Celestial Path Chapter 45 (Patreon)

I made sure that Kaori and Kiyome kept to themselves as we mostly stayed in our hotel as the days passed by in wait for the first Chunin Exam event. Getting the locals hyped to fight me, and a bet between my patron god and another god, was enough trouble.

And as for Amaterasu accepting such a stupid-as-hell duel... I wasn't fucking happy. Sure, in either case I didn't 'lose' in either having the terrible option of plowing supernaturally beautiful Yuuki-Onna wasn't bad, obviously. But I also knew that should I get that Dragon King Pearl.

That divine artifact woudn't remain in my possession for long. That goddess would claim it for her own in the name of her being my patron deity.

It was fucking annoying to say the least. 

So with that nonsense, I didn't run around to give Iwa or Suna a chance to mess with me either. I especially avoided Iwa, with their brutal cast system they kept in their land. Their bets would be something very ugly, I was sure.

If they tried to go the same way as Kiri did in trying to steal my bloodline via a horde of thirsty youkai or just their own ninjas.

But soon enough, the first event of the Kumo, Chunin Exams was upon me.

With Kaori and Kiyome following me, we headed into a large arena, which was the designated grounds for the first event of the Chunin Exams.

And as the three of us went into the large meeting hall, there were a couple dozen of Jonin and even stronger ninja from all the Major Villages, and even some from the weaker villages in attendance, who were keeping us from even thinking of starting some nonsense.

The large meeting hall was likewise filled with over a hundred genin, maybe as much as three hundred? As each table we were supposed to sit at was clearly meant for three-man teams. The standard genin teams, obviously and the line of tables stretched for dozens of lanes with.

"Over here, Akari!" A voice spoke out and I looked over towards the side and saw the Konoha 'clique' with a few genin I recognized from passive conversations at the hotel and trip.

With a sharp head tilt of respect, I walked over and took the edge of the clique to act as the shield for my village's faction as the recognized strongest.

Likewise, seeing me being called out by several of my own village comrades, I could feel the gaze of several dozen other's landing on my form. And those gazes became heavy as plenty of people 'recognized' me. 

As there was no way in hell that the villages woudn't tell their genin to avoid me if they couldn't somehow deal with me during these exams.

Pity for them...

Because I was still very much immortal.

Finally, the exam proctor of this exam 'all but' teleported to the podium and I raised an eyebrow at seeing the clearly youkai-blooded but human-shaped ninja with lightning crackling between his thick mane of silver hair.

And the proctor didn't leave me hanging for long as he spoke in a thunderous rumble of a voice. "I am the proctor for the first Chunin Exams event. There is no need for anyone, including myself to make introductions... Because most likely half of you are going to die in this exam."

His gaze traveled over all of us he waited for his words to sink in. And just as whispers began to fill the air his voice rose with literal thunder rumbling in the air and shaking our bodies as he said sharply. "Shut it!"

The room went dead quiet, and after looking over us for a moment, he nodded and then gave a wave. A projector started rolling, and I saw what the exam was. And at seeing it I frowned heavily.

"This is the Divine Dueling Pit. A super massive arena that is scaled for the very gods themselves to fight with different mini environments."

Then a thick mist filled with crackling lightning filled several parts of the arena as he continued. "The goal of the exam is very simple... Survival! Your registered teams for now will be split up, and you will all go into the arena by yourself and must survive the arena's hostile environment, rabid demons, and other ninja for half an hour."

Waiting a moment for to understand that and the shitty projector to cycle through all the threats involved. The youkai blooded Jonin gave a cruel smile as he said with a grin.

"Now... I am sure a good number of you are wondering. If just survival is the goal. Then why bother going around fighting at all? It's because you all will be wearing badges as well as the demons sealed within the arena worth points."

"Points that you will VERY much desire for the next exam segment. Such points not only can be used to aid in that exam segment but can even be redeemed for divine favors from the very gods who will be watching the event!"

Then my face froze as that fucking Youkai looked me dead in the eye and said. "Also! Most importantly, these badges come in tiers. Some people will have much higher tier badges and will thus draw more attention to themselves. The people with such badges will have certain bonus's applied to their ending score, with treasures and blessings guaranteed for having the badge at the end."

Seeing as I was going to have the biggest fucking possible target on my back, I raised my hand, and before he could even take my question, I called out rather bluntly. "What is the reward for the highest tier badge?" 

The Jonin's teeth clicked with lightning in his eyes as he said with a grin. "The sky is the limit when it comes to being offered a Wish from a host of gods. Want to bring someone back to life? That's fine. Want to have ageless immortality? That's also fine. Or, maybe you wish for ultimate power? Several gods working together can make a genin have the power of a Kage, haha!"

My face twitched as I knew all too damned well that. That, wish was a fucking monkey's paw if I had ever heard of one.