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Naruto – Chapter 9
The Chunin Exams Finally Begin
As everyone in the group was still thinking about the nervous exchange between the Hyuga heiress and Toshirama.
The only one not paying attention was Choji Akimichi who could only stare at Akamaru like a piece of food. He started going forward until Shino stepped in front of him blocking his way.
"What do you want?" Choji asked. Shino only looked down to the floor as both saw a small beetle crawling on the floor.
Shino then replied, "Thought you didn't see it." Choji could only say in confusion, "Huh?"
"Didn't want you stepping on it." Shino finished. "Why you saving it for lunch?" Choji replied.
"Honestly Choji, really?" Was all Toshirama could think to himself in the moment as an awkward silence took over
The silence continued until another voice spoke up among the crowd he was older and wore a set of round glasses, "Hey, you guys. Might want to tone it down a little. No offense but you're all the ten rookies, right? Fresh out the Academy?"
"Take my advice you don't want to make a spectacle of yourselves. Just cool it, this isn't some class field trip." The examinee finished.
Ino annoyed spoke up, "Well, who asked you? Who ae you anyway?"
"I'm Kabuto Yakushi. But really look around you. You've left quite the impression already." Kabuto finished as everyone now looked into the large crowd of other contenders all staring back at them.
Everyone looked behind them as they saw a team of three Rain Village ninja staring at them the malice in their eyes was evident.
"See those guys. They're from the Rain Village. Very, vey touchy people. All of them are. This exam makes everyone tense, and you don't want to rub them the wrong way right now." Kabuto explained.
"Guess you can't help it, how would know how these things work. You guys are all rookies, reminds me of my time back then." He said
"So I guess from that this isn't your first time in the exams right, Kabuto? That's your name?" Sakura inquired.
"Yeah, in fact its… my seventh time." He answered. Everyone gasped in surprise. "These events take place every twice every year. So this is my fourth year."
"Huh, so I guess you some things about these exams?" Toshirama inquired. "Sort of, I guess." He answered.
"Cool. You can give us all the inside tips." Naruto realized. "Yeah sure, some veteran he's never passed." Shikamaru pointed out.
"Well seventh times the charm, that's that they say right?' Kabuto said as he sheepishly rubbed the back of his head.
"So all those rumors about the exam being tough were true, huh? I knew this was going to be a drag." Shikamaru inquired.
"Hang on, don't give up hope yet. I think I've got a way to help you guys out a little with my Ninja Info Cards." Kabuto replied as he drew out a hefty deck of orange cards.
"What are those?" Sakura asked. "It's hard to explain, but these cards have been chakra encoded with everything I've learned over the past four years. I've got more than 200 of them" Kabuto explained as he laid the cards out.
"So as you can see I haven't been completely wasting my time. They may not look like much, in fact all of them are blank. Don't want just anyone seeing this kind of stuff." Kabuto said as he put his middle finger one on the card and began twirling it in a circle.
"What are you doing?" Sakura asked. "I'm using my chakra to reveal their secrets, like this for example." Kabuto replied as a small puff of smoke showed.
On the card now was a map of the Five Great Elemental nations and all the villages appeared to them.
"This shows the geographical distribution of all the contestants according to their villages, how many of them are from those villages. Why do you guys think they all come here to take the exam together at the same time?" Kabuto explained.
"It's about fostering good relations between villages, of course. International brotherhood, and all that. And it's true enough as far as it goes." Kabuto finished.
"But I can imagine another reason, the process itself seems to be very controlled so I imagine by the end not many are made chunin by the end." Toshirama answered.
"Exactly, this way all the shinobi in each respective village is regulated to fir the balance of power, so one is that much powerful than the other." Kabuto finished.
"Oh yeah, balance of power." Naruto said but he was rather confused at the topic itself as his confused look showed. "Balance of power, big deal its all a drag." Shikamaru complaining as usual.
"If the balance isn't maintained, one nation can have many more shinobi than its neighbors and might be tempted to attack them. So they try to maintain a status quo. Makes sense, I suppose." Kabuto said.
"Hold on, that map from before, why were some villages' numbers so much lower compared to others?" Toshirama inquired
"Oh that, see many smaller nations send as many of their genin as they can to maintain a balance and show of their own villages skill, its their own way of maintaining their independence. As for others like he Hidden Stone and Cloud, its for another reason." Kabuto explained.
"That being?" Toshirama asked. "Because the Kage of those villages have deep resentment of Hidden Leaf and so at first they denied sending ANY teams at all but relented and at least decided to send at least one team to represent their villages in the Exams." Kabuto finished
"I see." Toshirama said as he thought back to his encounters with each respective team.
"Do those cards of yours have info of individual candidates?" Sasuke asked. "They might, have anyone special in mind?" Kabuto inquired.
"Maybe." Sasuke answered. "Well my info's not perfect or complete but I've got something on just about everyone here including you guys, of course. So give me what you got, a description, village, anything." Kabuto replied as he held a card in his hand.
"There's Gaara of the Desert, Mariko of the Iron Desert, and Rock Lee of the Hidden Leaf while you're at it." Sasuke asked for. "Man, that's no fun. You even know their names. That makes it easy." Kabuto replied.
He then drew 3 cards from his deck, "Here they are."
"Show them to me." Sasuke, his voice dripping with anticipation. Even Toshirama upon hearing Mariko's name was intrigued on getting this new info.
Kabuto then started, "First up is Rock Lee. Looks like he's about a year older than you guys. Mission experience; 11 C-ranks and 20 D-ranks. His squad leader is Guy. Over the last twelve months his taijutsu has radically improved although his other skills are shaky. This is his first year as a candidate same as you guys. His teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga."
At the sound of the name Hyuga, Hinata's eyes grew wide in worry, not lost to Toshirama who looked back at the nervous girl with worry in his own look.
"Hyuga?" Naruto said of course the name would be familiar to him.
"Okay then, now for Mariko of the Iron Desert and Gaara of the Desert." Kabuto said as he put out another card.
The image showed the two Sand ninja as before as he began explaining, "Let's see mission experience; 8 C-ranks and… get this one B-rank as genin. Unfortunately neither has much more information on them except there teammates Kankuro and Temari. But there is another piece. They each survived every mission they've gone on without even a single scratch on them."
"They've done a B-rank vas genin and neither had a scratch on them?" Shikamaru said in complete shock. "What's the deal with this guy?" Naruto shared in Shikamaru's shock as well.
Kabuto then took out another card and the same map as before appeared, "Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, Cloud, Stone and Sound. From the looks of it all the villages have sent their best candidates this time around and most of the villages have sent shinobi this year as well."
Kabuto continued, "Of course, the Hidden Sound village is small and was recently just formed so those guys are a mystery." Kabuto then put up his cards, when a sudden tense air was felt by Toshirama like a piercing gaze.
"Well you get the point now, this year is gonna be competitive and intense probably more so then any other.
"So it would seem. It's almost enough to make you lose your confidence." Hinata replied. "It's a fine time to start talking like that!" Ino said upset at Hinata' sudden hesitation.
"Do you really think its going to be tougher this time?" Sakura asked Kabuto. "Oh yeah, in the four years I've been coming here I've never seen a more potential batch like this in a while. We've got a lot of work cut out for us." He answered.
"Okay; rookies vs. veterans, check. Nearly scared out my wits, check. A Naruto practically shaking in fear, never would've seen in my lifetime. But even then I can't stop now I've got a reason to keep going and I won't stop until its achieved."
Suddenly Naruto stopped shaking as he turned toward the crowd of other candidates and yelled out, "My name is Naruto Uzumaki, and I'm gonna beat every one of you! Believe it!"
All Toshirama could do was look on in utter horror at Naruto's outburst, "It's times like these that make wish I wasn't the one who cleans up his messes."
"Hey, what's that idiot trying to do get us killed!?" Ino hollered in anger at Sakura who was also just as shocked and horrified at Naruto's outburst.
"I knew it, Naruto's to dumb to be scared." Sakura thought to herself her fists balled in anger.
"Tell your boyfriend to keep his big trap shut!" Ino yelled at Sakura. "Whose boyfriend?!" Sakura answered her anger now directed at Ino.
"Oh, I forgot. You can't get one!" Ino countered. "What'd you say!?" Sakura protested in anger once more.
Naruto let out a small chuckle as he finished, "Yeah, I feel a lot better now." Even Sasuke, who normally cringes at Naruto's antics couldn't help himself but get excited. Even Kabuto for all the failures he had had a smirk on his face.
But that didn't help now that EVERY single candidate was now staring at the nine rookies, especially three special genin from the Hidden Sound.
"Did you hear that guy; he said the Hidden Sound was 'little'." One of them said. "I heard." The one wrapped in bandages replied.
"I think we should teach him some manners." The female of the group joined in.
Kiba then spoke up, "Uh, can you say that again a little louder? Didn't quite catch it."
"You imbecile, are you trying to get everyone to hate us, or what?" Shikamaru said.
Naruto was laughing until Sakura came up from behind and started choking him, "Naruto, you jackass! Why'd you have to go and say something like that? You obnoxious little…" Sakura stopped as she realized everyone was staring directly at them.
"Oh, everyone, please don't mind him. Sometimes he says these spazzy things. He didn't mean it." Sakura tried to placate the crowd in front of her.
As Sakura continued to berate Naruto for his behavior, the Sound genin from before then began to move quickly among the crowd. However, Toshirama immediately felt a presence approaching and fast, even Sasuke noticed his teammates look.
He looked to his peripheral vision and said, "Sasuke…" The Uchiha simply replied, "I know I see them."
Even the Sand siblings, Kankuro felt the coming fight and loosened his puppet but Gaara stopped him wanting to see what would happen.
Suddenly one of the male Sound shinobi threw two kunai at Kabuto only for them to be reflected by Toshirama's own shuriken.
Suddenly the bandaged Sound genin appeared before Kabuto and threw a punch the veteran genin which seemed to miss entirely as Kabuto dodged out of the way.
He came to a stop when suddenly his glasses shattered, "Huh, I see so it was that kind of attack."
"Hold on I saw all of that he dodged perfectly, how'd his glasses shatter?" Sasuke questioned seeing the entire event right before his eyes.
"Probably closer than it looked, and he's trying to act like a tough guy at the same time." Shikamaru answered.
Kabuto had a confident smirk on his look until suddenly he doubled over and vomited.
"What the hell…?" Toshirama said. "Kabuto, are you okay?" Sakura asked the older genin.
Naruto and Sakura rushed to Kabuto's side as he coughed up what remained and was finally alright.
"I'm fine." He answered. "Not such a tough guy after all, I guess. Maybe that's why its his seventh try." The bandaged sound ninja retorted.
"Write this on your little card, the Hidden Sound will Chunin after this is over. Guaranteed." The other male sound ninja replied.
"What was it, he dodged it so he should be fine, but his glasses and condition tell another story… Wait!? Could it be…?" Toshirama never got to finish his thoughts a huge puff of smoke entered the room accompanied by a stern voice.
"All right, you baby face degenerates. Pipe down and listen up! It's time to begin, I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor. And from this moment on, your worst nightmare." The aged Leaf jonin said to te crowd surrounding him were several dozen other chunin.
"First, you candidate from the Hidden Sound Village, knock it off. You want to be failed before we've even begun?"
"Sorry, its our first time. Guess were a little jumpy, sir." The sound ninja replied.
Ibiki could only smirk in amusement as he continued, "Alright, listen up cause I'm only going to say this once: There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking without the permission of your proctor and even then fatal force is strict forbidden."
"Hah, no fatal force, that's no fun." The other sound ninja sounded off.
"Now then if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin exam. Hand over your paperwork, in exchange you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test after you've been seated." Ibiki explained the preparations for the first test.
"Wait did he just say… written?" Naruto asked with hesitation in his voice. When one of the chunin brought out a stack of papers in hand it confirmed Naruto's worst fears:
It was a written test!
"No! Not a written test, no way!" Naruto screamed in panic.
After everyone handed in their applications and was given a number everyone was finally seated, Toshirama immediately looked around and saw that none of his teammates was in is immediate area.
"I don't even know where anyone's sitting, it looks I'm by myself for now. I'm worried for Naruto though; written tests are not his strong suit." Toshirama thought to himself. An obvious frown on his face as he looked around for any of his team.
"Um, Toshirama?" A familiar soft voice asked. Toshirama looked to his left and saw Hinata seated right next to him.
"Oh, Hinata I didn't see you. I'm sorry, I'm just worried for Naruto is all." He said as the Hyuga heiress had a slight blush on her face.
"I see, I think he'll be just fine, but I just wanted to say good luck and all." Hinata said with a smile on her face.
"Really I'm not worth her time, when I know she's always watching Naruto." Toshirama thought to himself.
Ibiki then tapped the board to gain everyone's attention and began speaking, "Everyone, eyes front. There a few rules you need to know, and I won't answer any questions. So you'd better pay attention the first time around."
Ibiki then began to write the rules on the board as he continued explaining, "All right, rule number one is this: The written part of the exam is based on a point reduction system. Contrary to popular use you all will start with a perfect score of ten points, one is deducted for each problem you get wrong so if miss three your final score will be seven."
"And if I miss ten then my final score will be zero." Naruto deduced.
Ibiki continued, "Rule number two: Teams will pass or fail based on total scores of all team members."
At the mention of that rule the entire went into a gasp of shock. Everyone would be scored as a whole, meaning…
"What!? Wait a second? You mean we all get scored as team?" Sakura yelled out in anger.
"Silence! I have my reasons, so shut up and listen." Ibiki answered sternly. "Hope there good ones." Toshirama thought as he began to panic at anymore surprise rules.
"Rule number three: The sentinels you see around the room are there to watch out for any signs of cheating, and for every incident they spot. They'll deduct two points from the culprit's score. Be wary, their eyes are sharp and if you're caught five times, you and your team are disqualified. Anyone caught by the sentinels, doesn't deserve to be here. If you want to be considered shinobi, show us what exceptional shinobi you can be." Ibiki further continued.
"Okay, no need to panic. I'm sure I'll be fine and Sasuke and Sakura will be okay on their own, its Naruto I'm panicking over right now. But all together if the three of us are good it should be alright." Toshirama tried to compose himself but all that was brought down by Ibiki's next rule.
"One last thing should any candidate from any team fail and receive a zero. Then the entire team fails." Ibiki finished off leaving one certain team in a panic.
Sasuke panicked. Sakura let out with, "WHAT HE SAY!?" Toshirama all but stopped breathing in that moment. As for Naruto…
"Ah, there gonna kill me…" He thought as he could see the hateful looks from his three teammates for his failure.
"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes before the end of the testing period. You have one hour in total… BEGIN!" Ibiki shouted as everyone began the exam. Already the sound of pencil could be heard as the pressure was now on to finish the test and at the same time not getting caught cheating.
Toshirama flipped over the test and immediately read over the questions listed on the test paper yet he couldn't help but still think to himself, "Guh, no matter what this has never been Naruto's strong suit. I just hope he's not choking."
But he had to take his part of the test, so he turned back to his test and immediately went back to skimming through the test questions.
"Okay let's see… what the hell is all this?!" He screamed mentally as he looked at the test before him. He had learned many things in the Academy; math, history, philosophy and physical training. But this was different; this test had probability, physics, logarithms and more…
This was way beyond Toshirama's abilities. He considered himself good at math and was at least decent in physics and detested logarithms. But it wasn't all, some of the questions were do-able but it would take time. He could four, MAYBE five if he used his time wisely.
He also thought back to Ibiki's rules, and how one seemed to gnaw at him, "Why give us even the chance to cheat it makes no sense, normally if you get caught it's over? Why the leniency, why let us cheat? "
Wait. That was it! They wanted them to cheat, that's why they were so lenient with that rule.
"He wants us cheat. Do it and just not get caught in the process, this test isn't JUST a test its about getting information you don't have. But unfortunately for me I don't have that kind of ability. I don't have Sasuke's Sharigan or even half of Sakura's smarts. I guess I'll just have to rely on my own for now. Like he said, as long as none of us have a zero at the end its should be fine." Toshirama finished that thought and immediately went back to taking the test as the clock ticked away.
After about 15 minutes, "Man, I wish I had a kekkei genkai like Hinata or Sasuke, this would so much easier to do!" Toshirama screamed in his he'd made little progress in his test answering only two questions and he only had 30 minutes before the final question would be given out.
"U-um, Toshirama, if you want… you can look of my sheet, go ahead." Hinata whispered softly.
"W-what?" Toshirama stuttered as he couldn't believe what he was hearing, Hianta wanted him to cheat off of her?
"B-but I can't do that Hinata, we'd both get caught for it." Toshirama whispered back trying to keep as low a voice he could.
"I-I don't mind; besides I know you believe in Naruto, but I know he'd be just as upset if you failed to…" Hinata explained herself as she twiddled her fingers.
Toshirama knew Hinata cared for Naruto but to hear that from her about him of all people…
"It's okay, I'll be fine just worry for you right now okay, if Naruto will be fine, I'll be sure to do my best." Toshirama said with encouragement in his voice.
With that the two resumed the exam and Toshirama did as much as he could for what it was worth…
But overtime many candidates were eliminated and removed from the room with those caught also went their fellow team members.
By the time of the tenth question over 14 teams had been eliminated.
Twenty-Nine Minutes Later
"Surprisingly I was able to finish seven out of ten. Sure that's fine enough for me but what about Naruto? I can't turn around they'd practically expel me for that. Oh, I wish I could see him or the others." Toshirama mentally worriedly as he now began to worry more and more for Naruto.
"Alright all of you eyes front, I will now give out the tenth question, but before we begin I have to go over a few things with you. However this question comes with a special rule: If you want to back out of the exam, now's the time. Sure you can apply again next year. All of those who stay let this be known: If you fail this question , you wont only fail the exam… but you'll never take the Chunin Exams ever again!"
The entire room fell silent as Ibiki's rule set in for all of them until Kiba could be heard shouting, "Hey, that's bull man! There plenty of people here who've taken test already!"
Ibiki could only be heard softly laughing until he simply replied, "Well then, I guess you're just unlucky. I wasn't making the rules in the past, but now I am. Of course, if you don't want to take, you don't have to. If your not confident, just skip it. You can just come back and try again next year "
Ibiki continued to laugh as the pressure was now on, "Quit and give up? Why even do that, hell if you break here what's the point in coming back a year later? At this point, I already have my answer. I'm not going anywhere!" Toshirama thought to himself.
After Ibiki' rules were given out for a while a tense silence filled the air until one Leaf genin raised his hand and declared he didn't want to take the question. That started a chain reaction of multiple teams quitting en masse and leaving.
The pressure just mounted after that when Toshirama suddenly heard a small gasp from Hinata beside him and turned around to see that Naruto had his raised high in the air.
"Naruto…? No you can't be…? Why!?" In that moment, Toshirama couldn't understand why Naruto did what he did until Naruto just as suddenly slammed his hand back down on the desk.
"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run! You can act tough all you want. You guys aren't gonna scare me off. I don't care if I get stuck as a genin or not for the rest of my life. I'll still be Hokage someday!" Naruto finished off that brazen, yet inspiring outburst in that moment as well, it changed everyone's morale in the room.
"Hah, give it to Naruto to act both stupid, yet inspiring. Only a knucklehead like him can do it. Well if he's charging ahead might as join him." Toshirama thought as he made a confident smirk.
"This decision is one that change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit, now's your last chance." Ibiki made one last attempt to make Naruto question his decision.
"No way, I never go back on my word. That's my ninja way." Naruto simply remarked.
"Remarkable, that little outburst has given these holdouts some new courage, and none of them seem to be wavering. Seventy-eight left. Never quite expected that. But I think that's it…" Ibiki thought to himself as he looked around the room at the sentinels who all nodded in agreement.
"Well I admire your determination, if nothing else. For all those of you who are remaining there's only one thing left to do. And that is for me to tell you all, that you've passed the first stage of the Chunin Exam!" Ibiki declared.
In that moment looks of joy, happiness and relief washed over the candidates.
One of them Temari was still suspicious, "What a minute so what's the catch, were the other nine just worthless? What's the tenth question?"
"There never was one, not a written one anyway. Actually your decision to stay or eave was your answer to the tenth question. As for the other ones, they played an important role: information gathering and espionage." Ibiki explained.
Ibiki then began to undo his bandana which then showed various wounds and scars atop his head. All of which he possibly sustained as the result of enemy torture he endured for months or years possibly.
"As of right now all of you remaining have earned the right continue to the next step of the exam and have passed the first gate. I declare this part of the Chunin selection exams, completed. I wish you all the best of luck for your next assignment.
All of a sudden the cheer died down as one of the windows was crashed into and a large black banner was strung up by two kunai and a female kunoichi was in front of the sign,
"She jumped the gun… again as usual." Ibiki thought as he knew who it was.
"Heads up, boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. You ready for the second test? Good, then lets go. Follow me!" Anko brazenly declares as the room falls silent from her dramatic entrance.
"Your early… again." Ibiki told Anko as he comes from behind the banner. Anko then blushes in embarrassment with a light blush on her face.
"Geez, I never thought there could be a female Naruto and she's an adult version of him. This is gonna be good I can tell." Toshirama thought to himself.
"How many are there? Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? You must be getting soft; your tests have always been too easy." Anko asks seeing there were more candidates around than she expected.
"Or just maybe we have a stronger batch this year?" Ibiki countered. "Don't worry by the time I'm done with them over half will have been eliminated." Anko relied right back.
"This is gonna be fun. Alright maggots you've had it easy so far, but things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning. I'll let your squad leaders know where you're to meet me. Dismissed." Anko finished.
With that the first part of the exam was done and the second was to start the next day in the morning.
The morning came just as quickly as the day had ended and in front of the candidates was a fenced off forest.
"Nice place, what is it?" Naruto asked. "This is the second palce for the exam . It's the forty-fourth battle training zone. But we call it, The Forest of Death…" Anko replied.
With that ominous name left in his mind Toshirama prepared himself for the second phase of the Chunin exam.
Little did Toshirama know that his life would become defined in this phase of the test. He would meet new challenges and face a nightmare many would either have died or were simply lucky to have ever witness…
AN#1 – Here's the real update to my Naruto story. I'm sorry for all the shameless advertising I was doing before, so I hope this brings everyone's spirits back. I promise no more of things like that.
AN#2 – Remember to Favorite, Follow and Review. I wouldn't be here without you guys. :)
AN#3 – Also please don't forget about the poll on my profile after reading this. I want to heat your decisions. See you then!