Not long after, the examiner for the first test, Nara Shikaku, arrived and handed each candidate a test sheet. It had ten questions, each worth ten points.
Only those who answered at least six questions correctly could advance to the next round.
"No cheating during the test. Every time you're caught, you lose ten points. After five offenses, you're out. The test begins now."
Without any theatrics, Nara Shikaku calmly explained the rules and started the exam.
But most of his attention remained on Sora, barely sparing a glance for the others.
After all, the purpose of this round was to test intelligence-gathering abilities. Coincidentally, a Chūnin planted by the proctors was seated right next to Sora.
All Sora had to do was copy his answers to pass, so he didn't rush. Instead, he watched the others curiously.
"Candidate 45: one instance of cheating, minus ten points!"
"Candidate 107: three instances of cheating, minus ten points!"
"Candidate 233: five instances of cheating. You and your team are out!"
…
The examiner's voice rang out repeatedly. Sora could only shake his head in disappointment. Were these people seriously taking the Chūnin Exams with that level of skill?
Only now did he realize something else—everyone else was in teams of three. Only he was alone.
"That damn Minato! You didn't even tell me about this setup? Just wait till I get back!"
After silently cursing Minato, Sora forced himself to calm down.
Shikaku, watching Sora laze around, found it strange. He'd heard plenty about Sora's reputation and didn't believe for a second that a test like this could stump him.
Half the time had passed already—why hadn't he moved?
Shikaku tried to imagine what kind of method Sora would use—but he couldn't figure it out.
"Hmm? Finally done?"
Right then, the Chūnin next to Sora finished his exam, filling it entirely with correct answers.
Sora grinned at him with a mischievous, almost perverse smile.
Then, stretching lazily, he placed his left hand on his own test paper while his right hand "accidentally" touched the Chūnin's test sheet.
Shff!
In an instant, Sora's blank test paper appeared on the Chūnin's desk, and the finished one landed on Sora's.
No one noticed what had happened—except Nara Shikaku. Even the other proctors didn't catch it.
The Chūnin planted in the exam room was dumbfounded. He started to question his life.
Sure, they told him to let others copy his answers—but now they were stealing his entire paper? Did they have any idea how hard it was to write that thing?
Shikaku, who understood what happened, twitched at the corners of his mouth. If he hadn't seen Minato use this jutsu before, even he wouldn't have known.
"This is an intelligence-gathering test—not a stealing test!"
Sora glanced down at the densely filled test sheet in his hand and grinned. He casually changed the name on it and placed it back on the desk.
He couldn't help sneering inwardly at the others—working so hard to cheat properly was just too low-level.
What he had done was simply make clever use of his self-developed ninjutsu, Portable Space.
He'd placed his own paper into storage with his left hand and the Chūnin's with his right. Then, using precise timing, he swapped them both in and out of storage. If done correctly, it was imperceptible to others.
Even the original owner of the paper was left completely clueless.
After pulling off the swap, Sora lay down and started napping, completely ignoring the others' anxious cheating attempts.
Half an hour later, the first test concluded. Nearly two hundred participants were eliminated for cheating.
Out of the original 500+ candidates, only around 300 remained.
And that wasn't the final number—once the test scores were graded, anyone scoring below 60 would be disqualified as well.
Sora figured that if a hundred candidates were left after all that, it'd be a miracle.
Not that he cared. Frankly, he wished everyone else would get eliminated too. With that thought, he strolled out of the exam room confidently.
What he didn't notice was that behind him, a boy of about fourteen or fifteen from an unknown minor ninja village—his face covered in terrifying scars—was watching him intently. Then, he silently followed Sora out of the room.
Sora had no idea which village this guy came from—probably because it was so tiny it didn't matter. Even the jōnin leading their team was just a Chūnin. No one paid attention to them.
After leaving the exam room, Sora wandered the village aimlessly.
He wandered and stopped here and there until, without realizing it, he arrived at the training grounds. This was the very place where his journey as a ninja had begun.
Maybe because of the Chūnin Exams, Might Guy wasn't there today, which was unusual.
Finding it boring, Sora turned to leave—but the moment he moved, a fierce fire dragon shot toward him from behind.
"Earth Style – Earth Wall!"
Rumble…!
"Water Style – Super Exploding Water Wave!"
Sora blocked the fire dragon with his earth wall and immediately launched a powerful counterattack without even looking back.
Once the waterfall-like wave surged forward, Sora finally turned to see who had attacked him.
One glance, and Sora understood—someone from the Exchange Station had come to assassinate him.
On the attacker's right sleeve was a white three-petaled flower. Jiraiya had warned him before—that was the Exchange Station's symbol.
Sora recognized the scarred man—it was the same one who'd participated in the Chūnin Exam earlier.
"Good, good!" Sora laughed coldly, voice laced with killing intent. "You dared to come to Konoha—don't even think about leaving now!"
"Fire Style – Fire Dragon Bullet!"
"Water Style – Water Dragon Bullet!"
A fire dragon and a water dragon spiraled together, soaring toward the enemy.
Sora himself vanished with a Body Flicker, closing the distance with Chidori forming in his right hand.
Seeing Sora react so fast, the man quickly used Earth Style: Earth Wall for defense.
But the water and fire dragons struck with such force that the wall only held for a second before shattering.
That one second was enough for the attacker to dodge with a Body Flicker.
But in the very next moment, Sora appeared, plunging his glowing blue hand directly into the enemy's chest.
Poof!
Smoke erupted—the target vanished. It was only a shadow clone.
The real attacker had already appeared behind Sora, kunai aimed at his back.
"Lightning Style – Ground Walk!"
Sora had anticipated this. He released the jutsu from a pre-made hand seal instantly.
A bolt of lightning flashed—his opponent froze for a moment.
And in that brief pause, Sora spun and slashed with his Chidori, the blade of lightning tearing through the enemy's face.
A second later, the man collapsed—his head separated from his body, completely and utterly dead.