The chunin exams began back in the academy, which wasn't a location that Naruto thought he'd be back at so soon. Team Seven blew right past the Genjutsu layered over the classrooms, and moved into Room 301. Upon entry, they were assaulted by the Ninja world's greatest scourge… Fangirls.
Naruto scowled. Ino was bad enough, but for other villages to be pining over Sasuke was a bit much. Too much attention drawn to their team. Luckily, Sakura managed to push them away, but the damage was done. The rest of their graduating class from the academy made their way over to Team Seven.
"Hey guys! Good to see you made it as well!" It was Kiba who opened his mouth first, which opened up the floodgates for every rookie nine member to begin exchanging greetings. The blond made eye contact with Hinata, nodding at her. She winked, then returned to conversing with Sakura easily.
A older-looking Genin joined the group. Naruto had never seen him before, yet he bore a Konoha headband, so he figured he was a few classes up.
"You guys shouldn't be so loud. You don't want to draw attention to yourselves." The spectacled Genin chided lightly. Inuzuka spoke up first again. "And who the hell are you?"
The boy in question pushed up his glasses. "My name is Kabuto Yakushi, and I've come here to give you some advice."
Surprisingly, it was Sasuke who spoke up, slightly accusatory. "Do you have the credentials, Yakushi?"
The boy smiled disarmingly, hoping to diffuse the building tension. "Yes, I've taken the test seven times now, this will be the eighth."
"Wouldn't that make you terrible?" Shikamaru muttered to himself. It was all too much effort right now.
"Anyways," Kabuto continued. "I have the information cards here if you are interested." Seeing Sasuke's obvious distrust, he clarified. "It benefits the village if more Konoha teams pass, that's why I'm offering."
Uchiha and Uzumaki exchanged glances. Naruto shrugged, then turned to the silver-haired Genin. "Everyone."
The Rookie Nine's jaws dropped.
"I want everyone's cards." It was phrased as less of a question and more of a demand.
"Uh, do you have any specific in mind?" The spectacle-wearing shinobi was beginning to sweat.
"No." The blond's answer was succinct, and before Kabuto could react, Naruto was holding the information cards in his hands, thumbing through them thoughtfully. Sasuke was suddenly next to him, Three Tomoe Sharingan analyzing contestants at unrivaled speeds.
"He-hey.. Give those back…" The boy's protests were stonewalled. Sakura glanced at Kabuto sympathetically. "Sorry, when those two agree on something, its best to just let them do what they want. Hopefully you'll get them back in a moment."
All of the commotion in one area had drawn the attention of the rest of the room, who pointed their combined killer intent at the group of ten Konoha Shinobi, hoping to rattle them. A few were affected. Ino, Shikamaru, Choji, Kiba, and Shino definetly felt fear flood their bodies. Hinata did a great job of pretending, but Naruto saw through her. He sighed.I should probably do something about this…
Stepping in between the two groups, he leveled an even stare at the larger group of foreign shinobi. "Ganging up on the young ones is bad manners you know."
With his piece said, Naruto draped his killing intent over the room.
The effect was instant. The temperature seemingly dropped twenty degrees, and the sun seemed just a bit dimmer. Despite not having it directed at them, the rookie nine shivered. What was this?! This was no ordinary Genin.
"Stop, Idiot." Sasuke wacked Naruto lightly. "You're scaring our guys too."
Frowning, the blond removed his killing intent from the room. "You're too nice, Uchiha."
Before the coal-eyed boy could respond, a loud shout echoed around the room.
"Settle down, Maggots!"
Everyone turned to look at the new arrival. It was a Konoha Shinobi, clad in a black trench coat. He wore a similarly colored headband, but instead of being standard Shinobi design, it functioned as a cover for his entire head. He spoke again.
"My name is Ibiki Morino, and I will be the proctor for the first stage of the exam!"
Seeing that no one seemed keen on interrupting him, he continued on.
"Sit down in your assigned seats. The first test begins now!"
Naruto was stumped. He had been placed in an aisle seat, to the right of one Hinata Hyuga. He wasn't sure why she was popping up in his life so much recently, but he could hardly complain. The real problem was that his test sheet looked like a slice of Swiss cheese. He was decently schooled and could answer all of the questions concerning Chakra with ease. That said, he had bounced around do to this. Which led him to his current predicament. The rest of the questions were things that a Jonin might struggle to solve, let alone a Chunin. If he was honest with himself, these were more for scholar-type individuals. That left him with his current theory, that answering these questions wasn't actually the main goal of the test. What was the main goal then?
He glanced around the room, taking care to be as subtle as possible. No need to waste his strikes on simple reconnaissance.
His eyes landed first on a red-haired boy, who had a strange gourd slung over the back of his chair, the material of which was undiscernible. He figured this must be Gaara of the Sand, of which he knew due to the information cards Four-eyes had so generously donated to him.
Above Gaara, was a construct of what appeared to be sand. It was in the shape of an eye, and Naruto figured the strange boy could probably see out of it as if it were his own eye, given the fact that he had bothered to set it up. Naruto couldn't tell what it was looking at though, so that wasn't much help. His eyes flickered to the right. Some girl with short brown hair, done up into a double bun was twisting her fingers this way and that, although he couldn't tell to what end. Upon closer inspection, there were brief glimpses of light shining off of some metallic material. Wires. He followed their trajectory and found himself looking at an elaborate setup of mirrors on the ceiling. He couldn't quite tell what they were allowing her to see, but at this point, he figured the idea of the test was to cheat. There had to be plants in the room with the answers, and they had to get the answers from them. Now he just had to figure out how he was going to get these answers.
A tap on his shoulder broke him out of his ruminating. He shifted his gaze to the left, where pale eyes discreetly stared into his own. She glanced down at her paper, attempting to silently convey a message.
He was too busy staring at her.
He kicked himself. This was getting out of hand. This girl was getting in the way of getting stronger, sapping his energy, his will. He silently resolved to put a little more distance between himself and her.
He glanced down at her paper. There were a few messy lines scrawled there, a far cry from your usual neat penmanship.
Copy off of me. It's part of the test.
Well, Naruto certainly wasn't someone to look a gift horse in the mouth. He jotted down her answers, leaned himself back in his chair, and then took off his haori. He draped it over his face, blotting out the sunlight.
He was awoken by shouting. It was the test proctor, he could tell by the angry growl in the man's voice.
"I said what I said. If you fail this final question, you will be barred from taking the Chunin exams ever again."
Naruto sighed to himself but was sufficiently intrigued. He tugged at his face, removing the obscuring article of clothing, and dropping it into his lap. Blinking the sleep from his eyes, he yawned.
"So, sleeping beauty awakes." It was the proctor again. "Do you understand what is at stake here, Maggot?"
Naruto shook his head. "Nah. Could you repeat it?"
A low growl was his response, but he got an answer anyway. "There is one more question. You may choose to not take the question, but you will instantly fail. However, should you opt-in and get the tenth question wrong, you will never again be allowed to participate in any Chunin exam."
Naruto thought to himself for a moment, then sighed. "Yeah, I'm in."
A lone brow was raised. "You're sure? For a big guy such as yourself, I doubt you book smarts. You'd risk you and your teammates' chances, just like that?"
A slow grin stretched Naruto's lips. "I'll take my chances, ProctorSir."
The mocking tone and grin didn't exactly convey any sense of respect towards the man, regardless of the title utilized.
"Well then, everyone here…" There was a moment of silence. Naruto is with all this tension building? Just get to it man…
"PASSES!"
A disappointed sigh fell from Naruto's lips, which were slightly chapped now. "A mile away man, a mile away…"
A blur of tan and purple flew through the window with a crash, sending glass shards everywhere. One even hit Naruto, though it bounced off of him. The purple blur turned out to be a scantily clad woman, her hair done up in a wild short ponytail, the ends fraying off in every direction. As she landed, she unfurled a large cloth bundle, which she stuck to the ceiling with two rapidly thrown kunai. It had large, blocking inscriptions on it, reading as follows.
HERE COMES THE SECOND PROCTOR: ANKO MITARASHI
The first stage proctor sighed, shaking his head disappointingly. "Early again, Anko. As usual."
The woman in question pouted but seemed used to this reaction from him. "You're no fun, Ibiki." She turned her gaze back to the assembled genin. "Not that it matters. By the time my stage is through, there'll only be half of ya left!"
Nowthatgot a reaction. A ripple of murmurs spread through the room. "Follow me, everyone!" She snickered a bit in her hand. "Last one there is a rotten egg!"
