Chapter 273: The New Year's Chunin Exams
"A team is already out of the running so quickly!"
Baki's words seemed to carry a hint of pleasant surprise...
Regardless of what Sakura was complaining about in her head regarding the Sand's temporary leader, this temporary leader of their allied nation changed the subject and explained to Tsunade:
"This is a safety measure we've arranged..."
According to the Sand Village's arrangements, each team of candidates would bring a set of scrolls into the examination hall. However, these were not item-scrolls to be fought over, but life-saving distress scrolls: when faced with a crisis that could not be handled, unfurling the scroll was a declaration of withdrawal. The jutsu formula on the scroll would summon a proctor to rescue them.
Compared to Konoha's method of throwing the rookies in and not caring whether they lived or died, the Sand's way of doing things seemed to be more popular.
Baki waved his hand, and an Anbu member from behind stepped forward, fiddled with a few switches on the TV wall on one side, and brought up the footage captured by the monitors hidden in the valley.
One of the screens was rather blurry and was constantly shaking, and the sound of footsteps could be heard.
"This is the content filmed with a portable monitor," Baki said, his body leaning slightly forward, getting closer to the TV wall. "We've found the team that unfurled the scroll."
The screen stabilized for a moment. It was a proctor, holding the camera steady with his hand, filming the team that had sent the signal: a young ninja was lying on the ground, his face purple and red, unconscious. He had clearly fallen for a virulent poison-trap set by the Sand Village.
"Which village's team is it?"
In the footage, the proctor injected the poisoned ninja with an antidote. The candidate's forehead protector flashed across the display. Tsunade and Baki already had their answer.
"Hn... it seems it's a Konoha ninja," Tsunade said faintly.
For a Konoha team to become the first team to be eliminated, it was a bit of a loss of face for her.
This was also because, in the past year, due to the shortage of manpower, the outstanding new talents had all been promoted. In order to accelerate talent growth, there was nothing wrong with this approach, but the quality of this year's candidates had instantly dropped a lot.
Otherwise, if she had sent any one of Hinata's team, Neji's team, or Shikamaru's team, they would have crushed these rookies in minutes.
"Hehe, why didn't your village send those outstanding genin from last year to participate in this exam?" Baki asked, looking at the somewhat embarrassed Tsunade, who had lost face.
The Fifth Hokage stared at the monitor. In the picture, the purple-red color on the Konoha candidate's face quickly faded. She let out a breath and only then did she answer, "This is a Chunin Exam held in the Sand Village. We, naturally, cannot steal the host's thunder."
Baki was instantly at a loss for words.
The verbal sparring between the two village leaders had ended with the tongue-tied Baki's small defeat.
But in any case, the fact that a Konoha team had been eliminated first was a fact that could not be refuted, no matter how sharp-tongued one was.
The second exam lasted for three days.
On the second day, Konoha, which had sent three teams, had another team eliminated—this time, they had encountered Sand ninja and had been defeated in battle.
Those idiots. Sakura had recognized them from the monitor. They were her juniors from the Ninja Academy, a year below her. Their strength was considered not bad among their peers. Perhaps inspired by the brilliance of the few rookies from last year, they had come to participate in the Chunin Exams just after graduating. As a result, they were miserably defeated by the Sand's genin, greatly disgracing Konoha.
Speaking of which, the most outstanding of Sakura's next-year juniors was no better than the worst of the Konoha 12. That group of rookies was clearly overconfident.
Fortunately, the other side, mindful of the alliance between the two villages, had not dealt a killing blow. Otherwise, with Tsunade and Baki sitting up there, the atmosphere would probably have been very stiff for a long time.
Fortunately, the only remaining team was both brave and resourceful, and had finally passed the second exam safely.
In contrast, all three of the Sand's genin teams had passed. Not a single one had been eliminated.
Although she had the excuse of "not wanting to steal the host's thunder," Tsunade still felt that the scene was a bit ugly. The faint smile on Baki's face these past few days had made her very angry. Haruno Sakura had even given her the bad idea of suggesting that Naruto immediately rush over to participate in the exam. The Fifth Hokage had almost been moved.
We, Konoha, are just giving you Sand Village some face. Tsunade comforted herself. Otherwise, if we had sent our Konoha's strongest genin...
The schedule for this Chunin Exam was relatively tight. After the second exam was over, there was only one day of rest before the third exam began.
It was a rare trip to the Sand Village, but she hadn't been able to walk around. Sakura was a little regretful.
Even on the day of rest, she had to follow behind Tsunade. While Tsunade and a group of Sand Village bigwigs were in a secret meeting in the conference room, she and Shino had to wait outside the door, bored to death, unable to speak, and unable to move around freely.
Standing with them were the Sand's Anbu. Everyone was wearing a mask or a face veil, so their true faces could not be seen. Because they were too bored, the Anbu from the two villages had already started a staring contest.
Sakura did not know what Tsunade and the Sand-nin had talked about. She only knew that when Tsunade had walked out of the meeting room, her expression was elated, and she had clearly gained a lot. She had even patted her on the shoulder and nodded at her.
Haruno Sakura's previous actions had clearly given Konoha another bit of confidence.
It was just that the girl, who was the key, was in a fog, completely mystified.
The third exam arrived as scheduled. And as Tsunade had expected, the Konoha ninja did not achieve any outstanding results.
The final match of the individual competition was a Sand-nin civil war. Konoha had only taken third and fourth place.
But Tsunade's mood was still quite good. Apart from the smooth progress of the previous meeting, what was more important was that although the new talents were not as skilled as others, the spirit they had shown was still very much in the Konoha style.
Then again, the fact that the Sand's candidates in this exam were so strong, it was not necessarily without any tricks. The simplest was to deliberately not let a few very strong ninja be promoted, and then have them participate in the exam in the name of genin. Then they would naturally sweep through everything, attracting the attention of the entire audience.
This kind of thing was an unspoken understanding among the five great villages and the various small ninja villages. Whichever family's turn it was to host the Chunin Exams, they had to be given some face. It was probably like that.
Did Konoha not have such tricks?
In any case, Haruno Sakura knew at least one example.
And it was an acquaintance of hers! She wouldn't say the name, lest everyone be embarrassed.
The Chunin Exams came to a successful conclusion without any accidents. Tsunade secretly breathed a sigh of relief. The Sand-nin should be thoroughly convinced.
When they returned, the Hokage left with the candidates.
Sakura's close protection mission had changed to bringing up the rear of the team, along with Shino and another squad that had been covering the rear before.
There were four people in total, with three people protecting the three directions at the rear.
Haruno Sakura was at the very back. She was the strongest one, responsible for supporting the Anbu in front if they encountered an enemy.
So it wasn't until Tsunade had set off for some time that she would leave the Sand Village.
After Shino and the others had also begun to set off, Sakura was the only Konoha ninja left in the Sand Village.
She sat in a dessert shop, ordered a cold drink, and idly fiddled with her fingers.
"Are you not going back yet?"
A clear female voice, which was a little familiar, suddenly came from behind.
Sakura turned her head and saw that it was Temari who was speaking. Kankuro and Gaara were beside her.
"I'm covering the rear, so I have to set off later," she said, smiling faintly at the three of them. She looked at the sky. "It's not urgent yet."
"The ninja who cover the rear are generally the strongest ones. It seems you are really strong," Kankuro said, sizing up the slender girl in front of him. Her pretty appearance was too deceptive. In his impression, a strong person should be eight feet tall and have a waist circumference of eight feet, and at best, should also carry eight puppets.
Haruno Sakura just smiled reservedly, her laughter light and clear, like a mountain spring. This was also a huge departure from the barbell-like laughter Kankuro had imagined. At the very least, she should be as fierce as my old sister! he thought.
Regardless of this guy whose mind was running wild...
"SakD-ra, I didn't get a chance to give this to you before. This is the garnet fine sand you wanted, and there's also a small bag of silicon carbide sand inside." Gaara took a step forward and handed a bag to Sakura.
Adding some fine sand as an abrasive to the water blade could enhance its cutting ability. Sakura had wanted to try this effect, so when they had met before, she had specially asked Gaara for help, asking him to create a batch of sand.
Gaara continued, "This silicon carbide sand you mentioned is indeed much harder than ordinary sand. Its effect on my ninjutsu is very astonishing. But it has to be ground from the rare moissanite. It's too expensive, and the quantity is too small. Hn..."
"Have you tried to make it yourself?"
"I'll research it when I have time..." Gaara shook his head. The regular forces had many missions, and he just didn't have the time to research this now.
"Alright, alright, how can you still talk about ninjutsu when you're saying goodbye," Temari repeatedly interrupted the conversation between the two. "Come and visit us again when you have time! Although it's very windy and sandy here, there are also many fun places!"
"After the Chunin Exams are over, I have a small vacation. I'd like to go traveling too."
Women really aren't as enthusiastic about training and strength as men... Haruno Sakura sighed almost imperceptibly.
Then Temari actually took out a tourist map and showed Sakura a few scenic spots. "For example, this grand canyon."
She paused for a moment, thought about it, and then crossed it out with an eyeliner pencil. "Uh, on second thought, forget it... That was originally a particularly beautiful place, but in the first half of the year, I don't know who was causing trouble there. A small part of the stone forest was destroyed. Now the scenic area has been blocked off and is not allowed to enter."
As for who the culprit was, we won't say the name here, lest it be embarrassing.
"Here, the Pearl Oasis. This group of oases is as beautiful as a string of pearls. And here, this is an ancient ruin. Almost no one has been there. It's worth a visit..."
After a few sentences of idle chat, Sakura bade them farewell.
As she walked out of the main pass of the Sand Village, Sakura fiddled with the map that Temari had stuffed into her hand.
"Traveling?" Haruno Sakura didn't have that kind of leisure time, but it wouldn't be bad to take a look on the way if she was on a mission.
"Pearl Oasis? That's the oasis we searched during a mission, right? I've already been there."
"This ancient ruin, hn, what's it called? The ancient kingdom of... if it's on the way, I can go take a look."
She muttered to herself and disappeared from the sight of the Sand-nin guarding the gate with a Body Flicker.
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