CH_82

Before long, one of Tōji's solid clones returned to the exam room, whispered something in his ear, and then left again…

That was when the real "long wait" began.

The others started murmuring among themselves, and some even shot Tōji unfriendly looks.

Tōji wasn't particularly worried. He was just thinking—

Solid clone techniques were at least C-rank.

Back when he was at the Academy, judging by his own class, not a single person had openly demonstrated that level of ability.

Maybe some clan kids had secretly learned it—but how likely was that?

After the war's filtering, the remaining genin might be of higher quality…

But even with that estimate, very few could use solid clone techniques. Though Water Clone and Earth Clone were relatively easier to master among them.

And as for a genin mastering the B-rank 【Shadow Clone Technique】? Dream on! Did you think you were some seed-level heir from a major clan? And Lightning Clones were even harder—they were built on Shadow Clones.

So Tōji figured—even if this year's Chūnin Exam batch was packed with talent, no more than ten genin could pull off solid clones.

『Outside is safe enough!』

『…Wait! What if there's danger outside?』

『No one can guarantee it's safe out there either… Whatever—I'll just have to wait for the result.』

『I'll trust my clones!』

With competitors likely not being all that strong, and himself protected by the exam rules inside the barrier, he was as steady as a rock!

Just as Tōji thought he'd be stuck waiting around, the other examinees in his room started taking action.

One female examinee was the cleverest—she infused chakra into a wire with a small mirror attached and was already using it to scan the exterior walls of the exam room.

By looking through the mirror, she could see the room number… which would at least get her 20 points.

The downside was that everyone else in the room could see it through her mirror too…

Seeing this, Tōji made a quick decision. "Ahem! Since this exam is just us Konoha folks, I'll go ahead and tell you all the room number directly…"

Everyone looked at Tōji—regardless of what they'd been doing, including the girl with the wire and mirror.

"The room we're in—number is 02." Tōji said it plainly, without adding anything else.

"Thanks, man." A burly, hearty-looking male examinee seemed to trust him without a shred of doubt.

"Could he be lying?" Of course, where there was trust, there was also doubt.

"Ryōko, keep checking with your mirror—who knows if he's really that nice!"

"I trust him. He doesn't look like a bad guy."

"You can't judge that by appearance!"

"Then figure it out yourself…"

Tōji just smiled and paid them no further attention.

He had another reason for doing this—these seven examinees might have just gotten 20 points for free. But they weren't all useless, and they all had teammates—who weren't all useless either.

So among them, some would eventually earn points on their own. The truly useless ones, even with 20 points, would only have 20 points.

If he was lucky and there were some teams with zero points… even those who passed with just 20 points would owe Tōji a favor. Later on, he might face fewer underhanded moves against him.

『Mm… if everything goes smoothly, our squad should get full marks… right?』

Tōji did have one concern—would those who couldn't earn points on their own try to stop him from scoring?