9:15.

In the light blue sky, the sun has risen to a certain height, leaving a hint of sultry heat in the air of Konoha Village.

On a dark path leading to the secret door of Konoha, with dense trees and dense trees, even the sunlight could not be reflected, the sound of soft footsteps could be heard on the road.

The man who appeared on the path was wrapped in a black windbreaker, his head lowered, and the shadow cast by the hood attached to the collar covered most of his face.

In front of it is a low wooden door. Unlike the main entrance of Konoha, this low wooden door can only allow two people to pass through in parallel.

When he was about to approach the wooden door, the figure raised his head slightly.

In front of the wooden door, a figure stood.

Several figures of Konoha ninja fell at his feet. Judging from the fact that they were still breathing and had no obvious signs of fighting, they were probably knocked down by some kind of magic spell due to carelessness.

.

"Is it Sasuke Uchiha?"

The figure standing guard in front of the wooden door was also dressed in pitch black, with a mask covering his face, and spoke in a deliberately fabricated deep voice.

Obviously, he didn't want others to know his identity.

Nodding, Sasuke revealed a handsome and fair face, as well as a pair of eyes that could no longer contain themselves and began to turn bright red.

"It's me. Are you the one who contacted me?"

Sasuke asked.

The man did not answer, but took out a folded map from his pocket and handed it to Sasuke.

"This is the facility distribution map of Konoha today. The village has changed a lot since you left it."

Sasuke took the folded distribution map with a thoughtful look on his face.

"Then I'll take my leave."

The man formed a seal with his hands and disappeared in front of Sasuke in a puff of smoke.

Sasuke didn't pay attention to the man's departure. He just gently pushed open the wooden door and stepped into the dark tunnel without saying a word, blending into the darkness.

◎

9:30.

Candidates participating in the Joint Chuunin Examination arrived at the 307 classroom of the Konohagakure Ninja School's teaching building one after another half an hour ago, and met there.

A total of more than two hundred candidates came to this large classroom without any mistakes. Even if there were more than two hundred people in the open space, it would not seem crowded.

There was not a single soul on the playground outside the window.

Although it is not a holiday time, considering the special nature of the Chunin Exam, the Ninja School has closed one day in advance to make room for the candidates taking the exam.

The official exam time is at 10 o'clock in the morning, lasts for one and a half hours, and ends at 11:30.

Judging from the layout of the classroom, it is obvious that this is the same written test as in previous periods.

It mainly tests the ninja's academic ability and intelligence gathering ability.

In a quieter corner of the classroom, Hanoko, who had followed Naruto to take the Chunin exam, couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, as if she really couldn't muster any motivation for such an exam.

This is natural. Although she is several years younger than Naruto, she is a genuine chuunin in terms of position level. She is expected to become a jounin in the village before she is twenty years old. In addition, she is an ANBU candidate. From the perspective of prospects

It can be said that the future is promising.

As a result, she had to accompany someone to take such a childish exam. If it hadn't been for her superiors' orders, she would have been leisurely at home at this time, casually enjoying a sumptuous morning tea.

Whether it is her own academic ability or intelligence gathering ability, it is a very simple thing for her, and she can complete it alone without relying on her teammates.

However……

Hanoko glanced at Naruto, who looked very calm but was probably already panicking inside, and couldn't help but feel a hint of helplessness in his eyes.

"Hey, Naruto-senpai, it's just a written test, there's no need for you to be so nervous. You can pass a test of this level if you just take it a little seriously, right?"

She couldn't understand why someone could fail such a simple test.

Couldn't even a ninja pass it in one go?

"Yes, yes, well, as long as I show one percent of my ability, I can easily pass this exam. No problem at all!"

Naruto patted his cheek hard to encourage himself to fight, as if he was afraid of being looked down upon by juniors like Huonoko, so he spoke very forcefully and sounded like he was gritting his teeth.

"Then, Naruto-senpai, please prepare well. Sai-senpai and I can't give you much help in this exam. There are only two answers that we can pass on to you. The rest of the answers, Naruto-senpai, you have to do yourself.

Do it alone.”

As special candidates, she and Sayi already knew the questions and answers for the first exam in advance.

During the exam, the two of them will pass the correct answers to Naruto in a way that is consistent with ninja abilities, and then they can rest and end the Chunin exam.

Because they won't take the second and third exams at all.

The same goes for Naruto.

Otherwise, given their ability, it would be really unfair to the other candidates to take part in subsequent exams.

Especially Naruto, it will seriously destroy the balance of power among the genin.

"I know, even if I am alone, I will complete the exam."

No matter whether these words came from his heart or not, Naruto still didn't want to admit defeat in front of his juniors.

You must never say something like, "I'm not good at anything like written tests." It's really embarrassing.

He only hopes that the questions in this written test will not be too difficult.

"Now you all sit down in your seats. I am Nara Shikamaru, the examiner of the first exam. You have one minute to complete."

The person who said this was Shikamaru who had arrived in the classroom at some point.

He said this to all the candidates in the classroom.

Next to him were Temari and other examiners, who were scanning the audience with majestic eyes.

The originally noisy classroom immediately fell silent.

After the candidates looked at each other for a while, they walked to their assigned seats according to the admission ticket numbers they had already received.

"Well, good luck to you, Naruto."

Zuo Jing smiled slightly and left the team first, walking to a seat not far away.

Then his eyes inadvertently lingered on the examiner Shikamaru for a moment, the smile on his face slowly disappeared, and a pair of inorganic eyes were full of intriguing thoughts.

"I'm going over first too, Naruto-senpai, please work hard."

Hanoko patted Naruto on the back, walked quickly to his seat and sat down.

"What? Everyone is looking down on me. It's just a written test. Look, I'll surprise you this time!"

Naruto muttered unhappily, and even after sitting down in his seat, his face still showed a look of reluctance.

After all the candidates sat down, the examiner who came with Shikamaru began to distribute test papers, followed by mechanical pencils, erasers and other basic answering tools.

The test paper only has one side, with the back facing up and the front facing down, so it is impossible to see clearly what the questions on the paper are.

"Okay, you guys don't open the test papers yet, it's time to explain the rules. The rules of this exam are..."

According to the exam rules that had been drawn up long ago, Shikamaru read them clearly and clearly one by one, so that all candidates could understand the specific form of the rules.

Just reading out the rules took Shikamaru two minutes.

This exam has more rules than usual, and there are some strange things just from the literal meaning.

However, experienced candidates know that these strange-sounding rules are deliberately made by the examiners and have a deeper interpretation that is different from the superficial rules.

As long as it can be interpreted smoothly, the difficulty of the exam will be reduced by at least half.

Therefore, when Shikamaru read the rules aloud, not a single candidate made a sound. They all listened extremely carefully and tried to keep every rule in mind.

After reading the rules aloud, Shikamaru quickly glanced at the faces of the candidates and asked calmly: "These are the rules of this exam. If you have any objections, you can raise them now."

Seeing that no examinee raised his hand to speak, Shikamaru nodded, not knowing whether he was satisfied or dissatisfied. He just took out an alarm clock, placed it on the most conspicuous edge of the podium, and pressed the switch.

"Since there are no objections, then from now on, there are still fifteen minutes before the official exam, so you should keep these rules in mind."

As he said that, Shikamaru sat down. Except for Temari and a few other examiners, the other examiners were scattered in other corners of the classroom. They stared at each examinee with sharp eyes, making the examinee who was stared at sit still for a moment.

Uneasy.

◎

Weaving through the crowd like a ghost.

Although Sasuke looked very strange because he was wearing a dark trench coat in broad daylight, the passers-by seemed not to notice this and did not pay any attention to him.

Sasuke ignored these unresponsive passers-by, his goal was very clear.

After walking about a hundred meters, Sasuke suddenly looked up and looked at an apartment building. Without hesitation, he used the platform to jump to the water tower on the roof of the apartment building that was twenty or thirty meters high.

There was no one here, so Sasuke opened the hood on his head, untied the cords of his windbreaker, and let the windbreaker peel off from his body and fly to the ground with the wind.

As if his whole body had been liberated, Sasuke took a deep breath of the air here.
To be continued...