"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run!"
"You can act tough all you want! You're not gonna scare me off! No way!"
"I don't care if I do get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life! I'll still be Hokage someday!"
Naruto Uzumaki's voice tore through the examination hall like a thunderclap.
Under Ibiki Morino's relentless psychological assault, every candidate in the room had been pushed to breaking point.
The players were no exception. Utaha Kasumigaoka and her two squadmates, trained personally by Makoto Nishikado.
The Akizuki sisters, who'd received his private coaching before graduation.
Even the Yukinoshita sisters, who fancied themselves above it all. Every last one of them had been teetering on the edge.
Then Naruto opened his mouth, and dragged them all back from the brink.
Morale surged like a dam breaking.
That kid...
Cold sweat still glistened at Haruno Yukinoshita's temples as she stared at the blond boy.
She'd held herself back a year after arriving in this world, dropping down to her sister's third-year class, and had spent nearly four years as his classmate.
She'd always written him off as some idiot with big dreams and nothing to back them up. But now...
The other players shared the sentiment. Truthfully, these transmigrators all carried a quiet sense of superiority over the locals. The instinctive feeling of players looking at NPCs.
Yet when every one of them had been scared half to death, it was Naruto who stood up.
Airi Akizuki, who barely registered anyone besides Makoto, and Yukino, who considered herself among the strongest, both found their gazes shifting toward the blond boy with something new behind their eyes.
Heh.
Ibiki observed the change rippling through the room. The corner of his mouth twitched upward, and he announced in a booming voice: everyone who remained had passed.
Amid the stunned silence, he explained the true purpose of the first exam.
"Don't celebrate yet!"
Before his words had settled, another shout sliced through the air. A dark blur smashed through the window and landed in the center of the hall, wild as a storm.
A massive banner unfurled behind her, and the woman struck a pose, curves and confidence on full display.
"I'm the proctor for the second exam! Anko Mitarashi! The real brutality of the Chunin Exams starts now!"
She thrust her right arm skyward. "Follow me!"
Dead silence.
Every candidate stared, wide-eyed, as if watching performance art.
After a long beat, Airi couldn't help herself. "Anko-sensei, what are you doing?"
Anko Mitarashi was their Team 12's jonin instructor: Airi Akizuki, Yui Yuigahama, and Yukino Yukinoshita.
Yukino rubbed her temples. Dealing with this woman on a normal day was exhausting enough. Loud, brash, practically a carbon copy of Shizuka Hiratsuka. And now she'd pulled this stunt in front of the entire exam hall.
Anko scratched her head, surveyed the remaining candidates, and her tongue flicked across her lips, a perfect imitation of her former teacher's signature move.
"Wow, so many of you left. No worries. More than half will be gone soon enough."
A chill ran through the room.
...
Two hours later. Training Ground 44, on the outskirts of Konohagakure.
The Forest of Death.
Anko explained the rules for the second exam: each squad would receive one scroll, and they needed to collect both the Heaven and Earth scrolls to reach the tower at the forest's center.
The sharper minds caught on immediately. Sasuke, Yukino, Utaha, and the rest spotted the catch right away. Under these rules, at least half the candidates would be eliminated. Probably far more.
Because there was no guarantee the scroll you stole would be the one you were missing.
And when Anko produced the "consent forms," every face in the crowd went white.
Everyone knew what those forms really were. Consent forms in name. Death waivers in practice.
Outside of Makoto's squad, most players hadn't killed anyone since graduating from the Ninja Academy.
But they understood this world well enough by now. Plenty of the people around them wouldn't hesitate to kill for a scroll.
Kakeru Tobe licked his dry lips and muttered, "If I'd known it was gonna be this dangerous, I should've confessed to my crush before coming..."
Even though he wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, even he could feel how lethal this exam was about to get.
Silence settled over the group.
More than a few found their thoughts drifting to a certain someone.
The Akizuki sisters, obviously.
Utaha and Megumi Kato both pictured the same face, that cocky grin he always wore, and immediately shook their heads, banishing the image before it could settle.
Ran Mouri's mind went first to Shinichi Kudo. But somehow the picture blurred, his features dissolving and reshaping into another face entirely, one that looked down upon the world with absolute arrogance...
Her cheeks flushed. She shook her head hard.
No, no, no. What am I even thinking?
"I've got a great idea!"
Airi's eyes lit up. "We sprint straight to the central tower and ambush everyone who shows up. Easy, right?"
Ever the people-pleaser, Yui's face brightened, and she opened her mouth to cheer the plan on, but a cold voice cut in from beside her. "Baka."
"You wanna fight?!" Airi bristled on the spot.
"Calm down, calm down..." Yui slipped into her usual role as peacemaker.
"If you can think of that plan," Yukino said flatly, "so can everyone else. That tower is exactly where it'd be the most dangerous."
Airi blinked. She turned and watched the candidates already pouring through the chain-link fence into the forest, charging ahead without a backward glance.
She fell quiet.
Fine. She'd admit it. Little Miss Ironing Board had a point.
But back down? Not a chance.
The player squads lined up to collect their scrolls.
The distribution table was hidden behind heavy curtains, making it impossible to see whether a team received a Heaven or Earth scroll.
Just as Makoto's squad was about to enter the forest, Megumi slipped over to Ran and Utaha and lowered her voice.
"I've memorized the scroll type for every team that went in ahead of us."
She'd used her stealth skills to infiltrate the distribution area, cataloging each squad's scroll without being seen. The monitoring instructor on duty hadn't noticed a thing.
Utaha gave her a thumbs-up.
Ran shook her head in admiration. "Your stealth really is something else, Megumi..."
...
While the second exam of the Chunin Exams raged on, Makoto hadn't been idle.
He was putting together a contingency plan for Itachi Uchiha.
There was no way to be certain whether Obito had told Itachi about him, but it paid to be ready.
Because Itachi Uchiha was not someone to be taken lightly.
____________________________
*The Bonus Chapter*
Just found out about "God_of_chicken" also translating this, nothing wrong in that.
But bro/sis also copied the fic name and even the Mc name(Which i made up myself to fit the translation better, Raw is Ximen Cheng). And is trying to outplay me with badly translated chapters count.
So I'm gona reduce Powerstone goals to 40 per Bonus Chapter + 1 daily chap as always.