As the young Genin gradually entered the exam venue, Hoshiyomi also made his way into the monitoring room that had been specially cleared out for the Chūnin Exams.
At Hoshiyomi's suggestion, "Dr. A. Orochimaru" had already developed a shinobi-world version of surveillance equipment powered by chakra as its energy source.
In Hoshiyomi's opinion, the image clarity recorded by these monitors was already roughly on par with what he had seen before transmigrating. After seeing them, Minato also exclaimed in amazement and immediately approved the proposal to install surveillance equipment in the exam halls for this Chūnin Exam.
By the time Hoshiyomi arrived at the monitoring room, Minato, Hiruzen, Sakumo, and a number of other familiar faces were already waiting. Clearly, this new "monitoring" gadget had piqued their interest as well.
One by one, they crowded into the room under the pretense of "observation." When Hoshiyomi pushed open the door, Sakumo and Shinku were staring at the screen and marveling at it:
"Orochimaru really is something else. This 'monitoring' footage looks just like what the human eye sees. It's like the old man's Telescope Technique, but with a much wider viewing angle than the crystal ball."
"Exactly! Standing here, I can even see candidate number 47 secretly scratching his butt. If we could install this 'monitoring' thing in the women's bathhouse, hehehe…"
Hearing Jiraiya's classic line—one that could easily summon the police force—Hoshiyomi couldn't help but twitch the corner of his mouth.
Thanks to you, the meaning and prestige of this surveillance system just dropped several levels in an instant.
While Hoshiyomi was greeting everyone, Morino Ibiki had already begun his "performance" in the exam hall.
With a face that didn't need any makeup to pass as a yakuza boss, Ibiki stood there and completely cowed the previously noisy examinees into silence.
A series of "immediate disqualifications" made the candidates groan in misery, and the final announcements—"If anyone on a team gets zero points, the entire team is eliminated" and "If cheating is discovered, the whole team will be banned from taking the exam for three years"—turned everyone's faces ashen.
Even Naruto's expression changed when he heard this. Minato had never told him the exam rules, so he had absolutely no idea that the first test would be a written exam.
Moreover, even Minato and Kushina couldn't save Naruto's brain. In this life, although he could go toe-to-toe with Sasuke in all practical subjects, his theoretical classes barely scraped by.
And "barely scraping by" didn't mean he actually remembered any knowledge points—it was simply because his luck was outrageously good. With multiple-choice questions alone, he could guess his way to a decent score.
As long as there are exams, there will be multiple-choice questions, right? And if there are multiple-choice questions, there's no way I could get zero points, right?
Just as Naruto was comforting himself with this line of thought, the proctor expressionlessly handed him the test paper. Naruto glanced over it…
You've got to be kidding me! There isn't a single multiple-choice question!
Everyone in the monitoring room burst out laughing at Naruto's spectacular facial expression, while Minato helplessly covered his face. After a long while, he stammered:
"Well… well, even though Naruto probably won't be able to answer most of the earlier questions, he'll definitely get the last one right."
After the laughter died down, everyone shifted their attention away from Naruto and began watching the wide variety of cheating methods the genin were using.
Mirrors here, Byakugan there—before long, the entire exam hall was bustling with copying.
As time passed, groups of cheaters were dragged out of the classroom one after another. Seeing that the time was about right, Morino Ibiki announced the final question:
"The last question is optional—you may choose whether or not to answer it. If you forfeit, it will be treated as zero points and your entire team will be eliminated. But if you choose to answer and get it wrong, you will be banned from the Chūnin Exams for life!"
What followed was no different from the original story. Under the guidance of the planted "shills" arranged by Ibiki, team after team chose to withdraw. Just as more than half of the examinees had already given up, Naruto stepped forward and delivered his righteous speech.
Whether it was Naruto's own infectious charisma or the influence of the Asura chakra within him, the wavering genin truly did steady their resolve after hearing his words.
Seeing this scene, Minato's face finally showed a firm expression, while on the other side, Jiraiya's eyes suddenly widened.
For some reason, at the very moment he saw Naruto take this stand, Jiraiya felt something deep inside him being powerfully stirred.
He couldn't help but think of the Great Toad Sage's prophecy—the vague and ethereal prophecy of a Child of Prophecy who would bring immense change to the entire shinobi world.
He had always believed that the Child of Prophecy must be Nagato, the one who possessed the Rinnegan. Yet, until the day Jiraiya left, Nagato had never shown true leadership, and later came the news that the three of them had all died.
Although Jiraiya had always believed that Nagato wasn't dead, so many years had passed that even he couldn't help but feel a sense of despair.
But now, Naruto's appearance caused that slowly extinguishing hope to flare up again. Could it be that his earlier judgment had been wrong, and that the Child of Prophecy was someone else entirely?
Once that thought emerged, it became impossible to suppress. Jiraiya even began persuading himself internally:
The Great Toad Sage only said that I would be the teacher of the Child of Prophecy—he never said I would only take one studentin my lifetime. If I think Naruto has the potential to become the Child of Prophecy, then why not…
Besides, my relationship with Minato is good anyway. If Naruto doesn't turn out to be the Child of Prophecy, I can just treat it as training my own nephew.
With that thought, Jiraiya cleared his throat, then lightly nudged Minato and said:
"Minato, have you ever thought about finding Naruto another teacher once he becomes a chūnin?"
Minato froze for a moment upon hearing this, then turned to glance at Hoshiyomi before replying:
"I have thought about letting Hoshiyomi-sensei continue guiding Naruto for a while after he becomes a chūnin… Jiraiya-senpai, are you thinking of taking Naruto as your student?"
Hearing that Minato planned to have Hoshiyomi teach Naruto, Jiraiya's smile stiffened slightly. He was just about to wave it off and say it was nothing when Hoshiyomi's voice came from not far away:
"If you want to take him as a student, then go and approach him yourself. Since when did you become so wishy-washy?"
Jiraiya had been about to snap back at Hoshiyomi, but in the next moment he understood what Hoshiyomi meant. Rarely, he showed an embarrassed smile and said:
"Hehe, since you put it that way, then I won't hold back and I'll take this student."
Hearing this, Minato smiled and narrowed his eyes. Being taken as a student by Jiraiya-sensei? When he thought about it, it actually sounded pretty good. The two of them even seemed to have quite similar personalities.
The only thing was that he might need to do some convincing when he got home—Kushina was very worried that Naruto would be led astray.
Just as the matter of Jiraiya taking on a student was settled in the monitoring room, back in the exam hall, Morino Ibiki finished his final lecture.
Just as he was about to announce the official end of the first exam, an unidentified object suddenly flew in from outside, smashing through the window with a loud bang.