The Land of Lightning is located in the northeastern plateau and mountain region of the Shinobi Continent. The Cloud Village, in turn, is built amongst the highest peaks.
The towering mountain ranges block the moist air brought by monsoons from the ocean, causing a large amount of rainfall to gather on the mountainsides.
This not only makes the air very humid but also results in deafening thunder echoing through the mountains from time to time.
Furthermore, due to the high-altitude plateau environment, the air is relatively thinner compared to other countries, and ultraviolet radiation is intense. Consequently, most ninjas from the Cloud Village have dark skin tones.
Of course, as the saying goes, everything has two sides. While the plateau environment presents some inconveniences for the Cloud ninjas, it also offers significant advantages.
For instance, Cloud ninjas living here, having adapted to the low-oxygen environment, generally develop stronger physical constitutions.
This is one of the reasons why nin-taijutsu flourishes in the Cloud Village.
Under the covert surveillance of Cloud Anbu, Uchiha Kazuhiko toured the Cloud Village and found it truly lacked entertaining places.
There were only numerous, rugged mountain peaks. However, mountain climbing enthusiasts would certainly find ample enjoyment here.
Uchiha Kazuhiko first familiarized himself with the specific locations and environments of the various exam venues for the Chunin Exams.
Then, he sampled some of the Land of Lightning's specialty snacks on the village's food street. Finally, he replenished part of his ninja tool supply at a weapon shop before returning to the inn to cultivate.
Over the next two days, examinees from other villages arrived one after another. On May 26th, after all examinees had arrived, the Cloud Village sent personnel to notify everyone of the Chunin Exam contents.
This Chunin Exam, much like the one hosted by Konoha in the original story, was divided into three stages.
The first stage was a written exam for initial screening, aimed at eliminating those ninjas who lacked even basic theoretical knowledge and intelligence-gathering skills, thereby shortening the overall exam duration.
The second stage was a team-based mountain forest combat exercise, testing teamwork and comprehensive combat ability. According to past convention, about half of the examinees would be eliminated. Only powerful teams or those with good luck could advance to the next round.
The third stage was random individual matches, the genuine(?) battles presented for the viewing pleasure of high-ranking officials from various countries.
This was the ultimate purpose of holding such joint exams, making it exceptionally cruel. Many examinees died because of it every year.
After the notification was delivered, Uchiha Kazuhiko learned the time and location of the first written exam tomorrow at 8 AM, in the Third Lecture Hall of the Cloud Ninja School.
...
Early the next morning, examinees wearing various forehead protectors gathered at the Cloud Ninja School, waiting for the exam to begin.
Uchiha Kazuhiko stood among the dense crowd of examinees, curiously observing the participants.
As the hosts, the Cloud ninjas had the most participants, nearly a hundred in scale. Although a large portion of these were just there for the experience, aiming to gain some early exam insight to improve their chances in future Chunin Exams.
The second largest group came from the Rock Village, longtime rivals locked in a love-hate relationship with the Cloud. They sent nine teams, presumably to suppress the Cloud teams, sweep the top rankings, and embarrass the host village.
Next was Uchiha Kazuhiko's Konoha. Besides him participating alone, there were six regular three-person teams. Their strength was noticeably weaker compared to the other major villages, which was likely why the village specifically assigned Uchiha Kazuhiko from the Anbu.
After all, Konoha was the largest ninja village. Failing to even make the top rankings would significantly damage its prestige.
After Konoha came the last major village the Sand Hidden Village.
Having suffered heavy casualties in fierce battles with Konoha during past Shinobi World Wars and later facing military cuts imposed by the Land of Wind's Daimyo, the Sand Village adopted an elite strategy, training only a small number of elite ninjas. Thus, they only sent five teams to this exam.
As for other smaller villages, they sent at most two or three teams. Some weaker minor villages could barely muster a single team for the exam.
Soon, Cloud proctors arrived on the scene. They ushered the examinees into their respective exam halls, checked their credentials, distributed the test papers, and announced the rules for the first exam.
"The exam duration is one hour. There are twenty questions in total. Cheating is not allowed. Early submission is not permitted. Those who finish must wait quietly in their seats until the exam ends..."
"If cheating is discovered, the entire team will be disqualified. Additionally, after results are posted, if any member of a team fails, the entire team will also be disqualified..."
The proctor sternly finished explaining the rules and declared the first stage of the Chunin Exams officially begun.
Uchiha Kazuhiko skimmed through the test paper. He found that half the questions tested basic genin-level knowledge, albeit with tricky wording that could easily lead to mistakes if one wasn't careful.
The other half contained advanced chunin and even jonin-level knowledge. Unless an examinee possessed knowledge far beyond a genin's, or resorted to covert means to copy answers from Cloud staff disguised as examinees, they would be eliminated.
The Naruto world was, after all, primarily combat-oriented.
Even a jonin's knowledge base wasn't excessively large, focusing more on the practical application of that knowledge.
Back in his academy days, Uchiha Kazuhiko had used his spare time to read all available books in the school library.
Thanks to the rote memorization skills honed by nine years of compulsory education in his previous life, while he couldn't recite them word for word, remembering the key points was effortless.
These advanced questions were difficult for others, but for Uchiha Kazuhiko, they were trivial. It took him only half an hour to easily write down all the answers.
After finishing, Uchiha Kazuhiko looked up and began observing the other examinees.
There were top students like him, answering silently; there were struggling students scratching their heads, unsure what to do; and there were clever individuals already employing various methods to cheat.
Fifty examinees were spread out across the semicircular lecture hall, with considerable distance between them, almost eliminating the possibility of ordinary visual cheating unless one possessed dojutsu like the Byakugan or Sharingan.
Therefore, examinees who wanted to cheat had to use special ninjutsu or tools.
The slightest mistake would be detected by the chunin proctors, resulting in the entire team's disqualification.
"Examinee 47, cheating. Entire team fails."
"Examinee 53, cheating. Entire team fails."
"Examinee 69, cheating. Entire team fails."
Although cheating was prohibited from the start, the proctors turned a blind eye to the first few attempts.
Only particularly obvious methods or getting caught multiple times would get a team ejected.
After several teams were removed, the cheating examinees became more cautious. Coupled with the proctors' leniency, they managed to write down their answers smoothly.
Time ticked by. By the exam's end, only over a hundred examinees had completed their papers.
The papers were handed over to the proctors for grading, and results were quickly distributed. Uchiha Kazuhiko scored 97 points, smoothly passing the first stage.