Chapter Fifteen: Look of a Killer and the First Examination
The week leading up to the beginning of the Chunin Exams went by pretty quickly, mostly because they barely had a breather. What Anko had not mentioned when she had given the sign up forms to them, was that if they accepted, she would be tripling their normal training regimen and doing D-rank missions, which were previously below her notice. So it was not an uncommon sight to see Naruto and Hinata leaning on one another, stumbling home, so exhausted that they barely had time to do more than undress, rinse off in the shower and collapse into blissful blackness. After all, it would do for them to die the first time they ran up against a hostile shinobi, never mind that they had already completed two C-ranks and an A-rank mission. Naruto thought she just liked running them into the ground. Anko didn't deny that it wasn't a nice side benefit.
The three genin had thought her original training regimen was harsh, but this new one made her previous training sessions look like she was playing with kiddie gloves. She had not taught them any new jutsu, instead focusing on having them master the handful of jutsu that they already possessed. Anko explained it like this: "A shinobi with nothing more but the Basic Three, (Transformation, Clone and Escape Techniques,) but has spent time making sure she had mastered those three techniques completely is a hundred times more dangerous than a shinobi with a hundred techniques, but is unfamiliar with them."
The second thing she focused on was hand seal speed. "The faster you can use a jutsu, the sooner you can kill an enemy. So, faster hand seals only make you more dangerous." This was done by hours and hours of sitting in the dirt and progressing through the twelve basic seals, repeated more times than any of the three genin could count. Eventually Anko had them do the seals with their eyes closed, smacking them upside the head every time they made a mistake. Needless to say, it wasn't long before they were performing hand seals flawlessly.
The third thing they worked on was helping Tenten fight with her firearms. Tenten usually left her two rifles at home, instead carrying half a dozen pistols with her, two holstered at the small of her back, two at her ankles and a pair of tiny derringers up her sleeves. Mostly they focused on her draw and firing speed. The greatest disadvantage to firearms were their long reload times. Tenten circumvented this to an extent by using a mud clone to reload one of her rifles while she shot the other and carrying so many pistols on her person.
The hardest aspect of using her guns was getting a bead on her target. Most shinobi were fast enough that she had to lead her shot, which was rather tricky most of the time. However, a bullet was many times faster than a kunai or shuriken, so once she had her target in her sights, they were as good as dead. Unfortunately, she had never had the opportunity to use them in live combat, (something that irked her to no end,) but she had hundreds of hours practicing on Naruto, and had about eighty percent accuracy on his clones.
She also developed several nonlethal shots to use either in practice or to disable a target. It had taken several weeks and hundreds of trials to do it. Paintballs simply exploded in the barrel, and bean bags tended to incinerate. Rubber, wax and plastic bullets melted in the barrel. Using some kind of elemental charge seemed like it would work, if only she and Naruto could figure out a way to create a bullet that wouldn't damage her rifle. They only elemental bullets that Naruto had been able to create at first were of fire, which did not work well. Rather than exploding on impact as they were supposed to, the instead turned her rifle into a short-lived flamethrower. However, the incredible heat released warped the barrel, rendering it unusable. She had been pretty ticked about that.
Water bullets did absolutely nothing, the unsealed water simply extinguished the black powder before it could impart any momentum.
The problem was that the seals inscribed on the bullets activated when the black powder in the cartridge ignited. Naruto had tried to circumvent this problem by putting the seal on the inside of the cartridge, with little effect. Even coating the cartridges in wax didn't help much, as they were as likely to misfire as not. Another ruined rifle had been the result of that, as well as the beginning of using throwaway guns for experimentation from then on.
Even Jiraiya wasn't able to come up with a satisfactory solution at first. A seal to reinforce the cartridge completely negated any effect at all, turning them back into regular bullets. But once he sat down and gave it some serious consideration, he came up with a solution quickly.
The problem with her less-lethal rounds was that they either fired too early or not at all. So a way to ignite the seals as the bullet was leaving the barrel was needed. The solution was pretty simple, if not cheap. Just about any material was capable of conducting chakra, but most were so inefficient that it was not practical. But there was one kind that had been developed to channel chakra, an alloy of gold and silver called electrum. It was not often used, as it was structurally inferior to steel, or even unrefined iron, but did find occasional use.
So she had a small plate of electrum by the trigger and on the underside of the barrel where her hand steadied the rifle inlaid into the wood. A thin wire of electrum connected the two plates to a pair of small electrum contact plates of the inside the rifle barrel at the muzzle. When Tenten pulled the trigger and shot the rifle, she ran a small amount of chakra through the electrum plates, down the barrel, and when the bullet struck the two contact plates at the end of the barrel and activated the seals on the bullet. She also modified all of her pistols except for her two derringers, which were just too small, in the same way.
The bullets were time consuming to make, as the seals had to be tiny, and were fairly intricate. Converting something with physical mass to something as ephemeral as fire, lightning or wind was not easy. Creating an elemental bullet took Naruto about thirty minutes. For Tenten, who was a relative novice, it took her closer to an hour. An unexpected side effect of charging the bullets at the end of the barrel was the ability to fire variable strength bullets. Simply put, the more chakra she put into it, the stronger the effect was.
The final modifications she made to her guns was a protective seal inscribed at the muzzle to prevent the barrel from warping with the use of certain cartridges.
After considerable experimentation, they were able to create six different kinds of cartridges. She had two types of fire cartridges, one that created a short lived, short range cone of white-hot fire, capable of igniting just about anything on fire and one that exploded on impact. The third kind were charged with lightning chakra to deliver a stunning shock on impact, capable of inducing a heart attack if highly charged. The largest advantage it had was that it was silent, emitting only a snap as it fired. On the other hand, it was somewhat inaccurate at range. If there was a large source of metal nearby, the lightning bolt would strike that. The fourth type of cartridge used wind chakra to increase the velocity of the bullet to the point where it almost doubled her range. A drawback to the wind chakra-charged cartridge was that it was loud, emitting am almost deafening crack when fired. A fifth fired a globule of water powerful enough to break ribs and knock a target off his feet with stunning force. Her final elemental cartridge used the earth-type chakra that with the rifling on the inside of the barrel fired what was essentially a drill. Theoretically, it should be able to shoot through a first target to hit a second one behind.
With the addition of the elemental cartridges, her belt was starting to get quite heavy. Tenten always wore a heavy brown leather belt over her pants to support everything she carried. In addition to the kunai pouch and sword, she had a number of leather pouches of varying sizes. The largest of them all carried ammunition for her two rifles, holding about thirty .577 caliber cartridges. The next pouch carried ten .45 caliber cartridges for her main pistols. A third pouch carried ten cartridges for the pair of .38 she carried in her ankle holsters, and a fourth held ten cartridges for the .22 derringers in her sleeves. Then she had six pouches for her various elemental cartridges. After that she had a pouch for her field maintenance kit. Finally were the two holsters, strapped on upside down so that the hand grip pointed up for a quicker draw.
Each pouch was held closed by a pair of powerful magnets and marked with a series of raised bumps, arranged in a code to tell her which pouch held what without having to actually look as that would be awkward for some, which were at the small of her back.
OoOoO
The day before the Chunin Exams were to start, Team Nine dragged themselves to the training area that they had claimed as theirs, already sore and tired. Anko materialized in a shunshin a few minutes later. Realizing at what sorry state her genin were in, she did something she almost never did. She had mercy. "Geeze, you guys are in a sorry state. Take the day off. You turn up looking like that for the first exam tomorrow and you will have every team not from Konoha looking to turn you to mincemeat. Don't forget. Tomorrow at four, room 301. Sayonara!"
Naruto slowly turned from where Anko had been to look at both girls. Giggling in relief, Naruto fell backwards, cushioning his head with an arm. Not having had a day off in a while, nobody really had any idea what they wanted to do. So having no ideas himself, he asked the other two.
"Hey guys, what do you want to do?" Naruto asked.
"I dunno, what do you want to do?" Tenten replied. Naruto merely reiterated his original question again, followed by Tenten also repeating herself. They repeated this cycled about a dozen times before Hinata broke out giggling, quickly followed by Naruto and Tenten, although Naruto would later vehemently deny any accusation of giggling. It simply wasn't manly.
After the trio master themselves, Naruto suggested, for a lack of anything else, why didn't they go visit Iruka in the Academy. Tenten agreed readily enough, so the triad left training ground nineteen, making a beeline for the Konoha Shinobi Academy. The women in the front office gave them strange looks as they signed in and put on name tags, Hinata rolling her eyes when Naruto wrote 'Master Prankster' instead of his name. She took another tag and wrote out his name properly and stuck it under the first tag, barely missing a beat. Naruto simply grinned.
It only took a minute for them to find Iruka's ground level classroom. Naruto peeked in through the window in the door to see what was going on in the room before entering. It looked like Iruka was in the middle of a lesson, facing the chalkboard and drawing on it while talking at the same time. Smirking, Naruto put a finger to his lips.
"Naruto-kun" Tenten hissed at him, vainly making a grab for him as he slipped through the door into the classroom. The student's attention was drawn to the interloper immediately, any outcry silenced with Naruto put a finger to his lips, smiling. When he had assured Iruka's students silence, he formed three hand seals and faded from view. The resultant surge of chakra and the collective gasp of surprise alerted Iruka to something being amiss. Whirling in an attempt to catch one of his students doing something they shouldn't, he narrowed his eyes in suspicion, but returned to the chalkboard when he saw nothing out-of-place. Silently approaching Iruka from behind, Naruto tapped him on the shoulder, gracefully ducking out-of-the-way when Iruka turned on the class again.
Naruto was barely able to restrain his laughter as he played the poltergeist to Iruka, stealing his chalk, yanking his seat out from underneath him, shuffling things around on his desk. Finally Iruka pulled out a smoke bomb and threw it onto the floor. Iruka leaped at the silhouette created by the billowing smoke and was able to subdue Naruto in short order. Even after nine months of training, Iruka was still able to tie knots that were above Naruto's ability to escape. By this time, everyone in the class was laughing.
"Alright class, settle down. Tenten-chan, Hinata-chan, you can come in now."
A moment later, the two girls entered the room, looking slightly sheepish. "Hello Iruka-sensei," Hinata muttered.
"Good morning to you too. I am glad you three decided to drop by today" Iruka continued. "We were just doing a review of how to tie a captive up and how to slip one's bonds in the event of capture. Now Naruto here," Iruka paused for a moment as Naruto struggled to escape Iruka's pin, "has most generously volunteered to be practiced on," which elicited a loud squawk that was largely ignored. Iruka grinned.
OoOoO
An hour later Naruto sat on the floor rubbing his chafed wrists. "That was mean Iruka-sensei."
"You interrupted my lesson."
"Well, yeah, but you didn't have to tie me up."
Iruka rolled his eyes at Naruto's pout and changed the subject. "Did you come back just to mess with me or did you have an actual purpose?"
"Oh yeah. Mom is going to enter us into the Chunin Exams tomorrow. I just wanted to let you know I will be the same rank as you soon Iruka-sensei." Naruto laced his fingers around the back of his head, giving his trademark squint-eyed smile.
When Naruto said that, two thoughts ran though Iruka's head. 'So confident that he will get promoted on his first exam,' was followed hard by 'you are not ready for this, only ten months after you graduated.' While he said nothing his face betrayed him because Hinata commented on his thoughts exactly.
"We are not the same people that you taught last year, Iruka-sensei." Iruka's gaze flicked to Hinata almost involuntarily.
"Am I so transparent?" he asked weakly.
"Only to a Hyuuga," she assured him, a balm to his confidence. If he could be read so easily by a mere genin, his skill had atrophied quite severely since he became a teacher. But he considered her words, reexamining his former students. Gone was the last traces of baby fat from Naruto's frame, replaced by hard, whiplike muscle. When he moved, it was not with the bounding stride of over exuberance, but a carefully measured distance, always ready to receive an attack. But most disturbing of all perhaps was the easy familiarity with which he handled his sword. Every few minutes he would draw his short blade an inch or so, making sure it was clear in the scabbard, done almost unconsciously, proof of long habit.
Hinata was no longer the shy, painfully self-aware girl any more. She was still quiet, but now she was quiet because she did not have anything to say, instead of a fearful quiet. She to move with the grace of a snake, never off balance, eyes never still for more than a few seconds, constantly hunting for threats. Gone was the nervous finger tapping, the fearful aversion of her gaze. When he looked at her, she met his scrutiny with a clear and steady eye.
Tenten's changes were more subtle. She seemed like her old self, only moreso, like she had been concentrated, like a sword folded back on itself again and again, heated in the furnace until the impurities were removed. She had always been self-confident, assured in herself. When she had entered the room, she dragged a chair over to a corner and sat in it, facing the entire room, back exposed to no one. He had a feeling that she never lost track of anybody, not even for an instant. Before she had carried her weapons in many pouches. Now she wore a shirt that was almost more pockets than anything else, and judging how she held her arms and back, he would be willing to bet his next paycheck that she had knives up her sleeves and down her back. All that was in addition to the pair of guns she carried at the small of her back. The miniature firearm that she played with almost absently, flipping it around her finger could be dangerous, assuming she could hit someone.
But one thing that all three shared was a look in the eye, a slight shift in weight, an unconscious checking of their weapons that set them apart most of all. These mannerisms were something that all veteran ninja acquired at some point over their careers. It was a quality that Hatake Kakashi had, that Morino Ibiki had, that Mitarashi Anko, Nara Shikaku, Sarutobi Hiruzen had. It was the look of a killer. Of someone who had tamed Death, kept it in a breast pocket, ready to be loosed in an instant and easily leashed again. Viewing his former students in the light of this new realization Iruka realized how right Hinata was. "Maybe you three are ready for the Exams after all. You three truly are shinobi."
It was a long minute before anyone could break the silence that had fallen over the room. Naruto stood up and offered his hand to Iruka, a true smile curving his lips. "Thank you Sensei." Somehow, when he uttered that last sentence, Naruto felt like Iruka had meant it more than he ever had before, even on the day of the genin exam. That simple statement told him that he really was worthy of the Konoha hitai-aite he wore. Giving Iruka a slight bow, which was returned, Naruto spun on his heel heading for the door. Hinata and Tenten were flanking him in three paces. It did not escape the schoolteacher's notice how Tenten, who was on Naruto's right, stayed a bit farther back and to the side than Hinata did. That way she would not endanger Naruto with a sloppy draw of her sword. Just one more bit adding to the aura of professionalism that surrounded the three now. 'Good luck guys,' Iruka thought one last time before returning to his paperwork.
OoOoO
"So did you find what you were looking for from Iruka-sensei?" Hinata asked Naruto half an hour later.
Naruto paused inhaling the bowl of Ichiraku's finest ramen as he considered the question. "Yeah. Yeah I did." He hadn't grasped exactly why he wanted to go visit Iruka all of a sudden, but he understood now that he had gone to his former teacher, probably the only person who knew him better than his mother, for an objective opinion of whether he was ready for the Chunin Exams. With Iruka's approval he felt... less concerned about whether or not he would be up to the challenge. If Iruka thought he was ready, then he was.
But his musing was interrupted by a familiar voice, one he hadn't heard in several months since departing Kirigakure. Naruto spun in place on his stool to face the owner. "Sora-chan!" Naruto blurted in surprise.
"Sora-chan?" blond Kiri-nin repeated, one eyebrow arched.
"Ah, Sora-san?" Naruto corrected himself.
"Nice to see you too Naruto-san. This is my sensei whom you have already met, Aramaki Daisuke, and my two teammates, Yamoto Suki and Kenji Kenji, yes that is his first and last name." Both of the other genin were considerably older than Sora, Suki looking to be about fifteen or sixteen and Kenji possibly as old as twenty, although the full mustache and astro turf beard could make him look older than he was. Suki was ravishingly and traditionally beautiful and knew it. Suki wore her clothes as if she were about to slip out of them for a long night in bed, and with her B-cup breasts (just the right size for holding, the thought flitting almost unnoticed across his mind,) narrow waist that led to legs that went on forever, her luxuriously thick black hair, tied up except for a few strands to frame her oval face and dark almost shaped eyes were almost extraneous.
Kenji was tall, probably having reach most of his adult height was almost handsome. His features were just slightly off, eye a tad too large, set just a hair too far apart, nose a little too short, lips barely too thin. With the way that he had his eyes half closed and the black Mohawk that more than vaguely resembled some sort of reptilian ridge, the impression was of a lazy lizard enjoying the chance to sun itself in the heat. Beside his three students the compact Daisuke was positively bland. Of average height, the word to describe the man was compact. His face was heavily scarred, a thick ridge of scar tissue rising over his eyebrows, a nose that had been broken at least three times and mashed in lips. He had a thick barrel chest with wide shoulders, arms hanging gorilla-like ending in twisted and bent rectangular fingers. A thin fringe of wispy grey hair ran around his bald palate finished the picture of an aging boxer who had a long and prolific career.
Suki looked like she was going to lean over and tease Naruto some, apparently thought better of it when she glanced behind him. Naruto looked behind him to see what prevented was going to have been a very nice view, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. "You guys hungry?" Naruto asked the Mist shinobi. "Ichiraku's is the best ramen in town."
Glancing to his three students, Daisuke answered an affirmative in his slightly gravelly voice. As the newcomers sat down, things somehow got shuffled around so that Naruto was seated against the wall with Sora, then Kenji, Hinata, Tenten, Daisuke, and furthest away from Naruto was Suki. Naruto eyed Tenten and Hinata but they gave no sign that they saw him doing so. Kenji smirked and leaned over the shorter Sora to talk to Naruto.
"Protective, aren't they?" Kenji asked. "You involved with either of them?"
"Yes they are and yes I am," Naruto replied somewhat tersely.
"Which one?"
"Both." That got a look that said either he was the luckiest guy in the Elemental Countries, or the most cursed. "You gotten it on with either one?" any meaning that was missed in the words or tone was explicitly stated by the not-so-subtle hip thrust. One that was quickly followed by a shocked look and grunt of pain.
"Ignore the man-whore. He just hasn't gotten any in a while, and it is likely to stay that way for a good long time." This was said while barely looking away from her soup as she casually stabbed Kenji in the thigh with their chopsticks. By the reaction of the other two, this was not an uncommon occurrence. Daisuke set his chopsticks down and withdrew a compact medikit, methodically cleaning and binding the wound with an air of long experience with this type of wound. A minute later, Daisuke helped Kenji back onto his seat and the meal resumed.
"You two aren't, um, you know, together are you?"
"Occasionally, when Kenji isn't too much of a mule-headed man to be with."
"Oh. But aren't you a little, well, young to be going out with him?"
"No, not really. You are only thirteen and you already have a wife."
"What! How did you know that?"
"Remember I said that the Mizukage keeps a close eye on others like us. And besides, I'm older than I look."
"How old are you?"
Sora gave him a withering glance. "Didn't your mother ever tell you not to ask a woman how old she is?" Naruto flushed at returned his gaze to the cooling soup in front of him. The rest of the meal was spent more or less in silence. Sora and Naruto finished and the meal was paid for (leaving a very happy Teuchi behind,) the two groups went their separate ways, the Kiri ninja back to their hotel and the Konoha ninja back home to prepare for the exam tomorrow.
OoOoO
The genin element of Team Nine got quite a few looks from passersby and other genin once on the Academy grounds. Naruto suppressed a smirk at all the surprised looks they were getting. And with the team's new outfits, they were certainly cause for a second look. Naruto thought back on the team meeting earlier in the day.
Flashback no Jutsu
Tenten held the new clothing up for inspection. "You sure about this Anko?"
"Of course I am sure. Why couldn't I be?" Anko demanded to know.
"Just asking. Sheesh."
Anko rolled her eyes and sighed. "Alright brats, listen up. Uniforms serve a purpose. Every army worth it's salt has a uniform. Wanna know why? Uniforms represent organization, power and most of all, numbers. You know that someone wearing a uniform is not alone, that there are always more to back him up and help him out, that there is a force behind him that takes care of him. This in turn inspires fear, even if it is only a moment's hesitation. And as you well know, there is no more potent weapon than fear. Uniforms make it easier to spot someone, but sometimes, that is what you want."
"Huh, well then why don't ninjas wear uniforms?"
"That is because we are not an army. The Hidden Villages are the special forces of the military world. We operate by different rules than anyone else does. We are the go anywhere, do anything force, and because of this we are more lax in many aspects of military culture than any other militant force."
Seeing the new outfits in this new light, the three teens donned them without further protest.
Flashback no Jutsu KAI!
As soon as the Academy was in sight, Hinata and Tenten fell back slightly to flank Naruto, all three adopting a slight swagger, a slightly exaggerated familiarity with their weapons and fluidity of motion. They bypassed the crowd that had gathered around the genjutsued room on the second floor by slipping out a window and scaling the wall. Stepping into the real Room 301 they were the center of attention almost immediately.
The Team Nine trio were each wearing black ninja sandals (Naruto had painted his geta black,) dark green pants made of rugged denim, specially reinforced around the knees. A pair of shuriken pouches were taped to their thighs, Tenten's and Hinata's swords handing from plain brown leather belts, Naruto's slung over his shoulder from a doubled-over red cord that was also wrapped around the sheath and hilt. Tenten had a large scroll on her belt containing her two rifles and enough ninja hardware (including but not limited to kunai, shuriken, senbon and wire) to arm a small country. Given the size of her rifles, they were too unwieldy to use inside and at close quarters, which the first exam would most likely be.
Over their chests each wore dark shirts, dark sunglasses and black face masks, not wholly dissimilar to the kind that Hatake Kakashi wore, as well as a dark scarf over Naruto bright yellow hair. But most noticeably, Hinata and Tenten each had a replica of Naruto's black trench coat with the nine tailed Uzumaki crest in white-tipped gold on the back. Their hitai-aite had been tied around their right biceps, just under the shoulder. Finally, they each wore a pair of non-standard gloves, full fingered rather than the more popular fingerless model, extending up the arm to cover any flesh.
As soon as they were inside, they moved out-of-the-way of anyone entering through door and moved to place their backs against the front wall, spread out slightly so that they had all approachable angles covered. The effect worked perfectly. Seeing three nearly identical, unidentifiable ninja enter the room without a word, almost completely covered up from crown to sole, the only flesh exposed being two thin strips, one between the facemasks and sunglasses and the other between the sunglasses and their hairlines, put most of the genin present on edge, even the veterans. They watched as Teams Seven and Ten arrived, Sakura and Ino bicker over Sasuke, Kiba and Sasuke trade lighthearted barbs over who would beat whom. Looking around the room Shikamaru spoke up.
"Huh, so all nine rookies are here. Been a while since that has happened."
"Nice seeing you too Shikamaru," Naruto replied from the wall.
"Normally I would ask what is up with the new getup, but it is honestly too confusing. Every time I see you, you have a new wardrobe."
"Geeze Naruto, you three look like clones. It's a little creepy." Naruto just smiled back at Choji, the fabric of his face mask tight enough to give a faint impression of his curved lips. Sasuke just snorted.
"It's just like you, trying to act all mysterious and cool. You just look like an idiot. You even copied Kakashi-sensei's face mask."
"Naruto-sama is far cooler than you are Sasuke-san," Hinata replied calmly, distinguishable only by her black hair.
"Naruto-sama? Sakura sniggered. "Seriously? Wow, you guys are trying way too hard." But in the back of her mind Sakura recalled the almost contemptuous ease with which they had been defeated back in Wave Country. When they had gotten home one of the first things Sakura had done was do a little research on Anko. There was no mention of her sensei or genin cell, but one thing that she had been able to find out was that she was one of the top assassins in Konoha after her own sensei, and an ANBU codenamed Kage, which was about all she could find out.
"I wouldn't say so, Sakura-san. Take a look around us." Sakura did, just now taking note of the attention that their group had garnered. "I don't really think that we are the ones that the rest of the room is interested in. Think of it this way, who would consider more dangerous, a ninja who is covered up head to toe, with clothes that would be easy to hide a lot of weapons in, or someone who is easily identifiable, who does not seem to be concealing many weapons?"
Everyone seemed to consider Shikamaru's words and reexamine Team Nine again. Naruto smirked under his face mask. "Shikamaru hit the nail on the head, but I would appreciate it if you would keep such thoughts to yourself in the future." Shikamaru inclined his head slightly to Naruto in acquiescence.
But before anyone else could make any more annoyingly perceptive comments, a stranger approached them. "Hey, you guys should be a little more discreet. You are the newest Academy graduates, right?"
"Yeah, and who are you?" Kiba retorted.
"Name is Kabuto. I mean, you are rookies, so I can understand, but most of those foreign ninja back there have probably lumped you all together as forming an alliance or something. Do you see anyone else talking to another team? Kinda reminds me of how I used to be."
"Uh, Kabuto-san, so is this your second time taking the test?"
"Nope. This will by my seventh time."
"Wow, so you know a lot about it then?"
"You could say that. In fact, I will share some information about the test with you rookies. After all, we are from the same village, and would be a shame to lose nine ninja on their first time in the Exams." Reaching into a pouch on his waist, he withdrew a stack of cards. "These are called nin-info cards. By using my chakra to burn the information onto them, I am the only person who can look at them. This is the effort of four years work, and I have managed to create over 200 cards. The top card on my deck is a breakdown for participants of this year's Chunin Exam by country."
"Do you have information on individuals taking the Exam?" Sasuke queried the elder genin.
"Worried about someone in particular? Yeah I do, but keep in mind that these cards are not 100 percent accurate. Foreign villages are understandably closemouthed about the abilities of their ninja, so there may be gaps or unintentionally misleading bits of information. Who do you want to know about?"
"Hyuuga Naruto of Konohagakure and Gaara of Sunagakure," Sasuke replied, glancing over to Naruto. Wrapped up as he was, they couldn't see the frown or general tensing of his body. Naruto made himself ready to interrupt Kabuto if he started to say too much.
"Hyuuga Naruto: graduate of the most recent Academy class. Mission history: five D-ranks, two C-ranks, one upgraded A-rank. Mentored by his adoptive mother, Mitarashi Anko. Teammates with Hyuuga Hinata and Higurashi Tenten. Possessor of a unique and thusfar unnamed secret technique and kenjutsu specialist, along with his two teammates.
"Gaara of the Desert: eight C-ranks and a B-rank, reportedly never harmed on a mission. Since he is a foreign newcomer, that is about everything I have on him."
"What about Kaiyou Sora from Kirigakure?" Naruto inquired.
"Kayou Sora: another exceptional ninja this year. Graduated three years ago. Mission history: eight C-ranks, four B-ranks and two A-ranks. A specialist in Suiton jutsu rumored to be on par with the Nidaime Hokage who is regarded as the greatest Suiton user ever. This is her first Chunin Exam. There are many villages in attendance this year, Leaf, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and the new Sound Village. With the possible exception of Sound, only the cream of the genin crop was sent to try to get promoted. That means that every ninja here is a veteran, unlike you guys."
Naruto shifted his attention from the ever-so-helpful other genin when he noticed movement among the mass of other shinobi. His hand flew to the hilt of Kitsune under his trench coat and over his shoulder, preparing to draw it at the slightest provocation, as did the rest of the Konoha genin. But Kabuto was the focus of the Sound ninja attack. Kabuto was able to avoid the pair of kunai thrown by one of the males, but was barely able to avoid the follow up attack by his mantled partner. Everyone was surprised when Kabuto's glasses were broken anyway and he keeled over and vomited.
"This is the best Konoha has to offer? Pathetic, especially for a supposed four-year veteran." But before they could continue, they were interrupted by a plume of ninja smoke obscuring the front of the room. When it had cleared, a disfigured man in a coat not too different from the ones Team Nine were wearing appeared, along with about twenty other ninja.
"Thanks for waiting. My name is Morino Ibiki, head examiner for the Chunin Selection Examination's First Test." Seeing the Sound and Leaf ninja facing off, he pointed a finger at them. "You there, stop doing as you please. Anyone who does not follow my orders to the letter will be summarily failed. And that includes fighting without my permission. Now, everyone is to get up and pick a number from the bag here. When you have done so, you will proceed to the seat corresponding to that number and then the tests will be passed out."
Naruto blanched at this. Back in the Academy, much of his lackluster performance was an act, but he had never done well on theoretical tests. A few minutes later, everyone had been reseated, teams divided up all over the room. When everyone had a piece of paper in front of them, the scarred examiner spoke up again.
"Before you all start your tests, let me lay out the rules. Be sure to get them right because there are no questions allowed. In fact, there is to be no talking at all. Anyone found to be doing so will be failed. There are ten questions on this part of the exam. Each correct answer is worth one point, for a total of ten points. Second, this is a collaborative test, meaning that if one of you teammates fails, so do you. Finally, every time someone is caught cheating by an examiner, two points will be deducted from his or her score. If your score is reduced to zero, by either answering incorrectly or cheating, or a combination of the two, you and your two teammates will be asked to leave. If you do decide to cheat, you better do it well because we will be keeping a close eye on you," Ibiki said, motioning to the ninja lined up around the edge of the room holding clipboards.
"The test will last exactly one hour, with the final question given fifteen minutes from the end of the test. That is all, you may begin."
As everyone flipped over their papers, Naruto took one look at the questions and realized that there was no way he could confidently answer them correctly. That being said, he began to make his best guess on each one, on the hope that he could get at least one right. 'Then again there is the final question. I just hope that- wait what was that?' A brief flash of light from one of the depressed lights had caught his attention. Eying the flash of light, he realized that the flashes were not random, that they were actually a coded message. 'Tenten-chan, you clever, clever girl.' He fiddled with his face mask when he had deciphered the message that Tenten was relaying, signifying that he had seen her message.
Keeping an eye on the hidden mirror, Tenten was able to relay the answers she had, after she had gotten them from Hinata, who was cheating via her Byakugan, obscuring the telltale bulging veins and washed out irises by leaning forward to let her hair hide her face. Naruto kept on like he was still puzzling out some of the questions even after he had gotten all nine of them , so as not to make himself an obvious target for cheating off of. He smirked at some of the other genin who were not so skilled at disguising their dismay at the difficulty of the questions. Between Ibiki's phrasing of the rules and the overkill force they were using to prevent cheating, like the examiners were expecting them to cheat, and the level of questions that were out of the ability of a normal genin to answer, made it quite obvious that cheating was the objective of this test.
Basically, the only way to pass the test was to either be smart enough to answer the questions, or sneaky enough to avoid detection by the chunin administering the test. However one passed, a person had to be smarted or sneakier than the proctors, therefor proving that one had the skills of a chunin.
As time passed, proctors began calling numbers, dismissing teams with members that were not good enough to be worthy of promotion. Halfway into the test, approximately one third of the potentates had been failed, increasing as more time elapsed. By forty-five minutes about half of the teams were weeded out. Naruto nearly jumped in his seat when the cloaked head examiner barked the administration of the final question.
"Before I give the tenth question, I am going to stipulate some additional rules. These are the rules of desperation, your decision whether or not to take the last question."
"What? What do you mean, whether or not to take the last question? What happens if you don't?" the blond Suna-nin from earlier in the week asked.
"Your points are reduced to zero, resulting in the failure of yourself and your teammates."
"Well, those are stupid rules! Of course we will take them!" a goggled shinobi from Taki yelled.
"Don't be so hasty. I am sure that the second rule will change quite a few of your minds. So, if you elect to answer the final question and by chance answer incorrectly, that person will forever lose the right to participate in the Chunin Selection Exams ever again."
"What kind of retarded rule is that? There are people who have taken the exam before here? How could they be here if they failed the question before?"
Ibiki chuckled in such a way, as if relishing Kiba's ignorance before enlightening him. "That is because this is my first time overseeing this test. You guys are unlucky to have me this time around. But there is a way to ensure that you can still advance at a later date, a way out if you will. If you choose not to take the question at all, you can try again next year, along with your teammates." Ibiki paused to let the implications sink in. "Those who wish to quit now, raise you hand to have your number confirmed and leave now. Anyone who is not absolutely sure in their ability to answer the final question should leave now." After a moment, several hands raised and were excused from the room.
Smirking to himself, Naruto started to tentatively raise his hand, as if he were intending to give up, but then slamming his fist down onto the surface of the table, simultaneously rising to address the head proctor. "Stop screwing around! I will take the last question, no matter the consequences. Attaining the rank of chunin is only an outward sign of strength. Even if it never becomes possible for me to advance beyond genin, I just become the only genin to ever become a Kage. There is no law stating that a candidate must be any particular rank for consideration. Hell, even ANBU only considers applicant based on strength rather than rank. I am not afraid, so just give me the last question already!"
"Think about your decision carefully. This will affect you for the rest of your life. Last chance, it is time to do or die."
"Heh, just because I am a genin does not prevent me from getting stronger. I follow my words with unbending will. That is my ninja way. So do your worst."
Seeing nobody else quitting, Ibiki smirked. 'Huh, he has completely erased any hesitation among the rest of the room. What charisma this kid has to convince twenty-six teams to go ahead.' Out loud he announced "good choices you have all made. May I congratulate everyone still here on passing the first test."
That statement was met with mass confusion. Ibiki grinned, the scars marring his face twisting the expression into a demented parody of a smile. "When I asked if you wanted to risk any chance of future promotion to you ability to answer one question, that was the tenth question. The first nine questions served a purpose. Those questions were deliberately beyond the ability of most of you to answer, so we planted three chunin with the answers for you to cheat off of. Those who cheated conspicuously were ejected from the exam."
As he said this, Ibiki removed the bandanna covering his head so that everyone could see the mass of lacerations and burns that decorated his scalp. Naruto instinctively flinched and put one hand to his scalp where white hairs covered his own scars. He hated to think of how Ibiki had gained such injuries. After giving the room a moment to absorb the sight, he resumed his speech.
"There will be times where information is more important than your life. There will be times where you will risk your lives to acquire it. Having the skill to get these bits of info is important for two reasons. First, if you are noticed, there is no guarantee that the info will be accurate. Accurate information is the deadliest weapon a village can possess. Secondly, if you are noticed, there is the chance that you will be taken captive and tortured.
"The tenth question was a leap of faith. As chunin, you will sometime be given a mission to retrieve a scroll, but the number of guards, their abilities, readiness, etcetera, are all unknown. You must make a choice: to accept the mission or to decline it. Can you avoid a mission just because it is dangerous? NO! The force of will to say yes to such a mission is a quality that is required in a chunin. Those who were willing to risk everything are people who already possess the determination of a chunin. You have all made it through the First Exam. I wish everyone here good luck, because it only gets harder from here on out."
As he finished his speech, the door opened and a red-eyed beauty clad mostly in what appeared to be bandages and fishnetting, entered the room. She surveyed the room for a few seconds before turning to Ibiki. "You are going soft Ibiki-san. You let twenty-six teams pass your test."
"Nah, there are just a lot of exceptional ninja this year."
"If you say so. In the end it really doesn't matter. My test will cut them in half, at a minimum. Everyone out! Follow me to proceed to the Second Exam!"
Omake
As everyone flipped over their papers, Naruto took one look at the questions and realized that there was no way he could confidently answer them correctly. But there was something bothering him about the phrasing of the rules. The way that they were laid out, they were both expecting everyone to cheat and being extraordinarily lenient about it. Back in the Academy, your test was confiscated if you were suspected of cheating. So after thinking about it for a minute Naruto arrived at the conclusion that the entire point of the exam was to test the intelligence gathering skills of the test takers.
Once he made that conclusion, he started searching for someone who looked like they knew what they were doing. Spotting one likely candidate, Naruto waited for his target to finish his test before he calmly walked up to the person and bold-as-you-please took his test and started to return to his desk. But his progress was halted momentarily when Ibiki spoke.
"Number 45, what do you think you are doing?"
"What does it look like? I'm cheating," the blond replied with a mix of faux confusion and honest curiosity.
"45, you and your two teammates fail."
"No we don't. We are given four times to cheat before we are disqualified. This is my first offense. I have to be caught cheating four more times before I can be failed for cheating."
Tuning around he sat back down at his seat and transferred the answers to his test. After that he did the same to Hinata's and Tenten's tests before returning the paper to it's owner. Everyone in the room was watching Ibiki, waiting for the head proctor to find a flaw in Naruto's logic. Unfortunately for Ibiki, Naruto had found an ironclad loophole in the rules, one the rest of the room was fast to exploit when they saw that Ibiki had no viable retort
Kurenai looked in shock as Morino Ibiki, a man legendary for his sadism, was curled up in a corner, rocking back and forth, bawling his eyes out, moaning something about a "blond demon." It was years before Ibiki could repair the tatters that was left of his reputation after that fateful day. That year saw more genin promoted to chunin than in all the exams in the past five years together.
Fin