Chapter 405: Changed Destiny
Seven days passed quickly, and the final stage of the Chunin Exams officially began.
Normally, there would be a one-month interval between the Forest of Death and the third stage. This time, it was reduced to a week because the Forest of Death stage, which previously was not available to outsiders, was now free to everyone, including the nobles and wealthy merchants. Inviting them took a month, but this time, they were already present, eliminating the need for a month-long break for the participants.
Additionally, it wouldn’t be practical to have the nobles and wealthy merchants hanging around doing nothing in Konoha for a whole month.
With sixty-six participants, there would be a total of thirty-three matches. Fortunately, the battles between Shinobi tended to be swift, allowing for quick outcomes. Otherwise, it might be challenging to finish even the first round on the first day.
The venue for the Chunin Exams remained the same, an arena built by Konoha long ago, with concentric circles forming the spectator stands. Nagasawa, despite being the main examiner, sat with the Kage and observed the matches. He assigned Kakashi as the referee instead.
The drawing lots had been done in the Forest of Death stage, numbering the participants from one to sixty-six. Each number would fight the number after. To ensure an even number of advancing candidates, two unlucky losers would have to battle again, determining the final even-numbered qualifiers.
This was the third stage, and it didn’t matter where you were from. Qualifying or not depended solely on your performance in battle.
In the first match that Nagasawa didn’t recognize, an Iwagakure Genin faced a Sunagakure Genin, so he paid little attention.
Among the sixty-six participants, twenty-seven of them were from Konoha, eighteen from Sunagakure, nine from Iwagakure, and twelve from Kumogakure. The smaller villages had already been eliminated in the Forest of Death stage.
It wasn’t until the third match that Nagasawa saw a Konoha Genin in action. It was a match between a Konoha Genin and a Sunagakure Genin, and the Konoha participant happened to be a member of Nagasawa’s Special Combat Division.
"The third match, participant number five, Iruka Umino, versus..." Kakashi calmly announced the names of the contestants.