Ch.9: Morino Ibiki's Excess of Dramatic Pauses
The environment inside the classroom was pretty dense. Everyone, even their own village shinobi, looked hostile towards each other. She matched glares directed to her with her own and, under her gaze, none of them could hold their stare.
The rookies filled the classroom one team after another, Hinata-sama's team entering second. The poor girl cowered under the intensity of the stares and tried her best not to look at anyone in the eye, her true weakness embarrassingly evident.
Finally, Sasuke's team entered. The three of them were obviously surprised, their presence being the target of the whole classroom for being the last ones.
Neji noted the pink-haired girl –Sakura, she reminded herself- scanned the crowd nervously as...
"Sasuke-kun, you're late!" a girly voice exclaimed.
Her gaze was drawn by a blonde clinging to a very annoyed Sasuke. It looked like the girl was not fazed at all by drawing all the attention towards her and Sasuke's team.
"I've been eagerly waiting for you ever since I hear that I could see you for the first time in a long time." Neji almost felt sorry for the Uchiha. A fangirl.
"Get away from Sasuke-kun! You Ino-pig!" Another voice retorted. Neji had thought that Sakura wasn't that poor brained after having realized the genjutsu's nature back in the registration but now she felt even more sorry for Sasuke. A fangirl in his own team. The thought made her cringe –inwardly of course.
The two girls continued their bicker until the blonde's team joined the conversation.
"What, are you three going to take this troublesome exam too?" asked a boy with a pineapple-like hairstyle. The way he dragged himself made her feel aversion towards that boy. His layback attitude would not lead him anywhere…less to chunin rank.
"Hey, it's the idiot trio." The other Sasuke teammate piped.
"All of them are more like idiots." Tenten muttered by her side with a snicker.
"They're going to be in for a big surprise once the exams begin." Was her reply.
"Yeah! Found you all!" another voice joined. Kami-sama, if there's more of them, I don't know what I'll do. The girl groaned in her mind.
"So I see that everyone's here." The same boy said. He had a wild aspect and…a puppy on top of his head?
"Is he allowed to bring that?" she asked in a low voice.
"I…guess." Was Lee's equally hushed response though unsure.
That's when she noticed the heiress hiding behind the dog boy.
"Hello." she said in a low voice with insecurity dripping from her voice.
The rookies continued discussing, and Neji could bet they had forgotten about the existence of the rest of the participants and of their growing aversion towards their small group.
Finally, an older boy approached them.
"You should quiet down a little." The silver-haired boy said before scanning them. "So you're the nine rookies that just graduated from the academy, correct?" He did not wait for an answer as he continued. "You're all fooling around with those cute faces…Geez, this isn't a field trip."
The gray-haired boy and the rookies started a conversation, and so everyone lost interest in them. Neji could not make out what they were saying but was able to see the boy kneeling on the ground and taking some cards before her view was blocked by Hinata's teammate. She drifted her attention to the other contestants, white and cold as snow eyes stopping on each of them.
Suddenly, out of her peripheral vision, she caught fast hostile movements. The ones from the sound had approached the rookies and the room stayed silent, watching the interaction, waiting for the next movement of either part, hoping to get a glimpse at their abilities.
The one who moved first was a hunched man draped in bandages. He attacked the silver-haired gennin throwing a punch which the other one dodged.
'Good speed and reflexes'the girl noted in her head, her eyes narrowing.'Not a rival for my speed and less for Lee's though'
A triumphal grin spread across the leaf shinobi before he suddenly dropped to his knees, emptying his stomach contents.
'He did not touch him…then how...'Neji's mind automatically gave her the solution.'He expelled chakra. Like the Juuken...but not quite.'
"Lee, what do you think about that attack?"
"There was no problem in dodging it. There must be some kind of trick." her green-cladded teammate responded with a frown.
"Remember when we spar together." She spoke.
It took a brief moment before both Tenten's and Lee's eyes widened in realization.
"You don't mean…?"
"No, but his technique is a bit similar in that way." She eyed Hinata to see her expression. The girl looked as dumbfounded as the rest, not having noticed it, and Neji inwardly scoffed.
Suddenly, a potent and commanding voice boomed across the room as a smoke curtain appeared with a'poof'.
"Quiet down! You punks!" Everyone watched with anticipation as the smoke cleared, revealing a bulky man with a cloth tied around his head and a long coat, a scarred face, and a group of shinobi behind him.
"Sorry to keep you waiting." He spoke in a harsh voice that sounded not sorry at all. "I am the examiner of the 1st test of the Chunin Selection Exams, Morino Ibiki."
He suddenly pointed at the shinobi from the Sound.
"You three from the Hidden Village of Sound, don't think you can do anything you want before the exam. Do you want us to fail you already?"
The smirks were not wiped away from the sound gennin as the one who had attacked answered, his voice denoting no regret at all.
"I'm sorry. I was excited since this is my first exam."
Ibiki smirked –a sadistic grin– and turned to the rest of the participants.
"This is a good chance to say this. You are not allowed to fight each other during the exam unless given permission by the examiners." He continued. "Even if permission is given, you are not allowed to kill the other." He lastly added in a grave voice. "Pigs who go against me will fail immediately. Understood?"
Everyone stayed silent until one of the Sound (who else could have been) spoke.
"This exam seems so soft and easy." The shinobi behind the examiner chuckled.
"We will now begin the first exam of the Chunin Selection Exams. Turn in your applications, take one of these number tags, and sit down where the number tells you." The man explained showing them said tags. "Then we will pass the papers for the written exam."
Neji walked ahead of her teammates and grabbed her tag, taking her place and waiting for the exam. Every team had been separated from each other, which proved that part of the evaluation would be individual. Since it was a test it was safe to assume its purpose was to test their analytical abilities one by one.
The examiner began explaining the rules. Neji paid attention, her eyes narrowing as each rule passed. When the rule of the points passed, both Tenten and her crossed glances. Both of them would be okay. Lee wasn't the brightest bulb but the two of them would be able to make the team pass. Then, like a bucket of cold water, the rule that stated if one of the participants got zero fell on them. Okay, Lee wasn't that dumb to score a zero so they would be okay…she hoped.
The exam began and so did everybody.
'Okay. A cipher as a first problem. Those take time, I'll do it lastly. The next one is…The parabola B represents the shuriken's maximum throwing distance of the enemy ninja, A, from a height of 7 meters…'
As the girl's eyes continued to rake over the exam, her brow creased. That kind of questions had not been taught in the Academy. She returned to the cipher one but found out it was incredibly hard. It was not impossible, but it would take her more than the 45 minutes given.
She closed her eyes and leaned back; her arms crossed.
'Okay, first the rules. You begin with ten points; each mistake is one point less. The points are graded by team. If a person gets zero, the whole team fails. If you're caught cheating, you have three points less. If you're caught three times you and your team are out. The teams are apart, so they won't be able to help each other. There are at least ten chunin making sure that nobody cheats. There are way too many chunin in her opinion, in fact it's almost certain that you can't cheat without being caught. Why aren't you failed the first time you're caught? How can…?'Her eyes opened when it dawned on her. The object of the exam was not to solve it. It was to test their information retribution skills without being caught.
She caught Tenten's eye on the reflection of the kunai the boy was holding. Her lips quirked and activated her Byakugan.
As Tenten saw the veins bulge out her skin and caught on what Neji was doing it did not take him long enough to figure out the rest for himself.
With her inverted colored vision, the girl quickly found someone with their exam answered and began scribbling down what she saw.
In a span of ten minutes, she already had the whole exam copied and there was nothing else to do but wait. She had spent a good 15 minutes trying to solve the exam and figuring out the true purpose of the exam plus the ten she had spent copying left her with 20 spare minutes. Her head hurt a bit after the continuous strain of having the Byakugan activated for ten minutes straight but it wasn't anything she couldn't bear with.'It wasn't worse than the curse mark'she was bitterly reminded by her inner voice.
She used her spare time to scan the rest of the participants who were still scribbling, or she had seen had their sheets in white. One of the rookies, the blond idiot from Sasuke's team, had his sheet still blank the last time she had checked. If he failed, also Sasuke was out, which meant they would not have a chance to face each other at the exams she noted with worry.
At the exact moment the 45 minutes were over, the examiner spoke.
"Looks like we've already dropped the incompetent ones. I will now give the problem since 45 minutes have already passed." He continued. "Okay. I will now give you the 10th problem!"
Everybody was over the edge of their seats, waiting for it, herself included.
An excitement rush shook Sasuke's body as Morino Ibiki announced the last part of the test.
'Took you long enough.'
"Yes, but before that, there's a thing I must say…" He added. The boy's eyes narrowed as he waited for the rest. "There will be one special rule for this last question."
In that moment the door opened revealing one of the contestants of the Sand. One of the genin they had encountered –Gaara's teammate. Sasuke suddenly paid more attention to the situation. 'What method did they use to get the information?' the Uchiha wondered.
The examiner smirked at him.
''You're lucky." The sand shinobi stared hard at Ibiki as he spoke. "Your puppet show didn't have to go to waste." The boy's eyes widened as he dumbly stood there.
"Oh well, sit down." The gennin quickly proceeded to his seat. Once everyone was settled down, he continued. Sasuke's eyes were trained on the man's hard features and prominent scars as he spoke.
"I will now explain. This is…" he paused for a moment. "a hopeless rule." 'Dramatic'"First, you're going to choose if you wish to take this tenth problem or not."
'Choose whether we're going to take it or not?'
Suddenly the girl on Gaara's team, a blonde, raised her voice in complaint. Her rash attitude being visible through that action alone.
"Choose? So, what happens if we don't take the tenth problem?"
Ibiki answered calmly, a slight sadistic tone in his voice which denoted how much he enjoyed their anxiety.
"If you choose not to take it, your points will be reduced to zero. In other words, you will fail. Your two other teammates will fail along with you."'Something tells me the outcome of the question will be worse than failing it.'Sasuke bitterly thought as he glanced from the corner of his eye at his two teammates.
The murmurs did not take long to emerge.
"What's the meaning of that?" "Of course we're going to choose to take it!" "Teammates also failing is bull!" They quieted down when the scarred man spoke again.
"And here's the other rule."'Of course it wasn't that easy, morons.'"If you choose to take it and get it wrong, you will…" Sasuke was starting to dislike his dramatic pauses already, the tense atmosphere increasing with each of them. "Lose the privilege to take the Chunin Exams forever."
Shock shook Sasuke.'But…there already were people who had taken the exams before…'Sasuke's trail of thoughts being spoken by the loud complaints of one of his fellow rookies.
"What kind of dumb rule is that?!" the boy exclaimed standing up and pointing an angry finger at Ibiki. "There should be those who have taken the Chunin Exams in the past!" His dog's approving bark backed up his statement.
The examiner's lips curved upwards as he began chuckling. It was a cold humorless laugh which sounded almost mechanical. It was clearly mocking, that was something Sasuke was sure of.
"You were unlucky." His grave voice stated. "This year, I am the rule. That is why I gave you the option of quitting." The room suddenly submerged in silence –a heavy silence–, the only audible thing being some aspirants agitated breathing and Ibiki's voice. "Those who are confident can choose not to take it, and take the exam next year, or the year after that." The sadistic's mocking laugh emerged again as every participant pondered carefully over their decision. "Let us begin. Those who will not be taking the tenth question, raise your hands."
Sasuke's fists closed, and he could feel a single bead of sweat sliding from his forehead and losing itself somewhere along his jaw. The exam had not been an easy one in terms of the questions alone, and that was how it had been designed. 'Will I be able to answer the question?' He was very confident of his skills and intelligence, but a small voice in his mind had planted a doubt which kept growing as more and more participants raised their hands.
Then there was Naruto.'If he answers wrong the question (a very high possibility), his dreams and aspirations of becoming Hokage would be frustrated.'The dumb shinobi who, even if it pained him to admit it, was considered by him as his friendto be more precise. The thought of another friend of his, an old one who he had almost broken ties with and that was also in that same room, came to his mind. Said girl was at the very back of the room and if he backed down, he wouldn't be able to fight Naruto or her for that matter. There were also other talented people as Gaara and Rock Lee who he wanted to test his skills against. Those thoughts made his decision final. In a shinobi's life, there were always risks. The decision was now on Naruto's and Sakura's shoulders alone.
Sasuke watched as Sakura's hand slowly began to rise. The direction Sakura's gaze was directed did not was missed either. At that moment, Naruto's hand beat Sakura's and stood tall and unwavering in the air. A tiny part of Sasuke, a part he felt ashamed of, felt a bit relieved. Naruto's dream was still possible…well, as possible for a loser like him could be…
A loud sound echoed as the blonde's hand slammed on the desk.
"Screw you! I'm not going to run away!" Everyone stared in awe at Naruto, himself included. "I'll take the problem. Even if I become a gennin forever, I am going to become Hokage no matter what anyway!" To emphasize his point he stood up and finally declared before sitting down with his arms closed. "I'm not scared!"
'He wasn't even thinking about us…he has quite the spirit.'The Uchiha thought amused, and with a great weight lifting off his shoulders.
"I will ask one more time. This is the choice that will impact your life. If you want to quit, this is the chance." The examiner repeated to which Naruto answered once again.
"I'm not going to take back my words. That's my nindo."
Sasuke couldn't help but think how much Naruto had grown.'Had he also made some progress?'
This time it was evident that no hands would be raised.
"Nice determination." He complimented. "Then, for the First Exam, everyone here…" he paused once again. "Passes!"
Everyone's shocked expressions would surely have been priceless if he had paid attention instead of being too shocked as the rest to do it.
"Wait, what is the meaning of that?" Sakura asked, rising from her seat. "We pass already? What about the tenth question?"
This time the man actually smiled as if he had been told a good joke. Luckily there was not the sadistic tinge ever-present.
"There was no such thing to begin with. Or you can call the two-choice question the tenth problem."
This time the fierce blonde from the sand raised her voice.
"Hey! So what were those previous nine problems?! It was all a waste!"
"No, it's not." Ibiki contradicted. "The nine problems accomplished their purpose. The purpose to test each individual's information gathering skills."
The blonde now more calmly asked.
"Information gathering skills?"
"First, this test's purpose lies in the first rule. Your pass-fail decision is based on your three-person teams." The man began explaining. "By giving that idea, we have given you unprecedented pressure to try and not be a nuisance to your team. But these problems cannot be solved by you genins. So, most of the people here must have come to the conclusion'I have to cheat to get points.'In other words, this exam assumed everybody was going to cheat, so we snuck two chunin who knew the answers to be targets of cheating." Said chunin raised their hands. It was obvious Naruto had not noticed judging his behavior during and after the exam. Anyways the blonde spoke quite laidback.
"It was so obvious. It would be so weird not to notice. Right, Hinata?" he heard Naruto say.
Sasuke sweatdropped.'He didn't notice it…'
The examiner's voice rose again.
"But those who just cheated like a fool failed, of course." He said as he began to undo his bandana.
Everyone looked baffled at the sight of what laid underneath it. His bald head was marred with several scars from burns, cuts and a lot of other things. It looked like his head had served as a battlefield for a small but intense battle.
"Information can have a greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields information is contested with the lives of people."
"How awful…burnt marks, screw holes, and cut marks. They are the scars of torture." Sasuke noted aloud.
"The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate. Remember this." The man said. "Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your teammates and the village. So, we made you all gather information in the form of cheating. We kicked out those who were lacking in that field. That's what went on."
The Suna blonde apparently had more complaints.
"But I still can't agree to that last question…"
"But this tenth question was the main question of the first exam." The man interrupted, making it sound like it if was obvious as he tied his bandana back.
"What do you mean?" Sakura voiced her doubt.
"Let me explain." He responded with patience even as the number of questions kept increasing. "The tenth question was a 'take-or-not-take' choice. Needless to say, it was a painful two-choice problem. Those who did not take it failed with their teams. If you chose to take it and could not answer it, your right to take the exam would have been taken away forever. It was a very insincere problem." Silence reigned once again as he paced. "How about this two=choice problem…" he stopped. "Let's assume you become Chunin. Your mission is to capture a secret document. The number of enemy ninjas, their abilities, and armaments are unknown, and there may be traps that the enemy ninja has set up. Now, will you accept this mission or not?"'Now I get the reason behind the tenth question'"Just because your life and the life of your teammates may be in danger, are you able to avoid dangerous missions? The answer is no. There are missions that carry heavy risks but cannot be avoided. The ability to show your courage to your teammates when needed, and the ability to get through a bad situation. That's what we look for in a Chunin, a squad leader. Those who cannot bet their fate in a critical situation, those who give up when given the chance because there is a next year, and let their minds sway over an uncertain future…fools who carry a determination like that have no right to become chunin." He finally added. "That is what I believe. I am saying that you here who have chosen to take it gave the right answer for the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties you will face. You have broken through the entrance. The first part of the Chunin Selection Exams ends now. I wish you luck."
'Now's when the fun starts.'
"Alright! Wish us luck! All right! All right! Yeah! Yeah!" Naruto began cheering though oddly enough it bothered no one. It was what everybody was feeling.
The cheerful scene was broken –like the window– with a crashing sound. Kunai embedded on the ceiling hung a curtain with some inscription, serving as background for a fierce-looking woman.
"Everybody, there's no time to be happy." The woman's powerful voice boomed. "I am the Second Examiner, Mitarashi Anko. Let's go to the next exam!" she raised her fist and yelled. "Follow me!" The examiners seemed to be getting worse if the crazy woman was not an example. Were all the high ranked shinobi that weird? There was Kakashi-sensei with his R-rated book and Lee's weird-sensei. 'Which also happens to be Neji's' the boy remembered suddenly feeling sorry for her.
"Grasp the atmosphere." Ibiki grumbled. The woman looked annoyed now.
"78?" she questioned with a scowl. "Ibiki, you let 26 teams pass? The First Exam must have been too soft!"
"It looks like there are a lot of excellent students this time." He responded. She sighed but smirked anyways.
"Oh, well…" she started before stating maliciously. "I am going to make more than half of the teams fail in the next exam."
'More than the half…?'
"I'm getting excited" the woman reminded him of a prey animal. "I will give you the details tomorrow. We will go somewhere else, so ask your jounin teachers about the rally point and time." No one uttered a sound. "That's all. Dismissed."
The room filled out in order, everyone reuniting with their teams and discussing the next day's test or arranging a celebration.
"Aren't you happy we passed, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura's voice said by his side. He only nodded. If she weren't that of a nuisance her presence would be bearable or even enjoyable. The girl was smart.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted the Suna trio. They were already leaving. No words exchanged between them –at least Gaara. The other two were conversing quietly. The other rookies were also still there though they were on their way to the exit. By the corner of his eye, he caught a flash of green. Rock Lee. Another boy with his hair tied in a low ponytail and a bang over his eye was talking to Neji. The girl's attitude did not look like it had changed. Her perfect posture in place, as well as the ever-present frown, were in place as she conversed with her teammates. Feeling herself being observed, the girl quickly turned to look at the person whose gaze was fixated on her. When her white orbs collided with black ones, Sasuke immediately averted his eyes.
Naruto followed his previous gaze, a mischievous smile spreading on his face.
"Got a crush on Bushy brows?" the boy joked.
"Shut up, dobe."
"Or is it his girl teammate?" He continued teasing. This time –he was not sure if luckily or not– it was Sakura who talked.
"Stop talking nonsense, Naruto!" the girl said suddenly sounding enraged and shaking Naruto from the shoulders.
Sasuke ignored both of them, staring at the Hyuga for a moment one last time and pondering.
'Were they still friends?'