Starting over

#46 Start the Exams

Naruto POV

"What do we do about Kabuto?", Gaara asked in a low voice. "I don't know, I would say that we keep low. If he is here then Orochimaru isn't far. Maybe we wait until he shows himself and then we stop him.", Temari suggested in the same low voice. "Alright, but stay alert. We don't know if he still plans of destroying Konoha or if his plans changed.", I whispered to my teammates.

Meanwhile I was listening with one ear to Kabuto telling the Genin of Konoha that he already had partaken six times in the exams, earning a few laughs from the kids. Then he pulled out a few cards and told them that he had info on everyone in the exams if they wanted some help. "I want to know about the sand team.", Sasuke immediately demanded with a look at us. Kabuto looked at us and his eyes widened slightly as he met mine. He pulled it together and went through a few hand signs before taking out three cards. I vanished from my spot and reappeared behind him, placing a hand on his shoulder. "Now we wouldn't want to give our competitors an advantage, would we?", I whispered in Kabutos ear. The eyes of the white haired shinobi went wide as did the eyes of the genin that stood before him, since none of them had seen me move. I took the cards and simply burned them to ashes.

That was when I heard an explosion. I turned around and looked down the room to the board, in front of which the proctor for the first phase of the exams stood. Behind him were his assistants, five on each side. "Keep your jutsu out of this room.", he demanded looking at me with narrowed eyes. "I am Ibiki and this is the first phase of your exams. You will each get a place in this room assigned by one of my assistants, then you'll have to answer ten questions. If you get caught cheating your team is disqualified.", the man explained looking over the room with a smirk on his lips. We got seated and received each an upside down paper. I looked around, saw Temari sitting almost in the middle of the road while Gaara sat all the way in first row, almost on the far left seat. I myself was seated exactly two rows behind Temari, with one more row between me and the examiners that stood all around the room. Then Ibiki clapped his hands gaining our attention. "Now that all of you have your tests, you have exactly one hour. Begin!", the proctor shouted at which we all flipped our papers.

Looking at the papers I realized that these questions were way too advanced for simple genin. Then I remembered that the point of the exams was to see if we could gather information without getting caught. I again looked around the room and noticed a few shinobi already scribbling down their answers, one of them right next to me. The funny thing was that I had not seen any of these shinobi when we first entered the exam room. I thought about what to do when I saw sand swirling around on my desk. I briefly let my chakra flare up to signal Gaara that I had seen his sand. Immediately the sand formed into a short message.

Unknown shinobi, cheat off of them?

Again, I pushed my chakra out once, agreeing with his plan. Had I flared my chakra twice then it would have signaled Gaara that I disagree with his plan, then I would have to find a way to tell him my plan, but since that wasn't the case Gaara's sand blurred again. I felt a spike in Gaara's chakra and I saw how a bit of sand went up to the ceiling forming a small eye. I smiled realizing what he was doing. I saw Temari stiffen and saw something move slightly on her desk. Gaara was probably relaying the plan to her. I felt her chakra spiking once indicating that she too agreed. I saw the sand eye moving over one of the obviously planted shinobi. I was relieved seeing that the eye had apparently enough camouflage that the examiners let it slip, even though I saw that Ibiki glanced at Gaara with a small grin on his face before looking up at the ceiling for a brief amount of time.

And just like that Gaara was able to relay all the answers to us, without getting us eliminated. After an hour had passed Ibiki stood up and looked around the room. In the meantime around a dozen teams had been eliminated and had left the room.

"Alright, I am sure that almost all of you have noticed what the real reason for this test was. But I didn't tell you about one single detail. There is actually a eleventh question.", the man said, smirking at the horror in the faces of most of the kids in front of him. "This question however has a twist however. I will give you the choice not to answer this question, because, if you get it wrong, you will never be able to enter the exams again.", this caused a lot of gasps around the room. "So, do you want to take this question or not?", Ibiki asked looking over the genin with a dangerous glint in his eyes. After a few moments one after another genin held his hand up and went out of the room, mostly being supported by their teammates. After a while I looked around and saw nothing but determined faces. Ibiki also seemed to notice the dwindling numbers of quitting genin so he rose again with a smile. "You have passed!", he bellowed confusing everyone.

"What about the eleventh question?", I heard Sakura ask. Ibiki looked at her with calculating eyes. "The question was whether you are willing to risk you carrer for the good of the mission, because if you get out there as chunin, you will have to put your life on the line, you will have to face torture and captivity if you were to be captured and it will be of crucial importance that you all will have the resolve and the will to keep your village save even if it costs you your life.", the man answered with seriousness in his voice that could only come from personal experience. No one dared to speak up after his little speech was over.

Then the western wall exploded, clouding the room in dust. I heard Ibiki sigh at this. "Anko, you know that you don't have to destroy the walls all the time, do you?", he asked annoyed.

When the dust settled there stood Anko, wearing no headband but radiating confidence and authority. Temari gasped surprised, Anko had never told us about her involvement in the exams, so Gaara and I shared our teammates surprise. "24 Teams, Ibiki you really are losing your touch.", she said earning a few laughs at the jab at her fellow proctor.

Now listen, I expect you all at training ground 44 in ten minutes. If you fail to show up you are disqualified.", she said before vanishing. Temari, Gaara and I regrouped shortly after that and went out of the room through the new 'door' that Anko had made. We arrived at the forest of death just after Anko did.