Naruto Fan Fiction ❯ The Village Hidden in the Waves ❯ Start your Engines! The Chunin Exam Begins! ( Chapter 3 )

Chapter Two

Start your engines!

The Chunin exam begins!

 

“First, you candidates from the village hidden in the sound and waves! Knock it off! Who told you that you could fight? You wanna be failed before we've even begun?”

“Sorry.” said the sound ninja in bandages to the proctor in an almost sarcastic way. “It's our first time. Guess we're a little jumpy... sir.”

“I was only trying to stop them, sir.” I explained.

“You shouldn't have taken part in it at all!” Ibiki replied, then continued, “I'll say this once, so listen up! There will be no combat between candidates. No attacking each other without the permission of your proctor. And even then, the use of fatal force is strictly prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of messing with me will be disqualified immediately. Got it?”

“No fatal force?” asked the sound ninja with black hair. “That's no fun.”

“Now, if we're ready, we'll proceed to the first stage of the Chunin exam. Hand over your paperwork. In return you'll each be given a number. This number determines where you will sit. We'll start the written test once you're all seated.”

“The what?” asked Naruto. ”Did he say... `written'?”

One of the men behind Ibiki took out a stack of papers.

“No!! Not a written test, no way!” screamed Naruto.

I ignored Naruto for now and simply went to get my number, which was 53. I was right next to Naruto. It was lame, but it beat being with Ino. I even saw Hinata a little further, next to him.

“Okay, everyone, eyes front,” Ibiki told us. “There are a few rules you need to be aware of, and I won't answer any questions, so you'd better pay attention the first time around. All right, rule number one is this: The written part of the exam is conducted on a point-reduction system. Contrary to what some of you may be used to, you all begin the test with a perfect score of ten points. One point will be deducted for each answer you get wrong. So if you miss three, your final score will be seven.”

I nodded at this. I had to get as many answers right as possible.

“Rule number two: teams will pass or fail based on the total score of all three members.”

Everyone gasped at this, and I even saw Sakura bang her head on her table.

“What!? Wait a second!” she called out. “You're saying we all get scored... as a team!?”

“Silence!” Ibiki yelled. “I have my reasons. So shut up and listen!”

I felt like we were in ninja boot camp or something. None of our teachers ever talked us this way. I just let it go and kept listening. What could I do anyway?

“Rule number three: The sentinels you see positioned around the room are there to watch you carefully for any signs of cheating. And for every incident they spot, they will subtract two points from the culprit's score.“

“What?” I emitted.

“Huh?” Sakura mimicked.

 

“Be warned; their eyes are extremely sharp, and if they catch you five times you'll be dismissed before the tests are even scored. Anyone fool enough to be caught by the sentinels doesn't deserve to be here.”

I heard one of the sentinels say something to the guys in the back, but I was paying too much attention to Ibiki to understand it.

“If you want to be considered shinobi. Then show us what exceptional shinobi you can be.”

A pause.

“There's one more thing: if any of candidates should get a zero and fail the test, then the entire team fails.”

“Begin!”

I immediately began looking over the questions. Shuriken C is thrown at target A atop of tree AB. Consider the he distance between shuriken A and target B, as well as that of tree DE... What is this? This is too advanced for Genin...

I then looked at the ninja who were watching every row and making notes on those who tried to cheat. No, I can't cheat; they're watching me... but then how are we supposed to answer this? Wait a minute... What the exam proctor said... I then began to remember that Ibiki never mentioned that they couldn't cheat, but that those who were fool enough to be caught didn't deserve to be in the exam... So they want us to cheat... they're daring us to... I see.

I closed my eyes, then reopened them, activating the Suisogan. I'll use the sweat off those ninja's foreheads and create a reflective puddle over their heads... that way I'll see their tests! A kunai shot right past me, causing me to nearly jump out of my skin. It landed on a table not too far away, followed by a man saying, “Number 72, failed.” The Genin argued over him not doing anything, but him and his team simply left.

That was too close. All of a sudden, I looked in front of me, seeing that my sweat puddle had splashed on the ninja in front of me. I then concentrated again, lifting the sweat back onto the ceiling and copying off the answers. I then dragged it over to where Suki was, and left it there so she could see them too. I did the same with Tokeru. Other ninja were getting disqualified as the exam went on, and soon the hour was over.

“Time's up!” the exam proctor told them, and then he continued, “Time for the tenth question. These are the rules exclusive to the tenth question. First, this question is optional. You may choose not to take it.” What!? I thought in shock. Why would we not take the tenth question, of course I will!

“If you take the tenth question, yet answer it wrong, you will never be able to take the exam again!”

“What!?” I cried out loud. “That's unfair!”

“The rules are the rules. Now, raise your hand if you don't want to take this exam. Your teammates will leave with you if you do.”

Slowly, teams began to raise their hands and leave. I, however, kept my hands down. No way was I going to pass this up. Suddenly, something happened that no one would expect. Naruto raised his hand. He kept it up for a while, then slammed it down and called out, “I don't care if I do stay a Genin for the rest of my life. I'll still be Hokage some day!” Seeing this, I smiled. Naruto may be immature, but he had a strong spirit.

“Congratulations! You pass!” Ibiki told us after a long silence.

I was astonished by what he had just said. Pass? What about the tenth question!? This is exactly what a girl from the Sand village asked.

“There never was a tenth question!” the exam proctor laughed.

“So all the other nine questions were for nothing?” I asked.

“Oh, no, in fact, they were very important. I needed to see your ability for gathering information. I had hidden two Chunin in the rows so you could cheat off them.”

Naruto told everyone that he had seen through this all along, but no one believed him. All of a sudden, a woman came in through the window and attached a banner behind her. She revealed herself as Anko Mitarashi, our second exam proctor.

“You're early again.” Ibiki told her, and she groaned, complaining about the many that had passed the first part of the exam. She mentioned that when the second part would be over, there would be half of us left. She brought them all to the entrance of the Forest of Death, where the second part of the Chunin exams would take place.