Disclaimer: The only characters I own are Katoiya, Masahiko, Kenji, Miako, and Hanari. All others belong to our beloved Masashi Kishimoto.
The clock was ticking. Katoiya and her team were staring at the tests that they were given.
The questions were difficult. Katoiya looked to the first one, a cryptogram that she had to decipher. Great, she sucked at cryptograms and codes. Kenji was probably on the next question by now. He was always skilled in espionage. She would just move on to the next one then.
There was a diagram with this question. She read it. 'Line B in the diagram indicates the trajectory of a shuriken thrown at enemy C by ninja A seated atop a tree seven meters tall. Describe and formulate the trajectory required if C were positioned at points D, E, and F. Also predict the farthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer.' Okay, so that one was even harder than the cryptogram.
Then Katoiya had a thought that made her straighten up in her seat. She read down all of the questions and paled. Each of them got harder as she read down the sheet.
She took a cursory glance around and noticed that most of these kids looked entirely confused. This wasn't going to be good. She had to get something right or her whole team would fail.
But, she knew plenty of chunin that weren't geniuses. There had to be a trick to this. She thought over the rules. They made it so clear that no cheating was to be allowed, but the questions were so diffucult that cheating was almost necessary to pass. And then the fact that the punishment for cheating was so minor when in the academy cheating once was grounds for failure.
She thought back to what Ibiki had said. "Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobi trying to achieve the level of chunin, be proud ninja."
That was it! He didn't say those that were cheating would be dismissed. He said that those that got caught cheating would be! This wasn't a test of how smart they were, but how well they could gather information without being caught. She needed to pass the message on.
Acting like she was busy concentrating on her test, she started tapping her pencil and occasionally clicking her tongue. She sent out a message in morse code. 'Kenji, we're supposed to cheat! Wait twenty minutes for people to get answers and then create a distraction. I'll get the answers and get them to you and Miako somehow.'
"You, in seat fourteen!" one of the proctors said, making Katoiya jump. "Stop tapping your pencil and making noise! It distracts the other participants!"
"Yes, sorry," the girl said.
She heard a pencil drop from Kenji's direction; his signal that he had gotten the message.
As time went by it seemed more and more genin had figured it out. She noticed a few things that some of the others were doing and that probably ment that they were getting caught by the proctors.
Then, all of a sudden a kunai flew through the air to thunk into one of the tables and a kid's exam. The room went silent; even more so than it was before if that was possible.
He stood up. "W-what was that for?" he asked.
"Five strikes and you're out," the proctor who threw the kunai said. "You just failed the test."
"What?" the boy said. "It can't be!"
The proctor pointed at him. "You and your team mates will leave the room immedately," he said. The other two got up stoicly and walked past, glaring at their comrade. "Candidate number 23, fail. Numbers 27 and 43, fail," the proctor continued.
Seeing as the boy had yet to move, two other proctors took him by the arms and drug him out of the room, yelling and screaming. "It's not fair! I didn't do anything! I didn't do anything!" he yelled on his way out. The doors were shut as the boy and his team were dismissed.
More time passed, and with it went more and more candidates. Soon at least thirteen teams were gone. As more went the ones that were going to pass were coming out.
That Kankuro kid raised his hand to use the bathroom and was hadcuffed and led out. Katoiya chuckled to herself. If only the proctors knew that he was a puppet master. She had found it out the day her team got to the Leaf Village, and now the 'proctor' leading him away was probably a puppet himself. Clever...
There was only twenty minutes left, and twenty minutes had passed since Katoiya sent out her message. Kenji would be putting their plan into action any moment now...
That's about when a hissing made itself known throughout the room. Everyone stopped writing and sat up, looking around. Even the proctors were confused. Then steam started to become visible. A few seconds later one of the pipes burst. The room rapidly became congested with gaseous water and the temperature rose dramatically. Katoiya couldn't even see her exam anymore. This was it. Kids started yelling and some people even started coughing.
"Somebody locate that leak!" Ibiki yelled.
Proctors started running around, trying to find the pipe. She didn't know how he did it, but Kenji would have picked a pipe to mess with that would take a while to locate and would have ruptured it in a way that would not be found as sabatoge.
Katoiya silently got up and made her way around the room. She was keeping low not only to avoid detection, but to actually see the tests that the candidates themselves couldn't see. She had memorized where the Hyugas and the Uchiha were sitting and avoided those spots now due to their ocualr jutsu. They would see her coming a mile away.
When she found a test with all of the answers written down, she took a minute to turn it around and memorize the answers before putting it back in place. Then she made her way to Kenji's seat and grabbed his exam.
She dug into her weapons pouch and pulled out a vial of lemon juice with a small brush. She unscrewed the cap and started writing the answers down on her comrade's paper. When she was done with that she told him to keep it cool with one of his wind style jutsus and moved on to Miako. She did the same for him and then bent over the table to rest her face next to his.
"Offer to help them patch the leak when they find it. It could work to divert some suspicion," she whispered. Then she stealthily made her way back to her seat and sat down. She started copying answers.
"I found it!" one of the proctors yelled.
"Anybody got a patch?" another asked.
"I've got some extra bandages!" Miako yelled.
It sounded as if one of the proctors made their way over to him and helped him up. Then the two walked over to the leak.
"All right kid, do your stuff," the proctor said.
Some bandages were ripped and the hissing stopped.
"Somebody open a window for crying out loud!" Ibiki yelled.
A few windows were slid open and the steam started to dissipate. Katoiya had stopped writing and waited for the mist to clear. When the room was clear again she glanced at Miako's exam and noticed that it was now blank. Perfect! It had gotten cool enough for the lemon juice to dry, and now when they breathed on it the heat would make the answers show up. Then all they would have to do would be to copy the answer.
"I apologize for that," Ibiki said. "We'll need to talk with the maitenence workers around here. Get back to your tests; the time that passed will not have been counted."
Katoiya smirked to herself and continued writing down her answers. Out of the corner of her eye she saw Miako lean closer to his test. At least he got it. The boys and Katoiya got down to writing their answers and the next five minutes passed in silence. Then Ibiki spoke up.
"Alright! Listen up!" he said. "Here's the tenth and final question! But, before I give you the question there are some more rules that you need to be aware of."
Great, more rules. What was so special about this tenth question that it needed its own special set of rules?
The door opened then and Kankuro stepped in. "Ah, made it just in time," Ibiki said. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening. Well, take your seat."
Kankuro did as he was told and made his way up th isle before sitting down. Ibiki took a step forward before speaking again.
"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully, and try not to let them frighten you."
Katoiya gulped. Even if this guy was full of himself, there was something about him that was entirely serious. And that made him scary. Somewhere in the back of her head she absentmindedly wondered what her brother and her sensei would be doing in this situation. Then she wondered what they were doing now.
"Very well then, rule number one," Ibiki said, brining Katoiya back to the present. "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 said. "Let's say we don't wanna do it, what happens then?"
"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine you'll get a zero. In other words, you fail. And that means of course, both your team mates fail as well."
The entire room burst into murmers. Katoiya looked around the Stone ninja to Miako and then to Kenji. They both looked about as confused as she did. Well, if they failed by choosing not to take the question then of course they were going to take it!
"Not so fast," Ibiki said. "You didn't let me finish...If you do accept the question but answer it incorrectly you will not only fail, you will be barred from taking the Chunin Exam ever again!"
What? That was an awful choice! Either opt out of the question and fail your entire team, but be able to take it again the next time around, or take it but risk staying genin for the rest of their lives!
"Hey, that's bull man!" Kiba yelled out. "That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that? There's lots of people here who have taken the test before!"
Ibiki just chuckled. Then it turned to outright laughing. "I guess you're just unlucky...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're not feeling confident then by all means skip it. You can come back and try again next year." He chuckled again.
Well this was great. If any one person from the team decided not to take the question then they would all fail. And then if she were to give the wrong answer then she would never get to become a chunin!
But she couldn't do that to her team mates. Even if it terrified her, even if she remained a genin for life she would have to take the question for the sake of her friends.
It was a good thing that they couldn't hear her inner babbling or thy would try to talk her out of it. Well, Kenji would anyway; Miako could go that way, but he might also try to convince her to face her fears and take the question. Kenji would tell her that it was okay and that they could all take it the next time. Regardless, the boys would have a huge arguement and she would be guilt tripped into following one of them.
"Now then, if you're ready," Ibiki said, bringing Katoiya back from her thoughts, "the tenth and final question! Those who don't want to take it raise your hand. Your number will be recorded and then you're free to go."
Katoiya looked nervously around the stone ninja to Miako. He looked sternly back at her and shook his head. She nodded back, looking as determined as she could.
Then she turned back to find Kenji. There were a lot of very nervous and very determined genin in between. But Kenji just sat there meditating. She could tell because his eyes were gently closed, his hands were resing palm up on the table, and just because of the way he was breathing.
Then he slowly opened his eyes and stared blankly at her. She smiled softly at him. He already knew everything that had gone through her head and since he showed no emotion to her, it meant that he wasn't going to push her into a decision. He warmly smirked back before letting his eyes slide shut again. She turned back around and sighed to herself.
That's about when the first kid raised his hand. He and his team failed and he was apologizing to them every second. Then another raised his hand, and another, and another. They were dropping like flies! There was only a small fraction left in the room compared to those that had started!
And then, when it seemed that no one else was going to do it, Naruto's hand shakily rose into the air. Katoiya was shocked. He seemed so confident when she had first met him. It was actually kind of sad that he didn't think that he could do it. She stared down dejectedly at her table. Then she nearly jumped out of her seat when Naruto slammed his hand down on his table.
"Don't underestimate me!" he yelled at Ibiki. "I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want! You guys aren't gonna scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a genin for the rest of my life!" Everyone stared as he stood up and glared at the main proctor. "I'll stil be Hokage someday!"
Ibiki just stared at him. All he did was sit back down with his arms crossed defiantly across his chest.
It was strange, but Katoiya felt a surge of determination go through her. It was easy to see that it had affected the rest of the room as well. That Naruto Uzumaki was something else...He was a clutz and as dense as a person could be, but the kid had guts. And there was something about his one track mind and that never give up attitude that had her rooting for him.
She pushed her chair back and stood as well. "I'm with Naruto! I might not be ready for this question and hell if I'm not scared out of my mind that I'll never advance farther in rank than a genin, but I'm staying! Even if I lose a part of my future, you'll never take away my strength!" she said.
The rest of the room turned to look at her. Even Kenji had been utterly shocked out of his meditation. She might have been outgoing, but this was more than she had ever acted out before. She stood firm.
"This decision is one that could change your life," Ibiki said. "If for any reason you would rather quit now's your last chance."
"No way, I never go back on my word! That's the way of the ninja!" Naruto said.
Everyone in the room was staring at Ibiki, determined smirks on their faces. Katoiya's and Naruto's outbursts had inspired them. Ibiki looked around the room and nodded to the other proctors. Then he looked foreward again.
"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else," he said. "For those 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!"
Everyone was silent.
Sakura dropped her pencil and jumped up. "Hold on! What just happened? What do you mean we passed? Where's the tenth question?" she yelled.
Ibiki chuckled and smiled for the first time since he had arrived. "There never was one! Not a written one at least! Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question," he said.
"Huh?" Sakura asked.
"Wait a second!" Temari yelled. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a wast of time, is that what you're saying?"
"No, no, not at all," Ibiki explained. "Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose: to test your ability to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."
"Oh, well that clears up everything," Temari replied sarcastically.
"Let me explain," Ibiki said. "You see, my objective was to test you not only as individuals, but as a team. And on how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis. So you'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your team mates. I wanted to see how you would handle the pressure."
Naruto nodded his agreement. "Yeah, I figured it was something like that. That's why I kept my cool," he said.
"The first nine questions on the test were difficult," Ibiki continued. "In fact, as you may have realized too difficult for any genin to be expected to solve. I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion. That you'd have to cheat if you had any chance of passing. The fact is, the test was designed to encourage ceating. It almost demanded it. Of course it would have done you 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."
The two chunin waved as he said this. Naruto laughed and threw his hands behind his head. "Oh come on! I wasn't fooled for a second! You'd have to be a complete doufus not to see it!" he said. "Isn't that right Hinata?"
Ibiki continued his lecture. "Those who were caught at it failed," he said. "Better not to cheat, then to cheat clumsily."
As he spoke he removed his dewrag. It was so shocking! His head was riddled with scars and puncture wounds! What this man must have gone through for the sake of gathering knowledge. Katoiya stared at him, but he continued his lesson now as a part of it.
"Information; it can be the most valuable weapon in battle. How well you gather intelligence can determine whether a mission's a failure or success. There'll be times you'll have to risk your life to get it!"
"Man, what a mess!" Sasuke whispered. "Scars and puncture wounds, burn marks. What he must have endured."
"Of course you must always consider the source of your information," Ibiki said, putting the dewrag back on. "Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not necessarily acurate. Always bare this in mind. Disinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades or the loss of a village. That's why I put you in the position 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, leaving the rest of you."
"Okay," Temari said. "But I'm still not getting what the tenth quesion thing is all about."
"You're not?" Ibiki asked. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. Surely you see that."
"Uh, sure! But explain it anyway," Sakura said.
"As I said before," Ibiki said, "the goal was to test you not only as individuals, but as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices, both difficult. You could coose to play it safe and skip the question, knowing that both you and your team mates 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. But just the sort chunin have to face almost every day.
"For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission: to steal a 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. That 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 will seem almost suicidal if you think about it, but you do not think about it. You think only of the goal and of achieving it through courage and disipline.
"These are the qualities required of a chunin squad leader. Those who choose the safer of two paths, those whose determination falters 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'm here!
"As for the rest of you, you have successfully answered the ten questions I put to you. You have earned the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the Chunin Selection Exam completed! There's nothing left but to wish you all good luck."
"Alright!" Naruto yelled. "We did it! That's one down!"
"Yes!" Miako yelled, jumping up from his seat and grabbing Katoiya's hand. They pumped a dual fist in the air together. Kenji just laughed, though he was genuinely happy. They were all celebrating just as much as Naruto was.
Then something burst through the window, halting their celebrations. Katoiya immediately let go of Miako's hand and drew her sword. Kenji had his senbon out as well. Miako fell back in shock in an attempt to avoid the glass shrapnel. The bundle of fabric unfurled and a woman jumped out of it.
"Is this part of the test?" Naruto asked in shock.
"Heads up boys and girls!" the woman said. "This is no time to be celebrating! I'll be your next proctor: Anko Mitarashi. Ready for the second test? Good! Then let's go! Follow me!"
Katoiya slowly resheathed her sword and Kenji put away his senbon as everyone stared blankly at the new proctor. She was wearing a fishnet suit with the legs cut off at the mid thigh. She had an orange skirt, shin guards, and a light brown trench coat. She was also wearing some kind of necklace and her purple hair was pulled up in a mix between a messy ponytail and and bun, sending the short locks flying upward in every direction. And by the way she was talking and acting it was hard to tell if she was trying to be a drill sergent or a cheerleader.
Ibiki then stepped half way out from behind the sign she threw out. "You're early. Again," he said.
She looked a little embarrassed, but recovered quickly. "How many are there," she asked Ibiki. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? You're test was too easy! You must be getting soft!"
"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year," he said.
"Hm," Anko said, looking back at the small crowd. Well, it was about seventy people, but that was small compared to the original number!
"They sure don't look it," Anko finished. "Trust me, before I'm done with them more than half will be eliminated."
"Huh?" Sakura said nervously. "More than half? Really?"
"Heh, this is gonna be fun..." Anko said menacingly. "All right, you maggots have had it easy so far but, things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning! I'll let your squad leaders know where you're to meet me. Dismissed."
The teams all shuffled out. Katoiya was going to go see Naruto and talk to him about that ramen he had promised, but Miako grabbed her arm and pulled her away to join Kenji.
"I can't believe it! We passed!" he said.
"It's only the first exam Miako," Kenji said. "And I thought you were the one that said this was gonna be easy?"
"It was!" Miako retorted. "I got every question right and I didn't even have to think about staying for the tenth one!"
"Katoiya and I did all of the work! You just sat there and waited!" Kenji said.
"By the way Kenji," Katoiya said, trying to diffuse the situation before the playful remarks got Miako mad, "how exactly did you do that to the pipes?"
"It was pretty simple actually," he said. "There was this bug that kept flying around me so when I swatted at it, I sent out one of my miniature, chakra infused senbon from the springs hidden in my sleeves. It flew straight into the pipe I aimed at and the chakra pulled the steam out. They didn't even notice."
"Dude, you are a genius," Miako said.
"Well, I try," Kenji replied.
"Come on guys! Let's go tell Hanari sensei and Masahiko that we passed the first test!" Katoiya said, starting down the hall. The boys ran to catch up to her and the three ran out into the sun.