Disclaimer: I do not own Naruto and only use it for entertainment purposes.
Sarutobi Sasuke sat in his office contemplating the file before him. It was the file for a young woman looking to enter Konoha's shinobi forces, namely 'Hana.' The incident with the Kazekage's children brought his decision to head. For the past two months he had an Anbu detail following the young woman to try and evaluate her personality. Strength was not an issue because whatever level she was, or at least showed, would eventfully come out in missions. No, what the Sandaime Hokage wanted to know was what kind of person 'Hana' was. Early in Konoha's founding the Shodai had an unwritten rule that Konoha ninja would have a certain level of compassion and caring to other people. Some disagreed with the policy feeling that it would show weakness towards other villages. Sarutobi did not agree, he felt that Konoha retained its strength by those ideals, after all a man fights hardest when he is protecting something he cares about.
The Anbu reports over the last two months showed 'Hana' to be a caring young woman to those she likes and polite if cold to those she does not. In particular were the notes made about how she acted around people when she was with Naruto. To the people that liked Naruto, such as the Ramen Stand and Iruka, she was pleasant polite girl that was quick to smile and easy to talk to. With people who hated him, such as some of the Academy Sensei, she acted like a cold aristocrat; those people were not worth her time and their insults to Naruto were a personal front to her. Ironically this had many of the less in the know civilians treating Naruto better, as they thought Hana was some young noble woman. These actions had the Hokage leaning to allow her to join Konoha as she did show she had the same ideals as he wanted his subordinates to strive for.
On top of all these reports, however was the latest report; the incident involving 'Hana,' Naruto, Kohonamaru and the Kazekage's children. According to all witnesses, including the Anbu and Uchiha Sasuke, 'Hana' acted just as Sarutobi hoped all his shinobi would. She jumped in to assist a friend and a young boy, namely Naruto and Konohamaru. When it was revealed who the Suna Team actually was she conducted herself in a truly professional manner; enough of a threat to keep the others aware but not enough of one to escalate a possibly volatile situation. She also checked to make sure no one was injured a true sign of a medic-nin, something Konoha was always looking for. In short the Sandaime Hokage decided that 'Hana' would join Konoha as soon as the Chunin Exam was complete.
Currently the young woman in question was wondering what to do with her day. For the most part her existence in Konoha was focused around two things, her mission and work. Her mission was up in the air and that had little to do with the Chunin Exam, as her resolve to end Team 7's lives had been wavering for weeks now. For work she had the day off as everyone was at home or at the bars waiting for the results of the first Exam to come in. It turned out a lot of bets were being made about who would pass the first test. Team 7 and the other Konoha Rookies had a low chance of passing. Not that Haku could blame those odds, it was rare for Rookie Gennin to be nominated much less pass their first Chunin Exam. Then again from the gossip she heard from working at the kimono shop this year's Rookie 9 were supposed to be the best Konoha had in years.
But that did not solve her current dilemma, what to do with the day? 'Maybe I'll go see if Ayame is free,' Haku thought. The two young women had become friends rather quickly after the first meeting. The reason was simple, both saw the other cared for Naruto. At the time Haku had started the friendship as a ruse to get closer to Naruto and the rest of Team 7. But as with all her other plans her acting quickly became genuine feelings. The truth is Haku had no friends after being on the run for so long. This was just one more aspect Haku found she had in common with Naruto, very few friends.
Making her way to the Ramen Stand Haku was not surprised to find it nearly empty, in fact only one person was actually there, Umino Iruka. With a smile of true joy Haku quickened her stride to the stand. When she arrived she caught the middle of a conversation about the Chunin Exam. "…should do well," Iruka said. "Kiba and Shino are actually among the best trackers I've taught and as long as Hinata sticks with them they should at least make it to the Final Test."
"Is Hinata that Hyuuga girl that's following Naruto around every so often?" Ichiruka asked.
"Yeah that's her," Iruka nodded. "She's had a crush on Naruto for as long as I can remember, she just seems too shy to approach him."
"Perhaps she would be given some encouragement," Haku spoke up.
"That's funny, I would have thought you would object to having some completion," Ichiruka said with a teasing smile.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Haku replied more than a little startled.
"Well with all the time you spend with him and that little dinner date you two had a couple of weeks ago…" Ichiruka trailed off, his smile never leaving his face.
"We are just friends and that dinner was not a date!" Haku insisted turning red with embarrassment.
"Whatever you say," Ichiruka replied, "I believe you." His tone made it clear that he believed no such thing. Iruka had his head down away from view but his shaking shoulders and soft snorts showed he was trying to hold in his laughter.
"Otto-san (Father)! Stop that!" Ayame scolded. "You're embarrassing her." Ayame swat her father's head, took off her apron and left the kitchen area. "C'mon Hana, let's get away from these two!" Taking Haku's hand and walking away in an indignant huff Ayame left her father to fend for himself for the rest of the day.
At the Chunin Exam Naruto was facing his worst enemy, a written test. The first test of the Chunin Exam turned out to be a knowledge test rather than a practical skills test. Naruto had learned a lot since Wave his ability to take test had not improved one bit. 'Damn it just had to be a written test didn't it!' Naruto yelled inside mind at the universe. 'This is so unfair, I mean how the hell am I supposed to know…' he paused to read sixth question again, '…the calculation necessary to ignite an explosive note twenty meters away while the note is being drenched with a suiton (Water Element) jutsu with a twenty five kilometer per hour wind gust!' After a frustrated pull of his hair Naruto took a deep breath to calm down just as 'Hana' had taught him. After three more breaths Naruto was able think clearly once again and looked around the room to see how everyone else was doing.
Naruto first looked for his teammates, unforetunately he could only find Sasuke. Apparently Sakura was behind him in a higher seat. He did not dare look to make sure because he did not want to be accused of cheating. Back to Sasuke, Naruto noticed that he had little trouble in answering the questions if the constant motion of his hands was any indication, 'Just great I bet that Teme knows every last one of these question!' For a few moments Naruto let his anger at begin shown up by Sasuke get to him. But after another couple of calming breaths Naruto began to look around the room once again. This time he noted several odd actions, like a small white ball hovering just over the shoulder of a foreign Gennin or the fact that the girl to his left, Hinata, had a lot of veins pulsing around her eyes. 'That's weird,' Naruto thought starring at her.
Apparently Naruto was staring at her for too long as Hinata's eyes returned to normal and she looked away from him. Naruto was obviously unaware of the bright red blush forming on the girl's face. After taking a few moments to calm down Hinata took a glance at Naruto's paper and just as she feared it was empty. 'Naruto seems to have figured out we're supposed to cheat,' Hinata thought. She had seen him glancing around the room taking note of several of the more unique methods of spying. She saw his curious gaze and misinterpreted it for wondering what he would do instead of what was going on. She took another glance and found him looking at another Konoha-nin coping off another person. Naruto had a frown on his face that she thought was disapproval of such a blatant method of cheating. 'Naruto must not have a sufficient method of spying to get past the proctors and is not taking the risk. But if he doesn't answer at least one question he won't have anything to fall back on if he gets the final one wrong.' Worried about her inspiration Hinata decided to help Naruto copy her answers. 'I just have to move it a little bit and move my arm. Then I can help Naruto without getting caught and letting down Kiba and Shino.' With just a little bit of motion she moved her paper into Naruto's peripheral vision and bent her elbow just enough for him to see the first two answers of the test.
Naruto did not pick up on such a subtle motion from Hinata. No his concentration was focused on the Konoha-nin a row down that was copying of a Genin from Ame (Rain). He was trying to get quick clues on the guy's technique so he could cheat as well. Unfortunately the Konoha Gennin had just taken one more glance when one of the proctors yelled, "Number 56 fail! You, Number 72, and 33 are out of here."
"Hey you can't prove anything!" the Konoha Gennin argued. The proctor's response was to whip a kunai right between the teen's legs. "AHH!"
"Get out unless you don't want me to miss next time I throw," the proctor said pulling out another kunai. The Gennin quickly left the room followed by his teammates.
Naruto meanwhile had flinched at the yell and caught sight of Hinata's exposed paper. 'Yes, I can get answers from her,' he thought. 'Though I have to be careful unless I get kicked out like that other guy.' With as small movements Naruto positioned his eyes so he could just see Hinata's paper out of the corner of his eye. Thankfully his ability to see out of his peripheral had increased thanks to 'Hana' in the last month, thus he was able to see most of Hinata's first two answers. After slowly and carefully copying what he could Naruto checked his answers. They were mostly complete and felt if he could take one more glance he could get the rest.
Hinata who had seen Naruto writing his incomplete answers decided to help him again by scooting her paper another centimeter closer. This seemed to do the trick as Naruto was able to complete his answers, 'I helped Naruto!' Hinata thought happily even as she saw the obvious tension leave Naruto's shoulders.
Up on the top row Sakura had been watching Naruto's back and also saw him relax. "I wonder why he's so relaxed no?" she muttered. For the first half an hour of the exam she saw Naruto become stressed, angered, and scared after that kunai throw and now he suddenly relaxed. 'Theirs is no way he could have answered any of the questions by himself. I could barely answer most of them. Maybe Hinata helped him.' She knew Hinata like Naruto, why was another question, but she knew Hinata did and figured if anyone would help Naruto it would be Hinata.
Still with Naruto relaxed a lot of Sakura's own anxiety had left. Up until this point she had been worried Naruto would blow and choke like he did on several written test back at the Academy. With the clock winding down and several teams leaving to do losing to many points she was worried Naruto would put everything on the last question. 'All of nothing seems to be Naruto's unwritten motto,' Sakura thought. 'I'm just glad Naruto's learned some patients from Kakashi-sensei and Hana.'
'Still not as cool as Sasuke-kun,' Sakura's inner voice said.
"Alright that's it pens down!" the scarred Jounin Ibbiki said. Several of the Gennin sighed that the first part was finally over and some even relaxed a little. To the back of the room a door opened and a proctor and the Suna Gennin Kankuro entered. "Glad to see you didn't spend too much time playing with your doll." Kankuro paused for a minute looking surprised and saw a bunch of knowing grins. With a nervous look he made his way back to his seat and waited. "Now that everyone who is going be here is back we can know ask the final question." He paused to get everyone's full attention, "But first you need to know some more rules." There were several groans about more rules but Ibbiki ignored them. "The first rule is that this is an all or nothing question. Either you take it or all your points are reduced to zero and you fail."
"That's not fair!" Sakura yelled. "What about the first nine questions!?"
"First life isn't fair!" Ibbiki replied, "Especially a shinobi's! Next those questions served their purpose, to weed out those who can't spy worth a damn. If you can't spy or cheat well on a simple written exam then you don't deserve to be ninja much less a Chunin. Now for the second rule; if you take this question and get it wrong I will revoke your right to ever be Chunin."
"You can't do that!" a Suna-nin yelled. "You can't have that authority over us! Besides there are those who took this exam before and failed."
"By the treaty that the Hidden Villages signed that established the Chunin Exam I have that right," Ibbiki calmly answered. "And you had the bad luck of having me as your examiner. I'm a lot tougher on you then they would be. Now no more stalling are you going to take the final question and risk everything or are you going to take the easy way out and quite."
For several seconds no one did anything, then a Gennin from Iwa stood up, "I..I can't risk it! I quit, I'll take the exam again later. Sorry guys," he apologized to his teammates as they were led out the door.
Soon several other teams were leaving just too scared to risk their careers. In the stands several of the Konoha Rookies were debating if they should quit. At the top Sakura was wondering she should quit for Naruto so he could keep his dream of Hokage alive. A few seats over Shikamaru was calculating which the bigger hassle Ino was or finishing the Exam. Next to Naruto Hinata was shaking with indication about looking cowardly in front of Naruto or doing what was safe. Even Sasuke was contemplating quitting, risking the chance to go up in rank and thus get access to better training. After another minute Ibbiki got impatient and asked, "Well is there anyone else?" Naruto to this as his queue to stand up. The entire room now focused on the blonde boy especially Ibbiki, "You got something to say midget?"
"Yeah, I got something to say," Naruto said lowly. Then he looked Ibikki right in the eye and demanded, "Ask your damn question! I promised the people close to me I would do my best and I don't break my promises. That is my Nindo (Ninja Way). You hear me, I won't quit no matter what!" The shock from the rest of the Gennin was like a ripple in water. Many could not believe Naruto's boldness to such an intimidating man. Still it had one side effect that anyone could see. No one was wavering anymore, all were staying right where they were.
"Alright," Ibikki said. "Then I just have one last thing to say. Congratulation on passing the first test!" Again there was shock followed by confusion and a lot of questioning looks. "Let me explain, there was no final question or rather the decision to stay was the final question."
"Um why?" Kiba asked.
"Because as a Chunin you will be asked to make tough choices, dangerous choices and safe choices," Ibbiki explained. "Like whether to accept a mission with a high danger mission or not. The answer is obvious, of course to take the mission! If you don't have the guts to take such mission then you might as well quit being a shinobi, our lives are always filled with danger." He took off his bandana, revealing several hideous scars, to emphasize his point. "Those cowards who couldn't even risk their promotion much less their lives don't deserve to be Chunin much less any other rank." The crowd was in agreement, they knew the risks in taking the exam, they had been told several times. If the other were not willing to risk everything then why did they sign up for a life threatening exam. Just as well, there was no room for people like that in the Chunin Exam. "Now this part is over, you should all be warned that the next part will be a lot…"
A loud crash interrupted Ibbiki's sentence as human projectile crashed through the window and through up a banner saying, 'Miturashi Anko The Second Stage Examiner.' "You babies better be prepared for now it's my turn!"
"You're early Anko," Ibbiki said dryly.
"Thirty teams?" Anko asked, "You must be losing your touch old man."
"Good crop this year," Ibbiki counted.
"Doesn't matter after I'm done I bet only half if not less remain," Anko said in a tone that left the Gennin with a sense of dread.