NarutoThe Chunin Exams portion of the season dominates the first part of the series, with a cast of young ninjas being evaluated on their readiness for the next level. Although the Forest of Death and the one-on-one combat are more action-oriented, the first part of the Chunin Exams contains one of the most interesting plot twists of the season and a fascinating historical parallel. Even though the written test only lasted two episodes, they were one of the most memorable early episodes of the series.
Before any matches in Naruto’s Chunin Exams take place, two episodes are devoted to the written exam. It was quickly established that the exam room was surrounded by guards, high-ranking ninjas monitoring the candidates for any signs of cheating. The keepers will take away two of a contestant’s ten possible points on the test each time the contestant is caught cheating, and any team of contestants whose member scores zero will be considered incompetent. is a losing team. Candidates soon realize the questions on the test are intentionally written to be nearly impossible to answer, forcing them to cheat despite the risk of being caught by the Sentinels and failing. This aspect of the Chunin Exams creates a fascinating parallel between the world of Naruto and real-world ancient history.
Naruto’s Chunin Exams were inspired by Sparta
The lessons that candidates in the Chunin Exams are forced to learn by means of a deliberately impossible test are similar to the actual training methods used in the historical Spartan military academy, known comes in Greek as agoge. Ancient Greek historian Xenophon explains:
Not because of the difficulty in providing them with that. [Lycurgus, the founder of the Spartan training system] Encourage them to find food with their wisdom. I think no one can fail to see that. Obviously, a person who wants to steal must have many sleepless nights, play the role of a trickster and lie in ambush during the day. Furthermore, if they want to be caught, they must have a spy available. There is no doubt that all this education was planned by him to make the boys more resourceful in obtaining supplies and better at fighting men.
Someone asked: But why do you think stealing is a good thing, but why did you force the captured child to be beaten so many times? I answer: Because in all cases, people punish learners for not doing exactly what they are taught to do. So the Spartans punished those caught stealing badly.
In short, both the Ancient Spartan recruit and the Chunin candidate are being forced by their teachers into situations where they have to cheat to get ahead. At the same time, both are being severely punished for being caught. The lesson in both cases is not that cheating is wrong, but instead that cheating is useful if done without detection. Essentially, both the Chunin Exams and the Agoge teach a lesson in how to fight smarter, not harder. Funny enough, it was Naruto who accidentally discovered the entire contents of the test without realizing it, deciding in a panic that he had no choice but to cheat to avoid being caught, but never captures the true nature of the test.
Finally, the other key point about the written portion of the Chunin Exams is that none of the content really matters. The first nine questions are not a test of the candidate’s book intelligence but a test of their ability to gather and share necessary information with their team in a subtle way while avoiding detection by how to use their ninjutsu and other ninja abilities. Of course, these are valuable skills for ninja teams. The exam’s tenth question, revealed only at the end, which the entire team fails if one member fails to answer, is a test of resolve, essentially whether each team wants to continue Chunin Exam or not. It’s a great twist in the plot and a great way to play with the idea of characters taking tests.
Conceptually, the written portion of the Chunin Exams would be much more boring than the Forest of Death or one-on-one battles. However, thanks to some excellent storytelling, it becomes the best part of the story line. These twists, combined with fascinating parallels to historical Spartan training, make the written test of the Chunin Exams one of the best parts of Naruto’first arc.
Source: Constitution of the Lacedaimonians | Perseus Digital Library.