Here's the second chapter of the story. We're covering most of the first exam from the manga and anime, but once we hit the second exam things will head off on their own route. Also, I'm using the japanese versions of the names and name format. The hidden leaf village just sounds stupid. Damned american translators can't do anything right. Anywho...let's get going!

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Chapter 2: The First Exam Begins

The rookies turned away from the Genin from the Village between Heaven and Hell.
"Anyway about those cards…" Sasuke reminded Kabuto. "I need information on Rock Lee from Konoha and Gaara from Sunagakure-Hide-In-Sand."

"You know their names? No swear, then!" With a shift swipe of his hand, Kabuto pulled out two cards from the deck. "Here." Naruto looked completely puzzled.

"I don't have a clue what this guy's talking about…,but I'll play along." Sasuke looked at the cards. It seemed that Lee had completed 20 D ranked missions and 11 C ranked ones. His Taijutsu skills were over the top, but otherwise there's was nothing else note worthy about him. Sasuke turned his head toward Gaara's card. The first thing he noticed was Gaara's D ranked missions. Instead of a number there was a question mark. He had 8 C ranked and 1 B. It was very rare for rookies shinobi to get B ranked assignments. There wasn't any other information, except for the fact that he's come back from every mission, completely unscathed.

"Konoha, Suna, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto…This year every hidden village has sent outstanding Genin here to compete. I don't know much about Oto, the village hidden in sound. It's part of a new small nation, so intelligence on it is lacking. Every other competing village is well-respected, home to some formidably powerful shinobi." Kabuto told them as he returned the cards into the deck. "However….Nothing at all is known about the Village Between Heaven and Hell, other than the few reports that were leaked. I'd watch for those three…Something about them just doesn't feel right…"

"Would you all please shut up!" The voice came along with a cloud of smoke. "Sorry to have kept you waiting…Name's Morino Ibiki. I'm the proctor and chief examiner for the first part of the exam." His glare seemed to pierce right the mind, as he pulled out a small wooden number. "Turn in your written applications and take one of these seating assignment cards, then report directly to the seat indicated. When everyone's seating, we'll pass out the written past of the test. Sakura looked right at Naruto, who just stood there, clueless as ever. Seconds passed in silence, then it hit him.

"A-A PAPER TEST!" Minutes later all the students were seated, and the tests handed out.

"Papers face down until I give the signal.. Now listen up. There are a few big rules that pertain to this first test. I'll write them on the blackboard, and explain them all. I'm not taking questions, so listen carefully. I'll only say this once." Sakura was confused at this statement.

"Rules? And no questions….why not?" She wondered. Ibiki began writing out the test rules.

"Number 1, Each of you starts out here with ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth one point. For each question you get wrong, we subtract a point from your score. Get all ten right, you retain all ten points you have. But if, for example, you answer three questions incorrectly, we take your ten points and subtract one point for every single wrong answer, so you total would drop down to seven." Naruto thought about this for a second.

"In other words, if I get all ten questions wrong I end up with no points at all…"

"Number 2... This written test is still a team event. Passing or failing will be determined by the sum of the points held by all three cell members. The object is for each team to have as few point deductions as possible from its thirty-point total."

"W-WAIT A SECOND!" Sakura raised her hand in protest. "The whole concept is hard to follow, but what's this "team total" Your talking about?" Ibiki didn't even turn around to answer her, he just keep writing as he spoke.

"Shut up and listen, you might learn something….The next bit is crucial. Number 3, If, during the course of the exam, A candidate does anything out of the ordinary…in other words, anything that leads to the proctors to determine that he or she has cheated…we subtract two points from each member of the cheater's team. If you let the proctors catch you, you'll bring yourself down with you teammates and friends. If you aspire to become Chunin…If you want to be the best shinobi you can be…then you'd better start acting like you already are! Sakura was now more nervous then ever.

"Get a hold of yourself Sakura, it's to bad about Naruto, but Sasuke and I should be able to retain enough points for all three of us…even if Naruto gets every single answer wrong."

"One more thing…If any individual loses all ten of his or her points, that person's entire cell, regardless of how the other members do…Will Be Disqualified!" Sasuke was shocked, and Sakura nearly blew her top off at the final rule.

"I can feel them from here…both wanting to kill me already…"

"You have one hour starting… NOW!" Everyone began to read their papers, and started answering the questions. Naruto was laughing to himself.

"Heh Heh This is funny. Here I am again facing my worst kind of enemy. Teachers didn't call me the all-time dunce for nothing! The trick is not to show any fear…tests can smell fear. Remain calm..don't try to do everything at once. Look each question square in the eye. Try to find the weakest link… and separate it from the herd, and take it down." Sasuke looked at Naruto with concern.

"This is SO not good…Naruto is an idiot…I just hope he doesn't panic." Over the next 30 minutes the students wrote down their answers. Sasuke scanned over the test, and came to a stop at number 10. "This question will not be provided until Forty-Five minutes into the exam. At that time please answer the question to the best of your ability." This one didn't make any sense to Sasuke, and the point system was set up so it almost forced you to cheat. Sasuke thought back to Ibiki's words…then it hit him. "Hold it…Now I get it! This is an Intelligence test… in more than just the academic sense. Naruto wake up…Your history is you don't figure it out. They're also testing our information gathering skills, they WANT us to cheat…like shinobi! Without getting caught! Come on Naruto, any minute now everyone who's figured it out will start going for it!" Ryu focused his eyes on one of the students near the front row. Small flames danced in his eyes, as he began to slowly close them. Once his eyes completely closed, the flames lit up the darkness, and the test answers of the person he had just stared at began to show themselves to him. On the other side of the room Matt didn't move at all, instead his eyes, just barely looking down, staring at a small mirror like object in his armband, shot from it to the test paper. Nothing appeared to the other students, so it seemed only Matt could see it. Using the light waves from the sun, he blinded a few students for a second or two, then focused the mirror to just the right spot, and began copying down their test answers. Corrine lit a small fireball under the table, and placed it on the ground. The fire traveled under the chairs of the students, until it reached the one he picked out. Climbing to the table, and right underneath the student's test, grew just a small bit in size. Now looking at his hand, Corrine waited. The fire continued to burn under the test, and the answers appeared on Corrine's hand, as he copied them down. Ibiki watched each of the students in turn. But spent more time on Gaara, and the three from Heaven and Hell. None of them looked even the smallest bit scared, not turning a single hair in the middle of all this chaos.

"Amazing." Ibiki thought to himself. 10 minutes passed, as thirteen cells were flunked out. Ibiki raised his hand, a signal to stop. "Now that we've weeded out the worst of the slackers…Let's move on to the most important question. Get ready!"

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Next chapter, we finish up the first exam and start at the very intro of the second. Around chapter 4-5 we'll begin to true story. Either way, I await your reviews!