— Lei —
The entire room grew quiet as they looked at the new arrival. I pried my eyes from Kabuto and onto the form of Ibiki Morino, standing in the doorway, looking tough.
"File in and don't cause any trouble," Ibiki ordered, and slowly, the participants stood up from their seats. Ibiki returned to the room, and the people followed him closely.
"Let's get this over with." Shikamaru yawned and pushed himself off the wall. We all followed him into the room, and immediately, I noticed that the seats within the room were numbered.
"Sit in the chairs that align with your participant number. Don't waste my time." Ibiki ordered all of us, and with no one wanting to test the hardened man's patience, we quickly found our seats.
— Ibiki —
As the examinees filtered into the room, Ibiki subtly gazed upon three in particular. The first is Gaara of the Sand, the second is Naruko Uzumaki, and the third is Lei Senju.
The first two were jinchuriki of the one and nine tails, respectively, representing the balance of power between the villages. Both were incredibly important and dangerous. As the proctor, Ibiki was responsible for keeping everyone under control-
And if both of them lost it, then there would be nothing he could do.
His eyes drifted to the brown-haired, green-eyed boy who had just taken his seat. He didn't know much about Lei Senju besides what he knew from the kid's entry in the bingo book and what Anko had told him.
Ibiki didn't need to observe the examinees further beyond a slight glance. While some were interesting, it was clear there were less than ten that truly stood out.
However, if what Anko had said about Lei was true- There was no chance Lei Senju would fail.
Taking on Orochimaru, even with the help of others, is a feat that not even the most experienced Jonin could claim to do.
Then Ibiki's eyes drifted over several other diplomatic figures of importance within the room. The children of the Sand's Kazekage, the students of the Cloud's Lord Killer Bee, and the granddaughter of the Stone's Tsuchikage.
All of them had serious chakra backing them up, and for a moment, Ibiki realized how delicate this entire exam would be. It was practically a breeding ground for the next Shinobi War, and as a Konoha shinobi, as well as the proctor of this section of the exam, it was Ibiki's job to keep everything, and everyone, in check.
Ibiki walked to the middle of the room and cleared his throat.
"Listen up!" Ibiki stared into the souls of the participants. Ten chunin stood behind him with their arms folded behind their backs. "Welcome to the first exam; if you're here, it means you weren't so useless as to fail before the exams began!"
Ibiki liked the way some of the Genin paled at that. Some of them must not have even known they were being tested earlier. Which means either someone helped them, or they made it this far by sheer luck- Either way, they wouldn't last long.
"What test…?" One of the Genin stuttered out, but Ibiki ignored him.
"For this phase, you will all take a written exam." Ibiki paused, taking in the slight facial changes of the participants. "There are ten questions on this exam, nine of the paper I will soon hand out. The tenth will be given once an hour has passed. Should you attempt to cheat, you will be marked down. Get marked down three times, and you and the rest of your team fail the exam.
Gasps were audible throughout the room. More than a few of them started to sweat even more than before, and he could see just who had a chance of passing and who looked like they'd be taking an early bow out.
The human mind is such a fragile thing.
"Any question?"
Instantly, a hand shot up—the hand of a blonde-haired girl.
"Yes, you." Ibiki pointed at Naruko, and she stood up.
"Can we fail the written portion and still make it onto the tenth question?" Naruko asked as she scratched the back of her head nervously.
Ibiki hid his surprise well. He hadn't expected… such a dumb question that somehow turned itself around and became smart. "I will not grade the exam until after the tenth question."
"I see… thanks." Naruko deflated, sitting in her seat.
What an odd girl.
"Any more questions?"
Another hand went up slowly. This time, it belonged to a black-haired girl with pink eyes. Kurotsuchi, the granddaughter of the Third Tsuchikage.
"You."
"In what subject will the tenth subject be?" She questioned, tapping her fingers on the desk with a bored expression.
"You'll wait and find out." Ibiki cut off with an order. Kurotsuchi scrunched her nose and glared at him, but he ignored it. There was much more enemy shinobi had done to him than a little girl giving him a half-assed glare.
"Any more questions?" Ibiki asked, hoping that it would be the last time, and when he saw no one raise their hands, he initiated the exam. "Begin!"
— Lei —
I flipped the paper over and locked onto the first problem. My eyes narrowed as I read it before widening in surprise.
This… I understood it.
I could probably solve it; the first question was really just determining the advanced physics of a kunai's trajectory, which, while hard, is solvable to anyone who knows anything about physics.
Though… I'd rather cheat like we're intended to.
Work smarter, not harder.
I wanted to see how fast people were realizing the true purpose of this exam. My eyes scanned across the backs of the people's heads. I made sure not to look down at the papers so that the chunin watchers didn't mark me for cheating.
My eyes widened as I saw something I didn't notice until now.
Locks of long, deep red hair, several rows ahead of me. That hair… it couldn't belong to anyone besides a Uzumaki, that I was sure of. Judging from the looks of it, it seemed to be a young girl, probably around our age, but I couldn't see her face clearly.
Was there a Uzumaki in the exam in canon?
I pondered on that thought for a while. It had been so long since I watched Naruto, considering I was reincarnated in this world eight years ago. I truly didn't remember if there was.
I let out a sigh and shook my head. It didn't matter; I could gather information later; what was important now was seeing if there were any differences among the others, and a good way to see that was how they cheated on this exam. My eyes locked firmly on the auburn hair and side face of Gaara, who was sitting in my row, as he held up a hand sign. An eyeball made from sand appeared before him and hovered over to one of the examinees, who was likely a chunin in disguise.
I looked at the chunin watchers and blinked at them. How the fuck do they not see that? I looked up and saw a bunch of mirrors moving around. I couldn't see what they were showing but locked onto Tenten's fingers as I followed the strings. The bun-headed girl met my gaze and gave me a cheeky smile, which I deadpanned at.
How the fuck do they not see that?! They must not be trying too hard to notice signs of cheating because that shit is just plain obvious.
"Bark!"
I looked at beside me a couple seats down to see Kiba with Akamaru on top of his head.
"Bark!"
No fucking way!
How the fuck is he not gone!
… Calm down, Lei, it must be favoritism. There can be no other explanation for it.
My eyes glanced backward to where Kurotsuchi was sitting. Her face was in a deep scowl as she stared at the paper before she clutched her head in aggravation.
Not gonna lie; I'm not surprised by that reaction of hers. In fact, had she known the answer to the questions without cheating, I would have been astonished. Though, as things stand, it doesn't look like she's figured out the true test.
My eyes locked back onto my own exam as I held up a hand sign under the table. I'll check back in on her later to see how she cheats, but for now, I might as well secure my own passing, even if it likely won't matter in the long run.
I channeled chakra into one of my fingers and grew a small wooden fly out of it. I gave it the mental order to fly around the room until he found someone who was making decent progress.
The fly found someone at the front of the class who was breezing through the exam, most likely one of the Chunin plants. Thanks to how busted my Wood Release is, I could see everything the fly could see in real-time, so as it hovered just above the Chunin's head, I started copying his answers, going down through the questions from one to nine.
Within five minutes, I had finished my test, and now it was time to go back to observing the crowd.
I looked at Naruko, who was in front and slightly left of me. She was clutching her head with one hand and writing with the other. A small smile crossed my lips. The fact that she was writing meant she was either cheating or trying to figure it out on her own, and the fact that she could do the latter warmed my heart. I doubted she could answer all the questions correctly; hell, I doubt she could answer even half of them, but the thing is, she's trying, and that's what counts in my books.
Satsuki also looked fine; it seemed she was already done with her exam, judging by her sitting with her arms crossed and her eyes closed.
As I absorbed the rest of the class, none of them had done anything special that earned my interest; even the person I believed to be an Uzumaki didn't actually do anything I noticed to pass the exam.
Eventually, the testing time ran out, and Ibiki cleared his throat.
"Time's up, turn over your papers! If you get caught writing another word, you and your team are out of here!"
All of the examinees didn't need to be told twice. Everyone did as Ibiki ordered and turned over their papers.
"Now then, it's time for the tenth question, but know this…" Ibiki announced before pausing. The room was so quiet you could hear a pin drop, and the foreheads of several people were drenched in sweat from all the tension. "Should you get this question wrong… you will fail and never be allowed to retake the Chunin Exams."
"..."
Silence permeated through the room as several people grew distressed. Even Gaara raised his brow, which was funny to see since the guy didn't have eyebrows.
"You can't do that!" Sakura shouted, standing up and slamming her hands on the desk.
"I'm the First Exam Proctor; I can do whatever I want." Ibiki dismissed her without a second thought. The defeat on Sakura's face was apparent, and she slowly took her seat.
"So, who's leaving," Ibiki asked with an expressionless face.
"..."
"I'm out."
"Yeah, me too."
"Sorry guys, I can't… I just can't afford to stay a genin for the rest of my life!"
"I'll sit this year out."
"There's always next year."
We watched as many people shuffled out of the room with defeated and saddened looks. All of them were unimportant fodder that I barely recognized. There were a couple that I knew from the academy that was a few years older than us, but besides that, just a bunch of unimportant shinobi that would likely get killed if they continued on in this exam.
Honestly, Ibiki clearing them out now was for the best.
I looked at Naruko, who was tapping the desk nervously, but she didn't seem like she was inching to bow out. She never quits and never backs down after all, though the fact that she isn't speaking up and giving her mini hype speech means that more and more people are leaving the room-
Which is perfect.
"Last chance, stay and take the risk, or go and try again next year," Ibiki said with a stoney face. His eyes scanned the room, and eventually, he saw no one else leaving. There were considerably fewer people in the exam now, but it still had enough that I assumed there would still be a preliminary round before the final exam later on.
"You have all made up your mind then," Ibiki nodded. "Good. Congratulations, you all pass."
— Chapter End —
Betareader: Dragonboy1