To be perfectly honest, the actual tournament fights probably took up only a tiny portion of the exams. Especially given that they were sometimes added alongside the rest of the plan or written when the QM didn't have enough spoons for the main plan (which would ordinarily result in a Lore Update), we really didn't lose much time watching everyone else's fights.
At a glance, what
really seems to be take up our time is:
- The Events, which were each an arc unto themselves.
- The month-long break before the tourney, where we spent time in Leaf doing distinctly non-tournament things like baking cookies with Hana and putting out social fires.
- The very long irl break where we switched over to FtD.
- Our unceasing ability to start up new subplots like contacting Ami.
- General slice of life stuff.
None of those things are bad. AugJev needed to go, the exam Events needed to be covered thoroughly, slice of life is fun, etc. The chuunin exams
have taken up a ton of time, and it's reasonable to be anxious to get back to Leaf where we can do proper research again and stuff, but don't pin this all on what's possibly the least culpable part of it.