Naruto and his team walked towards the Ninja Academy of Konohagakure no Sato. The blonde genin was grinning widely, Haku had encouraged him to go to bed early and made him breakfast, so he felt like he could take on anyone.
Naruto was secretly glad Haku wasn't allowed to help him during the exam. He liked Haku, the older boy was a good friend, and had helped him learn a bunch of cool ninjutsu. The blonde tried not to think of how pretty the older boy was too, but it was just a part of Haku's appearance that was sort of impossible to ignore. Naruto insisted to himself that it had no bearing on their friendship.
Sakura was nervous, but she was hiding it well enough that Naruto didn't notice, and Sasuke didn't care. The pink haired girl frowned as she saw a commotion ahead, outside a door labelled 301, which was the room they were supposed to go, but this door was on the second floor.
A pair of older boys, who looked vaguely familiar, wearing Konoha symbols were smirking and blocking the door, one of them knocking down a boy in green spandex with orange legwarmers and a bowl cut.
"Just give it up, anyone too weak to get passed us should quit trying to be chunin." One of them said.
"You should be thanking us really," The other one spoke up, "we're just weeding out the weaklings who would die anyway." he added.
"You all know this is the second floor, right?" Sasuke asked, though he had to agree with them, anyone who couldn't see through that genjutsu probably would die on a C or B rank mission.
"A wise guy, eh?" One of the older shinobi blocking the door asked, stepping up to Sasuke, "Well we're still not letting you past!" he said, throwing a right straight punch. Sasuke lifted his leading left leg to counter kick underneath the punch, raising his arms to guard.
Neither attack landed, both were stopped by the boy in green spandex having caught the attacks with his hands. Sasuke swiftly realized what was going on, and noted that the bowl cut genin would be dangerous to go up against in taijutsu.
"Damn it, Lee, keeping a low profile was your idea." The strange genin was scolded by a girl in a pink shirt with her brown hair in twin buns, another genin with long hair and the signature eyes of the Hyuga flanked her, staring down at his apparent team mate with obvious annoyance.
"Sorry guys, I got excited for a moment." Lee said, staring at Team 7.
"Well the cats out of the bag now, let's go." The final member of Lee's team ordered, the Hyuga shaking his head at the actions of his team mate.
Team 7 left as well, going for the stairs when Lee approached and stopped them, "Please wait a moment," he said, "I have some things I would like to say." he added as he got their attention, "First of all, my name is Rock Lee, and would like to know your names." he explained.
"Naruto Uzumaki!" The blonde exclaimed proudly.
"Sakura Haruno." The girl said in a wary tone.
"Sasuke Uchiha." The dark haired boy said with a polite nod.
"Sakura Haruno, you are as beautiful as the blossom you are named after," Lee told Sakura sincerely, surprising the whole team at his forwardness, "if you go out with me, I will protect you forever!" he declared passionately.
"No! Ew!" Sakura rejected him, not even trying to spare his feelings.
"Second of all, Sasuke Uchiha, I would like you to fight me." The boys feelings were either fine or he was amazing at hiding his pain.
"This close to the exam?" Sakura asked, snapping out of her disgusted panic to become the voice of reason.
"I am the best genin of my year," Lee began to explain, "I wish to test myself against the upcoming rookie of the year, who is also said to be a genius." he finished, staring Sasuke down. Naruto frowned, now he wanted to fight the spandex wearing genin.
Sasuke just smirked, "Well, alright then. I kind of want to fight you too." he said, truthfully he just wanted to analyze the other boy with Sharingan and see if there were any jutsu worth taking.
Lee nodded with a grin and jumped down to an auditorium on the first floor from the stairs. Sasuke moved to follow, but Naruto jumped down first.
"To hell with that, fight me instead!" Naruto insisted, glaring at Lee and gesturing to himself with his thumb.
"I wish to test myself against the genius Uchiha, please do not take offense." Lee asked politely, waiting for Sasuke in his fighting stance. Naruto took offense and rushed for Lee.
The Jinchuriki genin opened with a right straight punch, Lee knocked the strike to the side with his left hand and ducked to spin and sweep Naruto's legs with his right leg. Naruto was too slow to dodge the leg sweep and yelled his surprise as he hit the ground, rolling to his feet on the other side of the spandex clad genin.
Naruto stayed crouched and jumped again, kicking out at Lee with his left leg. Lee bunted with his right and frowned at Naruto, so the blonde lifted his right leg to kick at Lee's face as he shifted his body weight to be held up by his arms.
Lee caught the kick by the ankle with his left hand and ducked, sweeping Naruto's hands with his right leg and pulling the blonde's caught leg as he did before throwing the other genin across the room by his leg.
Naruto rolled to his feet again, annoyed that he couldn't keep up. Sakura was watching with surprise, Naruto may be losing but Lee was far better than she'd expected.
Sasuke jumped down next to Naruto, "That's enough." he said, Sharingan already spinning, Lee had to wonder when it had been activated, "Naruto save your energy, you can try to figure out a way to beat him later, I want to see his taijutsu up close." the Uchiha said with a smirk.
Naruto frowned but nodded, stepping back for now and watching the fight with a surprisingly quiet intensity. Sakura correctly assumed that Naruto was being quiet because in a bad mood from not being able to hit the other genin with taijutsu.
Sasuke took his own fighting stance, "I warn you, the Sharingan can see through whatever ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu you use." he said with a tone of arrogance, proud of the dojutsu he inherited from his dead clan.
"That is fine," Rock Lee said, dashing at Sasuke with surprising speed, "I do not use ninjutsu or genjutsu." he explained before disappearing from Sasuke's line of sight. Sasuke hadn't seen any chakra being moulded, and no hand seals.
By the time Sasuke's brain registered what Lee's muscles had done a foot was slammed into his chin. Lee had ducked below Sasuke's peripheral and launched the boy with a upwards kick from his right leg. Lee swiftly shifted to face away from Sasuke and then leaped backwards and beneath the fellow Konoha genin.
Lee's bandages unraveled and moved to cover Sasuke when a pinwheel shot through the air and stopped whatever jutsu was about to take place by pinning the bandages to the wall nearby. Lee landed gracefully and moved to one knee, bowing to someone in the shadows. Sasuke hit the ground and rolled to his feet.
"What the hell was that, Lee!?" There was a talking tortoise, Team 7 was not ready for today.
"I'm so sorry!" Rock Lee was apologizing to the tortoise, "I thought that I must-"
"You must beg forgiveness is what you must do!" The tortoise was yelling at the poor boy, "You know that technique is forbidden, I am obligated to tell your sensei!" Team 7 had assumed the tortoise was the sensei, so now they were even more lost.
In a puff of smoke a larger, older version of Rock Lee with a jonin vest appeared, "Gai-sensei!" Lee helpfully gave the man's name.
"They're like caterpillars." Sakura said as she remembered one of Kakashi's 'lies' and stared in horror.
The jonin in green spandex stepped down from the tortoise and slugged Lee in the face, "You fool!" he shouted, then grabbed the young lad by his shoulder, "You should never use that jutsu against a fellow shinobi of Konohagakure no Sato!" he explained loudly, teary eyed at the teary eyed look Lee had.
Sasuke and Sakura both thought that probably wasn't actually the issue here, but then Sasuke considered that if a jonin was saying not to use it against ally ninja in sparring it was probably dangerous. Naruto was just lost, staring at the unfolding scene in silent shock.
"I'm sorry, Gai-sensei!" Lee cried and his sensei pulled him into a hug.
"It's okay, Lee!" Gai cried just as loudly.
Team 7 decided that was enough and went back up the stairs so they wouldn't be late. Sasuke silently wished he'd deactivated his Sharingan sooner. They were halted by Lee pulling away from his sensei and calling out.
"Wait a moment, Sasuke-san, I have a confession." Rock Lee said, Sasuke stopped and wondered what the boy could want now, "I am not the strongest genin of my age. My team member and rival, Neji Hyuga is a true genius." the green clad boy said before rushing back to his sensei. Sasuke didn't like what he heard, Naruto frowned too, and Sakura just seemed surprised.
"Hey! You all came!" Kakashi greeted them at the door, Haku standing next to the man, "That's great, if one of you had decided not to come I'd have to turn the others away." the jonin explained with a chuckle. Sakura was glad she'd decided to show up, she wanted to keep up with her team but the idea of them being held back by her made her uncomfortable.
"Good luck, Naruto-kun." Haku wished the boy luck with a kind smile and a polite bow, "Do your best." he added as he straightened out.
"You know I will!" Naruto exclaimed confidently, putting his hands behind his head and leaning back to show off how relaxed and at ease he was, it was an obvious act but he was clearly confident and Haku was pleased by that, "But didn't you wish me luck this morning already?" he asked, Haku blushed as he remembered that he had repeated himself.
"I brought Haku-chan along to see Naruto-kun off," Kakashi spoke up, "because you two probably won't see each other for a bit I offered to bring Haku-chan with me as soon as spectators are allowed." the jonin explained with surprisingly minimal teasing, the implication he thought the two couldn't stand to be apart was hanging in the air though. Haku knew it and was glaring at him.
"Thanks a lot, Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto however showed genuine gratitude and seemed oblivious to the implication. Sasuke shook his head as Naruto waved to a blushing Haku and a bemused Kakashi and ran into the room. He and Sakura moved to follow the blonde.
"Alright you punks," Naruto called out, Haku and Kakashi could hear him from outside the room and sighed in unison, "my name is Naruto Uzumaki, next Hokage! I'm winning this thing, y'know!" the excited blonde genin declared.
Haku looked at Kakashi, "I didn't teach him that." he said simply, deflecting blame away from himself immediately.
"No one taught him that." Kakashi said with a slow shake of his head.
Sasuke wondered if Naruto knew what a ninja was supposed to be, he acted like an overconfident samurai more than anything. Looking over the glaring faces of the other chunin hopefuls Sasuke tried to figure out if there was any tactical or deceptive quality to what Naruto had done, but found none.
Naruto had effectively put a massive target on Team 7, "Naruto, what the hell?" Sakura asked with surprising calm, looking nervously out at the group of angry genin, almost all of whom were older than them.
"If they're all coming at us at once, we can just take them all out at once." Naruto whispered his explanation to his team, assured of the flawlessness of his logic.
Sasuke and Sakura were shocked at how twisted Naruto's logic was. Sasuke was surprised because Naruto was usually pretty good at planning on the fly and making split second decisions, Sakura wasn't sure what to think. Sasuke sighed and closed his eyes, taking a breath to calm himself and wonder if there was anything redeemable about it.
Then Ino was draped over Sasuke, "Get off me." he said with barely restrained calm, ignoring the blonde girl calling out his name.
"Damn, you guys are here too, troublesome." Shikamaru said as he approached with Choji.
"Guess the nine genin who passed this year are all taking it." Kiba spoke up as he approached with Shino and Hinata following, "Here I was hoping my team was special." he added with a laugh.
"Hey, you guys may want to keep it down." A new voice none of the rookie nine recognized got their attention. A spectacled older teen in simple clothes, his headband holding his silver hair out of his eyes showing allegiance to Konoha, "You're kind of painting a target on yourselves by not taking this seriously, you guys are the only rookies." the man explained.
Sasuke scoffed, "A little late for that advice." he shot down, shooting a sideways glare at Naruto. Naruto just grinned and chuckled proudly to himself, annoying Sasuke more. Sakura really hoped Naruto grew out of seeking attention, it was just completely unlike how a ninja should be in her opinion, and the pink haired girl considered this opinion to be fact.
The older ninja frowned, "Well in any event, my name is Kabuto Yakushi, also you guys should be a bit more subdued and take this seriously." he said simply, "A lot of people are taking this exam for their second or third run, and it's not often some academy fresh kids get nominated." he explained.
"You seem to know a lot about these exams." Sasuke guessed, raising an eyebrow, "How many times have you taken it?" he asked.
"This will be my seventh try." Kabuto confessed easily, surprising the rookie nine.
"Wow, you must suck." Naruto said simply, unimpressed. Sakura glared at him and contemplated punching him.
"Hey cut me some slack," Kabuto was surprisingly unbothered by the insult, "these exams are hard. People die during these." he explained, the first one sounding like an excuse and the second one telling most of them that he was probably tough to endure that many without dying. Naruto seemed unconvinced.
"Look, tell you what, I got these info cards." Kabuto began, pulling out a deck of cards, "I'll be a kind senpai and give you kids some information about the exam." the older teen said as he crouched and put one of the cards on the ground.
"It's blank." Naruto was a tough crowd, but the older teen just laughed.
"Well if anyone could read them they wouldn't be very secret." Kabuto said as he span the card with his middle finger, "By channeling my chakra into it," he said as he demonstrated, "the information locked inside is revealed. It's keyed to my chakra." the silver haired ninja explained.
On the card was some decent information, nothing terribly useful as far as Sasuke was concerned. It listed the number of teams taking part in the exam and where the came from, the card had a nice graph but no information on individuals.
"Do you have information on individual shinobi?" Sasuke asked suddenly, looking at the deck with some interest now.
"I do indeed." Kabuto confirmed with a smile, furthering Sasuke's interest, "Who did you have in mind?" he asked.
"Rock Lee of Konohagakure no Sato, and Gaara of Sunagakure no Sato." Sasuke responded without hesitation.
"Well that's no fun," Kabuto groused playfully, "you know their names already, too easy." he said proudly as he fished out two cards.
The information on these was far more interesting and detailed. Sasuke was concerned by the stats shown on both, Rock Lee's card showed non-existent ninjutsu and genjutsu. So he now knew it was either a taijutsu of some kind, or a hijutsu that even Kabuto was unaware of that was about to be used on the Uchiha earlier. In the reverse Gaara had absurd ninjutsu and question marks over his taijutsu and genjutsu, that being the only known information was horrifying.
"Well damn, and on every mission he was uninjured." Kabuto finished reading the information out, saying out loud the thing that concerned Sasuke the most.
"Do you have information on some guy called Haku, looks like a lady." Kiba spoke up, surprising Sasuke and Naruto.
"That person doesn't seem to be in this exam, so no." Kabuto answered, although he did have information it would be bad to reveal he had it.
"Why the hell do you want to know about Haku-chan anyway?" Naruto asked, surprising everyone but Sasuke, Sakura, and Hinata. Sasuke noted the Hyuga girls lack of surprise.
"Did Naruto just call a boy 'Haku-chan'?" Ino asked, looking thoroughly confused.
"You get used to it." Sakura answered, Sasuke hated that she was right.
"I was curious about the guy who scared my teammate." Kiba answered after a moment, gesturing to Hinata who flinched.
"Oh yeah, Haku-chan mentioned that!" Naruto exclaimed, "Haku-chan didn't mean to scare you, he was just wondering why you were glaring at him, Hinata-chan." he explained with a grin. Hinata was mortified that it was now known she was glaring at a girly boy, but also on cloud nine from Naruto's choice of honorific for her.
Before Ino could sink her claws into the gossip and ask Hinata why she'd been glaring at someone Kabuto spoke up, "Damn, you kids sure are spirited." he said with a chuckle and a shake of his head, "Seriously, you guys watch yourselves, pretty much everyone but you here is a veteran." he said then stopped as if he just remembered something, "Except for Otokagure no Sato actually, they're a fairly new and young hidden village, so they'll be rookies like you." he added.
The three Oto genin took offense to that, one of them with a bandaged face, a poncho, straw raincoat, and some oddly shaped gauntlet on his arm moved at Kabuto suddenly.
Kabuto detected the threat and turned to face it, weaving backwards to avoid the right hook from the other ninja with a cocky smirk. The smirk did not last as his glasses cracked and he fell to the ground retching. This confused the rookie nine and caught the attention of the other genin in the room.
The bandaged genin stood over Kabuto menacingly, "Put this in your ninja info cards," he said, "Dosu of Otogakure no Sato, chunin material."
Okay now Sasuke was thinking about Naruto's earlier obnoxious brag and wondered if there actually was a tactical advantage hidden in there somehow. The only thing he could think of is that their numbers would get in the way of each other if they all came at him at once, but they'd still overwhelm him. Sasuke's eyes widened, it didn't explain Dosu, but he realized you couldn't actually outnumber Naruto.
"Settle down you punks!" A louder and more commanding voice demanded, halting all muttered discussion, "If anyone from this point forward picks a fight without proctor permission they'll be kicked out and disqualified!" a large scarred man in a black trench coat and a dark headband wrapped around his upper head yelled, appearing in a large puff of smoke, revealing a rather large group of chunin with him.
Dosu backed down, "Sorry, couldn't help myself." he excused lamely.
"I don't care, now shut up." The man was a hard ass, "I am Ibiki Morino, tokubetsu jonin and proctor of the first phase of this chunin selection exam." he introduced shortly, "These fine chunin," here he gestured to the assembled Konoha shinobi he arrived with, "are here to keep an eye on you punks and enforce the rules I give." he explained, "You brats will take a number, and find your seat, then I will begin."
Kakashi took Haku to a room in the academy that had been set up as a lounge for the jonin. The rooms were segregated by village so most of them were actually empty. The scarecrow jonin waved to Asuma and Kurenai as he approached.
Asuma was already smoking a cigarette so Kurenai spoke up, "Hello, Kakashi-san," she said politely, "and who have you brought with you?" she asked, looking at Haku. It was a fair question, this lounge was for jonin sensei.
"Yeah, isn't she a little young for you, Kakashi?" Asuma asked teasingly.
Kakashi simply smiled in that way that showed on his visible eye, "This is Haku-chan," the man introduced before Haku could interrupt, "he's a boy, and Naruto-kun's vassal so I let him tag along to find out how Naruto-kun does." he explained smoothly.
"Then why do you call him 'Haku-chan'?" Kurenai asked with a raised eyebrow, looking pointedly at Kakashi with her red eyes. Asuma coughed in a way that had nothing to do with his tobacco stick.
"Kakashi-san insists on using the same honorific that Naruto-kun uses for me." Haku explained, Asuma and Kurenai looked at each other while Kakashi simply smiled, they'd all noticed it.
"So you don't mind as long as it's Naruto Uzumaki?" Kurenai asked, Haku blushed at the implication of that.
"You got it in one." Kakashi answered for Haku, who just glared at the older ninja in response.
"While this is very," Asuma began and visibly struggled to find the right word,
"Cute." Kurenai supplied, she didn't give a hint that she was teasing Haku, her expression neutral and her tone honest. Haku just blushed harder.
"While this is very cute," Asuma agreed, nodding, "did you hear who my old man got to be proctor of the first phase?" he asked, surprising Haku, who guessed he must be related to the Hokage himself with those words.
"Nope, why?" Kakashi asked, seemingly unconcerned, but curious from Asuma's tone,
"Ikibi Morino." the smoking jonin answered. Kakashi was visibly surprised.
"Is he famous?" Kurenai asked, wondering what had the other two so on edge. Haku was concerned at this point.
"Oh yeah, Kurenai, you just became a jonin recently so you probably don't know him." Asuma excused the female jonin's lack of knowledge before Kakashi could express annoyance that she didn't know the man by name already, "Ibiki Morino is the head of the Torture and Interrogation corps."
Haku really did not like the sound of that and it showed on his face, "A torture specialist? For genin?" Kurenai asked, concerned as well.
"Morino-san deals with mental torture, he's good at breaking people down and crushing their sense of self entirely." Asuma removed the concern of physical harm but just made it sound more concerning anyway.
Haku however was relieved, Sasuke would probably be fine, Sakura would either bow out or become a proper ninja, and Naruto was not likely to even realize what was happening. Naruto seemed like the biggest concern, his ego and bravado were basically a coping mechanism from no one else believing in him, even Haku believing in him barely made a change in his personality.
Despite this Haku was confident that Naruto would be the hardest to manipulate, the boy was stubborn and oblivious. If the manipulation was too obvious he took offense, if it was too subtle it went under his nose and failed entirely. Briefly Haku considered that Naruto having to learn this stuff eventually would be a challenge but likely allow Naruto to be more observant than most if he tried.
"Oh good, Naruto-kun should be fine then." Haku voiced his thoughts with a smile. The three jonin were surprised at that, wondering why Haku was so confident.
Contrary to Haku's faith in Naruto, the first phase of the exam was a written test. Naruto had taken note of the rules and went over them mentally a few times, clearly scrutinizing the board behind Ibiki while everyone else was writing.
You started with ten points, you have ten questions, for every question you get wrong you lose a point, and for every time you get caught cheating you lose two points. The rules confused Naruto, which according to Haku meant there was something he was not getting.
Naruto thought about it a few more times as the shinobi around him had all long ago figured out it was cheating. Then it hit him, he couldn't get the question wrong if he didn't answer it. Naruto was in awe of his own genius, the only winning move was not to play. It was all a trick question, the whole damn test was a trick question.
Naruto left his sheet with only his name and grinned at Ibiki, crossing his arms confidently to show he wasn't doing anything with his hands.
Ibiki wondered what the hell was up with the blonde genin from Kakashi's team. The kid had stared at the rules, scrutinizing them long after he'd finished explaining them, then apparently he realized something and started grinning, transmitting his self assured confidence to the world with his body language.
Genin were kicked out as all the entrants tried their own methods of cheating, the ones who were good at it stayed. Except Sakura, she hadn't even realized the purpose was to cheat and had studied enough to actually answer the questions. It never occurred to the pink haired girl the man might be lying as being back in the academy and Ibiki's natural authority had the girl treating it like an academy test.
As the test came to a close Ibiki looked around at those who remained, "Well, congratulations on reaching this point." he said, ignoring the way a few genin glared at Naruto, who had been clearly sitting there with his arms crossed, "Now we reach the time of the tenth and final question," he began, "but first you must choose whether or not to take the question."
"Why the hell wouldn't we take the question?" Temari spoke up, Ibiki didn't mind the interruption since it added to the tension, it may be dramatic to pause but it worked for his intentions.
"Some of you might decide not to take the final question for your own good." Ibiki began to explain, "After all, if you choose to take it and get it wrong, you will never be allowed to become chunin." he warned, anticipating the back lash.
"You can't do that!"
"You don't have the authority!"
"There are people here who have taken the exam way more times!"
"This isn't fair!"
"Tough luck, brats!" Ibiki interrupted their complaints, "Life isn't fair, and those who have taken the exams before were fortunate that I was not there. Your villages agreed to this term when they sent you here." he explained, noting that the genin of Otogakure seemed unconcerned and unconvinced.
Naruto frowned, his confident body language dropping as he considered this, he wanted to be Hokage, so he had to make chunin and prove himself in command, and if he didn't make it to jonin Haku would be stuck as a genin forever. The idea of letting his team down was bad enough but the idea of letting Haku down as well crushed him. Haku was clearly better than any genin yet he was stuck as an apprentice genin until Naruto could achieve greater rank.
Hinata meanwhile was considering giving up and leaving as well, for similar reasons to Naruto the pressure was getting to her, although she was also worried somewhat about her standing in her clan. Sakura meanwhile was looking sadly at Naruto, watching the boy war with himself over the question as Ibiki watched. The pink haired girl knew Naruto would refuse to back down, but she wondered if that would be for the best.
Naruto was agonizing over minute details by this point, wondering if he'd guessed correctly about the questions at all, if he was wrong and a blank answer counted as a wrong answer then he had the lowest possible score, if he failed the tenth question he'd get zero marks. The idea of getting zero marks on the test and looking stupid to Haku bothered him as Hinata and Saukra slowly raised their hands.
The two girls both stopped at seeing Naruto raise his own hand, surprised that he was actually doing so, Sakura especially was mostly raising her hand because she thought Naruto wouldn't and Hinata simply couldn't believe Naruto would give.
Naruto never gave up, and he announced such when he slammed his hand on his desk while glaring at Ibiki, startling both Hinata and Sakura, and getting the attention of everyone left in the room.
"Who the hell do you think I am!?" Naruto asked boisterously, "It doesn't matter if you say I'll never be a chunin, I don't give a shit what you think! Y'know!" the blonde declared, hiding his nerves under anger, "Even if I can't become chunin, I'll just skip it and become jonin anyway!" he continued, "Hell I'll skip all the ranks and become Hokage!" at this Naruto said down and glared at Ibiki.
The boisterous blonde outburst had given courage to some who had been considering failing, and Ibiki noted some other Konoha genin were either smiling or amused at the boy. The head of T&I was impressed, but annoyed, this many passing would make him look bad.
"Well then, to those of you remaining," Ibiki began, "Congratulations on passing the first phase of the chunin exam." he finished with a smirk, watching the flustered kids question what he was talking about.
Ibiki gave the genin a moment, "This test was about information gathering," he began, silencing the murmurs, "as I'm sure you noticed, the goal was to cheat." That explanation bothered Sakura, since she hadn't noticed at all. Naruto merely laughed nervously and pretended he got it, which made Sakura feel worse because she was now on the level with Naruto. At least she could pretend she'd cheated the best since she knew how to solve those kinds of problems.
"So what was the point of the final question?" Kankuro spoke up, raising an eyebrow at Ibiki.
The head of torture and interrogation removed his head band, revealing a horrifically scarred scalp, most of them wished he'd kept it on, "The tenth and final question was to test your resolve under pressure." he explained, "Consider this, the leader of your village asks you to perform a mission with almost no details about what you're going into or what kind of enemies you might face, do you accept?" he asked, "Of course you do, you're a ninja." he answered his own rhetorical question.
The windows shattered inwards, a banner planted itself in front of Ibiki, and a purple haired woman in a skirt, fishnets and a trench coat posed in between the banner and the assembled genin. The banner read 'Sexy and Single Anko Mitarashi! Proctor of Part 2!'
"Alright!" The woman, Anko apparently, began to speak.
"Damn it, Mitarashi, you're early." Ibiki refused, stepping from behind the banner.
"Oops, my bad." Anko said with a sheepish grin, not looking even slightly sorry.
"Whatever, I was just finishing anyway, these are the ones who passed." Ibiki said with a sigh, his headband already covering his scars again.
Anko whistled, "This many, huh? You going soft, Morino?" she asked with a smirk.
"Just a good batch this time I suppose." Ibiki said as an excuse.
"Well it doesn't matter, when I'm done with them, they'll be cut down to half." Anko said with a sadistic grin, unnerving the genin.
On a whim, after Anko had lead the chunin hopefuls outside, Ibiki approached Naruto Uzumaki's test paper. He stared at it for a moment before he laughed at the absurdity of it.
The mental torture specialist took the paper to the Konoha jonin lounge. The jonin were filtering out after hearing whether their team had passed or failed, Kakashi, Kurenai, Asuma, and Gai seemed proud, some pretty young teenager near Kakashi looked pleased too.
"Hatake!" Ibiki started, getting the jonins attention, all of them, including the jonin whose team hadn't passed, he ignored them and the teenager Kakashi had brought in, "Your team is a real piece of work." the man said, keeping it neutral for now, "A real group of god damn geniuses." he finished with a grin. The other jonin were surprised.
"All of them?" Kakashi's surprise was evident, Ibiki didn't give praise lightly.
"I've heard good things about the Uchiha, so I'm reserving my judgement even though he performed the worst." Ibiki began, surprising everyone again, "The worst out of his team because he only lost two points for activating his Sharingan, he accurately selected a plant and copied their movements on the paper." with that explanation all the jonin were interested, everyone knew who was on Team 7, it was a high profile team from the start, "Haruno didn't lose any points and got every answer correct." he continued, lifting up the paper he'd brought with him.
"Naruto Uzumaki did not answer a single question." Ibiki finished, showing off the test paper. Now everyone was just confused, "Before anyone asks, the kid actually exploited a loop hole. I worded the questions to encourage cheating, I didn't think of including that unanswered questions would be counted as wrong since most folk consider it common knowledge." the man explained, "At the moment Naruto has either the lowest score or is tied for Sakura with the highest depending on how I decide to interpret his actions." Ibiki let that statement sit for a moment then turned to leave.
"Wait, how are you interpreting his actions." Asuma asked, curious about the answer, the other jonin had been lead on too and were wondering that as well.
"It doesn't matter, he completed the mission without endangering his team beyond what is required as standard." Ibiki answered smoothly as he walked away, clearly amused by the situation.