Chapter 5 You Are Fucking Definitely Here to Cause Trouble

"Teacher, someone here is fast asleep! He doesn't respect you at all!"

Naruto pointed at Dosu Kinuta—no, wait, that chicken who was caught in an illusion and wouldn't wake up even after slamming hard onto the floor.

He didn't know this guy's name.

Whatever, just an extra.

Glancing at this arrogant blond brat, Morino Ibiki's expression instantly darkened, his gaze fierce, the scar on his face looking even more ferocious.

He looked like someone who might wipe out an entire family on a whim.

Sasuke probably understood this feeling deeply.

Mm.

Naruto did too.

This blond brat reminded Morino Ibiki: was this really the lovely student Kakashi had talked about?

Aside from his looks, there was nothing lovely about him at all.

He looked even less like that warm and radiant Fourth Hokage.

"Where are his teammates? Release the illusion immediately."

Hearing this, the only remaining female teammate among the three stepped forward and released the illusion.

"Listen up, everyone left! No one is allowed to cause trouble before the exam ends! Violators will be immediately disqualified, understood?"

Giving the troublemaker a fierce glare, Morino Ibiki began announcing this ironclad rule.

Next,

everyone submitted their applications and received their numbered tags as required.

While waiting in line, many people cast intentional or unintentional glances at Naruto.

After all, this guy stood out far too much,

leaving a deep impression on everyone. Quite a few people were both curious and wary of Naruto's illusion technique.

After collecting their numbered tags, everyone took their assigned seats.

Sitting at his desk, Naruto sensed the situation slightly.

The squad numbers had been completely scrambled; he was sitting quite far away from Sakura and Sasuke.

Lifting his eyes to look at Morino Ibiki standing at the podium, Naruto sat up straight, ready to see what kind of tricks this so-called First Stage of the Chunin Exams had in store.

He had been through middle school entrance exams, college entrance exams, and graduate school exams, but he had never experienced a Chunin exam.

Let me see what's going on here.jpg

"Naruto-kun."

A soft voice suddenly came from his right.

He turned his head and saw a familiar little girl with a pair of beautiful Byakugan eyes.

"Hinata?"

"L... Let's do our best together."

Hinata's face flushed red as she offered a sweet smile, looking quite cute.

"Mm, let's do our best!"

This little girl seemed a bit different today.

Next came the distribution of the... test papers?

Upon receiving the test paper, Naruto was utterly dumbfounded. Why were there written exams everywhere?

Even in these Chunin Exams, was there really no escaping a written test?

The chief proctor, Morino Ibiki, announced the rules:
1. Everyone starts with a full score of 10 points across 10 questions. One point is deducted for every incorrect answer.
2. Scores are calculated based on the total score of the squad.
3. Being caught cheating even once results in a deduction of 2 points.
4. Joint liability: if even a single member of a squad scores 0, the entire team fails.
5. The final question will be given out 45 minutes after the exam begins.
6. The exam duration is one hour.

"Start!"

With the proctor's command, the exam began.

Once the exam officially started, Naruto remained unhurried and calm, taking the opportunity to sweep his gaze across the exam hall first.

At the podium sat the chief proctor Morino Ibiki, and along every row, two Chunin proctors were assigned to monitor the candidates.

This ensured that every examinee had five eyeballs watching them simultaneously.

Under these proctoring conditions, cheating seemed somewhat difficult.

However, that had nothing to do with him, Naruto.

That being the case, let's check the difficulty of these test questions first.

Question One: Cryptography.

Tsk tsk, looks pretty difficult.

However... have you ever heard of my legend?

Have you ever heard of what an SSSSSS-tier talent is?

Do you understand what a stat monster is?

Annihilated.

Question Two: Parabola problem.

Simple, instantly solved.

Question Three: Map problem.

Solved.

Question Four... through Question Nine...

In no time at all, Naruto finished all the questions. It was simply too easy.

He checked the time.

Are you kidding me, bro? Only 5 minutes have passed?

Doesn't that mean he still had to sit here bored for another 55 minutes?

Let's calculate: he had already finished 9 questions, conservatively securing 9 points.

Even if he didn't do the final optional question, he would only lose 1 point.

He could totally leave early now.

And by the way, show off a little—do you know what an honor student's swag is?

Could someone who doesn't hand in their paper half an hour early even be called an honor student?

"Proctor..."

Naruto raised his hand, catching the attention of many people. "I'm done."

Huh?

The people in the room who were familiar with Naruto—Shikamaru, Choji, Ino, Kiba, and even Sakura and Sasuke—all stared at Naruto in utter shock.

He finished every single one of these insanely difficult questions?

Was this... really the Naruto they knew?

"Can I hand in my paper early?" Naruto tested the waters.

Looking at this audacious fellow, Morino Ibiki didn't know what to say for a moment.

"If you want to give up, you may hand in your paper."

"Never mind then." Naruto withdrew his hand in utter boredom and began looking around aimlessly.

Not letting them hand it in... it seemed the final optional question had some hidden trick to it?

He looked left and right.

This test paper seemed... very difficult?

He didn't feel it at all, though.

Why were so many people leaving their sheets blank?

Not only that, but for the sake of cheating, the various ninjas' talents and skills were all over the place.

After watching for a while, Naruto grew bored.

A peaceful exam was so boring; he just wanted to see rivers of blood.

The reality was: he could only admire everyone's clumsy cheating techniques.

One minute... two minutes... five minutes... ten minutes...

During this time, quite a few people were forced to drop out after exhausting all their points.

Just as Naruto was getting so bored he had roughly estimated everyone's written scores in the entire room, the time finally arrived!

"Time's up! Now I will explain this rule of despair!"

The rule of despair?

"First, you must consider whether or not you choose to answer this question. If you choose not to, you immediately get zero points and fail! Along with the other two members of your squad."

Hearing this, the examinees instantly broke into a noisy uproar.

"Furthermore, if you choose to answer but get it wrong, the person who answered will be forever barred from taking the Chunin Exam in the future."

Buzz—

The classroom instantly exploded.

Yet Naruto thought, why did this phrasing sound so familiar?

Was this guy quoting Colonel Sanders to them?

Someone raised a question, only to be ruthlessly crushed by the chief proctor.

And then, someone trembling raised their hand to give up.

At that moment... Naruto raised his hand too.

[Naruto!]

Sakura and Sasuke stared at Naruto in shock. Was he going to give up too?

"Are you giving up as well?"

Naruto raised his right hand high, solely to grab attention. "Teacher, hurry up and announce the final question. The flowers I've been waiting for are about to wither."

If they didn't hurry up, Kakashi outside would probably burst in soon.

He hadn't cleared this dungeon yet, hey.

Just a little bit more, just the final question!

"Hh."

This brat was giving him a headache again. Morino Ibiki glanced briefly past the blond kid, his fierce gaze sweeping across the room, maximizing the pressure.

Seeing that the chief proctor ignored him,

Thud—

Naruto slammed his hand heavily on the desk, drawing everyone's attention.

Lifting his head to meet the proctor's warning glare, Naruto instantly upped the dosage.

Morino Ibiki felt dazed for a split second. Recovering his senses, he suddenly felt that it was probably time to end this exam.

"Your determination is quite good, excellent! That being the case, I declare that everyone remaining here has passed the first stage of the exam!"

Huh?

This was not only Naruto's expression at the moment, but the expression of everyone present.

Was the final question actually this?

Since that was the case,

[Illusion: Dispel]

"This exam was entirely meant to test your..."

Crack—

Countless mirror shards shattered and then reassembled...

Time rewound to the starting point.

"I am the proctor for the first stage of the Chunin Exam..."

Mid-sentence, Morino Ibiki suddenly stopped. Then, sensing something, his expression instantly turned pitch black.

Glancing at the little blond brat, veins bulged on his forehead.

You damn brat, you definitely came here just to cause trouble!