Trianing montage continued!

Masaru continued to refine, but failed to master, the mysterious Sakugan Reppu.

Makoto continued working on mastering the Closed State of the Raijuu Kakusei, also not entirely successfully.

Kansui re-evaluated her incomplete water barrier, this time combining genjutsu and ninjutsu into a single technique.

But eventually, time ran out!

Kaitaba ordered them to refrain from all ninjutsu and chill out for the last two days, and then it was time to HEAD OFF

TO THE CHUNIN EXAMS

Near the site, the first ninja they met was some weirdo yelling at the sun!

She introduced herself as Hanako Menma, A Girl, coming from Sun Village.

Her teammates - a blind guy named Hojo and a short girl named Rumi - showed up shortly afterwards, and the six of them arrived at the meeting point with the other genin.

Rumi proposed an intel exchange - in exchange for hearing about some of the stronger contenders from Lotus Village, she shared her information on some of the stronger contenders from the other villages.

THESE INCLUDED:

>Masahiko Oda of Lightning Village! A grandstanding dude with a tight-knit team. Uses wires.

>Tsutsui Souji of Salt Village! A girl covered in bandages, with strange and hidden abilities. Beyond her information, Rumi imparted that she had a strange feeling that Tsutsui is somehow special.

>The three Ash ninjas who were working with Akira during Season 1! Here for the exams as if they weren't complicit in a murder conspiracy just a few months ago.

>And finally, a trio of foreigners not lining up with any of the six villages!

After the chat, the party went to talk to them - one Ritsu Akai (played by Emily), and two adults named Naoki and Mayu.

They introduced themselves as being from Iron Village in the neighboring Land of Rain.

Ritsu stared a lot and sized up the party quickly, before a seventh joined the conversation - a bandaged boy who Rumi had failed to identify earlier.

He introduced himself as a fellow Lotus ninja, Zosui Murai - reclusive and obscure son of the disgraced Murai clain, unexpectedly now a ninja.

The conversation was cut short when the exam judges appeared!

Rumi probably just has a crush on Tsutsui

They were Kaitaba, Ikumi (the party's teacher from before they were genin), Sayaka (Masaru's cool perfect sister), and Okayu Magoroku, terrifying head of the Magoroku Clan.

Okayu gave a brief speech about how everyone was doomed to fail, and demanding that they prove her wrong.

Next: THE CHUNIN EXAMS.

Bonus art for Zosui!

he will probably not be important

ignore the fact he has bonus art

I'm sure it's fine

I got him art commissioned because I was super excited for him to get eliminated instantly

wow the typos continue

what

is it Sougi

It is Sougi yes

so noted

(the Salt Village team are our Guest PCs for this arc!)

Tsutsumi Sougi.

Wait what we have more PCs lurking around?

guests!

they weren't available this session but Mummy #2 and her team

are played by Awe, Leriel and Peter.

neato

meaning I have received a total of seven characters for this game, and of them, only Masaru is a dude

wow guys

look

in every game we try and fix the canon

and naruto especially

is known for shitting on its female characters

ergo

we're all playing the badass ladies naruto never gave us

legit

bonus fact

there are two already-established ships among the chunin exam participants

neither is straight

those two boys who were really close, and.... rumi/hanako?

not quite correct

then I got nothing

All three of the boy band boys?

And if Rumi's not with Hanako or her male teammate I dunno.

Okayu/Kaitaba

They're not participants and also that's a straight relationship and also Makoto would feel so betrayed and not even in a silly joking way.

oh right

no Ethan got it, Rumi/Hanako and the Lightning team

I'm eagerly awaiting getting to introduce my salty girl.