Chapter 35:

Once the second test was finished, only the first 11 teams to arrive were the ones that passed to the last one...

To the third test finally passed 3 teams from Konoha, 2 teams from Sunagakure and Kumogakure, and only 1 team from Iwagakure, Kirigakure, Takigakure(Village Hidden in the Waterfall), and Kemurigakure(Village Hidden in the Smoke).

Apparently, Iwagakure and Kirigakure ended up having several conflicts in the second test, leaving many of their ninja present in the exam seriously injured or dead..., and only one of their elite teams managed to pass.

Rasa smiled at this as apparently, their mission was a success...

"Hey, why are those fucking Konoha ninjas staring at us so much?" asked Nomad to Rumia and Rasa.

"Huh, Konoha ninjas, which ones?" asked Rumia.

"There, the sexy blonde ninja and the white-haired ninja with the stupid face," said Nomad pointing to Tsunade and Jiraiya who were in a corner of the meeting point staring at them.

"Nomad, those two are the Hokage's apprentices and as far as I know they are only 14 years old" explained Rasa clearly specifying their age because of Nomad's comment about Tsunade being sexy.

"Oh..., so that's the famous granddaughter of the ninja god, Hashirama Senju," said Rumia quite surprised, after all, Hashirama was known, admired, and respected all over the ninja world.

"Huh?, no idea about that, but she's hot" commented Nomad.

Yeah, well..., maybe not everyone admired and respected Hashirama.

"Poor Tomoe as he can't get a girlfriend of his age so now he can only hope to get a young girl two years younger than him" joked Rumia.

"You...!" Nomad was about to explode, but apparently he thought of something that immediately calmed him down.

"Hmm, come to think of it, you don't have a boyfriend either" he added smiling victoriously.

"Maybe, but I've dated more guys than you girls could even imagine" Rumia replied with a fierce glare at Nomad.

"..."

"..."

As his two teammates continued to argue, Rasa just ignored them and turned his gaze to Tsunade and Jiraiya.

Jiraiya was clearly looking at him with deep anger and annoyance as if he wanted to kick his ass as soon as possible.

While Tsunade was also looking at him with annoyance, but there was no anger in her eyes, no, it was more intrigue in her eyes.

It was then that Rasa looked at the last member of their group, Orochimaru, who was reading quietly on the side.

It seems that the young Orochimaru sensed that he was being watched because he slowly raised his head from the book to meet Rasa's gaze.

This was actually amusing for both of them as Orochimaru looked at him with a clear interest while Rasa was looking at him and already knew approximately what the young snake was probably thinking...

At this moment, an Iwa Jonin stood in front of all the candidates present and it was then that the staring contest, the heated discussion of Rasa's companions and the conversations of the other ninja ended abruptly as the deep and cold voice of what was probably the last examiner was heard.

"Attention, I am Arata Mufato, first of all, congratulations, all the ninjas here successfully passed to the third test and because it is the last test you will all have half a month to rest and train before you start" announced the examiner.

Although everyone knew that the real reason they were given half a month was to give the Daimyō and the most important people in the world enough time to get to Iwagakure.

All this because the Daimyō have to observe how their village and others' villages are developing and what skills the ninja have, while the important people of the world and many merchants come just to see which ninja village seems to them the most suitable to ask for their services.

In fact, the first and second rounds of the Chunin exam were conducted continuously with no rest days in between.

To put it simply, the Chunin Exams are a political program where all the villages seek to demonstrate their strength in order to show that the younger generation of ninjas in their villages have a great future ahead of them and thus gain more financial support from the Daimyō but also more commissions...

Everyone knows that the village that gives the best show of strength in these exams will be the one that gets the most commissions from businessmen and other civilians to use their services, and the third test of the Chunin exam is the final and most important part of the program.

Therefore, no one cares about the results of the first two tests, the only truly important and interesting to the public is the third test.

"I will make it clear to you that the third test is the finals and the first round will be individual tournament bouts held in a stadium in Iwagakure, you will be observed by the Five Kages and any other interested parties. Being examined and controlled by me!" explained Mufato seriously.

"If any of you do not think you are in optimal condition for this exam that will take place in half a month, you may withdraw... but you must raise your hand now!"

"No exceptions!, those who miss the exam no matter what the reason is, will be severely punished by their respective village" added the examiner glaring at everyone.

This was clearly because the Daimyō who were going to be present could not be made to waste their time and clearly, Iwagakure did not want to look bad in front of so many important people, so it was best to make sure that no one missed their match as it would be a bit embarrassing should this happen.

...

...

A few moments passed and finally of the 33 ninja present only 1 ninja raised his hand and withdrew because his injuries were too serious and he needed immediate medical attention, so he doubted he could recover in just half a month, this ninja was one of Konoha who apparently had barely managed to push his body to the limit to make his team pass to the last test of the Chunin exam.

The funny thing is that Rasa had seen that many of the ninjas present were badly injured but none of them raised their hands to withdraw, it seems that they were all confident that they would recover in half a month.

When Arata Mufato saw that no one else was going to withdraw he just huffed and announced that everyone should be present at 8 am in the stadium since at that time would be the start of the first round fights and he clarified that anyone who was called to fight and was not present at that time would be automatically disqualified and would also be severely punished to the point that they could be prevented from returning to take the chunin exams.

He also made it clear to everyone to keep in mind that the three rounds of the tournament of the third chunin exam were of high intensity and all three would be on the same day, so between each round they would only have a few hours to rest and recover their chakra after their fights before they had to fight again.

Then the examiner explained that the remaining 32 ninjas would be put on a board where the name of the participants would appear and select the two ninjas who would fight...

He also pointed out that the choice will be made randomly and that during the fight, everyone will have to fight until their opponent dies, cannot continue, or decides to retire, and only if he (the examiner) as a judge decides so, he can end the fight and intervene to stop it.

"Now, the second round will be only 4 groups of quadruple fights where ninjas will be chosen randomly from among the 16 ninjas who pass the first round, from these 4 groups only one ninja per group will be able to pass. And for the third round will return to a single combat between the 4 finalists" said the examiner.

'Well, that could be tricky' thought Rasa seeing how the face of everyone present turned dark.

The second round of the third test was a clear disadvantage for those ninjas who were alone in their group of 4 and it was a clear advantage for those who had someone to ally with, although in the end only 1 of the 4 would pass per group so they would end up facing each other anyway...

But it was still very problematic, the village that had the most ninjas present in the second round would have a clear advantage over the others.

"Lastly, all participants must wait at the top of the stadium bleachers until they are selected to fight. Well, that's all, see you in half a month" finished the examiner allowing all the ninjas present to leave.

...

...

The next few days passed relatively calmly, as the third test was approaching Rasa and his group trained quite a bit every day.

Rasa had also reported everything that had happened to the third Kazekage and he was very satisfied with the results of his mission, after that the Kazekage just told him that now he should only worry about resting for the next days and prepare for his fight in the last test.