Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto

Chapter 16 – The exam begins

After talking to their sensei they entered the room. There were a lot of shinobi from both Konoha and other villages maybe around two-hundred or so. Naruto looked around and saw lots of angry faces looking directly at them. Naruto just smiled and yelled, "Bring it on!! I'll beat each and every single one of you." He chuckled as Hinata grabbed his arm.

"Naruto do you think you should go aggravating the competition?" Shikamaru asked. "Jeez what a troublesome guy you are." Sasuke had just walked in as Naruto made his proclamation.

"Hey Sasuke, sweetie. I haven't seen you in forever." Ino proclaimed as she wrapped her arms around Sasuke's neck from behind.

"Jeez Ino, let go." Sasuke said annoyed at Ino.

A silver haired young man walked over to the group. "If I were you I would keep it down around here. Most of the people here are on edge."

"Who the hell are you?" Sasuke asked.

"Me? I am Kabuto Yakushi. I am nobody important." This brought a couple looks from some of the group including Naruto. "Look I have taken this exam seven times. My guess is that you guys are the rookies I have heard so much about."

"What of it?" Sasuke snidely remarked.

"Well let me explain a little something to you." Kabuto explained as he pulled out a deck of cards.

"Cards? What are those for? They're just blank cards?" Sakura added.

"Ah, but if I infuse them with my chakra so they show some very interesting things that I have collected through research. I have gotten nearly two-hundred cards on individuals." Kabuto goes into a lengthy and detail that there are ninja from almost all the villages here to take the exam. He also makes a couple of comments about the sound village being small and insignificant. "Is there anyone you would like to have information on?"

Sasuke nods "Rock Lee and that Gaara guy."

"You know their names you're making this too easy. Let's see what I have." He states as he grabs a card and turns it. A picture of Rock Lee appears and it shows that he is a very good at taijutsu but nothing else. "Well he is good at taijutsu. Let's see. Gaara of the sand, that is funny I have nothing on him. Other than he has returned from all missions without even a scratch. Sorry but as he is a foreign shinobi I don't have that much information on him."

Naruto, Sasuke, and Lee all out of the corner of their eyes see the three different ninja moving towards them in a threatening manner.

Naruto intercepts a kunai headed towards Kabuto. Lee blocks a couple senbon. Sasuke just watches the person who appears to be the primary attack but another whose head is wrapped in bandages comes up in front of Kabuto. He swings his arm but appears to miss. Kabuto smiles for a second then feels very dizzy. His glasses break and he coughs a small amount of blood. "No one insults the sound village. Do I make myself clear?" The bandaged ninja says as he walks away.

Suddenly a poof of smoke and a man in a trench coat with a couple dozen Chunin dressed in proctor uniforms appear. "Ok brats time to start the exam, Take your seats. I am Ibiki Morino I am your proctor, and your worst enemy." All the assembled Genin took seats according to where their lottery number placed them.

Naruto and his team are split up with Naruto being sent up to the front, Hinata is placed a couple rows behind him and Shino put on the other side of the room. Much to Naruto's annoyance Sakura was seated right next to him. Shino was not happy about his placement in the back of the room away from the rest of his team. Hinata was not pleased with where they are placed either.

"Okay maggots!! You have 45 minutes to do the exam. You will fail if your score is dropped to zero points. First of all you will all be given ten points to start off with. Each time you are caught cheating you will lose two points. You also lose one point for each wrong answer. If your points are brought to zero by cheating or wrong answers both you and your team will be asked to leave for failing the exam. You may begin."

Each person turns over their test and looks over the questions. Naruto has a look of utter terror on his face as he doesn't even understand the questions let alone how to answer them. He starts to look around and hear the proctors start to name off names. "Number 15 you're done, and take your team with you. Number 43 fail, leave with your team." This continues for a few minutes with several more teams being asked or told to leave. Naruto then notices that Sakura's paper is near his.

She quietly whispers "You can cheat off mine, as this is of course the main reason of this test. Consider this a returned favor for helping me see myself." Naruto looks at her then shakes his head.

"I will find another way to pass, thank you though. You are becoming a nice person." Naruto smiles as he keeps on thinking of ways he can pass the test. Several other teams were eliminated as the test continued.

The time is finally up and all Naruto has to show for it is a blank page with only his name at the top. "Okay put down your pencils. There is a final question on the test." Ibiki sadistically laughs. "Well this one is the funny question. But first you have to let me know if you want the question. And before you answer, I must tell you the conditions for taking the tenth question. First, if you miss the final question your points will be dropped to zero, second your team will fail. Third you will be made a Genin forever, never able to take this exam again." He starts to laugh again.

Naruto is thinking, 'Guess I have to put all my eggs in one basket and hope for the best on the final question.'

Ibiki smiles evilly. "So if you want to forfeit and fail now you can. No one will feel any less about you. You can take the test again in six months. But if you feel you will pass the question, please by all means stay." His grin gets even bigger. "So any takers on waiting another six months so that you can be better prepared?"

This brought about a round of about a dozen teams quitting. Hinata was watching Naruto in absolute fear as she knew that he had no questions answered at all. She started to raise her hand when she hears a hand slam down on a desk in front of her. It was Naruto and he was standing. "This is crap! Come on and give us the question. I never quit! I never give up! That is my nindo, my ninja way. So bring on your all important question! I don't care if I am stuck as genin the rest of my life, so what, I will still become Hokage someday no matter what!" Naruto was smiling from ear to ear.

"Okay, sit down and let the others think. Do I have any other takers?" Ibiki asked. 'Man I think he just put some backbone in the rest of them.' "This is your last chance, there is no turning back!" Ibiki waited for a couple minutes but none of the others decided to quit. He starts to laugh. "Ok, you all pass the first part of the exam!"

Everyone looked very confused. The female sand ninja, Temari, spoke up first. "Um, proctor? What do you mean we pass?"

Ibiki smiled. "Well as you can surmise, the first set of questions were nearly impossible for any normal genin to answer. So it was test espionage skills and skills at gathering information without being caught, thus the reason you would lose two points instead of failing outright. If the enemy knows that you have knowledge about information, the value would be lessened. Thus it is better to not get the information than being caught trying to do so." Ibiki paused and pulled his bandana off his head revealing a bald but scared scalp, there were cuts, and burns evident all over his scalp. "Being caught gathering information can either lead to your death or that of your team. It is better not to get the information than being caught trying to get it, as the information's value would be lessened by the enemies' knowledge of you knowing something about the information stolen."

He looked around the room and saw that only a few were getting what he was saying. "Okay, look at it this way. If you were caught with information that a group of people were going to use your back door to enter your house, they might use a different way to enter or not enter at all. This knowledge of who has the information is power. If you can get information and not be caught you are in better shape than if you have information that can be changed on you." He smiled as most of the room seemed to understand what he was trying to convey.

Sakura spoke up this time. "Then when do we get the tenth question?"

"That's just it, you answered my tenth question." Everyone looked confused as Ibiki put his bandana back on his head. "Shinobi are given missions that maybe impossible to achieve. So if the mission means death for you or your team, will you choose to not accept the mission? No, you cannot and that is why I asked the last question. To lead and send people on mission you must accept that you will either fail and be scorned or will die on the mission. That shows leadership and thus what a chunin rank signifies. This is why genins get the easy missions. They are not ready to make the sacrifice that a chunin will make and will make his team also make for their village. I have said enough, congratulations on completing the first part of the Chunin exam!! "

Suddenly a large object appears in the window and comes crashing through it. When it reaches the middle of the room it separates in four directions leaving a woman in rather a revealing outfit. She was wearing a long trench coat that was open, a short skirt, shin guards, and fish a netting shirt, leaving little to the imagination. She stood in front of a banner saying 'I am Anko Mitarashi. Your second proctor.' "Hello maggots, I am your proctor for the second part of your exam." The new proctor leaned slightly back and over towards Ibiki while she quietly asked "Hey Ibiki, what happened? There are a lot of them almost too many."

"There are a lot of good candidates this year." Ibiki responded.

"Or is it that the test you gave them was too easy? Are you going soft, Ibiki?" Anko rebutted. She then raised her voice so that the whole room could hear her. "That's okay I guarantee that I will reduce the number by half when this section of the chunin exam is over. Okay, I want all of you to find your jonin sensei as will tell be able to tell you where to meet tomorrow morning for the next part of the exam. You are dismissed."

Ibiki starts to gather the papers from the exam. 'That kid really did a good job of inspiring the others not to quit. What was his name?' He came up on Naruto's paper and looked at it and could not stop himself from chuckling. 'Naruto Uzumaki huh? I passed him even though he did not even answer a single question. I must be slipping.' He finished up and headed to the room with the jonin sensei, only the Konoha ones were still in there. "So who is in charge of Naruto Uzumaki?" Ibiki asked with a large grin.

Kurenai was a bit worried about answering Ibiki as both Gai and Kakashi looked at her. "He is my student, why?"

"Well I think he may just make his dream of becoming Hokage." Ibiki chuckled.

"Why do you say that?" Kurenai looked confused.

"Of all the chunin hopefuls he was first able to figure out and beat my no-win scenario and then I finding out that he did not even answer a single answer on the test giving him a perfect score of 10 out of 10. Anyone who can get me like that should be Hokage eventually." He snickered.

Kakashi jus t shook his head. "You mean he passed without answering anything on the test?" Asuma asked.

"Well he figured out my tenth question. He even promised to be the first genin to become Hokage." Ibiki laughed again. "With that much determination it will take him far."

"Stubborn, crafty, and insightful, well that's Naruto for you." Kurenai replied with a smile on her face. "Konoha's number one hyperactive, most unpredictable ninja." With that comment they all laughed.

During the celebratory dinner, which was on Kurenai, Hinata apologized to her team saying, "I am sorry for not believing in you Naruto-kun. I almost raised my hand and had us leave. I was scared that you would always be a genin because I saw your empty test paper."

Naruto sheepishly scratched his head and blushed. "Thanks for telling us. I know I am a knucklehead, but I figure that even if I remain a genin I could still get strong enough to become Hokage. And not getting the answer would not hurt you guys. So I said, 'what the heck', and that I should go for it. I am glad that you were and are concerned about me Hinata." Naruto replied as he blushed, this elicited an even redder blush from Hinata.

"Your next part will be held at training ground area 44. So, be prepared as if you are going out on a mission. That is all the advice I can give you. Other than that, please be careful and try to help out your fellow Konoha shinobi if at all possible. But do not jeopardize your chances to pass this part. Good job so far and good luck in continuing. Now enjoy your dinner as it is on me for your successful completion of part one of the chunin exams."

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A/N: I would like to thank Mrs. Itachi Uchiha and the others for beta reading this chapter. She was a great help in ironing out a lot or rough spots in this story.

Hope you liked the chapter. I have the several others in to my beta readers for review so that they can help me with the story and make it the best possible. Keep the reviews coming even critical ones. I can and do like people letting me know if I made a mistake or how they feel.