The Chūnin Exams ended in the morning, but their aftereffects continued to spread outward as the audience dispersed.
In this era, the ninja world's information and entertainment industries were still underdeveloped. Trendy novelties like television and film had only just begun to emerge in the outside world and were still in their infancy; it would take several more years before they reached Konohagakure.
Compared to the hundreds of millions that made up the world's total population, ninjas—though they were the primary force guiding and changing the world—were actually very few in number, belonging to a high-end, elite minority group.
Yet it was precisely this small group that dominated the entire ninja world, for only one reason: they had mastered and monopolized the methods for training and utilizing chakra, this extraordinary power.
After all, in any world, power is the most fundamental and most important form of authority.
Ninjas did not reject new things that appeared in the ninja world, and they would actively promote within the ninja villages any new inventions from the outside world that were beneficial to ninjas.
At present, the sources through which people living in ninja villages received information were mainly provided by traditional print media, including newspapers and various periodicals and books.
Aside from that, people's leisure activities amounted to little more than idle boasting after meals and tea, no different in spirit from the aunties who gathered at the village entrance.
As word spread from mouth to mouth among the spectators, the content of the Chūnin Exams became the hottest topic of casual conversation. In eateries, izakaya, and similar places, discussions could be heard everywhere.
People seemed to have temporarily forgotten the pain brought by the war, forgotten the relatives and friends who had passed away, and immersed themselves in the powerful fantasy brought by a handful of super-spec geniuses.
From this perspective, the Third Hokage's original purpose in re-holding the Chūnin Exams also seemed to have been perfectly achieved.
Using it to put the Uchiha in their place was just an unexpected bonus.
Toward evening, Makoto was truly preparing to go to Konohagakure's hot spring bathhouse to enjoy life.
Nothing was more refreshing than, after a great battle, getting together with familiar close friends and soaking in a hot spring—this was what ninja life should be like.
Makoto had originally wanted to invite Hayate and Yūgao as well, to comfort the downcast Shisui and have a friendly get-together.
In the end, Hayate ran into his female classmate Tsubaki, who still had not graduated.
This girl, like Umino Iruka, had failed to successfully graduate early, and was still staying at the ninja academy.
Now that the war was already nearing its end, after the victory on the eastern front, Konoha's manpower shortage had been alleviated, so naturally the pace of ninja academy students graduating was also slowed.
On the way to the hot spring bathhouse, they also ran into Hyūga Tokuma's three-person squad, so everyone agreed to go relax together.
Aside from the adults of the Higashino, Uzuki, and Gekkō families, these were Makoto's circle of friends in Konohagakure. His social circle was not wide, and he could not be bothered to make it wide.
As for that husky named Rocky—
This guy was currently at odds with Inuzuka Meko over the decline in the quality of dog food and coat-care shampoo, and was staying with the Inuzuka clan, unwilling to come out.
Meko revealed, however, that the real situation was that Rocky, thanks to his excellent pedigree and outstanding intelligence, was extremely popular with the Inuzuka clan's female dogs, and was currently hard at work within the clan stealing other male dogs' mates.
He became so engrossed in it—working day and night—that he was eventually cornered at home by the aggrieved members of the same sex and did not dare show his face.
...
Inside a luxurious hot spring bathhouse with steep prices, the men and women were separated.
This round was paid for by Makoto. In any case, he was not short on money—if money was not spent, it was nothing more than a string of meaningless numbers.
After soaking in the hot spring, everyone felt as though even their souls had been relaxed.
Now, laid bare before one another, Makoto finally got to see the legendary Caged Bird Curse Mark. Tokuma was an optimist and did not mind others' scrutiny in the slightest.
After all, he was also looking at Makoto—and from a very pointed angle. "Hey, Makoto, you're about the same age as us, right? So why is it that we're all in the same stage of physical development, yet your treasured weapon is so remarkably prominent?"
Makoto's old face flushed red. "You're actually using the Byakugan to look at that? Hurry back and apologize to all the Hyūga ancestors, you bastard."
"I don't need to activate the Byakugan. Isn't this something anyone with eyes can see? So—do you have some kind of secret method? Hurry up and share it with us."
Hearing this, the others pricked up their ears.
Makoto was somewhat helpless and could only share, "Every day I stimulate it by striking it with a solid iron ball—yeah, that's what I do."
Tokuma rolled his eyes. "If you want us dead, just say so."
Makoto could not be bothered to pay him any attention and turned his head to ask, "Shisui, did you get beaten up when you went back at noon?"
"How could that be?" Shisui replied. "Makoto, do you really think our Uchiha clan is that petty in your eyes? In fact, our clan respects strength very much. You defeated me in a straightforward fight—no one would say anything about that. It would only make me work harder in training."
"Exactly, exactly," Tokuma chimed in. "Why do people always spin conspiracy theories about Konoha's major clans liking to suppress geniuses who don't belong to their own clans? That kind of thing has never existed."
Hayate said, "That's just ordinary people being idle and imagining nonsense."
"This is the ninja world—strength naturally earns respect."
Hm? Who was talking?
Everyone turned their heads to look. Oh—there was still one more person. When had Aburame Muta arrived? And why were you wearing sunglasses even while soaking in the bath?
"Hah, I was just joking," Makoto said after indulging in a bit of gossip. Then, somewhat more seriously, he asked, "So, Shisui, do you understand what I told you before?"
"Only the strong will have their words and ideas noticed. Only they can attract people who agree with them and make others willingly follow. No matter how much a weak person thinks, no matter how correct their reasoning is, what use is it? They can neither protect themselves nor protect those who believe in them."
Shisui fell silent for a moment, then nodded. "I understand."
Tokuma cut in curiously, "What are you guys talking about?"
"That a ninja's foremost task is to train and grow stronger."
"Makoto, isn't that obvious? Did that really need saying?" Tokuma had no interest in the topic and changed the subject. "By the way, you should be able to get promoted to chūnin now, right? After all, a genin hanging around with us chūnin really drags everyone's status down."
Chūnin status my ass. Makoto splashed him with a ladle of hot spring water.
Hayate voiced his view. "There shouldn't be any problem. That includes Shisui, and the other four squads as well."
"You all know that chūnin are a village's foundational strength, and they also suffer the highest casualties in war. Right now, there's an urgent need to fill the gaps."
"W–war!" Tokuma shrank back into the hot spring. "It should be ending soon, right? Now there's only the northern front left. There probably won't be a chance for us to take the field anymore."
His sunglasses-wearing teammate calmly added the finishing blow. "Hard to say. Anything can happen in the ninja world. Clan upbringing taught me that until the very last moment, you shouldn't jump to conclusions."
The Aburame clan—nicknamed atmosphere destroyers—successfully wiped out what had been a fairly pleasant mood.
Makoto did not mind. On the contrary, he was rather looking forward to seeing what the fighting styles of the Kumo and Iwa ninja were like.
...
As it turned out, Hayate's guess was correct. On the second day of the Chūnin Exams, Makoto received a notification and went to the Hokage Tower to update his records, successfully advancing to chūnin—tragically losing the apocalyptic title of "genin," with his descriptor updated to "just another nobody by the roadside."
Fortunately, he was not carrying any kind of title system on him. Otherwise, he would have been finished.
Not just him—everyone who advanced to the third round of this Chūnin Exams was promoted to chūnin. The quotas were effectively handed out in bulk.
Reality once again proved that Aburame Muta had not been wrong either: until the very last moment, one should not jump to conclusions lightly.
Only a week after the Chūnin Exams ended—by mid-September—the northern front saw turmoil rise again.
Intelligence indicated that both Kumo and Iwa were secretly mobilizing troops and accelerating their offensive tempo.
It looked as though everyone was at the end of their endurance, yet unwilling to let things end like this. They were preparing to make one final, all-out push, to see who would collapse and die first.
To respond to this situation, Konoha had no choice but to once again redeploy forces to provide support.
Because without equivalent strength to counterbalance them, those two villages might first concentrate their forces to kick Konoha out of the game—and that was absolutely something they were capable of doing.
No matter how one looked at it, Konoha was the one that drew the most hatred.
Minato, who had only just returned and spent a few days accompanying his girlfriend, had no choice but to set out for the northern battlefield with the reinforcement forces on the morning of September 14.
The Gekkō Kumomi squad that Makoto belonged to, as well as the Sarutobi Hiyoma squad that Hyūga Tokuma was part of, were both included in this reinforcement force.
Shisui, however, was not. With Konoha's manpower situation no longer so strained, the Uchiha clan was once again put on hold.
At the morning assembly, everyone collectively glared at Aburame Muta: you jinx.
Hidden behind his sunglasses, Muta remained calm and composed, completely unmoved. Perhaps he was even secretly pleased—after all, it was finally his turn to be watched by all his companions.
Once again, the people of Konoha went through the traditional ritual of seeing off their relatives and friends. Yet the atmosphere was better than at the beginning of the war, because many people had the feeling that perhaps this time, it would be the last.
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