Chapter Seventeen – The First Test

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"Paperwork."

Naruto stared at the test in front of him with hatred normally reserved for the council members who had voted to strip him of his heritage. The sheet of paper in somehow survived his glare, failing to ignite or shred under his aggravated gaze.

"Now that everyone's seated, pay attention." Growled the large black-clad man at the front of the room. Naruto looked up and frowned slightly.

'Hmmm, I know I've never seen him before, so why does he seem so familiar?'

"My name, for those of you who don't know it, is Morino Ibiki." The man said and Naruto jolted in his seat. The movement attracted Ibiki's gaze. "You have something you want to say, Genin?"

"My sensei talks about you all the time!" Naruto blurted before he could stop himself. Ibiki raised an eyebrow.

"And your sensei would be?"

"Mitarashi Anko." Naruto replied and quite a few of the other Genin spun in their seats to stare wide-eyed at him. Ibiki merely nodded.

"Then you would be Kagetora Naruto. She's mentioned you, I'll be keeping an especially close eye on you if even half of what she said is true."

Several of the Genin chuckled and Ibiki glared at them, causing them to freeze under his gaze.

"Time to begin. The rules are simple, each team starts with ten points. Each time you are caught cheating, you lose two points, whenever a team loses all their points, they are out. There are ten questions to answer, nine of them are on the sheets in front of you, the tenth will be revealed in three quarters of an hour. You will not leave your seats unless accompanied by a Proctor, raise your hand for attention if you need it. Naruto, since you have no team-mates in this test with you, you will start with six points instead of ten. Any questions? Tough. Turn over your sheet and begin!"

Naruto flipped the sheet over and his eyes widened as he saw the questions.

'What? These are Jonin-level questions, not chunin, how can they expect us… to… cheat. Right, let's see. Kabuti said that there were 154 genin, but this hall has 20 rows of 8, which is 160. There aren't any spaces, so that means that six genin are not atually taking the test and are therefore plants, so I should find and copy one of them.'

Naruto glanced round, then he saw Hinata make a familiar motion three rows in front of him.

'Hinata's obviously worked it out and is using her Byakugan… maybe I can copy off her? Let's see if I can use that trick that Kaze taught me.'

Naruto picked up his pencil and half-closed his eyes. Calling on the meditation-practice that Gai had drilled him in, he channeled extra Chakra to his ears, identifying and discarding all the noise around him until all he could hear was Hinata's slight movements… and the scrape of pencil against paper as she started to write. Using the sound to direct his own pencil, Naruto was soon filling the ninth question space when he glanced down at what he had written.

Naruto-kun, after this exam, you are going to tell me how you did that,preferably while treating me to a romantic dinner.

And, if you are are nice enough,you can treat me to breakfast too.

It took all of Naruto's willpower not to laugh, but when he realised what Hinata was saying with her postscript, he felt his cheeks almost burning as he blushed furiously. Looking across at Hinata, he gave a slow nod and thumbs-up. In the depths of his mind, he could hear the Kyuubi sniggering at him.

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"Alright, pencils down!"

Naruto took the command as a chance to glance around him. Almost half the desks were vacated, the genin in question having been caught cheating too many times and expelled. At the front of the room, Ibiki glared at them.

"You've done well so far, but this is where the rules change. Before I give the tenth question, be aware that getting it wrong means not only that you are expelled with your team, but that you will never be allowed to participate in another chunin exam again."

Naruto frowned as cries of outrage and denial rose around him.

'Something's wrong. Ibiki-san doesn't have that kind of authority anywhere else, and I doubt that Konoha would be willing to let someone's career just die that way… what could he be up to?'

"If anyone wishes to avoid this by leaving, they can do so now, but if anyone chooses to resign, their team goes with them."

Several Genin rose, with apologetic glances to their angry team-mates and made their way to the door. Naruto glanced round.

'I think I have this figured out, but let's thin the herd. The weak links are Sakura and Ino. Tenten and Hinata are both very strong, and most of the other boys are either too arrogant, self-confident or intelligent to simply quit. So as soon as I see Ino or Sakura move, I need to do something to boost their self-confidence, or persuade them to stay put.'

After another minute of silence, Sakura started to rise and Naruto slammed his hand against his desk, causing it to shatter in a cloud of splinters.

"Ibiki, you've played with our minds long enough. Just give us the damned question already, none of us are going to back down now! We're not cowards."

Sakura slumped back into her seat.

Ibiki glared at him, then sighed.

"Alright. Everyone in? No-one wants to wait until next time? Very well then. Prepare yourselves… The tenth question… has been answered. You all pass."

For a breathless sliver of eternity, the hall remained silent, and then half the students reacted.

"WHAT?"

Ibiki held up his hand for silence. "The tenth question was whether or not you were willing to gamble on a possible victory with incomplete information. There will come a time when you have a mission, but you lack the information to know the safest way to do it. Will you go on, or retreat? This was a test of your courage and, for almost all of you, your belief in your team-mates."

Naruto sighed in relief.

"Then what about the other nine questions?" Kiba shouted.

"A test of your ability to evade detection." Ibiki said. "Something that you will need as a ninja."

Ibiki removed his bandana, revealing numerous scars and wounds. "You see these scars? I got them when I failed to avoid detection on a mission. I was captured, tortured, interrogated for weeks. I was rescued by my team, but my scars were beyond healing by then. Someday, you may have to face what I did, suffering with only the hope of your team-mates completing their mission to sustain you. The life of a Shinobi, the life you have all chosen, is not an easy one."

As Ibiki replaced his headband, a slab of ice formed by his side. A moment later, a familiar figure seemed to fade into view, and then stepped out of the ice sheet.

"Haku."

"Ibiki-san." Haku said with a slight bow. "I am here to direct those who have passed the first test."

Ibiki nodded and stepped back as Haku turned to face the remaining genin.

"Seventy-three genin, Ibiki. Well, my father will cut that number in half, at least. Please make your way to training area forty-four, also known as the Forest of Death. Those of you who do not know where it is, please follow those who do. You are to be there by noon."

Haku stepped back into his ice mirror and faded from view, then the mirror cracked and collapsed in a pile of ice shards.

"… that is a nice trick." Kiba said, awe filling his voice before looking round and seeing that most of the genin were already headed towards the door. "Hey, wait!"

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Ibiki looked up as one of the proctors marking the tests snorted with laughter.

"What?"

"Anyone know who would call Naruto Naruto-kun?" the chunin asked.

"Sounds like Hyuuga Hinata." Said a female chunin. "I heard that she's engaged to him. Why?"

"Whoever has her sheet, please read the last part of the answer to question nine."

Ibiki shuffled through the papers in front of him and found that he had the sheet in question. Glancing quickly down the answers, noting in passing that all of them were answered correctly, he paused at the last two lines.

"She wrote a question for Naruto." Ibiki said. "And she does indeed call him Naruto-kun. How did you know?"

"I think Naruto copied from her somehow." The chunin grinned. "Is the last bit on her paper 'Naruto-kun, after this exam, you are going to tell me how you did that,preferably while treating me to a romantic dinner. And, if you are are nice enough,you can treat me to breakfast too.'?"

Ibiki nodded. "That's it, word for word. She was three rows in front of him and one sideways, how do you think he did it? And why would he copy that bit if he could see it?"

"Not a clue." The chunin laughed as several of the others in the room snickered and giggled. "I think that we should ask Hinata about it after he's explained it to her. And after he's treated her to breakfast."

Ibiki smiled slightly as most of the other chunin gave up and started to laugh.

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The crowd of genin flinched as a giant sword hurtled overhead and embedded itself into a tree. A moment later, a tall masked man appeared on the sword, glaring at the assembled genin below.

"Listen up, maggots!" He shouted. "I am Momochi Zabuza no Kagetora, Demon of the Bloody Mist and now Jonin of Konoha. And you have the honour of being my first group of victims! Welcome to the second stage of the Genin exams which take place in the Forest of Death!"

The assembled participants stared at him silently with the exception of the Kiri ninjas, most of whom were sweating and wimpering.

"Before you can proceed, you need to sign a form releasing Konoha of liability of any injuries you sustain, or indeed any responsibility should you die, and some of you will die. Once each team has signed the form, you will receive either a Heaven scroll or an Earth scroll, like these."

Standing below Zabuza, Haku held up two scrolls so that everyone could see the writing on them.

"Your task is simple, obtain one of each scroll and make your way to the central tower. Your time limit is five days. There is no upper limit on the number of scrolls you can obtain, but the longer you remain in the forest, the more likely you are to be attacked. Remember that you need your whole team to finish, so if one of your team-mates dies, you cannot pass.

"There is, however, one exception to the two-scroll rule. Here we have the Special scroll, which will be held by Kagetora Naruto. For him to finish, he needs to keep this scroll and obtain both a heaven and earth scroll. If anyone else manages to get the scroll off him, it is a reverse summoning scroll. Have your team place a drop of blood in each of the three seals and you will be transported to the tower where you will be given an automatic pass, irrespective of the number of scrolls you have. It will not, however, work for Naruto. Before you try to attack him, know that he was trained by Maito Gai, Hatake Kakashi and Mitarashi Anko. There is a reason we are making it harder for him, and it's to give the rest of you bastards a chance.

"The tent is over there. Fill out your form, grab your scroll and get to the gate you are assigned to. Move!"

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'This will be easy.' Kaze growled.'We already know the forest in its entirety, we just need to ambush a few teams and take their scrolls.'

"I would prefer not to kill if possible." Naruto said, glancing left and right. Kage snorted.

'We can do this, Two-Leg Tiger Cub. However, I would suggest you change shape for this. As long as you wear my shape, your scroll is safe.'

Nauto froze, then hit his forehead. "I am such an idiot, I can't believe I forgot that. I will need to change back to take down the other teams, though."

'Use your Selves-Made-Of-Shadow thing and send them to do the fighting. They take down the enemy, you get the scroll and then we fade into the leaves.'

Naruto nodded slowly. "Sounds like a good plan. Once we get the scrolls, though, I'd like to check on Hinata."

'She is with Master of Insects, Runs Like A Wolf, White Fur Great Heart and Blossoming Flower In The Morning Dawn. She will be safe and we will meet her at the tower."

"Yeah, with Shino, Kiba, Akamaru and Kyouka, she'll be fine." Naruto admitted. "It's just…"

'Your heart and hers beat as one, your souls are intertwined.' Kaze said understandingly. 'She makes you happy, truly happy, and you bring out the true strength in her. Together you are far more than either alone can not worry. You have many hunts ahead of you both.'

Naruto nodded and reached up to stroke Kaze's head. "Thanks."

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"I have been considering tactics and believe the optimum path to victory would be for Hinata to utilise her special collaboration jutsu. Once she has done so, she and Kyouka can provide us with superior terrain-traversing capabilities, while Hinata's Bakugan will allow us to locate and outmaneuver opposing teams. In addition, our adversaries will not be anticipating the appearance of a duo of highly intimidating felines."

Kiba stared at him. "Shino. Dumb it down for me please, you know I'm not that clever."

"Shino was saying that I should use my tiger-form." Hinata explained. "I would carry one of you and Kyouka would carry the other, and I could use my Byakugan to see where other teams are."

Kiba nodded, then looked sadly at Akamaru. "We've really got to grow up fast, Akamaru. We're being left behind again, even with weight training. Oh, speaking of which!"

Kiba quickly removed the metal bracelets from his wrists and ankles, sealing them into a small scroll. Standing up again, he took a few steps and bounced up and down with a grin. "Wow, those chakra weights were the best investment I ever made for myself. Okay, I'm at full speed and strength now, nowhere near Naruto, but good against anyone else."

"ATTENTION ALL GENIN, THIS IS A ONE-MINUTE WARNING! THE TEST WILL BEGIN IN ONE MINUTE, PREPARE TO ENTER WHEN THE GATES OPEN! YOU WILL HAVE THIRTY SECONDS TO ENTER ONCE THE GATES OPEN, FAILURE TO ENTER WILL RESULT IN DISQUALIFICATION! FORTY-FIVE SECONDS UNTIL ENTRY!"

Kyouka hauled herself to her feet and moved to the sliding gate, Hinata by her side.

"Everyone ready?"

"I am fully prepared."

"Bring it on!"

"Arf!"

"THIRTY SECONDS."

"TWENTY SECONDS."

"TEN."

"NINE."

"EIGHT."

"SEVEN."

"SIX."

"FIVE."

"FOUR."

"THREE."

"TWO."

"ONE!"

The gates opened and Team 8 darted into the waiting forest.