Chapter 066
As for Kitahara Kaede, Danzo wasn't nervous at all—so long as someone was from Konoha, he believed he could manipulate them.
After all, that's how the Root organization was built, and Danzo was quite experienced at this.
Moreover, he still had a trump card. Although the exposure of 11 Sharingan eyes was problematic… the Mangekyō Sharingan he obtained from Uchiha Shisui was still in his possession.
······
While the Third Hokage and the others had no choice but to take action, Kitahara Kaede and the others continued their exam in peace.
As examinees, taking the test was their responsibility—but certainly not their destiny.
[Descendant Chat Group (^_-)]
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Ugh, these stupid test questions are so hard.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Huh?
Shukaku suddenly made a sound.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Damn! That guy Kitahara Kaede is seriously insane!
Everyone looked over and saw that after the test papers were handed out, Kitahara Kaede didn't answer any questions. Instead, he took the cap off his pen—not to write himself, but to hand the pen to his ninja rabbit, the little white bunny.
He placed the red-pawed, white-furred bunny on the desk. Was he really expecting the rabbit to take the test?
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Does he think anyone can solve these kinds of problems?
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Wait—what the hell?! The rabbit is actually answering the test!
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Where do you even buy such a smart summoning beast?!
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: You dumb raccoon, did your brain short-circuit?
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: Ah… right. The dumb raccoon really doesn't know. You hadn't shown up yet back then.
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: When Kitahara Kaede was training Naruto and Sasuke, he also brought his ninja rabbit into the genjutsu world with them.
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: While Naruto and Sasuke read books, Kitahara Kaede taught his rabbit how to read. So it doing test questions now isn't all that surprising.
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: Look, Uzumaki Naruto and Uchiha Sasuke are both writing answers directly.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: …
[One Tail - Shukaku]: …
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Fine. A summoning beast being this ridiculously strong is just…
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: …
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: …
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: I really can't tell if you're pretending to be dumb or if you're actually dumb.
Kurama flicked his fire-red, fur-wrapped ears. He concluded that there really was no way to communicate with the dumb raccoon—too much interaction with an idiot might make him stupid too.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: What do you mean by that?
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Say it, you damn fox!
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: Look carefully. Really look at Kitahara Kaede's rabbit. Did you notice? Its eyes—those are Byakugan.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: Byakugan? Well, yeah… that's definitely not something a normal summon would have.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: But it could be a Transformation Jutsu.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: And maintaining one that long would require at least Tailed Beast-level chakra…
[One Tail - Shukaku]: So after a lot of thinking, I've come up with only one answer.
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: Oh? So you're capable of thinking?
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: Exactly. That "ninja rabbit" of Kitahara Kaede is none other than Five Tails - Muō.
[One Tail - Shukaku]: That guy really does like clean and white things…
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: …
[Nine Tails - Kurama]: …
Kurama gave up trying to talk to Shukaku. Talking too long with an idiot would definitely rub off on him.
But fools have their own blessings.
Ignorance is bliss, after all.
Although the rest of the chat group read the exchange between the two Tailed Beasts, as Tobirama had said before, ninjas couldn't immediately change their mindset.
So they didn't pay too much attention to the words of the Tailed Beasts.
Instead, they focused on something else.
[Cowardly Mouse - Ōnoki]: Still, it's not like no one can answer the questions.
[Cowardly Mouse - Ōnoki]: Excluding Kitahara Kaede's group, maybe not from Iwagakure, but other examinees are quite talented.
[Senju Tobirama]: Ōnoki, you're thinking too much. Look closely—really observe.
[Cowardly Mouse - Ōnoki]: Huh!?
From Ōnoki's view, at first all the examinees were dumbfounded—the questions were way too difficult.
It was like ordering "hellfire spice" by mistake at a ramen shop—who could eat that?
But soon, the examinees changed.
Even Gaara, the noisy One Tail's Jinchūriki, actually started answering.
Wait.
Answering?
Not just Gaara—Might Guy's three disciples, Tenten, Neji, and Rock Lee, were answering too.
And before long, within ten minutes, nearly 100+ examinees were quickly answering the questions.
But—
What did Ōnoki see?
At first glance, it looked like everyone was answering, but if you actively observed Room 302's testing hall… there were reflections from wires, chakra threads.
Byakugan activated.
Kekkei Genkai.
Ninja tools, mirror reflections.
???
???
[Cowardly Mouse - Ōnoki]: This is…
[Big Dumb - Hashirama]: These kids are all cheating!
[Minato Namikaze]: Well… with the test this hard, you can't blame them for turning to cheating.
[Minato Namikaze]: But if everyone's cheating, then the Third Hokage can't reject them.
[Big Dumb - Hashirama]: Why not?
[Minato Namikaze]: Because if the first stage eliminates this many people, it reflects badly on the village. No one would come to the exams next time.
[Minato Namikaze]: So basically—
[Senju Tobirama]: So basically, we pretend we don't see the cheating.
[Senju Tobirama]: Sigh…
[Senju Tobirama]: That Sarutobi guy—only thinks about catching Orochimaru, and leaves a big mess that others have to clean up.
[Senju Tobirama]: Even if Kitahara Kaede gives him intel, even if he catches Orochimaru… I don't think he can handle it.
[Everyone]: …
No one had an answer. Judging from the Third Hokage's behavior so far, no one could confidently say he'd be useful.
[Filial Son - Black Zetsu]: …
As Black Zetsu, its attention was never on the Hokage or any of the past leaders.
It focused only on the Tailed Beasts' earlier conversation.
Black Zetsu thought One Tail was a fool, but Nine Tails seemed to know something.
It couldn't make them shut up, though. Kaguya created it with Yin-Yang Release, and she did it quickly—back when the Tailed Beasts hadn't yet been sealed by the Sage of Six Paths.
So the Tailed Beasts didn't know about Black Zetsu's existence.
But the fact that Nine Tails could recognize Kaguya—that was worth noting.
Among all the Tailed Beasts, the Nine Tails truly was the most important and unique.
Just then—
In the livestream, Kitahara Kaede yawned, propping his chin with one hand and using the other to poke his little ninja rabbit, which was holding a pen in both paws and still writing diligently.
Apparently, he thought it was writing too slowly.
The bunny turned its little head and glanced at him in protest. But Kitahara Kaede poked it again.
The rabbit sighed, as if resigned, and continued writing.
Life is hard—the bunny sighed.
"…" Black Zetsu.
Kaguya-sama's life… must be really hard too.
How could it free her?
Filial Son Black Zetsu continued to ponder.
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From the higher-ups' point of view, the overly difficult first Chūnin Exam test was intended to draw out Orochimaru, which is why they used one of Orochimaru's old test papers.
It was extremely difficult, but Konoha compensated by planting a number of their own genin in the exam room.
The obvious sign—though the total number of examinees from the various villages was 198, there were actually 208 people in the room.
Anyone with a brain could tell… Konoha was giving away free points. Just cheat and you're fine.
The final result—three-fourths passed the test. Konoha only eliminated six who were too obvious with their cheating.
Meanwhile, the new genin from Ōnoki's Iwagakure were still confused. They didn't even answer the questions, yet… they passed too.
"Phew…"
"The papers have been collected."
"Didn't expect the first test to be that hard."
"Good thing I read 13,000 books—uh, books."
Naruto said.
"Meh," said Sasuke, who had been forced to read for 50 years. The test was ridiculously hard—for a genin. But now he had a jōnin-level knowledge base.
So for once, his boasting was justified.
"Still, I didn't think the exam would be this tough…"
"So—"
"Thanks!"
Sasuke turned to thank Kitahara Kaede.
Though he often called himself "top student"… both sides of his face were now covered in slap marks.
They hurt like hell.
So Kitahara Kaede forcing him to study… had really helped him gain knowledge.
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