Chapter 211: Written Test
"Sakura..." Ino carefully glanced at Satsuki not far away, lowering her voice to ask, "Satsuki... she hasn't done anything to you, has she? You're getting along with your teammates... smoothly?"
Having accidentally witnessed that proud Uchiha second daughter actually preparing such ambiguous gifts for someone else, then being warned afterward had left an indelible psychological shadow on Ino. At this moment, her tone still carried lingering fear.
Sakura found it somewhat strange that her usually cheerful, confident friend seemed so timid. Was she too nervous about the Chunin Exam? But she still answered earnestly.
"Mm! Both Naruto and Satsuki take great care of me. I'm truly grateful to them. I feel so lucky to be assigned to the same team as Satsuki! We're friends now."
"Ino, you know what? Though Satsuki seems a bit cold usually, she's actually very gentle and considerate."
Sakura excitedly shared her joy with Ino, her cheeks slightly flushed from excitement.
Ino was completely dumbfounded after hearing this. Gentle? Considerate? How exactly could those two words combine to apply to that Uchiha?
Could it be... before each mission, Sakura gets put under some strange genjutsu by her? No, the jonin instructor shouldn't allow such things... right?
"How rare, everyone's here! Naruto! How've you been lately, man?"
On the other side, Kiba Inuzuka, Hinata, and Shino had also found their former classmates. Kiba wrapped his arm around Naruto's shoulder with a hearty smile, acting like close buddies.
Currently, Kiba and Naruto had quite a good relationship.
"Woof!"
Akamaru on his head also barked excitedly, affectionately nuzzling Naruto's hair. This little ninja dog had always liked this youth who often gently petted him and fed him delicious food.
"Kiba, it's been a while." Naruto smiled, responding to this enthusiasm.
However, the next second, Satsuki expressionlessly intervened between them, pulling Kiba away from Naruto.
"Don't put your arm around him like that," Satsuki's voice was quite calm. "Naruto will feel troubled."
Satsuki felt quite helpless about this thick-headed guy. Her previous warning-laden words seemed to have gone completely unheard.
"Ah, here we go again," Kiba was quite used to this, scratching his head. "You're still the same, Satsuki."
Naruto looked around at the enthusiastically conversing peers, the familiar scene stirring emotion. Just like in the original, the new generation's elite—the "Konoha 11" contemporaries, plus Team Guy's Hyuga Neji, Rock Lee, and Tenten—the "Konoha 12" had finally gathered here.
Only different from the original timeline was that since Satsuki was female, Sakura and Ino were currently intimately linking arms, the very picture of good sisters.
Just... Naruto was quite puzzled—why did Ino still seem so timid? Even now, Naruto still didn't understand why Ino would inexplicably tense up whenever near him.
Right, according to the original plot, before entering the classroom, shouldn't Lee have blocked the way to challenge Sasuke? This time, why had there been no movement from him?
At the same time, Naruto's gaze locked onto a seemingly gentle yet actually dangerous figure in the crowd—silver-gray hair, wearing round-framed glasses, face carrying a harmless smile. This was precisely Orochimaru's capable assistant, Yakushi Kabuto.
But Naruto felt this guy was rather pitiful... Seems Orochimaru had decided to proceed with his plan after all.
"All of you be quiet! You worthless lot!"
A furious shout suddenly exploded from the platform's direction, instantly suppressing the entire room's noise. Everyone's gazes turned uniformly toward the voice's source. Accompanied by smoke, Morino Ibiki wearing a black trench coat with a stern expression, leading Kamizuki Izumo, Hagane Kotetsu and numerous other examiners.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." Ibiki's cold gaze swept across the entire room. "I am the chief examiner for the first stage of the Chunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki."
"The Chunin Selection Exam's first stage begins now. After submitting your application forms, receive your number plates and sit in designated positions. Next, test papers will be distributed."
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"Everyone got separated, huh..."
After Naruto found his seat according to his number, he discovered Satsuki and Sakura had both been assigned to rather distant positions. Looking at Hinata in the adjacent seat, bashfully smiling and nodding at him, Naruto returned a gentle smile while feeling this exam was somewhat boring.
After all examinees were seated, Ibiki knocked the blackboard with chalk, beginning to announce exam rules.
"In this first selection stage, there are several critically important regulations. I won't accept any questions—listen clearly."
"First rule: each examinee initially holds 10 points. The written test has 10 questions total, each worth 1 point. This exam uses deduction scoring—answer one question wrong, lose 1 point."
"Second rule: exam results will be judged by each three-person team's total score."
"Most important rule: if during the exam, an examiner determines you're cheating or suspects cheating—each time caught, 2 points deducted on the spot!"
"Since you want to become chunin, you should act like excellent shinobi."
"Furthermore, if any one person in a three-person team scores zero, the entire team immediately loses qualification. Finally—the tenth question will be announced 45 minutes after the exam starts."
"Exam duration is one hour. Now—begin!"
With Ibiki's command, examinees turned over their test papers. Naruto looked down at the questions, eyes falling on a typical shinobi theory question combining parabolic trajectory with combat analysis.
Parabolic curve B in the diagram represents the maximum range trajectory of shuriken thrown by enemy shinobi A standing on a seven-meter-high tree. Please describe the characteristics of enemy shinobi that might appear within this shuriken range, as well as maximum range during ground-level combat, and provide calculation basis.
Naruto decided to think before cheating.
Hmm...
Naruto first focused on enemy shinobi characteristics within the parabolic range.
When enemy shinobi A threw shuriken at maximum range from a seven-meter-high tree, parabolic curve B's trajectory determined what targets could be hit.
At the range's end, the shuriken's height would approach zero, nearly touching the ground. This meant enemies who could be hit at this position—their vital body parts like head or chest—must be precisely within the parabola trajectory's effective killing range.
Naruto lightly traced his fingertip across the test paper's parabolic diagram, rapidly constructing a three-dimensional spatial model in his mind.
More precisely, across the entire horizontal distance covered by the parabolic trajectory, the y-coordinate value defined the shuriken's flight height. Enemies who could be hit must have vital parts located within this constantly changing y-value-defined "danger cross-section."
This meant the target's height couldn't deviate too much from a specific range—neither too tall causing vitals to exceed the trajectory's highest point, nor too short keeping vitals consistently below the trajectory's lowest effective hit height.
After brief mental calculation and spatial imagination, he reached the first conclusion.
Then, the most reasonable answer should be "enemies around 1.7 meters tall." Because shinobi of this height, when standing, would have chest or head vitals with high probability of falling within the y-coordinate coverage at various points within parabolic curve B's effective range.
Next was the second part—maximum range during ground-level combat.
When both parties were on level ground, losing height advantage, maximum range needed recalculation. According to projectile motion laws, with unchanged initial velocity, range is maximized at a 45-degree angle.
Already knowing the range with height advantage—tree height 7 meters, maximum range shown as 30 meters—then through reverse calculation using projectile motion formulas...
He quickly listed several formulas on scratch paper.
Range with height h: R = (v² sin2θ)/g + (v cosθ)√((v sinθ)² + 2gh)/g
Maximum ground-level range (h=0): R_max = v²/g
Using known h=7m, R=30m, can solve for initial velocity v, then substitute into ground formula... Mm, calculation result is approximately 24 meters.
After reaching the final answer, Naruto felt somewhat surprised internally. The questions were unexpectedly simple.
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