With only ten minutes left before the exam began—
A jōnin wearing a headscarf and a long coat pushed open the door and strode to the podium with commanding presence.
Behind him, several chūnin in proctor uniforms silently took seats along both sides of the room.
"I am the chief proctor for your first exam—Morino Ibiki."
From the podium, the headscarfed man swept his gaze across the room. Anyone he looked at felt as if a hungry wolf had locked onto them—their breathing instinctively caught.
"Now, I will announce the rules…"
Naruto, meanwhile, was gathering information about the room. The three of them had been completely separated—no, not just the three of them. Every team had been split up.
To prevent cheating… huh.
The written-test rules were mostly the same as usual. This time they were nastier, sure, but Naruto had plenty of confidence—in himself and in his teammates.
Their book knowledge wasn't on Sakura's freakish level, but it wasn't bad either. Under normal circumstances, getting a middle score would be no problem.
The Chūnin Exams had three stages. No way they were all written tests.
Losing a few points in the first round?
Whatever. They could earn it back in later rounds.
That was a bet Naruto felt very confident making.
Soon, the blank test paper was handed to him.
"Alright, let's see… Question 1: Code decryption."
"'Follow the advantages of military strategy, master a hundred arts and skills, and in all matters none shall surpass me…'"
"Good. Next!"
"A ninja throws a kunai from the top of a tree. How can they throw it the farthest? Describe the characteristics of the ninja on the ground as specifically as possible."
"This one's… okay. I can mostly answer it."
A few minutes later—
"Next question…"
"Good. Pass."
"…."
Ten minutes later, Naruto calmly set down his pencil, crossed his arms, and stared at the blackboard.
Out of the nine questions revealed so far, he could only do two.
And one of those two… he wasn't even sure was correct.
It really was true what they said: when someone's pushed to the limit, they can do anything—except math.
And this test?
Not only did it have math—it had physics too.
Wonderful. Truly wonderful.
Looking around at the other examinees still writing like their lives depended on it, Naruto didn't feel nervous at all.
He had every reason to believe that at least half the room couldn't write anything meaningful either.
And him?
At least he'd solved one question!
Was that a gift from the gods?
Wrong. Completely wrong.
That was his hope of advancing.
Now he understood what this test really was:
With the average genin's knowledge level, it was practically forcing people to cheat on purpose…
Cheat—?!
Naruto felt like he'd found the missing piece. His hand trembled slightly as he picked up his pencil again.
But a moment later, he set it back down with a sigh.
In the corner of his eye, Hinata's veins bulged around her eyes.
He knew what that meant.
The Byakugan was active.
He was jealous.
But he couldn't do anything about it.
If this weren't an exam hall, he was confident he could snatch a paper with the right answers from a room full of nearly a hundred tests.
But there was no "if."
This was the exam hall.
Other people had a thousand tricks for cheating.
He, on the other hand, was being far too honest—he had no tricks at all.
With nothing else to do, Naruto closed his eyes and conserved energy.
I'll just come back next year.
The teacher said participation was what mattered, anyway…
---
"Hehe!"
Izuno Akigiku—her body subtly taking on feline traits—proudly looked down at the paper in front of her, now filled from top to bottom.
The spacing between desks prevented simple side-glancing. To see the answers next to you, you'd have to make a bigger movement—and if you moved too much, the proctors weren't blind. They'd catch you on the spot.
But that spacing was designed around human eyesight limits.
It didn't apply to cats.
A cat's field of view was far wider than a human's, with more than double the effective angle.
For humans, this kind of copying was difficult.
For a cat?
Easy.
'I wonder how those two are doing…'
One glance—one of them had already started resting with his eyes closed. The other was scratching his head and still hadn't written much.
'That's Naruto for you…'
Izuno pressed a hand to her forehead.
If she had to guess, Naruto was already thinking about next year's exam.
"Meow."
A cat's cry sounded right beside Naruto and Raemon's ears.
In the next instant, their once-blank papers were suddenly filled with answers.
'Genjutsu? Nicely done, Akigiku!'
Naruto's mood instantly lifted. He quickly memorized the answers. Raemon did the same.
A few minutes later, Izuno slumped onto her desk, drained—chakra overuse fatigue.
The price was steep…
But so were the gains.
...
Half an hour later—
"Now I will announce the tenth question," Morino Ibiki said, checking the time before raising his head.
Clack!
The sudden sound of the door opening drew every gaze.
Kankurō, faced with all that attention, offered an apologetic smile and quietly returned to his seat.
Thunk…
With a soft sound, Temari quickly covered the note Kankurō had dropped.
"The tenth question begins with a choice you must make yourselves—will you take it, or will you not?" Ibiki continued.
Clearly, the other examinees had never encountered anything this bizarre. Questions erupted immediately.
"What do you mean?"
"What happens if we don't take it?"
"…"
"Anyone who withdraws will have their score for this exam automatically set to zero."
"???"
"Hey, hey! Isn't that ridiculous?! Then what was the point of the earlier questions?!"
"…"
"And if we choose to take it?" Temari asked, her expression tightening.
"If you choose to take the tenth question and fail to answer it, you will permanently lose your eligibility to participate in the Chūnin Exams."
The moment Ibiki finished speaking, the room fell dead silent.
"Why?! There are people in this room who've taken the Chūnin Exams multiple times!" Kiba finally snapped, slamming his desk as he stood up.
"Obviously," Ibiki said with a cold smile, "your luck is bad. You ran into me."
"Now—make your choice."
"Either abandon this year's score and try again next year… or charge straight ahead and risk dragging your teammates down."
His words were like knives, stabbing into the hearts of the examinees.
Take it, or wait until next year?
If you take it, you might lose your chance forever.
If you don't, you might drag your team down immediately.
Most of the less confident examinees fell into painful hesitation.
"Seems like the pressure's getting heavy…" Naruto glanced toward Raemon.
Of the three of them, Raemon had the least experience—he might not be able to bear this.
Naruto himself didn't care that much about the title of chūnin.
As long as his strength was real, the world was wide enough to go anywhere. He didn't need anyone's approval.
'Raemon… hang in there.'
Izuno stared at her boyfriend's back, silently urging him on.
If the rules didn't affect teammates, she believed Raemon would take the tenth question without hesitation.
But now the problem was—
If he chose to take it and failed, he'd drag the others down too…
Raemon wasn't the only one suffering.
Especially those who had already taken the Chūnin Exams multiple times—giving up was starting to win out.
I've already taken it this many years… what's one more year?
"I'll give you three minutes to decide," Ibiki said, adding fuel to the fire. "After three minutes, anyone still in the room will be considered to have chosen to take the exam."
Time ticked by.
Ten seconds.
No hands.
Twenty seconds.
Still none.
Thirty seconds.
One hand went up.
"I'm sorry," he apologized to his teammates.
Thirty-one seconds—
Ten hands went up…