Chapter 56: The Tenth Question

Chapter 56: The Tenth Question

Disclaimer:

Naruto and all of its characters belong to Shueisha and Masashi Kishimoto. I own nothing but the original characters I create.

"Dialogue"

'Thoughts'

-Author notes-

Chapter 56: The Tenth Question

While Naruto was reading over the questions, he noticed something.

'These are really hard...'

He was no scholar, but he still had a good understanding of all disciplines, like mathematics or philosophy. He had also studied much of the material taught at the academy.

But even then, he wasn't sure if he could answer half of these questions.

Looking around at the expressions of the other examinees, they were in a much worse position than him.

'According to the rules, as long as I can answer a single one correctly, I would be fine. But...'

It looked like they made the test hard enough so most of the attendees wouldn't be able to answer even one correct question.

'If you are caught cheating, you lose two points, but you are not disqualified. So as long as you don't get caught five times and can get the answers to one question... I see... that's the goal of this test.' Naruto realized.

And he was not the only one. He spotted several people making moves already.

'That means there must be at least a few fake students with the answers so others can copy from them.'

Now this made more sense as a ninja test than just answering some questions.

'But... I have no need to play their games...' He was confident that Sakura would be able to answer most of the questions correctly. And Sasuke should manage at least one without issues. So they didn't need his help.

When he glanced forward, he spotted Sakura glancing back at him.

Naruto gave her a nod, that meant 'I'm good,' and she smiled.

"Naruto...."

He heard a whisper at his side and turned to look.

Hinata was staring at him with worried eyes.

"Need help?" She used a hand sign to ask. As they learned in the academy.

It was a good thing he bothered reading that book.

"I'm fine." He answered.

"You!" Someone slammed a table.

"Two points!"

'Someone had gotten caught...' Naruto thought.

It was only the beginning. Over the next forty minutes, he heard those words many times.

"Naruto!" Sakura shouted.

"Naruto?..." Hinata glanced at him with worry.

"What is he saying now?" Ino asked.

Everyone was now staring at him.

Naruto returned the glare at Ibiki.

"I said that you should have come up with a more believable threat. Banning us from ever taking the Chunin exam?... ridiculous. I don't know who you are, but I would bet anything that you don't have the authority to make that claim. In this room, you have the heirs of the village's most powerful clans, as well as one of the last Uchiha. Can you imagine the outrage that you would face if you tried to ban them from rising in the ranks and crippling the village's power as a whole? Your head would be on a pike before the end of the month..."

There was an uncomfortable silence after that.

But he was not done yet.

"And I have not mentioned the foreign ninjas because... I shouldn't even need to say this, but not even the Lord Hokage has the authority to tell foreign ninja villages to ban their genins from ever participating in another Chunin exam. Can you even imagine how that conversation would go down? Even someone with half a functioning brain would realize that threat is completely empty. And if the threat is not real..."

"Wait!" Three ninjas from the Waterfall village were still at the door after giving up and listening to everything Naruto said.

"Is that true?!" One of them shouted.

"Hold on! I take it back. I want to take the question."

"You are disqualified, get out already." One of the Chunin instructors had to kick them out.

Everyone had their hands lowered now and were thinking about Naruto's words.

"You brat!" Ibiki was not amused. He slammed his hands on the desk and glared daggers at him.

"That's why I said that you should have made a different threat, like cutting a finger off those who got the answer wrong. It will still make people hesitate and is a lot more believable. Losing a finger is not a crippling injury and is not enough to start an international conflict if you did it to the child of someone important. Especially after you gave them the chance to not take the question... even if you never had the intention to carry out any punishment, to begin with."

"Last chance to quit!" Ibiki shouted while looking around the room.

No one else raised their hands again.

The examiner sighed in defeat.

"Fine... everyone who still remains here... you all pass the first test!"

"Wait, that's it?"

"There was no question?!"

"What was the point of the other questions then?"

Murmurs were heard all over the classroom.

"You!" Ibiki pointed at him. "What's your name?"

"Uzumaki Naruto."

The examiner clenched his fists.

"I will remember you. The one who ruined my test."

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