It's better to be a rebel ninja than to be a Hokage

In front of a huge statue of arms with hands together in a seal.

The examiners of the two Chunin Exams, Ibiki Morino and Anko Mitarashi, and several other examiners;

The jonin in charge of each ninja class who passed the second exam:

Might Guy from Konoha's Team 3, Kakashi Hatake from Team 7, Kurenai Yuhi from Team 8, and Asuma Sarutobi from Team 10.

And Maki from Sunagakure who used a bandage as a headscarf and a white cloth to cover half of his face.

They all stood straight with their hands resting on their backs.

The old man standing between them was the Third Hokage, Sarutobi Hiruzen, wearing the Hokage hat and Hokage robe.

Sure enough... the three Sound Ninjas who failed to pass the second exam, Orochimaru, who was supposed to be disguised as the leading jonin of the Sound Ninja class in the original work, are not here.

After confirming this fact, Naruto lowered his head and frowned in thought.

With the strength of the three Sound Ninjas, there is no reason for them to fail in the second exam.

Could it be that something unexpected happened?

Or did Orochimaru order them to give up the Chunin Exam?

Or... Orochimaru has already begun to doubt the death of Kabuto Yakushi and started to adjust certain steps of the plan to destroy Konoha?

For a moment, Naruto was unable to figure out the reason for his failure in the Sound Ninja Exam.

It's this damn difference in details again!

For example, Umino Iruka who died in the Nine-Tails Rebellion.

For example, Danzo Shimura started preparing to control the Nine-Tails several years in advance and took actual action.

Now - it is no longer possible to apply the original plot to judge the actions of Orochimaru who is hiding in Konoha at this moment!

"quiet!"

At this moment, Red Bean, the examiner of the Forest of Death, suddenly spoke up, attracting everyone's attention: "Hokage-sama is about to begin the explanation of the third exam!"

All the candidates present focused their attention on the elderly man in front of them.

The Sandai looked at the group of young figures in front of him, and his tone was filled with the satisfaction of an elder for the success of his younger generation: "Being able to stand here at this moment is enough to prove your excellence, and those who can become Chunin must be the best ninja among you——"

The third generation's attitude suddenly changed, and he displayed the aura that only a superior could show to the examinees.

"——The 15 candidates present will immediately compete in the preliminaries in the hall to compete for the right to qualify for the third exam. The preliminaries will eliminate another 7 people, and only the remaining 8 people will be allowed to take the third exam!"

"Please wait a moment. The odd-numbered 15 candidates will advance to the even-numbered 8. This means that the preliminaries are one-on-one single-player competitions. In this case, won't it be inevitable that one person will be given a bye because there is no enemy, and will he be directly qualified?"

Shikamaru raised his hand, questioning the arrangement of the preliminaries.

"This kind of thing always happens on the battlefield - the powerful ninjas die in the war, while the weaker ninjas survive until the end of the war."

The third generation answered for Shikamaru. The old and experienced third generation knew very well that ninjas of Shikamaru's age would always regard the word "fairness" as their creed, but the ninja world has always been unfair.

During his lifetime, the third generation witnessed countless powerful ninjas die because of "unfairness".

"For a ninja, luck is also an important part of his strength - Gale!"

The Sandaime did not give Shikamaru a chance to continue the debate as he called out the name of the referee for the next preliminary match.

A young man wearing a Konoha ninja's forehead protector walked out from the examiner line with a sickly look.

"Ahem... nice to meet you all, I'm Moonlight Gale."

Moonlight Gale coughed heavily, stretched out one of his hands and said, "Before we start the preliminaries, we will first select the byes by drawing lots."

In the palm of the hand that was spread out in the moonlight breeze, there were 15 square pieces of white paper stacked neatly.

"After opening the paper, if it says 'fight', it means you will compete. If it says 'empty', you will directly get a bye and qualify for the third exam."

After briefly explaining the rules of the draw, Moonlight Gale came to the third class standing at the edge close to him.

"Let's start with you."

Moonlight Gale looked at Hyuga Neji.

"I'll smoke last."

Neji's white eyes never looked at the paper slip in Gekko Hayate's hand.

Unlike the first exam where cheating was part of the exam, Neji would not use his Byakugan to cheat on such a thing.

But as a member of the Hyuga branch, he had long learned to be cautious and avoid suspicion to prevent unnecessary trouble.

Neji turned sideways and let Tenten and Rock Lee, who were in the same ninja team, choose their paper slips first.

Witnessing Neci's behavior, Hyuga Hinata, who was not far away, lowered her head in silence.

"Wang!"

Reminded by Akamaru on his head, Inuzuka Kiba noticed Hinata's depressed mood: "Hinata, if you are also worried about being questioned because of your Byakugan, Akamaru can choose for you."

"Thank you, Akamaru."

“No need to thank each other.”

Aburame Shino suddenly burst into the conversation.

"Shino, do you feel that you are isolated?"

Ya's intuition sometimes becomes as sharp as his sense of smell.

"……I don't."

The conversation between the three members of Team 8 was not deliberately concealed. Naruto, who was standing next to them, could hear the conversation between Team 8 clearly.

During the conversation of Team 8, Gekko Hayate had already come to Team 7, and Naruto just casually took a piece of paper.

"Open your slips now, and those who are due to be given a bye step out of the line."

After distributing all the paper slips, Moonlight Gale stood in front of the candidates again and gave instructions.

Naruto opened the paper with the others, and the word on his paper was unsurprisingly "war".

But Naruto suddenly felt Sakura's unusual movement behind him.

"I……"

Sakura stared blankly at her note, which had "Sora" written on it.

Unexpectedly, Sakura got a bye and qualified directly for the third game.

Sakura was not happy about her good luck. She looked at Sasuke and Naruto blankly, and it was obvious that she still couldn't believe that she would be the one who got a bye.

"Sakura, you have a bye."

Naruto made way for Sakura to get out of the group of examinees.

Sakura then realized what was happening and walked from the position vacated by Naruto to the front of Gekko Hayate.

"Konoha, Haruno Sakura, byes!"

After confirming Sakura's paper sign, Gekkou Hayate announced: "The remaining 14 people will enter the preliminaries to compete for the qualification for the third exam!"

"Next, let's explain the rules of the preliminaries, ahem!"

Moonlight Gale coughed again. He was so weak that he didn't look like a ninja at all.

"The preliminaries are one-on-one single-player battles, with no restrictions on any means of combat."

"Just like the exam in the Forest of Death, you are allowed to kill your opponent during the confrontation, but if the opponent admits defeat, the winner is not allowed to continue to kill the loser. As a referee, I have the right to determine the outcome of the battle in advance. If a companion or a class leader intervenes in the game, the intervening party will be directly judged as the loser."

"The preliminaries are random matches, and your opponents will not be divided by strength. Therefore, there may be a huge gap in strength between the two of you. For the sake of your own life, it is not shameful to admit defeat directly."

Moonlight Gale looked at the candidate in front of him and suddenly paused.

After giving the candidates enough time to think, he spoke again: "Everyone enter the stands high up in the hall and wait for your competition to begin... Now begins the first qualifying match - Examiner Hongdou."

“Turn on the screen!”

After hearing Yue Guang Ji Feng's signal, Hong Dou gave orders into the intercom headset on her ear.

The huge display screen embedded in the wall of the hall lights up.

The names of 14 candidates flashed on the screen for a few seconds.

The names of the two candidates were frozen on the screen.

First qualifying match:

——Uchiha Sasuke VS Rock Lee!