Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto

"Welcome to hell,"

Ibiki Morino calmly surveyed the group of students before him as he assessed their reactions to his sudden appearance. He could see a lot of potential and a whole lot of future headaches too. They looked at him as if trying to get an understanding of just who he was, to decipher the puzzle that was Ibiki Morino.

There were a total of one hundred and fifty-six participants in these exams. Twenty-nine teams had been allowed to represent Konoha, one team was there for the new village Oto and of course, it was hard to ignore the lone Kumo team that had emerged as a late entry. Takigakure and Kusagakure had each sent two teams with Ame sending seven genin teams. Suna had allowed ten teams to make the trip to the east.

That meant that there was a total of fifty-two teams in the exams and that was a fair lot. Ibiki meant to correct that in his portion of the exam before handing the kids to Anko. He almost felt sorry for the kids, almost.

"Listen up!" his voice hollered out as he grabbed their full attention. Seeing that they were all looking he continued.

"I am Ibiki Morino, your proctor for the first exam. Calmly make your way to the next room and await further instructions," he did not wait for a response as he turned his back and walked out.

Naruto looked over at Sakura and he saw how nervous she was and he would be lying if he said he was completely fine right now.

But he also saw her determination and he smiled at her. She returned it and he hoped it had served quelled her fears. He was not too good with these kinds of situations.

He turned to Suki to see how she was and the girl was looking across the room as people filed out. He followed her line of vision and caught the group she was staring at. Said group was staring back. The lone team from Kumo.

"Why do we keep getting so much attention?" she sounded frustrated and he answered her question while ignoring the fact that he was not supposed to hear that.

"Our reputation must precede us," he was joking of course but she frowned. "And l doubt your staring is helping,"

"We'll have to watch each other's backs. I don't know about you, but I plan on surviving these exams," she walked past him and stopped as if realizing something.

"Oh, and I doubt my staring is the problem. Yours is even more obvious,"

Naruto sighed but kept a trained eye on the Kumo team. Two girls and a boy, he realized. It was odd considering the fact that Konoha had squads of two boys and one female member. He wondered if they purposefully did that to nurture some kind of love triangle. His team was the only exception in the village at the moment.

He watched them exit and decided to follow his teammates out. He still needed to make it to the next room for the exam.

.

.

.

With all the genin seated, the room they had chosen to occupy seemed tiny now. Ibiki was certain that the more perceptive individuals had already noted that their numbers had increased by a fair bit. It was necessary for this part of the exam though. They had planted a few chūnin in the crowd, chūnin who could answer the questions in the exam and serve as stepping stones.

"Listen carefully because I won't be repeating these instructions," Ibiki started and they all perked up.

"This portion of the exam is an hour-long and considering we're inside a building, I'm sure you've realized it's a written exam," Naruto cringed at this.

"There are ten questions, however, you will only receive the tenth question after a forty-five-minute period. This exam includes a points reduction system. Two points are subtracted each time someone is caught cheating and if you're caught a total of five times, your team is disqualified," he stated as some fellow leaf shinobi distributed the exam papers.

"Best of reasoning," he muttered as he leaned against the wall.

Each of the genin looked at their papers. Naruto read it and skipped the first question...then the next one...and the next. Suddenly, he found himself with nothing else to look at as he was unable to answer a single one.

"I can't answer any of these,"

He sighed and looked over to Gaara's female teammate. She was writing something but her brows were furrowed in concentration. At least it wasn't just him who was struggling though she had something to write.

He sighed and looked back at his paper. How was he supposed to know any of this? Reading was not a strong suit of his and it never would.

Sakura on the other hand did not have the same problem he had. She had already answered most of the questions and was now pondering the validity of this whole exam. The rules simply didn't make any sense.

"Usually, cheating gets you disqualified immediately, and yet here we get five chances to do so. I could have cheated and gotten caught four times and then stopped but then there would be the risk that Naruto or Suki may get caught. Plus, losing points won't be good for us as a team. Still...it's like they're asking us to cheat," she looked forward and saw Naruto just sitting there. She swiveled her head and saw Suki slowly write something down.

"Has he given up?!"

She seriously doubted Naruto was a quitter but she also knew he was street smart. So when it came to this stuff, he was hopeless without them. She hoped he knew what he was doing.

Suki was stumped. As much as she did not want to face the reality of her current predicament, she knew she had to accept it. She knew only two of the answers and had not even tried to waste time and brainpower on the rest. She had only glanced at each question, each one having something she did not quite comprehend.

The risk versus reward factor was starting to look good and for a moment, cheating seemed like an appealing option, only for a moment though. She glanced up as three Konoha teams were escorted out.

"They had already been spotted five times? Was it as a whole or each individual gets dive shots at it. With the way things are set up, they may as well be asking us to cheat...oh,"

She felt stupid. Coupling the difficulty of the questions and the hefty number of opportunities they were being given, cheating was the only way out, the only viable route.

She glanced up and saw that most people in the class were doing something strange of their own accord.

"Everyone is cheating," she realized and she wondered how the Proctor was missing some of the obvious cases. Didn't see Kiba's dog peeking at answers. He was a Konoha-born shinobi so he had to know of the clan.

"Unless he's just ignoring it and accepted it as a good method of cheating,"

Her eyes shifted to a vibrant red as she let them casually skim through all the genin, wondering just who to copy.

Unlike his teammates, Naruto had not figured out the true point of the exam...but he was gonna cheat anyway. He heard the buzzing of insects pass him and he wondered what it was about. He closed his eyes and tried to focus. There were a lot of pens hitting paper and he found it difficult to distinguish it all.

It all seemed to have the same sound and he sighed and stopped trying. This was pointless and he was just gonna accept that. He would have to bank on that tenth question. Not a very good strategy but he had no other options.

A few more teams were escorted out before the forty-five-minute mark was reached. Ibiki walked forward and decided to enact the final part of his exam. The part that would get rid of most of them.

"Now then, for the tenth question. This is a do or die sort of question and the failure to answer it will have severe consequences," he told them.

He watched them tense but none moved.

"For those who choose to take this question, should you fail, you will never be able to participate in these exams again. You will forever remain genin. Those who choose to forfeit may come back another day,"

The consequences hung heavy in the air, the implications of the question starting to make them think. Was the risk worth it this time?

"Genin forever?! Can they really do that?" it made Naruto wonder exactly how far Konoha's influence reached. He clenched his fists. The probability that he would be unable to answer this question was high.

Sakura played the information in her head repeatedly and tried to make sense of it. What was the point of having a question that could totally hinder one's future?

"Naruto's dream is to become Hokage and he can't do that if he fails this test. Should l...l doubt he would like me halting me progress for his. Plus Suki probably won't like it either. But then..."

Suki watched Naruto closely, wondering what was going on in his head. She was having a mental debate on what to do. She didn't display any panic but she could not afford to fail this test.

Kids began to file out as none intended to be stuck as genin forever. Naruto stared out the window but that didn't help He was trying to ignore what was happening around him but realize once more that it was pointless. Fate would always throw things like this his way. Back then on the bridge and now.

"What's the point of the exam if you designed this final stage to fail us. It's almost as if you intend to fail us for even trying to pass!" He was still seated when he yelled out his thoughts, face still turned to the window.

"Is that not the whole point of the exam boy. To fail you and crush your hopes. To make you realize some things," he said.

"I've come to understand that nothing is cheap in this world, that things are unfair. I've already had to kill people," he stood and glared at Ibiki. Some faces morphed into absolute horror and Hinata nearly fainted.

"Oh," he sounded amused.

"You can't outrun your problems and you can't keep living in fear. Even though your rules are so terrible, I'm not running,"

"I'm also too embarrassed to move now," but he wasn't gonna say that.

Ibiki didn't say anything and nodded in slight defeat. None of the kids were moving. He had been able to make them forget about the rules and focus on his outburst and subsequent embarrassment.

"Damn, now there's still twenty-six teams. Anko may actually be happy to have them all to herself," he muttered and the door blew open. "I suppose those remaining pass...unfortunately,"

"Speak of the devil," he said and he looked up at the banner with her name and a whole lot of other indecencies on it. Now there was a hole where the door once stood.

"Wow, there's actually a lot of them. You've gone soft," her voice cut through. The boys noticed her clothing or lack of it and blushed. Naruto slumped down and sighed. "We did it,"

"Good luck with this bunch," he sighed as he looked at Naruto. "You'll need it,"