"The difference between love and pain. Is that love is the cause; and pain is the effect."~?

There were many challenges on the way to becoming Hokage, Naruto knew this but the struggle to becoming Hokage was supposed to make it worth it... But as he stared down at the piece of paper in front of him, he idly wondered if becoming Hokage was out of his reach.

"NO! You can do this Naruto. All you have to do is calm down and think about it, there's no rush"

"FIVE MORE MINUTES MAGGOTS"

"OH, KAMI IM GONNA FAIL!"

Tears streamed down his cheeks as he felt his hopes and dreams shatter in his hands.

Another boy of about the same age sat behind him, this one had black hair a blue shirt and white pants. His expression was focused although every once in a while, he glanced at Naruto with fear shooting through his eyes. "That dobe better not make us all fail or so help me... Ah who am I kidding we're dead in the water." At the acceptance of his fate said boy just sighed before going back to his test "whatever, might as well get a good score"

"it's ok, we had a good run, we did an A-rank mission and managed to get chosen to go to the chunin exams in our first years and even if we lost to a test no ninja has beaten us... That's a silver lining, right?" These thoughts belonged to one Sakura Haruno a girl wearing a red dress and had bubblegum pink hair. "if only Naruto had a chance of passing this test... Maybe I could have helped him..." Her eyes screamed defeat as she stared into a place that only the dead and the damned could see.

"… Actually, that could work" life seemed to snap back into her as she looked at Naruto a smile beginning to form "if I help Naruto then maybe Sasuke-Kun will start to see that I'm amazing cause if I can make that idiot smart, then I could do anything." A smirk formed over her face as she looked at Naruto and evil aura coming over her. Naruto himself felt a chill go down his spine as he sensed something like impending doom.

"Alright times up!" A man at the front of the room shouted out as he stood up from the chair he was sitting at "Pens down, and if you didn't finish? Too bad we got a tenth question to answer." Waiting for a moment, he stared at the Genin as they all put their writing utensils down. "Alright before I ask the tenth question I have to tell you of a little condition... If you want you can raise your hand and walk out that door."

"Why would we do that? We've come this far, might as well finish it right?"

"True under normal circumstances that would be the case. However, what you don't know is that if you choose to take this question and fail..." A pause to allow everyone to question just what this hidden condition was. "You will never be allowed to take the chunin exams again." Silence as everyone tried to process what they were just told, and then an explosion of noise

"What do you mean never again!?"

"You can't do this!"

"This isn't fair"

Ibiki merely stood there giving them their three seconds to rant and rave. And then killing intent flooded the room and everyone clammed up at this. "Fair?" He asked a smile crossing over his face as he laughed. "Who ever said anything about wanting to be fair? We're Shinobi we don't play fair. And we don't whine like children." This caused everyone to be silent as those who stood had fallen back into their seats. Bitter murmurs rang throughout the classroom as many people raised their hands and left. The fear of being stuck as genin forever too much for them to handle, some were scolded by their teammates others, thanked.

"Maybe I should raise my hand" Sakura thought as she looked at her blonde teammate. "In all honesty we probably don't have much of a chance, but with one more year we should be strong enough." Finding confirmation in her beliefs she started to raise her hands, however froze when she noticed the one person she never thought to see was raising his hand.

It was a solemn feeling, giving up... How could people get used to it? But was the risk worth the reward? Wouldn't it be better to wait? To get more strength and come back ready... No, his hand slammed onto the table as he stood up. "You know what? NO, ok I'm not going to give up, even if I stay a genin the rest of my life I can still achieve my dreams so I'm not going to give up." Ibiki stared down at the orange clad ninja with a scowl.

"So that's it right? You're ok with the risk of being a genin the rest of your life?" When the boy showed no sign of backing a down a much softer smile crossed his face, "Alright then..." Looking around he saw that no one else showed any signs of backing down he straightened up. "You all... Pass." Once again everyone was stunned into silence, all just staring at the man as if he had grown a second head.

"Umm Mr. Proctor?" Said a shy sounding girl as she raised her hand lightly "w-what about the test?" She asked blushing lightly as everyone's eyes fell onto her. The proctor nodded his head at the question

"Yes, what about the test? What part of this can you take into the field." His hands came up and untied the bandana over his scalp showing a myriad of scars. "Sometimes you'll be faced with a tough situation, where you don't know the exact way to proceed and one wrong move could end up ruining the entire mission. This was that feeling, these tests were made to be extremely difficult, so that you would have to cheat." His eyes scanned the room before closing as he tied his bandana back onto his head. "A shinobi is one who endures, and the determination to continue on even when it seems hopeless, that's the first test you need pass... Congratulations"

And as if just to make the situation even more absurd the window exploded open, and a banner was stuck to the wall. The words

"THE SEXY, THE SINGLE BUT DOES NOT CARE TO MINGLE, ANKO MITARASHI"

And in through the window landed a tall slender woman with pupil-less brown eyes a purple tinted hair. She had a cocky smirk on her as she stood hands on her hips, standing on the desk. "Flamboyant as usual Anko" Ibiki said not at all faced by the banner that now blocked his vision. "Of course, Ibiki what's the point of doing this if I don't do it stylishly?" She said sticking out her tongue, going back to the rest of the room she let out a little whistle at the numbers, "Man Ibiki you must be losing your touch, quite a lot of genin going to the forest."

"Or maybe we just have a good year this time around."

"You think?" A smile as she turned around with a smile "well "good year" it's just about time for your next test. Meet me at training area 44 in one hour or you fail." And with a sinister laugh she proceeded to jump out of one of the unbroken windows easily shattering it Ibiki just rubbed the bridge of his nose as he tore down the banner, mumbling something about annoying women. Looking at all of the testers he raised an eyebrow

"What are you all doing here, clock's ticking"

And with that everyone jumped to their feet before running out of the classroom, some taking the doors, others jumping out of the windows, some of them even chose to use the already broken windows. At the end of it all Ibiki stood alone in a room full of shattered windows a very noticeable twitch above his brow as he stared at all the glass on the floor" ... One of these days, one of the genin will need to be interrogated and i will be happy to oblige." He muttered with an evil smile coming over his face.

Naruto was panicked, he had to find out what this area 44 was before an hour or he would fail, really? Would geography really be his downfall!? Someone grabbing his arm pulled him to a stop as he looked to see Sakura holding onto him and Sasuke, she had a confidant smile on her face as she puffed out her chest slightly

"Don't worry Naruto, I know where we have to go."

Staring at her for a second Naruto blinked before smiling at her. "Awesome Sakura-chan, I should have known that you would know where to go." Said girl just got a smiled before whispering to the boys

"Follow me." and with that she jumped to the rooftops and started jumping away followed by Sasuke who gave a nod of approval to Naruto. Naruto smirked before jumping after his teammates, this chunnin exam was just getting started.

A/N. And That's a wrap, yeah, no excuses this time I just didn't want to write and I didn't for that I'm sorry. But I decided to focus on writing shorter chapters in hopes that I will be able to update more often with higher quality writings. Well here's to hoping TTFN ta ta for now.