"Inner Sakura"
"Sakura's thoughts"
Memory
"Talking"
Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto.
Sakura tried not to be too shaken by the strange interaction with her sensei. She didn't have to try too hard, because not a second after she walked through the door, the sight of a very full classroom shook her more.
"So many people…are they all here to apply? They look…incredible…"
Many looked far older than them. All of them looked tough. Hardened. Sakura felt the doubt she was wrestling get the upper hand again.
"Sasuke-kun! Ive seen you twice in a few days, I'm so lucky, cutie!" Ino shouted, latching her arms around Sasuke the same way she had two days ago. "Of course someone as strong as you would be here!"
Sasuke glared at her, deciding he definitively did not like the feel of the blond girls arms around him.
"Ino, you pig! Get your hooves off Sasuke!"
"Let go of him, Ino."
Both Ino and Sasuke's gaze snapped to Sakura. Sasuke studied her carefully. She wasn't as tense and blank as she'd been two days ago after he'd cut her with his words and Ami showed up. Her tone wasn't as politely detached either. It was blank…but it wasn't detached. That had to be…good, right?
"Oh. You're here too, Sakura." Ino said stiffly, her arms releasing Sasuke. There was concern in her eyes, despite her stiff tone and movements.
"She's still looking down on me, isn't she?"
"That pig! We'll show her!"
"Why wouldn't I be? My team relies on my judgement." Sakura stated firmly. If she pretended it was a fact, maybe she'd feel like it was.
Sasuke smirked a little. Her tone was still blank, but her statement was definitive, and the way she said it left no room for doubt. Good.
"Why don't you three save yourselves the embarrassment of flunking this test?" Shikamaru drawled lazily as he and Choji strode over to join Ino.
"Well if it isn't the three stooges!" Naruto called.
"Stop calling us that!" Shikamaru lazily protested.
"Hey there you are!" Came an excited shout from an attractive brown haired boy with a small white dog on his head. A pale lavender eyed girl, and a boy in dark sunglasses followed behind him. Team 8 had decided to join the party, comprised of Inuzuka Kiba, Aburame Shino, and Hyuga Hinata.
"Uh…Hi…" Hinata muttered shyly, her face flushing. Sakura always liked Hinata. They were never particularly close, but she was one of the only kids to not bully her and treat her with a level of polite cordiality instead of contempt, indifference or superiority. Although she'd noticed that the girls focus always seemed to be on Naruto.
"That must be why she's blushing now…Her eyes…they're the same as that boy from earlier. The one with that Lee weirdo…I wonder if they're related…"
"Looks like the gang's all here." Kiba smirked.
"Including you, unfortunately!" Shikarmaru had always found Kiba to be noisy. Especially when in the presence of the already noisy Naruto.
"So…I guess all three of this year's Rookie genin decided to apply, huh?" Kiba said loudly. "I wonder how far we'll all get. What do you think…Sasuke?" Kiba was as competitive as Naruto.
"Trying to psych us by acting cool, Kiba?" Sasuke asked with a cocky smirk.
"Who's acting? The way we've trained, no way can you beat us." Kiba answered, laughing.
"Oh shut up! You guy's won't even beat me, much less Sasuke!" Naruto shouted.
"He didn't include me on that…" Her eyes dropped to the ground. She knew there was good reason for it—she'd barely trained at all…but still.
"I-I'm sorry Naruto-kun…Kiba-kun didn't mean that the way it sounded…" Hinata murmured, fidgeting with her fingers, her cheeks bright red. Sakura felt proud of her. She'd made a lot of progress. Before, she wouldn't have been able to say three words to Naruto. Even if she still couldn't look him in the eye, it was a lot of progress.
"Huh?" Naruto asked, squinting at her.
"Shannaro…What an oblivious idiot!"
"Hey you guys! You should be a little quieter. You guys are the 'rookie nine,' fresh out of the academy, right? All snot nosed and wet-behind-the-ears. This isn't a school field trip, you know." A young man with glasses, silver hair in a short ponytail, and a Konoha hitai-ate said, approaching them.
"This guy looks to be 19…" Sakura cast a quick glance around the room. "Just how much younger are we then the average applicant? Rock Lee and the two with him seemed at most a year older, but everyone else here looks like they've got at least three years on us…That's three years more experience…"
"Who the heck do you think you are?" Ino demanded. She always had been bold and held no social apprehension what so ever. She didn't need it. She was confident in herself, fearless, well liked and well respected. She was popular. It was something Sakura and Hinata had always respected about Ino.
"I'm Yakushi Kabuto. And you kids should really open your eyes and look around."
Sakura's mint green eyes swept the room again and this time noted how many of the applicants were glaring at them, studying them, or both.
"Damn…we drew too much attention to ourselves already…"
"Behind you, they're from Amegakure. They've got very short fuses. Everyone's on edge waiting to take the exam. I wanted to give you a heads-up before someone snaps and beats the crap out of you. But it's probably unavoidable. Like all rookies, you think you already know everything. I remember what that was like."
"Sure he's older than us and thus obviously has more experience, but he's talking like he's specifically familiar with this exam…"
"It's Kabuto-san…right?" Sakura asked.
"Yeah…"
"You sound very familiar with this exam. How many times have you taken it?"
"…twice for two years…hm, going on four years now…This'll be my seventh."
"That's…strange…is the test really that hard? Or is he just that bad?…No. I don't think it's that…if he were that bad, I doubt he'd be talking to us right now. Even if it's an attempt to intimidate us, by speaking to us, he's drawling attention to himself too. It'll bring more heat on him come the actual exam…that's not a smart tactical move…So why? Did he fail intentionally?"
"I don't know…I don't like him…"
"Wow, then you've got a lot of experience with what we can expect!"
Sasuke and Ino's eyes jumped to Sakura. The politeness in her tone was the same detached sort of pleasantness she used when she spoke to Ami. Her mask of excited, nervous, politeness was perfect. Sasuke almost bought it. But looking really carefully into her mint green eyes, he could see the traces of cautious calculation. Something about this Kabuto guy wasn't adding up to Sakura, and she didn't trust him.
"I guess so…" Kabuto's grey eyes scanned the nine kids in front of him, before he smirked. "I guess the least I can do is give my cute little juniors some vital intelligence on what you're in for, with these shinobi skill cards." Kabuto said, pulling out a deck of cards.
"What's his angle?"
"Shinobi skill cards?" She'd never heard of those.
"To put it simply, they contain information about the skills we use, transformed into symbols and burned into the cards using chakras. This is four years worth of intelligence. In all, there are almost 200 cards." He said squatting and placing one on the ground in front of him.
"Is that why he's failed six times? He's just here to collect data? But why? What good is that doing him? The test and test takers are always different…if he's not using the information to pass the test, what's he using it for?"
"They look blank, don't they? The only way you can read the data on the cards…" The rookie's gathered around as he began spinning the blank card on the ground with his finger.
"What's he doing?" Ino asked, leaning in.
"…is by using my own personal chakra. Each set is linked to the possessor. For example, cards like this one."
"This…this is a 3D bar graph…" Sakura murmured studying the way each bar came out of a region from a map of the five great nations. At the bottom was a key with the symbols of the hidden villages, each with numbers next to them. Konoha had the highest numbers. Sakura scanned the room once more, noting the amount of Konoha hitai-ate. "This is showing how many applicants each nation sent, right? Is it for this years exam, or is this last years?"
"This years." Kabuto considered the pink haired girl. She was smarter than he would have thought. Not only had she inferred the meaning of the card very quickly, she had enough presence of mind to clarify which exam it referred too.
"If it's for this exam, how does he have this data? Did he just make the card now after doing a head count?"
"Do you also have profile cards? Cards for each individual applicant?" Sasuke asked.
"He probably wants more info on Lee, or that teammate Lee mentioned…I'm glad he asked though. If Kabuto-san has that kind of information, then something's definitely off."
Kabuto laughed. "Why? Someone here you have particular interest in? I'll admit these are far from complete, but I've burned a set of profile cards for the current pool of applicants…including your team. If you share any data you have on this person who interests you, I'll be happy to look them up and let you know what I have so far."
Sakura stiffened. "Our team? How does he have anything on our team?…Maybe it's just our names…"
"Gaara from Sunagakure—and Rock Lee from Konoha."
"Who's Gaara? When'd he meet someone from Suna?"
"…Not sure. Maybe it was after I left that other day…"
"You know their names? No sweat, then!"
He flipped two cards, one holding information on Lee, the other holding information of Gaara.
"First up is Rock Lee. He's a year older than you three. Missions to date: 20 D-ranked, 11 C-ranked. His team's mentor is Might Gai…His taijutsu physical skills have grown exponentially this past year. He has no other talents worth mentioning. He was considered a standout among last year's genin…but he didn't apply for the chunin exam. He's a first timer, like you three…"
"So how does he have this much detailed information on him?"
"His teammates are Hyuga Neji and Tenten."
"Hyuga…So he is related to Hinata-chan." She glanced over at the girl and noticed she was looking away, her face gloomy and anxious. "Looks like there's family drama…"
"Next is Gaara of the sand…Desert country…Eight C-ranked missions…One B-rank. Wow! Not many genin shinobi get B-ranked assignments!"
"Ha! We got an A-rank! Suck it!"
"Technically it was a C-rank. And it was probably reported that way…I wonder how his cards register it…"
"Since he's from way out in the dessert, I have less on him…But it's interesting. He's come back from every mission unscathed. Without a scratch on him…"
A tense silence fell around the nine rookies. How could a Genin complete a B-rank without getting so much as a scratch. That couldn't be possible…Just how strong was that guy?
"Kabuto-san, could you show me my card?" Sakura asked, smiling politely. Sasuke looked over at her curiously, immediately noticing the well hidden strain of her mouth.
Kabuto studied her. "Of course," he smiled, "I don't have very much on your cards though. Feel free to help fill it in."
"I don't think I'd be a good unbiased source of data." She answered, her smile still in place.
He brought out her card, revealing the number of D-ranks, and their teams one C-rank. It did have that she was thirteen, which meant her birthday was included in his data. The card either auto-updated, was made taking her age at the time of the test into consideration, or was freshly made that day. Her skills classification was rather weak…which was embarrassing, although she expected it. It didn't contain deep personal background information such as family life or status—which was good. That meant the data he'd gathered only directly pertained to shinobi skills. The cards also seemed to lack a delineation for intelligence, analytical skill, or chakra control.
"Good. Our Land of Waves mission is marked as a C rank. That means his data is only within the realms of public domain…he didn't have some alternate information about us coming in…these also are only gauging clear cut power and abilities…which means he's not closely monitoring us…He must have gotten this information from some kind of public profile, or applicant report…It still doesn't explain how he had access or got that information so fast though…"
Sasuke recognized the look in Sakura's eyes. It was the same one she had when she'd pause between her attempts at dancing up the tree. She'd stared at the tree with the same focused calculating look that she now had turned on her rather disappointing card. There was something bothering her. Something she was analyzing and trying to figure out.
"Like I said earlier, these profiles are incomplete, and you all are fresh out of the academy brats…there isn't much for you to show for it comparatively to someone who's had more time and training, like Lee."
He must have interpreted Sakura's look as offense at how weak her card made her seem.
"Good. That mean's he's not suspicious about why I asked to see or what I was looking for."
"It does suck though—His stupid card makes us seem like we're entirely pathetic, damnit!"
"Konoha, Suna, Ame, Kusa, Taki, Oto…this year every hidden village has sent outstanding Genin ninja here to compete. I don't know much about Oto, the hidden sound village. It's part of a new, small nation, so intelligence is lacking. Every other competing village is well-respected, home to formidably powerful shinobi…"
"That kind of makes you lose your confidence." Hinata murmured.
"Why are you saying that now?" Ino admonished.
"What you're trying to tell us is…everyone here…" Sakura said, her self doubt starting to win over again.
"Oh yeah. They're all like Lee and Gaara…Elite hand picked Shinobi, the best genin in the world. They have to be! The test is pitiless!"
Naruto'd been unusually quiet throughout the whole exchange. Sakura glanced over at him, her concern growing when she saw him shaking.
"Looks like our team's overconfident butthead's got the shakes…"
"And who can blame him? We're all genin here…but we three are the youngest…Absolute beginners! Still, it's not like Naruto. Maybe if I give him a little pep talk…"
Sakura stepped towards him and placed a comforting hand on his back. "It's all right, Naruto. Nothing to worry about."
Before she could say anything more, Naruto looked up boldly at everyone in the room, pointing and shouting, "My name is Uzumaki Naruto! And none of you are gonna beat me! Believe it! You got that?"
"What's his problem?!" Ino shrieked furiously.
"Typical. He's too stupid to know he's got problems."
"Yeah! That felt great!" Naruto said, stretching with a huge smile on his face.
"Oh, please!" Sasuke muttered, rolling his eyes.
"If not every one was glaring at us before, they certainly are now!"
"Shaannaro! That idiot just had to drawl even more attention to us!"
Sakura felt annoyance take over her body, and before she knew it, she had Naruto in a choke hold.
"What are you blathering about, you idiot?!"
"I'm telling the truth!" Naruto protested.
Sakura felt the bloodlust from the crowed growing palpably, and immediately knew she had to do some very fast damage control. She slapped her hand over Naruto's mouth and looked over at the crowed of fast growing enemies.
"Pay no attention to my friend…He's quite an idiot you see…After all he says idiotic, spazzy, scatterbrained things and gets carried away, often. Please don't concern yourself with him."
She dragged Naruto back, away from the group of murderous looking genin, trying to seek refuge for herself and her boneheaded teammate.
"Seriously, what the hell were you thinking?"
"But Sakura-chan…"
Her admonishment was cut short when three sound nin charged at Kabuto. One of them, his face fully wrapped in bandages, got close enough to take a swing at the older leaf genin. Kabuto dodged it, but his glasses cracked.
"What's going on? He dodged the blow, but something broke his glasses!" Sasuke said, shocked, the whole thing had been so fast he'd barely seen Kabuto move, but he knew he dodged the attack…
"His nose probably got grazed…Serves him right for acting all superior." Shikamaru muttered.
Kabuto suddenly shuddered and collapsed to all fours, vomiting.
"Aw man! He's hurling!" Naruto shouted.
"Kabuto-san!" Sakura was by his side in an instant, despite how unsettling she found him, her instinct to help the sick and injured took over. Sasuke and Naruto followed close behind her. Naruto was worried about Kabuto, and Sasuke wanted to be close to Sakura since the sound ninja were still near by and might attack again.
"Are you alright?" Sakura asked, a supporting hand on the silver haired man's back.
"…Yeah…I'm fine…"
"You don't look fine." Naruto informed him.
Sakura studied his lips and skin tone—normal. Likely this wasn't poison. There was no entry wound either. The sound nin had attempted to punch him. Blunt force to the stomach might induce vomiting, but he'd dodged. He wasn't hit in the stomach. Hitting the head might cause a concussion, common side effects being dizziness leading to nausea…but Kabuto never hit his head. She studied his eyes, which were trying to focus in on one point. Almost like he was dizzy. Why would he be dizzy though? Was there a jutsu involved? She hadn't seen anyone weave any hand signs.
"You're a pushover, aren't you? Pretty sad for someone who's been an applicant for four years now." The sound nin who'd attacked spoke.
"Better add this to your cards. The three applicants from Otogakure will all make chunin this year!" A spiky haired sound nin said cockily.
"Sakura, what's wrong with him?" Sasuke asked quietly.
"I don't know. My guess is he's dizzy…"
"Dizzy?"
"Yeah. It can lead to nausea or vomiting."
"Why would he be dizzy?"
"I don't know…sometimes it's a side effect of concussions, although there's no reason he should have one. He may have given himself vertigo from the speed of motion, although that'd make him a pretty lousy ninja. It could have been a jutsu…"
Sasuke studied Kabuto as he rose unsteadily, blinking, trying to hold his focus on one point. He did seem dizzy…As Kabuto meandered unsteadily away, Sasuke turned to Sakura again.
"What was that earlier? With the cards. Something was bugging you, right?"
Sakura felt her heart flutter at the implication that Sasuke had been paying attention to her and could read her so well. She nodded, her cheeks flushing.
"His information…How does he have so much of it so quickly…our exam hasn't even started yet. We're first time applicants. So are Rock Lee and this Gaara person. How does he have so much data on us already? He even knew the exact applicant count and national breakdown, before the application period officially closed…"
"You were trying to see exactly how detailed his information was on us?"
"Without revealing anything about you or Naruto to the group. Yeah." She'd only discovered Sasuke's sharingan today and it seemed like an advantage best kept a secret. And Naruto's quick recovery time and seemingly endless supply of chakra…she hadn't wanted anyone to know about her dummer teammates strengths either. He needed his element of surprise. There was nothing special about her though, and everyone already throughs her weak. The only thing at stake had been her pride.
"What's your conclusion?"
"Our mission count was D-ranks and one C-rank, and his cards didn't include anything other than hard ability scaling. It did have my birthday included…my guess is all the card information is within some sort of public domaine…but…"
"How did he know to even know whose cards to make or what data to gather?" Sasuke finished.
Sakura nodded. "His information is helpful…and it seems accurate…I think we can trust it. But I'd be careful about trusting him or telling him too much."
Sasuke nodded in silent agreement. It seemed stupid to him that he hadn't even thought to find Kabuto's wealth of information suspicious. It really was a good thing Sakura had come to this exam with them.
There was a large puff of smoke from the front of the classroom, interrupting the lingering chatter. "Would everybody please just shut up?!"
The smoke cleared to reveal several older ninja.
"Sorry to have kept you waiting. My name is Morino Ibiki, I'm the proctor and chief examiner for the first part of the exam." Said a gruff man standing in the front of the group. He had two scars running diagonally up his face, and one close to his left eye trailing vertically down to the edge of his mouth. He had a long black coat and a black bandana covered the top of his head. He was imposing and left no room to question his authority. He pointed a black gloved finger to the sound nin, who'd retreated towards the back.
"First part…I have a feeling this'll be a multi-day thing…Good thing I prepped food and medicine for mom…she should have enough for a week."
"You…the kids from Otogakure! You can't carry on any way you please when the exam's about to start! Or do you want to be disqualified?"
"Sorry, sir…it's our first exam, and we got a little carried away." The boy with bandages covering his face answered.
"Is that so? Then it's high time someone laid down a few ground rules. From this point forward there will be no more fighting without the express permission of the examining officer…and even if that permission is granted, anything that endangers another applicant's life is strictly forbidden. Any of you maggots who break that rule are out. Disqualified. No second chances. Got that?"
"Make's sense…it could cause an international incident otherwise…it might start a war…"
"So this is a test for little girly men?" The spiky haired sound nin sneered
Sakura felt the entire female population of the room temporarily unify to glare at the asshole. Being a girl did not mean being weak or cowardly, though apparently many of their male colleagues had yet to learn that.
Ibiki just smirked. "Heh…very well. The first part of the selection exam is about to commence. Turn in your written applications, take one of these seating assignment cards, and report directly to the seat indicated. When everyone's seated, we'll pass out the written portion of the exam."
"A-A Paper test?!" Naruto shouted, already sweating bullets…A paper test?! "Written portion of the exam" was possibly the worst thing anyone could have ever said to Naruto.
As Sakura lined up to pass in her application and get her seating number, trying her best not to dwell on how screwed Naruto was, she couldn't help but think the examiner with spiky hair and a bandage running horizontally across his face looked familiar.
"Was his brother the one downstairs giving us trouble?…But the bandage on his face…skin deep injuries aren't exactly genetic…" She scanned the room, but saw no trace of the boy from earlier who'd blocked their way. Her eyes widened in realization. "It's the same guy…isn't it?"
"Sneaky…"
She exchanged her application for a seat number. As she passed the familiar examiner, she murmured loud enough for him to hear, "I see you took my suggestion…"
The man, Hagane Kotetsu, smirked, confirming her suspicion. He'd been rather surprised and amused she'd suggested bandaging his nose in the first place. In all honesty, he was impressed. Despite the nerves and tension she was bound to be feeling, she still managed enough awareness to make the connection. This kid was smart. And calm under pressure. He had a feeling that she might be able to answer every question on the test on her own…it would defeat the purpose, but they hadn't accounted for a genin with that level of deductive reasoning.
Everyone was seated, waiting for the test to begin and Naruto already had his hands buried in his hair. Sakura had him in her sightline and could already tell he was freaking out.
"This must be Naruto's worst nightmare. He's panicking already…"
Sakura's assessment was correct. Naruto was indeed panicking. His teammates were spread out all over the room, so he couldn't even take comfort in their presence. What was he going to do?
"Naruto-kun?" A soft voice came from his right. He turned to see a red faced Hyuga Hinata.
"Oh! Hinata! How long have you been there?" He hadn't even noticed her—this chick was a regular invisible girl. So quiet and easily over looked.
"L-let's do our best!" She said, giving him a small smile which he easily returned.
"Papers face down until I give the signal. Now listen up." Ibiki barked, drawing all eyes in the room. "There are a few big rules that pertain to this first test. I'll write them on the blackboard and explain them all, but I'm not taking questions so listen carefully. I will only say this once?"
"Rules…no questions? Why not? Most exams allow for clarifying questions. And why only say it once…?"
A Ninja must see through deception. Kakashi's frequent mantra floated through her head.
"Ah. I see. It's part of the test. To see how well we work with just what's given to us. And to test our memory…"
"Rule number one!" Ibiki continued, his chalk scratching away at the board. "Each of you starts with ten points. The test has ten questions, each worth 1 point. For each question you get wrong, we subtract one point from you. Get all ten right, and you retain the ten points you have. But if, for example, you answer three questions incorrectly, we take your ten points, subtract one point for every wrong answer and your total drops to seven."
"I already have questions…this test is operating in negative points. Since we start with the maximum amount, a correct answer is worth 0 and a wrong answer's worth -1…So what happens if we don't answer? If there's no penalty for not answering, then a blank test could be worth ten points…"
Naruto hadn't noticed this discrepancy. His mind instead focused on the fact that if he got ten wrong answers, he'd end up with no points at all.
"Rule number two. This written test is still a team event. Passing or failing will be determined by the sum of points held by all three members of each cell."
Sakura's head almost banged into the desk.
"The object is for each team to have as few deductions as possible from it's joint thirty point total."
"W-wait a second!" Sakura shouted, completely forgetting the no questions statement. "If we're being graded as a team, why aren't we allowed to work with our teammates to answer the questions?!"
Kotetsu smirked again. This kid didn't realize how close to the answer she was, but he had no doubt she'd get there. What had the Uchiha brat said about her? She was the most analytical in their cell. And coming from the prodigy Uchiha, that meant something.
Ibiki's eyes narrowed. If she pushed a little harder, she'd ruin the whole test right then and there. "Did you not hear the part about 'no questions?' We have our reasons. Now shut up and listen. This next bit is crucial."
The girl quieted but he could see by her narrowed eyes that she was carefully calculating everything he said so far.
"Rule number 3: if, during the course of the exam, a candidate does anything out of the ordinary…in other words anything that leads the proctors to determine that he or she has cheated, we subtract two points from each member of the cheater's team. In all probability, some of you will run through your entire allowance of points during the test. If so, you'll be failed and asked to leave."
"I get it…There are more ways to lose points than just missing a question. But…something's weird about this…"
"I'll be looking over your shoulders when you least expect it." Kotetsu said from his chair against the wall, smirking at group of anxious genin. His eyes landed on the pink haired girl from earlier. Despite her outburst earlier, she still seemed fairly calm. He could practically see the gears turning in her mind.
"If you let the proctors catch you cheating, you'll bring yourself and your friends down! If you aspire to become Chunin, if you want to be the best shinobi you can be, then you'd better start acting like you already are!"
"Ok…It's too bad about Naruto, but Sasuke-kun and I should be able to retain enough points for all three of us…even if Naruto gets every single answer wrong."
"One more thing. If any individual loses all ten of his or her points, that person's cell, regardless of how the other two members do, will be disqualified!"
"What?!"
Across the room, Sasuke choked on his saliva. What. The. Hell.
Naruto was now sweating bullets, the pressure having been greatly amplified with those few words. He could feel both members of his team, ready to kill him already.
"You have one hour. Starting…Now!"
There was a rustle of paper and pencil scratching as everyone got to work.
"This is bad…this could be a no-win situation…please Naruto, try to hang on to at least one of your points…"
For his part, Naruto was unraveling. This was funny…here he was again, facing the worst kind of enemy! Teacher's didn't call him the all time dunce for nothing! He earned that name on the field of battle! The trick was not to show any fear. Tests could smell fear. He had to remain calm, focus like Sakura always told him. Don't try to do everything at once. Look each question square in the eye. Try to find the weakest link…the easy one. Separate it from the herd and take it down!
His raven haired teammate watched his shivering back from three rows behind him. This was so not good…Naruto was an idiot. The best Sasuke could hope for was that the bonehead wouldn't panic. He looked down at the first question:
Question No. 1
Decode the following cipher and summarize its meaning.
Sasuke blinked. Whoa. First up was cryptography. They wanted them to work their butts off! He'd been confident he'd be able to pass this written test easily, but now he wasn't so sure…
Sakura's eyes glanced at Naruto again.
"I hope that idiot's doing ok…"
"I've got to concentrate on my own test…I have to hang on to all my points to make up for him." Her green eyes drifted back to her own test, skimming through the questions.
Question No. 2
The parabola marked B represents the greatest effective distance the enemy shinobi, A, could throw from the top of a 7.07 meter tall tree. Calculate the specific features of the scenario and deduce the range of the shuriken's effectiveness, assuming a consistent speed for shinobi A's assault upon enemy shinobi operating within the arc that the flight of the shuriken describes. Show your work…
"Dear god, Naruto's so screwed…"
"This…this is…to solve this, you need to hypothesize under very uncertain conditions, and then apply the laws of kinetics to whatever you come up with…There's no way Naruto could answer this…actually, neither could most of the people in this room!"
"We can! Shannaro!"
"Yes…But an average genin couldn't…It's…it's too hard, bordering on impossible…"
Sasuke stared at his test with an almost amused frustration. Well, well…he didn't know how to answer a single one of the questions…interesting. He'd always been top of the class. He was as academically gifted as he was skilled in combat. If he couldn't answer these, odds were very few in the room probably could. He figured Sakura was one of the few…this sort of this was her bread and butter. But Sakura's perfect score alone would't be enough to carry them. He had to at least answer seven or eight correctly. And what was the deal with question 10?
Question No. 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.
Sakura stared down at her test again. Things weren't adding up.
"There's too much that's strange about this…we're graded as a team but not allowed to work together…in fact we're purposely spread around so we can't. Then there's the point system, everyone starting with a perfect score and losing points on incorrect answers or getting caught cheating—and that affects all team members…but normally in a test, if you get caught cheating, that's the end automatically. Here you and your team just lose points if you're caught…"
A ninja must see through deception…
"Oh!" Sakura's eyes widened. Ibiki had said it himself. If you let the proctors catch you cheating…
"This test is designed to force us to cheat. They expect us too—it's about information gathering…who can gather intel without being caught by the enemy. That's why we're graded as a cell too. If a team member is caught, everyone else's cover is blown too."
Sakura closed her eyes for a moment, calmly analyzing her team's situation.
"Sasuke-kun probably won't be able to answer these…but he'll probably reach the same conclusion I did eventually and figure out a way to subtly cheat, probably using his sharingan somehow…Naruto won't be able to think that clearly. He can't answer any of these questions and if he comes to cheating it'll be a desperation move, not a calculated one. And he has no subtlety whatsoever…"
"Like screaming his presence and jumping into a dome of ice mirrors…idiot…"
"Exactly. Assuming there is no penalty for not answering the questions, our best bet is if he chooses not to answer…though I doubt he'll reach that conclusion logically…if it happens it'll be more our luck than his brilliance…"
"And us?"
"I don't have a sure fire way of cheating that won't get me caught…and I can answer these without it. So that's my best bet. Maybe Sasuke-kun will be able to cheat off me somehow."
Sakura set to work powering through the incredibly difficult questions on the test.
Naruto, on the other hand, completely devolved. He held his head in mortification, beads of sweat dripping down his face. Man, he was so screwed. Totally. Seriously. Fatally screwed. 'What do I do?' Kept echoing around his empty head. He let out a quiet exclamation.
"Craaap!"
Hinata looked over at him, her face flushing at the blond sitting so close next to her. But he looked so stressed. He was having such a hard time with this test, and she couldn't stop the concern from making its way to her face. She wanted to help him somehow…
Sasuke eyed the proctors lining the walls. They were watching them like hawks. It's like they expected them to cheat. He watched as a proctor suddenly began to make notes on his clipboard…someone just got nailed.
Sakura finished answering the sixth question and stared down at her test, a frustrated hand raking through her hair.
"Rule number two makes it pretty clear that we're competing against each other. Obviously, only teams that keep the most points will be allowed to pass…I just wish I knew where the cut off was. How many of the top teams can pass? Not that knowing would change anything, but the uncertainty is driving me nuts…"
The boy next to her, wearing a sand hitai-ate, stood up suddenly.
"You know…the one thing I keep wondering is how many of the top ranking teams will be allowed to pass…"
"…Guess we weren't the only ones who were curious…"
Ibiki started chuckling, which Sakura took as a bad sign. "Knowing that isn't going to help you, is it? Unless you're hoping to fail."
"I-I'm sorry…" The boy murmured sitting down quickly.
"I figured as much. If only about ten of the fifty one teams here can pass…all three of us need to retain as many points as possible. The system is set up so that it forces you to cheat. I just hope Sasuke-kun and Naruto don't panic and do it sloppily…No, Sasuke-kun will be fine. But Naruto…Maybe he'll magically learn the art of subtlety."
"Yeah, when hell freezes over."
Naruto was trying to talk himself down from a nervous breakdown. Remain calm. Above all proceed with caution…and cheat well enough that they don't catch him. Immediately he knew that was a terrible idea and he shouldn't even go there.
As Sasuke continued to eye the proctors, scratching away at their clipboards, Ibiki's words from earlier played through his head. That was it. He got it now. This was an "intelligence" test, in more than just an academic sense. Naruto had to wake up—he'd be history if he didn't figure it out. They were testing their information gathering skills. They wanted them to cheat like shinobi, without getting caught! The proctors wanted them to cheat really well…the way the best shinobi would if they needed to gather information in a real-world mission. That explained the two point deductions. The real message was you could get caught four times before you face disqualification. They weren't being tested on whether they knew the answers, but on how skillfully they could discover them. And any minute now, anyone else who figured it out would start going for it.
He was right. Akamaru, kiba's dog, was sitting on the scruffy brunettes head, peeking at other's tests and quietly barking the answers to his owner. An insect was flying in fancy patterns in front of Shino, communicating the answers. TenTen had somehow managed to rig some sheets of mirror around the light fixture and tilting them with strings, allowing both her and Lee to see other peoples answers. Dosu, the sound ninja that attacked Kabuto earlier, listened closely to the pencil strokes of someone nearby, and copied what he differentiated from the sound of the writing. Neji activated his Hyuga clan kekkei genkai, enhancing his vision and allowing him to see the answers of the person in front of him.
Sasuke looked around. He needed to find who had the answers. There had to be someone they planted, if they expected them to cheat. He first tried to locate Sakura. She'd probably figured out the whole test ages ago. And he doubted she needed to cheat to answer the questions, she was probably efficiently solving them on her own. He finally caught sight of her—her soft pink hair was hard to miss—but the angle wasn't good. She was one row in front of him, very far to his left. He had to lean too much to get a good look at her and even then the sightline wasn't great. It'd be too obvious he was cheating. Luckily, a guy Sasuke had a much clearer sightline of seemed to be writing answers with relative ease. That was the one he'd use. He'd mimic his ever move with his Sharingan.
The sound of the clock ticking was too loud to Naruto. He was running out of time. He had to cheat, he was dead anyways. No sooner had he thought it than a kunai whizzed past his arm, impaling itself in the test of the boy behind him, who let out a scream of shock.
"Wh-what was that for?" The boy demanded.
Kotetsu smirked. "That's five strikes…and you're out."
"N-no…no way…" The boy looked horrified.
"Take your teammates with you. Out. Now."
"Dang…" One of the boy's teammates muttered as the three man cell trudged dejectedly from the room.
"You're done here. Move it." Kotetsu said, ushering them out.
Naruto let out a shaky breath. That was close. No way was he gonna risk cheating now…not alone.
"N-naruto-kun? You can look at my test, if you want…" Hinata offered kindly.
Naruto just stared at her blankly.
"Naruto-kun…please…look at my answers." Hinata tried again, her cheeks scarlet.
Naruto blinked in confusion. What was she talking about? Why would Hinata want to help him? It had to be some kind of trick…but that was pretty low. And Hinata had never been anything but quiet and, well, nice he guessed. She wasn't the kind of girl to play a trick like that. But Kiba might, and they were teammates…he could have forced her to.
"Level with me, what's in it for you if you help me?" Naruto asked suspiciously.
"It's…it's just…" She fidgeted and swallowed hard, trying to find the right words. And the courage to say them. "I…you…I don't want you to have to leave so soon, Naruto-kun."
That seemed to confuse him even more, as he continued to stare at her blankly. What'd it matter to her if he left now?
"W-well, you know…there are only nine of us rookies, and we don't know what we're facing…the odds will be better for all of us…if we stick together…at least…for now…" Hinata finished lamely. What a terrible lie. Her team aside, it didn't matter much to her who else passed. It'd be nice if all her old classmates did, but ultimately the only one she really cared to see succeed was Naruto.
"Oh…ok. Heh…yeah I guess that makes sense…sorry for doubting you." Naruto said with a smile. It was his lucky day! Good thing Hinata got placed next to him.
Hinata subtly slid her test over slightly, closer to Naruto, who turned to look at it before he froze. He heard the tell tale signs of a proctor scratching notes on his clipboard, and when he glanced over and saw the proctor look up at him and smirk, his stomach dropped.
"Hinata…don't you get it?"
"Huh?"
"A world class ninja like me just isn't the kind of guy who cheats!"
"…B-but…Naruto-kun…"
"Besides, if I get busted, I don't want you to have to pay for having helped me!"
"Huh?" Hinata tried to keep herself from blushing harder. Naruto was worried about her?!
Naruto on the other hand felt like he was flatlining. If he got caught doing the crime, Sakura and the Bastard would have the do the time. He couldn't afford to mess up here.
"I-I'm sorry I bothered you…"
"Hey, no problem…" Great. She believed him. At least he had his honor while being completely screwed over. They only had half an hour left. At this point, his only hope was the last question.
Sakura passed a hand through her hair with a sigh. She finished. She'd answered all nine of those impossibly hard questions. The only thing left to do was wait for the tenth. She hoped Sasuke was able to find someone to cheat off of. It was weird and made no sense, but a piece of her hoped he'd cheat off her. It would mean that he trusted her enough to have the answers. It would mean she was useful. That she did something to help the team get through this test…that she did something to help him.
Sasuke let out a relieved huff. He really hit the jackpot with this guy. He'd been planning to mimic two or three other people just in case, but he'd been writing non-stop with his first target. It wasn't as ideal as Sakura. She was still his first choice. He knew her, knew how smart she was, and trusted her answers. He had no doubt Sakura would retain her perfect score. This guy meant nothing to him. For all he knew, his answers were dead wrong. He just hoped that since he was writing so much so continuously, the guy must have some sense of what he was saying.
Ino had a similar train of thought to Sasuke, and a better sightline to her former friend. There was a reason she'd nicknamed Sakura 'Forehead.' It had been Ino's version of 'smarty pants.' Ino knew for a fact that Sakura was a genius. She had an almost perfect memory and spent most of her time with her nose buried in a book or scroll. She used to play trivia and memory games for fun…back when she let herself have fun. Now that Sakura had stopped writing it was time to make her move. The Yamanaka clan's signature technique: The mind transfer jutsu. A small part of her did feel bad using it on an unsuspecting Sakura…but she was the one to end their friendship and push her away. Ino had nothing to be sorry for.
"Mind transfer jutsu!"
Ino slumped forward as her spirit left her body, entering Sakura's instead. She quickly looked over her test, memorizing her answers. Once she had them all memorized, she'd release the jutsu and answer them on her own test. Then she'd possess Shikamaru and Choji, and fill in their tests for them as well.
The proctors continued scratching away, calling out more and more failed applicants.
"On your feet number 102. You fail."
"You too, number 23. You're out!"
"Number 43 and 27…start walking. You all fail!"
Sakura, now freed from Ino's possession and mostly unaware she'd ever been under it in the first place, bit at her lip. That was thirteen cells they'd flunked so far.
Some weren't taking their failure gracefully. A sand genin slammed his hand down on the desk.
"Cheated five times?! Me? What proof do you have? How could you possibly watch so many students at once?!"
The proctor he'd been challenging suddenly vanished and the next thing anyone knew, the sand genin was slammed into the opposite wall.
"Listen up and listen good. We proctors are the elite. Even in a group as skilled as the one gathered here today, we are by far the best. We miss nothing! You got that, brats?"
He pressed harder into the boy, easily pinning him hard and high enough his feet didn't touch the floor, and only using one arm.
"You feel this? Well, I am as skilled as I am powerful!"
The terrified, flunked, genin nodded. The proctor released him and the boy scurried out, determined to put as much distance between him and the proctor as possible.
Everyone else was too intimidated to contest being flunked after that.
Ibiki studied a perfect calm red haired sand genin. Subaku no Gaara. That brat was up to something. Whatever it was, he was doing it without batting an eye…perfectly calm in the eye of a hurricane. For a rookie, he was amazing.
Kotetsu was also had his focus on an individual candidate. He hadn't been surprised when Sakura's eyes had widened, scanned the room, the board where the rules were written, and then calmly closed her eyes, in thought. He hadn't been surprised when she opened her eyes, gave a small nod, and set to work answering all the questions on the test—without cheating. What he had been surprised about was how quickly she'd figured it out. It took her seven minutes to put together what this test was really for. She'd been the first to get it. It took her twenty three minutes to answer all the questions on the test—ones that were impossibly hard and that even some chunin struggled with. She'd finished long before anyone else. Now she was just sitting there, idly twirling her pencil between her fingers, looking as if the tense environment had no effect on her. He hoped none of her teammates screwed up, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't pulling for her. The Uchiha was fine. Kotetsu had been watching him carefully and while he knew the boy was cheating, he couldn't catch how. He was sure no other proctors had caught him either. He had to hand it to him, Uchiha Sasuke was skilled. The loud blond one on the other hand…well, it was easy to see the kid was a basket case…Still, he was gutsy, challenging a whole room of older more experienced genin like that. And Sakura was just so intelligent and level headed. He couldn't shake the hope that their team would pass. He wanted to see them in action together as a team. They were all…interesting.
"Excuse me." A sand genin in a black cat-like hood with purple face paint stood up and raised his hand.
"What is it?" A proctor asked.
"I've got to go to the bathroom."
"Of course. One of the proctors will accompany you." The proctor answered, placing handcuffs on him as a precaution.
"Why not?" The boy answered carelessly and he was lead out of the room.
Five minutes later, Ibiki glanced at the clock. They'd weeded out the worst of the slackers…it was time to move on to the most important question. Forty five minutes had passed. It was time.
"Get ready for the tenth question!" He announced to the room.
Naruto swallowed hard, cold sweating from his anxiety. Here it comes. He had everything riding on this question.
Sasuke looked at Naruto's tensed back. Mr. Big-shot didn't seem to be talking to so large now…he really hoped the doofus didn't mess this up too bad. Their team hadn't been thrown out for cheating, which likely meant that Naruto hadn't cheated…in a way, that was more nerve wracking, cause god knew the idiot couldn't answer these questions.
Sakura's pencil twirled back into writing position. This was just one more mountain to climb…the last for this part of the test.
"Before we get to the question itself, I'm adding one more rule."
He was cut off by the door opening, as the sand genin returned from the bathroom, with the "proctor" in tow.
"Heh…looks like you're in luck. The time you've spent playing with dolls hasn't been completely wasted."
To his credit, the boy kept his face impassive, but Ibiki saw the bead of sweat on his cheek.
"Don't worry about it. Sit down."
One the boy was seated, Ibiki continued. "Let me explain. This rule…is absolute."
Naruto swallowed hard. An absolute rule?! Just how much worse could this question be then the others?
"First…You must choose…whether to accept or reject the tenth question!"
Sasuke's eyes narrowed. Accept or reject? What was this about?
"Ch-choose?!" A sand kunoichi with sandy blond hair in four spiky pigtails shouted. "What happens if someone doesn't accept the question?!"
"If you reject the question and don't even try to answer it, you'll lose all your points immediately and fail! And both your teammates will fail right along with you."
The room erupted in shouts of surprise and complaint.
Sakura raised her hand. When Ibiki's eyes fell on her, she asked, "Then why would anyone choose to reject the question?" Her tone was calm, her eyes serious and calculating.
Ibiki studied her. For a girl her age, who spent a fair amount of time on her looks, if her shiny long hair and flawless skin were any indication, she sure was level headed.
"Because of the other rule…"
Sakura had figured there was a catch. It was why she asked the question in the first place.
"If you answer the question, and get it wrong, you will never be permitted to apply for the chunin selection exams again. Not ever."
If there had been complaint before, it was nothing to the protest that broke out now.
"You can't be serious! That's ridiculous! There are ninja here who've sat the chunin exams more than once already! We know there are!" Kiba shouted angrily, pointing an accusing finger.
Ibiki chuckled, a sound Sakura had begun to associate with more bad news for them.
"God this guy's a sadist!"
"Just your rotten luck. I wasn't making the rules in the past years. I am now. I've been up front with you. You can take the failing grade now, and try again later. Anyone who has doubts would be smart to reject the tenth question now. Come back and reapply next year, and the year after."
Sakura studied the imposing proctor.
"Talk about a no-win situation. If even one member rejects the question, then all three team members fail for the year. If anyone accepts the question and get's wrong, he's stuck at genin level for the rest of his life…Heads you win, tails we lose! No sane person could make such a choice…"
Sakura took a deep breath, and willed herself to think clearly.
"There had to be a trick here, just like there was with the rest of the test…'if you reject the question and don't even try to answer it…' that means we're supposed to try. 'Come back and reapply next year, and the year after…' If we don't answer this question now, he expects us to keep failing, next year and the year after…he wants us to accept the question. But the consequence if we get it wrong…"
"Does he even have the power to forever keep us from promotion?! Maybe us leaf genin but he's got no authority in other nations, right?"
"I don't know…It's an international exam, maybe it requires international agreement? Besides, like Kabuto-san's data showed, Konoha sent the most applicants. Taking a test in a foreign nation being proctored by foreign ninja already requires a level of courage and mental fortitude…maybe he doesn't expect any foreign ninja to get it wrong…maybe it's targeting leaf genin…"
Sakura shook her head. The politics of it didn't matter. And she wasn't inclined to doubt someone as intimidating as Ibiki's level of authority. For now she'd have to proceed under the assumption his threat was accurate.
The whole room looked apprehensive, with the exception of Gaara and Sakura. Although the latter was apprehensive, she was just very used to and adept at hiding her anxiety.
Naruto was full out trembling.
"Ready? Then let's begin. Those who choose not to accept should raise their hands. Once their number has been confirmed, they will leave the room."
Naruto's teeth clenched. What kind of stupid question could it be?! If he got it wrong, he'd be a genin for the rest of his life…not acceptable! But if he rejected the question…Sasuke and Sakura would suffer for his lack of guts.
Sakura looked over at Naruto and could see him shaking. She felt her heart give a little.
"I don't intend to raise my hand…Ibiki-san wants us to accept the question and I'm sure I can answer it, whatever it may be!…but even if Naruto decides to play it safe and reject the question, and we all fail…all I'll lose is time. I won't have failed forever, and I can apply again for the next exam—I may even be more ready by then…But, Naruto…you're different. It'd be foolish of you to sacrifice yourself forever for our sakes. Reject the question."
"I-I…I quit! I'm rejecting the question!" The boy next to Naruto shouted, standing up abruptly. "Genna! Inaho! Forgive me."
"Number 50! Failed! Number 130 and number 111, you fail along with him."
"…Damn…"
The three walked out as more people started rejecting the question. In the back of her mind, Sakura registered that most of them were indeed Konoha genin, but she was too focused on Naruto and his obvious mental breakdown to think much about it.
"…Naruto…why don't you raise your hand?"
I-I did it! I'm a ninja!
It's Uzumaki Naruto! Believe it! I am the cream of the ninja elite. In fact, I'm gonna be the next hokage! So remember my name!
…I'll be better than the Hokage!…And then all the villagers will have to acknowledge my existence at last!
You said it yourself, I never had anyone to reign me in…But that's why if I say or do something stupid, you need to slap some sense into me.
"He's always going on about Hokage this and Hokage that…Like a broken record. You put your trust in me to look out for you, and stop you if you were about to do something stupid. Your dream may be crazy…but I don't want it taken away from you forever."
Sakura began to raise her hand, but stopped at the sight of Naruto's shaking hand high in the air.
"N-Naruto?! He actually—"
"Never underestimate me!" He slammed his hand down on the table loudly. "I don't quit and I won't run! I'll accept your stupid question! Even if I risk ending up a rookie my whole life I'll still become Hokage, even if I can only make it on pure stubbornness, I don't care! I'm not afraid of you!" He huffed, glaring at the intimidating proctor.
Sasuke smirked. The idiot never even gave Sakura and Him a thought…but he certainly did have guts.
"Good thing too. Because a moron like him needs them!" Sakura smiled, unaware that she and Sasuke had just shared the same exact thought.
"I'll ask you all one last time. This is a decision that could affect the rest of your life. Quit now while you still have the chance."
"I never go back on my word. That's my nindo—my ninja way!" Naruto answered, smiling confidently.
Ibiki scanned the room full of genin. All of them looking resolutely back at him. seventy-eight were still there. That blond was an entertaining kid. And an interesting one. His outburst dispelled everyone else's doubts along with his own. It was more than he expected but there was no point dragging it out. Thanks to him, no one else would quit. He glanced at the other proctors who nodded back in agreement.
"Good call. So, everyone who's still here…"
There was a collective gulp of tense anticipation as they all awaited the tenth question.
"…You've just passed the first exam!"
There were mixed reactions of shock, confusion, and mistrust.
Naruto was completely confused. Sasuke was shocked. Sakura, however, was having a strange sense of deja vu.
You pass…You guys are the first. Up until now, it was always just dunces who would meekly listen to what I said. A ninja must see through deception…
"We passed…that was the tenth question, wasn't it?" Sakura asked.
Off to the side, Kotetsu smirked. She really was quick, that one. And her whole team made it through thanks to the gutsy blond and his moronic backbone of steel.
Ibiki grinned as well. "That's correct." Smart kid.
"Hey! Then why did we have to suffer through the other nine questions?! That was a total waste of our time!" The sandy haired sand kunoichi shouted.
"There was no waste. Those questions had a purpose, which they've already served."
"Such as?" The sand kunoichi, Temari, was not one to back down easily.
"Our goal was to test you skills…at spying." He answered brightly.
"…our skills at spying?" Temari murmured, caught off guard by his sudden personality change.
"Whoo! We so called it! Shannaro!"
"Remember the rules at the beginning? You pass or fail as part of a three man cell. With that rule, I pressured you with the fear that anything you did wrong would bring your teammates down with you."
Naruto nodded along sagely. "You know, I kind of figured that was it." He didn't noticed how Hinata blushed and giggled next to him.
"Liar! You are so full of it!"
"However, the questions are beyond the level a genin could be expected to handle. So most of you, having reached that same conclusion, only had one way of retaining your points—by cheating."
"Not us! We beat your test!"
"Not exactly…We sorta failed, given that he was trying to test our information gathering skills, and we didn't gather any information…"
"In other words, we set up the test on the assumption that you'd cheat."
Sasuke smirked. He'd been right.
"And to ensure there would be suitable targets for you to cheat from, we snuck a pair in—two chunin who already knew all the answers." His eyes landed on Sakura, who looked completely unfazed by this whole revelation. They'd snuck the two in figuring no one would be able to answer the questions on their own. They hadn't accounted for her though…
"It took me forever to figure out who they were…" One applicant stated.
"Oh yeah! Me too!" Another answered.
Naruto twitched. He'd had no idea…he had to save face, quick.
"Ha ha ha! Yeah! It was obvious! And idiot could tell! Right Hinata?"
"R-right!" Hinata stuttered, her cheeks tinting red that Naruto was actually initiating conversation with her, and suppressing a giggle at the obvious lie.
Sasuke sighed. That fool…it was obvious he had no idea.
"Of course anyone who cheated in a clumsy or obvious way failed." Ibiki continued, unwrapping his bandana, to reveal horrifying scarring on the top of his bald head.
"Because there may be circumstances where being caught in an act of espionage can cost more than just your life. You pay in many ways that can be taken from you little by little, time and time again, when many lives hang in the balance."
Sasuke swallowed hard. Burn scars, punctures from where screws were used, long scratch marks…He'd been tortured. Whatever this guy said was coming from life experience.
Ibiki retied the bandana. "The information you obtain can't be trusted if you can't keep your presence a secret from the enemy. Learn that and learn it well. If you bring back intelligence from a suspect source or a compromised operation, you're doing your enemies' work for them, putting those you serve in danger. That is why we maneuvered you into using your espionage skills to cheat. It was the quickest way of weeding out applicants whose skills aren't yet up to snuff."
"…Like mine…" Sakura's eyes dropped to her completed test.
"Okay…what was the deal with the tenth question?" Temari pressed.
Ibiki smiled. "The tenth question was the first real test on the exam."
Team 7, do you accept this mission?
Sakura looked up at Ibiki, the pieces falling into place.
"You were giving us a mission scenario, and wanted to see if we would accept it or walk away."
Confusion rippled across the classroom, while Ibiki's smile widened.
"Correct again."
Sasuke smirked proudly. Of course she was. Once she said it, he started putting the pieces together too. Leave it too Sakura to reach the answer meters faster than anyone else.
"Wait, what's she mean?" Kiba asked, glancing at Sakura.
"The tenth question was a choice between two options, that were both difficult and dangerous. Those who chose to reject were failed and their friends along with them. Those who chose to accept and couldn't answer the question, lost any chance of ever trying again. It was a Nasty no win set of options." Ibiki explained. "So why did I present them? Let's assume you all make the rank of chunin. You are assigned to steal a vital enemy document, knowing nothing about the skills, deployment, or military preparedness of your foe. You may have to cross a territory that's been heavily mined and set with traps. Now…Do you accept your mission? Or do you reject it rather than place your own life or the lives of your companions in jeopardy? Could a chunin get away with only taking on the safe jobs?"
Ibiki's eyes swept around the room, seeing the dawning understanding taking root in everyones faces.
"…Of course not!" He continued. "No matter how dangerous the risk, there will always be missions you can not decline. A ninja must demonstrate valor that inspires those around him, helping all to overcome their fear." His eyes landed on Naruto. "This is the talent we value most in the commander of a chunin cell! Those who can't gamble with their own fate…who would trade today's certain risk for tomorrow's uncertain future, never taking the chance before them, are weakling who make only weak, easy decisions. In my opinion, they don't belong in the ranks of chunin at all!"
Sakura's eyes dropped down to her test, though she showed no other signs of internal strife, her mind was raging.
"That's me he's talking about…I was going to raise my hand…"
"For Naruto's sake, not our own."
"Still…I shouldn't be here. I didn't even pass this test—not really. I didn't cheat. If I had, I wouldn't have passed…"
"But we figured out what was going on before anyone else! We analyzed the situation and acted accordingly to the best of our abilities. And we never lost our cool either. That counts for something damnit!"
She took a deep breath. Her internal self made good points. Besides, she'd always taken risks. Treating her mother herself was a risk, becoming a ninja while being solely responsible for her mother's health was a risk, coming here had been a risk.
"…I know…Trial by fire…I was wrong this time. Now I know. I'll just have to work on it and do better…" But grasping something mentally was always easier than emotionally, and though she looked up with determination, her doubt still lingered.
"By choosing to accept, you answered the almost insoluble tenth question correctly. If you keep that spirit, you can probably conquer all of the many doubts and difficulties you'll face. You've passed the first hurdle. Part one of the chunin selection exam is now concluded. I'll pray you fight the good fight!"
"Yeah you do that! Go pray!" Naruto cheered, thrilled at having actually passed the paper exam.
Ibiki chuckled. He truly was an entertaining kid.
There was suddenly a crash of broken glass and a whirl of black cloth as the window shattered. Two kunai pinned the black cloth to the ceiling, revealing a banner that said:
Newly arrived second chief examining officer Mitarashi Anko
A woman stood in front of it boldly. She had a curvaceous figure and plum colored hair clipped in a spiky ponytail.
"None of you have are in any position to celebrate! I am the second exam proctor, Mitarashi Anko! Time's a wastin' people. Let's go! Follow me!" She barked.
"…She seems…"
"Melodramatic, unhinged, insane…?"
"I was gonna go with intense…She kind of reminds me of Naruto…"
"Can't you sense the mood in here?" Ibiki sighed.
She looked over the room. "Seventy-eight are still here? Ibiki! You passed twenty-six teams?! Obviously, you went too easy on them."
"This year, we have applicants of exceptional caliber." Ibiki answered evenly.
"Yeah right. I'll cut down the number by half before the next test is done."
"By half? That means they'll be only thirteen teams left…and that we've only got a fifty percent chance of clearing the next round…"
"Ooh! I'm getting excited just thinking about it! I'll explain in detail as soon as we move to our next location…so follow me!"
As applicants started pushing up from their chairs, Sakura glanced at the time. It was already 5:15pm. Soon, there wouldn't be much daylight left. If they were starting a test this late, it was probably going to be a multi-day thing. With that thought in mind, she quickly tore a corner off her test and jotted a quick note to her sensei, asking if he'd check in on her mom every now and then while she was busy taking this test, folded the small section of paper, and headed for the spiky haired, bandaged nosed proctor she'd recognized earlier.
"Excuse me…" She asked him, tugging gently at the end of his shirt. He turned towards her, a smirk forming on his face when he saw her.
"Congrats on passing…Sakura, right?"
"That's right. Haruno Sakura…thank you, although technically I didn't demonstrate what the test was actually looking for…"
"Hagane Kotetsu. Kotetsu's fine. And No need to gather information if you already have it…or can figure it out on your own." He answered easily, apparently not having an issue with the way Sakura passed the test.
"I guess…in the end it didn't matter much anyways, since the only really question was the tenth." She allowed. "Um…Kotetsu-san, I have a favor to ask…Would you please give this to Hatake Kakashi?" She held up the tiny note she had written.
"Not trying to cheat now, are you?"
"How? I have no idea what the second exam will be, although my guess is it'll be some sort of practical test, now that you've tested us in theory. Kakashi-sensei's interference would invalidate anything we do and be grounds for disqualification…"
"Not bad. Solid reasoning. So, why should I do you this favor?" He asked, smirking down at her.
"Fee for medical advice? Congratulations present, birthday present, curiosity, something to do," Sakura shrugged lightly, a smirk of her own making it's way towards her lips, "a chance to ask Kakashi-sensei about us cause I know you were impressed by Sasuke-kun earlier, and entertained by Naruto."
Kotetsu nodded. "You forgot curiosity about you on that list."
"Me?"
"Why be curious about me? Next to Sasuke-kun and Naruto, I'm nothing special…"
"There wasn't a single other person taking the test today that was able to answer those questions, none who figured out the test as fast as you, very few who remained as calm as you in a high pressure environment, none who recognized me, none who gave me first aid advice, and none who dared to walk up to one of the proctors after the exam and ask for an unrelated favor. You're more interesting than you think, Sakura."
Sakura blinked up at him, wide eyed. She hadn't expected that. Kotetsu smiled down at her and took the note from her fingers.
"And you were smart enough to use the right motivation. I am interested in your team and I'd welcome the excuse to question your sensei. You'd better get going. Happy birthday, Sakura. Good luck!"
"Thank you Kotetsu-san!" She answered with a beaming smiled. Now that she was sure her mom would be alright, she could focus on the test. She gave a grateful, low, bow, and hurried off after her team.
Author's note: Here's the first test of the chunin exams. I think it holds true to canon that Sakura is severely insecure and unsure of herself. She always sees what she is capable enough as never enough and undermines her own strength...even through Shippuden she still considers herself not useful enough. I think the Sakura I've written feels that even stronger even sooner than Kishimoto's Sakura. None of what she thinks of herself is true, and it's not how her teammates or others see her, but it's how she sees herself. Her inner self is the cocky, childlike, confident one and it's why she's always giving herself her own pep talk. I don't know if any of you know about chakra centers in yoga/lucid body movement technique, but my Sakura has what would be called a sporadic third, which means that her confidence runs extremely high and drops extremely low very frequently and rapidly. I sort of think Sasuke's the same way actually, but he's got a slightly more consistent baseline of the extremely high side.
Also I know Kotetsu isn't a big character, and I don't ship him and Sakura, or even have that strong of an opinion of him, but in both the books and the anime, adults and older ninja are always taking special interest in Sasuke and Naruto, and that's never the case for Sakura (not counting Tsunade but Sakura has to ask her to train her, Tsunade didn't take special interest in Sakura until after that). So I wanted to give Sakura a higher ranking ninja rooting for her.
Thank you so much for all the favorites, follows, and reviews! Please keep it up! They mean so much and are very helpful motivation to me! You guy's are the best!
Thank you so much for reading :)