The Eye of the Beholder
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Rose Tiger: Hinata is there, otherwise I wouldn't have said the Rookie 9, she just doesn't talk as much. She's still shy and needs more time to break out of her shell, that being said she's a great deal more confident in her abilities as a shinobi. She won't be fighting Neji in the preliminaries, I've got a special line up for her. And, no, it won't be Naruto.
"Talking"
'Thinking'
Flashback and Notes
Demons and Higher Beings
Disclaimer:I don't own Naruto
Chapter 10: Hidden Meaning
"I'm Morino Ibiki, the proctor for the first part of the exam," said a jounin standing in front of twelve chuunin. The jounin was a male in his mid to late twenties, he was wearing a black trench coat that was open, he had a tan complection with two inconsistant claw-like scars on his face and his hitat-ate was on a bandanna that was wrapped over his head. The look on his face said that he meant business. He pointed to the Oto genin, "Oto shinobi as I've said before, you do anything else during this part of the exam, I'll disqualify immediately."
"Gomen, this is our first exam, so we're a tad excited," the bandaged one said.
"Before we start I will make this clear, unless otherwise specified by the proctor, fighting is not permitted during the exam, and when permitted, killing isn't, any who fail to follow these rules will be removed from this exam immediately," Ibiki said in a serious voice.
"Heh, you guys are too soft, this'll be a piece of cake," the spiky haired Oto genin said.
"The first exam of the Chuunin Selection Exam starts now, all applicants turn in your forms," Ibiki specified. He held up a small tag with a number, "The moment you turn in your form you will be given one of these number tags, you will then take a seat in the chair with the same number specified on your tag. When everyone has been seated we will pass out the papers for the written exam."
Naruto just shrugged, if he passed he passed, and he doubted that they'd put a written exam without a hidden meaning. He turned in his form, got his number and looked for his seat, which was in the third row in the middle secion and one seat to the left of the walkway when facing the front of the room. The blond sat down and waited with his eyes closed for a bit until he heard someone sit down on his right, normally this wouldn't have merited his attention, but the smell of lilacs, lavender and a small hint of vanilla went through his nose. He turned his head and saw that Hinata was sitting right next to him. Naruto just smirked and said the shy Hyuuga, "Yo, Hinata, looks like we got lucky."
Hinata just blushed, nodded and said, "Un."
A question went through Naruto's head, 'Why does she always blush when she's around me? Although it is cute.' Naruto stopped his thoughts and ran over them and said, 'Did I just think Hinata' blushing was cute?'
While these thoughts were going through Naruto's head other thoughts were going through his neighbor's head.
'YATTA, I'M SITTING NEXT TO NARUTO-KUN,' Hinata was thinking excitedly.
A tap on the black board got everyone's attention as Ibiki spoke with a piece of chalk in his hand, "I have a few rules I need to specify, and I will not answer any questions about said rules so listen carefully."
Everyone was paying close attention.
"Rule 1: You will start off with ten points. There are ten question worth one point each, if you get one question wrong you lose a point, if the question is not answered you also lose a point," Ibiki explained.
'Makes sense,' Naruto thought to himself.
"Rule 2: Your ability to pass this portion of the exam is all dependant on the points of your entire team have gained, if one of you fails their team mates fail," Ibiki told them with a straight face.
This got a few gasps from quite a few of the applicants.
Naruto thought again, 'Also makes sense, they wouldn't allow us to take the exam individually so breaking the team apart this early would conflict with the entire exam.'
"I will explain my reasoning, so no question," Ibiki told them. "Rule 3: If the examiner catches you cheating or anything similar, two points will be deducted."
Once again quite a few of the genin gasped.
Naruto kept a cool head while trying to think about the hidden meaning.
"Those who cheat without careful thought will only hurt themselves and their team mates," Ibiki told them.
"We will be checking off the names of those we've caught cheating," one of them said, this one looked a lot like one of the genin that had the genjutsu on the door on the second floor.
"Before you can become chuunins, you have to be able to prove yourselves in being quality shinobi," Ibiki told them.
Everyone was trying to keep a cool facade when Ibiki spoke out again.
"Also if anyone gets a zero, the entire team fails," the proctor spoke out.
This got even more gasps from the chuunin hopefuls.
'Once again, makes sense,' Naruto thought with a nod.
"The last question will be given forty-five minutes into the exam, you have one hour for the exam," the proctor told them.
The second hand on the clock reach the top, indicating that the time reached 1:00 pm.
"Begin," Ibiki told them.
Naruto shrugged and looked the paper over. 'Okay, I might be able to figure out a few of these, but none of this was covered in the academy. There is no way any normal genin could answer some of these without some form of calculation device.' Naruto then looked over to the examiners and noticed that one wrote on their clipboard. 'Obviously someone doesn't know how to keep himself from cheating very easily,' then the answer hit Naruto like a ton of bricks. 'They don't care about whether or not you answer these question correctly, they just want to see if you can cheat without being caught.' Naruto then smirked as he tapped his foot to his right, effectively getting Hinata's attention.
Hinata looked at Naruto while the blond was leaning his chin on his right hand just below his his right cheek with his elbow on the desk. He was tapping his temple, like he was thinking of something.
The Hyuuga heiress was thinking for a bit before her leg was tapped again, this time slightly lower. It took Hinata a few seconds before she realized that Naruto was indicating her eyes. She then put her hand in a seal and activated her family's doujutsu, the Byakugan.
Naruto looked out of the corner of his eye and smirked and started writing on his paper. What he wrote said,
Hinata,
The object of this test is to cheat well without getting caught, can you indicate subtly which of the ones here has all the answers?
Hinata then scanned the room for a bit, then she found that the person close to Naruto seemed to be doing very well. She then tapped Naruto's leg with her own foot to get his attention. When she did she tapped the desk twice.
Naruto just smirked and wrote down something else.
Tap my foot once if it's yes and twice if it's no. To acknowledge that you understand tap my foot three times.
Hinata then tapped Naruto's foot three times. Blushing due to said contact.
This little interaction went on for a bit before Naruto got the information he needed.
Thank you for the help, Hinata.
Hinata just blushed again at being praise by Naruto.
Naruto decided to do a little trick of his own, more specifically with his kage bunshin. 'What better way to use the bunshin's information gathering abilities than to gather information?' he thought rhetorically. With that thought he put his hands under the table and summoned one bunshin, which transformed into an ant. 'One of the few times where smashing an ant would help another person out,' Naruto thought with a snicker.
After the bunshin reached his target he started wandering around the paper and memorizing the answers, if only for a brief moment.
Apparently the person who's test Naruto's clone was on didn't like the ant, so he crushed it with his fist, only to be confused when there was no entrails or any remains on the bottom of his fist or paper.
'Thank you, human nature,' Naruto snickered again as he wrote all the answers his bunshin had memorized. He then turned his paper over
Right then a kunai was about to fly pass Naruto's face, but reflex got the better of him and he caught it.
The examiners and Ibiki were all suprised that Naruto had caught the kunai when he wasn't even paying attention, especially the one that had thrown it.
"Ano, gomen, do you want your kunai back?" Naruto said as he stood up with said kunai in hand.
The chuunin, although surprised, chuckled and said, "No, but thank you for the consideration, there's a person sitting right behind you, put it in his paper, because he failed."
Naruto just shrugged and did what he was told figuring bad cheater wouldn't last long in the future.
"What the hell are you doing?" the owner of the paper Naruto just impaled demanded as he stood up.
"You got caught, so you failed," Naruto told him as he sat back down.
Ibiki's only thoughts about Naruto were, 'How the hell did this kid fail the Genin Exam three times with reflexes like that?'
"Like the blond said, you failed, team mates of the one standing stand up and leave the room," the owner of the kunai said as he pointed at the genin.
The team mates did so with an annoyed expression.
"Number 23, failed," the kunai owner said.
"Number 27 and number 43, failed," the chuunin examiners said.
As time passed more people got caught, some left with some dignity still intact while others were dragged out, kicking and screaming. One actually challenged the examiner's abilities to see his cheating only to be slammed against the wall.
Naruto just shook his head, 'Don't challenge them, there's a reason why they're chuunin, and an even better reason why they were selected as examiners for this exam.'
This went on for quite a bit until he saw a few of the people doing a few gestures of their own.
Gaara was making an eye of sand to see through.
Neji had activated his byakugan
Sasuke did the same with his sharingan.
Naruto noticed that a fly landed on one of the test papers, 'Probably a partner for Shino.'
Tenten seemed to be using some mirrors she hooked around the light with nearly invisible wire.
Naruto then noticed Haku with his left hand in a seal. He then saw a mirror form above Haku's head and another form above the head of the guy Naruto's cheating victim. 'That's certainly an interesting ability,' he thought to himself.
During that time another team had failed.
Naruto can't say that he saw everyone's method for cheating, like Kiba for instance, but he saw quite a few, and he was certainly impressed by how well everyone was doing.
Naruto wasn't the only one who was impressed, it took quite a bit of Ibiki's analytical abilities to figure out the methods that some of them used. So far the only ones he couldn't figure out were the bandaged Oto genin, Shino, Haku and Naruto. Ibiki looked around and saw that some of the chuunin were a tad flustered as well, some even looked ready to scream out and just ask how the genin were cheating.
Ibiki could only smile as he thought to himself, 'This is quite a batch of genin we have this time around.'
After several minutes had passed Ibiki looked at the clock and said, "Alright, I will now give the tenth question."
Nearly everyone was tense.
"Before I give out the question, there are some special rules for this question," Ibiki told them.
The door was opened to reveal Kankuro and the examiner that had taken him to the lavatory earlier.
"You're lucky," Ibiki said with a smirk. "Your puppet show didn't go to waste."
This got Kankuro to get nervous.
Naruto had already been aware that the judge was a fake just from the numbers, there were twelve chuunin examiners and Ibiki, a thirteenth one was suspcious unless it was a puppet. He noticed that the other examiners had taken note of it, but didn't really act on it, which made him think that although Kankuro did cheat and add another examiner, unless they knew about puppetry, which was rare in Konoha, then they wouldn't expose him. Although Ibiki himself noticed, he didn't care, because he proved himself as a useful shinobi in that department.
"Now sit down," Ibiki told him.
Kankuro did as he was told but not before passing his sister and subtly dropping something in front of her on the desk.
"I will now explain the rules of this question," Ibiki told them. "This rule will determine your future as a shinobi."
Nearly everyone was tense, Naruto was slightly nervous himself, but he kept a cool facade. Though something was irking him slightly and the mood didn't help.
"First, you will choose whether or not you will take the tenth question," Ibiki said to them.
"What will happen if we choose not to take the question?" Temari asked, a tad confused about this rule.
"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero," Ibiki explained. "In other words, you fail, and if you fail so do your team mates," he finished with a sadistic grin.
"And the second rule," Ibiki paused for emphasis.
And the atmosphere tensed even more.
"If you take the question and get it wrong," Ibiki told them. "You will permanently lose the priviledge to take the Chuunin Exam."
Everyone was sweating at this rule.
"What kind of rule is that? There are people here who have taken the Chuunin Exam before," Kiba yelled out while pointing his finger. Akamaru barked on his head in agreement.
Ibiki just started laughing, "It was just your misfortune that you got me as your proctor for this part of the exam, because during this part I make the rules." Ibiki paused to let it set in. "This is why I gave the option of not taking it, those who aren't confident enough in their abilities choose not to take the question, therefore allowing themselves to take the exam next time."
Most were sweating up a storm now. The only calm ones were Naruto, Gaara, Shino and Haku.
Naruto focusing on keeping his breathing calm while he thought about what Ibiki was saying, although something was still irking him, and it was gradually getting worse, 'Why would he give us this option of quitting only to threaten us with the possibility of remaining genin? This makes me think of Kakashi-sensei's bell test in that he pitted everyone against one another to see if they can uncover the hidden truth. Perhaps he wants to see if we have the courage to take the test.'
Naruto was looking around the room. It appeared that nearly everyone was seriously nervous. And it was at that moment that Naruto realized what was irking him, he just decided to steel his will and crossed his legs and arms with a straight face.
"We will now begin," Ibiki told them. "Those who will not be taking the tenth question, raise your hands. After we've confirmed, you and your team may leave."
Naruto was gritting his teeth at this point, but he needed to keep himself in control.
A hand was raised, more specifically this was the hand of the person to Naruto's immediate left.
"I quit, I can't risk this," the genin said.
"Number 50, fails," one of the proctors says. "Number 130 and 111 fail as well."
"Sumanai, Gennai, Inaho," the genin said.
The team mates of said genin stood up and left the room alongside their team mate.
With that more people started to raise their hands.
Naruto gritted his teeth even more as he thought while shaking, 'This is ridiculous.'
After about a minute or so no one was raising their hands.
'Oh, that's it,' Naruto shot his hand up.
Ibiki just raise one eyebrow and asked, "Oh, are you giving up as well?"
Naruto just slammed his fist on the desk and said, "Like hell I am, I just need to use the restroom."
The effect was almost instantaneous as nearly everyone either face faulted or sweat dropped.
Most of the Rookie 9 were thinking, 'Typical Naruto.'
Ibiki himself was almost laughing until he realized Naruto was being serious about having to use the restroom. The proctor then signaled one of the chuunin examiners to escort Naruto to the lavatory.
Naruto just bowed to Ibiki and said in a grateful voice, "Arigatou."
When Naruto and the chuunin walked out the door, Naruto just said, "I know where the restrooms are located, just follow and keep tabs, ano, what's your name anyway?"
"Hagane Koutetsu," the chuunin with hair over his right eye said.
"Yosh, Koutetsu-san," Naruto said as he ran to where he knew the third floor latrines were.
When Naruto went to the urinal he started talking to the chuunin, "That was a nice trick you and that other examiner did on the second floor before the exam, Koutetsu-san."
"I'm surprised you recognized me, Naruto-san," Koutetsu said while smiling a bit.
"You appearance isn't all that memorable, no offense Koutetsu-san," Naruto said as he shook out the rest of the waste. He zipped up his fly. "Everyone has their own unique scents among them, and I just happen to recognize yours from the second floor," he explained as he walked over to the sink and washed his hands.
The chuunin nodded as he asked, "There is one thing that's been bothering me, Naruto-san."
Naruto dried his hands as he moved his head in a gesture that specified he was listening.
"How did you get your answers for the test?" Koutetsu finally asked.
"Is this off the record?" Naruto asked.
"That's for you to decide, I'm just asking out of curiosity," Koutetsu admitted.
Naruto just shrugged, figuring if he wanted to fail Naruto for cheating, he would have done so already, "I got lucky in my positioning, the Hyuuga that sits next to me is a classmate of mine, she's also a training and sparring partner as well as a good friend, I just had her indicate who held the answers. After I knew, all I had to do was use a kage bunshin and a henge."
Koutetsu just nodded, "Very clever, what kind of indications did you use?"
"Now what kind of shinobi would I be if I revealed all of my secrets?" Naruto asked with a smirk.
Koutetsu chuckled but couldn't help but agree that Naruto was entitled to his secrets.
They entered the room, well, Naruto kicked the door open and yelled, "Ahhh, much better, and don't worry, I washed my hands."
This got different reactions from most people.
Sasuke, Sakura, Kiba and Hinata chuckled as he walked over to his seat and sat back down. Temari and Kankuro as well as most of the others just sweat dropped as Naruto's remark.
'He's erased all of the tension in the room, and he did so before he left, I managed to get some back, but the moment he kicked the door open I knew I was beaten,' Ibiki thought with a smirk. "I'll ask once more. Your choice will impact your life. Are you sure you want to take that risk?"
Naruto just smirked. "I didn't raise my hand earlier to quit, did I?" he asked rhetorically.
'With this, I acknowledge my loss,' Ibiki smiled. 'Eighty-four genin, more than I expected. Waiting any longer is just a waste of time.'
Ibiki looked to the chuunin examiners and a few nodded to him, he nodded back and faced the genin.
"You all have good determination," the proctor told them. "And with this, I'd like to congratulate all of you for passing the first part of this exam."
Naruto just smirked, 'I thought so.'
"Hold on, what about the tenth question?" Sakura stood up and asked.
"There was no tenth question," Ibiki said with a grin. "That was a bluff to see if you were willing to risk it all. In a way you could consider that the tenth question."
"Oi, what about the first nine questions, was that just a waste of time?" Temari demanded.
"Of course not, the purpose of the nine questions was fulfilled," the proctor explained. "The questions were set to test how well you each could gather information."
"Gathering information?" Temari asked.
"First, this test's purpose in the first rule, your decision is based on your three person teams," Ibiki explained. "By saying that your points are based on the total points of the team, the pressure was placed on your shoulders that you had to pass for the sake of your team."
Naruto just nodded, "I figured as much."
"But the tests questions given to you can't be solved by normal genin, so the only option was to cheat," Ibiki explained. "So we pretty much expected everyone to cheat. So we snuck in two chuunins who knew the answers to be obvious targets for cheating."
Naruto just smirked as he looked a Hinata with a nod.
The Hyuuga just blushed at Naruto's acknowledgement.
"Of course, those who didn't cheat well were caught and failed," Ibiki explained as he took off his hitae-ate, showing the genin the scars he hid. "The reason for this is that information could mean the difference between life and death, if someone is given the wrong information, that could cost them their lives, the mission, or even their entire village."
This got quite a few gasps from nearly everyone in the room.
Once again, Naruto didn't flinch because he knew that this was the world they lived in, and he knew that sometimes, people would go to any means to get what they wanted.
Ibiki put the cloth back on his head, "Quite a few people would put this kind of physical torture on someone if it meant gaining the information they needed, or wanted." The proctor paused for a bit then continued, "We tested everyone here to see if you could cheat well so you could gather information, we removed those that couldn't do so."
"Then what was the purpose of the tenth question?" Temari asked.
"The tenth question was the main reason of this part of the exam," Ibiki explained.
"And what reason was that?" Sakura asked.
"The tenth question was your choice as to whether or not you should take the question," Ibiki told them. "It was a choice that was bad no matter which of the two choices you made. Those who chose not to take it, failed along with their team mates. If you chose to take it and couldn't answer it, your priviledge to take the exam again would have been permanently revoked. It was evil no matter which one you chose."
Everyone else was thinking about this.
Ibiki then explained a scenario to them. He then questioned whether or not you would take a dangerous mission with so many unknown variables, could you decline such a mission. He then explained that the answer was no. He explained that some missions are unavoidable, despite the heavy risks involved. He explained the need to show courage when the time is right and the ability to get through bad situations are what traits that make up a chuunin. "As a chuunin, you can't give up when things get difficult, otherwise your entire squad could very well lose their lives. My belief is that only those who have a heavy determination are ones that deserve the title of chuunin. You chose to take a difficult question even with such high stake, and that was the right decision, you have all passed this first exam, with that this first part of the exam ends. You have my wish of luck," Ibiki told them.
Naruto just smirked as he said, "Live in my shoes and you'll know what psychological torture is really about."
Ibiki just thought, 'Interesting guy.' He then looked to his right.
A black object crashed through the window and landed in front of Ibiki. Three kunai were shot out and pinned to the ceiling as Anko was revealed with a black flag that read, The Second Examiner, Mitarashi Anko is here. "I am the Second Proctor, Mitarashi Anko. Let's go the the next exam." She then shot her hand in the air, "Follow me."
All of the genin were just looking at her with an odd looks.
Ibiki stepped partially from behind Anko's flag and said, "Grasp the atmosphere."
Anko just had a scowl on her face at that statement.
Sakura just thought, 'Her personality is like Naruto's.'
"Eighty-four, Ibiki, you let twenty-eight teams pass?" Anko asked. "Your exam must have been too easy."
"Or we have a few exceptional genin this year," the interrogation expert countered.
"Well, whatever, more than half are gonna fail in my part of the exam," Anko declared.
Some were looking in surprise.
"The next exam will start tomorrow in another location, ask your jounin sensei about the location and time. I'll explain when you get there, and anyone who is late will be an automatic disqualification, and with that, you are dismissed," she told them.
Later that day...
Ibiki was gathering the papers when he saw what was written on Naruto's, he then looked at the on next to it and read the name. He just chuckled at the genin's luck and thought,'Uzumaki Naruto was sitting by a friend the whole time and she told him where to get the answers from, he certainly knows how to press an advantage when he has one. You are certainly and interesting character.'
That night...
He was running through the night, smelling the air, trying to find one scent. He sees the one he seeks, a fox with crimson fur and nine tails.
"So you have come, at last," the fox said as its form shifted into that of a human with blond hair, blue eyes and three whisker marks on each cheek.
"We will finally have our battle," the being said.
"Be it in our original forms, or through our vessels," the fox said as they started to clash.
That's when Sasuke woke up. He held his head as he thought to himself, 'That dream again, the full moon is tomorrow.'
He looked at the clock and it said 4:00 am. 'I'm not getting any more sleep tonight.'
That was all Sasuke thought as he got out of bed to get ready for the day. He decided to work on his elemental chakra control for the duration.
One thought kept recurring with him while he was training, 'What does that dream mean?'
End of Chapter...
I can't help this, I'm still on fire when it comes to ideas. What does Sasuke's dream mean, and why does it happen close to the full moon? Only I have the answers, or maybe I haven't even thought of all the answers. I leave it for you, the readers to decide. Anyway, Read & Review