NARUTO
Nox Noctis Ingredior
The First Test
Inside Room 301
Naruto admitted that he had faced down a lot of shinobi in his time; tough ones that really had a bite to their bark, and a lot more who just had more bark then bite. However, as soon as he stepped through into Room 301, and that flash of light upon entry that died down seconds later, the blonde thought that he had just crossed the line between this world and the other world. He and his teammates blinked in surprise when every single eye of every single candidate in the room turned to glare daggers at them.
From first glance, Sakura immediately saw that there were well over a hundred people in here, all of them Genin. Furthermore, a quick scan over the crowd told her that there were Genin from different other nations and different other Hidden Villages, not just Konohagakure, but also Sunagakure, Amegakure, Kusagakure, Takigakure, and Kumogakure. Hinata sort of slunk back when she noticed the glares, but seeing Naruto and Sakura standing tall, gave her more inclination to stand by them, and straightened up a little.
"Oh my God…" Naruto said, blinking. "This kind of reminds of the time I woke up one morning and thought that my apartment was being invaded by rat people…"
"It's like the land of beige in here," Sakura commented, before looking down at herself and pinching at the corner of her martial arts gear. "Man… I feel so over dressed…"
"They all look so angry…" Hinata pointed out, glancing over at Sakura. "Maybe coming in like this was a bad idea."
"I guess everybody is like this before a big exam. Must be all the stress, on top of the fact that foreign ninja… even perhaps enemy ninja, are mingling about," Naruto said, looking around and taking in new meat from old meat. A grin then formed on his face and he looked over at Hinata. "You know what would be fun…?"
"Huh?" the Hyuuga piped up curiously.
"Name that guy!"
"Oh…okay!" Hinata exclaimed, and both of them stepped up to the plate, along with Sakura. "I love this game!"
Surprisingly and hilariously enough, all three members of Team 7 began pointing out random people who looked almost like somebody else that they knew or looked like somebody they had passed by on the streets recently, even though that person most likely wasn't, as well as ones who reminded them of famous, historic figureheads. They made a game out of the fact that whenever you were in a big crowd and you were staring at the back of somebody's head that reminded you of a close friend of yours and you go up to them to say hi, you find out it is a complete stranger and get really embarrassed.
Well, in this game, Benjamin Franklin's naming law could suck it, because Naruto and his friends had made an awesome game out of it.
"Let's see… that Suna ninja looks like Zabuza, that one clearly reminds me of the crazy guy down at the book store who screams at pigeons, oh… a mummy… that Goth girl from the academy… she scared the hell out of me…" Naruto began, just to name a few, poking his chin in thought. "Ah… clearly a guy that looks like old man Teuchi…"
"Girl who looks like Mia… accept without the red hair and freaky eyes," Sakura said, looking around and pointing out someone else. "Oh! I remember! Guy who looks like Asuma… only skinnier and doesn't smoke… but the face is exactly the same…"
"Uhh… b-boy that looks like Gozu, and a girl who looks like Ayame-chan!" Hinata pointed, then turned and pointed at another one. "Oh! Oh! Oh… Shino-kun!"
"Oh yeah… that guy does look like Shino," Naruto exclaimed. But then, when he saw the boy walking towards them, accompanied by two other guys, the blonde blinked. "Wait… that… is… Shino…"
Team 8 pushed their way through the crowd and came right up to Team 7, Sasuke, Kiba and Shino all randomly formed up, with the Uchiha at the head of the pack.
"Well, well, well… isn't this a surprise!" Kiba exclaimed, grinning at Naruto and his girlfriends, all of them exchanging smiles with their former fellow classmates, now rival Genin team. "Dead-last, billboard and… uhh…" He looked over at Hinata, but found it difficult to come up with a nickname for her. "Umm… I don't really know what to call you… Hinata…"
"Glass-eye, Kiba-kun?" she suggested.
He clapped his hands and grinned, giving her the thumbs up. "That's it! Glass-eye! My favorite Team of weirdoes…"
Sakura was glaring bullets at the grizzly looking boy, who had just noticed the amount of killing intent rising in the kunoichi, and backed away cautiously.
"Billboard…?" the girl hissed through gritted teeth.
"You're one to talk, dog-food," Naruto said, grinning back at the boy with his dog companion sitting comfortably atop of his head. "I'd say you're barking up the wrong tree if you're thinking the cat at the top doesn't have names to throw down at you… not to mention teme and…" Naruto paused when he looked Shino up and down, who was standing there staring at them. The blonde hesitated and pointed in his direction. "I like you Shino… I don't want to call you names…"
Shino nodded to him politely in response, not even bothering to say a word.
Sasuke grinned at Naruto. "Been training hard, dobe?" he asked his most preferred rival, looking forward to a conflict with him to test his own skills.
"More then you can believe, teme," the said, spiky haired Genin replied, holding his fist out to the Uchiha in his characteristic way. "I hope you guys have got some new moves to show me, because I'll be severely disappointed and bored it you don't…"
The Uchiha and Uzumaki bumped knuckles, as a show of good faith and rivalry.
"Sasuke and Kiba would definitely have worked their butts off… all things considered," Sakura stated, before glancing oddly over at Shino, who was just standing patiently on the sidelines, looking like he wasn't really paying attention to anything they were saying. "I'm not… really sure about you, Shino. Do you even train? Do you even have a body to train with?"
Shino lowered his head at her, taking in her words to heart. "You underestimate my abilities, Sakura. Perhaps if we confront each other some time down the line, you can see how much I have improved from the last time we met."
"Oh… right… the escort mission. Everybody had a pitch in that battle," Sakura grinned at him. "What was that quote you often said back in the academy; about the caterpillars and butterflies?"
"No quote… just that the caterpillar invokes many secrets in its life, and will not reveal its secrets till it evolves…" the boy replied. "And even then, there are many more secrets hidden behind the insect's life…"
"You're a real mystery, you know that?" the pink haired girl commented.
"Shino-kun has always been a mystery," Hinata commented. She then averted her gaze to her right. "Kiba-kun has always been strong and… eager… but kind as well…"
"Thanks, Hinata!" Kiba grinned, rubbing the ridge under his nose. Sasuke looked over at his teammate, a small smirk on his face.
"Not to mention loud, obnoxious, annoying, smells like ten cows, and sniffs other peoples' butts when he greets them," the Uchiha commented. Kiba growled at him and thrust his index finger right at his face, pointing at his teammate in an accusing manner.
"THAT WAS A LOW BLOW!" Kiba shouted.
"I agree… that was kind of uncalled for," Sakura said, but then snickered off to the side. That did not fall out of Kiba's ear shot.
"Hey! I thought you had my back, Sakura?"
"Naruto!" The blonde looked in the direction of the new voice, and wasn't at all surprised when he saw Team 10 storming up to him. Choji pushed his way past Kiba, not even caring about the curses flying his way and pointed right at Naruto in a very accusing, very pissed off manner. "I've got a bone to pick with you!"
"Huh?"
"Your roommates are a bunch of disgusting, uneducated slobs!" Choji shouted, grabbing the blonde by the shoulders and beginning to shake him. "HOW DARE YOU MAKE US CLEAN YOUR LOUNGE ROOM? IT WAS THE SIZE OF A TENNIS COURT! I spent hours trying to clean the pizza stains off of the ceiling!"
"Oh so that's what those were!" Naruto replied, nodding his head as he remembered the odd patterns on his living room ceiling. "I thought Michael Angelo secretly paid me a visit one day and just plain gave up. Man, he must have been one whiny, bitchy…"
"And another thing! I... feel so sorry for you!" Choji then did a complete one-eighty and hugged him. Naruto awkwardly stood there when, not only did Choji start hugging him, but Ino came up to him and hugged him to. Both of them hung onto him as if they learned he was going to die tomorrow, which earned amused looks from everybody around him. Kiba and Sasuke snickered, whereas Sakura just gave Naruto a questioning look, to which he shrugged.
It was eventually revealed why the pair were hugging him, Choji patting him on the shoulder in comfort.
"I can't believe you're still alive," Choji began, pulling away. "After everything you go through... every...day..."
"Wha…?"
"You live with so many sadistic people," Ino said, giving him a friendly smile. "Your sensei, that monster Zabuza, Ryoko… Mia… you are so unlucky, Naruto…"
"Uhh…umm…"
"Shhh… it's okay," Ino hugged him again, rocking him back and forth as he stood where he was, now feeling a little bit uncomfortable. "Don't cry, Naruto-kun. Your Ino-chan is here for you…"
"I'm not crying," Naruto murmured, taking in a deep breath of air. "I'm just… severely… creeped out right now…" He looked over at Shikamaru. "Are you guys… feeling okay?"
Sakura looked over at Shikamaru, who was just standing off on the sidelines as he watched his teammates Choji and Ino 'comfort' a now distraught and scared Naruto.
"Why aren't you comforting him?" Sakura asked. Shikamaru shrugged and stretched out his shoulders and neck.
"It's too troublesome…" he replied, frowning as he looked up at the Sakura and Hinata. "Even though I'm surprised you guys now all live in the same building and support yourselves well enough, I'm still pained by the fact that we had to clean the entire main lounge… ceiling and all…"
"Yeah… sorry about that," Sakura replied, rubbing the back of her head and sticking her tongue out sheepishly.
"I-It wasn't our fault," Hinata said, holding her hands together. "We were recovering in the hospital after our training…"
"Ngh… it's too much of a bother to ask why, but I assume it has something to do with your teacher," Shikamaru replied, frowning in a bored way at them. "I shouldn't be too surprised… that Anko Mitarashi is a strange one…"
Eventually, Naruto managed to pry away from Ino and Choji, and hid behind his two other teammates, who kept a barrier up between him and the others, for his own sake. Although Sakura and Hinata were amused by the fact that Naruto was rather uncomfortable with all the hugging and comfort, they did feel a bit sorry for him, since he technically was the one bearing the bulk of all the misplaced frustration and pity. Sasuke, Kiba and Shino broke off a bit, with the Inuzuka engaging in conversation with his teammates about how the exam would go, while the entirety of Team 10 began animatedly discussing with Team 7 about past events and training.
There was no confrontation between them at all.
They were all here on good grounds.
"Although honestly… come on… singing?" Ino threw her hands up in distress. "You have to be insane to sing and do pushups at the same time."
"My voice went hoarse, I sang so much!" Choji said begrudgingly, rubbing his throat. "It's uncomfortable to eat! Not to mention last night I dreamt all about rowing boats and rivers… it was not fun!"
"Well… at least you didn't have to go through a dangerous animal sanctuary just to…'find your self'!" Sakura said, while making a quotation gesture with her fingers. "We were hospitalized for four weeks because the supposedly 'spiritual journey' turned into a fight for our lives!"
"We got burns, deep cuts…and everything," Hinata stated with certainty, nodding her head. "My muscles were so sore, it… it hurt to roll around in bed. It was a miracle we didn't die…"
"Then again, singing is kind of torture for you guys," Naruto commented, smirking at Shikamaru. "I bet you sound just divine…"
"Don't go there, please…" the brown haired slouch groaned.
"Okay… but seriously," Naruto looked over at Ino, folding his arms. "You must have a good voice on you, Ino-chan. I've heard you hum to yourself while you water your plants in your family's shop…"
The girl blushed and looked away, rubbing her cheeks in embarrassment. "R-Really? H-How… wait!" Naruto grinned when she looked up at him, a bit startled. "How do you know I sing when I water my plants?"
The boy shrugged back. "I'm a night-walker… I tend to hop around from building to building on my late night errands. Unfortunately I can't tell you what these errands are; it's strictly on a need-to-know-basis." Ino sighed and shook her head at the blonde, smiling at him bashfully.
Stepping away, Naruto looked back over at the crowd of Genins still watching them with great interest, if not great spite. The beige field of shinobi did little to intimidate him, with Naruto just giving them a raised-eyebrow expression in return, hands in his pockets as he looked around, trying to pick out other familiar faces.
It was when he saw a familiar mop of brownish-red hair wearing sand garbs and a giant gourd on his back did Naruto finally find a familiar face not from this village. Knowing full well who that gourd belonged to, the blonde moved away from his group and approached the crowd. Unfortunately, a couple of beefy looking Genin from Konoha, wanting to harass someone and intimidate the competition, stood in the shorter boy's path. They had to be around sixteen, to eighteen years old, whereas the short, thirteen year old looked up at them with disinterest.
But still…
"Dammit… I hate being short! They always pick on the short kids! Why is everybody else so tall! I hate the world…"
Tipping his straw hat up to get a better view of the Konoha boy in front of him, Naruto sighed, giving him a friendly smile.
"Excuse me, can I get through?"
The boy with the slab-of-stone excuse of a face crossed his arms at the blonde. Remaining calm, and deciding to sort this out through words, the whisker-marked boy continued to smile, and gestured around the teen.
"Can you please move so I can pass?"
Still no response.
Instead, more of the big Genin's cronies came up behind him as added support, and stood in Naruto's way like a wall of meat. Naruto sighed and realized right then and there that negotiations have failed him once again, and now, extreme measures must be taken.
"Okay, this is going to be your last and only warning," the blonde began, pointing at the first one to get in his way. "If you don't move…" he pointed to the guy next to him. "His fist… is going into your face." He pointed back at the one in front of him.
The horde of Genin chuckled in amusement, knowing that the little 'pushover' wasn't going to be any trouble. Shaking his head, Naruto stepped forward, only to have his shoulder grabbed by the Genin to his right. In the blink of an eye, the blonde grabbed that boy's arm, twisted it (earning a cry of agony), and slammed the hand's knuckles into the Genin's face in front of him, earning a satisfying crunch sound on impact. The blow knocked the boy off his feet and into his buddies behind him.
All at once, fists came flying at Naruto, who effortlessly grabbed those incoming, and grappled, twisted, and tossed over the people those fists were attached to. One after the other he threw aside every single Genin that attempted to 'attack' him, before grabbing the one who had gotten in his way first, and held him in an extended arm lock, hand grabbing the wrist and the other hand pressed against the pressure point at the neck. Naruto was now able to get a good view of Gaara above the groaning pile of wusses lying around him.
"Hey! Gaara, is that you?" Naruto exclaimed, finally catching the Sand Siblings' attention if the hassle to get through the crowd didn't.
Now everybody had their attention on Naruto. Aside from the rest of the Rookie Nine standing in the background and watching in amusement at the failed attempts made by the other Genin of Konohagakure to try and muscle Naruto, now every single able-bodied Genin in the room was looking at him. The red haired younger sibling Gaara, hearing his name called, turned in the direction of the voice, and was surprised to see Naruto, effortlessly grappling a random Genin to the ground, who gave up on consciousness shortly thereafter and left the land of the living for a few seconds, body hitting the ground with a loud thud.
Gaara was surprised when he recognized his old friend from yester-year. "Uzumaki-san?" he voiced in his monotone voice. Temari and Kankuro also accompanying him were also surprised to see the familiar blonde.
"Isn't that…?" Kankuro began.
"I knew it was you!" Naruto exclaimed as he began to walk towards his old friends, stepping over the body of the Genin he had knocked out. Another Konoha shinobi attempted to jump him from behind, but Naruto simply slapped him in the face and pushed him aside. That one was followed by another Genin rushing him from the side, but Naruto stepped back and tripped him, the boy flying over his leg and slamming headlong into a table. "Man what a coincidence… (he slapped another teen out of the way rushing him from his right)… I looked into the crowd… (he grappled another attempting to punch him from his left, grabbing him by the wrist and twisting it till he fell over)… and I saw this familiar mop of red hair." He grabbed another Genin attempting to tackle him by the neck and threw him aside effortlessly. "I thought to myself 'it couldn't be'… (Another Genin was tossed over his shoulder from an attempted tackle)…"but then… here you are! I never expected you guys to be here!" Naruto delightfully exclaimed, while throwing his left fist over his shoulder and knocking out another Genin.
And hence, the crowd was easily thinned out.
Naruto dusted his hands and grinned happily at Gaara. "So… how have you been?"
The red haired boy smiled and happily shook hands with Naruto when he extended his hand towards him, the blonde feeling how grainy his fellow jinchuriki's hand was, but ignoring it all the same. Instead, he exchanged pleasantries with the foreign Genin.
"Uzumaki-san… it's been so long…"
"It's been too long, Gaara," Naruto exclaimed happily. "Are you doing okay? Have people been treating you well… or have at least started treating you better then before?"
"Not really," the boy replied, lowering his hands. "They still view me as an inconvenience… and ignore me…"
Naruto raised an eyebrow. "Well… that's not good…" He looked up at Kankuro and Temari. "Do you two have anything to do with that?"
"What? NO! Come on… you know me better then that!" Kankuro replied, waving his hands in front of him to throw off the blonde's suggested accusations. "Do you think I would pick on my younger brother? I don't have the guts to play chess with my sister! Come on, Naruto… you've been our friend since… how long has it been? Five years. We've known each other for that long… jeez…"
The blonde looked the hooded shinobi up and down, before looking him in dead in the eyes with a judging look. It was then the spiky haired Genin smirked up at the older, taller sibling.
"Still using your sister's make up as face paint, huh?"
While Temari giggled and Gaara smiled in amusement, Kankuro fumed and shook his fist down at the boy in embarrassment and mock anger.
"I KEEP TELLING YOU, IT'S WAR PAINT!"
"Yeah-yeah…" Naruto waved. He then turned towards Temari, the older sister of Gaara and one of the most gorgeous kunoichi in this room. He grinned at her. "Keeping these two out of trouble?"
"As much as I can, yes," the golden haired teen replied, smiling happily at the spiky haired Genin, clearly just as happy to see him as Gaara was. "Still… I can only stress that we've had better days. I'm afraid things are starting to go a little bit down south for us…"
"Down south, aye?" Naruto queried, smirking. Temari's look suddenly became more serious, and after looking left and right in a cautious way, turned back to the blonde, visually alerting him that something was up. Gaara also seemed to keep an extra eye and ear out, while Kankuro, seeing that Temari was about to say something important to their friend, began deterring anyone close by from listening. "What's going on? Things seem a bit more tense then usual…"
"I know we're close friends, Naruto…so you know when we have something serious to say to you… you take it seriously. We just… didn't expect you to be back here in this village at this time…" Temari whispered.
"Events have been occurring back in our village that you should become more aware of," Gaara said, expression unchanging.
"Hold on…" Naruto held up a hand, glancing around to his left. It was then he, Gaara and Temari noticed the three shinobi with the musical note headbands standing off to the side, glaring at them. When the three turned in their direction, they averted their gazes.
Temari furrowed her brow. "Good call…"
"We'll talk about that later…" Naruto replied. Turning his head, his attention refocused on the pair. "For now, tell me how things have been for you these past few years… I've missed you guys…" Gaara nodded and Temari just smiled, Kankuro still looking around aimlessly… well… so it seemed.
While Naruto was engaged in a deep conversation with Temari and Gaara, looking over the heads of the Genin who were now struggling back to their feet after their one-sided ass kicking, Sakura, Hinata and the others became more then a bit curious as to why Naruto was associating with complete strangers from another village. Of course, they had no idea what was up on their end, but as far as they could tell, the blonde knew the three he was talking to pretty well.
"What do you think they are talking about, Hinata?" Sakura asked, with her arms crossed. Her Hyuuga Clan team member replied with a shrug.
"S-Something important… or maybe they're… catching up with one another," Hinata replied, smiling. "Naruto has met a lot of people in his life…"
"You can say that again," Sakura responded without even having to take anything into consideration, also smiling. "The things he has done… geez. Thinking about it might give me a migraine…"
While Teams 7, 8 and 10 communicated with respect to those who they knew, whether scattered around the room or not, the door behind the Rookie Nine suddenly opened again, the attention in the room turning towards the entrance. Naruto and the Sand Siblings also turned to see who had just entered the room, wondering if it was the proctors that were running the exam, or Jonin coming to organize their teams. However, aside from first thoughts, it didn't come to anybody's surprise that another three Genin entered their midst.
Standing at the closing doors were three individuals, the shortest of the group standing in the middle. Immediately after spotting them, the dozens of Teams scattered throughout the classroom looked towards the strangers' headbands, and saw that the newcomers were Kirigakure shinobi.
The middle man was a short young male around Naruto's age, wearing a full body, brown cloak with red linings, and a hood that was pulled up. Underneath the hood, a little light revealed significant details of his actual appearance, including pink eyes, a stitched up scar running from his left eye down his cheek, and unkempt grey hair framing his face. He had a very vacant expression, and seemed to be the quietest of the lot. A black staff was on his back, with a hook on each end, a flower adorned on the largest of the hooks.
The second member stood on the short boy's right. He was around Lee's age, and was the tallest. He had a light brown trench coat with buckles clasping it shut, and what appeared to be a large plastic water-bottle on his back, but it was filled with black smoke, or what looked like smoke. A high collar hid a thin mouth and a sharp nose, with black goggles worn over the young male's eyes. He also had pitch black hair tied back into a ponytail, his head band holding the rest of his hair back.
The third member was the most peculiar; a beautiful young girl with ghost white hair, and equally light blue eyes. She wore a very colorful, red, yellow, purple and green kimono, with the left side worn down, revealing she had bandages wrapped around her chest and mid-section, with her headband hanging from her neck. A parasol was on her back, and what looked to be a thick walking staff was held in her hand. However, it wasn't just her appearance from her teammates that made her seem strange, it was how she acted.
The moment they entered the room, she seemed to stray off, searching the ground with her staff. Her teammates didn't mind, and let her wander.
"Hey… new meat," Kiba exclaimed, looking them over. "They don't seem that tough."
"They look just like everybody else in this room," Ino stated, raising an eyebrow as she watched the white girl tap her way over here with her stick.
"Don't let appearances deceive you," Shino stated, looking around at the others. "They may be stronger then they appear."
"He's got a point," Sakura agreed.
Choji, now munching on a packet of chips, watched as the white haired girl came up to him, and unexpectedly, bump into him. He dropped a handful of chips because of that maneuver, and he glared up at her.
"Hey!"
"Oh…I-I'm so sorry," the Kirigakure girl replied, and stepped away, continuing to aimlessly walk around. She then accidentally bumped into Shikamaru, then Sasuke, and then Kiba, as she walked through them as best as she could. She apparently had a lot of trouble moving around.
"Okay, what is up with this girl?" Ino asked, watching as the girl moved towards the crowd. "Is she stupid or something? Cause I have half a mind right now to drag her back here and get her to apologize!"
"Shut up, Ino," Shikamaru hissed, looking back towards the white haired teen that passed them. "I think she's blind…"
The Rookie Nine was half-surprised to hear this, and watched as the newcomer became acquainted with other physical objects of the room, particularly the occupants. She kept walking, tapping her stick in front of her, while accidentally running into a tall, young man with standard, purple ninja clothing and glasses.
"Oh… sorry…" she said, passing him by.
"That's okay… my fault," Kabuto replied, watching as the odd girl went to wander amongst the crowd.
She then had the fault to accidentally bump into a rather annoyed group of Amegakure shinobi, the leader with a scar over his eye being rather ticked off when she walked into him. Before she could walk off, he grabbed her by the arm and pulled her up to him, the Rain Ninja obviously the taller of the two.
"Ow… I… I'm sorry…I…"
"You'd better watch it girlie!" the boy sneered at her, making sure his face was right up to hers so that she heard him. Of course, everybody heard him, and this kind of had everyone from Rookie Nine glare at him in response. "Don't make me break something on you…"
"Pl-Please forgive me," the girl pleaded, in an almost Hinata like way. However, she seemed to act much more vulnerable then the purple haired Hyuuga. "I…It won't happen again…"
"You're just a waste of ninja! I think I'll have to break your wrist to teach you a lesson," the boy said with a grin, tightening his grip on the girl's wrist. However, before he could cause any harm to her, another hand grabbed the boy's arm and yanked it away from the wrist he was holding. The Rain Genin glared up at the girl's black haired teammate, who held the boy's own wrist firmly in his grasp. While this was happening, the blind girl slinked behind her tougher teammates, who had quickly come to her aid. "What the hell do you want?"
"Leave my teammate alone…" the boy replied in a voice almost derivative of Shino's only deeper.
The Rain Ninja smirked. "Or what, shades?"
Suddenly there was a loud crack and the Amegakure Genin, whose wrist was still cuffed by the firm hand, let out a cry of agony when the Mist Ninja tightened his grip like a wrench. The Rain Ninja's bones almost turned to splinters around his arteries, when the black haired teen went through with his unwarned threat, and crushed his wrist with his bare hand. All the shinobi standing around them leapt back in shock, with Rookie Nine also looking on in alarm at the unexpected turn of events.
"He…" Ino gulped.
"Broke his wrist… apparently…" Sasuke finished, flinching at the very thought of his hand being in that Genin's grasp.
"AAAARRRGGGHhhhhhh! Let go!" the Rain Ninja cried, trying to yank his arm free, only to find it stuck in the vice like hold. It was like trying to pull your hands out of a cement wall.
The black haired shinobi grinned sinisterly under his collar, before looking over at his other teammates.
"This one is tough… may I eat him?" he asked. To those who were within ear shot, they were immediately horror struck by the words and stepped back even more. Some were scared, others were disgusted, while a set few believed it to be an empty bluff.
The short Kiri Ninja, obviously the team leader, whom the black haired boy addressed with his question, shook his head in a clear no. His teammate took that as his definitive and final answer, and released the boy, who staggered off with his teammates and disappeared into the crowd, leaving the Kirigakure trio standing as the centers of attention.
Some of the Rookie Nine members were a little bit intimidated by what had just happened, especially Ino, Choji, Shikamaru, Hinata and, oddly enough, Kiba, whereas other Genin such as Sakura, Sasuke and Shino were disturbed, none to say the least. Everybody else outside of the group was just appalled by the team's actions. Naruto stood astounded and now wearier of the new group, Gaara stood alongside him showing no signs of disapproval whatsoever, while Temari and Kankuro, unlike their younger brother, looked on with a bit more concern for the Kirigakure Genin's presence. Team Gai also became fascinated with the newcomers, but chose to stay out of the rousing conflict. It was a wise decision on everybody's part to stay away from them.
An explosion of smoke on the far side of the room signaled the arrival of the proctors, all eyes trailing towards the blackboard and he surrounding walls. Out of the smoke emerged a formation of a small platoon of Chunin and Jonin class shinobi, the head proctor, a tall, facially scarred man wearing a black bandana and trench coat, standing in the center of the troop.
"Alright, listen up you miserable ingrates!" the tall man, whom Naruto immediately recognized from past meetings with Anko when she brought him down the ANBU HQ, roared at the hundred plus Genin scattered around the room. "I am Ibiki Morimo; Proctor of the First Stage of the Chunin Exams and from this moment on, your worst enemy!"
Perhaps everybody who was staring at the man trembled at the very sight of him. All those who knew him though…
…weren't that intimidated
"But before we begin!" He pointed towards the Kirigakure shinobi clearly seen standing in the circle made around them by the crowd of nerve-rattled Genin. "You Genin from the Village Hidden in the Mists, do not quarrel with the other candidates, I will have no fighting in this room. Especially from you…" He then pointed at Naruto, who looked around and whistled nonchalantly. Obviously, his handiwork did not go unnoticed. "You think I hadn't noticed? Any more trouble making from you, and I will have you dropped from the Exams! The same goes for the rest of you! If I see anymore fighting, I will make sure that the shinobi responsible will be disqualified!"
Sakura smirked and nudged Shikamaru in the arm. "He's just pissed because his girlfriend broke up with him last week." The members of the group who heard this snickered silently.
Once the murmuring tossed around the room subsided, Ibiki smirked and nodded his head.
"I see we've finally come to an understanding. Good," he exclaimed, clearing his throat. "Now that we're ready, we will proceed to the First Stage of the Exams. Hand in your paperwork and registration cards, and in return, each of you will be randomly dealt a number…" He explained this while holding up a small tab with the Number 1 on it. "This number will determine where each of you will sit! The written test will begin once all of you are seated and the rules have been explained to you all…"
It took about half an hour for everybody to hand in their registration forms and be dealt a number, and an extra twenty minutes was spent allocating seats for all the candidates. The Rookie 9, as well as everybody else, found themselves sitting next to complete strangers, away from any familiar faces. This may have decreased the confidence of a lot of the rookie ninja and those prone to cracking under pressure, but to those used to such torment; it hardly scratched the surfaces of their skin.
Naruto sat in between two other Genin in the forth row, both of them from two different villages. This was the same for Sakura, who sat at the fifth to last row, and Hinata who sat in the middle. Sasuke sat close to the side around the middle, Gaara was right next to one of the walking spaces, Kiba sat close to the windows, and as for everybody else… well… they were just lost amongst the sea of bobbing heads and hairdos.
As the exam papers were handed out, along with a standard issue pencil, rubber, sharpener and ruler set, everybody was in a state of discomfort one way or another. Whether it was the mental stress or fatigue, or something outside of that, it was absolutely clear that no one person wasn't fidgeting in some way.
"Oooh… indigestion," Choji groaned, rubbing his stomach. "Shouldn't have eaten that burger so quickly…"
"Man… these sandals are so itchy!" Kiba groaned, scratching his shoulder as well as his ankles. "I should have taken a bath before this… geez…"
"Boooorrrrriiing…" Shikamaru thought, half asleep. He yawned out loud, earning an odd glance from the two Genin sitting on his left and right.
"…..." White noise was the only thing going through Shino's head at that very moment. The only thing that happened while he was sitting quietly in his seat was when he reached up with his hand up and scratched his nose.
"Stay focused… keep cool… keep calm… don't blank out!" Sakura thought, as she fed herself confidence and uplifting words to keep her on her toes. "You're going to do awesome! Don't worry! Your team will do awesome to! You are awesome!" "I am awesome…" she said, smiling.
There was a tap on the black board, and everybody averted their gaze forwards. Ibiki stood up next to the board, his Chunin teams deposited around the perimeter of the room in rather uncomfortable looking chairs and notepads in their hands. All of them had smug looking grins as they watched the Genin stare worriedly up at the tall Interrogator.
"Everyone… eyes front!" Ibiki began, grabbing everybody with his words. "There are a few rules you all need to be aware of, so wake up and pay attention, because I will not be repeating myself, and I will not be answering any questions! Got it?" All he got in response were hesitant nods, gulps, or blank stares. "Alright! Rule Number 1 is this! The written part of the exam is based on a point deduction system! Contrary to popular belief, we don't add points for every correct answer. Instead, at the beginning of this exam, you are already given a perfect score of ten points, that's one point per question. One point will be deducted for every question you get wrong, so if you miss out or answer three questions incorrectly, your final score at the end of the exam will be seven!"
"Why do I get the feeling that I will soon be filling out a death warrant?" Naruto queried, rubbing his chin in thought.
"Rule Number 2: teams will pass or fail based on the total scores of all three members," Ibiki stated. Though this raised a mass of murmurs and groans of obvious disapproval, this only put a grin on Ibiki's inner self. "Rule Number 3: the sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. For every incident they spot, they will deduct two points from the culprits score."
Everybody looked around at the Chunin surrounding the room. Kotetsu and Izumo were also here, grinning wildly and clearly enjoying themselves. It was while the members of Team 7 were scanning the room that Hinata spotted another familiar face sitting by the window dressed in the same standard issue sentinel outfits as the Chunin. The purple haired Hyuuga was actually surprised to see Haku sitting amongst them, a smile on his face as he looked about the place. When he spotted Hinata, he waved, the girl waving back with a small smile.
"T-The Hokage must have promoted him to Chunin… right after Zabuza-san gave a report on himself and Haku…" the Hyuuga thought. "Good for him…"
"Be warned… all the sentinels surrounding you have eyes like a hawk, and if they catch you five times, you will be dismissed before the tests are even scored!" Ibiki exclaimed with a grin. This did not put a smile on everybody's faces. In fact, it made the room a tad bit colder with the extra sets of eyes watching the Genin from every corner of the room. "Anyone fool enough to be caught by them doesn't deserve to be here. So don't let us catch you peaking at another person's test sheet…"
Haku grinned and nodded towards a bunch of Genin sitting on his end. "I've got my eye on you guys…"
A lot of other Chunin sitting around the room were doing the exact same thing, glaring needles and making fun of the other Genin.
"If you want to be considered shinobi… then show us… what exceptional shinobi you can be!" Ibiki said, smirking. Then, another thought came to mind, and he snapped his fingers. "Oh yes… one more thing. If any member of your team gets a zero, then the entire team fails. Just so you know…and as you may later notice, there are only nine questions listed on your exam papers. The tenth and final question won't be given out until fifteen minutes to the end of the testing period…"
This statement had everybody curious, with a lot of the Genin who were strangers to each other sharing glances and comments. It was kind of a new thing for them to be given a question at the end of the test when it wasn't listed. Perhaps it was a question that determined whether they passed or failed.
"You have one hour total! You may begin!" Ibiki shouted, slipping his hands into his pockets.
The sounds of papers rustling and pencils being picked up could be heard all round, almost simultaneously. Within seconds Genin row after row filled out their names before digging into the questions… or… as far as they could actually go in understanding them.
The moment eyes were laid out on the first question, heads were rolling.
The members of the Rookie Nine were beyond perplexed. The first question was particularly tricky, but then, a little ways after question five, it was almost impossible. Ino gave up the moment she read the third question, and Kiba was sweating bullets when his eyes rolled over the forth. Choji just clutched his head as he looked over the questions, groaning and murmuring to himself as he stared dazedly at the first one. Shikamaru found that answering the questions was too much of a drag at this point, and decided to mellow it over in a nap.
Hinata tilted her head in curiosity, as the first question was a coded one. She furrowed her brow as she went over it.
"An encoded message… oh dear…"
"Let's see… Question Two… Line B indicates the trajectory of the shuriken thrown by the Ninja at position A on top of a tree seven meters tall, at Enemy Ninja at position C. Describe and formulate the trajectory of the shuriken if it was thrown at positions D, E, and F, while also predicting the furthest possible range of the shuriken and explain how you arrived at your answer… hmm?" Naruto thought, scratching his chin. He just shrugged and answered it. "I threw it really… really… hard…"
He then moved onto the next one. "Question 3… hmm… A geographical map, outlining the significant areas of height, wind speed and altitude of a particular land formation has you stuck at point A. The destination is at point B. Using proper measurements and taking into account the allotted time it would take to arrive at point B, as well as the maximum amount of supplies taken on the trip, determine the exact distance between point A and B, also taking note of the appropriate route by means of travel. Also, part b; determine the best possible positions for ambush and the most likely areas enemy ninja are likely hiding. Describe in detail the best way to avoid encounters and to avoid casualties…" Naruto blinked. He held onto the paper for a moment before frowning and writing his answer.
"This is easy… this question is basically a recount of what I did last Sunday when I got attacked by those stupid mercenaries. Man… was that hard to explain to the client when I got lost…" he looked up for a moment, thinking this through a little bit longer about whether or not his answer was liable or not. "Wait… that can't be right. Screw it I'm writing profanity all over my sheet…"
"Well… isn't that interesting," Sasuke sighed, sweating nervously as he closed his eyes to compose himself. "I can't even begin to understand a single one of these problems…"
Sakura sighed as she went over her test, answering the first question easily, then moving onto the second one, taking some time to look over it first before going on to answer it.
"This test is surprisingly hard… harder then what I expected for Chunin…" she looked around the room, towards the sentinels and towards Ibiki. However, she mostly focused on the sentinels, particularly Kotetsu, who had hi eyes focused on the area in front of him. Sakura raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "I mean… come on… I've seen tests. No way can guys like Kotetsu answer these; he has the I.Q of a garden snake… no where near Perfect 10 smarts required for this test. So why… why are they making it so difficult for people to cheat…?"
This was a thought that was running rampant throughout a whole bunch of other Genin's heads. The ones with a more open mind about these things were looking about, analyzing the sentinels, and taking everything they already know into account. While it took some time to sink in with the others, there were some who were just still plain wasting time.
Shikamaru was napping, Choji was rubbing his face into his sheet, Kiba was drawing faces all over the back of his, and Lee was giving his the death glare, wondering if he stared hard enough at it, the answers would appear right in his head. Temari was having a go at answering the questions, but was having trouble around five. Gaara, Shino and Neji, composed as ever, were attempting to solve the riddle of the exam's extreme difficulty at this point.
Though it seemed nothing was happening on the outside, things were, soon enough, going to explode into action…
While Naruto was busy drawing boobs and coming up with new swear words all over the sides of his exam sheet, realization suddenly hit him like a ton of bricks. He slapped himself in the face, but ended up jabbing the pencil in his eye.
"OWW! DAMMIT!"
"QUIET DOWN!" Ibiki shouted at him, with all the Genin jumping in their seats at the two sudden shouts. "ONE MORE OUTBURST AND YOU'RE OUT!"
Sakura giggled when she spotted Naruto nursing his now bruised eye, staring at his back as he cursed silently under his breath.
"That's Naruto… hard at work and hurting himself while taking a written test…" Sakura thought, shaking her head. "Only he can do that… I guess he's figured out Question 1…"
"So that's what the real first question is!" Naruto thought, looking around at the sentinels, his hand over his bruised eye. "Figure out the riddle behind the test! These questions are way too difficult to answer for regular Genin, even Chunin! I highly doubt Chunin do this stuff out in the field, it's too technical. By the time they get to the practical stuff, they've wasted too much time." Naruto glanced round at Ibiki, who was also monitoring the exam and acting as judge for the test environment. "So if the real test involves us finding out the answers without getting caught, then the second question is to find out who has all the answers…"
Sasuke, Shino, Hinata, Kiba, Tenten, Neji, Gaara and a handful of other ninjas had figured this out at roughly around the same time, if not in the same colorful manner as Naruto. So after about the first ten minutes of the test allowed them to reach this point, they then organized their time and began figuring out ways to infiltrate another person's test sheet, acquire the answers, and not get caught by the sentinels surrounding them.
Gaara was fast at work, using his sand abilities to get his answers. Kankuro saw that his younger brother has figured out the riddle, and then began plotting his own way of acquiring the answers.
Having Akamaru on his head gave Kiba a telescopic advantage. As he concentrated on working on answering the test, his canine companion surveyed the area for answers. Spotting a potential one right in front of him, the dog leant in and yipped quietly. Knowing that a dog was going to bark on occasion, Kiba seemingly went on with his escapade unnoticed, grinning widely.
"Good boy… thanks a lot buddy," he whispered, smirking. "Now find me the next one…" Akamaru yipped back and began looking around for more answers.
The three Sound Ninja had their own unique ways of collecting data from the unsuspecting Genin candidates. They utilized sound waves, beats and frequencies to time the movements of their own pencils, and come up with words right in front of their eyes. This worked particularly well for Dosu, who took full advantage of this ability.
"Judging by the rhythm… the duration and the frequency of the strokes… hmm… yes… that will do nicely…" the mummified, ghoul of a Sound Genin thought as he jotted down the words on the blank side of the exam paper.
Nobody paid real notice to a fly buzzing around them room, landing right next to test sheets with the most potential for positive answers, and watching people closely at work. However, it got shooed away none the less, eventually sweeping the room before making a stop at its owner. Shino held his finger out, and allowed his little companion to land safely on his nail.
"Well… show me…" Shino murmured. The fly flew up and began buzzing in circles, making complicated shapes and symbols at an angle that the bug user could easily see. He nodded his head and wrote down the numerical answers for Question 7. "8.2 kilometers… of course… it makes perfect sense…"
Unknown to him, somebody else was taking a peak at his sheet. Reflecting mirrors in the lights above helped illuminate the room with the florescent globes, making it easier to see. Tenten took advantage of the mirrors to help acquire the answers for herself; using her chakra nano wires to move them into the correct places. She did so inconspicuously, tying the wires to her fingers where her pencil was, and when moving it around, adjusted the angle of elevation to get a clearer shot of a person's sheet.
Spotting Lee several rows in front of her, she angled one of the light's mirrors in front of the boy, and moved it a bit to make sure he got it.
"Come on Lee… when you see it… adjust your head band. Silent signals…" she thought, shifting her grip a bit.
Lee's fortune of answers flying right to him eventually came. Catching whiff of the sounds above him, he looked up, spotting the mirrors of the lights angling above him. He knew someone was trying to get to him, so when he saw the mirrors reflection on Shino's work and his answers, he signaled Tenten by adjusting his head band, quickly getting to work.
Naruto also quickly got to work, formulating his own strategy. Concentrating hard, he clapped his hands together and formed a series of hand seals, gaining control over his chakra.
"By controlling the wind particles in the air with my chakra, I can refract it like glass… the perfect nano mirror only I can see…" Naruto thought smirking. "Basic principles behind chakra wire. I hope nobody notices the side effect…"
In a few short seconds, the air in front of Naruto suddenly became denser as the particles came together to form solids. Moving the chakra through the air, he condensed it as much as possible, till the air suddenly became like a shattered mirror. Thinner then anyone else could see Naruto got a full upside-down, periscope view of the people behind him.
While he quickly gathered the answers, the Genin around him suddenly felt the air get chilly, and suddenly began warming themselves.
Neji got his own abilities down, in conjunction with Hinata. Both Hyuugas used their Byakugan to see through the people in front of them, and get the answers for themselves. Sasuke used his Sharingan, copying the exact movements of the pencil of the Genin in front of him. It worked out perfectly for the doejutsu users.
Shikamaru, remarkably enough, came up with the answer in his sleep, and, using a loose version of his Shadow Possession Jutsu, tapped into the guy in front of him, and mimicked his hand movements through it, writing up the answers as they came. Ino on the other hand, helped herself to some of the brainy kids, locking onto Sakura and getting a good look at her sheet, before passing on the answers to Choji.
The blind Kiri girl that was been picked on before the start of the exam was actually having a lot of trouble determining whether the table was her sheet or whether she was writing with the correct end of her pencil. She clumsily went about trying to accomplish this, with the sentinels clearly losing interest in her after a while. She eventually did start writing the answers and when she did, she surprisingly answered each and every one correctly. Her partner was more subtle on his approach.
The black haired boy simply continued to write on the piece of paper. Looking from left to right, he inhaled deeply and exhaled a small, white cloud, which hovered up and over the Genin situated in the rows in front of him. The small black cloud morphed and shifted into a small eye, which magnified several different exam sheets, giving him a clear view of his objectives.
Around halfway past the exam time, Kankuro left to go to the bathroom, escorted out by a rather rigid looking Chunin. In the meantime, Gaara was working on his own way of getting answers without getting caught, sending particles of sand in all directions and, after putting off people with a few grains of sand to the eye, produced a sand made eye above their test sheets and memorized the answers, before writing them down.
Then there was the lead Genin of the Kirigakure team. For the first half hour, he sat there, staring at the first question, not really doing anything. At first the sentinels thought he was as cool as a cucumber, before thinking if he was stroking off or something. But then, suddenly, out of the blue, he started writing, moving from the first question, to the second, and then to the others.
Throughout the entire duration of the exam, random Genin from here and there were called for cheating and thrown out. Those who put up a fight against the sentinels were quickly and painfully dispatched, before they marched out of the place. The proctor was satisfied to see a great majority of the Genins high tail it out of the room, particularly the weaker ones. It was a pretty enlightening sight for him. But then, eventually, the first forty-five minutes went past, and in the fifteen minutes to exam time-out, Ibiki called for their attention.
"Alright! Listen up! I'm going to be dealing out the tenth and final question," Ibiki shouted, drawing everyone's attention towards him. Around this time, Kankuro decided to rejoin the group, and quietly slunk back to his seat, but not before passing by Temari and dropping a small piece of paper for her. Seeing the Sand Sibling take his seat, Ibiki smirked and continued. "There are some new rules to Question 10… so listen carefully."
Naruto yawned and propped his head on his hand, staring dazedly at the head Interrogator.
"Why am I suddenly craving green eggs and ham…?" Naruto blinked when he realized the thoughts going through his head. "What? Where the hell did that come from?"
"Rule Number 1… you are free to choose whether or not to take the tenth and final question, it's your decision." It was this statement that perplexed a lot of the students, and for those who hadn't fully grasped the concept of cheating, gave the Genin more to mellow over while they took the final stages of this part of the exam. "Be warned. Choosing not to take the tenth question, regardless of the other nine, means you will get a zero, and will ultimately be disqualified from participating in the rest of the exam. Ultimately… if you do choose to take the tenth question, know this…" He hardened his best glare on the crowds, grinning widely. "If you get the tenth question wrong, you will not only be disqualified, but you will never be allowed to participate in the Chunin Exams ever again!"
"Hey man! That's bogus!" Kiba shouted, pointing at the proctor. "What kind of a stupid question is that? What the hell was the point of the other nine when we're getting this live or die question at the end of the whole damn thing?"
"It's basically 50/50 with this one…" Temari murmured.
"There is always a trick to the last question," Sakura murmured to herself, rubbing her chin. "It's common occurence in particular tests and exams. Man… I'm starting to doubt myself on this one…"
"Of course," Ibiki continued, smirking and turning towards the window to his right. "If you don't want to take the tenth question, you don't have to. If you're not feeling confident, then by all means skip it. You can come back and try again next year…so…" The man shrugged his shoulders, chuckling. "Any takers?"
The next few minutes saw an immediate drop out of potential candidates, who left the room in flocks. It was then, while Ibiki and the sentinels were giving everybody else the silent treatment, the blond about a couple rows up spoke up, venting his stress after close to an hour of sitting around and getting numb legs for sitting so long on such uncomfortable chairs.
"The hell with next year," Naruto shouted, laying his head on the table and groaning. "I'm not going through this shit again! I've got a cramp in my leg and I'm starving! I'm moving forward, and you can't stop me! Tenth question or not!" The boy leant back in his seat, hands behind his head as he kicked his feet up onto the table. "Why did I suddenly go all gung-ho? Must be my inner spunk kicking in…"
Of course, that unintended outburst gave a lot of the others a little bit more back bone, and a great majority of this Genin group decided to stick it out, including the Rookie Nine. Sakura smiled at Naruto's short rant and nodded in his direction, Hinata also greatly admiring his spirit. If not the approval of other Genin, the boy did attract a lot of other eyes, who thought him both a brave man and a fool.
"He's definitely lightened up more since the last time we met," Sasuke thought, smirking. "Interesting… what could turn a guy like Naruto from a soulless killing machine on the battlefield to a loudmouth so easily? He's literally playing jump rope over that fine line between cold as ice and idiotic…"
"The same old Naruto from the Academy… first he disappears for a while then reappears. It's like my old classmate nightmares are coming back to haunt me," Shikamaru thought, smirking. "Ah… it's too much of a bother to think about it…"
"He's always been spontaneous," Ino thought, smirking. "Not like Sasuke or any other guy I've met. First he's a whiny kid with a big mouth… then he turns all cool… what is up with that?"
Ibiki raised an eyebrow, seeing that no one else was throwing in the towel. Taking a glance over at the sentinels to the side, who nodded to him in response, the head ANBU Interrogator smirked and looked back to the crowds of Genin.
"Alright then… congratulations to all of you who decided to stay…" Ibiki plain out and said it. "You all passed the First Part of the Chunin Exam…"
Silence fell across the room as all the Genin stared at him.
It wasn't long till strings of complaints and questions began flying in his direction.
"What the? What does that mean?" Kiba shouted.
"Where's the tenth question?" Sakura asked.
Ibiki grinned, then laughed out loud, clearly amused. "There wasn't one… well… not on paper. It was simply a wool pulled over the eyes tactic, to get you to try and see through deception, and look underneath the underneath!" The ANBU exclaimed, smirking as he looked over the remaining candidates. "In reality, it is the tenth question that determines whether you pass or fail… it's just that simple…"
"Wait a second!" Temari shouted, sitting up. "Does that mean the rest of the test was pointless?"
"No… no… it was just used to weed out the weaklings and incompetent ones," Ibiki explained. "If you've already figured it out, the real test for you was to strategically and carefully acquire information from the other candidates, and because it was a test based on your teamwork and individual abilities, your team was tested and pass or fail determined based on the overall skill and tact of the group. The questions on your test were far too difficult for any Genin such as yourselves to answer… more around Jonin or ANBU level questions. The test was designed to encourage cheating, but on a different level to simple glance and copy."
"Those who were fool to get caught cheating failed. Better to cheat, then to cheat clumsily…" Ibiki stated.
"Just like you at poker last month, right Ibiki?" Naruto exclaimed, grinning boldly.
"Exactly like tha…w-wait…what?" the man glared over at the blonde, who gave him the peace sign.
"You don't need to play the cheating game with me! I know a bluff when I see one," Naruto said, before winking at him. "B.T.W… back then, I had a pair of deuces… not a full house…"
"You play poker with that guy?" the Genin sitting next to Naruto asked. The blonde smiled in his direction and nodded.
"Oh yeah… he's good, but not that good. I won his whole week's salary from him in one night," Naruto stated.
"That reminds me, you owe me two-hundred ryu Naruto... from our last game!" Kotetsu called across the room.
"Moving on," Ibiki grumbled, clearing his throat. "Geez… why does Anko's student have to be so irritating?" "Information can be the most valuable thing in battle. It can determine the lives of your comrades, the rise or fall of a nation… or even decide whether you live or die. Enemy ninja will do anything in their power to acquire that information… anything…" The man unwrapped his bandana and showed his head underneath, an assortment of battle scars, burn marks and puncture holes dotted all over his scalp. Everyone in the room cringed in shock, accept for those who were passive towards such sights, have experienced similar stuff, or were just plain mocking their way through this whole thing.
"Well duh… it's not going to heal if you don't stop picking at it…" Naruto thought. "First time I saw it, I nearly lost my lunch…" The blonde then barfed in his mouth, but swallowed it. "Man that's an unpleasant sight…"
"Consider the source of the information gathered, because it may not necessarily be accurate or correct," Ibiki stated, wrapping up his head again. "The value of information is put higher then money or power, because it is worth more then both combined. That is why… those who failed in acquiring the information intelligently were kicked out; leaving the rest of you. The tenth question was ultimately meant to be a no win situation, testing your will power and your teammates. In the heat of battle and on dangerous missions, the only people you can count on are your teammates… so you pass or fail this test, as a team…"
Everybody listened in, as he made his final statement to them all.
"Being a Chunin, means you have responsibilities, not just as individuals, but as a team. Whether or not you choose to proceed with a mission that seems suicidal doesn't matter. What matters are the final goals and the steps to achieving them! Completing your mission as a group, working alongside your comrades to accomplish your goals, through courage, discipline and teamwork, these are the qualities required for a true Chunin Squad Leader. You must put the safety and wellbeing of your comrades and your village above your own," Ibiki stated. "For those of you who have stayed, you have earned the right to move on to the Second Stage of this Exam…"
Right on queue, or before that, the window to everyone's left suddenly shattered, and what looked to be a crumpled up sack flew into their midst. In the blink of an eye it burst open, a banner unveiling the second proctor of the exam. Ibiki sighed as he was canvassed out, and Anko Mitarashi made her appearance.
"Alright you maggots!" Anko shouted, striking a pose. "The easy part is over! Now the real fight begins! I am Anko Mitarashi, Elite ANBU of Konohagakure, and I will be proctoring the Second Stage of this Exam!"
Naruto and Sakura groaned and tried to look as small as possible to hide away from their energetic teacher. Hinata simply sat where she was, watching curiously as the purple haired Snake Jonin made her cinematic introduction.
"Oh no… kill me now…" Sakura thought.
Ibiki came around the banner and stared at her. "You jumped the gun…"
Anko frowned and blushed in embarrassment, before glaring out the window. Suddenly, Mia's head popped up alongside Zabuza, both of them looking through the shattered window and into the room curiously.
"Are you alright?" Zabuza asked.
"Did we do it okay this time?" Mia also asked.
"No! You idiots catapulted me in too early!" Anko shouted, pointing accusingly at her temporary crew.
"Sorry…" Mia and Zabuza apologized in unison before ducking away, with Mia waving goodbye to everybody in the room
"Who is this weirdo?" a whole bunch of Genin, including, Kankuro, Temari, Tenten and Neji, thought, their eyes plainly fixated on the trench coated shinobi.
Anko shook her head and looked over at the crowds. "Well… a bigger group then I expected, Ibiki… you must be getting soft," the woman said, smirking at her fellow ANBU. The man shrugged back in response. "Anyway, it doesn't matter. Over half of them will be gone by the time I'm through with them…"
TO BE CONTINUED…