Chapter 47: Strike First to Gain the Advantage
"Naruto, you're being a bit too much of a downer, don't you think?" Ino complained.
"I just became a genin, I don't expect to become a chunin so quickly," Naruto replied honestly. "The missions chunin take on are way more troublesome, right?"
Ino pressed her hand to her forehead, at a loss for words.
Shikamaru, however, found Naruto's words very agreeable. He nodded and said,
"Troublesome things are the worst."
....
The exam began. The first round was a written test.
Naruto sat next to Hinata, yawning as he glanced over the exam paper in front of him. The essay question was a physics free-fall problem, and the multiple-choice section was filled with common-sense questions.
If he wanted to do it, half would have to be guesses, the other half pure luck. But Naruto didn't even pick up his pen.
He propped his head up on the desk and closed his eyes to rest. Whatever was written on the test didn't matter anyway. That sadist of a chief examiner was bound to throw in something like a "Will of Fire" assessment—testing the examinees' trust in their teammates.
Boring. Who in their right mind would be moved to tears by something like the Will of Fire?
The exam ended, and sure enough, with his blank test paper, Naruto passed the first round of the chunin exam without issue. As for the true principle behind the written exam, it boiled down to just six words: don't abandon, don't give up.
Naruto had done absolutely nothing, yet still made it into the second round.
Anko Mitarashi barged into the test hall, clad in a mesh bodysuit under her long trench coat. Her face showed no sign of age, still full of youthful vitality.
"You brats, this was only the first exam! What's there to be happy about?"
"There's no time to prepare. In twenty minutes, the second exam begins at Training Ground Forty-Four!"
With that, poof! she vanished into a puff of smoke.
A scattered chorus of sighs spread through the room. The examinees, dazed and helpless, got to their feet and headed toward Training Ground Forty-Four.
"Hinata, let's go!" Kiba, a dog perched on his head, called out from afar.
"Okay."
Hinata answered softly, her face turning red as she glanced at Naruto. She whispered,
"Naruto-kun, I'll go on ahead."
"Alright, see you later, Hinata." Naruto waved to her.
"Naruto! Over here, or we'll be late!" Sakura urged from the doorway.
"Coming."
....
Outside the Forest of Death, Naruto noticed Yakushi Kabuto in the distance, his gaze flickering ever so slightly toward Sasuke.
"That guy with glasses over there seems shady. Wouldn't be surprised if he was a Konoha traitor." Naruto spoke loudly, pointing directly at Kabuto without the slightest attempt to hide it.
"Doesn't Anbu even bother to check the background of the examinees?"
His abrupt words immediately drew the attention of the other examinees, and Team 7 instantly became the center of attention.
"Naruto, what are you saying?!"
Sakura lowered her head, face flushing as she tried not to look around. She whispered, "Don't say things like that."
"I'm not making this up." Naruto leaned in close, pulling the other two toward him, speaking just loud enough for them to hear. "Watch out for those Sound ninja."
That was all he meant to say—just a passing reminder.
Sensing the commotion, Anko strode over and said to Naruto, "Examinees are forbidden from disturbing order at the testing grounds!"
Then she turned to address everyone.
"Those who haven't collected a scroll, come get one now. The rules for this round are simple: your team must bring both a Heaven Scroll and an Earth Scroll to the tower at the center of the Forest of Death within five days. Only then will you pass. Otherwise, you fail."
"Remember, if even one teammate dies or loses the ability to fight, your whole team fails. And none of you are allowed to open the scrolls."
"If you understand, come collect your scrolls. Time is short, so move it!"
At her urging, the tension in the air eased. Nobody paid Naruto's words any more attention.
Clicking his tongue, Naruto shot Kabuto one last glance before heading over to claim his scroll.
With a long, screeching creak, the rusty gates of Training Ground Forty-Four slowly swung open. Scrolls in hand, the teams filed in, each taking a different direction. Some, however, immediately tailed the teams they had already set their sights on.
Team 7 wandered for a while before hiding themselves in a thicket to discuss the most pressing question—
Who should hold the scroll?
The rules were simple. Out of twenty-six teams, half held Heaven Scrolls, half Earth Scrolls. To pass, a team needed to collect both and reach the tower without any member dying or being incapacitated.
So, who held the scroll became a matter of real importance.
"Better if you take it, Sakura," Naruto suggested.
"Me?" Sakura flinched, clearly uneasy. "But… what if I lose it?"
"It's fine. If things get bad, just hand it over." Naruto said. "Sasuke and I can handle ourselves. If you're holding the scroll, it gives us some insurance. This is just an exam—we don't need to risk our lives."
"But…"
"No buts." Naruto waved it off. "This chunin exam doesn't feel right to me. You two should be extra cautious. If we run into enemies, you can just toss the scroll and escape."
Sasuke picked up on the underlying meaning and frowned. "You're planning to act on your own?"
"What?" Sakura froze, completely dumbfounded.
They had just signed the death waivers outside the forest. That meant even if they died inside, no one would intervene. If Naruto left, that would leave just the two of them.
"Yeah." Naruto nodded firmly, looking them both in the eyes. "I need to take care of something. Wait here for me."
"You've got to be kidding me." Sasuke narrowed his eyes. "Isn't three moving together safer than one alone?"
"This… isn't something you need to worry about." Naruto smiled faintly. "I promise I'll be back before nightfall. But moving as three will only hold me back."
At that, Sasuke and Sakura exchanged a look.
"You're planning to steal a scroll, aren't you?" Sasuke asked sharply, his brow furrowed. "Before we entered, you told us to be wary of the Sound ninja. You've been targeting them all along, haven't you?"
"Sound ninja?"
Sakura's eyes widened, her face quickly filling with worry.
"I'll explain later," Naruto said, leaping away without another word.
Once he left Team 7 behind, Naruto's expression hardened, his gaze cold and indifferent. Leaving those three Sound ninja alive would only mean trouble later. After all, they were bound to come after Sasuke anyway.
Better to strike first than wait to be attacked. If he could deal with them early, he and his team could survive the next few days in peace.
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