#chunin exam

[spaceshipsandpurpledrank]

[watermelonsloth]

You guys ever think about how everyone who made it to the preliminaries of the Chunin Exams had their own special ability (Naruto’s shadow clones, Sasuke’s Sharingan, Shikamaru’s shadows, Choji’s expansion jutsu, Ino’s mind transfer, etc) except for Neji and Hinata (who were related and shared the same clan jutsu) and Sakura? Or how about how the closest thing she had to that was when she used Inner Sakura to kick Ino out of her head? Do you guys think there was a chance Inner Sakura was supposed to become an actual ability?

[15nein]

nejihina in chunin exam arc

[slutpoppers]

Sasuke vs Lord Orochimaru ->->

[hellcifrogs]

NaruFox AU eighth fight, the one and only: Gaara vs Rock Lee.

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All I can do for this fight is show this Gaara’s thoughts during the match. It’s not that he doesn’t fight back, he just isn’t trying to kill Lee and is having enough trouble keeping his defenses - which are still pretty good in making it look like nothing’s having effect and only motivates Lee.

Also, because he doesn’t have the automatic sand shield he has to move at least a little to move the sand in his defense.Though very effective and still nothing compared to Lee’s taijutsu, just moving around to keep up with Lee gets him tired pretty quick.

By the time Gaara finally realizes Lee just won’t give up even after hurting himself to the point of losing consiousness, Gai and Hayate are already stopping the fight. It ends the same way, but what actually hurt him was opening the gates.

Finally Dosu and Chouji’s fight also ends the same way!

[aidontdraw]

Naruto (probably) would have won the Chunin Exam if it were allowed to continue.

This is the finals bracket.

Because we got to see a conclusion to the Gaara & Sasuke fight, we know Gaara probably would have won agaisnt Sasuke in the arena as well. We also saw Naruto fight Gaara 1 v 1, and win. So we can also assume that would have been the result in the arena as well.

(even if it was Sasuke that Naruto was fighting agaisnt, Sasuke was heavily nerfed in this fight due to Orochimarus Seal. So Naruto would probably win that anyway)

It really depends on how much chakra Naruto exhausted in that fight if he would win his next one. Tbh, he actually had pretty decent control over Kyuubi's chakra during the Neji fight, and the previous fight wouldn't have been "to the death," but a publicly judged fight, so they probably would have been stopped before it got too bad. But I did want to bring up the option of Naruto possibly having to forfit the final round.

But if not, he'd be fighting agaisnt Temari or Shino. I think Shino, because Kishimoto has a thing for making his bugs weirdly strong.

Shino. Naruto would wipe the floor with Shino. He was able to summon the toads at this point, and toads eat bugs. Whcih would make Shino's primary attack style kinda pointless. It would be fun to see swarms of bugs being eaten by bigger and bigger toads.

Temari. Tbh she only won her previous battle because Shikamaru gave up. It would be a fun fight, but kinda lack luster for a final round. Naruto would win throguh over whelming force.

Meaning Naruto probably would have become a Chunin at that point. Especially if the Thrid Hokage was still alive.

Which brings me to my real point, not many people give a fuck about the final rounds that we never got to see in the Chunin Exam. Like I've never heard anyone go, "it's a real shame we never got to see Naruto fight Shino." or "Temari fight Shino." Because honestly they would have been boring.

That is such a brilliant writing move that Kishimoto did. Where he stacked the Finals Bracket to show the best fights first. It allowed him to end the arch in such a fulfilling way.

[ifeelalot]

[narrative-critical-understanding]

Purpose of the Chunin exam

There’s the misconception that the Chunin exam’s purpose is to select Chunin. Don’t get mislead by the naming, superficial and fake purpose as well as Naruto’s lack of understanding. *Never take Naruto’s word on anything seriously unless it’s something completely simple and obvious for little children. Don’t you know? He’s a dunce!*

Hiruzen himself explains to the participants of the Chunin exam that the underlying purpose is actually to maintain and attain dignity and prestige for their respective home village, while the Chunin selection is only a side-effect. 

The superficial reason for the Chunin exam is “to promote friendship among allied nations and raise the level and standards in the art of the shinobi...”, but Hiruzen himself says that those are “fine-sounding phrases”, which means this is said to make the purpose sound good - to make it look better than it actally is.

In reality it’s a war simulation for the allied nations!

Hiruzen says that the alliance between the countries is a temporary and mutually beneficial agreement. 

Before the alliance they continually fought against each other openly and in secret for power and the control of resources that were constantly almost completely drained because of the struggle.

The Chunin exam was created to be a better substitute for that degenerate strife.

To fight each other maybe even to their death is to maintain and attain “honor of their respective countries”, which means to show off and boast of the strength of their country through the strength of its warriors (in case of the Chunin exam the Chunin exam applicants).

The reason why they think it’s necessary to do that is because the “distinguished guests / people, which includes the rulers and nobility of various countries that they aspire to serve, will more likely commission work from those they consider superior (for ex. outstanding skill > incompetent; weak). 

Why do they go so far as to stake their lives for it?

The greatest strength of a ninja can only be seen in a “desperate life-and-death battle”.

strength of the ninja in the village -> strength of the ninja village -> strength of the country

More missions from rich people ensures more money for the village as long as the village is strong / skilled enough in battle (or other kinds of missions such as assassination) to complete the missions they’re given. 

That leads to an accumulation of prestige for the ninja village because they can show off that they’re powerful, rich and have influential political power. This serves as a warning towards the other ninja villages that they shouldn’t dare to attack them because they’re at the top of the hierarchy and so on. 

It’s about Konoha’s hegemony, prosperity and security.

So what about friendship? It was never about friendship the way we understand it! Words don’t always mean what you assume they do. There are different interpretations depending on context.

In the shinobi world the essence of friendship is “to preserve the balance of power at the risk of lives.” That means for ninjas affiliated to Konoha friendship is defined as making sure that the status quo of Konoha’s hegemony is maintained. 

What has dignity to do with all this? Might is right in the Shinobi society and really the whole Narutoverse.