Actually showing up to the exam was simple enough.
The older genin bitchslapped Tenten. “Weren’t you listening? You’d just die if you tested for Chunin.”
Simple is a relative term that is generally wonkified by the presence of ninja.
Sasuke walked between the fallen genin and stood before the guardsmen. “A sound argument,” he said flatly, “but you will let me pass.”
“Ooohh?” one of the guards asked mockingly. “And why would we do that?”
“Because,” Sakura said easily, “we have business on the third floor, and really shouldn’t be waiting around here on the second.”
The other genin looked between eachother in confusion. “What is he talking about?” was the general sentiment.
Sasuke sighed. “Naruto?”
“Huh? Oh, right.” Naruto closed his eyes and reached inside himself to tap the faintest thread of fox chakra. The sudden burst of malevolent chakra flooded the hallway for an instant, not so much dispelling the genjutsu as crushing it utterly and laughing at the lamentations of its women.
Sakura shivered. Naruto was still hopeless with genjutsu, but whatever it was that let him change his chakra like that was really good at dispelling them. It really creeped her out, though.
The two chunin guards quickly checked their henges and decided that these three, at least, had earned their pass. Although a fair number of these other genin were stopped here regardless; it was quite true that they had no chance to pass if they hadn’t even realized the genjutsu.
Team 7 made their way to the stairs when a couple of leaf genin stopped them. One was clearly a Hyuuga, the other was wearing a green outfit and had weird eyebrows.
Bushy Brows looked to Sakura, blushed slightly, grinned, gave her a thumbs up. “I’m Rock Lee! Please go out with me! I will protect you until I die!”
Sakura was aghast. “Not a chance,” she got out.
Lee leaned against the wall in a fit of depression. “Shot down so quick.”
The Hyuuga looked to Sasuke. “Who are you?”
Naruto joined Lee. Rainclouds appeared over the depressed genin. “Ignored again.”
Sasuke sneered at the Hyuuga. “It is proper to name yourself first.”
“Mmm.” The Hyuuga sized up Sasuke before snorting and turning around to head to the third floor without saying another word.
Lee and Sasuke had a brief tussle in the stairwell, which Sasuke lost. The Last Uchiha was expecting it, though. Naruto had lost his temper and challenged Lee himself, only to be backhanded hard enough to stagger the disguised dragon. Sasuke had a healthy respect for the taijutsu of anyone that could affect Naruto so negligently.
Sasuke was slowly realizing that being Rookie of the Year was not enough. Kakashi and Zabuza had fought on a level he couldn’t even comprehend. Naruto had risen to the challenge with his bizarre kekkei genkai. Now this older genin was demonstrating power gained through arduous training. The wheels in Sasuke Uchiha’s brain were spinning. How could he become stronger? The answers were staring him in the face. From Kakashi, the value of experience. From Naruto, exploiting your gifts to their fullest. From Lee, dedication to training. Sasuke affixed his Sharingan onto Lee and took in every lesson the green-clad genin threw his way!
“Listen up! My name is Uzumaki Naruto! And I’m not going to lose to any of you!” Naruto bellowed, pointing at the amassed genin.
Utter silence reigned. Sasuke facepalmed.
“Ahhh,” Naruto sighed, smiling broadly. “I feel better now.”
BONK.
Sakura glared at Naruto and nursed her hand. “Idiot! You just made enemies of everyone in the room!”
“Feh, how troublesome. You’re taking the test too?”
Team seven turned to see Shikamaru and Choji approach.
“Sasuke!” Ino cried as she entered mindless fangirl mode. Sasuke sidestepped her crazed glomp attempt and ignored the obligatory insults between her and Sakura.
“It seems all nine rookies are taking the test,” Kiba said, leading team eight into the gathering.
“You should be quieter,” an older voice said. Kabuto walked up with a calm smile. “No one is pleased that rookies are taking the test. You’re already targets, even without boasting loudly.”
“And who are you, strangely kind foe?” Shikamaru asked slyly. It was the same tone he got when trying to figure out a puzzle. Unless it was a tiresome puzzle.
“Call me Kabuto.” Kabuto launched into his explanation of the hidden meanings behind the test and his ninja info cards.
“Isn’t that an overly complicated way to store information?” Naruto asked.
“Sounds tiresome,” Shikamaru agreed.
“I’m a ninja,” Kabuto pointed out. “Aren’t you interested in your opponents?”
“Who are the strongest genin taking the test?” Sasuke asked.
Kabuto smiled. “Well, only seven have a B rank mission on their records. You are six of them. The seventh is Gaara of the Sand, another rookie…and he’s never been injured.”
Everyone winced at that. “Say, if you know we had a B-rank, you must have really recent information,” Naruto said. “What do you know about me?”
“You?” Kabuto asked, surprised. He pulled out the appropriate card. “Hmmm. Oh my, you are quite dangerous up close, aren’t you? And a summoning contract with dragons besides. Not too many impressive jutsu, though, and terrible mission performance. You’re not an easy target in a straight fight but you probably won’t survive the tests.”
Naruto got predictably angry, but it was an act. Good. So long as my real secrets are safe.
“Break it up!” roared a new voice. Everyone turned to see the scarred face of Ibiki Morino. “It is time for the Chunin Exams to begin!”
One of the things Naruto was painfully aware of with his increased intelligence was that his actual academic knowledge was still pathetic. He was still doomed for this kind of test. Still, the scoring system didn’t make sense. Point deduction was mechanically identical to point acquisition, so why bother with the explanation?
“…and two points will be deducted for each act of cheating the proctors detect!”
Naruto’s eyes widened. That was a harsh penalty, on its surface. Ibiki certainly barked it out like he was pronouncing doom. But when examined more carefully, that meant it would take five acts of cheating to be expelled.
“…those who commit awkward cheating may be told to leave before grading is completed. If you plan to be Chunin, take this test like excellent shinobi!”
That clinched it. The point wasn’t to not cheat, it was to cheat well. To be subtle. Now contrary to popular opinion, Naruto could be stealthy. One does not graffiti the Hokage monument without getting caught by being obvious. Granted he’d been found out after the fact, but that didn’t change the fact that no one caught him in the act.
Naruto fingered his pencil. The problem was, he didn’t have that kind of mobility here. It wasn’t a matter of vanishing into the sub-ceiling and spying from above; he had to cheat while still at his desk. That was a kind of subtle he’d never been good at.
Well, he’d never really tried to be subtle since his transformation. If he could sit in a room of ninja with clothes made of chakra and none of them suspected his true nature, he could do something. Now what were his new jutsu? It was a harder question than he thought; as a ninja he’d always been more of a doer than a thinker; he learned intuitively. Dragons were much the same way; his awesome came naturally to him. But finally he hit on an idea. It was a little crazy, but if it worked, even if he got caught he should come out ahead. But he had to do it now, before the test started. Hinata would be a good target; her byakugan was basically the ultimate cheating aide. Also she wouldn’t mind helping him. He hoped.
Naruto looked at his pencil and paper and activated his fabricate jutsu. It was delicate work, but he managed to use the one piece of paper to create two half-thickness pieces of paper. One, the one on the bottom, still had the test on the reverse side. The other was blank. He activated the jutsu again and pulled graphite from the center of his pencil, so that the loss would not be visible, and turned it into a thin sheet between his two papers. Then he just needed a distraction…
“…and if any team member manages a score of zero, the entire team will fail.”
“WHAT DID YOU SAY!?”
That worked. While everyone was glancing at Sakura’s scream of despair, Naruto placed the blank half-sheet on top of Hinata’s test. He smiled inwardly as he outwardly panicked. He’d have to thank Sakura for her teamwork later.
“BEGIN!”
Naruto carefully flipped over his test and wrote his name on the top. The paper was thin, and if he tore it the proctors would realize what he had done. He smiled slightly as, in the corner of his eye, Hinata did the same thing without revealing the layers of her test.
Naruto’s plan was simple. The layer of graphite was a crude example of carbon paper. As Hinata applied pressure to her test by writing on it, that would push the graphite into Naruto’s half-paper on the bottom. Once Hinata was finished, Naruto would retrieve his paper…he wasn’t quite sure how but even if he got caught that would only be one cheat…and reassemble the two halves of his test. That last part would be really tricky.
Naruto looked at the first question. It didn’t hurt to have a plan B, after all.
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(Posted Sat, 02 Jul 2011 15:46)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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