"First!" Ibiki shouted, pointing to the back of the room. "You Sound ninja! Knock it off! Who told you that you could fight? ! You want to be failed before we've even begun? !"

"Yikes! Scary and abrassive!" Rin murmured.

"Sorry, it's our first time," the Sound ninja with the bandages said. "I guess we're a little jumpy. . . sir." Ibiki smiled.

"I'll say this once, so listen up!" Ibiki shouted. "There will be no combat between candidates; no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor, and even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited! Anyone who even THINKS of messing with me will be disqualified immeadiately! Got it?"

'So we can't kill someone even if they totally deserve it?' Jiro thought, glancing at Naruto.

"Hmph! No fatal force? That's no fun!" the Sound ninja who threw the kunai said.

"Now if you are ready, we will proceed to the first part of the exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return, you will each be given a number," Ibiki continued, holding up a card with the number 1 on it. "This number will determine where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you all are seated."

Rin and Jiro covered their ears when Naruto suddenly shouted, "NOT A WRITTEN TEST! NO WAY! !"


Rin and Jiro sat down in their seats. Rin was sitting next to Tenten while Jiro sat next to Sasuke.

'Let's get this done and over with so we can have some fun!' Rin thought.

Everyone, eyes front!" Ibiki ordered. "There are a few rules you need to be aware of. And I won't answer any questions, so you'd better pay attention the first time around!"

"No questions? Isn't that a bit harsh?" Rin whispered to Tenten.

"Yeah, you're telling me!" Tenten replied. Ibiki was writing the rules on the chalkboard behind him while continuing to talk.

"Alright! Rule number one: The written exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you might be used to, you all will begin the test with a perfect score of 10 points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven."

'So miss all ten, and you get a zero,' Jiro thought.

"Rule number two," Ibiki continued, "teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members." Rin heard a bang and saw that Sakura had slammed her forehead onto the desk. When she raised her head, a giant red mark was on it.

"What? ! Wait a second! You're saying we all get scored. . . as a TEAM? !" Sakura shouted.

"Silence!" Ibiki ordered. "I have my reasons, so shut up and listen! Rule number three: The sentinals you see positioned around the room are there to watch for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score."

"WHAT? !" Rin shouted.

"Shut up and listen already!" A sentinal snapped at her.

"Be warned," Ibiki said. "Their eyes are extremelly sharp. And if they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught cheating by the sentinals doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be. One more thing. If any candidate should get a zero, they'll fail the test! Then the entire team fails!" Everyone's eyes widened.

"WHAT DID HE SAY? ! ? !" Sakura shouted at the top of her lungs.

"Damn! I hope Jiro is just as good at written exams as he is at fighting," Rin murmured.

"The final question won't be given out until fiftenn minutes before the end of the testing period," Ibiki said. "You'll have one hour total! Begin!"

Everyone instantly began to do the tests. Rin looked over hers.

'Okay! Question number one," she thought. 'Okaaayy, question number two.'

'Wow! Their really pulling out all the stops on this test!' Jiro thought as he got done reading over question six.

'Each one is harder then the last one!' Rin realized. 'No way anyone could answer a question correctly in the amount of time given to us! Are they purposly TRYING to get us to cheat? !' Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Tenten move her fingers, light glinting off of sting leading up to the ceiling. Rin looked to where mirrors caught her attention. She saw Lee tie his forehead protector around his head. A little further away, Ino made a hand sign and slumped onto her desk. In front of her, Sakura suddenly picked up her paper and looked over it. A bee flew over to Shino and flew in a figure eight and Shino wrote it down on his paper. Gaara crushed a ball of sand in his hand. A guy rubbed his eyes as the sand got in them and the rest of the sand formed into an eye.

'Is everyone cheating?' Rin wondered. Then she remembered what Ibiki said: "If you want to be considered Shinobi, then show us what exceptional Shinobi you can be." his voice echoed in her head. Of course! To do the test, we had to cheat, just without doing it so the sentinals catch us!

Jiro realized the same exact thing and smiled. His shadow streched to the desk behind him and went up it. The person didn't notice as Minotaur memorized the answers written on the paper. Minotaur returned and whispered the answers to Jiro, who wrote them down on his paper. Rin and Worgen were doing the exact same thing. Rin almost laughed at how the proctors didn't notice a wolf-shaped shadow moving around the room. But then again, they probably never saw a Shadow before.

When there were only fifteen minutes left, Ibiki looked up and announced it was time to move on to the next question. "But before I give it to you, there are some more rules you need to be aware of."

'More rules? Come ON!' Rin thought.

"These rules are unique to question ten, so listen carefully," Ibiki continued. "And try not to let them frighten you."

"What does he mean by that?" Jiro murmured.

"Shut up so you can hear them," Sasuke grumbled.

"Talk to me like that one more time and I'll kill you," Jiro growled back.

"I'd like to see you try," Sasuke retorted.

"Rule number one," Ibiki said. "Each of you is free to choose not to be given the final question. It's your decision."

"Woah! So what's the catch? !" Temari shouted. "Say we don't want to do it? ! What happens then? !"

"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the previous nine, you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail," Ibiki replied. After murmurs from the other ninja about why in the world someone would refuse to take the tenth question, Ibiki continued. "Not so fast. You didn't let me finish."

'What more is there? !" Rin thought.

"If you do accept the question, but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail, YOU WILL BE BARRED FROM EVER TAKING THE CHUNIN EXAM EVER AGAIN! ! !" Ibiki shouted the last words.

"NO WAY! !" Rin shouted.

"Hey! That's bull, man!" Kiba shouted. "It's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? ! There are lots of people here who have taken the test before!" Akamaru barked in agreement. Ibiki began to laugh.

"What's so funny? !" Jiro demanded.

"I guess you're just. . . unlucky," Ibiki replied. "I wasn't making the rules before. But I am now. Of course, if you don't want to take it, you don't have to. If you aren't feeling confident about it, then by all means skip it. You can try again next year. Now then, if you're ready, the tenth and final questin! Anyone who doesn't want to take it, raise your hand. Your number will be recorded, then you'll be free to go."

Several ninja raised their hand to leave and the number of people in the room quickly went down. Rin saw Naruto raise his hand, then slam it down.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run away!" Naruto shouted. "You guys can act tough, but your not gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life, I'll still be Hokage someday!"

"Holly crap!" Rin muttered.

"Doesn't know when to quit, does he?" Jiro murmured. "Kinda reminds me of Shu. I like it."

"This decision is one that could change your life!" Ibiki pointed out. "If for any reason you would like to quit, now's your last chance."

"No way, I never go back on my word," Naruto replied. "That's the way of the ninja."

The remaining people began to grow confidence and became more sure of themselves. No more hands went up.

'Hmm, remarkable,' Ibiki thought. 'That little outburst has given the others some backbone. He's inspired the others into staying. 80 left, more than I expected. But I don't see anyone wavering. I think that's it.'

"Well then, I admire your determinating, if nothing else," Ibiki announced. "The rest of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do, and that's for me to tell you. . . that you've all passed the first exam!" The room got so quite that the only noise heard was a pencil dropping.

"Woah, hold on!" Sakura exclaimed, getting up. "What just happened? ! What do you mean 'we passed'? Where's the tenth question? !" Ibiki laughed.

"There never was one!" he replied happily. "Not a written one, anyway! Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question!"

"Wait a second!" Temari exclaimed. "So the other nine you gave us was just a waste of time? ! Is that what you're saying? !"

"Oh no, not at all!" Ibiki replied. "Quite the opposite! The first nine questions had an important overwriting purpose: to test your ability to surticiously gather intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well that clears up everything," Temari said sarcastically.

"Let me explain," Ibiki said. "You see, my objective was not only to test you as individuals, but as a team. And how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis. You'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your teamates. I wanted to see how you would handle the pressure."

"Yeah, I figured it was something like that. That was why I kept my cool," Naruto said.

'Oh brother,' Rin thought. 'And this is from the guy who just made the large production.'

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realized, too difficult for any Genin to be expected to solve. I expect that many of you quickly came to that conclusion," Ibiki continued. "That you'd have to cheat in order to have any chance of passing. In fact, the test was designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it. Of course, it would have done little good unless you had someone to cheat from. So I disguised two Chunin who already knew the answers and had them sit in with you." Two people raised their hands to show that they were the two Ibiki was talking about.

"I knew it!" Rin murmured. Naruto freaked out for a moment then sat back down. People were murmuring behind his back about him.

"What's this kid's problem?" the ninja next to Jiro murmured.

"Man, I don't know," Jiro replied.

"Haha! Oh come on! I wasn't fooled for a second! You'd have to be a completet doofus to fall for that!" Naruto said.

'And that's exactly what you are,' Rin thought, sweatdropping.

"Those who were caught at it failed. Better not to cheat then to cheat clumsily," Ibiki said, taking off his forehead protector, which had covered the top of his head. Rin and Jiro stared wide-eyed like the others around him when they saw his head. "Imformation. It can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine wheter a mission's a failure or a success. There'll be times when you'll have to put your life on the line to get it."

"Man, what a mess," Jiro heard Sasuke say. "Scars and puncture wounds and burn marks. What he must have endured."

'I think I'm gonna be sick!' Rin thought, putting a hand over her mouth in horror.

"Damn! I've never seen anyone THAT messed up!" Jiro murmured. Ibiki put the forehead protector back on as he continued to talk.

"Of course, you must also consider the source of your information. Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily accurate. Always bear this in mind: Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comerades or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the posistion where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat in order to survive. And that's why those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out from the rest of you."

"Okaayy," Temari said. "But I'm still not getting what the tenth question was all about."

"You're not?" Ibiki asked, sounding a bit surprised. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. Surely you see that?"

"Sure, but explain it anyway," Sakura said.

"That's right," Rin added. "If the point of the exam was to test our spying skills, then what was the point of asking us whether we wanted to stay or leave? What's the point there?"

"As I said before, the goal was not only to test you as individuals, but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices," Ibiki replied, holding up two fingers. "Both difficult. You could choose to play it safe and skip the question, though it meant both you and your teamates would be failed, or you could try and answer it knowing if you got it wrong, you would lose your chance of ever being Chunin. It was a no-win situation. This is just the sort of think Chunin have to face almost every single day. For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission: To steal a secret document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has, or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you, and you might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Now do you have the option of taking a pass on this insane mission, of saying 'my comrades and I would rather live to fight another day'? Can you choose to avoid danger? NO! There will be many missions that would seem almost suicidal if you think about it, but we do not think about it. You think only of the goal; acheiving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin squad. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those who falter in the face of adversity, those who would put their comrades lives in jeopardy by worrying about their own, those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honor, will never be able to call themselves Chunin! At least as long as I am here! As for the rest of you, you have successfully passed the ten questions I've set for you! You have earned the right to continue onto the next step! You have passed through the first gate! I hereby declare this part of the Chunin exam completed! There's nothing left, but to wish you all good luck."

"All right!" Naruto shouted. "We did it! That's one down!"

'Jiro and I have this in the bag,' Rin thought. 'No need to worry from this point on.'

'He's a funny one, that kid,' Ibiki thought. He snapped his head around at the window just as a black bundle burst through it. Two kunai shot out of it, sticking into the ceiling and unraveling a banner with a woman in front.

"This is. . . part of the test? !" Naruto stammered, a bit startled and freaked out.

'Ugh, jumped the garn as usual,' Ibiki thought.

"Heads up, boys and girls! This is not the time to be celebrating!" the woman announced. "I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mirashi! Ready for the second test? GOOD! ! LET'S GO FOLLOW ME! !"

"Man she's annoying!" Jiro said. Everyone in the room just stared at Anko, a bit freaked out. Ibiki peeked around from behind the banner.

"You're early. . .again," he said. Anko blushed and scowled, going white-eyed.

'Great! Screaming nutcase! Reminds me of Naruto,' Sakura thought.

"How many ARE there?" Anko asked, turning to Ibiki. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was too easy! You must be getting soft!"

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year," Ibiki replied.

"Hmm, they sure don't look it," Anko said smugly. "Trust me, when I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated." Rin's eyes widened. More than half? !

"Huh? More than half, really?" Sakura said frightened.

"This is gonna be fun," Anko said. "Alright, you maggots have had an easy time, but things are gonna be different first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders tell you where you're supposed to meet me. Dismissed."


"Woah, what IS this place? !" Rin exclaimed the next morning. She, Jiro, and the other ninja that passed were gathered in front of a gate enclosing a giant forest.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam," Anko replied. "It's the 44th battle training zone. But we call it the Forest of Death.