Thinking

Naruto sat down on his assigned seat as he went over the information he read about the Chunin exams.

The Chunin Exams are an opportunity for genin to be promoted to chūnin. The exam structure and evaluation processes differ from one exam to the next so that genin cannot come prepared. Villages originally held their own individual exams.

Following the Third Shinobi World War, exams that are open to all villages started being held bi-annually, with villages taking turns for hosting responsibilities. These shared exams improve relations between the villages, present up-and-coming ninja to clients, and create an opportunity for gambling.

Although the exams, specifically the final round matches, are designed for there to be an ultimate 'winner', success does not guarantee promotion nor does failure preclude it.

if the observing ninja and daimyo feel a genin displays the necessary qualities for a chūnin, that genin will be promoted regardless of how they place in the exams.

For this reason it is possible for as many as all of the finalists to pass, or even for none of them to. Being victorious simply expands the participant's chances of demonstrating their qualities in the next match.

Having too many participants to advance to the next stages seems to be an undesired result, as the examiners tend to run additional preliminaries to reduce the number of finalists.

"Fuck, it's a written test." Naruto scowled deeply. Studying or no, written tests have always been the bane of his existence and he doubted that would ever change.

"I take it you don't like written exams?" Temari asked while taking her seat on his right. Naruto sighed and nodded.

" Yes. That stupid scar face. I bet he did it on purpose." Naruto then pointed at Ibiki.

" Ay! You hear that?! Next time we play poker I'm gonna clean you out so badly you won't have the money to pay for this year's rent!!! " Naruto declared. Ibiki shot Naruto a glare with the blonde returning it.

'Konoha sure has a lot of loudmouths.' Karui thought as she sat on Naruto's left while looking at him. She stared at his whiskers.

'Are those real or did he just draw that on his face so that he could look cool?' Karui thought before quickly looking away as Naruto looked at her.

Naruto sighed as his glaring contest ended with Ibiki when the man began to explain the rules for the exam.

"Alright! I will now explain the rules of this test and pay attention because I'm only going over this once!" Ibiki waited for a moment to see if anyone was dumb enough to speak. When no one did he turned to the board.

"The test will be an hour long. You will be answering ten questions. The first rule for this test is that each of you will start off with ten points, the same amount to the number of questions on this test. For each answer you get wrong one point will be deducted from your overall score."

"The second rule is that this will be a team test, meaning that if one of you fails, all of you fail." He smirked as he saw some Genin had terrified expressions on their faces.

"The third rule of this test is that anyone who gets caught cheating, either by one of the chunin or myself will automatically have two points deducted from their test. "

" I've got my eyes on you. You better watch out." Kotetsu said with an evil grin on his face, freaking out a few of the genin.

"As for the final rule, anyone who loses their initial points during the test or those who don't answer any of them correctly will fail, along with their teammates!!" Ibiki declared. Sakura and Satsuki looked at Naruto with a worried expression. Both of them knew Naruto was smart, but he was only truly smart in battle, creating strategies and the Shinobi arts.

"The last question will be asked 45 minutes into the first stage!! Begin!!!"

" Good luck." Naruto told Temari who smiled back at him in response. He looked at Karui.

" Good luck to you too." Naruto told her. Karui blinked. She was surprised that someone from another village, especially one her village did not get along with was wishing her luck.

"Thanks, I guess." She mumbled before focusing on her test paper. Karui could feel someone smirking slyly at her and she knew who exactly it was. She was 100% sure it was Omoi. Karui was in for one hell of a teasing later.

Naruto flipped over his test and looked at it. He immediately gave up on answering any of it. It was too hard despite all the studying he did. He couldn't even understand the first sentence of the first question.

'Sakura-chan is gonna ace this test though.' Naruto thought while looking at Sakura sitting a few tables away from him. Sure enough, the pink haired kunoichi was already writing down the answers to the question rapidly.

The blonde hair Genin decided to discreetly look around the place to see what the other Genin had figured out.

He saw Neji and Hinata using the Byakugan to get the answers. Satsuki was using the Sharingan to copy someone's hand writing movements. Tenten was using mirrors that were controlled by ninja wire to get the answer and other genin were using various ways to find the answers as well.

That got Naruto thinking. 'So it's not just me who finds it hard then. That has to mean Scar-face never intended us to know the answers, he made it hard enough so that we have to cheat without getting caught. Man fuck that guy, using mental torture and all that bullshit!' Naruto cursed Ibiki's name repeatedly in his mind.

After calming down, Naruto now needed to find a way to get his answers without getting caught. He looked and narrowed his eyes at Kotetsu who was sitting amongst the Genin. He smirked to himself and looked under the table.

Naruto quickly unsealed a small smoke bomb from the comtainment seal drawn on his wrist. He flicked it hard, making the smoke bomb fly up to the fan on the ceiling. The bomb hit one of the fan blades and immediately exploded.

*POOF!!!*

There was a large plume of grey smoke that covered most of the room. There were coughing sounds everywhere. Ibiki coughed violently before looking up.

"Open the windows damnit!!" He ordered as one of the chunin opened the windows to let the smoke out.

Kotetsu sighed and looked dowm at his test paper. He froze as he was looking at an empty test that had the name 'Uzumaki Naruto' written on the top of the paper.

He looked at Naruto who was smirking and leaning back in his seat with his feet propped up on the desk. He chuckled to himself and shook his head.

'He isn't the Prankster King from Hell for nothing. Definitely has the making of a chunin.' Kotetsu thought, impressed with how innovative blonde was.

Temari and Karui looked at Naruto with confusion evident on their faces. A few minutes ago they saw the blonde frowning, looking like he was about to cry.

Temari smirked to herself. 'So he threw that smoke bomb and switch the papers huh? Damn, he's cute and smart.' Temari thought before resuming working on her test.

Naruto noticed that Karui was having a hard time answering her tests. He quickly sat up straight.

"Psst." Karui glared at Naruto who subtly slid his test paper, revealing the answers to her.

"You look like you need em." Naruto worded out. Karui widened her eyes, shocked that he would risk failing the test to help a ninja from another village.

"Tch." She gritted her teeth before quickly copying down the answers.

'Is he a dumbass or something? Did he not listen to what that scar face dude said?' Karui asked herself while writing down the answers as fast as lightning.

45 minutes have passed, a lot of Genin have been failed and kicked out of the classroom by Ibiki. Ibiki looked at the clock on the wall and nodded to himself. He looked at the Genin.

"Pencils down! It's time for the tenth question!" Ibiki ordered. At the same time, Kankuro walked in the room. Ibiki looked at him.

"Ah, I hope your 'trip' to the bathroom was 'enlightening'. Was your doll playing beneficial?" Ibiki asked with a smirk on his face.

'Crap! He knows about Karasu!' Kankuro thought in shock. He tried to play it off as he walked to his seat, absently tossing a piece of paper on Temari's side of the table.

"Now that we're all here I can begin the tenth question. However, before that there are some rules pertaining to this question that you need to know about. First, for this tenth question, you have to decide whether or not you wish to take it or not."

"Choose? What happens if we don't take it?" One Genin asked Ibiki. Ibiki smirked evilly at him.

"If you choose not to, your points will be reduced to zero! You will fail along with your two teammates! "

To be continued.....