A pale-faced examinee slowly raised their hand. His teammates sat beside him without speaking, merely bowing their heads deeply.
Immediately after, one after another, a few more trembling hands rose from behind the desks.
Ibiki called out names and the proctors quickly stepped forward to lead away those who had raised their hands, along with all the members of their respective teams.
Among those being taken away, one person squatted on the ground and cried when they reached the classroom door, only to be silently helped up by their teammates and dragged into the hallway.
Time ticked away, second by second, as Ibiki's gaze swept over the examinees who still remained in the classroom.
"There is one minute left before the tenth question begins. Does anyone else want to quit?"
No one spoke and not a single hand was raised again.
Sakura sat in her seat, her clenched fists trembling slightly on her knees. She glanced at Sasuke and Naruto, then took a deep breath and gripped the pen in her hand tightly.
Ibiki looked at the remaining twenty teams of Genin and was silent for a moment.
The next second, the menacing scars on his face spread out as he smiled.
"Now, based on everyone who remains, I hereby declare that you have all passed the first exam."
In an instant, the heavy atmosphere in the classroom disappeared.
"Huh?"
"Why?"
Everyone was completely baffled, having no idea what was going on.
Ibiki looked at the bewildered crowd and explained, "As Chunin, you may be sent to execute missions under any environment and in any situation in the future. Quite a few of these missions will involve highly opaque intelligence and unpredictable high risks."
"Ninjas who do not want to accept risks, dare not take on heavy responsibilities, and can be easily dissuaded by others will ultimately pass the casualties of the entire mission onto the comrades they were supposed to protect. We do not need such people to become Chunin."
"You have made your choice and have passed. Congratulations, there are even more difficult trials waiting for you next."
Just then, the glass of the classroom window was shattered into pieces. A figure wearing a mesh top leaped in from outside the window and landed on the podium.
She had violet hair tied into a ponytail at the end and wore a beige trench coat over her shoulders, which was open at the chest, revealing a metal mesh shirt underneath.
Mitarashi Anko.
Konoha's Special Jonin, the proctor for the second stage of the Chunin Exams, and also Orochimaru's student.
Anko, holding a dango skewer in her mouth, looked around the classroom at the twenty-odd groups of candidates, then turned to Ibiki with a grin.
"Out of over sixty registered groups, twenty groups actually remain. Ibiki, are you being too soft this year?"
Since Naruto did not make any shocking declarations like he did in the anime, there were a few less groups now compared to the anime.
Ibiki looked at Anko expressionlessly. "There are quite a few outstanding prospects this year."
Anko looked completely indifferent. "Doesn't matter. For the second exam, I will eliminate half of the people."
The crowd in the classroom, who had just breathed a sigh of relief, was choked up by Anko's words.
Cut by half?
The second exam hadn't even started, and she had already announced in advance that half would be eliminated.
Anko spread her arms and flashed a wide grin at all the candidates. "I am the proctor for the second exam, Mitarashi Anko."
"The first round is over. You trash, don't just lounge around on the floor wasting time. Follow me immediately to the location of the second exam."
—
Forest of Death.
Trees dozens of meters high blotted out the sky, their branches intricately intertwined, allowing almost no complete sunlight to filter through. Even at noon, the forest was incredibly dark.
From deeper in the forest, the faint roars of some creatures and the sounds of startled birds taking flight could be heard.
"This is the venue for the second exam, the Forest of Death."
Anko walked in front of everyone, a stack of documents appearing in her hand at some point.
She shook the stack of papers. "Before officially entering the Forest of Death, everyone must sign this consent form. You might very well die in there, and if you don't sign, I'll be held responsible."
"What a drag."
Shikamaru sighed, muttering as he was the first to walk up and sign his name.
Following that, each team stepped forward in turn to sign, and no one spoke another word.
After they finished signing the consent forms and returned to the queue, Anko had the proctors bring out two boxes, opening the lids in front of everyone.
The left box was stuffed with scrolls labeled Heaven Scroll and the right with scrolls labeled Earth Scroll.
"The rules for the second exam are very simple."
Anko said, pointing to the Forest of Death behind her, "Each of your teams will be randomly assigned a scroll. There is a tower in the center of the forest. Any team that can gather a set of both the Heaven Scroll and the Earth Scroll and bring them to the tower within five days will be considered to have completed the task."
"There is only one rule: the scrolls cannot be opened before reaching the tower. Any team that opens them without permission will be immediately eliminated, and all members will be escorted back to the starting point."
***
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