach Naruto well. Yin Luka contributed to the fact that Naruto could still be so optimistic.
Under Nagase's influence, the Night of the Nine-Tails did not have much impact on Konoha, so Yin Luka's parents did not sacrifice, and he still has a happy family.
At the same time, because the Jonin parents are not dead, they can teach Yin Luka about ninja. Yin Luka is a little more outstanding than the mediocre one in the original work. He also joins his special warfare class and becomes Gu Jie's disciple.
Yin Luka's opponent was a Sand Village puppeteer. Relying on his flexible movement and swift swordsmanship, Yin Luka finally seized the opportunity at seven minutes. He rushed forward and destroyed the puppeteer's puppet that was protecting him closely, and put the sword on the puppeteer's neck.
"Number five Umino Yinluka wins." Kakashi announced the result of the battle.
The winner was announced and the audience cheered. Nagase noticed that a middle-aged couple was unusually excited and loud. They looked somewhat similar to Yin Luka. They should be his parents.
From Nagase's perspective, Yin Luka's water breathing cannot be said to be strong, but it is not bad either. If he continues to practice like this, it will be a problem for him to become a Jonin. He wonders if he will even go to a ninja school to be a teacher.
But don't worry if you don't want to go. Naruto now has a happy family like Yin Luka and has parents who love him.
It was not until the eighth game that Nagase became a little more serious. It was Dou's turn to play, and Dou was number 16.
His opponent was a Kumogakure ninja with strong muscles.
Maybe it was because he became famous in the Death Forest before, everyone knew that this kid who looked like he hadn't graduated yet had impressive strength, and the cheers in the arena suddenly became louder.
His opponent, Yunyin, also looked at Kabuto with a serious expression, not daring to be careless.
Perhaps knowing that he could not defeat Kabuto, the Hidden Cloud Ninja did not try anything first, but went straight for it with all his strength, trying his best to show his skills, hoping to get a higher score from the judges, taking a gamble.
But the gap in strength was still too big. Kabuto did not show much. He just relied on a little water-style ninjutsu and the Thunder Talisman found in the Death Forest to defeat the Hidden Cloud Ninja.
In the third stage, you can use the talismans brought out from the Death Forest, except for the psychic steel talisman, which is prohibited from use.
Seeing Kabuto defeat the enemy so easily, there was a huge cheer in the arena, celebrating Kabuto's fighting prowess.
Itachi, who was participating in the competition at this time, shook his head. The first match was full of mixed people, and those people could not force out Kabuto's true ability at all.
Time quickly came to the afternoon, and it was the last match. After hearing the notice, Itachi walked into the arena. Itachi's number was sixty-six.
His opponent was a Konoha ninja who looked to be about fifteen years old, and Itachi did not recognize him.
However, Itachi didn't know him, but he knew Itachi. The strength Itachi showed in the Death Forest was not weak.
Perhaps because they were both Konoha ninjas, the fight between the two sides was not too intense. After four minutes, Itachi used exquisite shuriken throwing combined with chakra lines, and finally used a fireball to end the game.
Then two unlucky guys were randomly picked to play an extra match, and the first day of fighting was over.
The battle between the thirty-two contestants on the second day was obviously much more exciting than that on the first day. Many contestants with good strength met, and both sides fought with wits and courage in a wonderful ninja battle.
The top 16 were selected on the second day, and the top 8 were selected on the morning of the third day.
Four of the top eight ninjas are from Konoha, three of whom are members of the special warfare team. Kabuto, Itachi and Gekko Hayate have all advanced to the top eight.
Except for Gekko Gale who advanced with some difficulty, Kabuto and Itachi swept all the way and rarely were they evenly matched.
So luck is also very important. Uchiha Yong was originally almost as strong as Gekko Hayate, but in the third round of battle he met the Kumogakure who used Storm Release. The two sides fought a fierce battle and Uchiha Yong was finally defeated.
As for the rest, one person from Sand Village advanced, two people from Kumo Village advanced, and one person from Iwagakure Village advanced.
On the third day, the quarterfinals will be held in the morning, the semifinals will be held in the afternoon, the semifinals will be held on the fourth day, and the finals will be held on the fifth day.
The reason why the final is not held on the afternoon of the fourth day is because the candidates have been fighting for so many consecutive days and need a rest so that they can display their full strength and make the final more exciting.
Just as Konoha was busy with the final stage of the Chunin Exam, the ninja delegation that Nagase sent to the Hidden Mist Village to inform the Mizukage to attend the Five Kage Summit also arrived in the Land of Water.
Although Nagase knew what the Water Country was like at the moment, it was one of the five major countries after all, so Nagase still gave it face and sent a team of ten people as an envoy to the Water Country to invite the Mizukage.
The captain of this team is Shisui, the vice-captain is a senior Konoha jonin, and the other eight are all chunins, with no genin.
Because Obito controlled the Fourth Mizukage to launch the blood mist policy, the Water Country was in a blockade at this time.
However, Kirigakure did not refuse the visit from Konoha, one of the five major ninja villages.
After all, the bloody mist is not Obito's revenge alone, but a carnival for a group of people.
Although the Kage is the leader of the ninja village, he is often the strongest person in the village.
But when Ying does something extremely unreasonable, others are not without the power to fight back.
So Obito did not issue policies mindlessly. All the policies he issued were aimed at winning over one group and beating up another, so that some high-level officials could gain enough benefits, so that his policies would be supported.
For example, by suppressing the Blood Stain Family, many non-Blood Stain Family will be able to obtain the benefits of the Blood Stain Family, and those people will support him.
Obito is using a blunt knife to cut flesh, causing Kirigakure to fall into internal strife.
Although those people knew that doing so would reduce the overall strength of Kirigakure, they felt that this was completely acceptable for their own benefit.
Because Kirigakure lives far away in the Land of Water, it has no rivals on the sea, and the four major countries on land have little interest in it, so the decline in its overall strength has no impact on it at all.
Or maybe they would rather it were this way because it would allow them to take up more space.
So although Kirigakure seems chaotic, it actually still maintains order.
At least when Shisui and the others arrived at Kirigakure, they did not feel that Kirigakure was in turmoil, but just felt that the atmosphere was rather depressing.
"We want to meet the Mizukage. Please help us inform him." Shisui said to the Kirigakure ninja who met him.
The Kirigakure ninja shook his head and said coldly, "You can't meet the Mizukage whenever you want. Wait for the notification."
After saying that, the Kirigakure ninja took Shisui to an inn and asked Shisui and the others not to move around freely while in the Kirigakure Village and to stay in the inn.
"Senior Yanagida, something is wrong. The attitude of Kirigakure is too bad." In the hotel room, Shisui checked the room with the Sharingan, and then Yanagida Makoto said.
Yanagida Shin is the vice-captain of the team, a 37-year-old veteran jonin with rich mission experience.
Yanagida nodded, frowned slightly and said:
"It's not right. Although Kirigakure fought a war with us during the Third Shinobi World War, the Five Great Nations, even if they don't like it, will still do a good job on the surface and won't let this happen."
Even if he didn't take them to see the Mizukage immediately, his attitude shouldn't be so bad, and he shouldn't have restricted their range of movement.
They are not those small countries on the sea that cannot even be built by ninja villages, but they are from the Fire Country, one of the five major countries, and Konoha, the strongest of the five major ninja villages.
"Then what should we do now? Should we stay here as Kirigakure said?" The accompanying Chunin was a little panicked.
I thought it was a simple task with good rewards, but I didn't expect to encounter something like this.
Seeing that the Chunins were a little uneasy, Shisui spoke to comfort them, "It's okay, maybe because of the last war, the Kirigakure are a little unhappy with Konoha, and they want to give us a warning.
The Tsuchikage, Kazekage, and Raikage are all already in Konoha and have confirmed their participation in the Five Kage Summit. This is the general trend. Unless Kirigakure wants to go against the four great nations, the Mizukage will still participate in the Five Kage Summit."
When the Chunins heard this, they thought so too and felt relieved.
"Let's wait for two days and see what Kirigakure's attitude is in two days before deciding on a countermeasure." Shisui said after thinking for a while.
Yanagida Shinya thought that Shisui's decision was very rational and nodded in agreement.
At first, he was a little unhappy because the team leader was not him but Shisui, an underage boy. It was not that he was the kind of person who liked to take advantage of his seniority.
It was because Shisui was too young, and he was from the Uchiha clan, which was famous for its bad temper. Yanagida was really afraid that Shisui would cause trouble due to his youth and hot temper. However, Shisui's performance eliminated his dissatisfaction, and now his heart was full of admiration.
Even my favorable impression of Uchiha increased a little.
"Finally, everyone should be careful. Report anything unusual to me." Shisui reminded the team members.
Although he has the Mangekyō Sharingan, they are only a team of ten. If Kirigakure is really planning to attack them, Shisui cannot guarantee that he can take everyone away safely.
"We will." The Chunins thanked him one after another and said they would pay attention.
…
"You're not angry about this? That's such a pity." After listening to White Zetsu's report, Obito felt a little regretful.
The coldness of the Kirigakure ninjas was caused by his deliberate order, in order to arouse the resentment of the Konoha ninjas.
However, according to White Zetsu's report, his move seemed to have failed. At least the Konoha ninjas all looked very calm and had no intention of violating the rules and going out.
But Obito was not panicking, he had several plans.
The Kirigakure Ninja is not stupid. If he directly ordered the killing of the Konoha envoy, those senior elders would definitely think that he had a big problem.
Here, Obito had to thank the existence of the Anbu. Some brainwashed Anbu ninjas unconditionally followed the Mizukage's orders, even if they were unreasonable.
At that time, let the Anbu dress up as normal Kirigakure to attack the Konoha delegation, killing some and letting some go. By then, Kirigakure will have a hard time explaining themselves.
When the time comes, all the new and old grudges will be added together, and Obito doesn't believe that Konoha can endure it.
Obito would just find a high-ranking Anbu member to take the blame. At this time, the high-ranking members of the Hidden Mist Village would have no time to think so much, because the war was about to begin, and they would be forced to go to war.
When a Mizukage goes to great lengths to start a war, it's actually not that difficult.
Once a war breaks out between Konoha and Kirigakure, it will become easier to seize the Hyuga bloodline, which would be killing two birds with one stone.