Naruto: Jinchuriki of the Six Paths by X009

Chapter 8

All the assembled genin had their full attention focused on the imposing, scarred form of the first proctor who looked past all the examiners, sending a glare at team seven and the sound genin.

"To start with, you six!" He said, pointing to them. "Knock it off, who told you, you could fight!? Do you want to be failed before we've even begun!?"

"Sorry, guess we got a little carried away," Naruto said, placing his hands behind his head and plastering a grin on his face as he looked to the proctor.

The leader of the sound genin turned to the scarred man, his back hunched over and his head bent oddly. "Yeah, sorry. We're a little bit jumpy, this being our first time and all."

"Hn," Ibiki grunted in response, an amused grin briefly crossed his features before his stern gaze washed over all the prospective chunin. "I'll only say this once. There will be no combat without the permission of your proctor, and even then lethal force is prohibited. Anyone who even thinks of disobeying me will be immediately disqualified. Do you understand me?"

The spiky haired sound genin gave a derisive snort. "In other words, this stage of the exams for pansies."

"Now, if you're ready, we'll begin the first stage. Turn in you paperwork and you'll be given a number that determine your assigned seat. We'll start the written test once you're all seated."

Naruto froze. "Wha... written...?" He began. "Damn it!" He snarled under his breath.

Minutes later, the blond and all the other test takers were seated in a rather large exam room with chunin proctors lined up along the walls. Hinata sat right beside him, but aside from her no one he knew was nearby.

The young Rinnegan bearer looked absolutely miserable as he held his head down. It didn't matter how much he'd studied, it didn't matter how much how much he'd learned, it didn't matter how confident he was he'd be able to pass this exam. None of that changed the fact that he absolutely hated written tests!

He gave a depressed sigh as he stared down at the paper before him and awaited the beginning of what he was certain would be the worst part of the exam.

"Naruto..." He heard Hinata say. He turned to look at her and she gave him an encouraging smile with a slight blush. "Good luck. L- let's do our best."

"Yeah," Naruto replied with a smile of his own, causing her blush to deepen.

"Alright listen up! I'm only going to say this once!" Ibiki said gruffly as he stared out at the exam takers. Once he saw no one was stupid enough to interrupt, he continued, taking a piece of chalk and writing on the board behind him without turning to face it. "There are several rules to this exam. I'll write them on the board as I explain, and there will be no questions, so don't even think about interrupting."

After letting this sink in, he turned to the board and wrote as he explained the rules.

"First off, everyone will start with ten points. The test will have ten questions, each worth one point. For every question you get wrong, you will lose a point from your overall score. So if, for example, you miss three questions, then you'll be left with seven points, understand?" He sincerely hoped no one present was dense enough to need further clarification. Thankfully, no one spoke up, so he moved on. "The second rule is that this is a team test. Whether you pass or not will be determined by the combined score of you and your teammates."

"Wha?" Sakura said quietly, her facial expression showing a hint of fear. She knew Naruto was much smarter than he was when he graduated, but even with his clones, was two months of intense studying enough for him to be able to pass?

'Calm Down.' Sakura told herself, bringing her hand to her chest and taking a breath to help in that endeavor. 'Naruto will do fine. There's no way that after all this that he'd let something like this hold him back. Besides, even if he missed every question, Sasuke and I should be able to carry him... but, what's with this point system?'