Demons and Scorn Chapter 14: Chunin Exam Stage One: The Written Test, a naruto fanfic

Chapter Fourteen

Start Your Engines: The Chunin Exam Begins

"It's time to begin. I'm Morino Ibiki, your proctor…and, from this moment on…your worst enemy." The man threatened.

'Oh no, Morino Ibiki, I think that a certain butt-grabbing moron has a different enemy to worry about.' Sakura stated in her mind, glaring at the spiked head of her newest target. 'A very scary enemy, indeed.'

"First!" Ibiki yelled, pointing to the back. "You Genin ninjas from the Village Hidden in the Sound, knock it off! Who told you that you were allowed to fight?!" He demanded as people muttered and whispered about how scary he was. "You wanna be failed before we've even begun?!"

"Sorry, it's our first time." The boy with the fur on his back apologised, not sounding sorry at all. "I guess we're just a little jumpy, sir." He mocked. Ibiki smirked and turned to the Leaf Genin—meaning the rookie nine and Kabuto—with a frown before surveying the rest of the Genin in the room.

"I'll say this once and only once, so listen up." He called. "There will be no combat between candidates, no attacking each other without the permission of your proctor and even then, the use of fatal force as strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?"

A few of the Genin in the room nodded and muttered their answers while a good few of the weaker Genin ninjas just stood still in fear of their first examiner. Sakura rolled her eyes and turned him out, looking for the team in the conical straw hats again. The butt grabber just smirked at Ibiki, getting all cocky.

"Feh. No fatal force? That's no fun." He stated. Several of the grey uniformed ninja behind Ibiki chuckled. "I have a feeling that I'm not the only one who feels that way, right, Pinkie?" The boy asked, turning to Sakura.

"Pff, whatever. I'll kick your ass anyways." She shrugged, glaring kunai at him. He only smirked.

"And while you try to kick mine, I'll be succeeding in grabbing yours." He said quietly, knowing that only she and Hinata would hear him. Hinata gasped and blushed, turning to Sakura as she gritted her teeth and tried to hold herself back from pounding him into the ground.

"Listen up, jackass-" Sakura began, but he put his hand over her mouth.

"It's Zaku." He smirked, letting go of her and turning away before she could tell him off.

"Now, if we're ready, we shall proceed to the first stage of the Chunin examinations." Ibiki told them, seemingly ignoring all comments to him or other Genin made. "Hand in your paperwork. In return, you'll all be given a number." He continued, holding up a small piece of white card with the number one on it. "This number determines where you will sit."

"If any of us sit next to Sakura, keep your face hidden and don't pay any attention to her." Juhi warned the twins quietly. "We want to be revealed together, not one at a time."

"Hai." The twins agreed in a morbid and disappointed tone. There goes their idea of rigging the number distribution with a jutsu just to see her first.

"We'll start the written test once you are all seated." Ibiki told them, handing the card to one of the uniformed ninja behind him.

"The what?" Naruto asked in horror as Sakura used Kabuto's arm to pull him to his feet. Both looked at the fear-stricken blonde in question. "Did he say…written?" He gulped loudly.

"Uhh…Naruto? Are you okay?" Sakura asked in worry. One of the uniformed men pulled out a bunch of papers; the tests.

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" The blonde yelled out. "Put me in a fight! I can deal with that! Pull my toenails out one-by-one! I can deal with that! But not a written test! Anything but that! Really, I'll do absolutely anything! Dattebayo! Dattebayo!"

[--

All of the Genin were seated in one of the larger academy rooms. Sitting in seats all around them were the grey-uniformed ninja, each holding a clipboard, and Ibiki was at the front of the room. Most, if not all, of the Genin looked nervous, but there were a few cocky ones who looked as if this was a breeze.

Naruto sat in the second row, with two separate pieces of card with '53' written on them, one that was given to him and another that was there to show him his seat. Also in front of him was two pencils, an eraser and a sheet of black white paper. He chewed on his bottom lip nervously, so caught up in his panic that he didn't notice Hinata sitting next to him.

'I don't even know where Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme are sitting.' He thought, looking around. 'I'm all alone.' Naruto grabbed his head in frustration. 'Argh! This is already a disaster!' He whimpered to himself.

Sakura, sitting two rows behind her blonde friend and not knowing the location of Sasuke, sighed as she leaned back in her seat. She was careful not to knock the items on her desk, which were the same items as Naruto had in front of him. The boys on either side of her offered her a spare glance before they both looked away, blushing. They were no one she knew. On the left of her was a redhead from the hidden rain village and to her right was a brunette from cloud.

'Geez…Naruto won't pass this unless a miracle happened.' Sakura sighed.

'OR! We could, you know…' Inner looked around as if someone would actually hear her. '…cheat.' She whispered back.

'I think that's the point.' Sakura rolled her eyes.

'I don't get it.' Inner replied truthfully, scratching her head in confusion.

'This is almost the same as that test in Yukigakure.'

'It is?'

'Yep.'

'Cool. So, what were you going to say…er…think?'

'I'm not helping Naruto cheat. That…and I'm smart enough to cheat without cheating on this test, remember?' She added, holding her hand in the tiger seal under her desk. She saw from a different point of view as her emerald eyes dulled slightly. This one was sat next to one of the Chunin she knew were planted inside the room.

'This is awesome! Who are you using?' The second mind, also the emotion container, asked in giddy glee.

'She is Pride, but under a Henge. She looks good as a brunette, I have to say, but I needed to keep her eyes the same. Red.' Sakura shrugged mentally, practicing picking up a pencil and moving it around while seeing through the clone's eyes. It was hard at first, but she carried on trying until she got used to it.

'Wait! If I was using one of my emotions, then you would be emotionless right now and I wouldn't be here, remember?'Inner reminded, seeing through the original Sakura's eyes and guiding her movements further as she attempted it while not seeing her own hand.

'I just placed a bit of her chakra into a clone. Simple, but I need to concentrate on it. When I'm finished with the answers, I'll dispel her chakra and keep the clone, but get her to fail somehow.' Sakura smirked, already having everything planned out.

'Won't it look odd if she leaves without a team?' Inner pointed out.

'Covered. I have a clone near the door and another at the very back. They will leave with her and I've set up a point outside the academy where the clones should automatically dispel themselves.' She told her.

'If we're smart enough to do all of this, then why do we need to cheat at all?'

'I felt like it. I'm too lazy to actually work on the test myself, and, if I'm right, it's all about information gathering.' Sakura stated as she broke her tiger seal and the blank look in her eyes left.

'Fair enough.' Inner shrugged.

'Damn! I can feel someone staring at me!' The girl looked to her left, seeing Sasuke and also that one of those people in the conical straw hats was sitting next to chicken-butt-boy while looking at her. She glared and the person looked away.

Now moving back to Naruto and Hinata, the blonde was growling to himself too much to notice Hinata. She blushed when she heard him muttering some foul words, but he just sighed and went back to growling anyway. A cuss here and there was added into his muttering, but it was mainly just insults for Sasuke.

'He must've learned all those cusses from Sakura-chan… She's not one to watch her words unless someone actually tells her off for it…and even then she usually ignores them.' Hinata sighed mentally.

"Damn it…I'm gonna fail." Naruto whispered to himself, but Hinata's keen ears heard him.

"U-Umm…N-Naruto-kun." She murmured, getting his attention.

"Huh? Hinata-chan?" The blonde boy asked before his brain clicked into gear. "Ah! I'm sorry if you thought I was ignoring you, but I'm just worried about this big test thing and—I mean! I can totally do this, Dattebayo!" He assured, chuckling nervously.

"N-No p-problem." She smiled. "I j-just wanted to s-say…g-good luck and e-everything."

"Thanks." Naruto smiled back. "Good luck to you too and-" He was about to say more when Ibiki tapped some chalk on the board behind him.

"Everyone, eyes front." He commanded. "There are a few ruled that you need to be aware of and I won't answer any questions, so you better pay attention the first time around."

"Someone has a pole shoved up his ass." Sakura muttered, getting snorts of laughter from the boys next to her.

"Number 79!" Ibiki called. "Is there a problem?" He asked almost sincerely, but anyone with half a brain could tell that he was mocking the person he called.

"No, sir." Sakura replied, flipping her long bangs away from her face.

"Stand when you're speaking to me." Ibiki ordered, smirking. Sakura sighed, rolled her eyes and stood up, feeling the eyes of everyone in the room on her. "Now; is there a problem?"

"Sir, no, sir." Sakura replied as if she were a cadet in a military academy.

"Then what did you say that numbers 78 and 80 found so amusing?" He probed. The boys on either side of Sakura gulped, but the pinkette just put her left hand on her forehead and her right on her hip.

"You don't want to know." She assured.

"Oh, but I do." He replied firmly, crossing his arms. Sakura sighed and stood straight.

"I said; someone has a pole shoved up his ass, sir." Sakura told him, causing everyone to burst out laughing…well, some laughed while others just smirked and/or sniggered, even the sentinels.

"Repeat that!" Ibiki yelled, frowning at her.

"Sir, I merely stated that someone has a whole grip on this class, sir." She smirked, covering up her words. More laughter went around the room.

"That's what I thought you said." Ibiki muttered. "Now, sit down." He ordered, Sakura doing as she was told.

"Okay, now that that's settled, I'll begin with the rules." Ibiki turned to the board and began to write on it. "Rule number one is this; the written part of the exam is conducted on a point reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you will all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points."

He moved away from the board, reveal the text he had written. It looked a little something like this:

Everyone starts with 10 points.

Example 1. If you answer all questions correctly, you will keep all 10 points.

Example 2. If you miss/fail 3 questions in the test, your final score would be 7.

"1 point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong, so if you miss three then your final score would be 7, as I have written." He explained.

'And if I miss 10, my final score will be zero.' Naruto thought desperately, though nodding in understanding outside his mind. 'Well, at least I know where Sakura-chan is now.' He remembered on a higher note. 'She's four rows behind me! Or was it two? Three? Aww man!'

"Rule number two." He continued. "Teams will pass or fail based on the total score of all three members." Ibiki broke to them, causing gasps and worry throughout the room. Sakura banged her head on her desk before rising from her seat again.

"What?" The boy, number 80 from Cloud, asked quietly in shock.

"SO YOU'RE SAYING WE GET SCORED AS A TEAM?!" She screamed at him, gritting her teeth. "My baka team mate won't even get one question right! And I'm not sure if Sasuke even has a brain beneath that thick skull and chicken ass hair!"

"Hey! Don't insult Sasuke-kun!" Ino yelled from three rows behind Sakura as she stood up and pointed her finger at the pinkette accusingly.

"SILENCE! Numbers 79 and 94, sit down!" Ibiki yelled. The girls grumbled, but sat back down anyway. 'They told me that these rookies would give me trouble, but never did they say anything about Pinkie being loud. They said that the most I'd get from her is a glare.' He sighed.

"I am toast!" Sakura groaned, banging her head on the desk again. "That basterd." The girl seethed, catching both Cloud and Rain's attention with her cussing. "That sneaky, conniving, sadistic basterd. He knows that Naruto is a baka. I just know he does." She glared at Ibiki.

"Che, tell me about it." The redhead from Rain snorted. "Both of my team mates are brainless." He sighed.

"Yeah, and my team couldn't tell a shuriken from a kunai if both were such in their arm." The one from Cloud added with a small laugh.

"Ugh, we're almost triplets." Sakura smirked.

'Well, that was a waste of my time.' Sakura sighed.

'Then why did you talk to them?' Inner asked.

'Because I wanted to know if they're actually competition for me and my team. I can tell from the way they speak that these two will fail. They are both complete bakas.' She giggled mentally, because we all know that Sakura doesn't laugh out loud without a good reason.

"I have my reasons for this, so shut up and listen." Ibiki continued, making a mental note to warn all proctors about her anger.

'Reasons? What reasons? To thin out the herd?' Sakura glared.

"Rule number three." Ibiki carried on. "The sentinels I've placed around the room are there to watch you for any signs of cheating." He informed them.

'Ah!' Inner sighed contently.'Cheating…such a beautiful word.' She smiled.

"And for every culprit caught, they will deduct two points from their score." Ibiki smirked.

"Be warned, their eyes are extremely sharp." Ibiki told them. "If they catch you five times, you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored, along with the rest of your squad."

'Naruto-baka is going to make me and Sakura lose…I just know it.' Sasuke growled mentally from his seat in between one blushing and fidgeting girl, from Grass, and one silent boy from Yukigakure. 'What the-?' He thought as he looked at the boy's shoulder. 'Isn't Sakura's clan symbol just like that? Well, Sakura's is white, but his is almost the same. Hmm…a yellow circle…I wonder…'

"Anyone fool enough to be caught by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here." The proctor continued.

"I've got my eye on you guys." One of the sentinels, the one who posed as a Genin with spiked hair, warned two Genin close to him who looked bored. They stiffened and straightened up with gasps immediately after he spoke.

"If you want to be considered shinobi, and then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be." He smiled sadistically.

'Okay, okay, relax.' Sakura said to herself. 'I know I'll be alright and Sasuke should be okay on his own…so, even if Naruto gets a zero we could still get through.' She assured herself.

'Better safe than sorry…' Inner stated, following up her statement by whistling innocently.

'I'm not cheating for him.' Sakura frowned. 'Even if he messes up and gets minus one billon on this test, I'm sure that Naruto will be able to get himself out of it. He's not the brightest bulb in the room, but he is the most stubborn. He'll get through this without my help.' She nodded confidently in her mind.

'You have way too much confidence in that cute baka.' The emotion container sighed.

"One more thing." Ibiki broke her thoughts. "If any candidate should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails." He added.

Sasuke froze.

Sakura's eye twitched.

Naruto gulped.

'Oh no! They're gonna kill me!' He thought in fear as his mind envisioned him swirling towards a giant Sasuke and Sakura, whose eyes were glowing blue and yellow in rage respectively. Each pulled out a weapon, a fuuma shuriken for Sasuke and five poisoned senbon for Sakura, and growled.

"Umm…Na-Naruto-kun?" Hinata questioned in concern when she heard Naruto whimper and mutter something that sounded like; 'kill the teme, Sakura-chan…he's the one who used his magic Shara-whatever eyes to make my answers invisible on the paper'. She sighed and shook her head in pity.

"The final question won't be given out until fifteen minuets before the end of the testing period." Ibiki told them before Hinata could talk. She and Naruto both looked up in surprise. "You'll have one hour total." He said as the clock ticked.

Tick

"Begin!" Ibiki yelled, hearing a series of shuffling papers after his word. All that was heard throughout the room was humming, gulping and a slightly tapping of pencils on paper. Sakura looked at her test and smirked, seeing the questions in front of her.

'Okay…man, I forgot how easy it was to take written tests.' She laughed mentally, biting her lip. Sakura looked over the test, but chose to build up her chakra to do as much as possible before actually using her jutsu.

Sasuke tapped his chin with his pencil, knowing that he could turn to see what Sakura was doing without being marked as cheating and he saw no point in look at Naruto. However, his thoughts of self-preservation got the better of him and he looked over to see if Naruto was getting anywhere.

'Oh man.' He thought to himself. 'This doesn't look good. He's just sitting there. He's gonna choke.'

'Ahahaha haha.' Naruto laughed mentally and grinning to himself nervously. 'What am I worried about? It's just a test. I've done a lot harder things, Dattebayo.' He believed confidently, picking up his paper and looking at it.

'He's moving! See, I told you not to worry.' Sakura sighed in relief.

'Whatever. I'm scheming.' Inner muttered as she continued to write on a piece of paper marked; 'Evil plans and Sadistic schemes: The Help Naruto version.

'All I've got to do is relax and take my time, read through the questions and find the few I have a chance at answering. No pressure. Number one; oh, I see! I gotta decipher a code. Okay, mmhmm. Well, I'll forget that one. What's next?'

'Line B in the diagram represents the direction of trajectory of a shuriken thrown at ninja C by ninja A, who is seated atop a tree seven metres tall and twelve metres away.' Sasuke read from his test. 'Describe and formulate the trajectory required if ninja C were positioned at points D, E and F. Also predict the farthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer.' He nodded. 'Oh crap.'

'These are intergraded problems based on principles of uncertainty and require in-complex mechanical energy analysis. Incredibly advanced stuff, I can admit. Naruto doesn't stand a chance! He can solve these!' Sakura thought in a panic.

'Cheat-ing is the bestest experience that I ever knew…Deceive can be as good as cheat, it is the bestest experience since the one named che-eat.' Inner sang, using the tune from Aimee Mann's version of 'One'.

'LEAVE ME ALONE! HE'LL DO FINE AND YOU CAN'T SING!' Sakura yelled.

'Okay, skip number two as well.' Naruto thought happily. 'Next up, number three. Hmm, interesting…well, there's only one possible answer for this one! Skip over!' He grinned, looking at number four.

'These problems only get harder as they go down.' Sakura noticed.

'You know, you could always-'

'I'm not cheating for him.' Sakura interrupted.

'You have me all wrong! I was going to suggest that you-'

'And I'm also not going to lie, deceive, threaten, blackmail, bribe, distract, manipulate, and/or take over the world with dust bunnies.' She sighed.

'Hey! Those were good solutions! And the last one is pure gold! No one would expect it!' Inner defended herself and her past scheme.

'I really need therapy.' Sakura sighed to herself. 'Naruto will be fine and the world doesn't need dust bunny rulers.'

'Why are you so confident about Naruto's abilities?' Inner snorted curiously. Sakura remained silent. 'I can hear your thoughts and the thoughts inside of your thoughts. Don't even try to trick me. Tell the truth.'

'I'm confident of his abilities because he's a strong ninja with a lot of potential and great skill.' Sakura told her quickly, a small pink dusting over her cheeks as she breathed deeply, half-way meditating to build up her chakra for the jutsu.

'…So…you like him…as more than a friend.' Inner stated with a wide smirked.

'…I'm ignoring you because I need to concentrate on the jutsu and I am not just avoiding the question.' Sakura lied. She looked over at Naruto and sweat-dropped when she saw him making faces, like puckering his lips and chuckling to himself, to concentrate.

'Huh…now that's…interesting.' Sasuke thought in irritation. 'I can't even begin to understand any of these questions.'

'Forget it…this is hopeless! What am I gonna do?' Naruto asked himself in fear of what Sakura and Sasuke would do to him if they fail due to his perfect zero. 'What'll I do? What'll I do? What'll I do? What'll I do?'

Hinata, taking her best guess at number eight, looked over to see Naruto in a state of panic. She sympathised with him, knowing that her good friend Sakura wasn't the type to help someone cheat, even at the risk of failing herself. Gulping down her concern for her won safety, Hinata made a decision.

'Okay…I'll do the easier ones my own. Number eight is easy enough for me not to use up too much energy, anyway. It's obviously the same complex equation as its parallel side based from the distribution of kunai and the bad aim of ninja X. How much simpler can you get?' Sakura smirked to herself.

'Umm…a chicken?' Inner guessed randomly. Sakura rolled her eyes and continued.

'Hm, number nine; if ninja A and ninja F meet and battle, jumping from point B to point E, and ninja D was three feet away with a kunai, launched at ninja A with a speed of 0.91 metres per second for a total of three seconds and hits ninja C at point G, what was the total travelling time of a senbon thrown at half the speed but from ninja A at point H to ninja F at point I, one hundred and three centimetres away? Explain your answer in detail and then calculate the travelling time of the senbon if it was thrown at ninja D by ninja F.' Sakura pondered before smirking and writing down her answer within the space of eleven seconds.

'How do you do that? Why are you so smart?' Inner asked in awe.

'Well, I'm just good at this.' Sakura shrugged mentally.

'Okay, don't panic, don't panic.' Naruto thought to himself. 'There's only one thing to do…I'll just have to cheat and not get caught.' He thought insanely. Ibiki walked across the front of the room and Naruto pounded his skull against the desk. 'And risk getting thrown out with Sakura-chan and the teme?! Yeah right! I CAN'T DO THAT!'

'It's strange.' Sasuke noticed as he looked at the closest sentinel. 'They make more of a fuss about cheating than they do about the actual test itself. These sentinels…watching our every move…trying to catch one-' He cut off his own thought and sweat dropped when the sentinel he was watching wrote something down. '…Somebody just got nailed.'

'I'M BORED!' Sakura declared.

'We could mess with the others a bit…like that one sentinel who looks like he's sitting on a nail.' Inner sniggered.

'Done.' The pinkette smirked. She inhaled and coughed loudly, her keen eyes trained on the stiff sentinel. As soon as her coughing began, he seemed to jump a little, causing Sakura to smirk.

"Quiet back there!" Ibiki called back to her.

"No worries, Ibi-chan." She mocked. He glared at her and carried on walking as Sakura placed her paper face-down and put her feet up on her desk.

"Number 79, explain your current lazing." Ibiki demanded as he suddenly appeared next to her, talking in her ear. Everyone gasped as his speed, but Sakura just blinked and smirked.

"Let's see…nope. I'm good. No explanations here." Sakura sighed and shook her head. The boys next to her tried to cover their sniggers with their hands.

"Fine…just don't even think that this'll distract us so you can cheat." Ibiki grumbled to himself as he walked back to the front.

"Again; no worries, Ibi-chan." She teased. He turned and glared at her, but all Sakura did was smirk. As soon as he was back at the front, Sakura turned to look at the mysterious boy in the straw hat who sat next to Sasuke. He was, as she predicted, staring at her. She glared.

'Why the heck is Sakura treating this like it's so easy?! How come she can treat this test like a walk in the park and I can't?' Sasuke asked himself in anger. 'No cheating…again, they made a bigger deal out of that than they did about her rudeness and lack of respect. And, what's with the whole two point deduction? Why only two? It doesn't make sense. Ordinarily, if someone gets caught cheating even once then it's grounds for dismissal right there.' He felt someone staring at him and turned to look up, his eyes meeting with Sakura's.

She looked him dead in the eyes and nodded. Sasuke understood.

[--

"Anyone fool enough to be caught by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here." The proctor continued.

"If you want to be considered shinobi, and then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be." He smiled sadistically.

[--

'So that's it. Yeah.' Sasuke realised. 'This is about more than just a written exam. The real aim is not to test our knowledge, but our ability to gather information.' He discovered.

'I think that my seatmate is actually getting the idea. Took him long enough.' Tsuki, who was the one sitting next to Sasuke and staring at Sakura, rolled his eyes under the shadow of his straw hat. 'Man, why can't I just take off my hat and show Sakura who I am?! She keeps glaring at me and it's driving me nuts!'

'Yeah, that explains everything. The eagle-eyed sentinels everywhere, these incredibly hard questions, the fact that only two points are deduced for every incident of cheating. Very cleaver, I must admit. As Kakashi-sensei said; a ninja must see underneath the underneath.' Sasuke smirked.

'Wow…this guy is really hot.' The girl next to Sasuke thought in her own dream-world. 'We'd be a perfect couple…WAIT! The test! I haven't even turned it over yet! But…he's too good looking for me to look away…wow, this guy is really hot.'

'He's not forbidding us from cheating, but expecting us to. He's daring us to try and cheat and not to get caught, and only exceptional shinobi could get away with it under these circumstances. That's what this test it all about. Thank you, Sakura.' He sighed, looking at a certain orange back in front of him. 'Come on, Naruto, figure it out. Use your head before it's too late.'

Naruto bounced his legs up and down under the table as the hand holding his pencil shook almost violently. His paper, still blank, sat untouched in front of him as he continued to sweat and his nervousness grew to an almost unbearable level. Tears of fear and frustration filled his eyes as he stared at the front.

'This is bad. This is very bad.' He repeated in his head as a sort of mantra.

'Okay, so if the real test here is finding out a way to steal the answers without getting caught…the next question is to figure out who's got all of the answers.' Sasuke noted.

Gaara held his hand a small way above his desk, holding his pencil in his other hand. Sand swirled around the arm he was holding out as he called it to his aid.

'Looks like Gaara's figured it out.' Kankuro thought in relief from a few desks behind Gaara. 'Okay, Crow…I'm counting on you.' He sighed, closing his eyes as a sentinel with black spiked hair and sharp blank white eyes looked to the side.

The sentinel looked around the room, checking for cheaters.

Akamaru sat atop Kiba's head, looking around. The sentinels and guards couldn't take Akamaru away, because Kiba was an Inuzuka and therefore a dog-nin, meaning that he had every right to have Akamaru with him at all times. Kiba twirled his pencil in his hand as Akamaru looked around, finding the answers and barking them to his master.

"Good boy." Kiba rewarded as he jotted down yet another answer. "Yeah, that'll do it. Okay, now for number four." The puppy looked around yet again and his eyes moved to the boy in front of Kiba, one seat to the left. Akamaru yipped and looked at the sheet, seeing the answer. He barked it to Kiba.

The sound-nin with the fur on his back had his eyes closed and was listening to the inconsistent tapped of the pencil belonging to the ninja sat behind him. His ear twitched slightly as he strained it a little further to distinguish the noised and turn them into pictures in his mind of what the ninja was writing.

'If I judge from the rhythm, the duration and the frequency of the strokes…' The ninja thought, picking up his pencil. 'Yes…I see.' He realised as he noted the answer. Another sound flitted in his ear—the sound of a fly buzzing around—but he dismissed it as the fly landed on the desk of the boy he was cheating off of.

An image of one ninja writing his answers on his paper became many more than one in the eyes of the fly that sat inconspicuously next to him on the desk. It stared at the sheet a while longer as the ninja carried on writing his answers, but was eventually swatted away. It flew across the room and perched on the index fingernail of a different ninja in the room.

"Well?" Shino asked the bug. "Show me." He ordered. The fly lifted itself from his finger and hovered over the test in front of him for a while before flying in a figure of eight. "Eight…of course." The bug-nin nodded to himself as he wrote the answer and sent his bug off again.

Mirrors above Shino—attached to the light above his head—moved and reflected not only light, but Shino's paper. The reflective glass moved as the strings attacked to them shifted as well. Following the strings, we find that they are attacked to the pencil of Rock Lee's brunette team mate. As she moved her pencil, the mirrors moved with it.

'Okay, girl.' She told herself. 'Lee said that when he sees the sheet, he'd adjust his Hatei-ate. I just hope that this bug-guy is as smart as people say he is.' The girl sighed as she continued to move her pencil in her hand.

Lee looked up from his place, seeing the mirror move again. As soon as it moved into the right position, he untied his Hatei-ate from his waist and positioned it around his forehead, pulling it tight. That was the signal to his team mate to release the strings and to stop moving the mirrors. As it was, the mirrors stayed in place and Lee casually glanced up every now and then to take down the answers.

'Man, I hate these tests!' Taiyoo thought from across the room. He let his eyes drift to the person sitting directly in front of his and sighed quietly when he saw that she was done. 'I should have known that she'd be smart enough to be finished already…well, I could cheat from her, and if she accidentally discovers me doing it…then finds out who I am…NO! That damn brother of hers would find me out.'

Taiyoo scowled at Juhi, who was sitting at the front on the left side of the room. He and Sakura were on the left side while Tsuki and Juhi were on the right. Thankfully, Sakura was still none the wiser about them being in Konoha. It was all ridiculous to the elders. Usually, Yuki-nin stayed in the village to take their exams, no matter where the actual Chunin exams were being held.

While he and his twin were the right age to appear as Genin going for the Chunin exams, Juhi was stretching it for a first timer. It was just lucky that the Konoha-nin didn't question them once Juhi explained that he was waiting for his team mates to become of age to graduate and go for the exams, since his previous team had gone straight for the Jounin exams and he was still a Genin. Idiots.

'Damn!' Juhi thought as he shifted in his seat next to a boy with pupil-less lavender eyes and long brown hair. 'Taiyoo…I can tell what you're thinking and you better stop thinking it before I make you stop breathing! No one is seeing my baby sister without me!'

Naruto pulled his hair as he rested his chin on the desk in front of him, only thinking about the continuous tick-tick-ticking of the clock on the wall at the front of the room. He was stressed over his—still blank—test and even more so over his lack of intellect to cover the appropriate blank spaces on the sheet.

'Tick, tick, tick!' He thought in horror as the clock continued to make the unnervingly loud noise. 'Oh man, they couldn't have a digital clock? Argh; time's running out! That does it…I've got no choice! I've gotta cheat! Hang on, I can't do that. What if I get caught? What are Sakura-chan and Sasuke-teme gonna think? On the other hand, if I don't get any of these right, I'm sunk and I'll take them down with me. Either way…I'm dead meat!'

"N-Naruto-k-kun." A shy voice spoke out, breaking him from his panic ridden thoughts. Naruto blinked and looked at Hinata, who was—strangely enough—missing her usual blush.

'She's always blushing.' Naruto noticed. 'Why not now?'

"I-If you want…I could…I-I could show y-you my t-test." Hinata told him, smiling kindly while looking down at her completed paper.

'Say what?' Naruto thought in shock as he ran over her proposition in his mind over and over again. 'She'd let me look at her test? Why would she wanna do that?' He asked himself. 'Unless, of course, it's some kind of trick. Yeah…I bet that's…no, Hinata-chan would never—unless that dog-breath forced her into it! I wouldn't put it passed them.'

"Na…N-Naruto-kun?" Hinata called quietly when he didn't reply.

"Hinata-chan, can I ask you something?" He asked her. "Why would you wanna show me your answers?" The boy continued. Hinata gasped and clenched her fists slightly.

"Why?" She repeated. "Well…just because…S-Sakura-chan seems to really want you to pass, but sh-she is-isn't the t-type to h-help someone to ch-cheat…n-not when she's c-confident in th-their a-abilities." Hinata confessed, blushing. "A-And…it w-would be nice…if a-all of u-us could s-stick together…b-being r-rookies a-and all."

"That makes sense, I suppose." Naruto nodded with a grin. "Especially the part about Sakura-chan. That's just like her." He laughed, not noticing the shy Hyuuga clenching her fists.

'You don't really know anything about her!' Hinata wanted to yell, but Naruto was her friend…he was Naruto-kun, and she couldn't yell at him no matter how much her thoughts begged her to. Ignoring the urge to scream at him, Hinata lifted her arm slightly and slipped her paper in Naruto's direction.

As he was about to read the answers, a kunai flew passed him. It brushed his nose and caused him to yell out in fear of being de-nosed. However, the kunai kept going and placed a deep hole in someone else's paper, causing that boy to yell out too. He shook in fear and gulped, almost causing Sakura—who was sitting beside him—to laugh. This boy was none other than the brunette from cloud.

'Whoa…h-how did they know? I hadn't even done anything yet.' Naruto shook after seeing his life flash before his eyes. The kunai glinted and the boy next to Sakura stood up, facing the sentinel who had thrown the weapon at him.

"What was that all about?" He asked in a shaky tone.

"Five strikes and you're out." The sentinel replied cockily as his bandaged nose released a sniff of amusement. "You just failed the test."

"What? It can't be." He replied.

"You and your team mates will leave the room immediately." The sentinel ordered as if the boy didn't speak. Two more boys stood up with glares directed at their team mate and made their way to the door, but the shaken up boy just shook in place. Naruto shook too before looking behind him at the scared boy.

"Candidate number 78: fail. Numbers 27 and 43: fail." The sentinel stated gruffly as he stared at the boy who didn't move.

"Come on." Sakura sighed, getting up and taking the brunette's arm as gently as she could manage. "Have some dignity." She snorted as she walked him to the front desks. The sentinel smirked.

"But, number 79, you were the one he was cheating off of." The man smirked. Sakura looked pointedly at him and shrugged.

"Shit happens." She scoffed, taking him to the door. many people gasped at her blatant disregard for higher authority and her choice in word.

"Thanks." The cloud-nin said to her. "And sorry for cheating off you."

"Pff, whatever." Sakura shrugged. "Your team mates are gonna be pissed at you, so why should I tell you off?" She rolled her eyes and walked back to her desk, smirking at Naruto and Hinata on her way passed.

[--

"No! No way!" A Suna-nin yelled to a sentinel as he and his team were failed and told to leave. "Who says I cheated five times? Where's your proof?" He demanded, slamming his hand on the desk and standing up with written rage all over his face. "How can you possibly keep track of all of us? You've got the wrong guy! How do you know I wasn't just-!?"

He was cut off when the boy was slammed into the wall by the forearm of the sentinel he was arguing with. He grunted in pain and his body went limp, but he was not unconscious. Everyone gasped, but Sakura rolled her eyes and frowned over at the boy pinned to the wall.

"Sorry, pal." The sentinel mocked. "People like me were chosen for this duty because we don't make mistakes like that. You can't even so much as blink without us seeing it. We're the best of the best and you, my friend, are history." He bid as he released the boy and backed off a little bit. "Now, get out, and take your team mates with you."

"Psst, Naruto-k-kun." Hinata whispered to him, calling back his fearful mind from the scene. "G-Go ahead…l-look." She permitted, pushing her paper further towards him. Naruto heard a tapping noise and looked towards one of the sentinels, who was busy writing something on his board. The sentinel looked up and smirked at him, causing Naruto to gulp.

"Thank you." Naruto said with a small smile. "I appreciate it…but no. after all, I'm an ace ninja. I don't need to cheat to pass this. And if Sakura-chan thinks that I can do it, then I must be able to. You said so yourself, remember?" He grinned. Hinata frowned, but nodded nonetheless.

"Uhh, well, o-okay." Hinata said, looking at his blank sheet. "B-But…a-are you s-sure?"

"Yeah." Naruto confirmed for her. "Besides, if I got caught or anything, I wouldn't want you getting into trouble. Sakura-chan would kill me." He sighed as Hinata looked down.

'Yeah…Sakura-chan d-does c-care about m-me.' Hinata smiled. She snapped out of her thoughts and smiled. "Yes, you're right. Stupid of me to suggest. Sorry." She whispered.

"Nah, forget about it." Naruto assured. 'Yeah right. I should go to get my head examined. When did I get so noble?' He asked himself. Someone behind him cleared their throat and Naruto turned, seeing Sakura's glare directed at him. 'Oh yeah…when Sakura-chan first threatened me.'

'Byakugan!' Neji thought as he preformed the right seals. He looked at the boy in front of him and saw right through his body, to his test. Smirking, the brunette took down the answers.

'Sharingan!' Sasuke yelled mentally as his eyes swam into red and he smirked at his plan. 'I'll try imitating the movements of his pencil.' The boy thoughts, looking at the boy in front of him. 'Haha…bingo. I hit the jackpot with this guy.' He smirked as his hand moved his pencil in the same way.

Sakura sighed once her chakra was all flowing in perfect waves around her body for using the jutsu properly. She used her tiger seal under the table, seeing through the eyes of her brunette clone. The Chunin that the clone was next to was already on question four, and the clone looked closely at his paper. Taking some of her chakra back, Sakura's fingers twitched and picked up the pencil, writing down the same answers as the Chunin.

'What about Naruto?' Inner added in coolly as Sakura read over the questions through the clone's eyes and transferred them to her own paper with Inner's help in moving her pencil across the paper.

'He'll do his best.' Sakura frowned.

'Spell it with me now; C…H…E…A…T. It's a beautiful word with a marvellous meaning. USE IT!' The alter-mind yelled.

'NO!' Sakura yelled back, placing pencil to paper again as the Chunin finished question six. 'He'll do fine on his own just this once, Inner. He doesn't need me to baby him every second of every day.'

She broke her trance with the clone, feeling a headache from overuse forming. Whenever that happened, she just needed to take a break before carrying on.Sakura massaged her temples and sighed before looking through the clone's eyes again.

'Okay…my head hurts again.' Sakura frowned to herself.

'Relax and breath' Inner told her. Sakura did so and the headache was soothed a little. 'Remember, no healing jutsu. It could be seen as cheating here.'

'Yeah, thanks.' Sakura thanked as she looked towards her clone and sighed, using the tiger seal again. 'Last question now.' She smirked to herself. Once the question was answered, Sakura and Inner schemed to get the clones kicked out and have a laugh all at the same time.

Yamanaka Ino smirked to herself as she watched Sakura laze, even going so far as to put her feet up on the desk in front of her. She growled when she noticed that Sakura had completed her test. No way would she let Sakura pass when she, herself, might fail.

'Look at her.' Ino sneered. 'She's already finished! Okay, Sakura, you should feel honoured. You're the first person in the exams that I'm using my clan jutsu on. My Shintenshin no Jutsu' The blonde smirked as she placed her hands in the seal for tiger, not noticing Sakura doing the same.

'Ugh, great.' Sakura thought glumly. 'Ino's going to take over my body as soon as I leave. She's already activated her clan jutsu.'

'So? We'll both go over to the clone until she's done. That way, if she ever does it again, she won't know about me and it'll be a surprise for her!' Inner suggested.

'Fine. So, I'll let her displace my spirit while Rage draws us to the clone using her jutsu, right?' Sakura confirmed.

'Yep! And I'll be bringing the other Emotions with us.' Inner grinned happily.

'Pff, whatever.' Sakura rolled her eyes, using the tiger seal to attach her soul to Rage's.

Since Sakura had weakened her own soul, it was relatively easy for Ino to get inside. However, once Ino's soul left her own body, she slumped forwards and looked as if she'd fainted. No one around her paid her any attention, but got on with their own tests. Shikamaru, on the other hand, looked over to her immediately.

'So, Ino's using her jutsu, I see. I wonder who she's got.' He mused, although only caring for the scored at the moment. 'About time, anyway, if you ask me.'

'Way to go, Ino.' Choji congratulated mentally. '…But…She's got Sakura-san…' He sighed.

'Thanks, Sakura, for letting me hand out in your head for a bit.' Ino smirked in Sakura's body. 'Now, I have to memorize her answers quick, so that I can pass them on to Choji and Shikamaru.' She realised as she picked up Sakura's test and read through it.

Once Sakura had control of her clone, she made her sneak peeks towards the Chunin obvious, like leaning over and staring over his shoulder. She started giggling loudly, and Sakura made the clone look back at her test and write the answer. One of the sentinels caught her, and took down her name while shaking his head in disapproval.

One strike.

Smirking, Sakura then made her clone move closer to the Chunin, looking at the next answer. She gasped obviously and looked around, moving her head a lot before, laughing and writing her answer. The sentinel caught her again.

Two strikes.

Now wondering if these sentinels are idiots not to notice how fake this was, Sakura leaned towards the Chunin. "What's the answer to question three?" She asked loudly. Several people sniggered at her bad try at cheating and the Chunin frowned while the sentinel wrote another strike next to her name.

Three strikes.

Next, Sakura took 'sneaky' looks around her before standing up and looking towards one of her other clones. Once she found one, she started to signal the answer. She put up four of her fingers—question four—and then held up all of her fingers and one thumb, showing the answer to be nine. Once again, the sentinel took down a strike.

Four strikes.

"I'm stuck on five! Do you have the answer!?" Sakura yelled to her second clone out of three.

"No!" The clone yelled back.

"Number 6 and team, leave." One of the sentinels called. Sakura released her clone to walk out with the others, smirking slightly as she did so.

Five strikes and you're out.

'What am I going to do now? I've finished my test and Ino's still not done in my body. I can't just wait outside the academy in this form forever, ya know.' Sakura sighed out loud, drawing the attention of one of the passers by.

'Why didn't anyone notice that there were three extra people in the exams?' Inner asked in confusion. Sakura smirked.

'I entered them under a fake sensei with a fake team from Grass. They were my back-up plan, to use if I needed them. Looks like they were of use after all.' Sakura replied.

'Do you have another fake team? Just in case?'

'No. I'm good, but I can't put too many fake teams in. That would be obvious and I'd get caught.' Sakura told her.

'So…what's the technique we used all about?' Inner enquired.

'It's like the Yamanaka technique, except I don't leave my body. I'm just seeing through a different point of view.'

'Ha! The Yamanaka clan is out of a job then, ne?'

'No. I can never hold it for as long as a Yamanaka. Their technique is much better, but mine does the trick. I lose chakra through the clone, through seeing in the clone's eyes and through letting an emotion into the clone to allow me to see through her eyes. It's too hard to see through my clone's eyes for more than a few minuets at a time, so I can't stick around for the best information, like the Yamanaka clan do. Also, you remember that it took me almost half of the testing time just to get my chakra flows right. If it wasn't a clone, then that would have taken a lot longer. My technique is minor compared to theirs, but based on the Yamanaka clan jutsu.' She admitted.

'Well, it's good for this exam.' Inner shrugged, Sakura nodding in agreement.

'Yeah.'

'Do you think Yamanaka's done yet?' Inner mused, humming to herself.

'No, she's…wait…FINALLY!' Sakura sighed, releasing the clone to proceed to an alley to vanish while she herself went back to her body.

"Number 59, you fail."

"Numbers 33 and 9: fail."

'That's the fifteenth team to be dismissed.' Kabuto noted as he frowned without his glasses on.

"Number 41: fail!"

"Numbers 35 and 62: fail."

Gaara ignored the world around him and all the yelling going on about 'not cheating' and 'failure'. He gathered his sand and covered his right eye with his left index and middle fingers. Ibiki looked at him, seeing how nothing phased the boy's perfect concentration. He frowned and narrowed his eyes, not seeing a single slip in anything that would resemble even slight acknowledgement of the racket.

'Look at this guy. Cool as a cucumber.' Ibiki noticed. 'Stays focused as if nothing was happening.' He paused and smirked. 'Not bad for a novice.'

Gaara concentrated on the sand gathering in his upturned palm more so than he dared to concentrate on the room. The only time he stopped controlling the sand to see what was going on was when he heard a small thump. He saw the pink haired girl he had spoken to a few days before the exams—her name was Sakura, if he remembered right—resting her head on her arms. Then, not two seconds later, she was fully alert again.

Shrugging off the odd behaviour as a jutsu or something, Gaara carried on with his sand-collecting. Tensing his hand into an almost-fist, Gaara made the sand become an average-sized eyeball with a brown iris. No one noticed this and he didn't uncover his right eye for even a second once the eyeball was summoned.

'The opening of the third eye.' Gaara thought to himself as he saw what the eye saw through his covered eye. 'Invisibly linked to the optic nerve.'

The pupil of the eye shrank and grew again as Gaara crushed it into sand partials and had them travel the room until he found a person who had completed the test with sufficient answers. Once the 'victim' was found, Gaara added extra sand to the small amount and made it go in the boy's eyes, so that he wouldn't see the eye Gaara was using to cheat.

"Ow, I've got something in my eye." The boy complained as he rubbed his eyes to get it out. While he was busy doing this, the third eye formed and looked over the page, showing the answers to Gaara. The redhead picked up his pencil and, while using the third eye to see the sheet, copied the answers onto his own paper.

"Uh, excuse me?" Kankuro called, putting his hand up.

"What is it?" One of the sentinels asked gruffly. Kankuro took down his hand and grinned sheepishly.

"I gotta use the can. Sorry." He apologised. One of the sentinels got up and placed handcuffs around his wrists. Once they were secure, he also tied a rope to the centre of the cuffs to lead Kankuro to the bathroom.

"We go with you to make sure you're not up to anything." The pupil-and-iris-less sentinel told the younger boy calmly and strictly.

"That's perfectly understandable." Kankuro smiled as he was lead out. He caught Sakura looking his way and spared a wink, to which she replied with a scoff and an eye-roll.

"Security is pretty tight around here, but these sentinels aren't quite as eagle-eyed as everybody thinks." Kankuro mused as he stood in front of a urinal in the boy's bathroom. "After all, they haven't even realised that there's one more sentinel than there used to be." He chuckled. "Right, Crow?"

The sentinel didn't answer. Instead, part of his face crumbled away to reveal wood underneath his 'skin'.

'Only twenty minutes left and I haven't done squat.' Naruto worried as he watched the clock. 'I'm so busted…unless…in five minutes, they'll give out the tenth question. So that's what it comes down to. Everything's riding on that. Dattebayo!'

The Tenth Question: All or Nothing!

Tick

Sakura sighed as she sorted out her fringe so that it partially covered her eyes again. Ino seemed to find it difficult to read without using the ribbon the pinkette's wrist to hold it back. That annoyed Sakura to no end, since Ino had no right to touch the ribbon whether it was with her hand or not, and she re-tied it to her wrist, looking over her paper to make sure Ino hadn't messed anything up.

Morino Ibiki smirked as he looked over his class of miscreants, rascals, punks, criminals and Hinata—for, as I'm sure you know, Hinata isn't a miscreant, rascal, punk or criminal. He let his eyes sweep over them, one by one, seeing the numbers finally reduced. Some were sweating, some were frowning and most were freaked.

"Hn. Now that we've weeded out most of the hopeless cases, fifteen minutes to go." Ibiki stated to them all. "Time for the main event. All right! Listen up, here's the tenth and final question."

'Here we go.' Naruto gulped, his hand tightening into a fist around his pencil. 'Everything's riding on this one. Dattebayo.'

'Hn…man, this guy's full of himself.' Sasuke thought as he looked at Ibiki, as if he wasn't full of himself too. No, Sasuke isn't full of himself. Not at all. Nope. He just seems to believe that he's the greatest ninja that ever lived and that anyone who opposed him deserved to rot in the fiery pits of eternal damnation. But, he's not full of himself.

'Tch…it's about time.' Sakura sighed, blowing a stray strand of hair out of her face and running her fingers through the knots Ino had made when she tied her bangs back.

'Hurry up, Kankuro.' Temari frowned mentally. 'What good is your cheat-sheet going to be if you miss the tenth question?'

"But, before I give you the question, there are some more rules that you need to be aware of." Ibiki stated darkly.

The door creaked open and Kankuro stepped in with a smile on his paint-covered face. He paused and muttered his confusion when he saw that everyone was silent, facing the front and had their pencils down. The sentinel, Crow in disguise, walked slowly after him and Ibiki looked up with a smirk.

"Ah, made it just in time." He said in amusement as the sentinel behind the boy slid the door shut. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening."

'He's seen through the Crow's disguise.' Kankuro thought in panic. 'He's on to us!' He gulped as Ibiki smirked again.

"I think that you-"

"Oi!" A girl called from the middle. "Come on, he just went to the bathroom. It's not his fault if he takes longer than the average Sasuke-fangirl does." Sakura—who had yelled out—rolled her eyes. "The question?" She hinted.

"Right." He grunted, looking at Kankuro. "Well? Take your seat." The examiner ordered gruffly.

Kankuro paused, looking over at Sakura, before walking to his seat. As he passed Temari, he dropped a small capsule onto her desk, not slowing nor doing anything that might give him away. He then sat down and Ibiki took a step forwards, continuing his speech.

"These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully and try not to let them frighten you." He warned.

[--

"It's quiet without the rookies around." Kakashi stated casually as he sat with Kurenai and Asuma outside the academy. "Hm. I almost miss 'em."

"Don't worry. Chances are, they'll be back sooner than you think." Asuma assured him.

"Why's that?" Kakashi enquired suspiciously. Asuma sighed and lowered his cigarette to the ashtray next to him, tapping it on the grates to get rid of the ashes on the end.

"I heard that their first examiner this year is Ibiki." He informed the silverette.

"Hm?" Kakashi asked. 'So, already their chances of passing look iffy.' He thought to himself. "Great. Sticking them with that sadist right off the bat." The man stated without a care in the world as he leaned on the back of his seat.

"Hm? What sadist?" Kurenai asked curiously. Asuma chuckled, getting her attention.

"I forgot you were a new Jounin, Kurenai. Otherwise you wouldn't have to ask that." He told her. Kurenai leaned towards him slightly, her interest caught.

"So I'm ignorant." She huffed. "Who is he?" The woman asked, turning now to Kakashi.

"He's what you might call…a specialist." Kakashi said, choosing his words carefully.

"Oh yeah?" She asked, turning back to Asuma. "In what?" The woman asked him. Asuma took a long breath of his cigarette and released the smoke before turning to her with a mischievous half-grin.

"Interrogation…torture." He listed. Kurenai's eyes widened. "Oh, of course he won't be using physical torture during the test. He won't need to. It's not really his forte, anyway. He works on people's minds, not their bodies."

"He's famous for it." Kakashi added in. "Everyone knows of the head of the ANBU torture and interrogation core for Konohagakure. He and this proctor are one in the same. Morino Ibiki."

[--

'If even the rules are scary,' Naruto gulped. 'Then what's the question like?'

"Very well then. Rule number one: each of you is free to chose not to be given the final question. It's your decision." He told them. Naruto looked up in shock, as did everyone else.

'Say what?' Sasuke asked himself. 'We're free to choose?'

"Woah! So what's the catch?" Temari asked snappily. "If we decide we don't wanna do it; what happens then?"

"If you choose not to take the tenth question, regardless of your answers to the other nine, you'll get a zero." Ibiki smirked. "In other words, you fail. And that means, of course, that both your team mates fail as well."

"Who would choose to fail?"

"Is he deranged?"

"Of course we'll do it now!"

"Who wants to fail?"

"Should I do it?"

"I don't wanna lose!"

Many mutters and statements of this sort travelled around the classroom as Ibiki let them talk for the time being. One man—who had a funny, curly, bushy brown moustache in the front and looks scarily like Geppetto from Pinocchio—remained quiet at the front, just staring into nothingness like he was dead or planning dead. Freaky.

"Not so fast." Ibiki said quietly, silencing the Genin in the room. "You didn't let me finish."

'Grrrr! More rules? Enough already!' Sakura complained mentally.

"If you accept the question, but answer it incorrectly, you will not only fail…YOU WILL BE BANNED FROM TAKING THE CHUNIN EXAM EVER AGAIN!" He threatened loudly.

"Hey! That's bull man!" Kiba yelled, standing up and pointing angrily at Ibiki as Akamaru growled. "That's ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that?! There're lots of people here who've taken the teat before!" He stated and Akamaru barked in agreement.

Ibiki chuckled.

"I guess you're just…unlucky." He stated in amusement. "I wasn't making the rules before, but I am now. Of course, if you don't wanna take it, you don't have to."

"Huh?" Kiba asked, taken aback.

"If you're not feeling confident, then—by all means—skip it. You can come back and try again next year." He told them, chuckling again.

'Great. Just, great. Wonderful in fact! I can't wait to begin!' Sakura groaned sarcastically as she gritted her teeth.

'Cha! This sucks! I want a normal test!' Inner yelled, flailing her fists around in anger.

'Too bad we can't get one. I have to do the tenth question…but, if I don't get it right, then I don't get another shot.' She swallowed, looking around the room. Her eyes fell on one of the people in straw hats.

'QUIT! I wanna be a Chunin, and you can't do that if you fail!' Inner whined.

'No…I have to do this. If for nothing else, then to find out why those ninja seemed so familiar!' She stated in determination.

"Now then, if you're ready." Ibiki began. "The tenth and final question. Those who don't wanna take it, raise your hand." He ordered. "Your number will be recorded and then you can go."

'What could the question be? What if it's easy?' Naruto wondered, fighting himself about leaving. 'What if it's not?! If I get it wrong, I'll be a Genin for the rest of my life. And the way things are going…but I can't just skip it! Then we'll all fail! I can't do that to the others!'

'Well, I'm okay. Ibi-chan's not getting me to back out.' Sakura thought in determination. 'But…Naruto…'

'PUT YOUR STINKIN' HAND UP, NARU-NARU-CHAN!' Inner Sakura roared.

'NO! He can do it!' Sakura replied. 'I…I have faith in you Naruto!'

'You SO like him!' Inner accused.

'…what's your point?' Sakura blushed.

A pencil dropped and the boy next to Naruto raised his hand.

"I'm out." He stated, standing up and lowering his hand. "I just can't deal with this pressure."

"Number 52; fail! Number 130, number 113, that mean's you're out too."

"Geni…Eiho…I'm sorry guys." Number 52 stated as the aforementioned boys stood up to leave with him. "I'm sorry."

"That's it, I quit!" Another hand went up.

"Me too, sir." Another hand.

"Yeah."

"I'm out."

Another hand and another, then again and again. Hands raised up and people muttered apologise and curses as sentinels took down numbers and dismissed the Genin. Many more walked out after number 52, Geni and Eiho. Many, many more. Naruto just looked at his hand, gulping ad wondering what to do.

"Come on, Naruto. You can pass." Sakura whispered to herself, a genuine smile on her face as she tried to cover it by looking down at her desk.

'Love? Desire?' Inner asked, question the two emotions that would know if Sakura's like for Naruto was love, like or just a crush.

'Well…I really like him…and a lot of other boys.' Desire told her.

'Love?'

'…He's true in pure mind and love undying in faith' Love stated wistfully with a smile.

'Err…in people speak?'

'Not telling.' Sakura smirked, interrupting and silencing Desire and Love before they could spill the truth. She then sighed and looked back up at Naruto's back, her face now free from both her smile and her blush. She clenched her teeth and glared when she saw Naruto's hand rising in the air.

'N…Naru-chan?' Inner thought in shock.

'No! Don't do it Naruto!' Sakura screamed.

[--

"You see, this guy, Ibiki, is a master of interrogation because he understands how the human mind works." Asuma told the red-eyed woman, taking another breath of smoke.

"He knows just where to probe to uncover your weaknesses." Kakashi added as team ten's sensei released his smoke. "The thing is; he's so good at his job that he doesn't use physical torture. He doesn't need to."

"He just messes up your head so bad…you torture yourself." Asuma concluded.

[--

Naruto gritted his teeth as he held his hand in the air shakily. Sakura sighed and shook her head in disappointment as Sasuke glared at the blonde who cost him his first Chunin exam. Hinata just looked shocked at his un-Naruto-like behaviour. That is, until he sneered and slammed his hand down on the table.

"Don't underestimate me! I don't quit and I don't run!" Naruto declared proudly. "You can act tough all you want! You'll never scare me off! No way! I don't care if I do get stuck as a Genin for the rest of my life!" He stood up, glaring at Ibiki. "I'll still be Hokage someday!" He pronounced, sitting down with a pout as Hinata smiled brightly at him.

'Hn. He's completely clueless, but he's still going for it.' Sasuke sighed mentally, half relieved that Naruto didn't quit. 'The shrimp's got guts, I'll give him that.'

'THAT'S THE KNUCKLEHEAD WE KNOW AND LOVE!' Inner cheered loudly. Sakura agreed mentally with a smile.

'Absolutely.' She said, not denying anything.

"This decision is one that could change your life." Ibiki stated. "If, for any reason, you would rather quit…now's your chance."

"No way. I never go back on my word." Naruto claimed. "That's my way of the ninja."

'Hm…remarkable. That little outburst has even given the sheepish ones some backbone.' Ibiki noticed. 'He's inspired them into staying. Seventy eight left…more than I expected. But, I don't see anyone wavering. I think that's it.'

Ibiki cast a glance at the sentinels at the side of the room. They all nodded to him and he returned the gesture before turning back to the Genin left.

"Well then, I admire the determination all of you are now showing, if nothing else." Ibiki admitted. "For those of you remaining, there's just one more thing left to do…and that's for me to tell you…that you've all passed the first exam." He stated with a grin.

Everyone sat in shock. Naruto dropped his pencil and blinked, as if to make sure this was real and he hadn't just fallen asleep. Sakura frowned in confusion, also blinking, but she was biting her lip too. After a few moments, she stood from her chair and slammed her fists on the desk.

"Hold on! What just happened?" She asked. 'This never happened in Yukigakure! I thought that Chunin exams were mostly the same, no matter where you went!' The pinkette added mentally. "Where's the tenth question?!" She demanded. Ibiki grinned again and chuckled.

"There never was one." He admitted casually. "Not a written one, at least. Actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second!" Temari yelled from near the back. "So the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time. Is that what you're saying?!"

"No, no, not at all." Ibiki told her. "Quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overriding purpose. To surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well that clears up everything." The sandy-blonde-haired girl replied sarcastically.

"Let me explain. You see, my objective was to test you, not only as individuals, but also as a team, and on how well you function as a part of that team. That's why the test was scored on a team basis, so you'd know that everything you did—or failed to do—would directly affect your team mates. I wanted to see how you'd handle the pressure."

"Mmhmm, yeah, I figured it was something like that. That's why I kept my cool." Naruto lied as he nodded.

'Yeah right. What a liar.' Sakura smirked. Hinata giggled next to him.

"The first nine questions on the test were difficult. In fact, as you may have realised, too difficult for any Genin to be expected to solve." Ibiki continued. "I imagine that most of you quickly came to that conclusion; that you'd have to cheat if you wanted to have any chance of passing. The fact is; the test was designed to encourage cheating. It almost demanded it."

[--

She broke her trance with the clone, feeling a headache from overuse forming.

Akamaru yipped and looked at the sheet, seeing the answer. He barked it to Kiba.

His ear twitched slightly as he strained it a little further to distinguish the noised and turn them into pictures in his mind of what the ninja was writing.

The fly lifted itself from his finger and hovered over the test in front of him for a while before flying in a figure of eight.

As she moved her pencil, the mirrors moved with it.

"Five strikes and you're out." The sentinel replied cockily as his bandaged nose released a sniff of amusement. "You just failed the test."

"Psst, Naruto-k-kun." Hinata whispered to him, calling back his fearful mind from the scene. "G-Go ahead…l-look." She permitted, pushing her paper further towards him.

'Byakugan!' Neji thought as he preformed the right seals.

'Sharingan!' Sasuke yelled mentally as his eyes swam into red and he smirked at his plan.

Since Sakura had weakened her own soul, it was relatively easy for Ino to get inside. However, once Ino's soul left her own body, she slumped forwards and looked as if she'd fainted.

"I'm stuck on five! Do you have the answer!?" Sakura yelled to her second clone out of three.

Tensing his hand into an almost-fist, Gaara made the sand become an average-sized eyeball with a brown iris.

As he passed Temari, he dropped a small capsule onto her desk, not slowing nor doing anything that might give him away.

[--

"Now, no one can cheat without having someone to cheat from." Ibiki carried on. "So I disguised two Chunin who knew the answers and had them sit in with you." He stated as two boys, one in the middle and the other that Sakura's clone sat next to, waved.

'Gah! The answers were right in front of me the whole time!' Naruto yelled at himself.

"What is that kid's problem?" One Genin asked as Naruto freaked.

"I don't know." Another replied. Naruto's ear twitched as he heard them and he leaned back, trying to act 'cool'.

"Oh please. I wasn't fooled for a second!" He lied. "You'd have to be a complete baka not to see it. Isn't that right, Hinata-chan?" The blonde asked his seatmate and friend.

'Incredible.' Sasuke thought with a sweat-drop. 'So the whole time…he never knew.'

"Those who were caught at it failed." The proctor told them. "Better not to cheat, that to cheat clumsily." He added, untying his Hatei-ate and removing it. "Information. It can be you biggest ally in battle. How well you gather it can lead to mission failure or success." His head was covered with scars, burns, wounds and all sorts. "There'll be times you have to risk your life to get it."

'I see.' Sakura thought, subconsciously rubbing the bruise on her cheek.

"Man, what a mess." Sasuke said out loud. "Scars, puncture wounds, burn marks…boy, he must've endured." He noted. Naruto gulped.

"Of course, you must always consider the source of your information." He said, re-tying his Hatei-ate. "Intelligence gathered from an enemy is not always accurate. Never forget this. Misinformation can be worse than no information at all. It can lead to the death of comrades, or the death of a village. That's why I put you in the position where you had to gather accurate intelligence. Cheat, in order to survive."

'Ha! I told you!' Inner boasted.

"That's why those who weren't good enough at it were weeded out, leaving the rest of you." He smirked.

"Okay, but I'm still not getting what the tenth question thing was all about." Temari admitted slowly, like she was talking to a child.

"You not?" Ibiki asked her as if she were stupid. "The tenth question was the main point of the whole exam. Surely you see that."

"Of course we do!" Sakura rolled her eyes. "…But explain it anyway." She added, clearing her throat.

"As I said before, the goal was to test you not only as individuals, but also as part of a squad. The final question gave you two choices." He paused and put one hand in his pocket while raising the other with his index and middle fingers up.

"And they were…" Sakura prompted.

"You could choose to play it save and skip the question, though it meant that both you and your team mates would be failed. Or you could try and answer it, knowing that if you got it wrong you would lose your chance of ever being Chunin. It was a no win situation."

"I get it." Temari nodded.

"These are the choices Chunin have to face everyday. For example, let me give you a hypothetical mission: to steel a document from an enemy stronghold. You have no idea how many ninja the enemy has, or how heavily armed they are. Furthermore, you have reason to believe that the enemy expects you. You might very well be walking blindly into a trap. Do you have the option of not doing the mission? Can you say that you and your comrades would prefer to fight another day? No."

"You're kidding me." Kiba whispered to himself as Akamaru whimpered.

"There will be more suicidal missions that anyone could count. But you do not think about it. You think only of the goal and of achieving it through courage and discipline. These are the qualities required of a Chunin squad leader. Those who chose the safer of two paths. Those who's determination falters in the face of adversity. Those who would put their comrade's lives in jeopardy, but worrying about their own. Those who would save their own necks at the price of sacred honour. Those people will never be able to call themselves Chunin."

"Scum." Sakura agreed.

"As for the rest of you—who answered the ten questions I gave to you—you have the right to continue on to the next step. You have passed through the first gate. I hereby declare this part of the Chunin selection exam completed. There's nothing left, but to wish you all good luck."

"All right!" Naruto cheered. "We did it! That's one down!"

'He's a funny one, that kid.' Ibiki mused. A ball approached the window fast and Ibiki looked at it in suspicion. It crashed through the window and threw kunai onto the ceiling to pin a black cloth up behind it.

"Is this…part of the test?" Naruto asked fearfully as the 'ball' straightened up into a person.

'A show-off as usual.' Ibiki sighed mentally.

"Heads up, boys and girls, this is no time to be celebrating." The person stated. It was a woman. "I'll be your next proctor, Mitarashi Anko. You ready for the second test?" She asked. "Good! Let's go! Follow me!" Anko then said, not giving anyone time to reply.

Anko wore a fishnet top, fishnet under shorts that cut off at her knees, a dark brown miniskirt with straps on the front and a light brown trench coat with a purple lining and black ninja sandals on her feet. Her legs were also protected from her ankles to her knees with white leg-guards and around her neck attached to a thin rope was a medium-sized dark blue pendant. Her hair was dark indigo and it was styled with messy bangs around her face and across her forehead—where her Hatei-ate sat—and a spiky ponytail in the back. Her eyes were dark grey.

After her outburst, everyone just stared at her with a sweat-drop, a freaked-out expression or with a raised brow. Then some people, like Shino and Gaara, just looked at her stoically without a sign of life present on their faces at all. Ibiki stepped out from behind the black cloth, which read in white 'Welcome your next Chunin exam proctor; Mitarashi Anko!'

"You're early…again." He stated as Anko blushed and sweat-dropped at her own show.

'Great, a screaming nut-case. She's sorta like Naruto.' Sasuke sighed, not looking forward to his next test with the woman he thought of as a complete freak.

"Woah, how many are there?" Anko asked herself as she looked over the Genin in the room. "Ibiki, you let all these guys pass? Your test was way too easy. You must be getting soft." She accused.

"Or it could be a stronger crop of candidates this year." Ibiki stated.

"Hmm, they sure don't look it." Anko mused. "Trust me. When I'm done with them, more than half will be eliminated."

"More than half? Either you're deranged or we're not as strong as we think we are." Sakura shrugged. "I'm gonna go with the second one, because I don't know about the rest of these guys, but the rookie nine is gonna kick some ass."

"What did you say?" Anko growled.

"Don't pay any attention to pinkie. She's just bored and looking for something to entertain her." Ibiki sighed.

"Oh, she wont be bored during my test." Anko smirked, looking up at Sakura for the first time. She gasped. 'No…it can be her. Who would've thought that we'd ever meet?' Anko thought with a frown.

"Bored? That's an understatement." Sakura scoffed, breaking Anko from her thoughts and snapping her back into proctor-mode.

"Alright, maggots! You've had it easy so far, but things are gonna be different starting first thing in the morning." She began. "I'll let your squad leader know where you're to meet me. Dismissed." She said, stating the final word mockingly.

[--

Later that day, Sakura picked up Inari from his babysitter and he hugged the life out of her. When she pried him off and they were on their way home, he began to ask questions.

"How was your day, onee-sama?" Inari enquired. Sakura sighed.

"Boring and pointless." She replied. "The proctor for the test thought he was above everyone else and the proctor for my next exam was a complete nut-job." The girl rolled her eyes.

"What about the other teams?"

"Well, there's this one freaky kid who can whoop Sasuke's ass with his taijutsu. He loves me or something like that. Then there's this guy with the same eyes as Hinata-chan, and then Kabuto, and he's just plain weird." She told him.

"Anyone else?" Inari prompted.

"Well, there's this team in conical straw hats. I feel like I know them from somewhere." She admitted.

"You do, Sakura-chan." A male voice interrupted as the boys jumped down in front of her and Inari.

The ones on either side of the one who spoke wore white karate bottoms, black ninja sandals and grey, hooded jumpers with long sleeves and a yellow circle on either shoulder. Sakura's eyes widened. The boy in the centre had the same style of trousers and sandals, but he wore red Chinese-style Mandarin Top with white cuffs and a white circle on each shoulder. He also wore black, fingerless gloves and a black belt with pouches and compartments attacked to it.

"Y-You're…" She trailed off, looking at the clan symbols on their shirts.

"Hey, imouto-chan." The one in the centre whispered as they all took off their hats.

"No." Sakura voiced as she took a step back, holding tightly to Inari's hand.

"Sakura-chan." Taiyoo called with a smile on his face. The smile dropped when she took another step back.

"Stay away from me!" She screamed, running off and taking Inari with her.

"Well, that didn't go as planned." Juhi sighed.

"She just needs time." Taiyoo assured them. Tsuki said nothing. He just frowned and clenched his fists before he disappeared back to their temporary home in a sprinkle of snowflakes. Juhi and Taiyoo soon did the same.

[--

The next day, all of the passing Genin stood outside a fenced off forest with sighs posted all over the wire fencing that said things like 'restricted area' and 'keep out' or even 'danger'. Naruto gulped slightly as Sakura just stood blankly. She'd been like that since they met up that morning after she'd dropped Inari off at his babysitter's, but they dared not ask why.

"Woah…nice place." Naruto said for lack of any other words.

"This is the location for the second phase of the exam." Anko stated. "It's the forty fourth battle training zone. But wee call it…the forest of death."

"Forest of…death?" Naruto echoed.