"Quiet down, you maggots!" He was a tall man wearing a black trench coat with two scars running across his face.
"I am the examiner of the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam, Morino Ibiki." He announced
...
He quietly took stock of the room. His calculating eyes roaming across all the Genin, before he pointed to the back of the room.
"You three from Otogakure, do you think you can do as you please in my exam room? Do you want me to disqualify you immediately?" He threatened. The three in question didn't look too afraid and still retained their somewhat haughty attitude.
"I'm sorry. This is my first exam so I got a little excited." The one covered in bandages answered. Ibiki just smirked.
"This is a good chance to say this…You are not allowed to fight each other during the exam unless given permission to by the examiners. Even if permission is given, you are not allowed to kill the other.
Pigs who go against me will fail immediately. Understood?" He declared in an intimidating tone of voice. The arrogant Oto-nin with the happuri-style hitai-ate just smirked at him.
"This exam seems so soft and easy." He commented pompously. The Chuunin examiners stationed around the room just chuckled at the ignorant boy.
"We will now begin the first test of the Chuunin Selection Exam. Come up to the front, draw a number, and take your place at the designated seat. We will then hand out the test papers." Ibiki instructed.
The gathered Chuunin hopefuls did as instructed and quickly organised themselves. Naruto drew number 53, and quietly settled into his place. He looked around the room and found that the spread was somewhat even in terms of village affiliation.
He glanced to his right and spotted a nervously fidgeting Hinata. He had to smile to himself at the adorable behaviour of the girl. He didn't know why he chased Sakura for so many years when there seemed to be someone like Hinata who seemed to harbour romantic feelings for him. He couldn't really do anything about that yet, so he settled for trying to calm the girl's anxiety.
"Hinata." He called out to her, causing her to jump a little in her seat. Her blush returned in full force.
"N..Naruto-kun." She stuttered shyly. Blissful that Naruto-kun was taking the time to speak to her. It never really happened before.
"Good luck for the test. Let's do our best, okay?" He said. He watched as her eyes lit up in happiness before she sat a little straighter and seemed to be holding her nerves a little better. Seeing the result he wanted achieved, he just nodded to himself and got comfortable.
"All right punks, listen up! The first test has a few important rules. I will not accept any questions so listen carefully." He punctuated. He had the full attention of the room at this point.
"The first rule is that you are given 10 points at the start. This written exam consists of 10 questions, each of them worth one point. This test is a deduction based one. If you get one problem wrong, you will get one point deducted. If you get three problems wrong, your points will be reduced to 7.
Second rule, the pass-fail decision will be determined by your teams overall points tally." He said, causing an outcry amongst the participants.
"Shut up! There is a reason for this, so just shut up and listen. Next rule, if an examiner determines that you cheated or do something similar during the test….Each action will cause you to lose two points. In other words, there will be people who will be forced to leave without their tests being graded.
Those who cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves. You are all trying to become Chuunins. If you are shinobi, act like a first rate one. Also, if anyone on a team gets zero, the entire team fails.
The last question will be given 45 minutes after the start of the exam. You have one hour for the exam….Begin!" Commanded Ibiki. Instantly, all examinees flipped their tests over and got to work.
Now Naruto will never claim to be a genius. To him, it's a word synonymous with weaklings who hide behind family names and slackers who don't have the drive to work hard for their results. He will never refer to himself as such.
Every day of his life was a struggle. Everything he has, he had to work his ass off for. He shed blood, sweat and tears to make it this far. He was proud of his hard work. That being said, he could recognise that he just had a natural aptitude towards certain things. Fūinjutsu, was one of the things that came to mind.
Naruto was also a trickster, and he was quite proud of it. His pranks were infamous throughout the village. At first it was just a way to get attention. But now, after his assimilation with his dark side, he could finally appreciate what a dangerous skillset he had acquired for himself without even realising it.
Where his pranks, that nobody ever escaped, used to have paint balloons, smoke bombs and rubber balls. He could easily switch those out for kunai, shuriken, senbon and, now that he was proficient in Fūinjutsu, explosive tags. Suddenly, harmless pranks became deadly traps.
He knew that he was expected to be a frontline fighter, due to his Jinchuuriki status and large chakra reserves, but Naruto will always be a trickster at heart. He was never book smart but his battle instincts were always something he prized.
Even as unskilled as he was previously, he always found some way to get out of a situation, the way he tricked Zabuza into releasing Kakashi from the Suirou no Jutsu comes to mind.
That's why, as a trickster, he could recognise somebody trying to pull a fast one on him. The rules made absolutely no sense for a straightforward written exam. Why deduct two points for cheating, when common sense dictates that the person should be disqualified.
The examiner even advised to think carefully when trying to cheat. He also said to act like a first rate shinobi. He flipped his test over and saw that most of the questions were ridiculous. Even with all the studying he's done the last 6 months, he doubts he can answer all of them. Some maybe, but most of them are way above the level of a Genin, or average Chuunin.
He doubted he would get the right answers unless the copied Shikamaru…he suddenly jolted upright….a mischievous grin spread across his usually genial face…it honestly freaked a few of the examiners out.
Naruto looked around the room to see Hinata, and the other asshole from her clan, both having their Byakugan activated, copying answers from others. Saskuke had his pink eyes of doom activated, copying the hand movements of the person in front of him. Pssh…how cliché.
The bun girl, Tenten, was using ninja wire to manoeuvre a large mirror on the celling to get her answers, her teammate Lee was also benefiting from her trick. The crazy desert racoon seemed to have dislodged his eyeball to copy the answers off a guy in front of him.
Yuck! Shikamaru seemed to be answering it by himself, no surprise there. He could also see Shikamaru's shadow connected to Chouji's, filling in his answers for him as well. Not bad. Kiba was using Akamaru to get his answers and Shino's bugs were feeding him answers. It also looked like Ino used her Shintenshin no Jutsu to get Sakura's answers.
He decided he checked out everyone enough. He had the ultimate information gathering technique. No offense to the Genin hopefuls, but nobody was better than him in this kind of situation. First he needed to pick his mark. He closed his eyes and concentrated his Negative Emotions Sensing.
The room was filled with emotions such as fear, anxiety, nervousness, hatred and bloodlust (guess who that came from *eye roll*).
He focused instead on the guy two seats in front of him. Not only did the guy have Chuunin level chakra reserves, he also didn't feel any of the previously mentioned emotions. While he looked the part on the outside, he was actually pretty calm and relaxed.
This led Naruto to one conclusion. He was a plant. That meant that he had to have the right answers. He broke out into a grin again.
Now that he had his mark, all he needed was a distraction. He pulled out a blank tag and quickly doodled a seal on it. It was done with quick and precise strokes. It actually combined two fairly low level seals, so it wasn't too hard, so it would do the trick. The first effect was similar to a flash bag followed by a low yield explosion.
Nothing fatal, just a small boom. When he was done, he added a third seal, which acted as a security measure, causing the contents to fade into the page, only to be shown if he wants it to. Not dissimilar that creepy weirdo, Kabuto's cards. With that done, he put his hands beneath the table, with the seal, and gathered his wind chakra. His mastery of the element allowed him to do something as small as this without breaking a sweat.
He gathered a small wind current and allowed it to carry the seal tag to somewhere near the front of the class. He looked to Hinata, who was curiously watching him. She blushed when he caught her gaze. He motioned her to turn off her Byakugan and close her eyes.
She nodded and obeyed his orders. He looked around to see if anyone spotted him, before holding up a hand sign, activating his seal.
FLASH!!!
There was a bright white light that flooded the classroom.
BANG!!!
Before a loud sound, similar to an explosion, reverberated throughout the classroom. They felt tremors in the room for a while. Luckily it passed quickly as everyone was left looking around warily.
Naruto took a perverse pleasure in seeing the Hyuuga boy furiously rubbing his eyes, looking to be in agony. Sasuke wasn't faring any better. He chuckled evilly to himself. Mission accomplished.
While everyone was distracted by the flash, he created three Kage Bunshin and had them Henge into flies. He then sent them toward the plant. He could see them hovering even from here. He waited a few minutes for them to finish memorising the guys answer sheet.
He became good at doing that in these last 6 months as he had read and memorised a lot of books. It's a skill that took a while for him to pick up, but is an invaluable one. One of his clones dispersed, allowing him to view its memories. He quickly jotted down the answers on his sheet.
It only took his abut three minutes and he was done. He looked to Hinata and gave her a cheesy thumbs up, causing her to giggle cutely.
He decided to lay his head down and have a small nap. He tuned out the sounds of pencil hitting paper as well as the numerous teams that were getting disqualified.
Naruto wasn't sure how much time had passed, but he was awakened by the gently tapping of Hinata. He groaned and stretched his back before sending a thankful smile to the girl, flaring up her blush once again. He just chuckled at her.
"Looks like we've dropped the incompetent ones." Ibiki commented from front of the room as he looked at the examinees. Seeming satisfied with that he saw, he spoke.
"I will now give the final question, since 45 minutes have already passed." Everyone straightened up. Some looked nervous others looked determined.
"But before that, there is one thing I must say…There will be a special rule for this last question. I will now explain. This is…a hopeless rule. First, you are going to choose if you wish to take the tenth question or not." Ibiki said.
"Choose? So what happens if we don't take the tenth problem?" Temari questioned agitatedly.
"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. In other words, you will fail. Your two other teammates will fail along with you." He responded with a smirk.
"What! Of course we'll choose to take it!" Shouted one of the Genin's indignantly.
"And here is the other rule. If you choose to take it and get it wrong, you will…Lose the privilege to take the Chuunin Exams forever." Concluded Ibiki. There was an outcry amongst the examinees at the unfairness of the rule.
"What kind of dumb rule is that?! There should be those here who have taken the Chuunin exams in the past!" Protested Kiba angrily. Ibiki just chuckled darkly in response.
"You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That is why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year, or the year after that. Let us begin." Said Ibiki.
The tension in the room shot up exponentially. Many were sweating in fear at the consequences that they were facing. It wasn't surprising that people started to quit.
Naruto just lazily leaned back in his chair and watched the drama unfold with amusement. He wasn't afraid of some silly question.
Hinata looked to be in awe of his nonchalance and confidence. So much so that she lost a lot of her own doubts, for the moment.
After about 10 minutes, Ibiki spoke again.
"If you want to quit, now is the chance." He said as he looked around the room. When nobody responded, he nodded his head. "Nice determination. Then…For the first exam, everyone here…Passes!" He finished with a smirk. Most of the examinees were left gaping in confusion at his declaration.
"Wait, what's the meaning of that? We passed already? What about the tenth question?" Sakura questioned confusedly. Ibiki just smirked in response once again.
"There was no such thing to begin with. Or you can call the two-choice question the tenth question." He answered.
"Hey! So what were those previous nine questions?! It was all a waste!" Protested Temari.
"No it's not. The nine problems accomplished their purpose. The purpose to test each individuals information gathering skills. First, this tests purpose lies in the first rule…Your pass-fail decision is based on your three-man teams.
With that rule, we gave you an unprecedented amount of pressure to not be the one to fail your team. But these test problems cannot be solved by you Genin's. So, most people here must have come to the same conclusion…'I have to cheat to get points'.
In other words, it was assumed that everyone was going to cheat. So, we snuck in two Chuunin who knew the answers, to be the target of the cheating. But those who cheated like fools failed, of course." He said before undoing his bandana style hitai-ate, revealing his heavily scarred bald head. It was littered with slash, burn and puncture wounds.
It was not a pretty sight. Some Genin looked like they were going to be sick. "Why? Information can have a greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields…Information is contested with the lives of people.
The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate. Remember this. Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your village and teammates. So, we made you gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked those out those who were lacking in that field. That's what went on." He explained.
"But I still can't agree to that last question…" Commented Temari.
"But the tenth question was the main question of the first test." Seeing the confusion at his words, he continued. "Let me explain.
The tenth question was a 'take or not take' choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two choice question. Those who did not take it failed with their teams. If you chose to take it, and could not answer it ... You would have been forever barred from the Chuunin Exams.
It was a very insincere question. How about this two-choice problem ... Let's assume that you have become Chuunin. Your mission is to capture a secret document. The number of enemy shinobi, their armaments and abilities are unknown. And there may be traps that they have set up.
Now, will you accept this mission or not? Just because your life and the lives of your teammates may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions? The answer is…No. There are missions that carry heavy risk, but cannot be avoided.
The ability to show your courage to your teammate when needed, and the ability to get through a bad situation ... That is what we look for in a Chuunin, a squad leader.
Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation ...Those who give up when given the chance because there is next year, and let their minds sway over an uncertain future ... Fools who only carry a light determination like that have no right to become a Chuunin. That is what I believe.
I am saying that choosing to take it gave the right answer to the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties you will face. You have broken through the entrance. The first test of the Chuunin Exam, ends now. I wish you luck." Ibiki declared, to the collective relief if the participants. His eyes narrowed though towards the window to his right.
Naruto sensed the chakra signature approaching at high speeds.