Yamato's capture did not cause a major stir within Konoha Village. Due to the information being suppressed, even Sasuke, Naruto, and Sakura were unaware that their acting squad leader had been abducted. They simply assumed that Captain Yamato had once again been temporarily reassigned to an ANBU mission. Such occurrences were not uncommon.
Within the village's higher echelons, Uchiha Misuke, Captain of the Military Police Force, quickly provided an explanation on behalf of the Uchiha clan regarding the incident. She presented a full account of Uchiha Hiroomi's defection years ago, along with their suspicions regarding Uchiha Obito. After hearing the Uchiha clan's report, Tsunade didn't pursue the matter further, merely dispatching a small number of ANBU operatives to covertly investigate any related leads.
With the Chunin Exams fast approaching, the entire village's focus and resources were now shifting towards this major event.
Several days later, prominent figures such as the Daimyo of the Land of Fire, the Fourth Kazekage of Sunagakure, the Fifth Mizukage of Kirigakure, and the Kusakage of Kusagakure, among others, all arrived secretly in Konoha Village one after another.
The Chunin Exams officially began.
The first stage of the Chunin Exams was held at the Konoha Ninja Academy. This stage was a written test, with Morino Ibiki as the head proctor. The exam consisted of nine questions. Crude methods of cheating were forbidden, and anyone caught five times would be eliminated. The primary purpose of this test was to assess the Genin's fundamental abilities and their aptitude for intelligence gathering and reconnaissance. The final, tenth question was designed to test the Genin's teamwork and resolve; those who didn't give up would pass.
The results of this first exam differed somewhat from what Tatsuya knew of the original timeline; over eighty, nearly ninety, individuals passed. All twelve members of the "Konoha 12" successfully advanced.
Three days later, the second stage of the Chunin Exams commenced. The objective of this stage was to obtain a pair of Heaven and Earth scrolls within five days and reach the designated destination tower within the Forest of Death. Unlike the original timeline, perhaps because Mitarashi Anko had now become the Jonin leader of Team Eight, she was not selected as the head proctor for this exam. Instead, another beautiful kunoichi, Uzuki Yugao, took on the role.
A total of nine teams, comprising twenty-seven individuals, successfully passed this stage. Among them, Konoha Village accounted for twelve spots, Sunagakure had six, Kusagakure also had six, and Kirigakure had three.
In this stage of the competition, the performance of the three major hidden villages was largely unsurprising to the observers. Among them, Konoha's participants naturally shone the brightest. The members of Team Seven and Team Eight essentially secured their qualification with ease, barely needing to exert their full strength. Sunagakure's performance was respectable; Gaara's team was ferocious and dominant, but their other team stumbled somewhat, ultimately passing with a certain degree of luck. Kirigakure's performance was the weakest. After years under the influence of the "Bloody Mist" policy, Kirigakure's pool of talented young ninja had dwindled significantly. They had barely managed to scrape together a few teams to participate, and only one team managed to pass the second stage of the Chunin Exams. One of the members of this successful Kirigakure team was Suigetsu Hozuki.
Apart from the three major hidden villages, Kusagakure's performance was a pleasant surprise to many. The number of ninja from this small hidden village who passed was equal to that of Sunagakure, and they had three more successful candidates than Kirigakure. Moreover, judging from the performance of Kusagakure's six participants, none of them were weak; they hadn't advanced to this stage through sheer luck.
After the grueling second exam, all the remaining participants were given a two-day rest period. Then, the third stage of the exams began. The head proctor for this stage was the "Kidney-Deficient Man," Gekko Hayate. The third exam was divided into two rounds: the first round consisted of preliminary elimination matches, and the second round was the main tournament. The rules for the preliminary elimination matches were simple: one-on-one combat. Winners advanced, losers were eliminated. The second, main tournament round would also feature one-on-one matches determined by drawing lots. However, the final judgment of whether a ninja would be promoted to Chunin wasn't solely based on victory; participants would be comprehensively evaluated based on their overall performance.
The twenty-seven participants in the preliminary round were divided into thirteen combat pairs. Originally, one person was supposed to receive an automatic bye. However, one participant from Kusagakure voluntarily withdrew. This individual was none other than Kabuto Yakushi, disguised under the alias "Kazuki." Just as in the original timeline, this fellow was still unwilling to excessively expose his true strength.
After thirteen intense matches, eleven individuals successfully advanced to the final round, with two matches ending in a draw. Among these, the match between Sakura and Ino ended in a double knockout. Due to Tatsuya's influence and training, both their strengths had improved compared to their original counterparts, yet they were still unable to definitively defeat each other.
It was only at this point that the main event of the entire Chunin Exams truly began. The remaining eleven contestants were the ones with a genuine chance of successfully passing the Chunin Exams and achieving promotion. In the preceding matches, discerning observers had already noticed that the seeded contestants from the three major hidden villages had not yet faced each other. And in the first round of elimination matches, Kusagakure, which had performed so impressively in the survival test, had seen all six of its remaining contestants eliminated. Now was the critical moment for the true strength of the major hidden villages to be displayed. Amidst the roar of countless cheering spectators, a series of spectacular duels was about to begin.
While the Chunin Exams were proceeding in full swing in Konoha Village, far away, on the isolated islands of the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps, the situation was one of tense, almost palpable anticipation.
Starting from a year ago, the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps had closed all their ports, completely severing all contact between the two island nations and the mainland. Simultaneously, within the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps, the movement of all individuals, whether ordinary citizens or ninja and samurai, was severely restricted. Anyone residing within the borders of the two countries could only live within designated, demarcated areas. The circulation of commerce and the supply of essential goods were entirely managed by the Priestess's Palace and Ansei Hall. There had been some who attempted to resist these stringent measures, but they were all… "physically persuaded" to comply. Coupled with the fact that the Priestess already possessed extremely high prestige and reverence within the two countries, the general populace did not engage in large-scale rebellion. A semblance of surface peace was maintained.
However, as time went on, the people living in these two countries gradually began to feel a growing sense of oppression. This oppressive feeling didn't stem from the restrictions on their freedom of movement, but rather… from the sky itself. People seemed to constantly feel a vague sense of pressure emanating from a certain direction in the sky. And that direction was Demon Sealing Mountain. The closer one was to it, the stronger this oppressive feeling became.
At this moment, the area within a ten-kilometer radius of Demon Sealing Mountain, which was already sparsely populated to begin with, had been completely isolated. No one was allowed to approach, including officials and soldiers from both the Land of Demons and the Land of Swamps.
Standing in the distance, people could clearly see a colossal, divine tree soaring towards the heavens. At the very top of the God Tree, a large flower bud was visible. Judging from its current form, it seemed it was not far from blooming and bearing fruit. At the base of the God Tree, countless massive roots, like writhing dragons, delved deep into the earth.
Beside the God Tree, the Ancor Vantian fortress hovered silently. On the central plaza of the fortress, Pakura, Guren, Shion, and Amaru stood quietly, their heads tilted upwards as they gazed at the flower bud at the apex of the God Tree.
Guren's voice sounded, a hint of unease in her tone, "Teacher, when on earth will Brother Tatsuya and the others finally emerge?"
Pakura replied softly, "It should be soon, I think." Her words, however, also carried a strong undercurrent of uncertainty.
Behind Pakura, Guren, Shion, and Amaru all wore expressions of deep worry and confusion. Regarding the God Tree, and what Tatsuya and his core group were currently doing, the four women were largely uninformed. But just from the oppressive aura emanating from the God Tree, they all felt a heavy weight in their hearts, a sense of foreboding they couldn't shake.