LayarHijau – The Chunin Exams is one of the most memorable arcs in Naruto, but its origins are tied to another major shonen manga: Hunter x Hunter.
Kousuke Yahagi, a former editor of the Naruto manga, recently shared more details about how the arc came together. According to Yahagi, the idea for the Chunin Exams came from a discussion with Masashi Kishimoto at a time when the creator had not yet decided what should happen after the Land of Waves arc.
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Yahagi explained during an interview with YouTuber Mugen that he asked Kishimoto about his plans for the next part of the story. Kishimoto admitted that he had not come up with anything concrete yet, so the two began brainstorming from scratch.
“All that happened is I asked the author about the next arc, and he said he hadn’t thought of anything yet, so I had to sit with him and discuss ideas from scratch,” Yahagi said.
Hunter Exam Gave Yahagi the Idea for Chunin Exams
There was a very specific reason Yahagi thought of an examination arc.
At the time, he was also working as an editor on Yoshihiro Togashi’s Hunter x Hunter, which was around the Hunter Exam portion of the manga. Since the Hunter Exam had only recently been part of his editorial work, the concept naturally came to mind while he and Kishimoto were looking for a direction for Naruto.
“It hadn’t been long since the Hunter Exam. [Kishimoto] told me he hadn’t thought yet about what comes after the Land of Waves arc, so I suggested the ‘Chunin Exams’ to him,” Yahagi recalled.
The idea eventually evolved into something distinctly suited to Naruto. Rather than simply copying the structure of Hunter Exam, the Chunin Exams became a way to bring together young ninja from different villages, introduce a large cast of characters, and push the story into a much larger conflict.
The arc would go on to feature some of Naruto’s most memorable battles, including Rock Lee’s fight against Gaara and Sasuke’s confrontation with Gaara, while also establishing several characters as major players in the story.
The Arc Changed During Serialization
Interestingly, the Chunin Exams did not necessarily follow a fixed plan from beginning to end.
Yahagi revealed that he received considerable criticism from readers while the arc was being serialized. During the early days of the internet, he was even labeled the “idiot editor” by some fans.
Yahagi said he did not personally see the comments at the time. Instead, Kishimoto showed him the reactions from readers, prompting the two to reconsider parts of the story.
“We couldn’t keep going that way, so we changed some details. We decided to change direction and come up with new ideas after seeing the harsh reactions,” Yahagi explained.
Those changes helped transform the arc into something much bigger than a straightforward promotion exam.
Orochimaru’s intervention became a major turning point, eventually leading into the Konoha Crush and dramatically changing the direction of Naruto’s story.
Interestingly, Kishimoto had originally planned for Shikamaru to win the Chunin Exams if the tournament had proceeded according to the initial plan.
Kishimoto Once Said His Editors “Forced” Him to Make the Arc
Yahagi’s account also adds more context to an earlier story told by Kishimoto himself.
In a previous interview with Kendo Kobayashi, Kishimoto said his editors had “forced” him to create the Chunin Exams. The editorial team wanted the arc to introduce multiple characters at once and move the overall story forward more quickly.
Kishimoto had originally preferred to continue with slower-paced missions and reportedly felt that creating a tournament arc would be extremely demanding.
These two accounts do not necessarily cancel each other out. Yahagi’s recollection focuses on where the initial idea came from, while Kishimoto’s comments describe the editorial pressure that followed once the concept had been proposed.
In other words, Kishimoto had not yet worked out what should come after Land of Waves, Yahagi suggested the Chunin Exams after drawing inspiration from his work on Hunter x Hunter, and the editorial team then pushed the concept forward as the manga developed.
The final version was shaped through that back-and-forth process, including changes made in response to reader reactions.
That history makes the connection between Hunter x Hunter and Naruto’s Chunin Exams particularly interesting. One of Naruto’s most celebrated tournament arcs began, at least in part, with an editor looking at the Hunter Exam he was working on with Togashi and wondering whether a similar type of framework could work for Kishimoto’s manga.
The result ultimately became one of the most influential tournament arcs in anime and manga, far exceeding the simple exam concept that inspired its beginnings.
