𝐇𝐈𝐒 𝐄𝐘𝐄𝐒 || Naruto Uzumaki ✓

┊013

──────═❀═──────
『 𝐂 𝐇 𝐀 𝐏 𝐓 𝐄 𝐑  𝟏𝟑 』
──═❀═──
━『 Finish and Begin 』

"We passed," I said again, feeling a wave of relief as Ibiki confirmed it.

Sakura's asked confused, standing from her seat, palms placed on the desk, "What do you mean 'passed'? When did that happen? What about the tenth question?"

Ibiki smiled, a trace of smugness in his voice as he replied, "There is no tenth question, beyond the whole 'accept or reject' thing."

A protest erupted from the blond from Gaara's team. "Hey! Then why did we have to suffer through the other nine questions? That was a total waste of our time!"

"It wasn't a waste," Ibiki replied calmly, slipping his hands into his pockets. "The objective of the nine questions was already accomplished. To test your individual ability to gather information."

"Ability to gather information?" she inquired.

Ibiki went on, "The first thing this test focused on was the system of determining the pass or the failure based on the three-person groups proposed in the first rule. The pressure of possibly dragging down your teammates added an extra layer of psychological tension forcing you to consider the consequences of your actions on others."

And surprisingly, Naruto was nonchalant about it. "Oh, I get it," he huffed, closing his arms over his chest. "You know, I kinda figured that was it."

I gave an exasperated sigh upon reading Naruto's words, then chuckled. He was at it again, pretending that he knew what was going on when, in all honesty, he didn't have a whole grasp of the situation just yet. He was optimistic despite what was happening to us.

It was almost... well, not admirable, but rather... enviable.

Ibiki's voice rang out across the room, "However, the questions on these tests weren't something you Genin Ninja would have been able to solve. So in that case, I imagined that most of you would have come to this conclusion: 'In order to score points, I'll have to cheat.' In other words, this exam was created under the premise that you all would cheat! That being said, I had two Chunin in the group who knew all of the answers from whom you could cheat."

Naruto laughed awkwardly while trying to break the air. "It was so obvious! There's something wrong with you if you didn't notice! Right, Hinata!"

My smile weakened when Naruto turned his mind on Hinata, and for a second, something new stung in my chest. Maybe indeed, I did feel sick. Gaara's eyes flickered down to me, and I could almost feel the urge to nervously nibble at the bottom lip as I looked for an escape from him. I really wanted to get away from him.

"Those who just foolishly cheated naturally were disqualified. That's because," Ibiki trailed off, removing his Ninja bandana which revealed the scars plastered all over his head. "You learn one interesting thing, though: information will sometimes, and in some situations, be worth more than life, and in a mission, once you are out on a battlefield, you will always have to stake your life in fighting for it! If information is gathered and an enemy or a third party knows of this gathering, that the information gathered is not a sure in fact, it is better to keep that in mind. Given wrong information, it is a massive blow to friends and village. That's why we did what was needed to be done and had you guys cheat to test your information-gathering abilities. We filtered out those who were clearly lacking in such abilities anyway."