A/N: Heh, yeah… sorry about the late update. I just haven't been in the mood to write lately. Anyhow, chapter 21 up!!!
The more I think about it, the more I see that the beginning chapters… are absolute crap!!! I tried fixing them, but… they're still crap!!!! One day I'll rewrite those chapters fully… one day.
By the way, the Bijuu references I make are to this picture.
http: / / .net / fs49 / f / 2009 / 184 / 1 / 9 / Jinchuriki _ and _ Bijuu _ by _ blackbommer22 . jpg
Make sure you take out the spaces, and if you are wondering why they are there, it's cause whenever you don't do that it deletes a part of it, which is really annoying, so I put spaces cause that's what I saw others doing.
You Smell Bad!
"Wow…" Sakura mumbled. And indeed it was… wow. It was a large classroom-like room, with rows of chairs and benches. What really caught their attention were the numerous ninja that were leaning on the benches, on the walls, and just standing up. And it seemed they were all staring at the three genin, sizing them up and ultimately coming to the same conclusion: Nothing to worry about, at all.
"Naruto." Someone called. They turned to see a boy with his hair tied up like a pineapple leaning on the wall. Next to him was a rather chubby boy munching on a packet of chips.
"Hey Shikamaru!" Naruto said brightly and walked over to them, leaving his space beside Sasuke… which was soon filled with a blonde haired girl.
"Sasuke! You made it!" she screeched before glomping him. Sakura fumed.
"Ino-piiig!! What do you think you're doing!!!!" she yelled.
Ino just smirked at her. "What, jealous he likes me more than you, Forehead?"
"Excuse me!?" she said, and the two glared at each other in pure hate, ignoring an embarrassed Sasuke attempting to pry Ino off him. The rest of Team 10 plus Naruto joined them, looking at the crazy girls and almost looking at Sasuke in sympathy. Almost.
"N-Naruto." Naruto turned to see Hinata standing with her team, a boy in a large coat covering most of his face and dark sunglasses and another boy with a thick coat and some white thing on his head.
"Hi Hinata!" he said cheerily, and for some reason he didn't understand, she blushed and twiddled her forefingers. Her team walked closer, but suddenly an over-whelming stench entered Naruto's nose. It smelled… like…
"God, you reek of dog!!" he said, pointing to Kiba. Meanwhile Kiba was busy gagging and holding his nose.
"Me??!!! You stink of fox!!"
"That's cause I am one, you-"
"You know, you should really keep it down." A stranger's voice sounded. The Rookie 9 turned to see an older man with grey hair and glasses.
"Why?" Ino asked, who was still attached to Sasuke's arm.
"I wouldn't go making a spectacle of yourselves. Just look around you."
The nine turned to look at the room, and realised that everyone was looking at them, with killer intent.
"They are all anxious about the exam," the stranger continued, "and here you rookies are, making a fool of yourselves."
"Who are you?" Sasuke asked, finally pushing Ino off himself.
"My name is Kabuto Yakushi. Konoha nin, see." He said and pointed to his head-band, which clearly showed the leaf insignia. "You are just rookies, you can't help it. You don't know hoe things work around here."
"So you've been here before?" Sakura asked.
"Yes, and as a matter of fact, this'll be my seventh time," Kabuto answered. That comment earned an attentive look from the lazy shogi player. "Well, they're held only twice a year, so this would make it my fourth year here."
"You know, I've been in this exam a few times, and this time I've gathered information on everyone in this room. Want any info on anyone in particular?"
There was a pause of silence.
"Alright than," Sasuke said. "What about Rock Lee (Lee Rock maybe but that doesn't sound right)."
"And Gaara of the Sand." Naruto said quickly, curious.
Kabuto just pulled out some blank cards. "So you already know their names, eh?" he said and put his hand over one. Soon words appeared.
"How did you do that?" Kiba asked.
"These cards are called chakra-encoded. They only reveal the information when you insert chakra into them. Ah, here we go. Rock Lee. He's about a year older than you guys. His taijutsu greatly improved in the past twelve months. For his mission experience, he has completed 11 C-rank and 20 D-rank missions. His jounin-sensei is Gai Maito and his teammates are Tenten and Hyuuga Neji"
"Next we have Gaara of the Sand," Kabuto stated as he pushed a bit of chakra to expose one of the Sand Siblings. "He comes from Sunagakure and is in your age group. For his mission experience, he has completed 8 C-rank missions and… 1 B-rank mission. It also says here that he always comes out of the missions unharmed."
The Rookie Nine looked at Kabuto with incredulity while Shikamaru spoke for the group. "No way… that guy's done a B-rank mission as a genin and came out without a scratch? That's impossible."
I doubt it. Naruto thought to himself. Having a demon in you was a pretty good defence by itself, and it looked like he could control sand well, no doubt from Shukaku.
Kabuto went on to speak about how this year's crop of candidates would have a lot of potential, while disrespecting the Hidden Sound ninja at the same time. Said shinobi dashed through the crowd and attacked Kabuto.
One of the Sound-nin was a kunoichi with knee-length black hair and dark eyes. The second Sound-nin was a young man with dark, upturned, spiky hair and holes in his hands, who had just thrown two kunai in Kabuto's direction (in which the glasses-wearing shinobi promptly dodged).
The third ninja was wrapped up in bandages with only his left eye showing and had a sound cannon attached to his right arm, along with a furry cape on his back. It was the third shinobi that launched a blow in front of Kabuto's face, and even though it missed, the sound waves from the punch caused Kabuto's ears to ring as he vomited.
Sakura and Naruto ran to check on Kabuto when an explosion was heard in the front of the classroom.
"All right you baby-faced degenerates… pipe down and listen-up!"
Those in attendance turned face to see, emerging from the smoke, a dozen of chunin and jounin, and at the fore was an intimidating man with a scarf over his head with the Konoha symbol engraved on it. What made him terrifying were the two scars over his face and the tomblike look in his eyes.
"It's time to begin," said the man in the dark trench-coat. "I'm Ibiki Morino, your proctor for the first part of the exam. And from this moment…your worst enemy…"
----
Naruto took his seat next to Hinata (who had been blushing furiously) and two tables in front of Sakura. He smiled at her, flashing his teeth, and that caused her to blush even more, which confused him a little.
"Good luck." He whispered to her. She stuttered and replied with a "you too."
At the front, Ibiki tapped the board with a chalk. The proctors, except for Ibiki were sitting on chairs next to the windows with a clipboard each one.
"The first test has a few important rules. I will not accept questions, so listen carefully." Ibiki started. "First rule is you all are given 10 points at the start. The written test consists of 10 questions and each one worth one point. This test is a deduction based one. If you get one problem wrong, you will get one point deducted."
"Second rule. The pass-fail decision will be determined by your team's total points. There is a reason for this. Just shut up and listen. Now that you know, let's move on to the next rule. If an examiner determines that you cheated or did something similar during the test, each action will cause you to lose two points." A few people gasped at this.
"In other words, if you're caught five times you get a zero. Those who try to cheat without thinking carefully will only hurt themselves. You are all trying to become Chunin. If you're a ninja, act like a first rate one. Also, if anyone in the team gets a zero, everyone in that team will fail."
Almost everyone gasped at that.
"What did you say!?" Kiba shouted. Ibiki just ignored him and carried on.
"The last question will be given 45 minutes after the test begins. You have an hour for the test. Begin!"
Naruto just sighed and flipped the sheet on his desk over and read the first question.
First question: The line B represents a shuriken maximum throwing distance of the enemy ninja, A, from a height of 7 meters. Figure out the trait of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the ellipse formed by the shuriken, and figure out the maximum throwing distance on a flat ground. Explain your reasoning.
Naruto stared at it. Foxes were smart. Really smart. But Naruto was never good at numbers! Demons don't need the knowledge of mathematics. Naruto stared at the question harder. He looked up to see Hinata using her Byakugan and copying someone else's work. Hmm. Oh I know! Father was right, it is useful! He thought, before shifting his back a little to move his short swords and discreetly held out one finger. A small ball of red chakra appeared, before it disappeared again.
The invisible ball floated to one of the chunin acting as genin and floated onto his completed sheet, covering the surface. Than it floated back to Naruto and covered his own piece of paper, and showing the words onto the paper, and all Naruto had to do was copy it down. The trick was handy for when his father was teaching him about the other 9th class demons, or Bijuu, and his father would gather chakra, showing the image of the other eight. He still remembered seeing the Shichibi, freaky… He shuddered at the mental image. (-Look at author note at beginning-)
Suddenly a kunai was thrown at a guy's test, almost hitting Naruto as it pierced the air. The guy practically jumped out of his seat in surprise.
"What's the meaning of this?!" He asked angrily. One of the proctors smirked.
"You screwed up five times. You fail." The guy's jaw dropped. "Teammates of his get out of here."
It didn't take too long till other people start failing too.
"Number 23, fail."
"Numbers 43 and 27, fail."
"Number 59, fail."
"Numbers 33 and 9, fail."
"Number 41, fail."
"Numbers 35 and 62, fail."
Everyone's being tossed out… Hehehe! Naruto thought.
"Excuse me." Kankuro said, lifting his hand. "I need to go to the bathroom…"
With that his hands were tied up and one of the proctors accompanied him to the bathroom.
Soon the minutes went by…
"Alrighty." Ibiki suddenly said. "I will now give the 10th question, but before that, there's one thing I must say." Ibiki continued. "There will be one special rule for this last question."
The door opened and Kankuro entered the room with an innocent look.
Ibiki's eyes narrowed at him. "You're lucky. Your puppet show didn't have to go to a waste. Oh, well. Sit down."
Kankuro walked back to his seat, while dropping a note onto Temari's desk.
"I will now explain. First, you're all going to choose if you wish to take this tenth problem or not."
"Choose?" Temari questioned. "So what happens if we don't take the tenth problem?"
"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. And there is the other rule. If you choose to take it and get it wrong… You will lose the privilege to take the Chunin Exam, forever."
"What?!" Some girl exclaimed. A lot of people in the room had the same reaction.
"What kind of dumb rule is that?!" Kiba asked, losing his patience. "There should be those who have taken the Chunin Exam in the past!"
Ibiki chuckled at the boy's reaction. "You were unlucky. This year, I am the rule. That's why I gave you the option of quitting. Those who are not confident can choose not to take it and take the Exam next year or the year after that. Let us begin. Those who are not taking this tenth question, raise your hands. After we confirm your numbers, we will have you leave."
Oh, ha-ha, reverse psychology. This guy is evil, even to me! Naruto thought. I would love for him to teach me how to do this!
A guy sitting beside Naruto lifted his hand.
"Number 50, fail." The proctor read. "Numbers 130 and 111 fail along with him."
"Me too!" Another person said standing up.
Soon the room was filled with people raising their hands, wanting to quit. In the end, only a few teams remained. Among them, the Rookie 9, Team Gai, Gaara's team and the Oto Team. No one else raised their hand. Ibiki looked around, with a seemingly dissatisfied look on his face.
"So, you guys really think you can answer this question?" Ibiki said. He was met with determined silence.
"Heh," he chuckled, a shadow hiding his eyes. "Very well. For the last question, everyone here… passes!"
The sound of several pencils dropped. Everyone stared at Ibiki with wide eyes.
Someone stood up. "Wait! What's the meaning of that? We pass already? What about the tenth question?"
Ibiki laughed. "There was no such thing to begin with. Or you can call the two-choice question the tenth question."
"Hey!" Temari complained. "So were those previous nine problems?! It was all a waste!"
"No, it's not. The nine problems accomplished their purpose. The purpose to test each one's individual's information gathering skills."
Temari frowned. "Information gathering skills?"
"First, this test's purpose lies in the first rule. Your pass-fail decision is based on your teams. By giving that idea, we have given you an unprecedented amount of pressure to try and not be a nuisance to your team."
"But these test problems cannot be solved by you, Genins. So, most of the people here must've come to the conclusion that you had to cheat to get points. In other words, this test assumed that everyone was going to cheat. So, we snuck in a few Chunin who knew the answers to be targets of cheating."
"But those who just cheated like a fool failed, of course." Ibiki continued. "Why? Information can have a greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields information is contested with the lives of people. The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate. Remember this. Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your teammates and village. So, we made you all gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked out those who were lacking in that field. That's what went on."
"But I still can't agree to that last question…" Temari insisted.
"But this tenth question was the main question of the first phase. The tenth question was a "take or not take" choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two-choice problem. Those who did not take it failed with their teams. If you chose to take it and could not answer it, your right to take the exam would have been taken away forever. It was a very insincere problem."
"Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation, those who give up when given the chance because there is a next year, and let their minds sway over an uncertain future… fools that carry a light determination like that have no right to become Chunin. I'm saying that you here who have chosen to take it gave the right answer for the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties you will face. You have broken through the entrance. The first phase of the Chunin Exam ends now. I wish you luck."
Many were awed by the great speech, but it was quickly shattered… literally. The window to their left exploded. Kunai were trapped on the ceiling, lifting a big red flag with something, I don't know what, written in kanji on it. The flag was positioned in front of Ibiki, so we couldn't see him anymore. A grinning purple haired woman wearing Konoha's headband on her forehead stood in front of it.
"Heads up boys and girls! This is no time to be celebrating!" She announced. "I'm going to be your next proctor! Anko Mitarashi!" She glared fiercely at everyone, "Ready for the second test?!" She raised her fist in the air. "Good! Then let's go! Follow me!!"
Nobody moved, for they were still too stunned by the stunt she just pulled. She sweat-dropped.
"You're early…again" Ibiki said, coming out from behind the flag.
Anko blushed in embarrassment before examining the room.
"72? Ibiki, you let 24 teams pass? The first phase must have been too soft!"
"It looks like there are a lot of excellent students this time."
"Oh, well… I'm going to make more than half of the teams fail the next phase."
"Fail more than half?" Sakura gasped.
Anko smirked evilly. "I will explain the details later. Meet me at training ground 44, and I suppose you should come prepared. Ask your jounin instructor for the time. That's all, dismissed!"
A/N: I know it's late! So sorry, but I've been reading so many amazing fics! Like Dancing with Demons by Daystar Clarion. Read it! It's good! And I've also started For the Love of my Friends by Foxie-sama. That's good too, well I'm still only on the 3rd chapter, it's quite long… Anyway, until next time!!
Thanks for all those who like this story and special thanks for those who reviewed! I'm sorry to those who don't like it, I'm not a very good writer am I...