Author's note: I'm having a little trouble deciding which route I want to go with the story after the Exam and Invasion of Konoha... So for anyone who is interested or would like to help, I've added a poll to my profile for you to choose from.

Previously:

The whole room tensed. April tightened her grip on her pencil, bracing herself for another glimpse of hell.

"I congratulate you on passing the first test!!!" Ibiki boomed with a grin.

"!!" April gasped, eyes widening slightly.

'Ha?' Naruto thought as his pencil feel from his hand, absolutely stunned.

Chapter 43: The Tested Abilities…!!

"To the eighty who remain… congratulations on passing the first test!!" Ibiki announced again, enjoying the stunned expressions on their faces.

"!!!" the entire room gasped, shocked.

'I see...' April thought with a relieved smile. "Hehe… So, it was like that after all!"

"!" Sasuke furrowed his brow slightly. She had kept her voice down, but he still heard it. 'After all…? Don't tell me she actually predicted this…?'

'Heh, now she really is laughing!' Ibiki thought, smirking. He couldn't hear April as well as those closer to her, but he could see her.

"..." Naruto stared at Ibiki, too stunned by what he had just said about passing to register anything else.

"Wait… what do you mean?" Sakura asked, confused. "We already pass? What about the 10th question?"

"There never was such a thing," Ibiki replied with a cheeky grin. "Or, you could say that those two choices were the 10th question."

"Huh!?" Sakura exclaimed in disbelief, stumped by the surprising outcome and his abrupt change in demeanor.

'Ah, here it is… the emotional whiplash…' April thought wryly with a smile. He did this last time they met, too. The instant the interrogation was over, he suddenly flipped a switch and started acting like a nice guy. She had also been shocked by the sudden turnaround. It was a jarring juxtaposition. 'Well, I guess that means the danger's really over… for now, at least.'

"Hey!! Then what were the first nine questions for?!!" the blonde girl of the sand ninja trio demanded. "They were pointless, then!!"

"They were not pointless…" Ibiki stated calmly. "They had already served their intended purpose."

"!" the sand girl seemed to run out of steam. "Hn…?"

Ibiki's smile widened. "To test your individual information gathering abilities… that was their purpose."

"?" she furrowed her brow. "Information gathering…?"

"First, as the rules explained… Success on this test is based on the whole team doing well. This put pressure on each team member not to… mess things up for their teammates," he explained.

"I see… I see..." Naruto bluffed with a straight face, nodding his head. "I had a feeling this test was like that."

'Liar!!' Sakura thought.

'He had no clue at all, huh?' April thought wryly, resting her head on her hand with a small smile. Typical Naruto.

"Yup!" Naruto said firmly with another nod.

"Hehehe," Hinata giggled quietly.

"But the questions on this test were not the types a mere genin could answer," Ibiki continued. "Because of that… I'm sure most of you came to the same conclusion: 'In order to score points, I'll have to cheat.' Basically… the premise of this test is to cheat."

"Heh," Sasuke smirked. He thought as much.

"As cheating targets, we had two or so chūnins who knew all of the answers mixed into the crowd, to help you guys out," Ibiki added, while the two chūnins in question smiled and nodded their heads. One of them was April's studious neighbor.

April smiled at having her suspicions confirmed.

"!" Naruto gasped, clapping his hands on the side of his face like the kid from Home Alone, eyes and mouth opened wide in shock. 'Huh!? I had no idea!!!'

"Man… it sure was tough finding that guy," Naruto heard someone behind him say.

"Yeah, I know," another genin agreed.

"..." Naruto twitched a little, sweating nervously. "Hahahahaha!!! I saw right through that!!! You'd have to be a moron to not notice that!!!" he laughed obnoxiously, trying to cover his ignorance. "Right, Hinata!?"

"Yeah..." Hinata agreed quietly.

'He hadn't noticed it himself either...' Sasuke thought, sweat-dropping.

'Right, right! Don't worry, Naruto. We still love you, even if you are moron…!' April thought affectionately, nodding in agreement with her little twerp of a friend.

"But those that cheat poorly… fail, of course," Ibiki said, reaching up to remove his forehead protector. "Because… at times, information is more important than life..." The cloth was pulled away to reveal an entire skull's worth of scars. "And on missions and the battlefield, people risk their lives to get their hands on it."

"!" April gasped furrowed her brow. He had showed them to her before, when she expressed the desire to become a ninja, during their interview as a warning, but they were still terribly unsettling no matter how many times she saw them; not because of the way they looked, but because of the malice behind them. She was pretty sure it was even worse under his gloves.

She wasn't alone in that feeling. The entire room was horrified.

'Horrible burns, screw holes, scars… the after effects of torture...' Sasuke thought with a frown, also furrowing his brow.

"…!" Naruto gasped as he came to the same conclusion.

"..." the redheaded sand ninja stared at the scarred man with an unreadable expression.

Ibiki put his forehead protector back on. "If the enemy or a third party notices you… there is no guarantee the info will be accurate… I want you to remember this. Important information in your hands… can be a powerful weapon for your comrades and for the village. So we had you gather information through cheating. This clearly separated those that did not have the right abilities."

"… But… I don't understand the final question," the blonde sand girl said.

Ibiki smiled. "But… question ten… is the true purpose of this test."

"?" Naruto said.

"…. What do you mean?" Sakura asked.

"..." April had a feeling she knew, but she wanted to hear it straight from the horse's mouth.

"Let me explain… the 10th question… the 'take it' or 'don't take it' decisions… obviously these were painful choices," Ibiki said. 'Those who choose the latter fail along with their teammates. Those who choose to take it… could lose the chance to take the test again… A true leap of faith."

"…." Ino furrowed her brow and frowned, still not sure where he was going with this.

"Now, about these two choices… Say you become chūnins," Ibiki continued. "Your mission is to steal a secret document. The amount of enemy ninjas, their abilities, etc. is unknown to you. And, of course, there could be traps set all around you. Now do you accept, or not accept? Because you don't want to die… Because you don't want your comrades hurt… can you avoid this dangerous mission?"

"..." Naruto frowned at the difficult question.

"The answer is no!!" Ibiki stated firmly. "No matter what the danger… there are missions you can't avoid."

Naruto smiled.

"The ability to be courageous and survive any hardship… This is the ability needed to become a chūnin captain," Ibiki stated, letting his eyes focus directly on April. He could tell from what he had seen of her during this test that she already had what that took. Furthermore, she had still chosen to become a ninja even after his graphic warning, which meant she walked straight into it with her eyes wide open, unlike a lot of the naive kids who joined the academy at a young age simply because it was expected of them.

'Huh? Why is he looking at me…?' April wondered, sweat-dropping. She wasn't sure how she should take that cryptic stare of his.

"Those who can't put their destinies on the line… who cling to the uncertain future of 'there's always next year'… and then walked away from their chance… those pieces of trash who can only make cowardly choices… don't have the right to become chūnin… That's how I feel!!" he declared adamantly. "Those who chose to take it… answered the 10th question correctly. You will be able to survive any troubles you face in the future. You made it through the entrance. The first test of the Chūnin Selection Exam is now finished. I wish you guys luck," he concluded with a genuine smile.

"Hell, yeah!! Wish us luck!!" Naruto cheered exuberantly, earning a smile from April.

"Hehe..." Ibiki chuckled at his antics. 'Interesting guy...' He tensed when he sensed another presence approaching fast.

CRASH!!

"!!" April and the others gasped, alarmed when a balled up figure came bursting through the one of the windows, shattering it. Even the chūnins sitting closest to it seemed startled as they dodged or raised their arms to shield themselves from the flying shards.

"Wha!!?" the genin in their path cried, ducking behind their desks for cover, while the mysterious figure spun through the air.

April watched with wide eyes as two kunais shot out, embedding themselves in the ceiling tiles, while the cloth shrouding the intruder unfurled.

"What's this?!!" Naruto demanded incredulously, eyes bugging out of his head in shock and surprise. What the heck was going on!?

Sakura gasped as the intruder slid to a halt. Before them stood a fierce woman wearing a tan overcoat and dark orange miniskirt over a fitted mesh body suit, that covered her from her neck down to her thighs, metal shin guards, and a necklace that looked like a snake fang. Her short, spiky hair was pulled up in a fanned ponytail. Behind her was a banner with kanji announcing the second stage of the exam.

'Geez… Not this one...' Ibiki thought with a sigh, sweat-dropping. Her banner now completely blocked his view of the classroom, and vice-versa.

"You guys!!!" the kunoichi roared, making sure she had their full attention. "This is no time to be celebrating!!! I am the examiner for the second test!! Anko Mitarashi!!! Now, let's go!!! Follow me!!!" she cried enthusiastically, pumping her fist in the air.

"…!?" Naruto said, completely bewildered by the weird and abrupt display, while everyone else in the room stared, feeling awkward.

"Bad timing..." Ibiki told the loud woman, peeking out from behind the banner.

Anko blushed out of embarrassment when she realized her mistake, frozen with her hand in the air.

'That really surprised me… Looks like she jumped the gun...' April thought, sweat-dropping. She must have let her guard down too much after learning they passed, because she hadn't expected that at all. 'I need to stay more alert…!'

'This examiner… is Naruto-ish...' Sakura thought, chagrined.

"..." Anko stared out at the room full of genin. "Eighty…!?" she exclaimed in disbelief after she finished counting, turning on her fellow jōnin. "Ibiki!! You left twenty-six teams?!! The test was too easy this time!" she scolded him.

"This time… there are a lot of outstanding ones," Ibiki retorted with the hint of a smirk, unperturbed.

"Bah, that's fine..." Anko said dismissively. "I'll at least cut them in half in the second test."

"!!" Sakura gasped. 'Cut us!? At least in half?' she thought, startled. Just what was this woman planning on doing to them.

"Ahh… I'm getting excited..." Anko said with a dark smirk, trembling a little with anticipation. "I'll explain everything once we've changed places, follow me."

'Whatever it is… I get the feeling it won't be another written exam,' April thought, sweat-dropping.

Once they had all cleared out, Ibiki began collecting the test papers.

'!' Ibiki thought, surprised when he found one that was still completely unmarked. "Heh," he laughed when he saw who its owner was. 'There's a guy who got through here with a blank test… Naruto Uzumaki… a very interesting guy...' First, April and now this kid. Kakashi had some real characters on his team.