Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Irony of it All ❯ Chunin Exam Number One: BEGIN!! ( Chapter 18 )

Chapter 18: Chunin Information, Chunin Exam Number One: BEGIN!

 

"I am Yakushi Kabuto. Just look around you..." They all looked out to the crowd. They all gulped as everyone stared at them, not happy faces remind you. Rayne eyes traveled to some ninja behind them. They wore headbands with four vertical lines, signaling they were rain ninjas. They stared at them coldly.

"Those ninjas are from the rain village," Kabuto informed the rest. "They have a short temper. Everyone is tense seeing as it's the beginning of the exam. I warned you so you don't get picked on. Kabuto smirked.

"Well I remember my first year, vulnerable and unsuspecting." Rayne and Sasuke frowned. “This guy's got some nerve....”

"So this is your second year then?" Sakura asked.

"Well no...it's my seventh time taking the exams." Rayne, who was next to Sasuke, pulled on his hand. He leaned in to listen what she had to say,

“And he's giving US advise?” Sasuke chuckled and continued to listen. Since everyone was too busy look at Kabuto, nobody noticed the talk between the two… except for one.

"This exam takes place twice every year, this is my fourth year," Kabuto explained.

"So, you must know a lot about this exam?" Sakura assumed.

"Well, yeah."

"And yet, you've never passed," Rayne said in a yeah-right kind of tone.

Kabuto rubbed the back of his head. "Well yeah, true."

"Is the Chunin Exams that difficult? How troublesome..." Shikamaru complained.

"Well then let me give you guys a head start..." Kabuto reached into a pouch and pulled out a deck of cards.

"Recognition cards," Kabuto said, showing the cards.

"Recognition cards?" Sakura echoed.

"Basically, information cards that can only work with my chakra," Kabuto explained. They watched closely as Kabuto kneeled on the ground, placing his cards on it's surface.

"I've collected all this info over the past four years," Kabuto said. "There's about 200 cards total." Kabuto flipped one card over, it was completely blank.

"It looks white now but..." Kabuto put his finger on the card. It spun underneath his finger as you could feel Kabuto push chakra into the card.

"What are you doing?" Kiba asked.

"Like I said, these cards only react to my chakra." The card stopped spinning and in a poof of smoke, a map appeared on the card. The map turned and three-dimensional bars appeared, showing how many participants from each village there was.

Sand -30
Rain -21
Grass -15
Waterfall -12
Leaf -72
Sound -6

"There's a total of 153 participants," Kabuto stated. "Now let me ask you this question..." Everyone looked at Kabuto.

"Why do you think we all take the Chuunin Exam together?" Nobody answered. And if they were like Rayne, then nobody cared.

"First, it's to make friendships between countries." Rayne's mind wandered off toward her old friends.

“Next is to heighten the level of ninja.."

"Okay, this is all fine and whatever but this is the CHUNIN Exams. I thought this was to select the next Chunin," Naruto said. Everyone nodded.

"Well yes, that is the true purpose but...the real significance is balancing power between countires," Kabuto said.

"Balance?" Naruto questioned.

"What's the point? Why go through so much trouble?" Shikamaru asked. Kabuto put his hand over the card making it turn white again.

"If the power between countries is not balanced, one country could become more powerful and possibly take over another one," Kabuto clarified.

"Is there any personal info on those cards?" Sasuke asked, stepping up. Kabuto smirked as he looked at Sasuke.

"You had someone in mind?" Kabuto lifted one blank card.

"Gaara, from the Hidden Sand Village. Rock Lee of the Leaf Village. And Ichiro from Mist.” Sasuke said. Rayne glanced at Sasuke when she heard the last name. Kabuto frowned slightly.

"Oh that's no fun, you even know their names." Kabuto grabbed three cards from the deck and held them in front of his face. "Here we go."

"Show them to me," Sasuke said seriously. Naruto looked back and forth from Sasuke to Kabuto.

“I have no idea what's going on...but I'll pretend like I do!” Rayne walked up, standing beside Sasuke to get a better look. She felt him glance at her.

"First, Rock Lee." Kabuto placed one card on the ground and began to spin it around. A few seconds later the card stopped spinning and information appeared. Lee's picture showed up, along with pictures of his teammates, mission numbers and a skill graph.

"Lee is one year older than you guys. He's completed 20 D rank missions and 11 C ranks. His squad leader is Gai and his teammates are TenTen and Neji. His taijutsu skills have increased greatly, but his other skills haven't moved at all. He didn't take the exam last year even though he was qualified."

"Now, Gaara..." Kabuto spun another card until information appeared as Lee's had. Rayne noticed a lot of Gaara's information was unavailable.

"Gaara has complete eight C rank missions and...this is amazing, one B rank mission as a genin. He's a foreign ninja and this is his first time taking the exam so I don't have any other information on him."

"And Ichiro?" Kabuto took the last card and spun it until Ichiro's information showed up. His pictured was shown and both Rayne and Sasuke looked closely at everything else.

"His full name is Hisuko Ichiro, This guy's two years older than you...but this is his first time taking the exam. He's completed 18 D rank missions, eight C rank missions, and two B rank. His skills are pretty evened out but his taijutsu seems to be his strong point. His teammates are Mora Chikara, Hakuma Yayori and Nai Mitsuko. As to why this is his first year, I don't know." The card went blank and Kabuto returned the three to his deck. Then he took another card, placing it on the ground and making it show another map.

"Konoha, Sand, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, and Sound. This year, many talented ninjas from these villages have come," Kabuto said.

"Sound, it only has three participants, why is that?" Rayne asked curiously.

"The Hidden Sound Village is a small village that just sprung up out of nowhere. I don't have an information on them," Kabuto informed. "But either way, they're all strong villages."

"It's enough to make you lose your confidence..." Hinata said fearfully.

"Oh now's a great time for saying that!" Ino scolded.

"So all the entries here are..." Sakura started.

Kabuto smirked. "Correct. Everyone here are elite ninja chosen from each country. This isn't going to be easy."

"No shit..." Rayne muttered, unconsciously grabbing the closest thing or person in this case, and grabbed Sasuke's hand. He glanced down but only moved a little closer so no body can see.

Kakashi stood outside in the hallway, thinking over his decision.

"I wonder if I chose right, those stubborn kids are probably all frightened now..."

 

Back with the team, Naruto was shaking. Rayne was in deep thought, still not knowing what she grabbed when she saw Naruto. Sasuke, thinking about why Rayne grabbed his name, also didn't see Naruto yet until Naruto made a sudden, LOUD, outburst. He turned to all the ninja, pointing at them with a stupid grin.

"My name's Uzumaki Naruto and I'm gunna beat every one of you, BEEEEELIEVE ITTT!!!"

 

Kakashi leaned against the door, smiling.

 

Rayne stood beside Sasuke, sweatdropping and slapping her forehead. Sasuke glanced at her quickly before glaring at Naruto. Sakura stood back with an annoyed expression. Ino angrily glared at Sakura.

"Hey! Control your boyfriend!"

Sakura glared back. "What'd you say!?!?!" Naruto grinned, put his arms behind his head.

"Ah, that felt good!" A lot of the ninjas started smirking.

Chikara smirked. "Interesting kid...."

"Is he an idiot?" Tenten asked, sitting in the crowd with his teammates.

"I guess you didn't shake them up as much as you planned, Lee..." Neji told his black-haired teammate.

"He's got passion," Lee spoke. Back in the crowd as well stood three ninjas.

"Did you hear that you guys? They're insulting us..." one ninja smoke. He had bandages covering his face and a fuzzy back.

"I say we play with them a little," the female of the team spoke.

"Time to update their data..." The fuzzy-backed ninja spoke. Back with the grou[, Kiba smirked. "I'm sorry, I didn't quite catch that. I'm not sure you were loud enough."

"You bakka, do you wanna make everyone here your enemy?" Shikamaru glared at Naruto.

Sakura headlock Naruto from behind. "You idiot! Don't you ever stop to think!?" As Sakura attacked Naruto, the other ninja started looking irritated again. Sakura noticed and looked at them.

"Oh oh sorry, don't mind him. He has some mental problems...." Sakura pulled him back and started scolding him. In the crowd, the Sound team with the fuzzy-backed shinobi, took off. Kabuto's eyes shifted to the crowd. Gaara's team seemed to notice too. Rayne felt a breeze and her eyes hardened. A girl went at Kabuto and Rayne quickly let go of whatever she was holding and speedily stood in front of him. She grabbed the girl's outstretched arm and flipped her away. She skidded to the side and Rayne pinned her to a wall with a kunai, glaring. As Rayne was with the girl, the boy with a yellow shirt threw two kunais at Kabuto. Kabuto jumped back as the kunai pierced the ground. But as Kabuto was distracted the fuzzy-backed ninja appeared right in front of him and sent a punch at Kabuto's face. Kabuto dodged and landed on his feet. Kabuto smirked, then a second later the glass in his glasses broke.

Kabuto took his glasses off. "I see, so that's what kind of attack it was..." Rayne let go of the girl, turn and walked back toward Kabuto. Sasuke stepped up.

"Hold on, I saw the whole thing, Kabuto wasn't touched!" Suddenly Kabuto's vision began to get blurry. He grasped his head and fell to his knees on the ground. Kabuto threw up blood causing Naruto and Sakura to run over to him. Everyone looked shocked.

"Lee, what do you think of that attack?" Neji asked.

"That defiantly should have been dodged. There must be some kind of trick,"

"Quiet down you punks!" There was a big poof of smoke and everyone turned their attention to the other side of the room.

"Sorry to keep you waiting."The smoke revealed to show a man with a scarred face.

"I'm Morino Ibiki, the first proctor of the Chuunin Exams."

 

From the front of the room, Ibiki pointed his finger towards the group. He spoke in a rough, loud voice.

"You, ninja from the Hidden Sound Village, do you think you can do anything during the exam? Do you want to be disqualified already?"

"Sorry sir. This is our first time, we're a little...excited," the fuzzy-backed ninja said. Ibiki smirked a bit but looked around to all the other genin.

"Then this would be a good time to say; you are not allowed to fight during the exam, unless you're instructed to do so by a proctor." The female sound ninja smirked as Rayne glared. She gave her a mocking look and walked back over to her team. Rayne glared after her as she walked back to your group and stood next to Sasuke, arms crossed. The other sound ninja smirked and turned to Ibiki.

"I can see this exam's gunna be soft and easy." The chuunin behind your proctor smirked.

"We will now begin the first test of the Chuunin Exam," Ibiki announced. "Turn in your applications, then..." Ibiki held up a white card. On it was a bold 1.

"Take one of these cards and what number you get will decide your seating. Once everyone is seated, we will pass out the papers for the written test."

"Written...? Papers...?" Naruto muttered. A chunin quickly ruffled a large stack of papers. Naruto's eyes turned white as he slammed his hands on the floor and cried out in despair.

"NOOO! NOT A WRITTEN TEST! NO WAY!!!!"

Rayne's eyes also widen slightly as she dropped her arms to her side.

“Not a written test!” She said to herself while bumping her head on Sasuke's shoulder. He grunted, but did not say anything to stop her. Sakura and Ino noticed this and glared fiercely at Rayne.

Rayne placed her number card on the desk as she found and sat in her spot. The room's seats were split into three sections; she was in the right section near the window. She was sitting in the seat next to the aisle. Looking around she could see the people walking outside. She noticed Sasuke was sitting in the same section as her, a few rows ahead of her. Looking around further, she noticed Naruto was in the middle section and Sakura was a few rows behind him in the same section.

"Excuse me, what number are you?" Without looking up, she responded to the voice as she continued looking around. "Twenty-three."

"Then I sit next to you." She looked up and gave a half a smile. Ichiro stood, a white card with a bold 24 printed on it, held in his hand. He smiled at her.

“So, we meet again, Rayne-sama.” Rayne twitched,

“What's with the `sama' at the end of my name now?”

"Yeah, how weird." She saw Sasuke also looking around and saw her with Ichiro. He glared at Ichiro but looked at her for a moment before turning around.

“What's with the `sama' at the end of my name now?” Rayne asked Ichiro. “You never called me with `sama' before. Ichiro smiled and turned away.

“Not as weird as you think Rayne-sama....” Everyone's attention was turned forward as Ibiki loudly tapped some white chalk against the chalkboard.

"This exam has a few important rules. Listen up because I won't be accepting any questions."

“No questions?” Sakura echoed in her mind. Ibiki began to write on the board as he spoke.

"You all start with a total of ten points. This test has ten questions, thus, each question is worth one point. This is a deduction based test so if you get a question wrong, you will be deducted a point."

“So if I get two problems wrong, my score will be eight...” Rayne understood. Ibiki confirmed her assumption.

“So if I get ten wrong my score will be zero..” Naruto understood.

"Next, the pass/fail decision is based on the team's total score," the proctor said. Sasuke and Rayne's face fell.

“No way!” their gaze turned to the back of their blonde teammate. Naruto gulped.

"What!? No way!!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Shut up!" Ibiki barked. "There's a reason so just shut up and listen." Sakura fell silent.

"Now, to the next rule. Those chunin you see stationed around the room..." Rayne looked to her right. On the right and left walls of the room, chunin were sitting in chairs. There must have been at least twelve or more chunin on each side. Everyone looked back to Ibiki as he continued.

"Those examiners are here to watch you. If they catch you cheating, or anything similar to that, during the test, each time will cost you two points. So, if you are caught cheating five times, you fail and will be escorted from the room immediately.

" A murmur of whispers came up but Ibiki continued. "Those who cheat without thinking will be caught and will only hurt themselves. You all are here to become chunin. If you want to be treated as an elite ninja, act like one." Sakura took a deep breath.

“Okay Sakura, calm down. Putting Naruto aside, Sasuke and I will do good...and Rayne should too. So even if Naruto gets a zero, our points should make that up.”

"Oh and, if any one in your team gets a zero, the whole team fails." Rayne's hand slipped from it's position holding up her chin, her head almost banging on the desk. She looked up, eyes wide. Sasuke dropped his pencil and widen his eyes.

“No way!” Naruto gulped as he felt Rayne's, Sasuke's, and Sakura's glare boring into his back.

“They're gunna kill me!”

"The tenth question will be given out in the last fifteen minutes of the exam. You are given one hour to complete the test. Begin!" There was a large rustle as papers were turned over and the scratching of pencil on paper as everyone wrote their names. Rayne finished writing her name neatly in the top right hand corner of the paper and looked at the test. She skimmed over the questions quickly before glancing at Naruto's back.

“Naruto, you better not fail on us!” Looking back to the first question, she read it thoroughly. Putting the eraser to her chin, she tapped it thoughtfully. After a minute or so, the tip of her pencil reached the paper and you wrote the answer in the answer box.

“Okay...now number two...” Rayne read number two but she couldn't get it as fast as the first one.

“The questions keep getting harder....” She wrote down the answer to number two. She moved on to number three and read.

“The parabola B, represents a shuriken's maximum throwing distance of the enemy ninja, A, from a height of seven meters. Figure out the trait of the enemy ninja that can be observed from the ellipse formed by the shuriken. Also, figure out the maximum throwing distance on flat ground. Explain your reasoning.” Rayne sat back in her seat, her pencil twirling around and around through her fingers. “These questions are based off of uncertainty and physical analasis, really complex stuff...oh crap....” Rayne glanced over to Sakura, she whizzing through her paper. She looked back at her paper. Her neat writing filled up the first two boxes but she couldn't figure out number three and that meant she KNEW you couldn't answer any of the other questions. A few rows ahead of her, Sasuke finished reading through the paper and set it down. Sitting straight and smirking he admitted.

“Heh, well well, I don't know the answer to any of these quiestios….”

Rayne put her head in her hands. Now what? There was no way she could answer these. In fact, how could ANYONE answer these. She glanced beside her where Ichiro hadn't put down any answer and was staring at his paper, concentration stitched on his face. Rayne looked to her other side and to the prospectors. They seemed to be watching everyone so intensely...it was kind of creepy. She saw the Chunin she was watching mark someone down. She frown, some tried to cheat.

“But even so...” She looked back to her paper. “This thing is just too weird. Normally in a test, especially one as important as this, wouldn't you be disqualified immediately for cheating? But no, it's only two points off. It's like there giving us opportunities to cheat....why would they do that?” Her eyes widened as something finally clicked. She looked to the front of the room where Ibiki stood. His words echoed in her mind: 'Those who cheat without thinking will be caught and will only hurt themselves. You all are here to become chunin. If you want to be treated as an elite ninja, act like one' Rayne smirked.

“So that's it. They're expecting us to cheat.” Rayne glanced back to the chunins. “That's why they're here. If we don't cheat properly, we're gone. This test doesn't test our knowledge, it tests our ability to gather information. So.....” Rayne looked around her. “How to cheat and not get caught....” Other people had figured out the true purpose of the exam as well. Gaara of the Sand had created an eye of sand and was gaining the answers by sneaking the eye over someone's paper. Akamaru was finding the answer and lightly barking them to Kiba, who wrote them down. The sound ninja from earlier was using sound waves to memorize the movements of someone's pencil and copied their answer. And all around, ninja after ninja started gathering information. Rayne smirked. “Alright, here we go!”

Doing several handsigns under the desk she whispered, "Secret jutsu: Shadow Raven jutsu.” Beside her popped a very small raven. The Prospectors didn't notice, probably because they can't see shadows.

“Now..who has the answers?” Rayne looked ahead and saw a guy in front of Sasuke whizzing through his test, he was just about done. She made more handsigns and the raven silently moved forward in the isles with the people's shadows. As the raven got to Sasuke's row, she told it to stop and stare at Sasuke. But seconds later she saw Sasuke glance back at her, his eyes were red.

“His Sharingan is activated....he can see my bird.” The bird gave a small wink at Sasuke and it crept forward. It stared at the guy's paper, and Rayne closed her eyes. She reopen them to show that it had turn all black and she speedily wrote the answers down. Her raven disappeared as she called it off, looking at her paper. The first nine answers were completed...she looked at the ticking clock on the wall to her right. She had gotten done ten minutes early. Out of curiosity, she looked over at Ichiro. He was still working but at the moment...he was just sitting there. She stared at him oddly until seconds later his eyes suddenly snapped open and he began to write down the answers. Turning away from the boy she leaned back in her seat, waiting for the tenth question.

NARUTO'S POV

It was ten minutes until the tenth question would be given out and I still had not completed a single answer.

“I'm so tempted to cheat but...if I get a zero, Ray-nee-chan, Sakura, and Sasuke-teme will fail with me.....”

I hung my head, eyes closed until,

"Naruto." I lifted my head to see Hinata whispering to me. She wouldn't look at me, and her face was red...weird...maybe the pressure was making her sick or something. But then she said something.

"Naruto I can show you...my test." My eyes widened.

“No way! Did she say what I thought she just said!? Would she really show me her test!? But then again, this could be a trap! Kiba and Shino could have set her up to-no..Hinata's not like that....”

"Hey Hinata, why would you want to show me your test?" I asked the girl sitting next to me, quietly. Hinata didn't answer me for a minute. As I watched her, it seemed as though it pained her to tell me. But finally she came out with it. "

W-well...wouldn't it be nice, if all of us could graduate? A-all the nine rookies?" I smiled.

"Yeah, I guess that makes sense."

“How lucky am I!? What's the chances of sitting next to someone who WANTS you to cheat off of her!” Smiling, I began to look over and was about to read the answer of the first question as something flew right past my face. I halted stiff, realizing a kunai had flown past my face, barely missing my face by a centimeter. I looked over my shoulder to see the kunai was directed at someone else. The kunai had pierced through the paper of a genin who looked up angrily.

"Hey! What gives!?" A chuunin stood up. "You were caught cheating five times. You fail."

"What!?"

"You and your teammates are to leave here immediately." Sorely, two other genin stood up and headed towards the door. The genin behind me stood stiff with fear before he too, angrily left the room.

"Number 45, fail. Number 28 and 19 also, fail," a chunin read off. I watched as several more genin had to leave. Some even had to be dragged out the door. One daring genin stood up angrily.

"How do you know I cheated five times!? There's no way you can catch everyone! You made a mistake!" A second later, the genin was pinned to the wall by a chunin. The genin looked in fear.

"We were chosen for this because we don't make mistakes," the chunin said, dropping the genin to the floor where he was picked up and escorted from the room. I watched with horror until Hinata brought you back to my senses.

"Pst, Naruto, go ahead, look.." I pushed the paper sneakily closer to me. I stared at the paper before sighing and looking down. "Sorry...I appreciate it...but no."

"Huh?"

"Hey, I'm an ace ninja. I can get through this. Besides..." my voice grew more serious. "If I get caught, you could get in trouble." I saw Hinata turn red again which simply puzzled me. But she smiled. "Yeah..sorry, stupid idea."

"Nah, forget about it," you said but on the inside you screamed at yourself. “HOW COULD I DO THAT!? When did I become so nobel!?”

RAYNE'S POV

I sat calmly and waited as numbers were being called out to whom failed. It wasn't long before half of the room was empty. I looked back up at the clock. Five minutes left to go....

"Well, it looks like our incompetent ninja have been weeded out..." Ibiki spoke as he looked around the half empty room. I looked up at Ibiki spoke. It finally was time. The tenth question. I laced my fingers and put my head on them, the familiar action of Sasuke.

"However, before I start the tenth question, there's one thing I must take care of..." I lifted my head slightly.

"There is a special rule concerning this last problem."

“Special rule?” I could feel panic slowly start to creep inside of me.

"Glad you could join us," Ibiki said and everyone followed his gaze to the door in the back of the room. The door opened to reveal Kankuro.

"It's a good thing you made it in time, your puppet show didn't go to a waste," Ibiki smirked.

“Puppet show?” I intensely stared at Kankuro and the chunin behind him or... Kankuro narrowed his eyes.

“He knew about Kasuro...” He glanced at his puppet, disguised as a chuunin. Everyone's eyes followed Kankuro as he walked down the isle and took his seat once more.

"Now, I will explain," Ibiki spoke, redirecting everyone's attention to him. "This rule is....a hopeless rule..."

“Hopeless rule?” I pondered. What could that mean? Why make rules without a point? I waited for the brute instructor to continue.

WITH ASUMA, KURENAI, AND KAKASHI

"It sure is boring without the students..." Kakashi spoke as the three jounin sat on the red couches.

"We'll get busy soon enough," Asuma spoke.

“Why?" Kakashi asked. Asuma explained as he ashes his cigarette butt into the ashtray beside him.

"This year's first examiner is Morino Ibiki." Kakashi gave a surprised look before regaining his emotionless expression.

"So, they started out the exam difficult.." Kakashi sighed and leaned back in seat. "So they had to choose the sadist?"

"Sadist?" the brown hared jounin asked.

"Kurenai, I forgot, you're a rookie jounin, no wonder you don't know of Morino Ibiki," Asuma spoke.

"So I'm naive, who is he?" Kurenai asked, looking to Kakashi.

"A pro." Kakashi said.

"A pro? A pro of what?" Kurenai asked.

"Torture and interrogation." Kurenai's eyes grew wide.

"Although there will be no physical torturing in this exam, that's not his specialty. Ibiki specializes in mental torture. He is Konoha's ANBU torture and interrogation squad leader."

BACK WITH THE TEAM- 3rd POV

Ibiki stared at the rest of the genin.

"Before we start the tenth question, you must decide whether you would like to take it or not." Rayne and Sasuke narrowed their eyes.

“Decide whether or not to take the exam? We're all here to take this exam and pass, why would we choose NOT to take this exam.....this exam's 'special'....”

"What happens if we choose not to take the tenth question?" Temari asked from the back of the room.

"If you choose not to take the exam, you and your teammates will receive a zero. In other words, you fail," Ibiki spoke with a smirk.

"What's the point in that?" "of course we're going to take it!" people around the room reasoned.

"But here's the other part of the rule..." Ibiki began.

“Rule! Rule! Rule! Too many ruuuuuules!” Rayne complained as she placed her head on her desk. Ichiro glanced at her with a smirk. Ibiki continued.

"If you decide to take the tenth question and get it wrong you will forever lose the privilege to take the Chuunin Exams." Everyone immediately lifted their head at him, staring in disbelief. All around, uproars of protests rang out.

"That's a bunch of bull!" Kiba yelled, standing up. "Plenty of people here have taken the exam before, failed, and took the exam again!" Ibiki let out a mocking chuckle.

"I guess you guys are just...unlucky. This year is my year, I am the rules. That is why I gave you the option of quitting/ Those who are not confident enough to take the exam can come back and take the exam year after year should they choose."

“I can't quit because I'll bring my teammates with me....” Naruto, Rayne and Sakrua shook their head knowing they didn't want to quit anyway. “But if I fail the exam...I'll be a genin forever...”

"Those who wish not to take the exam, raise your hands." Rayne clutched her head with her right hand as she looked down to the wooden surface of her desk. What to do? With a straight face, she looked up to Naruto. Her blonde teammate shook in his seat, obviously struggling with his answer.

` "I want to be the greatest Hokage! Then everyone will stop disrespecting me and treating me like a somebody, sombody important!" ' Naruto's voice echoed in her head. His dream... A dream worth fighting for… She looked back to Naruto. His dream depended on this exam. His dream was what he lived for...

“He won't raise his hand...he's concerned about us…” Sakura thought. Sakura smiled quietly to herself.

“If he won't do it, then I will…” Slowly and quietly, she lifted her but never mad it due to the loud slamming noise ahead of her. Everyone turned their attention to Naruto.

WITH THE THREE JOUNIN

 

"The scariest thing about Ibiki, he can find that one little thing that can drive a person crazy and he picks and picks at it, almost to a point of insanity. He'll find your weakness just to use it against you. "

BACK WITH THE TEAM

Naruto was standing up, obviously second guessing his decision and putting his hand down.

“Screw you! I'm gunna take this test! Even if I do stay a genin forever, I'll become Hokage no matter what! Beleive it!" Naruto sat down, arms crossed. All around, participants grew determined and none raised their hands.

Sasuke and Rayne smirked. “Naruto...you bakka, but you have guts.”

"I will ask again. Do anyone wish to withdraw from the exam?" And all around, thanks to Naruto's speech, no one raised their hands. In fact, some even smirked, completely determined, awaiting the tenth question.

“Incredible kid. He wiped out everyone's uncertainty...” Ibiki thought. “78 students left? That's more than I expected...”

"Alright then, for everyone left....you pass." Rayne stared, blinked a couple of times and stared. And all around the fact that they passed started to sink in.

"But wait! What do you mean!? We pass!? What about the tenth question?" Sakura exclaimed, standing up.

“Sakura! We passed! Sit down and stop asking questions!” Rayne mentally glared at her teammate. Ibiki beamed, an unusual expression and... funny looking expression coming from this man of combat. "There was no tenth question! Or you can call that decision the tenth question if you would like."

"So what was the point of the previous nine questions!? Did they mean nothing!?" Temari asked.

"No, those questions already accomplished their purpose," Ibiki said.

"The purpose of testing our ability to obtain information..." Rayne spoke. Ibiki glanced at her.

"That's correct."

"Wait..what are you talking about?" Temari asked.

"This exam tests what you would do as a Chuunin Squad Leader. First off, you had the pressure of being depended upon by your team," Ibiki explained.

"Yes yes, I figured," Naruto pretended to understand, nodding his head. Rayne and Sasuke sweatdropped.

"However, the questions found on your test papers could not be solved by genins. Thus, most of you must have figured out that you need to cheat, so we stationed two Chuunin in the room disguised as a genin that knew all the answers. For those who could not cheat without being caught, they were weeded out."

"Of course! It's so obvious! Who couldn't have known!?" Naruto spoke loudly, leaning back in his chair. Sasuke and Rayne twitched.

“This whole time he never figured it out?” Ibiki untied his headband to show his head. It was scared, with burn marks and puncture wounds.

"Information can have a greater value than life at times, and in missions and battlefields information is contested with lives of people," Ibiki retied his headband around his head. "The information that an enemy gets after being noticed by a third person will not necessarily be accurate. Getting incorrect information can cause great damage to your teammates and village."

"But the last question..."

“Ibiki spoke once more. "The tenth question was the main question of this exam."

"What are you talking about?" Sakura asked.

"Let me try to explain," Ibiki said. "The tenth question was a "take it or not" choice. Needless to say, it was a painful choice. If you decided to play safe, you failed with your team. However, if you did take it but got it wrong, you would never be able to take the exam ever again. Now listen to this problem. Let's assume you have become a Chuunin, your mission is to capture a secret document. The numbers of enemy ninja, their abilities, alignments, are all unknown. Knowing how dangerous this mission is, will you accept it? Just because your life and the lives of your teammates may be in danger, will you be able to get rid of the danger? No."

"Wait..." everyone turned their attention to Rayne. "So let me get this straight, you're saying no matter what, there are going to be risks. The real issue to face is the ability to show courage to your teammates, the ability to get through a bad situation." Ibiki showed her a small smirk. "That is correct. That is what we look for in a Chunin 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 only carry a light determination like they have no right to become a Chunin. That is what I believe," Ibiki said.

"I believe that you have chosen the right answer to the difficult tenth question. You can deal with the difficulties that lay ahead." Rayne smiled. “You're damn right! Okay, bring on the next exam!” It all happened so fast, a crash through the window, the shattering of glass and soon you were staring at a woman. A black tapestry hung behind the woman by kunai. In white lettering the tapestry read 'Mitarashi Anko, the second exam proctor!' Rayne sweatdropped. “I didn't mean immediate...”

"Alright you maggots, don't start your celebrating yet! I am the second proctor, Mitarashi Anko!"

Rayne twitched. "Oh...her..."

"Alright everyone! Follow me!" Anko pumped her fist into the air. The crickets sounded. Everyone silently watched Anko, wide-eyed.

“She's like another Naruto…” Sakura thought. Ibiki walked out from behind the black banner.

“You're early..." Anko blushed but then grew normal...er....well yeah. She looked over to Ibiki.

"26? You let 26 teams pass? Going soft?" Ibiki smirked.

"Or maybe there's just a tougher crop of candidates this year." Anko smirked as she looked back to the genin.

"Oh well, half of them will be eliminated after my exam."

“Half?” Sakura questioned.

"Tomorrow the second exam begins. Your jounin leaders will know the meeting time and place. That is all. Dismissed."