Chapter 321: The Third Exam Begins

Ninja Academy Teacher: I Get Stronger Just by Teaching, Chapter 239: The Third Exam Begins. On August 5th, the Chunin Exam officially started.

The third exam of the Chunin Exam was held in a huge circular arena.

In the center of the arena was a huge open space, very vast, with small patches of trees and ponds with limited water, where all examinees would fight.

Apart from the examinees' fighting ground, there were tiered spectator seats, filled with many noble officials, wealthy merchant clients, as well as locals from Konoha and ninjas.

The Third Hokage did not sit in the regular spectator seats; he had his own VIP seat, one level higher than the spectator seats.

"So many spectators," Rin Nohara sighed as she looked at the sea of people in the stands.

Before this, the liveliest event Rin Nohara had participated in was a festival, but even that didn't have this many people.

"Rin, don't be nervous. If you just give it your all, you'll definitely win," Obito said, thinking that Rin was worried about losing in front of so many people and trying to comfort her.

Rin Nohara covered her mouth and chuckled lightly: "Obito, you underestimate me. I won't get nervous just because people are watching."

Rin Nohara was not the kind of shy or timid girl who would get nervous from people staring; she might worry about the outcome due to her opponent's strength, but not because of spectators.

"Hehe, that's good then," Obito said, scratching his head with a chuckle.

Obito was even more indifferent to the spectators; the more people, the more excited he got—this was a great chance to make a name for himself in Konoha.

"Let's hurry over, it's almost time," Kakashi reminded them.

Both Obito and Rin nodded, and the three quickened their pace through the passage prepared for examinees, entering the center of the arena, which was the examinees' fighting ground.

The three arrived neither early nor late; three minutes after they arrived, all sixteen examinees were present.

Seeing all examinees assembled, some spectators cheered, seemingly anticipating the upcoming battles.

"Do you hear that? The cheers from the audience are all for you. You are the stars of today," Nonō Yakushi said with a smile.

Hearing Nonō Yakushi's words, Obito's heart swelled with excitement. If he could take first place under the watchful eyes of so many, it would be his first step towards becoming Hokage.

Might Guy wore a confident smile and gave a thumbs-up to a certain jumping green figure in the stands.

Mei Terumī clenched her fists. If she secured first place, she would gain the attention of the elder and the Mizukage, and the path to becoming Mizukage would become clear.

Zabuza Momochi looked complexly at Kakashi, who was only a few paces away from him. If he won, his opponent in the second round would be Kakashi.

Zabuza didn't know how he should fight to win, as the other had even killed his supervising jōnin.

"The rules of the third exam are simple. Same as the preliminaries: render your opponent unable to fight or force them to surrender to win," Nonō Yakushi continued.

"If there are no questions, besides Examinee No. 1 and No. 2 who will stay to prepare for battle, the other examinees please return to the waiting room to await further notice."

The waiting room also had a view of the arena battles, so it didn't hinder the examinees from gathering intelligence.

With the rules being so simple, naturally no examinee asked any questions. They paired up and walked through the examinee passage to the waiting room, leaving only No. 1 Kisame Hoshigaki and No. 2 Aoba Yamashiro.

Kisame Hoshigaki stood expressionless. In this exam, there were only two people he cared about: Might Guy and Kakashi Hatake. He felt confident about all other matches.

Compared to the composed Kisame Hoshigaki, Aoba Yamashiro was not so calm, staring at Kisame Hoshigaki with a look as if facing a great enemy.

He had seen Kisame's performance in the preliminaries; he was one of the most dominant examinees.

Nonō Yakushi had the two stand at their designated positions, waited about a minute, then shouted loudly:

"First match: Kisame Hoshigaki vs. Aoba Yamashiro, begin!"

The amplification equipment spread Nonō Yakushi's voice throughout the arena, and the spectators who had been chatting turned their attention to the fighting ground.

"This Kisame Hoshigaki is a ninja from Kirigakure. Although it's one of the Five Great Ninja Villages, we rarely hear about Kirigakure," said a spectator dressed in official attire.

"After all, Kirigakure is in the Land of Water; it's troublesome to come to the mainland," said another official.

"But even among the Five Great Ninja Villages, there are differences. Our ninjas from the Land of Fire should be stronger."

The officials nearby nodded in agreement. This was not only because Konoha was the ninja village of the Land of Fire, but also due to Konoha's strong record of consistent victories.

Although the spectators were confident in Aoba Yamashiro, that could not erase the gap between Aoba Yamashiro and Kisame Hoshigaki.

The moment Nonō Yakushi shouted start, Aoba Yamashiro immediately retreated and used a jutsu to summon a large flock of crows.

Caw—caw—

The crows' harsh, hoarse cries instantly filled the entire arena.

Large numbers of crows circled around Yamashiro Aoba, interfering with Hoshigaki Kisame's vision and hearing.

Shushushu!!

Yamashiro Aoba immediately flung several shuriken toward Hoshigaki Kisame.

Kisame casually slashed with his longsword, knocking down the shuriken, then he directly stabbed the sword into the ground and rapidly formed hand seals.

【Water Style: Exploding Water Colliding Wave!】

Kisame gathered a large amount of chakra, performed Water Nature Transformation, and spewed a massive torrent of water toward Yamashiro Aoba.

Yamashiro Aoba frowned, quickly retreated, and ordered the crows to fly higher.

Kisame's water volume was so immense that soon the entire battlefield was turned into a large pond by his Water Style. Yamashiro Aoba dodged the water blast but was forced to stand on the water surface and fight the oncoming Kisame.

Bang! Bang!

After a brief exchange, even with the crows' interference, Yamashiro Aoba was driven back step by step.

This terrain-limited battle was too disadvantageous for Yamashiro Aoba. Kisame could dive into the water at any time to avoid the crows' attacks, while Yamashiro Aoba had no good way to deal effective damage to Kisame.

"Truly the worst draw." Yamashiro Aoba felt somewhat helpless. As it happened, he had trained in Fire Style, which was countered by Kisame's Water Style.

"He's got some skill after all, not weak." After a few rounds of combat, Kisame found that Yamashiro Aoba was stronger than expected.

Although there were no outstanding aspects, Yamashiro Aoba was decent in all areas.

【Water Style: Water Dragon Bullet Technique!】

Since the field now had ample water, Kisame used little chakra to form a giant water dragon and slammed it toward Yamashiro Aoba. The crows that were disturbing his vision were instantly swept away by the huge water dragon.

【Fire Style: Fireball Technique!】 Yamashiro Aoba made a final desperate move. First, he spat out a fireball to block the incoming water dragon, then used the remaining crows to cover his body. Then he held his breath, submerged, and swam rapidly toward Kisame.

But Yamashiro Aoba underestimated Kisame's professionalism as a Hidden Mist ninja. Even though Yamashiro Aoba was very careful not to make a sound, and the noise of the fireball colliding with the water dragon provided cover, Kisame still detected Yamashiro Aoba underwater.

Kisame pretended not to notice. The moment Yamashiro Aoba got close, he suddenly dove underwater and engaged him in combat.

Splash!

A great spray of water exploded upward, and Yamashiro Aoba was sent flying backward out of the water by Kisame's full-power strike.

It wasn't over. Under Kisame's control, a stream of water shot straight toward Yamashiro Aoba before he could land.

Bang!

Struck by the water stream, Yamashiro Aoba slammed into the wall at the edge of the battlefield.

For the ordinary people watching the battle, not much time had passed. They only felt that Kisame used a Water Style and the field suddenly became a large pond. Then the two exchanged a few blows, Water Style and Fire Style collided, and then Yamashiro Aoba was smashed into the wall. The whole thing took only a few minutes.

"It seems this man is an excellent ninja from the Hidden Mist Village; he can't be judged by ordinary ninja standards." The official who had earlier said that the Land of Fire's ninja were stronger stroked his beard, showing no embarrassment on his face.

"That's right. After all, the Hidden Mist came from afar, so they would certainly send their village's strongest genius," agreed the official beside him.

"I didn't expect the Hidden Mist ninja to be this strong. I wonder how efficient their commissions are." Kisame's impressive performance made some wealthy merchants in the audience acknowledge the Hidden Mist's strength.

The Hidden Mist ninja smiled upon hearing this, but the Konoha ninja in the audience didn't look pleased—they had lost the first match.

Danzo, sitting to the right of Sarutobi Hiruzen, frowned at the scene, displeasure showing on his face.

Although his insight told him that it wasn't that Yamashiro Aoba was weak but that Kisame was too strong, in Danzo's eyes, losing in such an important occasion was a disgrace to Konoha and was unacceptable.

Yuanshi, sitting to the left of Sarutobi Hiruzen, only showed a faint smile, neither saying anything nor laughing too heartily.

Sarutobi Hiruzen neither frowned nor smiled. He stared at the field with an expressionless face, making his inner thoughts unreadable.

【Hoshigaki Kisame wins!】 After confirming that Yamashiro Aoba had lost combat capability, Biluhu cleanly announced Kisame's victory.

After Biluhu announced the result, medical ninja quickly took Yamashiro Aoba for treatment, while Kisame headed toward the rest room.

"Little Rin, do your best." Seeing the first match end, Obito cheered for Nohara Rin.

"You can use more Water Style at the start; you'll have a terrain advantage in the beginning." Kakashi walked up to Nohara Rin and quietly reminded her.

Although the battlefield also had a drainage system, it was clearly not very effective. The water volume was continuously decreasing and not as much as before, but it was still a favorable environment for Nohara Rin.

Of course, if the battle dragged on too long, the water would definitely disappear.

"Mm." Nohara Rin smiled and nodded at the two of them.

"The second match: Nohara Rin versus Nara Saltwater. Examinees, please enter the venue immediately." The voice of Hiruko echoed into the rest area.

Nohara Rin waved goodbye to the two of them and walked toward the battlefield.

"I'll cheer you on," Inuzuka Midori also encouraged Nara Saltwater, who was about to fight.

Nara Saltwater nodded and turned to walk toward the venue.

Although he hadn't managed to gather any information on Nohara Rin during his special training with Mugetsu, his taijutsu had improved slightly there.

ps: Only one chapter today. The day before yesterday I said I'd adjust my schedule, but I only succeeded for one day. Last night I didn't fall asleep until two in the morning again. I'll try again today, but if it doesn't work, then forget it—whatever happens, happens. I'll focus on writing the book first. I've really not been in the right state for writing recently.