Naruto: As a genin, I just want to live a normal life.

Page 15

The examination hall for the Chunin Exams was very large, capable of accommodating 150 candidates—but at this moment, there were only about 50 candidates, making it seem somewhat empty.

Matt Day stood in the aisle at the back of the classroom, hands on his knees, slightly out of breath.

"Thank goodness, I made it in time."

"Hey~ Dai, I'm worried about your strength~" Uchiha Mikoto pressed one hand to her forehead, striking a pose like a pampered young lady. "In that case, I'll be a Chunin before you~"

The blond-haired pharmacist, Nonou, stood to the side, her lips twitching slightly.

Mikoto is such a show-off! Even more so than Shirahoshi-sensei!

Yakushi Nonou sighed softly, turned her head, and noticed the examinees sitting in their seats: she saw Shirahoshi-sensei and his teammates sitting in the third row, and subconsciously wanted to greet them.

"Hey, Mikoto. What a coincidence, you're participating in this year's Chunin Exams too. This must be your genin teammate, they're such a good match~"

"Yan, that's enough. We and Mikoto are all candidates for the Chunin Exams, there's no need to say these things."

"Fengye, what Yan said makes sense. We've all heard that Mikoto joined a class led by a genin, and I've always been curious about it~"

"Aren't you right, Mikoto?"

She wore a black high-necked outfit, completely covered in patterns identical to those on Mikoto Uchiha's clothes.

The girl with long, straight black hair looked at the girl named Uchiha Fuu, who had a slight conflict with her and was quite pretty. Then, Uchiha Mikoto's gaze swept over the other two.

"Fengyi, Yan, Fengye, it's been a long time."

—The Uchiha trio.

"It's been a long time, hasn't it?" Uchiha Kaede, taking advantage of being three years older than Mikoto, walked up to the girl with long black hair like a friendly older sister, put her arm around Mikoto's shoulder, and whispered in Mikoto's ear, "Two years ago you defeated me in a sparring match, which is why I'm still a genin."

"This grudge,"

"I can return it to you today."

Even after she finished speaking, Uchiha Fuu-i maintained the gentle smile of a girl next door, showing no sign that her words were a threat.

She spoke again, in a voice loud enough for everyone to hear, and continued, "If you don't understand anything during the exam, I can help you!"

"Of course, cheating is not allowed~"

Mikoto Uchiha glanced at her older sister from the same clan, who was three years her senior, and said without any mercy, "Sorry, but this time, you'll probably have to stay in the genin position again."

"Don't put on this fake act for me, it makes me want to vomit."

"you!"

"Alright! Fengyi. Do you still remember that incident?" Uchiha Fengye frowned, crossed his arms, and adopted the image of an older brother. "Becoming a Chunin depends entirely on survival of the fittest."

"If you can't win this year, then think about the next one."

"Instead of blaming Mikoto here, she was just completing the training her grandfather had given her."

"Heh. So, I'm just a training exercise?"

"Hey, hey, hey—of course, that's not what Feng Ye meant." Uchiha En quickly started to act as a peacemaker. "Although those records might affect the higher-ups' impressions of us, they still look more at our strength."

"You're right, aren't you, Fengyi?"

"Hmph!" Uchiha Fengyi completely ignored Uchiha Yan's good intentions and went straight to a row of exam seats to sit down.

Uchiha Feng was somewhat helpless, but back then, he had just graduated from the clan and was easily defeated by Uchiha Mikoto, who was only nine years old. If it were him, he would probably also be traumatized.

Uchiha Fu apologized to Uchiha Mikoto, then grabbed Uchiha Yan, who was still about to say something, and sat down next to Uchiha Fuyu, waiting for the proctor to come and distribute the exam seating list.

After the three left, Yakushi Nonou approached Uchiha Mikoto and whispered, "Mikoto, is she your friend?"

Might Guy almost tripped and fell over on the spot, displaying his anime-like demeanor. "Nonou, how did you figure out you're friends?"

"But aren't they from the same clan?" Yakushi Nonou pointed to the clothes of the three Uchiha, whose markings matched those on Mikoto's clothes.

“Even within a clan, relationships aren’t always friendly.” Mikoto said with a hint of sadness. As the granddaughter of the only two elders, her status often attracted jealousy. Her grandfather taught her not to use her status to intimidate others, but to use her own strength to do so.

"Let's go find a seat first."

Afterwards, the three of them were not in the mood to greet Shirahoshi. Shirahoshi was pretending to chat with Shiranui Kumo, but she was actually watching this scene.

Being a rich young lady isn't easy!

As Mikoto Uchiha sat down, she recalled what she had seen a year ago: she had passed by the clan's training ground after class and witnessed firsthand the arduous training and even the strength of Uchiha Fuu-i—who had perfectly defeated a Chunin-ranked Uchiha ninja in a sparring match.

However, within the clan, Uchiha Fengyi was still not promoted to Chunin, and she didn't even get a spot in the upcoming Chunin selection.

Genin, on the other hand, could only do odd jobs in the village.

especially,

Most of the C-rank or higher missions that the Security Department undertakes outside the village require Chunin to carry out.

Without a Chunin rating, the Security Department wouldn't let a Genin like you take on a mission. If the mission fails, a lowly Genin can't afford the consequences.

-

soon,

One by one, the invigilators responsible for supervising the exam appeared, and the seating chart for the exam was posted on the blackboard. Students were asked to sit in the seats listed on the chart.

The genin began to change seats...

unfortunately.

"What bad luck. I have to sit next to you." Uchiha Fuu glanced at Uchiha Mikoto next to her. "I won't let you off the hook this time."

Mikoto frowned: "What do you mean? Isn't this an exam written?"

Uchiha Fengyi gave a cold smile, looking at her innocent younger sister in the clan, "Written test. That's just a way of putting it."

Chapter 23: Eliminations One After Another

Uchiha Fuu's words seemed to be hinting at something. Although Mikoto didn't understand at first, she quickly realized the meaning behind Uchiha Fuu's words.

On the stage, the examiner in charge of the first round of the Chunin Exams stepped forward.

"My name is Morino Hikari."

"He's the proctor for this Chunin Exams!"

"Next, the exam will begin."

"Answer all questions without harming your teammates!"

Shirahoshi rested her chin on her hand, inwardly complaining, "Why is it this old man proctoring again? Did your clan inherit the proctoring authority for the first Chunin Exam?!"

Shirahoshi glanced over and saw a Hyuga branch family boy sitting to the side, his hands nervously clasped together, seemingly praying for something.

"Father, Mother, please bless me so I can pass this exam!"

Shirahoshi revealed a dead fish eye, thinking to himself, "Do you really want to go to the battlefield to die?!" Perhaps having seen documentaries about the brutality of war, he was already beginning to experience an age gap with these teenagers who had never seen a battlefield.

Soon, the exam papers were distributed to everyone.

no doubt,

It's the kind of extremely difficult exam that even those with ninja academy knowledge would struggle to score above 90 on.

The only way is to copy the answers from the group of candidates in the exam hall who are pretending to be genin and know the answers.

There are usually two teams. Bai Xing looked at the faces of the candidates that had appeared in the past two years and mentally complained.

"It's over!" The Hyuga branch family boy next to him leaned back in his chair after reading the exam paper, his soul seemingly about to emerge from his mouth.

Shirahoshi: "......"

I really want to complain about you!

In the corner of the ceiling, a monitoring camera rotated slightly, observing the situation of each candidate facing the challenging exam questions.

"What on earth is Xiaoming doing?" In the monitoring room, a middle-aged Jonin from the Hyuga branch family rubbed his temples. Seeing his cousin's child like this, he felt that he was probably doomed in the Chunin Exams: the Chunin Exams were not just about strength, but a comprehensive analysis to determine whether someone was a qualified Chunin.

In addition, the number of spots is limited. Judging from the number of participants in this assessment, there can be a maximum of two teams of Chunin spots – that is, six people.

"He's probably too nervous. After all, he just graduated and he's already here to participate in the Chunin Exams," said a Jonin leading the team.

"However, there are sixteen teams participating in this exam. I wonder how many teams will be eliminated in the first round." Suddenly, Yuhi Shinku said, watching Yuhi Ryuun smoothly write her answers on the screen.

"You've probably all realized that exams are more than just answering questions, haven't you? Hehehe—"

"Anyway, my second class will definitely pass." Sarutobi Shinnosuke completely failed to notice that the cold voice behind him wasn't from the teacher leading the exam team, but rather was intently watching his own group. The Ino-Shika-Cho trio began cooperating to complete the exam: Yamanaka Taichi spotted several people writing, smoothly completed his answers, and then used the 'Mind Transfer Technique' to switch bodies, starting to copy the perfect answers from the provided pages. He then let Nara Hajime and Akimichi Yuumi cheat...

"Orochimaru. What are you doing here?" Upon hearing the familiar voice from the middle, Hiruzen Sarutobi didn't turn around, but merely turned his head slightly to glance behind him.

At this moment, a cold-looking man leaned against the wall, arms crossed, a slight upturn on his icy lips.

He wore a headband and earrings that represented his unique personality. His eyes were wide open, looking like those of a fierce python hiding in the forest.

"I heard that there was a genius girl from the Uchiha clan taking the exam this year, so I came here specifically to see her."

"And I heard that girl is even a student under that Shirahoshi genin..."

"Isn't this a very interesting thing?"

Feng Yi's Jonin, Uchiha Keishin, turned around, completely unafraid of this young Jonin who had earned his name as the Cold King on the battlefield. He opened his three-tomoe Sharingan, a feature unique to Jonin Uchiha, and met the snake's gaze.

"The geniuses of the Uchiha clan are not something Orochimaru, a Jonin, needs to worry about."

"We will raise him well."

Upon hearing this, Orochimaru quickly waved his hand, "Don't misunderstand, I'm just interested in geniuses."

"I already have a favorite disciple, and with my daily tasks, I don't have time to train another disciple."

"Hmph." Uchiha Keishin closed his three-tomoe red-and-black-and-white eyes and turned back to look at the examination hall.

The teachers leading the group around exchanged resentful glances, thinking to themselves that the struggle between the Hokage faction and the Uchiha clan never seemed to end.

......

"The answers are all written down. Now, it's time to eliminate people."

"It's really troublesome."

Shinnosuke asked his team to demonstrate their teamwork skills—not just in answering test questions.

In the fifth row of the classroom, Nara Yu, with a good view, glanced at the examiners monitoring their exam on both sides, and began to form hand seals.

The proctors pretended not to see anything, but the corners of their mouths were already turning up. They thought to themselves that the first exam's battle of genin had finally begun, but they didn't expect that it would be this year's freshmen who made the first move.