Everyone Thinks They Have It Hard, Until They Find Out my Secrets

Chunin Exam Part 2

Everyone was surprised by this until I slammed my hand into the desk, cracking it a lot.

"No way!! I am too pumped up to give up now!! I am gonna be the strongest ninja possible, and then everyone will know my name!!" I exclaim, and that seems to do the trick, I hope I raised everyone's morals a little.

"This decision is one that could change your life. If for any reason you would rather quit, this is your last chance."

"No way, I can't give up on my dream so soon." I exclaim.

"Well then, I admire your determination if nothing else, for those of you remaining, there's only one thing left to do.... and that's for me to tell you.... that you've all passed the first exam."

"Oh, hold on!! What just happened, what do you mean we passed, where's the tenth question!?" Sakura exclaims, and he answers.

"There never was one, not a written one, at least, actually, your decision to stay was the answer to the tenth question."

"Wait a second, so the other nine questions you gave us were just a waste of time. Is that what you're saying!?" Temari exclaims as I let out a silent curse.

"No, no, not at all, quite the opposite. The first nine questions had an important overwriting purpose to test your ability to surreptitiously gather strategic intelligence under the most adverse circumstances."

"Oh, well, that clears up everything." Temari says sarcastically.

"Let me explain, you see my objective was to test you not only as an individual, but as a team and on how well you function as a part of that team, that's why the test was scored on a team basis, so you'd know that everything you did or failed to do would directly affect your teammates, I wanted to see how you'd handle the pressure...." He drones on and shows us what was under his headband eventually, then explains some other important things about the tenth question. Then someone crashes through the window, and I roll my eyes from boredom.

"Heads up, boys and girls. This is no time to be celebrating. I'll be your next proctor, Anko Mitarashi. Ready for the second test, good, follow me!!" Anko exclaims, then Ibiki and her start talking, then she dismisses us, and we all head out. I turn to Hina, and she turns to me, we both start heading to training ground seven. We arrive, and I can easily tell that Shika followed us.

"So what did you want to show me?" She asks, and I walk forward.

"I wanted to see your taijutsu style and help improve it if I can." I answer then smile.

"R-really?" She says then smiles.

"If you can hit me once, I'll let you see my face. You two, Shika, why don't you both team up?" He jumps down from the tree and walks over.

"Sounds fun." He says and immediately gets into a position to use shadow paralysis jutsu. I immediately go after Hina and try to keep it at her level and not overpower her while dodging Shika's shadows. It's easy at first until Hina channels more chakra into her fists, and Shika finds a way to make the shadow go farther than before. After a while, they both are really tired and turn to me.

"It's too bad we couldn't get to see your face." Hina says while panting.

"It is, but you both grew much more than I thought you would, so good job." I say and high five them, then Hina makes an excuse to leave.

"I have to go, goodbye and see you at the exam tomorrow!!" She says while running off.

"This feels like old times." Shika says, and I freeze.

"We used to do this with our friend Naru, but she's gone." He says, and I gulp.

"Oh, that's too bad." I say and try to walk off, but he grabs me and pins me to a wall.