Hello we are back, this time the exams begin properly, and man am I excited to write the forest of death, cus that's gonna be a big moment.
As always please leave me your thoughts in the reviews/comments. I appreciate it.
We are also closing in on 100 kudos on ao3 so I appreciate that. Also closing in on 100k words. I wrote a lot of first chapter garbage edgy teen shit, years and years ago, it's quite nice to look at my writing now and see that it's definitely improved.
Anyway, on with the show
The three genin finally reached the real room '303' and they saw Kakashi standing at the door, apparently waiting for them.
"Ah, you all made it, good, you can now all continue." Kakashi spoke, confusing them.
"Wait sensei, you say that like we'd all have to come to get into the exams?" Sakura questioned, knowing their sensei told them differently previously.
"That was a ruse. In order to take the chunin exams all members of a squad have to attend. However we tell you differently, so you could come to your own decision on the matter and not feel pressured by Naruto or Satsuki's eagerness to compete. You came here all on your own, good job Sakura." Kakashi said eye smiling at her, Sakura's face lit up at the praise while Satsuki breathed a sigh of relief, she was worried Sakura may hold her back, Naruto she could somewhat count on but with Sakura she wasn't too sure, luckily Sakura had found her own footing and decided to compete on her own.
"Hey Kakashi-sensei, we ran into this weird guy saying he was your rival? Do you know him?" Naruto asked a question both he and Satsuki were thinking.
"Hmm, you met Guy? Yea he did mention his team was competing this year." Kakashi said as he thought of his very odd rival, honestly Guy was probably the weirdest guy he knew, but his unwavering attitude and 'youth' had been an odd comfort over the many years they had known one another.
"Wait, so he was telling the truth? He's really as strong as you are?" Sakura said in shock, I mean yes Guy was obviously a jonin still but as strong as Kakashi?!
"Well it's been some time since we went all out against one another, so I can't really say. But I can say this, Guy is the greatest taijutsu specialist in the entire village without a doubt, if you fight any of his students especially some kid named Lee he's been raving about for the past year I'd suggest engaging him at long range, too dangerous to fight him close up." Kakashi warned them, he'd known Guy a long time, even his taijutsu style the strong fist was one of the best, from so many clashes with him, he knew better then to challenge Guy in taijutsu, even with Sharingan that wasn't a fight you wanted to pick lightly.
"Yea we've already met him, he looks like a circus act. But he's good." Satsuki spoke, still quite peeved at her crushing defeat at the hands of Rock Lee.
"Well, I have nothing else to say but remember you're a team, and you'll be graded as one until the last part of the exams, so remember teamwork, and watch each other's backs." Kakashi told them, all three nodded and walked through the doors to the exam room.
What greeted them as a room full of shinobi staring them down, it seems there was no chance of blending in as they were one of the last teams in. They saw a litter of different headbands from grass, waterfall, sand, rain and mostly their own leaf.
"Well well well, looks like all of us got nominated who would have thought!" A loud male voice rang out as team seven heard three familiar faces approach, team eight, consisting of Hinata, Shino and Kiba at the front walked up to them, it seemed they were nominated too.
Honestly Satsuki really didn't like Kiba, he was loud, brash and as thick as an earth style:mud wall. Basically all of Naruto's irritating traits with none of the actual endearing parts. Also during the last year he had constantly tried to hit on her and she was this close to kicking him in his unmentionables so hard his future children felt it.
Shino was alright she guessed, kept to himself, didn't bother her and was quiet, honestly Shino was one of her favorite academy classmates.
Hinata…well Hinata needed to grow some thicker skin, looked like a light breeze would knock her over let alone actual wind style ninjutsu. I mean it was getting harder and harder to be taken seriously as a kunoichi with all the civilian family girls jumping on the bandwagon because they were enamored with the idealistic fantasy of being a kunoichi and being swept of their feet on a mission by a strong male shinobi, it was embarrassing, she once heard a few civilian classmates talking about how they had only wanted to become kunoichi to find themselves a boyfriend and or husband, she could have sworn her ovaries literally hurt from hearing that.
Point is, Hinata, even though she possessed one of the 'three great dojutsu' wasn't someone she outright respected as a fellow female ninja.
"Oh great, you're here too." Naruto muttered dryly, he was definitely not Kiba's biggest fan it seemed, Satsuki understood that definitely, his whole pack alpha thing he constantly tried to envision was annoying as all hell.
"Satsuki, looking great as always." Kiba said in a flirty tone, flashing a toothy grin at her.
"Even if I don't make chunin, if I can beat you half to death with no repercussions these exams will have been worth it." Satsuki thought as she really REALLY hoped there was a section of these exams where she could fight the other contestants, hell it was the main reason she entered.
"Oh yaaaaaaaayyyyy. That's still going on." Naruto thought as dryly and sarcastically as he could, he'd always be slightly put off by Kiba's constant flirting, but now it made him definitely angrier then usual. He made a tight fist in his pocket unconsciously.
"H-Hey t-there, N-naruto." Hinata spoke, stuttering shyly, pressing her two fingers together, everything about her screamed docile, was ninja work really what she wanted to do?
"Oh man, you three too? This will be such a drag." A lazy voice and the crunch of potato chips sounded out, it seems everyone from their academy class who passed was here.
The next generation of the infamous ino-shika-cho, walked up to them.
Satsuki didn't mind Shikamaru she guessed, he was under the same category as Shino, kept to himself, didn't bother her too much but his lazy antics were often kinda irritating to be witness to.
Choji was someone who similarly didn't bother her much but definitely more so then his best friend Shikamaru, she understood that he constantly needed to pile on the fat and calories because his clan's secret jutsu consumed high amounts of calories and body fat but wasn't there an easier and less noisy way to do so then to be constantly eating potato chips! Satsuki could hardly recall a time where he wasn't munching down on them.
Then there was Ino, Ino was probably the second most promising kunoichi in their year, and she hated that, while yes she may be from a clan and yes did take her role as a kunoichi seriously was also insufferable, her constant, loud noisy and invasive bitter rivalry with Sakura, she cringed at her memory's of just hearing "pig!" And "billboard brow" back and forth, it drove her up the wall, then there was the fact that they both constantly tried to associate with her, she honestly couldn't care less about their vein friendship or moronic interests like clothing, hair or any of the other crap that was completely anathema to her. Mainly because Satsuki was a raging tomboy, not that she knew that, or what a tomboy was.
"Oh hey Shikamaru, Choji!" Naruto said happily, from what Satsuki remembered, Naruto was acquaintances with them both as she'd seen them talking quite a bit.
"Piggy." Sakura spoke, starting yet another verbal catfight between her and Ino.
"Sakura~! Hi, well we just had to come say hello, of course we knew where you guys were, after all you can see that massive billboard brow of yours from another hidden village, I'm warning you guys, never go on a stealth mission with her." Ino jabbed back, getting in Sakura's face, the tension in the air rising as sparks seemed to clash from their eyes.
"So they haven't changed. How's it going Naruto." Shikamaru said with a lazy smile at his sorta friend, Naruto loud but he was nice enough, hard to spend time with the guy although, couldn't beat a trained monkey at a game of shoji.
"Eh, saving small country's, breaking up slave trades, ya know, the usual." Naruto bragged about their exploits.
"Very funny, what have you really been doing?" Shikamaru asked dryly, they definitely didn't get anything that crazy, the craziest mission team ten got with protecting this hyper paranoid merchant, guys was worried the animals were reporting on his actions, was a massive drag.
"What I just said?" Naruto said tilting his head confused at Shikamaru's question.
"So Satsuki, after I make chunin maybe I can treat you to dinner?" Kiba spoke slyly, sauntering to the girl who had to suppress a visible cringe.
"I'd rather starve." She spoke harshly, shooting him down without a nanosecond of hesitation.
The rookie genin continued to speak loudly to one another.
"You know you nine really should keep it down." A new voice spoke, all nine looked on to see an older, silver haired man wearing a purple outfit and a leaf headband walk over to them.
"You guys are drawing a lot of attention to yourself, and putting a large target on your backs." He spoke, the rookies turned to see they had the attention of the entire room, not good.
"Crap, they may target us just for the fun of picking on the newbies." Satsuki thought as she saw them all looking at them, she avoided turning her back to them, being known as an Uchiha maybe wouldn't be the best move right now, she had nothing but pride in her heritage and clan, but her capture at the hands of the Gekai brother taught her a serious lesson about how flaunting her clan status may bring very bad attention, so it may be better to not go flaunting it overtly, at least until she was strong enough to where she didn't have to worry about such things.
"See, so I'd be quiet if I were you. I'm Kabuto. Kabuto Yakushi, feel as a veteran of these exams and fellow leaf ninja I'd give you guys a hand." The now named Kabuto spoke to them kindly.
"Veteran? You've taken these exams before?" Naruto asked, tilting his head as he questioned the silver haired man.
"Yep, seven times, today is my eighth." Kabuto spoke chuckling sheepishly while scratching the back of his head.
"Woah so you must know a lot." Narutp said, deciding not to be rude about the amount of times he'd failed.
"More like pretty crap if he's failed seven times." Kiba spoke rudely, making Kabutos face fall in shame.
"Seven times? Man I don't know what would be more of a drag, this or getting chewed out by mom for quitting." Shikamaru thought, the idea of his mothers wrath coming down on him possibly being worse then an exam where people died.
"Well these exams are pretty tough you know, I almost died my first and second times. But I do indeed know a lot, tell me, what would you like to know." Kabuto said as he pulled out a stack of cards.
"What kind of info do you have?" Satsuki asked seriously, willing to take any advantage she could if it was offered.
"Many different kinds, attending genin, possible proctors, however they randomize the exams each time so I'm afraid I can't help you with that." Kabuto said, he had a lot of cards. It's clear he'd been learning from each time he took these exams.
"Rock Lee, leaf ninja. And Gaara of the desert, sand ninja." Satsuki spoke, it made sense why she would ask that, out of the participants they had seen those two definitely stood out to Naruto.
"You know their names and villages? Well that's no fun." Kabuto said as he expertly picked two cards up from the pile. But they appeared blank.
"Urrr I think your cards may underperform a bit, they are blank." Naruto said seeing the two blank white cards.
"Information is a potent weapon, can't have just anybody seeing these." Kabuto said as he seemingly channeled chakra into the two cards, revealing their secrets.
What was shown was details about the people in question such as a skill graph, mission record, teammates and jonin sensei and some background info.
"First up we have Rock Lee. He's a bit of an odd one, he graduated last year bottom of his class, his above average test scores and physical skills carrying him through despite his completely abysmal ninjutsu and genjutsu skills, he's got a pretty ordinary mission record of quite a few D-ranks and a couple of C-ranks, his physical skills and taijutsu have gotten better and better over the past year, his teammates are Tenten and Neji Hyuga. This is their first time taking the exams." Kabuto said, detailing Lee's skills. That made sense, it seemed all his cards were in his taijutsu, outranging him with ninjutsu or tricking him with genjutsu could work Satsuki mused, she also noticed Hinata physically recoil and sink deeper into her jacket at the mention of her fellow Hyuga clan member.
"His jonin sensei is Might Guy, well that explains his great taijutsu, Might Guy is a well known jonin for being one of the best taijutsu specialists alive today. Definitely not a team you want to fight in close combat, especially with a Hyuga." Kabuto finished, it seems Kakashi was being serious, while his 'rival' may have looked like a fool it seems his skills were no exaggeration.
"Next up, Gaara. Sadly I don't have much on his skills, but I imagine it has to do with that gourd he carries around. He's got no D-ranks, a few C-ranks and get this, a B-rank. His teammates are his older brother and sister, Kankuro and Temari. Their sensei is a man called Baki who I don't have much on but is apparently pretty well respected as one of his village's top jonin. There's also more, all three, are the children of the fourth Kazekage, they are a team to watch, and definitely steer clear of because apparently, Gaara has completed every mission with no injuries, not even a scratch." Kabuto spoke, no that got everyone interested and weary, no a scratch? Was that even possible, yes Satsuki had completed two A-ranks but she'd entered a false death state in the first and been kidnapped in the second.
"Hey, what about Satsuki Uchiha?" Kiba spoke out, smirking, while he definitely wanted to finally get Satsuki to acknowledge him as an alpha and finally give her the privilege of going out with him, she was definitely someone to watch out for in the exams, he was also hoping Kabuto had some good info on her.
"Oh, a little info on your own classmate right in front of her? Heh, well who am I to judge." Kabuto spoke as he fetched another card, Satsuki and Naruto spot heavy glares at Kiba, whatever he was up to, they didn't like it, Naruto knew it was probably some sort of plan to ask her out, little fuckin mutt.
"Easy, calm it down Naruto." Naruto told himself, feeling the red bleed into his thoughts, luckily nobody saw his eyes flash red slightly.
Satsuki thought along the same lines, not in any sort of mood to deal with Kiba's constant useless pursuit of her affection, of which she had less then none for him.
"Satsuki Uchiha, great skills across the board and rookie of the year in this year's graduate class, but you already knew that. Her skills have seen steady increase since her graduation. A few D-ranks, barely any C-ranks and…well you three have been busy, two A-rank missions." Kabuto said smiling, as the other six rookies looked at team seven in utter bewilderment.
"Yeah well, when you have a hard job that needs doing you send your best guys ya know." Naruto said smugly, crossing his arms behind his head and smiling as his old classmates looked at them like they'd grown second heads. Sakura just scratched her head sheepishly, after all, Naruto, Satsuki and Kakashi-sensei had done pretty much all the heavy lifting in those missions, she'd just tagged along for the ride.
"Well they are high ranked so I don't have many details sorry to say. As I'm sure you know her teammates are Sakura Haruno and Naruto Uzumaki, with their sensei being Kakashi Hatake, one of our village's most skilled ninja. She's a member of the legendary Uchiha clan, her skills are sharp, tell trained and if she has her Sharingan, give up." Kabuto finished, Satsuki couldn't help but smirk smugly, she was good and she knew it, but she wasn't the best. Not yet.
"I also have, this, a breakdown of what villages all attending ninja are from." Kabuto spoke as he laid out a card. Show numerical data corresponding to each village. Most were unsurprisingly from the leaf, second was the sand, being the only other major village competing, next was the rain, followed by grass, then waterfall. The odd thing was there were three genin, just a single team from a village with the symbol of a musical note, nobody recognized it.
"Yea pretty decent split, I'd watch the rain ninja if I were you, they can be quite cunning and brutal when necessary, I sadly can't tell you much about these guys from the hidden sound, it's a pretty new village in the land of rice paddy's so, but I'd been on your guard just in case, they will definitely have something to prove, being a new village and all." Kabuto spoke, with most of them silently agreeing, in a shinobi world where information was utterly vital, a unknown hidden village was definitely something to be mindful of, at least they had no other teams from their village to team up with, it was just the three of them, that was either an advantage, or a glaring weakness.
"I think that guy would like an education about sound shinobi. Wouldn't you agree, Zaku, Kin." A heavily bandaged and covered genin spoke, a single eye and some of his face being the only part not obscured. He was hunched down and his back was covered with a kind of fur cloak.
"Yeah, go give him a first hand education Dosu." A cocky male voice spoke, belonging to a spiky haired boy with a face guard and a much less odd outfit.
"Just don't give away too much." The only female of the group spoke, she had long black hair pulled into a low ponytail and a pretty plain outfit too, just some pants with many pockets for various tools, a sleeveless jacket and a grey camo muffler.
"Don't worry, after all, not even our target's special eyes can follow attacks as fast as ours." Dous spoke as he lifted up his baggy sleeve, revealing an odd looking gauntlet with carved holes on it.
Does rushed the chunin exam veteran and swung at him, Kabuto barely dodged, only for his glasses to crack a few seconds after.
The group of ten leaf ninja went on high alert at the attack, all seeing the covered ninja wore the mark of the village they were just talking about, the hidden sound.
"Listen here Mr information. You're little warning about being weary of the hidden sound team? Well, you couldn't be more right." The sound ninja spoke mockingly as Kabutos ear started to bleed and he collapsed to the floor and vomited, as he shook in pain, eyes unfocused.
"Just what the hell was that, I know that attack didn't connect." Satsuki thought as she placed it over in her mind.
"What the hell didn't he dodge that?" Shikamaru spoke as he saw the odd effects of the sound genin's seemingly missed strike, there had to be something more to it.
"Kabuto are you okay?" Sakura spoke, kneeling down to look over Kabuto, even wiping away the blood from his ear as her teammates stared at the hostile foreign ninja.
"Alright that's enough!" A loud domineering voice yelled out as an adult leaf ninja with a black trench coat, some facial scars and a bandana with his headband plate on it.
"I'm Ibiki Morino, the first phase of the exams proctor, take your seats and shut up or it's an automatic fail!" The now named Ibiki spoke, his tone and probably very real threat causing the desired reaction.
"And sound ninja. I see any more of that crap when you don't have permission to fight and you're done." Ibiki spoke, his threat very real, seems Dosu went a bit too far.
"Yes I apologize, it's my first time in the exams and we are the underdogs here, got a little carried away." Dosu spoke, his tone betraying any sincerity his words might have tried to express.
"I don't give a shit, seat, now!" Ibiki spoke, his glare hardening even more, Dosu made the smart move and shut up and moved to his seat.
"Listen up! I won't repeat myself and there will be no questions so pay attention!" Ibiki shouted, Naruto, knowing he sometimes struggled with details, slapped his cheeks with both hands and did as the very intimidating man said.
"The first part of this exam will be a written test, and you'll be scored…as a team." Ibiki spoke, pausing for dramatic effect and finishing with a sadistic grin as he noticed a decent number of the genin gain wide eyes and start to sweat.
"Oh crap!" Was the universal thought across team seven, with Naruto face planting into the desk, his worst fears had come to fruition! Just his shoddy luck. If he screwed this up Satsuki would kill him, and if she only left him half dead Sakura would then deliver the finishing blow.
"OK Naruto gameface time, focus up, you got this…maybe?" Naruto thought to himself, not sure of his own pep talk.
"There will be nine questions, you will have one hour to answer them, fifteen minutes before the end I will reveal the final question. Now this works a little different then most tests, you actually start with a combined perfect score of thirty and will lose points for questions you get wrong, loose enough and you're out. Now, if you are caught cheating two points will automatically be abducted, my colleagues will be keeping a close eye on all of you, so don't you dare get caught, and if you are caught five times and have your total points reduced to zero you will be forced to leave immediately, as will your teammates, so I'd suggest not dragging them down with you. Questions? I don't care, you have one hour starting in two minutes, so mentally prepare yourselves." Ibiki said to them all, many people had questions of course but they were too scared to ask, frankly, about seventy percent of the room was terrified of this man and worried to even form a syllable without his permission.
Many looked around at the ninja lining the walls of the room, all watching with clipboards at the ready, two of them handed out tests and pencils as the two minutes counted down.
"Okay, let's think, go for the easy questions, do what you can and don't cheat at all, Sakura is super smart so she'll probably get a perfect score and so is Satsuki so as long as I don't screw this up we'll be fine." Naruto thought as his foot tapped as anxiety started to seep in, he ruffled his hair as he tried to stay calm in his own mind but was failing. How could he! He sucked at tests, he just barely passed the academy one, this would definitely be harder! Shit! Shit! Shit!
The two minutes were even and Ibiki signaled for the exams to start as everyone picked up their pencils and started.
As Naruto read through each question one thing was abundantly clear, he didn't understand a goddamn thing any question asked, some sort of complex math about throwing shuriken and breaking a code of some kind?! He was so fucked! And because of that, so were Sakura and Satsuki.
As the taping of pencils on paper filled the room creating a melody that further drove him insane Naruto came to a single conclusion. He had to find some way to cheat.
Sakura being the giant bookworm and nerd that she was could actually answer these questions bit one thought ate at her, these were hard questions, very hard, Naruto probably couldn't answer a single one, maybe he could think if something? No don't be stupid, Naruto using his brain for a written test was like trying to make a pacifist use a kunai, it just wasn't something they did.
Satsuki on the other hand was managing to figure out the true purpose of this test.
"These are hard, too hard, I don't have any idea of where to start, so Naruto has beyond no idea. It's almost like…oh those sneaky bastards, this isn't a written test, it's a test on our ability to gather Intel, they want us to cheat, that's why we have multiple strikes, normally cheating in a test is instant expulsion, we need to cheat, and not get caught. Sakura will be fine, but Naruto, can he figure this out, read between the lines? I don't know, first things first, get my own answers, they must have plants who know the answers beforehand, it's just about looking at their pencil." Satsuki mused as she thought through the test and came to the conclusion many others were. She found someone who looked like they knew what they were writing and activated her Sharingan.
For the next ten minutes Satsuki mimicked the other ninjas pencil strokes until all nine answers were filled in, she smirked as her Sharingan allowed her to pass this test with ease, now comes the real problem, Naruto, Satsuki looked over to him to see his foot tapping and hands into his hair, she could she didn't need Sharingan to see that he was freaking out, of course he would pick up on this.
She ran through scenarios to possibly try and tell him about the true purpose but everything was too overt…unless? She'd never tried that before but it could be the only chance she had, she channeled chakra into her eyes and tore off a bit of her test sheet, crumpled it into a ball and launched it at Naruto, he turned around at the feeling of the small bit of paper hitting him and met her gaze with a look of confusion.
"All or nothing. Genjutsu:Sharingan." Satsuki thought as she used her eyes to place Naruto into a genjutsu.
As Naruto looked into Satsuki's red eyes he seemed to almost get lost in them, so much that his head felt a bit fuzzy, he turned around only to see a large black bird on his desk, was that a raven?
"Alright listen up loser because I don't know how stable this will be." The bird 'spoke' possessing Satsuki's voice.
"What is happening?" He asked out loud, it seems nobody else had noticed bird Satsuki on his desk, but how was that possible?
"I can't respond to anything you say, this is just a mental message in the genjutsu I put you under. Listen up, the whole point of this test is to cheat and not get caught, as you are too much of a numbskull to figure that out I put you under a genjutsu so while you are listening to this your real body is writing down the answers, you can tell-." Raven Satsuki spoke and before she could finish he was jolted out of the genjutsu, Naruto turned to see Hinata next to him, did she just break the genjutsu, why would she do that?!
"U-um N-naruto? A-are you okay? I noticed your chakra was distorted so I broke you out of whatever genjutsu you were under." Hinata whispered to him, clearly meaning well but in actuality screwing Naruto over, he'd only written down about four of the questions.
"That was Satsuki, she was giving me the answers, I just hope four is enough." Naruto spoke, his tone slightly irritable, he wasn't mad at Hinata obviously, but he wasn't entirely pleased with her interference either. Good intentions or not.
"O-oh, s-she was?" Hinata spoke, looking away from Naruto.
"Oh no, I might have just made it so Naruto fails the exams! He'll hate me now. No no no no! Oh Kurenai-sensei what should I do?!" Hinata ranted in her mind, her fragile and nonexistent self esteem turning on itself at the mistake that could possibly ruin the exams for Naruto. Kurenai-sensei always made it seem so easy when she was confident and calm.
"That little! She broke my genjutsu! She probably saw Naruto's chakra being distorted and snapped him out of it." Satsuki seethed at seeing Hinata break her genjutsu, she just hoped Naruto managed to get enough answers down.
Naruto turned around to see Satsuki with an annoyed expression, giving Hinata a glare as she ruined her plan. Naruto subtly raised four fingers to show her.
"So he got four down, well if me and Sakura get perfect scores as we should we are still probably fine, just don't screw us now Naruto." Satsuki thought as Satsuki gave him an ok sign with her hand.
Naruto's stress and anxiety over his possible failure was soothed, proven by the lack of his foot rapidly tapping and lack of other anxiety based behaviors.
"number fifty-five, fail, fifty-four, fifty-six you get out too." An instructor spoke, calling out the first applicant to get caught five times, the one who was caught stood up and his teammates with him, both giving him the stink eye for his screw up.
After that they started falling like dominoes, team after team couldn't make the cut, one even tried answering back.
"Hey I didn't do anything, where's your evidence?" A nameless genin shouted, his response brought on by stress and irritation as he knew he fucked up, the pressure was starting to get to people as more and more people were caught out, and the ones who couldn't shoulder that pressure, broke and the adjudicators were right there to throw the pieces out of the room. An adjudicator, faster then most could follow, pinned the shouting genin against the wall.
"Evidence is I say so, in here we make the rules, you follow, no get out of our exam." The chunin said smirking as the genins two teammates carried him out.
Satsuki and Naruto looked around to see others doing certain says to cheat, Naruto didn't see to many but with her greatly superior perception she could see all the little moves, she saw the two Hyuga using their own dojutsu to look at other people's paper, king of the mutts was using Akamaru to get the answers, did he speak dog? You could translate dog? Questions for later.
There were many more methods, Satsuki thought she saw Ino use that secret mental ninjutsu her clan knew on Sakura to memorize her answers, luckily that's all she did, not obviously try and cheat to get her team disqualified.
Naruto was keeping his head down, much less stressed after Satsuki helped him out, part of him was angry and irritated that she had to bail him out again, that he was stuck and Satsuki had to come in and save him from his own inability like she'd done before with the demon brothers, it made him mad, mad at himself and only made him look up to Satsuki more, and made him want to surpass her more too.
"Alright, most of the deadweight has been culled, let's see if they can jump into uncertainty blind." Ibiki thought as he looked at his watch and around the room.
"Alright listen up! I'm now going to tell you about the tenth and final question, but there are some special rules for this one so listen closely!" Ibiki shouted across the room, everyone set down their pencils and listened intently on Ibiki was he spoke.
"First off, you may choose whether to be told the final question or not, now you may all be wondering what kind of choice is that? Obviously you'll hear the question, but I wouldn't be so sure. You see, if you fail the tenth and final question, not only will your team instantly fail regardless of the other nine questions, but you and your team will be barred from ever taking the chunin exam again, or even promoted, you'll be a genin for the rest of your days." Ibiki spoke cruelly, a sadistic grin on his face at the looks of shock and panic overtook the crowd.
"So, who will hold fast? And who will expire?" Ibiki thought as he looked out.
"But wait, there are people here who have taken the chunin exams before and failed?" Temari yelled out, this was bad, if any one of them screwed up they'd be out of the exam and the whole plan would go to shit, they only got this far because the sand managed to use an operative to secure the test answers for herself and Kankuro.
"Quiet down! Another outburst like that and you and your team are gone! In response to that question, we'll say it's just bad luck, this time around I'm the proctor, I make the rules, and if you have an issue with that get out or shut up and deal with it." Ibiki spoke, making Temari sit down in a panic, she shouldn't have spoken out like that, she was so stupid, she looked over to see Gaara giving her a glare, small grains of sand hovering around him. She instantly looked away from his gaze, not sure if her life would be ended by her little brother at the next opportunity.
"So, considering this, if anybody feels like they are not ready for the tenth question feel free to leave." Ibiki spoke as a deadly silence fell over the crowd of applicants.
.
.
.
*tick tock* the sound of the clock droned out over the silence, everyone stuck in their own heads, could they do this tenth question? Was it worth it to risk it? Or back out and come back another time for when they were more ready? Paranoia and anxiety spread across the room, it was written on all but a few faces in the room, Ibiki smirked sadistically.
"Damn, me and Sakura will probably be fine, but Naruto, what if he thinks he can't do this by himself and backs us out to play it safe? Or maybe he thinks he wont have enough right answers because Hinata screwed up my genjutsu the bitch." Satsuki thought as she chewed her thumb's nail, worried about what he'd do.
Sakura was thinking similarly, did Naruto even get any of the first nine questions?! This final one could screw them all over and was Naruto smart enough to know when to back out? Would he just rush blindly into getting them stuck as genin, should she drop out for them?
Someone finally broke a grass genin, raised his hand and called it quits, he and his team left, the others seemingly not too angry with their teammate, similar thoughts probably racing around their heads.
It seems the last thing stopping many teams from collapsing was not being the first ones to go, team after team dropped out, leaving the room a lot less packed.
Sakura in her ignorance of Satsuki's efforts to help Naruto, started to raise her hand, she knew Naruto would rush blindly into the fray with no care for his own safety but as a team they could not afford that right now, they had to play this smart and Naruto's bravado getting them stuck as genin for the rest of their ninja carriers was anything but, only for Naruto to raise his arm before her.
"No no no! Put your hand down you moronic loser!" Satsuki screamed in her mind, snapping her pencil in two.
Only to be shown wrong as Naruto slammed his hand down on the desk.
"So what, I don't care if I'm stuck as a genin forever, I'll still become Hokage, and nobody, especially not some written exam is gonna stop me!" Naruto shouted out with total confidence, he'd be bailed out by Satsuki on the first part but he'd get by the rest of this all by himself, he'd show her he wasn't scared, wasn't some extra following behind and show her he was equal to her, he'd pass these exams and make Satsuki acknowledge him, not as a friend which she'd already done, but as an equal shinobi, that time she had to save him after he froze up against the demon brothers, and how she almost got herself killed protecting him from Haku still stung.
"Heh, can't believe I expected anything else." Satsuki thought as she looked at his display, obviously Naruto would be too thick to give up even when it was probably for the best. There was some solace in that she supposed, that even against completely basic common sense and all semblance of self preservation Naruto would still run headfirst into the fire.
"Hmm, seems his little outburst got the wavering ones to grow a pair, well, Kakashi did say the jinchuuriki was an odd one aside from the obvious." Ibiki thought, obviously most high ranking jonin like himself were briefed about Naruto but Ibiki had never personally ever seen the kid before today, he'd seen his handiwork with a can of paint of course, but he was definitely someone to keep an eye on, there was definitely a rather unique shinobi there, not just a chunk of meat used to house the villages ultimate deterrent.
"Hmm, seems the ones who have doubts have all been eliminated. Very well then here is the tenth and final question!" Ibiki said loudly.
"The final question is…you all pass!" Ibiki said smiling, in an almost proud fashion and also humor as a dumb look crossed the faces of everyone in the room, well aside from one vip sand genin.
"Wait wha?" Naruto said out loud, voicing the collective thought of the room.
"Allow me to explain, there is no tenth question exactly, the question was will you still undertake the task even though there was a chance of failure and losing everything, chunin are expected to lead, those who cannot move past the danger and still go ahead with the mission can never be a chunin. The threat of being permanently barred from the exams is designed to make you second guess yourself and your ability to complete the question, a ninja must overcome these worries and fears, not be overcome by them." Ibiki explained as the room came to understand the tenth question's true nature.
"But what about the other questions? Do they not matter?" Sakura asked out loud, wondering what the initial part was more if they all passed.
"It was another test, most of you still here have figured out that the test was too difficult to answer normally, so you had to cheat, but we forbade it, so you had to cheat, and not get caught, information, in battle it is one of the most important resources that exists, good Intel can be the difference between a nation completing a mission, or all being KIA. Someone who doesn't understand that and cannot gather that information effectively, will never be chunin, not on my watch, hundreds die and suffer for information, never underestimate its value, and what others will do to get it from someone." Ibiki continued, at the end he took his headband, showing his bald head, it was covered in burns and scars, it seems in the past Ibiki had been tortured for the information he valued, all onlookers had a new appreciation for Intel in the field after such a sight.
"I should really listen to dad more when he talks about this stuff." Ino thought as she remembered her dad speaking about how information was a vital part of shinobi life and their clans jutsu was a bit part of that.
"Anyway all of you made the cut howev-." Ibiki said before an object came flying through the window putting everyone on alert. The figure threw four kunai erecting a banner in front of Ibiki.
'The second exam proctor, the elite and beautiful tokubetsu jonin, Anko Mitarashi!' the banner read as the figure stood proudly in front of it, who everyone assumed was most likely Anko.
"How's it going kiddos, seems like you're the unlucky few who have to carry on." Anko spoke, smirking at the collection of genin.
The room just stood dumbfounded at the eccentric woman, she wore her violet hair in a spiky ponytail with a leaf headband clearly on her head, pupiless brown eyes, long tan overcoat that was purple on the insides, form-fitting mesh outfit that showed off her body nicely along with a orange miniskirt and shin guards along with class shinobi sandals, the male portion of the room could definitely see the beautiful part of her banner was not unwarranted, some of male genin and even a female genin or two gained a blush while looking at her.
"Anko, you're early…again." Ibiki sighed as he walked out from behind the banner, a disgruntled look on his face, it was clear he was used to his kind of behavior from her.
"Oh you were pretty much done anyway right, and Ibiki, are you going soft on me? Look how many of them there are left?!" Anko answered back.
"She already reminds me of Naruto, urrrr this bodes poorly." Satsuki thought while looking at their new proctor.
"Woah an elite kunoichi, so cool!" Sakura thought as she looked at the proctor.
"Don't be ridiculous, got a good crop this year is all. I was pretty much done anyway, *sigh* take it away Anko." Ibiki answered back, he'd known Anko a long time, and she'd never change, it was just easier to lay back and just run with her antics, not fight against the current of her eccentricities.
"Thanks Ibiki. WELCOME TO A BRAND NEW BEGINNING YOU SORRY SHITS! Everyone better be at training ground fourty four in the next hour or you are disqualified! No exceptions!" Anko said as she took her banner and left and jumped through the window right next to the one she entered through, breaking it.
"It's called a freaking door Anko! Learn to use it!" Ibiki shouted at her retreating form.
"NEVER!" The far away shout of the women sounded
"*long exasperated sigh* I apologize for my colleagues…Lack of professionalism, training ground forty-four is a gated of dense forest on the south eastern outskirts of the village, I'd hurry, she wasn't kidding about disqualifying you." Ibiki said as the room moved out with haste, not wanting to be disqualified.
Team seven were jumping over the roofs of the village's buildings in a hurry to reach their destination.
"Naruto you know that was a big risk, taking that tenth question, I mean did you even get any of the answers?" Sakura said mid jump.
"Well I struggled at first but luckily Satsuki's genjutsu allowed me to get some answers down. Thanks for that Satsuki." Naruto spoke cheerfully, giving a thumbs up to his dark haired teammate.
"Well you have the academic ability of a rock and are about as thick as one, so I thought I'd give you a hand so you didn't sink us." Satsuki spoke, smirking, teasing Naruto.
"Hey!." Naruto yelled back at her.
"There really is nobody else like those two." Sakura thought, giggling at her teammates' antics.
Sakura was unaware of the inaccuracy of her thoughts as they passed by the shadow created by the face of Hashirama Senju.
And we are done for now, sorry this took a bit longer then normal just been busy with other stuff recently, but please comment and review your thoughts and i'll see you in the next one.
