Chapter 48: The Third Preliminary Match

As was customary, the Third Hokage began his speech, talking about things like the exam being a microcosm of war, or how missions are assigned, and so on, but to Feng Xue, it was all just empty words.

First, one has to understand a basic concept: the Chunin Exams are not the only way to become a Chunin.

So, any village—unless it has some special agenda—would never send its own prodigies to participate in a Chunin Exam hosted by another country. The reason is obvious: what if the other side uses some underhanded trick and gets your prodigy killed?

Therefore, whenever any village hosts the Chunin Exams, you'll see a pattern: the host village fields all their top talents, while other villages mostly send weaker participants; the host's candidates are mostly youths, while the others are often older—unless, of course, they're like Gaara's group, who are there for a particular purpose.

With such an imbalance of power, how could this possibly be considered a microcosm of war?

As for mission allocation, that's even more far-fetched. Geography matters—no one from the Land of Water is going to cross the sea to Konoha just to assign a mission, and the Land of Fire isn't going to take a long detour to entrust missions to other countries. Not to mention the time and safety risks involved—it's not as though you'd hire Konoha’s shinobi to escort you to the Land of Wind to post a mission, would you?

Only in the world of Naruto would people who completely lack political sense be taken in by such rhetoric.

But in reality, the fault doesn't lie with the world itself; the root cause is the mangaka—who simply doesn’t understand politics!

This isn’t just idle talk. In Feng Xue’s previous life, only China included political education as part of compulsory schooling. Outside of that, only a handful of countries—such as North Korea—offered politics classes at university level. In Japan and the US, there’s no such curriculum at all, so unless someone specifically studies politics to enter government, they have no political awareness. That’s why Japanese manga often depict nations with laughably low intelligence or political sensitivity. Chinese anime fans call this “IQ dropping,” but in reality, it’s just that the author lacks any real political understanding.

However, when a work becomes a world, these problems manifest in kind. For example, in Naruto, shinobi wield world-shattering powers, yet authority rests in the hands of clueless, frivolous feudal lords—who, even when the world faces destruction, still have the mind to complain about being bored of playing cards, and are never once shown discussing state affairs.

As for the true purpose of the Chunin Exams? It’s actually not much different from a G20 summit: it’s mainly an opportunity for feudal lords and magnates to gather together, exchange views, and discuss things like trade or national policy.

To these wealthy merchants and feudal lords, the life-or-death battles of the ninja are nothing more than the antics of monkeys in an arena—at best, tools for gambling.

If Feng Xue really did transmigrate to the world of Naruto, he would definitely take control of a feudal lord’s heir, then slowly eliminate the other heirs and feudal lords, using the emperor to control the lords, and, through the world’s ideology, issue orders to the ninja villages. In this way, all of Danzo’s conspiracies or Black Zetsu’s manipulations would be crushed under the weight of central authority. If they wanted to act, they’d have to do so openly—and with so many years in advance, with Nagato still alive and Madara still around (and if Madara learned the truth, Black Zetsu would be his first target)—Feng Xue didn’t believe Black Zetsu could provoke any real chaos.

But all this is hypothetical. As a transmigrator, Feng Xue was destined to be just a passerby. Unable to learn the chakra system, the only real value the Naruto world held for him was a handful of secret techniques. Thus, the benefits of seizing control of a feudal lord and rallying a nation were greatly diminished.

All things considered, the payoff wasn’t even as good as simply completing the exam tasks honestly.

A cough brought Feng Xue back from his thoughts.

Appearing before him was a sickly-looking youth with dark circles under his eyes, yet despite his sickly appearance, he had a girlfriend—serves him right for attracting divine retribution… ahem.

Subtitles began to roll across the screen. Perhaps knowing that the curse mark on Sasuke wouldn’t last much longer, and to avoid interfering with Orochimaru’s plans, Sasuke was placed first in the lineup.

His opponent was, as always, that masked nobody whose face was never shown.

That’s the beauty of ninja-themed stories—if you don’t want to draw faces, all you need is a simple mask. Unlike One Piece or Bleach, where even the most minor characters still need a face (ahem, I might have said something I shouldn’t).

Everything seemed to be proceeding according to the original plot, but then, in the second round, things went awry—

Xia Mi versus Mu Qianrou.

“Seriously? Even if we’re replacing the Sound ninja, shouldn’t one of us be up against Shino Aburame? Isn’t this a little blatant?” Feng Xue’s face turned a shade paler. He’d expected some issues, but when it actually happened, he still found himself at a loss.

“It doesn’t matter; I forfeit,” Xia Mi said, raising her hand and handing the qualifying spot to Mu Qianrou. “My goal is just to be outstanding, anyway.”

But that meant their chance to directly complete the “Twelve Little Stars” confrontation task would have to wait until the Konoha Crush Plan for another opportunity.

Next, Shino Aburame faced Choji. Although the Akimichi clan could convert calories into chakra, they were still devoured by Shino’s overwhelming swarm of insects.

“If Toth and Zaku are up against each other, does that mean I’m replacing Kin? My opponent is Shikamaru?” No sooner had Feng Xue formed this thought than he was immediately proven wrong, because the screen showed Tenten versus Shikamaru.

“Huh? If those two are paired, does that mean I’m up against Temari?” A question mark seemed to materialize on Feng Xue’s forehead. “Is the order being shuffled just so I avoid facing any of the Twelve Little Stars?”

But something still felt off. The matches that followed—Naruto versus Kiba, Neji versus Hinata—were just as in the original, but Feng Xue sensed something wasn’t quite right.

“Wait, wasn’t Temari and Tenten’s match supposed to come before Naruto and Kiba’s? Why has it been pushed back? Is Temari not my opponent after all? But if that’s the case…” Feng Xue’s gaze drifted toward Gaara, a sense of foreboding rising within him. Though he wasn’t afraid of Gaara, in any scenario, facing him seriously before the finals was never a wise move. If things escalated and Gaara unleashed Shukaku’s full form, the Konoha Crush Plan could be triggered a month early! It’s not that Orochimaru wasn’t prepared, but that a month’s difference would cost Feng Xue and his group many opportunities.

As this ominous feeling grew, the names began to scroll rapidly on the screen, and then…