Disclaimer:
Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.
"Dialogue"
'Thoughts'
-Author notes-
Chapter 56: The Tenth Question
While Naruto was reading over the questions, he noticed something.
'These are really hard…'
He was no scholar, but he still had a good understanding of all disciplines, like mathematics or philosophy. He had also studied much of the material taught at the academy.
But even then, he wasn't sure if he could answer half of these questions.
Looking around at the expressions of the other examinees, they were in a much worse position than him.
'According to the rules, as long as I can answer a single one correctly, I would be fine. But…'
It looked like they made the test hard enough so most of the attendees wouldn't be able to answer even one correct question.
'If you are caught cheating, you lose two points, but you are not disqualified. So as long as you don't get caught five times and can get the answers to one question… I see… that's the goal of this test.' Naruto realized.
And he was not the only one. He spotted several people making moves already.
'That means there must be at least a few fake students with the answers so others can copy from them.'
Now this made more sense as a ninja test than just answering some questions.
'But… I have no need to play their games…' He was confident that Sakura would be able to answer most of the questions correctly. And Sasuke should manage at least one without issues. So they didn't need his help.
When he glanced forward, he spotted Sakura glancing back at him.
Naruto gave her a nod, that meant 'I'm good,' and she smiled.
"Naruto…."
He heard a whisper at his side and turned to look.
Hinata was staring at him with worried eyes.
"Need help?" She used a hand sign to ask. As they learned in the academy.
It was a good thing he bothered reading that book.
"I'm fine." He answered.
"You!" Someone slammed a table.
"Two points!"
'Someone had gotten caught…' Naruto thought.
It was only the beginning. Over the next forty minutes, he heard those words many times.
As well as… "Ten points, disqualified!"
Naruto looked down at his paper.
He ended up answering five out of the nine first questions.
Since he was quite confident in his answers, there was no need to play their game and try to cheat.
The tenth question said that it would only be revealed at the forty-five-minute mark.
He gave the wall clock a glance.
"I guess it's time…"
"Alright! Stop writing!" Ibiki shouted.
"I am going to reveal the tenth question."
'Why would they wait to reveal the last question?' Naruto wondered.
"For this tenth question… you must decide if you will try to answer it or not."
"What do you mean by that? What if we choose not to answer it?" Temari, the Sand ninja, asked.
"If you choose not to answer it… you will lose all points and fail." The examiner told them.
"That's stupid!"
"Yeah, of course we'll answer it then."
Some genins exclaimed.
"Idiots… there must be more to that…" Naruto murmured.
"If you choose to take it and answer incorrectly… that person will lose the right to ever take the Chunin exams ever again!"
"What kind of ridiculous rule is that? There are people here who took the test before." Kiba pointed out.
Their examiner laughed when he heard this.
"Then you can consider yourselves unlucky. This year I am the one in charge… and I make the rules."
Seeing the pale faces of the genin, Ibiki smiled.
"But… I will give you a way out… you can give up now and try again in six months, with a different examiner."
Naruto stared at the man.
'What is he thinking?...'
"Now… those who do not wish to take the question, raise your hand. Once your number has been confirmed, you and your team can leave the classroom."
Naruto was surprised by the number of hands being raised in the air.
But even more so when he spotted the nervous figure of Sakura, who was obviously hesitating to do the same.
He wasn't planning on doing anything, but now he had to say a few words before that girl did something rash.
"This is foolish! You should have threatened us with cutting off one of our fingers. That would have been more believable." Naruto huffed with annoyance while trying to put up an act.
"What did you say, brat?!" Ibiki frowned. The scars on his face moved, making him look more threatening.
"Naruto!" Sakura shouted.
"Naruto?..." Hinata glanced at him with worry.
"What is he saying now?" Ino asked.
Everyone was now staring at him.
Naruto returned the glare at Ibiki.
"I said that you should have come up with a more believable threat. Banning us from ever taking the Chunin exam?... ridiculous. I don't know who you are, but I would bet anything that you don't have the authority to make that claim. In this room, you have the heirs of the village's most powerful clans, as well as one of the last Uchiha. Can you imagine the outrage that you would face if you tried to ban them from rising in the ranks and crippling the village's power as a whole? Your head would be on a pike before the end of the month…"
There was an uncomfortable silence after that.
But he was not done yet.
"And I have not mentioned the foreign ninjas because… I shouldn't even need to say this, but not even the Lord Hokage has the authority to tell foreign ninja villages to ban their genins from ever participating in another Chunin exam. Can you even imagine how that conversation would go down? Even someone with half a functioning brain would realize that threat is completely empty. And if the threat is not real..."
"Wait!" Three ninjas from the Waterfall village were still at the door after giving up and listening to everything Naruto said.
"Is that true?!" One of them shouted.
"Hold on! I take it back. I want to take the question."
"You are disqualified, get out already." One of the Chunin instructors had to kick them out.
Everyone had their hands lowered now and were thinking about Naruto's words.
"You brat!" Ibiki was not amused. He slammed his hands on the desk and glared daggers at him.
"That's why I said that you should have made a different threat, like cutting a finger off those who got the answer wrong. It will still make people hesitate and is a lot more believable. Losing a finger is not a crippling injury and is not enough to start an international conflict if you did it to the child of someone important. Especially after you gave them the chance to not take the question… even if you never had the intention to carry out any punishment, to begin with."
"Last chance to quit!" Ibiki shouted while looking around the room.
No one else raised their hands again.
The examiner sighed in defeat.
"Fine… everyone who still remains here… you all pass the first test!"
"Wait, that's it?"
"There was no question?!"
"What was the point of the other questions then?"
Murmurs were heard all over the classroom.
"You!" Ibiki pointed at him. "What's your name?"
"Uzumaki Naruto."
The examiner clenched his fists.
"I will remember you. The one who ruined my test."
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