Orochimaru—this name was not unfamiliar to Naruto. After all, this person was very famous in Konoha as one of the Legendary Sannin, a brilliant but rogue ninja who had betrayed the village years ago after conducting horrific, forbidden experiments. He was a master of snakes, deception, and dark jutsu. But more importantly, he is a rare biological researcher.
And this madman is actually inside Konoha. What the hell is guy want? And wasn't this guy supposed to be a coward who is afraid of death? Who gave him the courage to come here? You know, the present Konoha is not the Konoha that it was a decade ago. With Izanami staying in here, Konoha had already recovered from the war and was gradually strengthening itself. Especially with the junk that Izanami occasionally throws in the auction house.
Although for her and Japan, these are trash, for those in Konoha, these are peerless treasures. And these treasures are enough to make Konoha's military power skyrocket. Naruto knew that apart from a few clans, the entire village was armed to the teeth with high-level gear and knowledge. If Orochimaru thought he could just walk in and cause trouble like the old days, he was dead wrong.
'He must be after something specific,' Naruto mused, his pen scratching smoothly against the test paper. 'Or maybe someone gave him a false sense of security. But entering Konoha while Izanami is here? That is just pure suicide.'
Shaking his head, Naruto decided to put this information back in his mind. After all, he didn't believe Orochimaru would come to pick a fight with him.
Suddenly, a loud scream echoed through the room.
"Candidate number 43, disqualified! You and your team, leave the room immediately!" a wall examiner roared, throwing a kunai right onto a genin's desk. The boy and his teammates stood up, pale and trembling, before being dragged out of the door.
This action was like a stone thrown into the sea, causing ripples in the entire room. The tension broke completely, and panic started to spread fast.
"Candidate 12, out!"
"Candidate 88, out! Your team, leave now!"
More kunai slammed into wooden desks. Examiners walked down the aisles, dragging out trembling genin who had failed the hidden test. The room became smaller and emptier by the minute. The heavy pressure from Ibiki Morino made the remaining students sweat coldly.
Naruto turned his gaze back to the front of the room, looking bored. Those teams were the ones that had poor information-gathering capabilities. Just like he expected, this test isn't a written exam; it is a step to test the information-gathering capabilities of these genin.
He glanced at the clock on the wall. The hands were ticking closer to the final mark. Forty minutes had already passed in total silence, broken only by the sounds of pencils and screaming failures.
Ibiki Morino stood up from his chair, his long black coat trailing behind him. His scarred face carried a cruel, dark smile as he looked at the surviving genin left in the room.
"Alright, listen up," Ibiki's deep voice boomed, cutting through the heavy air. "Time is up for the regular test. It is now time for the tenth and final question."
Hearing this, everyone immediately sat up straight. The air in the room became even heavier. Many genin swallowed hard, their hands shaking as they held their pens. They knew this last question would decide everything.
Ibiki tapped his thick fingers against the desk. "Before I give you the tenth question, there are a few special rules you need to know. These rules are for this final question only."
He paused, letting his scary eyes sweep across the remaining faces.
"First, you must choose whether you want to take this tenth question or not," Ibiki said with a cruel smile.
"Choose?!" a foreign genin yelled out in surprise. "What happens if we choose not to take it?"
"If you choose not to take the tenth question, your score for this exam becomes zero," Ibiki explained smoothly. "That means you fail. And your teammates fail along with you, and you must all leave immediately."
The room burst into shocked whispers. If they refused, they failed right away.
"Wait!" Sakura thought in a panic. "Who would ever choose not to take it then? That is just giving up!"
But Ibiki wasn't done. He raised a finger, his smile widening. "But if you choose to take the tenth question and get it wrong... you will lose the right to ever take the Chunin Exam again for the rest of your life! You will stay a genin forever!"
"What kind of crazy rule is that?!" Kiba shouted, slamming his hands on his desk. "There are people here who have taken this exam before!"
Ibiki chuckled, a dark and chilling sound. "You were unlucky this year. This year, I make the rules. If you aren't confident, you should take your team and leave right now."
Panic exploded in the room. This was a brutal choice. Take the risk and gamble away your entire future as a ninja, or walk away and try again next time.
Several genin couldn't handle the pressure. One by one, hands slowly started to go up.
"I... I give up," a boy muttered, looking down in shame.
"Candidate number 50, out! Team 50, leave the room!" an examiner called out.
More and more teams stood up and left the classroom, unable to bear the heavy weight of the mental torture. The room grew emptier and emptier.
Naruto just watched them leave, completely bored. He leaned back in his chair with a calm expression. To an absolute genius trained under Izanami's brutal methods, this level of psychological pressure was nothing but a joke. He didn't even blink. He even wondered whether he should tell these guys that the pressure isn't enough.
After a few minutes, the room fell silent again. No one else was standing up.
Ibiki looked around the room. The weak ones had been successfully weeded out. Only the ones with true resolve were left. His cruel smirk slowly turned into a satisfied smile.
"Good," Ibiki said, his voice returning to a normal tone. "For those of you still sitting in these seats... I congratulate you. You have all passed the first phase of the Chunin Exam!"
As soon as Ibiki finished speaking, the remaining genin froze. The entire room fell into a dead silence before erupting into a wave of pure confusion.
"What?!" Temari yelled, her jaw dropping as she stood up from her chair. "What do you mean we passed? What about the tenth question?!"
Ibiki chuckled, a low and dark sound that echoed off the classroom walls. "There was never a tenth question to begin with. Or rather, the choice you just made was the final question."
"Wait, so the first nine questions were completely useless?" Temari asked from the back, her eyes narrowing in anger.
"Not useless," Ibiki replied, crossing his arms over his chest. "The first nine questions served their purpose. They were designed to test your information-gathering capabilities under extreme stress. As genin, the difficulty was intentionally set too high, forcing you to cheat to get the answers. We wanted to see how well you could steal information without getting caught by our specialized examiners."
Ibiki walked toward the front desk, his long black coat swishing against his boots. "In the ninja world, information is life. But dangerous information comes with dangerous risks. That brought us to the final question. A true ninja must have the absolute resolve to face any danger, even when the odds are stacked against them. Those who choose to give up just to protect their own safety are cowards. They don't deserve to become chunin."
He looked around the room, his eyes lingering on the remaining genin. "But all of you chose to stay. Even when faced with the threat of staying a genin forever, you didn't back down. That unwavering determination is what passes this test."
Author's Note: I'm currently balancing my university studies with writing, and things can get pretty tight. If you enjoy my work, even a $1 donation on P.a.t.r.e.o.n makes a massive difference in helping me cover my education expenses.
Also, I'm going to create a new fanfic, so there are a few voting polls to decide on the story will continue. I would appreciate it if you can go to my P.a.t.r.e.o.n account and cast your vote. The more feedback, the better.