45

Soon, the first exam for the chunnin exam started.

The Commanding Officer of the T&I department really showcased his skills in how he approached the candidates taking the exams.

Naruto heard the rules of the exams, and his mind immediately went into overdrive, looking for loopholes and the true meaning of the words. He had always kept the core rules of a Shinobi that was taught to him by Hiroki close to heart.

"There is always a deeper meaning to the words of a Shinobi. It is the true skill of one to find what it is." And that is what Naruto did. Soon, Naruto figured out that the exam was nothing more than a simple information gathering and delivering test between the various teams as soon as he saw the test paper.

No ordinary genin would know the answers to these questions.

However, for Naruto, Hiroki had drilled the various subjects into his brain ever since the first day Hiroki started training him. So, it was very easy for him to write the answers even without cheating.

However, it was a different story for Sasuke and Yakumo. While Sasuke and Yakumo were intelligent, they never bothered to learn a lot of theoretical knowledge that wouldn't help them in being a strong ninja. Most of the questions were targeted toward heavily specific fields that were not completely related to being a shinobi.

Hence, Sasuke used his Sharingan to copy the movements of Naruto and the various others that were sitting in front of him, while Yakumo captured a staged shinobi who knew the answers into a genjutsu.

Luckily, the staged shinobi was sitting diagonally across from her, which allowed her to subtly have him tilt his body and paper in such a way that Yakumo would be able to see it.

However, this caused one of the supervisors to send a kunai at the staged shinobi's desk, causing him to snap out of the genjutsu.

'Yakumo is having a hard time with this. Might as well help her out.' Naruto thought as he saw the events unfold.

Making a quick succession of hand seals, a pocket on his trousers popped open, and a stream of black ink flowed down to the ground.

"Fuinjutsu: Ink Flush" Naruto mentally uttered as he imposed his will into the stream of ink, letting it stealthily flow towards Yakumo's desk.

Crawling up her legs, Yakumo shuddered, before recognizing the technique as one of Naruto's sealing technique derivatives. He often used them to draw seals on his targets when fighting.

Crawling up her body, it went through her clothes, not leaving a single trail, before it came out of her long sleeves and into the pen, she was using to write the answers. Letting her arm go loose, she allowed the ink to write down the answers to the questions. This allowed the supervisors to think it was Yakumo herself using her own skills to collect the information and answer the questions.

"Remind me that you need to increase your repertoire of information-gathering skills. Genjutsu itself will not help you every time." The final sentence flashed briefly before rushing into the ink well of the pen, the message disappearing from existence forever.

'Oh god. Naruto is going to slave drive me into learning again.' Yakumo shuddered nervously, thinking back to the various instances where she learned skills from the blond. 'I wonder where he learned his teaching methods.' She sighed, waiting for the time to end.

"Pens down people." At the half-hour mark, the strong voice of Ibiki sounded in the room, which now had significantly fewer people, as heaps of teams had been eliminated.

"Time for the final question. I'm going to add some rules for the last question.

Let me explain.

You can choose whether or not to take this last question. If you choose not to, your score for the whole exam will be zero. But if you do, then you can stay in the room." Ibiki paused, as a few candidates spoke up.

"You basically don't give us a choice. Of course, we will stay and take the final question."

"I haven't finished yet.

Those that stay and fail to correctly answer the question, not only will they fail the exam, but so will their teammates.

Furthermore, once you fail the question, your team will not be eligible for any chunnin exams that will take place in the future. You can, however, stay safe if you forfeit the exam now." Ibiki continued, his aura pressing down on the participants.

Instantly, voices of disagreement and unfairness began to sprout up, but a slow chuckle from Ibiki let them know to be silent and take him seriously.

For the next ten minutes, people began to raise their hands up one by one, as their teams were escorted out of the room.

Once a single hand was raised, more followed, and in time, more than half of the initial candidates had been eliminated.

"Hehehehe. So this is the resolve of those that stayed, huh?" Ibiki chuckled after seeing the people leave one by one.

"For those that stayed, are you one hundred percent sure about your decision to stay," Ibiki asked once more, causing another two teams to forfeit before the rest drew a determined expression.

"So, it seems you guys are the only ones that stayed. Congratulations on passing the Tenth Question." Ibiki then went on to explain to the stunned and confused participants the purpose of the two-part assessment.

The first part was as Naruto, Sasuke and Yakumo determined it to be. While the second part tested the determination of the participants on the risks they were willing to take for gathering information.

He then went on to remove his headgear, showing off his burned scalp and the cost of false information.

Just as he was getting serious and explaining his terrible backstory, Naruto sensed a chakra signature smash through the window, shattering the glass in the process.

"Yahooooo. It is I. The Hot, Sexy, and Beautiful Kunoichi, The Poison Mistress of Konoha, Mitarashi Anko." Pop. Pop.

Crackers burst as a banner rolled down, introducing the newcomer who stood dramatically in front of Ibiki, blocking his view to the children, as the banner covered his face.

"Anko, you are five minutes early. I wasn't finished yet." Ibiki grumbled as he gave the young lady a death glare, while she just brushed it off lightly.

"Oi, Ibiki. I think you are losing your touch. Why are there so many people still left? I thought you were supposed to cull the numbers in half." Anko asked as she counted the stunned and blushing faces of the participants in front of her.

"I did. But this year's participation is off the charts." Ibiki just sighed, knowing the lady, she would not take him seriously anyway.

"Oh. Exciting. That means that I can mow down the numbers even further. Oh, it's going to be so much fun. I hope you guys are ready for what's to come next. Oh, I'm feeling dizzy from all the excitement." Anko looked around with sadistic excitement, as all the people in the room felt a shiver run down their spines.

"I think I don't want to continue this exam." Naruto heard a few whispers as they swallowed their saliva in fear of the woman in front.

"Everyone. Follow me to Training Ground 44. The last one there will have their team disqualified." Anko jumped out of the window she used to enter, as a whole lot of participants rushed behind her, hoping they weren't the unlucky last ones.

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A little bit of a speedrun through the first part of the exam, since it doesn't really add much to the story.

Also, should I do the preliminary combat exam or not? I wasn't planning on doing it because it would be quite unrealistic for the usual exam flow to be met with a problem like too many participants. Also, it allows people to not get a chance to see the opponent's moves, which makes the final combat exam even more fun.

Let me know your thoughts. There are still a few chapters left to go before the combat exam, so I can still change the plot slightly to suit the needs.

And like always.

Enjoy!