Talking about Naruto without mentioning the Chunin exam arc is akin to eating a sandwich without its fillings. Naruto, one of the most popular anime franchises, offered us so many incredible arcs that are still unrivaled to this day. The best evil squad, Akatsuki out there, with the best shinobis, fight techniques, and heart-wrenching emotions. As previously stated, chunin examinations are an important element of the framework of this series since they aided in the formation of some of the characters’ strongest bonds, such as Naruto’s bond with Sasuke, which was solidified during the Chunin examinations, as was his rivalry with Neji. They paved the way for the entrance of the infamous villain, Orochimaru, and helped set the stage for the Sasuke Retrieval Arc.
The creator never had the Chunin Arc in his bucket
According to a resurfaced discussion, creator Masahi Kishimoto had no intention of focusing on Naruto’s division of rank in any way. He wanted to emphasize ninja teams from the outset, with each group consisting of four members rather than three. Kishimoto, however, was advised by his editor that “there wouldn’t be time for such a slow-paced development.”
Shonen Jump fans anticipate fast-paced storytelling, so Kishimoto needed to gather all of his combatants at once, regardless of the village differences, and that’s how the merging of the shinobi villages—cloud, stone, leaf, and stone—came into being. And it was during this process that Kishimoto’s editor came up with the tournament angle. The creator warned his editor that going for a tournament arc would kill him, to which his editor replied, “Do it even if it kills you”.
Surprisingly, this is how the most significant Chunin Exam arc was ‘forced’ to begin, and Kishimoto admits that he frequently wishes he had stuck to his initial idea of having four-member teams. The connections between the characters—what their strategies are, what powers they have, what makes them distinctive, and how far their potentials will rank them against each other, would not have been as potent without the Chunin Exams. They were a crucial impetus for Naruto’s narrative.
Legendary moments we would have missed if the arc never came into being
Gaara VS Rock Lee. Gaara imagines his opponent is finally fatigued after hours of combat, only to be surprised by the fact that he’s just getting started. ‘Should I quit fooling around and fight for real now?’ This is the impression Rock Lee gave when he asked his mentor, Guy sensei, if he could remove his weight. And once he did, the rest is history.
Naruto ultimately proves his worth, exhibiting that he is beyond all the ridicule he faced. Naruto was determined to defeat Neji, a member of the renowned Hyuga clan known for their Byakugan. With his Byakugan, Neji had an enormous advantage over Naruto, given that he could see all of Naruto’s chakra points. And, at the preliminary level of the chunin tests, Naruto successfully broke past it and knocked out Neji, proving that he was far more than merely a lousy, good-for-nothing ninja.
Most notably, Orochimaru arrives in Konoha Village disguised as a contender for the examinations, marking the start of a prominent arc. Then he places the curse mark on Sasuke, which officially starts Sasuke’s timeframe in the entirety of the series.
Source: Comicbook
