The Chunin Exam - 12

"Quiet!" There was a shout that could be heard over the raucous and the assembled genin quickly hushed. Their attention rested on a man at the front of the room. He was clad in a dark overcoat and a fierce expression resided on his scarred face.

He continued speaking, "Before the first part of the Chunin Selection Exam commences you all will be randomly seated by number. Do not expect to be placed by your teammates in this part of the exam."

After a moment or so names were called and categorized into different rows. Of the rookie Leaf genin Haku was the first to be called. Giving a cheerful expression to his teammates he went ahead to one of the rows nearest to the front, leaving the other genin to contemplate their positions.

It took a long while to seat all of the genin, but once the process was finished, Naruto relaxed a margin. He had been lucky enough to be seated next to the shy Hyuga girl. He grinned at her, whispering, "Hey Hinata-chan! You see our teammates anywhere? I can't spot em."

With a blink, she nodded, "I saw Gaara-kun near the back before I was seated and...Sato-kun is just a few seats right of you..."

The blonde boy turned to have a look and saw the silver haired boy nearby. His head was still resting on his folded arms, "Wow, he looks like crap. Are you sure he's going to be alright?"

She sighed, "I...really don't know."

"Listen up!" All heads faced front, "For many of you this is your first time taking the exam. Pay attention because I will not repeat myself," He cleared his throat, "My name is Morino Ibiki and I will be your proctor for the first part of the Chunin Selection Exam."

The room was very still after that and Naruto noticed Hinata shifting uncomfortably in her seat.

"The first portion of the exam will be the written test," Ibiki went on, "There are nine questions on the written exam. Each of you will start with ten points each. Every time you are caught cheating, two points will be deducted from your score. Anyone who is caught cheating more than five times will fail and any team whose combined scores are fifteen points or less fail. After the 45 minute period you are given to answer the test questions, a tenth question will be administered."

Naruto leaned his chin on his hand, absorbing the information, and then turned to Hinata, "Jeez! So many rules! They really put you through the ropes with all this stuff..."

The shy girl nodded silently.

"The sentries stationed about the room are there to make sure you do not cheat," The proctor informed a few puzzled genin, who were startled by the hawk-like guards nearby, "There will be no talking after the tests are handed out," Ibiki smirked, "Good luck."

The scratching of pencils was absent as the tests were distributed, but Naruto's attention was focused on Haku who was only a few rows ahead of him. The moment the dark haired boy had been handed the test he had just started scribbling. The blonde boy frowned to himself, "I didn't know Haku-kun was left handed."

"I believe he is ambidextrous, Naruto-kun." Hinata said softly, smiling as she signed her name on the top of her own paper.

He nodded to her, but was still confused, 'I can't believe I never noticed that...' Without further preamble Naruto glanced over his own test after signing his name.

'Okay, question number one: Three shinobi are guarding a scroll. Shinobi A is directly behind Shinobi B and directly left of Shinobi C. If Shinobi A and Shinobi B are 15 feet apart, and Shinobi B and Shinobi C are 17 feet apart, what is the…wait a minute! I know this question!' Naruto scratched his head, wondering what the odds were that Haku had actually given them the first question to the written exam, 'Whoa that's creepy...huh. What did Gaara-kun say the answer was? 8 feet?' He scribbled that down before he could forget it.

He smiled inwardly, 'Alright! No sweat on the first one! Now to number two...' Maybe Haku had inadvertently given him the answers to the other questions as well?

Unfortunately, he found the question asked for the elemental weakness of Earth element jutsu, 'Hmm...okay, skip that one!'

The third question was even worse, 'How am I supposed to know how that jutsu works? Next one...' Again he moved ahead, only to find he could not answer any of the following questions, 'Ugh! Every one of these is harder than the one before!'

Sweat began to form on his brow and he kept his eyes firmly glued to his own paper, even though he could not make heads or tails of any of it, 'Oh no! Oh no no no no no! Haku-kun and Gaara-kun, they're gonna kill me!' He pictured the looming figures of his best friends at the idea of him failing, and in short, failing all of them, 'There's no way I can answer any of these! I...I've gotta cheat! There's no other way...'

Ibiki's words of warning on cheating replayed in his head, 'Gah! But if I do then I might get caught and fail anyway! How am I supposed to-"

"Naruto-kun..." A faint whispered sounded from beside him.

The panicked blonde glanced over to Hinata, "Oh...uh, what is it Hinata-chan?"

Her face heated up, "Well...I j-just thought that if you were having trouble...I could share my answers with you, if you like."

He raised his eyebrows, "You'd really do that, Hinata-chan?"

"Of course!" Her soft voice trembled, "You have been such a help to me...I wouldn't mind at all."

He grinned at her and gave a tiny nod as her fully-filled out paper slipped from beneath her left arm almost imperceptibly, and his cerulean eyes began to scan over the answer of the second question, 'Heh heh...she must've gotten the answers with her Byakugan, I bet...'

Not a second afterward, a pencil met a clipboard, scratching fiercely. Naruto glanced over to the sentry who had jotted his name down, smirking at him.

'No...I guess...I guess this just won't work.'

"Hinata-chan, I can't," He turned his face away from her and she looked dismayed, "I don't want you to get into trouble and besides..." Naruto looked back and gave her a foxy grin, "I'll make it! I have to if I'm gonna be Hokage!"

With a blush, she nodded, pulling her paper away quietly.

A moment later, Naruto was busy panicking again, 'Who am I kidding? I'm screwed!'

Elsewhere in the room, Gaara had finished copying his answers with a technique he had developed during the last few months of his training with Jiraiya.

He had called it simply, 'Daisan no Me,' forming a third eye out of sand which was connected to his optic nerves and required very little chakra. Naruto, upon seeing it for the first time, called it the 'Creepy Sand Eye,' and asked him not to do it again because he found it gross. Gaara told him it was an irrational fear since it was an object comprised of only sand and chakra, but the blonde boy had different opinions.

Near the front of the classroom Haku had answered all of his questions within the first ten minutes. With a sigh of relief, he put his pencil down and closed his eyes, thinking the situation over. 'Gaara-kun won't need much help, but I doubt Naruto will be able to answer anything beyond the first question...I'm sure he won't mind if I assist him.'

As Naruto sat leaned over his test, fidgeting nervously in his seat and he almost missed his one and only salvation as it formed next to his paper. His shifty eyes strayed downward to where a small, icy mirror had appeared out of thin air. In it there was the unmistakable reflection of a paper, completely filled out, 'HA! Haku-kun, you're the best!'

Quickly, he picked up his pencil and filled out the remaining questions on his test, grinning all the while. Hinata merely gave him a confused look but then smiled to herself, glad he had found a less risky way to obtain information.

For good measure, Haku had sent an ice mirror over to Gaara as well.

Naruto finished copying down the answers Haku had so easily supplied him with and sat back, chuckling maniacally to himself. 'I never would've thought Haku-kun's ice-doohickeys could be so useful! Now we'll definitely ace this exam!'