A special thank you to my patrons:
—Cain, Shahzaam, kevin Williams, Jose Carrillo, Jose Sierra, ManyEB, Zhandos Kauzhanov, Vora, kurtis newman, 66835, Alex Rushing, Fredrik Dahlman.
You can read 30 chapters ahead of everyone on p@treon.
P@TREON - [email protected]/lessaservantofcosmos
(just replace the "@" with "a")
ps: Please support me on P@treon. I can really use your help!
-------------------------------------------------------------
Kagaya continued to space out. However, before long, another commotion arose.
Kagaya turned to look. Upon seeing the scene ahead, he couldn't help but feel amused.
The three Otogakure shinobi who had come to take the Chūnin Exams stood arrogantly in front of Kabuto, taunting him.
"What's this? Nothing special at all. Just an old-timer who's been taking the exam for four years."
"Write it clearly on your card: 'Confirmed that the three Sound shinobi will become Chūnin.'"
Kabuto, meanwhile, clutched his stomach, kneeling on the ground, appearing to be in great pain.
Watching this scene from a distance, Kagaya wasn't sure whether to laugh or not. After a moment's thought, he could only praise Kabuto with a silent, 'Great acting!'
Kabuto was Orochimaru's trusted right-hand man. Calling him the second-in-command of Otogakure wouldn't be an overstatement.
And yet, here were several genin from Otogakure who had never met Kabuto, rushing up and giving him a good beating.
This was equivalent to a common soldier from a nation giving the nation's second-in-command a thorough thrashing while sneering, "You're nothing much."
Kagaya couldn't help but find it funny. To be honest, if Kabuto went all out, not only could he easily handle Dosu and those two other genin, even Haku himself would need to get serious to win against him.
Yet, despite possessing such strength, he willingly endured a beating from people who, under normal circumstances, wouldn't even be qualified to be his subordinates. Kabuto truly had impressive forbearance.
Kagaya vaguely remembered that Kabuto had once worked as a spy.
His current identity in Konoha was that of a "failed examinee" who had taken the exam four times without passing—even though this examinee actually possessed the strength of a top-tier Jōnin.
After a brief glance, Kagaya didn't pay further attention.
A short while later.
"Shut up, all of you! You trash!"
A loud shout rang out, accompanied by a huge burst of smoke. A group of Konoha ninja appeared on the classroom's podium.
The leader wore black clothing, with clearly visible scars on his face. He now smiled slightly and spoke.
"Sorry for the wait. I am Ibiki Morino, the examiner for the first test of the Chūnin Selection Exams."
After introducing himself, Ibiki immediately pointed at Dosu and the others. "You guys from Otogakure! Don't cause any trouble before the exam! Do you want to be disqualified immediately?!"
Dosu was a rather smooth character. Seeing the examiner's serious demeanor, he quickly apologized.
"Sorry about that. It's our first exam, so we're a bit too excited. We got carried away..."
Ibiki sneered. Seeing Dosu admit his mistake, Ibiki didn't want to pursue the matter further.
"Hmph. This is also a good opportunity. Let me make this clear first: No private combat without the examiner's permission! Even with permission, no actions that could kill the opponent! Any fool who dares defy me will be immediately disqualified!"
Kagaya silently watched the scene from the side. The first exam was a written test. During his previous meeting with Orochimaru, they had agreed to meet in the second exam, the Forest of Death. Therefore, for Kagaya, the first exam was purely a waste of time.
Kagaya just wanted to quickly proceed to the second exam, rendezvous with Orochimaru, assist in placing the curse mark on Sasuke, and then prepare to flip the table on Konoha.
Some time later.
Everyone in the classroom had settled down quietly, preparing for the exam.
Ibiki tapped the blackboard and spoke.
"For the first exam, there are several very important rules. I will not answer any questions from you afterward, so listen carefully. First, Rule One: All of you start with 10 points. The written test has 10 questions in total, each worth 1 point. The exam uses a deduction system. Getting a question wrong deducts 1 point. Getting three questions wrong leaves you with only 7 points.
Rule Two: Whether you pass or not is determined by the total score of your three-person team."
Upon hearing this rule, some teams with weaker members immediately widened their eyes, sensing trouble.
Naturally, this included Team 7.
If it were a practical test, it might be different. But for a written exam, neither Sasuke nor Sakura believed Naruto could achieve a good score. They would be thankful if he didn't get a zero.
Afterward, Ibiki explained some rules regarding cheating.
In short, if caught cheating once, you lose 2 points. Anyone who engages in shameful cheating is digging their own grave. You should take the exam like proper, honorable shinobi.
At the end of each horizontal row in the classroom, an examiner sat with a small notebook, constantly monitoring the examinees' every move.
Furthermore, if even one member of a three-person team scored zero, the entire team would be disqualified.
As the rules piled up, Sakura felt as if this exam had been specifically designed to target their Team 7.
After announcing the rules, Ibiki prepared to begin.
"The exam time is one hour. Now... Begin!"
The exam started.
Kagaya still looked utterly bored, with no intention of doing the test paper.
It wasn't that he knew the secret behind this exam. Regarding this exam, Kagaya had mostly forgotten the details, only remembering that the first part was a written test. The rest was basically forgotten.
The reason Kagaya wasn't doing the paper was that he had taken a look at the questions and realized he had no idea how to answer them!
This knowledge was all theoretical, and rather advanced at that. However, Kagaya had only attended the Ninja Academy for a year. Shortly after graduated, he defected. Therefore, he genuinely wasn't very knowledgeable about this sort of material.
He had received too little formal education. More of his time had been spent learning ninjutsu rather than theoretical knowledge.
Haku, seated some distance away, obviously didn't know either. Most of Haku's knowledge about shinobi came from Kagaya. If Kagaya didn't know it, how could Haku?
The same went for Karin.
All three were individuals who hadn't received much formal education.
However, as time dragged on, Kagaya noticed something interesting. At the beginning, many people seemed to be buried in thought, giving Kagaya the impression they knew the answers. But after a while, many began lifting their heads, looking bewildered and helpless.
Even without activating his Sharingan, Kagaya could see that many people's test papers remained completely blank, untouched.
'Well, well. More than half of them don't know either? That shouldn't be the case. No matter what, setting such difficult questions seems excessive... Unless...'
Kagaya furrowed his brow in thought.
'Cheating only deducts 2 points? Everyone starts with 10 points... That means you could cheat up to five times at most. Wait, what a strange rule. Cheating isn't an immediate disqualification; it's handled gradually? And in this exam, more than half the people are completely clueless—these questions are completely unreasonable. So, considering that cheating once deducts 2 points...'
Thinking this far, Kagaya raised an eyebrow.
'If I'm not mistaken, the correct way to pass this exam... is to cheat, isn't it?'
But if no one knew the answers, who would you copy from, even if you cheated?
Kagaya cautiously observed his surroundings. He suddenly noticed that Karin, sitting some distance away, was already busily writing on her paper.
'This girl...'
It seemed Karin had realized the essence of this exam ahead of him and, using her powerful sensory abilities, had begun cheating.
Indeed, aside from Karin occasionally getting strange ideas, she was undoubtedly a very intelligent person.
With that settled, things became easier.
'Sharingan!'
Activating his crimson Sharingan, he first cast a genjutsu on the examiner monitoring his row, preventing him from detecting his Sharingan. Then, Kagaya began blatantly copying from Karin's answer sheet nearby.