Chapter 230 - A Minor Oversight
A few more months passed, and Yuna was currently standing on one of the Uzumaki clan's training grounds and was waiting for everyone to arrive. It was time for the chunin exams and Yuna, naturally, signed her team up for it. Although it couldn't be guaranteed that all three of them would pass, all three of them at least had the necessary strength to succeed.
This time, the exams were a joint exercise between Konohagakure and Sunagakure, so the first part of the exams would be held in Konoha, while the second would be held in Suna. Additionally, there will be participants from Ame-, Kusa-, Taki- and even Kirigakure. Although Kiri just went through a civil war, since they barely had any losses and started an alliance with Konoha directly after, they decided to send in a team symbolically.
Honestly, Yuna pitied the team from Kiri a little. Their village's specialty is water style, and the second round will literally be held inside a desert. Either Mei sent a team she wanted to get rid of or a team with a unique specialization.
A little later, the first team arrived. It was Kurenai and her three Genin; Choji, Shino, and Kiba. Since Hinata, Ino, and Shikamaru are no longer Genin, Choji will join Kurenai's team to make it a three-person squad again.
When Kurenai arrived, she was about to bow towards Yuna, but Yuna quickly lifted her hand to stop her action.
"Please don't bother with formalities and just call me Yuna, Kurenai."
Kurenai sighed in relief when she heard Yuna's words. As the head of a huge clan and an Elite Jonin, Yuna had a significantly higher position than Kurenai, so using polite speech wouldn't be weird. Despite that, Kurenai felt rather uncomfortable referring someone at the same age as her genin respectfully. She was more than happy that Yuna was okay with using casual speech.
"Alright, Yuna. I'm looking forward to working with you."
Yuna nodded in acknowledgment and put her focus on the other group that just arrived.
"Seems like Guy's team just arrived, as well. I wonder how he will react to not being the first team to arr…"
"DAMN!!! WE WEREN'T FIRST!!! AS PUNISHMENT, I WILL RUN 1000 ROUNDS AROUND THE TRAINING GROUND ON MY HANDS!!!"
"Yeah, as expected."
Kurenai couldn't help but chuckle when she saw that Yuna had already gotten used to Guy's antics.
Meanwhile, Yuna was eyeing Neji with some interest. Hisoka told her that Neji would redeem himself in the timeline she knew, but since the circumstances were a little different this time, Yuna wondered if it would happen anyway.
Although she wasn't sure if Neji's attitude completely changed, she at least noticed that he was holding himself differently now.
'He let go of most of his arrogance, and he doesn't appear to be hostile to the Uzumaki clan either. Although I am not sure what he went through over the last year, it certainly is an improvement.'
Yuna also noticed the battle intent Lee was directing at her and couldn't help but smirk a little. Lee has been visiting the Uzumaki compound rather frequently and has fought dozens of sparring matches not only against Yuna but Hinata and Naruto as well. Strictly speaking, today they weren't supposed to have a match, but since he is here anyway, Yuna decided that she might as well have a little fun and fight Lee again.
Yuna never really spent much time with other Genin teams, so she noticed a rather interesting phenomenon right now.
'I see, as more and more teams trickled in, the jonin and genin start to mingle with people of their respective ranks. While the jonin have a relatively relaxed atmosphere between each other, the genin are highly competitive.
I guess since jonin is the end of the road for almost everyone, there really isn't much of a point in continuing to compete with each other. The genin, on the other hand, are still at the start of their road. Although genin are officially considered full-fledged shinobi, I honestly wouldn't call someone who has stuff like painting a wall in their mission roaster a proper shinobi. I'm pretty sure that I am not the only one who thinks like that either.'
While Yuna was idly watching the situation, she noticed that Neji was approaching Hisoka. Apparently, he wanted to have a proper sparring match against her where she could use her full strength without holding back, even if it meant that Neji would lose.
After Hisoka heard Neji's request, she let her eyes wander towards Yuna, and after receiving a nod, she quickly accepted Neji's challenge.
A few minutes later, all participants and their respective jonin were present. A total of 72 Konoha Genin will be participating in this time's chunin exams. Yuna honestly saw no point in sending in this much fodder. Still, since this was a joint exercise, most people probably figured out that the risk will be lower than usual, which would be an incorrect assumption.
Additionally, Yuna noticed that a total of five members of the Uzumaki clan were participating as well, which she deemed to be an acceptable number.
Yuna jumped slightly away from the gathering of shinobi, and as soon as she landed, an ice stage rose from under her feet, elevating her above everybody else.
She flared her chakra and noticed, with some dissatisfaction, that some Genin actually flinched when her chakra washed over them. If it was her who decided who was allowed to participate, she would kick those people out right now. Instead of that, she glared at the jonin who were responsible for those teams, resulting in them awkwardly averting their eyes from Yuna.
After making sure that everyone's eyes were on her, she nodded her head and started speaking.
"As most of you already know, I am Yuna Uzumaki, and I will be the one responsible for this joint exercise that will prepare you for the chunin exams. Some of you might be wondering why we are doing this inside the Uzumaki compound instead of one of Konoha's numerous training grounds, and the answer to that is relatively simple. Inside the Uzumaki compound, we can ensure that no outsiders can observe the training, which isn't wholly guaranteed at the public ones."
Yuna's eyes wandered over the crowd, and she noticed that a few people were interested in snooping around the Uzumaki compound. It was probably only due to curiosity, but Yuna still wouldn't allow them to do so. A vicious smirk appeared on Yuna's face that caused even some jonin to shiver in fear.
"I recommend not leaving the training ground without permission. If you do, hehe, I can no longer guarantee your safety."
That was, naturally, just a bluff. Even if someone started wandering around the compound without permission, the worst thing that could happen to that person was getting captured. Despite that, quite a lot of people weren't sure whether Yuna was telling the truth or not, and her vicious expression didn't help calm down their minds either.
Yuna continued speaking with a calm expression as if she didn't just threaten every single person present.
"Anyway, Let's get this started. We will hold a three-vs-three tournament, and, spicing things up a little, we will be breaking apart your current teams and forming new, random ones. You have been learning how to cooperate with your team for at least six months now, so now it is time to enter the real world and learn how to collaborate with your teammates even if you don't know them very well."
Yuna's words caused a bit of an outrage in the crowd of genin. Especially from those few who never participated in chunin exams. They spent a lot of time training together with their team, and now they were suddenly supposed to fight with two people who they might have never met before. They felt like all of their training until now was for nothing if they were to do so.
While a few Genin were piling up more and more complaints on Yuna, their respective jonin senseis had waterfalls of sweat flowing down their backs, especially when they saw that Yuna still had a kind smile on her face while people were complaining to her.
At first, Yuna wanted to wait until the crowd naturally calmed down, but after realizing that a few people interpreted her silence as meekness and were getting bolder, Yuna decided to intervene. Yuna flared her chakra far more intensly than she previously did without any further warning, causing quite a few people to choke on their words.
"Do you think the chunin exams are just another academy test? Do you believe that you will get a slap on the wrist if you fail and be told to do better next time?"
Yuna increased the pressure some more, while the previous vicious smile returned to her face.
"Hehe, if I were one of the proctors, then every single person who kept complaining just now would have instantly failed the exams together with their team. If you think that is unreasonable, you are free to ask your jonin sensei if others would do the same. The chunin exams are not about passing a test; they are about showing those that are watching that you are worthy of becoming a chunin. Depending on your performance, you can become a chunin despite failing the first test, while it is also possible to stay a Genin despite passing every test."
Although the crowd was rather shocked by Yuna's statement, after receiving a confirming nod from their respective jonin, they all accepted Yuna's words.
Yuna was pretty sure that about half of them would forget her words before the day is over, but there was nothing she could do about that. She was just about to finish her speech when she decided to create a little incentive for everyone to take this seriously.
"Oh right, I almost forgot. Humans tend to work harder when working towards a goal, so let me give you a little incentive to try your best in this little tournament. I will grant each of the individuals in the winning team one reasonable wish."
Before an uproar could start due to Yuna's words, massive amounts of battle intent started flooding the training ground, making even most of the jonin flinch.
Everyone instinctively stepped away from the source, and moments later, a young woman with long, red hair and glasses was revealed. She was drooling while her whole face was blushing, but despite that, her eyes shone with insane amounts of greed and determination.
Although she was only murmuring to herself, those that stood close to her could still hear a few words she said.
"Haa~ Haa~, Yuna-sama… reward… will win…no matter what…Haa~…"
After seeing the culprit responsible for such a powerful battle intent, Yuna could only smile wryly.
'Oops, I forgot that Karin was here.'
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