#chunin exams

If Konoha cared about teamwork that much, they should penalise both those who refuse to take the 10th question (eliminating those unwilling to complete missions at personal risk), but also anybody who decided to take the 10th question who hadn't at least gotten 5/9 on the written test already, because 5/9 means you have a more than 50% success rate, so you aren't charging into unknown danger blindly whilst dragging your teammates down with you.

I've been thinking about this for months ever since I first watched the Chunin Exams (and Konoha Crush) arc of Naruto. But the Chunin Exams and the Fall of Beacon (Volume 3) from RWBY are like the inverse of each other in a lot of ways and I think that's so cool. I'm not going to say it was intentional but considering Naruto is one of the big three anime it's safe to assume it might be.

Like think about it! The Vytal Festival and the Chunin Exams are the exact opposite of one another while sharing many similarities. One is a death exam for a mid-tier promotion, and the Vytal Festival Tournament is a fun sports match with rules and guidelines akin to the Olympics IRL. One has a more serious tone than the other does but both claims to bring countries (or villages in the case of Naruto) closer together.

Both events are cut short in the show by the villains interfering in them with the goal of destroying the heroes' home (Beacon for RWBY and Konoha for Naruto). Both villains infiltrate said homes using said events as cover for their evil schemes. The differences come in the details of course.

Orochimaru revels his involvement in the whole thing pretty early because he wants to groom Sasuke. Cinder stays hidden until the very last moment. Konoha Shinobi are aware that something is likely to happen and seem suspicious of Gaara and his siblings (all of them are Sand nin working with Orochimaru and Gaara's a D-1 Crash out right now). The teachers at Beacon know something is up but they have no idea who Cinder and crew even are or what their plan even is.

Then you get to Konoha Crush and the Fall of Beacon itself. Orochimaru and the Sand just puts people to sleep in the Arena and Konoha is able to hide the people who aren't there. Thus, no civilians got hurt. Cinder, on the other hand, purposeful brought Grimm to the school to destroy things and cause havoc. We don't see civilians die but that doesn't mean it didn't happen. It wouldn't surprise me if hundreds dead that night.

Both Cinder and Orochimaru have a fight with the wise old mentor character. However, Cinder wins her fight, and Ozpin dies off screen while the 3rd Hokage manages to cripple Orochimaru before dying. Which is what allowed Konoha to win. Pyrrha, the strongest of the students, tries to fight Cinder and dies a "Pointless" (as in she doesn't change the outcome and Beacon still falls) death.

Pyrrha's sacrifice was pointless because it did not stop Cinder nor the Fall of Beacon. It did not help. She essentially died for nothing. (I know the narrative purpose of Pyrrha's death (she died to fight a fight she knew she couldn't win because she couldn't stand back and do nothing even if there was no hope which like :( Pyrrha my sweet girl) and its impact on Team RWBY and JNR but like purely thinking about Beacon here that's true)

The 3rd Hokage's death on the other hand had meaning because it saved the village. There was a hero in the end who rose above (When It Falls reference :)

The Chunin Exams which is once again a Death Exam for a mid-tier promotion gets interrupted by the villains who attempt to use military might to overpower the heroes. They are stopped by the combined power of teamwork and a noble meaningful sacrifice and the day is saved. Victory is achieved.

Then there is the Vytal Festival which is just Remnant Olympics but for fights which also gets interrupted by the villains. But these villains see fear, division, and anger to destroy the heroes from within. And it works. They win. It ends with the heroes divided and scattered and a noble meaningless sacrifice of the best of them.

Naruto is straight up the son of the 4th hokage, the son of the previous nine tails, and the legit reincarnation of the son to the sage of six paths

When neji died, he died fulfilling the same birthright duty of protecting the main hyuuga family. In essence doing the same as his father had to and only had to because of his birth order

This is a continuation of my last Naruto What If post about Lee vs Sakura.

As I said previously, if Lee fought Sakura in the preliminaries, that would create a ripple effect and cause Gaara to have to fight Ino.

At first glance, this seems like an easy win for Gaara. But after some thought, I believe this could be the single most interesting – and consequential – fight of the whole Chunin Exams.

Gaara’s obviously a strong opponent for any shinobi. His sand is a great long-range weapon, and Ultimate Defense is called that for a reason – it protects him from all physical attacks.

But here’s the thing: Gaara himself doesn’t usually move. He just stands there with his arms folded and lets the sand do the work for him.

With that in mind, what’s Ino’s signature jutsu? Mind Transfer. Which is a mental attack that requires an opponent to be still.

Ino didn’t get a chance to see what Gaara was capable of during the Forest of Death, so she’d approach the battle cautiously at first, testing Gaara with shuriken and kunai. It wouldn’t take long for her to realize that while his sand was powerful, he wasn’t moving. So Ino would seize the opportunity and use Mind Transfer.

The Suna congregation would think it’s hilarious at first – she used a jutsu to knock herself out? Is she giving up so easily?

Unfortunately for them, jinchuriki are uniquely susceptible to genjutsu, which I theorize would translate to other mind-related jutsus. Thus, Ino would easily take over Gaara’s mind and start forcing him to surrender.

This is where Ino’s luck would run out though. With literally any other opponent, this would have resulted in an easy victory for her. But while she has control of Gaara's mind, there’s one final card to play in this match: Shukaku.

Who would not be pleased about his space being invaded.

Shukaku would unleash hell on poor Ino, trying to force her out. Hell, I think his presence alone might be enough to terrify her into voluntarily releasing the jutsu and surrendering.

She would be petrified after, not wanting to discuss what she’d seen except to say there was a monster in there. But the fact that she’d seen anything at all would rattle the Suna shinobi. What if she learned something about their invasion plans? What if she tells someone and ruins everything? Something would have to be done.

I doubt they would outright kill her, considering they still have to lay low for a month. But kidnapping her and holding her hostage in Suna? Now that has some promise.