"Lord Third, here's the list of those who passed this exam."
"Hm."
Inside the Hokage's office,
Sarutobi Hiruzen took the document, puffing on his pipe as he began to read.
The second stage of the Chunin Exams had finally concluded.
With this, those village ninjas holed up at the relay station might settle down a bit...
What a headache.
Over the past few days, the Anbu had been operating at full capacity, monitoring this group of ninjas—who practically came with their own spy attributes—around the clock.
You had to hand it to them.
These ninjas' espionage skills were no joke.
Every move they made seemed to have a purpose, especially those carefully crafted "slips of the tongue."
Take the Stone Village, for example.
They claimed they'd struck a deal with Orochimaru to take out Sakumo Hatake together, and in return, they'd help Orochimaru secure the position of Fourth Hokage...
Then there was the Cloud Village.
They said the Third Raikage, Ay, was planning to personally lead an army against the Sand Village, and as long as Konoha kept the Stone Village in check, they'd turn their forces around and share the spoils of victory with Konoha...
These claims were a mix of truth and fiction.
Verifying them required a mountain of intelligence support.
That made things even tougher for Konoha's intelligence division...
But fortunately,
Once the second stage ended and preparations for the third began, this bunch should quiet down a bit.
After all... a Chunin Exam held during wartime wouldn't allow for much prep time...
The interval, agreed upon by all the ninja villages,
Had been shortened from the usual month to just one week.
One week... How much trouble could they stir up in a place as vast as Konoha?
Sarutobi Hiruzen let out a cold chuckle and finally turned his attention to the not-so-thick stack of papers.
"Let's see which little ones passed the exam..."
Compared to the spies from other villages, the future of Konoha's children was what he cared about most.
With a sense of anticipation, Sarutobi Hiruzen flipped to the first page.
Hm.
All Konoha kids, mostly from civilian families. Looks like this batch of civilian children really stepped up!
Then the second page.
Hm... Fewer Konoha kids, but still decent compared to the other villages.
But by the third page, there wasn't a single Konoha name left... And not only that, none of the examinees from the smaller villages appeared on the list either.
Sarutobi Hiruzen frowned.
Sure enough, the genin from the other villages had teamed up to target Konoha, hadn't they?
Then came the fourth page.
The moment he flipped it open, Sarutobi Hiruzen's expression turned downright spectacular!
He hurriedly skipped past the fourth page and kept flipping, but everything after that was just casualty lists and a handful of missing persons...
In other words, the examinees who passed the exam were limited to just these four pages!
No, three pages plus one team.
Less than twenty teams in total!
Sarutobi Hiruzen quickly flipped back to the fourth page, his face now nothing but bewildered.
Listed at the very end—meaning they were the last to pass—
Were none other than those three brats from Minato's team!
By tradition,
The later it got in the exam, the fiercer the competition became.
Sarutobi Hiruzen couldn't help but take a closer, more careful look.
The passing times on the first three pages... all happened on the first day of the exam, the latest being just before nightfall.
But the last page—the last team—
Had made it through in the final second before the exam ended!
"What in the world did these three kids do?"
Sarutobi Hiruzen froze in place, his face full of confusion!
Did the remaining examinees get caught in a free-for-all, and they slipped through the chaos?
But that wouldn't explain why they were the only team to make it!
So,
There was only one possibility that fit this scenario.
"Someone! Get Minato in here!"
"Now!"
...
"So, you guys blocked the exit and held it until the very last moment?"
"Uh... Did we break any rules?"
At Ichiraku Ramen in Konoha,
Minato Namikaze, who'd originally planned to celebrate with the trio after they officially passed, had moved it up to today.
The reason? He was about to head out on an S-rank special mission.
The Chunin Exams might signal a temporary ceasefire, but no wartime ninja village ever truly rested...
Konoha was no exception.
Over the past couple of days, Minato Namikaze had actually been a bit on edge.
He knew the strength of his three students inside and out.
But the stronger they were, the more uneasy he felt... After all, he understood the unique nature of this exam all too well.
It was basically a microcosm of war.
But no matter how he racked his brain, he never imagined his three students would clinch the exam this way!
"But why would you do that?" Minato Namikaze asked, puzzled.
"Since you already had the scrolls, you could've finished early and given yourselves more time to prepare, right?"
If they'd only blocked the exit for a short while, or if it was just for the scrolls, Minato Namikaze could totally understand.
But the three of them had held it for a full day and two nights!
That was a bit much...
And they'd even taken shifts doing it...
"Why'd we do it?" Obito Uchiha furrowed his brow.
"Because they were cursing at us!"
"We're all here taking the exam—why should we be the ones getting cursed out? Right, Souta?"
Yuto Souta nodded in agreement.
Kakashi Hatake, meanwhile, buried his face in his ramen bowl, tacitly agreeing.
Minato Namikaze got the gist of it.
They were still kids at heart—getting cursed out by enemy village ninjas and not fighting back just wasn't their style.
"Well..." Minato Namikaze softened his tone, "What about your Konoha comrades?"
"Why didn't you let them through?"
Minato Namikaze asked this cautiously.
This question tied into the future of his three students.
Someone who wasn't accepted by others, no matter how strong, might end up targeted by petty schemers.
"Comrades?!"
To his surprise,
The question seemed to light a fuse. The three kids instantly abandoned their delicious ramen and turned to Minato Namikaze in unison.
"That bunch was cursing even worse!"
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