The days of being a puppeteer in Konoha

Chapter 250 Jonin Assessment
A few days later, the day of the Jonin Exam finally arrived.

Hideki went out with the encouragement and blessings from everyone in the orphanage, and arrived at the No. 44 training ground, which was the venue for the exam, on time.

Of course, there is another nickname that Hideki is more familiar with - the Forest of Death...

This forest is full of towering ancient trees, and contains many giant beasts, insects, poisonous flowers and poisonous weeds. It is a Jedi that ordinary people can hardly set foot in.

Therefore, Konoha also set it up as a special training ground to test the strength of its own ninjas.

Of course, for Hideki who dared to wander in the depths of the Konoha Forest, the dangers here were not worth mentioning at all.

Even he began to think carefully:
This place is a forbidden area and he usually doesn't set foot here. If he has time this time, he will explore it carefully to see if there are any useful materials...

Hideki arrived at the entrance of the training ground and found that there were already quite a few people gathered there, probably there to take part in the Jonin exam.

He also found some familiar guys...

"Hideki, are you here to take part in the jonin exam as well?"

Ding Zuo, who was eating potato chips alone, waved happily when he saw him.

Shikaku and Haiyi had already become jonin, and he was the only special jonin left.

Seeing Hideki, who was the same age as him, he finally felt more at ease.

Hideki also felt a little emotional when he saw that he could compete with Ding Zuo and others who he could only look up to at the beginning:
Lady Tsunade, I finally caught up with them.

Tsunade: Who are you?
After the two exchanged pleasantries, Ding Zuo continued to eat potato chips. Suddenly, he thought of something and complained:

"Hideki, I heard that you've been discovering new ingredients recently, and you've asked a lot of people to help you taste test them?"

"Why don't you ask me for this kind of good thing?"

Hideki spread his hands and smiled:
"Actually, I'm mainly looking for materials for ninja tools and puppets. Food ingredients are just byproducts."

"As for inviting you to taste the food, it's actually fine, but Ding Zuo, do you know the Shadow Clone Technique?"

"will not."

Ding Zuo said as if it was a matter of course.

Hideki shook his head and said, "That won't work."

"The new ingredients I found have all mutated. They can't be given to real people until they are proven to be harmless."

Seeing Ding Zuo's face suddenly fall, Xiu Shu added helplessly:

"But in fact, there are several kinds of fruits and vegetables that have been confirmed to be harmless to humans. If you are interested, you can come to our orphanage to try them later."

Upon hearing this, Ding Zuo's worry turned into joy and he said:

"Really? Then it's a deal..."

Then Inuzuka Jaw, who was also very familiar with Hideki, came over to say hello, accompanied by a big, fierce-looking dog.

Hideki recognized that this was the new ninja dog trained by Senior Jaw, and couldn't help but sigh that time is indeed a butcher's knife.

The cute little puppy turned into such a ferocious beast in just a few years.

There would be no problem letting it play Spike in "Tom and Jerry", and it would definitely scare the kids to death.

After the three of them chatted for a while, Inuzuka Jaw poked Hideki's arm with his elbow and winked at him to look in the direction of the tree.

Hideki looked at it carefully and couldn't help but complain in a low voice:

"Wow, who used the Shadow Clone Technique before the test even started?"

It turned out that there were a few ninjas with black hair and white eyes, wearing Hyuga clan ninja uniforms standing there. It really looked like they were looking in a mirror.

Inuzuka Jaw said speechlessly:

"Stop being funny, Xiu Shu. I heard that these guys just applied to participate in this assessment temporarily..."

Hideki understood what Jaw-senpai meant.

In order to preserve their strength, the major ninja clans would prevent some of their members from registering as official ninjas, or from participating in promotion exams.

The Hyuga clan suddenly asked four ninjas who have the potential to become jonin to participate in the examination. Obviously, they have some ulterior motive...

Although Hideki couldn't be sure whether the other party spent so much money just to deal with him.

But he believed that they would definitely not mind causing trouble for him during the assessment.

It seems that this jonin examination, which was supposed to be just a formality, might not go as smoothly as he imagined...

……

Not long after, the examiner in charge of this assessment arrived at the scene.

He was a serious middle-aged man with slightly curly hair and a pair of bright red eyes.

Because she looks somewhat similar to Yuhi Kurenai, Hideki quickly recognizes her identity: Yuhi Makoto.

He also found that the other party seemed to look at him from time to time, and he always felt that there was something wrong with his eyes... Fortunately, Xihi Zhenhong did not talk to him, but directly announced:
"Since there are many people who signed up for this jonin exam, it will be divided into two stages."

"The first test is the battle for stars in this forest of death."

"Star?"

"good."

Xihi Zhenhong took out a golden five-pointed star and said,
"Each of you will start out with two stars like this."

"In addition, we also hid a certain number of stars in this forest in advance."

"Search, steal, rob, gamble, fight..."

"No matter what method you use, as long as you collect ten stars within three hours and report to the tower in the middle of the forest, you will pass the first test."

"If there is no problem, then everyone come over to collect your stars and draw lots, and go to different entrances according to your numbers to wait."

"At nine o'clock, the assessment officially begins..."

……

A moment later, Hideki, who got the star, came to Gate No. 4 and waited, thinking about something.

This assessment mainly tests the candidates' intelligence gathering ability, speed, and combat effectiveness.

After all, this place is ten kilometers away from the tower.

Even Gaara, whose strength far exceeded that of a Chunin in the original work, took 97 minutes to get there.

And what is collected this time is not the scroll of heaven and earth, but at least eight stars.

Whether searching for something on your own or robbing someone else, intelligence and speed are essential in order to accomplish your goal in a short period of time.

Of course, you may also become a target of others, so it is necessary to have enough fighting power to protect the stars.

It's truly a jonin exam, testing so many qualities of the candidate at once.

That's right, the combat capability of a jonin is not necessarily higher than that of a special jonin, but he or she must not have any obvious weaknesses.

Soon it was nine o'clock and the door to the forest opened.

Hideki walked in slowly and turned on the spider sensing technique, but it only covered the area within a few meters around him.

Because he didn't plan to look for the stars himself, he felt that someone would definitely bring them to him later...

But even so, Hideki seems to be lucky.

When passing by a big tree, he sensed that there was a star embedded in a hidden place in the trunk. It was really hard to notice without careful observation.

So he naturally stopped in front of the big tree and stretched out his hand towards the stars...

But just when Hideki was about to touch the stars, the corners of his mouth curled up slightly and his body suddenly flashed to the right.

boom!
The next moment, the tree trunk cracked into countless cracks as if it had been hit by something, and wood chips flew everywhere.

It seems to be telling what the consequences would be if Hideki didn't avoid it...

"What a powerful Eight Trigrams Palm. It is so silent and yet so destructive."

It seemed that Hideki had anticipated this sneak attack and was in a good mood to comment on it.

As a result, the next moment, several more gas bombs attacked him from all directions.

Hideki continued to move calmly and dodged all the attacks.

Then he looked around and said calmly:

"But it's impossible to take me down with this move."

"You guys should just show up and save time."

As soon as he finished speaking, four figures walked out from behind the trees. They were none other than the four members of the Hyuga clan.

Perhaps Hideki's strength has been initially recognized by them.

The four began to introduce themselves:

"Hinata Gan."

"Hyuugawen."

"Hyuuga Choi."

"Hyugayama."

Then the leader, Hyuga Gan, said coldly:
"Kimura Hideki, please stay here for a while."

(End of this chapter)