Revolution in the Ninja World

It might have been his imagination, but Habara felt like there were more and more ninjas in the village, and many of them were injured.

Habara was currently walking down a street in Konoha. He was wearing a garment that was neither quite a yukata nor quite a coat. To put it simply, it had loose sleeves that only reached his elbows, a "く"-shaped front closure, and a hem that extended slightly past his knees, with a black decorative belt… It was said to be a modified version of clothing adapted for combat ninjas.

Considering that wearing short sleeves in the dead of winter was a sign of severe illness, Habara also wore a black "sweat-wicking shirt" close to his skin, and black tactical gloves on his hands — both of these "garments" were made of iron, which could be described as both warm in winter and cool in summer.

Okay, this time Habara had finally bothered to properly protect himself. He'd realized something… Wasting a little chakra for the sake of defense was more than worth it.

His lower body was clad in ordinary black pants, and he wore shoes with tops high enough to cover his leggings… Since he really wasn't used to wearing sandals that exposed his toes, his shoes, unusually, were normal shoes.

In any case, Habara's appearance was certainly more spirited than yesterday; he looked like a normal person.

Twenty minutes later, Habara arrived at the Hokage's office building again. He then met the same two ninjas from before, who informed him that the investigation into him had concluded, and the full responsibility for the previous squad's annihilation rested on the captain.

However, this investigation result didn't really solve anything. For one, no one received the punishment they deserved, and secondly, that kind of captain could still potentially be given command, because Konoha was still the same Konoha. Nothing had changed.

In short, the suspicion surrounding Habara had been cleared.

Having received this notification, Habara's business at the Hokage's office building was concluded, and he chose to leave.

While leaving, he saw the Third Hokage and the Fourth Hokage again. Of course, he had at least some sense; he wasn't qualified to approach them in this situation. Their previous contact was due to the higher-ups' "concern for the lower ranks," not because Habara himself was special.

Speaking of which, the Hokage's lineage all had some consistent issues with their… humanity.

The Third Hokage, Hiruzen Sarutobi: tried to peep at the women's bathhouse with his disciple, developed a long-distance peeping jutsu, and was defeated by the Sexy Jutsu.

One of the "Sannin," Jiraiya: no need to elaborate.

The Fourth Hokage, Minato Namikaze: puppy love at seven years old.

The Sixth Hokage, Kakashi Hatake: a pervert under a stoic mask, an avid fan of the Icha Icha series.

The Seventh Hokage, Naruto Uzumaki: developed the Sexy Jutsu, and at a young age was already fixated on the Fifth Hokage's three mountains atop two mountains.

Thinking about it this way, Habara felt he should stay far away from these people.

With the idea of keeping a respectful distance, he quickly left the Hokage's office building.

However, just as Habara reached the entrance, he noticed a new notice posted on the village council's bulletin board. The content was very simple: Konoha would be holding another Chunin Exam in two weeks.

During wartime, some ninjas could be directly promoted based on their achievements and abilities, but that didn't mean the exam-based Chunin Exams in Konoha were suspended. There were a few "failures" who became Chunin at the age of eleven through the exam.

But if there was anything different about this Chunin Exam, firstly, it was the first Chunin Exam held since the Fourth Hokage took office, so it had a certain symbolic significance. Secondly, this exam had been changed to a three-stage exam that took time and emphasized formality, rather than the previous method that focused on practicality and efficiency.

Konoha seemed to be sending a signal that it was emerging from war and that the village's situation was beginning to return to normal, to the everyday.

Of course, Habara didn't understand or care about the deeper reasons; he didn't even know what the Chunin Exams were like during wartime. Anyway, after seeing this notice, he immediately turned around and went back to the Hokage's office building…

He went straight to register.

He needed to level up, there was no reason to hesitate, and he happened to need a stage with a certain degree of attention.

And once he had completed the registration, there would be no more lazing around.

"Half a month… I wonder if that's enough time…"

Next, Habara needed to complete his "Balanced Mode," and also try to see if he could use that ninjutsu.

But regardless of whether Habara could master new skills, using combat strength as a benchmark, there was no reason for him to fail the Chunin Exam.

Half a month flew by.

Theoretically, Habara was sure to pass, unless the first exam was a written test.

And, of course, the first exam was a written test.

As usual, the exam requisitioned classrooms from the Konoha Ninja Academy. So when Habara arrived here today, he had a strange feeling of returning to his alma mater… Okay, he actually didn't have that feeling at all.

The subsequent written test went very smoothly. None of the examinees caused any trouble… Even if the examinees were all genin, most of them had participated in the war. They at least understood what it meant to obey orders.

Because the undisciplined ones were already six feet under.

Habara sat in a seat, and after waiting for the signal to start the exam, he flipped open the test paper on the desk. After a quick glance, he found that the contents were all-encompassing, covering everything from math and physics to general knowledge and intelligence.

In an instant, Habara realized a fact: he might have overestimated his own abilities.

Some of the questions on the test paper, Habara knew. Some he knew but actually didn't. Some he didn't know but could still answer correctly, and some he definitely didn't know…

The exam time was only two hours. The good news was that the results would be graded and announced immediately. The bad news was that Habara had little confidence in his score.

After only another half hour, Habara learned his score… 51 points. At this moment, he slightly resented the ninjas' efficiency.

Then the proctor announced that the passing score for this written test was 50 points. At this moment, Habara felt that high efficiency was definitely not a bad thing.

This shows that his constant claim of being "self-taught" was not an exaggeration.

How could ninjas who focused on the battlefield possibly achieve high scores in a suddenly held written test? So, it was normal for the passing score to be set very low.

In fact, this written test was mostly symbolic, because Habara noticed that most of the ninjas had passed. So it was just a formality… As long as the score wasn't particularly outrageous, there was no reason to fail.

At least for this exam, the score was basically irrelevant. Although some people almost failed, even if it was only by one point, passing was passing.

After the first written test, the second exam would be held tomorrow. The proctors were also very considerate and gave the candidates some preparation time.

And the content of the second exam sounded very advantageous to people like Habara. In a word… A survival free-for-all in a primeval forest.