The groups in the room began to discuss as soon as their membership lists were placed in front of them.
Jugo calmly observed as Guren asked the jonin from each group who they would choose. Regarding Kimimaro's team, she asked Jugo's opinion. Jugo thought for a moment and ultimately chose Ranmaru.
That's because, among them, Ranmaru is the quietest and most observant, which would give him a deeper understanding of his companions. Furthermore, he had built the building in a way that prevented anyone from seeing through the walls, so it wouldn't be helpful to let him search with his eyes, even the scent would be clear. In the end, letting Ranmaru be taken away would be the best option.
After giving his answer, he observed the other groups with interest, ironically, all five large villages had performed well.
The Mizukage was there, so whatever she decides is what prevails..
Kitsuchi was the son of the third Tsuchikage.
Asuma was the son of the Third Hokage.
Chiyo was even more respected than Gaara.
Yugito had little political say due to her Jinchuuriki status, but Dodai, on the other hand, was highly trusted by the Raikage, so he took the lead.
The smaller villages, on the other hand, were more complicated, except for Takigakure, which had sent only one Jonin, he was the first to give up, choosing to let Fuu be taken away.
Jugo was a little surprised by the decision, he hadn't expected him to choose the Jinchuuriki, but thinking about it, Fuu was so strange that the clues she left behind would probably be easy to follow.
It took Jugo several hours to complete the list. He glanced at it briefly before nodding and setting out a wooden clone to go and fetch the chosen ones.
As for the others, they would be placed under a genjutsu that would be released at the same time tomorrow, this had already been mentioned before.
Jugo nodded and waited. Soon, a group of ninjas entered the room, followed by Jugo, they were all genin who had been chosen.
Ino, Kiba, Tenten, Fuu, Kurotsuchi, Chojuro, Samui, Shira, Ranmaru, ...
They entered the room slowly, looking around curiously. Seeing all the Jonin there, they calmed down and sighed with relief, apparently, this was no joke.
-Now that everyone has arrived, I'll explain how you'll proceed.- Jugo said, explaining the basics before continuing. -This tower has 30 floors. You must reach the ground floor to pass. On each floor, you must leave a mark and this mark leads to a path with three other passages. The passages sometimes intersect, but at the end, there's a different room for each of the teams.
All the genin swallowed hard as they listened, remaining silent.
-Whenever you move to the next room, you can choose to leave the same mark on each floor, but if any of your teammates are seen passing through that mark, it means that mark represents you. This means your opponents can use it to guess that the mark represents your team, so they can figure out how to eliminate you and pass directly through.- Jugo gestured towards the monitors showing the passageways.
-If your team misses even the shortest path, they can stray far enough to completely lose sight of the objective, so you need to make sure they follow the 30 markers precisely and reach you.- Jugo concluded. -Any fighting or attempts to affect the opponents' markers are considered cheating and therefore, the teams will be eliminated. Any questions?
Fuu raised her hand excitedly, shouting. - Can we make friends while we go down?
Everyone looked at the girl strangely, Jugo's eye twitched, he should have expected this. -Sure, if you want.
Fuu smiled and gave a thumbs-up. -Alright! I'll make 100 friends in this Chunin Exam!
The participants closest to Fuu took a step aside, while the Jonin from Taki hit his head in exasperation.
Shikamaru raised his hand as soon as the room calmed down, Jugo looked at him while Shikamaru spoke. -Is it possible to go up a floor if someone realizes they've taken the wrong path? Also, what happens when someone reaches the last room and sees that the person inside is in the wrong place? Is it possible to go back and try again?
-Good questions.- Jugo nodded. -Once a team passes through a path, that path will be permanently closed.
Shikamaru's eyes narrowed. -That means that if someone makes a mistake, they'll not only be making a mistake for themselves, but also preventing those who come after them from getting it right.
Jugo smiled. - Exactly.
This caused the entire room to fall silent, staring at Jugo as if he were the devil.
The exam hadn't even started yet, but they could already predict that several teams would be eliminated.
-Ah, but that doesn't necessarily mean elimination. If the group is lucky, they might find another mark of their companion following the wrong path and get back on the right track.- Asuma said suddenly.
Ino sighed with relief upon hearing this, but it still depended on luck. She understood why Shikamaru had chosen her, Sakura wasn't close enough to Choji and Shikamaru, but she was very close to Ino. Thus, Ino was the link between Choji and Sakura, making it easier for her to leave clues for the two of them.
-Any more questions?- Jugo continued, ignoring Asuma and Shikamaru's comments.
Everyone seemed unhappy, but no one objected. Soon, Jugo handed thirty papers to each of the examinees. The papers were numbered from one to thirty, symbolizing each floor. They needed to mark a symbol on each paper, this symbol would be placed above the paths leading to the ground floor.
They were taken to separate rooms for privacy. Shikamaru shook his head, he could only hope that Ino would manage to choose markings that they could recognize.
Shimaru considered using individual letters to mark the cards, which would make it much easier to figure out, but Jugo had already foreseen this. He gave them papers and let them choose symbols or words, even drawings, but he would be the one to leave the marks, leaving no room for cheating.
An hour later, Jugo received the papers and had several wood clones make the markings, then he had each of the Genin follow their own markings and stay in the rooms at the end of the paths.
Each room had a monitor that would track the team's progress, allowing them to see their progress. In addition to the monitor, there was a bed and food, as they would have to sleep there until the start of the exam the following day.
Finally, when everything was over, everyone went to bed. The jonin were prevented from approaching the genin to leave clues and were kept in a different part of the tower.
As soon as dawn broke, the group gathered again, all watching as the time approached nine in the morning.
As soon as the clock struck nine, everyone's genjutsu was dispelled, and not only that, they were all awakened as if they had just received a shock.