After smashing his fist into the blackboard, there was complete silence in the room.
No one dared to make any noise.
But contrary to everyone's expectations, Ibiki formed a small smile and said: "Sure, we can't have our participants die of thirst."
He then nodded to one proctor, who then disappeared and appeared with a can of green ice tea which he placed at Eiji's table.
'I honestly didn't expect to really get some tea...I'm not really thirsty...but declining now would be a bit too much...'
"Uhm...thanks..." - Eiji
Of all the participants, he was currently the only one knowing that Ibiki had somewhat of a soft side, but he didn't expect him to really give him something to drink.
But Ibiki, who was a master of human psychology, did the unexpected thing to confuse his "enemy" and to get the psychological advantage!
After that Eiji stopped his trolling and just kept silent.
'Hehehe, brat you still have much to learn...' - Ibiki
This year's exam, where many promising and clever Genin participated, many could see through the meaning of Ibiki's action, which in turn intensified the pressure which they faced.
Because of that, more people left than in the original timeline.
Of course, there were people like Naruto who were oblivious, but he was currently occupied with his own inner turmoil.
More people left.
But Naruto then started to shout suddenly, that he wouldn't quit and even if he failed, he would still become Hokage.
So things still played out like they were supposed to, so Ibiki said that everyone who was still there passed.
Then he started to explain his reasoning for his weird test.
"You've passed the first hurdle. Part one of the chunin selection exam is now concluded. I'll pray you fight the good fight!" - Ibiki
"Yeah, You do that! Go pray!" - Naruto
'Ho ho...what an entertaining kid...' - Ibiki
Suddenly there was a sound of a window breaking, and Anko appeared: "None of you are in any position to celebrate. I am the second chief examination officer...Mitarashi Anko!! Time's a wastin, people. Let's go!!"
"..." - everyone
"Can't you see the mood in here?" - Ibiki
"This new officer almost reminds me...of Naruto." - Sakura
...
Everyone left except Ibiki, who was collecting the written exams.
'Huh, he's the kind of person who thinks he can pass the exam...with a completely blank answer sheet. Uzumaki Naruto...is a very intriguing young man.' - he said that while smiling.
Then next he saw the blank sheets of Eiji and his teammates.
This time he broke out in complete laughter.
'...I didn't know their names till now...I see, so those a Hayate's brats? He really found himself some funny ones...HAHAHA'
He kept laughing while thinking of his former teammate Hayate and the pranks his student did in today's exam.
'...maybe I should think about leading a Genin-team too...'
"Eiji, your insider information really saved me there...I honestly think I would have quit there if I didn't know..." - Arina was whispering to Eiji while Anko was telling them about the forest of death.
Then Kotaru joined in as well: "Yeah it really saved me as well. By the way, do you have some insider information for thi - WHAT THE!"
While he was whispering, Anko threw a Kunai at Naruto and licked the blood of his wound, which disturbed many.
But this wasn't everything, now even some weirdo gave her the kunai she threw with his long-ass tongue (definitely not Orochimaru).
Anyway, nothing dangerous happened and Anko gave everyone consent forms to sign.
She then started to explain the second exam.
...
"...You have 120 hours in which to complete this exam - exactly five days!" - Anko
"Five days?!" - Ino
"What are we supposed to do about food?!" - Choji
"That's your problem. The forests are full of nature's bounty. Of course, they're also full man-eating animals, deadly insects, and poisonous plants."
"EVERYONE LISTEN!!!"
Kotaru panicked: "Eiji what are you doing? Why are you suddenly shout - "
Everyone's gazes turned towards him, but Eiji just smiled and took a scroll out.
Suddenly a big sack of food rations appeared.
"I sell some food rations, each for only 5000 ryo..."
"What? 5000? What a ripoff..." - some random mob.
"This kid is really, dumb. We just have to target him in the forest and take all the -"
"Thanks for buying."
"CHOJI!!! WHY DID YOU BUY EVERYTHING??!!!" - Ino
This brat not only interrupted me, but he is even shamelessly selling stuff in front of me!'
Anko was smiling dangerously, while she was about to explode.
But she tried to hold herself back while saying to Eiji: "You really have some balls pissing of the chief examination officer...good - since you will need it in the forest..."
"EVERYONE, I ALSO SELL FIRST-AID KITS!!!" - Eiji
...
Anko appeared in front of him with a fist.
She wanted to smash his stupid face till he begs for mercy!
But she never thought he would block it with his sword sheath.
Even though as a Tokubetsu Jonin (eng. Special Jonin) her speed is nothing to scoff at, in Eiji's opinion she was slightly slower than Hayate.
For Kenjutsu user, technique and speed are the most important things.
And since Hayate trained Eiji, when it comes to speed, he was one of the fastest of all the genin's currently here.
Because when it comes to physical training, Hayate only needed to train him in terms of speed.
It's not like Lee, who in addition to speed needs to train his strength as well, to perform his Taijutsu.
Currently, Eiji's speed was similar to Lee's without the weights.
But that's only his normal speed.
If he has time to prepare and accelerate his chakra, he can dash out like a bullet.
Anyway, Anko was surprised that a Genin could block her attack.
The surrounding Genin's were also surprised since not long ago Naruto couldn't even react to her attack.
"Hooo not bad...anyway I think its better to stop wasting time and start the test already." - Anko
She stopped attacking him and just wanted to get away from this annoying troll as fast as possible.
"All right, everyone, follow your proctors to your respective gates! When the signal sounds in half an hour, the exam will begin!" - Anko
"Honestly...what is he doing..." - Tenten had an unhappy and a bit worried expression.
'Eiji Nakamura...' - Neji
"I honestly feel this bloody test is a bit too much...it means that half of all the teams will die..." - Arina
"Yeah, but I think we should be fine, no one looked nearly as strong as the guy we fought in our last mission..." Kotaru
Team eleven was waiting for the start of the test when every gate was suddenly simultaneously opened by the proctors.
All Genin dashed straight into the forest to get a possible head start.
Being faster than the other teams gives the advantage of scouting the forest while also possibly laying ambushes, so no team wanted to waste time.
Except for one team.
"Hey Eiji, shouldn't we hurry up or something?" - Kotaru
"Jo chill, what's the hurry anyway? We have 5 days to complete this, why waste energy on useless stuff?" - Eiji
"But the other teams will have the advantage and can lay ambushes. Furthermore, there will be fewer teams as time goes one, so getting a scroll will be harder..." - Arina
"Yeah, but this is exactly what I want though...the strong teams will get their scrolls fast, while the leftover teams will be easy targets...furthermore right now with some many teams battling it is probably really chaotic for the first few hours and I don't wanna deal with that!" - Eiji
"You are always trying to achieve things half-assed...if we end up not getting a scroll it will be entirely your fault..." - Kotaru
"That's kinda rude...anyway let's walk along the fence and find a place to set up our camp...no team would return to the gates, that's why those are the safest places..." . Eiji
Even though Arina and Kotaru were dissatisfied with his plan and approach, they didn't say anything and followed him, since so far his plans all worked out.
"..."
Anko was sitting on a roof outside the fence and was just about to eat her lunch when a group of Genin walked along the fence in her direction.
It was the team of the annoying troll from earlier.
When he saw her, he told his teammates that this would be a good place for whatever they planned.
All teams should be moving deeper into the forest, so to her, their actions were nonsensical.
She wondered even if they wanted to quit, but then remembered that the boy with the sword should be fairly strong.
Anyway, she wanted to eat her lunch, so she stopped paying attention to them and started to eat her Dango rice dumplings and Oshiruko bean soup.
"EIJI?! WHY ARE YOU SETTING A BARBECUE UP?!" - Kotaru
When Anko heard that, she turned to them to look and saw how Eiji summoned a full outdoor barbecue set with tables and so on from a scroll.
"WHAT THE -"
"Hey chief examination officer, you wanna join us for barbecue?" - Eiji
When Anko heard that, even though she smiled, her whole face twitched.
She wanted nothing more than to go in and smack his face until you could call it modern art.
Of course, she wasn't allowed to do such things as the chief examination officer, but because of her personality, she would have done it anyway if a Konoha shinobi didn't appear who shouted: "Terrible news, lady Anko!!!"
"What is it?" - Anko
"Dead bodies! Three of them..."
"Dead bodies?!" - Anko
"Dead and very weird. Please come see for yourself!"
She disappeared with the shinobi, leaving team eleven with their barbecue alone.
"..." - Kotaru
"Why do make such a face? You know, it's a barbecue, you should enjoy yourself. I also have some soft drinks..." - Eiji
While his teammates had an awkward barbecue, surrounded by noises of fighting and screams, Eiji thought: 'So it's almost time... let's finish the steak first though.'
His plan was actually to go to Anko after her fight with Orochimaru, to get a favor from her after helping her with her injuries!
But even though he is pretty strong for a Genin, when it comes to scouting he is absolutely terrible.
His teammates also don't excel in scouting.
So the easiest way is to observe Anko.
Since the start of this test, he was searching for her chakra, and the possibility was high that she would still be at one of the gates.
Of course, his plan wasn't bulletproof, since she now just left to investigate the bodies - the ones Orochimaru killed and took their identities.
But at least he knows now that the fight should happen pretty soon.
Finding someone is much easier if you know when the target is active than just randomly guess where and when.
Now he only has to guess where.
After finishing his steak he told his teammates: "Jo, nature's calling. Defend my barbecue-equipment until I'm back!"
It seemed logical, so they could only do as he told them.
But he didn't need to pee or poop - in truth he just didn't want to share Anko's favor with them!
If he is the only one who popes out with a first aid kit and some cold beer when she is injured, of course, she would be grateful.
When he asks her to return the favor in the future, he is going to ask her to teach him the snake summoning jutsu.
With that, he could learn sage mode!
His original plan was to be just decently strong and then desert to live a quiet and happy life, but it doesn't hurt to get stronger just in case.
Of course, he could also ask Naruto in the future to teach him the toad summoning jutsu, but too much dangerous stuff will happen at the time Naruto already learned it, and Eiji wants to desert before being involved in all that jazz.
Anyway, since he sucked at scouting, he summoned a shadow clone, which would walk in front of him, so that if he would trigger some kind of trap, his clone would see the other side instead of him.
Since he didn't know where she was, he just moved in the direction where it was the loudest.
It was already dusk, so most teams stopped their fighting to prepare for the night, so there weren't many fights going on.
At the second fight, he could see snake attacks from afar.
'Bingo...'
He searched for a spot at the top of a tree to observe better, but it suddenly went quiet.
'Did they finish already?...WAIT! If Orochimaru comes randomly in my direction and sees that I observed them, he will probably kill me...I should just pretend like I'm randomly here and that I didn't notice them. Then he should think I'm an insignificant insect to him or something so he just ignores me!'
Instead of climbing the tree, he started to pee.
'Yeah, being alone and away from my team to piss should be the least suspicious thing to do!'
While he was peeing, he heard the bush he was peeing on rustling.
Eiji first thought he peed on an animal.
But instead, it was a person crawling out: this person looked like she had a high fever and pushed her hand on what looked like a mark on her neck.
Anko saw Eiji and was clearly not happy receiving his golden shower.
'Oh no! My plan is ruined!'
Anko had almost no injuries from her fight.
The reason for her sorry state was her curse mark, which reacted to Orochimaru.
The pain was almost unbearable and she felt like she could lose consciousness any second now.
Of course, she knew that in a few hours the curse mark would stop pulsating and that she would be fine after that.
That is why she was crawling stealthily throughbushes, to avoid the dangerous animals in the forest.
But now another feeling emerged beside unbearable pain, it was pure anger.
She never felt more humiliated in her entire life!
Activating the curse mark now would make her state even worse, so much so that she would probably need to lay in a bed for a few days instead of waiting a few hours.
But she didn't care and activated it.
"Ehmm, hello chief examination officer? What a funny coincidence meeting you here -"
When Eiji saw her curse mark activating he stopped his sentence and ran like never beforein his life.
But it was already too late.
"You know, I'm starting to suspect that youknew the contents of this test beforehand..."
Anko was saying that while looking at the comfortable camping tent.
Besides that, there were a bunch of things for outdoor camping like a water filter and even some magazines to kill time!
And she was currently laying on a deck chair.
Of course, Eiji couldn't afford to buy so much stuff, so he took a loan.
But with the profits, he got from Choji he can pay off his dept easily and still have some profit.
"Yesh ma'am. I hash shom good conneshions!"
Eiji was currently bowing respectfully while he was wearing only his underwear. and his head was completely swollen with bumps, making it difficult to understand him.
It was really a comical sight.
Even though she really wanted to kill him back there, if she lost consciousness after that she would be dead for sure.
Since she didn't know when the requested Anbuwould arrive, she needed a sla - I mean a helper until then.
So she restrained herself succumbing to the blood-lust from the curse mark and just beat him into submission.
After that, she used one of the first aid kids, washed herself in the nearby river, and forced him to give her his clothes.
Of course, his clothes were too small for her and already worn by him, but it's still better than wearing clothes soaked in pee or walking without any.
She then wanted to force him to prepare a place to sleep for her, but he started to summon all kinds of stuff from scrolls instead.
"I wonder which idiot couldn't keep his mouth shut...well it doesn't matter: shinobis are supposed to be able to collect information, so if the other teams didn't think of the idea to get some insider info they can't really complain. Anyway, give me another beer!"
"But yu had alredy four bottlesh..."
With just a glance of her, he shut up and gaveher another one respectfully.
"To be honest, meeting you here wasn't that bad...waiting for those slow Anbu got really more convenient hahahaha!"
"Sur ma'am. I wouldsh do evrethinsh for -"
Eiji's almost not understandable sentence wasinterrupted by three giant tigers suddenly appearing.
He picked his sword up and got into his Iai-stance.
He was really beaten to a pulp by Anko, so he wasn't sure if he could fight those tigers in his state.
But when the tigers jumped, they suddenly stopped and just stood still.
'This should be paralysis...' - Anko who was watching it with a grim expression was deducing.
"Fancy meeting you here, Anko!"
Hearing that, Anko relaxed.
The Anbu she requested finally arrived.
In her current state, she wouldn't be able to fight those tigers, and she also didn't want to put her life into Eiji's hands, so she was really happy.
"You two must be the slowest-moving Anbu's I've ever met!" - Anko
"Aw! Don't be like that...besides...who is that?"
The two Anbus looked at the half-naked Eiji, with his completely swollen face, and all the camping items besides them.
They never expected to see such a scene when meeting Anko.
"..."
"He helped me since this damn mark was runnin wild!" - Anko
"Mark? Don't tell me..."
Anko signaled him to not disclose any sensitive information around Eiji.
One of the Anbus helped her get up and when they were about to leave, Anko turned towards Eiji: "Hey kid, you kinda helped me out there, so if you can pass this test, I'll pay you back when I meet you at the tower!"
Ignoring the whole pee fiasco, she didn't know that in the original timeline she would survive without problems, so she thought now that Eiji helped her avoiding a dangerous situation.
When they left, Eiji exclaimed happily: "Yesh! My plan susheeded!!!"