"After all, you're all on the list of those who failed. You're no longer qualified to remain in this testing area~"
With a wide grin, the examiner's sudden announcement froze the noisy villagers, who had been proudly boasting about their assumed success in the exam. The room instantly turned dead silent—like a still pond after a stone had sunk—until the painful gasps and cries began to rise one by one, triggered by their own attempts to pinch themselves awake. Like a bombshell, the unexpected news completely shattered the joy and excitement that had been written on their faces just moments ago.
Like ripples surging from a stone thrown into water, it didn't take long after the examiner's words for the villagers to erupt again—this time out of shock and disbelief at being hurled from paradise straight into the deepest pits of hell.
"F… Failed? Oh my god! H-How is that possible?!"
"Examiner sir, what do you mean by saying something like that now?!"
"…Hahaha, you must be joking, right? We're clearly on the list of successful candidates who passed the test. How could we… fail…"
"T-There must've been a mistake… Right?! That has to be it!"
"Yeah, yeah! When you read out the list of those who passed, you called our names one by one! How could we now be labeled as failures?!"
"Hey! What kind of nonsense are you spouting?! We clearly passed! Passed, not failed! You'd better get that straight! Otherwise, don't blame us for being rude!"
"That's right! You'd better clean out your eyes and look again, real carefully! We're the rising stars of the Hidden Leaf Village, the next generation of ninja! If the village loses such talents because of your personal decisions… could you even bear the weight of that guilt?!"
Some cried out in disbelief, some nervously laughed and insisted the examiner was joking, and others—still basking in the self-concocted fantasy of success—began threatening the examiner, convinced they could force him to change his decision.
But of course, no matter what they said or how they tried to argue, deep down… they all knew this was a possibility. Even if they'd bragged and boasted earlier, they were well aware that compared to the children of the great clans, their own kids stood no chance—whether in strength or experience.
That's exactly why, even though part of them expected this outcome, they still couldn't accept it. They clung to a false hope, anesthetized themselves with denial, and embraced that brief moment of fake victory—convincing themselves it was real.
"A fix! There's gotta be a fix behind the scenes! Changing exam results on a whim—I'm reporting this to the Third Hokage!"
"Y-Yeah! This is clearly corruption!"
"Even if you're the examiner, you've got no right to rob our children of their basic right to education!"
To those who had now been officially eliminated, it felt like gambling everything on a single hand and still losing, eyes bloodshot with desperation. Even with failure laid bare before them, they stubbornly accused the examiner of cheating, hoping that with so many of them grouped together, they could pressure him into changing the outcome.
"…Yare yare… Why can't you just cooperate for once?"
Seeing the swarm of villagers shouting all at once, the examiner rubbed his temple in frustration and let out a long sigh before muttering to himself.
"You're failures. Gather your things, walk out the school gate, and go do whatever you want. No one will stop you. We'll continue the exam, and you'll go your own way—no interference, just a clean and peaceful separation. That should've been the perfect ending. But no… you had to go and ruin my good intentions."
"Failures?! Hah! My daughter passed that test fair and square! She deserves to be among this year's new students! And now you're kicking her out just because you say so?!"
"Hah! Don't make me laugh! Because of your nonsense, our kids are being denied their right to attend school—and you still call that your 'good intentions'?! Aren't you even the slightest bit ashamed to say that out loud?!"
"Obey? You expect us to obediently swallow this injustice?! Hell no! I ain't obeying anything! What are you gonna do about it?!"
"I'm saying it here and now! This isn't over! I don't care if you like it or not—if you don't enroll my kid today, I'm not going anywhere!"
"That's right! We're defending our rightful interests here! Even if the Third Hokage comes down himself, he can't argue with that!"
"Exactly! Until you process our children's enrollment, we're not leaving. We're not going anywhere!"
The examiner's frustrated sigh and weary expression gave these disqualified villagers the false hope that their protest was working—that just a bit more pressure would make him give in and reverse their fates.
But they had clearly forgotten the most important fact…
Before the examiner announced the actual list of successful candidates, the number of people shouting objections had been twice as many as now.
Back then, the examiner had single-handedly silenced the entire crowd…
And now, this smaller, weaker, and less confident group of protestors—how could they possibly pressure him into submission?