So, let me start by saying it's great to see this quest update again and that I enjoyed the opportunity to reread this quest. It uh...went faster than I thought it would actually. I guess I thought it was longer than it was.
One genin simply stood up, swiped a fake's test and sat back down again. He lost two points, as was the penalty for cheating, but he would be able to answer all of the questions and score a respectable seven out of nine.
But during that reread I caught this line during the Chunin Exam and it just pinged an old memory. Isn't this "answer" to the first exam a really common solution in Naruto fanfic? I wouldn't be able to name any of them of course, but I feel like I've read, multiple times, a smarter, intelligent, or badass Naruto doing this to show off. And since it doesn't actually happen in canon, I'm pretty sure, what are the chances this was actually another transmigrant?
This actually leads into my second line of thought as I was rereading. What are the rules for the transmigrants? Up until Karin shows up it looked like anybody who transmigrated would be reincarnated as a random person, i.e. not taking the role or position of a canon character. The only points of confirmed data we have is Hisana 'waking' during the Uchiha Massacre as a young girl, and Karin has been awake for maybe a year at least. Could it be possible that
any character could be reincarnated? It's apparent that Sarutobi wasn't, nor Tsunade as there's things they would obviously change, even if it was just them waking up a year or two past and it's the same with several other canon characters.
We don't even know for sure if the Trenchcoats or the Camocloaks are transmigrants, just that the first have knowledge of how Naruto's canon timeline is supposed to go and are trying to hew a path as close to that as possible. Arguably you could make the claim that every character is reincarnated and that most of them just haven't remembered their past lives, as unlikely as that could be. We just don't have enough information to go off of. Yet.
Speaking of the Trenchcoats, something else I noticed was how they focus on certain events. The Invasion was enough for them to break out an S-rank Ninja to ensure that Sarutobi died partially sealing Orochimaru, even at the cost of the Sound 4
(5) (6?) who were major antagonists in the Sasuke Retrieval Arc. Does that mean they've written off the Arc as a whole or just confident that other powerful mooks would take their place. Speaking of which, Sasuke still doesn't have a cursed seal or powerful incentives to leave Konoha to train under Orochimaru and become stronger. Could it be that the Trenchcoats don't need that to happen as long as Sasuke continues to grow strong enough to be on par to how he's supposed to be in Shippudden or are they just waiting for something?
They also left Dato out to dry in the movie arc after making sure he could activate the spring machine. They didn't try to manipulate things (that we know) to get Team 7 into Wave. Really if it wasn't for their interference during the graduation exam I would almost say they don't care about the personal aspects of Naruto's story, just that the main story beats are hit in similar ways. Ninja team from Konoha helps Tazuna build a bridge, fight Haku and Zabuza, Gato dies (assumedly). What's that? Haku is still alive? Well that's not important. Sound and Sand invade Konoha, Sarutobi dies. What's that, major villains from a future arc died? Well that's too bad. It really makes me wonder who is making these calls and why. Is it some 4d plan, just pragmatic decision making, or even manpower shortages.
