Chapter 973

After a brief day of rest, the second round of the Chunin Exams is to be held at Konoha's Training Ground No. 13, the "Forest of Death." Thirty-three teams of ninety-nine genin, hailing from different countries and different shinobi villages, will fight within it for three days and three nights.

"Since everyone is here, let's announce the rules for the second exam as previously agreed." After all participating genin had arrived at the entrance of Training Ground A, Mitarashi Anko—who had taken a lounge chair and been comfortably lying on it feigning sleep—finally spoke up........

"The first rule to be stated is: during this exam, Konoha shinobi village will not be responsible for your safety. Any casualties are entirely at your own risk."

In fact, every time the Chunin Exams are held, regardless of which shinobi village, this clause is explained before entering the second round, because this has always been the unspoken understanding between the several shinobi villages.

Perhaps Konoha is an exception, but among the other shinobi villages, the children who become ninjas mostly have pasts they would rather not recall, and often during their training, certain unsavory methods are employed to push these children into turning the painful experiences of their youth into an undying hatred toward other shinobi villages.

Using this to drive them to become better ninjas—so now, when the Chunin Exams give them a chance to kill peers from enemy villages, there is usually no one who would refuse.

After a brief pause, confirming that there were no naive fools—especially no children from Konoha—raising questions about this, Mitarashi Anko, very satisfied, began to lay out the other rules.

"The second rule: the exam has a total of thirty-three teams. No matter which shinobi village you come from… fight it out. Only ten teams will qualify for the third exam."

"Can I ask a question?" someone quick-witted raised a doubt.

"Konoha, as the host of this exam, has the most participants among you. If the evaluation were based on a points system, then as long as Konoha's squads all stick together, the teams from other shinobi villages would have no chance of winning at all. Have these factors been taken into consideration?"