A/N: We all love written tests, don't we? Kidding, kidding. Such things are some of the most universally hated activities ever conceived.
Time for chapter 18
Enjoy!
Naruto stretched and sat himself down behind a desk as the rest of the genin entered the testing hall. It was seven twenty-eight, and the test was about to begin. As the children all took their seats, all of them taking chairs a fair distance from their teammates as per the rules. Naruto was seated next to a ninja from Kusagakure while Hinata was seated next to a boy wearing a green jumpsuit. Shikamaru was seated on the other side of the room next to a girl from Suna who appeared to speaking to him sternly.
After exactly two minutes of waiting, a large man entered the room packed with genin. The moment he had situated himself at the front of the room, every ninja in the room became silent. The man's presence was intimidating in and of itself, but his appearance was no help. He was tall, broad, and his face was scarred.
"Good, most of you showed up. Now we can get started. My name is Ibiki Morino, and I will be your proctor for this phase of the exam. You will be given exactly ninety minutes to complete a comprehensive, nine question test. Cheating of any kind will be punished with disqualification should you be caught. With all of that out of the way, we're going to get started right away. We don't have all day" he said. Many of the children in the room audibly swallowed nervously.
'What did you guys expect? This was never going to be as simple as just looking at the person next to you's paper. That little speech was an invitation. Let's see how many of you take it' Naruto thought to himself with a chuckle. Ibiki then passed out the test questions. As the papers circulated the room, the once-confident faces of the genin fell. The proctor smirked to himself as he observed their reactions. It appeared that he had expected such a reaction from the new crop of ninja.
"Now then, you all have your testing materials, so you may begin. The timer starts now" Ibiki announced to the room. Pencils then began to hit paper at a rapid pace. Interestingly, and somewhat predictably, the sound of pencil-on-paper became much fainter after roughly thirty seconds. Within the first minute of ninety, the majority of the genin were already perplexed by the set of questions in front of them. Naruto looked over each individual question and sighed.
'Yup. Just like I thought. I have no idea what any of this means. Guess I was right, Hinata' he thought to himself as he glanced to his teammates. What he saw put a smile on his face. The Hyuga heiress was wearing a knowing smirk as she steadily wrote down answer after answer. Her Byakugan were active and her eyes were glued to her own paper.
'Clever girl. Looks like you found a reliable source. I'm almost proud of you' Naruto thought to himself. He then turned his attention back to his own paper.
'I've gotta find my own way around this. I don't have any special powers to cheat with, so I've got to be creative' he thought to himself. Just as the thought crossed his mind, a genin was called by Ibiki.
"Ryo Takahata, pack your things and leave. Take your team with you" the proctor called from the front of the room. The genin sitting next to Naruto shot up out of his seat, a look of shock and terror on his face.
"What?!" he exclaimed. Before he could continue to speak, Ibiki shot him a hard glare that left no room for further debate. The boy lowered his eyes to the floor and lead two other angry genin out of the room. Over the next several minutes, four more teams were eliminated due to various forms of cheating.
'This is just brutal. Anybody without some weird ability is going to get caught right away. This sucks' Naruto thought in frustration. As he sulked, his body was seized by and invisible force.
'What the hell?' the blonde thought frantically. His eyes darted around the room until he spotted Shikamaru, who gave him a subtle nod. As the shadow user nodded, Naruto did as well, allowing him to view the floor momentarily. Shikamaru had connected their shadows together.
'Thanks, Shikamaru' Naruto thought gratefully as his hand began to move across his paper. After two minutes, his test was completed. Naruto's body was then released from the jutsu, allowing him to better observe his answers.
'They all look reasonable. Probably not one-hundred percent correct, but better than I could have come up with' he thought to himself, relief washing over him. He then put his pencil down and waited. Unfortunately for the blonde, Shikamaru's tactics had not only solved his answer problem, but it had also left him with far more free time than was ideal. Only twenty minutes had passed, meaning that seventy still remained. Naruto sighed and scratched the side of his face as he looked around the room.
'Shikamaru is finished, and it looks like Hinata is too. Our team should pass this no problem. As for everybody else…' he thought. He observed the rest of the room for a moment before chuckling to himself.
'...they're drowning in their own stress. Great. Well, except for the redhead, the guy with the makeup, and the chick sitting next to Shikamaru' he thought to himself humorously. Slowly but surely, the seventy minutes passed, with only one more team being eliminated during the long stretch.
"Pencils down and mouths shut. Your written exam is nearly complete" Ibiki called as the buzzer on the timer went off. After silencing the obnoxious ringing sound, the proctor stood up from the chair he had been sitting in and looked around the room.
"As many of you may have likely noticed, nine questions is an unusual number for such a major assessment. To the relief of many of you detail-oriented brats, there is, in fact, a tenth question. Would you like to hear it?" he asked. A murmur rippled through the remaining genin.
"Choose your answers carefully. Should you answer this question incorrectly, you will not only be disqualified immediately without the rest of your test being graded, but you will also be banned from the Chunin Exams indefinitely. No retakes. Either you take the chance this year, or you cut your losses and study up for next year. Take your pick" Ibiki cut in through the muttering. There was a minute of silence following his words.
Eventually, a boy stood up and walked out of the testing room, signifying his desire to 'cut his losses', as Ibiki had put it. Several other participants soon followed him. After another three minutes of tense silence, Ibiki nodded in approval and turned his attention back to the remaining ninja.
"Congratulations. You have all passed the first phase of the Chunin Exam. You may celebrate if you wish" he said jovially. Naruto did a double take and raised his hand.
"Wait, you haven't even asked us the tenth question yet. How have we been passed?" he asked skeptically. The other genin nodded in agreement and looked to the proctor for an explanation. Ibiki's grin widened.
"I did ask the question. The question was whether or not you wanted to take the chance of answering it. You gave me your answers loud and clear when you stayed in your seats. Being a Chunin is less about knowledge than mentality. You were all willing to risk your future to advance your immediate goals. An admirable trait, and exactly what we're looking for in a promotion-worthy genin" he explained. The group all nodded in understanding and took the proctor's previous suggestion, celebrating amongst themselves.
Naruto stood up from his seat and made his way to Shikamaru. He slapped hands with the lazy genin and grinned.
"Thanks for the help back there. I'd have been fried without it" he said gratefully. Shikamaru snorted and shook his head.
"No need to thank me. You wouldn't have needed those answers in the long run from the looks of it, and most of what I gave you was bullshit I made up anyways" he said. The Jinchuuriki raised an eyebrow.
"Did you know this would happen?" he asked curiously. The shadow user shrugged and yawned as he finally stood up from his desk.
"I had a hunch. My hunches tend to be right, so I decided to take it to the bank. Worked out pretty well for us this time" he said tiredly. The boys were then joined by Hinata, who looked quite pleased.
"Excellent work, you two. I was wondering how you would cheat. I had an easy solution, of course, so I had myself covered. I hadn't thought of your shadow possession being potentially useful, Nara-san" she complimented. Naruto grinned.
"You figured out the point of this whole thing real quick. Nice job, Hinata" he replied. The Hyuga girl smiled happily at the compliment and allowed her Dojutsu to manifest.
"These do come in handy every once in awhile. Multipurpose would be an understatement" she replied. Shikamaru immediately burst out laughing, earning a look of confusion from both Naruto and Hinata.
"Oh, don't mind me. Just remembering something I saw" he said. The genin continued to converse for several more minutes before a woman came crashing into the room. She had purple hair, and was generally quite wild-looking. As she climbed back to her feet after crashing into the opposite wall and falling over, Ibiki scratched the back of his head and sighed.
"You're late, Anko" he said tiredly. The woman, apparently named Anko, grinned and slapped him on the back.
"There's a lot of kids in here. You're getting soft, baldy" she goaded before turning to the group of genin. The proctor sighed once more.
"Save your insults for later. Just give your speech already" he said. Anko shrugged and began her speech.
"I'm not all that eloquent, but I'll get my point across to you little gremlins. You are to report to the Forest of Death at seven o'clock sharp tomorrow morning. Not before, not after. Sharp. Just a warning: some of you are going to see your first dead body in less than twenty-four hours" she said before vanishing in a puff of smoke.
"That was...unceremonious" Hinata said after several moments of silence. Naruto nodded in agreement.
"Well, at least she warned us before she really started talking" he said. The genin then began to drain out of the testing hall, eventually leaving only Team Seven.
"We should probably get going" Naruto said. His teammates nodded and followed him out of the room.
They had survived the first phase of the Exam, but greater, more intimidating challenges awaited them.
Shikamaru sighed tiredly as he stepped out of Ichiraku's stand. It was fairly late, and he was exhausted. His teammates were still eating their food, and they didn't appear to be close to done.
'Who knew Hinata had a comparable appetite to that slob. The more you know, I guess' he thought to himself as he leapt up onto the roof of a building to cut down on the time he would be forced to travel to reach his home. He then began to bound across the roofs one at a time. After several minutes, he stopped crossing buildings.
"Come on out. God, you suck at stalking" he called out. After a moment of silence, a figure stepped out from behind a freight box on the roof.
"Compared to who, exactly?" Temari, who had been quietly trailing the shadow user, asked skeptically. Shikamaru gestured back towards Ichiraku's.
"One of my teammates. She has an odd habit of following our teammate around at night. It's honestly pretty creepy" he explained. The sand kunoichi raised an eyebrow and stepped forward into the moonlight.
"You're an odd bunch. Blondie is strong as hell, the girl is apparently a stalker, and then there's you, a suicidal moron" she said. The shadow user snorted.
"Moron, huh? What's that make you then? You wouldn't have written anything down on the test if I hadn't helped you" he pointed out. Temari prickled slightly.
"I never asked for your help. I would have figured something out. I always do. Besides, you answers were stupid" she retorted. Shikamaru chuckled and gave her a smug grin.
"The answers didn't need to be any good. They didn't matter in the end. You just had to look like you were trying, which you didn't. Anybody with half a brain could have figured out what was really going on. Hell, Naruto figured it out, and he isn't the most cognitive person in the world" he said. The fan wielder furrowed her eyebrows.
"If you knew what was going to happen, why did you help me? You could have knocked my team out of the exams by leaving me to squirm and get desperate to cheat. What's in this for you?" she asked skeptically. Shikamaru shrugged.
"I'm a nice guy. I just adore helping people" he said with a sarcastic grin. Temari shook her head and produced a kunai, which she began filing her nails with.
"Somehow, I doubt that. Back on topic, you do realize just how badly you screwed up this morning, right?" she asked. The lazy genin thought back to the period before the testing had begun.
"All I did was stare him down a little. What's the problem? Can he not handle confrontation?" he asked. Temari sighed and put away her kunai.
"Not traditionally, no. He tends to...break things he doesn't like. People included. You just put yourself on his hit list, and you have no way to stop him if he decides to mash you up" she said. Shikamaru yawned.
"An angster, huh? Guess his hormones are out of control. I'm honestly more curious about why you're telling me all of this than your brother's temper tantrums" he said. The sand kunoichi mentally applauded the shadow user's sharp tongue, but kept her mouth shut while she gathered her thoughts.
"I'm telling you because I'd rather see you survive. Don't get the wrong idea, I could care less about whether you live or die during this Exam, but when Gaara wants somebody dead, he ignores situational rules. If he kills you outside of the combat-phase, I get in trouble by extension" she explained. The lazy genin nodded and hopped across an alley to the next building over.
"Thanks for the heads-up. I'll keep that in mind on my walks home. 'Night, whoever you are" he called as he bounded away. Temari sighed and shook her head as his form grew smaller and smaller in the distance.
'Poor schmuck has no idea what's coming'
A/N: Next up is the forest arc, which I have some real fun scenes planned and pre-written for. Hope you all enjoyed this!
See you next chapter! Read and Review!