Chapter 77 – The Cheaters
Bored at having to sit around for an hour waiting for the test to end, Hinata and me make it a game out of finding as many cheaters as we can.
We have the ones being very discreet.
Team Dosu using the tapping sounds of pencils to identify what others are writing.
Kiba somehow has Akamaru softly barking his answers as he surveys the surroundings acting as a puppy telescope.
Ino shares our answers with Shikamaru and Kiba, fixing the barking mistranslation mistakes while pretending they came from someone she used her possession jutsu on.
Sasuke uses his Sharingan to copy the arm movements of the person in front of him.
Then we have the ones not very discreet.
Gaara summons his sand eye to spy from above. You can see sand around his hand as he even holds a finger sign before covering his eye suspiciously...
Shino has his bug tell him the answers it found and after pestering Naruto for 30 minutes he finally understood the fly bothering him was from Shino and managed to write the solution to a couple of questions as well...
Neji uses his Byakugan, his veins are showing…
And then we have the more ridiculous cases…
Kankuro has a puppet disguised as an examiner join since they first showed up from the smoke, then went to the bathroom and wrote the answers on a tiny paper for Temari.
He was even called out by the proctor as he walked back happily thinking every Konoha ninja was an idiot.
Tenten had set up an entire mirror system while everyone was distracted by Team Dosu and Kabuto's earlier confrontation, and would look at the ceiling to get her answers and then aim the mirrors for Lee to cheat with as well.
As for innovating cheating methods I didn't know about the plot, we find a couple.
A couple of Takigakure ninjas covered their eyes with their hands, inside they manipulated water to act as a telescope to look at another person’s papers.
Other Sunagakure ninjas similarly created mirrors out of some sand they brought with them or used their puppet skills to connect their hands together with chakra threads and write at the same time.
The most boring ones are those getting caught cheating by sneaking glances around them.
Finally, a large number of participants are trying to answer the questions honestly, not realizing cheating is the true goal of the test.
After almost an hour Ibiki finally gives us his final question, loudly declaring that anyone who chooses to answer it but gets it wrong would never be allowed to take the Chunnin exams forever along with their team…
First, Ibiki you don’t have that authority… Konoha doesn’t own the exams, so it can never enforce this kind of silly rule without the agreement of every village...
Second… so what, any Kage is able to promote you to Chunin in a single sentence without needing to take the exam, the Chunin exams are not the way most Chunin use to get promoted and accounts for less than 10% of the total.
Many teams give up on the test, having believed Ibiki's bullshit.
Among the teams leaving from Konoha, I’m certain some were planted with the goal of leaving at this exact moment.They were easy to find because they were faking nervousness the entire exam yet never even tried to answer a question or considered cheating.
With 4 planted ninjas teams giving up, others were soon to follow, less discouraged due to having company for their cowardice.
Naruto this time was more determined to stay, having been able to answer a couple of questions, and didn't contemplate giving up at all.
He still had a minor outburst saying he wouldn’t ever give up but it wasn’t quite as inspiring.
As a result, a couple more teams left afterwards but soon after Ibiki called the end of the exam by saying we had all passed.
At Temari questioning what was the point of the rest of the test Ibiki reveals how intelligence gathering was the true goal of the test, and how by being passed as a team it worked both to test our intelligence transmission skills and to increase the pressure and team unity.
He then reveals the pair of Chunin planted to reveal the answers to us and explains the importance of information as he reveals the gruesome sight underneath his headband, a head full of dents, scars and burn marks.
He finally explains how the 10th question, to choose to answer it before knowing what it was was the true test.Representing how a ninja has to be brave and willing to face both known and unknown dangers for the sake of their mission
With his speech ended he declared the end of the first exam, with 24 teams having passed, a couple less than the plot due to Naruto not having moved their heart it seems.
Ibiki announces our Jonin teachers will have the information on where the 2nd exam will take place the next day as he bids goodbye and wishes us good luck.
We didn’t get to find out who was the proctor for the second exam today.
‘Hey Anko, tomorrow’s exams?’
‘Yes, forest of death as planned’
‘Ok but… who is the proctor.’
‘Ah, it’s a surprise, you’ll be excited about it’
So it’s another woman… Anko is getting a bit too easy to read.
After all the genin left the classroom Ibiki goes around collecting the sheets they left behind.
‘Uzumaki Naruto, what a funny guy, to cheat and still not get any of the answers right...’
Ibiki smiles, as he finishes gathering every sheet.
‘72 ninjas passing, 21 of them were able to acquire all the planted questions correctly’‘Of the 72, half of them we found how they cheated to get their answers.’‘Of the 21, 5 of them we know how they cheated 7 of them we don’t know how they cheated, but the final 9 of them not only didn’t cheat but already knew the answers and wrote them before the planted ninjas could write them which mean... the answers had been leaked...’
‘And then there is this guy…’
‘Yami, on the back of his answer paper wrote in an Anbu cipher how he and several of the other participants cheated, having found even more than us…’
‘Combining the Yamanaka and Hyuga was certainly a genius move but the strange thing is we never saw the Hinata girl activate her Byakugan.’
‘This guy is also funny in his own way. Not only did he realize how gathering information was the goal of the exam.By giving the information discreetly he earned himself extra points from this proctor when it came to deciding if a finalist should be promoted to Chunin or not.’'