CHAPTER 9: Chuunin
Intelligence. Information Gathering. That was what Sakura could get from the first phase of the Chuunin Exam. To be able to test both an individual's intelligence and capability to gather information in a controlled environment was really impressive.
Sharp emerald eyes strolled lazily along the sides of the room, not even blinking as she picked up the subtle flair of genjutsu around the room. 'Proctors to watch how we cheat,' she thought as she sighed in disappointment. 'This isn't the best place to try that…'
The pinkette blinked in boredom as she looked at her turned papers. None of the questions were hard to answer. Having read nearly every book she could get her hands on ever since she was a child, she was able to answer the nine questions with ease.
"Five minutes left!" In front of the room, Morino Ibiki stood with his intimidating aura seemingly suffocating the entire room.
'A scare tactic,' Sakura blinked, 'Not that it's going to work on us.' She was confident in her team's ability to breeze through the first phase. They were, after all, arguably the smartest of their batch this year. And despite being rookies, they were still entrusted to a few missions that involved in traveling around and engaging in conversations with incredibly intelligent people, such as the Mizukage.
The Godaime Mizukage was an intimidating woman. With eyes that seemed so sharp they could cut a finger off, and words that were practically dripping with false modesty she could probably choke to death. Compared to the woman, Morino Ibiki was all bark and no bite.
The pinkette slowly exhales as she watched Ibiki stop the other genin from answering, "Times up!" His voice rang out like an executioner's call.
X
'Troublesome idiot.' Shikamaru thought as he watched Naruto throw his inspiring speech. Nearly half of the participants that were leaving the room stopped as they were captivated by the blond genin's words.
"You can scare me all you want, but I'm not giving up on this exam!" Naruto clashed eyes with Ibiki. His mouth was set on a determined scowl and his eyebrows were pinched with determination.
The Nara sighed as the other genin went back to their seats, eyes no longer full of hesitation, but with determination and a new willpower. 'This just means that there's more competition in the next round.' He momentarily locked eyes with Shino, who was only a row in front of him.
Shino tilted his head a bit before he went back to look at Ibiki, Shikamaru doing the same shortly after.
"Is that your final answer, brat?" Ibiki asked Naruto, "In the real world, people who are all talk and no bite die." He gestured to his scarred head, "This isn't a game like the one you played as Academy students."
"I'm not one to back down from a challenge, 'ttebayo!"
The whole room was tense for a few moments before Ibiki smirked, "Well. Congrats." He looked at the rest of the participants, "You all pass."
The rest of the Genin were shocked, their minds running to process the jounin's words, "Pass?"
"Wait, that's it?"
"We did it?"
"Pass?"
"I don't really give a damn if you understood the first phase of the exam, that's your Jounin – sensei's responsibility. Your test paper will be graded, along with any violations found by my fellow proctors," Ibiki gestured to the grinning, very intimidating, set of proctors that were once invisible due to a genjutsu, "The final score will contribute to your individual grade. Ultimately, the grade will be one of the basis on whether you're ready to be a Chuunin or not."
'Yikes,' Shikamaru thought as he looked at his paper, 'Hopefully I managed to get most of them correctly.' He looked at his pink haired team mate, 'Pretty sure she's read all of these from the books she's read.' He smirked in amusement.
"Oh, shit," The Nara heard Naruto whine.
'And there goes idiot number one.' He rolled his eyes before listening to Ibiki once more.
"As for the second part of the exam, another proctor will be leading you." This caused the room to perk up, "They should be here in a few min –,"
The window to the right of the jounin was promptly smashed as a figure with purple hair and a tan trench coat appeared with a banner. WELCOME TO THE SECOND PHASE OF THE CHUUNIN EXAMS! It read.
"What's up? The name's Mitarashi Anko and I'll be your next proctor!" She grinned.
"Property damage again, Mitarashi?" Ibiki poked his head from behind her, "I'm taking that from your salary, crazy woman."
Anko ignored his statement as her eyes roamed the room. She clicked her tongue, "There's this many?" She chuckled, "By the time I'm done with you maggots, there'll only be a single digit number of participants!" She grinned.
'Enter Psycho number one,' Shikamaru grimaced.
X
"My insects are not comfortable with the vibe of this place," Shino spoke out as Team 10 read the waivers.
Sakura raised a brow, "Vibe? That's a peculiar word to use." She smiled, "Did Ino put you up with that?"
Shino shrugged as he briefly signed his name, "I am… trying to be more…relatable."
Shikamaru snorted in disbelief, "Don't let that blonde push you around, Shino. You're good as you are." He collected their waivers. "What did you guys think about the first exam?"
Sakura tilted her head before she shoved her hands to her pockets, "It was easy. But I guess not everyone's a paper ninja." She sat down on the ground, her emerald eyes sharp as she watched the other Genin teams.
The Aburame nodded, "My insects were helpful with the questions I had difficulty with."
"You're not scared that the proctors caught you?" Shikamaru asked as he settled down beside the pinkette with Shino following him afterwards.
The former shook his head, "It's my kekkai genkai. I am expected to use it to my advantage. Even if they had caught me, a mere point deduction is barely enough to hinder my final grade."
"And what did you do, Shikamaru?" Sakura asked in curiosity.
"As much as I hate to use our friends, I managed to catch on to Ino's shadow and was able to mimic her moves." He scratched his neck.
"I never knew that you could do that," Shino said with an impressed tone.
"It's not a perfect technique. My movements were sloppy, but I was able to make out a few phrases and filled them on my own."
"Like the Uchiha's Sharingan," Sakura pointed out with a head tilt.
Her statement caused Shikamaru to snort, "Like I said, it's not something I can do easily. It was just a last minute tweak because I hit a few stops with the questionnaire."
"But still impressive nonetheless." Shino nodded his head.
"Anyway, what's our plan, oh wise tactician?" Sakura asked, her emerald eyes breaming with excitement.
"Assuming everything goes to plan, we'll go with Plan D."
Shino blinked, "That's interesting. Let's do it."
Sakura laughed, "Plan D is more fun anyway."
Ibiki sighed as he picked up Uzumaki Naruto's blank test paper. "Did this guy even try?" He asked one of the proctors that were helping him.
"He tried to cheat but he was hesitant so he eventually backed down."
"What a sad kid." Ibiki continued on his way to collect the papers. A few rows down, he blinked as he picked up the paper. He lazily looked at the neatly written name before he asked, "And what about this one?"
"Her?" The man looked at his clipboard, "None, sir. She actually answered her paper and flipped it after. Is there something wrong, sir?" He asked, mindful of the interested glances that were now being sent to Ibiki.
From a corner of the room, Shiranui Genma smirked as he remembered who sat at the table Ibiki was still looking at. "Haruno Sakura, right?"
The head of T&I nodded, "You know her?"
Genma scoffed as he rolled the tip of his senbon before placing it in his mouth, "Know her? Nah. But do I know her? Yeah. She's one of those child prodigies like Uchiha Itachi and Hatake Kakashi."
"That's odd. I've never heard of her."
"Makes sense since you were consistently sent out by the Hokage." Genma shrugged, "Another thing is that she's from a civilian clan."
"Is she a first generation shinobi?"
"Nah. I'm pretty sure you met Haruno Takao." Genma remembered the former pink haired strategist.
Ibiki nodded in recognition, "He went down during the last Shinobi World War. He was trained by Shikaku, correct me if I'm wrong."
"You got it right. Anyway, that pinkette's one of the real deal. Hatake met her once and he said that he's actually interested in sparring with her someday."
Ibiki grinned, "Well, ain't that a statement." He looked back down to the neatly written paper. 'Looks like someone's broken Namikaze Minato's written exam score.' He thought.