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Team Saki-Shika-Cho

Chapter Eleven

Sakura waits in the line to take her turn to exchange her application to number, Shikamaru is standing behind her, "Troublesome… I don't want to do this." he complains and Sakura roll her eyes. "You had to. Beside, this stuff is probably too easy for you anyways… after all you are a genius." Sakura said.

Shikamaru tched, "It's too much work." he really doesn't want to do such a pain in the ass of written test. Isn't tests in Ninja Academy not enough? Apparently not. When Sakura got her turn, she exchanged her numbers and saw her numbers is 34.

Sakura searches for her match numbers and when she found it, she sits there and wait until everyone sits their seat with their matching numbers. After that, Sakura realize that Choji and Shikamaru are far from her seats. Shikamaru is two seats behind far right on the end and Choji is far to the left three seats behind her. 'Hmm…' Sakura looks around more and she can see Naruto and Hinata clear few seats front of her.

Ibiki clear this throat and caught everyone attentions, "There are several important rules to this first test. I will take no questions, so listen well accordingly. First off the first rule, you are given ten points each from the start. The written test has ten problems in all. Each problem is one point. And, this test is a point deduction system. You are deducted one point for each problem you get wrong. If you get three wrong, you'll have seven points! The second rule, pass or failure will be determined by the total points of the three-person teams."

Sakura raise her eyebrows at the rules, 'No asking questions? Hmm…'

Ino frowns when she heard the rules, "W-wait a minute! What do you mean total points of the teams?" Ino asked in confuse.

Ibiki glares, "Shut up! There's a perfectly good reason for this! Shut up and listen!" he looks around calmly, "If you've got it, here is the most important next rule. Those who are deemed by the sentinels as having committed an act of cheating or something similar to that, will have two points deducted."

"Nani?"

"Oh!"

"In other words, there may be those who will be dismissed during this test without waiting for the test grading. Know that those who commit awkward cheating will bring ruin upon yourselves." Ibiki explained.

One of the Jounin/Chunin man who sits on the chair against the wall with others smirk at the test-takers, "I'll check you anytime." he is excited to caught anyone who cheat or not.

Ibiki continue, "If you aspire to become a Chunin at all, know that Shinobi should act like exemplary Shinobi. And, in the case of even one person of the team getting zero points. Everyone on that team will fail!"

Sasuke eyes wide in disbelief, "Wha?!"

Ino's head hit the desk and look up as she stares at Ibiki in shock, "What did he say?!"

Sakura pities Naruto, knowing that Sasuke and Ino are sending him their killer glares.

"By the way, the last problem will be given forty-five minutes after the start of the test! The time for the test is one hour. Begin!"

Sakura turns over the written paper exam and her eyes narrows in suspicion when she read the questions, 'First problem is a code text. Next question… the parabola 'B' in the diagram illustrates the greatest possible distance. Enemy Ninja 'A' can throw his shuriken from a tree seven meters high. Predict and answer the Enemy Ninja's character inferred from the ellipse this shuriken forms, also answer the longest firing range in battle on flat ground and explain your basis.'

Sakura frowns while furrowed her eyebrows, her emeralds eyes glances at the watchers with their clipboard and pen in hands in curious, 'This is an integrated problem based on predictions of uncertain conditions and dynamic energy analysis application.' Her emeralds caught the Chunin man who has a loose white bandage wrap around on his face and darkish blue spiky hair with beard on his chin.

His intense eyes stare straight at her eyes and his change his eyes into darken at her. 'Hmm…I got to admit… his eyes are almost like Ibiki' she notices that his eyes change into sudden slight interest that she didn't flinch by his dark frightening eyes. Her emeralds eyes understood and she shift her eyes on the written test, 'This isn't actually examination test, the real aim is that a test to see the ability for intensive information collection with the full use of deception and concealment techniques. Basically, act like Shinobi then you won't get caught cheating.' Sakura picks up her pencil. She doesn't need to cheat though, and she is confident that she can answer these nine questions on her own.

~Meanwhile~

Asuma, Kurenai, and Kakashi are sitting around waiting in the waiting room. Asuma leans back comfortably as he crosses his arms while smoking his cigarette. Kurenai sits next to her but enough space between them as she stares at the ground. And Kakashi sits across them with his book in hands as he reads them.

"Man… it's weird that our students are not here with us." Asuma thought out loud, he's so used to with his students around almost every day and now it's odd. Kakashi looks up, "Hai, but it's very important for them to learn that they can't always have their sensei with them." Kakashi said.

Kurenai nods her head, "I agreed. They need to learn that they can't always depends on us forever. This would be good lesson for them." Kurenai tilts her head, "I wonder who's the proctor in first exam?" she is curious.

Asuma grinned wide, "I heard Morino, Ibiki is the proctor in first exam." he heard from the Jounin's gossips. Kakashi raise his eyebrows, "Ah… then this first exam is easy."

Kurenai looks at Asuma in confuse, "Who's Morino, Ibiki?" she never heard of him before. Asuma takes out his cigarette and place on the ashtray next to him, "That's right, you're a new Jounin so you never heard of him. He's one of the excellent but terrifying man." Asuma looks up at the ceiling with big grin, "He's known as the Knonhagakure ANBU's Torture and Interrogation Unit Marshall, Morino, Ibiki."

~Chunin First Exam~

It's been almost thirty minutes and Sakura mentally sigh in relief as she set her pencil down next to her test. She finally got all the answers on the test. It's really tiring for her to think of so much researching in remembering any information in her brain. Sakura can finally relax a little, she glances around carefully and she could see quite a lot of ninjas are struggles to cheat but there are few that are skillfully that cheat without caught. Her emeralds eyes caught the same man again, his eyes are fill with interests and surprises and she broke the eye contact when she felt something on her wrist.

Sakura peek at her wrist and saw a shadow touching her wrist, 'Pineapple-kun? Why?' Sakura focus on her wrist when she notice that his Shadow Touch is moving slowly on her wrist almost as if he's writing something. 'Is he trying to say something….? This is… wait… I…N…O? Ino?' Sakura glances back and saw Ino preparing her Jutsu with her eyes sight on Sakura. 'I see. He must have seen her and attempt to warn me about her.'

Sakura smiles, she prepares to put her chakra in her mind to set up the barrier that Ino can't get in and she pats the Shadow Touch as in thank you.

~Shikamaru~

Shikamaru sigh as he stares at the test uninterested, he lazily answers the questions very slowly and sloppy. Then when something moves from the corner of his eyes, he pause and peek at certain ninja. He frowns when he spots that Ino is smirking while staring at someone. Shikamaru follows her eyes and saw Sakura who is in her best view. 'That Ino… she's going to use her Mind Transfer Jutsu on her.' Shikamaru closes his eyes to control his Shadow Touch to reach his pink-hair teammate.

When he feels his Shadow Touch reach Sakura's wrist, he attempts to use Japanese kanji while hope that she can get his message. After about four minutes, he feels his teammate pats his Shadow Touch very gently and he mentally smirk. 'She got the message.' He returns his Shadow Touch back to him. He doesn't know why but he really trusts her with his Shadow Touch.

He saw Ino has failed her Jutsu and she shot her hatefully glares at Sakura then quickly move on to someone else to put her target on. Shikamaru smirk and went back to the troublesome test.

~Ibiki~

Ibiki glances at the clock on the wall, 'It's almost time…' he looks at the test-takers, "All right! Here is the tenth question. But before that, I'm going to add some rules for the last question." Ibiki announce then the door slid open wide and Sakura saw a boy with interesting black ninja outfit with a hood cat ears and has purple warrior paints on his face.

The proctor smirk at the sand ninja, "Aren't you lucky? It looks like playing with the dolls wasn't a waste, after all? Anyway, sit down. Let me explain, these are the hopeless rules." Ibiki started to explain as the sand ninja walk to his seat while Sakura notice the fake Chunin, 'His face has little cracks… and his eyes are too unhuman. Is this a puppet?' She remembers that she read about the Puppeteer Jutsu, very rarely in Konoha but mostly Puppeteer Ninjas are from Sunagakure, 'Does this mean that guy is sand ninja? Along with Temari-san and this 'Gaara'?' Sakura wants to think about it more but she has to pay attention to Ibiki right now.

"First, you guys will have to choose whether or not you will take this tenth question." Ibiki said.

Temari hit her fist on the table in confuse and frustration, "Nani?! What happens if you choose not to take the tenth question?"

Ibiki's face is very seriously strict, "If you chose not to take the exam, then your score will be zero. In other words, you fail. And of course, the same goes for the two others in the same group!"

"Wh-what does that mean?!"

"Of course, everybody is going to choose to take the exam."

"This is ridiculous! As if we have a choice!"

"And one more rule…" Ibiki trails off dramatically.

Sakura frowns deepen while observing the proctor, 'Another one? What's up with all these rules? None of them is making any more sense. They ask us to cheat in Shinobi ways and now we have to choose..? There's got to be hidden answer in this thing…' Sakura closes her eyes; trying to figuring things out.

"If you chose to take it and are unable to answer it correctly, then you will have to relinquish your right of taking the Chunin Exam forever." Ibiki said and Sakura snap her eyes open understood the hidden purpose of the test. 'I get it! So that's it! There's no mistaken.' Sakura thought; because of his explanation, she is able to figured it out.

Kiba stood up in disbelief, "What kind of ridiculous rule is that?! Beside, there are plenty of people here who have taken Chunin Exam many times!" Kiba is furious.

Ibiki chuckle humorlessly, "You're just unlucky, I make the rule this year. But I did give you the option to go back. For those of you who aren't confident, you can choose not to take it and take the exam next year or the year after that. Then let's begin. The tenth question… Those who will not be taking is, raise your hands! Once I confirm your number, I'll ask you to leave!" Ibiki explained.

Sakura looks around the tense atmosphere until one ninja raise his hand, "I…I quit. I can't take it. I'm sorry."

"Me too."

"Number 50 failed."

"Me too."

"Number 130 failed."

"Me too."

"Number 111 failed."

Sakura shakes her head; she didn't expect anyone to figure it out the real test but there's nothing she could do anyways. Her eyes caught the attention of her friend, Naruto who is raise his hand and her eyes wide. 'N-naruto-kun?' her eyes shown sadness, she is really hoping to continue the Chunin Exam with her friends but guess the pressure is too much on him.

BAM!

Naruto's hand slammed on the desk while he glares at Ibiki with determination, "Don't underestimate me! I won't run! I'll take it! But even if I'm stuck being a Genin forever, I will become a Hokage no matter what it takes! I'm not scared!" Sakura eyes soften at his words, of course he won't quit easily.

"I'll ask again, it's a choice that will alter your life. If you want to quit, now is your chance!" Ibiki explained again and Naruto hmphed as he sits down with his arms cross. "I'm not going to take back my words! That is my way of Ninja!"

Sakura smiles wide as she notices how the tense room is suddenly change to relax and calm while few went back to their seats shown their confident. 'Naruto-kun, you are amazing. Stupid but really amazing.' she thought with admire of Naruto's special skills, his personality that can make people gives hope.

Ibiki smirk, "I like your determination! Then for those who are still here… The first exam." He pauses while observes the class then he grins, "You have passed it!"

Blink.

Blink.

Blink.

Sakura smirk and everyone stares at Ibiki in lost.

Naruto blink, "Huh?" he replied stupidly.

Ino stood up, "H-hey, what does that mean? All of a sudden you're telling us that we're passed!? What about the tenth question?" Ino is so lost and confuse.

Sakura turns around so she can look at Ino properly, "There wasn't such thing to begin with, Ino-pig." Sakura said.

"Huh?"

"What makes you think that?" Ibiki is curious about what she figured his test out. Sakura turn around back to Ibiki, "Well, we can look at the choice we just had to make as the tenth question." Sakura explained and Ibiki is impressed with her intelligent. 'She figured it out. Since when?' Ibiki thought.

"Nani?" Ino sits back down in confuse even more.

"Hey!" Temari frown in irritate, "If that is true, then what were all those nine questions for!? It was just a waste of time." Temari is not happy about it.

Ibiki shakes his head, "Not a waste… the objective of the nine questions were already accomplished. To test your individual ability to gather information."

"Ability to gather information?" Temari thought out loud in curious but still irritate.

"First, the focus of this test was on the system of determining the pass or failure based on the three-person groups that was proposed in the first rule. By grading the exam on a group basis, I added the unimaginable pressure of dragging down your teammates." Ibiki explains.

Naruto nod his head, "I see, I see, I kind of felt that point of this test." Ino shot her idiot teammate an annoyed glare while Sakura smiles in amuse aware that Naruto is lying.

Ibiki continues to explain, "However, the questions on these tests weren't things that you Genin Ninja would have been able to solve. So in that case, I imagined that most of you here would have come to this conclusion; 'In order to score points, I'll have to cheat.' In other words, this exam was created under the premise that you all would cheat. That being said, I had two Chunin in the group who knew all of the answers from whom you could cheat."

Sakura saw two Chunin waving while grinning that they did fool everyone, even her. 'Hmm… Guess I really need to focus my surrounding more.' Sakura thought.

"It was obvious! Hehe, right Hinata?" Naruto said with a big grin as he looks at Hinata who is blushing, unexpected that he talks to her. Sakura sweatdropped, 'He didn't realize it…' Sakura is starting to worried about him.

Ibiki fold his hands behind his back, "However, those who just foolishly cheated, naturally were disqualified. That's because, information, depending on the time and situation it will be more valuable than life." he reach his bandana and untie and slowly takes off, "And in mission or on battlefield, you will always have to risk your life to fight for it!" he shows his scars in confident.

Sakura eyes wide at the sight, 'Horrible burn marks, nail punctures, and scratches… these are the signs of physical torture.' she never thought she would witness the real scars from proctor.

Ibiki puts his bandana back on to cover his scars, "When information is gathered and the enemy or a third party finds out about it that information is no longer guaranteed to be correct. Just remember this, to be given the wrong information can bring a catastrophic blow to your friends and town. So that is why, out of necessity, we forced you guys to cheat in order to test your ability to collect information. And we filtered out those who were clearly lacking in those abilities."

"But the last question doesn't make any sense…" Temari asked Ibiki in confuse how the last question relate to this explanation.

Ibiki looks at Sakura, "You, girl…"

"Huh?" Sakura blink as she point at herself.

"You seems to figured it out about the tenth question. Why don't you tell us what you thought that you solved it." Ibiki is really curious about her answer. Sakura gulped in nervously that she could see every eyes on her waiting for her to reply.

Sakura clear her throat, "Oh…well…umm… this tenth question was the main issue of this first exam."

"Huh?"

"What does she mean by that?"

Ibiki smirks as he pushes his hands into his front pockets, "Care to explain."

"The tenth question was to take on the question, or not. Needless to say, it is a painful decision to make. Those who chose not to take on the question would be immediately failed along with their whole team. Those who chose to answer the question and got it wrong…. Would be robbed of their chance to take the Exam forever. Basically, it really is an unfair question." Sakura explained and Ibiki nods his head; agreed with everything that Sakura say so far.

'It's almost like she could read my mind about those explanation…almost exactly I would say those.' Ibiki thought as he could see all Chunins and Jounins are interested in her as well.

Ibiki smirk wide, "Then, how about these two choices?" Ibiki decided to take over to explain, "Let's say that we did become a Chunin. The idea how many Ninjas the enemy has their ability, and other armament they may have. On top of that, there maybe the pitfall of an enemy trap. Now this mission… will you take it? Or not to take it? Because you want your life spared… because your partners will be put in danger… can you get away from dangerous mission? The answer is…." he pauses dramatically as he could see the room is tense atmosphere, "No!"

Sakura frown as she listens carefully to his explaining, "There are going to be missions you cannot avoid no matter how risky or dangerous it may be! Showing your courage to your teammates in a tight spot, and the ability to get through the hardships… this is the quality that is needed in a Chunin troop leader! In a pinch, there are those who cannot risk their own fate, and those who waver and give up their chances because they think they will have another chance, I believe that such fools who don't have strong determination have no right to become a Chunin."

Ibiki observes the test-takers, "For those of you who chose to take on the question, you can say that you have successfully answered the difficult tenth question!" he grins, "You shall be able to take on the adversity that may lie in your way you passed through the gates. The first exam for the Chunin Exam has been completed. I wish you well." In the end, he congratulating them.

Every test-takers smiles/grins/smirk in excitement that they passed their first exam!

"All right! Wish us well! I did it! I did it! YEAH!" Naruto cheer happily and Sakura giggles at Naruto's full of liveliness.

Ibiki carefully glance over Naruto and Sakura, 'What a funny guy… and that girl… she has very excellent brain. Almost beyond Jounin-level….' he is curious about her IQ.

CRASH!

Sakura blink when she saw a woman came through the broken window and put up the giant banner, "Alright you guys! This isn't the time for celebrating! I'm the proctor for the second exam! Mitarashi, Anko! Let's move onto the next stage! Follow me!" Anko smirk widen as the test-takers are awfully quiet and stare at her with the only sound is the cricket chirpings.

Ibiki sigh, 'Geez, this one…' his face blank as he slowly peaks out the banner from behind, "Read the atmosphere." Ibiki deadpanned at her. Anko sweatdropped and blushes in embarrassing.

Sakura is amuse, 'She seem like amusing person…and loud.'

Shikamaru sigh out loud, 'This is such a drag, this woman is like that troublesome Naruto…' he really doesn't want to deal with another loud-mouth like Naruto and Ino…

"Seventy-eight!" Anko eyes is full of surprise after she counted the test-takers, "Ibiki, you let twenty-six teams slide by? I guess, the first exam this time around was too easy." Anko said with disappointed.

Ibiki twitches, "It seems like this time, there are a lot of excellent candidates." he defended himself. Anko raise her eyebrows, "Huh? Well, alright… I'll drop more than half of them in second exam!" Anko said with sadistic smirk.

Ino gulped in nervous, "M-more than half?!" she thinks that Anko is crazy.

"I'm getting excited! I'll give you the details tomorrow. We'll be changing locations, so get information from your Jounin about the location and the time! That's it! You're dismissed!" Anko ordered them and Sakura tilts her head, 'Wait… didn't she just say that we have to follow her and now she changed her mind?' Sakura shakes her head; it seems that the second proctor is little bit odd.

~Later that day~

Ibiki gathers the written test as he walks around on his own and then his eyes caught the blank written paper. He picks it up and smiles in amuse, 'Uzumaki, Naruto… what a funny guy.' Ibiki thought then he continues collecting the until he pause when he look at the correct answers on the written paper. 'Haruno, Sakura…. I don't think there's a Genin that would be able to answers all these on her own, right?'

"Ibiki-senpai…" Ibiki turn his head over his shoulder, "Ah… what are you doing here, Kotetsu?" Ibiki asked and Kotetsu bow politely.

"I know I should be somewhere else but there's something that caught my interest." Kotetsu said as he stare at Ibiki, "The girl, Haruno, Sakura didn't even flinch when I gave her frightening eyes. Plus, I was watching over her and noticed that she never for once attempt any move of cheat." Kotetsu explained. Ibiki is surprise to hear that, not only she has sense of being fearless but also has unique intelligent brain that she answers without cheat. 'Hmm… just who is this girl?' to think that Morino, Ibiki actually got interested about Haruno, Sakura. And that's rare.

~Sakura~

Sakura hums while walking down the path to her home until she stop when she saw a weapon shop. Her eyes are staring at the certain weapon across through the window. She has been interested in that certain weapon for a while but she couldn't afford it. It's too expensive for her. Plus, she has no skill to wield such a weapon like that. The weapon is the dagger that shape of a silver metal scythe and the end of the handle has chains attach that's about eight inches long to a red metal stick that's about four inches tall.

It's a very beautiful yet it screams of danger ready to have actions. Sakura really want to have that weapon but she can't have it all. Sakura smiles and went ahead to her home. 'I wonder what kind of second exam would be like? Hmm…' she thought unaware that someone is watching her from the shadow.

"Interesting…" the shadow smirks, 'It seems that this girl has hidden ability… shame… wonder if I could unleash her hidden ability to known through the world?' the shadow chuckles softly, she's indeed interesting girl.