Naruto: Systematic Shinobi

Chapter 124: The Chunin Exams - 50

"I could take you out on a date." he teasingly replied.

He was testing the waters.

"You're already going to be doing that that though." she replied with a roll of her eyes.

And he scored. She hadn't decided against them pursuing that relationship option later on.

Good, good….good.

"True, I guess you'll have to settle for just a summoning contract then," Daiki shrugged casually, "What would you prefer? A giant pack of wolves or a giant Conch that has a super tough defensive shell and can use a bunch of cool things like a genjutsu mist and big ass water jutsu?"

"Wait, what?" Tenten goggled at him, eyes flying wide open.

But before she could press for further information, Anko apparently decided it was time to move things along and that they'd had enough time to digest their passing the second exam.

"Now, the third exam will begin and Lord Hokage will be graciously taking the time to explain it all to you," she explained, "Make sure you all listen up and take all of his words to heart, you might learn something."

Old man Sandaime chuckled lightly at Anko's words, before smiling at them all, "You have all done well to make it here, each and every single one of you are fine ninja and will no doubt go far," he praised them, "Now though, the third exam is about to commence, but, before we go into the specifics of how things will progress, let me make one thing, perfectly clear, which pertains to the underlying purpose of this exam!"

He paused briefly to let his words sink in, making sure they were all listening, before continuing on, "Tell me young ones, why do suppose an examination of this nature is being jointly conducted by all of the five great nations?"

His smile turned into a faint grin, "To promote friendship among all the nations and raise the overall general level in the ninja arts," he revealed, "I will be very clear in what this means, what these series of so called examinations are all about."

Daiki noticed Tenten swallowing heavily at the mans words, and she wasn't the only one visibly reacting to the mans words.

After all, the old man was completely relaxed, his stance and smile wholly welcoming.

Yet a powerful pressure seemed to exude from him just naturally as he spoke and it was pressing down upon everyone gathered.

Daiki crossed his arms, eyebrow raising, 'He's just flowing his chakra.' he noted, he could see it clearly. The man wasn't even letting any of it escape his body, yet still, just circulating his chakra within his body caused this kind of pressure.

Such powerful chakra. It utterly dwarfed his own.

The old man could probably crush most of the genin gathered here by just flaring his chakra at them.

And to think this was him far from his prime and much weaker than he once was. Old man third was a complete monster.

'That is indeed very impressive chakra for a human.' Isobu agreed.

…The fact his Bijuu actually noted that in of itself, was impressive and telling enough. Isobu after all, still felt his own chakra capacity and strength, now in the realms of a kage, if a low level one, was pitifully small.

"Quite simply, the chunin exams are war in miniature," the Sandaime continued after a moment, "The chunin exams exist to promote the villages in place of war, a tentative stop gap and agreement between each of the five great nation ninja villages to stop our loyal ninja dying en-masse during times of strife like they did for so many years. This is the friendship of we five villages."

"…That's the stupidest friendship I've heard of!" shouted out in reply.

Naruto, as expected.

Though, he wasn't the only one that seemed to be uncomfortable with the Hokage's words and the true nature of the Chunin Exams.

Quite a few voiced a similar opinion as Naruto, though, few of them had the guts to say it so loudly and proudly, challenging the words of the Hokage as the blonde did.

"Make no mistake, these exams are not just about you young ones, but the glory and honour of the shinobi villages as well," Hiruzen wasn't daunted in any single way by the whiny grumbling, "While this exam needles out any of you unfit to ascend up to the next rank, it will also more importantly showcase to many honoured guests, the ability of the villages, this includes the rulers and nobility spread around this continent, each and every single one of them will be watching you, and your actions and abilities will reflect on your home."

"What that means," he began clarifying, "Is that if any nations ninja show outstanding talent, ability and superiority the gathered nobleman's eyes will be on them and they will in turn be quick to commission the village who trained those superior fighters and talents for work, promoting the growth of their villages, conversely, if inferior ninja take the stage and make a bad showing, it will reflect poorly on the village and may lead to less work commissioned."

"So…so why then is it necessary for us to stake our lives and fight here?!" Kiba called out, stopping the Hokage from continuing.

Quite a few made muttering agreements with him.

Daiki withheld the urge to groan in annoyance. How could fucking clan kids be this fucking stupid when it came to the duties of a shinobi or kunoichi?

You know what, this was taking too fucking long.

"For fucks sake, isn't it obvious?" Daiki's words escaped his mouth before he could stop them, many eyes turned to him, all eyes in the room actually, "It's a dick measuring contest you moron, it's basically a big show to say 'Look how fucking badass our genin are, if our little wimp kids are this strong, how strong do you think our Jonin are? Come hire us, we'll beat everyone's asses for you cuz' we're the best of the best and all those other punk ass bitches can't measure up to us.'"

There was utter silence at his words, and quite a few gaped at him, mostly the other genin.

The likes of Sakura, Ino, Naruto, Kiba, Choji and such were outright goggling at him, but the ones in the know, were pretty impassive.

Which was fine, he just wanted this shit to get a move on.

Of the Jonin, only a few gave any visible reaction. Kurenai's eyebrows rose, while Asuma snorted in pure amusement, and Anko smirked widely, giving him a nod of approval.

The Sandaime gave an audible cough, breaking the silence, "Yes, while the wording was a bit crude, that is indeed what the Chunin Exams amount to," the old man agreed with him, all eyes turning back to him as he began speaking again, "The strength of a nation is derived from the strength of its ninja village which in turn draws its strength from the many shinobi and kunoichi whom call that village home and fight for its prosperity. You ask why you must fight? It is because the greatest strength of these shinobi and kunoichi only emerges in the midst of a life and death battle."

As he finished, one of the flak jack wearing shinobi standing impassively near him made his way to the front and took a knee in front of the Hokage, "Hokage-sama, if you don't mind, would you allow myself to take over the proceedings of the exam from here as its proctor?" Gekko Hayate asked.

"Very well," Sarutobi nodded, "You may proceed Hayate-kun."

"Thank you," the man kept his head bowed for a moment before standing up and turning to face everyone, displaying a pale skinned face with thick bags under his eyes, "Good to meet you all, I am Hayate and I will be the proctor of the third exam, though before that, I will need to ask something of all of you."

He made sure everyone was paying attention to him before he continued on, "You see, before the third exam begins, there will be a set of preliminary battles and whether you proceed to the true third exam or not, is dependent on you winning." he explained.

"Preliminaries!?" surprisingly the one to shout out, voice aghast was Shikamaru, "The hell, are you kidding?!"

"Hayate-san, I'm in agreement with him," he heard Sakura's voice speak up, "Why can't we all proceed to the third exam? Why do we need to take part in preliminary battles?"

"…Well, I don't want to say the previous two exams weren't a trying experience, but the fact of the matter is, we still have too many applicants," he replied, "As Hokage-sama explained to you all moments ago, we will have many rich and powerful guests watching you all, very busy powerful people at that, So we must not only keep the exam intense, but also fast paced and make sure that only the best of the best show off their skills."

"B-but-" Sakura sputtered.

Hayate cut her off before she could finish, "If you are worried about your promotion, don't worry, this is a chance for you to show off your abilities as well, everyone gathered here to watch will be judging your abilities as ninja to see if you are worthy of promotion or not, even if don't win or make it through to the true third exam, you still have a chance at promotion," he explained, before clapping his hands loudly, "Either way, if any of you want to drop out, now is your chance, because the preliminaries begin now!"