Standing tall in front of the shin.o.bi from different nations, Ibiki with his scarred face and long coat let out a smile that looked grimmer. The Chūnin standing behind him still held a small smile looking at the Genins ahead.
"Let me introduce myself. I am the examiner of the first exam of the Chūnin selection exam, Morino Ibiki."
After letting the words sink in, Ibiki looked at everyone. His gaze resting on Raito and Naruto for a second more but n.o.body noticed it.
"Let me say this since it already came to this." His gaze moved to the Otogakure shin.o.bi then at Sasuke and lastly at Raito.
"You are not allowed to fight each other during the exam unless given permission by the examiners. And even if permission is given, you are not allowed to kill each other… those who fail to comply with this rule will be failed immediately and those who kill… will be killed." Ibiki announced stunning most of the Genin in the room. He was talking about killing like every other day thing.
"Killed? Are you fking kidding me?" One of the Genin who heard that immediately banged his table and stood up.
"A life for a life. What"s wrong with that?" Ibuki waved at the man signaling him to sit down. Ibiki"s action seemed to have activated something in that Genin"s heart.
The Genin who shouted just now turned a little pale as he sat down slowly. He could feel his hands going cold and legs going weak. Alas if he had thought about Ibiki"s word a little more carefully.
Everyone valued their life the most. Not to say a human being but even a cat or mouse knows how to keep its life.
"Even-Even if it was due to mistake? Or in self-defense?" one of the Kunoichi raised her hands and asked.
Ibuki looked at the girl for a long time before answering with one word, "Yes."
"What the heck"s that?"
"Bulls.h.i.t!"
"Chūnin exams are as such… many of you will fail the Chūnin exams no doubt. Only elites among you Genins will be able to show yourself at the finals. And for that final place… there always was, is and will be bloodshed. But Konoha has decided that until you are under our eye, we will not allow that bloodshed. If any of the Chūnin see you killing someone they will… kill you. So, try to hide it… when you kill someone but… you know… even one Chūnin has killed more than you all combined and… not just in one way."
Murmuring started among the Genins as Ibuki smiled inwardly.
At the same time, the question paper were distributed.
Tak, tak, tak.
"Hm." Immediately some of the Genins, who were attentive enough looked to their side where the noise was coming from.
It was one of the Chūnin wearing grey clothes, who looked and smiled, a pen hung on his hands.
"You all were given your question paper but still continued to make noise. So, those who were making noise…just got one point deducted." Ibiki explained then again kept quiet.
"What the h.e.l.l is that!? You-" The Genin who were shouting even after explanation were quickly held by some of the people who knew them. They shook their hand and pointed at the Chūnin at the end of the row.
Tak, tak, tak. That Chūnin smiled a little looking at Genin"s eye.
"It"s good that you are learning. So, let"s start."
Taking chalk, Ibiki turned and started writing on the blackboard. "Like every exam, we also have rules."
"Rule one, read your question. If you answer it wrong, you will lose points."
"This written test consists of ten questions and each question amounting to one point. Those who have already made mistakes will have to work harder to save themselves."
"If you get a problem wrong, you will lose one point. Get three wrong and your points will decrease by three and luckily for many, it will decrease to seven but, for some, it will be a little more.
Some of the Genins immediately gripped their fist in regret.
"I"ll just have to do well." Some of the Genins looked at the question paper and gritted their teeth.
"Rule two… The pa.s.s-fail decision will be determined by your team"s total points."
"What!?" some of the ninjas immediately looked at their weaker teammates.
"A Chain is as Strong as the Weakest Link. Each member of your group must pa.s.s for the group to pa.s.s to the next round."
The Genins gulped and looked at one another for some kinship. They hoped that they were not only one fearful of such a situation and high standards laid by the scarface in front.
"Rule three…"
"How many rules are there?" one Genin grumbled but was caught by Ibiki, "Now that I hear it, no one is allowed to ask any type question what so ever."
"That"s lazy, ya know."
"Now, Rule three… if an examiner determines that you cheated or do something similar during the test like turning heads, pa.s.sing notes, whispering, copying answers… each action as such will cause you to lose two points."
"Huh? What"s that?"
Ibiki didn"t even wait for the Genin to even rest and focus, "In other words, there will be people who will be forced to leave this place without their test being graded."
Now giving the final blow, "Lastly if anyone in a team gets a zero, everyone on that team will fail."
"s.h.i.t! s.h.i.t! s.h.i.t!" Naruto rubbed his hair in fear.
"Start!" With Ibiki"s shout, the exam began as Genins turned their papers.
"Heh~" Raito read the question with an amused smile on his face. "These questions are really tough."
Hinata who had the paper also gaped her small mouth in shock. She hurriedly looked at Naruto"s direction in worry. Even without her Byakugan, she could tell that Naruto was very worried.
"Do your paper seriously. I"ll help him." Raito "told" Hinata then looked at Naruto. "I hate fangirls."
As soon as he picked up the pen, Raito started answering the question seriously. For him who had raised INT and WIS stat beyond hundred had no problem in doing all these questions.
"Giving so much hint, if they don"t understand that…" Raito did a quick sweep and found that many had a pondering look on their faces.
In front of Raito sat Dosu, who seem to be closing his eyes and resting his back to the chair, a little too comfortable.
Looking at Dosu"s answer paper, Raito found that Dosu had perfectly copied his first answer, word by word.
"You want to cheat my answer?" Raito found after observing that Dosu would write a word after he had completed that word.
Raito stopped for a while which also stopped Dosu for a while. Raito wrote and erased which Dosu also copied.
"Number 12, you are out. Number 33 and number 5."
"Wait I didn"t do it?" The Genin immediately went on defense.
While the man continued shouting, Raito continued writing. And while he found that Dosu had copied the exact same, he missed some words. Raito moved his eyes between Dosu, his paper and the shouting Genin behind him.
"14, 59, 120. You three out."
"He is making mistakes." Raito smiled as he looked through Dosu"s answer.
Raito was having so much fun that he forgot about Naruto. After calming down the messy Naruto, Raito started helping him answer his questions.
While Raito helped Naruto answer his question, Raito stopped writing his answer in the meantime. Dosu was more persistent than Raito thought as he never searched for other targets to copy.
"Extreme Hearing Enhancement" "With this skill… you are listening to my pen strokes?"
"I have tricks as well." Raito chuckled softly then activated "Stealth", a part of it, "Sound Cancellation".
After that Raito continued writing and helping Naruto somewhat pa.s.s the exam. Dosu felt uneasy listening to the light feathery strokes, which were too dull and heavy to feel out the characters. After quite a while pa.s.sed trying to figure out, Dosu gave up and started searching for a new target.
But the troubled one was not only Dosu as Naruto who was sitting at the back was also deeply troubled, "Raito, what does root square looks like? And how do I spell that?"
Raito completed his answers and felt his face. Seeing Naruto troubled for not knowing how to make a benzene structure made Raito want to punch him.
"Let"s start." Raito left the paper upside letting others who were eyeing his paper cheat. He used "Chakra sense" to sweep the area.
As Raito had guessed, Shikamaru had linked his shadow with Ino and Chōji forcing them to mimic his movements, completing the five questions needed and the sixth one just to be safe. Hinata and Neji both used their Byakugan to get answers. Kiba made used of Akamaru and his "Bonded Ninken Partner" link to get most of the answers. Shino used his bugs to answer the tough question, doing most of the questions by himself. And lastly Sasuke, he had found the Chūnin placed a couple of desk in front, using Sharingan he copied his hand movement.
Lee and Tenten were using all their skills to the full limit. Tenten had used ninja strings combined with chakra strings to use to reflecting gla.s.s in the lights to be used as the screen. And Lee showed his result of hard work to see a fly ten-meter far to copy the answers reflecting in the gla.s.s. Gennai used the team"s secret hand signs to send all answers to Ami. Karu, on the other hand, had tricks of his own. He used water jutsu to make a special type of bubble and grabbed it in his hand then watched through it, clearly getting all the answers from the distance.
(Ami, Gennai, and Karu were from chapter 22 - meeting with Gai.)
Gaara had used sand to make an eye connected to himself and used it for cheating. But his sand siblings were not doing anything at all. They had only their names written on the paper.
At this moment Kankurō raised his hands and asked to go to the toilet.
"You will be under supervision even if you want to go to the toilet." One of the Chūnin supervisors stood up and walked out with Kankurō.
"Kankurō, do it fast we don"t have much time." Temari played with her pen and looked at the half-finished paper.
Some used subtle hand signs or codes and others whispered, hence many were getting caught.
Lastly the unknowns from the Kusagakure… they hadn"t written anything, at all.
"That"s just pure suicide." Raito laughed inwardly but soon worry replaced it. They were looking at Sasuke.
"They are aiming for Sasuke. They want something from him or want to kill him. Ibiki-oni are you listening? Those Gra.s.s-nin and Sound-nin want to do something to Sasuke." Raito roared into Ibiki"s mind.
Ibiki looked at scanned the room but his eye never stopped on any one particular. He would just glare on someone, making them stop cheating for a while just like a teacher who is on your side telling you… your way of cheating is so obvious.
"Those Kusnin, they are not normal at all." Raito rattled on but Ibiki made no move.
Ibiki moved and glared at the Genins from time to time forcing them to make more mistakes.
The pressure was an odd thing…. Some do great in pressure but others do worse. Everyone in rookie nine had finished and were waiting for Ibiki to announce the end of this exam but there were many who had cheated wrongly.
Inside the bathroom stall, Kankurō sneered as he took out a small micro scroll, quarter the size of his pinky then looked at the "Chūnin supervisor" with a smile. "They don"t even know who is on who"s side. Isn"t that right, Karasu?"
"Kakaka." The chipped mask fell to see a mechanical eye.
Twenty teams were kicked out till now. Ibiki looked at the clock behind and raised his hands.
"Stop Writing!" His voice was not high but everyone could hear it, making them freeze for a moment.
"Your answer papers will be graded right now…. But I will be adding some more rules." Some ninjas who looked smart came inside and prepared a table and chair as Ibiki explained.
Then again a ninja wearing face mask walked in with a big stack of paper and a big stamp.
Genins looked in curiosity at the big stamp and the stack of the paper. Some of the ninjas with great eyesight like Neji and Sasuke immediately saw what it was.
In red color, it spelled, "REJECTED".
"Some more rules? We already finished the exams what more do you want?" a Genin sneered, he had already caught the whole play or so he thought. He had used hand signs to get answers from his friends and from what he knew, his bookish friend was only good for this, probably the reason he failed on the last Chūnin exams.
"It"s probably the last rule, you are getting from me." Ibiki held the stamp in his one hand and on his other hand, a plain paper.
Looking at the Genins, he slammed the paper on the board and said, "I will give you ten minutes to decide if you want to hand in your papers."
"…" There were some people who had a pondering look on their faces.
One of the braves shouted, "What"s the catch? What happens if we decide not to submit the answer sheet?"
"If you decide not to submit your answer sheet regardless of the fact that you have done all the ten questions then of course, you will get a zero. In other words, you fail and that means of course both your teammates fail as well.
"…"
"Haha." Some of the Genins started to laugh. One of them waved his paper and said, "Why wouldn"t we wanna submit?"
"Ba~ka"
"I don"t get it."
"Why choices?"
"Of course we will submit."
"Who won"t?"
"Yea, no problem."
"… You didn"t let me finish. If you decide to submit, you will be graded right in front… and if you don"t get pa.s.sing marks then… you will not only fail… BUT ALSO BE BARRED FROM EVER TAKING THE CHŪNIN EXAMS EVER AGAIN."
Most of the Genins looked at their paper then at Ibiki and lastly at one another.
Bang!
"That"s ridiculous! What kind of bogus rule is that?"
"Yeah! There are lots of people here who have taken the exams before."
"Yeah!"
Hahaha. His heavy laugh created an eerie environment.
"Some kind of jutsu… I have to get it." Raito thought as he repeatedly tried to calm Naruto, who was going over his papers again.
"I guess that you were just… unlucky."
"I wasn"t making the rules before but… I am now." Ibiki chuckled as he played with the stamp in his hand.
"Of course if you don"t want to submit then you don"t have to. Of you are not feeling confident then you can leave. You can try again at the next Chūnin exams."
"…"
"Last question, are you going to submit or quit?" Ibiki asked.
The demonstration hall was silent and Genins began to look at the answer sheet uncomfortably.
One of the examinees besides Naruto shifted uncomfortably and looked at his answer sheet. "I don"t know…d.a.m.n!"
He clutched his paper and stood up, raising his hand. "I can"t do it…I can"t. I give up."
"Number 50, fail. Number 130, number 110. That means you are out too."
After one started, others also raised their hands. "Me too. I quit."
"Me too, sir."
"I quit."
Hands started raising and people started quitting. One by one the groups were being sent out.
Naruto who was looking at his paper turned his paper and started raising his hand.
Raito "…What"s he doing?"
Hinata "…"
Sasuke "…is he quitting?"
"Pull your hand down." Raito roared in Naruto"s head.
While his hand was up, Naruto had his eyes closed, a painful expression in his face. Even the smart guy by his side had quit after writing so much.
"That guy by your side was a Chūnin. Don"t you remember? We even painted his whole house black and Jichan gave us a long lecture."
"EH!?" Naruto was a little dumbfounded right now. He withdrew his hand slowly, being eyed by many people.
"You can"t just put your hand down now." Raito sighed.
Naruto nodded then glared as he looked around. His eyes settled on Ibiki.
Ibiki chuckled as he looked back, "You have something to say, kid?"
Naruto slammed his hand on the desk, making a big noise. "You don"t scare me. I am not gonna quit, ever, believe it. I don"t care if I get stuck as Genin all my life, I"ll still be HOKAGE."