Namikaze Naruto- The Unpredictable Shinobi

Chapter 21: The Written Exam

"I'm Morino Ibiki, proctor for the first exam- the written exam!" The Konoha T&I head announced. Groans were heard, one of them being Naruto's (excuse her façade). "Silence! Each of you approach the desk, pick a card and go to the seat indicated by your card." Naruto got seated on her assigned seat and was startled by a very soft voice, "Hi Naruto-kun" "Hinata! Woah, didn't see you here!" She could make a great stealth-ninja. Her shy, soft voice was slightly creepy. It's a good thing Hinata almost lost her habit of stuttering. "All the best Hinata." "You too, Naruto-kun."

Ibiki instructed, "Listen up! The written test contains 10 questions to be solved in 1 hour. The question paper you will be given in a few minutes will consist of 9 questions that are to be solved within 45 minutes. The 10th question will be given in the last 15 minutes. Anybody caught cheating by the chunin around you will lose 2 points. 5 strikes and you are disqualified along with your team. Anybody caught cheating by me will be disqualified immediately along with their team. Scores of all three members are considered. Even if one member scores 0, the team is disqualified."

Naruto felt two glares intensified at her from her 'most trusted people'. Teammates were supposed to trust each other. Ironical. There would've been a look of disbelief on her face if she doesn't have her emotions in check. As she read the questions, gears in her brain began turning. 'Each of the question is jounin level. Proctor catches, we lose. Coordinator catches, 2 points lost, but not failed. So, we should try not to get caught. Who am I kidding? They are chunin and an experienced Jounin, not to mention he is an interrogator of criminals with a sharp eye. They are professionals, we are mere genins, many of us first timers. They are trying to intimidate us not to cheat, however, only 2 points lost in general for each caught attempt...

Are they asking us to cheat?'

She found some older people among the candidates who, under their disguise, appear to be some of Konoha chunin she saw once when young. Their chakra levels were higher than that of a genin. Examples of spy missions. 'Are these chunin supposed to be the source of information?'

Being an avid reader, she could answer all the questions. Yet, she opted to answer only to half the questions on her own, and copy the rest using chibi-clones, the smaller versions of shadow clones she accidentally discovered. Cute, right? She sighed. She needed to find better methods. She doesn't have a doujutsu. Knowledge from books don't help much in missions. Shikamaru can copy movements by connecting his shadow with others and could help Chouji. Ino has her Mind-Transfer Jutsu. Tenten is a tool specialist, mirrors are some of them and she could help Lee. Neji and Hinata have the Byakugan. Akamaru with his dog-senses could help Kiba. Shino was being helped by his bugs. Sasuke had his Sharingan. Sakura has her book-smarts. Gaara was using his '3rd eye of sand' technique. Kankuro had placed a puppet of his disguised as a chunin coordinator. Temari manipulated wind. Kabuto was like Sakura and his teammates had their methods of obtaining answers from him.

She was sad that her teammates didn't even attempt to help her, while other teams helped their friends who didn't have certain advantages. Come to think of it, the number of times Sasuke and Sakura helped her could be counted on fingers. By hook and crook, she finished her exam and pretended to take a nap while trying to recollect, what Gaara's clone had told hers. It was disturbing. This information and Kabuto's shadiness were like pieces of the same puzzle that still had many pieces missing.

After revising her conclusions and plans, she woke up to find some contestants missing. Turns out at least one of the members of the eliminated teams were striked out. "Now for the 10th question!" Ibiki bellowed. "Before I give it to you, there are some specific rules to be explained for this question." Few groans were heard. "Silence! You are given the choice of whether or not you answer this question. If you don't want to answer, you and your team are free to quit the exam this time and come again the next time."