Chapter 10: Written Test

Sakura looked at Naruto with worried eyes. She knew he had never been good at written tests. Intellectual ability just wasn't his forte. Of course she knew he wasn't completely hopeless, he had come up with that strategy to take down Zabuza back in the Land of Waves after all. He was a brilliant prankster as well, sometimes. She smiled as she recalled the eraser falling on Kakashi's head before they had met him. Still she felt like he was gonna have a tough time.

"You will take your test separately from your Teammates," Ibiki said. "So that you can't rely on them to help you."

Naruto and Sakura both felt a bit of sadness at that while Sasuke remained expressionless. They were escorted to different tables with other ninja in the room. Naruto was placed next to Hinata and the others with strangers. Sakura glanced over, worried that Hinata might make a move, but then again she was very shy so it might not be likely.

…

In the Jonin Lounge, Kakashi sat with Asuma and Kurenai.

"Well, I wonder how they're doing?" Kakashi said.

"Word is that their instructor is going to be Ibiki Moroni," Asuma said.

"Moroni? Great," Kakashi said getting downhearted at the thought of what his genin were going through. "They get the sadistic one who likes to torture everyone."

"What do you mean?" Kurenai asked.

"I keep forgetting you're a new Jonin, Kurenai," Asuma said. "You see, Ibiki specializes in breaking the spirit."

…

Looking at the test, Sakura knew Naruto wouldn't be able to figure out these questions. They were incredibly complicated. What was she going to do? Her and Sasuke were both pretty smart, but Naruto would be in trouble. They all had to pass in order to advance to the next round. She knew Sasuke wouldn't be too pleased if they were disqualified. First it had been her turn to almost fail, now it was Naruto's.

She got to work, going over the questions. It was a good thing she had focused more on academic instances instead of combat ones for once. She began writing the answers out and got a majority of them, seven out of nine! But looking at Naruto who didn't seem to be writing anything down at all, she worried. Glancing over at Sasuke she saw him deep in thought, his eyes seeming to carry a faint red glare. Was he… using Sharingan?

She bit her lip and looked away. Was Sasuke cheating? No… unless… there was definitely something not right about this. The questions were incredibly complicated and Sakura imagined she was one of the few genin in this room that could actually get them right without cheating. Of course! They were supposed to cheat! It was part of the test. As long as they didn't caught maybe. She kept her gaze on the remaining, trying her best to figure them out. Around her, many people got caught cheating multiple times and were kicked out.

…

Naruto meanwhile, was having no luck at all. He couldn't figure the questions out no matter how hard he tried.

Hinata looked at him struggle, and extended her test to him.

"Naruto, you can look at mine."

He looked at her. Why was she offering to help him? She'd always been nice to him though. He felt tempted to accept her offer but-

"Thanks Hinata but I want to do this on my own," he politely turned down her help.

…

Sakura noticed the Hyuga girl suddenly felt a shiver in her… head? Then everything went black for a moment. She saw Ino ahead of her in a dark area. The room around them was gone.

"Ino? What's going on?" Sakura asked.

"I'm using my mind transfer Jutsu on you to get your answers," Ino said.

"What?" Sakura exclaimed.

"This test is rigged Sakura! You might be able to figure it out with how big your brain is in that big forehead, but I'm not quite that good."

Sakura had noticed that the questions were complicated, only a person who was really smart would be able to figure it out without cheating. Fortunately she had those smarts. And Ino had been courteous enough to tell her before taking over her mind.

"I'm gonna memorize your answers and then give them to Shikamaru and Choji," Ino said.

"Alright," Sakura nodded. "But I'm gonna have to ask you to share them with Naruto too!"

"Why cause he's on your team?" Ino asked.

"You know I can always say you cheated!" Sakura said. "Either you help Naruto out with his test or I'll tell!"

"I should have just taken over and not alerted you!" Ino sighed.

She took over Sakura's mind and memorized the pinkette's answers then began transferring them to her Teammates and Naruto.

Naruto felt a wave rush over him. He rubbed his eyes.

"Eh something felt weird what happened did I fall asleep?" he asked before looking at his paper.

Only to find that many of the questions were answered!

"What the?" Naruto exclaimed. "When did I do that?"

"You just suddenly began writing," Hinata said next to him.

Naruto clenched his teeth. "How did that happen?"

He looked over the paper and saw something at the corner. A heart with Sakura's name next to it.

Naruto blushed and even as dumb as he was put the pieces together. Somehow Sakura had gotten him the answers. He looked over at her, she caught his glance and smiled, he grinned back sheepishly. Now he had a good chance to pass thanks to whatever she did.

Or so he thought.

"Alright time is up for the first nine questions!" Ibiki said. "Now for the tenth question! You should all know something first though. If you get this question wrong, you will be prohibited from taking the exams ever again."

That sent a shiver down everyone's spine.

"You have a choice. You can step out now and take the exam next year, or you can stay and take your chances," Ibiki continued. "Fail, you're a genin for the rest of your lives."

The words hung in the air, several ninja decided to opt out. Naruto was tempted to. He didn't think there would be enough time for Sakura to help him out with this tenth question. If he was a Genin for the rest of his life then he wouldn't ever become Hokage would he? And the same would go for his Teammates. He almost put his hand up but brought it back down.

"I never give up!" Naruto said. "I just have to take it! I'll become Hokage, even if I can't make Chunnin or Jonin!"

Sakura and Sasuke both smiled. He really did never give up.

"Is that so. Good spirit kid," Ibiki said.

He looked at them all as they expected to hear the question.

"No one else wishes to leave?"

None of them got up.

He smiled. "YOU ALL PASS!"

"What?" many of them said.

Ibiki gave a small smile. "The answer to the tenth question was to simply stay. It was a chance, but when you're a ninja going on dangerous missions, you have to have the spirit and bravery to follow through for what you were assigned to do for the good of your village. You might have to jump down a dark pit with no sure way to stop yourself from falling, or fight an entire army by yourself. But no matter what you face, you must never give up or back down. Even when faced with torture such as this."

He removed his cap to reveal a wide assortment of scars on his forehead from cuts to burns.

"This test was designed to test your information gathering, it encouraged cheating, since no ordinary Genin would be expected to pass. I planted several Chunin among you that knew the answers for you to copy off of."

Several people in the tables raised their hands to identify themselves as Chunin, one was right in front of Naruto whose mouth fell open. The answers had been right in front of him and he'd just let Sakura help him out. That hurt his pride.

Sakura smiled to herself though, she was still a Genin and she'd managed to answer the questions on her own.

Ibiki put his hat back on to cover his scar, Sakura had shivered and was relieved to not see the sight of it anymore.

The instructor then began to speak. "Well, you'll all just have to wai-

"I'm here!" a loud female voice said.

A woman with purple hair in a spiky pony tail swooped down into the room from the window above.

"Early as usual Anko,' Ibiki said.

"Yep! I never keep anyone waiting!"

Great, shouting nutcase! Sakura thought. She's as annoying as Naruto can be sometimes! Ah well, I learned to love him.

She gasped slightly. Wait, love?

You're in love with him already Cha! Her inner self said.

How did it come to this? She wondered. Well lets hope this love lasts and is for real unlike my stupid crush on Sasuke.

"There's a lot of them this round Ibiki. You must be getting soft!" the woman named Anko said as she looked around. "Looks like a total of around twenty teams!"

"Well it looks like these might be a tougher bunch," Ibiki told her.

"Well they sure don't look it. Alright listen up you maggots!" Anko continued addressing them now. "You may have gotten this far but you're not gonna be so lucky with me. Now follow me!"

They got up from their seats and rejoined their teams.

"Hey thanks for slipping me those answers Sakura," Naruto said as they followed Anko out of the class room. "I probably would have ended up not answering a single question!"

"No problem Naruto. Though it was Ino who did that," Sakura said. "I asked her to help you out or I'd report her for cheating."

"Huh? How'd you she do that?" Naruto asked.

"Her mind transfer jutsu."

"What's that?"

Sakura facepalmed. How did she fall in love with this idiot?

…

Anko lead them to a tall wired gate with a very clear warning sign in front of a large dark set of woods.

Danger: Do Not Enter

"Welcome to the next stage of the Chunin Exams!" Anko said. "The Forest of Death!"

Many people shivered. All the rookies had somehow managed to survive. Team 8, Hinata, Shino, and Kiba, Team 10; Shikamaru, Ino, and Choji. Team 7; Naruto, Sasuke, and Sakura. Then there was the bushy haired boy Rock Lee and his teammates Neji Hyuga and Tenten. Along with other ninja from various villages. A lot of them, but still much less then had started. This was going to be tough.

"Well I don't care what its called! I can take it!" Naruto said.

Sakura smiled at his never ending enthusiasm, even Sasuke smirked a bit.

"Oh looks like we got a tough guy here," Anko said.

Then she threw a kunai knife at Naruto. The blonde screamed and couldn't react. Sakura's mouth fell open in concern, fortunately he only received a small cut on the cheek. Her Kunai continued on to hit a tree near where a Grass Ninja woman was standing.

Then Anko appeared behind Naruto holding his head.

"Not so tough after all it seems," she said.

Naruto gritted his teeth. Sakura didn't take her eyes off the scene, but then it happened. The Grass Ninja was suddenly behind Anko holding the kunai she'd thrown only a moment ago in her… tongue? Sakura's face twisted in disgust but fear also entered her heart as the Grass Ninja held the kunai to Anko's throat. The Jonin looked at the ninja warily.

"I was merely returning your kunai," the woman said.

"Why thank you Grass Ninja," Anko said.

"The smell of blood is in the air," the woman said as she gave the knife back.

She definitely gives me the creeps, Sakura said. She was fast too.

Maybe too fast, Sasuke thought next to her.

The 'woman' walked back to her Team. She turned her glance to Sasuke. Then thought with her true, male mind. Soon I will have the chance to see what you are made of Sasuke Uchiha. Let us see how you compare to your brother.

Uh oh! He's here! I'm sure you know who that is all too well. Had to go a bit beyond the written exam as I didn't want to go below my usual 2000 words. Got there at least. So please let me know what you think of this chapter or the story far in a review. Will at some point try to add to Zabuza's fight. Unfortunately didn't get the chance to watch the exam part. Some writers might like going for 10,000 words or something but that's not me. At least not these days, back when I was working on 1 fanfiction story I did bigger chapters that were up to 5 or 7 thousand words. But I have my deadline to get these chapters done within a day or two. Hope its good enough regardless. And don't forget my other Narusaku fanfic which will update Saturday or Sunday.