July's scorching heat showed no sign of easing. The blazing sun beat down in front of a tall building, where countless genin candidates had gathered, waiting to enter the examination hall.
— Fifty-four genin. Eighteen genin teams.
Among them, only three teams were from this year's graduating class. The rest had graduated two years earlier—or even longer ago.
"Yo. Six-year genin, you're back again."
"Yo. Two-year genin, you're here too."
"Heh~! You bastard!"
In a shaded corner near the conference building entrance stood a black-haired boy who habitually held a senbon between his lips, alongside a black, curly-haired girl with red eyes.
The senbon-chewing youth slung an arm over Baixing's shoulder as he walked up, the two immediately trading barbs like old friends.
"You two really love fooling around. Don't mess up your coordination again during the exam," Baixing said, glancing at the girl with her arms crossed.
"Miss Yūhi Ryu-un, you can relax. I'll definitely cooperate properly this time."
"Hmph. If you spent that energy reading books instead, I wouldn't have to use genjutsu to help you cheat," Yūhi Ryu-un said. Her small face reddened slightly as she avoided Baixing's bright, focused gaze.
Baixing scratched his head, not paying much attention to her embarrassment—he'd seen this kind of thing too many times to care.
Shiranui Kumo wasn't as tall as Baixing, but Baixing bent slightly, letting Kumo hook an arm over his shoulder anyway. The two looked just like close buddies.
"By the way, Baixing, aren't you going to say hi to your students?" Kumo flicked a glance toward the crowd, where three people were waving enthusiastically at Baixing.
"Man, you've really got it good—two such cute disciples."
As for Might Dai—
He was naturally ignored.
—That was the true eternal genin.
Still, the fact that he'd actually mustered the courage to take the chūnin exams this time was, at least, worthy of some respect.
"They're all very talented kids," Baixing said calmly. "No need to greet them. I don't want people saying I'm opening the back door and helping them cheat."
As he spoke, his expression turned serious.
"This time, I will pass the chūnin exams."
Shiranui Kumo, Yūhi Ryu-un: "..."
Anyone who didn't know better would think you were about to attempt an S-rank mission or an elite jōnin assessment.
Yūhi Ryu-un rolled her eyes. "Then did you study yesterday?"
"No." Baixing shook his head. "You know me—everything from my school days is basically gone."
"..."
It was her first time seeing someone who hadn't studied and was still this shamelessly confident.
"Then did you at least tell your students to study?"
"Also no."
"?"
"Two of them will definitely pass. And the Uchiha's Sharingan genjutsu isn't any worse than your Yūhi clan's. Just use genjutsu to help Dai cheat."
"That's still opening the back door," Kumo muttered from the side.
"That's different."
...
Time flew by. Soon, the doors to the exam hall opened, and the conference building's setup was confirmed complete.
Next came the instruction for the candidates to head to the exam venue—
But there was a catch: the route to the exam room was filled with genjutsu traps, a barrier-type illusion roughly at D-rank.
Compared to the illusion test in the original chūnin exams, this was child's play.
After all, becoming a chūnin now meant a chance to be sent straight to the front lines. As for those "numbered genin" or clan genin who already met chūnin-level standards in strength and mission count, many had been promoted one by one at the start of the war as provisional chūnin, happily fighting on the battlefield.
[Numbered Genin: Graduates of the Ninja Academy]
[Provisional Chūnin: Temporarily promoted, enjoying chūnin待遇; formal rank requires war merit, otherwise revoked after the war]
Once they entered the stairwell, the illusion trial officially began.
The conference building had four stairwell entrances: A, B, C, and D.
One team entered every three minutes. If a later team caught up to an earlier one, the earlier team was immediately eliminated.
Baixing's team entered through Entrance C.
The illusion trial itself was simple—nothing particularly advanced.
"I'm already sick of this," Baixing said lazily, glancing down at the corpse clinging to his leg in the stairwell. He yawned and kept walking upward.
"Same as last year. Fourth floor, Room 404. Hurry it up—stop playing around. This still counts toward your score."
He turned his head toward the stairs behind him. Shiranui Kumo was poking the female corpse on the steps with his senbon. The blood-soaked right hand of the corpse stretched out as if trying to grab him—
—though it had no substance at all. Pure illusion.
"So boring," Yūhi Ryu-un said, looking at Kumo's childish antics, then at Baixing's mature, handsome profile.
Why won't Baixing join my team? she thought.
"Baixing, how about this—if we fail again after this exam… you join my team, okay? Uncle Kurenai treats his students really well!"
Baixing: "..."
He smelled a flag.
Looking at Yūhi Ryu-un's shy, fidgeting posture, Baixing replied expressionlessly, "Sorry. I refuse."
"Let's move. If the next batch catches up and maliciously eliminates us, we'll fail right here."
"Hmph! I'll definitely make you join my team someday!" Yūhi Ryu-un clenched her fists.
Kumo stopped messing with the illusion and followed, senbon still between his lips. Watching the two from behind, he thought to himself that ever since the last chūnin exams, Ryu-un had been obsessed with Baixing. Over the past year, nearly every genin added to their team had quit—every mission carried extra risk.
Being lovestruck is terrifying.
...
Entrance B.
"Aaaah—!"
"So many corpses… Mikoto."
Inside the stairwell, Yakushi Nono hugged Uchiha Mikoto's waist from behind. Nearby, Might Dai couldn't help covering his mouth. The thick stench of blood assaulted his nose, making him want to retch.
"It's just genjutsu," Mikoto said calmly. With her naturally high resistance to illusions, even without activating the Sharingan, she could only see blurred images. Smells were even less noticeable.
"Let's go. Just head up."
"We still need to find which classroom is the exam room."
—Before entering, candidates had been told the exam would be held in a clean, tidy classroom.
Pinching his nose, Dai nodded, forcing himself to ignore the screams echoing through the stairwell.
"We only have three minutes. Let's hurry. If the next team enters our stairwell and reaches the classroom before us, we fail."
"Uuu…"
Nono suddenly felt that being a genin forever might not be so bad after all.
The three carefully stepped over blood-stained stairs, reached the second floor, searched around, and—finding no classroom—continued upward.
Meanwhile, surveillance feeds from throughout the conference building were being projected onto multiple screens in a room on the first floor.
Sarutobi Hiruzen's shadow clone, Yūhi Kurenai, Sarutobi Shinnosuke, and many other jōnin, special jōnin, and even chūnin instructors were all watching the footage intently.
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