The first stage of the Chunin Exams was a written test, held at the Hidden Leaf Ninja Academy.
Sitting in the familiar classroom, Shinji propped his head on his arm, leisurely gazing out the window.
Soon, three proctor-sensei entered the classroom, distributing test papers while announcing, "The exam lasts two hours. A score of sixty is required to pass. If any member of a team fails, the entire team is eliminated!"
In Shinji's team, Haku and Karin were also in this classroom, but their seats were shuffled—one placed in the front row, the other in a corner.
The three exchanged a glance, each understanding the other's intent.
It wasn't just them; other teams were similarly arranged, with members scattered across the classroom despite being in the same exam room.
Soon, Shinji received his test paper.
Glancing at the contents, Shinji grew even more certain, thinking to himself, "Same old tricks!"
The test's difficulty clearly exceeded the level of a chunin, and combined with the rule that one failure meant the entire team's elimination, it wasn't hard to deduce that this written exam was testing the participants' ability to gather and transmit intelligence, as well as their teamwork precision.
Realizing this, Shinji activated his Sharingan, searching for the planted decoy among the examinees.
He quickly locked onto his target and, relying on the Sharingan's powerful insight, effortlessly completed the test.
Then, using the brief moment when all the proctor-sensei looked away, he seized the opportunity. With the finesse of throwing a hidden weapon, he silently passed a paper ball containing the answers to Haku and Karin.
In other exam rooms, candidates also displayed their unique skills.
Some used ninja tools like mirrors or puppets, others employed ninjutsu or dojutsu, and there were even those using rarer methods like ultrasonic waves.
The purpose of the first written exam was merely to screen candidates.
As long as one grasped the essence of the test, passing wasn't particularly difficult. After all, everyone was a shinobi, and to some extent, they had all studied methods of gathering and transmitting intelligence.
Of course, there were exceptions.
In one exam room, Naruto was scratching his head in frustration. As time ticked by, less than half an hour remained until the submission deadline.
Yet the test paper in front of him remained blank.
"What do I do? Am I going to drag Sasuke and Sakura down and get us all disqualified?"
Naruto grew increasingly panicked.
Forget a test exceeding chunin-level difficulty—even a genin-level test might not guarantee him a passing score of sixty.
"No way, I can't let them down!"
Gritting his teeth, Naruto resolved to take a risk and peek at the test paper of the candidate beside him.
"Hey, you're cheating!"
Just as Naruto leaned over, a proctor-sensei's scolding voice rang in his ear. He froze in his seat as if struck by lightning, sweat pouring down.
But then, the proctor walked past him to the candidate sitting behind Naruto, eliminating that candidate and their teammates for cheating.
Whew
Naruto wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, exhaling in relief.
Though he'd escaped disaster, his predicament remained unresolved, and the submission deadline was drawing closer.
Sasuke and Sakura were equally anxious.
Sakura, being a natural scholar, could easily score a passing sixty on her own without needing to gather intelligence.
Sasuke, with his Sharingan, had already completed his test.
Their anxiety wasn't for themselves but for Naruto, who was still struggling. Their seats were too far apart to pass answers under the watchful eyes of the three proctor-sensei.
Sakura looked at Sasuke, her eyes filled with worry.
Sasuke glanced at the time—only ten minutes remained until submission. If they didn't get answers to Naruto soon, their team's elimination was certain.
So, he steeled himself and activated his Sharingan's genjutsu, controlling all three proctor-sensei. Then, he tossed a paper with the answers to Naruto.
The other candidates in the exam room, seeing Sasuke pass answers right in front of the proctors, began to gloat, expecting his entire team to be disqualified.
But even as Naruto started copying the answers, the three proctor-sensei showed no reaction.
One candidate, realizing something, suddenly shouted, "The proctors are under genjutsu! Hurry and copy!"
Before his words fully landed, a fourth proctor appeared in the room and said to the shouting candidate, "You're cheating!"
As this fourth proctor appeared, the candidates in the room were shocked. No one had expected that each exam room had not three, but four proctors!
The caught candidate protested, "I didn't do anything!"
The fourth proctor replied, "You disrupted the exam room's order. Per the rules, unfortunately, you and your teammates are eliminated!"
The candidate's teammates stood, angrily pointing at Sasuke. "It was clearly Uchiha Sasuke who used genjutsu on the proctors! Why are we being eliminated?"
The fourth proctor smiled. "My job is to maintain exam room order, nothing else. Besides, there's no rule prohibiting the use of genjutsu on proctors!"
"You—"
The candidate and his two teammates were left speechless.
Upon reflection, they realized the first exam's rules indeed didn't prohibit attacking or deceiving proctors.
In other words, if one could silently control or subdue the proctors, it was a valid way to pass the first exam.
Ding-a-ling
At that moment, the bell signaling the end of the exam rang.
Unlike in the original timeline where he submitted a blank paper, Naruto managed to complete his answers at the last moment, narrowly passing the first exam without incident.
Afterward, statistics showed that over a hundred candidates, along with their teammates, were eliminated for cheating, scoring below sixty, or submitting blank papers.
These candidates were mostly from smaller villages like Hidden Grass, Hidden Waterfall, and Hidden Sound.
It wasn't that the five great shinobi villages cheated; rather, the smaller villages' training systems were less refined, and their shinobi often specialized unevenly, lacking the intelligence-gathering and transmission skills of those from the great villages.
All candidates who passed the first exam then proceeded to the second exam site outside the Forest of Death.
As Shinji had predicted, the second exam would take place within the Forest of Death.
The Forest of Death was already a standard location for Hidden Leaf's practical combat drills, and given the current harsh conditions in the shinobi world, holding the Chunin Exams far from the village wasn't feasible. Thus, the Forest of Death became the only choice.
Perhaps because this Chunin Exam was an earlier version of the one from the original timeline, when the examiner announced the rules involving the "Heaven and Earth" scrolls, Shinji felt a wave of familiarity wash over him.