Chapter 76 – The First Exam
“You guys are the rookie nine, fresh out of the academy, right?”Carrying on like that with cute faces… man… This isn’t a field trip.”
“Who are you acting all haughty?” Ino plays out her line, pretending not to know.
“I’m Kabuto Yakushi…”
I avoid making eye contact with the guy… from his arrogant introduction to his actions in the future, this guy’s a priority 0 target in our plans.
So sinful and crucial was his role in using the reincarnation jutsu in the fourth war that plans were several times considered in which everything is thrown out the window just for a chance at killing him ahead of time.
But in the end, we chose to get both snakes at the same time, and don’t want to risk Orochimaru’s plans so he gets to live… for now in Plan B-5.
Plan B-3 would have had me approach him right at this introduction and fry his body.
From here things play out normally, Kabuto provides some information on the Exam using his [Ninja Info Cards].
The number of ninjas participating from each village matched what was in the anime.
(leaf)Konohagakure: 72(sand)Sunagakure: 30(rain)Amegakure: 21(grass)Kusagakure: 15(waterfall)Takigakure: 12(sound)Otogakure: 3
153 total, the same as in the original plot but with my participation instead of Chouji.Speaking of Chouji, he has recently graduated from the academy and joined a fresh genin team.
Kabuto offers information on the contestants and Sasuke asks what he has on Gaara and on myself instead of Lee even though I’m standing right here.
Without having been beaten by Lee he must considers me his biggest threat currently.
Gaara’s information is as expected, a large number of question marks.
As for the information on myself…
It hurts to watch.
1 C rank mission, 20 D rank mission, almost the bare minimum for admission.
There is no mention of my ‘Kekkei Genkai’ but the pentagram chart shows me rated quite highly in taijutsu and genjutsu.
A Katana is also drawn as my weapon which means Kabuto knows about my training with Yugao and Kurenai.
Kabuto stares at my face and smirks.
“Yami Yuumo, skilled in body combat and recently trained in kenjutsu and genjutsu. Rumored to possess an unidentified support type Kekkei Genkai and for seducing every kunoichi he comes across, his teacher, his teammates, not even the Hokage son’s girlfriend escaped his clutches.”
“Wait! so that’s why Asuma-sensei has been so depressed the past few days. He lost his girl to a manwhore.”
Kiba laughs laudly until Ino punches the back of his head, nearly causing Akamaru who was laying on the top of his head like a hat to fall off.
The dumb mutt Kiba can’t keep his mouth closed, I wouldn’t mind teaching him a lesson if we get matching in the finals.
The conversation returns to how many skilled and elite ninjas are participating in the exam before the other loudmouth, Naruto paints a target on all our backs with his shout.
“Listen up! My name is Naruto Uzumaki! I WON’T LOSE TO ANY OF YOU! Got it?”
“Is he an idiot?” Tenten asks Hinata sitting next to her.
“Yes…”Hinata answers, before separating from Tenten and heading back to her team.
The sound ninja village team, Team Dosu, provoked by Kabuto's description of their village and Naruto’s taunt tries to attack Kabuto.
It’s really amusing to watch, after all… They are both on the same side…
Both Kabuto’s Konoha team, the single team from Otogakure and team Shiori from Kusagakura are pieces Orochimaru has placed inside the exam, but he didn't inform the sounds ninjas about the rest.
We can also somewhat count Gaara’s team, allied with him and certainly his queen piece in his invasion of Konoha plan.
“Silence! Degenerates!”
A cloud of smoke marks the entrance as over a dozen ninjas body-flicker inside the smoke from where they were hiding above a ceiling plate.
“Sorry to keep you waiting. I’m Ibiki Morino, proctor for the first test of the Chunin Exam”
And the commanding officer of the Konoha Torture and Interrogation Force.I have spoken to him a couple of times during my training with Inoichi, mostly to offer some assistance.Knowing him, he’ll keep a closer eye on me, accepting nothing but the finest of discretion for a prospective Anbu member.
After threatening to fail team Dosu, Ibiki gets on with the important stuff.
“Now then, we will start the first test of the Chunin Exam! Turn in your applications. Take one of these numbers in return and sit in the seat matching that number.“After that, we will hand in the papers for the written test!”
We all hand in our exam applications and take a number, taking our seats.
We sit in random positions, each of us surrounded by foreign ninjas. Naruto didn’t get to sit next to Hinata this time.
Ibiki explains the rules for the test.
In short, we start at 10 points and the test has 10 questions, each question is worth a single point but deducts a point if we get it wrongThe test is failed if a person reaches 0 points and is eliminated alongside their team.Any time a person is caught trying to cheat they lose 2 points.
Unbothered by the risk of failing the test Sakura doesn’t foolishly question the rules.
As we are handed the tests we have a lot of fun.
‘How is it Sakura?’
‘I can’t believe they actually made a test like this…’
‘Isn’t it too hard?’ Hinata asks.
‘Isn’t that the whole point? They don’t really care how smart we are, they want to test our cheating skills’ Ino says.
‘Exactly, have you found any Hinata?’
‘I think the ones in seats 42 and 69’
‘Yeah, they are also the ones I found’
As we head inside the classroom, Ino having learned her clan’s mental network jutsu set up a mental chatroom for us.
She also used another for her team to share the answers they found between themselves without bothering us.
As if having 2 unnoticeable Byakugans wasn’t enough, we also have the phone home hotline.
Anko is on the floor above with the rest of the Genin team leaders and I can use my telepathy to talk to her if needed as well.
‘Honestly Sakura, I wouldn’t be surprised if the right answers are the wrong answers.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘They aren’t looking for smart scientists, they are looking for Shinobi, skilled in the art of intelligence gathering ’
‘So far their answers are matching.’
‘And what about… them?’
‘They seem to have known the answers beforehand and are writing them normally’
‘That also counts I guess…’
Orochimaru had already gotten the answers in advance somehow and thus had a free test for all his pawns to pass, and still, Team Dosu was threatened to fail due to their petty ego.
We have fun casually chatting for a while while everyone around us is tensed and nervously trying to cheat or solve the problems.
I looked at the problems and there is maybe half I could solve, the ones related to encrypting information, advanced mathematics and anatomy.