"Blah": Talking
'Blah': Demon speaking/Inner Sakura
'Blah': Naruto's thoughts/other people's thoughts
'Blah': Harry talking to Naruto
Hello! We're back online!
Apologies for not posting this as soon as I had planned from the start, but I had writer's-block and had to take some time and focus on other things. But I'm back and here's the new chapter. Azeroth44 won't be here now, but I plan to have him back soon once he's available… or when he's not using the stress ball to vent out his frustrations from the last time he was here :3
Well, I'm not sure what else to talk about without him here at the moment… I suppose I could announce some menial plans I have for this re-write, without spoilers:
Umm, I plan to use some kick-ass music when Naruto and Neji face off in the finals this time. After I watched the anime Fairy Tail for a little bit, I decided to throw out the Scott Pilgrim music I once used in the previous version of Chunin Exams and instead use Natsu's theme when Naruto decides to use the demon fox's chakra if he must use it in order to win. Or whenever Naruto obtains an advantage over enemies such as Kiba or Gaara whenever he starts to shine as a shinobi.
That's all I have at the moment, I'm afraid. I suppose it's time to move on to the fanfic then! Please make sure to review!
Reviews are welcome and wanted!
Disclaimer: Naruto is the property of Masashi Kishimoto,
Harry Potter is property of JK Rowling,
Chapter 4: The First Exam
When Kakashi's students entered the classroom, the three of them were met with a sight that caused them to freeze like statues. The classroom was filled to its brim with shinobi and kunoichi of all ages and sizes. All the occupants looked unique and different with their own clothes, uniforms, weapons, and headbands. But it didn't come as a surprise as all these students came from all over the world to take these advanced tests. But apart from of their different faces and clothes, all of them shared one common characteristic, as all of them were irritated with the arrival of the newest rookie students. Naruto and his teammates studied the faces of the other students all around them and were made aware that none of them were welcomed inside.
Sakura was frightened and she started to shake a little bit while her teammate Sasuke looked a little bit nervous for once but tried to look calm and cool. Naruto on the other hand, looked a little bit more controlled as he wasn't worried about the other students, since he had seen much scarier creatures and shinobi out in the real world. He would be a lot more concerned if he were stuck in a classroom full of dementors instead of harsh-faced rookies. Naruto focused inward and talked to his older brother so that he didn't have to feel as awkward as his teammates must have felt at the moment.
'Oh man… I wish I had some tea in a flask to break the tension I feel in here…'
'Naruto… You are still aware of the rules of which I have conditioned you with while you are taking your exam?'
'Yeah. I am not to talk to you while I am taking the written test, if there is one. I am not allowed to rely on you for help that would be considered unfair to the other students. I have to pass this exam with my own talent and skills. Chakra and magic alike.'
'I will only intervene whenever your life is in danger, like if we have another incident like we did in the woods of the Land of Waves.'
'Don't need to remind me of that. But I think I'll be alright…'
Naruto felt a little bit more insecure while he looked around and saw even more irritated faces stare at him. So he looked around and tried his best not to look at someone too much in case someone wanted to have a violent confrontation. But while he tried to look around and look more interested in the walls or the desks, he noticed that some of the other shinobi were a lot older than he realized. Some of the men in the room were in their late teens or adults, while some were old or even in their late fifties. It would seem that there was no age-restriction to the Chunin Exams and that whatever able-bodied shinobi or kunoichi was allowed to enter. All the while, all those faces still stared at Kakashi's team with irritation, which started to make Naruto and his teammates wonder if even one human in the room wanted to see their faces in the room.
"SASUKE-KUN!" screamed out a familiar kunoichi's voice, "Where have you been, cutie?"
It was Ino Yamanaka, and she was one of the numerous Sasuke Uchiha fangirls around the village that loved and swooned over the selfish teen. She graduated in the same class as the rest of the students from Naruto's class. She had teal-blue eyes and long pale blonde hair that covered the right side of her face and reached down to her waist down her back. She wore a short purple vest with a raised collar, a skirt that cut off on the sides and white bandages that were wrapped over her exposed stomach and slender legs. Ino also wore purple and white arm warmers that she chose to wear because Sasuke wore the same ones, but his were dark-blue. She was an interventionist and had a lot of attitude for a kunoichi that was in love with Sasuke. Which was somewhat of a contrast to the norm, because most of the fangirls that claimed to be in love with Sasuke were often weak. In fact, none of the students that had earned their headbands from the same class become kunoichi and were kicked out the curriculum.
Back to current events, the blonde kunoichi embraced Sasuke from behind and wrapped her arms around his torso. This caused the Uchiha heir to stare at Ino with a flat and irritated face.
"When I entered the exams, I kept on thinking to myself that you would show up and couldn't wait to see," she then started to rub her face into his smooth black hair and screamed, "Oh, Sasuke-kun! You're here now! This is the best!"
Sakura lashed out at Ino and screamed at her when she saw her rival tackle her beloved, "INO-PIG! YOU GET YOUR GRUBBY HANDS OFF OF HIM!"
"Oh, hello, Sakura," the blonde kunoichi addressed to her old friend in a less-than-amused voice, "I can still see that the billboard brow look is still in. That's so cute."
Sakura's face contorted with wrath and she screamed, "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY?"
'OH, THE BLOODY HORROR RETURNS!'
Naruto tried to leave in order to silence his older brother when the two terrible kunoichi started another of their famous rows with each other over their constant race to claim Sasuke's heart and treat him like a favored doll. The blonde shinobi let his rival suffer while he turned to see his two old friends from school that he had missed over the summer, Shikamaru Nara and Choji Akimichi. The two of them arrived with their teammate Ino, but looked bored and uninterested with the affair between her and Sakura and looked a little bit better when their old blonde classmate saw them. Shikamaru hadn't changed much as he wore the same clothes since he started his shinobi career; he wore the same green lined mesh t-shirt under a short sleeved grey jacket with green edges, adorned on both the sleeves and the back with a circle with a line through it. His blue headband was still worn around his left arm; he still had the same brown pants as well as the same usual blue sandals. His rather obese teammate still wore black shorts, a long white scarf, a short-sleeved, green haori, over a white shirt with his clan's sign on the front, now wore small hoop earrings, and his legs and forearms were now wrapped in bandages. Choji's headband was fashioned in a manner that allowed two tufts of brown hair to poke out at each side. His mother must have fashioned it so that he could look a lot more like the rest of his clan.
Naruto offered a small wave towards his old friends and waltzed over to them.
"Hello, mates," he beamed at them both, "What's up?"
Shikamaru moaned, "You and those new teammates are making all this noise? How troublesome…"
Naruto smiled as he walked over to his old friends and remembered all the times and trouble the three of them had been in while in school. Shikamaru and Choji were the only two students that ever talked to him at school that didn't insult him or ignore him like he didn't exist. Shikamaru was often slothful and whined a lot about how the world was so much trouble, while Choji was obese, warm, kind, and loved life a lot more than his best friend. It looked like the two of them were a little bit taller than the last time the three of them had seen each other, however Choji looked a little bit rounder than Naruto remembered as he ate some flavored potato chips and smiled.
"Shikamaru Nara... Still can't stop whining about life, huh?" the blonde shinobi asked with a smile.
Choji asked in between bites of potato chips, "So… Where's that old tracksuit? You threw it out then, Naruto?"
"Gone, for now at least," the blonde preteen nodded, "I had to wear something else for the exams."
The fattened shinobi male examined Naruto's new outfit and took a break from his snacks to observe the new clothes. He noticed the lion stitched onto the back and then stood back with Shikamaru and commented on the new survival outfit and a wide smile and made his cheeks look even more round, but cute, like a chibi.
"It looks cool, Naruto," he told him, "I like the lion!"
But then another harsh voice boomed out from inside the crowd and commented, "It's ridiculous! Look at that stitch work! It's awful! That lion looks like an overfed housecat!"
Naruto froze when he heard the voice and looked over Choji's shoulder to see Kiba Inuzuka and his teammates follow him from behind. He now wore dark grayish pants reaching down to his calves with a grey, hooded fur-lined coat, with the hood over his head. Whenever it was like that, the fur-line almost looked like his whole hair, at least from Naruto's view due to his diminished vision. Kiba smirked at Naruto and showed off his white canines. The blonde shinobi frowned at the teen and remembered back in his first week at this old school back when Kiba used to be nice to him. But after there was an incident with his clan in which his father left him and his mother, Kiba had taken out all his frustration and rage out on Naruto and beat him until he had to be taken to the hospital. Ever since then, Kiba had been so mean to Naruto and took whatever chances he could to make him more miserable than he was. Kiba had stolen his lunch, ruined his comic books, and teased him when Iruka wasn't around when the two of them were classmates. Naruto hated Kiba for how he treated him but he never took the chance to make fun of him or be smart with him, unless he showed better results with his studies on several occasions or used unintentional wandless magic on him to make him look foolish. Still, since Naruto now decided it was time to come out and shine, he refused to let Kiba have the last laugh and be smart with him. So now it was his turn to show him who was boss.
"Looks like the dobe and the rest of the old class are all here!" he announced with an obnoxious voice as he tried to act like Sasuke towards Naruto.
But the blonde shinobi frowned at the teen and said, "Oh, shut it, Kiba. You can cut the act with the Sasuke-attitude and still look like an arse without it."
"Watch the mouth, Uzumaki!" he threatened as he snarled.
Naruto retorted back as he mocked him with sarcasm, "Oh dear me. I feel so threatened. Get on out of here and go feed some whippets! You'd be more useful then!"
"Umm… H-hello…" a small but kind voice sounded behind the canine-like student.
{{Enter Zelda by Koji Kondo & Yoshiko Kawamoto}}
The blonde wizard looked around for the source of the voice and saw Hinata Hyuga from his old class and smiled at her. The two of them had never talked to each other that much while in school, but Hinata was the nicest kunoichi from their class and was the one girl in the class that wasn't in love with Sasuke and treated Naruto with kindness. She now wore a cream-colored hooded-coat with a fire sign on the upper right and left sleeves with fur around the cuffs and hem of the coat. She also wore blue trousers and wore her headband around her neck. Hinata nodded over to the blonde shinobi and then she started to blush a little bit, while Kiba stared at her as she started to talk to him, albeit, it was a little bit difficult from her end for her natural timid nature.
"Gomenasai, N-Naruto-kun…" she excuse her teammate for his earlier comment, "Kiba-kun didn't m-mean to be so m-mean…"
Naruto smiled at her and told her back, "Oh, it's fine... It's been a while since we last saw each other, Hinata."
"Umm…" she stuttered as she observed his new clothes and made a comment, "Y-Yeah… You l-look n-nice…"
The blonde shinobi nodded in return to her kindness, "Thanks. I like these clothes a lot more than the old tracksuit I used to wear."
"Oh… I thought the old c-color looked nice too…" she mentioned and then said, "B-but this new one is better. T-that dark shade and scarlet can be an incredible colors t-to wear w-while on a mission."
Naruto and Hinata started to talk a little bit, while Sasuke tried his best to be removed from Ino and Sakura's holds while the two of them shouted at each other. At the same time, Kiba frowned at Naruto whenever he smiled and his stoic friend and teammate Shino remained as still as a statue. Shino Aburame still wore the same clothes he wore since the start of their final term in school and stood there, like he was a lifeless statue. About one moment later, Choji had finished his snacks and looked over at Kiba's animal familiar Akamaru as he climbed onto his master's head. The Akimichi heir stared at the small animal and noticed that it looked a little bit more round around its midsection since the last time he ever saw the animal. His mouth started to water a little bit and he started to think of Akamaru as a delicious uncooked chicken based on the color of his white fur.
"That Akamaru would taste good with some hot sauce," he mumbled as his mouth watered some more.
Naruto had heard what his friend mumbled and looked appalled, "Oh Cho, that is well-bad."
'Well, that's one name I'll never think the same about again…'
As soon as all the loud noises and casual conversations filled the room, a man in his late teens from the crowd walked over to the rookie students. He had silver-like hair that was tied into a low ponytail, wore large glasses, a dark purple shirt with a high collar, a white under-shirt, fingerless gloves with armored plates on the back of the hands, a white cloth waistband worn at an angle, dark purple pants, blue sandals, and a shuriken holster on his right thigh. He looked irritated, as did most of the other shinobi in the classroom but he was the first of them to saunter over to the rookies and tell them off for all the noise.
He asked the nine rookies all at once, "You kids want to do us all a favor and shut up?"
All the students were silenced and turned towards the older shinobi and stared at him as he started to smirk at the children and talk down to them like the nine of them were babies or toddlers.
"You kiddies are the ones we all heard about," he said, "You little brats are the first genin to enter the Chunin Exams without having been rookies for more than twelve months. You know, this isn't some school field trip."
Ino asked as she released her hold on the Uchiha, "Who the hell do you think you are?"
"I am Kabuto Yakushi," the teen told them as he nodded and then pushed his glasses against his nose as if it made him look a lot cooler than he looked.
Naruto stared at him and almost covered his nose when he whiffed a foul and familiar stench that came from him. The blonde shinobi soon realized that it was the scent of a snake. Back when he entered his second term at school, Naruto had discovered that he had a knack for a certain scent. He discovered that it was a residual trait he inherited from Harry that was related to Parseltongue. Naruto was not able to talk to snakes, but this new inherited trait enabled him to be able to smell out serpents and be able to sense when a dangerous one was close. He had realized his small inheritance when he had taken a small and harmless snake home with him and tried to talk to it. But all he was able to do was take in a distinct smell from the creature. It was different for each snake he ever saw; as he wouldn't mind the smell the less harmful the snake was. But the more dangerous ones or the more hostile ones had a stench that was almost foul to him, like it was a pheromone that warned him to leave. The last time he had ever smelled a foul snake, was back when he had trained in the woods and a violent and venomous brown snake tried to attack him, but he had stunned it in time when it had hissed at him and showed off its venomous fangs.
At the moment, Naruto could smell a similar but much more volatile scent from the man that was called Kabuto Yakushi. It smelled like he was covered with dangerous and venomous snakes or he had bathed with them.
While Naruto tried his best not make it obvious about the scent he smelled, he started to develop another one of those weird headaches that made his forehead feel like it burned. It started to feel a little bit worse as he stood closer and closer to Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto went on to tell the rookies that this was his seventh time he had taken the exam with his teammates. He told them of the horrible endeavors that he had faced and what others less fortunate than him had suffered. Kabuto told the students how dangerous it was and went into morbid detail about how his old friends and comrades were mutilated and massacred at the hands of other shinobi from the same village. He went into even more detail as he lectured the students about how comrades he went to school with or random familiar faces he had seen on the street were turned into heartless killers that tried to eliminate him in order to win in a survival exam. These stories shook the nine genin, while some of them hid it well better than others.
Kabuto then told them that in his various experiences, he started to take in statistics. He showed the smaller students that he had collected information on these exams for all his encounters with other shinobi and converted the information on small cards that he called his Ninja Info Cards. He showed them one of the cards that contained a dossier on all six shinobi villages that had sent in their rookies here to this classroom. So far, Konoha had the most students that were involved, Suna came in at second, Amegakure was in third, and was then followed with Kusa, Taki, and the smallest count was a new village that was called Otogakure no Sato. Kabuto told the rookies that he could obtain information about a shinobi while he could detect their chakra close to him.
When he heard this, Sasuke demanded that Kabuto hand him over some information that he wanted about several shinobi that were in the room with them. The older rookie nodded and smiled to the Uchiha as he shuffled his deck.
Kabuto asked him, "So, Sasuke-kun… You wanna learn more about someone here? Who is it?"
Sasuke cleared his throat and named three shinobi, "Gaara from Suna. Rock Lee from Konoha… and Naruto Uzumaki also from Konoha."
Naruto turned to his teammate in slight astonishment while Sasuke looked determined to learn more about Gaara and Lee, but also about Naruto as he had showed him how fast he could move when he saved Konohamaru and had revealed his skills as a leader almost fifteen minutes earlier. It looked like Sasuke wanted to know how far Naruto had advanced without his notice and learn how much harder he should train in order to match or dominate him if he was behind. All the other rookies did not understand Sasuke's reasons for his desire to see Naruto's dossier, but no one asked him what he was so interested about. With the exception of the blonde shinobi that stood close to the determined Uchiha clan member.
"What the deal, Sasuke?" he asked.
Sasuke did not even look at his teammate while he watched Kabuto shuffle the cards and focus his chakra into them and used whatever it was that extracted the information from the desired shinobi. There was a little bit of white smoke that blasted out of the cards and once it had cleared, the black-haired rookie almost shivered as he waited for Kabuto to show him the information. He was impatient and clenched his hands into fists as the older rookie teased him with his wide smirk.
Sasuke demanded, "Let me see them."
Kabuto showed them all Lee's information. It was revealed that he was so skilled in taijutsu that his stats that covered it were off the charts, which made some of the genin feel a little bit unsettled. He had no talent in genjutsu or ninjutsu, but what he lacked in those two sections he excelled in his time on the field, his skills with a blade, and his various martial arts. He had a reasonable number of successful missions, which included D-Ranked and C-Ranked missions, since he had been a shinobi for more than thirteen months.
Sasuke nodded and then moved on to the next card.
All the other rookies were bewildered with Gaara's dossier. All of his information was unknown or censored for whatever reasons. All that Kabuto was able to obtain was that Gaara and his teammates had eight successful C-Ranked missions and one successful B-Ranked mission. It was odd for someone who was not even a shinobi for more than seven months to have no D-Ranks on their record and start with C-Ranked mission. It caused all the genin that looked at the card to feel a little bit alarmed as some of them looked over at the Suna team in the back and saw how serious or confident that team looked as the three of them waited for the exam to start.
Sasuke was still curious about the redhead from the desert, but he moved on to the final dossier.
The students that knew Naruto from their interactions with him from school were a little bit more than shocked when his information was revealed to them. His ninjutsu levels ran across the charts and his genjutsu abilities were almost at the same level as all the other rookies from his old class. Not to mention that his genetic status was off the charts as well. His taijutsu levels and skills with a blade were also high on the list, which were the two sections that looked reasonable to the students and friends that went to school with Naruto Uzumaki.
All the former students that went to school with the blonde shinobi were dumbstruck at this development. Naruto was not supposed to be that skilled. Otherwise he wouldn't have been at the bottom of their class, he could have been on the same level as Sasuke, or a little bit lower to be on the more realistic side. Kabuto looked at his new status card over several times and checked to see if he had read it wrong.
"Whoa…" he said, "Your ninjutsu status and genetic status is off the charts! It's higher than another Konoha citizen that's alive; I've never seen someone with stats this high… You must have some rare kekkei genkai… Tell me; what is it?" he asked with a fascinated voice and face.
Naruto started to sweat a little and he tried to lie, "It looks like those cards are inaccurate. The genjutsu count there shouldn't be that high."
"Huh? Now that's different," the older rookie noticed as he took the card and studied it closer, "According to this… You used to have a different name… It's difficult to pronounce. But, I think it's… Harry Pott-"
Naruto dashed over to him and snatched the card out of his hand before he could read the rest of the name. The furious blonde shinobi then tore the card into shreds until he threw it aside as useless blank confetti. He could have burned the remains with his wand, but he was not that foolish, so he left them on the floor and assumed no one would be able to fix it. When he thought about how the older rookie was able to obtain that name, he assumed he must have written his older brothers name on an old test when he was little or Kabuto's methods to obtain information was a little bit more thorough than he or the other genin realized. Like he could slide his chakra around his victim and extract information somehow. If that was the case, Naruto had to make sure his Occlumens shields were raised while he was in the same room as Kabuto Yakushi.
Kabuto stared at Naruto with a livid face when he looked down at the remains of one of his valuable cards while the blonde shinobi stared down at him and looked a lot more than furious with the older rookie as he let the others see the information that was meant to be private until he showed it. For all he knew, Kabuto could have discovered his true abilities with those cards and showed them to all his friends and old classmates.
"I don't appreciate it when other people read up on my private information, Kabuto," he told the rookie with a stern voice, "You should be a lot more considerate."
Kabuto then smirked, "Well… it won't even matter in the end. Because the next time anyone here will be read about for their information, will be when the doctors are writing down their names at the morgue. Because these other villages didn't just send in some expendable small-time shinobi, all of them sent in their best soldiers, male and female. I don't know that much about Otogakure no Sato as much as the more essential villages. But all these other shinobi are forces to be reckoned with."
"Does someone else feel a little bit outclassed?" asked Hinata in a soft voice.
Sakura drowned out her old classmate, "So what you're saying is…that everyone here is…"
"All the other genin in this room are the absolute best of their kind. These are the cream of the elite, the best rookies in the entire world. You so much as cross with them, it'll mean the end," the older rookie stated.
All of the nine freshest genin felt shivers as all of them looked over at the older students while Kabuto smirked at the children and shuffled his cards. Sakura started to feel doubtful and a little bit scared when she saw a man double her size crack his knuckles at her. Even the more fearless or unconcerned rookies like Kiba, Sasuke and Shikamaru looked a little bit nervous and showed some doubt on all their faces. Shino, Choji, Ino, and Hinata all looked a little bit concerned (minus Shino) but one of the rookies remained calm as he stared at the malicious faces that were aimed at him and his teammates. Naruto Uzumaki looked them all over and shrugged them all off like none of the other shinobi and kunoichi were even there while he used his abilities as an Occlumens to channel them out.
He then asked out loud so that all his old classmates would listen to him as he looked back at older teen with the cards, "And we're not the same as them?"
Sasuke, Sakura, Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, Shino, Hinata, and Kabuto looked at him and noticed as Naruto attracted a little bit of attention from all the other candidates inside the massive classroom, but never noticed it and listened in on him.
"Look here, Yakushi. Those other rookies over there are in just as much trouble as we are; because our sensei's wouldn't have recommended us unless we were the cream of the elite, too. And that's what we are. You can bet no one in this room has a better chance to become chunin. So those swimsuit models over there should start to wet their trousers about now while there's still time, because none of them have an advantage over us with their fake mean-faces and those rub-on tattoos. I know I won't fall for it. Not for one minute."
The blonde made sure he stood tall and faced all his classmates while he continued to channel out all the other shinobi and kunoichi that were behind him. He was focused on his friends and old classmates as well as the older teen that watched and listened to him. Naruto took a breath and then announced to all his old classmates.
"I am Naruto Uzumaki. And no one in this classroom will ever be able to beat me," the blonde shinobi told the older rookie in a clear but controlled voice, but then he looked over at the other genin behind him when he noticed that the first students at the front had heard him, so he turned and smiled at those particular shinobi in a more comedic nature and waved at them after a little bit of hesitation, "Oh, hello there!"
Several of Naruto's old classmates that had listened to his earlier statement about how their sensei's trusted them with their recommendations and the fact that most of the older rookies in the room were in-fact fakes caused them to feel a whole lot better and even caused some of them to smile. All of the doubt that had clouded their determination to become chunin started to fade while some students like Hinata felt stimulated and were able to smile at the blonde preteen while he sweat a little bit at the older rookies that stared at him for his offensive statement. At the same time, outside the classroom doors, Kakashi had heard his student. Before he had heard him, even he had to admit that he was doubtful about his students once Iruka's words had sunk in and his memories of the Chunin Exams and the difficulties other students had to face had come back to him. He had to admit that he was overcome with overconfidence because his rival Gai was in the same room, and it was sometimes hard for him not to show off while he was around. But then he heard Naruto's warm and familiar voice and he smiled as he breathed and waited to hear his other female student shout, scream, or hiss at the blonde student he couldn't see.
"Oh, that's our Naruto…" the masked shinobi sighed.
The blonde wizard chuckled a little bit and then said, "Well, those folks don't look so thrilled… But at least we feel better now, huh?"
"WHAT IS THE MATTER WITH HIM?" the Yamanaka kunoichi hissed at her rival.
Sakura stood like a statue the whole time and frowned at her teammate, 'Oh, how could I have listened to him earlier when he does stuff like that?'
"Oh, please…" the Uchiha mocked his teammate.
Kabuto smirked as he noticed all the shinobi and kunoichi that stared down at Naruto and thought, 'Nice little testament, Uzumaki… He does have a lot of fire in him but he'll be one of the first ones to die after the first exam…'
Kiba tried to hold back his snickers towards his former classmate and even tried to mock him about his little statement. Even though it made him feel a whole lot better and a lot more confident about his chances in the exams after Kabuto had demoralized him earlier. He should have thanked Naruto for the little boost, but he decided to treat him all the same.
Shikamaru sighed at his friend's actions, "How troublesome, he went ahead and turned an entire room full of random shinobi into an entire room full of enemies… At least he's not on the same team as me…"
"I thought that bit at the end was hilarious," his chubbier friend added with a smile of confidence, "With that weird accent of his, he's a laugh!"
Sakura sauntered over to her teammate and started to hiss at him and hide her blonde teammate behind Ino and her teammates so that the other rookies inside the massive classroom couldn't stare at them or remember their faces.
"Naruto-baka," she hissed, "Hush it down! We don't need more trouble! Leave all that to Kabuto or someone!"
The blonde shinobi then asked, "Huh? How come Kabuto?"
"Because I think he might have ticked off someone there in the back ever since he mentioned that new small Oto town," she told him as she motioned towards three other rookies in the crowd.
{{Harry Dreams by Patrick Doyle}}
Naruto looked over Ino but wouldn't see them until a little bit later. Inside the crowd, there was a lone genin team from Otogakure so Sato, or the Village Hidden in the Sound. The short genin in the middle wore bandages that covered most of his face, leaving only his left eye uncovered. He also wore a large poncho with long sleeves, a snake patterned scarf around his neck, and a straw raincoat protruding from the back of his scarf. His back was hunched, which made him look a lot smaller than he looked when compared to his other two teammates. The taller one on the side had spiky, dark hair and dark eyes. He wore a beige shirt with two black stripes and three prints of the kanji for death (死) down the front. His headband had an attached happuri under the cloth and wore a snake-patterned scarf around his neck. The third member of the new team was a kunoichi about the same age as Sakura or Ino. She had long black hair that almost reached down to the floor, tied by a violet ribbon right near the end, and had black eyes. She wore a headband, a pale green vest that was somehow similar to a flak jacket, and snake patterned pants with a scarf, much like her teammates.
"Oi, Dosu... Kin..." the tall one muttered.
The short one named Dosu asked, "What is it, Zaku?"
"Want to have some fun with that nerd with the trading cards?" the teen named Zaku asked back.
Dosu nodded and smiled under his mask, "Sounds like fun... That little twit said he doesn't even have a dossier on us, like Otogakure is not even a village."
"Let's show that little loser what we can do if he crosses us in the arena." the kunoichi called Kin said with a sadistic tone.
The three of them vanished out of thin air and then stormed at Kabuto in a vicious and merciless manner. One of the three shinobi soared above the other rookies and threw a kunai down at Kabuto to distract him. Once Kabuto was in battle and avoided the blade that missed him, the other male on the new team came out from under him and tried to slam Kabuto in the face with his arm encased inside a metal gauntlet with holes. But Kabuto moved in an instant and avoided the attack. But then a moment later, his glasses shattered and then another moment after that, he felt sick and then vomited all over the floor, which left the rookies shaken as to how that had been done. The sickened rookie shook as he stared at the two shinobi and one kunoichi that had attacked him as the three of them looked down at him like a small beaten child.
The tall thin one named Zaku announced with an arrogant voice, "Put this in those little cards, Yakushi. The rookies from Otogakure no Sato will be the ones to become chunin this season!"
In that moment, when the Oto shinobi and kunoichi arrived and looked over at the smaller genin, it hit him in an instant, but then it was over in a flash. Naruto felt a sharp, hot pain shoot across the scar on his forehead, underneath his headband. It was a lot like the headaches he felt when he was around Mizuki, when he first met Haku in the woods, and now when he was close to Kabuto and smelled those snakes he was scented with. But now it was so much more intense, like he had a lit match and had it pressed against his forehead. It was much more than than those old headaches but when it was over he felt an instinct to retreat or leave the room. But he resisted the sudden instinct and rubbed his forehead while he trembled near his female teammate.
He winced as he stumbled, "Ouch!"
Sakura looked over to Naruto and asked him in an almost concerned voice, "Naruto? What is it?"
"I… I'm fine…" he answered.
The burn he had felt had vanished as soon as it had hit him, but the instinct to leave for whatever reasons was still there with him. He looked over at Dosu, Zaku, and Kin with Kabuto and that sixth sense he felt remained with him. Naruto stood straight and then he smelled that same smell from Kabuto, but it was worse and it seemed like it came from the shinobi that had attacked the older genin. The blonde shinobi stared at those four shinobi and the burn came back for a moment and then vanished once more. Naruto was about to talk to his older brother about the burn and the urge to leave he felt, but then there was a loud boom and a cloud of white smoke blasted at the front of the classroom and was followed with a loud roar from a massive man with scars.
"ALRIGHT, YOU LITTLE BRATS! SIT DOWN AND LISTEN UP!"
Seventeen men and women came out of the smoke with the tall man in the middle. All of them wore the alternate outfit that some chunin wore, but the tall man in the middle wore a dark leather coat that went down to his feet. The man had a rugged face covered with old wounds and scars that he must have obtained from various missions over his careers. All of the rookies twitched and shook at the man's face and shivered as he stared them all down with the other chunin and various other shinobi that were with him. Even Naruto and Harry felt a little bit intimidated when the two of them likened him to a shinobi-version of a certain notable member of the Order of the Phoenix. The other shinobi that were with him added to the sudden increased tension, but the blonde preteen felt a little bit better as the burns on his forehead felt much better, like he never even had them. So he focused on the front and listened as the man in the middle made an announcement.
"Apologies if we're a little bit late... It's now time to start the exams... I am Ibiki Morino. Your proctor for the first examination," the man named Ibiki Morino talked down to them with a slow, cold, and calm voice that scared all the shinobi and kunoichi when he stared down at the freshest rookies, which confirmed that the lot of them had indeed faked their earlier faces as their sweat started to melt off some of their fake tattoos, "You kids in the back, the ones from Otogakure no Sato. Sit down or be disqualified."
The Oto-nin soon followed his orders and sat down in the closest seats available to avoid the ramifications of their actions. Ibiki smirked at all the children and teens that had arrived to take the exams and looked determined to cut down their numbers as soon as he could.
"While I'm at it, I'm going to establish some more new rules, here…" the tall man started, "From now on, there will be no more fighting inside this classroom. If I see so much as a slap from teammate to teammate, that rookie and their teammates are out of here."
Sakura hid her hands behind her back and tried her best to make sure she never even touched her teammate Naruto no matter what. Sasuke looked over at Sakura and nodded to her when she resisted her usual violent urges and looked towards the front board. At the same time, Kiba looked ticked as he cracked his knuckles and stared over at Naruto, who was much more interested in the man that had arrived with all those other shinobi and kunoichi. Ibiki smiled as all the students in the class listened to him and then he continued to scare them. His subordinates snickered at their leader and watched as all the students twitched and shivered.
"Now… The first level of the Chunin Selection Exams is about to commence… All students in the room come over here in a line and take a seating arrangement card. Read the card and sit down in the seat that is written on the card. Once all the students have been seated, we will start the written exam as soon as the rules have been established."
"This will be fun…" the blonde shinobi whined as he walked over to the line that formed at once.
Naruto was sent to sit in the third row, which was the closest seat to where Ibiki stood. He looked around and soon realized that no one he knew sat close to him. He was all alone until a kunoichi sat down next to him and stared at her blank test sheet, until she looked over at him and blushed while she fiddled with her hands a little bit. It was Hinata and she looked nervous, but contented that she also sat beside someone she was familiar with. Naruto never even noticed her, until she smiled and waved at him, all the while, she still blushed like she had a fever.
"H-hello, Naruto-kun…" she said.
Naruto looked over at her and smiled, "Hi, Hinata…"
"Let's d-do our b-best…" she stuttered as she smiled at him.
Naruto smiled and nodded to her and then he turned to face the teacher Ibiki. He felt a lot better while Hinata was so close to him. He would have felt a lot worse if he were on his own and faced the tall man on his own with two random shinobi from Konoha and Suna. While he stared at the board and focused on Ibiki, he felt his older brother touch his shoulder and shake him a little bit before he cut the telepathic connection between the two of them to make sure he could work on this test with his own skills and intellect. Naruto fiddled with his pencil and listened to his older brother one last time and then he was on his own.
'Good luck, mate.'
Ibiki took some chalk from the board and motioned to all the students when the lot of them were seated and handed over their tests, "Don't touch those test sheets until the examination has started, brats… There will be several vital rules that are essential to this test. I'll write them down here and explain them one-at-a-time, but no one is allowed to ask questions or have me repeat them. So listen here and listen well, because I will explain these rules once and that's it."
Sakura looked discontented and thought, 'Why doesn't he want us to ask questions? And what rules is he talking about?'
Ibiki started the first rule as he wrote it down, "Rule number one. Each student here will have ten points to start out with. The test has ten questions in total; each one is worth one point. Get all the questions right, and that student will maintain those ten points. But with each question a student gets wrong, one point will be deducted form their final score."
'It's sounds fair so far,' the blonde shinobi nodded.
The scarred instructor wrote down the next instruction, "Rule number two, this written test is still a teamwork exercise. Passing or failing will be determined by the total number of points held by each member of one team. The task is for each team to have as few deductions as possible from the total of thirty-points with each team."
"WAIT A SECOND," the blonde wizard's vibrant-haired teammate had slammed her head on her desk and bruised her forehead in frustration before she shouted out, "What is this whole thing about a team total are you talking about?"
Ibiki looked down at Sakura and stated, "You didn't listen to what I said. No questions. We have our reasons. Now shut it and listen here. This next bit is crucial."
Sakura remained silent and listened as she almost urinated when the older man had stared her down and frightened her, even though he hadn't raised his voice.
"Now, rule number three. If a fellow teammate tries to do something out of the ordinary…In other words, if any of you tries to cheat… We will deduct two points from each member of the cheaters team. We will watch each and everyone of you brats and if any of you try to cheat, you will be caught."
Most of the rookies in the room felt even more nervous at Ibiki's words and the chunin that were situated all around the classroom snickered and stared them all down like small children.
"If a genin here is caught in the act and cheats, that cheater will not just bring themselves down, but the rest of the team as well. If a rookie here wants to become a chunin and be the best shinobi, then act like one and obtain the answers…"
Naruto stared at Ibiki and nodded his head as he reviewed the rules over and over and listened to the instructor word-for-word. Several rows behind the blonde shinobi, Sakura Haruno had calmed down and tried to assess the situation. She was skilled with tests and exams on blank sheets, so she breathed in and out as she looked over where Sasuke sat and then looked back at her other teammate in the front.
'Despite Naruto-baka's lack of high test scores in school,' she thought as she had little confidence in her brave hearted teammate, 'Sasuke-kun and I will be able to retain enough points for all three of us combined…'
Ibiki then made one more rule, but did not write it down on the board, "One more detail… If someone on a team is unable to retain even one point for themselves, regardless of the other two members scores… will mean absolute disqualification for the entire team."
Sasuke and Sakura both froze at the same time and stared at the back of their oblivious teammate's head and cursed him. Naruto could almost feel both his teammate stare at him and could almost feel their hatred radiate across the classroom wherever the two of them sat. The blonde shinobi sweat a little bit out of nervousness and tried to look wherever his teammate where without the turn of his head.
'Ooh… The two of them want to kill me so bad… I can feel it… Oh well, it's a good thing that I have magic to aid me here, and a final test score that almost matches Sasuke-teme…'
Ibiki observed all of the anxious faces that waited for him to start the test and almost smiled as he tortured them with anticipation. He wanted to see which students would buckle under the wait and run out while there was still time. Once he had scanned the classroom one more time, he made his final announcement and informed the students of the time limit, "You have one hour to finish the exam… Starting… NOW!"
The rookies went to work on their tests and the simultaneous sounds of pencils were heard scratching against paper was heard in the air. Naruto turned his white sheet over and looked over his exam to find a question that he could answer. He grew more and more troubled as he realized that he could not answer even one of them unless he was rocket scientist. Naruto went ahead to the tenth question and mused for a moment.
Question number 10:
This question will not be provided until forty-five minutes into the exam.
At that time, please answer the proctor's question to the best of your ability.
Naruto would not be able to answer the tenth question until the end of the test. But even if he waited and risked the entire exam on that, he had no idea how he would be able to answer it. So he went back to the first one and tried to make sense out of it as best he could.
Question number 1:
The parabola marked B represents the greatest distance the enemy shinobi A, could throw a shuriken from the top of a 23.3-foot-tall tree. Calculate the specific features of the scenario and deduce the range of the weapons effectiveness, assuming a consistent speed for shinobi A's assault upon any enemy shinobi operating within the arc that the flight of the shuriken describes.
Show your work.
Naruto hesitated for a few minutes with a blank look on his face and then he fumed at the white sheet in his hands, 'What do these testers expect? That we're all freaking geniuses or something? Stephen Hawking couldn't even answer this crap!'
The blonde shinobi ran his hand through his blonde hair and tried his best to figure it out. But, each time he tried to think of an answer he assumed it made him sound like an idiot or that he didn't even know what he had been asked and he ended up quoting a line from a Green Lantern comic he had read earlier in the week. This started to trouble Naruto a lot and he realized that not even someone as smart as Sasuke would be able to answer this. The blonde shinobi was about to ask his older brother for assistance, but then he remembered that the connection had been severed and he felt a little bit cold and unbalanced.
When he looked over the other questions, he determined that he would be unable to answer even one of them. It left him no other choice but to cheat. When he looked around and saw the other rookies had trouble with the test like he did, it made him wonder how the sensei's would ever let their students enter an exam where none of them would be able to answer the questions. It was almost like the test was designed to force the rookies to cheat.
It was there that Naruto had a realization, 'Wait a minute here…'
He remembered how Ibiki said those last directions and it almost sounded like he meant to tell the students a small hint about the exam.
If a rookie here wants to become a chunin and be the best shinobi, then act like one and obtain the answers…
Naruto racked his brains and listened to that same sentence over ten times until he realized what he had to do, 'That's it! This test is designed to force us to cheat!'
He looked over at the clock above Ibiki and noticed that the test was fifteen minutes in and he had a little bit of time left to cheat and obtain the answers he needed without the notice of the chunin at the sidelines. Naruto tried to wrack his brains on how to get those answers, but he couldn't think of a ninjutsu for him to use that he knew. Which meant he had to use his magic to assist him and he knew a lot of methods he could use to obtain those answers.
He could Confund someone close to him and have them slide him the answers, but the older shinobi would notice that. Naruto could have used a Disillusionment Charm and vanish for a minute and have a look at someone else's test, but he didn't even know that charm, not to mention someone would notice him start to turn invisible after a while. He tried to think hard and soon remembered a charm that his older brother had taught him back when he was in school. It was called a Copying Charm, which could allow the user to obtain information from a distance and duplicate whatever it was that was aimed at in exact detail to another document, such as the white test sheet Naruto had on his desk.
Naruto tried his best not to smile as he reached into his sleeve and aimed his wand at the document below Ibiki Morino, which contained another test with the correct answers written on it in bold letters. The blonde wizard was meticulous, as he made sure no one else noticed his wand as he hid it in his sleeve and muttered the incantation.
He muttered in a low voice, "Imatari Mimicus!"
The charm was invisible and went unnoticed when it was cast. Naruto waited for a moment and realized his aim held true when Ibiki's answer sheet shivered. The blonde wizard then touched his own answer sheet with his wand and watched as the various words and numbers were duplicated like an invisible hand reached out and wrote down all the answers.
Naruto smiled and let the rest of his sheet fill itself out. He hid his wand back into his sleeve and relaxed as he sat back. Sakura and Sasuke soon discovered the true intent of the exam as their blonde teammate had and went on to use their own abilities to obtain the answers; Sasuke used his Sharingan to copy the movements of the student a row ahead of him while Sakura used her natural intellect to find the answers on her own, as she had no secret abilities like her teammates did.
At the same time, other students had discovered what to do and started to cheat with various methods that went unnoticed from the proctors. Naruto continued to relax and stared at the clock for a little bit as his test was finished, and decided to take a short snooze while there was still fifteen minutes left. But he had to make sure he left behind a note to Ibiki on the bottom of his exam, as he assumed he would check the answers later. The blonde shinobi then kicked back and stretched his arms out a little and went to sleep and dream about Quidditch.
Hinata saw him doze off and felt shocked and a little bit crestfallen, because she was about to offer him her answers to the test once she was finished. At the same time, Naruto's teammates were shocked that their blonde friend had dozed off and looked so vicious, like the two of them wanted to kill him and then eat him.
{{In The Bathroom by Patrick Doyle}}
While the test was administered, the jounin in charge of the rookie teams were huddled inside the Jounin Standby Station. It was a warm and comfortable room that could hold over two hundred men and women that wanted to kick back and relax. The room was filled with soft chairs and couches for the older or higher-ranked shinobi to sit on. There were various magazines and adult books that filled the shelves and there were coffee tables that were scattered around in all corners of the room and several televisions, which were all turned off at the moment. There was a state-of-the-art refrigerator filled with instant meals, food saved for other shinobi, and even a small bar filled with various drinks and a mixer. The drinks ranked between normal sodas to various alcoholic beverages. At the moment, there were three shinobi in the room; Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma were seen next to the windows across the door. Asuma started to smoke while Kurenai threw aside a book she was curious about, and Kakashi looked out the window and saw another shinobi team with their sensei walk down the street. As soon as Asuma's smoke reached his nostrils, Kakashi frowned a little bit and walked around the room out of boredom.
"It's too quiet without the students around," the masked shinobi sighed as he walked around the lounge and found a nice sofa for him to sit on across the other two shinobi and admitted, "I miss them a little bit…"
Kurenai and Asuma were both sat beside each other with a table and a metal waste bin for the ashes of his cigarette. The bearded shinobi took a breath of smoke while his female friend drank some tea and blew the smoke from her when he breathed it out on accident towards her. Kurenai never liked smoke like that, but she was used to it, as Asuma had been her friend ever since their time in school. The two of them were seen often times when the two of them weren't with their individual students.
Soon, Asuma sat back and told his masked friend, "You won't have to wait, Kakashi. Our kids will be back at our front doors soon."
"Hmm?" he mused back, "How come?"
The bearded shinobi flicked some ashes from his cigarette and said with a cool and relaxed voice, "I heard that this season's proctor for the first exam proctor is Ibiki."
"Ibiki," the masked man asked in a more unsettled voice, "What? That sadist?"
Kurenai asked them both, "Who's a sadist?"
"You're new with being a jounin, Kurenai," the bearded man chuckled, "It's been over seven months. You should have heard about him now."
She rolled her tantalizing scarlet eyes and said, "So, I'm oblivious. Who is this Ibiki?"
"He's a specialist, Kurenai," the masked shinobi answered while Asuma smiled some more, "He's an exclusive sort of specialist in ninjutsu."
Kurenai tilted her head a little bit and asked, "So what does he specialize in?"
Asuma took a breath of smoke before he turned to face her and told her in that same cool and laid-back voice, "Torture and interrogation."
Kurenai blinked a little bit at what he said, but then the bearded man shook his head, "No worries. He won't inflict physical pain or anything to our students during the test. He doesn't have to. It's not the way he likes to get things done. It's too much of a mess for him. He tortures the mind, not the body. Ibiki has made himself famous for his methods. Everyone knows about Konoha's infamous Torture and Investigation Unit of the ANBU… Ibiki almost founded the unit on his own and he's about as old as we are. Those subordinates he carries with him are all for show…"
Back with the test, several teams had been unfortunate with luck and were thrown out for cheating several times. Some rookies were able to come to the same conclusion as the others had done, while some were still oblivious to the theme of the exam and cheated out of desperation. Naruto was forced out of his little snooze when he sensed a kunai was thrown over his head and into the exam sheet of a random genin in the seat behind him.
One at a time, the rookies and their teams that had once acted like tough monsters were reduced to tears and sobs or screams and fists when those that were found out were forced to leave and failed their exam with their teammates. This one unfortunate kid had turned violent when he had failed his test and was thrown across the room and into a wall while his teammates were forced to watch as the chunin that had failed him chewed him out and forced him to leave. But Naruto remained calm, as he was certain Sakura was clever enough to answer the questions and even had his faith in Sasuke, as he was certain he must have used his Sharingan to find the answers he needed. But the blonde shinobi's calmness was not unnoticed as Ibiki Morino watched the blonde maverick rest and was not affected with the uncomfortable atmosphere he had created to cause the students to suffocate with tension. He was almost shocked that he was not affected, like he was immune or numb to stress.
But soon, Ibiki looked over at the clock and announced, "All right! The tenth and final question is about to be announced!"
All the students dropped their pencils and listened to the tall, cloaked man with the scars. Sakura and Sasuke both stared at Naruto, outraged to no end that their teammate had fallen asleep and had not even bothered to write down even one word on his test. The two of them almost couldn't wait to either pass or fail so that the both of them could beat their teammate after all those talks he had made with them earlier. At the same time, Kankuro from Suna had come back from the bathroom break he had earlier and snuck all the answers to his older sister, Temari, in the form of some small parchment he had hidden in his clothes. He also took the time to fix his trousers some more, which told some rookies that had seen him earlier the reason he had taken so much time in there.
Ibiki waited until Kankuro was back in his seat and then he announced, "But before we move on to the tenth question, I am establishing one more rule."
All the rookies that were left inside the classroom listened in while some of them furrowed their brows at the tall man that he had waited until now to announce this new development.
"This rule will be critical…" he told them, "You must choose whether or not to answer this final question first."
Temari stood from her seat and cried out, "We have to choose? What happens when someone refuses to answer the question?"
Ibiki closed his eyes and then reopened them dramatically, "Should a genin here choose to not answer the final question," the man told them in a darkened voice, "that rookie as well as their teammates will lose their total score and fail."
"ARE YOU SERIOUS?" one of the older shinobi in the back cried out.
A kunoichi in the back asked, "Then why would anyone not want to answer it?"
"Because there is one more rule…" said Ibiki as he lowered his head a little.
Sakura looked frozen with shock and thought, 'How much more bullcrap can he hit us with? THIS IS SO UNFAIR!'
"If a rookie here answers the question with the incorrect answer," he started and then stated with a loud and clear voice, "then that genin and their teammates will never be allowed to enter the Chunin Selection Exams ever again. Not ever."
All the students in the room held their breath at this news. Naruto looked a little bit worried while a lot of his old classmates looked furious at their instructor and tried to think of excuses while some of them were a lot more vocal about the sudden new rule. Kiba, for one, stood from his seat and called out the tall man with the scars on his face.
"YOU CAN'T BE SERIOUS, DUDE," shouted Kiba in the middle row, "Other shinobi from before have re-entered for the exams over seven times! Look at that Kabuto Yakushi over there!"
Ibiki smirked at the child and told him, "All of those applicants from before had dumb luck. Not to mention that I wasn't the one who administered their exams back then," almost all the rookies that remained held their breath as the man in the front decided to offer the students to choose their fate, "Here are the choices… You could raise your hand to quit now and take the exam again next time… Or… You can take the chance and risk it all now…"
All of the genin started to debate over their choices while others were fast in their decision and raised their hands. It didn't take much time until at least seven teams had decided to leave with their hearts broken and ashamed. The shinobi around Naruto soon started to vanish but he sat there where he was as he watched and waited for the classroom to clear out. He sat there in his seat and went over the options and what could come out of his decisions, should he choose to be safe with his teammates. He wanted to move forward, but if he remained there and refused to move and answer to Ibiki, then he would risk Sakura and Sasuke's careers. If one of them answered wrong and the three of them were stuck as genin, he would never be forgiven for not raising his hand. But if he did raise his hand and wanted his friends to be able to move on and ascend the ranks next time, his teammates would still resent him for his decision. He could not make a choice and not face a consequence in the end. So in the end, he decided to do what his heart told him to so and remain in his seat with his hands down at his sides.
All the while, Sakura waited and waited for Naruto to raise his hand and save his own chances. For once, Sakura was not as selfish as she was when she thought back to Naruto's numerous statements to become a Hokage. For the first time, she thought about her teammate like he was her friend and didn't want to see him ruin his own career for his teammates sakes. She wouldn't be able to blame him if he wanted to leave and save their chances for another time. So she waited and wondered the reason he never even moved from his seat and stared at the board ahead of them.
'How come he won't raise his hand? Why doesn't he raise his hand?'
Sakura watched her teammate while Ibiki took a small walk close to front row. He noticed as Naruto did not even move a muscle and waited for the time to come. The tall man soon stood over the blonde shinobi and cast a dark shadow over him Naruto looked at Ibiki and remained calm as he raised his mental shields so that he was immune to whatever method of intimidation the man would use on him or the others around him. Ibiki almost smiled down at Naruto in a more sinister nature, like he was about to hurt him and like it. And even still, the blonde-haired preteen remained immune while others would be a lot more scared or terrified in his situation.
"You seem to be acting rather calm to have had time to go to sleep during my examination," the man said as he continued to stare down at him.
Naruto nodded and almost smiled a little bit when he answered, "Yeah, I did, sir."
Ibiki smirked and then he took his hands and he slammed them down on the desk. There was a loud boom, which caused several students to run out with their teammates and cut down the numbers. Hinata twitched and looked worried for her old classmate and crush while she covered her mouth when she almost let out a small scream from the sudden shock. Several rows back, Sakura also looked worried, as the proctor had chosen Naruto as a victim and started to lean in close to the small shinobi.
Naruto looked into Ibiki's face and was a little bit alarmed when the man broke his mental shields and stared him down with dark irises that were filled to their brim with untold experiences and utter darkness. He sweat a little bit but tried his best not to be intimidated or bullied as he sat there in his seat and smelled was he could assume was a little bit of bad breath. Ibiki wanted to scare the oblivious blonde rookie and it looked like he was about to have his wish.
"You aren't scared of the chance to remain a genin forever?" he asked and let loose a little bit of killer intent.
But then Naruto raised his shields one more time and answered the tall man, "I'm not afraid at all, Ibiki-sensei."
"You're not afraid," the scarred man asked, as he felt a little bit insulted, "How come?"
But then the blonde shinobi realized that the man never held him against his will and even made sure to not even touch him. Other than the one older student that was thrown out with force, but that kid had wanted to start a fight and was foolish. Naruto and the others were never even touched as the chunin around them and the tall man in the lead scared them like it was Halloween. The blonde wizard studied Ibiki's face and movements and then came to a small realization.
He answered the tall and terrible man; "You can't even do that to us…"
"What can't I do?" asked Ibiki.
Naruto continued to raise his shields and then told the man in a calm but controlled voice that carried out to the other students that remained in the room, "You can't hurt us… You can't keep someone from improving, or in this case, continue on to the chunin level. It won't work out like that so long as a student has their village Kage and sensei to help them and let them advance if those capable can prove themselves. You hold no rule over them or me with a few careful and selected words and threats. You're not even allowed to hurt us, huh? You know, since this is an exam?"
Ibiki was a little bit more than shocked when Naruto discovered that he was correct.
"I'll accept the question, Ibiki-sensei, even if I have to risk a life being stuck as a genin for all time," he told the man as he sat in his seat and crossed his arms, "It won't matter to me if that's so. Because I will become the Hokage no matter what, even if I have to make it there out of pure stubbornness."
Ibiki was also a little overwhelmed at how the small shinobi was able to resist his threats as well as his killer intent. Most of his victims were scared out of their minds whenever he released his killer-intent.
He then thought as he studied the blonde-haired rookie, 'This kid…He has serious potential to become a chunin…He's reminds me of Anko when she was little or that Iruka she knew back then…'
Ibiki Morino looked around the room and saw that the preteen's words had reached across the entire room and had cut deep into the hearts and minds of all those who had listened to him. Naruto's had caused a lot of rookies to regain their confidence and lose their doubts about the exams while some of his friends and old classmates smiled or smirked at him.
The tall proctor almost identified Naruto as the leader of the rookies that remained and said, "I will ask one more time… This is a decision that could affect the rest of your life… You can quit now, while there's still a chance…"
Naruto looked at him in the face and decided to announce what he had told his teammates and his sensei months back in the Land of Waves when he wanted to create his own path as a shinobi.
"No," he stated with a clear voice and swore out loud, "I will never go back on my word… that is my nindo… my own shinobi way…"
Ibiki looked around the room and saw that no one else had the cowardice to leave and deduced, 'There are seventy-eight more people left here…That kid sure is brave to have changed everyone's thoughts just like that… It's like he's a natural-born leader…'
Ibiki looked around and earned nods of approval from the other chunin in the room, which made the end of the first exam official.
"Good call, kid. I will admit that I was impressed with that little statement there… But I have a surprise for you and your followers…"
All the genin in the room held their breath and waited until Ibiki decided to take a breath and announce the outcome.
"All the rookies inside this room… You have all passed the First Exam!"
The room was silent, still, and cold with sweat and shock as the rookie shinobi and kunoichi in the room were frozen at the news. Some of the teens that remained in the room were a little bit scared as Ibiki started to smile at them all like he was a favored uncle as he hid his arms behind his back and announced one more time with a more ecstatic tone in his voice;
"Congratulations!"
"We passed," asked Sakura, "But what about the tenth question?"
Ibiki smiled a little bit more and admitted, "There was no tenth question. Unless someone here counted the decision to ask the question or leave…"
"But what about those other nine grueling questions?" outraged Temari as she almost stood from her seat again, "Don't tell me that those were for nothing, sir!"
Ibiki chuckled at the cross kunoichi and told her, "Your mission this entire time was to test how good you kids were at spying…"
All the rookies in the room were a little bit confused while some were able to understand.
"While on a mission, a team and its members will rise and fall as one. The final question was a test of devotion to teammates as well as a test of leadership. The other purpose of this exam was to see how well a shinobi could do with gathering information while behind enemy lines. That's what a shinobi is sometimes expected to do on certain missions as a chunin. So in order to simulate this situation in a classroom level, I had you rookies forced to cheat in order to obtain the answers to impossible questions. Without having to tell you anything or even hint at the objective."
Naruto smiled as he learned that his previous speculation was correct. And then he felt the telepathic connection between him and his older brother become restored at last and was able to smile as he felt his hands hold his shoulders and almost shake him side to side.
'Brilliant job, Naruto! Well done! I knew you could do it!'
But then Ibiki started to unfold his headband while he said, "Of course, anyone who was clumsy enough to get caught during this test would not be subjected to being thrown out of a classroom. Had this been an actual mission of information gathering, the consequences would have been a lot more… severe…"
Ibiki removed his bandanna headband and revealed that he had horrific scars that decorated his entire baldhead. There were burn scars, slashing scars, and even puncture wounds that looked a lot like screws. All the genin that saw him without his headband on were unsettled and left a little bit sickened.
"Sometimes, there are circumstances where you are caught during a mission, where you're captured and when you're captured, the enemy will stop at nothing to obtain whatever information they can get out of you. Only those with the strongest will have the courage and loyalty to never give in for the sake of their home village. The foolish mistake of being caught will usually result in what you see has happened to me," the tall man retied his bandanna and turned a little bit more serious and then smiled once more, "Learn this lesson and learn it well. To succeed in a mission such as intelligence gathering, then don't get caught! Be wise and be decisive!"
All of the rookies in the classroom felt a lot more confident with the Second Exam that waited ahead and almost couldn't wait to start soon.
"You kids have survived the first hurdle. The first test of the Chunin Selection Exams is now concluded…" the tall proctor concluded as he wished the students luck on the second test, "I will pray you will fight the good fight!"
Naruto smiled but then he looked out towards the windows on the left side of the classroom and he sensed someone was about to come in. Then out of nowhere, someone had blasted through the window and sent solid shards of broken glass out to litter the floor around the front while several students screamed out and stare as a black blur crashed into the classroom. Several kunai flew and were slammed into the walls and floor to reveal a massive black poster that made a message in white paint:
NEWLY ARRIVED SECOND CHIEF EXAMINATION OFFICER: ANKO MITARASHI!
The person revealed in front of the poster was a young and very beautiful kunoichi that must have been no older than Iruka. She had light brown, pupil-less irises, had dark-violet hair that was styled in a short, spiky, fanned-ponytail. The woman wore a tan overcoat, which has a pocket on both sides, with a fitted mesh body suit that stretched from her neck down to her thighs. She also wore a dark orange mini-skirt, her headband, and a small pendant that looked like a snake tooth on a thick cord rather than a chain. She also had a wristwatch, shin guards, and a dark blue belt around her waist that connected to her skirt that had an appendage-like sash. She also had large breasts that took the attention from most of the men in the room, while it did not even seem to be noticed from the chunin in the room that smiled and shook their heads at the unknown woman.
She held out her hand to the side and announced, "NONE OF YOU ARE IN A POSITION TO CELEBRATE! I am the second proctor of the Chunin Selection Exams! I am Anko Mitarashi! FOLLOW ME TO THE SECOND EXAM!"
No one other than the other chunin wanted to even move as Ibiki moved around the black wall and asked the woman, "You can't sense the mood in here, Anko?"
Anko sweatdropped and flushed red a little bit out of embarrassment. She looked around the room and counted the number of students there were left that Ibiki didn't scare out. She soon looked a little bit shocked and then she looked ticked.
'Whoa... What a woman...' a certain wizard commented.
"You let seventy-eight students win this time?" she asked Ibiki, shocked that he had been soft on them, "Ibiki! You went too easy on them."
Ibiki smirked at her, "This time, we have applicants of exceptional talent," he leaned closer to her and whispered to her, "Look at that blonde one in the front row, beside to the kunoichi from the Hyuga clan. He's a brave one. Naruto Uzumaki is his name. He has some serious fire in him. Heh! You would like him!"
"No problem then! I'll be able to cut this number of students in half once I'm done with them," she stated as she clicked her neck and cracked her knuckles.
Several rookies looked at her with a little bit of fear on their faces as some of them wondered what she meant when she told them she would cut their numbers in half. Anko then shivered with excitement, "Ooh! I'm too excited even when I think about it! I'll explain the details of the next exam once we reach our destination. So follow me!"
Ibiki walked around the classroom and collected the used test sheets once the students and chunin were out. It was sort of a waste since he had to toss all these tests out, but he took some time and saw what students were able to obtain the answers needed while few others were able to write down their own correct answers. Soon, Ibiki obtained Naruto's test and looked it over for a short moment. But then he froze and looked back at the test and studied it. He examined the test and then walked over to his desk and checked it with his original answer sheet and could have fainted when he discovered that Naruto had used him to obtain his own answers, but in the exact-same details as his own handwriting.
"How can this be? None of the other proctor's caught him cheating… That's not possible…"
Ibiki then noticed that there was a note written down on the front of the paper in Naruto's own handwriting.
Ibiki Morino-
Thanks a lot for the life lesson. Here is something in return: Kabuto Yakushi and the Otogakure genin smell a lot like snakes. I don't know what it means, but I hope you do.
Sincerely yours, Naruto Uzumaki
P.S. I think those scars are so cool! Way to take one of the team! You're diamond!
Ibiki had no idea what the child had meant with the scent of the snake, but soon he came with a good idea. He thought of the first thing that popped into his mind, which was a strange and terrible man that he once saw when he was little. It was a man that had once been a respected shinobi of their village. A man that several people, including Ibiki, believed that somehow he was not even human.
The proctor forgot about the other tests and went straight to the Sandaime Hokage as fast as he could. With Naruto's test clenched in his hand.
To Be Continued…
That took some time! Well, it took me a couple of days, but I think it turned out well in the end!
Azeroth44: Well! I'm back now!
K: Oh! That's nice.
AZ44: As for the chapter, it's about the same as the original, but it sounds a lot more reasonable than the previous version. I like this one a lot more. Not to mention, I love the comeback Naruto made to Kiba about the whippets XD That made me laugh!
K: Thanks, man.
Naruto: Careful. When he compliments, it's means something bad happens.
K: What did you do this time, Azeroth44?
AZ44: Oh, nothing. I can compliment and good stuff can happen sometimes. See? I'm calm and no one here was hurt.
Iruka: (comes back from upstairs and covered with ash) I was just upstairs to wash some kunai and the toilet in the bathroom exploded.
(All the people stare down at Azeroth44)
AZ44: So? Toilets explode all the time!
Iruka: It exploded with fire and volcanic brimstone.
AZ44: Oh… Well… Shut up, then.
Until we meet again next time in the Forest of Death, readers and friends! But if there are some things wrong with this chapter, I'll make sure to fix them ASAP. But if it looks fine, then it looks fine. Make sure to leave behind a review for me to read! I would appreciate it!