Previously:
"Realize that the pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves," Ibiki ordered sternly. "As shinobi trying to achieve the level of chūnin, be proud ninjas."
"!" April frowned and then smiled wryly when she realized what he was telling them. She had to hold back a laugh. 'With that point system, it's obvious they expect there to be cheating… In other words, the only real rule is not to get caught.'
'Calm down…!' Sakura told herself, clenching her hands together anxiously. 'Yeah, of course we have Naruto, but as long as Sasuke-kun, April-chan, and I do well… even if he gets zero points… if we can cover that…'
"And the final rule…" Ibiki said. "Those that lose all their initial points during the test, and those that don't answer any questions correctly… will be failed, along with the rest of their teammates."
"!!" Sasuke gasped in alarm. 'Wha?!!' he thought incredulously.
'What did he say?!!!' Sakura screamed internally.
Sasuke glanced at April, who was only a couple of rows away, and saw that her shoulders were shaking. Of course they were. Anyone would freak out after hearing that rule when they had that loser, Naruto, on their team!
'Of course… Of course he would make a rule like that!' April thought, shaking with suppressed laughter despite the crappy situation. Ibiki was clearly aiming to wipe out as many of them as possible in this first round. Maybe it was nerves, but she couldn't help but find their terrible luck funny. She was sure there was some kind of irony in there somewhere.
"…" Naruto shuddered and hugged himself, breaking out in a nervous sweat when Sasuke and Sakura's glares pierced his back. "I sense at least two people who want to kill me…"
Chapter 41: The Whisper of Demons…!?
"The exam will last one hour," Ibiki informed the genin grimly, signaling that he was ready to start. "Ok… Begin!!" he ordered, creating a flurry of turning papers.
'This could be very, very, very bad… Naruto…' Sakura thought nervously, worried his test score would render hers and everyone else's useless. 'Just, please, don't get zero points,' she begged silently.
"Heh…" Naruto laughed. 'Hehehe… This is nothing,' he told himself, gripping his forehead protector. 'I've survived through dangerous situations numerous times… I can't fail here. In times like this, you just have to calm down… relax…' He hummed to himself while he looked over the questions, remembering the tip April and Iruka-sensei gave him to always read the whole thing first instead of focusing on the first question he saw, because some might be easier than others. It had actually been pretty helpful back in the academy… 'Calmly read each question, find one you can answer, and focus your mind on it…'
"…" Sasuke frowned when he saw how twitchy Naruto was from across the room. 'Damn… This is bad…' he thought, furrowing his brow and biting his thumb while he played with his pencil. 'Looks like Naruto's already freaking out!'
"First question is a cryptogram. Okay, let's do it!!" Naruto mused aloud with a smile, trying to calm himself down. He moved his pencil to write and looked at the complex code "…" He froze. 'Next!!' he thought, quickly skipping forward before he gave himself an aneurysm in the desperate hope the following question would be something easy.
'Is Naruto going to be alright?' Sakura wondered, sweat-dropping while she watched him. She looked back at her own paper. 'I have to worry about myself… I need to get us points here…' she reminded herself. It wouldn't matter what Naruto did if she was too busy worrying about him to pass. 'Hmm… No. 2,' she read, continuing on to the second problem, 'Line B, seen in the picture, is the greatest possible distance a shinobi… can throw his shuriken from a tree of 7 meters. For enemies who appear within the circumference of the shuriken's range, explain the attack options using this distance. Show your work.' Sakura's eyes widened. 'This is a very complicated question that requires a high amount of both book smarts and experience… There's no way Naruto can answer this…' she thought, alarmed. 'Actually, almost no one here will be able to… though I can…'
Naruto's expression mirrored his inner turmoil, becoming increasingly more stressed the farther down the paper he went.
'Heh,' Sasuke thought, smirking ruefully while read through the questions.
Naruto's lips puckered like a fish, and he paled, sweating buckets of bullets.
'Hehe… I see… I can't… answer a single one of these…' Sasuke thought, also starting to sweat. 'Plus… what's with question 10?'
Question 10
This question will be revealed 45 minutes after the test begins. Listen to the examiner closely before answering.
Sasuke looked up again to glance in April's direction and was surprised to see that her pencil was already moving at a steady pace.
April had also been surprised when she scanned the paper in front of her and saw the types of questions that were on the test, but she quickly regained control of herself and reviewed what she knew so far.
Chūnin Selection Exam, Test #1 Rules:
1. Test takers start off holding a perfect score of 10 points. The test consists of 10 questions and 1 point is deducted from the initial total for every question answered incorrectly.
2. The test is a team event, meaning that passing or failing is determined by the total of combining each team member's personal score.
3. Those caught cheating will lose 2 points for each offense.
4. Those who lose all their points during the exam (through cheating) and those who fail to answer any questions correctly will fail along with their teammates.
'These questions are too advanced...' she thought, calmly analyzing the situation, while she kept these rules in mind and her eyes on her own paper. She didn't know yet if she could do anything to help the others, but she figured she should start with making sure that she wouldn't end up with zero questions answered. 'It's obvious that this level of difficulty is meant to encourage cheating. In fact, I'm beginning to think that's the whole purpose of this thing—what they're really testing is our ability to gather data while remaining undetected in enemy territory! One hour for a test with only ten questions? They're giving the information time to circulate the room! But Ibiki and the other testing officers have no way of knowing whether or not anyone here will actually be capable of coming up with the correct answers, unless…' April paused for a moment, listening to the constant tapping of the tip of her neighbor's pencil hitting his paper while he wrote. 'This guy has been writing nonstop ever since Ibiki gave the word. He hasn't hesitated once, not even for a second… Could he be a plant?' she wondered, eyes widening slightly in realization. 'Of course! He's probably anticipated this and planted a couple of guys who already know all of the answers among us as bait, so we would have someone to cheat off of. The most important part of gathering information is to be able to do it accurately. He's probably also testing to see how well we're able to discern valuable data from misinformation… And this tenth question…' The crease in her brow deepened when she read it again. 'The fact that he's saving it means it's probably something that'll blow the rest of these questions out of the water… It could have its own special rules attached. It could even be the whole point of this exam…!'
April stopped, took a deep breath, and calmed herself.
There was no point in worrying about that now. 'First, I should focus on the things I can do…' she thought, deciding to answer the questions that she knew she could solve correctly, and then use them to check the accuracy of the answers provided by her enthusiastic neighbor. Thanks to her position, she didn't need anything fancy like Sasuke's Sharingan. 'Sometimes it's better to be lucky,' she mused. It would have been much more difficult if she had been placed somewhere else. 'All I need now is good old-fashioned peripheral vision!' Her field of vision was slightly wider than average, so she could make out enough of the marks on her neighbor's paper to be able to tell what they were without actually looking directly at them. To anyone watching from the outside, she would only appear to be looking at the edge of her own paper and no further. 'Sakura will probably do all right even without resorting to cheating, Sasuke can copy pencil movements with his Sharingan… and I think I can actually handle most of these, thanks to the stuff I've absorbed over the years living with my uncle… I just wish we didn't have to show work.' It might seem strange, but it had always been easier for her to look at a problem, solve it in her head, and then just give the answer than it was to have to slow down and take the time to write out her entire thought process. Especially, since it gave her more chances to accidentally get tripped up by her dyslexia if she wrote or read one of the steps wrong while transcribing it, and that small error ended up changing the entire answer. It had often caused trouble for her in the past, especially in math. If she turned in a test with no work and only answers that got a perfect score, then she was accused of cheating—even though she had actually finished before everyone else and was only delayed from turning it in immediately by the need to double-check to make sure that she had read the problems correctly the first time. But if she wrote down all of the steps as she went, she would have trouble finishing within the time limit and almost always ended up with a lower score from errors caused by her dyslexia. Which was why she preferred practical tests and oral exams, and secretly disliked paper tests with just as much intensity as Naruto. 'Speaking of which, I'm not sure how Naruto will pull this off, but… as long as he doesn't get caught and can answer at least one question correctly, we'll be all right!' she thought, smiling with nervous excitement. 'Maybe we'll get lucky, and Hinata will be able and willing to help him…' But, just in case, April decided she should probably start looking for a way to get some of her answers to him, once she had all of them.
'This is bad!!! Seriously…!! Seriously!!!! Seriously!!!!' Naruto screamed internally, holding his head with tears in his eyes and snot in his nose, while sweat poured from every pore on his body. 'What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do… What should I do…..WHAT SHOULD I DO?!!!!!!!!' he wondered anxiously, assuming the fetal position inside his mind. "Ahhh!!!" he gasped when he realized what he was doing. "Just… calm down…" he told himself, trying to reign it in.
"…" Hinata glanced at him with concern, worried that he didn't seem to be making any progress.
Sasuke frowned at the arrogant way the testing officers were looking at him and the rest of the examinees, watching them like hawks. '… What's with this…? It's like they assume we'll cheat… what bastards…' he thought.
'… The second rule…' Sakura thought, a bead of sweat sliding down the side of her face while she furrowed her brow and frowned. 'If they add up all the team members' scores, that means we'll be ranked… How many teams will be allowed to pass though…' she wondered. 'It's not like knowing… will make any difference…' She was a little startled when one of the boys sitting next to her suddenly stood up. "!"
"Umm… I'd just like to know one thing…" he said nervously. "How many teams will pass this test?"
"…" Sakura stared at him, sort of grateful to him for voicing the same question she had, but also dubious about his intelligence since Ibiki had already told them there would be no questions.
'Why? It's not like knowing will make a difference,' April thought, coming to the same conclusion without even bothering to look up from her test. She was curious as well, but wasting time worrying about that now would only prevent them from focusing on giving their best to quickly and accurately fill out the answers to score as many points as possible.
"Hehehe…" Ibiki chuckled darkly.
"!" Sakura and her neighbor said, suddenly getting a bad feeling.
"It's not like knowing will help you…" Ibiki replied with his face cast partially in shadow. "Or do you want to be disqualified?"
"Sorry…" the boy apologized meekly, quickly returning to his seat before he ruined the exam for his whole team.
'I thought so…' Sakura thought with a frown as more beads of sweat formed on her brow, scratching her head with her pencil. 'If only 10 of the 51 teams will pass… Then you have to score a lot of points…' She tucked her hair behind her ear. 'This is a system that encourages cheating… Hopefully Naruto or April or Sasuke-kun won't be foolish and try to cheat…' She closed her eyes for a moment. 'Don't worry, Naruto isn't that stupid,' she reassured herself. 'I know that.'
'Relax…' Naruto thought anxiously, on the verge of pulling his hair out. 'I just have to calmly… calmly… cheat in a way I won't get caught!!!' he decided desperately with a vein throbbing on his temple, gritting his teeth in frustration. "…" He narrowed his eyes when he realized what he was thinking and what it would mean if he got caught. The testing officers were staring at them so hard… 'No!! No!!' I can't do that!! I can't cross that dangerous bridge,' he thought, chickening out. He would get caught for sure!
'But all those guys watching us… they are probably making checks on those sheets,' Sasuke thought, observing how their pencils hovered over their clipboards at the ready. '!' One of them moved to jot something down. 'Someone just got caught.' He recalled the exam proctor's words when he stated the penalty for cheating.
Those pathetic ones that get caught cheating will be destroying themselves. As shinobis trying to achieve the level of chūnin, be proud ninjas.
"…" Sasuke furrowed his brow. "!!" he gasped when it suddenly clicked. 'Wait a second!!' he thought, a bead of sweat sliding down his face. '… I see, so that's it! Damn it. This isn't just a test to measure our intelligence. Hurry up and notice, Naruto. It could cost you everything… because this is… a test to see how well… we can gather information with our skills. A shinobi must be able to see through deception… So what the examiner meant was… If you are going to cheat, don't do it pathetically, but like a proud ninja, don't get caught. If you look at it that way, the subtraction point system… and the fact that they let you get caught cheating five times before failing you all makes sense. So basically, what is being tested is… our ability to gather information without being caught by the testing officers and the person whose test we are cheating off of. Notice this Naruto!! The smart guys will begin moving soon.'
'It looks like the others are starting to move…' April thought, noticing some subtle signs when she paused to flex her hand. Now that she stopped to look at the testing officers, she realized there seemed to be one more than when they first appeared. She could also hear some kind of a fly buzzing around nearby and thought she heard a few muffled barks. No one else there had a dog, so she figured it had to be Akamaru and Kiba. Then she noticed a slight increase in brightness around her paper. She looked up and saw that someone had somehow managed to attach mirrors to one of the lights. That wasn't a method anyone on her team would have used. She turned her paper over and waited for them to move on. 'Sorry, but you'll have to cheat off someone else…' she thought, glancing at the front of the classroom, where Ibiki was standing. If this test was about gathering intelligence, then part of that should also include the ability to prevent it from being stolen by a third party.
'Hehe… So she's already figured it out,' Ibiki thought, smirking when he saw the sharp, guarded look in her eyes. That girl was just as quick to catch on as he remembered her being. The 'outsider' was an interesting kid. His smirk widened at the memory of how she had the nerve to nearly laugh during his explanation of the rules. 'That brat… she knew what would be expected as soon as I gave the word to begin!' There were others present who appeared to be carrying on just as calmly as she was, but she was the only one who dared to find humor in the situation. While the others were hard-pressed to keep up, she seemed to actually be enjoying the challenge. 'Well, she won't be laughing when she finds out what comes next...' the expert interrogator thought deviously, looking forward to cracking her pokerface.
'Okay,' Sasuke thought, training his eyes on the writing hand of April's neighbor, preparing to activate his kekkei genkai. 'That guy, look at his hand movements… and copy them!! Sharingan!!'
"…" April noticed the faint light had shifted to her neighbor's paper, and immediately turned hers back over to continue.
'Ahh!! Damn it!!!' Naruto whined in his mind, clutching his head while he rested it on the desk, listening to clock ticking away. 'My only chance is to cheat!!!' He straightened up, gritting his teeth in frustration. 'Ahh!! Ahh!! Ahh!! Ahh!! I'm running out of time!!!' he cried anxiously. "!!" He froze, eyes wide, as something sharp suddenly flew straight past him.
"!!" the boy behind him gasped in alarm, flinching when the kunai embedded itself smack dab in the middle of his test paper. "Whoa!!"
'What was that…?' Naruto wondered nervously, not moving an inch. 'I was about to look over…'
"What was that for?!!" the other boy demanded incredulously.
"You messed up five times," the testing officer with the bandage over his nose told him. "You fail."
"No… No way…!!" the failed boy cried with despair, unable to refute the claim since he knew it was true.
"The two on his team, get out of here. Right now," the testing officer ordered, getting up to escort them to the door.
"Damnit…" the boy cursed while he exited with his team slowly, dragging their feet.
"Hurry up and leave," the testing officer told them sternly.
'That was close…' Naruto thought, sweating nervously. 'Okay, I've decided I'm not going to cheat.'
"Naruto-kun…" Hinata whispered softly.
"!" Naruto looked at her, surprised.
"You can look at my test," she whispered.
Naruto stared at her in shock. 'Huh?'