New Soul (Naruto Various! x Reader)

Ch. 32: The Tenth Question: All or Nothing

3rd POV

The sound of the ticking clock echoes around the room.

Ibiki smiles slyly, announcing, "Now that we've weeded out most of the hopeless cases, fifteen minutes to go. Time for the main event." He open his eyes and shout out, "All right, listen up! Here's the tenth and final question."

Naruto begins to sweat and grips his pencil tightly, thinking, 'Here we go. Everything's riding on this one. Believe it.'

The whole room stays quiet as the test takers wait for their final question apprehensively.

'Man, this guy is full of himself.' Sasuke thought, staring at the adult.

Sakura grins determinedly, 'This is it. The final obstacle.'

'Well it's about time!' Y/n thought with an unimpressed look, this time her hair is out of her normal eyes.

Temari looks around anxiously, 'Hurry up, Kankuro. What good is your cheat sheet going to be if you miss the tenth question?!'

"But, before I give you the question... There are some more rules that you need to be aware of." He said with an intimidating look in his eyes.

Everyone got even more scared, leaving the atmosphere more tense; until the door creaks open loudly. Kankuro, along with his puppet sentinel, Crow, shows up.

Kankuro steps in, except he notices the tense mood within the room. "Huh?"

"Ah, made it just in time." Crow closes the door behind them. "I hope you found your trip to the bathroom enlightening." Ibiki commented.

Kankuro begins to panic internally, 'He's seen through the crow's disguise. He's onto us!'

The little song girl turns her head to look at the boy clad in black. He soon caught her stare and noticed her reassuring grin. Strangely enough, that calms him down, but yet, is still fearful about what will happen next.

The scarred man closes his eyes and tilts his head down. "Well, take your seat."

Slowly, Kankuro proceeds to walk forward, not before secretly dropping off a tiny scroll next to Temari.

After he sits down, Ibiki takes a few steps forward. "These rules are unique to question ten. Listen carefully, and try not to let them frighten you."

Meanwhile, with the Jonins...

On the upper level of the same building, the four Jonins are lounging around. Kurenai and Asuma are sitting next to each other on one couch while Kakashi and Zabuza sit on the other across from them.

"It's quiet without the rookies around. I almost miss 'em." Kakashi commented humorously.

Zabuza smirks under his bandages, crossing his arms.

Asuma, who is holding his lit cigarette says, "Don't worry. Chances are they'll be back again sooner than you think."

"Why's that?" The silver haired ninja asked.

The rest of the two stare at Asuma, wanting to know too.

He flicks his cigarette against the metal bin, "I heard that their first examiner this year is Ibiki."

"Huh?" Kakashi widened his eye. 'So, already their chances of passing look iffy.' He leans back on his seat. "Great, sticking them with that sadist right off the bat."

"Huh?" Kurenai hummed.

"What sadist?" Zabuza asked, feeling protective over a certain h/c haired girl.